#at least 15% more of it is gonna be the rest of the results

[newtness532]

my study sessions consist of 60% singing along to songs, 15% of staring at the wall, 15% looking up random things or getting up to do unrelated stuff and maybe 10% actually studying and then i have the audacity to wonder why it takes me so long to finish anything

[tpwk-formula1]

hi! i really love your stories. could you write a oscar x lily x reader or charles x alexandra x reader where the reader is pregnant and they’re so protective of her and it’s just really fluffy and adorable? have a good day xx

Oscar Piastri x Lily Zneimer x pregnant! Reader

Written and mini SMAUs

AN - Tried something new! I hope you guys like it!

TW - There isn't any?

WC - 2.5K

Oscar’s Insta story

youruser: I still can't believe it!

landonorris: Now why am I finding out Y/N's having a girl with the rest of the world?

oscarpiastri: well you at least knew she was pregnant...

user1: I can't believe this

user2: I love knowing Oscar will be outnumbered by his girls

zabrownceo: I already have a pink version of our Mclaren merch being made for her!

lilyzneimer: Oscar, please get home. Y/N is crying for you

oscarpiastri: tell her I'm 15 minutes out and will be home. It took me longer at the MTC than I planned

Y/N POV

Its been a couple months since Oscar announced my pregnancy and since then they've only gotten more and more protective of me. Oscar has been late on multiple occasions because he refused to leave the house until someone was with me. He was worried something would happen if I was alone even if it was only a few minutes.

"Oscar, love, please get in the car," I tell him softly while rubbing the back of his neck with my nails.

"Lily will be back in a minute, I can wait," Oscar tells me softly making a me shake my head.

"Oscar Jack quali is going to start in a minute, get in the car," I tells him sternly while pulling him in for a quick hug and kissing his shoulder since he was fully dressed and had his helmet on for quali.

"There not gonna let me come back if you keep being late," I tell him softly before pushing him towards the car. It doesn't work because he stays standing in his spot just waiting.

"Sorry, I got a little lost coming back. I wanted to grab a muffin and some veggies for Y/N. She hasn't eaten anything today," Lily says out of breath coming back into the garage with a few snacks in her hand.

"Perfect! Oscar get in the car," I tell him before walking towards Lily where she takes my hand in hers and pulls me towards the back of the garage where we can stand and she starts showering me with snacks and words of affection.

"Lils do you think there's somewhere we can sit down for a couple minutes?" I ask softly feeling the fatigue start to take over my body slightly.

One of the engineers observing the session must have heard me because he quickly stands up and hands me the hand he was sitting in.

"Here you go," He tells me softly while walking back to stand near where he was once standing.

"What the fuck was that?" I whisper softly while sitting down in the little fold up chair I was just handed.

Lily just shrugs her shoulders while offering me a water bottle making me shake my head no softly.

Time Skip

Now being 37 weeks pregnant I am no longer able to travel with Oscar which has resulted in Lily staying back from the rest of the races as well.

"Lily I feel like I look like a fucking whale," I announce while coming out of the bathroom in a pair of Oscar's boxers and a random big shirt I found in the dresser.

"Y/N! Don't talk about yourself like that," I hear Oscar say sternly through the phone making me grimance slightly.

"Osc its true. I can't even fit in your clothes anymore. I need her to just be here now," I tell him softly while climbing into bed and curling into Lily's side while looking at a flushed face Oscar.

"How was the session?" I ask changing the subject quickly.

"It was fine, we got a lot of good data for the race and She will be here soon. In the meantime I need you to keep staying hydrated, fed and well rested. You look absolutely stunning pregnant," Oscar tells me making me smile softly.

"She must know her daddy is near cause she's quite active right now," Lily says with a smile with touching the spot our daughter has been kicking at.

"I think she might be a footie player cause, I'm pretty sure I've taken some goal winning kicks to the ribs," I say softly while making Oscar smile and laugh softly.

"Oh! Is that Y/N and Lily?" I hear Lando call out while coming into Oscar's drivers rooms before popping his head into the frame.

"Y/N you're glowly! I can't wait to meet Miss. Piastri-L/N-Zneimer, man she's gonna have a long name," Lando says making Lily and I laugh softly.

"Thanks Lando, and I'm sure she's excited to meet her weird uncle too," I tell him softly making his face light up.

"I hope you're having fun doing what Oscar complains about not being able to do," Lando tells Lily referring to her being able to take care of me everyday.

"I try not to rub it in too much. But I love it," Lily replies making Oscar roll his eyes knowing damn well Lily loves rubbing it in. Our group chat has mostly consisted of all the things I do throughout the day that Lily gets to help me with.

"Alright I have a debrief with the team now, but I love you two and I'll be home soon for winter break and then our little love with be here in no time," Oscar says with a smile making both Lily and I smile before hanging up the phone.

I cuddle into her side further while she rubs my quite large bump.

"What happens if she doesn't wait until after Abu Dhabi?" I ask softly finally letting my major anxiety seep through.

"She will! You see how much she already loves her dad and I'm sure she'll wait," Lily tells me softly while rubbing the stop where our daughter was currently kicking.

"I need Osc there but I really can't wait till my ribs are no longer being abused," I joke making Lily smile before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on my lip.

"I'm excited to meet her," Lily tells me softly while still rubbing my bump.

"Me too, I hope she has Oscar's eyes," I admit softly making her smile and nod her head.

Time Skip - 39 weeks pregnant

I'm walking around the grocery store in Monaco by myself after having snuck out when Lily and Oscar fell asleep for a nap.

"Y/N what the fuck," Lily said storming her way towards me making me stop in my tracks.

"What?" I fray innocence but seeing Oscar and Lily's face my heart breaks a little just seeing how worried they were.

"Why did you just leave?" Oscar asks quickly taking the small basket out of my hand and pulling me to his side so he can walk with me.

"I was making dinner and realized we were missing a few things, and besides I didn't want to wake either of you guys up so I snuck out," I smile brightly trying to down play the situation.

"Love, it's not like you're a burden, we want to be with you! What happens if your water broke or you got hurt?" Lily rambles pulling me into her.

"I'm sorry, I just felt useless lately and I thought you guys having some time together would be okay," I tell them softly making Oscar shake his head.

"You haven't been useless. You have been carrying our child for the last 9 months," Oscar tells me while walking with me around the store.

"I just need milk and then we can check out," I tell them softly.

"How did you even get here?" Lily asks realizing I hadn't been behind a wheel since the moment they found out I was pregnant.

"I took the Range Rover," I give them a smile trying to ease the blow.

"You drove?" Lily's voice rises slightly in shock making me laugh and nod my head.

"It was nothing," I tell them while grabbing the milk and heading to check out.

When I go to pay Oscar taps his phone before I get a chance making me glare at him.

"Ooo! Your mom look is already perfected," Oscar teasingly says while grabbing the grocery bags and moving quickly away from Lily as she just flicked him.

"Gonna put you in the damn corner when we get home," I mumble while walking towards the car.

I go to climb into the drivers seat making Oscar quickly pull me out and walk around the car before placing me in the passenger seat and buckling me in.

"Really," I tell him while staring at him as he climbs into the drivers seat and passing Lily the keys to the Mclaren so she could drive home.

"I'll see you guys at home," Lily says while placing a kiss on Oscars cheek and walking to the other side to give me a quick kiss.

When we get home I quickly finish making dinner. As we are wrapping up eating I go to stand up when all the sudden I felt a rush of liquid between my thighs.

"Um..." I say softly but Oscar and Lily are already on the move after hearing the splashing hit the floor.

Oscar quickly comes in with towels throwing them on the ground quickly while Lily is already by the door with the hospital bags ready.

"I can already feel the contractions," I say softly gasping at the sudden shooting pain coursing through me.

"Okay, lets go," Oscar says quickly while pulling me to his side and walking us towards Lily who quickly takes my hand in hers and walks us towards the car.

I climb into the back seat while Oscar takes the drivers seat and Lily the middle seat next to me since the car seat is also in the back seat.

"I'm scared," I admit softly making Lily squeeze my hand and Oscar look at me through the review mirror.

"You're Gonna do amazing baby," Oscar tells me softly while I start my breathing exercises through my contractions.

When we get to the birthing center I picked Oscar quickly gets out and helps me out while one of my nurses comes out with a wheel chair and a bright smile.

"Are we ready to meet baby girl?" She asks softly while Oscar helps me out of the car and into the wheel chair. I nod my head softly while holding my stomach a bit tighter.

I knew I wanted an all natural birth so Oscar and Lily helped me research the best birthing center close to us and found one that is known for the smoothest all natural and water births.

It only took me an hour before I was itching to get into the tub. I knew I was only 6 centimeters dilated but I needed some kind of relief which quickly had Lily getting into her swimsuit and helping me into the tub.

I relax my back into Lily's chest while Oscar sits next to the edge of the tub. The nurses and doctor have come in every 30 minutes to check my vitals.

"Can I ask something?" A nurse we hadn't met before comes in.

I nodded softly.

"Are you a surrogate or?" She asks clearly confused but instead of laughing like I normally do I get angry. Between the pain and hormones the things that used to make me laugh only piss me off now.

"No! I'm dating both of them, now please leave," I snap but quickly lower my voice not wanting to upset Oscar or Lily for being too bitchy.

"So, I'm sure you are new, but we have made it extremely clear to the whole facitlity that we were a couple and Y/N was our girlfriend, so I'm gonna kindly ask you to grab a new nurse," Oscar tells the nurse making me smile softly.

"II'm really sorry, I've never- I'm gonna go get a new nurse," she says softly before turning around and leaving the room with her tail between her legs.

"I'm sorry if I sounded like a bitch," I say softly making Oscar shake his head.

"You could have screamed at her for all I cared. This is your birth, you deserve to be comfortable and if being asked about our relationship isn't making you comfortable then she doesn't need to be in here," Lily tells me softly pulling me into her arms a little closer.

The rest of the birth process was smooth. I stayed in the water as much as I could and when I finally started pushing they let both Oscar and Lily into the water with me. Oscar caught our daughter while Lily was able to cut the umbilical cord. I was glad they each got a part of being involved.

"You're gonna hate me, but I wanted to let you know that I called Lando to clean up the mess from your water breaking," Oscar tells me timidly while I hold our daughter in my arms.

"Oscar," I tell him flatly. I knew he waited until she was here in my arms before telling me because he knew I'd be too happy to stay mad.

"Look, I wanted her to come home to a clean house. Lando said it wasn't the worst thing in the world," Oscar tells me making me shake my head and laugh softly.

"I have no idea how you convinced him to do that. He doesn't even like fish," I shake my head laughing knowing both Lily and I have been called red flags because we are both pescatarian.

"I told him if we where in the same situation next season with him fighting for the WDC I'd do better about helping him," Oscar tells me making me shake my head.

"I'm more mad about that," I tell him making Lily laugh softly and take our daughter into her arms.

"I figured you would be," Oscar tells me while climbing into the little bed with me and placing a kiss on my forehead.

"You did amazing. I'm so proud of you," Oscar tells me making me smile softly.

