#and gave the kids one last countdown to their doom

[swan2swan]

Leo Birenberg used ticking clock noises in the soundtrack as the Scorpios Rex approaches, brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, that's creepy.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 318: On Your Left

Previously on BnHA: The Hawksquad+Lurkers were all “well this sucks” and sat around a bit talking about how maybe they should actually come up with a new plan that is actually good, but then in the end they were like “nah.” Deku was all, “THERE’S SOMETHING INSIDE ME THAT PULLS BENEATH THE SURFACE!! CONSUMING, CONFUSING!! THIS LACK OF SELF CONTROL I FEAR IS NEVERENDING. IT’S HAUNTING HOW I CANT SEEM TO FIND MYSELF AGAIN. MY WALLS ARE CLOSING IN.” Just, literally that whole entire song. All Might was all “Deku you should take care of yourself, try eating a thing,” and Deku was all “BYE, ALL MIGHT,” and just LEFT. He left!!! What the fuck!!!

Today on BnHA: Endeavor is all, “maybe if Deku didn’t listen to All Might he’ll listen to me instead.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t listen to Endeavor]” because, well, yeah. The Vestiges are all, “surprisingly, even we are a little concerned -- maybe you should get some rest, kid.” Deku is all, “((Ò ‸ Ó)).” The Vestiges are all, “holy shit.” Deku is all, “[wanders the ruined city streets terrifying the populace on account of him looking like Shelob had a baby with one of the Nazgul].” Some shriveled-up puppeteer villain asshole is all, “HORIKOSHI SAID IT’S MY TURN TO ATTACK DEKU TODAY SO I AM GOING TO SUMMON MY FRIGHTENED HELPLESS ATTACK MOB!!” Kacchan is all “WHADDYA MEAN THEY FOUND THE NERD!!! -- oh wait, that’s me, I found him. I found the nerd, you guys.” And just in time, too. I was about to owe a whole lot of people a whole lot of dollars.

so I have been super good about spoilers this week as always, but let me tell you guys, for the past 36 hours my dash filters have basically been nonstop “manga spoilers” this and “bnha 318” that, and so I’m coming in with a fair amount of hype here. your move, Horikoshi

oh, good! they got Endeavor to call Deku to try to talk him out of it. what a great and wonderful plan

“listen up kid, you haven’t slept since March and you are basically a walking biohazard right now, I’m just telling it like it is. didn’t you get shot like three times?? and there was a whole thing about how you urgently needed medical attention?? and supposedly we gave it to you, but I mean you haven’t even changed your clothes and don’t seem to have any fresh bandages or anything, so did we?? did we, really?? and also we all got blown up yesterday, so yeah.” hmm he’s making some reasonable points here you guys, but you sure do go on and on, Endeavor

oh he says foreign aid is finally on its way! I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. I mean in fairness they can hardly be worse than the home-grown heroes at this point

hey Enji, could you maybe try appealing to Deku the sixteen-year-old human boy, as opposed to Deku The World’s Last Hope? he does have value beyond his quirk. I know that’s always been an incredibly difficult concept for you to grasp, but could you maybe TRY, jesus

and also we’re worried about you as a person?? you’re just a kid and you’re pushing yourself way too hard?? you were going to say that part next, right. why the hell didn’t Hawks make this call instead

“don’t worry about me... I’m completely fine” Deku you do understand that saying it over and over again doesn’t actually make it true

and again with the rush!! all the rush rush rush!! we’re running out of time, we can’t let AFO and Tomura keep getting stronger, I have to end this now, there’s no time to rest, etc. etc. etc. just the constant pressure of this whole big countdown on top of everything else

holy shit, you KNOW it’s bad when even the Vestiges are telling him to chill

these guys are basically the walking talking embodiments of self-sacrifice; if even they’re telling him he needs to take five, then he must seriously be like half a step away from death’s door

OH SHIT LMAO

DIDN’T EVEN LET HIM FINISH HIS SENTENCE BEFORE HE SENT HIM INTO THE FUCKING SHADOW REALM WITH THAT FUCKING LOOK. HOLY FUCK. DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO DIE TWICE. SHIT

(ETA: so I’m pretty sure this was just Danger Sense activating and so he cut them off to go do more hero stuff, but I’m gonna go ahead and stick to my original interpretation anyway lol.)

anyway so how’s everybody doing. we all good? En, you good? Banjou? Shino? I’m imagining you guys all curled up in a little ball on the floor right now lol. can’t say I blame you though, no shame

lmaoooooooooooo

“SHEESH.” sheesh indeed, lmao. “what in the FUCK was that”

see, this is why y’all need Kacchan. you need someone who’s not going to back down from him no matter what. if it’s a matter of out-stubborning Midoriya fucking Izuku, then there’s only one other person on the planet capable of that, and we all know it. don’t pretend like you don’t. I am not going to shut up about this! we’ve had our hurt so now what about SOME COMFORT, DAMMIT

“I’m afraid that he’s becoming influenced by my conscience” nah are you kidding Nana this is all 100% made-in-Japan pure original Deku right here

see, Banjou gets it. “that kid, he’s totally going on his own.” exactly. this was so inevitable it was basically scientific law

“well I for one don’t see the problem with Deku being so obsessed with saving everyone else that he pushes himself until his body and soul literally fall apart” okay, whose speech bubbles are these?? we’re about to have words

lol of course

well you always did prefer the direct route didn’t you. but even you can’t possibly think this is okay lol

dark AU!Kacchan please tell us more about your badass doomed timeline in which everything went to shit and you apparently had the same character arc that Deku is having right now except it somehow made you sexier instead of turning you into a rabid t-rex. I have so many questions

oh so now you want to help??? well -- good, actually. sorry if that sounded offended just now lol

(ETA: so at first when I got to the end of this chapter I was wondering if Katsuki B. had somehow summoned his alternate-universe counterpart through trippy OFA space telepathy lol. but in the original Japanese there’s no reference to “we”, so this appears to be a mistranslation. this line should probably read more like “if there’s something/someone out there that would be able to complement/complete the current Midoriya Izuku [it would be]…” which, oh hello, is that Horikoshi once again reaffirming that Deku and Bakugou complete each other lol. “guess what guys, the Vestiges ship it too" heck yeah. they know what’s up!)

look how admiring his boyfriends are. HORIKOSHI GIVE US THE REST OF THIS BACKSTORY ALREADY GODDAMMIT

“meanwhile somewhere in the depths of the ruined city, Deku was having a dance-off with the villains”

I like how the villains all have this “AHH WHAT THE FUCK” kind of body language to them lol. I mean if it were me, and an eldritch horror suddenly clawed its way from the shadows with its writhing glowy tentacles and pants-shitting nuclear death stare, I would probably just die on the spot. no need to stick around. only pain awaits

lol for a minute I thought this was Can’t Ya See-kun and I was like “WHAT A FASCINATING CROSSING OF PATHS” but it’s just some random girl

he seems genuinely confused lol

Deku it’s because you look like something that crawled out of a sewer drain, sweetheart

lol they just took his word for it?

so trusting. even though they’re immediately hauling ass anyway just to be safe lmao

“my appearance is frightening to others” no shit Deku it’s because you look like a fucking alien exorcism. you look like a Lich that got caught up in an oil spill my dude

NO NOT THE CHOSEN ONE ANGST AGAIN

I RAN OUT OF ESSAY JUICE FOR THIS ALREADY HORIKOSHI!! I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR MONTHS NOW WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!! BUT ANYWAYS, GOOD!! I MEAN, BAD, THOUGH, OBVIOUSLY. BUT YES

“ENJOY THIS MONTAGE OF DEKU BATTLING A RANDOM KAIJU AND WANDERING THE WOODS LIKE A DERANGED GREEN BABA YAGA” okay yes but sir, exactly how much longer is this going to go on. if it’s a matter of you wanting to make sure we get it, let me assure you that aside from a few stray chuunis who think that Deku embracing the Darkness is the coolest thing he’s ever done, all of us here in fandom fully comprehend that this is Not Good

-- OH SO IT’S LIKE THAT

really. with the flashbacks to his loved ones’ smiling faces and everything. not even gonna try to aim above the belt, huh

AND NO KACCHAN??! NO CLASSMATES?!?! IS HE PURPOSELY NOT THINKING OF THEM??? OR ARE THEY BEING SAVED FOR THE NEXT PAGE??? SO HELP ME, IF THE NEXT PART OF THIS SENTENCE IS “CAN PROTECT THEM”, OR EVEN WORSE, “CAN SEE THEIR SMILING FACES AGAIN”, I...

WHAT DID I JUST SAY

(ETA: my man did Sero and Kaminari fucking dirty lmao. I miss their smiling faces too omg.)

the sheer, unparalleled irony of him saying this while he stands there looking like the gargoyle demon from Fantasia got crossed with an umbrella that got struck by lightning. Deku :(

oi who the fuck is this clown

is he controlling this mob with his evil hair. “what if I made an exhausted, running-on-fumes Deku battle a brainwashed mob at Ground Zero.” Horikoshi do you just have like a checklist of horrible things you want to do to your protagonist

easy there Sasori

well joke’s on you buddy because he’s apparently “completely fine”, so

“here’s to hoping that you know more about AFO’s location than the others” jesus christ Deku you really have hung your mercy out to dry huh

now he’s forcing his mob of terrified prisoners to attack Deku ahhhh. sucks to be them. at least they’re not being controlled by bees

so Deku is saying that Sasori’s control can be broken with “physical trauma.” similar to Shinsou’s quirk I guess. but so does that mean he’s gonna have to hurt them? ( •﹏•)

NO NOT MORE SAD EYES

“DEATH BY EMPATHY!!!” HORIKOSHI NO

fuck. he looks like he’s on the verge of passing out

this is what happens when you nerf a character’s self-preservation stats in favor of spamming their bone-breaking stats instead. NOW ACCEPTING BRAIN CELL DONATIONS FOR A BOY IN NEED!! with your loving generosity we can hopefully help him live to the ripe old age of seventeen

OMGFGGG

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[grabs your hands] ლ(*꒪ヮ꒪*)ლ [swings you in a circle] へ(ﾟ◇ﾟへ)

THASSSSSSSS WHATSSSSSSS UPPPPPPPPPP

HORIKOSHI REALLY SAID FUCK THAT MASK (ノ°ο°)ノ YOU FINALLY LEARNED!! IT’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!

JUST FOR YOU KACCHAN, HORIKOSHI LEFT THIS ONE BAD GUY WHO’S STILL WEAK TO FIRE. GOD BLESS

IT’S YOUR COUNTERPART, KATSUKI B!!!! HOW WE DOIN OVER THERE IN THE TRIPPY COSMIC OFA SPACE REALM LOL. DO WE BELIEVE YET, FANDOM???

LIGHTS!!!!

INSTANT RESULTS!!! IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!

(ETA: imagine what this must look like to Deku though. he’s been caught up in this dark cloud of despair and exhaustion that’s been building up over... I’m gonna go ahead and say “weeks”, because yeah. and now he finds himself here, in the place where All Might’s legacy ended and the torch was passed to him. and the world is in ruins, and he’s surrounded by frightened people who are all trying to hurt him -- because who isn’t trying to hurt him, these days -- and he’s scrambling to figure this all out, but meanwhile the weariness is finally starting to catch up to him, and so he’s basically just standing there in a fog of complete and utter misery.

and then all of a sudden through that haze, he hears the one voice that’s more familiar than any other that he knows. like, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he thought he was just imagining it at first. Kacchan showing up to save him right when he’s at his most desperate and feeling the most alone. Kacchan, showing up to save him.

this is the person he always looked up to as a child (to be fair he was quite a strange child lmao). the person who was even closer to him than All Might. the person he always thought was amazing. and bam, here he is now. appearing in the sky out of nowhere to one-shot the bad guy with a single blast (which, btw, that was his armor-piercing attack too lmao dslkjlk take it easy there kiddo). like, that must have felt absolutely surreal to him, especially coming at a time when he’s already half-delirious and barely hanging on to reality. he must have really thought that he was losing it there for a second.

but he’s really there. it really is him. and for this brief moment -- before the rest of the situation catches up to him, and he remembers about all of the fucked-up AFO stuff, and remembers why he was so afraid and why he was pushing everyone away -- for just this one brief moment, he’s too exhausted and stunned to do anything except to just react. just stands there, looking up at him in awe.

and you know, it almost reminds me of...

just. you guys. the character development. the freaking character development. someone who brings reassurance. someone who shows up and makes you think, “oh, it’s all going to be okay now, because [person] is here.” the role reversals. the growth. the payoff!! because who is the one person who always had faith that Kacchan would one day grow up to become an amazing hero like that. WHO IS IT. YOU ALREADY KNOW.

omg. anyways, bless you Horikoshi, my feels which have been on backorder since fucking September have finally arrived lmao. yes, good, thank you. worth the wait. it is always, always worth the wait. fuck yeah.)

“LOWFRIES” SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE, AHHHHHHHH (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ )

BEAUTIFUL. WONDERFUL. SENSATIONAL. I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT JUMP IS ON BREAK NEXT WEEK. THIS RIGHT HERE WILL SUSTAIN ME

[obtusemedia]

Top 25 songs of 2020: Honorable mentions

2020 was not a good year in many respects. But despite the world collapsing around us, there was a shocking amount of great new music.

Some of 2020′s best songs were a good fit for this terrifying year — we’ll get to those ones much, much later in the countdown. But 2020 also gave us gorgeous folk ballads, euphoric dance music and infectiously fun pop and hip-hop that had nothing to do with COVID-19 or any other awful aspects of the year.

Before we get to the proper list, here are 15 nearly-as-good songs that juuuust missed the cut, listed in alphabetical order by the artist’s name.

“Shimmy” by Aminé

Oregon’s most prominent rapper — okay, fine, Oregon’s only prominent rapper — came out of the gates blazing this year with “Shimmy.” 

Aminé may have heavily sampled Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s classic “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” on his second album’s leadoff single, but he replaces ODB’s chaotic vibes with a cold, snarling precision. He almost evokes Pusha T in his gleeful takedown of his rivals over the ice-cold beat. Pair this banger with one of the year’s best music videos, and there’s no doubt it would sneak onto this list.

“Dakiti” by Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez

I am all about this nocturnal, new wave-y style of reggaeton. The melody is catchy as hell, yet the production has a sinister, chilly vibe that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Italians Do It Better complication. 

Megastar Bad Bunny’s husky vocals and Jhay Cortez’s more nasally voice make for a fun contrast as they trade verses. It’s a winning and charismatic combination!

“Boomer” by Bartees Strange

When you hear the phrase “rap-rock,” you’re likely shuddering at the thought of Limp Bizkit. But that style can work, as promising new artist Bartees Strange — stage name of D.C. alt-rocker Bartees Leon Cox — proves on “Boomer.”

Cox spices up a solid mall-punk banger with some rap verses. And unlike the Fred Dursts of the world, he can actually, you know, rap. 

But it’s the song’s explosive chorus, where Cox unleashes his howling vocals over charging guitars, where “Boomer” goes from an interesting song to a great one. If there’s any justice, he’ll be rising up the indie ranks very soon.

“Kyoto” by Phoebe Bridgers

I think I might be the only music nerd who didn’t adore Phoebe Bridgers’ new album, Punisher. For me, her mix of hushed, mostly-sincere singer-songwriter ballads with snarky lyrics just came off as tonally awkward. Her quips about Scientology and outlet malls in otherwise-sad ballads left a sour note for me.

