#eh screw it its going in the main tags

[kaguya-muneuji]

hello hello

demigod au... I was gonna wait until I actually drew it out... but am too tired to draw + headache urghh

so Tatsumi... was thinking that his pocket watch's ability is not to actually turn back time but to turn into any object from Tatsumi's past.

He has to visualize it very clearly so it ends up that it feels like he's reliving his past (it only feels like it; for example, if he's reliving watching a past performance, he could watch the whole thing but only a few seconds have passed in reality)

After pocket watch has turned into object, he has a limited amount of time (thinking one minute) to use it before it turns back into watch. Despite having turned into another object, Tatsumi can still hear the ticking of the watch and that's how he keeps track of the time that occurs.

well tbh it kinda feels like miraculous ladybug's ability except with a time limit...

but also if Tatsumi is blessed by Hestia, am thinking that the pocket watch would have a fire decoration or smth

welp that's all I've got. Hope you're doing well, Neptune :D

oh god the thoughts................. eueueuueueue im so sorry for replying to this so late i literally forgot about this :')))) more under the cut bc. rambles again. no drawings this time im so tired rn

well...... okay. maybe the artifact is blessed by chronos (which i dont believe is part of the greek mythology circle... eh i dunno) but tatsumi himself is blessed by hestia?? hm.... maybe this isnt working but i currently cannot find / think about a replacement :')

ooooo i really like the fact that he has to "relive" his past. like.. he has to remember what he has done and never forget? sounds like a curse to me, but hey, arent blessings and curses the same but it just depends how you look at it?

you have no idea how badly i want to draw a fight scene with this concept. tatsumi takes in a breath, breathes out. the pocket watch transforms into a sword or another weapon of the like. the clock begins ticking. cue fight scene with an overlay of a 60 second countdown- and when the countdown is up it returns to a pocketwatch. this entire time tatsumi's face is like. a cold calm btw. i have no idea if this makes any sense but. yeah. i dont actually know tatsumis character well enough to say that this would be good for him ebcause i dont know a thing (thats a lie i know some thigns but not as much as id like to know </3)

[danwhobrowses]

My Highlights for AEW Wrestledream 2023

There was a dream, a dream of wrestling

And Antonio Inoki sought that dream when he founded NJPW

But now AEW has invited the dangling from its hinges Forbidden Door open again to celebrate Inoki on the anniversary of his death.

Let's see what was good about this show

Spoilers for the PPV

Zero Hour

"She's so sweet, but so dumb, god bless her" Richard of House Starks speaking of Lexy Nair, fiancée of one large William

Props for the Julia vignette, it aired on Collision and apparently someone on twitter helped film it so good for them

Stokely 'Urban Dictionary dot com' Hathaway

TK donning the Inoki scarf with Inoki's grandkids, Shibata and Rocky

Christian Cage Noooooo

Athena doing Billie's jump and Keith's Limitless pose, and then almost blindsided by Kojima XD

Meat chants always a win

Athena saved her minion!

Josh Barnett looks like a leaner Brock Lesnar don't he?

Moxley joining on commentary, showing he's well after the concussion too

I think that's an open invitation to Bloodsport for Claudio

Well, you can tell that Nick Wayne has trained with Darby, mans is bumping

Caster already going for the tentacle porn diss

Sounds like JR is open to scissoring

Main Card

MJF wearing as many belts as he has initials

Picking the right person to massage his shoulders

Alas no tag partner in the corner for Max

Dutch always has a great Bossman Slam

Some Guerrero tactics there, with some added pantomime by the audience

And he hits the bodyslam! The Seattle Stampede

MJF has put over a bodyslam, a double clothesline and a dropkick (Kangaroo Kick) which is proof that with enough charisma any move can be put over

Props to the dude in full Jeff Hardy cosplay

Shibata starting low like Inoki did vs Ali

Thesz drop early just like Inoki took it early vs him for his second ever NJPW match (first was vs Simon Gotch)

Uraken kicked out at 1!

Eddie again winning with the Powerbomb, he meant what he said to Kawada

Dang that crack as Statlander socked Julia

And Julia does have one hell of a moonsault

Brody having to carry his goth daughter back down the ramp

Reminder Julia Hart is 22 in November; younger than Hayes, Stratton, Dragunov, Dominik, Jade, Statlander, Anna, HOOK and more, she is a talent

Starting the 4 way with an International Title preview

and then OC tagging in??

Gunns doing the New Day 'both legal men' attempt

HOOK sold that superkick really well too

"It's always in their hometown huh?"

Nana gets his dance in

Serve remains that guy, so clean

Ooof, taking a trick out of Penta's book eh, Killshot?

Vicious discus lariat there from Hanger

The JML Driver is great too

Mox back on Commentary, he's one flirtation with Excalibur away from being Regal

Ricky's rope walk is just effortless

Ah poor Mox, he can't help but curse it's native to his vocabulary

Seahawks colours for Bryan

Moxley's passion for wrestling is shining through a lot in commentary, if he could control the cussing he could easily be an all timer play by play commentator

It also juxtaposes Nigel McGuinness' anti-Bryan vendetta

Bryan practically walked out of that Romero Special

Hitting the Itoh special with the rollover half crab

GOODNESS that Dragon Screw

I think his head was already fucking kicked in sheesh

That certainly was a technical masterclass, and it doesn't feel like we're done

I'm gonna say it too, give Bryan the IWGP World title. I mean it, he's beaten Okada and ZSJ, he could beat SANADA at like Sakura Genesis or New Year's Dash, have a little run with it, do the G1 and then drop it at Forbidden Door and then he's completed all his career goals

Mox's genuine surprise as he thought Demetrius Johnson was gonna wrestle Kenny Omega XD

I mean that Last Supper artwork is...definitely something

Geez starting with Omega/Ospreay?

People want Takeshita/Ibushi, that tells you how elevated Takeshita has been

Callis trying to contribute to increating the stretch

Ibushi now joining Suzuki in 'he does what he wants', joining the Sex Gods pose

'You still suck' chants because Sammy still pulled off a picture perfect Shooting Star Press

Jericho invoking Omega in the Not Even One kickout

Murder Ibushi activated!

That is the best Ibushi has looked in AEW so far, hopefully he gets 100% for Takeshita

Dang just let Dax and Davis slap each other for 10 minutes, Davis has wrestled WALTER I know he has it in him

I've seen enough, I don't just need 10 minutes I need a full tournament of big beefy men slapping man meat; Dax, Davis, Keith Lee, Shane Taylor, Wardlow, Luchasaurus, Butcher, Brody King, Joe, Hobbs, Miro, Brian Cage, Big Bill, etc. let them all fight, give us the whole Buffet

Darby and Christian have done so much work that'll go understated in restoring the TNT title, it's main eventing a PPV!

Also if anyone can will it into existence we need Christian to start calling himself the Turtle Neck Titan, you know because Turtlenecks but also TNT

Hoisted by his own petard, blinded by the turtle neck

I mean Nick Wayne's mom is hot you gotta shoot your shot

Well that is for sure a Darby Allin bump, right on the steps twice over

Frog Splash onto a stretcher!

And a Killswitch on the canvas boards!

Scorpion Death Drop and Coffin Drop on the boards only for two

Nick Wayne heel turn

You think you know him? Adam Copeland is All Elite! And he brought Metalingus with him

He was so excited he glided through the smoke!

Edge, Christian and Sting all in the same ring what year is it? what timeline is it? WHAT IS IT???

Conclusion

Well that was a lot of fun.

Compared to No Mercy it was perhaps marginally better for me, again this could be due to being more in the loop with the storylines but stuff like the trios match, the main event, Swerve vs Hangman, the ultimate tekkers match it just clicked. Not a bad match on the card too, though I was rooting for Aussie Open to win, but Bucks/FTR IV will still be great. Plus I still wanted to see Statlander body slam Brody.

I do hope Fénix is okay, he disappeared from the 4-Way and he's the International champion, don't want back to back injury-induced title changes after all. But it was good to see Moxley just out there enjoying himself on the side, probably won't ever get to do it again mind you given all the cussing but still, did elevate the matches.

We've got intriguing directions too; Swerve needs to get somewhere with that W over Hangman (world title? I mean I kinda like Jay White for it, International Title? Maybe too soon), Claudio and Bryan have extended rematch invitations and you know Ricky ain't done with the BCC (still though I wouldn't put him in the BCC, Garcia should have that spot), even the Zero Hour did some development with Billie and Athena's dynamic.

So yeah, probably not better than All In and All Out but still pretty damn good, Inoki would be proud.

Match of the Night: I mean it's the Ultimate Battle of Epic Tekkers right? Hard to really say any match was better than that wrestling-wise. The Main Event is a close second with the drama. Best Entrance: Julia Hart gets this one just ahead of Adam Copeland's worst kept secret, not many flashy entrances in this show, in fact I think OC/Hook and Jericho didn't even get entrances. Best Attire: Again, not many here, most of them were kinda subtle so I'm gonna give it to Swerve so I can give him props somewhere. Best Performance: Tie for Bryan and Zack, masters of their craft, not much else you can say. Spot of the Night: Because Christian dropping Darby on the steps was messy and scrappy, it's Bryan's Dragon Screw that just looked so vicious like I'm sure I saw his foot facing another direction.

[tardispowered]

Doctor Who Book Review: The Missy Chronicles

Summary

Non-Spoilery Review: The Missy Chronicles in and of  themselves are an interesting idea and concept. They are even, dare I say, a pretty decent execution. (ha) All the stories are well-written, and while I like some decidedly less than others, I wouldn’t say any one was outright horrible.  In fact, one of the main problems I have with the book isn’t so much to do with the stories told, but how they were told. It was very Moffatt era (understandably) and I think the stories suffered a bit because of it.

Read under the cut for the Spoiler Section

Before we begin, let’s talk about my two main gripes.

First, most of these stories and this book itself is a very Moffatt-era thing, at least for me. YMMV, but it feels very fake woke. Or that there’s a lot of Style! But not a lot of substance. It’s very commercial in that way. Just there to give you a nudge but not take you too far over. I will explain what I mean as I go.

 Second…. Okay so, yes! Let’s talk about Missy who has adventures away from the Doctor (and, to be fair, the bulk of them are), because the Master is a woman now! Only I am sure there is more than one woman writing in the Whoniverse. Not that you would know from this anthology. I’m not saying that it has to be all women, but when you have one woman and four men, I kind of side-eye the goings on.

 Dismemeberment by James Goss- C+

A strong opening to this set of stories. It’s pretty bloody and brutal what Missy does (and could not get away with on television) as she fights against the old boy’s club she used to be a part of just because they slighted her. She gives no quarter and is outright sadistic, which is par for course. On the whole, it’s pretty good.

That is until the end, which kind of falls apart. Yeah, I can see her helping this slave woman. Or at least I can see where the writer was going with it. A kind of Sisterhood, newly discovered—Abruptly discovered at that as Missy has, if not just regenerated, is fresh off the juice so to speak. But these white rich guys being sent back in time to be slaves and get their comeuppance is stupid as hell. There is no way they’re going to be enslaved. They’re white and look monied. (and if not white, at least look rich) The people who owned the plantations would not suffer to see people like them put to slave labor.

It’s a very Moffat-y story in other words, good until you scratch the surface and ask questions and then you realize that most of the cake is just comprised of frosting. Also, it could have gone further. So Missy is a woman now. How does she adjust? What’s different? What’s the same?

I think the biggest problem with the whole damn thing is that there’s this assumption that suddenly double-x chromosomes and evil Mary Poppins, ya’ll! There’s no mistaking ones own gender or getting comfortable in a skirt. It’s like the switch is suddenly flipped. Granted, you could say the Master is going uber!femme in an attempt to gain as much control over her image as she can, but that is no where stated or even touched on.

Also um, Missy’s name deriving from basically what a slave would call a master? Kinda problematic there.

And yeah, maybe it’s mean to be a light-hearted yet sadistic romp, but I think we could do so much more with a proper regeneration story where things are either explored or avoided. But this is commercial fiction and a short book meant to sell like a Funko Pop or a Collector’s Item so we get what we get.