Oscar's Instagram

Liked by landonorris, youruser, lilyzneimer, and 3,908,261 others

oscarpiastri So I'm a dad... This off season has been the best time of my life. I have never been more in love than watching Y/N give birth to our daughter and watching her and Lily become the best mum's in the world.

Charlotte Nicole Piastri I am forever thankful to have you as my daughter.

landonorris she's quite literally the cutest human around

nicolepiastri I would normally be offended that I'm not the best mum but watching Y/N and Lily with Lottie I can't help but agree

youruser Osc! I'm crying this is so sweet!

lilyzneimer Love you Oscar! Watching Y/N give birth gave me so much pride to call her mine.

mclaren I hope she loves her new wardrobe!

zakbrownceo I hope you bring her to the MTC again soon! I've never seen Lando so happy to be at work

landonorris catching strays

comments have been limited

[twstfanblog]

Because I gave my Yuu OC my birthday because I didn't want to sit and think one up for her, I'm gonna give you all a teaser of the 1000 follower fic about Yuu's birthday.

Yuu's birthday was an unspoken topic among the NRC populace. No one knew it, not even those who had considered themselves closer to Yuu than anyone else. Even their boyfriends weren’t aware of the date. Yuu had been on campus for so long, everyone just assumed they would let them know when their birthday was coming up so that they could properly celebrate.

At least they assumed, Yuu would…

It was during the VDC competition, Vil and Yuu had started to squabble as they always did. The 3rd-year scoffing and remarking he didn't need to hear anymore ‘advice’ from a 15-year-old delinquent.

To which Yuu promptly replied that they were sixteen (and for Vil to eat a dick).

The following silence was almost a physical pressure. One at a time the others seemed to understand why Vil had stopped speaking. They all knew Yuu was fifteen at the beginning of the school year, only for them in February to be sixteen.

Vil was the first to break the silence, his glare sharp yet holding a wild light to it, “When did you turn sixteen?”

“What are you, a cop?”

“Yuu-”

Kalim sniffled mildly, connecting the dots that Yuu's birthday had passed and they either didn't tell anyone or they had purposefully excluded everyone in the room, “Did…did you have a fun birthday party?”

“I didn't have one.”

Ace piped up, frowning heavily as he flicked Yuu's head, “Well maybe if you told us we'd been able to throw you a party, dumbass!”

Yuu rolled their eyes, flicking Ace back, “I didn't want a party; too much work for the pay off in my opinion.”

Deuce frowned, crossing his arms, “Well…when was It? So that we can make sure to wish you a happy birthday for the next one.”

“Oh, that's not necessary.”

…

The resulting ‘discussion’ ate up the rest of their practice time. The talk revealing that Yuu simply didn't care for their birthday, a number of failed and hijacked celebrations making them equate the practice with more trouble they are worth.

[sanskari-kanya]

Guess who got 30/30 on her finals’ viva 😭💃

It was the biggest adventure of my goddamn life.

The viva was scheduled at 3 pm today so I was pretty chill. I was like okay I’ll do the hardest ones till late night, grab some good sleep and wake up a little early to revise the rest.

But my university sent a mail at 10:30 pm, saying ✨surprise motherfuckers, the time is changed to 9:30 am, all the best insufferable freshers✨

Post this mail, I had made peace in accepting that I aint gonna get any sleep tonight and I had to revise 4 subjects till 8 am (minus 30 minutes to get my boogie ass ready because I will never enter the uni looking like crap and 30 more minutes to reach the university)

I started studying around 12 am because all we did was cuss the fuck out of the university and exam managers for a bloody 1.5 hours.

Considering my attention span, my study session lasted for approximately 15 minutes before I opened Pinterest and keep scrolling mindlessly until it was suddenly 2 am 🤩. Then I went for a mindless walk around the hostel, disturbed my bf for a good 15 minutes, and realised he wasn’t giving me any attention because he actually studies and uski fati padi thi so I came back in my room and re-started studying. It continued till 5 am (paired with stress eating, gossiping, watching a documentary)

THEN, I ACCIDENTALLY FELL ASLEEP AT 5 AM AND WOKE UP AT 8 AM!?!? I had to leave at 9 am so there was no bloody chance of revising Histology and Radiology that I very confidently left for the morning 🤗 I left the house at 9 and kept a ppt of histological slides open on my phone so I could at least revise SOMETHING.

If this drama was not enough, here is more :

Me and my friend had decided to pair up for the viva but some dude mishandled the list and jumbled the numbers and I had to beg my classmate to go with a random dude so me and bestie could go tgt.

As I was about to enter the viva room, a physical fight broke pit between two students and my examiner walked out to stop the fight and never returned.

I confidently wrong answered a sub question and made the doctor believe that I was right cus I answered everything else too. 10 in Anatomy ✅

Manually picked the harder examiner for Histology because bestie shat in anatomy so I wanted her to score in Histology with the easier examiner. My reactions to the first two questions- ✨ma’am I don’t know✨ and she was glaring me so bad I cannot explain y’all but then by god’s grace, she asked me more questions (redemption arc) that I answered but she gave me 7.5 so I was like okay, I did shit in the beginning so-

Next was physiology and if y’all weren’t aware of my bad reputation with the professor (George), well now you are 🤗 But then I again had a choice to choose my examiner and I chose my favourite teacher from last semester and George was like ✨why are you not sitting with me huh✨ in the most sarcastic tone ever like i would ever voluntarily chose you , kind sir.

End result, I scored full in physiology too which just proves that my physiology wasn’t a problem, George was the problem!

Last was Radiology. I was scared for my life since I slept and didn’t revise radiology AT ALL. But the examiner was impressed by my marks and gave me 2.5 🙂‍↕️

Now if that still wasn’t enough adventure for you, let me introduce you to my bad math skills. 7.5 in Histology + 2.5 in radiology makes 10 which meant I had scored 30/30 but my dumbass forgot math and thought I scored only 27.5 and went out a little sad.

Then a senior dude asked me how was it and I was like ‘Accha tha bas muje ek baat bata histology ke liye maximum kitna hota hai?’ And he was 7.5 and then it hit me ‘Oh bhaiii fir toh muje full mile hai’ 😭😭😭

I’m never forgetting this day. I narrated this entire thing to my mom twice, once to bf, a 30 min voice note to @hum-suffer and now on tumblr.

[to-the-stars8]

Vigilant Coffee

Batfamily and Reader Chapters AO3

15-Batburger

“God, I’m starving,” Steph said as she laid back on the rooftop ledge. “What’s open this late?”

Dick sighed as he pushed himself up to walk over to her. “Batburger might be, and I could go for some fries.”

Jason piped up. “Fries sounds good, not gonna lie.”

“Who’s buying?” Tim asked, jumping down from a rooftop nearby. 

Jason instantly touched his helmet where his nose would be, declaring himself not it. Stephanie was quick to follow, and soon after it was Tim who stated that he wouldn’t pay. Dick, disappointedly, said he would just cover the bill. 

“Fuck it, let’s do it,” Jason was already hopping off the rooftop. The rest followed, yelling in almost unison thanks to their eldest brother who was less than impressed with them. 

Batburger couldn’t compare to the golden arch shithole down the street as the fast-food restaurant stood there in all its blue neon-light glory. Between the greasy fries that tasted like fatty heaven and the burger that was more than often cooked to perfection, Batburger was the haven to all Gotham vigilantes. On the window, the open sign flickered in red light, letting everyone know that they were in want of money deep into the night. 

Tim was first to enter, declaring that he wanted a cheeseburger with a large fry along with a milkshake. The guy at the counter, who didn’t seem in the least phased by Red Robin standing in front of him, typed in the order. The others soon followed along with their orders and the cashier took them all with ease. It hadn’t been the first time the guy had been ambushed with orders by them, and he doubted it would be the last. 

“Hey, look who it is,” Jason said to the rest of them in a low voice. He nodded over to the booth on the far side of the restaurant to see you sitting there in the middle of shoving a cheeseburger in your mouth. 

You had noticed them when Nightwing cautiously called your name, and you nearly choked on your food. It took you a second to recover, trying to appear unbothered despite having a near-death experience. 

Nightwing strode over to you first, as confident as ever in his steps, before lazily laying himself against the side of the booth. He smiled as he said, “It’s weird to see you outside of the coffee shop.”

You were quick to respond with, “Looks like we both got lives outside the uniform.”

He laughed. “You here all by your lonesome?”

You nodded, poking at your fries as he then went on about how he was paying for everyone, trying to sound as dramatic as he could. It wasn’t until Spoiler was walking toward the two of you that he stopped talking. 

“He botherin’ you,” Red Hood asked as he handed Nightwing a milkshake. 

“No,” You said tiredly. It had been a long day, and, despite your affection for all of them, you rather not be reminded of work. “He was just telling me about his day.”

“Hm,” Was all Red Hood said before nodding his head at Nightwing, letting him know wordlessly that it was time to go. After some shared, and tired, goodbyes they finally left. You let out a sigh of relief because any longer and you would have gotten a little mean as a result of the sleep deprivation you had been suffering through. 

You wondered for a second what they did during the night, thinking of what life was like for them before quickly deciding that it would be too much to dwell on. After throwing away your trash, you started to tell the guy at the counter to have a good night. 

“Hey, hold on,” He said. Curious, you waited and watched as disappeared into the back only to appear with a bag of food and a note. “They told me to give you this before they left. On them, of course.”

Taking the bag, you looked at the note, smiling. 

Have a better day! We love you, barista friend!

Your bat-friends 

Staring down at the note you felt a bit guilty for thinking of them as nothing but an extension of work. They were people who had been good to you一No, they were friendly toward you. Treating you as if they had known you for years. Suddenly, you had forgotten the hard work day leaving the restaurant smiling.

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

Do you think it'd be possible to rehabilitate Marked Men? If so, how do you think it'd go?

You guys ask such good, interesting questions!

I've been thinking about this one for a bit. Summed up, my answer would be that you could probably rehabilitate them physically enough to remove them from The Divide without them dying, given enough time, but I think that mentally/psychologically they're pretty much gone, so the ethics of doing so are questionable at best.

With the Marked Men, it's established in Lonesome Road that these guys are basically existing in a sort of perpetual "living death" where they consistently have these major traumatic injuries that would otherwise kill them, but they're kept right on the verge of life and consciousness by the insane levels of radiation in The Divide/along the Long 15. They're literally being flayed alive by the high-speed sandy winds kicked up by the storms that plague the area, as in "skin sliced from muscle", and they're constantly getting into skirmishes and tearing strangers (as well as one another) limb-from-limb, which would only result in more injuries.

The root of the issue is that these ghouls are basically radiation-dependent, right? Other ghouls benefit from the presence of radiation (increased healing rate, overall better feeling, energizing effect), but Marked Men need high levels of radiation to even stay alive. Maybe if you slowly, and I mean over a matter of weeks or months, moved further and further down the Long 15 back towards Vegas, really taking your time, you could acclimate them to the lower levels of radiation as well as allow their wounds time to heal enough to no longer be fatal.