But Bridgers’ unique songwriting style shines most on the few uptempo songs on Punisher, particularly “Kyoto.” Her goofy non sequiturs fit much better in a driving, anthemic song. And I’m immediately primed to enjoy any tune with a strong resemblance to Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.”

“Dynamite” by BTS

I’m not sure what it says about me that I didn’t learn to love BTS, the insanely-beloved South Korean boy band, until they finally recorded a song in English. 

It’s not that I dislike their earlier, Korean-language stuff — “Boy With Luv” in particular is a banger. And BTS’ English-language lyrics on “Dynamite” don’t really have any meaning (they’re basically just a bunch of random catchphrases jammed together ... but they do sound good).

But there’s something immediate and pristine about “Dynamite” that makes it impossible to not adore. It’s a little too cleanly produced to be on the level of the Bruno Mars hits BTS were clearly aping, but the sense of fun is infectious. At the very least, it’s on equal footing with Taio Cruz’s classic of the same name.

“Comeback” by Carly Rae Jepsen feat. Bleachers

Carly Rae Jepsen can knock out wistful synthpop nuggets like this in her sleep. So can Jack Antonoff, who produced the track and provides some backing vocals. 

But just because this isn’t anything new for the duo doesn’t mean the winning formula’s gone stale. “Comeback” is a worthy addition to both of their catalogues.

“Hollywood” by Car Seat Headrest

I can’t, in good conscience, put this song in the top 25. It’s an intentionally abrasive misfire from the Seattle indie rockers, who’ve done much better. Complaining about the vapidness and sleaziness of Hollywood is an overplayed topic, and letting side members of the band rap some of the verses (in goofy voices, no less) was maybe not the best call.

...but at the same time, there’s something to this objectively bad song that I keep returning to. Maybe it’s the embarrassing bluntness of the lyrics. Maybe it’s the forceful guitar riff. Maybe it’s because the aggro, visceral nature of “Hollywood” makes it a perfect workout song. Maybe it’s the goodwill left over from Car Seat Headrest’s last two albums, which were both stone-cold indie rock classics. I’m not sure! 

But even though I know it’s not a good enough song to make the proper list, I can’t lie to myself and leave it out of the honorable mentions. It’s a banger in spite of itself.

“24 Hours” by Georgia

"24 Hours” is the best possible version of a left-of-center synthpop club banger. 

What makes it great — the pulsating energy, Georgia’s yearning vocals, the “whoo!” vocal samples — are obvious on immediate listen. But perhaps what makes “24 Hours” worthy of this list is its replay factor. It came out in January, and it still sounds great 11 months later.

“1985″ by Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist (song starts at 1:35)

We already knew — thanks to his two collaborative albums with Madlib — that Freddie Gibbs’ gruff flow sounds incredible over dusty samples. So why not team up with another producer who does something similar?

“1985″ is a prime example of knowing one’s strengths. The Alchemist’s production is stunningly gorgeous in his typical style, with a soaring guitar solo and a shuffling, dreamy beat. Gibbs pounces on it with the same ferocious street-life verses he’s been spitting for years. I’m glad to see Gibbs has figured out exactly which production sounds best for him to make Tiger King jokes and tell coke-dealing stories.

“Say Something” by Kylie Minogue

Aussie icon Kylie Minogue has been at it for 33 years at this point, reminding us every decade or so exactly why she’s stuck around.

“Say Something” is one of those reminder tracks — a burbling, irresistible, futuristic-yet-retro disco banger. The production is stellar, from the clanging guitar riff to the bouncy synth bass, and Minogue has a winking confidence on the track like she’s been doing this for decades (which, of course, she has). It’s exactly what you want out of a bubblegum pop jam.

“Right Round The Clock” by Sorry

With their very-British boy-girl dueling vocals, new London indie rock outfit Sorry definitely have more of a whiff of The xx. But instead of hyper-minimalist, whispered tunes, “Right Round The Clock” has a thundering, droll swagger that grabs you by the throat when the chorus comes slamming in.

The thumping, piano-based sound of “Clock” has a bit of a jazzy flair, thanks to the flecks of sax that pop in here and there. And Sorry interpolates Tears For Fears’ classic “Mad World” in a gloriously tongue-in-cheek way on the chorus (at the very least, it’s far superior to that awful gloom-and-doom Donnie Darko cover).

“Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus” by The Strokes

In a year FILLED with improbable comebacks from ‘00s and ‘90s artists (we’ll get some of to them in the top 25!), The Strokes may have been the least likely. The early ‘00s indie rock standard-bearers had been in sharp decline for nearly 15 years before their new album, The New Abnormal, dropped and the group returned to form.

“Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus” is a prime example of The Strokes’ invigorating comeback. It’s a killer new-wave jam that could’ve been been written by The Cars, with its jittery keyboards and impossibly catchy chorus. And of course, The Strokes’ most valuable asset — lead singer Julian Casablancas’ impossibly cool vocals — is here in full force. 

It’s not quite Is This It, but “Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus” is still The Strokes’ best song in 14 years.

“Spotlight” by Jessie Ware

After a career making increasingly dull ballads, “Spotlight,” and Ware’s new What’s Your Pleasure? album, is a refreshing change of pace into sleek dance-pop. 

I don’t know if “classy” has ever been used to describe disco, but that’s the best way to describe “Spotlight.” It’s undoubtably a dancefloor filler, with a funky groove and ‘70s string stabs, but there’s also a stateliness to it. It could fit equally well at Studio 54 as it would at a black-tie affair. I credit Ware with that, using her breathy vocals and charisma to strong effect here.

“Lilacs” by Waxahatchee

Any time you can write a song that sounds like an outtake from Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, I’m on board. 

That’s a bit of a reductive way to describe “Lilacs” — Katie Crutchfield’s vocals are much more fiery, for starters. But there’s something nostalgic and welcoming about this southern-fried folk-rock song with oblique lyrics and catchy hooks for days.

“Mood” by 24kGoldn feat. iann dior

Much of this new wave of emo-influenced rap isn’t really my thing. Maybe I’ve grown out of super-angsty and blunt songs about depression? Although I still love Smashing Pumpkins, so maybe that’s not the case. I can’t really answer why I don’t adore Juice WRLD or Lil Peep like so many others seem to.

But “Mood” — an unabashed sell-out, watered-down version of that sound – immediately clicked for me. I know 24kGoldn is trend-riding here, and that this is essentially a wildly shallow pop song. BUT! It’s a really catchy wildly shallow pop song! With bouncy pop-punk production that sounds like trap-ified Blink-182! (okay, it’s much better than that sounds, but you get the point)

I allow myself a guilty pleasure or two on my lists. “Mood” is one of those guilty pleasures this year. As the kids (presumably still?) say, it’s a vibe.

[the-explodin-kittins]

theimperfetc:

spankfuckabuseme:

Oh Tumblr, I have quite the story for you today. I’m back from my break with quite the cautionary tale. My message? Don’t fucking trust people from the internet. I know this, I really do, I’ve been burned by crazies here before. But the sociopaths just keep getting smarter and better at lying. Take this to heart, learn from my mistakes and naivety. Just because it happened to me doesn’t mean it has to happen to you too.

So here’s a tale about how I got catfished on tumblr.

A few months back, I got to know a fellow blogger, @silence-in-submission and her Daddy, @thewolfsdarklair/@kinginthesheets. I was talking with both of them for a bit, but then things got a bit more personal and serious between Wolf and I. We got to know each other, had a lot in common, and started messaging on Kik damn near constantly. He told me he was a single dad, and that his ex walked out when his son was 3 months old and it’s been just him ever since. I’ve never actually trusted anyone on tumblr enough to give them more than a few details about myself, but this slimeball is good at making you trust him and charming the pants off women, myself included. He made himself into the perfect man and played the part well. He used my vulnerable state of going through a divorce to weasel his way into my heart.

BUT! Though shady, this isn’t even the most scandalous part of my tale…yes, I’m a piece of shit man stealer, I’ll own that. But try to keep up, so far we have a tumblr submissive, and a tumblr girlfriend. Girlfriend knows about submissive, submissive does not know about girlfriend. Read on.

Anyways, we start chatting more and more often and he tells me how amazing and special I am, I’m the most incredible woman he’s ever known. I let him into my life enough to show him pics and videos of my son and I. My sweet kiddo blew this monster kisses on FaceTime. He shows me photos and videos of his son and himself. Snuggling on the couch, coaching his sons T-Ball games. Father of the year, swoon! Plays up the single dad card, hard. He messages me nonstop, “good morning beautiful” every morning, phone calls on our commutes to work daily. We had the same favorite bands. We both loved to cook. He told me about his family. His careers. He would message me links to sweet country songs of how he felt about me. My ringtone for him was “Crave You” by Thomas Rhett, I legit bought a damn ringtone for this dickwad because that was “our” song. He would conveniently disappear over weekends, busy with his single dad gig, but in reality he was otherwise occupied.

It was soon, but man I was sure I was in love with this joker. My dumb ass bought a plane ticket to see him, with his enthusiastic blessing. I was supposed to go see and stay with him over Easter weekend. We were both so excited! We could finally be in each other’s arms at last, he said it felt like “I had been his for a lifetime” already. We were going to sight see in his city, cook dinner together and have loads of crazy, kinky sexy. I had a countdown app on my phone counting the days, minutes and seconds until I was with this amazing man. He conveniently disappeared from the face of the earth a few days before and surfaces the afternoon before my flight to tell me he’s out of the country for work and he’s so sorry but I have to cancel my trip. I thought it was odd he flew out of the country without a heads up, but he said it was super last minute and he needed to make arrangements for where his son would stay when he was gone. He was “overseas” for over a week before he told me I would have to cancel my trip. He’s gunna make it up to me 10fold, he misses me, he loves me. Ya know, it was fishy, but shit happens with work. I was devastated and mad he didn’t tell me sooner he was away on work. But here I am, out the better part of $500. He’s “out of the country” for another week and once he’s back, I sent a care package to him and his son of stuff for them. I went to copy and paste the address he gave me and google popped up with the address and it was a commercial building, not a home. Strange. I asked him on the phone why he gave me a fake address, and he casually told me it was the building he worked in. Still strange, why wouldn’t I send it to your house? Oh well. I was so excited to send something from me to him. It was super cute, love letter with cartoon hearts at all. I’m a SUPER thoughtful and romantic person, I went all out asking him if he would be my boyfriend “officially”. I got him stuff from his favorite shows and movies, same with his son, and here I am out more money on this joker. He thought it was super cute, said his son loved the books and he loved the figurines I sent him.

So we plan another trip, two actually. He tells me he’s flying here for the weekend April 26-30th. My son had a brief stay in the hospital due to illness and he was the perfect boyfriend during the whole ordeal, calling while I was at the hospital and cooing “awww poor buddy” when my son would cry. Messaging to make sure we were ok. Everything is going well, we’re released from the hospital and my boyfriend will be here in less than a week! Ahhhh! I just moved to a new house and I’m working on making it presentable and homey for us to nestle up in over the long weekend. I got us tickets to see Infinity War together. We were going to go dancing and I had a babysitter! Yet again, the same as the last trip, he falls off the face of the earth for “work.” This was on Friday the 20th and I have yet to hear from him again and as far as he knows, he thinks I still think he’s planning to come here Thursday and he hasn’t said a word to me! I’m sure he was planning an elaborate work story for this Wednesday to message me with, but I’m sure he will see all of this before then and hopefully not waste his time. We also had plans for me to pick him up from a nearby town May 7th after a work trip that would bring him back this way so soon! I was so lucky, I get to have the man I love sleeping next to me two weeks in a row?! Luckiest girl ever, so spoiled.

But…something just felt…off? the other day. My PTSD from him canceling the last trip was making this past weekend feel eerily familiar. He was off the radar again, I was sick with worry, and I had the impending doom feeling in my gut. Part of me knew there were never any plane tickets.

I had ran a background check on him previously and most things he told me checked out. His age, where he lives, his family members he has mentioned in passing. No marriages or crazy criminal charges listed (but man, 20 was a rough year for you, wasn’t it man?) I missed a small detail the first go around. I missed an eviction suit from last year, with a codefendent listed of the female variety that I was positive wasn’t a family member. Facebook to the rescue, and to my utter dismay, his codefendent was in fact his WIFE since 2015, the MOTHER of his son who supposedly bailed, and they have ANOTHER son who recently turned 1! His wife also may or may not currently be pregnant with number 3, I’m not positive. Oh my. All the happy family photos, I swear to you I threw up where I was at when this news sunk in. The man who said he saw a future with me, saw marriage with me, couldn’t wait for us and our kids (the one I knew about anyways) to all be together at last. We casually discussed me moving to be closer to him in the future if our trips went well. If this would have played out longer, who knows how much of my life I would have ruined for the lies this man told me. But…he already had a happily ever after.

I had been fooled. And not to any fault of my own, other than my naivety. I’m not an idiot, I did my due diligence and did a background check, but one little line on there was missed and I ignored all the little details about him that were sketchy because of the way he made me feel with his words. This man is an expert liar and sociopath. Who knows what shit he spins to his wife to cover his ass with his online affairs. I feel so bad for her. I feel so bad for anyone else he’s involved with. I feel so bad for myself for getting mixed up with this mess. I hate that I didn’t trust my gut when I felt like he was too good to be true, because part of me always knew he was too good to be true. The last photo is the last contact he had with me last Friday, keep in mind he’s supposed to be flying to see me Thursday supposedly. Oh and PLOT TWIST! The child he said he was a single dad to? Send me photos and videos of? I sent him a carepackage? IT’S NOT HIS CHILD. It’s his wives from another man! So he exploited a child that’s NOT EVEN HIS.

Silence, I felt, and still feel dirty, for beginning a relationship with a man who was already in a D/s dynamic, but he said he wanted more with me than that - led me to believe you were just a hobby and I was the real deal. He told me to say the word and you would be gone, that I was “so much more to him than that.” Led me to believe he was slowly breaking things off with you to be with me completely. And I sincerely bought into it, unfortunately. I thought he had told you about me when I sent you those cryptic messages a few weeks ago. I also played along when he sent me fake messages to screenshot to calm you down. The messages telling me to back off from your dynamic in February we’re also fake. I know, I’m an awful bitch for toeing in on your property, but you’ve got to know he played us both the same and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. What I did wasn’t right, I’m sorry, but we’re both victims here and I’m glad I was able to uncover the truth about this piece of shit. It’s not us. There’s nothing wrong with you, beautiful girl, this man is a selfish monster, don’t let this ruin you and for the love of god don’t believe whatever lies he’s going to tell you to keep you around. You can do better. We both can.

My dearest N, you sociopathic anal hemorrhage. I know you thought you were smart, how could this crazy little 20 some girl blow up your spot? You’re alpha, established, educated, and wise. You had it all figured out. There’s no way that your loving B would ever be suspicious of you, because I just LOVED you so extremely, right? All you need is love, baby. Well, love be but a feeling and though I felt it strongly for the person I thought you were, logic and the truth always win. I’m not an idiot, honey, and I fucking figured it out. The lies roll off your tongue like cotton candy. You know all the right things to say. But you can’t talk your way out of this explosion, buddy. I hope the lies and drama were worth the shitstorm you’re about to experience. You say you don’t do drama but my sweet idiot, you ARE drama. I’m sure you can understand why I had to go and message your wife every conversation, detail, photo and video you’ve ever sent me because being a Libra, you’re all about justice, my badass teddy bear. I’m sure you’re tempted to lash out now and try to hurt ME by sharing the intimate pictures and videos I sent to you of myself, but let me remind you that’s called “revenge porn” and given your job, you know that isn’t legal. Every person you cross paths with is either a blessing or a lesson, and though I KNOW my presence is a motherfucking blessing, you’re gunna learn this goddamn lesson today, fuckboy.