 Lords and Masters by Cavan Scott- B

I don’t have much to say about this one! It was a pretty neat little story and dark as hell but in a good way. Missy is her Missiest and her ‘companion’, for lack of a better word, deserved far better than what she got. (though there was a grim satisfaction to it). I think that, insofar as Missy being a Woman stories, this is one of the best in the anthology-simply because it’s mostly that she’s Missy and the rest sort of follows after. I also like that it touches on the darker political maneuvering of Gallifrey and who is part of the club and who is not. I also like the call back of them trying to use Missy and she using them instead. Even her capturing and using the time creature was savage and brutal but made sense character wise.  This is Missy at her darkest, her most antithetical to the Doctor. At the same time you do see a little bit of potential in her, but by and large she’s  without mercy in this one.

Could there have been more? Sure. But this is a wonderfully little self contained story (or maybe aweful) and doesn’t need anything else.

 Teddy Sparkles Must Die!! By Paul Magrs -D

This was an absolute mess from start to finish. I get what they were going for, but nothing really about it worked for me. I also resent that just because Missy looks like Mary Poppins, she acts like it too, what with being Governess and all. There’s got to be an easier way to get what she wants. Though I can’t even remember what it was she wanted, which says how much of an impact this left. The title is also dumb as hell because she doesn’t want to kill him, she wants to use him. Also everything about him is dumb as hell. Everything about this story is dumb as hell. But it mostly suffers from being less about Missy and more about what she does. The children are the main characters and she’s just kind of in their lives screwing things up—but we see so little of herself it’s kind of a shame.

 The Liar, the Glitch and the Warzone- Peter Anghelides- D-

This one was a mess from start to finish. I think it tried to do too much in the constraints it obviously had (in terms of words written/space/etc) And there are so many moving parts that Missy all but gets caught up in the shuffle. She goes around and makes people miserable. And has a scheme of course, but doesn’t she always. Again, though, so little of Missy herself. Just Missy as he happens to other people. But it doesn’t really seem she learns or changes or grows from this. It’s just a thing she does. It’s not a terrible read but it’s not a great one either. I would like to see it without so many moving parts.

 Girl Power!-Jacqueline Rayner -A

Ahh, this one was a hoot! I really enjoyed the format and seeing the interplay of Nardole and Missy and the Doctor (also the delivery company) through various messages. It felt like one of those quirky episodes that fall just outside of the main baddie of the day ones.  I laughed out loud several times and the ultimate direction it went bumped it up from a B+ to an A.

My biggest problems come with the title, like, I get it. I do. Annd the sort of chat with different women through time was fun but hard to wrap my brain around. Also loved the ultimate chat with her and “Circe”. I still think it tries to lean a little too hard into the Girl Power thing even if it’s meant to be tongue in cheek, but ultimately I enjoyed it.

 Alit in Underland- Cavan Scott- C

It was an interesting concept to begin with. I really liked the character of Alit and kind of how she got wrapped up in things. But she eventually just turned out to be a tag along for Missy and the Master and for a way to keep some distance from them. Like you could tell Missy felt things, but we don’t actually get to see it as Alit is the main character. … kind of. We don’t actually get to see much of her either. She’s more often than not lost in the shuffle so Missy and the Master can do things and play off one another. It would be more interesting to see how they got along or didn’t and Missy’s inner thoughts about the whole thing—but that would require something far bigger than a short story and we can’t kill the misstery now can we? (Especially when that’s what your whole show running is built on. But I’m not bitter)

Also the end was meh. Just, this seems like a good place to stop. And stop it did. It was an ending, but hardly satisfying.

Conclusion: Eh, it’s so so, a product of its particular iteration of Who. It could have been more but it also could have been worse.

In my canon library?

Why not.

 Three out of Five Stars

[mrs-mikko-rantanen]

21 Question Tag Game

Ok so I've been tagged in this like 74 times and I just now have the time to fill it out. 😂 (the people I can remember tagging me are @rktho-writes and @fantasy-studiies thanks guys!)

Answer 21 questions and tag 21 people

Zodiac: Libra but I don't really follow the zodiac so idk what that "means" about me

Height: 5'3"

Last Movie I saw: I fell asleep watching the Dirty Dozen last night, so I need to rewatch it now

Favorite musicians: John Williams, Ed Sheeran, AC/DC, Metallica, and Gaelic Storm

Last thing I googled: Samhain (@fantasy-studiies thanks for giving me excuses to research this sort of thing more in-depth!)

Song stuck in my head: Right now its Go Home, Girl!/The Rose in The Heather by Gaelic Storm

Other Blogs: my main blog is @da5haexowin. Its a mess of fandom and shitposting 😂

Following: 126 from this blog, not sure how many from my main tho

Do I get asks: eh sometimes. Not a lot tho. (Send some in!!! I'd love to talk to you guys!)

What I'm wearing: dark blue jeans, camo v-neck t-shirt and a light grey hoodie

Amount of sleep: probably not enough

Favorite food: tbh anything 😂 I do like steak and spaghetti though.

Dream trip: I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights, so probably Canada. (But also I really want to see Scotland too!)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: oh geez uhh.... Flannles, coffee stained maps, old books, forests and tbh probably sunshine

Random fact: I have 2 titanium rods and 24ish screws in my back. (A huge shout out to any of you who have scoliosis, you are so strong and I am so proud of you! 💙💛💙)

Languages: English, I took French in school and I can actually pick languages up pretty quick.

I'm gonna tag 10 from this blog and 10 from my main:

@divinationworlds @nightskywriter @chris-the-dragonslayer @rokokokokolores @tayluin @jess---writes @mlgwrites @anonymousthewriter2222 @alecatwriting @aro-ace-from-outer-space22

[its-love-u-asshole]

Twelve Hours [Ch. 5]

Pairings: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou has dealt with a lot since he was eighteen, each year bringing the same depressing challenges on the same depressing night. He expects this time to be no different, but the universe is trying desperately to prove him wrong in the most bizarre ways imaginable. So screw it, Kuroo’s only choice is to buckle in and hope he doesn’t die. Easy enough. And hey, with some new allies at his side, maybe he has a chance. Who knows? At least Kuroo is sure of one thing in life when it comes to March 15th, and he stands by this unwritten law, no matter what happens:

If you try to kill pizza delivery boys on Purge Night, you’re irrevocably a bitch.

Rating: T

Tags: Purge AU, mentions of violence but nothing graphic or too bad, no character deaths here okay, this is borderline crack and idk what I was thinking, first meetings, other characters, shenanigans and just…a lot of fun (it seems angsty but its not)

Note: I’m back with another update! In spirit of all the excitement for kurotsuki week I figured I’d post today! But I’m also doing something for Monday’s prompt (and hopefully some more), so I’m super excited! Thanks so much @emeraldwaves for reading this over, and I hope everyone enjoys! 

AO3

The tires screeched to a slow halt as Terushima pulled the car into a gas station stall, and the bright artificial lighting did nothing to make them blend in with the surroundings. Their huge, black as tar SUV looked like a giant ink blot against the bright blue colorings of the signs around them, and as Terushima cut the ignition, they all stayed put.

No one dared open a door yet, instead listening for signs of trouble, of anything.

It would've been normal to see some debris, hear some yells nearby, hell maybe even see people raiding the small store. That would've been easier to deal with and process.

Silence...Kuroo was not good with silence anymore. Judging from the way Tsukishima straightened up, neither was he.

Ignoring the way Futakuchi's hand tapped anxiously against the glove compartment, Kuroo followed Tsukishima's gaze.

He peered out through the half-tinted windows, noting the strange pristine condition of the station. The small snack stand in the center looked immaculate, untouched, the displays standing straight and organized with a plethora of snacks and useless magazines.

No other cars were around, unless they counted the abandoned ones across the street, which had been stripped of their parts.

Now, Kuroo knew it was probably rare for people to be getting gas during the Purge (like...c'mon), but to see no one set the alarm bells off in his head. This was so stupid.

More than that, this was not good.

"I don't trust this at all," Tsukishima said finally, echoing Kuroo's thoughts. "Be quick about it."

Though Tsukishima's gaze was occupied, the words were clearly addressed to Terushima, who jumped in his seat, hitting the roof of the car. Such finesse. They were in good hands.

Futakuchi turned to his friend, tense, and a silent telepathic showdown seemed to go on between them. After careful observation, Kuroo concluded it was of the elementary school caliber.

'You go.'

'No you.'

"Seriously?" Suga muttered, and yeah...Kuroo could only imagine what it was like to deal with this on a daily basis. Mind numbing, he guessed, since Suga simply started playing sudoku on his phone.

In their defense, Kuroo did not want to be the one to do this. Not just because of the potential murder, but because this gas station had just about the worst prices he'd ever seen.

I'd rather be stabbed.

Apparently, the other two didn't feel the same way.

Kuroo rolled his eyes when their hands came up, leaving fate in the hands of rock paper scissors. Wow. If it had been Kuroo, and he had to die knowing it was all because of a rock paper scissors game, he'd rise from the dead before accepting it.

He'd pull his own soul right back from the devil himself.

Two stressful rounds later and Futakuchi was declared the winner, smirking due to his expert rock over scissors strategy. It really made Kuroo want to applaud, the true decision making skill couldn't be overlooked.

"It almost makes me want to cry," Tsukishima said, and Kuroo snorted, watching those bright eyes drift back towards the street. Something about watching Tsukishima's brain work hadn't failed to fascinate him.

Always observant, no matter where you are, huh?

In the back of his head, Kuroo wondered how much Tsukishima truly remembered about him, if he'd been analyzed all those years ago without knowing. The musings were cut short by a less than comfortable Yamamoto.

"Can you guys stop stalling? The longer we're here the worse the risk is!" He yelled from the middle row, and all Terushima did was simply raise his hand in a 'can you not' gesture.

If anything, the people in the car would kill each other before anyone else could.

"I don't wanna gooooo," Terushima whined, glancing out on the desolate cement plain before draping himself over the middle console. Futakuchi scooted away, like he was disease ridden. "It's too creepy."

True, but...

"Hm, then maybe you shouldn't have wasted so much gas making wrong turns," Tsukishima hummed, and Terushima raised his middle finger (not that Tsukishima was even looking at him).

"Are you ever going to let that go? News flash, the jokes are getting old."

Pft. Even Kuroo knew the jokes weren't the point, and he adored Tsukishima for it.

"It's not about making jokes, it's about shaming you," Tsukishima stated bluntly. "Also, I let it go when I got in this car."

Despite the need to make a Disney reference, Kuroo's pettiness won out.

"Ditto," Kuroo said, and Yamamoto turned on him, raising an accusatory finger.

"Hush you! It wasn't even your house! You didn't have to come!"

And well...yeah, but it was Tsukishima's house. Tsukishima who got all his jokes and protected him and was all around amazing. So uh, Kuroo was in his right to be mad on his behalf.

"Eh," Suga joined in. "I'd be pretty mad if someone broke my boyfriend's wall."

Again with the boyfriend...

Kuroo's entire face bloomed red, and while he'd never object to being mistaken for such an angelic being's boyfriend, he didn't approve of his own feelings being so blatantly stated for everyone to hear. Especially not when said feelings had hit him like a ton of bricks only in the past few hours.

God. He was turning back into a naive freshman, swooning over every hot guy. Though, Tsukishima wasn't just a hot guy.

Beside him, Tsukishima glared, his own cheeks heating up in a way Kuroo couldn't help but fixate on. The blond's reaction was significantly more violent too, with the way his head whipped around from where he'd been observing the streets to glare at the rest of the car. It made Kuroo's heart race, even as the denial spewed from both their lips.

"He's not my boyfriend," they insisted at the same time, and Kuroo spared a side glance the blond's way, noting his refusal to focus on anything other than the leather seat in front of him.

The tips of his ears turn red when he's embarrassed...

Kuroo, completely fixated, almost didn't register Futakuchi's response. Sadly, it was hard to miss it.

The brunet made a fake, shocked choking noise, his palm flat against his chest. "Oh wow, very convincing! What are you guys? The main pining couple in a romcom?"

"Well that was very specific..." Tsukishima muttered, staring back out of the window, but his obvious lack of comment on the accusation made Kuroo's blush deepen further.

"Shut up!"

"Can someone just get gas please? Last thing we need is some freaks showing up for free blood," Suga sighed, his game long forgotten as the minutes past. Regardless of the bickering, they were all still on edge, so much so they kept their voices low. As ridiculous as the night was, it was still the Purge, it was still real.

"You mean like them," Tsukishima said, tapping his finger against the glass. Freezing, the rest of the group looked to where he was pointing, and immediately groaned at what they saw.

Two figures, faces masked with eerie clown features, stood on the other side of the street staring at them. Just...staring. They stood distorted and tilted, but even with the lame poses Kuroo marveled at how stone like they were, their heads on tilting every now and then in intimidation.

