#bought it. also at the time i thought it was a green cory so like same species as the bronze and that theyd shoal. i now know its Emerald | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

purplelurkinghini · 4 years ago

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Narcissus by the Pond

0. PROLOGUE

Under the cut is the prologue to yet another multi-chapter mess I am planning to write. What is different about this one is the narrator: Edward Nygma himself. Another aspect of this piece that sets it apart from the rest of my writing is its epistolary form. That’s right, baby! First-person POV!

If you’ve seen >> this << post floating around, this is indeed me actually putting that second prompt to use.

Enjoy!

Dear ▚▛▙▙

I found a cat toy while cleaning out my closet today. It was that ashy plush mouse stuffed with dried nepeta cataria which you spent money on instead of saving up for your student loans. If he were still here, he’d be rolling around on the floor in some vivid dream in which he was a lion and it was a gazelle. And, if you were still here, I would’ve asked you to stay.

The day you got that tabby’s claws into me was the day you checked into work late. Frank, our project manager and your internship supervisor, had to drop his showman act and instill in you the fear all WayneTech employees are motivated by. After you offered your excuses and exchanged glances with the floor, you were free to enter the kitchen to heat up the coffees that you went out of your way to fetch for us each morning.

My daily routine, which you’ve played no small role in forming during your short stay with us, was disrupted by the absence of caffeine in my bloodstream. I remember my Rubik’s cube and how I crammed a corner into my palm, squeezing down on the still unscrambled sides. I would call it an ‘absentminded’ action, but we both know that would be an incorrect assessment. My mind is never not present, even as it wanders. For this reason, when you finally came out of the kitchen, I couldn’t not wonder what happened to your sweatshirt. It must’ve been soaked in rainwater, I concluded, and that was the reason you removed it. Or, rather, that was the excuse you used as you removed it. After all, your sneakers were soggy, but you couldn't exactly walk barefoot all over a corporate. Even so, there you were, in a far too small t-shirt which was too tight around your torso and too short to cover your stomach, walking around the office with your brewed bribes.

“Here you go, Jim” you placed the foam cup right in front of his face to get him to notice you. I’d argue that that slip of skin that was eye level to him was enough to get that scatterbrain's attention. He must’ve made a joke, or attempted to, because you laughed louder than anyone should around him.

“Cory,” you sauntered over to him. “I asked the barista for two tablespoons and a half this time.” Sure, he might’ve taken his glasses off before taste-testing it, but his lenses were fogged-up before the lid came off. You felt the most confidence around Cory, the least confident one in our team. While no line of code was too complex for him, women were a mystery he had yet to solve. You see, I haven’t failed to notice you making the most physical contact with him, brushing your hand against his as a means of disarming him.

After he served you a stuttered smile, you moved on to Paul who was pretending to be preoccupied with his screen. He’d been watching you since you walked out of the kitchen, yet still acted surprised when you showed up next to him. You didn’t mean to disturb him, of course, so you tip-toed around his desk, silently setting the cup on a coaster. He thanked you without taking his eyes off of his work, but took the time to watch you walk away as soon as you turned away from him.

"I'm sorry, Ed," you pouted as you placed the coffee on top of a stack of papers. "I know like to have your coffee before 8, but the storm hit while I was in the shop and the whole street took cover in there-"

"Slow down," I released the Rubik’s cube, flexing my fingers. "I'm not your supervisor. It’s not my forgiveness you need."

"Well, no, but I actually want your forgiveness," you covered your mouth in a coquettish display. "I mean-"

“Like I said,” I brush off the blush creeping up on my cheeks. "There's no use for that." Fetching the foam cup, I take a sip of the scolding beverage and brave through it. “There's no use to ask the barista to write our full names either. This calligraphy exercise cost you a scolding from Frank.”

“Actually,” you pulled the hem of your shirt down which only uncovered more of your cleavage instead of hiding your stomach. “I wrote your name myself.”

I stroked the surface of the cup right across the script. Again, I can’t call this action ‘absentminded’ either, but my mind had wandered off again. That lovely lettering was yours and so was the green marker, so you must’ve scavenged your backpack for it on a crowded morning train. You also must’ve taken your time steadying your hand for each stroke, each dot. E. Nygma. You also must’ve cleaned up the cup as it inevitably spilled and steadied your tongue for each stroke, each lick. Maybe you ever sampled the coffee yourself, the taste of cherry Chapstick staining the rim.

“Well,” you interrupted my intrusive thoughts. “Jim’s showing me the new user interface, so-”

“Of course,” I dismissed you and my daydreams.

“Talk to you later.”

Yes, that was the day the cat got his claws into me. It was after I’d drained the drink, and found myself restless still, that I made my way into the kitchen for another one. That is when I spotted you in the corner, cradling the sweatshirt you discarded earlier. At the sound of my steps, you straightened your back, but you didn’t turn your torso towards me.

“Hey, Ed,” you smiled and it was a painful sight because I couldn’t ignore the panic I ignited in your eyes. “Lunchtime already?”

“What are you doing?”

“Umm, trying to dry my shirt?”

The closer I got, the more gregarious you grew. You asked about what I’d like to eat, what the guys would like to eat, if I’d like to order out. You didn’t stop until I asked it of you.

“What are you hiding from me?”

Before you could bellow out something long enough to cover the sound, I heard it.

“Did your hoodie just meow?”

It was only then that you turned, facing me fully. “Please don’t tell Frank, but this is the reason I was running late.” Two pairs of eyes were pleading with me. One belonged to you and they were begging. The other belonged to an orange ball of fur and they were unblinking.

You were holding a bottle cap filled with water up to its meowing maw, so you must’ve been attempting to keep the animal hydrated, even after rescuing it from the streets in the middle of a storm. You bought kitten kibbles on your way to WayneTech and that had eaten ten minutes of your time and cost you a scolding from Frank.

“I couldn’t just leave Eddie to drown in a ditch somewhere.”

“Eddie?”

“Yeah,” you let it sink its little teeth into your skin as it held a single finger close with two whole paws. They feel like needles, I should know, but you carried on cooing the pincushion. “He reminds me of another green-eyed ginger. Maybe you know him.”

Yes, you remember now, don’t you? That was the moment Eddie sunk his claws into me, and I do mean it literally. He released your finger only to get his paws trapped into my button-up. I also mean it figuratively, as I swore to keep your secret the very next second. And, once you were by my side, shadowing me as I was coding like you wanted to since your first day of internship, you made me swear to keep him. How could I not? Your dorm had a ‘no pets’ policy and you had named him after me.

The two of us had time to get acquainted after you left for your evening classes. I fed him the kibbles and was careful not to get caught. And, because I wouldn't be using it that day anyway, I replaced your sweatshirt with my gym towel. While it smelled like a sad, soaked kitten, whatever fruity fragrance you were using had yet to fade from the fabric. That evening I drove straight home as soon as I left WayneTech, skipping my daily workout. My daily routine, as I’ve mentioned, had been modified by you.

“We don't even need to potty train him,” you giggled when you saw Eddie digging through the brand new litter box I had ordered. It had been waiting for me by the front entrance along with the delivery guy and yourself.

You got into a cab before even texting me, asking for an address only after the driver started the clock. I expected that stupid stunt from the likes of Jim, not you.

“He's a clever boy,” I smiled when I saw you were still wearing the green button-up shirt I asked you to exchange that shrunken t-shirt of yours with. “Like his namesake.”

You kneeled before the kitten and produced the plush mouse I'd only seen Eddie play with once. “Did the shampoo arrive? He should be high enough to not scratch our eyes out now.”

After rolling around on the rug with a bag full of catnip, he seemed blissed out enough for a bath. And, after only scratching you twice as you held him for me to scrub his ginger fur ever so gently, we got him all dried and drained. Those green eyes were barely opened as he looked up at us from the cat bed he was supposed to grow into and the sweatshirt he had grown fond of.

“Now we know he hates all water,” you said through gritted teeth as I sanitized your shaking hands. Your fingers were as fidgety as Cory's, yet I doubt his skin was ever that soft. “Not just the rain.”

“I bet he'd hate flees more,” I caressed your knuckles after bandaging the bloody bits.

“I hate the rain, too,” your eyes were downcast, much like earlier that morning, seemingly searching my sheets for something. “I never knew Frank could be so-”

“Terrifying?”

“Mean,” your giggle wasn't as gleeful as I'd grown used to. “I thought he was going to fire me right then and there.”

“He wouldn't,” I squeezed down on the shadows of your hands as they were snatched away from me. Then, I leaned in close and almost brushed your love with my lips as they moved: “He will let the anxiety that comes with that uncertainty eat you alive first.”

“See, now you're being mean,” you laughed, finally looking up at me.

“Me? Never,” I said, satisfied with myself. You were laughing - actually laughing - because of me.

When the dryer dinged, I was confident in leaving you in my bedroom with a smile on your face. After all, I was the one who brought you in there and I was the one who brought that out of you. Once I've collected your clothes, I returned to find you had already removed my button-up and was drying up the rest of your skin with one of my towels. You were turned only half the way, so you must've perceived me in your periphery. Paul pulled the same thing earlier today. Still, you sounded surprised as you covered the side of your breasts I bet you wanted me to see.

"Forgive me,” I turned around, but, unlike you, I did it all the way. “Here you are,” I stretched my arm behind me to hand you the bra and t-shirt.

“Thank you.” It was only after your bomber jacket was zipped to your chin that I dared to look at you directly. Your sweatshirt was Eddie's now, so you covered up with what you had. “For everything.”

“Let me drive you to your dorm.”

"You've already done enough," you pulled out your phone as I walked you to the door. “I'll just call another cab. Eddie needs you here. You need to wear him out, or he'll wear you out tonight.”

“Cats are crepuscular creatures,” I assure you. “Not nocturnal. I'm sure he'll fall asleep before I even turn in for the night.”

Yes, I was sure he'd fall. However, Eddie was so convinced. And, sure enough, there he was, meowing in my face at midnight.

My mistake was letting him get his claws into me. You see, I couldn't bear waking that little bastard up. Not when he looked so small in the middle of your sweatshirt, in the middle of his bed. He finally had a dry place to dream in and I couldn't take that away from him, so I let him sink his claws into me that much deeper.

And yours, as well.

After chasing him with my hand atop of my covers and letting him swat at the finger-spider, he was ready for bed. My bed. Yes, his green eyes were drooping when he surrendered to sleep. It just so happened that he did it on the left side of my bed. And I, not willing to risk another rude awakening, placed him atop of the pillow. Then, ever so silently, I slipped out of bed and into the bathroom. It was on my way back that I stumbled upon it: your sweatshirt.

I recall calling it off the floor and taking it with me to bed. For Eddie, of course. He loved that sweatshirt, as I'm sure you know. However, as I placed it on his pillow, I caught a whiff of it. It smelled like rainwater, pet shampoo, Eddie, and you. It was your sweat and deodorant, sweet and soapy, just as I had smelled it on my shirt before tossing it in the laundry basket and I couldn't smell it on the left side of my bed.

As I closed my eyes, I saw you. You were walking around the office, their wandering eyes watching you. You pass my desk and I am drenched in your scent. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking. Your sweatshirt is drenched, so you discard it. Your t-shirt is too tight, so I can see the dip of your belly button and the swell of your breasts. Though I am convinced you had a bra to cover them, my mind wanders. It wanders about the color of your nipples and it paints a picture of them peeking through the flimsy fabric.

And, as my mind wanders further, that flimsy fabric is pulled down, your hands wriggling at the hem of it. That's when those peeks pop out along with the rest. All of a sudden, you're soaking. Sweet. Soapy. You even try to hide this from me, crossing your arms over your chest. I capture your hands, soft skin, and fidgeting fingers, and wrestle with them. Oh, how easily you surrendered to me, sighing in defeat. I lock your arms behind your back with one hand and squeeze your tit like a stress toy. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking. I had to taste it.

When my tongue touched the tip, you pushed against it, filling my mouth with your flesh. You wanted this. That nipple is as sharp as a needle, but it melts in the heat of my mouth. You wanted this. After your tit is slick with my saliva and the peak is all puffy, I gather the other one in my grip and repeat. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking.

You wanted this and you told me as much. You said it loud enough for the others to hear. You wanted this. You wanted me. And, as if I haven't done enough, as if I haven't given you enough, I gave you all of me. Clearing the desk, cube, keypad, computer, and all, I slam you atop the surface. I had to pull down your pants for you, but your legs part all on their own. As for your panties, well, they all but dissolved under the duress. You attempt to hide from me again, tightening your thighs together. And, again, you surrender to me all too easily. After all, you want me. Your pussy? As I parted your legs and pushed your knees up to your chest, I saw how much she wanted me. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking.

However, I was not in a hurry. No matter how hot were your insides and how cold the chills were down my spine, I still took my sweet, soapy, soaking time. I set myself loose, my length slapping against your ass once it sprang free. You shivered, your back arching like a bow and your hands treading through your tangled hair. You wanted me. I took my time, sandwiching my shaft between your pussy lips, sliding across the slick and even wearing your labia as a hood atop its head for a maddening moment. It was only when you began begging, mewling to be mated that I gave myself to you. I crammed my cock inside of your cunt and went in so deep, I felt your heartbeat as your inner walls collapsed around me.

Sweet. Soapy. Soaking. I fucked you into a fever, your skin as slick as your insides and your mouth leaking as much saliva as your pussy was spilling precum. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking. Soon, it would've been spilling cum. Sweet. Soapy. Soaking. When I did come, however, it was in my fist and not between your lips.

As I opened my eyes, you disappeared. There was nothing there to greet me but the strike of the street lights slashing the darkness across the ceiling. Your sweetness had been replaced with my saltiness. It was indeed soapy and soaking, but it wasn’t you. Then, for the second time that night, I slipped out of bed and snuck into the bathroom.

The day you got cat’s claws into my shirt was the day you sunk your own under my skin. After that day, we shared a secret. I never told Frank about Eddie, but Eddie never told you about what I did in the dark. His glowing green eyes didn’t judge me, but they never let me forget. After you left without a notice, ginning up your internship, changing your phone number and never surrendering your real name, I couldn’t face them anymore. His eyes never let me forget, so I rehomed him.

I found your Gotham U sweatshirt while cleaning out my closet today. The name you gave WayneTech is nowhere to be found in their student records. Your name can’t be found in any police records either. Your real name, however, I am sure will uncover quite the mystery.

Yours,

E. NYGMA

#Edward Nygma #Riddler #Edward Nygma x Reader #Riddler x Reader #It is Not Safe For Work #Riddler x You #Edward Nygma x You

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talkfastromance4 · 4 years ago

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A Luke&Lily Christmas oneshot

Hey ya’ll, I’m sorry it’s been so long that I’ve written for our favorite girls. I haven’t had much inspiration and when I do get an idea and start to write, I just think it’s horrible. Anyway, this is some holiday fun.

word count: 3.2k

warnings: mentions of difficulty in conceiving, family fluff and some uncle love

donate to my ko-fi here :)

Masterlist

Luke&Lily Masterlist

Enjoy! Feedback is appreciated :)

• • • •

Christmas at the Hemmings’ household is always full of joy, music, and a little chaos. With Lily being in first grade she was in the Christmas concert at school where the children sang songs. She practiced around the house with Luke who would sing along with her and help her with the motions that the music teacher instructed.

