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necroromantics · 10 months ago

Text

🧺 — Laundry And Taxes

chapter 15. // (masterlist)

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Nina exclaimed, pulling her pink knitted scarf over her mouth as she waved goodbye to her coworker, pushing past the front glass door and out onto the windy streets painted by early springtime frost. The girl made her way down the bustling downtown roads, the soft chill reddening her puffy cheeks as she quickened her pace. As she passed by the townhouses and little local shops, Nina glanced up towards a particular apartment and noticed a large red sign swinging with the strong breeze, the words reading in a blocky white: “FOR RENT”. She stopped her in tracks, heart beating a little faster, her honey doe eyes sparkling in the sun that barely peeked from behind the cloudy skies overhead. A large smile etched its way onto her face, an eager sort of excitement creeping up from her chest. She ran all the way home that late afternoon.

Nina scrambled into the living room of that tiny, quiet farmhouse, nearly tripping over her own feet as she slid and hopped over to the two boys sitting on the torn up couch, watching whatever channel was blaring on the old TV. Chris turned his head over towards his erratic sister, and Toby raised an eyebrow at the girl as well.

“I found a place to move into,” she shouted out, beaming as bright as rave lights.

The loud thud of the box echoed throughout her new, and empty, apartment as Toby dropped it down onto the hardwood floor. Bold black letters announced itself atop the cardboard flaps holding everything in place, reading in bubbly cursive: “Ninas Stuff”. Chris wandered through the tiny apartment, his quick footsteps pattering as he ran through the halls and into the rooms, playing with no one but himself.

“How’s it feel to finally have your own place?” Toby asked, looking at the girl who was deep in thought.

“It feels so good, really freeing. I was thinking of getting a loveseat to put over here, and then I can put the TV there. I want like, a flatscreen or something, yknow?”

Toby watched as she slowly made her way around the living room area, gesturing her hands out to show where she was picturing everything would go. As Nina continued to talk, Toby slowly made his way over to the window, and peered out over the street.

“You gotta be careful too. Don’t forget that anyone can break in,” he interrupted.

“Duh, I’m not stupid,” she grumbled back, “can you not talk to me like I'm useless?”

Nina crossed her arms and stared at the boy, who continued to look out of the window. The muffled sound of cars speeding past, engines roaring outside, and people loudly chatting amongst themselves as they walked by, filled the open air.

“I’m just being realistic,” Toby said, turning to face back at the girl who was glaring daggers at him.

“You’re not being realistic, you’re just being an asshole.”

Toby shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the door, the old flooring creaking under his steps, the ambience of the streets outside pouring into the silent apartment.

“Make sure to lock the door,” he said as he tried his best to ignore Nina’s irritated pouting from behind him.

As he walked through the downtown area, the boy tried not to think too much about the junkies riding past on stolen bikes, or the men with tattoos of gang symbols. He tried not to look at the same type of people he’d meet back in the old world. Not proxies, not ghosts or ghouls, but something worse. It was a different type of society living in the cracks between buildings, in alleyways and unassuming houses. It was something normal people wouldn’t bat an eye at; but he knew. He knew the types of things that go on in areas like these, it was something he’s experienced many times before, in the old world. Toby continued down the street, past the old, rotting buildings, the ones with chipped paint and smashed in windows. He scowled a warning at anyone who looked at him as he walked past the old brick buildings tagged with graffiti and boards on the windows. It was early into the chilly evening, but late enough where certain types of people would be around more often than not. Toby made sure he never left the house without a pocket knife, just in case.

When he approached the run-down bar, the neon light sign overhead giving out, poorly flickering the name “Bulldog Tavern”, the boy thought he should’ve felt a sort of ease of his nerves that he didn’t. When he pushed past the door, and into the dim pub, wooden floors, wooden tables, warm light shining off of the bottles on the shelf, people gathering in after their shifts at work, music blaring, his nerves only got worse. There was a red neon sign illuminating itself on the beam over the bar counter, giving off a soft glow down onto the bartender, who Toby knew better than anyone.

Natalie wore her hair back, sleeves rolled up, apron on. She had a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face; the fake kind she’d use when she wanted something. To Toby, it was almost terrifying, like the horrible smile a predator would give before devouring its prey. And he knew better than anyone that when that girl smiles at you like that, you’re better off running away.

Toby casually made his way into the bar, watching as Natalie chatted casually with some customers who seemed to have already had too much to drink. They were a group of five, maybe six, and they were a rowdy bunch. The older men sported thick graying beards, some bald, wearing vests and jackets with familiar patches. The boy sat at the front bar, a few seats away from the loud drunken men, and watched quietly as Natalie served them another round of beers. He furrowed his brow at the sight, arms crossed as he leaned into the counter, trying to make sure the girl didn’t fall out of his view. Every roar of laughter, insult, tone change, cuss word, made Toby squeeze his fist shut. He didn’t know why it made him so tense; he didn’t know why he could do nothing but glare and sit alone with irritation choking him.

Toby continued to stare without a word as Natalie wiped down cups from across the bar, the tiredness on her face being quickly replaced with a fake-warm friendliness whenever one of the men dragged her back into the conversation. Showing off, flirting, making a big scene, tossing her around in their bad jokes like she was a ragdoll. She laughed her fake laugh, a loud cackle laugh, as if the jokes they had made were funny. As if the stories of crime and violence they told meant anything. And when she finally glanced over towards the boy, and noticed his familiar scowl, she just as quickly dropped the act.

“What’re you doing here?” Natalie asked, making her way over to Toby as he continued to look at her with disdain tracing his face.

“I was just in the area helping Nina move in. How's work?”

“Work’s great. You look stressed, need a beer?”

“Sure.”

Natalie grabbed a bottle from a little fridge under the counter and popped the cap off, handing it over to the boy, who immediately took a heavy swig of the drink as soon as it reached his hand.

“I’m off in an hour if you want to go home,” she said.

“I’ll wait.”

The girl looked down at Toby for a moment, before sighing in surrender at his stubbornness, and walking back over to the lively section of the bar. She continued to make drinks for new customers, reapplying her charm and take-no-shit attitude the locals seemed to love. Toby took another sip of his beer as he kept a close eye on her. Smiling, laughing, raising her eyebrow. Taking no shit.

The boy tapped his finger impatiently on the empty beer bottle, his dark eyes still fixed into his usual glare. He waited and listened to the men talk about the same things he had witnessed in the old world. Bar fights, petty theft, guns, money, drinking too much on a Thursday night. Toby watched as Natalie’s coworker came in, tapping her on the shoulder and taking her apron from her. He waited impatiently as she made her way into the back room, letting her hair down, and grabbing her coat.

She met Toby outside of the bar, the night skies dark, only illuminated by the warm glow of street lamps shining down on them as they walked down the street, and past business lights pouring out from the boarded up windows. The boy matched her pace as she slowed to light a cigarette, perching it in between her overworked fingers.

“You seemed to be making some interesting friends,” Toby said.

“I’m just doing my job,” she muttered as she took another long drag of smoke, inhaling the mountains into her dying lungs.

“Yeah, cozying up to guys like that. Definitely in the job description.”

“What is your problem?”

“I’m just saying that those types act all tough, but I bet you they’re all too pussy to do half the shit I’ve done.”

“You haven’t done anything in this world, Toby,” Natalie said in annoyance, brushing the boy off as she continued to walk down the darkened streets of downtown.

As he followed behind her, he had come to the terrible realization that the girl was right. The dreadful truth that everything he had become, everything that he had seen, committed — none of it was done in the world they walked in now. Toby had never intended to become what he was. A killer, a weapon, a false prophet. He knew nothing of peace, or time, only that he had lived through a war that no longer existed. And he wasn't even left with the scars to prove it.

As they entered into the moonlit serenity of their home, the pale light settled on the old floorboards, Natalie quickly made her way into the bathroom to run herself a bath, while Toby sat down in the livingroom to watch cable TV. He pressed his thumb down on the remote, the screen flashing on to a news channel which had been in the middle of discussing local politics. The boy leaned back into the couch, half-watching the nonsense plastered on the television. His eyes fell heavy as he barely processed the words the woman discussed with another man on screen. As his body grew tired, melting into the couch cushions that cradled him, Toby continued to listen as the news channel switched from local politics, to local crimes. There was a sour taste in the boy's mouth that grew more and more as he began to listen intently to the woman explaining that the horrific failed break and enter last month that left one child dead, and a family devastated, was still under investigation. And that anyone with information should call the number that proceeded to flash on screen.

The world around him fell as short as his breath, as if the room had taken a step back. Toby watched the news like he, himself, was trapped behind a TV screen. There was a soft tightness gripping the heart beating in his chest as the number was announced once again through muffled noise that didn’t process properly in the boy's brain.

Call the number if you have any information on the crime.

The horrific crime.

The one that left a child dead, and a family devastated.

Toby felt the room spin around him as he wondered how many people called numbers about his crimes. He wondered how many children he left dead, how many families were devastated. He felt the couch cushion swallow him whole as the world slipped past him, the news switching to commercial break.

Call your insurance company today.

Call your doctor about the newest heart medication.

Call your mother.

Call the number if you have any information on the crime.

The sudden, loud blare of the house phone ringing out shattered through the glass box Toby found himself in, yanking him back into reality. It stopped for a moment, the boy thought he must’ve imagined it, before another loud drill of the phone rolled across the heavy air of the living room. Like it was taunting him, like it knew what he had done, or not done. Not here. Not yet.

Toby brought himself to his feet and slowly made his way over to the ringing phone, he barely felt the floor under him as he stepped down. He barely felt the button under his finger as he pressed the answer key.

“Hello?”

Silence. The quiet infomercials danced around in the space behind him.

Call about the newest product.

Call for more information.

“Hello?” He asked again, unsure if he had actually said it the first time.

Silence again. Toby waited, not saying another word as he counted the seconds that passed in his head, the soft static buzzing from the other end of the call. The long air of silence lingered, draping itself over the time that had been passing the boy by as he stood, awaiting a voice on the other line. He thought about what he would’ve said if he heard his mother on the other end, screaming a sob as loud as he remembered the other woman did through the broken window pane that dreadful night; wailing about how her baby died, her poor child. Toby thought about how much his mother must’ve cried alone after Lyra died. And how much more after he left her behind. And still, the silence screeched through the call, suffocating him. The room twisted mercilessly around him, Toby felt himself losing his footing, he tightened his grip around the phone, hoping it would offer some sort of support if he fell. He felt his chest strain so tight, he couldn’t seem to breathe.

“Toby?” A familiar voice rang out.

“H-hello?”

“What are you doing?” Natalie said, standing in the doorway of the living room, hair wet, freshly changed into pajamas. Toby quickly hung up the phone and placed it back onto the holder, shaking his head.

“Nothing, I thought we had a call but it was just silence.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” the boy said as he walked past her, avoiding her raised eyebrow and crossed arms. Avoiding her demanding voice, the silence that fell around it, and the infomercials quietly playing on the TV behind him.

Call the number if you have any information on the crime.

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julemmaes · 3 years ago

Note

ahem... cassian taking nesta to that bookstore (fluff, don’t try making shit sad aight?)

Our First Non-Date

SURPRISE I GUESS!!

Nessian Archeron x Cassian

You can find the first part here.

A/N: this month has been really nice on me. I finally feel better, not crying every day for literally nothing and I wanna dedicate this to my fren Sim (@perseusannabeth) cause homegirl just finished the offcampus series and she's grieving. I know she is. So yep. Take some Nessian fluff

And Nina, I had to add some angsty parts, but they're not Irene Angst Level, okay?

Word count: 6,833

When Cassian had called her back the night after their outing with Amren and Varian, she'd stared at the phone for a full minute until it had stopped ringing and she could go back to reading the article on poisonous plants that Elain had sent her.

It hadn't even been five minutes before the words had been obscured from the call screen again and the name "Cassian Navarro" appeared.

When she had ignored the call for the second time as well, he had decided to change tactics.

Hi Nes, I was thinking about when you'd be free to go to the library. I need a couple of manuals because I'm building a little gazebo in Rhys and Feyre's garden and your sister is putting a lot of pressure on me, so I was wondering if you had the day off tomorrow.

Nesta was stunned at the amount of useless information he had given her, but managed to reply with a simple, Working tomorrow, day off on Wednesday. Sending you the address later.

She certainly hadn't anticipated how hard it would be to get up that day, her will to live must have been hiding somewhere under her bed and Nesta didn't know if it was directly related to their going out or just her stupid brain not being able to connect to real life.

The only other worst thing she'd been able to think of at that moment was having to explain to Cassian what was going on, so, pulled out of bed by the future embarrassment they'd feel in such a situation, she'd managed to dress, wash and style her hair so that she had a braid crowning her head.

She hadn't put too much effort into deciding what to wear, after all, it wasn't a date and Cassian had seen her many times before in far more outrageous and scruffy clothes than the comfortable black jeans and grey jumper she was wearing right now.

The silence had made her uncomfortable at first, only because Cassian seemed to be really stressed - about what, she certainly wouldn't ask - but after about ten minutes, he'd turned on the radio and popped a CD into the player and the melody of a Verve song had filled the cabin.

She'd started humming under her breath and he'd looked at her with a faint smile on his lips and his eyes sparkling. She hadn't mulled over that look too much, but she'd started eyeing him more closely and noticed the way he narrowed his eyes at every street sign and how he ran a hand over his face every time a strand of hair landed in front of his eyes.

When Cassian had to blow the hair out of his face for the millionth time, Nesta pulled a rubber band off her wrist and handed it to him abruptly.

Cassian looked surprised, but took it almost immediately, brushing her fingers. Nesta immediately withdrew her hand, feeling how warm and calloused his were.

"Thanks, my hair is killing me today," he finally spoke.

Nesta continued to look ahead, noticing that they were about to enter the highway. "Well, it wasn't very wise of you not to tie it up before you got in the car. I never drive with my hair down."

He nodded slowly, still with the band clutched between his fingers. And then, suddenly he let go of the steering wheel, "Hold that for me for a second." and Nesta's eyes went wide, launching herself at him to grab it and keep the car in their lane.

"Are you nuts?" she almost shrieked, keeping her gaze fixed on the road and feeling every nerve ending vibrate with anger.

"Relax." he said in a calm tone, shifting her hands and gently pushing her back into her seat one more time. "It wasn't even five seconds."

Nesta huffed out a laugh that lacked amusement, "You do something like that again without warning me first and I'm getting out of the car."

Cassian looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "A bit dramatic, but alright."

She sighed, shaking her head slightly and resting it on her hand propped against the window.

That awkward silence fell again and Nesta couldn't figure out what the problem was. She hadn't felt any kind of unease three days before, but after all, they'd been with friends and busy walking, not stuck in a car for two hours with no chance of walking away or splitting up.

And in that moment, the reality of their situation overwhelmed her.

She forced herself to steady her breathing, opening the window slightly so that more air could get in. She forced herself to think about all the things she would see today at the library and how beautiful and spectacular it had looked from mere pictures. She wasn't going to let her twisted mind stop her from having fun with someone who was desperately trying to be her friend.

She took a deep breath and a surprising calm enveloped her. She looked to her left to see if Cassian had noticed that temporal change in her behaviour, but it seemed to her that he was just as fidgety.

She was about to ask him if he was okay, because the knee that kept bouncing and the fingers opening and closing on the steering wheel were obvious nervous tics, when he did the eye thing again, this time leaning forward over the dashboard as well, and the sharp turn he took to the right caused her to shift in her seat so much that she bumped her shoulder against his.

Cassian grimaced, "I'm sorry," he murmured.

"What's wrong?" she asked, readjusting in her seat.

"Sorry?"

"What's the matter? With your eyes, I mean."

"Oh." he seemed surprised by the question, almost as if he hadn't realised she'd been observing him for the last twenty minutes. He cast her a curious glance immediately returning to the road. "I wear glasses when I drive, but I couldn't find them this morning and these contacts are the wrong shade and I can't see very well."

Nesta nodded thoughtfully, "Where do you normally keep them?"

"In the glove box. But I already checked," he replied, rolling his shoulders. Another nervous tic.

Nesta had to suppress a smile. There was no way he could be so worked up just because they were talking. She looked down at the phone in her hand to check the time, and a flash of light momentarily dazzled her. She blinked a couple of times and then scoffed, "Found them."

She reached a hand towards the hatch compartment and pulled out a pair of very plain black glasses, handing them to him. Cassian seemed to finally relax since she'd gotten into the car.

"Thank fuck." then he pulled into a lay-by and without turning off the car, slipped two fingers in his eye, removing one contact and then the other, leaving Nesta stunned. He put the glasses on his nose and flashed her a smile that went from ear to ear. And Nesta was stunned for other reasons.

She couldn't deny that Cassian was an attractive man. She wasn't stupid or blind, but the man next to her should have come with a warning sign or a bell.

Attention, hot stuff coming your way.

Nesta forgot the comment she had wanted to make about how antigenic and risky it had been to remove his contacts without first cleaning his hands and in such a dirty environment.

His hair tied back in a messy bun, with the hint of a beard he was letting grow, and now his glasses on, Cassian looked like a model on the cover of a newspaper about sexy carpenters. The short-sleeved black shirt he wore that pulled on his huge biceps every time he moved in the slightest was just one more point to add to the list of things that made him appealing.

"So," he began, getting back on the road, "what's your favourite colour?"

Nesta snorted, "Are you serious?"

Cassian seemed to blanch, "What?"

"Have you ever been out with a girl?" she asked him sarcastically, knowing full well what the answer would be.

He clenched his jaw so hard that a muscle popped out on his face, "Only on dates."

"And this isn't a date." pointed out Nesta, holding back a laugh at how tortured he sounded.

"It's not."

Nesta touched the tip of her nose, thoughtful, "Shouldn't this be easier for you then?"

Cassian released a breath through his nose, "I'm under a lot of pressure right now."

"Yeah?" she asked, looking away and smiling.

"Yeah, and stop looking like you're enjoying it." he retorted.

She feigned innocence, "Enjoying what?"

"My pain." he sheeted.

Nesta laughed, unable to contain herself any longer and when he glared at her, she covered her mouth with one hand, laughing harder. Only when he snapped his fingers against the steering wheel did she stop, laying a hand on his arm, just for a few seconds, "I'm so sorry." she wheezed, "I just don't understand. When you're hanging out with my sisters or Amren, or Mor, I don't know, you don't seem to be in this much discomfort."

Cassian sighed again and Nesta chuckled one last time, stopping when he smiled slightly. "I'm just trying not to make you uncomfortable. You accepted I take you on this non-date, and I'm doing my best not to flirt badly with you every chance I get." he confessed, nodding slowly, as if to convince himself that he was doing the right thing and not wasting their time.

Nesta was genuinely surprised at his answer and decided to offer him an olive branch.

"My favourite colour is blue."

"Nice." he smiled, showing a hint of a dimple, "Mine is red."

"It's too bright of a colour," she said lightheartedly.

Cassian chuckled, "I'm pretty sure it reflects my peppy personality."

Nesta nodded, "I read an article once about how a person's favourite colour says a lot about the person themselves," she said annoyed, "It sounded like one of those quizzes you find in gossip magazines, like it was written by a third grader. I hate those things, like horoscopes."

He grunted, "God, Mor's obsessed with horoscopes..."

The conversation continued without any more awkward silences for the remainder of the ride, and when Cassian turned onto a bumpy road, Nesta knew they were close. Of course, even if she hadn't looked at the directions from her house to the place, the myriad cars parked along the road would have been an indication.

They parked in the first vacant spot they could find and as soon as Nesta was out of the car, an icy gust of wind hit her face, making her shiver with cold. She looked over the bonnet at Cassian and found him staring at her with a half smile on his face. He'd left his glasses in the car and had let his hair down again, her hair band on his wrist, and he looked even prettier than before.

"Do you want my jacket?" he asked her, with a conflicted look on his face, as if he didn't want to. Nesta narrowed her brows and he hurried to add, "There's no hidden agenda to my offer, just a friend lending a jacket to another friend."

Nesta watched him for a moment, trying to really understand his intentions, but then remembered reading in one of the reviews that the library was heated inside and shook her head.

Cassian gave a small nod of assent and then pointed down the street, "Shall we?"

From where they had parked to the library it would have been about a ten minute walk and Nesta couldn't help but notice the way Cassian kept his distance between them as if he was afraid she would get scared and run away.

He was back to fidgeting nervously with his fingers and when he realised she was looking at him, he put them in his pockets, smiling tensely at her. He took a deep breath and then said, "So, what do you know about this library?"

Nesta looked ahead, hoping to catch a glimpse of the building, but the foliage of the trees was still too thick and they were still too far away for it to see anything. She brought her hands to her stomach, crossing her fingers, "I actually did a bit of research before I came. Did you know that the Peace Treaty between Prythian and Hybern of 1864 was signed here?" she asked in an excited voice.

Cassian smiled at her so naturally that she felt herself blush. He had an expression she couldn't decipher, but Nesta had never been good at cracking people in general, so she didn't venture to continue until he said, "Tell me more."

And Nesta launched into a detailed description of the events that had taken place inside the building, which only a hundred years before had become a bookstore. Only one wing of the building had been furnished in such a way as to become a real shop, the rest had been set up to be visited as a museum, one of the oldest libraries. She talked about the architecture and how it was obvious that the palace had been built long before it became an important meeting place for scholars and researchers.

"And in 1932 a fire destroyed the science wing, burning more than a hundred textbooks." Nesta sighed, thinking how devastating that loss had been. She lit up with happiness when she remembered what happened next. "But luckily, one of the most important literary clubs in the city got together and they managed to recover a small portion of the books. It took them years to rewrite every manual, but they got help from one of the local researchers, a certain Mr. Hawthorn, I can't remember the name or details of the research, only that he's mentioned often in the article I read."

When she paused to catch her breath, Nesta realised with immense horror what had just happened. Cassian had not spoken a word after asking her if she knew anything about the place and she had monopolised the conversation without even acknowledging him once. She felt herself flare up and knew in that moment that any hope they had of becoming real friends was gone.

Sometimes she would get lost in thought and ramble on about the things she was passionate about. Quite often people had stopped her, letting her know they weren't interested in the subject, but Cassian had never interrupted her and she was afraid to look at him, convinced she would only find boredom and disgust on his face.

That was why, when he spoke, she was struck dumb.

"I'm impressed." he breathed, chuckling immediately afterwards.

Nesta pushed herself to look at him and he stood admiring her with his mouth slightly open, as if he couldn't find the words. She felt her heart clench in her chest so tightly that she didn't know if she could survive the pain. Who knows how many times he'd tried to stop her and she'd gone on and on about windows and arches and treaties of peace.

But when she got a better look at him, stopping in front of him, Cassian looked... happy.

He let out a laugh, running a hand through his hair, and Nesta was distracted for a moment by the sway of his arms before she was brought violently back down to earth when he said, "You surprise me more and more every time, Nesta."

And the way he said her name - Ne-sta - made her toes curl.

"Why?" she managed to throw out in a weak voice.

Cassian laughed again, raising his eyebrows so high they ended under the hair on his forehead, locking his eyes to hers. "I have a degree in history and my final thesis happened to be on this very library." Nesta felt the ground open up beneath her feet and hoped it swallowed her alive. "I came out of university with top marks and various accolades for finishing my studies on time and you, dreadful creature that you are, have just taught me at least three new things about this place."

His gaze was so intense that Nesta had to lower her head to hide the satisfied and surprised smirk that popped up on her lips.

"You're amazing." huffed Cassian, "Perfect in every way."

She shrugged.

"Although," he clicked his tongue against his palate, "You made a mistake."

Nesta looked up at him, frowning, "Oh, yeah?"

Cassian nodded, smirking fiercely, "Why don't you turn around and admire the palace, and once we're inside, I'll explain what it is?"

She must have been so lost in her chatter that she hadn't noticed that they had arrived in the large entrance forecourt, because when she turned, her back to Cassian, the building stood among the forest trees, as imposing and splendid as ever. The photos had not done it justice in the slightest and Nesta was left speechless.

Living in a country with a history going back millennia, it wasn't hard to stumble upon historic streets with old buildings and monuments, but this was completely different.

She was still admiring the way the stone around the windows had been carved to look like trees trying to get into the building when she felt something settle on the small of her back. A hand.

Nesta stiffened slightly, before closing her eyes and relaxing.

Cassian must have noticed her discomfort because a moment later his hand was no longer touching her.

They entered the museum part of the building in silence and Nesta paid the entrance fees, reminding him of the tea he'd offered her last Sunday and Cassian hadn't been able to argue with that.

They had just passed the doors to the first room, the smallest in the entire palace, when he leaned towards her, to the point of touching her ear with his lips.

The fact that he was whispering as if they had been in a sacred place did things to her little icy heart, "Mr. Hawthorn was not a man."

Shocked by that information, Nesta's head snapped in his direction and she realised too late that she had miscalculated the space.