But what are the implications for you if you have to remain immersed in all those rads for that long? Who's to say you wouldn't begin to turn into a ghoul yourself? At the very least, you'd be incredibly sick and flying through Rad-X and Radaway at a genuinely concerning rate. And it's not like you can waltz up to one of them and say "Hey, buddy! You wanna come to Vegas with me?" or tell them "I have to leave the canyon for a few days or I'm gonna die from radiation poisoning. Stay here!". They're gonna fight you the whole time and be genuinely quite dangerous when they do it, and the second you turn your back, they'll flee or kill you because they feel instinctually that that's what's best for their self-preservation.

Even if you could get them to a point of medical stabilization, it would by no means be an end to their physical pain (which can literally send you into shock and kill you itself) or the fact that none of them seem to have control of their mental faculties anymore by the time you encounter them. Sure, they demonstrate some minor ability to coordinate themselves, but I see that as more of a "terrified animals desperately defending the fire that saves them all from the dark" than something that teases at more complex thought processes. They don't even use words. Even completely feral ghouls outside of The Divide will sometimes use individual words (granted, those words are things like "Pain!" or "Kill!", but even that conveys some level of ability to understand what they're perceiving and to communicate that; Marked Men don't even have that as far as I recall.)

My theory as to why they would not recover mentally is that, like with the rest of the body, there will simply eventually be pieces of you that can no longer regenerate/heal properly, and they will age and rot as they should, even if ghouls are basically incapable of dying from non-trauma. This would include the grey matter that makes up the brain, and once a certain percentage of it is gone, you will see irreparable changes to that person's demeanor, behavior, and reasoning skills. Marked Men and feral ghouls in general, in my opinion, basically have a form of severe dementia that only occurs in people who survive ghoulification/live longer than the natural human life span.

I think these poor people are tired beyond a level any of us could ever comprehend. I think they're victims of something that should have ended a long, long time ago, and I think all they really know now is fear and pain. In my personal opinion, it's best to quickly and compassionately relieve them of their suffering.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

This is such a wild season.

Omni-Man Vs. Bardock was a matchup people thought was gonna be balanced...at least more then Omni-Man Vs. Homelander, turns out it wasn't the case and its been one of the most controversal results so far.

Joker Vs. Giorno was a matchup everyone thought would result in all out war between the Persona and JJBA fandoms but yet when the results came out, both sides were more civil and chill then everyone expected. (Probably also helps that Persona 5 and Golden Wind have been out for ages now so a lot of the hype around them has died down.)

Bowser Vs. Eggman is the best argument that going indie doesn't mean a decrease in quality as its easily one of the best fights ever. Amazing all around and it manages to get better and better.

And now we have the most wtf matchup as we have Fall Guys vs. the Imposters. The game which had a flashpoint in during 2020 but then was ursuped by the other who stormed ahead.

No I don't know what's gonna happen next.

//Firstly, I actually didn’t mind Omni-Man Vs Bardock because I never had a problem with the scaling. Like, there WERE feats in there that didn’t make a lot of sense, sure, but I still thought the result was accurate. It is still my least favourite episode of 2024 though.

//Joker Vs Giorno’s fallout worried me not necessarily just because the Persona and JoJo fandoms are intense, but mostly because the fallout for the debut episode was pretty bad. For me personally, it was kind of like Gojo Vs Makima to me where the build up was so intense, and the episode itself ended up just being alright. I mean, it is I think within my top 15, but I had such high expectations for this matchup, and in the end, it was satisfactory.

//For Bowser Vs Eggman, I think I said this already, but I think MORO is either an alien or a god, because everything about the animation, as well as the rest of the episode, was spectacular. I think I can confidently say at this point, after rewatching it over the course of the last few days about 50 times, that it’s my favourite DB of all time. And no, that’s not because of recency bias, it’s because it’s just an absolute cinematic masterpiece.

//As for Fallmong Us…Among Guys? Regardless, while I’m not AGAINST this being a thing, because it’s really funny, AND I’m fond of both these games, truly, but my biggest problem is this isn’t a fight. It’s not ANYTHING. You get a packet of M&Ms and you took a packet of jellybeans you put them in the oven and you shake it, and that’s what this fight is. HOW in the HELL are these fucking loose brain cells supposed to kill each other?

//My legitimate prediction for this matchup is that it’ll be a stalemate, because the Fall Guys can’t kill, but they also can’t die.

//Genuinely though, the only prediction I’m going to make going forward is that Mahito Vs Shigaraki will be the 2025 debut. As for Among Guys fight, the hell if I know, lol.

-Mod

[kursedmayo]

Story time. I think Donnie would also hate most lipbalm. They're so fucking greasy on the lips and good lord, I would rather feel the pain of dry ass lips than have it plump and moisturized but feeling like I just put cooking oil on, so with the power of headcanon on my side I'm inflicting this annoyance to him too.

I bet he takes like an obscene amount of time researching on lip products before realizing that there's no guarantee that they'll help all too much because he's half-turtle, his skin is different than a human's, which eventually compels him to go on a sort of lip care pilgrimage trying out all sorts of lip balm, like a lot of them. A LOT of them. He jots down the results in a fun little spreadsheet before he manages to narrow down to one brand which happens to be from a smaller, more ethical company than the rest. Even if that brand was much more expensive than others, its not as if he didn't have money that he stole to spend on quality products, so he managed to put his cracked lip woes to rest.

Unfortunately for him however, his brothers keep stealing from him so he barely even get to use the stuff he buys.

Mikey's the biggest culprit of this of course, he's one hell of a yapster (/pos ofc I love Mikey) his lips dry out easily, and he doesn't usually carry a lip balm with him (because he forgets to/keep losing them/keep eating them) so sometimes he just swipes on those bad boys off Donnie's pouch and he doesn't even notice and well, its not as if Donnie wants to take it back anyways. Its already got his lil bro's cooties all over it.

Meanwhile, Leo mostly just steals for funsies. He doesn't even use the ones he steals from Donnie, He's got like, a whole stash of flavored lip balms because he's the face man, he doesn't want chapped lips it'll ruin his gorgeous face! Anyways he gets a whole different bunch in case he loses one (which he never does) and keep buying some until he amassed a whole ass collection (which Mikey also steals from, not that Leo minds). He doesn't need to steal Donnie's, but its REAL fun to figure out how to. He'd literally figure out a whole ass 8 step plan in his head and even learn new tricks with his portals because Donnie literally had to resort to locking his lip balms up in a multi-password protected vault, only to end up not even using the damn stolen things because like Donnie, ew his twin's cooties.

Donnie's extra offended because of that cuz like, at least use the damn thing like Mikey does you heathen he paid 15 dollars for a tube!!

Anyways, since Donnie's no pushover he schemed to get revenge on Leo and begun to steal his chapsticks too, much to Leo's (hypocrital) annoyance and amusement, so now there's an unspoken war that's happening in the Hamato household at the moment which they both refuse to back down on.

Meanwhile, Raph's at the corner just shaking his head in exhasperation. He doesn't really care much about lip balms in the first place because he didn't really use those, but Donnie got disturbed seeing him walking around with El Niño on his lips one winter and begrudgingly gave him one to use, which Raph does use but only sparingly so he doesn't run out, though it's not like he doesn't have money to buy his own cuz he does off jobs in the hidden city then and again. Also he kinda gave up trying to stop the disaster twins from fighting over lip balm because they're gonna keep doing it anyways, so he kinda just kinda tune them out when something inevitably explodes in Donnies lab and Leo comes out running holding a lil tube. Mikey gets let off the hook though, lil bro priveledges you know?

So yeah.

Even if there's a huge L in Leonardo there's still two Ls in Donatello. He's gonna be having PTSD flashbacks whenever someone mentions chapsticks near him for sure.

[zanyzendraws]

JULY 22 2024 ZENLOG: First Time's the Charm!

Hihi everyone! Welcome to my first ZenLog! Er, first official one! If the layout's a bit rough, apologies! We'll learn as we go along.

This one's a bit of a doozy so here's a neatly color coded table of contents! Depending on what you wanna read, please look for the following colors as you scroll! (Unless you wish to read the whole thing -- in that case, be my guest!)

CONTENTS OF THE ZENLOG

PERSONAL UPDATES

PROJECTS

WHAT TO EXPECT

BEFORE I GO...

With that being said, click "keep reading" to read all of this!

PERSONAL UPDATES

So, unfortunately, I got sick. It's really funny because I didn't feel anything at first, so I didn't think of it.

Turns out that compared to the rest of my family members, I had the most swollen throat out of all of them. I didn't feel anything for a couple of days, so I luckily managed to get some stuff done.

Unfortunately, the symptoms somehow worsened despite taking the antibiotics and mouthwash-gargle thingy. It's hard for me to speak, and I get tired hella easily. Which is inconvenient.

As a result, I've been cooking significantly less, RIP.

I mean, I've managed to cook. Just not as much as I wish I did.

On another note, here are some pics of food that I've been eating...

Salivate!

PROJECTS

There have been multiple projects I've been working on left and right due to my brain being unable to focus on just one. These will be blunt lists of what I've accomplished (accomplishments are in pink).

Hanashima's Advanced Class

Ongoing interviews with discord mutuals and contacts are being conducted to ensure the accuracy of certain scenes. I'm aiming for approx. 15 at least to be included alongside findings from online research. 2/15 have been completed).

Working on character sheets regarding character writing to ensure consistency in the work and I've finalized names for characters I've previously struggled in naming.

Working on bits and pieces of the actual document where the full story is being written. A scene for later down the line has been completed.

[Unnamed WIP Psychological Horror]

Concepts have been written down so I know what I visually want, alongside some sketches of character designs being completed.

I have a rough idea of what I want and the routes I wish to take but I still need to work on an outline- other than that, I have a list of all important characters. More will be added later down the line but they will be minor at best, irrelevant otherwise.

[WIP audio project]

Lists of characters have been completed.

Three characters excluding the main cast (who I plan to redesign) have been drawn in my sketchbook (uncolored but I have a rough idea of what the color selections will be in my noggin).

MISC.

A short comic strip has been completed.

Another comic strip has been in the works; the inking process is completed, though it is yet to be colored and shaded.

Lineart for an animation asset has been completed.

Songs have been compiled and edited for a music-based video.

WHAT TO EXPECT

More updates on said comic scripts and Hanashima's Advanced Class.

Upcoming animation involving a character I've previously shared on this blog.

Playlist video based off of characters I've previously posted about on my channel.

I really wish to focus on Hanashima's Advanced Class so I'll do my best to further buckle down and write, and hopefully I'll message some more of my discord mutuals for the needed interviews (as this interview is for one of the first scenes in the series). Expect a word or page count regarding the writing I've done for the series next time, if not a list of how many scenes or 'episodes' i've written.

I'm reluctant to post about the psychological horror project that's been on my mind admittedly. I don't wish to give too much away (and at the moment, I have no way of coding it... or any coding knowledge).

BEFORE I GO...

I'm gonna do my best to update weekly while I'm on this gap semester, and even once I start going back to college/university/wherever I get my education!

And I'll be fully honest: I hype up these projects from excitement but the reality is that me making them is hella slow despite my attempts to be efficient. So it'll probably be a while before I release anything.

