#and their kits. whew. thing of beauty

[meowmeowmessi]

one thing i admire abt city is how well managed they are

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy Weekend! How exciting we have a premiere date! Feb 20th. The light is at the end of the tunnel wonderful fandom. It’s beautiful and bright. I’m going to crank up to 3 reviews a week so I finish the week before s6 premieres. So this worked out nicely heh

Ahh this episode is another giant friggin work flirt. That competitive fire that drives one of their love languages is prominent af in this episode. Only they could take a shift apart and turn it into a flirtatious competition. The marriage vibes are extreme in this one in the best way ha Let’s get going.

4x06 Poetic Justice

We start off with Tim getting an assignment from Grey. He wants to get Jerry Mcgrady to retire. They’re running out of things to assign him to that aren’t a strain on him. Front desk he takes too much time telling stories. Even the kit room is becoming too much for him. So it’s Tim’s job today to have the ‘It's time to retire talk.’ Tim being Tim says it’ll be a piece of cake. Wanting to prove himself to Grey he can handle it no problem. That the tough conversations aren't an issue.

That if he doesn’t agree he can use his injury for an involuntary retirement. Cold Timothy. Cold. Tim makes it to the Kit Room and is instantly thawed. He is ready to hit him with the cold hard truth as he put it to Wade. Before he can Jerry gives him a load of praise right off that bat. It makes Tim stumble off the blocks super early. It's so sweet and genuine too. How could he not struggle after saying he's proud? I'm sure those are words he never got from his own old man.

Tim tries again and fails for a second time. It’s the way Jerry is looking at him. Tim can’t pull the trigger. Instead he invites him out to ride with him LOL Well done Tim baha This was not the plan at all my love. Tim Bradford is a softie and we all know it. Grey walks up asks how it went? Tim admits he faltered and he’s riding with him instead.... Grey is beaming. Knowing he wouldn't be as ruthless as he claimed in his office. Wade can’t help but give him crap on top of it. Asking what happened to the 'Cold hard truth?' Tim swears by end of day he’ll get him to retire. Mmhmm sure.

In the cold open Nolan and Harper arrested a man digging in a city park. He was following a treasure hunt riddle. With Tim swapping Lucy out for Jerry she is riding with Nolan. He hands her the riddle and she starts to decipher it. Lucy figures out the first clue and they go to the pier. When they roll up people are fighting. A young woman is killed by getting an ax to the chest. People are insane.

This is what brings it to the LAPD’s full attention since there is a casualty. They find out the author of the riddle is a previous criminal. He was apart of a robbery where he hid 2 million in gold coins. They never recovered them. So the city is losing it's collective mind trying to find it. They need to be the first to get it. Grey calls Lucy up cause she was the first to solve a clue. She is beaming as she makes her way up.

Let’s first admire the forearm porn we’re getting in this first gif. Man makes me so thirsty I need a glass of water. Arms-crossed Tim is one of my fav poses. Those glorious biceps popping out of those sleeves too. Whew lord. Anyway Lucy is so very excited to present her findings. How she got the clue she did. It’s adorable how proud she is of it. Look how Tim never takes his eyes off her the entire time. You know he loves when she analyzes and breaks things down.

Her intelligence is a turn on for him whether he wants to admit it or not. He can’t let anyone catch onto his admiration... So he calls her ‘Nerd.’ to make fun of her. Which fails because it comes off super flirty. Negating his idea to to tease her for her brain. It comes across as banter more than anything else. Fail Timothy big fat Fail. Your mouth is saying one thing. Your body language and intense gaze say another...

Jerry is a sweetheart and tells her not to let Tim shame her. It’s a great catch. This is why it's hard for anyone to have the retirement talk with him haha A kind station grandpa to them all. Lucy goes from being annoyed to thanking Jerry. Tim’s sly little smile when she does is so cute. You know he’s proud of her being in the spotlight. Sporting her brain but has to tease her. It's how they function haha They’re so cute I can not. Flirting once again for all of the station to see. It's truly a wonder they're in the dark about it.

I love this moment between Harper and Tim. I'm glad I had the room to add this in. She joins in with Lucy's train of thought for the rest of the poem. Flaunting her brain as well. Tim gives her a look wanting to make fun of her as well. Nyla is on it and dares him to call her a nerd too LOL The looks between them make me laugh so much. I love their teasing camaraderie. It's my favorite. It's how Harper and Lucy get paired up to decipher the rest of the clues. Nolan feels left out cause well it's Nolan. Like that kid picked last for dodgeball. Grey tells John if he asks nicely he's sure he can join them. SMH. Friggin Nolan ha.

The cuteness continues when Lucy asks if Tim and Jerry wanna be part of her task force? That she can make it happen haha She’s adorable and I can not stand it. Tim does what he does best battles back with a flirty tone. Trying to talk down about her ‘task force’. Saying old fashioned policing will get it done just fine for them.

Flirt more you two…oh wait they do. Ha Lucy offers up a bet she knows Tim won’t refuse. Because once again why deal with feelings when they can channel it through a work flirt instead? Honestly how Jerry could allow Tim to date his daughter after this display I couldn’t tell ya. It's so painfully obvious how into one another these two are.

They lay down the terms for the loser. Tim saying she has to be quiet an entire shift. Please Timothy like you really want that…but ok that’s your “reward” if you win. I mean it would drive her crazy not to talk so it’s not the worst pick. Lucy choses something way more apropos IMO. He would have to do something out of his comfort zone. Not only that but it’s her choice. Can only imagine what Lucy would've chosen. Something that would've been good for him I'm sure. Cause she's good like that. Her track record with him is solid.

Lucy's face is so smug from the minute she brings this bet up. So convinced she has this in the bag. Gah these two love a good competition and flirting it up a ton in the process. Like pre-get together foreplay for them haha They then start the worlds longest handshake to seal the deal. They once again are in their own world. Like Jerry isn't even there…

The best part is while they continue to work-flirt they're holding hands. They could've broken it off but nope. Basically holding hands while they fiercely flirt. The flirty competitiveness continues with their jabs. The poetry club shot from Tim. Her being sassy af about their 18 old case files. Saying how ‘easy’ that’ll be for them to crack. LMAO Shots fired. All the while still holding hands. Because the work flirting wasn’t enough of a bat-signal to everyone else. They continue to hold hands while doing so. Seriously Jerry couldn’t you see the man was already taken?

We return to Lucy still at the whiteboard with Harper/Nolan. She gets a text from Tim saying they had a big breakthrough. Lucy could not be more dejected and anxious for them to get their own. Nolan and Harper tell her to ignore Tim. He’s just trying to get into her head. Yeah that's what he does. He kinda lives there rent free and vice versa with this kind of stuff. Good luck getting her to listen to that advice haha She is far too wrapped up in this competition with Tim to have that clarity. She does eventually put her phone down though.

Her taking a phone break does help her focus a bit. Because once she does they have a breakthrough of their own. They’re headed to the Griffith Observatory. Lucy is vibrating with excitement over this. She’s more excited to tell Tim they got something more than anything else. It’s so funny and adorable. The commentary in the gifs above is hilarious.

They are legit just trying to solve this case. While Lucy gets amped that they're gonna catch up with Tim and Jerry. Harper and Nolan’s reaction to her is priceless in the second gif. Lucy is too caught up in her work flirt. Telling them before they go she has to text Tim first. Let him know they’re gonna kick his ass. Because priorities LMAO

The way they look at each other is the funniest part. First and foremost they didn’t ask to be apart of this flirty bet haha They’re in it just to solve a case. Second they’re thinking does she not see it? She has to see it right? We know she doesn’t baha If she does she’s pushing it down real hard since 4x01 and it’s coming out in other ways. I.e. this moment. It’s so funny how lost in her bet she is. Doesn’t notice their hilarious reactions at all. I’m dying haha.

Tim tries again to have a frank conversation with Jerry. Since it’s day 2 of him riding with him and he was supposed to retired by yesterday... Jerry looks at the file again while Tim tries to muster up the courage. It's then he has an epiphany. Says he knows where the gold is. Tim asks if he’s sure? Jerry replies absolutely.

Now Tim’s first thought isn’t yes we solved the case. Or they got redemption for Jerry and his friend who never found the coins. No it’s excitement he’s going to beat Lucy in a bet LOL Man is amped about beating her to it. Like a high he’s been chasing the entire episode. God I love this so much. Flirty idiots in love have no idea.

This next portion is their married moment of the episode. Lots of work flirts but this interaction is all married. They are so ridiculous and I love them for it. The trio have figured out where the treasure is through the poem. An underground subway system sitting beneath the city. One of the people that has been chasing this thing since the jump causes chaos once the trio arrive. He shoots the last person also going after it. He takes off Lucy and Harper leave Nolan with the wounded one so they can pursue him.

They find him and he starts running again. Out of nowhere Tim comes into the picture and uses that sexy forearm of his to clothes line the guy. Lucy is shocked and impressed all at the same time. Me too. *fans self* Asking how they got here so quickly? Tim tells them they were already down here. Lucy then asks if they found the treasure? Tim smirks and says they’re gonna find out. Walks them over to a hole with a suitcase in it.

The final competitive flirting begins. Tim immediately claiming victory for him and Jerry. Because that suitcase is holding the missing gold. Nyla fights him on it though. Saying they would’ve been here first, but they had a police matter to deal with. Tim scoffs and tells them good job but they still won LOL The absolute sass coming off this man.

Lucy backs Harper in agreement and doesn’t let Tim battle back. Sassy return fire with her cocky smirk. Then the ladies just decide it’s a tie LMAO That Tim gets no say in the matter. I love their body posture mirroring one another in this moment. Lucy leans towards Tim then Tim does the same when he's upset it's considered a tie.

I saw someone call Tim ‘Sargent Sore Loser’ for a parallel of this moment hahaha it’s pretty apt when he loses to his wife. I love it sfm. Lucy waving by then pointing at herself as they walk off is amazing. It's hilarious. It's decided it's over and there is nothing he can do about it. Their flirting was off the charts in this episode. It was wild. Their string of work flirts continue on. One of the themes of S4. It makes me so happy.

I do love this next part with Jerry. It’s very sweet. It shows Tim’s wonderful heart. He went into this trying to prove he could handle the rough convos. That he could dispatch people with the cold hard truth. When it came to it his empathy won out. I truly believe he’s always been a sensitive empathetic person. It's been at his core this whole time.

Talked about this before. Just got lost in the shuffle of everything he went through with Isabel. Lucy reawakened that part of him. Now he taps into it like he does anything else. That heart of his let Jerry go out in a much better way. It’s why he thanks Tim for it. He knew what was coming and appreciated Tim for indulging him one last time. It's so sweet I might have a cavity.

Jerry's send off is equally as lovely at the station. Ashley is there to help celebrate his retirement. They all do their radio tribute that is beautiful to watch tbh. Once everyone clears Tim ends up asking Ashley out. (boo) She says yes and he smiles BUT it was most definitely not a 'Lucy smile.' No one compares at all. It’s unreal how by a smile you can tell when it’s Lucy driven and when it’s not. This for sure was not. So ends another ep. Such a good one for them.

~~~

Side notes-Non Chenford

The introduction to Ashley….how I dislike her so….just gotta make it to 5x05 and she’ll be gone LOL Was around longer than she should’ve been but we’ll get into when we hit s5 heh Also I’ll add more of why I don’t like her as the season progress in this rewatch. There is a reason he dates her IMO which I will also go over at some point as well.

I love any and all Lucy and Harper scenes we get . This one had loads. Amazing how they've bonded over the last 2 seasons. I love it so much. Them working on the riddle together at Lucy's place over beers. My heart. Watching them working this case together brings me joy. Hopefully we get more of this in s6. I need more Nyla/Lucy in my life.

Thank you forever and always to those who like, comment and reblog these reviews. You all make me so happy ❤️ See you all in 4x07 :)

[starrytimepod]

Space Gym Saga: Finishing the Project?!

Hello again! I'm back this weekend to finish up the chronicles of Space Gym.

What is a "Space Gym," why did I want one, and how did I end up with the final product?

See Parts 1-3 here:

1) The why: https://www.tumblr.com/starrytimepod/705821030963363840/a-space-themed-gym-part-1?source=share

2) The research: https://www.tumblr.com/starrytimepod/706430877328146432/space-gym-the-saga-continues-research-and?source=share

3) The how (and how not): https://www.tumblr.com/starrytimepod/707069778267865088/space-gym-the-saga-continues-trial-error-and?source=share

Whew. It's a lot isn't it?

Here's how the wispy blue nebula evolved and came out.

After a little of this and little of that, and wary of possibly ruining my beautiful mural, I decided the mural was COMPLETE.

Could there be more stars? Sure. More details on the nebula? Of course. But this was better than I had ever imagined, and I was very proud of it.

So, I turned my attention to the rest of the walls.

Here is what the color of the walls in the other parts of the gym were like before Space Gym:

The previous owners loved that sponge paint method... why? idk.

I narrowed the colors down to these four, and we decided to go with the light blue.

Off to the hardware store I went to pick up the paint. It took a two coats, but I love how the blue turned out!

With the mural done, and the walls painted, it was finally time. Time for the JPL posters that started it all. BoP & I picked out six of the prints, and I got them printed. I ordered a set of six plastic fronted frames (after all, they were going in a gym). And here's how they looked once they arrived and I put them in frames:

At this point, BoP was like: Wow! Those look great! Maybe we *should* put them in the living room!!

And I was like:

And he was like:

But all was forgiven, because BoP agreed to help me hang the pictures in the Space Gym and to hang the mirrors.

And... here's how it all came together:

And now. The final reveal. Before and after!

Ultimately, I'm very happy with how things came out, and I enjoyed doing this project. Working out in Space Gym is a delight, and I hope you had fun following the journey.

Please let me know if you start your own Space Gym saga!

Love,

Kit

[batmansymbol]

i am watching season 2 of A Discovery of Witches!! just finished episode 4... working through my (very mixed) thoughts in a general Plot Babble... spoilers up to end of ep 4 under the cut

firstly, wow, the 1590s sets/costumes look great. i guess the show must've had a budget increase because season 1 did well?? these dresses are beautiful!

but tbh, i'm feeling p disengaged from matthew & diana's storyline :( it seems clear that there was a load they had to adapt from the book, so this huge new cast of characters feels underdeveloped, even with 2 extra episodes this season.

eps 1-3 just feel like they're jumping frantically from plot thread to plot thread... we need room to breathe to work through the emotional consequences of some of these moments, but there's just no room.

it's not just a space problem, though. they seem to be trying to make every plot thread the most dramatic thing onscreen. every moment of every scene, the acting and the music and the writing are dialed all the way up, telling the viewer that This Scene Is What It's All About.

but not everything can be the most important thing!! they needed to pick what to prioritize. either 1) diana's training, 2) matthew's tortured religious/political past, 3) the seedy political underbelly of magical london, or 4) the human elements of Kit's friendship and the kid they basically adopt.

i mean, that's so much to take in. without focusing in on one thread, it winds up feeling like the first 3 episodes are a collection of B plots without an A plot holding them together.

imo diana's storyline should've been foregrounded way more. she's such an appealing main character and provided such a strong anchor for season 1... i miss feeling like it's her show first and foremost.

season 1 was a bit of a grab-bag, too, but the thing gluing it together was the romance. they obviously knew that was the heart of it and wrote accordingly. we cared about e.g. the congregation's machinations or gillian's jealousy because they had direct effects on the relationship between diana and matthew.

but in season 2, without a strong emotional throughline to consolidate all these scattered events, the characters just feel like they're reacting in the moment to the ebb and flow of each scene (now i'm angry! now i'm surprised!). but there's no real continuity, nothing that yet builds toward an arc for either matthew or diana.

the closest thing is this suggestion that matthew will be changed by the reminders of his troubled past. but honestly, the INSTANT they arrived in the past, he started acting all tumultuous and broody. it's not an arc if they just give him a character transplant. i want season 1 matthew back.

anyway, for me, what's holding it together is the fact that teresa palmer and matthew goode are two of the most attractive, watchable TV leads i've ever seen. whew

and i'm still very invested in the modern-day elements and characters! i loved episode 4, which felt like a major return to form. Marcus has become my surprise favorite, with his sweet romance subplot mixed with this modern murder element :D

i ... kind of wish the next episode wouldn't take us back to 1590

also gregg chillin continues to be the hottest person alive. i know domenico isn't really a main character but please put him in every scene just so i can look at him? please????

[annteasocial]

Hihi! I really loved your arashi nee-chan x reader! It was so cute! May I request a Mika one where the reader is pretty skilled at embroidery but she’s embarrassed (I’ve noticed people often think it’s like,,, for grannies ;-;)so she hides it? And he finds out somehow??Maybe she’s Valkyrie’s producer or something? Thank you in advance if you do decide to write it, and don’t forget to rest enough and drink lots of water!

Omg I should have gotten this done a lot sooner but I was so busy and Word crashed on me :’). This is quite long, about 1.6k words X’D. AND I AM JUST GOING TO SAY THIS NOW BUT THIS WAS SO WHOLESOME TO WRITE LIKE I WAS PHAT UWU-ING THIS ENTIRE TIME. I love Mika ugh he’s adorable :’))))))

Mika X Fem!Embroiderer Reader:

You sat in the handicrafts club, sorting out the staging setup for Valkyrie’s next DreFes performance, which was approximately two weeks away from now. “Hmm…hopefully the costumes are finished soon so there’s one less thing for me to worry about. Oh, and some of the lighting still needs to be rigged in preparation…I should let the operators know about that,” you mumbled to yourself, scribbling down your schedule in a cute notebook Mika gave you for your birthday last year.

 The notebook was a light baby blue in colour, decorate           d with black and silver lace. There were bits of paper sticking out from the pages and all sorts of little stickers covering the front cover. “Alright…just need to work out when the stylist is available so I can contact her…aaaand done!” You closed the notebook with satisfaction and leaned back in your chair.

 It was about 3:15 in the afternoon, so you had about 15 minutes left of your spare period. “No one’s around…so maybe I’ll work on my embroidery,” you hummed, pulling out a medium sized embroidery hoop from your bag that had the beginnings of a beautiful cherry blossom pattern on it. You also grabbed a needle and some coloured threads from your kit, fearing that if you took anything from the handicrafts club, Shu would find out and have your head.

 Sighing, you began to work on completing the branches of the cherry blossom tree, threading the brown string into the desired pattern.