Motherfuckers.

"Great, we waited too long, now what?" Terushima whispered, eyes not leaving the potential murderers.

"Maybe they're just taking a break," Tsukishima said, and the rest of the car, sans Kuroo, looked unamused.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Yamamoto asked, and his tone could've been bottled and packaged as pure disbelief.

The blond only shrugged. "Well you didn't laugh so I guess not."

It wasn't funny, it was hilarious. Never change.

"Maybe we should move on," Futakuchi suggested, squinting at the way the figures stood. They couldn't afford to do that, and from the way Tsukishima glanced at Kuroo, he knew it too.

"No," Kuroo said, seriousness kicking in. They didn't know when they'd find another empty, working station. Unfortunately, the risk needed to be accepted in this case. "Go take care of it, if they move, we'll shoot."

The sentence made his throat close up, but he stuffed his own reluctance down until it burned. Self-defense, he reminded, self-defense. Tsukishima nodded next to him, expression grim but not unwilling. The blond was already unholstering his weapon, like he was so comfortable with it, so used to clutching it tight.

The rest of the car tensed, but that was fine. It was okay if they weren't ready yet. Kuroo had been referring to himself and Tsukishima anyways. Their innocence around this night had been taken already. Some of Terushima's had too, from the way he steeled himself, hand on the car door handle.

Kuroo inhaled, looking at Terushima expectantly. The other nodded, glancing at his friends one last time, and Suga reached forward, gripping his shoulder in comfort. It never got easy, seeing people thrown into danger, but this time Kuroo was here to help.

They all glanced back out to where the figures stood, and one of them raised a hand, causing Tsukishima to flinch. But he just waved slowly, a friendly gesture corrupted by the menacing air.

"Bastard," Terushima sighed under his breath, getting ready to jump out of the car with his wallet. "Alright, let's do--"

"Wait!" Yamamoto's voice made them all jump, the sound sharp enough to cut the thick fog of nerves around them. Kuroo heard Suga's breathing stutter.

Terushima stared at him, eyes panicked. "W-what?"

They all waited, looking at Yamamoto and anticipating some sort of advice or observation. Only Tsukishima's eyes stayed locked on the figures outside.

With no trace of laughter in his eyes, Yamamoto met Terushima's gaze head on, ready to spill words of warning and care. "I need you to get me a Snickers bar."

Kuroo should've known better than to expect so much from this car.

The vehicle descended into silence and oh--oh okay, maybe he should be concerned about the way Suga wheezed just then.

Even Tsukishima, will his ready-to-kill demeanor, couldn't not throw his hands up in defeat.

Kuroo didn't know what to feel. Annoyance? Awe? Admiration?

He was gonna sit out on this one.

It took about ten more seconds for Terushima to completely process the words, his mouth opening and closing like a fish until they finally settled on the most reasonable question: "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No wait, just hear me out--"

"Fuck you I won't hear you out!" Terushima went on, his voice hushed but incensed, and Tsukishima just shook his head and waved back at the killers. Yeah, call them over. End it all. Yamamoto raised his hands in placation, but Terushima wasn't having it. "I'm about to go risk my life against Hannibal and Dexter out there and you're asking me to get you a fucking chocolate bar?"

"First of all, you're probably giving those guys too much credit...." Yamamoto offered, which did not make things better but...

Agreed.

"And okay I was just thinking, I was too nervous to eat before we left and if we have to fight more dudes later, I think it would be a good idea to get some food in me." Yamamoto looked around the car for support, but everyone was steadfast in ignoring him.

Kuroo busied himself with other thoughts as much as he could, so much so he had to resort to the car ceiling. Man, this is some nice interior.

"Screw you, if you want it so bad, you get it," Terushima said, and it would've probably helped them all. Yamamoto was by far the most muscular of the group, though he hadn't shown any of the necessary violence Kuroo expected.

"Oh, well that's just real nice. You can't walk twenty feet to grab me one candy bar?"

"It's hard to do anything with stab wounds," Terushima said, gesturing to various parts of his body which apparently would soon be severed.

Kuroo wasn't so sure.

"If they stab you, some people get more creative than that," Kuroo said, and again, Tsukishima raised his finger in agreement.

Suga, eyes dead to the world, turned back to him, shaking his head. "Who hurt you?"

"Life."

"I'm not getting you a Snickers bar," Terushima said with a finality that made Kuroo actually wonder if he had kids. He felt like he'd just been denied McDonalds on a road trip.

Yamamoto was tough though, and his words were almost more ominous than the freaks standing across the street. "If you don't, you'll regret it."

"Oh god, I'm so scared. What--what are you gonna do? Kill me?" Terushima laughed, going as far as to slap his knee, and if Kuroo was being honest he would've gladly gone outside himself just to end this whole conversation.

"You'll see, and you'll regret it." And with that, Yamamoto folded his arms, ending the conversation. Kuroo knew this was far from over, but they kinda had more pressing things to deal with.

Eight more hours of this shit. Eight.

"I'm fucking sure," Terushima muttered, finally opening the car door. At least the tension and fear from earlier had mostly dissipated. Now he just looked pissed.

That’s right, channel that anger.

As if sensing it, Tsukishima probably felt it was his duty to help the cause. That or he was just a little shit, and Kuroo adored him either way.

"Hey if you change your mind, get me one too," the blond called, tapping his nail against his gun impatiently.

"I'll take some chips," Suga said.

Fuck it. "Push Pops please."

"I hate all of you," Terushima said, and with that, he slammed the door without caring who might here. Damn, be that way.

Shockingly, the guys across the street seemed to jump at the actual movement. Granted, no one in their right mind would get out of the car wearing nothing but yellow sweatpants and a high school jersey during the Purge but Terushima was a special person.

The wannabe murderers watched, like they all did, as Terushima fumbled with his wallet, dropped it twice, got his card declined, and struggled through his brain for his pin number.

Yeah, they had to see all that. It was upsetting, and if it had been Kuroo, he would've spared the bastard. He was having a night.

But no shots had been fired, so maybe they were just there for intimidation only. Either way, Tsukishima stayed trained on them, gun in hand.

Honestly, with the kind of confidence the blond exuded, Kuroo would feel safe even if they were in a shitty 1998 convertible with three flat tires, as long as Tsukishima was there next to him.

Yamamoto obviously didn't see the beauty of that though.

"Isn't that a little intense?" He said from the row in front of them, twisting just as Tsukishima raised his gun a little higher. The windows weren't so tinted that the men across the street couldn't make out the bodies inside, or Tsukishima's gun. As one stepped forward, they halted immediately at the sight of it before backing off.

"Calm down Rambo," Yamamoto said, but his voice trembled too much to leave an impact.

Tsukishima sighed, rolling his shoulder. "First of all, you've clearly never seen that movie--"

"You--"

"Second, these are rubber bullets." Jostling the gun a bit, Tsukishima's frown grew. "As if I'd let such insignificant people weigh on my conscience."

The unspoken "it's heavy enough as it is" did not go unnoticed by Kuroo, and he wrapped the detail away. There was no judgement on his end, only respect. Nothing he learned about Tsukishima turned him away, if anything, each new fact pulled him in closer.

"Oh, that's cool of you," Yamamoto said, but his brows were still furrowed like more questions were on the tip of his tongue. Kuroo could relate, but at the same time, Tsukishima had proved enough he'd share in his own time.

No one in the car knew that though, so Suga trudged on, curious. "How many times have you done this?"

"Yeah, you sure seem to know a lot," Futakuchi added from where he was tapping his shoe on the dash. Kuroo wondered if they were really listening, or if this conversation was pointless filler until Terushima got back.

Speaking of...

Tsukishima's shoulders tensed as Terushima opened the door, jumping in and locking it immediately after. Kuroo hadn't noticed he'd finished. Guess Tsukishima wouldn't get to answer, but maybe that was best.

Calmly, Kuroo laid his palm flat between Tsukishima shoulder blades, waiting until he felt the muscles relax under his hand. It might've been too forward, too intimate, but it was his instinct and he had to trust those on a night like tonight.

Exhaling, Tsukishima turned back to him, and...oh...please always look at me like that.

"Hello? Hello! Are you guys listening to me?" Terushima's voice came in a hushed whisper from the front. Kuroo had no idea how long they'd been staring at each other but...

"No,” they both responded at once, because honesty was the best policy here.

"I swear, I'm this clos--"

The loud clang across the street made Terushima's threat turn into a high-pitched shriek, but Kuroo hardly tensed. Oh right. Those guys.

One of them must've hit one of their weapons against the nearby fire hydrant. Attention whores.

"God, can't they wait their turn," Kuroo muttered, and naturally, only Tsukishima found it even remotely amusing.

He was right though.

"Maybe we should leave," Suga suggested, and everyone else fiercely agreed, considering all the ground they had yet to cover. Well, almost everyone.

"Did you get my Snickers?" Yamamoto asked, the tremble in his voice gone.

Wow.

"Get out of my car," Terushima deadpanned, not bothering to turn around and grace Yamamoto with any form of expression. At least Kuroo knew Terushima could be cold when he wanted.

But knowing the threat held no bite, Yamamoto just sighed forlornly to himself, crossing his arms and staring out the window. "Fine, but I told you you'd regret it."

"Yeah, can't wait." Terushima chuckled humorlessly, and without giving the warning any more thought, they peeled out of the station, watching the strangers until they were nothing but specks behind them.

--

They did regret it. Yes, they, as in all.

The silence which had enveloped the car the next twenty minutes would've been normal, standard even given the pressure on all of them. Suga continued to drain his phone battery by playing app after app, and Kuroo fidgeted at the obvious skittishness there, manifesting in the form of Suga cursing under his breath with app switch after app switch. He didn't bother silencing the game's noises, and each one seemed faster and faster than the last. Even still, nothing could distract Suga enough for him to stick to it for longer than five minutes.

No one said anything, if they even heard the high pitched pings at all.

Moving on from that lovely image...

From where Kuroo sat, he could see Terushima's autopilot-like stare out of the windows as he routinely checked all his mirrors, but the pensiveness there told Kuroo the blond's mind was on everything other than driving.

Which yeah...not what he as a passenger wanted to see, but breaking that freakish concentration would probably cause them to swerve into the nearest telephone pole, so nah. Futakuchi steadfastly read the car's manual, maybe because he'd realized neither of them truly knew how to drive this behemoth, and Yamamoto...Yamamoto just stared out the window, searching for something Kuroo didn't feel the need to know about.

So yeah, maybe not a traditionally normal silence, but a fitting one nonetheless.

Oh, but Kuroo sensed it, Kuroo knew something was amiss, but he just couldn't pinpoint it until it was too late. Tsukishima must've though, from where the blond sat beside Kuroo, eyes sharp and stuck on whatever the fuck Yamamoto was trying to find. The blond never missed those mannerisms, and maybe Kuroo should've taken a page from his book, and then he could've saved them all the headache.

The first gas station they passed, with its turned over kiosk and scattered litter, was the spark that lit the kerosene drenched air of their quiet ride.

He heard Tsukishima's sharp inhale as Yamamoto's eyes widened like a predator's, and Kuroo's brain finally got it. Oh, that's what he was waiting for.

"Wow, that station sure looks full still--"

(It didn't.)

"--perfect opportunity to get me some food. A candy perhaps. Chocolate. With caramel. Starting with an S..."

Kuroo could see the moment Terushima visibly tensed, and then the exact moment where his brain flashed the 'stay put or murder' option in front of his eyes.

Suga looked up from whatever pinball shit he was currently losing to stare at his seat buddy with nothing but "I wish we'd left you at home" written on his face. The game noises continued even as Futakuchi threw his manual back into the glove compartment.

Kuroo didn't say shit.

Not yet. But errr, looking back, he probably should've. Because oh, that little interruption was the first of many.

Every gas station they passed, every single one elicited some sort of comment, some sort of demand from Yamamoto which gradually chipped away at Terushima's patience.

"Oh look at that, another empty station, how rare."

"Hey that kiosk isn't as far away from the pumps this time, ey Terushima think you'd walk ten feet instead?"

"Sure wish I had some food right about now."

"Snickers."

And oh, just the one word was worse than any sass imaginable, it was similar to a punch.

Suga tried fiddling with his door to leave, to find it had a child proof lock. Kuroo didn't know which was worse, the discovery or the insult it carried.

Anyways.

It got to the point where every time the neon sign of a station gleamed in the distance, they all winced, dreading the words out of Yamamoto's mouth.

