#but i gotta watch it and find out how he wins the league first lol

[wp100]

holllly shit that ash vs iris battle was fuckin AWESOME

[risingmoonyue]

Batman/P5 Crossover

-Sometime before Akechi but after Futaba or Haru

-Damian is sent to Tokyo to check it out for whatever reason (maybe they had a fight, or he’s going stir crazy, or he’s just the only one they can send at the time and didn't bother with all that "you're not old enough" business)

-Dami is younger than Futaba by a year or three or four

-He is baby

-He is transferred to Shujin as a child prodigy where he also immediately joins the "outcast" community because of his attitude and intelligence

-Talia goes too, manages to cut off all his communications with the Batfam, and is planning to take him home in a month whether he likes it or not

-For whatever reason, Batfam doesn't realize this??? (Like, either she's faking reports or they're too busy (think fight or chaos in Gotham scenario maybe???))

-Anyways, obviously Dami doesn't want this

-Somehow the Phantom Thieves hear about the situation

-Maybe he was assigned to shadow Makoto for a while, and they managed to overhear a phone conversation either to Talia or Dami trying to get in touch with the Batfam and nothing really working

-And eventually they outright see him fighting with his mother with him at some point (either in person or over a phone call) mentioning that she already disowned him, he's happy with his Father's family, and that he will head her family business over his dead body—and oh would you look at that, you already managed that, care to try again Mother?

-The PT's are understandably alarmed

-And learn her name from Damian (from Makoto maybe or someone else he bonded a little with) (MORGANA) (THEY GAVE HIM MONA FOR A DAY AND NOW THEY KNOW EVERYTHING FROM HIS MANY PETS TO HIS LEAST TO MOST FAVORITE SIBLINGS STARTING FROM TIM TO DICK TO HIS FAVORITE FOODS TO EVERYONE IN HIS FAMILY’S NAMES TO HOW STUPID HE FINDS EVERYONE AND WHY THEY'RE STUPID TO HIS FAVORITE MUSIC TO WHY ANIMALS ARE SUPERIOR TO HUMANS AND MONA’S LIKE OMG TMI BUT LOVED IT THERE BECAUSE HE WAS PAMPERED LIKE NO TOMORROW GOT ONLY THE BEST FOOD AND THE BEST BEDS AND TOYS THAT HE GOT TO TAKE WITH HIM BACK TO LEBLANC AND NOW AKIRA AND SOJIRO ARE LIKE DUDE WHY AND MONA’S LIKE IM KEEPING HIM THIS HUMAN IS GOOD SORRY AKIRA YOU’RE DEMOTED)

-The palace is basically a fortress full of assasin ninjas and clones

-Dunno what her keywords are tho

-Or her what her palace actually is

-Help?????????

-Cognitive Bruce, Ra's, Damian, Dami clones, and Jason (maybe rest of batfam??? Idk)

-Long story short, the traps are so assassin-y that they need someone who knows the actual Talia because egads, this is the closest they have all come to actually dying

-And they didn't really want to do it and were just gonna power through

-But Dami manages to find out and get in and of course uses his background to help out whether they like it or not

(-he's slightly off put by Joker's name, but then decides to just solely call Gotham!Joker "The Clown")

-At some point they are captured by the Shadow Talia who is decked out in super fancy traditional Arab clothing and probably every conceivable hidden weapon known to man

-Talia says Damian won't and can't ever change from who he "is meant to be", referring to him as her Alexander and basically brutally addresses all of his insecurities concerning the batfam and people and society in general

-And all this is kinda killing him cause he still loves Talia despite the fact that she killed him and had a violent citywide custody battle with Batman but he also loves the batfam too even if he would absolutely never admit it (except to maybe Grayson)

-Joker does his emotional kick-start thing and/or Dami is like Makoto and just gets so mad he triggers it himself, but either way, lo and behold, Damian is now a persona user, usurping Futaba's place as the baby of the team

-The outfit is kinda inspired by his future adult league outfit with the top and bottom and gold jewelry, but has a raggedy cloak with dull gold edges, a Robin mask and gauntlets, and his main weapons are batarang-sword hybrids

---acknowledging his past and moving on with his present

-Persona: Aladdin, Tsun Zu, Ali Baba, somone else???? Need ideas plz help

-Probably the fastest member of the group

-His small body makes his hits not as strong, but hoo boy can that kid move around

-Hits a lot and dodges most

-Most of his Persona abilities are physical and have high crit and/or are status affects

-Downside is he has not a lot of SP (compared to the rest of the group)

-And he has pretty good HP

-Those good ol' “superior genetics” have to be good for something after all

-Anyways they escape to find the treasure another day

-And Dami is all smug because HA you definitely can't stop me now

-And the PTs are just resigned to keeping an eye on the extremely competent snotty assassin/vigilante child

-They do like him though so it's not too bad (comes with learning all his darkest secrets via his mother and thought processes that tends to accompany watching someone at their lowest get a persona)

(-They do manage to temper him a bit and help him adjust better to actual society too that's nice)

-As such, they also know about Batman and Robin and his whoooole family. Both sides.

-Damian decided not to tell batfam because he does agree with the whole "most adults suck" mentality that the Phantom Thieves have; despite his deep, deep respect for his father and mother and Grayson, they all do kinda suck

-And he’s rather not get pulled out as he surely would if he told them

(-On a side note, he likes Sojiro

-The man gives him coffee, curry, and leaves him mostly to his own devices

-Instant win)

-He is dubbed "Mockingbird" apon return to the metaverse because of his freaky talented vocal skills in mimicking anyone and everyone's voice

-Eventually, they beat Talia

-She doesn't publicly confess to all her sins unlike everyone else

-PTs don't realize it worked until Damian came into school with a genuine smile on his face, and more relaxed than he'd been since he got there

-PTs are confused until Damian's like, this works out because hey, don't want to have several people assassinated and draw the entire freaking league to Tokyo

(-Which was probably why Talia didn't)

-They agree

-But she does break down to tears in Dami's arms and promise to ACTUALLY TALK CIVILLY with Bruce to try and make up for everything and try to fix up the league

-He stays for the rest of p5

-But steers all his reports very much away from the Phantom Thieves

-If anything, he downplays absolutely everything, and makes it seem like it's nothing super big but he's gonna stay a while to keep and eye out because y'alls are busy and I like it here and I haven't gotten expelled so there

-The PTs like to add funny stuff on there just to see if they’ll notice

-Like, Akira likes to have Dami describe his day in excruciating detail. Like, recounting the entirety of his nine or so months to Sae during police interrogation, excruciating

-Mona is pushing for the shiny stuff

-Yusuke just likes to put in bursts of randomness (Dami once mentioned that an acquaintance made another acquaintance T-pose in a church for art lol)

-Ann loves to rant about food

-Haru is always insisting on about feelings

-Ryuji likes to complain about everything and puts in ridiculous requests

-Futaba is just putting in every gen-z thing ever

-Makoto is actually responsible and tries to get him to talk about his progress in school and his social life

-And Akechi is absolutely nowhere near any of this and doesn’t know it exists

-When they have the Tokyo/Japan-wide calling card, Batfam sees it too because let's face it, that's totally the sorta thing that they would keep an eye out for even if he didn't look at the news in the entirety of the time Dami was in Tokyo

-And they send a message to Damian (the first actual communication they've had since before Talia) saying "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE????"

-And with the entirety of the Phantom Thieves looking over his shoulder, Damian's just like "Chill dudes, everything's fiiiiiiiiiine"

-And they're like "UH WHAT PART OF THIS IS FINE????" because they've dug around a bit and found every news report, and oh hey, this isn't anywhere near as calm as Damian described and he’s being super OOC and what’s going on?!?!?!?!?!

-And Damian, being egged on by the most of the PTs, just sends a winky face

-Just

-😉

-And he's smug, because it's still chaos over there so they can't actually come get him and try to pull him out because he's being super ooc

-Which means he's free to do what he wants/needs in the meantime

-Cue the end of the game

-And Dami is going with them on their summer road trip and cackling because the batfam is scrambling to find him in Tokyo but lol nope he's in a van the Japanese government tried and fail to follow

-And he found all the trackers like, a year ago

-Every

-Single

-One

-They eventually track him down to Akira's house where they're calmly eating dinner (and they've been expecting this for the past week so Mona was keeping watch just so they could pull this off) and talking about how uneventful the school year was

-Cue mass confusion in the batfam

-As the PTs enjoy just confusing them so much

-By talking to Mona

-Talking normal then crazy then normal again

-And just generally being their normal selves lol

-They explain absolutely nothing beyond gushing about how much progress socially and academically he’s made (gotta embarrass the baby of the group somehow) and making sure that if Dami absolutely has to go home that he's able to stay in touch

(-Later, Damian forms his own hero persona outside of Batman and Robin)

(-He names it Mockingbird)

(-Batfam proceeds to have a brain aneurysm while the PTs dab their happy proud tears out of their eyes on their regularly scheduled tea time at the Wayne Manor)

(-Damian sends a private plane every week or two lol)

(Bonus: ARTTTTTTT)

(Psst if you guys have ideas for art, outfits, interactions or scenarios, let me know)

[tenfifteenthirteen]

ANON!!!! i didn’t even know this existed thank you! why didn’t the hawks say anything lol or jonny he can post and reply on instagram but can’t promote this??

(x) 4:50 “i think i was thirteen years old when i ended up getting to play with kaner on the same team”

9:20 “i think we can use kaner as a good example- he’s one of those guys who was never bigger faster stronger but he learned how to think the game at a young age learned how to create space for himself... he’s a good example as a guy who never really had any of those edges but he just gets better and better”

11:40 “i remember bawling my eyes out when i was 8 years old when we lost a game” aw bless him

15:05 “...i’m not a coach i’m not a parent either but i do think of things i would try to do if i were a coach or parent or what i would say to my kid- the different approaches after a win or a loss or what the different teaching moments are”

16:50 “i think my point using kaner as an example is when you’re nine or ten you go out there and you can kind of try to have that detached assessment of where your game’s at... always being in that process of always looking at yourself in the mirror... i think ultimately that’s gonna make you a better player and teammate down the road”

22:50 “it just depends on if kids are ready to do it and if not you just gotta let them go at their own pace”

28:20 “if my son someday wants to play in the western league and it feels like the right decision then we’ll see i won’t argue one way or the other”

29:40 “it’s kinda crazy and it is pretty young being 18 [during the draft] sitting in a room full of scouts and gms and executives sitting there grilling you to see how you react” ...... yeah... :(

36:20-

“i’ll be 32 in a couple weeks.. it doesn’t feel old but then i see an 18 year old sitting across the locker room... that guy’s been watching the hawks and patrick kane on tv kinda the same way i did or you did.. you idolize guys and you don’t really realize how close to that level you are at a young age because you put everyone on a pedestal. you don’t really know where you stand”

“i remember being on a line with kaner at our first training camp...” *moment of silence*

“i remember my second game in the league facing off against my childhood hero joe sakic” atta boy

1:02:45 “that’s the ultimate quality i look for in a teammate- someone i can go out there and do a job with and find ways to win games with.. someone who’s never satisfied with where they’re at” #neversatisfied

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 223: Let Me Give You a Hand

Previously on BnHA: Tomura had a flashback to when he first met All for One. AFO told him he’d spontaneously developed a rare quirk which led to him accidentally killing his entire family and his adorable dog. Baby Tenko was able to recall “fragmented images” of the incident but curiously has no clear memories of his life beforehand. But I’m sure AFO isn’t lying, him being such a stand up guy with no obvious ulterior motives here. Anyway so we also found out that the hands are supposedly all that’s left of Tomura’s family, if anyone actually buys that. And Ujiko is the one that made them. Ujiko, as it turns out, doesn’t really plan to withhold the Noumus and everything from Tomura, but he does want Tomura to prove he’s ready to handle them, and to do that he wants him to go back and win over Gigantomachia. Tomura was all “okay fine” and so Ujiko teleported him back along with the rest of the Shigaraki Squad, except for Dabi who didn’t wanna (he’d rather antagonize Hawks instead). So that’s where we’re at now. Oh and I almost forgot, but Tomura wants to destroy everything, like the whole fucking world, because he feels like that might help to ease his constant inner pain and torment. So that’s nice. What a nice chapter.

Today on BnHA: We fast-forward to mid-December. Tomura and the gang have been dueling Gigantomachia near-ceaselessly for the past month and a half. Giganto can fight for a full 48 hours (and 44 minutes) at a time without rest, so the Squad has been taking it in shifts, but since Tomura is Giganto’s main target he’s been fighting almost constantly. He seems to be in good spirits, though, and is confident they’re making progress. Anyway, so shortly after Giganto’s scheduled nap begins, Twice gets a call from Giran! Or rather, Re-Destro, calling from Giran’s phone, to brag about having kidnapped Giran. Apparently he’s been keeping busy by chopping off Giran’s fingers. Ramsay Bolton-ing it, if you will. He’s been leaving them at strategic locations across the country trying to get the League’s attention, but his buddies finally managed to hack Giran’s phone and get his contact info, so it turns out the finger-chopping wasn’t strictly necessary. So he explains who he is and what he’s about, says there are 116,516 members of the Liberation Army spread throughout the nation (did you do a fucking census?!), and explains that they have a satellite tracking Tomura’s location. He then delivers an ultimatum: come and fight, or be captured by the authorities.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 226, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

so the title of this chapter is “cockroach”, which could mean anything, but is most likely being used in the “pesky little bugger who’s obnoxiously hard to kill” sense. Tomura are you the cockroach. who is the cockroach. hmm

(ETA: yeah I still don’t know. whatever)

anyway so now it’s mid-December...! holy shit what, we’re caught up?

actually, scratch that, we’re ahead of where we were before because our last update was “early December, Sunday morning” on the day of Shouto and Katsuki’s provisional license retest. shit. Tomura I’m gonna need you to stop whatever it is you’re doing and go on your phone and look up articles about the purse snatchers who were stopped by the two young heroes who placed first and second in the U.A. sports festival earlier this year. specifically I need you to find out for me what Kacchan’s fucking hero name is omfg. can you do that

Tomura. Tomura, focus

...

okay I can see that you’re busy right now. wow. okay, uh

so lol this guy’s been at it for a month?? more or less? do I have that right? Tomura how the fuck are you still alive. you really are a cockroach

also did Giganto just fucking snap you in two here or

oh I should have known

hahaha they’re so cute!

I’m honestly amazed they haven’t fucking quit. they’re still at it. this is one loyal bunch of bastards. and Tomura is showing more dogged perseverance than I ever expected him to be capable of. makes me sad for what could have been, honestly

why doesn’t Compress just compress him. you’re telling me he hasn’t managed to touch him once in the however many weeks that they’ve been at this? or maybe he has and that’s how they’ve managed to survive this long lol

anyways, so Giganto is all “WEAK!” again and now he’s doing this

so maybe that’s why Compress hasn’t been able to touch him. he got that DBZ battle aura shit going on

(ETA: he’s kinda giving me All Might vibes, actually. Deku you wanna take a crack at this?)

meanwhile Spinner and Toga are watching from a safe distance like smart people

Toga says it looks like Tomura’s in trouble, and Spinner’s all “same as always then”

also Spinner has changed out of his Stain cosplay at long last and I don’t know what to make of this you guys

this is a shockingly normal look. a hoodie and a fucking jacket. I’m just... I’m still processing this. okay you win this round Spinner

so he’s explaining for those who aren’t paying attention to the timeline that it’s been more than a month and a half since Tomura was tasked with getting Gigantomachia to chill out, and he has still not chilled out

holyyyyyyy shit

I have to assume Spinner is exaggerating things here for the sake of drama because Tomura would fucking be dead. or else he’d have quit by the second day. screw destroying the world, I’m gonna take up knitting or something

I seriously can’t believe this shit though? was this part of AFO’s plan also? talk about a way to level up your protege in record time. either he dies or he becomes the strongest bitch who ever lived. has AFO been sneaking peeks at U.A.’s lesson plans

holy shit

wow they really are true ride or dies. also Dabi 100% had the right idea. best decision you ever made Touya

but seriously though Tomura should be dead. forget just sleeping, when is he eating and drinking? are the others going on coffee and bagel runs on their breaks? are you telling me Tomura’s been fighting this guy for the past 40 days all doped up on caffeine with only cup ramen to sustain him and running on 9 days’ worth of sleep spread out over six weeks wtf. he should be dead from exhaustion or else a fucking heart attack

holy shit Horikoshi actually explained how their broke asses didn’t just up and starve to death though omg

they got an allowance awww

also Toga is still the cutest and my favorite and fuck yeah girl you tell him though. nobody wants to be running around in the woods in fucking December without a fucking coat, Spinner

interesting that she’ll steal a bikini but not a jacket lol. nah we’re paying for that like good honest citizens

holy shit Spinner you’re still having your identity crisis?