With the holiday cheer also came some holiday downs. You and Luke had been trying for another baby ever since Posy turned two in May but you’ve had no luck so far. You and Luke both had tests done and everything came back normal, the doctor said stress can prevent a pregnancy and you have had a stressful time at work lately. You’ve had to take on filing for more cases which resulted in less time at home.

Luke tried to ease your stress away with his touches and kisses but it was your mind that was all wound up. You had a million thoughts racing through your mind on what needed to be filed, when court dates were, when deadlines were coming up and now to add on Christmas?

Thankfully, Luke was more than happy to help you decorate the house. He even bought three sets of gingerbread kits.

“We can have the guys come over and make them with the girls,” he smiled proudly.

Lily and Posy loved decorating the tree and placing their handmade ornaments on the branches. Posy was still too small yet so Lily was lifted in Luke’s arms to place the angel on top of the tree. When the decorating was done, you all made hot cocoa and snuggled up on the couch to watch the old claymations of Christmas shows on the tv. Lily loved the Jack Frost story and Posy loved watching Rudolph.

It’s the night of Lily’s concert and you have just fastened on her black shoe with the bright silver buckle. She has on a pretty red velvet dress and a green headband to tame her curls from her face. You gaze at her for a long moment, tears pooling in your eyes at how big your baby girl is already.

“Why are you crying mama?” Lily asks, touching your cheek.

“You’re just so big, sweetheart, mama forgets sometimes,” you smile through your tears. “I’m okay, don’t worry.” You give her a kiss on the cheek then take her hand walking out of her room to Luke and Posy who are in the living room.

He’s dressed Posy in a cute green dress with red tights. She looks like the cutest little elf.

“There’s the star of the night!” Luke exclaims upon seeing Lily. she smiles bashfully at her stepfather then runs to his arms. “You look like our angel on the tree, my sweet.”

“Dadaa!” she giggles squeezing his shoulders the best she can.

“What do you think, Pose? Should sissy be on the tree, hm?”

“Yeth!” Posy claps her hands together with a big smile on her face.

“No one is going on top of the tree,” you scold with a smile. “We need to get going, babe so we aren’t late.”

“Can you go get yours and Posy’s coats?” Luke asks Lily who nods and skips away to the mudroom. Her black shoes clicking on the floor.

“You look pretty enough to put on the tree,” Luke hints, rising from his knees to stand in front of you. He skims his finger over the swooping neckline of your white sweater that shows off your shoulders. He traces the snowflake pendant perched perfectly between your collarbones.

“I don’t think so, mister,” you poke his nose playfully and he pulls you against him. He has on your favorite green silk shirt of his, you can never take your eyes off him when he wears it.

“Can I put you on me instead?” he asks, pressing his lips to the shell of your ear. “Later tonight in bed?”

You sigh at his touch, the vibration of his voice makes goosebumps rise on your skin.

“Maybe...if you’re nice,” you preen tilting your head so he can attach his lips to your skin.

“I’m always nice. You’re the naughty one, lovie,” he chuckles.

“We’re ready!” Lily announces proudly.

You and Luke break apart then laugh at the mismatched gloves and lopsided hats on your girls. You praise them for their efforts but put the proper articles on each girl before heading into the car. When you arrive at the school, you walk Lily to her classroom where Mr. Glass (her teacher) is settling the kids down.

“Okay, we’ll be in the third row with your uncles,” you tell Lily. “Make sure to smile and have fun, okay?”

“Okay, mama,” she nods. You stare into her eyes, your eyes, knowing she’s nervous but trying not to let it show.

“You’re going to do such a good job, my sweet. Sing loud like we do at home, yeah?” Luke hugs her and kisses the top of her head.

You stroke her cheek lovingly one more time, say a quick hello to Mr. Glass and walk towards the auditorium where Ashton, Calum, and Michael are already sitting in their seats.

“Is she nervous?” Calum asks watching you shuffle past him to your seat.

“She’s not nervous,” Ashton shakes his head then takes Posy from Luke’s arms. “Hi little one, you look like the cutest ornament.”

“Is she nervous?” Michael asks peering around Ashton.

“She is, but she’ll be fine,” you smile. Luke grabs your hand and kisses it.

“Will she see us from here? We should be in the front,” Calum shakes his head eyeing a family of five in the first row. His eyes follow their movements as if he’s plotting a plan to switch.

“It’s assigned by grade, Cal,” Luke laughs. “She’ll be able to see us and she’s going to do great. Don’t worry.”

The lights dim and the audience claps as there’s movement behind the red curtain. The ages are from kindergarten to fifth grade. The curtains open as the kids file up on the stands, you spot Lily right away walking behind her friend Roman. She and Roman have been best friends since kindergarten and they have many play dates. His parents, Trina and Sophie, are wonderful people who you’ve also become closer to.

You and Luke spot them across the aisle, each of you waving happily.

When everyone is in their place onstage, the music teacher comes in front of them and introduces herself and explains how hard everyone has worked on this performance. She turns around and the music starts and Luke sets up his camera on the small tripod that fits perfectly on his knee. A promise he made to Cory and Ella to record the performance because they were out of town on a trip they couldn’t refund.

The songs they sing are the usual ones you’d expect at an elementary concert. The younger kids had bells for Jingle Bells, and the young ones did their hand motions to Away in a Manger. A favorite that had all of the kids excitement was Rudolph’s song. You kept your eyes on Lily the whole time who sang and smiled anytime she caught your eye or Luke’s or one of her uncles.

When the performance was over, they all took a bow and you screamed as loud as you could for Lily. She was beaming.

Lily found you in the crowd easily, hugging your legs then running into Calum’s arms who was already telling her how she was the best one up there. Trina and Sophie stopped by to say hello before they took Roman out for ice cream.

“Are we going for ice cream?” Michael asks and Lily laughs.

“Noo, uncle Mikey. We’re having hot cocoa bars!” Lily exclaims.

“We have a hot chocolate spread at home,” you correct with a smile.

Back at the house, the guys help Lily and Posy make their hot chocolate. Michael lets them put whipped cream on his nose and Ashton has Posy in his lap helping her drink her own cup. He blows on each spoonful before placing it in front of her.

“Sophie told me she and Trina were looking at donors again,” you tell Luke quietly near the stove. You put in the sugar cookies with Christmas trees on them for everyone to eat while drinking hot cocoa.

“Really? That’s great for them, Roman’s going to make a great big brother,” Luke smiles then notices your demeanor.

He knows it’s been tolling on you not being able to conceive. It’s been hard for him, too but he’s eased up a little after finding out there wasn’t anything physically wrong with either of you that prevented it. He’s happy that you’re on an eight day vacation over Christmas and New Year’s. It will be a time to relax and be with family.

“Hey,” he cups his hand on your shoulder, turning you to face him. “It’ll happen for us. We’ve been going a little crazy over it, but we can breathe and let it happen when it’s meant to.”

“I know, you’re right. I just can’t believe stress is making it this hard,” you huff tossing the oven mitts on the counter.

“I’ve got some ideas to help get you out of your head,” he grins leaning in to kiss you. He tastes like sugar cookies and chocolate.

Suffice it to say, he definitely found a way to make your head spin later when the girls were put to sleep.

“Okay, we’re going to be on teams and post on social media who wins the best gingerbread house,” Luke explains.

Calum and Lily are on one team, each of them wearing a Santa hat while Ashton and Posy are a team wearing reindeer antlers. Michael couldn’t make it tonight, he and Crystal were on a last minute trip before Christmas arrived. You and Luke were on a team together.

“Is this timed?” Ashton asks, already calculating his house with Posy.

“No,” Luke laughs, “the girls are only six and two, we can take our time.”

“You’re going down, Ash,” Calum says, filling up his bag of frosting. Lily is kneeling on her knees on the chair watching him.

The gingerbread house making is filled with lots of laughs and stealing of treats from Posy.

“No, Po, we have to have a chimney on our house!” Ashton giggles snatching the chimney pieces form her small fingers.

“Eat, Ashy!” she laughs reaching for it again.

“We can do it after we’re finished, little one, I promise,” he rubs her belly.

Calum and Lily planned together quietly on their end of the table. You love watching the girls interact with their uncles. The guys are so patient with them and love spending time with them. You’re really looking forward to your eight days off of being with your family and friends for the holidays.

When you were all finished you took plenty of photos of the houses and the creators of them. Luke posted the houses to his instagram story with polls on who was the best. Christmas movies were part of the agenda as well.

A week before Christmas, Posy had a high fever that lasted for three days. You desperately wanted to stay home with her but it was crunchtime at work so you made sure to cuddle her as soon as you were home. Her small body was so hot to the touch but you held her in hopes she would sweat it out.

“We should take her to the doctor,” Luke tells you quietly as you feed her more liquid tylenol for children.

“If it’s not down by tomorrow, we will,” you nod touching her forehead. It’s clammy but not as hot. “I’m hoping it’s going down.”

Luke sighs in exasperation watching you rock Posy in your arms. You’re humming to her and tracing the features of her face, a tactic that always soothes her.

“I used to get sick around this time, too,” you tell him when her eyes close.

“I hate seeing her so miserable.”

“Me too. We’ll watch her fever...her glands don’t feel that swollen. She hasn’t thrown up, right?”

“Only that time I tried to give her medicine,” he blinks slowly and you see the circles under his eyes.

“Get some sleep, honey,” you tell him. “I’ve got her.”

The next day, her fever did break and you and Luke were so happy. Lily made sure to bring home a picture she drew at school in hopes it would make Posy feel better. Posy got over her fever just in time for your Christmas Eve party.

Friends and family were gathered in your house with lots of food and music to bring in the holiday cheer. Cory and Ella watched Lily’s concert beforehand with Lily sitting on Cory’s lap. As more guests arrived, Cory was acting a little strange. He kept glancing at you and Luke while he held Posy in his arms.

“Are you okay?” you ask him finally taking Posy from him. She was starting to get fussy and hungry.

“Yeah, um… do you mind if I say something to everyone?”

“No, go ahead…” you say giving him a look.

He pulls Ella to the center of the living room, Luke sidles up next to you checking on Posy then nods to Cory.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know but we’re about to find out.”

“Everyone? Sorry, this will be quick,” Cory begins. He takes a deep breath then turns to Ella. “On our trip, I asked Ella to marry me.”

There’s gasps and cheers from everyone, yourself included as you look to Ella’s hand. Cory has just slipped on her ring, was he hiding it until this moment?

“And right after I asked her…”

“I told him I was pregnant!” Ella smiles pulling an ultrasound photo from behind her back.

There’s more cheers and congratulations. You’re the first one to give them a hug and to welcome her officially to the family. Others are swarming the happy couple with questions about how he asked and when she’s due. You handed Posy off to Ashton then disappeared out by the pool to get some fresh air, Luke wasn’t far behind.

“Hey, hey, c’mere,” he says, pulling you against his chest. You breathe him in deeply, letting his scent calm you down. “It’s okay…”

“I’m happy for them, I really am,” you sniff. “I love Ella, she’s wonderful and they’re going to be great parents but I--”

“I know, it’s hard,” Luke sighs, kissing your head. “We won’t give up, okay? I know it’ll happen, I can feel it.”

On Christmas morning you’re woken to Lily and Posy jumping on your bed screaming about Santa and presents. You and Luke give them hugs and kisses as you wake up trying to get the sleep from your eyes.

“How about some cocoa while we open presents?” you ask.

You make the cocoa with the help of the girls while Luke brews a pot of coffee for you and him. It’s six in the morning and it’s going to be a long day of driving and opening presents at other houses. Luke snaps photos while Lily and Posy open their presents. Lily claims to love each one and that it’s exactly what she wanted.

Luke loves the gifts you gave him and you couldn’t wait to wear the dress he bought you for the day. After breakfast, you all went over to Cory and Ella’s to open presents and you discussed her pregnancy a bit more. After the initial shock, you were excited to see her through this journey. She asked tons of questions about morning sickness and headaches.

“Are you planning on finding out what you’re going to have?” you ask.

“I don’t think so. We want to be surprised. You’re sure you’re okay with this, Y/N?” Ella asks, her eyes full of worry.

“I’m more than happy,” you assure her, “you’re a part of the family. And, I might be biased, but Lily will be the best big sister to your baby.”

“Posy will too,” Ella smiles, “I don’t want her to feel left out, in my mind, they’re both big sisters.”

“You’re right.”

After Cory and Ella’s you went to Michael and Crystal’s house for more presents and a big fancy dinner of ham and all the fixings. You started to feel a little dizzy towards the end of the meal and went to sit down on the couch. Luke came by rubbing your temples in concern but you told him it was probably just the rush of the day.

Later that night while Lily and Posy placed their new stuffed animals in their beds to sleep with, you were piling their presents in order when another wave of dizziness struck you. You sat down and held your head until it was time to say goodnight to the girls.

“You sure you’re all right?” Luke asks as you crawl into bed.

“I’m fine. Just a busy day,” you sigh collapsing onto your pillow. “Speaking of...are you doing anything right now?”

“Going to bed?” he laughs.

You swing your leg over his waist so you’re straddling him.

“How about doing me?”

Luke is eager to get you out of your pajamas and under him. Lips and hands explore familiar territory as he rocks his hips into yours. You have to fight to keep your moans quiet as he makes your head dizzy in a completely different way.

The rest of your vacation was full of lots of relaxation and spending well deserved time with Luke and the girls. You played games with Lily and even took the girls ice skating. By New Year’s Eve, you were feeling a little drained and the thought of alcohol made your stomach turn. There was a babysitter watching Lily and Posy while you went to a rooftop bar for the countdown of the new year.

You had a blast but in the back of your mind, something was nagging at you to get a pregnancy test. You shared a kiss with Luke at midnight, giggling when his hands squeezed your ass. On the way home, you asked to stop at the drugstore making an excuse you needed more aspirin.

Once home, you charged for the bathroom and took the three pregnancy tests in the box while Luke talked with the babysitter and paid her. You wait anxiously for the three minutes to be up. When your phone’s alarm sounded, you looked at each one. Each one had the word ‘pregnant’ on the stick and you stared stunned.

“Lovie? Are you sick?” Luke asks, knocking on the door.

Too excited to wait, you whip the door open and exclaim “I’m pregnant!”

“You’re--what?” he asks, jumping at the loud burst of the door opening.

“Look!” You drag him in the bathroom pointing to the tests. “I’ve been dizzy lately and feeling queasy...this is why!”

He stares at each test individually, his lips forming the word ‘pregnant’ three times. He lets out a whoop and kisses you.

“I love you so much. See, I told you it would happen when it’s meant to. What a way to ring in the New Year.”

“Happy New Year, baby,” you smile up at him cupping his cheek.

“Happy New year,” he smiles then places his hand on your belly, “baby.”

Taglist: @calpalirwin @thecurlsofgod @myloverboyash @rotten-kandy @tea4sykes @jannimoeller3 @loveroflrh @iovehemmings @cxddlyash @princesslrh @katiaw2 @g-l-pierce @fairyintheglass @gosh-im-short @lukeisbaby @spicycal @mysticalhood @notinthesameguey @wastedheartcth @itjustkindahappenedreally @calumance @babylon-corgis @thew0rldneedsmcreycghurt @lanternlover2 @istaywithmyjonas @calteahood @sarcastically-defensive17 @another-lonely-heart @devilatmydoor @frontmanash @philthepegacorn @mantlereid @lukedorkyhemmings @addietagglikesbands @kikixfandoms @sanrioluke @mayve-hems @morguelth @haikucal @thatscooibaby @meghanrose05 @idontneedanyone @dinosaursandsocks @haveufoundwhaturlooking4 @suchalonelysunflower @burstintocolor @zhangyixingxing1 @dead-and-golden @mymindwide @everyscarisahealingplace @stardust-galaxies @blackbutterfliescal @redrattlers @lovelybonesetc @karajaynetoday @quasighost @i-like-5sos @creampiecashton @calpops @superbloomed-c @ophelia-enthusiast @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @flaneurcth @dariangarcia

#dad!luke #luke&lily #luke & lily writing #luke fluff #luke hemmings writing #luke hemmings fluff #dad!sos

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thiswasinevitableid · 5 years ago

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9 danbrey? (nsfw or sfw!)