So let this be a lesson.

1. Block this dude. Both of his accounts. He’s bad news. There’s good people on tumblr, and we don’t need this sociopath muddying our waters. I’m sure he will resurface with a new blog, but heed this cautionary tale. 2. Don’t ignore red flags because of sweet words. Actions speak louder than words. 3. Don’t meet people from the internet without a background check, and check it thoroughly and use every tool the internet gives you to verify family members and details about the person you’re meeting. A person can be anyone they want to be online, and men like this think they’re invincible. 4. Make someone work hard to earn your heart. Even if someone seems to check all the boxes and seems like your perfect man, if he is, he will earn your heart - you won’t have to give it to him with hesitations, you won’t have to wonder at night when you’ll hear from him next.

I don’t know if this asshole is a prick, a sociopath, a monster, or if he just thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Well, he’s not. Not for long enough. If you know of this vaguely human-shaped piece of shit, then spread the word. He shouldn’t have contact with anything more than the fucking curb. I expect both his blogs to be gone pretty much right away here, but he’s obviously an addict to this kind of behavior. He’ll be back and looking to get his kicks off of the vulnerable again.

Be careful who you let in this deep, people are more fucked up than you know. If something seems off, look into it harder. And trust your gut. Mine knew something was wrong with this sack of bees with a face, but didn’t step in in time.

@thewolfsdarklair you’re narcissistic enough to be reading this. Fuck you. With a rusty garden rake, in a counterclockwise swirl, in the lemon and salt depository of hell.

#douchecanoe

[inkribbon796]

Welcoming the New Year’s

Happy New Years, everyone! Little fic about the little family that could. All fluff this New Year’s Eve.

-::- FOURTEEN YEARS EARLIER -::-

    He wasn’t sure if it was the cold or how quiet the room was, but Yancy woke up. He was in the living room of the Manor, the T.V showing the news spending the rest of the hour on random topics until the final countdown. But the only people still in the room were Yan and Kay, who were sleeping side-by-side in the massive cushion island that Wil had helped them make.

    Yancy groaned as he got up from the mess of cushions on the floor. His eyes blurry from how tired he still was, and the Manor tended to get cold and hollow when you were by yourself.

    “Dark,” Yancy called out, looking around to see him with Bim and Illinois looking out the window. Bim looked like he was about to fall asleep at a moment’s notice.

    Dark turned to look at him when he called out his name and the entity slowly motioned for him to come over.

    “Is it New Years yet?” Yancy rubbed at his eyes with his arm.

    “Soon,” Dark promised. “You can go back to sleep, there’s always next year.”

    “Don’t wanna,” Yancy whined, and then yelped and shrunk back when he saw something fly at him for a split second.

    The hit never came, and when Yancy felt brave enough to crack an eye open he saw that Dark had a baseball trapped tight in his aura, barely an inch from Yancy’s face. Illinois was in a similar state to him because he was close enough. Bim, however was half-asleep on the windowsill.

    “Wil,” Dark snarled and softball tossed the baseball back to the madman. The reporter and Arthur were playing baseball on the front lawn.

    “It was an accident,” Wil defended heatedly. “As if I’m trying to hit one of the kids.”

    “Arthur, control your swings,” Dark warned. “Or you won’t have the bat anymore.”

    “Fine,” Artie rolled his eyes, wiping half-frozen mud from his bat onto his black shirt. Dark glared at the mess now on Arthur’s shirt.

    Wil tossed the baseball up in the air, “Darkling, what time is it.”

    Dark let out a long sigh, closing his eyes for a couple seconds, “Wil.”

    “Yes?” Wilford smiled. “My sweet?”

    Dark pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wilford J. Warfstache, please tell me you’re just being lazy and don’t want to check your own watch.”

    The reporter tossed the baseball up in the air a bit, looking more than a bit sheepish. “Yes?”

    “Wil,” Dark glared at him, “where’d you leave it?”

    There was silence, Illinois and Arthur started giggling. The reporter looked away, clearing his throat.

    “Wil,” Dark’s hands scratched on the windowsill. “That is your third watch in two months. It has the Barnum name on it, where is it?”

    “Don’t know, don’t care,” Wilford crossed his arms. “Besides, they’re a stuffy family of even stuffier shirts.”

    “You are one of only two remaining members of that family. Both of which live in this house!” Dark shouted at him. Waking up both Yan and Kay in the process.

    “Meh,” Wilford shrugged. “We could make it zero and do Bim and the others a favor.”

    “Find me that watch, Wilford,” Dark ordered. “If you don’t want it, fine, just tell me that so I don’t get you another one.”

    “No, I don’t want another blasted watch,” Wilford argued, tossing the baseball at Artie who knocked it into the rest of the Void. A huge smile on the boy’s face.

    “Good, get me the old one,” Dark huffed, then pulled out his own pocket watch, a stag with a star on its chest on the front of it with the name DOOM on it. “It’s fourteen to midnight.”

    “Oh,” Wilford summoned the baseball back into his hand. “Seems like we have a hot minute then. Let’s go inside.”

    Arthur frowned, but followed.

    Wilford, instead of using the stairs and going through the door like a sensible person, climbed in through the window. Dark gave him a dirty look as Wilford dragged Arthur through.

    “Wil,” Dark warned.

    In response the mad reporter just kissed him. “Live a little Darky, it’s a new year, we’ve a bigger family now.”

    “Clean yourselves up,” Dark answered. “You’ve still got time. Oh, and Arthur?”

    “Yeah, what?” Arthur asked, sounding more than a little defense.

    “Your strength and aim is improving,” Dark complimented. “You should be proud of yourself. Just don’t hit my windows.”

    The small boy looked surprised, and touched by it. “Thanks.”

    “Talent should be praised,” Dark reminded. “Now, go clean up.”

    Arthur quickly ran out of the room to his bedroom. Wilford snapping his fingers to clean up the mess left by their entrance back into the living room.

    “Hello Princess,” Wil walked over to where Yan was glaring at him, Kay was already walking towards Dark. “Tired?”

    Dark noticed that both Yancy and Kay had grabbed onto him, as if using the Entity as support to stay upright. He didn’t brush them off, only leading them back to the couch he’d been sitting on earlier. Illinois joined them on the couch as Bim jumped into Wil’s lap.

    “Just a little bit longer,” Wil told them, welcoming Arthur as he ran back in and tackled him. The boy had one of his journals in hand, curling up next to Bim as they used Wilford like a pillow.

    Dark and Wil counted down the clock, Yancy moving over to Wilford to get a look at what Arthur was writing. They asked the kids if they had any plans for the new year. Some did, others like Bim and Yan didn’t. He and Bim started making a story, and Yancy wanted to join in. Yan and Kay fell asleep five minutes before midnight.

    Within the next half-hour all the kids had fallen asleep, even Arthur who had his notebook propped open in his lap.

    The entity had a wine glass in his hand, trying to be careful not to disturb the two children using him as a pillow. Wil was gently carding his hands through Bim’s hair.

    “We’ve done quite well for ourselves, Darkling,” Wil smiled, looking down at Bim. “They’re all so lovely. We should take them out to celebrate.”

    Dark made an unflattering snorting noise, tipping back his wine. “With all the heroes running around town, I think not.”

    “We’re strong enough to protect them,” Wil promised. “You and I rule this town.”

    “They are children, Wil,” Dark reminded pointedly. “Developing aura or not.”

    Wilford just looked at the kids around them. “They’re ours. How could anyone have given them up?”

    “Because they were idiots, clearly” Dark used his aura to grab a bottle of Korean wine from the coffee table. When Dark shifted it didn’t escape his notice that Illinois grabbed him tighter in his sleep. “Mores the better.”

    Dark gently smoothed out Illinois’s hair and the boy seemed to cling onto him a little less tightly, as if soothed in his sleep. The action gripped something in Dark’s chimeric soul, that he could be a soothing presence to anything.

    “Shame we couldn’t get seven,” Wil suggested. “It’s a lucky number.”

    “If anything you’re the seventh child around here,” Dark retorted. “You definitely act like it.”

    “I resent that,” Wilford scoffed good-naturedly. “So, do you have any plans this year?”

    “Try and find a tutor for the Lost Ones,” Dark answered, able to compartmentalize the children if he referred to them as anything but “my kids”. There was less of a desperate possessiveness about it. “My Latin’s rusty, and Kay needs to learn it correctly”

    “Google,” Wilford reminded. “He works in your network.”

    Dark made a noise of distaste, “Trusting him is a recipe for disaster. Especially since even Bim is human.”

    Wilford shrugged, “They can’t just stay in the Manor all their lives, they’ll get bored.” At that last part Wilford sounded like that was a fate worse than death.

    “What about you?” Dark evaded. “Any new plans, or more of the same chaos you reek.”

    “Bah,” Wilford scoffed. “Same chaos, wouldn’t be chaos if it was the same. I’m going to work on the kids’ marksmanship.”

    Dark just stared at Wil, and then took another long swallow of his wine, imagining Arthur and Yan holding Wil’s revolver in their too small hands. “I don’t think so.”

    “Come on,” Wil whined.

    Ignoring Wil’s protests, Dark used his aura to pick Kay and Illinois up, while keeping them fast asleep. Carefully manifesting his aura to slowly pick up the others. Bim was the only one who even got restless in his sleep at the change. “No, Wil. You will wait until they are a little bit older for that.”

    Wil waited until Dark had put the kids down for bed before they went back into Dark’s office and had a long, heated discussion about the merits of teaching their six kids how to properly operate and fire a gun.

    In the end, Wil won out, on the condition that Dark was there to supervise, and Wilford was not carrying around a gun while he did so. So Wilford walked away from the argument happy, and Dark had a little bit of peace of mind.

[arianalilyblack]

The Miracle of Children

Title: The Miracle of Children

Author: @arianalilyblack​

Pairing: 10th Doctor x Reader

Word count: 1904

Warnings: nerdy Doctor

Summary: It's Halloween and there is an alien invasion in London. Kids are disappearing randomly from the streets and a strange spaceship appears above London.The Doctor, his companion (Reader) and Martha Jones tries to solve the problem without any casualties.

(November writing prompt 1, 2, 19: Incompetent, Minutes, Long time no see )

It was Halloween night in London. The streets were filled with costumed children knocking on doors hoping to get some candy. Stars were shining from behind the clouds that were gathering over the city. In the bustle no one noticed the appearing blue box in the alley and the two people stepping out of it.

’We are in London’ you said disappointed. ’You said that we are going to see the creation of a new planet far away from Earth.’

’Well...’ he looked around trying to guess the date. ’The TARDIS works in mysterious ways’ he shrugged while taking out his screwdriver from the long coat’s pocket.

’Yeah, blame it on the poor TARDIS. It’s not like you were the incompetent or anything’ you rolled your eyes and watched him do his thing with the screwdriver.

’Oi! Watch you tone or I will take you home’ he threatened you with narrowed brown eyes, but you knew he wasn’t serious about it.

You traveled with him for a year now. You knew him like the back of your hands. He always tried to scare you with taking you home whenever you scolded or teased him. But he knew that this was your way of saying that you were enjoying his company. You became pretty close, you told him almost everything important that happened with you, how you were struggling to find your place until you met him. He told you things that he’d done the bad things and the good things as well. You trusted each other with the secrets you were ashamed of. All the people you met thought that the two of you were dating, but you were just best friends, but sometimes you caught him staring at you when you weren’t looking and he always was so overprotective whenever you were in danger. You didn’t want to notice these little things, because it was so good to be with him you didn’t want to destroy it by involving deeper feelings.

‘What are we doing now?’ you asked him seeing the masked children roaming the road. ‘What the hell?!’ you shouted when you saw a Dalek in the middle of the crowd.

You started running towards it, the Doctor following you concerned. You went past one child that was wearing a ghost-like sheet and one dressed as a cowboy. When you got close to the alien you noticed that it was a stupid costume. It seems like the kid made a Dalek costume for Halloween. You sighed relieved at the fact that the children weren’t going to be exterminated.

‘This is odd’ you heard the Doctors voice from a distance. ‘Look at the kids, Y/n.’

It was like all of your enemies were gathered in one place. Cybermens, Daleks, Weeping Angels, the Silence, Zygons, Slitheens and so on. The street was filled with children dressed as aliens. The Doctor started to check all the “alien” kids with the sonic screwdriver, and what you saw on his face wasn’t something promising. He jumped from one to the other and you could see that he’s getting nervous with every second. He came back to you after he scanned all the suspicious children.

‘We have a problem here Y/n’ he frowned his eyes while going through his hair with his hand several times. ‘These aren’t human children. They were taken some while ago, but the truth is, I’ve never seen this species before. Uh..’ he grabbed his face nervously. ’You were right, I’m an incompetent person.’

‘Hey! Don’t say that. You are The Doctor, the last Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous.’ You caressed his face gently. ‘You know I was just kidding, Doc. You are a great, kind, generous loving person. Don’t you ever doubt yourself, ‘kay?’ you planted a little kiss on his cheek.

‘Y/n, I don’t know what I would do without you’ he smiled at you kindly. He shook himself a little and put on his nerdy glasses. ‘Okay, than back to business.’

‘That’s the spirit’ you said enthusiastically. You went back to the TARDIS just in time, cause as you were locking up the door the telephone rang.

‘Hello! The Doctor here. Well hello Martha Jones! Nice to hear from you. Yeah, we happen to be here in London. Precisely where? Okay, hang on, we are coming.’ He hung up the phone and turned to face you. ‘Come Y/n, we are going to the Tower.’

‘The Tower? Really?’ You’ve never been to the Tower before. You knew that sometimes the Doctor helped out UNIT, but you never had anything to do with them until now. You took the subway, because sometimes the TARDIS could make mistakes when landing and you couldn’t risk it now. When you arrived the escort was already waiting at the entrance. They notified the superior and after a few minutes a girl appeared and greeted you with a wide smile.

‘Hello Doctor! Long time no see’ she gave him a hug then she turned to you. ‘Hi, I’m Martha Jones, US division of UNIT. Nice to meet you!’

‘Hi, I’m Y/f/n. Pleasure to meet you too!’ you shook hands and went inside.

‘So who are we against Doctor?’ Martha asked. ‘We detected a spaceship above us. We tried to create a communication channel, but we couldn’t reach them.’

‘I don’t really know yet’ he admitted fiddling with his glasses while watching the screens. ‘It’s a roughly new species, I think. They took the children and replaced them with alien costumed humanoids they created. The question is what they want from the children. So let’s see what we’ve got here.’ He took his screwdriver and enhanced the equipment. ‘Now we should be able to contact them.’ He rubbed his chin while Martha pressed some buttons. It wasn’t long till an alien face came on the monitor.

‘Greetings! I’m the Doctor. This planet called Earth is under my protection. I’m a peaceful person and I’m asking you kindly to return the human children unharmed.’

‘We are the Hexxas from the planet of Hexagon. We came here, because our planet was invaded and our food sources were diminished. We need to feed before we can continue our journey.’

‘Unfortunately I can’t let that happen. If you don’t return the hostages in 1,0833 gamma stars, this nice lady beside me will have no other choice but to launch the attack that will destroy your tiny ship. I can tell that you don’t want to jeopardize your people safety.’

