#and i would win because i hate him that much

[camficdiner]

Best server ever can I get [1.1], [2.6] (older man x younger woman), [3.6], [4.2]. And a vision of the reader’s brother being bsfs with Jack. 💞

☕️ Cams Fic Diner – Order 075

🍒 Thank you for this deliciously forbidden prompt — I had so much fun sinking into the tension, the quiet snobbery, and Jack’s slow spiral into obsession. Your request brought this dynamic to life in the filthiest, softest way. Hope it hits all the right nerves.

💬 "Ghost"

✨ description and prompts

• Character: Jack Hughes x reader

• Prompt: You patch up his injury, then he asks you to stay the night

• Type: Age gap • best friend’s little sister

• WC: 1.9k

✨🍒🛼🧁

You’d met Jack Hughes more times than you could count.

Game nights. Birthday parties. Post-win dinners where the whole team piled into your apartment like frat boys with sticks. You were Jesper Bratt’s younger sister, after all. His baby sister. The one who studied medicine, who kept her head down, who rolled her eyes when someone shouted “Puck slut!” across the hallway of Prudential Center and you didn’t even blink.

You’d been around hockey guys your entire life.

And you didn’t trust a single one of them.

Least of all Jack.

Too charming. Too cocky. Too used to getting what he wanted.

But tonight, he was bleeding.

Literally.

There was a gash running across his ribs, just under his left arm — a clean slice from a blade in a scramble behind the net. Jesper brought him in, arm slung over his shoulder, and you’d barely looked up from your tablet when you heard the front door slam.

“lil sis, please. Just help him. The team’s med crew is tied up with Nico and—”

“I got it,” you said flatly.

He stood shirtless in the kitchen, eyes narrowed as you disinfected the wound.

“You’re good at this,” he muttered.

You didn’t look up. “I’m literally in med school.”

He smirked.

You finished stitching, wordless, then pulled off the gloves.

“I’m done. I’m going home.”

Jesper came back from the hallway just in time to hear you grab your keys.

Jack was the one who stopped you.

“Wait,” he said, stepping between you and the door. He was still shirtless. Still bleeding a little at the edge of the bandage. “Come with me.”

You blinked. “What?”

“Come home with me.”

You stared at him. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

He didn’t miss a beat.

“Because you’re the only one in this whole circle who doesn’t try to impress me. You don’t talk to me. You don’t flirt. You don’t even smile. You’re like a ghost at every team dinner — always watching, never participating.”

You opened your mouth, then closed it again.

“You’re cold,” he added, voice low. “And sharp. And somehow the only person who makes me feel like I don’t already know the ending.”

You hated how still you went. How warm you felt all of a sudden.

“I want to see what happens when you stop hiding,” he finished.

You let out a laugh — short, breathless.

“…Drive.”

The second the car doors shut, it shifted.

The quiet wasn’t tense. It was loaded.

You sat in the passenger seat, legs crossed, lips parted, heart hammering. Jack looked over at you only once at the red light — and when he did, his eyes dropped straight to your thighs.

“You should tell me to stop,” he said, low.

You didn’t.

You didn’t say anything.

You just turned toward him, pulled the hair elastic from your wrist, and twisted your hair up into a messy knot like you’d done a thousand times in the hospital — practical, clean, ready.

Jack groaned. “Fuck.”

He pulled over.

Didn’t even wait for the engine to cool before he was leaning across the center console, grabbing your jaw, pulling your mouth to his.

You kissed like a dare — hands sliding into his hair, your chest pressed to his, the gear shift digging into your side as his tongue slid past your lips.

“I’ve thought about this so many fucking times,” he murmured. “You don’t even look at me, and I’m losing my mind.”

You gasped as his hand slipped under your skirt, up your thigh, knuckles rough and warm.

“Don’t pretend you haven’t thought about it,” he growled.

Your only answer was a whimper when he pulled you into his lap, your knees straddling his thighs, your head pressed against the roof of the car.

“Fuck, you’re gonna break me,” he whispered.

You rolled your hips down, feeling the hard line of him through his jeans, and that’s when it snapped.

The composure. The patience. The “I’m Jesper’s best friend” guilt.

He unzipped his jeans, not bothering to fully push them down, and dragged your panties to the side.

“You’re sure?” he said, eyes burning.

You nodded.

That was all he needed.

He slid into you slow, and then hard — deep, full, unrelenting. The car rocked slightly with every thrust. His fingers gripped your hips, forcing you down to meet him, again and again.

“Jesus,” he groaned. “You feel too good. You feel too fucking good.”

You buried your face in his neck, moaning shamelessly.

His hand slid up your back, grabbing your throat lightly, angling your face toward his.

“You gonna stop hiding now?” he rasped. “You gonna let me see you for real?”

You whimpered his name.

His mouth crushed yours.

The windows fogged. Your skirt was hiked to your waist. You rode him until your thighs shook and your breath broke and he cursed against your skin, biting your shoulder as he came.

You collapsed against him, both of you panting in the thick, humid silence.

“You’re gonna ruin me,” he said quietly.

You lifted your head, hair messy, lips swollen.

“Then don’t make me regret it.”

-----

The morning after, your phone had three unread messages from Jesper and a mild ache between your legs that made you flinch when you moved. Jack had pulled into that empty overlook like a man possessed, fucked you in the dark with one hand still on the steering wheel, and didn’t even pretend to be sorry about it.

You hadn’t seen him since — which was fine.

Totally fine.

You’d both agreed, right? Just heat. Just the weird pull between two people who shouldn’t care this much.

Except now it was two days later and you were sitting in his passenger seat again. Heading to his place. And something in you had snapped.

He looked too good like that — hair still damp from practice, hoodie half-zipped, knuckles red from the last game, one hand on the wheel, the other flexing over the gearshift like he was itching to touch you.

“You’re quiet,” he said, voice low.

You didn’t answer.

You just undid your seatbelt, shifted sideways, and leaned over the console.

“What are you—”

You unzipped him.

Jack’s breath hitched. “Baby—fuck—”

“You keep calling me a ghost,” you murmured, kissing the line where his hip met his thigh, “but this feel real enough to you?”

His hand flew to your hair the second your lips wrapped around him. He nearly jerked the car to the side.

“Jesus—okay—fuck—” he groaned, hips twitching, jaw slack. “You’re gonna make me crash—”

You didn’t stop. You sucked him down slow, then deep, then even deeper, until he was gripping the wheel with white knuckles, sweat beading at his temple. You loved how he fell apart — all those cocky smirks gone, reduced to nothing but gasps and curses and the way he choked out your name like it was a prayer.

When he came, it was with a broken groan, head thrown back, one hand in your hair, the other still somehow keeping the car on the road.

“Holy shit,” he muttered, tucking himself back in as you wiped your mouth and sat up. “You tryna kill me or—?”