9 was “Meditation.” I went SFW, hope you like it! Dani’s coloration is inspired by a Green and Gold Cory

Dani likes watching the humans, especially the ones her age, from a tangle of kelp near the shore. Human children are always running up and down the seashore, shrieking and splashing. She’s asked if she can play with them, but her parents keep reminding her that humans don’t generally react calmly to merfolk.

This child, however, is just sitting there, legs crossed and eyes shut, hands on her knees (Dani’s pretty sure that’s what they’re called). Her hair is dark, springing about in the wind, and Dani swims closer. The girl doesn’t react, even when Dani is as far as she can go in the water. Cautiously, she wiggles up on onto the beach, tail still firmly in the surf.

“Hi.” She says with a smile. The girl doesn’t open her eyes.

Dani tries again, thinking she didn’t hear her, “Hi.”

The girl furrows her brow and purses her lips. A little annoyed at her rudeness, Dani splashes her with her tail.

“HEY!” The girl wipes water from her eyes, glaring. Then she notices the tail. “WOW, are you are you mermaid?”

“Yes.” Dani nods proudly.

“Woooow” the girl crawls forward to get a better look at her tail.

“How come you were just sitting here?”

“I’m meditating. My teacher says it’s good for me to practice focusing and letting the things I think come into my head and then go.”

“Why?”

“I have problems paying attention to things sometimes.”

“Ohhh” Dani nods, trying to show she understands this could be a problem but isn’t sure why. When the other girl doesn’t say more, she adds, “do you want to see a hermit crab?

“Yeah!”

Dani shows her hermit crabs and small fish until a voice calls, “Aubrey, time for dinner firebug!”

“Oops, that’s my mom. Gotta go, see you later!”

As she runs up the beach, Dani calls, “Bye Aubrey!” before slipping back into the waves.

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

To Dani’s excitement, Aubrey’s family has just bought a house up on a hill by the beach, near the cove where Dani likes to swim. Which means the other girl comes down to see her almost every day. They tell stories about their families, Aubrey explaining what human school is like and Dani telling her what school is like under the sea.

Dani weaves her necklaces out of kelp and Aubrey brings her crowns made of small flowers she calls dandelions. Dani keeps them in a small stone box until all the petals float away.

The only thing Aubrey won’t do is swim with her, saying her mom and dad have forbidden her from going into the water without an adult. No matter how much Dani demonstrates her strength as a swimmer, or offers to bring her older brother to watch them, Aubrey stays on shore.

Today, a year and a half since they first met, Aubrey is sitting glumly beside the sea when Dani surfaces on the beach.

“What’s wrong?”

“Today’s Valentines Day. Um, a day when you celebrate love. My mom says it’s just a day to sell cards and candy. But, well, it’s also a day when you tell people you like them. In fifth grade, you just gave everyone in class a valentine. A card where you, like, tell them you like them or just say hi.” she draws a heart shape in the sand, “But this year you just give them to people you like-like. I gave them to John and Lilly. I didn’t get any though.” She draws a frowny face into the surf, then drags a piece of driftwood through it, muttering, “Emily Ross got stuff from four different people.”

Dani is both upset on her friend’s behalf and completely baffled. How could there be anyone at the school more deserving of gifts and attention than Aubrey? Aubrey is funny and lively and is learning how to do magic tricks, and her nose crinkles in a really cute way when she laughs, and she’s just the best person Dani can imagine.

“Wait here.” Dani splashes back into the waves, swimming to one of the spots she knows holds oysters.

A few minutes later she reappears, triumphant.

“Here. Oh wait.” She drags her finger through the sand to make a heart, then places her gift in it.

“Holy cow is that a pearl?”

“Uh huh. I asked the oysters politely if any of them had one.”

“But that’s, like, a really fancy thing! It’s a gem.”

Dani shakes water from her blonde hair, “So? You deserve it.”

Aubrey gives her a funny look, then scoots forward. Her lips are chilly when they press against Dani’s cheek, but her chest heats up all the same.

“There,” Aubrey says softly, “now it’s really a valentine gift, cause I kissed you for giving it.”

“Okay.” Dani blushes at the silly response, but before she can say anything else a familiar voice calls and Aubrey heads up the hill towards home.

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

“Gah, it’s so pretty!” Dani spins, admiring her new golden stripes in her tail. She’s gotten it during her sixteenth summer, just as her brother did. Said brother is watching her proudly.

“Gonna swim up and show your girlfriend.”

“Shut up, Barclay.” She thwacks his arm with her tail, “she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Uh huh, sure, you only see her everyday and bring her presents and talk about her constantly.”

“Do I need to bring up your writer friend? And the hickey you gave him?”

“I told you, an octopus did that!”

“No, it didn’t.”

“...Yeah, it didn’t.” He grabs her hand, spinning her as she laughs, “just be careful, okay sis? Loving humans is a tricky thing, and I’d hate to see you heartbroken.”

His warning echoes in her mind as she grabs the green swimsuit top she uses for surface visits (merfolk don’t wear clothes, but about three years ago she’d surfaced and Aubrey had turned pink, eyes firmly shut as she stuttered that maybe Dani might want to maybe possibly wear something on her chest. She found a bikini top that had floated free of it’s owner a few days later).

When she surfaces, Aubrey is nowhere in sight. Instead, in the waterproof notebook they keep stashed in a rock crevice, she's written, “busy tonight, will be here tomorrow for sure.”

Oh, right, she said tonight is something called prom, and that an older student had asked her to go. Of course, she should choose to court her own kind, just as Dani could choose the same. She just doesn’t want to.

She puts on a brave face during dinner, brushes off Barclay’s worried questions at moonrise. A late night swim should ease her mind.

Or cause her to bump her head on a familiar paddle board. One a certain human bought so she and Dani could chat out in open water.

“Aubrey?”

“Mmm? Oh, hey.” Aubrey opens her eyes and uncrosses her legs, “thought you might still be up.”

“Were you...meditating? You haven’t done that in years.”

“I still do it sometimes. Like, if I’m trying to focus or calm myself down for something big.”

“Is prom something big?”

Aubrey snorts a little laugh, “no. In fact, I told my date I wasn’t going to go.”

“Why?” Dani rests her arms on the edge of the board.

“I think he’s actually super into me. But, like, I’m not really that into him and I don’t wanna get his hopes up. Not when I like someone else.”

Dani’s tail twitches nervously, “Someone else?”

Aubrey cups her face, leans forward hurriedly and kisses her so hard she gasps, throwing her arms around Aubrey’s neck. Emboldened, Aubrey deepens the kiss, tangling her fingers into her hair.

Then, with a shriek and splash, she leans too far and falls off the board, only to surface in Dani’s embrace.

“Really?” Dani whispers, still not sure it’s all real.

‘“Uh huh. I’m so, like, into you, Dani. I have been for awhile I was just...look there’s not a guidebook for how to confess your deepest feelings to a mermaid okay?”

“I forgive you.” Dani kisses her nose, teases the back of her legs with her tail, “You know, it’s a wonderful night for a swim. Care to stay awhile, cutie?”

Aubrey kisses her slow and happy, wrapping her legs around her waist, “That sounds perfect. Honey.”

#mermay fills #danbrey #aubrey little/dani #aubrey/dani #TAZ Amnesty

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licenselesswriter · 6 years ago

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From November to June CH1

November 20, 2017

Maya was nervous, she never thought that she finds herself in this situation, she always thought that she was way more street smart than this, but now, she was in the predicament of her life.

- So, short story, we're getting married - Josh says while he lifts the arm of his new fiancée.

- Oh! - Cory says excited, opening his arms to hug the young couple.

Riley joins the hug and welcomes the fiancée of her uncle to the family, on the other hand, Lucas looks at Maya waiting for a reaction.

And he finds one.

He slowly walks to her and sits next to her - It was him - he just says, not asking or judging, just telling her.

- Pretty smart for a cowboy - Maya jokes trying to hide what she was feeling in her gut.

- What are you gonna do with that? - he asks Maya.

- Probably regret having him or her for the next 8 months, and then love it for the rest of my life - she says putting a hand over her belly.

- Does anyone else know about it? - Lucas asks this time.

- Aren't you doing way too many questions today Huckleberry? - she asks back and then takes a deep breath, putting them in awkward silence for a few seconds - No - she finally answers while she looks at everyone celebrating the new addition to the family, really hoping to be her the one in that place.

- What you gonna do when it becomes more obvious to the eye? - Lucas keeps pushing his questions on Maya.

- How are you gonna explain that a pregnant woman beat the shit out of you for asking that many questions? - Maya asks back.

- If that's the price for having my questions answered about people I care about and future people I'm gonna care about, I will even get you a brass knuckle - Lucas answers completely serious, making Maya blurt in laughter dragging everyone's attention.

- Sorry, please continue with your celebration - Maya says, making most of the people in the Matthews home go back to Josh and his fiancée - I'm in the mood for chimichangas - she adds in a lower tone, only for Lucas to hear.

- Nice try - Lucas says, letting a short and dry laugh escape his mouth - Chimichangas is your constant mood - he adds getting up - Lucky for you, I'm in the mood to spend my money feeding you, let's go - he adds walking to the coat hanger to pick his jacket.

- Howdy, you're leaving? - Josh asks Lucas when he saw him pick his jacket and Maya's coat.

- Yeah - he simply answers, trying not to punch him in the face for getting Maya pregnant - Maya wants chimichangas and I want to spend my money, so win-win situation - he adds with a dry tone that let his disgust with Riley's uncle - BTW, congrats on your engagement - he says and offer his hand, the one Josh shake with a smile on his face, not knowing exactly what was on Lucas mind.

- Thanks - Josh says and then he felt a tiny hand on his lower back.

- Well, it was nice to see you, Josh, congrats to your fiancée, she's taking a good guy - Maya says and Josh hugs her tightly, making Lucas sigh deep - Ok, let's go, Huckleberry, bye Josh - Maya says and takes her coat from Lucas' hand. Once they were on the stairs of the Matthews residence Maya grabs Lucas' shirt collar - What the hell was that? - she asks him.

Lucas just gave her a smirk - Nothing - he adds with his smirk still on his face and starts to walk to his car.

Maya follows him, she wouldn't let his attitude gets her away from free chimichangas.

Lucas opens the door for Maya and she sits in silence. Lucas, of course, did the same and starts his car.

but 15 minutes later Lucas finally explode - You know what, there is something - he says without taking the eyes from the road - I think it's a bit illegal to get a 17-year-old girl pregnant when you're 20 and then in less than a month you came back to introduce your fiancée - he says and Maya just looks at him in shock.

- Excuse me? A bit too judgy? - Maya says, not in disagreeing with what he explained, but still a bit mad for the way he put it.

- I'm sorry, but I'm not only one saying that's morally wrong, but the actual law also says it - Lucas defends himself.

- I'm not gonna discuss my sex life with you Huckleberry, at least not unless I'm drunk - she says and then presses her forehead against the cold window.

- Not gonna discuss your sex life - Lucas says while he keeps driving and the red light make him stop - I'm questioning his morality backed up by the law of the United States of America - he adds and looks at her directly into her eyes - And you're dreaming if you think I'm gonna let you close to a bottle of alcohol - he continues when the light became green.

- Wow, never imagined you had that Papa Friar under that Sundance exterior - Maya jokes, but Lucas kept firm driving - You don't need to worry about me Huckleberry, I been able to handle worse than a young pregnancy - she adds, joking about her life.

Lucas just stays silent, knowing exactly how to feel but not knowing exactly how to word it.

15 minutes later, Lucas parks his car in the parking spots in Queens Boulevard and 40st and Maya's smile grow by the second, making him smile for the first time since he started his conversation with her in the Matthews residence.

- I like Papa Friar - Maya says and Lucas fails on containing his laugh - He's way more considerate that Judgy Asshole Ranger Rick - Maya adds and fastly opens the door and walk out the car, only to run to the pedestrian cross.

They both cross to the restaurant, Maya faster than Lucas.

Lucas wasn't able to see the feelings he was experimenting as other than friendship.

- Come on Huckleberry, Mama is hungry - she says hoping for him to get to the door faster.

They were sitting in no more than 7 minutes, and being conscious about the joy she was having, Lucas just let Maya go crazy in food.

In the middle of their dinner, Lucas decides to break the silence by asking the most important question - Are you gonna tell him? - he asks.

Maya just looks at him like he was stupid - You mean now or someday? - she asks back before putting half of a chimichanga in her mouth.

Lucas looks at her a bit disgusted by her ability to push food down her throat, and put his chimichanga back into his plate - Well, it's more than obvious that you already miss the chance of telling him today - he answers. He grabs his drink and takes a sip - So? - he insists with his question.

- Probably one day - Maya vaguely answers - It's more than obvious that he - she continues and put a hand over her belly - Or she, is gonna ask where is the person who donates half of his or her DNA - she says making Lucas laugh - The thing is, I can probably lie my way out of those questions and bought the curiosity with cookies - Maya adds and point at the chimichanga Lucas left on his plate - Are you gonna eat that? - she asks.

Lucas looks at her disgusted again - My God, you're disgusting - he answers, but finally agreed to her eating what he left - What about money? Kids are not cheap - he says lifting his hand and calling for the waitress, who after a few minutes walks to their table - Yes, please, one order of Mexican Churros - Lucas says pointing them in the menu, then he looks at Maya - Order something, I don't share desserts - then his attention goes back to the waitress - Also, please, a cup of coffee, black - he adds while Maya takes the menu from his hand.

- One order of Mexican Churros and a Crème Brulee - she says and left the menu on her left. The waitress smiled and look at Lucas, he only nods. When Maya was sure that the waitress wasn't close enough to hear she looks at Lucas - Well, I hope to get a job, that pays a bit more than the minimum wage, help from friends and family and my savings - she explains.

When he heard her answer, Lucas forgot for a second that he was her friend and not her father - And college? - he asks, trying to control his judgmental tone.

- Well, if what's growing inside is half smart as his Father, then a scholarship is more than obvious for the future - she answers.

Lucas just sighs again, defeated - I can't deal with you - he says and Maya softly giggles.

- Not a surprise Huckleberry - she replies and they both keep the silence till they desserts came.

Lucas looks at Maya devour the Crème Brulee - Yeah, I definitely can't deal with you - he admits with a smile on his face, making Maya smile.

They finish their food and Lucas paid for everything, just as he promised. He helps her with her coat and then put his jacket on, a bit surprised by the strange mid-November snow.

Lucas repeats the process and opens the door for Maya, who happily jumps on his car, he walks to the driver seat and gets inside the car. He starts the car and tried to connect his phone to the radio, but Maya was faster and mute any music.

- What? - he asks her, noticing how she was way too serious.

- You can't tell anybody about this, this is something I should tell, not you - she warns him.