"Why are we in this car?" Kuroo whispered, barely audible, and Tsukishima just shook his head.

"Fuck if I know."

In actuality, it was probably better they act as petty and foolish as usual as opposed to drowning in the sorrow and violence of what they were traveling to do. Terushima needed the distraction before he thought himself into a hole, because for once, treating the matter seriously wasn't always the best option.

That being said, fuck this.

In the distance, another gas station sat, like it was crafted and ordained by the gods themselves. Why. This is worse than waiting for the damn 7 P.M. sirens.

The instinctual need to bolt made Kuroo feel like one of Pavlov's dogs, and he wasn't even getting food for this kind of mental torture.

And that was him, god knew what Terushima was thinking. (Judging from how emotionless his eyes peered into the darkness, not good things).

Kuroo gave him...eh, about five more blocks before he snapped.

Oh. Whoops. Looks like I lost that bet.

"Sni--"

Terushima spun around in his seat, and damn, they all leaned back. "If you fucking say you want a Snickers bar one more time I'm going to turn this car around and--"

"And what? Put another hole in his house?" Yamamoto's finger shot in Tsukishima's direction so fast it could've taken out an eye.

"Um..."

Yeah if Tsukki is speechless, we're all fucked.

"You're making a difficult situation like twenty times harder. You realize that right? Don't you know what holiday it is?"

"How dare--"

"Because it's not fucking Christmas!"

Tsukishima looked to Kuroo with wide eyes, and they were almost impressed. Huh, so Terushima did have a bite to him (when he wasn't a puddle on the floor anyways).

"Should we be trying to stop them?" Kuroo whispered, but before Tsukishima could answer, Suga's hand came between them.

"No...no, no. Let them do this, it's healthy."

"That's a word for it."

Yamamoto powered on, and okay, Terushima hadn't checked the road in at least two minutes. "This would've been a lot easier if I'd gotten my Snickers..."

"Do--do you really wanna keep doing this?"

"I'm just saying, if you had just walked to the kiosk--"

"Because I will stop this car and come open your door, so help me god."

"You could barely get out to get gas, I'd like to see you try it."

"I'm--fuck you! I'll end you!"

"I'm already dying of hunger! Finish the job!"

It went on in much the same fashion for a while, the only changing variable being Kuroo's growing concern for their safety.

Good thing no one else was driving on these roads.

Eventually Terushima did agree to pullover and let Yamamoto get his damn candy bar, but as he munched on the snack, the bickering only accelerated. Whatever, maybe they all had also realized how much better it was to complain about insignificant things than to worry themselves to death.

Bored with the useless arguing, Kuroo sat back, content with returning to his new favorite pastime: watching Tsukishima.

And no, it wasn't creepy. Tsukishima watched him too. So...ha.

To his disappointment, the blond's eyes had drifted though, his soft face twisted into a scowl as he stared at the seat in front of him. All thoughts of nougat and caramel were forgotten in Kuroo's head.

The blond's face had returned to the way it had been after they'd left the first station, stiff and concerned. Tsukishima sat back, detached from the conversation, eyes narrowed as he watched the empty streets pass by. Yamamoto's gas station rant apparently hadn't been enough to shake off whatever brewed in Tsukishima's mind, and Kuroo needed to know.

Tsukishima was the most experienced with the Purge out of all of them. If he had a bad feeling, they couldn't ignore it. It was only then Kuroo noticed the blond's hand hadn't left his gun holster, probably not since they'd left the first station.

Not comforting in the slightest, but that was from his point of view. Who knew what Tsukishima was going through.

Without thinking, Kuroo moved closer to him, placing his own hand over a weapon which he usually hated having to touch.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he whispered, leaning in. Much to his satisfaction, Tsukishima met him halfway, foreheads almost touching. "Did you forget something?"

He knew it couldn't have been so simple, but the need for false hope hadn't totally left him in all these years. Tsukishima must've sensed that, because the hardness in his eyes softened, flooded with compassion Kuroo knew he was blessed to see.

As soothing as that was, the blond didn’t baby him with hesitation or fluffy words. "Something's not right," the blond whispered, and finally, Kuroo felt his blood run cold.

He swallowed thickly, even as the pointless conversations from the other car rows drifted into their space. His focus was solely on Tsukishima.

"What do you mean?" Kuroo's own face hardened as his hand gripped the blond’s, his no-nonsense mode turned back on full force. "Did you see something?"

Tsukishima shook his head. "No, but that doesn't mean anything.”

Yeah, he was right, and it made things twice as terrifying.

“Kuroo...why wouldn't those guys at the station attack us? It doesn't make sense. No one is just standing around tonight, there has to be a purpose to it." The question sounded more like Tsukishima’s own way of processing his thoughts, not as if he was actually interested in Kuroo’s response. Not in a harsh or condescending way, but in a way that told Kuroo the blond had already made up his mind and couldn’t be convinced otherwise.

That wasn’t good.

And yet, Kuroo tried.

Shaking his head, he tried to calm him. Tsukishima was overthinking this, he was being too protective, that’s what he told himself. "Intimidation maybe? Tsukki, some people are just douchebags with no balls, they didn't have it in them to--"

"They were too confident Kuroo," Tsukishima cut him off, tone giving no room for Kuroo to argue. It made his breathing stutter as the words penetrated his thoughts. Problem was yeah, Tsukishima was probably overthinking, but Kuroo couldn't imagine him being wrong. "They stood there, vulnerable, but like nothing could hurt them. They didn’t need to attack us, not yet."

"But--"

"That's not normal, and you know it." Tsukishima looked behind him as an afterthought, shoulders tense, and he was met with nothing but empty alleyways. No threats. No indications of foul play. Everything looked alright, even though he knew nothing ever was.

So why did Kuroo feel so on edge now? Why was he so convinced they needed to gun it out of there?

Kuroo didn't want Tsukishima to be right, but he also knew gut feelings shouldn't have been ignored. Not tonight.

And as Suga tried to interject between the rest of the bickering car, oblivious to Tsukishima's warnings, the blond leaned into him, driving his point home. "Intimidation is nothing without an attack. An end result. I…I would know.”

The blond closed his eyes tight as the next words left his mouth, features trembling, and Kuroo already dreaded them. “I've done it before."

And Kuroo froze at the exact moment they crossed the next four way intersection, barely having time to take a breath before their car was hit from the side, jolting them off the road.

[caddeter]

Hey, Knight, I have a serious question for you:  Are you fucking illiterate or something?

Okay, looking through the notes, I can’t let this go.

Soku, You JUST described what you do.

Soku made a grand total of two posts in this chain.  You can find both of them here.  One of them is an actual explanation on why Savage’s post is stupid, the other is him simply saying ‘eh’ in reply to Xenodweeb.

“Instead of making the White Fang this way, do it this way that justifies my political beliefs because I deserve validation. 

1.  That had never come up in that chain at all, Soku pointed to utilizing the school setting as an example.

2.  It has nothing to do with his political believes, it has everything to do with putting fucking effort into a point of your show!  How is pointing out that a show displaying an extremely black and white stance on a real world issue that is excessively grey a political stance?

3.  If your talking about what Xenodweeb said, allow me to simplify it for you:  They hyped up a character, only to kill her off not five minutes later.  Even if we ignore her skin color, that’s still incredibly stupid.  And it’s made worse with her skin color.  Even then, there’s a grand total of twelve named dark skin characters in a cast of over 70 characters.  Five of them are villains, the rest are unimportant.  Seriously, what does any black character, who isn’t Emerald, Ilia, or the fox brothers contribute to the plot?  And aside from the guy based off an Achievement Hunter joke and the guy from the team they only remembered half the members of, I bet you and the rest of the fandom don’t even remember they exist.

Also: Listen to me and only people like me because I deserve to be solely pandered to while you don’t deserve a say in your own show.”

First of all, is Savage a member of CRWBY?  Is Savage one of the lead writers?  Is Savage even a Rooster Teeth employee?  You and your little posse constantly remind us that RWBY isn’t our show, yet whenever it’s convenient, it’s your show.

Secondly, that’s your argument, not ours.  You constantly pride your opinions above everyone else’s, from people with experience with the subject they’re talking about, to people who have researched the subject their talking about, to scene analysis, to fucking shit posts.  And you’ve done this over on Deviantart, where there is no RWDE tag, and was just people criticizing your precious little show.  The RWDE tag was made so that the main RWBY tag wouldn’t need to read through all of our posts.  We’re trying to keep our opinions away from you jack asses, and this is the thanks we get?  You know what, screw it, this is going in the main tag.

I just boiled down your entire collection of RWDE posts down into this because THIS is how you act each time:

And I’m a dragon who breaths Popsicle, living on top of the Eiffel Tower making reviews of late night talk shows.  How many times have you said that, and how many times have we proven you wrong?

Only your worldview (even if it’s blatantly wrong and fucking stupid) deserves to be seen and only YOUR iteration) deserves to eb seen and only people like you get to have media in their tastes.

Mirrors are a rare thing in your house, aren’t they?

Okay, that was a little too fast, let me slow it down for you:  Mirrors are pieces of shiny glass you look at to see yourself.

Even then, what are you judging this on?  The fact that people complained about plot holes, unfortunate implications, terrible execution, wasted potential, a side character steeling the spotlight?  That’s not a matter of taste, that’s a matter of desiring quality.  People would be complaining about RWBY’s flaws even if RWDE never existed, just look at how the anime reviewing community treated Sword Art Online.

Everything about RWBY must conform to what you think you deserve, regardless of fucking quality or what the Writer’s want to do or why other people like RWBY.

Yes, because a consistent plot, stable world building, and an understanding of what it’s doing is completely subjective.

RWBY’s quality is objectively terrible; it’s full of plot holes, we get more development for the side characters than we do the main characters, and the world building is excessively muddled.  It also has a bad habit of flat out lying to its audience and constantly ignores the easier solutions.  And with how many details are missed between the writers and animators, I’m left with the impression that the production of this show is a big game of telephone.

Calling RT sexist, racist and homophobic is not criticism.

Jaune gets away with, and is rewarded for something that Yang is demonized for.  That is sexism and criticism.

RT constantly portrays the White Fang, who were left with little other option than to become a violent group like many real world minorities, are treated as completely evil with no redeeming qualities.  And then there’s the count of black characters in the show an their importance to it.  That’s racist and criticism.

It took RT five years to reveal an LGBT character, after years of excuses that for some reason never applied to straight pairings.  That’s homophobic and criticism.

Do you read selectively or something?  We’ve explained several times over how one could get these impressions.  Just because you plug your ears and shout, ‘LALALALALA I’M NOT LISTENING!’ doesn’t mean the evidence stops existing.

Lying about the show is not criticism.

Knight, the only people who have ever lied about RWBY is you.  We have backed up our claims with explanations, comparisons, examples.  You have changed evidence to work with your conclusion instead of changing your conclusion to work with evidence.  You’ve flat out admitted to doing that, yet you still act like we’re in the wrong.  Why can you get away with something like that, but we constantly get demonized for you’re lies?!

Spreading controversy like a manwhore with STD is not criticism.

You really don’t understand how criticism works, especially for a show this popular, do you?

Okay, even ignoring the fact that that’s a load of bull, that’s all you do.  Every time there’s a new RWDE post, you jump to the front lines to start a flame war.

You do not criticize, you complain.

My god, it’s almost as if that was the basis for the RWDE tag in the first place!..  How do you breath?  You can’t wrap your head around this simple concept, yet you still haven’t suffocated yet?  How does that work?

People HAVE refuted you:

Yeah, badly.  And then they got refuted right back.

I’ve had to have done it at least fifty times.

First of all, you’ve had way more chats with people in the RWDE tag than just fifty.  If your track record is so bad, why is your ego so huge?

Second of all, where exactly?  Was it here, where Delvin asks you for evidence of what you’re accusing him of, and then you ran off?  Was it here, where Delvin throws every one of your notions back at you in the end?  Was it here, where Dudeblade explains why you think it’s wrong to compare RWBY to other shows based on IMDB scores, before doing just that with shows with lower scores than RWBY?  Was it here, where Lycanheiress took everything you said and utterly destroyed it?  Was it this one here, where a transgender lesbian explains homophobia to you, and why people accuse you of being homophobic?  Or was it here, where Xenodweeb boiled all of your stupid notions down to the basic level to show why they’re wrong?

