#That got waaaaay longer than I intended it I just have a lot of feelings about this

[forgottenspring]

You're right one of the first things that came to mind.

And honestly they noticed it was a case of lesbians were already most of their clientele and buying from them and took the risk.

I am a huge queer history fan and it's always wild how ppl don't realize how much people back in the day would lose all their customers for admitting they serve queer patrons.

Multiple banks would refuse noticeably queer people an account or even loan or higher interest rates (a thing that still happens today), restaurants and clothing stores would turn people away. And getting a car when they can tell you're gay, lesbian, or trans? Good luck getting near the door.

Legit the whole "gay wedding cake" fiasco was that last bit of tail end from this era and it's wild ppl thought it was a one off incident. It's just the fact if finally got coverage bc gay efforts made it so ppl could have these discussions and agree it's weird to deny someone service for just being gay.

People are so used to being able to purchase stuff anywhere bc ppl fought for that. A few companies were brave enough to lose every customer to say they weren't outright discriminatory towards gay people.

Acknowledging you had gay clientele was poison back in the day to businesses even if it was a barely kept secret most gays shopped somewhere. I grew up in a conservative state that still acts like it's the 1960s sometimes and I have heard "The gays shop there, so I'm not giving them my money" about a random shop that had no marketing or anything it's just most queer people just happened to shop there.

Subaru took a major risk, it wasn't about "Oh let's pander to the gays to make money" that wasn't a thing back then, the way it is now. Yes the 70s/80s were worse and 90s had mild acceptance but in the way of you don't talk about it and be semi nice if you realize the person you're talking to is gay so you can escape the convo.

It was "Hey, we've noticed a lot of lesbians own subarus, let's take this risk bc if they're our main base it's worth showing them they can feel safe and respected buying from us, even if we lose most other customers".

And guess what? It worked! Lesbians and gays flooded their doors, even as they took a hit from homophobic people who saw thru the subtle nods to the lesbian community and swore off business with them.

I think I may hate Subaru more than any other car brand due to how they effectively co-opted queer culture to sell more cars purely because lesbians in the 90s had some disposable income

[harringtonswriting]

the one with the green-eyed spider | s.h.

summary: steve knows you're an absolute catch, and unfortunately, so do others; unfortunately, when that happens this time he's in costume and can't quite sweep you off your feet to show the world that he's lucky enough to be yours (modern!au; spidey!steve universe) pairing: steve harrington x gn!reader warning(s): some jealousy, the use of the name joshua for a throwaway jerk (sorry to any nice joshuas out there) word count: 4k notes: this guy kind of got away from me and ended up being waaaaay longer than intended, but i hope you enjoy! thank you to the lovely anon for requesting this, i hope you enjoy it. i've got some more spidey!steve in the works, including another request, and thank you to everyone who filled out the poll so far! it's still open, so if you'd like to fill it out you're more than welcome. i'm so sorry for how long it took me to get this out; i recently lost a close family member and there's been a lot going on with that. i'll try to post when i can, but it make take some time. i appreciate your patience very much!

...

It seems like whenever you ask the universe for a nice, calm day, some signals must get crossed somewhere because that is never what you end up getting.

Like this morning. After you’d woken up and gotten started for the day, all you’d wanted was to go to your favourite nearby cafe with a book and your laptop and maybe get some reading or some work done. And that would be made better by your favourite drink and maybe a couple yummy pastries or snacks. You weren’t meeting up with Steve until later in the afternoon, so you had some time to kill and this seemed like a good way to do it.

So you pack up your things, bid your apartment goodbye for the time being, and head down to your favourite cafe. There’s a miraculously short line when you get there, and not only do you manage to get your favourite cold weather drink and something to eat, you also get very lucky and manage to snag a very nice corner seat that not only has a great view out the window, but an outlet in case you need to charge anything. That should have been your sign that things were going to go downhill. Which they absolutely do.

You manage to get a full twenty minutes of peaceful reading in before someone hunkers down at the table beside you. You’re feeling a little curious as to who’s choosing to sit there, so you look out of the corner of your eye to see a young man who looks about your age, dressed like he just walked out of an American Eagle ad and dropped down into the seat next to you. Pretty, yes, but he’s just another guy. He must catch you looking at him because you see a grin break out over his face, one full of teeth that are so small, so straight, and so shiny that you wonder what American Girl doll sacrificed her teeth for him before he’s leaning in closer to you.

“Hey, I’ve never seen you around here before,” he says; you’ve never seen him in this cafe before either, though with the amount of time you spend there you’re sure you’d have noticed if he was another regular. You look up from your book completely to smile politely at him and acknowledge what he said before you go back to what you’re reading. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to understand that you’re just being polite because before you know it, he’s leaning over even further to get your attention. “I’d definitely remember a stunning face like yours.”

Oh, he’s flirting with you. That’s what he’s doing over here, sitting next to you. He’s definitely coming on a little strong, and while you’re flattered, you have a boyfriend that you love very much. And you wouldn’t trade Steve and his spandex wearing, pun making, chronically late ways for anything (not that you’ll tell him that, though). So, you try to be nice. You place your bookmark on the page you’re currently reading and hold your book in your hands. Your thumb rubs over its spine.

“Oh, no, I’m–” You start speaking, but this guy waves his hand towards you to get you to be quiet. You drop the polite smile because is this guy really waving at you like you’re a child to get you to shut up? He is, and your grip on your book tightens. If this is his technique for hitting on people, no wonder he’s still single (or you hope he’s single, and that his relationship status doesn’t change any time soon).

“I’m Joshua,” he tells you. One of his hands comes to rest on your table, and you raise your eyebrows. “And I need to know your name so I can know what to whisper in your ear when I take you home tonight.” You almost want to laugh because you really didn’t think people still used lines like that outside of cheesy movies or romance novels. You really needed to remember to tell Robin and Nancy about this, they’d find it both infuriating and hilarious. When you open your mouth to respond, that’s when you hear the bells above the door jingle.

And that’s when your day goes from bad to worse.

You hear a very loud voice shout, “Everybody freeze! This is a robbery!” and when you look up, you can see a group of men wearing ski masks near the bar. Of course this group of wannabe thugs would pick today of all days to come into the cafe you’re sitting in to try and rob the register. You wonder if maybe it’s their first time trying something like this, or maybe Kingpin is hiring any group of idiots who can supply their own guns–it wouldn’t surprise you if he drummed up his protection and extortion rackets by using guys like this to cause problems so he can swoop in and solve them. God, you need to stop listening to Eddie when he goes on about mob politics and conspiracy podcasts late at night.

You can see the guns the thugs are carrying, and how they start to spread out to keep an eye on everyone inside the cafe while one of them gets the barista at the cash register to empty it for them. You completely ignore the guy beside you to try and reach into your bag for your phone without being seen–if Steve’s on patrol, he might be able to get here more quickly than the police.

Unfortunately, Joshua doesn’t seem to realize what you’re trying to do and decides to ask, much too loudly, what you’re doing. Which catches the attention of one of the masked thugs. He moves closer to the two of you, brandishing his gun in your direction. You bite your lip, hoping that the safety is on and immediately stopping your movements.

“Hands where we can see them!” he shouts, and you grudgingly withdraw your hands from your bag to place them on the table where they can be seen. The thug points at you, and then turns his attention back towards the bar where his cohorts are. Well, there goes that plan. You see the poor barista finish emptying the register, and the thug closest to her grabs the cliche duffel bag from her hands when she’s done.

That’s when you hear someone clear their throat from near the entrance to the cafe. You look over and feel a sense of relief flood through your chest at seeing a familiar red and blue figure leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You guys are here for double star day too, huh?” Steve asks the thugs, his voice as light and casual as his posture as if he was asking about the weather. His casual demeanour is hiding how he’s sizing up the threat in front of him; you know that he’s already got at least three different strategies planned out as to how he’s going to get this taken care of with as little damage as he can get away with.

“Shit, boss, it’s Spider-Man!” one of the thugs yells, and then all of them are turning their attention to Steve and where he’s standing. He gives them a small bow, gesturing with his arms as he does so.

“Now, that has got to be the weirdest looking reusable cup I’ve ever seen,” Steve says, gesturing towards the gun that the thug closest to him is holding. “You won’t mind if I borrow that, right? I was in such a rush that I forgot mine at home today!”

That’s when Steve starts having his fun. Almost before you can blink, he’s starting to use his webs to either snatch the guns right out of their hands and stick them to either the walls or the ceiling, or just completely web it up in their hands to stop them from using it. It’s always impressive, seeing how quick Steve’s reflexes are when he’s really trying, the way his body just moves and flows, able to shift and change and adapt to any opponent he fights. It’s really a sight to see, even against some low-level thugs like these guys; you can tell he’s toying with them, though, once the guns are out of the picture. He’s flipping in the air up over their heads, letting them run around and nearly crash into each other as he takes turns webbing each of them up to each other, to the walls, and even hanging some from the ceiling.

When he's finished, Steve grabs the duffel bag of cash that the thug leader dropped and walks it back over to the barista behind the cash register.

“I believe this belongs to you. Don’t spend it all in one place,” he tells her, and you hear her thank him profusely. You see one of Steve’s hands come up to scratch the back of his neck, his shoulders shrugging as he accepts her praise before turning back to face the rest of the people gathered in the cafe. “The police will be here soon, and if anyone is injured please let them know so the first responders can help you as soon as possible. It’s bean great!”

As everyone is cheering for Spider-Man (and some people, including yourself, cringe as you understand the pun he was trying to make), your eyes catch the whites of the eyes on Steve’s suit looking in your direction. His head tilts to the side, and you raise a hand as discreetly as you can to wave at him now that he knows you’re here. You’re going to hear about this later, you’re absolutely sure of it. Steve has made it very clear he’s not a fan of you being in any kind of danger, and you’ve made it clear that you can take care of yourself and have been doing so for longer than you’ve known him, but given that you’ve caught him glaring at sheets of paper that have accidentally given you paper cuts, and smacking the kettle in your apartment when you’d once burned your hand on it, you know he’s not going to give up on protecting you any time soon.

He starts walking through the crowd, talking to everyone and making sure they’re okay on his way over to you. But he’s stopped, though, when Joshua suddenly appears in front of you with a coffee cup in hand. Honestly, you’d kind of forgotten about him once you’d seen Steve, but apparently he hasn’t forgotten about you. He’s standing very close to you, almost uncomfortably so–he seems intent on getting between you and Steve, and one of his hands comes up to touch your shoulder.

“I totally knew everything would be okay. So glad that we can get back to over conversation now,” Joshua says. You furrow your eyebrows, shrugging his hand off your shoulder as you look  behind him to see where Steve has gotten to.

He’s not that far away now; close enough to hear what’s going on, but not close enough to step in right now. He’s Spider-Man right now, after all, and you’re not publicly dating Spider-Man. He can’t step in, not without potentially revealing too much about himself because while you don’t like Joshua flirting with you, it’s not technically a crime. You see one of Steve’s feet start tapping on the linoleum floor, which is one of his tells–he’s not happy right now. After knowing him, and then dating him, for as long as you have, you’ve picked up on how he behaves in the suit, his body language and how he moves, because his very pretty, very expressive face is hidden behind wide white and black eyes on a webbed red mask. You can practically see the pout and the frown lines you know are present on his face right now; while that’s normally adorable, you also know Steve has his own insecurities and you don’t want to give him any reason to doubt himself or your relationship.

“I have a boyfriend.” Your voice is polite but firm, and you stand from your seat with your book in hand. You grab your bag and hook the strap over your shoulder (with what’s left of your snack carefully packed up inside).

“Really? Is he here with you?” Joshua asks, raising an eyebrow. He really does not know when to give up, and you shake your head. You’re not in the mood for this right now.

“He’s, uh… at work right now.” Which he is, less than twenty feet away, though this guy doesn’t need to know that work involves semi-legal vigilantism in red and blue spandex.

“Yeah? What does he do? I’m interning at Carver and Cunningham, which is the biggest financial firm in the city.” Oh, of course he’s a finance guy. That explains so much of the entitlement and attitude you’re seeing right now. You chew on the inside of your cheek, trying to think of the best way to describe what Steve does. Sure, you could tell this guy the way that Steve actually pays his bills, but where’s the fun in that? Plus, the idea that pops into your head is one you think your boyfriend will appreciate.

“Uh… web design. Freelance stuff. You’ve probably seen his work, it’s pretty amazing.” You can see Steve’s posture perk up over this guy’s shoulder, his chest puffing up just a bit while you grin. He is more than just pretty amazing, and you’re going to make sure you tell him that later.

“Well, I don’t see him here with you,” Joshua says, and his hand comes up towards your shoulder again. And that is when Steve decides to jump in.

“Hey folks, just coming over to make sure everything is all good before I swing out of here. Are you okay?” he asks, dialling up his overly cheery Spider-Man voice more than normal. You can see his fingers twitching towards his webshooters, and you have to bite your bottom lip to keep from smiling. Oh, he’s really not happy. But Joshua doesn’t seem to notice, turning from looking at you to fully face Spider-Man.

“Spider-Man! That was totally wicked, you are amazing, bro,” Joshua tells him,  “Totally had it under control until you got here, though.” Behind him, you raise your eyebrows and your jaw drops just a bit because this guy had it under control? The one who successfully prevented you from contacting Steve earlier than he showed up? Yeah, that’s not true at all.

Steve’s foot starts tapping again as he nods. “I’m sure you did, bro.” One of Steve’s hands settles on his hip as he looks Joshua up and down. “You sure do have a lot of confidence for a guy wearing boat shoes in the city. I will definitely remember that the next time I need help with a mugging, or if something happens on a boat, Skipper.”

You have to cough to hide your laughter at that, and you can practically see the satisfied smirk that Steve will be wearing under his mask. Thankfully, though, Joshua doesn’t seem to pick up on what Steve is really saying. “Thanks man!” He actually seems enthusiastic about it. “You know, I’m kind of an up and coming big deal at Carver and Cunningham. I’d be more than happy to give you some tips, maybe help you set up your portfolio. Being Spider-Man’s financial advisor would look so sick on my resume!”

You kind of want to hear what Steve’s retort to that would be, but he’s saved from continuing the conversation when the distant sound of sirens starts echoing through the cafe. “Oops, that’s my cue! Gotta head out, but you guys stay safe!” Steve waves at the two of you before he shoots a web towards the ceiling with a thwip! He swings off, ghosting by Joshua closely, almost too closely, and then he’s gone and there’s coffee staining the front of Joshua’s outfit.

“Oh man, my shirt!” he exclaims. You take that opportunity to slip past Joshua and thread your way through the small crowd to leave the cafe before he can say anything else to you.

However, by the time you make it outside, Steve is nowhere to be seen no matter where you look. You check your phone and there are no new messages from him either past his usual good morning text letting you know he loves you and your morning breath is terrible with his signature big smiley face emojis. You sigh, hoping that if he’s off dealing with giant lizard men (that you’d need to see to believe, no matter what Steve says and Eddie sends you articles about) or more dumbass thugs somewhere else in the city that he stays safe, and you head for home to spend the rest of your day there.

…

Steve doesn’t get home until much later—it’s almost dinner time when you hear him swing in through the bedroom window, a muffled thump as he no doubt catches his foot on the window sill or maybe knocks into your dresser. You’ve stopped keeping anything breakable on top of it just in case, partially because you know it’ll make Steve more upset than you would be if he accidentally broke something. Which had happened before.

You’re finishing up dinner when you hear the door to your bedroom opening and Steve comes padding out and into the kitchen. You finish plating the pasta and pull the garlic bread out of the oven, putting it down and closing the oven door before you put a few pieces on each plate. You turn to look at him, a smile on your face. He’s wearing his glasses, which he does more out of habit than anything else these days, and a comfy looking pair of joggers and a sweater. He’s also got his backpack in one of his hands, which is a little unusual, but you don’t question it. You smile at him instead, opening your arms for a hug as he stops closer. He lets you wrap your arms around him, squeezing him, and he returns the embrace with his free arm and hand not holding his backpack.

“Welcome home, Steve,” you say, and he echoes the sentiment before the hug ends. You move to grab two glasses and start filling them with water before you move to put them down on the small table you have in the corner of your kitchen. “How was your day? Anything exciting happen?”

“Oh, y’know, the usual. Got some cats out of trees, stopped a jolly green elf from blowing up a bridge, and managed to get in my daily cup of coffee,” he tells you. “Sorry I couldn’t stick around, babe.”

When Steve is Spider-Man, when he’s wearing the suit, you know he’s extra careful about anyone being linked back to him; not just to protect himself and his identity, but to protect the people he loves. You’ve had enough late night talks and comforted him after enough fights and enough nightmares to know that he’s terrified of anything ever happening to you, or Robin, Eddie, Dustin, or anyone else he loves because of him. So you know that in the suit, there’s really nothing he can do in public when he sees you (though in private, you do enjoy showering your personal hero in as much love and affection as you can in and out of the suit), much to Steve’s frustration. Which was extremely apparent today, and brings a small smile to your face.

“I did get you something to make up for it, though,” he tells you, which is when he starts digging through his bag. It takes him a minute, but he finds what he’s looking for and holds it out for you. “Ta da!” It’s one of those square plastic containers you see at the grocery store, ones that have a single serving of cake inside them. You’ve bought them before as treats, or when you and Steve can’t agree on what kind of dessert you want so you each get something different. This cake, however, has obviously gone through a bit of turbulence in Steve’s backpack; he’d probably been swinging around with it, which unfortunately usually causes things to bounce around. A bunch of icing is smushed up against the side of the container, and Steve visibly deflates, with his shoulders lowering and forehead furrowing, when he notices.

“Aw, no,” he says quietly, holding the cake up to inspect through the non-squished side of the container. He squints, one eye closing, before he sighs and drops his bag on the floor. “Okay, well, it was a nice piece of cake when I bought it.”

“No, Steve, it’s still a nice piece of cake,” you try to reassure him, coming back over to stand in front of him and inspect the cake yourself. It looks a little banged up, sure, but it’s still in mostly one piece. It’s your favourite flavour, too, one that Steve isn’t a huge fan of himself. But he still went out of his way to get that for you, and it brings a wonderful warmth to your chest.

“Man, I bet Skipper would have bought you a whole bakery with no smushed cakes.” He’s still a bit sour, though, with a line appearing between his pinched brows. You wrap one arm around his waist, and use the other to cup his cheek. He leans into your touch before his warm, shining brown eyes meet yours.

“Stevie, he could use his trust fund to buy every bakery in the city and I’d still choose you and this wonderful smushed cake every single time.” And, for good measure, you add in that, “His jokes weren’t even funny.”

He presses a kiss to your forehead, mumbling something about boat shoes and comedic timing before he looks between you and the plastic container that’s still in his hand. “You sure you’re happy settling for smushed cake?” He’s not asking about the cake this time, though, and you know he needs a little more reassurance than normal right now so you nod and press your own kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“Steve, baby, I will always love your cake the most. And it’ll taste exactly the same, I promise. I appreciate that you got it for me.” Because you do. You’ll always choose Steve, you know you will, and you want him to know it too. The smile that blooms across his face tells you as much, and he stands just a little bit taller beside you. “C’mon, I think we’ve got some leftover icing in the fridge from when Robin wanted cupcakes. We can put that on the cake when we finish dinner.”

“Or, hear me out, we could have dessert first?” He looks so happy that you can’t say no to him. You really can’t, and so you let go of him to cover your dinners while he cheers. You grab a knife and two forks, and then you grab the tub of icing from the fridge, and sit down at the table to start eating the cake.

You were right; it does still taste good, even though it’s been through a lot on its journey home, and you scoop up a bit on your fork before you hold it out towards Steve’s mouth. His cheeks flush a bright pink and the corners of his eyes crinkle with crow’s feet as he opens his mouth and allows you to feed him. He then does the same for you, moving his fork around before you open your mouth and allow him to put the small piece of cake in there. “One day we’ll do this at our wedding. But the cake won’t be smushed then, I promise,” he says, and god, do you believe him. It’d be just your luck that the cake would be smushed, even at your wedding, but as long as Steve is still sitting across from you and making airplane noises as he feeds you, you know it’ll be just as perfect then as it is now.

