#But there's a 50%+ chance of rain later :

[cozycreaturescorner]

actually feeling and looking cute today? what's going on here

[thesunhatesme]

Swiss, walking out the door:se you later alligator

Phantom, turning to Rain and Dew:did you know that alligators can live up to 50 years

Dew:uhmm, interest-

Phantom:which is why chances are, relatively high, that you will actually see the alligator later

Rain:that’s cool

Phantom:I know

Rain:well… I too, need to go, so… In a while, crocodile

Phantom turning to Dew:Crocodiles can actually live up to 100 years which makes the chances even higer to see them in a while

Swiss, comming back:Forgot my phone, bye

Phantom: hit the road, happy toad

Swiss:Toodle loo, kangaroo

Phantom, turning to Dew again:

Dew, calling out: Rain, please come back

[kookslastbutton]

Too Late to Dream ༓ jjk (m) l ch. VI

✑ Summary: You did it. You married your college professor. You even bought a house together. Against all odds, everything had fallen into place. But after two years of marriage, you begin feeling something was missing. You want a baby but your husband can’t say the same.

Pairing: economics professor!jungkook x fem!artist!reader

AU/Genre: angst, smut, fluff, marriage au, age gap, series

Rating: M, 18+

Word Count: 6,192

Warnings: 8-year age gap, mentions of professor-student relationship (oc was a Masters student), kook gets pissed, jk mother is asdhjf!, mommy issues, lots of family drama/in-laws, fighting, manipulative parent, pent-up issues/desires, jk has daddy issues, jk being good hubby to oc, mild sexting, sexual content

Sexual warnings: bl*wj*b, jk c*mes on her t*tt*es, d*rty talk

Now Playing: Make It Right, Tryna Be, Infinity, It Will Rain, Heaven+

A/N: um so this got over 6k which i know isn't amazing but for me its big deal okay?! haha! Anyway Part VI here we go! No flashbacks in this chapter because of ch.V buuut, I have a little gift for you and me. Hope you enjoy!! 💞 also pls vote if youd be so kind 😙

<< ch. V ༓ ch. VII >> | series masterlist

Living in the country for over thirty years, the Jeons were known to be excruciatingly slow and cautious drivers. The town was tiny, roads were narrow, and no one was ever in a rush to get anywhere apart from maybe the farmers market.

Once when Jungkook first got his license he took one hand off the steering wheel and his mother almost had a heart attack, saying it was “reckless of him to put them in danger”. It was from that moment forward that Jungkook always made sure to drive at 10 and 2 or 9 and 3 when his mother was in the car. His father on the other hand didn’t care what he did as long as he didn’t go above 30 mph.

Jungkook was counting his lucky stars when he finally got his own car and the chance to move to the city where he could drive how he damn well pleased–responsibly of course. He had recently finished his Master’s studies and was offered a job as an economist in a major medical corporation. The only catch was that he’d have to relocate to Seoul which ended up being more than fine with him.

His parents moaned and groaned that he wasn’t sticking around but his mind was made up. He moved out of his parent’s tiny town one late June and headed to the city where life moved to a whole new beat.

Ten years later, Jungkook finds himself gripping the steering wheel with two sweaty hands again. Kudos to his parents who have been telling him which way to turn and how fast or slow to go for the past fifteen minutes. He honestly should have picked a brunch spot closer to home to avoid all the madness. Walking would have done them good.

“I’ll never get used to how you drive down here,” Mrs. Jeon grumbles from the back seat. “All these sharp turns and six lanes of traffic going 50-plus miles an hour. It’s a wonder you haven’t all gotten in an accident yet. It’s like I always say, the slower the better. You city folks just don’t get it.”

Jungkook peers in his rearview mirror before signaling to switch lanes. “We can’t afford to go too slow out here Mom. This is a highway and dropping down in speed will cause a safety hazard just as bad, if not worse. Environments are different out here than in the woods.”

As Jungkook merges to the right, Mr. Jeon watches the surrounding cars from the back seat window. “Ah son, son, son!” He hollers and reaches for the ceiling handle.

“What? What happened?” Jungkook asks with panic. He flickers his eyes to the mirror again to spot his father's distress.

Mr. Jeon slowly releases the handle and lets out a lengthy sigh. “It's okay now, we’re good. You did good son. You moved over with so little space I thought you were going to hit the car now behind us."

"I told you it's a mad house out here!" Mrs. Jeon adds, tone thick. Jungkook puts his eyes back on the road in front of him and does his best to ignore the irritation bubbling within him.

"I know what I'm doing," he says. "I've lived here for ten years so can you guys please trust me? And stop with the driving advice and yelling every time I do something."

"We're just trying to help Kookie."

"Well, you're not alright?" The snap in his voice has Jungkook's parents sulking back in their seats in silence. "I want us to get to the restaurant safely and I can't do that when you're both shouting at me! So please just let me do the driving. Thank you."

God, if one more person calls him Kookie in that condescending tone he's going to lose it! Kookie was his childhood nickname but for some reason, it stuck to him like glue until he was friggin' 22 years old. He absolutely hates it and the only person remotely allowed to call him by it is his wife because she makes anything sound like honey to his ears.

The next five minutes are nothing but awkward silence and the sound of tires running on hard cement. Jungkook checks his phone—there's still a good ten minutes left according to the GPS. He moves to turn the radio on to break the eeriness of the drive when an incoming call pops on his car screen.

"Who's that? Who's calling?" Mr. Jeon pipes up.

"It's __." Jungkook hits the answer button. "Hey honey! You're on speaker." He smiles a big, wide grin that says nothing less than he misses you.

"Hi! I'm on my lunch break and thought I'd give you guys a call. I'm stopping at the grocery store tonight, after work. Anything you need?"

“Some booze would be nice!” Mr. Jeon echos and looks at his wife who merely shakes her head. He hasn’t had a drink in twenty years due to his high blood pressure, yet he’s still making the same damn jokes. “Got any Soju? Or maybe Bokbunja?” He chuckles at Mrs. Jeon’s sour face.

Jungkook pays his dad no mind and replies to you. “Uhm….we're low on milk again. I drank the last one yesterday.”

"You went through all those gallon jugs in a week?!" You'd think you'd be used to the amount of dairy your husband packs away but every time, it shocks you as much as the first. You married a milk-lovin’ machine.

Jungkook chuckles. "I'm sorry. I can get them for you if you want. We're on our way to get brunch, then hitting the bookstore for Dad, and after we'll swoop back home. I can pick it up along the way.”

“No need, I’m already going out later so I’ll get it. Anything else?”

“There’s nothing else I can think of. How’s work going?” He’s hoping it’s not hectic given the fact that last week was an absolute sandstorm. He distinctively remembers you coming home with nothing more than tired feet and dark circles under your eyes. He drew you a bath that night.

“Eh, so-so. I have a meeting with my boss later but besides that, it’s the usual. I wish I could have come to brunch with you guys. I feel bad I’m missing it.” Well, you do and you don’t. If Jungkook was planning on talking to his mom about the happenings of last night you wanted to be around for support but it was also a matter that should be between a mother and her son.

“Us too, but we’ll see you ton–shit!” Jungkook slams on the break when he sees he’s about to crash into a black SUV. Everyone’s seatbelts lock at the sudden jerk. “Sorry, sorry!” He checks the mirror to find his parents clinging to their seatbelts.

“Are you guys okay?! Jungkook?!”

He scans all around him to find rows and rows of cars all trying to merge into each other’s lanes. Some are coming from the exit nearby whereas others are trying to squeeze through people in hopes to get ahead.

Dammit, Jungook cruses to himself.

“Yeah, we’re good honey. Everything’s okay but we’ve hit a traffic jam. I’m not sure why since it’s literally 11:40 a.m on a Wednesday but looks like we’re going to be stuck here for a bit.”

“We’d never have this problem at home.” Jungkook hears his mother mumbling under her breath to which his father replies with a nodding of his head. “If it weren’t for all this nonsense we’d be there by now.”

“Absolutely. We’d be there fifteen minutes ago,” his father adds with his hands in the air. “Isn’t there some kind of way you can get around this son, like a shortcut?”

Ah yes, shortcuts on the highway. Why didn’t he think of that? Let him just push the button that says flight mode and–no! Having enough, Jungkook holds his foot on the break and twists his body around to face his parents.

“Alright listen to me right now. This is not Tiny Town where there are a million dirt roads that pop from anywhere and all seem to lead to one other. Everyone drives at least seventy out here and that’s just the way it is because this..." He gestures outside the windshield. "This is what happens! We all get stuck in this congested funnel! But if you two can think of a way to get out of here that doesn’t involve attempting to bulldoze other cars, I’m all ears. Until then we’re going to sit here and talk about the weather because there's nothing else we can do!"

Jungkook looks back and forth between his parents. Mrs. Jeon simply stares outside her window while his dad gives a slow nod in understanding.

"Is it really that bad?"

Jungkook relaxes his body back to face the front when he hears your voice. "Yeah, it's pretty bad __." He lets out a long, exasperated sigh. This is going to be a very long day.

"Nice out today. Mind if I roll down the window?" The traffic hasn't got any better and it was starting to get stuffy in the car. Mr. Jeon desperately needed some fresh air in his face.

"Mhm yeah, go ahead."

"How about some music? Find out what's on the radio will you." He sticks his arm out the window, letting the gentle breeze hit his skin. When the first song blares through the speakers, Jungkook's mother breaks her deafening silence.

"Dear god! What music is this?"

Mr. Jeon immediately perks up. "It's PSY! Turn it up! Turn it up, boy!" Jungkook appeases his father's wishes and turns the knob a few more notches. "Oppa Gangnam Style! Eae eae eae e, sexy lady!"

Hearing his dad singing at the top of his lungs has Jungkook rubbing the side of his head. It's not that he sounded bad but he was singing so loud that everyone around them started pointing, laughing, or rolling up their own windows. "Dad, people are going to get annoyed. Take it down a little."

Deeply immersed in the song, Mr. Jeon continues singing regardless of his son's request. "Op, op, op, op, oppa Gangnam Style!" He starts rocking in his seat which causes a few middle schoolers in the car next to them to pop out their phones.

"Dad!" Jungkook hollers when he notices the kids taking pictures. If doesn't put an end to this now, his father's face is going to be trending all over the internet with god knows what filter.

"Op, op, op, op, on on on on!"

"Dad stop!" He tries again, this time turning the music down. Mrs. Jeon attempts to calm her husband down too, placing a hand on one of his arms but it doesn't take much for it to be ripped out of her grasp. Mr. Jeon ends up nearly whacking his wife in the face due to all his energetic dancing.

"Erotic sexy lady! Oppa Gangnam Sty–hey! Song wasn't done yet!" Jungkook's dad never looked so offended in his life. If he had adjusted his gaze just a few inches to the left he'd see the group of kids, the ones taking photos earlier, giggling to one another. But he was too pissed at his son for crashing his party that it went to the wayside.

"Honey, you were causing a disturbance," Mrs. Jeon says.

"A disturbance? In this traffic jam, I'm the disturbance?" He refuses to believe he's the annoyance when they've been in the middle of a highway, moving at 5 mph for the last hour. PSY has recently become his favorite singer and not enjoying himself would have been an absolute tragedy in his opinion. "It's all of you who should be thanking me for offering some shred of entertainment at times like these."

"The entire population of South Korea is going to be thanking you then." Jungkook creeps forward as soon as the car in front of him moves up a ways. Finally moving again, he hums.

"Hey!" An abrupt voice calls from a slight distance. Two teenage boys pull up in a Jaguar, greasy grins on their faces. "Great singing Grandpa! Really know how to move!" The one in the passenger seat flashes his phone playing a video of Jungkook's dad online.

"Wha–how–What?! You delete that right now!" Mr. Jeon is stunned, tripping over his words at the shock of himself actually being the center of the internet. The video is unexpectedly clear.

"Just ignore them, Dad." Jungkook rolls up all the windows in the car and inches up the best he can to get the teenagers out of direct sight.

"But-but how did they do that so fast? It hasn't even been five minutes yet!"

"It only takes seconds, honey," Mrs. Jeon sighs, realizing her husband has become famous over a re-rendition of a PSY song. Of all things, it had to be that.

"I'm starving."

"Me too."

Jungkook glances at the time–2:40p.m. It's now been three hours of sitting in traffic and they've only moved about ten miles. What on earth is congesting the highway this much?

"Maybe we should take one of these exits." His dad scrolls through the map on his phone. "Says there are a few restaurants down exit 6A."

Jungkook considers the idea. He wants to get off the highway, yes, but so does everyone else. The exit his dad is talking about is off the far right lane which means he's going to need to shove in front of everyone's way.

"You sure it's a good place? Wherever it is you're looking?" The reason why he asks is that his dad is notorious for leading them into the most ruin down places. The last time he was in charge of directions, they ended up in front of an abandoned pizza shop.

