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gizkasparadise · 5 years ago

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cdrama rec/review: le coup de foudre

KDRAMA AND CDRAMA MASTER LIST OF REVIEWS

Series: le coup de foudre / love at first sight / i don’t like this world, i only like you Episodes: 35 w/ a special Genres: then & now, slice of life, high school to adult life, romance, reunion/getting back together, working with the ex Spoilers in the Rec: for set-up/light ones for character backgrounds If You Like, You’ll Like: the reply series, sad-looking dogs that are loved very much, because this is my first life (VERY similar male lead), sibling love, my sunshine but if people were nicer and had significantly better hair, multiple couples that are all a lot of fun

Rank: 10/10

PREMISE

flashback to 6-8 years ago (because the OP here can’t remember lol): it’s desk selection day in qiao yi’s classroom! a very dramatic moment for all high schoolers, qia yi has to select who she sits next to. because she’s at the bottom of the class ranking, she gets last pick, which essentially narrows down her choices to that creepy kid who writes love poetry to every female student in the class and yan mo, the scary genius student who has placed 1st in their class since...forever.

taking a gamble, qiao yi goes with yan mo. yan mo eventually agrees to tutoring qiao yi outside of class and they become friends. then...friends? if you know what i mean. it’s very sweet and cute. only problem is that yan mo is both a genius and from a Family of Means, and so is already planning on attending cambridge (yeah, fucking cambridge) after graduation. not wanting to separate, yan mo asks qiao yi to come with him and she agrees to study hard so she can get accepted to a university in the UK, too.

but then, well, bad shit happened.

qiao yi ended up staying in their home town, yan mo left for cambridge, and we got two v heartbroken teenagers on our hands.

4 years later, yan mo returns after studying in the uk, and by chance they end up bumping into each other. angry because qiao yi hurt him, yan mo puts up an ALOOF AND COLD AND I DONT CARE AT ALL front that she sadly buys. but after he leaves for the big city to pursue a business opportunity, qiao yi harnesses some amazing big dick energy to go after him, in a sort of inverse DONT LET HER GET ON THAT PLANE! move. very abba.

the plot bounces between their (and their friends’) high school years, their lives as reunited adults, and their future lives as married folks. i love it very, very much.

MAIN CHARACTERS

zhao qiao yi

as a high schooler, qiao yi was a quiet girl with low self-esteem, who consistently ranked at the bottom of her class and was always attempting to retreat into her school tracksuit like a turtle. despite this, qiao yi has some solid friends and is always kind if somewhat shy or uncomfortable in certain situations. as a adult, qiao yi works as a television producer and is clearly more confident.

she buys truly awful graphic t-shirts as thank you gifts that one feels obligated to wear. falls for scams easily. will help you fold 1000 paper stars for your boyfriend even if she hates your boyfriend because she’s ride or die like that. look at how cute she is no one is allowed to be mean to someone as cute as this.

yan mo / “frank”

if you liked se hee in because this is my first life, you’re in luck because here is a 10% angrier version. at first, yan mo seems cold, aloof, snobbish, pretentious, arrogant...

okay, but he’s ALSO got a lot of feelings and will help people out. well, at the start of the show, he’ll help two people out. but that expands to like 10. so, progress! in high school, he falls for qiao yi in the typical Cannot Spit It Out fashion, buying her sentimental cans of coke, PUTTING IN ONE EARBUD SO SHE CAN LISTEN TO THE BEATLES WITH HIM, feeling Weird about her tying his tie, and single-handedly ruining a for-profit afterschool tutoring business in about 30 seconds, because they weren’t teaching qiao yi anything, and he knew he could do it better. tbh he completely fucking destroys a lot of things and people in under a minute. #ruthless

he’s very protective of qiao yi and rather than explain it, here is a clip from the special episode where yan mo confronts another student who left a love confession meant for qiao yi in his desk by mistake (subtitles have to be selected under settings, but it’s subbed in english):

youtube

zhao guan chao

zhao qiao yi’s twin brother, who has always placed 2nd in their classes after yan mo. despite his high grades, he comes off as a laidback teen heartthrob and has a reputation for being a flake and a playboy. BUT he’s legit a chill dude and clearly popular for a reason--he gets along with (almost) everyone. he loves his sister and is extremely protective of her, especially since she’s so shy and has low self-esteem for Reasons That Will Be Explained in the Tragic Backstory. he’s such a good brother. the best brother. also looks out for qiao yi’s best friend, wu yi. understands the value of shoes.

hao wu yi

qiao yi’s best friend, and another classmate of The Crew. i say this with so, so much love, but she’s got a lot of chaotic dumbass energy. struggling along the bottom ranks with qiao yi during high school. she has the worst taste in men as a teenager, falling for the guy who literally bullied her in like. ep 2. thankfully she’s got qiao yi and guanchao.

the trio are close, and that doesn’t change as they grow up. wu yi ends up becoming a novelist who writes pop and steamy romance novels and has a significant teenage girl fanbase. it’s amazing.

fei da chuan

my boy. another classmate, he, qiao yi, and wu yi make up the official Dumbass Trio of their high school class and have adorable adventures + solidarity in it. he’s also yan mo’s uncle. somehow. because rich people families are wild. while he’s got a place to live, he more often than not crashes at yan mo’s, who Does Not Like It. but da chuan does not notice or care.

abrasive but 100% sincere about everything and toward everyone. people will think he’s an asshole or a gangster but then he’s secretly feeding abandoned kittens in the corner or something. as an adult, has the best business casual outfits. serves as a big brother figure to a lot of people, but qiao yi in particular. cannot, cannot fucking do math.

SUPPORTING

“alicia” / cheng youmei. an old family friend of yan mo’s who is very posh and rich and dignified. studied abroad with him at cambridge, and is cold toward qiao yi after arriving back in china. cosplays B)

teacher gao. everyone’s high school teacher who later owns a bar that seems to be there only for dispensing advice. seriously. there is no way this bar is economically sound as the only customers you ever see are gao’s students coming in one at a time for Wisdom and you never see them pay for anything. also the bar has no fucking roof and is directly above traintracks. i have hang-ups about this bar

lin shu. yan mo’s mother. very sweet and pretty and a ballernia turned program director. is almost never home but clearly loves her son. du chaun’s sister. somehow.

zhao suyin. qiao yi and guan chao’s mother. one of her kinks is roleplaying condor heroes characters? okay okay okay

tian weimin. qiao yi and guan chao’s stepfather who works as police officer. best dad award. he’s so sweet and corny and peak dad humor. he loves them kids & they love him back

grandpa. yan mo’s dog in high school. a very old basset hound with sad eyes:

dollar or d. i cant tell you anything about him, other than he used to be a stray and yan mo says he’s ugly, which, rude.

DRAWBACKS

plot...hm. there’s SOME plot, but this is about characters + romance + friendship + family. if you’re looking for scheming mothers-in-law or tragic car accidents or secret destinies this isn’t the one for you. similar in vibe to Reply 1988 (they even watch the show in the show :’D / make references to it)

OKAY SO every plot summary i’ve seen says that yan mo is in a relationship with someone else when he gets back to china. no he is not. i say this because it was a huge turn off for me/initially put me off watching the series. he is definitely a one-and-only type. there’s no cheating in this show. lmao, hell, neither of the mains are even interested in anyone else but each other

i liked du chuan and his love interest a lot, but they definitely didn’t get as much screen time as the others

while it’s clear qiao yi + yan mo are the mains, another couple gets a lot of screen time as well. this might be a skip if you don’t like multiple couples/secondary relationships in a show

i surprisingly enjoyed the high school storyline a lot more than the adult one? which is super weird for me, but idk i was sad when it was over because it was so cute.

some...weird technical decisions. every once in a while, the camera will have like a nostalgia filter and then it disappears and then the edges get a bit blurry and idk it feels very film school 101 to show that what’s on screen is a ~memory. the soundtrack/music is sometimes also too loud--to the point where it can drown out the actors (particularly janice wu in the high school arc, since qiao yi is soft-spoken)

REASONS TO WATCH

the lead actors (janice wu + zhang yujian) are legit two of my favorites and they have great/easy chemistry. all the actors are amazing. everyone’s loveable

SIBLING GOALS the zhao twins are amazing and they’re both each other’s biggest fans. gaunchao had some really heartwarming brother moments

i love love lmao. this spoke to a lot of my favorite dynamics: exes reunited/having to work together, childhood sweethearts reuniting as adults, “gangster” and princess, childhood friends turned lovers, bickering couples, cold man who actually has a lot of feelings, lots of people being overprotective, idk. everything was just great. 0 complaints on any of the ships.

i genuinely liked every character other than that one piece of shit poppa zhao. even alicia, who’s put into the stereotypical rich bitch role, was actually really fun and subverted a lot of expectations for this trope

it’s just. real cute y’all. probably my favorite cdrama and definitely in my top 10 (maybe 5?) dramas overall.

FINAL THOUGHTS

i love them ;;

#le coup de foudre #janice wu #zhang yujian #eden zhao #ma li #cdrama #gizka does kdrama #!my post #why yes i am procrastinating please have another in this trying time #this one's my favoriiiiiiiiiiiiiiite

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voodoochili · 4 years ago

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My 75 Favorite Albums of 2020

Every year produces excellent music and 2020 was no exception. The exceptional thing about this year, though, is the loss of livelihood so many musicians suffered as a result of the pandemic. To better celebrate all I’ve listened to and loved this year, I’ve expanded my albums list from 50 to 75 albums and included a highlight track from each in the Spotify playlist below. If you like what you hear, why not throw the artist a few dollars on Bandcamp?

Check the Spotify playlist HERE.

Without further ado, my favorite albums of 2020. Happy New Year, and happy listening!

10. Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red: Carti’s long-awaited opus has only been out for a week, which is probably not a long enough time to give an album as sprawling and surprising as this one a full critical evaluation. But I do know when I’m hearing something that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard: this album rearranges hip-hop at the molecular level.

Whole Lotta Red is overstuffed with invention, the glitchy, expansive production giving Carti ample opportunity to glom onto the contours of the beat and experiment with his voice. That voice is the album’s main attraction: it squeaks, it squeals, it roars, it spits, it shudders, and organizes itself into irresistibly ignorant mantras (my current favorite is “Lamborghini parked outside, it’s purple like lean”).

Across its 24 tracks (which feels like too many, sure, but only the 5-minute long Kid Cudi-infected droner “Metamorphosis” overstays its welcome), Carti plays with listener expectations, annihilating rap songwriting conventions (why do you need verse-chorus structure if every line is a hook) as he defiantly proclaims his desire to be unlike anybody else. Though it bears some resemblance in sound and subject matter to Future’s Monster (and much of the production owes a debt to the work of Lil Uzi Vert’s favored Working Of Dying collective), Whole Lotta Red firmly establishes Carti as a totemic figure connecting mainstream and underground sounds.

9. BbyMutha - Muthaland: BbyMutha is a natural born spitter, armed with a drawly stutter-stepping flow that routinely annihilates unconventional instrumentals. She glows with supreme confidence and comfort in her own skin, especially when she’s dripping with disdain with those who’d dare refuse her the respect she deserves. A 25-track opus that earns every minute of its runtime, Muthaland is an engrossing immersion into Mutha’s world, balancing a fascination with the occult (“Sorry I don’t fuck with n****s who don’t fuck with Satan”) with grounding interjections from close friends and her four children. Boasting rockstar fantasies like “Heavy Metal,” bad girl anthems like “Nice Guy,” and dancefloor-ready jams like “Cocaine Catwalk,” Muthaland is a tour-de-force by one of rap’s singular voices, and if she’s really finished with music as she’s claimed (rappers never really retire, but Mutha has indicated she wants to focus full time on her Apothecary), the game will greatly miss her incisive punchlines and crudely empowering perspective.

8. Westerman - Your Hero Is Not Dead: In 2020, Mid-’80s sophistipop grew into one of my favorite comfort foods. Westerman’s Your Hero Is Not Dead struck me directly in the sophistipop sweet spot, evoking the attention-to-detail and synth-heavy craftsmanship of that era and pairing it with harmonic complexity and a piercing emotionalism that recalls his idol Neil Young. On songs like “Blue Comanche” and “The Line,” Westerman constructs tales as twisty as his melodies, economically exploring how people relate to each other at the beginning and end of romantic relationships. Westerman complements his tasteful palette of synth sounds with intricate and lyrical guitar playing, most notably on the sighing, gorgeous instrumental “Float Over,” which softly segues into the title track to end the album on a gently-rising high note.

7. WizKid - Made In Lagos: The focal point of the sub-Saharan Afrobeats renaissance, Lagos is having one of the most exciting musical moments of any city since Kingston in the early ‘70s. WizKid is one of the scene’s biggest stars, with an ability to combine the sonic tapestry of his hometown with Caribbean-influenced beats and vocal styles. Made In Lagos is a masterwork of sound design, bringing creamy bass, chicken-scratch speckles of guitar, tasteful interjections of saxophone and brass, and an intoxicating mix of acoustic and electronic percussion, all offered in service to an immaculate vibe that matches the album cover’s shiny, monochromatic color scheme. Made with lockdown in mind, the album eschews uptempo dancefloor workouts in favor of stress-relief and romance. WizKid plays the perfect host, tamping down his melodic flights of fancy and embracing a song-serving smoothness. He’s a warm and inviting presence throughout, laying out the red carpet for a cross-continental cast of collaborators like H.E.R., Skepta, Burna Boy, and Damian Marley. The result is a truly global pop masterpiece, capable of brightening even the dourest day of a miserable year.

6. Ka - Descendants of Cain: Firefighter by day and rapper/producer by night, Ka is a master of allusion. He organizes his thoughts into themed collections of metaphor, illustrating the bleak realities of street life with gnomic symbolism. On Descendants Of Cain, Ka’s strongest work to date, the enigmatic rapper expresses himself through a litany of biblical references, drawing parallels between ancient parables (he goes far deeper than the Cain/’caine double entendre that rappers have been using for decades) and the stark code of morality with which he lives his life. The 48-year-old hermit produced the project himself, creating an immersive sonic realm, crafting expansive, noir-ish backing tracks populated by late-night saxophones, sparkling pianos, and the occasional shot of sweeping strings. Once again, Ka’s music comes almost entirely without drums (certainly without “beats” in the traditional hip-hop sense–every once in a while, he adds an open hi-hat or a subdued shaker), the artist preferring to let his music swirl around his half-whispered words of wisdom. The album ends on a tearful, sentimental note with “I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev),” in which the artist ditches the biblical lyrical conceit and expresses his love for his wife, his mom, and his best friend atop light percussion and a warm soul sample.

5. SAULT - Untitled (Rise): Rise is the second part of a diptych that SAULT recorded in response to the movement that exploded in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Black Is, the first part, is a great album (you’ll find it in the lower reaches of my 2020 list), but the mysterious UK collective fulfilled their immense potential with Rise, a propulsive, powerful, and danceable album that doubles as a thought-provoking examination of the nature of freedom and liberation. The album tackles weighty topics–police violence, fake-woke “allies,” protest, cultural appropriation–but handles them with an inspiring effervescence and a propulsion meant to usher right-thinking people into the streets. The music itself is an intoxicating marvel, combining elements from every trendy musical movement from the early ‘80s (post-disco, post-punk, house, hip-hop, whatever the hell ESG was) into a percussive and surprisingly cohesive cocktail. The album immediately makes its greatness known with its first four songs, one of the strongest opening runs of any album in recent memory: the swaggering, funky, keep-your-head-up anthem “Strong,” which features a drum solo from SAULT architect Inflo, the soaring, club-ready vamp “Fearless,” concept-establishing, string-heavy interlude “Rise,” and especially “I Just Want to Dance,” the best song ESG never wrote.

4. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters: Fetch The Bolt Cutters arrived with the kind of universal acclaim that can make some people suspicious. The Pitchfork review got a lot of attention, not just for its perfect score but for its bold statement that “no music has ever sounded quite like it.”

That statement might’ve been slightly hyperbolic. Fetch The Bolt Cutters has the kind of propulsive left-hand piano figures, chest-thumping percussion, and impassioned vocal performances that we haven’t heard since...the last Fiona Apple album. But the album deserves its experimental reputation. These songs mess around with song structure and melody in ways that resemble avant-garde singers like Meredith Monk, use overlapping vocals that occasionally evoke the works of post-modern composers like Luciano Berio, and echoing modernist composers like Edgard Varese in the way she wrings pathos out of rhythmic elements.

Though Fetch might be a slight step down from The Idler Wheel, it’s an invigorating listen, packed with the soul-baring confessionals that only Fiona is capable of executing. Combining literary wordplay with plainspoken directness, Fiona forces the listener to confront her trauma and contemplate her diagnoses of patriarchal ills. The songs are uniformly excellent–especially opener “I Want You To Love Me,” the most “traditional” song on the record, and “Shameika,” a burrowing childhood rumination with a happy ending–but Fetch The Bolt Cutters stands out to me as a collection of amazing moments: when the jig-like “For Her” fades into an unforgettably painful cadence (“Good mornin’, good mornin’/You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in”), Fiona’s ground-shaking vocal intensity at the end of “Newspaper,” her dogs howling over the outro of “Fetch The Bolt Cutters,” the winking repetition of the title phrase on “Ladies.” Her albums display more than enough ambition to forgive the long gestation periods, but hopefully we won’t have to wait another 8 years for Fiona to bare her soul once again.

3. Drakeo The Ruler - Thank You For Using GTL: Embroiled in a Kafkaesque legal saga that shines a light on the worst aspects of our horrendous justice system, Drakeo The Ruler spent more than three years wrongly incarcerated for a crime he not only did not commit, but for which he was acquitted (for more info on Drakeo’s ordeal, read Jeff Weiss). He’s now mercifully a free man, mostly due to the work of his lawyer, but at least partially because of publicity generated by Thank You For Using GTL. Recorded over the phone from prison during the height of the pandemic, it’s a miracle that an album created under such sub-optimal conditions sounds as excellent as it does, but credit producer JoogSzn–who not only supplied the creeping, head-nodding backing tracks but recorded Drakeo’s phoned-in vocals–and engineer MixedByNavin for the project’s astonishing fidelity. Drakeo and Joog spent hours on the phone to record the album, in the process paying thousands of dollars to GTL, the predatory telecom company of choice for the L.A. corrections system, whose mechanical interjections serve as a constant reminder of the injustice that made the album necessary. Of course, a good story is a good story, but that alone doesn’t get an album on 2020’s most prestigious Best Albums list (mine). It’s a classic rap album, perhaps the best ever released by an incarcerated rapper, and a thumb directly in the nose of the D.A. and the LAPD. The album is a lyrical marvel, packed with winding wordplay and outlandish flexes, as Mr. Mosley takes aim at 6ix9ine, cackles at sorry-ass Instagram haters, and sneers at American-made cars (“To be honest, a Hellcat isn’t a foreign”). Each song has a carefully considered concept, the rapper’s punchlines building upon one another to make an airtight case for his status as L.A.’s top dog. He contrasts his own whip-crashing lifestyle with flashy wannabes on “GTA VI” and “Backflip or Sumn,” mourns a favorite department store on “RIP Barneys,” and proves he still doesn’t rap beef on “Maestro’s Tension.” The album’s masterstroke comes with “Fictional,” the final track, in which Drakeo exposes the prosecution’s use of his lyrics as evidence in criminal proceedings as the farce it is: “It might sound real, but it’s fictional/I love that my imagination gets to you.” Drakeo’s story was a rare bright spot in 2020, and a rare one with a happy ending. Just last week, the rapper released Because Y’All Asked, a studio-recorded version of Thank You For Using GTL, giving the album’s songs the clarity they deserve. But I think I’ll mostly return to the original, which will live on as an excellent album and a vital document of post-George Floyd America.