Thirdly, you’ve had to do it?  Did we make you?  Is Rooster Teeth paying you to paint their fanbase in a negative light?  Are they holding a gun to your head as you type this out?  Are they threatening your family?  Is the RWDE tag doing that?  Did anyone even ask?  I’ve already explained this to you, KKKoB, no one but you is making you write these.  You chose to do this.

Fourthly, for every one time you’ve attempted to debunk us, we’ve debunked you ten time over.

You just ignore them, block them or throw variations of the word “bigot” at them so you can disregard it

You mean like you did with Delvin?

You’re like that child who keeps changing the rules to make himself invincible because they suck at the game.

You mean like you did with Lycanheiress when you guys were arguing the shows focus on Jaune.  Also, when did we change the rules?  I’m pretty sure we’ve kept things pretty damn consistent in all of our debates with you.

And as for YOU, Xenodweeb,

I don’t wanna hear YOU try to talk about nuances when, looking at your entire conversation on this post (https://savageoppressme.tumblr.com/post/169718979263/xenodweeb-savageoppressme-xenodweeb), you look at everything in Black and White.

“>Racism is a non-issue>Civil rights movements=extremists”

Knight, cursory glances tell us why you’re full of bull.  Also, who do you think I’m going to believe, the guy who admitted to stalking and harassing people who blocked him, constantly acts as the exception to all of the rules he lays out, and almost drove someone on Deviantart to suicide, for Xenodweeb, who has, at worst, criticized RWBY.

Also, you’re one to talk about seeing things in black and white:  You view the RWDE tag as an irredeemable evil that must be purged no matter what each individual blog has done and yourself as the one true fan of RWBY.  What you’re asking for isn’t that we try to look past RWBY’s flaws, your asking for blind devotion to the all mighty Rooster Teeth.

Skipping a bit, because I’ve already established why the next few lines are bunk a few paragraphs back.

To you, “Nuance” does not mean “subtle differences in meaning or expression.” No, it means “my fucking view” without even taking the time to consider that maybe, just maybe, you are wrong and your blind.

How can someone be so in love with the sound of their own voice yet never hear what they’re saying?  Knight, you almost drove someone to suicide because you couldn’t handle the idea that they had a different view then you did.  You aren’t one to talk.

Fuck, there is a reason why I blacklisted the RWDE tag:

Wait...

!?!?!?!?!?!WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!

So you actually did that thing the RWDE tag was meant for?  Why are you still here then?!  Why are you still bitching about the tag you no longer need to look at!?  Why are you so dedicated to proven Darwinism wrong?!  There-there are no words to describe the level of stupid you are!  It doesn’t matter what insult I throw at you, it will always only ever be an insult to the people I’m grouping you with and a complement to you.  I feel sorry that people call you a Nazi now, at least those guys have some brains.  Retards, homophobes, racist, sexists, pedophiles, none of them deserve to be compared to you.  The FNDM would be disgusted if they saw you, hell, Rooster Teeth would be disgusted.  It’s a good thing Monty’s dead, because if he saw you, he’d jump right back into his grave!  You deplorable, inconsiderate, obnoxious, cruel, immature, cruel, judgemental piece of shit!  If the human race died tomorrow, we’d all die happy, because you would have finally have been removed from the gene pool!  I’ve seen super-villains more likable than you.

You know what, screw it, I don’t care what the rest of the post says.  I’ve made my point, I’m done here.

[nearmidnightannex]

Eurovision 2018! commentary as it happened

Reposting from something done elsewhere. It is very very long, what with the competition lasting, you know, FOUR HOURS, so there is a keep-reading tag below.

No idea who the performers were, but I really liked that second number leading into the beginning and the parade of nations.

Interesting that Ross and Shangela felt the need to explicitly state that they will not be talking over the performers. I'm guessing that they had comments about that in previous years. (Also, totally forgot that Celine Dion got her start with Eurovision. And also somewhat confused, what with her being, you know, Canadian. Then, there are random Americans here this year, and I think Norway’s performer last year was actually from Australia, so.)

I do not remember the Ukranian boy band hosts from last year doing the instructions in English and French. I'm guessing in part because as they stated they were very new to English, so handling both would have been a bit much.

And here we go!

Melovin, Ukraine, "Under the ladder". Had a few problems wandering off key at the start, but then the number went insane and he was fine. Seriously, that ending was kind of nuts for a song that really wasn't all that intense. Didn't like it that much, meself, but we shall see.

Amaia y Alfred, Spain, "Tu Cancion". Surrounded by a sea of phone screens on one side, and a stage of things that aren't phone screens but might as well be on the other. It's actually the sort of very sweet ballad that wouldn't tolerate Eurovision-standard overproduction, so the lack of LED screen probably doesn't hurt them at all. No sense of whether or not it will do well, but the audience (and Ross and Shangela) seem to love them. (Cat Valente on Twitter: "Oof, Spain's only special stage effect was heterosexuality.")

Lea Sirk, Slovenia, "Hvala, ne!". A song and performance with attiTUDE, at the least. And about ninety million more flashing laser lights and spotlights than any song needs; I'm not epileptic, but I literally could not watch the chorus because it hurt. I can't imagine how difficult it was to be in the room.

Ieva Zasimauskaitė, Lithuania, "When we're old". A very very small and sweet ballad. If we didn't have the example of last year's winner, I wouldn't think a song this small would have any chance of making it through. Given that there's no projection screen on stage with her, I'm guessing that the images of couples we see next to her can't be seen in the auditorium, so they're aimed squarely at the juries and viewers, all of whom are watching on television elsewhere. And that staged ending, however hokey, was really sweet.

Cesar Sampson, Austria, "Nobody but you". I like the sound of the song, although I think it may have a shade too much repetition. His pants are ... weird. (People, if I, the fashion-impaired, am wondering why his spandex pants have a crotch at his knees, something is decided ODD.)

Elina Nechayeva, Estonia, "La Forza". Oh, Opera. Or at least operatic. And she gets around the LED screen restriction by wearing her own. Man, that skirt is MAGNIFICENT. It also provides all the motion, which is good, because she can't possibly be able to move without screwing up the screen. (Um ... were those sperm cells zipping around on her dress for a hot minute there?) I do wonder how much the auditorium can see, though; the main seating/standing level is all below stage level, and the balconies are all very far away.

Alexander Rybak, Norway, "That's how you write a song". A previous winner performing again. And again, effects that the audience can't see because they're composited into the camera. And it was fun, I guess, and I suppose that's how you write a song, but ... eh. Whatever.

There is a LOT more direct outreach to the auditorium audience this year than there has been in the past. The Slovenian grrrl group asking them to sing along, the Austrian guy saying  "How are you, Lisbon" in a song that really didn't tolerate it, Norway throwing his jacket into the audience ... I wonder how much this is a reflection of them compensating for the LED effects they don't have.

Claudia Pascoal, Portugal, defending champeeen, "O Jardim". Apparently, Portugal has decided that "small and quirky" is their niche, and they're going to OWN that. That said, the song built a little, in a way that last year's song never did, if only a very little.

And now a bit of business, both literal and figurative, in which the entire world sprints for the bathroom. Plumbing system managers around the world are thinking, "What the ... must be a break in Eurovision."

SuRie, Great Britain, "Storm". A very energetic performance, in which some rando grabbed the mic from her to get political. It was handled expeditiously, to put it mildly. She was able to get the audience back with her pretty quickly. Intrusions aside, the song was ... OK, I guess.

Sanja Ilić & Balkanika, Serbia, "Nova Deca". Cant understand a word, of course, but I like the sound and staging. Also the studmuffinly lead singer who set sail on a shorter version of the SS Kaftanic.

Michael Schulte, Germany, "You let me walk alone". It's a very nice, low-ish key song. Again, very simple staging accompanying effects ... although, judging from the reflections on the stage floor, unless the floor itself was part of the effects, the audience actually could see those. I wonder if management changed its mind about the LED screen ... or if he somehow brought his own with him. (EDIT: judging from later acts, the latter.)

Eugent Bushpepa, Albania, "Mall". Very dynamic. I mostly liked the sound of it, although I could have done with less of the falsetto blasts. Back of his jacket was ... odd. And ... that's it. That's all I got.

Madame Monsieur, France, "Mercy". So ... being able to kinda sorta just a little understand parts of the song are throwing me. Not least because it took me a couple rounds to catch up with the concept of "My name is Mercy", and not "My name is Thank you." Not helped by the fact that they were actually playing on that confusion deliberately. That aside, the song was ... very very French.

Mikolas Josef, Czech Republic, "Lie to me".  It's a fun song -- why is he wearing a backpack? -- but good lord, there's a lot of just standing more or less in place this Eurovision. (Well, OK, until the end of the song, for him. Bopping about with dancers and the occasional backflip off stairs is not “just standing in place”, no.) Also, it would have been helpful to have established the context that the other dancers were standing in light boxes bseside him; it looked on screen like they were somewhere else entirely at first. It's one hell of a dynamic performance, I'll give it that.

Rasmussen, Denmark, "Higher ground". Selected to perform the song because he looks like a viking. Which cannot be denied, really. Also, putting him in all black makes him look simultaneously undead and slightly terrifying. (Cat Valente on Twitter: "The lead singer for #Denmark looks like undead bearded Jared Leto when he hasn't had lunch yet.") The choice to stage with a bunch of long-haired burly trenchcoat-clad guys sorta kinda marching around is ... interesting. The song is sort of monotone; the performance is making a LOT more of it than it is, which is saying something. (And again, the appeal to the audience: "Come on, walk with us!" Which explains the marching.) Not quite sure what the snow effects have to do with anything. (The stagehands and crew for Eurovision must be both very good and feel very put-upon by the end.)

Jessica Malboy, Eurofied Australia, "We got love". It's dynamic, and it's ... fine. Although this is as close to typically Eurvision staging as we've had in a while. She did go badly off on her big glory note near the end, but she had a fair amount of song left to recover with.

And another break for business, and for business. The bit with the Serbian ... whatever he was, was very cute. The bit with Cesar Sampson was also very cute; hope he didn't hurt anything. And the bit with the Portuguese pod was also very cute. Cuteness abounded.

A very brief "in memoriam" bit to the first Eurovision winner, who passed away earlier this year.

Saara Aalto, Finland, "Monsters". Weirdly, I mostly like this song a lot. I think parts of it needed ... something, but I have no idea what. It just felt a bit off in places. (Not helped by the fact that nerves pulled her off key a bit here and there.) But that aside, it was energetic and interestingly staged. No sense of how well it might do.

Equinox, Bulgaria, "Bones". A motley of a group, with random Americans, according to Ross. Staged -- and presented -- as a really stark music video, sort of. Everyone in black. (My, this is a grim Eurovision this year.) That said, the blond woman singer does look as though she apported in from some completely different futuristic video. The song was ... fine, I guess. Can't quite see it going anywhere, though.

DoReDoS, Moldova, "My Lucky Day". Clever staging -- VERY clever staging, fifties doorway farce translated to music. Not that fifties doorway farce would have involved quite so much groping. It was really a lot of fun. It's so relentlessly out of anything even vaguely popular that I have no sense of how well it will do, but if there's any justice, that should be at least a top five finish.

"It's a very good chicken, sir."

Benjamin Ingrosso, Sweden, "Dance you off". And apparently some performers did indeed find their own projection stage solutions. Song is ... fine. (Saying that a lot this year, but that's all I got. It's not awful, it's not outstanding, it's FINE. If he were on the US version of The Voice, he would probably win.)

AWS, Hungary, "Viszlát Nyár". Um ... well. It's ... dynamic. Yes. It is ... that. Also apparently a fire hazard. And the lead screamer was barefoot. And the electric guitarist/bassist (couldn't tell which) decided to use Eurovision's audience as a mosh pit. (I bet the lead screamer can't talk after concerts, if he tries do to whole sets like that.)

Netta, Israel, "Toy". I really do love this song. Even the first few seconds have graduated from "intensely annoying" to "kind of growing on me". (They also sound MUCH better without autotune.) Not quite sure that the HEY light board thing really translated. Other than that, the staging is kind of lunatic, in initially small-scale Eurovision tradition. Oh, hey, sparkle shooters! And then the lighting went utterly insane! And then fire! And smoke! Ah, Eurovision!

Waylon, Netherlands, "Outlaw in 'em". A country song. Huh. I wouldn't expect that to do well at Eurovision -- an American-style country song being, you know, not even vaguely Euro-anything -- but as CW songs go, that was fun. Although you can tell that this was European, because he would have been Strongly Discouraged From That Staging here. The black guys having angry violent fits around the white singer was ... yeah. THAT. (Probably deliberately, given that the lead singer had lived in the US for a while, but still.)

Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Ireland, "Together". Low-key, lovely mid-tempo ballad. And I think he’s also been to Eurovision before, so he was able to keep his falsetto strong and on-key until near the very end. A nice all-male romance portrayed by the dancers on the stage and bridge. (Weirdly, given that the song itself is very clearly about the breakup and not the romance. Reportedly, the semifinal performance was censored in China, and the Eurovision broadcasting team promptly yanked China’s license to broadcast the grand final and blocked them.)

Eleni Foureira, Cyprus, "Fuego". It's fun, but still not seeing how this song is one of the favorites. To repeat myself: It was FINE. Lots of fire effects at the end, which, given the titlte, were rather required.

Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro, Italy, "Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente". Lyrics in many languages pretty clearly composited directly to camera -- they must have been in a complete panic when they discovered that they wouldn't have a big LED stage to work with. The song had sort of a nice build that they played with. Beyond that ... it was (say it with me!) FINE.

Honestly, I'm kind of clueless about what to expect. The staging was very low key. Very few of the numbers stood out. At a guess, my picks, vaguely in order, would be:

Israel Finland Moldova Austria Serbia Estonia Ukraine Ireland Cyprus Czech Republic Lithuania Slovenia Spain Portugal Netherlands Norway Sweden Italy Eurofied Australia (Yes, that's right, outside the top ten for the first time) Albania Denmark Bulgaria Hungary France United Kingdom (may do better with sympathy vote for rando invading the stage) Germany

I think the top three that I listed will actually be the top three, but beyond that ... I have no clue. And, to be scruplously accurate, I don't expect Israel to win, although I think they should. I think the geopolitical moment that we're in, which kept Russia out of the final for the first time ever, will also keep Israel from winning.

And now, the interval acts! The first couple singers are really nice. Can't understand a word, but the songs are still lovely.

The skit about the journey to Portugal's win was ... interesting.

And Salvador Sobral himself returns to the stage (sans last year's manbunnage) to sing another "I won't do Eurovision style" song at Eurovision. Which, to be fair, is a very nice sounding lament ... which his movements on stage do not at all match -- I wonder if he usually performs with a guitar or something and just has no idea what to do with himself. Or maybe I'm missing a lot because I don't speak Portuguese. Either way, he just looks odd up there.  ... oh. And now the song acquires tempo as he plays the piano like a drum. (In all seriousness, this is the most Eurovision-style performance I've seen from him; adding in a certain dynamism along with a certain amount of "What is he DOING?") And then he performed his Eurovision-winning song with a person who I guess is his idol. And the audience sort of sang along. (I wish I liked that song more, and I did like it better than last year’s Eurovision performance. Because that was a Moment.)

Interesting that Ross and Shangela, when they picked their top five, had almost NOTHING in common. They both had Israel and Germany in their top five, but nothing else.

And now: the jury vote! And judging from the early vote, the juries are going to be all over the place; Israel, for example, has been in second on one ballot, third on another, out of the top ten on the third and fourth jury ballots, first on the fifth; Cyrprus has a first and a few random other points; France has one first place (...the hell?), and not a single top ten vote anywhere else, and so on. But apparently the pre-competition love for Cyprus was justified; they're doing very well. But countries are bouncing all over the rankings in ways that they haven't the past two years. (Barring a massive televote result, it does seem clear that Eurofied Australia will indeed finish outside the top ten this year.) Unfortunately, Moldova is getting hammered in the jury vote, so they won't finish in the top five. SO UNFAIR!

Halfway through the jury vote, a pause for whatever reason, in which they cover the Eurovision young musicians orchestra very briefly. Israel very narrowly leads Austria and Cyprus. A pattern is emerging, slowly, that if Austria, Germany, Cyprus, Israel or Sweden isn't shown in a particular national jury's top ten, they will usually be the first place vote. Usually. But not always. (Hungary gave their 12 points to Denmark. And again: the hell?)

The green room for Eurovision is MASSIVE. For some reason, I thought all the pods were somewhere front of house. Also, Cesar should forego mentioning his Twitter password methods on international television.

Russia's jury got booed in the auditorium during the jury vote. (I do not have the slightest idea what Shangela was talking about when she said there was a hush in the auditorium.) This may go some to explaining their first-ever shut out from the Grand Final.

Unlike the past two years, at the end of the jury vote, it was utterly unclear which country would win. Last year, Portugal would have needed an unprecedented collapse in the televote to lose (it won the televote, so it didn’t matter); this year, it could easily go to either Austria or Sweden having a roughly equal shot, and Israel, Germany, and even Cyprus (which dropped back to fifth) having a not-unreasonable chance.

And now, the public televote results! Sweden, shockingly, finishes well down the public vote, so now their chances depend on Austria and Israel getting hammered. (Which does not happen.) And the public televote is ... weird. Seriously, how did Hungary do so well? And Austria does not win the televote, or even do particularly well! Serbia does well in the televote! But does not do well enough to matter! Ditto Norway! Moldova did very well in the televote, indicating that some people out there had decent taste!

Weirdly enough, as soon as they announced the fifth highest score, it became apparent that either Israel or Cyprus was going to win, because Austria getting hammered in the televote meant that they couldn't maintain first place. Italy, somehow, miraculously, managed a top three televote result, but finishing third meant that they couldn't win, because they got hammered in the jury vote.

Second place in the televote goes to ... Cyprus!

ISRAEL WINS! ISRAEL WINS! WOO-HOO! 

I only got one of top three (and two of the top six) right (and Germany kind of epically wrong), and it was (sort of) the winner! Woot! And other nonsense noises! (Cat Valente on Twitter: "YES YES YES WEIRD #EUROVISION RETURNS TRIUMPHANT TAKE THAT BLACK SUITS AND EARNEST BALLADS ALIEN CHICKEN MUSIC FOREVER!")

Next year's Eurovision will be in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, belike. That should be ... interesting. (I'm guessing probably Tel Aviv ... although one of the announcers did just say Jerusalem. Well. That may be ... fraught.)

While I am glad that Netta won -- I really did think it was the best song and performance -- part of me was secretly wanting Austria to win so that next year we could have Conchita and Cesar co-hosting. But I am really happy about this result.

One of the things I both love and hate about this type of competition. "Hey, Netta, you have just won the biggest competition of your life! Now, get it all together and perform for us! RIGHT NOW! No, you can't take the trophy with you ... Oh, all right, take the trophy. LOOSE THE CONFETTI!"

[jessiewre]

Day 61 & 62

Thurs 5th & Fri 6th Mar

Written April 2020

How did our Africa trip end I hear you ask?

Can’t believe how much has happened since my last post. Strange to look at that. March 4th seems like a year ago! And like only yesterday at the same time. We had just arrived at Arusha town in Tanzania after Phil’s Kilimanjaro half marathon and we were trying to get ourselves organised for some safaris.

Little did we know back then that we would be landing back in the UK less than 3 weeks later...

But before I go into all that, lets start off back in Arusha...

We had arrived at Arusha and hit a bit of a slump. Phil’s big race was over and we were being slow and unproductive in organising ourselves. Maybe he was suffering with a bit of post race blues (I, on the other hand, certainly was NOT and was positively thrilled our lives were no longer centred around RUNNING and we could stop talking about it. Ok not quite, start talking about it less).

I also got a broken tooth which used up a lot of time and energy. Two things we arguably had quite a bit of I appreciate, but still - finding a dentist on google in a random foreign country is not fun (and its not the first time I’ve done it either - shout out Mexico 2018). Our Dentiist criteria went something like this - Which Dentist looked the most like an actual real dentist, and Which Dentist had reviews that looked the least like they’d all been done by the same person. One Dentist had reviews by 10 people all with the same surname I kid you not.

Luckily the Moldovan couple at Dentist Tanya gave, at the very least, a reassuring smile on arrival. I stared at their teeth wide-eyed to try and get an idea of their standards (thats a Densists CV right there isn’t it), but it was too quick and suddenly I was in the chair agreeing to some sort of drilling and digging. Then somehow agreeing to not only going back the next day, but also 10 days later for a check up. Brilliant.

Oh well, at least we knew that we’d actually be there 10 days later, as Phil’s friend Chet’s arrival date of March 16th was edging closer. 
However this was definitely one of the main reasons we’d hit a bit of a wall.

We still hadn’t worked out the best plan for Chet’s itinerary. We were going back and forth with companies each day, talking through options and prices, then checking the options with Chet. We would spend the whole day doing research, then he would reject them based on price being too high - so we’d ask him his budget and he would simply say ‘Oh well you know me, I’m super chill go with the flow kinda thing, whatever is a good price’.

Yeah, not very useful mate.

So while not doing much in Arusha, apart from trying to work all this out and decide what safari’s we would fit in before Chet arrived (while eating a lot of Hot Plate curry), we met a nice Irish couple in our hostel. Sean & Jane*. We were all chatting away nicely and they mentioned they’d booked a pretty good deal for a 5 day safari. It was with a tour company that had been recommended by another traveller they’d met. Bingo! This was exactly what we’d needed! We were procrastinating with all these safari options and getting all mixed up, so this was a really useful tip off. They were only on a 2 week holiday so had got themselves well organised and done a lot of research for the best price too. Almost like they’d done all the hard work for us! We took the details of the company and decided we’d get in touch ourselves and see what was available. At some point. No rush like, as we still didn’t know what we were doing with Chet yet - so no point booking anything else!

And we were quite busy trying out all those curries right.

However, we soon realised that the issue with Chet’s itinerary was potentially our own doing, not Chet’s.

We realised we were acting like we had a tour company of our own and needed a 5* review at the end of it, so we were treating Chet like he was an actual client. We were trying to make his trip super duper crazy magical and therefore we were trying to do too much. In more detail - we were trying to take him to the Ngorongoro crater park, an incredible once in a lifetime experience to visit a sunken volcano national park FULL of nature. We figured we should give him the best possible considering he only had time to visit one park!

But it was actually not practical in the time we had, plus it was really expensive, and PLUS Phil and I were probably going to visiting there before Chet arrived anyway, as you had to go through it to visit the Serengeti park. That would have made it a twice in a lifetime trip for us then, which would have been fine if it wasn’t for the extremely hefty price tag that went with it. I won’t bore you with any more details.... but yeah, maybe Chet wasn’t the problem at all. We just needed to stop pushing him to do the crater tour.

By the time we’d realised all this and Chet had given us the go ahead to sack off the crater for his safari, it was the evening before the Irish couple were heading off. They were really excited for their big safari trip the next day and we sat chatting with them that evening while Phil sunk a ton of beers and sung some tunes with the hotel manager. We eventually went to bed promising we’d be up the next morning to wave them off.

It was my first thought the moment I woke up. Why weren’t we just going on the same safari trip with them?? We’d been hesitant to do it initially as we didn’t really know them and didn’t want to seem weird, but we all seemed to get on fine, so why not?

I nudged a snoozy Phil and told him my idea, but his response was a slurry ‘Don’t be ridiculous’ before rolling over to face the other way. But I looked at the clock - we still had an hour before they were being collected. Was it really that crazy? Looking back at Phil who was already snoring again, it seemed like it was.

So I got up and showered and pottered outside to see if they were up yet. I had a brief chat with them while they polished off some spanish eggs and sort of joked that I was jealous they were going and that I wish we’d booked it too. I glanced at them to gauge their reaction. They politely agreed and said Yeah, we should have.

Hmm...that seems fairly inviting...was there still time?

I went back into the room and saw that unbelievably, PHIL WAS AWAKE and getting into the shower. There was a glimmer of hope...

It was approaching 8am when Phil made it out of the room to the communal area and then he also said to them that He wished he was going on safari that morning too.

I think we were both sort of sounding them out to see what their reaction was, if they would mind us gatecrashing, even though neither of us were convinced we should definitely go...
But they just said ‘Yeah give the guy a call and see eh. They’re not collecting us for another 20 minutes’ anyway.

Phil looked at me.

‘Should I?’ he said

I looked at Phil.

‘Should you?’ I said.

We held the gaze for about 3 seconds before I interjected

‘Screw it, just call him and see’.

Well, 2 minutes later, Phil and I were scrambling our stuff into our bags, throwing clothes around the room like crazy and desperately trying to prep for a 5 day camping safari! Nothing like a bit of last minute spontaneity to make you feel alive!