[nifaswriting]

Hey there u cutie :3 I came across your blog and I totally fell for your writing 💞 Can I request something for Smoker? Modern AU Headcanons or the "Love with XX is..." would be awesome! Please choose what you are more comfy with. Have a wonderful day 💕

Hello there, beloved ! Your request made my day, I'm very happy to know you enjoy my writing ! I hope you'll like this as well ♥

I chose the modern au because I got inspired, but you'll probably see the "love with" serie with Smoker at some point 'cause this man has me on chockhold, it's not even healthy...

Anyway, enjoy the little headcanons and have an amazing day as well ! ♥

P.S. : I made this waaaaay longer than expected haha ! Also, slight TW for mention of injuries, nothing bad don't worry, just thought I would put it, just in case ♥

Smoker modern AU headcanons :

To start somewhere, I strongly believe Smoker used to be in the army when he was younger, probably around his early/mid-twenties or something

His long life dream since he was a little kid was to serve his country and bring some kind of justice to this world he thought was way too unfair sometimes

But my thoughts is that he got involved into some traumatic near-death experience (more than likely the day he got that big scar on his face) at the beginning of his thirties

The recovering process was painful, yet his not-so-infamous will made it a little eaiser for him to endure

It also helped that he met you at that time : you quickly became his anchor when he felt like his determination was slipping through his fingers during hardest times

After everything got better for him, Smoker decided to quit the army to be able to start a long life with you by his side ♥

Back to the present we go !

Smoker now works for some kind of big lawyer company, either as a lawyer himself or as one of the big heads

He found in this new job a way to accomplish his dream while also trying to balance work and private life

Emphasize on trying...

This man works A LOT and he works so hard all the time it's giving him grey hair

Haha, get it ? Because his hair's white and stuff...

Most of the time, he comes home later than he first intended to

"I'll be back around eight tonight." is what he texts you, but you know he won't be there until 10pm or even later sometimes

And when he gets home, you're almost always already asleep because, as much as you love him, you too need your daily rest

Honestly, he can't blame you, and deep inside, he feels horrible that he's not spending enough quality time with you at home

Same goes for mornings : he gets up very early and usually you're still sleeping, so he just gets ready in silent, kisses you softly and leaves without a noise

Luckily for you, there are times when he's not so busy and you bet he's going to spend every single free minutes he's got with you, either at home or by taking you out

Nothing is too much when it comes to you, and somehow he loves spoiling you just a little bit when he has the chance

You want to try that new restaurant you saw on your way to work ? He's already booking a table for you both. You need new shoes or new clothes ? He's taking you on a shopping session. You want to stay home and cuddle him all day ? Watch a cheesy movie while eating take-out ? Fine by him, for your sake, he'll accept anything.

It's his way of showing you how much he cares despite not being there a lot

Such a sweet man ♥

Please though, if he's in one of his busy periods and you get the chance, visit him at work, he'll be the happiest man in the world

He doesn't look like it, his face remaining neutral the all time if not for the slightest of smiles curling the corner of his lips, but the moment he sees you walking past his office's door, his frown softens

It immediately lightens his mood and makes his day 100 times better

Bonus if you brings him something he enjoys like his favorite food/snacks or flowers (yes, he loves flowers, who would have thought ?)

On rare occasions, when both your schedules allow it, he offers you to eat lunch together, either at one of your workplaces or at a restaurant

Sometimes, your coworkers or Tashigi join you two intentionally and Smoker gets all grumpy because they're interrupting his precious alone time with you

Please, when it's just you two afterwards, give him a big kiss to get rid of his bad mood before returning to work, it'll help him feel better ♥

He's in fact just a big busy baby man, but you love him and he loves you dearly

[mkstrigidae]

from the ask meme abt writing, i have a few questions about your writing process! how do you stay organized with so many pov’s in AWPH? i always wonder what writing app/site fic writers use (word, google docs, etc.), and if it’s not too much, could you show a screenshot of how that looks?

Hi friend! :) I am terribly sorry it’s taken me a while to answer this- life has gotten in the way

Oof- so the answer to that question ‘how do you stay organized’ is probably ‘I don’t’, but I’ll do my best. (this ended up long and fairly disorganized)

About APWH POVs:

For the different POVs, there isn’t really a process I have to choose whose POV is used for what scene- I’d probably be more stern about it if were writing a novel, but because it’s fanfiction, I kind of just go with whatever feels right at the time. There is one thing that’s absolutely deliberate, though- I’ve never written a scene from Petyr’s POV, because he’s the exception to narrative omniscience.

There have been a few instances where I’ve had to switch whose POV i was writing from as I went along, or after I finished a scene- Meeting Jon Arryn is an example from the most recent chapter. Initially, it was from Sansa’s point of view, but Sansa overthinks everything and so it kept going off in all sorts of weird directions and I couldn’t pin it down. Once I started writing as Robin, it got much easier.  

The single most difficult thing about keeping all the different characters straight is remembering who knows certain things, and who doesn’t know certain things.

Take this, for example. The two characters closest to omniscience are Oberyn and Sansa, but where Oberyn knows Baelish’s history and can understand certain aspects of his motivation because of years of working on the case and studying him (in addition to a hefty understanding of human psychology), Sansa isn’t always completely aware of how important certain pieces of evidence are, or how relevant certain things are to Petyr’s motivations. The two of them understand Baelish more than anyone else, but in drastically different ways. The biggest thing is that Oberyn is aware of Petyr’s relationship with Catelyn, and how he feels about her, whereas Sansa has no idea about that, and still doesn’t really understand why Baelish took her in the first place (although she’s been doing a repeat speedrun through the five stages of grief throughout the entire thing, poor kid).

But there are basic facts of the story, and then there’s the ‘who knows what’ aspect of it. Someone broke into the Stark’s home in White Harbor and stole Sansa from her bed- this is a fact. But only a few people know who it was that broke in or how it was done. An assassin was hired to kill Petyr Baelish at the airport and failed. The Lannisters know who the assassin is, but Oberyn and Daemon don’t yet.

There are lots of complicated relationships among the characters too- Jon knows more about Robb than any of the rest of them, except maybe Rhae, who only ever shows vulnerability to Willas and Marg, and so the rest of us don’t really get to see her soft side. Arya’s relationship with Catelyn is extremely complicated, and as such, she has a lot of baggage going into meeting Sansa that Sansa has no idea about. Lyanna is aware of what’s generally going on politically, and is working on several important stories that could provide some insight to Oberyn, but they haven’t talked about politics too much recently, because Oberyn’s too busy with the investigation and Lyanna’s busy with her job. There are secrets that Robb has been keeping for an extremely long time, and secrets that Sansa’s keeping without even realizing it. There are a lot of things that were odd or abnormal or red flags in Sansa’s childhood that she doesn’t even realize are odd, because she has no other frame of reference.

In terms of keeping the other stuff straight, I have a page at the beginning of the APWH Master Document (it’s so long dear god), that basically has character names, ages, locations, and time zones written down. I’ve tried making like, character info compilations, but I’m not very good at updating them so I stopped that (although I found a particularly funny bit about the targs in one that’s sampled below).

Generally, I think it’s more important to understand how your characters react to certain situations and their most basic personality traits and values, rather than just having a long list of stats on them, so that tends to be my approach. If I’m worried that I’m about to write something that conflicts with a previous plot point, generally, I’ll go back and skim the story for mentions of them to double check- I’ve reread APWH so frequently that I am genuinely sick of the first five chapters, haha.

Unfortunately, a lot of it tends to just be that I have an extremely good long-term memory for details. The trade-off is a god-awful short-term memory, though. It’s partially the ADHD. I’m on the verge of trying to keep things straight with an excel doc, tho.

The timeline is one of the trickier aspects, so I tend to scribble them out anytime I’m thinking about when and where certain events happened. Generally, I use Sansa’s abduction as year zero, because I do not understand how years work in Westeros and have elected to just use my own- here’s a sample of one I scribbled down the other day when I was trying to figure something out.

(Sorry about the post it notes- those are covering some spoilers! ;D)

About my writing process:

It is…. Not as streamlined of a process as I would like, haha. Generally, I go by chapter. I kind of have a rough idea of what I want to happen in each chapter, and generally that evolves as the story does.

For each chapter, I kind of just bullet point out some things that I want to have happen, and then try my hand at writing some of them. Some of my best ideas happen after this process, though, like the scene where Robb and Sansa find out that Baelish moved them out of the city while Robb was in town to avoid a confrontation. But I have those bullet points, and usually rough chapter titles and rough summaries before the chapters start. (Some things blacked out because of spoilers ;D)

I think that if I waited until I was inspired to sit down and write, then APWH would maybe be done by like, 2070, so I usually kind of sit down and just start writing- some of it is good, some scenes I discard completely, and usually, once I hit on something that works, the plot flows where I want it to.

I generally know how I want the chapters to start, based on how the previous chapter ends (My writing time for them usually overlaps bc it’s a natural continuation). Once I figure out roughly how I want the chapter to end, though, the whole thing starts coming together, and it’s easier for me to figure out what doesn’t belong in the middle, and what might be missing.

I started using one master document on word, because I swear to god I did not intend for this story to turn into the behemoth that it is, and that lasted for about twelve chapters before I realized that the damn thing was 368 pages of tiny font (I don’t double space my lines when I write bc I like seeing as much of it as I can). So I’ve switched to individual word docs for each chapter as of chapter 13, and used google docs to share the chapter with the wonderful @nowmywatch-begins who was kind enough to beta read the thing and remove the excess of commas I tend to use. I use color coded highlighting to indicate different things- turquoise means I want to go back and rework something, green means I need to check to make sure something doesn’t conflict with something I wrote previously, yellow is for sections that I might not want in that chapter and might need to move, etc. Anything I end up discarding goes in a section at the end of that chapter labeled ‘outtakes’. I used to have a lot of trouble rewriting things because I hated to get rid of them, so this circumvents that particular issue. I get to keep what I wrote, while still improving the story by being willing to throw out certain parts.

I write out of order frequently so I keep a separate document called ‘APWH- Bits and Pieces’ that I use whenever I’m doing something like that- it acts as sort of a holding tank for these scenes until I feel like they fit in the story. I also just keep random notes in there, questions that I think need answering, random sentences that just come to me, ideas I’ve jotted down when an idea sparks, etc. There’s a lot of stream of consciousness kind of stuff because I tend to process ideas by writing them down, and so I have stuff like ‘okay so what if Lysa did X and Petyr was here and does Sansa have a college scholarship???? Is the Braavosi prison in the northwest or the south? Why is Westeros still a monarchy? do the tabloids follow the royal family like in britain???’

Like, I have the ending for APWH written, but it’s fairly disjointed, and i think I’ll be able to flesh it out more as the story goes along. I like having a general idea of where I’m going with my writing, but I also will modify those ideas frequently as I go- sometimes the characters really do write the story for you.

This is probably not very organized, and waaaaay longer than you wanted, but I hope this answers your question!!! Thank you for the ask! :)

[learnbywords]

The Bold | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

It’s a bold move for Yuval Noah Harari to write a synopsis of all sapiens history. He starts with a timeline of all history, even before humans existed. I would’ve liked to highlight some of those events, but how do you choose important events reaching back to 13,800,000,000 years ago? The timeline begins at the Big Bang, the point at which the Newtonian laws of physics makes its first steps. I knew the age of the universe before reading this book, but it’s still awe-inspiring when I consider it. Homo Sapiens is the scientific term for our own species (I’m assuming only Homo Sapiens are reading this), but the author points out that human refers to all species under the genus Homo. Other human species are Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthalensis, and Homo Australopithecus. Harari focuses on the only species that aren’t extinct, Homo Sapiens.

This isn’t a book summary. I’d want people to try to read it on their own. I feel that doing a summary would stifle that goal. This post is just about the thoughts that this book inspired.

Creatio ex nihilo:

There’s this Latin phrase we have in Christian circles: Creatio ex nihilo. It means creation out of nothing. It refers to God creating the universe out of void. The idea gets ridiculed a lot, but I think there’s something to it.

The book talks a lot about language. It points out that Homo Sapiens became dominant on earth because of complex language. Many animals have a simple language: apes have calls to warn others of predators, ants use chemicals to direct others to food, and birds sing to find mates during spring. But our complex language allows us to do more; we can share imaginations together. People around the world can unite around common ideas like religion, human rights, nations, and even sports teams. I’d have a hard time having a productive friendship with someone on the other side of the world, but we can work towards a goal if we share a common idea.

I brought up Creatio ex nihilo because, like the Christian God, humans use language to create. God speaks the universe into existence. He says, “Let there be light,” and there is. Of course, humans create things like religion, economics, and psychology with language, but I think we also create things within ourselves. There’s an old memory that shows itself in my mind often. My mom is driving us to a Burger King to pick up food. We order and wait in the car. She tells me to go inside to get the food once it’s prepared. I do just that, bring the food back into the car, and crumble into tears. She asks me what’s wrong, but I can only express myself through raw emotion. It’s not that I didn’t know why, but I had no words for it.

I was sensitive to the way that my mom spoke to me. Her words felt harsh and took me by surprise. I was fine right before this event. I was comfortable and doing my own thing, and my mom’s words punched me right in the gut. It hurt me. She didn’t mean for it to, but it did.

Language defogged that memory and made it refined and new. Words helped me to categorize, reason, and discern to create a memory that I could understand so that it’s no longer baggage on me. When God speaks, he creates material worlds. When we speak, we create worlds within our own conscience. That childhood memory became a bit more real to me when I used language to explain it. Creatio ex nihilo.

Admitting Ignorance:

Have you ever thought about what maps looked like before anyone had travelled across the world? They were actually… full! Before the 1500s, not one person had made a trip across earth, but people still thought they knew what all the earth looked like. The direct surroundings were drawn well, but if any navigator used these world maps for long-distance travel, they’d get lost faster than Gen Z’ers would without GPS. One of the most insightful things Harari points out is that the scientific revolution was sparked by an admission of ignorance about the universe. Humans said, “we don’t know everything,” and accepted that they could be proven wrong. That admission swung open the door to knowing more.

Welcoming our blindness led to unbelievable leaps in humanity. If a peasant living in 1000 AD time-travelled 500 years into the future to 1500 AD, he’d feel the world is still familiar. If he jumped ahead another 500 years to 2000 AD, he might have a heart-attack from seeing metal boxes on wheels, moving lights on a hand-held rectangle, and how needlessly fancy brunch and coffee are. Here are some more examples Harari uses to put our world into perspective of the not-so-distant past:

A single battleship today could eradicate all the navies of the world during Columbus’ time.

A small flash drive could hold all the scriptures in every medieval library.

A large bank contains more money than the wealth of all premodern kingdoms put together.

We’ve come a long a way only because we recognized how behind we were. We’ve got to know that we’re dumb to get smarter. I’m sure we could all use a healthy dose of honesty by admitting we don’t know the world as well as we think we do.

How to View Sin

This section might get more flak than the previous ones, but it connects with the Admitting Ignorance theme. People discovered that human knowledge was limited. With that discovery came a yearning to learn of what we didn’t know. If we have an incomplete map, wouldn’t you want to adventure to complete it? The thought reminds me of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You start the game with this map:

You eventually want to get to this:

(The red outline marks that map that you start with).

There’s a desire to dive into the unknown parts of the map. However, the real world is not as black and white as Zelda’s world. Instead of harming goblins and Ganon, people often harmed each other in the process of exploration. Imperialism and conquest. These aren’t fun words today. They’re sin in today’s world (which is right to a certain extent). But the results of these sins aren’t all bad.

The Indus Valley civilization is one of the earliest human civilizations that we know of. Evidence tells us that it existed from about 3300 BC to 1300 BC (a whopping 2000 years!) and was located around northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. The remnants of these people were first discovered around the 1920s. Will anyone debate that this isn’t a wonderful discovery? Is it not a good thing that we know more about human history from this ancient culture? Of course, it’s good! The thing is no one cared much for the Indus Valley ruins until British rule came to India. None of the Indian rulers or sultans of ages past had records of what the Indus Valley civilization was. The people who lived there would pass by the relics regularly but pay them no mind. It was a Brit who took an interest in Indian history and started the Archaeological Survey of India. That led to the research and preservation of the Indus Valley civilization artifacts. In this case, imperialism and conquest partook in the unearthing and conservation of this extinct culture.

Is there right and wrong? I’m certain the world would be worse if there weren’t, but life is complicated. Right and wrong must be clear and defined. At the same time, individual humans aren’t clear and defined. Bad actions can lead to good things, and good actions can lead to bad things. I’m sure we can all think of a bad experience that made us stronger people. Sin is always bad. People are always a combination of good and bad. I don’t think we should accept the bad actions people do. However, I do think we should try to understand why people do them and what results from them.

Conclusion – 2021

I started working on this essay way before the end of 2020, and I started reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind waaaaay before that. I didn’t intend on writing this at the end of the year, but here we are. All in all, this book made the world seem bigger and my own time feel shorter. For me, that means taking on a humbler position going into 2021. What does it mean for you?

[amozon28]

review below

“It’s foolproof,” the prince is fitting on a tricorne hat. “It’s fool-something,” Brad mutters. “It’s genius,” The prince is putting his hands on his hips and turning about in the mirror. “It’s an enormous complication to security,” Brad is leaning against the wall in the Prince’s quarters.

this entire interaction giving these meme vibes lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UODIbKWGADo

lol as a glasses wearer i know thats not how glasses work but its always hilarious when this happens in fiction. bookworm introvert prince needs glasses.

  The servant’s livery has fully activated the some-guyification of the prince. This is literally just some guy. It’s a perfect hide-in-plain-sight disguise.

“some-guyification” is an amazing term and i love it and it gave me a good giggle. and i love the idea of the king and queen wanting a polite way to identity similarly dressed servants from a distance without admitting to it lol.

“Which reminds me, Danvers asked if you were going to give his jacket back, because he really does like it—”

“It’s evidence, Brad! He’ll get it back when we get to the bottom of this!”

YEAH danvers its evidence!!!!! ok this is objectively funny but it makes more sense when its like the literal only tangiable evidence that she even existed besides the shoe, so fair princey boy

the prince not trusting the shoe. valid. shoe is sus as fuck

“We’ve only had the laws of physics… like… what, 100 years? 200 years?”

“Longer. I mean, Newton cribbed a lot of it from Ibn Al-Haytham so…”

“You really do read too much. Anyway, what I’m saying is, maybe there’s another rule we haven’t thought of, yet.”

Brad: FUCKING NEEEEEEERRD brad fighting the primal chad urge to shove the prince into locker

the king matchmade the hell out of that ball in the Prince’s absence, and a lot of the attendants at the ball had already been paired off in perfectly respectable courtships. So the list is actually significantly reduced already thanks to the king’s efforts.

the king continueing the be the MVP of this fic. king starts singing “youre welcome”

i find the little aside about Terrine hilarious. its so funny about what weird food/fashion trends happened thru history but especially in the upper class circles.

i know this is not the joke u were prob intending but all i can think about is that the prince and gabe accidentally creating a foot measuring system prob doesnt help his case in the going down in history as having a foot fetish XD

Amelia and Eunice should run away together, new headcanon.

ok but this quest to find cindy has lead the prince not only to venture out of his social bubble and actually socialize with ppl but also step out of his prince persona and see ppl when they arent putting on a persona and he finds that he actually is a lot more comfortable. which kind of shows that a lot of his hate for socializing is how fake it all is with his social status in the way. idk just interesting seeing the prince kind of going on this little side journey/revelation

The prince freezes. The girl’s whole family freezes. Brad freezes. Gabe is taking down notes, I don’t know what the fuck he’s writing down.

gabe started out just making foot size notes as part of his job but incidentally actually get really interested in the science of it all waaaaay more than the finding the girl drama the prince is going thru lol

i really like the open and frank conversation wine girl and the prince have, i can totally see them staying regular friends after this! and the wine girl also seeing cindy!

if not for this distinct feeling I got, that the girl who fits this slipper knew hurt more deeply than the girl crying right then would ever know.”

