#every animal I wanted to use a pic of he had on file

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Mammalia - Rodentia

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our next and last order of the Glires clade is the Rodentia. Rodentia is the largest order of mammals, with about 40% of mammal species being rodents. Rodentia is comprised of the families… *deep breath*… Anomaluridae (“scaly-tailed squirrels”), Zenkerellidae (“Cameroon Scaly-tail”), Pedetidae (“springhares”), Castoridae (“beavers”), Geomyidae (“pocket gophers”), Heteromyidae (“kangaroo rats/mice” and “pocket mice”), Ctenodactylidae (“gundis”), Diatomyidae (“Laotian Rock Rat”), Bathyergidae (“African mole-rats”), Heterocephalidae (“Naked Mole-rat”), Hystricidae (“old world porcupines”), Petromuridae (“Dassie Rat”), Thryonomyidae (“cane rats”), Chinchillidae (“chinchillas” and “viscachas”), Dinomyidae (“Pacarana”), Caviidae (“cavies”), Dasyproctidae (“agoutis” and “acouchis”), Cuniculidae (“pacas”), Abrocomidae (“chinchilla rats”), Ctenomyidae (“tuco-tucos”), Echimyidae (“Nutria”, “spiny rats”, and “hutias”), Octodontidae (“degus” and kin), Erethizontidae (“new world porcupines”), Dipodidae (“jerboas”), Sminthidae (“birch mice”), Zapodidae (“jumping mice”), Calomyscidae (“mouse-like hamsters”), Cricetidae (“hamsters”, “voles”, “lemmings”, “muskrats”, and “new world rats/mice”), Muridae (“true rats/mice” and “gerbils”), Nesomyidae (“Malagasy rats/mice”, “climbing mice”, “African rock mice”, “swamp mice”, “pouched rats”, and “White-tailed Rat), Platacanthomyidae (“spiny dormice” and “Chinese pygmy dormice”), Spalacidae (“mole-rats”, “bamboo rats”, and “zokors”), Aplodontiidae (“Mountain Beaver”), Gliridae (“dormice”), and Sciuridae (“squirrels”).

The distinguishing feature of rodents is their pairs of continuously growing, razor-sharp, open-rooted incisor teeth. These incisors have thick layers of enamel on the front and little enamel on the back. Because they do not stop growing, the animal must continue to wear them down so that they do not reach and pierce the skull. Some rodents have elastic cheeks or even cheek pouches for storing food. They usually have flexible fore limbs with five digits, including an opposable thumb, while the hind limbs can have three to five digits. The majority of species are plantigrade, walking on both the palms and soles of their feet, and have claw-like nails. Many rodents have well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and vision. Nocturnal species often have enlarged eyes and some are sensitive to ultraviolet light. Many species have long, sensitive whiskers for touch. Some have prehensile tails, some have vestigial tails or no tails at all. Rodents are highly diverse, having evolved to fill a large variety of niches and filling almost every land-based habitat on Earth. There are terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal, semi-aquatic, herbivorous, omnivorous, insectivorous, and carnivorous rodents. Rodent species use a wide variety of methods of locomotion including quadrupedal walking, running, burrowing, climbing, bipedal hopping, swimming, and even gliding. Many rodents have advanced cognitive abilities, and display advanced feats of memory and intelligence.

Sexual dimorphism occurs in many rodent species. In some rodents, males are larger than females, while in others the reverse is true. Rodents exhibit a wide range of types of social behavior ranging from the caste system of the Naked Mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), the extensive "towns" of the colonial prairie dogs (genus Cynomys), through family groups to the independent, solitary life of the edible dormice (genus Glis). Beavers (genus Castor) live in extended family units typically with a pair of adults, and both their recent kits and older young. Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) usually live in small colonies with up to six females sharing a burrow and one male defending the territory around the burrow. The Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster) is monogamous and forms a lifelong pair bond. Female rodents tend to play an active role in choosing their mates. Factors that contribute to female preference may include the size, dominance and spatial ability of the male. Rodents may be born either altricial (blind, hairless and relatively underdeveloped) or precocial (mostly furred, eyes open and fairly developed) depending on the species. In many social species, young may be cared for by individuals other than their parents, a practice known as alloparenting or cooperative breeding.

According to the fossil record, Rodentia arose in the Paleocene, probably in Asia, shortly after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. Some molecular clock data suggest Rodentia had already appeared by the Late Cretaceous, although other molecular divergence estimations are in agreement with the fossil record.

Propaganda under the cut:

Many rodents are “ecosystem engineers”: species which have a huge impact on their habitat. Ecosystem engineers are important for maintaining the health and stability of the environment they are living in. Beavers (genus Castor) (see gif above) are often used as the prototypical ecosystem engineer example, because of the impact their dams have on channel flow, geomorphology, and ecology. Beavers can create entire wetlands, habitat which is then used by millions of other species. Ground squirrels such as Groundhogs (Marmota monax) and prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) perform substantial modifications by burrowing and turning soil. They are able to influence soils and vegetation of the landscape while also providing burrows that are used by other species. Many tree squirrels bury nuts over a widespread area (scatterhoarding), and often forget them, resulting in entire new generations of forest diversity being planted.

Two distinct, unrelated groups of rodents evolved the ability to glide with a membrane between their front and hind legs. These are the Anomalurids (“scaly-tailed squirrels”) and the Flying Squirrels (Sciurid squirrels of the tribe Pteromyini) (image 4). Sciurids are most closely related to the Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia rufa) and dormice (family Gliridae). Anomalures are most closely related to springhares (family Pedetidae) and the Cameroon Scaly-tail (Zenkerella insignis). The only other mammals to evolve this gliding ability are the colugos and the some possums. This is an example of convergent evolution, where arboreal, climbing mammals found a way to more easily travel from tree to tree.

Springhares (genus Pedetes) (image 1) sleep standing up, with their head and forelimbs bent down in between their hindlegs, and their tail wrapped around their feet.

Beavers hold territories and mark them using scent mounds made of mud, debris, and a vanilla-like musk called castoreum—a liquid substance excreted through the beaver's urethra-based castor sacs. Castoreum was historically used for a variety of medical purposes; Pliny the Elder promoted it as a treatment for stomach problems, flatulence, seizures, sciatica, vertigo, epilepsy, hiccups, toothaches, and envenomations. By the early 20th century, castoreum began appearing in some foods to add a vanilla-raspberry flavor. But its use had fallen by 1987, when the U.S. consumed about 250 pounds of castoreum per year. Since then, its use has decreased significantly, now mostly found in niche foods such as Swedish liquor and some perfumes.

The Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) was hunted almost to extinction for both its water-resistant fur and castoreum by the early 20th century. Beaver hats were fashionable across much of Europe between 1550 and 1850 because the soft yet resilient material could be easily combed to make a variety of hat shapes (including the familiar top hat). Demand was so high, that when Eurasian Beavers could no longer be found, the gaze of European fashion turned to the New World and the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis), which was then also hunted to near-extinction. A shift in fashion trends toward silk hats may have been the only thing that saved these two species. Today, after considerable conservation efforts and reintroductions, both beaver species have recovered from this severe over-exploitation.

Gundis (family Ctenodactylidae) can climb up almost vertical surfaces.

The Naked Mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is highly unique for many reasons, one being that it is the only mammal with an almost entirely ectothermic (cold-blooded) form of body temperature regulation. They also lack pain sensitivity in their skin, have very low metabolic and respiratory rates, are resistant to cancer and oxygen deprivation, and can live over 37 years. Naked Mole-rats are also eusocial, forming a complex social structure which includes a reproductive division of labor, separation of reproductive and non-reproductive castes, and cooperative care of young. The only other eusocial mammal is the Damaraland Mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis).

Another example of convergent evolution involves spines. Both Old World Porcupines (family Hystricidae) and New World Porcupines (family Erethizontidae) (image 2), as well as spiny rats (genus Tokudaia) and spiny mice (subfamily Deomyinae), are not particularly closely related to each other. We also see spines in the even more distantly related hedgehogs, tenrecs, and echidnas. Many groups of small animals around the world seemed to have turned their mammalian fur into this unique defense mechanism.

Chinchillas (genus Chinchilla) have the densest fur of all living terrestrial mammals, with around 20,000 hairs per square centimeter and 50 hairs growing from each follicle. This gives them some of the softest fur in the world. Unfortunately, this has made their fur highly desirable for the fur trade, and both species of chinchilla are now endangered. A single, full-length coat made from chinchilla fur may require as many as 150 animals. Domestic Chinchillas descended from the Long-tailed Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) are sometimes kept as pets, and are also bred and raised on fur farms.

The largest rodent ever known to exist was the the extinct, bison-sized Josephoartigasia monesi. Today, its only living relative is the much smaller Pacarana (Dinomys branickii).

The Greater Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest living rodent, growing to 106 to 134 cm (3.5 to 4.4 ft) long, standing 50 to 62 cm (1.7 to 2 ft) tall at the withers, and typically weighing 35 to 66 kg (77 to 146 lb). Capybaras are highly social, and semi-aquatic, and can hold their breath underwater for up to five minutes at a time.

The Domestic Guinea Pig (Cavia porcellus) was domesticated from the wild Montane Guinea Pig (Cavia tschudii) as early as 5,000 BC by indigenous peoples in the Andean region of South America. Originally bred for its meat, the Domestic Guinea Pig is bred today for scientific research, for various color and coat types in shows, and as a pet. Their docile nature, friendly responsiveness to handling and feeding, and the relative ease of caring for them have made Guinea Pigs one of the most popular pet rodents.

The agoutis (family Dasyproctidae) are some of the most gracile rodent species, having an almost antelope or deer-like appearance, complete with hoof-like toes.

The beautiful Norway Lemming (Lemmus lemmus) is known for being one of the most aggressive rodents, despite its small size. When cornered by predators (including humans), they have been known to go on the attack. This is thought to be an attempt to deter predation by using their bold coloration, loud calls, and aggressive behavior to advertise their ability to harm small predators.

The Maned Rat (Lophiomys imhausi) is the only known poisonous rodent. Its long hairs are spongy, fibrous, and absorbent with a honeycomb structure. The rat is known to deliberately smear these hairs with poison from the bark of the Poison Arrow Tree (Acokanthera schimperi), on which it chews. Its mane of hairs absorbs the poison, thus creating a defense mechanism that can sicken or even kill predators which attempt to bite it.

The Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) is a semi-aquatic rat native to Australia, and fills a similar niche to river otters, hunting a variety of aquatic animals including fish, crustaceans, shellfish, eggs, mammals, frogs, and small reptiles.

The Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the most successful rodents in the world, living wherever humans live. They have adapted to survive well in urban environments, a genius survival strategy in an increasingly human world.

Domestic Rats are also called Fancy Rats (Rattus norvegicus domestica), and were bred from Brown Rats in 18th century Europe, when rat-catchers who caught and bred rats for rat-baiting noticed that some of their rats were prettier and more docile than the others. These rats were dressed up in ribbons and sold as pets. It was said that people who kept pet rats were struck with “rat fancy.”

Brown (and by extension Fancy) Rats are highly social and groom each other, sleep together in “piles”, play fight, emit ultrasonic “giggles” when excited, and show empathy to both their fellow rats and their bonded humans. In laboratory tests they have been shown to have intelligence levels rivaling that of primates, remembering complex mazes months after completing them, problem-solving, using tools, learning by watching other rats, planning ahead, and recognizing when they know something vs when they don’t. In laboratories and in peoples’ homes, rats can quickly be taught to come when called, play fetch, do agility courses, sort recycling and trash, and drive cars.

Fancy Rats are the best “exotic” pets and I currently have 9 of them. Their names are Magpie, Blue Jay, Raven, Versace, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Nordstrom, and Porcini. I don’t have a photo of all of them together because have you ever tried to get a group photo of 9 rats? If Rodentia makes it to Round 3 I will Try.

As an adaptation to life in the desert, Australian Hopping Mice (genus Notomys) can concentrate their urine to as high as 10,000 mOsm/L (10-20 times higher than a human).

The Earless Water Rat (Crossomys moncktoni) is the most aquatically adapted rodent in the world. It has long hindfeet with completely webbed toes, strongly reduced forelegs, absent or invisible ears, very small eyes, and soft, waterproof fur. It resembles the Elegant Water Shrew (Nectogale elegans), another example of convergent evolution.

The Fancy Mouse is the domesticated form of the House Mouse (Mus musculus), which was domesticated in China sometime before 1,100 B.C. Today, Fancy Mice are available in dozens of different colors, markings, and coat types, and are popular for their small size and relatively inexpensive care.

Southern Giant Pouched Rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) are trained by the Tanzanian group APOPO ("Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development" in English) to sniff out land mines and detect tuberculosis with their highly developed sense of smell. The trained pouched rats are called HeroRATS. In 2020, a HeroRAT named Magawa received a People's Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal, the animal equivalent of the George Cross, becoming the first rat to receive the award since the charity began honouring animals in 2003. Before retiring in 2021, Magawa detected 71 landmines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, clearing over 2,421,880 sq ft (225,000 m2) of land in Cambodia during his 5-year career, preventing many deaths and injuries. Magawa died from natural causes at the age of 8 in 2022.

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) have a highly advanced language, with their alarm calls conveying information about not only the type of predator that’s been sighted, but also how big it is and how fast it’s approaching. Their calls contain information on whether a dog is a coyote, wolf, or domestic dog, with the colony changing their response depending on the predator. Their alarm calls even have language for the researchers studying them, and will change depending on the height and clothing color of the observing human.

168 species of rodent in 126 genera warrant conservation attention, but getting the public, and even scientists, to appreciate rodents is often an uphill battle, as many people associate rodents with the most familiar Brown Rats and House Mice. Since 76% of rodent genera contain only one species, much phylogenetic diversity could be lost with a comparatively small number of extinctions.

[sematarygirls]

stop i’m literally so in love with your acc, it’s gorgeous!!!! missed you sm. need to start writing or creating something again tbh but idk what.

anywaysss had this super cool drummer!rafe idea where they’re all like mid-20s and were suspected of murder (maybe a roadie died or an ex bandmate??)

buttt there you are interning with the local police department (aka nancy drew nerd) and go poking around (woah somehow you end up in rafe’s arms what a coincidence). maybe he did it or maybeee he didn’t, who knows. ur just a silly little inter.. right?? unless ofc this wasn’t the first time you met and you both did it together?

anyways do what you wish with this, feel free to let it rot. ur a genius mastermind either way. ily mwahhh

(here’s some drew pics mini moodboard bc why not)

Partners In Crime — Rafe Cameron.

pairing: drummer!rafe x policeintern!reader

summary: your internship at the kildare county sheriff's department proves extremely useful after ex-bandmate of local rock sensation, morphine animals, is found murdered.

warnings: smut! semi-public sex, unprotected p in v, murder, inaccuracies regarding police work

word count: 3.6k words !

a/n: this request is AMAZING omg!! your mind is literally so incredibly brilliant. i am so incredibly jealous. i just want to scoop it out and study it because your plots are always so genius it's insane. also, i got a little freaky with this request. i don't know where it came from, but i hope yall enjoy. side note, i know nothing about police stations or internships beyond what I've seen on tv, so this is most likely very far from anything that would happen in real life.

✶ . ࣪ ׅ   You cursed quietly, swatting a mosquito away from you as your fingers danced along the collection of files, skimming through the box of evidence labeled "Ryder, Elliot". It was July, and the summer was in full swing. the air was thick and heavy, causing a layer of sticky sweat to cling to every inch of your body. The cramped storage room seemed to be at least 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the police station, and it had the added bonus of recycled air that smelled of dust and mildew.

Your gaze flickered between the door and the police report in your hands, readying yourself to be caught any moment now. Technically, you weren't supposed to be looking at anything in this room. You were simply an intern, and as such, your jobs mostly consisted of clerical work like running the front desk, answering phones, and filling out the occasional police report—typically for some misdemeanor offense that they had granted you competent enough to navigate your way around.

On a normal day, you did not have clearance to be in this little room with all the important documents pertaining to cases ranging anywhere from vandalism to first-degree murder. However, on this particular day, you had been instructed to organize and clean the records room, ensuring that everything was dusted off and placed in alphabetical order.

You knew you weren't really supposed to take a peek into any of these boxes, but when you saw the name Elliot Ryder on one of the boxes, you simply couldn't help yourself. It was the biggest case your town had seen in the last decade.

"Local rock legend Morphine Animal's ex-band-mate found murdered" had been splashed across headlines for weeks, each news site ranging from local to national discussing the case and their theories, but surprisingly much of the case had remained a mystery.

Morphine Animals had been practically untouchable ever since they skyrocketed to fame. It was truly fascinating how quickly they went from small-town rockstar wannabes to household names. They became a national sensation practically overnight, and it all started when Elliot Ryder was fired as the band's drummer and replaced by Rafe Cameron.

You remembered it vividly. Elliot went around telling everybody who would listen how he was cheated out of fame. The other three band members had been his childhood best friends. The band was their passion project and they had vowed to do it all together, but then, one night, they just dropped him out of the blue, and Rafe Cameron took his spot.

People couldn't help but wonder if the band's colorful history had anything to do with the murder. The whole situation would've made more sense if Rafe was the one murdered. It would be open and shut. Elliot killed Rafe to get back at him for taking his spot and stealing the fame that was "rightfully" his, but revenge just doesn't quite sit right with the case being turned around.

Rockstar drummer that has it all kills small-town drunk nobody? It just doesn't fit.

You turn your attention back to the police report in hand. You didn't have much time left before someone inevitably needed a file or came to check on you, so you needed to focus, read it, and put everything back where you found it before that happened.

Case Number 0608

Responding Officer: Sheriff Susan Peterkin

On 06/28/2023 at approximately 2100 hours, I responded to a noise complaint at 2971 Shorecrest Drive.

I knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. I announced myself as the police and knocked once more, but again, received no answer. I looked into the window for signs of life, and saw Elliot Ryder laying prone on the living room floor with a pool of blood around him. I immediately radioed for assistance and kicked down the door. I checked his pulse and discovered that Ryder was deceased. While I waited for assistance, I secured the scene. At approximately 2110 hours, Deputy Victor Shoupe, Officer Danielle Lyonne, and Officer Franklin Hewitt arrived on scene. Officers Hewitt and Lyonne canvased the surrounding homes and took their statements to find out if anyone had seen or heard anything. Their individual statements are enclosed. Deputy Shoupe called for the coroner and cordoned off the area while I began assessing the crime scene in a spiral method. Pictures included document the blood patterns and shattered glass discovered at the scene. No murder weapon was discovered.

I instructed Deputy Shoupe to stay at the scene and await the coroner's arrival while I headed back to the station. At approximately 2330 hours, I left the scene.

Your eyebrows furrowed in concentration as you read over the report. You used the back of your hand to wipe the beads of sweat that had formed on your forehead—created from a mix of the unbearable heat and your growing nervousness as the moments ticked by—stopping them from dripping down your skin.

Your gaze darted to the door once again before returning to the files, pulling out a series of pictures that documented the crime scene.

He was found on his stomach, the hair on the back of his head matted with blood. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, and it was very evident from the crime scene photos.

You turned your attention from the photos documenting his body to the ones showing the state his living room had been left in. There was broken glass from a shattered mirror near the front door coating the carpet, and the living room looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Furniture had been turned over, his belongings strewn about in a disorganized fashion. It seemed like whoever had been there was looking for something.

Something in one of the photos caught your eye. It was small, almost imperceptible, but the flash from the camera reflected off something imbeded into the cream colored carpet just beneath the table that Elliot's body was found beside.

Your brows furrowed as you brought the photo closer to your face, squinting to get a better look.

The sound of footsteps approaching made you jump. You quickly folded the picture and shoved it into your pocket before placing the photos and police report back into the box and hauling it onto the shelf.

"Hey, kid," Deputy Shoupe peeked his head inside, the sound of him chewing his gum seemingly reverberating off the walls. You turned, your face flushed, and your heart practically beating out of your chest. You had managed to get everything in order moments before he opened the door.

"Uh, yes, sir?" You cleared your throat, brushing away a strand of hair that had gotten stuck to your sticky forehead.

"Boss lady needs the Ryder files," he informed you, still smacking his gum. The sound filled your ears, somehow louder than the beating of your own heart.

You nodded, swallowing hard as you turned and grabbed the box, the piece of paper in your pocket feeling like it weighed a ton as you carried the heavy box over to him. "Can I ask why?" You worked up the courage to ask, handing him the files, your palms sweaty as you pulled back.

"Just got done interviewing Rafe Cameron," he told you, propping the box under his arm. Your eyes widened a fraction. Why was Sheriff Peterkin reinterviewing him? Was there new evidence to connect him to the murder? "So, she wants to take another look at the evidence."

"Oh," you simply said, the room seeming to grow hotter. "Whew, god, it's hot," you huffed, fanning yourself. "Are you hot?" You asked, clearly not doing well at playing it cool.

"You alright kid?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow curiously at your odd behavior.

"Yeah, I think I'm just gonna step outside and get some air," you nodded, suddenly feeling very suffocated in the stuffy atmosphere.

"Sure, whatever," he shrugged, clearly not all that interested in you or your actions as he turned on his heels to deliver the box to Peterkin.

You hurried down the long, grey corridor, pushing the backdoor open harshly when you arrived at it. Outside wasn't much cooler, but the small, shaded alleyway provided reprieve from the sun's unrelenting rays. You took a few deep breaths, feeling better now that you were breathing fresh, clean air.

"You look like shit," a voice piped up. Your head whipped to the side, eyes finding the source. Rafe Cameron was leaned up against the wall, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. He was wearing a white tank top that clung to him like a second skin. the heat was just as unforgiving on him, his muscles glistening and his hair sticking out in all directions, a few strands clinging to his slick forehead.

"Excuse me," you scoffed, crossing your arms over your chest. Truthfully, you knew you probably did look like shit. You were sweating like a pig, your clothes clinging to you uncomfortably, and after hours of running your hands through it and being subject to intense humidity, your hair was undoubtedly frizzy and wild.

Rafe pushed off the wall, taking one last drag before flicking the cigarette onto the ground and crushing it under his boot. His blue eyes locked onto yours, amusement dancing in them as he approached you. "I'm just sayin'," he drawled, his voice a low rumble.

"Yeah, well, you don't look too hot yourself," you rolled your eyes. It was a lie, of course. Somehow, he even made sweating to death in the sweltering July heat look sexy. It was utterly infuriating.

He grinned, amused at your attempt to insult him, but he could see right through you. "You mad at me or somethin'?" His hand reached out and wrapped around your wrist, his grip sending shivers down your spine.

"You just said I looked like shit," you glared at him. The heat was making you irritable, and it didn't help that his stupid fucking earring—that you'd told him twenty goddamn times to take out—had showed up in a crime scene photo.

Rafe's thumb began to trace circles on the inside of your wrist, his touch sending electric jolts through your body. "C'mon, you know I was just teasing you, baby," he murmured, his voice soft and seductive. He knew how to play your body better than he knew how to play his drums.

You stubbornly pulled away from him, ignoring the way your body reacted to his touch. "You're lucky I got saddled with file room duty, asshole" you gritted out, pulling the picture from your back pocket and shoving it into his muscular chest.

Rafe wore a silver stud in his ear, a staple of his rockstar persona, and that little glimmer of reflected flash in that crime scene photo was that stud, which had fallen out during the murder.

Thankfully, it hadn't been logged into evidence and had been completely overlooked by the bumbling small town crime scene techs, so you only had to take the photo to keep that little piece of incriminating evidence from ever being discovered.

Rafe glanced down at the photo, his expression unchanging as he took it in. He looked back up at you, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You worried about me, babe?" He asked, his voice laced with mockery, but there was a harder edge to it that betrayed his unperturbed demeanor.

"No," you shot back, your brows furrowing in frustration. God, the heat was making you bitchy. "I'm worried about myself. I mean, I covered up your little fuck up perfectly. The last thing I need is for you and your lame ass jewlery to fuck me over."

Rafe's hand snaked out and wrapped around your throat, his grip tight but not painful. He backed you up against the brick wall, his eyes boring into yours. "You think I can't take care of my own shit?" He asked, his voice a low growl. His patience was clearly wearing thinner and thinner by the second. He was already agitated at being ripped away from band practice to do this little song and dance with the police. The last thing he needed was you bitching at him and challenging his capabilites.

"If you could take care of your own shit, you wouldn't have called me in the middle of the night panicking because you fucking killed someone," you retorted, not backing down. You weren't afraid of him in the slightest. You knew what he was capable of, but it didn't scare you. In fact, there was a twisted part of you that liked knowing about his violent side.

Rafe Cameron had been the one to kill Elliot Ryder in cold blood, and he'd called you up moments after because he knew your experience as a police intern would come in handy. You had rushed over and helped him stage the whole thing as a burglary gone wrong. Unfortunately, Rafe hadn't realized his little wardrobe malfunction until it was too late to go back and retrieve it.

His face darkened, his hand tightening around your throat. "I had it handled," he hissed. "Until you showed up and decided to play detective." His other hand reached down, gripping your hip possessively. "You're supposed to be on my side, not throwing my mistakes in my face."

"Then stop making dumb fucking mistakes," you spat, your jaw clenching in annoyance. You could feel your panties growing wetter by the second, which only fueled your frustration toward him. You hated how he could still make you want him even when he was being a complete asshole.

Rafe's face twisted with anger, but beneath it, you saw a flicker of something else—desire. He leaned in close, his breath hot against your lips. "You know, I should just shut you up for good," he muttered, his grip on your throat unyielding.

"Yeah?" You asked, your voice almost taunting. "You gonna kill me, Rafe?" You looked him in the eye, not backing down. "Who's gonna clean up your messes then, huh?"

His expression turned grim, and for a monent, you thought he might actually do it. But, then, without warning, he crushed his mouth to yours in a rough, bruising kiss. His hands tightened further on your hip, pressing against your body and pinning you in place.

He bit down hard on your lip, drawing blood. His tongue darted out, lapping up the blood and soothing the wound as his thumb rubbed over your pulse point, feeling the way your heartbeat quickened with desire. His mouth tasted of nicotine, stale beer, a slight hint of mint, and then the metallic taste of your blood on his tongue. If it were anyone else, you would've recoiled in disgust, but something about him was intoxicating.

He was so close you could feel his bulge pressing into you, and it only made you want him more. You didn't care that you were pressed against a wall in the back alley behind the police precinct, in fact, something about it, the potential thrill of getting caught, turned you on more.

Rafe's hands moved to grip your ass under your skirt, roughly palming the fatty flesh with his rough hands. He broke the kiss, his lips moving to your neck, where he bit down hard enough to leave a mark. "You drive me fucking crazy," he growled.

"Yeah, well you're fucking insufferable," you said breathlessly, tilting your head to the side and threading your fingers into his hair as he continued his assault on your neck.

He grunted in response, his hands squeezing your backside painfully before he pulled away to fumble with his belt, the buckle clanking loudly in the otherwise quiet alley.

As he fiddled with his belt, you took your opportunity to latch your lips onto his neck, the salty taste of his skin mixed with the thin layer of sweat coating him danced on your tongue as you sucked and nipped at the areas you knew would drive him wild.

Rafe's breathing hitched as you marked him, his body stiffening. He finally got his belt undone and his pants unbuttoned, shoving them down just enough to free his hard length.

He gripped your thighs, hoisting you up and pressing you hard against the wall as your legs wrapped around his waist. "Think you need to learn your place," he said darkly, pulling your panties to the side.

With one swift movement, he thrust deep inside you, filling you completely. He held you pinned against the wall, his hips rolling into yours in deep, punishing thrusts. "You're supposed to worship the ground I walk on," he muttered, his voice ragged.

You gasped, your fingers digging into his shoulders as he began to move, his powerful hips snapping back and forth as he pounded into you. His blue eyes, darkened with lust, locked onto yours, watching your face intently.

"Answer me," he demanded, his voice low and menacing. He slowed his pace, his hips rolling leisurely, his thick length stretching you wide. He knew his slow pace was like torture to you. "Tell me you worship me, baby."

"Fuck," you moaned, your face scrunching in a mix of pain and pleasure as the brick wall dug uncomfortably into your back. "I worship you, Rafe."

A smug grin spread across his face at your words, his pace quickening as he continued to slam into you, his hips rolling in that way that always hit that spot inside you, making you practically see stars. "Good girl," he praised, his lips finding yours again.

Your arms snaked around his neck, fingers curling into his hair and tugging slightly as his mouth swallowed your little whimpers and moans.

He released your mouth, his head tilting down to watch where you were joined. He let out a low groan, his body tensing as he watched himself disappear inside of you. "Look at you taking me so well," he gritted out, his pace quickening.

You gasped when you felt his thumb begin rubbing tight circles on your clit, drawing you closer and closer to the edge. "Such a dirty fuckin' girl," he growled. "Letting me fuck you in an alleyway, behind a police station no less." His lewd words only served to heighten your arousal.

His other hand reached up to wrap around your throat, applying just enough pressure to make you dizzy as he continued to pound into you. "I'm going to fill this pretty little cunt with my cum," he snarled, his voice echoing off the brick walls.

His words paired with his grip on your throat and the way he was pounding into you sent you over the edge, your eyes rolling back as you moaned his name.

His hand on your neck tightened possessively as you came apart for him, his own release following shortly after as he felt your walls squeeze down on him, milking his cock. He buried his face against your neck, his breathing hot and ragged against your skin. "That's my girl."

You panted, your head falling back against the brick as you caught your breath, your mind reeling as the weight of what you'd just done crashed over you. It was reckless and stupid to have let that happen, especially behind the police station you worked at. If anyone saw you, it could raise some serious red flags.

Rafe slowly lowered you back to the ground, pressing one last kiss to your swollen lips before tucking himself back into his underwear and pulling his jeans up, refastening his belt. He leaned against the wall beside you, lighting a cigarette as he looked you over with a lazy smirk. "Try not to look so guilty."

"Don't be an asshole," you shot him a sharp look, fixing your skirt and blouse. Now, you had to go back to work and act as if you didn't have a murderer's cum leaking out of you.

Rafe took a long drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out in a slow stream. He watched you intently, his eyes glinting with amusement as he observed you straighten your hair and adjust your collar, trying to regain some semblance of professionalism. "I'll pick you up after your shift. We've got a few more things to discuss."

"You can't pick me up here," you said, crossing your arms over your chest.

Rafe raised an eyebrow, pushing off from the wall and taking a few slow steps closer to you. "And why not?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. He knew very well why not, but he wanted to hear you say it.

"Don't play dumb, Rafe," you rolled your eyes. He could be so very infuriating when he wanted to be.

"Say it," he insisted, his voice firm. He took another step closer, towering over you. "Tell me why I can't pick you up here." His hand reached up, his fingers brushing against your cheek in a deceptively gentle touch.

You huffed frustratedly, narrowing your eyes at his insistence. "Because you killed Elliot Ryder, and I'm your fucking accomplice," you relented.

Rafe's hand tightened, gripping your cheeks firmly, his touch bordering on painful as he leaned down, his lips brushing against your ear. "Shhh," he whispered, his voice dark and threatening. "You shouldn't go around saying things like that, baby."

You glared up at him, your annoyance evident in your gaze. Everything always had to be a game with him, and sometimes it utterly maddened you.

Rafe's lips curled into a smirk as he pulled back, his hand falling away from your face. "I'll pick you up around the corner," he said, as if the matter was settled. He took another drag of his cigarette before tossing it to the ground and heading down the alleyway to his car.

You watched him leave, your gaze burning holes into his back for a moment as he retreated before you shook your annoyance away, pulling the back door to the station open and heading back inside.

[brothrbear]

Month 8

This thing on? I still don't have braille down and can't tell if this is a triangle or a circle… guess that's a good segue into this month's physical changes. I know the last email said you wanted to start with a rundown of what occurred, but that's kinda related to… well everything that's been changing.

I noticed it a little bit after our last appointment, you know, the one where I described having minor hallucinations? Well, my face felt numb. I didn't pay it much mind, but after that the numbness just kept spreading. First my face, then my neck. I couldn't even hold a soup spoon, I didn't have any proprioception. I was getting the bare minimum of touch, temperature and pressure. I didn't have any soft touch, Carter basically had to keep me from crushing my phone the whole week. I think I broke every coffee mug in the house. Ah, right, I also am completely off of all but the smallest bits of fruits, grains, and vegetables. I can't stomach eating fresh fruit…

Which… leads into the incident. I don't remember how it happened, but I got out of the house. Carter said the door was wide open, but I swear the last thing I recall was laying down to listen to some Welcome to Nightvale. I had a migraine and I was just gonna sleep it off. It's not really important, what is important is that I wandered 19 miles, ended up back at my parents’ house, no idea how or why. I say my parents, but it was really the house across from theirs. Nice older woman used to live there when I was in highschool. She had a plant food recipe that she never taught me, but that stuff worked miracles. Uh… I ended up eating like a pound and a half of it before the current owners ended up finding me. I knew them pre-transition… no one really filled them in on it.

I guess they called the police? Thought they'd do animal control, though it's more likely they dialed 911 and just got whoever. Well, I wasn't really mentally aware of anything, and when the police tried to rip me away from it… well you probably got a copy of the police report. My fur impaled him, like, full on ripped out of my skin and stuck in him like cactus spikes! Which is both exciting and horrifying. I ended up coming to, leaned up against a police cruiser while my parents spoke with my former neighbors. They were way more understanding about this, though I guess I should have expected that. These are the people who made sure I was fine after I made roadkill out of their mailbox.

The charges on that side of things got dropped, though I did technically assault an officer. My lawyer said the DA is probably going to drop it seeing as I'm not human enough. Though he worded it more like an insanity plea than anything having to do with biology. Not sure how I feel about that. Honestly my emotions have been all over the place. I got mood swings with estrogen but this is on another level… Probably just the last gasps of my endocrine system.

What else… What else? Oh! Right, I'm back at work! Not customer facing, but they have this crazy intense surgical light they needed testing, and it's putting out enough light I can actually see! Well, sort of. It's this xenon bulb that gets really hot so I can only have it on for ten minutes at a time. It really only works on my chest and hands, but I can see well enough to replace batteries. Hell, I rebuilt a VS4 after its speaker crapped out. My manager doesn't want me pushing myself, or talking to any of the nursing staff until they get a full memo out. Like you they assumed the changes would be slower, didn't expect someone green to show up after 8 months. My claws file down really well into screwdrivers, I got a flat head, a security head, and I even hollowed one out a bit yesterday to get it to take off a bolt! My hand grew back into a multitool!

Ah! Scatterbrain, my hand fell off! Like literally the same day as our appointment! I can't believe I almost forgot. Carter’ll send some pics, but my body felt stiff, and he helped massage me. He's adorable, wore a maid dr… a normal outfit and offered to help unknot my plant fibers. Well… he gets to my hand and the thing just falls off! Fully dead, pop, shlorp, thud! Didn't even hurt. I panicked a little immediately after I felt my own hand hit me. Doesn't help when your significant other is also freaking out. He calmed down first. I guess the fact I wasn't bleeding took the edge off? He described it as a pit of blue meat with the smallest bit of bone exposed.

After a bit of water and time the thing regrew sans a thumb. I don't mind. My left thumb was always shorter than my right, guess my body just hated it. No biggie either way, it's fully usable and I can even make it bend so I don't need my thumb. Once I can see again I'll see if I can still Robinhood some arrows.

Ahem… I think that's everything. I got my refill in a few days, excited to have this wrapped up, what was it you said? Right! “At double pace!” Barely a year in and my body is nearing a tipping point. There's a joke to be made about overachieving. Heh… this is the first time I'll get some kind of victory and be chastised for doing too well with it, huh? Next time, see if you can do external changes much slower.

I'll see you in about 5 weeks. I know, cutting it to the other end of February, but I couldn't get the scheduling right for getting to Hypercity. T.H.E.M.S. could accommodate me, but SE doesn't exactly do work in any interdimensional shops, not for a lack of trying. They're trying to leverage me as a Therian as some sign that they're with the times. It's a load of bullshit. I'm really hoping they're not using me for photo ops, I feel like a show pony.