 ~~~

 “(Y/N)-chan~! Are ya in here?”

 Startled, you shoved your embroidery hoop into your lap and quickly scooted your chair forward to hide it from view. “Oh, Mika. You gave me a bit of a fright there,” you said, watching as the 2nd year’s expression turned into a slightly panicked one. “Bwah! Sorry ‘bout that, I guess I didn’ realise ya’d actually be in ‘ere.” Mika scratched his head awkwardly but continued to talk. “Were you workin’ on s���mthin’ jus’ now? Hope I didn’ interrupt you or anythin’…”

 You swallowed nervously, “uhh, I was just sorting out my schedule of things to do before Valkyrie’s DreamFes performance,” you replied. “Wow, s’mtimes I think Oshi-san and I don’ deserve ya. Yer really hardworkin’ yanno?” You blushed slightly at his compliment and fiddled with the fabric hidden in your lap.

 “Ah! I should get goin’ now, I have practice with Oshi-san. Sorry if I disturbed ya before. See ya tomorrow, (Y/N)-chan!” Mika waved to you and you returned the gesture. Once he was out of the room, you sighed in relief, pushing your chair back out again. Thankfully, he hadn’t noticed the embroidery you were doing.

 A buzz sounded from your blazer pocket, and you pulled out your phone to see your mum calling you. “(Y/N), honey? Are you almost home?” Her voice chirped from the other end of the receiver. “I’m still at school, I was just talking with one of my friends.”

 “Do you think you could go to the shops and pick me up some eggs and milk? Your dad and little brother have raided the fridge again.”

 “Sure, how many of each?”

 “Two dozen eggs and 2 cartons of milk will be plenty. Thanks sweetie!”

 The call ended and you began to pack your things away before heading over to the shoe lockers. The shopping district was only a 10-minute walk away from the school, so you were able to make good time.

 It was late afternoon but the district still had students and locals bustling around the area, bringing a lively buzz to the atmosphere. You went and grabbed the things that your mum had requested you to buy and decided you’d browse the rest of the stores before heading back home.

 A small, quaint shop caught your eye and you walked over to the window to see a gorgeous array of embroidery designs, coloured threads, and fabrics displayed behind the glass. ‘I don’t recall this being here the last time I visited the shopping district…maybe it’s a new shop,” you pondered to yourself.

 “Eh? Is that (Y/N)-san over there by that shop?”

 “Mm…I’m tired…carry me Maa-kun~”

 As you were standing around, lost in your thoughts, Mao and Ritsu happened to spot you on your little window shopping spree, and the two of them walked, well more like the maroon haired boy half dragged his lethargic companion, over.

 At the sound of footsteps, you turned your head up out of your daze. “Oh, Mao-kun, Ritsu-kun, um, what brings you here?” You asked, instinctively moving away from the shop window, worried they might ask you what you were looking at. Mao gave you a tired grin, “I was taking Sleeping Beauty here back home but he kept pestering me that he wanted a soda, and the closest drinks vending machine was in the shopping district, so here we are.”

 You nodded as Mao heaved Ritsu’s arm around his shoulder, effectively trying to keep the ravenette standing up. “What about…you (Y/N)-chan? What were you…doing here…?” Ritsu slumped more of his body weight onto his poor childhood friend who really couldn’t do much except put up with it.  

 “I was just picking up some stuff for my mum. We ran out of eggs and milk and she probably wanted to make an omelette tonight,” you replied. “That’s nice of you to do that, I usually help my parents out as well when they need to.” Mao smiled as he held his friend up, the latter looking like he was on the verge of falling asleep whilst standing.

 Mao seemed to notice that Ritsu was practically asleep and straightened him again. “Well, I better get going now before Ritchan passes out, later (Y/N)-san!” The Trickstar member proceeded to somehow get the sleepy member of Knights flopped onto his back and carried him off.

 "Whew...dodged another bullet...” You were thankful that they didn’t ask you about what you were looking at, otherwise you’d probably freeze up and die on the spot.

 Ever since middle school, you had an interest in embroidery, but your classmates often picked on you and called you all sorts of mean nicknames like “granny” or “old lady”. It could have been worse, but you hated that embroidery was stereotyped as a hobby for the elderly.

