#Lucas Show Champion

[hoshi-kwon-soonyoung]

Lucas renegade performance ending fairy

Thank you Lucas for such captivating performances and for being an amazing and great artist and an even greater person🧡

⚠ PS: you can use my gifs anywhere, don't even credit me if you don't want to, just don't post them elsewhere pretending they are yours.

[stankfaceworld]

STANK FACE 4/3/24

some stuff on here that takes me back to stank face roots - pusha t young thug 03 greedo especially.

listening to 'whatever dude' and 'dizzy' back to back is a trip - so crazy as well as heartbreaking to hear how confident and charismatic ritchie and groggs were on their debut, and so much fun to hear the age, wisdom, confidence, and joy from riTchie now .

it's been 6 years and 'BERLIN' still makes me feel like getting hit in the head by a battering ram i love it so much. bearface chorus still an all timer for me. 'slug' is so great love how pretty it is while still sounding like its slipping and sliding everywhere. can't wait for whatever this project is.

played 'the climb' off of the cd and felt like an epic physical media wizard. that song is also still an absolute heater and so many quotable bars i can't even count.

anyway stank face bangers only etc.

[ferrstappen]

could you be more obvious? l MV1

a/n: thissss is based on a request I got and ofc I added the Verstappen twins <3 this is messy I’m sorry but I’m on a writing mood

summary: you show up pregnant for the first race of 2024, just six months after Max won his 3rd WDC.

Max being crowned world champion for the third time was something that made your skin buzz with excitement, a knot form in your throat seeing everything he’s achieved and the pride and satisfaction of knowing that every single person on the team had his back, was definitely one of the best sights.

But for Luca and Mila Verstappen, their papa being champion again time wasn’t exactly a big deal… they knew it was important because there were lots of fireworks and special tshirts, but they were born watching Max a champion, they only knew him as such.

what, like it’s a big deal?

They didn’t say it, but you knew that’s what was on their mind.

That was the reason why both Max and you decided to not bring the twins to Qatar, especially with the high temperatures and Luca’s history of getting sick during Grand Prix weekends, they were more than happy to stay with auntie Vic while you got ready to celebrate your husband.

And God, did you celebrate him.

Without the twins, the gin and tonics kept coming, the sloppy make out session on the VIP area of the club as if you were teenagers again, his front pressed against your back as he tried to impress you with his best moves, only to earn a couple of drunken giggles and peck on the lips.

Things were starting to quiet down, lots of people had already left to their hotel room, but you and Max were on a world of your own, with you sitting on top of him, but the moment you started feeling his lips ghosting against your neck, his hands moving from your waist to squeeze your hip.

and you knew it was time to go.

Bahrain, 2024

Max didn’t remember being so excited for race day. Yes, he was anxious for the new season, but the highlight of his day was seeing you getting ready, a loose blouse and white jeans accentuating the noticeable belly of six months of pregnancy, which was a complete surprise to everyone.

You entered the paddock through the main entrance, with photographers everywhere and Kym Ilman greeting your family, because the scene was worth more than a couple thousand likes on Instagram: you were holding Mila’s hand who in return was holding Luca’s, while Max walked with his arm protectively around your belly.

The twins weren’t exactly thrilled about the idea of having a baby brother or sister, a fact they made clear by asking every day if there was any chance to stop the baby from coming home eventually, telling you and Max that they were more than okay having the cats. Sadly, they were the only ones

“No! No! No! Is that why you went MIA on social media? Oh my God look at this bump! Congratulations you two,” Lily let go of Alex’s hand to give you a tight hug as Alex congratulated Max with a couple of pats on the back.

The scene repeated itself with most drivers on the grid, who didn’t ask how far along you were, but were able to deduce the situation. Until…

“How far along are you?” Charles asked you as he held Luca on his arms, letting him mess with his hair.

You blushed and Max’s chest puffed as if he has been waiting for the question. “I’m a couple of days away from the six months mark,”

Charles looked as if he was doing a very specific and difficult math problem as his girlfriend, Alexandra, stares at him with a faint blush on her cheeks, probably since she has always been more reserved around you because she was younger, but she was impatiently waiting for her boyfriend to catch on the situation.

“This is a 2023 season baby?” Charles asked.

“Looks like it,” Max answered with a smug smile on his face, but in reality it was an excited grin which reached his blue eyes.

“No…” Charles jaw dropped and had to put Luca on the floor.

“No what?” Max counter asked, even if he knew the answer. This time he started drawing mindless shapes on the clothes over your swollen stomach.

“Max… is this your championship child?” Charles whispered, shocked.

“What can I say? Winning on and off the track!”

And Charles almost passed out as both you and Max laughed, beaming while interlacing your fingers over your belly, knowing cameras wouldn’t catch you there.

user1: Max knocked y/n up the night of the third championship change my mind

user2: Max Verstappen pulled a k-mag and I respect that

user3: do we know the birthday of the verstappen twins? Asking for a friend

user4: y/n and max will have a full kindergarten if they have a kid every time he wins the championship💀

user5: are we really surprised after those videos leaked of max squeezing her ass while they were celebrating the 3rd wdc

user6: if the maths are mathing this baby will be born around the Monaco gp. GODS PLAN

[uniquexusposts]

Below Deck | C. Leclerc (1)

Summary: Y/n and Charles had broken up a few weeks ago. Y/n thought it was a good idea to enter the yachting world to get over the break up, but suddenly he shows up at the last charter of the season. How will they cope with it? Words: 3018 Read the story that was based off the one shot here Part 2

"All crew, all crew, the guests are arriving in ten minutes. Please, change into your polos," the captain said on the radio.

"Copied."

The final charter of Y/n's yachting season was about to start. She and her roommate Bobbie were standing in their cabins, changing into their polos. It was silence; they both were tired and glad this was their last charter.

Y/n was the third stew on this yacht, and Bobbie was the second stew. And you know what they say? They either love or hate each other. This time, they liked each other. However, they had a mixed relationship with their boss, the first stew: Helena.

"Last charter, girl," Bobbie said and put on perfume.

"Last charter," Y/n breathed. "Two more nights, three more days."

The entire crew made their way to the deck. They were standing in a line; Bobbie was holding the plate with the glasses of champagne, and Y/n had the plate with refreshing towels. The captain and chief stew were standing on the dock.

"It's the last one," Otis sang and did a silly dance. "The last, last, last." He was a deckhand.

Everyone laughed and danced along with him.

"I really hope the guests are chill, down to earth, not too demanding," Felix said hopefully, the engineer.

"And otherwise, we make the best of it," Bobbie said.

Six people were walking toward the yacht. The crew quickly peeked at their new guests but couldn't stare. Y/n looked at the group that had now arrived at the captain and chief stew. Her face straightened when she saw who the group was.

"Oh, my god, that is Max Verstappen," Felix whispered; the fanboy was getting exposed now.

"Who?" Otis asked.

"Max Verstappen, the Formula 1 2021 world champion," Felix said.

"I don't watch Formula 1," Otis huffed.

Eyes widened. "Is that Carlos Sainz? And Pierre Gasly?" Bobbie noticed them now.

"And Charles Leclerc," Luca said impressively, he was the bosun.

Charles Leclerc.

Y/n could feel her heartbeat rise, and her lips parted. There is no way that this is happening. Everything around her faded away for a moment. Her mind was blank. She barely knew how to stand up straight anymore, or how to breathe. The sun on her skin made her sweat even more. It is the last one, you can do it. Y/n returned to reality, cleared her throat and put her best fake smile on her face.

"Hello, welcome on board," Luca warmly smiled. "My name is Luca, I'm your bosun."

Max was the first one in the group, making clear he was the primary guest. He introduced himself to everyone and shook their hands. Kelly, his girlfriend and co-primary guest, was walking behind him. Followed by Carlos and his girlfriend, Pierre and...and Charles.

When Charles was standing in front of Y/n, their eyes met. She had not looked in those eyes for six weeks. Those blue-coloured eyes with touches of other more beautiful colours... However, the smile on his lips didn't reach his eyes. To her own experience, this moment took forever, but in reality, it was just a few seconds.

"I'm Y/n; nice to meet you," Y/n smiled. Well, she forced a smile. And it did not feel natural or convincing. She had to stay in her role. "Welcome on board. Would you like to have a refreshing towel?" She was the second to last person in the line.

Pain. She is acting like nothing happened. Charles swallowed hard. "Yes, thank you," he managed to say. He grabbed a towel and moved to the next person. He tried to listen to her words; he filtered her name: Bobbie. She offered him a glass of champagne. "Thank you, I'm Charles."

The captain was explaining a few things about the yacht. The guests were looking at Y/n, they knew her. And Y/n knew them personally. Y/n looked away from everyone, she could feel the judgy looks. Nobody knew she was here, doing this job. She went off the radar six weeks ago. They all looked back at the captain and first stew when they announced the yacht tour would begin.

Everyone but the captain and first stew walked off the boat to get the guest's luggage.

"I really cannot believe we have F1 drivers as guests," Felix cried. "I cannot believe that they shook my hand."

"Dude, chill," Otis smirked.

"I think they will be chill," Bobbie said. "They look chill and give off a relaxing vibe."

Felix grabbed a suitcase and a backpack. "Do you watch F1, Y/n?" He gave the two pieces to her.

The crew developed a thing during the season: adding Y/n's name at the end of every sentence meant for her.

"No, I don't, and I won't," she coldly replied and walked back on the boat with the luggage.

Oh, my, I can't wait for the moment they walk off this boat. She dragged the luggage down to the guest bedrooms. Everyone was so hyped to serve the drivers, but Y/n only wanted to cry.

"What is the room division?" Y/n asked Luca.

"Master is Max and Kelly, left is Carlos and Rebecca, and right is Pierre and Charles." Luca stepped toward her to check the labels. "You have Charles his luggage. You have to go to the right, Y/n."

You've got to be kidding me. "Perfect," she replied and opened the right cabin door. On the preference sheets, they requested to unpack their luggage, but Y/n knew Charles hated it when people touched his stuff. She bit her lip and placed his backpack on the chair. For a moment, she looked at it. It was just a black backpack, it was simple, and somehow she adored it a lot. "Fuck," Y/n whispered and took a deep breath. She stepped away from his suitcase and lifted it to be placed on the luggage chair. The only thing she did was open his suitcase.

