#games of june 2017

[alex31624]

8 (Legacy), 17 (May), and 22 (June).

8. How did you come up with the title to Legacy?

This one was hard to name.

Ok, Legacy is a story about Donald taking care of May and June, while Huey, Dewey and Louie can't accept that. The triplets felt that his uncle was replacing them.

And what I try to do was, that even if Huey, Dewey and Louie have Della with them, Donald would always be his parent. And for Donald, who really never have anything to his name, those kids, became his legacy.

And now, he's doing it again with May and June. He raised triplets, now he's raising twins. May and June are about to be Donald's legacy too.

I realized that while writing, and I said to me, "that's the name".

17. What's a book, movie, or show you think May would like?

I think that the best thing about the twins is how you can do anything with them, so, I took advantage of that.

May is a horror gal, that's her thing. Lena introduced her into the genre, with the all-time classic, Halloween.

Violet took her to the library when she got her first book, Dracula. Daisy took care in find more horror and mystery novels for her.

22. Give us a headcanon for June.

June is a wrestling fan. Dewey took her to her first Duckburg Wrestling Federation event and she fell in love.

She has a real size replica belt of the DWF World Championship, but is too big for her, so she hung it over her bed.

Her favorite wrestle is la lizard called Randy Orcoc.

[freckliedan]

i kinda want to know what do you consider new phannies? i’m not really asking for myself i got into them in 2015 so i think i qualify as not new but i personally think of like 2019ish or later as new even though that’s like 4 years now 😭

there's layers of old but i think anyone who got here from 2019 onward will forever be a new phannie to me! i'm forever delighted by the fact that people are still discovering them but you simply have to have experienced the closeted era to truly count as an old timer and there's nothing that can change that!

i do think there's levels of fandom-age, too. like, original phillies who were around before dan & people who were around before the halloween leak of the vday vid in 2012, that's true phandom olds to me. there's a difference between the aftermath/radio show era, when i showed up, & the tatinof era once they'd settled in to the closet, but having been around in any regard at any of those points makes you some level of old timer.

the endpoint/turning point towards coming out was them moving out of the first london apartment & dan rebranding, so like, spring 2017 through the gaming channel hiatus is an era where like? if you showed up then you're not a newbie, you've been around the block, but it also doesn't qualify you as fandom old bc the horrors were mostly over by then.

none of that is coming from a place of pretentiousness or judgement either! just being honest that nobody escaped the trenches of the past unscathed.

[melonthesprigatito]

I've got the BIGGEST mixed feelings about Legends Z-A's unspecified month 2025 release date.

My brain is going: Ah yes. Smart decision. This is great. Gives them more development time. Let them cook. :)

But my heart, upon hearing that I won't be able to play a brand new Pokémon game this year, not a main series game, spinoff or a DLC, for the first time ever, is going:

[henrykathman]

The Miraculous Horror of Stop Motion

From the same artform that brought you Coraline and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, comes three stories that evoke the existential fear of art.

Original Music by Molly Noise

Bibliography below

Atrocity Guide. “The Animators Who’ve Spent 40 Years on a Single Film.” YouTube, 9 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hip3pz0Xs&pp=ygUMdGhlIG92ZXJjb2F0. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Brubaker, Charles. “The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass.” Cartoon Research, Jerry Beck, 14 Apr. 2014, cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-japanese-studios-of-rankinbass/.

Bute, Paris. “Introduction to “a Rankin/Bass Retrospective from a New Perspective.”” Citizen Jane, Stephens College, 19 Nov. 2021, www.citizenjane.org/home/cwwicd2ucb2fvs64kgfaocfykjhaum. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Crome, Althea. “Coraline.” Althea Crome | Micro Knitter, 2012, www.altheacrome.com/coraline. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Harold Halibut. Directed by Onat Hekimoğlu, Slow Bros., 16 Apr. 2024.

Hekimoglu, Onat, and Gabriel Schmitz. “Unite Berlin 2018 - Harold Halibut and Making a Stop Motion Game.” Unity, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2018, youtu.be/9usssSQc0wQ. Accessed 6 May 2023.

Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke. “The Making of Harold Halibut.” XboxEra, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2024, youtu.be/WMyxM9t3o7A. Accessed 19 June 2024.

LAIKA Studios. “Sweater and Gloves: Knitting Coraline by Hand.” YouTube, 11 July 2017, youtu.be/zUvkfcGR-7U. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Mad God Productions. “Phil Tippett’s “Mad God.”” Kickstarter, 17 May 2012, www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgod/phil-tippetts-mad-god/posts.

Olson, Mathew. “Report: Michel Ancel Accused of Abusive, Disruptive Practices on beyond Good & Evil 2.” VG247, 25 Sept. 2020, www.vg247.com/report-michel-ancel-accused-of-abusive-disruptive-practices-on-beyond-good-evil-2. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Ono, Kosei. “Tadahito Mochinaga: The Japanese Animator Who Lived in Two Worlds.” Animation World Network, AWN, Inc, 1 Dec. 1999, www.awn.com/animationworld/tadahito-mochinaga-japanese-animator-who-lived-two-worlds.

Orland, Kyle. “Claptrap Voice Actor Accuses Gearbox CEO of Assault, Underpayment.” Ars Technica, 7 May 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/claptrap-voice-actor-accuses-gearbox-ceo-of-assault-underpayment/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Pilling, Jayne. A Reader In Animation Studies. Indiana University Press, 1998. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/40033.

Prehistoric Beast. Directed by Phil Tippett, Tippett Studios, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

Randles, Jonathan. “VFX Studio with Star Wars, Jurassic Park Credits Goes Bankrupt.” Bloomberg Law, 1 May 2024, news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/vfx-studio-with-star-wars-jurassic-park-credits-goes-bankrupt. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Shanley, Patrick. “Gearbox Software CEO Accused of Contempt in Latest Filing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/gearbox-software-ceo-accused-contempt-latest-filing-1235064/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

The Making of “Jurassic Park.” Directed by John Schultz, Amblin Entertainment, 1995. https://youtu.be/8r01mk6F_Pk

The Making of Mad God. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2021. https://youtu.be/sfUOHh0xmwc

The Tale of the Fox. Directed by Irene Starewicz and Ladislas Starevich, UFA GmbH, 10 Apr. 1941. https://youtu.be/Us_Pn6Q1dBQ

Wikipedia contributors. "List of films with longest production time." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of media notable for being in development hell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of Rankin/Bass Productions films." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "Tadahito Mochinaga." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2023. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wilson, Josh. “Phil Tippett: 24 Frames per Second < the Fabulist Words & Art.” The Fabulist Words & Art, 5 Nov. 2021, fabulistmagazine.com/24-frames-per-second-the-phil-tippett-interview/.

Worse than the Demon. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2013. https://youtu.be/ghKqvDNRe4c

[beom1e]

what a shame! 0 | prologue

genre angst. warning argument, mean jake. wc 1.6k

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june 3rd, 2017

it was raining; pouring even. the sky was grey and the field you stood anxiously waiting on was soaked through now. your shoes and legs were muddied from your previous activity, your wet hair falling down your face along with the droplets of rain that trailed down your features. the girls beside you chatted quietly amongst themselves, whilst your focus was on the coach in the middle of announcing the third place volleyball team. your fingers were crossed at your sides, and your bottom lip was anxiously pulled in between your teeth.

it typically never rained on this day. it worried you.

for as long as you could remember, you had attended the area’s yearly sports festival as the captain of your school’s volleyball team. even as a small child, you had always done your best and brought home a trophy. every year prior, your team had always been awarded first place.

you looked across the field, towards the bleachers. sim jaeyun sat with his elbow atop his knee and his palm supporting his head. he looked miserable, his eyes on his muddied shoes rather than on you. for the first time in his life, his team had placed second. he was a striker for his high school’s soccer team now, having lived the same experience as you had. every year, his team won. and every year, the two of you would celebrate together.

for the past twelve years, you had considered jaeyun to be your greatest friend. you’d done everything together. your families would meet up for dinner every friday night, each of your family holidays had included him, you’d went to the same schools until high school, you’d always attended the same sports festival together every year. he was this little ray of sunshine in your life, seeing him was always something to look forward to after a harrowing day at school. it had always been just you and him, until recently.

it wasn’t the different schools that got in the way of your friendship, it was his attitude. he befriend a fellow soccer player named park sunghoon. sunghoon was sweet to you, considering you a friend of his own and pushing his way into your lives. it never did make sense as to why jaeyun had suddenly become this angsty teenager that seemed to have outgrown you. maybe it was for a few extra points for his reputation, knowing that still hanging around with a girl he’d met as a toddler would certainly be a critical hit.

after a gruelling week of intense volleyball games, and the worst bout of summer weather known to man, you heard your team announced as first place. the team erupted into a course of jumping and squealing and squeezing each other into tight hugs, and then they thanked you for being their encouraging captain as you always were. winning games was not the only aspect of this annual competition. it was the teamwork, morale, friendship, skill, strategy, and overall attitude towards the games that gave you this trophy.

since joining the team, you had formed satisfactory friendships with each of the girls. however, none of them came close to jaeyun.

when you spun around to face him, you already knew it wasn’t going to be like it always was. he wasn’t going to come charging across the field to pick you up into the air and spin you and scream about how the two of you were surely going to become famous athletes. the volume around you grew muted and a high-pitched ringing sound violated your ears.

sim jaeyun was your lifeline. each time when you came crying into his arms, knees and elbows bruised and a claim to finally give it all up falling from your lips, he would remind you of your love for volleyball. he was always so vocal about how proud of you he was, and the old him would never leave you feeling this way. his hugs were better medicine than watching cartoons beside a large mug of hot chocolate whenever you had the flu. but he wasn’t standing here with you, squeezing you in a hug and shaking you about.

you weren’t so naive to expect him to stick around forever, but knowing that things were truly different, it hurt nonetheless.

as if on autopilot, you accepted the trophy with a forced smile and held it up for your coach to take a picture. and then you handed it off to your teammates, politely excusing yourself and thanking your team for working so hard.

when the event came to its inevitable end, you sat alone on a cold, metal bench as the rest of your team made their way onto the bus. your coach stood talking to another, umbrella above her head and a cigarette between her lips. the rain was bouncing against your raincoat and soaking through your socks, the greyness of the skies now matching your mood.

your head snapped up at the sound of jaeyun’s voice. he was walking beside sunghoon, his bag slung diagonal across his school uniform as it always was. he had his hands in his pockets as he bluntly replied to his teammate. you quickly stood, your shoes moving against the gravel alerting them of your whereabouts. sunghoon waved you goodbye and headed for his own bus.

‘hey,’ you smiled, barely able to see him beneath your hood. you expected him to smile and approach you, pulling your hood over your eyes just to hear you complain about him messing your hair up. ‘you played well today.’

he was walking over to you slowly with a blank expression, still with his hands in his pockets.

‘not well enough,’ he shrugged. you began to walk in step with him, across the gravel and towards the buses. when you looked his way, he was still avoiding your eyes with that look of a kicked puppy across his features.

‘you shouldn’t think like that, jaeyun,’ you shook your head as you stopped and placed your hand on his shoulder as a means to comfort him. ‘this event isn’t about winning.’

‘that’s exactly what it’s about, y/n,’ he shrugged your hand away and began to walk ahead of you.

‘you’ve won every other year,’ you reminded him. ‘one year isn’t going to hurt.’

‘easy for you to say,’ he spun around to face you, causing you to stop once more, completely taken aback. ‘your team won. and how is that? i don’t know… that’s the worst i’ve ever seen you play.’

‘what?’ you picked up the pace once he set off again, and stopped in front of him to block his path. ‘i know you’re upset, so i’m choosing to ignore the hurt you’re trying cause. why are you being such a sore loser?’

‘i’m not just saying it because i’m upset,’ he rolled his eyes. ‘your team is mediocre at best, always just winning by one point, but you still take home the trophy because nobody actually cares about volleyball. you’re devoting your entire life to the biggest waste-of-time sport in the world, and all of your hard work isn’t even paying off. and i have to be the one to hear you talk about quitting every other week, when i know you’re not going to even though you should.’

‘what’s wrong with you?’ you spat, glaring up at him. ‘are you really acting this way because your team came second?’

‘are you telling me you wouldn’t be this upset after all of the hard work you put into this?’ he glared back at you, his eyes portraying nothing more than pure hatred and envy. ‘whatever, i don’t have time for this. my team is waiting.’

‘don’t you dare walk away from me!’ you called as he stepped away from you. ‘if you get on that bus right now, i can promise you that i will never speak to you again.’

he didn’t hesitate. he continued towards the bus with his hands still in his pockets, but now with a hint of regret. the need to take it all back sat at the tip of his tongue, but he simply bit down into the flesh as he left you behind.

june 3rd, 2022

jake’s absence stung less and less as he grew fainter and fainter in the image of your life.

it first manifested as sadness. you cried into your knees the first friday that he didn’t come over for dinner. and on the first joint-family holiday that he refused to attend, you spent the majority of it alone in your hotel room that you would have been sharing with him. and then it manifested as anger. you grew to hate him beyond repair, throwing out every gift he had ever given you and turning around every photo frame that included him. speaking his name left a bitter taste in the back of your throat, and you decided that it was only for the best to never speak to him again.

his parents stopped asking you about him whenever they came over, simply being the kind people that they were. your own parents kept any news about him to themselves, respecting your decision to cut him off. although neither of them knew why exactly you had made that decision.

you still saw sunghoon, him being the only other person in the world that knew why you and jake had stopped being friends. he slowly became your new best friend, until it was time to move onto university, and the two of you parted ways. although he always kept in touch, which annoyed jake heavily.

and by the time you had finished your first year of university, jake no longer had any impact on your wellbeing. not when you were so far out of reach, studying at your dream university under a sports scholarship as the captain of their volleyball team, with friends he didn’t even know the name of.

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taglist @dreamiestay @sseastar-main @sumzysworld @lovesimjaeyun @jakeshuneybby @indigoez @thing89 @jaehoonii @jakeslucifer @i03jae @pkjay @haechansbbg @rikizm

[zelda-heritage-posts]

Remakes and re-releases count!

Official mainline list:

The Legend of Zelda - August 22, 1987 - NES

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link - December 1, 1988 - NES

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - April 13, 1992 - SNES

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - August 6, 1993 - Game Boy

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - November 21, 1998 - N64

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - October 26, 2000 - N64

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages - May 13, 2001 - Game Boy Color

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords - December 2, 2002 - Game Boy Advance

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - March 24, 2003 - GameCube

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures - June 7, 2004 - GameCube

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - January 10, 2005 - Game Boy Advance

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - November 19, 2006 (Wii) / December 11, 2006 (GameCube)

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - October 1, 2007 - Nintendo DS

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - December 7, 2009 - Nintendo DS

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - November 20, 2011 - Wii

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - November 22, 2013 - Nintendo 3DS

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes - October 23, 2015 - Nintendo 3DS

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - March 3, 2017 - Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - May 12, 2023 - Nintendo Switch

[lilyrizzy]

max & daniel's relationship, told through 13 years of max's google searches. thank you to @catofthecanals289 and @lajnias for reading through this for me!!! also on ao3

2010-2015

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IP Location: 173.176.160.149 Montreal, Canada. 12th June 2016

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IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 3rd December 2016

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IP 86.167.142.227 Location: Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. 30th April 2018:

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IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 3rd August 2018

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IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 3rd December 2018

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IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 25th December 2018

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IP 37.77.109.233 Location Sochi, Russia. 30th September 2019

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IP 162.89.0.47  Location Austin, TX, United States of America. 1st November 2019

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3rd  November 2019

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IP: 84.192.119.8 Location: Hasselt, Belgium. 21st December 2019:

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24th December 2019

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31st December 2019

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2020

IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 18th March 2020

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18th April 2020

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20th April 2020

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IP: 84.195.208.79 Location: Maaseik, Belgium. 21st December 2020

21:20 - how to tell your dad you’re gay

2021

IP: 94.79.192.0 Location: Bahrain. 27th March 2021

22:32 - what to do if you are jealous of your boyfriend’s work colleague

  22:33 - what to do if you are jealous of your boyfriends work colleague that is also you friend?

  22:39 - romantic weekends away

  22:45 - how to milk a prostate

  22:57 - how to give a hickey sneakily

  23:10 - diamond ‘33’ pendant

IP: 37.143.177.64 Location: Styria, Austria. 28th June 2021

01:31 - how to tell if your boyfriend is jealous of your career

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  01:51 - how to keep work and your relationship separate

IP: 46.17.160.235 Location: Silverstone, United Kingdom. 18th July 2021

18:11 - verstappen hamilton crash silverstone who’s fault?