I can’t decide if Horikoshi is setting things up to have him jump ship and join Detnerat (what with him feeling increasingly disillusioned with the League, and Destro’s philosophy being something that would almost certainly appeal to someone with his quirk and history), or purposely trying to make it seem like he is so that he can subvert everyone’s expectations and have him unexpectedly remain loyal to Tomura at the critical moment. kinda like what happened when Katsuki got captured. right now I’m leaning more to him defecting though; I think that plot would open up a lot more possibilities story-wise

(ETA: after reading Toga’s latest chapter I’ve swung back around on this. the Liberation Army is full of fucking phonies who don’t practice what they preach. look at how Kizuki was trying to make Toga into a martyr for their cause. I feel like Spinner would be able to see through their bullshit. hopefully.)

by the way you guys has Ochako always been on this list or is this a recent development??

and I love you, Toga! even though this in no way even comes close to answering Spinner’s question though! it’s okay it was foolish of him to ask

(ETA: so apparently she loves Ochako because she ships her and Deku! this is one of the most relatable things in this manga to date.)

lol

hush you that’s what makes her so perfect

and now I guess some time is passing and now they’re finally getting to take a break!

you know, that’s a good point about him eating. he’s gotta power himself up somehow. all quirks have a limit, we’ve known that since very early on. at some point Giganto has to reach his, right?

holy shit you guys

I just got some strong Katsuki vibes coming off of our resident crazyboy here and I need a moment to process this. damn. that’s some powerful character development from a guy whose signature move up till this point was sitting on a couch

Spinner’s watching him and thinking that Tomura’s gaze looks like that of “a young boy chasing his dreams”

yeah, his dream of destroying the whole world and everything in it. so pure

oh FUCK

YOUR BOY GIRAN WHO’S CURRENTLY BEING HELD BY DETNERAT?? THAT GIRAN? UH

lol Compress is telling Twice to ask if his robot arm is insured. Giran has bigger things to worry about than your arm dude. if this even is Giran calling and Giran isn’t fucking dead, since we do know this series isn’t above killing people off every now and then, and we had quite the disturbing image of what looked like a finger lying on what was apparently Giran’s signature scarf in the last chapter

Twice is saying that Giran is a real good guy and that he looked out for Twice even after he joined the League

ffffff he really is fucking dead huh

lmao but because it’s Twice he then immediately shouts at Giran for being an asshole and not answering Compress’s calls

OH FUCK

FUCK ME YOU GUYS GIRAN WAS FUCKING TORTURED TO DEATH. HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS SERIES KEEP ESCALATING ITS LEVELS OF HARDCORE WHEN IT COMES TO VILLAINS

so Compress is stupidly asking if Giran’s using a voice changer, but Twice has already conned on to what’s going on

oh fuck oh shit oh fucking shit

Compress is immediately whipping out his phone

OH FUSCK

JUST VILLAIN THINGS

fuck me this fucking series not pulling any punches. “what timeslot does the anime currently run in, again?” Horikoshi asks absentmindedly while he proceeds to not give a flying fuck one way or the other

ksdjlfkjw jesus fucking christ

IS THIS FUCKING GAME OF THRONES??! are you fucking for real with this shit??! AND SURE, WHY NOT, LET’S JUST DRAW THE FUCKING FINGER JUST LYING THERE ON THE SIDEWALK

BREAKING NEWS, JUST ANNOUNCED, SEASON 5 OF THE RUNAWAY ANIME HIT “MY HERO ACADEMIA” TO AIR EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

oh hold up lol there’s more

well fuck me y’all if that ain’t a whole fucking hand

and fuck me also because the site of All Might’s last stand against AFO in Kamino is officially known as Ground Zero and it’s commemorated with a fucking statue and everything. my Kacchan hero name theory is decimated, Ground Zero as Kacchan’s hero name is fucking confirmed and if it is the case I’m going to get extremely emotional now at what his obvious reasons would be for choosing that name holy shit though

(ETA: although to be fair! what’s written in the chapter here is グラウンドゼロ (Guraundozero), whereas Bakugou’s name from those old character book sketches was  爆心地 (Bakushinchi). so it’s not quite the same! I feel like it’s still up in the air. I really just need this to be settled already lol. can you tell by the way I keep bringing it up multiple times each chapter even though this is an arc about the fucking villains for pete’s sake.)

-- oh shit he’s right. so we’ve got the Eight Precepts’ house, Hosu City, the Highway to Hell, Kamino, and now Fukuoka. you guys if memory serves, that is indeed every known League of Villains incident location... except for one. the very first one. as if U.A. needed any more reason to be on edge lately holy christ. let’s hope to god they don’t start chopping off the other hand

oh snap Joker’s got himself a name now!

Redestro? or ReDestro? lol that’s one of those names that looks fine in all-caps comic book letters but when typed out like this it looks stupid as hell

(ETA: I’m going with Re-Destro since it looks the least weird to me. idk.)

wow Tomura you’ve had time to keep up with the NY Times bestselling list while fighting for your life for the last six weeks? I’m impressed

this kid is not in a mood to play nice with others today and I’m loving it

Twice. where the fuck do you think Giran is. smdh

wow, Re-Destro says he’s actually still alive. hey you don’t have to show us what kind of condition he’s in, Horikoshi. just putting that out there. we have functioning imaginations, we get it. we’re good

(ETA: he’s actually doing a lot better than I thought he’d be. though I still want to take him home and wrap him up in a blanket and make him watch Jaime’s redemption arc in GoT and see if he gets inspired.)

anyway so Re-Des says they’re gonna destroy the status quo and rebuild the world into a place where everyone is free to use their powers to their full extent whenever

wow, Compress

um idk maybe because they chopped your broker’s fucking fingers off??? were you guys not tight with Giran or what? poor dude suffered some horrific shit all because he didn’t want to sell you fuckers out. least you could do is be offended

meanwhile Tomura wants to get a raincheck on this whole affair because he has other pressing matters to deal with right now

at least he told them to release Giran

oh fuuuuuuuuuuuck

where are they?? an observation tower somewhere??

jesus christ is that blood on his lap there??

how are his arms even tied behind him if he’s missing a fucking hand????

(ETA: genuinely curious about that last one though lol.)

wow Re-Destro is really testing the League’s empathy levels here

well, Tomura, that’s some pretty fucked up shit he did to your guy. what do you think. are you even slightly horrified. pissed off?

oh shit you guys!!

HE DIDN’T EVEN TALK. THIS MOTHERFUCKER DIDN’T BREAK, THEY HAD TO HACK HIS PHONE WITH THEIR MAD IT SKILLS IN ORDER TO GET THE LEAGUE’S CONTACT INFO. AND GIRAN LOOKS FUCKING HORRIFIED OH MY GOD

guys I can’t believe Giran is my new favorite character I s2g Horikoshi if you touch him again I’ll

...anyway. let’s do this whole two-page spread now because I’m super hyped in spite of my also being horrified by everything

FEEL GOOD INC. is that a fucking Gorillaz reference in my fucking shounen manga about superheroes. do I need to analyze me some lyrics. I can’t actually see any connection lol aside from it being a badass name for a villain corporation

guys I can’t believe Kizuki is my new favorite character I s2g Horikoshi if you touch her I’ll

oh hey, cool, shouldn’t be too hard to take these guys out. they’ve just got billions of dollars (presumably) and one hundred thousand soldiers lying in wait ready to rise to action at a moment’s notice, their words not mine. cool. cool cool cool cool cool cool cool we’re fucked

OH SHIT

is that why he’s in that observation place? fucking hell, how?

OH SHIT, AGAIN

HOW FUCKING NOBLE OF Y’ALL. though honestly I guess if we have to pick between the villains with the 12 Noumus of the Apocalypse who want to destroy everything, or the villains capable of running a successful business who just want people with quirks to be free, objectively the latter group is a better bet to side with

except for the fact that the latter group is totally cool with snapping their poor mouse secretary’s neck just because he didn’t like their book. and they’re also down to chop off a guy’s fingers one by one just to make a damn point. so yeah, pardon me but I’m gonna side with the League here in spite of everything

wow what the hell kind of negotiations are these??

so you just called to tell them that? ��hi hello just wanted to introduce myself and let you all know I hate you and here’s how fucking screwed you are lol have fun with that”

haha hey Horikoshi what the fuck

(ETA: so yeah this is that same hand gesture that he’s doing in the panel immediately after this one. I guess it’s just their thing. these guys think they’re so fucking cool. it’s not cool to chop off people’s hands, Re-Destro!!)

I can’t believe I have to deal with this shit on the same day I’m posting the damn mushroom chapter recap

oh wow okay so he is actually giving them a chance here

lol wow this fucking arc. holy shit

but who was cockroach. well whatever. fucking villain arcs though, you guys. omg

[talyn-the-warlock]

(OC asks) For Talyn: 3, 8, 10, 17, 19, 39, 43, 44, 47, 61. For Carter: 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 19, 20, 36, 42, 61, 73.

Talyn

3 - How tall is your OC? - Five foot ten!

8 - How does your OC talk/What does their voice sound like? - Talyn speaks eloquently, with a wide and precise vocabulary. She's a little flowery sometimes, but she usually speaks with an even cadence- unless she gets excited, then she'll ramble quickly. Her voiceclaim is Charlize Theron, with the caveat that Talyn has a slight but noticeable South African accent.

10 - What does your OC keep in a special drawer? - Her Thanatonaut "death journal." If it isn't in her drawer at home, it's on her person so she can scribble down what she remembers from deaths in combat.

17 - What is your OC's imagination like? - Wild and fantastical. Talyn spends a lot of time daydreaming, and many of her fantasies center around sailing the stars like she's always wished to.

19 - What does your OC think of children? Do they want their own? - Talyn ADORES kids, passionately. She loves listening to them, playing with them, and watching them for busy City adults when she can. She knows being a Guardian gives her a mythical quality to kids- she's like a superhero, and she's more than ready to answer the billions of silly questions she bound to get. Talyn would love her own kids someday, and mourns her infertility and hectic schedule.

39 - How does your OC handle anger? - Very, very poorly, but it's a work in progress. Talyn gets emotional very easily (for better or worse), and her anger is cold and scary when contrasted with her usual optimistic interpersonality. She's well aware of this, and does her best to work on it.

43 - What kind of sense of humor does your OC have? - Either and oddball, goofy, "lol so random" kind, or a poetic, literary, William Shakespere kind. When the wires cross, Talyn's liable to make jokes only she understands and feel like a dork.

44 - What are some things that greatly upset your OC? - A great many things frustrate Talyn, but to truly upset her takes a bit more. Tragedies and betrayals hit her much harder than the average person, but the ever-pervasive trigger is philosophical fears. Talyn can get stuck in ruts of scaring herself with worry and cause little panic attacks pondering what ifs, like "what if I was erased by the Vex?" or "what if the City falls again?"

47 - How easily does your OC forgive? - Depends on the slight. Talyn doesn't hold little grudges for petty things at all, but maliciously hurting her or her friends makes her bitter in a way that's hard to overcome. She makes her best effort to understand and forget, but it's not always that simple (Uldren).

61 - What general impression does your OC give others? - She's seen as bubbly and friendly by most, and typically favored positively for her sociality.

Soren

3 - How tall is your OC? - Five foot five!

4 - What is a noticeable physical attribute of your OC? - People typically notice Soren's fiery hair first, but the tattoo across her shoulders is more striking- a Dusk Bow, set in violets and roses.

6 - What one word would you use to describe your OC's appearance? - "Outlaw"

8 - How does your OC talk/What does their voice sound like? - Soren keeps sentences sweet and to the point, accentuating a cool and reserved demeanor. She uses a lot of slang and contractions, and makes liberal use of non-words like "ain't" and "gotta." She speaks in a low but distinctly feminine tone, with a pleasing (not overbearing) Southern drawl.

10 - What does your OC keep in a special drawer? - Her lucky baseball, found in the Cosmodrome when the City was still young. She insists it's saved her life before, somehow.

14 - Who is a mother/father figure in your OC's life? - Soren always looked up to her mentor, the senior Hunter Arden Han. Their relationship might be described as more brother/sister, but the paternal aspect is still present. Either directly or indirectly, he's responsible for teaching Soren what it meant to be a Guardian, a Hunter, and a good woman.

19 - What does your OC think of children? Do they want their own? - Soren has absolutely no idea how to act around children, and has a hard time connecting with them. She finds her dry wit and sarcasm is usually lost on them, and although she wishes them to be safe and happy she doesn't really understand how best to interact with them. In this way, they actually sort of intimidate her.

20 - What kind of mother would your OC be? - Supportive and loving, if a little hands-off. Soren's qualities would make her better suited to the adoption of a teenager than a small child, and she'd excell at understanding their rebelliousness and need to be treated as an equal.

36 - What are your OC's thoughts/opinioms of her current profession? - Being a Guardian has been Soren's whole life, and she hasn't seen a reason for that to change. More specifically, life as a Hunter has given her a way to sate her hunger for adventure. She loves every second she spends gallavanting through the system solving problems.

42 - What makes your OC happy? - Winning card games, getting to explore by herself, and drawing are her main sources of joy. The lattermost fills most of her downtime, and Soren has filled dozens of notebooks with sketches throughout the years.

61 - What general impression does your OC give others? - Soren always comes off as unflappably cool, in a "your friend's big sister" kind of way. She's good at impressing people, and better at getting them to trust her. To some, she might seem a bit intimidating or "out of their league."

73 - What is your OC's favorite form of entertainment? - Music and art! The former plays a big part in Soren's leisure time, as her Ghost makes radio DJing his hobby. She listens to just about anything, with a special love for classic rock and 80s new wave.

Hope this answered all your questions, @ghostwithabodycount!

[doubleddenden]

So Ash finally won after all these years. Consider me... not at all surprised, tbh.

After the shit storm that broke out after losing to Alain in the Kalos league, and given the lower than usual ratings that the anime has been getting as of late (at least according to rumors I've heard), it makes sense. Don't want anymore backlash like last time.

I will say that this fight wasn't bad but it definitely doesn't feel as good as the Sinnoh or Kalos league battles, and his team is definitely not as good. TWO unevolved starters, one being the unevolved Rowlet, and only 5 pokemon. Pikachu, Torracat, Rowlet, Dusk Lycanroc, and Melmetal, and of course he'd need a legendary for it.