Lucas smile and put his hand on her cheek, softly caressing it - I'm Lucas, not Farkle, not Riley, Lucas - he replies and Maya smile.

A lot more relaxed, she unmutes the radio.

The slow drum of "Slow Hands" starts to blast on the radio while Lucas starts to drive her back to her place.

- Holy shit - Maya says and laughs, taking a photo of the song on the smart sound system on Lucas car - One "Huckleberry" Direction - she adds, mocking of his music playlist - I'm never gonna let you forget this - she says while Lucas can't avoid the blushing.

When they arrive at her place, like a true gentleman, Lucas gets down and open the door for her.

- Thanks for bringing me home "Night Changes" - she jokes and Lucas just looks at the snowing sky of New York.

- I hate my life - he softly says.

Sadly, not soft enough for Maya to not hear it - Awww that desperation is "What makes you beautiful" Huckleberry - she continues, and this time, Lucas can only laugh. In the middle of his laugh, Maya gets close to him and hug him - Thanks Lucas - she says, no mask, only gratitude.

- Don't be - Lucas replies and hugs her back - I'm your friend, that's my job - he adds and Maya unconsciously smile against his chest.

Maya slowly gets away from him and walk up the stairs of her apartment, only to be stopped by Lucas - Maya - he calls her, and she stops, slowly turning back to face him.

- What - she says, waiting, expecting.

- Let me help - he adds with a sincere smile on his face.

Maya just let a soft laugh escape her mouth - Goodnight Huckleberry - she says and disappears inside the building.

#GMW #Lucaya #Lucaya Fanfic #Lucaya Friendship #From November to June #Guess who gets himself a 27 days break #this guy #this is finished btw

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loudsuitlover · 6 years ago

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Nthng - Preview

A/N: It’s literally nothing but I posted it by mistake so now it’s gonna stay I guess

“I can’t believe I trusted you out of all people to buy the costumes” You smiled as you shook your head at Nick, feeling completely exposed on the Juliet’s costume he had bought for you- with the lowest neckline you had ever worn.

“It’s so nice to see you like this.”

You rolled your eyes.

“So now you’re gonna pretend you’re not the gayest man I know. Grimshaw, it’s too late for you.”

“No” he playfully pushed your arm “I meant happy.”

You giggled, feeling your cheeks turning pink as you looked down at the floor shrugging before you spoke.

“Yeah, well, this audition thing is really doing wonders to my mind... But maybe it has something to do with Harry being hours away.” You smiled.

But that’s when you heard his voice, cheerfully chatting to someone who must have been walking your way too. You turned around, your heart on your throat, only to be met with his green, happy eyes, and those of his sister, walking next to him.

“Wow!” He grinned. “You look gorgeous!”

“Yeah, uh, thank you.” You blushed. “It’s... It’s for an audition... A silly thing I’m doing with Nick.”

“It’s not silly.” He frowned. “For all we know they might even pick us.”

“Sure.” You shrugged sarcastically which only earned you another swat on your shoulder.

“An audition, hey?” Harry smiled. “I can’t wait for you to tell me about it.”

“Yeah, uh, what are you doing here? Weren’t you in LA with Cory?”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

How could he tell you? That yes he had broken up with yet another girlfriend, again, because yes, as close of friends as you were, he was also very much in love with you- he had been for years- and every time he was away from you for too long he just started acting weird and then he had to break up with whoever it was that he was seeing at the time because it just didn’t feel right to lie in the face of someone like that.

But he just looked at you and gave you a happy smile and you hated that it hurt so bad to see your best friend happy. It was just hard really, to be in love with someone who would never love you back, to love your best friend in a very inappropiate way and yet as hard as you tried, not being able to change the way you felt about him. He had been dating Cory for a little over four months now so it seemed to be serious this time and you... You just couldn’t forget about it.

“Well we... I mean I... I have to go.” You told him.

“Now?” He pouted. “But I just got here and I haven’t seen you in so long! Will you just have a cup of coffee with me, please? I’ve missed you.” He smiled.

“I just... I, uh... I really need to go though because... uh.... because I’m going to the... I have to go to...”

“The theatre” Nick interrupted “yeah, I’m actually going with her. We got the tickets a while ago.”

“Oh, really?” Harry asked. “And what are you watching?”

“It’s, uh, it’s called The Play” Nick raised his eyebrows as you kept blushing redder and redder because man he was fucking it up “yeah, it’s independent theatre you probably don’t know it. It’s about a girl that buys his best friend dinner because he gets her out of a very uncomfortable situation with her crush who turns out to be the love of her life actually. They eat at a sushi place.” Nick said while you coughed for him to stop.

“Oh” Harry frowned “that’s a weird plot.”

“It has very good critic though.” You said, pushing Nick out of the scene. “We’re running late.” You smiled.

“Sure. Call me later. We can have dinner or... Like just watch a movie or something, order Chinese...”

“Yeah, we’ll... we’ll see.” You smiled, disappearing from the scene as if the devil was trying to catch you.

An hour later you were changed into jeans and a sweater and having sushi with Nick at the restaurant he wanted. He was smiling out from ear to ear as he scrolled on his phone.

“They eat at a sushi place, really?” You asked with narrowed eyes patiently waiting for him to text whoever it is that was texting him.

“Excuse me little uh...mmhm....um.... Had it been for you we would still be there.”

You rolled your eyes.

“Doesn’t he look so handsome?” You sighed. “I don’t know how it’s possible but every time he comes back he looks better...”

Nick looked up at you, stopping his texting, but you didn’t really see him since you were daydreaming with Harry’s dimples, waiting for your sushi to share to arrive.

“Listen, if you’re gonna tell him how you feel, you gotta stop thinking about him like that.”

“Of course I’m not gonna tell him how I feel!” You exasperated as if the only thought of telling him sounded ridiculous enough to scream. “He’s got a girlfriend and you saw how happy he was. I think she might even be the one...” A tinge of jealousy burned your chest. “But it’s not like I can even be mad. She’s great, perfect for him too. He would never look at me like that anyway, Cory or no Cory in the picture.”

“You are a proper idiot.” Nick said, thanking the waitress when she left the huge tray of sushi on the table. “He was completely head over heels for you before you left for Australia and then when you came back it was as if he had been waiting for you but you had no better thing to do than to tell him all about that Jack guy who anyway you were not going to ever see again.”

“That is not true.” You frowned. “He’s never been into me. We’re just friends.”

“He’s been into you since he met you!” He frowned. “And everybody knows that.”

“Literally nobody thinks that.”

“Uh, Niall” He started listing a ridiculous amount of people you barely knew who you were sure had never even mentioned anything even remotely close to your friendship with Harry but you just rolled your eyes and nodded. “He just texted me, by the way” Nick shrugged “asked me about you.”

“Who? Niall?” You frowned.

“No, you goose! Harry!”

“Did he?” You checked your phone. “Well he didn’t text me...”

“Yeah well he just asked is something’s up with you.”

“Really? Oh my God! Do you think he knows? Who would have told him? Do you think Gemma knows? I knew I was being too obvious!”

Nick’s eyes looked into your own as if you had literally gone mad, a big piece of sushi on his mouth. He swallowed, then drank some water before he made fun of you.

“When? Before you said “I, uh, I... have to go.... uh.... because I....” or when you told him “yeah, well, we’ll see.” He raised his eyebrows. “He literally asked you out and you told him yeal well we’ll see. And you want him to text you?”

“He did not ask me out! We’re friends! He said we could watch a movie or something and quite frankly Nicholas I don’t know if I’m ready to watch a movie with him.”

“You’re not going to marry him, Y/N, you’re just going to have Chinese and watch a movie. And... I mean for the love of God you’ve been friends for how long? Five years? And now you can’t watch a movie with him?”

“Well I wasn’t in love with him before!”

“Cak uh fell in?” He was the most disgusting friend you had, talking with his mouth full of rice, but for some reason- and at that very moment you didn’t know why- you wouldn’t change him for the world.

“What?”

“Can I tell him?”

“No!”

“Well then stop talking about him! And let’s talk about our casting tomorrow. Do you think I look too gay when I play Romeo?”

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allthingsteenmom · 6 years ago

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MY THOUGHTS ON TEEN MOM OG S8 E5 “BABY FEVER”

• I like the TTM shirt Maci is wearing - it’s simple

• “I just hope Ryan is finally ready to step up as a dad”...which MTV person wrote that line lmao

• A few WEEKS? Uh

• I like that the part of Cali Cheyenne lives in is still so green

• Lol Cheyenne with her boyfriend about a ring is me

• Omg I bought that exact little brother outfit for my friends sons first birthday

• Wow Leah was such a cute baby and she did look a lot like James

• WOAH you can’t just drop a pregnancy bombshell like that wtf

• Leah looks PISSED

• Also how are you 5 days late and haven’t tested if you’re super regular and not on birth control

• Also why isn’t she on birth control wtf

• Vaeda looking straight into the camera PISSED hahah

• Cate’s dark hair looks so good!

• I feel like Cate & Ty really got fucked over with Brandon & Teresa in the sense of being young and not having clear expectations and boundaries with the adoption

• We haven’t seen Sharon in awhile

• Man everyone knows Cheyenne wants to have a kid soon lmao

• It makes me so sad to see Amber in this episode doing ok, being happy, taking care of kids, getting along with Andrew...knowing what things are life in real time

• God I hate the marriage question

• Agh I can’t see Carly flashbacks without getting teary

• I am so impressed with Tyler & Catelynn and the decision they made and I think others should make that decision but I don’t know how they did it

• When I see all of these houses it really makes me wish I lived somewhere random with cheaper cost of living but damn I just love coastal states

• Going through everything Ryan has should give him anxiety. And it absolutely should make him reevaluate decisions he’s been making and make some positive changes

• Anyone linked to an Edwards needs some therapy and a good podcast

• Do you think Brandon & Teresa actually show Carly that scrapbook?..

• “I stay in my room all the time, what do I need condoms for” hahah

• Matt seems very chill and probably good to keep Cheyenne low key

• Damn Cory is a straight shooter lol

• I’m confused about Cheyenne & Matt’s timeline, like how long they’ve been together, etc

• They would not need a bigger house?

• Yes please go on birth control, it would be smart

• Watching this show with the girls living all over the place really makes me want to explore more of the US

• Henry’s Hard Soda, hey lol

• I think Maci is accurate in her assessment of the Edward’s views of the whole situation

• Maci is DONE (and I don’t blame her)

• I’m really glad I didn’t have a child with the guy I was with at 16

• “boys lie” what a hat

• I love Mochi ice cream

• I love Cheyenne’s braids

• I still think Cory and Cheyenne will end up together one day lol

• Cory and Taylor do not love each other lol

• I was a bald baby lol

• Catelynn’s mom seems like she’s doing so much better

• Catelynn has been doing SO well

#teen mom og #maci mckinney #maci bookout #ryan edwards #cheyenne floyd #leah leaan shirley #james andrew glennon #amber portwood #cate baltierra #catelynn lowell #cate lowell #catelynn baltierra #tyler baltierra #carly #vaeda luma baltierra #things that matter lifestyle #cory wharton #taylor selfridge

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hopelesstargazer · 6 years ago

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End of the Year Tag

So....I was tagged by @saijspellhart....never done one of these before so here goes nothing.

~favourite food?~

Okay, so I am a Minnesota raised girl and do love a good wild rice hotdish (and yes there is a difference between hotdish and casserole and if you don’t know, let me know so I can explain!). However my favorite food is either pupusas or pozole (latino cuisine). Both of them I over eat when my godchildren cook them for me and never regret it!

~favourite drink?~

Ummmm....Diet Pespi. Yeah, we won’t get into how cranky I get if I don’t have at least one pop a day. My godsons might have a story or two about how possessive I get in the late morning over my can of pop on the weekends....

~favourite clothing?~

My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fleece pants and my long sleeve Cuddle-Duds. Comfort for the win. After a long day of dealing with people, nothing is more comforting than cozy wear.

~favourite product?~

.....Pespi?.....I think. Does that count when you are an addict? Like can a pot head say that their favorite product is potbrownies? If not, I would say Google! Because it owns me and my information searching needs. After all, if you don’t know something, Lord Google will know it. Thus, All Hail Lord Google!

~favourite month?~

I’ve never thought about it. I guess you could say I like March. It was the month I was born and I like the little myth that comes with the month. The month of the Lion and the Lamb. My grandmother (a wonderful mother to 11 and a farmer in Northern MN) would always tell me that you knew how the month would go in the very beginning. If the weather was shitty and roaring at the start, it would leave calm and sweet at the end. Or in other words, if March came in like a Lion, it would leave like a Lamb. Of course, the opposite applies as well. If this is true, I honestly couldn’t say. I think it does, but I’m already bias so who really knows?

~favourite season?~

I’m fond of either Spring or Fall. It’s not too cold, but it’s not too hot. You really get those glorious days where the sun is shining, the air is crisp, and there is a magnitude of colors everywhere. It is just rejuvenating.

~favourite holiday?~

I’m partial to Easter. And before you ask, yes I happen to be Christian, BUT that is not why I like the holiday. I like Easter because it symbolizes rebirth. It symbolizes a new beginning, a fresh start. When you go into this season, you might have just experienced a shitty winter or the pervious year was just horrific. Thus, your soul is all crusty and flaky and thinking that nothing gets better. Then this season of new beginnings start and there are baby animals, new flowers, laughing children, and brightly colored eggs everywhere! It is a reminder that life is nothing more than a cycle. Yes, horrible things can and will happen to you. Yes, it will be dark and sad to deal with it all. Winter, both figuratively (in your heart/soul) and literally, SUCK ASS! But! BUT! There will always be a moment of something new. Something bright. Something colorful. Something living. Something that will bring you up out of the ground of cold despair and into the light of a new beginning. Even if it is for a moment, it is there. Easter is the holiday/season that best represents what it means to be human. A shitty start that only turns into the brightest and warms of sun rays. And that is my Ted Talk, thank you for listening.

~favourite place?~

Minnehaha Falls! Gooseberry Falls! Or any waterfall. I adore waterfalls. The sound of crashing water and rushing waves drowning out bad thoughts. The scent of crisp water pulling you into the moment. The sensations of moving water rumbling in your chest. The sight of dancing sprites in the sky as water droplets create rainbows. Cold water taking the heat from your body only to leave a pleasant tingle in its wake. *blush**cough* I’ll stop with the poetry now.

~best experience?~

So, I took a trip to Scotland with my Father at the beginning of this year. I would definitely say that was my best experience of 2018.

~best song?~

Best song? Of all time or this year? This year I really like Burning Man by Dierks Bentley. Of all time, you can’t beat the Hokey Pokey. It is a must have dance song at every public gathering. I have no shame when I say that I request it and drag EVERYONE to the dance floor.

~best movie?~

We have to clarify this nonsense for next year. Honestly, it’s just too vague. Best movie? This year? Of all time? Genre? Or is it just me that over thinks this stuff? *sigh* Okay, I thought Black Panther was extremely good, not just because it was an excellent superhero movie, had amazing female leads, astonishing action sequences, and wonderful humor. It really made me think about how hatred can pass down through the generations. It made me reevaluate how I teach my students in karate class and how I speak with/to them about social problems. Since most of them are immigrants or children of immigrants, it was an eye opening experience. Let’s leave it at that.