  19:13 - signs of concussion

  22:09 - can coming make a concussion worse?

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IP: 109.237.223.112 Location: Zandvoort, Netherlands. 5th September 2021

22:51 - daniel ricciardo cape pictures

  22:58 - daniel ricciardo max verstappen zandvort 2021

  23:13 - how to clean come out of iphone charging port

  23:18 - am i possessive in a sexy way or a weird way?

IP: 82.113.214.148 Location: Monza, Italy. 12th September 2021

17:01 - hamilton verstappen crash who’s fault?

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IP: 162.89.0.47 Location: Austin, Tx, United States of America. 21st October 2021

11:02 - how to tell my boyfriend in a nice way that his beard looks terrible

  23:41 - my boyfriend asked to keep his cowboy hat on during sex is this normal

  23:52 - mens cowboy boots size 9

IP: 34.95.186.29 Location: São Paulo, Brazil. 14th November 2021

17:23 - 2021 f1 drivers standings

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  20:35 - how to cheer your boyfriend up when he is sad about work

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23:21 - 2021 f1 drivers standings

IP: 217.164.96.105 Location: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates. 12th-13th December 2021

21:10 - we are the champions lyrics

21:31 - abu dhabi gp 2021 replay

22:29 - super max (extended version)

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01:34 - how to propose to your boyfriend

01:37 - mens engagement rings

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IP: 203.19.158.31 Location: Perth, Australia. 16th December 2021

12:12 - how to survive a two week hotel quarantine with your boyfriend

29th December 2021

14:12 - most romantic beaches in perth

14:16 - most romantic restaurants in perth

14:28 - can i propose at home in bed or is that not romantic enough

14:35 - perth sunset time

1st January 2022

11:02 - how to plan a wedding

2022

IP: 217.13.124.105 Location: Barcelona, Spain. 11th March 2022

09:33 - home remedies for covid

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09:41 - what happens if you get long covid?

09:43 - is 32 considered vulnerable covid

09:54 - how bad is covid at the moment?

09:59 - flower delivery barcelona

11:34 - can you catch covid from swallowing come?

IP: 50.73.157.178 Location: Miami, FL, USA. 6th May 2022

20:12 - my boyfriend isn’t eating and I’m worried

20:19 - how to get my boyfriend to eat

20:26 - cheesecake recipe

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IP: 217.13.124.105 Location: Barcelona, Spain. 22nd May 2022

19:01 - fastest flights from perth to monaco first class

19:23 - is it better to book your in-laws a hotel or invite them to stay with you

IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 28th May 2022

16:41 - sergio perez cheater

16:45 - how to get a colleague fired

IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 2nd June 2022

00:37 - is it normal that my boyfriend doesnt want to have sex anymore?

00:59 - max verstappen daniel ricciardo teammate highlights video

IP: 46.17.160.235 Location: Silverstone, United Kingdom. 29th June 2022

19:01 - birthday cake delivery silverstone

IP: 91.118.57.178 Location: Spielberg, Austria. 10th July 2022

22:41 - is my boyfriend depressed?

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23:23 - what to do when you feel like you can’t help someone

23:51 - how to help someone feel loved

IP: 195.78.0.67 Location: Monaco. 13th July 2022

23:12 - therapist monaco

IP: 193.224.221.253 Location: Budapest, Hungary. 31st July 2022

23:31 - how to hire a hitman

23:35 - can you go to prison for googling how to hire a hitman?

IP: 94.198.47.80 Location, Ibiza, Spain. 8th August 2022

14:12 - is it nepotism to get your boyfriend a job if nobody knows you’re dating?

14:16 - is nepotism really that bad?

14:26 - how to make an idea seem like your boss’s idea

IP: 109.237.220.159 Location: Zandvoort, Netherlands 5th September 2022

00:42 - my boyfriend just got fired and now he wants me to pretend i’m getting him pregnant

IP: 219.75.27.16 Location Singapore. 2nd October 2022

22:51 - zak brown memes

IP: 14.132.233.40 Location: Suzuka, Japan 8th October 2022

23:11 - I can’t stop thinking about getting my boyfriend pregnant help

IP: 162.89.0.47 Location: Austin, Tx, United States of America. 20th October 2022

14:22 - best way to tell someone you are proud of them

IP: 132.248.80.172 Location: Mexico City, Mexico. 27th October 2022

17:46 - buffalo bills game tickets

17:48 - buffalo bills game tickets hospitality

IP: 34.95.186.29 Location: São Paulo, Brazil 13th November 2022

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IP: 217.164.96.105 Location: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates. 19th November 2022

21:31 - how to prove to someone that you’re going to stay no matter what

21:54 - registry office perth

& 2023

“Max,” Daniel calls to him from the bedroom, just as he is rinsing the shampoo from his hair. Not wanting shampoo in his eyes or his mouth, Max keeps them all firmly shut.

“Baby?” Daniel says again, louder.

The warm water is a gentle relief running over his sweat sticky skin, nowhere near the scalding temperatures Daniel sets their shower to at home. It’s why Max had insisted that they clean off separately, the Austin heat far too much for Max to endure boiling water too, despite Daniel’s pouting and dramatic insistence that Max couldn’t just ‘fuck and flee.”

“Yes,” he calls when all the suds are safely sliding past his shoulders, but he didn’t need to shout. When he opens his eyes he sees Daniel leaning against the doorway with a smirk, still wearing his unbuttoned satin shirt, cowboy hat and nothing else. His wedding ring sits heavy on his finger, and Max thumbs over the matching one on his own hand.

Max’s come is a shiny presence he can still see smeared between Daniel’s thighs.

The sight of him makes Max’s dick twitch. Daniel notices and his grin only widens.

“Baby,” he says again, too sweet. “Baby, why is your most recent Google search is it weird that my husband saying yeehaw makes me come?”

And just like that, Max suddenly longs for a hot shower, an excuse for why his cheeks start to burn red.

“Why are you snooping through my phone?” He demands, forcing himself not to turn away casually and instead keep rubbing the hotel’s own body wash under his armpits.

“I wasn’t snooping,” Daniel says easily, “I was looking to get us some ribs delivered, my phone died at the track, remember?”

Max makes a noncommittal noise because vaguely he does remember Daniel saying he needed to put it on charge. That was before Max started pawing at him the moment the hotel door shut behind them though, and then it had been forgotten by both of them.

There’s just the noise of the extractor fan whirring for a moment, but Daniel doesn’t move. When Max sneaks a glance at him, he’s still leaning against the door frame looking amused.

“Sooo.” He drawls out the word in the stupid Texas accent that Max wishes he didn’t find so strangely sexy. “Are we going to talk about this, little lady, or-“

“Nope,” Max says firmly, turning off the shower.

Daniel nods. It makes the lights of the bathroom catch on his chain and Max- Max really wants to fuck him again.

“What about the one below it?” He asks, “Daniel Ricciardo Austin 2023 photos?”

“Nope,” Max says again, stepping out of the shower and reaching for his towel. He’s smiling now too, because he knows that beneath Daniel’s teasing that one will have made him happy to see.

“Okay,” Daniel says, then he unlocks Max’s phone. “What about how to ask my husband to-“

“Daniel,” Max interrupts, taking the phone from his hand and putting it into the empty sink. “Do you want to read more of my internet history, or do you want to get back on the bed and play good cowboy, bad cowboy again?”

Daniel grins, takes the cowboy hat from his head and puts it onto Max’s. When his arms wind around Max, the silky fabric of his shirt presses cool against Max’s shower-warm skin, his nipples.

“Well, when you put it like that,” Daniel says, leaning in to put his mouth on the skin just beneath Max’s ear. “Yeehaw, baby.”

Max laughs and pinches Daniel’s ass, at the same time as his dick twitches again. Backing him out of the bathroom, towards the bed, his phone is forgotten in the bathroom.

Google never had all the answers when it came to them, anyway.

[thankyouforthememoriesworld]

Updated Version 2.

They were both overlapped in Minnesota for the North Tartan Summer Jam-June 2016. They had a lot of basketball overlap in June/July 2016 but again, separate age groups, with Azzi playing in a higher age group than Paige.

USA U16 Trials in May 2017 when they met.

Won Gold together with U16 on June 11, 2017.

Flew to Minnesota together where Azzi probably spent the summer doing her camping and State Fair in August 2017. Before this though: they participated in the North Tartan Summer Jam-June 2017 but different groups. I think that first birthday post from Azzi is probably from this tournament. Also, they may have also had an EYBL tournament in Indianapolis in July 2017. This is also when those crush snapchats were most likely sent because the song itself was released July 7, 2017.

Generally, they always have a lot of overlap in the summer because of AAU

Their visit to Maryland, Notre Dame and UConn in Fall 2017. Offered scholarships by UConn at that time.

Azzi and Paige were together at the beginning of Feb, training. Azzi's high school is WCAC Champs at the end of Feb 2018 and Azzi was also player of the year as a Freshman.

Late March 2018, both participated in the 2018 USA Basketball 3x3 U18 National Championship. Paige’s team got first, and Azzi’s got second. Paige’s team went on to rep in the youth Olympics.

April 2, 2018 Paige and her Hopkins teammates watched the UConn Notre Dame 2018 Championship game. Paige apparently watched this match up twice by April 2019 and Azzi watched the 12/3/17 game against ND in Hartford. Maybe overlap?

Paige and Azzi played in the Nike Boo Williams Invitational for their separate AAU teams in Virginia on April 20-22, 2018. Azzi's team (Fairfax Stars 17s EYBL) won platinum undefeated in their division where she stood out as one of the best players at 15 years old. Paige's team (North Tartan 15s EYBL) won platinum undefeated in her division. Geno was apparently at this tournament from what I read.

Paige was in DC to play in the Capitol Classic on April 28, 2018. You can watch the entire game if you want.

Reunited in Colorado May 2018 for USA trials.

The 11th annual North Tartan Summer Jam in Hopkins Minnesota was held June 15-17, 2018, where both Paige and Azzi's AAU teams played against each other. Paige’s team beat Azzi’s team 79-63 but both ended with a 3-1 record with Paige's team getting second place. Azzi watched Paige's final game.

Basically, together all of July because training was July 4-20, with a pre-tournament invitational in Latvia. Afterwards, won Gold with U17 on July 29, 2018.

Azzi attends her first Curry Camp in August 6-7 2018. She blows up after the three point contest. At this point I also assume Minnesota cabin trip and state fair was spent together. Azzi was recognized while on a cruise with Bueckers family after the contest (Date unknown but assuming summer). Azzi also helped with Paige's charity clinic at the end of August in Montana.

Azzi and her family were also in Minnesota for a family wedding in September 2018.

11/2/18 Visit to UConn together. Azzi’s sweet 16 on 11/11/18. We know Paige was there.

March 2019 Azzi is presented Gatorade National Player of the Year for Basketball. Azzi's team is 2nd in the nation.

Paige wins state championship on March 16, 2019. Azzi is there supporting (she's in that day after vlog episode of Paige's teammate wearing her St. Patty's day necklace and referred to as National POY which she just got beforehand).

Both of them flew to Montana and I'm guessing that's when the Yellowstone trip happened. Probably Spring Break.

Buckets with Bueckers camp in Montana - March 25, 2019. Azzi was there.

April 1, 2019, Paige commits to UConn (signs letter of intent in November 2019). I think this is also the day Azzi got her puppy Stewie.

April 4-6, 2019 Azzi’s high school team makes the Geico Nationals final but loses. Not sure if Paige was there.

April 13, 2019 Azzi tears hear ACL/MCL at USA 3x3 championship. Surgery on May 29, 2019 in Indianapolis. Paige was with her before surgery (video proof from Azzi herself).  

April 26-28, 2019 AAU together (Azzi not playing).

June 2019 – Paige participates in Summer Jam 2019 with Metro Stars.

July/August 2019 – After Azzi attends the ESPYS and SC30 Select Camp for both of them, Minnesota tradition (they have tiktoks from that time at the cabin and started their joint account that summer). I also think this is when that one Overtime video was filmed with the competition.

10/10-16/19 – Paige is in Doha Qatar for USA Basketball 3x3 tournament. Then she went to First Night at UConn and I think visited Azzi before she went to LA for ESPNW. Azzi visited UConn the week before First Night supposedly.

Dec 16, 2019: First HUDL recruiting video. End of December 2019, Azzi was presumably training with Mamba family in NYC.

Reunited in January 2020 in DMV. Azzi’s first games back from ACL were around this time and Paige was there (they filmed tiktoks together and there are videos of her in the stands). During her visit, Paige's second HUDL recruiting video for Azzi was published.

Azzi’s high school team wins state championships in early March 2020. Azzi travels to Minnesota in mid-March 2020 for Paige’s final but Covid shutdown occurs.

Paige stays with the Fudds from the end of April until June 2020 where she goes back for her graduation in early June and I think possibly packing up her stuff because I know her family was relocating to DMV at this time. She rejoins the Fudds in late June and stays with them and travels with them for Azzi’s GTS team up until end of July. Paige also gets her Gatorade award presented to her at the Fudd’s house on July 24, 2020.

Azzi is in Minnesota with her GTS in August of 2020 and Paige starts UConn.

Azzi visits Paige on her birthday and I believe tells her she’s committing to UConn in October 2020.

Azzi's Togethxr video of her day in the life with the facetime call was filmed November 5, 2020 (pop quiz had a date).

Azzi commits to UConn in November 11, 2020 and turns 18.

Paige's UConn season starts with her first games being cancelled because everyone is in a 14 day quarantine when one person tests positive. This was the reality of that time - they had to contact tracing and couldn't risk getting Covid during the season. They didn't have anymore cancelled games after the end of January but it certainly was an issue early on. UConn had nearly 75% of their courses online or hybrid for entire Fall 2020. Out of state students enrolled in online courses didn't live on campus. This was the reality of Paige's first year. Most likely not as social as people think and really just FTing Azzi at 1 AM apparently.

Azzi attends UConn-Tennessee game on January 21, 2021 to cheer on Paige.

Azzi attends UConn Final Four on April 2, 2021 and also attends the final (while being on FT with Paige).  

Paige has ankle surgery afterwards and hanging out a lot with the Fudds as she rehabs during April and May 2021.

Azzi has USA U19 Trials in May 2021. Then graduation and prom for high school at the end of May (Paige was present during this time). Then summer session at UConn. Paige has her ESPY award speech in July 2021.

Azzi wins gold with team USA before landing back in Mn in mid August 2021 and reunited with Paige and heading to UConn.

My God, you did it 👑. Here's Pazzi's updated timeline for the people.

[vintagelasvegas]

Club Bingo became the Sahara. Photos c. 1948 and 1952.

Timeline of Club Bingo and Sahara Hotel & Casino

Club Bingo, predecessor of Sahara

‘46: M.D. Close builds a restaurant on this site; sold a year later to Prewin Inc (Milton Prell, Al Winter).

‘47: Club Bingo opens 7/24/47. Prell, Winter & partners, owners. Wurdeman & Becket, architects. Signs by YESCO.

‘48: Bonanza Room opens in May, signs added.

‘49: New sign by YESCO and Aloysius McDonald.

‘52: Club Bingo closed in May. Club Bingo’s main building incorporated into the Sahara as the coffee shop. Casino items sold to the public in June.

Sahara Hotel & Casino

‘52: Sahara opened 10/7/52. 200 rooms. Prell, Winter & partners, owners. Max Meltzman, architect. Built by Del Webb Corp.

‘55: 200-room, low-rise expansion on the south side of the resort.

‘60: 14-story, 200-room Tunis Tower addition opened in May. (600 rm total.) M. Stern Jr, architect. Built by Del Webb Corp. Tunis tower said to be Nevada’s tallest building. 127-ft sign by YESCO added in Fall.

‘61: Sahara, The Mint, and Lucky Strike Club sold to Del Webb Corp, under new subsidiary, Sahara-Nevada Corp. First public company to own casinos.

‘62: New main lobby, casino expansion, House of Lords steakhouse addition.

‘63: 24-floor Alexandria Tower addition. M. Stern Jr, architect. Don the Beachcomber addition.

‘68: Convention Center addition.

‘78: 26-floor Tangiers Tower addition. M. Stern Jr, architect.

‘80: Second sign, by YESCO

‘82: Sahara sold to Paul Lowden.

‘88: Parking garage, “T” extension of Tangiers Tower.

‘95: Sold to Gordon Gaming.