The anime handles it with just a 3 on 3 match, so I guess it's slightly forgivable. And I do appreciate that Gladion's Silvally took down Melmetal in the first round, because it would have been SUCH a copout for Ash to have won with a legendary pokemon. I do like that Zoroark used his ability to really mess with everyone, and it's one of my favorite pokemon too so points for that as well.

The final battle between Gladion and Ash's Lycanroc feels pretty decent. It isn't Infernape vs Electivire satisfying to me, and the animation DEFINITELY doesn't match up to Ash vs Sawyer or Ash vs Alain, mind you, but I do like that the two took a moment to laugh it out before the fight. Gotta say though, the constant animation recycle kind of took me out of it.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Dusk Lycanroc used his own variation of Counter to beat Midnight Lycanroc, right? I couldn't really find subs just yet but I did sort of get the overall gist of it. It at least wasn't a copout like the fight with Hau that almost borderline qualifies as cheating, in my book. Plus some of the faces were just hilarious.

Overall it was an okay match. Not necessarily a match I think is worthy of crowning Ash the championship because there have been SO many other satisfying matches, which admittedly probably has left me pretty jaded and bitter over the course of the years, but overall not bad.

So, a few questions:

Will the writers keep their word? They said a long while back that if Ash ever won a championship, that'd be the end of his journey.

There's rumor floating around that the next anime will take place in every region. Will he still be the protagonist? I kind of hope not, but I've been ready for him to retire since Sinnoh.

Who will he lose to next? If he's going to be travelling again, he has to lose to someone so he can have a "there's always someone stronger" moment like every season. My money is Kukui or someone from Galar if anything.

Overall, I don't know how to feel. I won't lie and say that I'm entirely bitter about it, I did still feel that spark of joy that I felt all those years ago as a kid to see him beat his rival, or to see a fun battle animated. I definitely felt joy when he won because like, I grew up with him. I started out younger than HE was.

I mean it wasnt perfect, it's not how I wanted him to win. I wanted him to have a full, 6 on 6 match with a fully evolved team of pokemon carefully raised with as much love and care as his Sinnoh and Kalos teams. I wanted him to be a lot more mature and fight an impossible opponent like a champion or something. Maybe even a callback to Charizard, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur (although I'd probably call that a copout too, lol).

But hey. I'll take what I can get. Not bad overall. I hope that they retire Ash, at least for a bit, and let us have a new trainer to watch grow and hopefully win in the same series, and PREFERABLY not make us wait 22 years to see that one crowned as champion, lol. I really hope he either takes a step back or just mentors a trainer.

Pikachu can stay though. We love you Pikachu.

[cards-onthetable]

An Elusive Computer Post

Y’all, 99.999% of the time, I exist on my phone and tablet. It’s very rare that I do any Fandom Stuff or social media on my laptop. But tonight, after This Episode, I had to break out the big guns. I need to be able to type as fast as my brain screams words. tl;dr: EVERYTHING IS THE WORST AND I HATE IT. Hey I’ll do a fun little page break so you don’t have to scroll past this whole thing if you don’t want to. How nice of me. 

Erin

OPENING SCENE AND ERIN’S ALREADY YELLING AT PEOPLE. COOL. 

JUST DON’T with this foster parent (allegedly) killing a foster child thing. Foster parents have enough of a negative perception as it is... a foster parent who “cracked” and killed a child in her care certainly won’t help. And I know this won’t turn into a well-done, thoughtful Discourse on the lack of support and resources for foster parents who are caring for children with complex needs. So I hate it. 

I’m so, so, so sad for this child.

Sidenote re: Sam saying “I’ve already got a mom” (explaining why he didn’t call his foster parent “mom”) - okay, BB, one actual sensitive portrayal here, thumbs up. 

Welp Erin’s boss is an asshole but so’s everyone else on this show. What else is new? 

And now Sam is locked out of his new foster home. Another nice tally in the Negative Portrayal column. This is disgusting. His appreciation for his previous foster parent is obvious (this kid’s a ten times better actor than fucking Will “Dead Face” Estes at this point) and I hate this entire concept. At least the show’s portrayal of the child in foster care himself is positive. 

Now Sam’s at Anthony’s house and this is off topic, but for half a second can we appreciate that Sam is also a bajillion times better at apologies than Jamie Reagan? Nice. 

If Anthony becomes Sam’s foster parent I will be SO ANNOYED. One, because I’m sure the show won’t even hint at an accurate process - it’ll be insta-parent, Anthony walks into some caseworker’s office and walks out with physical custody of a child (fun fact: it takes three months or longer to get licensed as a foster parent). Two, because it’s kind of another blow to the reputation of foster parents that this episode is painting - like the only suitable foster parent in a whole city of veteran, trained, experienced FPs is this newbie? This does not taste good. 

This is a cute scene. Rather than Anthony being Sam’s foster parent, how about he becomes his mentor? 

OH. NICE. EXACTLY WHAT I DIDN’T WANT. “I’m going to sign the papers later today. I’m going to foster Sam myself.” Can we please get some follow-up on this, BB? Let’s please see Anthony trying to navigate the waters of parenting a teenager who likely has attachment-related diagnoses and other challenges. Is Anthony going to get trauma-informed care training? Or is he just going to wing it and hope that it’s all magical and swell? Does he have a sensitive, non-snarky bone in his body? I’m on the edge of my seat. (LOL @ Erin being the voice of reason here.)

OH. WHOA WHOA WHOA. “It’s not like I always wanted a son, but one came knocking and I answered the door.” Remember that line above where Sam reminded us that he has a mom? Do you understand why this line made me gag? There’s a fine line you walk as a foster parent, where you’re performing all the duties of parenting this child as if they’re your own - but you have to remember and be sensitive to the fact that they’re not. Kids in foster care are a package deal, yo, they come with a whole other family too. For teenagers this is an especially important Issue. 

This entire storyline was terrible. 0/10. 

Fat Shaming (Frank and co)

Poor Witten, you guys. That is awful and terrible and dangerous that her partner can’t even make it up 4 flights of stairs. “I’m here and you’re fine” - but what if she wasn’t? 

Did Sid Gormley just use the word “fat shaming” and argue that physical fitness does not affect a cop’s ability to do their job? 

Cops who are on the beat should be able to pass a fairly high standard for physical fitness. The end, basically.

Family dinner (tossed in here due to the topic of conversation): Seriously? Henry’s going to talk about it being discrimination to require cops to meet a physical fitness standard that is a pretty basic aspect of their ability to do their job? Nice. 

Oh, magical, Frank has come up with a Compromise that Makes Everybody Happy. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. 

Danny

TBH I hardly noticed this storyline at all. I’m much too busy angrily scribbling all of the examples of Dismissive Jamie on my whiteboard. Oh well, win some lose some. 

Jamko

The way Jamie brushes Eddie off during this whole New Partner Discussion is gross. Refer to yesterday’s Two Pronged Complaint for the details. 

The Biggest Issues: Jamie minimizing Eddie’s experience on the job, and being too protective of her/failing to be an objective boss. Et cetera. 

“wHaT eLsE dOn’T I kNoW?” suck a dick, Jamie Reagan.  

Peep those obviously empty coffee cups that probably have a piece of dry ice at the bottom to make the “steam.” A+. 

I’m going to keep track of how many times “female empowerment” is said in this episode. I’ll keep you updated. 

So this “fraternal organization” that we’ve all been so stressed about Eddie joining is...basically a women’s intramural sports league? LOLOL so I’m super excited to watch Jamie sputter about how Joe died playing softball* and therefore Eddie shouldn’t join. 

LOOK AT EDDIE. She is legitimately excited about the idea of playing softball, dude. That smile is as much personality as we’ve gotten out of her all season. CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH JAMIE “WET BLANKET” REAGAN SNUFF THAT RIGHT OUT. 

This ~date night~ situation is hilarious in a Young Childless Couple way. 

OH, so NOW Jamie’s interested in a legitimate conversation with Eddie, engaged and responding... with questions in a demanding, rude tone? I’m so annoyed at his whole handling of the Eddie’s-new-partner thing.

GOD why is everything a Female Empowerment Thing? Can’t women just... enjoy playing sports? 

OH HERE’S WHERE IT GETS FUN HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS 

BAD IDEA

YOU’RE ABOUT TO BECOME A REAGAN

THAT’S A NO-GO

NOW YOU’RE JUST BEING STUBBORN

“No, I’m being astonished that my fiancé is trying to tell me what I can and cannot do” SAME, EDDIE 

I’m so angry that the scene cuts off there. Did they just go about their stupid dinner date with this Tension floating palpably in the air between them? Did Eddie pull out an “I think I’ll sleep at my place tonight” and stalk away in that red? satin? dress? ? I hope she poured his stupid ON TAP IPA (objectively the worst type of beer, btw) down his shirt and walked out. 

I AM SO SAD watching this scene of Eddie backing out of softball. 

“I’m not much of a joiner” is a DUMB RIDICULOUS LINE and Eddie says it TWICE, folks. 

Witten doesn’t bring up Jamie at all - I therefore assume she doesn’t know Eddie’s a Future Reagan (which is a whole other issue, but anyway.) . Witten thinks Eddie’s backing out so as to avoid associating with Witten. So I assume Witten’s intentions with the softball invite were totally pure. IMAGINE THAT! A woman who wants to be friends with another woman, one who she works with and respects and wants to get to know better! With no ulterior motive! Someone please hit Jamie Reagan in the nostril with a dart. 

I like Witten more and more. Can we replace all the Reagan storylines with Witten, Sam, and Old Eddie in dark jeans and a studded jacket?

A LAUNDROMAT? ONE: Shouldn’t Jamie, as A Reagan, have laundry in his building?* TWO: It he didn’t, why wouldn’t they do laundry for free at Frank’s house every week?*

I CAN SMELL THE TENSION and I am legitimately curious how they’ve coexisted between the date and now. How’s that working out, hmm - that “keeping work and home separate” thing? 

“I DIDN’T TELL YOU TO, I ASKED” says Jamie. Shall we go back a few bullet points to when he told her it’s a “no-go”? 

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT ELSE I NEED TO KNOW - Same, Eddie. Do I really need to reiterate how ridiculous this whole thing is - that they’re engaged without dating, and now finding out that maybe there’s a reason people date first, even if they’re best friends, because this is the kind of stuff you work out before you start shopping for your dress.

“Are we talking, or are we just talking smack?” SOME ACCUSATION from the dumbass who said ALL THE THINGS IN THOSE BULLETS UP ABOVE. 

Finally, for once, Eddie is voicing some real and legitimate concerns. Are we going to get any sort of resolution or mature adult discussion of these things? NOPE! 

Did he seriously just tell her to cut it out? I hate him so much. I hope somebody duct tapes him to the front of those washer/dryers and pulls out each individual eyebrow hair with tweezers. 

This laundromat scene just exemplifies so many of the issues I’ve been rage blogging about all damn season. Jamie ultimately brushing off Eddie’s concerns without ever giving her real answers. Not having the respect for her to even take her thoughts into account. Barking orders like he knows it all, and Eddie isn’t capable of making her own decisions. At least this time that’s the actual point of the scene rather than the nasty subtext. 

EDDIE AND DANNY SCENE: I’m actually surprised that this is the first time Joe has been mentioned. Watching the sneak peek I figured Jamie’s main argument against Eddie joining an organization would be that it’s what got his brother killed (being vague, obviously, since Eddie clearly didn’t know the details). Not that it’s improper As A Reagan. I hoped the context of the episode would make me feel a little better about this scene but it just feels even more out of place and poorly/choppily written. I like Eddie and Danny together - I’d like them to interact more. But this didn’t do it for me. Gotta meet that Joe Mention Quota* on the season, I guess. 

FINAL SCENE: in summary, FUCK THIS. 

Sidenote: When is someone going to get suspicious @ how often Eddie gets pulled into Sarge’s office? 

For the record, I anticipated an eye-rolly “Ohhkay, maybe I overreacted...” speech. 

WHAT WE GOT FELL BELOW EVEN THAT VERY LOW BAR. 

Jamie explains himself. Fine, he has a right to do that, and it’s constructive in helping Eddie understand the man she’s about to marry (god don’t even remind me). BUT HE DOES NOT ADMIT ANY WRONGDOING. 

THERE IS NO APOLOGY

THERE IS NO ADMISSION THAT HE MADE MISTAKES in how he spoke to her, ordered her around, and didn’t even stop for eight seconds to listen to what she had to say

THERE IS NOT EVEN THE VERY MINIMAL “I overreacted” type of acknowledgment. 

“So maybe if I forget sometimes, you can remind me” THIS IS GROSS TOO because it essentially puts the burden on Eddie to teach/remind Jamie how to HAVE AN ADULT CONVERSATION AND NOT BE AN ASS. He could AT LEAST take responsibility for his own improvement in the Future. 

Eddie said literally two words in this entire scene. There was no mutual understanding, no real agreement, no genuine Development in their relationship. 

THIS IS NOT A SATISFACTORY RESOLUTION TO THIS CONFLICT. 

This episode is called Rectify but NOTHING HAS BEEN RECTIFIED. 

ALSO, this seems like an awfully Personal conversation to be having in uniform, Sarge. Are they even trying anymore? 

HE JUST THREW A SOFTBALL GLOVE AT HER. Is that supposed to be... sweet? Touching? An admission of guilt/mistake/wrongdoing? TRY AGAIN, BB. NONE OF THE ABOVE. 

WELL. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’re as disgruntled as I am. Seems like plenty of y’all were quite unhappy with this episode as well. I’m enjoying your tweets and sadness. I’ve been the queen of this club for almost a year now. Welcome, make yourselves comfortable, there’s plenty of ice cream in the freezer. Just don’t sit on the far end of the couch. That’s my dog’s favorite spot. 

*These four hilarious lines were taken from two important Outside Sources. Thanks for your contribution, Outside Sources. 

[smilingperformer]

SM074 - Thoughts

Holy cow... that was some tough ride. First it makes you laugh, then it crushes you, then it rekindles your inner light. So to speak. If you ask me, I’d say this was an episode well executed. Ula’Ula Arc continues on strong!

Satoshi is finally on Ula’Ula island Territory, and we get some others news during the scene before opening song kicks in: Alola League is being set up and both Kaki and Satoshi are fired up! We don’t have to argue about Alola League possibility anymore! : D

(Warning, I went quite analysive on this post, specifically about Sakaki and Kuchinashi. Be prepared for a really long post. lol)

I won’t like, it kinda feels hard to figure out where to start. So, why don’t we start with Rocket Gang, because well, the classmates aren’t here, and our only shots of them was from the beginning where Alola League was confirmed by Kukui, who then asked everyone to help out with setting it up. I wonder when it’ll be up for attendance!

Anyway, Rocket Gang!

While their role in this episode was more of a sideplot and to foreshadow future events, their scenes were very enjoyable and each episode of Sun & Moon makes me love them more and more. Musashi is daydreaming about Mimikkyu-Z move, and Kojiro & Nyarth are just a bit farther looking at the overjoyed Musashi, a bit bummed? Apparently she’s not letting the Z-ring up lol. Typical Musashi. When they see Satoshi the Brat Boy come to Ula Ula via Ship (this kinda reminds me of how they always used to following him on the same ship, esp. at the start of both Hoenn and Sinnoh.), they notice no classmates and immediately realise they might have a chance at winning against him. While we all know they’re doomed to fail (because they really are, nothing is confirmed but I find it hard to believe they’d win, as much as I want them to), I wish them luck! :3

We then cut to Kuchinashi, who seems to be sleepy, and wants to go take a nap somewhere else than the Police Station. It seems like he’s actually an active policeman in Pokeani. Was he in the games? Local Junsa calls him out in slacking, tho he pretends he’s on patrol and then heads back to Police Station, claiming he forgot something.

