#by early 200s i mean chapters btw

[shiqingxuanz]

colored in a meimeng sketch today

[the-acid-pear]

I didn't want to but my last post got so long Tumblr can't load it AFSGSGAHH so this is my second post bc liveblogging this manga is part of my personality now <3

From where i left,

I love seeing Shibukawa i hate knowing how that fight will go down tho </3

JACKKKK 🥺

Oh is that literally Andre the giant?

MOTOBEEEE 💞

THAT'S RETSU?! GOD I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE HIM AT ALL I-

KUREHA IS BACK TOO NICE

Katou baby you won't last

YESSSSSSSS YES YES YES MY SON.

Yeah and uh, Katsumi whatever.

BABYYYYYYYYY BOYYYYYYYYYY

Poor Kozue on god pugoygpgu

Toba 🥺

Kozue like 😨

Chapter 186

You don't know but like 2 days passed and i actually forgot what was happening VÑVPJOYG

I just remembered that scene in the fairy odd parents movie where the crowd goes OHHH AHHH

WHAT NUT?

I don't want to simp so early in the morning but UGHHH look at him!!

Hey has Baki always been doing the yujiro stand or is this new?

Feel you Mr Andre the giant i too have been told to not use my full strength. Though I'm just 1.60, my power comes from my anger issues and my god given right to kick ass

That's one strong kick

Rip the crowd n Andre the giant

Chapter 187

I don't think that's true Baki boy

That's a big number sir

I really don't care about this fight much at all surudtidkgxkhkdgksr

Poor Kozue man

Okay no apparently all cis men on the comments did want to become the string ???? Get help /j

Chapter 188

This is prob cool if you know who these people are. I unfortunately don't.

Look of bloodlust? He looks like the average fuckboy

YESSS BABEY LET'S GOOO THE GLASSES ARE BACKKK

Me watching the anime: omg that's so random why is he wearing glasses out of nowhere lol?

Me now (my brain is bigger): WOOOOOOOOO

I'm still obsessed with Toba's size

IFYOYDITDPUGPJG

Okay i had to google who igari was bc i wasn't recognizing him, now I'm cheering on him

This is gonna be a good one, hopefully

That was murder

DOPPO POG DOPPO POG-

Chapter 189

Hehehe this title sounds promising 👀

KSJSKSHSJS BRO 🥺

I really can't tell if he's scared of confident, i HOPE he's confident like, he's my pollo afteral (i make that joke in Spanish bc idk how to do it in English 😭)

Nice feet (See? No one can accuse me of having a foot fetish because no one reads these haha!)

I'm not gonna simp for 3 lines straight but i can't just pass this without saying how much i love how Doppo looks in this arc my man looking more precious than usual 😌🥺💞

Shout-out to the ppl in the comments wishing Motobe a happy bday <33

Chapter 190

These men just LOVE breaking fingers don't they?

It was a pleasure knowing you Motobe-san

I must say Doppo first watching the fights with Katou now with his son is like, super damn sweet like this dude is just such a Dad™

Sumo is such a damn cool sport tbh, i watched like one documentary on it once and nothing else but it's just like damn

NOOOUGHHH

MOTOBE IS FUCKING DEAD.

Lshekwhwksgskd someone was mentioning how they make Motobe sound like a badass but he loses every time and someone just responded "He's 50", which is similar to the justification i tried to give myself whenever Doppo kept fucking losing but then you have mfs like Shibukawa who is 70 and is just mad powerful KSVSNSH 😔

Chapter 191

Hehe the king ☺️

THAT WAS SO RANDOM AJGSJSGEJSG i love this mf

FUCK HOW SHORT IS RETSU OMG 🥺

1.76 HE'S SO TINY HE'S SHORTED THAN DOPPO OMFG

also if y'all wonder how I'm doing my jaw is currently trembling and i think i have a fever, but it's fine, we getting to 200 today boys

I really don't care much about Katsumi but he has a very shaped face i won't lie, his eyes are very pretty too. STILL DONT CARE BOUT HIM 🙄😒

They just throwing hands these mfs ffs

Katsumi that's a bit too far don't you think?

A fuckin pussy out sort of luck i see

Chapter 192

I hate smooth Retsu sm let him keeps his face wrinkles ffs

Obsessed with these lads

ANDRE MY MAN look at him

EVERYBODY IS GETTING IN THE WAY FR SPUGPYDOTSÑD

I love how these characters say <3

Fucked up to beat up a wounded man tho NGL :/

OH FUCK HIS ELBOW NO

Chapter 193

Idk man after 180+ chapters Retsu's body doesn't look that wild to me

I know he will lose bc uh, Retsu obviously? But man i really like this Russian

Kozue that's how every match is

Hhhh 😬

He's dead.

Chapter 194

OH MY GOD HIM AGAIN?! HHH FFS!!!

VAMOOOS KATOU

Hey they aren't doing the white lips thing anymore that's sick

Motobe Latino /j

OYFPUTDPUTDPUTDPID

NO MY MAN KATOU IS NO MATCH TO YUJIRO NO ONE IS NOOO 😢

Chapter 195

Monkee

MY BOY BAKI GETTING THAT GOOD OL FLASHBACK HUH BAKI PTSD MOMENCE

YEET

Chapter 196

LSHLSHEKEBSJSHSVS IM LOSING IT

Look at the cocky mf man sjsgdhd

I must say i love the progression of Baki's personality

ANDOOOO

Chapter 197

Katsumi is deranged

My health problems are solved btw

I honestly hope Katsumi wins, for the honor of shinshinkai exclusively

Doppo looks so proud of his son 🥺

These mfs so childish ffs

...how is he that small 😭

I really don't understand any of these people

Chapter 198

I love seeing Toba just around doing shit like yeah king you go. My nostalgia enjoys his presence

Toba king i don't want to see you on a wheelchair please-

Toba baby you are going to die and horrible death and i will hate to be the witness of it

LSHSJSHSKHWKSHS ???

He's dead 😔

SHOUT-OUT TO THE FUCKING ASSHOLE WHO COMPARED TOBA TO THE TERRAFORMARS ROACHES 😭😭💀

Chapter 199

Igari right? He's dead too. I have less doubt than anyone else, Hanayama is a beast.

THEHWHSHHS 😭 WHY DOES HE HAVE TO OPEN BOTTLES LIKE THAT FFS

Different? Idk man he looks the same to me

Chapter 200

Like it's not just brawling man if anyone the size and strenght of Hanayama did anything they would win no matter what, this mf is a beast

THAT'S SO MEAN THEY WERE SUCH BESTIES OUGH MY HEART 😢💔

I'm sorry, he's gonna get WHAT? 😳

Ndhskshskhdkd obsessed

THESE MEN OMFG.... IM LOSING IT

So glad at least SOMEONE is still a bro 😒

HANAYAMA BRO??? IM BETTING ALL MY MONEY ON YOU BRO PLEASE

Obsessed he didn't even realize

THANKS HANAYAMA PHEW I WAS GETTING WORRIED FOR A SECOND THERE!

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

And that's it for tonight, adiós

[clearturtletrash]

Horikoshi’s writing of Shouto and the problems I have with it

If you’re a fan of the way Shouto’s treated in the manga, don’t read, we’ll end up disagreeing on everything and you’ll probably end up offended lol. Because I’m not (satisfied, that is). 

This post is spoiler-heavy for anime onlys, and for manga readers not up to date with the last arc (and last chapter for that matter, which is 301).

So, about Shouto and how he’s handled, along with ‘his’ story.

I don’t get how Horikoshi, whose writing I respect immensely, managed to depict such an incredible and alluring storyline with the Todoroki family, with some of the most complex character writing I’ve seen, but fumbled the one character he had to actually focus on.

Literally more than half the people in the Todoroki storyline are more interesting and more developed than Shouto at this point. Hawks, Endeavour, Dabi, Rei… a good bunch of fans are way more invested in their story than his, and I am too. It’s really sad, because if you asked me two years ago Shouto would have probably been one of my favorite character. But he was completely shafted, given no internal conflict, and at this point, I have the same interest in him as I do for Fuyumi and Natsuo, which basically means his only interesting feature to me is that he’s Endeavour’s child (oh, and he does have a cool design, but that can only get you so far).  

Deku and Katsuki are more popular than him by a landslide compared to before if we believe the Japanese popularity polls, because Hori actually bothers to give them focus, conflict, and cool moments (even though, sometimes I feel like Horikoshi forgets Deku’s his main character lol). It’s a testament to how great Shouto was and how much potential had that he’s still that popular despite everything. Because, let’s be real, Endeavour and Dabi have taken the focus because they have much more emotional energy, while Shouto is just stuck in the crossfire, as a punching ball and stress relief (and eventually as the person who’ll save him I guess) for Touya (see how he was relegated to first aid during the big fight against Tomura? how he did absolutely nothing against Touya who was burning him alive? And how Touya had no interest in Shouto outside of the fact he was Endeavour’s son? Story of the way Hori treats him). He has no particular interesting insight to give on the Todoroki family either as he was too small to remember the important events, so even on this point we can’t count on Horikoshi to write something for him, everything comes from Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Rei. He's really had one great moment in S2 and S3 and that’s it. The way Horikoshi struggles to give him a personality doesn’t help either (he admitted some time ago he was hard to write sometimes, and… yeah, I can see that).  I’m really trying to like his character but the manga gives us nothing, and keeps developing Endeavour, Dabi, and Hawks, which is great (I really love all three of them) but makes no sense given who’s supposed to be the main focus.