2. Pa Salieu - Send Them to Coventry: Hailing from the middle of nowhere–or, more accurately city in the English Midlands only known in the states for its middling Premier League team–Gambian-British artist Pa Salieu served up the most distinctive, visceral, and daring rap debut of the year. His style fuses elements of grime, drill, afro-trap, dancehall, and the darker edges of U.S. hip-hop into a percussive slurry, injected with the urgency of his struggle to survive. The magic of the album comes from the way Pa’s fluid flows interact with the shimmering and foreboding production (Felix Joseph and Aod lead the cast of the project’s sound architects), which is perfectly suited for cold city nights. He slips effortlessly into the pocket, toe-tagging the beats with a combination of aggression and trance-like meditation and uttering casually powerful pronouncements (“I'd make a killa riddim offa any riddim/The grind can never stop 'til I'm wrapped in linen”) that make you believe he’s Britain’s next great rapper. Pa keeps the vibe consistent throughout, but the moments that stand out are the moments when he locks into an unbreakable groove over no-frills production, like on singles “Block Boy,” “Betty,” and “B***K.” The artist’s wry sense of humor and brash confidence keeps the album from feeling bleak, but Send Them To Coventry wisely ends on “Energy,” a warm and bright ode to keeping your creative spark safe from the prying forces of fame and fortune.

1. Kassa Overall - I Think I’m Good: “I think I’m good”–a phrase that’s ran through my head throughout this shitstorm of a year. Sure, I postponed a wedding, cancelled trips, and saw my friends and family much less often than I would like, but I count myself among the lucky ones. Still breathing, still sane. Though it was recorded and released before the pandemic started, Kassa Overall’s I Think I’m Good became a lodestar of sorts for me. It’s a brilliantly introspective and deeply personal album about existing in enclosed spaces–whether a jail cell, an NYC subway car, or the inescapable prison of your own body.

Kassa Overall made his name as a jazz drummer, touring with icons like Geri Allen, but his solo music incorporates elements of hip-hop, classical, and trap to create a wholly original milieu. The album features contributions from over 30 accomplished voices, ranging from luminary Vijay Iyer, to Kassa’s saxophonist brother Carlos Overall, to virtuosic pianist Sullivan Fortner, to venerated activist Angela Davis. But all the disparate elements come together in service of Kassa’s deeply personal and engrossing vision.

Taking partial inspiration from Kassa’s struggle with manic depression, the music fluctuates between meditative calm and unbearable tension, mimicking the patter of an unquiet mind. Album opener “Visible Walls,” is a mesmerizing prayer for salvation soundtracked by fluttering harps, piercing woodwinds, and heartbeat percussion. “Find Me” buries a plea for help within a cacophony of sampled voices and rattling piano notes. Fortner’s piano guides us through the hauntingly devastating “Halfway House” and the Chopin-indebted “Darkness In Mind,” each highlighting a different stage of grief (despair and acceptance, respectively). The arc of I Think I’m Good concludes with the hopeful “Got Me A Plan” and “Was She Happy (For Geri Allen),” a Vijay Iyer-assisted tribute to his late friend and mentor.

It’s ironic that an album that so deeply explores the feeling of isolation vibrates with such a collaborative spirit. I Think I’m Good feels like an answered prayer–a community coming together to check on a beloved friend who’s gone through a tough time: “You good, man?” “I think so.”

Here’s the rest of my list.

11. Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind 12. Shackleton & Waclaw Zimpel - Primal Forms 13. Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways 14. Duval Timothy - Help 15. Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake 16. Moodymann - Taken Away 17. Secret Drum Band - Chuva 18. J Hus - Big Conspiracy 19. Headie One & Fred Again - GANG 20. Tiwa Savage - Celia 21. Andras - Joyful 22. Bill Callahan - Gold Record 23. King Von - Welcome To O’Block 24. Flo Milli - Ho, Why Is You Here? 25. Chubby & The Gang - Speed Kills 26. Madeline Kenney - Sucker’s Lunch 27. Empty Country - Empty Country 28. Smino - She Already Decided 29. Destroyer - Have We Met 30. Yves Jarvis - Sundry Rock Song Stock 31. Ela Minus - Acts Of Rebellion 32. Creeper - Sex, Death & The Infinite Void 33. Alabaster DePlume - To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals, Vol. 1 34. Good Sad Happy Bad - Shades 35. The 1975 - Notes On a Conditional Form 36. Kate NV - Room For The Moon 37. $ilkmoney - Attack of the Future Shocked, Flesh Covered, Meatbags of the 85 38. Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy and Happiness 39. Kenny Segal & Serengeti - Ajai 40. Bad Bunny - YHLQMDLG 41. Kahlil Blu - DOG 42. Califone - Echo Mine 43. Boldy James - The Price of Tea in China/Manger On McNichols/The Versace Tape 44. Bufiman - Albumsi 45. Moses Boyd - Dark Matter 46. Thanya Iyer - KIND 47. Jyoti - Mama You Can Bet! 48. Obongjayar - Which Way Is Forward? 49. Rio Da Yung OG - City On My Back 50. Young Jesus - Welcome To Conceptual Beach 51. Owen Pallett - Island 52. Oceanator - Things I Never Said 53. Shootergang Kony - Red Paint Reverend 54. Shabason, Krgovich & Harris - Philadelphia 55. Six Organs of Admittance - Companion Rises 56. Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia 57. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song 58. Polo G - The GOAT 59. Actress - Karma & Desire 60. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher 61. Porridge Radio - Every Bad 62. Yg Teck - Eyes Won’t Close 63. Mozzy - Beyond Bulletproof 64. Ratboys - Printer’s Devil 65. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages 66. Ulver - Flowers of Evil 67. Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA 68. SAULT - Untitled (Black Is) 69. Ezra Feinberg - Recumbent Speech 70. Davido - A Better Time 71. Hailu Mergia - Yene Mircha 72. HAIM - Women In Music Pt. III 73. Half Waif - The Caretaker 74. Key Glock - Yellow Tape 75. KeiyAa - Forever Your Girl

#kassa overall #pa salieu #drakeo the ruler #fiona apple #sault #ka #wizkid #westerman #playboi carti #bbymutha

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zoesrose · 4 years ago

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Intro to Humiliation | Zoe & John

Who: Zoe Rose and John Abrams ( @john-abrams )

When: End of January/Beginning of February 2021

Where: Intro to Humiliation Class & Zoe’s Suite

What: John approaches Zoe about doing a scene; she complies with humiliation in the form of pet play.

John Abrams

John definitely was enjoying his first week of class especially Intro to Humiliation. It had been a kink he had not thought about much, but when he saw it in a roster, it awoke a curiosity he had never considered before. The more he thought about it the more it intrigued him until it was all he could think about. He knew he had to sign up his first semester to see just what it was all about, and sitting in class he had to say it seemed just right for him. Of course, he should have expected sooner or later he would have to get some practical experience in a class like this, and when he noticed Zoe, he recalled the brief talk they had earlier that week. At the end of class on Friday, John made his way to Zoe hoping to catch her before she departed. "Miss? I don't know if you remember me, but we talked a very short time. I didn't realize we were in the same class until I saw you. Do you think you might be interested in getting some practical experience? I have to say the theory is fascinating and all, but I've never really put it to the test yet."

Zoe Rose

Zoe was looking forward to this class. She knew from early on that humiliation was one of her favorite kinks. Not many people agreed with that sentiment which made her look forward to this class even more. She was packing up after another day of lecture when she was approached by someone she didn’t recognize. She didn’t remember him, but he did approach her with respect and upfront about his intentions, which was the right foot already. Zoe crossed her arms and thought it over, nodding after a few seconds. “I don’t see why not. Do you have anything specific in mind?”

John Abrams

John relaxed a little as she seemed receptive to the idea. He had almost expected her to laugh in his face since she was the first person he had asked for anything like this. "I didn't have anything specific, Miss. I'm so new to this, and I'm only just learning about this kink. I was hoping someone a little more experienced might have a better idea of how to proceed."

Zoe Rose

"I see." Zoe expected as much, but that didn't stop her from asking for more input. She pursed her lips together and looked him over. "I wouldn't want to do anything sexual with you, but I usually start with something simple like pet play." She thought it over some more and there was a small glint of a smile as she went on. "Then I would bring in elements of objectification and degradation. How does something like that sound as a process?" She asked.

John Abrams

John stayed still as her eyes roamed over him giving her time to think. He had kind of put her on the spot which wasn't entirely fair, so the least he could do was not rush her. "I understand, Miss." He took a moment to think it over, reviewing what he knew of humiliation from their first week in class. "That sounds like a very reasonable process. I think that could definitely be a good start to my practical application of Humiliation Play." He was really glad he had gotten the courage to come to Zoe to talk to her. "I really appreciate your help with this, Miss."

Zoe Rose

"This Thursday." She offered. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing else for them to discuss at the present moment. "Before then you'll send me your limits and your safeword. You'll also send me which animal you resonate with the most." He was obviously a very sweet boy and someone willing to be humiliated, which was something she'd been dying to do. She was glad he approached her. "Understood?"

John Abrams

"Yes, Miss. Thursday." He made a mental list of his tasks which wasn't hard and gave another nod. "I understand. Thank you again, Miss." He didn't want to waste any more of her time so he quickly took his departure from the class. Sitting down, he marked his safeword 'Jehovah's witness' and he started making his list of limits. He wrote down the standard ones Bathroom Play, Gore, Vore, Mutilation, but he also wanted to make sure to list any topics about humiliation he might be uncomfortable with. The last thing he wanted was stop a scene because he failed to properly mark his limits. After thinking long and hard the only thing he could think of was small penis humiliation. He was plenty comfortable with his body, but that was the only thing that might give him pause and he'd rather they just stay away from it than worry about it knocking them out of their groove. Scribbling it down he made sure to elaborate he was fine with humiliation of any other part of his body. After that, he knew he loved puppies and imagined they were the animal he resonated with the most quickly scribbling it at the bottom. Making his way to her room, he handed it off and waited for their time on Thursday.

Zoe Rose

On Thursday, Zoe was ready for John. He'd given her his safeword, which she thought was odd, but didn't question it, and his limits, which she memorized. Before their time together, she purchased some puppy ears and a tail to get them both into the scene at a quicker rate. "Hello, pup," she greeted him, starting right off the bat with the pet name she'd be using for him for the duration of the night. After the review of the limits and safeword he'd already sent her, they were ready for their scene. "Good pup for getting all of that to me on time." She slipped the headband onto him and pinned the tail onto him as well before taking a step back and admiring the way he looked. "I will admit, you make a very cute puppy.

John Abrams

John could feel his nerves tingling in his finger tips as he reached her door. This would be his first proper scene with someone, not just some kinkier than vanilla sex. He was kind of glad sex was not part of the equation his first time doing this, giving him a better chance of staying focused on getting the proper experience. He smiled at her words, enjoying the way pup sounded coming from her. It was quite comforting and her words of encouragement were helpful to in shaking the last of his nerves off. He bowed his head for the headband, and held steady for the tail, never having worn such accessories before. "Thank you, Miss. I want to be a very good puppy for you." His hand reached to feel the softness of the ears. "Should I get on all fours, Miss?" He had never done pet play before, and even though that was not the focus of this Humiliation session he wanted to get it right.

Zoe Rose

This wasn't Zoe's first scene by any means, but pet play was not something she did often and she hardly ever scened with the opposite sex. But she was looking to expand her knowledge as a Dominant and this was the way to do that. He seemed like a good boy already, willing to bend and bow and most importantly to learn. That and the fact that he was so respectful made him the prime candidate to practice with. She nodded in response to his question and pointed to the floor. "Yes. For the remainder of this scene you will only be allowed to move around on all fours like the pup you are. And just like a puppy, you are only allowed to bark like a dog, eat and drink like a dog and use the bathroom like a dog." Moved into the kitchen, signaling for him to follow her. She'd already set up a dish that contained cereal and a bowl for water on the floor. "And in the bathroom there's a puppy pad for you." It was humiliating, but that was the whole point of this scene. "Are the rules and expectations clear? Bark once for no and two for yes."

John Abrams

John didn't hesitate to quickly get on his knees and hands. He always prided himself on being quick to obey and when she had been so generous to agree to do this scene with him, he made it a goal to be the best pet he could be. He listened carefully to the rules, thinking they seemed very reasonable. Following on her heel like an eager puppy, he looked at the doggie dishes in the kitchen. This was going to be quite the experience, and it was slowly sinking in just how well she had planned all of this. Leaning down he sniffed at the cereal curiously, taking a bite of it and chewed. It was pretty bland, if he had to guess cheerios, but he was hardly going to complain."Ruff, Ruff" He barked quickly sticking his tongue out with a smile on his face. He softly nuzzled her leg with his furry ear as thanks for taking the time to do this with him.

Zoe Rose

Zoe was willing to do this scene and was using it as a way to expand her knowledge and experience. But it wasn't until they were at this point in the scene where she was learning to appreciate this exchange on a more personal level. He was very willing and a quick learner when it came to her expectations. Not to mention, he did make a cute puppy and her affection only grew when he nuzzled against her leg. She smiled and leaned down to run her fingers through his hair over the band of the ears. "Good boy," she praised. "You're such a good boy." She led him back into the living room where there was a small basket of toys on the table. She pulled out a green ball and waved it in the air above where John was. "Do you want to catch the ball, like a good pup?"

John Abrams

John did really enjoy the praise he got from Zoe, the way it was framed as him being a pet being all the humiliation he needed for now. He hummed happily as she pet his head and ran her fingers on his head. "Ruff!" He said happily trying to convey his enjoyment with his bark as much as he could. He followed right at her heels ignoring the soft ache he started to feel on the hard floor. Looking up at the ball he grinned happily nodding his head and giving another happy bark. He did a spin of excitement on his knees trying to convey the zoomies he'd seen of other animals before. He had to wonder what people would say if they saw him acting in such a dehumanizing way, but that was the point. At least if he could be a good pet, and he'd try his very hardest to follow.

Zoe Rose

It was clear that John was completely in the right headspace for his current role, from the way he barked seamlessly to the adorable little spin he did to show his excitement. It earned him a genuine smile from Zoe as she continued to tease him with the ball in hand. She was thoroughly entertained and amused. She faked to the left then threw the ball to the right. "Go get it boy," she cooed, watching him chase after the ball. As he played, she sat on the couch, crossing her legs and holding her hand out to him. "Come on, boy. Bring me the ball."

John Abrams

John was so happy to see the woman smile since he hadn't seen her smile very often in their brief time together. John was almost embarrassed to admit he was almost tricked by her fake throw, taking him a moment longer to realize he didn't miss it. He crawled as quickly as he could to chase after the ball almost using his hand to reach for the ball, but recognized his mistake and tried to pick it up with his mouth. It was a little bit awkward trying to get used to opening his mouth so wide, but after a few tries he was able to get it and he quickly turned around to return it to her. Dropping it in her hand, the grinned as he sat on his hind legs again.

Zoe Rose

Zoe was patient by default and it was especially evident in moments like this, where John needed a little extra time to get into the headspace and have his body cooperate with the scene. She was perfectly content just watching him and she smiled once again when he finally made his way back to her and dropped the ball in her hand. "Good boy." She cooed once more before running her fingers through his hair and over the ears. "Now, lay," she commanded.

#john #para: john #para: intro to humiliation

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carlisle980 · 5 years ago

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Just Dance

It’s still Bangtan Day here in the US, and I did something I never imagined I’d do. I wrote Bangtan fic. I haven’t posted it anywhere, because ff.net is where the bulk of my work is but there’s no Bangtan archive there, and while I do all my reading on AO3, I haven’t posted there in years. I can, if the consensus is that it’s a good idea.

Anyway ... here it is. Apologies to the usual crowd. Well, more like, sorry ... not sorry. I love all my old faves. And BTS too.

+++++++

Hey, dance with me dance with me Any kind of bounce is fine, dance with me Where are you from, why are you dancing A natural conversation, say something —J-Hope, “Trivia: Just Dance”

She stands in the center of the cold grey floor feeling small and overwhelmed and old. The studio looks the same as it did twenty years ago, when she spent eight hours a week here. In this very space. Learning. Her horizons expanding. Experiencing a world that made her heart pound with expectation. The sky seemed the limit then.

It smells the same. That combination of sweat and disinfectant with a hint of central air conditioning that she’ll forever associate with this room, with this craft. She couldn’t believe her luck when the question of using the space was as easily answered as it had been half her life ago. Now, as then, all she had to do was ask the director. Is there a chance I might use the studio sometime, when there are no classes and the company doesn’t need it?

It was easy to come by, but that doesn’t mean she can have the space indeterminately, she reminds herself. There’s no grand objective to her being here; she just wants to see if there’s still the same pull. The fascination, the exhilaration. Why, precisely, is a question she cannot answer.

She’s thinking too much, and that won’t do. She plugs her phone into the studio’s sound system and turns on a playlist she works out to at home. It’s high-energy, if eclectic. Avicii is on there. OneRepublic, Maroon 5. “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson and a bunch of vintage Art of Noise. Those are there because they were part of her teacher’s playlist back in the day. Her German-born teacher, a former student of Gus Giordano; a geologist-turned-dancer whom she idolized to the extreme. Sigh. Those were the days.

Knowing it isn’t wise to just start dancing cold, she tries to remember how they used to warm up in class. What a dumb thing not to recall, given that she was advanced by the time she stopped. School loans and weddings don’t pay for themselves, after all, and once she had her degree she could no longer justify the indulgence. Putting off adulthood to linger at the college and take dance classes, to no particular end. So she’d got herself a big girl job out in the real world. One with a salary and health insurance and, in time, a corner office with windows and a door they let her shut so she could concentrate. Pretty sweet gig for a twenty-year-old. Sweet enough that she and her husband had bought their first home —in the overpriced Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area of the early 2000’s, no less— when she was 24. Sweet enough that by the time she left to have their first child, she was making enough that she could’ve bought a Mercedes. If, you know, that had been her priority over becoming a mother.

In the absence of any grand recollection, she sidles up to the barre and starts with the basics. Plié, relevé, plié with a push through to relevé. Relevé down into plié. Coupé, frappé, dégagé, rond de jambe. She puts a leg up on the barre and leans sideways towards it: first one, then the other. Wiggles her shoulders a little, rolls out her lats on the foam roller. Back flexibility is a tough thing but she’s working hard. It’s better than it’s ever been, and compared to other people that’s not saying much, but for her it’s the hallmark of progress.

That’s warm enough, right? You’re really not supposed to stretch before dancing. Cold muscle is shorter and more likely to tear, and all that. The music continues to play and she progresses to chaîné turns. This is where she begins to get frustrated. It’s the same story as it was all those years ago: she can turn to her left well enough (though spotting still doesn’t work the way it should, as evidenced by the room spinning when she stops), but turning to the right is an exercise in futility. She under-rotates and falls out of the turn and no matter how slow she goes, it doesn’t improve. It’s the same with fouettés. Pirouettes in the center go a little better, but she only lands a double once or twice out of several dozen attempts. She practices those turns from modern class that her teacher never had a name for and always referred to by sound effects, like the sound you’d make if you were suddenly punched in the stomach because that’s the mechanism: a core contraction into a spin, propelled by gravity. There was a lot of that, dancing under Lena. Sounds and gestures filling in where words failed. Those turns are still her favorite; they look pretty without the dancer having to do much besides knowing when to work with gravity and when to resist it. That’s why modern was always her preferred style: it doesn’t take a perfect body to finesse the principles of contract and release, of fall and recover.

Little by little she begins to pull things from memory: a crazy penché-drop-spin from advanced modern class that was easy when she was nineteen and is significantly less so now; bits of the Ailey-inspired choreography they learned one semester. She is struck out of the blue by the same desire that characterized her girlhood. Whenever she would encounter a large swath of open floor, her first instinct was always to leap across it. But she knows that one doesn’t simply grand jeté indiscriminately when one has not done so for the better part of two decades. Despite Kathryn Morgan’s advice to just sling the front leg out there and go for it, she holds back. She’s already come back from a groin tear once; never again, thank you very much!

The music decides for her what will happen next when it begins playing “Black Swan.” She hauls herself to the center of the floor in what she imagines is a comedic fashion and gets herself into position.

From there it just flows. She feels it, the struggle of which Martha Graham spoke; the one that inspired the song. It’s all too real for her.

A dancer dies twice; once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.

She’s danced this piece a thousand times in the privacy of her bedroom, and she nails every count, trying to make it expansive, to fill the vastness of the studio.