~best series?~

TV series right? (again with the over thinking simple questions) I really enjoyed Miraculous Ladybug, Voltron, How to Train Your Dragon, The Dragon Prince, and My Hero Academia. Granted, I also rewatch a bunch of anime classics as I taught the ways of being a nerd to my godsons. I’m proud to say that we have finally left the realm of Naruto and moved on to the great chasm that is known as Deathnote and One Piece.

~best book?~

Okay, so this one is exciting for me. I was suffering Tumblr and found a post that simple said “if Deadpool wrote a book, this would be it.” So of course, the ten year that still loves poop jokes and crude humor in me scream in joy and bought the book. It is called “Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology” by Cory O’Brien. I wish I could find the link so you could read some excerpts from it. I’ll just have to quote it.

“So one night Uranus is about to get busy with Gaia again I guess so he can father another baby and then stuff it back into her but instead of getting sex he gets a SURPRISE PENISECTOMY”

“So the moral of the story is that if you are not ready to be a father consider all of your options before skipping directly to cannibalism”

“ARE YOU READY FOR DISTENDED RACCOON TESTICLES? NO? WELL, YOU BETTER GET READY QUICK BECAUSE JAPAN JUST CALLED AND IT’S ‘BOUT TO DELIVER ONE WHOPPER OF A BALLSACK TO THE BAINPAN”

“So the moral of the story is that we should seriously consider firing the moon because I didn’t know we could do that and I bet we have the technology now to genetically engineer a WAY BETTER MOON than some dumb rabbit.”

So...10/10, greatest book I’ve read this year

~best video game?~

I don’t play many video games. Frankly, if it is not a bashing the buttons kind of game, I’m no good at it. Thus, I really like Shounen Jump battle game. I can hit random buttons while having no real skills. I also like watching people play them. That would lead me to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Such a pretty game!

~have you unlearned any bad habits?~

hahahaha...oh, are you serious?

~biggest disappointment?~

I didn’t get back into college like I planned on. I just couldn’t find the time to give myself in order to achieve what I wanted.

~worst experience?~

If we are talking about this year, then that would go to almost dying in a bus accident in the middle of the Highlands in Scotland. It’s a great story that I love to tell, because it turns out to be the funniest tale of my really long list of horrific stories. Minus the thought of dying on some random hill and how inconvenient it would have been for my mother to retrieve our bodies cause I didn’t buy travel insurance.

However, if we are talking about ever in our lives, then that golden trophy would go to the time I, a store manager at Dollar Tree, was threaten with a plastic shank over $0.50 on hour 15 of my shift where I slept in the store that night so I could be there for the delivery at 5AM. That was horrible. Funny in hindsight, but horrible at the same time. Let me know, I can tell that story too.

~any new hobbies?~

Where do people find the time to start new hobbies? Serious, could you donate that precious time into a bank so I could have some? I would greatly appreciate it.

~did you achieve your goals for 2018?~

hahahahahaha....oh, you’re serious again?

~have you fulfilled a long-term wish?~

Ah, this it did! So, back in 2011, I studied abroad in Scotland and vowed to take my father back so he could see the country that I fell completely in love with. Severely in love with. Like, I would marry any Scottish man that said to me, “Ach, lassie, yer bonnie and me heart tis yers. I have this castle in ta middle of the great Highlands. Would ye leave with me to Gretna Green to marry ov’r an blacksmith’s iron?” I would say yes in a heart beat. A HEARTBEAT YOU HEAR?!

~have you tried something new this year?~

um, I dressed myself in a kimono for the first time by myself. That was stupid hard. Also, I did a bang up job if I do say so myself (after the fourth attempt).

~what plans or wishes do you have for next year?~

Let’s see, I am the best man at my best friend’s wedding in May, so I got that going. Also, in September, I’ll be going to Japan to visit my sister who is working as an English teacher, so I got that to look forward too. I would love to find some time to myself so I can try and finish my college degree that I started back in 2009. Cross your fingers. Also, I would like to complete this book I’m writing for myself. I would really like that. Oh, and finally, sleep more. Yeah, sleep. Good thing that is.

~what was the funniest moment?~

Serious, I teach kiddos karate at my church. I have no shortage of amazing moments in my life. Also I have three godsons and a goddaughter, stories are made every weekend. But I can tell you one of my favorites.

So, I’m teaching this not-yet-seven-year-old an introductory class to karate. I’m explaining to him that not only does yelling scare the bad guys away, but it tells the teacher that you are breathing. So I asked him playfully, “Do you like to breath?” And he stops all motion and looks at me. Then he shrugs and says “not really.” Needless to say, I too stop to stare at him, stunned by a response that I had NEVER received in my 13+ years of teaching children karate. So, I logically asked why not. This tiny little american-latino child that comes up to my waist tells me with the straightest face I have ever seen “Cause it take a lot of work to breath and I don’t know if I have the time for that.” (#mood much?) I’m losing my mind trying to hold in my laughter. Thus I spend the next few minutes with a 6 year-old having a philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of breathing. Eventually, we agree that blue is an ugly color on people’s face and we cannot do karate in our sleep so he had to stay awake and moving instead of passed out on the floor due to the lack of air in his body. Once that was establish, I asked another instructor to take over because I simply had to find a corner to sit in as I collected my laughing ass off the floor.

I will forever remember this child as the boy that I had to convince that breathing was a good thing and made me almost piss my pants in the middle of karate class. TWICE because that little stinker had to randomly blurt out in the middle of a different class weeks later that we were wrong because blue was a flattering shade on dead people and we should not be racist to dead people.

I will now kindly remind you that this boy is 7 YEARS OLD.

~what are you thankful for?~

I am thankful for family and friends. I am also thankful to @saijspellhart. In my desire to let her know that she is not alone, I am finding the courage to become more open with myself and other around me. So thank you. I hope that this year will be a rebirth for both of us and tons of smiles for everyone that reads this.

As for tagging other Tumblr users, I am too damn shy for that. Instead, if you are reading this and want to do this, tag me! I would love to get to know you and your likes. It’s nice to see the humanity on this site. Thank you for getting to the end and I hope to get to know you too!

#text #long post #end of year #hopelessstargazer get to know #well this happen #this was fun #blog #ask blog

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lastchancevillagegreen · 2 years ago

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Friday, 7 October 2022:

There Goes Rhymin’ Simon Paul Simon (Warner Bros) (original album released on Columbia in 1973, this reissue from 2004)

Had my brother not been obsessed with Graceland when I was in Chicago in September to see Spiritualized, I would never have known that there were Paul Simon reissues with bonus tracks. I would never have known that Warner Bros released Simon’s Columbia releases with bonus tracks. I also wouldn’t have given any of this much thought after leaving Chicago had he not given me Graceland in a digipak because Dana perfectly wrote her name on the CD in fine point marker. But suddenly I owned a great Paul Simon album on CD whereas all my Simon albums (all three of them) are on LP.

These reissues are confusing as anything. It seems they also came out, according to discogs, on Columbia/ Legacy in 2004 and then again on Columbia/ Legacy in 2011. I’m not sure how Columbia and Warners could release the exact same thing in the same year but they sure did. Check out the photo I pulled from discogs below.

That is just the strangest thing. Two major labels releasing the exact same product save for one is in a digipak (Warners) and the other is in a jewel case (Columbia) containing the exact same bonus tracks. I certainly fail to comprehend this mystery.

My top photos reveal the album cover, then comes the digipak open with the booklet and CD inside. The third photo shows the digipak open with nothing inside. Then you see the back of the digipak. I didn’t shoot any photos of the booklet because it looks identical to the album cover. The last photo shows the CD.

I bought this when it came out, I was all of 15 and I was a very enthusiastic listener to this album. I remember being so shocked when in the song, “Was A Sunny Day” when Paul Simon sings, “She called him Speedoo but his Christian name was Mr Earl” because I was already well aware of the 1955 song “Speedo” by The Cadillacs in which they sing, “Well now they often call me Speedoo, but my real name is Mister Earl” because I had no idea you could wholesale lift lines from other songs as a songwriter. I later in life decide Simon is a hack when I discovered the song “Richard Cory” had been based on a folk song. I certainly had no clue about folk music’s long history of taking songs, fashioning them to whatever singer was adopting the song and renaming them something altogether different and said singer taking full credit for the song. I’ve never been much of a Paul Simon fan. I have always only owned four of his solo albums and one Simon & Garfunkel album. Today, I still have all of the original albums I bought as a kid save for One Trick Pony. When i decided he was a hack, I was learning about Richard Cory for the first time from Wings on Wings Over America in 1976. My friend, Ken California, tried to educate me in folk music’s rich history and indicated Simon did nothing wrong in his claim for writing Richard Cory, but I was too stupid to understand. Young people are so industrious about calling out people when they barely comprehend what they are calling out. Life ain’t black and white, it is nothing but a heavy shade of grey.

All I know is the next time Marjorie Taylor Greene files impeachment papers against Joe Biden I want him to say, “Who do you think you're foolin'? I've got the Presidential seal, I'm up on the Presidential podium. My mama loves me, she loves me, she get down on her knees and hug me! She loves me like a rock!”

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multiversemuses · 7 years ago

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☕ (Cori)

@darthvoldemaul

I’m not sure if this counts as much of a memory, really, because not a lot happens. One person stays asleep during the main bit of it so… No one’s calling it eventful, okay?

But it still means something to me.

You’ll need a lot of background information first, though, so get comfy. See, Liv had invited me to stay with her for part of the summer holiday. It took some doing, making that happen. My mother doesn’t exactly approve of her children spending time outside of school (or inside it, for that matter) with anyone who isn’t from the twenty-eight. So I cashed in on a favor from Khepri Shafiq.

Strictly speaking, what Khepri actually owed me was money from an old bet, but I offered to consider us even so long as she’d provide this one alibi. The great thing about Shafiq – besides being a bit of a reckless gambler when she’s thrown back a few too many firewhiskeys – is that my parents cannot stand her parents. And probably vice versa, honestly. My mum and dad will be respectful of them at large gatherings of the families but, as a safe general rule, they will not contact them directly if it is in any way avoidable. Dad thinks Gamal Shafiq is a prattling bore and Mum resents the fact that Shadya Shafiq always catches on to the latest trends and fashions well before she does. They can be a petty bunch, the Selwyns. Take it from one who knows. Personally, I’ve always found the Shafiqs among the more tolerable families in my own’s social circle. Fortunately for me, the feeling was mutual for Khepri (either that or she was just grateful to hang on to the bag of galleons I’d won fair and square), and she agreed to let me say I was visiting her for a while in the summer. It probably didn’t hurt that Khepri’s in Ravenclaw, like Liv. What do you know? House loyalty’s good for something outside of Hogwarts, after all. Anyway, suffice to say, my parents were more than happy to send their greetings and love through me. They trusted that I’d pass along the message to the Shafiqs and spare them the need to send any correspondence owls. Ergo, no inexplicable inquiries would find their way into Gamal’s or Shadya’s hands, nor would my parents be waiting on any letters from them detailing our holiday activities. It was the perfect solution.

I arrived at the Eldlunds’ feeling rather proud of myself, if you must know. Outsmarting my parents just heightened the excitement of what already promised to be the best part of the summer months. Liv had spent our time apart planning, I could tell, even though she kept the written itinerary out of my sight so that each new adventure could be a surprise. Truth be told, she could have left everything to happenstance and I’d still have seen so many new things. A lot of items in her house alone were complete novelties to me.

I was poking around her room on that first day and saw a funny little folded box on a shelf. It was pretty easy to open up, but I couldn’t for the life of me guess what purpose it could possibly serve. It had a dark glass circle right in the middle that made me think of those peepholes in the front doors of houses, and there was a long indented ridge at the bottom. I turned the box from side to side in my hands but my grip slipped on this little red button jutting off it. The next thing I knew, it made this godawful whirring noise and spat out a blank square. Liv came into the room just in time to hear me swear creatively and nearly drop the blasted thing on the floor. She made a quick save and caught the box before it could crash to the ground. As she returned the contraption to the shelf, Liv told me its name, and I remember thinking it sounded cold. Polarvoid. No, that doesn’t look right. I’ve added an extra letter or something. Ah, to hell with it, the point is that it was a kind of camera.

“Is that why it spits out a white picture?” I asked. “It just shows empty space near the ice caps every time?“

Liv got a chuckle out of that one. She explained that the blankness of the image was temporary. Liv pulled the square free from the camera and shook it a few times, then placed it down on her desk. I must have still looked pretty skeptical, because she urged me to watch closely and even offered a chair so I could observe with my face right over the photograph.

Shadows started forming on the square. Colors were unfolding across the white the way that flowers open in springtime. I started to recognize pieces of furniture and decorations from Liv’s room, but they were blurry in contrast to the oval dominating the center of the image. It was my face, caught in an unfortunate just-shat-myself expression. “Lovely,” I grumbled, but that didn’t stop me from staying completely still until every detail of that picture had filled into place. Liv wanted to know what I thought of it. “I’d like them better if they moved so we didn’t have that face immortalized for all eternity, but I suppose they do have the benefit of coming back to you much faster.”

That little incident must’ve given Liv an idea because, the very next morning, she took me out and bought me a gift: a disposable muggle camera. She told me I could use it to remember our visit. Which I did, and I made quite a tourist of myself. The land near her house really is beautiful – flowers, clear water, and so much green. Liv and her mother were very patient with me. Neither one ever barked for me to stop falling behind or tried to stop me from going off in my own direction as we wandered. That wasn’t their way and, although it was nice, it took me time to get used to it. There was so much freedom, not just to explore but also to express. I never felt like conversations were censored at their dinner table or like the real messages had to be hidden somewhere between the lines. They were so open. And happy. I’d never experienced a family meal with real laughter like that, not the forced polite kind at social functions where people are just trying to stay in each other’s good graces.

The Eldlunds are quite artsy as well. Liv let me try my hand at a little painting. It seemed like it could all go wrong so quickly, and I ended up starting with a single dot on the canvas. Liv had to quite literally take my hand in hers and coax my arm into that first full brushstroke. I loosened up a little more after that and got a bit carried away. Flecks of paint were in my hair and on my hands. At one point, when Liv leaned round to see how my work was coming along, I darted my brush out on impulse and touched it to the tip of her nose. Her mum said it made her look like a reindeer. That struck me as odd since I’m pretty sure reindeer have brown or white fur, not red. Maybe it’s a muggle thing. Either way, it was pretty funny to watch how Liv’s nose twitched a little until she was able to clean the paint off her skin. As for the painting itself, well… let’s call the finished product abstract and let me save face, shall we?

The one Liv painted of me about a week later was much better (no surprise). She saw me sitting at the window, snacking on a green apple, and asked if she could have me pose for a while. Since that basically required me to stay comfy and keep eating, I was more than happy to oblige. I know that I clearly am no expert at art. It’s questionable if I should ever be allowed to be near a brush or paints again but, even so, I feel like I can fairly say that Liv really knows her stuff. Watercolors seem so difficult to me. Difficult to keep from running, difficult to control the details, difficult not to make your painting one big dripping mess. But Liv does it. Over and over again. And she makes it look easy. When she really got to work on that portrait, I think she became more relaxed than I was. I started overthinking everything. Would I mess up the light and shadows if I readjusted my legs? Should I eat more slowly so she had a chance to get the apple right before I chewed too close to the core? Did I need to keep my head angled the same way? Meanwhile, from what I could see in my peripheral vision, Liv was perfectly at ease. She had checked out and was well and truly “in the zone.” I could feel the weight of her eyes on me, but it wasn’t in a judgmental or critical way, simply studying. It gave me gooseflesh, but I resisted the urge to rub my arms and clear it away. When she’d finished working, I was finally allowed to leave the window and see the end result. I could hardly form the words to tell her how well she’d done. If it weren’t for the fact that the girl in the painting was wearing my outfit and holding the same snack, I’d have argued it wasn’t me at all. Not to say that it didn’t look like me – it did, remarkably so – but she’d made me look… well, a lot of things, really. Thoughtful. Serene. Beautiful. Variations of “that’s really good” felt horribly inadequate, but I could only seem to stammer rewordings of that same sentiment while I stared at this other version of myself who seemed to have it all together much more than I did.

