#been watching OP all year and he's predictably my favorite | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hokusu · 2 years ago

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tbh I wouldn't even say I'm "trying" to watch anything this season lmao I gave up trying to keep up a very long time ago. the only one I even remotely tried keeping up with was Spy x Family, but even that one I fell behind on after a few episodes despite how much I enjoy the series. I'll definitely catch up with that one once the season is done airing though.

yeah Christmas music is such an important part of the season for me but I have a pretty specific taste in that genre of music haha which I why I have a playlist. living in a place that gets lots of snow can be really nice because it's so pretty and it makes the Christmas season even better, but it can definitely be a huge hindrance too for sure. we hardly ever got significant snowfall back where I grew up, so white Christmases were never really a thing when I was a kid so it's been nice to have them as an adult~

I mean, I struggle to even watch the shorter stuff that's been on my to-watch list for YEARS so I honestly doubt One Piece will ever happen for me. xD but hey, who knows! I know plenty of people who absolutely love it, and my brother also enjoys it, so who knows what the future will bring haha.

as for faves regarding HQ!! and SNK, Hinata and Kageyama and my babies and I adore them with every fiber of my being, but I also really love Kuroo and Nishinoya, and Mikasa and Levi are my queen and king~ what about you?? we've talked a lot about BNHA but who are some other fave characters of yours?

and yeah I totally agree with you regarding Hawks, he deserves so much more love and appreciation. he's been through so much shit throughout his life and he tries SO HARD to do good however he can despite constantly being manipulated by the HPSC and forced to do things that he doesn't necessarily want to do. speaking of Endeavor though... what are your thoughts on him? 👀 I personally can't stand him and the fact that Hawks as a character is so linked to him throughout the story just... hrg;kahgrjabs I absolutely hate it and I do wish we had seen SOME sort of backlash after Dabi's broadcast, especially from Hawks himself, but nothing seems to have changed at all?? I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding that whole situation~

please don't ever apologize about being passionate about a character or anything!! you deserve to be as engrossed in a character or a story or whatever as you want, and I love it!! thank you for sharing your thoughts with me~❤️

~your animanga secret santa❤️

Hello Santa! It's almost Christmas, so going to wish you a early very merry one until reveal day!! 🥰

Aww I love spy x family too, its the perfect balance of heartwarming and funny. Really enjoy the whole forgers family, but even the other characters like Damien I just want to learn more about them!! Hope you'll enjoy when you catch up!

What's your fav music genre? That's so cool you get white christmas now! I'd like to spend one with that one day too. But omg I keep hearing about everyone at freezing temperatures for xmas this year but apparently where I'm at it's going to be quite warm this week. 😅 At least traveling is easy here ha ha.

Ahaha again, totally understandable about OP. There's a ton on my watch list that I'm still waiting for the "right mood" for and haven't started either. I wonder what your favorite animanga is? 👀

Oh hell yeah, all your HQ favs are my favs too!! lol. Hinata is a complete sunshine and literally deserves everything good in the world. I think he's so motivational and really makes you feel like you can do anything haha. And Kageyama was my love at first sight in HQ bcus I have a type and his misunderstood personality speaks to me alsjdkkdd lol. I also love his character development a lot. And Kuroo, his personality, his looks...he's perfect. I also predictably loved that Kuroo's VA in japanese is also Hawks'. ^^ And Nishinoya is just so damn cool and reliable, he's the best! Anyways I really love almost everyone in HQ tho, sports anime always makes me feel that way lol. Idk if you've seen Run with the Wind, but it reminds me a lot of HQ too, so I highly recommend. It's only one season and the main character is such a Kageyama clone too but the story is very satisfying. 💛

And for SNK, Levi and Eren have been my favs since 2013 lol. I love their tragic pasts bound by duty, the way they grew up how no one should've, their personality and need to be free, I love that they never give up and their dynamics with each other. SNK's plot of no clear cut black and white of villains, but watching Eren go from hero to antihero, was incredibly interesting. And at the end of the day, despite what he does is unforgiveably wrong...he just wanted to protect the people most important to him and its really an impossible choice. And Levi is one of the biggest badass so I liked him instantly. When you think super cool character, its easily him!! But you also learn his mistakes, his flaws, his emotions that crack through his inital cold exterior when he's anything but. And like that just makes me feel things, they're both very much human with the weight of too much on their shoulders despite the monsters they're described to be. So I have a very soft spot for them even though I don't paritucularly enjoy the fandom anymore (it turned too toxic). 😅

Besides the favs I mentioned on my last ask, hmm to expand on some of them, one of the reason I like Trafalgar Law from One Piece is because he reminds me a LOT of Levi tbh lolol 😉. The tragic past, the personality, the way he's so damn cool when he fights ...and they even have the same VA too. 😂

And to mention a few more favs,

FMAB - I loveeee Roy Mustang and Ed Elric most but also Greed/Ling.

MP 100 - Ughh I'm deep in feels since the anime just ended 🥲 but MOB is so precious.

TokRev - I loved Mikey and Draken almost instantly alsjdkd im very excited for s2. Also Baji?? 😭😭

Anyways!! OH MAN, my thoughts on Hawks and Endeavor..hahah. So I don't like Endeavor at all, but I also don't really think about him much and it doesn't bother me that Hawks is there and interacts with him in the plot because to me it speaks volumes about Hawks' character and not Endeavor. I know there's a lot of people mad that we don't see Hawks react negatively to the situation after Dabi's broadcast. But I also think people have to realize they're in the middle of literal war. Hawks, who has always been manipulated, conditioned and grew up in non conventional ways, who had probably never processed anything in his life—from his personal abuse from his parents and HSPC to what he had to do as a solider and probably a lot more if we look at Lady Nagants' hints, I think hes very good at ignoring his own feelings. He's the fastest hero literally also because I think he never takes a moment to stop, to breathe. He's always in fight for survival mode, he's always trying to do the next thing, to "be of use" (and I think after being told "what use are you" as a kid, he can't help but do this) and it shows. Even when we see him after the injures from Dabi, he's barely recovered but he's already up and about without his voice before, and now with prosthetic wings on a battlefield with the main villain. He'll really do anything including shoving his own feelings away if it means helping everyone else and he's just doing what he's always been taught to do—focus on the mission (AFO in this case). Given the war, of course he still helps Endeavor fight. But beyond that I think he says if he wants to change he'll help is because think about it -- Hawks own parents never did this. He never got answers, he never got any form of redemption from them, they never so much as apologized or recognized him in his entire life. So seeing Endeavor trying to do that? I think Hawks is very much projecting himself into Todorokis family, because he never had someone even try in his own family to reconcile on him. And he himself feels like *he's* the one that turned his back on his parents, when it was obviously the other way around. There's a lot of complicated layers and history that I think people have to understand about Hawks that makes him do what he does. I of course would LOVE to see him break down and react to everything that's ever happened to him and I hope they'll show it, but we'll see. I like mostly of where the plot is and I think there's still room for a lot of what's to come including Hawks changing/processing everything.

I feel like there will be a breaking point soon, where the "old" heroes and society will see how they've been wrong all along. It's not heroes vs. villains when a lot of the villains have been mistreated and discarded by society. I very much think the theme here is, changing and helping people like Toga, Dabi. Shigaraki who was not inherently evil the way AFO is. And that includes Hawks changing, consequences for Endeavor (I hope, after this basially apocalypse theyre fighting to end.) That's my thoughts anyways lol.

Thanks for reading Santa and can't wait to see you soon! 💛

#ask #animanga santa 2022 #💛#sorry for typos i typed this all on my phone alsjskdk #i hate that i cant add read more on a phone..

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oviids · 4 years ago

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pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.* - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul. slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes* - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

#if you told me i'd be doing this in 2020 three weeks ago i'd have laughed in your face :/#deancas #supernatural #fic recs #spn femslash #destiel #fic #the alie tag #spn posting

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bevioletskies · 3 years ago

Text

the first time (ever i saw your face)

summary: On their six-month anniversary, Apollo and Klavier decide to pose a seemingly harmless question: what did they think of each other when they first met? As it turns out, the topic is a little more complicated than they originally thought.

word count: 4.9k | read on ao3

a/n: For @klapollo-week, day one of seven (prompt: "firsts"). All seven of my fics take place in the same continuity! However, each can be read as a stand-alone, with the exception of day seven being a sequel to day five.

This fic takes place at some distant point in time after Spirit of Justice where Apollo and Trucy have learned that they’re siblings. Mild spoiler warning for the end of Apollo Justice; warning for brief mentions of alcohol. Fic title is from the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack.

“...why does this look like something out of a direct-to-streaming movie adaptation of a YA novel that has a three-star average rating on Goodreads?”

“If you’re trying to say you don’t like it, baby, you could just say so.”

“No, no, I - I’m actually kinda into it. It’s like we’ve walked onto the set of a staged proposal, though if you ask me to marry you right now, I will start laughing.”

Klavier sighed. “I’m starting to think the phrase ‘romance is dead’ was invented specifically for you.” Nevertheless, he tugged gently on Apollo’s hand. “Come on, liebe, I got our favorite snacks, I queued our favorite movies...and before you ask, nein, there is no engagement ring, so stop looking at me like that.”

“I’m not...totally opposed to getting married, you know,” Apollo added as he followed Klavier. “It’s just...it’s a little early for me. This is only our six-month anniversary, after all.”

“Fair enough,” Klavier hummed, the two of them settling down in their spots. He’d learned long ago that Apollo wasn’t one for flashy, photo op-worthy dates, that he preferred more intimate, low-key settings. And so, for their six-month anniversary, Klavier had taken them to his family estate. He had cleared out the conservatory overlooking the garden of all its furniture, filling it with blankets and pillows, drapes and string lights, and a projector whose screen covered the entire back wall. It reminded Apollo of what he himself had done for their three-month anniversary - because apparently, he was that kind of person now - when he’d planned a weekend’s stay in a cozy lakeside cabin. “A conversation for another time, ja?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Apollo draped one of the blankets over his and Klavier’s laps, then lowered his head to rest on Klavier’s shoulder. Smiling, Klavier turned to briefly kiss Apollo’s temples, then reached for his laptop so he could start the movie. They spent the first fifteen or so minutes in companionable silence, sharing a bag of popcorn and a bottle of wine while they watched, until Apollo eventually spoke again. “...weird, isn’t it?”

“The movie? Not particularly,” Klavier shrugged. “If anything, I’d say the plot twist is a bit predictable.”

“No, not the movie. I mean...this.” Apollo gestured aimlessly. “You and me. Us.”

Klavier’s expression darkened somewhat. “Are you...having doubts about our relationship, Apollo?”

“Wh - no, no, not at all!” Apollo protested, sitting up. “It’s just...I guess it’s mostly weird for me. Like, if someone told me, say, a couple years ago, that I was gonna be in a relationship with you, of all people...hell, can you imagine if someone told me that on the day we met? I-I wouldn’t believe it!”

“You weren’t shy about your distaste for me, true,” Klavier agreed, his slight frown relaxing into an amused smile.

“I don’t think that’s an...entirely accurate assessment of, uh, of how I felt,” Apollo said carefully.

Now it was Klavier’s turn to straighten up, looking at him curiously. “Really?” he asked. “Then what did you think of me when we first met?”

“You first,” Apollo retorted, seemingly on instinct. He then softened. “I mean, only if you want to. I’m kinda curious.”

“I don’t mind,” Klavier reassured him, setting down his wine glass so he could squeeze Apollo’s hand. He hesitated, thinking it over. “...I expected to hate you from the very beginning, to be perfectly honest. And, for a moment there...I did.”

Apollo’s eyes widened. “Wh...what?”

“‘Disgraced Defense Attorney Dismantled By His Disciple’, I believe the headline was,” Klavier continued. He then smiled wryly. “A bit dramatic, if you ask me. But then again, I’m not a big fan of alliteration, so I might just be biased.”

“Did you really hate me?” Apollo’s shout had dropped to a mere whisper. “Because...because you didn’t wanna believe it, did you? About…what had happened. What he’d done.”

“It wasn’t all bad memories, all the time, you know.” Klavier gently released Apollo’s hand so he could brush his hair out of his eyes, though he kept his head ducked low. “We had our moments, him and I. We weren’t close, but...we weren’t estranged, either. In fact, I...I first heard your name from him, not from the papers.”

“He told you about me.” It wasn’t a question. “I guess I should’ve suspected, but I never really knew what your relationship was like...before. I mean, he never once mentioned having a brother, so I kinda assumed…”

“As everyone does,” Klavier shrugged, far too casually for Apollo’s liking. “Anyway, your question was about you and me, not me and him, ja? He told me all the usual things people have to say about you - loud, eager to please, a little bit sensitive. I didn’t think much of it at the time, other than the fact you had a strange name.”

Apollo rolled his eyes, sinking back into the cushions. “Wonderful. Fantastic. Glad to know I made a great first impression.”

“And then when the headlines came along...and Mama and Papa called…” Klavier’s face darkened once more; he cleared his throat. “I looked you up. I hadn’t bothered when I first heard your name, but I had to know. Still, I...I found almost nothing. No photos, no social accounts...nichts. Just a single line on a college graduate roster and the same articles I’d been reading before.”

“...I see.” Apollo fiddled with the ends of his blanket, just so he would have something to do with his hands. “So, when we finally met in person…”

_____

The first thing Klavier noticed was Apollo’s eyes - large, round, expressive to a fault. The color of melted chocolate, though in the sunlight, more akin to the color of honey. Those eyes of Apollo’s, curious and maybe a little bit accusatory, narrowed right at him as he arrived at the entrance of People Park. He internally winced at the sight of Apollo’s companion, who was arguing with the police officer standing guard at the scene. Despite the time that had passed since he last saw her, he could never forget Trucy Enigmar-now-Wright.

Are you working for Phoenix Wright now? Klavier wanted to ask as he approached them. Why? Don’t you know what he’s done? Don’t you see what he’s become?

“I must say I'm used to being inspected by the ladies...but this is the first time I've felt this way with a man,” he said instead, leaning forward to smile somewhat condescendingly at them. Klavier was momentarily struck by how similar they were - how their hair was the exact same shade of brown, how the dusting of freckles across their identically shaped noses matched too perfectly, how their furrowed brows and perplexed frowns were one and the same. The only difference was their eyes, hers more the color of a stormy sea. Perhaps there’s a song lyric there? Klavier mused to himself. Ach, now is not the time.

“Mr...Gavin?” Apollo said disbelievingly, his eyes now widening. His arms, previously crossed tightly against his chest, fell to his sides. The motion caught Klavier’s eye, drawing his attention to the glint of the golden bracelet sitting on Apollo’s left wrist. He wondered if there was some sort of significance to it, what with the way Apollo clutched it tightly with his right hand.

“Ah, fräulein,” Klavier continued, his eyes flickering back upwards. He wondered if she knew him, if she recognized him at all. Clearly, Apollo had no idea who he was; he wasn’t sure how to feel about that just yet. “What is a sweet morsel like you doing in such a dismal place? Can I help?”