 You sighed for the umpteenth time that day and began your trek back home.

 ~~~

 The next day you sat in the Handicrafts club room again during lunch time, desiring  some peace and quiet whilst you worked on your needlework in secret. You were almost done with the final touches, with only a couple of the petals on the last cherry blossom requiring stitching. You were so engrossed in finishing that you didn’t hear someone enter the room behind you since you had your back turned towards the door.

 Mika had been searching for you during lunchtime to ask you about his costume which had just been completed today, and you so happened to be sitting in the clubroom like yesterday after school. You hadn’t noticed his presence which gave him the opportunity to walk up behind you to see what you were doing. When he was close enough to peer over your shoulder, his eyes widened at the beautiful, delicately crafted handkerchief, decorated with cherry blossoms and pink petals.

 “Wow (Y/N)-chan~! I didn’ realise ya had that kinda talent for embroidery! Looks really nice!”

 You immediately flinched and screamed in shock due to being so absorbed in your little workspace. “Waaaaah!! Mika!? What are you doing here!?” You screeched making the black haired boy jump from your outburst. “E-eh!? Ah–‘m sorry! Didn’ think I’d scare ya like that…” He looked down guiltily and you felt bad for shouting at him.

 “Wait, no no I’m sorry I shouldn’t have raised my voice like that,” you mumbled, playing with the ends of your hair before realising that you still had your embroidery in your hands for all the world to see. You gasped and quickly tried to hide it but Mika caught your wrist.

 “Why’re ya tryin’ to hide yer work? ‘s really pretty to look at yanno?” He grinned at you but you averted your gaze away. “I…uhh…s-so you saw it d-didn’t you…” you stammered, still trying to get the hoop out of vision.

 “Was I not s’posed to?”

 “N-no…it’s just…”

 You took a deep breath in and exhaled it all out again. “Back when I was in middle school, people often teased me about being into embroidery. They would call me things like “granny” or “old lady” and make fun of me for my hobby…” you admitted. Mika listened intently but said nothing. “I guess from all those bad experiences, I’ve always kept this a secret because I was scared of being judged again…”

 You felt tears start to prickle in the corner of your eyes. No one in Yumenosaki knew about your passion and you intended to keep it that way.

 “(Y/N)-chan.”

 “…”

 “(Y/N)-chan, look at me would ya?”

 You felt Mika’s hands cup both your cheeks and tilt your face upwards to meet his heterochromatic gaze. He used his thumbs to gently brush away at the tears that were threatening to fall from your eyes.

 “I don’ think yer hobby’s bad at all. ‘n fact, I really respect ya after seein’ yer needlework. ‘m still practicin’ jus’ stitchin’ holes up in clothes but yer out ‘ere makin’ really pretty cloths ‘n stuff.” He gave you a heart-warming smile and let go of your cheeks to grab your hands.

 You were shocked to silence. You hadn’t expected anyone to be this understanding.

 “Mika…I… ”

 You felt an tug on the corner of your lips, only to realise you were smiling. You squeezed his hands in return, feeling a faint blush start to spread across your face.

 “Thanks Mika…really, that means a lot to me,” you giggled and the latter scratched his cheek bashfully.

 “Ehehe~ ‘s nothin’~”

 You smiled again and quickly leaned forward to place a peck on his cheek before standing up to leave. “We should head back soon, class is starting in about 3 minutes,” you grinned, escaping the room and leaving the poor boy in a stunned, flustered mess.

 Mika slowly brought it hand up to his cheek, feeling where your lips had been.

 “H-huh?! W-wait, (Y/N)-chan!!”

[simsthroughtime]

Hillside House - 1882

I have been working away at this little gem for a week or so now, after stumbling across a fantastic house called the Arnett Fullen House, in Boulder, Colorado. I changed up a few things to make it fit into my late Victorian world a little better, but I still think it is super cute!

The house has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, formal dining room, sitting room and withdrawing room/study. I left it as a shell again so that you could do whatever you want with it. It has a pretty back yard too, with roses and wildflowers.

I have used some cc to get the house like this, most importantly the Vampires gamepack add-ons by @peacemaker-ic​. The fireplace is by @teanmoon and the beautiful roof decorations are from this set: https://raindropsoncowplants.tumblr.com/post/613769792920436736/gothic-revival-build-set-whew-this-took-forever. I also used the mansard roof kit from Sims4fun found here: http://www.sims4fun.com/?p=2864 

Thank you cc creators, as always, your things are so beautiful and without them my builds would be trash.

Remember to search for this house on the gallery with the cc checkbox ticked. You will need to place with bb.moveobjects activated too. 

[softbiker]

Born to Run - Chapter 5

Warnings: some cursing, descriptions of injuries, sloppy editing

Word count: 3k (whew)

A/N: Here we go!! I’m excited about this chapter and your responses. I’m also excited for the story to keep picking up from here. :) Slow burn is still a slow burn though, sorry not sorry. As always, let me know what you think!! Thanks for reading!

“Oh my god…” Y/N gasped. “Get in here, now.”

She helped Bucky into her house, screen door banging behind him. He leaned his weight on her heavily, hissing when her shoulder jarred him a little.

“Sorry, sorry,” she muttered,

“S’alright,” he shook his head. “Where d’you want me?”

“Bathroom.”

They stumbled down the hall together, barely able to fit side by side with Bucky’s massive shoulders filling the space. She could feel his blood soaking her clothes, staining the pale pink scrubs she had neglected to take off. She imagined, for a moment, this man dying in her house.

“What happened this time? Another metal stake?”

He grunted, almost a laugh. “Sure, let’s call it that.”

Fucking bikers.

Y/N sat him down on the side of her bathtub and instructed him to peel off his top layers while she went for her first aid kit. She cursed under her breath the whole way, throwing open her kitchen cabinets and shuffling around her dishes and coffee mugs before remembering the kit was under the sink. Grabbing it, she ran back to the bathroom. She stopped right outside the door, eyes closed, breath held.

Please don’t let him die in my house.

Bucky was still on the edge of the tub, his bloody shirt and jacket dropped inside. His hand was pressed over the wound on his now bare torso, blood smeared from the struggle of taking his shirt off. She had never noticed somehow, all the tattoos that traced from his left shoulder down to his wrist. When he looked up, his eyes were glassy and distant, and she snapped back into focus.

“Alright. Let’s see it.”

He had definitely been stabbed. Maybe with a metal stake. More likely with a knife - something with a serrated edge, too. The jagged tears in the skin around the wound told her that. It was a bit deep, deeper than she would have liked to be treating from the floor of her bathroom, but this would have to do. Save his life or don’t.

She got to work, cleaned him up and ruined towels and disinfected and stitched. Bucky managed to stay conscious through it all, mumbling about everything she asked: the Army, his family, his elementary school. His shaking fingers gripped the edge of her tub, keeping him upright. She took note of the other scars, big and small, all over his body - at least, what she could see of it. She didn’t ask which were from the Army and which from the Avengers.

She tucked old sheets over the cushions of her couch, fluffed up some extra pillows, and put her patient to bed in the living room. His eyes closed immediately, sweaty hair bunched up under his neck. She watched him for a minute, waited for his breathing to slow.

He grabbed her hand before she could leave.

��Y/N,” he sighed, eyes still closed. “Thank you.”

She didn’t say a word.

**********

Bucky Barnes was a lucky man.

He knew this. Even when he got dealt a shitty hand in life, he always managed to stay in the game long enough for things to turn around. That was how he had made it this long, even with every dangerous choice he made, every time he looked at his cards and chose not to fold, to up the ante a little bit. That was how he got to Y/N’s house last night without bleeding out and crashing his motorcycle, how she was home and agreed to help him. He was one goddamn lucky sonuvabitch.

When he woke to the sound and smell of frying bacon, he was thinking about that, luck. He thought that with just a little bit more of it, he could’ve been waking up to this all the time - a quiet home, a woman cooking breakfast in the kitchen. For better or worse, his luck had never gotten him quite that far.

Y/N found her patient lying awake on the couch, staring at the dusty ceiling fan.

“Good morning,” she greeted, sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

“Mm. Mornin’,” he croaked. His throat felt like sandpaper. Without asking, Y/N held out a cup of water with a straw. He took it and slurped.

“Thanks,” he said, clearing his throat and shifting against the pillow. She just raised her eyebrows.

“I think you owe me a lot more than ‘thanks’.”

“I know, doc. I know.” Bucky shuffled back against the cushion. “But can I use your bathroom first?”

Y/N helped him hobble down the hallway, threatening to let him die alone if he popped his stitches. She stood outside the door when he protested that he could manage to pee by himself, sighing as she heard him curse under his breath when he hit his toe on the edge of the cabinet, and listening to the sink run.

When he reappeared in the bathroom doorway, he looked better. He had splashed some water on his face, if the droplets running down his neck were anything to go by. Her eyes followed them and she remembered that he was still shirtless, with only a bandage covering his injury. His tattoos were stark against the rest of his olive-colored skin.

She realized she was staring when he cleared his throat.

“I was just making breakfast,” she blurted, letting him prop himself up on her shoulder without a glance at his face. “Are you hungry?”

“Well, I’m not gonna say no to whatever that is that smells so good.” She could hear the smile in his voice, but still didn’t look at him. She settled him in his spot on the couch and hurried off to the kitchen to make a plate.

Y/N gathered a cup of coffee and a full plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast onto a beautiful tray she was sure had never been used. A part of her, a little voice in the back of her head, watched from the outside and couldn’t believe what she was doing - making coffee and bringing breakfast in bed, playing house with a (suspected) criminal. She did her best to ignore it.

She watched from her perch on the coffee table as Bucky tucked into his breakfast, eager and appreciative with every bite.

“So. You made it through the night, and your appetite is good, which means you probably won’t be dying on my couch,” Y/N began, as Bucky forked a couple of potatoes. “I think this means you can start telling me what the hell is going on around here.”

Bucky eyed her, guilt heavy in his gaze, and laid down his fork. He sipped his coffee, turning his face away from her, his jaw tightening.

“I know...that you deserve some answers,” he said, after a minute of silence. “And I know it ain’t right showing up like this, dragging you into our shit. For the record, I never wanted - I didn’t want to ask you.”

“Ask me what?”

“To help out the Avengers. Be our medic, whatever the hell you wanna call it. They should’ve left you out of it.”

“Well we agree on that point.”

Bucky shook his head.

“No, you don’t understand-”

“Then fucking explain!” Y/N threw her hands up in frustration. Bucky sighed, staring at her with sad eyes. He pushed the tray back, finished with his plate, and leaned as far forward as his wound would allow.

“I…” he sucked in a deep breath, tensing up his body. “I’ll tell you some things. As much as I can, alright? But, for your safety...the less you know the better.”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Sure, fine, whatever. Just get on with it.”

Bucky nodded and blew out another breath, settling back against the couch again and running a hand through his long hair. He shifted a little, chewed on his bottom lip and picked at the fabric of his jeans. Took another sip of his cooling coffee. Finally, he settled a soft gaze on her and began his story.

“We’re not what you think we are.”

Y/N raised her eyebrows.

“Well, okay, we are a motorcycle club,” he corrected, raising a hand. “But, we’re not...those articles, the things on the internet, that’s not us. We aren’t vandals or thieves, or whatever else they’re saying about us around town.”

“How about murderers? Drug traffickers?”

Bucky huffed out a laugh. “No, of course not.” Y/N wasn’t laughing. He continued.

“Look - shit I’m bad at this. Lemme start over,” he shook his head. “Me and Steve, we’ve been best friends since we were 6 years old. When we got out of high school, we went straight into the Army together. Didn’t really know what else to do, ya know? And there’s money for college with the military, so. But when we got out, still had no idea what we were gonna do. I had worked in a garage in high school, and we always liked working on motorcycles together...over time, we had sort of a group so we decided to make it a real motorcycle club. And then...when we moved out here…”

He paused for a moment, working his jaw. Y/N noticed that he couldn’t keep his eyes on her, couldn’t maintain eye contact.

“...when we moved out here, I guess three years ago now, we overlapped territory with some bad people. Club called Hydra - but their leader goes by Crossbones. They’re...Y/N, they’re everything you thought our club would be. Violent, ruthless. Cruel. They’ve managed to keep their names and activities out of the press, somehow, since the Avengers are more visible. We get blamed for everything. But we try to stop them, where we can, and that’s how we end up getting into...accidents.”

“Mm. Accidentally running into knives.”

“Yeah,” he gave her an awkward grimace. “And - well, I shouldn’t really tell you more than that. You’ve gotta believe me, I would never have dragged you into any of this. You could be in danger just from bein’ seen with me - these people, Hydra, they wouldn’t hesitate to-” He cut himself off with a shake of his head, eyes wide and pleading. Y/N felt ice drip down her spine. Suddenly she was more scared of what he didn’t say, wouldn’t say.

“Well, it’s a little late for that isn’t it,” she sighed coldly, crossing her arms.

His eyes, those damn eyes. He was begging her to believe him, and the worst thing was that she did. Not all of it, not every turn of his vague and incomplete story, but there was just something about it, about him. She wanted to trust him. Even when he had just told her that he could get her killed.

“Alright then.”

“Alright?” His eyebrows went up.

“I believe you,” she shrugged.

“You do?”

“I mean, not all of it. You’ve got some pretty big holes in your story. But maybe you’re not a criminal.”

He practically melted with relief, his posture relaxing as he sagged against the couch. A rueful smile stretched up the corner of his mouth.

“I - thank you, that really means a lot.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said, standing and gathering up his tray. “Now get some rest. That’s enough talking for now.”

**********

Bucky had been out cold for three hours now, and Y/N was pacing back and forth in her kitchen.

Okay, so maybe he could explain things. Some things. Didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. His friends were dangerous. His enemies were even more so. In spite of her best efforts to ignore him, he was now napping on her couch as he recovered from an injury. So much for that.

She refilled her coffee cup for the fifth time, ignoring the trembling in her fingers and wondering what in the hell she was actually going to do about this. It’s not like she could call the cops - what would she tell them? That she helped a wounded man? And she had no one here, no friends, no family. No one she could run to for help.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the front door.

Bucky slept through it, his faint snores coming steadily from the couch as she crept through the living room. She couldn’t imagine who would be coming to her house, let alone on a Saturday, but she poked her head around the door anyway.

“Hello!” Mr. Van Horn waved through the screen door.

Shit.

“Oh, hi!” Y/N waved nervously, stepping out onto the porch and pulling the front door nearly closed behind her. “Hi, Mr. Van Horn, I’m sorry I didn’t realize you’d be stopping by today?”

“Oh, of course, I’m sorry I didn’t call - hope I didn’t wake you up or anythin’,” he frowned apologetically. “Was just droppin’ by to check on things? See if you were all settled?”

“Yes, I’m - I’m all moved in, doing just fine,” she shrugged, trying to keep things light and talk him off her porch as quickly as possible. “Everything’s just fine.”

“Well, that’s what I like to hear,” the old man smiled, adjusting his John Deere cap. “And what about your clinic? Everything going alright?”

Oh god please just leave before coming inside and finding the man who bled on your mother’s carpet.

“Sure, sure, nothing too crazy. Just, you know, trying to stay busy.” She smiled, bright and fake, unsure how much longer she could keep making small talk before etiquette required her to invite him inside.

She was spared and condemned by the revving of motorcycle engines up the road.

They turned at the same time to see them, three bikes speeding down the small residential street, their riders dressed all in black and covered in helmets. Mr. Van Horn finally seemed to notice the Harley parked in the driveway, and his eyes slid between the bike and Y/N and the newcomers, mouth puckering in a confused frown. When the bikes pulled up next to the curb in front of the house, he half turned back to her.

“What on earth have you gotten yourself into, girl?” he muttered.

She stared at him, at her uninvited guests, speechless. Asked herself the exact same question as she watched Steve Rogers pull of his helmet and dismount his bike, eating up the driveway in long strides. Sam Wilson followed, flanking him, and a woman - beautiful, with bright red hair.

