#and not really having a choice or the English or the class to contest it

[divinekangaroo]

The research I did into cremations, various metal melting points, the composition of gold teeth/crowns, bone and body behaviours in fire, house fires, vardo construction techniques, heat able to be reached in open fires or house fires versus crematoriums, the process of ‘raking the ashes’ Tommy references, the very moment I realised on my rewatch that Tommy canonically had at least one gold tooth

[lloromanic0]

Just made this blog to post random smut I have in my notes app. I hope you like them x

Bill Kaulitz as an exchange student looking for an English tutor ;)

 

You woke up around ten am, looking out your dorm window contemplating the rain hitting the glass. After about five minutes you finally got up a started to get ready for your classes, you looked at your schedule that was hooked above your desk, today you had English C1, German B1 and English literature. You were a languages enthusiast you had always been interested in learning new languages you loved communicating with others so picking a languages major was the only right choice for you. Since you lived close to campus at 10:50 you started walking to class hopping to be there by 11. The cold morning breeze hit your face making your cheeks feel cold and look slightly red, the rain had stopped by now, but some drops fell occasionally from trees or rooftops. After around 7 minutes of walking, you finally got inside and went straight to class. You didn’t have many friends, just enough to keep you company during the long days at university. As you were approaching the big classroom you saw one of your friends that was a part of some sort of Student Council which welcomed exchange students, of course she was always busy talking to people, but she never made you feel left out. As you got closer to her, she immediately spotted you giving you a big smile and you smiled back at her.

“Good morning, Y/N!”

“Good morning, Amelie.”

“I’ll get in the classroom just in a second I’m just handing some fliers to the exchange students.” She said while still smiling at you.

You nodded as you looked behind her to peek at the exchange students, when one of them really caught your eye. A tall, slim man with long black hair was looking directly at you making you feel slightly intimidated by his aura. After engaging in this staring contest with him for a few seconds you got inside of the amphitheatre taking a seat close to the edge. 

 

Around ten minutes passed, and you saw Amelie walking inside the classroom looking for you, you waved at her as she gave you an expression of relief. She sat next you exhaling deeply and looking at you right after.

 

“Lots of work?” You ask. 

 

“Quite a bit, but you know me I love meeting new people and try to give them the best university experience even if it’s just for a semester”. 

She said smiling with her eyes closed. She truly had a beautiful heart. 

You smiled softly again, you liked to talk to people, but you also loved you alone time and well Amelie barely had any due to all her responsibilities and you weren’t about to sacrifice that, but you did help her anytime you could.

Then she looked at you, she looked a bit..embarrassed…you didn’t know how to describe her expression well enough.

 

“Y/N can I please ask you to do me a favor.”

 

Your face got a bit hot at the sudden request, but you nodded firmly.

She quickly exhaled and began to talk.

 

“So there’s this one German exchange student that speaks very poor English and he came to me asking if anyone would be able to tutor him so that he could communicate better with people and to also help him pass his classes while he’s here”

 

“Why me?” You bluntly ask. 

 

“Seriously? You’re a top student in English and you’re practically fluent in German you’re literally perfect to be his tutor!”

 

You kept silent for a bit. 

 

“Listen I know you like to have your alone time specially after classes but if you could spare 2 hours let’s say…3 times a week to help him it wouldn’t harm you…”

 

“Also he’s willing to pay...”

 

“It’s not about money Amelie. But since you’re my friend I’ll see what I can do to help him”

 

She smiled and thanked you.

 

4 pm

After your tree classes Amelie asked you to meet her at the student’s office so you could schedule a time to tutor him. You kept wondering who this German student might be. You entered the office closing the door behind you when you saw him. The tall slim man who was staring at you this morning. You got close to him trying not to blush again, Amelie appeared behind you making you jump a little.

“Hi! I’m so happy you came; this is Bill your new student.” She said giggling, also making Bill smile, you sat next to him.

 

“Hallo“ he said smiling.

 

“Was geht“ you replied. 

 

“I’m sure you’ll get along well” Amelie interrupted “So” she said while sliding you a piece of paper “These are the days that Bill is available for tutoring so you can see if it fits your schedule”.

 

Tuesday from 5pm-7pm

Thursday from 4pm-6pm

Friday from 8pm-10pm 

 

You looked through your schedule then looked up at them smiling slightly. 

 

“This is fine”

 

Bill looked very excited and so did Amelie.

You and Bill exchanged phone numbers and you three walked out.

«I can’t thank you enough Y/N! » Exclaimed Amelie.

Bill kept his eyes on you the whole time, you felt his gaze scanning your body it was hard to admit it, but you loved the feeling. You waved goodbye to both, and you tree parted ways. After the same 7-minute walk you did everyday you finally entered your dorm room and threw yourself on the bed. You closed your eyes starting to feel sleepy when suddenly your phone vibrated.

Texts

Bill: «Hope to see you tomorrow Süβe ;)»

You stupidly smiled at the text quickly snapping out of your daydreaming and giving him a quick reply.

«Yep, don’t be late :)» you placed your phone down and fell asleep a few minutes later.

You woke up the next day, it was a sunny morning today the warm sun felt comforting on your skin but it was still as cold as yesterday. You checked your phone for the time and noticed another text from Bill, your heart raced a little.

Texts

Bill

«Good morning, Miss what should I bring to class today? » you laughed a little at the nickname he called you.

«Your total concentration and maybe a notebook and a pen would be nice».

«Yes ma’am» he replied.

You only had 2 classes today so around 4pm you would be free so had an hour to prepare some sort of exercises for Bill to practice after class.

4:50 pm

After putting on some comfortable clothes you quickly set up your desk so that Bill had space to sit down, when suddenly you heard a nock on your door, the noise startled you but you quickly calmed down remembering it was probably Bill. You looked in the mirror for a second fixing your hair and makeup and then opened the door.

He was leaning on the side of the door frame towering over you as you stared at his figure.

“I thought you were going to leave me out here.” he said pouting his lips in a playful way.

You just laugh in response and tell him to get in.

“Do you want a water or maybe a snack?” You asked trying to make him feel more comfortable.

“Water please!”

You grabbed a bottle from your mini fridge and gave it to him.

“Danke.” He said

“In here we only speak English ok Bill?” You replied playfully.

“Yes ma’am”

You rolled your eyes and sat down next to him.

“So I prepared a list of things that I thought would be good for you to practice.”

You showed him the list: conjugating verbs, irregular verbs, pronunciation, correct way of writing sentences etc..

He read trough it as his eyes widened.

“So much….”

“I’m here to help you Bill we need to work on these aspects if you want to get better.”

He looked like a sad puppy he was so cute you couldn’t help yourself.

“Anddd if you do a good job I’ll even reward you.”

He look at you with a little grin.

“Can I choose the reward?”

You tilted your head and lifted your right eyebrow a little

“Don’t you think you’re asking for too much already?”

His cheeks got pink, you didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or shyness but he looked so handsome like that.

You cleared your throat and stared to show him some work sheets on verb conjugation.

5:45 pm

 “Professor…”

“No need to call me that Bill don’t be silly.” You said while giggling a bit.

“I can’t remember this one. I hate irregular verbs!” He exclaimed slightly mad.

“You can do it just think hard. After you finish that we can take a small break.”

His face instantly lite up as he worked hard on his paper. After a few minutes he finished it and as you corrected it,you told him he could take a break.

All of a sudden you feel arms wrap around you shoulders.

“Y/N are you done correcting? I thought you were taking the break with me.”

You gulped hard while you looked at his hands hanging from your shoulders.

“Bill…I need to correct this before we move on you know that..”

“But…” he slightly hesitated to speak “…I want you to pay attention to me”

His words made you bite your lower lip lightly.

“You can sit with me if you would like.”

He pulled his chair to sit down.

“Not there Bill.” You pulled yourself away from the table a little and placed your hand on your exposed thigh.

“Sit here.”

His face now painted red and his mouth slightly hanging open, he looked at you and you gave him a smile of approval. He walked over to you positioning himself on your lap. You placed one of your hands around his lower stomach making him exhale nervously.

“Are you comfortable?” You whispered. He nodded and kept still while you finished your work.

6 pm

“All done,you did quite well Bill I’m impressed.” your hand caressing his thigh.

“All thanks to you..” his voice slightly cracking.

“Are you ok Bill? If you don’t feel comfortable please tell me.”

“Y-yes I’m fine Y/N”

You looked over his shoulder and saw the evident tent in his pants,you licked your lips and slowly moved your hand up his tight.

He let out a shaky breath.

“What’s wrong mein liebe?” You asked innocently.

“Nichts…” his breath getting heavier each time your hand approached his erection but never touching it without his consent.

With that you took your hand off his thigh and flipped through some more work sheets.

“Warum hast du aufgehört!?” His tone slightly higher.

“English please.” You said teasing.

He scoffed “Why did you stop…?”

“Stop what Bill?” You whisper close to his neck.

“You stopped touching me…”

“You want me to touch you?”

He nodded, his breath getting heavier.

“But where Bill?”

He stopped for a second getting embarrassed to ask you to touch his throbbing cock that made his tight pants feel very uncomfortable.

“Tell me Bill…” You whispered in his ear starting to kiss his neck while rubbing his thighs again.

“Touch me between my thighs please…” he begged in a low tone.

“I couldn’t hear you baby can you repeat that?” You wanted to tease him until he got to his limit.

“Please touch my cock…It hurts so bad.”

“That’s a good boy, so obedient.”

You moved your hand up his tight slowly palming his erection through his pants.

You unzipped them and pulled his boxers down as his hard cock sprung out of them hitting his lower stomach. For such a slim guy he was definitely bigger than average. The pink head of his cock was coated in his precum,it twitched quite often desperately seeking some sort of stimulation. You hand wrapped around his base slowly pumping him, he whimpered and whined,your slow touch making him feel more agony rather than pleasure.

“Please…faster.” He begged,breathing heavily. You quickly complied to his request since he was being so well behaved. You stroked him faster as your wrist started to get sore but the erotic sounds he was making were enough to make up push through the discomfort. With one hand you massed his balls, and with the other you circled his tip with your thumb, he moaned loudly with the doble stimulation.

“Sshh keep it down Bill, you don’t want the whole dorm to know how much of a whore you are.”

“Sheiße….i can’t- I’m so close-“

“Cum for me liebe.” You ordered.

With a few more strokes he came all over your hands coating them in his thick semen.

“Thank you-thank-you..for helping me cum…” he kept thanking you as he laid his head back on your shoulder so that he could look at you.

You kissed him a few times complementing him, telling him he did a very good job and how he was such a good boy.

You helped him clean up and walked him to the door since it was already past time and you didn’t want your dorm mates to suspect anything.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at university Bill.”

“Yeah…text me when you get there.” He gave you a big smile.

“Will do.” You smiled as you pulled him down for one last kiss, this one being a little longer than the previous. You opened the door for him and watched him walk down the corridor looking back at you a few times, when you lost sight of him you closed the door and went back to your room.

[umlewis]

At the Invitation of Rimowa, Lewis Hamilton Makes A Pit Stop With ELLE

One of the most influential drivers in Formula 1 and protagonist of Rimowa's new campaign, Lewis Hamilton talks about traveling the world, his motivation after seven world titles, and his passion for fashion.

Lewis Hamilton started traveling at the age of thirteen because of motorsport. At 22 he joined Formula 1, which meant visiting around twenty countries for nine months, each year of the championship, and he has contested eighteen seasons so far. "Getting to know different places, and especially different cultures, really helped expand my mind and my understanding of the world," says the pilot. Naturally, then, the Englishman is one of the protagonists of the new campaign by Rimowa, a German brand that is a reference in luxury luggage. Named Never Still (or "always on the move"), it brings together personalities who have travel as the engine of their personal journey and evolution. And Hamilton never stopped surpassing himself. Born into a working-class English family, he has won seven world titles, a feat he shares only with Michael Schumacher. He also has the highest number of victories, pole positions and podiums in the most important category in world motorsport. After 945 days without a win, he took the top spot on his home podium at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last month in one of the most thrilling achievements of his career. "There were times when I thought this would never happen again. (…) I had never cried when crossing the finish line," he said in the interview after the race. "That's what happens when you keep going. We stand up," he wrote on his Instagram profile, thanking his team, Mercedes. In the following race in Hungary he achieved the 200th podium of his career. After twelve years at the German team, the Englishman will start racing for Ferrari in 2025, in one of the most talked about moves in the sport in recent times.