Liv also introduced me to her taste in music. We played so many songs during my stay there. If we were in her room during the daytime, there was music of some sort playing even if it was just softly in the background. A lot of wizard bands reference wizarding world things more than is strictly necessary (have you heard anything by the Weird Sisters?), so it was a little odd at first not to hear the artists comparing themselves to magical creatures or characters from our folklore, but I liked it. Liv wanted me to be able to take some of it with me even after I went back home. She started compiling a mix tape and gave me a device I could use to play it. I’d have to hide the player in my trunk, but it’d hardly be the first thing I’d concealed from my watchful mother.

I suppose that brings us to the specific memory I’ve been meaning to tell you this whole time. It was somewhere in the middle of my visit with the Eldlunds and, in an extremely rare occurrence, I woke up before Liv one morning. The house was quiet and still; I was pretty sure her mum wasn’t awake yet, either. So I leaned over the side of her bed and scooped up the player with the mix tape already inside. I slid the earpieces into place and pushed the button on the top. The songs Liv had put together for me were so peaceful and relaxing. They were the perfect thing to keep me company in the pale, early morning light with no one else stirring but me. I sat upright with a pillow propped behind my back and looked lazily around the room. My hand started playing with something soft and smooth beneath my fingertips, letting it run across my knuckles and slip through my grasp before picking it up again. I think I was three songs in before I realized that I’d been absentmindedly playing with Liv’s hair. I froze and sort of held my breath. I tried to make sure she was still fully asleep since I was pretty sure that’d be an odd thing to wake and find me doing. Liv didn’t show any signs of consciousness. She rolled over, and that brought her body right up against mine. If it’s possible, I think I moved even less then. I held my arms up, away from her, and just stared down at her face. No, the features were too smooth; she wasn’t faking being deep in her dreams. The sudden closeness was completely innocent and unintentional. Still, I swear on my best crystal phials that I could feel my heart beating in the back of my throat. Prickles of sweat broke out across my forehead.

That’s when I knew I was in trouble.

I didn’t want to let myself call it what it was, not yet, but I knew that what I was feeling for Liv went beyond the bounds of the friendship we’d established.

My arms were starting to get tired by this point. One I was safely able to lower to my side, but the other was directly above Liv. I knew I was going to have to put it down, to allow my skin to touch hers and rest behind her back. But actually doing so felt like a more pleasant version of having your limb wake up after the circulation was cut off from it. I had these tingles from shoulder to wrist. I had to keep consciously telling my lungs to inhale and exhale.

Oh, this was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

And yet I couldn’t ignore the heat from her, seeping through my pyjamas, or the way the ends of her hair tickled the crook of my elbow. My hand was shaking the whole time, but I let myself rub my thumb just once across her back, between the shoulder blades. It was a very quick gesture, but it made me choke on my own pulse again.

Later, when Liv started to stir a little and murmur drowsily, I panicked and tried to rearrange our position. I put my arm behind my head and let the other fall past the edge of the mattress, shutting my eyes and trying to look sprawled out in unconsciousness. I guess it worked. Liv made no remark or sudden movement, except to gently take off my headphones and stop the tape player, presumably so I wouldn’t get tangled in the cord. Her hand grazed my shirt as she lifted the player off my torso, and it took everything in me to keep my face completely relaxed. Then she leaned over me to place the whole thing on her nightstand. It’s a good thing she wasn’t looking down at me because the clench in my jaw must’ve been visible as I focused on keeping my breathing even. She settled back into place and tried to wake me with a soft shake of my arm. I pretended to peek out from behind my eyelids for the first time and smiled at her. The smile she gave back to me made my stomach pull a Wronski Feint.

There’s not much else to tell about that day. Everything was pretty normal after that, and I was trying to be normal as well. I can’t say I didn’t embarrass myself once or twice along the way. There were a few clumsy mishaps: tripping, running into things, dropping stuff. Thankfully, since I tended to let Liv lead the way because she knew where we were going, she didn’t see all of it.

I did do one more thing. Just for myself, just to remember. I was pretty sure I would want it later, and I was right about that. I took a picture with Liv in it while she wasn’t looking at me. I wanted one to keep of her just existing, just relaxing and being herself. I’ll admit, the reason behind it was partly for my collection of photographs from the visit but also partly because of what I was starting to feel. It ended up being a good thing that I took the picture, though. I needed it more than I knew. The following year at school, when things were falling apart, I still had that image to look at and her mix tape to listen to while we weren’t together. It probably wasn’t the healthiest way of dealing with the fact that I was too afraid to go public and she was seeing someone else, but it was all I really had.

Well, this took a sad turn at the end, didn’t it? It got better after that, I swear. Slytherins aren’t known for swallowing their pride quickly, but I did eventually get my shit together and override that built-in lean toward self-preservation. And you know what? I’d deal with all of it again – the pain, the complete nonsense from some of the people around us (my family included), the loneliness, the fear, everything – because it was worth it. Liv was infinitely worth it. If I had to survive the misery to be happy, I’m fine with calling that a fair trade.

#Ask Meme Answer #Cori Meme #theclonewriter

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

I came of political age during the debate over the Iraq War. The soundtrack to my sophomore year of high school was Nelly and incessant chatter about weapons of mass destruction. The fate of countries and reputations hung on facts — or the administration’s reasonable facsimiles of them, anyhow — and what counted as proof (like, for instance, whether those little ole WMDs existed). By the time I headed to college, the countries and reputations were well on their way to being destroyed. Bad policy and poor reasoning were slowly killing a presidency, so I watched as the self-serious young men of politics’ next generation tried to correct for those mistakes. They read The New Republic and joined the campus Federalist Society, where they debated abstract topics and drank whiskey out of cut-glass tumblers their mothers bought them at Bed Bath & Beyond. Bush’s failures suggested that you had to have a detailed game plan for the country if you ran for office. The triumph of Barack Obama, meticulous professor, seemed to prove this.

At least until the 2016 primaries. On the Republican side, Donald Trump’s grasp of policy details seemed limited, yet he blew his competition out of the water. His big ideas about changing trade dynamics, banning Muslims and building a wall — and the bombastic, broad-strokes style in which he delivered them — swayed Republican voters primed for action after eight years of Obama. The Democratic contest was more policy-conscious, but Bernie Sanders caught flak from Hillary Clinton and her supporters for plans they thought were implausible, like free college and single-payer healthcare.

Thus far, the politics of the 2018 midterms and the looming 2020 presidential primary are filled with some of the same big ideas. The hang-up that many Democrats had about a lack of detail — “Anytime someone tells you it’s free, read the fine print,” Clinton said of Sanders’s free college plan in 2016 — has fallen somewhat by the wayside. Sanders introduced a free college bill last year that was supported by Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, two likely 2020 presidential contenders, while a federal jobs guarantee has now been embraced by Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, other likely 2020 candidates.

The universe of the politically possible seems to be expanding. The shift is happening on the right and the left, each end of the spectrum opening their windows wider, though on opposite ends of the house. Some people are waiting for a cross breeze that might never come, but there’s an unmistakable joy just to have the house aired out.

Voters’ increasing tribalism might be fueling this era of big ideas. According to Pew data from March, Americans increasingly prefer politicians who won’t compromise on their positions. In 2018, 53 percent preferred politicians who stuck to their guns, a radical change from 2017, when only 39 percent said they felt the same. Republican respondents to the Pew survey have long displayed this aversion to compromise, but 2018 seemed to mark a transition point for Democrats: In July 2017, 69 percent said they liked politicians who compromised, but in 2018, only 46 percent said the same. That data might indicate that politicians need to worry more about upholding ideological purity — promoting those big ideas — than they have in the past. That may mean that the accountability pressure has changed from the practical to the ideological, though it’s not clear how voters will feel if a lack of compromise also leads to a lack of, well, actually getting things done.

Most of the Republican Party’s shift appears to be related to what’s seen as acceptable in public life and leadership. A recent Pew survey showed that most of the president’s supporters prefer his approach to the job of the presidency over his actual policies.

Democratic voters have become a disillusioned bunch; 68 percent say that significant changes are needed to the design and structure of government itself. The party, meanwhile, has struggled to solidify its fundamental identity in the post-2016 universe. In this uncertain climate, rising Democratic stars have trafficked in the new currency of institution-shifting proposals.

First there was the Sanders single-payer health care bill of 2017, which most of the probable 2020 presidential primary contenders signed onto. It promises more generous coverage than nearly any other country with a single-payer system — Canada and the Netherlands included — but health care policy expert Sarah Kliff at left-leaning site Vox wrote that the Sanders bill “provides no information on how it would finance such a generous health care system. … This is a crucial part of any health care plan, and in the Sanders proposal, it is notably absent.” (A recent study found that the plan would cost the government $33 trillion, though Sanders said the same study showed that his proposal would actually save $2 trillion in overall health care spending.) The cost details here could be crucial to winning over Americans who are not a part of the Democratic base, but for now the push is to show a glimpse of a possible future to those already ideologically inclined to seek a change.

Perhaps the most galvanizing issue of the last few months for Democrats has been the movement to eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a reaction in large part to the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the underdog winner of a Democratic congressional primary, picked up the “abolish ICE” mantle as she rocketed to political stardom. Just days after Ocasio-Cortez’s win, Gillibrand said that she too would get rid of ICE, and Warren soon hopped on the bandwagon. Harris stopped short of calling for the agency’s demise, but said, “We need to probably think about starting from scratch.”

The calls to get rid of the agency have proved compelling to many Americans horrified by the administration’s brutal approach to asylum-seekers, but the root causes of the deportations have been little addressed. Immigrants continue to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law under an executive order issued by Trump, and if the agency were dismantled, it’s unclear what would replace it, if anything, or whether redistributing its duties would result in any change in policy. Democrats like Cecilia Muñoz, who was the head of Obama’s White House Domestic Policy council, are concerned by the lack of nuance in these calls. She told Slate, “I think we need to be willing to address how do we think immigration enforcement should be conducted, what’s a way to do that, that actually values people’s lives and their civil rights. The abolish ICE argument doesn’t touch those questions, and I think that’s a mistake.”

Muñoz’s warning echoes Clinton in her post-campaign memoir, “What Happened.” “I’ve always believed that it’s dangerous to make big promises if you have no idea how you’re going to keep them. When you don’t deliver, it will make people even more cynical about government,” she wrote. Clinton was unsparing in her critique of Sanders’s primary platform — he “didn’t seem to mind if his math didn’t add up or if his plans had no prayer of passing Congress and becoming law” — and yet she seemed a little wistful that she didn’t go further in deviating from the slate of policies she thought were possible. “I have a new appreciation for the galvanizing power of big, simple ideas. I still think my health care and college plans were more achievable than Bernie’s and that his were fraught with problems, but they were easier to explain and understand, and that counts for a lot.” (When Sanders dropped out, Clinton adopted a version of a free college plan that the head of education policy at New America, a left-leaning think tank, said would be “a financial disaster.”)

Details, it turns out, are tiresome — they slow things down and draw you into the weeds, in part to discover how things might work in the realm of the actual, not the theoretical. And it’s hard to say whether the big ideas of today will eventually win over much of the country or drive a wedge deeper into it. It’s a thrilling gamble that the Democrats in particular are taking, one that has the potential to pay huge political dividends.

It’s also a rare moment in American history we’re living though. “I think that in no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States,” Alexander de Tocqueville wrote in 1835. Perhaps that sentiment is dated, but it’s also true that we don’t have a reputation for being particularly contemplative. The historical success of the American experiment has made us ideologically complacent at times. Perhaps justifiably so, perhaps not.

But as the nation grasps onto audacious new ideas that say something is radically wrong with our present system, it makes a person wonder what the next political moment will be like, 10 or 15 years down the road. We might be hurtling towards a comedown, a wise-up or an actual paradigm shift, one that Baby Boomers, clutching at their Woodstock photos, will turn green with envy over. In the end, today’s policy details might be inconsequential compared to the real project of democratizing ideas in America. Perhaps what’s happening now proves that the direction of the country isn’t just in the hands of the boys of the Federalist Society and The New Republic. Its course might be more broadly determined.

Or we might learn that not very much has changed at all.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Clare Malone

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acehotel · 8 years ago

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“Probably Ten Thousand Likes” : AN INTERVIEW with CORY ARCANGEL & OLIA LIALINA

It’s been over a decade since Russian-based net art pioneer Olia Lialina wrote “A Vernacular Web,” the first in her series of essays that detail elements of the World Wide Web and its relationship to ordinary users. Lialina has continued to write and produce work about the slow decline of user agency on the Internet over time. As a medium for free self-expression, the web, as a platform, has become increasingly pervasive and uncannily static, as we swipe easily from friendships to followers and abandon the former.

Today, the whole gamut of human exploration online has been observed by a slew of creatives — sifting through accumulations of digital culture, finding nuggets of truth amongst discarded cellphones, virtually extinct wallpapers, glittery gifs and homepages. One of the foremost among them is self-professed Internet lurker and post-conceptual artist Cory Arcangel, whose work speaks as much to the Atari generation as it does to the Post-Internet generation.

Cory and Olia met on the evening before Y2K, and have since continued to collaborate, tweet, text and email one another cool links. They each seem to contend with obsolescence as a subject in their practices, using appropriation as a form of preservation. We caught up with them during the installation of their latest exhibition, Asymmetrical Response, to talk about the Internet and marvel at their cross-genre artworks from wallpapers, to LCD screens, to pool noodles.

Olia: We’ll start with the carpet and the wallpaper.

Cory: The carpet is a work of mine called Diamond Plate and it is this repeated diamond plate pattern. Diamond plate is usually kind of metallic. In fact the elevator of The Kitchen is coated with it (see below). This is part of a series of works that I started a couple of years ago, noticing that often carpets come in the same repeated patterns that were once popular on the Internet for people to put on the background of their websites. So diamond plate was once a very popular web background, and it was actually the background of my first website.

The Kitchen’s elevator, in diamond plate.

Ace: Your homepage?

C: Right, my homepage. So that’s what this is, and it’s just a ready-made. It was ordered from some carpet company.

O: [gestures] And what you see on the walls are also backgrounds of what one can say now, are early web pages. But it’s not that early, it’s 1999 — when Yahoo bought Geocities, and then they started to bring order into everything. So they said that if you have a dog, and you’re making a webpage for your dog, then use this template: “Meet My Dog.” If you’re making a personal website, “Personal Page Blue” is the best template. It also existed in other colors —green, pink, and something else — but the blue one was used the most. So people really tried to fit themselves into this format.

Olia Lialina, MeetMyDog (detail), 2016

Ace: That seems pretty consistent with Facebook today.

O: Yes. And later, when Facebook came along, it was also blue with the line on the top. But this was in ’99, 5 years or so beforehand. And it was one of the first attempts, really, online, to say how things should look. To say “don’t make this, make that.” This template here is for fan pages — so this was a suggestion for a page about Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls or Britney Spears.