Looks like he was just trying to avoid his over a dozen Alolan Nyarth who keep on asking for food. I’m not cat owner, but apparently this is very relatable. :D This was a cute scene and all, but the next scene is the most intriquing one.

Kuchinashi receives as call, and while he tries to avoid answering it at first, hoping whoever is phoning him would give up, he eventually picks it up and oh guess who’s there:

Had I not seen the preview, I’d have been more suprised! But I did gasp at the scene while seeing it live thou.

And Sakaki is addressing Kuchinashi as an old friend? What is their deal here? I mean, SM073 already explained that the two know each other, but it looks like their relationship is deeper (And I mean more mysterious by it). Sakaki doesn’t seem to be aware of Kuchinashi being both Island King and police officer thou so... did they know each other before Kuchinashi became Island King or before he even became a police officer? Is Kuchinashi in Pokeani actually an ex-con who turned to the right side of the law? There’s more to this dialogue that makes me really curious. After small talk, Sakaki says that “he now gets it”. Get’s what exactly? He then tries to pry info out of Kuchinashi about “Kagayaki-sama“, which we localisation fans know as The Blinding One (see what’s being foreshadowed?). I didn’t know what exactly this was until later during the episode when I watched it live, but I had a hunch he might be asking about it. And I was correct. This is the first hint of an incoming arc about Necrozma, and with Sakaki being involved, a possible Rainbow Rocket arc!  I am beyond stoked and excited!

The way Kuchinashi reacts to the question is really interesting as well. I bet he does know, as we later know it is part of another legend told on Alola. But he seems certain on not letting Sakaki know, telling him he's never heard of it (the man keeps on lying to everyone, pffffft). So, I doubt he’s in league with Rocket Gang but, he might have had some past with them before. More specifically with Sakaki. What kind thou? Guess we’ll find out later this... summer? Autumn? Winter? This arc specifically? I’m finding it hard to predict future stuff for Sun & Moon, it always suprises me in different ways.

Sakaki expected a lousy answer from Kuchinashi, but like, this line has me so curious? Just what is Sakaki planning? I think he’s gonna have a big part in Necrozma arc, and Pokeani might try doing something original with merging ideas of Rainbow Rocket, Necrozma and the post-game stuff from Sun & Moon games (NOT Ultra ones, since Ultra replaced the Post Game from original games to Rainbow Rocket). Anyway, this quite intense Phone Call is finally hung up (Sakaki didn’t seem too pleased, calling his name just when Kuchinashi says he’s hanging up. He didn’t sound mad or anything, it was quite a calm and collective voice, but it was like he was trying to intimidate him? Idk) after Satoshi starts shouting outside, looking for the Island King himself. I guess our depressed Nyarth cop got off the hook, so to say? At least for now.

Maybe I should have put this part of this post as a seperate one, but... I’m not sure how to format it. If people want me to put it seperately, I can do so. But, moving on!

Well, before we move on with the plot of this episode, Satoshi gets piled up with Kuchinashi’s Nyarth, and Bevenom causes bit of chaos by shooting some... stuff, at them. Then Bevenom provokes the cats and a fight between Satoshi’s friends and Alolan Nyarth occurs. The cats won. lol Poor Satoshi. Rought start for this Island Pilgrimare.

And once again, when Kuchinashi gets asked himself as an Island King, he lies, saying Kuchinashi is his co-worker and currently on a patrol. Pfffft. He’s got some tough nerves to keep on lying to strangers. On top of it all, he tricks Satoshi into keeping company to the Alolan Nyarth “until Kuchinashi comes back“. Ruuuuude! He seems to be quite fed up with life. : D But this keeps his character interesting, he’s totally my fav Kahuna now. Sorry Lychee.

Kuchinashi does take note to Lugarugan and Bevenom specifically before tricking Satoshi into playing with the Nyarth thou. Doing a good job as Island King :)

So... Satoshi is dead from keeping company before the break time. Poor thing. These Alolan Nyarth sure are attention-hungry. (The Commercial Breaktime part is announced by Sakaki and somehow it gives me shivers lol)

After showing how exhausted Satoshi is, which is possibly because of playing with the cats for hours, Acerola shows up, searching for Uncle Kuchinashi. I have to say, the way she’s animated during this scene is so cute and gorgeus at the same time? She’s absolutely beautiful in Pokeani, they nailed here so well ♥

Well, after Satoshi explains Kuchinashi isn’t here and how he’s staying there until the “other officer“ comes back, Acerola blows the old man’s cover. Satoshi’s reaction is a lot calmer compared to Rocket Gan Trio’s, but you can see he’s a bit suprised. He’s also quite calm about Mimi-tan being a ghost. The pictures Rotom took were quite spooky... Acerola then offers Satoshi to take him to Kuchinashi, as if knowing she’ll know how to find him. This girl knows this man well, huh?

And just look at this animation, it’s perfection. The leg movement, the pose, the cuteness, the gorgeusness! That’s it, she’s my fav Pokeani character now. I’m gonna be sad when Ula Ula Arc is over I’m so sad she’s not a classmate ;_; She better appear more later on!

Back on topic, they head to the library Acerola works at, and after a small introduction to the place, Acerola brings up a book about a local legend, to which Bevenom seems to show being curious on. And so am I!

To explain it shortly, legend is about The Blinding One (Ultra Necrozma), Lunala and Solgaleo bringing light to a newly founded Alola Region, which was without a light at the time. If you want a full recap, I’ll point you to this post.

So, we now know some lore about Alola in Pokeaniverse! I love lore, and I was stoked to learn about Pokeani’s version of the Necrozma legend. It’s a bit different to the game one, where the Blinding One is a legend told in Ultra Megaopolis instead of Alola, and it’s actually about Necrozma itself instead of Ultra Necrozma. I wonder how they’ll showcase the hostile, incomplete Necrozma, who’s supposed to be in constant pain unless it fuses with Lunala/Solgaleo... hmmmmm. I’m worrying over Hoshigumo/Nebby now. Because of the Pokedex entries.

Acerola then informs Satoshi that Uncle Kuchinashi believes The Blinding One to be an Ultra beast. This bit also confirms Kuchinashi knows about the legend, and lied to Sakaki about. XD Ofc, the mafia boss didn’t believe him.

Well, what we didn’t see until the last second of the scene is that Rocket Gang is back to tailing Satoshi, and they have now learned about the tale of The Blinding One. They don’t know that Sakaki knows about it already, because they want to go and inform him right away. Weeell, they get scolded by Matori later in the episode for not bringing in new info anyway. Poor buffoons.

Small bits I like about this episode: How Mokuroh is absolutely adorable throughout it (I want to see the part where Satoshi feeds Mokuroh giffed it’s so CUTE) and Mimi-tan actually fancying Pikachu, unlike some other Mimikyu we know :))

I gotta say, the dynamic between Satoshi and Acerola is quite enjoyable. Satoshi is shown a bit restless here, wanting to go search for Kuchinashi at the Police Station, while Acerola just with proudness claims that there’s no need. Because she’s got the ultimate weapon for getting him to her: the hostage! Of his Kendama toy.

She’s adorable. How did Kuchinashi end up becoming her carer. That’s it this is my new Discord avatar. Welp. Her hostage works, because Kuchinashi comes right to her house.

I think this line confirmes Satoshi is gonna do another trial before SM077, and I think it’ll be the Ghost Trial. Maybe it’s a bit different to the games, since SM076 is gonna be Musashi’s Mimikyu VS Satoshi’s Pikachu. And they’re hyping it with different summaries, a lot. We’ll see, I’m not really having any ideas how they could portray Totem Mimikyu in the same episode. But I can see him getting the Ghost-Z Crystal. Anyway, let’s move on.

Kuchinashi denies Satoshi’s challenge, stating he can already see that he’s not strong enough to challenge them. He even tells him to go back to Melemele. Kinda harsh. Acerola convinces him to give the boy a try thou (by giving him glares and claming Kuchinashi is just finding his job a pain), so they’re gonna do a Pre-Trial for Trials. : D Which btw, is the highlight of this episode. I love how Kuchinashi seems to be unable to say no to Acerola. What a duo they are.

So, Kuchinashi uses Waruvial with the Intimidate Ability, while Satoshi uses Lugarugan, who showed interest in fighing earlier. However, we can see Lugarugan getting intimidated by this ability, and as we know, he’s got anger issues.

Btw, Kuchinashi doesn’t show a single interest in this fight. He looks bored. He knows he’s gonna win.

Well, each time Lugarugan gets intimidated by Waruvial, it gets angrier, and Satoshi notices this. He tries to calm Lugarugan, and well, so far it’s still listening, but...

None of Lugarugan’s move have an effect on Waruvial, and Kuchinashi manages to get Lugarugan trapped in a Sand Tomb. And well, this is where things get really serious.

Red-Eyed Lugarugan is back, and it’s not because of dirt, but because of not being able to control his own anger. I feel bad for thinking it was due to dirt. SM069 already kinda showed that it wasn’t related to dirt, because Lugarugan was dirty there. But let’s continue. Because this is where I start feeling ache in my heart.

Honestly, Satoshi looks terrified here. He knows what’s gonna happen. He knows already he won’t be able to control him! And he’s right!

The fight turns into Lugarugan not listening to any words Satoshi says, and it just keeps on biting Waruvial like a wild raging dog. It’s scary. It’s terrifying. And Satoshi has every right to be scared. But Kuchinashi?

He’s just being rude ass here, like he’s enjoying this scenario here. He seems so savage during this whole scene. Like he’s toying with the boy. And I sort of want to slap Kuchinashi for this, but then again, I love what Pokeani is doing with him here! We haven’t had Gym Leaders like him before, and to top it all, this is the first Dark-Type specialist Satoshi has to beat. Acerola is scared at Lugarugan here.

Kuchinashi does creepy smiles here while waiting for the right moment to counter enraged Lugarugan. You can see he’s a dark-type specialist. It sort of flows around him. Once the following scenes happens thou...

Cue the screenshot that starts breaking me. Seriously. We haven’t seen him look like this in whole Alola! He’s breaking!

And when Kuchinashi orders Waruvial to use Crunch, and it lands on Lugarugan perfectly...

Cue the most heartbreaking scene I have ever seen of Satoshi. I mean it. This is what breaks my heart! XYZ’s loss against Wurfic wasn’t enough, thou it was close! And I just had to see this similar shot of someone else in another show, so to see it this soon in Pokeani, with Satoshi, hurts so god damn much!

Lugarugan falls down, and the fight is over.

With Satoshi in disbelief. Seriously. I started crying few moments ago already. He looks so devastated. He’s lost before. But somehow this loss hurt so much more than other losses.

When he goes to Lugarugan and asks him if it’s alright, seriously, he looks like he’s about to cry. He’s at the line of the breaking point.

And he’s certainly keeping it in! He’s about to cry! ;_; And so am I hold on. I have to point out that Rica Matsumoto’s performance in this scene, and the next, is absolutely beautiful and I applaud her for a job well done.

Kuchinashi just straight up tells Satoshi that he should go back to Melemele Island. But the way Satoshi says the following line?

He’s saying it with the kind of voice that implicates that he’s so ready to cry and he’s determined on not giving up! I love this boy, and due to how impactful this scene is, I love the whole sequence of the scene, from start of the fight to the finish of this scene, whole lot!

This is the Satoshi we’ve learned to love. Determined to never give up. Determined to stay on the Island and train to become stronger, to be able to beat Kuchinashi. It’s admirable, inspiring, and I was once again reminded why this boy is such a golden one. I can’t believe I used to think lousy stuff about him years ago. I feel awful.

Anyway, Kuchinashi then tells him to do as he pleases. We then have another foreshadowing from Rocket Gang for the SM076, and I kinda explained the scene before, so, moving on! (Sorry Rocket Gang you know I love them D:)

The final scene is a good one as well. Lugarugan is sulking alone about the loss, and Satoshi goes to him, talking about how he’s frustrated, and how they weren’t able to do anything during the battle. It was very one-sided after all. He’s clearly disappointed. But then he apologizes to Lugarugan, like he seems to believe it’s his fault he can’t control Lugarugan’s anger issues. And well. He’d never blame his Pokemon. His friends. He then asks Acerola about where he could train on Ula’Ula Island, and Acerola suggests on meeting with Kapu-Bulul. Which is next week’s episode!

The end of SM074! I don’t know why I went such detail on this one. I’m blaming it on plot elements, creating my new favourite scene in Pokeani, making me love Acerola and Kuchinashi more, etc etc etc. If you guys managed to read this all, I applaud you. And sorry for sucha long post. :’D

Pokeproblem of the episode is stunning. Kuchinashi loves teasing his Nyarth.

While the preview talks about Island Kings resembling the Island Deityes by their personalities (bless the preview dialogues), we’ll be heading to the Ruins of Abudance, where Kapu-Bulul resides. And they’ll be crossing the desert to get there! Time for some slacker training!

Kapu-Bulul! Intense Slacker Training! Cya all next week!

[canaryatlaw]