Or make you sweat profusely and want another shower, knowing you probably won’t get a proper one for the next 5 days.

Or both those things.

Luckily the drivers were a touch late and I kid you not, the guy collecting us walked in literally as we zipped up the final bag. Our hotel had even prepped our breakfast for takeaway for us those lovely legends (on my request obvs, never one to miss a free meal me).

We all headed outside and there were two jeeps instead of one. Didn’t expect that.

Then the guy said ‘Two in one, two in another’

Oh. So we would be in separate vehicles? That was a shame. Hopefully wasn’t for the whole trip.

It still felt like we were the ones gatecrashing and we didn’t want to bulldoze in, so we shrugged at the Irish couple and said ‘You guys pick then. We’ll just go into the other’.

Well. They got in the front jeep, we got in the back one.

And it was the best decision we never made.

*Those are not their real names. Considering everyone in Ireland knows everyone then I figured I’d keep it vague before Phil’s family realise one of them is actually a friends uncles nephews boyfriends cousin’s cousin.

[smolfangirl]

A last word

Lutteoficweek Day 7:  “It’s very rude of you to make me fall in love with you. Inconsiderate, really.”

This went over way too fast but it was a lot of fun and stress but everything is stress to me lately and I want to thank everyone who liked and tagged and spread some love! Love you all ❤

Her parents might have named her after the moon, but all her life Luna heard how she was more like the sun, always shining and warm and genuine, always brightening up a day. However, even someone like her could get mad and Luna was this close to exploding. The reason, naturally, stood in front of her in person of an arrogant Italian boy and wore the cockiest grin she’d ever seen.

“Matteo, what was that supposed to be?”, she lamented because he had added some new moves again, and it got on her nerves too much to keep ignoring it. “What did it look like?”, he teased her but she refused to give him the satisfaction of another banter.

Instead, Luna rolled her eyes and simply put on the music, hoping he’d get it right this time.

Since Juliana assigned them both the main roles for the next competition, Luna had to put up with twice the amount of training and twice the chico fresa. Now they used the empty rink for the last half an hour before closing time to “get into the story, to feel it”, as Juliana put it earlier. According to her, the dance told the stories of two lovers and if Luna was being honest, she felt that part way too well when she skated with Matteo. In fact, she felt it around him all the time, skates on or not.

Okay, maybe not right now, since he drove her insane with his inability to stick to the choreography. Either he pulled her too close or lifted her up or whirled her around when it wasn’t what they were supposed to do. At all.

Of course, he repeated these moves and of course she found herself too close to him when they finished the sequence. Looking up, her eyes settled on his lips before she got lost in the sweet comfort of his brown eyes.

Luna broke away.

He had to stop messing with her like this on purpose. She needed to learn these moves by heart if she wanted to impress their trainer and flirting with him certainly wasn’t the way to go.

“You can’t always do that, Matteo, there are rules. You know how strict Juliana is, you can’t just change the steps all the time!”, she growled. He chuckled, unnervingly amused. “You need to relax, chica delivery. I’m only improving the choreography.”

With crossed arms, she snorted and took a step back, increasing the space between them just to be sure. “Improving? That’s what you call it?”

Still nothing but a stupid grin on his face. “Look, I get it”, Luna went on, sick of the training, sick of dealing with him, sick of fighting back her feelings, “You don’t want me to be your partner, but can’t you just tell me now, or go to Juliana and ask if you can skate with Ámbar? You’re her little favorite after all, she’d probably do everything for you. But I can’t afford to screw up, okay?”

Finally, the grin disappeared. However, the astounded expression replacing it didn’t make sense either. “Wait, who says I don’t want you as my partner?” Luna huffed. “Well, you certainly act like it.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” He mirrored her, crossing his arms as well, his mouth drawn into a stiff line. She should have seen it coming, Matteo’s mood changed faster than the Argentinian weather, but in this moment, all it did was piss her off more. Why did she have to develop these messy, complicated feelings for him?

“It means you’re rude,” she snapped. A rant built up inside her, one she had no idea hid in her. Like a hurricane in its beginning it spread out until she felt it ripping through her skin. “Rude? Me?”, he shot back, obviously offended.

That’s when she seriously was done. The most done.

“Yes! You’re rude! You stick neither to the rules nor to the choreography and you don’t care if that means you’re disrespecting Juliana and you always want to have the last word, and then, then you skate around here like you own the goddamn place but guess what? You don’t. Or you’ll ask me something and expect me to spill out all of my secrets while at the same time you never tell me anything. You’re so secretive, like what, I don’t deserve to know the real Matteo? Is that your way of telling me I annoy you?”

Her breath went hard and quick, being the only sound cutting through the silence. Matteo stared, his jawline clinched and she realized his walls were up, way too high for her to reach out. How she despised him in this moment, how she despised his attitude and the way he looked down on her like she could never compare to him and the way it still looked so hot although it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all, arrogance was not supposed to be so attractive.

A grunt escaped her mouth. “Ugh, whatever, I am done here.” With that, she skated off, not looking back, not seeing how his eyes followed her until she disappeared and not seeing how his walls crushed down to reveal a baffled and broken-hearted boy.

She kind of expected him to ignore her the next day.

He had every reason to, Luna figured late at night when their conversation ran through her head repeatedly while she tried to fall asleep. He had every reason and yet, he acted completely normal – normal as in like the snob he was – when she bumped into him in the hallway. It got even worse, in fact. Every time he ended up in her view he shot her those long glances, and winked and raised his eyebrow and it made no sense. Why did he look at her like that, even when she had said all those harsh things?

Shouldn’t he be fuming with anger? Shouldn’t he be running to Juliana first thing after school and ask her to switch partners?

None of this happened, though. Instead he waited for her outside, standing in the sun like a perfectly crafted statue from Ancient Greek. Only as their eyes met and it was too late for her to turn around and run away, he moved and walked up to her. “Matteo, eh, hi”, Luna stammered. “Going to the rink, chica delivery?”, he wanted to know, his voice so soft she wondered if she dreamed. Or hallucinated.

Hesitating, she nodded.

“Uh, about yesterday – I’m sorry. I overreacted and… sorry, really. I had no right to say all that stuff.” With her glare stuck on the ground, she didn’t dare to look at him. “It’s okay”, Matteo replied with what sounded like a smile on his face, “We’ll just practice it again and do it your way if it makes you feel better.”

Now she had to check. Indeed, he smiled. Weird. But whatever was going on, she had to admit she kinda liked it.

It felt like a switch had turned on inside of Matteo overnight. He no longer invented new steps or tried to “improve the choreography”. He focused on her as if she was the sun in the sky, the fixpoint in the galaxy that he revolved around. There was no shyness in his compliments, no resentment in his explanations when he told her where she went wrong and how she could fix it. Within half an hour, he lifted her spirit until the skates under her feet turned into wings taking her up high, higher than ever.

Although somehow, she still waited for him to lash out at her or at least tease her. However, nothing. During one of their short breaks, Luna just felt compelled to ask: “Why aren’t you mad at me?”

A grin slipped on his mouth. “I can’t really be mad at you for caring about the competition or me, right?” Luna stared at him, speechless. A knot settled in her throat as she discovered the mischievous spark lighting up his eyes. How did he…? “I do not”, she meant to disagree, but he interrupted her right from the top. “Aww, you don’t have to deny it, it’s alright.”

Luna had no idea how to reply to that, how to get out of this without lying or worse, admitting the truth. Because she cared about him, of course she did, just letting him know that felt too soon, too uncertain in its consequences. “Hey, do you want to go through the song once more?”, Matteo proposed upon realizing she wouldn’t respond. She nodded with a relieved smile on her lips.

Luckily, no one else skated on the rink, because ending up so close together already embarrassed Luna enough without any spectators. Usually his brown eyes drew her in, made her forget about the world around them. Not today. Today they awoke her senses, awoke every cell in her body until she felt them all buzzing from excitement.

“Beautiful”, he whispered. His hands offered her the support she so desperately needed when this tiny single word caused her knees to tremble.

“You know what’s the rudest thing you do?”, she muttered, lost in the moment. Immediately, he pulled back, hands gone, mouth drawn into a stiff line, walls up. Again. “There is something else? And I thought you had listed everything already.”

Luna smiled at him, tried to reassure him she wasn’t in the mood to pick another fight. “The rudest thing is that you make me fall in love with you and it’s not fair and inconsiderate and you need to stop.”

“What?”

At his wide-eyed startled expression doubt reached out to her heart, grabbed it in its cold strong hold. “I have to go.” The words stumbled over her lips and then, her feet were stumbling away from him. How foolish she’d been, confessing her feelings without thinking, without paying any attention to the possible outcome.

“Wait, Luna, no!”, suddenly Matteo moved behind her. Next thing, his hand grabbed her arm, whirling her around. “Did you just say you’re falling in love with me?” She shook his hand off. “I… I really need to go. Right now.”

“Luna, you can’t just drop a bomb like this on me and then leave. We need to talk about this! Please.” A certain despair painted his voice, but he still didn’t return her feelings and she still wanted to crawl under her blanket and hide there forever. “There’s nothing to talk about, let me go”, Luna shouted. Her cheeks burned like fire and she wanted him so bad to tell her he liked her too, to save her from this humiliation. Except for once, he wouldn’t save her.

She skated off the rink.

“And what if I told you I’m in love with you too?”

Her feet froze on the spot. “You’re not”, Luna mumbled. “I know, yesterday you said I’m rude because I always try to have the last word but believe me, I am. I am so, so, so much in love with you.” And because nothing worked better to guarantee he indeed had the last word, he kissed her.

She didn’t mind him being a rude boy anymore.  

[wwewrestlemania35]

WWE WrestleMania 35 Card, Date, Rumors, News, Predictions, and Matches

WrestleMania 35 is on the horizon! WWE’s biggest show has been a staple since the 80s and has given us plenty of fantastic moments. From the days of King Kong Bundy crushing Special Delivery Jones in mere seconds to Braun Strowman pulling a child out of the crowd to help him win the tag titles, WrestleMania has been the wrestling show with the brightest spotlight.

Then again, the Raw and SmackDown after it are way better. The NXT TakeOver show the night before is pretty much superior too. The Hall of Fame ceremony...? Eh.

Get ready for the long haul because not only is it a huge stretch of wrestling shows, but WrestleMania itself is extremely long these days.

WRESTLEMANIA 35 DATE & TIME The show will take place on April 7, 2019 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

WWE HALL OF FAME CEREMONY As always, a lengthy Hall of Fame ceremony will be available on the WWE Network. The inductees so far are D-Generation X, The Honky Tonk Man, Torrie Wilson, and Harlem Heat.

NXT TAKEOVER: NEW YORK On Saturday April 6, NXT will have a big show of its own. No matches are announced quite yet, but the TakeOver before WrestleMania tends to be an extra special one due to writing off major names so that they can appear on the main roster on the Raw and SmackDown of that week.

WRESTLEMANIA 35 MATCHES BROCK LESNAR (C) VS. SETH ROLLINS BROCK LESNAR (C) VS. SETH ROLLINS Universal Championship Years ago, Seth Rollins shocked the world by cashing in Money in the Bank during a title match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns and pinning Roman. He and Brock had a title match shortly after, and Brock most definitely dominated, but Seth was rescued by the Undertaker. In the years that followed, Brock would rise again to the top and would regularly feud with the likes of Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Bill Goldberg, and others.

read more: The 100 Worst Moments in WrestleMania History

Seth Rollins regained his mojo and courage over time. He has been one of the top heroes of Raw, especially with Roman being sidelined with leukemia. Rollins won the 2019 men's Royal Rumble by last defeating Braun Strowman. On the next Raw, Paul Heyman talked up how much of a mistake it would be for Rollins to challenge Brock. Rollins stormed out and started attacking Brock, only to eat several F5s in a row. A weak Rollins egged Brock on and ate one more for good measure.

Since then, Rollins has been making it sound like Brock is his white whale. He will take down Brock or destroy his own career trying. He did make a good point, though, about how Brock has had the most problems with the smaller opponents (ie. Finn Balor and Daniel Bryan) and he'd use that to his advantage. Paul Heyman tried to have Rollins taken down by a surprise Shelton Benjamin ambush, but Rollins defeated him and moved on.