Mrs. Jeon takes the phone from her husband's hand and swipes through the photos of a quaint restaurant. "It's not bad," she concludes. "And if it means we can get out of this mess, then I'm with your father on this one."

Two against one. Jungkook turns his signal on and waits for someone to let him over. He earns a few honks when he manages to squeeze his nose over but does his best to give an apologetic wave.

After a few more lane changes he gets in the exit lane. He isn't the only one planning to take exit 6B though, being that there are at least twenty other cars waiting in line.

"Maybe we were better off back where we were. All these people want to get off the same place. If we keep going there's bound to be another exit with far less traffic."

Really? Jungkook feels himself ticking again. After all that shoving to get over here and this is what he gets? No, he's not moving back over. They're going to wait in this stupid lane until it gets them to where they originally agreed.

"We just got here and we're not moving back anywhere. This lane should clear up in less time than it would take to go back on the main highway," Jungkook says. "Also, I probably don't need to clarify this but, we're not going to make it to that bookstore you wanted, Dad."

"It's fine, son. We'll go another day."

Which means tomorrow, Jungkook half grumbles to himself. His parents are here for another day after all and he knows his father well enough to know that "another day" really means the closest day possible.

Despite its size, the restaurant his parents choose is charming with its floor-to-ceiling wood paneling and giant, bay windows. The odd hanging plant is spread throughout the open dining space as well, perfectly setting the mood of serenity.

The restaurant only seems to hold about a dozen people inside, however. So thinking it is best to avoid sitting in an overly crowded space, Jungkook asks for one of the tables outside.

“Oh now this is lovely,” his mother praises, pulling her chair up to the table. Jungkook can’t describe how relieved he is to finally hear something positive after hours of nonstop grumbling.

Mr. Jeon takes a seat next to his wife and across from his son. “I just saw someone get Samgyeopsal and it was huge! Let’s get that to share.”

His enthusiasm is short-lived when the scrunched-up face from his wife says she's not a fan. “That's too much food! We still have to be hungry for dinner so we can eat with __."

"Mom's right," Jungkook agrees reluctantly. "__'s stopping at the grocery store after work so we can prep for dinner tonight. I know traffic slowed us down so we're eating at a weird time but it's better we go with something light."

"Oh well, we can always take some to go! Surely __ will enjoy some beautifully grilled pork!" Jungkook's father is adamant. He wants nothing more than a heavy meal after being stuck in the car all morning.

"__ doesn't like pork Dad. And we all know as soon as we get a whiff of it cooking there's not going to be any leftovers."

"Alright, alright," his dad concedes. "I guess I'll try their bibimbap. What are you having hon?"

Jungkook checks his phone messages while his parents make small talk over the menu. You texted him earlier to see how traffic was holding up and he only able to get back to you minutes ago.

Wifey ❤️ : So I'm guessing you haven't talked to your mom yet?

Jungkook: No, haven't brought it up. She seems fine though with the way she's been acting. It doesn't take much for her to go back to her usual self

Wifey ❤️: Her usual self being...?

Jungkook: You know, really particular.

Wifey ❤️: So she's complaining again. I'm sorry 😞

Jungkook: When I was talking with her on the phone before we left, she was much more careful about what she was saying. I expected it to still be that way now. Must have been a mood.

Wifey ❤️: Sounds like she wasn't sure how you'd be reacting after what happened last night. Maybe she's just reverting to back what she's used to because she's unsure what else to do or say. I'd still try finding a way to talk to her. Does it seem tense?

Jungkook: Yeah, you have a point. But Mom's also had a good way of sweeping things under the rug. It's not tense but it's just uncomfortably normal?

Wifey ❤️: Hmm, strange. And your dad's fine?

Jungkook: Honey...have you been on any social media in the last half hour?

Wifey ❤️: No, why?

Jungkook: Might wanna check. We had a little incident while in traffic. I'm still in shock honestly 😅

Jungkook waits for you to find the video of his dad. He already had the guys blowing up his phone from it so he's surprised none of them at least forwarded it to you.

Wifey ❤️: oh my god! Jungkook what happened?! 😂 I hope you're prepared for your students to be all over this

Jungkook: oh shit, that didn't even cross my mind 😩 also it's not funny honey! Listening to my dad singing eae e sexy lady was traumatizing enough. Now I have to see and hear it every time I pop open my phone or some teen punks show it to me!

Wifey ❤️: Aw Kookie, they're just being kids...try not to overthink. And you know those videos come and go. Your dad will be at the bottom of the chain by next week. Until then keep him away from PSY 😅 But I'm sorry you're having a day, I love you 🥺

Jungkook: I MISS YOU SO MUCH 😭

Wifey ❤️: [sent an image]

Fuck! Jungkook chokes on his spit when he sees a blurry close up of your cleavage. Thankfully his parents are still too occupied by the menu that they didn't notice.

Jungkook: sexy af but this isn't the time to be sexting me baby!

He nearly saves the photo if it weren't for the fact that he already had an album dedicated to very sensual *ahem erotic* photos of you. You had let him take them himself —best motherfuckin' birthday ever.

Wifey ❤️: oh adhjjhj, sorry!! That was an accident. I'm such a klutz. This is what I meant... [sent an image]

"What's going on over there?" Jungkook merely glimpses at the new image before whipping his head up, hearing his mother's, sharp tone.

"It's just __. She's asking about groceries again."

With slightly narrowed eyes, Mrs. Jeon continues. "We're about to order if you're ready."

Dammit. He'll have to reply to you later. Jungkook swiftly pockets the phone. "Okay yeah I'm good to go."

"This is delicious," Mr. Jeon says, patting his mouth with a napkin. "Best bibimbap I've had in a long time."

"That's great Dad." Jungkook stirs his noodles.

"Ah, where's the restroom around here?" He asks the waitress as she walks by. She tells him it's in the restaurant, all the way to the back. Mr. Jeon pushes his chair from the table and excuses himself. "All that broth has me needing to go."

"Yes yes, just go." Why his father needed to explain himself every time he needed to use the restroom is beyond him. Jungkook peers at his mother, taking her time eating her own bowl of noodles–they ended up ordering the same thing. "How is it?" he asks.

"It's good."

"Not too spicy?"

"No, it's mild."

Jungkook gathers more noodles on his chopstick. He freezes halfway when he sees his mother eyeing him intensely. "Everything okay?"

Mrs. Jeon folds her hands in her lap. "It's occurred to me that we still have an elephant in the room. I was hoping we'd be able to talk about it while your father browsed the bookstore. But plans changed."

And here he thought his mother had been playing down last night when really she was biding her time. "You know Dad's gonna be back in like ten minutes right?"

Mrs. Jeon nods. "I know it's not the most convenient of times or places, but I'm afraid if we delay it won't get discussed."

"Okay." Jungkook sets his chopsticks down. "Well...where do you want to start?"

"An apology would be nice." Her voice is mellow but the words are a clear demand rather than an offer. Of course, he wants to apologize to her for all the things he accused her of last night. But he wasn't expecting her to be this forward with it, especially since she was guilty of plenty herself. "I'm waiting Kookie," she coos, taking a sip of water.

Jungkook knits his eyebrows in response, unsure of what he's hearing. His mother looks far too relaxed about this whole thing. He decides to give her the benefit of the doubt. "You're right," he starts. "I'm sorry for what I said last night. I shouldn't have spoken that way and I'm sorry for making you leave. I think you and Dad showing up all a sudden threw me off and I reacted poorly."

Mrs. Jeon cracks a tight smile and reaches for her son's hand. "Thank you, Jungkook. I accept your apology." She gives his hand a squeeze before moving to pick up her chopsticks. "Now that we got that settled let's talk about the reunion. I'm thinking about talking to–"

What....the fuck? His mom did not just glide over this whole issue. She did not just put everything on him. And she did not just bring up that damn reunion again, which he's made very clear he wants nothing a part of. "Is that all you wanted? For me to make my amends with you?"

"What else would there be Kookie?" She scoffs, eyes wide.

"Goddamn it." He struggles to maintain a hushed voice. "Can you please stop calling me that? And what the hell do you mean 'what else would there be'? I'm not trying to put the blame on you but there's a good amount you should be saying to me too."

"What things are you referring to? Don't tell me this is about the reunion again. Look, whatever it is that I said was because I just want to see you more. And no more swearing. You know I don't like that kind of language."

"How can you be like this?" Jungkook can't stop himself. He figured his mom and he would have a better, heart-to-heart than this. It makes his skin crawl that his mother continues to play the victim. "It's genuinely shocking me how....do you even love me?"

Mrs. Jeon pauses at that. "Of course, I love you Jungkook. Why–why would you ask that?" She blinks back the slightest hint of tears forming along the edge of her eyes. Never in a million years did she think her son would doubt something this crucial.

"I feel like–"

"Feel what? What is it?"

"I feel like you care more about what I can do for you than you do me, as your son." Jungkook sniffs. This is a lot harder for him to say than he imagined. "There's been so many times that you've–"

"Don't say this honey! I care about you very much!" She reaches for his hand again but he yanks it away. "What are you trying to tell me?" His mother waits for him to form the rest of the sentence.

Jungkook hesitates to look at her straight on because behind what appears to be concerned eyes is disbelief. She isn't taking any of this seriously. It's written all over her face, tone, and all the way down to the way she's focusing on an answer rather than his inability to comfortably talk to her.

"What have I done so many times?"

"Honestly at this point, what haven't you done?" With an icy glare, Jungkook can't hold himself back anymore. The pot that's been brewing, deep in the darkest parts of him is finally overflowing and it's not going to be pretty to behold. "Do you realize how many times you chose your job, your status, and even your friends over me? And you make Dad go along with literally anything! Is it so horrible for someone to say no to you?!"

The couple next to them shoot uncomfortable looks his way, whispering to each other. Jungkook ignores it and starts counting with his fingers.

"Never once have you ever taken responsibility for showing up uninvited, nagging me about this that, and the other thing, making backhanded comments about my life choice, and most of all pretending our relationship is peachy fine. Well, I'm sorry mom, I'm thirty-four years old and I don't need to live by your rules! Our relationship is barely hanging by a thread and being quite real, it's __ and Dad who are the ones clinging to that thread, making sure it doesn't completely snap."

Mrs. Jeon opens her mouth to interject but Jungkook doesn't allow it to happen. It's not exactly intentional that he's pouring out so much in the middle of people's lunch. Still, he's been shoved over a steep cliff, head first.

"I'm sorry mom, I don't know how many times I need to say it. I don't enjoy any bit of this. It's just been a long stretch of–"

"That's enough! I don't want to hear any more." Mrs. Jeon immediately grabs her purse and twists her neck every which way. "Where's your father? I want to leave."

"Mom I'm trying to talk to you! Why won't you let me talk?"

His mother doesn't reply. She doesn't look at him. It's the silent treatment, Jungkook concludes–it's fucking irritating. "I'm not trying to be hurtful," he says, forcing himself to calm down. "Mom look at me."

She doesn't move.

It only takes seconds for their waitress to near her way up to the table with anxious steps. "I'm sorry to be doing this but unfortunately, we've received a few complaints of a disturbance out here." The young girl clasps her hands. "To ensure all our guests are comfortable we're going to need to ask you to take your conversation elsewhere. I'm really sorry."

Fuck. How embarrassing. Jungkook clears his throat and stands up from his seat. "We understand and are genuinely sorry for the commotion. We'll pay at the front and be on our way. Thank you for waiting our table."

The young girl gives a nervous smile and retreats inside the restaurant. Jungkook makes a note to give her a generous tip.

"Hey, what's going on out here?" Mr. Jeon rushes over, hair blowing over due to the breeze. "I heard there was some inconsiderate party out here airing out their dirty laundry for all to see. I tell you, people these days don't know what privacy means anymore!" He shakes his head and takes a seat.

"Get up Dad we're leaving."

"But I'm not done my–––oh shit." Mr. Jeon clenches his teeth. "You two?"

Mrs. Jeon gets up from her chair, still wordless, and walks towards the parking lot. "I'll get this Dad." Jungkook stops his father from pulling out his wallet. "It is best if you go try to ease Mom. I don't think she'll be talking to me for a while."

Mr. Jeon puts a hand on his son's shoulder. It's his way of offering comfort. "You're mother has made things difficult for you, Jungkook. I'll try getting through to her. In the meantime don't let this eat you up. It's been a long time coming."

Jungkook doesn't get home until quarter past six. The drive home was better than the drive to the restaurant, but hitting the notorious five o'clock traffic slowed them down once more. He also had to drop his parents at their hotel which was no easy task. His mother barely gave him a glance before hopping out of the car. The amount of guilt settling in his gut isn't going away any time soon.

"Hey." Jungkook finds you searching through the kitchen cupboard. "I hope you're okay with spice tonight! I got this really awesome–oh baby what's wrong?" You stop what you're doing when you see your husband come up behind you with sunken eyes. He wraps his larger arms around you, desperately needing your scent.

"I blew it," he croaks. "She's so mad at me."

