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pink-bird-30 · 4 years ago

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Mistltoe- Hournite Fic

I saw this idea on a tumblr post from @bethschapel ( and I hope it’s okay that I wrote a story about it *crosses fingers)

The idea was Beth snuck a kiss on Rick’s cheek under the mistletoe, and I absolutely love that idea.

I just thought this was the cutest idea ever and needed to write it. Well, at least some variant of the idea.

You can find the link to this story here on my FF.Net.

Well, here we go

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Rick peers around the large grey wall trying to avoid a particular JSA member. Ever since he arrived at Courtney's to help setup for the Christmas party, he's been paranoid he’d get stuck under the mistletoe.

Well, more like mistletoes.

Mike decided to decorate half the house in mistletoe, which made things absolutely difficult for Rick if he were to stand too close to her.

Noticing the kitchen is a mistletoe free zone Rick made a quick dash for the island. He slides across the floor and settles against the dark wooded cabinets before letting out a deep breath. Rick rests his head against the cabinets and closes his eyes for a moment.

How the hell am I going to avoid Beth all night?

Don’t get him wrong, Beth is amazing and things have been going great for them. Ever since the JSA defeated the ISA, Rick and Beth spend more time together attempting to repair her broken goggles. With his new found knowledge on chemistry and a bit of alchemy, he thinks there’s a way to make them work again.

Beth enrolled in a few computer science classes in school in hopes of understanding the coding Chuck used to create the goggles. But every time they get somewhere, whether they get the lenses to read a room or Beth asks it a question and it starts to search, something goes wrong. And Rick hates those moments the most. He sees the light in Beth’s eyes dim each time, and it makes Rick frustrated because he hates seeing Beth sad.

After Chuck’s demise against Icicle’s blast, Beth felt responsible for his death. Ever since, she keeps thinking she could’ve done something to protect him. But after hours of consoling her, and letting her cry while he held her tight, she’d still be sad. But Beth’s ambition to fix the goggles is what always helped her to brush away the tears and do everything to keep Chuck’s legacy alive. Even if it means Chuck isn’t there anymore once the goggles are repaired. Rick thinks that’s the hardest part for Beth. Chuck was someone who understood her and made her not feel alone. Particularly when her parents started to work more and she wasn’t close with the other JSA members yet. He was her friend and she lost him.

Shuffling against the side of the island, Rick peaks out to glance down the doorway to the next room over, where Beth and Yolanda were decorating Christmas cookies. His ears perk at their loud giggles. Curiosity grabbing at him, he crawls across the floor and stands up against the opposite wall to hear the girls' conversation.

He dusts off his green and red knit sweater where a few dust bunnies clung to it, and shifts his head to press against the gray wall.

“So Beth,” Yolanda’s voice drawls. “Who do you think your secret Santa is?”

“I’m not too sure. Maybe Courtney? Ooo or maybe Rick!”

Rick's eyes widen.

There's no way she could’ve known…

Yolanda laughs, “I know who Courtney’s person is. And its not you. Maybe it is Rick.”

The sound of Beth’s giggle rings in the air before she said, “I wonder what he could’ve gotten me?”

The girls’ conversation continues as Rick smiles to himself knowing his gift for Beth is perfect…

Later that night, the party is in full swing and everyone is having a great time. Pat and Barbara are dancing to some upbeat version of ‘Jingle Bells’, Mike is chasing Max around the house trying to get his Christmas hat back, and the four JSA members are trying to make gingerbread houses.

Yolanda and Courtney took it upon themselves to work together on a house, leaving Rick and Beth to make their own. They all fought over gumdrops, licorice and sprinkles to make their houses the best possible. Rick finds himself smiling more and more as the gingerbread house making goes on. Beth catches him laughing at one point and it warms her heart. It’s moments like this she’s glad he can enjoy himself.

After making ginger bread houses, Rick steps outside to cool off from the heated house. He walks across the porch to take a seat on the white wooden swing. He sways back a forth for a while, enjoying the snow fall silently to the ground. From behind him, he can hear the laughter of his friends as they enjoy the party. He’s happy he can take this time and enjoy life for the first time, he wants to relish in the fact that he can be happy.

He chuckles to himself thinking how he was afraid of some mistletoe a few hours ago. Sure he was able to avoid getting caught under it with Beth, but seeing her laughing and dancing with him to Christmas music was the perfect distraction. At this point he wouldn’t care if they got caught, it’d be a great excuse to make the first move.

Rick let his eyes close, letting the brisk winter air calm down his heated body. No sound for miles except the soft hum of Christmas music in the house.

After a few minutes he hears the front door open and close. He doesn’t bother to open his eyes knowing who came looking for him.

“Hi, Beth.” He slowly opens his eyes, seeing her standing in front of him with two mugs and a plush white blanket.

She smiles brightly at him, “How’d ya know it was me?”

He smiles warmly at her, “No one else would have come looking for me.” Her cheek redden at the assumption and glances away from him bashfully. Rick reaches out to take the mugs from her hands, gaining her attention and nods his head to the empty space next to him on the swinging chair.

