#also this is reminding me of west side story

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Did anyone want a heartbreaking flashback from my Noir AU? Because I have one. For context, they're in their early-20s, Richie's just been assaulted by someone outside the club, Mikey's comforting him when the truth comes out

I'm going to tag @scenedenial and @pajamasecrets because you two are powering my inspiration for this AU

[genericpuff]

I wonder why christian misrepresentation are rarely talked about if compared to other religion misrepresentation. Like, I've seen people really vocal about Greek myths misrepresentation in LO and such (and it's valid because it's a culture and religion) but I rarely saw the same thing with christian even though there are many media who use christian religion innacurately, to the point where it comes off as using it as an aesthetic and not a proper religion.

Is it because of rampant religious trauma especially in western world? No ulterior motives on this question. I'm not a christian and yet I'm curious about this. I apologize if this sounds harsh.

I obviously don't have The Answer(tm) to this but personally speaking (and I'm about to get VERY personal here so take this with MOUNTAINS OF SALT), I think it's just the obvious - Christian mythology is one of the most well-documented and strongly protected out of virtually any other religion on the planet. Especially here in the West, it's commonplace for kids to go to Sunday school, for couples to have Christian weddings even if they're not practising Christians themselves, even the American anthem references the Christian God. It's simply not as easy to 'misrepresent' it because the representation is written into our very fabric of society. Even Greece itself is primarily made up of Orthodox Christians.

So anyone that does 'misrepresent' it are either completely mislead hardcore Christians, or people who are doing it intentionally, such as with the intent to make a parody of it or to deconstruct it through a different context or whatever have you. And of course, people will still get mad at those things, if you're implying that people aren't vocal about Christian misrepresentation then frankly IDK what to tell you there LOL If you want a contextual example in the realm of webtoons, Religiously Gay was dragged to hell and back during its launch for having a very crude and insulting depiction of St. Michael, and frankly, yeah I don't disagree because what the fuck is this-

(like at best it's just terrible character design lmao that said, there's also plenty else to criticize Religiously Gay for, including its fetishy representation of gay relationships and the fact that it's still just the "naive person who looks and acts like a child hooks up with mean person in a position of power" trope, blech, but the character design is definitely the first thing you notice)

There are even plenty of hardcore Christians who will deadass claim "misrepresentation" over things that ARE factually correct but they just haven't read the actual Bible and simply cherry pick what works for their own agenda. And of course those people are routinely called out by people like myself who know for a fact that Jesus wouldn't have promoted the war crimes that many modern day Christians are committing and justifying today. So it really depends on the definition of "misrepresentation" here.

The issue specifically with LO and Rachel that I personally call her out for (and many others) is that she's called herself a "folklorist" and claimed she's so much more knowledgeable on Greek myth than anyone else, while making a complete mockery of the original mythologies while not being honest about her intent as to whether LO is actually supposed to be a legitimate retelling OR a parody (because it sure acts like the latter more than the former, but she still seems to expect us to take it seriously and consider her knowledge of Greek myth superior?) Which leads to a lot of her teenage audience claiming shit like "Persephone went down to the underworld willingly" and "Apollo did assault Persephone in the original myths actually" and the classic "why would Lore Olympus lie or make up fake myths?"

You just can't pull off this extent of erasure with Christian mythology because we have a whole ass book of it that's been preserved, sold on shelves, and systematically integrated into society for thousands of years. Of course, there are people who will still try their damned best to twist the Bible to match their own bigotry with the whole "Jesus hates gays" bullshit (he would never), but it's met with equal amounts of 'misrepresentation' that are actually fully well-read and are intentionally subverting and changing things to either critique, parody, or restore the original intent of a lot of stories in the Bible without all the manufactured right-wing crap.

Greek myth, on the other hand, has some stories that are well preserved, and others, not so much. And in the modern day outside of the poems and hymns, you'll also rarely, if ever, see anyone use stories from Greek myth to ostracize, torture, and murder other people. "Misrepresenting Christianity" is more often done by actual Christians who are using the Bible to commit hate crimes than the people who have actually read the Bible and are just taking creative liberties with it for the sake of deconstructing / parodying / analyzing / subverting it. Veggie Tales "misrepresents" Christian stories because obviously Moses wasn't a fucking cucumber lmao but it still accomplishes its goal by retelling Christian stories in a way that's fun and educational for children.

By comparison (on the whole, I'm not comparing LO to Veggie Tales LMAO) LO just isn't clear in its intentions beyond Rachel's initial statements that she was trying to "deconstruct" the myths, while labelling herself as a folklorist. Therefore, I'm going to criticize how she does it because the way she's done it up until now has been very mishandled and has resulted in a lot of misinterpretations of the myths simply for the sake of fandom. And yes, these people exist in Christian media as well - they're called TV evangelists.

And that's my (very heavy) two cents.

[bishiedoll]

Western literature & shoujo manga.

If you're, like me, someone whose passion is old shoujo manga, you may have noticed that at least one or more of your favorite mangaka has written manga adaptations of famous American and European novels. But why ?

According to this essay by Kawabata Ariko and Murakami Riko, in the early 20th century, because there was no Internet, people had no choice but to rely on big bookstores to learn more about and to purchase foreign novels. It was therefore not common to read them. The Iena bookstore, located in Ginza, was a rare indie bookstore that sold art-related foreign books and, while unfortunately, the store has closed today, many shoujo mangaka remember going there often to look for reference material amongst foreign works.

This other essay by Oogushi Hisayo states that foreign novels were only broadly introduced in Japan for young girls in the 30s. Famous girls' magazines (which are to be differentiated with shoujo magazines) such as Shoujokai (created in 1902), Shoujo no Sekai (created in 1906) and Shoujo no Tomo (created in 1908) started introducing Western literature in their issues from the 1930s to the 1940s. Works such as "The Little Princess", "Heidi", "Little Women", "Daddy Long Legs" and more were published in these girls' magazines, making them more known to the Japanese audience and resulting in shoujo manga adaptations in the following years.

Little Women illustrated by Nakahara Junichi in the Girls' magazine Shoujo no Sekai.

Three works in particular seem to have gained a lot of popularity in the 40s: "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, "Heidi" by Johanna Spyri and "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. All three are coming of age stories of young girls, and all three have one theme that seems to stand out: family. In the aftermath of WW2, many Japanese lost their families and many young children became orphans. In such times, novels that showcased happy families comforted Japanese readers. The popularity of these three works did not end in the 40s though, since in the 70s and 80s, all three got their 50 episodes anime adaptation in the Calpis Gekijou series (also known as World Masterpiece Theater), which, by the way, I highly recommend watching.

It is to be noted that these three works also became popular because they showcased independent and developed female leads, which has since then become a staple of shoujo manga itself, regardless of genre.

Heidi by Macoto Takahashi, Anne of Green Gables by Sakamoto Midori (1977) and Heidi by Watanabe Masako (1966).

In the 70s, a few mangaka published works that reminded critics of the "Bildungsroman". The Bildungsroman is a literary genre born in the 1800s in Germany, and it is a sub-category of the coming-of-age story. The Bildungsroman stands out from regular coming-of-age stories by focusing on the psychological and moral growth of its protagonist. Examples of that would be Moto Hagio with The Heart of Thomas in 1974 and Takemiya Keiko with Kaze to Ki no Uta in 1976 (though she never intended to write a Bildungsroman). The West was still shown in a more traditional version in these works, as both stories take place in old catholic boarding schools.

Similarly to how Audrey Hepburn, a Hollywood actress, was seen as a fashion leader in Japan (more about that on my other post about her influence on shoujo), Japanese people at the time had an idealized view of the West and anything from the Western world seemed fashionable and trendy. A great example of that is Sanrio. If you look at early Sanrio characters, a lot of them are from the West: Hello Kitty is British, the Little Twin Stars were inspired by Christmas, My Melody by the little red riding hood, Jimmy & Patty are American etc.

This view of the West began to shift in the 80s and the western literature that inspired shoujo mangaka started to change as well. Instead of comforting, idyllic stories about family life in a traditional American or European country side or stories taking place in traditional European catholic schools, manga inspired by more realistic and contemporary works started publishing. For example, Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida (1985) draws inspiration from "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger and two of Hemingway's works: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "Islands in the Streams". All three of these focus on either modern issues like overconsumption or darker themes like death and loneliness. The change can also be seen in the gender and age of the protagonists. Instead of being about young teen girls that shoujo readers could identify with, Banana Fish is about adult men. The inspiration is also a lot more loose, and instead of an adaptation, there are only references to J.D. Salinger and Hemingway's works throughout the manga.

The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio (1974), Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida (1985) and Alice in Wonderland by Mutsu A-ko (1983).

To conclude my post, I really wanted to include this line from the essay by Oogushi Hisayo: If America (can apply to the West as a whole) was once the backdrop of stories for those who yearned to read about "somewhere that is not here", it has, from the 80s onward, become the backdrop of stories for those who yearned to read about "the now and here".

[star-suh]

Bounty Hunters

Kim Jungwoo x Male Reader

cw: wild west au, top jungwoo, some angst ig, hate fucking to fluff fucking idk, bareback, creampie, a kinda toxic relationship between them, some spit play.

—

this is the story of kim jungwoo and yn ln, two 'silly' bounty hunters that can't stand each other except when it comes to sex.

“hey you son of a bitch” jungwoo exclaimed shooting at yn's feet. “what are you doing with that poster. that reward is for me, i am looking for him already.. forget about him, go get another".

“oi you bastard, look where you're shooting at”. he sighed. “and this” he signals at the paper with his finger “this is my reward, i came here first, bitch”.

“who are you calling bitch?” jungwoo's left eye twitching in anger, “should i remind you who's the bitch?” he came closer towards yn grabbing the hair on the back of his head, pulling his face closer “huh?” anger laced in his tone. yn laughs, pulling his lips closer to jungwoo’s and when they're about to kiss yn’s lips ghosted the others lips and instead went straight to his ear “you're just jealous i’m not your bitch”. yn kiss jungwoo’s cheeks and left. leaving a flustered jungwoo even more angry. “cute” murmured yn.

the day passed and jungwoo still has not found the wanted guy on the poster but then something caught his attention, yn was coming out of the police station with some bags of gold coins. then both made eye contact, something that yn took advantage of to mock jungwoo. showing him the bags of coins and ripping the wanted poster in pieces.

jungwoo’s blood was boiling, how is it possible that that dumbass has collected the reward and not him. yn went to a saloon and bought a bottle of liquor to celebrate. just when he was going to taste the liquid the bottle exploded into pieces. confused he looked to the floor and then to the sides, and there he was. jungwoo with a sinister smile, he had shot his precious bottle of liquor.