‘96: Beginning of a renovation and rebuild project that lasted through 2000. Last of the ‘50s-era low rise rooms demolished in 3/96, replaced with new porte-cochere and parking garage; New sign with two camels with matching signage on the Paradise Rd entrance all by Jack M. Larsen Jr. & Mikhon Lighting and sign (‘97); Speedworld addition (‘97); Speed-The Ride roller coaster addition (2000).

2007: Sold to SBE Ent & Stockbridge.

2011: Sahara closed.

2014: Reopened as SLS Hotel. Tunis, Alexandria, and Tangiers towers renamed Sam, Society, and Citizen. Society tower becomes W Hotel 2017-2018.

2018: Sold to Meruelo Group.

2019: renamed Sahara.

Photos of Club Bingo / Photos of Sahara

Club Bingo & Sahara photos both likely by Las Vegas News Bureau. li ‘41 and ‘51 Cadillac. First Sahara photo from the Manis Collection, UNLV Special Collections. Photo below is a scan from a commercial 35mm slide, Vintage Las Vegas collection.

Sources include: Becket Architectural Drawings and Photographs, Getty Research Institute; Close Property on Highway 91 Sold for Club. Review-Journal, 5/2/47 p3; Strip Values. Review-Journal, 8/9/55 p3; Modern Room Design. Review-Journal, 5/26/60; Skybound at Sahara. Review-Journal, 9/15/60; Associated Press. Sahara’s Merger Plan Gains Okay. Review-Journal, 7/19/61; Jude Wanniski. Yanks Boss Vetoes Vegas Named Tie-In. Review-Journal, 7/21/61.

[digimonarchive]

Digimon in all animated media - Anime, Movies and OVA

1st pic = Digimon Adventure anime (Japan: March 7, 1999 - March 26, 2000; USA: August 14, 1999 - June 24, 2000)

2nd pic = Digimon Adenture 02 anime (Japan: April 2, 2000 - March 25, 2001; USA: August 19, 2000 - May 19, 2001)

3rd pic = Digimon Tamers anime (Japan: April 1, 2001 - March 31, 2002; USA: September 1, 2001 - June 8, 2002)

4th pic = Digimon Frontier anime (Japan: April 7, 2002 - March 30, 2003; USA: September 9, 2002 - July 14, 2003)

5th pic = Digimon Savers / Data Squad anime (Japan: April 2, 2006 – March 25, 2007; USA: October 1, 2007 - November 2, 2008)

6th pic = Digimon Xros Wars / Fusion anime (Japan: July 6, 2010 - March 25, 2012; USA: September 7, 2013 - August 16, 2015)

7th pic = Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms anime (a.k.a Digimon Xros Wars part 2) (Japan: April 3, 2011 - September 25, 2011; USA: March 8, 2015 - August 16, 2015) **

8th pic = Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time anime (a.k.a Digimon Xros Wars Hunters or Digimon Xros Wars part 3) (Japan: October 2, 2011 - March 25, 2012) ***

9th pic = Digimon Adventure Tri OVA (Japan: November 21, 2015 - May 5, 2018; USA: September 15, 2016 - September 20, 2018)

10th pic = Digimon Universe Appli Monsters anime (a.k.a Appmon) (Japan: October 1, 2016 - September 30, 2017)

11th pic = Digimon Adventure: (a.k.a Digimon Adventure 2020 or Digimon Adventure reboot) (Japan: April 5, 2020 - September 26, 2021; USA: November 19, 2022 - April 13, 2023)

12th pic = Digimon Ghost Game (Japan: October 3, 2021 - March 26, 2023)

13th pic = Digimon Adventure (Movie) short film (Japan: March 6, 1999; USA: October 6, 2000 as the first segment part of Digimon The Movie)

14th pic = Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! movie (Japan: March 4, 2000; USA: October 6 2000 as the second segment part of Digimon The Movie)

15th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: Vol. 1: Digimon Hurricane Landing!/Vol. 2: Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals movie (a.k.a Digimon Adventure 02 Vol 1 and 2) (Japan: July 8, 2000; USA: October 6, 2000 as the third segment part of Digimon The Movie) ****

16th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: Diablomon Strikes Back / Digimon: Revenge of Diaboromon movie (Japan: March 3, 2001; USA: August 5, 2005)

17th pic = Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle / Digimon: Battle of Adventurers movie (Japan: July 14, 2001; USA: October 16, 2005)

18th pic = Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express / Digimon: Runaway Locomon movie (Japan: March 2, 2002; USA: October 2, 2005)

19th pic = Digimon Frontier: Revival of the Ancient Digimon!! / Digimon: Island of Lost Digimon movie (Japan: July 20, 2002; USA: October 23, 2005)

20th pic = Digital Monster X-evolution movie (Japan: January 3, 2005; USA: August 1, 2020)

21st pic = Digimon Savers The Movie: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! movie (Japan: December 9, 2006)

22nd pic = Digimon Adventure 3D: Digimon Grandprix! short film OVA (Japan: July 20, 2000)

23rd pic = Digimon Savers 3D: The Digital World in Imminent Danger! short film OVA (Japan: July 8, 2006)

24th pic = Digimon Adventure 20th Anniversary Memorial Story Project OVA short films (Japan: November 22 2019 - December 25, 2020)

25th pic = Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna movie (Japan: February 21, 2020; USA: September 29, 2020)

26th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning movie (Japan: October 5, 2023; USA: November 8, 2023)

** This is the 2nd part of Digimon Xros Wars saga with Taiki, Kiriha and Nene on their adventure while Akari and Zenjirou are left out.

*** This is the 3rd part of Digimon Xros Wars saga with Tagiru, Yuu and Taiki as the protagonists. This 3rd part has the overly long title so we fans prefer to call it 'Digimon Xros Wars: Hunters' or 'Digimon Young Hunters'.

**** Yes, this movie has an overly long title. I had a hard time deciding whether to highlight it in bold or not.

Happy Digimon Day!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Harry and Meghan travel all the time away from those kids. Those kids are not used to seeing their parents. Harry disappearing for weeks on end won’t bother them one bit.

Hey, if you don't mind, can you do a summary of all the times they left the children that we know of and how long?

I Know Harry had an Invictus event very soon after Archie's birth, and I saw someone mention a hunting trip to Germany, Meghan at the US open, polo at Archie's birthday, TQ's funeral, etc

Ask from July 25th

I believe the Germany hunting trip was in 2017. Supposedly that's when Meghan got all pissy about it and made Harry give up the antique guns Philip gave him. Also, the Archie's birthday/polo clash wasn't a travel event; the polo match was just down the highway from Montecito, so I'm not counting that one.

So this is only the travel that we know about. I'm sure there's plenty of other travel that we don't know about. This also does not include the date nights and overnights in L.A. Basically, for me to include it in this list, they had to have left the state of California.

May 2019: Harry travels to The Hague for Invictus Games. It's supposed to be a two-day trip but he shortens it to one day.

May 2019: Harry travels to Italy for Sentebale polo fundraiser. He's gone at least overnight.

July 2019: Harry travels to Italy for Google Camp to give a speech on the climate crisis. A couple of days.

September 2019: Meghan travels to NYC for the US Open. Not sure how long she's gone, probably just a couple of days.

September 2019: Harry travels to Amsterdam to launch Travalyst. It's jsut one or two days.

October 2019: Harry goes to Angola and Botswana, while Meghan stays in Johannesburg wtih Archie. One or two days.

November 2019: Harry travels to Japan for rugby. It's just a couple of days.

January 2020: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for Sandringham Summit. Archie stays in Canada with friends. They're here for about a week. Meghan flees after the Megxit statement drops.* Harry attends Sandringham Summit alone but Meghan offers to call in.

*There's a rumor that Meghan didn't flee on her own, but that she was deported. According to this rumor, The Queen summoned Meghan to BP, Meghan ignored it and went to a private engagement instead (this one), The Queen was incandescent with rage, the RPOs tracked Meghan down, took her to the airport and physically put her on the plane back to Canada. There's a variation of that rumor (a spin-off, if one will) where instead of The Queen summoning Meghan for an audience, The Queen tasked Meghan with an engagement, Meghan refused to go, then The Queen ordered Meghan to leave and RPOs put her on a plane. Regardless of the variation, supposedly this deportation is what Harry is referring to with "they know what they did" when he's demanded apologies from the BRF.

March 2020: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for Megxit farewell tour. Archie stays behind in Canada with "friends." They're gone about a week and flee back to Canada after the Commonwealth Service because of COVID concerns.

April 2021: Harry travels to the UK for Prince Philip's funeral. He's gone about a week (he has to quarantine for 5 days before the funeral due to COVID protocols). Meghan stays home in CA with Archie.

September 2021: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for the Global Vax Live concert and make it a mini-fauxyal tour. This is a few days long.

November 2021: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for a Veterans Day gala on the USS Intrepid.

March 2022: Harry travels to Texas. He's papped at Stockyards Rodeo. No idea how long his trip his, maybe a couple of days.

April 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to The Hague for Invictus Games. They have a layover in London and try to see The Queen at Windsor Castle. They're away for about 2 weeks , maybe a little less than that.

May 2022: Meghan travels to Texas to support the Uvalde community. It's maybe a two-day trip.

June 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee. While there are still photographs that suggest the kids were with them this time, there's plausible gossip from Britain that the kids actually weren't there because no one actually saw them. I'm including this one here to hedge bets.

July 2022: Harry and Meghan are in NYC again for Mandela Day. It's at least a 2-day trip.

August 2022: Harry travels to Africa to host US officials and conservationists for a few days in his role as President of African Parks.

September 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for a fauxyal tour. It's just supposed to be a few days, but they end up getting stuck in Britain for about 3 weeks when The Queen dies due to royal mourning and her funeral.

December 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for Meghan to receive the RFK Ripple of Hope award from Kerry Kennedy. It's a couple of days. There's scalding tea that the couple were downright frosty to each other when they weren't on camera.

May 2023: Harry travels to the UK for Charles's coronation. It's not even an overnight trip.

June 2023: Harry travels to the UK for a hearing in one of his lawsuits. It's a few days.

May 2023: Meghan, Harry, and Doria travel to NYC for Meghan to get an award. It's a couple of days. They get "chased" by paparazzi. It's a few days.

August 2023: Harry travels to Japan for a conference and to Singapore for a charity polo match. He's gone a few days.

September 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to Germany for the Dusseldorf 2023 Invictus Games. They're away for at least a week. Meghan comes late because she just had to get the kids milkshakes first. (Yeah, everyone WTFs it.)

October 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to the Caribbean to relax at a Soho House beach resort. I think they were there about a week.

October 2023: Harry goes to Texas to attend F1.

October 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for some kind of panel summit thing with Carson Daly. It's a couple of days.

January 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Jamaica for the Bob Marley movie premiere. Meghan supposedly leaves CA while Harry is receiving his award from John Travolta and he flies out to meet her. (There are rumors that Meghan is spotted being very friendly with a man not her husband before Harry arrives.)

February 2024: Harry travels to the UK to see Charles after the public announcement of his cancer diagnosis. It's an overnight trip. He's gone from CA for about 3 days.

February 2024: Harry travels to Las Vegas for a thing, something that's part of the Superbowl celebrations. (I think he went straight from London to Vegas.)

February 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Canada for a Vancouver Invictus Games kickoff thing. It's a 4 day event.

March 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Texas. They go to Austin and San Antonio for charity visits. It's related to Meghan's panel appearance at South X Southwest.

April 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Miami for a series of polo matches. Maybe it's a week?

May 2024: Harry travels to the UK to attend the service of thanksgiving for Invictus Games's 10th anniversary. It's an overnight trip. Meghan meets him at the airport after the service.

May 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Nigeria for a fauxyal tour. I believe it was a 5-day trip.

August 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Colombia for another fauyxal tour. It's another 4-5 day trip.

I'm sure I've forgotten some.

So this is 34 37 trips in 5 years without their children. Assuming:

An average of 4 days away per trip for 30 34 trips (understanding that some were longer, others were shorter so it should balance out)

12 days for The Hague Invictus Games (includes the Windsor drop-in)

10 days for Dusseldorf Invictus Games

21 days for September 2022

They were away about 163 179 days that we know of. Just for comparison's sake, the average American school year is 180 days. And remember, this does not include overnights in L.A./Beverly Hills, of which I suspect there's quite a lot of because it's at least a 90-minute drive (without traffic) to Montecito*. Not to mention that Harry has hotel rooms somewhere in California and he may or may not have a BetterUp corporate apartment up in San Francisco. I'm guessing if we were to guesstimate how often one or both of them is staying the night elsewhere in California, we'd probably see numbers double this.

*I'm also adding my own personal bias here; if I have to drive more than an hour at night, I'm getting a hotel room. Granted, the Sussexes do have drivers so they're not exactly in the same boat, but given all the rumors about Meghan having rooms at The Beverly Hills Hotel and Harry having a whole floor of a hotel permanently reserved, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that they do have a lot of overnights away from the kids in LA.

Now just for giggles, let's count how many times Harry and Meghan traveled with their kids:

Summer 2019 summer of private flights all over Europe despite Archie being too young to fly to Balmoral.

October 2019 - to South Africa

June 2022 - to London for the Platinum Jubilee

July 2022 - to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for July 4th (pap photos of Archie at a parade; no Lili)

December 2023 - to Costa Rica (blurry pap photos, plus a People PR article)

To be clear, I'm not begrudging the fact that the Sussexes travel for work. A lot of parents travel for work, and a lot of parents travel more than this per year for work. A lot of parents travel for 'me time'. Parents gotta do what parents gotta do to feed their kids and take care of themselves to take care of their kids.

What I'm instead commenting on (and snarking about) is how much Harry and Meghan have attacked the Cambridges/Waleses for spending time with their kids, how Harry attacked Charles for being unavailable during Harry's childhood, and how much PR Meghan has put out about how she's the best mom to ever mother and her whole life revolves around her kids; their actions aren't matching up to their words, which makes the stories they do share about the kids seem hollow and unreal.

Edit: Remembered some!

[kaibutsushidousha]

The Hundred Line - Famitsu interview June 19th 2024

What does the title Hundred Line mean?

Kodaka: The simplest way to describe this game is: student have to live together in a school while fighting to survive 100 days. This "100 days" timeframe became a major keyword, so we decided to express it through the title The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy.

The game has been described as "a tale of extreme x despair produced by the creators of Danganronpa". This "extreme x despair" keyword reminds me of the Concept Art 1 presented September 2018 at the announcement of Too Kyo Games. Caption: Extreme x Despair. A game co-written by Kodaka and Uchikoshi!

Kodaka: As you can imagine, this is the game from Concept Art 1. We finally managed to announce, but at first, The Hundred Line was developed as Too Kyo's first original IP. However, our company isn't capable of self-publishing, so now we're working with Aniplex, on a half-half split on production costs.

When did development start?

Kodaka: Since we founded Too Kyo Games (2017), so that has been 6 or 7 years. At first, Uchikoshi and I partnered with another major publisher to release our game, but unfortunately, the project was canceled...

In a previous interview, you mentioned a title not coming out as planned, but I didn't think you mean an actual cancellation...

Kodaka: I have so much I could talk about on this one, but I don't think the first talk about this game should be about what went wrong, so how about we save it for another day? Haha. Although The Hundred Line's project was canceled for a while, now, after finding what we needed to make it a good game, we rebranded it and restarted our whole internal development cycle.

We were initially fine with it being indie-sized, but as the story and character designs were getting polished, and the concept gained a more solid form, we started thinking we couldn't make our ideal game unless we went bigger. Determined to put our hand to the test... we took a loan.

A loan!?

Kodaka: It wasn't guaranteed that we'd have the working capital to maintain our enlarged development scope even if we sold all of our stocks. We advanced the production with the phantom of debt on our necks while we searched for a new publisher, and that's where I met Aniplex and smoothly sold our pitch.

However, since this game has simulation RPG sections, they said that'd need a third-party developer. For that, they introduced us to the accomplished Media Vision and had them join the dev team. We're also cooperating with Jet Studio, who worked with us before in Danganronpa and Rain Code.

After all that it took to get this game to a presentable state, we of Too Kyo Games consider it a proud symbol of our persistence, or better yet, the culmination and conclusion to the current stage of our careers.

Staking your life on your work has never been so literal...

Kodaka: True, if this game flops, we won't be able to pay our debt. In that sense, this also provides a rare opportunity to the playerbase too. They get to witness how much a single title's sales can influence the future of a creator and company.

That's not the kind of suspense I want as a game fan, haha. Still, with six years of development, is it safe to assume you've been through a fair share of hardships?