Killing me now, killing me now. She has felt that. The despair, the slow death of a precious part of her soul when she’d given up her dream in favor of security. She doesn’t speak Korean —not yet, anyhow— but she’s taken every syllable to heart, knows what each one means.

Sinking slowly like in a trance nah, nah, nah Struggle but it's all ocean floor nah, nah Every moment becomes eternity yeah, yeah, yeah Film it now, film it now Do you hear me, yeah

She’s breathing hard by the end. Tears are streaming down her face and she hadn’t even been aware she was crying. Oh, my God, what was that? That was … like a religious experience. Why did I ever give this up? Why did I let go of me?

It’s as she’s wiping the tears away with the back of her hand, taking gulps from her water bottle like she’s spent the last year in the desert, that she becomes aware she is not alone.

Her head snaps around sharply when someone clears their throat and she gasps. There, seated on the bench above the cubbies where students stash their bags, is none other than the Jung Hoseok. He is barefoot, sitting with his legs criss crossed, in an orange t-shirt and blue shorts, pushing a hand through his dark hair like she’s seen him do countless times on YouTube.

Surely, she’s dreaming. Because she has dreamt of situations like this, both literally and metaphorically. Many times. But in dreams, be they the daytime variety or at night, she never sees him blink, or hears him breathing. But nothing about this makes sense. What is Jung Hoseok of BTS, arguably the world’s busiest man, who cannot walk to get coffee in Seoul without being mobbed by stampeding multitudes, doing here? In the States, on the campus of a community college, and, by all appearances, alone?

Even if he is real, it isn’t as if she can ask him. She knows his English is getting better and better as time goes by and BTS’ influence in the West continues to balloon. But where he can speak a bit of her language, she only knows random words in his.

Still. They’re staring at one another now, and she feels incredibly rude. He can’t be a dream, because he’s infinitely more beautiful in real life than even the best photographs have made him out to be. All angular, with impossibly long lashes, and yes, there’s that adorable mole just above his top lip.

“You’re very good,” he says suddenly, breaking the silence, and isn’t that just characteristic of him? “Dance was … wow.” His accent is heavy but his meaning is clear. And oh, that smile. He really is the sunshine incarnate.

She wants to brush off the compliment, to explain to him that maybe she was good, once upon a time, but now she’s just somebody’s mom. But she doubts it would be easy for him to understand. She wrinkles her nose, shakes her head almost imperceptibly. “I …” she stammers. She’s talking to Jung Freaking Hoseok —WHAT?! “First time really dancing in many years.”

He smiles again. “Really good,” he repeats, nodding his head for emphasis. “Serious.”

She’s not sure whether he’s saying that she looked serious while dancing, or that he’s serious about her doing well, but either way. If anyone knows the inner workings of the “Black Swan” choreography, the sentiment behind it, it is this man.

“Thank you,” she says softly, her cheeks hot. “I love Black Swan.”

There’s so much she wants to ask him. Why are you here? Are you traveling alone? Are there security guards outside the door ready to handcuff me to a lamppost? Because I asked the program director if I could use the studio and she said yes! But the language barrier would make it impossible, and anyway, isn’t there some saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? She hasn’t taught that one to her kids, but she’s pretty sure her grandmother said it to her at some point.

He smiles once again in response to what she said about “Black Swan” and makes a short humming sound in the back of his throat. “I’m Hoseok,” he says in perfect English. “Hobi.”

She almost laughs aloud. As if there was any possibility she wouldn’t know who he was. But then, hasn’t that been one of the things she’s loved best about him from the start: his humility.

So she introduces herself, and he bows from his seat and tries out her name. It’s adorable. And now she knows the answer to one of those questions she just figured she’d ponder for eternity: her name falling from his lips sounds like angels singing.

“Dance with me?” he asks as he rises from his seat and holds out his hand to her.

If this is a dream, please don’t wake me up.

‘You don’t understand,’ she almost says. ‘You’re … you, and I’m old. I don’t pop and lock, unless you wanna talk about my hip joints when I try grand battement. I don’t b-boy. Modern’s all I’ve got.’ But how many times has she said it: My dream is to dance with Hobi for a day. What kind of absolute idiot would she be to pass up an opportunity like this?

So she says, “I would love to.” And means it more than she’s meant anything since she said ‘I do,’ as a twenty-year-old kid. Nineteen years, two houses, three children, countless ups and downs later, and look how that turned out. Sometimes good things just happen.

She was already warm, but since he isn’t, she stretches when he does, and now it’s safe to stretch hip flexors and hamstrings and they definitely need it. He watches her a little. She watches him a lot. Sometimes he copies what she’s doing, as if there’s anything she could possibly know that he doesn’t. He does these crazy boneless things, dropping to his knees and seemingly floating back up to stand, and she just shakes her head. It looks even more effortless —and even more impossible— in person.

She whips out the chaîné turns again. Her good side, of course. She can fake spotting well enough to make it from one corner to the opposite pretty quickly.

“Oh!” he exclaims. “Like Jimin!”

She giggles. “I wish!” she says, and watches as his expression turns to a question mark.

“Wish?” he asks.

How to explain? “My style?” It comes out as a question because she wants to be sure he can follow.

He nods, so she continues.

“My style, like Jimin’s style. But Jimin … WOW. Me? Just okay.” She makes the hand gesture that means ‘so-so,’ because some things are universal, right?

He laughs, shaking his head. “Aish! No, no, no. Not ‘just okay.’ Very strong. Very …” He thinks for a moment, and there’s another question answered. Pensive Hobi is breathtaking. “Very … grace?”

She is floored. “Graceful?” she asks. He nods emphatically. “Me?”

“Yes, yes, yes! Arms.” He gesticulates wildly with his own. Which, she knows, he would do even in the absence of a language barrier. “Pretty.”

How can she tell him she’s not built like a dancer, that that knowledge has always made her feel heavy and ungainly? That she’s always wanted to be tall and delicate, like him. “My back.” She gestures behind herself. “My spine?” BTS have a song called “Spine Breaker,” even if they call it something else, so maybe it’s a word he knows.

He nods again, echoing, “Spine.”

She reaches into her bag for a pen and paper and draws a likeness of her spine, double curves and all. “Not straight,” she explains, handing the sketch to him. “Makes dancing hard.” It affects everything. I can’t turn properly; I have no extension. My hips are a mess. Every time I lift my leg it clicks.

“Hurts?” His eyes are soft, his expression sympathetic.

“Yeah,” she answers. “Yeah, sometimes. But dance makes it better.” Ironic, right?

“Keep going,” he says with finality. Insistent. Like he’s solved every mystery of her life.

Perhaps he has. He’s only been witness to a half hour out of her entire existence, but in that short time he’s seen a side of her that few others have. He’s watched her dancing, smiling, throwing herself full-force into something she loves. Maybe she never got to perform. Maybe she gave up on training to become a dance teacher. But if dancing makes her feel this level of satisfaction, how can she afford not to give it a prominent place in her life?

She studies him for a long moment. Does she dare ask anything of him? She answers that question with another: will she ever have an opportunity like this one again?

“Hobi?” she ventures timidly. He nods. “Teach me?”

“Yeah!” He says it like it’s a forgone conclusion.

“DNA?” She’s never been able to work that one out on her own.

He grins in answer.

They spend the next hour speaking the universal language of dancer and choreographer. “Pah! Pah! Pah!” “Five, six, seven, eight!” She gets on the wrong foot a time or two, turns and collides with him once, all of it to gales of laughter from the pair of them. He corrects her body position and he’s hands-on but ever the consummate gentleman, and by the time they stop she knows the entire choreography well enough that she can perfect the rest at home.

All too soon it’s over. “I have to go,” she explains sadly, pointing to the schedule on the director’s office door. It’s printed in English, but he gets the gist. There’s a class coming in soon; her time is up.

They sling their dance bags over their shoulders at the same time and it results in another shared laugh.

“Hobi,” she says at the door, “thank you.” There’s so much more she wants to tell him. As long as I live, I’ll never forget this. You’re my favorite dancer. You’re a legend.

“Don’t stop,” he tells her in a tone of voice that brooks no argument, squeezing her hands in both of his own. “Always dance, friend.”

When she performs “DNA” with the company the following semester, she dedicates it to him.

#ejb writes #uncharted territory #fanfic #bts #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #bangtan boys #hobi centric #jhope #j-hope #hoseok #jung hoseok #dance fic #just dance #jimin is mentioned #hobi is my love #what can i say #bangtan day

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thethespacecoyote · 6 years ago

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All this talk of candy and such made me want to write this. I would love to do some more food-related fics soon and I have more ideas planned!

Also on ao3.

“This better be worth my time, Ren,” Hux doesn’t even bother to look up from the holoprojecter when the other man sweeps into his office, too engrossed in his work. Ren says nothing, walking right up to the desk and switching off the image with a wave of his hand. Hux protests, glaring up at him with a reproach on his tongue, only to falter as Ren places something atop his desk.

“Here.”

Hux’s eyes fall to the item, narrowing as he takes in the sight of a small translucent package wrapped in gauzy gold ribbon. Inside he can see two large, smooth lumps, covered in glistening chocolate and topped with flecks of orange.

“What is the meaning of this?” Hux scowls, using one finger to push the gift away from him, back towards Ren’s side of the desk.

“I’ve seen you eating those rolls of terrible, chalky candies when you think I’m not looking.” Ren grimaces. “They’re awful. What kind of person enjoys flavors like clove and bitter lemon?”

“You interrupt my work to judge me on my choice of sweets?” Hux fumes, annoyed that Ren has tried to distract him with something so petty. They’re fighting a war. There’s far more important matters to attend to.

“No. I thought I might try to expand your taste.”

Hux wrinkles his nose. Beyond the ludicrous nature of such a gesture, an overly familiar breach between co-commanders that barely tolerate one another��he’s quite content with his current appreciation of sweets. He doesn’t like food that’s cloying and heavy, the way Ren apparently does.

“I don’t need to expand anything. Certainly not my waistline.” Hux gestures vaguely at Ren’s middle. “Shocking you keep such a trim figure if you’re constantly indulging in things like this.”

Ren laughs at him.

“If you think calling me fat will put me off, General, you’re mistaken. I’m not going to leave until you try one.”

Hux almost laughs too, at the absurdity of the whole situation. He doesn’t know what Ren’s endgame could possibly be, what he could gain from watching Hux eat one of his indulgent treats. Surely he wouldn’t be so bold as to try to poison the general in his own office? No, that wasn’t like him—Ren didn’t go for the sneakier, more underhanded methods of assassination. If he wanted to kill Hux he’d merely crush his throat or snap his neck, not wait for poison to take its effect.

But even if the sickly little confections aren’t dangerous, Hux still doesn’t want to eat them. But perhaps he can maneuver Ren into a position to make him concede, play on the other man’s discomfort.

“If you want me to eat them, you’re going to have to do it. I won’t lift a finger myself.” Hux folds his arms over his chest, lips twitching snidely.

He expects Ren to leave then, forget his foolish sentiments lest he degrade himself by feeding the general. But to his surprise Kylo begins to unwrap the little package, taking the seat in the chair across from him.

Hux’s lips part in surprise, ready to back down from his assertion but his pride holds him back, even with the looming threat of the decadent treat now cradled in Ren’s clothed fingers.

“Fine. Open up.”

Hux leans in slightly, making Ren stretch his arm over the width of the desk to reach him. His eyes almost cross as they focus on the confection in Ren’s hand, the odor of chocolate and sugar already permeating his nose. He sticks out his lower lip, trying his best not to look too petulant but he can’t help it. He doesn’t want to try it, but he can’t back down now, even as strange feelings brew in his stomach when the treat touches his lips.

Hux smells sweat and ozone on Ren’s glove, enough to make him nearly pull back in distaste, but before he can do so Ren pushes the sweet into his mouth and Hux—rarely than risk more indignity trying to refuse it—instead bites down through the thick layer of chocolate ganache.

To Hux’s surprise its inside is cold, filled with lightly flavored cream. He detects a faint hint of indeterminate citrus as he chews, trying to keep his expression neutral as to not allow Ren to think he’s enjoying his silly treat. But…well, it’s not awful. Far too sweet and heavy, and Hux knows his stomach will make him pay for it later, but he doesn’t feel the need to spit it out, much as he might relish in Ren’s reaction.

“It’s….passable.” Hux states, furrowing his brow at the other man’s smug expression. “Passable. I said passable, Ren.”

“I know what you said.” The smirk only grows. Right. Hux forgets that he’s a damned mind-reader sometimes. He rolls his eyes with a huff, before opening his mouth once again.

“You want more?”

“I. Well.” Hux shuts his lips, puzzled. “I was expecting that you’d want me to eat the entire thing.”

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to get you to muster more than one bite. But if you want to, General, then by all means—“

“Just be quiet. And finish what you started, so I can go back to work.” Hux parts his lips, welcoming the rest of the treat into his mouth, eager despite himself for another taste of its decadent cream.

Much to his embarrassment, Hux ends up finishing both confections, and though he’s sure his digestion will revolt against them later, he feels oddly satisfied. Ren too looks pleased with himself, which is less assuring, but at least he takes his leave after Hux finishes his “gift.”

The next cycle, he finds a similar pair of treats sitting innocently on his desk, and despite himself Hux can’t find the heart to throw them away.

#spacetext #kylux #long post #fanfic #sw #fluff #this is very ooc for a canon setting but? i had fun with it

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oneunicornaway · 6 years ago

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Date Night

I did the whole spiel once already, but the gist of it is: Jupeter date. Heist. Mafia. Juno is a badass, and Peter is horny.

Thanks a lot to @chyww, @tackyjackpack, and @tinyplanetss for the emotional support, willingness to correct my grammar at times, and general awesomeness <3 <3 <3

This is pretty long and might be better on AO3

"I promise you, Juno, that this will be the best date anyone has ever taken you on."

Juno had sputtered and fidgeted and had been damn close to hanging up the phone right then, but in the end he couldn't deny that the idea of having Peter Nureyev, best thief in the galaxy, concentrated only on him for one whole night, was a very enticing one. Which is why he had listened to Nureyev when he had given him a time and place and had accepted to 'dress up a bit'.

It's not exactly that he regretted it... not really, it's just that he felt utterly ridiculous clad in his favorite jumpsuit and jacket and light make up, as he waited at the corner of Fitzgerald and 6th.

Just as he was considering leaving, date be damned, or at least removing his earrings, to feel a bit less out of place, someone came up behind him. Without thinking, Juno turned on himself, fist at the ready, only to strike at empty air, merely displacing a bit of Peter Nureyev's hair with the movement.

The thief's smile was wide and amused. Juno's heart missed a bit.

"I'm happy to see you're as vigilant as ever, Juno."

His movement was slow but sure as he approached Juno, and the PI was torn between slapping the smile off his face and leaning into his embrace.

Peter's hand curled around his waist and Juno considered the fact that no one cared if he spent his life smooching Peter Nureyev's face off. Nureyev made the kiss last and linger and yet he couldn't get enough of it. It felt as though the world stopped every time the thief kissed him, was near him, as though Juno could feel the universe expand outwards, as if suddenly, he wasn't only Juno Steel, former garbage cop, beat detective and one-eyed loser. Peter Nureyev made him feel as though there was more to Mars, more to the stars above that didn't shine through the dome, and Juno didn't ever want it to stop.

Peter gently ended the kiss, and it took Juno some efforts not to cling to him. Nureyev didn't seem to have the same reserves, and he let his hand linger in Juno's hair, lightly caressing his cheek with his thumb.

"I missed you."

"Yeah... I... me too."

Feelings were dumb and he had a lot of them. Benzaiten would have made so much fun of him.

Peter let his hand fall to take Juno’s.

"Shall we?"

"Sure."

As it was, Juno wouldn't have minded staying alone with Peter Nureyev in a random, dark street. Here, besides the thief's side, the shadows seemed almost welcoming. But Nureyev had promised a wonderful date, and Juno Steel didn’t get many of those, and so he was rather curious of what the thief had imagined for him.

"So, what adventures have you been part of lately? My wonderful detective."

Juno scoffed.

"I don't think I would call them 'adventures'. The life of a PI is not as interesting as it sounds, you know."

Nureyev smiled fondly and pressed lightly on his hand, making a soothing motion with his thumb that left Juno’s skin tingling with heat.

"I beg to differ, considering our history together - Nureyev sounded positively gleeful at being able to say 'our history'. Besides, as long as it's about you, I wouldn't mind hearing boring stories."

That was... annoyingly smooth.

"Well then, brace yourself for the riveting story of the thousand cheating spouses, with a side of tax evasion and one very badly executed museum heist."

Nureyev chuckled, and Juno went on to tell the preposterous story of one cheating wife, who had managed to put together a whole scheme to keep the identity of her famous lover a secret.

As he talked, he could feel the tension leave his body, Nureyev's presence going from a burning furnace to reassuring fireplace embers, which warmed him up to the core without burning his skin. He was halfway through explaining the extensive mailing system he had found out, the key to solve the case, when they arrived at their destination.

"I have a reservation for Duke and Dahlia Rose." Announced Nureyev, seemingly completely at ease with suddenly taking up Duke Rose’s personae.

After the internal roller coaster that the names provoked in Juno - Nureyev never gave his name in public places, and Juno got an alias most of the time as well, but Duke and Dahlia were married and it always felt as though Nureyev was pushing him over an edge of sentimentality that he wasn't ready to cross by himself - he took in the place Nureyev had brought him in. It was a restaurant, and despite being in one of the shadiest part of town, it seemed to be rather upper class. The walls were richly decorated with dark red hangings and some precious looking vases on their own small tables. The restaurant was only half-full, and the people already seated wore discreetly rich clothes and pieces of jewelry, a rare occurrence in Hyperion city, where people either showed you how poor they were, or fled you for not being rich enough.

There were a few waiters, but they didn't seem to be entirely overcome with their clients. One of them didn't even seem to take care of any of them, and was instead carrying some boxes to the kitchen. Apart from the mild murmur of ongoing conversations, the place was eerily calm. There was no yelling bartender, no singing group of drunk friends, no drunkard by the bar and no greasy meat that looked like it had spent four year in a cryogenic fridge. This was a place for Duke and Dahlia Rose, world class thieves and art collectors.

Juno felt like a fly on the wall.

"Do you like it, love?" Asked Nur... Duke Rose after Juno had absentmindedly followed him to their table.

"Um? Yeah, sure."

Was this the best date ever Nureyev had promised him? Did he think he liked this? Worse, did he expect him to like this? To be just as elegant and refined as a Dahlia Rose?

There was a pit in his stomach, growing by the second, and it tasted like bitter disappointment.

The same waiter passed by them, hefting once again an unlabeled package, and paying them no mind.

Wait.

Juno followed the waiter with his eyes, until he disappeared in what didn't quite look like a proper restaurant's kitchen.

What.

He lowered his eyes to his menu. At first glance it seemed like a normal menu for a restaurant of this kind. Looking closely however, there wasn't much choice for such a refined place, and a good third of the dishes were annotated in pencil with notes that indicated they weren't served at the time, or that the kitchen didn't have one ingredient anymore. All in all, Juno was growing increasingly more convinced that this place wasn’t, in fact, what it pretended to be.

Juno looked up at his companion. Duke Rose had one elbow resting on the table, cupping his face in one hand as he smiled up adoringly in the perfect picture of an enamored idiot. And below that surface, Juno could see the sharp edges of Nureyev's enjoyment.

What a beautiful bastard.

"Duke, darling" Juno said, trying his best Dahlia's voice, "who did you say owns this restaurant again?"

"Oh, a very respectable constable of Hyperion city, love. Their name is Rosamund Lorland I believe."

Of fucking course.

Peter wasn't restraining himself much anymore, offering a smug smile that made Juno want to strangle him. He settled for kicking him under the table, but it seemed the thief had anticipated the move, and his foot only met air.

"Good evening."

A waitress interrupted Juno's attempts, looking young, sweet, and ready to murder for a pay raise.

"What can I get you tonight? Do you want to start with some drinks?"