“what the fuck kim jungwoo” yn sprinted towards him. “stop or i'll shoot” jungwoo aimed his pistol directly at yn's forehead but this didn't stop him, “i'm not scared to die, what about you?” yn pulls out his gun and puts it on jungwoo's forehead too. the cold metal of each other's guns pressed against their heads. veins popping in their necks and faces red, showing how angry they were…

jungwoo was back in his room. reflecting about his actions today, he almost killed the only person who has been with him since the beginning of becoming a bounty hunter. he hated yn but he also cared about him, something he would never admit in front of the other.

it was almost midnight when someone knocked at jungwoo's door. his sleepy form stood up and opened it when something fell to the floor. jungwoo turn on the lights and saw yn covered in blood. “what the- what happened?” jungwoo said concerned, something that surprised yn. “i got into a fight and they shoot me on the arm” he answered.

“you're such a dumbass, a stupid motherfucker and a pain in the ass, you know that?” jungwoo hit his head lightly, “they should've shoot you right in the middle of your forehead”. he went to his nightstand pulling out a leather bag with some first aid elements.

yn takes off his jacket and shirt so jungwoo can patch his wounds, thankfully the bullet passed the arm and is not stuck on there. “you look pretty when you're focused” yn jokingly praised. jungwoo in return pressed the wound making the other squeal in pain “shut up” he whispered.

after some back and forth whispers between them they stare at each other, lost in the moment and with their lips a few inches apart they kiss. it was their first kiss, their lips didn't touch each other even in the nights of wild sex. it was a sign that they couldn't hold it anymore. “i hate you so much” jungwoo whispered, discarding his pants and yn's.

“then… hate me more” yn replied.

the top didn't wait to impale his shaft on the bottom’s hole, it went straight in, drawing some whinings from yn’s mouth. jungwoo channeled all the hatred he had for yn into the sex session. he was rude, rough, using yn for his pleasure, not caring if he's being hurt or not… for now… “slow.. down” yn pleaded unable to match jungwoo’s pace. “shut up” jungwoo opened his mouth using his thumb and index finger to spit on it and kiss, “use that mouth for something more interesting” he introduced his fingers and then licked the saliva on it, repeating the process more times.

jungwoo pushed yn's face against the mattress using his right foot, while he made sure to keep pounding him. “you're hole is perfect for my dick. you were made to pleasure me.. learn your place” if words could kill yn would be already in hell. he just nodded, his whimpers being muffled by the mattress while tears rolled down his flushed cheeks and his eyes were rolled back. jungwoo didn't realized, until now, that yn's arm was bleeding. his roughness had opened his lover's wound, something that made him stop his thrusts, positioning yn in missionary.

yn could finally see jungwoo's face, he was crying but not for pleasure, he was sad. “what happened?” yn asked, worried about his companion. jungwoo lost for words just plop himself on top of yn, hugging him making sure to not hurt his wound more. “you're a fucking fool, you know that?” he cleared his throat, “i'm sorry” he apologized “i didn't mean to hurt you. b-but… you know how scared i was when i saw you like this” he took a deep breath trying to calm down “i-i don't like seeing you like this yn.. please take care of yourself” jungwoo finally let out his feelings for yn, “i like you. please don't get hurt. i wanna keep seeing your ugly face for a long time”.

“i… i appreciate this vulnerability moment from you but, how you manage to say that while still being rock hard inside me” yn responded, earning a soft punch from jungwoo in his chest. “you're really good at ruining special moments, dumbass” jungwoo exclaimed and yn just laughed.

“i like you too”...

the sex continued but this time it was slow, more intimate. they both felt liberated, letting go of the burden they had been carrying on their shoulders, their repressed feelings. before, sex for them was like a way to release stress, now it has become a more intimate act where they can be vulnerable and connect with each other. their happily ever after moment. yn keep kissing jungwoo, his lips were one of his favorite parts from him.

“i wanna keep seeing your pretty face too” he said.

[naneun-no]

From my drafts so it’s late but:

Today’s delulu thought is that Standing Next to You has too many lyrical coincidences to not be about Jimin.

🫣 I SAID IT WAS DELUSIONAL OKAY

You are free to disagree. You probably should 🤣

I mean we know it wasn’t written by Jung Kook but obviously the version he recorded was arranged with and for JK, and “leave your body golden” can’t be a coincidence right? Like it’s the whole ass album name, plus a word that carries connotations of JK himself, which the ppl who worked with him on Seven must have known.

So if that wasn’t a coincidence… then what about:

1. “How we left and right is something we control” — a callback to both Left and Right by CP feat JK, but also a nod to Butter, a massive BTS hit and a song that he performs alongside his boyfie bestie JM.

2. “When it’s deep like DNA, something they can’t take away” — a callback to another massive BTS hit, interesting. And *delulu warning* also reminds me of JM and JK’s extreme similarities that they themselves have referred to before?? They’re wired the same, they have the same sense of humor, they live and breathe for the same shit and even though they have some very key differences, they really do seem like twin flames (even if you just see it as platonic). They are similar in ways that seem braided into the fibers of their being. Like, in their DNA 🧬 some may say. *delulu warning #2* I’m also reminded of Jimin’s Letter lyrics: “After all this time has passed will we still be the same? Just like we were when we first met.”

Also, “something they can’t take away” is an interesting turn of phrase… more on that later.

3. Okay the real meaty part:

Screaming I’ll testify that we'll survive the test of time, they can't deny our love. They can't divide us, we'll survive the test of time I promise I'll be right here

[I seriously can’t believe how closeted-couple-coded this song is]

First off, again with the Letter lyrics mirrored here with the “test of time.” Then it’s got all this drama about being ripped apart and how it won’t happen and how they’ll be next to each other no matter what and that they have “something they can’t take away.”

Not only does all that line up with other Letter lyrics, but it is so goddamn dramatic and for what?

Be for real, what straight couple in this day and age would have this much working against them?? The only possible explanations are: 1) within the fantasy world of a song I suppose this could be some sort of Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story motif, and to be fair the music video did have a kind of rival gang/crime family look to it? Sort of? With the men fighting below the stage? Idk. Or it could be 2) the fact that idols do in fact often have to hide even their straight relationships, which is wild to me. But I know it’s a thing, so. I suppose there’s that. JK doesn’t seem the type though honestly. I think he’d be even more open about it than V.

On the other hand, the lyrics seem SO fit for a couple who are a) queer, b) closeted, c) currently in/about to be in a legislatively homophobic military and country (am I saying that right? Lol) and d) internationally famous pop idols in the SAME BAND who are both widely regarded as heterosexual sex symbols and would be shunned by many people in their homeland AND internationally if their queerness were to be revealed, much less if they were truly an item and THAT news broke.

Whew. That was a lot but like… that would be a real example of a relationship that would be VERY threatened by outside forces plotting against them and trying to separate them. Not JK and a hot blonde model, not him and a Korean actress, not basically any other scenario but a queer relationship.

Idk I know he didn’t write it but like ??? What the hell is that theme? I’m dying to get inside the mind of the people who DID write it, because are they or are they jikookers at this point like?!

4. Just for fun I’ll also point out the “leave your body golden like the sun and moon” 😏 like. Okay. At this point the songwriters are watching Jikook compilations, drooling over @slaaverin edits like convince me they’re not. CONVINCE ME.

5. “Deeper than the rain”?! “The pain”?! Alright I’m not even serious at this point but ??? Rainy day fight 🌧️?!?! 🤣🤣

6. “Standing next to you” oh you mean like… for 18 months? In a companion enlistment program? Like that?

Alright alright I’m done but you get my point. What even is this song if not an anthem of jikookery?! It’s more on-the-nose than Letter, more sneaky than Still With You. It wasn’t written by JK but at this point I’m calling that the songwriters are as delulu as me.

Hope y’all are well. If you made it to the end of this thank you for donning your tinfoil hat with me and I hope you at least got a giggle.

✌️

[evieismol]

Big Bend - Chapter Two

Cw: cursing, mentions of man eating giants (nothing comes of it)

Previous

.

.

.

Texas was really fucking big. Yeah, I knew that was like it's whole thing - “everything's bigger in Texas” - but I still hadn't been expecting it to be this big. I'd been driving all day, and I'd watched the sun move from the east to overhead to west and then finally disappear behind the horizon, leaving the faded orange sky that currently sprawled in front of me. I'd entered the state while the sun was somewhere between east and overhead, almost seven hours ago, and based on my phone's map, I still had another hour to go before I'd reach my destination. 

Growing up in Connecticut and having spent the last three years mostly staying in the same neighborhood in Seattle, I found myself more than a little shocked.

 I probably should have expected this, I thought. I mean, what was I expecting taking a job in the state with the aforementioned motto, at a place called Big Bend. 

Well, I wanted to get away from things, and by the looks of it, I've certainly succeeded at that at least.

Miles of desert stretched on for as far as the eye could see in every direction. 

Yup. Nailed it. 

Despite still being an hour away, I felt anxiety bubbling up in my stomach as I approached what was going to be both my new job and home. I'd never worked at a national park before. Granted, I'd only be working there as a gift shop clerk - not a cool job like being a park ranger. Still, it was entirely out of my comfort zone. Several days of driving out of my comfort zone, to be exact. 

The job offered room and board, though, and when it was between spending the last of my money on gas and driving to the other side of the country versus hoping to get a bed at a women's shelter that already didn't have enough beds, I would apparently choose the first option. 

I just really hoped I didn't regret it. 

The dim orange sky continued to fade as I drove on. Hotel California played faintly over the radio. When the sky was almost entirely dark, I finally saw it. 

The large wood sign sat on the side of the road. There was just enough light left to make out the words. I slowed to a crawl as I drove past.

“Big Bend National Park,” I murmured. “Here goes way more than nothing.” 

I continued on, the sign fading into gray dusk as I sped up again. It wasn't long before lights appeared in front of me. They grew larger quickly. Soon, the navigation on my phone showed I'd arrived at my destination. Panther Junction. As I stared at the lights in front of me in the otherwise dark desert, it hit me that I hadn't quite arrived at my destination. Not exactly. I'd been told to go to Panther Junction, where I'd be working and living, but instructions beyond that were unclear. The series of roads, parking lots, and buildings in front of me left far more options than I would have liked. The main visitor center, a two story building with what looked like a balcony, was dark. That eliminated that option, at least. The parking lot in front was also empty, and seemed like a decent enough place to park and start looking for someone who might know where I was supposed to be. 