"I'm sorry Jungkook. I'm sorry I couldn't be there." You turn in his arms to pull him into a full embrace. His nose tickles the side of your neck but you don't laugh. "You wanna tell me?"

Jungkook takes your hand and sits you both on the couch in the living room. "The morning started out rough with three hours of traffic and the two of them in the back seat, telling me where and how I should drive. Then my dad got unexpectedly famous off a PSY song. We finally got to some restaurant about half an hour west of here before 3pm. Everything was going okay until dad went to the bathroom."

"Okay," you say, scooting closer beside him. You rub small circles on his upper back as he leans forward on his spread-apart knees. "What happened?"

"Mom suggested we talk about last night so I said sure." You watch as Jungkook fiddles with his hands. "But she didn't actually care about a conversation or what I had to say. All she wanted, all she expected, was for me to apologize to her so we'd be okay again. It all came out after that and I feel so horrible about it. We ended up getting kicked out of the restaurant too."

"Jungkook..."

"I tried __. I wanted to be patient and to be a good son but she can't even look at me right now." He falls back on the couch, staring at the blank wall in front. "Dad's convinced it was bound to happen."

"You are a good son, Jungkook." You comb a few strands of his soft, ebony hair. He closes his eyes as you do. "You're mom's the one who needs to readjust her view."

"I never thought I'd yell at my mom about all that stuff. And certainly not in public where everyone is trying to have a pleasant lunch. I'm a grown-ass adult and I should have had better control of myself."

You settle into his inner shoulder, laying a hand on his chest. "Even grown adults have limits and your mom's far surpassed those limits. Don't blame yourself for this."

"Dad said the same thing."

"Well, that's two against one."

Jungkook smiles. Two against one, that's where he got that from. Not that you're the first person to use the phrase but he never used it as regularly until you moved in together.

"I missed you so much today. I don't deserve you."

You cock your head up as quick as the words fly from his mouth. "Don't you dare say things like that! You're a good man despite how awful your mother treats you." You lean your face near his, eyes wandering deep into his dark brown ones. "If you're not otherwise too tired, I'm going to show you how much I love you."

Jungkook opens his lids at that–apparently not too tired. You smirk and get off the couch.

"Here?" His classic doe-eyes peer down at your kneeled position. Seeing you settle this perfectly between his muscular thighs triggers an intense blood rush that goes straight to his dick. Jungkook didn't think he was going to get horny tonight but here he was with his half-harden length in your hands in the middle of the living room.

"Mhm." You position yourself just enough for him to have a clear view of your tits. You had taken both your shirt and bra off before starting. You know how your husband likes it. "That okay with you?"

Jungkook groans when you grip his cock harder, gliding it from the base to the tip in repeated motions. "Fuck yeah. It's more than okay." You giggle at how quickly your husband gets in the mood. He thinks you're the bitch in the bedroom? You quicken your movements.

"Oh shit this feels so good." He grips the couch cushion, keeping his focus on you. "Need that gorgeous mouth wrapped around me baby, please. Shit–"

You honor your husband's requests and trace your tongue from the base of his cock all the way up to his tip. Once there, you suck lightly before taking him in whole.

"That's it. Take my cock, fuck." Jungkook goes on to praise you as you bottom out. You gag a little at first being that you haven't done this in what....weeks? Damn. Whatever happened to the days when you'd literally go down on each other every day?

"We need to get you reacquainted with my cock honey," he teases, bucking his hips forward to push himself further into your mouth. "All these weeks without my cock in your mouth has you gagging all over me. Been it's been too long hasn't it?"

"Mm," is the only thing you reply with, the weight of his thick length dragging back and forth on your tongue. By now your pussy is pulsating like crazy and you're tempted to just get up and fuck yourself on him. But tonight was about your husband–you're going to make sure of it. And Jungkook loves nothing more than getting head with your bare tits in full view, obviously.

A few sucks later and Jungkook starts fucking himself into your mouth. They began as soft, needy bucks of his hips but now they're rough, full-force thrusts. His length shoves to the back of your throat and you moan desperately around him. "Did you miss my cock baby? I bet you did. My sexy wife....you're mine and you're gonna make me come, aren't you? Fuck yeah, you are."

Your eyes water as you continue to take him, hallowing your cheeks the best you can. Jungkook has his eyes screwed shut and sweat dripping from his forehead. Your panties are so fucking soaked right now and your nipples are defiantly hard from sheer arsousal.

"God I'm so close baby. You're mouth is---fuck I don't even have the words. It's fucking magic! And your tits are so hot from this angle. Kinda reminds me of what you sent to me earlier. Can I come on them? I'm so close." Jungkook takes your broken moans as a yes and starts ramming into you two more times before pullout and covering your breasts with warm liquid. "Fuck fuck fuck," he grunts, spilling himself on you.

What a mess. You look down at yourself. What a motherfuckin' mess and you love it. Jungkook pulls you into a passionate kiss, tongue rolling with yours in heavenly harmony. "Thank you for this," he says between kisses. "I'll help you wash up, I promise."

"Mm Jungkook," you pant. "I think I need you inside me."

Hey, he got his dick sucked and he creamed your tits–it's mama's turn now, or excuse you–wifey.

A/N: this got nasty whoops. not sorry. Anyway LMK what you think, thanks for reading! 💞 also pls vote if youd be so kind

Masterlist

Taglist:

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P.S. I'm sorry but I'm not sure if I'm able to tag all of you!

no reposting, copying, or translating my work– © kookslastbutton

[lance-thunder-reporting-live]

Good morning Amity Park, I'm your ghostly weatherman, Lance Thunder. Today's Monday, May 20, and there’s a 50% chance of rain. Highs are in the mid eighties, and the lows are in the low sixties.

Amity Park was entirely frozen in time for three days, beginning on Thursday, May 16 at 3:23 pm, and lasting til Sunday, May 19, at 11:47 pm. It is assumed that a ghost froze the city, but then either was defeated, or decided to unfreeze Amity later on.

Rather than being held yesterday while the city was frozen, now Casper High graduation will be held on Sunday, May 26, in the gymnasium. Students will still be expected to arrive by 9:00 AM and the ceremony will begin at 10:00 AM. Seniors will not be making up the last day of school which was missed due to the city being frozen. They are however, permitted to visit to pick up any belongings they may have not been able to previously.

The Fentons will likely be driving today.

[madridfangirl]

Star crossed lovers (Jude Bellingham fanfic)

Chapter 4

(Series Link)

Jude * female reader

Warnings: None. Slightly mature language in parts.

Synopsis: A chance encounter in a tiny Madrid cafe with the newest superstar of her fav club. The two couldn't be more different, yet both feel the pull toward the other. Would this girl be the one he finally falls for? Would she make him change his ways? Even though she resists him every step of the way, would he fight all odds (& her) to have her in his life? Or would life come in the way of these star-crossed lovers?

…………………………..

Jude let go of her hands, which fell in her lap, and took two steps back to look at her. The mood needed some lightening up.

‘Look at you, shooting me down two nights in a row. One would think I played for Barca, not Madrid.’

This made her look back at him. His silliness made her smile, she couldn’t help herself.

‘There is no way I would be sitting in your kitchen if that were the case.’

‘Finally, the sass is back. Hallelujah!’

He mimicked his celebration, with his hands raised, quite proud of himself in the moment.

She tried kicking his knee to wipe that smirk off his face but he dodged just in time, both laughing by now.

‘Let’s get some food in you. And more wine, definitely more wine. Then we will talk.’

They moved to the living room couch with their dinner and drinks, and settled on watching an episode of Friends. Both knew the show by heart and it served as the perfect distraction. The food was lovely too. White sauce pasta was her ultimate comfort food - she had no idea how he chose this or if it was just something his cook decided to make.

But what helped the most was the wine. It tasted like little drops of heaven. She knew it would be some fancy ass bottle she won’t even be able to pronounce so she didn’t even bother checking the name.

It had started raining by then, she could see the downpour through the French windows facing the backyard. And in Madrid, when it rained, it poured.

While she was looking outside, he cleared the empty plates and came back to the couch with re-filled glasses.

‘Agnes will drop you back later, don’t worry. He’s awesome at driving.’

She turned around and thanked him with a genuine smile, taking the glass from his outstretched hand.

‘Now, tell me, why so intent on shooting me down?’

He tilted his head towards her, patiently waiting for a response. Ananya looked down wryly, while her fingers played with the fabric of the couch.

‘It’s not something I set out to do. But, you and me, we are so different. Don’t you think?’

‘Why do you think so?’

‘Isn’t it obvious? Our jobs, our worlds, our lives, our circles, our priorities - every damn thing is different. There is nothing in common.’

‘Or we are two young, lively, ambitious people, enjoying life in a new city while still being connected to our families back home. That’s how I see it.’

She shook her head in frustration.

‘C’monn, Jude. I am sure you can see my point. You can see what I mean.’

He scanned her face for a few seconds, before conceding.

‘Alright, cool. Yes, we are different. Why is that such a bad thing though? Don’t opposites attract?’

‘Only in movies. And novels. Not in real life. Practicality always wins in real life.’

‘Don’t believe in romance then? In love and fairy tales?’

‘Romance, yes. Love, yes. But not in fairy tales. Not in Price Charming or a White Knight. Not in some star crossed lovers kinda story.’

‘That’s too much scepticism for a 20 year old, y’know.’

She just shrugged in response. He wondered if there was a story behind it. If something, someone rather, made her feel this way. But that thought was so unpleasant that he quickly snapped out of it. Conversation for another time.

‘Ok, let’s stick to practicality then. Let’s break it down. Why can’t we give this a try and see where it goes? Why do we have to think 50 steps ahead on day 1?

‘Define giving it a try.’

‘Dating.’

‘And what would that entail?’

He had been leaning against the back of the couch but sat upright then, and looked at her quizzically.

‘You are asking me what dating entails?’

‘No. I am asking what dating you entails. Would it mean going to your matches, going out in the city with you, to be clicked in public with you? Yeah?’

‘Well, yeah, I guess.’

She sighed, and he put his glass on the table, utterly confused now. When she spoke next, her voice was small but firm.

‘The thing is, just the thought of that, of so many eyes on me is nauseating. It makes me want to run. I can’t handle the pressure of being in the public eye like that. Of being under constant scrutiny. The media will dig out every photo, every text, every said and unsaid thing. And not just that, the fans Jude. Some of your fan girls will absolutely detest my existence, for not being deserving in their eye of the most sought after guy in all of Europe maybe. And I live here, right in the epicentre of all this. It won’t just be virtual. It will be everywhere around me.’

Ananya took a big sip from her glass, almost gulping down the remaining half in one go. While he sat still, trying to process everything she was saying. She continued immediately after.

‘Also, who’s gonna take me seriously at work then? Do you know how hard it is to get into investment banking? There are so few women who graduate to leadership roles in this field - the glass ceiling is present and real. And I am just starting out. I worked my ass off to get here. But they will all just look at me as your…, as some kind of floozy..’

He didn’t let her finish. Jude grabbed both her hands, held them together between his and squeezed firmly.

‘Shhhhhhhh, calm down, calm down babe. I hear you.’

She breathed heavily, gradually opening her eyes as he kept making shushing noises in the meantime.

His eyes were kind and sincere, seeking hers. She nearly got pulled into them but managed to regain her balance. He spoke softly, with understanding.

‘It’s not that bad for some guys, y’know. Tony was telling me how Jessica has pretty much been able to do her own thing here, without much glare. Same for quite a few other guys.’

‘Jude, they are not you. And please don’t make me explain what that means, you already know it.’

Yes, he knew what she meant. She could see it with the resignation in his eyes.

It was his turn to look away to compose himself. She couldn’t resist admiring his face from so close, as he was lost in thought.

‘How about this - we don’t tell anyone. No one. Just you and me. We meet either here or at your place. I will find a way to get there without being seen. No media. No fans. No pictures. No drama. No pressure. Till we are ready. Till you are ready.’

His eyes had changed shade again, filled with resolve now.

She considered every word and replayed it over in her head.

‘That’s not ideal for you, though, is it?’

‘Maybe it is. The media finds enough fodder to rip apart my life and my family’s as it is, let’s not give them more juice. It could be a good thing dove, seriously.’

She scanned his face to see if he really meant what he said. When she couldn’t find any evidence to the contrary, she let out a little sigh.

‘You are sweet.’

‘You are pretty.’

His instant response threw her off-guard. The look of surprise on her face and her failed attempt to speak was deeply amusing to him. Along with the little blush that was starting to creep up at the top of her cheeks.

She pulled out her hands from his hold, gathered herself and tried to look admonishing. He just laughed at her response and flashed her his biggest smile, all 32 teeth visible.

Ananya was convinced he was just trying to distract her from the conversation. The darned thing was, it was working.

‘Can you please be serious, Jude?’

‘I say it as I see it.’

He retorted, meeting the challenge in her voice.

Just then, his phone rang loudly and they both jumped from the suddenness of it. He looked at the phone, then looked at her indecisively.