The first (and still only) black driver in F1, he became a voice against racism and in defense of diversity in the sport, taking a firm stand in the midst of Black Lives Matter. Hamilton was not afraid to contrast the homogeneous look of his circuit colleagues, with his dreadlocks, tattoos and jewelry. His passion for fashion is clear-he has walked the Met Gala red carpet a few times, collaborates with major brands, is a constant presence in the front rows-and his willingness to dare. The driver shows a lot of his choices behind the scenes on the circuit, reinforcing his connection with fashion under the spotlight of F1. "I don't always get it right, but I think it's a matter of personal expression," he says. The Englishman also expressed several times his admiration for Ayrton Senna, who he chose as an idol when he was still a child. In 2022 Hamilton gained the title of honorary Brazilian citizen, and at the beginning of this year he went to Bahia to spend his rare days of dolce far niente. Away from the track he opened his own film production company, with which he is preparing a feature film about F1 with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, in which he will also act. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), the production had scenes filmed at the British Grand Prix last year. At a pit stop in Seoul, where he posed for the photos that accompany this article, the driver spoke about his connection with Brazil, his admiration for Senna, travel, and fashion.

You will turn forty in 2025. What has age brought you? How different do you see yourself, compared to your twenties and thirties? "Deep down I'm still the boy I always was, but much more sure of myself, of what I want and where I want to go. I'm more comfortable with myself, in my own skin, enjoying my creativity, whether in music (Hamilton composes), or in fashion and sport. This brings me a lot of joy. At twenty everyone is a little lost, trying to figure out what they are and what to do. I feel like I have a north star. I think the forties will be the best. I will make them the best."

You've won seven world titles, broken a series of records, founded your own charity organization, and star in Rimowa's campaign. What motivates you? What are you looking for in the coming years? "You need to remember that life is short, to be present and find a balance between work and family. I am extremely motivated and I want to use the time I have here well. One of the things I'm most proud of is Mission 44 (an institution founded by the pilot with a focus on creating a more inclusive future for young people) and the work we are doing. Last year in São Paulo I managed to take sixty children from the city to the Autódromo de Interlagos, showing them the circuit, the pits and everything. I spent some time with them, who had ideas on how to solve some of the problems they face in Brazilian education and society. These are things I want to continue developing. I want to find out how I can use this initiative to impact people, especially children, who are the future. We need to encourage and create platforms for the next generation; the new innovators, the new designers, the new artists."

You've spent much of the last few years traveling the world. How did this influence you as a human being and as a pilot? "I started traveling when I was thirteen years old. I'm very lucky to be able to see the world. It's very different when you start traveling at a young age. Everything is the first time; the first time in Brazil, the first time in Italy. This news is so special. It's sad that you don't have the first time again, because it's very difficult to have the same feeling. Getting to know different places and especially different cultures really helped expand my mind and my understanding of the world, how vast it is and how different people interact. At the same time, we are all human beings and have a lot in common. I feel like it helped me understand humanity better, to have compassion, and I think you can be a better person when you have that understanding, unlike being in one city or country for many years."

What's never missing from your suitcase? "Face mask, a book or two, my laptop and headphones. These are the things I can't travel without."

You always seem very comfortable in Brazil. What attracts you to the country? "The thing I love most about Brazil is the people, the energy. When I was younger, growing up in England, it was the colors-the green and yellow of football shirts-that attracted me. I watched many Brazilian team games. And, of course, there was Senna. When I saw advertisements and documentaries about him, I could hear Brazilian music and drums in the background. I saw Carnival and how people celebrated. Every time I met Brazilians in England, they said, "I love it, I love the country." I don't think I've ever met anyone of another nationality who was so passionate about their country. So when I finally went to Brazil, I felt the energy. It's a very diverse country, which I love. I feel at home."

You are an honorary Brazilian citizen. "Yes. I need to learn Portuguese. [laughs]"

Your admiration for Senna is well known. Among so many F1 idols, how did your connection with the Brazilian come about? You were only nine years old when he died. "I started watching races when I spent the weekends with my father. I remember starting to watch them when I was around four years old. I was a very active boy and getting me to sit down was not easy, but for some reason I stopped with him for the grand prix. Ayrton's toy car models were what I wanted for Christmas. When I watched his videos, I felt like I understood the things he represented, how honest he was. I wanted to drive his way. I felt a connection. I remember I was racing (in a kart) the day he died and my father came to deliver the news. It knocked me down. At nine years old I had not yet had this experience. I remember crying for weeks. It was difficult and strange because I didn't know him, he wasn't from my country, but he meant so much to me. Over these years, I learned to love the person he was."

You really like fashion; you have a defined style. How would you describe it and what do you enjoy using it most? "I would say it is urban chic, quite sophisticated. I like taking risks. I love fashion, and when you enter this world you see how diverse and creative it is. I love being in that space, because I absorb a lot of inspiration. In everyday life, I love being comfortable. For example, I flew here in this sweater. Right now I'm creating amazing tailoring, something similar to suits but more comfortable than regular suits. I'm constantly learning from people and the fashion world. I don't always get it right, but I think it's a matter of personal expression."

[theorist-influencer-untitled]

1.23.24 Wednesday

12 am/ midnight

I have windblow....

I'm so fucking tired, I mean I'm fuckless and tired...

I can't stream or wasn't able to do stream coz I'm so fuckless and tired, doing some house task coz we can't hire an assistant these days... Thank God my nana cooked today coz I badly need to rest and sleep. I fed our dogs and most specially my son-dog.

I have windblow.... Hoping to meet a Daddy-my bf...

Can't stream now, will stream on my next off which will be on Saturday...

This is still for you Daddy... I still feel this song...

7:34 am

I washed Snoopy manually for now... Let's see... Then, I just cleaned the face of Neko, coz I pity her so much...

Will have my first cup of coffee, will rest again... Later night is my shift at 9pm again.

8:14 am

Finishing this "Schitt's Creek" in a way I can relate coz they can't go back to their original life, I'm already on Season 3...

Well, there are some cute things that are happening here on Season 2 and 3 coz they transferred to a new place called as "Schitt's Creek" it seems they are trapped by the people and situation. Alexa or Alexis the daughter here is portraying to be a high school student again, in my analyzation the people in Schitt's Creek are trying to know her, but it is a reality act but Alexis is really 30 plus already.

In my case,I'm not acting in Conduent but I'm not happy but in a way I'm thankful coz I got a job coz I badly needed money... I was really taglish but there are some point that I can't talk in full-English coz of the people and my situation though I can... People there are mostly commuting...

So, my portraying act as me in Conduent is somehow a blending of the past me and my maturity now... But it is all me...

But I have a relatives who are trying to steal and damage the original me.... There are some bad old friends who are trying to destroy me... I'm trap angels for 17 years... There are some people who are trying to judge me, that they don't even know me...

8:49 am

In Conduent my 80% character is me and for a professional mode... Though it is still me but there are some things that I'm suppress coz it is a job and my work location that I need to blend well with people... For now the people in my class in Conduent are fair enough and I can say in a way professional classmates there or professional batchmates in Conduent. We help each other in a way, when it comes to job related issues.

9:10 am

Will try to describe everyone in my batch in Conduent...

I like Princess so much the one who did her hiku on the nose but it seems her character is changing into a mean girl. I love her around coz she put a colorful mode in my surroundings, it is just sad if she became a mean girl. But it is her maturity. But I'm used to being the center of the class... I was the baby and the president of my class during high-school. So, I tried to keep my maturity with them.

I like Princess coz she is still spoiled but I want her to mature and grow... To learn life and to make choices in life though she is still spoiled. She is loved by that way... I accepted her but if she became mean then we are going to be a professional mate in Conduent, have her own life and I have mine...

I was just an average student in my class during high-school but I was the 1st honor during my first grade but I transferred then I became 3rd honor until on my 3th grade. Then, something happened to me I lost all my glow on being on the top 10.

A lil backtrack, I won a coloring contest during my prep and kindergarten that I got the Encyclopedia for free... My first set of Encyclopedia... One of my puppy bf not a partner, Brien knew I can draw but I didn't take that seriously coz something happened to me... I gave him the Donald Duck drawing but we are meant to be good friends just good friends.

I was never perfectionist on grades but if it started to challenge me then I became OC, just for the thought of challenging myself and I thought I studied hard but then why I failed? IT IS STILL FUNNY IN MY PART...

Aizzy I'm cool with her...Aizzy the gay... But I'm somehow putting a distance coz she is with Eli. Eli is a young still fresh flesh....I mean they are somehow sisterhood in my class... But we're good.

JM, it is just weird if he came from Cavite as well coz his surname is "Potente".

Nars is with JM on the first day that I transfered with them.

Erick originally a worker from Dubai and according to his story, he got 3 kids and separated.

Rem, Angelica and Joy, according to them they all just met there and became friends.

Ian is a science professor but I'm making a joke on him, telling him "what's up doc?' He is selling the whiskey coffee and I said to the other people that we are just friends and please buy the whiskey coffee.

Kaide, the guy who assisted me on the first day when I transferred to their class. I was panicking on the module activities then he guided me. He is the cos player in the class. He actually spent on his cosplay.

Another Joy or Jocelyn, the one got a calm heart. Who guided us on our first activity on using the salesforce but it was still on the sandbox.

Ruth is gone, the one who got a mean character on me. A rebel but I know she is younger than me but probably a gangster and bad. But she is gone after Boss Sho told us that she sent a message coz she was sick. In call center once you are absent you are automatically for reprofile or you need to apply again or be on the other class. BUT I MUST KEEP MY MATURITY. I'm not seriously angry on her but I'm scared of Ruth. But she is gone in the class.

Ray is married, from at the back of Cavite,hmmm from General Trias if my memory is correct... According to him he is really with call center for years...

Jay is sitting beside Ray inside the nesting room. A skinny guy...

Jojo, I just saw him there and always quiet seatmate of Ian.

Marlu got a perfume, I saw him spraying a perfume and I envious him for having that bottled perfume. I LOVE PERFUME SO MUCH..

Dave, was the one who helped me on my last final exams on the 11 wrong answers that I didn't know.

The 2 girls I forgot their name on the side of Kaede in the warehouse training room, they are just quiet and always together.

The amazon girl, I forgot the name. She is mysterious and just there in the room.

Jash is there as professional classmate. A working student. Sitting beside Eli in the nesting room and in-front of the amazon girl.

10:26 am

Uncle DD is here with his new family... Ivan was bitten by their dog on the face... Their shitzu named 25...

12:06 noon

I still have windblow....

Ms Ignaco was my computer teacher during high school, we were not friends but professionally I was her student. She didn't know me on my growing-up years during college...

She didn't even know me... But she was my teacher during high-school. I wasn't that good on her subject but I was intelligent I know but it didn't happen that way, coz something happened to me...

12:50 noon

I still have windblow... I need to diet,I know... I need to keep a job and I need money.

I went in on my own there in Conduent coz I feel that something is strange again... Hope not coz I need money. I need my trainer Boss Sho and my TL to keep this job...

Hoping to get a Daddy-bf along the way... A mutual thing.

I still FEEL this song for Daddy-bf...

8:14 pm

Already here in Conduent,done eating my dinner...

Done, watching "Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room" wow! Hmm....

[rosethornewrites]

Hi new Tumblr followers.

Some of you may have found me via the random poll that went viral. This is largely a fandom-related blog with occasional posts about life, the universe, and everything. Sometimes social or political issues.

If you didn’t notice from my Tumblr bio thingie, I’m 39yo enbie queer, have been writing fanfiction since the late 90s, was a professor until December when I quit due to department toxicity and burnout, and I advocate on queer rights/issues/history, disability, anti-racism, anti-capitalist, etc. issues. I’ve previously been involved in protests, particularly when I was more able-bodied. I am a published poet, recently was involved in developing an academic textbook involving the Holocaust, and am generally active in literary communities beyond fandom. I warn you, I also like to randomly quote Hamlet at inappropriate moments.

Fandom-wise, I’ve written mostly for Yu Yu Hakusho, Slayers, Pandora Hearts, Miraculous Ladybug, Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed and a smattering of other fandoms. I mostly write in the MDZS/Untamed fandom now. I used to participate in Kinkmemes on LiveJournal, including helping to run a small one for the Slayers fandom. In the 2000s I ran a small Yu Yu Hakusho fanfiction contest. I helped judge several other contests, as well. I used to RP a lot, as well. I often beta read for friends, though I don’t do it on any large scale as I don’t want to.

I don’t tend to share my IRL info based on a prior fandom’s wannabe-BNF creeper’s henchpeople threatening to dox me. Not that it matters since I’m currently unemployed by choice and necessity.

I like Tumblr as a throwback to the relative intimacy of blogging in Internet 1.0, where even in anonymity there’s more connection than through modern social media, which seems largely comprised of screaming into the void with the dubious pleasure of going viral as the only goal and “reward.” In other words, I’m internet old and crotchety.

I previously went “viral” when I posted about murmurings that Fanfiction.Net might go away, and wound up deleting that post because the notifs were driving me crazy. I also had a random post about a class get featured on a FB group, and was accused of being racist toward white people for simply using the word “colonialism.” As in “English was spread to many places via colonialism and thus has many dialects, none of them more valid than any other.”

The only saving grace to this poll going viral is the fact that it’ll be over in a few more days. I’m not really sure what about this poll tickled so many people into sharing, but from many of the tags it seems to be the fact that it brought up childhood memories and nostalgia for a lot of people. Likely the fact that it was done without the capitalist push to buy something added to the appeal.