‘We will not harm the little creatures. We just need them to give us their happiness. These tiny beings carry an enormous amount of nourishment which could help us survive our extinction.’

‘According to Shadow Proclamation, law no. 23, section 18, paragraph 4, is strictly forbidden to harvest life forms from inhabited planets, and Planet Earth is also out of your jurisdiction.’ At this point the connection interrupted.

‘Gamma stars? What are those?’ asked Martha with a frown.

‘It’s an intergalactic metric unit used in their constellation. It’s the equivalent for five minutes. They wouldn’t understand if I told them in minutes.’

‘What do we do now Doctor?’ you asked concerned. ‘We can’t doom them to extinction. There must be another way to help them without risking the children’s life.’ Your words puzzled him. He ran his hand through his spiky hair thinking hard for another option.

‘Hurry up Doctor, we only have two minutes before the missiles are fired’ Martha warned him.

‘Okay, let’s think. They need happiness. But what is happiness? It’s a mix of hormones: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins, also called the feel good hormones. They regime is probably based on these hormones. What kind of food do you humans eat when you feel low?’ he asked with a mysterious smile.

‘Chocolate’ you shout out in recognition. ‘We give them chocolate.’

‘Brilliant! Yes, that’s what we are going to do’ he hugged you tightly. ’Martha gather as much chocolate as you can in one minute and take it to the TARDIS as fast as you can. And please stop that damn countdown already’ he shouted to the soldier responsible for the missiles. He soniced the monitor and the connection was on again.

‘Hello again! The Doctor calling. You can now return the children back to Earth. We came up with the perfect solution. We will give you as much chocolate as you need. It will grant you the same nutrition as the kids’ happiness, I can guarantee you that. I will bring it myself with my ship as soon as possible.’

‘We can’t send them back till we are certain that you are right. Bring us that chocolate thing and then we will return them.’ And the connection was lost again.

‘Martha, did you succeed?’

‘Of course, Doctor. It wasn’t too hard to make it happen. It’s Halloween, everything is filled with sweets. The cargo is ready for shipping’ she answered.

‘Brilliant! Allons-y Y/n! We need to make a shipping’ he grabbed your wrist and started running.

‘We should ask them for a lift’ you shouted to him.

‘Yeah, probably would be better’ he agreed.

You asked a soldier to give you a lift all the way to the TARDIS. The huge package was already at the door. You carried it into the TARDIS and started the journey to the Hexxa spaceship. The blue box landed without any problems and you were greeted by curious faces when you stepped out from it.

‘Hello! I’m the Doctor and this is my companion, Y/n. We brought you some delicious treat. We hope this will provide you the necessary nutriments.’

‘Bring it to me Kynzaro’ said the one who was sitting on the chair in the middle of the room.

The creature named Kynzaro came to you and took the huge package. The leader took out a chocolate bar from the box and he bitten a piece out of it. The expression on his face was promising. His face lit up in excitement.

‘This is exactly what we needed. Return the human minions back to their last location and teleport back to the ship the humanoids.’ He gave the order. ‘Thank you Doctor for helping us. We really didn’t want to make any trouble to the people below. We just had to do something to survive.’

‘You are lucky we were around. If it weren’t for us, you would be obliterated by now.’ He said in a strict tone. ‘But all things turned out well eventually. We will let you continue your journey now people of Hexagon.’

The two of you made sure that the kids were back home and after that you got in the TARDIS and you got out of the spaceship. The Doctor phoned Martha and told her that everything was back to normal and there is no need to worry about the Hexxas ever again.

‘Where do you want to go next Y/n?’ he asked you.

‘Does it matter at this point? It seems like we always end up in other places.’ You shrugged in response.

‘Come on now. Don’t be such a buzz kill. We always have fun in the end tho.’ He poked your waist playfully.

‘True’ you admitted with a sigh. ‘But still, I hope this time we will end someplace peaceful, without any action.’

‘Sounds good to me’ he laughed with a wide smile and pulled a lever. ‘Allons-y!’

[fortheloveofsolas]

Prompt 18) “This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.” For Solavellan

Thank you @dreadwolf-iscoming for this prompt!! It is long overdue. It took me awhile because it includes canon dialogue I had to go looking for. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it! Long post ahead:

You searched around but stopped when you noticed some sort of chest. Sera noticed your findings, “What’s that? a locked...” her eyebrows scrunched together and she shook her head, “No leave that. Not interested in her hidden things. Not just for a bit of fun.” Immediately you were both backing off from it looking for something else. Pranks were fun but there was always a line you should never cross.

Sera thought, her eyebrows creased in frustration, her eyes on the overhanging cages, inside the crows flapped and squawked, “Maybe... feed her messengers something gassy? No, birds don’t parp. But they flap, and.... Uh. Huh.” You never did get to hear what Sera wanted to do.

“Who is up there?” A voice called from below. Both you and Sera went rigid, eyes widening. You quickly found your voice first, “Nothing to worry about, Solas. It’s just me and Sera.”

He replied quickly and calmly, content with the answer, “Well. All right, then.”

Sera glared at you, “Ugh. What fun is that? Let’s go.”

you just blew her off, sure you gave away who it was, but you were trusted enough to not give off suspicion when caught in an area you rarely frequented. After these pranks, that was surely about to change.

The high of the pranks clung to the air as Sera passed you another pint. “That was fun. An Inquisitor of the people. Still remembering you’re on of them. If all they got was the Herald stuff, the serious bit, you’d start to sound pretty scary. That works but not for long.” You could see her logic and wholeheartedly agreed. You shrugged, “Whatever it takes. I’d start throwing pies if it kept people inspired.” Laughter erupted from Sera.

“Pies is so good. And Coryphenus would never do that. Good thing for you, innit? Because from the bottom, everyone up top sort of seems the same. Anyway, fun times, Inquisitor.”

“You!” Someone burst through the door. The rate at which you both turned to see an angry Josephine was breakneck.

“Oh frig. You did it!” Sera ran cackling as you stood frozen in place. Just how often does Sera do these pranks that Josephine immediately suspected her? And now you were left alone to deal with the aftermath. Well if being busted didn’t put a damper on things, cleaning Josephine’s office and door certainly did.

“Blackwall!” You shouted. Blackwall didn’t even move, he kept his gaze straight ahead as his horse kept walking on. You looked back to Sera, “It’s no use, none of them can hear us back here. And I wanted my chocolate I put in the satchel on his mount.” Your pout would rival any child.

“Why didn’t the satchel go on your mount?”

“Are you kidding, if Solas knew I had chocolate it’d be gone by now. I can’t risk him finding it, so I give it to Blackwall because he hates dark chocolate.” You smirked evilly.

“How long will it take Cullen to notice what’s wrong with his desk?” You asked Sera as your hart trotted next to her’s.

“I don’t know. Haven’t heard nothing yet.” You giggled. “I’ve been paying closer attention whenever I go and talk to him. Poor guy, thinks there’s an emergency every time I walk in. He has no idea I’m just checking on our dirty work.”

“Pfft dirty work. Just call it a prank.”

“Fine. ‘Prank’.” You corrected.

“Woah.” Sera corrected her hart as she suddenly went to graze. “Argh, these mounts are horrible.”

“They can hear you.”

“Pfft they have no idea what I’m saying.”

You countered, “But they do listen to your tone of voice.” Sera looked even more annoyed, you just laughed. “It wouldn’t hurt to at least name your hart, is all I’m saying.”

Sera groaned. “Naming things means you get attached to them. And I don’t need that. I can barely look after myself let alone another living thing.” You couldn’t look at her but you were sure she rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Sera continued, “Shame about Leliana, but it gave me a new idea.”

“Which is?” You pressed.

“Well Elfy interrupted us. I say, we prank him next.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”

“Nah, first time got people thinking you were loosening up a little, maybe a ‘can dish things but not take ‘em’. One more prank, at the least, says ‘I’m in the pranking game!’.”

“And going after Solas is a good idea?”

“Not going after Leliana, she’d kill us, or just kill me, kinda needs you and all. So, I was thinking what we could do and this lizard fell in my lap out of nowhere, I scream and it runs off. Which makes me think, ‘Of course, lizards! We fill his sleeping roll up with lizards!’. So you in?”

You just stared at her for a moment, comprehending what she had said, “Lizards? In Solas’ sleeping roll? This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.”

At an opportune time you broke away from the group inconspicuously. You watched Sera slightly trip over a high rising tree root and stood over it casually. Growing up in forest had its benefits. Somehow you dealt Sera would be doomed to pull this off without you.

“My guess is to check rocks, they like warmth and sunning themselves but if we can’t see them chances are they’re hiding in small, dark places. Rocks provide both.”

Many lizard-less minutes had passed and your mission was starting to feel hopeless.

After another flipped rock and no lizards, Sera groaned, “I thought you were a hunter for your clan?”

You gave her a levelled expression, “When was the last time you ate lizard, Sera?”

“Ew. Never. Ok, I get it.” She dropped the subject and excused you for struggling to catch lizards.

“Right, have you got them?” You whispered at Sera as you peeked around the fabric tent. Everyone had been sitting by the fire, but Solas wasn’t there.

“Got ‘me.” Solas exited his tent and you whipped back behind the tent, hiding. “Did he see you?” Sera hissed.

“I don’t think so.” Your heart was pounding. After a minute you slowly peeked back around the tent and saw the back of Solas, a towel in hand. You grinned to Sera, “We’re good to go.”

Once you were finished you directed Sera to go and sit down with the others by the fire. You went to your tethered hart when you heard the crunching of leaves and twigs. As you were brushing the dirt off of Assan, you felt it was a bit lame to have named your hart that because ‘They were as fast as an arrow.’ but it seemed to suit her. Arms wrapped around your waist, “Vhenan.” You twisted around to see Solas grinning.

“You smell nice.” You replied back, “Sorry to say that I can’t say the same for myself.”

Solas chuckled, “Vhenan, there’s ways to heat water if you’d like to wash.”

“Do I really stink that much?” Solas said nothing and you gasped in mock horror while he just grinned. You conceded, “Fine, I’ll go after dinner.”

“What was it you were doing today?” Solas grabbed a second brush to help brush down your hart. “Your absence was very notable around camp. I finished my book early this morning and had nothing to do.” The dust that came off Assan was astonishing, it seems you need to apply more pressure.

“Didn’t you pack a second book?”

“I’m afraid not, and that isn’t answering my question.” How did he always know? You could never get anything by him.

“I was hunting with Sera.” You said plainly.

“Sera?” His tone rose slightly in unbelief.

“Yes. We needed rabbit quickly and I can’t shoot a bow as well as I’d like to. Instead of making traps and waiting for the rabbit, I would scare them into the opening and Sera would shoot them.” It wasn’t an exact lie, you managed to catch enough rabbit between catching lizards. All in all; a pretty productive day.

“Ah, a very innovative tactic.” Solas smirked.

“Oi, Little Elf, Elfy,” both you and Solas looked to Sera who was taking in the sight before her, walking towards you shaking her head. “Could you both be anymore elfy? Blackwall’s finished with the rabbit.”

“Ok, we’ll be right there.” Solas said. You handed him the brush in your hand and he put your’s his back in the side saddle sitting upon the rock. Solas turned when he realised you weren’t following him, “Are you coming?”

“I’ll catch up, I might go wash first.”

Solas simply made his way to you, “Here,” he handed you a fire rune before turning and leaving.

After some blissful time had passed you made your way back to the camp. Lavender filled your nose and you couldn’t help indulging by inhaling the scent. Josephine had given you these delightful oils to use, you’d recently run out of the vanilla and frangipani. You made your way to the fire feeling fresh and clean, your stomach grumbled for your eagerly awaited dinner. “Yo, Little Elf!” Sera grabbed your arm a little too forcefully. Before you uttered anything about how hungry you were, she hissed in your ear, “Solas is heading to bed.” At this news you momentarily forfeit to sate your hunger and ran with her for a better view.

While silently watching from where you hid, Solas entered his tent and Sera began a countdown, “3, 2, 1-“ nothing. “What? I’m not a psychic. It would have been epic though if something had happened though.” Seconds passed and it felt like forever. What was he doing? You thought. “How do you know the lizards are still in there?”

“Where would they go? They love the warmth, they’re not coming out of his bedroll on their own accord.” A scream made you both jump. Solas came tumbling out of the tent, he had barely had the door open wide enough and tripped. It was a sight to behold; Solas with a panic-stricken face and lizards scampering in every direction from his bedroll he dragged out with him.

You both held back a snicker and made a go of running to him for aid with the rest of the companions. There was no quicker way to draw a crowd than a scream which is easily mistaken for a cry for help.

“Are you ok?” The words left your mouth in an urgency that shocked even you. You knew you had to play the part, but your faked emotion behind your voice almost fooled you. He just stared bewildered back at you and then did a once over at all the people he had gathered.

“Are you alright there, Solas?” Blackwall spoke up when he hadn’t responded the first time. He walked over to him and offered a hand to help him up.

Solas stood without assistance, “Who put lizards in my bedroll?” His icy voice stabbed through your heart. He seemed pretty mad at first glance.

“I’m sure it was just a joke, Vhenan.” He turned to you and you gulped. You hoped your words softened the moment. He sighed. He wasn’t really that angry, just annoyed. “I’m just glad it wasn’t a snake,” he smirked and laughed to himself. “All I felt was one of the lizard’s tails and my mind filled in the rest.”

A few minutes were spent laughing and trying to figure out who did it. Of course, speculation fell first on Sera, but when pointed out that she was by the fire she was dropped as number one suspect. Then to you which you tactfully dodged and even Solas vouched for you saying you were with him brushing the hart. Maybe it was safe to say that for tonight, you were not guilty of the crime that you had definitely committed. With a final statement, Solas broke up the pointing-fingers-game with a adamant,

“I’m going to bed.”

Wandering the Hinterlands was tedious, but in terms of danger it wasn’t cause for constant guard. Not that anyone dropped their vigilance but rather any threat was quickly and skilfully disposed of. Idle chat was common, you had just been discussing Cassandra’a necklace Cole fought a rat for when an awkward silence fell upon you. A fault that was all yours. You hadn’t expected the necklace to have had that much sentimentality and unknowingly dove into a conversation the former seeker was not willing to have beyond brief sentences.

After a while Solas spoke up, you mentally thanked him. What he said however piqued your curiosity instantly, “Have you ever had any interest in learning magic, Sera?”

“Get off?” A pit lodged in your stomach as you could only imagine where this conversation would lead, and it wasn’t anywhere good.

Despite her objection, he continued, “While it has not manifested naturally, there are ways to determine whether arcane gifts lie dormant within you.” Really? You’d never heard such a thing. Could it be true? Why else would Solas say it? Could I have arcane gifts lying dormant within?

“What? Don't make me think about that. I have to sleep at night!” Sera would never consider having any sort of magical abilities, unlike yourself, it had skipped you in the family. You had watched your twin sister hone her skill with a staff while you wielded two swords.

“Sleeping would give you the chance to explore the Fade. I could introduce you to spirits.” Ok, something was up. Is he antagonising her? He thought you didn’t notice his quick glance your way.

“Right, you're messing with me on purpose!” Sera shouted back. Good, she thought so too. 

In a lilt voice Solas replied, “Why would I do that? It is not as though I know who filled my bedroll with lizards.” How long had he known? 

“Heh. Fair point! That was pretty good.” You stayed silent, allowing Sera to respond. Kind of cruel to use the magic to rise hope in you of some wishful belief if untapped magic in you and to scare Sera. But, to say you didn’t deserve it would be an understatement. 

