#aa: Wild West

[aroundappalachia]

before wild west // 28/05/2024

[kohakudragon]

Artfight 48! This is @aa-arttss ‘s Wild West oc, Aliras! ❤️

[ranbling]

911 7×8 first thoughts

So we're starting with the AA scene

Poor Bobby just realised who is Amir (and he stalked him to the meeting and gave a whole ass speech to Bobby)

Is it Bobby's dad?? So Bobby has an older brother too

So Tim is Bobby's dad

Ooh May and Harry

I don't think amends are the right way to go

Bobby don't go to random cities alone!!

I like the new lady (forgot her name if it was even said)

Ugh I hate Bobby's dad

So my theory - Amir is not really trying to kill Bobby in the scene in the trailer but thinks it's someone from the cartell

What is this wild west music??

I don't think a little tire will protect Bobby

I was right!!!

Poor Bobby is like 10 and taking care of his dad

Amir doesn't know what Bobby went through and how suicidal he was

Ugh I really hate Bobby's dad

Ooh Amir killed the old man's son

Oh the old man is cartell

Oh Bobby's dad just died

Ooh Bobby still not thinks he deserves a second chance

[swldx]

BBC 0524 14 Feb 2024

6195Khz 0501 14 FEB 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from SANTA MARIA DI GALERIA. SINPO = 55233. English, @0501z World News anchored by Stewart Macintosh. The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, making him the first cabinet member to face impeachment in nearly 150 years. Many Republicans blame Mr Mayorkas for an unprecedented influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. The issue now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, where it is likely to fail. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the vote a "blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship" and a "political stunt". He also blasted criticism of NATO by his likely 2024 election challenger, Donald Trump, as "dumb", "shameful" and "un-American". Biden also said the remarks underscored the urgency of passing a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package for US allies. The bill just passed the Senate, but it faces political headwinds in the House. A Democrat has won the swing US congressional district left vacant when former Republican Congressman George Santos was expelled last December. Tom Suozzi's Tuesday night victory over rival Mazi Pilip denies Republicans a chance to pad out their slim majority in the House of Representatives. More than 200 million people over Indonesia's 17,000 islands and across three time zones are eligible to vote in an election that will close in the next hour. The election will see voters choose their president, vice-president and representatives in the legislature. The current frontrunner is former defence minister Prabowo Subianto, a retired general with a bloody human rights record. It has prompted fears that Indonesia is in danger of sliding back towards its authoritarian past. India and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday signed an agreement on a trade corridor that aims to connect Europe with India through parts of the Middle East by sea and rail, an ambitious plan backed by the U.S. and the European Union. Nearly half a million homes were left without power in the Australian state of Victoria after a storm knocked out parts of the network. The wild weather also hampered efforts to fight massive bushfires in the state's west. This year's Super Bowl was watched by an average of 123.4 million people in the US, making it the most watched broadcast since the 1969 Moon landing. @0506z "Newsday" begins. MLA 30 amplified loop (powered w/8 AA rechargeable batteries ~10.8vdc), Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 185°, bearing 49°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 7877KM from transmitter at Santa Maria di Galeria. Local time: 2301.

[scentedchildnacho]

The small church service I would for San diegans help the pastors focus on original economics of monastic Christianity.....which is the roads have to become safe.....if the roads aren't safe we are never going to be able to have anything around indigenous people if fascistic urges aren't re sublimated we are never going to survive this

You can't run to a house or hide in a shelter the roads have to be quiet well lit sanitary and safe their very disgusting if ever given fossil fuels

So if you ask me what I have witnessed as important for that is women who aren't of gangs have to be apart of work unions or work is man up homosexual cults and all they do is waste energy causing themselves disease dig a pit to fill it?

There were biological agents and renewed ideas of waste and quite frankly common consumption as a recycled resource kept being refused and now there isn't a common plastic bucket to fill a hazard pot hole with

Built right I find pot holes an art form till complete re construction is voted on

Its glass I'm sorry but even young teen education can completely re fill glass bottle shelves and these men stalk around like they have done more or have been of more valuability then a structure of sophmore year...

I just said delicate and feminine ecologies is necessary or your products services infrastructure and roads will just break down it's Ikea it's more durable then new heavy made materials

Tex will do it....some gang women hells angels can really destroy a pretty beautiful project alone....or fair observance and Mogadishu

The landscapers want every week income just destroying the library interstitial space that's all they do is psychopath study on males they go put a lot of unnecessary energy wastes into their work body then they go steal all our things and stalk around wanting medicals to find their body case interesting like the phosphate company and Ive started to realize big males are kind of select and difficult to do that was ugly though

Their muscular structure everything is just a very ugly male just very fragmented and cannibal and gross

The United States is an indigenous nation and they all try to be Irish Italian or African big....and it's not beautiful....

Otherwise a man wanted me to do his homework about not going to AA....so I would do it....their awful annoying people who want 420 Navajo laws to give them developments their addictive tendencies are integral to.....so I would do it because they attract the punisher to their more violent and wild nature and I don't have to make people so sad they consider nukes at Dresden in revenge

Lamb of God these people enjoy killing the most delicate alive things?

I can't defend myself against a technocratic monster

I was just like I use to go to AA but it was like new York times best sellers ....it was just old addicts too into their personal fame and they just try to make my mental condition worse.... They were only addicts in life and they have things from Korean war theory casualties of the same force is more for them

Schools if a lot of the school feminines can't make it the Starbucks manager gets to be bigger obese with her crack dealer more regularly on time to her

That's why I eventually got a little obsessive compulsive about Being....I was white and that is my stuff that is just compensation and very careful about what I will take issue with ...

Vaccines is brain washing and neo Marxist reform gives me a renewal that cares more about recessive other genetic traits.....so I do ask myself a lot do I want that national African and white togetherness

Do I want narin and manju or is white and indigenous togetherness ruining my life all the time for Delhi privilege

If I want the dikshit screans that tells cars you cannot ever look at people you don't know and haven't paid I have to go get dumped in Delhi and that lady called them trains ..

Anyway I just said men that told me they went to AA....the punisher devil I guess on shadow of the West has really possessed those old church buildings hell bent on getting rid of God . ..so they tell me if they went their still very possessed people expected with age to lash out violently finally and let all their repressed sexual desires out.....

The devil wants to humiliate Arabs there and the beach and bay news reports it's been this Columbine cruel since 1999.....so you would have to ask locals for wisdom it gives me PTSD....

People like me are more prohibited then gang and so I notice people trying to psychologically force people to feel more harmed then they were by class action substances and force them into non addiction gangs....

They were kind of calling everyone who used substance compulsively a COVID cancer and now I've noticed the alcohol industry mission statement is responsibility and you would have to have been in an asylum for several decades to really really emergently need substance removed as a common custom.....