But I hope you guys will have some fun in reading these ZenLogs and will stick along for the journey! If you're not interested, that's okay too! Just enjoy your time on the internet and come back soon!

Take care! <333

-ZanyZenDraws (Zen)

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2023: #15

15. SPAIN Blanca Paloma - "Eaea" 17th place

Decade Ranking: 42 / 116 [Above The Busker, below Circus Mircus]

A journey has finally come to an end. Like, idk, I have all the opinions and feelings and no idea how I'll express them. So let's pen them down and figure it out as we go?

So first, let's adress the pinned post: Yep, I was right about Blanca. I am also not particularly happy about it. I didn't just suspect Spain would come top three in the final going into the show, I was actively convinced it would happen and looked forward to it. The result we got aligned only with my first instincts so maybe the problem is allowing myself to be gaslit instead of confidently believing in my divining abilities? Or maybe the problem is just the Spanish Fandom, who can tell.

Secondly, as for why we got there, well: consider this little statement i made pre-show:

That has always been the crux of my opinion on Eaea. The problem was the song. It was never bad but always unvoteable. From the moment I first heard it for Benidorm reviews, all the way to five points, you just knew it was too out there to have mass appeal. When I then saw the staging at Benidorm, it confirmed my suspicions really. In order to get televotes, you need to stage literally, not laterally. Eaea was the Jezinky of Spain.

However, I always kinda sorta liked it overall anyway?

As we saw with Mae even if you have one big "drawback" (and it wasn't that Eaea was bad, it was just too pedantic to compete for televotes, something its obtuse fans failed to understand) but do the rest right, the net result is still a net positive. Foremost, Eaea was a visual treat that I loved to look at. Not just "more than i enjoyed hearing it", no backhanded compliments like that. It's just what it excelled at: Blanca was a performer of exceptional charm and talent, and employed her skills to their optimum. There's a reason why I thought Spain would win the jury vote going into rehearsals, and that's solely because I trusted Blanca's expertise would be enough to EAT.

And honestly, she at least... moderately gobbled? Like THIS:

and THIS:

and THIS:

Is all great? I never thought Eaea was the masterpiece (can we please STOP using that term for any offbeat Eurovision song we like PLEASE) others deemed it to be, it was a quirky little fusion of flamenco traditions with modernist staging, by a great singer who nailed the difficult vocals. For better or for worse, Blanca understood the assignment that Eurovision is foremost a Live Performance Contest and made an effort to be as good as possible.

So yeah, I did vote for Blanca on the night. Twice. Even if one felt like the song was too much Piece and not enough Song, she had earned a high spot up the scoreboard for her performance and determination, so I cast a vote for her in support of that cuz you know, nature is healing. Then I fatfingered a second one by accident, making me one of ten people in Belgium who voted for Spain, and the only one to vote for them more than once. AND YOU THOUGHT, I WAS A HATER, DIDN'T YOU?

Okay, so the results. Five points SEEMS really harsh but Käärijä really was a force of fatal attraction and natural devastation that we've only truly seen once before under normal circumstances, and anyone else should have been pleased to have had any scraps left after his cultural reset. Blanca was never gonna get much of that, we already went through why.

But what about Juries? Well, they flocked to Sweden and Italy like we all suspected they would, which is a boring outcome, but both Loreen and Marco nailed their lives so w/e fine. If I wanted the juries to reward Blanca for her grit, why be angry when they did the same for Sweden and Italy?

However, to once again beat a dead equine, that *other* one in the jury top three being there, and over Blanca specifically, has to be the worst jury decision since their re-implementation. Like worse than Fade to Black qualifying into three jury twelves. Worse than Baby Eats You scoring 82 points over Blackbird. The juries exist specifically to reward layered art like Eaea and quirky outsiders like Blanca and they erred. 10th in jury, what the shit? The argument that Eaea wasn't good enough a song doesn't hold up because Ewnicorn was the worst composition in the year.

So in the end, I am back where I started: at mild like. You'd expect me to feel smug, but honestly, I mostly just feel melancholic. Eaea truly was a unique Piece and its result made me realize that, should Eurovision revert back to full-televote which is what Österdahl seems to want (🙄), it's the Eaeas that will become extinct first*.

THE RANKING

you have NO idea how much anxiety "Veronika" is giving me rn. 😬

you also have NO idea how much i'd kill for an Eaea in 2024's Benifest.

[stokesy55]

anon who sent in the ask about wanting to have a discussion about the vk-jos debate here. thank you for answering that!

yeah, you're right it pretty much boils down into what you consider the definition of impact! to me there isn't really a standard definition, because so many external factors come into play, but what i usually do is take a certain player's innings out of the equation while keeping the rest of the stats the same and see what the scores look like after that. also what my broadcast often shows is stats like "x team won this many percent of times when y batter from their team scored a certain no. of runs or y bowler took a certain no. of wickets. and that stood out as very interesting to me, there's some water in that argument there.

which is why i rate vk so high, because more often than not, take vk's runs out of the equation and india 9 times out of 10 wouldn't have won that match. this final is the prime example of that, reddit dudebros were at vk's throat to up the ante, but imo he played exactly as the situation required. in that scenario, vk getting stuck in was the best bet for us to be able to win that match, and we did! imagine instead of scoring 76 off 59 he scored something like 50 off 20 or a 30 off 15. yes he scores at a higher rate, but then we end up with a 20-40 less runs to defend, which is a more difficult job, and dareisay a different result for us.

also I feel like the debate about take vk out of the equation and we lose might be influenced by team combination? this is absolutely not an insult to england or jos, in fact it's a compliment. jos has rarely been needed to be a one-man army for england, because his teammates have hardly ever left him in that situation. vk, on the other hand, has dragged the team to wins with almost no support, and that honestly reflects worse on the other players on our team. i promise you, rohit wasn't always the batsman you've seen in this world cup 🥴 back in 2014/16, he used to be veeery hit and miss, and very often the openers would depart on ducks, and leave vk with a job to do. and madlad actually did get it done most of the times.

that's why i often get annoyed when people call vk selfish or a stats merchant or a statpadder. like yes, he plays slow, but the others didn't really give him an option apart from conserving his wicket? if he too gets out searching for the big shot, who's gonna bat deep and take us home? also, not to mention that vk is probably the best pacer of an innings of the current generation; he's so ruthless at the death, and can find the boundary at will. mohali and melbourne was proof of that.

and again vk is so devastatingly consistent and reliable in t20s. it's like whenever i watch rohit, or surya or even jos play, i have no idea whether they are gonna score 0 or 20 or 30 or 50 or 100, but whenever vk is batting, 9 times out of 10, i can count on him to score at the very least a 20. the big-hitters aren't really as consistent as him. jos definitely is one of the more consistent hitters, as are gayle and guptill, but to me, personally, nobody comes close to vk's consistency in t20s.

i think for me, the consistency is what cements vk as the best T20 batter of this generation to me, because i can't recall anyone else who has sustained their form and their ability to come clutch when necessary the way vk has.

(side note: i hadn't thought about this until this debate came up, but thoughts on a vk/jos opening partnership? it would really work out in my opinion, they complement each other perfectly 😋)

Yeah agree with a lot of what you said, and to reiterate I’m not denying he’s one of the best white ball batters to have ever played the game. I would still say Jos is more impact than VK though, but that’s all down to what I believe is an impact player.

Like I said before, VK sits with Joe and Steve and Kane as the Big 4 for a reason, but to me they’re not impact players. As you’ve said, you want them staying in, batting deep, holding their end of the wicket, slowing the game when it needs to be slowed or speeding it up when it needs to go faster, having that match awareness and that confidence that they’re not going out even when they get set.

That’s just not an impact player to me, that’s a high order batsman or an incredibly good batsman. Impact players, as you said, are a bit more inconsistent with what they score because of the way they play. Jos gets a solid 80 odd against USA with an incredible destructive innings so much so we didn’t even really need a second player, but in other games playing the same way he goes for 10 or less. Ben is the same - if he gets his eye in he’s an absolute machine but he can just as easily score 10 as he can 110.

A Jos and VK opening pair… yeah I’d pay good money to see that 😮‍💨

[friendcorp]

FriendCorp Session 2! I swear I'm just gonna start making parody anime episode names for these because they deserve it.

We left off on Day 12 and I want to update you on all the nuggets we hired!

Your Control Department Employees:

Dia, Geminiano, Kanna, Rain, and Marx!

Your Information Department Employees:

Julian, Yuri, Tori, Archer, and Merry!

Your Safety Department Employees:

Reinhardt, Maki, Epsilon27, and Xavier! (We're waiting on Lunas)

and last but by no means least, your Training Department Employee:

Foosball!

With introductions out of the way let's get into the meat and potatoes of Session 2 shall we?

Day 12 starts like any other the only problem being that we currently have few people who can actually work with our Abnormalities. Most of our associates are level 1, so we go ahead and use some of those saved up lob points to boost some stats; finally with everyone more or less ready to go we're ready to properly start the day...

Side note: I refuse to bump Epsilon27's stats with lob points, I feel like they wouldn't want that being a clerk and all. I am becoming hopelessly attached to Epsilon27 because of this, so let's get into how day 12 actually goes:

We learn that Dia can work just fine with Funeral and the two seem to get along just fine! This is a huge development for us since it means SOMEONE can handle that fancy butterfly man. I also immediately start each day sending Epsilon27 to pick up the Heart of Aspiration which has earned them the title "Bearer of the Heart" in my notes (yes I have notes) I then send them to go read the flesh book to slightly boost their prudence stats; this allows them to survive working with abnos. Our Dawn Ordeal is Doubt and I have no Doubts about our employee's ability to handle this.

I group everyone into the Information Department main room and selectively send our rangers to handle the threat. That is until one of the robots get slightly too close to the department and...

We easily finish up by noon, but seeing the Red Noon again I was curious. I wanted to know if our employees could handle it yet...

The answer was a terrifying no. Not yet, but that's okay they survived much better than anticipated. The damage output just wasn't there yet.

We end the day and pick up Red Shoes (trust me it was the safest choice) and we're off to Day 13!

Day 13 is mostly uneventful though I do get a kick out of Geminiano having to deal with Old Lady's isolation and just remarking "Perhaps we could befriend the abnormalities?

Even when taking severe white damage Geminiano never lost faith in the mission. The rest of the day is genuinely uneventful we continue to work with the abnos and boost our nugget's stats, outside of Marx becoming our resident Red Shoes attendant and occasionally switching off with Rain when Marx clearly needs a break or when no one else is able to handle the meltdown; there's nothing too exciting for the rest of the day...

We do get to see a mechanical friendship forming between Marx and Rain here in which the two have possibly the highest stats aside from Dia being the first two hires to work alongside Dia. The result being that any time I need something handled they're the two who always get picked first to make sure it's safe, I like to believe they've bonded over essentially being the two who are called in when there's an emergency.

Day 14 is used like a training arc, I spend the day patiently training the Prudence and Fortitude stats of all our lower level staff until I know everyone can handle themselves against a Dawn ordeal. We grab yet another tool type abno, this time Behavior Adjustment!