In the Endeavour agency arc, Endeavour’s thoughts and struggles were heavily touched upon, and Bakugou and Deku are in sync for 90% of it while Shouto’s just… there. as fodder for Endeavour, and maybe as a link between Endeavour and Bakugou/Deku too. He’s supposed to be a part of both these storylines, but instead, he just ends up as a way for them to overlap. we don't even take a peek in his thoughts, even though it's supposed to be an arc about the Todorokis!

I say all this as someone who eagerly waited for the day Horikoshi would portray Shouto, Katsuki, and Deku as a trio, but yeah, Shouto feels more like a third wheel than anything. if he wanted to establish them that way, he should have done it right after the sports festival arc, but after this arc, they have no scene together, and the focus shifted on Deku and Katsuki. Too little too late I guess.  

To come back to the Todoroki storyline, I feel like Horikoshi simply woke up one day and decided Endeavour was more interesting to write lmao. at this point, it’s more Endeavour’s storyline than Shouto’s, even though Shouto’s supposedly one of the main characters. it has come to a point where, even though I know it ought to focus on Shouto because he’s (at least he should be) the main focus of this particular storyline, I’m hoping it won’t, because that’s just the least interesting aspect of this whole thing.  

I’d say even Ochako’s treated better by the story, because at least Horikoshi tries to challenge her views and beliefs (even though for now it’s not very conclusive), while Shouto’s inner growth hasn't been put into question in how many chapters?

(btw, by inner growth, I’m not talking about his problem with his fire side, because that’s just been rinse and repeat for more than 200 chapters. I mean, srsly it’s been already 3 times since this problem has caused him to lose/fail... and it's not even satisfying like Katsuki or Deku (except for the first time in the sport festival, because that was when his character was still handled very well by Horikoshi). Why? Simply because when he loses, the stakes aren’t high, it’s all training or exams, so he’s just like, "oh, I have to maybe learn how to deal with it!", but there’s no real pressure he’s under. It’s not like Deku, who, if he does not progress, will break all his bones, and who failed to rescue Katsuki because of his broken arms (=and had a mental breakdown immediately afterwards and blamed himself). It’s not like Katsuki either, because Katsuki has a personality that makes low stakes feel like high stakes, which isn’t the case for Shouto. just compare Shouto's reaction when he loses because of his setbacks to Katsuki's reaction when he lost to Deku the first time (mental breakdown), or when Katsuki failed the provisional license exam (another mental breakdown, not caused just by his failing, but yeah). And anything else about Shouto's inner growth is tied to his reaction to Endeavour’s arc, which isn’t a flaw, and 100% depends on the way Endeavour acts. Apart from this, he has 0 internal conflict).  

Sorry, I’ve gone off on a tangent lol.

To get back to the point I was making, and to further develop my analogy with Ochako, let’s look at their relationship with Deku, because there’s a major difference there, which is clearly in favor of Ochako.  Deku has a big impact on Ochako, yes, but the reverse is also true. People complain she’s all about him (which, yeah, probably), but at least, she made a big impact on him too. She was the main reason ‘Deku' became his hero name. Shouto and Deku have a nice friendship, and Deku clearly considers him one of his best friends. but... it’s all one-sided in terms of impact, I can’t think of a single thing Shouto has done who changed/motivated Deku, while Deku literally changed his life. Because of this, he’s not one of the people who’s intrinsically tied to Deku’s character development, because he’s not Ochako, Inko, Katsuki or All Might (and probably soon Tomura).

His writing feels so fast compared to the others too. Shigaraki / Deku and Toga / Ochako have been paralleled for ages, have had a conversation at least once, and have had deep encounters early on. Nonetheless, both Deku and Ochako are just coming to terms with the fact these villains aren’t so different from them. However, Shouto’s only interaction with Dabi is a ten second eye contact when Dabi kidnapped Katsuki. Dabi had more interactions with Endeavour for fuck's sake! Shouto then learns Dabi’s Touya, and speed runs the development of Ochako and Deku. He doesn’t even need 10 chapters to process they’re ’the same'. Where were all the reflection and doubts? Okay, it’s his brother, so the parallels are easier, but still, it shows Horikoshi doesn’t allow Shouto to have that much introspection, and I feel it’s because Horikoshi just doesn’t care that much. Even worse! Horikoshi introduces another hero parallel to Dabi in the character of Hawks. A parallel much more interesting and compelling, because it parallels Dabi MUCH BETTER. They’re opposites in every ways (particularly in regards to their relationship with Endeavor), and know each other. Touya and Shouto don’t even seem to have spoken to each other...

And so, the only thing that still was interesting and that Horikoshi still bothered to develop was Shouto’s relationship with Endeavour, but in the end, even that was overshadowed by the much more complex, fucked up, and challenging relationships of Endeavour and Touya (and Endeavour and Hawks) as seen in 301 and before. Clearly the one Dabi’s fixated on is Endeavour.

one last thing: Shouto's stuck in a weird loop where Horikoshi kind of makes him comes close of the Bakugou and Deku duo, and then when we start to think they’re an actual trio, he does everything in his power to make it very clear how that’s NOT where he belongs either, since OFA/All Might/Deku/Katsuki is another storyline. It’s as if Horikoshi doesn’t want him here (see: how he decided the ‘win all might’ scene didn’t have to include him), but puts him there sometimes anyway. It’s probably because Shouto’s so popular, which, yeah, would be fine, if he could stick to it!

His supposed admiration for All Might (I feel like everybody forgets it's a part of his character, and I don't blame them) is brought up once every blue moon, which compared to Deku and Katsuki, is just ridiculous. And, once again, All Might has a much deeper and more interesting relationship with Endeavour than with Shouto. At this point, I don’t even know what Hori could do to make me want to read about him. I much prefer the dynamic of Hawks/Endeavour/Touya and Katsuki/Deku/All Might.

I hope the future will prove me wrong for his character. Actually, I hope everything I’m saying is wrong and idiotic, and Horikoshi will make every scene I criticized worth it and a means to an end. I mean, he clearly has the talent and writing ability to pull off some of the best character development I’ve ever seen, so anything’s possible. but yeah, I don’t really believe it for now, and I’m frustrated, because Shouto had so much potential.

tldr; I liked Shouto as a character, but he dwindled after some time, and now I feel as if he’s not the focus of his own storyline, because this place is occupied by the much more dynamic relationships of Endeavour, Touya and Hawks. And I’m not even mad, because their dynamic is much more interesting. However, I feel like Horikoshi grew bored of Shouto, and has put much more soul into Katsuki and Deku as of late.

I’m welcoming any responses, if people are seeing an aspect of his character I don’t, please enlighten me! I miss enjoying his character, and I’m not opposed to seeing him in a different light. I just needed to put down my thoughts in writing to make sense of them lol.

[hamliet]

do you think dabi is going to be redeemed or better is going to survive?

Redeemed/saved, yes. I’ve said it before but the quick version is (presuming Dabi is Touya, but like, at this point he clearly is):

Redeeming his abuser but not redeeming Dabi is a Bad Look. Shouto directly tells us for Endeavor to redeem himself he has to make it up by saving the family he has hurt; Dabi is the one who clearly needs to be saved.

Dabi has a “save the cat” moment when we first meet him, sparing Aoyama. “Save the cat” is a writing trick literally taught in creative writing textbooks to tell the reader/viewer they should like the character. If you want us to root for the character’s downfall, it’s not something you include.

BNHA is an optimistic superhero tale. The Tragedy of an abuse victim who just can’t be saved vs. the abuse victim who was saved (Shouto) would be very out of place tonally. Even in Avatar: The Last Airbender the plan was for Azula to be redeemed via Zuko. The fact that that didn’t happen is because a lot of weird writing things happened to end the series at 3 instead of 4 seasons as the writers planned. 

Usually characters who are clearly coded as victims get redemption, especially in said optimistic stories. Shigaraki and Dabi have this coding.

Will he survive? No idea. It’s way too early to say since I don’t think the end is very close. Like, I can easily see another 100-200 chapters of BNHA (please not more lol). I personally think Endeavor needs to sacrifice himself to save Dabi according to a typical redemption arc’s steps, but that doesn’t mean Endeavor will die and it doesn’t mean Dabi would survive (or die), but killing both would be pretty depressing and having Endeavor survive but Dabi not renders his sacrifice kind of lame.

But again, this last paragraph is very hypothetical. We simply have way more to go before we can make direct predictions. His quirk not working with his body could be a warning sign or it could be something to be overcome. No one knows yet. 