If you ask me my case history did influence alcohol safety and they continue to steal a lot of it from me and I'm what produced it's benefits.....im an alcoholic and those people won't get me a beer on occasion those horrible disgusting dull smokers won't get me a beer till isis I have to plan out hurting it off my benefits....

They steal so many of my things people pictorialize my cruelty....I just leave those gross ass whores to restaurant work and I maybe could help them uniform and be non invasive about lack of hope mass service can be ultimately hygienic....I just leave the stagflation to their slaughter porn....I hate them stealing my common things that much....

People like me about apostolic documentaries notice strange symbols on hoodies appear to be suicide bombers their mostly liberated to kill themselves......

So im the type of alcoholic that will want to liberate you to trust the large public system more then private meetings and don't ever let creepy gang ites around you .....

Ive also thought I could be the type of white really with indigenous people......and I too after this cruel of a poverty don't care if feds threaten delhi privilege with if you don't stop copping around with Germans at religious people I don't care really if a whole princely preserve is gone that forces you finally to help your treatied people's

Why for what for whom lots of doctors with expensive energy in Delhi for constant completely awful disgusting cruel incomptent retard here....or the light Nazi

Laudato Si....if you ask me for insight about terrorism it's that creepy subjective private royalties animals and I have to go hungry to feed crows......i do admit hateing people that kill the crows with my feed....

I was like that black lady with the Maltese is so cute though....addictions to native as European modeling is gross looking compared to her interesting ness but she finally told me calling africanism cop work military has so demonized her she helps starve me to feed birds hooved animal ....their birds they dont have canines

Their birds you cannot refuse them migration they don't innately live off tree food mostly

Don't give the birds things or they dont go south after that much destruction....

I was like she is pretty and interesting and the black men don't go to her right away and take her with them....

I don't go with that white man because he is for japaneese....he doesn't date white women I would have to be a bitch....

Truth is this poverty is so awful I have decided to legally stalk someone I could have dated just for something to do......not to harm them but because I read a European biography of an opera singer and it's how much do you really know about yourself if you won't play roles of very controversial pale people

Because the energetics can't be coped with without a simm character

God i should have been apart of that life.....

Otherwise I don't really like the white men here it's really obvious I'm not with their counter culture revenge and I don't trust them in some way...

And I was called a cutter by homicidal freaks that expected me to share my dinner table with them so I don't want to go to anyone unless I may really really want to go to them with complete toleration of me wanting to be with them and wanting and wanting

Stalking.....only pronoun can finally truly help this and stop it

Why for what for whom did your benefits go to far north geothermal while your local was called battle creek Rembrandts

I was with black people's long enough to notice they enjoy peace treaties with Europe and helping Europeans and have pre modern religions....so the basic care and needs of people is something most black peoples I have met do find important.....so that's why I suspect giving a sandwich to the birds is why the black men around leave her alone.....

People with too many obsessive compulsive beliefs about pork are with crack cocaine survivors and those black men do not go around her

I leave a lot of white men alone because they act like rock and roll and will just tell me if I hang out I'm being a bitch

Well this is makeing me really adhere to God and drill sergeantness so

[100-yardstare]

Self Insert & F/O Master List

Main Romantic F/O

Dr. Eggman/Ivo Robotnik - Sonic the Hedgehog

Other F/O's (meaning I am not currently crushing/fixating on them, but they are still my faves)

Blinky/Blinkous Galadrigal - Trollhunters

All Might - My Hero Academia

Dave the Octopus - Penguins of Madagascar

King Candy/Turbo/King Candybug - Wreck-It Ralph

Astarion - BG3

Shin - Dragon Ball

Piccolo - Dragon Ball

Stanford Pines - Gravity Falls

General Grievous - Star Wars

Ingo - Pokemon

Other Fave Faves (Platonic)

Shank - Wreck-It Ralph

Aerith - Final Fantasy

Launch - Dragon Ball

Tracer - Overwatch

Tron Bonne - Megaman Legends

Wheatley - Portal 2

Samus Aran - Metroid

Ridley - Metroid

Ahsoka Tano - Star Wars

OCs

Steven Wheatfield - Started off as a parody version of Human!Wheatley but has grown into his own over the years. I use him in almost all my AUs and give him cameos frequently in my works. He is a British programmer and fills in for my "Smart Guy" roles.

Self Inserts

Atomic Ace (My Hero Academia) - Quirk "Adrenaline". Adrenaline gives her super strength, speed, and overall massive power. After many years she finally reached America's Number 1 Hero in her late 20's, only to lose it months later due to her quirk taking a toll on her body. In her youth, she hung out with All Might and David Shield during Toshi's American tour. All Might and AA both were in love with each other but were to focused on becoming hero's to admit it to one another. That is until AA comes to Japan years later during the show's events.

Kailey "Kat" Terranova (Metroid) - Kat is the Director of Development for Galactic Federation Space Research Station Number 2. In charge of keeping tabs with both the research team and Federation investors, Kat has been working with head scientist Steven Wheatfield to bring to light the transcendence of human minds into Artificial Intelligence. Unfortunately, things go wrong when the base is attacked by Ridley and the Space Pirates, and over the course of the Metroid franchise she becomes their unwilling genetically modified test subject.

Kat (Dragon Ball) - After her dad is killed by King Piccolo during the Piccolo arc in Dragon Ball, Kat sets off on her own with her newfound freedom. Little does she know that she will soon be making company with Piccolo Jr. Set between the end of Dragon Ball and DBZ. Later expands into DBZ as an AU where Kat and Piccolo know the events of the "canon" timeline, which causes Shin to get involved way early on to try and stop Buu and prior threats.

Kailey aka The First User (Wreck-It Ralph) - Is part of a test that sends people to digital space and is lowkey a Tron crossover insert and AU. She is the first person to have physical contact with Programs/game characters, triggering a series of events that lead the world to allow Programs to travel to and fro between digital space and the real world.

Kailey (Pokemon) - Owns a farm in west Unova. During her back and forth to the city after establishing her farm, news of one of the Submas brothers going missing is hard to miss. Little does she know that Arceus is about to use her, too, and soon she will cross fates with Ingo, the missing twin.

The Vulture (Spiderverse) - With her father abandoning her and her sickly mother, a new variant of the Vulture is soon to be added to the Spiderverse. Oscorp, having been experimenting on the poor population of the city, the Vulture is born with large brown wings as a result of her parents exposure to genetic mutagens. While her mother regards her as beautiful, society rejects her, burying her more into poverty. Ultimately, the illness takes her mother, and she seeks revenge on Oscorp and its hedge-funders.

Sarai Daan (Star Wars) - Sarai is a Togruta Jedi Knight and a survivor of the Clone Wars.