“Afternoon,” Steve smiled tightly, his greeting directed more to Y/N than to the old man standing next to her. He gave a small nod to Mr. Van Horn, but kept his gaze on her. “How is he?”

She crossed her arms across her chest, an afternoon breeze bringing out goosebumps along her arms.

“Fine. Resting.”

Steve nodded, then made for the front door. His friends followed a half-step behind, Sam giving Y/N a small nod and a wave. They were swinging open the screen door and slipping inside before she could protest.

When she looked back at Mr. Van Horn, he was already watching her.

“I sure as hell hope you know what you’re doing,” he sighed, and walked back to his truck.

**********

“So, he’s going to fully recover?”

“As far as I can tell, yes. But all I did was patch him up in a bathroom, he should have a real examination at the clinic - better yet, a hospital.”

“Hm. Looks like I’m still stuck with your sorry ass, Barnes.” Sam Wilson slumped in an armchair next to the couch. Bucky flipped hims off, frowning.

“He’s lucky - we’re lucky - you’re around,” the woman, Natasha, spoke up. “He would have died last night without your help.”

“Yes, I think that’s pretty obvious,” Y/N frowned.

“The point is,” Steve came around the corner from the kitchen, holding a glass of water. “That we need you. Life or death. You’re smart, you’re good at your job, you’re great under pressure. It’s that simple - you’re the best option we have.”

“Just because I’m a good doctor - which I am - doesn’t mean I want to join a biker gang. You’re all crazy!” She gestured to Bucky, propped up against the arm of the couch. “He almost died last night, and that’s just a casual Friday to you! You’re fucking insane!”

“We’re a biker gang that can pay you,” Steve countered.

“Enough that you could pay off your student loans in half the time,” Natasha added. Y/N’s gaze snapped to her, brows furrowed, but Natasha only shrugged. “I do my research. I know you wouldn’t be out here, in the middle of nowhere, if it weren’t for the deal to let the clinic pay off your debt. Let us do it, and you can get out of here in 2 years, tops.”

Y/N was struck dumb, both by the size of the offer and the starkness of it. The opportunity. They were offering her thousands, tens of thousands, just to be a part time field medic for a couple of years? They needed someone that badly? The way they were all looking at her, she knew the offer was serious.

“If I say yes…” she spoke slowly, tasting the apprehension on her tongue. “You agree that I have a limited contract? I do the work, I get the money, and then I’m gone. I’m taking 2 years as a guarantee.”

“Agreed.” Steve nodded immediately.

“You won’t try to keep me here? Withhold money? Blackmail or kidnap me?”

Sam and Bucky chuckled a bit at her comment, but Y/N was dead serious, holding Steve’s gaze.

“You have my word,” Steve crossed a hand over his heart. “You’re free to go whenever you want, money or no money.”

Y/N turned and looked out her front window, the blinds opened to the afternoon sunshine. The grass of her lawn was still a brilliant green, the late summer hum of insects still loud and strong, the sun warm. She thought of her old apartment in the city, summers with the windows open and dining al fresco and her friends sipping beer on the fire escape.

She stuck out her hand. Clasped Steve Rogers’ in a tight grip.

“Fine. We have a deal.”

[mindflayedr-blog]

You Make It Easy - Billy Hargrove // p.1

Setting: December of 1984

➳ You struggle to not fall for the boy next door, but what you don’t know is that he already fell for you.

Whew this is my first imagine after a while, I really hope this doesn’t suck yikes!! I really fell completely in love with Billy this season so i’ll prob make hella fics about him oop- // also this will be like a mini series I guess, I’ve already written the second part so I’ll be posting it sometime tomorrow, the rest is still a work in progress. I don’t know how many chapters there will be in total **there may be some mistakes, i proof read this several times but i might’ve missed some things**

Word count: 2k oops

Warnings: cursing, some mentions violence and abuse, and it’s kinda sad 

Your dad parked the moving truck in front of a new house in Hawkins, Indiana. You step out of the car and sniffed the cold Indiana air, taking in the new surroundings. The neighborhood was nice and family oriented, there were a couple of kids playing tag and some were drawing on the sidewalks. Light snow fell from the sky making the surroundings feel peaceful and calm. You looked around trying to familiarize yourself with your new neighborhood when a guy with curly dirty blond hair caught your eye. He was sitting on the porch steps of his own home which was situated next to yours. He was wearing a jean jacket with blue jeans. Underneath the jacket was a plain white shirt and a plain gold chain adorned his neck. You stared at him as he took a puff out of his cigarette. He looked ethereal, the sunlight hit him so perfectly that he looked like he was glowing. You didn’t realize how hard you were staring until he turned to look at you, making you jump and immediately turn your attention to the boxes that were needed to be put inside.

You focused your attention to the boxes in the truck, trying hard to forget how embarrassed you were. You pulled out a box that belonged to your new room, you slightly struggled at how heavy it was. 

“Need help with that?” An unfamiliar voice spoke behind you. Who the hell?

You turned around and saw him, the same guy you were just staring at. Your hands trembled and your arms began to give in and drop the box you are holding, but thankfully he was there to catch it. You could feel your cheeks burning up in embarrassment, but he didn’t comment on it.

“Um… I.. I got it… th-thanks.” You stuttered out a reply as you tried to take back the box. 

He laughed at your attempt at getting back the box and spoke, “Bullshit, you clearly almost dropped it. C’mon let me help you.”

“I don’t want to bother you, s-seriously. It’s… um… fine.” 

He shook his head no and started to head towards your front door with the box, “Where does this go to?” He asked, stopping at the entrance of your house. 

“Oh, how nice! You’ve already made a friend, Y/N! I knew you’d settle right in.” Your mom smiled at you while stepping out of the truck. “Mom please not now.” You thought to yourself. 

You took a deep breath and made your way towards the curly haired boy, ignoring your mom’s comment. “That belongs in my room, here I’ll show you,” You said as you led him upstairs and into a room towards the left of the stairs. “Just put it there, thanks.”

“No problem, I’m Billy by the way and I take it that your name is Y/N.” Billy said as he gently placed the box on the carpeted floor of your room. 

“Yup, that’s my name,” You stood there and gave him a small awkward smile, “Sorry for staring at you by the way. I do that a lot when I space out.” You said, giving Billy a bullshit excuse, hoping he’d believe it. 

“Right, like you weren’t captivated by my beauty.” He teased giving you a sly smile to which you rolled your eyes at. 

“Captivated? More like repulsed. Did you not see me scramble away?”

“Whatever you say Y/N, give it a month and you’ll fall in love with me.” Billy smirked at you jokingly, making you roll your eyes once more. You acted annoyed but those words were now imprinted onto your brain. Would it be really that easy to fall in love with him?

“With that attitude? Never. Anyway, there’s more boxes downstairs, less talking more helping.” You dismissed the topic at hand and herded him outside. Give it a month and you’ll fall in love with me. That sentence echoed in your head for the rest of the day.

That was how you met Billy Hargrove, the charming boy next door that you became fast friends with and the same charming boy who stole your heart, even though you refused to admit it. That same week that you moved in, he brought you to every place in Hawkins he knew. He took you to the record shop, to the nearby lake, to the hilltop that overlooked the town, to every little place he found beautiful. School was out until January so you two were able to hang out everyday and explore Hawkins. Hanging out everyday of course included endless conversations. You two talked about every little thing but you noticed that he never talked about his family or his family life. Billy avoided the topic of family like a plague. Whenever you would ask about his mom, his sister, or his dad he’d quickly change the topic, and you never once pressed him for an answer, until one night. 

It was around 9 p.m you heard screaming coming from the Hargrove residence. You couldn’t make out the words, but it was two voices. One was the ever so familiar voice of Billy Hargrove and the other was what you guessed was his dad. You bite your nails nervously, hoping that Billy was okay. You glued yourself close to your kitchen window trying to piece together what was happening next door.

“Worthless piece of shit!” Billy’s dad screamed loud and clear, it was the first coherent phrase you heard after listening in for about 20 minutes. The scream is then followed by what it sounded like a slap and then after that a few grunts of pain and more incoherent screaming followed by total silence. By then you were worried, maybe this is why Billy never mentioned his family. 

You rushed out to your front porch hoping you see your friend outside. As soon as you opened your front door, Billy was there as if he summoned by command. He staggered outside his house while rubbing his jaw, wincing through the pain. His lip was busted and a bruise was forming under his eye. As soon as he saw you standing by your front porch, he began to walk towards you. You were the only person he could think of to go to for comfort.

“Billy what happened? Are you okay?” You rushed towards him, engulfing him with a big hug. He leaned into your touch, finding peace and security in your embrace.

“Hey since you’re here can you help me clean this shit off?” He pointed at his bloody face, “I can’t have my face looking like this. It’s my best feature.” He gave you a small smile, wincing afterwards. Despite him being clearly hurt he still managed to smile at the sight of you and crack a joke. You didn’t smile however, instead you carefully caressed his soft face, trying not to break down at the sight of him. He didn’t deserve any of this. Not even an ounce.

You assisted him inside your house, you were glad your parents weren’t home because they’d definitely be asking one hundred and one questions right about now. You helped him walk to your dining room and there he sat on one of your dining chairs. You hurried to the bathroom for the first aid kit and a damp washcloth. You sat in front of him and softly rubbed away the dried blood by his mouth. You stared at his eyes and saw how tired and worn out he was, you figured this wasn’t the first time this has happened.

“Stop looking at me like that.” Billy said icily, snatching the washcloth away from you and doing the job himself.

“Like what? Give me that.” You retorted and snatched the cloth back, returning to what you were doing.

“Like you pity me, I don’t need pity.” 

“Billy that’s not what this is, I care about you. I’m just… I’m just worried. I’m worried about you. Does he do this to you a lot?” You asked him, you glanced at his blue eyes briefly before opening the first aid kit to retrieve some alcohol wipes. Billy blinked at you as if he couldn’t believe that you actually care, but eventually he speaks up. 

“He.. he does this… every other day, but I thought I could go a whole week without being his personal punching bag, guess I was wrong though. Turns out he doesn’t give a shit about how the new neighbors would think of him.” Billy answers, wincing as you gently cleaned up his wounded lip with an alcohol wipe. 

“Can I ask why he did it? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to of course.” You said as you finished cleaning up his face, it looked better than it was before, but of course the bruises remained. 

“No it’s fine, he got pissed because I forgot to pick up Max, my sister, at the arcade. She was supposed to be home an hour ago but I was with friends so I forgot.” 

“Why didn’t he just do it himself? He has a damn car doesn’t he? Did he forget that he is in fact a father?”

Billy chuckled at your response, the corners of his eyes crinkling. Despite the bruises and wounds, he still managed to look like an angel.

“Neil’s a lazy piece of shit, all he does is go to work for a few hours and come back home to either drink, sleep, or beat the shit out of me. He doesn’t give two shits about Max and I.” Billy took a deep breath and looked down, his eyes not meeting yours. He looked so vulnerable and so broken, all you wanted to do was hold him forever. “So because of that,” Billy continued, “I’m in charge of taking care of Max. It’s me and Susan actually, but mostly me. Apparently I’m the fucking father and mother now.” 

You tucked a loose curl behind Billy’s ear, trying to comfort him. You didn’t know what to say, what would you even say to someone who’s pouring their heart out to you? So all you did was listen. You sat there in silence listening urging him to continue, letting you know that you’re here for him.

“It’s just complete fucking bullshit, I hate living there. I want to get away from here some day, but right now I’m stuck in this shit hole town and I’ll just have to deal with it.” Billy finished with an angry huff. He lifted his head up and looked at you, you saw that there were tears forming in his eyes that were threatening to fall. Billy tried blinking them away but failed.

“Next time he does this to you, come over right away and don’t hesitate. I don’t care how late or how early it is, I want you to come here, so you can be safe.” You said softly so only he can hear.

The tears that Billy tried to blink away finally fell from his eyes and he sobbed. You could tell that all the pent up anger and sadness took over him. He reached for you and held you tight as if any second now you’d slip away. You held him tightly in return, reassuring him that you’re here. A few tears fell from your eyes but you wiped them away quickly, trying to be strong for Billy. 

“Hey it’s okay, it’s alright. I’m here okay? I’m here for you, always. All the time.” 

“Thank you Y/N,” Billy’s voice was muffled, his head was on the crook of your neck, “I’ve never told anyone this and now you’re here to listen to me and I just… thank you. Thank you for being here.” 

That was the first time you’ve ever felt something towards Billy other than friendship. It was new and scary since this is your best and only friend and feeling this way might ruin everything, but despite that you’ve decided to suppress the feeling and stayed close friends with him. Never uttering a word about how you felt towards him and labeling your relationship as strictly platonic. What you didn’t know, however, was that Billy felt the same way too, ever since the day you moved in next door.

-----

YIkesssss i really hope that didn’t suck, im honestly lowkey nervous about this fic. I’ll post part two soon :))

[shimmerjjang]

...so what have I been up to? (2020 Update)

So, how are we all holding up?

I have been seriously MIA for months and my previous Nov 2019 post makes it more apparent than ever. This month of May marks one year since a life-changing experience came to me. Since then, I began to re-evaluate my life which drove me to the decision to take a break, give my mental and spiritual health more care and pursue for the ‘more important things’. 

Well hello, this is me with zero makeup on. Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic cornered us into quarantine almost 2 months ago, my skin’s been free from all the makeup I used to wear. A lot of my palettes, cushions, eyeliners have remained untouched since the lockdown began. It’s both the lack of motivation and giving my skin a rest. haha!

I’m on the verge of forgetting what makeup feels like! Here’s my last photo with full makeup on and I think I took this late February? Here’s to hoping that I can go back to making beauty blog posts and videos. *glass clinks*.  You can see some of the old ones I uploaded on Instagram and Youtube!

And just when I thought I have all the time in the world during home quarantine, I personally felt like I (our entire household) got somewhat busier? It might be because of all the huge daily adjustments - from trying to do all types work and errands from my laptop to the intensely tasking grocery run. I’m sure a lot of you can relate.

Going back to how my go-to bag looks like before the pandemic, 70% of its content would be beauty essentials. Man, I even bring 7 lipsticks at once! But now, my go-to backpack consists of eco bags, bank card (very few cash because I want to minimize contact with the virus as much as possible), face masks, and a bunch of disinfectants! Before, there’s no way I’ll leave the house without my makeup kit, but now? I just don’t have any space for it. 

Oh, and that pink spray bottle there? It used to contain my super favorite body spray from Etude House, but that one now contains alcohol. 

LOL I know I looked like a joke, but this is how it is now every single time I go out. Even if it’s just to a mini mart that’s 5 minutes away. Grocery shopping used to be so fun and simple but right now, I’ve realized how I took so many things for granted. The lines would take hours, with every step there’s this worry that I might touch something that would infect me. It may seem like I’m really paranoid, but I spray disinfectants on the seats, the rails, the push cart..every single thing I could think of! I just can’t risk it. At home, we also have a table prepared by the garage wherein we disinfect every single product we purchased before we bring ‘em in. Whew, it’s extremely tiring.

So that’s why we’re gradually shifting to having more stuff delivered. I’ve always been into cooking so it’s not something I just started during ECQ. But the thing is, it used to be a hobby that I would do when I’m “in the mood”, otherwise we can all just eat out or get food delivered. When the quarantine started, it became a daily task! It's fun but girllll, the hardest part is to come up with a menu! Thank goodness I joined this FB Group called Quarantine Cooking wherein members share recipes. It also introduced me to Session Groceries, wherein I made one of the best fruit and vegetable purchases of my life haha Everything is so fresh! Hm, I think I’m going to blog about my cooking shenanigans here too!

Ahhh..