Kodaka: I did. That was my first time dealing with a full cancellation. Also, to enable to Too Kyo to continue its work, to partner up with a new publisher, etc, we couldn't continue the development in the direction we were before. We needed to restart on our semi-complete project, and that's already painful labor in itself.

In terms of creative workload, I can't say I was much busier than I was in the Danganronpa V3 days, having to work in the game and the anime at the same time, but in this situation, aside from my directing, writing, and screen composition duties, I'm also Too Kyo Games's president and producer, meaning I have more work outside my craftsmanship... Making the game and managing the funds at the same time would have given most people a mental breakdown (laughs).

It was mentally and financially taxing, but I don't think I'll ever get another opportunity to pour this level of effort into making a game happen. Putting my life on the line was a very valuable experience.

You mean to say you can feel Too Kyo Games's entire soul in the game? On another note, I couldn't find any of the characters from the concept art in the new key visual or the screenshots. Does the restart mean that those characters got shelved?

Kodaka: The game's general concept is still the same, but to put a new, clean start on it, we changed a few things completely. One of them being the character designs. But despite their changed appearances, they maintain the characterization of their predecessors, so you'll see characters similar to what those would have been.

However, the old politician you see in the upper left corner won't be in the game (laughs). He's a character Komatsuzaki made up on the spot for this illustration, so I know as much about who he is as you do. He's doomed to disappear shrouded in mystery.

(laughs) By the way, considering how The Hundred Line is "the tale of extreme x despair", I'm curious about how this keyword "despair" relates to Danganronpa.

Kodaka: The tagline "tale of extreme x despair" is to signify that this is the first game Uchikoshi and I are directing together. It has nothing to do with Danganronpa, but it is a game made leveraging all of my previous experiences. With that plus Komatsuzaki's and Takada's involvement, I consider it a spiritual successor to Danganronpa.

Who from the main Too Kyo Games roster is working in this and what are their roles?

Kodaka: Uchikoshi and I are splitting the directing and writing work, Komatsuzaki is on the character design, Shimadrill is doing the enemy design and the backgrounds, and Takada is in charge of the soundtrack. Also, Uchikoshi and I do screen composition for the scenes we write.

I didn't think I'd have to do the screen composition job here myself, but I'm the best at handling Komatsuzaki's art and Takada's music, so that job is dumped on me. I got a lot of material to work with. Maybe more expression options than Yuma had in Rain Code.

The Danganronpa series also had me personally choosing faces and soundtrack one by one, so I hope the fans of that series enjoy the familiar vibes in the visual novel sections.

The new announcement came with a key visual. Are these characters in uniforms going to be the main cast?

Kodaka: Yes. They're the students of Last Defense Academy and are living in the school for unknown reasons. The students have special powers called Hemoanimas. They normally have their own sets of clothes, but upon activating their Hemoanima, they change into this uniform and fight against their enemies.

Is the white character a mascot?

Kodaka: Yes. He's the squad coordinator character. So his name is just SIREI, from shireikan; commander. By the way, SIREI is the reincarnation of the raccoon illustrated in the key visual. Both forms of this character were designed by Komatsuzaki. I pointed him in a general direction I wanted but overall let him do whatever he wanted. Meanwhile, the students followed the usual process going through a lot of back-and-forth until their completion.

In Danganronpa, their designs reflected their Super High School Level talents. Does The Hundred Line have any kind of keyword or characterization element that informed their designs in the same way the Super High School Level talents did?

Kodaka: Each student masters a different Unique Subject and has a different weapon of choice. That's what their designs mainly reflect. I'll talk more about Unique Subjects and weapons of choice later.

I'm looking forward to the update. Next question. Danganronpa and Rain Code had all-star casts of voice actors. I have expectations for The Hundred Line's cast.

Kodaka: Unfortunately, I can't reveal the actors at the moment, but I will say half of them have performed in previous Kodaka or Uchikoshi game and the other half is people we're both meeting for the first time. But look forward to it, it's going to be as all-star as any previous game. I know the released PV is voiced by the protagonist, but who is voicing him is still confidential.

Will the creatures depicted flying above the main characters be enemies?

Kodaka: Correct. The enemies are unknown entities attacking the school. They're called School Invaders. If you take a really close look at the key visual, you may notice the academy is protected by a pink flame. That's called the Unextinguishable Flame and that's what prevents the School Invaders from attacking 24/7.

When the School Invaders get past the Unextinguishable Flame, the students will need to repel them. The students aren't informed about the academy's or the unextinguishable flame's secrets, nor they know why the School Invaders are attacking. The story progresses as they fight School Invaders day by day unaware of their circumstances.

Do you have anything noteworthy to say about your interactions with Shimadrill regarding his work designing the enemies?

Kodaka: My priority for the character design of the weaker School Invaders was that they had venomous pop aesthetics. At my first discussion with Shimadrill, we arrived at the idea of making their designs intentionally similar to the monsters of a famous game franchise, but we changed plans along the way. Ultimately, we got likable enemies with that pop aesthetic.

Playing aggressively even on the designs, huh? That's the Too Kyo Games I know.

Kodaka: We changed our aim because copying designs was a really bad idea we took too far. Our mindset at the time is that, true to Too Kyo's name, we wanted to make a game that was indeed too crazy. Too Kyo Games is a company that prides itself on its writing, designs, and music.

However, compliance is a lot more important nowadays, so there's a lot more we need to keep in mind. We were defanged by the corporate structure of our partner for the cancelled version of the game. Depictions of violence and dirty jokes that were acceptable in our previous works weren't fine with them. We had to be on our best behavior to adhere to their compliance demands.

Now that I got to remake the game as something else, I can see that not releasing it on its previous state was for the best. Because I couldn't express my strengths in full there.

The Hundred Line was my first collaborative work with Uchikoshi and our first original IP. Making a game that's simply good wouldn't be enough. There'd be no point in starting this over if we couldn't go all-out. We developed The Hundred Line determined to make a game someone with good sense couldn't make. A title to be considered a product of deranged minds. In the sense, we were very lucky to land on a partnership with Aniplex.

Tell me more about what do you mean by "lucky" here.

Kodaka: To leverage the strengths of Too Kyo Games, we're writing a very controversial narrative. Aniplex is being thankfully quite flexible with what we're allowed to depict, as they understand our fortes and respect our vision. For that reason, Uchikoshi and I were able to depict the crazy story we wanted to.

Kodaka, in a previous interview, you expressed determination toward making this game a story that make people question your sanity. A game people wouldn't expect to be possible to make. Would you say managed to fulfill this ambition?

Kodaka: I can't comment about the gimmick without getting into spoilers, so I have no plans to reveal the answer to this before the game's release. Playing the game for yourself should be enough to convey Too Kyo Games's outlandishness. I believe my reason to pair up with Uchikoshi will be equally evident, and it'll be easy to make sense of why this game needed multiple writers and recruiting new hires.

I know perfectly well this is a tasteless request, but can you drop a hint?

Kodaka: Fine, I'll tell you some details after the interview. You're allowed to address what I'll say in your opinion post (laughs).

I appreciate the gesture, but let's see if I'm up for the challenge (laughs)

Tell us what the general gameplay loop is like.

Kodaka: The Hundred Line follows a cycle of 3 parts: a visual novel section, an exploration section, and a simulation RPG section. I already explained at the opener that it's a game where you survive 100 days of combat, but that doesn't mean time will pass uneventfully.

Like in Danganronpa, something will happen each day, and you'll get chances to talk with your schoolmates and deepen your relationships. You'll get Free Time, you'll get training sessions to increase your stats, and you'll be able to get other power ups by sharpening your weapons. The goal in the visual novel and exploration sections is to enjoy life with your schoolmates while also preparing for the enemies that can appear at any moment.

Got it. Now explain the simulation RPG section too, please.

Kodaka: The simulation RPG section has tower defense elements. It's not just about defeating the enemies, you also have to fight defending the school. Also, since the School Invaders come in large flocks, the main gimmick here is that you need to fight on multiple grids of the board at the same time instead of taking it one grid at a time.

Our developer, Media Vision, has a lot of experience in simulation RPGs. We'll disclose more details about the gameplay later, but I'm glad they were able to come up with and implement hype combat ideas (such as unique traits and ultimate moves for each character) in a way that can satisfy the fans of the genre.

You mean to say the simulation RPG sections are going to be solid?

Kodaka: Correct. That said, a lot of people who buy my games are casual gamers, so I always put emphasis on ease of play.

Then first-time simulation RPG players will have nothing to worry about.

Kodaka: Another point of interest is Takada's soundtrack. I requested the battle BGM to have the intensity of an action game. It's inspired by technical rock bands from the 90s, mainly The Chemical Brothers and Boom Boom Satellites. The visual novel sections, on the other hand, have a more sci-fi-adjacent OST to match its strong sci-fi aesthetics.

Tell us a release date and the consoles.

Kodaka: Early 2025, Switch and Steam.

Less than a year before release. Do you think the team can make it?

Kodaka: We're still working on it, but I think we won't have to delay the release. To be honest, The Hundred Line is progressing faster than Rain Code was (laughs). Besides, Too Kyo Games can't afford to delay a game our creators are staking their lives on.

Messages to players and readers usually often saying things like "We're doing our best" or "Cheer for us", but for this title, I can't bring myself to be so casual about it. I feel like I'm issuing a challenge to the players here.

I have a marketing strategy to draw attention to the game, and I'm polishing it to make anyone who buys it say it's a good game, so I'm feeling more of a "Just watch me!" or a "Wait until you see this thing released!" for a closing message.

Giant Kuroda's editorial comment

As outlandish as promised.

That's the interviewer's honest impression on what Kodaka told me about The Hundred Line's gimmick. I [Giant Kuroda] have been the Famitsu interviewer in charge of Danganronpa since Danganronpa 2. I interviewed him pre-release for a game launched in 2012, which means I've been talking to Kodaka for at least 12 years.

Kodaka and his art surprised me many times. In a good way.

Danganronpa 2's final boss. Danganronpa V3's first case culprit, finale, and the secret hidden in the title. Danganronpa 3 simultaneous broadcast of Side:Future and Side:Despair. Rain Code's first case...

The list could go on forever, but The Hundred Line's gimmick is more impactful than of those. I can't deliver a final judgement until I play the game for myself, but depending on what the game has to offer, it could be his uncontested best. That's how much potential I felt in that spoiler. I get the point of staking their lives on it now.

Also, in what's rare for a Kodaka title, the game will be allowed to be streamed relatively far into the story despite earlier spoilers (information subject to change). Kodaka's story-heavy games are a double-edged sword. It's possible for players to feel like they experienced enough by simply watching a Let's Play that spoils all the twists. However, I believe this game actually benefits from unrestricted streaming. But I can't say why. It's a spoiler...

At any rate, this game is Kodaka's and Uchikoshi's first collaborative story, and as Kodaka said, its narrative is a product of deranged minds. I wait with bated breath to the day I can finally play it, and also look forward to reading opinion posts about it online. You can get your hopes up, Kodaka and Uchikoshi fans.

[mrchiipchrome]

When Y/n Met Alessia

W.C.- 13,8 k

Warnings: angst

A/n: I don't have all the life expericence for this but oh well.

June 26th 2017

Stepping into the airport, the cool air a contrast to the uncommon but not unwelcome air of the hot and sticky June day. It wafts over your exposed skin, arms and legs free for the world to look at as you avoid the early morning traffic in the large London airport. 

You drag your suitcase behind you in a hurry as you look for gate 23, flight towards the so-called “land of dreams” waiting for you to board it. This time last year, you were looking at the mail telling you that you had the chance to play football in America on a full ride scholarship and further your ability to play the game.

The cheapest flight you had been able to find was one that required a stopover in North Carolina before taking you to LA, and UCLA. You didn’t mind the extra time it took to get to your final destination, always able to entertain yourself one way or another. 

Finally arriving at the gate, you sit down for a breather. To the left of you there was an older gentleman and to the right was one of the most gorgeous people you’d ever seen, the girl taller than most with blinding blond locks and glittering blue eyes able to captivate any soul.

“Gate 23 boarding now! Gate 23 boarding now!” You hear over the intercom, reminding you of whenever you’d travel with your team as a youngster. Loud sniffling from your right has you looking up and towards the young woman, obviously saying goodbye to her family standing around her. You stop looking at them when you once again hear the boarding call, standing up and walking to where you get your tickets scanned.

Sitting down in the comfortable seat beside the window, you put your bag under the seat in front of you before clicking the seatbelt into place and leaning back in the chair. Louis Armstrong’s strong vocals flow through the headphones placed on your head as you take a moment to relax after the hectic morning. You feel the shaking of the seat as another person sits in the seat beside you, their soft arm grazing yours as she accidentally kicks your shin. 

Peeking out one eye, you see the gorgeous blonde from before in the seat beside yours, the young girl sighing as she runs a hand over her face. Deciding to start a conversation, you quickly think of a point of conversation. You pull your headphones down around your neck, the music still playing loudly and providing a soundtrack to the whole scene. 

“Grape?” Holding out the bag of grapes to the stranger, who looks at you with a rather astonished look on her face. As expected, she shakes her head and you simply shrug, popping one right in your mouth and chewing on it for a second before spitting the core back into the bag.

“So, tell me the story of your life.” You’re nothing if not persistent, and right now you were persistent on speaking with the girl who seemed about your age. Looking on as she sputters and throws out different filler words, you continue to eat your grapes.

“We’ve got 12 hours until we reach North Carolina” You add on to your earlier comment.

“The story of my life? It won’t get us very far, that’s why I’m going to North Carolina.” There was a slight hesitance to her voice as she vaguely told you about her plans. You’re quick with your response.

“For something significant to happen to you? Pray tell, what?”

“I’m on a scholarship to play football, so that’s what I’ll do.” She snaps back.

“So you can go and play professionally later?” It wasn’t really phrased like a question, rather a statement.

“Yes, if I get the right opportunities then I will.” Her mind goes to a different place for a second, while you suddenly feel that drop of the stomach associated with rollercoasters. You hadn’t even noticed the plane moving, too caught up in your conversation with the pretty stranger.

“Suppose that doesn’t happen, suppose you don’t get those opportunities and instead of playing football you live out the rest of your life behind a desk until you die one of those tragic deaths that no one notices until the stench of death becomes overbearing, what happens then?” You knew it was quite harsh, but it was something you had to live with as a footballer, the fact that you might not get those opportunities that someone else might get.

The girl looks at you for a second, surprise clear in her expression before it turns slightly sour. She doesn’t even bother answering you as she puts on her own headphones and picks up a book, not paying attention to you anymore. You shrug as you return your headphones to your ears although keeping one off your ear, still eating your grapes.

“You have a dark side” Comes from the pretty blonde next to you, making you snap your head up in her direction.

“What?” She wasn’t expecting you to hear what she said as she looks towards you with a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look.

“A…A dark side. I said that you have a dark side.” Your eyes express a certain kind of playfulness unable to be expressed by your tone. 

“What a peculiar thing to say to a stranger. Nonetheless, it’s not like you’re wrong, the dark side is what draws them to me.” Your tone was full of mirth as you took in her closed off stature.

“Draws who to you?”

“The lasses, of course!” She looks at you skeptically, like she doesn’t really believe you before giving you a small smile. You shoot one back at her, feeling like she’s opening up slightly.

“Why don’t you have a dark side? I bet that you’re one of those people who dot their I’s with small hearts.” Somehow, it’s like the statement of her personality makes her open up fully to you.

“Hey! I’ve got just as much of a dark side as anyone.” The smile on her face gives you the indication that she in fact does not have the proclaimed dark side, instead being a ball of sunshine.

“Oh really? D’you want to know what I do when I buy a new book?” You don’t even give her time to answer before telling her. “I read the last page first so that if I die, I atleast know the ending. That, is what you call a dark side, my sweet stranger.” 

There is a pause in the conversation as she thinks over what you’d just said, before she answers you with just as much confidence.

“Well that doesn’t mean you’re deep or anything, you know? So what, I’m a happy person-” 

“Me too” She glares at your interruption before she continues. “And frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with that at all.”

“No, you’re too busy being happy to. Do you ever think about death? More than just a fleeting thought.” 

“Yes” She responds, albeit a little nervously.

“Sure you do, pretty girl. I spend hours thinking about-” The footballer besides you blushes as you call her pretty girl, which you make sure to take note of, the reaction making it all more fun for you.

“That’s what makes you such a great person?” She scoffs as she interrupts you like you did not too long before.

“No but when it happens, I’ll be prepared for it, unlike you. That’s my point”

“So you’re ruining your life in anticipation for an event which could be years, millenniums away?” Her tone indicates that she thinks your thought process is ridiculous and with that she turns back to her book. 