BTW: I don’t think saying Dabi should be saved in any way negates that Shigaraki also needs someone to try to save him. You can have two redemption arcs, yo. 

[awfully-sadistic]

{{ Book Talk: The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window

This question on Goodreads sums up my thoughts.

I don’t know what to say about this book or why I started to read it. I just did when I was looking for The Raven Cycle ‘cause I have a ridiculous crush on a character I don’t even know yet. Ronan.

Anyway, this fucking book. I thought it was like, fanfiction at first. It is certainly written that way. There is such a huge overuse of “he smirked/smirks” and “she smirked/smirks” and other cliche phrases, I’m going to throw up. There’s also an over abundance of the main character, Amber Something, calling other girls whores and sluts and basically slut shaming them for dressing how they want to dress--FOR WHICH THERE IS NO DRESS CODE AT SCHOOL, I GUESS. One of the instances of Amber describing a girl’s skirt was that it fit like a belt or something. Another instance is her putting down other girls for being loose, for wanting to have sex with her brother and his best friend. For being bimbos and ho’s and having no self-respect because apparently this author wrote every fucking woman in her school like this. EVERY WOMAN AT AMBER’S SCHOOL (EXCEPT FOR AMBER) WAS A THIRSTY SLUT OR A BITCH OR A HO after her brother and his best friend’s junk. They literally threw themselves at them, were incredibly bold with their flirtations like touching and grabbing them all the time. Like, these ladies were written desperately thirsty, I felt bad for them. All because the author wanted to portray Amber in a more angelic light or what?

Speaking of, her main love interest gave her the nickname Angel.

Oh, by the way. She slut shames her main love interest, Liam James, too. I only know his goddamn name because everyone calls him by his fucking whole name, like constantly. Don’t get me wrong, I guess he’s some sort of man-whore because he openly flirts with these girls right back so I suppose if she’s going to be calling the women sluts and whores, I’m glad she also calls Liam out for acting the same way??? So does Amber’s brother, Jake, and he’s known to have slept around, etc, etc. Basically everyone but Amber is a big ol’ slut.

Don’t even get me started on how Amber decides to take part of this stupid ass bet to “nail” Liam because he announced he had a girlfriend and ALL THE OTHER GIRLS IN SCHOOL WANT HIM. His fucking pot was raised to 4,000 dollars or something outrageous like that. 20 bucks per girl. They put in 20 dollars EACH into the pot to see who can convince him to virtually cheat on his girlfriend. Which, at this point, is Amber. 4000 dollars. 20per girl. i suck at doing math but is that like 200 girls??? IS THAT RIGHT? DID I DO MY MATHR IGHT? 200 GIRLS ARE AFTER LIAM’S ASS.

I honestly don’t know where to start with this.

I mean, I can start with how it feels incredibly juvenile. Amateurish. Half-finished? There seems to be a lot of details missing in between scenes and the scenes themselves are short as fuck. The transitions are incredibly sloppy, one second Amber is in her bathroom and the next she’s in school.

Can I also note how her eight year old dialogue was incredibly strange. It felt like an older person was talking.

A few more points:

1) she doesn’t want to tell anyone they’re dating. she makes liam wait like 2 weeks to break the news to her overprotective big brother (by two years because they’re both 18 and she’s 16).

2) her best friend magically finds this out because i guess she just does. and all of a sudden she went from thirsty ass bff to supportive ass bff and stops trying to nail Liam AND jake. wait no, she’s still trying to fuck amber’s brother.

3) she’s somehow emo. idk. she wears dark clothing and all the other “sluts” at school call her emo. and how liam will never be into her.

4) liam went from biggest fucking vagina humper to absolutely cult-like dedicated to amber like as soon as they shared their first kiss. i guess that’s sort of sweet if he weren’t a total fuckboy. he said he had been in love with her since he was six??? (which was make her 4 or something) and only slept around with all those women because he figured he’d just fall in love with someone else. he couldn’t have a chance with her because her brother forbid it.

5) brother eventually finds out and comes around like in a manner of minutes. found out because liam and amber have some sort of special technique he uses whenever amber has some sort of anxiety attack about her dad.

6) SPEAKING OF, HER DAD ALMOST RAPED HER when she was like 13.. or idk. something like that. sundays were usually reserved for “special” times when he’d touch her or whatever. basically dad is an abusive assfuck. jake and liam came home early from some kind of hockey game, saw the scene and apparently beat the shit out of the dad.

7) dont even know the extent of how far she was molested because she never fucking talked about it. im opting to believe it was that one instance and she was just milking it. idk. 

8) for as much as she went around in the first few chapters of the book saying how much she hated liam, how much she called him a man-slut, etc etc and being mean to him because oh he annoys her sooo much, he’s sooo mean, etc etc, she’s absolutely in love with him even though she’s finding reasons ...not to be. thinking he might cheat on her, get fed up with amber wanting to wait because she’s not letting him have sex yet. mainly because no one else but her mom, jake, and liam can touch her, ever, without her freaking out about it. but in the span of these few chapters ive read, two strangers have kissed her twice now. 

8a) first time, liam had to save her because she was drunk and blah blah blah. second time, she was openly flirting with a guy who was all, “i bet if i kiss you i can change your mind about wanting to go out with me” and she was all “i bet you 20 bucks you can’t and also i will kick you in the balls if you try” and what the fuck happened? he kissed her. she kicked him in the balls. liam’s like “that’s my girl” as the dude comes back limping into the room and hands her a 20.

9) “I’d wanted her for so long that I was a little worried that if I ever did get her, that she would never be able to live up to what I had imagined.“ CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT THIS MEANS because to me, Liam saying this about Amber makes me feel like this can almost be an insult lmfao.

10) AND THIS IS THE SEX SCENE, FINALLY BTW:

“You are so beautiful, Angel,” I whispered. She smiled and gripped her hand around the back of my head, guiding my mouth back to hers. I felt my heart swell as I kissed her passionately, showing her just how much I loved and cherished her before I prepared myself to make love to her for the first time.

I smoothed her hair away from her sweaty forehead. She was grinning at me and looked so happy it made my heart skip a beat. “I love you, Angel.” We laid there trying to slow our heart beats. I pressed my face into the crook of her neck kissing her, feeling her rapid pulse under my lips. I felt happier than I had ever felt in my life. After a minute or so, I pulled out of her and rolled to my side. I tightened my arms on her, pulling her close to me, trailing my fingers over her naked, sweaty body, lingering on her breasts. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” I said quietly. I felt awful that I was the one to have to cause her pain, but I guess every girl had to go through that the first time.

Did this author really write “after a minute or so”? I was like, where’s the penetration? I had NO idea they were fucking until he pulled out... A MINUTE LATER.

11) everyone must be a goddamn cat or something because there’s a lot of seductive purring. and I ran into this hilarious count in a review:

Wink count: 48 Purr count: 37 Smirk count: 74 Flirt count: 38 Ass count: 91 (this one was the most annoying...everyone calls each other "hot ass" "sexy ass" "fine ass" nonstop throughout the entire book)

there is plenty more i can say about this train wreck but i think, above all, i was just... surprised it was like... PEOPLE LIKED THIS?? it even had this little thing at the end of the summary:

The international bestselling novel, and finalist of the Goodreads choice awards YA fiction 2012.

like... what... how can people pump out novels like 50 Shades and this mess and I can’t fucking finish a chaptered story? some of the answers answering that question i had tacked on above surprised me too. people were calling it “realistic” -- i had to roll my eyes. there has been no realistic part of this story since i started reading it. 

if it were, vampires would exist and they’d sparkle in the goddamn sunlight. frankly, we’d all have our Christian Grey by now, too.

and every time he called her Angel, i just imagined this:

thank you and goodnight.

[spidxysense]

Different | 03

Summary: You weren’t like them. You didn’t submit yourself to experiments, unlike them, you didn’t have a choice in becoming what you were. Now, years later Mr. Stark has sent you over to Queens to watch over one of his newest proteges in order to get your mind off of your sister.

Word Count: 3,247

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader/Spiderman x Reader

Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

A/N: Alright, I said I’d make this longer but honestly, I wanted to finish it early for you guys so I decided that 3,000 would be my average word count. Hope you guys like it. You all super effing rock btw for getting my other chapters to 200+ which is like so friggin amazing! Sorry about the action scenes, I am just shit at writing those. I might not update for the rest of the week though, because I really need to finish writing for my other fan account, but I’ll be sure to work on the next chapter when I get some time. Thanks for all the love and feedback, I love you guys!

You reach the abandoned gas station just in time to see Spiderman fling himself off the building towards a moving truck that the villain, who Michelle insisted on calling Vulture after you briefed her on what you were doing, just took over. Instead of joining the good fight in the truck, you decided to stay on top of the truck, waiting for a chance to ambush Vulture. You reach in you leg strap pocket and take out the tiny black metallic ball, a device you designed back when you stayed at the Stark compound. You press both sides of the sphere and it automatically unfolds into a tiny version of Ironman except this was painted black.