‘Umm, it’s my Mum.’

‘Go talk to her, she must be calling about the match. What are you waiting for?’

He beamed happily at her, almost thanking her for understanding. Then quickly answered the phone, moving to the next room. She could see him through the glass windows, walking up and down, practically skipping with joy while discussing the match with his mom.

It was such a sweet moment. He looked like a 5 year old little boy telling his mom he came first in a school race. The love was practically radiating from his being.

She smiled, then busied herself with her phone. Giving them their privacy.

Her insta was filled with messages of shock, awe and jealousy of them getting to watch the Classico live. She chuckled and scrolled through all, reminding herself to respond later.

Roma had sent her a few messages too, asking her how it was going. And throwing in some deeply suggestive comments in between. Ananya could tell her friend was drunk. If only she knew what was really happening here, she would probably murder her.

What was really happening here? She was ruining what was probably the best day of his life yet by discussing her complicated thoughts. He could have been celebrating with his teammates right now, or with anyone else. He deserved to have the moon tonight, not what they were doing.

Guilt set in and she kicked herself for coming over in the first place. He would have been upset but surely he would have found ways to get over it quickly.

The constant pattering of rain outside served as a good distraction. She walked over to the French windows and settled down on the comfy floor seating. The cushions were cozy and the throw was soft; she pulled it up till her waist and shut her eyes for a bit.

She still hadn’t told him the other piece of her hesitation. It was a trickier conversation - she didn’t know how to articulate it, or if she even wanted to. She didn’t know how he would react to such vulnerable admissions. Tonight was so not the night, such horrible timing.

Just then, she heard half-frantic footsteps in the background and moments later she saw him turn the corner.

‘There you are. Thought you ran away without telling me.’

She elbowed his side lightly as he settled down next to her on the floor seating, leaning against the cushions.

‘You think I would do that?.’

‘Been trying to run since yesterday. Don’t trust you yet.’

They were side by side, facing the windows but turned slightly towards each other. Ananya chose to not address the last comment.

‘How was the call? She must have been happy.’

There was the little boy again, smiling from ear to ear, radiating such affection for his mom that it made her heart flutter.

‘She was over the moon. But she’s always like that - twice as happy as me for anything I do. Same with Jobe. She’s just a bundle of love.’

This was just cheating at this point. How was she supposed to resist him like this? But she had to get it off her chest, before it was too late. Before something happens that she can’t go back on.

His eyes turned yet another shade, intense. She could feel them roaming over her now.

‘Listen, about earlier.’

‘Oh yes. Sorry for the interruption. You said there was something else. Tell me.’

Her fingers dug into the cushion as she struggled to articulate this sensitive topic. He watched her movements closely, letting her take his time.

‘I came out of a serious relationship, in fact the only relationship I have been in, about 6 months ago. It was hard, coz I thought that person was THE person I will end up with. He said all the right things, did all the right things but eventually when it came to it, he didn’t have it in him to fight for us enough.’

Jude grabbed a nearby cushion too, resisting the urge to bite on it or rip it open. He could tell her scepticism had a story behind it and this seemed to be that.

‘Not gonna bore you with more about that. But long story short, the idea of being with someone is a bit daunting for me right now. A lot of my fundamental beliefs have been shaken, including my ability to trust in my instincts, which I thought I was good at. I am still trying to piece myself back together block by block. That was another reason to pick Madrid - a complete change of environment. I am not…as in I don’t have any feelings for him anymore but it’s myself that I am trying to understand better. Not sure if that makes sense but that’s what it is. ‘

Just my luck, he thought. The cushion was living on borrowed life in his hands at this point but Jude was proud of the way he had kept his face calm and neutral.

‘Thank you for sharing this with me, couldn’t have been easy. Look, I get it. Coming out of a long relationship can be hard. I have also been in one. Though, I don’t think I was ready for it at the time and I can’t claim to have been a good boyfriend either. But we all learn and grow from our experiences, right? Can’t stop trusting our instincts. Think of it this way - you knew all this yet you are here tonight. Something pulled you towards me. Don’t let your brain deny that.’

Well, she wasn’t denying the pull she felt towards him. She was trying to make sense of it with him. But he still hadn’t gotten the full picture. She needed to spell it out crudely so he really gets it.

Ananya looked straight at him for this - so she could see his reaction closely.

‘Jude - I don’t think I am ready for anything physical. And I don’t know when I will be ready. Or if I will be ready. That’s what I have been trying to tell you.’

She watched the realisation dawn on his face then. Well, finally, she thought. When he didn’t speak for the next 30 seconds, she chimed in again.

‘Look - I know this is atypical and I know this won’t work for you. I get it. We can look at last two days as a different experience and just call it a night. It’s absolutely fine.’

His head shot up at her, and his tone was sharp, for the first time tonight.

‘Sorry - what do you mean you KNOW this won’t work for me?’

‘Because it won’t work for most people in your position.’

She said calmly, trying to keep an even tone.

‘IN MY POSITION? You mean a footballer right? And you know this how? Let me guess - media, social media and gossip pages, correct?’

‘Jude, I..’

‘Tell me this - have I done ANYTHING in the last two days to make you uncomfortable? Did I push you, touch you or even look at you when you didn’t want me to?

‘Please don’t say that. You haven’t. That’s not what I..’

‘Then why, why did you of all people assume I was some sex-crazed animal who is only interested in fucking anyone with….’

She crossed the distance between them, kneeled in front of him and covered his mouth with her hand.

‘Stop, please stop. I am sorry. That’s not what I meant. And yes, I shouldn’t have drawn any conclusions from the media. You are right. Pls I beg you, just calm down. I am so so sorry.’

She could feel his heavy breathing on her hand, but atleast he didn’t push her away. The fight drained out from his eyes slowly, replaced with hurt. Which killed her even more. She moved her hands to his shoulders, gently stroking both.

He spoke in a small voice then, the twinkle lost from his eyes.

‘What did you mean then, if not all that?’

‘I meant that, someone like you, who has the world at his feet right now, who has enough high stakes as it is in his day job, why would such a person want this kind of a restricted set-up? I am sure models, actresses and all such sexy women must be throwing themselves at you left, right and center. You could be with anyone you want to be with.’

He seemed to believe her explanation, from the way his shoulders relaxed and his expression softened.

‘Clearly, not anyone.’

He pointed in her direction. When she didn’t say anything, he reached for her hands lying on his shoulders. And gently, fleetingly brushed his lips on the back of both.

She gasped & shut her eyes, willing herself to not melt. Failing miserably.

‘I believe I have the right to decide who I find sexy. And dove, you are the reason I struggled to sleep last night. Haven’t stopped thinking about you.’

Ananya wanted to hide from his gaze which was burning her even with her eyes closed. But she was transfixed.

‘Plus you are smart, a little lippy, highly opinionated, well-read, brave, vulnerable, honest and so so real. Gosh, I love that about you.’

He requested her to look at him. She obliged.

‘I would take you right now if you were in the same headspace. God knows I have thought about it. But, if taking things slow is what you need and the alternative is you walking out that door forever, then let’s go at a turtle pace. Can’t let go of you.’

He pulled them both up to their feet, standing a few inches away from each other.

Then, he opened his arms for her, inviting her in. She looked between his arms and his face which had an expectant smile, then back to his open arms.

‘Come here, come to me.’

Next second, she found herself against his chest. Strong arms wrapped around her in a gentle hold, pulling her further into his chest. While her hands went around his broad back, clutching at his jumper.

This wasn’t like anything she had ever felt before. His scent, his warmth, his breath, his presence fogged her mind and made her oblivious to everything else in the world.

Jude kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek against it. She bit her cheek to not let out a moan, but failed, making him smile.

‘Feeling what I am feeling?’

‘Yes.’

‘Will you give us a chance, then?’

‘You haven’t left me with a choice.’

‘Finally. Two wins in the same night, I am truly on a roll.’

She giggled against his chest at his silliness, and he followed suit. Feeling his laugh reverberate through his whole body was a feeling she couldn’t describe in words. It was something pure, something ethereal.

They swayed in each other’s arms for minutes, not wanting to let go. Not wanting to disturb the peace of the moment.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she grudgingly removed her cheek that was placed against his chest, and looked up at him.

‘It must be late. I should go now.’

‘If you want, you can take the guest bedroom. And leave in the morning whenever you want.’

‘I have some work in the morning, have to send out some stuff to the New York office.’

‘Agnes can pick up your laptop and bring it here.’

‘Jude - I really don’t think we should be under the same roof tonight.’

‘Don’t trust me?’

‘Don’t trust either of us right now, to be honest.’

He flashed her a mind-numbing smile.

‘Already can’t resist me? I knew it.’

‘Shut up and let me go.’

‘Five more minutes?’

‘Fine.’

She rested her cheek on his chest again, while his went on her head. His arms gently stroking her back, building a cocoon of comfort. They stayed like that for more than 5 mins.

……………………………………………

There you go - hope you are liking the story so far.

Feedback is very very welcome :)

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

Random Collection of MGSV Things I Noticed

Venom hallucinates Skull Face or, hallucinates around Skull Face in both the Skull Face mission and directly thereafter. In one, he's just distorting how he looks and sounds, in the second, he just full out see's Skull Face behind Kaz when he's quoting him.

When Code Talker is put back in the chopper after Metallic Archaea, Venom sits him in the seat, but Ocelot buckles him in. This task apparently needed the both of them to pull off. (I guess Venom couldn't just sit Code Talker down and buckle him up too?) You can drive a whole ass tank in front of soldiers and sometimes they just won't notice. But they will sometimes notice your car and put C4 on it to blow it up.

I/ Venom kicked Huey right before accessing the Walker Gear and it stopped him from doing any of his whining or even his usual narration for the entire mission. He was blissfully silent.

Huey has a bag on his head the entire time Skull Face confronts Venom with Sahelanthropus after you rescue him. Because of this, I assume that Huey is going strictly by sound, and the way Skull Face is yelling, to understand what is happening.

(I've mentioned this one before but) Huey tries to lie and claim that he never met Hal-somehow forgetting or thinking Venom wouldn't notice that he had a full on picture of Hal with Strangelove at his desk in the lab.

*This one is from Reddit, but if you're really struggling with Quiet, weather modification+rain will distract her for a few moments. The same trick can be used on the Skull soldiers.

*Shared in a video-you can hit Mantis with the blast arm if you're absolutely struggling with that mission task.

*Mentioned before but this still amuses me: Ocelot implies that Skull Face killed Josef Stalin.

Venom was most likely seasick for most of the boat ride. (See boat tapes for how disgruntled he gets talking about it)

*Another tip from Reddit that I've used myself: You can do offline combat deployments to destroy weapon sheds, transports etc. If you do this and attack outposts and guard posts afterward, they can't call in back up or resupplies temporarily. This is 50/50 on effectiveness and by region.

It is always raining in the cut scene when Venom boards the chopper before the Skull Face mission.

Soldiers knocked out and then put in dumpsters and toilets will NOT wake up for HOURS (nobody asked but the longest I've waited is an hour and a half or so in real time) and the other soldiers will not find them. Sometimes this extends the alert for a long ass time though, so be gentle with it.

Something to separate Venom from Big Boss I never thought of before? When Huey is yammering about cloning to Venom, he quips "It'd make a good movie" (Also implying Huey's talk is bullshit). I find this interesting because we know Big Boss barely watched movies, or gave them any thought at all.

Adding to that, Venom is more logic minded. He outright dismisses Ocelot when he talks about the supernatural, and doesn't appear to hold any belief in it. Whereas Big Boss does, and has personal experience. (This, granted, is something I'd brought up before, but I still find it interesting).

To continue, Venom is hinted to be more sentimental than Big Boss. We all know about making the diamonds from the soldiers ashes. But he also tells Kaz he wants to keep Sahelanthropus on base 'as a mark', and as 'proof we brought at least one crisis to it's end'. (I'm aware this sort of thing has multiple meanings)

When Code Talker is talking about the vaccinations (the infamous ones that render all the men infertile), he later clarifies that it is 'almost certain' meaning that there is a chance it wasn't a 100% guarantee. (Just in case anyone wants to have some fun with headcanons there wink wink)

I'll add onto/expand this list maybe periodically, but I'm in a retrospective mood again so here we are ;)

Add your own too if you like!

[sjelaine]

"Louisrock" July 7, 2024

I had a friend who lives in Turku where Ruisrock is held, so as soon as I saw that Louis would play it (back in November,) I contacted my friend to see if she would be home - she said yes!  I bought an early bird ticket to the festival and had my lodging all set, so then I just needed an airplane ticket from California to Helsinki and a rental car.  I then found out another friend (from the same fandom as my Turku friend) was going to Ruisrock as well, to see Käärijä, who as it happens was playing on the same stage as Louis but 2 hours ahead of him, so I had a friend to go to the concert with me!  Normally I have to see Louis by my lonesome because none of my friends are in the 1D fandom, but it's okay because Louies are the nicest friendliest people out there and I am never short of new friends to scream all the words to Louis' songs with at the concerts.  IMO this is the very best thing about being a Louie -- all the other Louies!