After dozing off for a few hours, you awake to the sound of the flight attendant asking you what meal you wanted. As soon as you get a hold of the meal, you dig into it, being hungry after your little nap.

“So, pretty girl, is there any chance for me to take you out for coffee?” You speak up between bites, the airplane food not really to your liking as you frown in slight disgust.

“What?” The fact that she isn’t laughing at you or optionally throwing her water in your face is a good sign to you.

“A coffee? You know the hot beverage you drink?”

“I know what coffee is, you moron” Holding your hands up beside your face in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture, you don’t feel hurt by the remark in the slightest.

“So, coffee?” She runs her hand down her face once again before answering you.

“We are just going to be friends, okay?” She sounds serious, but you can’t help the small sting that comes with the rejection not really used to being rejected. Yet you slap on an unbothered tone when you say;

“Great, friends. The bestest of friends.”

The two of you eat in silence for a second before you once again interrupt it.

“Y’know, two attractive people can never be friends, which means that we can’t be friends”

“What? Why not?” She responds just as quickly.

“I don’t want you to think that I’m coming on to you or anything, but it’s just the attraction that comes between them” Alessia can feel herself losing brain cells as she listens to your commentary of friendship.

“That’s not true. I have a multitude of attractive friends who aren’t attracted to me.” Her irritation just serves as another reason to spur you on as you continue to babble on about attraction and how everything is made up. Under the short time you’ve spent together, she’s managed to learn how to tune you out and let your voice be part of the background.

“...And that’s why you can’t be friends with hot people as a hot person.”

“Mhm, yeah whatever you say.” You can tell that she’s tired of your constant babbling so you decide to just shut up and listen to your music. That leads to you once again falling asleep, although this time you sleep until the end of the long flight.

Coincidentally, it’s Alessia who has to wake you from your deep slumber, the woman muttering apologies as she accidentally hits you slightly too hard and making you wince. As you rise from your seats, you pick up the bag that you left before following Alessia out the plane.

You give her a small smile as she says goodbye, starting to walk away from you and effectively your life. That is when you realize that you hadn’t even introduced yourself before jumping right into the deep talk. 

“HEY! Pretty girl, wait up!” She slows her steps when she once again hears your voice echoing through all the chaos, waiting for you to catch up to her. She hears rapid footsteps coming towards her as you seemingly run as fast as you can.

“I never caught your name.”

“Alessia, that’s my name” Trying it out on your tongue, you decide that you adore the name she was given.

“Y/n, pleasure to meet you.”

And with that you went your separate ways, at least for a little while.

3 months later

After a good start to the college season you had been called up to the U20’s squad along with a multitude of people. So after packing enough clothes for a week, you set off back to your home country of England along with a certain forward you’d been keeping your eye on.

After another gruesome couple of hours sitting on a plane, this time next to a screaming baby and a grumbling old man, you finally arrive at the London airport where you’re later picked up by a staff member. The drive towards the hotel is a relatively short one, and when you step out of the car you suddenly feel as though you don’t belong there. The hotel is big, much larger than any hotel you’d ever been to before with tens of different floors and a humongous lobby. 

You get greeted by the concierge as soon as you walk in the doors, the place having been a drop off center for the footballers. Looking around the lobby, trying to recognise a few faces you suddenly feel a presence beside you.

Your eyes flit over to the left of you as you see one of your childhood friends from the Arsenal youth program talking with the gorgeous girl from the plane, Alessia the North Carolina footballer. You decide to slide up to the pair subtly, not interrupting their conversation as they laugh and talk. There is a pause as Lotte finally looks in your direction, gasping as she quickly takes you into her hold for a tight hug until she excitedly pulls away, ready to introduce you to one of her other best friends. Looking directly into Alessia’s breathtaking eyes for the first time since that flight, you decide to pretend to not recognise the girl who’d you kept up with even through all the time apart.

“Alessia, this is my childhood best friend Y/n Y/l/n, we played together on the Arsenal youth squad.  And Y/n, this is Alessia Russo, we play together for UNC” Lotte introduces you to each other and you see as a flash of recognition passes her eyes, remembering you from the plane ride. Smiling, you stick your hand out for her to shake as a gesture of politeness.

“Lovely to meet you Alessia Russo, I would stay to talk but I’ve got to talk to one of the coaches so I’ll see you both later.” The woman clutches your hand in a tight grip before letting go so that you can walk away from the two of them.

You feel a slight sense of déjà vu as you walk away from them, your suitcase rolling behind you like it had done the first time you’d met. Overhearing part of their conversation even after you’ve walked away, you hear Alessia tell Lotte about your behavior on the plane 3 months before.

Eventually, after talking with your coach to get a clear picture of how camp was going to go, you are informed of the meeting taking place in a couple of minutes meaning that you had to run to get there in time. Barging in through the doors, the only open seat around the large circular table is one between a brunette girl who’s name you hadn't learnt yet and Lotte. Much to your luck, Alessia is sitting next to the girl who looks up as you take your seat beside her. The head coach jumps right into the meeting when everyone is present, explaining which countries you would play and a couple other things you’d already known about from your earlier talk.

Leaning your body forward to look around that of the girl’s, you try to get Alessia’s attention with a quick but quiet enough whisper.

“Alessia, psst, Alessia, don’t ignore me.” As the last syllable falls from your lips she snaps her head towards you harshly and you’re surprised that she doesn’t get whiplash from the sudden movement. 

“What?” Her whisper is albeit a bit louder than yours, attracting the attention of the footballers around you as they watch the interaction.

“How’s life at UNC?” You reply back as she rolls her eyes dramatically, obviously annoyed by you talking to her. Before she can say anything, the brunette girl between you cuts in with her own question.

“Oh, do you two know each other?” She shifts her attention between you and Alessia, while you gesture for Alessia to answer.

“We sat together on a plane to America for 12 hours a couple of months ago” She grumbles out quietly, not wanting to pull more attention from the girls around her.

“Would you two like to sit together?” The girl offers.

“Yes” “No” Even with Alessia’s no, the girl gets up from her seat as you trade places subtly. 

“So how’s life been at UNC? Have you found love yet?” You ask her excitedly, nosy and ready for some insider information.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes I have a girlfriend” Her tone is nonchalant as she speaks, her gaze turned forwards so as to not give you any indication of what she’s thinking at that exact moment. After a few seconds of silence, you replicate her as you turn your gaze towards the front of the room.

“How about you then? Have you found someone?” Like a parrot, she repeats your earlier question.

“Yes, I met a lovely girl the first week of being there.”

“You found a girl who actually likes you? I guess every dog gets its day” Your mouth drops open in shock at her comment.

“First of all, rude. Secondly, I’m a terrific lover, just ask your mother.” The stunned silence was interrupted by the coach clapping his hands to signal the end of the meeting. Alessia stands up abruptly, picking up her luggage and walking out the room without another word. 

You quickly do the same, picking up everything and walking out the room at a fast pace to be able to catch up with the tall girl. Thankfully, your own legs were pretty long so it didn’t take long for you to be walking side to side with the blonde girl who was visibly annoyed at you. You laugh slightly as you speak up to get her attention;

“Hey wait up pretty girl, I’m sorry, sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain can comprehend. How about you let me take you out for dinner as an apology?”

She sends you a glare at the suggestion, making you put one of your hands up in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture before you turn back to the conversation.

“As friends of course” You gesture wildly with your hands to prove your point whilst she just continues to glare forward.

“I thought two attractive people couldn’t be friends” She quotes your exact words back to you, and seeing the opportunity to tease her even more, that is exactly what you do.

“So you think that I’m attractive then?” Out of the corner of your eye, you see how she splutters, trying to think of a reply before you decide to save her from the misery you created. But she seemingly gathers herself before you could speak the words on your mind, the girl obviously having some sort of resentment towards you by now.

“You’re insufferable, you know” After that she picks up her pace, walking away from you and effectively the conversation. It wasn’t like you didn’t know that you could be a bit unruly and insufferable sometimes, but that didn’t calm the sting any less. 

You leave the blonde girl alone for the rest of camp, not wanting to upset her even more than you already had. When you return to America it’s with the promise of getting called up more and a slightly bruised ego.

5 years later…

“She broke up with me, said she fell in love with her co-worker. I don’t know what I did wrong and it’s not fair that she gets to go and be happy with someone else when I wasted five fucking years of my life on her” You pace the length of the living room of your teammate’s apartment in Frankfurt where you were staying for a bit. As soon as your girlfriend - now ex - had revealed that she was in love with someone other than you, you packed up all your necessities before leaving the apartment you had called home for the last two years. At first, the only emotion coursing through your veins was sadness and genuine misery but that quickly transformed into rage at how she possibly could have done this to you.

Now you weren’t really sure what to feel, rambling to your absolute best friend since freshman year of college who never failed to lift your mood. After the uncertainty of the 2020 college season, you did as many other internationals did and signed a contract with a club in Europe who could ensure top level football. That’s where Eintracht Frankfurt came in, signing you before any other club could even offer you a contract.

After spending the last two years in the German league and your girlfriend breaking up with you, you needed new scenery and people to surround you with. Your preferred destination was that of your home country, after experiencing your first major tournament at home you quickly realized that very few things could compare to winning on home turf. And with your contract ending later in the season, you were pretty sure that you would get your homecoming soon.

But until that, you’d have to play in Germany seeing as the transfer window was still a few months away. 

“Jess, honestly I just want to go back to England and play. This city reminds me way too much of Heather, and it’s painful” The pure fatigue expressed through your voice over the crackling connection of her phone has Jessie worrying for your wellbeing.

“I think that it would be good for you to do what you want. I’m not going to tell you to stay or leave, do what feels right for you.” You stay quiet for a second, catching a glimpse of the clock situated near the entrance makes your eyes widen and you rush to apologize for taking up so much of her precious time before hanging up.

Slapping your hands over your face and sighing, you sit down on the couch while feeling the tears well in your eyes again. The emotional toll the last few days had on you put you right to sleep, unaware of the similar situation in your home country involving a certain blonde forward.

4 months later

Getting off the plane from Frankfurt to Manchester was a relief, even with the short duration it was a nightmare. A toddler seemed to think that the back of your seat was the perfect target for his feet to hit over and over, the young couple in front of you had decided to argue the entire time and give you a pounding headache, and to put the final nail in the coffin there was a horrible whistling sound that even your headphones couldn’t drown out. So to say that you were slightly regretting your decision to go on loan to the red devils was an understatement.

Instead of going directly to the hotel you would stay at while your living arrangements were in order, you were on your way to the training grounds for the mandatory signing pictures with the higher ups and to meet the team.

It was tedious to have to stand with all the men and pose for signing pictures but alas, it is part of the job, but what happens after that is what you’re looking forward to. Meeting your new team is usually a time where you get to know new people and a time of fun that you always take advantage of, which is exactly why when you stand beside the older man waiting for practice to end, you are practically bouncing off your feet in anticipation.

The whistle shrieking loudly wakes you from the slight daydream you were experiencing and you finally exit the tunnel behind the executive of the club. You can hear a faint introduction and how Marc tells the team about the arrival of a new player, trying to amp up the excitement of your new teammates.

As you come into view you hear a shout of excitement and you quickly brace yourself for the imminent hit of the Spanish girl’s body. Still, when her body slams into yours it knocks the air out of your lungs. She wraps her legs around your waist as you wrap your arms tightly around her midsection so that she wouldn’t fall.

“I can’t believe you’re here, I mean what are you doing here?” Her sweet accented voice expresses in disbelief, not really believing you were there.

“Onita, I’m the new player.” She releases her koala hold on you as she jumps down to the ground, but she doesn’t let you go too far before she wraps her arm around your waist while eagerly pulling you towards the rest of the team, who were watching the interaction with faces full of confusion.

Ona and you had a rather peculiar history, you’d met when you were vacationing in Spain when you were 7 years old. The two of you hit it off directly and that led to your entire vacation being spent with the Batlle family, culminating a great friendship between your families that led to you spending your summers in Spain. If you had international tournaments during the summer, then both you and Ona would take the same plane back to Spain, even if one of you had been knocked out earlier in the tournament. Her family was your family and vice versa, there was no denying how close the two of you were.

You timidly wave to the large selection of women before your rather lanky frame is pulled into yet another grip, this time into the strong grip of one Mary Earps who is clearly happy to see you there. Soon enough, you’re surrounded by the women in red asking question after question, to which you give answers.

Alessia hangs back, letting her teammates swarm you as she sits down on the grass pitch. She picks at the grass, pulling it out of the ground and twisting it between her long fingers as she waits for the team to be done. Eventually she hears everything quiet down as they vacate to the locker room to change and shower.

She hears the muted sound of you sitting down next to her, more flopping down onto the ground than sitting down you suppose. Alessia doesn’t give you any attention as she continues her minstations to the ground beneath her, although one question peaks her mind.

“How do you and Ona know each other?” With swift attention, you look at her before answering with a question of your own.

“The long or short version?” Your eyes stay glued to her side profile as she thinks, and your eyes ultimately meet hers when she turns her head in your direction.

“Long” With that you start telling the story, gesturing vividly with your hands to emphasize events and points of the story.

When the team finds you, you’re both laughing despite the cold settling deep into your bones, and they decide not to disturb you. If they’re being honest, they hadn’t seen Alessia that happy and at peace since she had been broken up with. 

At last, the two of you notice how dark it suddenly had become and as you look at the time displayed on your phone, you’re quick to get up. Holding out your hand, you pull Alessia back up to her feet, telling her the time and seeing as her eyes widen exponentially.

“I’m so sorry for taking up so much of your time” Her gaze softens as she looks up at you with her big doe eyes.

“Don’t be, I had fun. Now come on, I’ve got to change and then I’m taking you home” You open your mouth to protest, but she gives you a stern look that tells you she’s not going to change her mind.

A soft smile grazes your face as you stand outside of the locker room, waiting for the girl you had been so desperate to befriend, the girl who hadn’t given you the time of day during all the camps since the one in late 2017.

“You ready to go?” You just nod your head instead of giving her a verbal response, not trusting your voice after you’d seen the way her eyes shifted around your face and how her wet hair was spayed out over her shoulders.

“So how’s the girlfriend?” She asks you, the question innocent in its own right, but it digs up some emotions you’d rather not deal with at that exact moment. So instead, you push them down, telling her about the break up.

“She broke up with me, something about falling in love with one of her co-workers. I wasted 5 years of my life with her, but it doesn’t matter anymore because I’m over her. How about you? How’s it going with the missus?” Alessia’s heart broke for you, spending 5 years of your life with someone only for them to betray your trust and fall in love with someone else while still in a relationship.

“Oh, we broke up. Grew apart, and it just didn’t work out the way we wanted.” Somehow, even after the revelation of your relationships ending the mood wasn’t dampened as she drove you to the hotel you were staying at and waved goodbye with a promise to pick you up for training in the morning.

—-

“No, the order goes like this nr 1 the original Die Hard, then Die hard 2, after that it’s Die hard 4, Die hard 3 and last of all Die hard 5. It’s the only acceptable order to rank the movies in, I can’t believe how much you butchered your list.” You exclaim as you’re exiting her car, closing the door with a little more power than usual as the two of you march towards the training grounds side by side. Alessia had been over at your apartment the last few days for your movie nights, and you had been watching Die Hard together which led to this exact discussion.

“What!? The second Die Hard movie is superior, it beats the first one by a noticeable margin.” She notices the offended look on your face as she continues. “It has more suspense, better bad guys, better storyline, superior cinematography and is just an all around better movie” By now, you’ve entered the locker room as she argues her point.

“No, you’re all wrong-”

“Girls, girls, leave your nerdy arguments outside of this locker room please.” Ella slid in between the two of you, looking much smaller beside two of the tallest players on the team. She reaches her arms up to wrap around you and Alessia's shoulders, nearly hanging off the ground as you and Alessia lower your heads slightly. You look at her quickly, communicating with her through your eyes as you both come to an agreement.

“Die Hard 5 is the worst one in the series, right?”

“Right” She responds.

—-

A morning without training meant that you and Alessia went out for breakfast together. You walk to the small local coffee shop together, talking and laughing along the way. After ordering your small breakfast sandwich and a coffee, you sit down outside to wait for Alessia to order whatever she wants. 

The little bell above the door rings when Alessia exits and walks over to you, she sits down in the chair opposite your own. You sit in a comfortable silence for a while, waiting for the waiter to bring you the breakfast you’d ordered. When it finally arrives, you don’t wait a second before biting into the fresh bread.