okay. so. today was pretty fun. I had set my alarm for 10:30 as we’d agreed Jess would pick me up at 11. Well, I woke up to said alarm at 10:30 to a series of messages from Jess telling me to get up already because she wanted nuggets before we went to the con. I told her I’d be ready in 15 minutes, because I was being good and woke up half an hour beforehand when I knew it only really took me 15 minutes to get ready when I’m not doing my make up (doing it in the car here). So I got ready, doing Peter Pan today because I gotta take advantage of my short haired red headed cosplay options because I hate wigs and will be wearing them both Saturday and Sunday. Got picked up, went to Mcdonalds, drove to con, didn’t get stuck in ridiculous traffic like we did yesterday, so that’s a win. I’m trying to remember the details of how everything went down, when you’re there all day and you’re doing different things within a small space it can be hard to remember exactly what you did when. But I think we got there and went to find some people and talked with them for a while, then found Jess’ two friends (”friends”) who were running around doing different things, after waiting for them for a little bit. And I mean, for most of the day we just did different versions of walking around and finding people and looking at things? we’d hang out with a certain group of people for a while and then they’d go off and do a photo shoot or something and we’d migrate to a different group of people. At some point during the afternoon we decided to go through the whole show floor aisle by aisle to assess options before buying anything. I knew I wanted to get a t-shirt of some sort, and sadly there were very few legends-related items out there (I think the only places we really saw them were in the sections where you have the IDs from different shows) so I figured I’d either want something Wonder Woman or Superman related, since those are my other two faves. I was also potentially looking for a cool backpack that’s somewhat bigger than the one I have now because in two weekends we’re doing HVFF New Jersey/Rose City CC in Portland over two days and are just bringing backpacks, and since I decided tonight that I am going to cosplay both days (and the NJ one I am SO excited about!!) I’m gonna need something that can fit a lot of things. What’s annoying about the t-shirt thing is pretty much all of them at cons are only in unisex sizing, not women’s sizes, and I don’t really like how they fit me so I don’t end up wearing them as much as I do the Wonder Woman or Superman shirts I have in woman’s sizes. The other thing I might potentially buy is an Elektra from Daredevil funko pop because back when I was still looking for Katniss but was getting convinced I wouldn’t be able to find her (before I found her online) I was considering making Elektra my next one, and she would fit nicely on my stack of funkos in their boxes (that are literally in a stack on my dresser right now that consists of dark haired women who totally kick ass because apparently I am predictable like that (right now it’s Wonder Woman, Jessica Jones, and Katniss) (I do have three other funkos that are out of their boxes and placed elsewhere, which are my White Canary and Captain Cold, placed in conjunction of course, and Smallville Green Arrow played by Justin Hartley love of my life and the only actor to portray Green Arrow in live action as far as I’m concerned). So we set off to do that. A number of good Wonder Woman options I took note of, a few ones that are old comics styled, a few featuring other Justice League members like Superman and such (though I’m really not a Wonder Woman/Superman shipper like, at all, so not those because Clois is the only valid ship for Clark Kent, though I am open to WonderBat possibilities). There is also a very cool Wonder Woman backpack we were looking for that I’ll probably go back and get because it had a lot of places to put stuff and looked like it could fit everything nicely, it was just 60 bucks so I wanted to make sure it was definitely the best one before actually buying it. The Elektra pop has shown up a few places, cheapest so far for $10, so I’ll keep looking at those since there are of course a ton of places with pops. We kept getting stopped by random men that wanted to talk to us because Jess was being a fucking furry (she got asked to take a picture with two people in full on fur suits and I was dying laughing while also taking a picture of it). By the time it was like 5:30 or so we were pretty much done with everything, so we ended up meeting up with some people and heading to one of the restaurants over by the parking garage, because if you eat at one of the restaurants there they’ll validate your parking so you don’t have to fork over like $15 just for parking. So we ended up going to the German restaurant, which is always a bit of an adventure lol. The first time my family went to DisneyWorld when I was like 12 our restaurant reservations got messed up for one of the days and the only other place we could get in was the German restaurant in Epcot, and all I remember is there menu being like, essentially like three different types of hot dogs, so whenever I think of German food now that’s what I think of, and how I somehow managed to not barf it all up when my brothers and I ran (literally) from Epcot over to Animal Kingdom to get to our fast pass for Expedition Everest, which we made with like 4 minutes left on it and then went on the crazy roller coaster where I was sure I was gonna puke it all up (our restaurant reservation was for like, 4:40, and the fast pass was between 6 and 7, so we thought we’d be fine, but the restaurant got super backed up and didn’t seat us till like 6:15, so we basically ate like half a meal and then ran from the middle of the Epcot circle of nations through the rest of the park, onto the tram and then all the way through Animal Kingdom to Expedition Everest, making it at 6:56). But we got some super cute pictures of my darling baby sister who was 3 at the time and like at peak cuteness dancing to the polka in the German restaurant so that was definitely worth it. ANYWAY. this restaurant seemed somewhat similar in that there was a polka band and everything but thankfully had a larger menu selection. Jess and I ended up splitting some potato pancakes (sorry Germans, they weren’t as good as latkes) and a jumbo pretzel because she doesn’t eat red meat and I’ve been getting Meat Fatigue™ (which we’re still pretending is a real thing okay). We had an interesting conversation going on around us as the guy sitting next to me was trying to say it was bs that people were making excuses for James Gunn in that situation when strongly condemning Trump for making obscene comments, except he was not explaining it well at all and it was totally being lost in translation for everybody else until I was like okay, this is what you mean and explained it and he was like “yes, exactly! I like her” to which I was like 😂😂😂 understanding what people are saying pretty much all the time and explaining things happen to be two random talents of mine that come in handy a lot. So the meal was pretty good, one of the ladies we were with graciously picked up the tab so we were very thankful to her for that. At that point we were pretty beat so we walked back to the parking garage (after getting our parking validated) and drove home. I got dropped off and we planned to pick me up at 10 am tomorrow. I fumbled in the dark with my keys for a few minutes because somehow all the outdoor lights and the lights in the hallway of my building have gone out and not been replaced (yes I could’ve turned my flashlight on on my phone but I was being stubborn and wanted to do it myself) but eventually got it figured out. NICKZANO was very happy to see me, though I told her she’s gonna have to get used to being alone more once I get a job (at some point, anyway). I think I may actually be allergic to cats though, because my legs where I’d been letting her sit on are like hella itchy, but it’s obviously not a major issue at all and I’ll just like, put pants or longer shorts on from now on and that won't be a problem. I showered and changed into my pajamas, then watched a few episodes of 30 Rock, keeping it nice and light. I’m in their 5th season now out of 7 (which is kinda funny because I’m also on the 5th season out of 7 on GoT right now) so sooner or later I’m gonna have to find something else for funny filler episodes when I just want funny tv. And yeah, I did that for a while and then finished getting ready for bed and here we be now. So yeah, lots of fun, hopefully tomorrow will as well, I will be debuting my Ava Sharpe cosplay (who I was never really planning to cosplay but ended up needing to do so for our photo op with Matt Ryan which is gonna be fucking hilarious, just wait) and seeing Matt Ryan so that will be fun. I’ll probably wait till Sunday when I’m doing my also new (and pulled together exclusively of stuff I already owned because business wear) Lois Lane cosplay to see Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum. I was considering doing a photo op with them, but their joint one was $150 which is a tad excessive, and like, Tom alone was still $90 and I wouldn't even know what to do in a single one with him because I’d rather like, have one with both of them so Tom and I could look like we were fighting Michael, but also Michael has hair now so he doesn't even really look like Lex Luthor anymore, so given all of those factors I decided meeting them and getting selfies with them in my cosplay would be good enough. Okay, that’s all I got, it’s 1 am and I’m waking up at 9:30 and I like sleeping so I’m going to go to bed now. Goodnight peeps. Have a lovely weekend.

[fossadeileonixv]

WTF FRIDAY

WTF?

That’s the most WTF image I could find lol. Perhaps Leao missed his calling? 

First off, thank to all of you for the thoughts and well wishes the last few weeks. Scary stuff having a stroke but I feel like a lucky man. Also big ups to the staff around here for picking up the slack while I was on hiatus. Especially Gillis. The new guy has been hitting it hard!

Now on to some thoughts and ramblings, LET’S GO!

- First off the main priority is to finish top 4. Gotta get that CL spot and more importantly that CL cash. With 11 games to play we are 10 points clear of 5th. I’m pretty confident now but there is still a lot of time left. The way the league is this year anyone can go on a run and make a move up the table. 

- Speaking of runs, Juve and Napoli are both on nice streaks, while Inter and Atalanta have really tailed off of late. That has made for a very congested top 5 compared to where we were a month ago. Juve are still a long shot to get to the top but it’s not impossible. They have the easiest remaining schedule and are really playing well. Problem is even if they win out, crazy but not impossible, they can only get to 83 points.  Milan, Napoli and Inter can all lose 2 games and still finish better than that. Juve host Inter on April 3rd. That will decide whether the Juve fantasy is alive or not. Remember it was the Inter fixture last year that kept Juve alive to finish top 4. 

- Strangely enough Giroud STILL has not scored a goal away from San Siro this year.  10 goals in 801 minutes at home. Zero goals in 591 minutes on the road. And of course Zlatan still only has 1 goal at San Siro, and that was back in September. He has 7 on the road. I’m not saying Giroud CAN’T score on the road or that Zlatan CAN’T score at home, but it remains an oddly consistent stat.

- Like a lot of you I want to see more of Kalulu. R13 always seems to have a mistake in him and Kalulu has done really well in his cameos at RB and CB through injuries and Covid. Now with R13 having a knock we will get our chance. I’m certainly looking forward to it. It’s his chance to stake a claim to that starting spot going forward. Don’t get me wrong I think Kjaer still has first dibs when he returns next year no matter how Kalulu plays or what we do in the summer. It will mean competition for spots and that’s always a good thing. What it may also mean is the temptation to re-sign R13 will be nil. That’s fine with me. A CB rotation of Tomori, Kjaer, Kalulu and say a signing like Botman will be more than good enough. As we’ve seen this year, you need 4 solid CBs and I dare say those 4 would be one the best groups in the league. 

-  As much as people crack on Krunic, we still created a fair bit of chances with him on the pitch in the Coppa. Much more than when we played Kessie in that role in the league Derby a few weeks ago. This tactic by Pioli has worked out great in the last 2 matchups with Inter and has also shown the way forward for other teams facing Inter. Have someone sit on Brozovic and good things will happen. Since that Derby Inter have scored only 3 goals in 6 games. Simone Inzaghi, a manager not known for rotation or changes in general, will have to react if Inter are to right the ship. 

- It sure is fun to watch Juve fans go through the same trials and tribulations with Allegri that we saw around here during Max’s last days in 2014. The man wins but he wins ugly, real ugly. Fans hate it. They really, really hate it. Everyone wants champagne football. He knows how to suffer and his teams find a way to get results. I was team Alllegri back in the day. I still think it was a huge mistake to let him go. We would go on to have 9 different managers in the next 60 months between him and Pioli. Oof.

- Speaking of Pioli it’s easy to slip and imagine that it might be time to move on from him, that perhaps he’s taken this team as far as he can. I’ve done it lately. Look at the rest of the league though. Is Inzaghi really any better? Spalletti?  Those 2 have exactly ZERO scudetto between them as managers. You want the Mourinho circus in town? I don’t think so. Honestly I can’t think of a better alternative besides perhaps Allegri. Pioli pulled us from the doldrums, gave us an identity and steered us back into the CL. Instead of being reactionary let’s realize what we have: Probably the best manager in the league over the last 3 seasons. 

- Napoli Sunday. A win puts us top of the league. A draw is fine. Inter have Salernitana while Juve have Spezia. I would say those are ‘easy outs’, but as Gillis points out to me the bottom four in the league have only 4 combined losses in their last 20 to go along with 3 wins and 13 draws. Also on the menu is an Atalanta visit to Roma. If Atalanta are to rebound a win is a must. If Roma is gonna make a run at top 4 their next 2 home games against Atalanta and Lazio are must wins. 

It’s a big weekend, but aren’t they all the rest of the way? 

FORZA MILAN

Lisi

[bubble-tea-bunny]

down for the count 

[steve harrington x reader]

author’s note: i always enjoy writing fics like this one, w/ a more fun, sort of sarcastic tone but i find it kinda difficult. i can’t force it; just gotta let it happen. listened to this on repeat which def helped get me in the right mood. hope y’all enjoy fanboy steve lol

word count: 2,103

Steve has kind of… sort of… always been a fan. But then again, who wasn’t? The Hawkins High School girls volleyball team is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in the league, and has gone undefeated this season. There had been some close calls, neck-and-neck games with a rival team who was also vying for the number one spot. One doesn’t have to ask who ended up winning the whole shebang this year, because there’s a shiny new trophy sitting in the glass case in the hallway, behind which rests a picture of this year’s team. You’re in the front, balancing yourself on one bent knee and atop the other you keep the volleyball, holding it in place with your hand.

The team owes a lot of its success to you, as captain, and in more ways than one. Perhaps the most obvious reason is the skill you exhibit. You play club, meaning you live and breathe the sport. Everyone’s pretty sure that’s your full-ride ticket into college. But you neither confirm nor deny that, not wanting to show off (admittedly all the attention does make you a tad uncomfortable). The second reason you seem to be the source of the team’s undefeated season is that you’re the glue that holds everyone together. During the more intense games, the stress on your teammates’ faces isn’t difficult to miss, and you’re there in an instant, just as high-strung, but pushing them on, pushing you all on. You believe in every single one of them, in their ability to do so much more, and maybe it’s a bit melodramatic to say these things in the context of high school volleyball, but it goes beyond that. Your encouragement follows them off the court, and they know they will always find a friend in you.

All these things taken into consideration, perhaps it’s not so hard to tell why Steve is as big a fan as he is. And if someone asked him to admit it, what he thought of you, he might not do so out loud, but whenever you walk past him and he catches a whiff of your lavender shampoo and his eyes follow you, unabashedly staring as you continue down the hall, and his friend has to tap on his shoulder to let him know he’s bordering on the creepy side, well, that’s how he confesses the way he feels. He thinks you’re perfect. Too perfect for him, in fact.

Which seems ass-backwards, as he has been told multiple times by close friends when they catch him giving you heart-eyes, thank you very much. He’s Steve fucking Harrington—he could have any girl he wanted! (Their words, not his.) But it’s only met with a roll of his eyes so hard he’s surprised they don’t detach from the sockets. And he scoffs and tells them you’re [Name] fucking [Last Name], star athlete (this is accompanied by a sarcastic sweeping motion of his hand) and there’s no way you’d be interested in the likes of him, Harrington charm (“—and hair!” he adds quickly, because he can see one of them is about to say it) or no.

He’d like to consider himself your number one cheerleader, showing up to all the home games, cheering whenever Hawkins gets a point and cheering just a little louder when it’s you who’s made the shot. You glance over at the bleachers during those moments, smiling at what he would like to think is him, but it’s most likely aimed at your friends sitting a few rows behind him. Sometimes he wonders if you remember his name. Being in the same PE class and all, it’s a name you’ll have heard daily during roll call. Then the next thing to cross his mind is if you could pair the name to his face. Hearing it is one thing, but matching it to him is a whole different matter. He doubts you’ve so much as glanced his way, the longest you ever have being during dodgeball and with your sights trained on him, you’d chucked the ball in your lithe hands straight at him so hard he could swear it whistled through the air. (It nailed him in the stomach and he clutched at his torso the whole shameful walk over to the bench.)

When the teacher announces that today you’ll all be playing volleyball, Steve automatically glances over at you on the other side of the bleachers, where all of you sit for roll call. You don’t look overly excited or anything, just a small smile on your face, but that smile always seems to be there. He can hear some people around him muttering they hope they’re on your team. But this is followed by groans when the teacher draws an imaginary line down the center of the class with an outstretched hand, splitting the teams that way. That puts Steve on the opposite side of you, and while he doesn’t voice it, he can’t help but silently agree with the others on his team that they’ll most definitely be losing by a landslide.

“Maybe she’ll go easy,” someone says.

It’s met with a laugh. “I bet you we’ll still lose.”

You definitely don’t play with the same force as you do during games, but even your casual pace is hard to keep up with. There’s a gap between your scores (your team in the lead) but nothing huge. It’s a realistic gap they can close. The current point has you and Steve in the center spot of the front row. You both stand with feet apart and all Steve can think is how pretty you are. You’re smiling at him, for it’s easy to spot his staring when he’s right across from you, and you don’t break eye contact. Your team has the serve, and when you hear your teammate bouncing the ball in preparation, you bend your knees slightly, keeping your back straight—textbook ready position. And because Steve has been watching you all the while, he mirrors it subconsciously, but he’s sure his form doesn’t look nearly as good (and he does not—does not—mean that in a perverted way. No siree).

The subsequent rally is probably the longest one yet. For most of the game thus far you’ve tried to open up opportunities for others on your team to hit the ball, setting up shots for them, and that’s no different for this point. But when someone sets the ball up high, it lines up right in front of you, which pretty much means it’s your shot. The whole time you’ve avoided spiking (at least not hard), but when the ball is falling back down in a perfectly straight line, instinct kicks in, and you meet it with a jump, wrist snapping down to drive the ball into the glossy gym floor. Except it doesn’t hit the glossy gym floor. It hits Steve in the face.

All he can think when it makes impact and he’s falling to the ground in a crumpled heap is that this is most definitely his fault. He’d been too distracted watching you that he hadn’t even processed the ball was coming straight for him, and he’d failed to even put up his arms to block it. The ball rolls away but no one is paying it any mind as they all look at him worriedly—you most of all. You cover your mouth with your hands, eyes wide in concern and guilt quickly festering. You duck beneath the net and approach him, sitting on your knees next to him where he lays on the ground.

“Oh my gosh, Steve, are you okay?” you ask. His nose has started bleeding and you feel even worse. He’s looking up at you with squinted eyes, clearly dazed.

The light shining in from the windows behind you makes you look like an angel and Steve wonders if he’s died because that’s the only way he thinks he’d be graced with such a sight. He’s owing his use of overly poetic (and cheesy as hell) language typically absent from his vocabulary to his maybe-concussion. And immediately after considering he might actually be concussed, he realizes you said his name. You remember it. You know who he is. He’d be more excited if the blood from his nose hadn’t just reached his lips and if his head weren’t pounding like a motherfucker.