Anyhoo, welcome.

[interludebloom]

For the book asks: 1, 5, 7, 18 ?

1. already answered ♡

5. where do you buy books?

bookstores / secondhand on vinted and i occasionally order online on bookdepository for english books!

7. is there a series/book thay got you into reading?

yes!! when i was 10 we had a writing contest, i ended 3rd place so i was gifted a book of my choice which happened to be twilight's 1st volume lmaoooo and well obviously i loved it and really started reading series starting then. the first book i enjoyed reading in class was king arthur by michael morpurgo tho! a few months prior to the twilight thing if i remember well

18. do you like historical books? which time period?

i do! i enjoy historical fiction. i don't really have a favourite period? 🤔 as long as it's well-written and that i can easily dive into the era, it's fine by me.

[thumbelenina]

Make your own choices, they will always be the right ones.

We weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We were taught to always live within our means and be, as much as possible, practical with our decisions. Thus, pursuing my Accounting degree was one of the most practical choices I needed to make since I finished grad school.

However, dealing with numbers has never been my first love.

It started on a mundane Sunday- I was holding a Sweet Valley High pocketbook. I was around 10 yo that time. It was my mother who introduced and influenced me with my love for books. It was also that same year when I first joined a writing contest at school, and who would’ve thought, I ranked #4.. as there were only 5 participants. Well, not bad for a noob but from those instances came my earliest thoughts - I love to read and write.

In 3rd year of high school as we were all bombarded with exams, projects & school activities that came one after the other, there were 2 things I enjoyed doing the most- design and calligraphy. It was 2006 and only a few were given the privilege to own a printer and have their projects printed out. And so, I would serve as the Art girl of the class- always ready to offer front-page lettering for my classmates- “Project in English; submitted by and submitted to” - all looking similar as if it came out from a real printer all at once! That moment I knew, I love to design.

In 2013, I moved and flew to Bahrain to work as an Accountant. That was part of my growth strategy, though I didn’t literally grow vertically as I have still remained as a 5ft short lady. But it was there that I utilized my love for speaking. I served as a member of Singles for Christ, it is a Catholic community of single men & women, and I would give talks in front of the crowd, with my favorite audience- kids. Eventually, I have also joined Toastmasters, a public-speaking organization. I realized since then, I love to speak.

To read and write, to speak and to design- these are what I am most passionate about. Truth is, I have, not just once, envisioned & dreamt of myself becoming a writer, a newscaster and an artist. But all these dreams, as expected, never bear to fruition.

So why didn't I go after my dreams? Because I needed to make a choice. In every circumstance we deal with in life- WE NEED TO MAKE A CHOICE. For myself, I needed to make a practical choice of taking up a practical course that will land me a job any company will be in need of since it is a stable and growing field— every business needs an accountant. Taking the responsibility for myself to pursue such a course was a clear manifestation that there is really no "right choice"; there is just a choice. A choice which I have no certainty of what consequence will be, whether it will be a better option, but is a choice that I will always put my heart into. Should I have been a writer, newscaster, or artist, I will still run into issues regardless of what I choose.  In every path we take, there is something to love and something to dread. Take the good out of the bad and always take the learning from the so-called 'mistakes'. The only thing to regret is when we let other people decide for us. As long as we believe in and make the best of our choices, things will work out.

So despite numbers not being my first love, I am glad I am still able to pursue my passion during my free time. Despite accounting giving a different line of work, I still get to read and write, to speak and design — I now read financial statements where business decisions are relied upon; I now speak to business owners and convey business suggestions; I now design process improvements for the company’s development.

John Maxwell said it best when he quoted- “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes YOU.”  I take pride in saying - I have found my passion in my profession. And that is my choice.

[athemarina]

writeblr intro!! finally!!

hello lovely people of the tumblr writing community <3 i'm marina (she/her) and i've had this blog for about a month now but so far Life and all its Obligations prevented me from making a proper intro post - here it finally is now, for everyone who'd like to get to know me and my projects a bit!

me as a person

i'm marina but you can also call me any nick name version of that and also any and all terms of endearment (can you tell i'm a libra). i'm 27, from austria, and speak german and english (pretty well), french (badly) and know how to order bread in korean (essential skill)

my interests include: philosophy, linguistics, horses, music, musicals, the city of paris, and also formula 1. yes i know this is random what can i say

i'm a full-time student and part-time capitalism worker-bee so depending on my schedule i might disappear for a bit, but i intend to always come back here to get inspired and get some work done! which leads me to...

me as a writer

i love coming up with new ideas and projects!! getting started is so much fun!! finishing things on the other hand!! is so hard!! send help!!

my fave genres (to read and to write): fantasy, sci-fi, works and words inspired by folklore and mythology - but really i like anything with compelling characters!

random things i love in writing: vampires (one day i'll write the Great Big Austrian Vampire Novella. alas, not today), characters that haunt the narrative, guilt and grief and healing from both, characters that make all the wrong choices, couples that have fun with each other, cryptic prophecies, sibling relationships, symbolic flowers

PLEASE COME TALK TO ME ABOUT WRITING!! i would really like to become part of a community here, so always feel free to come talk to me about your wips, my wips, the blorbo that lives in your head rent-free, the latest book you've read and loved... whatever you want to share i'd love to hear <3 you can also always tag me in games and challenges, but it might take me a bit to get to it, depending on how much real life hates me atm

my children: works in (never-ending) progress

i'm gonna make proper intro posts for all these projects soon, but to give you some idea of what i get up to, here are some short descriptions! some of these wips have been with me for a couple years, others are more recent, but they all haunt my every waking moment <;3

The Price of Wishing (first draft complete): good old sci-fi dystopian flair; a society that got rid of poverty by creating so called Houses of Service - institutions that will sell out their workers to the highest bidder for anything that people are willing to pay for. but it's not quite as simple as that: politics, organised crime, and a revenge plot years in the making all intersect at Isra's House of Service, and its inhabitants must learn to navigate these worlds - or they'll go down trying.

Forget Me (Not) (first draft about half-way done): wouldn't it be great to purge some of the mistakes we made from memory, not just our own but that of everyone? in a world in which the Chip implanted in everyone's neck records everything seen and experienced, this - collective forgetting - is the price celebrity contestants get to compete for in a reality tv show. each contestant has something they need the world to forget, but who can convince the viewers the most? the central theme of this story is grief, and when to hold on, and when to let go.

Attempts at Life (still in the outline stage): finn day and her brother felix know how their lives will play out: they were born in the lowest class society has to offer, and there they will stay. which is an unusual position for people like them to be in: both their souls were reborn for the fifth (and last) time; for them to have been assigned to this shitty life, they must have done something heinous in their previous one. finn is resigned to accept this punishment for a crime she can't even remember, but that's before the government offers her a position - she finds out things that change her view of society and herself forever, and she'll have to decide which one to save.

Untitled Fantasy (literally only thought of this last week): something something a necromancer brings back the hero of the ancient world to stop Something Bad from happening. only problem is - the hero does not remember ever being a hero. or anything at all, really. the rest of the world remembers, though. i'd love for this story to include some traditional austrian folklore elements! those are fun

so that's it! last but not least: if you've read this far, thank you so much omg you're my personal hero. i'm following a bunch of people already since i've been lurking for a couple weeks, but i'm always looking for new writers to get to know and support so pls interact with this post or shoot me a message and i'll check you out and follow you! and if you have any questions, or answers, or just wanna talk i'm very excited to get to know you all <3

[atlas-plugged]

When I was applying to colleges and scholarships, one of the most well-publicized scholarship competitions was the Ayn Rand Foundation's essay competitions. "Write a short essay about a 100-page book?" I thought. "What an easy scholarship application!" And that's how I read Anthem for the first and only time and let me tell you when you weren't raised by libertarians that stuff makes SIGNIFICANTLY less sense. Looking forward to learning about it from someone who understands the philosophy.

Anthem was the first Rand I ever read and honestly I loved it. It was assigned as a reading for my freshman lit class when I was 14 and it slotted in neatly beside a lot of the other dystopic fiction that gets handed to young teens. It was more mature than The Giver, longer than "Harrison Burgeron," and invited the reader into the characters' headspaces in a way that I didn't really get from Fahrenheit 451.

Anthem and "Harrison Burgeron" were part of a unit for that class and looking back, I can't help but wonder if that unit was specifically constructed to get freshman honors English students to start thinking about intellectual elitism.

Again, look, I was kind of a little asshole. I was a kid without a hell of a lot of social skills who was both learning disabled and advanced; I had tested out of several grades (which, thankfully, the district would not advance me through) and was extremely violently bullied for years by the students who had been told "Why can't you be like Alli?" by our teachers (and, not that there's an excuse for bullying, I was a shit about the fact that I was a better student than my classmates)* so "Harrison Burgeron" *resonated.* The idea of an unshackled human as a threat to the society that wanted to drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator was like *catnip* to me. I transcribed that story in a journal by hand.

Then Anthem followed, and Anthem builds on those same themes. It is about a person whose strengths are suppressed by his society, who is punished for his individuality, who has had his choices taken away from him, and who breaks away from all of that to try to build a better world.

I think that Anthem actually makes a lot of sense to a lot of teenagers, and that's part of why the Ayn Rand Institute has a free books for teachers program and has run that scholarship contest for decades. They very much want as many edgy teens to get into Rand as early as possible. I know that if I hadn't read (and loved) Anthem so long that I probably wouldn't have been as interested in Atlas Shrugged as I was when I finally got around to it.

They do scholarships about The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged too. I've helped marxist friends write their papers for the ARI, which I think resulted in at least one scholarship.

(If you have the opportunity to take these people for their money, do it. Fuck them. I give 5:1 odds that you're a better writer and thinker than the majority of people submitting essays, so do it, go for it, take their money and use it to pay for a degree that is absolutely flooded with the kinds of critical theory that they would loathe.)

In another post I discussed the woundedness of Rand's ideology. You see this a lot with a lot of the right, actually - it manifests in the idea that you want a better world for everyone except for the people who hurt you.

This is very visible in Atlas Shrugged, which is half power fantasy, half revenge story. It is not enough that the heroes must win, but that their enemies must suffer.

The idea that those who have done you harm are beyond redemption, beyond saving, and could never have a place in your perfect world is a very adolescent idea and part of why I think Rand's work does resonate so much with edgy teens. Edgy teens often think of themselves as apart from and othered by society, and they don't want to meaningfully contribute to a society that injured them.

But you've got to grow up sometime. "I struggled and suffered, so the next person should struggle and suffer" or "you made me struggle and suffer, so I won't improve things for anyone if improving things might help you" is spiteful and petty, and something that makes sense for cynical teenagers but that is ridiculous and immature when you see adults pulling that shit.

So I understand the kids who went "cool dystopia!" and maybe internalized a story about chosen ones. I understand adults who found that appealing and read further and sat in that space for a while. What I don't understand is adults who make denying assistance to others a part of their worldview under the assumption that providing assistance to anyone is hampering individuals from reaching their full potential.

-

-

*In some ways I feel like I got set up for failure by a lot of adults. I switched districts in the 3rd grade, when I was already nearly a year younger than almost everyone in my class (I turned 8 two days before school started) and the district wouldn't allow me to advance to the 6th grade based on my testing (thank fuck) or put me in GATE classes (whatever) but whatever chance I had of being a "normal" kid got shattered when my 3rd grade teacher had me teach the rest of the class our multiplication tables and assigned me the job of doing half an hour of reading aloud to the class for a couple days each week while she caught up on grading. I was not the teacher's pet so much as I was the weird 8-year-old reading Moby Dick at recess and having trouble maintaining friendships because of emotional dysregulation. Being a smart kid with essentially no friends who was *horribly, violently bullied in ways that led to lasting injuries* probably wasn't the only reason that I liked Anthem but it was very much why I was drawn to chosen-one-under-attack-by-society-must-save-the-day narratives.

Anyway in case it wasn't clear I'm obviously still wrestling with a lot of this stuff and this blog is likely to be just as much trauma dumping as it is talking about Ayn Rand's Bad Book.

[jessjustplay]

Princess Maker 3 - Game Archive 1

September 23, 2022

Josie Lynn

I never played PM3 but I finished my first game last night and I had so much fun! At first, I didn't like it much… the game doesn't explain anything to you! But once I got the hang of it, it was very enjoyable. It also feels much faster than PM2, which I was a fan of.

When I started the game, my daughter was very grumpy. I'm actually shocked at how long she remained this grumpy. I don't remember what helped her get rid of her attitude, but I think I gave her a scolding and then she randomly just had a change of heart.

"I believe I have been a bad girl. I will behave from now on, so please forgive me."

She even went as far as to give me a birthday gift on my birthday! It was a white guitar. That was really cute. She actually gave a birthday gift to her friend on her birthday, as well. That is one thing I really like about PM3 that PM2 is missing. There seems to be greater connections in this game.

Your daughter's rivalries turn into friendships, and if your daughter is in a good mood, she will acknowledge them, whether that's talking about them or like I said above, giving them gifts!