The recording doesn't stop, it seems Behr left it on.

Fucking hell, go away! I'm not interested in getting a jump on the next journal entry. I don't need to make one unless another thing happens. No. No. Also no. I think my missing hand regrowing actually counts for more than mentioning the knife in my foot. If it hit me in the chest, of course I'd have told the quack that. Look I'm not gonna argue with you over what is and isn't scientifically necessary for him to change his formula. I adore the idea of others being plants, yes, but he doesn't need to know every little detail of… No I'm not talking about that!!! That's exceptionally private! And really really embarrassing. Yes, and ironic, thanks, a plant being allergic to pollen is hilarious!

A loud creak and a few steps can be heard before a door closes. The recording contains another 5 minutes of muffled voices likely belonging to Behr and Carter before it ends.

*   *   *

The subject's treatment is progressing far too fast. With the associated mental symptoms I am sadly reminded of Ms. Mulberry. Hallucinations were one thing, but losing time, assaulting police, and uncharacteristic mood swings? I've sent in an order to lower Behr’s dosage, one month on a lower dose should allow for me to stall until our next session.

She's approaching her crossroads quickly, though I am confused on why she is experiencing so many mental changes. Her reported pain, save for her pre-existing migraines, has been the lowest level among any current subjects. Pain and stress are what correlate to a loss of humanity in most cases, though instances like Ms. Mulberry and Behr bring this into question. Their mental changes are both independent of pain, and may be more physiological. My current theory is that by changing the “hardware” of the brain you invite a change in the “software”. For instance, cutting the corpus callosum can lead to a patient’s hands disagreeing on choices even if the patient is unaware.

If that's the case, it's likely why she went on her exodus. The body craved something and it used existing memories to find it. Non-animal instincts tacked onto a persistence hunter. This could make for a fabulous thesis, I doubt she'd mind slowing her treatment so I can study her more intently. She was interested in doing this as a drug trial and has been collecting even more data on her vitals than my average patient.

It could even give me a chance to alter her emotional status. It looks bad when my patients run afoul of the law, both within and without Hypercity. It might be helpful if I grease the wheels a little with her employer. Specific Energy HealthCare shouldn't be too bad for the hospital. Speaking to the board could yield promising results, and being able to witness her changes first hand would be most helpful.

Regardless of how I move forward, this has given me hope that further treatments thought outside the realm of possibility might become possible. It also makes me wonder if we should open up further facilities. If mental health continues to be an issue with these treatments we may need to hire a full time Psychiatrist. T.H.E.M.S. has a wonderful support group, but a specific therapist trained to work with Therian patients might yield more positive results. It may also become necessary as a number of patients are nearing a point of instability that requires us to halt all treatment.

[samedragontime]

Krita

If I were facing the same way as the character, I'd say left.

All my personal stories now are stories I've had since I was a child, just more refined, thought-out, and gay.

Macan Gadungan from Tokyo Afterschool Summoners. He's fun to draw but doing his hair gives me a brain adema. It's terribly specific as far as length, consistency, color, and all that, despite it not actually looking that complicated at all.

Maybe online 80/20 for myself

I get a lot of subconscious inspiration from videogames and book-readings.

Watercolor. It's beautiful and sophisticated while also being messy and untamed. I will never be good at it ever.

I used to have a published comic called "Consistently Inconsistent." The idea was similar to Shen's "Bluechair," but I started it durring a rough period in my life and never got into it because of that. I won't ever revamp it.

A one-word file name describing the picture, with -wip for WIPs (of course), -sk for sketches, -lineart for... line art, and some other miscellaneous shit.

Traditional Thai clothing. It's so pretty that it's my mind's eye's ideal look for kind of clothing. We should all wear and learn more about traditional Thai clothing.

Any kind of music that I'm in the mood for.

Nothing about the human body is simple so nothing about it is easy to draw. (I like drawing faces so I'd say face.)

Georgia O'keeffe. I love her paintings, but I'm not interested in taking those aspects with me.

Long hair and defined lips. Every man, woman, other gender, or genderless person is getting sexy lips here.

At my desk, on my bed, or the couch.

Nothing I can think of.

Nope. When I'm drawing, I'm only drawing. If I get distracted by fiddling with anything else, I stop drawing.

Barely any. I used to take good care of my shit. Now I'm a digital artist, and other than Microsoft's shitty surface pens, I have nothing to break.

Morning Glory flowers. Just like traditional Thai clothing, it has a certain quality of beauty that I strive to empliment into my art.

Hands. People say hands are hard to draw. I disagree. I like them. I don't have much of a problem. (Use your own hand as a reference!)

Not the whole of the art style, but cross hatching used a lot in manga. I always use cross hatching.

Strech out and pop my fingers.

I use vector layers when I do lineart, which is almost never. (So no.)

On occasion yes. Mostly for animals though.

Uh... nothing I can think of right now. But I've been told I look like Jacob Elordi.

Nothing, people don't comment on my art because it's borring. (This isn't a self-burn or self-degridation, my art is boring and I don't care, I draw boring art because I like to.)

I draw busts of my characters to warm up.

No.

This question covers a lot of stuff, so I can't answer it.

Uh... IDK. Maybe my pic of Bonnie from FNAF Ruin. I really liked that one and people seem to think it sucks. I don't really care about that shit anymore though. I draw what I want.

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[anticapitalistclown]

heyooo

Can I request tokyo revengers as archaeologysts?

I really liked the one about lookism and I was kinda curious about toman being archeologysts hehe

thank u <3

you anons out here giving me a tr brainrot

Tokyo Revengers Toman as Archaeologists Headcanons

Mikey

Specialization: Battlefield archaeology

He is really good at interpreting the battles and conflicts that took place in the past.

Although you would never see him in the laboratory.

He says that he prefers to dig into the mud than to be sitting all day.

Made a lot of articles about ancient war strategies.

He's a really great excavation director.

Draken

Specialization: Prehistoric archaeology

Loves the effort for survival the first hominids had to develop.

Lets you put music on during the excavations.

Will show you how to make the same weapons hominids used.

Looks really strict at first but his teaching method is really efficient and comfortable with all the newbies.

Everyone has a crush on him, I mean, him going to the settlements on his bike, with a leather jacket...

Baji

Specialization: Zooarchaeology

(also known as faunal analysis, is a branch of archaeology that studies remains of animals from archaeological sites).

He is the best with the animals analysis, at the point that every archaeology company called for his help.

As a mentor he’s great but doesn’t has the patience for repeating concepts. 

He’s the type of director that makes a party the last night of the archaeological campaign.

The next day everyone has to do the settlement clean up and registers with a hangover, he’s fresh and with energy.

He joined archaeology because he was a fan of Indiana Jones as a kid.

Chifuyu

Specialization: Zooarchaeology

His work is really organized and clean.

He teaches at college, the students love him.

Directed a lot of excavations with Baji.

Buys out of his pocket all the needs students and workers use during the excavations (pads, tampons, band-aids...).

Kazutora

Specialization: Forensic archaeology

(Duties of archaeologists in this field of archaeology include collecting evidences like human burials, artifacts, footprints, tool-marks, etc., and trying to figure out the situation in which a particular crime might have happened; and to ascertain the influences on the remains of external factors that may have disturbed the crime scene).

Has a file plenty of crane pics.

He is the most efficient in this field.

He sometimes appears from out of the blue at Baji’s excavations and parties.

He joined archaeology inspired after watching “The Mummy” films.

He teaches at the laboratory. 

Mitsuya

Specialization: Classical archaeology

Has wrote really cool articles about ancient clothing and fashion.

One of the most organized directors, has the record for the fewest accidents under its management.

Also one of the most stylish ones, has a dark academia vibes.

A lot of students joined archaeology because had a crush on him. 

Hakkai

Specialization: Classical archaeology

He joined archaeology because he has a crush on Mitsuya.

He is more specialized in the laboratory work.

Participated in a lot of articles with Mitsuya.

Really good at making budgets.

Pah-chin

Specialization: Urban archaeology

(Is a sub discipline of archaeology specializing in the material past of towns and cities where long-term human habitation has often left a rich record of the past).

Has a previous knowledge of architecture from his family so he reached high and fast into this branch.

He joined archaeology because his friend Mikey gave him inspiration.

He is strict and doesn’t have any patience with the newbies.

If you mess any structure he will kick you out of his team.

Peh-yan

Specialization: Urban archaeology

Has a explorer vibes.

As a director has a lot of energy.

Got into a lots of fights with corrupt mayors who wanted to destroy ancient structures to build new edifications over.

He thinks he is not popular, but his sincerity and bad temper in front of the corruption made him popular among the most rebellious archaeologists.

Smiley

Specialization: Experimental archaeology

(Is a field of study which attempts to generate and test archaeological hypotheses, usually by replicating or approximating the feasibility of ancient cultures performing various tasks or feats).

He is the one who gave Baji the idea to make parties during the excavations.

Thanks to him tourism increased. 

As a mentor he is really chaotic and hyperactive, but you get to enjoy archaeology.

Has dark humor. 

Angry

Specialization: Underwater archaeology

(It is associated with the study of underwater evidences such as shipwrecks, water-buried cities, and other inundated archaeological sites).

Really calm to be with him.

Kinda introvert so prefers having a reduced number of people on his team.

Has his workspace a bit messy but he knows where everything is.

Since working in the water generates hunger he makes diets and menus for his teammates. 

Mucho

Specialization: Commercial archaeology

(The study of ancient trade routes and sea ports, harbors and marketplaces).

It’s really difficult to get inside his team but once you’re in, is when you find out he is the best boss / director.

He gives you the freedom to expand and improve by yourself at the workspace.

One of his goals as a mentor and director is to prepare all his students and apprentices to be independent enough to reach the same level as him: to be a director.

He loves the sea routes and worked on multiple occasions with Angry.

Sanzu

Specialization: Battlefield archaeology

He is strict on his way and really hard to approach so he isn’t the best to ask for help.

Joined archaeology inspired by Mikey.

Actually when Mikey is in the settlement, Sanzu is working in the laboratory helping with Mikey’s research.

In the nights at the settlement, before going to sleep, he tends to play cards with some students so this way it will be easier for him to break the ice.

Takemichi

Specialization: Ethnoarchaeology.

(Ethnoarchaeology is the science that deals with the ethnographic investigation of living communities in order to acquire knowledge of the past).

He is the most supportive mentor

Really clumsy, there’s no campaign where he wasn’t injured.

But has charisma and is really popular in the archaeology world.

Not strict, but students and teammates respect him and follow all his orders.

[hohoz]

The ones that suffer the most

I wanted to talk about this for a long time.

I’m a Resident evil addicted, I finished almost every RE game released and I must say that Capcom made some poor choices regarding Jill and Chris, they are EASILY the most mistreated characters in RE Franchise. 

But let’s explain why is that: 

Jill and Chris are survivors, they had to survive in a mansion with a lot of puzzles and zombies, while looking for items that could help them to progress and find a way to reach Brad. 

When they arrive at STARS Office, they are revolted that Umbrella did all that under their noses and innocents were dying because of that and they explained EVERYTHING in a report - but Irons made that go away. 

In the ORIGINAL RE3 we had this special file (Jill’s Diary) 

August 7th Two weeks have passed since that day. My wounds have been healed, but I just can't forget it. For most people, it's history now. But for me, whenever I close my eyes, it all comes back clearly. Zombies eating people's flesh and the screams of my teammates dying. No, the wounds in my heart are not healed yet...

August 13th Chris has been causing a lot of trouble recently. What's with him? He seldom talks to the other police members and is constantly irritated. The other day, he punched Elran of the Boy's Crime department just for accidentally splashing Chris's face with coffee. I immediately stopped Chris, but when he saw me he just gave me a wink and walked away. I wonder what happened to him...

August 15th Midnight. Chris, who has been on a leave of absence for a "vacation," called me so I visited his apartment. As soon as I walked into his room, he showed me a couple of pieces of paper. They were part of a virus research report entitled as simply as "G". Then Chris told me that, "The nightmare still continues." He went on to say that, "It's not over yet." Ever since that day, he has been fighting all by himself without rest, without even telling me.

August 24th Chris left the town today to go to Europe. Barry told me that he would send his family to Canada and then he would follow Chris. I decided to remain in Raccoon City for a while because I know that the research facility in this city will be very important to this entire case. In a month or so, I'll be joining with them somewhere in Europe. That's when my real battle begins...

For some weird reason this file isn’t available in RE3 Remake. 

But ok, here we see that Chris was doing some investigation - in the RE2RMK  you could see this letter that Chris left in a way that normal people wouldn't understand - the only thing that Claire says is that “doesnt look like him” but how normies would understand what Chris is like is he is not well represented in media ??????????????????

And Jill had all the detective work in her wall. 

So far so good - we understand the basics about them - they are Special police force, the elite, they had a traumatic experience and they survived to tell the story. 

Some problems until now:

Jill had a MAJOR personality change in RE3 RMK- I honestly like most of that, she is a badass in the originals and she is a badass in the rmk but I still dislike the fact that she swears all the time (specially because in RE1, RE Rev, RE5 she doesn't do that) 

We can tell a lot about her personality just looking at her room, but I still miss some stuff (I had expectations - so this is not a real problem. but still) like a Vinyl player (since she is probably into classical music), some letters from her father so new players can understand her origin and why is she so good in lockpicking and more about her dog (she had a pic in the original that could’ve been her boyfriend but it was replaced by a dog in RE2 rmk but in RE3 Rmk there in no dog) 

Okay - after you finish the game the only thing we see is this: 

In my opinion this is Chris since he is always associated with Green colors while Jill is associated with blue. 

So my speculation here is that she found him while in the original we had this: 

This is not a major chance but still is important (lore of course - duh) but the problem here is that while Jill is looking for him - Code Veronica is happening. 

So I can only assume two things, they did not show him because they DON’T HAVE A FACE FOR HIM or I am wrong and that is Jill, but if that is Jill so why there is no decent epilogue like the original ? 

Okay, now we are arriving in the real trouble area

I will do RE5 first and the Wii and Rev1 (even tho those two comes first in the lore) 

RESIDENT EVIL 5 

So before the game was release we had some propaganda, including this: 

So have in mind that Jill was dead, I thought that she died and RE5 would explain that shit. 

But in the beginning we see that Chris is looking for her and have in mind that Chris HAD A MAJOR CHANCE IN HIS APPEARANCE, and I’m not talking about his muscles. 

I will not address Chris in CV since he was good in that game but I the team that made CV also made the original, it had CONSISTENCE. 

Here we have Chris, he’s THE classical american soldier protagonist from Hollywood in the 80′s/90′s and he had some omage to TOPGUN

He also shares some traits with his sister

A major trait here is that HE HAS BLUE EYES, typical good looking soldier from US. 

and now let’s have a look at Chris in RE5...

Yeah... I still hate this face even tho I love his Character in this game, this ugly a** monkey looking mf and he had a lot of steroids

So we have some lore to him in RE5, Jill and Chris went to a mansion looking for Spencer (one of the fathers of Umbrella and the one that was behind project Wesker, he wanted to do this Virus so he could live forever, so RE has a good lore, it’s not just about zombies) but when they found him, he was dead and Wesker was by his side, in a fight Jill sacrificed herself to save Chris’s life. 

Chris started doing mission after mission because her body was never found, and he made a name for himself, he became a ‘legend’ inside BSAA and you can see that in the beginning of RE5.

The reason behind the muscles was probably to fight Wesker mano to mano but still is not well made, it really felt weird playing for the first time. 

So now we have a problem here, there is thing that you use in a narrative that is to make someone strong af powerless, and they did that to Jill. (a good example of this is in TWD- Ricky is a fucking legend and Negan made him powerless in the face of a event) 

Jill was used in a Boss fight and that is it... She is not in the game as a character, she is being manipulated and her whole design was changed, she looks like Nina from Tekken. WTF. - BTW, the fact that Wesker had mind control over her created 1000 fics of sex 

 So that is it, my main problem here isnt Jill itself, but it’s the fact that they used her character as a boss even tho she is the heroine, she never appears in RE lore again until some guy inside Capcom said “Well people are asking about Jill so let’s place a file in Rev2 saying that she is in rehab” 

The only time that she appears again is in a 3DS NINTENDO ONLY game, it felt that Capcom simply don’t care about her character. 

By the way Revelations 1 is a great game and was adaptable some years later for PC and consoles

But you think that this is bad, wait until we arrive at RESIDENT EVIL 6 

When I learned that Jill was not in RE6 I was mad... But after I played that game I said “thank you God” that game was bad, transformers kind of bad, it had bad writing, the lore was all over the place and Chris was the one that suffered the most in this game. 

He was responsible for the death of an entire squad, suffered amnesia and people still wanted him in the command 

THEY MADE HIM AN ALCOHOLIC 

The golden boy of BSAA reduced to THIS. 

By the way, the director said that HE WANTED TO KILL CHRIS IN THIS GAME to SUBVERT EXPECTATIONS - so if you liked Piers now that he died only because of that. 

So now let’s analyse what we know: 

The first 2 main characters are not well represented in media until RE6, they don’t know how to re introduce Jill in the games and Chris was reduced to a normal guy at a Russian bar;

But it gets worse... 

Capcom LOVE Leon, we know that. he is always the hero, he is the protagonist in almost every movie and he is always the cool guy so when he get’s a new model, he looks like this:

But When Chris get’s a new face he look like this: 

WHO DAFUQ ARE U, no offense to the model but he has NEGATIVE JAW LINE.

And still he doesn't look like Claire’s brother, there is no blue/green eyes and he looks younger that he was in 6 (and 6 still uses that ugly character model) 

But let’s go in the lore- we HAVE 0 info on Jill in RE6 / RE7 and no sight of her in RE8 

And speaking of which, they tried to make Chris the bad guy in the trailer so when we play we see “Ohhhh he was not the bad guy, that happened and that is why he did that” 

But still... 