It’s pretty insane to think that this mini online home of mine used to publish almost every day back when I started in 2011. But things have changed. I can’t seem to completely wrap my head around the fact that things have changed so much through the years. The world has changed. I have changed. It’s a thought that makes me sigh. At this point I’m beyond grateful that God gave me an opportunity to heal before all of this happened. Regularly reading uplifting articles truly helps me during these trying times.

I hope you're also doing your best to stay strong. Hang in there! You’re not alone <3

‘til our next blog post. :)

[sailorshadzter]

here’s me compiling all of my thoughts on episode 1 of season 8!! or at least the thoughts i deemed important enough lmao. big focus on jonsa, political jon, and the starks in general. 

under the cut for SPOILERS + length. 

shout out to all of the amazing content creators out there who have already gif’d this episode. ya’ll are amazing!

anyways, here we go! ps. things could be out of chronological order, sorry lol

lets jump right in with dany and jon arriving at winterfell. i really enjoyed the call back to season 1 bran scrambling up as high as he could to watch robert baratheon & company arrive. 

we have them riding in among dany’s army, looking quite like the royal “couple” they want us to believe they are. dany doesnt look particularly interested to even be there and i think it’s because she’s upset at how everyone is looking at her. jon reminds her that the north isnt easy to impress, that they dont look kindly at foreigners. this isnt pleasing to her. dany has to be loved, by everyone. she cant stand thinking not everyone is on her side. in her mind they have to support her because she’s the queen. 

but she’s not queen, not yet at least. 

next comes the dragons. 

the northerners run, some screaming in fear, others just stumbling in an attempt to find shelter from the dragons that fly overhead. and just look at dany’s face. look at her! what a smug little smile, i hope she enjoys it because she’s got a lot coming to her this season.

i hate this, i just want everyone to know. i still like dany but this arrogant, mocking girl is driving me insane and it’s only episode 1. what little bit of likeness i had for her will fade real fast at this rate. she’s glad the people fear her dragons and thus fear her. she knows the northerners probably will never come around to her and bend so she’s going to get them on her side the only way she knows how: her dragons. 

lets be real- dany has nothing on her own. she’s nothing but a pretty face with a cold heart capable of dark, brutal things. but what if there werent any dragons? what would she be without them? who would fear her then? sure, she’s got a big ass army... but armies can be beaten. armies can be led astray by their own leaders doing. so yeah, she’s got an army but in the end, thats not foolproof. but dragons? those are pretty damn foolproof (unless you send your ~romantic interest~ off on a suicide mission that ends up costing you one of said dragons). she’s going to try and coerce everyone in the north through fear and it might work on the common folk, but wait til she meets the Starks.

yeah, do these girls look afraid?

not at all.

youre a man. almost. 

 i low key teared up at their reunion. it was sweet. plus it was nice to see bran in a more human moment. he’s always so robotic, i thought it was nice to hear him joke a little. 

as jon is looking at bran, you can see the moment he realizes sansa is looking at him. he pulls back from bran and turns to her (wow she looks beautiful, i cant even get over that). 

(gif by @stark)

sansa opens her arms to jon and i have to admit... the hug felt almost lackluster... at first. once i watched it a second and third time, i started seeing the things i didnt see the first time. 

for one thing- it was so amazing in the trailer because we could see jon’s face. kit is so incredible at his facial expressions and you knew exactly what jon was feeling the moment he saw sansa. with sansa, she’s very subdued- but its definitely done on purpose. obviously, she’s happy to see jon but she’s angry with him too. and dozens of people are there watching them, including this queen he’s brought with him. she has to be careful. 

(gif by @stark)

this instant, ever since i saw the trailer, ive thought jon whispered something to her. that’s why her eyes immediately flick up and pin their focus on dany who is standing just across the courtyard. we dont hear jon say anything but that doesnt mean he doesnt. what i find interesting about this is how in the episode, we’re shown sansa’s face and her emotional reactions to whats happening, but we dont see jon’s. in the trailer, it cuts to sansa’s eyes as soon as jon reaches her embrace, so we never see jon’s face in this scene. meaning, we dont see his lips ever move. i still want to believe he whispers something to her, but i almost feel like sansa would have referenced it later in the episode when they speak privately. but, you never know! 

next we have jon introducing sansa to dany, which as we all suspected, did not go well. 

as dany walks up, she’s smiling, her tone charming. her eyes are wide and she looks soft- she’s good at this. notice how no one in the courtyard moves, no one kneels or even bows in dany’s presence as they had once done for robert baratheon. this is not their queen. 

i literally laughed as dany said this. 

she’s trying desperately to come across as likable. she knows most of the north won’t bow to her without the backing of this girl and while she has her dragons to instill fear, she probably does want sansa to like her. she’s in love with her “brother” after all. they’d be sisters, so they should get along, right? 

wrong. 

sansa sees right through her. she’s good at finding a liar- she’s spent her whole life around them. learning from them, the best of them. you cant lie or manipulate sansa stark. not anymore. 

(gif by @cptainsrogers)

whew boy, that’s the face of someone who’s pissed. how quickly she changes!! as soon as sansa speaks, she loses her smile and blinks and she breathes in. she’s trying to restrain herself and keep a calm, cool composure. but its written all over dany’s face here- she’s not happy. 

again, im reminded that this is a woman who cant be told no and who doesnt like when someone isnt falling over themselves to please her. sansa is clearly not impressed with dany and she’s not afraid to let her know that. she’s calm, polite, but her tone & face says everything her words cant. 

bran interrupting was great. 

he sees what’s going on here and he’s right, now isnt the time for a little cat fight. he tells them that the night king has a dragon & dany’s reaction is clear she didn’t know that yet (right? i could be forgetting lol) & basically there’s like 100 other things they need to think about right then. which to be fair is totally true. but i had hoped to see a little more between sansa & dany.  what i loved though was jon didn’t look at dany when bran mentioned the night king having her dragon, he looked at sansa. 

now i wanna talk about arya and jon’s reunion because

well... i have feelings.

while the initial reunion was really sweet & had me crying, it ended real quick

this scene is where i really noticed jon was “off” 

jon stoops down and puts a hand on her shoulder (which arya looks down at) as he talks to her. where were you before? i could have used your help with sansa. she doesnt like your queen, does she?

then we get this next line from jon.  

first things first, it’s almost like jon doesnt realize she’s grown up. he’s got his hand on her shoulder, down at her level like you would with a kid. i mean, he probably cant help it, can he? she’s always going to be his kid sister, after all. thats how he knows her and remembers her. not to mention he’s been pretending to be someone else around dany for a long time now, he’s trying to shake himself back into the person his family knows him as 

arya looks at his hand before she says she’s the smartest person i know. you’re defending her now? you?

like he cant really believe that these two sisters that only used to bicker and fight are getting along to the point that arya is defending her to him. this is where i get upset with jon because he’s been gone for how long now? has he even bothered to talk to sansa about all that happened at winterfell? has he even asked her anything about what’s been going on while he was gone? clearly not, or he would know how close arya and sansa have become in his absence. that they’d taken out littlefinger together, even! 

i’m defending my family. so is she. i’m her family too. 

that alone points me into the direction of political jon. he’s avoiding sansa because he’s less likely to control himself in front of her. he might spill the beans about what he’s up to and its not time yet. he cant let that happen, not until the right time. while we all know he’d be better off telling her and the other starklings, so they could fight as a united pack... jon hasn’t come to that conclusion yet. lets hope he gets there next episode, though. 

he sounds so sad, so dejected when he delivers his line. like, sansa should be defending him, smiling, just in general happy to see him back. he’s brought a massive army and dragons! he did what he thought was best for the north and he cant quite grasp why sansa would be upset with him. one of jon’s weaknesses is sansa and how he thinks she feels about him. he craves her approval and he knows she’s angry with him at this point. and man does that bother him. he thinks she should have ultimate faith in him, even though he doesnt really deserve that, does he? anyways, thats a conversation for later in the post.

ps i love that he looks around before saying im her family too. almost as if he’s afraid of being overheard. 

dont you ever forget that.

yeah i had to pause the show at this point just to compose myself. this second hug was just as sweet as the first and im glad it was there. it finished the scene out nicely. 

i love how we got this moment of them being addressed at the same time, in frame like this. i live for moments like this, with them side by side. 

we get a lot of talk back and forth about why jon bent the knee and of course we get lyanna mormont calling his dumb ass out. 

i was waiting for this scene too & it didnt disappoint me. 

also i find his choice of words interesting 

sansa looks back at him and she’s literally the embodiment of the shrug emoji. like bitch i told u so. she has zero sympathy for him and the mess he’s in with the northern lords because she fucking told him it would happen. 

tyrion gets up and tries to do some mega damage control because lets be real, this situation is getting nasty. he talks about dany’s amazing army and the dragons as if this will lighten the mood. he also mentions about the lannister army coming (lol) like this is what will get everyone on their side. 

sansa interrupts and god do i love her more than i ever did

finally someone asking the REAL questions. 

sansa has worried about feeding the entire north the whole time jon has been gone. she’s built up as much as she could to ensure her people didn’t starve to death come winter. now jon shows up with this queen and her massive army with not even a wagon load of grain. when it cuts to dany a moment later, you can see she’s visibly shaken by sansa’s comment. hmm, wonder why? it couldn’t be because she’d just burned TONS of food that could have been used to feed her army and the rest of the north out of spite, right? nah, couldn’t be. 

sansa spits out these words and just look at her face- she’s doing her best to control herself here but her mouth is a snarl and her eyes are narrowed. she’s got every right to be angry over this- her people will probably starve because this so called queen hasn’t provided anything for her own army and now sansa will have to figure it out herself. if she’s this angry already, imagine how she’s going to feel when she learns dany burned all that food when she burned the lannister army. 

what makes me angry here is dany’s response. whatever they want. she’s so fucking childish i cant stand it. like she’s so bent out of shape that sansa’s calling her out basically, she’s going to resort to these sort of comments. like, you keep calling yourself a queen, fucking act like it dany. not a jealous, spoiled little girl. id respect her a whole lot more if she’d stood up for herself and her dragons here but that was never going to happen. its out of her character, especially at this point in her story. her dragons really could never do any wrong, in her eyes. and at this point i wouldnt be surprised to hear her defend them burning houses, crops, or innocent people. 

this episode is not making me like dany anymore. i cant stand characters like her, good or bad ones. and we all know dany is trending bad these days. but sansa doesnt even respond which is fantastic- instead of listening to her, everyone is focused on what dany had just said. we stan the real queen. 

im pretty sure next we see the bit between tyrion and sansa.

i didnt dislike the scene, it was actually pretty good. i especially liked the last time we saw each other was at joffrey’s wedding. dismal affair. it had it’s moments.

we also got this

not only is this true, we also later hear dany threaten sansa. 

interesting. 

but other than that, i didnt take much away from it. sansa was cool to him, as i expected her to be to anyone on dany’s side. tyrion may have been kind to her once, but as far as she’s concerned... he’s basically her enemy now. plus the whole scene before couldn’t have helped. 

somehwere in this we get all that junk with jon and dany. 

i... hated it. all of it. 

but after seeing it im 100% certain political jon is coming. his stiff demeanor with dany hasn’t changed, thats for sure. but what sold me was when dany threatened sansa. 

i’m queen, she must respect me or...

we all know  how jon “dont touch my sister or else” snow acts when someone mentions sansa around him in a way he doesnt like. the fact that jon barely even REACTS is clear in its message: he cant behave like he normally would. not with dany. he cant even go against her because he know how easy it is for her to become swayed. he cant lose control of the situation, not yet. i think he knows things are spiraling out of control more quickly than he anticipated. 

political jon must be a thing because there’s no reason for him to then roam across the north on a fucking dragon. the whole jonerys scene was as lackluster as they all have been and the kiss with drogon watching was very... weird. it felt ominous almost. there was no romance behind it, even if dany wanted there to be. 

but i think its very clear that dany feels threatened by sansa. she needs to be loved by everyone and sansa makes it clear she cares little if at all for her. queen or not, sansa doesnt respect her, nor like her, and she isnt afraid to make it known. i worry how dany is going to behave the deeper into this love triangle we get (because they sure arent being subtle about it). 

also, something i find interesting is the fact that dany would allow jon to ride her dragons at all. now that he has rode rhaegal he’s created a bond with the dragon, essentially taking him from dany’s control. she’s more or less lost 2 dragons now. and if you dont think jon would use this dragon against her to protect his family... then we must be watching two different shows.  

next comes jon’s scene with sansa (i think, at least its what im gonna talk about next lol). finally we get a glimpse of them alone! and god it doesnt disappoint me at all. i mean, id have loved to have more of it of course- yelling and even some tears, but we got something simple and hyper charged with both of their emotions. as always, the jonsa scenes get it done with as little as possible. 

we get a lot of angry stares and heavy sighs. its the same damn energy as the tent scene before the battle of the bastards. i love it. i fucking live for it. there’s so many things left unsaid between them and it makes me want their next scene that much more. literally, this scene was less than 2min long and i got so much from it. 

the scene opens and sansa is in her chamber, reading. the knock on the door sounds and she calls them in and she sighs when she sees it’s jon. the first thing i noticed was jon back in his old direwolf armor- he changed clothes before coming to her rooms- and then sansa paraphrases what the letter she’s holding says. jon parrots back lord glover’s words to them back when they met and thats when sansa gets up, very clearly angry, and says i will stand behind jon snow, the king in the north. she whips around to look at him and walks across the room like she wants to do something else entirely. i told you we needed allies. you didnt tell me you were going to abandon your crown.

this is where jon explodes, much how he explodes back in the tent scene with her. i never wanted a crown! i wanted to protect the north! he tells her, then goes on to say he brought with him an army and 2 dragons. this is where i wish we would have had more- sansa yelling at him about did he even think of how they would feed them all, specifically. but we get a lot of ~emotion~ and im living for every second. 

(gifs by @desired-paradise)

as soon as jon finishes ranting, he heaves a huge sigh (first gif). then he closes his eyes, thinking for a moment, before breaking down an asking her if she has faith in him. look at her face- she’s so hurt. they’re both hurting, honestly. what i love about jonsa scenes is how soft and vulnerable they both are during them. they let down their walls and open their hearts to the other. 

i think that’s why jon is so hurt by how sansa has been treating him since his return. he thinks he deserves her ultimate trust not realizing how he really doesnt deserve it. not,yet. you know i do. despite it all, she does have faith in him. but that doesnt mean she isnt angry or upset with him. and it doesnt change how she feels about dany. trust is not something that comes easy to sansa, not anymore. how can she be expected to trust a complete stranger when even those who were supposed to care about her turned on her? when for so long everyone around her was nothing beyond abusive and harmful. this girl trusts no one but her family and jon should get that better than anyone. 