I sent Josie off to the mines a lot because it paid well and she seemed to like it. Once her attitude changed, though, I had to stop sending her there because she started losing stats. I guess the mines are only a good option when your daughter is grumpy.

I used all the money from the mines to send her to Dance class. I think I would send her to the other classes too, but she spent most of her time in Dance. She ended up becoming an actress!

I guess I did send her to Music class because at the end her rival says, "An actress? I thought you were aiming for the singer." (The English is not the best in this game, but you get the gist of it.)

Her rival-turned-friend from Dance class said, "I'll be your one fan. Is that okay?" (SO CUTE)

"Father, I found a path that I would like to follow. Though I couldn't become a princess, I don't regret my choice at all. My dream now is to show my singing and dancing to people around the world. Through that, I want to give people hope and dreams." - Josie Lynn

Oh yeah, the festivals in this game are kinda weird. That would be one thing I don't like much and that I prefer in PM2. BUT, the saving grace is that we see Olive in this! Olive is the standard name for PM2's princess. She won a lot of the contests and I'm not mad about it.

Anyways, here are her finishing stats!

Name: Josie Lynn Birthday: September 1 Blood type: AB Father's Occupation: Traveler

Height: 159 cm Weight: 57 kg Bust: 88 cm Waist: 62 cm Hip: 86 cm

Elegance: 361 Attitude: 351 Stamina: 668 Sense: 521 Intelligence: 194 Charm: 557 Vitality: 579 Stress: 104 Pride: 330 Prowess: 585 Morality: 373 Trust: 56

Most attended part-time job: Miner 62x Most attended class: Dance Class 34x

Ending: Palace Actress

[80s4life]

The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

Word Count: 4,438

Status: Not Requested

Fandom: Back To The Future 1985

Relationship: Biff Tannen x Female Reader

Summary: As time is altered for a total of 2 weeks (I extended it slightly), you and Marty struggle to get his parents under control, having problem after the next. But, when an unexpected solution occurs, you find yourself willingly okay with it, soon finding the exact reason as to why.

Warnings: language, fluff, Biff being a dick, slight angst, cute Biff

Masterlist Back To The Future Masterlist

Prompts: (from this list @youneedsomeprompts​)

Y/C/S= Your Choice of Sport/ Your Chosen Sport (you don’t have to honestly play one, just choose one you like or one that comes to mind)

{gif and prompts are not mine, gif credits go to @backtothefuturemovies and credits were given above for prompts!}

No one ever said time travel was fun. No one ever said the job was easy. And no one sure as hell told you the consequences that come with it. Well, at least not before you, and your best friend, Marty McFly, had gone dead-on through a barn, sacred a neighboring family of ‘alien invasion,’ run into younger McFly parents, and altered time just enough to fuck you over for a few days.

I mean, who would’ve guessed right? Your mom just so happens to be romantically interested in you, their child. Well, that was at least in Marty’s case. For you, you had just managed to run into the biggest dickhead of the century, Biff Tannen. Or so you thought?

Making your way out of bed, you automatically go to where Marty was sleeping in the garage, waking him along with Doc up. The go-to plan for the day was to go undercover as usual students in the 50′s, secretly following Marty’s parents around, finding out where they lie in this part of time, and try to find ways into manipulating them together once more in time for Marty and you to get back home. Easy enough, right?

Groaning, Marty goes to slap your hands away weakly, mumbling something along the lines of ‘Just a few more minutes.’ You giggle slapping his hands back in an attempt to wake him up cheerily. Mornings weren’t really your forte either, so any upbeat wake-up is better than a pissy, tired, horrible morning. 

Doc, on the other hand, was happy to return the affection, getting out of bed to give a quick hug and kiss to the forehead. Then he makes his way over to the bed, going to tickle Marty’s feet as you go to tickle his sides. Finally, in a fit of laughter, Marty gets up and goes straight for the bathroom. You were going to argue him, having to use the bathroom first, but decide to just leave it be, heading for the makeshift kitchen instead.

You smile fondly as Doc and Marty play around a while later, wrestling about, cracking jokes. It was only just a few hours ago that you and Marty had witnessed the untimely death of the currently very lively man in the house. Witnessing the blood loss, the machine gun in action, and the bullets that whizzed pass with only one malicious intent: to kill. But he’s here now; he’s safe and sound, having many years until that date will arrive.

With the freshly cooked smell of eggs, toast, and pancakes, the boys straighten up, Doc clearing his throat in an attempt to organize himself, and Marty leaving his shirt ruffled as he follows the smell of deliciousness. You giggle as both men of different ages act exactly the same, piling their plates high and digging in, giving thanks through mouthfuls.

///LATER///

After breakfast had finished, you and Marty made your way to the school, not wanting to be late, and, quite frankly, not wanting to miss a second in the disaster we’re in, wanting to fix it as soon as possible. Upon entering, the building erupts in laughter, tears, screaming, perfume, cologne, aftershave, and lots and lots of both testosterone and estrogen. Fucking high school, you smile.

Going to “your locker” right besides “Marty’s,” you both place the books and supplies that are unneeded inside it and take only the things you need for the first two classes, somehow having those together. As Marty catches glimpse of his father, George McFly, he winks at you, moving to catch up to him. Rolling your eyes playfully, you turn back towards your locker, just barely missing a group of young men some ways down the hallway, locking eyes with a particularly taller man, towering almost everyone in the halls.

You pay no mind, however, being blindsided by three girls your age. Instantly, you recognize the one right in front as Lorraine, Marty’s mother. Smiling nervously, your cheeks tint only a little, being unprepared to see her so quickly, not yet having a plan made up on how you could help tackle the situation with Marty.

“Hiya! I’ve never seen you before, are you new here? I’m Lorraine Baines, and you are?” she asks cheerfully, her books clasped tightly to her chest.

Taking an obnoxiously long time staring dumbfounded, you finally realize you haven’t spoken, quickly recovering with newfound purpose and confidence, “Ah, yes! I am new here! Sorry, I’m just trying to get used to this place a tiny bit. I’m Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Well that’s quite alright, you can come with us!” she says once more in a cheery tone, taking you by the arm and lacing her arm around yours, locked elbows. You smiled, knowing exactly where Marty’s cheerful and people-person nature had come from. Walking down the halls, she had asked for my schedule, checking classes to see what we had together, “English, History, and Agriculture- Hey! You should try out for cheer leading!” 

Shaking your head lightly, “Nah, I’m more of a Y/C/S myself to be frank.”

“But...We don’t have that sport here? There are no girls sports at all actually...” Lorraine says confused. You go to cover it up, choosing to say it was a sport you play for fun at home, in the backyard. However, a beefy arm separates you momentarily from her, as the owner of the harm moves to pin her to the lockers.

You were going to walk away, figuring it was some sort of make-out session in the works, but upon looking at her before going, you notice that the man was absurdly unwanted. 

“Get your meathooks off me Biff!” she screams at the man, his huge form towering her much smaller one. Not taking the message, the pair continue to squabble, neither of them being successful in winning. The warning bell sounds over the halls and classrooms, alarming kids to get their asses moving, but it seems whoever this dick is, he feels he is greater than the school, and god forbid, knowledge.

“Hey, you do realize your not making a damn bit a difference, right? She’s not interested! And, quite frankly, it seems as if no one does! Now, if you don’t mind, could you please be kind enough to unhand her as some of us treasure a piece of mind and how to take a hint?” you finish, quite ticked off as the last bell warns, cursing under your breath as you already know your in for detention on the first day.

It finally seems that he’d caught a grip, thankfully, letting go of Lorraine’s arm and she quickly scurries out of his proximity, taking your hand to lead you to the class you both needed to be in. As you go to walk in, you are stopped by the teacher, scolding both you and Lorraine. Looking at her regrettably, she smiles defeated. So you decide to do what’s right, take the fall.

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know where to go as I was trying to find where all of my classes were before I ended up lost every time classes switch. I caught up to Lorraine here at some point, and as she was hurrying to this class, she was kind enough to show me where I needed to be,” you finish, sighing guiltily.

“Well, as you’ve taken acknowledgment to your mistake, then you’d be just as happy with detention. After school, on Friday, as the first week is extremely busy. As for you, Miss Baines, thank you for your help. You are off the hook for now,” the older gentleman finishes, nodding to each of you personally before turning around and beginning just one of the classes you’d have today. This is going to be fun!

///LATER///

Finally, after grueling hours of just a few of your classes, lunchtime had came round, giving you a slight break. Catching sight of Lorraine, you smile and wave, going in the direction of Marty, or Calvin Klein, as you’d heard Lorraine go on and on about. You’d known it was him the second she’d said it, the brand not yet known to man yet; or at least in this timeline, it wasn’t.

As time had went on, it was only natural for the peace to be broken, as a newly familiar face was starting to appear more and more, Biff Tannen, as you’d known his name by now. But, instead of heading towards Lorraine, he makes his way over to the table you were residing with George and Marty, sitting himself right beside you. 

At first, you were trying to ignore him, knowing his presence was there, but keeping your eyes trained on either Marty or George, eyes dancing between the two. Biff, being the everlasting child he was, tried to catch you attention, trying stupid ass things after the other: kicking your shins, pulling your ears of hair, flicking your head, and even trying to tug on the 50′s style dress you’d been forced to wear to play your part. 

Only when he goes to tug your hair once more is when you finally snap, turning a furious glare to the hulking figure beside you, shoving his shoulder in a feeble attempt to create distance. He giggles at this, his body not moving an inch at all. “You can’t be serious right now! You don’t know when to quit it, do you?!” you scream, fed up with his shit.

“Well, if you’d give me the human decency of turning your head when I’m trying to talk to you, then I wouldn’t have to pester you, now would I?” he asks in a teasing tone, no doubt taunting you, but all you do is stare him down, getting lost in a staring contest, daring him to say something again. “Alls I wanted to say was that we have detention together. Just thought I’d let you know since you got me in all that trouble this morning.”  

“Why you-!” And with that, he gets up with a shit-eating grin plastered to his face, prancing out of view and back to the table he and his gang usually sit. Watching the whole interaction, George smirks at Marty, the pair giving an unspoken mutual agreement to whatever they had both caught on to, bursting into fits of laughter moments later. 

“You have a longer tolerance than I do, I-I-I’ll tell you that much,” George says, his usual slight stutter back in place, Marty laughing once more. As George joins in again, you couldn’t fight it either, giving into the childish antics.

///LATER///

To say your week had gotten any better than the first day was a lie. It hadn’t gotten any better, and your meetings with Biff at lunch had only gotten all the more common and all the more infuriating. He’d made it his duty to agitate you in any ways possible, even resulting in whispering something nagging in your ear when you weren’t paying attention, usually doing something in your locker.

Either way, he was on the countdown to Friday, it being constantly on his mind, mentally counting down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the two of you were locked in a room alone.

Unfortunately, that day had seemed to come way faster than you’d like, Friday rolling around quite quickly. School had finished, and you were making your way to the front office, awaiting a tiring 2 hours with only yourself and Biff as company for the time being. You hadn’t known where the room was, and instead of spending time looking for it, you gave up and looked for the office instead, the nice front desk lady leading you where you needed to go.

Upon entering the room, there was Biff in his prime, casually spread across his chair, legs crossed atop his desk nearest the windows. Sighing, you ignore him, deciding to sit on the opposite side of him, the front desk lady giving you a sympathetic smile before she closes the door behind her. You look at the wall, head turned away from him like the plague.

You knew it’d only last so long until he’d speak, the time coming way faster than you pleased. Given it was Friday, you couldn’t even do homework or even study in order to block him out as he started to blabber, running his mouth over stupid shit once more. Inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth slowly, you straighten in your seat, hands clutching the desk so tight, your fists turned white. 

“Biff, Sweetheart, Baby, Doll Face, Hun. Please. PLEASE. Shut up for five god damn seconds. I know you truly have nothing to say, so why do you insist on speaking so much?” you finally say, hands prying off the desk to turn in his direction exasperated. 

“Well, if you’d just talk to me, Shortcake, I wouldn’t have much to say at random,” he answers, copying your actions and posture. With this change in childish demeanor, you give in, laughing at him in an unexpected rush, running your hands through your hair tiredly. 

Although you hadn’t seen it, he’d smiled in satisfaction upon seeing you laugh, the glitter in your eyes much more captivating than it ever was when he looked at Lorraine. He hadn’t barely pestered her since you’d barreled into his life. It was weird, but he welcomed it with open arms. And for the first time, he learned what it was like to have an actual, clammy-handed, closed throat, warm, cheek-tinted, teenage crush. A crush that left his heartbeat loud and fast, breathing ragged and uneven, and his behavior out of character and out of his control. Lorraine was way under whatever level he’d placed you on, holding you up on a pedestal like you were the sun or sky.

Of course, you hadn’t taken notice to his antics, just thinking he was annoying. Just Biff being his notorious self. But, as you finally calm your breathing down, the giggles fading, you decide to give him a chance, knowing that sitting in silence is just going bore you. Smiling warmly, you say, “So what do you want to talk about then?” 