As Beth gets comfortable on the swing, he notices she moves close to him and drapes the white plush blanket across their laps. She reaches for the red mug in his hands and takes a small sip. She smiles joyously letting out a small ‘Mmm’.

Rick holds his mug between his hands feeling the warmth chase away the cold. He can smell the chocolaty aroma of hot cocoa but is curious by what he sees inside. “Are there sprinkles in the hot cocoa?” he asks.

Beth nods her head enthusiastically, “Sure is! It’s a Chapel family secret. My mom always adds a scoop of cool whip, a dash of cinnamon, and a drizzle of rainbow sprinkles. Isn’t it great?” Rick glances down at his cup again before taking a small sip of the warm beverage. Instantly his senses are overwhelmed by the delicious drink. The coolness of the cool whip melting against the heat of the cocoa, and the spicy sweet mixture of the cinnamon and sprinkles dance in his mouth. Needless to say, it’s Rick’s new favorite drink.

“My god…” He takes another sip and moans. “There’s no way something this good exists.”

Beth giggles besides him and shifts to rest her head against his shoulder. “Yeah, it’s a family tradition.” She takes another sip of her cocoa and settles it on her lap. The dark chocolate swirls around the white cool whip in her mug, mixing together to make a light chocolate. “Usually I’d be spending Christmas Eve with my parents, but they decided to work instead…” Rick picks up on the sadness in her voice, and wishes nothing more than to make her feel happy again. He rests his head against Beth’s and wraps his arm around her to pull her closer into his side.

They stay like that for awhile; sipping their hot cocoa and watching the snow drift softly to the ground. Rick has never been more content in his life; his favorite person in his arms as they slowly swing on the porch. The warmth from each other keeping them comfortable in the frigid Alaska winter. Eventually, an hour passes and the hot cocoa is long gone. The two teens decided to head inside for some warmth when the snow starts to come down a bit heavier. Rick wraps the blanket around Beth and takes the two empty mugs from her hands.

“I could’ve held them.” Beth holds the blanket tighter around her, feeling the chilled Alaskan air rush past them.

“I don’t want you catching a cold.”

Beth smiles to herself, happy with how sweet Rick is being with her. Between the hot cocoa and cuddling while watching the snow…this night is perfect.

But Beth couldn’t help but think something is missing.

Rick opens the front door and gestures for Beth to walk through first. She thanks him and walks into the living room where everyone is exchanging Secret Santa gifts. Rick goes to the kitchen to drop off their mugs into the sink before making his way into the sitting room.

“Beth, this one has your name on it!” Mike hands her a medium sized box in bright yellow wrapping paper and a dark blue bow. Beth smiles happily and takes a seat on the couch next to Rick.

“Ricky, this one is for you.” Rick scowls at the preteen and grabs the box from his hands. He mutters a “thanks” and crosses his arms. He doesn’t like the name Ricky, it sounds extremely douchy.

“Mike,” Beth frowns. “You know he hates when you call him that!”

Mike shrugs, not really caring what they said and passes around the rest of the gifts. Everyone starts to open their gifts one by one, but before Beth could tear the wrapping on her present Rick places a hand on top of hers.

“Hey, umm…” Rick rubs the back of his neck nervously. “Can you open your gift with me in the other room?”

Beth looks at him quizzically wondering why he’s asking such a strange request. But she nods anyways seeing the hopeful look in his brown eyes, “Okay, sure.” He smiles and takes her hand in his, ignoring the glances of everyone in the room.

Pat tilts his head slightly and turns to Courtney, “Court, what’s that all about?”

“Oh, you know. Young love…” Courtney says dreamily and clasps her two hands together while fluttering her eyelashes.

Pat rolls his eyes and mutters, “Teenagers.”

Across the house, Beth and Rick take a seat on a love sofa in the den. Beth cradles her gift in her lap waiting for what Rick has to say.

“Look, I know it’s kinda weird I asked you to open this away from everyone. But I just—” He pauses trying to find the right words. Focus Rick. “I just wanted to be alone with you when you opened it.” Beth smiles softly at the gift in her lap and slowly reaches for the blue bow. She pulls at the ribbon, the coils coming undone and pulling with ease. She lets it flutter to the floor, landing against the hardwood floor without a sound.

Beth tears at the yellow paper, the crunching sound eats away at Rick’s nerves. He knows she’ll love her gift, but the tight feeling in his chest still holds as he watches her open the white box and peer down at its treasure.

Beth’s eyes widen noticing the leathery brown material anywhere, now taking on a new shade of yellow in the lenses and no longer having a strap, but two arms like a pair of sunglasses. Slowly, she reaches into the box to pull the goggles out, letting the box in her lap fall to the ground with a thud.

“Rick…” Beth looks at him expectantly. He can see her eyes gleaming with unshed tears. “Will they—will they work?”