We got to the festival site two hours before doors opened so we would be sure to be toward the front.  All the festival signs were in Finnish and my friend is Swedish and I'm American, so we had to rely on the locals to translate for us.  I'm old and slow so I wasn't able to run when the time came, but by the time I got through the gates and located the line for Louis' show, I was only about 50 people back.  The festival was INCREDIBLY well organized, clearing out each stage area after each performance so the people who had lined up for a specific artist could have a good chance of getting a good spot.  And thanks so their expertise in handling crowds, I was able to maintain my position in line without having to run and thus got a spot at barricade!  Thank you Ruisrock organizers and security *thumbs up*

I will mention that while waiting in line for 6 hours we were comfortable and there was a breeze and no rain.  We also got to listen to Blind Channel and Käärijä's shows which were pretty hard-hitting and all in Finnish - the best part about that was all the Finns surrounding us joining in to yell the lyrics and pogo along to their favorite songs.  The energy was amazing and I'm sure the other foreigners in line with me were appreciating the Finnish love of live music as I was.  Don't forget we also got the Oli walk-by which was funny because he acted as though he was just passing us to get to the food stalls, but then he came back a few minutes later with no food and acting just as nonchalantly, so clearly he was there to check us out and report back.  You go, Oli!  Be sure to tell Louis what in idiot he is if he thinks we're not going to show up.  Faith in the Fans, maybe?

Back to barricade: I had a spot right next to the staircase Louis would use to come off stage for Silver Tongues, and I took quite a few videos and photos although most of the songs are partial recordings and the pictures are basic iphone quality, but here's a link to all of my files in a Google folder.  Please enjoy!  Do with these as you wish :-)

Some observations I made while enjoying my 7th Louis show was that Joshua would run to a certain side of the stage, Louis would catch sight of him, and then he would head to that side of the stage... so it was almost like Joshua was calling the shots of where Louis should "pose."  It also clued me in to start recording whenever Joshua came to our side because I knew Louis would follow - I got some great shots of Louis looking our way which I choose to believe were him looking at ME ;-)  I also noticed that Steve would put a drumstick in his mouth to adjust something on his set mid-song, which I hadn't noticed before.  And of course Michael and Matt were always heading to the center stage to join Steve in "getting down" which was fun to see.  It would be great to see Louis playing the guitar and jamming with them, but then it would be harder for him to interact with the fans...

One of my favorite live show elements is the Baba O'Reilly mash up in WDBHG so I was very happy that Louis walked over and pointed my way when he sang it - so excited in fact, that my video suffered accordingly, but oh well.  I didn't get lucky with him coming to our side of the barricade but hopefully at some show in the future I will.  Faith in the Future!

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.  Love you guys -

[autisticdoomslayer]

Tarkatan Culture

OK General notes about Tarkatan culture so far, all of which have been gleamed through mk11. Note that some of these cultural values may not be 100% accurate, since most of them are gotten through Baraka's dialogue so some of this might just be his personality. So this is like 50% also a Baraka analysis, since he's the only Tarkatan I really have access to and I doubt he's a super reliable narrator.

This will probably be added onto later.

Okay, so just to get this out of the way - Tarkatan cannibalism is canon. I think we already knew this. It's mentioned casually in a couple intro dialogues.

Now we get into themes/topics, specifically values that I've noticed may be in Tarkatan culture.

1. - Honesty.

Baraka's brutally honest and straight to the point. Baraka says things that could very well spark anger or aggression even from his allies, and it doesn’t seem to be on purpose. In fact, sometimes it seems to be out of goodwill.

Baraka: I'd think twice about being Kotal's Bride. Jade: And why is that, Baraka? Baraka: If he betrays Tarkata, you will suffer.

He's warning her - this seems like less of a threat and more of a weird gesture of goodwill. "hey, we're mostly cool, please be aware that if your boyfriend double-crosses my people I will not react in a way you like". In another intro dialogue he tells Cetrion straight-up to "speak plainly" and stop speaking in the confusing virtue riddles she usually does.

Now, this might just be a him thing, but it makes sense for a Proud Warrior Race like the Tarkatans. Note that while while the Shokan are also a Proud Warrior Race, they are canonically very hierarchical and have a strict caste system, which means they are more likely to have social expectations of how to act around those of higher status (canon based on how Sheeva expects others to treat her). These social expectations are usually going to be more formal/less direct out of respect. The Tarkatans, however, have a very loose hierarchical system, that seems to be mainly restricted to two categories: tribe members and whoever is leading the tribe at that time. Leadership is not acquired through blood or caste, but through prowess.

Baraka: You challenge me for the tribe? Mirror Baraka: By the rules of Katka Rakatan. Baraka: I will feast on your flesh. (including that line for proof of cannibalism, which I don't think anyone needed but I'm doing it anyway.)

There's also no strict governmental system. The few "laws" Tarkatans have seem to be mainly just traditions, that, if broken, will cause a huge uproar.

Robocop: How are Tarkatan laws enforced? Baraka: With gnashing teeth and sharpened blades. Robocop: I would not call that justice.

The whole "rules of Katka Rakatan" thing seems to be enforced mainly out of compliance to tradition. The tradition is highly respected throughout Tarkatan culture, and on the off chance that someone tries to break that tradition, it will A) probably be seen as an act of cowardice, since most of the traditions are probably combat/challenge based and B) will end with the offending individual getting torn apart by the rest of the tribe.

It makes sense that, with this looser heirarchical system, Tarkatans don't feel any need to speak formally/respecfully. This point is strengthened by this dialogue:

Baraka: My people are skeptical. Kitana: I am not Shao Kahn, Baraka. Baraka: Words. We need deeds.

2. - Oppression

Tarkatans have canonically been an oppressed group for a while. Like, a long time.

Geras: Submit your tribe to Kronika. Baraka: Tarkatans do not submit, Geras. Geras: It is their entire history.

Now, let's talk fantastic racism real quick. We got Kotal's genocidal tendencies, but everyone know's about those. So let's talk about Rain sees everyone as lesser, that’s kind of his thing, but he seems to see Tarkatans as particularly inferior.

Rain: Kitana has made you a partner? Baraka: Her choice offends you? Rain: It disgusts me, Baraka.

Even Kitana seems to have some biases despite how she's portrayed in story mode.

Kitana: You soil every room you enter. Kano: Bloke's gotta mark his territory. Kitana: Even Baraka's more civilized.

It's not that bad compared to the shit Tarkatans have gone through, but it's still racism, damn.

There's also this line, but I'm pretty sure it's not canon.

Kitana: The flesh trade is banned. Baraka: My people won't starve, Kitana! Kitana: There will be no exceptions.

(I'm not entirely sure if "flesh trade" refers exclusively to human/sentient flesh or what, but that "my people won't starve" line doesn't paint Kitana in a great light. Again, probably non-canon though.)

Frost has two different dialogues where she insults Baraka, one of which involves her calling him low-born (more looking down upon Tarkatans) and a "cur" (which up until now I have never heard used outside of a Shakespearian context; for anyone wondering, it's pretty much synonymous with "mongrel"). She also calls him a coward, which, knowing Baraka, is probably the reason he sounds so pissed in the dialogue.

Tarkatans/Baraka seem to hate being looked down upon as dumber/lesser/primitive/uncivilized.

Baraka: Why come to Outworld? Erron Black: Why, to meet exotic folks like yourself. Baraka: By 'exotic', you mean 'primitive'.

Shang Tsung: Do Tarkatans have souls, Baraka? Baraka: Of course we have souls. Shang Tsung: Souls are more useful than service. (Baraka's so ready for an attempt to dehumanize (for lack of a better word) Tarkatans that he kinda forgets the problem with discussing souls with Shang Tsung, famous soul stealer.)

He also emphasizes his status as an equal to Kitana multiple times:

Baraka: Tarkatans are slaves no longer. Sindel: Kitana has made you servants. Baraka: We are allies, not servants.

Baraka: Join us against the Emperor. Mileena: And forever curtsy to my sister? Baraka: Better Kitana's partner than Shao Kahn's slave. (There's emphasis on Mileena's disgust at the thought of being below Kitana, and Baraka emphasizes that he and Kitana are partners. Equals.)

He also is notably very appreciative when people see him as an equal, or at least show him basic decency. This is shown in most of his dialogues with Jade and Kotal (in most of Kotal's dialogue Baraka makes it clear that just because he likes Jade doesn't mean he likes Kotal).

He also seems incredibly cautious of his allies, kind of waiting for betrayal.

3. Loyalty

Loyalty seems to be a value. I questioned if loyalty might have some importance with the amount of dialogues of Baraka swearing his loyalty to Jade & Kitana (so long as they don't betray him), but what makes me think it could be a cultural value is this line:

Baraka: If Kitana cheats us, Tarkata will rise. Jade: She's never shown disloyalty, Baraka. Baraka: Except to the Kahn who raised her.

Disloyalty to anyone, even to someone like Shao Kahn, is enough to make Baraka suspicious. The emphasis on Shao Kahn raising Kitana may also show a cultural respect for parental figures.

I might add onto this later, but this is what I have right now.

TL;DR - tarkatans are the jews of outworld.

[leidensygdom]

Ok, artfight thoughts time! In bullet points for readability's sake!

I've beaten my record for art points/sizing this year! I made 16 artworks on 2021, 38 in 2022, 57 in 2023, and 55 in 2024. (It's been technically 2 less in 57,but I had a couple of pictures with extra characters in 2024)

However, out of these 57 from 2023, there were 14 fullbodies, 8 halfbodies and 36 portraits.

This year I have done 20 portraits, 15 halfbodies and 25 fullbodies- Which did take quite more time than last years' portrait rain! I wish I could've at least given the remaining revenges a portrait. I got 2542.75 points for it!

I've received a bit over 60 drawings this year, which is def a record. First time I end up with an actual negative ratio- 45%. It's been a fight to keep it up.

(if i hadn't got food poisoning, an uti and three periods in july maybe i'd have got the chance to get that up to 50% i've been in spain with and without the S dfhguhdf)

This year has been very enjoyable, besides being sick for a bunch of it. A lot of art- Some of which I've shared, some I'll share once it gets posted. Very honoured about it!

However, it's also the first year I've had to report a bunch of stuff, which (admittedly) has not been handled well by the moderation team. I got a traced attack and a kink-related attack (which i do not allow), I've had friends get the same, and a friend had a whole character traced and stolen. Most of these reports did not really get handled, and even the art thief didn't get banned. That's been quite stressful!

Out of all my attacks, 48 have been revenges and only 7 have been attacks I started myself. I had a list of well over 30 people I wanted to attack, which I barely managed to scratch the surface of

@totesnotaustralian did a wonderful sheet to track artfight data and such, and I have some stats from it! (Ignore the revenge number, I messed up the sheet there jgxhdhjf)

While my first weeks were almost team stardust (friendly fire hell was real), a lot of the later attacks were for Seafoam! And... Here's the character data- With how much they've been drawn each year and in total!

Some fun details and tendencies from this thing:

Vyxander has been drawn the most this year, with 13, which is also the most I've ever got a character drawn in a single artfight. Argyros followed up with 12 on his debut year. Previously, the record was at 10- Which the Onirist got on their debut year.

Some of the new characters this year were fairly popular (like Argy at 12, Starborn at 6). Older characters (other than Vyxander) have been drawn far less in favour of the new ones. Yxala and Relent got 3 attacks each- Which is surprising, given they were the main picks previous years! Poor polycule!

Urion keeps being my most drawn character at a whooping 24, having been drawn 8 times each year. Their post campaign version was more popular on their first year, but has been drawn just 3 times this one- But it's been wonderful art anyhow!!

On the underdogs: Areel has been drawn just once on his debut year (understandably, given his wild armor). Laestis has actually not been drawn, it was a NPC of hers who did, which I counted as a Lae drawing. Osten has been drawn 5 times--compared to being the only one to not get art last year. Mythannae and Yden did not get any art, despite Yden winning that popularity poll I ran a while ago.

and uh, that's quite the long post. I have a lot of art to share from Artfight- Keep an eye for it in this month, because it's quite the backlog!! If you've made it down here, thank you for putting up with this long boy

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3213: Charizard (Expedition #6)

Here was a Charizard that worked much like any other early Charizard. It hit really hard, being able to KO anything but the bulkier Pokemon ex that came out several sets later. It also needed a lot of Energy and usually discarded a bunch to hit things. This required more support than just the 50-50 chance that Typhlosion could provide, and by the time Blaziken came around there were just better partners. This needed a rather slow format to buy time to get everything set up, too. Oh, don't worry, people play some unofficial old formats these days too, and one of those is a lot kinder to this sort of thing. This Charizard wasn't completely cut out of play altogether.