Kelda the Wild aka The Skrill Princess (How to Train Your Dragon) - A former hunter-trapper, Kelda once looked up to bounty hunters like Grimmel the Grisly during their youth and sought to appease her starving guild. However, her heart soon pulled her away from that life, and she would abandon all she knew to fight for the dragons, specifically a mother Skrill who left two children behind after she was killed by Grimmel.

Kat/Kailey/Kaleen/etc. (WoW, BG3, DnD, General Fantasy, etc.) - Always a Cleric with light or fire affinities, and always an Elf. Knowledgeable in Apologetics and religious texts of their god/gods and even other gods of their universe, and has a chaotic good alignment.

Kailey (Penguins of Madagascar) - is the human assistant to Dr. Octavius Brine aka Dave the Octopus. She is virtually the only human in the world to know his secret.

Guardian of Comfort (Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood) - Is the guardian of comfort and spirit of warmth and acceptance. Based on "comfort and joy" in the Christmas tune, she has fire abilities and is associated with candlelight. As a human, she died in a fire protecting the ones she loved, and was chosen by Man in Moon, to continue to provide her comforting presence to lost and despairing children all over the world.

Kailey (Sonic verse) - A human. Boom!Kailey is actually an isekai that gets sucked into the shenanigans of the universe taking place in the cartoon Sonic Boom and serves as the focal point for my other inserts in the many Sonic universes. Main!Kailey is a test pilot, with aspirations to have a "lazy girl job" and has goals to have what Boom!Kailey has. Both versions are in love or married to Eggman and the trend is that in every universe they always get together with him in some form, good or bad.

[dzpenumbra]

3/14/23

Storm's a'comin. Snow soon. That's the word on the street.

I say that as though I've been out on the street... that's what my mom told me.

She caught me at a difficult time. I was literally just getting ready to start working on my quartz knife. I was debating getting in the shower first, but it's weird to even consider that when I'm going to wet-sand stone, it's so messy, it always feels like a better idea to shower after. Now... it's past 2AM and I still haven't showered.

The whole conversation was just about how fucked my life is. It was initiated by me, I can feel it. I swear, therapy did a lot of good for me. It really did. But being in live-in therapy environments for extended periods of time, having no friends except therapists or people in a therapy environment... it's turned every conversation I have into a fucking AA meeting.

"Hi, my name is ______ and these are my problems, and I struggle with this, and this sucks, and I can be supported in these ways."

And I'm starting to notice that no one outside of therapeutic environments speaks that way. Most of them speak in fucking code, I've noticed. It's weird. Like... I haven't really spoken subtext that much in my life... at all... just in general... but isolation made it flat-out difficult and... damaging. Like, I will say very heartfelt things to people and they think I'm... trying to trick them? Or, online, "trolling"? Or they assume I mean something completely different? It's so odd to me. I get that it's a self-protective mechanism that apparently a lot of people have, but like... from my perspective, it causes a shit-ton more harm than good... like... it doesn't even seem to protect people.

Anywho, the conversation was about my stream last night and how genuinely scared I am. I got a fucking DMCA notice 1 fucking minute after I ended my stream. 1 goddamn minute. 1/4 of my VoD was automatically muted. And I honestly don't know what to get from that. Am I safe? Am I going to get a strike? Is Twitch protecting me from strikes? Can I play music? Can I play podcasts?

And again, PTSD functions off of a sense of feeling safe and secure. And when some fucking greedy shitbags threaten to shut down my only source of meeting new people because I was listening to music while drawing - as a professional artist - and they want to claim that I'm... trying to sell the music? Like the music even has anything to do with what I'm presenting besides just being background noise. And I can't appeal it. I can't even speak in my own defense. It's pretty much a guaranteed strike. Like, what the fuck is the point of Fair Use laws if you don't even get a fucking hearing?! They gave up on that shit like 3 years ago, it's the Wild fucking West out here. OH MY GOD. As I'm typing this, the stream I was enjoying in the background runs the second 8-ad block in the past half hour. What the fuck happened? Seriously! This place has gone to shit! I swear, no one even remembers what Twitch and Youtube used to be like.

Ugh. So much stress. Constantly. I need a pee break.

Okay, back to venting I guess. The thing that pissed me off the most was that I got a warning email from Twitch about broadcasting copyrighted music... to no one. And I don't think my mom could really understand that. And she was trying to nudge me towards... copyright free music - which I ranted about last night - and then getting a broadcasting license. I mean. Give me a break. I have zero fucking viewers and I'm getting a broadcasting license?! Tell me I'm the crazy one thinking that's a bit excessive...

Then we went to... the ideas I had the past few years. My brother is a musician. We used to jam together all the time. We recorded an album together. I offered to pay him to make me as much music as he could, good chill lo-fi. As much as he could make. It can loop, it can be repetitive, whatever. Give me a giant playlist of original, good music that you would like... spark up a bowl and listen to while you're... fuck, I legit can't think of a "normal people" analogy for drawing. I don't know, just chill music. Just nothing too dark or abrasive. That stuff, just put it on a different list and I'll use that for like... horror drawing night or something. You know? Vibes. All that. And every person that comes in, they get introduced to his music. Idk how that's not a win-win.

He, obviously, rejected that. Obviously. I'm guessing it was a creative control issue or something. Wouldn't even try. Then I asked him if he would be interested in browsing Soundcloud and throwing together a playlist of unsigned musicians that he found that are actually good. And get paid to do that. Since I just have too fucking much on my goddamn hands, I can't do everything. And I could really use the help. Nope.

I literally couldn't even pay my own brother to make me a mixtape for my stream. That's 2023. That's how fucked music is right now. Or at least... in my experience.

Dude, I remember when me and my buddy J (my bandmate) would go on rides late at night just to listen to music in the car. He had roommates and shit, I lived in an apartment building, so we would just go for rides and crank the music and just... listen to music together, driving on the dark highways at like midnight. The people I run into, they act like you can't fucking do that shit anymore. Like it went extinct in 2012 or some shit.

I will know for a fact that I've found someone I need to keep close to me, when I get a message at like... 11:30... saying "hey dude, do you wanna go for a drive and just listen to the new Periphery album? See what we think about it? And then park somewhere and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and talk about like... what we liked about it and what surprised us?"

I tried to do that last night. I seriously... I just wanted more than anything to share that experience of listening to that album for the first time. That's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I will never experience that for the first time again, and I captured it, and it was fucking censored by corporate bots. That's why I was broadcasting, it's why I fucking hit "Start Broadcast", to spend time with people, to share that special moment with people, to share my passion and excitement. To share that time. And now, we can share time with people who are on the other side of the planet, with a 3 second delay on their goddamn phone. How fucking nuts is that?! So it's easier than ever to create these shared experiences. And yet I'm more alone than ever before. Why?