Her lips brushed against his cheek, the corner of his lips, before Cassian reacted so quickly he startled her, but avoiding them both an involuntary first kiss. His sudden movement caused him to lose his balance and he reached out his hands towards her, straightening as he held on to her shoulders.

Both of them were holding their breath.

Cassian cleared his throat, shifting his gaze to the wall of books, but returning to look at her soon after, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, you just surprised me," she said when she had recovered. "I must have read the article wrong."

He was still watching her and shook his head, "Oh no, I don't think it's that. They only found out a few months ago that it was Georgina and not George Hawthorn. They found letters in the house of what was thought to be Hawthorn's wife. Some people think they were just friends, but anyone who has read the letters they exchanged knows full well that they were lovers. Anyone who says otherwise is either homophobic or stupid."

Nesta realised that she could have listened to this for hours on end. And so it was.

The visit continued relatively quietly, Cassian explaining every detail to her, expanding on things she already knew and when he forgot something, she would step in and have her say, commenting on every little aspect.

She'd noticed how Cassian hadn't tried to touch her anymore and how whenever someone was about to bump into her, he'd vocally warn her instead of wrapping an arm around her shoulders to move her out of their way like he had on Sunday.

The visit to the museum lasted less than expected unfortunately, because Nesta hadn't had this much fun in too long. It was becoming easier to smile at him or tease him when he said dumb things and even he seemed to finally be more at ease when he had to make jokes that smacked of him.

When they finally got to the shop, Nesta couldn't stand on her feet anymore, she just wanted to buy all the books she saw and go home and arrange them on her shelves.

"Which section do you want to see first?" she asked him, even though she had started hopping impatiently about the place.

Cassian gave her a smug look, "Why don't you go wherever you want and I'll look for the manuals for the gazebo in the meantime? That way you don't waste time keeping up with me. I'll be right there."

Nesta let out an excited squeal and ran off, hearing only the echo of laughter that shook Cassian from head to toe.

***

As Cassian flipped through the various books to find a picture of a gazebo that looked similar to the one Feyre had requested, he kept casting glances at Nesta.

Her eyes sparkled as she grabbed book after book without even reading the synopses. She was in the romance novels section, from what he could see from where he stood, but soon ended up in the classics, where she grabbed just as many books. She moved to the mystery books section, this time stopping to read the plots and putting most of them back on the shelves.

Then, surprising Cassian, she walked over to where the historical novels were and turned to face him. He bent his head to the side, raising an eyebrow to ask her what she was doing there. Nesta seemed at a loss, trying to move all the books from one arm to the other to point him to join her, but Cassian was already halfway there and when she looked back up at him and found him standing in front of her, she gave him a bright smile.

"Hello." she exclaimed.

Cassian's breath caught for a second before he too sighed a greeting.

"I was thinking," Nesta began, running her eyes over the titles in front of them, "that you could recommend something about..." she wiggled her fingers as much as she could, trying to point to the shelf, and Cassian leaned forward, cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Here," he removed the first stack of books from her arms and she sagged a little, giving him a thankful look. "I can go get a bag so you can put them all in there and you don't have to carry them like this," he said taking all the books and having her help him arrange them so they wouldn't fall out.

He smiled at her over all the books, looking down at her and she smiled back just as happily.

Hell, if she looked at him like that every time he took her to a bookstore he should do it more often.

He had just turned to go towards the entrance, where he had seen special bags for carrying books, but Nesta stopped him by putting a hand on his arm.

"Wait!" she exclaimed almost impishly.

Cassian turned his head, genuinely worried that something had happened to her in the mere seconds he had been shot. He must have moved too fast, because one of the smaller classics flew off the top of the stack and landed right in her face.

Nesta groaned at the impact and brought her hands to her face, rubbing her forehead where it hurt.

"Oh my God, are you okay?!" he asked with wide eyes. And then Nesta laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she stared at him and he visibly relaxed. "Christ, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw a book at you."

She waved a hand in mid-air, to let him know it was nothing, and bent down to pick up what he realised was A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Of course Nesta was reading feminist classics.

She turned back to the books as if nothing had happened and Cassian had the urge to look for a list of all the bookstores in the world to take her to if it meant having her in such a good mood by his side, it didn't matter if she would never agree to go on a real date with him, he realised. As long as he could see her smile like that, he didn't need anything else.

"So, I was saying, before you battered me with a book-" she cast an amused glance over one shoulder at him.

He frowned, muttering, "I said sorry."

Nesta ignored him, "What do you recommend?"

Cassian blinked.

"You said you read historical novels right?" she asked, looking for confirmation, "You could recommend your favourites. But not the English or Russian classics. Or French ones. Chances are I've already read those."

Cassian was stunned. Nesta wanted advice on books. From him.

They were silent for too long as she turned around impatiently, "You lied?"

He looked surprised, "When?"

"When you said you were reading. Were you just doing it to impress me or were you serious?" she asked and maybe Cassian imagined it, but she looked disappointed.

He was quick to reply, "The Black Coat, by Neamat Imam. It's pretty recent, but set in the 1970s in Bangladesh. It's about a man who needs help and seeks it from a journalist he asks for work and one of the main themes is the famine that hit the country after it became independent. It's not my absolute favourite, but it certainly gives you something to think about."

Nesta nodded, searching through the titles and finding it almost immediately, "Anything else?"

Cassian felt his neck heat up and coughed a little before resuming speaking. "The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. Set in the tenth century, it's about a Viking who is called Red because of his hair and focuses on the European political outlook in the late Viking Age. Again, it's not as good as the historical classics, but it's nice and shows a way of life that we're definitely not used to. It's different."

After looking for a few minutes, Nesta gave up reading and turned to him, crossing her arms. She tilted her head to the side, watching him closely, "What's your favourite book?"

Cassian shrugged, settling the books against his chest, "I think at the moment it's The King Must Die by Mary Renault. But I change my mind every month when I find something more interesting or captivating."

She nodded thoughtfully, "I'll take that one then."

And Cassian wished he could change the title immediately because... what if she didn't like it? Or if she thought it was a stupid book? What would she think of him then?

But Nesta had already found a copy a few shelves down and there was no turning back.

He could counterattack, though, "What about yours? You're not going to give me any advice on feminist classics or blatantly trashy romance novels?"

Nesta opened her mouth wide, looking outraged as she placed the latest addition on the pile, settling the book under her chin, "How can you say they're trashy if you don't even know what they're about?"

Cassian chuckled, "On the cover of You Came," he said as he gave her a sly look, "there's something called a 'spicymeter'. How am I supposed to take you seriously?"

Nesta blushed, "I read erotic novels, so what? I have to keep myself busy in my spare time somehow."

And then he challenged her, "Get me the hottest book you've ever read," he said in a joking tone, "I'll go get the bag in the meantime."

She had already left for the section when he had an idea that would surely doom him depending on how Nesta would react.

He walked up to the cashier's desk, making sure she didn't notice, and begging the clerk behind the counter to be quick, paid for all her books, gently placing them back in the bags.

When he reached her again, she seemed not to have noticed anything.

"'So, what did you get me? Ride Me? Fucked You Good? Last Night I Gave You A Thousand Orgasms?" he teased her with an annoyed grin on his lips.

Nesta gave him a fiery glance before noticing the bags, quite different from those you put the things you wanna buy in, and closed her mouth tightly. She frowned and looked at them for so long before speaking that Cassian began to feel self-conscious.

"You paid for my books?" she whispered, looking at him.

He nodded.

"It's not a date, Cassian," she reminded him for the umpteenth time.

"I know, but-"

"So why would you pay for things that are mine?"

He couldn't read her. She wasn't hinting at anything.

She didn't look angry but she didn't look impressed or grateful either.

Cassian placed the bags on the ground between them and Nesta followed his every movement with her eyes.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing, "My adoptive family is filthy rich. I have a trust fund that I never get to spend on things I really want to do, the only way I get to use it is by giving gifts to my friends, so just accept these as my first gift - friend to friend - and call it a day."

Nesta continued to be impassive as she kept her eyes fixed on the books.

Perhaps he had gone too far. After all, she had taken more than a hundred and fifty euros worth of stuff, but he really didn't mind.

He was about to apologise, tell her she could give the money back if it made her feel better. Cassian would find a way to spend it back on her at other times anyway.

Then she raised her head, handing him two books with hilarious covers to say the least, "These two have storylines full of plot twists. You won't be able to put them down, but don't expect big epic battles or Viking warriors. It's just two college kids trying to survive in the modern world while finding solace in each other."

He didn't even have time to thank her that she was already across the room and waiting in line so she could pay them.

He scoffed, shaking his head.

"I guess you'll be paying for these two," he said as he caught up with her.

Nesta didn't even look at him, pulling out her wallet, "A gift from a friend to a friend."

As they walked back to the car, Cassian offered to carry the bags, but she didn't want to hear one more word so they had managed to compromise and had split the load equally.

They'd been on the road for about thirty minutes now and Nesta had gone through every book he'd bought her, talking about all the previous works by the authors she was holding in her hand at the moment.

Cassian could have died like that. Happy, relaxed, listening to the plots of those dirty books with no moral lessons to teach the reader, just pure entertainment.

He wondered at that moment if he would make it through the first few chapters of the books she had offered him and let out a heavy breath through his nose as he turned right towards the coast.

Nesta looked at him wide-eyed, stopping her rant about the headmaster's son getting the occasional model student to fall in love with him. She brought a hand to her mouth, "Oh dear, sorry, I'm boring you. I'm sorry."

He gave her a confused look ready to tell her she didn't have to apologise, but she continued.

"Sometimes I do and I don't even realize it. And I realize they're not challenging plots where you have to apply some hidden lobe of the brain to understand them, but they distract me from everyday problems, you know? It's fun to be able to unplug a few hours after I get home from work and-"

"Jesus, Nesta, stop!" he laughed, placing a hand on her thigh. She sighed. "You don't have to apologise. Not when you're so excited about something." he looked at her slyly, offering her a reassuring smile, "In fact, I'm glad you're talking so much today. Normally I have to pull the words out of your mouth."

She blushed slightly and then grew sullen soon after, sitting up straighter, "This isn't the way to Velaris, where are we going?"

Cassian didn't answer.

"You're taking me into the woods aren't you?"

"We literally just came out of a forest."

She ignored him.

"I knew it. You're a serial killer."

"Nes-"

"You're a little dense though. Why would you spend so much on someone if you're going to murder them?"

He decided to ignore her, chuckling, "I'm taking you to the beach."

"Why?" she asked, somewhat unconvinced.

Cassian shrugged, "I wanted to see the sunset."

"You didn't ask."

He sighed, gripping the steering wheel, "Okay," he whispered, then louder, "You want to go to the beach and watch the sunset?"

She nodded in assent and then continued to read the plots aloud.

And Cassian could have sworn he was in heaven.

***

Nesta gathered more sand, making a small ball out of it and placing it on the top of one of the towers she had made so far.

"Where did you learn to make such good sandcastles?" asked Cassian suddenly from behind her, startling her.

She jumped in the air, turning to face him and noticing the satisfied smile on his face for having taken her by surprise.

Nesta didn't answer him immediately, but allowed herself to admire him a bit.

Since they had arrived at the beach, they had taken off their shoes and were now both barefoot and then Cassian had bent down and started to roll his trousers around his ankles, offering to do it to her jeans as well, but Nesta had refused. She had sat down, looking at the sea for a while, while he walked along the shore and collected stones and shells.

When he had come back to her and shown them to her, asking her to make a sandcastle, she had laughed at first, but faced with his serious expression, she had been unable to do anything but get up and roll up her sleeves, moving to where the sand was a little more workable.

She looked away from that heavenly vision and made another ball, placing it next to the one she had just made. "When I was little my mum never let me do these, she said I'd get too much sun and forced me and Elain to stay under the umbrella all day," she replied truthfully, remembering the cruel bite of jealousy watching the children on the shore.

"And Feyre?"

Cassian had joined her, kneeling beside her and had begun to place the shells so that they served as windows to the towers.

Nesta sighed, "Feyre was still too little when Mini Me wanted to build sandcastles, but as soon as I became 'too old to play like a kid'," she gave him a knowing look, mimicking her mother's voice, "and Feyre started to figure out she was an actual being, Mama let her do whatever she wanted. Even stand in the sun for hours on end." she shrugged. "Whether it was out of indifference or love, I never understood."

Cassian had been silent the whole time and now he watched her, hands on his thighs as he waited for her to give him more. For her to tell him another little piece of her soul.

So she offered him a forced smile, "So to answer your question, it's all pent-up creativity."

"Well, you're very good at it," he granted her. "I can imagine what you could have done if your mother hadn't been so strict."

Well, yeah.

"What about you?" she asked him.

"What about me?"

"Did you go to the beach a lot?"

Cassian smiled weakly, getting up and heading towards the water to collect more shells. He nodded a couple of times and then said, "My mum and I loved coming to the beach and she loved making castles. And she always put so many 'windows' on the towers-"

Nesta turned to look at their work, realising how many shells he had placed on the piles of sand. She smiled softly, covering her eyes from the sun and watching him walk towards her.

"We always came when she was free from work."

A charged silence settled between them until Cassian chuckled, drawing her attention, "What?"

"You said this wasn't a date. And that we're just friends. Right?"

Shifting her gaze to him, she noticed how he kept his hands hidden behind his back and the mischievous glint in his eyes didn't reassure her at all. Slowly she stood up, nodding.

"So, I must treat you as I would treat my friends. Correct?"

"Cassian, I swear to god that-"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence that something wet and sticky landed in her face with a resounding splash, making her jump back.

She took a deep breath and immediately regretted it when a strong smell of stale water and seaweed flooded her nostrils.

When she opened her eyes again, wiping the seaweed from her face, Cassian was doubled over in laughter.

She didn't even give him time to get up when she started to run towards him - to do what, she had no idea - but he started to run away too and soon they were chasing each other all around the beach, not noticing the sweet looks they were getting from the people around them.

At that moment, Nesta was running so fast that she could feel the wind in her hair and the smell and sound of the sea, together with the laughter of the man who was chasing her, mixed with her own and the continuous tapping of her feet on the sand, made her feel alive.

She felt Cassian come closer every few metres until two strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was pulled up and spun around in the air.

A surprised yelp escaped her as Cassian laughed in her ear, "Gotcha!"

It wasn't until he stopped spinning with her in his arms that they realised the position they were in and immediately broke away, laughing embarrassed.

Nesta turned to face him, her face red from running and her breathing laboured. He was in no better condition. His hair was pointing in all directions and his sculpted chest was rising and falling with haste under the black fabric of his shirt.

He looked away first, scratching the back of his neck and fixing his eyes on the sunset, and offered her his arm as they returned to where they had left theirs things unattended.

Nesta shook her head, laughing one last time and started to run, " Last to reach the castle is stupid!"

Cassian burst out laughing, but he caught up to her in the blink of an eye and they both knew that she had doomed herself to lose. That's why, when he fell tripping over his feet, Nesta knew he had done it on purpose.

She helped him up and they sat back as in silence they watched the sun go down, disappearing past the horizon and the blending lights of the sky created a breathtaking spectacle.

Nesta couldn't have noticed, too busy admiring the clouds, but Cassian had been watching her the whole time, trying to understand how something as sombre and secretive as her could look so bright just by being.

The journey back was silent, but this time the silence was not awkward. They both welcomed it with open arms, a new awareness that there was no need for it to be filled with chatter and that gave Nesta the opportunity to close her eyes for a moment and doze off.

When the car stopped outside her flat, Nesta was surprised to find that she didn't want to get out.

She turned to Cassian after she had gathered her things and nodded, "I had fun today."

He gave her a genuine smile, looking surprised, "Me too."

And then she permanently shocked him, adding, "I'm not working on Saturday, we could do it again. Changing location."

He blinked once. Twice. Then he nodded, "Sure."

He didn't seem to want to say anything more, so Nesta waved goodbye to him and then got out, not waiting for an answer from him.

Cassian stood motionless in the car park of her flat for another half hour, trying to figure out what had just happened, and when the reality of things finally dawned on him, he smiled, "Fuck yeah."

acotar tag list (if you wanna be added or removed just dm me or send me an ask)

@sjm-things @kris10maas @awesomelena555 @sannelovesreading @queenamydien-of-nargothrond @ireallyshouldsleeprn @messyhairday-me @ncssian @observationanxioustheorist @my-fan-side @booksstorm @maastrash @sayosdreams @thedarkdemigod @courtofjurdan @thewayshedreamed @hellasblessed @nahthanks @archeron-queens-blog @sleeping-and-books @bri-loves-sunflowers @thegoddessofyou @ghostlyrose2 @claralady @queenestarcheron @oop-theregoesgravity @firebirdofscythia @anne-reads @fantastypenguins @laylaameer01 @thalia-2-rose @darkshadowqueensrule @bookstantrash @lanyjoy-13 @the-regal-warrior @lordof-bloodshed @dealingdifferentdevils @swankii-art-teacher @rowaelinismyotp

#nessian #nesta archeron #cassian #acosf #nessian fic #nessian fluff #fluff

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inthelonelycoolbeforedawn · 4 years ago

Text

tw: mentions of past animal abuse (nothing graphic and not portrayed in the fic itself)

Harringrove April Day 10: Peaches

Steve couldn't contain a smile as he stepped out onto the deck. Billy was sprawled in their double lounge chair, sunglasses on, Lemmy and Cookie flopped next to him.

"Hey," Steve said. "You gonna sleep all day?"

"Got bored waiting for you." Flashing a grin, Billy hooked his arm around Steve's waist and tugged. "C'mere. Celebrate with me."

"Nuh-uh," Steve said, planting one hand on the chair to regain his balance. "Dogs in the house, then I'll celebrate with you."

Billy heaved a dramatic sigh. "Fine. Hurry up."

Laughing, Steve called Lemmy and Cookie inside and slid the door shut. He felt a bit guilty about disturbing their nap, but he and Billy hadn't had much time to themselves in the last couple of weeks.

Besides, they had a lot to celebrate.

After eight years in L.A. they were both ready for a change. They weren't sure exactly what they wanted, but when they found a house away from the city on three acres of land, with a big yard for the dogs and an easy drive to the beach, they decided to buy it. They cashed in their savings and the last bit of settlement money from Starcourt, signed the papers making the house theirs, and officially moved in two days ago.

"Sorry, guys," he said, scratching the silky black-and-white fur between Cookie's ears. "We'll make it up to you. You want some treats?"

Both Lemmy's and Cookie's ears perked up at the word treat. But where Lemmy's bright eyes and barely wagging tail were his only indications of excitement, Cookie was practically bouncing up and down on her three legs, her entire body wriggling. Steve laughed and gave them both another pat before reaching for the box of dog biscuits.

A flash of movement by the window caught his eye, and his grip on the box instinctively tightened as he looked out to see what it was.

There was a small brown-and-white pony in their driveway, its thick mane flopping into its eyes as it snuffled at the ground.

Steve watched it for a minute, then went back to get Billy. "Um, Billy? Come see this."

Billy pulled his sunglasses off. "What?"

He hurried after Steve, and Steve pointed out the window.

"The hell?" Billy said.

"We should try to catch him," Steve said. "He could get hit by a car or something if he's running around loose like that."

"Yeah," Billy said. "I guess we can get him tied up somewhere and call animal control."

They went out the side door so they were ahead of the pony. It ignored them, taking a few steps and dropping its head again to mouth at some weeds.

"Here, uh - " Steve frowned. "Boy? Girl? Horse? Here, horsey, nice horsey."

"It's not a dog," Billy said. "Let's just try grabbing him. He doesn't look very fast."

They took a few cautious steps towards it. The pony lifted its head, nostrils flaring, but didn't move.

Steve and Billy inched closer.

The pony snorted and broke into a trot. Steve and Billy lunged for it, but that made it run faster. They stopped so they wouldn't chase it onto the road and watched it.

"Maybe he's hungry," Billy said. "Do we have anything he would eat?"

"Oh, yeah!" Steve spoke louder than he'd meant to. The pony looked up and moved farther away. "Oops." Lowering his voice again, he continued. "Carrots. I think horses like carrots. Go get them, babe."

Once Billy returned with their longest dog leash and a bag of carrots, they each took one.

"Here, pony," Steve said.

"You hungry, little guy?" Billy said.

The pony looked at them, tail swishing.

They crept towards it, getting closer than they had before. The pony was watching them intently.

"Nice pony," Steve said, almost whispering. "Who's a good pony?"

"Steve," Billy said, his own voice quiet. "Go right."

They split off, approaching the pony from both sides. The pony stomped its foot but didn't move. They were almost close enough to grab it.

Holding his breath, Steve stretched his arm out a little farther. The pony snorted again, then reached out to take the carrot from his hand. Billy grabbed its halter while it was chewing.

"Got you," he said.

The pony flinched and quickly backed up a couple of steps, but when Steve grasped the other side of its halter, it stopped and stood, trembling.

"Hey, it's okay," Billy said. "You're okay."

"Good pony," Steve said.

Slowly and carefully, they looped the leash through one of the halter rings and secured it with the clip.

Now that it was caught, the pony seemed willing to follow them. They led it to the deck and tied the leash around a post.

Steve gave the pony a tentative pat on the neck. "One of us should probably stay here. Keep an eye on him."

"I will," Billy said. "Just, maybe grab some water for him? And the carrots?"

"Oh, yeah," Steve said. "All that fur, he's probably thirsty."

Billy grinned. "You know, he reminds me of Henderson, with all that hair in his eyes."

"He does not look like Dustin," Steve said, although he secretly agreed.

He retrieved the bag of carrots, then filled a big cooking pot at the kitchen sink and managed to carry it outside without spilling any. The pony stood quietly as Billy worked at a tangle in its shaggy mane.

"Wow," Steve said. "He's really calmed down."

"Yeah," Billy said.

"Well." Steve paused, not sure why he suddenly felt like he was doing something wrong. "I'm gonna go call. I'll be back soon."

Lemmy and Cookie crowded around him, and he petted them absently as he flipped through the phone book.

"It must have an owner," he said. "I bet it belongs to some little kid who'll be really happy to see their pony again, right, guys?"

Cookie licked his hand and Lemmy's tail beat against the floor.

Steve sighed. "Right."

He lifted the receiver and dialed the number for animal control.

A few phone calls later he headed back outside. He found Billy sitting in front of the pony, stroking its nose, a soft smile on his lips. The pony's head was lowered almost to his lap, its eyes half-closed.

It reminded him of the times he'd come home to find Billy and Lemmy, napping or reading or watching TV, Billy's hand resting on Lemmy's scarred side and Lemmy's massive, brindled head resting on Billy's scarred chest.

He stood there a minute, watching, before sitting down next to them.

Billy glanced over. "I gave him more carrots. Guess he's happy."

"Yeah, looks like," Steve said. "Oh, and uh, it's actually a girl horse. Her name's Peaches."

"Peaches?" Billy repeated. "Figures it'd be something stupid."

"I don't know, it's kind of cute," Steve said.

Billy stopped petting Peaches and turned to face him. "So. I guess that means you found her owner?"

"Yeah." Steve picked at the hem of his shorts as he spoke. "Animal control said there was a missing horse reported, and put me in touch with her, and - anyway, she's coming to pick her up."

"Oh." Billy looked away. "That was fast."

They sat in silence until the dogs barking and tires crunching on the driveway alerted them to Peaches' owner's arrival.

Steve squeezed Billy's hand, then got up to greet her. He came around the corner of the house just as a young woman climbed out of a pickup truck with a trailer attached, holding a halter and a thick, neatly coiled rope.

"Hi," the woman called. "I'm Nina. I'm here for Peaches."

"I'm Steve." He shook hands with her, then gestured towards the yard. "She's out back."

"So, you're new here?" Nina said as they walked.

"Yeah," Steve said. "We just moved, actually. How'd you know?"

"It's been empty for a while." She smiled. "I drive this way a lot. Our place is only a couple miles from here."

Billy was still sitting with Peaches when they rounded the corner, but he stood up when he saw them. Steve hurried to his side as Nina introduced herself to Billy, then turned to the pony.

"Peaches!" she said. "Hi, sweet girl. Oh, you scared us."

She gave the pony a quick once-over. Satisfied, she clipped the rope to Peaches' halter and handed the dog leash to Steve.

"Thank you for taking such good care of her," she said with a warm smile. "We were worried sick when she got loose. She's had such a tough time, poor girl."

"What happened?" Steve asked.

Nina's smile faded, her lips tightening into a thin line. "Her last owners weren't very nice to their animals. She developed back problems and couldn't be ridden anymore so they just threw her out in a pasture and left her to fend for herself. Luckily someone called us before it was too late."

"She's a rescue?" Billy said softly.

"Yes," Nina said. "Honestly, I'm surprised she let you catch her. She's still skittish around strangers." She patted the pony's shoulder. "She must like you two."

"Well." Steve ran a hand through his hair. "At least she's safe now, right?"