///LATER///

Grabbing your bag, you get out of your seat, giggling at a story Biff had told you. He follows your lead as well, getting his own as he lets out a bark of laughter at a certain part. You guys looked like idiots as you shoved each other down the halls, making your way out of the school as your detention had came to a close. Sighing as the warm sun radiated on your skin with the light, spring breeze, you stretch out any kinks the classroom chairs and desks had left. Biff watched you intently, your small body easily swallowed by his shadow beside you.

The sun was setting and it was getting late, although you weren’t concerned. The boys knew you wouldn’t be home ‘til late due to the detention you had initially despised. Now, you and Biff were side by side, walking peacefully to his car in the school’s parking lot. For once, he was quiet, great company to have. It was something else for sure, but you enjoyed it. As you came up towards Doc’s place, you’d realized that Biff had drove you home like a gentleman, too lost in the conversation to notice earlier on. 

Sheepishly, you itch the back of your neck, realizing your mistake and feeling guilty for making him walk all this way to now have to walk all the way home. “Ah- Sorry...I didn’t realize I’d dragged you all the way out here. Now you have to drive all the way back.”

“It’s no problem, really. I liked it. It’s nice to talk to someone other than the guys every now and then. And to have A female speak to me instead of screaming,” he answers, now being the one who is a bit shy.

“You do know that you bring that on yourself right?” you say teasingly, now leaning your head on your hands, propped up on the passenger side door. “Not every girl would want to kick you in the groin if you showed a little more respect, “ you finish off with a smile.

“Yeah...Yeah I know. I’ll try harder, I swear.”

“That’s all I ask,” you say with a wink, drumming your hands on the door as you take a step back, waving as you start walking down Doc’s driveway.

“Hey!” Biff calls from the car, stopping you in your tracks to turn around, facing him with a smile. “Uhm- Well- The Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is coming up next week...Would you mind being my date?” he asks, stuttering as he feels his cheeks heat up, nervous as hell.

“I’d love to!” you answer, turning back around to walk into the house. Biff does a little fist bump as he puts the car back in gear, excited for what is to come.

///

Marty was a little less than amused with this newfound knowledge once entering the door and going over the events of the day. It was only when Doc had suggested that the date with Biff would keep him away from Lorraine, giving George the freeway to attract her long enough for their True Love’s Kiss. Then, and only then, did Marty give the okay, shaking his head, but liking the fact that it’ll give George some time, being the nerd that you know and love.

///Enchantment Under the Sea Dance///

Checking yourself over in the mirror for the final time, you let out a nervous yet satisfied sigh, feeling like an absolute princess. You never minded dresses too much, although you couldn’t deny the fact that normal pair of shorts, jeans, or even leggings were your first choice. All that mattered was that you liked the dress you were wearing, it fit you; it was your favorite color, length, and strap(less) type to hold everything in.

Walking out, you grab the pair of heels to match, knowing that you couldn’t get away with sneakers in this generation, painfully grimacing at the reminder. Finally standing, you recount when you had gotten the dress just a few days ago, having gone with Lorraine and the her two friends, Babs and Betty. They were very endearing and supportive the whole time, you not having to worry about being “to picky” as they were just the same. You ended up loving the dress given that you’d taken the time without pressure.

As you walked into the main room of the garage, you heard a low whistle of Marty, Doc slapping him on the back of the head for it. Giggling, you curtsy and spin in the dress. Doc, the gentleman he always was, compliments you, “You look amazing, my dear. Let’s hope this boy deserves it, hmm?” 

As an answer, you hug him tightly, knowing that, by the end of the night, he will be nothing but a dead man at home, in a lonely, dark parking lot. Your eyes tear up just at the mere thought of it, clutching him tighter. Marty seems to be on the same wavelength, going to interrupt the moment with great urgency, trying to pass him a piece of paper.

“Marty, if this has anything that involves my future, do not. And I repeat, DO NOT try to hand it to me. Whatever happens, happens young man. That’s how the world works,” he says in a warning tone. You wanted to disagree, but you knew the truth that was laced beneath it, as if it was a punishment. You whimper instead, pulling him in tighter; Marty looking down in defeat, soon switching to anger. In the midst of it, he storms out of the garage, getting in the car to go pick up who you’d hope was Lorraine for the dance.

“Just let him go...” you start, sadness evident, “He’s just not very happy with the outcome of what the future has in store for you. Quite frankly, neither am I.”

“I’m sure whatever the outcome is, that I wanted to go with it, dear. I assure you, I’m fine,” Doc answers in a consoling tone, wiping the tears that had slipped from your eyes. You knew it was just a mask, no one wants death, but you knew he needed to go no matter how much you hated it. So you nod, not having to say much more as a honk sounds from outside.

“That’s Biff...” 

“Have a great time! Make sure the McFlys kiss!” Doc screams, following out of the garage, scolding Biff from behind you.

“Yes sir!” you scream back, saluting him as you take a seat in the passenger.

///

“You look beautiful Y/N,” Biff says after a while, finally working up the courage to speak.

“Thank you Biff. And you look handsome yourself,” you giggle, the car pulling into the lot. 

He shuts the engine, grabbing his keys from the ignition and closing the door, making his way around to you as you let yourself out to straighten yourself out. He takes your hand as he leads you to the entrance of the dance, you sighing in relief as you catch a glimpse of Marty pulling up in a car with Lorraine. Finally, you relax, grasping on Biff a little lighter and with more meaning now as you have the night to yourselves. He smiles down at you as you wrap your arm within his, something Lorraine does with you quite often.

With the party in full blast, you let loose with the music, dancing and joking around with Biff. At some point, however, he says he needs a drink and will be right back. Although, he doesn’t seem to actually come back. You’d thought you’d seen him spiking the punch just as few moments ago.

Just as you were going to in the direction of the hallways to the rest of the school, you notice Match, one of Biff’s friends, storming out of the gym through an exit. Taking your bets, you follow behind him, soon being greeted by a huge commotion of screams, all of them from familiar people. Biff was in a car with Lorraine, her dress pulled and taken off in parts. He was no doubt about to do something stupid, the fact pissing you off, saddening you in some ways as well.

The others that were screaming were also George and Marty, the pair trying to get Biff to stop before he regrets it. He doesn’t listen, unfortunately, until your voice booms over the rest, “Biff!” 

His head snaps instantly in your direction, the situation dawning on him the instant he looks at your face. You hadn’t meant to portray your emotions so clearly, but your face had shown such distraught and hurt. He lied. He had gotten over Lorraine, yet the moment she was alone, he runs right back to her.

With his momentary change of focus, George finally steps in, “You get your filthy hands off of her!” finishing with a blow to the jaw that knocks Biff off balance. 

Marty looks to you sadly, but tries to smile in cheers as George and Lorraine leave together, motioning that he was going to follow them just in case. You nod, looking down now as your play with your fingers. You didn’t know what to do now as the only reason you were really here was for Biff. You weren’t needed for Lorraine and George, you knew Marty had it.

You decide to make your way home then, as there was nothing else you could do. Dances were just drags anyway, nothing worth while. “Your just going to leave? Just like that?” asks a deep voice, his body having gotten back off the pavement and stood by the car he was pinned against.

Without turning, you answer his question with another, “Why not? There’s nothing left here for me is there?”

“And why wouldn’t there be?” Biff asks once more, no doubt ticking you off at his usual teasing tone.

“Well, let’s see. You. You asked me to the dance as your plus one. I came here as your date. We have a good time, we dance, we talk, and then you come up with an ‘Oh I need a drink’ charade, not returning. Then, I come to find my date in the parking lot, about to get his licks in on a woman he was apparently over with! So tell me, what is left here for men here, Biff?” you finish, tears pooling your eyes over the time, although you don’t let the fall, keeping them there.

He looks guilty, you can see it, but you don’t care. Your not in the wrong this time. But, as your blood starts to cool down, you do notice the look in his eyes, the change in his demeanor, and the utter remorse that has overcome him. He has his head down, fists clenched at his sides, body stock still. He doesn’t know what to do, all he knows is that he’d fucked up.

“Or was this your fabulous way of telling me that you love me?” you finally ask, eyes moving to look up at him in a teasing manner.

He hadn’t expected you to speak, head snapping up to meet your gaze in confusion. Being as you’d looked at him with a glint in your eyes, he finally lets everything click together; you’d forgiven him. His face heats up in bashfulness however, as your words resonated within him as well, hand going to itch the back of his neck again.

You giggle, walking up to him now, hands going to his collar. Pulling him down, he gazes at you in amazement, his own hands falling to rest on your waist. Then, you crash your lips to his, pulling him ever closer. It takes him a moment to get the hang of it, soon pulling you closer to himself as well. Lifting you slightly, he sets you on the hood of his car, the height difference a definite stretch for him. But he wouldn’t have it any other way, you were perfect. Just the same as he was perfect for you.

[elegiacmarquise]

My analysis and thoughts about King Rhoam

Introduction

Greetings and welcome to this post!

This is a rant/kind of essay (?) that I was being writing in the past few  weeks as a further reading to an opinion that I've wrote on the  description of a drawing of mine in Amino, in which I stated that King  Rhoam is my favorite character in BoTW and maybe all the Zelda series.  Since it could be read on its own, I  want to get a shot on here as I did some months ago on Reddit. I'm aware of the risks I'm taking by expressing a generally favorable opinion on his character on here, but I still hope to find some genuine debates!

Before  I start this analysis, I want to make some important premises: I only played five games from the Zelda series, being in order Twilight  Princess, Breath of the Wild, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and  Skyward Sword: despite I played some of the most important games of the  series, I still lack knowledge about other games, most notably Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, so I may miss something from my analysis (mostly by comparing the operate of King Rhoam with that of other monarchs of Hyrule).

I'm  sorry if some phrases may appear badly formulated or if I made some grammatical errors, but I'm not a native English speaker and I'm still learning  it... Also, I won't cover Age of Calamity extensively in this text, since  despite I've seen the cutscenes on Youtube, I didn't play the game yet,  therefore I may also being missing something from that game.

Now, I'm ready, ready to be doxxed

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King Rhoam's perception among Zelda fans

I've  noticed a lot, mostly here and on Instagram, that King Rhoam is quite an hated character, and to be fair I can understand why: despite Breath of the Wild has genuinely great characters and the idea of reviving the memories from the past is excellent in the contest of the game, each character aside from Zelda suffered from the pacing of the story and how it was structured; unfortunately the King is the one that was particularly disadvantaged from this choice: in BOTW, DLC included,  before the Calamity he was only shown twice, one time doing his job as a King and another to be outright harsh to Zelda, so this didn't play in  favour to give him justice or even screen time, for that matter. We only did have an insight of what he did really felt only by a diary which location was easily missable, so if someone for some reason or another,  only recovered the memories, they may comprehensively dislike him. Let's start analyse Rhoam's character through different perspective as a father, as a king and as an overall fictional character, trying to give his authors and him credit where deserved and criticisms where needed.

This  rant is not meant to change your mind, but just to give the King's  character justice and to offer a different interpretation from  everywhere else I could find on the internet. You're still free to have your disagreements, and your opinion is valid. ______________________________________________________________

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My analysis on Rhoam's character arc

We  don't know much about the last king of Hyrule before the birth of  Zelda, aside that he was a pragmatic man, or as Age of Calamity may  imply, a skilled warrior. He loved (if not, considering we are still on  the royal class of a medieval hierarchy, at least held in high regards)  his wife, the Queen, and was enthusiast to become a father. It's unknown if he was either born in the Royal Family, but it's likely that he became a king after his marriage with Zelda's mother, who seemed to have  inherited her powers from her ancestors, and as most monarchies claim,  they have as their distant founder the mortal reincarnation of the goddess Hylia whose powers were passed down through blood. Despite so, it seems that while his wife was still alive, Rhoam had a certain amount of agency for the Reign's decisions, since he hold in  consideration the tragic destiny the Fortune Teller foresaw for his  Reign, which was based on a legend from way long before the game events  even start. Although he was being skeptic, in a first moment, maybe  along his wife, Rhoam ordered to excavate the mostly likely legendary  relics and changed his mind as soon as the first results were found.  However, if the Divine Beasts really existed, it also meant that the  Fortune Teller's prediction was actually true and that Hyrule was next  to its total annihilation, and therefore the time to prepare an huge  reign like his was already too short.

But, despite everything, the King continued to show affection towards both his wife and Zelda, being initially actually really supportive of her own interest on research, and his life was going decently, with both of  them on his side. Despite Zelda's role was prophetised to be essential for the Reign's people safety, it was already planned to introduce the child princess to her divine powers gradually by the help of her mother, who also remembered her what she was supposed to do. The Princess  seemed to be already educated by both parents to be both strong and  stoic, most like most aristocratic families of the past, “ability” that  she internalized when her mother died all of a sudden. As many things  on BoTW's story, it's unknown what were the causes of the death of the  Queen, but from what Rhoam wrote on his diary (and Urbosa's as well), he  was more openly grieving than his child Zelda, both in public and in  private: I think that this precise teaching is one of the reasons why  the King and the Princess' relationship started to crumble, because of  all of this exact toxic mindset and the suppression of their own  feelings.