"Oh, o, I'm sorry."

Y/n turned around, and she gasped for air. "My goodness, Pierre. You scared me," she whispered.

"Sorry," he whispered back. "I had no idea that you worked on a yacht now." The Frenchman entered the room. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," she softly said. Pierre stepped towards her and gave her a hug; he was not only a good friend of Charles, but also a good friend of Y/n. "How are you?"

"Good, I'm good, now I know where my friend hangs out."

She weakly smiled.

"Is everything good in here?" Helena entered the cabin with Pierre's luggage. The fake smile appeared on her face, but she looked judgemental at her stew.

Pierre smiled. "Yes, absolutely. I was asking Bobbie to help me with unpacking my suitcase." He pointed at Y/n.

Helena slowly nodded. "Perfect. Y/n, can you help me at the bar if you're done unpacking the suitcase?" She put the accent on 'Y/n'.

It made Pierre chuckle.

"Yes, absolutely." Then Y/n realised she answered the exact same as Pierre. Helena walked away. "Bobbie? Seriously, Pierre?" She wanted to grab his suitcase, but he was first.

"Neh, neh, neh, you're not doing this. I can do it myself," he said and closed the door behind him. "You sit, I talk, you listen," he said and opened his suitcase. "And I had to say a your name wrong, I don't know you."

"Oh, god." Y/n sat down on the free chair. She looked at Pierre. An empty feeling entered her body. "I don't know if I can do it, Pierre," she hopelessly said.

"Then don't pay attention to him."

"How?" She shot back. "Did you know how hard it was to not burst into tears when I saw it were you all who came? Pierre, I'm not ready to face him yet."

"And what do you want to do now? You can't walk away, we're already sailing away."

Y/n groaned, annoyed.

"But Y/n, why did you go off the radar? I was worried."

"Yachting," Y/n simply replied. "Working my arse off." She got up; it didn't feel right to be in a room and doing nothing. "I barely have time to keep up with everything. On my breaks, I do a power nap. On days off, I'm just enjoying my free time-" She got cut off by a radio message for her. She replied straight away. "I gotta go, we will speak later."

"Yes, of course. I'm happy to see that you're doing fine, Y/n," Pierre mentioned. "This is something I do not have to worry about anymore."

Her fingers were wrapped around the doorknob, she only smiled weakly. She opened the door. "And, Pierre?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't be like shit, we can't handle more shit guests anymore," Y/n whispered and squinted her eyes.

Pierre grinned. "It really depends on how we get treated."

"Get out of here." She rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. It did her good to see Pierre again, but it was not how she would have liked. Someone wanted to walk down the stairs when she wanted to walk up the stairs. "You go first," she politely smiled.

Charles walked down the stairs, slowly. His eyes were glued on Y/n. The salmon orange-coloured shirt highlighted her tanned skin tone. However, it seemed like she had lost some weight. His lips parted. "Sorry, I didn't know you worked here, Y/n," he whispered.

Her eyes closed for a second or two; the way how he says it will never tire me. "I...is...is everything to your liking?" If Y/n left her role to him, things would escalate.

"Yes." Charles had to switch between being informal to formal. It hurt him, but if this was what she wanted... "It's perfect."

"Perfect. If there is anything that we can do for you, please don't hesitate to say it."

"I will, thank you."

And away she went. Y/n ran up the stairs and faced Helena at the bar. "I will be back in a sec; I have to change into my work clothes," she smiled and walked to the crew mess.

The smile dropped from her face, and she stormed to her own cabin. She closed the door behind her and balled her hands into fists. "Fucking hell," she breathed and felt the tears flowing in her eyes.

--

Y/n yawned when she walked up the stairs. It was seven o'clock in the morning, and her day shift had just started. It was the second day of the last charter. She was about to check the bar, but she noticed two people outside in the lounge. I hate morning people. This is not a pleasant way to start the day.

She walked to the lounge. "Hello," Y/n smiled.

"Hello, darling," Rebecca warmly smiled.

"Good morning," Carlos smiled.

"God, you're early," Y/n softly said, breaking the character for a second, regretting it already.

Carlos smirked. "You know us."

"Yeah, that is true. Is there anything I can get you?"

"I'm fine; I'm just enjoying the sunrise," Rebecca said.

Carlos nodded. "I'm fine too."

"Perfect. If there is anything that you want, just give me a shout. Will the breakfast still be at ten?" Y/n felt uncomfortable; she was serving her friends. And it usually would not matter, but this is the top-of-the-top service she had to give.

He nodded again. When Y/n stepped away, he inhaled. "Y/n, how are you doing?"

"I'm alright, busy with work. How about you?"

"Happy to have a weekend off," Carlos answered her question.

"I had no idea you worked on a yacht now," Rebecca admitted. "Do you like it?"

Y/n looked around. Yes, her job was to entertain the guests and be polite. But to a certain point. Being personal was crossing the line. But it were her friends. However, how much would it affect her tip at the end? That was why she entered the yachting world. "Yeah, I had no idea that I would end up here," Y/n also admitted. "But you know, it's something else, and I think it's fine for now." And it is quick and much money.

"How many more days do you have left?"

"This is the last charter."

It was silence.

"Gosh, I miss you, girl. It's so hard to not act like friends," Rebecca breathed and pressed her lips into a thin line. "Because I can see how you distance yourself from us."

There goes the tip for the crew.

"I'm sorry. It's just... I don't want them to know that I know you. So I'm sorry if I act like a cold bitch, but I... They can't know," Y/n stammered and swallowed hard. "Because I want to laugh with you, talk to you like we used to, but if I do, I will get in trouble for being too personal and crossing so many lines."

Rebecca got up from the lounge. "I know, I know," she said and hugged Y/n.

"I miss you so much," Y/n whispered, hurt. "Seeing you again, makes me so happy."

"When you're finished here, we need to go out, okay?" She looked at her friend when letting go of her.

"Yes."

Felix was walking around the boat, checking if everything was looking decent. "Good morning," he said. One of the guests was sitting on the lounge, and the other was standing next to Y/n. "Is everything okay here?"

"Yes, thank you," Carlos smiled.

Y/n forced a smile on her face. "I'm talking Rebecca and Carlos through the planned schedule for today," she said to her colleague. "Everything is still going as planned." Felix nodded, satisfied and walked away. "At the picnic... I heard that more people were joining you?"

"Lando, George, Alex and Daniel are joining with their girlfriends," Rebecca mentioned. "Are you coming too, or will that not be on your service? Or do we have to ask if you will join us? You're one of us, you have to be there. This was your idea." Y/n joked about booking a yacht with a beach picnic a couple of months ago, only because she watched Below Deck.

And they actually booked it. The realisation hit Y/n. This was her idea, and she couldn't even join them. Well, on the other side. "I was one of you," Y/n replied. "And I can't join you. I am working. I won't be able to lunch with you."

"You will, we will make something up. And yes, Charles will be there. But you don't have to hug or kiss him. We will make sure you will be sitting on the complete opposite of him, yes?"

--

"I am so glad that this is the last picnic," Bobbie breathed and placed some plates on the table. "I fucking hate picnics, especially on the beach. It looks so nice when you can just sit on your butt and eat. But it is a pain in the arse when you have to make it look so nice. I mean, the sun is breaking me apart, there's sand everywhere, nothing is stable," she complained.

Y/n smiled, but bit her lip to hide it. She placed the cutlery next to the plates and only listened.

"I'm sorry for my complaining hour, but now we can talk without other people hearing it," Bobbie mumbled.

"No, no, please, share everything you want. I'll just listen," Y/n replied and softly chuckled. "Because I can only agree with you."

"And you know what I heard? Helena was talking to Otis in the crew mess - she didn't know that I was in the laundry room - and she literally said: 'Since the moment the guests have arrived, I have not heard Y/n's name once. Not once. Do they even know that we have a third stew? I am working my arse off, and she gets to do nothing.'," Bobbie dramatically said, and she looked sorry at Y/n.

Y/n stopped placing the cutlery on the table. "What? Is she serious?"

"That is what I heard..."

This could either be the truth or a lie to create drama. "I work my arse off, she is the one who does nothing. She only makes out with Otis and lets us do the work. She can kiss my arse. Whatever. Just one more day and it is over," Y/n defended herself. "I'm starting to move to the dislike side. I liked Helena at first, but she's doing weird things and blaming us for it."

"I stopped liking her after the first charter when she screwed me over by saying that the master was not cleaned yet. That was her job, it was even on the board. And suddenly, it was my job without saying shit to me," Bobbie ranted. "She can suck my dick."

The radio went off. "Bobbie and Y/n, the guests are on their way."

Bobbie grabbed her transceiver. "Perfect, thank you," she friendly said.

Y/n burst into laughter and continued putting the cutlery on the table. "You're such a snake."

"Learnt from the best," Bobbie proudly said.

"Sassy."

Fifteen minutes later, the table was all set, and the guests arrived. Bobbie quickly took a photo of the table while Y/n walked over to the tender to help the guests out of the tender.

"Thank you, Y/n," Max smiled.

She gave him a nod and helped Kelly, who was also getting help from Kelly. She was followed by Rebecca, Carlos and Pierre. Y/n looked at Charles and stuck out her hand. She could see the doubt in his eyes, but he grabbed her hand anyway. She gasped for air and saw every memory she had of him, playing in front of her eyes. And it looked like Charles had it too.

Charles looked away and jumped out of the tender into the water. "Thank you, Y/n/n," he softly said and let go of her hand.

"Anytime," she lipped and swallowed hard.

It had been just over 24 hours, and she barely had seen Charles. He was avoiding every contact moment between himself and his ex-girlfriend. Y/n noticed it, it hurt, but it was for the best. She looked down and closed her eyes; she just wanted to walk further into the sea and drown.

"The other tender is arriving, Y/n," Luca said.

Y/n opened her eyes and looked up at the bosun. "Thank you, Luca. I will let you know when they want to go back," she said and padded the tender a couple of times.

"Copied."