120 HP was as high as it got, even on a Stage 2, and still was the standard for anything that only gave up 1 Prize once bigger numbers started appearing. There was a Water Weakness, however, which was really annoying against Kingdra. It still survived one hit from full health, at least. The Retreat Cost here was 3, so Switch was nice to pack in case you did flip the double tails when attacking.

Burning Energy was a Poke-Power that let you turn all basic Energy attached to all of your Pokemon into Fire Energy for the rest of your turn. As long as there was no Special Condition on Charizard, it could work with whatever you could attach to it. The play here was to pair this with Venusaur, which let you attach 2 Energy from your hand at once, and since you didn't have to care if it was actually Fire Energy, if you pulled Grass you were just fine with that.

Scorching Whirlwind did an incredible 120 damage. Anything at the time it came out would be Knocked Out, and only the bulkiest Pokemon ex could stand up to that. There was, of course, a big catch. First of all, 4 Fire Energy was required here, though Burning Energy made any basic Energy work. You also had 2 coin flips. If 1 was tails, you had to discard 2 Energy from Charizard. If both were, all Energy would be discarded, and that made Charizard a bit unreliable even in the best times. You could, of course, also get 2 heads and guarantee a next hit, and if you had Venusaur and Clefable as well you had a pretty good shot at recovering from the single tails option. This at least made the card better than the old Base Set Charizard due to having some support to help it out.

If trying out the Neo-On or E-On formats, you'd probably go with other Pokemon. Raining Energy onto a Fire-type tended to work better with Magcargo in the former scenario and E-On was attaching to the Bench, making you more likely to want to go with things that could move around more easily like Ninetales in the era before Rayquaza ex and Blaziken ex could blow through things. It took people exploring an unofficial format with only e-series cards for this to get use somewhere, and while it's not the most popular thing in the world, the format was pretty slow and competition just wasn't in the way. It was still somewhat unreliable but since most things took a lot of set-up anyway, Charizard paired with Venusaur was actually one of the better options for that.

[marzipanandminutiae]

i think it’s less that ppl are legit expecting a white christmas in boston every year and more that the probability for one used to be 20 to 30% and it’s now been almost 15 years without one and probability has dropped to 10% and will continue to drop. for someplace like worcester in massachusetts it’s even worse — probability was 67% ish for the boomers and now it’s a little over 30%. only 27 white christmases in boston since 1892 sounds small but when u consider most bostonians had 3 white christmases by their mid-teens on top of all the christmases where there was snow even if it wasn’t one inch and now there are teenagers who haven’t seen even one white christmas… it makes sense why ppl freak out every year it still hasn’t happened.

And that absolutely makes sense, yeah! I have immense climate anxiety too, like I said!

What I was responding to was more the people saying "it's 60 and raining in Boston and it feels like the apocalypse" or "this isn't how it's supposed to be ever; this never used to happen."

I don't know if you saw my longer post, but I went and looked at Boston weather records going back to 1893. Most Decembers from 1893-1903 had multiple days in the upper 50s, with many years getting into the 60s at least once. I didn't track every single year from 1893 to the present, but it seems reasonable to assume that that 10-year period wasn't just a weird fluke. December 1895 actually had more days in the 60s (5) than December 2022 (1).

That's not the full story, of course- December 1895 also had a couple of days in the 20s before that upswing, some with small amounts of snow. You also have things like overnight lows going haywire, and other reminders that climate change is real and it is happening now. I would never, ever attempt to deny that. It's the single biggest problem facing humanity at the moment.

However. There are multiple things to hold in our minds at the same time when thinking about its day-to-day effect on our lives, and one of them is "the effects are seldom as simple as It's Warmer Every Day Now Than It Ever Has Been, And That Will Continue Unilaterally For The Rest Of Our Lives." I'm not trying to deny or negate anything. I'm just trying to make people feel a little less despondent.

(I also just discovered that the metric for a white Christmas here in Boson states that it has to fall before 7 AM, which seems arbitrary and weird. We actually had a white Christmas here in 2017- we got 2.9" of snow -it just fell later in the day. So...it doesn't count for some reason? That's really strange to me. Anyway, the article where I learned this estimates our average yearly "one inch of snow on the ground at 7 AM on Christmas morning" chances nowadays at 19% as of three days ago.)

(I also think this demonstrates what I'm calling Reverse Environmental Amnesia- where, rather than thinking that the effects of climate change have always been normal, you tend to remember past weather in a way that fits the absolute direst interpretation of circumstances. Anyone who was in Boston on Christmas 2017 SHOULD remember the snowstorm...but I've seen multiple locals who don't travel for the holidays agreeing that we've had no Christmas snow at all since 2009.)

[cervicrazed]

Can I get the whole hog for Wilton Rader pls

Oh man...the og...

I have been so evil to this poor guy and i will do it again

OC lore for the poster boy of suffering below:

^ This is Wilton Rader (late 20s & mid 50s respectively)

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Wil here was the first victim of my 'W' name obsession

I didn't wanna give him a "boring" name like William, so I looked up variants that 'Wil' could be a nickname for + Wilton won

last name (Rader) was picked bc together his name means 'Wheelmaker Who Lives by the Stream' & it felt like a nice little easter egg foreshadowing his retirement

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

As of the Dead Wood storyline, he's in his mid-late 60s

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Walt!! They met after being recruited for a demonic civil war neither really wanted to take part in. They became nearly inseparable over the course of The War, but Wilton still had a hard time coming to terms with how he really felt. He was only able to admit his love for Walt many many years later, when he thought the world was about to end. your typical mlm confession

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Being the only member of his family that can't feed off of intangible emotions, he's forced himself to learn how to cook and is pretty good at it!

He's got terrible food anxiety regarding red meats, so he uses fish and eggs instead - he loves making quiches!

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Wilton is a woodworker! He goes into town every so often to sell his wares; anything from bed frames and cabinets to mini wooden sculptures

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Wilton likes to spend his free time reading, or at least practicing.

He never got the chance to go to school, so never learned to do it in his youth; a fact that he's embarrassed of but will never admit.

🎯 -What do they do best?

He insists his only talent is whittling & carving and will fervently refute anyone who says otherwise.

Unfortunately for him, it's hard for many to forget his fearsome and bloody past.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Aside from woodworking, Wilton loves to take long walks along the river, especially when it rains. It's a deeply calming experience for him.

He hates having to recall or talk about his younger years. Apart from meeting Walt, he doesn't believe there's anything good worth remembering, let alone telling his daughter.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Holding a baby Bambi in his arms for the first time. Well, "arms". She was so small that she fit into the palms of his hands and her teeth hadn't yet grown in; he stayed up all night just holding and rocking her.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

A tactical error during The War led to him and his troop being ambushed and his wings were ripped out for trophies. As punishment, he spent his entire recovery in a nightmare coma induced by the demon that lives in his brain.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

yes and no..

OG design is him as a youngin w/ a blue hoodie he never takes off (bc of the little antlers)

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

an RPG i was apart of run by @/fvriva on Scratch, my first social media

He was originally a mlp horse(?) turned human if you can fuckn believe it....

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

Fantasy Body Horror

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Cis(?) + Aspec

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

Just Warren, but they don't talk much without interference from Bambi. After mauling him, Wilton doesn't feel like he deserves to have a relationship with his brother. He respectfully keeps his distance.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

TERRIBLE.

His father (Gindikouk) is a demonic spirit of decay who trapped and tortured him in his own mind for decades. Wilton wants nothing more than to forget about His existence entirely.

His mother (Fable Monroe) was a witch who only gave birth to him so Gindikouk could have a host body. She died before he could meet her, but that was probably for the best.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

The angst for sure, but also exploring how he heals from it.

It's pretty easy to traumatize a character but it's been more interesting to see how they put themselves back together.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

I used to write about and draw this guy all the time.

I've since let him "retire" so I can focus more on Bambi + co!

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

I had a lot of drafts where I killed him off and none of em felt like a satisfying end for him.

He's technically dead in Dead Wood, but that's after getting a happy ending so it's fiinnee

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

That Gindikouk will somehow worm His way back into Wil's life

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

Gindikouk. hands down.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Since 2013 i think!

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

12!

[lambsouvlaki]

Moments in Between - Keep you Safe

Characters: Jason Todd x fem!OC

Rating and warnings: G, no warnings

Summary: Jason takes Andy shopping for a bike helmet.

Masterlist

Jason walked alongside Andy down a shiny wet street in the Gotham sunshine. The gutters were still gurgling, and run off dripped from shop awnings. Her hair was frizzy from getting rained on earlier, and he thought all the flyaways escaping her braid looked impossibly cute.

Hobby shops and fashion boutiques lined the streets by this part of the college campus.

“I though we were getting lunch?” Andy asked.

“We are getting lunch, after you get a bike helmet.” He stopped outside a sports gear shop and jerked his head at the door.

Manikins in skiing gear were posed dramatically in the window on the left and in motorbike gear on the right.

Panic flashed across Andy’s face.

“I- it’s rent week, I don’t think i can-“

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve got it.”

She didn’t look comforted. Damnit. Maybe he should have given her a heads up after all, but there was a high chance she’d sneak off to pick up some secondhand trash for $50 and be no safer than if she wore nothing. Jason understood. Nobody liked feeling like a burden, or a charity case. He wasn’t going to begrudge her her pride. He wasn’t going to keep putting her in danger either.

He held up his hands, placating. “I’m replacing my current helmet anyway, I may as well get both. You just need to pick out something that fits right.”

Her expression twisted. “You don’t have to do that, Jay. Really.”

“If you fall off my bike and crack your head open, I’ll be the one in court for manslaughter. i’m just helping myself here.” He shrugged. “And I want to.”

Her shoulders hiked up around her ears. “…Just a cheap one. Whatever’s on sale.”

He rolled his eyes and pushed the door open. Well, now his pride was on the table.

“Hey Tony, I need you to help my friend here, she’s looking for the best damn bike helmet you’ve got. If she can’t do a HALO jump in it, its not good enough.”

Tony perked up at the same time Andy whirled on him in horror

“You got it!” the shop assistant said and disappeared to the back of the shop.

“Jason!” Andy hissed.

“Would you buy me a shit helmet if you knew you could get me a good one?” he demanded.

She opened her mouth. Closed it again.

“Look, I do alright for myself. What’s the point in even having money if i can’t get basic safety gear for my friends? What kind of asshole do you think i am?”

She chewed on her lip and lowered her head. He wanted to reach a hand under her chin and to her head back up, and narrowly resisted the urge.

“Let me do this for you, Andy. Please.”

Okay then.” She pulled herself up a moment later. “But it has to be a red one.”

He cracked a smile. “You drive a hard bargain. Why red?”

“So I can look cool.”

He laughed. “Sure. You’ll look like a petite Red Hood.”

Andy rolled her eyes. Tony came back with a couple of different styles swinging from his arms.

“Thank you though. Really.”

He waved her off and Tony stepped in. Jason leaned against the desk while she tried on the options. Having decided to play ball she was confident about it and took the exercise seriously. Something in him felt warm at it the sight.

He could take her on real rides now and keep her safe, more than just five minute drop offs. He could show her the city the way he loved it best, an 80mph blur of sights and sounds. He knew she liked it too, he could feel her laughing for joy, pressed tight against his back.

She caught sight of a price tag and blanched. He’d probably have to give it another couple of months before trying to get her a good riding jacket.

Next>>

[lance-thunder-reporting-live]

Good morning Amity Park, I'm your ghostly weatherman, Lance Thunder. Today's Monday, July 8, and there’s a 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms. Highs are in the low eighties, and the lows are in the mid seventies.

Skulker was seen early this morning stalking Danny Phantom. It is very likely that there will be a fight later on today between the two.

Repairs have been completed at Nasty Burger. The restaurant is now open again.

The Fentons will likely be driving today.

[oqmemphis]

For the benefit (?) of my non-UK followers, I want to give some updates about our election next week, just to serve as a nice reminder that other countries also have completely fucking stupid politics.

The first thing to know is that there is absolutely no tension or jeopardy whatsoever. Every poll for at least the last eighteen months has predicted the same result, which is that the governing Conservative Party - which has been in power for 14 years and has spent that time doing nothing but cutting public services while becoming embroiled in increasingly corrupt and absurd scandals - will be utterly obliterated. They have 344 seats out of Parliament's 650, and they will be very lucky to keep hold of a third of those. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's outdoor speech in which he called the election for July 4th (while being drowned by the rain and drowned out by a man with a loudspeaker blasting 90's rock) may as well have been a resignation statement. This is a man most famous for losing his initial premiership bid to a lettuce. He will be remembered either not at all or exclusively as a failure, and his party is trapped in a years-long death spiral. I will be deferring discussion of the Conservative election campaign for later, for reasons that will become clear.

Just for reference, this is what the opinion polls have looked like since the last general election.

The heir presumptive to 10 Downing Street is Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who defies description within the bounds of language by means of having nothing whatsoever to describe. He is an abject non-entity with no distinguishing qualities; a vague and noncommittal centrist; someone whose self-described campaign strategy is likened to carrying a Ming vase across a room. Be safe and slow. Make no sudden movements. His party is expected to win at least 400 seats.