I mean, someone has to know, right? I just really hoped that someone wasn't solely me. I pulled into a parking spot, turned my car off, and climbed out into to crisp night air. Looking around, it seemed like the lights I'd seen were behind the visitor center, so I decided I'd start there. 

God, I'd so be the first person to die in a horror. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen a horror movie that starts like this. 

I pushed those thoughts aside and started walking, reminding myself that this wasn't a horror movie. The walk towards the lights was silent aside from crickets. It grew steadily larger in front of me. 

Wait. 

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I neared the lights, I realized something was off with the perspective. They were growing larger far too fast for any building I could imagine existing out here. Not only that, but they seemed to be sinking lower. 

If that building is so big, shouldn't they be getting higher up? 

It took several moments for me to figure out what I was staring at. All the while, I edged closer to the lights. 

Maybe it's an optical illusion? A mirage? Those happen in deserts, right? 

I was hardly an expert in deserts, but I felt like I'd heard somewhere that mirage had something to do with sun and heat, both of which the night was currently lacking. 

As I drew closer, I became even more confused. The lights belonged to a building that sat in a canyon in front of me. That alone wasn't weird. What was, though, were both the size and proportions of the building. It looked like a camper. The vintage kind that wouldn't seem out of place on a postcard from a national park. However, it was at least several hundred feet tall, obscured only by the canyon it lay in. Speaking of the canyon - I should be nearing the edge. I cautiously lifted my phone’s light from directly in front of me to further out. Just as I'd guessed, there was a sharp drop off about seven feet away. It was just barely illuminated by my phone's light. Deciding I didn't want to add “falling off a sheer cliff in the middle of nowhere” to the day's activities, I started to trace the edge of the cliff with my light, moving it to my left.

 And then almost dropped it seconds later. 

It took me a moment once again to process what I was looking at, and when I did, my eyes widened. The person sitting against the cliff wall to my side was huge. Even that descriptor felt like an understatement. He was large enough that my brain had registered him as another rock formation in the darkness as I'd been walking up, because surely a living being couldn't be that large. 

Well, I guess that explains the giant building. 

And raises about a dozen more questions. 

He was tall enough that my flashlight only actually illuminated a portion of the green sweater he was wearing. He noticed me mere moments after I noticed him, and his eyes widened. I felt like he probably also would have almost dropped his flashlight if he'd been carrying one. He quickly took out his airpods - or airpod lookalikes, since I wasn't sure they made airpods that big. 

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," I said quickly. 

"It's fine," he said, looking more confused than I felt. "I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you walk up, I was listening to music." 

"I'm kind of surprised you heard me at all. Wait, should I be talking louder?" I wasn't really sure what the etiquette was for talking to giants, admittedly.

In fact, the term ‘giant’ in itself was something of an umbrella term. There were technically several kinds of beings from various realms that were referred to as giants. Some more humanoid than others, some larger than others. The most well known, and common, around Earth were Tyastrons. I'd worked with one briefly during a summer job when I was in high-school. I was fairly certain I didn't remember her being anywhere near the size of the young man in front of me, though. She had been around 40 feet tall. That was still positively ginormous to me, at 5’5”. The giant in front of me would have easily dwarfed her, though. Even sitting down, he was at least 100 feet tall. 

 He shook his head. 

"No, you're good. Really good hearing is like an Aphirial thing-" 

"You're an Aphirial?" I asked, realizing I cut him off halfway through my question. I cringed internally. 

I remembered hearing that name a few times in the past. Mostly in connection with campfire tales or horror films. They were like, super scary man eating giants, in both of said works.

Fuck, I would so be the first person to die in a horror movie. 

“...yeah.” He answered my question in a cautious tone. 

Now that my eyes had adjusted more, and I was focusing on him, I could make out some more details of his appearance. His hair was his most striking feature. It was a pale blonde - almost white - that I would have assumed was the result of bleach, if I wasn't unsure as to whether or not Aphirials could or did bleach their hair. It fell down to his shoulders, framing a pair of green eyes and a face that looked about my age, despite being several times the size of my entire body. 

Said eyes glittered with apprehension. His brows were drawn together. Overall, no indications of human eating or any other kind of malice. If he wanted to hurt me, he had already had plenty of opportunity to do so. It wouldn’t take much effort for him to reach up and grab me. He made no move to do so. 

Okay, so he’s probably not going to kill me. Right now, at least. 

I probably should have been more concerned at that possibility, but I’d had a very trying past couple of months. 

“So…you like, live out here?” I asked finally. 

“oh-yeah! I'm going to work here. I mean, I live here because of that. I'm going to be a park ranger here.” 

The last sentence made something click in my memory - a tirade from Jack I'd almost forgotten about. One of many, and one I'd been too relieved hadn't been about me to remember. A few months ago he'd been upset about some national park hiring an Aphirial. 

"That's cool," I said. Mostly because it was the first thing to come to mind.

 "I wanted to be a park ranger when I was a kid."  That had been the second thing to come to mind.

 I thankfully didn't say the third thing, which was that I probably didn't have to worry about him eating me then if he was a park ranger, because that had to go against job rules. Instead, I skipped to the fourth. 

“I'm going to be working here too. Not as anything as cool as a park ranger. Just in the gift shop. Speaking of which…I'm glad I ran into you then, because I just got in, and I wasn't really sure where I was supposed to go, but I saw your lights off in the desert and thought maybe someone would be out here.” 

“Huh," Easton said, in a way that made me pretty sure he was also thinking about my lack of survival instinct in wandering off into the dark desert. “I'm not entirely sure. I'll try to help figure it out, though - I bet John might know, or know someone who knows anyways.” 

Before I could question who John was, he continued. “You have no idea who John is, though. Uh, he works for the IMA, technically, but now he also works at the park. As my supervisor. Which I think is a fancy way of saying handler - anyways, uh, why don't I just go get him?” 

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Thank you.” 

“Will you be alright here?” He asked, gesturing to the dark desert around us. 

I shrugged. “Oh, yeah. What's the worst that can happen, a flesh pedestrian mimics my late mother's voice and lures me out into the night to steal my skin?” 

He gave me an confused look. "I-uh-what?'

"Just joking. I'll be fine,” I said, wincing at my awkward attempt at humor. I'd never been good at it. Or really talking to people in general. Apparently that hadn't changed, even if the person in question was the size of a building.

“Right. Uh, okay, I'll be back in a just a minute,” he said. “I'm just going to stand up and walk over to the trailer.” 

I thought it was a bit unnecessary for him to announce his movements, until he actually stood up. Even though I could have guessed he was somewhere around two hundred feet tall based on his size while sitting, the reality of what that meant hit me like a freight train as he drew himself up to his full height. His face had been almost level with the cliff edge I stood on previously. Now he towered over me. And the cliff itself. I swallowed. It was somewhere between surreal, terrifying, and really cool to be looking up at someone the size of a small skyscraper. To be interacting with them. 

The giant paused, looking down at me. 

“Sorry, what was your name?” 

“Oh, right. I'm Zoey. Zoey Summers. What was yours?” 

“Easton Parks.” 

“Park Ranger Parks,” I noted with a small laugh.  

“It is a little ironic, isn't it? You can just call me Easton, though.” He laughed softly as well. “Anyways, I won't be long getting John, and I'm sure he'll at least know who to contact.” 

I nodded, then wondered if he could even see it, between my size and the darkness. He gave a short nod of his own in response. Apparently he could. 

I watched him turn and begin to move toward the giant trailer. As he did, I noticed a sort of tremor in the ground beneath me. It took me a second to put together it was caused by his footsteps. 

Damn. 

He disappeared into the trailer shortly, leaving me alone in the dark desert once more to ponder what had just happened. Out of all the things I'd been expecting to find out here, an Aphirial was very much not one of them. Still, he seemed quite nice, and he was helping me. I'd take a helpful Aphirial over an unhelpful Human any day, I decided. 

It didn't take long for Easton to return. He seemed to be just as alone at first. As he drew nearer, though, I could make out that he was holding something in one hand. It wasn't until he had announced he was going to crouch down, and was once again almost eye level with the cliff, that I realized what it was. Or more, who it was. The man in the center of his looked older than both of us by at least a decade. Despite the fact that he was literally in someone's hand, he possessed an air of authority noticeable even from where I stood. Easton slowly lowered his hand to the cliff. The man - John, I guessed - climbed off smoothly. 

“So, you must be Zoey.” 

Next

[pitufitaispunk]

Velvet Ring

Chapter Three: Maybe

Pairing: Riff x Latina!Reader (West Side Story 2021)

Velvet Ring Masterlist

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June 10, 1957

I wake up at 5:30am and pull myself out of bed, my head pounding. It had been a week since I'd allowed Nardo to tell Manuel that he could accompany me to the dance and now, Manuel follows me around everywhere. It was sweet at first, he reminded me a bit of a lost puppy. Manuel would only walk me to and from work, but now he reminds me more of a parasite. This clingy behavior has quickly become irritating. He's began to join me to go to the market, he hangs around the florería all day, and he's also started coming around the apartment a lot more. It feels suffocating. That little window of time I had after work that was just for me has become 'Manuel Time' and I barely ever get a minute alone anymore. However, it's also been a week since my encounter with the Jet. I don't know what happened with him, but I haven't seen him anywhere. Not that I would want to anyway, but it's still weird. Maybe the Jets were up to something, probably thinking of new ways to make my brother and his friends miserable. That thought makes me feel even more guilty for 'missing' the Jet.

I put on my slippers and shuffle across my room to grab my pink robe, wrapping it around myself before walking out into the kitchen. I glance over at Anita and Bernardo's bedroom, seeing Bernardo is still asleep in their bed, but I can hear Anita in the shower. I begin making some eggs for myself and for her, considering she almost always made breakfast for us. When she walks out of the bathroom, she's wrapped in a towel with a blue shower cap on her head. She smiles at me and sits down at the dining table, "¿Por qué estás despierta tan temprano?"

I shrug, placing a fork and a plate of scrambled eggs in front of her, "I like the quiet." I grab my own breakfast and sit down next to her. We eat in comfortable silence before I speak again, "Anita, ¿puedo preguntarte algo?"