“I got that feeling too,” the prince says vacantly,

the prince walked into this house HOPING he was wrong about the bad vibes he got from cindy that night telling him something was WRONG. maybe he was just reading too much into it, or maybe he was being paranoid?!?!? maybe she just has a very messy fam she doesnt like to talk about but she does love a lot and that loves her. only or wine girl to verbalize the EXACT same concerning feelings he had as well. its like the worst kind of validation, like yeah ok hes not crazy or paranoid but he wishes he was wrong and the girl hes looking for wasnt in a horrible situation rn.

ok i didnt catch the frog prince ref until i started reading the comments on the post but i do like the inclusion of another fairytale giving the prince advice to follow his gut and his heart, even with hes being gaselit by the fae when appearances arent everything

“You could cut it with pig piss and they wouldn’t notice,” Brad shrugs.

“Brad!” Gabe barks.

....

“He means it’s the most you’ve done in like, five years,” Brad says, still chewing on flatbread, “Aside from the glassmaker thing, I guess.”

“BRAD,” Gabe says, exasperated.

this killed me XD!!!  I can see why Brad is the princes best friend since he doesnt care about the formality and just treats the prince like some guy (within reason). Gabe is hilarious

Mystery Girl would help these people. She’d make friends with girls like this. He keeps thinking of what she said when they were dancing. “I don’t like that, that’s fucked up!”  . . . he decides, in that moment, that he is going to do everything in his power to make sure they can live their best life. Because he’s the goddamn prince. And that’s his fucking job. And dream or not, that’s what Mystery Girl would do.

ok while i think the idea of changing yourself for the person you love in order to GET them to fall inlove with you is bad and inhealthy and wont work ultimately. I LOVE the trope of love transforming you for the better, not because your forcing urself to change for them, but rather loving the qualities in someone else makes you see the world in a different light and INSPIRES you to change, whether than be for the better or not, you see the person u love and u go, “wow thyre so amazing! i want to see/experience life how they do” and i just think thats so beautiful. its a tricky trope thats often not done well, but i love how you have done it!!!!

Cindy Part 9

As always, for all parts, refer to the masterpost.

-----

“It’s foolproof,” the prince is fitting on a tricorne hat.

“It’s fool-something,” Brad mutters.

“It’s genius,” The prince is putting his hands on his hips and turning about in the mirror.

“It’s an enormous complication to security,” Brad is leaning against the wall in the Prince’s quarters.

“You’re just mad because you didn’t think of it first,” The prince is trying on a spare pair of reading glasses he nicked from his father’s office and checks his reflection again. He blinks a few times at how much clearer his own image is. Shit, he may actually need a prescription.

“I didn’t think of it because it’s an enormous complication to security,” Brad frowns.

“But I pull it off, right?” The prince steps out from behind the peacock-printed folding screen in full servant’s livery. He’s not wrong. The servant’s livery has fully activated the some-guyification of the prince. This is literally just some guy. It’s a perfect hide-in-plain-sight disguise. I mean he still looks good because goddamn if the king and queen don’t have amazing taste when it comes to their servants’ livery, but this brightly colored fancy lil outfit with perfectly tailored piping and fancy white gloves is enough to heavily distract from the prince’s face. And of course there’s the hat. The king and queen allow for the servants to have a little fun with their hats, decorate them with a feather or maybe a little sprig of flowers or maybe a cute brooch. They say it’s a ‘fun’ thing but also it’s this whole thing where they feel really rude going ‘You there, boy!’ and it’s hard to tell who’s who from far away with the uniforms so the hat flair doubles as visual shorthand for who’s who. The prince has opted for a hawk feather he found on one of his rides and he thinks this is really cool. It’s only kinda cool. But still he really looks like a servant. Brad honestly wonders why the prince’s jumpy, antisocial ass didn’t try something like this sooner.

“You pull it off,” Brad concedes, “But I’m not entirely sure what you mean to accomplish by doing it.”

“Easy!” The prince throws his hands up, “I finally figured it out! All the staff talked about how she was helping them all night at the ball, right? That’s one of the reasons why she showed up so late and well after the master of ceremonies finished announcing everyone!”

“Uh huh…” Brad says slowly.

“So if I’m a servant, and she treats me like shit, I’ll know it’s not her!”

“And what if all the shoe candidates treat you perfectly pleasantly?”

“Well it’s more than that, she goes out of her way to help people! She.. she grabs lemons from the garden! She sews… flowers in buttons!”

“Which reminds me, Danvers asked if you were going to give his jacket back, because he really does like it—”

“It’s evidence, Brad! He’ll get it back when we get to the bottom of this!”

“And you think coming along to every house along with me, will help you do that.”

“I know I’m going to know her when I see her, I—I—I can feel it.”

“And because you don’t trust the shoe.”

“PEOPLE HAVE SIMILAR FOOT SIZES AND THE SHOE DOES NOT OBEY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. ”

“We’ve only had the laws of physics… like… what, 100 years? 200 years?”

“Longer. I mean, Newton cribbed a lot of it from Ibn Al-Haytham so…”

“You really do read too much. Anyway, what I’m saying is, maybe there’s another rule we haven’t thought of, yet.”

“And it chooses to manifest itself in a shoe?”

Brad makes an ‘I dunno sound.’ Brad is veering dangerously close to accidentally creating a new early theory of entropy before his brain manages to go, Wait the prince is tagging along for all of this and now I have to recalculate every house-casing for threats to the prince when he is not immediately recognizable as the prince. Do we leave a body-double at the palace? Goddammit I only have a couple hours to re-tool this entire fucking process.

The prince is looking at himself in the mirror again. He takes in a short huffing breath. “I think it’s definitely going to work.”

And for the most part it does.

Like, don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is still tedious as hell, but thankfully, a lot of ladies have been taken out of the running already, not by any previous shoe-related process of elimination from the Prince’s own investigations, but because, true to his word, the king matchmade the hell out of that ball in the Prince’s absence, and a lot of the attendants at the ball had already been paired off in perfectly respectable courtships. So the list is actually significantly reduced already thanks to the king’s efforts.

Still, plenty of the potential shoe-wearers don’t notice the prince any more than they notice their own furniture when they’re chatting up Brad and Gabe the valet. Sure, on a family scale, there are plenty of attempts at buttering up Gabe and Brad with tea and biscuits and fancy pickles and cold cuts, but thankfully Gabe is probably the biggest hard-ass in this story and is terrifyingly good at polite expediency, so the prince is just kind of watching Brad and Gabe speed-run through all these parents and their pretty daughters going, “Oh good sirs, welcome to our humble abode, won’t you have some terrine?” (a disturbing number of respectable families have been convinced that terrines and aspics are very fashionable and they’ll be the only ones cool and modern and cultured enough to offer it to the palace representatives—they are not.) But honestly… the prince is right. He can pretty much feel right off the bat, before the shoe is even tried on, if this isn’t the house—if that isn’t the girl.

They still try on the shoe, because obviously it’s a whole thing, and there’s this whole process about the whole thing. They measure the foot and take down the foot’s measurements on a fancy little table for future reference and research onto the properties of The Shoe that Defies All Measurement and Fitting (The prince thinks he’ll make a graph later… maybe a bell curve?? Mostly they just end up accidentally inventing those shoe-size carpets you see at shoe stores), but then the shoe doesn’t fit, and well… to be honest the reactions to the shoe not fitting turn out to be the most interesting parts of the whole thing.

“I’m having an allergic reaction. Foot’s just… swollen right up. This isn’t my usual foot size.”

“I’m really dehydrated. That’s why it’s clanking around like that. Let me get a couple of glasses of water and try again.”

“Mother? Would you have one of the maids get the lard tub?”

“Look! Behind you!” (Cue furious grunting of continuing to attempt to shove the shoe on when everyone turns around)

“Um… more cold cuts?”

“Oh thank god, this means I can join that convent.” (Cue a scandalized gasp and a furious splutter of “Amelia!” from a mother.)

And the thing is, you’d think your brain would end up glazing over all these house calls, especially when you’re looking for The Love Of Your Life. You’d think like… you’d get sick of it, get sick of people, but it turns out, when the Prince isn’t put at the epicenter of a weird ritualized glam-fest of girls competing for a chance to hop on his dick for status, when they aren’t even recognizing him as the prince, he’s actually seeing people in the context of their own homes. Like, sure, it’s definitely very appearances-minded from every family involved because they’re presenting their homes to representatives of the palace, but you pick up on vibes, you pick up on dynamics. It’s like Kitchen Nightmares: Bourgeoisie Household Edition. But also you see families that are trying to secure their futures, and girls who just want to do right by them.

There’s this one house, right? Beautiful estate—it’s on a hill all laced with vineyards and during the carriage ride there the prince is glancing at Gabe and he can tell Gabe is like, “God I hope this is the girl” partially out of exhaustion from this whole ordeal, partially because… yeah it’s a really nice estate and you wouldn’t mind sitting out on the veranda with a nice glass of chilled rosé. God Gabe wants a nice glass of chilled rosé right now. This house probably has the best snack spread yet with fancy toasted spiced nuts and sharp cheeses and olives and this really great flatbread stuff?? And the wine, holy shit, like… these families have been shoving forward black tea and lemonade and super sugary brandy to them all day, but now there’s a nice perfectly balanced white wine in these cute stemless glasses? And they’re even offering them to the prince, who, as far as they know, is a footman! Like after a day of all these families being really weird and desperate and stilted, the environment is just low-key and hospitable enough for both Brad and Gabe to be like, ‘God let this be Mystery Girl.’ And there’s this very wonderful family with loads of kids that are showing them around the estate with a very pretty eldest daughter, with bright green-brown eyes and big curly brown hair and a wide mouth that lends itself to charming expressions. And like… the prince is kind of thrown through a loop because the way this girl acts around her siblings… maybe it’s mystery girl? She’s kind of a mom, kind of an asshole when the mom can’t be, and all-around this peacemaker dealing with a messy but lovable family. Of course she wouldn’t talk about her family because family can be messy, right? Maybe all his thoughts of danger and peril and abuse for Mystery Girl sprang from him being so fucking removed from everything. Maybe he has no fucking good judgement of anything.

But then they try on the shoe.

And the shoe doesn’t fit.

And the girl’s mouth hitches and she’s just like, “…all right,” a little stiffly.

And you feel this collective crestfallen exhale from her parents and all her siblings. Like her next sister is only 11 and the sister after that is 8 so it’s like… yeah… all their hopes were resting on the eldest.

“You… you can take some of the flatbread with you, if you like, sirs,” the mother pipes up.

“I’m sorry,” the girl cuts in, “For… for wasting your time.”

“It’s fine,” the prince suddenly steps forward from his spot next to the door.

The girl instinctively springs to her feet and curtsies. “Your highness,” she says with a bow of her head.

The prince freezes. The girl’s whole family freezes. Brad freezes. Gabe is taking down notes, I don’t know what the fuck he’s writing down.

“…you knew?” The prince says slowly.

The girl looks at her family and draws herself up straight. “May we have the room?”

The parents very quickly herd all of the siblings out of the room. The prince gives an ‘It’s okay’ wave of his hand to Brad and Gabe and they back out as well. Not too far so they can’t spring into action if anything funny happens, but enough for a bit of discretion.

“I was three feet in front of you. Did… other girls not recognize you?” the girl asks.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve either got amazing poker faces or you’re the first.”

The girl gives an amused ‘Hmph’ and eases up where she’s standing a little. “I think… I should also apologize. I mean, yes I wanted to marry you, but I didn’t really care about… well… you… or my qualifications as queen, mostly I just wanted to…” the girl draws a breath through her teeth, “There was a drought a few years back and it threw our wine’s taste off and we had to raise our prices to cover the water cost. We lost a lot of customers and a lot of favor with the noble families that would usually be our patrons. Our wine’s better now, if anything, the acidity of the grapes that survived the drought lent to a better complexity of flavor with the new grapes, but… It turns out… a reputation is not as easily rebuilt as a vineyard is regrown.”

“You were trying to protect the people you love,” the prince shrugs.

The girl pushes her brown curls back from her face and looks down. “Big feet… great for crushing grapes…fitting into slippers.. not so much.”

“Mm,” the prince takes off his tricorn hat and itches at the back of his head, “You could… try it on again?”

“What?” The girl tilts her head.

“The slipper it’s like… it’s not a normal shoe. I’ve had glassmakers all over the country look at it. We’re mostly doing the foot-measurement thing to see if there’s any pattern, but like… so far? On a data-scale? Foot size is completely irrelevant. Maybe you just need to… try again?”

“It’s not me,” the girl clasps her hands in front of herself, that wide mouth quirking off to one side.

“How do you know?”

“Because I was looking at you the moment you saw her. The girl at the hors d’oeuvres table, right?”

“Do you remember what she looked like?” The prince asks on reflex, his voice denser and more desperate than he really means to sound but holy shit, a flicker of hope?

“No,” the girl replies and the prince’s shoulders sink, “I'm sorry. I really wish I could. But I saw her a while before, in the powder room. Another one of the girls was crying, some drama with her cousin or something, and.. and this girl, the girl you’re looking for, she was… holding her hands and fixing her hair, and helping dab away the smudges in her makeup, and she was saying, ‘It’s okay, you’re so pretty and brave. And this is going to be a wonderful night, I promise you, I promise you. Even if everything seems horrible now, you’re in this beautiful place. And you’re going to dance and laugh and you don’t have to let everything that hurt you take this night away.’ Just… I don’t think I would have remembered it, if not for this distinct feeling I got, that the girl who fits this slipper knew hurt more deeply than the girl crying right then would ever know.”

“I got that feeling too,” the prince says vacantly, “I mean—I wasn’t in the powder room—”

“I know, your highness.” The girl shrugs, she exhales. “I wish you all the luck in finding her.” She huffs a little. “If I may speak freely?”

“You may,” the prince replies.

“My family has this one super old story—something about a gold ball and a pond or something? But—when she’d finish the story, my grandma would tell me this: sometimes… a situation is well out of our understanding, and if that’s the case, we have to remember that appearances aren’t everything, that you have to trust your heart and your gut, and you should keep an eye out for the people who care for others at their lowest moments. Even if everyone else thinks they’re gross.”

“Like rats…?” The prince says absently.

“Rats?” The girl shudders hard. And that shudder tells the prince, ‘Nope. Definitely not mystery girl.’ “With their freaky little… clawed people-hands? Eugh. No. I was thinking… more like frogs?”

“Frogs have people hands,” the prince says vaguely.

“Frogs’ hands are webbed with four fingers. There’s a difference,” the girl rolls her eyes.

“Your highness?” Gabe sticks his head in the doorway, “I don’t mean to rush you, but…”

“Oh—” The prince glances back at the girl, “Er—thank you again for your hospitality.” He bows.

She curtsies in turn. “I hope you find her, your highness.”

“Thank you,” the prince replies.

“And once you find her.. if you need wine for the wedding…” the girl gestures vaguely and the prince snorts.

“We’ll be in touch,” he says, before stepping out with Brad and Gabe.

—-

“I’ll be honest, your highness, I’d really hoped it was her,” Gabe mutters, still taking notes in the carriage as the family waves them off.

“Brad? The palace provides wine for the castle guards, right?” The prince glances over at Brad.

“Mm-hmm,” Brad is munching on some flatbread. I mean the lady of the house said they could take some.

“And… I wouldn’t say they’re picky, are they?” The Prince tilts his head.

“You could cut it with pig piss and they wouldn’t notice,” Brad shrugs.

“Brad!” Gabe barks.

“I mean… no, your highness.”

“Let’s… order a few casks from this vineyard to have on tap at the palace?” The prince suggests, "And a few more casks for free access to the public at the harvest festival this year."

“A wise decision, your highness,” Gabe says, taking notes, “And a bold bit of proactivity, if I do say so myself.”

“It’s not that bold, I mean it’s good wine, we all tasted it,” the Prince mutters.

“He means it’s the most you’ve done in like, five years,” Brad says, still chewing on flatbread, “Aside from the glassmaker thing, I guess.”

“BRAD,” Gabe says, exasperated.

The prince just leans his head against the glass of the carriage window. “So how many more houses today?” He asks.

“Two more and then back to the palace to recap?” Gabe suggests.

The prince draws in a long tired breath. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s do this,” he says.

He keeps thinking of mystery girl while he’s seeing these families, but it’s not 100% this doomed yearning he’s been going through like in the previous days of his investigation—Mystery Girl would help these people. She’d make friends with girls like this. He keeps thinking of what she said when they were dancing. “I don’t like that, that’s fucked up!” And like… it’s really something to see these carefully laid out social dynamics actively poking and prodding these people into this weird ass situation. Like he has such a love-hate relationship with the shoe at this point, but he’s weirdly thankful for it, because it just seems to… disrupt every human preconception and every social construct it comes in contact with. It brings out a weird and authentic side of people, just as much as it refuses to fit, the crazy royalty-high stakes of the situation bring out this realization that people have so much different stuff going on.

That used to be so exhausting for him. Figuring out what’s going on with people, keeping it all lined up, helping where he can. It’s still exhausting, but the exhaustion doesn’t hit quite the same. He hits the mattress that night and he dreams… not of mystery girl… not quite. He’s chasing this ideal of a person but crashing into how people are over and over again. So this person he sees in his dream, he’s not sure it’s mystery girl, but it doesn’t matter if it’s mystery girl. It’s a bitter, complicated, stupid, selfish, awkward person, and he decides, in that moment, that he is going to do everything in his power to make sure they can live their best life.

Because he’s the goddamn prince. And that’s his fucking job. And dream or not, that's what Mystery Girl would do.

And just a few feet away from his pillow, that damn glass slipper is glittering on a pedestal in the moonlight.

[laceyeb]

DWTS Season 27 Week 1 Recap

**DISCLAIMER: This will obnoxiously be at the beginning of every recap, so feel free to skip over it when you no longer care. I started writing these recaps for my mom way back in season 9 after I went to college and we weren’t watching together anymore. I love sharing them with you, but keep in mind that tumblr is not my intended audience as I write. So if you are confused about anything or have any questions, feel free to always ask and I can try to clear it up for you! Happy reading! :)

OMG I’M SO EXCITED!!! I feel like there’s a lot of them I’m excited for, but all I really care about is Bobby and Sharna. Some of the scores seems unnecessarily low tonight, but we probably say that a lot on the first night. Plus they have to dance again tomorrow night!

Mary Lou and Sasha - 6,7,6 - cha cha

I probably care about them the least, so at least we’re getting them out of the way. Score seems like it’s probably reasonable. It’s interesting that their 7 is from Len. I’m curious how long she’ll last. My internet wasn’t working so I was dealing with that and ignoring the dance. Internet is fine now. I guess I’ll watch her other dance tomorrow and decide what I think of her then.

Milo and Witney - 7,6,7 - cha cha

I’m actually really excited for them! I’ve been checking out their instagram posts because I’m hip and I think he might be the most excited out of everyone! He’s too cute! I’m pretty sure he’s only like 17 and I’m really impressed by how dedicated he already seems to be. I don’t like Witney very often, but I might like her this season with him. I’m curious what kind of fan base he has. Might not be very popular with this demographic. Omg he can dance! I think people are really going to like him. He’s so adorable and he can actually move! I was super impressed! I can’t wait to see how he improves! Big fan!!! I think what I love most about him is that he’s all in and he’s so happy to be there. I love that! He’s just so cute and so happy. I’m so excited!!!

Evanna and Keo - 7,5,6 - foxtrot

I’m super curious to see their dance with that low score! I expected her to be really good and I’m really surprised! They’re another couple I’m really looking forward to though. Of course I know her, but I think she’s less well known than I realized. Plus Keo is not the most popular pro, even though I love him! I thought maybe Len’s score would make more sense after I watched the dance, but I was wrong. I have no clue what he was watching. His only criticism was “this dance didn’t really suit you.” How is that a 5?! I thought she was pretty good. Keo outshined her a little, but that’s Keo’s fault. Not hers. Obviously I really like her. I hope she sticks around for a while.