but he thinks because its him, he gets a pass from her. that because of all they’ve been through together sansa should automatically know where his heart is and the truth of him. but how can she? he’s been gone all this time, promising to find them allies, not a queen that they didn’t ask for or even want. he promised them allies that would help them, not doom them to starvation.

when sansa speaks, he takes a step forward, almost like he thought of reaching for her. but he thinks better of it and says something about how she’ll be a good queen, yada yada. 

 and then... sansa drops this bomb

we never get jon’s answer because thats it, the scene just fucking ends there. like alright guys, thats fine i didnt want the answer anyways. i know jonerys fans are insisting he doesn’t answer because we already know the answer to that. but its not that easy. 

the set up between jon and sansa can’t be for nothing. the back story from season 6 cant just  be a random addition. so many lines that will come back this season (ill protect you, i promise. you are to me. ect) and i cant wait for that. 

next i want to talk about when dany and jorah meet with sam. 

first off, i have to say its weird that jorah has never told dany his name? is that just me? anyways. the scene opens and it reminds me a lot of the feel from her first meeting with sansa. dany is smiling, jovial. this is the man that saved jorah from death and she wants to thank him personally. their conversation goes well- in fact, its kind of sweet how sam behaves. he’s honored to be standing before her, being addressed by her, because he doesnt know who daenerys targaryen is yet. but he’s about to find out.

similarly to how dany reacted when sansa didn’t return her compliment, she goes from soft and smiling to hard and somewhat aggressive.

we go from this: 

to this:

(image from @snowsjohn)

in record time. as soon as sam mentions his name, it registers with dany and she asks him if he meant randyll tarly. that’s when she immediately, without sympathy, tells him she executed his father. you can see sam get visibly upset but he’s doing his best to keep it together, saying at least i can go home now, which by the way... is fucking heartbreaking. now that his brother is in charge he could go back home and be with his family when this whole thing was over. oh nope, dany tells him she executed his brother too. 

how anyone can stand behind this queen, ill never understand. this scene was so sad for sam & so unfeeling for dany. she doesnt even have the sense to pretend to be remorseful for what she’s done to this man’s family. and when sam does leave, she looks upset- but not because of what she’d done to his family. because now she’s in trouble and she knows it. again, they’re making it incredibly easy to dislike dany and they’re doing it for a reason. 

dark dany is coming for us. it’s going to all be revealed in the next two episodes, without a doubt. 

last but not least, i want to talk about sam telling jon the truth of who his parents were. 

(gifs by @kitsn0w)

i loved this whole scene.

while i was really surprised they told jon so early (and that it was sam alone) i enjoyed the shock. i didn’t honestly anticipate the reveal until at least episode 2, if not the third at the latest. but, it added something to the first episode- a similar shock value the first episode of the first season left us with. 

what i take from this scene is a few things, mostly how upset jon seems just to realize that this means ned lied to him his whole life. who gives a fuck about the truth, why didn’t ned just tell him all along? but when sam says the line about robert killing him, he seems to calm down a little. 

what else is interesting is jon’s lack of defending dany here. if he loved her as we’re supposed to believe, wouldnt he have said something beyond this is treason. id expect a “what will i say to her?” or “i cant take this from her, its all shes ever wanted’ or even “its hers, not mine.” anything else! but we got nothing in terms of jon defending dany’s right to the crown. 

and when sam asks him if dany would give up her crown for his people as jon had done, we don’t get jon’s answer. similarly to his scene being cut off with sansa, its done here as well, and we’re only left wondering what he would say. why wouldn’t they let him say? if he loves dany so much, wouldn’t he jump at this chance to defend her? especially to sam, who’s going to have a hell of time going forward now that he learned what dany did to his family. more so, it’s not yet been revealed that she burned them alive. what will they say then? when they realize that? 

i guess we’ll find out next episode, especially now that jaime is in winterfell. im really excited to see what episode 2 brings & im hoping for more dark dany & more private moments among the starks. 

overall, i really did enjoy the episode. i think there were things that could have been done better or differently,  but i think the episode set us up for a lot of good things to come!

in conclusion:

- jonsa is endgame & jonerys is doomed. sorry guys. 

- political jon theory is confirmed (in my mind at least)

- sansa is still the queen of sass.

- arya & gendry flirting is adorable (im sorry i know i didnt talk about them)

- WHERE. IS. GHOST?

thanks for reading!

[99vernon]

Jonsa and the Starks – What was the point?

GOT faded fast after the finale. My theater dance teacher once said finish all your performances strong because the audience always remembers the last thing you do. After watching the GOT finale, those words are ringing in my ears.  The Dark Dany story came and destroyed KL, diluted the excitement about Jonsa and sadly GOT.  Dany became the face of GOT. I do agree (a little bit)  with the way they hid the conclusion of the  Jonsa love story from the public because it protected Sophie from a lot of backlash from Dany fans. However, I do not agree with the emotional turmoil Jon displayed over Dany’s death.  Dany’s mental instability was overlooked by fans because of her beauty; and, lets face it, Dany had great nude scenes with her dragons. I refuse to believe Jon would give his heart to Dany so cheaply. From an acting perspective, Sophie and Kit had the most difficult romance to portray on screen because they had to conveying an unspoken love story. Jonsa mainly used eye contact and anguish breathing to convey to the audience their love for each other, along with simple touches - Not to mention they each gave up power for an “ordinary life” in Winterfell.

In regards to Jonsa, I feel strongly this - if Jon did not go to Sansa immediately to consummate their love after finding out his parentage AND if Jon and Sansa did NOT confess their love  for one another before the Long Night war then I would NOT have continued to support Jonsa.   Everyone agreed there was a 99% chance that everyone would die in Long Night war - the first thing you want to do before going off to war or dying  is to tell your loved ones how much you love them.  If neither of these two things happened BEFORE the long night war then Jonsa fans we got our answer; jonsa was not meant to be and we should accept it.  However, fear not, Jonsa did happen before the Long Night war, despite Dany’s presence in Winterfell.  Jonsa is a bittersweet love because although they survived and realized their love for one another, they ended up apart for unknown reasons. My biggest concern about Jonsa has always been a severe character change for Jon because of the possibledeath of Sansa. Greyworm lost Missandei and he became a cold blooded killer; Robert lost Lyanna and became a male whore; and I believe Cersei put all her love in her children to hide the pain of losing her one true love.(Not Jaime)

Anyway, I want to explore what was the point of Jonsa’s unspoken love story. What was the point of watching Jon reluctantly make out with Dany and that boatsex? Why tease us with Jonsa? – just put Jon and Dany together and let them rule, and pair Sansa up with someone else. What will be the payoff of Jon and Sansa surviving? What was the point? And on a side note, why was Jon Aryn’s  death so important to Ned?

The only logical explanation for Jonsa’s existence is to re-establish the rightful heir to prominent houses -  Stark, Targaryen and Lannister- which were destroyed during Robert’s rebellion.  Jon was right the true enemy has always been - the Night King. He steals the bodies and lives after killing his victims. There was a reason the 3 eyed raven showed Bran flashbacks of Winterfell with – Rickard, Rodrick, Ned, Lyanna and Benjen. The key to decoding GOT is to know the past because the past repeats itself.s

Here is a quick outline of what I believe happened:

Chaos happened around the time of Robert’s rebellion; memories were erased. Many of the characters are not who they believe they are. Both the Starks and the Targaryens were almost destroyed and/or went into hiding during Robert’s rebellion. The 3 eyed raven has been manipulating events to bring the leaders of House Stark and House Targaryen back to its rightful place in Westeros. Lyanna and Cersei suffered the most because they were separated from their family.  I believe Lyanna and Cersei’s bloodline (children) were the key to winning the Long Night war. Whenever I see evil such as Ramsey, Dany, Joffrey and Viserys, I believe the evil seed came from the Night King. “ The seed is strong.” (By the way, I believe Arya killed the Prince – the Night King’s son. The Night King may still be a threat. )

So, if the past repeats itself, there was a hidden Targaryen prince and another Jonsa hidden love story also existed in Winterfell that may have  involved Lyanna, Ned, Benjen and Bran. My biggest prediction was Jon’s journey in the entire show has been to resurrect Sansa.  I believe Sansa took Dany’s body and Jon will eventually take Tyrion’s body. The point of the story is  Jon and Sansa’s children will continue the legacy/bloodline of Lyanna, Benjen, Ned, Bran, Cersei, Tyrion and Dany.  

I also believe the season 1 opening episode in Winterfell symbolized a Dream of Spring for House Stark.  Jonsa will be the ones to have 5 northern children together in Winterfell and raise the Targaryen/Stark bastard.

Whew – that was a lot. This meta is suppose to be thought provoking. There had to be a point to GOT. Since we were not given explicit answers to our questions, we must draw conclusions based on the clues the show gave us. GOT will not be remembered as a classic because of the s8 finale. They stuck the audience with a bad ending and then just left us.  However, GOT did have one main point/purpose – Jonsa’s successful fight for love, family and survival.

[sharperthewriter]

Chapter 20 of SFV

Chapter 20 - Day 2: The Oh Boyz Routine

(11:55am)

The Stoppable-mobile headed back onto 83 to head north to continue their journey to Valentine. They saw nothing but the rolling prairie grasses of late-November, and the cool wind blowing against the saran wrap of the makeshift windows.

Back in the camper, Mary was still asleep while Canna was sending a text to Bonnie.

Did you take any humiliating photos yet of K? read the text from the wealthy heiress.

Canna texted her back, saying Just the ones from Bumblebees where Ron was grabbing his wife by the ass to cover her.

Bonnie then replied with, LOL! You're doing good so far! Just make sure that you take the photos where you won't draw attention to the redhead. And remember, my associate will meet you at the Bueno Nacho Express there in Valentine for the device!

Canna understood and texted back, I will be there ASAP...

"Now...Ron..." Kim said, "...do you have everything ready for the Oh Boyz routine?"

"The Oh Boyz Routine?" Ron wondered.

"Don't tell me you forgot!" Kim muttered. Her hooked overalls strap was resting barely on her shoulder. "We had a runthrough of this sitch before a few weeks ago, remember?"

Ron thought to himself for a moment.

(Three weeks ago)

At the Possible house, Kim was in the backyard with her former fellow cheer-mates. They consisted of Tara, Jessica, Liz, and Crystal.

They were each wearing white croptops with the words, in capitalized red letters of "WE" "MAY" "BE" "TAKEN" "BUT", worn by Kim, Tara, Jessica, Liz, and Crystal, respective;y. They were all wearing Club Banana signature baggy denim overalls as well. Tara had both straps hooked. Jessica wore hers with the left strap hooked and right strap off. Crystal and Liz had the right strap on and left strap off. Kim was more experimental, crossing over the left strap and hooking it to the right side of the bib.

"Now that you are all here, we are going to go through the Oh Boyz Routine for the South Dakota concert coming up in a few weeks." Kim said.

"What exactly is the routine, Kim?" Tara asked.

"I hope it's not exactly what I think it is..." Jessica whimpered.

"No, Jess. It's not...that stuff..." Kim groaned, not wishing to get too graphic on the info. "We're just, for the first time in 13 years, expressing our support for the Oh Boyz now that they are officially back together!"

"Understandable. But why did you choose me instead of Monique?" Crystal asked, "I'm not as big of an Oh Boyz fan as her."

"Because she is eight months pregnant with her kid." Kim replied. "And trust me, Chrys, Jamarcus doesn't want to carry a pregnant lady on his shoulders."

"Ohhh..." Crystal understood.

"When the Oh Boyz come out onto the stage, we all unhook our overalls at the same time with me, Tara, Jess, Liz and Chrys. And on the interior of the bib is a message of support for the Oh Boyz, showing that we still are their fans even though all of us are taken!" Kim explained the nature of her plan. "And we are going to wear the overalls like that through the entire concert...with belts on of course to prevent any Ron-like accidents."

"Okay...sounds like a good idea." Tara replied.

"Now...scream your loudest girls and unhook those straps now!" Kim decreed.

They all did so and it revealed that the inside of the bibs said in bright white letters "BUT" "WE" "STILL", a pink heart" , and "THE OH BOYZ" again worn by Kim, Tara, Jessica, Liz and Crystal, in that order.

(end flashback)

"Oh now I remember! Now I see what you mean!" Ron said, grinning. "At least that's better than...say...exposing your boobs to a potential nationally televised audience and getting the both of us fired from GJ."

"Relax, Ron! That is so not going to happen in the slightest!" Kim chuckled. "Now, can you check on the kids and Rufus for me?"

"Sure can do, KS!" Ron replied as he turned his head to the back.

"Let's see...Justin is still playing with his tablet, Rufus is still asleep and Alexa has colored her own skin with crayons...wait a minute...ALEXA IS COLORING HER HANDS AND LEGS WITH CRAYONS?!"

"Alexa! No! Crayons are for the coloring book, not for your own body!" Kim exclaimed as she grabbed a moist towelette from the glove compartment. She took her eyes off the road and turned her full attention to Alexa to try and clean her up. Her legs were the ones doing the steering of the wheel.

The van went off the road, driving into the grass.

"Uh...KS?" Ron questioned, trying to get his wife's attention.

"Not now, Ron! Can't you see I'm busy with Alexa?" Kim muttered, trying to wipe the crayon off her leg. Instead, the most towelette actually was combining the colors together. Also, another button popped off the croptop Kim was wearing, exposing more of her cleavage and black bra.

"I look like a rainbow!" Alexa squeaked.

"We're driving in the grass!" Ron screamed.

Rufus screamed and closed his beady eyes.

Kim dropped the towelette and focused her attention back on the road. She steered the wheel away from the grass and back on the highway. The hooked overalls strap slipped off her shoulder and the bib began to curl fully.

"Whew..." she said, breathing a sigh of relief, "...that was extremely close!"

"I'd say!" Ron exclaimed. "Good thing the van wasn't damaged!"

Just as soon as he said that, he heard thumping on the highway.

"Ron...do you hear that sound?"

"Uh...yeah, KS. I do hear that!"

"Can you check to see where it's coming from?"

"Sure can do!"

Rufus looked outside. He pointed his paw at the origin of the sound. Ron also looked outside and gasped, "KS, we may have to pull over..."

"Why, Ron?!" Kim moaned.

"The tire on the right side of the camper has gone flat. We may want to pull over." Ron said.

Kim made a groaning sound that yet another thing was going to slow them down, but she had no choice.

"You're right, Ron." she replied, "Stupid good for nothing delay..."

She pulled the vehicle on over to the side of the road to stop the irritating thumping and turned on the hazard lights on the van.

"Where are we now?" Kim asked.

"We are about 30 miles outside of Valentine." Ron said, looking at the GPS.

"So we're still stuck in Prairie-land aka the middle of nowhere!" Kim groaned even louder. She threaded her hand through the hooked strap, allowing it to fall down. It showed off her midriff and a couple of recent tattoos of a red dragon and an angel right above her belly button. . She opened the door and, unknown to her, the right side zipper to her overalls zipped down, showing off a side of her black panties with purple hearts. "Are the lemon squares you made for Thanksgiving still intact?"

Ron looked through the saran-wrapped third row window of the van and gave a thumbs up.

"Get out of the van and help me out here for the spare!" Kim demanded while grabbing her purse. "And Rufus, stay here and watch the kids...make sure that Alexa doesn't make herself into a Picasso painting."

Rufus hummed and saluted, taking watch of the kids.

"Rightey-o, Kim!" Ron replied as he opened the passenger van door and closed it.

The two of them walked behind the van. Kim made an exasperated gasp.

"The rear bumper is gone!" she exclaimed.

And indeed, the rear bumper had fallen off the van as well, adding to the damage that the Stoppable-mobile has suffered through on this trip.

The two then walked 7 feet to where the flat tire was. It had two nails in it.

"At least we now know what caused the flat." Ron admitted, leaning against the open door. One of the belt loops got caught against the open hinge of the door.

"What's going on?" Mary asked, coming out of the camper.

"And why do you have to disturb our beauty sleep...?" Canna questioned, yawning.

"Flat tire ish." Kim replied. "It's no big."

Shen then asked, "Are you two going to help?"

"So not! I don't want to get my nails all dirty from tire treads!" Canna countered.

"Suit yourself!" Kim snarked.

Mary and Canna went back inside.

"Where did you put the spare for the camper?" Kim asked her husband.

"I put it in the back in a compartment, KS." Ron said, "Just allow me, the man of the house, to get it out!"