“Trail Spiderman. Connect AV comms.” You speak into your watch as the iron bot nods and flies to the entrance of the truck.

You sit there for hours when to your surprise, two green circular glowing eyes meet your own. It flies up into the air, taking you by the hands, and without you noticing it, he knocks one of the cubes he attached to the truck earlier, making the entryway into the truck completely disappear, and locking Peter inside.

You struggle to break free from his grasp, without your hands, you could create dark energy to escape your current predicament. As soon as you're dropped, you land head first into a tree branch and drop onto the floor beneath a tree, you stand up quickly, looking around you, you no longer have sight of the highway, instead you're surrounded by trees, and the waiting Vulture ready to attack.

You tread carefully, and then all at once, you fly your hands in his direction, covering his metallic wings. He chuckles before slowly reaching up to press a button near his covered mouth and high pitched sonic screams engulf your ear, making you lose focus and successfully releasing his wings. You cover your ears, and press as hard as you can, when you see him approaching your kneeling figure in the dirt.

You wince at the continuous high pitched screams, "What do you want?!" You shut your eyes tight.

He kneels down next to you on one knee, slowly pressing the button once again to make the noise stop; he grabs the back of his mask, pulling it free from his head and chuckles, "What do I want?" He looks up, scratching his chin, "I want you and your little Spider boyfriend to stop meddling in my business. You better hope to God I don't find out who you are unless you want me killing you right where you stand." He stands up, puts his helmet back on and starts to walk away, "Just know that the only reason I'm keeping you alive is so you relay this to that Spider freak." That's where he leaves you, grabbing the mulch filled dirt in pain.

You didn't have a choice, in your current state using your dark energy wasn't an option, so you started on your journey back to the hotel. You arrive just shy of five in the morning, you knock on the door quietly with your head, unable to conjure up the strength to even lift your hands.

Michelle opens the door, looking above your head, but looks down in horror when you collapse on her, "Oh my God! Y/N?! What happened to you?!" She pulls you inside.

"Jesus Christ, you're bleeding out on the bed." She sighs.

You blinding look around, everything turning blurry, "I-I don't know w-why I'm bleeding."

She grabs the closest ice pack and presses it to the side of your head, "Yeah? Well you are, your jaw is bruised too. You lip is cut open." She tilts your head to the side, "Your head is busted slightly, and it looks like you collided with something sharp looking at this gnarly scar stemming from wound." She sighs, "You look pretty fucking beat up Y/N."

You laugh hollowly, “Yeah, well I was pretty fucking beat.” You try to sit up, before she's pushing you back down, "I have to get to my computer-"

"God dammit Y/N, are you really willing to risk your own life for whatever phantom you're chasing with Peter? You've done your job! Now let the adults handle it!" She holds you down, and presses the ice pack harsher on your wound, making you wince, "You don’t need to do their job. He doesn't even know who you are under that mask."

You open your eyes, finally seeing her, "He...doesn't need to." You breathe out, "We need..." you gasp out in pain, "to save everybody." You lose consciousness.

By the time you wake up, it's around two in the afternoon. You look around before a wincing pain from the side of your head feels like it’s slapped you across the face, when you touch it, it starts to ache even more, but at least the blood's stopped. You look at Michelle’s bed; your decathlon jacket is placed on her bed. Upon realizing why you were here, you get up, and walk into the bathroom, looking at the mirror, "I look like shit." You sigh, before getting into the shower. You stretch your sore muscles upon coming out of the shower and you find MJ’s note, explaining where they were. You got dressed and you walked towards the Championship venue, which according to Michelle's note is directly across the Washington monument, you walk in slowly and Mr. Goldstein is the first to greet you.

"Y/N!" He grasps your shoulders, "I heard what happened with the stairs. Next time, make sure that the ice bucket isn't leaking melted water when going up the stairs alright?"

You nod slowly, "Yeah, sorry. That was on me." You look at the team, the MC announces that it's the final round, "Mr. Goldstein, could I may be participate?"

He smiles brightly, "O-of course! Hold on." He moves toward the stage, "Flash! Flash! Get off the stage! Y/N's taking your place!"

Flash gapes at him as Mr. Goldstein pushes you forward onto the stage where you take over Flash's seat after he storms off stage.

"Alright! This is the final question which will determine out winner!" He looks to the left and then to the right at your team, "This metal alloy is an extremely stable molecular structure which prevents it from being further molded even if the temperature is high enough to keep it in its liquefied form. In its solid form, it is described as a dark, shiny gray like high-grade steel or titanium, in this state, it is indestructible, and when molded to a sharp edge, it can penetrate lesser material with minimal force."

You ding the bell quickly, "Midtown Science!" The MC calls out.

You look at the MC, then to your teammates, which makes you realize, Peter wasn't here, "A-Adamantium."

A loud buzz breaks the tension in the room and balloons and confetti are being released, "And Midtown High takes the win with A-adamantium!" The MC copied your stuttering.

Cheers are surrounding you and hugs are thrown your way, you catch Flash taking the trophy straight out of the MC’s hands, but you remember; Peter isn’t here, he’s supposed to be here. He was supposed to be here way earlier than when you made it back, but he wasn’t.

A hand wrapping around your wrist and pulling you out of the venue is what gets your attention; it was Michelle, “They want to go see the Washington Monument.” She sighs, “Besides, nobody’s here.” She points out, “Are you…?” She points to her head with a little twirling gesture, “Y’know, are you like fine up there? I mean you lost a lot of blood.”

You furrow your eyebrows and blink in quick successions, there was nobody around anymore, “Yeah, I’m fine, um right, sorry I was thinking-“

“About Peter?” She gives you a smug smile, “Don’t worry about him... He’s Spiderman.” She waves as you two continue to walk toward the monument having been left behind by the team.

You walk into the monument having watched the hilarious exchange between Mr. Goldberg, Michelle, and her resistance to “go inside a monument built by slaves”. You stop by the metal detectors and look over at the Midtown Decathlon team waiting for the elevator to take them up as you dump your bag onto the basket that would scan for any weapons, once you get to the other side a security guard approaches you.

“Hope you don’t mind waiting for more people.” He begins walking back to his post, “It’s been a pretty slow day for tourists.” You look at your watch, it was already past three.

“It’s fine.” You keep turning to look back just in case Peter comes running through the entrance, but he doesn’t.

Suddenly, you felt the floor shake and the walls vibrate with a violet light shining through the cracks of the closed elevator doors; you looked around as the ceiling begins to crumble. You frantically turn in every possible angle, trying to find an exit point but all you see is a child whose body is trapped under the fallen piecing of the ceiling crying out for his mom and a hysterical woman trying to push back the security guards and in a moment of impulsiveness, you run and use your powers to lift the large rubble and broken pieces off to help the kid and as you carry him to transport him to his mother, you hear the tiniest of thank you’s in your very ear. However, just as you hand him off to his mother you hear the screams for help from the elevator, it doesn’t take you too long to look over the still closed doors, but that was all it took before the ceiling of the lobby completely falls apart and blocks the entrance.

With nobody around left to see you use your powers, you run to the elevator doors and pull them open with a great deal of concentration which has your already injured head pounding against you skull. You gasp into your mouth when you hear the screams clearer, with slow steps, you find yourself inside the elevator shaft, right where it would stop and you look up, you see the elevator but it’s already ready far up with a large hole on the floor, you spot a couple of sparks coming from the sides as the elevator seems to move, they must be moving inside or at least trying to get out of it.

You look to the blocked entrance and back up at the elevator, it would be the easiest thing to just lift the rubble with what little energy you had left and all you had to do was step out of the elevator. It’s the easiest choice, and to someone that wants to survive, it should be the only choice, but it’s not what you needed to do, not what you wanted (indent) to do. This was your life, and just like you told Peter back at that lake, somebody had to save the day. You completely understood what you would be risking, but it seems that trying at all is all the more better than leaving these people to die. This was your responsibility, this was the responsibility you shared with all the heroes out in the world, with Ironman, Captain America, your sister, and Peter, and knowing that you didn’t even need to hesitate or second guess your decision made it all the more clearer that you’d willingly die for these people if it meant saving them.

You close your eyes and form a familiar hand position near your stomach, you think of your sister, and of your brother. You were not going to die with the same sacrifice of saving the world as him, but you were going to willingly sacrifice everything for these people, and you were fine with that. You think back on how your sister made larger energy projections from bunching it up in her hands before aiming it, so you imitate her hands as you push your hands and arms towards the now falling elevator. You scream out in pain as you feel the blood spurting out your nose, but you don’t look away from the elevator, you push back harder, until you realize the weight is slowly being lifted. You watch it move up, until it stops on what you guess would be the floor everybody else had evacuated to, and then it’s falling completely. You stare at it dumbfounded with a lingering pain in your head and muscles, you feel your heart pound in your chest as if it was treasuring your last moment alive, like your heart would willingly stop if you asked it to, but you push through, you look down at the ground and smile, looking back up and releasing dark energy extending from your fingertips, you scream when you catch it and start extending the energy matter to push it up from where it already nearly touched your head. You push it up high enough before you spot large pipes surrounding it. With the quickest motion, you move one hand in the direction of the leftmost pipe, moving it along so it runs along on the left side of the bottom of the elevator which has you gasping in pain; you move onto the other sides, it has you sighing when you succeed in stopping the elevator. You drop to your knees, and slump, but when you look up something tiny and metallic catches your eye, it looks like a tiny metallic spider.