Before Juno could say anything, Duke Rose ordered what seemed like a full menu for himself and Dahlia. As he said the last part of their order—some kind of "boeuf bourguignon", whatever that meant—the waitress' demeanor changed. It was subtle enough that Juno only caught it because he was still looking at her, but her eyes focused, and her stance adjusted slightly.

"I'm sorry, but this order is no longer available. The shipment for the ingredients of the dressing is late."

They even had a decent excuse. Peter had not only led him to a front, it was even a good one.

Charming as ever, Duke did not back down, insisting instead.

"Surely, something can be arranged? I promised my husband he would get to taste this delicacy you are known to provide."

Juno ignored the sudden drop in his stomach to try a Dahlia smile at the waitress. She looked defiantly at the two of them, but ended up conceding:

"I'll try and talk to my manager, see what he can do."

She left, and Juno went back to glaring at his so-called husband. Peter smiled sweetly and it took a lot of effort for Juno not to leap over the table and commit marital violence

"There are no bugs in here, so you can talk freely as long as you make sure that you look as charming as ever." Peter finally said, with a small, fond smile that was as much his as it was Duke's.

"What the hell, Nureyev?!" Juno tried to keep up a Dahlia smile. "First of all, I thought this was supposed to be a date. Second of all, if this is one of your heists, I will actually turn you in this time, and faster than you can say my name. And last but not least, why the hell did you just give the mafia a good reason to kill us both?!"

Peter Nureyev, because he was a scheming, lying bastard, didn't have any problem keeping up his persona as he responded.

"Well then. To respond in kind, here are my points. First of all, this is a date. Did you really think I expected you to be satisfied with a boring dinner and a quiet evening? I did say it was going to be wonderful, and I know how much you like solving mysteries and being a hero, especially with your recent string of boring affairs, and so I delivered."

Damn that bastard, but he... wasn't exactly wrong. Despite Juno's annoyance, this was more interesting than a simple dinner. Peter obviously saw the resignation in Juno's face because he gave him a smug eyebrow waggle, disguised as Duke presenting the jug of water to Dahlia. Juno grumpily went back to glaring and Duke served him some water before resuming the conversation.

"Second of all, this is... well, this isn't only a heist." For the first time, Peter seemed somewhat bashful and Juno straightened to give him a piece of his mind. "But, love," - that man knew how to silence him much too well - "Rosamund Lorland is, I believe, a very dangerous man, and his recent drug deals are on the brink of starting a war with the Triads. I do believe this little... adventure could give us what you need to convict him. As for turning me in..." Peter offered a sly smile "I think we both remember how that turned out last time. And while I wouldn't exactly mind, I think we both can think of better ways to spent our late evening... don't you?"

Juno could feel his cheeks burning up. There was more he wanted to ask, more questions Nureyev had to answer to, but by the time he was recovered, the waitress had turned up again.

"The manager wants to see you. Come with me please."

Juno stood up at the same time as Peter, and the waitress didn't protest. She led them through the restaurant to the kitchen. If any other customer was surprised at their passage, none of them showed it and, as far as Juno could tell, watched them go by placidly.

Inside, the cover was dropped. There was a chef of course, but it seemed like the dishes he was preparing weren't nearly as delicious or as varied as the menu made them out to be.

And then, of course, looking prim and awesome, stood Rosamund Lorland.

Juno recognized them from the picture that used to hang in the precinct of the HCPD. Lorland was young for a crime lord, younger than most mafia leaders, and younger than Juno himself. They were the former commander of a Triad squadron. Impatient and hot headed, they had been quick to cause more trouble than the HCPD usually saw in organized crime. It wasn't clear whether they had been kicked out of the Triad for making too much trouble or if they had abandoned ship to pursue their own, private goals, but one thing was certain: one year after Lorland began getting a name for themselves they founded their own mafia family, in direct concurrence with the Triad and all drug trafficking groups. In a sense, Lorland was far from the worst of the criminal to roam the street of Hyperion City. They sold drugs to anyone that could afford it, including kids and homeless people with enough cash to forget their radiation poisoning, and they commanded a full-fledged underground militia made out of all the outcasts, the ones nobody wanted to see employed in their shop or near their children, the worst of Hyperion City. But then again, in that, they weren't straying from your usual mafia boss or crime boss, and while Juno didn't have to like it, but he knew that wasn't why Rosamund Lorland was a big fish to catch for the HCPD.

The thing was, Lorland was ambitious, and Lorland was a firm believer of doing things their own way.

Lorland had begun selling their various drugs in Triad, Kanagawa and Adichi territories. This had already led to several open fights between Lorland's factions and the older, more institutionalized mafiosi. Nobody in their right mind appreciated the fact that there were mafias in Hyperion City, but anyone could recognize that they liked to keep the peace almost as much as the city's police department. Lorland, was, for all intent and purpose, the troublemaker that threw a wrench in the balance Hyperion's civilians had found amongst the chaos that was the city.

It was obvious that this new mafia lord was more than ready to start a war, and Juno, amongst other, found Hyperion's streets animated enough already. He stole a glance at Nureyev. That bastard really knew how to manipulate him. He did want to put Lorland in a prison cell, and Nureyev was nothing if not freakingly good at stealing pretty much anything from whoever was stupid enough to buy into one of his various personae. After all, there was, really, no technical difference between stealing evidence and any precious artefact.

Juno was going to go along with this, wasn't he.

Duke Rose smiled pleasantly at Lorland, and it seemed as though it had a triumphant edge to it. Juno had to suppress a smile of his own. One had to admit Peter Nureyev was good at what he did. Even when what he did was convince beat-up PIs to bend their morals, it seemed.

"I heard you requested to see me." Lorland extended a hand for Duke to shake. "Duke Rose, is that it?" Their voice was exceedingly melodious, in a very deliberate way that sounded immediately pompous to Juno's ear. That was good, the more full of themselves they were, the easier it would be to make them think the Rose couple didn't represent any kind of threat. However, Lorland had successfully managed to put together a business despite being threatened by Hyperion City's largest mafia families and they were far from stupid. It would do no good for Juno to overlook them as simply what they appeared, and he resolved to keep a close eye on them.

"Duke and Dahlia Rose, in fact" At this, Lorland looked at him. Dahlia would have been smoking a cigar or something along those lines; as it were, Juno's lungs were shit, so he had to settle with giving what was supposed to be a haughty glance. "As you may know, my husband's family is of a certain... importance throughout the galaxy" - at this, Lorland gave the slightest nod, which made Juno wonders if Nureyev had managed to give his fictional relatives enough substance that they actually had a reputation, or if Lorland merely didn't want to admit to not knowing them - "and we would be interested in dealing with you, and to buy... merchandises... from your organization."

Juno had to make an effort not to roll his eyes at the unnecessary dramatic tone.

But then he realized Dahlia Rose didn't give a shit about speaking his mind or being rude.

"What my husband is trying to say is, we'd like to buy your coke."

Lorland smiled at the deadpan voice, and nodded.

"Of course. Our product is of very high quality. Would you like to try it?"

Dahlia arched an eyebrow in what Juno hoped to be a pointed way.

"No. I have a strict policy of never sampling the product. It makes one slow, and I can't have that."

Lorland laughed, softly and politely like a politician.

"Well then, I think this deserves you visit the parlor. Candis? Would you mind telling Val to come up? I'm going to need her."

Juno and Peter's waitress nodded curtly and swiftly left the room, while Lorland gestured for them both to follow.

Juno took the opportunity to steal a glance at Nureyev, only to see that the thief was already looking at him intently. When he saw Juno looking, though, his intense demeanor dropped to break into a smile, and Duke reappeared on his face.

"I have to admit I'm quite surprised you're coming to me with this. Don't me wrong, I would say we are the best suppliers on Mars, but I doubt an enterprise such as yours needs to go so far to get its merchandise."

"Oh, the problem is not with the merchandise itself," Peter intervened, to Juno's relief. "But we've been having what you could call... legal problems. I'm sure you understand."

Once again, Lorland nodded, eager to seem all knowing, and Juno relaxed slightly. For all their obvious smarts, they also seemed to be a very proud character, which—Juno had observed it in the past—made them an easy target for Peter's manipulation.

Not that he approved of the thief's methods.

Lorland led them through unmarked corridor for what seemed like several minutes. They climbed down some stairs, then up others, and up again, turning several times. By the time they arrived in front of a simple, unlabeled door, Juno was thoroughly disoriented.

They entered in what seemed to be an office, and Lorland began talking about prices, schedules, meeting places. Peter responded in kind, apparently fully prepared to deploy an entire fictive market for the Rose network. Juno tried as best as he could to appear bored rather than lost, and scanned the room whenever he felt secure enough in the knowledge that Lorland was concentrating on Peter. The room seemed like the normal desk room of any businessman, although it was a bit barer that Juno would have expected. No pricey paintings hung on the wall, and while the room was decorated, it was in a comfortable way rather than a showy one.

Eventually Juno spotted something interesting.

The walls weren't entirely bare, as it was. There were several bookshelves artfully stacked behind the desk, and besides one of them... a patch of paint that reflected the light emitted by the ceiling lamp slightly differently. It was so discreet Juno might not have spotted it... were it not for the fact that he had a similar spot in his own office, from clipping a wall after one drink too many. Rita had put plaster which hid the hole almost flawlessly, but looking closely at it, you could see a faint difference in the paint’s color where the light hit it. Somehow, he doubted this was the result of one of Lorland's burst of anger—the oman seemed exceedingly composed—and if there was an emplacement for any kind of valuable object Peter was after, it would most likely be there.

Juno was really going through with this, wasn't he? Somehow, he couldn't find it in himself to mind.

Someone knocked at the office door, and Lorland, looking unsurprised, called them inside.

"Val, there you are! I need your help to draw a contract for those gentlemen."

"I'm a lady, please." Juno corrected out of automatism.

Lorland rolled with this without breaking a sweat, and went on to point out some of the specifications Peter had given. Val looked like death had warmed over. Pale, and bone-thin, with deep, purplish shadow under her eyes. She wasn’t that old, from what Juno could tell, but she looked as though a slight breeze might break her in half.

"I suppose you will want to go over the legal matters with Val?” Finally said Lorland. “She’s my main jurist." Duke Rose agreed with a flourish Juno blocked out.

"Then, shall the lady and I go and oversee the merchandise? I know you said you didn't want to test it, but surely you want to take a look at it."

Juno shot a discreet glance at Peter, who near imperceptibly (or so Juno hoped) nodded.

"Your desire for honesty honors you. Duke!"

Duke Rose was like an overeager puppy, Juno decided, as Peter bounded over to him.

He took hold of Duke's collar and brought him in for a kiss, silently gesturing towards the patch of wall with his eyes.

Even inside enemy territory, kissing Peter was like drinking rejuvenating water, and Juno would probably have lost himself in it, if he hadn't felt Peter's hands roaming his body. First, he could feel the thief testing the give of his hip, where he kept his holster —and god, was Juno happy for his paranoia at this moment – and checked for the presence of Juno’s blaster. Then, he carefully pressed something under the flap of Juno's jacket, where it would be hidden from Lorland's eyes.

Juno heard a cough from behind him and detached himself from his wannabe husband. Duke seemed ready to chase after him, looking desperate and glazed for an instant. And Juno was sure it was a mask, the face of a man Peter only pretended to be, but this look of open desire, of near neediness, made it hard for Juno to remind himself they were technically still doing business.

"Be good." Dahlia finally said, in his imperious voice, and Duke nodded, obedient and star-struck. Juno didn’t dare to send a glance towards the frail Val to make his point across. He just had to trust that Nureyev knew him as well as he pretended to and would understand the meaning behind his words.

Then, he abruptly looked back at Lorland, who bowed their head slightly, letting Juno get out of the room before them and following him in the corridors.

As the mafioso led him through the complex, he discreetly put a hand to what Peter had stuck into his jacket. It seemed to be a small electronic device, probably an audio recorder or a camera, but Juno couldn't be sure. In any case, this was genius. All Juno had to do was to follow Lorland directly to the evidence of his drug deals.

This time, the way was rather straightforward, and, considering the number of stairs they had to take, the hall in which Lorland led him was underground. It was large and well lit, and seemed to be working like Juno would have assumed a standard factory to. Juno counted a dozen workers in chemistry goons and white masks, which protected them from inhaling too much of the substance they were working with. They also—Juno noted with a twinge of annoyance—hid their face from their eyes down. Lorland led Juno to the end of the hall, where a person, made anonymous by their working clothes, was closing small packages full of white powder and tidying them up into neat piles. Lorland pointed at the display.

"Those would be the type of merchandise we would sell you, as per our agreement."

Juno nodded, trying to get closer to the bags. He hoped the device contained a camera because it didn’t seem as though Lorland was ever going to talk without euphemism, and he needed the evidence to be as tight as possible.

"Would you mind if I took a look for myself?" Juno could feel Dahlia's persona slipping, slowly, away from him, but he desperately needed something that would actually incriminate Lorland.

"Of course, go ahead." The oman responded pleasantly, but Juno was acutely aware of the pair of pale eyes drilling holes into him.

He didn't really know how to recognize good coke. Coke, sure, it was part of the training as a cop, and you had to be able to say whether you were arresting someone for poorly labeled flour or for actual crack. But he had never taken a hit himself, and he didn't know how to assess the quality short of snorting the stuff.

He looked at the little bag quizzically, trying to look as though he was examining it from different angles so that he could put it under what he hoped was a lens. He was almost sure he had the evidence necessary—provided Nureyev did give him a camera—when Lorland spoke again.

"So, would you say you got a good look at my premises, milady... Dahlia Rose?"

Lorland's words sounded slow, careful, almost deliberate. Juno froze, and turned his head minutely, to look back towards them.

"Beg your pardon?"

Lorland took a step towards him, and Juno instinctively took a step back.

"I know my circuit is far from the most developed on Mars, let alone in the universe, but you should have known not to underestimate us."

Lorland kept advancing, and Juno kept retreating, to the point where he'd soon hit the wall behind him.

"It was clever using the name of the Roses, but I doubt you are in any way related to them."

Around them, the employees had dropped their initial task, and were looking in his direction. Several of them had lowered their mask and opened their lab coat to reveal a variety of weapons.

"I have to admit, your lackey was rather well-prepared, but you got too arrogant in the end. Did you really think I had noticed nothing?"

Juno had no moment to consider the hilarity of Peter Nureyev being anyone’s assistant, much less his, before Lorland produced a gun out of his jacket.

Juno was sure the mafioso was about to give him dramatic parting words, but he didn’t have that kind of time. Before Lorland could say anything, Juno did the only thing he could think of and threw the bag of coke at Lorland's eyes, before diving to the side.

Lorland sputtered and tried to shoot at Juno, but the surprise and the powder exploding in his face made them flail and the shot missed Juno by a mile.

Juno wiped out his own gun and blasted the employee closest to him, the one still standing besides the table full of coke packagings. The man dropped down, stunned and unlikely to get up again for a while. Juno dropped behind the table with his slack body.

He accepted the rest of the mafia to drop down on him as soon as they could, and for him to be quickly overwhelmed, but after a few seconds, he realized the room was oddly silent. Risking a peak, he realized the dozen mafiosi—including Lorland, who seemed to have somewhat recovered despite puffy red eyes—were looking a him warily. More specifically, they were looking at the table in front of him, full of fragile coke packagings.

Oh. Seemed like Rosamund Lorland needed a lesson in where to pick their battle. Juno couldn't help but smile as he picked up several white bags. Nobody dared to shoot him and the precious merchandise, but he was sure they were going to come up with some kind of plan quickly. He had to be quicker.

Thing was, Juno had never been that good at planning. Doing, he was okay at, but planning was an entirely different game.

He did the first thing he could think of. That is, to throw the handful of bags he had towards his assailant and shoot one of them before ducking back behind the table. The bag exploded, and a confused scuffle rang out. Several shots hit Juno's table and soon the air was full of coke dust. A cry rang out, and Juno instantly knew they were coming for him. In a moment of clarity, he took the mask of the passed out mafioso to put it against his own mouth and nose, and scrambled along the wall, trying as well as he could to stay hidden from view. But the steps behind him were fast: it wouldn’t take them long to find him, and then one shot would be enough.

Suddenly, an alarm rang out. Juno only had the time to be surprised before it stopped, just as the lights above him abruptly went off, with a resounding “CLACK”. In an instant, the whole hall was shrouded in darkness, and Juno listened to the confused silence around him.

A muffled cry of pain rang out, breaking the silence, and something heavy and fleshy dropped to the ground not too far from Juno, and suddenly the whole room exploded in the confused and angry orders of Lorland’s underlings trying to reorganize themselves. A smile forced itself on Juno's smile and he called out to the darkness.

"Be nice."

"You know me, Dahlia" said Peter, "I'm always nice."

Juno heard what could easily be interpreted as Peter putting another mafioso in a sleeper’s hold, muffling their cry of surprise somehow and letting their body fall down to the ground once they were unconscious, and Juno had to refrain a snort.

Peter didn't seem to have any problems navigating through the darkness, and when he took Juno's hand, it was to guide him firmly towards a source of dim light, making him bend down and crawl before him in a narrow space. As Juno's eyes adjusted, he realized it was an opened air vent that led directly outside. He didn’t recognize the street, but it was large, and dimly lit, and he could only assume they weren’t too far from the restaurant in which Peter had led him earlier. They were probably in one of the outer districts, those who were battling against the Martian desert and were full of decrepit, abandoned building. Far from prying, witnessing eyes.

As soon as they were both through, Juno turned to Peter.

"Do you have everything you need?"

The thief smiled, and pulled Juno against him, delicately pushing the protective mask down.

"I do."

Juno flushed, and was about to protest when a door he previously hadn't seen opened, revealing several goons sputtering as they tumbled outside. The light seemed to be back in the factory, probably thanks to an emergency generator.

Juno cursed, and he and Peter began to run, from a common, silent accord.

"Here!"

Peter tugged on his hand and Juno ungracefully tumbled behind him, under some kind of electric generator, emerging from the uneven ground. The shouting didn't stop behind him, and the streets in front of them didn't offer for much cover. Neither Nureyev nor him said anything, but Juno knew they had to find a way to distract Lorland while they were escaping, or they would end up the evening with more holes in them than Juno was personally comfortable with.

From their barely hidden spot they could see the narrow windows of the factory, who were obscured by a faint, pale sort of mist, and they could hear the coughing fits of Lorland's employees and associates. The commotion must have kicked even more of the drug into the air, Juno noted.

And he had a sudden, terrible, stupid idea.

"I'm going to regret this" he mumbled, as he straightened his back to try and make the shot.

"Juno! What are you..."

"Shush." Juno said firmly, with a very Dahlia like confidence. Lorland and company hadn't spotted him yet, but it wouldn't take long before they did, and Juno only had one shot at this. He pictured the blast's trajectory; breathed, in, and out. And fired.

For some reason, he expected it to be delayed, to take a few instants. Instead, as soon as the blast tore through the glass widow, the room exploded. Juno winced, but as far as he could tell, the explosion wasn't too violent, and the screaming didn't stop so he assumed (hopped, desperately) nobody had actually died from it. However, he was willing to bet Lorland's precious refinery equipment was done for, and it seemed the explosion had started a small but rapidly growing fire, making the mafiosi thoroughly distracted.

"Come on, let's go." He took Peter's hand in his, leading him away from the scene and in the nearest dark corner. As he walked, he dialed one of the memorized number in his phone.

"Hello? Yeah, I'd like to report a fire down..." he squinted at the street sign "Terrienstreet." He hung up before anyone could ask for his name. Maybe Khan would recognize his number, but by then he'd have caught a whole mafia ring, so Juno figured he was in the clear.

A taxi was passing by and he hollered for it, getting in it quick and fast and rattling off an address not too far from his place, while Peter climbed in right behind him.

And just like that, they were gone.

Juno was still holding Peter's hand as they made their escape through the city, squeezing it harder than he really meant to, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. He looked up at the thief, and met dark eyes, staring into him with intensity.

"It seems as though you had fun."

Juno then realized the grin tearing through his own face. He thought about Rex Glass’ foxy smile, smug and full of sharp teeth, and wondered if it was how he looked to Peter at the moment.

"Yeah, I..." he had to admit, "I think I did actually."