Danelle and Artem - 6,6,6 - foxtrot

I’ve only heard amazing things about them so far and I’m excited! In all the interviews I’ve watched so far, I’ve really liked her. I can’t wait to see what they can do. It sounds like Artem is a really good partner for her. I was right! OMG! I was doubting Artem just a little bit, but he is so great for her! You can see how he takes care of her and protects her and it’s amazing to see the way he has adapted his own teaching to work with her. Amazing! The dance was just ok. The score was reasonable, but I don’t even really care. I just loved seeing her dance. And the two of them together. Great partnership.

Bobby and Sharna - 7,6,7 - jive

Opposite of what I thought about Evanna, I think he’s waaaaay more popular than I realized! And if he’s not yet, he will be. I’m only hearing good things so far about them too! I get the impression his technique needs a little work, but people are loving him. I’m so glad!!! Could this finally be the season?!?!?! I’ve been seeing a lot of country singers commenting on his posts. (Lauren Alaina, Brett Eldredge, Locash, Walker Hayes, Jana Kramer, etc.) Very cool! OMG! Make sure you go back and watch him! He is so much fun! I’ve been following him pretty close since the cast announcement and he is working so hard and he’s so dedicated. I think you’ll figure that out pretty quick once you see him! That was the most energetic jive I’ve ever seen! Just wait until you see it! VOTE!!!

Juan Pablo and Cheryl - 7,7,8 - salsa

I wish they would go back to all couples doing one of two different dances in the first week. Like I think it used to be cha cha and foxtrot week 1 and that was it. I wonder how he would have done with something other than salsa and if he’s really as good as he seems. He’s not my favorite and I don’t usually get too excited about Cheryl, so I guess maybe I’m just not that invested. Omg I’m still all stressed out from Bobby and Sharna. He’s very good! And him and Cheryl seem to be a great partnership. I like it so far. They’re not my favorites, but he could definitely grow on me.

Nikki and Gleb - 6,5,6 - salsa

I think she probably would have been better off with something like foxtrot week 1. Plus she’s also been injured the last couple days. Something in her back. They’ll probably mention it on the show. I’m definitely disappointed in her scores because I like her a lot. I don’t think her dance was too bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible. Bruno said, “It wasn’t a trainwreck.” I guess that’s good! I’m worried she could be the first to go tomorrow night. You know there’s an episode tomorrow night, right?! Apparently everyone is doing the same dance style again. I don’t know why. That seems weird. I’ve followed her a lot since the cast announcement and I really like her a lot. This whole experience means more to her than I think we’re ever going to get to see, so I’d hate to see her go first.

Alexis and Alan - 7,7,7 - jive

Another couple I’m excited about! I had never heard of her before the cast announcement because her claim to fame is “You might know me from social media,” but I actually really really like her! She seems relatively normal and pleasant and enjoyable and Alan is the perfect partner for her. Decent scores. Seems like a good start! I already liked them and they didn’t disappoint! She definitely has some moves and I’m happy to see how normal and personable she seems to be. I hope she can gain some fans and votes. Alan is the absolute perfect partner for her!

John and Emma - 7,5,6 - foxtrot

There’s no way they should have the same score as Evanna and Keo. Unless Evanna really wasn’t great. But it just does not seem reasonable. We’ll see. I don’t have a whole lot of interest in them and I don’t expect them to last too long, but I don’t know much about his popularity. I fell behind and didn’t pay attention to this one.

Tinashe and Brandon - 8,7,8 - jive

I definitely don’t have any interest in them either, but I’m not too surprised she got such a high score. I’m curious to see what Brandon will be like as a pro. Seems like he got a pretty skilled partner for his first season. I’ve never heard of her so I don’t know if she’s well known. Lo knew exactly who she was when I said her name like they’re BFFs or something. She’s very good, which I figured seeing her scores. I actually liked them a lot more than I thought I would. I think she was probably the best one so far, but still not my favorite to watch. I’ll have to see yet how they compare to DeMarcus and Lindsay.

Nancy and Val - 6,6,6 - quickstep

She seems pleasant enough and I’m sure Val will do well with her, but I definitely have some others I’m more excited about. She’ll stick around a while just because she has Val and he’ll get her as far as he can. She was ok. It was a pretty standard week 1 dance. I was thinking that she looked a little wobbly (Bruno said that too) and she didn’t look totally confident, but it is week 1 after all. I don’t know if I’ll ever really care too much about them. I have some bigger priorities.

Joe and Jenna - 5,4,5 - quickstep

Those scores! Poor guy! I didn’t expect him to be great. But I was hoping for better than that. I’m sure both him and Jenna are popular enough to last at least a couple weeks. Hopefully. I’d like to see him have a chance. I had heard of him before the show, but I didn’t watch this past season of the Bachelorette (and I think he was on Bachelor in Paradise which I definitely don’t watch), so all I know is what I’ve seen since the cast announcement. I like him! Hope he has a chance to improve! It wasn’t terrible! It wasn’t good, but we’ve seen worse. The 4 was a little unnecessary. He’s not going anywhere for at least a couple weeks though.

DeMarcus and Lindsay - 8,7,8 - cha cha

I haven’t given them much thought surprisingly. I hadn’t heard of him. Why are there never football players that I actually know?! Sounds like he was really good and the scores show that. Lindsay will be a good partner for him. They’ll be around for quite a while. Probably in the finale. Wow! I was really impressed by him! I would have expected him to be good, but he really sold it. They’re going to go very far just like I thought.

I think I liked too many couples to list my favorites. Since someone gets eliminated tomorrow, I’m going to sadly predict Nikki and Gleb. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be Mary Lou and Sasha.

[dianapana]

Car trouble

Hey guys LOOOOONG time no see but i do have good excused:

1. I just graduated high school this friday (YAY ME) so i was stressed out with the end of the year, with prom and all that.

2. At the end of june i’ll have my BAC exams which is kinda like the SAT i think

3. a few sad things happened here, one of my classmates passed in a tragic accident and we had a lot of things to tend to about this topic too...

4. I have no found any inspiration what so ever. But i felt so bad i haven’t written in so long so i just searched ‘prompts’ on goole and there was one ‘hitchhiker’ so idk i just wrote this. i did not re-read it so there are probably many mistakes but it’s longer than i intended it to be and it’s 1 and half a.m. and we still go to school for BAC preparations so yeaaa i’m not really free yet.

Either waaaaay, i hope you enjoy. Love Dia ~~

To say the least she was having a shitty day. Her father would freak, her cousin would shake his head in disappointment and her sister would roll her eyes at her because she did it again, she pulled a ‘Hinata’. Yep they started using her name as a subject that meant a mistake, somehow she was the one that always messed things up.

Last night when Hinata talked with Neji and he specifically asked her if she had the car checked she said she did, despite that being a lie. She meant to take it to the mechanic but didn’t have time or when she did she forgot all about the 4 wheels piece of trash that failed her. The car started letting black fumes about an hour or so ago, but she kept pushing it either way, praying that it would get her the rest of the way to Suna, where she’d stop for the night before continuing towards Konoha. She was 3 hours away from Suna and about 8 from Konoha. There was no way her car would hold up.

The Hyuuga family was having a Family gathering for the summer. Everyone was going to be there, including her grandfather who was happily retired and moved to Hokkaido a couple of years ago. They were all supposed to arrive that following day so Monday morning the family activities to start, bright and early. She made plans to go to the beach as soon as she arrived with Neji and Hanabi.

Hinata contemplated calling Neji but her stubbornness stopped her from doing so. She’d find a way to fix this on her own. She remembered her mother telling her what to do in this situation, Hikari left ‘to find herself’ when she was 12. Her mother always send her postcards from exotic places she visits, she knows a lot about the world as a traveler so her advice must be of some use. Hinata poped up the hood and looked at the engine in deep thought, as her mother told her to, because someone was bound to stop and help her…right? It was summer so the sun was still up and would be for another couple of hours, maybe more, nothing bad was going to happen to her.

About 20 minutes and a number of cars passed before an older blue truck stopped behind her car. A man in his late 30s mid 40s got out and with a sickening grin on his face started walking towards her. Hinata rethought the ‘I’m save’ argument she made before and wasn’t so sure anymore. As the older male made his way towards her she got the chills from the way he looked at her.

“Aye little lady, car trouble?”

“N-no…my friend is on his way to pick me up. No trouble at all”

She’d much rather stay on side of the road for the night than accept help from that creeper. Her mention of a friend didn’t stop him from moving closer, much too close for her liking.

“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t stay here all alone. I’ll wait with you for your friend, how about that?”

He smiled down at her with anything but pure intentions, Hinata took a step back and before she had the chance to decline another car stopped. This one was a black sport car of some sorts. It looked pretty expensive.

Hinata almost cried when she saw who was driving, Sasuke. The two of them weren’t friends per say but they knew each other. The Uchiha male got out and glared at the old pervert.

“Hinata, sorry I’m late. Get in”

She only smiled at him and ran around her car to get to his so she wouldn’t have to pass by the man. She didn’t even stop to get the things from her car, she didn’t stop by Sasuke to thank him or anything she just opened the passenger door and got in. Sasuke opened the driver door and leaned in.

“Give me your keys. I’ll close the hood.”

“S-sasuke, I also have a few bags in my truck…c-could you please get them as well”

“Hn” The raven haired boy closed his door and locked the car just in case before going towards hers. He passed by the pervert and closed the hood loud enough to startle the man giving him a nasty look. The man cursed under his breath and went back to his blue truck, but not before looking back at Hinata. After the danger was over Hinata thought Sasuke would leave her there and she panicked for a few moments but soon enough Sasuke returned with all her bags and put them on his back seat.

“Here’s your key”

“Thank you…for helping me out”

He only nodded before starting the car again and leaving. Sasuke had no music playing but as soon as they got on the highway he pressed a few buttons and the top of the car disappeared. Hinata had never been in a convertible before but she was loving the wind in her hair especially in such a torrid day.

“You shouldn’t be out alone, dressed like that on some unknown roads. A lot of creepers swarm around. It’s not safe”

Only when he pointed out did she realize she had on her beach attire, short white shorts and a lavender see-though shirt over her black bikini, she had her hair in two buns like TenTen used to do them because she couldn’t stand the hot and humid air. Her cheeks reddened releasing what Sasuke must think about her.

“Y-you’re right. It’s just really hot and I planned to go to the beach as soon as I reached Suna.”

“At this hour?” He finally looked at her, but only for a split second.

“Yes…I have a few friends there and I wanted to see the Suna beach. I hadn’t had a chance to go for the past few years and it was on the way. I remember it being a lot nicer than the one in Konoha, the sand is white and so smooth, not pebbles or broken seashells around to step on. And the water is so clear and not very deep so it’s much safer, also I haven’t seen this friend in a long time and he--”

Hinata stopped abruptly, she was rambling, Sasuke always did make her nervous, he had this aloof vibe like he was bored and she hated feeling like a bore. She bit her lip and looked out the window trying to calm down her nerves.

“What about the friend? What did he do?”

He asked her with amusement. Hinata turned towards him with a puzzled expression.

“You stopped. You were about to say something about your friend from Suna”

“Oh…H-he was supposed to go to Knonoha too for the gathering I’m going to but he was too busy so I thought maybe going to the beach this late won’t be during his work hours and he’ll relax a bit”

“I see.” The Uchiha nodded and silence fell once again. Hinata was very grateful for the ride he was giving her but felt a little uncomfortable with the quiet. “You were supposed to drive to Konoha.”

His observation took her by surprise but she nodded slowly.

“Yea, that won’t happen. I’m also going to Konoha so I can drive you, but I don’t indent on stopping by Suna, I want to be in Konoha by Sunday. If you’re fine with this I don’t mind”

She thought about it for a moment. There were little to none chance to find someone she knew who went to Konoha tomorrow, despite the silence she’d much rather be in a car with Sasuke.

“Ok, I’d like a ride, if you’re really fine with it” he nodded and Hinata hurried to say “Of course I’ll pay for half of the gas” Sasuke opened his mouth to deny her offer but decided against it, he knew how Hyuugas were, they hated being in debt to someone.

XXX

They reached Suna 2 hours later, Hinata called Gaara to tell him she wasn’t going to stop by anymore and she also told him about her car and send a pic of the place. Garra promised to send Kankuro to retrieve her car and take it to the mechanic so by the time she came she’d be able to drive it home.

About half an hour later they stopped for gas and as she promised Hinata payed for half the gas and also brought snacks and a few drinks. She was in front of a CD rack when Sasuke returned from the bathroom.

“What kind of music do you like?” She asked him still eyeing the CDs. There were a few decent ones, Adele, AC/DC, The Beatles. Sasuke looked for a few moments too and picked up one.

“You like Queen.” Hinata smiled up at him. They were also one of her favorite bands.

“Hn” he purchased the CD in spite of her insistence to pay for it. “I’ll be the one to keep it so it’s only fair I pay” He told her and the discussion ended. Strangely the Cd wasn’t as needed anymore since a light conversation started between the two of them.

“I bought some onigiri with tomatoes and a few hot chilly chips for you. Is that ok? And lime iced tea”

Sasuke rose a brow and did a double take, she had indeed brought those, for him.

“Yea, those are actually my favourites…”

“O-oh, umm…y-yea I know. I remember seeing you eat them during high school”

“Oh, I see.”

He was a bit perplex that she remembered what kind of snacks he liked in high school when he could barely remember if she still had short hair then or she had grown then. He knew she made the change when he was still present but couldn’t for the life of him remember if it was during high school or university.

“I-I didn’t mean to intrude, I’m sorry. I just used to go with Sakura-chan and Ino-chan when we bought snacks for all of us when the basketball season was in full swing and you had lunch in the gym”

Now that he thought of it she was right. The girls bought them lunch on multiple occasions when Kakashi and Gai were rough on them. The guys also brought girls hot chocolate/coffee/tea during winter so they didn’t have to get out in the cold wearing skirts. If the school thought putting on tights would make the freezing cold go away they were wrong.

“I remember. Also we bought you drinks. You liked cinnamon coffee or hot chocolate. Sometimes tea when it rained rather than snowed”

She laughed. It was strange how many details they knew about each other despite not really knowing each other. They grew up in the proximity of the other and without even meaning to learnt a lot.

Hinata knew Sasuke hated sweets, he had a kick for spicy food and tomatoes. He had a really high tolerance of alcohol, everything he owned was either black, dark blue or dark red. He had had the same hair style his whole life, he loved math and gym but couldn’t stand Japanese lit, either way he had the second highest grade after Shikamaru. He always seemed to be in a shitty mood when it rained and he hated the cold, he’d much rather be hot all the time. For some reasons he never ate/drank anything with almonds/almond milk. He loved to drive, out of everyone of them he got first his driving license and you’d see him just drive around on multiple occasions. He had a tongue piercing when he was 17 that all the girls thought was ‘so fucking hot’ and he has the dates of his parents and Itachi’s birth and death tattooed on his left shoulder. He used to have a snake pet when he was small but he lost it and one of his aunts killed it.

Sasuke knew Hinata loved reading fantasy books, she always had a few in her bag pack, her favorite color was lavender and she also loved the plant, her room smelled of it. She put cinnamon on anything she could and after a terrible day or week she’d eat half a dozen of cinnamon buns and wash them with berry tea. She fell in love with make-up at the end of 10th grade didn’t feel confident enough to wear it at school until university, when is also when she changed her hairstyle. He remembered that now as well. She never got her driving license in university, but apparently she got it after. During middle school she had to wear glasses but after 2 years her father payed for eye surgery so she needn’t use them, either way she still wore them now and then on days she felt bad about herself. Ino was her best friend during school and from what he knew still was. She was an excellent cook and loved to bake, on valentine day she brought everyone chocolates, even him and his were always dark so he’d eat them and most of the time he did.

They talked about the things they knew and things they didn’t, they were both reserved people but the conversation was comfortable enough for the two of them. They stopped twice more for bathroom breaks and another time so Sasuke could stretch and rest a few minutes.

“I never really thought of you as a close friend, but I’m surprised by how well we know each other” Hinata admitted. She also got out of the car to walk around a bit, her legs were starting to cramp.

“I know what you mean…” Hinata looked at the Uchiha male, she never meant to pay this close attention to him, but she did anyway. They didn’t keep in touch after University, but their conversation felt like one with n old good friend. They never did talk like that before.

“We’re getting close to Konoha” Sasuke said. They were indeed, only about an hour or so until their road trip together would end.

“When are you going back home?” Hinata asked despite knowing she could ride back to Suna with Neji since he was going back to Gaara.

“Next Monday morning I’m leaving. What about you?”

“Oh…I’ll stay for two weeks…”

Without meaning to they both felt disappointed that they wouldn’t return together.

“I see. Well it was a stretch that we’d go back on the same day…”

The two got back in the car and resumed the road, the rest of the road was quiet, but not the uncomfortable kind, rather the deep-in-thought kind.

“Well we can always meet up during the week we’re both in Konoha” Sasuke suggested and the Hyuuga girl smiled at him.

“Of course, we can. Also i-if you’re fine with it we can talk on the phone even after we both go back home. Where do you live now?”

“Kiri. You?”

Hinata started laughing.

“I live in Kiri too.”

“Really now?” the two looked at each other and smiled. They reached Konoha but it didn’t feel like the end of the road, but rather the beginning.

[chibalein]

Kalafina Live Review - 10th Anniversary

Finally it’s available and I watched the whole 10th Anniversary Live (again and again), so I thought I’d give a review on it. Here is my original Live Report -> click. My opinions didn’t really change much, though, so I’ll be repeating myself here and there :p Here we go!

Ring your bell ~ in the silence

I love that intro, especially with those flags opening

other than that, boring entrance -> the 9+ONE intro would have PERFECT for that occasion

Ring your bell

fuck that song

However, I like the performance, surely one of their best, I love their bright smiles and movements

 BUT it gave me reminder of why I don’t like this song: the final “ring your bell”s, Wakana always makes me cringe

Quick opinion: I really came to hate Keiko’s dress. Not the colors or the golden/black pattern, that’s pretty cool: it’s those lace shoulder pads and the leather corsage. They make her chest area look super bulky and the chest part of the dress is not form-fitting at all. She has such a beautiful body but this dress just doesn’t support it.

Mirai

Fuck that sooong and everyone who voted for it

But even I have to say, I have a lot of fun watching them perform, they move around, interact with the audience, it’s lovely and more carefree

Lirica

Definitely one highlight of the night

I realized for the first time that the Strings are actually plucking their instruments lol I thought it was a background sound by the manipulator

I barely hear Hikaru in the chorus, is she singing high or low? xD

Keiko is the best here, so deep and dramatic!

Booooring stage show. No movements by the girls is one thing, but no special light show or anything? They could have been so creative with this dark piece..

Manten

OMG some choreography

Wakana is greeeeeat

Yane no mukou ni

First performance where I almost cried during the actual live, perfect and emotional

Still don’t like Hikaru here, she sounds like she is shouting which kills all emotions she might have had while singing

Cool plucking violins at the end, never noticed they do this

Hikari no senritsu

overplaaaayed

OMG light dude, DO SOMETHING

Best flute solo of all time

Quick opinion: all the performances where I criticise the lack of creativity, movement etc. look actually great on the DVD, because we have the cameras. Changing angles, focus on each girl, their faces, the audience and the band give variety and it makes it look a lot more interesting. But sitting in the actual audience is absolutely tiring, because there is just nothing happening on stage. It’s just like you listen to a CD, especially if you had a seat in the far back and could only rely on the screen. Such a shame and waste.

Storia

oh god no

their steps in the middle part are all over the place XD

fun and good performance

Quick opinion: almost all songs by now have been completely or partly illuminated in blue light. Uncreative? Yes.