But as he did so, the belt loop caused his pants to be pulled down, showing off his polka dot boxers.

"Ron..." Kim muttered, "...stop messing around and get the spare!"

"Oh right! Right!" Ron said as he pulled back his pants halfway going into the camper.

A few minutes later, Ron, now with his pants pulled up normally, got out with the camper spare.

"I got it, KS!" Ron said.

"Good, I'm gonna get the two jacks from the back." Kim replied, but as she walked to get the jacks her overalls started to slip from the rear, showing off more of her panties. She ignored it and brought the jack around. "Ron, get the lug nuts loose first!"

"This should be no problem!" Ron said, putting the spare to the side and got the tire wrench from the repair kit.

He loosened the lug nuts on the flat tire slightly and Kim raised the trailer with the jack.

"Do you envision doing this on vacation, KS?" Ron asked as he loosened the last lugnut on the flat.

"No...I hoped that we never go through this flat tire sitch ever again since Florida." Kim groaned.

Ron replaced the flat tire with the spare.

"Now we can cross that off the list." Ron replied as he lowered the trailer and tightened the lugnuts again. Kim inflated the tire to the correct PSI, but unfortunately, her undone overalls slipped past her bottom, showing off an embarrassing unicorn tatoo on her left buttock and a butterfly tatoo on her right.

"That'll have to do until we get a new tire put in." she muttered.

Ron then finally noticed his wife's unicorn tattoo and said, "Uh...KS?"

"Ron, can it wait? I have to put the flat back in the camper." Kim retorted, still grabbing the removed flat tire. When she shoved the tire into the camper, though, her undone overalls were officially on her ankles the undone strap dragging on the pavement.

"Kinda importante! Your overalls are falling off!" Ron exclaimed.

Kim finally looked down and gasped. Her cheeks blushed in embarrassment!

"Oh no...not again!" she groaned. "I'm glad that no one saw that!"

Little did she know that Canna was snapping the pictures from her smartphone, and as per Bonnie's orders, has not yet uploaded them to her social media accounts.

The redhead managed to pull the overalls back up and she zipped up the side zipper. She also pulled back up the hooked right strap of the overalls and kept the left strap undone.

"Now let's head back on the road." Kim insisted.

She and Ron got back in the Stoppable-mobile.

"Alexa, we're going to have to clean you up before we get to the Bueno Nacho in Valentine." Kim groaned, looking at her daughter.

The van, with the spare on the camper, pulled away from the shoulder and back onto the highway. Kim hoped that no more distractions would be on this drive...or on the trip for that matter.

[alwaysmercy]

Indelible Memories

Me and my mama, 2016

I was out for a bike ride enjoying the cool of mid-morning, letting my mind wander as my legs pedaled.  As I was coming around a bend on the bike trail, something to the left caught the corner of my eye. “A snake!” my brain registered as my heart raced and my fingers gripped the handlebars. “No way, “ I countered, “it’s too early in the morning for snakes to be out on the trail”. (Where did I get that bit of misinformation?) In the split second of this inner conversation, I had time to reflect that it was an interesting snake with pale tan segments contrasting with orange bands. Kinda like a black and yellow King snake but with different colors. “You should turn around and take a photo so your husband can see it. He could probably identify it and his first graders would think it was cool,” my brain said. However, my racing heart countered with the more reasonable, ”Are you kidding???!! No way are you turning around, just keep pedaling.”

Perhaps you’ve intuited that I am not fond of snakes. Truth be told, I hate snakes and am snake-a-phobic. (I am sure there is a scientific name for this fear).  But it wasn’t always so. When I was about five or six years old, I used to play in a field across from our house on Blue View Street in Redding, California.  Oh, the adventures I had in that vast expanse of wonder!  One day, with an empty coffee can in hand, I went hunting and guess what I found?  Massive amounts of Red Racers--tiny, cute, wriggling snakes. I proudly gathered them up in the can and brought them into the house to show my mother, who happened to be talking on the phone with one of her friends.  “Mama, look, what I found!” I nearly shouted with excitement. Well, she took one look at the contents of the can and yelled, “GET THOSE SNAKES OUT OF HERE!!!  “What?! What is the matter with her,” I wondered. “Why is she so upset? They are so cute.” But I did as I was told.

I’m not sure what happened to change my adoration of snakes into fear and loathing. I suspect it had something to do with the older brothers of my best friend, Kellene. They took great delight in torturing us with cruel pranks involving unsuspecting things like toads and katydids.

Years later, when I was in my thirties, my mom and step-father came for a visit. By this time, I was a mother of two. We were hiking on Stevens Trail in Colfax, admiring the wildflowers and all of a sudden I thought I saw a snake. I sucked in my breath and jumped back towards my mom.  Which in turn, made her scream and clutch me.  When Dennis looked more closely, he declared, “It’s only a stick.” Mama and I laughed shakily, which soon gave way to adrenaline-releasing, hysterical laughter.  We walked more gingerly for the rest of the hike, giving the boys the lead.

So, when I was asked to travel to Sudan and Kenya in 2006, one of the questions I posed to my travel companion was, “Are there snakes there?”. His calm reply, “I’ve never seen any.” “Whew, I can go then!” I convinced myself.  At some point during that first trip, he brought out his snake bite kit.  A bit confused, I  said, “I thought you said there were no snakes in Kenya.”  His tongue-in-cheek reply, “No, I said, I’d never SEEN any snakes in Kenya.”  This is when I discovered that snakes liked to hang out in the corn fields (a place I’d used to relieve myself more than once) and tea fields (another place I loved to wander). And in case you are wondering, I’ve only seen one snake in Africa and that was on my first trip. It was tiny and rather insignificant, on a dirt path in a zoo in Nairobi. No snake bite kit needed.

“Picking” tea leaves in Kenya, 2006

What does this all have to do with Mother’s Day, you might ask?  Well, it certainly wasn’t what I had envisioned writing. Honestly, I intended to write about the beautiful qualities of my mama--her kindness, generosity, brilliance, gift of hospitality and her laughter--and how much I miss her.  All those things are true, but this story slithered out of me.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Always Mercy,

Pamela

Farm with tea and corn, rural Kenya

Snakes like it here!

[junker-town]

Reviewing the best (and worst) of this season’s European soccer jerseys

Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images

Let’s take a look at the fashion statements made across the top four soccer leagues in the world

One of the most unique aspects of soccer is that a team gets to make a new image of itself when they release new jerseys or “kits” each season. In recognition of that, we have decided to give our honest and subjective opinions on the best and worst that the top European leagues have to offer this year.

We looked at the kits of all the teams in England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, and Germany’s Bundesliga and selected five of the best and worst they will take the field in this year. The categories for judgement are:

Best Overall Team Kit: The team we felt had the best combination of home, away, and third kits

Worst Overall Team Kit: The team we felt could have brought their home, away, and third kits back to the drawing board

Most Boring Overall Team Kit: The team that needed more inspiration when creating their home, away and third kits

Best Individual Kit: We chose the one kit that was the most strikingly beautiful, amazing, and awesome throughout the entire league

Worst Individual Kit: After looking at all of the kits, these were the ones we think will be finding the clearance rack soon

We also decided to prevent teams from being placed in similar categories. For example, if a team was selected as the Worst Overall Kit, they could not be represented in the Worst Individual Kit. The same goest for Best Overall and Best Individual. However, as we will see later in this list, we allowed for a team to be selected for the Best and Worst Individual Kits if we felt they were merited.

Before we begin, all photos were taken from footyheadlines.com, one of the best websites for soccer jersey leaks and releases.

With that, we start our list in England.

English Premier League

This was apparently the year that Premier League kit makers decided to be experimental. Some kits worked well, others crashed and burned in glorious fashion.

Best Overall Team Kit: Everton

These kits are clean, bold, and inoffensive. The home kit is traditional with great subtle design details. The away kit features an amazing shade of yellow. The third kit is a shade of mint that we don’t love, but unlike a certain German team’s mint kit, the accents are subtle. A great result for Everton here from Hummel.

Honorable Mentions: Southampton, Manchester City, Arsenal

Worst Overall Team Kit: West Bromwich Albion

The home kit isn’t bad at all. In fact, the bar code stripes have been worn by West Brom before with good results. The problem really lies in the away and third kits. Not only does the same pattern in the home kit continue to the other two, but the colors are terrible. The away kit directly rips off a fellow English team in Norwich City and the third kit causes me such intense headaches that I can’t look at it for too long. Why Puma?

Honorable Mentions: Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle United

Most Boring Team Kit: Fulham

Simply put, all three of these kits look like they were Adidas templates you would use when you’re making jerseys for your rec league team. Add on the fact that the third kit was their same last year and these kits look like the epitome of laziness.

Honorable Mentions: Leicester City, Crystal Palace, West Ham United

Best Individual Kit: Manchester City away

via Footy Headlines

This thing is beautiful. Shades of blue in the gothic cathedral design on the shirt play nicely with the black base of the shirt. The bronze accents and bronze monochrome badge really make this kit the beauty that it is. Man City went in three bold directions with all of their kits, but this one totally payed off. Maybe the best Puma kit for the year.

Honorable Mentions: Southampton third, Leeds United away

Worst Individual Kit: Manchester United third

via Footy Headlines

Do I really need to explain this one? The same design is on the shorts too. Yikes Adidas.

Honorable Mentions: Chelsea third, Liverpool third, Newcastle third

La Liga

The top flight of Spain brought a lot to the table with many impressive kits. Some stood out like a sore thumb, but most of these were fantastic.

Best Overall Team Kit: SD Huesca

A quality kit collection should be balanced, clean and varied. Huesca nailed all three with their range for the 20/21 La Liga season. Choosing a soft color for the cross in the home kit allows it to complement, not contrast with, the deep yet sparkling blue. The away is simple and all white, but it’s cohesive and has an understated topographical design element giving it dimension. The third is quite simply a green and gold accented stunner. The zig-zag design element makes it look flowing and royal. You either play a sport as beautiful as football in it, or you clap twice to have peasants carry you on a golden pillow to a goblet filled with peeled grapes. No in between. I’m shocked Kelme produced our winners, but they deserve it.

Honorable Mentions: Deportivo Alaves, Eibar, Valencia

Worst Overall Team Kit: Real Madrid

This requires some defense as Real is one of the biggest clubs in the world. The home and away kits suffer from the same problems. They both just look like white and pink t-shirts with as minimal design as possible. A lack of design on the shoulders and sleeves hurt this kit. On top of those two, the third kit features a design that doesn’t make sense for Real Madrid and failed to impress the two of us. Better luck next year, adidas.

Honorable Mentions: Celta Vigo, Sevilla

Most Boring Overall Kit: Getafe

It’s the same shirt, three times, in three basic and flat colors: blue, red and white. As a consummate procrastinator, I know ‘Whew, at least I made the deadline’ when I see it. Do better Joma.

Honorable Mentions: Celta Vigo, Osasuna

Best Individual Kit: Cadiz away

via Footy Headlines

Full disclosure: I would place Huesca’s third kit here but we are trying to be fair. Having admitted that, Adidas’ design on Cadiz’s away shirt is not far beneath Huesca’s third shirt. It’s not as opulent, but it would still feel good to pull on ahead of a match. It has a wonderful use of an accent color, which is a vivid and perfect shade of yellow that contrasts well with its blues. I typically dislike plain gradients (see: Chelsea’s third shirt), but the upward stripes are actually design elements that merge to create a gradient effect. Up close they are unique and interesting, and that continues to the crest, which is outlined in yellow and filled-in with a pearlescence that shifts from blue to a soft pink or almost purple depending on the angle and available light.

Honorable Mentions: Barcelona away, Eibar away, Valencia away

Worst Individual Kit: Granada third

via Footy Headlines

This is just ugly fam. It doesn’t deserve the classical collar it has, the glowing aquamarine is framed by flat yellow sleeves, the sponsor is a big red ‘W’ and the crest and Nike logo are blacked out. It’s a confusing mess of a shirt and I hate it, so I’m going to show mercy and stop typing so that you can scroll down.

Honorable Mentions: Barcelona third, Villareal third

Serie A

A league in a country that is well known for its fashion produced some amazing kits. Unlike the other leagues, only two teams were in the running for worst overall team kit. But, the loser is a big one.

Best Overall Team Kit: Genoa

Genoa’s kits this season are as good as Genoa kits get. They have a set style and Kappa didn’t deviate, but this year I think they hit the pinnacle of what they’re capable of. The home is perfectly balanced and has understated design elements to give it depth. The away is just as balanced and looks especially clean on an all white backdrop. The third is the beauty of the bunch. I love how the logo and crest treatments make them a cohesive part of the shirt, and the subtle red in the collar accents the red piping down the sides. The prominent design on the shirt is balanced by deep colors, giving it depth and making it interesting even though it’s simple.

Honorable Mentions: AC Milan, Atalanta, Fiorentina

Worst Overall Team Kit: Juventus

I don’t know what Juventus is doing with any of these. There’s no cohesion in any of them and two of them look like they were designed by children at the height of a sugar rush. WHAT IF THE STRIPES WERE LIKE TIRE MARKS INSTEAD OF STRIPES JUST LIKE SKKKKKRRRRRR! WHAT IF IT WAS LIKE ORANGE CAMO BUT NOT REALLY ORANGE CAMO BUT LIKE IT LIKE JUST BSH YA BRRRSHHHHS ALL OVER! Go to your room, Adidas.

Honorable Mention: Sampdoria

Most Boring Team Kit: Spezia

The benefit of looking at these shirts is that they will make you infinitely interested in something else just to make sure you don’t accidentally slip into a coma. ONLY MALE PLATYPUSES ARE VENOMOUS — whew, thought we almost lost you there.

Honorable Mentions: Hellas Verona, Torino

Best Individual Kit: Roma away

via Footy Headlines

I feel things looking at this shirt. The primary thing is an appreciation for life and the possibility that it could be beautiful. This shirt is a reminder, or more accurately a refresher. It can exist, it can be endlessly beautiful, and that must mean that not everything is terrible. The cream with deep burgundy accents, the throwback wolf crest, the retro styling; it is a perfect shirt and Nike’s best of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Atalanta away, Inter Milan third, Genoa third

Worst Individual Kit: Roma third

via Footy Headlines

Nike, continuing their quest to be the most confusing kit manufacturer, made two stunning shirts (one an immediate classic) and then decided that they would build the third shirt using construction paper. It makes no sense, it’s overly complicated, poorly designed, and has what looks like asphalt pouring from the armpits. I almost respect Nike’s commitment to ensuring that their expectations are never set too high. Every now and then you gotta fart at the dinner table just so everyone is reminded that you do not, in fact, have your life together. Correct, this shirt is a fart.

Honorable Mentions: Inter Milan away, Napoli home, Sampdoria goalkeeper

Bundesliga

One of us writes for a Bundesliga team blog. So, when we say we were underwhelmed by the offerings from the German top flight, we really mean it.

Best Overall Team Kit: 1. FC Union Berlin

There weren’t many dazzling kits this year in the Bundesliga, but this one stood out for all the right reasons. The collar and sleeve stripes on the home kit are perfect. The lines on the away kit are a great color of blue. The third kit uses that same shade of blue plus some awesome design elements that help Adidas knock these kits out of the park.

Honorable Mentions: 1. FSV Mainz, Armenia Bielefeld, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Worst Overall Team Kit: RB Leipzig

We both realize what Nike was trying to do when they announced the third kits of a bunch of teams (see Juventus, Roma, PSG, Spurs, Chelsea) would take inspiration from old Nike Air Max shoes to show the connection between streetwear and football culture. The design they used on the third kit for RB Leipzig should have stayed on a pair of shoes. It is ugly to look at and I almost feel like there’s an optical illusion I should be finding. The away kit has two (2) different shades of yellow with the club crest and Nike logo being darker than the bulls on the front of the shirt. A boring, uninspired home kit wraps up this nightmare.

Honorable Mentions: SC Freiburg, Bayern Munich

Most Boring Team Kit: FC Augsburg

*snoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooore* Huh? Did something happen?