BECKY LYNCH VS. RONDA ROUSEY (C) VS. CHARLOTTE FLAIR Triple threat for the WWE Raw Women's Championship Last November, when Survivor Series played up Raw vs. SmackDown and all the champion vs. champion bouts, the one many looked forward to was Raw's Ronda Rousey vs. SmackDown's Becky Lynch. Ronda had been dominant in the Raw women's division, but Becky was the first to really humble her in the lead-up. This included a segment where a bloodied Becky beat Ronda down with a chair and posed in the crowd, looking like a battle-damaged million bucks. Unfortunately, she suffered a legit injury from a nasty Nia Jax punch during that segment and they had to drop the match. Charlotte was chosen to replace Becky and had a bit of an episode late in the match. She snapped and got herself disqualified by beating Ronda with a kendo stick.

The three-way feud continued when Becky defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Asuka and Charlotte Flair. Ronda walked out and shoved Becky and Charlotte off the ladder, allowing Asuka to win. Becky got another match against Asuka, but ended up tapping out.

Although Becky wasn't listed as a competitors in the women's Royal Rumble, an injured Lana meant that only 29 would compete. Becky insisted on taking her place and it was granted. She ended up defeating Charlotte in the end. On the Raw after, she got in Ronda's face and made it clear that she's going after the Raw Women's Championship.

read more: The 50 Greatest WrestleMania Storylines

Unfortunately, an altercation between Becky and Charlotte led to Becky aggravating her injured knee. She refused to have WWE doctors look at it out of fear that the brass wanted an excuse to keep her out of the match. This led to her attacking Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, which gave her an ultimatum: apologize or miss her match. Becky apologized, but Vince McMahon decided to suspend her for 60 days anyway, causing her to miss WrestleMania. Charlotte was brought out as her replacement.

At Elimination Chamber, Ronda easily defeated Ruby Riott with Charlotte watching at ringside. As the two had a staredown, Becky hobbled to ringside with her crutches. She then beat down both of her rivals with said crutches before being escorted out of the building.

On Raw, Becky got arrested for showing up to attack Ronda one more time, but Ronda desperately pleaded with Stephanie McMahon to reinstate Becky and put her back in the match. Ronda discarded her title and left, feeling that the championship was being disrespected. Stephanie later agreed to bring back Becky and have Becky vs. Charlotte for the vacated title. This angered Ronda, who claimed that she never truly vacated her title. Instead, Stephanie had Becky vs. Charlotte decide whether or not Becky would be involved at WrestleMania.

At Fastlane, Charlotte seemed to have the injured Becky taken care of, but Ronda ran out and attacked Becky for the sake of having Becky win.

TRIPLE H VS. BATISTA No Holds Barred For the 1,000th edition of SmackDown, all four members of Evolution appeared for a reunion. Batista made a reference to how Triple H never beat him, which he played off as being all in fun. Months later, Raw was holding a celebration for Ric Flair's 70th birthday. When Flair was supposed to appear, they instead showed him getting beat up by Batista backstage. This was apparently Batista's way of getting Triple H's attention.

Things got weird, mainly because they were trying to build to a match where Batista was the heel and the dickish authority figure was the face. Triple H did a goofy worked shoot promo that gave people plenty of second-hand embarrassment. Eventually, it was decided that the two would square off at WrestleMania and there would be no rules.

Batista later explained his actions as being sick of Triple H taking credit for his accomplishments while also being a bit pissed about the real-life situation where Triple H didn't think Guardians of the Galaxy was going to be much of a success. Of course, Michael Cole tried to respond with talking up what a wonderful man Triple H actually is, causing everyone to roll their eyes.

SHANE MCMAHON VS. THE MIZ At Crown Jewel, Miz took part in a tournament to crown the Best in the World. During the finals, he endured a leg injury and had to bow out against his will. Shane McMahon decided to replace him, despite it being the finals and Shane being fresh, and was able to defeat Dolph Ziggler. Miz handled it well and considered he and Shane to be "co-besties." He then started bugging him about being his tag team partner. Shane was reluctant and annoyed, but accepted the offer once Miz opened up about how he was trying to win the love and respect of his father.

The two immediately climbed to the top of the tag division and won the titles off The Bar. Soon after, they lost to The Usos and lost again in a rematch. Both times it was Miz who ate the pin. As the two walked off from defeat, Shane attacked Miz from behind, thrashed him a bunch, and assaulted Miz's father. Shane later said that he was sick of being used by others and announced this upcoming match with his former tag partner.

KURT ANGLE VS. BARON CORBIN Since returning as Raw GM a few years ago, Kurt Angle has had a handful of matches in WWE. Recently, he's accepted that his time is coming to an end, so he's decided that WrestleMania will be his farewell match. As he spends the weeks taking on those who look up to him like Apollo Crews and Chad Gable, he's chosen Baron Corbin as his final opponent. As his former assistant, Corbin undermined Angle repeatedly and took over his role for a while. Now Angle wants to humble him before he rides off into the sunset.

AJ STYLES VS. RANDY ORTON The two tentpole members of the SmackDown roster have recently been clashing, including Orton pinning AJ in the Elimination Chamber and AJ knocking out Orton out of nowhere at Fastlane. The two got to air out their grievances in the ring and went back and forth in looking down at each other's histories and accomplishments. Finally, AJ made the challenge for WrestleMania and while Orton slinked away from ringside, he ultimately accepted.

THE ANDRE THE GIANT MEMORIAL BATTLE ROYAL Since WrestleMania XXX, there's been a throwaway battle royal featuring the men on the roster who don't have anything else going on. Former winners include Cesaro, Big Show, Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley, and Matt Hardy. So far, only Braun Strowman is announced for this match and it will apparently tie in with his head-scratching feud with the two Weekend Update guys from Saturday Night Live. Sure, why not.

WRESTLEMANIA 35 RUMORS AND LIKELY MATCHES Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship is practically a done deal, for sure. Kofi's star shot up right before and during Elimination Chamber and a match was signed for Fastlane. WWE seemed to realize what they had on their hands and had Kofi screwed out of it, presumably to give us a match at WrestleMania instead. All he has to do is...win a gauntlet match against a big pile of opponents. Hoo boy.

The Women's Tag Team Championship will probably be defended in a Fatal 4-Way with Sasha Banks and Bayley defending against Nia Jax and Tamina, Beth Phoenix and Natalya, and The IIconics.

Expect the the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal. Maybe they can figure out a non-problematic woman to name that match after this time around.

read more: The History of WrestleMania Battle Royals

Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns is on the plate after McIntyre beat the returning Roman so badly that he seemingly suffered a concussion. McIntyre then made short work of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins (with a little help from Brock Lesnar) and laid down the challenge for Roman.

Buddy Murphy will be defending the Cruiserweight Championship. Against who? Well, we have to wait for an eight man tournament first. As of this writing, it's down to Tony Nese and Cedric Alexander.

[fromtheringapron]

NWA Starrcade 1986

Date: November 27, 1986

Location: The Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia.

Attendance: 30,000 (combined)

Commentary: Bob Caudle and Johnny Weaver (Greensboro), Tony Schiavone and Rick Stewart (Atlanta).

Results

1. Tim Horner & Nelson Royal defeated Don & Rocky Kernodle.

2. Brad Armstrong fought Jimmy Garvin w/Precious to a time limit draw.

3. Hector Guerrero & Baron von Rascke defeated Shaska Whatley & the Barbarian.

4. No Disqualification Match for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Russian Team (Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev) (champions) defeated the Kansas City Jayhawks (Bobby Jaggers & Dutch Mantel).

5. Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel defeated Rick Rude w/Paul Jones.

6. NWA Central States Championship Match: Sam Houston (champion) defeated Bill Dundee. 

7. Hair vs. Hair Match: Jimmy Valiant w/ Big Mama defeated Paul Jones. 

8. Street Fight: Big Bubba Rogers w/Jim Cornette defeated Ron Garvin.

9. First Blood Match for the NWA World Television Championship: Tully Blanchard w/ James J. Dillion defeated Dusty Rhodes (champion) to win the title.

10. Skywalkers Match: The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) w/Paul Ellering defeated the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey) w/Jim Cornette & Big Bubba Rogers.

11. Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) (champions) defeated the Anderson Brothers (Ole & Arn).

12. NWA World Heavyweight Championship Match: Ric Flair (champion) fought Nikita Koloff to a double disqualification. 

Analysis

Perhaps you wouldn’t know by watching it, but Starrcade 1986 takes place right at the beginning of Jim Crockett Promotions’ downfall. NWA’s cornerstone promotion is struggling to amass a wider audience like its rival WWF, most of it their own doing. However, what makes it all seem cruel are the events beyond their control. This edition of Starrcade was to mark a new era. Magnum T.A., their answer to Hulk Hogan, was to become the top babyface when he challenged Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. But tragedy struck one month before the show. Magnum T.A. got into a car accident and sustained career-ending injuries. Nikita Koloff took his place to challenge Flair, without much time to develop a title chase.

So, despite the grave misfortune, how does Starrcade 1986 hold up? Well, it’s not a disaster. There’s no doubt this show would be more fondly remembered if Magnum T.A. emerged triumphant at the end, but it works fine as a testament to Jim Crockett Promotions’ iconic roster. The Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, the Road Warriors, and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express are just a few of the legendary figures involved. Several of them are in the midst of storylines and matches still discussed today. Nikita Koloff fairs quite well in the main event despite having been a career heel just a few weeks prior. The double disqualification ending is unsatisfying, but it’s clearly the right decision. Having Koloff or Flair win would have been too risky to pull on an audience still reeling from Magnum T.A.’s sudden exit.

One can’t help but notice how Jim Crockett Promotions is doing its best to differentiate Starracde from the WWF’s family-friendly WrestleMania. Several matches on this show feature blood or more extreme match types like street fights. The most notable example is the scaffold match, the other selling point of this show. The clip of Jim Cornette falling from the scaffold remains one of Jim Crockett Promotions’ enduring moments, to the point where it’s forgotten the match itself is incredibly dated. It harkens back to wrestling’s carnivalesque desire for spectacle, with little regard for the well-being of its performers. The Road Warriors and the Midnight Express do play it safe for the most part, but that’s more out of protection for their bodies than anything.  

The show probably would have been better off if it didn’t go overboard with the gimmick matches, as it mistakes quantity with quality in that regard fairly often. The street fight and no disqualification tag match barely register. The most disappointing of them all is the first blood match, which should’ve been a classic but instead is just set a piece to screw Dusty Rhodes out of the World Television Championship. It’s screwy endings that are beginning to alienate Jim Crockett Promotions’ fanbase and one of the factors leading to their downfall, especially when it comes at the expense of beloved babyfaces. Even if Magnum T.A. went on to main event this show as planned, it’s not hard to imagine fans around this time fearing he’d be screwed out of the world title as well.

My Random Notes

It’s good scaffold matches aren’t a thing anymore. The concept is too dangerous and you just know with all the high spots wrestlers take today it would probably result in death eventually.

Who could’ve imagined the Hector Guerrero here is the same Hector Guerrero who plays the Goobeldy Gooker four years after this?

During my research for this show, I discovered how Pez Whatley turned heel, and I think it’s pretty warped. I’m not expecting a mid ‘80s wrestling promotion located in the southern region of the country to be progressive, but it’s to my understanding that Whatley turned heel when Jimmy Valiant made a racist comment about him and this, um, made Valiant the good guy? It’s so backwards, but the situation leading to the heel turn still occurs today. Marginalized people are vilified for reacting to microaggressions in any way that’s less than compliant. It’s just as true now as it were in 1986.

I can’t just ignore the Magnum T.A. video package airing right before the main event. Like, I get they wanted to show a tribute video for him, but surely they could’ve just used footage of his best moments in the ring and not him running across a beach. The WWE Network version also plays this corny yet catchy country song over the video, which pretty much completes it.

I’m in favor of random filler matches and all, but I must say the opening match seriously looks like it were put together by drawing four names out of a hat.

Not really sure on the reasoning behind having this show take place from two separate locations, although I will say they do it much more seamlessly than the WWF did with WrestleMania 2 earlier in the year.  

Pretty bizarre hype job for the Bunkhouse Stampede, eh? It’s Nelson Royal reminiscing about the match over an open fire with a tone of voice suggesting he murdered a few campers right before filming.

I like how the early Starrcades give regional titles like the Central States Championship a chance to shine. The surplus of titles in the NWA gives Jim Crockett Promotions this expansive, universal feel even when it mainly operates in the southern region of the United States. There are rivalries even over the smallest championships, which builds an aura of competitiveness around the promotion.

The camera pans to the crowd during the National Anthem, all of them clearly not giving a fuck except for one woman who seem really happy to be there. #merica