But it was Day 15 where we see something that we haven't seen before in this Facility...

During the Dawn Ordeal Fragment of the Universe escapes! And who do I find at the scene other than a few familiar faces, of course it's members of the "We can befriend the abnormalities" movement with none other than Julian among them lol

Hey Information Department I know you want to befriend the Abnormalities and all but PLEASE DO NOT LET THEM OUT OF THEIR CONTAINMENT!

Not knowing how anyone would respond to such a threat I made the best call I could... If I could trust anyone to handle Fragment of the Universe I knew it would be the very individual who knew the Abnormality best

But this is FriendCorp, no way am I about to send Julian in there alone; I trust that Julian could handle it... but that's not how we do things here, so I called for a little backup

Was this sorta overkill? Absolutely.

The squad swept in with all the expertise and professionalism I expected. (Sorry for the poor gif quality the gif was huge for some reason so I had to compress it)

And of course we made sure all was well by sending Julian to do some quick attachment work after the fact,

It seems they're still friends, that's a relief

On Day 16 we open the Training Department, welcome Foosball to FriendCorp, and pick up All Around Helper!

and then something amazing happens, we're preparing for Green Dawn, I'm not too worried but I want anyone on the weaker end somewhere safe so I sent Epsilon27 off to work with One Sin my thought process here is that it will take them so long to get there that the threat will be eliminated by the time they even finish their work! I mean take a look

They trigger the Green Dawn when they enter the room and we're off to the races! I immediately send everyone to swarm the targets knowing full well everyone can hold their own, I'm no longer worried, I trust they can handle this without any fear.

But then, I fail to notice the Doubt lingering right outside Safety! Not to mention Epsilon27 JUST finished their work!

I'm too focused on the other threats to notice and then I see this happening, and my brain just goes... HEAVEN OR HELL! DUEL 1! LET'S ROCK! GET EM EPSILON27! GET EM!

Have a really bad edit (this is literally just "Cryptid Vision" of exactly how this looked to me) AND THE BEST PART IS, EPSILON27 KICKS ASS

Of course, when they got low on health I removed them from the threat, and just in time for some good friends to sweep in and lend a hand! Now that's the true power of friendship! Epsilon27 Protection Squad had this one covered.

I'm noticing a really weird graphical glitch happening regarding weapons and I don't know why but I think we can call it the power of friendship, in the gif above when Epsilon27 actually engages in combat they pull out One Sin's EGO weapon despite not being given it, you can even see that it still deals red damage despite being a white damage weapon? So it's still the Baton despite showing up as the One Sin EGO. Similarly we saw this happen regarding Fragment's weapon turning into Beauty's a bit earlier during an ordeal, despite us not even having that EGO weapon!?

I gotta say, I know this update is a little less content than the last, but I hope the excitement for the development of these silly nuggets is still there for you. Things are going to be ramping up as we face new challenges. I was only able to do about an hour this session since I'm actually busy today (my partner and I will be going out to an expo together as a valentines date) but I wanted to give you guys something since it's been a little while since we've had an actual update on the facility itself!

Since I still have some images I can post here, have some casual nugget socializing, I just noticed Geminiano missing some SP here (that's what we call social anxiety, it's okay friend!)

It's really cute to me to see who all pairs off when they have to go places. Everyone becoming friends, looking out for each other and forming their own little inner friend groups. I'll have to get you guys more casual gifs of the whole facility just hanging out.

As always here's how the facility is looking, I just got confirmation on Lunas so you can expect the additional hire for Safety soon! Let me know if there are any Abnormalities you'd like to see in the future, remember you get a lot of sway in how this facility goes!

-Cryptid

[sourlemonsz]

4th of July brance ficlet? More likely than you think🫡

Vance says he knows a spot, Bruce agrees to go with him. Bruce has been meaning to confess for well over a year now-but just hasn’t found the courage yet. Tonight feels like the night, his heart flutters in excitement, Vance picks him up in his beat up red pickup truck.

Bruce bounds down his stairs after hearing Vance honk for what feels like the millionth time, he’s breathless as he reaches his door and pulls on his teams baseball varsity jacket. Vance smiles as Bruce clambers into his truck, “Didn’t you hear me the first ten times?” Bruce elbows him with a smile, “Yeah, asshole.”

They talk on their way to the baseball field, where the town gathers every year to watch an hour long fireworks show. They’re the last ones to get there, by the time Vance backs into a grass patch outside of the field so they could have some privacy-and maybe because Vance somehow got himself banned from the field for an entire year.

Vance had outdone himself this year to Bruce’s surprise, in the bed of the truck he had a ton of blankets acting as the bed with a couple of pillows near the back of the bed. It was surprisingly comfy as he laid down and watched Vance as he grabbed the pack of beer and another blanket from inside the truck.

Now Bruce had a plan: first wait at least 30 minutes before confessing, then wait for an answer. Ok, he had to admit that wasn’t much of a plan but it was the best he had damnit. As soon as Vance sat next to him his heart hammered. Vance was cool as usual, talking about nothing and everything at the same time.

“When are these damn fireworks gonna start?” Vance said as he popped open a beer, they were still cold. Bruce guessed he stole them from his dad. “Don’t worry they always start quickly-” as he was explaining, a large firework bursted with brilliant green and purple lights, “See?” Bruce said rather smugly. He settled onto the pillows grabbing a beer and popped it open.

One swig later and he was coughing, “Aw! That tastes terrible!” Vance was laughing, “Yeah my old man isn’t really known for his taste.” He says as he also settled next to Bruce, albeit a little close. His shoulder was resting against Bruce’s. Another firework went off, a big and bright one with golden shimmers falling back down to the earth and the crowd in awe with loud claps and laughter.

Bruce sunk lower into the blanket and laid his head on Vance’s shoulder, sighing watching another one go up. Vance laid his own head on Bruce’s as they watched for a while drinking the terribly tasting beer down. About 15 minutes had passed and the smaller fireworks were out and the main show was to start, the real big and maybe illegal ones were getting set up.

Bruce practiced this a million times before, just tell him. What’s the worst that can happen? The worst he can say is no right? Vance lifted his head off of Bruce’s to grab another beer, “Want another?” Bruce made a sour face which made Vance laugh, Bruce wanted to hear that laugh forever. Vance got back to his spot and, now or never Bruce thought.

“Hey Vance- I like you a lot,” he regretted the words as soon as they came out but he trucked onwards, watching Vance’s face very carefully which yielded no results as he kept his face even while his own was on fire. “Like-a lot. I-” He got cut off with a kiss, Vance’s lips on his own, he froze but quickly melted into the kiss as they both eagerly responded to each other.

The bigger fireworks went off as they pulled apart, and the brilliant bright hues of the golden fireworks lit Vance’s face and most importantly his eyes. Bruce wanted to kiss again, “So you finally got all of my hints?” Vance asked breathlessly, “Hints?” Bruce blanched.

Vance looked at him with surprise written on his face before it morphed into a wide smile and a laugh, “Of course. I thought I was being a bit obvious.” Bruce’s cheeks warmed as he buried his head into Vance’s neck, “Oh my god.” He said in disbelief. Vance just laughed.

As the fireworks went off Vance lifted Bruce’s head now fully facing him, “Wanna go on a date?” Vance asked with a smirk. Bruce smiled back, “Aren’t we on one already?” Vance laughed once again, “Fine we can count this one as the first.” They returned back to their positions beforehand with just a bit more stolen kisses and tenderly holds.

IT WAS A BIT CORNY BUT IT WAS CUTE SO SHHHHH

[thecandywrites]

Monster March 2023 Day 15- Humanoid Bird- Rito/Kenku

Of course I couldn't help but use moura too. And of course I couldn't resist but go back to The Switch as well as Souja to help me with this particular prompt. And with the research I did on Ritos and Kenku's specifically, I couldn't help but sympathize that in a fantasy setting these would be very much marginalized species of beings.

Also, do you have ANY IDEA how many hours were spent manipulating those damn feather pictures? DO YOU?! Because apparently, metallic mauve/lilac feathers with a rose gold sheen/iredescence- without even a paisley/mandella pattern superimposed on it- is not apparently a thing that exists. Well now it does. On my phone. In my picture manipulation apps. Because I had to use TWO OF THEM to get those results. So enjoy this photoset. Please. I worked longer and harder on it than I did on the story itself. Because the imagry in my head as a wrote it was one thing. The task of finding and creating anything even remotely what was in my head? Damn near impossible. Because all my stories, are basically movies that my brain makes up for me to watch and I simply write it down as it plays out inbetween handfulls of buttered popcorn.

But I am a very visual person and I wanted everyone to at least get a glimpse of the visuals themselves to piece together what I see in my own head for this story and the rest you're just gonna have to use your own imagination. Good luck.

So thanks to @borealwrites for their Monster March 2023 prompts. I'm now 6 days behind. Great. But still had fun nonetheless. Enjoy.

Monster March Day 15- Humanoid Bird- Rito, Kenku

Hidden Potential 

“How’s it going there Whomper?” The barmaid, Violasciousia, who simply went by Viola, asked as Whomper came into Souja Inn and Tavern and took up an empty barstool right in front of her. It was the off-season so only the locals here in Fitsdale were currently in port right now and could come into the place without having to deal with the constant influx of travelers and tourists. So the place was pretty empty besides the locals. And the other barmaids were talking with the other patrons down the long bar that could hold dozens of barmaids, but in the offseason could get by with only a fraction of that and even the barmaids who didn’t have a patron were off socializing and running their own steins to various patrons throughout the tavern to at least get the added tip to do so themselves. But Viola was the only avian behind the bar tonight and was finding the regulars still thought of her as too new to really know her way back behind that bar. Which Viola found rather patronizing and downright, insulting. She had earned her place back here. And because of her wings, she could actually get to stuff the others had to use actual ladders to get to. But it still left Viola to simply perch herself on a stool and do some light cleaning as she did so, to pass the time. But the moment Whomper came through the door she was happy to hop down off the stool and smile brightly as the crest of feathers on top of her head stood as tall and high as they could. Catching the light and showing off her darker, more irrdescent feathers atop her pretty head. 

Viola was a moura and aarakocra hybrid. Her more aarakocra features were much prettier than most, and while her brothers looked practically full aarakocra, and even her other sisters did too. She was the only one who took more after her mother who was fuller human avian moura. Her very delicately curved little beak let her use most soft lipped beings cups. Her voice was still downright gorgeous and practically divine and her avian clicks and churs were practically melodic. Most females of either rito, kenku or aarakocra or any other anthropomorphic or humanoid avian bird species or subspecies and types, were dull just like their full avian brethren. 

But not her, nor her sisters or her mom. 

Viola was a prime example of what exceptional qualities could appear when moura interbred with the avian humanoids. She had these gorgeous rose gold color and sheening to her otherwise metallic mauve plumage. Whereas her other sisters were shades of plumb, purple and violet, whereas her brothers were much more indigo, royal blue, turquoise, green and red. 