"Claro," She nods, wiping her mouth with a napkin, "What do you want to ask me?"

I look down at my lap, fiddling with the hem of my robe, "I just wanted to ask about the Jets."

She quirks a brow at me, "The Jets? Why do you want to know about the Jets?"

I look up at her, stilling my hands, "I'm just curious. Nardo never tells me anything and I don't think it's safe to be so clueless about everything going on around me."

Anita sighs, "I know as much as you do, nena."

I know she's lying and give her a pleading look, "No me mientes, Anita, por favor. Just tell me anything!"

She puts her fork down again and points a finger at me warningly, "Fine. But you don't tell your brother I told you." I nod eagerly, making her purse her lips, "Well, you know they're the reason Bernardo is always stressed," She says softly, I nod. "And to put it simply, Y/N, they're destructive little gringos who think they own the streets. They terrorize Puerto Ricans day after day because they think we don't belong here. Or rather, they think we don't deserve to be here in their glorious country." I swallow hard, guilt weighing on my chest. Anita takes her shower cap off and begins touching up her hair, "Anything else you want to know?"

I nod, "Do you know any of their names?" I ask, trying to sound casual about it.

Anita huffs softly, "Why do you want to know their names? Do their names matter? They're all the same anyway." I purse my lips and Anita raises her hands in surrender, "Ok, ok, no te pongas de malas. Well, there's, eh... Riff, the leader. Obviamente." I pinch my brows at her words, clearly it wasn't that obvious to me. I've heard Bernardo say that name multiple times, but the leader of the Jets was still faceless to me. Anita continues, counting them off on her fingers, "The... ¿como se dice? Ah, the second in command is Ice. Hm... the youngest is Baby John, the buff one is Diesel... Ay, there's too many to count, but you get it." I wondered which of those names might have belonged to the Jet I've met or if she even mentioned him. Anita gives me a tight lipped smile, "Now are we done here?"

I laugh softly and nod, "Creo que eso es suficiente. Gracias, Anita." As I stand to clear our plates off the table, Anita grabs my wrist. "Don't go snooping around the Jets, ok? Now that you have all the information you need about them, you will stay away."

I laugh awkwardly, "I wasn't going to snoop, lo prometo." She gives me a look and I sigh, "I'm just tired of everyone treating me like a kid, I don't need to be protected from this stuff anymore. It's time for you, Bernardo, and everyone else to accept that... Well, I should go shower before work." I scurry into the bathroom, locking the door behind me before Anita can get in another word.

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At work, I seemed to keep getting distracted. I accidentally knocked over a potted plant, I tripped over a box of new gloves and ended up tearing my dress. I was a total mess and it was all because of that Jet. I've always been a fairly curious girl, but I'd never wanted to know about someone this much. It wasn't because I liked him or because he's good looking, it was because he confused me. Why would he flirt with me? He knows I'm Puerto Rican, so why would he flirt with me? A million questions begin to flood my mind. Was it all some cruel trick? Was he planning an attack on me to get back at Nardo? Does he even know I'm Bernardo's sister? I don't think I'm on his radar now, but I hope I see him again soon, just so I can give him a piece of my mind.

"Y/N, ¿estás bien?" I hear Lupita's voice call and I'm snapped out of my thoughts. I look up and see Marisol and Lupita giving me strange looks, then I realize I'd been watering the same plant for about 5 minutes now and the pot was overflowing with water. I hurry out to the alley to drain the water, cursing softly under my breath. I then hear footsteps shuffling towards me.

"Looks like someone had too much to drink."

I freeze. I know that voice well by now. It's him again. I quickly take off my name tag before he can see it. I look up and there he is, towering over me. The Jet. He was wearing a thin white tank top with dark blue jeans and scruffy black sneakers. I place the potted plant down on the cement ground, stand up straight and narrow my eyes at him, trying to look tough.

He just laughs and steps closer to me, "So, you work here?" He asks, pointing towards the florería.

I scoff softly and gesture to my uniform, "Do you think I just wear this apron for fun? Yes, I work here."

His eyes widen, surprised that I finally spoke back to him. The look of shock is quickly replaced by amusement as a smug grin grows on his face.

I turn to head back inside then I hear him step closer to me again. I look back at him, my brows pinched, "You can't come in."

He smirks, his hands in his pockets, "Wasn't going to. So... what's your name?"

I snort, "I'm not telling you that."

He tilts his head coquettishly, giving me a sly grin, "Aw, come on. What's the harm in just telling me your name? Promise I won't wear it out." He drawls.

I roll my eyes at his attempts to charm me, "There's a lot of harm in telling you my name. You could... I don't know, sic your boys on me."

This makes the Jet laugh heartily, "Sic my boys on you? That's a good one. Come on, sweetheart, I'll do you one in return if you just tell me. Besides, don't you wanna know my name?" His gaze has softened, but I'm still wary. It could all be some kind of trick.

I scoff, "No. You Jets are all the same anyway."But it was lie. Obviously, I've been dying to know his name, but if he knew that, he'd just think I liked him. Jets are very cocky that way.

He hums softly at my response, then looks up at the sign above the door, an white plank of wood with the words 'Empleados Solamente' in fuchsia colored cursive letters with flowers painted along the sides.

"What's that mean?" He asks, pointing up at the sign.

"Employees only." I say firmly, crossing my arms over my chest. I wasn't going to back down or give this Jet the satisfaction of knowing that he scares me just a little.

His gaze flits back down to me and he smiles, his hands raised in surrender, "Alright, doll. I get it, I get it. I'll get out of your hair... if that's what you really want." I purse my lips and he laughs, "I'll take that as a yes."

He begins to walk away before he stops himself and turns to look at me again, a smirk on his face, "So... will I be seeing you at the dance?"

I pinch my brows, "What?"

He shrugs nonchalantly, "Will I be seeing you at the dance?" He asks again, putting emphasis on each word.

I lean down to pick up the potted plant then look up at him again, "Maybe." I say softly before quickly hurrying inside, locking the door behind me.

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After work, I am accompanied by Manuel back to the apartment. He quickly explained to me that he got too busy to drop by today during my shift, but he didn't know I was secretly glad I finally got some time to myself for the first time in a week.

Manuel is a quiet boy, so the walk back home is always an awkwardly silent one.

I look up at him, my lips pursed, "So, Manuel, how was work today?" I ask, making an attempt at small talk. Manuel and all four of his siblings work at a panadería, La Noria, ran by his mother and father. Bernardo always sent me there on Fridays to pick up some mallorcas, so we could have something special for dessert.

Manuel beams at my question, "Estaba bien. It was a busy day, but you know I love it there more than anything. ¿Todavía vas a venir mañana a comprar tus tres mallorcas de siempre?"

I laugh softly, "Sí. You know how Nardo is, he loves mallorcas."

As we finally arrive to the apartment, I fish my keys out of my purse and unlock the door, letting Manuel and myself in. He makes his way over to the couch and plops down tiredly, letting out a long sigh.

I quirk a brow at him, "¿Estás cansado?"

He hums sleepily and nods, "Sí... y tengo muchísima hambre. Could you make me something? Unos huevos o algo."

"Por supuesto." I roll my eyes and grab a pan from the cabinet. I was tired too, but I would make him some eggs anyway. I walk over to the stove and place the pan down, slicking it with oil once it's heated up. I crack two eggs into the pan and sprinkle some salt on them.

Manuel sits up slightly and cranes his neck to look at me, "Gracias, Y/N. You'll make a great wife someday."

My eyes widen. Did he mean I would be a great wife to him? I suck in a deep breath and turn to look at him with a forced smile, "Thank you, Manuel. Because that's always been my dream. To be a great wife."

He smiles at my words, obviously he didn't pick up on my sarcasm. I know Manuel means well by saying that— as well as my brother and a few other men I know— but I hated that they always saw me as a future housewife, when that's not really what I want to do with my life. I admire the women who are devoted to their families in that way, but I would really love to run a flower shop of my own someday.

"Y/N, could I have a glass of water?" Manuel asks softly, his voice startling me a bit.

I plate his eggs quickly and nod, "I'll get it for you right now." I hand him his eggs then get him a glass of cool water.

He quickly eats his eggs and gulps down the water, then checks his watch, "Hm, I should get going now. My parents said I have to be back to the bakery by 5:00." He stands from the couch and hugs me, "Gracias por todo. You're amazing."

I smile sheepishly, "It's nothing." Manuel returns my smile before leaving the apartment. Once he's gone, I sit myself on the couch and kick off my flats, enjoying the peace and quiet.

Soon after Manuel leaves, Anita and Bernardo come back home from work. Anita groans softly as she peels her heels from her sore feet and places them neatly by the front door, Nardo rubs her back before making his way to the fridge to grab the carton of milk. Anita practically limps over to the living room and sits on the couch next to me, "How was your day, nena?" She asks, stroking my hair tenderly.

I smile softly, my eyelids drooping as her gentle touch soothes me, "Uneventful."

She stills her hand and gives me a smirk, "Uneventful, huh? Bernardo and I saw Manuel leave just now… what did you two talk about?” She waggles her brows at me suggestively, making me roll my eyes.

“Nothing. He sat on the couch, half asleep, while I made him some eggs. Manuel isn’t a very talkative person.” I shrug.

Anita sighs softly and sits upright, lowering her voice so Nardo wouldn’t hear, “Ay, nena, I told you that you don’t have to go out with him if you don’t want.”

I lean my head on her shoulder, “But you see how happy it’s made Nardo. I don’t mind it.”

Anita purses her lips, “I just don’t want you to feel obligated to date whoever your brother wants you to. There are plenty of nice boys in our neighborhood.”

Our neighborhood. I force a smile and nod, “Sí, lo sé. I’m content with Manuel for now. He’s a sweet boy. A little clingy, but sweet.”

Anita laughs and pulls me into a tight hug, “If you say so, Y/N.”

Bernardo walks into the living room, biting into a crisp red apple, “Vamos al mercado.”