Natsu no Ringo

Hikaru again sounds strange and shouting, she definitely was edited

Other than that super beautiful performance, Wakana was in top form that night

Serenato

Another big highlight, one of the best performances Kalafina ever did

Actually a nice, refreshing intro by the accordion, but I personally find it kinda dominant throughout the song, which was a bit distracting and which I didn’t really feel in the actual live

ARIA

Hikaru sings lower and I like it a lot, although they definitely enhanced her voice to sound a bit “prettier”

she did such an emotional and sad performance, you could see that is not struggling as hard as e.g. in Red Day

Sprinter

that Keiko hug

finally some action on stage and interaction with fans!

super fun to watch and OMG Keiko is using the pedestal

Oblivious

still bad place in the setlist

great AMV and surely also a highlight, sadly this is the only special treatment for their debut song, should have been celebrated more

Poor Hikaru gets always ignored during WaKei duet lol

Kizuato

Great performance, I adore that song

Keiko’s voice a bit too cute for me here

Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaeteyuku

Keiko’s stupid cutesy voice

Very emotional and those sad faces at the end kill me every time

I just realized that they have sung all Kara no Kyoukai songs in a row XD

Quick opinion: It’s like they only have red, white and green filters, all while the light technician’s finger is apparently stuck on the blue light button. This is BUDOKAN! This is ALL you can deliver?!

Kantankatan

I honestly wonder why this song made it into the setlist. Hyakka Ryouran sure, being their most recent single, but why this B-side song (and e.g. why not Tombo?). Since fans couldn’t vote for it, it makes me think that the girls just really love this song and wanted it included in their last recorded live performance.

Wakana is simply perfect, Hikaru... well... she’s there. Where has her “neverending” voice gone to?

Where is the second violin dude? Toilet break?

This song becomes so much better when the Strings join in the last part

Symphonia

I still hate Keiko’s dress

omg girls, please move around or something

good and nice performance

Red Moon

finally SOME DARK SONG and finally something for the eye with the video

Hikaru still sounds kinda weak, but during the actual live she was barely audible, so I guess that’s a plus here

Keiko is amazing, you can hear her so clearly! Wakana too! Epic performance

Waaaaay too much blue for a song called Red Moon

Adore

Flashback to After Eden with Red Moon -> Adore xD

Wakana is suuuper!

What the hell is wrong with you Hikaru? What happened after After Eden? She’s sooo shouty, this is definitely her weakest performance of the night

Great violin solo

OMG they use the pedestals FOR THE FIRST TIME and they use it for GODDAMN 12 SECONDS

And I noticed they actually played some video -> good!

To the beginning

finally after way too long, an upbeat song since Sprinter (which is 6 songs ago)

It took me years to realize that they sing “down to zero we go”, however Hikaru sounds suuuper strange singing that line

finally some light action, took you long enough, eh

That Keiko punch at the end xD Not enough of those cool shots

Progressive

YEAH SOME REAL ACTION

also one of the best performances of the night, I love Keiko here, she’s moving so much and having so much fun, it’s infectious

Hikaru killed it and that very last line is awesome

Ongaku

Aaaaw that hug in the beginning

of course, Ongaku is a must, I still think this would have been a better entrance or encore song

look at this power, fantastic

those band solos are the best thing of the whole concert, honestly I love them so hard

however, accordion solo is so out of place and unnecessary beyond belief

Bongo duuuuuuude, LOOK AT HIS FACE I can’t even xD

KONNO HITOSHI VIOLIN EPICNESS!!!!!!! With great justice he got the best reaction from the audience

They edited that Keiko jump/hug, it took her much longer to reach Wakana xD

The interaction between the girls is gorgeous, something we have been missing overall a bit

they included the flute at the end too, very nice (I suppose the accordion too, but fuck that)

that was the best Ongaku performance they ever did

Heavenly Blue

they still should have gone to MC after Ongaku

other than that, good performance I guess

Into the World

well hello there blue filter, it’s been a while

is it just me or has Keiko been made more dominant than she is supposed to be in the beginning?

Nightmare Ballet

come one, at least do that Zaregoto BGM THAT SOME ASSHOLE CUT FROM 9+ONE!

Great intro by accordion though, her duet with Sakurada is so cute

I feel I should take that blue spotlights to a date by now, because I have spent more time with them today than with my boyfriend

Great performance by the band, though too late into the concert in my opinion

Hikari Furu

best performance of this song of all time

Wakana kills it so hard, I feel bad for the others

fantastic mix of normal and acoustic version

that epic pause, THAT EPIC PAUSE

Quick opinion: I am not the biggest fan of those white “wedding” dresses. While their “final” version is pretty cool, I don’t like the veils, simply because they serve no purpose, especially since they’ll be thrown away immediately afterwards.

Hyakka Ryouran

nice flute intro

Red-Blue-Red-Blue-Red-Blue FUCK YOU

Ah, that middle HiKei dance, now you finally can see what I was talking about in my live reports. Wakana would have been better standing on the middle stairs though... #needless nitpicking

the flags are waving, that’s admittedly pretty cool

great performance of everyone, good that this song made it into the setlist

Alleluia

this doesn’t have many live recordings I think, so I am really glad that Alleluia made it as the last and most popular song of the night

definitely a marvellous farewell song for Keiko

look how powerful she sings, she knew this was her last big performance and she delivered

- Why is the manipulator celebrated to heavily? Is he particularly popular or something? XD

- Ehm, Wakana’s dress are actually pants? Do I have that correct? XD

- They should have thrown in “snow falling” as a surprise encore, just for the joke

-------------------------------

+ the musicians brought in so much variety and creativity even in highly overplayed songs, they made this truly a special concert

+ very good camera work, some great and cute shots and not so many cuts like in 9+ONE for example

- apparently an intern did the lighting here, I can’t explain this amateur work otherwise

- it’s a pity that there wasn’t any extra content included like some kind of Making Of or something on the Commemoration Lives. Sure, they reserved it for the movie, but still, at least something would have been nice

I really love this Live, although I had a lot of criticism. Kalafina delivered and they gave some of their best performances of their career. It was worth it all and it’s simply sad that this is their last concert. They deserved better treatment for this and it should have been even more special, with more effort and creativity by the staff/the agency.

Oops, that became longer than intended, sorry! Thanks for reading!

[bittersweetmigraine]

I hate liars. (chapter 2)

Author’s note: first of all, finally decided on a face for our villain and he is the actor Dong Ha (whose real name is Hyungyu and I know he’s not actually petite but I wanted him to be so yeah). His portrayal of a psychopath in Suspicious Partner was so chilling, he’s the first one that came to mind. Hope you’re not disappointed with that. second, I might have gone slightly overboard. This is waaaaay longer than the first chapter and idk whether this is the kind of lengthy chapter you’d like or whether shorter ones would be better. Please let me know! Other than that, I hope you enjoy~

Genre: mafia!AU, very graphic imagery, attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, mention of rape (if you’re not comfortable with any of those themes, please do not read) // female mc

Word count: 5147.

Summary: You never really knew how your father got involved in a gang but you knew what he did for a living, for the most part. When a rival gang comes to get what they’re due and your father refuses, everything turns to horror.

chapter one • chapter three

The whole ride to their HQ was a complete blur. You vaguely remember the tall blonde-haired man lifting you up into his arms and bringing you over to a big black range rover, putting you in the front seat and putting your seatbelt on. After that, you only remember the streets of Seoul, flashing before your eyes. Your head leaning on the cold hard glass window, you stared at passerby as they looked back at you before glancing away rapidly. Your entire world seemed to be falling apart piece by piece as you moved further away from your father and closer to what was going to be your future. You thought of running away. You thought of suddenly opening the car door when the driver stopped at a red light but you didn't have the strength to bring that thought into motion. You just stayed there, motionless.

You finally arrived at your destination. Even then, you didn't move an inch. The door you were leaning on opened and you didn't bother putting any effort into staying upright and simply started falling towards the ground. Two strong arms caught you, lifting you up like they had off of the ground just an hour ago. You lifted your chin slightly, staring at the man who was walking you to your ill-fated destiny. He didn't look like the normal gangster. He had soft eyes and an innocent smile. You couldn't help but wonder how someone who looked so pure and so soft could end up the right-hand man to someone so despicable. You turned your head slightly to the side, examining the place he was moving towards. You were standing in an alley that couldn't fit more than one car at a time. There were shops on each side of the road ranging from pawn shops to restaurants, to dry-cleaners. It looked like every other neighborhood in Seoul. Except it wasn't. A dark alleyway was squeezed in between one of the many pawn shops and a garage from where big men all wearing black were coming out to see the show. Nothing but muscle and fat on their body and you instantly knew they were the brute force of the organization. The men you ordered to fight for you. They were part of the organization but not a single person here was important. Or indispensable. They all l looked at you like you were a piece of meat, each making their assessments on your level of beauty. 'She's cute. I could break her from her single hip thrust though.' 'Not exactly my type but then again, who cares about looks when you take them from behind.' 'Look at Daniel go, already's got hands all over her. Isn't she supposed to be the boss' son's girl?' Dry laughter followed every remark. As the last man finished his statement, you felt the man who was holding you tense up before he sent a death glare towards that group. Daniel. So that's his name. And from what you could understand, he seemed like someone who had some power.

As Daniel brought you towards the main entrance through the dark alley, you felt a shiver run down your spine. The shadows playing on the walls looked like creatures from your nightmares and you curled up against his chest. You felt his grip on you tighten slightly as he moved you back up towards his chest, grabbing you firmly. The narrow alleyway led you to a big double door that looked to be the entrance to about a three-story building. You looked up at the sky, trying to remember the shape of every cloud that was passing overhead. For some reason, you had a bad feeling this would be your last opportunity to enjoy being outside before a long, long time. The man who had murdered your father came up from Daniel's right and looked straight at you. His hand came up to stroke your cheek and you froze in fear. Your mind went back to the slap. You could still feel the vibrations it had sent through your body. "Good girl." he whispered as his fingertips grazed your lips, before nodding towards the two body guards guarding the door. They each opened a door and the man walked in first, hands behind his back, a little spring to his step. Your hand came up to Daniel's shoulder and you squeezed it tightly. He looked down at you, surprised to see you move. He didn’t think you’d have the strength. 'Save me.' were the two words you mouthed to him, fear making your irises tremble. He looked you straight in the eye and nodded ever so slightly as to not attract any unwanted attention before he made his way into the building.

You took a look around. Everything looked so terrifying. From the velvet rug that drew a path to a very large staircase to the piles of cocaine being hidden away, everything felt so unfamiliar. Even though you knew, for the most part, what your father did for a living, you never got involved. He never wanted you to. So you never witnessed the drug deals, weapon exchanges, and other illegal acts your father may have committed. To be exposed to all of it, in all its putrid magnificence, you weren't prepared for that. "Daniel, take her upstairs." The blonde-haired man nodded, a 'yes, hyungnim' brushing past his lips before he took long strides towards the staircase. It was the kind of staircase that fanned at the bottom, slightly narrowed down before opening up in a little area. Two second sets of stairs started off on both sides, allowing you to get to the second floor. The area in between the two floors opened up on a cozy living room kind of area. Two sofas were facing each other, separated only by a small marble table, an enormous fireplace taking the center stage of it all. You drank it all in, trying to remember every detail about this place. Even in this kind of situation, the lessons your father had taught you were shining through. After you had found out about his true identity, your father had taught you how to defend yourself. You knew the basics of self-defense but what he had put a lot of emphasis on was knowing your surroundings. You were only as strong as your knowledge of the space you were in. Escape routes, placements of guards, weapons, you should always be aware of where the threat lies and the easiest way for you to escape. That's what he had taught you. And despite the burning pain boring a hole through your heart, you followed his teachings. After examining your surroundings, you looked up at Daniel and at the tiny bead of sweat that dripped from his forehead. Your hand came up naturally and wiped it off. He looked quite surprised and stopped just a little short of the second set of stairs. A faint smile appeared on your face as you croaked out an "I can walk." He shook his head and started off again, heading upstairs.

He finally put you down in front of a wooden door at the end of a long hall. Looking from the outside, you had never expected the interior of this place to be so big. They sure did a good job finding a hideout. You could hate them with every fiber of your body, but you had to give them at least that, they were quite good at being the villains. You put your hand on the doorknob, slowly turning it. Your heart was racing, not knowing what you had to expect. But you could feel his presence behind you. His overwhelming warmth engulfing you and giving you to courage to push the door open. You entered a big rectangle room. At the center of the room, pushed up against the opposite wall was a magnificent ebony four-poster bed. The burgundy sheets flowed down to the floor in a wave of silky beauty but you couldn't help but notice the white shirt, sprawled out on the bed. A man's shirt. You turned around, seeing Daniel close the door behind the two of you. "Where are we?" You knew exactly where you were. You knew what was waiting for you. But in your hopeful foolishness, you wished Daniel would tell you otherwise. "Your room." he said in a low voice, turning back towards you. "Mine alone?" You saw the hurt in his eyes. He didn't want to do this to you. And yet it was his place to shatter your last sliver of hope. "Yours and Hyunggyu hyungnim." Your face fell. He wasn't joking when he said he wanted to take you as his wife. It wasn't just something he said out of the blue to drive your father to his limits. He actually intended to make you his wife. You felt acid crawling up your throat and you rushed to a door on your right, hoping to find a bathroom. You opened it hastily and to your luck, it was indeed a master bathroom. You emptied your already empty stomach in the toilet bowl, flushed and steadied yourself on the nearby sink. You looked at yourself and had you not known you were looking at your reflection, you wouldn't have recognized yourself. In under two hours, bags had appeared under your eyes like you had been awake for 48hours straight. Your eyes were bloodshot red and drool was dripping from the corner of your mouth. You took some water in your hands and washed your face, trying to scrub off this horrible nightmare your life had just become. You heard steps coming from behind you as you saw Daniel appear into view, leaning on the doorframe. You turned the water off and crawled your way to him. You took his hand into yours, tears prickling at the corner of your eyes. "I thought you'd help me. I know what I saw. You nodded. I know you did." He squatted down in front of you and brought you back up to your feet. He moved you towards the bed and had you sit down as he lowered himself to your eye level. "I will." Even though you didn't know this man, at all, his words appeased you. For some strange reason, you felt like you could count on him. "But I can't do that right now. You'll have to endure it for a while." Fear seeped into your bones as you thought about having to live next to a man you already despised. You look at Daniel straight in the eye and he gave you a faint smile that only fueled your fire. They do say that in desperate times, you tend to do dumb things. Like, put your trust in people you shouldn't. "Forget it." The venom dripping from your every word was chilling to the core. "I don't even know why I thought you'd be any different. You're all one of the same." You spat out, turning away from him. He opened his mouth to protest, to tell you he wasn't like his boss, he truly did want to help you but not everything was that easy. He couldn't simply whisk you away without any consequences. But before a single sound could escape his lips, a loud knock was heard and Daniel stood straight up, taking a step away from you. A boy of small stature poked his head through the door. His skin was pale and his eyes perfect almonds. You had no idea how someone so young could find themselves intertwined in this kind of business. "Hyung, Hyunggyu hyungnim is looking for you." "Thanks, Jihoon-ah, I'll be right down." The younger boy nodded and closed the door behind him. Daniel came right back to your side, taking your hands in his. You ignored him and looked elsewhere. "I won't let him hurt you, that I promise." Your heart was racing in your chest but still pretended to ignore him. He sighed heavily before leaving the room quietly, leaving you alone with your thoughts.

Daniel went back downstairs, looking for Hyunggyu. He found him lounging on a sofa, a beautiful woman on his lap. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the actions of his elder. Daniel and Hyunggyu went way back. Despite the four year difference, they were always like brothers. They were inseparable. That was until Daniel and his parents got kidnapped as collateral. Daniel made it out alive, but his parents didn't. They weren't deeply rooted in the system but they were associated with Hyunggyu's dad who ran everything around here and got caught in the crossfire. Daniel was only 8. After that day, Daniel was never really the same. He still was his cheerful self but he had his dark times. Moments when everything would come back to him. Because he was there. He witnessed everything. And for an 8-year-old to witness the murder of his parents, it'd be an understatement to say that it shocked him to his core. Hyunggyu's dad ended up adopting him and treated him as his son ever since, which didn't sit well with his biological son. Let's just say that Hyunggyu didn't mind sharing with friends but sharing with an adoptive brother when your father clearly favors him, is hard to deal with when your ego is the size of Manhattan. The black-haired man looked at his younger brother through hooded eyes, gritting his teeth. "How's my fiance doing?" Daniel's hand formed into a fist and he faked a smile, knowing better than to challenge Hyunggyu when it came to you. "She's adapting. Trying at least." That forced a chuckle past Hyunggyu's lips as his eyes darkened and he got up, throwing the woman he had on his lap to the side. "Guess I'd better help her get acclimated then." The smirk on his face was sickening. Daniel was clenching his fist so hard his knuckles turned white and his fingernails dug into the palm of his hand. Hyunggyu went past him, patting his shoulder before heading upstairs, whistling. Hyunggyu wasn't always like this. He hadn't always been this shell of a human being, void of emotions. But it was who he had become and knowing what he was capable of and knowing where he was headed made Daniel sick to his stomach. He gritted his teeth until his jaw hurt and with fists still clenched, he made his way outside.

He didn't really know where he wanted to go but he knew he needed to get out of there, as far away from Hyunggyu as possible. Before he did something stupid. He wandered down the dark alleyway he had brought you down just moments before. Your face popped up in his mind. Your hand, clutching at his shoulder, your eyes filled with fear as you tentatively asked him to save you. You had no idea who he was. You had no idea what his reaction was going to be. He could have just told his boss right away as they laughed about it together and you got tortured some more. But still, you took a chance. You took a chance on him. And knowing he was leaving you to the wolves was killing him. He was just hoping to any god that'd listen to him, that nothing happened to you. He'd figure it out. He'd figure out a way to get you to safety. Soon. He came out of the alleyway and moved towards the car repair shop that was on his left. It wasn't exactly a normal garage as it belonged to their gang but they did actually repair their own cars so it did have a semblance of being an actual shop. He wandered in and spotted a sedan that the boys had just finished working on. "Mind if I take her for a drive?" Everyone knew Daniel and just his presence intimidated them. They all nodded rapidly as one of the younger guys handed him the keys, looking at the ground. Daniel hopped in and started driving, not really knowing where he was going. He drove and kept on driving. He didn't really have a destination in mind yet but after about an hour of driving, he realized where he had been headed all along. As he walked towards the front door, he remembered your face when you heard the gunshot and his heart broke in half. He had witnessed countless murders and had to continue living with the images of the heartbroken families they had left behind. But never before had he been this heartbroken. He pushed open the front door and the air reeked of blood and bodily fluids. He brought a hand up to his nose and moved towards the main hall. As he saw your father, bathing in his own blood, bits and pieces of his brain stuck to the floor and nearby wall, for the second time in his life, Daniel had to look away.

Daniel gathered his thoughts and moved towards the back of the restaurant. Through the kitchen window, he discovered a backyard but no back door. He went back outside, trying not to look at your father. He found a tiny path hugging the right-side wall of the restaurant leading towards the backyard. He walked around, basking in the peace and quiet that the little garden was allowing him, in the middle of this city that never sleeps. As he moved towards the back of the backyard, he spotted what looked like a gravestone in the far corner. Upon inspection, he realized the grave must have belonged to your mother. He had heard of the stories. One of Hyunggyu's dad’s proudest moments. The sick fuck. Daniel discovered a run-down shed, hugging the back wall of the building. He made his way inside and found a shovel, a pick and a big bag of quicklime. A soft sigh escaped his lips as the thought hit him. Your father must have always had everything one needed to bury a body in this shed. And that was one of the most depressing things he could think of. Whether he was always getting ready to bury one of his men or whether he wanted everything ready for when this moment happened, the simple thought was heartbreaking. The last thing he could do for his daughter was to prevent her from having to go buy the supplies she needed to bury her own father. When you're in the mafia, most of the time, you don't get to have a real place to rest after your death. Your family, unlike the rest of the world, does not get to have a place to go and visit you after your death. Most of the time, you end up being thrown into a communal grave where every single man who died during a fight ends his days. That's the sad reality of their world. Only the lucky few get to rest in peace after living such a hard life. After everything that had happened today, and everything that was going to happen from now on, if this was one of the only nice things Daniel could do for you, he was going to put his all into it.