Down at the bottom of the chart are the smaller parties. One of Britain's bizarre idiosyncrasies is that we have at least seven political parties, and a first-past-the-post political system that cannot support more than two. These smaller parties usually win anywhere up to a few dozen seats in regions with particularly strong support, but they have no hope whatsoever of ending up as the governing party. Labour has promised to fix this rather unhelpful state of affairs by implementing a proportional representation system, which I'm sure they will definitely be eager to do after winning control of two-thirds of Parliament with just 41% of the vote.

Let us begin with the Liberal Democrats. A decade ago, the Lib Dems were a fairly large centrist party that gave the Conservatives control of a Parliament with no overall majority. Since Labour's lurch middleward under Starmer, they have repositioned themselves as the UK's leading progressive party. They are led by a man named Ed Davey, who has not spent the last month campaigning so much as taking a nation-spanning holiday occasionally interrupted by the arrival of a single bemused camera operator. In the last four weeks, Mr. Davey has taken a painting class in Yorkshire, fallen off a paddleboard in the Lake District, toppled a giant Jenga tower in Hampshire, and photobombed a riverside Conservative campaign stop by by slowly rowing a boat adorned with orange signs across the back of shot. The Lib Dems are expected to go from 15 seats to well over 50, and there's a small chance they even win more seats than the Conservatives. I hope Ed's having fun.

There is also the Green Party, which exists in a permanent state of self-contradiction. They have one member of Parliament and two party leaders; these are three different people. They want to expand renewable energy while banning nuclear power. They are considered one of the UK's major parties, despite the fact that winning a total of three seats next week would be considered an unfathomably excellent result for them. I do not know what their campaign so far has involved, and I do not care enough to check.

The turquoise line on the chart, currently rising with worrying speed, is the Reform Party. While Labour is siphoning votes from the more moderate side of the Conservative Party, Reform is attempting to scavenge from its far-right/fascist wing. They are led by Nigel Farage. If you do not know who Nigel Farage is, I envy you. His rhetoric is more than a little Trumpian, but I can't immediately think of any politicians anywhere else who share his exact vibe of "the grumpiest racist at the local pub is standing for election".

Plain-spoken and British through and through, Big Nige initially said he was going to ignore the UK election to focus on the American one instead, before U-turning two weeks later to announce he would be standing for Parliament. Nigel has had seven unsuccessful candidacies before; he is depressingly likely to be eighth time lucky. This is because he is standing in one of the most firmly right-wing and anti-immigrant districts in the country, and yet another unique selling point of the British system is that you do not have to live even remotely close to the constituency you represent. I'm sure his choice to stand here of all places represents his extreme confidence in his own popularity. Big Nige will not be the prime minister, but if he were, I assume his first policy after getting rid of all the foreigners would be to deport the concept of irony.

Nigel's electoral strategy is the same as virtually everyone else's, which is to steal votes from the Conservatives. This is extremely easy, because the Conservatives have run one of the most catastrophic and floundering campaigns in political history. Rishi Sunak puts Joe Biden's "walking gaffe machine" moniker to shame. To illustrate the point: one of the Discord servers I'm in has a thread entitled "Just the Tories being Clowns". Recent highlights include:

Thousands of campaign leaflets for the party chairman were sent to the wrong constituency

The deputy chairman went campaigning with a convicted heroin dealer

All of their candidates were invited to a video call with senior party members; the time listed on the invitation was one hour later than the actual scheduled start time, so nobody turned up

Their very first advert featured the UK's flag proudly flying upside-down

Five of their candidates are being investigated by the Gambling Commission for betting on the date of the election the day before it was announced; one of them is married to the party's campaign director

They sent campaign emails to small businesses which look a lot like official communications from government departments; the legality of this is unclear

Another campaign email ended with the words "Sent from my iPhone"

A candidate posted a photo of himself holding the keys to a local house to prove he lived in the constituency where he was standing; the house was in fact an AirBnB

The official photo for one candidate's campaign launch showed less than twenty people, one of whom was a cardboard cutout of Margaret Thatcher

Sunak posted on Facebook an image of a fake quote attributed to an AI image of Margaret Thatcher (there is somehow still a cult of personality around this fucking woman)

Sunak delivered an entire speech with his back to the press cameras

Sunak left the D-Day anniversary commemmorations early to go film an interview that wouldn't air for another week, enabling Keir Starmer to get a photo op with all the world leaders he left behind in Normandy

Sunak announced a policy to reintroduce national service for 18-year-olds, which is the same thing as military conscription, except the military part is not mandatory and you can just do a month of unpaid work instead, and it's not clear that that's mandatory either, except that not doing it might deny you access to your bank account; approximately nobody likes this policy, and even fewer understand it

My current working theory is that this is Rishi's revenge tour against the party that refused to elect him until the lettuce went rotten, before he resigns from Parliament, gets the fuck out of the country he destroyed and takes a comfy consulting job in Los Angeles.

Welcome to democracy in the land of post-Brexit. It's a wild new world out here, where people scream all day about a reality that doesn't and won't ever exist, and a man with a bin on his head is trying to unseat the prime minister. Don't ask about Scotland and Wales, and for the love of god don't ask about Northern Ireland - they might all be independent in a decade anyway, depending on how things go. All hail First Lord Sir Keir, that his bland neutrality might translate into a policy that involves doing anything whatsoever.

[something-tofightfor]

The Last of Us World Premiere Red Carpet Experience Recap

On the two month anniversary of the premiere event, here’s the rundown about what happened - and how I ended up in the Red Carpet (Gray Carpet That Had Three Inches of Water Running Down It) tent. 

I apologize that this took so long to get out, but I debated over whether or not to even share it based on a couple rude as hell messages I received - and decided that I wanted to, because it was a lot of fun and I know some people are interested.

(Under a cut because it’s LONG)

So when the 1iota event was announced on December 21, I immediately requested tickets. I initially put in that I wanted two, and then an hour later, figured that I’d have a better chance of getting selected with only 1. I canceled my initial request and then resubmitted for a single ticket and crossed my fingers that I hadn’t fucked myself over. 

I told my boyfriend about it the next day, and let him know that I was going to start looking into flights and hotels and all that - but that I wasn’t going to book until I knew whether or not I’d been chosen. 

And then on 12/23, they announced that there was a red carpet arrivals (RCA from here on out) event that a very limited number of people would be chosen for, and that I could also submit a ticket request for that. 

I submitted within ten minutes of receiving the email - also for one ticket - and then had my flights booked 45 minutes later. (I managed to get Spirit flights for $39.50 each way, which wasn’t a big deal. If I’m out $80, I’m out $80.) I held off on the hotel, because I figured that I could get something cheap on Hotwire, and then immediately flipped out because everything close by that wouldn’t have required me to rent a car or spend hours on public transit was like $300 a night. 

I got the notification that I’d been chosen to attend the premiere on January 3 - and then had to figure out what I was doing about a hotel.

Long story short, it turned out to be cheaper to stay in a hotel further away and rent a car + pay for parking than it would have been to stay close and use an Uber/the LA transit system. (An Uber from the airport to one of the hotels near the premiere venue would have been like $65 each way on the low end, and all of the “estimated” trips would have been multiple changed transit lines plus hours worth of travel time and waiting) 

I booked my hotel and my car, and then had to wait. 

On my birthday, (January 7) I got an email that said the event was a “dress to impress” event … which meant jeans and casual attire weren’t allowed - and I’d have to fit a “nice” outfit into my personal item sized bag along with clothing for three days … when LA was supposed to be in the 40’s and 50’s. 

My flight got me into LA on the morning of January 9th, at about 9:30 am LA time - which meant that I had to be at the airport at 4 am Cleveland time to check in for my 5:45 boarding - I didn’t sleep beforehand, managed an hour or so nap on the plane … and then started my adventure. 

It was pouring rain when I landed, still raining when I picked up my car, and then raining even harder when I finally got to check into my hotel a couple hours early (thank GOD for understanding hotel staff because otherwise I would have been getting ready in a public bathroom since I wanted to get to the premiere location no later than 2:30 PM because I didn’t want to risk not getting a seat. 

A friend of mine from Discord, and then a girl from Twitter that I’d spoken to a few times had also won a ticket, and we planned on meeting up in line, but because of the rain, travel plans were kind of screwed up. So I got ready,  (and decided against wearing fancy shoes because it was literally a MONSOON) grabbed my waterproof jacket and an umbrella, and headed out. 

I got to the venue and parked at about 3, and then trudged through the rain to In N Out, stood OUTSIDE UNDER AN AWNING and consumed my first fresh Animal Style double double since 2019, and then decided to start lurking. 

My parking garage was right down the street from the venue - I could see the red carpet tent, see  the marquee on the theater, see where they had the sidewalk blocked off etc … and then they started setting up the check in tent for 1iota … and that’s where I met my two friends and we stood in line. They told us not to line up before 4:30, but we got in line at 3:40, and almost as soon as we did, other people came out of the woodwork and joined. By 4, there was a solid line of about 25-30 people - most of us with umbrellas, all of us in our fancy outfits and trying not to get soaked. 

It actually stopped raining for a little while … and then it started again HORRIBLY. There was a separate line for the people that had gotten chosen for the Red Carpet event - my little group hadn’t, but we met a guy and his dad that had gotten picked - the guy had a fireflies tattoo on one arm and a smaller version of Ellie’s tattoo on the other, and it was GREAT to know  that it wasn’t just influencers and stuff getting chosen. I was pretty sad that I wouldn’t get the opportunity to be in the tent, but we were all super excited that people like that guy got the opportunity. 

So when we split lines, there were two people in front of us in the Priority line, and then a separate (covered by a tent) line for the RCA group. We started talking to the people in front of us who had been to a TON of events before - and they said that in a lot of cases, there’s people that don’t show up for the Red Carpet, or they purposely under book so that they can surprise fans at the last minute - and that we had a really good chance to get in. 

So the group of us - me, the guy from Discord, our friend from Twitter, the two people in front of us, and then two guys that were right behind us, started to get our hopes up. 

And then they wrist banded us after checking our tickets and searching our bags and our hopes fell, because we had GA priority red wristbands… and the RCA event people got silver wristbands. The GA priority line by this point was about 200 people long, and they’d taken maybe 40-45 people for the RCA thing … and then they moved our line to under a covered tent because it was getting long, which was nice because we got to close our umbrellas and put our hoods down and not worry about getting pelted in the face with rain. 

Finally, about ten minutes before the scheduled start time for the RCA event, the one security guard that I had talked to when I first got there walked over and said “Take off your wristbands, you’ve been upgraded.” 

When I tell you there were tears in my eyes, I’m not lying. They wrist banded us in small groups and walked us over across the street … and into the tent. 

I’ve done 1iota events before, but never a red carpet, and I was absolutely stunned. It was warm and dry and there were things to look at and music playing and it just looked beautiful. I didn’t know it right away but there were two fan pits with the central “interview” area (the thing that had the big TLOU display with the clicker and the title and the lights) between them for photo ops and all that. (I also didn’t know that after the RCA was over, they were going to convert the tent into the after party location, which was pretty damn cool). 

So we all settle into our space, take our coats off, try and make ourselves look presentable, and start talking about whether or not people are actually going to stop, who we’d like to meet, etc. It was pretty surreal to hear and see the rain pouring down on the opposite side of the tent, but be DRY underneath it. 

I figure, at this point, I’ll get to see the cast and crew as they do interviews and walk by, and it’ll be super cool to take a couple photos and maybe watch them interact. But then the two people that were in front of us were like “no, people stop and take pictures and have conversations all the time. You can’t get anything signed, but there’s much more to this than just watching.” 

Alright, well, I don’t know what to do with this information - except start popping mints like crazy and hope for the best. 

We see all of the press people getting into place and lining up and testing their cameras out … and then I look up and see Laura Bailey walking toward us. My first instinct is “Holy shit, for real? What are the odds she’s the first person I see?” My second instinct is “My boyfriend is going to shit his pants if I send him a picture of her.” Someone called her over and she walked over to where we were all standing … and a few minutes later, I’d told her that I think she’s hilarious on Critical Role, it was lovely to meet her, and had gotten a picture with her. (No mention of her part in TLOU2.) She was GORGEOUS in person (Travis was nowhere to be found), and we ended up seeing her a bunch of times throughout the night with other cast and friends (and Troy’s wife).

I think it’s not going to get better than that, because I figure “well she’s part of it, but she’s not part of season 1, and so of course she’d stop because she won’t get mobbed…” And then I look up and to my left and I see Troy Baker. 

I have loved this man and his voice for a decade. I know a bunch of people have had the opportunity to meet him - but I hadn’t yet. And I look at the people next to me and I’m like “If he stops, we should ask for a group photo so that way we actually GET one, and don’t miss out” and they all agreed. I didn’t want to be greedy or just assume solo pictures would happen - so we agreed to do the same with Bella, if the opportunity arose just because we figured there wouldn’t be enough time for everyone to get one. 