Upon the teacher’s instruction, a fellow classmate leads Steve to the restroom. You watch them walk off with a small frown on your face, and when the game continues, you avoid anymore spikes. Truthfully, you’re not paying much attention anymore. All you’re thinking about is Steve and how you really hope it’s not anything too bad. You’ll need to find him later to apologize. Profusely.

Luckily it’s not a concussion. Just a killer headache. Steve emerges from the nurse’s office and sighs heavily, pausing a moment in front of the door to set a hand on his temple, waiting for the throbbing to ease up so he can walk without feeling like he’s about to tip over. That’s where you find him, and you rush up to him, cringing slightly as you watch him rub his forehead.

“Hey, not too bad I hope?” you inquire softly so as not to startle him.

Steve opens his eyes to find you standing before him in normal clothes once again, your brows furrowed. Your cheeks are flustered as well, an obvious sign you’d just been in PE. He smiles and nods, appreciative of your concern. “No concussion.”

“That’s good.” You smile back, more at ease now but not any less guilty. “I’m really, really sorry about that. I wasn’t aiming for your face, I promise.”

At this, Steve can’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry about it. I should’ve been paying more attention.”

“Still… I shouldn’t have gotten carried away like that.” You sigh.

“You know, this might just be the almost-concussion talking, but I feel sort of honored that you spiked me in the face.”

This elicits a laugh from you, and Steve likes the way it sounds. A lot. A part of him can’t really believe he’s having a conversation with you, even if it is due to you having injured him, and it’s one that’s a lot easier to carry than he thought it would be. You’re just so friendly. It makes him wonder why he was so scared in the first place. And when he tells himself this, he can’t help the way he continues speaking, and before he realizes just what he’s saying, the words are already out in the open, as if he’d momentarily been possessed by someone else. It’s like even otherworldly forces are rooting for him and when he didn’t have the balls to do it himself, they ran out of patience and did it for him.

“But if you really wanted to make it up to me, maybe you could let me take you to the café downtown?”

You almost don’t think you heard Steve right, but he’s smiling nervously and there’s hope flittering in his eyes and you know you’d heard him perfectly fine. At least you can owe the flush of your cheeks to the fact you’d just been in the gym for PE. But it’s difficult to excuse your goofy smile, which you try to keep down by biting your lip. (You’re failing.)

��Sure.” You nod. “What time did you have in mind?”

Steve doesn’t answer right away, mostly because he’s transfixed on your cute grin. He wants to tell you he likes when you smile and he doesn’t want you to hide it, but he figures he can always bring that up later. “Is after school today all right with you?”

“That’s perfect.”

“Great.”

“Great.” You purse your lips and your smile is the tiniest bit shyer, if Steve isn’t imagining anything. He’s fairly certain he’s not, but at the same time he can’t be too sure since that ball to the face is still making him a little woozy. “I’ll see you later then.”

“You will.” Steve smiles and watches as you proceed to walk down the hall, and at one point you glance over your shoulder at him, pink lips curled up slightly in a smile almost feline and pink cheeks making you glow. The end of the school day can’t come fast enough, and all he’s seeing in his mind’s eye as he goes from class to class is your dimpled beam, bright and beautiful as the sun.  

[brianna-lei]

Butterfly Soup Asks #16

This time including the squad as DnD characters, Liz facts, Noelle getting her yaoi education, and more

I’ve only played Dungeons & Dragons once (1) in my life so I’m no expert! I’d consider my thoughts suggestions (like with my takes on the charaters’ MBTI types, which I’m not an expert of either): 

Noelle as a Wizard sounds right, since she definitely can’t do anything reliant on physical strength. She would be an asshole and attempt things like building a Clone Army

AKARSHA THE BARD. Rogue sounds too cool for her

Diya: I actually want to say she’s a Ranger because the Wiki on 5th edition says “The Beast Master archetype forges a connection between civilization and beasts, allowing the character to interact with animals in certain ways including gaining an animal companion to control.“ Fighter and Knight also sound plausible though! 

Min: Barbarian with high Strength and no Intelligence and Wisdom

I don’t want to say too much because I want to save things for the sequel, but here’s some stuff:

She actually played against Diya in youth leagues before she transitioned. That’s why she recognizes Diya+specifically approached her to sign the baseball club form while Diya doesn’t recognize her. At the first club meeting Liz tells her “I was at one of your games when you were little” -- This is purposefully ambiguous/misleading (sounds like Liz was just watching) because she passes and doesn’t want to out herself to a bunch of club members she doesn’t know well

After transitioning she quit baseball and switched to softball. It was weird being the one trans girl on a team of cis dudes, and additionally when she was younger she sort of felt like she had to prove she was a girl; she naturally has feminine taste, but she’d overperform it by 25%. It wasn’t until she got close to Chryssa and found out she also liked baseball that she reclaimed her interest in it

She has a nice resting face so strangers tend to ask her for directions 

Sunburns easily

Yesss check the FAQ guys! Fangames are fine as long as you explicitly say it’s a fangame!! 

I’m almost mad I didn’t think of this myself. I’m one of those people who overuses “spoopy” 

All art in the game (including the title screen) can be downloaded here!

NO!!! 

Noelle. The day the others find out will be the End of her

Akarsha was reading some yaoi so it came up in conversation, and since Noelle had never heard of it Akarsha gleefully educated her (to Noelle’s horror). Noelle was extremely scandalized that Akarsha kept sending her inappropriate images, and Akarsha was like “i’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart! it’s for ur education!! me: Master Teacher. call me sensei”  

Following this Akarsha changed her chat name to YAOI SEME as seen at the beginning of the game 

Diya and Noelle: Never tried it

Min: Has tried it 

Akarsha: She constantly makes weed jokes but actually only does it rarely 

Yes, I’m planning on exploring this more in the sequel! 

Diya; Dee-ya. Rhymes with “See ya”

Min-seo: Korean way, but most characters like Diya pronounce it like Min-so, with the “Min” rhyming with “win” (not like “mean”). The “so” is one syllable (not like “see oh”)  

Akarsha: uh-KAR-sha

Noelle: No L 

I was planning on making the sprites blink! I’m still a bit sad I didn’t end up doing it

It’s supposed to be fall 2008 when they’re in high school, but I took a LOT of artistic liberties when it came to the references. For example, Akarsha makes a Durarara reference even though the anime didn’t come out until 2010, and there’s a lot of modern memes that ended up in there too...I couldn’t hold back...

The IGF trailer video is especially modern-day meme-wise -- since it broke the 4th wall, it was like, all bets are off. Don’t think too hard about it!

I wanted to put a lot of 90s and early 00s hits in the game for the nostalgia factor, like Complicated, Rock Your Body, Dilemma, etc. I think it would’ve made the experience even more surreal for players who are around my age!

I don’t own the rights to all the music so I can’t distribute it around for people to download! Here’s where you can find everything:

Thought Projection by Ketsa

Holding Your Breath by Ketsa

Thoughts of You by Ketsa

2011-13 by Ketsa

Miyauchi Yuri/110515 (miltata remix) by Miltata

Night Tourist by Miltata

Sound413_Images(short) by Miltata

Sound429_Floating Cloud (draft) by Miltata

Side by Side by Miltata

Blooming by Miltata

Romaras by Miltata

Little Circle by Miltata

Daydream by Miltata

Calling Project 2 by .que

Flame of Love by YOSHI

Valar Morghulis by Bloodgod

Overflowing by Tatsuya Kato

My Heart Will Go On - Recorder By Candlelight by Matt Mulholland

At one point Diya finds out what it means on her own. After she finds out, she uses it for the actual meaning :) (added this to the FAQ now) 

I can totally relate to all of them, but I’d say Diya! (added this to the FAQ now) 

that sounds a bit alarming

(I added this to the FAQ page now, thanks for reminding me)  I’m fine with people shipping whatever!! The only thing I can think of that’d make me uncomfortable is incest and shipping Diya and Min with male characters – other than that, go nuts

Oh noo im sorry, that must’ve been stressful! For those who don’t know, I chatted about my game for a few minutes last week with MEGA (a USC club I used to be in!). I’ve adapted them here with what I assume what the questions were: 

1. Is that your cat on your Skype icon? 

yeah it is!! it's burrito 

(people think it’s a cute name) 

LOL glad you guys approve

2. Was the game made in Renpy? What do you think of Renpy vs. Twine? 

yep! it's made in renpy! I actually started out in twine -- twine is impossible if your game is like longer than an hour and is image heavy. the engine started lagging so bad it would take 30 secs to do anything

2. Would you eat a tiny 2 inch man for $100 million?

LOL it's hard..it's a lot of money. I don't think I would

(but you could use that money to save many more lives! utilitarianism) 

it's a real dude tho! i'd feel awful for him haha it's hard when you have to physically do it LOL

3. How long did it take for you to make Butterfly Soup? 

FOREVER. I thought of it in my junior year over winter break

4. Was it for school (like an assignment)? 

nah! just on my own

(people saying that’s impressive) 

yeah!! self motivation

5. What’s your favorite part of the game? 

hmmmmM I like the "date" with min in the dream. it's so fun, with the dog park

6. Which character do you relate to the most? 

diya!! social anxiety queen, so relatable

(people comment on how she runs around when anxious) 

i really did that before my sat once, ran 2 miles at the school's track

7. Are you from the San Francisco Bay Area

yeah i'm from the bay! east bay

8. Which year did you first come up with Butterfly Soup? 

winter 2014 i think

(people trying to calculate which year was my junior year) 

i graduated a year early so junior year was also senior year

9. Are you making a sequel? 

yes!! once ihave more time. i have a lot of ideas for stuff that goes after

10. Was this a prequel to Pom Gets Wi-Fi? Or maybe spiritual successor?

this is a prequel. i dunno about spiritual successor tho, they're a bit differnt

11. Any tips on how to balance schoolwork and working on personal projects? 

hmm...i honestly sucked at this and could only work on it on breaks lol...if you can try to work it into your school projects, like some bit of it...

other than that i cant think of anything LOL it's hard

12. How did you organize yourself making such a long game? Any tips? 

it was SUPER hard to organize, i was really lost until i split it into 4 sections with each character. so if you're planning on making a game this big definitely think about forcing yourself into sections like that

the art was the most confusing to do bc of how many assets there were. i was going to say "have consistent naming conventions" but that's literally impossible LOL it'll always become inconsistent no matter how hard u try

13. What part of the game took the longest (writing? art?) 

writing, actually, despite how much i complain about art assets. it's really hard making sure the structure and themes come across correctly. like pacing is so hard. art is like #2 biggest time sink

14. How early in did you write the Akarsha/Min skateboard scene?

that came pretty late haha i put it in at last second

15. Are the characters based on real people? 

they're all inspired by combinations of ppl i know! i wouldn't say based on them, tho. for example min is like a combination of 3 friends i have, strategically arranged to play her part in the story

character design is design so u still gotta be deliberate about it

16. Who’s the other cat on the computer? (they’re referring to the cat on my desktop wallpaper) 

that one's maru! he's a famous japaense cat. he's super photogenic

(people speculating that he’s the “tube one”) 

the tube one? probably. he's famous for going into stuff

17. What was your favorite aspect of working on the game? 

definitely getting to put specific Asian-American experiences into it

i was like HAHOH i can do this and no one can stop me! it was really fun getting to do this without any creative direction from like, a studio or anything. so i could just go bonkers. i hate pitching stuff so

18. Any writing advice? 

definitely have other people beta your writing as soon as possible! they always catch stuff you missed. also this is like a cheat, make your characters really extreme. like find one aspect of yourself, and turn it up to 11 and make it into a character. that way they'll be relatable and memorable at the same time. i think most people don't make their characters extreme enough so they're all kinda samey

19. (I can’t remember what they asked me here, sorry! They were asking if a specific meme was in the game)

LMAO nah it's not. i did briefly think about it though, i will admit

20. Would you eat a Gusher the size of your hand? 

that would be pretty cool. i don't think i could eat it all at once tho...i would try to save it. like half

You’re welcome, I’m really happy to hear it helped the game feel relatable!!  

Thank you! I hope you have a good day too!!

haha I feel like my game is almost propaganda bc so many people wish they had girlfriends after playing it! the agenda...Thank you for waiting for the sequel, it makes me super happy to hear people are looking forward to it! 

You’re welcome!! I’ll do my best!!! 

You’re welcome!!!! :>

You’re welcome!!! 

same I’m really happy so many people find them relatable! you’re welcome!! 

You’re welcome!! my kids can never get enough love im very happy 

I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for the support! TT_TT

[scramblingminds]

#29:  “ There was never an us.”. Alright, @cynthianicolexoxo this took me way too long to get done lol. But here it is! I made this work in my own way so I hope you like it! 

Us

Daryl was good at a lot of things. He could track like no other, his aim with any weapon was nearly unmatched and he was able to fix pretty much anything. What Daryl was absolute shit at? Relationships, of any kind.  

Daryl was a good friend, devoted and loyal but he was never good at keeping friendships going. Daryl wasn't the type to initiate, he didn't seek out companionship even when he needed it. He wasn't very good with words either, he had a habit of say the worst things at terrible times. So, people tended to either get tired of him or completely forget about him. He knew that the only reason Rick and he had stayed so close was the leader's refusal to let Daryl drift away. Daryl appreciated that more than he could ever say, no one but Merle had ever been so fixated on his presence in their life.  

Daryl was worse at romance, he had no practice in it. He hadn't ever been interested in having a relationship like that. He always figured he just wasn't the type. That's not to say he didn't have attractions and attachments to others, he just never got up the will to make anything happen. Then Paul Rovia came into his life like a whirlwind of firecrackers and grand theft auto.  

Daryl wanted the asshole as far away as possible in that first meeting because something in him scared him. Daryl would find out later from a giggling Enid that what scared him was just how smitten he was with the man, even after just a few seconds.  

Daryl didn’t act on it though, even when Paul picked up the habit of teasing and flirting with the redneck. Daryl knew he should have shut that shit down right away but he couldn't. It made his chest go tight in a way that should've been uncomfortable but he didn't want it to stop.  

Daryl did get annoyed with him at times, especially after the guy helped him at the Sanctuary and would hover and fret. He never treated Daryl any different though which the hunter was grateful for. His family had started acting like he was fragile, like there was something wrong and breakable in him. Paul didn't do that, he still flirted and called Daryl on his bullshit.  

Daryl just wasn't good with interactions, it's not that he wasn't good with people. It was the aspect of talking to people that he never got the hang of. That's why he wasn't surprised that he said the just wrong thing, yet again.  

After his fight with Rick, which he knew had been stupid and counterproductive he hadn't wanted to go home. Not just yet anyway. He was all raw nerves and unsteady emotions. He was pulling up to Hilltop before he even knew that's where he was headed. If asked Daryl might have been honest, he might have admitted that he needed to see Paul. Paul who had gotten so good at calming him down with thoughtful eyes and sure strong hands.  

All hope of finding some peace was blown out of his head the second he rolled through the gate. There was a hobbled together fence, inside were Saviors. A lot of Saviors. Daryl didn't even put his kick stand down as he got off his bike.  

"What the fuck is this?!" Daryl's voice made people jump, if he hadn't been so enraged he would have heard the way it roared.  

Maggie had heard Daryl's bike and came rushing out with Paul at her side. She hurried down toward him, "Daryl, let me explain."

Daryl wasn't looking at her, he was watching how the Saviors stared at him. A few even had smirks and Daryl knew their faces but remembered their fist even more clearly. It fell over him a wave; the ghost of panicked pain that made his skin feel like it was splitting and blackening again.  