Without a word, Rick reaches out and removes Beth’s glasses from her face and gestures for her to put the new goggles on. Taking a dep breath, Beth lifts the new goggles and slides them onto her face. It was strange at first but then the goggles transformed; no longer were there arms on them but a sleek black band settling the goggles snugly against her.

“Hello, Dr. Mid-Nite. My name is Chuck, how can I be of service to you?”

Beth sniffles as she asks Chuck, “Are you-u,” She takes a deep breath before continuing. “Are you my Chuck? The original Dr. Mid-Nite?”

Rick frowns realizing what Beth is asking. He touches her arm gently, knowing the reply from ‘Chuck’ won’t be what she’ll expect.

“I am sadden to tell you, but I am no longer programmed for the original owner of these goggles.” Beth’s shoulder deflate, upset her friend is gone, but she is still grateful her goggles work again. “But I do have a message from Chuck-aka the original Dr. Mid-Nite.” Beth stares at Rick as her goggles project a life size version of the original Dr. Mid-Nite.

“My dearest friend, Beth chapel. Although my end was abrupt and none of your doing. Do know my knowledge and legacy will remain with you. The new Dr. Mid-Nite.” Beth feels the tears gather at the corner of her eyes hearing Chuck speak to her again. “As long as you keep your friends close, you will never truly ever be alone again. Until we meet again, Beth. Godspeed.”

The image of Chuck fades out and Beth touches the goggles, returning them to their original form with two arms as she pulls them away from her face.

Rick stares at the space where Chuck had occupied at a loss for words. “Um…I don’t remember that feature…”

Beth wipes at her eyes, “Storage memory. Chuck must’ve added it once the basic technology of the goggles was too extensive. Smart.” Her usual enthusiasm is missing in her voice, drawing concern from Rick. He shifts closer to her on the sofa and pulls her into his arms.

“I didn’t know that would happen, I was just excited that I finally got them to work again.” He whispered into her hair. Beth rests her head against his chest and wraps her arms tightly around his torso.

“I love them. Thank you for figuring out how to fix them, It means a lot to me.”

“I’d do anything to make you happy, Beth. Merry Christmas.” He kisses her forehead before pulling away to look down at her. Beth looks up at Rick and smiles but then notices something above him that catches her eye.

Rick tilts his head wonder what she find so amusing. He follows her line of sight to see his enemy from earlier tonight.

Mistletoe.

Rick feels the heat rise to his cheek as his attention slowly drifts back to Beth. By the time his eyes meet hers, they’re already glinting with mischief.

“I do recall you mentioning you’d do anything to make me happy…” her voice is lower than Rick remembers, making him extremely nervous.

He pulls at the neck of his sweater feeling it tighten all of a sudden, “Yu- I mean,” he clears his throat, “Yes.”

Beth’s hands trail up Rick’s chest and make their way around his neck. “Does that include partaking in Christmas traditions?”

Yes, a hundred times yes.

Regaining his confidence, Rick pulls Beth into his lap while wrapping his arms around her waist. He leans in close, letting his lips hover over hers for a moment, “Wouldn’t want to be a Grinch.”

Beth brushes her nose against his and rests her hand against his cheek, “No, we wouldn’t want that.”

With his patience running thin, Rick brushes his lips against Beth’s eliciting a small gasp from her. Hearing that small sound ignited something between them and their lips collided again and again. The soft touches innocent in nature, but eager with heat. Chaste kisses that leave Beth breathless as Rick kisses down her neck and stops at that spot beneath her jawline, making her already blurry vision diminish completely.

Her hands thread through Rick’s hair and gently tugging to bring his mouth back to her for a slow kiss. It wasn’t rushed or hot but passionate and sensual. It’s pure emotion being poured out into this one moment, a moment that has been put off for far too long.

The sound of footsteps heading in their direction is what pulls them apart just in time for Pat to tell them it was time for dessert. But the obvious stern father tone is enough for them to follow him back to the dining room hand and hand. Pretending to ignore the blatant glares they’re receiving from their friends, Beth and Rick spend the rest of the night happy that Mike was adamant about the mistletoes.

Especially when he gets stuck under it with Max.

The End.

#Hournite #Dr.Mid-Nite #Hourman #Beth Chapel #Rick Tyler #Stargirl #ff

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amydancepants-peralta · 5 years ago

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we’re the fortunate ones

season five: enough of this terror, we deserve to know light. ♥️

Jake’s hand trails slowly up and down Amy’s back as they stand and talk to Terry, his movements ranging from palm-sized sweeps to finger tipped circles as the conversation wears on. One of his most favourite things in life is to listen to Amy flip into Nerd Mode, and right now her voice is bright and full of passion as she explains the origin of Auld Lang Syne to her audience.

“So really, it’s about acknowledging days gone by and raising a glass to all the moments - good and bad - that have passed,” she concludes, glancing at Jake out of the corner of her eye as she raises her own glass in example. Moving his free hand back up towards the base of her neck Jake takes the cue, finishing his own drink and resisting the urge to curl a strand of Amy’s hair around his fingers as Terry bids farewell a moment later, leading Sharon over to the bar for refills.