Give me time/This page is no more (2015), an installation of two classic slide projectors

O: In each of these projects there are slides of websites. Here are sites where people promise that they will make the website soon. This is people promising, or asking for more time. Not just sites under construction, but I collected more sophisticated sites, where people really promise, or really ask for something. It’s very narrative.

Here are eighty slides where people say “no, I am not interested in making this website anymore. I’m not a Hanson fan anymore,” or “school just started, so I am done with my page.” So these are very clear statements, and that is quite rare. Usually they are not so spectacular, these pages, but they are very clear messages. And when you see them next to each other it can be very powerful.

Ace: I’m also very interested in this web page “visits counter”, or ticker. It’s sort of like the early “like” notification that produces a little bit of dopamine when you receive them.

C: I’ve never thought about that actually — just a page visit is a “like”.

O: We can’t see it now because it’s just a screenshot, but this is a fake counter. It’s a joke about counters because it’s constantly rotating. The websites are quite different themselves, but I chose them based on the text. I selected the sites where people promise they will make the website soon— and sometimes they say exactly when. My research shows that most commonly people say it will be two weeks. I don’t know what this hope or deadline means.

And these are pages are from ‘95, and the dates are from 2000.

Ace: And you’ve archived these from Geocities?

O: Yes, and actually everybody can see them on the tumblr, One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age, but I’m selecting them to show as slides. On One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age, there is one screenshot uploaded every twenty minutes — and right now it’s on Christmas of 2000.

Ace: Wasn’t that around when you two met? Around Y2K? Can you tell me a little about how you’ve collaborated over the years since then?

C: Well, our first time meeting was in Munich in 2001, in the fall. Olia was doing Make World, a festival and poltical art and concert series in Munich and invited me and my friends — we had a band — to play, and also exhibit. I had to get a passport for it, I remember. So that’s when we met and we stayed in contact since then. We’ve shown together a bunch —

O: But not intentionally.

C: Oh, not collaboratively, yeah.

Ace: Is this your first two-person exhibition with one another?

C: Yes. And we are in constant contact on twitter.

O: on WhatsApp…

C: on email…

Ace: Just sort of exchanging ideas?

C: Yeah actually, the show came out of…Olia was trying to print out an easyJet pass.

O: Boarding passes. And they didn’t work. I had three failures, and the fourth one worked.

C: So she tweeted about it as a joke saying, “I’m trying to print this boarding pass” and I tweeted back that I’d love to have those for my collection. So we had a back and forth.

O: We started to talk about what he would give me in return — and then it started to become about these responses we have with each other, and that work is what’s visible here.

C: Because I just said “I have something similar,” and she said “I have something similar to that,” and the great part of this story, is that the boarding pass piece has turned into a sculpture and it’ll be in the show. And the sculpture that I made in response is in the show too.

Ace: So it’s come full circle.

O: And of course the title is Asymmetrical Response, so it has this kind of personal connotation. But when we started to conceptualize all this, one and a half years ago, it was very clear that the situation in the world is getting more and more similar to when we were kids — like the Cold War.

C: And when we started talking it wasn’t even on the radar, but all of a sudden we’re back to it.

O: And “Asymmetrical Response” is also a diplomatic term [correlating to power dynamics between nations].

Ace: A lot of the remains of the early web have shifted from being seen as merely nostalgic or amateur. Today, they are looked at as forms of “required digital heritage” or important archival ephemera. Can you speak a little bit about that shift?

O: I started to collect early web elements long before the hype, long before it came back around, just to show students how things looked a year, or a few years ago. That was around the start of Web 2.0, when it became clear that there was another part of the web now — with social networks and an exact place for everything — it became clear, like a cut, that there was the web of the 90s, and then the web of the 2000s. I think around that time, all of these earlier elements had another sort of great moment. A lot of work was made around it. But for me, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. I am still absolutely convinced that it remains a web that is made for people, and by people themselves, and it is still possible that it will come back to that.

Ace: Possible that people can kind of regain control and agency over the web?

O: Exactly. And these elements are symbols for this control — of the presentation, of the sort of modular culture. It’s not about the animation of the .gif, it’s about seeing that you can take this file and put it somewhere on the page yourself. You can decide if it’s on the bottom, if it’s on the top, if it appears three times.

Ace: Rather than just posting it?

O: Yes. These are signs of a web that belongs to the people.

Ace: A lot of operating system upgrades lend themselves to seamlessness or user-friendliness. It’s like they want users to forget about the interface, forget the cable, and maintain very close, quasi-relationships with these products that record our every digital move in some distant cloud. I wondered if you have any other ideas, like putting a gif anywhere on a page, about ways to disrupt that sort of mediation?

C: I was always against upgrading. I wouldn’t upgrade until finally, something, that I needed didn’t work. That’s been my policy for twenty years. Only recently, in the past few months, you can’t do that anymore. Because your computer will ask you every day. My computer’s like, “Do you want to upgrade right now, or in two hours? We’ll totally do it in the middle of the night, between 2 and 4, when it’s plugged in…” There’s been a huge shift, and it’s exhausting. My iPhone is exhausting me right now: “Oh, we saw that you weren’t plugged in last night. Totally cool, just plug it in tonight…”

O: In 2012, I actually started this User Rights Campaign, and one of the suggestions was “the right not to update” and there was quite some discussion there. I came back to this idea some days ago, when Samsung said that they are now running this update for their Galaxy 7 — the one that explodes. 93% of all these phones were returned, and for the remaining 7%, what they will do now is an update that won’t allow you to call anyone, or to charge the battery. It’s not a situation that you could say “oh, evil corporations” yeah? they are doing it for good, but it makes you think of how it all functions. It’s just a software update, but it can make it all obsolete. Even this battery. It’s all controlled.

C: What is the phrase? Everything phones home now. All devices.

O: But what we see now, Cory’s Lakes: that is an example of a work that is made on a computer that does not update. Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible. The snow here, you can’t see it on the browser anymore. Because it doesn’t support Java Applet.

Cory Arcangel (L to R): Imgres (2016), 100 Raves (2016), Krugman / Lakes (2016).

Ace: So do you have a computer that allows you to insert those effects?

C: Yeah, we have one computer in the office that Java works on. And we just don’t touch it and pray that it doesn’t break. So we have a time capsule in the office, that I make these on.

Installation view

Ace: How does humor come to play in each of your individual practices? Do you think it provides a sense of relief from our hyper mediated lives, or does it instead make it more apparent, or uneasy?

O: I can’t say that I’m trying to make something humorous, ever. Interestingly, quite often I am criticized by my colleagues who say that everything’s too playful. But it’s because people often think that if something, like this .gif, is animated, or if there’s glitter, that it’s humorous. But it’s not. Everything here is rather…not sad, but melancholic.

C: Yeah melancholic would be an okay term.

O: But it’s not nostalgic.

C: I’m in a similar position where my work is always seen as playful. For me, humor can work in a lot of different ways, and it doesn’t have to be an “lol” kind of humor. Humor is a different way to communicate, basically. It’s a different structure of communication. It’s about expectation; at the last second you take a right or left turn, and it shifts people’s perception. My work, because it’s not “lol” humorous, where your perception is shifted in a split second — maybe it works more on our time. It’s a lot slower. Again, humor doesn’t mean that the work is funny. It’s just a type of communication. So what each work is communicating could be different, but the work is most often melancholic.

Ace: So it’s about that play on expectation.

O: It’s so often that we take things that many see as funny, or ridiculous, but we take them very seriously. I have web design manuals from the 90s, from my collection, but it’s not a collection of funny books. It’s my library that I studied. I did not take it seriously in the 90s, I would never read it at the time. But now I see that sometimes, they are the only source to see how the web looked at that time, because these are things that were not saved by archives or by anybody.

There, you can see those precious screenshots. Or you can see how great minds, at that time, suggested that the rest of us make web pages. So I really read and re-read these books now, not just to laugh at how they used to make web pages.

Ace: It’s the only way to conceive of how the web used to be approached, as an innovative, or utopian, space. This also reminds me of the patents that technology companies have for different screenic gestures today, like the movement of your fingers across an interface, a pinch to zoom, and apple's new "force touch." I wonder, what do those documents look like, and what will they look like to us in ten, twenty years?

C: Oh my god.

O: Have you ever seen those documents?

Ace: I’ve seen some renderings but I’m sure they’re pretty well concealed. It’s not humorous, it’s absolutely serious actually. Because what you’re talking about is human gestures being patented. Do you want to talk a bit more about the pool noodles, Cory?

Installation view

C: Oh, that series of work started just a few years ago. The series is called Screen-agers, Tall Boys and Whales, and they are simply pool floaties which have been accessorized. Actually, they come in three categories, “Screen-agers,” which are teenagers (this show has teenagers), “Tall Boys” which I like to describe as kind of like Kid Rock — so camo and American Flags and Miller Beer Cans —

Ace: So there aren’t any Tall Boys in this show?

C: I brought some tall boys but they didn’t make it into this show. Although the Hooters one is getting into tall boys territory. And then there’s this whole subset of “Whales,” which are sort of like Wall Street Guys, who play around with big money.

Ace: Like a finance dude.

C: Yes. There are also no Whales in this show. But to me, they are sort of like portraits of different tribes of people. So we put them in this show as a response to Olia’s piece on the large LED screen that takes place at a sort of EDM concert. We wanted a group of people that would be at the concert.

Ace: So there’s an exchange there too.

C: Right. I’ve also made a new one that’s a webmaster. So that’s a new category.

Ace: I love it.

O: I’ve made clothes too, my collection is called Webmaster Summer.

C: Yeah so we both have these clothing lines — Olia’s is Webmaster Summer and mine is called Arcangel Surfware. Mine is for relaxing at home. It’s clothes that are comfortable for computing at home. And Olia’s are work clothes. So the locker represents the transition there. And the one noodle has my first collection – Arcangel Surfware. The bedsheets are also from the first collection.

Olia Lialina’s Webmaster Summer Collection

O: For this show, we aren’t just collecting things we have that rhyme with each other but we’re responding to each other, in position and in selection. On this table are new sculptures — it’s like the Cold War table, with the iron curtain allegories.

Ace: The title, Asymmetrical Response, engages the topic of power dynamics of the Internet over time. After its start as the ARPANET, which had somewhat of a military focus?

C: Well it’s in the news, again, as a military focus. Not in the same way.

Ace: Yes there’s this seizure of control of the web that relates back to its original function.

O: There’s an old Nintendo game from the 80s. When I was a teenager in the late 80s, we had this one portable Soviet game, and we always thought that it was our Soviet game. But you can see here that it’s been — not stolen, but... what’s the word for it?

Ace: Re-appropriated?

O: Yes, what you can see on the Nintendo screen, it’s Mickey Mouse. They rebuild it, but it looks the same, it just says Nintendo on one, and Electronica on the other.

Ace: It’s the same game?

O: Yes. There is this Iron Curtain right? But this is the Liquid Crystal Curtain. And this is something I really didn’t know when I was a child. I thought it was our great game.

Olia Lialina, Liquid Crystal Curtain, 2016

C: This is displayed on the table, like it would be at a cell phone store. These are running on Nintendo Emulators. So this is a work I made in 2005 called Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane. It was a modified Nintendo Game where I clearly just took the plane out of the game. It was a bootleg Nintendo game where you were a Soviet fighter bombing the Middle East. It was a game that existed when I was younger. I made the work ten years ago but I didn’t play this game, I played Top Gun.

Ace: Its reciprocal.

C: Yeah. I mean, I clearly remember standing at the Top Gun arcade machine at the pizza place, bombing Russia.

Ace: So there are these different narratives being driven…

C: Yeah there was this whole scene of bootleg Nintendo games!

Cory Arcangel’s Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane, Clouds, and Android

Ace: As the art world sort of relies more and more on social media platforms like Instagram to promote and share work, how can we move beyond a generation of likes? Do you feel that people are really engaging with these images?

O: I don’t know how to answer this in relation to the art world. I have a personal answer. I am not on Facebook. On twitter, I would never click ‘like’. I either respond, send a direct message or write an email. It’s really to keep myself conscious. Because I’m afraid that I will degrade. And I’m not on Instagram because I am afraid that I will not be able to write even 140 characters/words. So I stay on twitter to at least make something.

C: I’m asymmetrical. I have a problem. I’m compulsive about liking tweets. If you look at my account there are more likes than anything–probably ten thousand likes. I think the way people understand images on Instagram is a new way to understand images. It’s a new type of communication.

Ace: What is your favorite website right now? It doesn’t have to be your most visited…

O: I spend most of my time on One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age. It’s my own site, but it’s not my own, because I see websites from other people. It’s like going to the Internet for me.

C: That’s a very hard question for me, I might have to get back to you. Where do I spend a lot of my time?

O: If you can call it a website.

C: What are websites?

Cory and Olia’s exhibition Assymetrical Response continues at The Kitchen through February 18. Ace Hotel New York is proud to be The Kitchen’s hotel sponsor. If you’re coming westward for the exhibit, you can book a room with us using the code KITCHEN for a limited-time friendly rate.

#yes #cory arcangel #olia lialina #the kitchen #nyc #assymetrical response #interview #ace hotel new york #interviews #art #deep web #world wide web #geocities

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mikebrackett · 6 years ago

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How One Army Veteran Became a Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur Who Helps Vets Who Are Homeless

Kirby Atwell’s first career was as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, where he served for 11 years. He loved his work, but he always felt an entrepreneurial itch.

While working as an air defense officer in Shariki, Japan, Atwell would use radar to track test missiles being launched by North Korea into the Pacific Ocean. Yet in the back of his mind, he was doing calculations about the potential financial upside of real estate investing and how, if done right, it could provide him with a nice income.

Becoming a Veteran Entrepreneur

Image: Kirby Atwell at a property that he is renovating

When Atwell finished his tour in 2011, he had already purchased a few rental properties using the money he earned while deployed as well as traditional financing.

A West Point graduate, the Chicago native knew he wanted to take his irrepressible competitive drive and begin renovating and flipping properties. He primarily relied on self-education, reading every book he could find.

“I loved the idea of owning an asset that could potentially pay me for the rest of my life,” Atwell says.

Atwell’s first business, called iCandy Homes, was built on a traditional flipping model. He would look for undervalued properties (foreclosed or plain unattractive) in the south suburbs of Chicago. Then he and his two friends would rehab them and put them back on the market.

While his long-term game has always been to buy, rehab and maintain rentals, his first venture taught him a lot about the do’s and don’ts of real estate investing.

The best situations, says Atwell, were ones in which the underpinnings of the house – specifically its mechanics (wiring, plumbing, heating) – were solid, and the mostly cosmetic “ugliness factor” needed to be fixed. While they took a fair bit of elbow grease, those deals were the most profitable.

In the beginning, Atwell raised additional loan money from family and friends. Atwell would rehab the property and sell it. The upside for the family and friends was receiving their principal back with interest.

The Finances of Flipping Houses

At the height of iCandy Homes, Atwell and his two friends were flipping 24 houses at once, in various stages. Quickly, his overhead ballooned and he employed 13 people in addition to various contractors. Atwell felt like he was on a treadmill. He knew he needed to modify his business model.

“I did not realize how much overhead went into flipping. I had to pay all the taxes every time I made a profit on a place,” Atwell recalls. “I knew I wanted to get into the rental market because it guaranteed passive income.”