He hadn't been at the Sanctuary long but these Saviors had more freedom than he had ever been granted. His ears rang with the echoes that never-ending song and the back of his throat tasted like dog food. Daryl had lived through a lot of trauma in his life but what bastards just like these had done to him, that was a league of its own.  

"They are leverage, bargaining chips, if we ever need them." Maggie spoke softly, like even she might be a little scared of him.  

"They gotta die." Daryl's fingers itched for his bow but he had left it on his bike.

"We can't kill them." Paul's voice was firm, like he was tired of the argument.  

"Why not?" Daryl glared over at him.

"We don't execute people, we can't." Daryl almost wanted to laugh in Paul's face. He had already done that once today, no reason he couldn't again.  

"I can." Daryl only had six bullets in his revolver but that would be six less Saviors. He turned to the fence, hand reaching for his gun when Paul got in his way. His hands coming up to rest on Daryl's chest, stopping him.  

"Daryl, you can't, I won't let you." Paul's face was open in that sweet way of his but his stance was planted and ready for a fight. Like Daryl would actually ever try to hurt him.  

Part of Daryl wanted to shove him aside but the rest of him knew it was a fight he might not win. A fight he didn't really need to win. Daryl ground his teeth, fist clenched so tight his bones ached, "Why?"

"There is going to be an after, this war is going to end and we're going to have to live with these people. This is to show there can be peace after Negan, we can all make this work," Paul's hands slowly ran down his arms and Daryl was annoyed at how the touch managed to sooth him, his fingers trailed over his wrist, "I'm doing this for us, for there to be a future worth being a part of."

Daryl didn't know what made him do it. It could have been the anger that was still simmering under his skin. All the eyes on them as Paul's fingertips reached his knuckles. Or the panic at how he shouldn’t be so happy with the thought of a Paul centric future.  

"There was never an us," Daryl slapped his hands away, Paul's face falling as Daryl stepped back, "Do whatever ya want, but I ain't being a part of it."

Daryl knew that was the exact wrong thing to say but he just made himself turn to leave. He needed to be gone. He had to get away from Hilltop and its prison of Saviors. Mostly, he had to get as far away from Paul's hurt expression as possible.  

"Daryl, wait." Paul tried but Daryl was already picking up his bike.  

He couldn't look at him as he started the engine and tore out of there. It had been a mistake to come there, he should've just gone home. He was just drawn to Hilltop, to the one person Alexandria didn't have. He had just screwed that all to hell, like always.  

It had been a lie; Daryl's biggest verbal defense was always to lie about how he felt. Daryl knew that for weeks now there had something growing in the space he and Paul occupied together. Something that simultaneously terrified and thrilled him. Daryl knew that had to be over now as he sped down the road.

Suddenly a horn behind him nearly had him veering off the asphalt. A car came even next to him, Daryl glanced over to see Paul in the driver's seat pointing at the side of the road. Daryl slowed down to a stop, Paul parking the car on the shoulder and flung the door open.

Daryl actually put his kickstand down but stayed seated on the bike. Paul's face was set in a hard expression as he stomped over, Daryl almost falling over when Paul's shoved him, "You don't get to do that! You don't get to just run off when a conversation goes south."  

Daryl righted himself, eyes pointedly not looking at Paul's blazing blues, "I ain't playin' house with no Saviors."

"That's not what I meant," Paul crossed his arms, "And you know it."

Daryl risked a glance through his bangs and the scout looked equally upset and exasperated. Daryl didn't know what to say. He wanted to apologize, take it back. Not the part about the Saviors but the other. Explain how he wasn't good with words and feelings but Paul always wanted both from him and he wanted to be good enough to give them to him.

Sighing through his nose Paul dropped his arms to hang at his side, "Look, I don't expect you to deal with the prisoners, that would be an awful thing to ask of you. After what they did but we can't just kill them, okay?"

Daryl wanted them dead but he knew he shouldn't be so blood thirsty. He couldn’t become like those bastards, no matter how easy it would be. The right thing was never easy. Daryl knew he had to get back in the habit of doing the tough stuff, like forgiving and asking for it too.  

Daryl nodded slowly and Paul reached over, tucking his hair behind his ear, "Hey, I'm sorry about the 'us' thing. It's just..."

Daryl looked up to see Paul pulling his hand back to run his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends and Daryl knew that was a nervous tick of his. Their eyes locked and Daryl felt like a grade-A asshole at how sad the ninjas were, "I thought that's where this was going."

Paul paused, giving his hair another tug as he shifted on his heels, "Was I wrong?"

Daryl wanted to scream, how could he ever have been the one to take the light from Paul's eyes? Daryl didn't know what he might have said or done but it was moot as the loud rumble of groans came out of seemingly nowhere.

Walkers were stumbling out of the trees lining the road. Paul turned, knife slipping easily from its holster as Daryl grabbed his bow. There was maybe two dozen falling over each other to get to them. The first one fell with a bolt to the eye. Then it was arrows flying and blades sinking into soft skulls.  

Daryl took down the last one standing as Paul wiped his knives on his pants leg, "If I never see another walker, it'll be too soon."

Paul grinned, "Tell me abo-"

Paul let out a yelp as he fell forward, a walker with an arrow sticking out of its neck had dragged itself up enough to fall into the back of his knees. Paul's hands caught him before his face bounced off the ground, kicking back catching the thing in the shoulder.  

Paul tried to turn over as the rotting man scrambled to crawl up him. He cried out as pain shot up his side then the walker was hauled off him. Daryl tossed it back, boot coming down on its chest as he yanked the arrow free before burying it in the walker's temple.  

"Shit, shit, shit," Daryl hurried back to Paul who had sat up and was tugging at his shirt, "Are ya bit?"

"I think I felt teeth," Paul's voice was pitched high and Daryl batted his hands away because they were shaking too much, "Daryl?"

Daryl pulled his shirt loose from the belts on his hips and yanked it up. On the pale smooth skin of his left side was a purpling bruise. The indentations of the walkers few teeth but the skin wasn't broken, not even a scratch. His coat must have taken the brunt of the bite, saving the soft flesh below.  

"Fuck," Daryl sighed and Paul tensed up, eyes wide with fear before looking down too, "Yer alright."

"Oh my god." Paul laughed, it was bordering on hysterical as Daryl dropped his shirt tail.  

Daryl's heart had kicked into high gear as soon as Paul went down. The walker floundering on top of him was one he thought he had taken down. Daryl honestly couldn't remember the last time he had been so scared. Even Negan didn't strike fear into him like the sound of Paul's pained yell.  

Paul flipped his tussled hair out of his face, breathing slowly returning to normal as Daryl's arms looped around his shoulders. Paul went still, the hug was a bit awkward, Daryl on his knees at his side and tugging Paul up into his wide chest.  

Daryl's breath was hot on his neck, "I'm sorry."

Paul's hands tentatively came to rest on his back, "Daryl?"  

"I can't lose ya," Daryl felt his face go hot at the confession, "Not to Saviors or walkers or anything. I need ya and I'm sorry 'bout being shit at this."

Paul chuckled, his hands gripping the back of Daryl's shirt tight as he pressed his face into Daryl's shoulder, "It's okay, we'll figure this 'us' thing out together."

Daryl liked the sound of that.  

[shaddy-bee]

I KNOW ITS BEEN LIKE 300 YEARS BUT-

5 things you’ll find in my bag

Right now theres uhh Notebooks, both school and 1 art. Drink mix ins, with such great flavors as sour apple jolly rancher and crush pineapple (tm) Two packs of cards, one of which steam punk themed and the other your regular ol bicycle. A calculator. Its a shitty old one but its for tests, i have google and shit for anything i need myself.

5 things you’ll find in my bedroom

A roommate. Idk if he is gay or what but he isnt straight, name’s will. Chill dude. Sleepin rn, what a fella MY SICK ASS COMPUTER IM MISSING OUT ON BECAUSE MY ROOMMATE IS ASLEEP AAAAAAAAAAAAAA I WANNA PLAY ROCKET LEAGUE WITHOUT LAGGING TO HELL also programming my mods. Need to upload that shit. Shit what number we on, 3? Okay cool. A bed. Wow really a bed in your bedrooM? yeah its pretty fuckin spectacular i know. I dont have posters n shit so like i gotta be creative you feel. A microfridge. Now i know what youre thinking, “ah a small fridge whats the big deal?” but no you dont understand, its a microwave fucking bolted onto the top of a fridge. They gave zero fucks attaching these two together and apparently the name is the same way, WHY NOT A FRIDGEWAVE EVEN LIKE MICROFRIDGE JUST SOUNDS LIKE A SMALL FRI- Last but not least, im tempted to just say my wallet here tbh, cuz its old but like, youd EXPECT that now would you? Something boring and mundane for me to fill out the word count with making everything super exciting so nah man, fuck it. Theres air in my bedroom. Fight me.

5 things I’ve always wanted to do in my life

Make a videogame. Like okay, a lot of stuff on this list is jokes and stuff, and I know im going into too much detail and my followers will probably murder me in cold blood for this shit, but im serious about this one like - i have some ideas, but i never have the motivation alone to like work whole-heartedly and finish one but like, at some point in the future id love to sit down and just go at it and make a game. Doesnt matter if its popular or big or small just i wanna make something that i love ya feel? I wanna like, go to newark, delaware. I know, its delaware and all, no one lives there, but ive met a bunch of cool people there and i was promised a donut run sometime, so lookin forward to that. Yknow that post awhile back that was like “i dont wanna be rich and like buy shit, i just wanna have enough money to throw at kickstarters whenever i want without having to strain on my food and rent costs” thats me. 100% Like i wanna have just enough money to be able to donate to cool people and watch them do cool shit - it wont always work out but thats fine, I just love shit. I wanna be able to donate like the high prize and fly out to meet these game studios for coffee and shit and just talk with em and see their passion and ideas. I love it. Im not actually really sure besides those. Like idk. I think itd be cool to enter a game tournament with my brother and win, but i doubt thatll happen and its not super like on my desires just itd be cool cuz we named ourselves Sora and Shiro after NGNL and to see that like, have us win would be great. Yeah. Ill make my fifth to think of a fifth one.

5 things on my to do list

FLOPPY DICKS i mean disks. Floppy disks. I do binding of isaac ab+ modding shit, and im currently working (its mostly done for what i want it to do) which adds a new consumable called floppy disks, effects are based on viruses, bugs, and just computer based shit. Like BSOD for instance, which makes the screen literately bluescreen. Or atleast look like it. Cant wait to watch people play with it. I gotta work on the programming class project too but honestly i dont waannnaaa. Like its cool as shit. Recreate a card game using c++ code. But man, i just love Apocrypha and Floppies so much more. Eat today???? Please. Dining hall opens in 3 hours. Its goddamn 4 am. I want my food. Dunno if ill get it - if ill stay awake till then. But i want it. Probably draw some stuff? Like i posted one drawing already (check it out if u wanna ;) kay?) but like theres wacom tablets here i can just kinda use whenever???? its great. I love being able to just draw stuff on em. Even if i suck at drawing, even if it took 10 hours to make the one i posted here, still love. Probably play more rocket league. Sleep first, soon as i get that food im CRASHIN BOI IM OUTTIE HA but uhh, rocket league has a halloween thing rn and i like playing it. Was playing earlier today and i matchd with a dude in 2v2 that had the same car, skin, AND colors set up as mine. Totaly random. We kicked some major ass together. I kept thinking of the same hat comic the entire time. (also my card was superior because it had furry ears on it ;))

5 things that make me happy

Getting an idea for a thing and working at said thing until like boom it went from this abstract idea to now it has a physical form and it works! And its fun and its great and i can share it with other people and they can have fun too!!!! that feeling is wonderful.  Obviously friends man. Just doing shit with people can be so great sometimes - like not all the time sure but like man. Its nice to talk to people and share experiences and just smile and tell bad jokes and have them groan but like it anyway like thats the shit. Going out at 2 am and walking to a nearby run down schoolyard and swinging on the swingsets and watching shooting stars burn up. Thats the good shit. Getting tents and setting em up in your friends back yard when your friend from far away comes up for a few days, and playing ridiculous games in a group like kick the can or fuckin zombie screaming your lungs out in the dark to freak em out, or just talkin around a fire about fuckin life man. The people make life great. Shits worth living for. I realize that last answer covered a LOT of shit but like, im just gonna add here videogames. Would be amiss if i didnt mention that, considering the rocket league rant above lmao. Yeah i better not make this category any longer.

5 things I’m (currently) into

Isaac modding, probably will be for awhile. Its good shit. As a suggestion from one of the people I work with (we also fuck around its a good time) i have started watching space dandy. Its a slow progress through lol like an episode or two a day but god man like its pretty ridiculous and the main character is pretty much everything i was expecting from seeing him everywhere. Rocket league again. It comes and goes with various different games to tide me over, give me a break from working. Bout 2 months ago or so said relaxing time was dominated by anime - i suddenly went on like a massive streak of watching shit. By that i mean, i watched all of hunter x hunter in like 2 weeks, among other shows prior to it. But yeah. Fuck man HXH I LOVED THE KING WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I have too many emotions about that. I wrote a rant to the Groupchat (tm) about the fucking battle and how everything is in slow motion but it fucking like makes it like foreshadowed and have so much of an impact and still so much fucking happens even while everything runs at super slow mo just GOD KLASFJBHUGHASFIUHIPJASK anyway. Yeah. Music, as always im listening to like constantly. Wireless headphones are a wonder for this, but uhh....i cant say im especially into any specific thing rn right? Like a bit ago i was super into joywave and then that faded out and now im just listening to whatever random shit, yknow? But I am into music in general. Its good. Art! A lot of times i dont do shit like for drawing right, like especially not in like pencil in notebooks but like, i sorta started doing a lot more art stuff? Like i had a period awhile back last year where i stopped using pencils and used only pens and i just loved the aesthetic of the ink like how it looked (funny how im doing the opposite of the fucking inktober though, huh?) but yeah im back into using pencils to draw shit occasionally. Im still terrible at drawing people (which is what i see mostly everyone drawing on tumblr lmao RIP) but its fun to sketch stuff out and just let my thoughts run and bounce to some music and shit right? Also the tablets. Especially with the tablets.

5 things people may not know about me (at least on tumblr)

I basically constantly wear sweatshirts, and they all have like earbuds where the strings go. All the earbud shits are broken pretty much, like occasionally they work (the one i have rn does) but like, i dont ever really use them? i have wireless headphones for my phone and a headset (because i need the mic for my computer) for said computer so like, idk. But yeah. I rarely take em off when im not home, and sometimes even when i am i just kinda keep em anyway? (also just now i realized i talked in the section for room shit about all the stuff in my current dorm, my room at home has all KINDS of wierd fucking shit in it. Really missed an opportunity there.) Like many people i like to stay hydrated and shit, but drinking water all the time seemed like a chore more than anything so i got like drink mix ins and shit, mio’s or whatever offbrand version you can find at your local SUPERSTORE CONGLOMERATE. I drink em like all the time pretty much so atleast im health in one way :P. Also gummy vitamins. I dont excercise but you can only ask for so much. Idk, its hard to think of things for this section because tumblr knows so little about me yknow? Like i never make my own posts or shit like its SUPER rare so im pretty much just tryna find random facts but that might not be interesting? Like i have a bad habbit of like talking way too loud when im excited about something right? Not quite yelling but like getting there and like idk. See? Thats not super interesting but it is something no one online would be able to really know ya feel? Idk. I mean physically im kinda fat as you do, but im also like wierdly strong? Like for someone who never works out i sure do have arm strength if nothing else lmao. My endurance is shit tho. Honestly? I can only blame it on osu and groceries. Osu is just a game i like where you mash buttons to the beat of weaboo shit tier music. The groceries is just because like, well, my policy is Least Trips Possible which means carrying in 13 bags at a time if need be it, fuck it milk too? And a watermellon? Bring it. 