Once they are alone Amy shifts her weight to her right, leaning into Jake’s touch as his hand moves to her shoulder, and he presses a soft kiss to her temple. Emptying her glass and abandoning it on the table next to Jake’s, Amy glances around quickly before looking up at him with those gorgeous brown eyes that never fail to pull him in deep. “If you keep touching my back like that, Peralta, there is no way we’re making it to midnight.”

Jake laughs, dropping his hand to just the right spot on Amy’s lower back and pulling her closer. “We didn’t make it to midnight, Ames. If I’m remembering correctly, we didn’t even make it to eight.” Her responding blush makes him grin, and he throws her a wink knowing full well that Amy’s reliving the same memory.

They’d both arrived home from work late (it’s almost as though the criminals of New York have no respect for their plans), and in an attempt to save time Amy had squeezed herself in on Jake’s shower. And perhaps they’ve both been a little loved up lately - and maybe Amy just looked a little too sexy all soaped up like that - because showering quickly turned into other stuff and it hadn’t been long before Jake was being dragged out of the bathroom and into their bedroom (the rule was no sex in the shower after The Incident last June: fair, when he remembered the bruises they’d had in .. places). What happened next had been as awesome as ever, and if there hadn’t been a party they’d already said yes to, Jake would have found it far easier to convince Amy to stay right there in their bedroom for the rest of the evening.

“You’re still not off the hook for that one, babe.” Amy mumbles, reaching up to fiddle with the collar of his shirt and bringing his attention back to the present. “We were so late to the party, and I’m totally blaming that on you.”

“It’s New Year’s Eve, Ames. As long as we’re here before midnight, it’s totally fine.” He smiles at her, dropping his hand an inch lower as he rests his forehead briefly against hers. “And I think you’re forgetting who initiated what before, thank you very much.”

“Can a girl help it if her fiancée was particularly sweet at work today and she wanted to show her appreciation?” Tipping her head upwards, she bridges the gap between them with a kiss. “And besides, it was round two that made us late, and that one’s definitely on you.”

Jake’s heart skips a beat at the sound of fiancée, part of his mind still in disbelief that such a title could belong to him - even if he was the one on bended knee in the first place. Grinning, he shrugs in surrender, gliding his palm over her lower back again. “Right right, fair call ... I guess the sight of my fiancée in that setup you’ve got going on under there was just too much for me.” Amy laughs, her cheeks turning that soft pink that he loves to see, and he leans back in for another chaste kiss.

“Oh god, we’re totally that couple at the party that are all over each other, aren’t we?” she mumbles, tucking her head into Jake’s shoulder in faux shame. His smile is bright in response, sighing happily when Amy’s arms circle around his waist, telling him with her gentle grip that she has no intention of moving anytime soon.

“We so are babe. But you know what? I am totally okay with it.”

As Amy hums her assent, Jake’s eyes flicker around the room, taking in the black and gold decorations that covered a very good portion of the venue Boyle had rented for the night. He and Genevieve had gone all out this year, and once everyone learned to avoid the truly strange options on the menu, it was turning out to be a genuinely enjoyable evening.

He finds Rosa in one corner, the grip on her glass of whiskey tight as she stands listening to Gina, who is undoubtedly discussing the other party guests. Her stance is comfortable, and about as relaxed as Rosa gets, but still Jake waits until their eyes meet from across the room before he can be sure that she’s okay.

Their casual nights of drinking in silence had increased since they’d gotten out of prison, only now they weren’t so silent. Memories of the darker moments behind bars would often stay collectively pooled at the bottom of their glasses, jumbling into a heap along the edge of their table before disappearing with the barman. As the weeks and months passed by there were little reminders that would strike unexpected, stinging like a starving animal gnawing at unhealed wounds. Other times they simmered slowly below the surface, waiting for the perfectly inopportune moment to strike. The scars were fading, but they were there, and her family's reaction to her coming out had not helped things at all. Surviving this year had brought them closer together, and with everyone around them happily celebrating the year that was, Jake wouldn’t have blamed Rosa for a second if she’d had the sudden urge to be Anywhere But Here.

Gina turns her head to see where Rosa’s half smile is directed, and she gives Jake her best I got this face when his eyes flicker over to her. The bright pink 2018 crown that she had worked into her hairstyle was doing it’s very best to attract just enough attention, glitter catching the light as the redhead gives he and Amy a once-over, shaking her head in mock disgust. He brushes off his oldest friend’s glare, rolling his eyes in a completely mature response before returning his attention to Amy, tightening his grip around her in defiance. Gina didn’t understand what this evening meant to them, and in all honesty he didn’t need her to.