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[magnetictapedatastorage]

I wanna hear abt the hair styles of the tf2 characters... and you seem like the expert! I’m drawing them for my friend and like to understand things when I draw ‘em !!

oh man, where do i even start. at the beginning i guess!

scout. what a mess. what did they do to you, boy? what he did to deserve an asymmetrical fringe i don't want to know. his sides are faded out at the very ends but the back is a simple round cut. he also has some volume at the front top, gelled maybe? overall a 0/10

soldier has a nice taper. not much to say, looks like a 2-1, with the line fairly high. on top he could have as much as 3/8" of hair. the back is "square" albiet with some shallow lines from the ears. high and tight.

not much can be known about pyro's hair, but it's likely that not much of it can fit under that mask. that little fold in the back could indicate a length?

demoman has a range of hairstyles available via cosmetics. his most distinctive hair is always his large muttonchops and mustache. the back is square.

heavy, he's light on the hair, with his stubble darker than what's left on top. i believe the phrase is "bald as a polished floor". the back is, god help him, v-shaped. that is very, very, VERY rare to ask for that in real life.

engie i would complain about the angle from the back of your ears to the nape being too steep, but with those teeny tiny lil ears you just won't hear me. not much to say about this one, other than that. it's a crew cut. he probably does it himself with a wahl or some horrible radioactive hair-magnet. the back is so square it puts spongebob to shame.

medic is a funny case. what would have been an old-man hairstyle in the time period of the game, a skin fade, is now the rage among teen boys. whoda thunk. anyways, his fringe is tall and wide, with quite some volume on top to comb forward and hide that receding hairline! the back is round. i will be getting this exact cut when halloween rolls around.

sniper's haircut is... god, where do i even START? seriously. what on earth. the poor man was BRUTALIZED by a barber. okay. okay. very slight window's peak. napeline slightly longer than those sideburns (the only cool part are the sideburns). the front is... gelled? maybe? pomade. maybe. the back is something that defies physics entirely and belies a horrifically misshapen skull and reminds me of a story i heard about girls in 2000s west asia putting multiple bumpits inside of their hijabs at the same time until they looked like a creature. ahem. moving on.

spy's hair is- agh!

[wintersettled]

Honestly the way different archons in genshin impact have such different interactions with their nation is very interesting to me, especially with how its further expanded in fontaine recently.

The archons who are closest to the way we traditionally (in the west) think of a god (ie. all-powerful and on a completely other level of existence to humans) would probably be Barbatos first, then Rex Lapis.

Barbatos/Venti having churches dedicated to him and not appearing (as far as most are aware) in society for centuries is very similar to how the christian god is seen, as someone worshipped but never directly interacted with on a level beyond the spiritual. Meanwhile Rex Lapis/Zhongli has tons of myths and stories dedicated to him across lands and made appearances for years until his "death". In this way he's somewhat comparable to Greek gods (or even Jesus, to keep the christianity analogy going). He's far more openly entrenched in humanity but still remains separate and "above".

It's more-so with the three other archons we've encountered that our understanding of what gods must be like in teyvat based on Rex Lapis and Barbatos is totally altered with Ei, Furina, and Buer, all three being the "replacement" archon for their respective nations.

Ei, the third archon we meet, takes a direct role in Inazuman government as the Shogun, a totally different approach than the previous two which i find more similar to various rulers claiming divine right of kings. Also, despite not being the original electro archon most dont actually know this because Ei took on the identity of her sister, who died during the calamity. I think Ei taking on her sisters identity definitely helped her maintain her "divine authority" where other archons (buer) failed to maintain it in their nations.

Speaking of Buer/Nahida, you'd think the whole changing the past to everyone except descenders thing would complicate our interpretation of her but it doesnt at all. I think the reason for this is that destroying the previous archon in irmunsul didnt actually change the past. I also dont think the wanderer/scaramouche actually changed the past. I think they just changed peoples memories of it. but anyway. Nahida also takes on a governmental role at the end of sumerus archon quests while still remaining a somewhat holy figure. She was obviously shut out/disregarded following the passing of the previous dendro archon, unlike Ei she wasn't able to maintain her authority. After the archon quest however, her position in government kind of reminds me of the queen of england early in her rule. There was still a democratic governing body in the prime minister and other representatives but she maintains power.

Furina/Focalors also reminds me of the queen of england but at the end of her career instead. Furina appears to be more of a mascot in fontaine than a proper ruling body. It actually seems that the machine and neuvillette hold more authority that she does. Obviously we havent really explored fontaine much yet (its only been out a few days but im loving it) and we've only gotten so much info from the archon quests but as far as i can tell, furina appears to be kind of scrambling to live up to the previous hydro archon who was seemingly so well liked that fontaines people are repenting to this day. (as am i misremembering or did they say the previous archon didnt side with celestia but her people did?? what!?). Its even actively pointed out how people in fontaine do not view their archon to even a similar level as people in other nations (i mean their archon does meet and greets and is very reckless with her accusations but-).

anyways 👍 yes.

TLDR: zhongli + venti = traditional gods ei + nahida (now) = government furina + nahida = queen of england idk also i dont think they actually changed the past, just people interpretation of it. btw whats up with the fontaine profecy and the whole "they sided with celestia" thing??

[vanessalocke]

[France was once expected to join the Commonwealth]

Today I found some interesting information.

As I said in the previous post, I was very surprised to read on 2 wiki pages that France almost joined the Commonwealth. However, in the previous post I was a bit hasty in making the judgment that the UK would not let France join the Commonwealth. In fact, the UK was VERY EXCITED about the idea of ​​France joining the Commonwealth, but…

The whole story is like this: around 1956, France was trying to deal with Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser's desire to nationalize the Suez Canal, so the French prime minister secretly negotiated with the British prime minister to prevent this from happening. In general, the whole Suez Canal affair was a mess and there is nothing to say, but that is not the main point of this post. Here is the main point:

In order to attract Britain to cooperate and tolerate it completely, France proposed an Anglo-French "alliance". Original text: "When the French Prime Minister, Monsieur Mollet was recently in London he raised with the prime minister the possibility of a union between the United Kingdom and France."

British Prime Minister Anthony Eden refused because it sounded too absurd. So Mr Mollet proposed another solution: how about France joining the Commonwealth and swearing allegiance to the King/Queen?

Reading this far, I was like:

???????

In fact, the British Prime Minister was EXTREMELY EXCITED about the proposal for France joining the Commonwealth :D and I think one of the reasons why Britain agreed to participate in the Suez Canal plan was because of this crazy proposal. This is just my personal opinion, that is, Britain wanted to declare the French monarchy for hundreds of years without abandoning it, even putting that wish on the Canadian flag, so the idea of ​​France joining the Commonwealth and swearing allegiance to the King/Queen is no different from Britain's wildest dream coming true :)

But the problem is, the British and French plan in Egypt was not successful. And because of the Suez Crisis, the whole of West Asia became hostile to colonialism, and the US also squeezed the British and French and kicked Britain out of its imperial position. And because the Suez Canal campaign failed, the agreement for France to join the Commonwealth was no longer valid.

This proposal of Prime Minister Mollet was classified as a state secret document, and was only declassified at the beginning of the 21st century. Historians and politicians who read this were shocked.

All of this is summarized from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6261885.stm

Well, this reminds me of something quite interesting in APH.

Do you remember this strip?

Yes, I assure you, the reason Himaruya drew these two as if they were about to get married was because of the BBC article that I just linked above =)))))))))))) because the title of the article was "When Britain and France nearly married" =))))))))))))))))))

However, Himaruya seemed to want to "bend" the event to fit his character setup or something, or because of his point of view, he turned this into a comedy proposal between England and France. The half-joking, half-serious style, France forced England to sign the marriage papers while England flatly refused LOL. Himaruya also didn't mention the Commonwealth agreement.

In my opinion, the "nearly married" part of the British newspaper title does not refer to the Anglo-French union proposed by Mollet as in the APH strip above, but only to the later proposal, that France join the Commonwealth =))))))))))) because the British immediately rejected the idea of ​​uniting the British and French as one, but considered the idea of ​​France joining the Commonwealth very, very seriously. You guys just read the newspaper link above, when the British side received that proposal, they were very excited.

Let's move forward a bit to this year. France was expected to join the Commonwealth and that event was compared by the BBC to "nearly married". In 2024, France became the FIRST NON-COMMONWEALTH country to attend the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, British soldiers guarded the Élysée Palace and French soldiers guarded Buckingham Palace. Make sense yet?

Ps: at the end of the BBC article, the author did not forget to mention the EEC ha ha ha ha.

[gacha-incels]

My current theory is that ( Puts tinfoil hat )  The ongoing gender war stuff in both CN and KR have definitely shifted how some 'waifu-collectors' see the female player base and therefore male characters in gacha games. There's definitely an ongoing narrative that women are the root of toxicity and more devs should adopt the waifu-only policy to appeal to as few women as possible and gatekeep their safe havens. The irony is that most of these people advocating to exclude women are using the vocal minority for their examples as to why, which is exactly what they don't want done to themselves. Basically, women should only play Love and Deepspace and men can play GFL2/AL/Snowbreak/Nikke etc. As long as women 'stay in their lane' they are satisfied, even though it's been shown that both men and women will pull for characters of the opposite gender and vice versa. Mixed cast games are trying to err on the side of caution because if they don't appeal to this crowd enough (by skewing the gender ratio harder, or by making more fanservice designs) then they will be brigaded on social media for appealing too much towards women or radical feminists.

omg yeah I feel like “gamer” men say this outright around the world from east to west. “women are coming into our games and making the women less sexy and everything more toxic” etc. attitude has ramped up. though it was always bad if you remember, in the west at least, the absolute insane violent tantrum reaction to Anita Sarkeesian for making like I cannot stress this enough just pretty basic feminist videos about video games. It was like seeing grown adult men have the same type of screaming tantrum a toddler would have when you tell him he can’t have an expensive toy at the store. except instead of one kid sitting on the floor screaming it was an unbelievable amount of men worldwide sitting in their computer chairs screaming and writing graphic rape threats and making full video games where you violently beat her. For the crime of just one woman talking about fucking Mario or whatever. THIS is how these men react when you do something as benign as that. I posted some more about this here.

you have no idea the insane shit that gets blamed on female fans or female employees of mixed sex gachas. A lot of that has been already posted here obviously so I’ll post something new I saw just so we can archive some more examples. Recently one of my friends from the infrared blog I sometimes repost here showed me this strange phenomenon happening on the Genshin impact leaks subreddit where a good amount of guys were accusing the developers of the game of being fujoshis because they thought a new female water character was being nerfed so that a previously released male water character would be the strongest water character. I thought this was a joke (my mistake) but it spanned a LOT of comments and got extremely heated. Later I found these comments in another thread there

Like this is the thought process. This sucked -> ok so probably a woman wrote it -> well most writers graduated from liberal arts schools, and most liberal arts students are women, so it was definitely a female writer. This is how easy it is for this type of “gamer” male to blame anything they hate on women. They did this for one of the stories in HSR that was disliked as well. If you look up “有男不玩” there are videos on bilibili but also some on YouTube where you can get snippets of how these guys are thinking about female gacha players. They share some similarities with all gamer men who think women are more frivolous, unskilled and don’t like action games. there were particular comments that reminded me of how Korean incels wrote about women, in that games should stop pandering to us altogether because we don’t have enough money, or if we do have money it’s because it’s coming from a boyfriend or male relative, or we’re all just playing f2p. ironically a huge amount of merch sales, IRL events and fan-PR like fanart comes from female players and they are usually the ones to stick around the longest I believe, but these guys only understand the money aspect of these games.