"Oh, she'll for sure have a home with us if she needs it," Nina said. "But we're a horse rescue. New horses are always coming in and space can be a problem. So ideally our goal is to get all our animals adopted out." She gave Peaches' shoulder another pat. "It might be difficult to find a good home for Peaches, though. She's a sweetheart, but most people want a horse they can ride."

Steve glanced at Billy, who was fidgeting with his ring and staring somewhere past Nina, jaw clenched.

"Hmm." Steve tried to sound casual, fighting to hold back an eager smile. "You know, I think I might know a place."

Steve and Billy stood at the fence, arms crossed over the top board, watching Peaches graze while Lemmy and Cookie frolicked in the far corner of the pasture.

Nina had agreed to let them adopt Peaches on the condition they volunteer at the rescue to learn how to take care of her properly. Nina, her family, and the other volunteers were glad to help with everything from answering questions to building the fence and a small barn on their property. They'd made several new friends by the time they were ready to bring Peaches home.

She'd settled in quickly, making friends with the dogs and spending her days grazing and playing. She loved being groomed, and Steve had teased Billy a few times about him spending more time on Peaches' hair than his own now.

Steve and Billy had settled in too. They'd used some of the extra land to plant a garden. Steve converted the garage into a woodworking shop and with a bigger space to work in, he started experimenting with larger pieces. Billy still surfed whenever he could. They took the dogs to the beach and discovered a few new favorite restaurants. It was everything they'd hoped for when they bought the house.

"I was talking to Mrs. Cooper today," Billy said, breaking the silence. "Her goats are having their babies, and I guess there's a lot of them this year. She said we could have a couple if we want."

"Goats?" Steve was so surprised he wasn't sure what else to say.

"Yeah," Billy said. "We've got room. They'd be buddies for Peaches, and we could sell goat milk and stuff eventually."

"Huh," Steve said. "Goats." He shrugged. "Why not?"

Billy grinned. "Great. I'll tell her we'll take 'em."

Steve grinned back, and surrounded by their dogs and their pony and their own happily-ever-after, he and Billy kissed in the soft spring twilight.

#harringrove #my writing #ficlet #harringroveapril #tw: reference to past animal abuse/injuries #but don't worry they are all safe and loved in the fic itself #original female character #original animal characters #peaches the pony

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frozensriracha · 4 years ago

Note

Could we get some headcanons for Nina with a best friend that has crackhead energy uwu

Oh god I can only imagine the trouble you two would get into-

Nina’s not the biggest crackhead in the manor, but she’s the most creative crackhead in the manor

So she’ll have no shortage of fun ideas for things for you two to do together!

There’s no doubt that you two will go on lots of fun adventures together, usually pretty late at night, Nina being a night owl and all, but if you aren’t, she can always adjust her schedule

After an adventure, she sometimes likes to roll out her sleeping bag and have a little slumber party with you! You guys’ll eat midnight snacks, jam to some music, play some video games as she furiously denies that she paid BEN to hack all her games and rename the love interests Jeff, and other fun stuff

She loves matching with her friends, and she’ll insist on getting you two the silliest matching best friends shirts she can find on the internet

She’s very dedicated to her friends, and anything stupid you do, she can and WILL join you in

Nina’s a very competitive person and won’t hesitate to start a competition or a prank war with you (much to Slender’s utter dismay)

“Nina, Y/N, can you please explain the sheer number of signs that have accumulated in your respective bedrooms?”

“...we dared each other to see how many signs we could steal from off the road. Winner gets fifty dollars!”

“...”

In his many years of running a safe house for killers, Slender knows to pick his battles, so chances are, he’ll let it go given that the manor’s not damaged

But that doesn’t mean you two won’t spend a fair amount of time in his office being lectured about whatever he’s going to do with you two-

Again, Nina’s very dedicated to her friends and cares deeply about them, so she’ll definitely worry about you some

She won’t try to stop you from doing anything (unless it involves the Slender mansion pool; you are NOT going in there,) but before you ride that shopping cart through Walmart, she’ll make sure you have on a helmet and you know how to steer the cart

There aren’t a lot of things she won’t do, but if you ever decide you want to do something she doesn’t want to, she’ll put on a cheerleader uniform and cheer you on as she records!

If you’re okay with crowds and stuff, she’d love taking you to raves with her!

She’d probably make you some Kandi to match hers too ^^

On my blog, Nina is mostly over Jeff, but she still has a little crush on him unless an interested Y/N is in the picture ofc~, and will sometimes ask him to come with you two.

If you’re down with that, prepare to T-pose over Jeff’s bed with your best friend at three in the morning to wake him up and force him to cheer you on as you snort Pixi Stick dust and Nina records

But of course, if you’re not, she understands. Nina will always choose you over Jeff, no competition there

#creepypasta #creepypasta headcanon #nina hopkins #nina the killer #nina the killer headcanon #nina the killer x reader #creepypasta x reader #best friend reader #sorry these took so long!#i've been lacking in motivation recently :/

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doc-pickles · 4 years ago

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500 FOLLOWERS?!

What the heeeeell?! I am so grateful for this and so thankful to be apart of our Jolex community, because I would not be at this number today without you guys. I’ve truly found a second home in writing these two idiots, I’ve even found some of my closest friends because of this fandom.

In honor of hitting 500, I’m going to share this little fic I wrote. I was originally planning this to be for our Halloween challenge, but it didn’t end up working for it because I literally word vomited this out in like two hours. But it’s fluffy and it’s a fix it. Thank you guys again so much!!

xoxo Nina

the worth while fight

This is a state of grace This is the worth while fight Love is a ruthless game Unless you play it good and right

Kansas City Children’s Hospital. The sign in front of Jo feels like it’s screaming at her, the neon lights a warning signal to turn around now before she ruins everything. But she can't, she’d come so far and she wasn’t going to let her nerves get the best of her.

Pushing through the doors, Jo resolutely walks to the reception desk and up to the first nurse she sees. Settling a smile on her face, she asks the question she wishes she’d never have to ask.

“Hi I’m looking for Doctor Karev. Alex Karev… Chief Alex Karev. Please,” Jo tries her best not to seem crazy or stalkerish, she knows she isn’t but her anxiety is soaring as the nurse states her down.

“Do you have an appointment?”

Jo blinks confusedly at the woman. She didn't expect that, hadn’t really got any further than walking through the doors in the scenarios that played through her head on the plane ride here.

“I, uh-,” Jo’s stuttering is interrupted by an all too familiar voice coming from behind the reception desk.

“Jennifer, can you tell Doctor Weller that he has a-,” his eyes meet hers and his voice stops, Jo’s heart beating erratically as she takes in Alex for the first time in almost a year. He looks exhausted, like he hasn’t slept well since he left Seattle, but his eyes shine just as true as always. “Jo. What’re you doing here?”

Her impending answer is cut off by a small cry, Jo’s hands instinctively reaching into the stroller in front of her to unclip the baby and cradle her close to her chest. She can feel Alex’s eyes on her, knows that he’s staring at her, but she can’t be bothered by it as she holds her daughter in her arms.

“Can we talk? Somewhere… private,” Jo’s eyes finally float up to Alex’s face, taking in his eyes that are glued to the little girl she’d just revealed to him. “Alex? Please?”

He snaps back to reality then, telling one of the nurses in front of him to cancel everything else he has planned for the day. Alex steps closer to Jo, grabbing the stroller she’d pushed in and leading her away from the prying eyes of the hospital staff. He leads her into an empty conference room, waiting for her to enter before locking the door and drawing the blinds.

Logically she knows she should start talking, but she can’t. Jo’s standing catatonic, eyes meeting Alex’s as they both stand in silence. She can’t tell if it’s overwhelming anger or the relief of seeing each other again or the elephant in the room, but standing here with Alex does something to Jo that she can’t quite explain.

“Hi.”

As if wanting to join the conversation happening, the baby in Jo’s arms lets a squeal out, tiny hands clawing at her mother's shirt as the squeals turn into cries.

“Sorry I have to feed her, she’ll start screaming if I don’t,” Jo doesn’t know why she feels the need to explain this to Alex, he’s the Chief of a pediatric hospital for god’s sake, but she doesn’t know what else to say. She makes a last minute decision to grab the nursing cover from the stroller before settling into a chair, suddenly feeling the need to hide from Alex. She knows she doesn’t have to, this man was married to her, but things felt different. She settles the baby on her breast finally, sighing in relief that her cries have quieted.

“How old is she,” Alex’s voice makes Jo look back to him, his eyes searching her face desperately.

“Three and a half months,” the answer brings Alex down into the chair across from Jo, hands running over his face in exasperation. “Alex, you-”

“You could’ve called! You could’ve told me Jo! Jesus Christ, after everything we’ve been through,” Alex’s voice booms around Jo, a discontented squeal coming from the baby in her arms. Alex lowers his voice, an expression of sadness overwhelming his features. “Why didn’t you call Jo?”

“You left Alex! You left me all alone and you couldn’t even be bothered to pick up the phone and tell me, you wrote me a pathetic letter,” she knows tears are pooling in her eyes, but she can’t hold them back. She’s been playing this conversation over in her head for months, practicing exactly what she’d say to Alex when she saw him again. But seeing him now, sitting across from him, the words slip out of Jo’s mind. “I was waiting for you to come back home so I could tell you, but you never walked back through the door. You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to come with you. Did you ever think that might’ve been an option? That I would’ve followed you anywhere, Alex?”

The silence that envelops them is tense, Jo realizing that her words had rung true. He hadn’t thought she’d come with him, he’d thought that she’d choose her career and whatever else was in Seattle over Alex and their future. The thought nauseates her, a hand pressing against her mouth as she feels more tears drip down her cheeks.

“You didn’t think I would drop everything in my life to be with you,” Jo’s voice breaks as she stares at Alex, his head in his hands unmoving as he listens to her. “Damn it, you’re so stupid! I’m your wife Alex! That’s what we vowed to each other! I love you! Does that not mean anything to you?”

The baby at her breast unlatches and lets out a loud cry, Jo bringing her up to her shoulder and patting her back gently. The cries don’t lessen though, Jo thinks it’s because she herself is still bawling uncontrollably as she tries to calm her daughter. Alex stands and gestures for her to hand the baby to him, Jo relenting almost too easily. She’s so small in his hands, the sight of Alex holding his daughter for the first time sending Jo into another round of tears.

“It’s okay, it’s alright baby girl, I got you,” Alex’s voice is calm and sweet as he sways back and forth, his own eyes closing as he pats the baby’s back gently. “You’re okay, no need to cry.”

Through her rounds of tears, Jo realizes that she hasn’t told Alex his daughters name yet. She takes a deep breath, wipes at her cheeks, then raises her voice so that Alex can hear her, “Her name is Reese. I’m... I’m sorry I didn’t call but I couldn’t...”

Her resolve to speak ends there, instead Jo looks to Alex who’s staring at her with a look of sadness. He extends his free hand to her, pulling her out of her seat and into his embrace before she has a second to overthink anything. The comfort of being in Alex’s arms again overwhelms her, worry and fear melting away as he holds her tight against him. His other hand still has Reese clutched to his opposite shoulder and the moment feels like a long time coming for Jo.

“I’m sorry, about how I left you and what happened. I know it doesn’t mean much, but I should’ve talked to you and I’m sorry that I didn’t even think of you. And if I’d known...,” Alex pauses, his words halting as he presses a kiss into Jo’s hair. “I’m so sorry Jo. I want to make it up to you, I want to be there for you and Reese. I’ll split time between here and Seattle, I’ll do whatever you want. Just please, let me try. I don’t deserve that from you, but I want to try.”

Jo presses herself into Alex’s shoulder, giving herself a moment to relish in the comfort he’s always brought her before speaking again, “We didn’t just come to visit, Alex. I told you, I’d go anywhere for you.”

She can feel the pause his body takes as he processes her words. Alex leans back, eyes searching her own for any indication that she’s playing some cruel joke on him, “You’re moving? Here? To middle of nowhere Kansas?”

Jo wipes her cheeks once more as she nods, forehead leaving against Alex’s as a small chuckle escapes her lips, “The moving truck is two days out, I couldn’t... we couldn’t stay away from you and I know you can’t leave your other kids. We just decided to make things easier for you.”

The tears that come next aren’t from Jo, but from Alex as he presses his lips to hers. The salty taste of his tears mixes between them as Jo kisses back hungrily, the time and miles that had been between them melting as they come back together. They only break apart when a small burp sounds from the baby still resting on Alex’s shoulder.

“You... you’re beautiful just like your mommy,” Alex coos at the infant, cradling her in his arms as he takes in her features for the first time. “You’ve got my nose though, sorry about that.”

Jo never thought she’d get the scene before her. When she’d read Alex’s letter, she’d thought that she would never see him again, that their daughter would never meet her father. But despite the shit they’d been through, Jo knew at the end of the day that the one thing Alex valued over everything else was his family, the people closest to him. That’s why he’d almost gone to jail for her, why he left Seattle, why he’d stuck by her through everything. They had a long road back, but Jo knew without a doubt that her and Alex would be okay.

#jolex #alex karev #jo wilson #jo karev #greys anatomy #jo x alex #nina writes #jolex fanfic #jolex fic #fix it fic #as usual

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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years ago

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 51

Last Time: The Bus Came Back, Al really needs to learn Morse Code, and the Golems woke up. Onwards!

Oh snap, new opening. Soft music as Ed and Al stand together in Central, looking at the lit-up castle until Ed looks away to blue pictures of Roy’s Crew wait I just saw Hughes in there. Oooh no. That’s not a good sign. Ok it’s including everyone from Armstrong the Great to General Grumman so unless this show’s heading towards a Total Party Wipe (which is not as unlikely as I’d like) it must just be stylistic. Wait what that was a white Truth outline that looked a heck of a lot like Winry. Please tell me she’s ok. Aaaand now it’s all red and black as someone (Ed?) screams and other flashes of red souls oh it’s the Goths. Aw hell it’s the Goths! And Uncle as well looking annoyed until GAH it’s one of those freaking Golems. Ok back to calming blue pictures of the Good Guys, then Al’s Soul still sitting at the Gate of Truth with his empty armor behind him, and Truth laughing like the jerk he is. Winry! Wi- wait why are you standing in a white dress at the edge of a cliff? Young lady that’s far too close, step back right now. Also stop crying and/or point me in the direction of whoever made you cry. We get a title for this song (“Rain”) as townspeople and villagers look up at the storm clouds in concern, and Military soldiers run out alongside tanks whaaaaat is that? What is that there’s a hunched figure standing in flames, zoomed in to show glowing white eyes and very big teeth. Now it’s Bradley in a bloodied white shirt sitting in the rain acting all calm and collected, switch to complete opposite of Scar tossing aside his jacket ooooh are we gonna get Scar fighting Bradley in this arc? Yeah I know that the trailers always lie but there tends to be elements of truth like the arms that grabbed Al coming up in a later arc. Now it’s the Chimera Army (sadly not under the command of General Al), and the Armstrong Siblings standing alongside each other and Mrs. and Mr. Curtis! Good to see you guys again! Wait Roy why do you look so upset? Riza why are you crying in an alleyway with your dog? And now Ed and Al are standing on opposite sides of a tree damnit are they gonna get separated again? Ok finally the sun’s broken through NOPE NOPE DEAD PERSON ALERT THAT LOOKS LIKE MAMA ELRIC BUT IT PROBABLY ISN’T EITHER RUN OR PUNCH IT ED. Nevermind he was just dreaming. While being watched over by Winry. Kinda cute, but kinda creepy too. Episode 51 - “The Immortal Legion” Oh great, this episode is gonna focus on those creepy Golems. Just what I wanted to start the new year with, yay. So a bunch of pipes are disconnecting from the gasping artificial zombies who land kneeling on the floor, before standing GREAT they’re in that uncanny 3D modeling that Titan!Envy used. Officer laughs at the labcoat’s insistence that they needed more tests, pointing at the undying, obedient, invincible soldiers. [Officer]: “We have our Title Drop, at long last!” Now he’s ordering the Golems (“Papa” NO) to deal with the renegade ele- Uh What So… One of the Golems walked forward and just… tore out his throat with its teeth. And a bunch of other Golems have pounced on the screaming Officer. Who’s no longer screaming. Aaaand now they’ve stopped, and turned with bloody mouths to the labcoat. … … … How fucking stupid are these guys? I mean really. REALLY. How has Amestris lasted as a country this long if this is what its leadership and researchers are like? How could the labcoats have failed so spectacularly to create Zombies when the goal was to create Golems? What kind of shoddy “tests” were they running to not figure out that their supposedly obedient soldiers were mindless killing beasts? Was there no prototype? Did they literally build an army of these things just assuming that they would all work? You fail, my good sirs! You fail at Science! And you, Officer! You completely ignored the guy whose job it is to know things, who told you that the weapon wasn’t ready, and you just set it off? You were so blinded by your arrogance and desire for command over others that you unleashed this army of Zombies without any assurance that they wouldn’t kill you for standing in front of them? Uncle. I get that you’re a bad guy. I get that you view humanity as a lesser species, no better than fuel for yourself and your Goths. And frankly, after seeing this Kimblee level of incompetence, I can see your point. But you have to have seen this coming. You had to have known that your minions were this stupid, this incredible level of dumbfuckery that has me storming around my room, ranting at the utter failure of this Officer and researcher. Clearly this is the reason you made your Goths, because if this was the level of ability you led before you made more competent henchmen? It’s a miracle that the whole country hasn’t gone up in flames without even the slightest effort by the Conspiracy.

Ok. Ok, we need to move on. So while that whole mess is kicking off, Ed’s reached the Door beneath The Third Laboratory. Oh hey, Barry’s still there! Miss you, you were funny when you weren’t killing innocents or trying to flirt with Riza. Giant door, check. Now how to open it. Actually, do we want to open it? Is it connected to the Transmutation Circle, is opening it playing into Uncle’s hands? Ah well, Ed’s gonna try anyway, struggles for a bit pulling at the seam (maybe it’s a push door?) until Scar gets bored and prepares to HoD it oh hey it’s opening CLOSE IT CLOSE IT CLOSE IT ZOMBIES CLOSE IIIIIIIIITTTTTTT Oh hey Armstrong the Great. Still haven’t killed the second General? Yeah he’s more useful as a bullet shield right now, and he’s still a General so he can order the Central Forces to stand down. Only he’s not giving the order? Huh. I’m actually kinda impressed here, guy’s been stabbed multiple times and has a gun to his head but he still gives an order to seal all entrances to Central. Still a bad guy and Armstrong the Great’s absolutely going to kill him now, but still. Ooor instead of Armstrong the Great, it’ll be Sloth literally crushing him. Ouch. Oooh dear, seems Sloth’s been ordered to kill Armstrong the Great for interfering, and she doesn’t have a tank or a snowstorm this time. She’s still laughing though, thanking the Goth for opening up another General seat, and brandishes her blade. [Armstrong the Great]: “This sword was passed through the Armstrong Family for generations. Now I don’t have to sully it with his filthy blood!” Adventure Strings continue as Ed’s fighting the Zombie Horde, the Chimera’s are throwing punches and Scar’s breaking out the HoDs to kill… oh dear. Scar’s One Hit Kill isn’t killing. That’s not good. The Zombies groan and shuffle around them- [Zombie]: “Big Brother!” NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU, WHOEVER WROTE THAT LINE YOU DO NOT TARNISH ONE OF THE SADDEST MOMENTS IN THIS SHOW WITH THESE MONSTERS SCREW. YOU.

Ed’s reacting in shock, realizing that they used human souls to make the Zombies, even somehow poor Nina’s. And for all the Zombies already, more and more come pouring through the door. Scar’s right, if these things escape outside to where civilians are just standing around wondering at all the Military soldiers running around, it’ll be a slaughter… Oh. Ok, I get it. Uncle deliberately set this up so the Officers (who are still IDIOTS) would set off a slaughter of the Central populace, probably to fuel the Transmutation Circle like Kimblee orchestrated the Drachman’s destruction up north. Back inside, Ed seals off the exit to keep the Zombies in ok sorry I have to say something, did the animation budget get cut for this episode to focus on the Zombies? Because for whatever reason Ed just seems off-model today, his face keeps looking rounder and younger. Anyways, the Chimeras are eager to let loose in a fight and transform, the group charges towards the Gate to plow through the horde and reach “that bearded bastard”. Outside Military forces are trying to close off roads and keep the Armory Ice Cream Truck from escaping, until a certain Briggs Officer arrives to express his displeasure. [Central Officer]: “A- a bear! A bear with a mohawk! Aaaa-” So Roy and his Crew are safely out of town, but now they’ll have some trouble getting back in. Although the Military are looking for an ice cream truck specifically. Almost makes me wish Ed was here to Transmute up a disguise for the vehicle. Almost mind you, things aren’t so desperate we need that just yet. Lion’s still at the Dome, wondering how things are going with the others. With nothing better to do he goes to talk to Al, ask what that annoying tapping noise is FINALLY thank you so Al didn’t know but Lion with his military experience was able to identify the dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot and realize that Al needs to shut Pride up, NOW. He’s been broadcasting your loca- Uh oh. Kimblee’s here. And as much as I insult the guy, I think he’s probably strong enough to brush past an injured Lion and break Pride out- Or straight up kill Lion while knocking a hole in the Dome. Damnit. Pride is loose. Mid-ep pictures of Zombies (“Mannequin Soldiers”) doing the See-Speak-Hear No Evil poses, and Alphonse Elric looking pissed. Aw shit May’s getting chased by Zombies in the tunnels! Run May! Run Shao May! Screw Envy, leave him to get eaten by the monsters! She screams at Envy for tricking her while he yells that her source of Immortality is still further inside, then she takes a moment to lay a beautiful if ineffective beatdown on some Zombies before catching oh shit I was joking about Envy getting eaten nobody deserves- Uh oh. [Envy]: “I’m baaaack!” Soooo, Envy’s kind of… melded with the Zombie, who ate another Zombie and then melded with all of the other Zombies to make Titan!Envy, who shrunk down into standard Envy. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a Goth back in play. Crap. In the village near the Dome, Yoki’s panicking at the Military presence, trying to persuade Marcoh to stay quiet and not draw attention to themselves. But Marcoh’s upset at not doing anything. Also, what’s that smoke coming from the Dome? Pride’s sauntering out, Kimblee actually sounds a bit unnerved at the news that Pride ate another Goth. Pride’s justifying it as them coming from the same father, they’re just in a combined form again. Oh hey, Lion’s still alive! Kinda. Not looking or sounding too good, though. Al rushes forward damnit he just got grabbed by Pride’s shadows, he’s gonna get possessed again and Ed’ll have to fight him damnit. But Al transmutes the ground for a Big Boom, ok so dust to block out the shadows? Or not, Pride still has Al’s feet… aha! He only has Al’s feet! Al pulled a Lan Fan! Back to Battle Drum music as Armstrong the Great’s fighting Sloth, who’s smashing up the room with his chains. Armstrong the Great, honey, don’t waste your bullets on Sloth, it’s doing nothing. Maybe your sword? Damnit Military grunts, stop bothering Armstrong the Great by threatening to shoot her for treason. See, that’s what you get for threatening Armstrong the Great, she just dodges so you take the hit from Sloth. Thanks for the grenade, btw! So that’s not going to do much to Sloth (besides be funny as he “Huh?”s at the grenade right in his face, but maybe Armstrong the Great can use the smoke to- [Sloth]: “Hey, look! I caught you! And this time, I won’t mess up.” Well that aint good. Sloth’s got her trapped against a pillar and is squeezing her to death, Armstrong the Great’s actually in pain and-

YES [The Mighty Armstrong]: “HEELLLOOO, SISTER! AAAARRREE YOOOOOU ALLLRIGHT?! HAH HAH!” *sparkles and explosion because AWESOME* He’s back! The Mighty Armstrong is back, and after sending Sloth flying with a single punch is ready to fight alongside his snarky sibling! Armstrong the Great updates The Mighty Armstrong on the plot (that’s a Goth, bullets are useless, I want my tanks back). [The Mighty Armstrong]: “You don’t say? *sparkle* Fortunately dear sister, that is my specialty! Why don’t you let your brother have a crack at it! I’ll take this atrocity down! Come on, you monster!” [Sloth]: “Ugh. What a pain.” Hey! Hey hey hey don’t you skip away from the Armstrong Fight! Go back to Best Characters! Ugh, ok fine Al’s current situation of trying to drag a grievously wounded Lion away from the dome while his own legs are stumps is sufficiently dramatic enough I’ll accept the scene switch. This time. But yeah, Al and Lion are in a tough spot. Lion’s even telling Al to leave him behind, which Al is having none of. But really now, Al’s down a few limbs, when the dust clears they’ll be facing Kimblee and Pride together, and Lion’s coughing up blood. Now Al’s knee has blown out and he’s resorting to beating the crap out of it in frustration. [Lion]: “You brothers… are really something else… You’re still determined to help another person, even when you’re falling to pieces yourself.” Now Al’s talking about his promise, to never let anyone else die. So now the show’s going to either force Al to break his promise abandon Lion at the Chimera’s insistence, or he’ll keep trying until the dust fades and Pride walks up and kills Lion before repossessing Al’s armor anyway. This sucks- wait, what’s Lion have in his pocket?