Peter smiled, looking way too charming and smart for it to be soft, but Juno thought he could get away with calling it fond.

The thief used the hand that was still intertwined with Juno to drag the lady towards him, making him lean in the car from one side to another.

"I'm truly glad you did."

And then Peter Nureyev pulled him down to kiss him.

The taxi driver had to throw them out in the end, and Juno would have said he was ashamed to have been making out with his boyfriend like a goddamn teenager, but he really, really wasn't.

Peter's hand didn't leave his as they made their rather hurried way towards Juno's flat. When Juno opened his door, however, he felt compelled to stop his momentum to turn and face Nureyev.

Peter stared back, looking neither surprised nor worried.

"Do you want to come in?"

Peter stepped closer, until their chests were a hair away from touching each other.

"I would very much like that, yes."

There was more to Juno's idea, there really was, but not kissing Peter Nureyev at this moment would have been a task he wasn't strong enough to undertake.

When he detached himself from Peter, the thief looked very much like Duke Rose had earlier, dazed and wanton, and it sent a shiver up Juno's spine.

"I really think it was, you know." Juno ceded to the temptation of running his hand up and down Peter’s neck. The thief seemed thoroughly distracted by the touch, and his response was a bit more delayed then Juno would have excepted.

"That it… was what?”

"The best date I've ever had." Peter’s half-lidded eyes shot open at the words, and Juno, for the time since he had met him, thought he may have managed to tear through Peter Nureyev’s cool composure.

"I... Thank you."

Well, this was rather out of character. Juno couldn’t help but chuckle in unexpected giddiness.

"What? I don't get a smug, smooth response, from Peter Nureyev, best thief in the whole wide galaxy?"

Peter’s smile, this time, was almost bashful – although Juno didn’t miss there was still a sharpness to it, dormant behind Peter’s pliant demeanor.

"I guess Duke Rose's rubbing of off me."

Peter crowded closer.

"Yeah,” Juno let his grip grow more imperious on Peter’s neck and throat, guiding the thief where he wanted him. “I guess Dahlia's rubbing of off me too."

When Juno kissed him, Peter felt soft and wielding under his lips. The feeling was intoxicating, as if Peter Nureyev was finally ready to drop his final mask with him by, just this one time, yielding control over to him, and Juno nearly drowned in it, crowding Peter until the thief had to cling to him to keep his balance. When Juno finally managed to detach himself from silken - soft and sharp lips - Peter was still relaying on him to defy gravity, and his eyes bore through Juno as if they could reach directly into his soul.

"How long are you staying this time?"

"A few weeks, most likely."

It wasn't forever, maybe, but for now it was enough.

#jupeter #juno steel #peter nureyev #dear god im so bad at endings #tpp #the penumbra podcast #me #my writing #date night #duke rose #dahlia rose

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dayfoxx-fic · 6 years ago

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Ch. 17 - half in rage, half in love

Title: I’ll Unfold Before You Chapter: 17 Rating: M (for cursing, themes, etc) Summary: Misty comes to a strange, but compellingly, devastatingly realization. Cordelia tries to understand, but isn't quite there yet, Dark forces have been at work, and they have yet to finish watching their show. A/N: OMG guys, I am so sorry I haven't updated this in forever and a half. I've been incredibly busy finishing my graduate degree!, trying desperately to find a job, and generally letting animals take over my life. But Florence put me in a writing mood for the first time in ages. I really hope you like how this story concludes. It's not finished yet, though! Get your tushes ready, because this is gonna be a ride. Title is from Station Eleven. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1615310/chapters/37499330

The rain was spitting gently when Misty finally made it over. Her eyes quickly scanned the house, pinpointing dim candlelight illuminating Delia's bedroom. Of course, she knew the window to the other girl's room by heart. She'd spent enough time considering throwing pebbles up at the glass, carrying a jukebox over her shoulder. She shook her head of the thoughts. This was serious. Misty knew the other girl preferred to sleep in the pitch darkness. It gave Misty nightmares, except for the nights when she slept by Cordelia's side; it reminded her too much... she blinked slowly, swallowed back tears, and moved at a glacial pace to the front door. Cordelia had deposited a now damp sticky note with brief key locating instructions. She smiled to herself a bit, allowing the moment to be overly sentimental, the girl, the woman she knew was still there. Still had the same mannerisms. She was still the same.

Enough dilly-dallying. It was time to bear her truths. Misty didn't even know how to convey the words she'd been smothering down her own throat, going on for three long years, blinded by this horrible, fuck, curse? Spell_? __Enchantment? _Whatever had fucking been cast had cascaded her mind into a barely penetrable haze of existence without Her. She couldn't believe years had gone by, Hell, really it'd been more like seventeen years, where her mind had barely existed -- the ghost of memory that was Misty Day in the valiant throes of un-ending, agonizing Death and darkness. Endless anguish. Because she'd been forcibly abandoned. Her mighty power of resurgence only being capable of saving Cordelia's life, with a return to life that mean severing their connection, the ties that bound her to Misty, severed, for what had threatened to be forever.

Raindrops drizzled down Misty's face in rivulets, over the curves of her delicate cheeks and the sleek line of her jaw. She grimaced, she couldn't move herself, standing in the muddy front lawn of the only person who ever mattered to her. Somehow, as she had done as Supreme countless years ago, she saw through Misty's ethereal facade to see the person desperate to be saved from their own demons. Somehow, Delia knew her more intimately than she realized she knew herself.

Before she was distinctly aware of her own feet, she ended up standing, alert, outside Cordelia's bedroom. _They had shared a bed once, one that they could call their own, forever ago. The night before The Seven Wonders. _Misty ached. And several weeks ago. Now they had shared a bedroom countless times. Well, she counted, it was about half of the baby rearing project, the beautiful, magical beginning where anything seemed possible with this impossible girl. She'd stayed over every night, almost, thirteen days, over the course of two weeks. Oh, how quickly she had succumbed to the gentle, familiar, painfully familiar intimacy, unable to put the pieces together. And she had never ever... how had she not known? Immediately? The very power of the embodiment of inevitability and probability and magical energy repercussions resonated in her bones. Things had to be restored over time, or she would have been plunged into eternal despair. The thought of seeing the centuries pass alone, unable to remember the only love that had truly illuminated her life, was initially too much to bear. But then... Their instantaneous connection, after years of feeling strangely driven apart from the mysterious Cordelia Goode, was explosive. She hadn't been able to get enough of Cordelia's time. When she was working, or volunteering, doing her homework, studying for any test that Misty was not also taking, Misty just wanted to be there beside her, listening to her 8-track and dancing around to entertain the other blonde. What had taken her so long? It wasn't that she hadn't noticed Cordelia. How could anyone not notice the girl, she was the epitome of classy and transcendent beauty. No, she was something rarer than that, something only Stevie's music could describe. Ethereal. Everything. So, what had it been?

_When Misty had come to, naturally, she emerged from her beloved swamp. Covered in murky water and mud and gator dung, she breathed a sigh of a relief. Because she didn't realize anything was wrong. She stumbled about, barefoot along the river, in less than her tattered lace dress and her faded shawl from Stevie, when Mrs. Day (looking back now, it had all been a ploy, of course she would have Misty's name; she was meant to be a part of the simulated, yet not unreal, reality she had been thrust into) who was plucking river rocks from the water found her. "My God, you sweet Angel, let me get you out of here." Disoriented and in that deep haze, she figured the woman seemed like a safe bet. They shared the same name, after all. Although her predecessors who were Day's were less than pleasant people, she was glad to have replaced, or well, supplemented, the memory of them with new love from Penelope and Henry Day._

She had been afraid, intimidated by the pretty girl, but of what really, she couldn't say. But she just felt like if she ever let herself get close to Cordelia Goode, something bad was going to happen. And she didn't want anything bad to happen to Cordelia. Not ever.

But she cosmically could not not get close to Cordelia. Cordelia was her inevitability. Her singularity. And so that propelled her through the door, because she had been plunged into mentally clarifying the hard truth of her life:

"Cordelia, I know that this is gonna be a trip, but..." she stops, when she sees Nan. Her vision, which had warped slightly into rose-coloured glasses upon her realizations that she had found her long lost love vibrated with distortion around the small brunette girl.

"Hello, Misty. It's been way too long, and I apologize for that. Are you feeling ok?"

"I don't know how your damn name didn't click in my head. Did the Shadow Man protect you?"

"He's been protecting me for a long time, now, Misty. I hope you know that I have nothing to do with any of this, well, except for the excellent and positive parts of it. But, really, I gotta respect the boss. He's the only reason I'm even still..."

"Yeah. I guess me, too, in a way. If he hadn't given the Power to to us, I wouldn't be here."

"Neither would she." Nan looks pointedly at Cordelia. The darker blonde lifts an eyebrow, inquisitive, bewildered.

"Could either of you please explain what on Earth you are talking about?"

"It's your responsibility, Misty. You have to earn it. It doesn't matter who you are now, or how much you can feel your powers expanding like a supernova from your core. If you don't earn it, you don't get what you want. I'm sorry. Those are the rules."

"What? But... I already remember everything! How else can I earn it? I spent years, years alone in the swamp, listening to the radio about the hunters. How they wiped every last one of us out. What else am I supposed to do?"

"What do you think?" Nan smirked. Misty's brows furrowed so closely together, they almost formed a slender golden caterpillar.

"But even if I... if I say it, there's disbelief, incredulity. I've been without her for almost eighteen years. But I can't say it. I can't! Because what if it doesn't work? What if I don't get her back. What if he's just been toying with my mind for the last two decades and I've got nothing to show for it but the briefest hints of intimacy? I lost everything only to gain the falsity of everything. The ruler of nothing and no-one. No one left. Not even you, not really." Misty stared pointedly at the brunette. The smaller girl cannot do anything but shrug a shoulder in agreement. In her frantic panic of word jumble, Cordelia had made her way over to the now shaking woman with a thick, fluffy blanket in hand.

Instead of the words she was expecting, Misty simply received a coy, "You're going to have to take all of that off, you know. I have spare clothes for you in the closet. As you know." She gently pressed the chenille fabric into Misty's damp hands. The pale blonde stared slightly (obviously) in amazement at the woman in front of her. Always, with the composure. The sheer restraint. She knew the questions were dying at Cordelia's lips, but instead, the other girl had decided to flirt with her.

Misty was scared, still, so Misty was okay with that.

#cordelia goode #misty day #cordelia foxx #american horrors story #ahs #ahscoven #ahsfic #fanfic #foxxay fanfic #i'll unfold before you

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thesevenseraphs · 7 years ago

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Bungie Weekly Update - 5/17/18

This week at Bungie, we watched Guardians become Legends.

Players have climbed the ranks of competitive Crucible and earned the title of Legend. Clan Redeem earned the title of World First (for the third time in a Destiny game) when overcoming challenges found in the Spire of Stars Raid Lair. Numerous fireteams have completed seven waves in Escalation Protocol, and earned some sweet loot in the process.

This last week has been one to remember. It’s one of the best things about Destiny, really—when memories are forged in the fires of combat. It’s been an absolute pleasure to see these experiences unfold, and we’re excited to see more of these stories shared throughout the community.

That said, Destiny 2 will continue to evolve over the next few months and beyond. Yesterday, we updated the Destiny 2 Development Roadmap to expand on upcoming features and share our next deployment date.

In the coming weeks, we’ll dive into what’s changing about Faction Rallies and shed a bit more light on what Crucible Labs will bring to the table. This week, our focus is on feedback…

Powerful Progress

Feedback never stops. From the moment Warmind landed, we’ve had our eyes on the chatter surrounding all aspects of Destiny 2. One trending topic is how players reach appropriate Power levels for endgame content.

Senior Investment Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh has some details on what to expect moving forward:

Daniel: Warmind is out! We’re super excited this is in your hands now, as we’re able to get a bunch of excellent input on what we did well and what we still need to work on. One of those areas I’d like to talk about a bit is progression. I spoke a little about this before the Warmind launch, but I think one thing I could have been more clear about was that the Warmind progression system is an improvement over Curse of Osiris, but still not where we ultimately want to end up. It’s a step down the road to make the game more in line with where we want it, but we need to make these iterations one step at a time so we can incorporate feedback and ensure we're heading in the right direction. Heroic strikes are a great example of something we definitely want to keep iterating on. In the May 29 update, you’ll see a small change to help make these better.

Escalation Protocol Key Fragments will become a 100 percent drop chance from each Heroic strike. The goal here is to make getting these fragments more accessible while also preserving the need to go play non-open-world content to get the fragments.

Heroic strikes will be able to drop better rewards. Every three to five Heroic strikes will drop a Legendary that can carry you up to 360 Power (before mods). This should better align the rewards of Heroic strikes with the difficulty of the activity and help solo players have a more reliable source of upgrades.

We won’t have any time to make changes to what’s coming on the 29th, but please let us know how you feel about these rates; it is good information to inform future updates.

We’re tracking some additional issues that don’t have immediate solutions, but that I want to bring up as things we’re thinking and talking about. I don’t currently have any potential solutions to talk about, but I want to make sure we’re communicating the kinds of things we’re looking at and considering. In that spirit, here are some of the top progression-related issues we’re thinking about right now:

How to smooth out the transition into the endgame grind once the campaign is over. Currently, there is a brick wall players seem to be running into at 345, where progression goes from fast to super frictioned. This is one of those areas we definitely don’t believe is perfect, so we’re looking at how to smooth this transition out.

Once milestones are complete, there aren't rewards to chase. Exotic Masterworks and seasonal ranks help this problem a little bit (giving some amount of non-Power chase to work on once milestones are done) but these definitely aren’t enough. As highlighted in the roadmap, Weapon Randomization and Records should also help give players more to do once their milestones are done. That doesn’t mean we believe this is a fully solved problem, and we’re talking about other ways to help mitigate this.

Endgame progression needs more tiers. Right now, everything gives similar-sized upgrades without discrete tiers in the progression system for players to climb to (so they can tackle new activities and, in turn, climb to a new tier with new activities). This is something I definitely wouldn’t expect a solution for prior to September, but it is on our radar.

The quality of the rewards don’t always match the difficulty of the activity. We’re seeing a lot of this feedback around raid lair rewards in particular, so talking about how to better align with the quality of reward and the difficulty of activity is something we’re going to be thinking about more going forward.

Huge thanks to everyone who has spent time to type up their thoughts, what they love, and what they don’t love with the progression and reward systems in Warmind. We’re keeping our ear to the ground. P.S.: Send me images of your favorite shader + Escalation Protocol gear combos. This is unrelated to progression—I just wanna see ’em!

Going for Glory

Progression isn’t just achieving new levels of Power, we also look at how players are rising through ranks of Valor and Glory. We’ve gotten some questions on the hows and whys of the ranking system.

PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll has some answers.

Derek: Now that we’ve added a serious ranking system to the Competitive playlist, we’re seeing many more Guardians attempt to climb the ladder to become Legend. On their way to the top, some players have raised questions that we can address here.

Q: Why would I match against a player with a higher Glory rank than me?

A: For a variety of reasons, we don’t match directly on your Glory number, instead using our per-playlist “Skill” value. It’s quite likely that your opponent is a good match against you, but they’ve been grinding Glory more consistently, so have moved up the ranks faster. Take this as a sign that you’ll likely reach that rank with continued play. Q: Why can I match against pre-formed fireteams when I’m searching as a solo player?

A: After a bit of server-side tuning and investigation, we re-enabled the Crucible Fireteam Matchmaking feature yesterday. This does not directly reduce the chances of matching against pre-made fireteams, but does tweak the “Skill” values of those fireteams to make it more likely that they find evenly-matched opponents.

Q: Why won’t you make a solo-queue-only playlist?

A: We don’t want to do that because it would split the population in an unhealthy way, making it less likely for everyone to find good matches. Furthermore, that would probably mean splitting the Glory rank into “Solo Glory” and “Team Glory” numbers, and we’d much rather there be one single number to represent your prowess in the Crucible.

Q: Why would you place me in a game in progress that you know I’m going to lose, ending my streak?

A: There’s no join-in-progress in Competitive, so this can’t happen for Glory. However, we are working on a fix for Valor in the other playlists, so you won’t lose your Valor streak that way. As always, thanks for the feedback. We are always working to make the Crucible a great place to compete with and against your fellow Guardians. Good hunting!

Ironclad

Lord Saladin returns—with updated rewards!

BEGINS: Tuesday, May 22

ENDS: Tuesday, May 29

The game is Control!

The ways in which players earn rewards have also been updated for Season 3. Saladin will feature a similar reputation system to Vanguard, where players can climb the ranks by turning in Iron Banner Tokens. Each reputation rank up will lend progress to unlocking desired rewards.

New Ornaments have also been added, each with specific objectives for players to complete in the Iron Banner playlist when available.

At Your Fingertips

Destiny 2 isn’t the only thing that’s evolving over the course of the Roadmap. The Bungie.net team is also making plans to improve the experience on the website and Destiny Companion App.

Senior UX Designer John Stvan and UX Designer Stosh Steward are here to give a report of what’s to come:

John: Two weeks ago, we started a discussion on Bungie.net and Reddit to get feedback on the Destiny Companion App and Bungie.net. We’ve combed the feedback and created a prioritized list of themes and sentiment that have been trending throughout the community. Priority was based on the volume of specific feedback items, how a feature or change could impact the user base, and if current feature usage data matched up with some of our inferences. We then proceeded to sort them into groups of Features/Experiences and UX/UI Improvements. With Warmind out the door and a few Destiny updates between now and September, we want to be sure to set the right expectations on what’s coming. Each content release comes with a host of changes, updates, and fixes that we as a small team have to make sure don’t break our experiences. We don’t expect there to ever be issues, but sometimes the game makes a simple tweak to some investment, and by the time that gets to Bungie.net or the companion, the effect is magnified. As a recent example, players were unable to interact with characters after Destiny Update 1.2.0 due to issues between the companion and the new emote wheel. With that said, here are our initial goals for what will be coming soon to the Destiny Companion App and Bungie.net:

Timeframe—Early Summer Stats (Medals): We are actively looking into how we can add medals and other stats incrementally to PGCR’s (post-game carnage reports) and player profiles. We knew ahead of the feedback collection that this would be a widely requested feature, but we were surprised by how many throughout the community wanted more stats surrounding medals acquired in the Crucible.

LFG: We have recently added the Clans Fireteam feature to the Destiny Companion, but we are looking to give players more ways to form fireteams through the companion and website.

Vendor Accessibility and Primary User Experience: Vendors are currently available to interact with through the companion app, but a recurring piece of feedback was that players are unable to locate the feature. We think this is due to vendors being in Progress which may be an unexpected location. The numbers also don’t lie—Progress isn’t getting the views we expected. We suspect that’s due to other sections in the app either having similar features or it being hidden. Moving forward, we’ll be working to merge the Explore and Progress tabs to fulfill some of our initial goals. Explore was intended to be, “What’s going on? What don’t I want to miss out on?" However, it’s barely been more than a news feed. Progress was intended for users to know what their progress is towards their goals in Destiny 2. By combining these two sections, we feel we can create an experience that gives you the “What don’t I want to miss out on?” and the “What things do I need to go do?” sentiments.

Timeframe—Summer Gear User Experience and Sorting: When it comes to gear, third-party apps have provided amazing user experiences paired with Destiny and Destiny 2, and we couldn’t be prouder of them. We can’t tell you how excited we are that third-party apps have found solutions and satisfied that itch for the full screen, multi-character, nobs-and-switches experience. We are actively investigating ways to up our own game and provide better experiences within the Destiny Companion App when it comes to things like transferring, sorting, and equipping gear.

Timeframe—…and beyond The future is bright and hopeful for Destiny 2 and the Companion. We want to ensure that we have targets to aim at—some big, daunting targets—and you’ve definitely helped provide us with those. We are grateful for the discussion we had, and can’t wait to have more ongoing conversations and feedback about the Companion and Bungie.net. This conversation is far from over. In fact, it should never end. We want to always be listening and responding either with dialogue or action. Post feedback on Bungie.net. Stosh and I will be monitoring closely for your thoughts. It doesn’t go without saying how valuable your contribution to Destiny 2 is, and we want to ensure we’re providing the right tools and features to support your gaming experience.