If they are going to do that to his character don’t use this character, shit ! Do something with that Wesker’s son that made 0 sense in RE6 but leave Chris out of this - it really feels that they simply don’t know how to treat him right

And you may think that I may be complaining a lot because of his appearance

But this is him in RE8  

(to me this is some random dude from Russia) 

And this is him in RE:Verse (that is going to be release TOGETHER) 

So this tells me that they have 0 clue of how to handle his looks

Jill got RE3Rmk but it felt like a cheap game compared to RE2Rmk where the original RE3 was SO MUCH BETTER

And this is bad because there are so many new fans joining the fandom only to see 2 great characters suffering from poor director’s choices. 

I’m sorry about this rant, if you like Chris face and looks its okay, really, but dont tell me that Chris from 5/6/8 is the same from 1/CV and if you think im wrong about Jill its fine, but she is an amazing character that could have so much more impact in RE universe (I mean, she never even appeared in a RE movie - animations) 

But it’s sad to see so many characters that receive good representation in media and good games/lore while Jill get’s almost none and Chris is handled like random face guy. 

I was going to talk a little bit more about Rev 1 and RE Umbrella Chronicles but there is no need since Im mad right now and it seems that Capcom has 0 interest in making Code Veronica and Umbrella’s fall after that since their fav boy Leon need a rmk in RE4 even tho RE4 is not that old. 

Bonus:

Fun fact: Chris served in the Air force, so yeah, to me even Tom Cruise looks more like Chris than Chris from the games

[wtfjd95]

Together As One; Part 3

If you wanna be tagged Inbox Me

@xxxtwilightaxelxxx @imnotasuperhero @rooskaya-yelena @swords-are-cool @drpepperobsessed @natasha-danvers @coollemonsaresour @moonlagh @the-camilucha @hello-mtf @darkangelxoxo @ledollarbean-em @username23345 @marvels-writings​ 

Part One | Masterlist | Part Two

A/N: SURPRISE UPDATE!!!! 

Sorry if it seems so crap towards the end. I was trying to get it as close to a decent end as possible for this part but with work consuming my time now that the lockdown in England is easing, I have less time to write and writers block is slowly appearing once more. I’m not too sure if i’ll have a part 4 & if I do, it probably won’t be for a long while.

I hope you all enjoy this either way. 

2 months. 2 long months you had been unconscious and Wanda was terrified. She’d spent several months looking for you, never giving up hope that she’d see you again and once she had, she vowed that she’d never leave your side only to have you blackout on the ride back with yet to wake. So here she sat by your bedside, day in and day out as she waited for you to wake.

“Someone should talk to her,” Steve said. He, Natasha & Clint stood outside your hospital room.

Through the small glass window of the door, the three could see the dried tear tracks on Wanda’s face. The young woman had barely left your side, only leaving at the start to shower and change her clothes before she returned to your side, your hand clasped tightly in both of hers, pressing a kiss there every so often as she hummed a quiet tune. Whether it was to keep herself calm or hoping to rouse you from your slumber, no one knew.

“Yeah,” Clint agreed. “Someone should.” Both men turned to face Natasha, who just sighed and ran a hand over her face.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Natasha grunted moving towards the door. “Men,” she mumbled as she walked in. 

“Hey, any news?”

“None since yesterday.” Wanda answered, her voice huskier than normal from lack of use.

“Wanda, why don’t you go and get changed?” Natasha suggested, looking over the well-worn sweatpants and hoodie the younger woman wore. “Or maybe check in on Silver? I’m sure he misses you.”

“I’m not leaving Y/N alone,” Wanda mumbled against the skin of your hand. “I promised her I’m not leaving her side again once I found her and I won’t break that promise.” ‘Not now, not ever.’ She thought to herself.

“Wanda, I’ll stay and watch over her while you go and clean up.” The Russian suggested. “I promise to call you if anything changes.”

Looking up at your peaceful face, Wanda exhaled shakily, green eyes shining with tears before laying your hand back at your side and standing from her seat, knowing there was no chance in fighting the redhead. Quietly, she shuffled towards the head of the bed and leaned down to press a soft kiss to your lips.

“I will be back soon, my love.” She uttered lovingly. “I promise you.” She pressed one final kiss to your lips before turning to Natasha. “You call me if she wakes up.”

“I promise.” Natasha vowed, looking at you before moving back to Wanda with a firm nod.

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

Stepping out of the elevator and onto her- your shared floor of the compound, Wanda was greeted by a soft meow and the light patter of feet. 

“Hello, Silver.” She smiled, moving forward and picking the small animal up. “I’m sorry for leaving you with the team for a while,” the kitten revelled in the affection that Wanda gave him, purring softly as she ran her hand over his head. 

Once she’d felt that she gave the cat enough attention, she allowed him to settle on her shoulder as she made her way toward the bedroom.

Entering your room, Wanda sighed. She hasn’t been inside since your disappearance, opting to sleep in her old room or even on the couch at times when she was too in her thoughts. 

The thought of sleeping alone in your shared bed was enough to bring tears to her eyes. Something she’d found out within the first week of you missing. She wasn’t able to sleep without you beside her for her nightmares returned full force with a few new ones featuring you. 

She cast a glance over the framed pictures that lined the top of your dresser, a small smile appearing on her face as she recalled the memories that came with them.

Various team photos played in a slideshow on a fancy digital frame that Tony gifted you a while back; another held a pic of you, Nat & Clint, you had Clint in a headlock while Nat just stood off to the side with her head in her hands.

The last picture, however, Wanda adored. It was at the engagement party that Tony had ‘offered’ to throw you. It had been a fairly fancy party, she might point out.

You had dressed in a pair of your nicest slacks, a button-up white shirt with a charcoal grey waistcoat while she wore a figure-hugging deep red dress. Her fingers delicately tangled in the baby hairs at the base of your neck while yours rested on her waist, foreheads pressed against one another as you swayed softly to the music. Neither of you cared about the world around you as you did.

With a shuddering breath, she set Silver on the bed and wiped the tears from her face, before stepping into the bathroom.

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

30 minutes later, Wanda was back at your bedside, freshly showered and changed with Silver curled up on her lap, a book levitating in red mist allowing her to run one hand along the kitten’s back, while the other held your hand, thumb running gentle circles on your knuckles. Besides the situation & beeping of the monitors attached to you, it was an almost peaceful silence.

“Y’know pets aren’t allowed in the medical wing, right?” Tony’s voice pulled Wanda from her thoughts, the young woman jumping slightly in response.

“He keeps me calm, you know that.” She told the billionaire, running a hand over Silver’s head, the kitten purring in content.

Tony was about to respond when the heart rate monitor you were connected to began to beep incessantly, Wanda’s grip on your hand tightening in fright. She listened to the rapidly increasing beep of your heart monitor with watery eyes. As Tony headed to the door calling for a doctor, when you suddenly shot up into a seated position, eyes snapping open and gasped for air.

“Y/N?” “Hey, kid?” Tony and Wanda chorused, trying to catch your attention.

Your eyes darted around the overly bright white room as your vision cleared, eventually landing on the two blurry figures at your bedside.

“Tony?” You wondered, lifting a hand to wipe at your face. “Wanda?” You blinked a few more times to make sure you weren’t seeing things.

“Detka? (baby?)” Wanda squeezed your hand cautiously, trying to get your attention.

“Wanda,” You mused. “Hi love. Is that my jumper?” She shrugged in response, tears falling from her eyes. “And who’s cat is that?”

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

An hour later, the doctor in charge of your care had filled you in on all you needed to know medically. Tony had left to inform the team and Wanda had stayed to inform you on what had happened while you were unconscious.

“And this is Silver,” she told you. The small siamese purred contentedly as he lay curled in your lap, your hand running along his back. “He was a gift from Tony. Not long after…” As she trailed off, you knew that she was referring to your initial disappearance.

“Silver, huh?” You pondered, a soft smile on your face as your fingers scratched Silver’s chin. “Does that have any reference toward a certain blue-eyed, silver-haired speedster we know?” You questioned trying to change the subject as quickly as possible. “I mean, I can definitely see the resemblance.”

The pair of you continued catching up until the door to your private room (courtesy of Tony) opened and Nat, Steve, Clint & Sam all filed in. Natasha being the first to approach, pressing a kiss to your head before each of the guys gave you a careful side hug. 

You were catching up with Steve when you spotted the bag slung over Clint’s shoulder.

“We pull you in from the school run there, Clint?” You joked, the archer scoffing in response. “What’s with the backpack?”

Clint just scoffed in return and threw the backpack into your lap. “Very funny,” He said. “I stopped off with Nat and we grabbed your backup bag you keep ready for this kinda situation.”

“Thanks you guys” you nodded as you reached for the bag, pulling out a fresh shirt.

You moved to stand from the bed, only for you to fall into Wanda when you collapsed. A surprised gasp coming from Wanda as you ended up in her lap.

“I mean you already knew I fell for you but it doesn’t hurt to tell you again�� You smirked, arms snaking around her neck, hers around your waist. The both of you leaned in, lips barely touching when the sound of someone clearing their throat caused you to pull away.

“Almost forgot we had company” Wanda mumbled hiding her face in your neck, colour creeping up her own from embarrassment.

“Right, out you guys please.” You waved your arm at them. “I need to get dressed and would like some time alone with my fiance.”

“Oh that reminds me,” Wanda said, removing her hands from your waist and up to the back of her neck.

You watched as she pulled a chain from under the neckline of the jumper, a brief sparkle catching your eyes as the fluorescent lights overhead caused the gem on your ring to sparkle.

“I thought I lost it” You mumbled. “How?” Wanda just smiled as you held your hand out for her to place the ring back on your finger, where the both of you wanted it to stay.

“Let’s just say Fury has his ways” The young redhead told you, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

[iotiamohd]

@iotiamo follow for follow? <3

Schrödinger’s Leak

We’re extremely sorry to say: this is fake. We made it because we’re agents of chaos  to prove that it was possible to do something like this in two days. It took a lot of work at the sacrifice of our sanity, but we did it, and filmed on a phone like the original leak was, it could pass off as real. (Look through this blog if you want to see the ugly truth of the HD version.)

The problem is...we were originally doing this to prove that the leak was real, because “no way someone would do this in two day, especially without getting paid”, and instead not only we realized it’s possible, but we’re left with more doubts than before. Keep on reading if you’re interested in what we (didn’t) find out, and what we did to put this together. 

We could have posted this a bit earlier, but we didn’t want to distract from the #SomethingToSay campaign.

IO TI AMO

Guys. Guys, we wish we could explain the sheer amount of things Vittorio Guerrieri, Cas’ voice actor, has been in. This man is in every anime dub ever, it’s impressive—we knew finding that specific “Io ti amo” was a losing battle, but we still tried. 

Oh, God, did we try. We went through English scripts of all the rom-coms he’s dubbed; compared that to the Italian subtitles of those same movies, looked for working links to stream the Italian dub and check if the “I love you”s we found were the right one....brain cells were lost. Progress was not made. 

We settled on using the one in Marley & I (lmao), that Owen Wilson’s character says to the dog  to his wife. It’s even better than the one in the leak, in our humble opinion, @ og leaker, suck our collective dicks.

Pictured here: Owen Wilson confessing his undying love for Dean Winchester (as he should).

ANCHE IO

The closest match we had is Dean's Anch'io, (me too).

Although it wasn't a Supernatural "exclusive" line, we decided to search within the original scripts and look for an Italian corrispondance. We found it.

2x20 [9.54] - What Is And What Should Never Be It not only was a perfect match in terms of sounds, but after analyzing the file with Audacity we had no doubt about it. Furthermore, if you overlap the OG leak's "me too" with the one we found, they seem to perfectly fit. 

Listen to the cleaned and compared audios here, and stay tuned for our mixtape, it’s gonna be straight fire. 

Here are the graphs. The “Anche io” from 2x20:

“Anche io” from the leak:

Obviously we didn’t expect them to look the same, considering the differences in audio quality, but they’re still very similar. It was listening to the audios side by side that convinced us. 

...Is this proof that the leak is fake? Idk. Probably yes. But what if it’s a coincidence that they’re so similar? How different could the two graphs for two small words said by the same person possibly be, after all. And what about all the other lines that we couldn’t find a match for? You see now why we’re conflicted. 

CASTIEL

The original idea was to go through every. single. time. Dean says “Castiel” in the Italian dub, hoping to find a perfect match for the one in the leak. We figured every other line could have been taken from the voice actors’ older works (both Castiel’s and Dean’s are very popular here in Italy, and their voices have appeared in...everything, basically)—but that “Castiel” had to come form Supernatural. 

We didn’t find it. We went through a lot of the episodes with Castiel in them, the ones with more emotional scenes first, and found nothing...we ended up getting distracted by the search for Mi dispiace, Dean, when we realized that also had to come from Supernatural. We settled on using the first close match we thought of: the scene in 09x01 where Dean is praying in the hospital’s chapel. 

This is not the “Castiel” used in the leak, so we can’t prove that it’s a recycled line stoled from an older episode of the Italian dub. For all we now, Stefano recorded it for 15x18. 

“Castiel” from 09x01:

“Castiel” from the leak:

Does this prove anything, considering how bad the audio quality of the leak is? We wouldn’t get the same exact graph even if it was the same snippet of audio. (By the way, when we started this we thought that Dean had rarely said Castiel’s name like that in the dub. We’d forgotten than Italian!Dean never calls him Cas, the asshole.)

The same problem remains: did the leaker find some obscure anime episode where Guerrieri says Io ti amo and used it to dub Castiel, or is this all very real, and that’s why we couldn’t find it anywhere? We don’t know, we just don’t know. 

MI DISPIACE, DEAN

Apart from the very wistful "Castiel..." right before Dean gets chucked on the ground (lol get rekt), the other line that came without a doubt from Supernatural is "Mi dispiace, Dean."

I'm sorry, Dean, a sentence that Cas doesn't say that often throughout the show: we checked the English scripts, and we found only three instances where it happens (we only have up until season 13 dubbed in Italian, so if he ever says it in the remaining two seasons, it certainly doesn't have an Italian version). 

5x22 - Swan Song: Cas says it, and it's very obviously not the one in the leak. The tone is completely different. 6x22 - Meet the new boss: again, close but no cigar. 7x01 - Reading is fundamental: at first we thought it was the exact same one, and that's why this particular Mi dispiace, Dean is the one you can hear in our fake leak. After checking with Audacity, the one in the episode and the one in the og leak don't correspond. It's just the closest we could find. 

So...? What does this mean? We don't know. It's very possible that Italian!Castiel does say Mi dispiace, Dean somewhere in another episode, straying away from the original English script, but without transcriptions of the Italian dub available online, we had no idea where to start. 

It's also possible that the leak is real, and that's why we found no doubles for this line. 

Also: we've seen people in various posts about the leak saying that the change from "Goodbye, Dean" to "I'm sorry, Dean" is suspicious. It's not uncommon to change lines if it means lipsinking them better, and considering what was happening in the scene, it's not out of place to have Cas apologize to Dean. It wouldn't sound weird to someone who has never watched the original episode. 

But, there's another argument to make...Cas has never said goodbye, Dean in older episodes (as far as we could find), and the og leaker was forced to use the next best thing they could find in the Italian dub. 

THAT MONITOR...THAT DAMNED MONITOR...

That monitor in the leak looked so sus at first. Is it normal for professional studios to use equipment older than some people on this hell site?

Apparently yes. 

We've found a bunch of photos of voice actors in front of the screen they use at work, and they all look like that. Dusty. 

These pictures also confirmed that the punctuation in the frame rate changes—sometimes it's all :, sometimes it's all ; (like in the case of the OG leak), sometimes it's mixed. Once again, we can't prove anything one way or another.

This is a pic from 2009 of Davide Chevalier, Sam's voice actor, and the framerate looks different from the one in the leak...then again, it's from 2009. What does it mean? What does it all mean?

FINAL CRIES FOR HELP

If you know more than us, please tell us:

Did we read the Audacity graphs correctly? Do they prove/disprove anything that we didn’t mention?

Does the framerate make any sense? Are we being bamboozled?

Do you have any insight on whether or not season 15 is already been dubbed? We know that season 14 will go on air in bundles of three episodes starting from the 12th of December, so it’s not crazy to think season 15 is already in the works.

Was this worth it? Was any of this worth it? We slept very few hours last night. 

tl;dr: in conclusion, we CAN’T affirm with absolute certainty if the Italian leak is fake or not, since we have evidences leading both way. Sadly, the final word will be when the episode will actually air next year.

IRTF - Internet Research Italian Rogue Task Force

[dukereviewstv]

Duke Reviews TV: Batman: The Animated Series 1x15 And 1x16 The Cat And The Claw Parts 1 And 2

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To The First Duke Reviews TV Episode Of 2021...

And To Quote Linkara "Let's Hope It's Better Than The Last!"...

Seriously, 2020 Sucked!, With The Coronavirus, And Various Other Problems With This Year, It Was Honestly The Worst, But I'm Going To Make 2021 The Best By Reviewing More TV Shows And Movies...

Anyway, I'm Continuing My Look At Batman: The Animated Series By Talking About Episodes 15 And 16 Of Season 1, The Cat And The Claw...

This Episode Sees A Villain Named Red Claw (Played By Captain Janeway From Star Trek Voyager) Arriving In Gotham To Steal A Viral Plague Which She'll Hold For Ransom For...

Well, Actually It's More Name Amount Here But You Get The Gist....

But Unfortunately, The Company That Gave Red Claw The Land She Is Using As A Base Is Of Interest To Selina Kyle (Played By Adrienne Barbeau) Who Wants To Use It As An Endangered Animal Reserve For Mountain Lions...

Can Both Catwoman And Batman Work Together And Stop Red Claw Before She Unleashes The Plague On Gotham?....

Let's Find Out As We Review The Cat And The Claw...

Part 1 Starts In Gotham As Catwoman Uses Her Cat, Isis To Steal An Valuable Necklace From An Expensive Apartment, But When She's Unknowingly Watched By Batman, He Confronts Her...

(Start At 1:21)

Later That Evening, Bruce Wayne Attends A Charity Auction For Animal Preservation Where He Is One Of The Bachelor's Up For Auction. Bidding Goes On For A While Until It Finally Ends When Selena Kyle, A Sponsor For A Mountain Lion Preserve Bids $10,000...

But While Bruce Is Happy To Be Her Date, Selena Is Only Interested In Saving The Animals, However, Bruce Insists On Keeping Their Date, So, She Lets Him Take Her To Lunch...