Later Solas found you in a moment alone. “My apologies.” He smiled at you. “I couldn’t take Sera down without you as a casualty as well.” His apology started as sincere until he added, “As her accomplice it fit rather well.” 

“It’s ok, Vhenan. But I’d be cautious of what might find their way into your bedroll. After all, I am rather capable of catching other things besides lizards.” You smirked.  Solas laughed. 

“You have yet to learn, lethallan,” he chided, “I am no stranger to the art of trickery.” The way he said it sent a chill down your spine. Maybe it’s time to quit while you were ahead.

[fangzeronos]

SDCC 2018 wrap up

Ok now that SDCC is over, I feel like I should do a little wrap up for the weekend. I got to sit and wait for all the trailers and news to come out since I couldn’t afford to go, so this is gonna be strictly from the “Nerd on the Couch” perspective. I’m putting a read more in case anyone wanna skip this.

 Titans: The trailer was alright. Robin’s in a bad place because of Batman so his “Fuck Batman” line is justified. Starfire and Beast Boy could still use some work, but it was only the first trailer, so we’ll have to reserve judgement until the show comes out. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

 Young Justice Outsiders: It’s actually real. I thought for the last two years we’ve all been thinking it’s not coming and that we’ve all been living in a dream about wanting it back. I was in the middle of the store when I saw the trailer and my heart stopped. Two minutes of Season 2 recap, including Wally’s ‘death’ (HE ISN’T DEAD ALRIGHT!? HE’S JUST IN THE SPEED FORCE AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE DAMMIT!!!) before we get the new footage. The new characters look amazing, Geoforce looks like he’s going to be a good character, hopefully we’ll get Terra since she’s “been missing for two years”. Still waiting to see M’gann, Kaldur, Beast Boy, and the rest of the season 2 cast, but I’m excited for this one more then Titans.

 And since both shows above are going to be on the DC Universe Online service, I can see paying $75 a year for it if we’re going to get more Young Justice. With all the shows coming out on DCUO, like Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and all of the older shows like Batman The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, the older DC movies and the comics, I can justify paying that much for a yearlong subscription.

 Supergirl: Season 4 looks like it’s going to be interesting. Agent Liberty seems like a decent antagonist, but with the way this show has done in the past, hyping a villain for the first half and then swapping it with a generic bad guy for the second, I don’t have much hope. It looks like they’re toning down the relationship drama from season 2 and 3, which is good. I’m honestly thinking they’re going to screw Lena’s character development and have her go evil Luthor judging by how season 3 ended with her “We can begin phase two” line and having the Harun-El made up that she gave to Alura. A few quick shots of Alex as Director of the DEO sporting a new haircut, nothing too revealing except for the Supergirl spacesuit at the end. I saw it and my mind went to the first Injustice 2 game trailer from 2016 with the armored look. I’m looking forward to the new season, not keen on it being on Sundays before the Charmed reboot but have to get the viewers for a remake somehow.

 Arrow: Oliver Queen in prison. That’s a hell of a concept for the season. We know something’s going to change and he’s going to be out by the fourth or fifth episode, possibly earlier. Decent shots of the other characters, Dinah wearing SCPD riot gear was a nice touch, Laurel-2 denouncing vigilantism makes for an interesting idea considering what the hell she’s done in the last seasons. Diaz is fine, not enjoying having him around again but since he didn’t get killed at the end of the last season, it’s fine. Longbow Hunters might make for interesting fodder, but we can’t be sure until the show starts. I’m sick of Felicity, but that arguments been done to death. We all know it was Roy in the Green Arrow suit in the end of the trailer. If it had been Diggle, we’d have seen his face and since we know Roy’s back, it doesn’t really give us many options to choose from. I’m glad it’s on Mondays now so I can watch it and keep up instead of being behind.

 Legends of Tomorrow: It looks great. This one has become one of my favorites on the network and I’m glad to see they’re getting more episodes. Hopefully this season doesn’t get shafted and end up getting thrown to a different night or time or cut in the middle for a different show. Bringing Constantine back for a regular spot is a good move considering what they’re going to be dealing with thanks to the fallout from killing Mallus. Dragons, demons, all sorts of magical and mythical creatures. “Couldn’t we be heroes just a little longer?” made me laugh and it’s that sort of thing that makes Legends stand out to me. It can be dark and gritty but still lighthearted and fun. It’s what Flash started to be and it’s what Arrow needs to be. I’m glad it’s going to be on Mondays along with Arrow.

 Flash: Coming off of the reveal that Mystery Girl is actually Barry and Iris’ daughter (which I’d had a feeling about anyway since she was so giddy at the wedding in the Crisis crossover), Nora seems to be a fun addition to the cast this year. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what she messed up, why she came back, and why didn’t she learn from Barry’s mistakes about screwing with the Timeline. Cicada looks to be interesting, and I hope he’s going to be the main villain for the year. I want to know more about how Caitlin was Frost before the Accelerator and Flashpoint happened, or is it a side effect of Flashpoint two years later? Guess we’ll find out in October.

 Aquaman: The trailer looked amazing. This might just be part of what the DCEU needs to get its shit together and stop being so grimdark. Wonder Woman proved DC movies can do fun and lighthearted and still hit some dark themes and notes, and this looks like it’s going to do the same thing. Jason Mamoa looks as badass as he did in Justice League, Amber Heard is beautiful as Mera. Atlantis looked amazing. I’m thoroughly excited and December can’t come quick enough to see this.

 Shazam!: One of my favorite DC heroes, man. Zachary Levi just killed it in this trailer and I was laughing the whole way through. If the movie keeps that same energy up, I’ll be damn happy. March release for this one and I’m ready to go!

 Godzilla: King of the Monsters: It’s frigging Godzilla, fighting his own list of bad guys. Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, all classics that should have been in the first one instead of the MUTO. I’ve always been a Godzilla nerd, so when I saw this trailer I was geeking the fuck out. I’m definitely excited for this one.

 Now, you’re probably wondering, “Hey, where’s Voltron in all of this?” and you’d be right that I haven’t talked about it yet. I have spent three days milling over the reveals from the Voltron panel and been trying the right ways to word things, so I don’t seem like I’m being an asshole and damning myself with what I’m going to say. Now, with that out of the way.

 The season 7 trailer looked good. We’re going back to Earth, so who knows how much time really has passed since the only indication we’ve had was the week that Kuron was in the Galra fighter before Keith and Black found him back in season 3. I’m sad to see that season 8 is going to be the last of VLD, but I can understand why, since they were only approved for so many episodes. Going back to a 13-episode season is the best thing they could have done. Keith piloting Black still kind of irks me, but with Shiro only having one arm, I guess it makes sense. I would much rather have Allura in Black, put Lance back in Blue, and give Red back to Keith, but that’s a whole other post.

 The big thing people took away from the panel was “You’ll meet Shiro’s significant other, Adam.” When I saw that on Twitter, I was…. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. You’ve had six seasons of moments between Shiro and Allura, the Hand Touch, the way she looked at him when he said “You found me” at the end of the season, how adamant they are about saving each other every time they’re in danger, Shiro’s resolve to get her back in Season 1 after she threw him into the shuttle and got taken by the Galra. And now it’s all thrown out of the airlock?

 No offense to the writers, Josh Keaton who gets mad credit for keeping this close to the chest and not revealing anything, the fans that are a fan of this plot point for the next season, but I’m not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT representation in animation/kids’ media has come a long way in a few short years. Look at Steven Universe. One of the main characters is a literal fusion of two she-pronoun using space rocks. I just feel like this is shoehorned in like a checkmark on an RPG character creation. “PTSD? Check. Missing limb? Check. Male POC? Check. What else can we check to make people happy? OH! Gay! DOUBLE CHECK!!” is what it feels like to me. To me, this feels like the writers have been shadow stalking Tumblr, AO3, FF.net, everywhere else Voltron is big and made their choice but what the popular ships were in the search results.

 Make Shiro gay, fine. Make him bi, that’d be a better option because then we can ship him with whoever we want and not get comments that say that shipping Shiro with Allura or any other female member of this show is gay erasure. By saying “Shiro’s gay”, you’re shooting all of the other Shiro ships in the face. Shieth shippers are over the moon, Shallura shippers are sitting in a corner, Klance shippers are looking between the two going “WTF”, and the rest of the internet��s like “Why is it a big deal?”

 I feel like I should stop there about this. This is already more then a page in my word doc.

 SDCC 2018 was fun to watch from a distance. CW brought some good trailers, DC killed it with 8 trailers, and Voltron is what it is. Now begins the countdown for SDCC 2019.

[amoureuseeee]

An Hour Ahead

written by j.r. olalia

       Ladies and Gents, do boredom seem to kill you already? Let us help you by becoming an audience in the latest breakthrough of the most advanced and fascinating research center in the world today. Sign up now, and witness the unraveling of the depths of what lies ahead of us all!

_____________________________________________

           Posters advertising the experiment of Lab-Alpha are widespread across the quiet streets of the town where Cass, short for Cassandra, lives. The year is 2092, and people have seen pretty much of what technology could do. In this period, smartphones do not have a physical body but are inserted through microchips in your brain, usually done in infants right after they are born.

            Long-distance communication happens by sending an impulse from one brain to another. This particular method challenges those who are easily distracted and lacks focus. The skies are now home to highways for vehicles known as flight cars. Nothing appears surprising to anybody anymore. At least not to Cass. Our girl is a typical teenager who happens to be very curious about the idea of time travel. She thinks that this particular field of study was left rotting by the relentlessly advancing cultures of the world. Perhaps it is due to the fear of people from the consequences of obstructing the natural flow of time. The early TV shows, movies, and even the historical comic books that made us fantasize about going back and forth in time also taught us of the dangers that time travel poses.

          Just as when Cass was about to leave her favorite rusty chair in the Green&Blues Ecopark, she received a sneaky embrace from behind. “Not thinking again about time travel, are we?” It was Pietro, Cass’s childhood friend.

         “Pietro! I didn’t know you were coming home today.” 

      “Well, my friend,” Pietro paused and sat beside Cass, “you think you can enjoy the show alone?” She looked at him with absolute confusion. “What show?” Pietro smirked excitedly as he revealed a poorly folded piece of paper decorated with a bright yellow ribbon. It was an invitation.

 Dear Mr. Pietro and Ms. Cassandra,

We, at Lab-Alpha, highly appreciate your interest in our research. The registration forms you sent us last XX-XX-2092 are now approved by our team. On XX-XX-2092, a flight car will escort you directly from your homes to our main facilities. We are very much excited to have you as our audience.

Best regards, Lauvais Dr. Lauvais Head of Operations at Lab-Alpha

      It took quite a moment and a bit of pinching on her elbow before Cass came back to her senses. “Pietro... you... are... THE BEST!” And the two gleefully rushed into the house of Cassandra to have a snack and prepare for their trip.

     At the exact date and time indicated in the letter, a flight car appeared and startled the lying cyber-cats in the backyard of Cass’s house. Upon the landing of their service, the two went frantic over the things they might forget to bring. When everything seemed in place, they stiffly walked towards Henry, their escort to Lab-Alpha, in an attempt to contain their excitement. A flight car takes at least two minutes to start. When the engine of their transport began to cough, the mother of Cass went running outside as if being chased by an untamed meta-lion. “You forgot your lunch boxes!” 

     “Don’t worry, ma’am. We serve great food at Lab-Alphaaaaaaaa”

        Henry’s voice echoed in the skies as they vanished into thin air. Soon enough, Cass and Pietro were awakened by the flashing lights of cameras. Theentrance of Lab-Alpha was flooded with photographers and spectators alike. “Woah! This looks nothing like a laboratory.” Said Pietro in full astonishment. 

         Cass, meanwhile, remained silent upon witnessing the magnificent research center up close. “Sir Pietro and miss Cassandra, may I present you to Dr. Lauvais, the very mind of Lab-Alpha.” Dr. Lauvais jokingly took his introduction from Henry. 

         “Oh, please, Henry. I need not present myself with such grandiosity. “Pietro, Cassandra, I am more than pleased to meet you than it appears to be. But my confidence in satisfying your exceptional interest in the possibilities of time travel is steadfast. Come.”

          Pietro had to pull Cass, for, until this point, she was still completely frozen and mute. The deafening crowd outside was completely inaudible within the research center. While they were approaching a highly-secured room, the workers of Lab-Alpha, distinguishable by their all-white uniforms, stared at the two visitors as if they were about to become lab rats of a mad science experiment. When the doors opened, disinfection smoke was released. “This decontaminates the subje--- Uhm, I mean the guests, before nearing the device.” The enthusiasm of Pietro and Cass kept them from picking up the signals of what was about to commence.

           “Now, now, Daisy. We do not want our guests to feel uncomfortable.” Dr. Lauvais quickly scolded Daisy, the one who almost slipped away their plans. “Very well, all looking functional,you two, sit over there. We reserved you the best seats in the house.” Said Dr. Lauvais, then gave off an awkward smile. “Hang on.” Cass finally declared. “I thought we are just here to see the experiment.” “That is correct.” The prompt response of Dr. Lauvais was cut by a series of questions from Cass and Pietro. “Then why is there a need for you to put us inside a dome of glass, at the center of this room?” Cass inquired, sparking the tension in the room. “And why are we the only audience? Is this not open to public viewing? We saw your posters.” Remarked Pietro.

...

          There was silence until Dr. Lauvais intervened. “Fine. You got us. From the very start, you are meant to be the subjects of this experiment. But please, do not leave now! We are about to show the world the possibilities of time travel!” Pietro looked at Cass with much anxiousness and regret. The look he gave Cass spoke the words he could not manage to say. After all, it was he who put them both in this situation. Cass, on the other hand, remained calm and unbothered.

         "I don't mind." Everyone in the room was shocked by what Cass just said. "I am sorry, what?" Asked a confused Dr. Lauvais. "Yeah, what?" Asked a more confused Pietro. "Well, this is my dream. I wanted to be in this. And besides, what could go wrong, anyway?" Cass's positivity and excitement, despite knowing that they had just been tricked, made Pietro feel uneasy. "Are you sure about this?" Pietro asked Cass while Doctor Lauvais and the rest of the personnel of Lab-Alpha prepared the device. "Actually, I was hoping for this. Just think of it this way, we are about to experience time travel for ourselves. Isn't that fun?" Said Cass, while she also tries to calm her nerves.

          "Uhm, Dr. Lauvais?" Dr. Lauvais did not hear Pietro. "Dr. Pietro, may I ask something?" Asked Pietro, a little louder this time. "What is it, my child?" "I was just wondering why there were no other participants in this experiment. Isn't this the biggest breakthrough ever made on the planet?" 

         "All set, doc!" Daisy shouted from an elevated platform in the room, interrupting Dr. Lauvais, and Pietro's conversation. "Well, there is no room for doubt now, Cass and Pietro. All the best of luck." 

        "Where exactly should we expect ourselves to arrive?" Asked Cass, who appeared to be intensely excited. "Since this is just a prototype, you will most likely be an hour ahead of us, I'm afraid." Replied Dr. Lauvais. Cass expressed a great deal of disappointment on her face while Pietro shyly cracked into a smile. Just an hour? That is so uncool. But safe. He thought. 