“Yes! The police man officer fellow here won't let us in!” Trucy complained, huffing. She brandished an envelope in Klavier’s face, nearly swatting him on the nose as she did. He flinched slightly, surprised by how brazen she was. “We even have a letter of request!”

Klavier’s smile softened into one that was a little more genuine. He couldn’t help but be instantly charmed by her. “You must be exhausted, standing out here. I will take you to the scene of the crime.”

“Ooh! Really?” Trucy exclaimed, brightening. Apollo looked skeptical in comparison, his intense gaze traversing the length of Klavier’s body. Usually, he would have preened at the attention, been flattered by the obvious interest and maybe made a show of looking back, but he knew that wasn’t what Apollo was looking for. I am not him, Klavier thought fiercely. I am not the one you trusted, the one who taught you everything you know. I could never -

“By your leave, officer,” Klavier said with a nod and a wink. He barely heard the officer’s affirmation over his own thoughts. Then, he turned back to Trucy and tilted his head towards the park. “Very well. This way, fräulein.”

Trucy’s giggle was sweet, melodic, as she happily followed him through the entrance. He made a show of lifting the police tape for her to duck under, which she seemed easily amused by. Apollo, meanwhile, was left standing on the street, staring at them incredulously, before he finally seemed to register what was happening. “Hey! What about me?!” he cried. His voice gets raspier the louder he gets, Klavier couldn’t help but observe. Interesting.

Once Apollo had caught up, Klavier turned to grin at them both, teeth clenched beneath his lips. Trucy was rocking back and forth on her heels, beaming back, while Apollo had braced his hands on his hips indignantly, like he had something he wanted to say and was just waiting for the opportune moment to say it. Ach, those eyes, those hands, those freckles, Klavier thought rather stupidly. Wait - you’re not supposed to think he’s cute, Klavier, hör auf!

“On that note, enjoy your investigation,” he remarked. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the flash of a white lab coat further into the park that told him he needed to leave if he didn’t want to be reprimanded - or worse, Snackoo-ed.

“Thank you! Will we see you again?” Trucy asked, hopeful.

Klavier hesitated. Apollo still hadn’t said a thing about the obvious elephant in the room, still staring at Klavier like he was a ghost. He wanted Apollo to say something, anything, to ask questions, to start the conversation that he himself admittedly didn’t want to take responsibility for. But Apollo was clearly stunned into silence, and any courage Klavier had had when he first walked up to them moments ago was long gone.

“Ask the wind, fräulein. I'll be riding on it,” he said, shooting them one last saccharine smile. He could hear the click-click of Ema’s shoes against the cobblestone as she approached. With that, he turned and left, his chest aching in confusion.

_____

The silence was heavy, heavier than Apollo expected. Klavier had turned the movie volume down long ago, leaving them with nothing but the sound of their own quiet breaths. “Makes sense,” Apollo finally said, shooting Klavier a sympathetic smile. “To you, I...I jumped ship from one corrupt defense attorney to another. At least, that’s what it seemed like at the time, right?”

“Part of me wanted to confront you right then and there, but I didn’t want to do it. Not in front of everyone, especially not in front of her. But the other part of me...I just wanted to learn more about you. To get to know you before I decided whether it was a battle worth fighting. Whether he was worth defending.” Klavier then smiled back; now it was his turn to drop his head onto Apollo’s shoulder. “Besides, you were cute, and I’m weak.”

“‘Were’, huh?” Apollo teased, nudging him. “Well, I’m glad Trucy’s presence, your curiosity, and my cuteness apparently deterred you enough to walk away. To think, what would you have done if you didn’t think I was cute - ”

“Achtung, you’re such an arschgeige sometimes,” Klavier groaned, laughing. “Anyway...I got my answer in court soon enough. I could trust you, and he...he wasn’t worth defending. Not one bit.”

“No, not at all,” Apollo agreed. “Still, I’m...I’m sorry, Klav. Not for what I did, I mean, I-I had to, but just...how it all played out. How messy things got. Whenever we, y’know, come here to see your parents, I still see that look in their eyes. It’s that face that you make when you think no one’s looking.” He swallowed. “Mr. Wright says Trucy does that, too. Less now that she’s got me and Mom, but…well.”

“It wasn’t you, Apollo, it was me. It all started with me believing he wouldn’t lie to me.” Klavier’s laughter was bitter now. “Anyway, I’m starting to think we’re all a little too observant for our own good. None of us can ever let things go, nein?”

“We’d be horrible lawyers if we could,” Apollo chuckled, rubbing Klavier’s arm reassuringly. “But fine, fine, I’ll stop psychoanalyzing you now. It’s my turn, anyway.”

“I want to hear this,” Klavier said, snuggling closer. “Lay it on me, baby. Tell me how you fell for me in two seconds flat.”

“I’m gonna lay into you in two seconds flat if you don’t let me talk,” Apollo said dryly, elbowing him again. “I, uh, I don’t think I remember it as clearly as you do, but…”

_____

“Excuse me, coming through.”

It was a voice, a smooth, musical voice, polite but firm, that caught Apollo’s attention first. He turned in its direction, confused by how familiar it felt, how similar it sounded to another voice he knew, but with a light, lilting cadence and a strangely affected accent whose origins he couldn’t quite place.

“Ah! It’s you! Mr. Gavin!”

Apollo’s eyes widened, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, then narrowed at the sight before him. Striding towards them with a swagger in his step was a man who, as far as Apollo could tell, was supposed to be behind bars. Only, his skin was a few shades darker, his hair a shade or two lighter, and he was wearing, for reasons Apollo couldn’t fathom, eyeliner and leather and chains instead of a neatly-pressed suit and wire-rimmed glasses. Who’s THIS guy? Apollo thought, his stomach turning.

“I must say I'm used to being inspected by the ladies...but this is the first time I've felt this way with a man,” the man said, leaning in close; his smile was a little wider than Apollo would have liked. Apollo also didn’t want to think about how pretty he was, how long his eyelashes were or how smooth his skin seemed to be. This can’t be him, Apollo decided, though he was still frozen in place. He could only vaguely feel Trucy’s fingers tugging gently on his shirt sleeve. No, it can’t be - it’s not - but who -

“Mr...Gavin?” Apollo said stupidly. He felt a phantom pinch on his left wrist; he released his arms from where they were crossed so he could rub the spot where it hurt, though the moment he touched it, he realized he hadn’t been in pain at all. The man’s eyes flickered down, following his fingers in curiosity, before moving back up to continue smiling beatifically at Trucy.

“Ah, fräulein,” he said; he was practically simpering now. “What is a sweet morsel like you doing in such a dismal place? Can I help?” Apollo barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes. Of course, he internally sighed, he’s one of those guys.

“Yes! The police man officer fellow here won't let us in!” Trucy whined, shoving the envelope in the man’s face. Apollo had to bite back a laugh at his startled expression, a contrast to his otherwise indifferent smile. “We even have a letter of request!”

“You must be exhausted, standing out here,” the man murmured sympathetically, eyes sparkling. He seemed intrigued, though Apollo couldn't blame him. He supposed he and Trucy looked like a completely mismatched pair. “I will take you to the scene of the crime.”

“Ooh! Really?” Trucy exclaimed, her entire face lighting up. Apollo tried not to smile himself; her energy was infectious. Then, the man’s words finally clicked in his mind. Wait - really?! But why would he - how can he - who is he?

“By your leave, officer,” the man ordered, winking. A pleasant shiver went down Apollo’s spine, one that he was trying his best to ignore. No good was going to come out of that train of thought, not when this man was clearly someone he needed to worry about - though in what way, he wasn’t sure yet. He seemed too generous, too open. Whether he was a police officer, a detective, or, god forbid, a prosecutor, Apollo didn’t trust him not to lead them astray, not one bit. “Very well. This way, fräulein.”

Before Apollo knew it, the man was walking away with Trucy in tow, leaving him behind. “Hey! What about me?!” he shouted, jogging after them. By the time he caught up, both of them were grinning at him amusedly, as if watching him trip over his own feet was some hysterical inside joke. Huffing, he braced his hands on his hips, ready to open his mouth and protest. The man’s gaze briefly travelled down to his hands once more. What’s that all about? Apollo wondered, confused. What’s he looking at? Is it my bracelet? It’s not that weird, is it? Wait, or can he tell that it’s -

“On that note, enjoy your investigation,” the man said, speaking a little quicker than he did before. He suddenly seemed distracted, like he couldn’t wait to get away from them.

“Thank you!” Trucy chirped, bouncing up and down on her toes. “Will we see you again?”

“Ask the wind, fräulein,” the man said, recovering. He seemed almost too focused on Trucy, like something about Apollo bothered him. Maybe he already knew who Apollo was, what Apollo had done. Was he angry? Resentful? Waiting for the right moment to strike? A shiver of a different kind tingled throughout Apollo’s body at the very thought; the phrase “kill them with kindness” was coming to mind. “I'll be riding on it.” He then left without another word, leaving Apollo to stare stupidly after him, his heartbeat in his throat.

“...who was that?” Apollo exclaimed, stunned, as if he wasn’t confused enough by everything else that was going on. His mind was racing with possibility, with anxiety that he really, really didn’t need. Before he could get into it, however, his jumbled thoughts were quickly cut off by Trucy’s surprised cry.

“Eek! Apollo, look - a c-corpse!”

_____

“...interesting,” Klavier said after a moment’s silence. “Did she really think the mannequin was a dead body?”

“Seriously, Klav?” Apollo groaned. “Surprised you didn’t fixate on the part where I thought you were pretty.”

“‘Were’?” Klavier echoed mockingly, grinning. His expression then sobered. “So...mixed feelings all around, it seems. I suppose it shouldn’t be all that shocking, though. We weren’t...total strangers, after all.”

“You practically were to me,” Apollo murmured, tangling his fingers in Klavier’s hair. Klavier leaned into his touch, his eyes fluttering closed in contentment. “At least you knew I existed, while I...he never…” He then shook his head. “Y’know, I-I’m not sure if I really wanna think about this anymore. Not if it makes us think about him.”

“It’s not one of our happiest memories, nein,” Klavier agreed, humming. “I like where we are now...where we can trust each other. There’s little I hate more than ambiguity. And not knowing how I was supposed to feel about you…”

“Sucks, right?” Apollo let out a hollow laugh. “But at least we were on the same page, in a, uh, weird way. I guess that’s always been our thing. Even when you’re driving me up the wall in court - which is all the time, so don’t even question me, I see that look on your face - we’re, y’know, generally working towards the same goal.”

Klavier’s fingers danced along the length of Apollo’s forearm, tapping out a rhythm that Apollo couldn’t quite pick out. “I’d like to think so. I was never really sure until...ach, well. You remember.”

_____

Apollo was still trembling as he exited the courtroom with Trucy by his side. She was putting on a brave face for them both, but he had a feeling that she was more torn up about what had happened than he was. He wanted to comfort her, to reassure her somehow after they’d learned the truth behind her biological father’s death, but for once, he was completely speechless.

“Polly?” Trucy’s voice was tentative. “I’m...kinda hungry.”

“I...oh.” Apollo looked at her curiously. Out of all the things he’d expected her to say, that hadn’t been one of them. “Do you wanna get something to eat? We could go to Eldoon’s if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” Trucy reassured him. Her face then lit up. “I was actually thinking about the courthouse café! We can get cake and drinks and stuff. A little sugar goes a long way!”

Apollo smiled softly. “Sure, Trucy. Whatever you’d like.”

And so, they found themselves a small table at the courthouse café - and maybe calling it that was rather generous on Trucy’s part - with two thick slices of Swiss rolls and tall glasses of milk tea. Admittedly, Apollo still felt numb, but Trucy’s running commentary of her thoughts on the trial kept him going. “Now all we need is for Vera to wake up,” Trucy said, gripping her fork with determination. “I’m still so worried about her! What if she doesn’t - ”

“We can’t think like that, okay?” Apollo said, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. “We gotta have hope. That’s all we can do, you know?”

“I guess,” Trucy murmured, chewing her bottom lip fretfully. She went quiet for a minute or so, poking at the last bits of her drink’s half-melted ice with her straw. “Hey, um...Daddy says he’s meeting up with a friend later today, and he wants to have dinner. And when he says ‘friend’, he usually means Mr. Edgeworth. You know, the prosecutor?”

“Yeah, I’ve definitely heard of him.” Apollo sat up a little straighter at the word ‘prosecutor’. In his stupor over the whole ordeal, he’d barely spared a thought for Klavier; he could only vaguely guess how he was doing. “What about him?”

“I was just wondering if, maybe, you’d wanna...join us?” Trucy suggested. He’d never seen her so hesitant before. “For dinner, I mean.”

“...oh.” Apollo paused. “No, uh - not today, sorry. I should really go home and sleep all of this - ” he gestured aimlessly “ - off. I feel like I need to sleep for, like, three days straight.”

“Sure, of course,” Trucy nodded, smiling faintly. “But….you’re still coming back to the agency, right? Maybe not tomorrow, but like...in a few days?”

“Yeah. Yeah, definitely,” Apollo promised, surprised by how quickly he’d responded. In all his hesitation, his doubts about law and what it was meant to be, what it could be, he was finally starting to feel like the Wright Anything Agency was where he belonged.

After they finished eating, he and Trucy parted ways after a long, much-needed hug on the courthouse steps. Apollo then went to fetch his bike from the rack adjacent to the courthouse parking lot, only to spot a familiar face lingering nearby, seemingly in no rush to leave.

“...Gavin?” Apollo said carefully.

Klavier turned sharply at the sound of Apollo’s voice. His smile was a touch too wide, his eyes suspiciously glossy. “Ah, Herr Forehead,” he greeted, ducking his head; his voice sounded trapped in his own throat. “Good show in there, as always. You never fail to impress.”

“Thanks. Hey, um - I’m surprised to see you’re still here,” Apollo commented, taking a few tentative steps closer. “Don’t you have somewhere...better to be?”

“Not really, nein.” Klavier let out a short, forced laugh. “I have paperwork to do, I’m sure. But it can wait.”

“...right.” Apollo cleared his throat awkwardly. “Thanks, by the way.”

Klavier blinked. “Entschuldigung? What for?”

“For agreeing to summon your brother, and...y’know, everything after that.” Apollo found himself oddly fascinated with a few stray pebbles on the ground, nudging them around with the toes of his loafers so he wouldn’t have to look at Klavier’s face. “Look, I-I’m not gonna pretend like I know what you, or Trucy, or Mr. Wright are going through. I’m mostly on the outside looking in, so. All I really know, if I know anything at all, is that, uh...we did the right thing. Yeah?”

“Ja.” When Apollo looked up, Klavier was also deliberately looking elsewhere, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular. He’d displayed a whirlwind of emotions back in the courtroom, but none of them were quite the same as the bitter expression he was wearing right now. “...Apollo?”

Now it was Apollo’s turn to do double-take. “Huh? Wh-what is it?”