She waved at him when he sailed away. Her eyes fell on the other tender, and she put on another smile. Y/n stepped to it. "Welcome, everyone."

"Y/n!" Carmen excitedly said, but straightened her face right away. "Oh, my god, sorry. I don't know you," she apologised. Rebecca had asked the others to pretend not to know Y/n, only to protect her from her colleagues.

"It's okay, darling," Y/n said and smiled comfortably. Once again, she helped everyone get off the tender, and she made an agreement with their bosun. "I will call you," she mentioned. He nodded and sailed away as well.

The beach picnic started.

It was fake. Her smile was fake. Her laugh was fake. It seemed like her happiness was fake as well. Charles couldn't keep his eyes off Y/n. It was so incredibly hard to be around her. How she was pretending nothing had happened. But she probably had to do that because of her work, but still. It hurt him to see her smile at him. It hurt him how she would serve him drinks without any problem while he was freaking out on the inside.

"Is everything to your liking?" Bobbie asked and looked around.

Multiple nods and yeses were shared.

"Amazing..."

Y/n walked away from the table and let Bobbie do her thing with talking. She grabbed a bottle of water and took a sip. Her eyes were resting on the table. I should have been there as well...

...because I am still in love with my ex-boyfriend. I tried to forget him during my six weeks of yachting, but I can't stop thinking about him. I can't get over him because I am still connected to him. We were together for four years, and he was my first real love.

And we broke up because we thought it didn't work anymore.

We thought...

Stupid thought.

Seeing them all together feels like a reminder that everyone has moved on. That he had moved on. I feel ashamed of myself for feeling this way. I need to move on too. But I can't move on because Charles still occupies so much space in my head. It is really starting to annoy me and affect my life. I can't see a way to move on because every time I try to move on, he is still in my head, telling me that I'll not be happy with someone else. This terrifies me because I know it is true.

He was my first love, and he is my only love.

What am I meant to do now? I'm 24 years old, and my life feels so unfinished already. It's so difficult when everyone is moving on, and I am just stuck in the same place.

"Hello, Y/n?" Bobbie was waving in front of Y/n's eyes. "Are you here with me?"

A shock went through Y/n's body, and she looked at Bobbie. "What? Yes, why?"

"You're crying?" Bobbie squeezed her eyebrows together and looked worried. "Are you okay?"

Y/n felt her cheeks; they were wet. Her heart dropped. She dried her cheeks quickly and forced a smile on her face. "Sand in my eyes, no worries," she smiled.

"If you say so..."

"I say so." Y/n cleared her throat and looked at the table again. Her eyes got stuck on one person. Their eyes were locked. All the air got sucked out of her lungs.

Charles saw it. All of it.

Part 2

Taglist: @itsjustkhaos@crashingwavesofeuphoria@maryvibess

[vintagegeekculture]

Hi, do you happen to know the name of the cartoon from the 80s where they rode inside giant tires with guns on either side?

That's Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, a French-Japanese-American co-production. It had the avant-garde elements of French animation, the slick, imaginative sophistication of Japanese scifi animation, and the merchandisability of an American 80s cartoon. The premise has been compared to Star Wars, with its young impulsive hero, cocky pilot best friend, funny robot sidekick, and wizard mentor, but the number one thing it seems to take from George Lucas is that the interstellar future will be a lot like California in the 1950s, with greaser kids working on hot rods in their garage, and drag racing in their spare time.

A lot of 80s cartoon shows have aged disastrously (Thundercats is particularly hard to watch at times) but Jayce has aged incredibly well, mainly because of the solid characters and the fact the writing team included Joseph Michael Straczynski, who had them lean heavily on continuing storytelling that stretched throughout the series. It's right up there with Galaxy High School, Real Ghostbusters, Pole Position, and Vytor: Starfire Champion as 80s animated shows that actually are pretty good and are worth it to rediscover.

In fact, the continuous storytelling may be the single greatest weakness of the series: like Conan the Barbarian, it never got a legitimate finale. A series like this deserves nothing less than a Götterdämmerung.

JMS was famous for being one of the first creators active on the internet, at the time, answering questions on the Compuserve forums in 1992. A lot of his early comments on Babylon 5 have been preserved for posterity (B5 fans used to pore over them like sacred scrolls), but if you look at the actual transcripts, most of the questions he got were about Murder She Wrote, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. In fact, there was an early appearance of people wearing Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors' Lightning League symbol to very, very early B5 get togethers.

[waywardstation]

definitely doesn't fit in the narrative of your whole narrative but I just had a random thought:

When your Dawn/Akari returns home, even if she's not the Champ will give a lot of media attention. Especially if circumstances are leaked/shown.

I just had this image of Emmet watching some media covering from Sinnoh, hearing about the return of this Girl that went missing that returned, and as he catches himself thinking how it would be if his brother would show up like this he does show up like this. Either seen on a photo in a newspaper or shyly trying to avoid the camera as they try to make the best picture of him.

Or he watches the news and spits out his coffee when seeing his brother and hearing how he came back in time with this girl in the news.

Honestly the reaction for this must be hilarious! At this point they haven't figured out its Subway Boss Ingo yet but Emmet is gonna change that.

and by chance someone had filmed Emmet spitting out his coffee and considering its more positive content it has become a meme all over Unova beloved by everyone.

Oh yes it will give lots of attention! If anything, lots of people would know because Lucas, as the champion, would care a lot that his friend has gone missing. Her mom would also make a huge deal of it even without that helping too.

If it would get televised, I do wonder how much of Ingo the media would actually get to see at first. Because he would definitely still be at the hospital at this point, going by my narrative. I wonder if it would be reasonable for the earliest sources to report him as just a man still being identified (no memory, no wallet/ID, maybe not conscious, in a region that probably doesn’t recognize him as well).

Emmet sees something about the story somewhere — at least someone who went missing was found. A man was found too — too bad it’s not Ingo, but Ingo wouldn’t be all the way over in Sinnoh. Then he sees a photo/video that was eventually taken by the news. Or maybe there was a section where the man was awake enough to identify himself with what little he remembered. NO WAY.

Then before he can even figure out how to get over there, he starts getting drowned in calls, and messages and emails fill his inbox forwarding the segment.

Maybe Elesa is there to see him faint. Maybe whoever he was battling in the battle subway witnesses him shut down the battle and send the train back to the station, shouting the whole time. Maybe customers at a store see him choke on his drink at a restaurant and accidentally dine and dash (he comes back and pays for it later haha).

[fandom-rants-here]

I'm kind of stupid and slow on things and have only in the past few months started getting into D&D, so bare with me on this. Also, correct me if I fuck anything up.

I'm starting with Mike because I'm looking into paladins right now and recently saw a post that the paladin description reminded me of.

In the post, op talked about how, to Mike, promises were a really big thing. Something people don't break. Ever.

He, as far as I remember and based off of the only two moments mentioned in the post, only makes two promises. Both to El and both of which he is visibly hesitant about making. He knows what promises mean to himself and how he explain them to Eleven. No matter how his feelings change, he does not break his promises.

Now, this ties into his character as a paladin as they are described like this, "Paladins are united by their oaths to stand against the forces of annihilation and corruption. Whether sworn before a god’s altar, in a sacred glade before nature spirits, or in a moment of desperation and grief with the dead as the only witnesses, a Paladin’s oath is a powerful bond. It is a source of power that turns a devout warrior into a blessed champion." (D&D and Beyond)

An oath and a promise are practically the same thing, especially given the context. I think that this is another reason Mike's character was chosen to be a paladin. Yes, he's a leader and yes, he defends people, but there also the oath aspect of his character. These three things delve into so much of Mike's actions throughout the show.

Will calling Mike "The Heart" isn't just because he's super fucking gay for him, but Mike is one of the main connectors and leaders of The Party. Lucas and Will met because Mike befriended them both. El met The Party because Mike hid her in the basement. Jonathan and Nancy got close because their brothers were close. Mike is the first of the main Party to have any connection with Steve (even if it isn't the strongest literally ever). He, especially in seasons 1 and 2 (before he has a major fucking identity crisis and all that good shit) is a major leader and strategist.

He physically defends the people around him at his own expense all the fucking time. Season 1 when he jumps off the cliff (that needs to be brought up omg). Season 2 when Dart dares to even look in Will's direction and Mike tries to kill the fucker immediately. Season 3 when he tries to fight Billy multiple times in hand to hand combat. Season 4 where he activley puts himself between Will and the bullets as much as he can. He fucking defends the people around him. (There's more, but I'm clearly not good at being brief.)

And the whole thing with one fucking promise when he was like 13 dictating his whole damn life for well over a year. He promised El to take her to the Snowball. A simple promise that he thought would help her, and it did. But then that led to them dating. And it was fine because they'd kiss and hang out at Hopper's cabin but at least he can hang out with everyone else outside of that. And then Hopper makes him lie to El, which leads to the break up. Sure, Mike's a bit bummed and a hell of a lot confused, but he's ranting to his friends and it's fine.

And amidst his whole "They're conspiring" bullshit, he says he loves El. Looking at his and everyone else's face, ain't nobody expect that, especially not Mike himself. But El hears say that, and she says she loves him too before kissing him goodbye. Most people would be fucking thrilled. Not Mike though. He looks confused and sad. but El is in Cali so he's fucking fine.

But it just got worse and now he won't let himself back out. Now he has to be her boyfriend, now he has to keep her happy, now he has to do all these things even though he doesn't anymore. By the end of season 4, El doesn't need him anymore. But he doesn't kmow that, so he lies to her (something he really does not like doing). And, again, he can't get out.

Mike dictates his whole damn life around promises. Paladin fucking behavior.