HOLY LETO IT’S THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE! I completely forgot that Lion pocketed it ages ago after Ed’s injury. Has the dude been carrying around one of the setting’s most prized MacGuffin’s in his pocket this whole time? Dude. Also, is this going where I think it’s going?

So they’re discussing the dilemma: with their own Stone they might be able to fight against the other guy armed with one and the ‘kid’ powered by two, but if they use the Stone they’ll be using the souls used in making it. And if I remember, this was Kimblee’s first stone, the one made with Ishvalan Sacrifices. Lion talks about Ed’s conviction to not use Stones on their bodies. Instead, he says to “use it to save the entire world instead”. [Lion]: “You deserve it. Because even if they’ve been put into that Stone, you still recognize them as people. I know… those people… even though they’re trapped in Stone, they still want to fight to protect what matters to them. Let them fight. They deserve the chance!” I’m picturing the Ishvalans in the stone cheering. “Heck yeah let’s kick some ass! That jerk in the tacky suit used us to murder our own people, we want to tear him apart!” Al agrees. They’ll fight together. Thank you. For all my ranting at not using the Stone to heal Ed back then, I can appreciate this take. Using a Stone is Wrong, and it cannot be something that our Protagonists ever truly accept. But when faced with no other options, and using it specifically to help others, not themselves, it is acceptable that Al uses the Stone to fight back. Outside the cloud Kimblee asks if he should blow it away, but Pride’s overconfident and says they’re trapped without Al’s legs- BOOM! Flash of red, Kimblee loses his hat in the windblast, and Al strides out on newly-Transmuted legs. Kimblee smiles. New Outro! We’ve got… I can’t tell if it’s Beardless or Al, going by the stonework I’m going to assume Beardless. Still Beardless, hair blowing in the wind...still Beardless...still Beardless...what is the whole Outro just Beardless never mind it just switched to Mama Elric’s grave, then a crowd of Xerxes folk hey it’s that picture Keaton used to show Xerxians have no black outline to their hair. Then either Beard or Uncle walking through the desert in a white cloak, and the Elric Household complete with the swing that Beard nearly broke his back setting up. Whoop speaking of we have a grumpy Beard surrounded by white light and shattering stone, then Homunculus sulking in his flask. Also, A+ on putting the only credit this screen (Mixing Engineer Adrian Cook) right in front of the one-eyed circle monster.

Ooh, but now we’ve got an orbital view of the planet, with a giant circular shock wave coming off of it. Implying the Nationwide TC is activated? Now Ed looking serious in his red coat, and poor skinny Al’s soul smiling in front of the Gate. Now it’s his armor form standing in front of a sunset (Ending Theme “Ray of Light”), and a final shot of the road leading to the Rockbell home.

#wmtw #where my twin watches #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fmab 51 #ranubis

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merigreenleaf · 4 years ago

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Unexpected Inspiration Series Masterpost: About the Secondary Dorks

The Unexpected Inspiration series is lighthearted, lgbt+ high fantasy set in a contemporary world. If you're into magic, found family, and characters who like to cause mischief, I got you covered! The short stories are all available to read and you can learn more about the series here and about the main characters here.

Under the read more is information about each of these secondary characters.

Name: Ametrine Travellarri Age: 12 Gender: nonbinary Birthplace: Galanvoth Occupation: kid Magic: none

Ametrine is a shy and quiet runaway from the neighboring country of Galanvoth. He rarely talks about his past, but from what the others have pieced together, his family replaced him. Galanvoth is a place where passing on a trade is more important than anything else, and it isn't uncommon for a firstborn to be demoted or kicked out of their family entirely if they're deemed not good enough. Ametrine was able to get away and made it to the safety of Concordia's capital city, where he was fostered with Sapphire and her carnival troupe. He meets Dray not long after this. Dray was also a runaway from Galanvoth and takes Ametrine under their wing, introducing him to their friends who immediately treat Ametrine as though he was part of their family. When he's asked if he wants to be adopted, he doesn't really understand why they would want him when his own parents didn't. He agrees without much hesitation, though, because the way he sees it, five people who love him unconditionally is a much better family than two traditional parents who didn't. For a while there's a fear in the back of his mind that he won't be good enough for them, but gradually this starts to fade. (Character tag- UI POV: Ametrine / moodboard / Pinterest board)

Name: Skia (he has no idea what his name is, so Ametrine helped him pick this one) Age: 14 (not that he remembers this) Gender: genderqueer Birthplace: ? (he has no clue) Occupation: haunting people Magic: he's a ghost, he does ghost things

Skia is a mystery, even to himself. He's dead, that much is obvious, but he no longer has any memory of who he was as a human or how he could have died. He's been drifting aimlessly around both the real world and what Etri calls "the place of shadow" for an unknown amount of time, up until Camille summons him mostly by accident. She was aiming for a helpful shadow elemental who could possibly tell her where Rosalie went. What she gets is the ghost of a mischievous, cheeky teenager who she can't seem to banish. Fortunately for her, Skia soon grows bored with her company and decides to haunt Ametrine instead. Ametrine is frightened at first-- it's not every day that you discover a ghost followed you home. But when the fridge magnets and sloppily handwritten notes start to spell out an equal mix of kind words and stupid jokes that make him laugh, he realizes the ghost must be another kid who's also lonely. The longer Skia hangs around Ametrine, the more he's able to retain a memory. He’s never able to remember much about his past, but because of Ametrine, he’s able to gain a present and a future. I'd say you’d never see Ametrine without Skia, but no one can see Skia. (Character Tag- UI POV: Skia / Pinterest board)

Name: Feren Cole Age: 19 Gender/sexuality: male (cis), bisexual Birthplace: Concordia Occupation: barista (when he can be bothered to show up) Magic: none

Feren is a layabout who loves styling himself into a tragic victim. As one of the few unmagical Artisans, he has always felt like he deserved more than life gave him, despite having everything handed to him and multiple opportunities available at every turn. He was once Adair and Nina’s sentinel-intended, but the second things got slightly dangerous, he decided it was too difficult and he wasn't good enough for the role. He’s currently taking graduate classes on the history of magic, with no real career goal in mind. This was simply the easiest choice at the time and he has never had work to be good at scholarly pursuits. It's unfortunate, but also entirely on point for him, that he puts as much real effort into this as he does working at his girlfriend’s restaurant as a barista and delivery boy. It's a one in three chance he'll be bothered to show up on time and he lives there. If an easy road to recognition and leisure presents itself, he’s going to jump on it with no questions asked. He’s always seeking to improve his lot in life with the minimum amount of effort on his part. (Character Tag- UI POV: Feren / Moodboard / Pinterest board)

Name: Sapphire Age: never ask a lady her age (she looks to be in her early-mid 30s) Gender/sexuality: female (cis), panromantic greysexual Birthplace: Concordia Occupation: leader of a carnival troupe Magic: none (technically. She can see/sense magic, though)

Sapphire is Etri's former mentor and thieving partner, as well as one of his closest friends. She’s currently the leader of the carnival troupe in Silveridge, the capital city of Concordia, and coordinates the city's performers. This is about as effective as herding cats. When Sapphire isn't sorting out who's performing at which venue and breaking up arguments about costumes, she can be found in her other organizational role with the troupe. Many of the performers are also thieves who return stolen art back to the artists who created it. It's up to Sapphire to keep track of what each reverse-thief is doing so that they don't cross paths or get caught. Sapphire excels at this administrative role, being calm, competent, and experienced, while at the same time her strong desire to take care of the people she considers family makes them intensely loyal. Keeping her carnies safe always comes before anything else and there's nothing her troupe wouldn't do for her in return. (Character tag- UI POV: Sapphire / moodboard / Pinterest board)

Name: Talan Age: 3. It's complicated. Gender/sexuality: male (cis), demi/grey-romantic pan Birthplace: Montglace Occupation: errand boy Magic: none

Talan is equal parts cheerful and peculiar, with almost a lethal case of curiosity. He’s something of a magpie who collects various bits of everything in a personal quest to discover its purpose. He has a tenuous grasp on the concept of possessions and tends to think of anything that isn’t currently being worn or carried or nailed down as fair game. He’s Dray’s boyfriend, at least for a little while, and Dray’s malfunctioning moral compass hasn’t exactly been the best influence in Talan’s life. Relatively new to Concordia in particular and civilization in general, Talan struggles with things like laws, idioms, and telling people apart. He’s determined to learn these things, though, and wants more than anything to fit in and be helpful. (Moodboard / Pinterest board)

Name: Nina Pare Age: 20 Gender/sexuality: female (cis), bi? hetero? (she’s only dated guys and I don’t know her well enough yet to guess which it is) Birthplace: Concordia Occupation: chef, cafe owner Magic: Savorweaving (culinary)

Nina is a chef with culinary magic who owns her own cafe. As much of an honor as it was to have it passed to her when the previous owner retired, she'll be the first to admit that it probably wasn't the best time for it. This isn't to say that she's not a capable chef and businesswoman, more that Feren keeps messing things up for her and it would have been better if she'd had the chance to break up with him first. Every time she plans to do this, some disaster happens, and her personal life gets pushed to her back burner. She dreams of the day that she can take a break and travel, to gather new recipes and ideas, to visit the beaches she loves so much, to have five minutes to breathe. Someone give this poor, overworked woman a vacation. (Pinterest board)

Name: Wysta Larkspur Age: 39 Gender/sexuality: female (trans), bisexual Birthplace: Concordia Occupation: healer Magic: healing/telepathy

Wysta is the lead healer of Blythe, Etri, and Sol's carnival troupe. She was Blythe's first instructor in arcane healing and remained her mentor and friend after Blythe moved on to further study. Wysta is a former Protectorate and her shaved head is a sign of giving up the life of a guard. Specific braids designate status as a Protectorate and it’s a ritual to cut off the braid when you pick a different path in life. Usually a former Protectorate will let their hair grow back, but Wysta keeps her head shaved as a personal-- and practical, considering her profession-- style choice. While Wysta is efficient and sensible, contrasting with the flightier personalities of the carnies she calls family, she possesses both a great sense of humor and a friendly bedside manner. There are very few people Blythe admires and respects, so it says a lot that she holds Wysta in the highest regard and trusts her with information she doesn't give anyone else.

(Mobile-friendly) Unexpected Inspiration Series Tags & Links:

About the Series: Series & WIP Info / Short Stories / Moodboard Posts (Tag: unexpected inspiration aesthetic) / World Building Posts (Tag: about my world) / Series Tag: Unexpected Inspiration series

About the Characters: Main Character Info / Secondary Character Info (you’re here!)

Character Specific Tags: UI POV: Adair / UI POV: Blythe / UI POV: Dray / UI POV: Etri / UI POV: Sol / UI POV: Rosalie / UI POV: Camille / UI POV: Sapphire / UI POV: Ametrine / UI POV: Skia / UI POV: Feren / UI POV:All (Group/Multiple) / UI POV: Other (Non-Main Characters) / UI POV:Trio (Adair/Blythe/Etri OT3) / UI POV: Firelight (Dray/Sol)

#writing #writeblr #cast of characters #about my characters #unexpected inspiration series #masterpost #UI POV: All #UI POV: Sapphire #UI POV: Ametrine #UI POV: Feren #UI POV: Skia

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tea---leaves · 6 years ago

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POWER!

For the @solarpunkstoryexchange! Happy Earth Day!

His mother is the local historian, which according to the majority of Godric Village, is the most important job there is.

“We forget what the world was like if there’s no one around to remind us,” explained Mr. Derrik as he dropped off the fruit from his farm. Xavier smiled politely, handing him the item his mother told him to give Mr. Derrik once he arrived. It was a strange item— a flat, little box holding a flat circle with a hole in the middle. ‘Like a donut had been flattened,’ said Levi. The box had a photo of a boy on it with his face painted with stars and stripes. Mr. Derrik smiled when he saw it. “Your mom does a very good job at reminding us.”

“Thank you for the fruit, Mr. Derrik,” said Xavier. The man tipped his hat and went back to his cart. He closed the door.

He’d never understood why the adults made a big deal about the past. The past is all that it said it was: everything but the future. Of course, his mother would disagree with him.

“Mom! Mr. Derrik brought us fruit!”

“Just bring it to me, dear!”

He groaned again, louder this time. “Coming!” He ignored the throbbing pain in his knee as hobbled his way to the greenhouse. Passing by various historical artifacts like the DVDs decorating the wall, the non-functioning record player in the corner, and various pieces of flat boxed artwork like the one he gave Mr. Derrik, he made note of the missing punk album on the wall.

Punk music, his mother said, is a call for revolution, change. Its purpose was to inspire. It was a miracle that she was willing to trade a record album for some fruit. Then again, there’s apparently a difference between fruit and Mr. Derrick’s fruit.

“Here.” Xavier dodged the pile of dirt on the cobble floor, setting down the basket next to the sunflowers. The plants were tilted upwards this morning. He followed its’ line of sight, squinting up the bright blue sky. The glass of the greenhouse tinted the colour, making everything look turquoise.

“Don’t stare at the sun, love, you’ll go blind.”

He looked away. “Yeah, sorry.” His mom popped up from behind the sunflowers, dirt smudged on her tanned cheek and her black hair in a messy ponytail. The teen slid the basket forward. She took it with care.

“He couldn’t stay for dinner?” She asked.

“Guess not.”

She dug through the fruit, pulling out a notecard wrapped in twine. Xavier raised a brow, peeking over her shoulder.

Camilla,

They’re not quite flowers, but I’m working on it.

Let’s talk again soon.

— Derrik

Xavier’s brows rose even higher. “I think Mr. Derrik has a crush on you,” he said.

She scoffed, which came out more as a nervous ‘pshaw.’ “Enough about me.” She gestured to his knee. “How’s your leg? Is it hurting again?”

“It’s fine.”

“Xavier, please,” she frowned. “No lying to me. If it’s hurting again we need to get it checked. You’re the—”

“—the future,” he finished, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I know.”

She continued, grabbing his shoulders and squeezing. “Which is why you need to be honest with me.” She brushed a curl away from his face. “You’re gonna—”

“—change the world one day?” His lips quirk upwards as his mom chuckled lightly. He shook his head. “My knee hurts a little bit when I walk but other than that, I don’t even notice. Can I go to Levi’s house now?”

“You can go to Levi’s house but make sure her dad checks on your leg, okay?”

A bright smile graced his face. He kissed her check. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll be home before dark.”

Her smile matched his. “Better be.”

Levi lived on the other side of the village, which is a thirty minute walk from his house. Clouds swarmed the sky, darkening the air around as if it were a foggy day. It’s making the fireflies glow a little earlier than usual.

Levi’s dad built little biomes for fireflies. They were stationed all over the village, giving light whenever it’s dark. It’s not always reliable, he had explained once, but he’s working on it. Dr. Lucien Khan was best known as Godric’s local mad scientist. The villagers used the title lovingly, as he was a zany man with a big heart and bigger ideas. He’s always pushing for innovations and its definitely rubbed off on his daughter, Levi.

Xavier loved going to their home.

“Xavier,” Levi grinned, crossing her thumb and index finger and pretending to paint her other hand. They decided his sign language name when they were four, when he just started taking an interest in painting. “Took you long enough.” She pulled him into her room, shutting the door behind her. “I found something I gotta show you.”

The girl gestured to the big table beside her bed— something that usually isn’t there. The surface was taken up by small, wooden rectangular prisms. Xavier squinted. The objects were grouped up, separated by pathways. Little figurines, not even a quarter of the size of the wooden prisms, look like they’re walking around, trying to get somewhere.

“Where did you get this?” He signed, picking up one of the buildings. It wasn’t designed in a way of an inspired artist, but as an architect obsessed. Individual lines were carved into each of its walls along with little windows, every single prism having its own unique structure. Furrowing his brows, he set it back down with its tribe. He knew what this was supposed to be, seeing it from his mother’s written books and drawings. “Is this supposed to be a city?”

Levi gestured to the tallest building. It was skinnier than the others and oddly shaped. The body of it was like a stem, curving thinner and thinner as it reached the top. Then all of a sudden, a thick oval plopped on top. And then on top of that, something similar to a lance weapon. Odd, he thought, but it definitely called for curiosity.

“This is a skyscraper.” She tapped the top of it. “My dad says that there were skyscrapers that reached the clouds. And that this whole place—” Levi gestured to the whole of it. “— Was powered by electricity. The electricity came from the sun, or the water, or oil. It was the weirdest thing. I want you to help me paint it.”

He hummed. “I don’t see why anyone would want to live that high up.”

“No one was living there,” signed Levi, shrugging. “People would pay just to go that high up and look down. It made them feel big.”

She shrugged again. He knocked once on his forehead, sign language for: “Stupid.”

Levi laughed, shoving at his shoulder. She signed back slowly, her movements deliberate: “Inspiring.”

That was two days ago.

His leg is throbbing so bad. It’s sending hot flashes throughout his entire body, making him want to stumble down and not get back up. Phantom pains were very common, Dr. Khan had explained, but the severity of it differs from person-to-person. He guessed the amount of walking isn’t helping the situation.

His mom had gone on a trip to some place he wasn’t allowed to know and she came back with something he’d only ever seen in her pictures: a tractor.

It was so much bigger than he thought it would be. The whole village got so excited, especially the adults because I haven’t seen a tractor in decades. And even more the children, because I’ve never seen a vehicle before!

To celebrate, his mom told the kids about how there used to be little events where kids would ride around the tractor, touring the forest. Levi’s dad insisted that she go so then she insisted that Xavier went with her. And Xavier was too much of a passive person to say no.

And then Levi wanted to wander away a little when the tractor stopped for a break. So then they wandered. And he wandered too far.

And now he’s knee-deep in a city— a real, actual, ancient, ghostly city.

His spine tingles uncomfortably every time his feet beat against pavement instead of crunch under dirt paths. And the buildings are tall. Just so, so ridiculously tall that he can’t even see the top of some of them. What could they possibly need all that room for?

It’s a think his mother talked about often: greed. The need for money, the need for power, the need for more more more more more! They wanted and wanted until the crops died, the land flooded, the bugs spread disease faster than the people could fix. Something similar to lightning shoots through his prosthetic leg, making him wince. The disease was what got most people.

He stops in his tracks, his head tilting upwards— a skyscraper towers over him.

“Damn,” he mutters. “That is tall.”

Now he can see why people would pay to be on top of that.

So he walks. And keeps walking until he’s inside the skyscraper, looking down at the city.

The buildings look so small from up here, he could only imagine what the city-people would’ve looked like.

This doesn’t make him feel big at all, it only makes him feel smaller. His chest expands; he takes a deep breath. People used to live here. They would travel over roads through their vehicles and they would do different things in different buildings and they would pay some nameless somebody to stand where he’s standing and look down because it made them feel big.

He takes a step back and goes back down the stairs.

He finds a gift shop on his way down. Its isles are filled with books and toys and music and keychains. Xavier heads towards the keychains first but he doesn’t find a keychain that has the name ‘Xavier’ imprinted. Then he heads for radio. He turns it over and frowns. Shouldn’t there be a wire attached? He hits different buttons at a time, hitting the square carved into the design. It pops open, revealing a little disk. Blinking, he closes it again.

Drums start to play, holding an upbeat, soulful rhythm in time of his heartbeat. A man, his voice husky and sweet, starts to sing. There’s a funky tone to the song, he can feel his head nod along despite that. A woman’s voice joins him, singing in a way that challenges and inspires.

And I could cry power

Power has been cried by those stronger than me

Straight into the face that tells you to

Rattle your chains (ha!) if you love being free

He spots the little box that’s supposed to hold the DVD and turns it over. Nina Cried Power, it read, by Hozier. It costs twenty-five dollars. Typical.

The thought of home pops up into his head. He should be going home but he’d been so distracted. Putting the DVD back on the shelf because he’s never seen nor held twenty-five dollars in his life, he begins the understand the never-ending feeling of ‘want.’ The emotion, in and of itself, is extremely entertaining when indulged, but he misses his mom and the crunching sound his feet makes when he walks on dirt roads.

It takes a little while and little bit of struggle but he finds his way home, picking up stuff on his way back because want isn’t always a bad thing.

The first thing he does when he gets to his room is grab his paint. Then he goes to Mr. Derrik’s cabin, where he was allowed to use its walls as his canvas. Holdin one of his mother’s history books in his hands, he starts painting.

“Xavier!”

“Over here!” He yells, taking a step back from his art. He’s whirled around, suddenly facing the worried face of his mother. She grabs the sides of his face, brushing her thumb over his cheeks in haste.

“Xavier,” she gasps, heaving and tear-stained. “The whole village was out looking for you! Do you know how worried I was?”

“Sorry,” he says. “Sorry, Mom.”

She sniffs, brushing his cheeks instead of her own. “So worried,” she says. “I was so worried.” They spend a moment just looking at each other, both hesitating. She turns her head, catching sight of his newest painting.

“You keep saying you want me to change the world,” Xavier starts, swallowing down the cotton in his throat, “but I don’t think you want me to change it. I think you just want me to put it back to the way that it was. And the world... it wasn’t that bad? Like, I can see why you miss it so much, but a lot of mistakes were made. And— and putting things back to the way things were isn’t going to fix anything.”

He hands her a piece of glassy, smooth material that’s cold to the touch. He’d read about it before. A solar panel, they called it. “If you really want me to change something,” he says, “then I want to do it by my terms.”

Her head is still turned towards his painting, a smile soft on her face. “Alright then,” she says, “you are the future, after all.”

Xavier wanted to experiment with the black and white colour palette, painting Nina Simone— the musician and civil rights activist of the 60s. She was known as the high priestess of soul, a strong black woman of her time and beyond. In the painting, she’s looking upwards, hand in the air. There’s a speech bubble next to her, a single word written in all caps: “POWER!”

#solarpunkstoryexchange #solar punk

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lia-nikiforov · 7 years ago

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Summer Anime Watchlist

We’re a couple of weeks into the summer and it’s time to decide which shows I’m gonna be keeping up with for the next three months. Because there was so much terribleness, I’m going back to my worst-to-best format for this list, so let’s get right into it

Dropped

Netsuzou Trap: Fetish lesbians are predictably terrible and gross, moving on…

18if: What was that first episode even about. It was so confusing and nonsensical and it also looked butt ugly. I’m guessing it’s trying to be Alice in Wonderland-esque but it’s just boring and weird. Heck, I’m not even sure if I was awake through the whole episode. Can’t be bothered with more

Keppeki Danshi Aoyama-kun: I was willing to give this a 3-episode chance but then ep 2 came along with the mandatory waifu character and I HAAAATE her. She’s literally my most detested heroine trope and I want to delete her from existence. Also the rest of the episode wasn’t particularly funny, but mostly I couldn’t stand the heroine girl and wanted her to die and can’t imagine myself suffering more of her insufferable existence one more minute. It’s a shame, I had good expectations for this show.

Saiyuki Reload Blast: Nothing particularly wrong with this one, but I wasn’t particularly hooked by it, and although it’s not very prohibitive for newcomers, I definitely feel I’d be more excited about these cool dudes being cool if I had any rapport with them.

Inertia watching or let’s see how long until I can’t be arsed to keep watching

DIVE!! Oh wow, they actually made diving boring. A running theme this season is taking something interesting and making it boring. Just wow. The main character is borderline insufferable, his girlfriend is awful (and he is awful with his girlfriend) and his friends are milquetoasty forgettable at best. And the animation and visuals are so bad you’ll be hard-pressed to find an on-model shot of any of the guys and the diving itself looks so inconsequential. I’ll give it one more episode, but I’m honestly more than ready to drop it.

The Reflection: So this is a collaboration project with Stan Lee and on that alone it’s a bizarre and interesting thing that somehow was willed into existence. It’s a shame it’s a boring thing. The visual style is unique which isn’t necessarily a good thing, but I didn’t find it as terrible as others did, ymmv on that one. The story though, god was it boring. Also the plot doesn’t make any sense as of now, to the point that I’ve no idea what the story’s even supposed to be about. The animation is chunky and almost non-existent and the fight scene was just so dull. Idk, idk, idek what it is about, if next episode doesn’t give me something I’ll drop it.

(couldn’t even find a gif for this one lmao)

Re: Creators: Ah yes, just what this show needed, a sleazy eroge author to glorify plus giving “totally-not-the-protagonist” Sota an excuse to participate in the self-masturbatory megacrossover that’s apparently gonna take up the finale of this show. Did you know light novel writers are awesome? Light novel writers are awesome and this show won’t let you think otherwise.