The financial payoff wasn’t bad: From 2011 to 2016, Atwell sold between 30 and 35 properties for $200,000 to $1.6 million each, and his company made more than $15 million in revenue. Atwell is the first to point out that revenue is misleading when it comes to real estate. It comes down to actual profit.

He decided that the business model was not sustainable long term. He wanted a level of passive income to grow and support him and his family. Flipping ended up having massive overhead costs: constantly finding new deals, transactional costs, the costs of staging, and the opportunity cost. He knew the rental market was where he wanted to be, and he thought it could be more profitable.

Rental Vouchers for Veterans Who Are Homeless

Atwell then learned about a program called VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) that helps veterans who are homeless find places to live. The program is a collaborative effort between the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs to, according to their website, “provide rental assistance vouchers for privately owned housing to veterans who are eligible for VA health care services and are experiencing homelessness.”

In May 2016, Atwell started his new company, called Green Vet Homes. He once again began buying and renovating homes in the south suburbs of Chicago and then used VASH to rent them, primarily, to veterans who were homeless.

“These veterans get vouchers, depending on family size, from $1,200 to $1,900 a month,” says Atwell. “They can have 30% of their income go to rent. The intent over time is the veterans’ income increases so they no longer need the voucher,” Atwell adds.

Caseworkers also work with the veterans to help with the root causes of homelessness, such as illness, substance abuse or an unforeseen change in life circumstance.

Since 2008, more than 87,000 vouchers have been awarded, and 144,000 veterans have been served through the HUD-VASH program. Landlords can qualify for VASH vouchers by completing these steps.

Helping Veterans Who Are Homeless Through Real Estate Entrepreneurship

Image: Kirby Atwell and father, Cory Atwell, providing a tour of one of their properties currently undergoing renovation

Employing experience from his previous business, Atwell says the key to making his new rental business work is to buy houses that are ugly inside: “hoarder” houses, foreclosures or those not taken care of but have a good core.

“I replace the fixtures and the finishes and make it look good inside so the value of the property exceeds what I bought it for almost immediately,” Atwell says. “This increases my initial cash investment in the property and allows for a positive cash flow on a monthly basis.”

But Atwell is not a mercenary looking to make a buck. The issue of veteran homelessness is one he cares about passionately.

“I have seen so many reasons for veterans to become homeless. Veteran mothers with multiple kids who have a change in family and earning structure. I had a tenant who had multiple surgeries back to back and was sick for six months and lost his job,” says Atwell. “These vouchers give people a reason to live and recover so they can get back on their feet,” he adds.

Atwell almost always rents to veterans but also rents via Section 8 or to market tenants if he can’t find a veteran to help when a property is ready to rent.

His new company also tries to maintain the smallest eco-footprint possible by renovating old houses rather than building new, reusing as much of the existing property as possible, using energy-efficient windows and bamboo floors, and adding insulation to attics.

This, in turn, helps lower the cost for the renter because the home is more energy efficient.

Atwell’s Business Goals

Today, Atwell owns 15 rentals. His initial goal is to own 24 properties over the next few years. Each house will ideally yield $500 of monthly passive income for all of his expenses. This would equate to $12,000 of monthly passive income, which would be enough to grow into new markets. Long term, Atwell wants to branch out into incorporating multifamily models.

Atwell is now COO of a veteran-based nonprofit called Bunker Labs, which helps veteran entrepreneurs like himself. Free to its 30,000 members, it supports the veteran community through meetups and online education on how to start a business. So, Atwell now can share his successes and lessons learned with other entrepreneurs.

Right now, he is able to manage his current business with a handyman and his dad, but he is reaching the point where he is balancing financial freedom with incurring overhead again.

It’s a balance all entrepreneurs face. Luckily for Atwell, he is able to grow a real estate business surrounded by a community of people he is passionate about.

This post was written by Doria Lavagnino for CentSai, a financial-literacy platform for millennials and younger Gen Xers to help them make smart financial choices.

The post How One Army Veteran Became a Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur Who Helps Vets Who Are Homeless appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/one-army-veteran-became-successful-real-estate-entrepreneur-helps-vets-homeless

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aaronsniderus · 6 years ago

Text

How One Army Veteran Became a Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur Who Helps Vets Who Are Homeless

Kirby Atwell’s first career was as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, where he served for 11 years. He loved his work, but he always felt an entrepreneurial itch.

Becoming a Veteran Entrepreneur

Image: Kirby Atwell at a property that he is renovating

When Atwell finished his tour in 2011, he had already purchased a few rental properties using the money he earned while deployed as well as traditional financing.

“I loved the idea of owning an asset that could potentially pay me for the rest of my life,” Atwell says.

While his long-term game has always been to buy, rehab and maintain rentals, his first venture taught him a lot about the do’s and don’ts of real estate investing.

The Finances of Flipping Houses

Rental Vouchers for Veterans Who Are Homeless

Caseworkers also work with the veterans to help with the root causes of homelessness, such as illness, substance abuse or an unforeseen change in life circumstance.

Since 2008, more than 87,000 vouchers have been awarded, and 144,000 veterans have been served through the HUD-VASH program. Landlords can qualify for VASH vouchers by completing these steps.

Helping Veterans Who Are Homeless Through Real Estate Entrepreneurship

Image: Kirby Atwell and father, Cory Atwell, providing a tour of one of their properties currently undergoing renovation

But Atwell is not a mercenary looking to make a buck. The issue of veteran homelessness is one he cares about passionately.

Atwell almost always rents to veterans but also rents via Section 8 or to market tenants if he can’t find a veteran to help when a property is ready to rent.

This, in turn, helps lower the cost for the renter because the home is more energy efficient.

Atwell’s Business Goals

Right now, he is able to manage his current business with a handyman and his dad, but he is reaching the point where he is balancing financial freedom with incurring overhead again.

It’s a balance all entrepreneurs face. Luckily for Atwell, he is able to grow a real estate business surrounded by a community of people he is passionate about.

This post was written by Doria Lavagnino for CentSai, a financial-literacy platform for millennials and younger Gen Xers to help them make smart financial choices.

The post How One Army Veteran Became a Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur Who Helps Vets Who Are Homeless appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/one-army-veteran-became-successful-real-estate-entrepreneur-helps-vets-homeless

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gokinjeespot · 7 years ago

Text

off the rack #1189

Monday, November 20, 2017

Ottawa ComicCon put on a special edition Holiday con this past weekend so I went to check it out because it was FREE admission. Still had to pay $8 to park at the EY Centre though. The main reason I went was to pick up the book D&D&D (D)ungeons & (D)ragons & (D)oodles The Tabletop Fantasy Art of Tom Fowler since Tom was there. Much to my surprise Craig Taillefer was sitting next to him on one side and Ronn Sutton was on the other. I spent a happy half hour geeking out and swapping stories with them. After Tom signed my copy and generously drew a sketch inside I walked around the venue checking out the booths. It's been years since I've attended a con and I was impressed by some of the set-ups. Still, the comic vendors looked like the ones that sold stuff 30 years ago. Same tables of long boxes and makeshift walls for the wall books. I saw a lot of old Snail customers that I haven't seen in years. Some I recognized and some that I didn't. They all knew me though. The reaction of some folks was "what is he doing here?" looks that made me grin. I ended my sojourn hanging out with my Jee-Riz partner Chris as he helped at a friends booth. I can't say that I'll go to another con but I'm glad I went to this one.

Action Comics #991 - Dan Jurgens (writer & breakdown art) Viktor Bogdanovic (pencils) Viktor Bogdanovic, Trevor Scott & Scott Hanna (inks) Mike Spicer (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). "The Oz Effect" concludes with the question of whether Mr. Oz was Jor-El or not left unanswered. Throw in a mysterious super powerful villain and it's more than enough to keep me reading. I liked Viktor's slimmer Superman. He looks more natural than the muscle bound version that Nick Bradshaw & Brad Anderson drew for the cover.

Runaways #3 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). It's time to catch up with Karolina Dean as Gert tries to get the team back together again. Karolina used to be one hot mess but she's a lot better now thanks to therapy. I am really looking forward to next issue when the gang goes to find Molly, my favourite Runaway.

Wildstorm: Michael Cray #2 - Bryan Hill (writer) N. Steven Harris (pencils) Dexter Vines (inks) Dearbhla Kelly (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). Michael's first assignment is to kill Oliver Queen. Yep, that Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow guy. His next assignment is to target another well known name. These characters are bad guys in the Wildstorm universe and I think that's cool.

Spider-Man Deadpool #23 - Robbie Thompson (writer) Chris Bachalo (pencils) Tim Townsend, Al Vey & Richard Friend (inks) Chris Bachalo (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Spider-Man tries to arrest Deadpool and mindless mayhem ensues. So a typical issue of Spider-Man Deadpool. But wait, what's with this lovely art that looks like the old Doctor Strange comic book? Why yes, it's Chris Bachalo. I am so happy and will be ogling the rest of "Arms Race" with glee.

Star Wars #38 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). "The Ashes of Jedha" starts here. We've got Luke, Leia and Han trying to contact fighters against the Empire on the planet Jedha. That's where the Empire wants to strip mine the planet's Kyber crystals. The partisans appear to not want to play nice though. We'll see how the gang gets out of this fine mess.

Not Brand Echh #14 - It was difficult finding every issue of the 13 issue run of the original series on the spinner racks back in the late sixties but I bought and read every one that I could. This title made fun of my favourite Marvel comic books back then and this latest issue doesn't spare the House of (sometimes bad) Ideas. It got a couple of genuine chuckles out of me so that's about $2.50 Canadian per chuckle. Here are the comedy sketches and their creative teams. Secret Empire Abridged: Nick Spencer (writer) Scott Koblish (art) Nick Filardi (colours). Better Than Canon: Katie Cook (writer& art). Gwenpool Absorbs the Marvel Universe: Christopher Hastings (writer) Gurihiru (art). Marvel Behind the Scenes: Nick Kocher (writer) Brian Churilla (art) Chris O'Halloran (colours). Love Can Be Nuts: Ryan North (writer) Erica Henderson (art). The Not Next Issue Page: Chip Zdarsky (writer & art). Forbush Man Returns parts 1 to 4: Jay Fosgitt (writer & art). The whole issue was lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles (letters).

Batman #35 - Tom King (writer) Joelle Jones (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). "Rules of Engagement" concludes with a terrific sword fight between Catwoman/Selina and Talia, Batman's ex. The verbal repartee was great and just as great was the one between Damian and Dick. My question is "where the heck did Holly come from?". I hope that this family adventure theme continues because I really like having Selina, Damian, Dick and Alfred around.

Maestros #2 - Steve Skroce (writer & art) Dave Stewart (colours) Fonografiks (letters). This is a beautifully illustrated Game of Thrones and Wands with wizard warriors plotting against each other. There's a rekindled romance and a shocking twist that makes reading the next issue a must.

Champions #14 - Mark Waid (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Worlds Collide part 4. He's no Blue Fairy but the High Evolutionary pulls a Pinocchio on Viv Vision and all seems lost. The heroes fight through but there's still a ways to go to prevent total destruction. We'll find out what happens when Avengers #674 hits the racks on December 6.

Aquaman #30 - Dan Abnett (writer) Stjepan Sejic (art & colours) Steve Wands (letters). Atlantis Uprising. The revolution starts here. Orin joins the rebel forces and King Rath becomes more unhinged. Meanwhile, Mera is in deep water. I am enjoying this book again. You should give it a try.

Mech Cadet Yu #4 - Greg Pak (writer) Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Triona Farrell (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). It's all-out action as the four cadets and their robos fight against giant alien crabs and orders from their superiors. The General is not pleased. Let's see what happens to keep them in their mechs and not get kicked out of the program.

Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan #2 - Declan Shalvey (writer) Mike Henderson (art) Lee Loughridge (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue tells us why the two heroes are teaming up. Makes sense. I like these straightforward good guys versus bad guy stories with witty repartee that don't tax the brain pan too much.

Superman #35 - Patrick Gleason & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Travis Moore, Stephen Segovia & Art Thibert (art) Danei Ribeiro (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Hey, I thought Lex's armour was mostly green. The battle for the throne of Apokalips continues with Lois and Jon's lives still hanging in the balance. I still think that Lex will save the day in the end.

American Gods #9 - Neil Gaiman (writer) P. Craig Russell (script & layouts) Scott Hampton (art & colours) Rick Parker (letters). This is like reading the novel again but better. The art enhances the story so much.

Defenders #7 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Marquez (art) Justin Ponsor & Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is the funniest comic book on the racks for the week. Yes even funnier than Not Brand Echh #14. Brian has a great sense of humour. I'm wondering now if all the great artists that he works with are also going to work for DC. That would be ideal for me because he really clicks with David Marquez and Sara Pichelli. The five page fight scene between Elektra and Iron Fist is the best I've ever seen. Just as good as watching Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

Wonder Woman Conan #3 - Gail Simone (writer) Aaron Lopresti (pencils) Matt Ryan (inks) Wendy Broome (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Some sorcery is added to the swords this issue.

Mighty Thor #701 - Jason Aaron (writer) James Harren (art) Dave Stewart (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I must have missed Mangog's origin story back when Jack Kirby first drew him but Jason recaps it very well here. Mangog isn't the only long unseen character to pop up. The Odinson's best buddy reappears too. This issue is one awesome battle. The visuals are so striking I could feel each punch. What a great fill-in by James Harren.

Super Sons #10 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jose Luis (art) Scott Hanna (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). I like the contrast between Jon's youthful enthusiasm and Damian's grim cynicism. The three year age gap feels like decades but each one is subtly influencing the other. This issue sets it up so that the two lads will be spending even more time together learning how to be heroes. This is one of my favourite comic books on the racks right now.

Amazing Spider-Man #791 - Dan Slott (writer) Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Rain Beredo (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I am enjoying this point in Peter Parker's life where things are going well for him. His relationship with Mockingbird is sweet and chaste. His new job is challenging. The super heroics aren't too over the top and he comes out a winner this issue. I know the good times won't last but I will feel good while it does. My fanboy crush on Bobbi Morse is even bigger now because of the way Stuart and Wade draw her. Sigh.

Incredible Hulk #710 - Greg Pak (writer) Greg Land (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Return to Planet Hulk part 2. Hulk has to survive a gauntlet to save lives and he smashes admirably. It looks like next issue swipes scenes from the Thor Ragnarok movie. I am looking forward to that guest appearance.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #297 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Adam Kubert with Juan Frigeri (art) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Totally different Peter Parker. Totally different life from Amazing. The two titles aren't even trying for continuity and that's okay. I just want to read a good story and this one where Peter and Spider-Man are being pursued by the authorities is a good one. Throw in recent revelations involving Jonah Jameson and this fan is anxious to see what happens next. According to the next issue tease T'Challa will come calling.

Star Wars: Darth Vader #8 - Charles Soule (writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Daniele Orlandini (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). We are witness to some Jedi rage this issue along with finding out what the stakes are for the good guys. Wondering what Vader is going to do keeps me coming back.

Weapon X #11- Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers) Marc Borstel & Ibraim Roberson (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The Hunt for Weapon H concludes. Will Hulkverine be a good guy or a bad guy? The jury is still out on that. I like this team and am enjoying their adventures so far.

Spider-Men II #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Elisabetta D'Amico (inking assistant) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Miles's search for his evil twin takes a terrible turn but he's got the Amazing Spider-Man helping out now. The two webslingers should be able to figure things out but you never know.

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