Because they all "grew up". Because no one has the time for this shit anymore. Because the people in my life disappeared and started families, or hide away in their daily grind. Or get buried in responsibilities. I don't even know anymore, it just makes me mad. This isn't how life is supposed to work.

This voice? The outraged "fuck the world" voice? I'm pretty sure that's a big part of my PTSD. It very bluntly expresses disapproval. It demands change. It often feels different, like different parts of my brain are lit up. It feels bitter, and oppressed. It feels like it can't give quarter, because it would be unsafe. It is very frequently misunderstood. The most frequently of all of my modes of communication, I'd guess. Which really sucks, because it's the one that has the most important messages, I'd say.

I try really hard to vet the messages that voice sends out before I send them. Fact-check, to use a trending hashtag. And at least keep an open mind that I may be reading into things a bit, or exaggerating. Because this is a self-protective mechanism I'm dealing with, and they do have a tendency to kinda... act first and sort out the details later. But... here... I'm pretty sure everything I've gone over here is pretty dead on the money. Which really sucks.

But... silver lining... this is a road map to what will bring me peace and happiness in my life. I need to find a way to open up my studio (share my art process/life) to the world... which doesn't involve threats of litigation. I need to find a way to connect with people over music... that doesn't involve risking having both my business and my social networking (personal and professional) shut down. The last person I heard that was a non-partner that got banned from Twitch was sending in appeals for over a month, and he was a comedian who was on a nationally broadcast sitcom, and he had to literally have a friend in the biz call in a favor from someone who worked at Twitch to get him unbanned. I'm not even fucking kidding. So... if I get canned? I'm fucked. Bye bye Twitch. Having security around that, that would make me feel much safer. And, I guess... I'm still mourning the loss of my brother and my former friends.

Might as well address that. Since I'm here. I say this with a heavy heart, because it's always hard to lose someone no matter how. I know loss pretty well. And... I know the two are different, and it might just be me... but in my experience... it's easier to lose someone because they're... gone... than it is to lose someone who is still here. They're just... ... how do I say this... I'm picturing Obi Wan lighting his lightsaber on Mustafar after Anakin force-chokes his pregnant wife.

Honestly, watching the scene again... I often feel more like Padme. I don't have the confidence Obi Wan has. Not anymore. And I don't have the willingness to enter combat, to stand ground and defend. And, unfortunately... look at how that ends for her. You know? I mean, not like Obi Wan's method was super effective either in the long run... And... I don't even know if there's a good way that exists to deal with people who have gone down a Dark path. I really don't. It just... it eats me alive to give up on people when I know their self is destroying them, their own pain and fear and anger. I hate giving up on people. Let alone... standing against them... when they turn on me. Even just defending myself in the moment feels like too much, let alone righteously opposing them.

Moments like that are a big part of why I want to seek out a spiritual group that has similar ethical pacifist beliefs as I do. I grew up in a super competitive family, my father being the most competitive of them all. I have no role model for these behaviors, so any new one is one that I've sorta... found through experimentation. I often feel very clumsy and ill-equipped. And I would really appreciate some form of... mentorship or something. On how to be a pacifist who is dealing with... possessed people. Haunted people. Traumatized people. Hey, maybe it'll even help me deal with myself, when my demons flare up. As they have been lately.

Let's not sugar coat this. I've noticed how I've been acting lately. I've noticed my fear and my anger. I've noticed my suspicions of people conspiring against me, all that shit. All byproducts of trauma. I see bits of Anakin in myself too. I know it's in there, and it's growing. And I need to get it out in healthy ways, and process it in healthy ways.

Meditation is helping, though it's extremely subtle and hard for me to really remember to do it.

My big problem with keeping this insistent "you don't understand, this is what's going on in my life and I just need blahblahblah and where the hell are my friends? Why is no one coming to my streams? Why can't I play music? Why? Why?" bullshit... is that... I actually do need answers to these questions. Like... how do I walk away from that? Just... not stream? I literally just started again. Then... do Instagram or YouTube videos instead of Twitch? Maybe. That's something. I don't know, it just feels like... giving up. Like I ask one person, they don't know... so I give the fuck up? But I have no one else to ask!

But again, the big problem with that... is that it's directly connected to my feeling of safety. Direct chain of events.

No music -> eventually no stream -> no new people seeing my art -> career over.

No friends dropping by the stream -> constant zero viewer count -> no new viewers, no one wants to go to a dead stream -> no new people seeing my art -> career over.

It all funnels down.

Ugh, this is so depressing. Like... I just wish I could workshop this with someone, have someone brainstorm shit with me who actually knows what they're talking about. Like... if I put on a 3 hour podcast, am I going to get flagged?

I need to get off of this topic. It's eating me alive. I didn't stream because of it today. For fuck's sake. I did 6+ hours yesterday, and I couldn't stream at all tonight because I just engaged with this line of thought when my mom called because I was still on-edge.

At least it wasn't a fight. Gotta count my blessings on that.

So... snow's coming. That's nice, huh? XD No electric board, but I can try to hoof it to the community car and swing over to the indoor skatepark, that's something. And I can snowskate, if the snow is good. That's good.

Today felt like a wash. Honestly. Just really stressful all day. Which really sucks because yoga wasn't too bad, meditation went okay, and then I did dishes and cleaned the kitchen, including vacuuming. Then it just went to shit. Because I went into AA-mode and just started unloading all the crap I was carrying from last night about DMCA and work and shit. Ugh.

I just want to make art, man. And listen to good tunes. And share that with other people. And if that's too much to ask... I don't know what to say. But I respect my non-existent viewers, and myself, too much to subject them to copyright free muzak.

Okay, here's a good one to reset the vibes. So... I had a really good idea today for another mala. I was thinking about the bead sequences and how the number of beads are sorta focused around important and powerful cultural numbers. And I had this really cool idea of having each bead be representative of a note within a key, color coded by note, and each section of the mala is representative of a chord, with notes ascending from lowest to highest. And the entire mala itself represents a chord progression.

Music is calling me. The big question is... do I engage with it before or after the skull? I'll mull it over tomorrow.

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for November 18

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for November 18 include Slumberland, TM, ROMCOM, and more.

Slumberland

Slumberland, the new movie from Francis Lawrence, is out today.

Joined by a larger-than-life outlaw, a daring young orphan journeys through a land of dreams to find a precious pearl that will grant her greatest wish.

The Menu

The Menu, the new movie from Mark Mylod, is out today.

A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

She Said

She Said, the new movie from Maria Schrader, is out today.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation— a story that helped launch the #Metoo movement, shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever.

The Last Manhunt

The Last Manhunt, the new movie from Christian Camargo, is out today.

Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. Due to her father’s refusal to give his blessing to the pair and the conflict between the two families, a fatal incident forces the young couple to flee the only place they know as home. In this tragic tale of love, loss, and realization, Willie Boy and Carlota fight to persevere even with all odds against them.

The People We Hate At The Wedding

The People We Hate At The Wedding, the new movie from Claire Scanlon, is out today.

In the hilariously raunchy comedy The People We Hate at the Wedding, dysfunctional American siblings Alice (Kristen Bell) and Paul (Ben Platt) along with their ever-optimistic mom (Allison Janney), are invited to the British wedding of their estranged half-sister Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) as a chance for them to reconnect as – more or less – adults, and learn to love each other like they once did.

There There

There There, the new movie from Andrew Bujalski, is out today.

Acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Bujalski (Support the Girls, Computer Chess) explores the precarious nature of human connection in There There, a round robin of emotional two-character vignettes in which seven people reach out and bond momentarily, setting the scene for the next encounter. A pair of new lovers, an alcoholic and her AA sponsor, a teacher and a parent, a lawyer and his client, and more move from scene to scene, revealing intimate details as they forge connections. Via a groundbreaking shooting process, Bujalski plays with ideas of isolation and perception by filming each actor individually in separate locations, only joining them to their partner’s performance in the edit. An extraordinary cast including Jason Schwartzman, Lennie James, Lili Taylor and Molly Gordon sensitively captures the humor and heartbreaking fragility of life and love in the 2020s.

Disenchanted

Disenchanted, the new movie from Adam Shankman, is out today.

It has been more than ten years since Giselle (Amy Adams) and Robert (Patrick Dempsey) wed, but Giselle has grown disillusioned with life in the city, so they move their growing family to the sleepy suburban community of Monroeville in search of a more fairy tale life. Unfortunately, it isn’t the quick fix she had hoped for. Suburbia has a whole new set of rules and a local queen bee, Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph), who makes Giselle feel more out of place than ever. Frustrated that her happily ever after hasn’t been so easy to find, she turns to the magic of Andalasia for help, accidentally transforming the entire town into a real-life fairy tale and placing her family’s future happiness in jeopardy. Now, Giselle is in a race against time to reverse the spell and determine what happily ever after truly means to her and her family.

Lamborghini: The Man Behind The Legend

Lamborghini: The Man Behind The Legend, the new movie from Bobby Moresco, is out today.

Featuring Oscar winners Mira Sorvino and the screenwriter of Crash, this thrilling, high-speed biopic tells the story of genius auto inventor Ferruccio Lamborghini (Frank Grillo). All his life Ferruccio has dreamed of beating his longtime rival Enzo Ferrari (Gabriel Byrne)—and the upcoming Geneva grand prix could be his chance to blow past Ferrari for good. But can Ferruccio get his untested vehicle prepped for victory with the competition just months away? The race is on!

Somebody

Somebody, the new TV series from Jung Ji-woo and Han Ji-wan, is out today.

A developer builds a dating app, hoping for connection. Soon, she gets caught in the web of a serial killer who uses the platform to lure victims.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, the new games from Nintendo, is out today.

Catch, battle, and train Pokémon in the Paldea Region, a vast land filled with lakes, towering peaks, wastelands, small towns, and sprawling cities. Explore a wide-open world at your own pace and traverse land, water, and air by riding on a form-shifting Legendary Pokémon—Koraidon in Pokémon Scarlet and Miraidon in Pokémon Violet. Choose either Sprigatito, Fuecoco, or Quaxly, to be your first partner Pokémon before setting off on your journey through Paldea.

TM

TM, the new album from BROCKHAMPTON, is out today.

ROMCOM

ROMCOM, the new album from Jakey, is out today.

softCORE

softCORE, the new album from Fousheé, is out today.

The Fuse Is Lit

The Fuse Is Lit, the new album from Busta Rhymes, is out today.

[professional-termite]

first off THAT SOUNDS SICK AS HELL OMG

and second off oh no

alr you chose the weirdest out of all of these, because i made it originally as a joke and it spiralled into something entirely different.

essentially, the plot revolves around a regular dude from our world whose name happens to be craig. he gets sucked into a tear in space and time, which ends up getting him stuck in a world where everyone in america has a name which is a variant of craig, and everyone insists his name is craig craigson.

a few members of the cast include:

- mayor kraiggrshire chraigulous craigneilius VII, who is actually named neil nealbulous (british people are all named variations of "neil" dw about it) and somehow doesnt get noticed as a non-craig despite having the most egregious british accent ever. he is a war criminal

- kraigtavius kringle, the 7'6" giant youtuber who owns a time machine. he records videos in the past, and ends up getting his assistant creg killed while on a trip to the wild west with him and craig in my BEST JOKE EVER ("uhh look i get that im pale but im not a vampire. that cross isnt gonna do anything..." "its not a cross its a multiplication symbol. wards off stupid people" "AA--")

- creig kreidedieh, the cowboy who killed creg, accidentally gets sucked into the future when craig and kraigtavius return to the future. kraigtavius is like "yeahh we can just send him back its fine!" *pats time machine* *time machine explodes* and then kreidedieh ends up being kraigtavius new lab assistant and they fall in love or smthn. also kreidedieh is like 4'11" so its like the funniest most extreme height difference ever

- red. no one likes red

- krebonaut, the "lawyer" who is an alien that literally cant even speak english but is somehow a respected lawyer and member of craigian society, and whenever someone insinuates that he is not a craig everyone gets really offended

- fat kraiggy the mafia boss and his son lil kraiggy, who is definitely not a penguin

- craigtel, who is also a part of the mafia and needs sleep

- dj creig, who owns a hot topic

- anti-craig, the main villain and karen

there are more of them and they all have backstories and lore but i dont feel like typing it all out rn 😭😭 basically it was a cartoon and it was a bunch of dumb situations mashed together and it was so fun

I need you to know that I made two OCs that were based off of Matpat and Owen Wilson. One was a catboy and the other was a dog boy. They were like these detectives who were trying to track down a missing person. And there was haunted puppets involved? Idk

Anyway, they’re dating and in love. Yeah…

i. yes. yeah. yes. genius. brilliant *chefs kiss*

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Ahahaha wait, with all the backstory I established in the AA Borderlands AU, there is....little to no way that Miles and Phoenix could’ve known each other as kids, which makes their entire dynamic so much funnier 

because instead of having that history where Phoenix is like “something terrible has changed him and I need to help him”, they’re just strangers thrown together in conflict on a lawless hell planet and they both have guns and Phoenix still decides to try and redeem him and pull him away from everything that von Karma has taught him to be, and he succeeds at it despite Miles having no investment in him in any way, by sheer virtue of being so stubborn. He’s just so determined and somehow he wins over both Miles and Franziska, at the same time, just by being fucking annoying.

Incredible.