         "Good luck, kids! Oh, and upon your arrival, this pod will lose all of its power. So be sure to recharge it by connecting this cord to any S-type socket. Have fun, and stay alert!" After saying this, Dr. Lauvais joined Daisy on the platform for the countdown. "Launching in five, four, three, two, and..." Pietro held hands with Cass so tight that her last words before leaving were 'ouch, Pietro!' "one!"

...

        When Cass opened her eyes, she was alone. "Pietro? Pietro?" She removed the strap from her chair and continued looking for a person. "Pietro? It's not funny if you arrived earlier and thought of leaving me out here alone!" She kept on screaming but still got no answer. "Dr. Lauvais? Daisy? Hello? This is not a joke!" Eventually, she decided to leave the room. Upon opening the door, Lab-Alpha was in chaos. Shattered pieces of glass were on the floor, and the workers were bruised and lying with their now pinkish uniform because of blood. Cass was terrified by the sight in front of her. She ran outside and what confronted her was worse. Flight cars crashed against each other, collapsed buildings and other infrastructures, the streets were on fire, and there were no people to be seen. She tried to focus and somehow managed to send a distress call from her head, but no one was online. She just went an hour ahead of her time. How could all this happen in an hour? Cass went walking outside and saw the News Tower's screen still functioning, although half the screen was already crushed.

WXRNXNG!! AN XSTXROID IS FXST APPXOACHXNG. GEX TX YOXR HXMES TX

STXY SXFE.

        It does not take a genius to decipher the message. Upon reading it, Cass went back to Lab-Alpha to warn the people of her time that, in an hour, the world faces its doom. When she arrived, she immediately turned on the pod. It did not open. It needed recharging. Now, Cass's present reality relies on her return, and she only has an hour.

#CreativeWriting #ShortStory

image source: 

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/3d/97/373d97b78a7b9

1a847aa22ee2ddeb52d.png

[apatheticaria]

my spoilery thoughts on the last of us part ii

i apologize in advance for this super long post that you have to scroll past because i don’t know how to do the “keep reading” option thing

the only reason i’m writing this out is because i’m literally going insane from not being able to talk about my feelings for this game to anyone since no one i know actually cares lmao so this is mainly just for myself and anyone who wants to read this

the intro:

as i played through this game, i also watched a few playthroughs up until the point where i stopped to take a break. this was a game i couldn’t binge just because it’s so heavy and intense and sometimes you just gotta step away and take a breather

one of the playthroughs i followed along with was jacksepticeye’s and at the end he gave his review of the game like he normally does. i didn’t completely agree with everything he said, but for the most part i thought what he said lined up pretty well with my own opinion.

in particular, one thing that stood out to me was when he said that the introduction to this game shouldn’t have been Joel talking to Tommy about what he did at the end of the first game, but rather the whole flashback of Ellie’s birthday at the museum. then at “one” during the countdown to liftoff, the screen should’ve went black and fast forwarded to four-years-older Ellie opening her eyes in her home in Jackson (idk if i’m explaining this well, but Jack’s editor, Robin, edits this together and really sold it to me. if you wanna see it, go to the last part of Jack’s playthrough and look for it towards the last 30 minutes). i think this would have given us the time i think we all needed with Joel before he died and all the following flashbacks would be more focused on how/why Joel and Ellie’s relationship turned so distant - or hostile on Ellie’s part - and could’ve helped the pacing a bit.

Joel’s death:

potentially an unpopular opinion? but i actually like how Joel died. or uh lemme rephrase, i like the way they wrote his death. in this world of violence, hate, and brutality (actually doesn’t sound too off from our world but ahem moving on), i think the way he died was realistic, especially since he doomed all of humanity by saving Ellie in Part I. it just makes a lot of sense that someone would go after him and hunt him down

from the moment Abby and Owen stood over Jackson from the cliff, i was thinking: well theyre gonna kill Joel and since we’re gonna probably be playing as this girl for some (emphasis on some) of the game, they’re gonna go hard on the grey area of perspective in terms of revenge. which i was super on board with, but we’ll get back to that

when this game was first advertised, i didn’t know how i felt about a revenge story. it’s been told so many times and i’m never as hell-bent on revenge as much as the character is because it never feels warranted enough. that is, until i saw Joel die. watching Ellie pinned to the floor with a perfect view of his body, his face, beat to shit as she screams and begs for Abby to stop? haha that’s fucked Naughty Dog, thanks. but i do appreciate that they were able to make me just as mad as Ellie because of just how brutal his death was and how much i care, cared, about that character. no story has ever made me so incredibly enraged to the point i was with the main character full-stop to just destroy the perpetrator and take revenge. that’s why i think the way Joel dies is perfectly done. the fact that that cutscene is so horrible to watch for so many reasons just proves that it does it’s job.

Ellie’s half:

i actually don’t have too much to say about Ellie’s half of the story. this was what i both expected and wanted from the game, the whole game. while i can’t say i was having “fun”, because this isn’t really a fun game to play, you know what i mean when i say that this part was fun to play and follow.

side note: Naughty Dog’s improvement of your NPC buddy is so good, Dina and Jesse were both actually helpful, still not perfect, but also they’re not supposed to do all the work for you. i think the added layer that they could also get caught/seen and alert the enemy was completely unexpected and such a good addition to the gameplay (ofc this goes for Lev as well).

throughout the whole story, there’s kinda a problem with the pacing, and i know i’m not the first person to say that. however, i think the only big pacing issue i had with Ellie’s perspective was that kinda weird attempt of an open world map that they did with the gates. it felt a little unnecessary since i, and most other people, are playing for the story, not an open world with various side quest-like things. i missed the guitar cutscene with Ellie playing the guitar and singing to Dina (which kinda sucks, but i obviously just watched it after) because i just wanted to get back to the story rather than explore a large area. it was an attempt at something different so i won’t fault the game for that too much, but also stay in your lane lol so that section was a bit of a miss for me personally. i really liked the rest of it though, it had me engaged the whole time

Abby’s half:

ok. i have a lot to say about this half of the game since this is where most the problems occur.

first, let me preface this by saying that i don’t hate Abby. as i said, from the very beginning i knew she was going to have a, not justifiable, but an understandable reason for murdering Joel and that the game was going to be about seeing two sides to the same story. except, at the same time, i came here for Ellie, so why am i playing as this heterosexual? im mostly kidding. but fr i didn’t need the entire half of the game trying to get me to sympathize with Abby. i really didn’t need the message to be so spelt out for me, i got it from the moment i realized she was going to kill a favorite character.

i think my main gripe with the way they told this story is the way they formatted it. this story has all the elements to be amazing, but the execution just lacked the...finesse? idk if that’s the right word.

rather than splitting up the game into two halves, they could/should have integrated Abby’s story into Ellie’s so that when we cut from Abby holding the gun at Ellie in the theater to suddenly Abby as a young girl, it won’t feel so jarring when we have to start all over again with the upgrades and the timeline.

i really liked how we switched between them in the very beginning so why couldn’t that have just continued? in a book with multiple povs, the author often switches back and forth between every or every few chapters. you never see a book that starts with one perspective, then at the climax you have to start all over again from the other. at least, i’ve never seen this in any books i’ve read and i’ve read a lot ngl

maybe they forced us to stick with Abby for so long because if we’re forced to play as her, then we’re forced to get invested into her story. while this makes sense, it also really degraded at my enthusiasm for the game. it took me so long to just give up on the idea that we would be going back to Ellie relatively soon and when i did actually realize that was what was happening i was really disappointed.

instead of separating their stories, i would’ve liked to have Abby maybe one step behind Ellie the whole time so that while we play we’re just anticipating when Abby will finally catch up and it builds to this whole thing. instead, when we actually got to the point where everything was supposed to go down, we’re hit with whiplash and back to the very beginning with tutorials?? like did they just expect us to forget how to play since we switched characters?

i’m thinking, after Ellie and Dina jump over the barbed wire that explodes and Ellie’s knocked out, we could have switched over to Abby waking up in the WLF stadium. after Abby sneaks out of the stadium and you have that interaction with Jordan where he mentions Leah at the tv station, then we go back to Ellie waking up and tied to the table and we see Ellie kill Jordan.

after this i think Abby should have met Lev and Yara way sooner because i barely even remember what happened before Abby was caught by the seraphites it was so boring. so she gets caught by the seraphites AFTER we meet them through Ellie being shot through the shoulder (i still want to get all the first impressions of new stuff with Ellie because then it still makes her feel like the main character) and we meet the siblings and blahblahblah.

as a follow up, after Ellie kills Nora, which by the way, Ellie’s facial expressions are just so good with the red light while she’s just beating Nora to death? wow that entire interaction was so well done. anyway, after Ellie kills Nora, and Ellie gets back to the theater and the scene ends with her and Dina hugging, then we would switch to that whole section with Abby and Lev traveling to the hospital to get the meds and it would be cool if on her way in, Nora helps Abby and then on her way out, we run into a door we have trouble opening so we push and when it opens, Nora’s beaten up body is right there.

you get the gist. Abby’s story was barely intertwined with Ellie’s until the very end where she finds Owen and Mel dead. she doesn’t know that literally everyone else, except Leah, is dead too. i feel like that would’ve made the impact of Abby and Ellie’s fight at the theater more effective. affective? whatever i’m not an english nerd

i also think we should have gotten the flashback with Abby’s dad a little later when we’re expected to understand her character a bit more.

overall, i’m not mad about getting Abby’s side of the story, but i am mad that the way it was told felt so disconnected from Ellie. we could still get that whole arc of Abby going to the island to get Lev, she can still get her own story apart from Ellie, but she needed to have more of a interaction with Ellie’s actions.

Abby vs. Ellie, Abby’s pov:

i absolutely hate this fight. i really hate the way it was written and the way it happened. i get that the game is trying to give us Abby’s perspective and to show that in her point of view, Ellie is the villain in this story.

except, AGAIN, i don’t need this spoon fed to me!!! i KNOW that the world isn’t black and white and that people’s perspectives are different, but also? i don’t really care. both characters have gone through shit and both have done shitty things. neither of them are innocent, no one in this world is innocent (hence why i really dislike Mel, but that’s not really relevant), so it really comes down to which character you value more. in my - and most other people’s - case, it’s Ellie. i know the whole point of this fight is to make the player uncomfortable, but i wasn’t just uncomfortable, it made me legitimately start to dislike this game (spoiler for the end of this stupid-long review: i don’t completely dislike it)

the game really emphasizes that this is Abby’s story as much as it is Ellie’s and i get that, but this fight did not need to happen the way it did and the game didn’t need to be even longer after this. a lot of people say that we played from Abby’s perspective because Ellie would have killed Abby and that would be that (and she did, by the way, i relished watching Ellie get her revenge because while i don’t hate Abby, it was still so satisfying even if that wasn’t how the game wanted me to play). however however however, Abby wouldn’t have showed mercy either. she was absolutely going to kill Ellie if Dina hadn’t intervened then she was going to kill Dina if Lev hadn’t intervened.

here’s how i wouldve wanted it to go: we go back to Ellie’s perspective once Abby has the gun pointed at Ellie in the lobby and during their fight, Ellie would get the upper hand because she has weapons and shit (let’s be honest, Ellie would not win in hand-to-hand combat with fully-healthy Abby, we saw that first hand). Lev would try to jump in, but then Dina would disarm him and prevent him from escaping her grasp. then eventually Ellie would have the barrel of the shotgun pointed at Abby’s face and she would hear Lev tell her to please stop don’t kill her and Ellie would listen because the same exact thing happened to her (we could get a short flashback or something for more emotions, idk). so instead of killing Abby, Ellie would knock her out and her and Dina would leave and Lev would run to Abby’s unconscious body. this would end that cycle of revenge and because Abby has something more important to her than revenge (Lev), they would move on.

the ending:

if the game went how i just imagined, we probably wouldn’t get an ending that’s as depressing and open ended as it is, but i’m sure Neil and his team could figure something out, such as Ellie still has to deal with PTSD and Tommy’s really pissed at them and Ellie still looses her two fingers. so we get that little domestic sequence and the PTSD flashback and Tommy coming with his eye missing and showing the map. he leaves and when Ellie is about to leave in the middle of the night, Dina convinces her this time to stay and the next day Ellie tries to play the guitar one last time before giving up since she doesn’t have her fingers (i still want that last heartbreaking flashback, that one fucked me up i love it) and she goes out to leave it somewhere in the woods with it all ending with her walking away from the guitar that Joel gave her to symbolize her letting him go. idk man something like that, still not that open ended, but i’m just talking out of my ass rn

anyway that’s not how it went so we’ll stick to reality.

an open ending isn’t supposed to be unsatisfying, because that’s what this ending was. Part I does an open ending perfectly as we still get closure even though we don’t know exactly how things go afterwards (until now obviously).

after playing from Abby’s perspective for so goddamn long, it was weird to play as Ellie again, even while it was also a relief, and that makes me really sad. in the end, i did feel bad for Abby when she was literally left to starve and “hang” (but again i didn’t need 15+ hours in order to feel basic sympathy).

from the way they wrote the story, i knew Ellie wasn’t going to let it go and she was going to leave Dina and JJ. it made sense and i don’t think it was out of character for her, but the fact they did that in the first place and that Abby was the one to let go first? Abby got her revenge, she killed Joel, but Ellie never got that closure so of course she was going to go after Abby.

in the very end, Ellie is left with no one and Abby still has Lev and a group of fireflies to run to. Ellie’s biggest fear was being alone as she said in the first game, but that’s exactly what she’s left with. yeah life is unfair and i do like that the consequences feel real in this story, but i don’t think Ellie deserved to be done so damn dirty while Abby is living her best life. sure all of Abby’s friends were murdered because of Ellie and Dina leaving is Ellie’s own fault and i don’t blame Dina, but i mean we have no idea what happens to Ellie after this, where she goes. it at least feels like she’s on the road to eventually being relatively okay, as okay as you can be in this world.

i can’t completely articulate how i feel about this ending, even after three days having finished playing. all i do know is that while it’s realistic how Ellie’s story ended, i would’ve liked for Abby to get the same treatment. for her to not actually find the fireflies through the radio and escape from the Rattlers only to have no where to go so that, just like Ellie, revenge cost her everything and we don’t know where she went after.

maybe because Abby’s story was pretty much wrapped up and Ellie’s wasn’t, they’re planning for a trilogy, but i guess we’ll see.

the tldr;

this game has all the elements it needed to be amazing overall imo, i just wish they were all utilized Better. the reason it’s so hard to figure out how i feel about this game is because it has so much potential that just never came through and i’m really jealous of all the people who were blown away by this story. it’s still a good game though, but a 7/10 seems too high and 6/10 seems to low. ig it’s a 6.5/10 for me.

thanks for reading if you made it this far

[chroniclesofcisco]

Times are stressful as frak. I mean, we got the countdown to Iris’ impending doom, the risk of losing Caitlin to her evil alter-ego Killer Frost, and this weird dude with the touch of death running around making things decay. Can we please have a week where we are not tiptoeing on the brink of disaster? You’re spiraling, Cisco. Take a deep breath and focus on the positives.  Every cloud has a silver lining, right? I guess ours would be Wally making serious progress in his speedster training. He mastered the whole phasing thing and is making Kid Flash a bonafide sensation. Seriously, Kid Flash is more popular than memes here in Central City! I figured it was high time for me and Wally to have a low-key bromance and hit up the town. I mean, we’re both coming into our own as superheroes, after all. It’s the Vibe / Kid Flash crossover event! Vibe and Kid Flash’s Excellent Adventure? Vibe Cassidy and the Flashdance Kid? I’ll work on it. Either way, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Since we’re both not-so-secretly pining for our other-Earth baes, Jesse Quick and Gypsy, we took ourselves off the market and decided to just have fun and not worry about the whole dating game. Wally didn’t strike me as a karaoke type, so I knew the perfect spot for our epic night – Central City’s brand new barcade! We got there and the joint was lit.  From vintage video games to a sick DJ pumping tunes, the entire place was one giant party. Wally was all giddy when he overheard a group of girls crushing on Kid Flash, so we totes photo-bombed their selfies. I tore up Skee Ball and Wally brought the moves on Dance Dance Revolution - safe to say that the Vibe and Kid Flash team up could be best described as a fire emoji.