According to his diary,  Rhoam, while heavily grieving, was surprised to see Zelda not faltering,  even despite her own mother's passing: despite the grave loss, he was  still proud of her receptiveness of the family's teachings. Immediately  after the passing of the Queen, what happened immediately next was  unknown, but on a more speculative note, I interpret the king's will to  continue to educate his child in the way he did to probably honour what  his wife may have also been wanting during her lifetime as well. So,  with his wife now dead, only a distant legend as a guide and an already  emotionally distant daughter, Rhoam had to guide the entire reign alone  and this was only the start of the King's own, personal tragedy. Under  the his reign, alone, he tried to do everything he could to prepare  Hyrule from the incoming annihilation: feared to losing the rest of his  reign, the King continued to prepare and to motivate his own troups, the  researches for the relics and, unfortunately had to prepare Zelda, his  own daughter, to a role he didn't known much about, aside from few  sparse anecdotes from his wife and legends.

The  time was still passing, however, and there may wasn't much for the  arrival of the calamity, and while Rhoam surely empathised with Zelda,  even when she was still a child, he started to begin to partake her in  the praying rituals, even despite when they both didn't know much about  the process. While, they grieved alone on their own, Rhoam known that  Zelda had to unlock her powers as soon as she could, so she could  manipulate their powers even more effectively, so from a grieving  father, he forced himself to wear in her presence the vests of the king  and to treat her even more severity. Rhoam, during most of the following  years, preferred approaching Zelda as a subject instead as a daughter  because he preferred to sacrifice his and the princess' own happiness  instead of seeing the death of everyone he sworn to protect and he felt  quite dreaded in doing so, but the prayers were the only thing he known  for certain could work. In the meanwhile, the King already prepared  everything, finding the best warriors of the reign to pilot the newly  discovered Divine Beasts, found the Hero chosen by the Sword that seals  the Darkness while progressively noting Zelda was being involved in  something not that relevant for her duty, and basing of their lack of  effective communication, he thought that she didn't even try to awaken her powers.

While progressively  distancing himself emotionally from the daughter, we can imply from the  memories that despite Rhoam was harsh to Zelda, he still did care for  her both as a princess and a daughter: despite her role was crucial in  order to Hyrule's safety, he actually let her have her own autonomy, and  he ordered the best knight of the reign, who was also a peer of hers to  escort her. Whenever Urbosa visited Zelda, he let the Chief to  accompany her to the Spring rituals, maybe to encourage Zelda to do her  best, now that a trusted friend was close to her. Maybe Rhoam himself  did the same, especially when the daughter was still a child, but his  mannerisms would not have helped her to feel calmer. Despite he  preferred the Princess to pray instead of research the relics, he did  permit her to still have her own laboratory, even next to her bedroom. As  we may have witness in the game itself, many were the perils of  Hyrule's overworld, even in the past, from the monsters which presence  was growing in the months between the memories and the rise of the Yiga  clan, that wanted her dead. Despite these dangers, and unlike most of  other historical/ fantasy medieval royalties' conventions, Zelda was  still allowed to go out from the castle and to do mostly what she  wanted, even in relative privacy, since she was escorted by only one  knight. To think that in most other medieval-like contexts it would be  outright unacceptable for a young girl to go out with a boy who was also  her age, Rhoam was rather permissive. The king may not have been happy  to know that she passed most of her time studying the Sheikah relics  instead of praying, and still pressed Zelda to think about her duty, but  he still let her to do what she wanted to do, for the most part.

In  facts he actively prohibited her to partake in the researches only  lately, four memories away from the start of her seventeenth birthday,  age which it's explicitly said to be the age of majority, and also  implied as the age of wisdom. Therefore Rhoam may have been even more  strict because he expected his daughter to think more seriously about  her role, since she was short away from being a legal adult, but here we  have another detail that adds some insightful reasons he was that  brash: during the memory Father and Daughter, in which he scolds Zelda,  Rhoam also mentions her that she's the centre of gossips around the  royal court, and it seems the diary confirms that. Unfortunately, we  don't know for certain what kind of gossips were referring to Zelda,  most likely about her shortcomings about her sacred powers or her lack  of regards of her duty. It seems that Rhoam was somewhat susceptible of  them, at least for what it concerns both his as a King and as authority  figure in general (they may have seen him as too lenient towards her),  and his daughter's image, since it seems from the memories that she was  most of the time outside the castle doing her researches or to outright  doing recreational activities.As we can read in the diary and get in  that memory, Rhoam didn't have that high regard towards his court and  wanted his daughter to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, as usual, his  tones weren't adapt to convey what he meant and comprehensively turned  the princess even more desperate than before. But even then, we can  see then the King still left Zelda to roam (pun not intended) around the  world, as we can see in the memory “to Mount Lanayru” and in the  meanwhile become even more guilty intimately than he ever has been, to  the point of  wanting to let down the toxic mindset that he had to adopt  for himself and to Zelda and to try to recover all the time he lost  behaving as he always has been. If we think about this choice, if it  have been applied it would be kind of refreshing, especially considering  how medieval-like monarchies work, it may have certainly been on the  mouths of the courtiers but it may have been a brave act nonetheless.  [SPOILER: maybe it really happened in Age of Calamity]

But  it was too late: came Calamity Ganon, which killed among the many, the King himself. It seems that during the century that passed between the  loss of Hyrule and Link's awakening (pun not intended), he watched over  on both his daughter and her knight. We don't know what exactly happened  during that time, but I assume that Zelda noticed his presence, but  here I'm entering in headcanon territory.

And  when Link's awakened, Rhoam in the vests of the Old Man, put in  practice what he must have thought and felt for a century, to not repeat  his errors, and despite he was still guilty underneath his giovial  appearance, he guided Link more playfully, maybe experiencing happiness  from the first time in so long.In those vests, Rhoam was sensitive  enough to guide the amnesiac hero gradually, to introduce him to both  the dangers of the nature and his reintroduction to the world in a less  traumatic manner. The tutorial of BoTW was memorable also thanks to  his presence, because despite the hero was amnesiac, the King didn't  took Link for stupid and he let him to experience the world as he wanted  but this time he did gradually reminded him of his ultimate fate.That  was his last deed to Zelda, after a life full of losses, regrets and  suppressed feelings. It was an ultimate sorry that come out even after  his death. Rhoam's life was tragic as it was his daughter's, if we look  globally even sadder. King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule was a genuinely a  good natured man behind his crown's duties, who unfortunately had to  face a calamity and that many other factors didn't allow him to be as  supportive as he could have wanted. His will to protect Hyrule and his  selflessness revealed to be a double edged sword, and he was guilty  about his position all this time. This won't condone completely his  actions, though, and they DID have a negative influence on Zelda's  development, but at the same time, he did the best as he could do in  order to save the reign, so this classifies him as a well-written morally grey character, and I praise Nintendo for their own writing.

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______________________________________________________________ Why Rhoam's my favourite character in Zelda series

From  now on, I'll be more subjective regarding my reception of the King, but  before I'll start to explain the reasons why I liked him so much, I  want to tell you an anecdote: at first I loathed him as much I despised  Zelda. In my first playthrougth of BoTW, I interpreted the King as the  classic widowed father who was overprotective of his precious daughter  while the Princess as the overused tomboy princess who hated her life in  the castle to explore the world instead. Such a caricature that both  characters didn't deserve.I wasn't also a huge fan of their character  designs, founding the Rhoam's face and proportions too hard on the eye  while Zelda's research outfit too much unfitting to the elegant Princess vibes I love in a Zelda design. (her royal and praying outfit are really good though) However, the more I've played and the more the  characters grown on me: while I'm still on the fence with Zelda, who has her good amount of strengths on the writing (despite her main design is still not my cup of tea and there are some parts on her character  development don't click with me), I found Rhoam... way more interesting.

Unlike  the other main characters, the King didn't have any otherworldly or magic abilities, counting only on the powers from his own position to  help as much as he could with the reign's protection and welfare, to the  point to sacrifice his own happiness in order to succeed to extirpate  the calamity. His own complexity made feel him more alive than most of  the characters in the game, maybe even the series: like Zelda, we've seen Rhoam at his lowest point possible, and the most saddening thing about him is that he passed  whole years like that, not even being able to tell anyone about his  sufferings but an hidden diary. Despite there wasn't much screentime of  him, his memories were heartfelt and his brief paragraphs expressed at  their best the personal tragedy he encountered and how he suffered to  treat his treasured Zelda as a subject instead as a daughter.Hovering  between the uncured wounds of the past and the imminent coming of a  complete catastrophe, Rhoam still wanted to change his own reign's fate,  for the best. He was wrong in many ways, especially as a father, but  his errors make feel him even as an human who didn't know what to do who  had as a basis to all his work only a prophecy, nothing else. Adding  the fact that he progressively learns from all his errors make me love  the King even more.  Whether being in life or in death, Rhoam's  selflessness didn't allow him to leave the reign's affairs on pending  and he applied what he learned and reflected during all these years.His  own evolution feels really natural and it's satisfying to grasp every  aspect of him as soon as you put together all the sparse pieces the game  offers. So yes, despite Rhoam wasn't the best father he could have been  to Zelda, this in my opinion doesn't qualify him as a bully, as I've  read often in the internet, and he's a character as worthy of love as  the rest of the main cast. If we can forgive the Princess for her own  flaws, we can at least comprehend him, even if we don't condone his  actions.

Now that this short  “essay” makes me think about the King's character design, it's actually  really fitting to his personality: his hardly decipherable facial  expressions and his own stature make feel him imposing, and since during  the game we identify more on Link and Zelda, his appearance makes him  as someone who's hard to approach. I admit that I've learnt to love his  fluffy beard and his awesome coat! So yeah, now I like the king even  from a character design perspective. Also what about Rhoam's own name? I like that little pun on his actual role (because he both rhoamed both literally and psychologically in his life).

I've read a popular theory in which King Rhoam's strictness is the main cause on why Zelda didn't unlocked her powers, and if he let her to  research the relics, the Calamity could have been avoided. I think it's a  valid assumption, that could work in the game's contest. However, I'm  also convinced that while the King is too strict, Zelda wasn't that  right either, since we don't know what exactly what unlocked her powers.  Was the Princess completely dedicated to her praying? Did she only go to the springs and had  other things in her head than the prayers? Mipha implied in the memory “Return of Calamity Ganon” that at least thinking to heal/save the person she loved may unlock her powers, and this is what they seemed to  have been working to Zelda as well. In this case, I think that both Rhoam, who demanded Zelda to pray mindlessly and the princess herself,  who was focused on a mostly fruitless research were wrong. (consider that she didn't seem to discover much completely on her own, and even when she did it was still mostly with Purah and Robbie's help) ________________________________________________________________

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Conclusions

Tl;dr: Rhoam's a flawed character but still worthy of an analysis and credit.

Was Rhoam a good father? Despite the king was still caring underneath his  severe appearance, he could have been less demanding to her. Was him a  good king? The best Hyrule may have witnessed, after everything he did.  Do both factors deem him as a bad person? For me, not at all, since he shown on multiple occasions to be a generally good natured man who was  wounded by the past and stressed out for the future, but I think this perception could be changed by each person's personal values. I'm aware  of the potential bigotry that can be found on him.   It was hard to judge morally Rhoam, both since it's one of my favourite characters ever and because I despise to showe my own moral compass onto fictional characters, but it was still a fun experiment.

I  hope you found his rant/essay at least decent. I tried to made you see  the King's from a different prospective, but it wasn't my intention to  change your mind. So, if you still don't like him, you're valid and I  love how differently everyone reads BoTW's plot and makes it theirs.

The  only thing I ask you, though, is to avoid to insult me or any other  commenter. However, if you want to discuss peacefully, I'm more than  glad to explain where I may have been lacking in this rant and to see  your point of view.

That said, I wish you a nice day or night, and I hope to see you soon. Bye!

[kookie-doughs]

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader -Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 8: I Really Hate Water

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur. Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth and sometimes Luke, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache. The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. I had struck around with Percy the whole time unless it was dinner time or night where I spent with Luke. Chiron tried to teach Percy and I archery, and we found out pretty quick he wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail. It was hilarious. While I on the other hand, could compete against Merida and Hawkeye with wining in favor of me. Foot racing? He sucked. The wood-nymph instructors and I left him in the dust. I told him not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But I guess, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree. And wrestling? Forget it. Every time he got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize him. Luckily I took some martial arts class back then and stood some chance against her. "There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble. The only thing he really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur I guess. But hey, He's better at canoeing than me. I don't even know how I drowned all the time. Percy had to save me a couple of times. I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching us, trying to decide who our Olympian parent was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I was as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork, luckily I didn't have Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me Percy might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make him feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either. Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real parent. Nothing came. I tried not to think too much about my mom and dad, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save them, to bring them back.... Even D/N would do...