It had only been a few months ago that Jake had genuinely begun to believe that a life with Amy was only ever going to be a dream. The thing about prison was that it worked relentlessly at making sure that all inmates were aware that they’d become just another number - that the cement blocks that now made up your world would not acknowledge or mourn your disappearance when or if it occurred. Unsurprisingly, the nights had turned out to be the hardest, and his overactive mind would spiral around him as his deepest fears began to infiltrate - all with one undeniable theme: you’re never going to make it out of here.

But by the grace of all that is good - and a perhaps not-so-legal acquisition of information - Hawkins’ reign of terror had been brought crashing down, and both Jake and Rosa’s sentences had been overturned. Now; the air felt fresher, the sun looked brighter, and after a (slightly) hitch-less Halloween Heist, there was a sparkling diamond on Amy’s ring finger. This was going to be their only New Year’s Eve as an engaged couple, and wild horses couldn’t drag them away from each other tonight.

Amy’s hands sweep along his waist as though she can sense what he’s thinking about (let’s face it: she probably can), and she raises up slightly, dropping a feather-light kiss to Jake’s neck before whispering “We should probably go and at least pretend to socialise with the other guests, right?”

Shaking his head, Jake uses his free hand to curl the edges of her hair around his finger, the other maintaining it’s steady grip along her back, comfortable in the familiarity of her curves. She had been so much thinner when he’d gotten back from prison, his arms wrapping around her more than they’d used to. HIs observation of such on their first night back together had been shrugged off, added with the quiet admittance that their phone calls had fed her more than food, and it had cut him to the quick. He’d counted far too many hours in scratchy orange jumpsuits, desperate in his need to clear his name from this wrongful persecution, but through it all his fight for a future with Amy had been paramount. To see the physical proof that all of this had affected her as well somehow hurt greater than anything else he’d had to endure.

From that night on, their healing had been slow - but it was always together.

Mimicking Jake’s shake of his head with her own, Amy rests her chin against his chest, looking up at Jake with such an abundance of love that he truly wonders what good deeds he’s done in his life to be rewarded with her heart. Amy Santiago was undoubtedly the love of his life - he’d known it long before he’d ever felt confident enough to say it out loud - and next year they were going to be make it official.

“You know what?” Jake asked, cocking his head to the side slightly, grinning when Amy raises her eyebrows in a silent question. “In just 135 days, I’m gonna marry your butt so hard.”

“Oh yeah?” He nods his head enthusiastically, and Amy’s eyes begin to crinkle as she mirrors his grin. “That’s good to know, because in 136 days, I’ve got some pretty serious honeymoon sex planned for us. It would have been a shame for that to go to waste.”

“Not gonna lie, that sounds kinda amazing.”

“The binder I’m making is going to blow. your. mind. babe.”

Leaning down to kiss her, Jake whispers, “God I can’t wait to be your husband.”

It was true. Their wedding was going to be amazing (he’s been secretly compiling a list of Jock Jams to surprise Amy with, and its only halfway done yet already awesome), but truly Jake was beyond ready to be married. To wear a band on his finger that told the whole world that he loves one person above all others, and that person was Amy Santiago. To be able to refer to her as his wife, and to smile proudly when she called him her husband. They were the tiniest of things, but when it all came together it was a life he couldn’t wait to start.

Amy smiles up at him, craning up on her toes to steal another kiss and Jake sighs happily against her mouth. Wiping off a smudge of lipstick from his lips as she pulls away, Amy shakes her head slowly. “You know, it really is ridiculous how corny we’re being tonight.”

Digging his teeth into his lower lip briefly, Jake glances around the room again before shrugging. “This is just our engage-moon period,” he states, and when Amy stares blankly he continues. “I mean … there’s always a honeymoon period after you get married, right? Then … by that logic there should be an engage-moon period, when you’re freshly engaged and everything just seems freakin’ awesome.”

Amy’s mouth turns down slightly as she studies him, that cute concentration face taking over her features, and if he didn’t love her enough already he might just love her a little bit more as she nods in agreement. “You know what, you’re absolutely right.”

“And besides,” Jake continues, unable to contain his smile, “this year is going to be amazing. We’re going to get married, you’re going to become a sergeant -”

“We don’t know that, Jake …”

“You’re going to be a sergeant,” giving her a pointed look he carries on - “the nine-nine will continue to kick crime to the curb and you and I are going to have super-hot married sex in every single room in our apartment.”

Her laughter is loud, the carefree giggles bouncing onto Jake’s chest as her body shakes, and Jake can’t help but join in. This is what he wanted - all day, every day, for as long as they both shall live.

A steady voice breaks through their little bubble, interrupting their laughter with the statement - “If you two are about done with the lovey-dovey stuff, we can start counting down to the new year.”

Pulling away slightly, Amy wraps her right arm around Jake’s waist and clears her throat. “Oh, hey Gina.” With a smile, she accepts the glass of champagne that Rosa offers, taking a sip to distract herself from the embarrassment Jake can tell she’s feeling.