[adventuresofalgy]

When he had slowly gathered his wits about him, Algy turned around and noticed that in his absence his assistants had installed a smart new deer fence, no doubt in an effort to keep the iconic and “Romantic” Highland cows and red deer - which the tourists so much loved to photograph - from Romantically devouring and trampling their garden...

Hopping up onto the top of one of the tall wooden posts, Algy gazed out to the north-west, in the direction where he should have been able to see the beautiful Sea of the Hebrides and the Small Isles...

But there was nothing; just nothing at all beyond the faint, grey hills which surrounded his home.

Algy wasn’t surprised. It was early autumn on the wild west coast of the Scottish Highlands, and instead of those golden colours and crisp, fresh days which so many of his friends seemed to celebrate at this time of year, the dense Scotch mist driving in from the Atlantic Ocean had washed out the landscape with “a smoky smirr o rain”:

A misty mornin’ doon the shore wi a hushed an’ caller air, an’ ne’er a breath frae East or West tie sway the rashes there, a sweet, sweet scent frae Laggan’s birks gaed breathin’ on its ane, their branches hingin beaded in the smoky smirr o rain.

The hills aroond war silent wi the mist alang the braes. The woods war derk an’ quiet wi dewy, glintin’ sprays. The thrushes didna raise for me, as I gaed by alane, but a wee, wae cheep at passin’ in the smoky smirr o rain.

Rock an’ stane lay glisterin’ on aa the heichs abune. Cool an’ kind an’ whisperin’ it drifted gently doon, till hill an’ howe war rowed in it, an’ land an’ sea war gane. Aa was still an’ saft an’ silent in the smoky smirr o rain.

[Algy is quoting the poem The Smoky Smirr o Rain by the 20th century Scottish poet George Campbell Hay, who wrote in all three of the languages used in Scotland: Scots (as in this poem), Gaelic, and English.]

For the benefit of those who find the Scots words difficult to understand, Algy has made his own rough and literal translation, without any attempt at rhyming:

A misty morning down at the shore with a hushed and refreshing air, And never a breath from East or West to sway the rushes there, A sweet, sweet scent from Laggan’s birches was exhaled on its own, Their branches draped with beads in the misty drizzle of rain. The hills around were silent with the mist along the brows. The woods were dark and quiet with dewy, glinting twigs. The thrushes raised no alarm for me, as I went by alone, Except for a tiny mournful cheep at my passing in the misty drizzle of rain. Rock and stone lay glistening on all the heights above, Cool and kind (?) and whispering it drifted gently down Till hill and hollow were wrapped in it and land and sea were gone. All was still and soft and silent in the misty drizzle of rain.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

Duality

"The question becomes whether or not to fire, not where to aim." —Osiris

Type: Shotgun

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Compression Chamber - Fires a pellet spread in hip-fire or a single high-damage slug while aiming.

Trait: On Black Wings - Pellet final blows grant a stacking precision damage and reload speed buff. Precision hits with slugs extend the duration.

Ornaments: Antiquity, Binary Function

Origin & Description: Duality as a weapon doesn't quite know its own aesthetic. With a pull quote from Osiris that seems unrelated, a lore tab about hunting eliksni corrupted by Hive war god Xivu Arath, and a shotgun design that looks polished but doesn't really add up, it feels like an exotic that either got released too early or changed at the last minute. Also when you load Duality you load it with 8 shells at once, which begs a few questions. You break it open - it's a break-action, which I think is unique in Destiny - then slam in a single prepacked cluster of eight shells like a big pack of AA batteries. In fact maybe they are AA batteries and that's why the firing chamber has this orange-red glow like LEDs pretending to be a fireplace behind an odd lattice pattern.

Overall Duality's as confused as the person it belongs to: Crow, The Lightbearer Formerly Known As Uldren Sov. Given where Crow's been for the last several months I'd expect a Tangled Shore kitbash, not the Wild-West-by-way-of-elves look Duality seems to be gesturing at. Maybe Crow just has that innate Awoken sense of style; the petal-layered underbarrel does resemble the Dreaming City shotgun Retold Tale. I have no idea why the firing chamber looks like it's pretending to be a brick oven (is it supposed to be feathers?) nor why there's a wire pulled taut along the length of the barrel. I'm sure it serves some important purpose understood by people who are good with shotguns (i.e. not me.)

The glowing firing chamber looks cool but does little other than give it Solar damage; in terms of playstyle Duality's doubled nature is another entry in the archetype of "does one thing in hip-fire mode and another in aim-down-sights mode," subtype "and the two things synergize." Its two modes aren't as tightly-coupled as Symmetry, but like the names, they're related. In Duality's case the hip-fire mode shoots a wide cone of pellets that grant stacks of the On Black Wings buff on kills, which then charge up the precision single-slug shots you fire in aim-down-sights mode. That combo encourages you to knock down red-bars with hip-fire shots, then aim down sights to target a larger enemy with the increased damage. Landing precision hits - not kills - in ADS mode extends the buff's duration, so you really want to be hitting that crit spot. That means that, like the handful of single-slug Legendary shotguns, Duality wants you to either be stupidly good with shotguns or get within spitting distance of a nontrivial foe, neither of which are my forte. Some people can go sliding right up in there with a shottie, but those people are not me*.

*They're usually the people killing me. In Crucible. With shotguns.

So anyway enough about this boring shotgun. What's up with Crow? Ever since his resurrection he's been hiding out, mostly because any Guardian who catches sight of him tends to try to kill him and he doesn't know why. Uldren already had a lot of sympathy for the eliksni and Crow's outcast status only amplified it, so when he heard about eliksni being driven mad and transformed into Wrathborn on the Tangled Shore, he headed out there to see if he could help. One of Spider's people picked him up; Spider of course recognized him immediately, thought this was hilarious, and decided Crow was going to be his pet Lightbearer. He enforced the "offer" to work for him by catching and loading Crow's Ghost, Glint (née Pulled Pork), with a little insurance in the form of explosives inside his shell.

That's where we run into him when he spears a Hive Knight to keep Osiris from getting his fool head bashed in. We dance the awkward dance of knowing who he is and not mentioning it because he asks us not to ("he must have been a bad person," Crow's concluded), and long story short we fight the Wrathborn with his help, win Crow's freedom with a little clever wording and, well, then it gets kinda messy but more about that in Hawkmoon. The good news is this hapless idiot is no longer getting murdered and/or exploited by jerks on a daily basis and Saint-14 and Osiris the bird husbands have adopted him as their bird son, which is as it should be.