“Lessi, when are you going back out on the market? I mean it’s been a couple of months since the break up, are you ready?” She sighs at the mention of her love life, knowing about the date Ella had set up for her later that day.

“Ella set me up with a blind date later tonight, so I can only hope that she chose a good one for me” That usual teasing look was back on your face as you tease her relentlessly for her date.

But when you’ve finished teasing her, you fix her with a soft smile, promising to help her get ready for the date itself. A decision you later regret as she looks between 2 shirts who in your opinion, looked the exact same.

“Less, they look the same. Choose one of them and move on, it’s not that hard. If you don’t hurry you’re going to be late.” She finally decides on the one she’s holding in her right hand and as she puts it on your jaw is on the floor, the girl in front of you looking nothing short of incredible.

“Well, what do you think?” She asks, sounding like she’s speaking under water as you just look at her, not uttering a word. She twists her rings around her fingers nervously as she awaits your reaction, but based on how you were looking at her she could only assume that she looked at least okay.

“You look…incredible, the woman lucky enough to get a date with you should be happy.” Her beaming smile and slight blush tells you everything needed to be known.

“Now, come on, you have to go or you’re going to be late. Be sure to tell me all the details later.” She blushes slightly before she rushes out her front door without closing it, already knowing you have a key to lock it all up behind her.

“So Lessi, how’d the date go? Was she everything you dreamed about and more?” You teased as she arrived at the training center the morning after her date. You had walked to training that day, not wanting to bother the blonde girl after her date.

“Horribly, she couldn’t stop talking about her ex and then she expected me to pay for everything. I don’t think I’ll ever find love again.” She exclaims dramatically, waving around with her hands before dropping them back to her side. You giggle slightly at her over dramatic behavior before you cut in with your own suggestion.

“Well, how about you join me for a double date? I have a friend who I think would be perfect for you.” At first, the girl beside you feels the need to decline the generous offer before she thinks of her friend who she’d consider your perfect match.

“Deal” She reaches her hand out for you to shake as to close a deal.

—-

Walking into the restaurant with your friend by your side, you look for Alessia’s familiar blond hair which you find after a second of looking. You walk over to where she’s sitting with her friend, her friend who seems more interested in your friend than you. The seat beside Alessia is open and you push your friend towards it, while you sit down in the chair opposite her.

“Less, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is Alessia.We play together for United.” You introduce the two women to each other as they look each other up and down, trying to see if the other matches their type. Alessia soon realizes that it’s her turn to introduce you to her friend.

“Y/n/n, this is Ava. Ava, this is Y/n. Ava, you and Y/n studied the same thing at uni.” Alessia tries to get you and her friend talking before trying to engage with Olivia.

“Oh, really? What did you study?” You turn towards the girl while speaking to her, curious about her major when she was in school. She shoots you an awkward thin lipped smile before telling you.

“Uhm, I had a major in journalism and a minor in sports science” The girl tells you, albeit a bit nervously.

The 4 of you around the table converse with each other the rest of the meal, bonding slightly and seeing the different things you have in common. But when the desserts come out is when the real party starts. You’ve all had a couple glasses of wine, to the point where you could be considered somewhat tipsy and conversation is flowing nicely. Your date, Ava, seems more interested in moving her dessert around on her plate than talking to you, talking at all. That is until the local paper is named, more specifically the send-in segment of the paper where you could send in all types of questions to be answered. You didn’t even know that anyone actually read the physical copies of the paper anymore.

“I read that for a successful date you need spontaneity, discovery and quality time.” You overhear Olivia tell Alessia, who nods diligently instead of responding. Out of the corner of your eye you see how Ava perks up at what was said.

“Wait, where did you read that?” She asks, making Olivia look at her instead of the fishtank behind you. 

“In the local paper, why?” Olivia responds confusedly, not knowing where the conversation was going.

“No way! I wrote that” Ava exclaims excitedly, happy that someone was interested in her work.

Alessia and you give each other a look as the women beside you jump into talking, leaving the two of you out of the conversation. It goes on for a while before you all decide to wrap up the date, paying and walking out the door with your respective dates by your sides just all talking. Both you and Alessia pull your friends away to separate corners of a building after walking for a while, you and Olivia going to the left corner while Alessia and Ava go to the right.

“Are you planning on calling Ava?” She quickly asks you, hope present in her eyes, hope that spreads around her entire face when you shake your head no. 

“But, just restrain from doing it tonight. Alessia just got broken up with and she’s still a little sensitive, y’know.” You respond, but your words just seem to go in one ear and out the other. Across the walkway, Alessia holds the same conversation with Ava.

“What do you think of Olivia?” She asks eagerly, Alessia seeing her friend's excitement.

“Meh, not really my type. I probably wouldn’t go on another date with her, but if you want to then it's totally fine. I’m just a little worried about Y/n, make sure you don’t reject her now, she’s going through a kind of rough patch you know.”

“Yeah okay, I understand.” She responds as the two groups join together again.

“Well, I don’t really feel like walking anymore, I’ll call a taxi.” Olivia waves her hand, much like they do in New York and luckily for her, a cab stopped for her.

“I’ll go with you” Ava exclaims as they cram into the back of the taxi together.

You laugh at their antics, slipping your fingers between Alessia’s as you pull her along with you.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” You and Alessia talk all the way back to her house, stumbling over your own feet a couple of times before reaching your final destination. You walk her up the steps before looking on as she opens her door.

Turning away, you start your descent down the steps you hear Alessia call out your name, and you turn back to her as she’s beckoning you over. When you finally reach her she puts her hands on your neck, pulling you in for one of the softest kisses you’ve ever received, from the best pair of lips you’d ever felt against your own.

“Bye Y/n”

—-

Two weeks later

You and Alessia were standing in the middle of the everything store as you called it, looking for the perfect present for one of your teammates birthdays. Your arm is slung around her shoulders as you look at the multitude of different stuff littered around the store. 

Your eyes catch those of a woman standing in the middle of the store, her eyes displaying hints of recognition as she stares at you. The man beside her follows her gaze and his eyes widen exponentially at the glare he’s shot. It wasn’t like you didn’t recognise the girl you’d been dating for over 5 years and the man she’d apparently fallen in love with while still with you. 

Alessia notices the lull in conversation and it makes her follow your gaze until it lands on the now approaching couple. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in as soon the woman stands a couple of steps in front of you. Alessia looks on in question as you refuse to meet her gaze, instead just looking at the woman you once called your own.

“Hi Y/n” She says and the sound of her voice revolts you to a point where you barely can hold back a giggle of disgust from escaping your throat. But despite your vivid reaction, the blood still drains from your face as you continue to look at the girl who broke your heart all those months ago and where she stands in the new town you now call home.

“Hello Heather, what are you doing in Manchester?” Your voice is strained and out the corner of your eye you see Alessia’s confused expression ease slightly. 

“Oh, William and I are just out here visiting family to tell them we’re expecting.” Heather turns to her side, showing off the bump that came with being pregnant. 

“Expecting what? A fucking demon? Well, have fun with that and one more thing, I never want to see you again so bye” You send them one last glare and a very sarcastic glare as you pull Alessia with you out of the store and down onto the sidewalk. You clutch her hand tightly as you move your quickest to get as far away from the store that held Satan and Satan’s spawn in it. You’ve reached the park where the old people reside when Alessia starts to call your name.

“Y/n. Y/n. Stop, we need to talk about this instead of running away from it.” She tells you, trying to get you to slow down. When you don’t, she pulls her hand away from your grip making you look at her.

“Who was that?” Alessia’s tone is as soft as a feather when she asks you, not wanting to spook you. When she sees the light sheen of tears covering your eyes, her heart breaks.

“That…was my ex” You confirm her earlier thoughts before continuing, “Fucking hell, I can’t believe her. How fucking insensative can you be to fucking do that to someone? Demented psycho.” You speak mostly to yourself.

“Hey, maybe we should go somewhere else for this conversation. There is a time and place for this, and it’s not now nor here.” She concludes.

“Well, next time I run into my ex I’ll make sure to schedule it and make sure it’s before your next lesson.” You say rather loudly, and make a few lingering couples look at you from their park benches.

“Hey! Don’t take this out on me, it’s not my fault that you ran into your ex.”She tells you in a more intense tone than before.

“I think I’m pretty entitled to throw anger pretty much everywhere, especially when I’m told how to live my life by Miss happy-go-lucky.” You know that your anger is directed at the wrong person but when you’ve started, it’s hard to stop. Alessia exhudes annoyance as she continues the conversation.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” She asks you harshly, like she’d done in the beginning when you’d met each other.

“It means that you’re never upset! Over anything! Nothing bothers you, not even your ex.” Her expression shifts into one of anger at your words.

“You’re insufferable” She turns her heel, ready to walk away from where you stand with your arms crossed loosely across your chest, but that’s before she hears your apparent question.

“So you’ve told me! But tell me this, if you’re so over your ex then why do you not go out with people? Meet your match.” She stops in her tracks and looks back at you, fury prevalent in her gentle baby blue eyes.

“I go out with people” She exclaims angrily, walking towards you in the park. Her finger digs uncomfortably into your chest.

“Oh, you do? How many people have you been on a date with since your ex? Excluding our double date, the number is pretty low right?” Her finger digs deeper into your sternum, to the point of it hurting as she becomes even more infuriated. You see as her eyes gain their own light sheen of tears. That’s when you realize you’ve gone too far, never wanting to make the blonde girl you liked oh so much cry. But in your own misery you managed to cross that fragile line, going too far yet again. You know what they say, ‘misery loves company’ and this time your misery succeeded.

“What does that have to do with anything?” She questions, moving closer to you, so close that you can feel her breath wafting across your face. “Going on dates has no correlation to getting over someone, I can’t believe you sometimes” She shakes her head as a tear slips out the corner of her eye and tracks down her cheek, where you wipe it off with your thumb softly.

“Are you finished now?” The soft look is back in your eyes as you look at the sweet girl in front of you.

“Yes” She responds shakily, her voice matching her nervous expression.

“Can I say something?”

“Yes” She repeats.

“I’m sorry” You tell her, pulling her shaking form into your arms and comforting the shorter girl. “I’m so sorry, my love”

—

A week later, both you and Alessia had been invited over to your skipper’s house for team bonding. This time around it consisted of playing board games with the entire team. At the start of the night, Katie had the entire team get into groups of 2, you and Ona pairing up while Alessia and Ella paired up. Much to your ‘surprise’, Ona and you dominated every game. Monopoly, yes. Twister, definitely but you had been sat in quite the awkward situation with Alessia when you had to basically lay on top of her. Uno, you and Ona had always paired up for the game ever since you were 8 and you’d been winning ever since.

“Alright, gather around, gather around we’re going to play pictionary. Alessia, you’re up so take a card and draw.” Katie says as you all look towards the blue eyed beauty. She walks up to the drawing board, card in hand as the time starts. She draws different unintelligible squiggles and shapes, the seemingly randomly placed lines not making much sense. The time soon runs out and without anyone able to guess what it was she had drawn, Alessia sighs defeatedly. 

“Come on, it’s a pirate in his ship” She throws out her explanation haphazardly and a few people around the room let out ‘ahhs’ in recognition of the now understandable picture.

“Y/l/n, your turn” Katie calls out for you to go up to the board placed in the middle of the room. You stand up taking a card from the holder, before you pluck the pen from Alessia’s hand as you send her a teasing wink. Her face darkens exponentially with the blush that covers it, breaking your eye contact as she looks away from you.

“Watch and learn how it’s done, love” You tell her cockily, starting to draw as soon as it’s called out that the timer has started. Within a few seconds Ona had been able to correctly guess what you had started to draw, your scattered teammates claiming the two of you cheated. As you sit back down in your previous seat beside Ona, you send another stealthy wink towards Alessia.

A few more rounds of the game go by, Ona and you guessing right a few times and effectively gaining a couple points. Eventually, Katie concludes the game making Ona and you the winners of yet another game. You were just on the same wavelength.

It had managed to get really late by that point, time for you all to return home. But before that there was a small prize ceremony, you and Ona being coined the queens of game night where you were given a small trophy each and jokingly gave thank you speeches. You all helped clean up before calling it a day, leaving the house in herds. 

Just as you were beginning to start your walk back home, still not willing to buy a car even after 3 months back in your home country, Alessia calls your name.

“Y/n, come on I’ll drive you home.” She tells you, and once again you realize that you don’t have a choice on the matter when you turn around and look her right in her eyes. Sighing, you follow her back to her car where you see a barely conscious Ella Toone sitting shotgun meaning you would have to sit in the backseat.

The music played over the radio is quiet and the silence between the three of you serene. You enjoy it thoroughly following a night of shouts and loud noises. After a while Alessia stops the car to let Ella climb out of the car and go back into her house, before continuing the drive towards your apartment building. When the car is standing still at a red light, you climb into the front seat that Ella previously occupied, still not saying a word. In fact, you don’t utter a word until Alessia pulls up to your apartment building. 

“Thank you Less” Out of the corner of your eye you see her smiling softly at you and you can’t resist the urge to press a kiss to the corner of her lips, all the summers in Spain making you pick up on the overly affectionate nature.

“Good night miss Russo” With that you exit the vehicle, hearing a faint “Good night miss Y/l/n” back.

—

Watching a rerun of an old game alone in your apartment, you suddenly hear the specialized ringtone you set just for Alessia echoing throughout the apartment. You look at the device in confusion before pressing the green button to accept the call. The first thing you hear is her labored breathing coming through the speakers of your phone making you perk up. The next thing you hear is her desperate and tear filled voice,

“Y/n, can you come over? I need you”

There isn’t even a second thought as you tell her you’ll be over as fast as you could, hanging up you pull on a sweater hanging loosely on a chair in the corner of your room before rushing towards the entrance, your socks sliding across the floor a couple of times. You shove your feet in your shoes, throwing open the door and nearly forgetting to lock up the apartment in your rush. There is nothing else you can do other than sprint all the way to her apartment, and for the first time since you arrived in England you curse yourself for not investing in a stupid car.

You’re fully out of breath by the time you knock on the large wooden door, the run extremely tiring despite you being an athlete. The tear tracks on her face stand out against her fair skin, a sharp contrast from her usual look.

She pulls you into her house as she continues to sob violently, your heart breaking a little every time she lets out the heart breaking sound. After closing the door behind you, you follow her into her bedroom where she lays down on her bed. Sitting down beside her splayed out form, you put your hand on her shoulder which makes her sit up slowly. She gives you a sad look that has you pulling her body into your own, rubbing slow comforting circles into her back as she cries into your neck. The skin there quickly becomes wet with a mixture of snot and tears.

After a while, you pull her face away from its hiding place, holding her at arm's length. 

“What’s wrong my sweet girl?” You ask her, wiping away the tears that just seemed to flow continuously down her cheeks.

“My ex is getting married” She sees the confusion on your face so she explains further, “it means that it wasn’t that she didn’t want to get married, she just didn’t want to marry me.” A new wave of tears flow down the premises of her cheeks as she mutters out the words that had been eating away at her conscience. 

“Hey, Hey, Alessia let’s backtrack okay. Did you ever ask her to marry you?” You question the girl softly.

“No, but we always talked about how pointless it was and how we didn’t want to be stuck in a loveless marriage.” She whispers back to you, her energy low from crying.

“Okay, now would you want to marry your ex?” She shakes her head vigorously to make her point. “So if you don’t want to marry her, then why are you getting so worked up?” She gives you a small shrug in response, not really knowing what to say.

“Less, there are millions of people who would marry you in a heartbeat if they had the chance. Your ex is a very incredibly stupid person for letting someone as good as you go.” You reassure the forward softly, looking her directly in the eyes to show her that you’re telling the truth.

“Do you really think that?” She asks you timidly.

“No” You respond, “I know it.”

Alessia’s eyes flicker between your lips and your eyes, leaning in towards you. You stop her when her lips are millimeters from your own, feeling like you would be taking advantage of her vulnerable state.

“Lessi, I don’t know if this is the best idea. You’re not thinking clearly.” You whisper against her lips and she closes her eyes.

“I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have, and what I’m thinking is that I want you right here right now. Trust me when I say I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.” She moves your hands along with her words, and if your conscience was a little stronger maybe what transpired past that point wouldn’t have happened. 

Alessia takes your face in her soft hands, pulling you with her as she lays back down on her bed. You lay on top of her, kissing passionately before moving your lips down the column of her neck kissing and sucking deep and dark marks into the skin. Alessia lets a multitude of pretty sounds escape her lips as she writhes underneath you.