You kissed his cheek, then pulled your seatbelt back on.

“Drive, Hughes.”

—

The aftermath was quieter.

You were curled up on his couch, hoodie-swaddled, legs over his lap, flipping channels without watching anything. Jack hadn’t stopped touching you all evening — palm on your thigh, fingers in your hair, kisses to the curve of your neck like he couldn’t help himself.

“This isn’t just sex for me,” he said suddenly.

You looked over, heart thudding.

“Don’t panic,” he added with a grin. “Just—felt like saying it.”

You didn’t answer. But you didn’t move away either.

—

And then… Jesper found out.

You didn’t mean for it to happen like that — definitely not in the kitchen, half-dressed, making out on the counter while Jack’s shirt was still halfway off. But he had a key. And zero boundaries.

The door opened.

Jesper stepped in.

Jack froze, mouth still on your neck.

You shoved Jack away, stumbling for your jacket.

Jesper blinked. Then stared. Then said, calmly:

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“Bratt—”

“No, no. You’re telling me this’s why you’ve been disappearing after games? For my sister?”

Jack stood up straighter. “I didn’t plan it. But I’m not sorry.”

Jesper scoffed, turning to you. “And you—what the hell were you thinking?”

You swallowed. “I wasn’t.”

“Yeah, clearly.”

Jack stepped in, voice low but sure. “You don’t have to like it. But I’m not backing off. I’ve wanted her for months, and I’m not pretending I don’t anymore.”

Jesper stared at the two of you. Then sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and muttered, “If you break her heart, I’ll break your face.”

“Fair,” Jack said.

You looked between them — your brother, your… whatever Jack was.

And for the first time in days, you smiled.

—

[respectthepetty]

Red Rascal Keen is obviously mad at Blue Boy Thun for not mentioning his shitty father was Pakorn as he continued to place barriers between himself and Thun in episode eight of Knock Out, but he still loves that Blue Boy which is apparent since he is right in front of the blue curtain.

But how could he hate such a face when that face belongs to such a sweet guy like Thun? He can't! Because they are better together.

And there are bigger issues at hand like the blue hydrangeas from last episode now being purple in this episode. I mean . . . like Thun and Keen's room being destroyed.

And that little pin that Pakorn wears, which was found out Mauy's crime scene, ALSO being on the baddies coming to collect money on behalf of Sia Thep.

So despite it all, I still didn't believe this purple motherfucker was a bad guy!

Because that means the boys couldn't win either way. If Pakorn paid for anything, they would be screwed, but having Phuwit pay for everything also means they are screwed. (I'm so mad he is in purple!)

The system was always rigged against them, which is why they have to stand together! (Keen, you listening?!)

This is why I thought it was pivotal that they forgave Ait. I'm not solely blinded by Guide's beauty when I write this, but even when doing bad, he is blue. He needs the community and the community needs him.

So I'm happy the coach was the first one to hug him and tell him that he understands why he did what he did.

And I appreciated that Keen is at his reddest here because neither him nor Thun made a move to hug Ait. He still poisoned his boyfriend, so they won't be alright with him as quickly as the others.

But more than anything, I loved this moment in the episode where there was still a barrier between Ait and Mawin with the heart monitor next to them.

Because I feel like the real issue has always been how much Ait is willing to do and sacrifice for his sister even though Mawin is right there willing to help.

So I'm glad that Mawin was the first to cross the barrier.

And tell Ait that he is still in this with him while they were in front of the pink wall.

So they ended the conversation on the same side and assuring each other that they love each other with the heart monitor right next to them showing them they are still alive and well.

Which brings me back to this purple bastard.

As soon as he bought the gym, his red immediately began to show with him stating the fighters would be participating in a competition without actually speaking to them about it.

To my disappoint, Keen, who was relieved by the sale, was orange instead of his fiery red which means that even though he was suspicious of the fight, he wasn't hellbent to see what was up the way he normally is.

Then Pakorn (IN BLUE?!!!!) decided instead of being a good guy for fucking once, he would continue being the absolute worst person and challenge HIS SON to a damn fight.

I thought this was going to happen in my previous episode write-up based on Pakorn's red gloves and also because there has always been a red barrier between Pakorn and Thun.

But I truly thought Thun would hate Pakorn enough to knock his ass out!.

But instead our sweet Blue Boy is knocked out cold.

And Keen is left wearing both of the colors.

So now my only question is which one of these cabrones is dying first?

Asking for a friend who is tied up at the moment.

I am sooooo fucking pissed!

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

medialog june 2k25

books

ok first of all to address the element in the room: i have not in fact finished moby dick lmao. however i’m more than halfway through and very comfortable reporting that it’s one of the most brain-meltingly incredible books ever written. anyway moving on to: The Month All My Libby Holds Came In Despite Looking Like It Was Going To Be Spaced Out A Lot More, Oops, Listening And Learning For The Future

jake bernstein, the laundromat: inside the panama papers investigation of illicit networks and the global elite - kind of dry if you, like me, are a money idiot and have a lot of trouble keeping track of or feeling like you truly understand financial crimes even when people are laying them out in very clear detail… however i feel like i have the important ideas down of what the panama papers even were now, which was not the case before i read this book! also i did find it picked up once it started getting into the investigative element of how this all became public, which ultimately wound up involving an unprecedented level of cross-border journalistic cooperation, which was very cool to read about. also one thing the book doesn’t really delve into but that i was left wondering about was the extent to which tax haven countries are often extremely small countries that don’t have much going on economy-wise… there was one example of a place that only changed its laws after new zealand agreed to just give it the money it would lose from the end of the industry, because it made up such a huge part of its budget.

sarah wynn-williams, careless people: a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism - wynn-williams chooses an opening anecdote that makes her seem unbelievably annoying and unsympathetic, and not in a way where it feels self-aware — like the vibe is very much that she thought this would be a fun hook to introduce us to the sheer bizarreness of her time at facebook, but the story involves her trying to swap zuck’s assigned seat at some international function with the spots of various ACTUAL PRESIDENTS of less important (“less important”) countries, so it’s like, well everyone sucks here… she should have just led with the anecdote about being mauled by a shark as a child and almost dying because her parents thought she was just being a baby about post-shark-attack pain, which i’m not sure is doing the explanatory work she wants it to be doing but which i can’t blame her for including because if that happened to me i too would put it in my book just because. anyway i’m not sure she’s the most reliable narrator and i think this review about what’s not in the book is an important companion, but tbh i read this for tech gossip about terrible people and i got sheryl sandberg lying on facebook about almost being in a plane that crashed and the fact that facebook employees let mark win at settlers of catan so often that when someone beats him he accuses them of cheating so… can’t really complain. most of the inner workings of facebook stuff is either already public knowledge (but still upsetting - i knew about their shit with targeting ads to teens who expressed sad feelings but it still almost hurt my stomach to read about) or easily inferred from everything we know about the company culture of Every Tech Company On Earth, but reading it all at length does really hammer home just how evil this company is, especially the chapter on myanmar, which does contain what i believe are some new revelations (such as the fact despite myanmar being the only company that really picked up facebook’s “let us help you get the internet” offer, the company had one burmese speaker doing content moderation for ages, and oh, by the way, for years the official facebook app was never available for download in myanmar, making reporting hateful content… literally impossible???). it’s also very clear from the book that mark zuckerberg is not only evil but also a huge embarrassing loser and thus i feel that the streisand effecting of this very book is a net positive if only because he definitely cares, like, a lot.