You hear distant screaming, but you never feel him plop down on the ground next to you. You shut your eyes in anticipation for Spiderman himself hanging upside-down, with your arms feeling slightly numb, you muster up enough strength to bring the jacket over your nose and wipe it, and when you turn to look behind you, he’s there.

He gives you a tiny salute, “H-hello-Ehem.” He clears his throat in order to deepen his voice, “Hello Ma’am. Do you need help getting up?”

You look back at him with a tired smile which probably shocks him.

“Oh my God.” The white part of his eyes retracts, “Holy shit what happened to you?” He touches your face softly, tracing your jaw before letting it linger on the bruise; he turns your head slightly to look at the side of your head.

You twitch slightly from his grasp before removing your head completely from his touch, “I’m fine.” You stand up slowly, with wobbly feet, “Is everyone safe?”

He tilts his head, “Is everyone saf-?” His voice gets louder, “How about you?! Were you safe?! What if you died here?”

You smile a tired smile and say the one thing that shocks him, “What if everyone else died up there?” You look back at him and remember that he doesn’t even know you survived, “This black plasma thing helped me.” You look up at the still elevator, “Got that thing to stay up there and to be honest, the black energy didn’t look like something you could conjure up from mixing chemicals.”

He looks around, “Black energy?” He mumbles, “So she must have saved you…” He trails off.

He suddenly stops speaking, and then looks directly at you without moving, “This tiny voice in my suit says I should kiss you.” He points at his head and pulls his mask off up to the nose, “And for once in my damn life, I’m not going to think about the consequences.” He pulls you in to kiss him.

You break apart first, clearing your throat, “I-I can’t. I’m sorry.” You look down.

He chuckles to himself, “It’s alright, even if that was an option. Some crazy girl with powers is in love with me.” He sighs, “You just remind me of someone I really want to protect.” He pulls his mask back on just as the authorities manage to dig all the rubble out of the way, and find you, Spiderman already gone. You follow one of the medics who has placed and orange blanket around your shoulders, where she leads you to the nearby ambulance and properly treats your wounds.

“Y/N!” You hear the panic filled voice feet away before you’re being embraced by your best friend.

You close your eyes and laugh softly, “I can hear your heart MJ, and it’s beating so fast.”

She pulls away, crouching so you’re looking her in the eye, “That’s all thanks to you, you self-righteous, hero driven idiot!” She wipes her tears quickly, “What if you died in there?”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh God, you’re still an idiot.” She sobs.

You look for Spiderman, or Peter, given that he disappeared before the authorities found you and you realize the sun is no longer up which has you looking at your watch, showing you that it was already past six. Upon looking back up, you meet eyes with Peter who’s suddenly appeared, he’s looking at you, but with a face that looks as if he were contemplating something. He pulls his hoodie over his head and sticks his hands in his hoodie pockets and starts to approach you, which Michelle takes as a sign to leave.

He stops in front of you, “So Mr. Goldberg told me you fell down the stairs.”

You sigh and shrug, “I’m more interested in why you’re talking to me, Peter.” You look him squarely in the eye, “Last I remember, you pretty much broke my heart, so don’t take it personally if I tell you that you aren’t allowed to care about me.”

“But I do.” His answer is instant, he paces back and forth a few times before finally stopping, “Look, I’m sorry I told you that we couldn’t be toge-“

You jump up to stand directly in front of him, “Could you please not mention that bullshit again?” You cut him off, “I feel like that’s been ringing in my ears all this time, and I am so tired of it.”

He freezes which you take as an opportunity to continue, “We’re not perfect okay? We’re gonna keep secrets, everybody has them, and honestly whatever you’re keeping from me that has you thinking this way, I don’t care, Peter.” You grab his hands, “I have told myself time and time again that I shouldn’t even like you this much but even when I try, I feel myself loosening my grip. There are so many things I’m unsure of in this world, but I know that feeling this way isn’t one of them. So I don’t care if we can’t be together, Peter. I want to be, and I don’t know what bogus shit you were giving me with having to protect me, but I can put up a damn fight so you don’t have to protect me.” You pull him closer by the collar, “You’re all I want, Peter. No amount of “I can’t’s” can change that, and if you tell me you don’t feel the same then you’re a goddamn liar Peter Parker.” You kiss him, it takes a few seconds but he kisses back.

It’s only cut short by a slow clapping, which turns out the be Michelle, “About. Damn. Time you two.” She gives you a wink before going back to talk with Mr. Goldstein. You wanted to believe this would last, but you knew better, something was going to happen; you could feel it.

This time, Peter kisses you first.

[aworldinsideaperson]

The ABCs: A Riverdale Fanfiction-Eight

Introduction/AN: Okay now I’m going to take a break to work on a bunch of shit! Haha yeah I don’t know why I said I was going to to it before that was kind of silly. I mean it now though! I hope you like this chapter, let me know if you want to be tagged in the upcoming parts, you can either reply to this post or message me or send an ask. Just get in touch with me however you like. In the mean time I am going to give my fingers some much needed rest (45 minuets max most likely) then get back to work on all of my things. Also let me know what you think of this chapter!

Word Count: 1,886

Warnings: Underage drinking

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

 Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

This is my favorite kissing gif btw!

Chapter Eight: Cabin Qualifier ‘A’

In the blink of an eye Friday had passed and Saturday fell upon the town of Riverdale. For most people it was a normal Saturday but for the teenagers it was the first important party of the year and even the calmest of them was rocking on the balls of their feet in anticipation.

Sometime after noon the ABCs all gathered together at the Alcott’s home to finish any last set up, hiding away priceless vases and things Mrs. Alcott would be devastated to lose. By four the girls were all gathered up in Lily’s room getting ready together.

“How many people do you think will be here tonight?” Cassie asked while applying a coat of mascara to her lashes.

“I don’t know, 150, 200 maybe? We don’t have that many more students than that at Riverdale, maybe 300, so we should expect at least half of the student body, no less.” Cheryl replied as she strapped on her heels.

“I don’t remember being this nervous last year.”

“You were. You don’t remember because you had two drinks, came up to my room and then passed out. You were such a lightweight.” Lily laughed remembering the sight of freshman Cassie laying sprawled out of her bed.

“I’ll be sure not to do the same this year. I want to remember being nervous.” Cassie smiled as she swiped on her favorite red lipstick.

After several more minutes of conversation and fussing over hanging strings and earring backs the doorbell rang. The three looked at the clock showing that it was six-forty-five, fifteen minutes early.

“Football players, always the first to come and the last to leave.” Lily said with a smile.

“Should we go down now?” Cassie asked, eagerly.

Cheryl shook her head. “No, we don’t go down until seven. The boys can handle their friend for fifteen minutes.”

Cassie sat on Lily’s bed watching the clock anxiously for fifteen minutes, just waiting for seven, but when it finally struck seven on the dot Lily was flinging her door open and the three young ladies were making their way downstairs to the party.

Forty-five minute later and the house was packed with Riverdale teens. Drinks were flowing, music was blasting and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Cassie was standing in the kitchen with Jason talking to Reggie and Moose when through the window she saw the group of five making their way up the path to the Alcott’s door. She quickly excused herself, fully intent on meeting them at the door.

Cassie flung the door open to find not five but six people standing on the doorstep. “You made it!” Cassie exclaimed leaning in to hug Betty and Veronica at the front of the group. “And you brought Polly. It’s so good to see you, Jason is in the kitchen.” Cassie then hugged Archie and Kevin before leaning into hug Jughead but thinking better of it. “The drinks are also in the kitchen so let’s go get you six drunk.” Cassie began to walk away and the group followed quietly behind her, marveling at the party around them “Jason look who showed up.”

“Hey Polly.” He said, not even looking at her.

“Hello Jason.” She replied softly.

“Wow that talk you two had must make this really awkward.” Cassie blurted out looking between the two of them.

“Cassie, maybe you should slow down on the drinks.” Jason said trying to reach for the half full cup in her hand.

“Listen JJ, no. Oh where did Moose go?” She quickly jumped to another topic.

“Downstairs with Reggie, we’re going to start playing suck and blow once everyone is nice and drunk and Reg wanted a good spot.” He explained where the two had disappeared to.

“Well then, you all better drink up.” Cassie then walked out of the kitchen and down to the basement.

Almost an hour later and everyone was gathered around in a circle, Cassie standing to the right of Jason, who was well past tipsy but not quite as far gone as the girl beside him, his arm around her shoulders as they waited for Lily to explain the rules so the game could start.