Meanwhile, Outside, Police Give Chase To A Military Truck Holding Army Weapons, Forcing Bruce To Leave The Auction Early So He Can Apprehend The Criminals And Stop The Robbery As Batman. But Unfortunately One Criminal Gets Away In The Sewers...

Talking With Gordon Afterwards, He Tells Batman That The Leader Of A Terrorist Group Named Red Claw...

Is In Gotham And That There Are No Leads To His/Her Whereabouts...

The Next Day, Selena And Her Secretary, Maven Talk About Selena's Upcoming Date With Bruce But Selena Is More Interested In Batman....

With The Phone Ringing As Bruce Comes Up, Selena Takes A Call From Her Lawyer That Her Deal To Purchase Land For A Mountain Lion Preserve Has Been Called Off As The Land Has Been Bought By Multigon International...

Offering To Get Selena A Meeting With Multigon's Chairman, Stern, Bruce Accompanies Selena As She Tries To Convince The Chairman To Not To Buy The Land But He Refuses, Claiming The Company Is Interested In Building A Resort There...

Furious And Threatening To Have Every Environmentalist On Multigon's Back, Selena Leaves As It's Revealed That Stern And Multigon Are Working With Red Claw, Who Is A Woman...

Telling Red Claw About Selena, She Orders Stern To Have Selena Tailed, Saying That Her Plans Are Too Important To Be Put In Jeopardy...

Later That Night, Batman Grills A Mob Boss On Red Claw While Catwoman Sneaks Into Multigon To Get Information From Their Files, But While Catwoman Takes Pics Of The Files, Red Claw Talks With Her Men About A Viral Plague That Interpol Stole From Her Organization Until....

(Start At 0:23, End At 4:12)

Returning Home, Selena Tells Maven What She Discovered As She Believes It Will Help Save The Mountain Lions But Unbeknownst To Selena, One Of Red Claw's Thugs Is Watching Her As Part 1 Ends...

Part 2 Begins In Gotham Park As The Mob Boss Batman Grilled For Information Arrives To Tell Him Rumors Of A Train Heist But He Doesn't Know If Red Claw Is Involved....

Telling Gordon About This, He Reveals There's Nothing On The Train Schedule, But When Batman Believes It To Be A Military Train, (Thereby Making Information On It Classified) Gordon Decides To Make A Call..

But When Batman Finally Goes To Stop Red Claw He's Already Too Late, She Has The Virus And Threatens That If Batman Gets Closer, She'll Unleash The Plague Which Will Kill Everyone Within A Ten Mile Radius...

The Next Day, Selena And Bruce Go Out On Their Date Only For Red Claw's Men To Attempt To Crash Their Car But Taking Evasive Maneuvers, Bruce Forces The Thugs Off The Bridge By Playing Chicken...

Taking Selena Home, Bruce Urges Her To Tell Him If She's In Any Trouble As He Really Cares About Her, But Selena Just Thanks Bruce For His Concern Before Going Back Into Her Apartment...

Upset About The Attempt On Her Life, Selena Suits Up And Goes Out As Catwoman While Bruce Wonders Selena's Connection To Red Claw But When Alfred Finds A Cat Hair On Bruce's Coat, He Remembers A Similar Hair Left By Isis The Night Before And He Finally Puts 2 And 2 Together...

Arriving As Batman To Save Maven From One Of Red Claw's Thugs He Confronts Maven On Catwoman's Activities Whereabouts Which Leads Her To Tell Him Everything Including The Fact That She's In Love With Him,.,

Infiltrating The Multigon Site, Catwoman Deals With A Security Guard Before Entering The Facility Through The Ventilation System, Eventually Getting Out Of The Vent, She Takes Pics Of Their Weapons Only To Be Spotted By Red Claw's Men..

Batman Attempts To Save Her But They Both Only Get Captured By Red Claw's Men, Who Tie Them Up In A Bunker Where The Government Hides Officials In Case Of An Emergency...

Dumping Acid On The Container With The Virus, Red Claw Leaves With Her Men With The Hopes That Catwoman And Batman Will Die...

(End At 4:10)

Returning Home, Catwoman Finds Maven To Be Gone As Batman Arrives To Admit That He Has Feelings For Her Too As He Places Her Under Arrest, Ending The Episode...

And I Don't Know About You Guys But I Think That Move Is Really Going To Hurt Their Relationship...

These Episodes Are Pretty Good...

The Story Is Pretty Interesting With The Stuff With Catwoman Being The Best, But The Stuff With Red Claw Just Was Not Good...

I Don't Find The Character Interesting Because She Just Had No Character Whatsoever And Was Just Another Threat Than Someone Who Could Be Developed Into A Member Of Batman's Rogues...

But Aside From Red Claw, I Enjoyed The Episodes And I Say See Them...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off....

[makeste]

BnHA Bonus Diversion: Horikoshi’s Sketches

of all the things I could have spent time writing a post about on my morning off, it ended up being this. but in my defense, Horikoshi’s sketches are actually amazing and this was kind of overdue.

so! as you may know, Horikoshi Kouhei frequently gets bored and doodle-y and is then kind enough to share the resulting drawings with us. sketchy boi. but not sketchy like that. though he did invent Mineta so maybe a little. 

anyway, because he’s so disgustingly talented, these pictures are usually amazing. and there are a lot of them. when I finally got around to doing this post, I ran a search for “Horikoshi sketches” and it turned out there was a whole wiki page dedicated just to them (god bless whoever is running the BnHA wiki, they do such a good job). and, well...

two hundred and eighty-eight. you may recognize this as being nearly fifty more than the current number of chapters. this would mean he’s releasing at least one sketch a week and has been doing so for the past five years! fortunately (for me, who has to do a recap of all these), this number is slightly misleading, as this page apparently includes some of the character sketches he did for the volume omakes. so I don’t have to go through 300 sketches omfg. but still, there are a lot! so I’ll just go through them and post my favorites and see how many we can get through in this post I guess.

these are all in alphabetical order according to their file names on the wiki, and like I said, I’m not doing all of them, just the ones that catch my eye the most. which is still a ton of them. honestly we’re about to find out whether tumblr text posts have image limits. (ETA: the limit does not exist!)

right off the bat we are getting off to a great start! love me the ladies of class 1-A. these girls are all so, so valid. I love how Deku is there too and his hair is transforming into a tree or something.

this is a sketch from chapter 10. this cat I guess just came up to them and they were like “...” and the cat was like “...” and long story short they’ve been like this now for a whole hour. meanwhile Aizawa is wondering where his cat has gone.

why are they dressed like it’s world war I. ??

holy fuck this cat. did it eat the other cat. anyway do you guys think Momo and Todoroki were walking to school together because that’s some cute shit omg. we know there is a cat that hangs out around Shouto’s house, so he’s probably good at playing with stray cats, and they probably really like him because he is calm and kind.

holy shit.

oh my god I need Tsuyu’s siblings to come visit the dorms at U.A. and play with Eri!! now.

posting this one because it’s cute, but also because it notably has nothing at all to do with the actual chapter 120. but that’s okay.

what, and I mean this sincerely, the fuck.

are they making chocolate?? you know, canonically we haven’t actually had a Valentine’s Day yet in the series, and now I’m really hoping we get a little mini plot. things that would happen:

every single girl makes chocolate for Todoroki and he just accepts it very politely and obliviously.

they actually make enough chocolate for everyone (except Mineta. and honestly they would have, except they know how that’s gonna go down, and no. Tsuyu really would have made you some pity chocolate dawg, but you brought this on yourself). but don’t end up giving it to everyone. specifically several of them thought better about giving some to Bakugou after seeing him react to the first unlucky person to give him some (y’all know that song I THREW IT ON THE GROUND by the Lonely Island? I’m sure you can understand my meaning here). and also Jirou gets way too flustered about giving some to Kaminari and chickens out. she gives it to Momo instead. hmmMMMM.

Satou also makes chocolate for everyone, EVEN BAKUGOU, and it’s delicious. no one is throwing his chocolate on the ground.

Aoyama makes chocolate for Deku because!!  ☆ ☆ WE ARE FRIENDS, MON AMI  ☆  ☆  ☆ oui oui baguette.

I love everything about this, but especially Ochako’s face. she’s just like. sincerely trying to figure out exactly where she went wrong.

excuse the fuck out of me but DID HORIKOSHI SERIOUSLY HINT AT THE FUCKING A-BAND A WHOLE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY CHAPTERS BEFORE IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. omfg. “what a cute AU!” “yes... AU,” Horikoshi agrees, nodding to himself. although after giving it some thought, he made the wise decision to switch Kaminari and Bakugou’s instruments. because we all know Bakugou was born to play the drums.

NO!!! VIDEO GAMES!!! IN CLASS!!!!!!!! [does a fucking aerial while emitting furious little huffs and bitchslapping Kirishima in the face]

I can’t figure out what’s going on in this picture. it appears to be baseball, except that Bakugou doesn’t have a bat. which I guess is the joke?? because his quirk is so strong he doesn’t need the fucking bat? except that I feel like that would result in either a broken arm or a blown-up baseball. idk this would make more sense with him as the pitcher.

“we really do love this AU, Horikoshi-sensei.” “yes... AU.”

this time it’s Shouji on the drums. I get that we all want to see Bakugou shred guitar, but it feels like he was just postponing the inevitable.

a full 85 chapters before he actually did this in the manga. god he really does enjoy foreshadowing with these things. I need to start paying more attention to these.

I have no words.

actually I do have words, and they are, “is that a fucking toothbrush.”

also is it just me or does he look, like, really swole in this pic. like, this is what the scarf has been hiding the whole time?? here we all thought he was a beanpole who subsisted off of energy bars and plain rice, but like. nope.

:) showing that there’s no hard feelings about the whole shooting-you-in-the-fucking-face thing. All Might is squeezing his hand awfully tightly, though.

all of them are so good-looking when they’re not trying. and then they open their mouths.

I am pained that there hasn’t at least been a karaoke chapter in one of the light novels yet, guys. pained. I NEED THIS.

holy fuck Todoroki. what are you, a mermaid?? I feel like this is a result of a prank gone wrong. like the other guys were sick of the girls always pining after him, and so they tried rubbing a balloon on his head in an effort to make him look ridiculous, only IT BACKFIRED COMPLETELY. shit.

fuck me I love this. of course Kami blowdries his hair and puts a ridiculous amount of effort into achieving the same kind of boyishly tousled look Todoroki is JUST NATURALLY BORN WITH. some things in life just aren’t fair. also lmao Deku.

oh my god. how are they all so cute. this was from episode 12 btw. you’re welcome for saving your life All Might.

I don’t have the slightest idea wtf is going on here but omg.

this was for episode 16 of the anime, a.k.a. the obstacle course episode of the Sports Festival arc in season 2. I can’t read what they’re saying, but I’ll tell you what, I know Bakugou is being a rude little shit and I’m here for it.

SHINSOUUUUUU. this was for episode 20. his one and only appearance in the anime so far. he knows he’s here for a good time not a long time.

lmao. my headcanon is that Monoma actually ended up losing after this, but somehow still managed to be smug about it.

lmaoooo. Kacchan refusing to even acknowledge that this is a thing that is happening for some reason.

HAWKS DID YOU REALLY KILL THIS MAN. COME ON OUT HERE I JUST WANT TO TALK.

I feel like taming Deku’s hair is arguably even more of a feat than taming Bakugou’s. meanwhile Iida looks 90% the same. and Todoroki is. well. just goes to show that this look is not for just anyone.

I have never in my life seen Katsuki so full on just done with life. like he is so fucking over this shit. he’s just rolled over and accepted it. I have never seen Bakugou fucking Katsuki just sigh and be all, “you know what, this might as well happen.” not until this moment. wow.

you guys I’m crying.

is it just me or do the little matroyshka dolls actually look like little nun Jeanists. though the hair swoosh is going the wrong way. Monomas, maybe.

HOLY SHIT I LOVE THIS? my god, how useful would Shouji’s quirk be for this sort of thing. and Shouto looks so surprised (on like, a Todoroki scale) to have actually caught something. oh my god. so fucking cute. c’mere you. someone needs a hair ruffle.

I feel like this is how Tokoyami would want to be remembered. yes I know he’s not dead.

oh my god. so I’ve seen this one floating around on tumblr, but like. ffff. it’s my favorite ever. they are. so. fucking. cute. both looking up to All Might. and then the contrast between their innocent happy faces and their shocked and worried expressions watching All Might at Kamino. god it fucking destroys me. all four of these kids need hugs goddammit. the older ones because they’re heartbroken, and the little bubbas just because they’re so stinkin’ cute omfg.

I LOVE HER AND I’M NOT SORRY. please Horikoshi give me more Bakufam in this upcoming arc. who do I have to bribe or threaten.

STRANGER DANGER omg. Toga no. that’s not nice.

Horikoshi what did my heart ever do to you for you to treat it like this.

villain Iida from episode 7 holy fuck I’m dying.

here come the New Year’s sketches! I’ve been looking forward to these. Kacchan photo strategy: never look directly at the camera.

I wonder which animal year 2016 was. rooster, probably.

fucking look at Todoroki fucking Shouto stuffing his face yet again. can you stop chewing for one fucking second. we’re trying to take a picture you slob.

the year is 2018. Horikoshi Kouhei attempts to draw a dog, because it’s the year of the fucking dog. it does not go well. panicked, he takes the All Might he’s already started drawing, and for some reason attempts to turn it into another dog. it goes even worse. now he’s really starting to sweat. “oh shit,” he whispers, drawing Deku upside-down in his unrest. “oh fuck.” finally he just draws Bakugou shouting the words HAPPY NEW YEAR in giant letters across the screen, hoping that’ll be enough to distract everyone from all the rest of it. it is not.

oh my god. thank you so much to everyone who went to SDCC and made him so happy. this is the purest thing I’ve ever seen. also loving Bakugou tolerating the shit out of All Might leaning on him omg. I’m so fucking weak for this as always.

this is Horikoshi’s most recent sketch! lookit, he’s so happy with the toy him omg. it actually is really badass.

league of dorks. I love Toga’s face. and how Horikoshi clearly put more effort into drawing Tomura’s Face Hand than the entire rest of the picture.

I don’t understand a single element of this. wow. also this is twice now that Horikoshi has drawn the fucking Predator in these sketches. just pointing that out. of all the films to make multiple references to. what’s going on here. and is Mineta playing the fucking little sister in Totoro. am I losing my fucking mind.

this was for the season 3 premiere. I love how Bakugou and Deku are wrestling for control of the screen. but he knows better than to touch Mineta I guess.

Iida and Ochako are the only two reacting appropriately here. Bakugou just looks concerned. to be fair I guess that’s appropriate too. but Deku is all “fuck YEAH All Might you go ahead and SMASH YOUR FACE RIGHT THROUGH THAT MONITOR” and I feel like his blanket approval of all his mentor’s actions has finally gone too far.

this just goes to show you that even a very simple sketch concept can pay off dividends if you play your cards right. good job Horikoshi.

he could run faster if he just pulled his fucking pants up. does anyone have any brain cells to spare for my son here. please he needs them. I don’t know what he thinks a belt is actually for...?

hello this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and also is Kirishima doing the kage bunshin pose from Naruto or.

sob Aizawa I’m dead. I fucking love how Mineta is like HE’S CLEARLY FINE IT WAS A FLOP as though Kirishima is not literally covered in fucking grape balls. something else I also love is that Katsuki is number 10 and Deku is number 11. even in a soccer match he can’t stand to be lower then his rival sob. also Ochako is straight up about to rip off Mina’s head jesus christ girl run.

there aren’t even words for how much I ship this. just emotions. omg.

this is one of those pictures that keeps getting more wtf the longer you stare at it. naturally your eyes are drawn to Todoroki’s reindeer antlers first. by contrast, Ochako looks relatively normal, even with the odd pose. but then you notice Deku’s Christmas tree hair. from there your eyes are drawn down to his strange lack of a shirt. and then, finally, you spot him. Tokoyami. you wonder if the mangaka has finally gone too far. you’re still not sure.

for once it’s not Todoroki who’s leaping into action with his mouth full. never one to back down from a challenge, Bakugou has picked the absolute least practical food to consume whilst in the middle of battling. I can barely eat spaghetti without making a mess when I’m not throwing down. I’m not sure what a good food to eat while throwing down would be, but maybe something more portable, like a calzone.

I feel drawn to him the same way one might be drawn to a stray cat, even though you’re pretty sure the cat is really wary of people and will probably try to claw or bite you if you get too close. I would like to pat him on the head, but he might try to blow me up. eh, worth it.

look at the Baku Protection Squad trying to do some fucking Abbey Road thing. damn you can really see how short Tokoyami is in this. also Bakugou buys pants that are at least three sizes too big I s2g.

and that’s it! anyways, this was fun as heck. I’ve bookmarked Horikoshi’s Twitter now so I can keep up with the new sketches as they’re released. this is fucking great, and a whole new bonus to being caught up with the manga that I haven’t been appreciating until now. fucking love it.

[strouja]

Turned 55 - A day in the life

I did this 5 years ago when I hit 50 and figured I’d do this again.  To capture a moment in time and what I did on typical day, but it just happened to be my birthday Sept. 1, 2020

Late night working

I got inspired and decided to improve our security profile on our product on a very minor issue, but it would be nice do.  So after midnight, which made it my birthday I researched on how to only allow Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 (and not allow earlier versions) to parts of our system used for internal communications.  This is a minor issue as we lock this down for all customer access and this is just for our own “system to system” communication.  So I looked up how to do this for something called Kibana and WebSphere liberty.  I checked in config file changes into something called github for our product and sent a “pull request” to have an expert review it.

So it is now 1:30 am and I’m ready to call it a night.

Can we sleep now

The wife comes up to bed and we agree to NOT let our dog Winston sleep in our bed as he can make it hard for us humans to sleep.  I would have him stay with us but Linh is not in favor.

So he whines outside our door for a good 15 minutes or so.  Now we are ready to sleep.