After about six hours of digging, some more digging, some heavy lifting and a lot of cleaning, Daniel was putting the last of the soil on your father's grave. Before putting him in the ground, he had noticed this watch you father was still wearing. He didn't know whether this was a good or a terrible idea but he took it off his still warm wrist and put it in his pocket. Whether this was going to infuriate you or appease your hurt in some way, he had no idea of knowing. And frankly, that scared him shitless. That he could be the one bringing you more pain when all he wanted to do was help you through this tough time. But what was done was done. He moved a big rock on top of the freshly made grave to prevent any stray cat from becoming grave robbers. That’s something you learn from experience. He went back into the restaurant one last time, taking a look around. He hadn't forgotten any spots, no one would ever know they were there had it not been for the note he placed on one of the counters in the kitchen. 'Your boss is dead. Buried him in the backyard. His daughter is with us. Don't try anything stupid. -The Crimson Roses' Voices could be heard from outside. For a second, Daniel thought he was screwed but he thought back to the kitchen window and made his way through it with difficulty before four large men made their way through the door. With your father's watch in his pocket, he sprinted back to the car, hopping back into the sedan and made his way back to HQ, his heart still racing.

After Daniel left you alone with your thoughts, you stayed completely frozen on the bed for a couple of minutes before you finally decided to move. You dragged yourself to the bathroom, closing the door behind you. You moved towards the bathtub and drew yourself a nice hot bath. You needed it, badly. You took off all of your clothes, discovering the bruises Hyunggyu had left on your body when he threw you on the ground earlier that day. You traced the bluish stain on your arm and hip, wincing as even a simple touch sent a shot of pain through your whole body. You tentatively entered the bathtub, letting the warmth of the water relax your every muscle. You stared at the ceiling, wondering whether your father would be able to make it to paradise. Not that you particularly believed in all that crap but the thought alone helped you cope a little. You closed your eyes and you felt yourself slowly sliding down. Your body kept sliding, and sliding, and sliding until your entire head was submerged in water. For the first time that day, you felt at peace. A few bubbles of oxygen escaped your lips and you imagined them popping as they reached the surface, releasing a scream as loud as your pain into the world. You felt the air in your lungs slowly becoming rarer. Your heart was racing in your chest, your mind was blank, your lungs were screaming. You wanted this. Or did you? Your mouth slightly opened and as you drank some water, almost as a primal instinct, you flung your entire body out of the water, choking on the tiny bit that had entered your lungs. You hit your chest, spitting out every last drop of water that entered your body and you started sobbing. You couldn't even manage to kill yourself. How pathetic was that? You heard a door slam as you jumped at the sudden sound, tears stuck in your eyes. You got out of the tub and dried yourself. You put the same clothes back on, those same clothes with blood stained elbows and a rip at the knee. You exhaled deeply before opening the door to your bedroom. You tried scanning the room but couldn't see everything due to the way the door opened. You peeked your head out and saw him. You froze in place for a second before jumping right back into the bathroom. Even the sight of him terrified you. "Don't be afraid. Come over here." You heard him call out. After a few seconds too long, you heard a loud sigh and some inaudible rambling. "I told you to come over here. Right. Now." The tone of his voice had changed and no matter how badly you wanted to stay hidden in the very bathroom you thought of taking your own life in, you wandered out. You closed the bathroom door behind you, turning slowly towards him but not moving a step. His suit vest was hanging on the armrest of the chair next to the door to the bedroom. He was sitting at the end of the bed, taking his cufflinks off, neatly placing them on the nearest nightstand. He looked at you through hooded eyes, a slight smirk plastered on his face. "Come over here. I'm not going to eat you." His voice was sweeter but you could hear the fakeness in his tone. Still, absolutely terrified, you made your way over to him as he started unbuttoning his shirt. You stood about a meter away from him, completely stiff when he took your wrist and brought you over to him. His arms found their way around your waist as he buried his face in the valley between your breasts. His grip on your hips tightened as it took everything in you not to scream out of pain. He nuzzled his nose down to your bellybutton, inhaling, taking in your scent. Silent tears started to roll down your eyes as you were completely frozen in place. His hands kept stroking your lower back as he placed his chin on your stomach, looking up at you. Seeing your contorted face, a silent tear rolling down your face, he almost felt hurt you could find him so repugnant. That fleeting thought soon enough left his mind as he gripped onto your hips even harder and threw you down on the bed. You yelped in surprise and in pain, your arms coming up to your chest as to prevent him from intruding your space even further. You dared looked into his eyes and what you saw sent a shiver down your spine. He was looking right back at you and his eyes were the color of the midnight sky, filled with lust. His right hand came up to your shoulder as he grazed your skin with his fingertips. His hand moved down your side, to your hip. He slowly moved your shirt up, revealing the bruises he has inflicted upon you. His fingertips grazed the bruise. His fingers were freezing to the touch, 'as cold as his heart' you thought. You bit your lip, keeping yourself from screaming. You weren't going to give him that joy. "Did I do that?" he said, a fake pout finding its way onto his face. He brought his lips down to your hip, placing a wet kiss on the bruise. And another slightly higher up. And another at the hem of your bra. His lips parted with your skin as you closed your eyes tight, hoping this moment would stop if you wished hard enough for it. A slight chuckle escaped his lips at your reaction. He brought his face closer to your ear. "There's nothing to be afraid of, princess." He whispered in your ear, his warm breath on your neck sending a chilling shiver down your spine. His lips moved to your neck as he started sucking on the supple flesh while his right hand moved down to your thigh. He placed his hand on the outside of your knee, slowly bringing it higher up. When he brought his hand to the inner part of your thigh, your instinctively brought your legs together, locking his hand in place. He instantly froze and you did as well, absolutely terrified of what he'd do to you for having dared refuse him what he wanted. He brought both his hands right next to your head, supporting his weight as he towered above you. You opened your eyes and your gazes locked together. You were sure he could see the absolute terror he was inflicting on you and it looked like he liked it. "I'm letting you off this time, princess. Your father did just die." In a flash, he was off of you, sitting at the edge of the bed like you had found him earlier. He finished taking his shirt off and revealed multiple scars that painted his back. He got up and turned towards you, pointing a disapproving finger at your frozen figure. "But don't you dare do that again. Reject me all you want, you're still mine." His words tore through you as he headed for the bathroom, smirking. He slammed the door and you jumped, not quite processing everything that had just happened.

You stayed there for a couple of minutes, just lying there, unable to forget his hands on you. You could still feel every single stroke of his rough hand, every wet impact of his lips on your skin and it made you feel sick to your stomach. You wanted to scrub your skin till it turned raw only so you could feel less dirty but he was in there. And you weren't about to go outside looking for another bathroom. Instead, you took a pillow, squeezed it in between your legs and curled up into a ball on one side of the bed. Silent tears were streaming down your face and you couldn't do anything to stop the current. Every trace that each tear left on your cheeks felt like burning fire but you simply couldn't stop. It was like your body was determined to empty your body till the very last drop. That's how you fell asleep, out of exhaustion. Curled up on a stranger's bed that felt as cold as the morning breeze on a January morning. That night you dreamt of your parents. You dreamt of the night you found your father holding your mother's limp body in his arms. You remember the venom dripping from his tongue and the look of defeat in his eyes. You also dreamt of your father and his two fallen front teeth. You dreamt of the gunshot that ended his life and of his lifeless body probably still lying on the cold hard tiles of the restaurant. You dreamt of them, meeting up in paradise and looking down at you. You heard your mom's voice calling out and your body slightly relaxed at the sound of her voice. "You'll do great, sweetheart. I know you're strong enough to get through this. Choose the right allies. Fool the right people. In this game you're about to play, you either win, or you die."

This chapter touched on very sensitive subjects. If any of my readers would like to talk, in private or through anon messages, don’t hesitate. I’m always there for you.

[thenumberfour]

sticks my leg out, reylo, with all of them?

Wow this took me waaaaay longer than I thought it would. Sorry! Some of these are in-universe and some are a more modern AU. Some can apply to both.

1) Who rocks the Ferris Wheel seat and who flips out and begs them to stop?

Rey rocks the Ferris Wheel because she wants to know how long it will take to break through Kylo’s uncaring, fearless facade.

2) Who is always horny and will have sex at any time, at any place and at any time?

Kylo. Or at least he wants to think so. He’s too vanilla for public sex but doesn’t really WANT to be. Also he doesn’t have a whole lot of impulse control so there’s that too. 

3) Who is more into taking showers/baths together? Who tries to make it relaxing and who tries to make it sexy time?

I think they’re both into taking showers together when they want to, though probably Kylo more than Rey. Rey, being raised on a desert planet, likes to enjoy showers alone more often than not, since the water relaxes her. That being said, she does enjoy the company, but doesn’t really want sexy times unless she’s really in the mood.

4) Who likes to walk around the house naked and who tells the other to go put some clothes on?

“I lived 19 years in the desert heat fully clothed. You can at least put some pants on.” - Rey to Kylo “Stubborn Child” Ren

5) Who sleeps on the couch when they get into a fight?

Kylo. No way in hell is Rey letting him in the bedroom. Though not for lack of trying. The emo teenager in him always reacts to arguments by stomping to the bedroom and slamming the door.

6) Who takes photos of the other while they sleep?

Kylo. There’s literally a scene in TFA where he watches her sleep. He does enjoy watching her sleep after he’s redeemed, though, in a much less creepy context. Mostly because he’s an insomniac.

7) Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?

Kylo said it first, incidentally because they were in a fight and he ended it with “Because I love you!”

8) Who likes to wear the others sweatshirts?

Rey wears Kylo’s because they’re so big and warm and cozy. Big sweatshirts are the best sweatshirts.

9) Who wakes the other up in the middle of the night to tell them a cool dream they had? Who has the most nightmares, and who sings them back to sleep after?

Rey gets super excited about cool dreams, because she spent so much of her early life not having great sleep, let alone good dreams. Kylo has a lot of nightmares, because of his encounters with Snoke and such, so Rey sings him to sleep with a lullaby she picked up on Jakku.

10) Who is more likely to cheat?

Kylo. As I said before, his impulse control is not the best. Although I don’t really see him as being at all attracted to multiple people at a time. That might be more characteristic of Rey, who was probably shaped by a long childhood of limited interpersonal interactions and may be thrown off and overwhelmed by many feelings for many people at once. 

11) Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?

Rey makes so much fun of him because he’s got this whole uncaring, emotionless, scary (literal) mask that he likes to put on in front of people, but he still fell for her first. Rey of Sunshine thawed his cold, dead heart.

12) Who starts a food fight in the kitchen?

Rey, once she gets used to the fact that food is no longer so difficult to come by. Kylo comes home after a bad day and is just snapping at her for no reason. Nothing she’s saying is helping and she just gets fed up. So from across the table, she Force-throws a glob of mashed potatoes right in his face. And it just escalates from there. (Side note: FORCE FOOD FIGHT WOULD BE HILARIOUS)

13) Who initiates duets? and who is the better singer?

I haven’t really heard either of them sing but I’d like to think they’re both really good. Rey initiates the duets though, when Kylo is singing quietly to himself and thinks no one is listening.

14) Who starts the hand holding? Who grabs the others butt? Who slides their arm around their waist? Who likes to put their fingers in the belt loops?

Rey starts hand holding. Kylo, ever Han Solo’s son, grabs Rey’s butt. Also Kylo slides his arm around Rey’s waist all smooooooth-like (still. Han Solo’s son). Rey puts her fingers in his belt loops

15) Who likes writes the others name on their wrist?

I like to think Rey writes her name on his wrist to ground him if he’s having an emotional episode. Kylo keeps it because it really does help.

16) Who is more seductive when they are drunk? and who is louder in bed?

Rey is definitely more seductive when drunk. She gets all bubbly and giggly and overall enthusiastic. Kylo is louder though. Awkwardly louder.

17) Who is more protective?

Kylo is more protective. He’s actually more jealous than anything though, since Rey is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

18) Who talks to the other while they are sleeping?

Rey talks in her sleep and says the absolute strangest things. Sometimes it’s in Binary (droid language) or other languages she picked up around Niima Outpost.

19) Who drives and who has the window seat?

Rey’s a better driver but Kylo always INSISTS on driving. They often argue about who will drive but she lets him most of the time just to shut him up. He’ll just sulk in the passenger seat if she drives.

20) Who falls asleep in the others lap and who carries them to bed?

Rey falls asleep in Kylo’s lap and he carries her to bed more often than not, though there have been instances where the roles have been reversed. She carries him up the stairs with more ease than he carries her.

21) Who cuts the others hair?

Rey cuts Kylo’s because if she didn’t it would get wAAAAAAAY out of control.

22) Who is super bad at sexting? and who sends them encouraging messages throughout the day?

Rey’s really innocent and bad at texting sometimes. “What are you wearing?” “Some jeans and a t-shirt. Actually they’re covered in grease so thanks for reminding me to do laundry!

23) Who thinks they are not good enough for the others love? and who’s more afraid of loosing the other? Who thinks they keep messing up, only for the other to tell them they don’t need to worry?

Kylo, Kylo, and Kylo, for emo and previous evil reasons. He still feels (after redemption) that he needs to make up for everything he did.

24) Who starts random slow dancing with the other in the kitchen? Who holds the other just above the ground and kisses them?

Rey actually finds dancing really really romantic, so she always initiates slow dancing. And Kylo actually has had some experience with ballroom dancing which makes the experience that much more fun and sweet.

25) Who says shitty puns and sex jokes just to see the other giggle and blush?

Once he gets comfortable, Kylo whips out (pun intended?) jokes Han taught him as a child.

26) Who kissed first?

“Every kiss begins with K(ylo)”. No but seriously he has many impulse control issues and he was doing really well holding back until one day he just couldn’t (not that Rey minded at that point since she’d been dropping hints to his oblivious ass that she wanted to take things further)

27) Who orders take out at two in a morning? and who wakes the other up at three in the morning to go downstairs with them to get a glass of water because it’s too dark?

Kylo Ren is a nocturnal being and also has cravings so he gets that takeout at 2AM. Kylo is also pretty afraid of the dark despite dressing like he isn’t all the time. Rey has taken to filling several water bottles and keeping them by the bed to avoid such sleep interruptions.

28) Who writes poems/stories and love songs about the other? Do they sing the songs the write for them?

Emo Kylo Ren has poetry/song books galore, but if asked to recite/sing any he will refuse and probably pretend that he has no clue what you’re talking about.

29) Who does some crazy stunt to try and impress the other and who ends up driving them to the emergency room after it backfires?

I’m honestly just imagining them getting into a fight and Kylo appearing somewhere random (and possibly public) and being “that dude with the guitar who sings to his girlfriend to make up for dumb shit he said to her” So that kind of stunt is all Kylo, but physical stunts that backfire are definitely all Rey. (Mostly because she finds his worried face cute and gets distracted by it while freeclimbing up a wall or some shit and loses her footing)

30) Who is embarrassed when they have to wear their glasses and who thinks they look super cute?

Kylo wears glasses. He hates them and thinks they’re stupid-looking but Rey ADORES them.

[furederiko]

Lots and lots of news to catch up folks! Unfortunately, despite my desire to post more (I kept getting distracted by this and that since the start of the month), this is inevitably the first and also last Random-News-Digest for October...

(Images courtesy of Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Marvel TV/Hulu, LEVEL-5, The Pokemon Company/GameFreak, and CAPCOM. Taken from Official Trailers, Official Sites, and Entertainment Weekly.)

Pacific Rim

The much anticipated sequel "Pacific Rim: Uprising" released its first full-length trailer earlier this month (October 6th, to be precise), and well it... felt similar but also different? Unlike many people in the North American region, I'm among the few who thought the first movie was okay... but not as mindblowing as those people claimed. I guess, robot fighting giant beast... can be considered a norm for Japan afficianado like yours truly. We get that on a weekly basis through Super Sentai and Ultraman. That's probably why I didn't feel as big of an excitement when I saw this one too. In fact, somehow I'm inclined to agree with both Birth.Movies.Death and Collider, that likened this to two other big franchises: "Power Rangers" and "Transformers".

But still, if this movie IS your thing, then don't let some subjective comparisons bring you down. John Boyega is leading as Jake Pentecost, with the charming (but can't seem to find his groove, relegating him to be bland supporting character in like... every movie) Scott Eastwood shadowing as his Jaeger partner Nate Lambert. Other new actors include Cailee Spaeny as young hacker Amara, Tian Jing, Adria Arjona, and Burn Gorman. Charlie Day nerdily returns as Dr. Newt Geiszler, and Rinko Kikuchi is back as Mako Mori, who seems to be taking over his adopted-father commanding role this time around. By the way, please don't expect Charlie Hunnam character to be in this movie. LOL. From the hands of Stephen S. DeKnight, "Pacific Rim: Uprising" arrives on March 23rd, 2018.

Star Wars

Aaaah, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Winning the battle of trailers (against Warner Bros, who previously released one for their upcoming team-up movie) earlier this month (October 9th. Yeah, I kept track), Lucasfilm stole every attention through a cool looking poster, and a neat official trailer that pretty much riled up everyone in the world, fans and non-fans alike. Hey, the brilliant editing of this trailer got me highly interested, so indeed it was the winner of the not-really-a competition.

Part of it was due to the Porgs, to be honest. A creature specially created by director Rian Johnson for the movie. Seriously, that shot of Chewbacca and the little planet Ahch-To native screaming together, instantly numbed down plenty of weak hearts. The reason why they are headlining this post. LOL. That's not all. This movie will be the last appearance of the late Carrie Fischer as well, a swan-song to her General Leia. So it's clear that Lucasfilm consciously honored her with this trailer. If anything, I believe that would be a great reason to see this movie. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" arrives on December 15th, 2017.

Somewhere else, Ron Howard has completed his work on that Han Solo spin-off. And he has personally (via instagram and/or Twitter) revealed its official title: "Solo: A Star Wars Story". I actually prefer 'Han Solo', but I'm not complaining. It's still short, easy to remember, and follows the pattern of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" nicely. Beside, it might also meant to describe Han's solo adventure (get it?), before he met his lifelong partner Chewbacca. Before Chewbacca ends up with Porgs, that is. LOL. You can expect this movie to arrive ontime on May 25th, 2018.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Gear up for a speedy adventure in ultimate velocity. Tim Miller's big screen adaptation of SEGA's initial mascot has moved from SONY Pictures to Paramount. Miller is still attached as executive producer, and his buddy Jeff Fowler as the director. This time around, Neal Moritz has joined the party as the other producer, alongside Toby Ascher, Dmitri Johnson, and Dan Jevons. The movie remains to be a hybrid of live action and CG animation.

As far as I know, SONY hasn't had good success with their animated projects lately, while Paramount has fared better. So this move might be a good thing. Of course, there's still that video-game adaptations curse to put into our concern. It's looming not just Hollywood, but even other countries like Japan. But you know what? If the team can at least produce something along the line of "The Angry Birds Movie" (which was highly enjoyable, albeit not doing so well with critics), and are able to keep the characters faithful to the source material, I'm totally down with it.

Dark Universe

Oh NO. Bill Condon's "Bride of the Frankenstein" has been officially delayed!

This news was a bit of a bummer, especially for several few (like me) who somehow curious to see what Universal would do next with their Dark Universe. Sure, "The Mummy" was a seriously flawed movie, and that it should and could have been WAAAAAY better. But is that hard for me to see more of Russel Crowe's Dr. Jekyll? Anyway, "Bride of Frankenstein" was already in pre-production, set for a February 1st start, but the crew has been dismissed. Good thing is, the movie has NOT been cancelled so far, but only postponed temporarily. Meaning, it might still be released somewhere late 2019. Just not in February as it was intended to be. It also doesn't mean that it's a sure thing though. Oh well... we'll see.

Akira

New Zealand director Taika Waititi confirmed to IGN (October 10th) that WB has indeed approached him to work on a Hollywood "Akira" adaptation. As it turns out though, the deal is not yet set in stones, at least for now. Waititi still has an array of projects on his sleeves, not including the potential of a 4th "Thor" movie that has been making the rounds through the internet lately. One which I'm sure is totally happening some time after 2019.