beverly gage, g-man: j. edgar hoover and the making of the american century - i wanted to read this because hoover had come up in killers of the flower moon and seemed like such a weirdo i desperately needed to know more, and, 700+ pages later, i do! this book is very much a biography, concerned with tracking hoover’s actions and motivations across his life more than delving deep into analysis or interpretation, but i would say there is a central argument to the overall project, and it’s an important one: that the (mostly late-in-life or posthumous) villainization of hoover, personally, as a machiavellian schemer of unique evil or harm elides the fact that the vast majority of what hoover did, he did at the behest of or with the knowledge of the eight presidents he served under and/or others in positions of federal power, and painting hoover as the mustache-twirler in the shadows essentially lets the US government off the hook. gage sets this argument out in the introduction, returns to it consistently, and builds a compelling case for it, ranging from the fact that FDR was the first person to ask hoover to look into rumors of government homosexuality around a federal official to the fact that bobby kennedy straight-up lied about whether he’d okayed the MLK wiretaps when the FBI had his signature on the forms. hoover was involved with SO much shit that at one point i told @rgr-pop this book was like evil forrest gump, which means that anything you’re more than passingly familiar with will probably feel somewhat glossed over or ignored, but when i thought about the things i happened to know more about than appeared in the book, i felt like the key Insight Into Hoover that those episodes provided ultimately came through somewhere else in the book. the breadth of it was also sort of nice for me as a lapsed history lover back in my books era, because it wound up providing kind of a useful refresher on many major twentieth century developments. also, i might make a post at some point just listing stuff that’s stuck with me or that i want to remember or found interesting or funny or whatever, but i case i don’t, i DO want you all to know that YES, hoover was… SUPER gay. canon gay homophobe. IRL roy cohn “i am not a homosexual i am a straight man who has sex with other men” vibes. a lot going on there.

matthew hongoltz-hetling, the ghost lab: how bigfoot hunters, mediums, and alien enthusiasts are wrecking science - i read this book after an interview in NYMag’s newsletter + a scan of goodreads reviews suggested there was paranormal community gossip to be had (as in, several reviews were like “too much focus on the interpersonal issues of these people he’s interviewing”), and on that front it delivered, tracing the rise and fall of a would-be research center for paranormal phenomena formed by a motley crew of wounded and curious denizens of new hampshire. i love to read about both paranormal phenomena, from the stuff that scans to me as Inherently Wacky to the stories that give a little thrill of “wow, that sure is one spooky coincidence… i mean… what if…???” and this book contains plenty of both, plus a lot of drama about what brought these people together and how their internecine resentments and opposing worldviews drove them apart. fun stuff. however i found all of hongoltz-hetling’s analysis about What This All Means For Society to be really QUITE bad. his argument, such as i could track it, sort of rests on the idea that paranormal beliefs are both a consequence and a driver of falling institutional trust and increasing importance being given to the individual. you may already spot some problems here such as “what institutions are we talking about here exactly?” - a problem the book does not resolve, as sometimes “institutions” means, like, church and science, two options for e.g. answers to questions about death and its aftermath, but sometimes it’s used more or less interchangeably with “evidence-based” which… lol? like i don’t really understand how a person could have lived through the creationism wars and write this book. (also the idea of the individual experience taking primacy over institutional knowledge is one with ummmm some history of consequence in the history of christianity… lol?) he refuuuuuuses to engage with any kind of context that doesn’t align with his thesis - like, he talks about the shuttering of mcintosh college, part of new hampshire’s public university system, but mentions only in passing, to dismiss as insufficiently explanatory, the fact that perhaps some non-“trust” based reasons had to do with the tanking enrollment of a college in 2009, such as the fact that the university had been purchased a decade earlier by a for-profit group, or the fact of ummm everything else happening in 2009 lol. he also mentions a decline in law school enrollment as an example of institutional decline which made me laugh because i remember like a decade ago if not longer reading blogosphere-era posts about how law schools were graduating more lawyers than there were law jobs, to a life-ruining degree for the unlucky many who couldn’t find work in the field… the school stuff annoyed me in particular because it was so reflective of the general incoherence that plagues ed discourse, but also the law school thing is indicative of another weird omission he mentions only briefly, which is the idea that trust in certain reasons may be down for like… rational reasons lol. like he cites a study about decline in government trust happening from 2001 to 2021… ok… can we think of aaaaanything that happened in those two decades that may have caused this other than “people value the individual experience too much”? like… be serious. he also basically doesn’t talk about the internet AT ALL, either as a force for turning paranormal believers into paranormal communities or as an engine for disseminating distrust both through misinformation and through a wider reach of facts that make it reasonable to distrust e.g. the federal government… he includes reincarnation as an example of a fringe paranormal belief despite the fact that it is in fact an institutional tenet of several major world religions… unserious. quite unserious. but reading about their little exorcisms and personality conflicts was fun.

movies

problemista - rewatched this with a friend, this movie makes me feel more alive than almost anything and is still so funny even my third time seeing it

glengarry glen ross - this movie is funny and looks great and features a lot of great actors doing great work and also the last 15 minutes or so will make your stomach hurt soooooo bad. al pacino really might be the most engrossing film actor of all time, i could truly watch him do anything and be entranced.

captain america: brave new world - at one point in this movie sam wilson says out loud "mind control. he created a technology that allowed him to control the minds of anyone he targeted" and i've been laughing about that all month. mind control: he found a way to control minds. incredible. the rest of the screenplay is about that bad but unfortunately not that unintentionally funny; this really is the least one of these movies has ever been a movie. sebstan innocent ofc but man i can't believe they dragged tim blake nelson into this

mountainhead - jesse armstrong’s first post-succession work has not been well received because everyone is over jokes about how comically, hyperbolically evil and stupid tech bros are, but i’m not and i had fun! on letterboxd i compared this to the luke combs fast car, in that it’s obviously not a transcendently powerful work of art the way the original/succession is, but, you know, you’re not always in the mood for art that makes you want to kill yourself. would maybe have liked to see someone else in the jason schwartzman role… he was a little go girl give us nothing for me

pee wee as himself - this is pretty whatever As A Piece Of Documentary Filmmaking and i feel like the filmmaker thought his tension with paul reubens’s control issues would be more interesting to the viewer than it actually was, but reubens is a really great person to spend some time hanging out with even if you were never a pee-wee person, especially if you like (1) art talk (2) gay stuff.