Would You Like to Know More?

Destiny Hotfix 1.2.0.2 has shipped, but we still have some issues to address. As they say, the only good bug is a dead one.

Destiny Player Support has the information you need to take on the threat.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.0.2

This week we deployed Hotfix 1.2.0.2 to players. Among the fixes to game issues, we resolved an issue blocking characters from appearing in the official Destiny Companion App, Bungie.net, and third-party applications that rely on the Destiny API. Full notes for this hotfix can be found here: Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.0.2.

Warmind Known Issues

With the launch of Destiny 2: Warmind, Destiny Player Support has continued to monitor player chatter regarding issues players are encountering in the wild. Those who do run into issues in Destiny 2: Warmind should make our Warmind: Vital Information and Known Issues thread their first stop for information on potential workarounds. As always, players who experience issues should report them to the #Help forum. Listed below are a couple of items that we believe require further explanation to assist in mitigating their impact:

Heroic Strike Progress and Boons of the Vanguard

Progress toward the weekly Heroic strikes milestone, as well as toward some endgame quests, will be blocked when players activate a Boon of the Vanguard. Characters who enter this state will be unable to make progress on any pursuit that requires Heroic strike completions until the Boon expires. As we continue to investigate this issue, we recommend that players save their Boons until after they have completed the pursuits mentioned above.

Clan XP Milestones and Powerful Gear

Currently players are not receiving powerful gear from Hawthorne when completing and turning in the weekly Clan XP milestone. Players can work around this issue by completing the Clan XP milestone, then waiting for the next weekly reset to pass. After the new week starts, the previous week’s milestone will autodecrypt and correctly award powerful gear. Additionally, we’d like to take this opportunity to remind players that Power progression from weekly clan engrams has changed with Destiny 2 Update 1.2.0. For details, players should revisit This Week at Bungie – 4/18/2018 for more information.

#bungie weekly update #Warmind #Destiny #Destiny the game #Destiny 2

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woohooligancomics · 7 years ago

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Webcomic Whimsy: Furry Experience!

Welcome to the Woohooligan Weekly Webcomic Whimsy! If you're a webcomic author and would like a review, you can see my announcement and review rules here.

Title: Furry Experience

Author: Ellen Natalie • Patreon • Facebook • Twitter

Site: Smack Jeeves

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Furry, Mormons

Rating: G (?)

Updates: Saturdays

My Starting Point (requested by artist): Page 182 (I'm not sure if they're arranged in chapters -- the archive doesn't seem to have chapter numbers)

Synopsis (from the About page): Three roommates attending college in Utah Valley. Between their different backgrounds, beliefs, and friends, there's sure to be lots of comedy and drama before anyone earns a diploma.

This starting page is probably a decent example of what you can expect from Furry Experience. Obviously the characters are anthropomorphic animals, as you'd expect from the title. The main characters are college roommates, so you would expect that kind of sit-com-esque, day-in-the-life humor. And the art is of good enough quality that we're not scratching our heads about what's going on here.

Ultimately, yes there's a good bit of comedy and a little drama in it, but the drama seems rather tame and the comedy seems very much of the family-friendly variety. I think where the story really excels is in a kind of smooth-seas, non-threatening character development. The characters never seem especially challenged by the events in their life, despite plenty of displays of emotion, and there are lots of scenes of friend and family bonding. To be honest, a lot of it feels to me like the TV commercials the Mormon church sometimes airs, where something ostensibly portrayed as bad seems to have happened, like the kids got their dress clothes all dirty, and just as the parents are about to lay into them, they start a water-fight with the garden hose instead.

I seem to always be waiting for something more outlandish or more personally challenging to happen to one of the characters and it never really does. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm conditioned to expect that from the TV shows I watch. In any event, if you like friend and family bonding and g-rated humor, this might be for you! :D

The first several pages of this story arc is all three of the roommates continually changing the whiteboard to pass the dishes chore onto each other until Cat, who I presume is a dimwit stereotype, reaches the conclusion that the whiteboard is cursed, rather than that her roommates have been changing it.

Some people might not like me saying this, and fuck them. I like the fact that the cast is weighted on women. I counted fourteen female characters to six male on the about page. The reason I say I like this is because culturally, we've been programmed to expect the cast to be heavily male weighted. This programming is so strong, that when you ask people to estimate the number of women in a room, they usually will say "about half" when the room is actually only 20% or one in five women. Despite its sexist origins, Star Trek: the Next Generation did a better job featuring a 6-to-3 cast ratio in the first season, before Yar died, leaving the ratio 6-to-2. To be fair, Furry Experience isn't even that heavily weighted, the men are slightly less than one in three, so it's comparable to ST:TNG's first season.

The whiteboard joke ends abruptly after a few pages once Cat destroys it, and without showing any further bickering over the dishes chore, so those several pages are essentially a really short comedic subplot or a really long self-contained comic strip.

Then we're on to the next story which starts with Ronnie and her friend Vikki visiting a book-store at the mall. I have to agree with Ronnie here, I've been inside Mormon book stores and I'm not sure I would call it "culture". Mormons are if anything extremely conservative, so aside from picking up on some of their religious idiosyncrasies, the Mormon bookstore would actually restrict the amount of alternative views you're exposing yourself to, not expand them. I personally was raised Mormon (I'm Unitarian / positive agnostic), and my mother was Mormon until some time in my mid thirties. She still refuses to believe anything a liberal says, but takes on face value anything said by a conservative, like for example that Trump never said "grab them by the pussy" (even though he and his wife both admitted it on TV and during the debates), because the whole tape was manufactured as a part of a grand conspiracy. As far as she's concerned, the conspiracy is more believable than the idea that Trump said it, despite the fact that there are numerous TV apperances showing Trump bragging that he wants to fuck his daughter. :-/

But I'm off topic... Ronnie and Vikki are going to the Mormon book store. If you're unfamiliar with Mormonism, Utah is like the Mormons' Vatican... Well, Salt Lake City is, but also most of Utah. Mormonism is such an entrenched part of the state that it's actually somewhat difficult to live in the state without being Mormon, because you can't go or work anywhere without the Mormons in the office giving you crap about the fact that you drink coffee. (They have a religious prohibition on coffee like they do alcohol and cigarettes.)

Honestly, it's hard for me to say much about the following page except "agreed".

So they leave the book shop and they're talking about hanging out the rest of the evening and of course, like I said, it's hard to live in Utah if you're not Mormon, the subject comes up again.

Yes, that's really a thing, Mormons are supposed to have a "family home evening" (most of them do it on Monday), in which they have a gospel lesson... but because it's super hard to maintain that amount of bullshit for such an extended period of time (they all just spent three hours at church the day before), most of them don't manage to have their gospel lesson ready and then feel guilty and go out to eat somewhere with their family instead. And this isn't even mentioning the host of extracurricular church activities they're supposed to engage in, like their weekly study-buddies with other church members.

So the discussion about where to hang out leads to some mystery about what Vikki is hiding at her apartment.

Ronnie decides to stalk Vikki to find out what's wrong with her apartment, and thanks to the laws of sit-com world, what's wrong is that all three of Vikkie's roommates aren't just practicing Mormons, they even bought the "god is watching you" poster from the previous page.

Ellen told me that this series included furries, comedy, drama and Mormon's in that order. So I'm taking her word for it that most of the content isn't specifically about Mormonism, but she did start me out right in front of an arc about how annoying it is to live in Utah if you're not. Vikki's roommates are all attending "Furry Young" university in Provo (Brigham Young is the university owned by the Mormon church) and have stereotypically conservative, female career goals like school teacher, nursing and housewife.

When the discussion turns to the typical Mormon attitude that "of course everyone wants to get married", the story does briefly touch on one of the more awkward and imo hilarious aspects of Mormon religion: if you don't marry on earth, you get to marry one of god's soldiers in heaven! :P

It seems a little odd to me personally that Ellen sidestepped the fact that the Mormon church is polygamist, so it wouldn't matter that those soldiers had already married, because they would get to be wife #3 or 8 or whatever and should be just as happy with that. :P But damnit, Ronnie, don't use the G word in front of the roommates, it really upsets them, and Vikki still has to live with them.

I mentioned all the extracurricular churcch activities, right? Basically the Mormon church expects its members to fill every waking moment with church doctrine in some form. On the toilet? Great opportunity to brush up on Leviticus!

Okay, that's actually a sweet moment between Ronnie and Vikki, and as much as I think Vikki's approach was off, at least now I understand why she was going to the Mormon bookstore. This page was originally published in 2012... I don't know, it seems to me like using Google on your smartphone would be an easier way of learning the Mormonisms than frequenting their bookstore. Google? Why? I have libraries!

So Vikki's roommates want Ronnie and Vikki both to participate in their "family home evening" (which, when you're not living with family, necessarily beccomes "roommate home evening"), which involves praying, singing hymns and a lecture about the importance of marrying in the Temple (a place non-Mormons aren't allowed to go, so obviously you have to marry within the religion to do that). As this is about as appealing as sand-papering your eyeballs, Ronnie gets them out of it by suggesting a "more interactive" activity so she can get to know them better: doorbell ditching! Which, to Vikki's surprise, the Mormon girls are toally into! Because when Mormons do it, they leave cookies, so... for all their faults, at least they're engaging in random acts of diabetes. :P (Fun fact, Mormons use more sugar in their cooking, are heavier set, and have more diabetes than just about any other religion.)

And then rather than buy cookies at the store (it's Monday, they're allowed), they start baking cookies at the last minute to go doorbell ditch them. The point of this page is primarily about how jargon-laden Mormonism is and, although I'm unfamiliar with these specific terms, I don't doubt them.

This story wraps up with a sentimental exchange between Ronnie and Vikki, which seems to me to be much of the flavor of the series as a whole: yes, there's your typical sitcom humor, but the overall tone feels to me less "let's make this hilarious" and more "even Lifetime movies have comic relief". Obviously that's a personal opinion and mileage varies.

The following story centers on one of the few male characters, Hunter, who's also college age, though still living with his parents. He's decided to make (nude) modelling for college art classes his full-time job, which sets the story up for tension between Hunter and his mother.

It isn't apparent until the following page that Mom is aware that Hunter's job is getting nakedy naked in the colleges of the world's most sexually repressed city ... seriously, there's probably more fucking in the Vatican than in Salt Lake. Probably a lot more. Anyway, Mom doesn't like it, that's why she's helicopter-momming Hunter and calling to set up job interviews without his consent.

And like I said before, this is where the story gets real Lifetime on us, with Mom talking about Hunter's entirely non-sex job like he's an alcoholic or a drug addict and this is an intervention.

I definitely have some questions about the pirate job. If we're talking movie or theater, that might be pretty cool, but it would be so much cooler if someone's hiring crew for a replica of the Queen Anne's revenge to terrorize rich people on their yachts in Lake Erie. It's probably disappointingly, a mascot job for a seafood restaurant or worse pirate-themed tax prep. "We be takin' deduction ARRR!"

Yes, he's deep undercover in Salt Lake City, trying to recover state secrets stolen by the Illuminati and hidden in the Mormon temple. Okay, that may not be as funny to you, but it's hilarious to me... after growing up with my Mormon mom, who's now a non-denominational pagan (ask me about her salt altars) who obsessively watches atheist YouTube channels. :P

Honesty, yes... that goes over great with Mormons who're so sexually repressed their sex organs have literally shrivelled up and become vestigial. Seriously, these people think kissing on the lips is a sin.

Oh! Hunter's family are mormon, wow... I sort of assumed they were the rare non-Mormon family in Utah... When I was younger, I think my mom's reaction to me being naked for money would have been on the order of apoplexy or a stroke. But I can certainly relate to the sleazy sales company -- I've been on a few of those interviews, even tried to work those jobs once or twice. Ugh! The only bright side there is that when you do eventually go to hell (and you will), the job will have prepared you for it.

Yes, an hour is a typical amount of training in a lot of telemarketing jobs, and they're just as evil as the door-to-door sales job. I'm pretty sure I saw Stabby's owner on the cast list page, so I guess not all the characters know each other.

Called it! I really wish it had been actual pirating on Lake Erie. :-(

Meta joke! It must be about a webcomic I haven't read. I have no idea why Panda-Joel works as a joke.

Anyway that story ends with Hunter getting a concession job at a movie theater to replace Luke (Joel) and the end of the tension with his mother is that the job is great because it's mostly at night and fits neatly into his existing schedule so he can work both jobs and save up to potentially move out. Mom appears stunned at the news, which I'm guessing is supposed to mean she's not entirely happy with him moving out (and we know she wasn't happy with the art-modeling job he's still keeping). So I think the "punchline" there was "be careful what you wish for". As a former Mormon, I can't tell you how Mormon that whole thing feels. It's all so... mundane and uncomplicated. I'd have tried to end that story with a more challenging, possibly even surreal punchline, like the introduction of Stabby.

Artist insert. There's usually a single-page joke between stories and they're all labelled "filler page #". This one is 28.

I like the fact that the whiteboard changes mid-scene when it's obvious nobody's touched it. It may have just been a callback to the haunted whiteboard from the previous story, but I just think it's a cool bit of meta humor in general. I did the same thing with writing on the walls of the women's bathroom in the Pit (hell's bar, run by Azrael, who's Grumpy Cat's dad).

Again, this is Salt "No Sex Period" Lake City.

And just like they have a prohibition on sex, they also have a prohibition on ... you know, fun.

Tricking your kids out of things they want is really the job of being a dad if we're being honest.

Like I said before, the strip seems to focus primarily on friend-and-family bonding, sort of a furry, colorized Leave It To Beaver. So if you like family-friendly sitcoms, give Furry Experience a look!

If you are a webcomic author and are interested in a review from me, you can check out my announcement and my review-request rules here.

If you enjoyed this and want to help me make more reviews, you can contribute on our Patreon or if you're short on funds you can also help by checking out and sharing my own comedy and laughtivist webcomic, Woohooligan!

Thank you for sharing yourself with us! Sam

#review #furry #anthropomorphic #religion #family friendly

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crimsonrevolt · 7 years ago

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Congratulations Nancy you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Pandora Lightwood!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

We’ve been without a Pandora for a while and I think it’s because we were waiting for your portrayal of her! You’ve gone so in-depth to her character and have given her (someone who’s already a lively character) such life and we’re so excited to see you develop Pandora!

application beneath the cut

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

Hola, I’m Nancy. Age and I use female pronouns but if someone calls by a male pronoun I won’t be mad about life. I live in the Eastern part of the US.

ACTIVITY

I would say I’m about an eight when it comes to activity. I try to be on once a day and post at least a reply or two. Some days it’s a lot more, but other days it’s all I can do.

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

A friend recommended the group to me.

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

I think I always related the most with Luna Lovegood. She was quiet and considered to be the weird kid, but had a kind heart for everyone and always believed the best in those even the ones that tried to make her life harder which I get.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Here you can tell us everything else you have in mind like questions, concerns, notations or anything else you can think of.

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Pandora Stella Lockwood. Pandora means All Gifts in Greek and Stella is star both of which I really feel is fitting for Pandora.

FACE CLAIM

I actually really love Lily James for Pandora.

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

Ever since reading the books I’ve always been interested in the people that created someone as unique and interesting as Luna Lovegood is. Having a chance to delve into one’s personality and connect with her the only way a character and writer can really interests me. But not only that but Pandora herself is just an interesting character with her sweet and tender deposition but the fact that she’s willing to get involved in the war though in order to help others really speaks volumes for the type of person that she is. I just think that she’s an interesting, brilliant, loyal, tender woman that just wants to put positivity into the world.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

Pandora has always found sexuality to be an interesting concept that people seem to put so much emphasis on when at the end of the day does it really matter? For her it doesn’t. She just wants to love who she loves no matter who that is. Of course at the end of the day we know who Pandora ends up with, which she is more than over the moon in love with whenever we get to that point, but before Xeno she absolutely didn’t mind just dating to date it didn’t matter the gender to her. She uses female pronouns though.

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

-A MOODBOARD

-AN AESTHETIC

-A MOCKBLOG

-EXPAND ON THE TRAITS

✓ Ingenious

-Clever, original, and inventive: Pandora has always been a curious child that was quick witted and adventurous. She was the child that never backed down from asking adults a million and two questions all while out thinking most of them.

✓ Good-natured

-kind, friendly, patient: No set of words describe Pandora better than those. Pandora is the type of woman that will do anything to support a friend (or even an acquaintance if we’re being honest). She gets an enjoyment out of taking care of people and giving them someone they can count on.

✓ Idealistic

-unrealistically aiming for perfection: Pandora is the definition of someone who aims for perfection. If you ask her what she wants to see in the world it would be world peace, the hunger problem being solved, and the list would go on and on.

✓ Free-thinker

-a person who rejects accepted opinions, especially those concerning religious belief: Pandora is easily a free thinker. She’s not someone that easily conforms to anyone else’s beliefs. The young woman is the type of person that sticks to her own beliefs and isn’t easily swayed by anyone else’s.

✕ Disorganized

-Not properly planned or controlled: Pandora has absolutely no ability of sticking to any kind of plan. Really if she’s even somewhat on time it’s a good thing. She just sees the universe in a wider way that makes focusing on “small” things such as time and putting things away in a supposed proper place. She thrives the best in a chaotic environment.

✕ Detached

-separate or disconnected: It’s easy to see how Pandora can be detached from the reality of the world. She can be easily lost in her own mind and her own view of the world which won’t allow her to really connect with how things can be.

✕ Impulsive

-acting or done without forethought: What fun is there in planning an adventure? Not that Pandora really does it on purpose. She just has a freedom about her that doesn’t agree with planning a moment ahead of time. She enjoys the way the world works when she just allows the fates to decide what happens moment to moment.

✕ Fearless

-lacking fear: Pandora knows that living a life full of fear was never a way to live. At the end of the day something happens to everyone. Why fear the future when you can just live in the moment and be happy?

-A FEW HEADCANONS

-Pandora has had a furry grey cat named Phoebe (Fifi for short) since her third year at Hogwarts. Wherever she goes in her apartment there is surely a grey cat following very closely behind her.

-Pandora is a sentimental person. She appreciates every little gift given to her even if it was some random last second present the person didn’t put a lot of thought into. Although her absolute favorite gifts were always the ones that someone would make by hand for her.

-Pandora has a soft spot for every animal, but her favorites are pygmy puffs.

-A FEW POTENTIAL PLOT POINTS

-I don’t know so much as a plot point but I would love nothing more than to be able to explore Pandora’s background such as her family background and exactly what happened to make Pandora the type of person that she is. I think it’d be an interesting series of self paras there.

-I think it’d be interesting to explore her friendships with characters that don’t share her same view of the world. I just imagine that she makes sure to surround herself with interesting people that make her think.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

The following section should be looked at like a survey for your character. Answer them in character and feel free to use gifs. Or, if you’d rather, answer them in third person or OOC without gifs. Answers do not have to be extremely lengthy.

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

-I would like to invent a potion that would be able to give peace to the person that would consume it. Of course I would want to give it to absolutely everyone, but giving the ability to be calm with one’s self is something that is enviable.

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

-If I’m going to go deep into the Forbidden Forest I’m taking Xeno with me. He’d be someone who would know the plants and creatures enough to make sure I don’t accidentally eat something I shouldn’t, and his company isn’t the worst. As for an item I’d lean towards taking some kind of picnic just to make sure I have something to eat.

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

-The kind that require me to be cruel to anyone. I don’t want to cause anyone pain if I can avoid it, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. At least when they bring pain to others that don’t deserve it.

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

-That I’m intentionally cruel and get an enjoyment out of causing pain to people.I don’t mind being called crazy or zany or anything else, but cruel isn’t one of the words I want associated with me.

REACTION TO LAST EVENT DROP

Pandora wouldn’t react kindly to the Death Eaters taking over the ministry. She knows it’s only a matter of time for someone like her to become the target, but it’s not herself that she’s even worried about it’s everyone else. It’s what’s causing her to consider to join in the fight and do what she can for the betterment of the entire community.

WRITING SAMPLE

Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.