The director however, didn't hesitate to offer his thoughts on the movie. He said that IF he does take the job, then it will be based on the original 6-volume manga, and not the popular classic 1988 animated movie. More importantly, he would definitely be looking for Asian leads. "Yeah. actually Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent. Yeah, I'd probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books.", he confirmed. That's reassuring, isn't it? After seeing the latest "Thor" movie under his guidance, I have complete confidence that Waititi would be able to bring an anime to life in a grand but personal way. Let's just hope his vision is inline with WB...

DC Films

Aaaaah yes, WB. The one studio that never ceases to amaze me.

Remember that time when I used to be soooo confused to why many people are calling their recent DC movie adaptations as DCEU and not DC Films? You don't? Don't worry, I forgive you. It was posted in January 2016 anyway, and I'm too lazy to look for it to provide a link. Anyway, as I've long suspected, DCEU was NEVER the name of this movie universe that began with the dull and boring "Man of Steel". It's nothing more than a fan-made term! LOL. To be more specific, it was courtesy of Keith Staskiewicz of Entertainment Weekly back in July 2015. Beside, surely I wasn't the only one who remembered that CW Special thingy with an over-excited Kevin Smith and bashful Geoff Johns, right? The branding "DC Films" was used heavily in that TV special, so it's clear that's what the bigwigs have always wanted to call it.

What's baffling to me, is that WB also NEVER tried to openly correct this, to the point that even I have started using the term despite my initial reluctance. Ouch. As for how this truth was finally revealed? Through a thorough article released on September 29th by Abraham Riesman of Vulture. Go ahead and make a detour to read that fine article, because it's truly an eye-opener. Ironically, reading this article gave me a clear mind of what went wrong with DC Films, and why its movies just didn't work for me. As I've suspected, WB has indeed been the culprit, by being bullish and ignoring the advice from DC Entertainment. And I'm not even kidding here. The studio greedily wanted to copy Marvel Studios, a studio developed by people behind the comics, yet ridiculously refused to accept feedbacks from DC Comics. Well, DUH?!! No wonder "Man of Steel", "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", and "Suicide Squad" could never reached the heights of their respective source materials. They were given to people who did NOT understand the comics from the start. DC Comics was sidelined, to the point that they turned head towards developing TV shows instead. It wasn't until "Wonder Woman" that Johns and the folks from DC Entertainments were given the reign to provide input and assessment. Look what happened to that movie!

Could we be seeing the same result with next month's "Justice League" then? There's no certainty about that, but one thing for sure, Zack Snyder is no longer directly involved since Joss Whedon came in to tackle the movie's reshoot and post production. Apparently Whedon even cut the movie from a rumored 3 hours duration to mere 121 minutes! Yep, that running time has indeed been confirmed, officially making this title as the shortest DC Films movie to date. Naturally, the response to this was easily mixed (some segment of the 'DC fans' just can NOT change, huh?), which was relatively understandable considering this movie has not one nor two, but FIVE major characters to put in the spotlight. SIX if Henry Cavill's Superman is included. Can they all be given a proper screentime, alongside Ciarán Hinds' CG antagonist Steppenwolf, and those hordes of supporting cast (assuming they haven't been cut off) in such a limited duration? Let's just wait and see. I can only hope this does NOT mean WB is planning to release another 3-hours 'Ultimate Edition' later on. They HAVE done that before, haven't they? TWICE. That's like giving audience a major reason NOT to watch this movie right away.

For now, here's a new and possibly final trailer (actual one, not quick TV spots... expect loads of that fairly soon) to help you decide whether you want to see this or not. I know I won't, but don't let that stop you from going. "Justice League" arrives in less than 3 weeks on November 17th.

"Shazam!" has found one half of its leading actor! Zachary Levi, the actor formerly known as "Chuck", and has appeared as Fandral the Dashing in the "Thor" series, as well as the mischievous Flynn 'Eugene Fitzherbert' Rider in Disney Animation's "Tangled" and its TV series, is set to portray the hero form of young Billy Batson. This news hit the internet not long after director David F. Sandberg confirmed on a Reddit thread, that the movie will be released in April 2019. I think Levi has the right personality, but probably the body to portray Shazam. Naaah, that can be tweaked.

It remains to be seen if this movie will be in the same continuity to "Justice League", considering New Line Cinema is in charge on this. Not to mention, that article above HAVE mentioned and confirmed that there WILL be movies outside of the unified universe. I have a inkling feeling that "Shazam!" will be a stand-alone series, but as always, we'll see.

One last thing! Remember how Joe Manganiello was cast to play the super-villain Deathstroke, and was meant to show up in both "Justice League" and "The Batman"? It seems both ideas have been scrapped, leaving his poor Deathstroke without a home. But that's where Gareth Evans swoop in. Yes, according to The Wrap, the acclaimed director known for his gritty and bloddy "The Raid" series, has entered talks to develop a stand-alone Deathstroke movie. Well, how cool is that? Of course, in talks does NOT mean that it's a done deal. But it's a fitting marriage, if you ask me. Manganiello gets to play his version of Slade Wilson, the movie can be a gruesome R-rated assassination flick, and it can even exist outside of the continuity. So no need for unnecessary call-backs to the "Justice League" characters, am I right?

X-Men Universe

F**K continuity! That might be the message that FOX was sending through the first official trailer of Josh Boone's "The New Mutants". In particular, to a certain segment of audience who can't seem to stop complaining about that massive lingering issue that's been plaguing the studio for a loooong time. You know, folks like... yours truly *grins*.

So there you have it, a very HORROR-styled X-Men movie, inline with the director's promise. Ooookaay, I get that FOX badly wants to 'differentiate' itself to Marvel Studios, but is this really a good way to work with this particular material? I can't really answer that. It didn't come close to what I've expected, and I'd be a huge hypocrite if I say I can finally ignore its whole continuity angle. THAT part is still bugging me, because I'm literally confused to where and when this takes place in the X-Men universe. So much of wanting something akin to "X-Men: First Class", huh? I'm not even sure if I like this or not, because it tried to be creepy and spooky but... it did not. Sure, I'm a fan of that supernatural Netflix show that has a bunch of kids encountering creature from a dark realm and all. But an X-Men movie that feels like a copy paste of it? Hmmm... hold on, now that I think of it, this DOES feel inspired by that "LEGION" TV show. That could be the reason why it feels strangely... repetitive. "The New Mutants" arrives on April 13th, 2018. Here's hoping the 2nd trailer would do... better.

"Gambit" is moving forward! That's a surprise, huh? I actually thought the studio would eventually shelve this title after numerous delays. Nope, because Gore Verbinski has been hired to work on it, and Channing Tatum is still very much attached as titular character Remy LeBeau. From the looks of things, "Gambit" might also exist in its own separate continuity, inspired by the success of "Deadpool" and "Logan". FOX has even given an official release date! Yes, this movie will be released on February 14th, 2019. That day was initially booked by Universal's "Bride of the Frankenstein", but now it's an empty slot for superhero movie. "Deadpool" did wonders in the same week last year, can "Gambit" fare the same or even better?

Speaking of the Merc with the Mouth, "Deadpool 2" has completed principal photography. Ryan Reynolds hit his personal social media to thank everyone involved. In the spirit of Wade Wilson's character, obviously. Josh Brolin was mentioned in the post, as it should be, because the actor had almost turned down the role, if it wasn't due to a certain personal persuassion. Not surprising, because an actor of Brolin's calliber has the tendency to go with indie drama, and was already involved with Marvel Studios at the time. Director David Leitch got a mention, but sadly Tim Miller didn't get one. That's a shame really, because if Miller didn't go all out to make the first movie, this sequel and potential more wouldn't even existed. Miller doesn't have any hard feelings, and has since moved on to other grand projects instead. I guess all's well ends well, right? I hope so. "Deadpool 2" will arrive on June 1st, 2018.

I'm not done. There's one more project on the horizon, and it's a spin-off for "Logan". Dafne Keen's X-23 was a standout in that movie, and it's safe to say she has inherited the legacy of Wolverine from Hugh Jackman. So it's natural that she's being eyed for her own solo movie. Director James Mangold shared this news to The Hollywood Reporter, confirming he's currently writing a sequel for Laura. Mangold referenced director Patty Jenkins and her success with "Wonder Woman" that led to this step. Indeed, my sole hope for that DC movie, was that it paved way for more female-led comic book adaptations, so I'm glad that ended up to be the case.

IF, and it's a big if, this X-23 spin-off gets made, producer Hutch Parker admitted that it will have its own tone or genre not similar to "Logan". But you know what? FOX is being ambitious lately, always trying to be one-upping WB in terms of doing things 'different'. That's why I'm positive this spin-off WILL be made. Just look at "Gambit" as the best example. Beside, unless FOX eventually decides to re-cast Wolverine (since Hugh Jackman has approved of that), they can only rely on Keen as the successor, right?

SONY Marvel Universe

Eventhough many people are still doubting this project, the Spider-Man-less Spider-Man spin-off "Venom" has actually begun production. The movie even had its own official Twitter account, created to boldly announce this news just last week. We can see Tom Hardy among other guys there, presumably the director Ruben Fleischer. No sign of Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, or Jenny Slate who were said to be in talks for the movie, nor Reid Scott and Scott Haze. But I guess it's enough to prove the doubters that this movie is definitely in the works.

Additional detail has been revealed as well. This time, courtesy of Andy Serkis, whose The Imaginarium studio might be involved as motion-capture consultant. Apparently, Hardy would be portraying Eddie Brock, but his Venom form will be achieved through motion capture CG. Serkis' work is phenomenal though, as proven through how realistic Mark Ruffalo's Hulk has become, so it looks like we can expect more of the same for this movie. "Venom" is expected to be released on October 5th, 2018, which is less than a year from now. Do you think it will be a success? Hmmmm...

Marvel Studios

Let's start with "Thor: Ragnarok" first. The movie opens in North American this very weekend, but has already landed in international markets since Wednesday last week. Go ahead and read my Non-Spoiler Review if you somehow don't believe me.

Reviews from various critics have also been published in pretty much every entertainment sites you could encounter in the internet. Had this Random-News-Digest was released much earlier (prior to last week), I would've gladly detailed some of the responses. Whether it's the early social media responses, or the actual full-length reviews (two weeks ago). However, doing so now while every site has already published their own digest, would be too redundant. So I'll stop right here and give that a pass. For the record, the movie started at 98% on RottenTomatoes (October 21st, 2017 01:20AM local time) when the first 47 critics submitted their scores. It has fluctuated since then, but just like the other Marvel Studios releases, I'm predicting it will end at above 80%. It's really fun and Hela Good, so it would make sense...

Second trailer (but actually the first full-length one) for Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther" has been released on October 16th. It was dropped without any warning, startling pretty much every Marvel fans on the planet. A new fancy poster was also released online on that same date. If you haven't seen both, then what are you waiting for?! All signs are indicating that this is going to be a special movie, and well... I think every scenes in this trailer only amplified said notion. Those entertainment journalists weren't kidding when they compared this to a 007 movie, because it DOES feel like one. Direct comparison to DC's Batman was also inevitable.

Quite surprisingly, the Prelude Comic for the movie revealed something more interesting. Remember how "Iron Man 2" somehow hinted at the location of Wakanda? Many seems to think that it was a continuity error, but as it turns out... it's NOT. Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa had already received his rights to use the Black Panther suit... the same time Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark came out as Iron Man in his first solo movie. Black Panther's appearance in last year's "Captain America: Civil War" was NOT his debut outing. That's T'Challa's 8TH year already! It might also be the same reason why Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger somehow has his own gold-colored suit. Daang it, this movie is going to be grand. "Black Panther" arrives really soon on February 16th, 2018, so you better mark that date!

Possible new details for "Ant-Man and the Wasp" MIGHT have been revealed. Specifically, its time setting among other Marvel Studios releases. If this report is to be believed (grain of salt please, because this kind of report usually does NOT pan out), the movie will take place over a very short period of time following Paul Rudd's Scott Lang's breakout from The Raft. Remember that ending of "Civil War"? Yep. Stuck in house-arrest, Scott will spend most of the first arc with his daughter Cassie, played by Abby Ryder Fortson. Michael Douglas' Hank Pym and Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne on the other hand, will be busy finding a way to rescue Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. It looks like they might be on the run as well, presumably from Randall Park's Jimmy Woo. If I'm getting this right (again, assuming the source is credible), the theme of the movie will no longer be about heist. Of course, things might play out very differently, being just a rumor and all. So let's just wait for the first trailer to get the answer. Hopefully soon, because turns out the movie had just wrapped production!

Actor Ben Mendelsohn, is said to be in negotiations to join Brie Larson's Carol Danvers in "Captain Marvel". According to Variety, Mendelsohn is being approached to play the main villain. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck apparently had him in mind for the role, which led them to arrange a meet up. If the movie is indeed about the war between Kree and Skrull, that means highly likely he will be playing a Skrull Leader. But I digress. Again, this type of obvious speculation can sometimes be... red herring at best. He could always play a Kree gone bad, right? Mar-Vell himself, or, even Yon-Rogg, the Marvel supervillain who's responsible for Danvers' Kree powers. Until we have official announcement from the studio, all we can do now is speculate. "Captain Marvel" arrives on March 8th, 2019.

Untitled "Avengers 4", a movie that writer Jim Starlin has called out to be "delightfully different", continues filming. That means, more and more details as well as actors are confirmed on set. As usual, this could be spoilery, so if you're avoiding one, stop right here and skip to the next category. Still here? Okay then, let's go.

Remember how Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton has been rumored to be taking a new moniker in the movie? Well, there's a photo of him sporting this new look, partially confirming this report. Apparently, Scarlett Johansson will also have her own new hairstyle. Letitia Wright's Shuri has also been spotted on set, alongside Boseman's T'Challa, confirming that she will be in the movie as well.

Meanwhile, during a promotional tour for "Ragnarok", Mark Ruffalo shared to Cinema Blend that his Hulk will have his own three-part character arc. The character re-inventing, which is a collaborative effort with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, has already begun in "Ragnarok". It will then continue in next May's "Avengers: Infinity War", and seemingly concludes in "Avengers 4". Does this mean Ruffalo will be ending his appearance as Bruce Banner by then? It's hinted that way, though I badly sure hope NOT. I would love to see him and Chris Hemsworth's Thor teaming up for more galactic adventure. Trust me, I'm sure you'd totally want that after watching "Ragnarok".

Speaking of future movies, "Avengers 4" will mark the end of Phase 3, and also a long-running arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will serve as a conclusion, but not exactly the end of MCU. Feige confirmed this to Uproxx, by saying that the studio "will go places beyond that. And, of course, we have ideas of where we go beyond that. But, really, it is all good stories.". Even director James Gunn affirmed that the report of "Avengers 4" being the 'grand finale' of MCU was highly overblown. "It’s the end of one long story & the beginning of another", he stressed. He might be stepping back from doing a potential 4th Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but that doesn't mean his working relationship with Marvel Studios will end after "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3". After all, his "Vol. 3" (its first draft might have been completed, by the way) will be wrapping the current "Guardians" franchise, while also serving as one of the important movies to kickstart the next story arc. Kind of like, "Ragnarok" then...

Last but not least, Marvel Studios held a not-so-secret (it's public secret really) massive photo shoot earlier this month. It featured most if not all major actors, directors, and also producers who have been involved with the studio, quite possibly to commemorate the Studios' 10 Years Anniversary. Several big names like Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, and even the Russo Brothers have even shared some quick scenes from the event through their social media. Will us, the fans be able to see the result of this event, alongside the official timeline of the movies, as promised by Feige himself? I'm sure, but who knows when. Perhaps, sometime around next year, in Marvel Studios' very own Comic Con? *grins*. Hey, it doesn't hurt to dream BIG, right?

Marvel TV

Marvel's "The Inhumans" is close to ending its first (and possibly ENTIRE, due to the huge loss it's causing IMAX?) season run. Just two or three more episodes, I think. I can't say that for sure because I'm not even bothered to follow the show. LOL. That means, the 5th season of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is just weeks away from starting.

Indeed, during their panel at the recent New York Comic Con, Marvel TV announced that the new season will start on December 1st, 2017, with a 2-hour premiere. Actress Natalia Cordova-Buckley has also been promoted to series regular before hand. Her Yo-Yo has always been a fun addition to the show, both in character and as person of color, so it's a great thing to know she will mostly be around now. Too bad we couldn't say nor haven't heard anything about Juan Paulo Raba's Joey though. Such a wasted potential right there.

The NYCC panel included several details that teased some fun changes in the new season. First, the team has been abducted by aliens, and are placed in a space station filled with all kinds of aliens. Ian de Castecker's Fitz will be the only member on Earth, which could lead him to work together with Nick Blood's Lance Hunter somehow. The two Brits had fun chemistry back then, so it would nice to capitalize on that. There's time travel twist in place, a horror/sci-fi vibe, and the return of the Inhuman Monolith in form of Obelisk too. Those who expected S.W.O.R.D. however, would be disappointed, because the space organization won't be featured. I doubt Marvel TV has the rights, anyway. The Kree on the other hand, will definitely show up. Does this mean, the season will be tied to "Captain Marvel"? Hmmm.

For the time being, I'm still on the fence of following this new season. Unless it's a final season, in which I will literally force myself to watch, I'm not sure I have extra patience and time to spare for a long 22 episodes that leads to... nowhere, not Knowhere. It still depends on the trailer though, because if it manages to capture my attention, then... the rest is history.

Take for example, Marvel's "Runaways". Its first teaser that was officially released during NYCC week was just okay, but the air of mystery it exuded was enough to grab my attention. Its follow up trailer was even better, by showcasing the lead character's various abilities. And then there's that positive reaction from its initial screening. These are the kind of buzzes that snatch everyone's attention... in a good way (looking at you, "Inhumans"). Anyways, the first three episode of "Runaways" will premiere on November 21st. Don't be surprised if Hulu doesn't drop every episodes at the same time like Netflix. This is just the way they roll...

Meanwhile, Marvel's "Cloak and Dagger" will air weekly on Thursday night, as part of Freeform's Winter lineup. The show doesn't have a premiere date for now, but I'm guessing Marvel TV is pending the announcement until after "Runaways" hits the road.

Netflix

Joining the array of new Marvel TV shows, Marvel's "The Punisher" will also arrive in November. As it turns out, the Jon Bernthal's leading series was supposed to come out early October, but it has been delayed in the wake of the terrifying Las Vegas shooting tragedy. Not just the series, the NYCC panel was also pulled from schedule, to respect the victims. This new series will now debut on November 17th, 2017. Do check out the new trailer to wet your early Thanksgiving appetite. You are free to choose your allegiance (Marvel TV or DC... who is releasing a movie in the same date) when the day comes.

Meanwhile, Finn Jones' Danny Rand (with better hair-cut) will at long last show up in the 3rd season of Marvel's "Luke Cage". EW even has the official image to back up this news. Looks like we might be getting a discount "Heroes for Hire" show we've always wanted after all. Which is nice I guess, because the chemistry between Jones and Cage's Mike Colter was undoubtedly strong in Marvel's "The Defenders". It was one of the highlights of that disappointing mini-series.

Things are looking good with the 3rd season of Marvel's "Daredevil" as well. Vincent D'Onofrio has been confirmed to reprise his iconic role as Wilson 'Kingpin' Fisk. Considering Marvel TV actually went all out to announce this, that means we can expect him to be more than a mere cameo (Season 2, anyone?). Hmmm... is it just me or Marvel TV is desperately trying to attract audience to COME BACK to their shows? Hmmm... can Loeb, the man of many excuses, be trusted this time around? That remains to be seen. One thing for sure, "Daredevil" will join "Luke Cage", and definitely the 2nd season of Marvel's "Jessica Jones" in 2018.

Have you seen the much-anticipated 2nd season of "Stranger Things"? I was actually going to talk about this series in preparation of its release, but I guess I'm a little late for that am I? LOL. I have only seen the first episode so far, and though it was mostly set-ups, it's definitely as good as the 1st season. If you're a fan of this supernatural thriller, then you might want to visit Netflix' official Youtube channel and check out some of its weird promotional materials as well. There's one to celebrate Friday the 13th, and also one featuring... Nose Bleeds. Yikes!

