#dunking on twilight was the best as a kid

[strmpt]

neurodivergency is cool and all but when can i just be Normal about something

[ivystoryweaver]

Just for an Hour - Poe Dameron

Poe Masterlist | Main Masterlist

Happy Poevember!

Summary: You lure your best friend to a picnic by a lake, trying to get his mind off of his responsibilities...only to find his mind is fixed on you.

Pairing: Poe Dameron x gn!reader

Word Count: 2.5k

Content: romance, sex is implied and described briefly. More erotic than explicit. Best friends to lovers, slow and soft, in the water, not beta’d

•¨•.¸¸☆*･ﾟﾟ･☆¸¸.•¨*•

"Isn't it perfect?" You nudged your best friend's shoulder as the two of you finished up the picnic you had prepared to surprise him.

Polishing off the last of his beverage, Poe stared out over the serene lake, releasing a cleansing sigh as the water lapped against the tall grass along the shore. The sun, rich gold and majestic purple neared the horizon, sending shimmering beams of light across the water’s surface.

“We should go swimming."

The sound of your voice brought the Resistance commander back to reality, and you regretted having opened your mouth once you heard his reply.

"I have to get back."

"Come on, Poe, it’s quiet out there. This is supposed to be your day off.”

“We don’t get days off.”

“The First Order will still be as evil and dreadful right now as they will an hour from now.” Standing, you kicked off your boots, reaching to unzip your flight suit.

This got Poe’s attention.

Sure, you’d changed clothes in front of him dozens of times. You’d even shared a bed. For sleeping.

But he was wound pretty tightly just ahead of an important mission and it had been a long time since he’d blown off steam in particular ways.

Maybe a swim wasn’t such a bad idea. Could be fun.

“Okay. Ten minutes,” he agreed, granting you a lopsided grin as he rid himself of his own boots and flight suit. This left the two of you in white tank tops and shorts, but as you laughed delightedly and sprinted toward the water, he shed his top as well.

You squealed in excitement and surprise at the surprisingly warm water, which felt absolutely divine against your skin.

“Cold?” Poe asked you before he stepped one toe in.

“No, it feels amazing,” you gushed, twirling around as Poe waded in a few steps before diving right in.

He disappeared for several long moments, prompting you to look around for him. It would be just like him to mess with you, but he was gone for so long that you finally called his name.

Suddenly he tugged on your ankle underwater and you shrieked before laughing. “I’m gonna kick your ass, Dameron!”

Poe popped up behind you, grinning wickedly as he shook wet curls out of his face. Sunlight kissed his dark eyes, making them shine golden as they raked over your body.

You lunged for him, but he turned away to dodge your attack, so you ended up hanging onto his back, with your arms around his neck. Your thighs locked around his torso and you squeezed while attempting to pull him under and dunk him.

“Nice try, sweetheart,” he taunted, even as you both tumbled back into the water.

You came up sputtering, with Poe chuckling, amused that your revenge had backfired. “Don’t choke.”

You splashed water right in his smug face, which, of course, started a splashing war. The two of you laughed like kids, splashing and dodging and diving until you were breathless and exhausted, and, for once, thinking about something that wasn’t the First Order looming over the galaxy.

Finally calling a truce, you bobbed in the water, the sun almost gone from the sky and twilight hanging magically around you.

“I needed that,” Poe admitted, tongue swiping over his lips as he noticed the way your white tank top clung to your wet skin.

“You probably need a lot more than that,” you cryptically returned, mesmerized by the water droplets dancing on his long lashes.

“Yeah, like what?”

“I don’t know,” you answered seriously. “I haven’t seen you smile like that…” Chewing on your lip, you tried to come up with an answer. “I can’t remember the last time I heard you laugh.”

“Well, that’s why I have you,” he shrugged, swimming toward you until he was close enough to hold you. But he didn’t.

“That’s why I made you come with me today,” you agreed. “What can I say? I live to see Poe Dameron smile once in a while.”

“We both know that’s not true or you wouldn’t torture me so often,” he teased, splashing you again.

“Please don’t start that again or I might actually drown,” you dramatically pouted, sinking below the water’s surface to emphasize your point, thinking, in the back of your mind, that it might make Poe laugh again, or at least smile.

But he caught you before you went under, his forearm flexing against the curve of your back as he pulled you flush against his chest. “I would never let that happen. You know that.”

“Save me, Commander Dameron,” you teased in a sing-song voice, but your laughter trailed off as his gaze dropped to your mouth. You swallowed hard, attempting to ignore how your body fit up against his like you were two adjoining puzzle pieces.

Your chest heaved at the sudden shift in mood. Spreading your palms against his chest, you braced yourself, feeling as if either of you let go, that you would indeed, drop straight to the lake’s bottom.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, folding you against him for a body engulfing hug. The two of you had shared countless hugs - after successful missions, sometimes playfully, during a fun night out, and ever so rarely, when he would come to you exhausted and broken. Those were the nights he fell asleep in your bed, but it had never gone further than his arms clinging to your waist, seeking comfort.

But the way he pressed your body into his now felt altogether different.

He was giving you something here - you weren’t sure what exactly - but you wrapped your arms around his neck and twisted your fingers into his wet curls, pulling yourself against him harder and whispering his name.

You held one another, suspended in twilight, for a few etherial moments, but it didn’t calm either of you.

Instead, it ignited something. Perhaps it was something new, or something dormant. Or perhaps it was there simmering below the surface, but one turn of his head brought those heated breaths to your cheek. Plush lips grazed the corner of your mouth - the sensation sending you right back to the memory of that half-drunken kiss near the end of last Life Day.

One moment longer passed, the two of you the precipice of something new. Then he covered your lips with his own, sharing your breath for one final moment before licking hotly into your mouth with unrestrained fervor.

Every part of him was touching every part of you somehow, with his thick, muscular thigh wedged between your legs, holding you in place. Gripping your shoulders, he clung to you with everything he had.

You had never been kissed like this in your life, and certainly not by Poe. He was giving you everything while taking it at the same time. You went weak in his arms as he stole your breath and your will to resist, yet you had never felt safer. It took your mind a moment longer to catch up, but once you realized he might pull away in doubt, you tilted your head and kissed him back with all the wild hunger burning inside you.

You heard something deep rumble in the expanse of his chest as his hands pressed the curve of your back, fingertips inching underneath your top, pushing it up to your shoulders. A dizzying euphoria of what could happen here left you gasping as he tore his mouth away, tugging at the hem and murmuring, “Let me feel you,” against your wet, bruised lips.

The slightest nod granted him permission to tear the garment over your head and toss it aside to flop on the water’s surface. Then his mouth found yours again as his hands touched every soft and supple part of you - in ways he’d dared not try before, not even asleep in your bed, against you.

You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t think. You might as well be drowning, but in him, rather than the warm lake.

Poe had always been the leader, but you were strong too. He wanted to go right when you insisted on going left. You challenged him, sometimes rather infuriatingly, but he outranked you and you respected that. In your personal friendship however, you always took the lead.

Like today, when you insisted he promise you an hour to relax. Just one hour to not be in charge or everything and carry the hope of the Resistance on his shoulders. He did, and it was wonderful and fun and easy - the way things always felt between you when you weren't butting heads.

And now, in this moment, in the serene, clear water, you'd never been so in sync, holding onto one another as desperately as you had on dangerous missions. Here, where he was now pulling away the flimsy fabric keeping you from feeling and knowing everything about each other.

Finally tearing his mouth from yours, he eased back enough to look into your eyes, and right to your soul - to the utter depths of you. You realized suddenly that he might see the raw, uncertain wonderings and possibilities of what it could be like to love him - really love him. You shivered in his arms and his head tilted quizzically, worry skittering across his handsome features - fear that he read this all wrong and had wounded the bond between you.

Even as he looked at you, his hand guided the thickness of your thigh around his waist and you responded eagerly, wrapping yourself around him and granting him the sweetest smile. A thousand quips came to mind, but this wasn't the moment. Not here, when he kissed you and laid himself bare in every possible way.

You could feel him now, intimately - his arousal rubbed quite obviously against you but he swallowed hard, restraining himself one more moment, to be absolutely certain.

You nodded again, shifting your hips in a suggestively obvious way, pulling him closer with your legs. Wetting his lips, his eyes flickered down between your bodies, where he reached to guide himself inside you, exhaling sharply as he pushed deeper and opened you up to feel the full, heavy length of him.

He groaned in satisfaction and relief, eyes rolling back in his head for a moment before his gaze locked with yours again.

The sensation of being this close to Poe - of actually feeling him inside you went beyond every dream that stirred secret yearnings: previous possibilities you’d crushed with common sense as soon as the sun rose and duty called. He was your friend. Your best friend and it could never be more than that - it wasn't even a thought you’d entertained, because to let the mere notion flicker and dance in your imagination was to give it life, to let it grow and then it would be this thing - this living idea.

And you couldn't kill an idea. It would grow and take the room it needed in your heart and suddenly you'd be overcome with the ridiculous notion that your best friend, and sometimes piloting rival, could ever be as in love with you as you so obviously were with him.

The surge of it overwhelmed you so that you squeezed your eyes shut before it washed over your like a wave, but it was too late - it was swelling and cresting and drowning you, sending your fingers grabbing desperately for his curls and your mouth crashing into his.

•¨•.¸¸☆*･ﾟﾟ･☆¸¸.•¨*•

Darkness enveloped your sated, naked bodies, bobbing gently in the cooling lake. Everything would change now. You both knew it, so you held onto this serenity with adoring caresses and soft kisses.

Something about the cover of night felt perfect as you helped each other out of the water, searching for your discarded, drenched undergarments and laughing under the rising moons.

You dressed in your dry gear and packed up the picnic supplies in silence. But it was the comfortable quiet of a best friendship - the two of you moving in synchrony just as you would in a ship or on a mission.

He reached for the bag of picnic supplies while you held the wad of wet clothes, each of you using your outside arm, leaving hands free between you. His arm brushed yours as you walked - the two of you were always bumping shoulders and causing gossip to ripple through the Resistance base. You assumed tonight would be no different, especially if you returned from seclusion with wet hair.

Gone was the tension in his shoulders and corded neck. As you glanced in his profile, illumined by the moons’ glow, you noted that even his typically clenched jaw had relaxed. The corner of his mouth curved upward as you stared. It made you giggle and elbow him in the ribs. He nudged you right back, starting a flirtatious struggle that ended when he took hold of your hand.

But it wasn’t like before when his grip would halt your playful assault and likely start a wrestling match. This time, tenderly, he brushed his thumb over your knuckles before tangling his fingers with yours. With a gentle squeeze, he lifted your joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss there.

Your breath caught. You swallowed hard as his gaze bore into yours for a brief eternity.

As the base came into view, you fully expected him to release your hand and act the way you always acted. Like friends. But he pulled you aside, behind a tree and crowded into your space.

Chest heaving with trepidation, you wondered how he would end this. What he would say to safely return you to the status of his bantering best friend.

But he kissed you. He dropped the picnic supplies, which clattered loudly to the ground. He took your face in his hands and stole your breath away - made you even weaker, somehow, with the fire of his kiss. Your hands fell limply to your sides, wet clothes thudding on top of the picnic bag.

Before your hesitation could give him one moment’s doubt, however, you gripped his flight suit in your fists and pulled him closer, kissing him endlessly, and with all your heart.

Touching his forehead to yours, he whispered your name, the shape of it tickling your cheek. Turning your mouth to meet his whisper, you kissed again, endlessly, wordlessly.

To love Poe, to touch him, to know him in every way, would present a wondrous journey and beauty you never dreamed could exist in the ugliness of galactic war.

"You're so quiet," he finally whispered, holding you against him. "Can I kiss you next time you defy my orders?"

"Only if you take me swimming after," you laughed, playfully but gently shoving him away.

He caught your hand in his, and granted you the smile you lived for.

•¨•.¸¸☆*･ﾟﾟ･☆¸¸.•¨*•

Supplies gathered, appearances straightened, you made it back to base, bumping shoulders as you walked too close, as usual.

This time, however, as the door whooshed open, Poe slid his fingers through yours and led you inside.

•¨•.¸¸☆*･ﾟﾟ･☆¸¸.•¨*•

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[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

What’s the evidence for SS/BOTW/TOTK/ST Zelink being the most canon? I firmly believe in all of them myself but I like hearing other’s takes on this topic so I’m just curious

Ooh, yeah, I'll get into this.

Skyward Sword: This is such a slam dunk. It's as explicit in the text as it can be without Zelda saying "Link, you are my boyfriend, I love you." Groose is jealous of Link for his closeness to Zelda. Throughout the series, Link has gone through hell and back to save the people he cares about, not necessarily love interests (his sister in Wind Waker, the Ordon kids in Twilight Princess, etc). However, consider what Zelda says to Link when they talk in the Sealed Temple:

"I knew that if it meant saving Zelda, you would throw yourself headfirst into any danger, without even a moment's doubt."

She groomed him to be the chosen hero by baiting him with the person he loved most. Then, later:

"While it's true that I am Hylia reborn, I'm still my father's daughter and your friend... I'm still your Zelda"

She does say "friend," but this is the fledgling start of their romance. After the wing ceremony and Link and Zelda are flying together, she was a hair's breadth from admitting her true feelings for him. That's right there in the text. And come on, tell me "I'm still your Zelda" isn't loaded with deeper-than-friendship meaning. This is the kind of language that is absent in most Zelda games.

BotW/TotK: This is the next biggest slam dunk. Zelda could not for the life of her awaken her divine powers through prayer and practice. What finally activated them was a moment of desperation to save the person she loved: Link. Further, her journal details how close the two are personally. Closeness does not necessarily mean romance, but it is conducive to it. Link is comfortable enough are her to actually speak, which was originally nearly impossible from the trauma caused by the pressure to be her appointed knight and the Hylian Champion. Let's also not forget the look she gave him after he saved her from the Yiga assassins.

Now, that's all just in BotW. TotK easily cements it. Link and Zelda live together. They're in their early 20s living in the same house, a house with only one bed. Come on. That's solid proof right there that at the very least, SOMETHING is going on.

Spirit Tracks: This is less solid than the other two but still more explicit than the other 18 games in the series. The very first time Link lays eyes on Zelda, he blushes and audibly gasps. He is straight up taken aback by how attractive she is. He also blushes later when she hugs him. Oh yeah, the hug. The first thing she does once she has her body back is hug him. Then at the very end, as they watch the Lokomo depart from Hyrule and ascend to another realm, they hold hands. The devs specifically modeled hands for Zelda so they could hold hands. Come on. Confirmed.

If anything, I feel more strongly that other Zelinks aren't likely. Note that these are predicated on the idea that Link going to great lengths to save her is not necessarily indicative of romantic feelings. Skyward Sword is different because Hylia targeted Link for it. Anyway:

The Legend of Zelda: Zero chemistry. They only meet at the end.

The Adventure of Link: Zero chemistry. They only meet at the end.

A Link to the Past/Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages: Barely any interaction, no indication they're more than acquaintances or, at best, friends.

Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask: Okay, this is maybe the strongest case here. Link does spend a fair deal of time with Zelda/Sheik. In Link's later interactions with the Sheik persona, he actually tries to chase after her. Is this because he simply wants a friend? Or has he developed feelings for this mysterious young man? Man, OoT is startlingly sparse on textual evidence for Link's feelings. The writers get closer to establishing something in MM, what with Link and Zelda spending several months together following his return to his home era.

But I headcanon it a specific way, largely because of a particular video essay. In this interpretation, Link is desperate for companionship from someone who truly understands who he is and what he's been through. That's why he goes to such lengths to find Navi. She was his sister in arms and the only one who witnessed his heroism. Zelda was the closest thing to someone who understood, but not quite there. So, less than likely.

Also, they're 10. I was interested in romance when I was 10, but I still consider my first serious relationship, at 19, as the beginning of my true understanding of romantic love. I don't attribute much value to the *very* young love 10 years may have for each other, no matter how traumatized and mature for his age one of them is. That actually raises another question. Is Link mentally 17 by the time he slays Ganon? Or was he mentally a child the whole time? Because the 17/10 thing actually does make a difference here. Um. Moving on.

Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass: There is also something to be said here in that Link and Tetra actually do have chemistry. She's seems to be a bit older than him, just enough that she initially looks down on him as a stupid kid. Then again, at 14 and even to an extent 13, I did see most 12 year olds as being much less mature than me. Then again then again, I was a very pretentious preteen. Okay, so maybe Tetra is initially just as pretentious in that sense. Anyway, she does view him as an equal by the end and fights alongside him like a badass. Hm. Right so there's some stuff here. Like how Link goes to such lengths especially in Phantom Hourglass to save her. At that point they aren't playing parts in a legendary conflict, he's just trying to save her. But once again, that doesn't really mean romantic love.

Four Swords: No chemistry seen, barely any interaction. That's a nah from me.

Four Swords Adventures: There's a TINY bit more here, because Link and Zelda are childhood friends. Still not much here. The Minish Cap: Barely more than FSA. Childhood friends, more interaction, but still not much chemistry.

Twilight Princess: Okay this might be my hottest take here. Not only do I not think it is evidenced by the canon text, I actually don't like this one. Even ignoring that Link has infinitely better love interests in Ilia and Midna, he has no chemistry with her at all. They barely interact. On top of that, and this is the biggest thing for me, she is 20. He is 16/17. A three year age gap at that point is uncomfortably large. I've dated people three years younger than me, but we were both adults. It's just a little icky.

A Link Between Worlds: I feel like a broken record. Barely any onscreen interaction, no chemistry. Just ain't there.

Echoes of Wisdom: Not to get too into spoilers here, but I agree with that post going around that Zelda probably has a big crush on Link. But that's just a headcanon and not really evidenced by the text.

All of this said, I don't think you're wrong or bad or anything for liking more Zelinks than I do. These are just my opinions and frankly I'm too old to be engaging in shipping wars. Then again, hey, you asked for my opinions. Oh yeah, and sorry for taking so long to respond. Whoops.

[innershoesuitcasebiscuit]

I'm scared, in fact I'm terrified that now I have realized I am actually losing interest in watching animes.

When I was in my teenage years, I would always search for anime to watch but, the me today prefer the classic anime over new ones.

Daily there are a lot of anime being released and a lot of manga being published. I kinda find it bland anymore and feel like it's creating a mainstream story and the purpose of shocking (ex. killing every character they've created) people to get a lot of attention.

But here's the list of animes I've watched so far that I love and the reason why I've watched them.

I love all of them but I do have certain favorite. So I'm listing them from most love.

1. Blood + - Once upon a time we all had obsessions with vampires and I prefer this over twilight.

2. Tokyo Ghoul - My friend recommended it to me and I love it. I love how Tokyo Ghoul shows us the two sides of the coin and well the pov of a human turned to ghoul.

3. Helsing - once again same reason as above and because I love the opening song.

4. One Piece - my uncle made me watch it as a kid (it was a morning anime show). I stopped watching it for years after Ace's death but resume watching it after I miss Luffy's laugh.

5. Dragon Ball - every child should have watched it. I don't care if anyone said it's overrated but everything that influences us in our childhood is f*cking great. Plus I don't know why I was watching it by the time that I have awareness of the world it has already been in carved in my heart that I love it (more like my brother made me watch it when I was just a baby).

6. Yu yu Hakusho/Ghost Fighter - same reason as dragon ball. Plus I have a soft spot for Kurama 😍.

7. Overlord - I love this anime, everyone might say it's too bland but as a gamer especially an rpg and mmorpg gamer I love seeing the pov of an enemy boss.

8. Demon Slayer - I love the art style and the story, in my opinion the anime and the manga was too rushed but Demon Slayer in my opinion has the best ending and characters. You can't help but love Tanjiro (the kindest mc that I ever knew).

9. Slam Dunk - my uncle made me watch it. I love how the discussion with my friends would be involved with "Have the ball passed through the net yet?", "I think by friday it's going to pass it" 🤣.

10. Full Metal Alchemist - it was a morning show anime. I've watched it every morning and I was hooked by it (I love science and theories once again the INTP in me is grinding it's gears when I watch this). I also think the phrase "Equivalent Exchange". I would quote it like its a cool motto.

These are the top ten, I also love Hunter x Hunter, Naruto (sorry for Boruto fans but I hated the sequel), Shaman King, Flame of Recca and Records of Ragnarok.

I also read a manga "Shut Hell" that for me was underrated by everyone and that it deserves an anime but I guess it's too gruesome to be made one but I was reminded of Berserk and I think its unfair.

Aside from that I actually dropped a lot of anime. Though a recommendation wouldn't hurt.

[violet27writes]

Echoes of Silence

Chapter 3: Truths and Lies

Sky-Centric. (Part 3 of ?) Ao3 Link.

Part 1, Part 2

- - -

Legend frowned.

Not that it was an unusual occurrence, or even an uncommon one. However, his frown was directed at Hyrule, something he knew had happened a total of fewer times than he had fingers on his left hand. But he felt like the traveler earned it this time.

Hyrule had done nothing but fret for the last four hours. Flittering over a still-sleeping Sky and just finally giving up on begging for magic potions. If that kid used any more magic, then they’d just have another body to nurse back to health. They still might have to if the brunette didn’t eat.

Yes, Legend was concerned for Sky. Yes, he waited impatiently for him to wake so they could assess the extent of the damage. But also, he wasn’t willing to let Hyrule harm himself in the process. He could get magic exertion from more effort, or heck, even magic poisoning if he got his hands on too many potions.

No one was doing any self-sacrificing on his watch, thank you very much. He’d stick by for good measure. Both to his successor’s side and to the Skyloftian’s sleeping form.

“Hyrule, please just sit down.”

“But what if he wakes up?” He asked, brows furrowed.

And that too! That stupid determined look on his face actually made him defiant. Refusing anything and everything if Hyrule decided he didn’t like it. “Hyrule. For the thousandth time, wearing yourself out isn’t going to help Sky.”

“But I need to be ready!”

“You aren’t helping-”

“Guys.”

Successor and predecessor met the cook’s gaze. In his hands, Wild held a platter of sliced fruit with a little bowl of cream and honey in the middle. He made a face that left no room for arguments as he set it in between them. “Eat. Dinner won’t be for a while still.”

There was a pause, as if waiting for an argument to start or for the other one to resume. Wild nodded, satisfied, returning to his cooking pot alongside Twilight.

Legend turned back to Hyrule, “You heard him. Now please eat.”

Hyrule didn’t move.

“I won’t eat until you do.” He continued. Did this boy’s stubbornness come from him? Legend sure hoped not.

There was a glance down at the platter.

The Vet sighed, “There’s honey in it.”

The kid finally broke, reaching for a strawberry to dunk in the cream mixture. He ate the whole thing in one bite, leaves and all. He grabbed a slice of melon next.

For a moment, Legend merely watched, as if to make sure Hyrule was actually eating. He was. So Legend ate an apple slice.

They ate in silence, occasionally glancing up at each other but never for longer than a second. Which was fine. Until they ran out of procrastination food.

The Vet sat back, thinking of the best way to break the silence. He wasn’t going to yell, knowing full well that hardly anyone reacted best to that. But logic didn’t seem to work on Hyrule right now. Sky wouldn’t be any better or worse if Hyrule wasn’t a foot away when he woke up. He had to have known that. Go for a more gentle approach, maybe?

He sighed, then opened his mouth to speak-

“Legend?” -As Hyrule cut him off. His green gaze was fixed on the grass in front of him. Voice soft and quiet.

“Yes?”

Hyrule’s ears dropped, nearly pinning themselves to the side of his head. “I’m sorry for being annoying. I’m just worried? Mad? At myself? I don't even know, Ledge.”

There it was, Legend thought, no yelling required. “And why is that?”

Somehow, the teen’s head ducked even lower. “I… He’s… hurt. And I don’t think I can fix it.”

Legend paused, relaying the words in his head. “You don’t… What do you mean?”

“There’s nothing wrong with his ears. I’ve checked over and over again, thinking possibly I’ve just missed something or wasn’t paying enough attention. But there’s nothing. The only injuries my magic can find is his lightning burns, which I can’t exactly finish healing right now. There’s nothing else to fix.”

Ironically, the following silence was deafening, heavy and suffocating. Hyrule looked hopeless.

‘Hopelessness’ was an emotion that Legend had a hard time deciphering with the Traveler. Having grown in such a desolate wasteland world, the teen never knew if he would have a safe place to rest his head for longer than a night. He was realistic, expecting the worst out of everything. It wasn’t hope that kept him alive, day after day, year after year. It was his resilience. His wit. His courage.

Hyrule rarely lost hope because he never held onto it in the first place. However, Legend had seen his entire outlook and mindset starting to change the longer he spent with the other heroes. He started to want things rather than just being content enough with what life brought him.

He would ask Wild for certain meals. Time to teach him better swordplay. Sky how to mend his trousers. Legend if he could sleep beside him.

And that was what ultimately led to Hyrule finding pieces of hope. Building it and watching it and holding it tightly without truly knowing what it was. He’d even asked Legend if he could explain that weird feeling that sparked in his chest.

Now it had fallen apart in his hands, leaving him with crumbs of whatever hope he had bound to his heart.

Hyrule was realistic. He didn’t lie or give sweet nothings. He told it like it was.

Legend began to reach out for his successor, drawing back as Hyrule moved out of his reach. That stung.

“So… You’re saying he’s deaf? For now, right?”

“Well, yes. But as far as I know,” Hyrule hesitated, giving Legend enough time to figure out the ending. “He might never hear again.”

⋟❋⋞

Screaming. Someone was screaming. Everyone was screaming.

One moment it was Zelda, or Groose, or Pippin. Yelling for him, begging for him to save them. He would run towards them, tripping over nothing and everything as this world was nothing but darkness. He would get closer and closer before someone else would cry out, from another direction. He heard Instructor Horwell, Impa, even Ledd, yelling and yelling until they simply stopped, leaving him to chase the next voice deeper into the darkness.

It was hard to breathe, his lungs working overtime as he gasped for breath. The air felt thicker as time went on. His head felt lighter. He tripped over and over on nothing but his own clumsy feet.

Then it was his brothers calling for him. No longer one by one. He could hear them all, screaming, yelling, crying out. Their voices came from every direction and Sky fell…

Warrior’s blood-curdling scream came from in front, Time and Wild from behind, Hyrule, Wind and Twilight to his right, Legend and Four on the Left.

“Help!”

Sky couldn’t move.

“Save us!”

Sky couldn’t choose.

“Stop them!”

He threw his hands over head.

“Please!”

The voices only grew louder.

Something grabbed at his arms.

“No!”

Please.

Holding him down to the ground.

“Sky!”

Make.

Pulling at his hair.

“Sky!”

It.

He was too late.

“Sky!”

Stop.

Always too late-

-The sound vanished the moment he opened his eyes, cutting off before another loved one could cry out his name in vain. His breath was heaving as he tried to gasp for air, coughing mutely as it caught in his lungs. Hands still held him down. He had no strength to fight back against it. Only, he realized he wouldn’t have to fight as the tears fell from his eyes and cleared his vision.

The Veteran was over him, pinning his wrists to the ground by his head, brow furrowed in a concerned way rather than in a pissed-off way.

Unknown hands carded their fingers through his hair, reminding him so greatly of Zelda and her presence. However, it wasn’t her. These hands were too calloused and swept his hair forward instead of back. But they were nearly as gentle.

Sky slowly opened his hands and revealed his palms in a ‘surrendering’ gesture. A moment later he was released, Legend moving to kneel beside him, next to a wide-eyed Hyrule. He found that the skin of his arms still stung and the muscles in them were too worn to make him want to move them at all. Instead, he focused on trying to breathe, closing his eyes, and trying to ignore the hot tears rolling down the sides of his face and hitting his ears.

With his eyes closed and his ears not hearing, it was hard to know how much time was passing. A small hand slipped inside of his. The hand on his head paused for a moment, lifted his head into their lap, carefully wiped the tears from his cheeks, then returned to comb through his hair.

‘Safe.’ He thought. ‘You are safe.’

Another hand began tapping on his left wrist- Tap tap tap, pause, tap tap tap tap tap. It repeated. It was matching his gasping. He breathed in. Tap tap tap. He breathed out. Tap tap tap tap. He tried to follow the pattern, inhaling, holding it, then exhaling. The taps eventually started to slow, the time in between breaths getting longer. The harsh air trapped in his lungs began calming down, leaving him with more controlled -albeit shaky- breaths. The pattern patently continued over and over. Repetitive. Something to focus on other than the dream he’d just been pulled out of.

When he slipped back into sleep, the people surrounding him kept the darkness at bay.

[ihaveabsolutelynoideas]

I posted 358 times in 2022

That's 264 more posts than 2021!

18 posts created (5%)

340 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kyoupann

@soybean-official

@thelegendofwicked

@timeturner-jay

@sister-dear

I tagged 275 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#linked universe - 133 posts

#loz - 29 posts

#lu four - 28 posts

#tmnt - 12 posts

#rottmnt - 10 posts

#lu wolfie - 8 posts

#linkeduniverse - 7 posts

#lu twilight - 7 posts

#wolf link - 7 posts

#yes - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 128 characters

#give me one good reason why anyone who’s so offended would stick around in a fandom lead by someone they claim to be so horrible

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Four and Twilights friendship is so underrated.

Look at this tiny guy just holding his friends shield because he can’t be with him right now. He’s not moving it or anything he’s just holding it as a way to feel closer to Twi and that just makes me so sad for these two. And he only puts it down when Wind and everyone else gets back. This is just like when he went out to hang out with Epona.

I know everyone is always focused on Time and Wild when it comes to Twilight but real talk I think Four is just as close to Twi. These two hang out often, they share secrets, and they have a very mutual respect for each other.