There are a lot of ones that were interesting but I don’t want to use too many since I was working with MTL, and then looking up individual phrases, and then retranslating some, and then looking up context, etc. lol. so when I have a better grasp on this I can make a better post.

in regards to how they find it ok if the games are sex segregated yes exactly,I posted about this earlier and probably a couple months ago too but this was most recent so it’s easiest to just copy here

[alaskan-wallflower]

maybe i’ll draw this later but i thought i’d share some mythical being au with yall (keep in mind this is a mythical au so i don’t really bother with realism lmfao)

I think Mrs Curtis would be a nymph-I head anon she was a nature lover who was soft but had a bit of a bite to her. Maybe a forest nymph-I have an idea in mind where she kinda has a “true form” that was really big (think greek god?) since she was kind of a forest protector in a way? It’ll make more sense when I draw it tbh

Mr Curtis was a gargoyle. In my headcanon I think Mr Curtis was this huge, scary looking guy but he was absolutely just a goofy sweetheart under all of that-he was pretty big too but not in the same way-he was bat like in a way? He had huge bat wings and claws and such but underneath all that he’s just a silly guy

Darry is kind of like a centaur but instead of a horse it’s a gryphon-I think gryphons were fairly big so I think he’d be quite big too (weren’t there stories of gryphons being destroyers of cities? He’s that kind of big but he doesn’t destroy shit lmao-he uses his size to his advantage and it also helps him clear ways for new construction. Mr Curtis taught him how to fly too, also lions and eagles remind me of Darry so-he also has sharp teeths. Also instead of smacking Pony, simply because of his size I feel like he just…recklessly picked up Pony and squeezed him a bit too hard and only realized when he saw Pony struggling to breathe and that was when Pony ran away

Sodapop is a centaur. Pong said it himself that Soda reminds him of a palomino colt so of course Soda is a palomino-sometimes when he laughs he falls onto his back and just kicks his hooves lmao-also horses know how to walk as soon as they’re born so Soda was pretty much running around from the moment he was born. He takes great pride in his tail and hair and lets people brush it-girls flock to the DX just to brush his tail-sometimes he lets little kids braid it if they want too!

Pony is a cervitaur-basically a deee centaur. He’s an axis deer-they’re known for their speed and agility (they can run up to 45 mph and jump up to 6 feet high so this obviously helps him in track)-he likes to style his hair so his little antler nubs are showing but when his antlers actually grow he’s so prideful about it it’s not even funny. He’s kinda like bambi in a way, when he was a baby he had such a hard time walking and when he goes through growth spurts he does too-it’s also just funny because his name is Ponyboy and he ended up being half deer

I really like kraken Johnny-just Johnny being some gigantic creature but being the most quiet and nervous is just funny to me. His scales are valuable too so maybe that’s why he gets jumped a lot. I know Oklahoma isn’t known for its water sources but just pretend with me that there’s a huge lake somewhere that he just chills in-when him and Pony run away he swims in the river. He’s always dreamed of going to the ocean but he’s kinda just stuck in Tulsa. He’s fairly huge though so it can be tough, but he swims through rivers to get to where he’s going. Darry being the size he is even made a sort of moat leading to a lake by the Curtis place. (I know it’s not realistic but bear with me)

Dally’s a dragon for sure. He’s a shifter in a way? Like Mrs Curtis he has a true form and a semi human form, he’s a huge dragon though when he is in his true form and he’s definitely caused…a number of things (jails) to be burnt down. It got to the point that the west side had to haul in fireproof things because Dally would just try to escape. Johnnyme the only one who can stop him from burning things down and just spits water at him to make him stop (another reason Johnny is a kraken because opposites attract I guess-) but Darry also has to wrestle him sometimes because he’s sick of having to rebuild things Dally burnt down even if he does get paid. Darry’s basically Tulsa’s version of Fix It Felix lmao

Two Bit is an imp. I don’t know how to describe my thought process but he’s just an imp. He’s silly. He’s goofy. He does reckless shit-he’s just this little, nimble imp with dragon wings and horns-Imps aren’t evil, they’re just mischevious and like to play pranks. Just like Two Bit. He can be smooth when. he wants to be though. He likes to jab people with his horns. He’s just goofy like that. I feel like when he’s mad his voice kinda gets deeper since they technically are devils in a way-his teeth also get sharper and he has claws. His eyes kinda glow too and his pupils slit. It’s scary. Think do when he snapped at Johnny’s mom when he was in the hospital.

Steve is a werewolf. He’s got that dog in him 😔 I think he’s always have sort of wolfish features, like sharp teeth, kinda slit pupils, maybe he even keeps the ears and/or tail (this is a stretch but idk lol) but whenever it’s a full moon you’ll know it evacsue he’s gorging on all kinds of meats and his shifts can be rough. Especially the first few. I feel like if he’s really really REALLY emotional he’ll shift a little bit too? Like it’s not confined to just full moons but he can’t will himself to do it either if that makes sense. I just think this is cool

I dunno; what do you guys think?

[veliseraptor]

March Reading Recap

Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine by Sophie Duncan. I actually really liked this one! It was an interesting look at several different lenses that have been used over time to look at Juliet (specifically Juliet, not the play), including the relationship between fascism and Juliet in Verona, Italy and the development of West Side Story (didn't know Juliet was Jewish in an early version). I enjoy sort of niche/specific books focusing on a very particular subject, and this book scratched that itch well.

The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean, and the Looming Threat That Imperils It by Helen Scales. I read this book too soon after The Underworld by Susan Casey which, while not necessarily a better book, covered a lot of the same terrain. The trouble with a keen interest in a niche topic is, I suppose, that the books on it can start to get repetitive sometimes. It was still good, though, and this one focused a bit less on the history of human exploration than Casey did and a bit more on the ecosystems themselves, which I did welcome.

Blood of the Chosen and Emperor of Ruin by Django Wexler. The second and third books in the series that started with Ashes of the Sun - both continued the trend of "I don't know that I'd call these particularly good works of literature but they were very enjoyable and propulsive." The second book was stronger than the third - I ended up feeling like the conclusion of the trilogy was weaker and a little rushed, but I still enjoyed the experience as a whole and would offer at least a tentative, general recommendation of the series for those looking for a fantasy series that's not particularly innovative or serious but is an exciting ride.

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis. This book reminded me a little bit of Such Desperate Glory but wasn't quite as well done, I don't think. The back compared it to Mass Effect but I don't really see that as a reasonable comparison. Possibly one of my favorite things about it was the cover design, which fucks. I still liked it, though, and I'm going to read the sequel.

The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race by Farah Karim-Cooper. Sometimes when I read things I feel like a snot because I go "this is interesting information but the writing feels a little amateurish" and that was my situation with this book. It was good analysis and interesting to read, though sometimes the "and this is how this is modern-ly relevant! q-anon mention" felt a little bit...ehhh, unnecessary, but the writing itself was...yeah. It felt amateurish. Which might just be a result of the book itself being targeted at a particular audience that's less academically-minded than I am, that's certainly possible, but it did affect my enjoyment of the book.

Last Days by Adam Nevill. Mostly this was good spooky fun, though it lost me with the "the ultimate bad guy is an overweight bisexual actor with AIDS" (it's a little more complicated than that, but not enough). Too bad, because conceptually and in terms of imagery it could've been very good. Between this and my last Nevill, I might have to give future books a pass. My search for horror that isn't playing on bigoted tropes apparently continues, since I'm on a bit of a streak there with this and Ring.

China: A History by John Keay. I'd call this one a solid overview despite the choice to use "bureaux" for the plural. However, I'm taking a lot of it with a grain of salt since as far as I can tell he didn't use many or possibly any Chinese secondary sources, and relied primarily for quotations/analysis on English secondary sources. I would've liked to see more of a balance. Still, as far as background information and a general broad history goes, it feels like it was worth reading for me to get a little more background/grounding in history I don't have a lot of familiarity with. (Also, holy shit did Ken Liu crib hard on Liu Bang and Xiang Yu for The Grace of Kings and now I know that.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. I continue to really enjoy this book and this volume might be my favorite yet - the flashbacks were satisfying to fill in some of the gaps in mysteries as yet unrevealed, and having Gu Mang fully "back" (more or less) is a fun development that is already having consequences changing the dynamic between him and Mo Xi in delightfully angsty ways. Of the cnovels I'm currently in the middle of this one is close to LHJC as far as my favorite.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi. This one is what I think people would call a "romp" which is all well and good and I probably should've known what I was getting into, but I think I am just not much of a "romp" reader. It was fun, I guess? But I don't know that I felt like it was good, and I'm probably not going to go around recommending it. My first Scalzi, and I don't know if that's typical of him, but I probably won't be in a hurry to pick up another one anytime soon.

Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation ed./trans. by Ken Liu. Short story collections are really hit and miss for me, but this was actually a collection that was pretty hit all the way through! Very interesting stories, a couple I'm still thinking about. I'm looking forward to reading my other collection of short stories in translation, which includes some fantasy - some of these actually felt somewhere between fantasy and science fiction in a very interesting way that I liked.

--

phew. I read a lot last month! Currently I'm reading Medea by Eilish Quin (we'll see how that goes); I have on my docket The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (recommended to me) and I think I might reread She Who Became the Sun so I can read He Who Drowned the World. I've been on more of a fiction than a nonfiction kick of late, but I am eyeing Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn and might make that part of my rotation. we shall see!

[tsatsked]

The spectrum of early 20th century Russian fashion or why I think Zima was a nobleman and Leonid looks a bit fruity and slay

DISCLAIMER: I'm not an expert, the text is kinda dump. Also, if I speak lies, call me out.