I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my parent, whoever they were, make a phone appear? Thursday afternoon, three days after we'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor. We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good. The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me. We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be Percy's partner, since this was his first time. And then my turn after his, so I had to train with another kid from the cabin. "Good luck," one of the campers told us. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years." "Maybe he'll go easy on me," Percy said. The camper snorted. By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea. I turned to talk to Percy and he had done the same. "Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." I wanted to try going against Luke as well. I wasn't confident with my skills. The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in his shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used Percy for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon. "This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique." He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of his hand. "Now in real time," he said, after Percy had retrieved his weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?" He nodded, and Luke came after him. After a while of clashing, Percy tried the disarming maneuver. His blade hit the base of Luke's and he twisted. Clang. Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of Percy's blade was an inch from his undefended chest. The other campers were silent. He lowered his sword. "Um, sorry." For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. I had a huge grin on my face. I had no idea why, but I was proud. I was so close on giving him an encore and all that. "Sorry?" Luke's scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted. This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor. After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?" Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ." My time with Luke wasn't as amazing as Percy's was but I wasn't that bad. Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover and Percy at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. Percy and I's shirts had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off our forearms. We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, I was resting my back on Percy's since I felt like any moment they'd drown me. Percy then ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D. His face turned a sickly shade of yellow. "Fine," he said. "Just great." "So your career's still on track?" He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?" "Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?" Percy said. Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete." "Well, that's not so bad, right?" "Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?" "Of course I'd want you along!" Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving... Must be nice to have a useful skill." I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. Percy and him talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins. "Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad." "Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?" Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos." "Zeus, Poseidon, Hades." "Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what." "Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld." "Uh-huh." "But Hades doesn't have a cabin here." "No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that." "Why though? What would children of Hades do then? How would they fend themselves?" "I-I don't know... Its not my idea not adding Hades!" He shrieked as if he was at fault and felt guilty. "But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?" Percy changed the subject. Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx." Thunder boomed.. . . . . .. I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make." Grover nodded. "And the brothers kept their word—no kids?" Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter." "But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault." Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill." He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where we'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill." I stared at the pine in the distance. The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. "Grover," Percy said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?" "Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini." "And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" "No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—" "No," Percy said. "I was just wondering. So... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?" I looked over to him warily. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems." "And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special." Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?" I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than us. "What about me?" They looked at me. "Chiron said you didn't know I was a half-blood..." "We didn't. When you didn't forget who... Mrs Dodds was. We thought you just saw through the mist. Then when I saw you with Percy that night... and your parents aware of me and the camp. I assumed you were... a half-blood." "How about now? What do I smell like?" He looked at me gingerly then at Percy, "Nothing. You smell too human. Even for a very minor god. That's why there are plenty of satyrs then are confused as to why there's a human here. That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. At last, it was time for capture the flag. When the plates were cleared away, the horn sounded and we all stood at our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head. I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?" "Yeah." "Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" "Not always," he said. "But often." "So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?" He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one." "Whose side are we on?" He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And Percy's going to help." The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support. Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet. Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxide shields coated in metal. "Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?" Luke looked at me and laughed. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. Do you want to be border patrol with Percy or come with me?" I smiled at him, "Tempting offer but I think I'll stay with Percy." "Your lost." He smirked then ruffled my hair. I went over to Percy who was holding a shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. Our helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes. "Looking at real good." I laughed. He frowned at me. "Like you look that different." "I am sporting this helmet just fine excuse you." I said picking up a dagger from the table. Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!" We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north. Percy and I managed to catch up with Annabeth without him tripping over my equipment. "Hey." She kept marching. "So what's the plan?" Percy asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?" Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something. "Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?" "Border patrol, whatever that means." "It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust. "Okay," he mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team." "I don't want to be near the creek." I said anxiously. "Maybe I should just go with Luke..." Percy then took my hand. "Since when have I ever let you drown? Don't worry. I'll be there for you." He smiled. With a pout and a worried look I stuck out my pinky said, "Promise me." "I swear I will never let you drown. I will save you with all I can." He swore connecting our pinkies. "Everyone knows pinky promises are better than Styx." We laughed and made our way to our station not letting go of each other's hands. It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed us next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball. There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right? Far away, the horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory. I lied down on the ground. "This is so boring." "Stand up, who knows when an enemy will show up." He scolded pulling me up. "I don't know... I think I'd rather shrivel and die." I shrugged. "Plus I know I got a knight in shining helmet to save me." "I mean yeah of course you do." "Luke's like few meters away after all." I smirked. He turned to me with a frown and a 'not funny' face. Which made me laugh. Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by. I stood up and Percy pulled me behind him as he raised his shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me. Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating. On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. "Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better. They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run and leave Percy. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin with no more than 9 inch dagger and Percy Jackson. I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me and Percy, while Clarisse thrust at us with her spear. Percy's shield deflected the point. My hair stood on end. "Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric." Percy groaned and I pulled him back. Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt. They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing. "Y/N!!" Percy yelled but he had a sword pointed at his throat. "Give her a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab her hair." I managed to get to my feet. I raised my dagger, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now my arm numb. "Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared." "The flag is that way, let her go!" Percy told her. "Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guys who made our cabin look stupid." "You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say. Someone took a hold of Percy so the sword was no longer pointed at him. Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise arm, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut. Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time. "No maiming," I managed to say. "Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege." "Y/N!! I will kill you all!!" He was thrashing around. "Let her go! She can't swim!!" "It's fun seeing your girlfriend suffer ain't it?" Clarisse laughed. The guy finally pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. I was sinking. I couldn't breathe. The water was pulling me for what felt like 10 meters deep. Blood were coming out at every wound I had. I was loosing consciousness. Help me. Please... -With Percy- Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get you, but you weren't there. "Hey, she's missing?" One of the cabinmate said. "What? It's like 3 meters deep. She's just there." Clarisse scoffed. "I's telling you she's can't swim! Water pulls her down! I will kill you if she doesn't survive!" Percy managed to get power from somewhere and got out of the hold. He knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water. Then he jumped down. Hoping to see you somewhere. Muttering your name over and over in hopes to catch you. Save us He heard from his right. When he turned he finally saw you at the bottom. He swam with all could and got a hold of you. To haul you up. Finally surfacing, Percy panted and laid you of the ground. Pumping your chest. When the water finally came out of your mouth. Percy turned to glare at the people. Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. He slammed one in the face with his shield and used his sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, he caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig. "Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" She probably would've said worse, but Percy smacked her between the eyes with his sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek. -Back to you- Coughing myself awake. Water came out of my mouth. "Percy..." I called. He turned so fast that I was surprised his neck didn't snap. "Y/N!" He ran to me and pulled me in a hug. I couldn't move, I felt tired and weak. "I want to sleep." I could feel my wounds stinging. Cold air hitting it. I felt sore despite barely moving. Then I heard yelling, elated screams, we both turned and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. "A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick." They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the horn. The game was over. We'd won. Percy carried me still with an angry expression and tense body. I wanted to reassure him but I knew it wouldn't work. Luke looked over and saw us. I could see his sudden shift of emotion. He wanted to approach but he was surrounded by every cabin. We then heard Annabeth's voice, right next to us in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero." I wanted to turn to see her but I couldn't. I could barely keep my eyes open. "Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head. She was now in front of us. I felt Percy tense up once more. "You set us up, You put us here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out." Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan." "Because of you, Y/N is like this." The venom in his voice were obvious. "I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help." "I didn't. But Y/N did! And what did you do?! She could've died!" Percy was shaking. I could feel it. "Calm..." I managed to whimper. "What's that?" Annabeth pointed at Percy's neck. "A sword cut, obviously." "No. It was a sword cut. Look at it." The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared. "I—I don't get it," Percy said. Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at our feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy." "What—" "Just do it." He came out of the creek and immediately I could feel myself better. Percy almost fell over, but I managed to hold him. "I got you." I panted. "Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus... ." Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest. The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!" Annabeth drew her sword. I drew my dagger and pushed Percy behind me. There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. It was looking straight at me. Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, Y/N, run!" She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, I was pushed aside as Percy stumbled backward and its razor-sharp claws ripping through his armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. "Stop that!!" I screamed and somehow managed to grab her. She turned to me sharply and stared me down. As if she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump me. It approached me and settled down at my feet, sitting down as if she was an obedient dog. She watched as I catch my breath. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet. By some miracle, I was still alive, and wasn't even hurt. I instantly turned to look uat Percy. His chest wet, and I knew it was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned him into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat. Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim. "Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to... How did..." "Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone. Clarisse yelled, "It's all Y/N's fault! Y/N summoned it!" "Be quiet, child," Chiron told her. We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. "You're wounded," Annabeth told Percy. "Quick, Percy, get in the water." "I'm okay." "No, you're not, Y/N get him to the water," she said. "Chiron, watch this." "No... She doesn't do well in water..." Percy choked. I carefully swung his arm around my shoulders and without thinking twice, I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around us. Instantly, I felt weak. I could feel the pulling me down. Some of the campers gasped. Percy who could barely stand few minutes ago got a hold of me. I could feel my consciousness loosing once again. "Look, I—I don't know why," Percy said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry... But I need to get out of here. Y/N---" But they weren't watching Percy's wounds heal. They were staring at something above our head. "Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um..." By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident. "Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good." "It is determined," Chiron announced. All around us, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. "My father?" Percy asked, completely bewildered. "Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earth shaker, Storm bringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God." Percy looked down at me. I wasn't sure what but I had the feeling it was somewhere along the lines, 'I am the reason you drown every time you step on water.' "You're claimed..." I managed to squeak. Percy stepped out of the water. "Congratulations." I smiled weakly.

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UwU Here's another chapter I am sorry for some holes in the story -kookie-doughs

Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @the-natureofme @booknerd-3000

[blazedgraysons]

You’re No Good

C.J. Bennett is an overly ambitious student who dreams of shadowing her favorite author, Eli Jennings. The only thing standing in her way: Grayson Dolan.

a/n: ahh this was a series i was planning on starting at the beginning of the year and never finished. i do have the first three chapters finished and i’m going to post some of them before i dip for good.🤍🤍🤍

Warnings:  this is a rough draft of a series i never finished. i'm posting the finished chapters before leaving this account. 🤍

October 18, 2021 9:55 A.M.

Whatever sick joke the universe was playing, C.J. prayed it came to an immediate end.

Professor Stevens’ American Lit class had been the one class C.J. actually enjoyed during her four years at UCLA. As an English major, she found herself bored in most of her classes — revisiting the same works and short stories she had read in high school, only now in dusty auditoriums and cobwebbed libraries. At least with Stevens, she was given a challenge — a way to go further beneath the work and dig into the emotional meaning behind some of the classics.

“With Bukowski, I think the appeal is that his work is raw. He captured life as it really is. It’s not glamorous like the American dream was trying to portray — its gritty, depressing and downright horrifying at times.”

The one downside to this class — Grayson Dolan. She fights the urge to roll her eyes, thinking to herself that of course he would praise the likes of Bukowski.

“With all due respect, Grayson,” She sneers. “I just don’t understand how you can idolize a misogynistic asshole who identified more with a liquor bottle than another person. I mean, Women, reads more like a college boy bragging to his friends about whoever he hooked up with than an accredited, ‘raw’ author. But I’m sure that’s what appeals to you as well”  

C.J. wasn’t exactly sure what had started this hatred between them. It had started as a friendly, academic competition — seeing who got better grades on essays, who could make the better point, who was just overall greater. What started as in an in-class rivalry soon turned into a complete and utter loathing. Neither could be in the same room for longer than a few minutes without arguing with the other.

He whispers something under his breath, no doubt at her expense, and his little group snickers to themselves.

“Miss Bennett, I would ask that you allow other people to have an opinion — even if it doesn’t directly align with your own.” Professor Stevens sighs. C.J. slumps down in her seat, subtly flipping off Grayson’s smug look. He returns the gesture, sticking his tongue out.

“And Mr. Dolan, if you are to do such obscene gestures, I ask for it to not be in the middle of my lecture hall.” C.J. snorts, watching Grayson’s face turn red and he mumbles out an apology.

“Now before we end class, I have an announcement to make. As some of you are aware, UCLA has had an incredible opportunity for one bright, lucky student to shadow author, Eli Jennings, for a semester. Your applications were incredible, and just know that this was by far one of the hardest pools to choose from.”

C.J. straightens up at this announcement, almost leaning forward in her seat. The Eli Jennings apprenticeship was one of the most coveted spots for any English major. It practically guaranteed whoever received it an audience with some of the greatest authors and publishing houses in America, and moreso than not, a New York bestseller. She has been working for this since she was a freshman, doing everything to keep herself in the forefront of the English department’s mind so she that was their number one choice. Her palms are sweaty, heart racing. She can see now visions of her hard work paying off, being rewarded with the opportunity of a life time the moment her name was called.