All of sudden we hear him barking constantly.  He behaves as a guard dog and we are perplexed as there is never anything going on late at night.  This is relentless.  After about 10 or 15 minutes of this I go out to see what the hell is going on.  He is in the next room, on my 16 year old son's bed looking out the window barking at something in the darkness. 

So I put his LED collar on and let him run around the house and chase until his heart’s content.  He stays outside for 1/2 hour or so.  I entice him back in and close the curtains in William's bedrooms so he won't go crazy barking anymore.  So I think.   FYI my son William is passed out in the basement on a new giant bean bag.Now it is probably 2:30 and I'm finally ready to sleep.  But no, we hear Winston barking non-stop again. 

FYI this never happens, normally it is peaceful here at night and the dog does not bark at things past 9 pm or so. It turns out whatever animals he saw before are still out there and he can see them from the windows on the 1st floor.  My wife is fast asleep.  I can't sleep because of this and possibly from my short but pretty hard 10 minute bike workout earlier today and the more than normal amount coffee I had today.  I normally just have  one cup but drank some leftover coffee in the afternoon.I probably fall asleep at 3 am or so.I have a 9 am meeting I have to get up for.

Working for the Man - IBM

Since I work from home I am able to get up right before my 9 am meeting. Then I run a meeting at 9:40 with my boss and my boss’ boss to go over how to allocate our finite internal cloud resources that one team wants to consume all of it.  This is all done by Webex video & audio conferencing (like Zoom).

We have a bunch more meetings.  Then I get a break sometime before noon.

Catching last 20 km of Tour de France Stage 4

When I get a break I put on the TV and through my Roku 3 put on NBC Sports Gold (without ads and European commentary)  to see if today’s Tour de France stage is still on.  I find out the race is still live and it is mountain top finish and there are 20 km left.  So this is the perfect time to watch.  I catch up on work while hearing the race and glimpsing at it.  

Although I’m an avid cyclist, race myself, and lead a fast ride every week (normally 2 times a week but reduced to one because of covid-19 and with a smaller group), I’m not a big fan of pro bike racing because I know all the top names and riders are still doping.  So I know only a fully doped rider has a chance of winning today’s stage, especially because it is mountain top finish. 

Fixing my bike

After my ride on Sunday with my former teammates: Ray Plewacki, Vic Siegfried, and Dave Fuentes, I asked my buddy Ray P. if he can fix some shifting problem of my bike this week.   He texted me earlier in the day and he agreed to come over during his lunch break.   He arrives at 12:30 as I have another meeting going on.  I tell my boss I will have to duck out of the meeting.  He is fine with that.

Ray does his magic and does micro adjusting on my Shimano DuraAce Di2 electronic shifting.  I could not shift into one of the mid gears in the back.  Ray figured it out for me.  So I’m all set for Tuesday Night World Championships.

Bike Ride

I eat my Overnight Oats in the very late morning and later on eat my vegan lentil based meal I made yesterday in the instant pot.   I finish up work, then clean my bike (clean the drive train) and put bike in car.

I drive to bike ride and get FaceTime video call from my Don Cayelli on the ride over to wish me happy birthday.  We agree to have our families go to North Carolina in a few months for a mini-vacation.  We talk about a bunch of things and he asks how old the guys I ride with.  I explain that the average age is about mid 30s, one guy I am older than his parents.  The best and strongest rider by far is 40 years old, a former pro - Jason Schneider.   He would not dope and had to leave the pro ranks as a result, doping was rampant (I claim it still is) but was much more out in the open.  That is the only reason why his pro bike days were cut short.

There were some notable strong riders not here, 2 of the regulars - Alex Batres and Jason Boslaugh.  Them not being here makes it much more manageable for me as the top guys feed off of others and try to outdo each other, in this process this puts the hurt on me.   Many other super strong riders have not been here for anytime this year since we resumed these small rides because of Covid-19. Two notable people in this category are: George Croghan & Ferry Gijzel.

The ride tonight is very hard, 3 loops with hills about 12 miles each loop.  We average 22.5 mph with stopping for lights every loop.  So a pretty hard ride.  I stay with the lead group but make a mistake on 2nd lap and don’t follow a very strong move (that I was told about) and end up doing a few miles solo to catch many 3 people and pull us most of the way to the main group on “Bennett Road” and catch them at the light.

Here is the strava from tonight’s ride

https://www.strava.com/activities/3998711104

This is missing pics of the strongest rider - Jason Schneider

Getting heckled on the ride

On the ride I get comments from the 2nd strongest rider on the ride about joining AARP.  This kid is 27 and I am older than his parents. Spencer Lofgran is this person of interest. 

Close the gap on the ride

On the last lap I was gaped a bit on a flat portion - Lawyers road as I was behind 3 folks that were not continuing the ride and the 4 guys in the front started hammering.  The strongest guy comes back and gives me a massive push that pushes me past all the riders.  This was by far the strongest push I ever received on the bike

Catching up with Mates

In the parking lot after the ride my buddy Vic Siegrfried is there waiting to wish me happy birthday.    Here is a pic from Sunday ride with me, Ray Plewacki (middle) and Vic 

Catching up with former work mates - IT Legend

I drive home and call a good friend of mine from work Anthony Zawacki to catch up with him.  He was our best worker by far but in our last round of layoffs was dismissed.  He is an IT rockstar doing great at his new job.  He asks me a work question and that reminds me to contact a team using our product to help them avert a Kubernetes problem of an expiring certificate and to fix it before it expires.

Working for the man again

I get home and hop back on my new work issued MacBook Pro 16″ laptop to figure out the commands I want the customer to run. The commands are not in our official doc and I eventually find the commands that work.  I test them on my own test system at an IBM lab and give them to support to get to them to the customer.  I no longer have contacts with the on-site team as the main person I worked with left IBM. 

I then write a long slack message to our documentation person to explain why we need these commands in our documentation. I then give sample output of the commands and what we are looking for.

The next day I spend a few hours doing more testing and spend an hour with our doc person to make all the changes to our official doc that I then get out to our customers on this release of our product.

Birthday Cake

My wife bought a 2 cakes, chocolate mousse with raspberries and apricot tart. 

I eat 100% plant based foods (past 8 months or so) but broke that tonight to eat the chocolate mousse

We FaceTime my daughter Sophia at the University of Virginia (UVA), I light candles, and we sing happy birthday with Linh, Sophia (on iPhone), William and our infamous dog - Winston.  Here are some poor photos I took in haste.

Trippy Lights & Wall Art

As I’m heading to bed my son shows me the LED lights we bought him for his bedroom and some very funky psychedelic wall art whose appearance change dramatically as the LED lights change colors.  

[newagesispage]

                                                                            MARCH    2020

PAGE RIB

 The Stones are touring the U.S. again.

*****

Paul Reubens is touring with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

*****

Al Franken is touring.

*****

Keenan Thompson and Hasan Minhaj are bringing comedy back to the White House Correspondents dinner on April 5.

*****

Days alert: There is some casting news but most of this won’t show up until the fall. Word is a couple of newbies will be Remington Hoffman who will play Li Shin, son of Mr. Shin and Emily O’Brien may join the cast. Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe) may be on her way back. Let’s bring the original Phillip back for her!!! Brandon Barash (Stefan) will return as well as Louise Sorel ( Vivian )and Alison Sweeney ( Sami). Judi Evans is headed back. Will she play Adrienne or Bonnie?? It looks like Casey Moss (JJ), Freddie Smith (Sonny), Chandler Massey (Will) and Galen Gering (Rafe) mill head out for awhile.

*****

It looks like Friends freaks will finally get their reunion on HBO. I am glad they aren’t bringing the characters back and are just getting together to talk about their time together.

*****

Downhill hit theatres on Valentine’s Day with Will Ferrell, Julia Louis- Dreyfus and Zoe Chao. The film was written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

*****

The more I see of it, the more I LOVE Stumptown, the best show that nobody seems to know about. Please renew ABC!!!!!

*****

So.. Rush Limbaugh got the Medal of Freedom.  Oh my.

*****

Shadow Inc. owned by former Clinton and Obama staffers made an app that thoroughly fucked up the Iowa caucus. It was good at calculating the results but not delivering them.  And hey.. Wolf Blitzer, stay off the phone with people that are trying to get those results. Let them just do their job!!

*****

Brooklyn 99 is back and Vanessa Bayer is there!!!

*****

Rod Blagojevich is out and hitting every show that will have him. Trump pardoned him along with 10 other criminals including Ed DeBartolo Jr., Mike Milken and Bernard Kerik.

*****

Forty thousand kids won’t get free lunch because Trump threw them off food stamps. The two usually go hand in hand. Getting food stamps automatically sets a kid up for the free lunch program.

*****

Over 1000 former DOJ officials have asked Bill Barr to resign.** 70 former Senators have written an open letter to congress to tell them they are not fulfilling their congressional duties.**” Yoo Hoo! Bush, Clinton, Carter, Obama, you’re up.” –Patricia Arquette

*****

Pete Davidson and Kaia Gerber have split.

*****

Indiana Beach is closing after 94 years.

*****

Denny Hamlin won the 2020 Daytona 500.

*****

Can’t we get some real gigs for Rainn Wilson and Curtis Armstrong? Ok, so Cyrtis Armstrong was on Stumptown so thank goodness for that! They can do better than Dominoes and Little Caesars ads. And how funny is it that Dominoes, known for its very Chrustian owners use a Risky Business ( a film about prostitutes) ad for their product. Hmm.

*****Hey.. Comics, quit bringing up Trump and his former womanizing. It didn’t work with Clinton and it won’t work here. People just don’t seem to care. Focus on the real damage he is doing.

*****

Scary Clown is working on opening nearly a million acres of land in Utah for energy exploration that had been a National monument. Redford and Romney can’t be happy about that.

*****

A new animated series from a brand new production company owned by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph looks promising. Look for The Hospital.

*****

Southern Illinois University is giving Bob Odenkirk an honorary degree.

*****

Ukranian immigrants Lt. Col. Vindman and his twin brother are out. Ambassador to the EU Sonland is out.

*****

The Democrats had a debate on Feb. 7 . At Andrew Yang’s first chance to speak, he rehashed his stump speech. I mean, c’mon give us something new. There really seemed to be a restrained nervousness on the stage that night. Klobachar seemed too needy but she got great reviews. Biden called Buttigieg ‘a friend ‘ a couple of times. Mayor Pete did quite well. ** Deval Patrick is out** Andrew Yang is out.**Michael Bennet is out** Another debate was on Feb. 19.** Bloomberg/Yang? Is this true?

*****

Check out the new series, Hunters. It is awesome, funny and terrifying!

*****

Dozens of Native American women and girls have disappeared from Big Horn county, Montana over the last few years. The victims were later found dead and Trump has put a federal task force together.

*****

Grassley and Wyden are trying to get lower prescription drug prices but Moscow Mitch won’t bring the proposal to the floor. Others are looking to get some traction on HR3.

*****

JSW Steel has sued the Trump administration for refusing to exempt it from paying the levies on slabs of steel that the company imports.

*****

64 women have filed sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuits against Mike Bloomberg. I’m not a fan of the guy but it does seem sort of coincidental.  It does not seem to matter cuz all his ads seem to be working, he is picking up steam. Tom Steyer is gaining a bit of momentum as well.

*****

The corona virus has brought us Covid 19. 600 people are being held in quarantine camps that the military has set up.  Italy has new cases and the disease is spreading. Scary Clown is trying to spin it all.

*****

ICE is being sent into sanctuary cities to cause trouble for immigrants.

*****

You have to check out Horse girl with Alison Brie, Molly Shannon and Matthew Gray Gubler on Netflix .

*****

Rapper Larry Sanders AKA LV is letting us in on a miscarriage of justice he has had to live thru. LV, best known for his work on Coolio’s Gangsters Paradise, was approached by police and later put on the Calgang database. The practice put about 80,000 mostly African Americans on a sort of gang list. In a 2016 audit it was found that there were many inaccuracies including the names of babes who could not possibly be gang affiliated.

*****

Nature does not need people. People need nature. –Harrison Ford

*****

The Clark bar is back. The roll out has started in Pittsburgh and will soon spread across the country.

*****

Scientists have found some turtle fossils that are the size of a car in South America.

*****

U can donate to the Trump campaign and may win a yaqut and hunting trip with Don Jr. The Beach Boys will perform.

*****

The Oscars were held Feb. 9. Brad Pitt and the production design team won for Once upon a Time in Hollywood. Woo Hoo! Word is that Pitt has hired a speech writer to write his acceptances. JoJo Rabbit won for adapted screenplay. Little Women won for Little Women and Toy Story 4 for animated film. Laura Dern won best supporting actress. Renee Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix too home the top actor prizes. Parasite surprised everybody and won best pic and got Bong Joon Ho a best director statue. My best dressed were Billy Porter, Antonio Banderes and his date, Janelle Monae ( her opening seemed to make some in the audience uncomfortable), Robert DeNiro, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Geena Davis, Regina King, Charlize Theron, Adam Driver, Joanne Tucker, Cynthia Erivo, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Kathy Bates, I don’t know what Kristen Wiig and Idina Menzel were thinking. Wiig always has a unique style so I have to admire that. ** The ratings were down. I have heard people saying they just don’t watch award shows or late night shows anymore because they are afraid things will get political. Funny, that is part of the reason I watch!

*****

Tom Papa was pontificating about a real dog show that should have REAL dogs. It would make a great weekly show with people bringing on their dogs.

*****

The goalies of the Hurricanes were out of commission and David Ayres, the Zamboni driver was brought in to help and the won against the Maple Leafs. Woo Hoo!!

*****

Hooray for New Hampshire and their use of paper ballots. Things in the campaign got a little shook up with Bernie taking the top followed by Pete and Amy.

*****

2 years of research in Canada has brought the announcement of a new discovery. Skull fragments  that were cleaned and collected about 10 years ago have been named Thanatotheristes or the reaper of death. The discovery helps us all learn more about the early times of Tyrannosaurids, a sub group that includes T.Rex.

*****

New Jersey has a ban on self- serve pumps and another state is talking about getting in on the action.  The gas station attendant act has been proposed in Illinois.

*****

Van Jones was right when he said we shouldn’t give Trump any press coverage for a week. He would hate it. Trump loves the old adage of bad publicity is better than none because he just must have attention. It would never work for they just can’t resist.** Joe Mcguire is out after he warned of Russian interference. If you want to keep your job in this administration, do not tell the truth. Now at the Department of National Intelligence is Johnny Mcentee , a 29 year old former football player who worked on the campaign. He immediately called department heads and said he wanted lists of never Trumpers in their offices. ** And who is in charge of weeding out the people in the government who may be disloyal to Scary Clown? Well, it is none other than Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence. She calls it the list of snakes. Trump is now saying he even wants liberal judges on the Supreme Court to recuse themselves when it comes to “Trump related cases”. It just keeps getting worse.

*****

Trump had fun in India. He should, his business has 5 projects going there right now worth 1.5 billion.

*****

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape and criminal sexual assault. He was not found guilty of all the charges that included predatory behavior.

*****

Andrew Yang is a new correspondent at CNN. He tells us that he is getting word from former donors that Bloomberg is calling those big donors. Allegedly he is telling them they do not have to donate to his campaign because he can afford his own campaign but he still won’t forget them. He would like them to save their money and not give money to other democrats running either.** And I am so sick of talking heads trying to tell us to play it safe. We are not as stupid as we look, thank you!! ** Now there is a firestorm about Bernie telling the world that the education program that Castro implemented was a good thing. I understand the anger and it could not have come at a worse time and he did it to himself. BUT..  We are adults and we have to be able to talk about things as they really are, not in sound bites. Castro sucked and history teaches us that bad people do good things occasionally and good people do bad things once in a while. ** It seems that everyone was in agreement that we would all gather behind the winner of the democratic campaign to beat Trump. Suddenly when it could be Bernie, everybody is bitching.

*****

This month held 2 more Democratic debates. The Nevada debate got pretty heated. I see that Mayor Pete and Bloomberg are lefties (left handed that is). Pete always looked poised and articulate which I appreciate and he got in a good one when he mentioned that the party should choose someone who is actually a democrat.  Bernie seemed a little rattled by that. Later Pete really dressed down Amy Klobuchar and made himself look like a dick. Joe Biden jumped in with his credits occasionally but often seemed a bit lost. He slammed back that they were all talking about the health care plane he helped to create and that he himself had dealt with the Mexican President. His name came up after it was mentioned that Amy could not remember the President’s name. The gloves were off with Bloomberg as Elizabeth Warren called him out on Billionaires and NDA’s. I loved the interaction but realistically Mr. Mike can’t just release people from agreements they made in an NDA, especially if it did not involve him. Bloomberg sounded pompous and clueless about the world outside of his company. He got a moan when he said he couldn’t exactly use turbo tax and when he said he may have told a few jokes that women didn’t like. He brushed off his taxes much like Trump does. The former mayor of NY called out socialists as communists. Klobuchar had the best comeback of the night when she was told her health care plan could fit on a post it. She proclaimed that the post it was invented in her state of Minnesota. Again, there were people shouting from the audience as Joe tried to talk. C’mon give everybody an equal chance.

*****

The South Carolina debate was fiery as well. The CBS debate was hosted by Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell. Bloomberg was booed right off the bat about Russia helping Bernie but he late had many cheers. He and Biden and Steyer had some real support there. Tom Steyer was actually quite impressive and seemed well spoken.  He was the only one who brought up the impeachment. He had a great point that we all know that republicans who did not convict Trump are complicit in the Russian meddling. Then he ruined it all by being alarmist with his fear. He warned us off the former republican and the socialists. I loved Bernie’s ideas about small business’s getting in on the marijuana business and not letting big corporations taking it over. He is also the only one in debates that I have seen consistently bring up Native Americans.  Biden again kept jumping in to tell us that he did this or that. Amy disagreed about a bill he claimed to have written. Warren said “dig in” numerous times. She went for the jugular with Bloomberg when she said a former female employee of his said to “kill it” in response to her pregnancy. He denied it but it sure is memorable. She did make great points that he has given much money to Linsey Graham’s campaign as well as other republican runs including against her. BTW he also gave 2.3 mil to Rick Snyder, the Gov of Michigan after the water crisis was well known.  I love that Amy is always saying that we shouldn’t fight amongst ourselves but she just does not have the votes so she needs to go. Bernie got some boos about guns for he seems the softest in that area.