[warden-melli]

Pokémon Legends Arceus theory:

While the identity of the protagonist(s) in legends Arceus bare a striking resemblance to Dawn and Lucas from the Diamond and Pearl games, it is never confirmed in game that these characters are actually one in the same. Most players assume that you play as an older version of Dawn or Lucas. One who has been selected by Arceus, and brought to the past to carry out its bidding, but there’s some clues that indicate that this may not be the case. While there are alternative theories to who the protagonist may truly be (including them actually being Dawn or Lucas’s child, and not them themselves), I propose one of my own

At the start of the game, this is some of the first dialogue we encounter

The way that it is worded implies that the character being spoken to wouldn’t already be familiar with what a pokemon is, or the Pokémon world. We know that the player character in PLA is around 15 years old. Older than Dawn and Lucas in their DPP appearances, so it’s out of the question that they wouldn’t already know what a pokemon was. They lived and grew up in that world, and we know that they have had many adventures with pokemon by their sides, so it truly doesn’t make sense for Arceus to explain the concept of a Pokémon to seasoned Pokémon veterans such as Dawn or Lucas

The text also explicitly states that the character will “soon find themselves” in a strange world that is inhabited by creatures called pokemon. This seems to indicate that whatever world this character existed in prior to the Pokémon world, didn’t have any creatures called Pokémon at all

There’s also the matter of the players mobile phone. We get to see it briefly in the opening scene, before Arceus transforms it into the iconic Arc Phone.

And it looks suspiciously like a real world, modern smart phone. Now this could be Dawn or Lucas’s phone from the future, but the problem with this is that phones in the Pokémon world do not look like this, with the Rotom Phone being the standard

These phones have a distinctly different shape and properties to the one the player first arrives with. It’s only after Arceus transforms the phone that it more resembles the look of the other phones seen in the series

This points to the character, whoever they may be, not coming from the Pokémon world or it’s future, but from somewhere else entirely. But where?

In HG/SS there was an (extremely creepy) event, in which you witness Arceus creating a new Dialga, Palkia or Giratina (based on the players choice). Interestingly, this event takes places at the Sinjoh ruins, and includes Sinnoh’s champion Cynthia, which is a neat little connection from this event to PLA in and of itself, but it’s the actual cutscene that’s relevant to this theory, more specifically the visuals. They show the real world. This is just a tiny selection of the multiple real world images presented as part of the cutscene

This is the real world in a Pokémon game. This shows that is very possible for Arceus to reach across time, space, dimension and even beyond. Into distant realities. That the Pokémon world has worlds beyond it, and that Arceus can see and reflect them all

This theory argues that this is where Arceus abducted the player character from, and instead of being that worlds Dawn/Lucas from the future, they’re instead a different Dawn/Lucas from an alternate dimension. Ours.

Now I know what you’re thinking. This can’t be true. They have to come from the Pokémon world, because the characters are wearing clothes that reference other pokemon locations, and the phone case has an image of a pokeball. The wording is a clear 4th wall break to set up the plot of the game, and Arceus is obviously talking to the player, not the literal character themselves… and you could be right, but I believe I have an explanation

It’s merch. Pokemon does exist in our world, just not as real creatures that physically exist. It’s very possible that the clothing the player is wearing (and their phone case) are simply pokemon merchandise, and they’re huge pokemon fans. While their battle prowess could be explained by future Dawn/Lucas having mastered their skills over the events of DPP, it could also be that the alternate reality Dawn/Lucas gained those same skills simply by playing the video game version(s) of DPP. It’s important to note that the shirts shown in game have no obvious connection to the Sinnoh based Dawn/Lucas, but the designs would be familiar to anyone who has played the other games in the Pokémon series (having appeared in XY and Sword and Shield)

Okay, assuming this was the case, wouldn’t this mean that the character would already be familiar with pokemon, even just as a franchise? Didn’t the dialogue imply that they wouldn’t know what a Pokémon is at all?

True. While it’s a certainty that a future Dawn/Lucas would already know what a Pokémon/the Pokémon world is, it’s also true that In this exact scenario, it’s very likely that of course the character would know what a Pokémon is. But in the context of them being real life creatures, in a strange new world?

Not exactly…

(This is just a silly little theory, please don’t take it too seriously lol. There’s plenty more arguments that could be made for and against it, but it’s interesting to think about anyways and just for fun. I kinda like the air of mystery and unanswered questions that the Pokémon world has, and it’s tons of fun to overthink/over analyse the games)

[wndfsh]

a (brief) analysis of toxic masculinity and fatherhood in final fantasy x

something i have always loved about braska is that, although he doesn't have much of a canon personality, in what little we see of him, he is so clearly an extremely supportive and genuine person. in life, he was a loving husband, a good friend, and even from beyond the grave, a supportive father to yuna.

it's interesting to me, then, how much of his personality is in direct contrast to jecht, who, at the start of braska's pilgrimage, is none of those things. but it isn't that he and braska are opposites—when you think about it, they're actually pretty similar—it’s their respective ability/inability to express vulnerability that sets them apart. lemme explain:

in all that we see of braska, he never really seems to not be thinking of his family. jecht, from the very beginning, is shown to be the same way, but it takes him a long time to be able to express it—let alone admit it—without lashing out. braska, on the other hand, has no reservations about displaying his affection for his family, doing so pretty often.

both braska and jecht are famous, braska being a known basphemer and a summoner on pilgrimage, and jecht being a blitzball champion. fittingly, braska doesn't expect special treatment for his status. he’s appreciative and humble, and when the party arrives in besaid, he admires it. jecht, however, insults it for its quaintness, and impatiently demands food. similarly, when they first depart on braska's pilgrimage, he expects fanfare, and the celebrity treatment he received in zanarkand.

unlike braska, who outwardly treasures and humanizes the women in his life, in the nightmare tidus has in besaid, it seems like jecht (although it's obvious from watching cutscenes with his wife in them that they loved one another dearly) outwardly regards them as… almost conquests, mocking tidus for being unable to “get a woman.” he also only really mentions his wife in passing, whereas braska mentions his, and his daughter, quite often.

braska lovingly encourages yuna to choose her own path, and promises to support her wherever she decides to go.

jecht, however... i mean, there's a whole minigame about that, so… y’know.

everything i just described, however, as most figure out when they finish playing through the game, is not the “real” jecht. i said he and braska are similar for a reason; underneath his ego, he, too, possesses the capability to be every bit as genuine and supportive as braska, and there are moments where he almost lets his true feelings surface.

...but, in the end, he doesn't. while he and braska are indeed similar below the surface, he’s practically incapable of allowing himself to be emotionally vulnerable, and that, i believe, is what sets he and braska apart.

he tells auron to turn the sphere recorder off when he gets teary-eyed in luca. in macalania woods, he turns the sphere recorder off after trying to talk to tidus, because he's "no good at these things." tidus's entire life, jecht has ridiculed him for always crying—for showing his emotions. auron tells tidus that jecht loved him—"he just didn't know how to express it, he said."

even in jecht's final moments, he mocks tidus for crying (and even though it isn't genuine, it's still worth noting).

but… why? why is jecht almost allergic to vulnerability? and why isn’t braska? that may be where they differ, sure, but what is it that causes it in the first place?

i think final fantasy x, whether intentional or not, has a lot to say about masculinity. many have noticed this and discussed it at length, and i'd like to contribute my own (admittedly weird and kind of bullshit) two cents on the matter by examining each of them through the lens of jungian psychology (hence why i said it’s kind of bullshit—i’m not believer in jung's theories, i just find psychological archetypes interesting). more specifically, i believe jecht and braska each represent different stages of a jungian archetype known as the anima.

the anima is an archetype that is already present throughout the game’s narrative, anima being the name of seymour’s aeon—a fitting reference, given that anima is seymour’s mother. as it applies here, however, the anima not only represents a man’s perception of women, but it also represents a man's more "feminine" qualities (and while i don't agree with ascribing personality traits to gender, jung and all those other kooky old psychiatrists did, so we'll just have to roll with it for this analysis, unfortunately). more specifically, i think braska embodies a fully integrated anima, whereas jecht embodies a rejected anima.

what does that mean?

integrating one's anima, according to jung, means accepting and embracing the more traditionally feminine aspects of oneself (for instance, the ability to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, etc.), as well as ridding oneself of the guilt associated with doing so. braska, being as shamelessly emotionally available, nurturing, and mature as he is, seems to have achieved just that. even his design borders on androgynous, his large, petaled robes concealing nearly all of his body.

jecht, however, very clearly has not. he rejects anything even remotely traditionally feminine within himself, even at the cost of his relationship with his son. as such, he is egotistical, lacks emotional maturity, and for a large part of braska’s pilgrimage, is incapable of taking responsibility—and, just as braska’s design reflects his relationship with femininity, jecht’s design reflects his own as well, putting his body (and his ego) on full display, emphasizing his muscles and scars.

(obviously, while not every aspect of the anima archetype and its stages of integration apply to jecht and braska, i do think they at least represent the aspects of the theory that affect one's self acceptance and emotional expression.)

as i said before, i think final fantasy x has a lot to say about masculinity—more specifically, toxic masculinity, and how it affects relationships.

the reason i brought up the anima archetype is because it’s relevant to the concept of toxic masculinity; men who aren’t ashamed of expressing traditionally feminine behaviors and characteristics are far less likely to idealize and aspire to toxic, performative masculinity, whereas men who do are more likely to do just that—braska being the former, and jecht being the latter.

jecht’s inability to express vulnerability as a result of how deeply rooted toxic masculinity is in his psyche is a large part of why he and tidus have such a negative relationship. for tidus’s entire life, jecht has ridiculed him for showing emotion (crying) and desiring closeness with him (wanting to learn how to play blitzball)—both of which are things that are often seen in men struggling with toxic masculinity. even ten years after jecht disappeared from zanarkand, tidus is never without that nagging voice in his head, telling him to “stop crying,” or, “you can’t do it, kid.”

similarly, braska’s masculinity also influences his relationship with yuna—unlike jecht, however, braska’s affects their reationship positively. this is because braska, in what little we see of him, is loving, supportive, and unafraid of expressing his emotions. he encourages yuna to live the way she wants to, and reminds her that he will always love her, even from beyond the grave. even ten years after his passing, she still holds him in very high regard, and his undying support is part of what motivates her to forge her own path in life—which is what leads to her and her party defeating yu yevon once and for all.

i don’t really have a conclusion, but i think this interaction between yuna and tidus illustrates just how each of them affected their children:

yuna, for a brief moment, can’t even fathom hating one’s father so, scolding tidus for doing so before she realizes it isn’t that simple. what a tell. braska’s positive impact on yuna helped her to go on to defeat the very source of spira’s suffering. jecht, however, left such a negative impact on tidus that, until he sees jecht change for the better in the sphere recordings he finds around spira, is plagued by his memory until the day he fades away.