“So for anyone who’s never played before the game is pretty simple. We’ll be passing the card counter clockwise, you have to hold the card using only your mouth. You hold the card by sucking, you transfer the card by blowing. You have to move the card between players using only your mouth, no hands allowed. If you drop the card you have to kiss the person you were passing the card to. So if I was passing to Carter and I dropped the card we-”

“Would never finish the game.” Jason blurted out causing the entire group to laugh.

“Well Jason if you know so much about this game why don’t you tell them the most important rule?” Lily offered.

“If you want to kiss the person to your right make sure you drop the card.” Jason turned to Cassie and winked.

Carter rolled his eyes and yelled out to the rest of the circle. “Alright everyone, let’s play.”

Lily started the game, she sucked the card to her lips and passed it to Carter without dropping it. As the card moved around the circle it got closer and closer to Cassie and Jason. By the time Jason was sucking the card off of Veronica’s lips three couples had already kissed, each time whoops and hollers going around the circle.

Cassie watched intently as Jason sucked the card from Veronica’s lips and turned towards Cassie. As she leaned up to suck the card from his lips Jason dropped the card and smashed his lips into hers instead. He wrapped his arm around her neck pulling her closer causing both of them to smile. The kiss was rough and filled with alcohol fueled passion and once again cheers were heard around the room.

When they pulled apart Cassie picked the card up off the floor and sucked it to her mouth. The whole time she had been standing there she had never looked to her right to see who was beside her, so as she turned to give them the card she was startled to see Jughead Jones; the shock caused Cassie to drop the card. She watched as the card fell to the floor then looked up to see Jughead looking at her with wide eyes. There was a stillness between them that couldn’t have lasted more than a second but felt like hours. She knew he was here but she never expected him to play and she certainly didn’t expect him to stand next to her.

“Go on babe, kiss the kid and make his night.” Jason laughed.

Cassie quickly him, but what was meant to be a soft and simple peck quickly turned into a kiss they would have shared that summer. A kiss that was much like their first.

Cassie and Jughead sat together on her grandparent’s porch swing watching the sky grow darker and darker as night fell upon them. They had gotten back from a date, their third, over an hour ago but they didn’t want to part just yet, so they planted themselves and the wooden swing and talked about anything they could imagine, nothing deep but it didn’t matter, all they cared about was being together.

As the sun set completely and the stars were no longer out shined by the sun they continued to talk, getting closer and closer with every word spoken. Her bare legs laid across his lap as she leaned against the arm of the swing. His thumb rubbing circles on her calf as they laughed about a stupid joke she told him. The joke hadn’t been funny but the way she said it way enough to make him burst into laughter every time he thought of it causing their laughter to pick back up every time it began to die down.

“It wasn’t even that funny why are we still laughing?”

“It was your face! It was so adorable it was like-” Jughead pulled a face similar to the one she’d sported only moments ago causing them both to burst into laughter once again.

When their laughter finally died down their faces were closer together than they had ever been, their lips inches apart and before either of them were sure of what was happening they were kissing. It was deep and sure and filled with affection. It was a kiss she was sure would stick with her for the rest of her life, and when they pulled away there was pure bliss on both of their faces.

“Was that your first kiss?” She asked, a wide smile on her face.”

“Yeah, your’s?”

“No.” He looked away from her, he didn’t know why he was surprised he knew she had kissed someone before he had watched her do it a hundred times. “But it was my first kiss with someone who wasn’t Jason Blossom.” Jughead looked back at her then leaned in to kiss her again, if he was honest he never wanted to stop.

The kiss felt short but it wasn’t. It was thirty seconds longer than it should have been and forty-five seconds longer than anyone expected and when they finally pulled away there was that same moment of bliss they felt after their first kiss.

“Wow you really gave him his money’s worth.” Reggie laughed from across the circle.

“I aim to please. Do you wanna be next?” Everyone laughed and then the game moved on.

It was a few hours later as Archie and Jughead were walking home that Archie brought up something that had been bothering him all night.

“It’s Cassie Carey isn’t it.” It was a question but it didn’t feel like one.

“What’s Cassie Carey?”

“The girl you spent the summer with.” Archie clarified.

Jughead looked at him from the corner of his eye. “What makes you think that?”

“I was across the circle from you and I got a good look at both of your faces when she pulled away. You two have kissed before.” Archie explained to his best friend.

Jughead scuffed. “I don’t know what makes you think that but you’re wrong.”

It was quiet for a moment as they kept walking, but Archie broke the silence once again with a sobering fact. “You know it will never happen right? You can never have her. Ever. Not really. Not in this lifetime.”

While it was a sobering fact it was also a conclusion Jughead had come to on his own. “I told you it was complicated. Let’s not talk about this anymore, please. I drank too much and I don’t want another trip down memory lane when I’m like this.”

They were now standing in front of Archie’s house. He started to make his way up the steps but turned around to address Jughead once again. “It’s easy to fall in love with a girl like that. No one would blame you.”

Jughead sighed and shook his head. “I fell in love with a different girl Archie. A totally different girl.” He then turned from his friend and continued on down the street, thinking of that girl he had fallen hopelessly in love with.

@winteroses @fullmoonmuses @mikymouse1999 @megasimpleplan4ever @xameliaxgracex @blisshbee

[awesomeblockchain]

Understanding The Gold Rush of Scalable and Validated Data powered by Blockchain and Decentralized AIPS: To explain this topic, without making a huge headache to any reader, in this dissemination article, I had to simplify many concepts, but I added some links, at the end of each chapter, for those who want to immerse themselves in each topic.

Trustless through decentralizationRecently, there is a worldwide huge, i mean HUGE hype for the Blockchain technology, but how does this technology create value and for what does it make sense?

If we ask this question to a huge fan of Satoshi Nakamoto, he'll reply:

For the first time in human history, the Blockchain technology, allows to transact values from A to B, without having to trust institutions but trusting a democratic network, which is self-controlled through open-source algorithms.Which makes perfect sense and is proven by its market capitalization of ~$200 billion, sorry $250 Billion, OPS now $150 Billion. BTW, regardless price fluctuations, the Market Cap is huge, but, the purpose of this article is about what's next!

To understand the exponential growth in terms of values that this technology is making, we don't have to focus our attention on the technological factor of the blockchain itself, but on the values added by the means that every information is validated not by trusting to an entity, but through open source algorithms. Bitcoin for example is validating transactions with the -Proof Of Work", introducing the concept of transactions blocks replicated and shared by the entire network, without the possibility of editing or deleting the ledger.

Interesting links:

The Meaning of Decentralization | Vitalik ButerinOn Public and Private Blockchains | Vitalik ButerinBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System | Satoshi NakamotoThe Impact of the Blockchain Goes Beyond Financial Services | Harvard Business ReviewBlockchain is Memory | Words that MattersELI5: What do we mean by -blockchains are trustless"? | Preethi KasireddyThe challenge to validate dataThe Blockchain technology makes sense for decentralize and validate informations thanks to its -Trustless" core. The main use case in the next years will be to move from decentralizing financial data [transactions] to decentralizing and validate the most valuable asset of this century, data.

Today, even if the hype is huge, the technology is in -Early Stage." During this technological wave, Blockchain technology makes sense for reinventing what the centralized technology has not disrupted yet, everything that has to be redesigned not only with frictionless ecosystems, big data or AI but with universally validated pieces of information, without the possibility of human manipulation.

In the Blockchain market, every centralized approach that we use today are not useful; this is why next unicorns of this technology will be driven by reinventing how we store values without intermediaries. This new technological era is called -Internet 3.0" or -Internet of values."

To decentralize data, unlike financial transactions, it is not only necessary to store every piece of information, but also to validate how we track and execute data. For example, when Vitalik Buterin started to build Ethereum, the challenge, was to develop a new Blockchain designed like an operating system.

On the Ethereum Network, like every OS, developers can run applications; each Application has to be decentralized into the Blockchain through Smart-Contracts where to execute functions every transaction have to call the entire Smart-Contract, the request, who made the call and the result.

With Blockchain technology currently it is impossible to create a high scalable application and at the same time obtain the added value of decentralization, due to several technological limits, the most important are:

Transactions per second: Bitcoin on average can sustain 3-7 transactions/s, Ethereum can support 12-20 transactions/s. To make a comparison a visa circuit needs 1,200 transactions/s and an application like Facebook more than 1,000,000 transactions/s

Transaction costs: A Bitcoin transaction costs roughly $ 2/7, an Ethereum transaction without running a smart contract costs about $ 0.3 / 0.8, these costs are unsustainable for an application that needs millions of transactions per second.

Network congestion: A fundamental problem is that all applications run on the same network, this leads to periods of congestion where transactions can increase tenfold as costs or even fail... Do you remember Crypto-Kitties?

Specific cases of use: Ethereum was designed to become a decentralized operating system for applications with general purposes, without focusing on particular functions, something like the state-of-the-art network in terms of decentralization and security, excluding a lot of use cases.