You trail your kisses back up to her lips, mouths moving together in harmony and creating the perfect balance between pleasure and lightheadedness. The kisses you place on her move down her body yet again and as you reach the hem of her shirt, you pull on it slightly to signal that you want the piece of clothing removed from its place on her upper body. You look at her body with such an intensity that she squirms, moving around on her bed. After looking at her for a bit, you go back to kissing her neck and running your hands all over her body…

Waking up nude as the day you were born in your teammates bed wasn’t something that happened often, despite being known for being somewhat of a “playboy” you rarely ever took anyone back to bed. 

So when you wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling and a weight pinning you to the bed, a weight with blonde hair nonetheless, you go into what can only be described as panic mode. Looking at the clock beside her bed, you realize that you’re really fucking late for the photoshoot you had planned with United’s management. Both Ona and you had missed the first shoot for the new kit, so now the two of you had to go in during your day off to do it so that the media could release all the pictures. 

Carefully, you slide out from the death grip the forward had on your torso, replacing your body with a pillow. Quickly and soundlessly, you collect your scattered clothes from the ground and pull them on as you go. Just as you’re pulling your pants up to cover your legs you hear the slight rustling of the bedsheets, signaling that Alessia now in fact was awake.

She sits up, covering her upper half with the covers as if you haven't already seen everything, as she watches you getting ready.

“Were you just going to leave me while I slept?” She asks in slight disbelief.

“No, I was just going to put my clothes back on to get, y’know decent, before waking you. I have that shoot with Ona today, the one I told you about a few days ago.” She nods her head, remembering you telling her about it just a couple days before.

“I’ll take you out on a date after, okay?” She nods once again and you kiss her on her forehead before leaving. The first thing you both do after you close the door to her home is call your respective best friends. Ella and Ona both get a call at the same time, Ona in her car on the way to pick you up and Ella still in her bed. Both you and Alessia tell the women about what had transpired the night before and give them the full rundown of the happenings. You both end the call by telling them that you’d tell the other that the night was a mistake and that it didn’t matter. In her car, Ona laughs before quickly changing direction to instead drive to Alessia’s place.

As Ona pulls up in front of Alessia’s house, she sees the absolute state you’re in. Dark hickeys painting your neck and lips still swollen from the kisses you’d shared with the blonde the night before. She snickers loudly as you enter the car with tired limbs flying all over the place.

“Shut up” You demand softly, a small smile still creeping up on your face.

“I didn’t even say anything!” She responds but continues to give you more than telling teasing looks throughout the entire ride.

When you arrive where the shoot is supposed to be held, the make-up artist sighs and glares at you playfully when she notices the deep dark blueish purple bruises on your neck.

After having about 1000 different photos taken of you in the new kit and all the accessories, you and Ona are let go. She drives you back to your house to get ready for your date, well you get ready for your date while Ona plays games on her phone listening to you rant about your situation. You wear a simple dress shirt with a pair of black slacks and a black belt to accompany it.

Walking over to Alessia’s in good time, because you still didn’t have a car and you didn’t want to bother Ona more, especially when she was slumped over snoring softly.

Like usual, Alessia would be driving as she trusts very few people with her car. Knocking on her door, she steps out looking like she had just stepped out of the most prestigious fashion magazine, wearing a sleek black dress that hugged just the right curves. It knocks the wind out your lungs and you nearly regret your decision to tell her what happened didn’t matter, but it was the right thing to do. Messing up team dynamics was not something you were keen on doing.

The drive passes in comfortable silence and you reach the restaurant within 10 minutes. You get seated as soon as you walk in and you both order a drink that you sip on, waiting for the other to speak up.

“It was-”

“Last night-”

You let out a chuckle at the coincidence of you both speaking at the same time, motioning for her to take the stage and speak first.

“Last night shouldn’t have happened, it was a mistake” Her voice conveys a thousand different emotions, but you choose to focus on the truth in her voice and tune out all the other emotions. Alessia’s eyes tell you more than her words ever could, that she didn’t regret it and that she definitely enjoyed what had happened, but that like you she didn’t want to mess up dynamics.

“I agree” You speak up, just as many different emotions in your voice as there had been in hers. 

“Alright, then. Now with that out of the way, let’s enjoy this outing.” She ends the conversation by starting another one directly after and you just go along with it. For the rest of the date Alessia and you converse about all things possible, everything from football to how the photoshoot had gone.

—

A small injury you sustained before international break left you unable for selection, and frankly making you that much more miserable. Two weeks had already passed since the ‘incident’ and the two of you had continued to act as normal as you could with the obvious shift in your relationship.You acted like you had before the shift around your friends, but the very minimal communication outside of training hurt more than you could’ve imagined. She no longer picked you up for training, meaning you either had to walk or have another teammate pick you up. The picking up part didn’t bother you all that much, the extra walking good for your health and stamina, it was the no communication that bothered you. Nonetheless, you knew she was there for you if you needed her.

But despite her going AWOL on you the first two weeks after it happened, except for training, you still expected her to call while she was away at camp or atleast check in with you from time to time. Much to your dismay, that didn’t happen.

You chalked it up to her just being busy and not finding any time to speak with you, national team duties and all. And even though Ona teased you relentlessly every time you checked your phone, looking for a message or a notification for a missed call (even though you had the volume all the way up to be able to hear if she called), you still did it. You couldn’t care less about looking desperate, because you were. And it was Ona’s fault she had to deal with your sulking, it was after all her who decided that she was going to live with you during the break to help out. 

When everyone arrived back from the break, you all decided that a night out at the local pub was a great way to celebrate that. What more could you want other than a nice night out dressed up to the nines and the ability to down a lot of alcohol. 

You and Ona arrive fashionably late, and together seeing as you had basically stuck to her side the entire break. The both of you are dressed your best, the traffic slowing you down significantly. Everyone was already there when you walked in the doors, mingling with each other and drinking different types of fruity drinks. You and Ona were deep in conversation, speaking catalan with each other like you usually did when you didn’t want the others to understand what you were talking about, it was a language you had picked up at the same time you learned Spanish. This time you two were talking about your favorite blonde’s absence.

Your captain waves you over to where most of the team was standing, your eyes immediately searching for Alessia’s as soon as you entered the small circle that had been created. When you can’t seem to find her, you quickly realize that she wasn’t there. 

It doesn’t take long for you to be swept up in a conversation with Lucía in her native language, distracting you from your search for the blonde you adored.

 You eventually notice Alessia moving towards the group, looking like she owned the entire universe and you couldn’t keep your eyes off her.

After a couple drinks, you finally gain enough courage to go over to the star-eyed forward whom you can’t get enough of. You come up behind her as she’s talking to some random girl you don’t recognise.

“Excuse me, can I steal this lovely girl away from you?” The unfamiliar girl looks slightly weirded out but she leaves nonetheless, taking up the space she occupied just a second ago. 

“Hello” You greet her, albeit a bit awkwardly and like you hadn’t just scared away the girl she was probably flirting with.

“Hi” She replies just as awkwardly as you had.

“So, are you seeing anybody?” You ask her lightheartedly, aimed at the girl who she’d been with. Alessia stares back at you with slight annoyance present in her eyes.

“Y/n”

“What?” You retort with the same lighthearted tone as before, despite her annoyed one and the clear annoyance growing on her face.

“I don’t want to talk about this.” She tells you seriously, her voice leaving no room for the questions you ask either way.

“What? Why not?” Your tone quickly loses its lightheartedness, getting replaced by a seriousness that isn’t quite you. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She once again repeats and you sense her reluctance to talk about what happened between the two of you. You sigh, already tired of the conversation despite it not really having started yet.

“Can’t we just get past this? Or are we going to continue to act like nothing happened?” You ask the question that’s been playing on your mind since about 2 weeks back. “It’s been forever” You continue talking.

“Forever!? It just happened!” She exclaims angrily, throwing her arms up like she always does when she’s exasperated.

“Lessi, it happened a month ago!” Alessia seemingly didn’t have anything to add as she stays silent, not even looking at you and giving you the silent treatment.

“Y’know a year to a human is like 7 years to a dog” The statement regains her attention and makes her put on a sickeningly sweet smile, most likely sarcastic though you can’t really tell.

“Is one of us supposed to be the dog in this scenario?” Despite her sarcastic expression, her voice is appalled at your obliviousness. How could you possibly make this worse for yourself?

“Yes”

“And who, pray tell, is the dog?” She speaks nonchalantly, almost luring you into a false sense of security and almost making you feel like you’re out of the danger zone. Spoiler alert, you aren’t.

“You are” And that’s how you effectively made it worse for yourself.

“I- I’m the dog!?” She asks almost threateningly, not making you question your safety yet but definitely making you feel a little unsafe.

“Yep” There you go, making it even worse for yourself.

She grabs your hand in a death grip, pulling you in the direction of the bathroom where there’s more privacy and easier to hear each other. Alessia has to scream to be heard over the loud music as you near the bathrooms.

“I don’t see how I’m the dog, if anyone's the dog here then it’s you. It’s you who wants to act like what happened didn’t mean anything” She shouts into your ear, the music a bit overwhelming.

“Hey, I’m not saying it didn’t mean anything, it definitely meant something to me. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t have to mean everything. I mean, why does it? Have to mean everything?” That’s what you don’t understand about the girl, why did it have to mean everything?

“Because it does” By now you had reached the much quieter bathroom, able to speak to each other normally. “Not that you would know, you walked out the door as soon as it happened.” The muffled music serves as a nice distraction from the conversation, the thick walls of the bathroom shutting most of it out.

“I didn’t walk out” You quickly retorted, defending yourself from the accusation.

“No” Alessia responds, “you sprinted.” She concludes her argument.

“One, I was very late that day and two, we both agreed that it was a mistake.” She looks at you with so much venom in her eyes you would think she was part of the MCU.

“The worst mistake of my entire fucking life” Alessia manages to spit out in fury and through clenched teeth. By now the argument was just going in circles, a tiring back and forth that you had little interest in continuing.

“What do you want from me Alessia?” You ask her through a sigh,carefully choosing your words so that you wouldn’t agitate the woman even more.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing.” Her response just confuses you all that much more, as does her sudden protective stance. 

“Fine, fine. You want nothing from me, but let’s make one thing clear, I did not go over to your place that night with the intention to make love with you. That is not why I went over there. You wanted to do what we did just as much as I wanted to do it, I mean you still wanted to do it even after I told you that your judgment might have been clouded. We’re both adults here.” You run your hands down your face, just wanting the ground to swallow you whole.

“I can’t believe you sometimes, you insufferable prick!” Her eyes fill with tears as she turns around, not wanting to let you see her vulnerable.

“Alessia, come on” You get out, before she turns around and slaps you as hard as she possibly can, rings and all still sitting on her pretty fingers. After that she storms out of the confined space, searching after Ella needing the comfort she provides. Tears once again run down Alessia’s face as she pulls Ella away from the dance floor, her best friend understanding exactly what she needs and she leads Alessia out of the club arm around her shoulder while whispering comforting words into the blonde’s hair. 

Back in the bathroom you’re splashing water onto your face, the mark from her perfectly manicured hands making its very red way onto your face. You observe the handprint in the mirror, Alessia’s rings cutting deep into your skin and making it look all that more gruesome. One of your fingers come up to press on the rapidly bluing mark on your face, it hurts but maybe that’s what you deserve for fucking everything up yet again. You spit out the small amount of blood that accumulated in your mouth, wiping your lips with your sleeveless arm and the blood now stains the skin there instead of your mouth.

At last, you walk out of the bathroom to find Ona and go home. Many of the patrons scattered around look at you with a mixture of pity and concern as you move towards where Ona stands, talking to a pretty girl. You can’t help but feel bad for her, having to take care of you because of your dumb decisions, but like the pact you had made at 14 led ‘your dumb mistakes are my dumb mistakes’.

A drop of blood lands next to Ona as you place your hand on her shoulder, and she can’t help the way her eyes widen at your state. She apologizes to the girl, telling her that you were family and that she had to help you home. Much to Ona’s relief, the girl reassures her that she understood, having her own friends to take care of.

She leads you out to the car, opening the door for you and helping you buckle in before moving towards the driver's seat. You slump quietly against the car door, not acknowledging anything, not even as she takes you to her apartment instead of yours, not wanting to leave you alone to your own devices. 

She leads you up to her apartment, kicking the door closed behind her before she takes the familiar route to her bathroom. Ona pushes you to sit on the toilet cover as she gets her wipes from the cabinet under her sink, gently taking your face into her hands as she wipes away the dried blood and remaining sweat from your face. When she’s done she tells you to remain seated as she fetches a pair of your old shorts she had stolen from you many years ago and one of her oversized t-shirts. Your eyes fill with tears at the help you’re receiving from the shorter girl, and one of them escapes your eye when she gives you a kiss on the forehead. She wipes it away, telling you that you could sleep in her room if you wanted. You decline, taking the couch more than enough for you. A lingering goodnight later and you’re sitting on the couch in the pajamas you had gotten. 

Suddenly you’re reminded of how you had been in the same situation all those months ago when you had just been broken up with. Sitting on a friends couch (although the friend was more family than friend) in deep fucking misery and feeling like your life was over.

—

Over the next month, you and Alessia don’t say a word more than necessary to each other, you only speak when absolutely vital and only put away your dislike of the other during games. Your teammates notice the more than obvious shift between the two of you, going from carpooling together everyday to not even saying hi in passing.

It wasn’t that you didn’t try, it was all you did the first two weeks but all Alessia did was ignore you, ignore your entire existence. Ella was also glaring at you now, a lot. Wherever you went you could feel Ella’s glare situated firmly on you. Another thing you noticed was how Alessia had seemed to want to make your life as much of a living hell as possible, tackling you hard every chance she got in training and making sure you got a fresh set of bruises every day you went home , most of them covering your legs and ribs.

Now the only two people you hung out with were Ona and Maya, who you had grown really fond of during your time spent at the club.

During all this time all you tried to do was make everything right again with Alessia, calling her every evening and making sure to leave a voicemail when she inevitably didn’t answer. The voicemails consisted of telling her about your day, small jokes Maya had told you, random facts and stupid things Ona had done.

What you didn’t know was that Alessia listened to every single one of them, laughing at certain points and catching herself smiling at your voice and sometimes even letting the sound of your voice lull her to sleep. Every night she listened to them she worked up the courage to answer the phone.

One day, after the last game of the season had passed she finally gained enough courage to pick up the phone when you called.

“Hey Less, no, hi Alessia” She hears you mutter into the receiver, clearly not having heard her accepting the call.

“What do you want?” Alessia cringes at her harsh tone.

“OH, Alessia, hi” You were obviously surprised when she picked up the phone, being used to it going to voicemail. “I called to say that I’m sorry, and to ask if you had a date to the end of year party tonight?” Alessia can’t help but roll her eyes at your stupid question, hanging up before you can say another word.

On the other side of the line you look up at the ceiling, defeated. The phone in your hand rings again and you look at it hopefully, but seeing Ona’s name splayed across your buzzing screen leaves you to flop back down onto the bed. Either way, you accept the call, Ona’s comforting voice flooding through the speakers.

“Are you done yet?” Her accented voice asks hopefully.

“I’m not going Onita” You hate to break her hopeful heart, but you do.

“Why not?”

“I kind of do not want to get a hole glared into my head the entire night.”

“Oh, okay. We’re still on for España right?” You smile at her through the screen.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world” 

“Bye”

“Au revoir”

Over at the venue, the party is in full swing and people are dropping in like flies to a light. Alessia’s attention is on the door, waiting for your lanky form to stumble in. She perks up when Ona walks in but she quickly goes back to sulking when she notices that you aren’t behind the small fullback. 

Throughout the entire event her eyes flicker towards the door, just willing you to walk through them with that stupid crooked smile on your face. Much to her chagrin, that doesn’t happen. She even resorts to asking your closest friends about your whereabouts, but all she gets is a mean glare in return.

Back in your apartment, you’re watching videos of the ‘96 Bulls championship games, something you’d picked up from your father. When either of you needed comforting, you’d watch the old tapes on the box tv in your basement.

Throwing the tennis ball up into the air before catching it and repeating the process all to help you think more clearly, you suddenly get to the point in the video you’d been waiting for.

“Y/l/n takes the buzzerbeater to complete the three-peat in a sweep. The ball is soaring towards the net, aaaaaaaand she misses to give the sonics the win in game 4.” You narrate as you throw the ball towards the plastic ring on your wall, missing the target slightly as you groan. The familiar feeling of a bad idea runs through your body, and you follow it without a second thought, your body on autopilot.

Pulling on your shoes, you sprint out of the apartment building, this time definitively forgetting to lock the door. But that doesn’t matter, not when you have a girl to get. You sprint all the way there, taking multiple wrong turns before finally arriving at the venue.