“Danke schön. For...everything. I honestly don’t think I could’ve done...any of that on my own,” Klavier confessed, his voice thick with emotion. “And I think I...I think I’m going to take a little time away from the prosecutor’s office. Not for long, mind you. Just...I need some time off. A week, maybe two. Some distance, some perspective...it would make a world of difference, achtung.” He then turned to face Apollo directly for the first time since they started talking. He looked tired, defeated, even. His posture, his expression - Apollo felt as if he was seeing an entirely different person standing before him.

Without thinking, Apollo took the last few steps forward and closed the gap between them, wrapping his arms around Klavier and pulling him close. Klavier let out a startled noise; then, he hugged Apollo back, sinking his weight against Apollo’s, his forehead dropping to Apollo’s shoulder. His exhale was long, unsteady. “Take care of yourself, okay?” Apollo said, fingers digging into Klavier’s back, his face buried against Klavier’s bicep. “And if you ever wanna talk about it...I-I mean, I’m sure I’m not your first choice, but still. I’m, uh, I’m around.”

“Danke,” Klavier murmured, barely above a whisper. They stayed like that for a moment, maybe a moment too long, just holding each other in the middle of the courthouse parking lot for anyone and everyone to see. Klavier’s breath trembled against Apollo’s ear; Apollo half-expected his knees to give out from underneath him. Then, he slowly detached himself from Apollo’s grasp, carefully schooling his expression into something more Klavier-like, something brighter and blander, his teeth blindingly white in the mid-afternoon sun. “Anyway, I should really get going. That paperwork isn’t going to take care of itself, ja?”

“Oh, uh. Yeah, don’t I know it,” Apollo said, letting out another strained chuckle.

“Until next time, then,” Klavier said smoothly, winking. “Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Forehead.” He didn’t wait for Apollo’s send-off, instead turning and heading over to his motorcycle, humming and twirling his keychain expertly between his practiced fingers. Apollo watched him peel out of the parking lot, silently wondering if he’d said all he wanted - no, needed - to say.

_____

“Of course I remember.” Apollo held Klavier just a little bit tighter. “But, y’know, again - not our best moment. Not by a long shot.”

Klavier lifted his head from Apollo’s shoulder so he could kiss him briefly, gently. Apollo smiled against Klavier’s lips, cupping his jaw so he could bring him closer. “But I’d still say our first kiss is more of a memory worth reminiscing over. Wouldn’t you agree, liebe?”

“It was a little dramatic for my taste,” Apollo teased, pulling back so he could affectionately nudge his nose against Klavier’s cheek, his fingers lightly pressed into Klavier’s sides. “But you’re into that sort of thing, so I’ll give it a pass. Still, let’s just agree not to cry all over each other ever again, okay? It was honestly kinda gross. And wet. And not in a fun way.”

“You’re saying you won’t cry when I propose?” Klavier asked, pouting exaggeratedly. “Because ach, I know I will.”

“Who says you’re proposing?” Apollo retorted, grinning as he prodded Klavier in the chest. “What if I get there first? What if, while you’re getting down on one knee, I just whip a ring box out of my pocket - ”

“Then I really will lose my scheisse,” Klavier murmured, his lips ghosting across Apollo’s skin. “I’m going to hold you to it, baby.”

“Can’t guarantee it’ll happen, but I’m definitely gonna try,” Apollo said, turning his head to capture Klavier’s lips once more. The two of them exchanged slow, lazy kisses for a few minutes, fingers loosely tangled in each other’s hair. In the background, the movie continued on, long forgotten; not that it mattered, seeing as they’d watched it together many times before.

Eventually, Klavier carefully detangled himself from Apollo. He passed him his wine glass, still half-full, then reached for his own and lifted it above his head. “To making new memories, ja?”

“Are we really cheers-ing ourselves? That’s pretty self-serving, literally,” Apollo said dubiously, though he still raised his glass all the same, amused by Klavier’s dramatics. “But hell, why not? To new memories that don’t involve us crying, sneezing, yelling - ”

“You make us sound like absolute disasters, achtung,” Klavier protested, chuckling. “We’re not that bad, are we?”

Apollo took a sip of his drink, then leaned in close, so close that his nose brushed against Klavier’s, his wine-stained, kiss-bitten lips stretched into a fond grin. “Nah. I think we’re doing just fine.”

_____

a/n: Welcome to my first entry for Klapollo Week 2021! I've never participated in any fandom challenges/events before, so I'm super excited to see how this goes. My plan is a little overambitious, with all seven fics set in the same continuity, but in a different order. For example, this fic is actually the last, chronologically speaking, while day seven's fic is set in the middle. If you're wondering why they were crying during their first kiss, you'll have to wait until then 😉

Don't worry about any of that, though, you don't need to read the others to follow along! Day seven is technically a sequel to day five, but it can be read as a stand-alone, though I think it packs more punch if you read it after day five. They're also the longest; every other fic averages out to about four to five thousand words, whereas five and seven are over ten thousand words each. Brevity is the soul of wit? Not in my Google Docs, I am wordy as hell.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Likes and reblogs would be much appreciated. Hoping you're all safe and healthy and doing well ❤️

#KlapolloWeek2021 #klapollo #kyodoroki #klapollo fic #ace attorney #ace attorney fic #myfic #long post #i've made that dumb goodreads joke before lmao #anyway happy klapollo week y'all!!

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agl03 · 4 years ago

Text

Final Predictions: How did I do?

What I got will be in BOLD and if I feel I need to add notes they will be in italics. Might have to toss in a keep reading line because it is long.

Everyone’s favorite villains, Nathaniel, Kora, and SIBYL will all make it to the finale while Garrett will be killed or locked up by the end of the first hour (and it will use some of Fitz’s tech).

SIBYL will eventually get herself a new body.

Nathaniel will turn on Kora and try to take her powers and/or kill her.

Kora has already turned on him and he/we just don’t know it yet. Either betrays him and helps her sister or tries to kill him herself in revenge for her mother. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Daisy will be the one to end Nathaniel and it will be oh so satisfying giant fight scene….even if we have to wait until the second hour for it. Bonus points if Sousa get a hit in first too

Coulson, May, and Elena are able to get to space thanks to Coulson’s new computer Genius Super Power OR Garrett is ordered to bring them so they can lord their victory over them all.

Even though they have pretty much ended Shield and Hydra in the “hot mess” timeline SIBYL and Nathaniel set their sites on the OG Timeline and/or Fitz once they realize he has come into the mix and ruins their plans in the hot mess timeline.. As they are both aware he is the one who ends their little party.

The Chronicoms will not all be super thrilled with what SIBYL has been up too or her methods. This could be another thing that drives SIBYL into the OG Timeline.

The battle between SIBYL and Coulson seems to have gotten a bit more personal so my money is on Coulson being the one to take her down. Close second goes to May and Fitzsimmons.

Diana didn’t only block Memories of Fitz it took out the memories of people associated with him. IE she is not going to remember her friends or Deke.

Deke will earn her trust quickly and be an A+ overprotective grandson of his Nana as they are rescued and get back to the team.

The team will rescue Deke and Jemma, take out a few Chronicoms, and Independence Day their way out of there.

While it won’t be the romantic Philinda some fans want we will see some quality Philinda banter over the finale as it seems they’ve settled into a good place between the two. Coulson has also passed the torch of “team parent” onto her.

Philinda will not end as a couple.

At some point Sousa is really going to question what is going on and his life choices. AKA He looks around stunned at what is going on.

More quality Dousy flirting and banter….they will kiss again and I do see them being a couple when things end.

Fitzsimmons family feels just a lot of them over the whole finale. Iain and Elizabeth are going to murder us with feels. I mean Fitz with his little girl. I shall perish.

Despite not knowing everyone Jemma is going to be super insistent on building or activating a device (that has been stashed on the Zephyr) that she doesn’t know what it does but just knows she needs to build and activate it. She will be the only one who can activate it and possibly it will take something very personal of hers to turn it on. IE how she was hiding Fitz’s ring/necklace in Season 6 she might have the key hiding again. But lets all freak out that Jemma will literally be the key to getting Fitz.

We won’t see Fitz until near the end of 12 if he is not the cliffhanger.

That Bar place in the promo pics is either Keonig’s Bar or the Playground of the hot mess Timeline. Seems to be some sort of secret Shield Base or what is left of them after the big attack as there are some random Shield agents milling/wth/who are these people in the background. We know The Playground was off the books in the OG Timeline and would make sense it was also in the Hot mess.

Jemma will have her memory resorted relatively quickly after Fitz Kool Aid Man’s in all Star Lord from the portal thing Jemma activates. And it’ll be the freaking power of her love for Fitz/her Family that overloads her (Gimme my Framework fix here). Or Fitzsimmons have a fail safe password. BUT GIMME TRUE LOVE. Okay I’m calling this one close enough!

CUE THE SECRET CHILD REVEAL!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I will be screaming. The team will be stunned.

I’m sticking to my theory that they will give their daughter a “celestial” or astronomical name to pay off “One of these days we’ll find something magnificent out in space,” thing from Season 3 (especially if she was conceived on the way back from Kitson). Or a name that is very reflective of their Scottish/English roots.

Everyone needs to hold onto their hats because once Jemma has her memories back it will be because they are gonna want to get home to their Little Girl like yesterday and have one hell of a plan that involves saving the world and taking care of Nathaniel, SIBYL, and the Season 6 Finale attack on the Lighthouse.

This is likely where a ton of the Flashbacks come in.

Where has Fitz been? He’s been back in our OG Timeline. The finale confirmation for me came last week when Nathaniel revealed that SIBYL’s time stream couldn’t see him….or their daughter, and that thing sees EVERYTHING in the HOT MESS Timeline. This would also be why Jemma’s messages didn’t reach him, she couldn’t get them to cross into the OG Timeline and this was something she would have known but Diana blocked as part of hiding where Fitz was.

How has Fitz been watching the Chronicoms? Insert incredibly complicated timey whimy thing the writers came up with that me and my Marketing degree can not fathom so just go with it okay, via the using the Framework in the OG Timeline to get into the Chronicom’s system. Little pay back for what SIBYL has been doing in the Hot Mess Timeline. Him being connected to the Framework explains why he was so exposed. Because when someone is hooked up to that thing they can get their heads cut off and not know it.

Now reunited and having dropped the baby announcement Fitzsimmons will present the plan for the “Final Mission” the team must embark on to save the world….again.

And oh baby is it complicated.

Part of said plan will have them back at the Lighthouse during the Chronicom attack.

The dudes that showed up with Jemma at the Temple will be explained. IE I think its some of the team and they cleared out of the Zephyr before the time travel party got started. They also may have grabbed other hunks of the monoliths.

The fight will take place in both the Hot Mess and OG Timelines

We have not seen the last of the Monoliths. The fact we are jumping timelines and have Flint in the mix over in the OG timeline makes me think they are gonna need Mr. Swirly’s help in doing said jumping (Mr. Swirly is the Grey Monolith). Or they really go with the OG and its Harold (Black Space one) that allows for it. Kind of fitting the Monolith that tore Fitzsimmons apart is now the one that reunites them.

We will for sure see Enoch (via Flashback), Davis (please not by Flashback #davislivesagain), Piper and Flint as returning Favorites.

If they have Davis back to life I just gesture exhaustedly at the Monoliths again. Not even gonna try to explain it.

Small chance we run into the Hot Mess’s Timeline Enoch but he will have no relationship or connection to the team and will make me cry.

Top Picks for SURPRISE not on the Press Release faces to pop up if we get them: Ward (I mean really how have we not seen him again yet), Mace, Robbie, Bobbi, Hunter, Koenig (any of them) and Mike. REALLY WANT IT BUT WON”T GET IT! Dadcliffe But YOUNG VICTORIA HAND HECK YES!

Who was keeping Fitzsimmons Daughter safe:

Top Pick: Piper and Flint: Given Fitzsimmons would have run into them picking up the Zephyr and they could have been the “we had help” they talked about.

Second Place Because I Badly want him back: Uncle Enoch 2.0

Left Field Surprise Option: Huntingbird

LOLA RETURNS

We will get a lot of really fun callbacks to past stories or even lines IE “I’m just the Pilot” For May.

“What We Are Fighting For”: Family. The team family….and the Fitzsimmons family. Also they will have gone 13/13 in that someone will say the titles name at some point in the episode.

We will see old weapons and tech from previous seasons make one last appearance, we’ve seen 2 so far in promos and will see more.

Shotgun Axe gets a proper send off in battle (this one is for Kiddo 3)

Bear will deliver the most amazing soundtrack that we’ll never get to buy.

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (Sorry Couldn’t Resist)

Nathaniel: Dies, and we will all cheer.

SIBYL: Dies, and we will all cheer.

Garrett: Dies or locked up, won’t make it to the second hour.

Kora: Toss a coin. If she dies she killed for trying to take down Nathaniel. If in her betrayal of Nathaniel she helps Daisy get Jemma and Deke back that could be a good starting place for the sisters to work thing out. Starting place, she has a long way to go to get in good with Daisy and setting up an 11th hour redemption arc.

Mack: Still so nervous for him based on how he has been in interviews, especially the SDCC ones last year. He was so clearly upset by it. So Mack either falls or does something so out of character (Bails before the finale battle which just is not making sense to me Mack is in such a good place right now) for Mack that Henry was upset by it. Essentially I am very confused because what I am seeing on screen now isn’t matching with how Henry was talking as Mack has really come around since his Endgame stage. Henry really I have no idea why you were so upset!

Elena: Easily lives. If Mack doesn’t die, wherever he lands she’ll be with him. They’ve been a steady ship all season and I see no reason for them to break up outside of death. And while I have a mountain of concerns for Mack, I have none for Elena.. I also see her still being a presence within Shield, she’s become a good solid agent, and bonus points if she keeps Flint with her….and he gets all the tacos he wants.

Sousa: Totally lives (they might give us a good fake out though because he and Daisy are becoming a thing)I can still see him being Director of Shield if Mack falls or steps down. He’s a good Agent in a new time but he said he is right where he is supposed to be, at Daisy’s side. Where she goes he goes. IE he’s not letting her get away and will always be there after she runs into a wall. So if Daisy leaves Shield, so will he. If she stays so will he. If she opens a coffee bar he’ll learn to make an espresso.

Daisy: Totally Lives, but there will be something about her ending that some fans won’t like and some fans are going to love. Staying with Shield or no whatever she does will involve Inhumans be it the Secret Warriors are up and running again, she is mentoring and training new Inhumans coming into Shield, or my favorite option still is she reopens Afterlife. I’ve been feeling that option for most of the Season and feel like it was really set up with Jaiying as was Daisy looking out for her little sister should the chips fall the right way. The SS Dousy will be sailing right along. IF Kora survives I can see her being in Afterlife as well, Daisy taking her mother’s passion that Kora has a good heart to heart herself.