Four and Twilight are best friends and this is hill I’m going to die on

299 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

#4

Did someone say Minish Cap

Things about the Minish Cap that more people should talk about because it’s adorable and hilarious

The Power Braceletes. Makes Minish Four strong enough that he can move things regular sized Four can move. That means Four can canonically throw people around when he's two inches tall. Time's Golden Gauntlets can get dunked on (Only when Four is tiny tho. He doesn't have enhanced strength when he's big. The bracelets were made for Minish so I guess they don't work when he's big lol).

His Gust Jar sucked up a ghost. Just slurped it right up. And Four can see spirits too, apparently, because not everyone saw that ghost.

Kinstones are fucking weird - they make doorways open, repair fallen trees, create chests, summon ladders, AND OPEN PORTALS? They can also create Golden enemies.

Golden enemies are extra hard to kill like in BOTW and they also drop a lot of extra loot. I guess all those Golden enemies in BOTW were spawned from Kinstones too???

He has a Grip Ring which helps him climb and his cap can be used like a paraglider. Why does no one ever address this?

Four also has Remote Bombs - a Minish inventor living in a mushroom gave them to him.

Can use his ocarnia to summon a tiny bird named Zeffa to carry him around. Normal-Sized Four can be carried by a little bird.

Din, Nayru and Farore exist in his time. Din is from Holodrum and is a dancer while Nayru is an oracle who comes from Labryanna. Are these the same from Legend's time? Who knows - certainly not the timeline

Vaati was a minish. He was Ezlos apprentice.

Ezlo is a super talented Minish. He made a cap that grants the wishes of those who wear it. He literally made his own triforce.

Hilariously, Zelda is a shoe lover. She is the shoemakers main source of income. That's canon. This princess has a closet full of shoes.

Four has fused Kinstones with mysterious walls. Yes, I said walls. Don't ask me how that works.

He also fuses kinstones with clouds. Literal clouds. This kid is crazy.

Town Picori apparently live in town because they really, really like humans. They used to be Forest Minish but they moved to be closer to the humans 🥺

Mountain Minish are not native to the mountain. There are only eight Minish on Mt. Crenel and seven of them are students who chose to follow their master, Melari, when he moved.

Apparently Gorons are in short supply during Four's era. They used to live on Mt. Crenel but now they live in a cave because there are so few of them. What happened to them?

Clouds are solid? Four walks on them. They aren't floating platforms or anything - it's just straight cloud. Idk man.

All kids in Hyrule go to the school in Hyrule Town, including Zelda and Link. Yes, Zelda actually attended a public school. Elementary school fic anyone?

Acrobandits. There's not much to them I just like to mention them whenever I can. They're little bandit ducks who stack on top of eachother, what's not to love?

Grandpa Smith and King Daltus (Zeldas Father) have a history. Both of them were talented swordsmen back in the day. They were friends and rivals. They even faced each other in the Picori Festival Swordfighting Tournament me year and eventually fought to a draw.

Zelda and Four are confirmed to have met through their father and grandfather. They are second generation friends.

Zelda is kind of a badass. In the beginning of the game Vaati wins the swordfighting tournament and the thus the right to approach a magically sealed chest with all of Hyrule's evil trapped inside. When he announces his evil intentions to open it the guards try to stop him. He attacks, blowing back the King and all of the Guards. Then he tries to approach the chest. But Dot, instead of fleeing, summons her magic ability and actually squares up like she's going to fight him. In the cutscene she actually approaches him like she and Vaati are in that Jojo Walking Meme. It's great and I love her.

This game has a bad ending. In the leadup to the final battle against Vaati, Four has to fight his way up the castle before a bell chimes three times. There is no visible counter or timer but you can actually take too long. If you do, then the bell chimes a final time and you get a small cutscene of Vaati taking Dot's lightforce. So there is actually a way to lose this game without dying.

The Lightforce. There is no triforce in this game. The Lightforce is a magical energy that was gifted to the Royal Family by Minish. There is no real description of what it is other than pure magical energy.

Two out of the five dungeons Four goes through are Minish sized. The Temple of Droplets and the Forest Temple. The Bosses are a single octorok and one (1) Chu, respectively. Do what you will with that information.

For the first part of the game Four uses Smith's Sword, the sword made by his grandfather, until he exchanges it for the White Sword, which he eventually forges into the Four Sword.

The Four Sword can break curses. Everyone in the castle gets turned into stone and Four saves them all by charging up his sword and hitting them with a sword beam.

Anyone in Four's Era can just buy a pair of Pegasus boot. They aren't dungeon items. (Zelda definitely has a pair)

See the full post

324 notes - Posted February 22, 2022

#3

Alright let's just get one thing clear here-

Four is 100% right here. Wild absolutely needs to be stopped. By force, if necessary (and it looks like it will be necessary).

Twilight is hanging on by a thread. Last we saw him the guy was barely conscious, unable to even keep his eyes open. He's making death speeches that may or may not be because he's delirious. He's drifting in and out of consciousness. He has no strength to waste on anything but breathing.

He most certainly doesn't need Wild bursting in and stressing him out. Let's not forget; Twilight is Wild's emotional support wolf. He's there when the champion has nightmares and stays with him through his memories. He's been there for Wild all through Wild's known life. He feels responsible for Wild's emotional state, even stating that he wished he could do more.

You really think seeing Wild so distraught is going to be good for him? Because it won't. The only one who'll benefit is Wild, and even that is questionable at best.

Because Wild is living in denial. He's insisting that no one can die, refusing to even hear Four name it as a possibility. He's volatile to the point of manhandling Four out of the way and shouting at anyone who doesn't give him the answers he wants to hear. Can you imagine the damage he could do just by being in the room? Yelling at Twilight to get up, yelling at Hyrule to heal him, yelling at Time for getting in the way?

Any extra stress could tip the scales when Twilight's on the razor's edge.

Four sees the writing on the wall.

"I can't let you go through like this"

Wild is in no state to be around someone so weak. If he were calmer then there might be an argument here but as it is Wild is just too wound up.

And what Wild wants right now is, frankly, selfish. He isn't listening to Four and choosing the best course of action for Twilight; he's thinking about himself. He's worried for Twilight, sure, but it's a selfish worry. Instead of wondering "what can I do to maximize the chance Twilight survives" he's instead thinking "I need to see him no matter what". No matter who he has to abandon, walk away from or fight through. Even though he's told, in no uncertain terms, that it wouldn't be helpful unless he knew a way to help Twilight heal (and he's given no such indication).

He is straight up told that Twilight "doesn't need this right now" but still insists on seeing him anyway.

Because he wants what he always wants from Twilight: comfort. He wants to be told that it's all going to be fine and the longer he's denied the crutch he's been counting on the more hot headed he gets. Because he's freaking out, in a full blown PTSD meltdown and of course he's searching for support in the once person he’s always counted on.

Which is understandable, but not excusable. Trauma explains shitty behavior but it doesn't vindicate it; You can't endanger other people just because you're triggered - it doesn't work like that.

And let's not forget he's not the only one suffering right now. He might have the strongest bond with Twilight but he doesn't have the only one. Every Link is Twilight's friend. Each and everyone of them would miss him if he were gone. Wild does not hold the monopoly on grief and it's not fair to forgive Wild's actions while damning everyone else.

Four himself is pretty close to Twilight and he had enough sense to tell Twilight not to worry about them. If Four can look past his own wants for Twilight's sake then why is it too much to ask Wild to do it too?

So I'm not hoping Four kicks his ass because I want Wild to be hurt, okay? I want Four to kick his ass so that he's forced to confront his own selfishness. Because no matter how sad or distraught Wild is it does not matter more than Twilight's life. Even if seeing Twilight will help Wild a lot and only hurt Twi a little, that little is still much more important in this scenario.

Because feelings can be fixed later. Death is permanent.

(To be very clear I'm happy Wild is being selfish here from a narrative standpoint. I love my characters flawed and I think it's good for Wild in the long run. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a character making a bad choice in the heat of the moment. Even on my personal favorites I welcome character flaws because overcoming those flaws make for stronger characters. I just typed this up because I don't like that some people are acting like Wild is a victim here when he is very clearly the aggressor. Because that's not a bad thing to be! It just means there's character development in the works!)

354 notes - Posted February 16, 2022

#2

The Great Warriors Misconception

It’s been noted that there’s been a steady uptick in Warriors content in the fandom recently. Although not all of it has been flattering. Fanonization of a character is pretty normal; once a characteristic has been identified it tends to get thrown around the fandom echo chamber until it’s permeated through most of the fandom. So there’s nothing unusual there. It’s happened with Sky’s sleepiness, Time’s mystique, and Wild’s angst. But in the case of Warriors it gets a little strange. See, his canon character didn’t really translate over to fandom so cleanly.

In fact, I found that many of his supposedly “well-known” traits don’t actually have any canon basis. Even the ones you think are rooted in canon are actually fandom constructed on some small misconceptions.

First, let's get the basics out of the way: Warriors is not a flirty pretty boy. In fact, I’d go so far as to say he’s not flirty at all. I can see where this idea started but upon closer inspection it's actually way more complicated than you’d expect. In ‘Doodles 6’ on the archive we’re treated to this:

Where we see Wars hiding from a few women. Now, we’ve all been kinda taking this to mean that he was flirting with all the women in the tavern. But when you look at it objectively it actually appears to be the opposite; women are approaching him. And not only are they flirting with him but he doesn’t seem to be enjoying it. Jojo’s notes below actual lend this this idea too:

“Hero of warriors has so many ladies after him… you know, for his heart…and soul…and his head 💀”

There’s nothing there about Warriors being a flirt. The whole pretty boy thing is a reference to his game where the main conflict started when Cia fell in love with the hero's spirit, thus causing the whole war. So him being desirable has nothing to do with a playboy personality and everything to do with his appearance.

And speaking of his appearance, he’s not all that concerned about his. Again, another misconception. In ‘mirror shield’ he’s examining his black eye, yes, but it’s nothing egregious. It’s only natural to check on your injury. And in ‘Regroup’ he doesn’t seem to have a problem with a scratched up face; he’s smirking and joking as usual. So he’s clearly not that bothered.

Moving on, his core personality. I don’t know where anyone got the idea that he was a jokey/comical character but he’s not. When it comes down to it he’s right up there with Twilight in seriousness during battles. He’s usually the one helping Time to come up with plans (‘the shadow pt1’ & ‘new time new place’) and in situations where Time isn’t there Warriors steps up and takes charge (‘Divine Dark Reflections pt8’ and ‘Sunset pt4-5’). In Sunset in particular we see him displaying a huge range of his leadership abilities; he stays with Twilight when Time and Sky are speaking, convinces Twilight to leave the battlefield, fills in the group upon return and send Four and Hyrule ahead once he learns about Life, takes control of the battlefield and comes up with a plan. Even when Wild deviates from the plan, Warriors again demonstrates his leadership abilities by putting aside the lecture and focusing on solving the problem of the leftover monsters.

And even when he’s not in battle he’s able to take things seriously and read the room. In ‘Memories pt1’ Twilight and Time subtly try to move the group along to spare Wild when the champion gets stuck in his head. Warriors picks up on it immediately, even without knowing the specifics, and helps herd Wind away. And in ‘Heroes Legacy’ he notices Time being quieter than normal and asks about it. He’s so much more emotionally intelligent than he gets credit for.

There’s also this thing in the fandom about him thinking titles are important? Like, respecting someone more if they are a knight or something. And that’s baloney, actually, because Wars canonically does not give a shit. He doesn’t care about formalities (‘Doodles 6’) nor that Hyrule isn’t officially a knight (‘Divine Dark Reflection pt8’). He doesn’t seem to care about any titles, actually, based on his discussion with Legend in ‘The Bet’:

See the full post

536 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I gotta say I love the dynamics here. Everyone is all “You got so much to live for!” and “You can fight this!”

Meanwhile Warriors is just

“What are you? A little bitch?”

These two really do just embody Older Sibling Energy and I’m here for it

594 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[maulusque]

Top 20 Funniest Things about Star Wars, in No Particular Order

1. Darth Maul repeatedly dying and then randomly turning up for absolutely no narrative reason, exclusively to ruin Obi-Wan’s day

2. Hondo Ohnaka in general

        2.a. Bonus: Hondo and Maul competing to be Ezra’s Weird Crime Uncle

3. Dave Filoni being forced to spend 6 7 seasons doing narrative backflips to keep Anakin and Grievous from meeting, because of one throwaway line in ROTS about Grievous being short

4. The B1 Battle Droids in any given moment of the Clone Wars, but especially during the movie

       e.g. those two droids on top of the cliff at Teth, arguing about seeing the approaching clone army and fighting over the binoculars, and one of them just fuckin FALLS of the cliff and the other one goes “get BACK HERE          sergeant”

       also e.g. Rex and like, one other guy, completely surrounded by droids and Rex is like “surrender! we have you outnumbered!” and one of the droids is like “hang on” and actually stARTS COUNTING

5. Grievous bailing hard the moment anything goes remotely wrong 

6. Anakin stabbing a guy in cold blood as the Imperial March plays in the background and then looking all offended at Obi-Wan and going “WHAT? he was gonna blow up the ship!”     

7. Dave Filoni’s incessant need to put wolves in Star Wars

8. the fact that the Mandalorian almost died and earned his clan signet on an errand to fetch brunch for a bunch of jawas

9. Rex’s plan on the Rishi Moon base: “ok so to get into the base currently occupied by droids, i’m going to hold a droid head up to the camera and do my best droid impression and ask them nicely to open the door” and it WORKED

        bonus 9.a: that same episode, Cody’s reaction to Rex shooting one of their brothers (as far as he knew) right in the face was “HECK”

10. Kallus, to Ezra and Kanan: ok you have to knock me out so i don’t get caught as a spy. it has to be convincing.

Ezra: ok *uses the force to fucking YEET kallus through like three panes of glass*

Kanan: EZRA

Ezra: WHAT? that is convincing

Kanan: yeah, but i was gonna do it

11. Kylo Ren stalking into the war room and going “i sense... unease... about my appearance.” and all the generals rushing to compliment his new mask

12. those two stormtroopers in TFA walking around the corner, seeing Kylo Ren having a tantrum and beating up a console with his lightsaber, and just quietly backing away

13. Stormtrooper bonking his head in A New Hope

14. Rex bonking his head on a pipe

15. “It’s ok that we’re here.” “It’s ok that you’re here.” “It’s GREAT that you’re here.” “You’re relieved that we’re here.” “THANK GOODNESS you’re here” “Welcome, guys.”

16. the fact that Palpatine was is still so pissed off about Anakin slam-dunking him down the garbage chute at the end of Return of the Jedi that he had a giant pit built in his Secret Backup Fortress specifically so that he could throw Anakin’s grandson down it thirty years later like that level of PETTINESS

17. Darth Bane was voiced by MARK FUCKING HAMIL

18. Boba Fett dies by blind, confused Han Solo going “BOBA FETT?? WHERE????” and spinning around and accidentally backhanding him into the Sarlacc Pit (of course he’s not really dead shhhhhh fuck you disney)

19. those two scout troopers in episode 8 of the Mandalorian, having captured Baby Yoda and radioing in to try to tell Moff Gideon that they captured the asset like “is he available yet” “yeah, he just killed an officer for interrupting him, so it could be a while.” “ugh ok whatever. Standing by. Still.”