That is until the temperature dropped about 50 degrees. Suddenly everything turned frigid.  We could see our breath! Wally and I were both freaking.  These days sudden chilly conditions always makes me worry about my homegirl Caitlin. I had to check over my shoulder and make sure she wasn’t lurking anywhere nearby! But we were in the clear – we overheard the manager on the phone complaining that the AC unit had gone haywire. The party was cooling off - people were shivering and sliding to the exit.  So I ran over to the AC unit gave it a touch and vibed to see what was wrong.  Turns out it needed a new part from a factory in Star City. I gave Wally the deets and he was there and back in a (kid) flash. We helped the manager install it and brought back the heat. The party was saved!

As the night ended, we used our last quarters on some classics arcade games.  I got hooked on Donkey Kong and Wally was blown away by my mad skills of taking down that crazy gorilla.  If only Grodd’s attacks were as easy to dodge as Donkey Kong’s barrels!  I gotta say I’m still stoked he’s out of our hair for good. Now, does any one have change for a dollar? Wally and I are ready for our next barcade team-up!

[nicolasninenien]

Singaporean Paradigm

Statistically, Singapore’s education system has produced outputs of stellar academic results over the last few years, beating many illustrious international academic institutions. I must admit, the system is indeed an excellent one in providing a world-class education.

However, although it’s ranking in the international field is remarkably astounding, it comes with a heavy price upon those giving the end product. Not too long ago, I read an article about an 11 year old boy who committed suicide because he did not meet his parents’ academic expectation. This is indeed a tragic story; that young boy had a promising future ahead of him but it was taken away simply because of an ingrained culture that sweeps every Asian sub-conscience. Elitism 101.

The stress on excellent academic performance is crucial in Singapore. As such, this attitude spawned many ‘Tiger mums’ and ‘Lombardi dads’ to go crazy on their kids at a very young age, enrolling them to specialised tuition centres, music and art classes. In result, this emboldens the child’s capabilities and skill sets, enabling them to perform extremely well in schools. However, we must not neglect the silent few, the ones who can’t cope with such a system. Well, I was one of them.

I was a late bloomer. I was fascinated with cartoons and was rather mischievous in tuition classes (surprisingly, I was well-behaved in school though I do get punished in school at times). I was not interested in the Maths and sciences, I had no intention of even doing the assignments and homework given to me. I was a kid, I wanted to have fun playing with my friends. However, my parents reception to my behaviour was not well received. They placed me in many numerous classes, during the weekdays and the weekends. The tutors did their best but their efforts were futile, I still failed most of my subjects. As such, it really hit me and I thought that maybe I was dumb. I actually believed that I was stupid, incapable of thinking and logical rationalisation. In turn, my esteem was shattered pretty hard. When I was 12, I received my Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results of 163. I still remembered the look on my mother’s face, a face I could not bear to see. A face that projected sheer disappointment and anguish.

The look on her face stirred my emotions quickly, without hesitation. I thought my life was over. “This was it, I’m such a loser”. Those kinds of sentiments rushed through my head, inside the wandering mind of a 12 year old kid. I felt lost and hopeless. However, that did not deter me. I gazed upon my mother’s face with a rousing determination: I made a bet with her. “I will enter the Express Stream”. She nodded without much enthusiasm.

As such, I entered secondary school with a drive to excel. I wasted no time with work. I wanted to be the best in all aspects, no matter what. Finally, at secondary 2, I was no longer in the Normal Academic Stream (NA). I was promoted to the Express Stream. It was glorious, a gamble I made that came true. I still remember the moment of elation when I received the news in the classroom. My efforts were not in vain.

Upper secondary came along, it was smooth sailing from the start. It seemed as though everything was in my favour, no obstacles, no barriers. As such, I was doomed from the start. My egoism mounted and my cynicism grew, I thought I could beat anyone in my class (or even the whole Express cohort). I wanted to prove what I was capable of, a former Normal Academic student. I wanted to beat them all. However, things came spiralling down. I was caught up with duties and responsibilities with my Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) in the Prefectorial Board and the National Cadet Corp (Land). I fought with my dear tuition teacher (Ms Yen) as I always made excuses for not accomplishing work given to me. I always feel guilty about that. Then one day, our amazing chemistry from lower secondary fell apart. I did not see her anymore. That’s where I made one of the greatest blunders in my whole academic life, I chose to join a class recommended by a friend of mine. That tutor, his name was Alvin Tan.

I came for his classes. He was so full of himself who talked about his academic achievements in the past, a braggart who manipulated feelings of his students to make them feel weak and useless, even to the extent of breaking friendships that altered and brewed tensions between former allies by creating unnecessary rivalry. I trusted him. He broke me to my very core. He told me I wasn’t suited for the A-level course. He was so wrong.

In the end, I got a raw score of 17 L1R5 for the GCE O-Levels and headed my way to Innova Junior College up north in Woodlands. I came with an idea of recreating myself, to forget the horrid past of Post O-Levels by establishing a wild and passionate persona. It did not go well. Well, things were easy at first. Then came along the real deal, the dreadful lectures and tutorials. Interestingly, as the months go by, my interests in the respective subjects that I was studying was reinforced while simultaneously dreading the work to be done. It was not a pleasant ride. I had a huge circle of friends at first which slowly deteriorated as the months go by. I fought with certain friends in the Student Council (not gonna state their names) and felt extremely vulnerable.

As such, the environment then felt very hostile as I felt alienated and isolated. I felt lonely, physically and emotionally. I was torn apart. Friends come and go, small talks here and there. Cliques everywhere. I felt as though I didn’t belong. What if Alvin Tan was right all along? Am I really not capable of conquering A-levels? Everything seemed so bleak, I did not have the answers. I mixed myself with a girl I thought I was in love with (dumped her in the end though, we were nothing much). It was all too much.

Until one special afternoon, a question that will forever change the course of my JC experience: “Nic, wanna go Wild Wild Wet with us?”. Everything blossomed, I got close with Asaad, Haziq and Ashleey (which at first seemed to unlikely) and they treated me like family. We laughed, we ate together, we played together, we studied together. Everything was doing just fine (well, not in the academic sense).

It was a long and winding road towards the A-levels, we (mostly Asaad and I) clocked in day in and day out in the library. Studying and mugging every concepts, notes, facts and abstract ideas for our essays. We were all sick and tired of failing (I received a rank point of 17 for Prelims) and we felt miserable. However, the company was great. Just the guys studying (sometimes productively) in the library towards one specific goal, conquering A-levels. That’s where we grew closer and stronger as we headed towards the final countdown.

This is where the story of my formal education ends. Well, you may ask how did I fair for the A-levels. I must say, not too good. I got a 60 Rank Point which was pretty average (though I couldn’t get into a local university). Believe me, A-levels was not easy. It was a suicidal course. However, I did took up the challenge where some may say I couldn’t do it (even Ms Yen doubted me). People may say that getting a 60 for 2 years of studying ain’t worthwhile. Well, I disagree. I’ve learnt so many things beyond the classroom. The notion of accountability and responsibility, the power of resilience and attitude, the will to smile through the times of hardships. I learnt that on my own. No teacher taught me that. Life was my teacher. It gave me a hard lesson these past few years in the Singaporean System.

I am eternally grateful to my teachers, those that were kind and patient, those that were brutally straight forward and honest, those that even question my very sanity. I thank them sincerely. Without them, I wouldn’t be typing this out. Throughout my academic life as a student in Singapore, I must say…

I was the victor and the victim. I had my moments of achievements and numerous failures. In these failures, I learnt the importance of humility because I know what it feels like being a complete loser. It sucks tremendously. It breaks your mind and soul, it leaves you in the dark begging for an answer to your perceived predicament. However, life itself is a dimension filled with endless possibilities. As long as you and I are still breathing, we can make the best out of our lives. As a kid, I thought failure was the end of the world. Everything felt like it was collapsing. Failure is an inevitable condition in the human experience. One must embrace it, one must remain calm and composed in the face of great adversities for life is a great big bubble of ambiguity. Our choices does not necessarily define you, it is what you do even when life seemed to be dead wrong. Respond difficulties with kindness and compassion for it shall be returned to the giver. What goes around what comes around.

Throughout this journey, I’ve met a lot of intelligent people. Oh, remembered the aforementioned 'Elitism 101’ nonsense? Well, there are those who were intelligent and there were those who mixed intelligence with blatant arrogance and disconcerting vanity. These people are those who belittle others, who mistreat them saying that they aren’t in the same level as them, in terms of intellectual capacity. Not the same level? That’s true. You know why? Intelligence is not solely got to do with numbers, concepts and statistics. There are different types of intelligence these elitist high horses need to comprehend. Schools test nothing about intelligence. They do not teach. They forgot to teach and thus we forgot to learn. We were instead forced to memorised in order to get an A for a damn certificate. People, don’t mix yourselves to these narrow-minded freaks. Don’t you dare say you’re stupid or whatsoever. You deserve everything in the world and what it has to offer, no one can tell you different. No one. Not even your parents, your siblings, your teachers and your friends. Intelligence and sheer memorisation, two different entities. Totally different things. You’re neither dumb nor stupid. You’re different and be yourself. Be original. Be you.

So, there you have it people, this is the Singaporean Paradigm, a perspective from a student and his great academic adventure from primary school to junior college, a great emotional rollercoaster that was worthwhile riding. It’s time to move along, to a next chapter of my life.

Thank you for everything, MOE

Sincerely, The Traumatised Teen

[tsushini]

get to know the blogger

so, I just wanna do this because I feel like telling more about myself today because maybe some followers of mine want to know more... dunno, hope you don’t mind it. I’ll add a read more just to shorten things up. Here’s the link for the original post.

1. If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? That sounds awful but maybe work harder? Write more, work out, improve myself? or maybe just nextflix and eat lel.

2. What is your favorite piece of clothing you own / owned? I love t-shirts but my favourite right now is this panda hodie I have that have a hole for my thumb on each sleeve, it’s pretty cute.

3. What hobby would you pick up if time & money weren't an issue? Dancing. I already play the guitar, write and do a bunch of art and editing stuffs but I’ve always wanted to learn how to dance, seems fun. I’ll try it soon.

4. What does your perfect room look like? My room’s pretty nice now but I’d like a room on the attic or something with some big ass window so the sun is always shinning through it, a small ladder to climb onto the roof, plants, one of those mattresses on the floors instead of a bed, a nice and clean bookshelf... something nice and peaceful.

5. How often do you play sports? That’s a good joke.

6. What fictional place would you like to visit? All of them? I wanna be a wizard tho... maybe Hogwarts.

7. What job would you be terrible at? Client support, telemarketing and anything that will make me deal with annoying shitheads being stupid.

8. When was the last time you climbed a tree? God, dunno... when I was really young? I should climb more trees...

9. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance of winning a medal for? Eating chocolate. Running away from crowded places. The Olympic metal for the one that’s always late, but I’d never show up to get my gold metal.

10. What is the most annoying habit that you or other people have? I have the worst habit of overthinking and putting other’s needs in front of mine and some people have the habit of taking advantage of my bad habits.

11. What job do you think you'd be really good at? I have no idea, I usually think I’m pretty bad at everything but I would be really good at sitting in the office doing my job and minding my own business but anyone could do that.

12. What skill would you like to master? WITCHCRAFT! Just kidding, I wanna kill it on the dance floor and draw well.

13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? Realistically it would be really nice to just leave any worries behind, drive for as long as you want and then explore that place for a day or two. My parents and I did that when I was really young but they stopped wanting those type of trips, now they plan everything. But fictionally, imagine a land full of mystical beings who are friendly with anything and everyone. That would be the best.

14. If you had unlimited funds to build a house to live on for the rest of your life, what would the finished house look like? Something rustic. I like nature and plants so maybe a simple house with a nice front porch with a few plants I can take care off and stuffs.

15. What's your favorite drink? Lemon Iced Tea from Lipton. I used to drink 2L of that a day! Now I can’t drink it. lel

16. What state or country do you never want to go back to? I’ve only been to Spain and I live in Portugal... but I’d really like to go back to Porto, it’s so awesome.

17. What songs do you have completely memorized? All of them. Every single one.

18. What game or movie universe would you like to live in? Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Imagine bumping into one of your friends playfully and accidentally starting a battle.

19. What do you consider to be your best find? I don’t understand this question but I’ve found some pretty neat rocks.

20. Are you usually early or late? Late.

21. What pets did you have when you were growing up? I had a dog for about 15 years that died about 2 years ago and a cat that didn’t live that long and died way earlier than the dog because of cancer. Now I have about 6 or 7 cats and 1 dog so...

22. When people come to you for help, what do they usually need help with? Advice, editing, creating a logo, photoshoots, music classes for kids, playing some concerts, a one night stand... Shall I continue? People ask me for a lot of shit.

23. What takes up too much of your time? Breathing and writing.

24. What do you wish you knew more about? Some cultures that I know very little about. Recently I’ve been looking into Japanese and Korean cultures but I’m very uncertain about what I’ve learn and I’d like to know a lot more about Indian culture, Chinese culture and any African culture because I know nothing about them. If you know anything about or are part of any cultures at all then please teach me. I am actually asking you.

25. What would be your first question after waking up from being frozen for 100 years? “What the fuck?”

26. What are some small things that make your day better? Water, sweets, seeing that the people I love are having a nice day and feel alright, the sun and my animals.

27. Who's your go-to band or artist when you don't know who or what to listen to? Right now it’s BTS, I really love them a lot. They’re pretty amazing artists. But I like rock a lot and jazz and it depends on how I feel at the moment. but yeah I’ll probably listen to BTS anyways.

28. What's the best way to start the day? Not getting up.

29. What TV shows do you like? I don’t watch tv much but I do use netflix and I’ve just finished Stranger Things s1, Rick and Morty s1 and I’m watching Jessica Jones. I also like Sherlock even though I’ve missed maybe the last 2 seasons... ups.

30. What TV channel doesn't exist but really should? An Adult Swim tv channel.

31. Who has impressed you most with what they've accomplished? I’ll be honest for a second... My friends impress me a lot on a daily basis.

My best friend hates college but never gave up. He gets up every day, rides the bus and takes the metro in the city which is tiring as shit, goes to those classes he hates, goes to the library to study even though he hates it and comes back home tired as hell but still plays a game with me and our friends and talks for a bit before going to bed. Every. Single. Day. Except weekends, but you get it.

My friend moved from Protugal to England, had a really tough time in London but still studied what she wanted, moved to another city 4 hours away from london to study what she wants, lives alone in an unknown city on an unknown country and keeps getting up every day and doing everything on her own even if things get tough.

And there are many more stories I could tell but those things really impress me because I can’t leave the house without panicking and they do it and even more on a daily basis. I can barely leave my room and they leave their house and walk into the middle of an unknown city every single day and that’s fucking amazing. My babies are fucking amazing.