Deke: Okay this one is weird because I feel like we are going to lose him somehow, but he won’t die. I didn’t get the vibe from Jeff, Elizabeth, or Iain that he died and those three are pretty tight. However, in that I don’t think I’m going to get my Fitzsimmons Family all settling down in a giant castle in Scotland together. They set up for him to make a sacrifice, he’s grown, and has something he’s really truly fighting for. I have loved seeing how close he and Jemma have gotten and how fiercely he’s protected her and her secret. Even in the face of torture he didn’t betray her. It will come as no surprise if he doesn’t sacrifice himself somehow. Either in taking a hit for his family or doing something similar to what he did in Season 5 to make sure they got home. Bringing things full circle. He also expressed that he wouldn’t mind being stuck in the hot mess timeline in ‘83. He built himself a nice life there and Nathaniel did a pretty good job of taking out Hydra…with just a bit of Shield hanging on. So if it comes down to it I don’t see him minding if he gets stuck there. Sure him saying goodbye to Nana and Bobo is gonna hurt like Hades but if he ends up alive, I’m good.

Fitzsimmons: Both live, yes they will scare the crap out of us more than a few times especially after we know about the daughter, but they will live. Totally peace out, we’ve done our time, leaving Shield with the adorable daughter and its Perthshire or Bust. They’ve sacrificed enough and will not be willing to risk it again.

May: Lives and reminds us all that she is one hell of a pilot. If Mack decides he wants to step down, dies, whatever I’ll throw her back in contention for Director, especially as I see Sousa Following Daisy if she leaves. Coulson seemed to have set her on that path and at the very least passed the “Team Parent” torch onto her, that it would be her job to give the Coulson talks to those who needed it. If she’s not Director, she’ll be whomever is right hand, or I still have that option for the Academy being up and running and she’s running that, training the next generation.

Coulson: Lives.I know SHOCKING. I think he was very ready to throw in the towel after spending 20 months in the TV but then Enoch’s moving words in his death were what changed his mind about ‘powering down” when this is all over. Coulson realizes that yes, while it is hard to be the one to leave it is harder for the ones that are left behind but it’s also necessary that they move on, and live for those they have lost before. Like Sousa and Fitzsimmons, he’ll be another that they’ll fake out death a few times. I see him leaving Shield though, taking Lola and finally just going and seeing the world, watching the history he loves so much happen. We get to see him driving around or even off in Lola for the last time. Other options include he does something that will allow him to totally run with his new super computer super power. The final thing I can see him doing is being the coolest professor at the newly rebooted Academy.

#aos spoilers #I am very proud of this one

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thenameisel · 4 years ago

Text

Origin Stories Part Three: Stumble and Fall

"Thank you for sharing." Elliott said over coms. There was a pause. Then as if not wanting to accept that the story had ended, he continued. "Say. Did you find anything interesting at the Truck Stop?"

Boop chuckled and leaned forward in the cockpit. A black gloved hand tapped a weird figure on the dash. Something Pip had decided was a 'Bobble Head'. Shaped like a moose, it's comically oversized head bounced back and forth. When they had found it, all those years ago, the plastic’s color had faded and spring rusted away. With a little care it looked almost good as new. Turns out Boop was halfway decent with a paintbrush.

"I'll have to show you sometime. Old world figure. Think you'd like it."

"So, guess it's my turn?"

"Nah. Take a nap. I could use some quiet myself. We should be fresh for landing anyway."

"Thats fair." There was mild disappointment in Elliott's voice. "Poke me if anything comes up."

"Will do." Boop muted the channel, and reached back into the thick black fur lined hood, causing Pip to release an angry sounding series of beeps. "Stop that. I want to recline. I can't do that with you there!"

"Oh fine." Pip grumbled as he was removed from the hood, but the lights flowing across his eye was a slow content parade of color. He resettled in Boop's arms once the Hunter had leaned the seat back, and the two settled in for some nice reflective quiet.

---------------------

"Arrival in fifteen minutes."

Elliott jerked awake, the scraps of some dream involving Hive fading quickly from memory. He rubbed his face and shook his head, trying to remove the fog of sleep. Caush hovered steadily at his shoulder.

"Pip's chosen landing zone is an estimated twelve minutes, twenty second sparrow ride from the target. Should give us an element of surprise. I would have picked a location further out, to reduce the chances of the ships being spotted, but calculations show the distance is… adequate."

Caush was rambling again. Elliott squeezed his way out of the small cockpit and into the only slightly larger space behind the pilot’s seat. He had to stoop quite a bit.

"It's an industrial area, lots of cover. Target is holed up in a shipping warehouse. We unfortunately don't have recent info on the area, but I've prepared multiple calculations on the most likely scenarios."

Their ship wasn't appointed great for long trips away from the tower, but the two of them wouldn't trade it for the shiniest exotic. It was a junker Caush had discovered many years ago, long before finding Elliott. Keeping the ship's location secret the Ghost had waited till his Titan's first Dawning to reveal its location. Together the two had worked many long hours fixing it up. To them it was worth the world. It could seat four between the cockpit and a wide bench behind in a space not big enough to call a cabin. However, there was plenty of storage hidden in the walls and floor. And while the ship did boast some decent communications and recon equipment, it completely lacked any form of living luxuries. But they made do.

Fighting with a latch that probably should be replaced, Elliott opened one cabinet and stored his empty thermos, and retrieved a second one. He cracked it open, and smiled in relief at escaping steam. He always brought multiple.

"Pip passed on that Boop said to be ready for a fight. In a confined area." Caush sounded miffed. "As if I hadn't already considered that possibility. What do they think I am? Some kind of Battle Frame?"

"I'm sure it wasn't meant that way." Elliott opened another cabinet, this one was in much better shape. He started pulling out ammo packs, holding each one up for Caush to store in a flurry of sparks. "Now. What do you think we should take?"

Caush's solitary eye was a flurry of color as he ran calculations again. Potential threats, the target's location, all known data was sifted through till he was satisfied with the outcome.

"Take that absurd auto rifle of yours. The spread will be useful in close quarters. That new scout we found might come in handy, If we need the range. And, of course, the machine gun."

"Sounds good to me."

Elliott pulled the suggested gear from various cabinets, giving Caush the machine gun to hold on to. The scout went across his back, the auto he'd keep at the ready.

"Brace for landing." Caush said, and Elliott widened his stance. Not that he needed too, Caush was an impeccable pilot and there wasn't even the slightest bump as the ship was set down.

The two disembarked just in time to see Boop summoning a black sparrow that was as sleek and silent as the Hunter's jumpship. Elliott did the same, his own being in better shape then his ship, as it was quite a bit newer. It had been gifted to him by the first Guardian he had ever met. A Titan by the name of McKay.

Their Ghosts dematerialized and they took off In silence. Well, almost silence, as Caush gave regular updates to the both of them as they traveled. They had done countless ops together, they knew their roles.

As they got close to the location, Boop picked up speed, and Elliott slowed, letting the distance widen between them. He watched as his friend took a hard left and vanished down a side street. Elliott did not follow. He’d approach the obvious way. Draw attention to himself, while the Hunter snuck in to cause chaos from behind.

“Large building with blue trim. Up on the left.” Caush said, and while his voice was calm and steady, there was a slight hint of anticipation to it. “Adjusting calculations.”

“How close are your predictions so far?”

“Too soon to tell. Estimated thirty minutes of engagement remaining to make an accurate calculation. But 99.8 percent. Prior data suggested the building’s trim was green.”

Elliot laughed and shook his head, Caush loved his data. The Titan accepted the roles in their relationship. His Ghost did the thinking, he punched things.

Reaching the building Caush had pointed out, he cut the sparrow's engine and jumped off, letting it glide to a halt without him. He hit the ground running towards a gaping hole in the wall where an entrance might have once been. It looked suspiciously like something large had forced it's way in. He had to watch his footing as he went, for a series of evenly spaced potholes, like small impact craters, dotted the already heaved and cracked asphalt.

"Well, that's familiar eh?" He joked, not slowing his pace.

"Updating calculations. It was an unfortunate possibly."

"We'll handle it. Update Boop."

"Already done. Not answering me, but that's expected."

Suddenly he was through the gaping hole, sunblind in the dark interior. He ducked to the right, to put his back against a wall, auto rifle at the ready. Keeping the potholes in mind he threw his shoulder forward, forcing his Light into a glittering barricade in front of him. Elliott waited the breathless heartbeats as his eyes adjusted, listening expectantly for the sounds of wire rifles.

But nothing came. All was silent.

"Huh."

"This is quite outside my calculations. I'm not detecting any lifeforms."

"None?"

"Nothing."

"Ok then. Let's take a look around."

Elliott stepped forward through his barricade, auto rifle up. Still there was no movement. No sound.

The interior of the warehouse had been modified into Eliksni style housing, a true maze of ramshackle walls and fabric. Elliott slowly worked his way through twisting halls, noting the signs of a hasty exit. Debris of all sorts strewn about the alcoves. Articles of clothing, household items, technology scraps and things he couldn't name.

"Odd. Very much outside of expected parameters." Caush's observations were made from the safety of non material space. No way he would risk exposure in such an unknown situation. "Signs of quick vacation. Estimated time, three days ago."

Eventually Elliott came to a large open area that was roughly in the center of the building. Here the concrete floor gave way to wood and salvaged carpets, and a good chunk of the ceiling was gone, letting light in and illuminating the area. A central square? Gathering place?

Curious he stepped into the space, eyes sweeping left and right, looking for trouble. It was quiet.

Suddenly, something small pinged off his helmet. His auto rifle came up instinctively, looking for the source. A thumbnail sized pebble rolled to a stop in front of him.

Scanning the environment again quickly, something caught his eye. Up. A silhouette was outlined against the sky waving hands in an almost frantic chopping motion. Boop.

“Caush?” He started, but he didn't need his Ghost to tell him this had most likely been a trap. Boop wouldn't have let him walk blind into something unless… suddenly he remembered the radio silence.

The darkness to his left shifted. Then his right. Far to many sets of sickly yellow-green eyes started appearing all around him as the forms lumbered forward from the dark. Elliott glanced back the way he came and saw more. Totally surrounded. A slightly manic grin came to his face. Of all the enemies of humanity, Hive was his favorite to fight. Why they were here and not Eliksni, he didn’t know or care.

Caush started rambling away inside his head, listing positions and numbers, possible cover locations and anything else he thought might benefit the Titan. Elliott leveled his auto rifle at the largest group, and pulled the trigger.

PAFF.PAFF.PAFF. The auto rifle chuffed, kicking back violently in Elliott's hands. PAFF.PAFF.PAFF. With each firing four barrels went off in unison, creating an unavoidable hail of death not unlike a shotgun scatter, but with the reach and predictability of an auto rifle.

In the heartbeats between trigger pulls, he was dimly aware of the crack of Boop's sniper.

Hive Thralls fell in droves from bullets and Elliott's Arc covered fist. Knights slowed their charge to a standstill at his onslaught. But when an Ogre lumbered out of the shadows it was Elliott who gave ground. He did so willingly, needing the space. If he didn't thin the masses soon he would be overwhelmed. Out in the center of the open area his mind touched Caush's. No words were exchanged, just impressions. They were ready.

Elliott jumped, utilizing Light to gain extra height. His body exploded in a fury of Arc energy. Fists together, eyes blazing, he plummeted towards the Ogre, alight in a maelstrom of lightning.

One good slam should clear out enough to turn the tide.

Boop screamed his name, voice filled with panic.

As Elliott hit the ground and broke through the false wood floor he understood why.

It had been a trap after all.

#destiny #destiny 2 #fanfic #titan #hunter #hive #sorry not sorry #there will be more

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riskeith · 4 years ago

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omg hi. sorry i disappeared for a few days, been super busy with school. i missed you a lot. how have you been?

i haven’t had the need to eat any food since i got barbara and noelle on my team. if one of them can’t shield, the other comes in a clutch haha. *bows* thank you ladies for your service.

i’d pay hard earned money to see fanart with the boy scouts playing with guoba.. :( and YEAH. that would be so fitting? + it’s gonna be liyue themed which is super nice. do you know any predictions over which four stars will be in xiao’s banner? and who do /you/hope will be there?

last time i played three days ago unlocked dragonspine.. i even did albedo’s quest i can’t believe i defeat that evil place sjshdksk. meaning i got so some primogems and some intertwined fate. i’ve been itching to use some of the intertwined fates to get xiangling c rate up... should i?

october 20 is such a cute bday. you know how some dates just look nice? that’s one of them shskdhs. i want to say my birthday too but i feel like if anyone reads our messages they’ll know who i am... sorry. you’ll have to wait for that information until we privately talk some day. big promise. 🤍

ooh. you kind of wing it too, then! in some ways. if you’re not feeling it do you leave the fic for the day after or give up on it for a while? (so many question... shut up @ me) i’m the same as you! but i also write sometimes in the day time and i feel like that’s when i produce my best work. yesterday i was at a cafe studying and during a break i just started writing a fic and for some reason it just flowed so nicely? so yeah idk skdjdhsk. whenever it strikes i suppose.

i do borrow my books sadly. i kind of have to because i don’t have anymore place to put my books (we live in a small apartment) and books are kind of expensive :( i don’t mind borrowing though because i don’t really reread books unless they’re super special so it’s fine. do you buy yours? I HAVE READ LEGEND. i read it waaaay back in grade school haha, it’s been ages ago. i’ve never seen anyone say it’s their favorite but i can see why you feel that way. it’s kind of underrated in the community for sure.

dude fuck... chongyun and xingqiu live in my mind rent free. i kid you not i just can’t stop thinking about those boys... please send me all the fanart you find i’ll literally give you my life for that <3

i just listened to the g-idle song and AAA? wtf? i used to really like them while i was into kpop and this is so nostalgic to me. i haven’t listened to kpop in literally years shdkdhdk. this song is great thank you for sending it, do you like g-idle? <3

WAIT ARE YOU MAKING A SECOND ACC? I WAS LITERALLY CONSIDERING DOING ONE IN ASIA FOR YOU... shdjdhdjshsjsj our minds. and yes i’m in american server... oh god. our co-op date can happen? 🥺 but if it’s too much work for you i’ve seriously actually considered doing one in asia for me i’m totally fine with starting all over so.. 🥺

god i’ve missed talking to you so much. once again i’m sorry for not being here, but hopefully after tomorrow’s exam school will be a bit more chill and i’ll be yours again.

hope you’ve been well babe. mwah!

hi!! that’s alright ahah, i assumed that was the case. i’ve been well!! and then not so well bc we weren’t talking 🤪 needless to say i’ve missed you a lot too <333

omggg QUEENS!!! i don’t have any healers but i don’t eat food either... LMFAO unless it’s a boss fight i’ll just keep going until i’m done with whatever it is then go heal at a statue fsdhfkdjs

!!! brb just gonna go get good at art so i can draw that for u 😩 i don’t have any predictions myself, but i’ve seen people say it’ll be ningguang + beidou + barbara possibly?? but of course, i would hope that xingqiu was there <3333 he can appear twice in a row come on mhy <3333 just think about that <333 and omggg i’d wish if chongyun came as well.. i really want to get him to c6 (but he was only two banners ago?) hbu do you have any thoughts on the matter~