Reaching for the glass that Gina is holding out for him, Jake once again ignores her judgemental stare, choosing instead to secure his left arm around Amy’s shoulder in both comfort and solidarity. Let the world cringe at how ridiculously sappy they were being. If there was anything that the past year had taught him, it was that time was never guaranteed. And now that a happy future was finally in their grasp, he wasn’t going to give it up for anything.

The passing minutes are filled with casual conversation, ranging from stories about Gina’s newborn to the group comparing horror stories over what they’d discovered on the buffet, and as the hosts come over to join them, they begin to countdown to the end of 2017.

When he looks back on photos from the evening, Jake can tell there was a cacophony of party poppers, blowers and calls of celebration, adding to the showers of confetti surrounding them all as the countdown falls to zero, but in all honesty the only thing that he can remember from that moment is Amy. Her hand, curled around a glass of champagne and pressed to his chest as he pulls her in for a kiss that he definitely intended to be sweet but suddenly turned into so much more. The feel of her lips, soft and bewitching as their tongues begin to tangle; her feet pressed in up against his own and her free hand touching his cheek, thumb stroking softly in the way that has always, always made his heart pound like crazy.

They weren’t often ones for such public displays of affection. But the past few years had tested them more than either could have expected, and it felt so good to show that FINALLY, love was going to win.

Jake’s smile is wider than he can help by the time they pull away, and when Amy chases his lips for another quick press, he’s only too happy to oblige.

“Happy New Year, Jake.” Her voice is soft, and her eyes are so bright and full of elation that Jake can’t help but lean in for another kiss.

“Happy New Year, Ames.”

Still holding the champagne, Amy wraps her arms carefully around Jake’s neck and grins. “We’re getting married this year!”

“It’s gonna be the best year ever.”

The roll of Gina’s eyes is almost audible. “You guys are so gross. But you also look really happy, so I’m just going to let it slide for tonight.” With a shake of her head, she tips her glass upside down, shaking the last few drops into her mouth. “Damn, being a mother really changes a gal.”

Rosa chimes in, her tone as factual as ever as she nods her head in Charles’ direction “Also, you should probably know Boyle just took like twenty photos of the two of you kissing.”

“They’re for my scrapbook!”

“Dammit, Boyle!”

#my fic #b99 2020 vision challenge #okay so this was probably a little sappy #but ehhhh #they're engaged and in love #so lets just go with it #title from Joanna Newsom #because SHE #peraltiago fic #jake x amy fanfic #b99 fanfic #b99 fandom events #my writing

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chicagopd2020 · 4 years ago

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New Beginnings Are Good For Everyone Ch.3

Getting everything packed up and ready to move was alot to do is so little time. She had already talked her boss at the FBI and they hated to lose her but they just wanted her to do whatever she had to do to be happy but she had to go into the office to sign some paperwork and to get the rest of her things. It was kind of a bitter sweet kind of thing, she was happy because is finally getting to do what she has always wanted to do but then again its the job that she has had for the past 5 years and they were her family in a way but the one that she was going to miss the most is the one that got her to the place that she wanted to be and that was Erin, she was her best friend the person she had been closest to in a long time and she was going to miss that.

Walking into the office it felt weird because she wasnt in uniform and she knew that it would be her last time ever stepping foot into the FBI, she heads to her bosses office so that she could get the easy part out the way signing her name to few papers that was no problem, but saying goodbye to the people that she has worked with for the past 5 years that was going to be the hardest part of this whole day. So after shaking hands with her boss for the last time and them telling her that she will be missed, she walked to her desk with the small box to get everything she had. Out of the corner of her she sees everyone watching her with sad looks on their faces but Erin was the only one that walked up to her and let her know just how much she was going to miss her. She was happy for her but that didnt make the fact that she was going to miss her hurt any less. They had a small conversation and shared a tight hug.

Im gonna miss you says Kim

Back atcha but this isnt goodbye this is a see you later. Erin tells her

Oh for sure, i may be leaving but you cant get rid of me that easy. They shared a laugh

I would never want to get rid of you. Now you go and show them just how much of a badass you really are.

With one finally tight hug Kim knew she had to go. She had a small tear in her eye but she knew that her and Erin were going to talk alot and they would still be great friends

The moving truck would be there first thing in the morning and her flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. She would stay in a hotel the first night but that following morning she had to meet someone about an apartment. Then the first step as to making Chicago home would be done. Crawling into bed for what would be her final night in Washington that was the first night in a long time that she went to sleep in her own bed with a real smile on her face. The next week was going to be a long and busy week but it was a week that she couldnt wait for

*Jay*

That night when Kim left the whole team went to Molly's and of the guys kept asking me how i knew her and if she was the girl from the night before. I just ignored them and let them continue to ask, they honestly sounded like teenage girls wanting to find out about their best friends crush or something. The only one that I actually trusted to talk to about it was Kelly he wasnt one around to know who i was talking about and he was just being a supportive friend and its what i needed right now. Yes I was a grown man talking about a girl i liked to one of my friends.....ok maybe i was the one that sounded like a teenage girl. When I got home that night as I was laying in bed I was kinda kicking myself for not trading numbers with her but I know that Ill have it once she joins the team. I mean she did say that she wanted us to get to know each other better, so that is a good sign. I can honestly say that I was looking forward to Monday more than I have in a long time.