dark waters - really underrated/slept on paperwork movie that will make you want to burn dupont HQ to the fucking ground. something about this one even more than other exemplars in the investigative documents movie genre (erin brokovich, the insider) really brings home the pain and rage at the heart of a story like this… i feel like a lot of credit goes to director todd haynes for turning a quite competent but pretty standard into a movie that just vibrates with a kind of suffocating dis-ease. slight points docked for wasting anne hathaway in the absolute most Wife Role of all time but this one really moved me, much more than i expected at the start or even by the middle of the movie. also looks fucking great to my idiot eye - just enough interesting visual choices to make you notice, without ever feeling showy - lots of great colors, often in the shadows…

in the spirit - this is an almost never seen indie movie by elaine may’s daughter jeannie berlin (probably best known on tumblr as succession’s cyd peach), starring may and marlo thomas as a cynical socialite and a daffy new ager who wind up on the run from the mob. it’s not a lost gem the way may’s own the heartbreak kid is (which features berlin - if you ever have a chance to catch a screening of this movie you MUST go) but there were some real good laughs, although none of them quite reached the level of the moment in the Q&A where elaine may, a ninety-three year old jewish woman, told, and i mean this, the funniest holocaust joke i have ever heard. inspirational, honestly

in the loop - do you like veep and/or succession and/or politics jokes and/or C-list character actors? then you will like this movie. if you like all four of them, like i do, you will like it very much!

lady vengeance - not as deliriously fun and spellbindingly entertaining as the handmaiden, but (a) what is and (b) i found myself really, really stunned by it by the end… it almost feels like a movie that decided to take on the challenge of using a familiar set up - a woman, newly released from jail, plots to take her revenge - and then fucking it up as much as possible while still telling that story. despite, at core, resting on one of the oldest and tropiest of old tropes, i felt like i never had any idea where this story was actually going - it kept startling me, but never because of a “twist” or for shock value… just because, well, wait, that’s not usually how this part goes… i’m not explaining this well. it’s a powerful movie - and while it’s darker and heavier and more disturbing than the handmaiden, it is fun - sometimes even funny - and absolutely gooorgeous to look at, with an incredible aesthetic sensibility

in the mood for love - this movie comes up a lot as one of the best movies of all time and… well… it is! what really struck me watching it and reflecting on it was something i wasn’t necessarily expecting, which is that it captures a visceral sense of urban living better than almost anything else i’ve seen — this movie feels so crowded, always, everybody living cheek-by-jowl, which really works for a movie that is in part about the paradox of feeling deeply lonely but never being able to be truly alone… really beautifully rich to look at, and speaking of beautiful, you would be hard pressed to find a better-looking leading pair than tony leung and maggie cheung, who together do some of the best Eyes Acting i’ve ever seen… i thought about both edith wharton’s the house of mirth (for oppressive social mores) and portrait of a lady on fire (for a love story that can’t matter but still matters) while watching this, which, if you know anything about me, tells you i was really in.

the people's joker - this is a queer/trans coming-of-age story using the world of batman stories as a vehicle to talk about gender, toxic relationships, and the scariest villain of all: lorne michaels. very tumblrcore movie, which is at times a weakness (i didn't mind the checklist of toxic romantic traits but the callback later literally phrased as "remember, kids: this isn't romantic!" was a little over the line for me personally) but is also the source of much of the movie's ample delights, both in terms of its wild swerving ambition and in terms of its sense of humor. this is clearly a movie made for ten dollars by a bunch of weird little freaks with a real vision and sensibility, and it always feels good watching something like that be made real, especially when there are also good jokes; if i say that i want writer/director/star vera drake to be just a little less online (not that much! which is saying a lot because this movie is pretty fucking online and for the most part it strikes the balance well!), it's because her aesthetic and formal creativity and inventiveness is so clear and so cool and i just want to be able to vibe the whole time with that instead of noticing the moments where it feels like she let a twitterbot take over. (a good reminder for many of us tbh.) i think she's mostly a comedian and it seems like this movie happened somewhat unexpectedly, but i really would love to see another movie from her.

other

gypsy - the ads outside the theater called this the greatest american musical which is a bold claim but honestly… maybe valid. which is not to say that it’s my new favorite, or that the music is something i’ll have on repeat very often just as a matter of personal taste… but there are zero bad songs in this show and it’s about as impeccably structured a piece of musical drama as i’ve ever seen. like, it’s a contender for greatest american musical in the sense that’s made by people who have a perfect understanding of what this strange hybrid form is, what its strengths are, and how to wield them to maximize how effectively you’re telling your story. it was also at time genuinely really disturbing to watch after reading jennette mccurdy’s memoir, which is a compliment about how well it understands the psychology of the stage mom (although this artifact of my reading history did make the ending a little more challenging to appreciate lol). i thought the production was pretty great and audra mcdonald did some of the best musical theater acting i’ve ever seen, so much so that you understand why they accepted the inevitable vocal struggles of casting a soprano in a role made famous by ethel merman (close personal friend, i am not making this up, of j. edgar hoover)

atoms for war and peace @ poster house - extremely cool exhibition of nuclear propaganda (pro and anti) plus some classic nuclear kitsch (one of the blurbs made a reference to “the house in the middle,” which delighted me). we went for this because of me and the way i am but lucked out that it coincided with exhibitions of a set of cute subway cartoons & a cool puerto rican poster artist, plus a set of gig posters… strong rec if you’re in nyc! poster house is free on fridays or the third sunday of the month!

DSA fundraiser comedy show - went to this because a friend suggested it when we were making plans and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually funny! i think that’s a first for me and stand-up in NYC lmao. one point for the socialists! NO thanks to the absolutely horrendous audience member who wasn’t exactly a heckler but like just thought he was in conversation with everyone on stage even though the hosts told him to stop doing that in their intro and even though he got called out by two separate comics later on AND ALSO he was dead center in the middle of the room on his phone with the screen brightness cranked up to jesus the entire time. one of the most astounding displays i’ve ever seen by a person who just wants the world to know “hey: i have a terrible, terrible personality.” but like i said the comics were pretty good. special shout out because it’s technically still pride month to the lesbian comic with two moms who had a very cute riff about how growing up with two moms was hard because she never knew if she was being a rebellious teenager or just homophobic 😂😂😂

music

kind of regret singling out sorry mom’s “youngstown” earlier this year because my song of the month was absolutely the closing track of their new EP, which fills me with the kind of wistful ebullience (ebullient wistfulness?) that guarantees a spot on my forever faves list:

but in the interest of diversity, here’s a bonus song rec in the form of the poppiest, catchiest track from the yeule album, which has led to many intra-household texts reading simply “dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu”:

katy rose, fully alive - this just didn’t sound very good unfortunately

julia wolf, PRESSURE - this actually sounded ok and i got excited during the first couple upbeat tracks but it did not sustain my interest

beach bunny, tunnel vision - remember in may when i kept listening to stuff and being like “this is ok but why isn’t it the 2015 chumped album teenage retirement”? it turns out i should have just been listening to this - sturdy female-fronted power-pop with decent hooks and a lead vocalist with just enough frailty in her overall clear voice to make it all feel nicely human.