“With that being said, just know that if you weren’t selected, this doesn’t speak about your quality as a writer. All of you are talented in your own way and I’m sure I will be hearing each of your names for years to come. Now, I would like everyone to congratulate Michael Eichler for receiving the 2021 Eli Jennings apprenticeship.” Scattered applause fills the auditorium after their professor’s announcement  and C.J’s heart drops to her stomach.

Almost immediately, C.J.’s whole college career flashed before her eyes. Every club, every freelance job, ever class taken, every A, down the drain because of Michael fucking Eichler.  Her mouth dries out, and she can’t even lift her head, quiet rage filling every fiber of her being. She could’ve sworn that internship spot was hers. She looks up at the ceiling, counting speckled ceiling tiles in-between yellow fluorescent lights, mentally willing the burning feeling in her throat to go away.

She is not going to cry in the middle of her lecture - especially not in front of Grayson.

Surprisingly when she looks to see his reaction, he’s staring at her, looking just as gutted. His thick eyebrows are furrowed, looking confused like he expected her to give him the answer. She goes back to staring ahead, tuning out everyone else.

They both knew that the other was the only true competition for this spot, a quiet acknowledgment that if one doesn’t get it, the other will. It was ultimately the end of their contest, a metaphorical blue ribbon for a four-year race. If both of them were the losers, only one questions remains:

Where did they go wrong?

[richincolor]

New Releases

A whole slew of books coming out this week, many we've been looking forward to for a while. I can't wait to add some of these to my TBR pile.

Perfectly Parvin (Perfectly Parvin #1) by Olivia Abtahi G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Parvin has just had her heart broken when she meets the cutest boy at her new high school, Matty Fumero–with an emphasis on fumero, because he might be the smoking hot cure to all of her boy troubles. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to homecoming, she’s positive it will erase all the awful and embarrassing feelings He Who Will Not Be Named left her with after the summer. The only problem is Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself has not worked for her in the past (see aforementioned relationship), she decides that to be the girl who finally gets the guy, she should start acting like the women in her favorite rom-coms. Those girls aren’t loud, they certainly don’t cackle when they laugh, and they smile much more than they talk. Easy enough, right?

But as Parvin struggles through her parent-mandated Farsi lessons on the weekends, a budding friendship with a boy she can’t help but be her unfiltered self with, and dealing with the ramifications of the Muslim Ban on her family in Iran, she realizes that being herself might just be the perfect thing after all.

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim Quill Tree Books

To cure her post–senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen is ready to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back.

In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With Kabir’s help—plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints—Noreen begins to rediscover her joyful voice.

But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complicated questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone—and what are the boundaries of love?

Check out Crystal's Review: The Marvelous Mirza Girls

Made in Korea by Sarah Suk Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

There’s nothing Valerie Kwon loves more than making a good sale. Together with her cousin Charlie, they run V&C K-BEAUTY, their school’s most successful student-run enterprise. With each sale, Valerie gets closer to taking her beloved and adventurous halmeoni to her dream city, Paris.

Enter the new kid in class, Wes Jung, who is determined to pursue music after graduation despite his parents’ major disapproval. When his classmates clamor to buy the K-pop branded beauty products his mom gave him to “make new friends,” he sees an opportunity—one that may be the key to help him pay for the music school tuition he knows his parents won’t cover…

What he doesn’t realize, though, is that he is now V&C K-BEAUTY’s biggest competitor.

Stakes are high as Valerie and Wes try to outsell each other, make the most money, and take the throne for the best business in school—all while trying to resist the undeniable spark that’s crackling between them. From hiring spies to all-or-nothing bets, the competition is much more than either of them bargained for.

But one thing is clear: only one Korean business can come out on top.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean Flatiron Books

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.

In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.

Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?

On the Hook by Francisco X. Stork Scholastic Press

Hector has always minded his own business, working hard to make his way to a better life someday. He’s the chess team champion, helps the family with his job at the grocery, and teaches his little sister to shoot hoops overhand.

Until Joey singles him out. Joey, whose older brother, Chavo, is head of the Discípulos gang, tells Hector that he’s going to kill him: maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday. And Hector, frozen with fear, does nothing. From that day forward, Hector’s death is hanging over his head every time he leaves the house. He tries to fade into the shadows – to drop off Joey’s radar – to become no one.

But when a fight between Chavo and Hector’s brother Fili escalates, Hector is left with no choice but to take a stand.

The violent confrontation will take Hector places he never expected, including a reform school where he has to live side-by-side with his enemy, Joey. It’s up to Hector to choose whether he’s going to lose himself to revenge or get back to the hard work of living.

Enduring Freedom by Jawad Arash & Trent Reedy Algonquin Young Readers

On September 11, 2001, the lives of two boys on opposite sides of the world are changed in an instant.

Baheer, a studious Afghan teen, sees his family’s life turned upside down when they lose their livelihood as war rocks the country.

A world away, Joe, a young American army private, has to put aside his dreams of becoming a journalist when he’s shipped out to Afghanistan.

When Joe’s unit arrives in Baheer’s town, Baheer is wary of the Americans, but sees an opportunity: Not only can he practice his English with the soldiers, his family can make money delivering their supplies. At first, Joe doesn’t trust Baheer, or any of the locals, but Baheer keeps showing up. As Joe and Baheer get to know each other, to see each other as individuals, they realize they have a lot more in common than they ever could have realized. But can they get past the deep differences in their lives and beliefs to become true friends and allies?

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett Knopf Books for Young Readers

Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she’s equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She’s got this.

Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie’s world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn’t know whether she’s flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she’s in over her head.

One woman’s account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she’s reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn’t step up, who will?

[thebookwormfairy]

Maribat Buzzfeed Unsolved AU

Ok so another one. In this au there Marinette is not ladybug or Chat Noir she's just a regular civilian. If you wondering who have the miraculous right now it's a adult, because Marinette deserves to be a child also this takes place around the time Marinette is 16

Also warning lots of curse words used

This idea came from the Maribat Discord thanks to everyone there

********************************

Ever since Lila came to school Marinette has been more and more excluded from class events

Originally it was very rare, like we went to the movies and were going to invite you but then we remembered that you were helping your parents in the backery

We were going to invite you but then remembered you were babysitting

Weren't you working on a design for that contest

Then they stop making excuses and just posted pictures to their social medias

She tried to organize events but for some reason Lila always had something planned then and of course the class can't leave HER out of anything

It got to the point where the class only talked to her if they needed something

Oh Marinette I have a big race coming up can you make me a banner

Oh Marinette can you make some bake goods for me

Hey Marinette can you plan this school dance all by yourself with absolutely no help from us while if you ask for help we'll make you feel guilty about it

Hey Marinette can you babysit the Twins and Chris, when we're suppose to do it, for no pay, while we go out on a date.

It really sadden Marinette that her so called friends who for most she knew all her life only saw her as at most an employee

But there were some bright sides

Her grades where going even higher and now she's one of the top students at school

Marinette was able to put more time into training in self defense something you need with all the Akumas in Paris

And Sabine even taught her everything she knew about martial arts

She was able to study Mandrine (for her mom's family) and English (for Jagged and Penny) and had become almost fluent in both

Marinette had a lot more time to work on her designs

Jagged Stone started to hire her to make and design more and more items

Her business has even spread to Clara Nightingale

Which will really help her in her career later in life

But Jagged seemed to think that later in life was now

One day he asked to have a meeting with Marinette and her parents

Marinette just thought it was to commission another design, but like always Jagged had a way of surprising her

Jagged: Well you see I'm leaving Paris soon to head back to my home town of Gotham, and I was wondering if I could take Marinette with me

Tom, Sabine, and Marinette: WHAT?!?!

Penny: Let me explain, you see Marinette's designs are some of the most popular Jagged ever had, people love her work, and we want to make her Jagged's full time designer. It would be a great opportunity for Marinette's future and would put her on the fast lane to a great career

Sabine: But what about school.

Jagged: Don't worry Sabine, Penny's thought of everything

Penny: It's all taken care of. Gotham Academy one of the top schools in the world is ready to take her the moment she says yes, she would be staying in an apartment right next to Jagged, with all expenses paid for while still getting paid for her work, and of course she can come back and visit whenever she wants.

Tom: It sounds like a great offer, but can we discuss this in private for a moment

Jagged and Penny nodded their heads and left the room

Marinette: Mama, Papa, I really want to take this offer

Sabine: Are you sure honey? This is a big step.

Tom: Not to mention you would be all alone in a big city. What about your friends?

Marinette: I will miss my friends (or at least the old them) but when will I get an opportunity like this and I wouldn't be alone I'd have Jagged and Penny

With some more discussions the choice was made and Penny started making arrangement to move Marinette to Gotham City.

And before Marinette noticed she was settling in to her new life in Gotham city.

And already it was much better then her one in Paris

Her new school was great

She had a lot of great friends and even a boyfriend now Damian Wayne

They met on her first day, when she accidentally ran into him

It sounds crazy but it was like love at first sight

They didn't start dating right away, it would take a couple of months for Damian to ask her out, but Marinette couldn't be happier

So were his brothers who she met soon after becoming Damian's friend

Now whenever Marinette wasn't designing for Jagged or at school she was hanging out in Wayne Manor

Marinette already had a youtube channel but it really didn't have that much content. Until one day she decided to discuss a famous cold case with her boyfriend and get it on camera

The first case she told him was an Australian case called the man from Somertan Beach

It was a short video, with her talking about it with Damian, but halfway through the video Jason (who had been filming them) made one too many comments and Damian decided to just switch places with him

Marinette kept making videos with Jason as her cohost and Damian behind the cameraman

It was relatively popular but not to big until Marinette did a case about the supernatural

When she learned that Jason did not believe in it

They spent the whole video arguing over the ghost at the Cesil Hotel in LA

The videos blew up

Jason: I don't know old building are weird they make all sort if weird noises

Marinette: How does a house creaking sound like get out

Jason: Well nobody said weather this person is a credible witness or not

As the youtube channel got more popular Marinette and all the bat boys (all of them got dragged into helping with videos now) started to go to haunted locations during school breaks and when Marinette had breaks in designing for Jagged

The Winchester

Jason: Man this place is bigger than the manor

Marinette: well if you had to keep building to stop ghost from killing you, your house would be huge too

Jason: Wait is that why Wayne Manor is built so weirdly, Bruce is hiding from ghost

The Sally house

Marinette: Fuck this place omg we're all going to be killed by a demon

Jason: How can something that doesn't exist kill you

Jason: Hey demon come on kill me you mother fucker.

Damian (off camera): Jason stop freaking Marinette out.

Jason: Oh I'm sorry Marinette I was wrong. Demons do exsist, one is our camera man

At the bottom of the screen you can see Damian's middle finger

Marinette (to flashlight): Don't turn on don't turn on don't turn on

Flashlight turns on

Marinette: NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE MOCKED IT JASON!!!!

Joker's Hideout

Marinette: it said that this place is haunted by Joker's victims, or that it is possible that this place is infested by a demon who drove Joker mad and drove him to kill

Jason: Well that's convenient, you're a crazy murderous clown, it's all because of a demon.

Marinette: Keep it down Jason we don't know if the Joker is here right now or not

Damian: Wait the Joker might be here. Angel why did you want to come here then?

Marinette looking embarrassed: It was a good case.

Jason standing behind something making a grunting sound

Marinette walks by and sees him: AAAHHHH!! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE SOUNDING LIKE A FUCKING ZOMBIE.

Goatman Bridge

Jason: I'm dancing on your bridge Goatman it's my bridge now

Marinette: He is going to kill you

Jason: See this Goatman I disrespect your bridge. It's me and Marinette's bridge now

Marinette: Stop pulling me into you bullshit Jason!

Jason: If you're not apart of this then tell Goatman

Marinette: I'm not with him.

Jason: You're talking to Goatman now

Marinette: I see what you did there.

Jason: Hey we're here for the cult stuff

Jason to demons: Hey demons it me ya boy

The fans love the twos dynamic

They also love the random comments Damian would make from behind the camera every once and a while

Sometime between breaks in filming at a location Jason would get candid videos of Damian hugging Marinette

When they sleep overnight at places Damian would always sleep and cuddle with Marinette

The fans love it

And they ship it

One case as a joke is The Mystery of Marinette Dupen-Cheng

This one is Jason and Damian doing the video, while Marinette is away on a tour with Jagged Stone

Half of the video is actually stuff that Marinette does and can do that confuse them

They show a video of Marinette yeeting Jason out of the kitchen when he scared her once

Another video is of Marinette stealing Damian's sweatshirt while she passes him

Just one moment it's on Damian the next Marinette has it

A video of Marinette going head to head with Riddler

And her actually stumping him with one

The other half is just Damian gushing about his girlfriend

Damian: She is just the sweetest girl who deserves the world. I would gladly kill anybody who hurts her. She is just my Angel and I would do anything to make her happy.

It ends with Jason saying: Well that is the mystery of Damian's future wife, weather she's actually human remains unsolved.