20. the fact that, from Obi-Wan’s point of view, ROTS is just fucking bonkers. Like, he and Anakin rescue the chancellor, everything’s going well, he tells Anakin he’s proud of him, and then he leaves to kill Grievous and just when he succeeds and the war is just about over, Cody tries to shoot him off a cliff and when he makes it back to Coruscant, Anakin is slaughtering a bunch of children and swearing allegiance to a Sith Lord and Obi-Wan has NO IDEA what the FUCK happened there

21. Twilight of the Apprentice from Darth Vader’s point of view: you chase down a bunch of Rebels to a secret Sith Planet. You go to the Temple. Surprise! Your old apprentice is there, along with some random jedi kid. She forces the kid to flee the collapsing temple, and then you proceed to have a big ol’ lightsaber fight but like THIRTY SECONDS LATER, a portal opens up in mid-air, the SAME KID but with a different haircut pops out, grabs your apprentice, and just fuckin vanishes. Poof. Gone. Like, that is just something that happened to Darth Vader one day and it’s just something he had to deal with.

22. JJ Abrams dedicating an entire scene in Rise of Skywalker to calling out Rian Johnson’s shitty Luke-related decisions from TLJ. Rey throwing away the lightsaber and ForceGhost!Luke catching it and going “wow hey maybe treat a Jedi’s weapon with a little more respect RIAN” and “hey Rey don’t do what I did and fuck off to the ass-end of nowhere for twenty years and refuse to do anything useful because that was really stupid and pointless and out of character of me, wasn’t it RIAN”

[threebooksoneplot]

The black liquorice dunk was just uncalled for. It's so good! (But I'm from northern europe and I guess it's a cultural thing lol) love your work otherwise! And I haven't read 80% of what you're talking about but I thoroughly enjoy listening so kudos to you ♡

hehehe it was always The Plan for the podcast to be easily accessible whether you know the first thing about Twilight or not so to hear it's WORKING is the best and most gratifying thing ever!!! tysm for the kudos <333 and listen I have no personal beef with black licorice—it's my mom's favorite thing so although I don't like it myself I'm frequently buying it (and allsorts) for her. I suspect shannon was just offended to see it listed off in the same breath as her beloved Sour Patch Kids lol stay mad shan —g

offended is putting it so accurately man AND YA DAMN RIGHT ILL STAY MAD U BITCH (@ G, not you anon). you don't get more different than those two?? like bro what??!?! regular liquorice I can understand honestly. and forgive me and my hater ways anon. you can enjoy black liquorice all you want but I draw the line at having to refrain from bullying bella about it. as someone who absolutely consumes more candy than the average person (dont ask me about my dental health) I reserve the right to be a candy snob—shannon

[emcon-ocs]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS OC ASKS: 🎬 + Willow Wren.

mild spoilers for the Bat Out of Hell plotline:

how they’d be introduced: Likely her first appearance would have been as a C plot in the beginning of Agents of SHIELD S3, as something tangential to the threat of HYDRA and the growing public distain towards people with abilities. It would have been mostly a 1-2 episode cameo at best, though SHIELD's search for her would be a minor thread throughout the first few episodes. Then I'd imagine her having her own comic/spin-off show before making her first film/true MCU appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, followed by Infinity War, Endgame, Wandavision, No Way Home, and Multiverse of Madness. Again, because the majority of her growth as a hero occurred during her own comic/TV run, she'd mostly be a side character in these films, still growing as a person, but not the center of focus. In NWH and MOM, it would likely be a 1-2 scene cameo.

who the fandom ships them with: oh god there would definitely be a ton of Willow/Marty shippers out there, along with Willow/Kate (shhhh... 👀) but also I'm picturing a large chunk of Willow/Peter Parker shippers.

why the fandom loves them: she brings a new energy to the MCU, just an absolute creature of a character who is trying her best, super weird but ultimately in an endearing way. Also, through both her start in AOS, the span of her show and the movies, they'd really get to see her grow from a scared kid at age 12/13 to a reliable confidant + teammate at age 21, also moving from the most unhinged person in the room to generally the most level-headed and strategic.

why the fandom hates them: she would definitely get hate for just being... offputting? for lack of a better word? at least when she's young and fresh out of the Clinic. as I always say, she's awkward, and not in a fun way. it's often in a second-hand embarrassing way that make other people feel uncomfortable. Also, Willow tends to embrace a lot of teenage-girl culture, simply because of the fact that she was sheltered from her peers for so long and it's her way of relating and connecting with the world, which could also get some hate haha. She is obsessed with the Twilight movies and often references real-life events back to them. She likes reality TV! Her taste in music is basic, with mostly 80s hits and 2010s pop. I think for fans who are expecting a badass/scary River Tam x Bucky Barnes type character after her initial appearance in AOS, this awkward kid who likes to be silly and basic sometimes could be disappointing. I mean, she is a badass. But not all the time. She sleeps with a stuffed elephant and watches Love Island. She gets her arm cast in pink. she has a shrek umbrella.

what the cast relationship would be like: Pretty good, I could definitely see whoever plays her getting along well with the cast of the Spider-Man movies, as well as Lizzie Olsen and Anthony Mackie (and BOY would they dunk on Tom Holland)

what was their audition scene: Probably the scene where SHIELD finally catches up to a gravely injured Willow, leading to a tense conversation at a hotel between her and Daisy Johnson, who tries to get her to surrender and allow Jemma to treat her

dependent upon the fandom, who they’d be on a press tour/at comic con with: Most likely Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon

if they spoil things: absolutely not, I feel like any actress who is able to capture her would just give a 😏 and nothing else when asked for a spoiler

if the show/movie has ended, are they happy with their character’s ending and the ending at large: As her story is still ongoing, it's tough to say, but I think her end goal would be a happy retirement to semi-civilian life, since she deserves that haha

[trifle-of-doom]

The Hawk X Demetri Manifesto

Okay, here is the thing. Despite being well past my teens, there's a particular ship of Cobra Kai that has drawn my attention, this ship being Hawk/Eli x Demetri. When I first watched the show, I was actually more invested in the adult characters storylines than the teens. I immediately rooted for Johnny and Carmen, and I was always hoping for more interactions between them. But then I saw episode 2x05, in which the atmosphere between the Binary Brothers becomes way more dense, and that's when I started to see some potential for them. Not because I'm a deranged person who fosters abusive relationships, but because I immediately caught the hurt/comfort dynamic of the duo, which is something that works really well when it comes to fictional relationships. However, it wasn't until 3x10 that I said, "Ok, that's official, I need to see more of these two! I totally support them!" And I was quite surprised to find a fairly large amount of people who are very committed to this pairing, to the point it's caught the attention of the screenwriters/producers as well. Honestly, I don't know if the showrunners will ever have the guts to make them an official couple, and chances are their supporters will have to keep reading between the lines of their bromance, but in any case, here is my take on why Hawk/Eli x Demetri is an option worth to be considered.

#1 - The Bromance

If there's something that many years of navigating the Internet taught me, is that the main driving factor for fan-made ships is the presence of either a solid relationship based on mutual brotherly love or a bitter rivalry that may or may not flow into hate/obsession. If you consider anime fandoms, there are thousand examples that fit into either of these categories: Yugi and Jonouchi from the Yu-Gi-Oh series (yes, that's how old I am), Yugi and Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh, Sakuragi and Rukawa from Slam Dunk, Light and L from Death Note, etc. And our Hawk and Demetri fit into both categories. When we first see them, they are the stereotypical nerdy friends (possibly childhood friends?) sitting at the losers' table, who have no one else but each other. When Eli is at his most sensitive and fragile, you can tell he feels comfortable being with Demetri by the genuine smile he has on his face as Demetri is joking with Miguel at the canteen table. Through his sarcasm, the mouthy kid acts as a catalyst to deviate the attention from Eli, speaking for him, reprimanding Johnny when he makes fun of his lip and trying to make him feel safe. Besides, you can see a certain degree of frustration in Demetri when Kyler and his gang are harassing Eli, and he's unable to do anything to defend him. And they even have a jingle for their friendship with a robot dance, I mean, how cute is that? But of course, a solid friendship between two helpless nerdy guys is not enough to spark a ship to be rooting for. In order for the magic to happen, another key ingredient is needed, i.e. a little bit of angst. Which brings us straight to the next point.

#2 - The Angst (aka the Hurt/Comfort Dynamic)

Even though I never liked the Twilight saga or any similar urban fantasy young adult works, I can easily see where the appeal comes from; the attraction to a charming, dangerous person who could either protect you from any harm or crush you like grape. Although with different franchises, I wasn't immune to the bad boy trope either (Yes, I'm looking at you, my teenage self drooling over Grimmjow from Bleach). If we can appreciate the genuine, brotherly friendship between nerdy Eli and Demetri, the shift that Eli makes as he transitions into Hawk and becomes more aggressive and dominant gives their relationship a totally different flavor. Attrition sparks a certain tension that, in the viewer's eyes, could either flow into a brawl or into passion.

During the mall fight, Demetri comes to the realization that his former best friend is actually someone who can crush him like grape. We see Hawk intentionally harming him for the first time, and Demetri's heartbreaking expression as he drops the line: "You'd actually hurt me?" And if that line gave us a pang in our hearts when we first watched Season 2, imagine rewatching it now that we know what happens in Season 3. Demetri is chased down the mall, running for his life, and then he's locked in a grip, as his best friend menacingly advances towards him. Demetri appears as the damsel in distress, however his friend is not the one who will fight to protect him, but rather his tormentor.

During the party at Moon's, Demetri manages to briefly go through Hawk's mask and reach out to Eli, thanks to a casual conversation about Dr Who. But then the beer incident happens, and Demetri defends himself with the only weapon he has – his loudmouth. The situation is reversed, and for a brief moment, he gets to be the dominant one as he discloses all Eli's most intimate secrets. Demetri is now actively contributing to the Hurt/Comfort dynamic; he's no longer just a target, but he's doing his part to enlarge that gaping hole that has formed between them. And Hawk didn't take it well.

From this moment on, Demetri becomes a sort of obsession to Hawk, who hunts him down the school, teasing him and taunting him sadistically, like a serial killer from a horror movie, during the big fight. Of course, in real life, this would be completely insane, and the police/a social assistant/psychiatrist should be called, but in ShipLand, these situations are pure gold. Okay, we get it, Hawk wants to get revenge for the humiliation at the party, and he wants to crush that nerd part of himself he sees in Demetri, but he does it with such an intensity that it borders on ridiculous. It's like this is his twisted way to acknowledge Demetri's presence. Eventually, Hawk ends up smashed into the trophy case, and I confess I felt a little disappointed when Demetri broke that hug to give Hawk a roundhouse kick. I mean, it was a great comeback, but I was sincerely hoping for a "No hard feelings man, let's get outta here!" scenario.

Getting back to the sick and twisted way Hawk acknowledges Demetri's presence, he destroys his science project after he got jealous due to him being confident in his nerd self and laughing around with his ex girlfriend (whom the writers insist he still has a crush on). Speaking of Moon, I have a feeling she likes Hawk mostly based on his badass appearance. Remember when she goes "I like this (mohawk) and I love these (muscles), but I'm not dating a bully"?

Then the football match happens. Okay, let's break this down. Demetri trips Hawk and acts all sassy, and a fellow Cobra Kai is immediately ready to take him down, but Hawk stops him. "Fight smart, he says". Too bad that literally 5 seconds earlier he had shoved a kid to the ground just because his ex girlfriend (again, duuuh~) ignored him when he winked at her. And then, as he's trying to intercept the ball, BANG, Hawk hits Demetri, sending him to the ground, pretending it was an accident. So, what does this tell us? That Hawk has some serious anger management issues? Yeah sure, but also that he cares about fighting smart only as long as it serves as an excuse to leave Demetri for him, because he's his designated target. Again, this is all but romantic, and it doesn't necessarily have to be interpreted as him lusting after his friend, but it's undeniable that this dynamic offers a lot of ship fuel.

The arm breaking thing is just too painful to even analyze. We see a completely helpless Demetri begging for mercy to his ex best friend, who has made No Mercy his life motto. And that scream, oh that scream. All I wanted to see was Hawk realizing what he had done and throwing himself on his knees while begging for forgiveness. But I'm glad that at least we get to see he feels awful for what he's done, and I like to think that, as he got home, Eli cried out all the tears he had in his body thinking about poor Demetri at the hospital, with a swollen broken arm, all because of him. Of all the situations, this is undoubtedly the most deranged and extreme, and if something like this happened in real life, the wrongdoer would deserve to be punished and would definitely need to be sent to therapy. But in ShipLand, this opens the road to many, many different scenarios, in which the bully understands his mistakes and shifts back to the good side, or the two share a tender moment after they reconcile, or the traumatized character has to to learn to trust the other one again, or the bully becomes overprotective of his former victim, etc.

#3 - A Rewarding Reconciliation

Finally, we come to the reconciliation, in which Hawk makes his heel-to-face turn. While we've seen him torn with doubt for an entire season about his sensei's teachings, his actions and the people he wants to surround himself with, the key factor that drives Hawk's redemption is the sight of his best friend being held down for him to beat. And with an epic stunt and his awesome KEEEH screech, Hawk jumps to the rescue of his friend. Like many of us, Demetri thought this was still part of the "Only I Can Torment Him" dynamic I discussed earlier, as he steps backwards a little concerned, but then he understands that action was actually meant to save him, and the two begin to fight side by side, in sync, watching each other's back. You can see Demetri's eyes sparkling at the thought of having his friend back.

Also, not only Demetri stands up to alpha bitch Tory in defense of Eli, but he also speaks for his friend when he's faltering, just like he used to. So kudos for Demetri.

#4 - The Red Oni, Blue Oni Dynamic

Binary Brothers are two sides of the same coin and complete each other with opposite character traits, visually expressed by the color red and the color blue. Being the color red typically associated with violence, rage, passion and irrationality, as opposed to blue, which is associated with calmness, melancholy and rationality, red is clearly the dominant color. Again, this opens many interesting scenarios for shippers.

#5 - Body Language

Besides the situations I described above, which may or may not be read from a romantic/attraction standpoint, there are also a collection of small gestures I noticed when rewatching the series with a more attentive look on their relationship.

- Demetri's heart-broken expression when Eli shamefully covers his lip during the anti-bullying announcement.

- The smile Demetri gives when Hawk responds "Hell yeah!" after Aisha proposes to crash Yasmin's party, implying he's learning to embrace this new wild side of his best friend

- The astonished look with which Demetri watches Hawk at the tournament and the way he's pissed no one knows his real name.

- How deeply hurt Demetri is when Hawk belittles him by saying: "Five against three. More like two and a half." He even tries to reply, but he's caught so off guard that words die in his throat.

- How Demetri takes a step towards Hawk during the mall fight, before Sam makes him back off, and how sadly he looks at Hawk's nearly unconscious body after Robby defeated him.