yeule, evangelic girl is a gun - you may know yeule as the artist responsible for the anthems for a 17-year-old girl cover in i saw the TV glow, but it turns out they are also very good at their own songs, which have an ambient off-kilterness but are clearly made by someone with an ear for a pop likability. i also like that they have publicly claimed avril lavigne as an influence because i literally think all the time about how whatever you think of her it just is a matter of undeniable fact at this point that let go (2002) changed the game forever…

sorry mom, bummer! - my favorite scrappy punk act put out a four-song all-killer no-filler EP that brings down the volume, tempo, and vibe for something moodier and more indie-inflected than their previous work, and i loooooooove it, one of my favorite things i’ve heard all year - grabbed me emotionally instantly in a way that took me off guard even given my previously established fandom. i just really love their ear for melodies and juno’s husky-sweet voice, and the way that they’re continuing to explore the sonic ambition they first explored with last year’s "but i’m a quarterback…" the opening track of this one builds instrumentally in a really cool way and the closer is, as mentioned above, already one of my favorite tracks of the year.

lorde, virgin - i don’t know, guys. i was really worried the album would be bad, because i didn’t hate any of the singles but i didn’t LOVE any of them either, and i sensed certain dangers lurking re: the refusal to smash, but i was like, well maybe it’s a conceptual thing and they’ll make more sense as part of a capital-p Project, everyone knows lorde is an albums artist… and they do, and she is, and my first listen was really colored by relief that the album wasn’t bad… but… i don’t know. there’s just something… not quite there. i don’t think any of the songs are bad, and i like some of them quite a bit (“shapeshifter” the definite stand-out for me). there are moments, listening to the album, where i’m like, wow this is great. but… not that even. kind of fleetingly. i keep waiting for her to kick it to 11, and she just… won’t. and maybe this is on purpose — that’s certainly what i assumed when “what was that” came out, that it was a song about a kind of inner wrestling and so she decided to avoid the catharsis of something like “green light” — and… you know… maybe she decided to do that for the whole album. but… if she did, then that’s two albums in a row where she’s like, “i am deliberately leaving out the parts of music that are fun to listen to.” which… follow your truth… but… i like it when music is fun. and then, also… it doesn’t actually sound like an album that is deliberately un-fun and confrontational, either? there’s nothing on this album as abrasive as, say, brat’s “club classics,” or as just fucking weird as many of the tracks on kesha’s gag order… but there’s also nothing as catchy as “360,” or as viscerally affecting as “eat the acid.” the balance of lorde’s pop girl status and weird girl instincts, which has always been the source of her power, just feels off. it’s avoiding the crank-it-to-eleven power of pop (or even, mostly, the… fun hooks to listen to… part of pop…), but it’s not replacing it with something really out there or bold… just with like… more synthpop. and that synthpop is like… i dunno. like i listen to it and i’m like “oh i like this musical idea”... but none of it really digs in or makes me go crazy, you know? so… maybe the production is bad? it can’t convey the rawness, grossness, power, etc. lorde clearly wants the album to hold… idk. i feel like i want her to either start a band to get some actual sounds in there or hook up with someone in the hyperpop world. pick a lane!!! we’ll see if i turn around on it (i do like "shapeshifter" a lot and i listened to it while writing this because hammer was stuck in my head) but if not see you in four years i guess.

common holly, anything glass - i feel like if i say “the platonic idea of coffeehouse music” that sounds like a diss… but i mean it in a good way!!! this album is really pretty!!!

[death-in-a-handbasket]

Could you maybe write some nsfw headcannons for Andrew my beloved

andrew is a curious character in terms of sex and fuckability, on ao3 he ranks in 5th place out of idv characters with E rated x reader fics, granted, idv x reader is not a huge race to win in, it's a very very sparse category but making the list anyways is still curious, people want to fuck that churchboy bad

my thoughts on him are a little less risqué I fear. he has the set up viability for all sorts of inappropriate religious tags, (incorrect use of a confessional would be a great one in this field, it couples well with the catholic guilt and body worship) as well as a fair contender for much more morbid tags in the field of necro. frankly though, for as much as I am a pervert and a great enjoyer of white boys who kill, andrew reads to me as a man much too preoccupied for the notion of sex

he's got his self worth to ponder and bodies to exhume, he seems like he dedicates more time to brewing animosity towards the world that hates him and trying to plot how to get his corpse quota filled than he would ever dedicate time to jacking off, so when I say this guy is an ultra virgin, I MEAN this guy is an ultra virgin. this is not to say he's naive, no no I will not allow this man to get tossed into the tar pit of innocent baby, he's certainly aware of things but would rather not make eye contact with said things that could potentially sully his soul with sin--or worse--distract him from his purpose. but let's give this universe a spin and see if we can make him fuck, what does it take to get there?

he's pretty null and void when it comes to social skills too as he is incredibly stiff and offputting and holds at least a grain of suspicion and paranoia towards everyone,, so trying to make the claim that he even has passable flirting skills is generous, if not an outright lie

what I'm saying is, you're going to have to make all the moves, because he's doing #noneofthem 🎉 additionally, expect to be turned down a lot too, because once again this churchboy is not engaging in sin and he must stay focused! so you will end up flustering him a lot, maybe even to the point of him getting a little irritated and angry (though he tries to bite it back), after all, the audacity to think someone could sway a man like him into temptation?! scandalous truly

your two options from here are either to slowly (and I MEAN slowly) but surely form an emotional bond with him over several years until he allows you to get saucy with him (because ooooh closeness and intimacy tastes so good when you're deeply in love) OR, you keep harloting towards him until this running bit isn't a bit anymore and he starts becoming haunted by the prospect of getting laid. like shaking in bed awake at night because his brain is haunting him. he finally gets the time and nerve to jack off and feels gross for weeks after because of all that damn sin. both routes ultimately require dedication though cause he's not exactly an easy man to seduce and besides the obvious religious aspect, I think he's a bit scared to fuck and also thinks he's undeserving of the fuck too (after all, why on earth are you attracted to him?? he thinks he's but a meager man of dirt value and unattractive to boot, someone wanting to hit sounds as absurd and impossible to him as him being crowned god. bro's self esteem is in the TRENCHES)