If you haven't had the chance to watch the new season though, you might want to refrain from seeing its Final Official Trailer. That's NOT a good trailer IMHO, because it literally spoiled soooo many things happening in the later episodes. Even the mystery of Eleven's whereabout was easily revealed, just like that! Unless you're among those folks who's okay with spoilers of course. But even so, just watch the season instead. All 9 episodes have already been made available since October 27th anyway.

DC Television

"Titans" have found its Beast Boy! And it's a Disney alumn. Well, technically that is, considering Ryan Potter voiced lead protagonist Hiro Hamada in Disney Animation's "Big Hero 6". Potter actually publicly campaigned to play Batman's third Robin Tim Drake (after Dick Grayson, and Jason Todd) in the movies, something more inline with his role in Nickelodeon's "Supah Ninjas". But looks like DC saw him fit as Garfield 'Gar' Logan instead. Hmmmm... I would actually prefer to see the Japanese-American young actor portrays, I don't know, someone like Amadeus Cho in Marvel Studios movies... but sometimes we can't expect too much with casting. I wish the best for Potter nonetheless.

Super Sentai

We got more rumors surrounding the 2018 Super Sentai series, "Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger" and "Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger". Courtesy of the ever-informative Dukemon, of course. Since we haven't gotten its official look, reports surrounding both titles have been changing and shifting by and by. One rumor claimed there will be 7 members between two teams, with the usual colors of Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Green, Black, and White. Latest one said that Lupinranger will consist of LupinRuby, LupinSapphire, and LupinEmerald, while Patoranger will Include PatoFire, PatoWater, and PatoThunder. That's Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Yellow. Whoops? That can't be right. LOL. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" has Kyutama, so the collectibles for both titles will be in form of COINS. A nod to "Kamen Rider OOO" then? Hmmm....

Professor Layton

International version of "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy" has been released for the Nintendo 3DS. Layton fans who have been waiting for one since the Japanese version was released on July 20th, and somehow couldn't purchase it on Smartphone (either due to preference, or space limitation), can now begin their puzzle-solving spree right away. LEVEL-5 celebrated this by releasing a special launch trailer, depicting the characters, main cases, and also main features from the game.

But if you think this spin-off is the extent of the franchise, then you're mistaken! In an interview with License Global magazine, senior Vice President of Marketing and Licensing Simon Waldron shared that there are two major releases arriving in 2018. The first was none other than another Professor Layton game, set to be released in Summer 2018. Since Nintendo 3DS is reaching its final years, it's most probably being developed for Nintendo Switch. As for the story, I suspect it will be a direct sequel to Katrielle's adventure, especially if we put into account the overwhelming response to that Global Puzzle Hunt marketing. I totally would LOVE to be involved in another one of that.

The second project, was what completely stole my attention. A 26-episodes TV anime series is being developed to start broadcasting next year! How cool is that? *grins*. Of course, there's a common concern that video game adaptations are plagued with bad reputation, and this news doesn't escape such concern. Even the anime adaptation of "BlazBlue" and "Gyakuten Saiban" were generally... sloppy and disappointing. I sincerely hope Layton will not be affected by this curse. On the other hand, the "Inazuma Eleven" and "Youkai Watch" series rangeg from above average to actually really good. Those are the other big titles produced by LEVEL-5, as extensions and/or alternatives to the video games. That gives me hope that Layton will be as good, if not better. Can't wait to hear more details about this one!

Dynasty Warriors

As has been promised by producer Akihiro Suzuki, the release date for "Dynasty Warriors 9" was announced on October 26th. The new open-world styled iteration for the franchise, will arrive for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 8th, 2018. Several special editions have also been announced, like the "Treasure Box", "Ikkitousen Box", and also "Digital Deluxe". Visit Gematsu to read more details about them.

Pocket Monsters

Several new trailers have been released by The Pokemon Company, to raise awareness and hype for their upcoming "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon". The two titles that have been confirmed to be the last core Pokemon games released on Nintendo 3DS, once again marking the handheld console's imminent retirement. My oh my, how quick time flies by, huh?

The first trailer came with a startling tagline, "This is Not the Alola You Know Anymore". It indicated that the region have gone through significant changes during the gap of years following "Pokemon Sun & Moon". In fact, producer Shigeru Oumori and director Kazumasa Iwao shared to Famitsu, that the new scenario for this new titles is said to be twice the volume of "Sun & Moon"! An English-language version were also released several days after, to provide ease of understanding for international players.

Three new Ultra Beasts; Adhesive, Assembly, and Burst; were revealed through a follow-up second trailer. The more important reveals however, was the 'Ultra Wormholes', as well as 'Ultra Megalopolis'. These new games will allow players to use Legendary Solgaleo and Lunala to travel to another realm! The Megalopolis also heralds the arrival of several new characters. Dulse, Zossie, Soliera, and Phyco who are part of the 'Ultra Recon Squad', will appear early on in the game, altering the core of the story. They are pretty much people from alternate reality! These are first in the Pokemon franchise, that I'm not even sure how to feel about their addition.

Another trailer unveiled special new additions to the game. There are Z-Crystals called Solganium Z and Lunalium Z, that led to new Z-Moves called "Searing Sunraze Smash" and "Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom" (get it? SSS, and MMM... Sun and Moon?). They are exclusive for the new Necrozma Forms, the Dusk Mane and Dawn Wings Necrozma. Rotom will also received its own Z-Move called Z-Power, that will allow a second Z-Move to be used in battle.

I think we can expect more trailers coming very soon, ahead of the games' November 17th release. There are rumors of new Alolan forms, and also possibly new Pokemon to be added in these game. Let's just see if they do pan out, okay?!

Marvel vs. Capcom

"Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" has been released. And the response to the game was... mixed at best. Having seen the Story Modes and Ending online (hey, that's what Youtube is for, right?), I can personally attest this. Those complaints are totally not exaggerated, because the game feels and mostly looks... unappealing.

CAPCOM can still count on the arrays of DLC characters, to boost the reception for this title. Following Black Panther, Sigma, and Monster Hunter (all of them released on October 17th), three other characters of the "2017 Character Pass" have been confirmed. Complete with their designs, as datamined from the game's data.

Quite surprisingly, all three are coming from the Marvel side: Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Venom. Exciting characters, but even I would argue that Winter Soldier is nothing more than a clone of Captain America and/or Chris Redfield, Black Widow could very well be a clone of Gamora and/or Jill Valentine, and Venom... is well Venom, a brutal version of Spider-Man. I can't help but wonder why CAPCOM doesn't use more colorful characters like Ant-Man (NetherRealm has already gone one step ahead by debuting DC's shrinking hero Atom), Vision, or Scarlet Witch, among others. Oh well, perhaps they are being saved for the "2018 Character Pass", inline with the release of "Infinity War"? Here's hoping...

Street Fighter

Sixth and final Season 2 DLC character for "Street Fighter V", has been released. As has been rumored, and speculated over and over again, it's indeed Guy's Bushinryu master Zeku who debuted in "Street Fighter Alpha 2" many years ago. Nope, let me correct that... FORMER master. Apparently he resurfaced after starting his own ninja group, with his own fighting style as well. The character has already been released on October 24th, but here's his reveal trailer anyway, in case you've somehow missed it (like yours truly)...

Zeku's arrival felt like an after-thought now, because there's an even bigger news from the franchise. CAPCOM will be releasing "Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition" early next year! Yes, the rumor and report based on fan's datamining discovery as well as listing on online stores have been confirmed, by none other than executive producer Yoshinori Ono himself. To be released on January 16th, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and PC, this updated version will add various new contents like Arcade Mode (with numerous endings, if the latest report is to be believed), Extra Battle, Gallery, new V-Triggers for every characters, and more. The 12 DLC characters from Season 1 and 2, will also be included as unlockables in game. Best of all, true to their initial promise for this series, players who own the original "Street Fighter V", can obtain their upgrades free of charge. This is a great opportunity to those who have been interested in the game, but decided to postpone their purchase due to various reasons (bad launch reviews, to name one?). They can get everything, all in one package now.

In a way, CAPCOM might also be using this release to prepare for Season 3 of DLC characters. You know, the one rumored to contain fan favorites like Sakura Kasugano, Sagat (there's an icon reserved for him in the datamining result), and some others. It's not confirmed for now, but that's certainly the general assumption among fans. Let's just wait and find out if that's the case when the "Arcade Edition" hits the market next year. For now, you can watch the official announcement trailer and start preparing for more "Street Fighter V" in the future...

[daveywankenobie]

Despite me originally intending to do a new walk today I changed my plans late last night when I was unexpectedly invited out for a bank holiday lunch at the George in the Tree at Balsall Common.

I’ve been here a few times in the past – but not often for good reasons.

Most recently this perfectly nice pub has somehow become completely associated in my mind with meeting relatives after my mom died in January last year – and a sense of personal failure surrounding this already grim event.

Not only did I have to agree funeral details with relatives that I hardly knew – but also I was hovering around 35 stone and visibly not coping very well at all in life.

This was me around three weeks after those events, having not long given up drinking, but still three months away from joining Slimming World.

It occurred to me when a friend suggested I join them there today that not only I could start to attach more positive memories to this place but that I could kill two birds with one stone and also get my exercise in for the day.

I could probably now walk all the way there from my house –  but then making my way back would probably have been a step too far.

It’s a round trip of 20 miles.

When I wasn’t working if I overdid things then I could just rest up the day after for a bit. However now I don’t have that luxury. I need to be match fit every day to walk back and forth to my job.

I opted instead for the shorter Kenilworth Greenway (about 11 miles round trip), and leaving my car at Crackley Wood – which means I didn’t have to walk along any busy roads and that I also got some nice views too.

The woods looked great just before 10am today, and a wonderful dappled light was playing on the ground everywhere as the canopy above me gently swayed in the breeze.

Initially this morning was a little overcast, despite being quite warm – but as I moved through the woods and onto the greenway it was clear that any clouds were not going to last long, and they were swiftly clearing to make way for blue skies.

I didn’t really know exactly how long it would take me to walk to my destination, so I tried to keep exploration and the impulse to photograph everything to a minimum and just keep moving forward.

Although the Greenway is pretty easy going on the way to Balsall Common it has a continuous incline. When I first did this walk (link) back in April I forgot to set a workout programme – but when I checked Apple watch I remember it showed my heart rate as above 100 bpm. My workout today shows an average of 88 on the outward journey, and on the greenway I didn’t once see it go above 95 – which is really cool progress!

I’m definitely getting a lot fitter!

One of the things that I really love about this particular walk is the bridges.

This is for two reasons.

Firstly (and quite without warning) I’ve become a huge fan of red brick construction. It really boggles my mind that these days we just set steel rods in hundreds of tons of concrete, bolt it all together, and voila!

A bridge!

Sure – they’re strong, light, flexible, resilient and safe – but boy oh boy is concrete UGLY. In contrast railway bridges pieced together, brick by individual brick – now THOSE are things of beauty.

Secondly this Greenway and its bridges are slowly being eaten by nature – and that too is jaw droppingly lovely at times.

When I finally arrived at the Beefeater I was a lot earlier than expected. The whole walk (almost exactly five miles) had taken around 90 minutes, so I sat outside in the shade and changed my (slightly sweaty) teeshirt for a long sleeved one I’d brought along to look a little more presentable.

Shortly before midday I went in and was led to the table my friends had booked.

It was a booth.

There’s still a part of me that has a complete meltdown when I see fixed seating.

I can’t seem to get it through to my panic subroutines that I fit into them now – but I guess thats because it’s really only been a few months since that’s been the case. Partially because of this I’m still taking evidential pictures to prove to myself that I can do it – which I’m starting to think may be a little daft.

However I still find it almost as much of a novelty as seatbelts that actually go around me and click into place in other people’s cars.

I may stop taking these kind of pictures one day… but not today!

I’d already decided waaaaay before arriving that I wasn’t going to get into an ‘I’ve done lots of exercise so I can eat what I like’ mentality, and that I was going to avoid things like mixed grills (what I used to choose when I came here previously) and instead have a salad and a baked potato on the side.

I ordered the chicken Caesar.

What arrived was not Caesar salad (not in my eyes anyway) and was clearly deep fried breaded chicken. Normally I wouldn’t go near anything fried in breadcrumbs – but I reasoned that at the very worst this would just use up my syns for the day and negate some of my exercise I’d already done, so I tucked in.

Honestly – I’m glad I did, because with the (butter free) baked potato I’d ordered on the side this ended up being quite filling and tasty – which was a complete win.

As it’s been a while since I’d seen my friends we sat chatting over drinks for a while after the meal ended. They’re absolutely loving their National Trust memberships at the moment and are using it regularly to go and explore some of the local National Trust estates.

I’d not considered joining before – but they may well have sold the whole thing to me! However – that’s for another day when I have some spare money. In the meantime I’m strictly a cheap walk kinda guy…

A twalker can dream though!

After we said our goodbyes I headed back (a slightly longer way) toward my car. It was now getting a LOT hotter and I’d changed back into my short sleeved top. In retrospect (as I sit scratching my sunburnt upper arms while I type) this may have been a tactical error – but you live and learn.

The way back was at a slightly slower pace, and it gave me the opportunity to look a little closer at the hedgerows and bushes, which were full of butterflies!

I also just missed a shot of a bird of prey hanging on the breeze over the fields surrounding the walk. As I readied my camera it swooped towards its target and disappeared from view. I can’t say for sure what it was but I think it was a Kestrel.

Since getting any pictures of things in the sky seemed impossible I busied myself instead with the floor, which I ‘d realised was covered with hidden mushroom colonies!

By the time I arrived home I felt well exercised, satisfied, and like I’d made full use of my Bank Holiday weekend.

There was a time when I’d have bought myself a new video game and many litres of wine for such an occasion – but I think the way I use my free time now is a far better use of my health and happiness.

I’ve managed 35 miles and around 70,000 steps in the last three days.

I feel content, pleasantly tired and I know that when I get back to work tomorrow internet I’ll have a sense of pride that not a single moment has been wasted.

Davey

  Not a single moment wasted Despite me originally intending to do a new walk today I changed my plans late last night when I was unexpectedly invited out for a bank holiday lunch at the…

[laceyeb]

DWTS Athletes Week 3 Recap

**DISCLAIMER: This will obnoxiously be at the beginning of every recap, so feel free to skip over it when you no longer care. I started writing these recaps for my mom way back in season 9 after I went to college and we weren’t watching together anymore. I love sharing them with you, but keep in mind that tumblr is not my intended audience as I write. So if you are confused about anything or have any questions, feel free to always ask and I can try to clear it up for you! Happy reading! :)

OMG I’m so stressed out!!! Now that we know final 3, I have to assume either Josh or Adam will win. For them, I’d be happy with either. I love Adam so much. And Josh too, but especially Adam. BUT SHARNA!!!!! I just don’t know what I want. If Sharna ends up in second place AGAIN, I might just lose it…

Mirai and Alan - 9,9,8,9 - quickstep

I wish I could be disappointed to see them go tonight, but I’m really not. Josh and Sharna were the last to be called safe, so it could have easily been Mirai and Adam. The good news is that Alan will most likely be a pro now from here on out. I want to see him on a regular season. The dance was really good. It was a perfect dance to start off the night. There were a couple tiny spots where I thought she wasn’t quite quick enough, but it wasn’t much. I don’t think the 8 was necessary. There was a really cute little thing in her package with her parents that made her waaaaay more likable.

Jennie and Keo - 7,8,7,7 - Viennese waltz

I haven’t had any interest in her this season and I’m certainly not about to start now. It’s a shame when they waste good songs on subpar dancers, all thought I don’t really like this song. And like I already told you, the song was terrible. I didn’t even watch the dance. I probably should have. But there was a little Alan/Jenna/MERYL! trio coming back from the commercial and I’m still focused on that! Jennie seems like a nice enough person who could keep getting better. Shame she didn’t have enough time to do that.

I could have done without David as a guest judge. I love David, but they just don’t need guest judges. It’s so unnecessary.

Chris and Witney - 8,9,7,9 - foxtrot

Another one I didn’t get enough time with! I really wanted him to be in the final 3 over Tonya, but I’m hoping that maybe people who were voting for him will vote for Josh now. They had a fun and entertaining dance! I really liked it. Witney did a good job with this one. I’m going to keep saying how much I wish he was on a full season! He would have only continued to get better and better and I like him! This short season is garbage! But either Jenna or Sharna should win, so maybe I’ll like it after all! Len’s 7 doesn’t surprise me because the dance was a little theatrical, but it worked for the dance. Oh well. I’d say 8.5.

Tonya and Sasha - 8,9,8,8 - rumba

I think I might just go get some dessert now… Just read what I wrote about them in the battle round dance. I watched the dance, but muted everything else. The dance was fine. Don’t know if I muted it because of Tonya or Sasha at this point…

Adam and Jenna - 10,10,9,10 - contemporary

I’ve been waiting all night for this one! I already know it’s going to be amazing!!! I don’t know what Len’s problem is! Ahh I don’t have time to write anything and Josh and Sharna are coming! Quickly: The dance was so incredible, but not really my taste. Contemporary is Jenna’s thing for sure, but her contemporaries are a little too funky and weird for me. Just a little much. But for what the dance was, it was so amazing. So amazing. I love Adam so so so much and I would 110% would want him to win if Sharna wasn’t still there!

Josh and Sharna - 9,9,9,9 - contemporary

I wish they could have gotten at least one 10. Even if it was from David! Oh well. At least they made it to the finals!!! I just don’t know what to think about who I want to win. Like I said, I love Adam and I would be so happy to see him win (and I expect he probably will), but with Sharna also in the finals, what am I supposed to do??? NOT want her to win?! Not happening!!! I liked this dance more than Adam and Jenna’s just because it’s the kind of contemporary I prefer. He did a couple really crazy lifts that were so cool. I’m going to be very stressed out for the next week because I’m trying to prepare myself for Josh and Sharna getting second place. I want Adam to win. There’s no doubt about that. But it has to be Sharna for me. It just has to be. But I expect Adam and Jenna to win so I’m trying to prepare myself. I have to stay up past my bedtime and vote tonight because these are the votes for the winner!

Battles:

Tonya and Jennie

At least David has it figured out and chose Jennie. Then again, Tonya was undoubtedly better than Jennie. But I still don’t understand. Maybe I just don’t like her because I know I’m not supposed to. Maybe I would actually like her and be falling for it if I didn’t know any better. Then again, I don’t like Sasha either. Apparently he’s been causing all sorts of childish drama on twitter (I would know because I’m very hip) because Adam doesn’t like Tonya (obviously) and has made that known. Although he’s not being super harsh. He’s just telling it like it is like he does. But then Sasha has been posting weird tweets about rude comments coming from his coworkers. So then Val jumps in and starts posting similar things because he’s obviously not going to let someone talk about Jenna’s partner like that. Just a lot of drama and Sasha is coming across like a 5 year old. And then everyone went to Maks and Val’s tour last night because they were somewhere in the area and Sasha sat at home posting pictures of Emma’s mirrorball like it’s his own and like Maks and Val and Peta don’t already have plenty… Anyways…. I didn’t watch the dance because I didn’t care and I’m still all worked up from Josh and Sharna.

Adam and Mirai

There was a live “America’s vote” during the battles and Adam won with 64% of the vote. That was the biggest difference between any of the three groups. Good. I wanted Alan to do well, but I don’t like Mirai. And if Alan not making the finals means that Josh and Sharna do, I definitely won’t miss Alan for the next week. Oh well! I’m so excited to see Meryl back! One of the best! This was a very good battle and very close. You’ll definitely have to watch it.

Josh and Chris

Glad Josh won! He might really need those two bonus points next week! Although I’m getting confused and I don’t even know if the scores matter for next week?! But they must because it’s the finals! Who knows… Anyways… Chris actually won “America’s vote” which I didn’t expect. Although I said before that Chris is the one person I would have wanted to see on a full length season and I haven’t changed my mind. I really really like him. I’m so sad we only got 3 weeks to get to know him! I can’t even explain how fun this was! Just watch it! You’ll love it!

Wait until you see Sharna’s face when her and Josh made it through to the finals! She knew they were going home and was all prepared for it and she was SHOCKED!!!