Zima

DISCLAIMER: I divide several classes into ‘noble’ and ‘common’ ones just so it would be easier to explain my thoughts on the historical fashion tendencies dualism.

First of all, some historical context just to be sure we’re on one page. Due to some law enforcement in 18th century, economics and class division, Russian Empire nobles embraced fashion from dominant European countries faster than common folk did. The noble fashion was more West-centered and common fashion was more Slavic-centered, and this division continued to exist to some extent up to the 20th century revolution period.

Speaking about the parts of Zima’s outfit, most of them seem to be generic for a commoner living in the northern region. His sable collar can be explained by him making it to survive harsh climate, the dragonfly wings brooch are mostly whimsical than anything, but the thin gloves and the style in which the scarf is secured tell another story. Thin gloves were worn for hygiene and etiquette, but for how often they rip not every family could afford such elegance. The scarf is worn like cape and secured by the rope as by fourragère, both of which came into Russian noble fashion through Western casual fashion and military uniforms. Is Zima an ex-commoner that dresses tacky or an ex-noble who forgot his drip? Judging by his character in his Anecdote, he’s too hippie-like to care about looking fancy for others and the second option is more likely. His knowledge of several languages does not necessary means he couldn’t be a commoner, but makes it more likely he received such education due to being born into a richer family. Unrelated, I like his design, he looks like an embodiment of Russian Empire and early Soviet literature, mostly reminds me of elements from Pushkin’s, Turgenev’s and Esenin’s works

Leonid

Disclaimer: the information is got mosltly from Zima’s Anecdote, I’ve just learned he was in another events :[

Leonid has some serious drip - he’s rocking patterned turtleneck hidden under a plain shirt. Yes, I said turtleneck. Don’t be deceived by the pattern - there are no rubaha (Russian shirt) with such a high collar and no button is sight! The stitches length also suggest that the gold is not weaved but printed on the knitwear. Such kind of mass production clothes are easy to imagine being made in early Soviet years, when artists searched new ways to incorporate Bauhaus and Avant-garde principles into citizens lives and forget about past, when cultural symbols are simplified into more abstract forms. Maybe he could make it itself after being inspired by work of others. And here’s where my understanding of cultural references ends, of boy, it looks like he absorbs looks from different places around Eurasia. I’m not familiar with white shirt’s cut, maybe it inspired by more western Slavic traditional clothes like, idk Poland. The braiding style is common in Eastern Slavic cultures among women but braids aren’t a thing in Russian male tradition (the reason I said he looks fruity #1). So are earring(s) (the reason I said he looks fruity #2). The sash kinda reminds of different traditions across the country, but the way it’s simultaneously wide, plain and secured by belt, it gives off the foreign vibe. TLDR - he’s kinda gnc and bold in his style choices But the most majestic thing in his design is buttons collection on his belt! In Eastern European (and not only) ye old days, buttons were used as talismans to ward off evil from somebody. While I was checking the information, I’ve learned red clothes were used as protection too. It seems like the power of clothes are on his side

[druidshollow]

who's the iterator with the shelter symbol on their head? 👀

*whips around and evil grins at the camera* TIME FOR A CANOPY POST

sheltering canopy | #862, gen 3 | she/her

(im gonna be talking about off string canopy mostly because she doesn't really do anything yet in the canon adjacent story!!! all the like. personal info and stuff is consistent tho)

of course. as always. since this is canopy's first time around. fast facts.

sheltering canopy is part of the far north group, a local group adjacent to corners!

far north consisted (in order of construction) of eleven rivers, untold odyssey, one wish for all, four falling phrases, and finally sheltering canopy. when rivers' first admin went to the void sea and was eventually replaced with flowers, flowers proposed and helped construct the twins and separated the far north group into two groups.

odyssey was made group senior overseeing wish and canopy, and phrases was made senior overseeing rivers and the twins.

shortly after the mass ascension, wish caught the rot, and some time after that the Gift was released and odyssey received dev status. unfortunately wish's rot was too extreme so they couldn't save her, but odyssey was able to reach canopy and make her a mobile puppet so they could travel south together!

they are heading south because *static sounds here* (there is something that LOTS of iterators are travelling towards, havent decided if its like. a commune or new society or something but whatever i decide is where these guys are heading). unfortunately, the only way south from far north is through the great north divide (a large mountain range), which is perilous and frigid. keeping warm is hard and securing water is even harder. rivers and phrases climbed the range and went above (pink path), where canopy and odyssey (cyan path) moved through a ravine called the west chasm (more water and warmth than going above, but also lots more carnivores)

the divide is a difficult journey but once youve reached the other side, the real threat rears its head. across the mountains from the far north group is the civilizing divide group, a group consisting of 13 iterators, most notably their senior and older sister, adamant dune.

i think we all know who dune is by now, lmao canopy and odyssey almost reached the other side of dune's territory without even understanding the danger they were in, but the group caught up with them last moment. by the time canopy and odyssey reach this point, phrases and rivers have already long escaped and dune had thrown hollow space out. she was especially dangerous at this point, angry and grieving and now without her voice of reason.

a mystery group (who i currently know very very little about) jumps in at the last moment and saves odyssey, leaving canopy behind having seen her injuries and knowing there's no coming back from a killing blow like that.

but canopy miraculously survives the wound dune inflicts on her, and instead of just trying again, dune takes canopy in to her group in exchange for canopy to help them retrieve cells. they tell canopy that they murdered odyssey.

dune in no way treats canopy like family like she does the rest of her group. she makes canopy help with murder and has little to no regard for her wellbeing or feelings. canopy collapses in on herself amongst the violence shes being made to commit and the cruelty she's facing. she becomes quiet, introspective and numb. it reminds dune of hollow space, which just makes her disdain for canopy stronger.

i sketched this freaky comic of dune making canopy murder someone, you can see it if u promise not to look at the arms for more than 0.5 seconds lmao

she goes by the name shelter with dune and co.

ok its 12:30 pm on a work night and i gotta wake up at 6 so thats all from me for now. ill save her and odyssey's reunion for another time!!! the payoff is huge you guys have no idea but i promise they end up together again

[joannaliceevans-fanficblog]

Evermore: Part. 2: Chapter. One

A/N: And here we are! The second half of this series! I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to everyone who has loved and reblogged this story! I truly love it! SO thank you so much!

I also wanted to thank @hollybee8917 for this beautiful mood board and for editing this chapter! Thank you babe!

A cold winter morning as you drove down this familiar route. Looking outside always reminds you of a snow globe. You peeked behind you to see your baby girl in her car seat, humming to the song in the car.  

“Chloe bug, do you know where we are going?” You asked. You saw as she placed her little index finger on her chin and giggled.  

“Papa?” Chloe askedwith excitement. You smiled as you turned into the Massachusetts National Cemetery.  You found the section and parked on the side.  You then got out of the car and went back, to get Chloe out of her seat. You told her to stay by your side as you grabbed the flowers from the passenger seat.  

“Come on, hold onto mommy’s hand.” You say and Chloe reaches for your hand. 

You then proceeded to walk toward the middle of the cemetery. It took a few minutes and you pause in the middle of the large headstone.  

Ari David Levinson 

June 14, 1981- April 16th, 2023 

Captain US Army, West Point 

Beloved Son, Husband, and Father 

You then bent down to your daughter and handed her the bouquet. Her little hands held on to them and she looked toward you.  

“Momma is for Papa?” She asked. 

You smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. “Yes, baby. Papa always gave me flowers too. He would love it; would you like to give it to him?”

Chloe smiled. With her tiny hands, she held onto him and placed them down next to him.  

“Hi Papa, Mommy says you like flowers. I went to the zoo yesterday! I see lots of animals! Ands Uncles DeeDee calls! He says I get smart!” Chloe said as she placed the flowers down. 

** 

It's been 5 years since Ari left you and this world. Those 5 years were the hardest that you went through. Even if you had your friends, coworkers, and families. It just wasn’t the same. You did your best, going on with your life. Andy hasn’t returned, but he kept in touch with you every day or when he got the chance.  

You even went on dates, nothing special. You didn’t want to move on, but you knew that Ari wanted to live your life. Explore, see places, and just be happy. That’s all that he wanted from you.  

Chloe learned how to walk when she was a year and a half. It was caught on camera while face timing Andy and even learning mama and Papa, Grammy, and Pawpaw.  

You bent down and placed your hand on his gravestone and placed your head down. Even though it’s been long, you still feel his presence.  

“Oh, Ari Bear.” You said and kissed the top. 

You felt your tears fall, and you felt Chloe wipe them away with her tiny hands. You smiled and turned towards her. 

“Mommy don’t cry. Papa no want you sad. Papa makes you happy right?” 

Chloe said and turned towards her. You smiled and placed a hand on her cheek.  

“Yes, Papa made me very happy. Did Grammy or Pawpaw tell you that?” You asked. 

With pride, Chloe nodded, “Yup! And Pawpaw saids that he’s a big hero!” 

More tears slipped down your cheeks and you hugged your daughter.   

“Yes, baby bug. Your Papa was a hero. Now come on, Grammy and Pawpaw are waiting for us!” You said, getting up.  

“Bye Papa! I wue you!” You heard Chloe say. 

You laughed and let out a sigh, “Love you Mr. Levinson. I’ll see you next week.” 

You said, kissing his headstone one last time, taking your daughter's hand, and headed back down to your car.  

** 

Boston Logan International Airport 

After a long 8-hour flight from Germany newly promoted General Andy Barber entered US soil, after living in Frankfurt for 5 years. He meant to come home, but from the cases he took, it took longer than he expected.  But now that it is all over, he is happy to be home. But what drove him to come back was a letter that he received over 5 years ago, but only really had the heart to open it 4 months ago.  

4 months ago… 

Andy was in the process of closing a case with his team when a box he was looking through fell on the ground, and its contents spilled. Cursing, he bent down and began to pick them up. But as he did, he saw the familiar handwriting and he knew who it was from. He tried to put it to the side, but something in him had told him to now open it.  

He excused himself from his team and headed outside to his balcony. He closed the door behind him and stared at the envelope. He studied the familiar writing and how he writes in all caps. He took a seat for a moment, to collect his thoughts. 

Andy didn’t know why; he was afraid or feeling sad. Taking one last sigh, Andy began to slowly open the flaps.   

There were bits of sand inside meaning that he was in the desert as he wrote this. Andy placed the envelope down. And he opened the letter.  