[marvelstars]

Fate and Choice in Star Wars

I believe Star Wars tackles the whole issue of fate and choice in an interesting way because it allowed for destiny to exist while also allowing for free will.

Fandom often considers this to be a reason to condemn Anakin´s choices but imo, If we take this pov at face value, Anakin definitely wasnt the only one who made bad choices in the story, he is simply condemned because he became Vader but while Lucas certainly wrote Vader as a character suffering for the consequences of his actions, he also wrote him as a victim of circunstance but also a hero who in the end had to come back from the darkside not for his own sake or for his Son but because this was the neccesary element for the Galaxy to be freed from the Sith.

Anakin wasn´t the only one who made bad choices and if we don´t understand Palpatine´s role on all this then we don´t understand Anakin´s story because just like the Jedi would not have taken a slave army to go from peace keepers to soldiers and fight in the clone wars if given the chance, Anakin would not have turned to the darkside without Palpatine´s involvement.

The reason why George Lucas insisted on showing Anakin as a kid on Tatooine, was to show he wasn´t just a nice kid, he was an awesome kid who already had many Jedi virtues and given the chance he would have become Tatooine´s champion even if he stayed a slave, simply because he was powerful but this power he used instinctively to help those less fortunate than him, to protect and love his mother and to help his friends or even strangers in need like Qui-Gon and Padme were, even if that meant him risking his life for them. Anakin was all those things already and while he probably could have need at some point a guide to learn how to use his force powers, just like Luke did, Anakin was well on his way to become on his own one of the greastest force users ever simply because he cared, he was kind and wanted to help make the universe better.

Qui-Gon didn´t need to force the issue about Anakin being trained on the Jedi Order or even become a Jedi, he could have asked for Anakin simply being given a force guide and to free his mother but he didn´t, because he was more interested at the time in fulfulling a prophecy than on Anakin´s personal best interests, he did a good thing freeing Anakin but made a mistake leaving Anakin´s mother a slave. The fact Anakin was indeed the chosen one didn´t mean he had to be trained at the temple, the prophecy talks about a strong "force user" who would balance the force and defeat the sith not a strong "Jedi" and it´s told like this because at no point this force user could not fall to the darkside in his free will, he could but he still would be the chosen one,Vader was still the chosen one even if he was fallen.

Yoda should have keep his first decision of not allowing Anakin to be trained as a Jedi because he already knew a family and would hardly adapt to the Temple, he should have keep Obi-Wan from training Anakin because Obi-Wan wasn´t insisting on training Anakin for Anakin´s sake or even for the Order, he was doing it because he was mourning Qui-Gon and wanted to fulfill his last petition, Yoda sympathized with Obi-Wan but at no point Anakin´s best interests were taken in consideration when it was decided he had to be trained as a traditional Jedi. This Obi-Wan addmited and understood in the OT when he said he made a mistake believing he could train Anakin as well as Yoda did but the issue was even deeper than that.

The reason why Palpatine, who was hellbent on turning Anakin to the darkside, allowed him to be trained as a Jedi were clearly stated on the Darth Plagueis novel: Being taken from his mother and her left to suffer on slavery with her Son knowing this, while training in an Order of people who could not understand "missing his mother" as a natural emotional response, were the first tools Palpatine used agaisn´t Anakin to turn him to the darkside, this was way better than any kidnapping or torturing scenario Palpatine could come up to turn the kid and he used this very fact to become his father figure. All this because Palpatine understood way better than the Jedi of his time, how absolutely damaging this was going to be for Anakin´s psyche and so a benefice for his plans.

All of this happens beyond Anakin´s control or decision making, in the rest of the movies he is mostly reacting to those events without actively making a stance on it and that´s such a tragedy, because as a kid he had such a strong force of will to do the right thing and love those around him and in the second movie he is so used to be given orders he almost doesn´t complain or argue even in the face of losing his mother or Obi-Wan, his other father figure.

So yes Anakin did made bad choices he regretted, he planned on just rescuing his mother from the tusken raiders even after being told they had actively tortured her for no reason for months, he had enough strenght of mind to keep himself from hurting them even knowing that, what he could not forgive was them killing her and while he was horrified by his actions after the fact, this original hurt, to know for a fact that had he stayed on Tatooine, a decision that was taken from him as a child, could have as well save his mother´s life and actually made a difference for the slaves on Tatooine given all of them were ignored at the center of the republic, this was the beggining of Anakin´s fall, there´s a reason why Qui-Gon ghost reacts the most at Anakin´s fall on ATOC than at his actions on EP III, the fact of the matter is that he already had partially fallen in AOTC but we would be kidding ourselves if we believe this decision was something Anakin made just on his own free will and wasn´t the result of other people caring more for what he could do for them or what he represented to them than about Anakin the person.

Despite this fact Anakin still went on to become one of the greastest and more caring soldiers and generals in the clone wars, who cared not just for victories but also of giving people under his protection a chance, be it by helping them learn how to take care of themselves in the face of violence, something that later would help sustain the rebel alliance, or because he wanted to show the clone soldiers it was perfectly ok to have their own individual thoughts and express themselves with freedom. So even a half fallen Anakin that Count Dooku could detect, had still so much of himself to genuinely care for the fate of those unders his authority but with time this also eat at his own psyche.

Everything else was a consequence of this, Anakin understood the nature of death as a child, he understood and tried to do his best to keep people from dying but after losing his mother the way he did, he developed a fixation of keeping those close to him alive, something that only made him fall further because then he was send to the middle of a war in which he could feel every soldier die, his master was thought dead twice and even his padawan was in constant danger, so being given the idea of losing his one constant after his mother in his life, Padme and their future family, was enough to permanently break him.

This doesn´t mean he wasn´t given a choice but it was a choice affected by the circunstances around him and especially by the emotional and force traps put on by Palpatine and of his will taking a beating every time he tried to make individual decisions bassically since he was an infant.

This is also why ROTJ feels so liberating as the climax of the story, because in this movie, while Luke certainly cared about Vader and wanted to give him an out from the dark out of compassion for his father, knowing his story, Luke also realized that to save his father also meant to save himself, because for him killing his father meant falling to the darkside, what he didn´t realize until the end was that his father´s fate was to save the galaxy, even from himself and his master, so Luke saved his father, his father saved him and then Anakin decided to save the galaxy out of compassion for his Son and what he believed in.

I believe Star Wars as a story is richer when we consider all those circunstances as well as the characters choices.

[evita-shelby]

The Dornish Princess

got peaky pals: @justrainandcoffee @mischievouslittlecreature @cillmequick @call-sign-shark @peakyswritings @shelbydelrey @novashelby @hoodeddreams13 @wonderlanddreamer @thegreatdragonfruta

Aeva Martell, Princess of Dorne who lives in the same time period as the book/new series: A Knight for the Seven Kingdoms aka the Adventures of Dunk and Egg (meaning the dragons have been extinct for almost a century, Dorne is now part of Westeros and the ruling Targs are all half or a quarter Dornish )

Had she wanted to, Aeva Nymeria Martell could have maneuvered herself onto the Iron Throne with ease.

She had the looks, the charm and the blood to shove all her competition out of the way and take the grand prize: a Targaryen son in her belly and widowhood within the year.

But much like her kinsman, Prince Daeron the Drunken, the younger daughter of Princess Isabael Martell and her consort shoved all that aside and lived a life of complete and utter leisure.

Why bother with all that when it will all go down in green flames anyways?

In many other lives, Aeva is no stranger to the feeling of power in her hands, in this one, the cost of said power is not one she cares to pay.

She’s seen the end, the green flames turning King’s Landing to ash, the wall crashing down, House Targaryen reduced to street rats having to rely on the whims of others. So the Dreamer took a page out of Daeron’s book and forced herself to live every moment as she pleases before the Stranger comes for her.

Most girls would view the dirty versions of Septa Coryanne’s A Caution for Young Girls as a secret pleasure, Aeva viewed it as inspiration.

Saera Targaryen had lived long and decadently in her pleasure palace in Lys, Coryanne Wylde only returned to Westeros only after exhausting all the world had to offer her and now Aeva wishes to take that as a life goal.

The first of her lovers had been Chan An of Yi-Ti, a merchant’s son she met in the Water Gardens after being told she’d marry her second cousin, Matarys, to produce the grandson Baelor Breakspear had desperately needed.

Brilliant--- as Chan An was called often--- was a handsome young man who took the maidenhead of a Princess and no one cared to make a fuss about it, after all it was Dorne and they were different from the rest of Westeros.

Less hypocritical, the princess was fond of saying.

Still, damaged goods or not, a Princess of Dorne and the Blood of the Dragon would always be drowning in suitors.

The princess had much to choose from, royal and low born, free and paid alike. Many a knight had come into her castle and left far too satisfied to care of what punishment would befall on them. Many a lady too.

One of her favorites, Luca of Tyrosh had introduced her to his Summer Islander Paramour, Aveline, and there was no other ship captain she sought for voyages across the Narrow Sea. Sometimes they invite Luca, and sometimes they invite others to partake in sin with them.

But nothing beats fucking the knight who crowns her his Queen of Love and Beauty. The flower crown in her hair, the virility of a man who fought for the privilege of bedding her, and the glorious fact she probably won’t see them again.

Unless it’s Aerion Brightflame who’s gone as far as to maim his competitors in hopes of forcing his father and her mother to marry them. They fucked once or twice, then she stopped fooling around with him when she saw he wanted to get caught, to impregnate her and make her his wife.

But the Princess knew all the tricks to avoid that fate and her cousin remained without the unlucky woman he’ll sire Maegor on.

This tourney brings many to Kingslanding, from the Last Hearth to Lemonwood, many young men to see if they can defeat Ser Duncan the Tall, the Sworn Shield of Prince Aegon. Not all show promise, but the ones that do are sure to give the Princess the champion she may take to her bed tonight.

[yourdailykitsch]

Taylor Kitsch and Josh Brolin on Shamans, Sweat Lodges, and Self-Transformation

Taylor Kitsch, photographed by Luca Bertea.