No statement tended to be truer for Pandora. It was almost a daily occurrence that the young blonde found something else missing, and almost equally of an occurrence that she would locate something that had supposedly been missing for weeks to months. She knew that some of the reason was the chaotic sense that she tended to live in. Nothing in her small flat tended to have a true place which left it all in a crazy mess and items being easily misplaced. For some that may have been a problem or a cause of anxiety, but for Pandora it just made things more interesting.

Was it Monday? Or Thursday? Pandora pondered as she sat on the edge of her bed glancing out at the bright view from her windows. It was a peaceful day whichever day of the week it was, or at least it was a peaceful day in the muggle world. It would have been all to easy for Pandora to slip into the muggle world blending in, but there were too many connections keeping her from running away. And maybe it was also her deep love of figuring out new and interesting spells that would give her away. With a small sigh she stood up finally deciding that she should figure out what the day would hold for her.

With a mindless flick of her wand as she stepped sleepily into the kitchen she watched as her teapot moved from the counter to the stove and water poured itself into it. Before she knew it though her tea was in her hands allowing her to have a true start to her day. Most days Pandora just flitted about the city seeing what the day would bring. Today though something new was calling to the woman. Whether it was something that would be finished was another question, but she was still excited just to get started. It was a strange feeling that she wanted to explore as much as possible.

She had never much considered writing, but there was something about it in that moment for that day that felt right. It was a feeling that she often dreamed of feeling. But it was apparently going to have to wait. She shook her head at herself as she sat down at her desk trying to locate the parchment that she knew was somewhere. Once she found that though she would be on her own to start, until then though she might as well go out and figure out something new to do with her day.

#Accepted App #hp rp #lsrpg #Pandora Lightwood #skeleton rp

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gdwessel · 4 years ago

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KENTA Appears on AEW Dynamite, Attacks Jon Moxley, Insults Kenny Omega, Booked for Next Week’s Episode; Speculation on NJPW/AEW Working Agreement; NJPW Announces New USA/UK/Canada TV Deal With Roku Channel, Starts 2/11/2021

Well this turned out to be quite a 24 hours.

Last night, in the dying second of AEW’s special “Beach Break” edition of Dynamite, as the main event of Jon Moxley, Pac & Rey Fenix v. Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows ended, the Bullet Club’s KENTA made a shock appearance to attack Moxley and deliver a Go2Sleep on him. As the show went off the air, Omega stood over Mox as if HE did the deed, whilst KENTA just had a “fuck you” look on his face at Omega.

In a later post-show backstage segment, Omega commented “Switchblade never told me to expect anyone” and tried to Too Sweet KENTA, which lead to KENTA’s classic comment of “Shut the fuck up, I’m not your friend.” (There have been plenty of other Bullet Clubbers on Twitter expressing similar sentiments towards Omega, Gallows, Anderson and The Young Bucks in recent weeks.)

The main upshot of this is now, KENTA will be teaming with Kenny Omega, the current AEW World Champion, on next week’s edition of Dynamite, v. Jon Moxley & Lance Archer (another former NJPW roster member himself) in a “Lights Out” tag match. (Which, much like Moxley v. KENTA for the IWGP US Heavyweight title, has probably already been taped, as Dynamite is on the old RAW Taped Every Other Week schedule.)

We’re now hearing that yes, for realsies, NJPW and AEW have a formal working agreement in place, although the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions are putting a damper on too much involvement. KENTA still resides in Orlando, stemming from his NXT days, so it wasn’t much difficulty to get him on Dynamite in Jacksonville, FL. (Also, explains why he wasn’t on The New Beginning tour.) In addition, Mox v. KENTA is an actual match that is booked, and has already happened, so it’s easy to build a program with this because there is, at last, an assured payoff.

Once again, the narrative that this only came about because of Takami Ohbari being made NJPW President, in place of Harold Meij, is rearing again, allegedly stating Meij was against a co-promotion with AEW because he thought AEW might fail. Let’s be frank for a second - there were absolutely no guarantees, back in January 2019, that All Elite Wrestling was sustainable. There are still no guarantees now. AEW is successful, and overall a very good product... so far. But then, so was WCW from 1996-99, and, well, it’s been pretty well documented how THAT turned out.

So, let the speculation begin as to what else can happen here, and when. There’s still a pandemic going on, and Japan has been a lot more stringent about international travel and quarantine than the USA has been so far. As of right now, all we have is KENTA in a match on next week’s AEW Dynamite, Moxley on NJPW Strong this week in a pre-taped promo, and Mox v. KENTA for the IWGP US title on the 2/26/2021 edition of NJPW Strong. Of course I’ll be keeping an eye on this, given I write/podcast about NJPW here, and podcast about AEW on a weekly basis. (That’s Boom Goes The Dynamite on the PWOM Podcast Network with myself and Paul Sebastian!)

(Also, I legitimately squealed when AEW announced DDT’s Maki Itoh coming soon to their TV. Don’t @ me.)

On the heels of this announcement, NJPW has also announced they have a new TV deal in the USA, UK and Canada beginning 2/11/2021 on The Roku Channel:

February 4, 2021 –New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd. (NJPW) today announced a partnership with Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) to bring NJPW content to The Roku Channel in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The eponymous New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a one-hour weekly series featuring the athletic action of the world’s preeminent pro-wrestling organization, will air episodes featuring top matches and events that have yet to air on television outside of Japan.

Premiering February 11, episodes of New Japan Pro-Wrestling will air every Thursday beginning at 5 pm on The Roku Channel, beginning with ten special episodes that will see the US, UK and Canadian television premiere of Wrestle Kingdom 14, available on-demand thereafter. Additionally, The Roku Channel will host a block of library content, featuring key highlights from the 2020 NJPW catalogue, with potential for the introduction of more historical content in the future.

Availability on The Roku Channel makes NJPW the first pro-wrestling company to call an AVOD service home. As pro-wrestling fans increasingly seek out new platforms to watch content, the partnership brings the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s “Promotion of the Year” for the last eight consecutive years to North American and U.K. audiences at a major level for free.

“Expanding the breadth and quality of our programming has fueled The Roku Channel to one of the largest and fastest growing channels on our platform,” said Ashley Hovey, Director of AVOD Growth, Roku. “Sports programming continues to be an important category for our users, and we are very excited to partner with NJPW to put the world of professional wrestling at the fingertips of millions of engaged users on The Roku Channel.”

“Our fans in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are among our most loyal, and they have been very clear that they want NJPW’s content made available to them,” said Takami Ohbari, President of NJPW. “NJPW is unlike any other pro-wrestling in the world. It is the most athletic, sports-oriented pro-wrestling on the planet, and we are excited to bring our athletes and matches to these markets in such a major way. Thank you to The Roku Channel, and we look forward to a successful partnership that brings NJPW to millions of new fans around the world.”

So, yay, NJPW back on US TV. And the graphic above appears to indicate that this will be an English translation of episodes of World Pro Wrestling from TV Asahi, much like the early days of NJPW on AXS, rather than lifting content from the English feed of NJPWWorld. Which is cool, I liked the World Pro Wrestling episodes version of NJPW on AXS, back when it was on.

However:

Erm, that timeslot. 5pm, I assume EST, on a Thursday? I understand it will be VOD later, but that’s not exactly a prime timeslot to have for this programming.

With the focus on Roku, and Roku being an app-driven streaming platform, why not bring the NJPWWorld app to Roku? It’s already on Amazon Fire TV (which, the interface IS one of the worst out there, it has to be said), it couldn’t be that difficult to have a version on Roku, surely? Perhaps there are contracts and agreements involved with exclusivity on Amazon I am not aware of, but it’d be easier to have NJPWWorld than a weekly TV show on Roku, IMO.

Regardless, here’s hoping the weekly TV brings a measure of success for NJPW, so that more content, and perhaps NJPWWorld, can make it over to Roku as well.

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #kenta #jon moxley #Kenny Omega #all elite wrestling #AEW #IWGP US Championship #Takami Ohbari #Harold Meij #roku #roku channel #World Pro Wrestling #tv asahi #njpwworld #maki itoh

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falafel14 · 7 years ago

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The Stranger Things Kids: Sorted into Hogwarts Houses

I recently listened to this Weird Sisters podcast sorting all the Stranger Things characters into Hogwarts Houses. And while I didn’t agree with all of their sorting choices, I loved their take on the four boys being a conceptual representation of the Hogwarts founders. Now I can’t help thinking that if our boys actually went to Hogwarts together, then they would all choose to be in the same house and that house would undoubtedly be Ravenclaw. Nerdy Ravenclaw traits are something they all have in common and it’s at least the secondary house for three of them, but the primary house of only one of them. Our Hawkins boys are actually ideal representations of each of the four houses and how these four character types can work together as an effective complimentary unit. So I wanted to expand on why the boys fit their houses so perfectly and then ponder which house Eleven might possibly be sorted into. The jury is still out on her.

Mike Wheeler: Gryffindor

Like the great Taystee Jefferson before him, Mike is a Gryffindor soul with a Ravenclaw mind. Like all the boys Mike is fiercely intelligent, but it’s his bravery, compassion and recklessness that drives him. Mike’s classic Gryffindor moment of course comes when he leaps off a cliff to save Dustin. It’s worth noting that in this scene Troy actually gave Mike the option of pissing himself or jumping to his possible death. And Mike with his insane impulsive Gryffindor courage chooses to show his bully that he’s ready to sacrifice himself for a friend at any moment rather than trying to negotiate for Dustin’s safety through fulfilling a lesser dare. Mike has another “You will have to kill me before I let you hurt my friend” scene when Brenner’s soldiers come for El at the school. And in the S2 finale Mike is not content with being benched or even just creating some small diversion to help El close the gate. No it’s Mike plan to go right to the roots of the Shadow Monsters hive mind and then set it on fucking fire.

The balls on this kid, seriously. But it’s not just his bravery that makes Mike a Gryffindor. We also see it in his desire and ability to be a leader. As the Dungeon Master of his group, Mike is assertive, motivational, a little controlling and a lot of a show off (as seen in his hilariously theatrical Thessalhydra death performance in the S1 finale). Mike can be arrogant in his leadership sometimes, expecting that no other party members will make decisions without him and furious when he finds out important decisions have been taken out of his hands. Like many a Gryffindor Mike has a hot temper, he shouts a lot and he gets his big ‘caps lock Harry!’ moment when he rages at Hopper for hiding El from him. That scene is the perfect clash of Mike’s righteous Gryffindor fire with Hopper’s cold cunning Slytherin survivalism. I suspect these two will continue to have conflict in future seasons as all great Gryffindors and Slytherins do. I’m also predicting that once they’ve grown out of their sibling squabbles we’ll start to see a stronger alliance between Mike and his sister. Nancy is also a Gryffindor with Ravenclaw wit and Hogwarts house traits tend to run in families, even though the magical Wheeler kids were born to oblivious muggle parents. Just as Nancy grabs a gun when the Byres house is under attack from demodogs, Mike snatches the first improvised weapon at hand, a candlestick. Mike surely doesn’t know how to fight with a candlestick. Point is the boy’s a fighter by nature.

Dustin Henderson: Ravenclaw

Do not tell me that Dustin is anything other than a Ravenclaw. I will fight you. I will grant that Hufflepuff may be Dustin’s secondary house, but it’d still be a very distant second because this kid is so Ravenclaw it hurts. Though he may at first appear to be the goofball of the group (not that Hufflepuff’s are actually goofs but this is the common misconception) Dustin is really the brains of the operation. It is shown time and time again that while all the boys are smart, Dustin is by far the smartest. Take the scene where Dustin comes up with the plan to use their compasses to find the gate and is a little pained at how long it takes Mike and Lucas to grasp a concept that instantly makes sense to him. This is what makes Dustin so Ravenclaw, his quick comprehension of crazy complex ideas. Though it is more often Dungeon Master Mike who first comes up with theories on their supernatural problems, it’s Dustin who takes Mike’s ideas, expands on them and guides their party towards possible solutions. Look at how Dustin takes charge of explaining the Veil of Shadows and the Mind Flayer to the group, using textual references from the D&D handbook to support his thesis. He also fussily insists that everyone starts using his newly invented ‘demodog’ terminology, which is another classic Ravenclaw quirk. Dustin is full of them.

This is a kid who steals library books and interrupts his science teacher’s dates and justifies it by saying he’s on a curiosity quest. Dustin doesn’t tend to be as bold as Mike and Lucas in fights (he’s the one who initially cautions Will to cast protection) but Dustin is a fearless adventurer when it comes to expanding his knowledge. I’d say that it’s his Ravenclaw inquisitiveness rather than Hufflepuff sweetness that drives Dustin to risk keeping Dart as his pet. And while Dustin keeping Dart could be considered a dumb move from a supposedly smart kid, Dustin is vindicated in the end when he successfully uses his bond with Dart to help him and his friends escape the tunnels. Dustin doesn’t get too sentimental over leaving Dart (presumably to die?) seeming more interested in his scientific discoveries as he tells Steve to preserve a dead demodog in the freezer. Indeed, Dustin’s discovery that they can tame monsters from the Upside Down could prove really useful in future seasons. Lastly, I will add that Dustin’s Ravenclaw mind doesn’t always serve him well. He has a tendency to overthink things and assume his theories will always work in practice - such as if he copies the way Steve acts with girls, he will get girls like Steve does. This is why Ravenclaws like Dustin (and dear Luna) are often kooky misfits. Things that make perfect sense in their heads don’t always fit in with reality.

Lucas Sinclair: Slytherin

This is not to say that Lucas is the dark or corruptible kid of the group. Lucas is actually a great example of how a Slytherin can be a powerful ally, particularly a Slytherin with Ravenclaw brains (see Stiles Stilinski as another great example of this type). Lucas, like all Slytherins, is fiercely loyal to his own people yet very suspicious and hostile towards those outside his circle. To say that Slytherins have a strong sense of self-preservation is not to say they’re cowards. Lucas is clearly a little badass, but he’s also far more cautious, cunning and prepared for battle than impulsively-jump-off-a-cliff Gryffindors like Mike. Lucas has his wrist rocket and his army-style kit bag and he thinks before he acts or trusts anyone. Whereas Mike immediately took El in without question, Lucas gave her a hard time but also exhibited a rational mistrust of a girl so strange and powerful. But when Lucas comes to trust El, he is devoted to her. Lucas initially holds back on bringing Max in and telling her any of their secrets too. Like Mike he has a crush on the girl who he wants to be their new party member, but unlike Mike he is not blinded by his emotions. When Lucas brings Max into the fold he plans for it, he does it in a secure setting, he acknowledges the risks and he makes sure Max is aware of the consequences. And he does all this without consulting the group, because if Mike can take charge and recruit new members then so can he. And he will vet his newcomers more than Mike ever did.

So I guess the main thing that makes Lucas Slytherin for me is how he clashes with Mike. He’s one member of the party who challenges Mike as their leader. Their little row over both wanting to be Venkman speaks volumes. It is not just because Lucas resents being automatically cast as the black guy. It’s because Lucas and Mike both want to be the main man. There’s a sense in S2 that Lucas has taken the leadership role away from Mike, given that they are now playing arcade games, not D&D. As Dungeon Master, Mike led them in a game where they would all worked together as a group, though he was the one shaping the adventures. In the arcade, the games are competitive and Lucas is clearly the best at them, having the most high scores. While Mike seems disinterested and forgets to collect quarters, Lucas is out mowing lawns so he can show off his skills and brag about being top of most of the score boards. This is his Slytherin ambition coming through. Lucas is initially attracted to Max because she is a worthy arcade competitor and he treats his love triangle with Dustin and Max as a competition he’s determined to win. And just like Lucas gets the princess on Dragon’s Lair, he also gets the girl at the Snowball. Ironically though, I’d place Max in Gryffindor, meaning that like Mike and Lucas, they are likely to have a stormy relationship in future. But in Lucas’s case as an intellectual ambitious Slytherin, he thrives on people who challenge him.

Will Byers: Hufflepuff

Here’s our Hufflepuff. I was impressed that the podcast correctly sorted Will into Hufflepuff after only S1. It shows just how well Will was characterized even in a minor role. Though as they also rightly point out, Will was always most likely to be in Hufflepuff because he was raised in a family of Hufflepuffs. Not Lonnie of course but Joyce and Jonathan are both shown to be hard working, quiet and kind-natured and incredibly loyal to their loved ones. Will might not be working long hours to bring money into the Byers house like they are, but his preference for drawing over action figures hints that he’s a worker bee too. Unlike the other boys who favor games where they fight and win, Will would rather spend time quietly creating something. And while his mom is so gushingly proud of Will’s artistic talent, Will himself is quiet and humble about it. Just as he is humble in the games he plays with his friends. In D&D, the demogorgan gets Will because he was trying to do what was best for their group. He lacks the ambition to win for himself. Will always chooses to be kind and to please others. Like in the story Joyce tells about him giving away his Tonka truck to a little girl who was crying. It makes Will the best peacekeeper of the group - his little “Why can’t there just be two Venkmans?” line was so perfectly Hufflepuff.

However, for all his sweetness it’s not surprising that Will has had the darkest storyline so far. While Hufflepuffs are kind souls, they can also be perilously naive. See Jesse Pinkman as the perfect example of a sweet Hufflepuff who is especially vulnerable to evil influences and manipulation. His open and trusting Hufflepuff nature is partly what makes Will prey to the shadow monster. In S2, Will’s first mistake was to follow Bob’s advice, dear Bob who meant well but had no comprehension of the powerful forces Will was up against. Will is not a fighter like Mike and Lucas are. He survived the Upside Down mostly through hiding and holding on until he could be rescued. When he becomes possessed Will survives in the same way. Will takes Mike’s advice and he quietly spies on the monster inside him and selflessly works to leak his knowledge of the monster through his maps and Morse code messages. Even when being mind controlled by evil forces, his Hufflepuff nature shines through.

Eleven: Undecided

So all this brings me to El, the character I find that Stanger Things sorting hat posts struggle with the most. The Weird Sisters put Eleven in Ravenclaw on the basis of her telekinetic abilities, but I’d argue that having superpowers in your brain is not the same as being intelligent and cerebral. Ravenclaw is actually the last house I would sort El into, because she lacks a complex perspective on all matters. She tends to view people as either good or bad, she gets angry over lies and broken promises while ignoring any complicated reasons behind them. El does not act based on rationality but on her raw instincts. Her powers may be concentrated in her mind but in S2 they made it clear that her powers are fueled by her emotions. Dustin has described El’s superpowers as being like a battery that they need to recharge. But at the school, it turned out that El didn’t need chocolate pudding to take down Brenner’s men and the demogorgan. The thing that charged up her powers was her love for Mike. It was Mike kissing her and sweetly promising her she can have a normal life. That gave her strength to fight back when she was drained. So given that El is a feeler more than a thinker, I’m stuck between Gryffindor and Slytherin for her house.

As I’ve said with other characters like Will and Mike, Hogwarts houses often run in families. Eleven is a girl who’s been raised by Slytherins. And not just by bad Slytherins like Brenner, but by a more decent Slytherin like Hopper. She has a third Slytherin influence in her lost sister Kali. The Slytherin breeding has rubbed off on El. Like a Slytherin she is also fiercely loyal to her loved ones but hostile to outsiders, like Max. Like a Slytherin she has strong self-preservation instincts. And I suppose most of all like a Slytherin, El has a real potential to turn dark and have her powers become monstrous. However, El is in love with a Gryffindor and it could well be said that their shared Gryffindor spirits is what brought Mike and El together. It’s too early to say for sure but I think El is one of those characters who will slowly move away from her family house. Clarke Griffin was born into a family of Gryffindors and started off Gryffindor herself, but she developed into a diehard Slytherin. I could see El developing in a similar way, but in the other direction. Bred to be Slytherin, yet born to be Gryffindor.

Other Gryffindors: Nancy, Steve and Max.

Other Ravenclaws: Bob, Murray and Mr Clarke.

Other Hufflepuffs: Joyce, Jonathan and Barb.

Other Slytherins: Hopper, Brenner, Billy and Kali.

#stranger things #hogwarts houses #eleven #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #will byers #mike/eleven #lucas/max #stranger things meta

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darlingpetao3 · 8 years ago

Text

For Asgard (Chapter 18/?)