*****

Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary in a big way.

*****

Dick Van Dyke, Sarah Silverman and Public Enemy among others will be at the Bernie Sanders rally in L.A. on March 1.

*****

Just think what the 400 million that Bloomberg spent on his campaign could have done for the debt of the average American.  Instead of a campaign for a presidency that he can’t win, he could have helped so many get a leg up.

*****

I don’t understand why “respected” journalists like Chuck Todd don’t throw W H reps off the set when they disrespect him or his colleagues with fake news jabs.

*****

Bob Moore of Bob’s Red Mill is giving his company away to his employees. Now, that’s a boss!!

*****

Bone, Thugs and Harmony have made a deal with Buffalo Wild Wings to rename themselves Boneless thugs and Harmony. The publicity stunt is to promote boneless wings.

*****

NASA is hiring.

*****

Scotland has made feminine sanitary products free!!

*****

Is this true? There were pigeons in Nevada with MAGA hats glued to their heads??

*****

The final Criminal Minds has aired. CBS often aired double episodes which made it seem like they really wanted to get rid of it. Kirsten Vangsness and Erica Messer wrote the final episode which seemed to give special attention to Penelope and Reid as they were the originals. The other characters seemed a little overlooked but they all had happy endings. Where was Reid’s new girlfriend?  I was hoping to see Shemar Moore but it was great to see Reisgraf and Howell which are old favorites.

*****

Animal Kingdom returns to TNT on May 28.

*****

So there is a bit of a mess with the Roger Stone sentencing. Trump is hopping mad about the long sentence recommendation, Barr is said to be pretending to spar with the Prez, the DOJ is backing down and people are resigning.

*****

R.I.P. Shirley Jean Cade, Robert Conrad,  Katherine Johnson, Lyle Mays, B. Smith, A.E. Hotchner, Bashir Jackson, Ja’net Dubois, Pat Agee, victims of the Molson Coors shooting and Orson Bean.

[cchellacat]

How did stumble upon the bucky fandom?

You’re really going to wish you hadn’t asked.  I’ve had this written for months!

It’s utterly loco.  Itwasn’t as if it was love at first sight, or even second sight.   It’s like you see the same guy in passingfor years, nod say hello and carry on with your day.  Then one day, bam!  He’s saying hello and it’slike a veil has been lifted from your eyes. Choirs of angels singing, heavens bells ringing in your ears, earthquakes, the world tilting on its axis, gravity taking on a new origin point, anew true north, suddenly I’m no longer orbiting the sun, oh no, my new sun justbarged right in and drew me out of my orbit and into his.  It’s like the matrix glitched and althougheverything still seems the same on the surface, the truth is that everythinghas changed and it can never go back to how it once was, nothing will ever bethe same again.  My own personal serpentand apple moment.  New flash, I ate thebloody apple.  Took the blue pill andthere is no way back out of this rabbit hole.

The worst part?  Idon’t even know how it happened.  It’snot like I was out looking for it.  I wasminding my own sodding business, going through the motions of my usualroutine.  It was April, the end of Apriland I was looking for some new fan-fiction to read.  I chose a pairing I hadn’t read before,nothing odd about that, I choose new pairings every other week onaverage.  That days pairing?  Darcy and Bucky.

I like to be able to hear the characters I’mreading about so I went to YouTube to look at some clips of the two actors whoplay the parts.  Well, look how thatturned out.  I listened to some clips ofBucky and decided the sample wasn’t big enough to get a good idea in my head ofwhat he sounded like so I typed Sebastian Stan into the search box and watchedsome fan vids and some clips of him taking on other roles.  

That’s when it started. I was seeing all these characters he had played and it slowly dawned onme that I had seen him so much over the years and never realised it was thesame guy. 

Wow, that is some serioustalent, I thought.  I never recognised ordrew a connection between his various roles. There was Cater, the little shit, whom I had loved on Gossip Girl andlooked forward to seeing just because his presence could overturn the applecart beautifully. 

Then there was TJ whoI had completely fallen in love with on Political Animals, he was a mess, butso vulnerable and heartrendingly lost.  

Jefferson from OUAT, that blindsided me alittle, I adored Jefferson and had been so disappointed to see him not comeback to that role, he was a much better love interest for Emma I had thought. 

I loved the movie, The Martian, do you knowwho I completely didn’t notice yet again?   That’s right, Sebastian Stan, playingChris Beck!  How does one man look andact so differently, even sound different enough that me, who notices so muchwhen it comes to shows and movies suddenly got blindsided by a guy who is myfreaking age?  

Confused by all of this I want back and watched episodes andmovies again and was blown away.  Thisguy isn’t just cute, he’s got talent. Like, on a level of OMFG.  Talentwith a capital Oscar.  Why is he not ahousehold name?  He should be gettingbigger and better roles than this, he’s amazing, he can do anything and he canmake me cry.  Do you know how hard it isto make someone as cynical and inured to sadness as I am cry?  It’s pretty freakin hard.  

 This isn’t even the last of it.  The man is adorkable.  He’s a space nerd, watched the x-files andgenerally did the same silly shit I did as a teen.  He’s not some suave playboy with a list ofconquests he’s just an ordinary, sometime confused guy who has the mostbeautiful eyes I’ve ever had the pleasure of looking at.  

His eyes, I could write a sonnet to those frickin eyes, butcould I tell you what colour they are? No.  I have no idea.  The closest I could get was that they werethe colour of the ocean after a storm, what colour is that I hear you say? Beautiful. Yes, I just quoted Friends (Or was it HIMYM?), but in this one instance it’s totallyjustified.  

Next on the list of reasons Sebastian Stan should be lockedup, his smile. OMFG, that smile, thoselips, those adorable teeth, before and after dental.  The before teeth were just the sexiestthough.  It made his smile a little bitnaughty and racy, made my tummy do flips and made me fucking giggle.  Yes I said giggle, like some inane preteenblushing at some Disney channel heartthrob. Its embarrassing.  

He consumes my thoughts through out the day.  I find myself daydreaming about him for hoursat a time, this is not healthy.  Butwhat’s a girl to do when she gets swept off her feet every time she seems abloody picture of the man? 

You remember that sort of sick nervous feeling you get whenyou crush hard on someone and just thinking about them gives you thrills andanxiety in equal measure, that’s been my life for months now.  When I see a pic or a video of him that Ihaven’t seen before it’s like seeing him for the first time all over again.  Like the universe is reaching out to remind mehe exists, if feels like a punch to the gut, all the breath leaves my body andmy insides turn into knots.  I don’t havebutterfly in my tummy, it’s as if a freaking flock of Crebain flew through me,each out tearing out a tiny piece of my heart and soul.  

He owns me.  Everyatom of my being has cleaved to him seemingly without my forethought orpermission.  I didn’t want any of this, Ididn’t ask for it.  I was content, damnit.  I was free.  Now I will never be free again.  He has me, hook, line and sinker. There is nopower on this earth that could change my mind about him.  

The most wonderfuck and tragic part of all of this?  I love him, not because he is perfect, butbecause he is imperfect.  He shows us histruth, or at least enough of it to capture our unfailing and unwaveringloyalty.   His truth is that he is ashuman as you or I.  

His honesty makes him vulnerable in a way I find incrediblyattractive.  He respects the peoplearound him.  He reaches out when he can,just to help.  He understands, empathisesand is deeply compassionate.  I bothcurse and thank the universe for him everyday.

My life is ruined, my heart sore and tired and I will beforever changed on such a fundamental level that I may never recognise who ambecoming till it is too late.  I onlyhope that I can shake off this spell eventually.  Okay, so a huge part of me doesn’t, that partof me wants to love him forever and never let him go.  Christ on a cracker I’m pathetic.  I don’t even know why I started to writethis.  I guess I just needed to get someof this off my chest and let my feelings bleed out all over my laptop.  Mission accomplished for now. 

And that’s how it all began!  I am so embarrased I even wrote this, but you know what, I don’t care right now!  Thanks for asking!

[galwednesday]

I wish you would write wholesome Shrinkyclinks! Modern AU or WS!Bucky or anything :) especially anything where people take Bucky as super intimidating and seemingly Not For Steve but he's actually soft-spoken and embarrassingly in love with his bf. Also inspiration art, take out the parentheses: coldcigarettes(.)tumblr(.)com/post/155362763256/you-know-how-i-never-do-comics-well-ive-done-one

What I ended up with is a little askew from the prompt, but it is Shrinkyclinks with besotted WS!Bucky and people being surprised Steve is his boyfriend, just with the surprise going the other direction.

Sam did one more circuit in the air just to confirm that everything was under control. The wannabe-despot of the week was being loaded into the back of a SHIELD van in handcuffs, and the three bioengineered chimeras she’d released in Central Park were all safely contained. They were part hyena, part cat, and part…actually, Sam had no idea what the hell was making them glow faintly purple, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t normal cat or hyena behavior.

Fortunately, the chimeras weren’t nearly as aggressive as their creator had hoped. Once the Avengers had herded them into a sunny area by a fountain, the chimeras had settled down to bask on the warm stone, ignoring their creator’s increasingly frustrated commands to make with the rampaging already.

“Can we keep them?” Clint was shooting boomerang arrows from the top of the fountain. One of the chimeras was lying on its back, batting lazily at the arrows passing overhead. “I’ll feed them and walk them and not let them maul any civilians, can we keep them, sir, pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“No,” Coulson said. Sam could see him standing by the SHIELD van, arms folded as he watched Clint.

“I want this one.” Natasha sat on the ground by the fountain, posture relaxed, apparently ignoring the chimera five feet to her left. The chimera ignored her back, except to twitch an ear in her direction.

“No,” Coulson repeated, but only after a pause long enough signal defeat.

Natasha rolled slowly onto her side. The chimera tracked the movement, then put its head down on its paws and half-closed its eyes. “I’m naming her Boadicea.”

“So we’re done here? We’re done here,” Sam said, and turned his comm off before he could get sucked into the argument.

He touched down outside the SHIELD perimeter, where Tony was shedding his suit like a lobster shucking off its shell one segment at a time. Each piece folded up neatly into the briefcase at his feet. The Winter Soldier was standing next to him, his face blank but calm.

The Soldier had been an official part of the team for a few months now. Sam still didn’t have much of a read on him. The Soldier had been invaluable during the whole Hydra/SHIELD clusterfuck, and that was enough to earn him a lot of goodwill, but just about the only things Sam knew about the Soldier were his fighting style and his call sign.

“Hey, Cap,” Tony greeted him. “Where are the spy kids? Let’s do post-battle brunch, I’m starving.”

“They’re trying to convince Coulson to let the mad science experiments follow them home.”

“Good luck to them, but God help them if they try to keep them in the Tower, Pepper put her foot down about pets. You buy out one animal shelter because the cages are too small and all the animals look sad and suddenly everyone thinks you’re a hoarder. I don’t get what the big deal was, we weren’t using that floor of the Tower for anything important anyway. Tacos?” Tony suggested. “I’m thinking that place by Fordham. BattleBot, you in?”

“Can’t,” the Soldier said, typing something into his phone. “I have a date.”

Tony stopped talking for an entire three seconds. “You. Have a date.”

The Soldier looked up and blinked, clearly nonplussed to find Sam and Tony both staring at him. “Yes.”

“With who?”

“My boyfriend.”

“You have a boyfriend. You have a boyfriend?” Tony looked like he’d just walked into a lamppost, and then the lamppost had handed him a birthday present.

The Soldier’s brow furrowed. “Is that a problem?”

“Hey, this isn’t disapproval on my face, this is flabbergast. Flabbergastness? Flabbergosity?” Tony waved a dismissive hand. “I’m just a teeny bit surprised, no need to do that thing with your face where your eyebrows try to merge with your nose. Details! I need details!”

“Tony,” Sam tried.

Tony ignored him. “Is your boyfriend also a former brainwashed Soviet assassin?”

“No.” The Soldier’s stance eased. His phone chirped and he went back to typing.

“I guess that was a longshot. Is he a Marine?”

“No.”

“A fireman?”

“No.”

“Mixed martial-arts instructor?”

“He’s a painter.”

“Pics or it didn’t happen,” Tony demanded.

“Tony,” Sam sighed, but the Soldier was already holding out his phone. Tony barely resisted grabbing it. (People who grabbed things from the Soldier had a tendency to break fingers; granted, they were usually bad guys going for the Soldier’s weapons, but there was no telling exactly how the Soldier would react to a grab in a non-combat situation, and Sam for one would not want to be the first person to test it).

“That’s your boyfriend?” Tony said incredulously. “Him? No way. I don’t believe it.”

The Soldier’s eyebrows were advancing south again. “Why not?”

“Why not? Look at him, he’s adorable.”

“Yes,” the Soldier agreed, mollified.

Sam gave up on resisting his own curiosity and leaned over Tony’s shoulder. The Soldier obligingly held out his phone, which displayed a picture of a short, skinny guy with a neat blond crew cut. He was wearing a plaid flannel shirt and giving the camera a grin and a dorky peace sign.

“When are we meeting him?” Tony said. “Is it now? Can we meet him now? Does he like tacos?”

The Soldier gave them both an evaluating look. Sam tried to radiate friendly acceptance and not show that he was dying of curiosity almost as badly as Tony was.

“Yes,” the Soldier said eventually.

“Yes, he likes tacos, or yes, we can meet him now?”

“Yes.” The Soldier’s phone chirped again. He glanced at it and said, “He’s nearby. He’ll meet us there.”

The Soldier started walking. Tony and Sam fell in beside him, Tony throwing new questions at the Soldier with every step.

“Where did you meet?”

“JDate.”

“Seriously?”

“No.”

“Are you actually Jewish, though?”

The Soldier shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

“Same.” Tony held out a fist. The Soldier bumped it without looking up from his phone. “How long have you been dating?”

“Five months.”

“Five months! You need to tell me these things, this is information I needed to know, I thought we were friends.”

“Why would you think that,” the Soldier said, so flatly that Sam was almost entirely sure he was joking.

“I’m hurt, Ice-T, I’m wounded and distraught. If I ask you about your sex life are you going to punch me?”

“Yes.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed in calculation. “With which arm?”

“You guys hear that?” Sam interrupted. Angry shouts were echoing down the street ahead of them. He put a hand down to the shield at his side to check its position, his wingpack a reassuring weight on his back. A particularly loud yell was followed by a loud thud and the sound of glass breaking, like a waiter dropping a tray of glasses. “What is that?”

A beatific smile spread across the Soldier’s face. “That’s Steve.”

“What?” Sam said, but the Soldier had already broken into a run.

The commotion was coming from the taco place. Sam rounded the corner at a jog just in time to see a tiny guy pick himself up from the ground and hurtle forward into a much bigger man’s kneecaps, tackling him to the sidewalk. The contents of a knocked-over recycling bin were spilling into the street, sprays of glass marking bottles that had broken on impact.

The Soldier dove swiftly into the tangle of bodies and hauled the big guy up by his collar. “What did he do?” he asked the other man.

“Got handsy with a server,” the man replied. His nose was bleeding, but he didn’t seem to notice. He grinned at the Soldier, and suddenly Sam recognized him. This was Steve? “You want to sit on him until the cops come?”

The Soldier put the man in an armlock and didn’t move an inch, no matter how much the man struggled, until the NYPD showed up. Sam adopted his most Captain America voice and reassured the bystanders that everything was under control. The crowd petered out once the fighting was over, not even the spectacle of three Avengers helping with a citizen’s arrest enough to meet New Yorkers’ jaded standards for a free show.

Once the cops had loaded the still-protesting brawler into the back of their car, the Soldier gave Steve a thorough once-over, eyes lingering on the smear of blood under his nose. He pulled Steve into a careful hug. Sam tried not to stare at the novel sight of the Soldier initiating non-violent physical contact. “Ribs?”

“Totally fine.” Steve gave the Soldier an extra squeeze before letting go. “What about you, did you get hurt at all?”

“Strained knee. Your nose is bleeding.”

“Shit.” Steve swiped at the blood under his nose, made a face at his messy hand, and gave Sam and Tony a little wave instead of trying to shake hands. The Soldier dug into one of his belt pouches and handed Steve a wet wipe. “Hey, you must be Bucky’s coworkers. Nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” Tony said. It was more of a question than a statement. “Who the hell is Bucky?”

“Me,” the Soldier said.

Tony and Sam exchanged a look. Steve just cleaned his hands and threw the wet wipe away.

“Is that something we should call you, too?” Sam asked.

The Soldier shrugged. “Sure.”

“And hey, you should’ve said your knee was hurt,” Sam told the Soldier as they filed into the taco place–told Bucky, and that was going to be a weird adjustment. “We could’ve given you a lift.”

“It’ll heal,” Bucky said, entirely unconcerned.

“You guys shouldn’t rely on air support so much,” Steve said, eyes wandering over the menu. “Your team has so many fliers that it’s weakening your ground game.”

“Excuse me?” Tony said.

“You almost lost the third chimera when it went under tree cover because Iron Man and Captain America were both in the air, and Hawkeye and the Soldier were in elevated sniper stands. If the Black Widow hadn’t been in that quadrant already, the chimera would’ve made it past the SHIELD perimeter. Hey, Bucky, have you ever had mole?”

“No,” Bucky said. He was standing sideways in line, his back to the wall–and to Steve, Sam noted, who was apparently allowed inside his blind spot. “Is it good?”

“Yeah, I think you’ll like it. Want to split mole and pulled pork?”

“Yes.” Bucky slipped out of the line and went to stake out a booth.

“I know we make it look easy,” Tony said, “but saving the world on a weekly basis is actually kind of difficult, and we’re pretty good at it by now.”

“Oh, sure. All of you are brilliantly effective at what you do, but that means you’re not working as a group as well as you could. You’re all playing to your individual strengths instead of cohering as a unit. Hi, could I get one order of mole tacos and one of pulled pork?” Steve asked the cashier, his voice abruptly polite.