Hitorijime my Hero: You know, going in I wasn’t aware there would be two focal pairs, but as soon as I found out I thought for sure the teacher-student one would be the problematic one… then along came the other couple that has its big moment when Dude A tells Dude B that he has to choose between fucking him or never talking again. Run for the hills Dude B!! Of course that’s not what happens and why must BL always be this gross ugh. I should also say the direction and storyboarding is a mixture of incomprehensible and terribly bland. Honestly hoping at least the teacher-student pair gets something interesting going soon or I might drop it

Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu: I think people doing Tourabu anime are missing out on a huge opportunity to appeal to bigger audiences by restricting their stories to the tomfoolery that is the game’s original plot. For a series that has a serious look like this one, I certainly expected some variation on the story, but so far it looks like I’m just watching Hanamaru without the village parts. I’d thought the show was going to be more about the actual Bakumatsu period –hence choosing Hijikata Toshizo and Sakamoto Ryoma’s swords as the main focus-. I think one of the show’s biggest shortcomings is that the villains are just loads of faceless minions so they don’t feel particularly threatening and although visually the fights are fairly cool, there’s just no tension or excitement. Will I end up dropping this one too?

Centaur no Nayami: it’s just okay? Mostly harmless? I hope demon girl is actually a lesbian and not just fetish lesbian? The merpeople skit was pretty good and it’s interesting how they’re politizing the racial issues of this Monster world, I certainly find those segments much more interesting than the ones where the monster girls are just being cute (the school play, for instance, was so boring I almost quit the episode halfway)

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan: This show is very stupid and also they say they’re going to South America but they actually show Mexico and cacti in the middle of the jungle what are they doiiiing? It’s also kinda unintentionally funny, although I think they piled way too many mysteries for the opening episode and it’s become way too convoluted. But having a notorious interest in Catholic iconography (even though my level of atheism is over 9000), I was very pleased with the accurate depictions of the martyrs, and mostly I’m rooting for the killer to succeed just to see how they execute Catherine’s and Lawrence’s martyrdoms. Please don’t let me down show.

Since there are no gifs for this show either, please appreciate the Road Closed signs in English with the cop car that says Policía Federal in Spanish

Honestly this part of the list is kinda vague, I don’t have a particular order of preference for these shows beyond not being notoriously impressed by any of them but also not bored to tears either

Shokoku no Altair: This one I wouldn’t quite call a disappointment, but it sure has a slow start. Episode 1 was quite confusing, the second one was way better but still feels like it’s lacking something. A problem I have is that the totally not Germanic dude is way too inequivocally evil. Politics and war are never quite that black and white, but this guy is so unsympathetic watching his different plans unfold becomes quite frustrating (I also have like zero tolerance for “cheating”, which is what all his practices can be categorized as). I feel the characters need a little more depth before I can get more invested in it. Also sad to see this one got the C-team from MAPPA ):

Ballroom e Youkoso: This might be my biggest disappointment of the season tbh? It’s fairly standard sports anime fare but it has done nothing particularly interesting to distinguish itself. The animation can be really impressive… when there is any, and that’s the crux of the problem here. We’re two episodes in and we haven’t seen a full dancing sequence. Heck, I timed the dancing in ep 2 and made barely 13 seconds of actual movement. Episode 3 clocked at a full minute in spite of being entirely set in a competition. There are just so many still shots it’s quite grating. I was really expecting to get a Stammi Vicino moment in episode 1, a show-stopping performance that enhanced the beauty and wonder of dance with a mesmerizing choreography and beautiful music, but the show seems too focused on being Haikyuu, emphasizing the power and OOMF of the moves rather than any artistry or fluidity, and don’t even get me started on the music because there isn’t any or it’s of minimum importance. I’m reaaaally hoping this one improves down the line

Fate/Apocrypha: I mean, it’s Fate and it’s dumb but it’s so far mostly (emphasis on mostly) inoffensive and the battle between Karna and Siegfried was pretty cool, A-1’s doing a fairly decent job of recreating that ufotable feel. I also quite like Mordred, she’s cool and fun and her dymanics with Sisigo are very equal, which is great when you compare how main girls were treated in relationship to Shiro in the main Fate series.

Made in Abyss: I wasn’t quite expecting to get into this one but it got really good critiques so I decided to give it a shot. So far so good. The aesthetics are bright and vivid and the concept is unique and exciting. There are some murmurs around the net about the source material that concern me so I’m only cautiously optimistic right now.

Kakegurui: I guess it’s fine? I’ve a feeling it can get really boring really fast (episode 2 featured a memory game and even the cheat was extremely bland, I was almost laughing at how surprised the other students were when the girls got pairs lmao), but so far it’s been more or less interesting, with engaging visuals and great voice acting, even if I’m not a big fan of the over-erotization of the whole thing. Sayokan’s OP is gr10.

The only inequivocally good (new) show this season

Isekai Shokudo: Although this is not an outstanding show in any aspect, it just succeeds at everything it sets itself to be and that’s a surprisingly rare quality this season. It has a pleasant, homelike atmosphere. I find it kinda funny that the characters get blown away by what looks like fairly standard Famires food, but it’s a sweet little show nonetheless. It’s unassuming and unambitious but it makes me feel happy (and hungry) and I enjoy it a lot.

The sequels from Spring that keep me sane

Boku no Hero Academia: We’ve slowed down a little for the internship part except OH NO IIDA WHAT IS YOU DOING SOMEONE SAVE HIM. I love this show

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul: None of the new shows this season were good enough to overcome the leftover sequels from spring, especially not Bahamut that has once again delved in the complexities of war and also given us Nina’s extremely baddass dragon gandma. I don’t have a lot more to say in the scarce two weeks since my last appraisal, other than the show continues to be utterly excellent in every regard

Damn this season is dead. I guess it’s a good time to catch up on my pile of shame? I’m trying to binge Symphogear to catch up to the new season, it’s a palatable type of garbage entertainment. I’m starting a Masters’ course in two weeks so maybe not having a lot of anime on my plate is a good thing? Let me know which shows you’re watching and which are your favorites of the season!

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henrybennington · 7 years ago

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Who’s more likely to find who wearing their clothes?:

Henry. I think there’s only one or two items that Nina wears on a typical basis (like a college t-shirt and a pair of boxers that are like hella soft) so it’s a fairly often occurrence for him to come home and find her in those, but then she also knows he feels a certain way catching her in some of his other clothes so on nights when they don’t have the kids/before Louis is born/when she feels like driving him up the wall Henry will come home and find her wearing his button downs

Who initiates hand holding?:

Henry every freaking time. And it’s not because Nina doesn’t want to hold his hand but because Henry just does it first, it’s like ‘phone, keys, wallet, Nina’s hand’ as he’s walking out the door. I’m sure if he forgot or they were in a hurry Nina definitely would.

Who likes having their hair washed by who?:

I feel like Nina can’t reach Henry’s hair so when they shower together he washes her hair, plus I think he likes making it all sudsy and piling it on top of her head. But when they take baths together Nina probably washes his hair because Henry just likes the feeling of her fingers in his hair and how she tugs it.

Who likes to slow dance?:

Nina totally Nina. Henry has two left feet and does not dance but Nina likes to put on music and make him dance in their kitchen or when they’re at parties together and Henry obliges.

Muse that’s more likely to fall asleep with their head in the others lap?:

Henry literally every day omg. It’s their nightly routine where Henry comes home from work, takes off his shoes, and collapses in Nina’s lap and promptly falls asleep for a good half hour nap until she kicks him off to go cook dinner

Muse that does all the cuddling in a blanket fort?:

They’re both super cuddly so I don’t think one does “all” the cuddling but I feel like Henry’s definitely the clingier of the two so he will initiate the cuddling

Who hogs most of the covers at night?:

Henry. Definitely Henry. And poor Nina has to fight him to get them back which is no easy task and so they probably have like 50 blankets on the bed because Henry is bound to steal their comforter in the night.

Muse who nuzzles the others shoulder to get them to give them a head rub?:

Henry likes when Nina plays with his hair so he’s usually bugging her for one

How do they share a desert? Two forks or one?:

One fork because they take turns feeding each other because they’re gross like that. Even milkshakes they’re gross and share the same straw. Also because Nina can’t resist smashing whatever dessert they’re having in Henry’s face “accidentally”.

Who gets jealous more easily?:

I don’t think either of them are inherently jealous. But I think Nina reacts more to women paying attention to Henry. Like Henry is more than happy to sit back while men talk to his wife, stepping in only when she looks uncomfortable. Nina is more likely to step in a lot sooner in a very subtle ‘this is my husband’ sort of way. When he’s talking to a mother and she’s clearly flirting, Nina will walk up behind him and kiss his cheek or ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt, but babe I’m ready to leave whenever you are I’m just going to grab my cello’. So never like aggressive or rude, just subtle nods.

Who gets angered more easily?

Again, I don’t think either of them get angry often. But I think Henry loses his cool a lot faster than Nina. It’s never a violent/mean sort of thing either and he would never yell at Nina, but I think he gets on a subject and sometimes get’s a little worked up over it. And he might raise his voice but it quickly drops and he’s immediately apologizing.

How do they go to sleep at night?:

On a normal night they both spoon with Nina being the little spoon, occasionally they fall asleep with Henry on his back and Nina basically in his side. Nap time though Henry’s usually the little spoon but that’s for short intervals.

Who gets the most shoulder rubs?:

Henry definitely because he just likes Nina’s hands on him whether it’s in his hair and especially on his shoulders and back. Plus Nina’s happy to indulge him because his shoulders do something for her and shoulder rubs definitely lead to things that make both of them very happy.

What are there arguments/fights like? How often do they fight?:

I think their fights are very logical. Like they never fight and when they do it’s over something really important and it’s very based in the facts. I do think Henry can get a little overzealous at times while Nina is able to remain neutral.

Who is more likely to throw things in fights?:

No one. They would never throw anything or do anything physically intimidating. Henry’s definitely put a hole through a wall with his fist, but he would never ever do it in front of Nina or while they were arguing because he would never want to scare her.

How do they make it up to each other/apologize after an argument?

Henry is always the first to apologize because usually he has something to apologize for. All ‘I’m sorry I raised my voice’. I think they have make up cuddles a lot and like little whispers about how much they love each other that turn into make up sex.

Do they have nicknames for each other?:

I think just standard terms of endearment. They both call each other babe, and Henry calls her love and darling lot.

Caring for each other while ill, how does the other muse go about it?:

So I’m putting it out there that Nina is basically super woman and it is very rare that Henry knows that she is sick. She’s just such a tough person that it’s only when she’s really ill that Henry even knows something’s wrong. And at that point Henry usually does what he can like taking her to the doctor, making her soup, warm compresses, all that jazz. I feel like the sickest she gets is when she’s pregnant and morning sickness sucks and Henry just sits with her on the floor and holds her hair and wipes her forehead with a cool cloth until she’s good. Henry meanwhile is a child and you can physically see when he has a headache, but like he likes to pretend he’s tough and is all “I’m fine, I’m fine” and so like standard sickness protocol goes out the window like he doesn’t want soup or the doctor, and Nina just cuddles with him more and let’s him nap with his head in her lap for longer and before they go to bed rubs vicks vaporub on his chest.

Who’s more likely to be patching the others wound?:

I feel like Henry is the clumsier so he’s always tripping and scraping himself up. But I also feel like in the rare incident when Nina injures herself she does a lot worse than Henry. So Henry may have bruises and scuff his knee but Nina will twist her ankle in heels and hit the sidewalk so hard her knee is skinned. And again, she’s so tough that she’s like limping but all “I’m fine, it was just a little fall” and then ultimately he has her sitting on their kitchen counter while he’s bandaging her knee or her ankle propped up in his lap as he ices it.

Muse that says ‘I told you so’, after they come home from the beach and other muse is burnt to a crisp while whining how bad it hurts for not listening and putting on sunblock after the other muse repeatedly told them they’d get burnt?:

Henry never listens and Nina is always right. She’s just a more responsible, better at life human so she has her shit together and is all ‘Babe, you need sunblock’ and Henry is all ‘Ah I don’t need sunblock’ and then he’s the colour of a tomato while Nina is beautiful and bronzed.

Your otp has a newborn baby, who gets up in the middle of the night when he/she cries?:

Both of them. I think with their kids they’re both super responsible so neither of them mind getting up with the baby and in the beginning they do it a lot together, but I think slowly over time Henry tries to keep Nina in bed while he gets the baby because she’s the one who literally pushed their child out of her body, is the one breastfeeding, and the one who takes the baby all day when he’s working (except when she has cello practice) so he knows she needs the rest more than him and is the first one to jump out of bed at the sign of any crying.

Your muse’s of the otp reaction to finding the others crying about something? And how do they make them feel better?:

Henry’s not good with emotions really because like he can’t fix them, so he just kinda sits there quietly and will stroke her cheek with his knuckles, and wipe away her tears with his thumb. Let her crawl into his lap and just hold her until she’s ready to talk or calms down. Nina’s definitely better at handling those sorts of things than he is.

What would they be like as parents?:

The best parents. They just have so much love and can give so much to their children. They definitely make a lot of mistakes because they’re thrown into it really quickly but they make up for it with the love they have for their children.

What would they have been like as childhood sweethearts?

Honestly they would be the ones who broke up and got together later in life. I just think that the Henry that is in love with Nina is a totally different person than the one he was as a child. I think he would have fancied Nina early on, won her over, and then did something asinine where she ended it with him because he was stupid and immature. But then like 5 years down the road they run into each other and he’s done a lot of growing up and then it works because there was always something there, but she deserved much better than what child Henry could give her.

Who initiates taking a bath together?:

Nina, definitely. Henry’s very aware of his long limbs and boxy body so in the beginning he’d run her baths because he’s a romantic with candles and bubbles and wine and sit on the side talking to her and putting bubbles in her hair. And then she’d suggest him joining her and he’s not too sure about it and at first figuring out the logistics is awkward because men like him don’t take bubble baths but like they eventually settle in and it just becomes like this great thing for them to do because it’s very intimate and romantic and soft little touches under the bubbles and quiet gasps of pleasure and her washing his hair and him washing her shoulders. And I think they just enjoy their time together like that so much so when they move from his apartment to their own home the bath tub is like the deal breaker because they need a good sized tub they can use regularly.

Who likes who playing with their hair?:

They both enjoy it, but Nina plays with Henry’s hair more often.

The place they mostly likely accidentally fall asleep together?:

Everywhere omg, especially after Louis born. Put them on a bus and they’re asleep, let them sit on the couch at a party and they’re asleep, in the lobby of the company they’re asleep. It’s just such a normal thing to find them sitting next to each other with Nina’s head against his shoulder and Henry’s head resting on top of hers just both out.

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vrheadsets · 7 years ago

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VR vs. A Busman’s Holiday

Some people don’t learn, do they? If you recall the first part of last week’s column you might remember me discussing someone getting all bent out of shape because a story about a videogame where the developers specifically mentioned the possibility they would be developing it as a PlayStation VR title was tagged witrh the PlayStation VR tag. (I know, it sounds stupid to even have to write it.) Well, this last week they got all antsy again.

This time they were upset by a story, the latter part of which discussed a trailer being released for said videogame that was labelled up as PlayStation VR in the title – despite no official declaration of a console version yet. That’s pretty newsworthy I would say. Of course, no it wasn’t according to our friend, and no, this wasn’t to do with the PSVR either. Apparently. Despite, you know, the PlayStation VR trailer. Instead it was, we were informed, just clickbait.

Umm, I’m pretty sure that’s now how that works. Especially when a) it’s not mentioned in the title or description at all and b) the subject complained about not existing actually exists plain as day and there’s even an external video about it.

Unfortunately, their “J’accuse!” behaviour at our foul crime of labelling something what it was about ended up with Disqus deciding it was spam. I can’t blame it frankly. But the accusation was so ridiculous I was actually quite happy to leave it there to entertain people at the logic – or lack thereof. But no, they then got riled up when they found it was gone and kicked off with the ALL CAPS and F-bombs annnnnd… managing to get themselves banned. So well done there, fella. If you’d waited another hour you’d’ve seen it reappear again.

It was a similar sense of bemusement that I felt a couple of months ago when we were in Malta. A sense that somehow this was all just an inevitability of the situation.

This of course gives me an excuse to go back (finally…) to the story of the team’s festive trip to Malta, first chronicled in VR vs. Travel. As you might recall the entire team for once was off on a trip, including, amazingly, #TeamLeftBehind. Myself and Rebecca were going somewhere! Although where Rebecca really needed to go was hospital to have surgery – and she still very much does.

Meanwhile Peter was also far from 100% as he had some sort of chest infection/flu, and the fact he managed to review Fallout 4 VR when the code came through, spending hours in VR when the last thing he needed was to have a headset on (we had taken a HTC Vive out with us, incidentally) was nothing short of miraculous. Seeing the coughing, wheezing Peter animatedly trying to get radroaches away from his legs was one of the highlights of the trip. Sadly, Peter’s act of review heroism wasn’t thought of so highly in the comments as he never came across some of the graphical issues other did, and subsequently didn’t mark the title down for such an issue. C’est la vie! Or should that be ‘c’est la vay air’?

Anyway…

After several days hard graft and much wondering about whether we were going to blow ourselves up with the gas cylinder powered heaters that were a necessity to survive the apartments in the evening. We finally had pushed ahead enough on content that we were to be able to spend the last day actually out looking around the northern island of Gozo. We decided to take a bus into the city of Victoria, which is Gozo’s capital and found that doing so was something of a wait. Looking around the dusty landscape, rocky outcrops and hedges full of cacti some considerable time later, I was convinced that we were more likely to have a roadrunner and a coyote come tearing past than something with wheels on it. Eventually, of course, one did. But a little seed of doubt had entered my mind. Something was off. Something was wrong. I wasn’t familiar with public transport in foreign lands, but still, for a weekday service it felt somewhat… limited.

Arriving in Victoria after the trip in a very stuffy bus, saw me and Rebecca dodge around all the various stray cats that filled the city. Cats are to Gozo as Barbary monkeys are to Gibraltar. They’re everywhere and they’ll happily scamper off with anything remotely resembling food if they think you’re offering it to them. (I.e. you own any food whatsoever.) Our first tourist stop was the pharmacist though, as now I was feeling pretty awful myself and Rebecca was in an awful lot of pain. Travelling through a little shopping centre of sorts, the team were surprised to find all the shops closed. That seed of doubt was germinating fast.

“Maybe they’re having a siesta?” Nina suggested. Peter and I looked at each other dubiously.

More wandering found an open pharmacist, thank goodness, and some open souvenir shops too – but even more closed stores. As we trudged down some back streets to find more and more closed businesses my seed of doubt was at this point a 50 foot tall oak tree filled with a variety of cheery woodland creatures. With a sense of dread, I opened Google on my phone.

As I’d suspected in our great wisdom we’d managed to pick, of all days to come out, Republic Day on Gozo. It was a bank holiday. No one was going to be doing much of anything.

Well… arse.

The group visibly deflated, groaning loudly. All except Nina who looked at me like I’d grown an extra head, “How did you know that?” I looked pointedly at my phone, but she didn’t get the gist so I suggested I could read perfect Maltese and pointed at a random road sign. This explanation was deemed acceptable. Resigned to making the best of things, Kevin and Peter led the way as we plodded off in the direction of the citadel.

It was a reasonably sure bet that Victoria’s Cittadella wasn’t closed – and if it was we were probably going to launch a 5-person siege of the battlements in protest. So, we marched up the various hills (much to Rebecca’s discomfort) before a final very steep road indeed. As the rest got to the top however, Peter and Rebecca realised I wasn’t with them. I was at the bottom still reading a pamphlet. Reading and laughing. They looked confused.

I walked up to join them, brandishing it in the air. It was for a sort of tiny private cinema. What were they showing? A 360 degree video of Gozo from the air.

“No way!” Peter laughed, “Is it open?”

“Nope!”

“Aww, damn it.”

As we chuckled over the possibility of engaging in a proper virtual reality (VR) ‘‘busman’s holiday‘, something else caught my eye halfway up the same hill. It was a picture of a Samsung Gear VR. I went over… and nearly went over. ‘Did you know that you could download a companion app to find out all about the Cittadella – as well as see it in VR?’ asked the poster. I initially thought this was the same item as the 360 degree video. But no – it was a completely different thing.

Less than twenty metres apart, up a hill, in the middle of Northern Malta we’d stumbled across two different VR items in a matter of seconds. We weren’t even deliberately looking. What was that about VR and mainstream, again? And the hilarious thing was we couldn’t try out either of them!

The day wrapped up after a trip up to the battlements, lunch at a cafe which I turned down as I wasn’t feeling hungry. On the way back there was one final laugh. In the UK as part of us having a monarchy still you may have seen the letters ER associated with a crest. This is the Royal Crest and the letters represent the reigning monarch at the time. You can see different ones on post boxes and older buildings. Currently it is ER which stands for Elizabeth Regina; the R often referred to mistakenly as ‘royal’ but in this instance specifically Regina means ‘queen’ . I’d forgotten the place had obviously been renamed after Queen Victoria, and so her version of the crest appears in the city’s coat of arms.

Or, as I put it on Twitter…

Malta seems to be on brand… pic.twitter.com/7f0apjcUKS

— VRFocus (@VRFocus) December 13, 2017

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2Hwfk2f

#VRFocus #vr #virtual reality #canada

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blueyesandleatherjacket · 7 years ago

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How Would You Feel

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 20 / ?.

Pairings: Human!Nine x Rose.

Synopsis: "They were almost back to his flat. Tenny would force him to get to bed – maybe he wouldn't have to force him – and to get a lot of rest. He would stay around until Donna was back home. He would watch over his brother and make sure he would be okay. Which wasn't the case currently."

“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable.” - Unknown.