Coulson arranges for you to be escorted to wherever they're keeping Loki captive. It's only one guard taking you there but he is a pretty burly fellow, perhaps the biggest guy aboard this helicarrier. You closely follow the guy until he stops outside what you believe to be your destination. When the door slides open you expect him to stay glued to you while in the presence Loki. While in actuality, the opposite happens.

“You have five minutes. Agent Romanoff is already in there interrogating the prisoner. She'll keep an eye on you.” You weren't certain whether that meant “she'll keep you safe from him” or “she'll make sure you don't try anything stupid.”

Slowly you enter the room where S.H.I.E.L.D. has imprisoned Loki. The cell he's in is much smaller and less luxurious than the one you shared on Asgard. Then again, no prison would be as nice as that one. Were you seriously grading prison cells on their interior decor? This one was circular with windows all around. What is it with people and their giant windows in prison cells, anyway?

You can hear Loki talking to someone. When you look up and to the right, there's the red-headed agent you remember piloting the plane. Romanoff. Apparently, they didn't hear you enter the room. Keeping this to your advantage, you move into the shadows and into earshot to hear her voice. It is level, yet demanding.

“I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton,” she says.

“I would say I have expanded his mind,” Loki responds like he's doing everyone a favour. That's an interesting way to put it, you think. Redhead approaches his cell, face expressionless. You can tell she cares about Birdman, but damn is she good at keeping her face neutral. Her arms cross.

“Once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?” She moves up close to the glass between them. For some reason you can't place, you don't like this small action very much.

“Is this love, Agent Romanoff?” Loki teases.

“Love is for children. I owe him a debt.”

Wow, hardcore. You wonder what she would think if she knew how much Loki and you love each other. You two might as well be the biggest children here, then. He laughs at her words and backs away.

“Tell me,” he insists, suddenly appearing interested in her supposed debts. A quick look of hesitation breaks through across her face but disappears just as quickly. She goes on to tell her life story of before she worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. From what you gather from Redhead's vague story, she implies she was an assassin. That and Birdman was sent to take her out, to kill her, but ended up not following through. When Loki asks what she'll do if he spares Birdman, she says she won't let Loki out, and you didn't expect her to anyway. But Loki has that look in his eye. You've seen it before. Like he's the cat who spots a mouse just sitting there, and it's playtime.

Redhead says she wants to turn over a new leaf. To wipe out the red in her proverbial ledger. Loki, of course, questions her ability to do so.

“Drakov's daughter... Sao Paolo. The hospital fire.”

That did it.

You don't know what any of this means, but his choice in words did the trick. She's tensed up and has wide eyes full of frozen fright.

“Barton told me everything,” he confesses. “Your ledger is dripping.” Loki approaches the window and his voice grows stronger, more powerful. “It is gushing red, and you think saving a man who is no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basis sentimentality, this is a child of prayer, pathetic,” he spits out. “You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you. And they will never. Go. Away.” Loki slams his fist against the window and Redhead flinches, something you thought her body wasn't capable of doing. You watch all this in silent awe, mouth just a little agape.

“I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way, he knows you fear. And then he will wake just long enough to see his good work and when he screams I'll split his skull.” Redhead turns in fear and horror and walks a few steps. “This is my bargain, you mewling quim.”

You sit there, hand to your mouth. Is he serious? You hope and wish and pray that this is still just a part of the stupid godforsaken plan. That this is all still an act. Because, yeah sure, he has to look the part of a villain right? That was a part of it? The plan you know nothing about and yet are still told to trust him blindly in what he's doing. But he must know what he's doing, you're sure of it. Loki's evil villain act has been good. Far too good. You almost believed it there for a second.

“You're a monster,” Redhead says quietly, in a small voice. Loki laughs.

“Oh no, you brought the monster.”

She lifts her head and turns around to face him with a look of sudden realization. “So, Banner? That's your play?”

What play? Who's Banner, now?

“What?” Loki says, confused for once.

“Loki means to unleash the Hulk,” Redhead speaks into her wrist. “Thank you for your cooperation,” she says to him smugly and turns to leave. Did Loki just get played?

“No...” he says unbelievingly.

Redhead makes her way to the exit in your direction but you remain hidden in the shadows of an alcove near the door. When the coast is clear, you rush up the steps two at a time and place your hands against the glass prison. Loki turns to see you and is surprised, you think, to see you at a time like this. He moves closer to you, and in return presses his own hands to the window.

“My darling,” he says fervently. “Oh, how glad I am to see you.”

“And I'm glad to see you, too. Only it'd be nicer if you were out of this thing. With me.”

“I could not agree with you more.”

You hear a loud blast and feel the floor beneath you tilt somewhat. You have to grab hold of the railing to regain balance.

“What was that?” you ask looking around the room for clues.

“It would seem the vessel has been shot.” Alarms sound off in the distance outside the prison room. The floor remains at a slant and you feel as if you're inside a carnival funhouse. Except this is not at all fun. Not in the slightest.

And then, reverberating through the vents above, there's a noise that causes the hair on your arms to stand up and make your insides churn. A horribly angry roar.

That's when Loki's lips curl into that smile that only speaks of trouble to follow.

“Loki, god damn it, what is happening? What were you saying to the Redhead earlier about a monster? Who's Banner? And how do you know all that stuff about her? How- no, what do you know about these people?” It all comes pouring out now, you can't stop it. “I've been trying my hardest to stay in the dark here, to let you be the mastermind with all the secrets, but I can't take it anymore! Please, please, tell me something. I'm so confused about everything and I just need to know.”

Loki looks at you with empathy in his twinkling green eyes. “I know this has hurt you, my darling, and it pains me to see you in such a state. Ask me whatever you like and I shall provide your answers.”

“Truthfully?”

“To you? Always. But first, we are in great danger. Therefore, my sweet, before I tell you what you wish to hear, you must help me out of this cell.”

“Yes, of course.” You shake your head with understanding. If this massive flying base is going down, you'll need to free your beloved. Your burning questions can wait just a little longer. After all, you'd rather your questions be burning than yourself. “What do you need me to do?”

“Do you recall the route the guards brought us before we were split up?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“They are keeping my sceptre in the laboratory which we passed upon entering this aircraft. Do you remember the room of which I speak?”

You pull up the image of it in your head. When you had passed that lab, Loki had given the curly haired man inside a funny look.

“I do. I remember.”

“Good. You must retrieve the sceptre for me, my love. Without it, our defence and safety weakens greatly.”

“I'll be back. Hold on!” The ground shakes again, this time with more force. You work up a nice jog once you make it to the hallways of the helicarrier again. Men in uniforms run by you without a second glance. You assume they're probably too busy trying to figure out a way to keep this flying base up in the air and not in a billion pieces smashed on the ground. That makes you feel a little relief. They have their own mission right now and so do you. According to your calculations, the lab shouldn't be much farther-

There it is. You see the weapon in the window up ahead, the whole room turned faintly blue from the stone's growing brightness. It appears the door had been blasted open. An explosion, you deduce, from the shards of glass across the floor. You run to the sceptre and grasp it from the table it sits upon.

Your heart beats rapidly as you stare at it and move your fingers across its golden shaft. This is the first time you've actually held it. You think of all the things it has done, of all the things it could be capable of doing. And it's in your hands.

You need to snap yourself out of it. Leaving the lab, you make a mad dash back to the prison room, all the while avoiding falling flat on your face due to the helicarrier's extreme turbulence. But before you reach the last corner, before you're home free, a shout in a deep voice from the other end of the hallway startles you.

“(Y/N)!”

Your head whips around as you see a hugely built blond man, bewildered as to what you're doing with the sceptre in your possession. It's Thor. For a moment, you two merely stare at one another. Then, you break for it.

“Loki, I have it! I have it! Thor's coming!” you say frantically. A guard you hadn't noticed was in the room grabs you and tries to disarm you, but you aren't having any of that. You push him backwards and slam him against the wall. The man loses his bearings long enough so that you have time to tap the weapon to his chest without really weighing your options. His eyes fade to black but refocus to the colour of the stone's glow.

He is in your control.

“Open the cell door,” you command him. “And leave.” The guard has no choice but to heed your words. As the door slides open, a desperate “NO!” rings out. Thor makes a beeline to stop Loki from escaping and goes in for a tackle.

Only, he goes right through him!

An illusion...

Thor scrambles to his feet but the cell door has already closed on him. He's trapped. The real Loki appears next to you but remains facing his brother.

“Are you ever not going to fall for that?” Loki taunts. This clearly angers Thor as he smashes Mjolnir on the window, leaving a giant crack, but that, in turn, causes the latches on the cell to loosen. Please don't tell me this thing drops from the sky...

“The humans think us immortal,” Loki says with a humorous tone and walks over to the control panel. “Should we test that? Darling, come over here will you, please? Wouldn't want anything dreadful to happen to you would we, love?”

You scurry over to his side and take hold of his arm. You're beyond anxious. Is he really going to send his brother in a nose dive to the unforgiving cold hard ground? This is way beyond the prank he pulled in Asgard at Thor's coronation.

“Move away, please,” says a voice trying to sound authoritative. It's Agent Coulson. He snuck in and is holding the biggest freaking gun you have ever seen in your life. Awkwardly though, like he doesn't know exactly what he's doing with it.

Loki steps back a bit. The gun is aimed directly at him. Your heart is beating and it's out of control. Coulson, the man who was so kind to you earlier, a real genuine guy, is pointing a gun at the man you love.

“You like this?” Coulson says, inching closer. Loki looks worried. He grabs your waist and moves you out of the line of fire, which is too far away. “Even I don't know what it does.” Coulson shrugs. You figured as much. “Want to find out?” Not caring that Loki had moved you aside, you step back in front of him just as Coulson pushes a button on his weapon, lighting it up. He's about to shoot.

And then... You hear a grunt of anguish and a horrible scream. The scream was yours.

Your hands cover your mouth. Loki had suddenly appeared behind Coulson and had plunged his sceptre into his back. Only now, the sceptre is no longer in your hands. How-? His other self, his body double, his illusion was disintegrating behind you, still looking worrisome, while the real Loki let Coulson slide down the side of the wall, leaving a bloody streak as he went down.

You stand frozen with shock and refuse to accept this was happening. But it gets worse. When you finally gather a little courage to face Loki, you find him at the control panel again, with that smile. That one smile. Not the one you fell for all that time ago. No, this one gave you chills.

For the first time, you were scared. Positively terrified.

Loki's hand hovers over the daunting red button for a few moments as if he's contemplating. He and Thor exchange glares. Thor looks utterly and completely betrayed. Probably for the umpteenth time in his life. But you could feel that this was the worst of it.

Loki pushes the button and in a split second the ropes are cut, the latches give way, and Thor falls to his doom in his glass prison. You can't breathe.

“You're going to lose,” says Coulson's small, but sure voice.

“Am I?” Loki plays along.

“It's in your nature.” The agent's eyes are losing their light. His breathing shallows.

“Why do people seem to think they know my nature?” Loki says to himself, annoyed. “Your heroes are scattered. Your fleeting fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?”

“You lack conviction... and the trust in your partner.”

“I do not think I-”

BOOM.

Loki gets blasted into the wall and slumps down unconscious.

“So that's what it does.”

You have tears pooling in your eyes and you try to stay strong, but looking at the man who was so kind to you, even when you were aiding a criminal, causes you to lose it.

“Agent Coulson, it's going to be alright. I- I can't believe he-” you can't even finish your sentence, kneeling beside him. “Just hang in there. You're going to be okay.”

“Don't you worry about me. Just do me a favour, please?”

“Anything. Anything. What is it?”

“Don't lose yourself, (Y/N).” Those were his last words. You start sobbing for a man you knew for the shortest amount of time and yet he made such an impact on you. Emotions and thoughts flood through you like rushing rapids. It feels like someone zapped you with a stun gun. It's like someone ran you over with a truck and left you flattened against the pavement. You feel like you're both on the verge of a hysterical fit or completely breaking down and crumbling into a ball on the ground. This was a dream, right? A nightmare?

Please for the love of every single god, let this not be real. Your heart. It hurts. You could almost swear that you feel the cracks in it. All you have to do is think of Loki's eyes. His touch, his voice, all of it, everything from before any of this shit happened to you both, for you to fall to your knees and break down in heavy sobs.

This poor, nice man. Coulson... He had offered you your old life back. How much simpler would everything have been if you had just accepted?

You had thought Loki was putting on an act, but did he really, honestly change in the end? How could Loki have done what he did if he hadn't changed? I am an accomplice to murder. I brought him the sceptre. I opened the door... How will I live with myself after all that I've done?

You feel a hand on your shoulder. You look up to see him. Coulson's killer. Loki. A man you thought you knew, had trusted with all your heart in so many ways. But you didn't recognize him anymore. This wasn't a game, to play with people's lives this way. You felt like a fool to figure this out only now. He's quiet with his words.

“I am-”

“Don't,” you say, hardened.

“Darling, please.”

“No.”

“This aircraft will crash any time now. We have to go.” His urging means nothing to you.

“Then let it. I'm not going anywhere with you.”

“You don't mean that.”

“Oh, I mean that.” You didn't care that your voice just cracked.

“Do you not trust me?” His voice has a tinge of frustration to it. You don't answer.

“You are a monster...” you murmur so quietly, you didn't think it possible for him to hear you.

He did.

“I was trying to save you!” Loki yells at you, anger increasing and all too apparent. Something clips in your heart. And your temper.

“I don't need saving!” You feel sick. Nothing makes sense anymore. “I'm not leaving with you.” Loki's eyes narrow and in truth looks beyond scary in this moment, something you never thought you'd feel about him.

“If that is the way you feel.” He sounds angry but trying not to let it resurface. Even more, there's a tinge of the sound of his own heart breaking. Well, join the fucking club. He gets up to leave, sceptre in hand, and walks a bit with a limp.

You can't bring yourself to look at him. Even if the last glimpse of his face turns out to be him smiling grotesquely and stabbing a spear into Coulson's back, so be it. When you finally hear his footsteps leave the room, that is when you start to weep.

Part 19

Tag List: @gerardwayisapotato , @theloneavenger1995, @magellan-88

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melanchellen · 7 years ago

Text

On aliens

"We're tiny! Don't you see it? We're tiny!" she yelled at him, her voice dripping a panic so urgent and overwhelming, not even his warm embrace could calm.

"We were born here, on a day and age we never chose, by people we have not the luxury to pick, under circumstances we will never be able to control. And that's how we leave as well. An unknown how and when await us at the end of our existence. And then, we become just numbers and statistics, on catalogues no one really reads. Or we remain as faded inaccuracies in the memories of the people that overlive us. That's if we're lucky. If we were able to find people that actually cared enough. All of our existence is a sequence of events so unimportant, so dull, so insignificant...

How are you not afraid? How are all of those facts not overwhelming and scary to you? Every day that passes by, we walk towards our inevitable disappearance, which will also soon mean nothing. We're such a waste of power. And even so, not a really significant one, that could possibly disturb the balance of the endless universe. Everything will soon continue to exist, totally indifferent to our musings."

Tears filled her eyes as soon as she stopped talking. They were both laying still, fingers interlaced, gazing at the endless night sky expanding above them. To say this wasn't what he had in mind when he asked her to go stargazing with him, would be an understatement. He was prepared for a romantic night on his rooftop, filled with laughter and love and hours of talking about future plans or sweet nothings. Now that he came to think about it, he should have at least expect things to not go according to plan. This was a running theme on his life, at least ever since he met her. She has always been full of surprises. But watching her now, at a state of pure existential panic was a whole new level of unpredictable. He tried his best to comfort her.

"Hey! Everything is fine. I'm here for you. Please, stop crying..."

He softly enveloped her in his arms, and she showed no resistance. She didn't stop crying either. He was caressing her upper arms and she was wetting his shirt. Nothing seemed to be able to drag her out of this loophole she was caught in. It was for the best to just let her be for a while, to let everything out. The spiral of thoughts was far too complicated to navigate while shaking and sobbing. He could only tighten his embrace and place a few chaste kisses on her forehead. She needed some time, he'd be there for her as soon as she was ready.

Waiting for her to calm down, he started replaying at his head everything she had say. Her arguments were valid and her questions, however urgent, were, admittedly, unanswerable. Preparing what to say back wasn't a search of answers, it was more like forming a counterpoint based on the same cold facts. Time was passing by unnoticed, and at some point she started calming down a bit. As she finally stopped crying, he broke the embrace hesitantly and searched for her eyes.

Her face was red and her eyes swollen. He wiped away her tears and smiled gently at her. Maybe now it was time to break the silence. He cleaned his throat, took a deep breath and started.

"First of all, my question was whether you believe in aliens or not." she smiled a bit at that, which gave him the courage he needed to continue.

"Secondly, I'd like to add that you look lovely even when you cry. Also I'm a bit underwhelmed, I've seen you cry more than that over the death of a fictional character, you could have done better."

That earned him an eye roll and a bat on the forearm, but it was worth it, for that glimpse of a smile on her face.

"Ok. To the main point now. I wish I had the answers to all of your whys and hows. I wish I could persuade you there is reason, or there is a higher purpose that's tying us all together. That, however, would be foolish, and also a lie, as I don't believe in those things either."

A sigh escaped her lips, and he reached down to hold her hand.

"Yes. Our whole life isn't but a series of events, most of which we're unable to control. Yes, the very ends and beginnings of our time in this tiny planet are still inexplicable, and yes, the difference we can make is rarely enough to change anything. I agree with you. There's almost no way to maintain your sanity once you've realized how small you are compared to the cosmos. It's scary to view yourself in proportion to the unknown and unexplored."

"Then how?" she interrupted him "How and why are you not afraid by these things?" Her wondering eyes were piercing his, as she demanded an answer.

"I admit that I'm scared too. It really upsets me once I really think about it. Having thought about it, I ended up on the conclusion that it's wiser to think about the atoms, rather than the black holes."

At this point she was totally confused, and so he proceeded to explaining.

"You see, there'll never be anything I can do to change the passage of time and its consequences. And I've came to accept that. Much like a black hole, time has a power of its own that we don't fully understand or are able to control or defeat. This moment though, here, with you, or everything else that I choose to do, on that list of insignificant human musings, it's more similar to an atom. I can study it better, understand it better, I have power on it. I have the power to control the colours and the sentiments on the pictures filled under my name, on your memories."

She was listening cautiously, as he further explained his theory on how we need to focus on the things we can affect rather than those we have no power upon. Her panic was subsiding and she began to understand. A sly smile was fighting on her lips.

"Thank you for this. For putting up with my existential fear and my overreaction. It means so much to me, having you hold me while I cry." she said, squeezing his hand.

Her eyes were now lovingly grazing his face, the distance between them becoming less by the minute. They shared a slow, tender kiss.

"Well..." he was the one to break the silence as soon as their lips parted "I was planning on telling you this tonight anyway... And although I should admit I came up with a different scenario in my head, the sentiment still stands."

"I guess never sticking to the original plan is what you get for having me around" she humored, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I'll gladly take it" he admitted and they shared a smile.

"I love you." he added, his voice somehow steady even with his heart pounding on his chest. "I love you and I'm thankful that we get to star in each other's memories. I couldn't have wished for a better version of you, even if I wrote your character myself." He finished off his sentences exhaling, as if there wasn't enough air in his lungs. Her response came in the form of a kiss, this time though it felt different. It was deeper and more passionate and they both got lost in it, completely melding together.

When they separated to catch their breath he searched for her eyes once more.

"So?" he asked, face begging for an answer. It was more that he wanted to hear her saying it than not actually knowing the answer, but he was scared still

"Yes. Yes, I do believe in aliens." she answered, her eyes mischievous while trying to maintain her composure.

"You're impossible." he all but yelled at her, rolling his eyes pointedly, crossing his arms and facing away. She fell on a fit of laughter, but hugged him still.

"I love you too. So so much." she whispered on his ear.

The stars had now disappeared, and the sky was getting lighter and lighter. They lied there, entangled, their eyes fixed on each other, not really noticing as the sun was rising. They were just two people, madly in love, on a random rooftop in a random town, realising how lucky they were to hold nothing but each other's mortal bodies on their hands.

#story #fiction #mine #existentialism #romance #rooftop #couple

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