AHAHAH good job im proud of you 😤😤 show that nasty place who’s boss!! if you want to, I don’t see why not! it’ll get you closer to pity as well so by the time venti is near, hopefully it won’t take you much to get him! lmk how it goes!!!! manifesting c6 xiangling for you 🔥

fhskdf thank you... is it weird to say i agree? FHDSKFHSDKFKJ like. 20/10 or 10/20... nice even multiples of ten numbers.. AHAHAH. no need to apologise at all!! 🤍🤍🤍🤍 share whatever you’re comfortable with whenever you’re comfortable <33

hm it depends. (i just reaslised i said this exact phrasing last time too lmfao) i think i usually give up on it for a while? but sometimes i try to force myself through it too, just to get over that section so i can hopefully move on to a better one wait sorry i misread your question LOL. i usually leave it for the day as opposed to give up on it for a while! if i’m actively working on something i’d prefer to continue working at it slowly, even if the progress is just me opening the doc and then exiting after 5 mins fhdskj. are you the same? (NO!!! DO NOT SHUT UP @ YOU i never get to talk about writing processes pls im enjoying this a lot)

nice!! the vibes when writing during the day are sometimes better as well, bc it’s still light and stuff you’re not sitting in the dark or with a light on.. lol. it’s more ~natural~ & omg legendary... i love that for you!! on that note, do you usually study at school/cafes/libraries? i pretty much can only study at home, i hate doing it anywhere else.

ahh that’s fair :( and yeah i agree books can get so expensive? like the authors def deserve to be compensated for all their hard work but damn lmao. oh that’s a good point! i do buy books yeah, and i don’t even necessarily reread them i just like having them on the shelf fhdskfd (there are many i haven’t even read for the first time... oops.) what ages do grade school cover? sorry i have no idea what that means fhsjfkshsdkjs the different names for education levels will never not confuse me. !! yeah i really wish legend was more popular aaaaa

here are some recent arts i’ve bookmarked!! (rip i should find one more so every word is linked but cbs hfskdhfs) i’m also considering making a genshin twitter! idk why i’m so averse to following these amazing accs on my normal account lmaoo but i’m also thinking of posting pics from the 52485 photoshoots i do with chongyun..

oh nice!!! i’m really happy you liked it 🥰🥰🥰 and yeah i do like g-idle but i don’t stan them! that’s me with most groups tbh fshkfjsd but i do watch most of their MVs when they first come out~

FSHFKJSDHFKSD wait what if.. this but it’s us surprising each other in the other’s servers <33 and if i’m telling you the truth... i kinda despise the idea of playing in am*rica server FHSDKJFHSDKFHSDKKDSHFKSDHKKJ but we could compromise and both start again in europe?? ahah let me know what you think! if you’re happy to just do one in asia tho that’s fine as well~

me too!! and no worries for real, school comes first!! (even if it fkn sucks... @ school i hate you. i say, when i’m still on holidays FHDSKJFJS) aaaa good luck on your exam!!! i hope you smash it 💪💪

also um “and i’ll be yours again”??!?!?!?!? be still my beating heart 😩😩😩😩 i shall be waiting for you wifey hehe

hope you’ve been taking care of yourself!! kisses, c.r.

#marriage anon #wowclunaanswers #long post

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fictionfromgames · 4 years ago

Text

Project OUROBOROS (Halo Mythic setting)

April 3rd, 2560, UNSC West at Dusk, Pathfinder fleet

Dr. Virtanen stood at the console, watching the latest readouts. No degradation of the neural pathways, or at least, nothing that couldn’t be repaired. A derivative of 87556-UD61 would probably be what they needed to jump the hurdles of flash-cloned brains, but as it was, extra work and months of patience were needed to keep things intact. Doors opening interrupted her thoughts. “I still say fours are the way to go.”

“You know the resources involved,” Emilia sighed, “You know we need Spartans who can do what’s necessary even outside the armor. And you know the tension between UNSC grunts and ONI, even if you call yourself Spartan Ops now. Do you want a supersoldier mutiny?” “Yeah, I know, doc,” the Spartan woman had her arms crossed, “And secrets tend to get out, especially in confined spaces. Do you think the threes will take it personally if they find out they’re fake?” Lauren Lucas, Spartan IV, loomed at least a foot higher. Her hair was longer than most of the other Spartans, but that probably had to do with her never having been a marine.

“Their conditioning ought to make them ambivalent, although maybe a little confused by it,” she replied, “But given the memories we scripted, they’re Spartans. Old style. Don’t know if you met any, but they’ll be the most task oriented soldiers you’ll have ever worked with.” “That’s not necessarily good,” Lucas stuck her chin out at the cloning tank, “Spartan twos, the ones that still exist, are said to develop sociopathic tendencies. And Gamma Company didn’t do much to dissuade people of that. Might do to make them a little more personable.” “So they’ll be like you?” Virtanen quirked a brow. “So they’ll be predictable, or at least a little more human,” the Spartan replied. “That’s not what made them legends, Lauren,” Emilia shook her head, “You know about S-117.” “Yeah, I know how literally nothing has stopped him yet, and the only reason that’s good is because he’s been on our side!” Lauren snapped, “He has a kill count in the millions due to the scope and sheer insanity of his career! Please tell me they have personalities, like, I don’t know, favorite foods, a fondness for a particular musical genre, anything.” “They have histories,” Emilia said defensively, “The original threes were all recruited, not abducted. They had early childhoods and faced the losses of their families. We’ve used psych specs and personal elements of extant Spartan threes to weave together their new fictions, don’t worry so much.” Lauren walked over to the cloning tank. The woman inside would end up taller than her, but she looked young. “Who is she?” “Spartan D013.” “Not what I asked.” “Gia Hughes,” the doctor sighed, “One donor from the Umaasa and one from cold storage. She volunteered for Project REPOSE as part of OUROBOROS, obviously classified at all levels except on a need to know basis. Told that we needed someone around in case Reach went sideways. If she goes offscript, let me know.”

“She looks like a kid,” Lauren said softly. “Some of the real threes definitely were when they started active service,” Emilia said in a conciliatory tone, “She’ll be about 18 when we wake her up.”

“She’s not now?” Lauren spun to look at the doctor, “She’s my height already.” “She’s tall, she’ll be about 7 feet once the augmentations are done.”

“Good thing they made the doors big, eh?” *******************************

Halo Mythic is a fan made game, which you can find on its sub reddit, r/HaloMythic. It’s mostly charts. Project OUROBOROS as a setting happens right before and concurrent with Halo Infinite, depending on how long the timeline is for that game when it comes out, and takes its name from the canon initiative to preserve humanity in times of crisis, while expanding what all they did to prepare. In the videogames, the only thing linked to the project is Infinity, a colony ship with great new engines repurposed by the UNSC. The campaign setting is mostly to explore more parts of what humanity has prepared, from evacuees to ONI contingencies, and to explore new planets, which is helpfully aided by a chart on planetary generation in the PDF.

Pathfinder Fleet

Headed by the UNSC West at Dusk, the fleet is half military, half large colony ships. The evacuation fleet was chosen to be genetically diverse and small, about 20,000 people, in order to avoid detection that would come in larger scales. Launched after the Created began attacking worlds, they’re following a similar “retreat immediately” reaction, constantly on the move, and ever outward at that.

You can put as many ships as you want, but a couple of Pheonix-class colony ships should be included as all civilian transports, neither of which are at full capacity, which can provide space for recreation areas, labs, schools, or just extra living space.

One of the things colony ships provide is “shore leave” space for UNSC personnel, who will typically stay aboard the military vessels otherwise. It hasn’t been that long, but time off does not need to be taken “at work.” As it’s only been six months since the end of Halo 5, it’s not an immediate issue, but following months and years could make time off a little more pressing of an issue.

What the hell is this about new Spartan IIIs?

The game lists character generation rules for everything from the Orions to Spartan IVs, but mostly makes the suggestion you play them era-appropriate.

Catherine Halsey developed Cortana with 24 year old flash cloning tech in 2549. ONI, seeing the successes of basically every Spartan program since, developed a more modern process following after the end of the Human-Covenant war, and while not flawless, provided something workable. With the addition of drug 87556-UD61 during the flash clone process, flash cloned brains held up with remarkable consistency, leaving only the now-less-frequent genetic anomalies of the rest of the body to deal with.

The UNSC West at Dusk has since been the primary laboratory for this process, highly protected and mobile in order to keep the secrecy of it. After the Created, it’s under the command of Spartan Commander Lauren Lucas, and is run openly under Spartan Ops, though due to her previous career in Section 3 and the sensitivity involved with REPOSE, typically works under the auspices of ONI as well.

Most of the Spartan IVs present are also ex-ONI, though a few are handpicked marines, one of whom had been an ODST (no it’s not Buck because I assume he’ll be in Infinite somewhere but it can be for your game, Buck is easily the coolest).

Project REPOSE is the codename for the cloning process, disguised as a deep-freeze op, mentioned above. Spartan 2s and 3s are flashcloned and, assuming they’re not bonkers, allowed to go into service for Spartan Ops, being told that yeah, it’s time, humanity might be destroyed for real. They can be as personable or not as you like, but again, the idea is that these ones were literally born/programmed to be on humanity’s side- they’re not here to pick fights with the other humans.

Setting Conflicts

So this isn’t Battlestar Galactica. While there could be potential conflicts between Spartans and the rest of the military present over secrets, they’re running from Cortana and the Created. Also there are just... so many Covenant remnant factions, and pretty much only the Arbiter’s group is at all amicable with humanity. And hey, who the hell knows where the Flood could pop up.

If you’ve never delved into the lore outside the games, humanity used to have an interstellar empire and got blasted back to the literal stone age in a war against the Forerunners. One of the armors in Halo 5, the Hellcat armor, is actually made using tech and materials from that old empire by modern humans, so it’s for real, and ONI knows in canon too, but most people don’t. You could run into a formerly human planet, such as Heian, which was later occupied by the Covenant, or you could make a new one and have reasons like The Flood is Here, Whoops. Maybe helping a Covie remnant against some Guardians yields new alliances. Shield planets are a good place to be in case some dork tries to fire off a nearby Halo ring. Maybe you’re in completely uncharted territory sooner than expected because of a slipspace wake and uh oh, you found the people you followed to get there and They’re Mad. In any case, there’s a need-- find a safe haven. Set up as many roadblocks to that as is fun for the players.

#halo mythic #halo rpg #halo ttrpg

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cewfreeland · 5 years ago

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Life in the COVID-19 epicenter

We’re on day 14 of staying at home to do our part to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19. Everything considered we are doing so well. We’re a family with two teenagers who are finding joy in spending time with each other again. Brian and I alternate between depression and gratitude. Fortunately, we never seem to be in the depression part at the same time. That comes from being so different and also knowing when the other one is starting to spiral into the dark place. The other one rallies - reaches out through the unknown and finds a spark of joy to bring the other one out of the blue fog.

One of my closest NY friends is recovering from a diagnosed case of COVID-19. He proactively reached out to me this morning to tell me he made it through the night since I have been bugging him every day to see if he was still in his apartment or had needed to get the urgent care that we hear our neighbors needing from the sirens wailing. Another close friend in NY lost her sense of smell and taste but seems to have come out unscathed other than those two symptoms. I keep wondering if my short bout with fever/chills/cough/fatigue/shortness of breath/diarrhea in early March was COVID-19, followed by the kids having raging headaches several days after my illness. Brian was in DC for most of my illness so I don’t think he got it. An antibody test cannot come soon enough.

Brian and I both have a remarkable amount of guilt. I think his guilt is centered on the fact that he is still employed while so many other artists and art workers are not. He also sees his industry hemorrhaging and with no end in sight. We watched the depression inspired film Cradle Will Rock about the Workers Progress Administration and the Federal Theater Project last night. He is optimistic that something that transformative will come out of this crisis. I have faith that he can be a part of this recovery.

As for me, the bright side is that people understand what public health is now! The downside is that I feel like I can’t help. My grad school group chat has a really stark view of what healthcare workers are facing. One classmate has had his surgical residency all but halted and transitioned to emergency surgery. Two pregnant classmates are still caring for patients - one in pediatric ICU (where she’s not seeing many kids, thankfully) and the other a radiologist (who is volunteering in other ways to relieve the pressure on her colleagues). Another classmate also lost a sense of taste and smell and was back at work 5 days later. She is an OB/GYN and is only delivering COVID-19 positive patients out of fear that she may still be contagious. Still another classmate is a pulmonary critical care physician who has not said much for a while, no doubt because he’s working non-stop. An anesthesiologist at Emory has become a media darling and we all cheer her on when we catch an op-ed in the NYT featuring her or catch her on CNN or MSNBC. I so wish we were celebrating Michelle’s sudden rise to fame for different reasons - her victory as a candidate for the Georgia State Senate, fighting for women’s rights, achieving better healthcare for her constituents. Unfortunately, she’s telling a sadder story right now - the reality of intubating COVID-19 patients as they struggle to breathe - giving them a shot to recover. That every breath the patient makes while she’s doing her work could be exposing her to the virus, and therefore her family, as well as the other healthcare workers.

One classmate is part of the leadership team for the emergency department for one of the big NYC/Long Island hospital systems and she has been working to set up alternative entrances for urgent cases across their 19 hospitals. A physical therapist is transitioning her entire team from out-patient settings into in-patient settings. She and her colleagues are all being exposed every single day. One day, she’s with a patient with suspected COVID-19 status but not confirmed, the next she hears what she already knew about the status. And this happens each and every day. They sound weary and calm. The reality of what we hear on the news made even more terrifying by their accounts. They are not dramatic, they are not overstating. They don’t have the time or the energy to add to the fury. They are simply doing their jobs and the daunting incline on the graph of predicted patients forming ahead of them is simply something for them to climb - one day and one patient at a time.

And I am working from home - not doing anything glamorous like I might have done if my life had not taken the detour it did 2 1/2 years ago. I am conflicted about how I feel about that. Since grad school ended, I have felt aimless - working full-time has felt very “lame.” I’ve dabbled with consulting, exploring getting my PhD, starting my own business. Being “still” is hard for me. And not being part of the central communications team at this time is hard as well. I am grateful to have moved on from that life and role - I feel like my work is more meaningful now - but there is an element of wanting to be in the drama. But I also think this is a lesson for me - to become comfortable with the long game rather than filling up space with busywork and crises.

What I am doing is managing my team who has been thrown into unfamiliar territory. We hired these smart, courageous, and caring people to talk with people all day, every day. And now, they’re at home, having to rely on the phone to connect with our 10,000 participants in the hopes that we didn’t catch them at a bad time. The worry is that maybe someone in their home is unwell and calling about research is not exactly on their minds. Or, perhaps they’ve lost their job and are worried about paying rent on April 1st, and May 1st, and June 1st. The good news is our team is brave and smart and empathetic and they may be just the ear that person needs at that moment. And medical research is something that more people understand now. They get how important it is to contribute to the cause. I started sending out little prompts each day to encourage communication, maybe a little humor, and at least some sense of community. Ironically, I worry more during my sleep about what “prompt” to send them than other things. On Thursday, my prompt was “share your favorite coronavirus meme.” I sent out one about the Breakfast Club but quickly realized that I was only one of a handful of Gen Xers in the chat and many had not grown up in the U.S. and didn’t appreciate the humor. Epic fail.