Interesting links:

Scaling Ethereum to Billions of Users | Fred EhrsamCrypto-Industry and Mass Adoption | The Fintech TimesHow Crypto-Kitties Disrupted the Ethereum Network | HackerNoonThe new age of DApps is here, and it's not based on Ethereum | HackerNoonEthereum: A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Application Platform | Bitcoin MagazinePlasma and the Public Ethereum Chain | Joseph PoonThe first generation of Decentralized ApplicationsA lot of excellent teams are developing technologies to solve these problems and make possible the development of complex decentralized applications in the near future. The challenge to solve these problems is to scale the technology to the mass adoption and at the same time maintaining the -Trustless" standard.

The most adopted solution in last years is the DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), like the Blockchain technology, DAG is a distributed ledger technology (DLT). In DAG networks, users that make transactions also manage the consensus, usually based on a quorum to reach 51% of participants.

This technology, even if infinitely scalable, is dangerous, because it 's manipulable, and the consensus is based the trust in the participants. What make Blockchain -Trustless", is the unique value of validating information through algorithms, with anonymous validators and a safety circuit based on economic disincentives to cheating the network.

Non-Blockchain DLT systems, such as DAGs, do not have validation through an algorithm, the problem is that in this early stage of Blockchain technology, people and organizations have a lot of friction to understand the Trustless Concept.

This misunderstanding is becoming more confusing, because a lot of companies, is speculating, driven by -the blockchain trend." In fact, a lot of Companies are selling non-Trustless solutions, like Private Blockchains (a confusing name for a shared database) or some DLT solutions, wrongly as Trustless Blockchains.

This trend is dangerous because if an organization start trusting something manipulable, the result could be a catastrophe in the long run.

Solutions like Raiden Network for Ethereum and Lighting Network for Bitcoin were born to solve network limits related to transactions per second and transactions costs without losing the security of a Blockchain network. Basically, these solutions are hybrid from Blockchain transactions and a DLT private network.

Protocols like Raiden, allows users to open a private distributed connection, where they could validate on the blockchain only the first and last transaction. The risks of fraud compared to a DAG are limited, but every middle transaction is not validated.

This solution can be useful for micro-payments and to scale manipulable and dynamic data.

A non-hybrid solution, to solve the problem of scalability, promoted by Ethereum is Plasma, a protocol for decentralizing federated blockchains. Federated Blockchains, used mainly in internal company protocols, are infinitely scalable but at the same time centralized, since they rely on a limited number of selected and non-anonymous validators.

Plasma offers developers the ability to create and customize their private Blockchain, through Smart Contract, with or without issuing a new Cryptocurrency and with or without federated validators. The Ethereum's Public Blockchain controls the Trustless in this solution, as parallelism: Ethereum is the -Supreme Court" and a private blockchain a -State."

Interesting links:

What's the difference between a distributed ledger and a blockchain? | BitsonblockPrimer on DLT's most famous prodigy - The Bitcoin Blockchain | TDTPDirected acyclic graph (DAG) | WikipediaLightning Protocol The Raiden Network: A Beginner's Guide | Spring RoleVitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon Produce Scalability Solution: The Plasma Framework | ETHNEWS'BLOCKCHAIN' IS MEANINGLESS | The VergeFrom a vertical Blockchain model to the InteroperabilityThe demand for the development of the first generation of decentralized applications is growing exponentially, this started a race to develop a scalable and Trustless technology.

In the last two years, a lot of innovative projects start to build technologies for testing new methods of Trustless validation, such as Casper, NEO or EOS, and new Blockchain technologies focused on specific use cases, such as IOT, Big Data, Hosting, etc.

This race has generated the concept of the third generation of Blockchain technology, focussed on the idea of -Interoperability."

The Interoperability concept, developed by projects such as AION, Polkadot and ICON, opens a new smart way to solve tech limits in Blockchain technology, introducing the idea of unstoppable applications that spoke through multiple Blockchains.

This solution is opening the way to the first real generation of complex decentralized applications, which can use the most performing blockchain technology for each function based on every kind of uses case. At the same time, this new approach can mitigate risks like being at the mercy of the congestion of a network or destroy an entire business due to a network defect.

The Interoperability infrastructure allows developers to create Decentralized Applications in a new smart way that I like to call -Blockchain as a Microservice."

The -BAAM" concept is similar to the way in which we create modern centralized applications with microservices based on dedicated and replaceable APIs for each function. In Dapp we will use many dedicated and replaceable Blockchains focused on specific needs to perform each task. This type of infrastructure will create an exponential research on the evolution of this technology, especially in the new Blockchain focused on specific use cases, without loosing the Trustless validation.

Interesting links:

Blockchain to blockchains: Broad adoption and integration enter the realm of the possible | DeloitteModels for Scaling Trustless Computation | Multicoin CapitalBlockchains Are Verticalizing, So We Need Interoperability | ForbesBlockchain Platforms: One Chain to rule them all? | HackerNoonArtificial intelligence, why without Blockchain is limited?In the Artificial Intelligence industry, another super-hyped tech field, the challenge is different but at the same time vast and complex. In this context the quantity and the quality of data are crucial, trusted on AI algorithms with manipulable data is dangerous for every kind of use cases.

The best results in the AI field are in closed and well-defined ecosystems, such as video games, where AI algorithms have beaten every world champions, even in DOTA 2, considered one of the most complex video game in the industry.

The AI ​​has achieved other good successes in fields like facial recognition, vocal recognition, image recognition, video recognition, translations or autonomous driving systems but with some percentages of error.

In open environments like social media or big data, AI's modern algorithms have performed less, or sometimes AI's results are dangerously wrong.

A scary example on how manipulable data, fake news and trolls could manipulate AI results was in 2016 on Twitter, Microsoft created a bot user, driven by AI algorithms, and after 24 hours start twitting that cultural minorities were to be killed and some other unpleasant statements.

Artificial intelligence makes sense, in environments with trusted data, and this concept is more important than the algorithms. AI-based system can really be helped by blockchain technology, to be trained in clean environments with validated and not manipulable data.

The concept of decentralized Artificial Intelligence is designed to solve the validation of AI's algorithms, a crucial point for decentralized applications and at the same time to validate both the data it takes and data it generates.

The decentralization of the artificial intelligence algorithms solves a further problem, the computational power necessary to process the algorithms and perform complex calculations. The computational power needed to run Machine Learning algorithms is expensive and available only for large companies. In a distributed computational power network, the costs will be reduced exponentially allowing every company to use algorithms for complex calculations.

One of the most ambitious projects to decentralize artificial intelligence is SingularityNet, which uses Blockchain technology to decentralize artificial intelligence algorithms and at the same time a marketplace of AI to incentive developers and Data exchange.

Interesting links:

The Effects of Data Quality on Machine Learning Algorithms | MITData Quality in the era of A.I. | Towards Data ScienceWhite Paper | SingularityNetWhy could AI be the heart of the validation process for Blockchain?AI in Blockchain technology can solve the dramatic problem of validation techniques.

The Proof of Work creates economic disincentives to fraud the network for validators (Miners) when they are solving complicated problems of decryption in exchange for cryptocurrencies. This Trustless methodology is based on the costs of the consumption of GPUs and electricity, making it unsustainable in terms of environmental impact and scalability, because it becomes more expensive for every validated block.

The current most trusted solution to solve the limits of the Proof of Work, promoted by Ethereum, is Casper. The concept is that a validator must block some cryptocurrencies (the stake), the Stake becomes its voting power, and if it tries to defraud the network, the validator loses the entire Stake. Casper discourage validators to fraud the network by burning their Crypto-Tokens rather than with high electricity/GPU's costs.

Casper is a consensus method in the category of Proof of Stake algorithms. Another interesting POS method is the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) developed by Daniel Larimer and the core of Bitshares, Steam it, EOS, and some other projects.

The DPOS validators are not disincentivized by burning their Tokens, but in contrary by incentives to be honest in the long-run. The POS allow Blockchain networks to scale and be more sustainable, but in the long-run, this consensus method is dangerous, because can generate a lobby of high stacked validators, with an enormous decision potential centralizing the network.

One of the most impressive consensus algorithms, promoted by AION and it's called -Proof of Intelligence" which is similar to the Proof of Work but based on artificial intelligence.

This concept allows validators to use their computational power by training an AI to solve complex mathematical problems; this shared AI can solve cryptographic problems faster than a single miner in the POW. In the POI the shared AI continues to improve its solving skills, so when cryptographic difficulties increase, validators don't need to spend more in therm of their computational power.

Interesting links:

The convergence of AI and Blockchain: what's the deal? | MediumWhite Paper | AION NetworkCasper as an EOS Contract | Daniel LarimerA Proof of Stake Design Philosophy | Vitalik ButerinOn Settlement Finality | Vitalik ButerinThe Trustless data valueThe real opportunity behind this technological challenge is the inestimable value that decentralized data and decentralized communities will have in the upcoming decade. The future of the merger of AI and blockchain technologies will be an interconnected internet of validated data, where both providers and users will be encouraged to use the most decentralized and validated platforms possible, because the value of their data will be calculated through how the data are tracked and validated with a continuous exchange, something like a -Validated Data Economy".