- How Demetri smiles and nods when he briefly connects with Eli at Moon's party, despite the mall incident.

- How Hawk watches Demetri juggle with the cleaning product from behind his bike helmet (how did he stuff the mohawk in there by the way)?

- Hawk's psychotic/sadistic faces when he smells Demetri's blood, and how he likes to hunt him down like he's his prey.

- Hawk's secret impulse to comfort Demetri after the arm breaking (I hope you get nightmares of Demetri's howl of pain for the rest of your life, Hawk).

- The way Hawk twitches his upper lip when he sees his friend Demetri in danger.

- How Hawk and Demetri are so absorbed in their new-found friendship, that they're caught off guard, and Demetri swings Hawk to allow him to deliver a kick using their handshake as a lever. And how they keep fighting together, shaking each other's hands even when they're out of focus and the attention is on Miguel vs. Kyler.

- How they're standing so close at Miyagi Do, in comparison with the other Red/Blue partners.

In conclusion, this kind of relationships are engaging and entertaining to watch, and they make us wish the best for the characters. They make us hope that, in the end, as Miguel puts it, love really conquers all (and what is friendship if not a form of love?), despite all the hurt they did to each other.

So this is it. I hope you enjoyed my Ted Talk. Feel free to share it with whomever you want, especially if you need some solid reasons why this ship has got some good potential.

And remember: the ship is in the eye of the beholder.

F.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Eccentricity [Chapter 6: You Know You Got Me In The Palm Of Your Hand]

Series Summary: Joe Mazzello is a nice guy with a weird family. A VERY weird family. They have a secret, and you have a choice to make. Potentially a better love story than Twilight.

Chapter Title Is A Lyric From: Mean It by Lauv.

Chapter Warnings: Language, references to sex and violence, slavery in American history.

Other Chapters (And All My Writing) Available: HERE

Tagging: @queen-turtle-boiii​​​​​ @bramblesforbreakfast​​​​​​ @writerxinthedark​​ @maggieroseevans​​​​​​ @culturefiendtrashqueen​​​​​​ @imnotvibingveryguccimrstark​​​​​​ @escabell​​​​​​ @im-an-adult-ish​​​​​​ @someforeigntragedy​​​​​​ @imtheinvisiblequeen​​​​​​​​​​ @deacyblues​​​​​​ ​ @tensecondvacation​​​​​​​ @brianssixpence​​​​​​ @seven-seas-of-ham-on-rhye​​ @some-major-ishues​​ @haileymorelikestupid​​ @loveandbeloved29​​

Please yell at me if I forget to tag you! 💜

What The Fuck, Washington Animals Are Weird

I woke up in a bedroom drenched in a rainbow of darkness, shades of grey vacillating from charcoal to the wings of a mourning dove; indolent dawn rain pattered against the window. There were no glaring veins of sunlight spilling in through gaps in the curtains, no promise of dry invigorating heat, no whistle of vicious parched wind. Toto, we’re not in Phoenix anymore.

“Ugh,” I complained to the empty room, unraveling from a tangle of blankets patterned with cacti and pure white clouds and rust-orange suns.

I clicked off my iPhone alarm—I’d beaten it by two minutes; my circadian rhythm was finally conceding that this whole Pacific Time thing was permanent—and read my nine new texts from Joe.

3:12 a.m.: Hey it’s an emergency what’s the plural of octopus

3:13 a.m.: Rami is insisting that it is octopuses

3:14 a.m.: But it’s octopi, right? Right?? I just announced in front of everyone that it’s octopi

3:15 a.m.: Scarlett is verbally abusing me

3:18 a.m.: Oh you are probably asleep

3:21 a.m.: Update, according to the internet Rami is right and now I have to assume a new identity and move to Antarctica

3:25 a.m.: We can discuss logistics of the Antarctica relocation tomorrow

3:26 a.m.: Hope you like penguins

3:30 a.m.: Okay goodnight!! Don’t let the mythical creatures bite!!

“That man,” I murmured to myself, smiling.

I typed out: It’s definitely octopuses, you clown. Then I deleted ‘clown’ and replaced it with its Italian equivalent: pagliaccio. Text sent.

Joe responded almost instantly. I had to ask Lucy what pagliaccio meant and now she’s verbally abusing me too. Send help. See you at lunch. xx

Wait, two Xs? What did Xs mean?? Kisses???

Did Joseph Francis Mazzello, sexy undead Italian man, just send me multiple text kisses?

“You’re gonna give me an aneurism, Chicago boy,” I muttered at my phone as I slid it into the pocket of my flannel pajama pants. And then I glanced out the bedroom window into a tussle of rain and thick, caliginous fog.

Just a few feet beyond the misted glass, its leathery talons hooked around a branch of Charlie’s decades-old red alder tree, was an owl. But not just any owl. A hulking, spotlessly white owl.

“Oh, hey, you,” I whispered, leaning closer, pressing my palms against the cold window. My hands left transparent imprints in the condensation. “Hey, buddy. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping? I sure wish I was. Did something wake you up? Did your idiot vampire boyfriend disturb you with a series of ridiculous texts?”

The owl just contemplated me with unnervingly vast, slick, engrossed eyes. And there was something else, too: those eyes were blood red.

“So you’re an albino owl, huh big guy? Good for you. You know, usually albino animals don’t last all that long in the wild. Because they’re really easy for predators and prey to spot. Or they get skin cancer. So congratulations on living to become the voluptuous, tremendously creepy creature that you are today. Job well done.”

The owl stared back at me unflinchingly, blinked, then resumed staring. Rainwater gathered in swelling beads like blood drops on its ivory-colored beak and talons.

“Well,” I noted, turning away and grabbing my shower towel off the back of the desk chair. “You don’t get that in Arizona.”

Thirty minutes later, I was bounding down the stairs two at a time to meet Charlie in the kitchen. He was browsing through his daily newspaper at the table, drinking coffee and nibbling messily on burnt triangles of toast. Crumbs littered his moustache.

“You didn’t tell me that living here came with the added benefit of freaky albino animal friends.”

Charlie crinkled his forehead at me. “Huh?”

“How was bowling with the dads last night?”

“Oh, awesome!” he exclaimed, folding up his newspaper and slapping it down on the table. “We bowled against the team from Mora and it came right down to the wire, but we caught them. Dr. Lee got a strike on his very last turn. He always seems to do that...he’ll be bowling hit or miss all night and then when it really matters he manages to pull a strike out of nowhere. He’s a beast.”

“He’s a pretty remarkable guy,” I agreed, rummaging through the cabinets for Pop-Tarts.

“He mentioned that you and his son were really hitting it off,” Charlie said, grinning. “Not the ragey blond one. The spindly annoying one. What’s his name again? Josh? Jimmy?”

“Joe.” I conjured up my best poker face of lofty indifference. It crumbled like a sandcastle beneath reckless, rushing footsteps.

“Ohhhh, I saw that!” Charlie said, pointing, delighted. “Check out that smile. My gorgeous, brilliant progeny has a crush. I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t be single for long up here. Alright, I’m ready. Bring on the grandchildren.”

“Shut up,” I pleaded good-naturedly.

“Relax, I have great news. According to Gwil, that Joe kid is pretty wild about you too.”

“Oh, is that what you old guys do between bowling turns? Betray your children’s deepest confidences? Matchmake them over nachos and chili cheese dogs?” Still, my curiosity was piqued. “What else did Dr. Lee say about Joe?”

“I think the exact word he used was...” Charlie reminisced, sipping his coffee, curls of steam pouring over the rim of the mug. “Smitten.”

Supernatural Pictionary

I turned the notebook to Joe so he could see; everyone else momentarily covered their eyes or looked away. Then Lucy started the timer on her iPhone. Thirty seconds.

“Go!” Lucy announced.

“I think it’s a boat,” Rami said, hesitantly, haltingly, squinting at Joe with great concentration.

“Do you?” Joe teased.

“Yeah. But I’m also getting something about a fish.”

“Maybe I’m trying to make you think it’s a fish because it’s actually a boat,” Joe replied flippantly.

Rami muttered: “Or you want me to think it’s a boat because it’s actually a fish.”

“Interesting.”

“Now you’re mentally singing Never Gonna Give You Up just to fuck with me.”

Joe gasped, pressing a palm to his chest. “That doesn’t sound like something I would do!”

Scarlett snickered, dunking her chicken tender in honey mustard, slurping Coke through a straw clenched between crimson-painted lips. “That sounds exactly like something you would do.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Lucy warned.

“Fish or boat, boat or fish...” Rami chanted, peering fixedly at Joe.

“Make a decision,” I taunted, hugging the notebook to my chest.

“I’m going with boat,” Rami decided.

“Final answer?” Lucy asked, then stopped the timer when Rami nodded.

“Loser!” Joe cackled victoriously, leaping out of his chair, waving his L-shaped fingers in the air. Calawah University students at nearby tables glanced over with wide, startled eyes, their beloved chicken tenders briefly forgotten. “How’s it feel to not win every round of a game, huh?! Loser!”

I flipped my notebook so Rami could see the extremely unskilled pencil sketch I’d drawn there: a smiling fish. “My condolences.”

“Damn.” Rami pulled a ten-dollar bill out of his wallet and slid it across the table to Joe. Joe snatched it up, tucked it into the waistline of his jeans like a stripper collecting money in her G-string, and slung his arm around my shoulders.

“We are the champions. Bask in our glory.”

Scarlett turned on her iPhone flashlight and waved it in slow arcs over her head. “Youuuuu are the champions, my friendssssss...”

From my usual lunch table, Jessica gazed at my esteemed place among the Lees with palpable envy, resting her chin in her hands. I had worked out a schedule that seemed fairly obvious given my extensive experience as a child of divorce: lunch with Jessica et al. one day, lunch with the Lees the next. I took a bite of the Chipotle veggie bowl that Joe had insisted on ordering for me and tossed Jessica a sympathetic wave. Get Ben’s Snapchat for me! she mouthed back. I harbored serious doubts that Benjamin August Hardy, former professional assassin, born in 1893, had a Snapchat.

Joe’s words from last week rolled around in my head; I could see him all over again, nodding to the enormous painting hung in Gwil’s upstairs office, telling me about those startling, ethereal figures who had initiated Ben into life as a vampire. They call themselves the Draghi. They collect dues from covens, offer protection, keep order, protect our secrets. But they also demand loyalty. They force people they want into service. They might try to make it seem like you have a choice, but you don’t. They destroy anyone who tries to resist them. And they feed on humans.

“This is so awesome,” Lucy sighed, elated. “We could never play Pictionary before, drawing something is way too much of a mental process, Rami always figured it out right away...”

But now they had a built-in blindfold, someone who could draw without Rami getting a peek into their thoughts, a fighting chance at hiding the truth from him...for thirty seconds, at least.

“Okay Benny Boy, you’re up.” Joe darted over to Ben’s side of the table and massaged his tense, muscular shoulders as Ben grimaced. “You got this. I believe in you. Baby Swan is gonna pitch you a home run.”

“I’ll pass,” Ben said.

“You can’t!” Lucy cried. “Ben, please? Rami got Scarlett’s, and then he didn’t get Joe’s...and I know he’s going to see though me immediately. You’re our only chance to tie things up and maybe beat him!”

“Traitor,” Rami told Lucy affectionately.

“Uhh...” Ben hesitated, glimpsing longingly at the doors that led outside to the grove of bigleaf maple trees. He was fidgeting restlessly with his vape pen.

“Come on, Benny!” Joe begged. “I’ll owe you. I’ll do anything.”

Ben perked up a little bit. “You’ll do my Calc 2 homework for a month?”

Joe groaned theatrically, but nodded. He was wearing a grey U Chicago hoodie today. “Fine. Okay. But you’re gonna have to learn that shit eventually, I can’t take the MCAT for you.”

“Deal.” Ben bumped his knuckles against Joe’s.

“Batter up,” Joe heralded in his best mock-umpire voice, grinning at me expectantly, drumming the table with his palms. “Go Baby Swan, go! What will she choose? Will she continue with the nautical theme? Will she change it up, maybe switch to beloved Chicago landmarks? Baseball or food? Will she invent a variety of pizza even more despicable than pineapple?”

“Hm.” I flipped to a fresh notebook page, scratched my temple with the eraser end of the pencil, then quickly sketched a picture for Ben. “Okay, I’m ready.” I showed the drawing to Ben while everyone else covered their eyes.

Ben shook his head, scowling. “You’ll have to try again. I have no idea what that is.”

“Really?!” I checked the picture again. Okay, it definitely didn’t belong in the Louvre or anything, but it was lifelike enough to be decipherable. “You don’t recognize it? At all?”

“No,” Ben replied flatly.

From behind his shielded eyes, Rami scanned through the images in Ben’s mind. He dropped his hands onto the table. “SpongeBob?!”

“Who...?” Ben ventured.

Everyone else looked too. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely SpongeBob,” Joe said, then chuckled. “Aww, Baby Swan, you even remembered his little necktie!”

“It’s so cute!” Lucy trilled.

Ben just stared at the picture, blinking, completely lost, increasingly morose. And now there was a new guest at the table; or maybe not a new one, maybe just a quiet one, something that perched on the ledge of every conversation and field of vision just waiting to tap its claws against the wall and make its presence known: that interminable reminder of Ben’s unconventional past life, of how incomparable his vampiric upbringing was to those of the rest of the Lee kids.

“Benny Boy, you’ve never seen SpongeBob?” Joe inquired gently. “No problem. We’ll have a marathon tonight. I have the entire series on DVD. Also several Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy action figures.”

Scarlett snorted. “This is why you’ve been single since Hoover was president.”

“I wasn’t single the whole time,” Joe corrected.

“Oh, really?” Not that I’m interested, my voice suggested. I was a total liar. I was super interested. Thank the great deity that Rami and Ben couldn’t read me like a restaurant menu. Today’s specials are Being In Love With Someone Wildly Inappropriate for $15.99, and also Lamenting My Own Lack Of Sexual Experience for $11.99. Oh, and clam chowder.

“He had a couple of...what would you call them?” Scarlett combed her elegant fingers through her voluminous blonde hair. “What’s the modern vernacular? Fuck buddies? Booty calls? Netflix and chill partners?”

My stomach lurched; I nonchalantly buried my fork in a mountain of guacamole and left it there. I kept my lips turned up into a smile like a mask. Of course he’s loved other people. Duh. He’s hot and immortal. Get over it. But that didn’t calm my pounding heartbeat at all, didn’t soothe that sudden and irrational melancholy.

“Whoa whoa whoa, okay, you’re making it sound way worse than it was,” Joe protested, glancing at me nervously.

Scarlett continued: “It wasn’t serious, whatever it was. None of them would have cared about your action figure collection or obsession with a city you haven’t lived in for fifty years. It wasn’t your personality they wanted. Thank god.”

Oh this is bad, I thought helplessly. How am I ever going to be able to compete with the memory of countless gorgeous vampire girlfriends?