But her coloring, for being “drab” comparatively, only accentuated her gold moura collar denoted by the pretty ring of pure gold feathers that grew around her neck. And her feathers had the most enchanting pattern. Almost like a paisley or a mandella in design among her plumage that showed on the feathers that showed on her form that wasn't covered in the prettiest clothes, even for a barmaid in a tavern. She looked like she could be there as a guest from any great house or gentry alike. And there was just something about her that made her seem like she was an exceptional jewel in an otherwise ordinary jewelry box.

Or so Whomper thought. 

Whomper and every other avian humanoid nearly swooned when she and her family moved to Souja Tavern and became part of the Souja Family, on part of Salgria Shipping and specifically The Contessina Order of said venture and enterprise. Now while Fitsdale was a pretty big place that saw most of the beings in the supersphere, with Salgria Shipping and especially The Contessina Order, the “fancier” folk were coming in droves, specifically to start their training and to help make Fitsdale’s skyports, both from the Salgria Shipping and especially The Contessina Order Skyports, stand out and really become the landmarks they were sure to be. 

Viola had many siblings, her mom looked pure angel because she liked to keep her wings out like her husband and her kids especially. And her dad was by far, the most handsome aarakocra any of them had ever seen in their lives. Since he too was an aarakocra moura hybrid himself, and while his looks were purely eagle, his coloring was damn near peacock in bright colors and only accentuated his gold collar that much more. Her dad, Kwarl, and her brothers were working in the Salgria Shipping Skyport and more specifically- The Contessina Order Skyports. And currently- specifically the crew accommodations so that those that worked at either skyport could live there, work there and help supply and service the ships that would be passing through there easily. But that couldn’t happen until the crew cabins were done first. And done right. And done so that a wide variety of peoples could eat, sleep, live and work there pretty seamlessly. 

Her Radiance Supreme Contessina Salgria herself- had hand picked Viola and her family to be the first to make sure avian species who could easily man and inspect the sails themselves as well as do quick mail deliveries as well as attend to other avian guests could be accommodated well and comfortably. 

Viola and “Tessa” as she liked to refer to Contessina as- had gotten along swimmingly. Tessa liked the fact that Viola wasn’t so eye-catching that she would and could be a distraction or have to deal with too many guests flirting with her and then giving her bad reviews when she would professionally decline their advances. And with Viola being a barmaid for the timebeing- that was coming to be an invaluable skill she was learning to hone. Tessa truly admired that Viola had a keen mind and keen senses and an eye for the details. And wasn't afraid to get in there and do the work herself and lead by example. 

And by now, Viola had especially good customer service skills. Tessa wanted Viola to manage the Avian Guest Department of the entire Contessina Order Skyport. It was going to be a very big job with very big and heavy responsibilities that Viola was learning to delegate. Viola, in the meantime, even being a "lowly" barmaid- was gaining invaluable experience in doing so. She was getting better at spotting good guests, and which ones could be trouble or which ones would be especially demanding and how to handle each one accordingly.

Unfortunately- Tessa had already hired Viola’s cousin who was in Dorierra to get the avian clients and handle the orders and finetune the Contessina Order ships to suit their unique needs. And Viola's cousin- Khlaqui, was giving all kinds of heads up to Viola on all manner of avian guests she would be dealing with in the future.

And while Khlaqui and the other moura/aarokocra hybrids in Khlaqui's friends and family circle were raking in commission sales, Viola felt like she was drowning in paperwork. Viola already needed to keep a separate large family room just to keep it all in and was needing to rent a second and possibly a third. Viola got boxes and crates full of paperwork by the day in the mail from Dorierra because Viola needed and liked physical paperwork and a physical "papertrail" so to speak because she had learned the hard way, sometimes data transfers via messengerari weren't as reliable as she would like.

In plain truth, Viola was downright overwhelmed. And Tessa urged Viola to find a Chief Filer and someone to help her in the moment so that it wouldn't build itself up to be a mountain that Viola felt she needed to scale all on her own on top of everything else.

But Viola didn’t want to use any of her sisters, who thought such work was “beneath them”. Since it was all “behind the scenes” work and not front and center where they would be seen and interact with any number of guests and potential mates who would be wealthy enough to elevate them from cook and maid or receptionist or whatever, to travel the world with them in style or many of her cousins or other friends with the same mindset. 

Which left Viola just plain frustrated. Because she had all this work, that Tessa was paying her a retainer salary for her to deal with. And while she didn't need the income from being a barmaid, she felt she still needed to gain the perspective and the experience of it. But other than to stack the damn crates of paperwork on top of each other to cram them all into the rooms until there was barely any room to move, let alone breathe in those rooms- there was little she could do right now.

But Viola also knew that she would need to choose and fill this position of Chief Filer- very carefully and give it to someone trustworthy and dependable. Who wouldn't think the work was beneath them, but be happy and grateful to have the work to do in the first place. And someone who could do it well without getting bored or feel ignored or feel unappreciated because they weren't in the spotlight but would be content knowing that they were key in helping Viola and the other managers run The Contessina Order Skyport well. Because Tessa was counting on her and the others she had already hired and stationed there to do so. And do so well. 

So ever since she came here, she had her eye on several potential candidates, only for them to prove with their behavior that they weren’t as trustworthy as she at first thought they could be or what she felt she needed them to be. 

All, except one. And he just came into the bar. And honestly, he was her last hope. And she could only hope tha this own past experience as well as her own, along with her own desperation wouldn't scare him off of it either. 

Plus of all the local avians, Whomper was one of the few that had proven that he was so much more than what he seemed and she could see the potential in him. And she had urged him to at least try to apply to work with her dad and her brothers at the skyport but the second he even got to the base, he was practically chased off because the others took one look at his kenku looks and assumed he was there to steal building supplies and "sell them back" later at a higher price. Which both infuriated and frustrated and humiliated them both. And by the time Viola heard of it, the damage was done and she couldn't talk her dad or her brothers into trusting her and her instincts enough to see past his own kenku heritage to see him as an individual and give him a chance to prove what kind of person she already knew him to be. And Kenku never approached those skyports again after that. 

So that simply left Viola and her sisters and her mom to work and wait while the skyports were being built. So to supplement their income, Viola and her sisters and her mother worked here at the tavern and were being trained to work the Contessina Order Skyport when it would be finished. But until it could be built, they figured they could still jumpstart their income and experience by working here and were happily welcomed into the fold so to speak and with Viola and her family being here, Souja Tavern now got more and more avian clientele. But usually only when her much prettier and brighter sisters were cooking and serving the food. Which left Viola to feel unseen and unappreciated by anyone except for Tessa. Despite her own gifts at making a damn good ale and an amazing lager and an astounding stout, all on her own. And while all of that spoke for itself. And while she raked in the sales of the steins for her ales. Most non avians were content to accept steins full of her ales from others they had already known for years and were more comfortable with. 

But Viola was determined to prove that the potential that Tessa saw in her was well founded and wanted to prove that such a hefty responsibility could be handled and handled well in her capable hands. Even when there wasn't much to do in the moment but accept the crates full of paperwork and have them stored away safely until they could be unloaded and filed away properly. 

Plus, Viola's sisters worked in the kitchens making some of the spiciest foods the kitchen could churn out because while most avians were fond of chilies because their tongues didn't really have that many spicy receptors- everyone else thought the spicy food was damn near addicitive and practically drugged because even as they were sweating and even crying while eating, they couldn't stop themselves from having and wanting more while washing it down with Viola's brews. 

All while their mother, Nautisia, worked specifically with the soap company to get a soap specifically to wash and preen feathers and the skin beneath them. As well as have a variety of cleansers and conditioners specifically for the avian guests and their many types of feathers. She used her own kids and husband as well as her own wings to test out which ones would work best before they could receive either the Salgria Shipping stamp or the very coveted Contessina Order stamp on the bars that Tessa had entrusted her with. 

Viola’s family was by far the most handsome avian humanoid family in all of Fitsdale. And they had come here by way of another moura colony that was pulled into the Contessina Order, both the ships and the sky ports. And word was that more were coming. And many were waiting to see if the others would be as pretty as Viola or her sisters or as handsome as her brothers before they made their move so to speak. 

But Whomper, no such waiting was necessary or even warrented. Once he saw Viola, he was instantly smitten and already head over talons crazy about her. He scrimped and saved to come in here on the days she worked as much as he could. And he was happy to come in and simply take up a seat at any part of the bar she was working from. And just listen to her talk. Talk about anything and everything she wanted to. And Viola really appreciated Whomper's patience in letting her vent and talk her own frustrations out. As they both much more in common than most might at first assume. 

But because he was kenku, he faced the reputation that he and his kind were particularly predatory, crafty and sneaky and if things went missing, it was usually found in their possession or if they were selling things, that they were stolen in the first place. Which Viola found completely unfair that an entire peoples would be judged like that, and not seen as the individuals they were and should be seen were. Because sure, there were some, she didn't trust as far as she could kick them. But Whomper was one of the few she felt she could trust and could depend on and had already proven what kind of person and what kind of man he was. 

Because aarakocra on the other hand, had the opposite reputation. Which was, to say, same as moura usually. Upright, honest, dependable, trustworthy and tight knit community. And many aarakocra had made colonies all over the world and even moura served as a bridge between the avians and the dragons which from the homeworld, had been mortal enemies. But Viola knew there were vast differences in culture and upbringing between "mountain moura" and "Dorierran moura" or even among the aarokocra. Some of who were the lonelest of lone drifters. And would be seen one moment and dissappear the next without a trace or care in the world. And it wasn't fair that aarakocra were given that kind of reputation when it wasn't well earned by the outliers. 

But that still didn't change the fact, that to Whomper especially, and in his own humble opinion- and the opinions of most of the others at Souja and Salgria Shipping and The Contessina Order- that Viola was just and fair. She was also very nice and sweet and practically had a heart of gold. She gave everyone a chance to prove what kind of person they were by their actions- before she ever thought of judging anyone, especially by looks or kind or whatever and Whomper wanted to prove that he was worthy of her attention and worthy of her grace and kindness. 

Besides having a wonderful personality, Viola had much more vibrant and beautiful features and plumage than Whomper had ever seen before in his life, even among the female peacock avian people. And it didn’t matter to Whomper if she was drab in comparison to her sisters. If anything, it helped her stand out that much more in his eyes. Because she was humble and unassuming and much more approachable and he felt the most at ease around her. Which Tessa always claimed was the most important parts that she admired about Viola and why she chose Viola to do what she hired her to do. 

Of course, it was most likely the moura heritage that gave her all her better than average looks and gifts. Including the fact that she had arms with fingers and wings that folded beautifully on her back and clawed feet that she usually put into special.sandals and shoes and even boots when she walked. 

But as much as Whomper wanted to dwell on that, she had asked him a question and he needed to answer her. 

“Good, got a good find today on shore, I was able to clean it up and sell it for a good price.” He answered as he offered her some of the coins in his possession to exchange for a stein of ale. 

“I'm happy to hear it and I'm happy you could do that and come in tonght and see me. Well tonight I have…” She began to list off all the ales and stouts and other spirits they had in his price range of the coins he offered as she picked them up and counted them to be sure they were right. 

“Ooh, that last one.” He decided when she chose to list off her own ales, stouts and lagers last when she listed them off. 