All while you had been running to get there in time, Alessia had started to prepare to leave, even going as far as to tell Ella that she was going home. Luckily enough for you, Ella manages to get Alessia to agree to stay until midnight.

But as the clock nears the little 12 at the top and you still haven’t shown up, Alessia decides to call it a day gathering her things and saying goodbye to Ella. She starts to make her way towards the entrance, looking down at her phone.

The doors slam open with a loud BANG, and like she had wished the entire night you enter through the opening. People turn back to their conversations as they notice that it wasn’t anything dangerous, just a lovesick girl.

Your frantic eyes search for the blonde head of hair that you’ve come to recognise, and you move towards her as soon as your eyes meet. Alessia turns on her heel, moving back into the party but you’re faster than her catching up easily and taking hold of her arm.

“Alessia, wait!” Your grip holds her in place as she turns towards you. “Listen, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and the thing is, I love you” Out of all the things Alessia expected to come out of your mouth, those were not on her list. She thought you would berate her, tell her you’re sorry or maybe even tell her you were going, but not that. All she can say is a confused:

“What?”

“I love you”

“How do you expect me to respond to that?” She asks you.

“Well, how about you love me too?” You respond with a question of your own.

“How about ‘I’m leaving’?” She asks the last question as she turns back around to walk away from you only to stop when you exclaim:

“Doesn’t what I said mean anything to you?” Your voice conveys the desperateness you’re feeling as she’s walking away from you, not knowing what else to say to get her to come back to you.

She walks back over to you, her voice a bit quieter than before.

“I’m sorry Y/n. I know you’re feeling lonely, but you can’t just show up here, tell me you love me and expect everything to be alright. It doesn’t work that way, it just doesn’t” By now the desperation has seeped into your facial features.

“Well how does it work then?” You question her.

“I don’t know, but not this way” She lets out.

“How about this way? I love the way your nose scrunches when you laugh. I love how you’re so bright. I love how you’re always blaming me for stuff I had nothing to do with. I love how you wear my shirts and how the sleeves are always too long. I love the smell of your perfume and how it sticks to my clothes. I love the way you laugh at my dumb jokes. And it’s not because I’m lonely or because you’re leaving that I came here this evening. I came here because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible!” By now the blonde girl has moved closer to you. So close in fact that you can see every spot and freckle spread across her face.

“I hate you. You know that is just like you Y/n, you say things like that and you make it impossible for me to hate you but I do.”  

Her actions contest her words as she moves closer to you, her soft lips brushing against yours as she slides her arms around your neck, yours settling around her waist. You don’t wait another second before pressing your lips together firmly. The kiss isn’t like the ones you had shared before, it wasn’t rushed or quick, instead slow and patient testing the waters. It tells a story of two lost souls finding their way back to each other through the hardships of life. It’s an apology, a confession but most importantly, it’s a promise. A promise never to hurt each other the way you had ever again.

“Wow…that was fucking amazing” Are the only words able to come out of your mouth after you’ve pulled away, and Alessia laughs slightly pulling you into another kiss before telling you:

“You’re a dork, you know”

this is based on when harry met sally (1989)

[wintfleur]

⚘ ˖˙𓈒ִֶָ☾.˙ ᰋ ── WHERE’D ALL THE TIME GO?

aka ophelia’s timeline

━━━ ❛ it’s starting to fly

ᯓᡣ𐭩 EARLY LIFE & SCHOOLING !

april 11th, 2002: ophelia is born on a bright and sunny Thursday afternoon in Vernon, British Columbia.

may 9th, 2006: ophelia (4) takes her first ballet class

2008 - 2013: early childhood / elementary school

august 2010: ophelia (8) joined the soccer team and met her now best friend Amber Jameson; they have been inseparable since.

october 2013: ophelia (11) got an ankle injury during a soccer game and sadly had to quit the sport. Her love for ballet was stronger and she didn't want to risk not being able to dance again.

She had to stop dancing for the rest of the year so her ankle could heal, it was miserable for her.

2013 - 2016: start of her teenage years / middle school

march 2015: ophelia (12) joined the theater club and helped make the costumes for their play, in turn finding her love for fashion designing.

april 2016: ophelia (13) went to get her photos taken for her ballet portfolio and was approached by a teen modeling agency.

summer 2016: ophelia (14) went to south korea for a ballet summer intensive program.

She was housed by a sweet family, where she met one of her bestest friends seunghan and his younger brother park sunghoon who is her age. Seunghan is a fellow ballet dancer and went to the training camp with her.

Ophelia became very close with the family, only becoming closer with them as the years go by, she's an honorary park! Seunghan’s parents think of her as their own child and his little sister thinks of her as her big sis!

2016 - 2020: teen years / high school / start of her modeling career

december 2016: Ophelia (14) was on the cover of pointe magazine.

june 2017: ophelia (15) won first place in the Helsinki international ballet competition, in juniors for women.

august 2017: ophelia finished her first wedding dress that she made for her cousin's wedding.

may 2018: ophelia (16) won first place in the american ballet competition

july 2018: ophelia won first place in the varna international ballet competition

was invited to be on jimmy fallon after her win.

february 2019: ophelia (17) made her debut by walking the catwalk and attending the New York fashion week.

may 29th - june 2, 2019: ophelia walked and attended the miami fashion week

september 2019: ophelia walked and attended the paris fashion week

october 9th 2019: the creation of ophelia's youtube channel

Ophelia created her youtube channel so she could have another way to communicate and become closer with her fans.

She mainly posted vlogs of her days as a model and a ballet dancer, and her just traveling and doing random activities with her friends.

december 2019: ophelia walked and attended the NYFW: December pre-fall and fall-winter, fashion week.

february 2020: ophelia walked and attended london's fashion week, fall-winter.

Ophelia meets Ryan James, a fellow model, they exchanged numbers and Ophelia then got in a relationship with him in may.

June 2020: Ophelia (18) graduated highschool with honors.

july 2020: ophelia moved into her apartment/loft in manhattan, New York. With her best friend seunghan.

Throughout 2016 - 2020 ophelia modeled for many different high end brands, her favorites being Dior, Dolce and Gabbana, and GQ.

She was given the nickname “the next model it girl” for her sudden dominating presence in the modeling world.

ᯓᡣ𐭩 JUILLIARD & JACK !

september 2020: ophelia (18) starts her first year at juilliard

february 23 - march 1st 2020: ophelia walked and attended milan’s fashion week

march 2 - 9th 2020: ophelia walked and attend paris fashion week

Throughout the rest of the year ophelia really focused on her ballet career, putting modeling to the side, and focusing on her studies.

march 2021: ophelia (19) won the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP)

may 2021: ophelia won first place in the american ballet competition

july 2021: ophelia won first place in the varna international ballet competition

for the rest of the year, Ophelia modeled for many different brands, but she really just focused on her ballet career and getting more known in the fashion design world.

2022 : breakup era

april 11th 2022: Ophelia (20) broke up with Ryan after finding out he has been cheating on her for many months.

april, may, june, july 2022: ophelia took a break from anything that evolved with modeling during those months, trying to heal from her breakup. Throwing herself into training, practices, and her studies.

august 2022: ophelia modeled for celine as her comeback into modeling

was invited back on the jimmy fallon show where they talked about what she's been up to, the celine shoot, and her comeback to modeling

october 6-9th 2022: ophelia walked and attended los angeles fashion week

november 2022: ophelia was interviewed by WIRED where she talked about ballet and modeling and her love for fashion design

2023: meeting jack

march 3rd 2023: curtis gets traded to the new jersey devils

march 28th 2023: ophelia and Jack meet for the first time at a club and share a kiss.

april 18th 2023: ophelia joins curtis out at a bar to meet some of his teammates, and she sees jack for the first time since the club.

they keep what happened at the bar to themselves (besides Jack freaking out about it to Luke), and pretend to just meet each other for the first time.

april 25th 2023: ophelia and jack run into each other at a bar, things escalate and jack ends up bringing her back to his place where they hook up for the first time.

the next morning they talk about what happened, and how they need to keep what happened between them a secret. They want to keep seeing each other, so they decide to become friends with benefits.

july 2023: ophelia models for calvin klein

july 17th 2023: jack confesses his feelings to ophelia after 3 months of being friends with benefits.

Ophelia didn't take it well and left his apartment in haste (girly was afraid of her feelings and commitment) and they didn't talk for two weeks.

july 31st 2023: ophelia goes to jack’s apartment where she apologizes and asks him on a date.

august 1st 2023: jack and ophelia have there first date and officially start dating (secretly)

november 6th 2023: curtis holds a dinner at his home for his teammates, curtis finds jack and ophelia kissing in the garage and did not take it well.

curtis gives her an ultimatum ‘him or me’ in a moment of anger and that leads to ophelia not talking to either of them for a week, locking herself in her apartment.

november 14th 2023: curtis comes to see her early in the day to apologize for his reaction and what he said, later in the day jack comes to see her and they have a sweet moment, happy that everything is now okay between them.

january 12th 2024: ophelia and jack said i love you for the first time

january 24-28 2024: ophelia walked and attended miami fashion week

february 9-14th 2024: ophelia attended new york fashion week fall-winter

february 16th 2024: ophelia and jack's relationship is exposed to the media when videos and pictures of them at the njd’s family skate go viral.

february 26th - march 5th 2024: ophelia walked and attended paris fashion week

may 2024: ophelia did the 73 questions with vogue

june 2024: ophelia did the “10 things I can't live without’ with GQ

may 6th 2024: ophelia (22) attended the met gala for the first time

ophelia did a get ready with me / last looks with vogue for the met

june 2024: ophelia did diary of a model with vogue

july 2024: ophelia and jack do a couple quiz with GQ

may 2025: ophelia (23) graduates at juilliard

ᯓᡣ𐭩 WHAT'S TO COME !

aka phia and jacks future

. . . to be added

ᝰ.ᐟ 𝓇oro's note. I didn’t add every detail about her modeling and dance career in the ‘julliard and jack’ section, it would have taken forever for me to do that 😭 I will update the timeline as time goes! I hope this helps give you a better understanding about the AU >.<

au masterlist

˖ ་ feel free to send in any thoughts/requests you have !! And please let me know if you want to be added to the taglist mwah

˖ ་ taglist : @yoontwin @toasttt11 @winterbarnesblog @iceflwers @cixrosie @bunbunbl0gs

[ducktoonsfanart]

Birthday party for Donald, Daisy and Della Duck! - Happy Birthday Donald, Daisy and Della Duck - Ducktales 2017 - Duckverse June - Week 1 - My Version - Gift for my friends

I drew on June 7th. After a long time, I decided to draw again related to Ducktales 2017, even though I'm not a fan of that series, but as they say everyone deserves a second chance. Is not it? So I decided to draw related to the great jubilee that is being celebrated these days and of course the favorite modern series by many, so I decided to draw Donald Duck, Della Duck and Daisy Duck with their family in Ducktales 2017 format, of course in my style. Because I'm not a fan of Ducktales 2017 style which is really weird for me.

On June 7, 1940, Donald's classic short "Mr Duck Steps Out" was shown, featuring Daisy Duck for the first time. 9/6/1934 The Classic Short "The Wise Little Hen" was shown and Donald Duck appeared there for the first time. Donald Duck will become one of the main stars of not only Disney, but also cartoon films, comics and video games at all. Certainly there is no need to tell his history. Della Duck is first mentioned in the comic book Donald's Nephews, and then made her first appearance in the 1994 comic strip "The Empire Builder from Calisota" by Don Rosa, from The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. For the first time Della Duck appeared as a mother and adult woman and had a role in the Dutch comic "80 is Prachtig" from 2014, and she appears for the first time in animation in the Ducktales reboot. Also five years ago is the anniversary of the episode "What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!" where officially Della Duck got her role.

Well, since they are honored these days, and especially Donald Duck who is celebrating his 90th anniversary this year, I drew a birthday party where everyone celebrates their birthdays together. Donald, Daisy and Della Duck along with their family and their friends. Because what kind of birthday is it, without your closest ones. Yes, Donald is in the middle since he is definitely the main one, but he suffered a lot in that series so he definitely deserved the best. Finally, that Donald is happy after a long time and can finally rest. Yes, this is how I imagine the end of Ducktales 2017. And with him are his twin sister Della and his favorite love and girlfriend Daisy Duck. Yes, I also drew the characters as I like to imagine them in my Ducktales AU and Quack Pack reboot based on Ducktales 2017 as well as different outfits that would suit them quite well. Since I can't think of anything else, sorry, and I added Donald's nephews also wear caps and most of them wear jeans. Huey and Louie wear backwards hats. Yes, they are teenagers here too. :D And in front of Donald, of course, a birthday cake with cherries.

In addition to Donald, Daisy, and Della Duck, there are Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, plus Phooey Duck and Kabooie or Kablooie Duck (Donald's fifth nephew, usually wearing brown clothing), Gosalyn Mallard (who is with Huey), Webby Vanderquack and Lena De Spell (Sabrewing, otherwise they are together), May and June Duck, Violet Sabrewing, Scrooge McDuck, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera and Gandra Dee, Gladstone Gander, Fethry Duck, Drake Mallard, Launchpad McQuack, Gyro Gearloose (to draw alone how he smiles I didn't think I'd ever do this), Boyd Beaks-Gearloose and Bentina Beakley. And everyone together celebrates the important birthdays of the most important Ducktales characters. Adults and children together. Happy birthday to you Donald, Daisy and Della Duck!

If you are interested in more about these outfits, check out this drawing here: https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/742447670629744640/quack-pack-week-quack-pack-original-vs-quack

Also, check out other Donald, Daisy and Della Duck birthday parties (adults and kids): https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/751985132490113024/donald-duck-della-duck-daisy-duck-gus-goose-and https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/751983235321430016/huey-dewey-and-louie-ducks-plus-phooey

Feel free to like and reblog, if you like this drawing and this version of the Ducktales characters, please also don't use the same versions without mentioning me. Thank you! Happy Birthday Donald, Daisy and Della Duck once again!

I also did this related to Duckverse June, so I'm dedicating this drawing as a gift to @tokuvivor , @secret-tester and @queer-in-a-cornfield . I also dedicate my gift to my friend from Discord, for @puffyducks @puffywuffy8904 who celebrated his birthday a month ago, and I wish him a happy birthday and sorry for the delay! Also, this is a gift for my friend @boingodigitalart, as well as for all of you who are fans of Ducktales 2017.

[berix2010]

Do you love Team Fortress 2 and hate Valve's years of neglecting the bot issue?

Then please sign the petition at save.tf and help spread the word about the #FixTF2 movement! More information can be found in the read more, but the tl;dr is that Valve has been neglecting Team Fortress 2's bot issue for far too long, and on June 3rd its encouraged to share your screenshots and video of cheater bots in action with the hashtags #FixTF2 and #SaveTF2

Despite this game still having a loyal and active community of fans most companies could only dream of in spite of the game itself having no major content updates since 2017, people have been feed up with the fact that Valve has done next to nothing to deal with the waves of cheater bots that have not made the game both harder to play normally (especially outside of peak playing hours) but have actively made the game toxic and even outright dangerous for players looking to have fun. In the words of this site and petition's creators:

"The bot hosters are malicious actors, using their aimbots as a vessel to endlessly attack and harass community members. They abuse the in-game text and voice chats to spread the most vile hate speech imaginable, while simultaneously advertising their “bot immunity services” in an attempt to scam the players desperately looking for a solution. They’ve used these same means to dox people’s personal information and broadcast it to the player-base against their will. Bot hosters have even gone so far as to commit actual crimes, such as using AI voice-modifiers to impersonate and slander non-consenting parties, launching persistent DDoS attacks, and have even swatted one of their most ardent critics."

Despite being over 17 years old, having a very active fanbase, and still having new seasonal cosmetics being released regularly for real money, Valve has horribly neglected this game and left in a state where its practically overrun nefarious actors exploiting the game for personal gain. Most fans don't even care about releasing a new update as big as the last one (2017's Jungle Inferno update) at this point, we just want Valve to fix the bot crisis.

On June 3rd, its heavily encouraged by the leaders of this consumer movement to post videos, screenshots, and personal accounts of players' encounters with these bots in an effort to get #FixTF2 trending and put a spotlight on Valve's neglect of the game despite continuing to profit from it. The petition itself will be sent to Valve, and all you need to do is add your email and name, and click on the confirmation email. Their site is currently getting a lot more traffic than expected, so you may need to wait over 10 minutes to receive the confirmation email and officially add your signature.