I digress, all this preamble, but the real meat of how this man fucks? he's doing it scared style, he's doing it anxious cornered animal style, he's doing it "oh jesus take the wheel I'm going to hell" style. this man's shame, discomfort with his own body, and lack of experience make him nigh deer in headlights during sex, again, you will in fact have to be making all the moves because he's #doingnoneofthem 🙌 I wouldn't quite classify him as a sub because I don't think he truly yearns to submit to someone, rather I think you have to sort of dom him by default because he doesn't know what he's doing and he might go catatonic if you make him try, I don't think even HE knows how he made it this far. regardless if it's you taking the wheel though or him attempting to lightly take charge after getting some experience in, two things will remain for him: the tendency to hyperventilate because the experience is a rush and he's feeling All Too Much All At Once, and being kind of needy. this man has never had an ounce of loving human touch so once he's over the ridge of panic it kind of devolves into not wanting to let you go, he's STARVED of that closeness

all that said, I don't think he lasts very long and he certainly doesn't fuck hard either, very tentative and shaky and slow. I think giving or receiving head is a bit much for him so I'd imagine he'd object to such things, hand stuff is okay though 👍 he's not really kinky or super into powerplay, I don't imagine he has any outlandish fetishes either. best case scenario in terms of squeezing a little freaky out of him is some light worship stuff, but that really depends heavily on whether you pass his judgement as someone to worship, for an example I think if you took the harlot route this would not apply, BUT harlot route does give you exclusive access to defiling the holy by attempting seduction in the church or graveyard (unlikely to come to fruition though he really has a hard limit on wanting to at least fuck in his own bed)

he's really one of those guys that if you want to fuck him you have to appreciate him for his stiff demeanor and aghast cross clutching at the notion of being diverted from his purpose for the sake of sin, and you must want him without expecting something greater and kinkier. this man is ultimately pretty vanilla I think, more than anything he probably just wants more domestic stuff as an expression of love and his libido isn't really in his life as a pressing thing he craves to the point of needing required satiation, but one can always dream of greener blasphemous pastures 🤌

[drowninnoodles]

Squid Game SPOILER REVIEW

SEASON 3

Okay. I saw on some movie forum opinions that season 3 is a joke and a disappointment so I feel obliged to write my own review because there are too few positive ones.

First of all, I'm fascinated by the hate for the CGI baby because, I don't know, you were expecting a real baby..? Or what.

Besides, the child was probably close to the screen once or twice, come on, even if it was a doll the message would be the same. I may be blind but I for one didn't see anything wrong with it, those few seconds were enough to convince me that it was A BABY. HUMAN ONE.

Okay, but that was a comment about graphics, so maybe I don't know enough to comment on that. I D K.

Another thing is that for the first time in my life I was moved by a main character protecting a child. Damn, it always pissed me off that a character would choose to sacrifice themselves for a random kid or person, but here it actually makes sense? I mean, Gi Hun joined Squid Game to get money, okay, but there's a reason we've seen the whole relationship with his DAUGHTER before.

And he knew he screwed it up.

After winning the first games, we saw that he no longer knew how to find his place at home. Damn, how could anyone live a normal life again after something like that? So when he was left alone with the child he was protecting, and one of them was supposed to die… Honestly, what did he have to live for? His daughter? He had already screwed up that relationship. His friends were dead, his mother too. He was barely able to function normally. Besides, this feeling of guilt would have killed him anyway.

He had already done what he had to do, he had protected the child and could rest. Forever. Besides, I think he subconsciously knew that In Ho would take the baby, that the baby wouldn't be left alone there. I assume that this was the last situation showing that Gi Hun believed in people until the end.

Hell, I think it even convinced In Ho a little bit to have faith in people, after all, it must have made such a big impression that he gave both the tracksuit and the money to Gi Hun's daughter. The ending is not explained but that's because you have free rein to guess what happened next. I don't know why people hate open endings so much. Come on, you can imagine the rest. Most importantly, we already know what happened to the main character. So?

The child survived, Gi Hun can rest, his daughter now knows that he did not abandon her.

And Gi Hun believed in people until the end, even in In Ho.

I am satisfied. Fully.

[rulersreachf4n]

HEADCANONS PART II: electric boogaloo

This version he is a finalist/winner because I refuse to believe that season 3 is canon

When gi hun tried to kill him he thought he’d die thinking everyone hated him and/or didn’t care about him

Jun hee reminds him of his sisters and they is why he is always near her and taking care of her

Has a lot of childhood trauma and PTSD from his father

Would try and hide in his closet, behind the door or under the bed when his dad tried to yell at him

Was taught crying ment weakness so he learned to cry in silence and his sobs are barely audible

After winning the games he traveled all over Korea to find/reunite with his sisters

Hates his dad but if anyone says anything bad about him he will defend him

Dae ho hates the fact that he defends his dad but also hates the fact that he still loves him

Complex relationship with his sisters since he was spoiled and babied as a child and his sisters would be upset at the unfair treatment of them

Didn’t have a lot of friends in his life because of his femininity

Was bullied/harassed for showing his feminine side

Horrendous fashion choices cause all his clothes would be oversized hand me downs from his sisters or dad

The games where both the most traumatic but also best thing in his life because of all the friends and found family he made

Hates the fact that the happiest he’s been was in the games

The plan is to find/reunite with his sisters and move to America to escape their abusive dad

Is ambidextrous (not self projecting)

Still feels guilty for the rebellion (it’s not his fault and I’ll defend him with my life)

Likes his hair long and LOVES it when people style it

After care KING

Still hasn’t had his first kiss (never had a relationship that lasted that long to have one)

At prom he brought his best girl friend

A lot of his friends frowning up where girls but still didn’t have that many friends regardless

Energy drink addict

^ light sleeper and would wake up overhear his parents fighting and drank them to stay awake during the day time

^ made him an addict to stimulants which contributed to his debt

Cheapskate

Love language is physical touch

Hated how he was villainized for the rebellion failing

The Squid Game’s where the place he felt most appreciated ‘cause of his gonggi and skills

Has a lot of rewards emails and mailing lists due to his sisters

His mom would take off her shoe to defend herself against his dad (which is why he took off his shoe when gi hun was chasing him in the maze)

LOVES cooking/baking but cannot do it himself

^ is able to cook/bake complex meals but not the easy recipes

^ he’ll burn toast, set microwave meals on fire but is able to cook a pizza from scratch and everyone is like how

Did great in school until college then dropped out without his family knowing (his sisters and parents still don’t know)

^ dropping out led to his debt

Is great at art and drawing

Some of the rooms in the maze game looked a lot like his sisters rooms and got nostalgic but couldn’t reflect on it since gi hun was hunting him down

When no contact and moved out at 18 (misses his mom and sisters but know if he reaches out to them they’ll try to get him to reconcile with his dad)