Crow lent us Duality as the seasonal weapon for Season of the Hunt in order to help chase the Wrathborn in said hunts, but while it's got some use in Crucible there are just more exciting shotguns out there, and once I completed its catalyst I visited Crow to give it back. But I still have questions, like, is Ghost back there preloading sets of eight shells? Where do the armatures they're packed into come from? Why the heck does it have that wire? I guess Destiny still has to keep a few mysteries from us.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

[ Ace of Spades | Ager's Scepter | Anarchy | Arbalest | Bad Juju | Bastion | Black Talon | Borealis | Cerberus+1 | The Chaperone | Cloudstrike | Coldheart | Collective Obligation | The Colony | Crimson | Cryosthesia 77K | DARCI | Dead Man's Tale | Deathbringer | Dead Messenger | Devil's Ruin | Divinity | Duality | Edge of Action/Concurrence/Intent | Eriana’s Vow | Eyes of Tomorrow | Fighting Lion | The Fourth Horseman | Forerunner | Gjallarhorn | Grand Overture | Graviton Lance | Hard Light | Hawkmoon | Heartshadow | Heir Apparent | The Huckleberry | Izanagi’s Burden | The Jade Rabbit | Jötunn | The Lament | The Last Word | Legend of Acrius | Leviathan’s Breath | Lord of Wolves | Lorentz Driver | Lumina | Malfeasance | Merciless | MIDA Multi-Tool | Le Monarque | Monte Carlo | No Time to Explain | One Thousand Voices | Osteo Striga | Outbreak Perfected | Parasite | Polaris Lance | Prometheus Lens | The Prospector | Queenbreaker | Rat King | Riskrunner | Ruinous Effigy | Salvation's Grip | Skyburner’s Oath | Sleeper Simulant | Sturm | Sunshot | SUROS Regime | Sweet Business | Symmetry | Tarrabah | Telesto | Thorn | Thunderlord | Ticuu's Divination | Tommy's Matchbook | Tractor Cannon | Traveler's Chosen | Trespasser | Trinity Ghoul | Truth | Two-Tailed Fox | Vex Mythoclast | Vigilance Wing | The Wardcliff Coil | Wavesplitter | Whisper of the Worm | Wish-Ender | Witherhoard | Worldline Zero | Xenophage ]

[slaughterbf]

you oo oo aa aa ass orangutan cowboy of the wild west monkey mcdonald's broken ice-cream machine apple french fri

(the mean ask you asked for)

did you just call me a monkey bc i’m black!!!!!

[ngc-5194]

Lemon, what are your headcanons for Sir Billiam?

aa!! sorry anon, i meant to answer this a whole lot sooner!

- he was born into riches, but wasn't very conservative with his funds, thus why he stole from the wild west town

- i go back and forth on him actually being a pig man and him being human, so i guess shapeshifter billiam for the win

- had many more servants than just ranbutler, but they all either got sacrificed to the egg or ran away

- personally i don't think of him as an ancestor of techno, but it'd be funny ironic if techno's ancestors and decendants (porkius from the pit episode) were pretty much all in positions of power

- no relation to one sherif sherman thomson, but the two do look similar, enough so that billiam really didn't have to try to sneak into the bank

- hosts a masquerade party about once every month, and specifically targets people who are rich enough to not disgust him, but not enough that it'll cause an uproar when they vanish

[lol-jackles]

I feel like post-SPN Jared is bolder on social media. Which is good. This is what I'm waiting for! What do you think? (i.e. his reply to that AA/Heller and that Chuck Norris' fan)

I think he’s is more comfortable with SM now, he’s also matured a bit and has a better handle on his personal issues, probably has a good SM manager, and having EP credit probably gives him a more sense of control so he feels less like the studios’s dancing monkey.

It may be hard to believe now but when SPN was a green bean, SM was not a thing.  Jared’s own 17 second research showed that SM started after SPN aired.  SPN didn’t get an official twitter handle until 2013. Few laters later CW shut down their message boards to force fans to use SM.  In 2017, IMDb shut down their message boards for alledged similar reasons.   So SM is still a young tool with a lot of ongoing growing pains because it’s the wild wild west with no moderators or sheiffs.

[lazuliquetzal]

Don't Take It Personally, Asshole!

@snowlikestardust

BY POPULAR REQUEST: This is a (cleaned up) version of an early draft of CH11 of AA Batteries, which is in Akira’s POV instead of Miyuki’s! You’ll probably recognize a lot of turns of phrase because I’m unoriginal and like, 80% of what I cut gets recycled. This scene got cut up and Frankensteined a LOT into later chapters haha.

So this takes place during the Yakushi practice match, right after Eijun throws wild and Miyuki talks to Kataoka about his inability to throw to the inside.

“Akira.” Akira stiffens and turns his gaze away from the mound. Coach is standing on the sidelines, and he makes a ‘come here’ gesture. Akira jogs over. He tries to ignore the flicker of hope in his chest, but he can’t stop the way his heart is pounding out of control, leaving him barely able to hear. “Coach,” Akira dips his head in respect and clenches his jaw. His eyes fix upon the ground below. “Can you fix this?” ‘This’ being the obvious — the fact that Eijun can’t throw to the inside. He looks back to the mound. Eijun is stiff and pale, his left hand clenching and unclenching in unconscious denial. He looks a little scared, yes, but mostly, he looks confused. And — this is the important thing — he hasn’t given up. This Eijun won’t shuffle back to the dugout, defeated. This Eijun will go down kicking and screaming. Eijun still wants to pitch. Maybe he can’t pitch. But he wants to. Yeah, Akira thinks. I’ll take those odds.

He looks back at the coach and nods his head.

Kataoka breaks his gaze and looks to the outfield. “Asou!”

Their left fielder jogs in, mouth pulled into a firm line.

“Miyuki, you’re playing left field. Akira, you’re in.”

You’re in.

The words echo around Akira’s brain. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

While Kataoka sorts out the substitution with the umpires, Akira exhales. He drops down onto the bench and adjusts the straps on his leg guards, making sure they’re not too tight or too loose. Beside him, Furuya hovers, eyes narrowed.

Are you going to be okay?

Akira nods.

The truth is: he’d thought about the Inajitsu thing for a long time. And after the initial anger and grief and shame, he’d come to the following conclusion:

Coach Kataoka was right. Akira probably would not have survived that inning.

It wasn’t nerves. Akira had never been nervous in his life.

(Okay, he had been nervous, of course he had. But not for a baseball game.)

And it wasn’t lack of skill or experience, though that probably played a big role in the coach’s decision.

(Okay, definitely played a big role in the coach’s decision. Let’s be honest: Akira was not the best catcher in the dugout that day.)

The truth is this: Akira was scared, too.

For good or ill, better or worse, Eijun and Akira have always fed off each other like a chemical reaction. If Eijun got excited, Akira got excited. If Akira got competitive, Eijun got competitive. Having them play while they were both out of their minds would not have ended well.

Today is a different story.