There has been discussion of doing testing on the blood samples given by participants collected in December, January, February and March (until we suspended enrollments) to see if we can see a true understanding of the incidence of the virus in populations across the country. That is VERY exciting to be a part of that possibility - to understand the DENOMINATOR in a more scientific and controlled way. Additionally, there is some talk of running antibody testing on participants going forward. We have the infrastructure to do that and it would undoubtedly help the individual and the scientific community in ways we can’t even imagine.

- - -

Brian has brought remarkable order to our unusual new existence. He has all of us up and doing our morning things as well as adding a few new rituals that are starting to feel normal. In addition to getting dressed, making beds, eating breakfast, he also has us taking our temperatures and taking an allergy pill Having allergy symptoms while we’re all very aware that any cough or headache could be a sign of infection is not an option. His parents sent us an extra stash of Zyrtec since we couldn’t get it at our local pharmacy. Amazon is running slow - for which I have no anger about - but it does mean that we are tied to what our local shops have on hand.

Last week, we heard this woman from the Upper West Side comment on the local news that people were acting like it’s Little House on the Prarie. “People are making soup. They’re eating leftovers.” Lillian’s response was “That is what normal people do.” But our lives are different. I have found my gatherer urge go into hyperdrive. Maybe it’s because Lillian is so picky or maybe because having what everyone wants at the exact time they want it is a way that I am feeling a sense of control over this insane time. We were almost out of flour, and I became obsessed with getting some. Our regular mail shipment of toilet paper is running low (as in we have about 10 rolls left) and our provider is saying it will be another few weeks before they’re back in stock. I feel this chronic fear that we’re going to run out of Lillian’s macaroni and cheese, the one thing she will consistently eat, and feel this pull to out and get her more. I became obsessed with getting hotdog buns - and we don’t even eat hotdogs normally - but when I found them in stock, I bought two bags. I understand that hoarding is a bad thing, but I cannot deny the anxiety this situation has brought out in me and manifesting in wanting too many hot dog buns.

Probably the best personal thing that I’ve done during the past two weeks is that I’m on a quest to achieve my long-term dream of being a runner. I’ve started “Couch to 5K” too many times over the past several years to count. I just started week 2 - I did week 1 two weeks in a row - so I’m finally moving forward further than I’ve ever gone. It feels like my lungs are getting stronger and my sense of accomplishment is getting satisfied. I find great joy in being in the gorgeous Fort Tryon Park, staying away from my neighbors, knowing that I’m investing in myself and my community even if it’s one lonely step at a time.

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beersfromthebleachers · 5 years ago

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2019 Season Review and Post Season Predictions

The 2019 MLB regular season is in the books as October approaches and the playoffs get underway. To compare what I predicted at the beginning of the season, click here for the original post. This post will break down each division champion and their pathway to the playoffs. Finally, this post will finish with my predictions on what will happen in the playoffs. Let's dive in:

American League Wild Card Teams:

Oakland Athletics

Another year where the Athletics will face off in the Wild Card matchup, and this time they have home field advantage in order to advance to the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros. The Athletics finished the regular season at 97-65, ten games behind the first place Astros. The Billy Beane faithful kept the competition together from the second half of the season while the remainder of the competition fell apart amongst the Texans, Angels, and Mariners. Mike Fiers was the club's best pitcher, throwing his second career no-hitter during the first half of the season. Shortstop Marcus Semien led the team in WAR, setting a career-high with 8.1 and also led in RBIs with 92. First baseman Matt Olson and third baseman Matt Chapman led the team in home runs with 36 apiece respectively. The Athletics are out for revenge after being eliminated by the Yankees last season. They will be hosting the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Game on Wednesday.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays remained in playoff contention from the very start of the 2019 campaign. In the beginning, they led their division for the first third of the season. By the time the Yankees took over at first, the Rays did not trickle far off behind. The Rays finished the season at 96-66, stomping out the reigning champion Boston Red Sox from returning to the playoffs. Free agent addition Charlie Morton brought talents to St. Petersburg and led the rotation over Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who struggled with injury on and off during the season. The Rays' hitting was slightly below average, but the team's OPS was .757. To win in the playoffs, you must have the bullpen bolstered in order to close out games. The Rays, however, they know how to take advantage of bullpens late in the game. It will be interesting to see how this team will do facing the Athletics on Wednesday in the Wild Card game.

American League Central Champion Minnesota Twins

It was unfortunate to see the Cleveland Indians fall apart and start to see the beginning of their "window close" for a chance to go for a title after being in the World Series three seasons ago. The Minnesota Twins took advantage of the American League Central and did not let off the gas to win the division for the first time in almost a decade. The Twins had the second-best record in franchise history at 101-61 and was one run short of tying their best record in a regular season. The Twins' rotation was spearheaded by Jose Berrios and a handful of ragtag pitchers like Jake Odorizzi and Kyle Gibson. The rotation alone owned a K/9 of 8.76 which is more than impressive from a group of seasoned veterans. The Twins' hitting is also nothing to sleep on either, as their entire staff holds an OPS of .832. These boys can hit, get on base, and score very fast. Behind All-Star Jorge Polanco, this is a Twins team that will look dangerous in October.

American League East Champion New York Yankees

After watching in the shadow of their all-time rival win another championship, the New York Yankees went to work and geared up to take the division back and make it rightfully theirs. The fight for the division was not easy, the Yankees started the season battered and bruised without some of their best players. Players that stepped up for the Bronx Bombers were Gio Urshela, Luke Voit, and DJ LeMahieu, who was arguably the best Yankee this season. Yankees pitching struggled to keep their rotation's total ERA under four, as the only one that went under that number was James Paxton, who the Yankees traded for in the offseason. However, Paxton struggled with injury and could not maintain his dominance as he had with the Seattle Mariners. The Yankees' bullpen is still one of the best in the league and will be the most difficult to hit against in the American League playoffs. Expect the Yankees to run deep, but they need to get passed the Twins first in the division series.

American League West Champion Houston Astros

Insert the team that is out for blood and looking to return to the Fall Classic after winning their first franchise title two years ago. The Houston Astros were cut short of returning to the World Series after losing to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Locked and loaded with even a better roster than the season before, the team looks like the favorite to win it all once again. The batting is familiar, but it is Alex Bregman that takes charge as the best player in the batting order, followed by the man who was the MVP for them when they won it; George Springer. Not to mention their rotation is lethal for postseason after adding Zack Grienke to go alongside Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole. The Astros are scary good and will take a miracle to beat. They will host the Wild Card winner between the Rays and Athletics.

National League Wild Card Teams

Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals did everything possible to return to the playoffs for the first time, and they did it without the player that they missed out on resigning; Bryce Harper. With tenacity and skill, the Nationals ended the season with a final record of 93-69 which earned them the first Wild-Card spot of the National League. Their pitching has remained consistent behind Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and the newly added Patrick Corbin, while their offense has been firing on all cylinders especially behind third baseman Anthony Rendon. The bullpen for the Nationals is what holds the biggest question mark for the team. Struggling to close out games that are close, their bullpen will most likely need help from their starters going deeper in games this October. This postseason run might be all or nothing for the Nationals, they might be losing some key players in the off-season, including Rendon and Strasburg.

Milwaukee Brewers

After scrapping and clawing their way back from the brink of elimination, the Milwaukee Brewers returned to the playoffs in back to back seasons. With help from division rival of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Brewers were able to return as a Wild Card team after the elimination of the Chicago Cubs. It didn’t come easy for the Brew Crew, but the team limped to the finish line with Final season record of 89-73. In a season after being crowned the National League MVP, Christian Yelich looked like he was going to continue where he left off from last season. His numbers included 44 home runs, 97 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases while hitting .329 in batting average. The Brewers pitching, however, is in some trouble, even in an elimination game format they will have a tough time sending Brandon Woodruff to the mound against Max Scherzer. Sleeping on the Milwaukee Brewers could be dangerous, as they have a fast-hitting offense and a great caliber defense. If they get past the Wild Card expect them to give the Dodgers a difficult time.

National League Central Champion St. Louis Cardinals

The Saint Louis Cardinals returned to the playoffs after a four year hiatus. The Red Birds loaded up on talent in the offseason by filling their gap at first base with Paul Goldschmidt, who made a huge impact on the team with 34 home runs and 97 RBIs. Marcell Ozuna finally came out of his shell and got back to looking like the player he was in Miami, slashing with 29 home runs and 89 RBIs. Paul DeJong made a statement being one of the best shortstops in the game on both sides of the field, and he complimented it with his bat with a total of 30 home runs. The Cards' pitching was also phenomenal led by Jack Flaherty in the rotation that exceeded expectations accompanied by Dakota Hudson and veteran Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals have some of the best experience with handling the postseason. They have all the right tools to run deep enough in the playoffs and compete with anyone. It will be interesting on how the division series will matchup against the Atlanta Braves.

National League East Division Champion Atlanta Braves

Alongside the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves are one of two teams that defended their division title and is returning to the postseason for the second year in a row. The fruits of the young farm system are coming in at the best time for a team that is young and hungry to becoming a championship caliber team. The Braves ended the season 97-65, defending against a heavily talented division that was loaded with competition. Ronald Acuña Jr. was on his way to make history and became a 30-30 man with 41 home runs and 37 stolen bases before getting injured. He was accompanied from the heavy bats of Josh Donaldson, Ozzie Albies, and Freddie Freeman. Even former first overall draft pick, Dansby Swanson finally started pulling his weight with the team. The Braves pitching is sneaky with getting quick innings done. A rotation including Mike Soroka, Max Fried, and Dallas Kuechel is more than ready to face any opponent in the playoffs. Watching this series between the Cardinals and Braves will be more than entertaining, whoever comes out of this fight will most likely be a fan favorite in the National League Championship Series.

National League West Division Champion Los Angeles Dodgers

If at first you do no succeed; try, try again…and again…and again for the third time in a row. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been the favorite to compete and win the World Series, except this year they have everything to show for it. After dropping the World Series for the second straight year in a row, the team has been succeeding with a formula of having as many players as possible play the field and score late in games. The playstyle is almost foolproof, there is little to no show of failure in this Dodgers team. Cody Bellinger was the only baseball player showing his talents and challenging Yelich for his MVP title. He finished the season with 47 home runs, 115 RBIs, and a batting average of .305. His supporting cast is collection of young talent that has transitioned well with Max Muncy, Austin Barnes, and the resurgence of Corey Seager to the Dodger lineup. The rotation also had the rise of Hyun-Jin Ryu who led the National League in ERA for the first half of the season. Walker Buehler also did not fall to the sophomore curse and proved his worth to bolster the rotation. Clayton Kershaw kept his cool and remained supreme being the ace of this rotation. The only Achilles' heel to the Dodgers is their bullpen, who have been giving up more runs late in the game than they should. Still, they were the king of the walk-off, so do not be surprised if you see late-game dramatics from this young Dodgers team.

Where does this leave my prediction of the playoffs? In a perfect world, I would love to see a team that has never won a title in their franchise history between the Tampa Bay Rays or the Milwaukee Brewers, both Wild Card teams that no one should ever sleep on in the playoffs. The realist in me has strong consideration of seeing the return matchup between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the same result as before. Zack Grienke will get his bitter revenge by blanking the Dodgers in a championship game resulting him to be the World Series MVP. The pennant championships will be wild series to watch as well. The American League Championship Series will be the Astros beating the New York Yankees in quick orderly fashion. The National League Championship Series will see the Atlanta Braves dragging out a seven-game series against the Dodgers, who will go on to win it in walk-off fashion. It will be one crazy October to watch, let's see who we will see in the Fall Classic!

#journal #2019 season #baseball #playoffs #october #fall classic #mlb #mlb playoffs #Oakland Athletics #Tampa Bay Rays #minnesota twins #new york yankees #houston astros #Washington Nationals #Milwaukee Brewers #St. Louis Cardinals #atlanta braves #los angeles dodgers

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knifeshoeoreofight · 6 years ago

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Part one is here

Part 2 of ??

***

Zhenya gets up and goes to the fridge in the communal kitchen and pulls out six beers. He thinks they belong to those pricks from the University of Pennsylvania but right now he can’t be bothered to care about the passive aggressive post it notes he’s going to find plastered all over the fridge tomorrow.

He carries the beers into his office and passes them out, ignoring the confused hubbub of four inquiring, scientific brains kicking into high gear.

“Shut up for minute,” he says. “Let me talk. Need to be able to say right in English.”

Thankfully, they listen. Zhenya turns his bottle around in his hands as he gathers his thoughts.

“We don’t tell anyone about this,” he says, and it’s an order, heavy and final. “We don’t tell, unless he understand what it mean for us to tell and he say yes. We keep secret. No telling friends, no telling family. None of us ever getting drunk in public anymore. Finished. Can’t take chance we forget and say something.”

He stares them all down, waits for them to nod in acceptance. The kids look almost scared.

“You’re talking about consent,” Fleury says slowly. “From the merman.”

Zhenya nods. “Have to be reason nobody see them for sure until now.”

They’re all silent for a moment, thinking about the all-consuming fears they all live with as marine scientists. The environmental threats that keep them awake at night.

“Consent implies communication,” Letang says finally. “You’re, what? Going to teach him English? Or Russian, I guess.”

Zhenya shakes his head. “If I even find him again, won’t use speaking.”

“Then what?” Dominik asks.

“Camera didn’t show,” Zhenya explains. “But after he give back to me, my brain freeze little bit? I do this.” He makes a “thumbs up” gesture, and laughs a little at himself. “Not know what else to do. And he make confuse face, but then, he do it back to me.”

“He what?” Zach yelps, and the noisy discourse starts back up again and Zhenya lets it wash over him until he hears the phrase “but how can you even prove sentience” and he snaps.

“He sentient. I’m know. You didn’t see him, I do. I look right in his eyes.”

“That’s not exactly scienti—“

“I believe you,” Fleury interjects. “Not everything can be explained by soulless measuring. Sometimes you just know something’s true. And with a language that complex? Fuck, man.” Zhenya smiles gratefully at him.

“So?” Dominik asks, practically vibrating in his seat. “How do we talk to him? You were gonna say.”

“Sign language,” Zhenya says. “Going to look up tonight. I’m going out early tomorrow morning. I have satellite tag on Magda. Maybe if we find her, we find him too.”

“We should go, get something to eat, get some gear together, and meet back here to plan for tomorrow,” Letang decides. “Three hours.”