Hadn’t talked to his sisters or mom in almost 20 years till after he won the games and split the money with his sisters and mom (not his dad though)

Hates how his dad treated him growing up but also loves him deep down but also hates the fact that he loves him

Whenever he gets mad or upset he fears he will turn into his dad

As a late teen/young adult has been told he looks like his dad (hates it so he grew his hair out so others would stop saying that)

daeho has a whole herd of nieces and nephews that he loves spoiling and looking after

As much as he loves kids he himself doesn’t want kids outta fear he’ll become his father

daeho is used to isolating himself when it comes to his ptsd and any other issues

^^ not just because it's a coping mechanism, but because he doesn't want others to see him as anything but happy and smiley, because he's afraid they'll see him differently

when he was a teen, he somehow managed to find a four leaf clover he has it with him at all times (even in the games)

as kids, him and his sisters they used to make keychain charms with each other he doesn't know if they still have them but he does

Goes to get his mom out of her marriage and finally stand up to his dad saying “I’m not the same man I was before” then casually walking away

Gi hun died proud of dae ho (I refuse to believe he killed him let me live in denial damn it)

Goes to Jung bae’s family to give them closure ala gi hun s1 with sae byok’s brother

Has survivors guilt from the rebellion and from winning the games

His PTSD has gotten worse

Hates the number 3 and the number 8 because of his player number 388

^ hates the number 9 and 0 as well for 390 Jung bae

He and his sisters all move to jeju island together

DAE HO HEADCANONS

(For @cherrybombdaeho)

In this version he is a finalist/winner and survives

Dae ho has a pet rabbit

He sees Jung bae as a father figure

Hasn’t talked to his sisters in 15 years because he is ashamed of all the debt he has racked up

Isn’t able to hold a full time job (according to Kang ha neul) so he stopped caring and eventually got laid off (which led to his debt)

Is an AMAZING gift giver

Owns an iPhone 8 lol (totally not self projecting here)

Parents would cut his hair but when he moved out of his parents home he grew it out

His sisters are more like parental figures than his actual parents

He was babied and spoiled as a child being the youngest and only son (and in SK boys are ‘treasured’ more than girls)

His father would verbally abuse him

His mom would work really late nights so he learned to be independent at a VERY young age

He’s a hopeless romantic

He loves art and creativity

Is very clingy and ruined a lot of his relationships and thought that he wasn’t good enough not realizing he would come off as “too much”

Has PTSD from the marines (I don’t care what the show says he’s a marine in my head)

When they where little him and his sisters all wanted to live together but as they got older his sitters got closer and thought they didn’t wanna live with him which is what led to his debt

Challenges others to gonggi matches (wins every time)

Yelled ‘ack’ every time the recruiter slapped him (the recruiter got weirded out)

Sees Gi hun young il jun hee and Jung bae as his found family (his gay uncles and his dad and little sister)

Would stand and block his sisters from being hit by is father

Had a lot of girls or fathers clothes as hand me downs

HORRENDOUS fashion choices because he grew up with girly clothes and oversized clothes form his dad so he didn’t know what when with what

LOVES have his hair styled

Gives partners the princess treatment

The reason why he was shipped off to the mariners is because his dad thought one of two things 1 he’d come back tougher or 2 he’d die in the marines but his dad didn’t care

Got dishonorably discharged or failed basic training which contributed to his debt

Tried to kill himself in is early 30s to avoid paying off debt but didn’t because he thought about how his sisters would feel

Paid off his debt when he won and gave the rest of the money to his sisters

Went both no contact with his parents and moved out at 18 due to his dad (he misses his mom but knows that if he contacted her she would try to get him and his dad work stuff out)

Owns a lot of stuffed animals and plushies

Is great at styling hair

Terrible speller (totally not self projecting)

Great memory (both blessing and curse)

Tried to reach out to and find his sisters when he returned from the games

Bought his mom a house so she can escape her abusive marriage

Has nightmares of his dad yelling and abusing him and his sisters

Light sleeper and would wake up and overhear his parents fighting a lot which game him an addiction to stimulant to not fall asleep during the day that contributed to his debt

[whenthelightisrunninglow]

how's the other guy holding up

[bumblingbabooshka]

Thinking about marriage/women's rights on Vulcan Some may think that T'Pring not being allowed to divorce Spock was because he was going through the pon farr but if she were allowed to divorce him at all she probably would have done that a long time ago, confirmed by T'Pol when she's speaking with Koss, who isn't suffering from the pon farr. She says that he can choose another mate (without invoking a fight it seems: note the difference between a 'mate' and a 'challenger') and after he makes it clear that nothing she says will change his mind about marrying her, she finally threatens to declare a kal-if-fee. It's clear that Vulcan women cannot divorce/refuse to marry a man they've been betrothed to under any circumstances if A) He himself doesn't consent to ending their marriage or B) She doesn't have someone else waiting in the wings to be given to in his stead. Though, if the challenger she selects fails to win the fight, she'll have to marry her betrothed anyway unless (again) he decides he doesn't want her after the challenge. That seems like an incredibly unfair system, heavily biased towards men. SNW is an alternate universe in many obvious respects but most egregiously in that T'Pring has a lot of non-canonical agency over her relationship with Spock. It's interesting to me that Vulcan society has women in many positions of power and treats women as equal to men from what I've seen despite these laws. We don't really see Vulcans exhibiting a misogynistic attitude towards women in general but in TOS (perhaps because of its general writing style but it's still interesting to note) both Sarek and Spock take on patriarchal attitudes specifically regarding wives. Amanda says that 'of course' Sarek commands her because "he is a Vulcan and I am his wife." It's worthwhile in my eyes to note that she specifies 'wife' instead of attributing this attitude to women as a whole. Again, with TOS' writing style it wouldn't be out of place for her to say "he is a man and I am a woman." Spock, while in a pon farr induced irritation, states that it's "undignified for a woman to play servant to a man that isn't hers" - again implying that there's something specific about being a Wife in Vulcan society which is different from being a woman in general and demands subservience to a husband. This could perhaps stem from the extreme sense of ownership that Vulcan law has permitted men to have over women. A woman legally cannot point blank refuse marriage. There is no option which guarantees she won't have to marry her betrothed other than death. When T'Pau speaks of T'Pring she refers to her as being 'property' and Stonn, before being interrupted, states he's made 'the ancient claim' - we don't know what this is because he gets cut off but it's obvious they're both using the language of Vulcan law. Men are permitted true freedom to choose. If a woman wants to choose someone else to be with there is no option available to her other than the kal-if-fee which might result in the death of the one she wants to be with. And, if her lover fails, her husband can still just decide he wants to marry her and she'll be forced to. T'Pring gives two scenarios: One where Spock 'frees' her and one where he doesn't - it's still ultimately his decision which is clear when he ends the conversation with "Stonn, she is yours." This again isn't just because of the pon farr as T'Pol also goes through this. Koss can choose another mate and when the option is talked about there's no implication that this would result in any sort of fight (both by the casualness of its mention and by the fact that there's no formal word for it unlike the kal-if-fee.) Also, the fact that Koss does eventually grant T'Pol a divorce and it's all fine means that T'Pol isn't lawfully required to have another man waiting if her HUSBAND doesn't want her. It's ONLY required if SHE doesn't want her husband. Tradition must take precedence over individual desire UNLESS!!! You're a man. Then it's fine. Like, your parents might not be happy but legally you're golden.