“Uh, ScarJo, you’re single too.” And Joe’s nickname for her was strangely apt; Scarlett could pass for Scarlett Johansson’s younger, blonder, much hotter sister. And Scarlett Johansson, in case you’re somehow unaware, is already pretty fucking hot.

Scarlett flashed a grin. “Entirely by choice.”

“And much to Mercy’s eternal and profound concern,” Lucy told me. “She stages an intervention at least twice a month. Did I overhear one last week, Scarlett?”

“Oh jesus, yeah. I was like, ‘Mom, what the hell do I need a husband for? I have my own money. I can fix household appliances. I have a vibrator. I’m good to go.’”

Joe rocked back in his chair, howling. “You did not tell Mom that!”

“I did. She was so distraught. She just kind of pinched her eyes shut and shuddered and then went out back to feed the alpacas.”

“Scarlett, babe,” Rami managed between gales of laughter. “A vibrator isn’t going to keep you company for all of eternity. It’s not a suitable substitute for a life partner.”

“You’re right. It’s even better. It’ll never abandon or disappoint me. Assuming I keep the batteries fresh, of course.”

“Oh my god,” Lucy giggled into her hands.

“She’s not wrong,” I said, shrugging, sipping my Diet Coke.  

And Joe peered over at me, surprised, intrigued, slowly raising his thin dark eyebrows. I winked back. Yeah, okay, I’ve never slept with someone. But that doesn’t mean I’ve never had an orgasm.

“Ah, loud thoughts! Loud thoughts! Joe, please!” Rami moaned, pressing his balled fists to his forehead.

Ben smirked. “There’s a color I’ve never seen from you before, Joe.”

“This family is the worst!” Joe exploded.

“I like that girl,” Scarlett decided, signaling to me with glossy maroon fingernails. “She can stay.”

Joe sighed, flustered, then shook it off as he turned to me. “You coming over tonight?”

“I can’t spend every night at your house petting alpacas, mob guy.”

“Yeah?” he asked, smiling, draping his arm around the back of my chair. “Why not?”

“Well, my tonight-specific reason is that I’m visiting a friend.”

“Cool. Your friends are my friends. Can I visit too?”

“You’re aware that you’re a legit stalker, right?” But actually, Archer was dying to meet Joe: the loud Lee, the approachable Lee, the Lee who I definitely liked more than a Tinder swipe could ever convey. This could work. “Offer to buy dinner and you can come.”

“I’m a walking Visa, baby.”

Ben stood, hauled on his backpack, gathered up his trash to throw away. “I need a smoke break before Chem. See you guys later.”

“Don’t forget!” Joe called after him. “SpongeBob marathon starts at 8! I’ll bring the Milk Duds!”

And when Ben disappeared through the doors, a solemn hush descended over the table.

“Poor guy,” Lucy said softly. The other Lees nodded.

And again, I recalled what Joe had told me in Gwil’s office, what he had said when I asked how Ben came to join the Lee family. He was assigned to us, to be the liaison to our coven. And Gwil saw something in him. Potential, suffering, unrealized decency, I don’t know. But Gwil worked on him for years, trying to convince Ben to leave the Draghi when his contract was up and come live with us. To give a peaceful life a try. And to be honest, Ben never seemed interested. But something must have resonated with him, because we opened the front door on October 15th, 2016 and he was sitting on the steps of our porch with a single suitcase, puffing on that fucking vape pen and watching the storm clouds roll in off the Pacific Ocean.

But why would they just let him leave? I had asked, tracing my fingertips over the uncanny and magnificent faces in that painting. Why would they let him live?

Because they know how valuable he is. And because they think they can get him back.

“I think he’s a good person,” I said, breaking the silence. “You know. Underneath the whole being raised to be a killing machine thing.”

“Yeah,” Rami replied, frowning thoughtfully. “Just try not to spend too much time alone with him.”

Car Jacks And Sneak Attacks

“Joe, this is Archer James Foxchild, my first-ever best friend.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!” Joe said, shaking Archer’s oil-stained hand. “I understand you are really good at making mud pies and poking dead animals with sticks.”

Archer chuckled. “It’s true. We found a shark tooth down at La Push one time and I convinced Baby Swan here that it was from a sea monster. She had nightmares for months. Charlie called my dad over it and I got my Game Boy taken away.”

“No!” Joe gasped in horror. “Were you a Pokémon guy?”

“For sure.”

“Ruby or Sapphire?”

“Emerald.”

Joe grinned. “This dude knows what’s up.”

“And to think, my grandpa tried to tell me that you guys were freaks,” Archer replied.

“Well,” Joe conceded. “Not all of us.”  

“Maybe you two should start dating,” I said. “Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit in my Honda and eat my Taco Bell cheese quesadillas and Cinnamon Twists and try not to interrupt all the sex.”

“Yes, you brought Taco Bell,” Archer sighed euphorically. “Give me five minutes, I just gotta finish rotating these tires real quick.” He jogged to the other end of the garage, knelt beside a Ford Mustang that was propped up on a jack, and starting twisting off lug nuts with a tire iron.

“You have a nice place here,” Joe observed, strolling around the small garage with his hands in the front pocket of his U Chicago hoodie, eyeing the fractures in the concrete floor and the spidering cracks in the windows. “You have any investors?”

“Are you kidding?!” Archer replied from the Mustang. “No, man, it’s just me. I rent for now, but at some point I’ll buy my own shop. Once I’ve saved up enough. A great big one with shiny new equipment and no mice squeaking behind the walls.”

“What’s your cash flow like?”

“I’m netting around three grand a month after taxes.”

“Not bad!” Joe noted admiringly.

“Yeah. It’s a hustle, but I love it.”

“Hey, I don’t know if you’d be interested—and absolutely no pressure if you’re not, really��but I do a lot of work with start-ups and I’d love to help you get into your own shop. By this Christmas, preferably. If we can work out a deal.”

“Really?!” Archer peeked incredulously over the hood of the Mustang.

“Absolutely.”

Archer beamed at me. “This guy is willing to drop serious cash to look good in front of you. You should probably marry him. No prenup though.”

I held my pinky out towards Joe, grinning. “No more sad prenups.”

He laughed and hooked my pinky with his. “Bankrupt me, bitch.”

I heard the metallic clang of a lug nut hitting the concrete floor and rolling under the Mustang. “Come back here, you bastard,” Archer muttered, then dropped to his stomach and crawled beneath the car.

“Hey, kid, be careful,” I fretted, crossing my arms across my chest and taking a step closer.

“Relax, Baby Swan, I am a professional, changing a tire for me is like feeding a fish for you, so just chill and keep fantasizing about those Cinnamon Twists—”

There was a squeal of metal as the car jack collapsed and the Mustang came crashing down. In a fraction of a second—faster than I could see him moving, faster than I could loose a scream—Joe had soared across the garage, yanked Archer out from beneath the falling Mustang, and dragged him to the center of the room.

“Oh fuck,” Archer wheezed, his dark eyes huge and fascinated and horrified. “Grandpa was right.”

I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)

We rolled up to the Lee house in my 1999 Honda Accord just as I polished off the last of my Cinnamon Twists and Archer chewed, tentatively and dazedly, on a Cheesy Gordita Crunch. The sun was beginning to set in a clouded sky that perpetually threatened rain.

He asked Joe for the fifth time from the back seat: “But wait, seriously, no one is going to eat me, right? Because I’m too young to die. I haven’t taken enough vacations yet. I can’t die without seeing Hawaii. I want to swim with the sea turtles.”

“No, none of us have ever eaten people. Well, almost none of us. Maybe stay away from Ben.”

“I would like a little more exposition,” Archer replied, blanching.

“Hey, if you stay until 8, you guys can join us for the SpongeBob marathon!”

Gwil and Mercy were waiting on the front porch, thanks to Joe’s ‘hey I accidentally exposed myself as a paranormal being and now we have a new friend, plz don’t be mad okay love you see you soon!1!!’ text.

“Welcome, sweetheart!” Mercy fussed, enfolding Archer into her arms as soon as he stepped out of the Honda. “Would you like some hummingbird cake? I just baked it this morning. And maybe some sweet tea too. And some peanut butter cookies. And banana pudding.”

“Sure,” he responded, bewildered. This lady does not seem like a bloodsucking demon, that voice said. And he was absolutely right.

“I’ll fix you up a tray,” Mercy promised, and hurried into the house.

“We’re so very happy to have you, Mr. Foxchild.” Gwil shook Archer’s hand firmly. “We don’t get many visitors around here. I’m sure you understand why.”

“My grandpa always insisted that there was something off about you guys. Especially you, Dr. Lee. Said you shouldn’t still be around.”

“Yes, I imagine that would have been disconcerting for him. He must have remembered us from the 1940s...that’s the last time we settled down in Forks. It’s not often that someone recognizes us after so long, but it happens. It was just Mercy and me and Rami and Joe back then. And look how far we’ve come.” Gwil beamed warmly, then turned to Joe. “But really, son, you’re going to have to stop telling humans about us.”

“Hold up, I was not responsible for her!” Joe exclaimed, waving at me. “Take it up with Ben!”

The garage door rumbled open and Scarlett sauntered out, wiping her filthy hands with a rag. She halted abruptly, stood there in her high-waisted vintage jeans and black crop top and bare feet with maroon-colored toenails, tilted her head and pondered Archer with an innocent sort of curiosity that I hadn’t seen from her before.

“Wait,” Archer said, gaping. “Is that...is that an Aston Martin Vantage in there?!”

“You bet,” Scarlett replied. “You want to learn how to work on it?”

“Uh, hell to the yeah!” He trotted over and they vanished into the garage together.

“Huh,” Joe muttered, watching them. “She was nice to him. Very weird.” He whirled back to me. “Anyway, come on. I promised you an education in classic rock music. And I shall deliver.”

Joe’s bedroom was a chaotic jumble of economics textbooks and Chicago Cubs paraphernalia and U Chicago apparel and action figures and comic books and classic rock posters. There was a massive Italian flag tacked to the wall above his bed. But what caught my attention immediately was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Ben lurking in the corner by a bookshelf full of cassette tapes.

“How is there any possible logical explanation for that?” I asked, pointing.

“Oh, that! That was a joke. When Ben first showed up, he pretty much lived in his room and never came out. Gwil was worried. Mercy was heartbroken. So I made a cardboard cutout of him and would bring it to family activities and do this really deep and seductive Ben voice when I pretended to have conversations with him. It gave the whole situation some levity...and I think Ben secretly liked that we missed him enough to make an artificial version to fill the void.”

“So this bitchy, brooding, blood-craving Ben I met is actually a drastic improvement?”

“Oh, Baby Swan,” Joe confided, almost sadly. “You have no idea what he was like four years ago.”

“I’m glad he has you. All of you. That he has a chance to get better.”

“I think you might be good for him too. Seeing a human as a real person instead of a walking, talking Hi-C juice box. And you care about him, don’t you? Despite everything.”

“Of course. It’s not his fault they taught him to be a monster.”  

Joe just looked at me for a while, and then he cradled my face with one hand and grazed a thumb across my cheek “You’re never going to stop saying things that knock me into next week, are you?”

“Joe...” I hesitated, laying my hand over his. His skin was smooth and yielding yet strong, cool yet not unnaturally so. Refreshing. Safe. Fan-fucking-tastic. Oh noooooo. “Are we a thing?”

“Why? Do you want to be a thing?”

“Oh, uh, no, I was just wondering if we were.”

He stepped away, teasing me with a crooked smirk. “...So you don’t want to be a thing?”

“What would that entail?”

“Well...we’d be an official thing, you and me.” He shot finger guns at me, and then towards himself. “Which means you can’t be a thing with anyone else. And neither can I.”

“Ahhh, I see. So this thing is an exclusive thing.”

“Will you shut up and just admit that you’d totally be thrilled to be a thing with me?”

“Fine. Whatever. We’re a thing.”

“Nice.” He high-fived me.

“This is the most romantic moment of my life.”

“But wait, there’s more.” He went to the bookshelf, browsed through his cassette tape collection, found the one he wanted and popped it into a boombox that was probably older than I was. The frantic opening piano notes of I’d Do Anything For Love poured out.

“Meat Loaf,” I said in disbelief. “Really. This is the product of your superior taste in music. This is the culmination of over a century of musical experience. Meat Loaf.”

“The man is a genius!”

“This is all an elaborate joke about my vegetarianism, isn’t it?”

“No,” Joe mused. “But now that you mention it, I have yet another reason to force you to appreciate this song.” He took my hand in his, spun me around like a ballerina in a slow and careful circle, sang along—with extreme and dramatic enthusiasm—to the music.

“And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

I would do anything for love

I'd never lie to you and that's a fact...”

“I don’t dance,” I cautioned him, laying a palm against his chest to catch my balance. That brisk, comforting scent of pine and snow and peppermint was everywhere. It feels like I can’t stand to be away from him. Like I’ll never get close enough. “I am terribly uncoordinated. I will step all over your feet. And I’m really not sure if I can trust you. You didn’t even know the plural form of octopus until like eighteen hours ago. You’re kind of a disaster. A, you know, uh, unexpectedly charming, unconventionally super cute, kind of bizarrely enchanting disaster.”

“Yeah,” Joe whispered, smiling, tilting up my chin, leaning in to kiss me. “I like you too.”

Cato

He came out of the oak trees like a ghost, pushing aside massive chandeliers of Spanish moss that blotted out the dusk sun, his expensive shoes sloshing in the marshy water that flooded the rice field. He was wearing a full suit, but no top hat; his hair was black and chin-length and wild around his face. And at first I thought he was a hallucination, a dream conjured by heat sickness or those first dreaded signs of malaria. He was unnervingly, uncommonly beautiful; beautiful like a hurricane, beautiful like lightning or an eclipse. But he was real. I straightened up as I watched him approach, my back aching in protest, a basket full of seedlings slung over my shoulder.

“Mr. Cato.”

His voice, clear and beckoning and twisted by an accent I’d never heard before, rang in my skull like church bells. He called me mister. This white man called me mister.

“Yes sir?” And I almost added: You want to be careful there, sir. The water moccasins like to hide among the tree roots, especially when the sun starts going down. But I had an inexplicable feeling that this man wasn’t afraid of things like snakes. Maybe the snakes should be afraid of him.

“Mr. Cato,” he said again, this time to himself, very quietly, tasting it.

I kept trying to look away, to disentangle my gaze from him like a hook out of a sturgeon’s mouth, because staring piercingly and astonished at a white man like that in the rice swamps of South Carolina in 1851 could get me beaten or the lash, could get my teeth pried right out of my jaw. But it didn’t seem to bother him. He grinned, hugely, all-knowingly, under prehistoric golden eyes like an alligator’s. He knew exactly what he was doing to me. And he was proud.

“Do you want to be free?” he asked, almost hissed, still grinning from the tree line.

What kind of question was that? Did a sandpiper want to fly? Did a coyote want dirt under its paws and flesh disappearing down its throat? But that wasn’t something you ever confessed aloud, not if you wanted your feet on the ground instead of swinging ten inches above it. But this man wasn’t a master, wasn’t an overseer. He wasn’t from the South. He didn’t carry a whip or a club to remind you of the rules of the world. He stood there tall and radiant in the shadows of the fading daylight like he was the one who wrote the rules to begin with; which meant that maybe he could change them. “Yes sir.”