They adjourn. Zhenya goes to to shower off the salt drying tacky on his skin. Feeling more like himself, he sets up his laptop on his cluttered desk, thanking his lucky stars that he’s senior enough to warrant his own room in the guesthouse his university manages. The undergrads are six to a room, sometimes.

He spends the rest of the time left until their meeting making notes and watching videos of sign language on YouTube and coming to the irritated conclusion that due to their proximity to the United States he’s probably going to need to use ASL and not РЖЯ. Stupid English.

When they regroup, the kids have scrounged up a laminator from god knows where and are bickering about what would be most “communicatively efficient” to make waterproof. Letang is sent off to refuel the boat and prep her for tomorrow, and Fleury sits down with Zhenya and a laptop to practice sign language.

“I can see why you’ve chosen to go with ASL,” Fleury says. “But fuck English, eh?”

“Yes,” Zhenya agrees fervently. “So much.”

***

They set out the next morning when the sky is still dark. Zhenya is nervy with excitement. It takes him tries to access the data from the ADB tag he’d placed on Magda in Labrador, hands shaking. He marvels at the good luck he’s had; the tag is still in place, and is still transmitting. The system beeps at him. The tag transmits its location three to four times per 24 hour cycle, and it looks like the last ping wasn’t far from where Magda had been the day before. She’s still conserving energy.

By the time they reach the general area she’s in, the sky is shell-pink, with a few clouds lit up bright tangerine by the rising sun. The kids get out binoculars, and start scanning the endless water for Magda’s spout. The water is calm and glassy, and Zhenya is grateful for it.

He helps Fleury with the hydrophones since Zhenya’s the most familiar with their use, and double checks his diving gear. He’s not sure he wants to use it, though. He wants to know if just appearing in a wetsuit, snorkel, mask, and fins will affect the merman’s behavior. Maybe Zhenya will look less alien, less threatening, without a hissing, bubbling tank of air on his back. He’s not much of a freediver. Well. No time like the present to get better at it.

Zach whoops from where he’s perched on top of the wheelhouse. “Thar she blows!” he yells, in a terrible old-timey sailor accent. Zhenya leaps to his feet, straining his eyes to see. The feed from the hydrophones crackles with a high noise, like air being let out of a gigantic balloon. But, like, melodically.

“Hi sweetheart,” he tells Magda. “How is my beautiful lady today?”

Predictably, Letang scoffs, but Fleury leans into Zhenya’s space conspiratorially. “He talks to the coral samples we grow in the lab,” he tells Zhenya, with a devilish grin. “He has little nicknames in his notes for his favorite varieties. And he almost got into a fistfight at a conference with this world-renouned algae expert about how much funding is going to their respective fields. Don’t listen to a word he says.”

Zhenya laughs, and when Letang looks back to see what they’re talking about, he pastes an exaggerated look of innocence on his face. Take that, Letang.

***

They approach Magda as closely as they dare. Zhenya pulls on a mask, and his swim fins. He takes the GoPro again, this time clipped to his wetsuit so he doesn’t drop it again.

When he slides off the boat, the dense quiet of the water is much more evident without his scuba gear. Sound works so strangely. Some sounds feel amplified, louder and closer than they should be. And yet it’s so still, the ambient sounds of wind and waves muffled.

The morning sun is falling through the water in shafts of light, and a school of little fish are sparkling through them. The water is on the shallow side again, relatively speaking, wide swaths of white sand just visible below, with only scattered outcroppings of coral. Zhenya looks around for Magda but doesn’t see her.

He’s hanging near the surface in order to use the snorkel, and he can hear snatches of conversation from the boat, cut off whenever the water laps over his ears. He hears the explosive sound of Magda surfacing to breath and the resulting excited shouts of the undergrads before he sees her.

She solidifies out of the infinite blue in front of Zhenya like a vision. He sees the white of her pectoral fins and belly first, then the rest of her. The shafts of sunlight shimmer in dancing diamond patterns on her great back. A deep sound reverberates through the spaces in his chest.

Just like last time, his eyes water behind his mask. He thinks he’ll always react this way to seeing her this close.

Magda rolls gracefully in the water, and that’s when Zhenya sees the merman. He’s keeping pace right above the pleated expanse of Magda’s throat, and he reaches down to pat her, scritching at her skin for all the world like she’s a giant dog.

Magda rolls right side up again. She’s so close Zhenya can feel the turbulence of her movement. She swivels to face him, and in the space of a breath, the end of her rostrum is so close he could reach out and touch it. She raises her tail and brings it down on the water’s surface with a crack. Lobtailing. He wonders what she means by it; if it’s a warning or if it’s playfully meant. He tries to stay still, but he has to scull his arms to prevent the current from slamming him into Magda.

A single thrumming trill comes from down and slightly to his right. The merman is watching him, one hand resting on the whale’s side. Zhenya kicks his feet and backs away from them, trying to give them space. Magda, to his surprise, follows him. Her rostrum bumps into his middle, and he reaches out instinctively to steady himself.

He’s touching her. He’s touching a whale. He’s studied them for years, has tagged them and photographed them and listened to their songs. But he’s never laid a hand on one until now.

There’s a fucking merman somewhere off to one side, but for a moment, Magda is all he can see. He strokes a hand across her skin. She’s gone still, is just hanging there in the water. She makes a sound and it vibrates through his very bones.

She is, in a way, the love of his life, her species the focus and passion of his career, and so it feels natural to spit out his snorkel, lean down, and reverently kiss her, right on the top of her great head.

When he raises his eyes, the merman is watching him, eyes narrowed and assessing. Zhenya, however, has to flail for the surface to take a gasping breath and to blow the water out of his snorkel before putting it back in his mouth.

He’s still close when Zhenya submerges again, expression intense. He looks like he still hasn’t quite made up his mind about Zhenya. Zhenya waves at him, and tries to smile around the snorkel in his mouth.

The merman makes a face but mirrors the gesture. Zhenya can’t help it, he grins, swallowing salt water in the process. He has to go to the surface again, coughing. When he goes back under the merman is frowning at him. Zhenya shrugs. The merman raises his hand and repeats the waving gesture. Zhenya manages to keep his snorkel in his mouth but excitement is fizzing in his stomach like bubbles.

He takes the opportunity to study the merman more closely. Now that his existence isn’t as much of a shock, Zhenya notices that he’s beautiful, in more, well, human ways than a shark, or a dolphin, or a whale like Magda is.

He has a sharp jaw and cheekbones, offset by a plush, full mouth. His upper body is very human looking, muscled and strong. He cocks his head to one side, studying Zhenya as closely as Zhenya’s studying him. His weapon is strapped to his back today, with a fraying nylon rope crossing his chest.

Maintaining eye contact, the merman swims to where the satellite tag is attached to Magda’s side, slightly below her dorsal fin. He prods at it, then looks back at Zhenya, as if to ask, “this shit yours?”

Zhenya has no idea if nodding means anything to merpeople. It’s a fairly universal gesture, but he knows it that in some cultures it can even mean “no”. But he nods anyway. His heart also sinks a little. If the merman removes the tag, how the hell will be able to find Magda or him again?

After a moment of deliberation, he decides a gesture of trust is worth the lost data. Even if it means his study may be ruined. He takes a deep breath, and kicks his fins to dive. Luckily Magda is still. Even a gentle animal like a humpback can be dangerous to be this close to, just by reason of their massive size.

He’s able to grasp hold of the tag, and to give it the twist it needs to detach from Magda’s skin. He pats her, and gestures for the merman to come and see that she’s unharmed. He looks placated.

Zhenya’s out of air, and he shoots up for the surface again. The merman follows him, and when Zhenya’s head breaks the surface, so does his. Zhenya can hear the shocked cries from the boat, but he just treads water and watches the merman.

“Hi,” he says, inanely. “I’m Zhenya.” The merman’s eyebrows go up at the sound of his voice. His throat flexes and he produces some of that strange speech of his. Zhenya tries to imitate one of the clicking sounds, and to his surprise, the merman smiles, showing his sharp canine teeth. He’s laughing at Zhenya.

“Thanks for that,” Zhenya says, and he has to smile in return. He pulls off his mask, and the merman blinks, he’s still smiling but it’s smaller. Pleased, somehow. Like he likes Zhenya’s face without the heavy plastic mask distorting it.

Zhenya doesn’t want to move, but his arms and legs are tired. A swell knocks him under, and he coughs water, salt stinging his eyes and his throat. Then there’s an iron grip around his waist, and the merman has an arm around him, holding him up in the water. Zhenya clears the water from his airways with a retching cough, and stares, thunderstruck. The merman’s expression is creased in concern. He’s so strong. Zhenya is not a small man, and the merman can effortlessly hold them both steady in the water with a few powerful undulations of his tail.

The merman looks beyond them to the boat. He carefully eases his arm from around Zhenya’s waist, but takes him by the elbow and then submerges, pulling Zhenya along behind him until they reach the little water level platform at the boat’s stern. The merman eyes the other men clustering wide-eyed at the railing as he helps Zhenya heave himself up onto it. Zhenya turns to sit with his feet hanging over the side. The merman keeps one hand on the platform, taking them all in.

Zhenya pulls off his swim fins, and the merman makes a shocked-sounding trill in his throat. Zhenya has to laugh.

“I know, feet weird.” He wiggles his toes, and laughs again at the face the merman is making.

“Geno?” Zach says weakly from behind them. When Zhenya turns, he hands down the laminated pages they’d worked on last night. His hands are shaking.

“Oh, good idea,” Zhenya says. He takes the one with a photo of Magda on it, breaching with the Canadian coastline behind her. It’s a photo Zhenya had taken of her when he first began his research. He shows the merman, whose eyes widen. He reaches out to touch the photo. Magda’s scar is clearly visible, and he points at it, then gestures down into the water. Zhenya grins and nods. The merman’s eyes narrow.

Zhenya wishes he could explain what he’s doing, that he wouldn’t hurt her. He doesn’t know what kind of cultural memory merpeople have, but there’s no way some knowledge hasn’t been passed down about what humans used to do to whales, how the water around whaling ships had roiled with blood. He hopes the way he interacted with Magda earlier conveyed his good intentions.

He points to the picture, then makes the sign for “whale.” The merman mirrors him, making a deep hum in his throat that Zhenya takes to mean the same thing. Zhenya grins. He shuffles through the pages, and finds one with a basic figure of a person on it. He makes the sign for “human” or “person.” Again, the merman mirrors him. His eyebrows are raised, and he looks pleased. The next image is of a merman. The sign for that one indicates a tail below the waist and it makes the merman smile.

For his own name, Zhenya had decided upon an “e” for Evgeni. He points at his own chest, and makes the sign, saying his own name aloud. The merman copies him. Zhenya points at the merman and and waits. The merman makes a sound Zhenya has no hope of reproducing. The first part of it is a sibilant though, and so Zhenya decides to hold up a hand with the sign for “s.” The merman repeats the sound, and copies the gesture. He then repeats the sign for “e,” and pats Zhenya’s knee. Someone swears aloud back on the boat.

S reaches for the stack of pictures, and Zhenya lets him have them. He riffles through them, until he finds the one of Magda. He points at it again, and signs “whale.” He then prods at Magda’s belly.

“Give me whiteboard,” Zhenya calls back to the rest of the guys, and Fleury hands it down with a marker. Zhenya quickly does his best to sketch the outline of a humpback whale, followed by a smaller one inside the belly of the first. S nods excitedly, and then reaches behind himself to pull out his weapon. Zhenya flinches, but S just takes lays it on the platform. He pats it, then gestures at the drawing of the pregnant whale. Zhenya goes cold. Is he saying he’s going to kill it?

His face must look awful because S frowns. Zhenya has to ask. He points at the weapon, makes a slashing motion, then points at the baby whale drawing. The merman’s eyes narrow, and he makes an explosive noise, slapping his hand on the water for emphasis. He holds out his hand for the marker, and very, very clumsily sketches out a blob alongside the whale drawing. It’s vaguely fishlike, and he makes a couple slashes near the head that look something like gills. A shark?

“Get me picture of shark,” Zhenya calls up to everyone, and there’s a scuffle as they all check for bars on their phones. Finally someone hands down Zhenya’s laptop, which has satellite internet. There’s a photo of a tiger shark on it. Carefully keeping it from getting wet, Zhenya shows S the photo.

S makes a low, angry-sounding throbbing sound in his throat, and nods. He indicates his weapon again, and bares his teeth. He reaches out, and gently pats at the drawing of the baby whale, as if petting it. Zhenya sighs in relief. He hands his laptop back up. So, S is...guarding Magda’s unborn calf? He wonders at it. If merpeople habitually do this, they haven’t been observed so far. What makes S special? Is he just terrifically bad at staying hidden? Is he some kind of whale shepherd, or is Magda weak or sick in some way that warrants special treatment?

He and S stare at each other. There’s so much behind those eyes, and he feels overwhelmed with the chasm of understanding yawning between them. The few signs they’ve traded are a thin, spindly attempt to bridge it. He signs “s” again. S smiles, and signs back “e.”

Zhenya’s heart does something traitorous and strange in his chest.

#sidgeno #sidney crosby/evgeni malkin #hockey rpf #dana writes a thing

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nineteensixtieschikadee · 6 years ago

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Debunking Arya Stark being Azor Ahai and the Princess That Was Promised. (S8 E3)

(Let’s get one thing straight before I write this whole post. I LOVE Arya Stark. That girl is my baby. She’s my favorite character, not only in the show, but also very importantly, in the books. And I LOVED that she was the one to kill the Night King. So this post isn’t in any way going to a post about me complaining about the final 10 minutes of Episode 3 of S8. Instead, this will be me CRITICALLY ANALYZING that moment, and how it fit’s and doesn’t fit into the lore, and the books. Afterall, I am a book reader first and foremost, and a show-watcher 2nd.)

Before I say anything else, I’ll give you guys my rundown opinion of that scene. This morning I was on twitter and Tumblr, and I started losing my freaking marbles because everyone was labeling Arya Stark, Azor Ahai Reborn, and TPTWP. And I wasn’t the only one. Everyone on the asoiaf forums were equally disappointed at how everything about e3 was handled. And I, unfortunately, am one of those people. But here’s the thing, and let’s make this clear. Ask any book reader, NONE OF US ARE MAD THAT ARYA KILLED THE NK. In fact, a lot of us expected something like that, because we know that Arya in the books will have a VERY IMPORTANT role for the upcoming war for the Dawn. There are lots of hints and foreshadow about her doing something remarkable in the books, however, this is not one of them. So let’s analyze and debunk this moment:

Yes, Arya killing the Night King was hella bad-ass. Hell, I even cheered for her. Although when it got to the final credits, I was literally so lost, and confused, and overall disappointed. I was lowkey quiet for the first 10 minutes after, because I couldn’t believe what actually happened. Here’s the thing that is irking everyone about Arya being AA or TPTWP: her killing the NK, so easily AND ALONE is what ruined the plot arcs of some of those characters whose plot actually revolves around the Others. Yes, the moment was EMPOWERING. Being a women who stopped the damn apocalypse. I was inspired. And it was very poetic that Arya killed the ULTIMATE representation of DEATH. But the BUILDUP to her killing the NK? Where was it? A simple foreshadow from Mel about eye colors? The fact that Arya used a sparring move against Brienne in S7? A moment when Bran gives her Catspaw? When she meets Jon, and Jon says, “How did you sneak up on me?”?