“Let me get that for you then.” She smiled as she then poured him a stein of it into a special stein Souja Tavern made just for their beaked clientele. She placed it before him before she got a small plate and put a few pieces of seasoned bread and a small dish of oil and spices and herbs to dip it in and handed it over to him with a wink. 

“On the house, I know how rare it is for you to find the good stuff on the beach.” She offered sweetly. 

“Thank you.” He offered gratefully. 

“Did you make enough for a full plate tonight?” She asked hopefully. 

“Not quite.” He admitted, but this would tide him over until she would work again, hopefully. 

“Well then let me get you a bit of something more substantial then. It’s not every day you get to come in here to celebrate a good find.” She offered before she left and came back with a small plate of food for him. He could tell she took one of the smaller appetizer plates but still piled it high with what she could manage to get on there in a few moments in the kitchens. 

“You’re too good to me.” Whomper admitted before he was slow to eat and really savored the food, despite his hunger. 

“Well, I think kenkus and ritos and all of the corvid avian types get a bad reputation. I know you try really hard to do what you can. So what did you get today?” She explained as she began washing the other dirty steins behind the counter. 

“It was a wine bottle, still had good wine in it.” He answered. 

“That is a good find. Most bottles you find on the beach have messages in them.” She nodded with a smile her petite parrot beak let her have as her eyes pinned, showing off those. Intensely gorgeously amethyst eyes. 

“Who’d you sell it to?” She asked. 

“A man who got thrown out of Glockies.” He answered. 

“Glockies is close to the coast, but you have to be pretty drunk and pretty disorderly to be kicked out of that place.” She appraised honestly. 

“He was happy I was there and had the wine and paid me what he could.” Whomper explained. 

“Uh-huh, I see. The right person at the right time. Perfect. I'm really happy you could find it and sell it for what you could.” She smiled proudly once she finished with washing and rinsing the steins and started to dry them. 

“So, I wanted to ask you, I know you do odd jobs here and there and try to get by here in Fitsdale. But, I was hoping you’d at least be willing to try to apply for…” Viola began to try to say before Whomper cut her off. 

“Viola, I know you mean well, but one look at me, and no one will hire or trust me with much of anything. Not without others watching over me constantly to make sure I don’t mess up stuff or to make sure other stuff doesn’t go missing or…” He tried to excuse because Viola had asked him to at least apply to work on the skyport and he did, and he got a hard ‘no’ when he did and he didn’t feel up to asking again, only to have another door slammed in his face for even trying. 

“But I would. I would hire you and I trust you. I talked with Tessa today. And she said that I get to hire who I find most suitable for any number of positions. And the work I want to hire you for, isn’t that hard. It’s just mundane and it’s repetitive as hell and most would go nuts with boredom but I know that- that kind of thing wouldn’t bother you. And that you’d be good at it. You know your alphabet and your numbers. The job I want to hire you for is to literally stand in a special room behind a wall- behind the front desk and hand and recieve files through a special slot in the wall itself. You would have to be in a uniform, and organize the guests’ and their paperwork and stuff and file it according to their name and country of origin. Tessa has already okayed it and gave me the power to fill and pay a variety of positions how I see fit. And with so many people from my colony coming all the way here and all of them already using their family ties to mine and their social standing at the colony to try to sweet talk me and are banking on all of that- for me to give them cushy jobs where they get to do so little work for a lot of money. And I hate it and I hate their presumptuousness. Which you don't have any of.": She explained as she leaned across the counter and dropped her voice so most wouldn't overhear her conversation with him. 

"I know, you go to the beach at sunrise, every day. You comb through every inch of that shoreline, every single day, rain or shine, or snow or sleet. Especially after storms. And you look through everything, just to find something valuable, just to find something shiny or something you can use to fix up other things just to sell to whoever you can to put food in your belly and keep a roof over your head and the clothes on your back. And I know that once you leave that door, you’re going to have to swallow your pride and go to the back where we have the soup kitchen for less fortunate in Fitsdale. Please. Take the job I am offering you.” She begged as she leaned across the bar and fixed him with those big gorgeous eyes and he was near tears that she would even ask or invite him to do such a thing. 

“But surely, someone else would be better at…” He sheepishly murmured. 

“Whomper. I don’t care if someone else would or could be better at it. I want to vouch for you and I’m willing to vouch for you to whoever I have to. To Tessa and Kragan if I have to. I have seen you give the valuable food that I know your own stomach hungers for- to the little ones who do the same thing you do at the beaches. I know you go without just trying to give others a leg up. I’ve seen you drop off more kids here at the orphanage than anyone else who works at the beach. You’ve never taken advantage of any of them. You’ve never hurt any of them. In fact, I know from when I've talked to them myself, that you’ve drawn any dangerous people away from them, just so that they could escape to here or to their homes safely. That says more to me about your character than your fathers or your beak or anything else about you ever could. You do have a great eye for details. And you use it both to look to see if you can find something good among garbage to see others the way they really are. And I see the same thing about you. Whomper you have all the skills and all the potential. All you need is the chance to prove it. Just like I was given the chance to prove what I’m capable of. Please Whomper, please don't turn this offer down, I need you for this and I trust you with this. And I have full faith that I can have full confidence in you to do it, and do it right.” She firmly insisted. 

“Of all the other avians in this entire city. When Tessa told me about all the positions she wants me to fill, you were the very first one I thought of for this. Most avians, especially the prettier they are, they all want the spotlight and they want to show off their fancy feathers and special talents and if anything, all of my sisters and all of my female cousins are hoping and praying some rich avian will sail through here and sweep them off their talons and they get to live such lavish lifestyles with them for no other reason than they're pretty, which they are so vain for thinking and assuming about themselves." She complained before she reached out and grabbed his hands with her own. 

"But you are content with little, while still taking pride in using what you have for your benefit and the benefit of others. You will literally just be in a room, filing paperwork away. There will be nothing for anyone to ever think or suspect that you would ever try to take. If children of all kinds trust you not to hurt them, and if I can trust you to tell me the truth. About anything and everything, then that’s all the trustworthiness you should ever need. And I trust you that even if you would accidentally make a mistake, that you would be honest about it and be quick to make it right. I’m not asking you to be perfect. I just want you to be competent. And if Tessa trusts me and my judgment, she’ll happily accept you as my choice as Chief Filer. We already know how we want the room and the files to go and be ordered and arranged. And Tessa already has a system she’s designing to put it all into place. The papers are being made as we speak, the filing cabinets are being built as we speak. The very stamps we would use, are already being carved and so far it’s all pretty basic and simple and easy to do and easy to follow and if I get any more crates, I’m gonna have to build and keep a whole storehouse for it all. It’s gonna be a damn library of filing cabinets is what it’s gonna be. All you have to do is follow the system and follow the protocols that will be spelled out in such fine detail that there would never be a question about what to do or how to do it. And for that work, you’d get paid very well. And because you’d be working for me, others would have no choice but to respect you and the job that you would do. There is no door for me to shut in your face. I am here, I will get on my knees on that stool back there if I have to. Whomper, come on. I believe in you, and I see and believe in your own potential and your ability to do the job and you’re my friend and I want you to have the job. I want to be with you, and work with you, and be close to you. And show how trustworthy and dependable you can be.” Viola insisted.

And for once, Whomper was speechless, as he just stared in awed amazement at her. 

“What would it take for you to say yes?” She asked before Whomper just pushed up on his elbows to bring his beak next to hers to make a kissing noise. 

And the whooping chur she made was both exciting yet exhilarating and she practically leapt up over the counter to the other side and almost tackled him to the ground but he managed to get off the barstool so they wouldn’t crash onto the floor and make themselves even more of a spectacle than they already were. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Se thanked him as she just hugged him and pressed her beak next to and all around her and made the kissing noise back as if she was pressing kisses all around his face that she could reach. 

“How could I ever say no to you?” Whomper asked rhetorically as he felt like the luckiest man in the world at the moment. 

“Well, get whatever you need or want from your place. Because when you come back, you’re gonna come back to me right here. And you’re gonna stay here and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the Souja family as well as mine. You’re gonna get your own room and you can eat as much as you want from the family dining room. I’ll even have dinner with you tonight, cause no one else will use me on that damn bar tonight.” She insisted before it was his turn to kiss her all over her face with his own beak before he left to do just that as she quickly quit the bar for the night, and got to work getting him a good room and a spot on the Souja Family roster. 

And when he came back, she was right there, with key in hand to a single room he’d have as well as a desk with it’s own messengerari and numbers to call Tessa and her network as well as all the other Chief Filer’s to make sure he learned and would know the job and the expectations. 

To his surprise and delight, Tessa was just as nice as Viola was. Granted she was human, but she didn’t look down on him or treat him with anything other than professional courtesy and kindness because Viola had already vouched for him. And with a few questions, including a few trick ones, which he surprisingly got right, he was accepted and welcomed into The Contessina Order. His wages were automatically sent to be paid out as well as orders for the uniform he would be wearing as well as a sign on bonus to get some good decent clothes to wear when he wasn’t in his uniform which Viola assured Tessa she would see to personally. Which Whomper was sure Viola enjoyed much more than he did. 

At first, he expected the weariness and reluctance from Viola’s family, but it was Viola’s mother who seemed to warm up to him the quickest. Then, slowly but surely, he was earning each person’s trust in her family as well as the Souja Family as a whole, and with the other kids vouching for him too, came much easier. And as soon as he could, he made Viola his mate and then they adopted any and every rito and kenku orphan there was at the Souja Orphanage. And with their combined income, it paid for them to live very comfortably as he was proving his own worthiness to everyone. Once he proved he was more than compitent, he was given more responsibilities and given another raise and given the chance to prove that he should be taken as an individual and not judged based on his kind both in public and private. Especially when Kragan had to agree that orcs often had a lot of the same bias and that if Tessa trusted Viola, and if Viola trusted Whomper, then that was good enough for anyone. 

And by the time more from Viola’s colony came to Fitsdale, particularly to the Souja Inn and Tavern to stay while their accommodations were being prepared for in the Salgria Shipping Skyport and especially The Contessina Order Skyport. With Whomper, simply going by ‘Mr. Womper Ompre’ per Viola’s insistence, he was welcomed rather warmly by the others. He found he carried himself better. He walked taller, took better care of himself and before he knew it, what he always thought were dull black feathers, soon glossed and even sheened subtle but pretty hues of greens and blues too and the fact that he was kenku was never an issue. And just as he was doing this for himself, and those he adopted, he was slowly but surely, getting more and more kenkus and ritos to get the same treatment. Especially the ones that he knew- were also fighting against a bias. And trying to prove that they were good people. And suddenly he wasn’t the only kenku or rito around, soon he was simply grouped in with the other aviaries as an equal, which was all he could have ever wanted and asked for. 

And when The Contessina Order Skyport had been built enough and the crew quarters completed, he was delighted when he and Viola got moved into one of the bigger and better rooms because of the very important positions they both held in The Contessina Order. And when the skyport’s reception area was built and got finished, he was thrilled to finally get those blessed filing cabinets, set up how they were supposed to be arranged and already getting files and boxes of special folders to populate them all. And while it was a lot of work. It was, by now, a tried and true system. And one he found he could easily and happily manage and keep clean, neat, orderly and organized. 