CHAPTER 20: ALLERGIES

Clara smiled as she hurried out to her car. She was very happy to be allowed to see her friend. Finally. She had been so worried over the years and the letter hadn’t helped her feeling less worried because of the horrors Rose was writing. Although Clara thought the blonde had minimised the reality of things. The brunette started driving to the hospital after she got in her car. “So… How are you? I’ve heard from Rose’s mother that her therapist is a bit sick. Am I allowed to know how he’s doing? I hope he gets better soon.” Clara had put her phone on speaker so she could drive and speak at the same time. It wasn’t something she should do but she didn’t know where her hands-free kit was. The phone was in her lap and she was focused on the road. She didn’t like being on her phone while driving. She didn’t wanna risk any lives while on the road. Tenny took a quick look at Maxence. He didn’t seem better than earlier. He was still pale and his hands were trembling. His jaw was clenched. “Me? Fine. Always fine. I’m the master of fine. The therapist…” Another quick look at Maxence. “Do you want me to stop?” he asked his brother. “Yeah.” Muttered Maxence. Tenny stopped on a small parking and Maxence got out of the car to be sick again. “The therapist’s not so good. Bad allergies. He’s gonna be alright soon.” They were almost back to his flat. Tenny would force him to get to bed – maybe he wouldn’t have to force him – and to get a lot of rest. He would stay around until Donna was back home. He would watch over his brother and make sure he would be okay. Which wasn’t the case currently. “I’m sorry he’s not doing very well. I hope his allergies go away soon and I hope he gets better so he can help Rose again.” Clara took a couple shortcuts to get to the hospital faster so Tenny could take care of Maxence. She couldn’t wait to see Rose. She would watch over her and she would take care of her for the time that she was there. She wanted to catch up with her. “Oh, he doesn’t need to be fine to help someone. But right now, he’s good for nothing.” “But having a clear mind does make a difference. He sounds pretty bad. Better get him home quick.” Maxence was leaned on the car and was taking a couple of deep breaths, his eyes closed tight. He considered taking some more aspirin but he couldn’t since Tenny was too close. He would take the box away before Maxence even pulled it out completely from his pocket. So instead, Maxence sat back in the car. “Better?” “A bit.” “Headache?” “Going better now that I’m out of that place.” “Good.” Tenny started driving again. They weren't far from his flat now. They would be there in just a couple of minutes. “I’m online with Miss Tyler’s friend, Clara Oswald. I allowed the visits and told her to go.” “Good. She needs the company. I usually stay longer than planned every time I go.” “Not today.” “I just want to go home.” “We’re almost there.” “Great.” Maxence closed his eyes again and waited for the moment Tenny would pull him out of the car to drag him back home because he didn’t have the strengths to walk on his own anymore. “I’ll keep Rose the company you normally give her, sir. Don’t worry. She’s in good hands. Just get lots of rest.” “Right where I’m taking him, and he’s already begging me to tuck him in bed.” “Shut up.” Maxence didn’t want anyone to know they were brothers because if someone did a mistake in the hospital, they would be screwed. Well, they couldn’t do anything against them as they were officially to Rose Tyler, but they would make their life a real hell. “You’re not tucking me into bed, T. Won’t give you the pleasure of it.” “What you two do is between you two,” chuckled Clara. “But just help him out. Even if that means you have to help him get into bed.” Tenny just laughed in return. He would for sure. Maxence just didn’t want to admit it. “Miss Oswald says that she’s gonna do that for you. Watch over Miss Tyler,” Tenny told Maxence. “Good. Very good. You can’t mess with the Tyler. Just give her the visits she needs.” “I’ll take good care of my friend, Mr. Spitz. I’ll make sure she’s good by the time you go see her again.” “You sure will. Miss Tyler wouldn’t have asked for you if you were a naughty girl, would she?” Maxence would have sighed if he had heard that part. His brother could be a real flirt sometimes and it was annoying. But he was never really serious. He was just looking for the right person, and flirting was just a stupid game. “You’re right. She wouldn’t have asked for me if I was a naughty girl. Now I can be naughty sometimes. Just depends on the situation.” Clara knew flirting when she heard it. But she didn’t mind much. Nina, Clara’s girlfriend, was aware that Clara would never cheat on her. And she wouldn’t. Flirting indeed was just a stupid game. “Oh, I’m sure you can’t be, but I’m truly not the person you want to be naughty with.” Tenny didn't know Clara Oswald at all, but she sounded gentle and funny and maybe pretty too. But she also sounded pretty young. Maybe too young for him. “I can be. But I wouldn’t be naughty with you. I’m just really defensive and protective kind of naughty.” Clara Oswald didn’t know Tegan Smith at all either, but he sounded a little older than her. Clara wasn’t sure if he would be too old or not. But he sounded pretty hot and gentle and funny too. She soon pulled into the hospital and got out, walking to the doors. Tenny just laughed at her definition of being naughty. Clara Oswald was a nice girl. A good girl. She would only get naughty if this someone she loved was being tormented or something. It could be interesting to see how she would react to the place her friend was locked in. It could be interesting to see how naughty she could get to get her out of here. But it was better if she didn’t try anything. They didn’t know how many persons of the staff were their enemies. It would be really unfortunate if she got locked there too. “I’m at the hospital. Just stay on for a couple more minutes, Mr. Smith. I can’t wait to see their faces when they see me back. They didn’t like me here this morning.” “I’m staying online. Go on.” Tenny parked the car down in front Maxence’s building but didn’t come out. Maxence neither. He remained still. He didn’t have the strength to move for now. “Max?” “…” Tenny shook his brother. “Max!” “Oi, don’t yell, you idiot!” “You scared me!” Clara listened to their conversation on how Maxence nearly scared Tenny and bit the inside of her cheek. She walked into the hospital and to the front desk. “Hello, I’m Clara Oswald. Doctor Smith sent me here to come see Rose Tyler. And I have him on the phone to prove my point.” Clara turned the phone towards the nurse sat at the desk so she could hear Tenny clearly since she still had it on speaker. The nurse looked up from her computer and looked at Clara. She recognised her as the woman who had come in the morning. The nurse looked around. No sign of Nash, and she remembered clearly that both Mr Smith and Mr Spitz had insisted on them allowing the visits for Miss Tyler earlier. “You’re gonna have to give me your personal belongings. Phone, keys, pens… Anything that could be used as a weapon.” The nurse knew as a matter of fact that Rose wasn’t dangerous or suicidal, but some of their patients were so she couldn’t take any risks. Only the doctors and nurses could have some of those things, and they had to be really careful. Clara chewed the inside of her cheek and gave the nurse her keys and wallet. Tenny listened to the talk while Maxence was curling up in the seat waiting for his brother to help him out of the car and back into his bed. Maybe he would tuck him in bed in the end. “Gotta go Mr. Smith. Thanks so much for staying on the line with me. Have a good rest of your day,” she said before she hung up and gave the nurse her phone as well. “I have nothing else on me.” “Alright. Have a good night yourself. Enjoy your time with your friend. And be careful.” Tenny put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Maxence. “Are you serious? Am I gonna have to carry you back into your flat?” Maxence didn’t reply. He was either ignoring him or really sleeping. Tenny tended to think it was the second option. He sighed. “What wouldn’t I do for you, Max?” he murmured. He got out of the car and closed the door quietly. He went to Maxence’s side and opened his door. He unbuckled the belt and tried to get Maxence out of the car but his brother struggled against him. “Come on, Max, let me help you.” “No,” he groaned. “I can do it myself.” Maxence gave – threw – his bag to Tenny after he took his keys and got out of the car. Without waiting for his brother, he entered the building. He went straight to his flat and then, straight to the bathroom. He pulled out the small box from his pocket and opened it with his trembling hands. Very quickly so Tenny wouldn’t know about it, Maxence swallow two other pills and walked to his bedroom. He hid the pills into Donna’s bedside table. It would be less suspect. Then, he let himself fall onto his bed and was asleep before Tenny even came into the flat.

In the meanwhile, the nurse took Clara’s belongings and put them into a locker before leading her to Rose’s room. She didn’t knock before opening the door and letting Clara in. No one else but the doctor Spitz and Liv were knocking into the room. Clara looked around while she was following the nurse to Rose’s room, making sure she didn’t make much noise. Rose heard the door being unlocked and hid what few drawing supplies she had out quickly, not knowing who was coming in. Clara softly thanked the nurse for letting her come back and for letting her in before she stepped inside Rose’s room slowly. She looked around. Very plain. Very white. Rose’s face lit up at the sight of Clara. She put her drawing supplies back on the desk again. She was almost done with making Maxence those signs so he wouldn’t hit his head. She hurried over to Clara and hugged her tight. Clara hugged her back just as tightly. “I’ve missed you, Rose Tyler.” Rose kissed her cheek briefly, “I’ve missed you too Clara Oswald.” Clara pulled away from the hug a little and studied Rose. She frowned. She could barely recognise her friend. She had changed so much. She had lost a lot of weight and her face had grown hollow. But it was her look that was the worst. Rose had once been full of life, and now her look was empty, off. She had lost herself in that place, and it was to doubt that she would ever be back to her old self. “You’ve changed so much. You’re so thin and malnourished. They’re hurting you in here,” Clara murmured sadly. She reached and cupped her friend’s cheek carefully. Rose leaned into her warm touch. A touch she had desperately missed and needed. The golden spark was shining in her eyes. It wasn’t too bright though. The Wolf was just taking a quick look but it knew that Rose was safe with Clara. Rose put her hand over Clara’s and softly stroked it. “You’re right. But I’ve got help. My own little team. They’re helping me out and making sure I get healthy again. I’m in good hands now.” “They better take care of you. You’ve lost a part of yourself while being in here. I see it. That spark of happiness isn’t in your eyes anymore. You’re not the same person. And that hurts to know.” “Being in here changes you, Clara. But I’ll be out of here soon enough. After the New Year. And then, you can help me be the person I used to be.” Rose smiled briefly and kissed her forehead. Clara closed her eyes and smiled a bit. Rose held her close to her, before she pulled away to look more at the brunette. It felt good to see her. She looked good. She looked happy. Rose couldn’t help her heart to be broken. Her best friend was happy. She should be happy about it too, but she wasn’t. Because she was stuck there and had no chance to be happy. “Let’s sit.” Rose took her hand and led her over to the bed. They sat close beside each other, but Rose pulled Clara into her lap and hugged her close. “So, how’s life for you?” Rose asked. “It’s good. I love my job as a teacher. And I’ve got a girlfriend too. She treats me well and we love each other a lot. She knows about you. And she wants to meet you one day. When you get out of here. She’s been supporting me through these tough times. I’ve really missed you, Rose. I wake up some days and wonder how in the world I get out of bed to go to work. But she’s been there every step of the way. She comforts me when I need it and she’s always there to help me. We’re taking things slow. We’ve been dating for a couple years now and we recently moved in together. I told her that if we ever do get married, I’d like to wait and have the wedding for when you can attend. Because I want you to be my maid of honour.” Rose smiled, “I’d love to be your maid of honour, Clara. Thank you for waiting for me. Thank you for never leaving. I feel special that you’d wait to have your wedding because of me. And congratulations on a girlfriend. I’m really happy that life is going so well for you.” They hugged each other tight. “How’s Mickey?” “He’s good. He’s got a wife. Her name’s Martha. I try and see him when I can. He hasn’t been around too much though. I don’t know why. Probably busy with personal life. Like I’ve been. My girlfriend’s been sick so I’ve been taking care of her. She was asleep before I came here.” “Mm. I see. Just as long as he’s happy and living a good life. That’s all I want for him. And I hope your girlfriend gets well soon.” “Thanks. She’s doing a lot better. She’s resting and letting me take care of her. She’s cuddling a lot and asking for help. So she really wants to get better. Which I’m happy about.” “That’s good. What’s her name?” “Nina.” “Beautiful name.” “So, this therapist of yours. What’s he like? What’s his name?” Rose blushed briefly, “His name is Maxence Spitz. He just got out of college. He hasn’t been out of college for too long before he was given my record. He read it for a week I heard. He’s memorized my whole record I’m sure. He’s a wonderful man and an awesome therapist. He really understands me. He doesn’t push me. He doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. Mr. Spitz is a natural when it comes to helping people. He’s really nice and he treats me like a human for once. He’s the best therapist I could ask for. Good friend too.” Clara listened to Rose talk about Maxence Spitz. He sounded like a wonderful man. Someone Clara wanted to meet one day. Someone she wanted to thank. “He sounds like an amazing man. I talked to his friend Mr. Smith on the phone earlier. He didn’t sound like he was doing too well earlier. But I’m sure he’ll get better soon.” “Yup. He’ll be resting a lot. He’s had a rough past four days. But I’ve helped him out a bit.” “Sounds like something you’d do. Always finding a way to help people. Even if you are stuck in some horrible hospital,” Clara replied. “What’s the Wolf like?” she added quietly. “It’s interesting. Unpredictable and really protective. It can be mean. But it can be friendly too. It causes me migraines a lot. But they’re a bit more bearable now. It sometimes helps me with my nightmares and other things. Sometimes it accidentally enhances my dreams and nightmares. Sometimes it makes me hallucinate. But I know that it doesn’t exactly mean to harm me. Even if it’s what caused me to be here in the first place. The Wolf was the only thing I had to talk to for five years. So I see it as a friend now. Not really an issue or a problem,” Rose explained to Clara. “I see. I’m just relieved to know it hasn’t killed you. I’m just relieved that you’re still here. I assume it can heal you too since you have not much of any marks on your body.” Clara knew Rose had been brutalised by the staff of that hospital. She had written it in her letter and it as obvious when you looked at her. Someone usually so full of life who turned into someone so thin and so dull, that couldn’t be just the fact of life being hard. There was more. “Mmhm. My mum doesn’t really trust it fully yet. But the Wolf will prove to her soon that it doesn’t mean to cause any harm. I know she doesn’t forgive herself for putting me in here. Promise me you’ll help her with that. I’ll make sure I help her with it too when I get out of here permanently.” “I will. I promise. I try and see your mum as much as I can. We’re really close now since she’s come to me a lot for support. I’m happy to help her.” “Thank you,” Rose said, relieved to have someone watching over her mother. She kissed her friend’s cheek. “It means a lot to me to know that my mum has people there to help her who are just a phone call away. Keep watching over her. Help her as often as she needs it.” “What else can this Wolf do?” Rose shrugged, “It can give people certain memories back. It can take memories away. It can wipe someone’s memory, making them forget who they are entirely. It can also completely erase someone from time. The Wolf can sense emotions a lot easier and can notice when someone’s lying. It makes me stronger. And it can talk too. Sometimes it talks through me. I don’t really know what else it can do.” “It sounds like a cool thing.” “It is. But it can be dangerous. But it isn’t here to cause danger. My therapist, Mr Spitz was saying that maybe there was a way to get it out of me. But there isn’t. If you try and take it out of me, I’ll die. That’s even what the Wolf told him. It has its claws too deep in me and it won’t be letting go. Not until I die. So it’s here, forever.” “I see. But I don’t mind too much that it’s with you. As long as it isn’t causing you too much pain and as long as you’re happy and healthy and can still do what you love. I just can’t wait until you’re out of here. Until you can be a normal woman again. You’ve lost five years of your life in here. Hopefully we can make up that time a little after you get out.” “I hope so too. But we’ll see.” Rose laid her head on Clara’s shoulder and held her tight against her. She was scared to let her go, afraid that she was just a dream and that she would fade away or something. Clara seemed to understand what Rose was saying about the Wolf. She seemed to understand in general and that was really good. It made Rose happy that Clara understood. Clara was actually trying to understand it all. She understood the concept to an extent, but she was working hard on getting all of it. It was just something so inhuman and something that no one had ever heard of. That it was hard to wrap your head around the fact that something like that was inside your best friend’s head. “If you ever need anything, Rose. Anyone to talk to. Let me know. I’ll always be here. I’m never gonna leave you, Rose Tyler. Especially when you’re outta here. I’ll always be a phone call away. Whatever you need. Whatever you want.” “Thanks, Clara. And same to you.” They both closed their eyes. There was still hope for Rose. No one had given up on her. No one had left her. And that gave Rose a lot of hope. It made her wanna fight harder to get out of there, because she had people waiting for her outside of this hell.

Tenny sighed when Maxence disappeared into the building and picked their two bags. He climbed the stairs pretty quickly. He put the bags down on the couch and walked to the bedroom. He smiled when he saw his brother so deeply asleep already. He lay him down in a better position and tucked him in bed after he took off his shoes. He checked his temperature. He still had a bit of fever. Nothing to worry about though. Tenny walked to the bathroom and filled a bowl with water. He took a rag and took everything back to the bedroom. He put the rag into the water, wringed it and ran into on his brother’s face. Nothing better than the old school cures. Then, Tenny sat down on the bed and turned on the TV. He would keep a close look on him until Donna came back. Which was just a matter of minutes now. Maxence barely slept half an hour, and that sleep was restless. His nightmares were still tormenting him. He woke up with a start, but it wasn’t as bad as earlier. He just needed a few minutes to realise where he was and who he was with. He took some more minutes to catch his breath. “Your nightmares are back?” asked Tenny when Maxence had finally calmed down. Maxence just nodded and tucked the covers more around him. He was cold and his hair and face were damp because of the sweat. The cause wasn’t the fever, but it was the fear. The fear of the monsters in his dreams. He wasn’t sure if he would sleep again today, tonight or in the nights to come. But at least, his headache seemed to be better. “Maybe you should talk to someone about it.” Maxence didn’t reply. Who would believe him? Except for Rose, everyone would consider him a crazy guy. It was surprising that Nash hadn’t decided to lock him down into a room – or worse, a cell – after he woke up yelling that his shadow was talking to him. He better not try to talk about it to anyone. He had written it over and over again, every time he had done the freaking nightmare but he had hidden all of that so no one would find them. He had even burned some of the sheets of paper in a fit of rage. He closed his eyes as he heard the door opening and closing. Donna was home. A few minutes later, she was in the doorframe and was looking at the two men in her bed. She looked worried about her Maxence. She walked to the bed and sat down close to him. She kissed his forehead and stroked his face lovingly. “I don’t like seeing my Maxence so sick,” she murmured thinking he was sleeping. Maxence didn’t move much. He just leaned into her soft touch. Tenny stretched and got up slowly. “He’s better than earlier. The fever’s not so high.” Donna took the rag and put it into water. She wringed it and ran it on Maxence’s face and neck just like Tenny had done a few times before she came back home. “Thank you for coming over. I hate it when he’s home alone and sick.” “I wasn’t working. I planned on coming over anyway. I wanted to see how he was doing since the last time.” “He’s gotten his memories back.” “How?” “We’ve got some unexpected visitors yesterday.” “You’ve got me curious.” “I really don’t know how. I just know that that nurse, Liv, and his patient, Rose Tyler, came here. She gave him his memories back. Somehow.” Tenny raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t say anything about Rose since he wasn’t supposed to have met her today. He was supposed to have stayed home with Maxence instead of going there. But he was glad he did though. He was glad he could have helped Rose Tyler. Even if it was years too late. At least, he could do a little something for her before it was too late. And he really hoped that Clara’s visit would help her a bit too. She wasn’t alone at least. “His nightmares are back,” Tenny suddenly declared. Maxence’s body tensed. He wished Tenny wouldn’t have said that. He didn’t want anyone to know. They would ask him questions, questions he couldn’t answer to. “A lot of strange things are happening to him lately.” “Talking about the words?” “Yeah.” “I had to clean the one on his chest. It’s getting a little infected. Better keep an eye on that. When did he…” “That’s one of the strange things. He didn’t. It just appeared. And I’m starting to think that that Rose Tyler might have some answers about the mysteries surrounding my Maxence.” “How did she come here anyway? If Max couldn’t remember…” “Miss Liv is really persuasive. She forced him to sign an authorisation.” Tenny smiled a bit. That Liv seemed to be a pretty interesting person. Someone he would like to meet. Maybe one day. But for now, the only person he had to take care of was his brother. Meeting people and flirting would wait. Donna put the rag back on the edge of the bowl and followed Tenny into the living room. They both thought that Maxence had fallen asleep again when he was perfectly awake. He just didn’t feel like being a part of the conversation, and he was almost relieved when they both left the room. He didn’t hear the door being closed so that meant that Donna had left it cracked open. She wanted to hear it if he ever had any problem. Even if she couldn’t solve any of his current problems. “I think you should make him take a bath. That would relax him a bit.” “Could be a good idea. Just before sleeping.” “When is he supposed to go back to work?” “In two days.” “Better use those days to try and make him feel better. But I trust you on that point.” Tenny smiled and gathered his stuff. He had to go now. To go back into his lonely flat again. Just the idea of it made him sad and Donna was certainly not blind enough to not notice it. “You know, Tenny, if you want to stay, you can. It won’t bother any of us.” “No, it’s alright. I’ll be just fine.” They both knew he was lying though. Donna gave him a quick hug to comfort him some. She knew how lonely he could feel sometimes, and Tenny was no man to handle it well. He hugged her back. “Go and take some of your stuff from your flat. You can stay tonight.” “No…” “You said Maxence’s wound was infected. I need a doctor home. You’re staying tonight.” Tenny wouldn’t say that he was relieved but he really was. And Donna was right. With Maxence in such a condition, it was better to have a doctor at home. “Alright. I’ll go and get my stuff.” “You’re the one charge of the dinner too.” “It’s the least I can do.” “Be careful on the road and come back quickly, okay?” Tenny nodded and Donna kissed his cheek, watching him leave the flat. She walked back into the bedroom and lay down close to Maxence. She wrapped him in her arms and nuzzled his neck. She so wished he could be fine again, but he seemed to be stuck into a vicious circle right now. Maxence slightly moved to cuddle up to Donna. She was warm and he was cold. She smiled a bit and pressed her lips against his warm forehead. “I thought you were sleeping,” she murmured. “No. Just pretending to,” he murmured back. “Why would you?” “To avoid questions. I’m tired of questions.” Donna stroked his face gently and pulled him a bit closer to her. “Meaning you don’t want to talk about what’s going on with you.” “There’s nothing going on with me.” “There’s a lot of things going on with you.” “And there’s nothing new to say about it.” Maxence turned his back on her to show that the talk was over. Final point. He wouldn’t say anything about it again, and didn’t want anyone to talk about it anymore. He kept his eyes shut and hid under the covers. Only his head was out of the blankets. Donna kept her arms around him, kept him close to her and kissed his neck. “What about a bath?” “Are you saying I’m stinking?” “A bit. And you’re prickly too.” He had a small silent laugh. Better than nothing. “I don’t have the strengths to take care of that.” “I can do it. Wouldn’t be the first time.” Maxence turned to face her and finally opened his icy blue eyes. She put her hand on his hairy face. “You’re not forced to talk, but if you want to, I’m here, okay?” He nodded. Of course. His Donna would always be there. But just like everyone else, she wouldn’t understand.

To be continued...

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In the next chapter:

“What are you thinking about, Rose?” Clara asked quietly.

She was the first to break the quietness of the room they were both enjoying. Usually, Rose hated the silence. Especially now that she had been stuck in that place for so long for no one to talk to. But being there with her best friend was making everything different. The silence felt good for once. So when Clara talked, Rose flinched because she hadn’t expected it.

“Nothing in particular. I’m just thinking about how much I’m enjoying this time with you and how much I’ve missed holding my best friend. And about how much I miss being outside of this place. And how much I miss the outdoors. But those are just little side thoughts. I’m mostly thinking about you and my mum and Mr. Spitz.”

Rose and Clara talked a little more before the blonde took a quick shower and ate a biscuit. Then, she cuddled with Clara again on the bed. She was happy to have some company there with her to take away her loneliness for the evening. She hated being alone. She hated feeling lonely.

“Thank you. For coming to see me.”

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traviswsoul · 7 years ago

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Day 21 Crescent City to Nesika Beach 69 Miles

July 19, 2017 6:02 time, 2,813 calories, 2,795' climbed, 11.4 avg mph Leaving Crescent City after a day there doing nothing had me eager to go! I still did sleep in a little bit, I figured if you have a bed, use it. Still I was one the road in time to have 30 miles in the bag by eleven when I hit the towns of Brookings and Harbor, which are separate towns but do share a sign. However, when it comes to signs around here I have a major issue! There was no giant "welcome to Oregon" sign, nor was there a welcome party with banners congratulating me for having ridden my bike all the way through california, that's a different story though. I was in Oregon without even realizing it! I pulled into Smith River, about 20 miles in, where there was a bike shop sign by the street but no actual bike shop, I still need to pump up my tires. After this my Momma called, she was been on vacation with my pops in Virginia and it sounds like getting their fill or civil war history, country founding history and the national parks over there. She's a really great traveler, I owe her for that, she taught me well and it was fun to chat about their park adventure across the country while I was having mine. What I really needed to talk about though was some heavy stuff, One of the best parts about this trip is talking to my family so much. I am realizing what this trip is really about by doing all this processing with them. I have an on going list of why I am doing this and yesterday my mom gave me some insight that blows the hole thing away. I am doing this trip as a reset button, a new matchline (the term my map uses when one section of map ends and another begins) in my road map of life. I think one of the reasons that this year has been hard is because I just feel like my life at this point has been defined now by before and after my divorce. The heartbreak, pain and depression caused by my ex's cheating, lying and greed weighs so heavy that I freaked out, and by freaked out I mean jumped on my bike and starting riding to Canada. The visual memory of catching her red handed and the physical altercation that followed with him left me highly traumatized and stained and stained everything. Now there can be a new giant milestone to see before and after from instead that shitty one. My mom said that was how she answered people when they asked why I was doing this, that I was creating a net set point. That gave me such a massive moment of clarity, like there is an expansive field unfolding in front of me, or more technically a endless road laid out ahead, and I can stop trying to get out from under the weight of the lies, and suffering that I have been buried by. All those messy memories now fall into the past and having a great adventure replaces it as the defining point of my recent history. Now my tomorrows are defined by a backdrop of something awesome and I'm standing on a spring board into the future, I'm getting ready to jump, that's why I'm riding. Thanks Mom! I love you more than anything! Which brings me to something I want to clear up, My stupid rant two weeks ago about matrimony in a modern society, I wish I wasn't alone writing all that so someone could have slapped me and told me to shut up. I do believe what I said about all the religious stuff and how it damages a proper understanding of relationships, lovers, and meant to be ness, but marriage is not the problem. Just like "guns don't kill people, people kill people," "marriage doesn't hurt people, shitty people hurt people." I lost a boat load of money to a cheating ex wife and there was no case I could make to avoid it, that's bullshit, but my problem isn't with marriage, maybe it's with divorce or entitlement, greed, shitty people, liars, cheaters etc. It's with people not being true and hurting others especially when there is a lot tied up in the relationship, nothing compounds betrayal and heartbreak worst than the person who caused it getting rich by stealing your life saving afterward by taking advantage of the "No Fault" state laws. But it's not about marriage and it's not fair to make blanket statements like it's outdated, stupid or not for me. I want to get married again, by brother and Nina, my mom and pop, they are shinning examples of marriage at it's best. I want that and just because my pursuit of it exploded in my face like a firecracker going off earlier than expected I am determined to not loose an eye or a finger because of it. I don't want to be a sour old man that spends his time shitting on the one thing that is a major source of most peoples happiness. Instead, it would be a lot nicer to decide that she hurt me, marriage didn't hurt me, and look forward to finding the next woman to spend my life with, start a family and be my wife. After all in the words of the great modern philosopher Beyonce "if you like it then you should'a put a ring on it" Being that guy who keeps his girl waiting until maybe he gets ok with the idea of marriage is immature, selfish and absolutely not fair to her or truly being in love, unless they both don't want it that so be it. I don't think I'll find a girl that's such a feminist that she rejects marriage all together but wants to be with me, after all taking my name is a deal breaker. Anyway I don't have to find her, she is in San Diego and her name is Jennifer Wilbanks and I am in love with her. It's been really hard getting to this point, the concepts of trust and love and knowing that you can trust your feelings was pretty shot to shit for me. So despite spending over a year dating Jen now it's been a roller coaster for me. She's perfect, a complete angel and I'd be a damn fool to throw what we have away because I don't know what I want or it keeps changing or I'm now afraid of commitment. This was the other thing my brilliant mother cleared up for me this morning. At one point I got a little offended because she interrupted me by just saying "Oh get over it!" I was describing how my divorce has created so much uncertainty for me and a hesitation to trust my feelings when I think I feel sure about something. So much so to the point that I am probably about to have this amazing women walk away from me because I am clearly not on a timeline that syncs with hers. I am not there because I've been traumatized and it's easier now to just focus on me and what I want instead of growing up and taking a chance and becoming the man I want to be, a family man, a man that puts others first and can trust her and know that we want the same things and can grow together as we pursue them. She said nothing is ever certain not for you or anyone, no matter what they've been through so get over it. I want to be a husband, I do, I like that. My friend Pablo who I was traveling with last week said once "Having a great woman is one of the best things in the world." If my woman (yes, I know the myriad of issues with the term "my woman" please forgive it this once) wants to be my wife then damnit, I want to want to be her husband, put a ring on it, have that commitment and determination and passion and reason to fight for love.