“I can only take you,” the man warned. “No others. No family. No friends.”

“No trouble, sir,” I told him. “They sold my family. They hanged my friends.”

The man’s grin stretched wider under glinting eyes. His canine teeth were sharp, I realized: like a coyote’s, like a snake’s fangs. He held out his hand. “We are going to get along very well, you and I.”

I let the basket fall from my shoulder. I slogged through the mud and rows of wispy verdant rice plants to meet him in the shade of the oak trees. And there, for the first time in forever, a man with skin the color of bones looked me dead in the eye and shook my scarred hand.

“Welcome, Cato,” he whispered; and I was home.

He took my face in his cool palms, gingerly, reverently, like a lover. He touched his teeth to my throat. And every nerve ending in my body flooded with wildfire as he dragged me, screaming, into the depths of the forest.

[tiny-smallest]

day thirty-one - the end

Rating: G Characters: Henry, Sammy, the toons Warnings: none Description: Another summer comes to a close. Henry reflects on endings.

Also on AO3!

---

This one lets on a little why this story is called Strike Up The Band, but it’s not the focus.

---

The summer breeze tugged at his hair, ruffling it and the leaves of the nearby plant. Henry looked up from his book at the sound of a shriek and a splash and snickered at the toons tussling in the pool, the two devils soon swimming over to try to use Boris as their barrier against each other while the wolf stood there first in confusion and then in profound unamusement.

summer sing me a song so softly bring to mind things that don't come oftly show to me an ending that's so sweet that autumn i will never want to meet

The acoustic guitar beside him plucked magic into existence with his music, his voice melding beautifully with the instrument. Sammy paused a moment to retie his hair, setting the guitar down and pulling his hair tie loose from where it was making a bid to escape and gathering his hair together with his hands, rebinding it into place, tongue out in concentration.

A shriek. Bendy and Springy had splashed Alice from their spot in the pool. Boris huffed and dunked both of them, and Twisty giggled from where he sat with his feet in the water.

Twilight touched the backyard, the gold and orange hues beginning to tinge purple. He glanced over at the smaller garden plot the whole lot of them used to raise vegetables. There should be another few harvests of tomatoes and cucumbers before the season was out. Salads for days.

Over the garden fence that sat behind those vegetables, his garden housed the last blooms of summer. The hibiscus flowers would be gone soon, as would the hydrangeas. The marigolds would be coming in, as well as the next wave of sunflowers.

Actually he had to get on plucking the dying ones out when he could, hmm.

The autumn roses would also be here soon. That was nice. Henry reached for his magic, fiddling with the feeling on his glowing pink palm- he could make the spring and summer ones bloom again, if he wanted.

But it was best he let them rest and start a new venture.

What fall crops should he think about planting? Pumpkins were a must, of course; the kids would love pumpkins; that would have to wait a bit, though. Corn was too much for that little backyard plot. Maybe radishes? No one was a big fan of those. Carrots might be a good idea.

The breeze ruffled his hair again and he became aware of eyes on him.

Green met brown, a small knot of concern in Sammy's forehead.

Henry smiled at him, reached over, and patted his hand. Sammy smiled back.

He looked out over the backyard, at the squabbling kids, Alice now in the pool beating Bendy with a pool noodle, Springy struggling to tug Twisty into the water while Boris stoutly lent his strength to stopping that.

He grinned.

Autumn could wait.

For now, there was still a few hours of summer left.

He waved a hand at his brother. Play us out, Sammy.

Sammy's hands found the neck and strings of his guitar.

though the days of summer wane they will come back in time again and so we face yet another end hand and hand with you, my friend

---

And that’s all she wrote! Thank you for another The Ink Demonth!

Thirty-one days and thirty-one prompts! How’d I do?

each prompt must be related back to the Strike Up The Band story 

try to focus on each character at least once

finish each prompt in twenty-four hours

use this to explore post-studio story things since last year you did a lot of post-Henry/pre-Fallen Studio stuff

focus on Henry a little more since he is the main character

I may have focused on him a bit too much at the end but I met every requirement this year! Next year I’ll try to distribute attention a little more evenly.

At this point I’m looking to do art for next year, but that may change depending on life situation and how do-able the prompts look for art as opposed to writing about them.

Until next year!

[akar0ku]

“Do you think if we met differently, we’d be friends?” Jack and Jarvis

“Cooling off”

Their mission for the day hadn’t gone over particularly well. Not that they ever really did to begin with. Though this one was really one for the record books.

“How could you mess this up?!” Jarvis shouted as he pushed his way through the dense undergrowth that blanketed the ground of the Nowem forest. Congealing greenish fluid and chunks of spongy organic matter covered him from head to toe. “Only you could make getting some stupid fruit so complicated.”

“How was I supposed to know that that thing was alive?” Jack argued, drenched in the same sticky, putrid smelling gunk as Jarvis. Only Daniel was the clean one out of the group, choosing to stay as far away as he could without being left behind and keeping quiet as the other two argued.

“You practically climbed right into its mouth! Is that what they teach you in the knights? How to run right into things and die without thinking?”

“If you knew that was it’s mouth then why didn’t you say anything? Isn’t it your job to, you know, be a leader or something?”

Jarvis spun around, pointing a finger at Jack and opening his mouth to make a retort. He quickly clamped it shut when he realized he had no argument to make that didn’t reveal he had known just as little about the weird plant creature as Jack had.

“I should have just left you in there to get digested.” Jarvis huffed, waving a hand with finality as he returned to pressing his way through the foliage.

“Yeah about that, you got swallowed up to. Talk about running into things without thinking.”

“REALLY wish I had left you in there!”

“Hey, at least you’re both okay. And we also got the fruit that...we came...here…” Daniel attempted to lighten up the situation but was cut short by two sets of glares. Accusatory glares that; without words, berated him for standing by and doing nothing while the owners struggled to hack their way out of a creature's stomach. Daniel fell back into silence as the two carried on with their bickering.

The row didn’t last for much longer though, as the party came across a section of river.

“Finally! Now we can clean up a bit and follow this back to that dark elf village.” Jarvis said, sounding over all pleased with the situation despite Jack’s incredulous look.

“Have we been lost this whole time?”

Jarvis paid minimal attention to the accusation. Instead kneeling by the water's edge and removing his helmet so he could clean the mess from his face and hair.

“We just need to follow this upstream, use the pig statue there to get back to Radiata, and then we can be done with this day.” Jarvis explained as he finished with his face and dunked his head gear into the rushing water to try and clean the grime caked to the inside and outside.

“I think the Forest Metropolis is the other direction.” Jack disagreed, frustrated and feeling defiant against the idea of cleaning up, purely out of spite. Though that feeling was waning quickly as his skin began to itch from the mucusy feeling substance on his skin.

Jack heard the long sigh and could picture the eye roll his comment earned.

“Well it doesn’t matter what you think because I’m the one who’s in charge.” Jarvis shot a patronizing look over his shoulder at Jack, reigniting his frustration back into anger.

“I dunno, your leadership hasn’t really been very useful to us so far.” Jack didn’t have the chance to see the expression on Jarvis’ face. Before he knew it a helmet full of water was being thrown at him, forcing him back a few steps as he sputtered in shock. 

When Jack cleared the water from his eyes, he found Jarvis snickering up at him with the most punch-able smirk plastered across his face. Without missing a beat, Jack planted his boot on the older man's shoulder and shoved him with enough force to send him sprawling into the rushing water.

The self righteous smirk on Jarvis’ face was quickly replaced with rage as he scrambled back to his feet. He glared Jack down for a long moment, growling when the boy refused to back down or show any hint of subordination.

Jack didn’t move a muscle until Jarvis lunged for him. He tried to jump out of range but failed when Jarvis managed to catch him by the wrist and pull him into the water. The two grappled for a brief moment, paying no mind to Daniel as he yelled for them to stop. Though the river bed was rather muddy, Jack’s foot managed to find a slick rock which caused him to slip and lose balance. The slip caused enough of an opening for Jarvis to successfully throw the boy over his hip and into a deeper part of the river.

“There! How do you like being thrown onto YOUR ass for a change?” Jarvis waited for Jack to resurface, expecting him to have finally learned his place. As the seconds went by, Jarvis’ expression shifted to concern. He scanned the area for any hints of Jack’s body, but the shade from the trees and the sediment constantly being churned up by the current made it impossible to see anything under the surface.

“Hey, this isn’t funny kid! Knock it off.” Jarvis tried to maintain the irritated edge to his voice as he waded out into the knee deep waters, but he failed to hide his growing concern. Had Jack hit his head and was now lying unconscious at the bottom of the murky river? Was the currant stronger than it looked and had he been swept away by some river undertow? Was that even how rivers worked?

Jarvis didn’t notice the grip on his ankle until it was too late and he was being dragged down into the water as well. He thrashed around for a few moments before eventually righting himself to sit on his knees, coughing and gasping for air. He glanced over his shoulder, finding Jack sitting in the water, pouting at him a couple feet away.

“Why you manipulative little piece of…”

“Serves you right!”

“I should have just assumed you’d drowned and left you here!”

“Are you trying to say I should be grateful you bothered to come check on me after you smashed me into the water like that?!” Jack turned his head away and downward as Jarvis slapped a wave of water in his direction.

“Insolent, half-witted runt!” Jarvis raised his arms in a futile attempt to block the sheet of water Jack splashed back at him.

“Washed up, old wino!”

They continued on, hurling water and insults back and forth with no signs of stopping. They’d long forgotten their third squad member as he watched on with fading patience.

“STOOOOP!” Daniel screeched, catching both their attention. Jarvis and Jack stared in shock at him from where they still sat, chest deep in water and huffing from their shouting match.

“Sarge, you’re always scolding me and Jack whenever we start arguing with each other. You should be setting an example by not doing that ether!”

Jarvis practically bristled indignantly at being scolded by yet another subordinate.

“You don’t get to…”

“No!” Daniel cut him off with a petulant stomp of his foot. “You don’t get to have a double standard like that! And Jack, you need to stop egging him on when he gets like this!”

The smug grin Jack previously had in response to Jarvis being scolded quickly melted away, being replaced by a look akin to a scolded puppy.

“I’m so sick and tired of listening to you guys fight over the messes you both make.”

The duo remained silent for a long moment, the only sounds being the trickle of the water as it sloshed past them and the rustle of the leaves in the trees. It was this time that they realized just how late it was starting to get, with the sun no longer visible through the canopy and the light pink and orange hues in the sky alerting them to the oncoming twilight. Had they really spent that long aimlessly trudging their way through the forest, arguing the entire way?

“Hey, Sarge.” Jarvis snapped his gaze back to Jack, finding him starting sheepishly at the water. “Do you think if we met differently, we’d be friends?”

The question had caught him off guard, and he found he didn’t readily have an answer. If Jack hadn’t absolutely floored him on their first meeting, would they have gotten along better? Even then, would their personalities end up eventually  clashing anyway? Jarvis huffed and shook his head.

“Honestly, I really don’t think it matters how we first met. We’re stuck together now and I guess we really need to make the best of it.” Jarvis pushed himself to his feet, and extended a hand towards Jack to help him up.

“So are you going to get over the fact that I kicked your butt that one time?” Jack willingly took the offered hand, now smiling his usual dopey puppy smile as Jarvis hauled him to his feet.

“Tell you what, I’ll admit that I wasn’t at my 100% and accept that you were lucky. So long as you cut the attitude and at least try to follow orders.”

“Only if you don’t send me to climb up man eating plants again.”

“Fair enough.” Both men shook on their deal and started making their way back to dry land, with Jarvis pausing to collect his helmet which had luckily snagged on an exposed root.

“Soooo, is that it? Are you guys going to get along now.” Daniel asked, surprised his outburst had given positive results.

“I dunno. I guess so. At least I don’t think Sarge is going to throw me into a river again.” Jack shrugged as he busied himself with wringing out his clothes..

“Hey, at least we’re clean now. And as for you.” Daniel gulped nervously as Jarvis approached him, suspiciously holding his upturned helmet. Before he could think to run, Jarvis had already swatted off his own hat and replaced it with the piece of armor, making him shriek as cold water and mud splashed down his face and the back of his neck.

“And that’s your punishment for yelling at me.” Jarvis hummed as he patronizingly patted the boy's helmeted head. “Now come on, let’s find this stupid tree village so we can go home. I need a hot shower, dinner, and drinks.”

“Sounds really good right about now. Minus the drinks part.” Jack agreed.

“Great! Should be this way.” Jarvis pointed off in his initial direction of upstream and both he and Jack hurried off, leaving Daniel behind once again.

Daniel grumbled to himself as he wiped the mud from his face. In the process he noticed lights not far downstream from them, in the opposite direction that his two squad-mates stalked off in. Deducing it must be the Forest Metropolis, Daniel turned to call out to Jack and Jarvis, only to find them quite a distance away already. He watched after them for a moment with an unimpressed look before turning and making his way back to civilization alone.

[chadnevett]

Books Read in 2018

So, here are the ‘proper’ books that I read in 2018. Or, finished, really. I made progress on others that were either abandoned or left to finish later or read in part (some Chuck Klosterman and Hunter Thompson books had some essays read, but that’s it) or begun right as the year ended and almost done, so they’ll show up on next year’s list. Comments where applicable/warranted/I felt like it. Dates are when the book was finished. I also rode the bus to work a lot for the first half of the year, so more time to read...

Transformer by Victor Bockris (January 18) - Biography of Lou Reed that suffered the way that most bios do: very front-loaded. Not much on the later years. And, of course, he was a piece of shit.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (January 27)

Stephen Hero by James Joyce (February 5) - the bits that remain of an earlier attempt at Portrait. Actually pretty good.

Dubliners by James Joyce (February 12)

Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost (March 2) - sorry, Abhay, I’m one of those people who read these. BECAUSE I HAD TO KNOW. (And it was... yeah...)

Ulysses by James Joyce (April 3) - remember, kids, you can win any argument by saying “Have you read Ulysses? No? Well, I have.”

The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and The     Tragically Hip by Michael Barclay (April 11) - see the Lou Reed book regarding what got wrote about. The band disavowed the book as not entirely accurate, but also didn’t cooperate, so... *shrugs*

Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 by Lizzy Goodman (May 24) - the best parts of this book were the parts where they quoted Howlin’ Pelle from the Hives. I want an oral history of that band.

Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock by Steven Hyden (May 28)

Leviathan by Paul Auster (June 3)

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (June 11) - one book or three or the same book three times? U DECIDE!

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster (June 17)

Normal by Warren Ellis (June 27) - really fun little book that turns into a summer camp movie before becoming utterly sad.

Do Anything by Warren Ellis (July 15) - better than Come In Alone. There. I said it.

Warren Ellis: The Captured Ghosts Interviews by Patrick Meaney and Kevin Thurman (July 21) - started as research for Thorsday Thoughts and expanded into “Well, while I’m here...”