First, Taylor Kitsch moved to Montana. Then came a New Year’s Eve spent with a shaman, and now, a television show at the top of Netflix’s charts. But let’s rewind a bit. For the past two years, the Friday Night Lights alum has been getting into character. He lost 25 pounds, tracked wolves, and visited the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, all of which helped him embody the role of Isaac Reed, a Shoshone-raised white man whose contested past seeps through the cracks of history in the gritty Netflix Western American Primeval, set during the 1857 Utah War. “Some of the best work of my life is on the floor of this, and I think that’s what I struggle with,” Kitsch told longtime friend Josh Brolin, who was on set for the making of the limited series. “You were such a fucking champion for me, man.” After the show’s release, Kitsch called Brolin for moral support, again. This time, they talked about sweat lodges, shamans, and giving yourself over to a role.—EMMA STOUT

JOSH BROLIN: Tell me about your sickness and then we’ll work our way up from there.

TAYLOR KITSCH: So New Year’s Eve, I had this Native sweat lodge planned and I was hosting three of my good buddies. Jake Picking came in.

BROLIN: Really? That’s great. He seems so open to doing anything and everything.

KITSCH: His first Native sweat, and he needed it, too. I think everyone did. I had terrible back pain and these crazy headaches, but I rebounded long enough to be able to drive to the sweat lodge. Then I got home and it absolutely nailed me.

BROLIN: Do you think it was like whatever toxin living inside you and the sweat brought it all out?

KITSCH: I think so. There’s some energy I wanted to get out, obviously. But the shaman was like, “We don’t really have to read into this one. Whatever’s happening right now, it’s—”

BROLIN: It’s coming out.

KITSCH: Yeah.

BROLIN: That energy… I assume I know what it is. And that’s the idea of doing this limited series.

KITSCH: Yeah, you were there for some of it. It’s been a tough one, man.

BROLIN: Tell me why.

KITSCH: Because I cared so much. Not that that’s a problem, but it’s hard to let go. You have these ideals—you’re serving the Shoshone community— and you put in all that work. But it did really help me, understanding that it was my journey and it wasn’t. I put a little more responsibility on other people to service the same thing. That released a lot of tension because I’ve been torn up by it. 

BROLIN: It’s a very different subject. You and I did Only the Brave together, which meant a lot to me because I was a volunteer firefighter. I took that script to my chief, who’s a firefighter in Tucson, Arizona, and I asked him, like you would a shaman, “Do you think I can do this?” And he said, “I think you’re the only person who can do this.” But the point is, I cared so much about it that I needed somebody who I respected in the nucleus of that world to tell me that I could represent it well. And nobody saw that movie, by the way. That’s one of those things where you go, “I still served and cared and gave myself 1000%.”

KITSCH: You really did.

BROLIN: That’s all you can do. I saw the first two episodes and it blew me the fuck away, which I’ll get into. You care, though. That’s the point. You’re purging now because you care so much. You seem to be one of the most empathetic people that I know, way more than me. 

KITSCH: I don’t know.

BROLIN: Well, I give a shit about the role and the story and morale on set. But I think you take it super fucking personally, especially representing Native Americans. I had a whole relationship in my 20s with a shaman in Tucson that I was spending a lot of time with. I was doing sweats all the time—

KITSCH: Amazing.

BROLIN: It was amazing. Now, seeing you go through that, you seem like the most unapologetically vulnerable person that I know. When I hear about you tracking wolves in Montana, it makes sense to me. I go, “Yeah, it’s Kitsch. Fucking out there, doing his thing with a camera.” You want to get as close to the experience as you can, and that’s who I know you to be.

KITSCH: Man, when they asked for this interview, I was like, “There’s only one person we can truly ask.” Obviously, you helped me a lot during the shoot and being there. But to represent this process, which was quite intense, it makes you go down that road again. You were such a fucking champion for me, man. I remember I was feeling pretty shitty, and you knocked on the door. I was like, “Who the fuck?” And it was you and the girls waiting to come in and hang out. How are they doing?

BROLIN: They’re amazing. They’re bigger personalities than I am. They’ve taken over the world.

KITSCH: That’s a big feat, but damn.

BROLIN: Yeah, I know it was a tough time for you. You lost a ton of weight for the role. It felt like, “I don’t want this to be just another role. I want this to mean something.” I just wrote a book, and it’s a very unconventional book. 

KITSCH: Fucking right. I remember you reading a passage on the patio.

BROLIN: If you’re spoon-feeding people what they’re looking for, you can sell a lot of books. But if you write like I do, or act like you do, you’re picking roles for reasons that are very personal. You want to bleed. You want to earn it. I know it’s a rarity, but without that, what do you have? So when I see you in that place, there’s a part of me that’s happy because it’s like, “This tortured motherfucker, he’s fucking downward spiraling. But thank god you exist.” Tell me what the experience was like for you, because I watched it and I thought you were great. And I’m pissed that I can’t see more yet. It’s chaotic, it’s visceral, it’s violent, it’s hard to watch.

KITSCH: I think it should be all those. Man, it was a fucking roller coaster. The Shoshone and learning a lot of that—

BROLIN: Learning the language.

KITSCH: Yeah, it changed my perspective a lot. Working with the advisors and the dialect coaches, getting an opportunity to do something so raw in a period where most fights ended hand to hand, I loved it. There’s no karate chopping, no spinning wheel kicks. 

BROLIN: That fight that you have with that guy is fucking amazing. You’re like, “Oh my god, somebody must have gotten hurt.” And you don’t get that a lot when you watch those movies.

KITSCH: No. I mean, when the Native jumps off that cliff, it’s so practical to just roll cameras. We padded—not literal pads—but just put more snow and cleared out the rocks in the little passage towards the river. He was like, “Make your way over to that riverbed.”

BROLIN: And that’s it?

KITSCH: Yeah. I mean, that guy was huge too. He probably had 80 pounds on me. Big boy.

BROLIN: You had lost how much weight? 

KITSCH: 25 [lbs]. I just wanted Isaac to outwill you. He wasn’t the biggest guy. He kind of wanted to die, but had to honorably go. So that’s why he fought the way he fought. It was more of his will than just his strength or knowing how to really fight. That was fun. Betty Gilpin is incredible, and Shea Whigham.

BROLIN: Shea is great. And who’s the main girl? I don’t know her very well, but I thought she was great.

KITSCH: Yeah, Betty Gilpin. A gamer who’s just uninhibited and really prepared.

BROLIN: Are you happy the way it turned out?

KITSCH: I mean—

BROLIN: Have you watched the whole thing?

KITSCH: Yeah.

BROLIN: You’re still in it, man. If you said you were happy the way it turned out, I would be suspect. There’s only one movie I’ve ever done that I’m happy it turned up.

KITSCH: Oh my god, really?

BROLIN: Yeah. And that was No Country [For Old Men]. I thought it was going to be a joke.

KITSCH: You know No Country is top three for me.

BROLIN: I didn’t know that. But I want to take this in another direction because I don’t know if people know what you do. You live in Montana, and you haven’t lived in Los Angeles for a long time. Why? 

KITSCH: I think it’s a little self-preservation. Knowing yourself well enough to know what you need. A lot of it actually goes back to what raised me, the things I know, with the ranch and everything. I was riding my moto through Yellowstone and I was like, “Oh, I love this place.” Next year, we put it on the trip again. I’m like, “Oh, man, Bozeman’s a fucking cool town.” Then all of a sudden you’re in Austin, Texas, in your dream home and you feel like you should be there now. You just answer to it.

BROLIN: That’s where you’re different—most people don’t answer to it. Most people go, “God, I went to Bozeman. That was really cool. I’d like to live there someday, but I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing because it’s comfortable.” Going back to the stoics, it’s like, “Comfort is your enemy.” You get complacent, you get lazy, and you start worrying about what the size of your trailer is. 

KITSCH: Truly.

BROLIN: How do you represent humanity if you’re doing that? Because that’s not humanity.

KITSCH: Especially with [American] Primeval, I met a guy who lost everything. His dad passed when I was playing a guy in mourning, which was kind of fucking crazy. But while I was prepping, it meant more. I was like, “This is all they had.” Family was their education, their language, their heritage.

BROLIN: And there’s no decision to even use that. 

KITSCH: Right. I didn’t need to. I had done all the work. I tell you, some of the best work of my life is on the floor of this, and I think that’s what I struggle with. But to that point I made earlier, just because the world won’t see it doesn’t mean you didn’t serve it. I think I told you this, but I cried more in that one scene than I did when I lost my fucking dad—

BROLIN: Yeah, you did.

KITSCH: The energy of the Shoshone and what they’ve gone through, I felt like they were with me. It was really a beautiful thing. But, I don’t know, I go back and forth. When you’re prepping, you see it in your head. You see the arc, and you see these moments. Of course, there’s going to be some beautiful ones that are unexpected. But when you feel your service didn’t go towards something, it feels like, “I just gave up two years of my life, got this fucking bone cut out of my foot, did all this crazy shit”—

BROLIN: And you go, “For what?” But there’s no version of this, I think, that ever would’ve gone, “Fuck, I’m psyched how it turned out. It’s perfect.” It just doesn’t work like that. I used to do this thing where people would say, “Hey, I saw you in this.” And I would just shit on their reaction. After 40 years, I don’t do that anymore. My business is to do what I do and care about it and give myself to it entirely. When it’s over, I’ve got to deal with my own demons. You don’t know how people are going to be affected by it. I was affected. My wife, by the way, saw it with me, and she was super into it.

KITSCH: Betty, she’s the audience.

BROLIN: What movies have you seen that you’ve liked lately?

KITSCH: Fuck, I’ve been watching a lot of these true-crime docs. It’s so hard not to get so invested in those. I just watched the Jude Law one with the white supremacist. He’s terrific in it.

BROLIN: Really?

KITSCH: I like to see him just unabashedly fucking gritty. The Order, it’s called.

BROLIN: I was way behind on movies, and I saw a movie called Sing Sing last night.

KITSCH: I know that movie.