[choscar-op81]

[kacievvbbbb]

I’m just very obsessed with the idea that mihawk is useless in a weapon less fight like he cannot throw a punch or get out of a pin to save his life like one he can’t kick he’s done out for the count, and this is why Shanks ends most of their duels this way. Because he’s a filthy cheater and Mihawk is even worse off because it’s Shanks pining him and he has eaten a lot of dirt.

Shanks decides to teach him the art of fighting dirty cause he’s nice that way but also let’s just say that Shanks likes being in a pin a little too much

[hballegro]

local man acts how he always acts and is accused of homosexuality

[perhaps-mr-collins-has-a-cousin]

It has been requested (@awfullybigwardrobe44 💛) that I provide an update on How Things Are Going With The Young Man, and there’s so much I could say that it all kind of cancels itself out (I’ve been journaling like a madwoman lately), but yes, I think things are going well. I still can't believe any of this is happening, I am not the kind of person that this kind of stuff is supposed to happen to 😆 We have gone on several more dates, one of them a day-long fishing trip, and it’s been lovely and I just think he's delightful and I really like being with him. I still have a lot of shyness to overcome, but considering how intensely terrified I used to be of him I think I’ve made excellent progress 😆 I’ve seen less of him lately because he’s extremely busy with work and especially school but we text a lot and this weekend we’re planning to go to dinner and then the symphony after that (I bought the tickets and I can tell it's driving him nuts that I finally paid for something myself but ahaha it's too late there's nothing he can do about it now) 😊

[silusvesuius]

they have me so fucked up over the 'L brothers copium' i've been huffing lately actually about to start rocking in my chair back && forth breathing into a paper bag while drawing things that aren't even $day

[itspileofgoodthings]

End of last week I kept a teenage boy to help me with something after class as a pretext so that I could speak to him about his attitude, decided at the last minute to say nothing and just let him go with a “have a great weekend” and it’s so funny but I think he knew and sensed that lakskskskss

[kalosian-woods]

speaking off the other electric type gym leaders, do you think clemont would know them? do you think the other members of the league knew about the crisis? do you think they wanted to do something to help? and if they do know each other, do you think post crisis some of them made a beeline to kalos?

and if your au also sets in the galar/kalos is part of the same island mass theory, do you think they heard what was happening and wanted to get involved or something? because... you know the sub-theory that the war was between Kalos and Galar

-⚡ (my personal headcanon is that they do know each other and that volkener and clem have a sorta petty rivalry between inventors. (siebold and clemont too. but thats more silly because professional chef working in a fine dining setting, vs a teenage who maybe sleeps in his own gym and probably lives off instant noodles when he isn't cooking for others.))

Hmm, for me, I would say he has a passing knowledge of them? Like that academy he went to probably covered some notable Type users and all that, and when he was fiddling around on the web for inspiration/appliances/going on the Pokemon equivalent of eBay and checking out antiques, he's seen their name around. Similarly, Gym Leaders from other regions would've heard of Clemont (moreso as the rising young Gym Leader who's also a great inventor) and were like 'cool, what an inspiration to young folk everywhere' and proceed to forget about him. Clemont isn't very sociable, and while he was enamoured by the stuff other Gym Leaders, especially Electric Type users, would've done (like amusement park by Elesa or whatever zany thing Volkner made up on the spot), he was much too shy about it. Easier to just reverse-engineer it and figure out how it ticks from the safety of his own (totally not safe for his back) room. And then he had his problem with the Gym and you know the drill.

It's most probably after the whole journey that he mustered the courage to talk to the others and connect with the other Gym Leaders all around the world heh. Throughout the journey he became more aware of the Gym Leaders in Kalos and actually got to know them well (and through the Crisis everyone got to know each other better), and that kickstarted Clemont's desire to see how everyone else was like.

Surge would be a bit dismissive until he heard about the Crisis and Clemont's role in it (he would totally break down at that and just care for him so much, I can tell you that). Very tough love but also a great listener, makes sure that he's keeping well and not getting too lost in his work.

Wattson is just going to be a crazy grampa in the corner isn't he lol. But yeah, very much going to push him into 'renovating' Prism Tower into a death trap (but a fun one!) and telling him to have fun (he knows about the Crisis and this is his way of helping him, but to be honest he would've said this regardless). May or may not have a rivalry with Volkner, in which...

Volkner is just a little (a very tiny miniscule) impressed by Clemont. But would not say it. He expects so much more than that, don't you know, that's just childs play and if he was really into it he would've done so much more. They both have petty squabbles but then five minutes later they are dragged away by their Luxray from taking down particle colliders or smth idk.

Elesa had a very superficial relationship with him before, having met through friends-of-a-friend kind of deal. They make small talk, try to connect, and then after some time one of them admit something deep and then boom, penpals lol. She bugs him for good fashion in Kalos and he gets her back by requesting schematics of various mechanical attractions in Unova. Basically trading for their interests while also having some support on the side :3

Sophocles is totally roasting him online the first time they meet. They both get into this thread where they argue about something that they totally forgotten and just go on and on until they actually meet face to face. It's a love-hate relationship with collabs and everything, and they will simmer down one day. Eventually. Hopefully. (Soph has heard of the Crisis and done so much study but has not connected two and two and two together with Clem and also with a certain Ash having just come out from there. He's busy, okay?)

Iono scares him but he doesn't say it outloud. Very interesting with the whole livestream! Just not being on the livestream. He's also interested in those Magnemite hairclips and the concept of Terastallization but maybe he better make sure he's not broadcasted on 10 million screens before talking to her.

Going to be honest here and say that's the first time I've ever heard of that theory myself, but then again I haven't dived too deeply about it. Most of the ones I've saw were about how Kalos had an internal war (this is a great one btw heh), which made sense to me, although I do like the idea of Galar going up against Kalos (especially with the gimmicks and the problems they faced). Hoenn is definitely connected to the Crisis itself and has offered aid, and ngl I feel like most of the regions are nice enough to try to help at this point, since either they went through their own problems beforehand or have that feeling of foreboding that they are next. The Pokemon World is very idealistic in that sense! People do tend to travel around, so there are a lot of connections all over the world.

[bestteamintheleague]

I want Florida to win, not because I feel any particular emotion towards the Panthers, but because I need the Oilers to lose