Waking up realizing that it was Friday hoping that maybe they would just get a small case and that he would be able to enjoy his weekend off and just spend time with his brother and friends, something that he hadnt got to do in quite some time but he wasnt getting his hopes up to much. Walking out of the apartment heading out for what he hopes is going to be a good day. He really didnt think he would have the patience to deal with any dumbasses today. He was looking down at his phone as he was about to walk out the door when he bumped into a smaller figure and about knocked them over he looked up to apoligize when his eyes locked with hers and the only thing that he could do is apoligize.

Im sorry I wasnt paying attention I was looking at a text Voight sent me.

Its fine I was lost in conversation with a friend from Washington and wasnt watching where I was going either. Kim says... Erin let me call you back after I meet with the guy about my apartment & she hangs up the phone.

I would love to stay and chat but we have a case and I have to get to the scene. Jay informs her

I completely understand, but maybe if you have any free time today here is my number feel free to text me at anytime. She smiles as the manager of the apartments come out to meet her.

*Kim*

Job..Check Apartment..Check

But she still has a couple hours til her stuff will arrive. She contacted the movers and let the know the address that they would be bringing it to. Saying the excitment was taking over body would be the correct term, she actually let out a small screech of happiness once she was alone in her apartment. Locking the door she decided to just go get the stuff that she had with her at the hotel and just grab some lunch and maybe walk around and explore the city a bit while waiting on her things.

Walking around the city she was just mesmerized with how beautiful this city was I mean she cant say Washington wasnt beautiful but the way that Chicago was just felt like maybe this is where she was meant to be this whole time. It felt like home. Finally recieving the text that her stuff was going to be arriving in 30 mins she started to head back to her apartment. Her phone went off again thinking that it was the movers but this time it was a number that she didnt recoginize, opening up her phone the text simply said "Hey this is jay, I had a second so I thought that I would text you so that you would have my number as well" she smiles and simply replys "Ok. Got it. Hope work isnt to hard on you today."

The movers got everything up to the apartment without breaking anything surprisingly because on the way up they dropped a few things and i guess it was just her lucky day. Everything was still in one piece but now that she is alone she can actually start making this place look like a home. She has music playing as she is setting everything up and then her mind starts to wonder about who her neighbor could be the only information that the manager give me about my neighbor is that he was a guy and he was barely ever home. I mean yeah I am pretty sure that once I start work that ill hardly ever be home to but I am absolutely ok with that. She had finally got her bedroom setup the way that she wants it & almost half done with the living room when her stomach growls and she looks at the time realizing that it is almost 7pm and that she hasnt eat anything since lunch, she was so caught up and getting everything she just forgot. So she just stopped what she was doing and grabbed her keys and wallet to go get something to eat. As she locks her door she turns around and definitely didnt think thats who her neighbor was going to be...

You have got to be kidding me........

#jay halstead imagine #jay halstead x reader #Jay halstead x kim burgess #kim burgess #chicagopd #chicago pd x reader

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monkey-network · 4 years ago

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An Unfortunate Critique of Spiderverse Part 2 (of 3)

Want Part 1? Here you go. Otherwise, enjoy the show.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse was a fun award-winning 2018 animated film with a basically unanimously positive fandom, regarded generally as both a masterpiece Spider-Man film and a remarkable animated film overall. And while I do not disagree with that, it definitely earned its spoils, it pains me a bit to bring up the reason(s) why I can’t call it the masterpiece that many claim. I like this film, but I don’t love it as much as others and I wanted to express why. And I will see to be critical, not cynical. Fair enough?

Part 2 ~ The Spiderversal Stakes

To get a little personal real quick, I’ve been at this whole reviewing/analyzing for plenty of years now and I say the hardest part of doing these type of critiques, aside from not coming off as a cynical bitchlet, is conveying yourself properly. You don’t want to give people the wrong idea about what you want to get across.. Which is why this part is hard to express because there’s a lot to mull over and I don’t wanna bore ya. So with that said, I got a problem with the plot, but first lemme talk about my favorite Spidey film, Spider-Man Thre-

Sorry but we gotta talk about this

When you think about how the storyline of 3 plays, you’ll feel exhausted by of how much was thrown in (Venom, Sandman, the New Goblin, Emo Peter, etc.), the movie had to seriously juggle a lot in a little over a couple hours. Then again with all that, it never felt like the movie was inconsistent with the focus. It’s campy as hell but I felt it still had that good modicum of serious that Raimi’s 1 and 2 pulled off just as well, a quality balance. You grasped everything it threw at you by the end. Now Spiderverse, minus the credits, is an hour 45 minutes and it felt like the two points of the story, setting up the multiverse and Miles’ uprising as a heroes, were at rubberbanding odds with each other.