BROLIN: It takes place at Sing Sing, which is one of the oldest prisons in the United States, and it’s based on this guy who was in prison for robbery for 17 years. He started a theater community in the prison, so he wrote it. He plays a supporting part, and I met him on Jimmy Kimmel. I was bawling.

KITSCH: No shit. So why are you in London?

BROLIN: I left my family. I am just tired of it. I just want to be alone. You know what I’m saying?

KITSCH: You’re just in a white-out hotel room in London.

BROLIN: It was funny because I came in here to get my key and the guy goes, “Can I tell you something? The room you’re in is Ridley Scott’s favorite room.” I go, “I don’t care, it’s my favorite room.” It was such a funny thing to impart. But I’m filming Running Man with Edgar Wright.

KITSCH: Fucking yeah.

BROLIN: It’s fun. I like him. He’s weird, and I like weird.

KITSCH: Unreal, man. Congrats. You’re there for a while then, huh?

BROLIN: I’m here for three weeks, and then I’m out.

KITSCH: I love it. They’re shooting you out.

BROLIN: They’re shooting me out, and I get back home.

KITSCH: You deserve that, by the way. Fucking right.

BROLIN: I got to get back to my motorcycles and my children. My children were going to be here and then at the last moment I was like, “For real I’m going to be working the whole time. It’s super cold right now. You’re going to be walking in the rain looking at parks and shit.”

KITSCH: Darkness. Are these sets just insane?

BROLIN: Insane. And I was just here doing Knives Out with Rian Johnson.

KITSCH: I met him a couple times now and I hear he’s fucking awesome.

BROLIN: He’s literally my new favorite person. The most unassuming guy who has total control over his set. He sits there smoking a cigar every morning. And I go, “Why don’t you wait until night?” He says, “I don’t know, I just like them in the morning.” He’s completely his own self. But yeah, I’ve been working in London a lot, and I like it here. I love the culture, and I love fucking with the people. It’s all good.

KITSCH: That Imperial War Museum is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s just incredible there.

BROLIN: Yeah, it’s really something. I love you, pal.

KITSCH: Love you, man. Thanks for doing this.

BROLIN: I think you did fucking phenomenal. You continue to be amazing, and you’re one of those people that gives themselves entirely. You’ll be all scraped up and scarred up by the time you get to the end of your life, and I’ll be there laughing.

KITSCH: That means a lot.

[elkdiaries]

stranger things summer headcanons because tis the season

mike is that stubborn idiot who halfway gets heatstroke from wearing twelve layers of clothing in the 90 degree heat.

lucas and max are carnival CHAMPIONS. they go on all the rides, eat all the cotton candy. once they’re in there, they won’t leave until it closes for the night.

will really likes swimming. however, he prefers the lake over the pool, because it’s less crowded. he ends up teaching swimming lessons to all the toddlers over break, and mothers love him to death for how gentle he is.

dustin and erica have a weekly tradition of loitering around family video on saturdays. it’s one of their busiest days, so their annoyance has put (the very prone to distraction) robin and steve’s job’s in jeopardy too many times. keith watches them with a very keen eye, once proclaiming to dustin that he’ll have his head if there’s any further funny business.

at the beginning of the warmer months, max likes to get an extremely short haircut to avoid the heat.

mike’s incessant boredom always has him picking up new hobbies, or enhancing the ones he has over the summer. he’ll learn to make friendship bracelets, or to skateboard with max’s spare (on the off chance she lets him), or write half a novel.

el became a daily patron of their local ice cream store the very second that max explained to her what a waffle cone was.

lucas once caught dustin watching my little pony with his sister, and while his confusion and nonstop laughter was prominent at first, he was very quickly thrown into the viewing. the three now meet up as often as they can to watch together.

mike works at the movie theatre, partly for the money, but mostly because he likes knowing first which new horror and fantasy movies are coming to hawkins. his vast knowledge delights will, and improves their movie visits together.

erica built a treehouse a little ways away from her house, which is the frequent location of midnight ghost stories galore with her friends.

the byers’ yard is vast and empty, the perfect location for bonfires. whenever possible, the whole party bands together to throw a bonfire bash, complete with jonathan’s killer smore’s.

while dustin goes to camp know where in june, lucas attends a basketball camp. there, his investment in the game grows, and he’s able to make a ton of friends who show him awesome tricks and techniques.

[ferrstappen]

world champion/twins dad l Max Verstappen x reader

love note: HELLO LOVIESSSS! How are you all? it's been such a long time and for that I am so deeply sorry. To be honest it's not that I don't want to write because I've been dying to but for some reason inspiration just doesn't seem to come, but this request made me weak and awakened my mind a bit so I hope you enjoy it <3

i do feel up for little blurbs or scenarios if you want to come to my ask box and we can daydream endlessly <3

summary: the tragic chains of events before Luca Verstappen started feeling terrible. (dad!Max)

Mila & Luca Verstappen, age 6. Zandvoort.

Max warned Luca about the incoming rain the moment he noticed him shrugging off the official Red Bull rain jacket, favoring the tailored track jacket from the Dutch GP collection with his last name and dad’s number on the back, but of course his carbon copy complained, retaliating with things he learned in school, usually when it rains there’s clouds and it’s cold, and right now Luca Verstappen was seeing with his own two blue eyes the sun shining outside.

He repeated the same explanation when you told him he needed to wear his jacket.

“Your dad lived here, he knows the weather. Listen to him and out on the jacket,” you dictated before fixing Mila’s hair under her special Dutch GP cap.

Max shrugged before facing Luca, “You listened to mama, jacket it is! And I can’t be late so hurry up,” Luca huffed while grabbing and putting on the Red Bull jacket.

It seemed as if everyone was waiting for Max’s arrival to the track because the flashes were blinding, the tens listening to their papa when he told them to cover their faces. Knowing you wouldn’t be seeing much of Max today and taking advantage on the twins covered eyes you decided to leave a kiss on his lips, whispering congratulations on his full lips.

You grabbed the twins hands as Max made sure the cap covered most of Mila’s face and only showed part of her curls, but of course Luca still wasn’t convinced with the jacket.

“Papa, it itches,” Luca complained and you could still listen to the flashes and screams of your family surname.

“It’s a rain jacket, Luca. It’s not it itchy, and I am not requesting you to put it on, I am telling you to do it or I am going to do it,” Max never needed to change his voice or posture when reprimanding the kids, but usually his choice of words were enough to command the twins to comply.

That’s how you ended up in the Red Bull hospitality, with Luca running his hands through his hair after taking off the infamous jacket and letting the smell of caramel fill his nostrils.

Soon enough, stroopwafels were being served to the attendees, and especially everyone offering one to the Verstappen twins walking hand in hand, always supervised by you, or their grandmother, or their great grandmother.

"Mila, you can't say no to a stroopwafel," Luca told his sister showing off his dutch, especially since their Oma and super Oma were limiting English while in Holland.

"I am full so I am not accepting more food, Luca," Mila informed his brother as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"If you don't want them, give them to me,"

That was the first thing that went wrong.

The second one was when everybody was focused on the final laps before the red flag, your eyes glued to the screen and ears fully focused on Max’s radio. The perfect moment for Luca to take off the obnoxious jacket.

Thats when everything went wrong.

Max and you were woken up at the same time; head pounding from the celebrations and clothes thrown somewhere on the floor, but it didn't stop you from hearing your son crying while throwing up, waking his sister up in the process.

"Sweetheart, get dressed oh my God," Max said throwing you one of his shirts as he put on his discarded boxers before making your way to the twins bathroom.

You stayed with Mila, calming her down and assuring her nothing was wrong and his brother probably ate something and his body was reacting, while closely listening to Max comforting Luca trying to assure him he was going to feel better eventually.

You thought that was it, but of course it wasn't, because now neither you nor Max were sure of the headache was because of the adrenaline, the drinks or the lack of sleep from Luca's constant vomiting.

Gross.

But that was how you learned that it wasn't just the stroopwafels. The small version of Max Verstappen had a severe case of sweet tooth and didn't deny himself the flavors from his country with fresh poffertjes, a couple of pannenkoeken with sweet toppings, were on the top of Mila's head as you tried to understand how a six year old managed to fit so much food on his stomach.

Then came the fever and the dull pain in his ears.

The first thing you managed was to go back to Monte Carlo, at least that way he’d be sick on his own room and own place, where the older and more tired Jim and Sass would fall asleep on the feet of his bed.

For some miracle, the twins had managed to fall asleep during the short flight, allowing you to snuggle into Max’s side, who pulled a thick blanket on top to cover both your bodies, resting his head on top of yours while he enjoyed the relaxed motion of your fingertips drawing shapes on his shoulder.

“Max?” You softly pronounced his name, he softly groaned in acknowledgement. “When did we decide to have children?” You asked and Max laughed with his eyes closed.

He opened his blue eyes and left a kiss on you lips before he started falling asleep again, mumbling that maybe you two weren’t the best with decision making.

“Do you think we should leave M with the sitter and bring Luca to the ER?” Max questioned, this time it wasn’t your playful husband, it was the worried dad, the one who decided to leave his home celebrations, enjoying being the home hero with his entire family, the well deserved late nights partying after equaling Sebastian’s record.

“I’ll call the doctor but don’t worry, you have a couple of days to rest before Monza, and we weren’t even supposed to come back home so just enjoy the quiet days,” you kissed his temple. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to Holland? You know I’ll manage with the kids,”

“Don’t even say that again, i’m sorry I didn’t keep an eye on him, he didn’t listen to me and didn’t use the fucking jacket and then ate his entire weight on sugar,” Max sounded truly disappointed in himself.

“Are you going to make me tell you that you were working and barely had a moment to take a breath? Don’t be stupid, honey,” you said and Max smiled.

“I love it when you tell me off but call me honey,” He dedicated you his best sleepy smile.

A car was waiting for you in Nice to take you home, Max getting ahead of you and calling the twins doctor, and of course as soon as he saw the pale looks of the usually flushed Luca, his droopy eyes and constant shivering, he gave him some medication and gave the very stern order: no flying for Luca Verstappen until his ear infection was gone, meaning the plans for your family to go to Monza were postponed until further notice.