Alright, I know that Augsburg’s traditional kit structure is white home kit, green away kit, red third kit. But did they have to be so boring about it? Three radically different collar designs don’t help these shirts and Augsburg should think long and hard about what they’ve done.

Honorable Mentions: Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg

Best Individual Kit: VfB Stuttgart away

via Footy Headlines

Jako kits don’t often get a lot of love outside of Germany. But gaaaaawd these are sick. The monochrome badge plays really well with the intricate design of the map of the city of Stuttgart on the kit. They also apparently aligned the map in a way so that the middle of the stadium was under the crest. Lots of points for creativity and a fun look.

Honorable Mentions: Borussia Dortmund home

Worst Individual Kit: 1. FC Köln third kit

via Footy Headlines

To the average fan, this is a garish kit. However, for Köln fans, it’s a throwback to a classic shirt known as the “canary kit”.

However, unlike the effort from Puma in the 90s, this uhlsport kit has un-subtle and blocky stripes that truly ruin any good things coming for it. This reminds me more of something I’d be wearing on the 20th of April rather than what I’d wear to a football match.

Honorable Mentions: Bayern Munich third, VfL Wolfsburg third, RB Leipzig third

So these are our rankings. This is the way.

However, we know the conversation doesn’t end here. Let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments.

André covers Chelsea’s men’s and women’s teams at We Ain’t Got No History and the Washington Spirit at Black and Red United. He can also be found tweeting aimlessly at @not_carlisle.

Jake covers Bayern Munich and German soccer in writing and via podcasting at Bavarian Football Works. He can be found screaming into the void on Twitter @jeffersonfenner.

[skippw-blog]

Packing for a Fire

I moved, last year, into a small apartment in North Hollywood, from a beautiful private bungalow in Pasadena. One surrounded by flowering trees, amidst perfect grass, with a private back cement yard where our dogs played, and ran in and out of through a dog door. A lemon tree, pressed up against our living room window, closest to our overstuffed leather couch. And sun streamed in through the eastern window over the deep porcelain sink, landing on the wide tiled kitchen floor.

When we became me and our became my, I left Pasadena. When I left, I left a lot behind. Either in a dumpster, or with strangers after an exchange of some insignificant amount of cash. With me, came my cat.

Some months ago my cat died. Unexpectedly. He was hit by a series of sudden and violent seizures. The first time it happened, he was next to me in bed, and started flailing his arms and scratching me and twitching and I thought that he was dreaming, and so I nudged him and he fell off the bed and continued to flail and spit and suffer on the floor. This continued every other hour our so for the better part of a week until the end.

This week, North Hollywood smells like a campfire. And luxury homes are burning. And the hills are alive with flames. And highways are shut down. And our, your, all of our celebrities tell us that they have evacuated and are ok. whew. On twitter. The other night, my phone screamed at me. I think all of ours did. In LA. And if I recall it said something like ‘grab your shit, we’re all fucked.’ And though where I am, in North Hollywood, is still miles from any mountains or high concentration of flammable brush, I couldn’t help but think. I couldn’t help but imagine. With a movie scene scripted and written including cues for CGI flames and hired fire trucks and heroic protagonists, pulling women and children from smoldering ember framed craftsman thresholds.

As I prepped tomorrows undershirt on my desk, along with socks and other items along with a belt, which I am always afraid that in my early morning fog I will forget to bring. As I put my morning together I thought .. may as well throw a panic kit together. A bag of. Well, a bag of shit that I can grab if it’s 3.30am and we’re running out of a house towards heroic protagonists. And at that moment, standing in the middle of my tiny, but well organized room. It was at that moment that I had a stunning epiphany.

This can all go.

And in no morose way whatsoever, it occurred to me that if the shit were to hit the fan, there was not one thing that I could find, that I would miss terribly, or be able to replace with money, down the road. It’s not that I’m not sentimental. But after losing what I have lost. And on the other side, being ok and actually lighter for it. I realized that there is nothing I am tied down by. Encumbered by. Though it took some considerable pain to get here, I have been rewarded by a life that I can take with me. Along with a soft pair of Puma track pants and a hoodie and some beat up Saucony’s at a moment’s notice. For if or whenever the fire comes.

[jokertrap-ran]

lin Jewelry Kiss (Volume 1) CV: 佐藤拓也 (Satou Takuya) as 紅玉透矢 (Kougyaku Touya)

04 商品テスト Track 04: Product Test

*Spoiler free: Translations under cut

It really is jammed after all. It was a right decision to head out a little earlier. At this rate, I guess we’ll reach our destination a little over noon…? Hm? What’s the matter? To think that you were really raring to go yesterday too. I never thought that I’d go out together with you either. Sorry for asking you to accompany me on a day off. About that “Owner” thing, could you stop calling me that for a day? It’s your long-awaited day-off after all. Calling me “Owner” and the like, wouldn’t that just make you think of work and dismiss the fun you experience? That’s precisely why you’ll call me by my name just for today. I also think that it’s an important thing to separate your work and private lives, you know? It’s kinda...refreshing. Ahem! Speaking of which, that outfit…...it might actually be the first time I’ve ever seen you wearing a one-piece. Heh~You wore piercings too? Well isn’t that great? It really suits you. Pfft- What’s with that? I’m not expecting to get anything from you. By the way, about lunch…...with the traffic like this, I don’t think we’ll reach the service area in time for it. What should we do? Sandwitches? Did you make them by yourself? No wonder. I noticed that you were carrying more items than usual. Could it be that you woke up early just for those? I thought that something happened since you were making such a tired looking expression since morning. Thanks.

Say….since you’ve already done all that and all, won’t you let me eat those sandwiches? I skipped breakfast so I’m really hungry right now. I’m in the middle of driving so I can’t let my hands off the wheel, please? No, there’s nothing I particularly hate but...what’s in those? If I had to choose between those then...egg would be nice.

*He eats the sandwich* ….Mm, delicious! Come on, hurry and let me eat the next one. *He eats it again and chokes* S-Sorry! I was focused on driving so I didn’t see that at all! Ahh, how about we eat the rest once we reach the amusement park?

Haa~ We managed to arrive here safely...Just like I thought, it gets this crowded during weekends huh~ Children and students...well, we’re all the same now that I think about it. Oi, where are you trying to go? The admissions are over there, isn’t it? Here, your ticket. I got it beforehand so we don’t have to queue up. It’s easier to do it this way because I don’t want to waste my time waiting. Really? This much’s normal, isn’t it. Moreover, I was the one who asked of you to accompany me for this. And so, where should we start off first? Headbands, you say…...um, you mean those with ears…? You aren’t gonna say that you want me to wear those too...right…? Did you think that they would suit me? I’ll accompany you if you’re buying them but you’re going to be the only one wearing them. Alright? Haa….and so, what are you gonna do about the rides? The Jet Coaster’s the way to go after all! Heh, our opinions are one and the same. Let’s go then.

Here, take this. Would a Soda have been better? Whew~ That was fun! I might actually get addicted to that exhilaration! Heh, even so, the picture taken when we were all falling downwards was really amusing! Pfft-- Just thinking about it makes me laugh, hehe! Nope, I lost to the expression you were making, ahahaha!! I can’t!! My stomach hurts--!! Ahaha...ahh...I got really thirsty after laughing. Pfft- that couldn’t be helped since your expressions were really amusing. You laughed while looking at my face too so we’re even. Come to think of it, there were still sandwiches left, right? Let’s eat them since we might as well do so. Which should I take...I had the egg one earlier…...hm? W-What are you getting all red for? Even I’ll get embarrassed…*He eats the sandwich* …...It’s delicious after all. Oh right, I’ll feed it to you this time. Come on, open your mouth a little more. You don’t have to hold back, come on.  Ahn~ Pfft- what’s with that? That’s too small of a bite. What are you getting all embarrassed about all of a sudden? Even though you were fine with letting me see your sleeping face. Here, bite down more of it. Ah~ah, you have to be careful with the force when doing that. Well that’s fine and all but now my finger has the ketchup from the sandwich. Honestly...mmph, it’s a waste like that so...lick it. Heh, just joking.

Ah! You- ...would someone normally lick it? Because it’s a beautiful finger…? What’s with that...I-I’m not turning red at all! Rather than that, how about we go to a different  attraction once you’re done eating this for a change? Where do you want to go next? How about we go to that one over there if you’re unable to decide? The Haunted House. Could it be that you’re no good with Haunted Houses? Then it’s decided! It seems like the Haunted House here was built from a haunted hospital~ There are also rumours that real ghosts appear every once in a while...how fun~ *He finishes the sandwich* Thanks for the food!  Well then, let’s hurry and head over!

Heh~ We’re gonna go in while handcuffed together huh. The keys to the handcuffs are at the goal…? Seems pretty fun! Come on, let’s hurry and go. What’s wrong? If you walk that far apart from me, won’t it be hard to walk? Or is it that you’re afraid after all~? Oh, really. Then let’s go~~!

Come to think of it, it was written that zombies will come and assault us in the middle of this all. Heh, is there even someone who’d get scared by something like that? Even though you say that, your hand’s been trembling ever since earlier. Haa, you’re really stubborn aren’t you? But that’s fine if it’s how you’re gonna be.

The atmosphere's really on point. I guess that’s one good point of using good quality stuff to make it realistic. It’s hard to walk if you’re pulling me backwards though. What’s wrong? Are you scared after all?

Hey! Don’t just stop walking all of a sudden! Did you forget that we were connected by handcuffs? Huh? There’s nothing at all. It’s fine so let’s proceed. Haa, I get it. Here, let’s hold hands. I don’t want to be held back by you too and it doesn’t seem like we can proceed on further if things stay like this either. You want to hurry and get out of here, don’t you? I don’t really mind if you tell me that you don’t want to hold hands though. Heh, that’s right, it would have been alright if you had just held my hand like you were told to since the beginning. It’s a little less scarier like this, right? Even still, to think that you had things that you feared…

You’re gonna act tough again? Huh? Which part of this is scary? That part of you’s really just plain childish. There’s no way that a doll would move on it’s own, is there? All these dolls here are just made to do so. What is it, all of a sudden? ...Are you...crying? Ahh...sorry. It’s all because I said that we’d go into the haunted house. I never thought that you’d be so scared. There, there, calm down. I’m with you, okay? It seems like you’ve calmed down a bit, do you think you can make it till the exit? We can exit through the emergency exit if you can’t. Alright. Let’s go then.

Haa~ We finally got out! To think that the zombies only came at the very end, that was surprising to say in the least. Heh! You dashed out to the exit with all your might too. Even so, to think that it was that hard to move about while being handcuffed...Huh? I’m fine. I could say the same to you as well, is your wrist okay? It’s all good if that’s the case. Well then, for the next ride...hm? What’s the matter? Your short’s strap? Was only the side strap broken? Alright, I bought a sewing kit so I can fix it for you now. From where we are right now...the rooms are closer. Bear with me for a while. It’s fine, just let yourself be carried. You can’t walk in that state, can you? If you’re saying that you’re embarassed, I’m the same too. Just put up with it since it’s an emergency!

I’ve explained to the situation to the staff here so sit on the bed and lift your skirt. I-It’s not like I’m going to do anything weird. That’s fine so just hurry up and do it. This one huh...it broke off from where it was originally attached to. It seems like it’d be better to re-sew the thing. What are you apologising for? The reason for a product test is to check and see if something like this would happen. Moreover, this only happened because the strap was made to be narrow. Heh, we did run quite a bit, having gone through the Jet Coaster and the Haunted House too so it can’t be helped. Come on, I’ll fix it together now so stay still.

Does it feel comfortable enough? I’ll fix anything if there are problems with them. I see. It doesn’t seem to be discommoding at all from what I can see so I guess the strap was the only one with an issue. The elasticity seems to be just right too. Alright, it’s done. Try walking a little to see if it’s fine, just in case.

Alright, I’m glad. Hm? You...pierced both your ears, right? You’re missing a side. Well, I guess that can’t be helped considering how small it was. Even if you say that, there’s no way we could find it in such a large place, right? Give it up. How about we return to the park area for now? It’s about time for the place to close too so how about riding something for a last ride? What would you like?

What a nice view. I’ve never actually ridden a ferris wheel. Take a look at this. There’s a guide on how to spend your time on the ferris wheel written on the panel. Let’s see….oh! What a coincidence, it seems like the parade starts at this time. Here, look below. If we can see it from this angle, it might be good to come back again. It’s also a great thing to come back here again with like minded people. Heh, that’s true. You had way more fun than me. I mean, you did bee-line towards the highest horse when we were at the Merry-Go-Round. Heh, just thinking about it makes me laugh. Didn’t you race for it much faster than the other kids around us? Heh, I wasn’t! That’s just...because I got too excited. We didn’t manage to get scores in at all because it was a cooperation game and you were really bad with the gun! There wasn’t any other choice but for me to give it my best, was there?

I bet. We never did hit the target at all. Meanwhile on the other hand, the parent and child beside us managed to hit the target a good lot. Even so, time really does fly. We have to go back once this is all over, don’t we. Pictures? What’s with that all of a sudden? Come to think of it, we didn’t take any today. Well, I guess we could get one for commemoration. I didn’t bring a camera along so is taking one with a phone allright?

…...Get over there a little. I can’t sit beside you like this, can I? So...who’s phone are we going to use. I’ll be leaving it to you then. Eh, you’re really bad at it! It’s blur! Lend it to me for a while. Come a little to the left. You’ll be cut off like that, wouldn’t you? Come closer over here! We can't both show on the photo if you don’t come at least this close. Come on, I’m taking it. Raise your face.

Yup, it's a good shot. Yeah, please send me that picture afterwards. I mean, it’s for commemoration, right?  Ah, it’s squeezy to be sitting here for the entire time, right? How about I return to that side?

Whoa-! What’s that? I don’t really know myself either but it might be better not to move about. What is it? Are you worried? It’s fine. It’ll move soon. Look at the night view since we’re already here. Hm? What’s wrong? It says “Please enjoy the night view” ...Ah, it seems like the ferris wheel will stop and all it’s lights will be switched off for this short period of time limited to the ride of this time period in order to view the night scenery. Heh, I know right? They should have told us so at the very beginning! Haa, well, I guess it worked out after all. I’ll head to the opposite side then. What’s wrong? Alright. I’ll stay over here. Well, I guess we’ll just have to enjoy the night view like this then.

Huh? What’s it this time? You’ll be inseparable if you kiss at the top of the ferris wheel. T-This kinda stuff is a jinx made up by couples, right? We aren’t even going out with each other either, right!?

Do you want to try it out? Like this...what will happen to us if I kiss you here like this. Do you dislike me? If that’s so then it’s fine, right?

Was I found out? That’s right, I was just teasing you a little since your reactions were so amusing! There’s no way I’d be serious, is there? Heh, my bad! What’s with wanting to ride a ferris wheel all of a sudden? Because it’s been a long time since you rode one? How do you even normally spend your weekends? That isn’t much different from usual if you don’t take a break! You know, it’s good and all to work hard but relax a little sometimes.

Haru’s...a different story since he’s a genius. You picked the wrong person to compare yourself with. That’s right, you can just be you and design things like how you usually do. You’ll become able to come up with your own design style one day. You don’t even have to rush, if anything happens, you can rely on me-......us. I’m bad at receiving customers too so I leave it to Sena. That’s how we split the stuff we can handle and that’s also why there are other staff around. Rely on us more! Heh, only your answers are good. You’ve finally become like your usual self now! That little persistent part of you is just nice. You didn’t seem to be able to relax at all today.

….I’m glad I came here with you today. Oh, the ferris wheel finally moved! We’ll reach the bottom soon so how about getting a better look at the view below?

Say, let’s come here again if there’s another chance, okay?