Here, the reason why Arya SIMPLY killing the NK so easily doesn’t work, is because it INVALIDATES EVERYTHING about the books and it’s morals, and the text. Arya killing the NK with one stab, while Dany couldn’t even injure him with fire, fucks up the lore and the history so badly, that it all feels so worthless. Pointless. What? Was everything that happened in the books a BIG RED HERRING?? You spend so many years BUILDING up to this war, and Arya simply killing him without any problems or consequences is what wins the war? What about Daenerys? What about Jon? WHAT WAS THE POINT? WHY WAS HE WAS BROUGHT BACK? Just to be King? Huh? And BRAN.

Yes GOT is about the Throne. And it would make sense that the show ends where it started, with the throne. But the whole point of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is about ICE AND FIRE. The balance between life and death. The balance between good and bad. The balance between magic and reality. The whole point of the battle between ice and fire, is that none of the things involving the throne matters. Bc there is an even more powerful danger lurking on both sides. Dany being a danger from the south (fire) and the Others from the north (Ice). There has to be a balance between those two things, and that is not the Iron Throne.

Let’s go back to the AA prophecy quickly. People on twitter were lowkey confused because apparently no one knows who Azor Ahai is, and now everyone immediately thinks it’s Arya cause she killed the NK. Here’s a small rundown: Azor Ahai, or The Prince/Princess who was promised was a prophized figure who fought against the Others (White Walkers), bringing forth a summer after a generation of winter and darkness. This prophecy is to come back into fruition once more, now that winter is coming. And HIS is the SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, who will be reborn amidst salt and smoke, and is prophisized to save the world AGAIN from eternal darkness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3o2LqFZcGU Click the link for more info. This one is my favorite video analysis about AA. (IN SHORT, AA IS BASICALLY JESUS, LOL)

Now I know prophecy should always be taken with a grain of salt. It shouldn’t be taken too lightly, or too figuratively. BUT! AA is NOT just anyone. There are REQUIREMENTS to be this prophesied savior. (See video above.) Those requirements do NOT FIT ARYA. I really tried. No this fandom tried. We tried making even the slightest connection, even metaphorically that Arya could somehow be the PTWP. But the only thing we could find that actually made sense, was that she felt “reborn” when she saw the red comet (bleeding star) back in ACOK (S2). Not even metaphorically does she fit this prophecy. Now here’s the next counter argument: What if prophecy is just bullshit, and none of it is real, and we’re all just wasting our time? Yes, all of that is plausible. HOWEVER, you spend all this time, 8 seasons, 5 books, with SO SO SO MUCH foreshadow and hints, and LEGITIMATE EVIDENCE, that it doesn’t properly pay off? GRRM is NOT like that. There are characters in the books that predict ACCURATE prophecies and foreshadows. In fact, there is a character who is known to accurately predict prophecy. And she does for Arya. Guess who it is? *Bingo bingo!* The GHOST OF HIGHHEART. (Jenny’s Song. S8 E2)

“I see you. I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death ... You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!” (ASOS, pg 593)

Prophecy may not be accurate at times. But they DO pay off. This prophecy here is literally the equivalent of Melisandre giving the “Colored eyes” prophecy in the show. Because in the books, Mel doesn’t even meet Arya and there is no colored eye foreshadow, or any sort of foreshadow that she is TPTWP. There is however, other ways you can interpret this prophecy above. (You decide.)

Prophecy is a BIG THING about the books. Yes, it may not be accurate, but they HOLD MEANING. THE AZOR AHAI PROPHECY IS THE BACKBONE OF THE WHOLE WHITE WALKER STORYLINE. By ignoring this prophecy, you are essentially taking away the PURPOSE and the real motives of these characters who are INTERTWINED with this prophecy. The reason why Arya killing the NK so easily and ALONE is a problem with us, is because it invalidates this prophecy, and therefore makes everything, all the buildup absolutely POINTLESS. The characters that have been involved from Day 1 with this prophecy, have been reduced to nothing more than a side story. A myth.

Let’s look at all the characters whose building story arc have become irrelevant because of the writer’s decision to pull that plot twist:

Jon Snow:

Wow. This one literally couldn’t hurt any more than it already does... From his first chapter, to his first scene in the show, we are led to believe that this character is literally nothing more than Ned Stark’s bastard. A side character. It is made clear that he IS A BASTARD. He IS AN OUTSIDER. Both him and Arya have parallel arcs. They intertwine beautifully. This is why people think Arya will also have a role to play with the Others in the later books. Because she and Jon share the same story, just she is dealing with a different kind of death. GRRM from the book emphasizes Jon’s bastard title, and his mother. And he isn’t really made out to be an important character until MUCH LATER in the book series. The fact that there’s so much emphasis on his title, and R+L=J is IMPORTANT. Bc the whole AA prophecy states that AA will be reborn out of Jaehaerys line. Not anyone from the Starks. Also the line, “You know nothing Jon Snow,” is even more relevant because it’s full of irony. You have the guy who’s known to know nothing, but he actually KNOWS MORE than anyone realizes. Jon’s whole arc is about the Others. Which would have made his fight with them MUCH MORE PERSONAL because his storyline is physically and emotionally connected to them. The fact that he joins the Night’s Watch is important too. Because no, they don’t just fight wildlings in the books. Their purpose was to protect the realm from the Others. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. This is so relevant because Jon becoming king, would make it MUCH MORE meaningful. A king that PROTECTED the realm. Assuming he even becomes king, would make his whole arc come full circle and would be so much more rewarding. You have this dude resurrected from the dead, and what? Was his purpose just to unite the people and become king? You have this character foreshadowed to have a standoff with the ultimate bad guy, and he does nothing but run around screaming at an undead dragon...Yes, it’s cliche. BUT IT’S STILL GOOD STORY TELLING BECAUSE IT’S BEEN BUILT UP PROPERLY.

Bran Stark:

I don’t even have words for this one... You have Brandon Stark literally the most OP person in all of the seven kingdoms and YOU. DONT. USE. HIM. Okay I agree, GRRM says Bran is the hardest character to write in the books, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for him to just warg into ravens and do what? Scout? That’s it? This kid was literally pushed off a tower that ended up triggering his journey to become the 3-eyed raven a.k.a THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE, and he does absolutely nothing but sit around predicting other peoples future, and being weird, and warging into ravens. Lol what’s worse is that he’s just there in the show to serve the other character’s plot line. By “TRIGGERING” these events that the characters will eventually get into. Bloodraven in the books is SCARY AS HELL. No one really knows his motive and yet he can do so much more than what Bran does in the show. Bloodraven is the definition of MIND BLOWING. Bran AND JON ARE THE TWO PEOPLE WHO ARE THE MOST PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED TO THE OTHERS, AND BY THE END, THEIR WHOLE ARCS WERE THROWN IN THE TRASH. They don’t have a big face off, or any sort of payoff. Just staring and staring and staring. And BAM. Welp Night King’s dead. Oops guess we were just here for absolutely no other purpose than to trigger events and bring all these dumb people together. (Sorry, this one lowkey triggered the hell out of me. The 3 eyed Raven, Hodor, Meera and Jojen DID NOT DIE just for Bran to not be used to his full potential...)

Daenerys Targaryen:

This one is soo annoying. Daenerys Targaryen, fits literally ALMOST ALL the signs of the prophecy that it almost seems too obvious if she was AA. But welp, none of that matters now because she didn’t really do anything to kill the Night King. SHE DID DO MORE THAN JON though, I’ll give her that. Yeah she’s a conqueror going for the Iron Throne. But she’s also a direct descendant of King Jaehaerys’ line. Part of her whole arc is fire and blood. But it is also about her fight for her birthright, and if she would give up her birthright to fulfill something greater. We as fans, we root for her to get the throne. But we also root for her to do something MORE. But more IMPORTANTLY, her arc is also in parallel with the Others. And no, I don’t mean that she’s a mad queen. But the title of the series is called A Song of Ice and Fire. Daenerys is a THREAT from the south. (Fire.) And the Others are a threat from the north. (Ice) There has to be a balance between them. In the show she loses a dragon, one of her children. And the fact that her choice of weapon doesn’t do ANY damage to the ultimate villain, but a simple stabbing does? I don’t even like Daenerys much after s6, but wow. This was underwelming to the core. Dragon chick who’s literally a level 1K going against another level 1K final boss and can’t do shit to him??

Rhaegar Targaryen:

This I think is the one that ANNOYS ME THE MOST. Like holy shit, they could not have possibly damaged this whole wretched storyline even more than they already did. But somehow the show writers managed to go and give it one final blow. Rhaegar Targayen. The one arguably responsible for ALL the shit we have in Game of Thrones. The one whose actions triggered nearly every single arc into motion in this whole goddamn series. The man who is arguably considered the REAL MAIN CHARACTER in ASOIAF. HIS WHOLE COMPLEX CHARACTER ARC AND STORYLINE FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET. I love Rhaegar’s character in the books, cause he’s well, not exactly a good guy. He’s in that perfect morally grey area, which is what I love about characters. He’s not suppose to be likeable. He’s suppose to be complex. But the show not only managed to make him the MOST UNLIKEABLE character in this series, but they also managed to ruin all of his complexities in favor of making him a love-sick puppy thinking with his dick. This was lowkey the biggest fuck you they could give to his character, the characters surrounding him, (*cough* Elia) and to the lore and history of the books. Rhaegar’s whole arc and storyline revolved around this stupid prophecy and that’s literally THE reason why everything went down the way it did in the books. Elia was also INTO the prophecy too, so it’s not like she wasn’t aware of anything! Elia was even helping Rhaegar fullfill this prophecy, it just so happens that she was too sick, to do anything more. The fact that the show chose to ignore this whole thing and disregard the lore surrounding it is literally is the biggest fuck you to Elia and her children. It means that Rhaegar truly was a mad man who left his wife and disowned his children because he was thinking with his dick. When in fact it wasn’t really like that. Rhaegar really did try to protect Elia and their children when he left them. And that too gets thrown in the trash because of this dumb prophecy. And that sucks because Elia played an important role with this prophecy, and she knew and understood it too. And in the end, none of their actions became worth it... By not having the proper payoff from all of this buildup, Elia and her children literally died for NOTHING.

Other characters who’s arc were ruined by the mess in e3:

Samwell Tarly: Was the first character to discover that WW can be killed with dragonglass. He was studying at the citadel to learn more about them, and find info on how to beat them. Not only did this NOT happen, but he didn’t even contribute to anything for the end of the world. Literally just went back to being the scared little puppy he was back in S1/book1. His role then had no relevancy because NK was killed so easily, and he didn’t even learn a single thing about him or how to kill him, other than him wanting to “erase memories.” His whole arc was about him being more than what he believed in. Being smarter than what his father thought he was. And they did not utilize that. He coward back again! Like what was the point of him going to the citadel and stuff if literally the EASIEST way to kill the NK was a simple stab with a special steel?

This episode had so many problems. But Arya Stark killing the NK WASN’T the main problem. You can have the most beautiful shot television series with so much time and effort put in it. But all of that means nothing when the writing is not consistent. The fact that the show did a 360 and practically ignored literally EVERYTHING about the lore and the text, is what’s frustrating everyone. Because while Arya killing the NK and saving the realm BY HERSELF was yes, poetic and SERVED WELL TIEING UP HER ARC, in doing so, it had managed to UNTIE literally YEARS and years of plot threads and buildup from most of the other CRUCIAL characters, that in the end, it feels so empty. Arya should not have killed the NK ALONE. Bran should’ve been a part of it. Jon should’ve helped Arya kill the NK. Now that would’ve been a good payoff for both their arcs. Jon, Bran, Arya, Daenerys and Tyrion are considered by GRRM to be the CORE 5 of the story. And in the end, in this supposedly world ending apocalypse, only Arya really played a KEY role. Bran didn’t do anything powerful to stop the NK. He only triggered events and was bait. Daenerys was getting slaughtered out there, and even her most prized weapon could help her fully. Jon... Let’s be honest, no one knows what in the world Jon was doing this ep. Tyrion was down in the crypts, when this little man literally could have contributed to WAR TACTICS. All these characters are connected with the Others emotionally, physically and/or metaphorically, that the fact that only one of them became crucial to the endgame, makes the story so POINTLESS. What was the point of bringing Jon back from the dead if he was only going to unite people and become king? What was the point of Bran venturing far north to become the most powerful human being, if all he’s going to do is trigger events and warg into ravens? etc.

Arya killing the NK alone hurts because while she is foreshadowed to play a crucial role against the Others in the books, SHE IS THE MOST DISTANT FROM THEM IN TERMS OF STORYLINE. It doesn’t pay off well in the show, because until a couple of weeks ago, she didn’t even know the Others existed. Up until last night’s battle, she’s never seen a white walker. That’s why it didn’t feel right for her to do the kill alone. Her arc did not intertwine with the Others, physically or emotionally. Unlike Jon or Bran whose literal whole arc has been with the Others, and is about the Others. That’s why it feels so empty. It didn’t feel rewarding. It was undeserving. Because up until last night, she’s had no interaction with a single Other, whatsoever. The buildup was actually weak, and because of it, it didn’t feel as good as it should’ve.

Arya’s plotline is more than just hyping up to kill the Others. Like the other core members, she has a complex story arc. Arya’s storyline is about her heart in conflict with itself. It’s about her identity. Part of the reason why she struggles in AFFC & ADWD in her Faceless Man arc, is because she CAN’T become a faceless man. Her heart won’t let her forget her identity. That’s also why she’s had so many other identities in the books. Her different identities are about survival as well. They’ve helped her survive. It’s not really about revenge, and killing, and white walkers. But it’s about her, having so many identities and finding her way back to her true identity. Finding her way back to being a Stark.

So yeah. Arya killing the NK so SIMPLY when there should’ve been more, is like a big fuck you to the books and what it stands for. It invalidates the books. The fact that the books hype up this war for the dawn and prophecy and the Others, and then it just ends after 1 episode? Like that’s it? The NK being killed so easily? The payoff was weak, and it hurts not only the book fans but the book and it’s characters in general. No Arya is not Azor Ahai reborn, or any prophisized savior. She is an assassin and the slayer of the Night King. But to make it even more utterly pointless, the NK doesn’t even exist in the books.

The episode was fun, tense and good! Arya killing the NK was hella badass. But... it just wasn’t A Song of Ice and Fire.

(Congrats if you made it to the end of my very, very, long essay! As always, debates are up and open! Feel free to counter-argue!) :)

#game of thrones #got #got spoilers #Arya Stark #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #bran stark #azor ahai #the prince that was promised #house stark #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #the battle of winterfell #the long night #this whole post made me sad lol

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