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writingsubmissions · 8 years ago

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UFC on Fox 23 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *It wasn't much on paper, but in practice, UFC's offering on FS1 over MLK weekend wound up being perfectly fine, even though the ending was pretty much a total bummer. As a lot of people expected, Yair Rodriguez pretty much styled on B.J. Penn before becoming the first man (at least in UFC) to knock him down, eventually landing a ridiculous amount of blows on the ground against the Hawaiian legend before it got stopped, and leaving all of us wondering exactly what the hell we're doing here. The weird part is, in some ways Penn actually looked better than expected, at least technically - he had some brief early success clinching Rodriguez up, and landed a few solid strikes at one point based around his jab, but he just looked so old physically that the optics were absolutely awful, particularly once Rodriguez figured things out and was basically hitting Penn at will. It's kind of amazing looking back that Penn was once UFC's welterweight champion, given how small he looked here - nowadays, his natural weight class may be bantamweight, let alone featherweight. But anyway, Penn looked old even in his last fight two-plus years ago, so this was just...really, really bad. Anyway, who knows where we go from here - Rodriguez is now among the ranks of fringe contenders at featherweight, even though it's still unclear exactly how good he is - he's obviously talented and probably a top ten fighter or so at worst, but one does get the sense that there's a level where his dynamic but not particularly strategic style gets figured out and stifled. Though, on the other hand, there are guys like Anthony Pettis who can ride that all the way to a championship reign before it happens, so maybe Rodriguez is just in that class of fighter. And as for Penn, he should probably hang it up, moreso now than ever, but this is also the third or fourth straight fight of his where people have been saying that. *And a bunch of other fights happened, nothing too amazing, but also nothing too bad. Going through the rest of the main card, the biggest thing about the co-main was that two of the three judges seemed to be the only people in the building who thought Joe Lauzon beat Marcin Held, and this included Lauzon, who immediately started shaking his head after the decision was read for him and used his post-fight interview to make clear that he lost the fight. It was a bit of an ugly one, as after Lauzon had some success early, Held mostly just out-wrestled him and neutralized everything he did - on the one hand, Held didn't really do much with a lot of the advantageous positions he had, but on the other hand, Lauzon also didn't really do enough to win the fight either. Ben Saunders won a perfectly fine fight that could've gone either way that there's not much to say about, and I suppose the biggest win on the main card went to Sergio Pettis, who solidly won a fight over John Moraga and suddenly finds himself as sort of a contender. Sergio's sort of taken the complete opposite path of his brother Anthony - while Anthony burst onto the scene as a dynamic phenom, Sergio went through some struggles early in his UFC career and got kind of written off before putting together a really steady, well-rounded game and racking up decision win after decision win. So Pettis is now one of the best rising young fighters at flyweight, but unfortunately in a division with a champ that's currently cleaning house, that basically makes me worry that UFC doesn't rush Pettis into a title fight just for a lack of other available options. *As far as the prelims go, well, we already have 2017 submission of the year pretty much wrapped up, as Aleksei Oleinik hit one of the weirder ones in UFC history, an Ezekiel choke on Viktor Pesta while being fully mounted. On the one hand, Pesta probably should've seen it coming, as Oleinik already has close to double-digit wins via Ezekiel choke in his long career, but on the other hand, it's a strange choke that you don't really see often, and I don't think anyone expected it, least of all Pesta. As far as other standout performances, BJJ stud Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes made good on his blue-chip prospect status, getting a narrow win over Frankie Saenz in a fight that looked like it was being set up for a Saenz victory. Although he's lost three straight, Saenz is a good fighter, so hopefully they hang onto him, especially since this was the best fight of the night. When it comes to other notable stuff, heavyweight Walt Harris looked good in picking apart fellow prospect Chase Sherman, Nina Ansaroff finally got her first UFC win with a one-sided performance over Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, and Devin Powell continued the curse of Dana White's reality show, "Lookin' For A Fight", losing a one-sided decision to fellow debuting fighter Drakkar Klose. It's a funny one, that, particularly since it's Klose that's the projectable athlete and fits much more in the mold of who Dana White has personally signed, rather than Powell, a reedy brawler-slash-scrambler. *Well, Conor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather has progressed from "completely not a thing" to "almost completely not a thing," per a bunch of people. I'm assuming this basically has to do with WME-IMG looking at pay-per-view numbers for 2016, realizing that their biggest pay-per-view year ever was built on the backs of McGregor, Ronda Rousey, and possibly Brock Lesnar, and then realizing two of those people are gone and panicking about how to top it. The big thing a few weeks back was Dana White doing a radio appearance and offering Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each for the fight. This was dismissed pretty much immediately, given that it's less than Mayweather's made for a fight in years, and Floyd soon said as much, laughing off White as someone he used to remember carrying his bags. And to make the offer even stupider, $25 million is about twice as much as McGregor has made for a fight in his career, so you're pretty much telling McGregor his market value is double what he was already making, and now he has even more leverage to use that against you. Good work all around. Also, in a side note that should probably just be tagged onto this story, Nate Diaz applied for a boxing license in Nevada and is apparently close to getting it, so who the hell knows what long game the Diaz brothers are trying to play. *Bellator had a show. Tito Ortiz tapped out Chael Sonnen, who looked awful off the gas, in what was Ortiz's final fight, so now Sonnen is damaged goods, even though he'll be able to talk people into watching. I mean, the card did a really good rating, so there's that, but it never feels like Bellator is building momentum towards anything. Paul Daley kneed Brennan Ward's face in, so that was pretty cool, at least. *The Ultimate Fighter is coming back for a twenty-fifth (and perhaps final?) season, and the coaches have been announced - new bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and former teammate (and former bantamweight champ himself) T.J. Dillashaw. As long in the tooth as TUF is, these seasons start to live and die more and more based off the feud between the two coaches, and with the bad blood from Dillashaw's departure from Team Alpha Male, and Garbrandt replacing him as the top young fighter in the camp, this should be a good one. The two are slated to fight sometime after the show wraps, which will probably wind up being UFC's big July pay-per-view this year. As for the cast, it's going to consist of former TUF fighters, including some who are on the UFC roster, but none of the names leaked are particularly inspiring - either middle-of-the-road UFC roster guys like Zak Cummings or James Krause, guys who are past their prime like Joe Stevenson, or just fuck-ups there for personality who can't really fight, like the infamous Junie Browning. So...that'll be something. *A whole bunch of news is going on about various camps. First of all, it looks like the Blackzilians camp is pretty much no more after almost a year of rumors - team owner Glenn Robinson was going through issues with his main company filing bankruptcy, and apparently as time went on, this started to affect the camp. So, basically, a lot of the coaches, including striking coach Henri Hooft, and a lot of the team's best fighters, like Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, and Kamaru Usman, have all set up shop at Combat Club elsewhere in Florida, which essentially looks like the Blackzilians rebuilt under a new name. Meanwhile, the Blackzilians' main rival, American Top Team, lost one of its own mainstays, as former welterweight champ Robbie Lawler has surprisingly left the camp, where he pretty much revitalized his career, in favor of somewhere to be determined. And in a pretty interesting move, heavyweight Travis Browne has moved from the Glendale Fighting Club to Black House - it's interesting mainly because Browne is the boyfriend of Ronda Rousey, and moved to her team once the two started dating, and given how much of a hard line Rousey keeps when it comes to loyalty, this really does suggest that Rousey is done with Glendale coach Edmond Tarverdyan. On the plus side, at least the I.R.S. no longer considers Tarverdyan a fraud, as he's settled an ongoing case for a reported $160,000. *So the death knell for UFC Fight Pass may have come, as Eric Winter, head of the service, left after eighteen months on the job. Winter was a bit of a coup when he was hired from Yahoo! Sports, and he really did an awesome job with UFC's streaming service, getting the whole website re-designed, making sure a whole bunch of fights got cataloged and uploaded, and often making sure that the service would get one of the better fights on the card, as the "Fight Pass main event" was a landing spot for a lot of really excellent fights. Winter's stepping down to spend more time with his family, and it appears to be his decision, so it's unclear exactly where Fight Pass goes from here - 2017 has already been a bit down, since it looks like we're back to the service just getting the bottom-tier fights for the first two cards of the year, but then again, both of those cards have been so thin that that may not exactly be an indication of anything. *UFC re-booked Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill for the upcoming Fight Night in Houston, and it looks like this may portend an interesting change in UFC's drug testing policy. Basically, Hill, who was cut from UFC in 2015 and then spent 2016 moving up the ranks and becoming Invicta strawweight champion, was tabbed as a late replacement to face Andrade at UFC 207, but wound up falling victim to a quirk in the language of the drug testing policy - basically, anyone who was formerly in the UFC drug testing pool would be subject to a four-month window of testing before being allowed to fight again. This was to prevent guys from basically fake retiring, juicing up, and then suddenly returning, though, the rule only really initially came to light when UFC waived it to sign Brock Lesnar, who kind of wound up doing exactly that. Anyway, UFC I guess finally realized they could set the rules here and waived the rest of the four months for Hill, and the statement in which they did so included a note that apparently UFC and USADA are working to change this policy, so that fighters who are cut involuntarily from UFC aren't subject to these waiting periods, which would also make previous UFC fighters available once again as late-notice replacements. Good, smart stuff. *And now just a bunch of notes to wrap things up. UFC is currently off Russian TV, which is a bit odd as the company is seemingly set to expand into Russia as much as they can - basically, UFC I guess has left negotiating up to a third party who is demanding a much bigger contract from their Russian TV partner, and said network is balking. This all sort of feels like UFC's attempt to expand into China, which was scuttled as a bit of a disaster after a failure to understand the complex national politics going on. Invicta held another show - a good one as always - headlined by Megan Anderson beating Charmaine Tweet to become interim featherweight champion, basically the top true 145er out there with Cris Cyborg dealing with drug test issues. Anderson then called out the Holm/de Randamie winner, and given that the Australian prospect has marketable good looks and can beat the piss out of people, we should see her in UFC sooner rather than later. World Series of Fighting postponed their next show to a date a few weeks later, suggesting things aren't that great at everyone's favorite byzantine MMA pyramid scheme, and French prospect Tom Duquesnoy finally signed with UFC. Duquesnoy's topped prospect lists for years, and he's currently both the bantamweight and featherweight champion of BAMMA, one of the top promotions in Britain. Duquesnoy's reportedly had an offer on the table for years, but was just waiting until he felt ready to make a run in UFC, and even though he's just 23, apparently that time is now - I look forward to seeing what he can do. ------ BOOKINGS: *There's some actual pretty big stuff that's been announced, but let's do the usual run-through chronologically. First, as mentioned above, the Super Bowl weekend show in Houston added a fight between strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill in a fight where Andrade will pretty much lock up a title fight if she wins. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Hill takes it, though - UFC just sort of threw her to the wolves as a 1-0 kickboxer in her first UFC stint, but she's improved greatly since then, and this would be a hell of a statement in a return. Plus with a few injuries on the card, some undercard fights got changed - with Sheldon Westcott out, Niko Price comes back from his debut win over Brandon Thatch to fight Alex Morono, Volkan Oezdemir will become the first Swiss fighter in UFC history when he steps in as a replacement against Ovince St. Preux, and with Evan Dunham and Johnny Case both hurt, their original opponents, Abel Trujillo and James Vick, will square off. And I guess to make up for the loss of a bout in that Trujillo/Vick shuffle, UFC added a late-notice heavyweight bout, with Anthony Hamilton facing the debuting Marcel Fortuna. *From there, we head to Brooklyn, where UFC 208 got a viable co-main to seemingly round out the card, as Anderson Silva will surprisingly return to take on Derek Brunson. The matchmaking makes sense if you figure the two are close in the rankings and Brunson was the best guy available for Silva to face on the date, but it's still a weird fight. Brunson isn't exactly a dream fight, someone UFC seems to be looking to build, or someone that Silva can just beat, so it's sort of minimizing the asset that is an Anderson Silva fight at this point, but it's still an interesting matchup to see exactly where both guys stand at middleweight from a purely sporting standpoint. Unfortunately, UFC 208 also wound up losing two fights in order to bolster the Halifax card a week later, but more on that in the next bullet point... *The original headliner for Halifax was supposed to be Junior dos Santos taking on Stefan Struve, but with Struve hurt and a search for a replacement turning up fruitless, dos Santos has been taken off the card entirely (more on him in a bit) and the new main is Derrick Lewis taking on Travis Browne in a fight originally slated for Brooklyn. It's not the biggest main event, but UFC actually wound up doing a good job filling out the rest of the card after a few weeks of radio silence. In what one assumes will be the co-main, Johny Hendricks will be moving up to middleweight to take on Hector Lombard, in a matchup of guys who badly need a win to rebound from a really rough 2016. Plus there's some other fun stuff - Liz Carmouche and Sara McMann will square off at bantamweight in a fight between two veterans who are suddenly relevant again, and with Gilbert Burns injured, Paul Felder's bout at UFC 208 has been scrapped, and he instead faces Canada's Alessandro Ricci here. Plus there are two fights in UFC's "let's get some Canadians on the card" division: British Columbia's Ryan Janes takes on Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight, and Halifax-based featherweight Gavin Tucker makes his UFC debut against Sam Sicilia. *And then there's stuff for March! The nightmare is finally over, as everything's finally agreed to, and Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will face off at UFC 209 for the interim lightweight title. It's a hell of a fight between two excellent contenders, and the third time UFC has tried to put this fight together, but the whole interim title thing does feel a bit cheap since Conor McGregor is still fully healthy - this really seems like a deal where WME-IMG is just seeing the upside of having two title fights on a card without realizing that a second title probably doesn't really mean anything if it's just sort of made up, and if anything it just sort of hurts the drawing power of belts in the long term. One could say this is what UFC needed to do to have this fight go five rounds, but, well, they can just sort of arbitrarily decide that anyway. So that's the lone new fight for UFC 209, while the card the week after from Brazil added four undercard fights. Bethe Correia returns to face Marion Reneau, Jussier Formiga and Ray Borg square off in a fairly relevant flyweight fight, and in a fairly interesting featherweight bout, original TUF Brazil winner Rony Jason takes on Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy. Plus, UFC has signed TUF Brazil 3 alum Paulo Costa to debut on this show - he was initially matched up with Alex Nicholson, but Nicholson got hurt almost immediately after that fight was announced, so instead Costa faces South Africa's Garreth McLellan. And then we go to the London card, which still doesn't have a main event, but added two more undercard bouts to seemingly fill out the card - Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk square off at heavyweight, while bantamweights Lina Lansberg and Veronica Macedo square off in a bit of cruel matchmaking - Lansberg just fought Cris Cyborg at 145, while Macedo is so undersized for the division she might even be better off at strawweight. *UFC's still filling out stuff for March, but UFC 210 and UFC 211 are already set - 210 will be taking place in Buffalo on April 8th, while 211 heads to Dallas on May 13th. There's only one fight announced so far for Buffalo, and it's a good one, as Gegard Mousasi looks to keep breaking through in this latest run at middleweight by taking on former champ Chris Weidman. But it looks like UFC might be loading this one up, as there's a few big fights rumored for this card - the strongest one seems to be that this is where Daniel Cormier will finally defend his belt against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, but there's also some whispers that the Jose Aldo/Max Holloway featherweight title fight may take place here, as well as a fight between Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas, although all of that has yet to be confirmed by someone that credible. And as for Dallas, this all seems to be preliminary, but apparently the targeted main event is Stipe Miocic defending his heavyweight belt against Junior dos Santos, who I guess between Cain Velasquez's injuries and Fabricio Werdum feuding with UFC over money sort of wound up skipping the line, though JDS also has a win over Miocic in a pretty fun war that took place at the tail end of 2014. Also, there's two more bouts apparently set without a date just yet - as mentioned above, Cody Garbrandt is expected to defend his bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw after this coming season of TUF, and apparently Joe Rogan let slip that Anthony Pettis's return to lightweight will be against Russian striker Mairbek Taisumov. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Tim Kennedy (18-6 overall, 3-2 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Kelvin Gastelum): Longtime middleweight contender Kennedy retired, which had been brewing for a while, leaving behind a sort of complicated legacy. Kennedy kind of seemed like someone everyone could get behind - a former military sniper who earned a Bronze Star, Kennedy would fight between military commitments before being able to fight full-time as his career started with Strikeforce. And Kennedy had a ton of success as mostly a grinder - he would come up short in title fights against Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold, but Kennedy was a solid third in Strikeforce's middleweight division, earning wins over guys like Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef. And when Kennedy's UFC tenure started, it looked like he was pretty close to earning a title shot himself - he got a deathly boring win over Roger Gracie to start, but followed that up by knocking out Rafael Natal in the main event of a fight at Fort Campbell, which was a cool moment, and then getting another main event win in one-sided fashion over Michael Bisping. But Kennedy lost a fight to Yoel Romero in controversial fashion in late 2014 - Kennedy seemingly had Romero on the ropes at the tail end of round two, Romero's corner used a bunch of tricks like "forgetting" to take the stool out of the cage to buy Romero time to recover between rounds, and an obviously frustrated Kennedy took his eye off the ball and got knocked out in the third round. That loss and the way it happened seemingly broke Kennedy's will to compete in MMA for a bit, as he took about two years off and made an occasional bad headline. Kennedy spent his hiatus doing some weird reality show where he was hunting Hitler, and would just spend a lot of time in the alt-right sphere of things, appearing on shows with Alex Jones and firing off the sporadic crazy post on social media, highlighted by one where he talked about killing women and children while in the military, circling it all back to show that having PTSD is a choice, essentially calling those who suffered from it mentally weak "pussies." Just...gross stuff. So Kennedy finally returned in 2016, at first slated to fight Rashad Evans at Madison Square Garden, but after Evans had medical clearance issues, Kennedy wound up taking on Kelvin Gastelum this past December. And Kennedy looked like his old self, overpowering Gastelum for a bit, but that lasted about a round, as Kennedy suddenly gassed, and basically got wrecked before the referee called things off in the third round. So about a month after that, Kennedy retired via social media, and, say what you will, it looks like he'll be focusing on efforts to help unionize MMA fighters - hopefully that becomes a positive part of his legacy. 2) Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-4 overall, 0-3 UFC, last fought 1/15/17, L vs. Nina Ansaroff): Jones-Lybarger announced her retirement a few days after her loss to Ansaroff, although honestly, she was probably getting cut after a 0-3 UFC record anyway. Jones-Lybarger, a former basketball player out of Arizona, is obviously an athlete, and was a solid pickup by UFC in late 2015, given that she was coming off a win against solid vet Zoila Frausto to cap a 5-1 record. But she never really showed much, as she seemed to struggle to impose her game against UFC-level athletes, even as the matchmaking sort of moved her down the ladder - a debut against top contender Tecia Torres did her no favors, the follow-up against Randa Markos was just sort of a sloppy affair, and a bout against Ansaroff, who was 0-2 in UFC herself, was just mostly a one-sided beating in her hometown. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 2/4 - UFC Fight Night 104 - Houston, TX - Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung, Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig 2/11 - UFC 208 - Brooklyn, NY - Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm, Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva 2/19 - UFC Fight Night 105 - Halifax, NS - Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, Johny Hendricks vs. Hector Lombard 3/4 - UFC 209 - Las Vegas, NV - Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic (c) vs. Junior dos Santos ----- UFC on Fox 23 - January 28, 2017 - Pepsi Center - Denver, Colorado Even though UFC's slate for early 2017 is fairly disappointing in the wake of them loading up big shows in November and December, they did well to put together a solid card here, as the company continues to sort of nail down the Fox format. We've got a photogenic fight on top that may determine a title contender, the biggest test yet for what could be UFC's next great heavyweight, and two really solid action fighters. And even the undercard is pretty solid - the top two prelims are pretty strong, and while things rapidly go downhill after that in terms of relevance, thankfully a lot of the card is prospects with some upside, rather than low-ceiling veterans matched together due to there not being much else to do. At least on paper, this card looks like it could be the highlight of the first two months of the 2017 calendar, so hopefully it comes through in practice. MAIN CARD (Fox - 8:00 PM ET): Women's Bantamweight: (#1) Valentina Shevchenko vs. (#2) Julianna Pena Welterweight: (#5) Donald Cerrone vs. (#12) Jorge Masvidal Heavyweight: (#7) Andrei Arlovski vs. (#10) Francis Ngannou Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Jason Knight PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 5:00 PM ET): Middleweight: Sam Alvey vs. Nate Marquardt Bantamweight: (#4) Raphael Assuncao vs. (#7) Aljamain Sterling Welterweight: Jingliang Li vs. Bobby Nash Light Heavyweight: Henrique da Silva vs. Jordan Johnson Middleweight: Alessio Di Chirico vs. Eric Spicely Light Heavyweight: Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Jeremy Kimball PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 4:00 PM ET): Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Eric Shelton Lightweight: J.C. Cottrell vs. Jason Gonzalez THE RUNDOWN: Valentina Shevchenko (13-2 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Julianna Pena (8-2 overall, 4-0 UFC): Welcome to the new normal, as this fight, which UFC has been trying to put together for a while, will probably determine Amanda Nunes's next challenger in the first fight of the post-Rousey era. And it's a pretty excellent fight, pitting striker against grappler in what's becoming a rarer and rarer matchup of the two obvious top contenders for a title. Back in late 2013, when Julianna Pena pretty much ran through the rest of the TUF 18 cast to become the first female Ultimate Fighter winner, there was some thought that she might be facing Ronda Rousey for the belt sooner rather than later - for one thing, she looked good in her fights, but with marketable good looks, a friendship with Rousey blood rival Miesha Tate, and a division that was still in an early state of flux, Pena had all the tools to work her way up the ladder in fairly short order. But that got derailed almost immediately thanks to a massive knee injury suffered before her first post-TUF fight, and things have gotten sort of weird from there. In the cage, Pena has done her job well enough since coming back, running through Milana Dudieva in her comeback fight and then getting wins over Jessica Eye and Cat Zingano, but outside of the cage, she hasn't really connected with the fanbase much, and if she has, it's been quite negatively. Essentially, if Pena pops up in the MMA news, it's usually for one of two things - either one of a surprising amount of bar fights she and her teammates seem to find themselves in, or just some weird comment where Pena apparently thinks she's a much bigger star than she actually is, demanding a title shot and just pretty much making it clear with every fight that we should be thankful she's fighting rather than holding out for a title shot she thinks she's already earned. All that talk is well and good, but there's a point where it becomes more delusional than anything, and Pena's probably past that - unless she manages to win this fight, of course. On the other side of things, Valentina Shevchenko just sort of quietly became a contender in pretty quick fashion - she came in as a late injury replacement on the last card of 2015 and beat Sarah Kaufman, and then had a performance that looks even better in retrospect against Nunes, becoming the second fighter to last fifteen minutes with the current champ and winning a fairly one-sided third round in a close decision loss. From there, Shevchenko was seemingly expected to be a set-up win for Holly Holm to rebound against after losing the bantamweight title, and I could see the logic - Shevchenko is primarily a striker by trade, and Holm had already theoretically proven herself to be the best striker in women's combat sports, but after a slow start, Shevchenko pretty much figured Holm out standing and then started to use her wrestling, earning an increasingly lopsided win and establishing herself as a top contender. So, yeah, this is a really fascinating fight - Shevchenko's proven herself to be a top-tier well-rounded fighter in just a little over a year in UFC, while Pena's still somewhat of a question mark, and it's unclear if she's truly at the level of a title contender, or just sort of at the top of the next tier. Pena's two most recent fights, those wins over Eye and Zingano to get her into this spot, are just weird ones because they're so one-dimensional - either Pena or her opponent just keeps looking for the clinch and to grapple, and Pena's been able to win narrow victories by using strength and positioning to do just enough to win. But she's really unproven on the feet - outside of some flailing punches early in the Eye fight that did not look good, there's just not enough to go on to call her striking game anything other than a question mark. Add in some questions about how good those wins over Eye and Zingano really are - Rousey's fall from grace has sort of shown that we're in the middle of an evolution process in women's MMA, and