Sam distracted Tony with questions about Pepper’s latest gallery opening until they got their food and sat down. Bucky had managed to claim a corner booth by the kitchen and was sitting on the bench that faced the front doors. Steve climbed over his lap to get into the corner seat. Bucky slid a little further in after Steve sat down, in a move that Sam interpreted as 30% doting boyfriend seeking closeness, 70% bodyguard blocking potential lines of fire.

“Okay, so you think our ground game is weak.” Tony steepled his fingers over his plate and narrowly avoided putting an elbow in the guacamole cup. “Elaborate.”

“You don’t need two fliers and two snipers on a five-person team. The Iron Man suit is a walking tank, Captain America’s shield is a perfect melee weapon, and Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier are both hand-to-hand combat experts. There’s no reason any one of you couldn’t fight in close quarters. You need to vary your approach before the people you’re fighting catch on and start staging battles in places where long-distance engagement is impossible.” Steve dragged the wadded-up tortilla end of his taco through a smear of sour cream on his plate and passed it to Bucky, who stuffed it into his mouth without comment. “Any time you can’t fight from the air, you’re at a real disadvantage. Bucky told me about what happened in the sewers last August.”

Sam’s face wrinkled at the memory. Clint had almost gotten eaten by an alligator-dinosaur-thing, and the smell had clung to Sam’s costume for weeks.

“Oh, you heard all about it?” Tony said. “Fine, bantamweight, lay it on me. What would you have done instead?”

Steve’s smile went sharp. “Well,” he said, and shoved everything out of the middle of the table. “For starters–”

Sam pulled his taco plate into his lap to keep it out of the way of the rapidly unfolding model of the sewers, which Steve assembled out of straws and sugar packets. Steve moved the salt and pepper shakers (Iron Man and the Winter Soldier) through the grid, while the straw wrapper (Black Widow) slipped ahead to provide recon and a plastic knife and spoon (Hawkeye and Captain America) guarded the exits. Tony challenged every call he made, and Steve pushed right back, questioning Tony’s assumptions and demonstrating his own reasoning. Sam ate his tacos and put in his own two cents whenever he could get a word in edgewise.

Sam’s attention was split between the conversation and surreptitiously watching Bucky. Bucky didn’t react to anything that was said, although Sam was sure he heard every word. He looked more relaxed than Sam had ever seen him, like the sound of Steve and Tony bickering was a zen meditation podcast.

“Huh,” Tony said, halfway through their fifth iteration. “You have a point.”

“Yep.” Steve sat back in his seat and stretched out his back, all that startlingly intense focus draining from his posture. It was amazing how quickly he went back to looking like a nerdy grad student. Sam might have been fooled, if he hadn’t just heard Steve argue Tony Stark to a standstill, and if Steve didn’t have dried blood ringing his nostrils.

“You said he was a painter,” Tony told Bucky accusingly.

“He is,” Bucky said. “He also has a PhD in history with a specialty in wartime tactics and strategy.”

“Seriously, how did you two meet?” Tony asked.

“I saved him from a mugger,” Steve said.

Tony stared at them. “I honestly can’t tell whether you guys are fucking with me right now.”

“I know,” Bucky said serenely.

“Hey, Steve, you want a job?” Sam asked, because unlike some people, he had his priorities straight.

“I already have a job.”

“Come on, don’t tell me you just pulled that analysis out of your ass, you’ve been thinking about this,” Tony said.

“How would you feel about working freelance?” Sam asked. “You could do strategy consulting, be our eye in the sky on missions–”

“Help keep your Bucky-boo-boo safe,” Tony interrupted.

Steve gave him a level look, then turned to Bucky. “I see what you mean.”

“I’m choosing to interpret that as a compliment,” Tony said.

“Yeah, okay, let’s talk terms. Churros first, though. You want churros?” Steve asked Bucky, who nodded.

“I could–” Bucky started, but Steve was already climbing over his legs to get out of the booth.

“I got it.” Steve leaned over the back of the booth and kissed the top of Bucky’s head. He didn’t have to lean down very far. “You take a load off, rest that knee.”

Tony watched Steve go up to the counter, then turned to Bucky. “Okay, nevermind,” he said. “I get it. He’s scrappy, huh?”

“Buddy, you got no idea,” Bucky said, and stole the half-eaten taco right off of Tony’s plate.

[aharris00britney]

ASKS 09

random stuff, some facts about me, some sims questions, video requests, hair sneak peaks, umm and other stuff too…. also I am 10 candies from being able to evolve that dumb fish so wig

Anonymous said: Do you have a car?

Nope!

Anonymous said: Hi wcif the shirts in your coming soon in June update ps I love your cc x

hey! for any WCIFs for that stuff, I am probably going to wait until the posts for the hairs are up because I know that people won’t check when the hairs are posted for my old wcifs.

@angelamariacalle​ said: you could make a WIP the eyes that you use in your post with ice cream?     

i have no idea what you were trying to say ;-; the eyes I used are my default ones which you can download here

@ayoshi-sims​ said: Once you get this SHARE 6 facts about yourself and send it to your 10 favorite blogs ✨

I still play pokemon go (fight me)

I think that pop music was the best in 2007-2011 (One of the Boys, The Fame/The Fame Monster, Circus/Blackout, Animal/Cannibal, The best damn thing)

I am a super middle child! (two older siblings, and two younger ones as well)

I keep all my kpop albums on my dresser, with my Red Velvet one hanging in a red/white flower crown I own :)

My favorite food to snack on is either a tuna kit, or pickles

I am a bottom XD

Anonymous said: When you get this, please respond with five things that make you happy! Then, send to the last ten people in your notifications anonymously. You never know who might benefit from spreading positivity!

aaaaah okay um

my kpop girlies i stan

my angel rocky (my old af pug)

my friends (irl and online <3)

the concept of love is always something that makes me happy omg i know that is cheesy but like… imagine finding someone that is perfect for you will always be there when you need and like just GOD I NEED A MAN NOW

charli xcx music umm yeah it’s 5 in the morning

Anonymous said: Hello, I was wondering if you have your sims on the gallery? Thanks for your time. :)       

Yeah! I have a few sims for download on my origin which is SPOTHARRIS I also have them for download on this page

Anonymous said: Hello!! Just wondering wicf the freckles from the discontinued model in your older posts (e.g. momo buns) thank you!!! BTW I love your stuff soo much! :)

Hey! I no longer have that file or even know where I got them from :( Here is an OLD af wcif I answered of them though

Anonymous said: Where are you from?

I am from Virginia, which is on the east coast of the United States :)

Anonymous said: Hi!! I feel like this is such a silly question but oh well I’m a noob. If I use your Quartz eyes V2 will they be inherited in the next generation if my sims have kids? Same with your hair colors as well?

I honestly have no idea how any of that stuff works :( I’m sorry! I assume it should but also maybe not? ;-; again, sorry!

Anonymous said: omg the hair with the flowers in it! *-* i love!! will you also make a version without the flowers? I also wanted to say I’m really happy your life is going well and congrats on the 30k followers

thank you so much!! and I the hair will obvi have no flowers :P the flowers should be accessories if everything works out. There are some clipping issues rn but I think it is fixable :) here is a pic without the flowers. If you guys have any recommendations about then pls send them my way

Anonymous said: Would you ever consider doing really long curly hair like the singer Sza’s?

I personally don’t like super long hair in TS4, it just doesn’t look well with most clothes and has clipping/weight issues :( I’m sorry!!

Anonymous said: Do you know what happened to SimpleSimmer?

I don’t, no. But I am sure she is fine :) sometimes people just take breaks

Anonymous said: Hi! So, i really love your sim with the dark brown hair (for your hair cc) and i was wondering if you could ever share that sim! Because she has a beautiful face. Also i am wondering which skin overlay (etc) you are using! You can find me in the gallery under the name: xThisGirl (if that is an easier way for you to respond :)

Hey! You can find her download here, along with all my other sims :) I am glad you like her <3

Anonymous said: Hey! I know you probably won’t read this as fast but I wanted to ask, how do you shift the hairline to the side or any of that? Like your daisy hair, briana hair, and that one wip you had in a tutorial video of yours! I really want to do that but I just don’t know how :(

I will maybe record something for this! No promises bc I have to get someone to edit the videos for me and I don’t wanna bug him but I will see if he can edit it for me if I film it :) It is pretty simple to do once you get the hang of it

@sims4storiesandstuff​ said: I just wanted to say, your hairs are the shit! Absolutely stunning. I rarely use the EA hairs anymore! I think you deserve every follower you have.            

Thank you so much!!! I really appreciate stuff like this <3 I don’t play the game myself much so it makes me happy knowing that my hairs make other peoples games so much more enjoyable uwu

Anonymous said: hello can you make please a video when you make a hair and upload it?

I would like to! I just do so many random things while doing a hair like showing pictures to friends and getting their advice. So I will have to see, would you guys mind if the video had conversation stuff in it? As I said earlier, someone edits the videos for me so I don’t wanna get him to do more work for it by editing them out :( I will look into it for sure though!

Anonymous said: That hair wip in your lil video tutorial is absolutely beautiful!! Can’t wait until it’s released !! 🧡🧡

thank you so much!! Here are some more pics of it:

Anonymous said: are you korean? If not, how can you like kpop if you dont understand it?

I am not korean haha, but music is about more than understanding. It is about the feelings it vibes you get from it and the moods it puts you in. People love screamo music even though it is hard to understand, and music like instrumentals and dubstep heavy are just… what the music makes you feel. I listen to ‘normal’ pop, kpop, instrumentals, artists like grimes that mumble their songs a lot with production heavy stuff. I think that as long as the music is something you enjoy, you shouldn’t be judged for liking it. I know you aren’t trying to be rude with this ask so don’t think I am attacking you please! I am just trying to give you some insight into why different music interests people :)

Anonymous said: I’m so happy to see that you’ve made a patreon account! you really make amazing CC and that’s such a gift to the community, I’m happy that now I get to feel like I can give something to you haha :) have a great day/evening!

thank you so much! and thank you for supporting <3

@lesyatim​ said: Hello,  it’s not ask. I only want to say that you make very beautiful hair and  THANK YOU! I Love You💕💕💕💕💕 P.S. I’m from Russia and I don’t now English very well♡)

thank you so much!! Спасибо большое (that is suppose to say thank you in german lmao)

Anonymous said: When did u make a skin?

it is a hidden gem :P It is mainly to fix the collarbones bc I use multiple skin overlays so I that is why is was never posted :)

Anonymous said: Congratulations i hope you have a happy family 😄

ummm?? I GOT IT I GOT I GOT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT

@dangerouskindofmind said: I actually don’t have a question! I just wanna say you are one of my favorite sims 4 creators out here. Your hairs; snatched. Your clothes; beautiful. Your sims; amazing. And your personality looks just as good lol. I’ve probably downloaded like 99.9% of your content and I just wanna say thank you for all you do to make my sims 4 experience loads better. I also hope you’re having a great day

thank you so much!!!! I appreciate it a ton, I love that my content makes people love this game more <3

Anonymous said: Just wanted to say that literally all of your CC is beautiful and from what I’ve seen, I absolutely adore your personality. Keep it up my dear, you’ve got crazy talent. Much love <3

thank you, thank you!!! My personality irl is kind of shitty lmao I am really shy and like reserved ;-; and it is just memorizing how to do some editing to hair meshes, not much talent involved <3 thank you so so much again though!! I love getting these kind of messages

Anonymous said: Are you gonna make an outerwear cc pack when the seasons expansion pack releases?

I don’t make much clothing CC so I highly doubt it. I am working on a swimsuit that I might post later this month though! We will see what happens though :D

Anonymous said: thank you very much for a playlist that you shared with One Shot,Two Shot,I’m totally in love ur the best

yesss BoA is such a queen, listen to the full mini album if you can! It is one of her best releases in my opinion.

Anonymous said: aharris00britney awnsered me,cuz I remember my question and it’s on the asks recent post AND i’ll shake this print in all my enemies face thx,I asked about the patreon and I’m doing it right now bby <3            

hehe thank you!! <3 you show them enemies

– just so the eating ass juicy booty ask so yep that is all I have gotten in the past month that I can answer :P

[fictionalabyss]

My first comic con experience.

I first posted this Saturday, but it was incomplete. Tumblr mobile deleted HALF of what I had written / edited, and posted just the rough first draft that was incomplete. Rude. And  while I said I would re-do it yesterday, I didn’t and I’m sorry.

I was drained and exhausted by the time I got home Saturday, but I had a good time.

I got three autographs!

Caitlin Glass, aka Winry. She was  so sweet and happy to be there, and chatting with everyone.

We were chatted up by a girl in Caitlin’s line, Pat jokingly reffered to her as a “con crazy” but she was very sweet and kept us laughing.  We enjoyed her company. She was just super excited and was working on an anime poster that would get 50+ autos. She’s been going to cons and collecting autos for something like 15 years, and it was really genuinely nice having her in my first auto line to help ease my anxiety. So to the girl who kept joking about people taking too long and then took long herself, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You helped make my morning awesome, and you honestly helped shape my first con experience into a good one. I hope to run into you again.

Next, we saw Mark.

I bought this Pop at the con just  for him to sign. He was all about laughs. He saw my post it that said simply ‘Mel’ and started asking what it was short for.  When I didn’t answer quick enough, he started to guess. I expected Melanie to be his first, but it wasn’t. “Is Mel for Melon?” I chuckled and shook my head. “What then? Melange?”

Pat  was laughing behind me and Mark seemed amused, so I kind of laughed and said “No, nothing that original.” When he asked again, I replied with “Mellissa. See, unoriginal.”

Before we walked away, he reached out for my hand, said it was lovely to meet me and thanked me for coming to see him. Then he turned to Pat, and did the same.

Mark was 100% there for the fans. To meet them, talk to them, and being around him is so utterly refreshing that I’m so glad I went. Next time, I’m at least getting a selfie. No excuses. In hind sight, because we left early, I had 115$ left over, so I could have, but since we were expecting to be there the whole day, and we were expecting to do more, and pat paid for a few things, I wasn’t expecting to have that extra money, or I WOULD have gotten a picture.

Last  auto, was David Duchovny

I paid 100$ to have a panic attack in a lineup. Luckily, I was able to stick it out and get the auto. Also luckily I had a VIP ticket, so the line I was in went really fast.

Due to my panic attack tho, I just wanted to get in and out. One of the girls in front of me saw me in distress and  reminded me to take deep breaths, and Pat pushed his way back into the line to get to me (he had left to go sit because his knees were bad from standing in that line for so long).

The people David had working with him were very kind. They helped keep the line moving quickly, but were also polite and chatty. You didn’t feel like you were being pushed along as quickly as possible, it was very smooth. By the time I reached David though, I was still shaking, still having heart palpitations, and he was distracted by the girl ahead of me, the one who reminded me to breath. He signed my picture barely even glancing at me, I didn’t get a hello or anything, and honestly, I was oddly thankful for it. I just wanted to get outside and away from people. He wasn’t a dick or anything, he was talking to people and seemed just as nice as the other two people i’d seen, he was chatting to the girl ahead of me about a possible mutual friend or something, so he must be nice, right?

Honestly, I really am very glad he was distracted come my turn, because I don’t want my first impression to a guy I’ve had a celeb crush on for 25+ years to be me puking on him ROFL.  I didn’t puke, but probably only because I got out of there fast lol.

If he comes back, I’m totes seeing him again and getting a pic. He is divine (insert heart eyes here)

Up next, Mark Shep’s Q&A

After a quick rush to the least crowded bathroom I  could find, We hurried  upstairs to see Mark again! And holding VIP tickets, we were like 5th in line to get in. And that means..

FRONT ROW SEATS!

I’m so glad you guys helped me to get here. I went in, still shaking, still with chest pains, still not 100%, and Mark is just so god damn refreshing that by the time I left, I felt fine.

I hope this Q&A is up on youtube, because it should be.

He joked around, making fun of our version of french and the accents he heard. When asked what was worse, the fiery pits of damnation in hell, or the Montreal heat wave, he answered with how disgusting our heat wave had been. Poor Mark got to town on Thursday, our worst day, but luckily the last one.

And while it might not be the intention, I was getting the impression that people wanted Mark to be bitter about how he left the show. Or maybe dish about how this theory or that was correct. But it was simple, and he spoke honestly, and fondly about his experiences with both SPN, the cast, and Creation.

He spoke fondly of working with friends, watching them grow from boys, to immature men, to seriously married with kids. He joked about the “angel that annoyed him” but all the amazing work that Misha does and how the ‘spn family’ makes it happen. How proud he is of the change it puts out into the world one bit at a time. He spoke about how his supernatural experience changed his life for the better in so many ways.

When it came to Creation, he talked about how he wanted to see more places (like Montreal) but Creation always had said no. He wanted to meet more fans, wanted to give everyone a chance to see them. Instead of the same cities every single year and only those cities, he believed they should be visiting different places. And he didn’t believe they should be charging more and offering less time. But even them he spoke so fondly of, and mentioned how despite his feelings of those two aspects, Creation was good to him for years. He does this for us, for the fans, to meet us and talk to us. It’s why he prefers local cons that won’t cost an arm and a leg to attend. And after my own experience with him for just a moment, I know this to be true.

He talked about his favorite SPN episode, the end of season 8. He practically got a standing ovation when he mentioned that the writers wasted so much potential with Demon Dean and how that went. He talked about (and I fully agreed) how it seemed to go downhill with seasons 11 &12, where Crowley was almost dumbed down and left eating peanuts by a bar, and he was written into a corner. 

I was sad his Q&A was only 45 minutes, because I could listen to that man talk for hours. About anything and nothing at all. He strolled through the crowd, he hugged people, he joked with people, he high fived a kid who was laying on the floor watching something on a tablet.

Mark is just so genuine and real. And I highly enjoyed my time there in his presence. I told pat, if he comes back, We’re going VIP again, just for him.

In short, if Mark comes to a con near you, IT’S WORTH THE MONEY. 110% worth every cent spent.

And I will be going to more cons, but maybe not planning for the whole day, because we bought those X-File event tickets, and ended up not attending. But I still have those tickets as a souvenir. A reminder of the massive accomplishment that was me attending a con, and how far I’ve come with handling my anxiety, but also a reminder that there’s more work to do. Because if there ever is another X-Files event, I’m fucking going.

-Mel