Dear Lieutenant General Andrew Steven Barber,  

Wow, that sounds very professional. Anyways, I feel like I’m doing this the old-fashioned way, but this would be the best way. Before I end this letter Andy, I’m writing this before I call Y/N and I’m about to leave on a high-stakes mission.  

This mission is extremely dangerous, and there is a VERY slim chance that I would survive. It hurts to think about it, but this is what I signed up to do. I can’t give you All the information, because you know the rules. The reason I’m writing this to you is that I have something to ask of you.  

What I’m asking is to take care of my angel and my little munchkin. They mean the world to me, and you know that. I know that Y/N would be sad if I didn’t make home to her and Chloe. We took care of each other, but I have a feeling that I won’t make it. I know I’m hurting you and my family. But I know that it will be okay.  

All I ask, once again, is to take care of her. Be there for her, and just be the friend that you have always been. If you fall for her? Then I’m not stopping you, dude. But if you break her heart, then I’ll seriously punch you in your sleep.  

I’m sorry that it’s going to be this way, I’m sad that I won’t be able to see my baby girl grow up to be a wonderful sassy girl, and I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to live for the rest of my life with my beautiful Y/N.  

Oh, and to see you grow old, Lieutenant General Andy Barber. Don’t fuck anything up sir. OKAY! 

I got to go. I need to make that phone call to my wife.  

Your best friend since 1st grade,  

Captain Ari David Levinson.  

Andy placed the letter back into its envelope and kept it close to him. He just wanted to pack up and go back home. But he can’t, not right at this moment. As he went back in, his friend Joanne looked up towards him and gave him a concerned look. He tried to brush it off, as he sat back down. But of course, she wouldn’t let it pass by.  

“Andy, what’s wrong?” Joanne asked him. Again, Andy brushed it off, and proceeded to go on. Joanne looked at Andy and sighed.  

“Andy Barber, I know you. What’s wrong?” Joanne asked once more. Andy sighed and placed the envelope down. 

“I finally opened it.” Andy said, rubbing his eyes.  

“Oh, that one. How are you feeling?” Joanne asked. Andy laid his head into his hands.  

“Home, I need to get back home,” Andy said.  

** 

Andy was asked to take over the Washington DC office, but he politely declined and asked to take over the office in Boston and it’s close to home for him. As he walked out of the terminal, Y/N’s cousin pulled up and parked to the side. Andy smiled and hugged him. 

“Welcome home bro!” Mark said. Andy let go and patted him on his back and then placed his luggage into the back seat. He got in and Mark drove off.  

“My mom called and Y/N just pulled up.” Andy smiled and let out a giggle. 

“She has no clue does she?” Andy asked and Mark chuckled as he drove onto the highway.  

“No clue at all. It’s why Ari was good at hiding surprises from her.” Mark said, smiling, making Andy laugh even more. 

It wasn’t long before Mark pulled up into Y/N's family home. He told Andy to stay outside the door so he could make sure that you were busy. Andy leaned back against the wall and Mark went inside the house. A few minutes later, the door opened, and Mark gave him the clear.  

Once he walked in, Andy could hear her laughter from the kitchen. That familiar laugh that always brought Ari and him such joy. Especially Ari. It was too long, and the nerves were getting to him, but he quickly brushed them away, letting out a breath, and made his way in. As he made his way in, your mom looked up and he quickly hushed her. Your mom just winked and continued the conversation with the others around her. It was then Andy who gave Mark a signal and he nodded.  

“You know Y/N I got a surprise for you,” Mark said. 

You tilted your head and asked, “What?” 

Your cousin smirked, “Close your eyes and turn around three times.” 

“I’m not doing that, the last time you did that…a fucking spider was involved! Just tell me.” 

Mark laughed, “Just close your eyes.” 

“Fine,” you huffed, “but it better not be anything disgusting.” 

Mark grew quiet and Andy stepped into the spot he previously occupied and spoke, “It’s not.” 

You were confused, “Mark, what happened to your voice? That sounded like-” 

Y/N opened her eyes and they widened, “ANDY!” 

You yelled as you turned around to face your best friend. You stared at Andy for a moment, thinking that it was a dream. The last time you saw him was 5 years ago. FaceTime doesn’t count. You kept thinking to yourself that it was all a dream and that you would wake up, and he was not there in front of you.  

“Y/N?” Andy asked, laughing.  

“NO, this isn’t. No, I can't-” you stuttered, trying to comprehend what is going on.  

“Y/N, it’s true,” Andy said, smiling at you. 

And that’s what gave it away. That genuine smile that he’s known for. The smile that brings joy to you.  

“Oh my god- “You yelled and jumped onto him. Andy caught you and you held onto him tight. You felt your tears, as Andy held onto you.  

“I can’t believe you are here.” You said, jumping off him and giving him a look over. He still looks the same, apart from having a thick beard.  

“Christ, Andy!” You said, giving him a friendly shove. 

Andy laughed and you hugged him once more.  

“Are you here for good? No leaving for long periods?” You asked with hope.  

“No, I’m here for good this time,” Andy told you.  

“You know who else would be happy to see you?” You asked. 

Andy knew and smiled. You then took his hand and dragged him outside, where Chloe was with her cousins playing. You then spotted her at the mini playground playing in the sand. You then turned to Andy and smiled. 

“Stay here and I’ll bring her to you.” You said and walked over to the playground.  

“Chloe!” You yelled for her, as you got there. Chloe then sat up from the sand, and who was covered in moist dusty dirt. You laughed and bent down to her as she ran to you.  

“Mommy! I made a pretty castle!” Chloe proclaimed with excitement. You smiled and cleaned off the sand off her hair, hands, and her dress.  

“That’s an amazing baby! But there’s something that I need to tell you.” You said tucking strands of her hair behind her ear.  

“Okay. Are you okay mommy?” Chloe asked, with concern. 

You smiled again and marveled at how much your daughter takes after Ari. Always concerned, always knows if something is wrong. But this time, there wasn’t anything wrong. 

“Mommy is okay, baby. But there is something that I need to tell you. You remember Uncle Andy, right? Papa’s best friend?” You asked. 

Her little green eyes lit up and she smiled. 

“Umcle DeeDee?” Chloe asked and you laughed. 

“Yes, baby.” You replied. 

You placed her in front of you and pointed straight ahead. Chloe's eyes widened and ran towards Andy. 

“Umcle DeeDee!” Chloe shouted running towards Andy. 

Andy smiled and scooped her into his arms.  

“Oh, my Chloe!” Andy said as he held on to her. 

Chloe wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, and she burst into tears. Andy hugged her softly and rubbed her back, “Chloe, what’s wrong?” 

She lifted her head and wiped her tears, and started to hiccup from crying, “Umcle you went away. Please don’t go away?” 

Andy wiped away her tears and kissed her cheek. You then stood by his side as your daughter cried.  

“Don’t worry, Chloe bug. Uncle Andy isn’t leaving. I’ll be here forever,” Andy whispered and Chloe looked at him again. 

You wiped away her tears and tucked some of her hair behind her ears. 

“You prowmis?” Chloe asked, still hiccupping. 

Andy smiled and kissed her cheek again, “I promise Chloe Bug. Uncle Andy isn’t leaving anymore.” 

Andy put her down. You and Andy watched as she ran back to the playground and continued with her sandcastle. 

** 

It was late in the night when you arrived home. Andy went home with you so that you wouldn’t have to drive home by yourself. Even if you have done so before. Chloe fell asleep in the back the moment you buckled her in her car seat. The drive home was spent in a comfortable silence. Except for the music playing in the background. As Andy pulled up, you got out and took your sleeping daughter into your arms.  

“Andy, I’m going to put her to bed, and I’ll show you your bedroom.” You said, heading towards the front doorway. As you opened the door, you headed upstairs and went to Chloe's bedroom. With her moaning in protest, you laughed as you placed her in her Hello Kitty tee-shirt and her pink Pj pants.  

Normally, you would read her a story before bed, but it was late, and your daughter was tired. So you tucked her in and kissed her forehead. 

“Good night baby. Sleep tight, Mommy loves you and Papa too.” You said and sat up. 

As you did, you looked at her nightstand to see a picture of Ari in his combat uniform and with his dog tags hanging on the edge of the frame. You smiled and headed out of her bedroom. Once you closed the door, you headed back downstairs and saw the kitchen lights on. You headed towards there, to see that he had a glass of water in his hands.  

“I hope you don’t mind,” Andy said, feeling rather embarrassed. 

You giggled and leaned against the island table. 

“Oh Andy, you should know you can take anything. Your family.” 

Andy laughed, “I know, but you know I just had to ask anyway.” 

He chugged down the rest of the water. He placed the glass into the sink, and you went to show him his room. With his luggage in his hands, Andy followed you and led him down the hallway.  

“Looks like nothing has changed,” Andy said. 

You sighed and opened the door at the end of the hallway. You turned on the lights and Andy walked in. You were about to show him where the towels and other things were, but Andy had beaten you to it.  

“Y/N, I know where the towels are. Unless you put them in another place.” Andy said. 

Again, you laughed. “Sorry Andy, it's just been a long time since I had company here.”  

Silence filled in and you cleared your throat. It was then you suddenly remembered something, and you knew that your neighbor and your parents were going to be busy.  

“Andy, I know that you just got here. But I was just wondering if you could watch Chloe tomorrow night?” You asked. Andy looked up from where he was sitting on the bed.  

“Uh, sure. Was there a reason?” Andy asked. 

You felt your cheeks blush and you sighed, “Yea, I um-I have a date with someone.”

Andy looked at you for a moment and raised an eyebrow.  

“A date? Do I know this person?” Andy asked and you sighed.  

“No, but he is from the Army. He’s a sergeant general.” You spoke and Andy continued to look at you.  

“His name is Jake Jensen.” You spoke. Andy sat up and placed his hands on his hips. 

“What is it with you and the army men?” Andy asked and you laughed.  

“Hey, shut up, okay? I met him at a party that one of my coworkers held, okay? It’s just a date Andy, nothing too serious. I’m not ready for that commitment,” you said. Andy sighed and pulled you into a hug. 

“I know, idiot, and I want you to be happy and I can see that.” 

You smiled and held Andy tight, “I know and I thank you for that. So can you watch Chloe?” You asked. Andy laughed, pulled away from you and looked down at you.  

“Yes, I can. It gives me the chance to catch up with her and to spoil her too!” Andy said. 

You laughed and playfully pushed him, “God, you are the worst.” 

You walked out of the bedroom.