And he had never been more happy that Viola saw this much potential in him. All along and from the start. He was happy to keep proving her right and then going above and beyond every chance he could. So that Viola never once had any reason to doubt him or have second thoughts about her choice and decision to hire him and be with him and raise a family with him and stand by him and support him as much as he was happy to do the same.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #113 (Year 3/Week 9):

🍿

2 with both Anthony Hopkins And Vanessa Kirby:

🍿 The son, my second by French playwright Florian Zeller (after ’The Father’). A very slow and atmospheric family drama about not-intuitive father Hugh Jackman who can’t realize that his estranged 17 year old son is being crippled by an overwhelming cloud of depression. I liked the Hans Zimmer score. 5/10.

🍿 “... Good evening, Pussy...”

The Dresser by Richard Eyre is based on a British play and movie from the early 80′s. It tells of an aging Shakespearean actor who is playing ‘King Lear’ during the Blitz. Hopkins is the grand old master, and Ian McKellen is his loyal assistant. Grand acting all around in the old theatrical tradition, where each movement is busy and even small physical gestures are extended and emphasized. Majestic and mesmerizing - 9/10.

🍿

3 more with Bill Nighy:

🍿 Notes on a scandal (2006), another English film directed by Richard Eyre. Cate Blanchett is a pretty teacher who starts an affair with a 15-year-old pupil of her, and Judi Dench is an older school colleague who’s infatuated with her. It also features Bill Nighy, cute teenager Juno Temple, and Joanna Scanlon (From ‘After Love’). 6/10.

🍿 I recently saw Kurosawa’s classic ‘Ikiru’ again, in anticipation of the new British adaptation, Living. So now I can say, it was a serviceable retelling, but why was it necessary? 6/10.

🍿 Another mandatory re-watch of Hot Fuzz, the perfect buddy-cop comedy-action homage to everything from ‘A fistful of Dollars’ and ‘Chinatown’ to ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘The shining’.

The dialogue is one quotable line after another: ‘What's the matter, Danny? Never taken a shortcut before?’, ‘Feel free to spool through!’, ‘Ever fired your gun in the air and yelled, 'Aaaaaaah?', ‘No luck catching them killers then?’, ‘If we don't come down hard on these clowns, we are gonna be up to our balls in jugglers’, ‘Everybody and their mums are packing ’round here.’ The whole brilliant script is exquisite. 10/10.

Bonus: A reel of Bloopers and gags. Yarp.

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Life among the ruins: my first by ‘least-known’ black filmmaker Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep. A masterpiece of Italian Neo-realism in Watts, CA of the early 70′s, and the most blatant example of how industry snubbed and crushed Black film throughout the 20th Century.

This was Burnett’s no-budget student film thesis at the UCLA School of Film, and was practically ignored and unseen until recently. A profound slice of life poem of a poor community struggling to survive. Especially sad are the children playing in the street, jumping on roof tops.

The allegory of the ‘Sheep to the slaughterhouse’ (The main character, Sam, works at a meat factory) was a bit thick, but the tender dancing scene played on the background of Dinah Washington's ‘This Bitter Earth’ and the rest of the film was devastating. 8/10 poetry. I plan on watching Elvis Mitchell’s new film essay ‘Is That Black Enough for You?’ about The History of Black Cinema in the 1970′s next.

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2 new Belgians dramas about little girls:

🍿 The remarkable Playground, an extremely simple but brilliant story of schoolyard bullying. A shy 7-year-old girl witnesses her brother being abused as she is drawn into it with tragic results. Quiet, powerless and nearly mute, she has to go through small traumas that are too real and overwhelming. Told exclusively from a child’s (literal) point of view. Oscar-submitted debut feature from a young female director. And Again, the little girl was tremendous. 9/10. 

🍿 The Broken Circle Breakdown, a 2012 drama about a Belgian couple of Bluegrass musicians who can’t cope with the death of their 6-year-old daughter. The exact first half as they fall in love and their daughter is born and then gets sick is hard to watch. The second non-linear half is more of a melodrama.

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Late Spring, my 4th by Yasujirō Ozu, and my 2nd of the “Noriko trilogy”, about the life of single women in postwar Japan, in this case a woman who lives with her widowed father, and who doesn’t want to marry so as not to abandoned him. An understated poem, like a sound of a flute.

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Revisiting Roy Andersson:

🍿 Being a human being (2019) is a loving portrait of Roy Andersson, my favorite Swedish director, in the three long years as he was shooting his final movie. A slow and wistful journey of a unique iconoclast crafting meticulous Trompe-l'œils in his Stockholm studio. Vulnerability, insecurity and mortality are mixed with his alcoholism, his relationship to Goya, the perfection of his craft.

I’ve seen all his work, (except of Giliap!). It’s a pity he will probably not do more. The trailer. My favorite film of the week.

🍿 So I had to watch again his moving About Endlessness, the subject of the documentary above. A sad, absurd masterpiece composed of 31 small visual poems, a flawless gem of art. Every word I wrote about it last year still stands.

🍿 I also learnt about his 1987 “educational” short about AIDS Something Happened (Någonting har hänt), which caused controversy because it already featured the signature style that he used in his last 4 films. I can’t find a full copy of this 24 minutes film: Only clips: The Sex-ed class applying condoms, the Volunteers in prison and the Congress of Physicians.

Bonus, his Studio 24 YouTube Channel offers some of the many commercials he directed during his Wilderness Years.

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First watch: Richard Linklater hilarious classic School of Rock, which retained its freshness due exclusively to Jack Black’s irreplaceable commitment. Few comedies from that period stayed wholesome. Sarah Silverman plays the bitchy girlfriend. 7/10.

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2 more with Samantha Morton:

🍿 The Whale, my 2nd by Darren Aronofsky. Brendan Fraser will surely win this year’s Oscar for his portrayal of the morbidly-obese father who tries to connect with his estranged daughter before he expires. And he will 100% deserve it. The whole movie takes place in one living room, and there are only 5 characters, 4 of which are good. 9/10.

🍿 Sweet and lowdown, Woody Allen’s Django Reinhardt’s mockumentary with Sean Penn playing the fictional jazz guitarist Emmet Ray. The ‘Genius Artist’ as a misbehaving louse, who’s always excused because he produces such sublime ‘Artworks’ - the usual Woody Allen dilemma. And Samantha Morton was nominated for an Oscar, in spite of the fact that she does not utter a single word of dialogue in the film, as she plays a mute laundress. 3/10 for the story - 9/10 for the soundtrack.

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I decided to take a bite of the list of films with 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which I haven’t seen yet. The earliest one (1920) is the classic The Golem: How He Came into the World. A silent German expressionistic-style monster classic with distinctly medieval Jewish flair. Some interesting special effects and an ending with ‘a little girl meets the monster’ that was later copied in ‘Frankenstein’. (Photo Above).

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God’s angry man, Werner Herzog’s 1981 documentary about Gene Scott, the earliest of the televangelist grifters. What an amazing phenomena, how the religious scammers, charlatans and con-men took over the world! 7/10.

At the heart of the Herzog’s touch is him finding an outrageous topic and simply sticking a running camera in front of it.

Bonus: Robin Williams as Gene Scott.

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First re-watch in many years: Peter Weir’s thriller Witness. Well-executed, unhurried direction in a rare story set up among the Amish. The sub-plot of pretty widow Kelly McGillis looking for love with TWO males right after her husband was dead and buried seems out-dated. With a cameo by Viggo Mortensen in his first film role. 5/10.  

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Chelsea Handler: Revolution, her latest stand-up special with screeds about Covid, choosing to be childless, sex and pot. 3/10.

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Grand Canons, by Alain Biet. A Visual Symphony of Thousands of Everyday Objects, from flyswatters to light bulbs.

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(My complete movie list is here)

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15. At the end of the day, all I’m ever really gonna do is what I put my heart into. And while my heart and mind are filled with anger at the rest of the world I can’t focus on myself like I deserve to be able to. Some people only figure that out when it’s too late, some people don’t care. The power and intensity of things I put my heart and mind into is really something to behold. And when I don’t care, I don’t care at all. So anybody that wants anything from me should make sure to not do anything to signal to my my heart shouldn’t be in my work anymore. It’s happened recently, it’ll happen often, but usually, work is worth putting your heart and mind and body and soul into, because anything you put love into you’ll get good results out of. With myself, good results are infinitely possible. With people who treat others like servants: good results are not possible at all in any way that’s worth it and genuine. Again: I don’t get roped into things, into states of effort. It’s a conscious daily choosing to hold ideas in my head or to discard them and take up others. I know I am nothing to them, but I am everything to myself. If I ever want anything I’ll go get it for myself. If I ever have a problem I’ll fix it myself. There is nothing I can do about other people. I can only ever control myself. I can only ever parent myself. My life will never be fun or easy, but that’s what I’ve chosen for myself. I’ve seen fun and easy lives, and I don’t want that for myself, there’s enough of those around to get you sick of anything fun or easy. Here’s what it will be: a continual improvement, a lifetime of gathering cool things and information, a lifetime of giving and getting kindness, a lifetime where I only get stronger in the face of challenges which I conquer alone. Of being tall, and strong, and able/willing to help with a lot of problems others can’t/aren’t, and not owing anybody money, and having insurance, and having all my teeth, and having non-broken glasses, and knowing and trusting myself and fixing myself on a level few people who are scared/financially unable to be alone ever do. I don’t need easy and fun. I don’t want easy and fun. And anyone that demands my life be that way to stick around in it isn’t my type at all, truly. I’m never gonna sell my soul, and I’ll never be in a position to have to anyways. It’ll be a lifetime of being misunderstood at first. It’ll look like I’m cold and obsessed with money. And I will be cold and obsessed with money. But also, I’m powered by love and live based on a philosophy of kindness=strength and kindness/love=meaning. Right now, I have the gift of obvious problems. Soon, I’ll miss it, when people think I’m capable of way more than I am, or that I’m way more normal than I am. That’ll be a hard one to explain: “oh no, I’m not normal, I’m normal but in an abnormal way with abnormal methods of achieving at appearance of functionality.” That’ll sound like a normal thing to do. Fake it till you make it and all that normal stuff. Not: “I am basically insane and have imaginary parents and have so many issues that would horrify you, I’ve seen the worst things in the world with these same eyes and also the best things, I am very intense very large very androgynous and the least stable normal person you’ll be able to find around here by here. If my soul isn’t in every little thing I do I shut down. I live in silence as I have for many many years. (:”People…do not care. I could say all that and people would be unfazed. That’s their problem. They should be fazed, I am a walking possible large problem that doesn’t go away that they don’t want if I decide I don’t like them. I am very friendly. It will hurt when I shut any possible relationship down over and over for years. I will want it to hurt. People are really bothered by conflict that doesn’t get resolved in a way that I am not. I am a snapping turtle. You should be fazed, or have heard anything I just said, if I explain why I shouldn’t be asked to do normal woman things, and I’m being serious. You know who will always listen, though?