Who am I tagging? Idk man. Just for shits and stuff tho i do wanna tag @theoriginalyami just to see what all’s changed in teh long time since i actually went to fill it out :P Dont feel like you have to add as much as me tho omg @milkchocolateowl because honestly? love you. Think about you a lot, just like glad im mutuals with that ray of sunshine. Good. @fantaledfish <3 (this is the friend i mentioned earlier, runs a QUALITY blog i guarantee it, better than mine for sure) @dragonfucker-supreme always top in my notes, a silent bond, like two guards assigned to watch back to back in the early dawn. Birds gather round. I can only tag so many people (i set myself a limit of 5 because...idk why i just mentally it felt right) so for my last trick gotta go with @ask-oncies-jizz like cmon man name changes for the win, also has quality icons and quality shitposts tbh, supreme top meme. Have fun yall.

[theofficefantasyfootball]

WEEK 11 - Wrap Up

Don’t fall asleep with just two weeks to go!

This video was going around about a month ago so you have probably seen it already...but I couldn’t resist posting.  Love how this old guy falls asleep and immediately blames another driver and denies it.  Kind of like what happens in our league....someone loses and instead of taking responsibility for not doing the research or for making a bad trade (Moose), they start blaming others...like their players.  The professional football players they don’t know and can’t control - they take the heat.  It’s so sad.  So, listen.  If you were one of those 6 guys that lost again this week...don’t start screaming at your friends and family about how it isn’t your fault...it is...take the blame and move on to week 12!

USUCK vs TRADE WITH ME

I was excited about this week.  Taking on Brett is always a highlight of the year.  Why?  Because he cares and try’s really hard - so you know you are always going to get his best.  And this week he did pretty good.  He put up 95 points.  D.J. Chart was amazing with 27 and Winston was respectable with 18 but other than that - his big players like Fournette and Hopkins didn’t find the end zone - and that kind of crap will make you lose.  So, I win!  Special thanks to Dak and Christian...I owe you more than you know.  I move to 8-3 and because Scott lost and he goes to 6-5.  So, even if I lose the next 2 - I will secure 1st in the even division and secure the Bye in week 14!  (unless somehow Scott win’s the next two and out scores me by 200 points).  Foxy!

MR. AWESOME vs MOOSES ON THE LOOSES

What has happened?  Ever since that crazy trade the Moose made a few weeks ago with Kyle...he doesn’t seem to be himself.  Now this week, DeShaun goes out with an ankle injury and gives him just shy of 4 points...then tonight Tyreek goes out early with an injury putting up 0.  So, needless to say the Mooses’ losing streak has moved to 3 in a row.  And to lose to Gabe Scott has gotta hurt.  He’s the guy in last place of the Even Division and trying to open a new restaurant.  Which reminds me - Gabe wanted me to tell everyone that if he won in week 10 - he would give everyone $10 worth of free tacos at Ladybird Taco next February.  Just bring in this post to collect.  Congrats everyone!

BOOMER SOONER vs FUNK GUY

Dana knows what he is doing.  He’s the defending champion and is trying to 2-peat.  He made 1 big mistake by leaving Cobb on his bench but he found himself lucky to be up against Stu this week who aside from having Michael Thomas just couldn’t get his team going this week.  Stu also had a major kidney stone over the weekend so to be honest I don’t think he even cares about this loss right about now.  He’s probably in a wonderful medicated sleep dreaming about how those Sooners came back to beat the Baylor Bears on Saturday.  He’s fine.  He will live...and Dana continues to challenge Cliff for the #1 spot in the Odd division.  Great win Dana...2 more weeks till playoffs!

HOWARD vs LONG LEFT BALLERS

This past weekend I took my daughter Caroline, Howard and his son Ben to see the Tennessee Titans take down the Kansas City Chiefs.  As you can see from the picture in the suite - Caroline and I were the only ones who believed in the Titans.  And before I get everyone asking “how come you took Howard...why didn’t you take me?”  If I want you to go to the game with me I will ask you. LOL.   Truth is every time I take Rob, I win that week in fantasy, so it works out for everyone.  Anyway, I thought Bebo had him but Mahomes just wasn’t the guy he needed him to be...so, he loses and Rob wins.  Plus he wins High Point...$20!  He took it from me by less than a point!  What a week.  A few more high point weeks and Howard could be looking at the playoffs!  

SHART N SWEET vs TuPADRE

Well, this one looked like it could be close and at the half of Monday Night Football it was and continued to be close till the end.  But when it’s three against one it’s hard to over come those odds.  Tonight it was (Shart N Sweet) with the 3 -  Rivers, Henry and Chargers Kicker Badgley vs (TuPadre) with just Kelce and Kyle with the advantage takes the win.  I really don’t have much to say about this match up...good for Kyle I guess sums it up.  I just really like this picture of Minka.  I have used a version of this one before, years ago, but never this specific one. So this wrap up segment is dedicated to her.  Good win Kyle - how weird that you have won every game since the Mitch trade and he has lost since then.  Hmmmm.

TREE HUGGERS vs LANAKILA

Well, this was the close call match up of the night/week.  And I just realized that the Minka should have gone to Cliff but I liked this “close call” surf GIF more for him so...that’s the way it goes.  So much was at stake for me in this match up.  Scott was down 11 points going into Monday Night Football with the Kansas City Chief’s kicker, Butker left to play.  Cliff was done - and all he could do was watch.  Why did I care?  Because if Scott’s kicker gets 11 points and beats Cliff - my ability to secure 1st place in the division is gone and I have to continue to fight for that spot.  Thankfully, all worked out as it should.  Cliff pulls out the win and continues to fight for first in the Odd Division against Dana. I celebrate.  Good game Scott!  See you next week where you can win and I won’t even be mad about it!

SURVIVOR

Still the same 4 guys.  How will it end?  #trumanshow

[junker-town]

Baker Mayfield is the revenge-fueled quarterback the NFL needs

You don’t need to give Mayfield a reason to be pissed off; he’ll make one.

Welcome to Revenge Week at SB Nation NFL, where we are celebrating the dish that’s best served cold. You can keep up with all our latest revenge content here.

Baker Mayfield is unabashedly out for blood — and sometimes, revenge.

In a league often lacking in big personalities, the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback stands out as a fiery outlier, especially at his position. Quarterbacks learn long before they’ve reached the NFL how to answer questions without saying anything of substance.

You’ve heard the tired clichés like “we have to take it one game at a time” and “we need to play a full 60 minutes” over and over. So it’s refreshing when someone decidedly different comes along. Mayfield is certainly that.

His rise to NFL stardom had its share of hurdles. He was an undersized, lightly recruited prospect who had to fight his way into the Texas Tech starting lineup as a walk-on. He had to do it again at Oklahoma after leaving Texas Tech following his freshman season.

The massive chip on his shoulder that came with being overlooked propelled his rise through the ranks.

Mayfield‘s 2017 got off to a rocky start when he was arrested in February for public intoxication, but he ended that year as a unanimous first-team All-American and the Heisman Trophy winner. A few months after that, he was the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and finished his first season with the league record for touchdown passes by a rookie.

Now he enters his second season with the Browns as a legitimate NFL star. He had the 12th-best selling jersey in the latest numbers released by the NFLPA — ahead of players like Todd Gurley, Russell Wilson, and Julio Jones. This year, Mayfield has Odell Beckham Jr. as a member of his receiving corps and the Browns are the favorites to win their first-ever AFC North title.

Somehow through all those good times, Mayfield has found a way to feel disrespected. It’s actually impressive at this point. How he uses that as motivation is nothing short of a talent.

Mayfield even found a way to get fired up for a game vs. Kansas

Winning a national championship in college football often requires getting through the entire season without a loss. Most of the time that means winning a few big games and avoiding any shocking losses against underdogs. Staying focused for each is a challenge, though.

Yet it wasn’t hard for Mayfield to get up for a massive game at Ohio State and then plant a flag in the middle of the field after the Sooners’ win.

Revenge was on Mayfield’s mind for a year after the Buckeyes sang their alma mater on the field at Oklahoma in 2016 — something Ohio State does after every game.

“Everybody that was here for last year’s huge loss definitely remembers that. And we talked about it during camp,” Mayfield said. “We’ve never been here for a team to sing their fight song on our field. Quite frankly it’s just embarrassing.”

So sticking an OU flag on the Ohio State logo was Mayfield’s way of turning the Buckeyes’ triumph into payback fodder.

But what about when Oklahoma was a 38.5-point favorite against a Kansas team on a nine-game losing streak? Yep, Mayfield still found a way to feel resentful — even if the Jayhawks were probably asking for it a bit by opting against pregame handshakes.

Mayfield went full scorched-earth on Kansas with 257 passing yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. Oklahoma won, 41-3, and Mayfield hit the Jayhawks sideline with a crotch grab that was (hilariously) pixelated by ESPN.

lol ESPN blurred out Baker Mayfield grabbing his crotch. THE HORROR pic.twitter.com/Xfv7KccbwY

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) November 19, 2017

That was one of 12 wins in a season when Mayfield led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff. He probably didn’t need Kansas to provide him any extra incentive to play well, but it was a telling moment of Mayfield’s personality. Give him a motive to seek revenge and he’ll absolutely take it.

Mayfield got pissed at Hue Jackson for ... uh ... having a job

In two and a half seasons as head coach of the Browns, Hue Jackson led the team to a grand total of three wins. His 3-36-1 record was historically awful and may never be topped.

So there’s reason for Cleveland faithful to dislike Jackson. There’s even reason for Mayfield to have some disdain for a coach who got his rookie season off to a rough start. When Jackson got fired, the Browns were 2-5-1 and Mayfield had a 78.9 passer rating — well south of his final rating of 93.7 for the season. It probably didn’t help either that Mayfield only cracked the lineup because an injury to Tyrod Taylor forced Jackson’s hand.

But curiously, Mayfield was offended that Jackson accepted an offer to become a defensive assistant for the Bengals after the Browns fired him.

#Browns Baker Mayfield admitted he didn’t like Hue Jackson defecting to the #Bengals so soon. Gave him a chilly reception pic.twitter.com/hF480gMc7N

— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) November 25, 2018

“He was here trying to tell us to play for him,” Mayfield told reporters. “Then he goes to a team we play twice a year. That’s how I feel. We have people we believe in calling the plays now.”

Jackson didn’t ask to leave the Browns. He was canned midway through the season and jumped at the chance to stay in the NFL coaching ranks by joining a team where he already had two prior stints. That was short-lived and Jackson was let go by the Bengals in January.

Months later, Jackson still hasn’t found another coaching gig. That shows exactly why it was a good idea for him to take another job when the opportunity presented itself.

Mayfield was still able to convince himself that he and the Browns were wronged, and used it to stoke a four-touchdown performance in a 35-20 win against the Bengals — capped by an icy postgame handshake with Jackson.

A month after that, Mayfield got another win over Cincinnati. He made it crystal clear that he was still holding a grudge by giving a stare-down so devoid of subtly that it’d make Cersei Lannister jealous.

Baker Mayfield staring down Hue Jackson pic.twitter.com/GIOTBemQF1

— Vikings Blogger (@firstandskol) December 23, 2018

In the two wins against the Bengals, he totaled seven touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 135.8 passer rating — more proof that a pissed off Baker Mayfield is a force to be reckoned with.

Mayfield will still find fuel for his fire, even if he has to work harder for it

The Browns have more cause for optimism than they’ve had in decades. Even if they still haven’t had a winning season since 2007, no team looks primed to be more fun to watch in 2019.

Even the NFL knows it. The schedule makers put Cleveland on primetime in three of the first five weeks of the season.

Mayfield, in particular, is set up for a huge year after finishing his rookie season on a tear. He thrived when Freddie Kitchens took over as offensive coordinator eight games into the 2018 season, and now Kitchens is his head coach. Quarterbacks almost always up their passer rating in year two of their career, and Mayfield wouldn’t be far from MVP chatter if he manages to do so in 2019.

Fans are actually excited about the Browns, so you’d think Mayfield would have less reason to feel slighted. But with high expectations come doubters. One of those throughout Mayfield’s still-young career has been Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd. When the radio host went after Beckham, Mayfield defended his new teammate with choice words for Cowherd.

Once again, you’re a clown.... now I know you’re just trying to get me fired up. “Most memorable moments”... he’s 26 and his greatest moments are ahead of him. You forget the kids and people he inspires. That goes much further than football...

— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) May 16, 2019

“He’s supposed to bring out facts and he chooses to put out irrational opinions,” Mayfield said of Cowherd in an interview with Complex Sports. “People can say what they want, they can say I’m not really supposed to comment on this, but a liar is a liar and a guy that is really just full of it needs to be put in his place.”

Mayfield has always paid attention to the critics. Before the 2018 NFL Draft, he told Russell Wilson that he was jotting down a list of all the haters.

Mayfield is keeping a list of the media members who have crossed a line, he says, and he stores screenshots of offending tweets in his phone. All of it serves as motivation when he’s working out alone, he told Wilson.

When prospective agent Bus Cook tried to sign Mayfield on as a client, he got the dial tone for not knowing that the quarterback walked on at Texas Tech.

“Every agent does the same thing, they give their resume, what they’re about, all this stuff,” Mayfield said of Cook before the draft. “Finally, when he was about to give me a chance to talk, he asked, ‘So, when did Bob Stoops start recruiting you?’ And I literally — I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And he repeated the question.” And then I said, ‘Yeah, I gotta go.’ And I just hung up.”

Mayfield still hasn’t dropped a high school rivalry with Sam Ehlinger, who’s now a junior at Texas.

It doesn’t take a lot to get on Mayfield’s bad side. New Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury probably understands that better than anyone in the NFL. Kingsbury was at Texas Tech during Mayfield’s brief time there, and the quarterback’s unceremonious departure from the program led to him blasting his former coach on the way out.

“When I got hurt, there was no communication between me and my coach,” Mayfield told ESPN in 2014. “When I got healthy, I didn’t know why I wasn’t playing right away. At that time, we were losing a couple games in a row. I was still clueless as to why I wasn’t playing. That was really frustrating for me because I started the first five games and we won. So, I just didn’t really know exactly what he was thinking or what the situation was.”

Mayfield got his revenge with 13 touchdown passes in three wins against Kingsbury’s Texas Tech teams between 2015 and 2017. He’ll get another shot this season now that Kingsbury is leading the Cardinals. The Browns travel to Arizona in December — giving us the chance to see payback-mode Mayfield in action.

Meanwhile, Kingsbury has only given the token answer you’d expect from a coach when asked about Mayfield’s grudge.

“I know a lot has come from Baker’s side, but I loved coaching him, loved the chip on his shoulder, cheered for him in every game except one,” Kingsbury said in July 2016. “It’s been fun to see the success he’s had.”

Those are the kind of answers you’re used to hearing in the NFL, especially from coaches and quarterbacks. Not from Mayfield, though. He’ll even take unprompted shots at other players with whom he has no beef at all.

“I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones,” Mayfield told GQ during the 2019 offseason. “Some people overthink it. That’s where people go wrong. They forget you’ve gotta win.”

One of Mayfield’s Browns teammates said it best when he told GQ in that same profile that the quarterback has “the mentality of proving everybody who’s ever said something negative about him wrong.” Yep.

Mayfield will take a situation — no matter how small — and use it to fuel a vendetta that can only end with his enemy’s destruction.