32. What age do you wish you could stay at permanently? 17. Not an adult but not too imature. I could still get a part-time job and party without anyone bothering me or asking questions about children and marriages.

33. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch? Any horror stuff.

34. What's your ideal way to spend a weekend? Reading, writing or doing whatever I want without anyone annoying me.

35. What is something that is considered a luxury, but you don't think you could live without? There are a lot of things that are considered a luxury in my opinion since there’s a lot of people who can barely get something to eat in my country so... everything I own, including all the food on my fridge, is considered a luxury in my opinion. But if I need to say something, probably my computer.

36. What is your claim to fame? I don’t care.

37. What is something you enjoy doing the old-fashioned way? A lot of things but there are things that I like to do like my grandma taught me like tea with natural ingredients instead of buying the bags in the store, some gardening tips, some food, the cleaning with my own too hands and sewing... You get it.

38. What's your favorite book or movie genre? Fantasy, super heros and romance, I guess. But no clichés, I hate it when I can guess what will happen.

39. How often do you people-watch? A lot... It sounds creepy but as an artist I like to draw from life even if I’m not too good at it so... Every time I get a chance I either stare at someone and draw them or stare at someone and make up a story about that person in my head.

40. What have you only recently formed an opinion about? Music from other countries. I thought that listening to kpop would be weird but nope. They’re so awesome, they’re beating american artists, to be honest! They dance, sing, act, compose, they do so much shit!! I can’t believe they’re this awesome and I thought it was weird.

41. What's the best day of the year? None? I’m the type of person that hates Christmas so... Maybe the first day of Summer.

42. What subject interests you that not many people have heard of? As mentioned many times before... Kpop and Korean and Japanese culture.

43. How do you relax after a long day of work? Watching something on Netflix while cuddling with the closest animal.

44. What's the best book series or TV series you've ever read or watched? I really like John Green’s book “Looking For Alaska” because there’s no chapters, there’s just a countdown to eminent doom and a lot of stuff I can relate to in between, and I love Mr.Robot. It’s the best.

45. Where is the farthest you've ever been from home? 180km? About 4 maybe 5 hours? Sevilla, Spain? I think that’s it.

46. What's the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen? Cats maybe. Oh and the other day my dad offered some cake my mom made to a friend of his, and the expression that man had on his face was so pure as he looked at my dad and whispered “it’s actually good...”

47. What is the most annoying question people ask you? “why are you nervous?”

48. What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with no preparation? A lot of things... I know a lot of shit and I talk a lot about lots of shit... I could give an hour presentation about how chocolate is nice if I tried hard enough and felt like it.

49. If you were the dictator on a small island nation, what crazy dictator stuff would you do? I would make people be nice, never fight and never scream out of rage at each other and watch how many people would fail on the first day.

50. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? To not give a fuck.

51. Would you rather go hand gliding or whitewater rafting? Neither but hand gliding sounds nicer.

52. What's your dream car? Volkswagen Kombi

53. What's worth spending more on to get the best? Tough one... Concert tickets if it’s a once in a life-time opportunity, something that would make you happy and satisfied if you can keep it and, in my personal opinion, plane tickets to Seoul, South Korea.

54. What is something a ton of people are obsessed with, but you just don't get? Getting a lot of money and quick. I can’t understand why everyone wants so much money but then don’t pay attention to their loved ones and end up damaging their health for money and hurt who they love because “they need money”... I can’t understand.

55. What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years? When I get to eat chocolate. hehe ＼(￣▽￣)／

56. Where is the most interesting place you've been? North of Portugal. “Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês” it’s beautiful, it’s big and has a lot of “secret” waterfalls that aren’t marked because they don’t want people to ruin them but they do anyway.

57. What's something you've been meaning to try but haven't gotten around to it? Soy milk and vegetarian food. I’ve drunk chocolate soy milk but not normal soy milk and I’m curious about vegan food.

58. What is the best thing that happened to you last week? BTS tweeted “obrigado” which is Thanks in Portuguese and it really warmed my heart and soul. Also I decided to start warking out and start a new diet and that was pretty cool. Oh yeah I went to this international Tourism fair they do every year in Lisbon and got a bunch of maps from Japan, Taiwan, Cuba I think and some other places. That’s cool.

59. What piece of entertainment do you wish you could erase from your mind, only to experience it for the first time again? Either 3D Movies or Music Festivals.

60. If all jobs had the same pay rate and hours, what job would you want to have? I’d want to be the same thing I’ve always want to be, a writer, a song-writer or maybe a composer or dancer. Even if this jobs had the same pay rate and hours, they require a lot of skill, effort and even luck sometimes, so don’t go around judging jobs by how much your paid, artists deserve a lot.

61. What amazing thing have you done that no one was around to see? I have a weird skill at catching things I drop mid air before they fall or break but I’m not that clumsy around people so...

62. How different was your life 1 year ago? Not that different but it had a lot less pills, a lot less happiness, less music and less determination.

63. What quirks do you have? I have no idea... I really don’t, sorry...

64. What would you rate 10/10? BTS 12/10 STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN HELL YEAH THEY FUCKING RULE REALLY

65. What fad or trend do you think should come back? The way people dressed in the 50s was pretty cool and that hippie trend about peace on hearth and rock’n’roll was also pretty awesome.

66. What is the most interesting piece of art you've seen? I’ve always loved some of Frida Kahlo’s paintings and her story as well (what a hell of a woman) but I love “Composition II en rouge, bleu et jaune“ by Piet Mondrain because it’s so simple and yet it’s one of the most famous paintings in the world.

67. What kind of art do you enjoy most? I enjoy paintings and going to art museums and all that but I’m mostly into photography than any other form of art.

68. What do you hope never changes? Me mostly but also my cats. Imagine them getting even more lazy... how awful...

69. What city would you most like to live in? I haven’t been too far, I’ve only gone to Spain so as far as I’m concerned I only know 0,1% of the world. With this in mind, fuck this I’m moving to either Tokyo, Japan or Seoul, Korea.

70. What movie title best describes your life? I can’t believe this is the hardest question ever... “Into the wild”

71. Why did you decide to do the work you are doing now? I’m not working currently, I’m helping everyone around me for free and for fun.

72. What's the best way a person can spend their time? Doing what they want and love

73. If you suddenly became a master at woodworking, what would you make? A lot of shit, a box at first, then bts stuff, then I’d do diy stuff, then props from sci-fi movies like thos guys on youtube... The sky is the limit...

74. Where is the most relaxing place you've ever been? A waterfall in the middle of nowhere at Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês.

75. What's the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you? I probably don’t remember. I dunno.

76. Where would you rather be from? Korea, Japan or somewhere where respect for each other is kinda important.

77. What are some things you've had to unlearn? Oh boy... How to use Adobe Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver, how to play the piano and read music sheets properly, how to dance ballet and ball dances (I had a few classes when I was younger)... How to properly take a picture, how to capture an event by filming and photograping it, you get me... a lot of shit...

78. What do you look forward to in the next 6 months? Peace, quiet and the results of my new diet.

79. What website do you visit most often? Youtube and Tumblr.

80. What one thing do you really want but can't afford? I’d say travel but I’d really like to strart some kind of project alone like selling my own art or do youtube or something like that but I’m really unsure about everything in life and I don’t have a job so it’s pretty complicated.

81. Where do you usually go when you have free time? Bed.

82. Where would you spend all your time if you could? Bed.

83. What's special about the place you grew up? I don’t have one place I grew up in because I was always going from my grandmas house back to my parents house and back to my grandmas house so...

84. What age do you want to live to? I'll die when I die, dude.

85. What are you most likely to become famous for? Jesus, dunno... being a bitch? I’m my best friends photographer, I do a lot of editing, I play guitar with an orchestra and I write a lot of shit so... I don’t even know.

86. What are you absolutely determined to do? Oh boy, am I determined to breathe!

87. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Disappoint people? I’m not impressive.

88. What do you wish you knew more about? Again, I want to know more about other cultures and I want to try and understand them all.

89. What question would you most like to know the answer to? Is my anxiety going to disappear.

90. What question can you ask to find out the most about a person? I usually ask if they put the cereal first or not.

91. When was the last time you changed your opinion or belief about something major? I’m always changing my opinion on a daily basis because I acknowledge that I too make mistakes and I too sometimes am wrong.

92. What's the best compliment you've ever received? Someone told my I can captivate other people with the way I talk and that my company makes them happy, best compliments ever.

93. As the only human left on earth, what would you do? Steal a lot of shit and try to travel as far as I can go without knowing how to fly a plane or drive a boat? (do you drive boats? I don’t even know.)

94. Who inspires you to be better? BTS and my friends. They’re always doing their best all the time.

95. What do you want your epitaph to be? brb.

96. What haven't you grown out of? My parents’ house.

97. In what situation or place would you feel most out of place in? In public alone or when people are talking about something I don’t know or like.

98. What's the dumbest thing you've done that actually turned out pretty well? I went to Porto to meet someone, it’s about 3 to 4 hours driving depending on how you drive and that person was too busy to meet me so I got to know the city and I loved it. Best weekend ever and didn’t even care about that person.

99. If someone wrote a book on an event in your life, what would the book be about? Some weird ass shit, let me tell ya.

100. What's something you will never do again? A lot of stupid shit.

101. How do you hope you'll change as a person in the future? I hope I change for the better but I’ll definitely get thinner and healthier.

102. What keeps you up at night? Netflix.

103. What's the most surprising self-realization you've had? That all I need in order to get better is myself and that I don’t like and I don’t feel the need to have a person close to me as in more than friends as in relationships as in I don’t like people getting too close and it’s not a problem to me so... yeah.

104. What is the most illegal thing you've ever done? Smoke weed? Smoke some kind of other drugs? Drinking underage at 8am in a public space near a school? I think I stole something once... can’t remember. I went through a weird phase.

105. How do you get in the way of your own success? By thinking I can’t do it by myself.

106. What are you afraid people see when they look at you? My fears, my anxiety, my craziness and everything bad in me.

107. What is your biggest regret? Starting this no sweets diet.

108. What do you look down on people for? Being ignorant as in doing something bad and not caring about it or as in being racist or homophobic or as in offending someone and not caring about them. disrespectful people are the worse.

109. What bridges do you not regret burning? Let them burn. All of them. No regrets.

110. What lie do you tell most often? I’m fine. Everything’s fine.

111. What would be your spirit animal? A Sloth or an Elephant. Both of them are pretty cool once you learn about them.

112. What is the best & worst thing about getting older? The best is doing what you want and the worst is the responsibilities they just drop on you on your 18th birthday like you know everything now.

113. What are you most likely very wrong about? About how cool and nice Japan seems, it sounds too good to be true. People actually wait for other people to exit the train before entering?? that can’t exist...

114. If you had a personal flag, what would be on it? Nothing because I’m too lazy to design it.

115. What's happened that changed your view on the world? Life and anxiety happened and fucked me up. And this shitty teacher was an asshole as well.

116. What is the biggest lesson you've learned? If a teacher fails 24 out of 25 students, the teacher has a serious problem.

117. What is the most immature thing you do? I pout and whine a lot and I hide my hands on my hoodie sleeves and then hide my face, that’s very child like.

118. What are you famous for among your friends & family? I painted my hair blue once.

119. If your childhood had a smell, what would it be? Various flowers blended together.

120. What one responsibility do you wish you didn't have? I hate that I’m the one cleaning and cooking and all of that and that I’m the one my dad comes to talk about the problems he has with my mom. He screams a lot about it, I end up just nodding my head for an hour straight and I hate that it feels like a responsibility to hear his problems.

121. What are 3 things you want to accomplish before you die? All I want is to feel happy, no anything, just whatever makes me happy.

122. What do you want to tell your 10-year-old self? Do not steal your friend’s Barbie’s clothes even if she’s a bitch and she didn’t invite you to her birthday party.

123. What's the best thing you got from your parents? Everything I own except my life.

124. What's the best thing about you? Dunno, I help anyone that needs help without asking for anything back.

125. What blows your mind? BTS and how strong they are.

126. Have you ever saved someone's life? I kinda did since me and my friends are all some depressed little shits and I’ve met a lot of people who had a lot of problems and thought about suicide a lot and we are all still little living shits, I guess you could say we all saved ourselves.

127. What are you really good at but embarrassed to be good at? Doing extremely explicit research for writing certain things about certain types of people... I’m good at finding stuff...

128. What would a mirror opposite of you look like? A short man with really dark skin, long hair, an athletic body, confident and pretty dumb I guess.

129. What are 3 interesting facts about you? I love every single animal in the world, all of them. I love reading not only romances but also poetry, I own a book about the history of haikus and Matsuo Bashô who kind of created them I guess. And, even though I hate spiders and other bugs, I refuse to kill them or harm them except the occasional spider I vacuum when I clean the house.

130. Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have one on my leg I got when I was younger while trying to iron a skirt that my dad refused to let me use so I told him I didn’t need him for anything and did it myself and somehow ended up touching the side of the iron on my leg and hurting myself.

131. What's the title of the current chapter in your life? “This should’ve never been written”

132. What were some of the biggest turning points in your life? When I decided to start seeing a psychologist.

133. What's the hardest lesson you've learned? Rather their family or friends, people are people and they will disappear eventually. Either voluntarily or not.

134. What do people think is weird about you? I’m 100% weird. There’s nothing that isn’t weird about me.

135. What mistake do you keep making? Trusting people.

136. What have you created that you're most proud of? A few videos, a few photos, a few drawings... I’ve done a few things now that I think about it. Good question.

137. What do you doubt? Myself.

138. What are some of your morals? I like to respect everyone even if they don’t respect me or if they have different opinions from mine. I like to be respectful to older people the most because where I was raised everyone who is an adult would take care of you. That’s not the case any more though.

139. What do you want to be remembered for? Being nice, helpful and weird.

140. What do you regret not doing in your childhood years? Having fun.

141. What is your favorite fragrance? I like sweet smells like strawberry and roses.

142. What do you think your last words will be? ups.

143. Who or what do you take for granted? My family most likely and my best friend.

144. Why would you be annoying as a roommate? I listen to music loudly, I sing all the fucking time and I’d prank my roommate every week.

145. What is something you're insecure about? Is this a trick question?

146. What's the best & worst piece of advice you've received? Once my uncle gave me a potato for my birthday and I, as the 5 year old child I was, cried my heart out. After I stopped crying, my uncle sat me down and told him that I shouldn’t judge his gift so harshly. He told me he’d plant that potato and grew it just to give it to me for my birthday. He taught me to never judge anything that is given to me because I’ll never know how hard the person who gave me the present worked to give it to me and that I should accept everything as long as it is given to me with love and care. Afterwards he gave me a radio and it stopped working a few years ago but I still have it. Since then I’ve always hated when people gave me anything stupid and without any care or love put into it, like socks on Christmas. The worst one was when someone told me to just relax and to not be so stiff and I stopped studying and dedicated my life to drugs, alchool and stupidity. Way to go, dude.

147. What irrational fears do you have? The fear that people are always staring at me no matter what. If I go out in public I will feel like everyone is staring right at me, judging me.

148. What makes a good life? Happiness.

149. What's the last adventure you went on? There was this event last week that seemed like a fucking journey. It was a tourism thing and there were so many people from so many countries showing their culture. It was pretty neat. I also went alone to an appointment I had with a specialist to help me with my diet and that, for someone with anxiety, was an adventure and a half.

150. What is the most memorable gift you've received? A potato. Since that day I’ve always hate receiving gifts.