Eye's losing streak and Zingano's flat last few fights suggest those two may be on the wrong side of it - and there's just a lot of uncertainty around Pena's resume, though she's enough of a talent where any skepticism should also be laced with some optimism. Pena definitely still has a shot to win, particularly after re-watching Shevchenko's fight with Nunes - I remembered it being a lot closer of a fight before Nunes got tired and Shevchenko took over, but Shevchenko did struggle a lot early when Nunes was able to get her to the ground and get on top of her, and that pretty much figures to be Pena's gameplan. One would think that Shevchenko should just be able to keep the fight standing and probably handle Pena rather easily on the feet, but if nothing else, Pena's last two fights have shown she can usually get the fight where she wants, although that comes with the caveat that Zingano, and Eye in particular, have some questions about strategy. A Pena victory is certainly possible, but I just have too many concerns to call it, so I'll say that Shevchenko wins this rather handily, in fact keeping things on the feet and just out-striking Pena - I'm assuming Pena is better than some of those flailing punches she showed in the Eye fight, because if not, a quick finish is certainly on the table, but instead I'll say that this is more of an extended beatdown, finally ending late due to a TKO stoppage. Donald Cerrone (32-7 [1] overall, 19-4 UFC, 6-3 [1] WEC) vs. Jorge Masvidal (31-11 overall, 8-4 UFC, 5-1 Strikeforce, 2-1 Bellator): A fun fight here, as Donald Cerrone, as always, is keeping busy, and good on Jorge Masvidal for calling his shot. It's pretty impressive how quickly Cerrone regained his momentum in 2016 - after losing a lightweight title fight in one-sided fashion to Rafael dos Anjos, Cerrone pretty much seemed eternally cemented as UFC's top non-contender, a fan favorite who was probably better off fighting whoever's available as soon as possible and putting on a good showing rather than trying to make a focused run for a belt. And, well, Cerrone's sort of split the difference - he moved up to welterweight just to take another fight that eventually wound up being against Alex Oliveira, and with that his striking has taken another leap forward, as he became the first man to knock out Patrick Cote, the first man to knock out Rick Story, and the first man to cleanly knock out Matt Brown, quickly becoming a contender once again despite not really changing much in his approach to taking fights. At the moment, Cerrone doesn't really seem to have a clear path to a title shot, with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson scheduled for a rematch, and the winner likely to get Demian Maia, who's holding out for a well-deserved title fight, so, as "Cowboy" is wont to do, he's just taking whatever fight is available, so here he is in his hometown against Jorge Masvidal. Credit to Masvidal for being a smart man, since while many fighters just say they'll fight whoever UFC puts in front of them, Masvidal straight up called out Cerrone after his win over Jake Ellenberger this past December, putting a fight on management's radar that nobody else was probably thinking of at the moment. Masvidal's had a strange career - he came up in the same Miami street-fight scene that birthed Kimbo Slice and turned into a pretty solid, well-rounded fighter, fighting all over the world in Japan, the nascent days of Bellator, and Strikeforce before landing in UFC. But Masvidal's also ridiculously frustrating - he's not much for overall fight strategy, and even when he's winning a fight based off his talents, he has a bad tendency to start coasting, making his wins closer than they need to be and even sometimes turning them into losses. Anyway, this should be a solid win for Cerrone - he has some flaws, particularly when dealing with fighters who can pressure him like Brown did, but I really don't have any faith in Masvidal to do what he needs to do and keep winning rounds - plus even the grappling game is sort of a wash, as both guys are underrated on the mat. I'll give Masvidal the benefit of the doubt that he's tough enough to survive all three rounds with Cerrone, since he hasn't been knocked out since 2008, even though Cerrone's on a streak of breaking formerly unbreakable chins. So I'll say Cerrone wins a clear decision in a fight that's fun and never quite reaches blowout status. Andrei Arlovski (25-13 [1] overall, 14-7 UFC, 0-3 Strikeforce) vs. Francis Ngannou (9-1 overall, 4-0 UFC): A really, really fascinating fight here, as Francis Ngannou is the rare blue-chip heavyweight prospect, and he has a shot to become a legitimate contender way quicker than anyone could've really anticipated. Ngannou was always viewed as someone with potential, as the Cameroonian fighting out of France is a giant mountain of a man built like a NFL defensive lineman, but he was only about two years into the sport when UFC signed him in late 2015. But, well, Ngannou wound up being a natural when it comes to picking things up, as you can trace a clear line of upward progression through his four UFC fights. In his first bout, against Luis Henrique, Ngannou mostly got taken down at will before uppercutting Henrique's head into the bleachers, and by his next fight, against stud wrestling prospect Curtis Blaydes, Ngannou was stuffing takedown after takedown without much of a problem. After a quick showcase win over Bojan Mihajlovic, Ngannou showed last month that he's somewhat scarily already learned submissions - Anthony Hamilton tried to clinch up with him and wear him out, but Ngannou just grabbed a kimura and basically took Hamilton, who's a large man himself, down by sheer force, getting the quick tap. So Ngannou is pretty much the prospect to watch at heavyweight, especially given that he's one of the younger fighters on the roster at age 30, though there's still a bunch of questions to be answered when he goes into deeper waters, like how he responds to getting hit and exactly how he'll deal when facing higher level athletes that he might not have such an obvious advantage against. It'll be interesting to see what type of a challenge Andrei Arlovski offers him, particularly as his career is sort of sputtering after the luck of his UFC comeback run has started to turn the other way. A former UFC heavyweight champ over a decade ago, Arlovski was sort of left for dead after a run of four straight losses in Affliction and Strikeforce from 2009 to 2011, three of which came via vicious knockout - basically, the book was out that Arlovski suddenly had a glass jaw, which at heavyweight is pretty much a death sentence. But Arlovski quietly rebounded a bit, racking up wins in various promotions, though when UFC re-signed him in 2014, it was still seen as little more than a novel signing for depth in an extremely thin division. But the next two years saw Arlovski make a run towards an unlikely title shot - it included deathly boring decision wins over Brendan Schaub and Frank Mir, but Arlovski also scored quick knockouts of Antonio Silva and Travis Browne that, admittedly, haven't aged particularly well. And in 2016, the luck pretty much ran out - Stipe Miocic ran through him in just 54 seconds en route to his own title shot, Alistair Overeem knocked him out, and while a loss to Josh Barnett was less one-sided, Arlovski eventually got tapped out late there as well. As it is, Arlovski's pretty much just a fringe top-ten fighter at this point - while he's not particularly physically imposing anymore, he makes up for that by just knowing what he's doing; despite the recent knockout losses, Arlovski's done a solid job of protecting his chin, especially compared to where he used to be, and he basically has a much better sense of physical space and technical striking than at any point in his career. So there's the chance that, by being the smaller and quicker guy, Arlovski can just use his veteran savvy to avoid danger and pick Ngannou apart - and hell, given that we haven't really seen Ngannou get hit, that may also turn downhill quickly into some sort of a knockout. But, more likely than not, Ngannou will probably use his athleticism to hit the great equalizer and put Arlovski's lights out. I do think Arlovski's a bit underrated here - Arlovski's currently between a three- and four-to-one underdog, and he really could just make Ngannou chase him and wear him out in an ugly fight - but I'll say Ngannou in fact does get another first-round knockout and makes the win look a lot easier than it actually is. Alex Caceres (12-9 [1] overall, 7-7 [1] UFC) vs. Jason Knight (16-2 overall, 2-1 UFC): UFC pretty much always opens up the main Fox card with a good action fight, and with this one, they've done it once more. Alex Caceres is a frustrating talent, since while he has a bunch of skills and often puts on an exciting show, it's unclear whether or not that's all coalesced into anything all that good. Caceres was more notable for his "Bruce Leeroy" persona rather than anything he really showed in the cage on season 12 of TUF, but UFC still saw fit to pick him up thanks to his potential. It took a bit for that gamble to pay off, as Caceres started 1-3 in the UFC, but it eventually did, as Caceres soon reeled off a five-fight unbeaten streak that was mostly over the lower reaches of the bantamweight division, but culminated with what was a big win at the time over Sergio Pettis. And even the fight that snapped that streak, a July 2014 loss to Urijah Faber, was considered a plus performance at the time for Caceres, since he gave a much better showing than expected from a non-contender. And then, well, the wheels came off a bit - Caceres lost in an upset to Japanese vet Masanori Kanehara, and then got blown out of the water by Francisco Rivera, causing Caceres to move back up to his original weight class at featherweight. Results have been mixed - after an obvious tune-up win over Masio Fullen, Caceres looked outstanding for two rounds against Cole Miller before almost losing the fight a few times in the third, and his main event fight against Yair Rodriguez over the summer was a strange one, as both guys just sort of did stuff without much of an overall plan, with Rodriguez mostly getting the better of things. And that's sort of still Caceres's game - he just kinda does stuff, even if you can see him mixing things up and picking his shots a bit more than he used to. On the other side of things, we have Mississippi's Jason Knight, who's quickly making a name for himself as a featherweight prospect to watch. After a completely nothing UFC debut where Tatsuya Kawajiri just kept taking him down, Knight showed out in his sophomore effort against Jim Alers, showing a propensity for trash talking, volume striking, and basically just not giving a fuck that led to him getting the moniker "Hick Diaz" in some circles. And he pretty much followed that up against Daniel Hooker in Australia this past November - Knight just throws a lot of volume and doesn't particularly care what you do to him, showing some Southern machismo the whole while. And I think that's going to throw Caceres off - while his performances are inconsistent from fight to fight, or hell, even round to round, they're still mostly predicated on dynamic bursts of offense, and I figure Knight is just going to get in Caceres's face, overwhelm him with punches, and just sort of prevent Caceres from gathering his bearings about what he's going to do next. I doubt Knight finishes him, since he hasn't shown much knockout power in the UFC to date, but I still think it'll be a fairly one-sided, but still pretty fun, decision win. Sam Alvey (29-8 [1] overall, 6-3 UFC, 1-1 Bellator) vs. Nate Marquardt (35-16-2 overall, 13-9 UFC, 1-1 Strikeforce): A solid enough fight here between veteran middleweights that could wind up in a pretty brutal knockout. It's nice that Nate Marquardt settled into a late-career niche and UFC figured out what to do with him; after a long stint as a middleweight contender and lower-tier card main eventer in UFC, then a brief run in Strikeforce, Marquardt's second UFC run was just sort of getting depressing. Marquardt lost four of five fights upon his comeback, and save a win over a similarly shot James Te Huna, it looked like Marquardt had just suddenly finally gotten old, as knockout artists like Jake Ellenberger and Hector Lombard destroyed him rather quickly, and younger, more athletic guys like Brad Tavares and Kelvin Gastelum made him look old and completely done as a fighter. But Marquardt was able to knock out C.B. Dollaway in a fight that seemed set up to be an easy win for Dollaway, and after being run through by another young athlete in Thiago Santos, UFC seems to have finally gotten the hint, realizing that Marquardt is a greatly diminished athlete, but still a dangerous veteran with knockout power, and putting him against fellow veterans in fights he can actually win. God knows there's enough non-athletes at middleweight. So anyway, after a brutal knockout of Tamdan McCrory, Marquardt returns to try and make it two straight against "Smilin'" Sam Alvey, who had a bit of a breakout in 2016. Alvey's always sort of been a weird cult favorite on the UFC roster, a giant, goofy ginger with a permanent grin that walks out to Train and gives these weirdly enthusiastic post-fight interviews, where he just sort of rants and raves about how great things are, including [insert city here] and calls out his next opponent. Alvey looked like he might be on the cut line after coming back from a broken jaw and losing to Elias Theodorou in June, but instead Alvey wound up fighting three times in under four months - his wife, always in his corner, and seemingly always pregnant (and a former America's Next Top Model winner - live the life, Sam), had another child, so he's gotta pay the bills - and has racked up three straight wins over Eric Spicely, Kevin Casey and Alex Nicholson. Alvey still doesn't have a ton of upside, but at least he seems to be carving out a niche, particularly since UFC seems to be putting him in more prominent situations on cards recently. This is a super-weird fight to call - Marquardt is still dangerous and has veteran savvy in spades, but sometimes he looks just awful out there, although that may just depend on his level of competition. And Alvey just has a ridiculously weird counter-striking style that's extremely low-percentage, but still works for him - Alvey just basically refuses to engage first, and just sort of hangs back and waits for an opening where he can blast his opponent with a power punch down the middle. When it works, it's an awesome knockout, but when it doesn't, things can turn into sort of a slog, as Alvey just kind of neutralizes his opponent while doing nothing himself. So this could go any number of ways. I sort of discount the possibility of Alvey winning via knockout, since I think Marquardt has enough experience to not give him the opening, but if this is one of those fights where Marquardt looks shot, that's entirely possible. So I could see this turning into a war of attrition where Marquardt isn't really able to do much, Alvey chooses not to, and this goes to the cards; but, I'll actually say that Marquardt is able to find an opening at some point and nail Alvey with a knockout shot, plus there's always the possibility that Marquardt just takes things to the ground, which he hasn't done in a while and doesn't really seem to be Alvey's strong suit. But as far as an official prediction, I'll take Marquardt via second-round KO. Raphael Assuncao (23-5 overall, 7-2 UFC, 3-2 WEC) vs. Aljamain Sterling (12-1 overall, 4-1 UFC): A really well-made and interesting fight here, pitting two fringe bantamweight contenders badly in need of a win against each other, as well as continuing the streak of Aljamain Sterling's fights being a little bit lower on the card than they probably should be. UFC's never really seemingly made him a priority, but Sterling's been a blue-chip prospect pretty much since he came onto the scene - Jon Jones comparisons were inevitable, given that Sterling's also a lanky black athlete who wrestled in upstate New York before starting in the same gym as Jones, but while it's not really an apt comparison in terms of style, it was looking pretty suitable in terms of results for a while. Sterling was pretty much using his wrestling at will to just keep running through opponents as he moved up the ladder, and after tapping out Johnny Eduardo to finish out his UFC contract, it seemed like the world was Sterling's oyster. But for whatever reason, MMA promotions just don't really seem to see much in Sterling, who's a charismatic and talented guy - Bellator reportedly didn't even make an offer, and while he got a pay raise from UFC, it still seemed low for a future marketable contender. And then things hit a further snag last May - in a bout against Bryan Caraway that seemed set to build Sterling towards a title shot, Sterling just sort of fell apart after a dominant first round, getting tired and showing a whole bunch of holes in both his striking and his takedown defense. Thankfully, Sterling's still at the point where he can fix some of those mistakes, but it was a concerningly poor performance late in that fight, and "The Funk Master" badly needs a rebound win against Raphael Assuncao, the dark horse of the bantamweight title picture. At the end of 2014, Assuncao seemed pretty much set for a title shot - he's sort of bland and won't get anyone excited, but he's damned good, and was riding a 7-0 record, all in the UFC, after cutting to bantamweight, including a win over then-champ T.J. Dillashaw. But an injury forced him out of a slated fight with Urijah Faber, and a long layoff pretty much killed all the momentum of Assuncao's career - he didn't return until UFC 200 after twenty-one months on the shelf, and even then there were rumors he fought injured while losing a rematch to Dillashaw in a fight where Assuncao still looked sort of good, but clearly lost all three rounds. Losing a fight to Dillashaw is no shame, but given where his career is and the fact that, frankly, he's not the kind of guy who'll get fans clamoring to see him in a big fight, Assuncao badly needs all the wins he can get, including one here. It's a really well-matched fight, but at the end of the day, I think it really just comes down to if Sterling can get Assuncao to the ground and keep him there, and sadly, I'm not really all that optimistic. Caraway just seemed to blow Sterling's game wide open, showing that at least as of last May, if you pressure Sterling and can counter his single strikes from a distance fairly effectively, he doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot while playing defense. And while Assuncao may not have the type of footwork to pressure Sterling quite like Caraway did, Assuncao's main strength is his ability to counter on the feet, so unless Sterling's patched those holes in his game (which is in fact completely possible for a talent like Sterling), the striking game figures to be all Assuncao. And Assuncao's takedown defense has pretty much been on point - Caraway and even Dillashaw, two talented wrestlers, weren't able to do much with him, and even when they got Assuncao to the ground, he pretty much popped right back up. Admittedly, Sterling might wind up being at another level, but again, it's somewhere else where I'm not optimistic. Despite my pessimism, I still give Sterling a shot here - mainly banking on his solid coaching at Serra-Longo and the fact that he's a top-flight kind of talent - but everything on paper favors Assuncao, so I'll say the Brazilian takes a clear decision. Jingliang Li (11-4 overall, 3-2 UFC) vs. Bobby Nash (8-1 overall): This could be a pretty fun fight, but I say this as someone who's a big fan of Jingliang Li, the one decent fighter to come out of UFC's now-abandoned efforts in China. And Li's not just decent by the low standard of Chinese fighters, he's pretty solid overall, as he could easily be 5-0 in the UFC - his loss to Nordine Taleb was a close split decision, and he was winning a fight against Keita Nakamura before getting caught in a last-ditch submission attempt. At first, Li lived up to his "The Leech" nickname, mostly being a one-dimensional wrestler, but he's developed a pretty solid boxing game over his UFC career, flashing some good technique and knockout power. After a few opponents fell out of fights on a few different cards, Li winds up here in Denver to fight Michigan-based newcomer Bobby Nash. Nash seems fine - he looks like an alright-enough athlete and has some solid striking himself, but honestly not a ton stood out, at least at the moment. That's alright enough for now, since Nash is just a little over two years into his pro career, and he seems like he could at least stick around if he's matched up against lower-level UFC opponents often enough, but I don't think Li is that. This should be a fight where Li is controlling most of it, since Li should be the better striker and the better wrestler, but the saving grace for Nash is that Li's defense is still quite poor in pretty much every area, and Nash has shown fight-ending ability both in terms of knockout power and submissions. But I expect Li to just do what he wants unless he gets stopped, and given that another negative for Nash is that I really didn't like the way he reacted to getting hit, sort of backing up to collect his thoughts, I'll call for Li to stun him early and move in for the kill for a first-round knockout. Henrique da Silva (12-1 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Jordan Johnson (6-0 overall): A perfectly fine light heavyweight bout here. Henrique "Frankenstein" da Silva has kept busy, with this being his third UFC fight in under four months, but it's hard to tell if he's actually any good - he didn't come into UFC with much in the way of expectations, and while he's had an alright amount of success mostly through sheer aggressiveness, all save one of his UFC fights have come against debuting opponents, and the level of competition doesn't seem to be all that high. So da Silva looks to rebound from the lone loss of his career, a submission to Paul Craig, against yet another debuting fighter, top light heavyweight prospect Jordan Johnson. A former wrestler at both Iowa and Grand Canyon University, Johnson's pretty much a raw grinder at this point, though he has some submission skills, and seems to have taken to striking well enough that he's been on a lot of top prospect lists at 205. And Johnson's done about as well as could be expected, getting six wins without a ton of trouble, and doing so in RFA, one of the top regional promotions you can go to in the US. This isn't quite a gimme - since Johnson's still just under three years into his pro career, I do have some questions about how he can react if da Silva decides to go into Frankenstein mode and just charges forward with little regard for defense - but Johnson does have enough wrestling skill, and da Silva has enough defensive liabilities, that I can just see Johnson grinding out a fairly one-sided decision by winning round after round, with a possibility of him getting a submission at some point. Alessio Di Chirico (10-1 overall, 1-1 UFC) vs. Eric Spicely (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): A neat fight here at middleweight. It's hard not to root for Eric Spicely - he came across as an easy fan favorite on season 23 of TUF, since he's overcome a pretty horrible amount of adversity, leaving a broken home as a teenager, pulling himself together after the death of his girlfriend in a freak canoeing accident, and just eventually got his life on track. But despite being a pretty solid fighter and making the final four of the season, there was some concern he wouldn't get a contract - Spicely's sort of a pudgy, physically unimpressive guy, and his grappling-heavy style seemed like something Dana White would really hate. But Spicely did wind up getting a shot, losing in what was honestly pretty embarrassing fashion via quick submission to Sam Alvey, and that seemed to be that for Spicely's career in the UFC. And, well, it was supposed to be, but a funny thing happened - in the whole purchase of UFC by WME-IMG, apparently the paperwork to terminate Spicely got lost in the shuffle. So, come August, Spicely apparently got a call explaining just that and offered him one of two options - to get cut, or to fight Thiago Santos, a top-fifteen fighter with destructive power, on about a month's notice in Santos's home country of Brazil. Spicely took the latter choice, and, wouldn't you know it, wound up out-wrestling Santos and scoring a first-round submission, getting one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and the biggest one (at least per betting lines) of 2016. Good on him. So after that, Spicely returns a few months later to fight Alessio Di Chirico, one of UFC's recent signings out of Italy, a country that's increasingly starting to build a MMA scene. Di Chirico's solid - he seems to be a strong athlete, and has some solid boxing, though his grappling game is still a little bit of a question mark (at least at a UFC level) and he still seems rather raw overall. So this pretty much boils down to a striker-versus-grappler fight; Spicely obviously wants to get things to the ground, since that's the only place he's had any real high-level success, and Di Chirico should be able to take this if it remains standing. Di Chirico seems to have some decent takedown defense, with the caveat that Spicely might be the best wrestler he's faced to date, so I'll call for the Italian to mostly keep this on the feet and win a decision, though this is really a coin flip of a fight. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (14-4-1 overall, 3-2 UFC, 0-1 Strikeforce) vs. Jeremy Kimball (14-5 overall, 1-1 Bellator): This is one of those fights that doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot, but pretty much exists to be a fun brawl, and I'm okay with that. Not a ton was expected of Marcos Rogerio de Lima off of TUF Brazil 3, but "Pezao" has done well enough for himself, getting over .500 in UFC by pretty much just being aggressive as hell and always searching for the finish, which has wound up with all five of his UFC fights ending in the first round one way or another. He was slated to face John Phillips, yet another Conor McGregor teammate being signed by the UFC, but with Phillips having visa issues, the late-notice call went to local Colorado fighter Jeremy Kimball. Not a ton of recent footage is out there on Kimball, but his M.O. seems to be the same as de Lima's - to just hit the other dude in the face really hard, and worry about the rest later. So these two guys are probably going to swing bombs at each other, and since de Lima's been doing it at a higher level, I'll say the Brazilian takes it by first-round knockout. But this is really just a fight wherever who hits the first big bomb wins it. Alexandre Pantoja (16-2 overall) vs. Eric Shelton (10-2 overall): This most recent season of TUF - built around flyweight champions from promotions all over the world competing in a tournament for a title shot against UFC kingpin Demetrious Johnson - was the best in years in terms of talent, but for whatever reason, UFC didn't really sign a lot of guys off the show, I guess figuring that since a lot of other top promotions don't have flyweight divisions, they could afford to be patient. But these two guys, both standouts on the show that made it to the final four, got the call and square off here. Brazil's Alexandre Pantoja, then the champion of top American promotion RFA, was the top seed on the season (even if most people beforehand did favor the eventual winner, Tim Elliott) and didn't really do a ton to dissuade that - while the Nova Uniao product wasn't all that dynamic on the show, he showed he could hold his own pretty much anywhere and do well against whatever opponent came his way. On the other side of things, Eric Shelton, an Illinois native who was the champion of Midwestern promotion Caged Aggression, pretty much came out of nowhere to go on a run through the show - Shelton was relatively unknown and seeded at number fifteen, and then just used his athleticism and a high-level wrestling and grappling game to impress time in and time out, even going close enough with Elliott that the decision easily could've gone the other way and sent Elliott to the finals. It's a hard one to call, but as a general rule, it's better to go off of pre-TUF resumes rather than the results during the season, which can be a bit fluky, so for that reason I favor Pantoja to get a decision, since he has more experience and a better camp behind him. But Shelton's gotten here by outdoing expectations time after time, so him doing so once more is entirely possible. J.C. Cottrell (17-4 overall, 0-1 UFC, 1-0 Bellator) vs. Jason Gonzalez (10-3 overall, 0-1 UFC): Somewhat surprisingly, this is the one clear fight on the card that's between two guys that are definitely on the cut line, as both lost their UFC debuts in rather one-sided fashion after coming in as injury replacements. Oklahoma's J.C. Cottrell stepped in on short notice and lost to Michel Prazeres via decision on the Holm/Shevchenko card this past summer; Cottrell's game is typically built around using his wrestling to set up spots where he can jump onto a submission, but I'm not really sure it'll work at a UFC level, and Cottrell looks like the sort of "quadruple-A" fighter who can take care of a lot of guys in smaller promotions but will struggle on a major stage. On the other side of things, we have California's Jason Gonzalez, who came in with a little bit of hype after a decent stint on TUF 22 and a career as a finishing machine on smaller shows - Gonzalez is a gigantic lightweight with knockout power, and has a pretty dangerous submission game to boot. But he got shockingly knocked out in the first round by Drew Dober at UFC 203, casting into doubt exactly how much success Gonzalez will have, since Dober isn't exactly a knockout artist. Still, he's impressed me more than Cottrell, so I'll say Gonzalez gets the second-round knockout, though it's hard to have a ton of confidence in either guy at the moment.

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