He’s not going to lie: it is weird seeing Eijun unable to pitch to the inside. It’s practically unthinkable. Eijun and Akira lived and died by the inside pitch. It pretty much defined their entire middle school career.

But right now? Akira’s not scared. And as long as he can hold onto that, he can fix this.

Kataoka gestures for him to get out on the field, and Akira steps out of the dugout.

“Do your best,” Miyuki says, from behind him.

Akira resists the urge to roll his eyes. As if I’d do anything less.

They split off: Miyuki to the outfield, and Akira to the mound. He jogs up to where Eijun is standing. When he arrives, he stops just an arm’s length away from his brother.

Eijun stares at him for a moment, and Akira stares back.

“Hey,” Akira says. “What sign does Miyuki-senpai use for the cutter kai?”

Eijun blinks, caught off guard by the question. He shakes his head and answers the question. “Ah, he uses a ‘four,’” he says, and he makes the sign with his hand.

“Cool,” Akira says. “I’m gonna use a seven.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

Eijun makes a face. “You’re doing this just to be annoying, aren’t you.”

“Yep.”

“And even if I argue, you’re going to use it anyway.”

“Absolutely.”

“I hate you so much.”

“Great,” Akira says, in the flat voice that he knows Eijun finds irritating. “Good talk.”

He steps away and turns to the rest of the field. “So, uh, they’re probably gonna get a lot of hits,” Akira yells out. “Like, a lot. Sorry about the workout. Thanks for your cooperation.”

“You’re saying it wrong!” Eijun hisses at him. “And they are not gonna get a lot of hits!”

“I dunno, Ei,” Akira says, rolling his eyes. “You’re not exactly on top of your game, are you?”

“I’ll kick your ass if you make bad calls.”

“So shake them.” Akira glares at Eijun, daring him.

Eijun agitatedly waves his arms around. “You know I — ugh! Shut up! Get off my mound!”

Akira waves good-bye, as annoyingly as he can, and he walks down to home plate. He sketches a quick bow to the batter and the umpire, and then he crouches down.

The game resumes.

Akira takes a quick look around, the way Chris-senpai taught him to. The runners are at ease, barely paying attention to him. The guy on first base looks especially relaxed.

Hm. He’s never done a pickoff before. That would be pretty cool.

Akira turns his attention back to the mound, and he’s about to make a call —

And then he frowns.

He wants to tell Eijun to throw to the inside. And he knows, by the expression on his brother’s face, that it’s what Eijun wants to do, too.

But there’s something else in Eijun’s gaze. His eyes keep darting around — not to the runners, but to the batter.

Akira glances over at Todoroki Raichi. Yakushi’s monster first-year, a batter who can crush an ace in a single hit. Logic says to be careful; logic says to keep their guard up against the best batter in West Tokyo.

Well, fuck that, Akira decides. If Eijun really can’t pitch to the inside, then every batter might as well be Todoroki Raichi. It’s like middle school all over again.

He spreads his arms wide.

Eijun blinks.

Ignore him, Eijun. Just pitch whatever.

You’re joking, right?

Akira smirks. What, you think I can’t catch it?

Eijun sticks his tongue out — petty and dramatic as always. Akira rolls his eyes, and he knows that his brother can see it because he rolls his eyes back.

Eijun throws the ball.

It's instinctual, at this point, to move his feet and stretch his arm, catching the ball before it can fly out of reach. It slams into the back of his mitt, his vision tunnels — and before his brain can catch up with his body, he chucks the ball down to first base.

Wait, shit —

Thankfully, Zono-senpai catches the ball and tags out the runner. Pickoff.

"Out," says the umpire, looking just as surprised as Akira feels.

Holy crap! Akira thinks, in the safety of his own mind. That actually worked?

Zono tosses the ball back to Eijun, and then sends Akira a fiercely enraged expression.

Akira winces and ducks his head. He can hear Chris-senpai’s voice in his mind: baseball is a team sport.

Oops.

But they got the out, so at least he didn’t fuck up his very first play in the game.

Akira looks back to Eijun. Judging by the wild course of his last pitch, he’s still overly aware of the batter.

Akira spreads his arms, again.

Eijun grits his teeth. He steps onto the rubber and winds up.

It comes. Low. It hits dirt, and Akira stops it. Then he tosses it back.

Throw what you want.

“Are you leading me, or not?” Eijun yells, finally cracking.

“Depends!” Akira yells back.

Eijun crosses his arms. On what?

Akira mimes the motion of a ball hitting him in the face, and then flaps his hand around.

Eijun stares at him incredulously. Excuse me?

It’s a valid concern!

Eijun groans in frustration. I’m not gonna hit you in the face!

Aw, you do care! Akira grins and fires off a sarcastic thumbs up, just rile up his brother a little bit more.

It works, because Eijun’s eyes flash, bubbling up with barely contained fury.

Get mad. It’s better than being scared.

Eijun steps back onto the rubber and tightens his grip on the ball, daring Akira to make the call.

Akira places his mitt. Fastball to the outside.

Eijun throws. Todoroki swings. Foul.

Akira barely registers the hit — as soon as he realized it was a foul, he’d already started planning the next move. Another outside pitch, again, but a four-seamer this time.

Eijun throws.

Foul.

Okay, Akira thinks. He looks back at his brother and studies his expression.

He still looks annoyed and irritated. And even better — he’s not looking at Todoroki Raichi anymore.

Good.

He makes the call. And Eijun follows.

It’s like déjà vu, Akira thinks, as the ball makes its way toward him. A fastball to the inside corner, a sight he’s seen thousands of times. The batter tenses, squares his hips, and swings the bat.

Clang.

Like lightning, a sudden stab of oh shit flashes across Akira’s chest. That was a good hit — firm and loud and solid.

Oops, Akira thinks, as Todoroki takes off running and the runners start trickling in. In retrospect? It was probably obvious that they were gunning for an inside pitch. Most batters are pretty comfortable with the gambler’s fallacy —

Someone clicks their tongue, and Akira blinks, crashing back into the present. Eijun’s glaring at him, again.

Deal with that later, dumbass.

Akira rolls his eyes, but Eijun’s right. Unfortunately.

They’re in the middle of a game right now. He can reflect upon his baseball sins at two in the morning.

The moment the next batter steps up to the plate, Akira calls for another inside pitch. And Eijun delivers.

The ball slams into the back of his mitt, and it’s like a gear clicking into place. How long has it been since he caught for his brother outside of mandatory practice? How long has it been since they formed a battery on the field?

The familiar sensation doesn’t wipe away the anger, but it does drown it out. Who needs feelings? They have baseball.

“Nice pitch,” Akira calls out, and he tosses the ball back to the mound. Truce?

Eijun receives the toss. He nods and straightens his back. Truce.

The rest of their play time blurs by after that.