Little did you know that Mila was already plotting the tears to attend Monza, regardless of his brother’s illness.

[kkqueergurl]

I don’t dance (or does he?) an essay by me

It’s no secret that the High School Musical Movies are favorites amongst Gen Z and Millennials alike. Written by Peter Barsocchini and directed by Kenny Ortaga, the movies made roughly around 1 billion dollars. With fans across the world, this Disney Channel Original franchise has quickly turned into a classic. 

The second movie became one of high debate, with energetic numbers like Fabulous, and heartfelt songs like Everyday. And one number in particular, a fan favorite at the climax of the movie, titled I Don't Dance. 

When Ryan has a fight with his sister, he joins his fellow Wildcats at the staff baseball game. There, he sees Chad and the other jocks in baseball uniforms. He greets them and apologizes about the talent show. They say that without Troy, there was no way they’d get up on the stage and dance, but Ryan disagrees. He makes a remark about how if he can play baseball, then the boys could dance. Chad asks as Ryan turns around if he “has game” and Ryan smiles saying he has a little. The camera then cuts to a dance number in the field, where the two boys are on opposing teams, and are often playing directly opposite each other. At the end of the number the boys end their song with Ryan hitting the ball, and sliding into the base, but at the same Chad appears, and tags him out. Ryan stands up, admitting defeat. He starts to leave the field but not before Chad can stop him, asking “If I were to do the talent show, what would you have me do?” And Ryan can be seen smirking in the corner. 

But the specific scene that got people talking was the next scene, where we see the two sitting at a picnic table, practically on top of each other, sharing a tray of fries. Chad seemed to be in Ryan’s white t-shirt, and blue newsboy cap. And Ryan was in Chad’s red baseball uniform and hat. Chad asks what Ryan ment about “a little game” and Ryan laughs saying he had been a little league champion when he was younger. Chad uses the distracted moment to steal a fry and stare at his friend.

This caused an uproar with fans bombarding the cast and team about it. Most complained about how the two didn’t get a love story, or any closure for that matter. Those complaints started rumors on how they thought Ryan could possibly be queer. Going off looks, the character is almost always in tight pants and small tops, accessorized with a hat of some kind. Or off mannerisms, Ryan is a gifted dancer and choreographer, and talks in a higher register than the other guys. It didn’t help that he never was shown dancing with any other girls. He was almost always paired with his sister, Sharpay. 

 The directing team decided that Disney wasn’t ready for an openly gay character like that, so in the third movie they had him take another character that had caused some controversy, Kelsi, to senior prom. The two had been shown hanging out in many scenes before that, but none romantic. Even his promposal was quick and more like two friends joking around. 

Fans turned to Chad for more evidence on this possible love affair. And they looked at the lyrics of I Don't Dance. It almost came across as a metaphor for sexuality. He didn’t want to dance (a typically queer hobby) even though he enjoyed it, because of his reputation as a jock (a typically straight hobby). A lyric that specifically comes to mind is when he says “I’ll show you how I swing.” While looking right at Ryan, smirking. The line seemed to have some sort of sexual meaning behind it. But that one is just a theory. 

In 2020, the director, Kenny Ortaga said he could see Ryan coming out in college. And how he hadn’t even thought fans would take it that way. Because even working with Disney, it wouldn't have been possible at that time. But in the sequel show, fans were given closure when Lucas Grabeel, who played Ryan in the movies, said Ryan was happily partnered “with twins on the way”. 

While this wasn’t what fans were hoping for, it was better than Disney just pretending they hadn’t unknowingly written one of the best queer love stories without the characters even kissing.

[sweetdispatch]

Completed person - N. Hischier

When Two Sports Collide | previous chapter

timeline: June 2024 - September 2024

summary: Lisa and Nico were spending every single moment together until she had to left for the Olympic Games but even after this competition, they were glued to each other

warning: mentions of sex

words: 1.3k

note: are we ready to say goodbye to Lisa and Nico?

---

The next week after Gyor’ win was tiring. Lisa and her teammates had to do plenty of media and different gatherings with fans and sponsors. Nico was by her side all the time patiently waiting to go on vacation with her. Two of them decided to visit Italy during the holidays before Lisa had to go back to Norway and train with the team to prepare for the Olympic Games. The couple spent two weeks in Italy travelling, laughing, eating lots of pasta and drinking wine.

lisa.pedersen

liked by nicohischier and 5633 others

lisa.pedersen Italy, you have pretty views but I have the prettiest view in front of me and it's Swiss one❤️

nicohischier I have even prettier Norwegian view next to me❤️

charlotteolsen i miss you two!!!!!

24 June 2024

To Lisa’ surprise, Nico decided to go to Norway with her. He knew about her busy schedule but wanted to have her by his side all the time he could. As much as she loved the idea, she was scared he might keep her distracted. 

“I promise, I won’t be bothering you. As soon as you leave for the camp, I’ll return to Switzerland. For now, you’re only gonna be in the gym and running. I want to spend the time we have before each of us will go back to their clubs” Nico tried to explain to her.

“I’m grateful for that offer but I’m not sure. You know how much this means for me to win the gold and I need to be as much prepared as I can” Lisa said. 

“You can’t live only in the gym babe. You need a rest and I’ll be more than happy to help you with that”

“Fine but if I feel overwhelmed by your presence, you’re going back home” Lisa laughed.

Next few weeks Lisa and Nico spent most of the time training. She was getting in shape before the Olympic Games while Nico was preparing for his season. As he said, he was helping Lisa relax. She started having memories from the Olympic Games in Tokyo where they lost in the semi final but he was giving her pep talks every time he saw that she’s into her head, overthinking it again. 

“Lisa, you need to let it go. This was three years ago. You’re great athlete and that was your one mistake”

“But it was a huge mistake!” Lisa argued back.

“That doesn’t change anything. Look, you were training so hard in the last years that I’m confident that you’re gonna bring the gold home. Don’t let this go into your head because you’ll be spiralling instead of focusing on what’s important now” Nico hugged her.

“It’s not that simple, I don’t want to fail again and disappoint the whole country” Lisa sobbed. Being so vulnerable was bizarre for her but she trusted Nico and wasn’t afraid of showing it.

“And you won’t. You’re gonna smash out there. I know it” He kissed her lips.

First game of the Olympic Games hasn't gone like Lisa was hoping for. They lost to Sweden and she started to have doubts if they are capable of winning the medal. The rest of the games went smoothly in the group phase and they got first place. In the quarterfinal, Norway won against Brazil and easily went to the semifinal. There, they won against Denmark and it was time for the final.

Lisa and the rest of her team were excited. So close to getting the gold but still so far. In the final, they were facing France. Last year, when Norway played against them, they lost in the final of the World Championship. All the girls were extra motivated to win this game. First half was tight but in the second one, Norway took a huge lead and didn’t let it go. The result showed 29:21 and Lisa could call herself an Olympic champion. Not only she won but also was named to the All Star Team.

Lottie, Nico, Nina and Luca had been here watching the final. They screamed with joy seeing Lisa fulfilling her dreams. When Nico saw that his girlfriend had been named to the All Star Team of the tournament, he cried. He knew how tough it was for her to get rid of the thoughts from Tokyo and watching her accepting the award with gold around her neck was incredible. After the final, Lisa went to see them knowing that they came to see her. 

“My friend is Olympic champion” Lottie screamed and hugged Lisa tightly. Nina and Luca also congratulated her. Then Nico came to her and lifted her up while hugging. She laughed at this act.

“I’m so proud of you” He placed a kiss on her lips. 

“Wouldn’t do it without your pep talks” She grabbed his face and kissed him again. He put her back on the ground when Lottie spoke.

“You know that you’re the youngest player to ever achieve that?” 

“I’m not. Silje is a year younger than me” Lisa said, confused.

“I don’t mean winning the Olympic Games. I mean winning everything” Lisa looked at her still not knowing what she meant. “Girl, you won the European championship, World Championship, Champions League, Norwegian League and now the Olympic Games. You are the youngest player to win all the important competitions!” Lottie said excitedly.

“I am?” Lisa was shocked. “Oh my Gosh, I am!” 

“We have to celebrate this” Nina announced. 

“Tomorrow, I promise. We still have the closing ceremony and I can’t go there drunk” Lisa joked and everyone laughed. Nico felt nothing more than pride, especially after hearing what Lottie said.

lisa.pedersen

liked by nicohischier and 5749 others

lisa.pedersen We are Olympic champions! We did it girls❤️

charlotteolsen OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!

nicohischier I'm so proud of you❤️

11 August 2024

As Lisa said, the next day they went to celebrate her achievements in one of the Paris clubs. She and Nico were touchy with each other and ended up hooking up in the bathroom. This was messy and drunk sex but this is exactly what they needed after a month of not seeing each other. Lisa woke up with a huge hangover and regretted this party the minute she was on the plane to Norway. 

Lottie, Nico and his siblings returned to Switzerland and waited for Lisa’ arrival. Norway won and she had to do all the media appearances but the most important thing was meeting the king of Norway who congratulated all the Olympic athletes. Gyor gave Lisa two more free weeks and she decided to spend them with Nico back in Switzerland before he left Europe.

Lisa felt bad for ditching on Lottie and being with Nico and his family but she understood it. She knows that he’s leaving soon and she can go and visit Lisa anytime in Hungary. Nico’s parents adored Lisa and were thankful that his son finally found a normal girl. The way he was looking at her, with such a love was all they wanted to see in his eyes. He fell for her really badly. 

September started and it was time to leave. Lisa had to return to Hungary because her summer was over. She didn't want to leave Nico’ side. Being with him felt too good to be true. He drove her to the airport and they sat in the car, looking at the building. 

“I don’t want to leave you” Lisa sighed.

“I know, I don’t want to leave you too but we have to. We know the prize of our relationship” Nico grabbed her hand. “When you get back to trainings, the time will fly fast and in no time we’ll see each other again” 

“How do you always know what to say?” She laughed.

“Talent” He pulled her into a kiss. “As much as I would love to stay here, we have to go” 

Lisa cried when she and Nico shared a final hug. Now, they have to wait another 8 months before they’ll meet again. 

…Or maybe not? 

---

final chapter