For this purpose there is already a race to find the best method to calculate that, through projects like Nebulas. Who'll win this race will become the google and the exchange of decentralized data.

The motivation that is pushing this technology to a supersonic speed in terms of research, development, innovation and ideas, is an exponential economic advantage given by the use of Utility Tokens, crypto assets dedicated to projects, this new non-financial value is solving one of the biggest problem that the tech industry has today.

In the Technology Industry, the capitalization of a company is driven by intangible assets such as communities, algorithms, partnerships, and data. All of the methodologies that we use today to calculate these assets are rudimentary.

The Utility Tokens, without any connections to financial assets or speculative instruments, if it used as the key to interacting with the technology and data of tech products, can become a validated valuation tool for these intangible assets, based on their capitalization driven only by supply and demand in the market.

For example, if we have to calculate the value of data of a social network like Facebook, we wouldn't have a scientific and validated model.

If Facebook would create some interaction's tools with its database and the only way to access to this informations would be the Facebook cryptocurrency, the Market Capitalization of that Token, driven by supply and demand, could be a trusted and validated valuation of this social network's data.

This new tool is a revolution for the tech industry, as well as the reason why the race to validated data will be the fundamental element of the multi-billion dollar companies of this technological wave.

Interesting links:

White Paper | NebulasThink like the SEC before you ICO | HackerNoonStatement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings | SEC.govQuantifying Decentralization | MediumFrom Vitalik Buterin:

-This, basically, is tokens 1.0. There are some good ideas, there are a lot of very bad ideas, and there's a lot of very, very bad ideas, and quite a few scams as well. I expect that tokens 2.0 and the kinds of things that people will start building in 2018 and 2019 will generally be of substantially higher quality. Especially once we start seeing what the consequences of the first wave of tokens are in the medium-to-longer term ... What is a good role for them and what is a role that doesn't really make sense?"

http://ift.tt/2IgMgfE

[jackytheidealist-blog]

Chapter 6

Day Ten

This was the toughest day, also the gift from God. 

The night before I was texting Pa (the Dutch girl from the hostel), and I told her that I really want to go Grand Canyon and all those National Parks. 🏞  She was like “Me too, I’ve met some friends at the hostel in Vegas, and we’re going to Death Valley in two days. I can save you a spot if you want”. “Sure yeah! I’m coming to Vegas lol” I said. So I packed up everything for the next big day because I know it’s like more than 8 hours drive from SF to Vegas, and it’s probably gonna be really hard to hitchhike.  

Oh, I woke up early the next day as I gotta go to the Mount View for a lunch meeting with my previous boss and his family. We ended up at a Japanese restaurant and had a reunion moment. 👪  He thought I was crazy btw.

I finally got on the road!! Withholding this sign lol

Always check on the closest freeway and the most convenient ramp for hitchhiking. I walked 40 mins away finally got to the place and had a quick conversation with an old man. 

1 hour has passed, there’s not even a car stopped...

After another 40 mins, there’s a guy pulled over and ask where am I going. I said Vegas, and he told me he’s just heading to San Jose. As I don’t have much experience and I thought if I missed this spot that might be even harder to hitchhike to where I’m going. So I rejected that kind man, I’m so sorry! I was just an idiot. 😭

Here comes the second car who has stopped, the same situation and I still didn’t learn from the last lesson... The third car, the forth... The fifth, the guy called Da talked to me and saying he’s a Christian. He really wanted to help me out and bring me to my destination but what he can do is take me to San Jose as well. I told him about my concern, and he was like “I can take to you another ramp if that could help you”. So I compromised, I mean to myself not like I’m a fussy guy and didn’t want to take people’s free rides. 😂  I asked him if I can take a photo of his registration plate, and he rejected me. He said “trust is built on both of us, and I trust you so you should trust me as well. here’s the address of the church that I go to so you could find me”. he passed me a card of his information and the address. I accepted because he looked like a  genuine/honest man. 

Of course, I’m not gonna show you guys his information 🙄

We have chatted about believing in God and some religious stuff. I don’t have any religion so I wouldn’t talk shit about it and I do respect what people have faith in. He said, everyone has sinned, and Jesus freed us from the penalty for our sins. I kept silence for a bit because I don’t know what to say. After 40 mins of this kind of discussion, he got me to the next ramp.

4 pm PST, and it’s getting a bit chilly. I found this gas station next to the ramp. Fortunately, there’s a bench just outside of the station. I leaned my giant backpack on the bench and kept thumb up myself. 

One hour... Getting dark

Two hours... Darker

Three hours... Night 

There were some people pulled over and trying to help me, also some people yelled at me. They probably thought I’m just a brokeass Asian trying to get free stuff because I don’t think people can actually read what I’ve written on the board. 

A dude pulled over and told me it’s impossible to hitchhike to Vegas. there are buses going there every morning, just go find a place for tonight and I can ask where the station is, he said. He gave me all the information and said to me, I really wish I can take you there or either give you a place to crash on, but I’m staying at my friend’s place as well. 

Another guy stopped and he’s just going to a place where is about 20 mins away. He said he wishes he can take me to somewhere further down but he gotta go work tomorrow. 

A chav couple stopped and told me they can take me there if I can pay them 200 bucks... I was like there’s no way to get ripped-off at the beginning of my trip 😂

I also talked to some people who’re taking some gas, everyone seemed at the same page all of the sudden. I started feeling anxious because it was freezing out there, my hands and feets are getting numb. 

Around 8 pm, while I was having some snacks a car pulled over at the gas station. A lady called me over, she asked me where was I heading to. 

The same answer I got from everyone else, but she said “can I do something for you at least. Would you feel better if I give you 10 bucks?” 

“Sorry ma’am, I don’t need money, but thank you so much for your help!” 

“No, I want to help you. I can’t just leave you here. It’s really cold out there and it’s really dangerous at this time. I went to pick my daughter up at 6, I saw you were standing here. It’s 8 pm and you still here. You’re like my son’s age, and I couldn’t just leave you here”

“I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for trying to help me out. I really don’t think I need anything else but a ride. Sorry, can I go pack up my backpack first? I was having some snacks and everything is completely exposed outside, just in case people won’t take anything from me.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

I organised everything and walked back to the spot where the lady pulled over with all my belongings.

“Get into the car, it’s cold outside.” She probably saw that I was shaking. I couldn’t reject her like I was really cold, and just trying to find a warm place for a bit. 

“Thanks!”

“So I discussed with my daughter, and we are going to take you to a restaurant first, and book a hotel for you. I can’t leave you alone.”

“No no, thank you so much I mean really. Seriously, I can’t take anything from you.”

“So what you gonna do?”

“I’ll probably stay here for another couple of hours for my last shot, otherwise I will find a place to stay.”

“No, it’s cold and dangerous. I’m taking you to the restaurant.” She started the engine and drove to the restaurant. I know that she made up her mind and she’s gonna make sure that I’m not gonna die outside. So I checked online, luckily there’s a coach going to LA at 11:40 pm. (If I take coach to Vegas, and it has to stop at LA) 

“I just checked online, there’s a bus going to LA at 11:40. Can you take me to the bus station instead? I’m not really hungry because I just had some snacks.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes”

“Okay, I will take you to the bus station first. We can go ask together to see if there’s an actual bus heading to LA. But we will take you to a hotel if there’s no bus working.”

 “Thank you so much!” 

About 15 mins drive, we arrived. Mi (her name) got off the car, and she handed over 30 dollars to me. I was like “no no, I can’t take it, please don’t”. “I know you’re a good kid, this is just for emergency”, she said. “I do have money, please don’t. I really don’t need it. I really thank you for what you did for me tonight, but I just can’t take your money” said me. Her daughter spoke, “just take it for the emergency, we can’t give you much but this is our gift to you.” 

I BELIEVE THEY ARE ANGELS SENT BY GOD! 😇  MY EYES WERE WATERING! 😭

I took the money because I see it as a gift, a piece of memory, a love from Mi and her daughter. We went in the lobby together and asked the information about next bus. Mi took out her wallet that she wanted to pay the ticket for me as well. I almost wanted to beg them to do not pay for it. After few minutes of persuading, they finally believe I got money for my ticket. 

Can anyone believe that really happened to me? Would you ever help a stranger as much as what Mi and her daughter did? Will I ever do such things for a person I’ve met in my life or I will never meet him/her again in my life? OMG, whenever I recall the story, it touches the deepest part of my heart. The story is priceless, it gives me what I will never have if I kept dreaming. As well it’s the most amazing part of hitchhiking.

Again, I want to thank Mi and your daughter for your kindness, your generosity, your love! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

They are the gifts I got from Mi and her daughter. 🎁