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis (July 29) - surprised we haven’t seen this movie yet.

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard by David J. Goodman (August 22) - I bought this for my trip to Anaheim and it was good. Not as good as you’d hoped. It did explain the accent, though, so there’s that.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (October 17)

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (October 28)

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy (November 3)

Hey Rube by Hunter S. Thompson (November 12) - seemed like the best book to read around the midterm elections. Worth it to watch Thompson constantly dunk on Gore for being a chump and Bush for being a moron.

I’ve Got Something to Say by Danko Jones (December 26)

Done.

[thisislizheather]

March Mayhem 2020

Above Photo: Momofuku Milk Bar birthday cake

How do I even start this? Why am I even writing this? Does any of this matter? I don’t know.

Life is not normal anymore and I don’t know when it will be. That sentence alone makes me want to bury myself underneath a blanket with Baby Dog and never come out. There have been such nice, calming days mixed with insane, sleepless nights and I can’t find a balance and I guess nobody can and we’re all in this together. So what are you supposed to do? Stay home. Eat everything. Listen to music you love. Watch things that make you happy. Write to people who care for you. Read things that can uplift you or help you escape. And in the meantime, I guess I’m here to tell you what I loved and hated over the past month. Behold the best meme I’ve seen in a long time.

NOTE: All of the things below that involved me leaving my house happened before March 15th when life in NYC was still semi-normal.

I finally went for dinner at I Sodi and it was disappointing! What the fuck! This isn’t rocket science but why would cold bread be served in a covered basket? Shouldn’t warm bread be covered? For christ’s sake, just throw the bread at me if it’s cold. Also, a good steak tartare doesn’t need any lettuce accessories, get the fucking leaves off of the plate, please. And their lasagna? Yikes. It was overcooked and it felt like eating a sad book. Will not return. (Ugh, even if I wanted to return I can’t.)

I had a slice at Best Pizza Shop in Astoria and it was great! Love a Detroit style slice.

I made it over to Comfortland in Astoria and their crullers were delicious.

I finally tried the birthday cake at Momofuku Milk Bar and my god… the vanilla one (which is even better than the chocolate) is probably the best cake I’ve ever had. You can get them by the slice at their flagship store in NYC or you can be ambitious as hell and make one at home.

The cannoli cream cheese at Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company in Astoria is a problem, don’t try it or you’ll forever be in love.

I made a list of things to do during this quarantine that I’m really trying to keep up with.

You can see my favourite tweets of the month over here.

I watched the (Hulu) Hillary documentary online and it was phenomenal. Everyone should see it.

I chose the Briogeo birthday gift from Sephora and MAN was that the wrong choice. It lasts for two showers! What the hell! I should’ve went with the Milk one. Don’t make my mistake. Oh! And if your birthday falls within the quarantine, just go online to get your birthday gift because they have free shipping right now with the code FREESHIP and you’ll have to buy something since they won’t allow a cart with no total amount, but the cheapest thing you can buy are the mini Sephora Collection cleansing wipes which are $2. So spending $2.19 (tax included) for a birthday gift, makeup wipes and two samples is still pretty good, in my opinion.

On the other hand, the birthday gift from Ulta is incredible. It’s full size and it’s just a great face scrub. It’ll definitely last at least six months, and I like it so much that I might buy another one when it’s done. Sephora could really learn some things from Ulta.

Other than listening to The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack on repeat, I really love this song. Ignore the title.

Nathan and I attempted to rewatch Final Destination and just couldn’t. There are certain movies you just can’t watch at this point in time.

We watched Ticks as well and that was somehow more of an enjoyable time.

Also watched They Live, which I can’t believe I’d never seen before. It’s like a longer Twilight Zone episode, which means it was great.

So incredibly sad to hear about Gotham Bar & Grill. Their food was incredible.

One thing that I’ve started to do is watch food clips in the morning right after I wake up. It’s better than checking your email. It’s better than reading the news. It’s better than anything you’re currently doing. Here’s what I watched this morning.

Had lunch at Astoria Provisions and the food was as good as I hoped. The service was lovely, too.

I made a deconstructed poutine at home on my birthday and it was perfect. I cooked the potatoes, then I spread the curds on top and baked those to melt it a bit. And then I made the gravy and kept the gravy in a separate bowl for dunking. Nothing got soupy or gross! The fries stayed crispy! It was genius, I say.

Why haven’t I always bought my bedsheets at Marshalls? I got a lovely Kate Spade set for $40, which is a deal.

Another incredible New Yorker cover.

Above Photo: By Eric Drooker

I haven’t really attempted to watch any whole episodes of any of the late night talk shows lately but the fact that Jimmy Fallon has his wife filming it and his kids in it is really cute.

I went to Fantasy Explosion in Brooklyn and it was great, wish they had more stuff but what they do have is wicked.

I finished watching the new season of On My Block and just wow (spoilers ahead). Here are my thoughts: I love Jasmine so much and I wish she was the main star of the show, Jamal having sex like that was so weird and abnormal I was almost confused by it, the scene with Spooky and his dad made me cry and I fucking sobbed at the ending.

If you live in Mississauga, The Apple Market (by Camilla Public School) can pull your grocery order for you and you can pick it up curbside if you email them your grocery list to info@theapplemarket.ca - thank you for telling me about this, Marla! It’s eons faster than other major grocery stores are right now, and you’re also helping out a small business, so definitely look into it if you’re interested.

The restaurant Vesta in Astoria is giving out free meals to any laid off restaurant workers in the neighborhood, which is so generous and amazing, love that place, they’ll give you more details if you call them.

I went over what I did from my winter list of things to do.

I went on Nathan’s podcast twice and baby you’re gonna be hearing me lots more on it in the coming weeks.

I’m a maniac so I made a spring list of things I want to do.

Things that I’m looking forward to this month: I got a gift card to Sephora from my brother and sister-in-law so I’ll definitely use that (looking for recommendations of new things to try, thinking of getting more Drunk Elephant products since I’ve loved the samples I’ve had in the past), watching more Elaine and Puddy episodes of Seinfeld, I keep thinking of starting Friday Night Lights again but there are so many other things to watch so I can’t decide, I think I’ll write another quarantine ideas list since I keep thinking of more things to add on, and oh can we cancel April Fools Day this year? Nobody needs it right now.

P.S. I love this little girl and I love this song.

[rockandblognet]

10 Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019

Hoy llega el turnos para esos grupos que han dado la patada en la puerta este año. Esta es nuestra lista con las 10 Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019

Penúltima entrega con los resultados de nuestros premios “BEST of ROCK and BLOG” Edición 2019. Hoy es el turno para la lista con las 10 Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019.

Estas son todas las listas del año 2019 de nuestros premios Best of Rock and Blog:

Mejores álbumes de Rock Melódico y Hard Rock  de 2019

Mejores álbumes de HEAVY METAL de 2019

Vota por los mejores álbumes de METAL Extremo en 2019

Mejores bandas de Rock en directo de 2019

Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019

Además os presentaremos una selección con los mejores vídeos de Rock de 2019

Estas son las 10 Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019

Todos los años nacen nuevas bandas, o simplemente consiguen destacar por alguna razón después de llevar años peleando en la sombra. Con este premio queremos identificar algunas de estas bandas que dentro del mundo del Rock han dado un paso adelante en 2019 y a las que habrá que seguir la pista de cerca durante los próximos años.

10 – Radkey

Radkey es una banda de esas que se ha hecho hueco a base de directos. Con el apoyo de un buen manager han logrado tocar en granes festivales y el resto del tiempo lo han rellenado con innumerables fechas por todo usa haciendo así crecer su legión de fans.

Es banda formada por tres hermanos de St. Joseph, Missouri. Isaiah Radke (bajo), Solomon Radke (batería) y Dee Radke (voz principal y guitarra) que formaron su banda familiar en 2010, y tocaron su primer show en 2011 cuando abrieron para Fishbone.

Con su padre, Matt Radke, como su manager, han tocado desde entonces con personajes como Jack White, The Offspring, Descendents, Local H, Black Joe Lewis, Titus Andronicus y se han presentado en festivales como SXSW, Riot Fest, Afropunk, Punkspring de Japón, Download UK…. Han lanzado dos EPs desde su inicio: Cat & Mouse de 2012 con Wreckroom Records de Adrian Grenier y Devil Fruit on Little Man Records de 2013.

Su álbum debut fue relanzado en 2016 bajo un nuevo nombre, ‘Delicious Rock Noise’ y con dos pistas adicionales.

9 – BADFLOWER

Badflower es una banda de rock estadounidense fundada en Los Ángeles, California. La banda está compuesta por el cantante / guitarrista Josh Katz, el guitarrista principal Joey Morrow, el bajista Alex Espiritu y el baterista Anthony Sonetti. La banda firmó con Big Machine John Varvatos Records y fue nombrada Artista de la Semana por Apple Music después del lanzamiento de su EP Temper en 2016. Su álbum de estudio debut, titulado OK, I’m Sick, fue lanzado el 22 de febrero de 2019.

8 – PAGAN

Pagan es una banda australiana de Melbourne formada en 2013. Su música combina los sonidos del black metal, disco y punk rock. Su canción Heavy Repeater alcanzó el número uno en la lista de punk / metal de Triple en 2015.

El punto de inflexión de la banda ha llegado este 2019 en el que desde mayo de 2019, recorrieron el Reino Unido, tocando en festivales como el Festival Slam Dunk y el Festival The Great Escape, y abrieron para Microwave en su gira europea. En septiembre de 2019, recorrieron Australia en apoyo de the Amity Affliction

7 – Jesus Piece

Es una banda de Philadelphia de Hardcore que grabó Only Self en Bricktop Recording Studio en Chicago con Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos, Like Rats, Dead In The Dirt). El álbum se ha clasificado con los lanzamientos hardcore más pesados ​​del año y ahora aparece en muchas e estas listas de fin de año.

JESUS ​​PIECE ha realizado giras junto a Darkest Hour, Comeback Kid, Burn, Knocked Loose, Terror, Vein, Year Of The Knife y muchos más en Norteamérica, Europa y Japón este año. La nueva gira West Coast Demonstration 2019 está ya en marcha con paradas el 22 de enero en Vancouver, luego Portland, Berkeley, Fullerton y termina en Las Vegas el 27 de enero. A JESUS ​​PIECE se unirán Gag y Vamachara en las fechas de los Estados Unidos.

6 – COLD YEARS

Muchas bandas escocesas crean música influenciada por su país. Ya sea Biffy Clyro, o The Twilight Sad, Idlewild o Twin Atlantic, parece que a menudo hay una influencia regional innegable dentro de sus canciones que los señala como provenientes del norte de la frontera de este Reino Unido cada vez más no. El caso de Cold Years es distinto pese a ser de Aberdeen. Escuchando su EP debut Mile Marker y su nuevo Deathchasers está claro que sus raíces se encuentran un poco más lejos, al otro lado del Atlántico.

5 – MEGARA

MEGARA es una banda madrileña. Ellos mismos crearon un estilo algo peculiar para el metal, llamado fuxia metal.

Catalogados como una mezcla perfecta entre lo siniestro y el algodón de azúcar, MEGARA se ha situado en poco tiempo en el punto de mira de tanto prensa como de público. Su faceta bipolar, (algo chocante de primeras) mezcla la tenebrosidad con el lado totalmente opuesto a esta, el cuál está cargado de unicornios, chucherías y fucksia… ¡MUCHO FUCKSIA! ¿Su estilo? La misma banda lo ha denominado «Fucksia rock» y el que no sepa que es… que lo oiga directamente, ¿no? .Con su primer disco «Siete» se sumergieron en su tour de presentación «INFERNO» con el cuál han tenido oportunidad de abrir para bandas internacionales como Anthrax, Three Days Grace, Avatar o You Me At Six, además de participar en importantes eventos como el Orgullo Gay de Madrid o Survival Zombie en el Parque Warner de Madrid, entre otros.

4 – THE REGRETTES

The Regrettes es una banda estadounidense de punk rock de Los Ángeles. La banda está dirigida por la líder Lydia Night. Lanzaron su álbum de estudio debut, Feel Your Feelings Fool! en Warner Bros. Records en enero de 2017 y en agosto de 2019 How Do You Love?, tranajo que les ha abierto muchas puertas y muchas radios.

El estilo musical de The Regrettes ha sido etiquetado como punk rock, riot grrrl, garage pop, y garage punk, con elementos de garage rock, música doo-wop y surf de los 60, rockabilly, y música pop. Michael Bialas, escritor de PopMatters, describió su sonido como «punk de power-pop de grupo de chicas» . Mejor que lo juzgues por ti mismo.

3 – The Glorious Sons

Llegamos a los puestos de podio conThe Glorious Sons. Es una banda de rock canadiense de Kingston, Ontario. Formada en 2011, la banda firmó con Black Box en 2013. Desde entonces, The Glorious Sons ha lanzado un EP, Shapeless Art y tres álbumes completos; The Union, que se lanzó el 14 de septiembre de 2014, y su segundo álbum Young Beauties and Fools, que se lanzó el 13 de octubre de 2017, y finalmente A War On Everything se lanzó el 13 de septiembre de 2019. La banda tiene ocho top 10 consecutivos éxitos de la radio de rock en Canadá.

2 – The Fever 333

Fever 333 es una banda de rock estadounidense integrada en Inglewood, California, en 2017 por el ex vocalista de Letlive Jason Aalon Butler, el ex guitarrista de Chariot Stephen Harrison y el baterista de Night Verses Aric Improta.

FEVER 333 ha vuelto a revivir el rap-metal y se ha convertido en la sensación en los circuitos de metal mundial en estos años en parte gracias a su segundo álbum de estudio, STRENGHT IN NUMB333RS, llegando incluso a ser los teloneros de Korn y Alice In Chains en su gira de verano por América y de Bring Me the Horizon en su gira europea.

1 – JINJER

En el primer puesto aparece JINJER. Ya sabemos que nos es una banda nueva, ni mucho menos, pero está claro que 2019 ha sido su año.

Hace más de una década desde Ucrania surgió la banda JINJER, con una propuesta tremendamente atractiva. Conforme nos fueron dando su trabajos, hasta la fecha 3 discos y 3 EP’s,  nos mostraron y expusieron un MetalCore con un Groove característico y representativo. Con esfuerzo y aplicación, junto a horas de carretera recorriendo el planeta se han ganado un buen número de seguidores por la aplicación mostrada tanto en el estudio como en el escenario.

Con un etilo peculiar, original y único han sado un disco tremendo bajo el tíulo «MACRO» han estado de gira presentándo este trabajo por multitud de paises (podéis leer aquí nuestra crónica de su concierto en Madrid), y por si fuera poco están en la mayoría de los grandes festivales de 2020 a nivel europeo.

¡Felicidades JINJER!

JINJER estará en el Rock The Night Festival

JINJER al Leyendas del Rock

JINJER entre las bandas del Resurrection FEst

10 Bandas Revelación del mundo del Rock en 2019 en el artículo original de Rock and Blog