And then Nick Offerman appeared, holding a tiny microphone and doing an interview for what felt like 20 minutes with the same people. Troy kept moving closer and closer and then disappearing, Laura walked by a couple more times. 

And then Nick finished his interviews, and headed toward us …but didn’t stop. I’ve heard things about him not meting fans and being kind of a jerk, but he was kind enough to smile, wave and say hello as he passed us, which was much more than I expected. 

The whole time this event was going on, they were playing a curated soundtrack through the tent’s speakers, and I kid you NOT, it was like I was listening to my Just Too Good To Be Gone playlist. So many of the same songs were on there - and I don’t just mean regular versions of them, I mean the acoustic versions of them, too. 

I’m busy texting Alyssa about what’s happening and I glance up - and Cameron Monaghan is strolling toward us with a big smile on his face. The only thing I could think of to say was “Cal fucking Kestis!?” - out loud, and while looking DIRECTLY at him. He laughed, but so did everyone around us, and so it was fine, and I got to tell him how much I admired his work on Shameless and that I couldn’t wait to play Jedi Survivor because Fallen Order was a blast before we took a photo together. (My sister and our friend were PISSED that I didn’t tell them I met him as soon as it happened but out of all the people I saw in person that night, he was the biggest shellshock so I was a little dazzled. He’s SO HANDSOME in person, and was so kind) 

Troy kept inching closer and closer but we all know how much he likes to talk so… 

Then someone goes “Oh, Malin Akerman is here” and before I even had a chance to say anything or process that information, she was right in front of me and saying hello and asking if anyone wanted a photo. Loved her in Watchmen, so I said yes, and sent THAT to Chris too, and was just met with a “what the fuck, really?” 

But I didn’t have long to process THAT because Troy was making his way down the line … and taking pictures with EVERYONE that asked. (Spotted Geoff Keighley at this point, too, which was SUPER COOL, because he seems like such a fun guy, but he was walking on the opposite side of the carpet down the aisle that was reserved for the actual celebrity guests/important people guests etc.) 

… and then there was Troy and he was so tall and handsome in person that I FROZE for a second before I recovered. We only spoke for a minute or so, and he asked how we were all doing, and when we took the photo together he actually leaned in and put his hand against my back which was pretty goddamn cool. And before he left, I thanked him for all the great things he’d been a part of (especially Joel Miller and Booker DeWitt) , and said that I looked forward to everything he had coming up. 

And then as soon as he walked away I had a mini freak out - but recovered VERY quickly because Keivonn Woodard and his mom (and the ASL interpreter/assistant he had with him) walked up. 

The kid is ADORABLE in person, and RAN past all of us and gave high fives and fist bumps, and then when they stopped in front of us to take a few photos with each other and have a conversation, someone yelled “Hey, would be be able to take a photo with us?” And his mom stopped the conversation, signed something to him, and he turned around and faced us and made like a “you want a picture with ME?” gesture, and everyone nodded and started cheering and I swear to you, he LIT UP. It was really cool, because everyone that took a picture with im was very polite and made sure to say “thank you” so that he could see it, and then thanked his mom again for allowing it. 

But it was one of my favorite parts of the night - and meeting him and seeing how sweet he is made knowing what happened to Sam so much sadder to think about. 

Storm Reid and Merle Dandridge walked by at almost the same time - Storm only stopped for a few people, but she seemed really nice; the kids that were in line in front of us before we got in were immediately to my left (and are photobombing MANY of my pictures, haha) actually go to the same college as she does, so I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation and didn’t ask for a photo… and then Merle might be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in person, and I was too stunned to ask for a photo with her although I did say hello and agree with her when the guy next to me went to take a picture with her and wasn’t holding the phone “properly” to get the best angle and her response (as she moved his hand to reposition the camera) was “you’ve got to take it at the right angle. Not from too far above or below.” It was really funny and she seemed genuinely happy to be there and interacting with people - but we were getting close to the marked time for the end of the RCA event, so they were sort of rushing people along a little more than they had been. 

Gustavo and his wife walked by at that point - and they were adorable together, just walking down the carpet and taking it all in. He didn’t stop or anything, and didn’t even really acknowledge anyone as he walked by, but it was nice to see him.  

We then saw a bunch of people get led out on the opposite side of the tent - and it was the people that got to go into the OTHER fan pit - so the people that got chosen for the RCA right off the bat - and I was super worried that they’d make us leave too … but no one did, so even though we were confused as to why they had to leave halfway through, we just sort of ignored it and hoped for the best. 

And then I got my first glimpse of Pedro Pascal IN PERSON, and it started to sink in that it was really happening, and I was at the premiere of TLOU and he - and Bella - were RIGHT THERE. (He was about 100 feet away at this point so we still had a WHILE to go)

The guy that played David on Narcos was there for whatever reason - and I snapped a picture of him as he walked by and sent it to Chris and got a “that fucking guy” reply which made me laugh … and then Troy, his wife and Laura walked by again … and we realized that the fucking tent was flooding - and that it was running DOWN toward us from the other end. 

And then Nico Parker appeared out of nowhere looking like a goddamn angel in her dress - and she was only able to stop for a few photos (I didn’t get one, but the people to my left and then a few down on my right did - she had someone following her and holding up the tail end of her dress for her so it didn’t drag on the carpet because even though *we* didn’t know it, the other side of the tent was already much more damp than our side, and there was actually a bunch of standing water. 

I sacrificed my picture with Nico to get one with Jeffrey Pierce, who was absolutely HILARIOUS in person and goes “So are you just here to say hello to us on our way in, or are you going to watch the episode, too?” And we laughed and I said “That’s the plan. Hopefully there’s room for us in the theater, but we might have to swim there.” And he laughed - very hard - and said “You actually might.” 

So after they walked away, the only three cast members left that I was looking forward to were Pedro, Bella and Gabriel - and then Neil and Craig - who we could see doing interviews. 

Bella walked over first, and took the time to stop and say hello to EVERY SINGLE person in our area of the fan pit. They were kind and smiling and genuinely friendly the entire time interacting with us, and taking pictures left and right. We were sure to tell them that we were certain that Ellie was in great hands, and that we couldn’t wait to see the show’s take on her. Bella really seemed to appreciate the support, and said that they hoped that we all loved it, because making it was one of the best times of their life - and that the entire cast put everything they had into it. 

When they walked away, only Pedro and Gabriel were left, and about a minute and a half after Bella was gone, Pedro pulled away from the press and headed for us with a MASSIVE smile on his face. Everyone was super respectful of him - and even though it was fast, he took time with everyone he spoke to. 

The kid next to me asked him if he could take the photo since his arms were longer, and Pedro said “No, I actually have a little fever tonight and I don’t want to touch anyone’s phones, sorry.” And then he leaned back so that he could take a picture with the kid - and Pedro’s security pushed the kid’s hand away from Pedro’s back and said “not tonight,” which resulted in absolutely nothing being between me and Pedro’s back and shoulders as he LEANED BACK to make sure he was in frame. 

I held both of my hands up - on instinct - like a “woah, alright, don’t lean back too far”, but the man was legitimately leaning against me for a solid fifteen seconds while he took a picture with that kid - and the girl the kid was with - and I actually made eye contact with the security guy because *I* didn’t want to get yelled at too, and he just kind of smiled at me and apparently recognized that I was just attempting to provide a sort of barrier so he didn’t lean too far back and it was fine. 

But to answer a question that I have gotten countless times when telling this story: Pedro smells good. Like, really good. There was kind of a woodsy-smoky scent (not cigarette smoke or anything like that) with an undertone of just clean. I actually think some of what I was smelling was hair product, to be honest, but whatever it was smelled GREAT. 

And then he turned around and made eye contact with me said hello - before asking how I was. Direct fucking eye contact with this man was a TRIP. And (little did we all know just how sick he was) he made sure to hold it and lean in so that neither of us were yelling. 

I asked him if I could take a photo with him, and he said of course. But before we did that, I told him how lucky we are to be able to see him act and do what he loves, and that I was so excited to see what he had in store with Joel, because TLOU is one of my favorite pieces of media and has been, and Joel’s a top tier character for me. 

He paused, smiled and thanked me, and said “I really hope I don’t disappoint you, then.” I ASSURED him that it was impossible for that to happen, and he did that thing where he tried to hide a smile and ducked his head before he thanked me again and then turned his attention to the people next to me. 

It was absolutely surreal to have gotten to have that kind of a conversation with him - and even though it was short, and he was feeling like TRASH, he took the time to make it a personal conversation, not just a “hi, thanks for coming, let’s take a picture” - he let people speak to him and spoke back. (Also, a girl a few people down actually dropped her phone, and without breaking conversation, he immediately bent down to pick it up and hand it back to her - so he broke his own rule.) 

A few minutes later, after he’d made his way to the end of the row and stepped away to take group pictures with his family, one of the security team came and told us we’d have to leave to go into the theater and lock our phones - JUST as Gabriel was getting ready to walk over. 

(The man looked fine as HELL that night, and I’m so sad about it because he was so close)

So once Pedro’s group was out of the tent, they started leading us the very short distance from the tent to the theater entrance - and to get there, we had to step over a makeshift bridge that they’d built out of a wooden plank because there was legitimately three inches of water RUNNING down the street and if it hadn’t been there, we would have all had to LEAP over it. 

I tried to take a few pictures of the posters on display on the way in, and they checked my bag again, took my phone and sealed it into a pouch that I needed to use a magnet to open at the end of the showing - and told us to stop on the way out and pick up the “stuff” they had for us before telling us to have a good time. 

They handed out random tickets based on group size, and since we were so late getting in, we ended up in the second row at the front of the theater ticket-wise (which sucked but once I got comfortable, I didn’t care). 

They had free popcorn and drinks for us at the counter, and as we were making our way over to grab it, Ashley Johnson walked by and I just went “Holy shit! You’re great!” And she stopped and looked and me and then started laughing and thanked me, and I finally managed to say something else (Thanked her for playing Ellie so well, that I loved and missed Yasha in CR, and that she was STUNNING in person) and she winked at me, thanked me and walked away. 

So then we went in and sat down and Craig and Neil spoke, and it was super heartfelt, (And you can read more about my experience/thoughts immediately after the premiere here) and that was another “oh, shit - it’s real! moment.

Once the screening was over, people started leaving, but they got all of the people with the silver wristbands into one section and asked us to go out last - so we waited and then were handed poster tubes with 14 x 21 poster and a Fireflies pendant inside, and then that was it. 

I wanted to try and get a last picture inside of the tent before we left, but that’s when we were told that it had been converted for the after party, and I wasn’t allowed back in. 

Said goodbye to my friends and started walking back to my car (STILL RAINING) when I realized that I’d dropped my ticket. So I threw everything into my car and RAN back, asked the theater staff if I could go back in and see if it had dropped by my seat, and they let me. I didn’t end up finding MY ticket, but I did find another one, along with a couple of the TLOU ziploc bags that the VIPs got to keep their tickets safe and dry, so I grabbed those, thanked the staff, and went back to my car. I didn’t even think to ask if I could have one of the larger marquee posters, and that’s on me, but it is what it is. 

And then I had a 30 minute drive back to my hotel in a rainstorm on a highway filled with people that were acting like they’ve never driven in bad road conditions before, ordered the most expensive (BUT DELICIOUS) Ramen I have ever had in my life, and finally changed out of my damp clothes and started to process everything from that night. 

It was an incredible experience. It was so much more laid back than I imagined it would be, and everyone in the tent was super respectful of everyone that they spoke to. It was really cool to meet people that were fans of the game, and to get to watch the premiere in a theater full of people that actually care about it. I would love to be able to attend the season 2 event, also - and truly hope to get the chance again. (There can’t be TWO monsoons in a row, right? Maybe next time I won’t look like a drowned rat in the pictures.) 

And as for pictures of me and the cast? I have posted them elsewhere. I’m not posting them here on tumblr because I’m trying to keep things separate, but I feel like a lot of you have already seen them either because I’ve shared them with you directly, or because you saw them on another social media site. 

I didn’t intend for this to get so long, but I am a wordy bitch, so I’m sure you’re not surprised. 

Thank you for reading this - and thank you to the people that have been supportive of this fun little trip that I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take. 

The Last of Us has been a huge part of my life - and very important to me for a lot of reasons - since it came out in 2013, and this was a dream come true (and made even better because three days later, I got to go to NYC and watch the screening again and experience the NYC event with Alyssa ( @the-blind-assassin-12 ) and Rebecca (@pedropascalito) and other friends from Discord/Reddit) 

This was an absolute whirlwind of a trip to Los Angeles, and while I’m sad it was super short, I packed a LOT into it - hopefully next time, I’ll be able to do more and meet more people (PARTICULARLY some of them that were in the same fan pit/red carpet area that I was and we didn’t even know it until it was too late!)

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!