When I see Spiderverse, Miles’ story mostly overshadows the tension that came in the multiverse getting fucked up, and that the final fight of Miles and Kingpin is the only time where I felt shit got serious. Otherwise, the whole aspect of the Spidermun slowly dying because they weren’t in their realities and the multiverse colliding felt much of an afterthought for most of the film. Narratively, it has a good pace of doing what it needs to do, but on the look back the journey didn’t stick with me as well as I thought.

If I can bring in some previous examples, the likes of Kung Fu Panda and The Lego Movie had better stakes because it felt like the two storylines (the protagonist’s upbringing and the villain’s scheme) were prominent throughout the films once they got going. Po wasn’t just training because he wanted to be better and found the ways to do it, he was training hard because the villain was on his way and the defeat of the Furious Five showed he meant business. The Lego Movie takes a step further by having Emmett and the gang be on the run, we see the villain’s increasing impact as we go along, giving us on the fly experiences that provides Emmett’s “leap of faith” type breakthrough while the villain finally goes all out with his scheme. It helps make the stakes and optimistic breakthrough of overcoming them both escalate and converge naturally.

You know, not doing what Kingdom Hearts 3 did

Not saying Spiderverse doesn’t naturally converge its two storylines well, everything about it was clear, but the effects of the Super Collider come off as very infrequent and thus made the escalation disjointed. The whole “cellular decay” bit with the Spidermun could’ve been a great way to add some tension, like “Oh shit, this could be disadvantageous in the fight at Aunt May’s house. Put our heroes on the ropes.” It doesn’t happen, in fact the fight felt like it disappeared the moment Aaron and Miles were on the roof. It felt like a slight inconvenience than a matter of winning or losing everything, even in the climax. Same with the whole “reality warping” idea, it would’ve been very cool to see reality start to deteriorate or change around our characters, make the news media go “Oh shit, what’s happening?” or put the Spidermun on a little edge instead of them just solemnly waiting for a little anime girl to heely her way in with the flash drive to save the world. As great as the scene was, the “leap of faith” felt disconnected where I say a scene of Miles noticing the glitches from the hotel after he was living in the moment for once would’ve been a great transition to the climax. Show that he’s ready and amped to be the new Spider-Man, but knows there’s no time to lose. Have the life-threatening factor be more of a looming presence. If not that, might as well not add it in, especially at the last minute. I mean it’s possible.

Like what happened to Liv? We don- we don’t see her after everything is over. Is best villain just gone now forever?!

I talked previously of how Peni, Spider-Noir, and Spider-Ham were wasted in the film, but they were but a fraction to the whole idea of the quantum warping and how it felt like an afterthought until near the end. And as I mention Doc Ock, it mostly felt like the villains just come and go. Prowler is the exception, but I completely forgot Kingpin fucked with reality to get his family back. Shit, I forgot Scorpion and Goblin were in the movie. I’m not saying we needed the know how of everything, but I figure better time to conveying their stance in the film would make them more memorable. Spider-Man has great villains, and most of the films knew how to mix their presence in with our hero’s life fluently. If the major world ending threat wasn’t much, it didn’t help that most of the villains here supporting that threat were flash in the pan at best.

like a majority of blockbuster villains

Now off the bat, as I mentioned before, I am not a fan of movies that notably wink and nudge that a sequel is around the corner. I’m okay with things being open-ended but I draw a line at a film being forced to feel lacking because it’s relying on a sequel to pick up the slack. There are exceptions to this of course, but great films should be able to stand on their own and not be codependent on sequels to make them better. With my talk of the B-team and the whole reality warping aspect of the film, the Spiderverse part of the title feels like setup for the sequel and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it doesn’t help when half the 1st film feels minor and somewhat forgettable in my case. Miles’ story was great but it’s like we had to flip flop between his story and the setting up for more. And it’s that story rubberbanding that leaves a less satisfying note to me compared to not only other films in general, but other Spider-Man films where even when a lot is thrown at me, each of the Raimi trilogy felt conclusively satisfactory as both a whole and individually.

It honestly makes this ending pretty mixed in my eye

But on this note, I don’t wanna end on a sour grape, not when the 3rd part is gonna end this whole critique off more optimistically. So as much as I harped the whole setup Spiderverse aspect, the silver lining is that this felt like the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 with Roxas. This is a weird comparison but it does feel like Miles is at the twilight of his life in this film. We get some great action but his involvement in the film is kept at arms length while the other Spidermun are stepping well. It’s only after Aaron’s death, the dejection, and Jefferson’s uplifting words and this shot in particular where we can finally say...

Spider-Man has Awaken Again

I can step on anything in this movie but it’s where Miles gets his groove and is there for the other spidermun in the climax when I say that it’s a give and take. This movie isn’t perfect, and I can’t say it is my favorite Spider-Man film ever, but it definitely knows what it wanted to do and I can’t give them enough credit. I said before, but this film certainly has its ambitions and while not everything lands well with me, what they get right is what they handle in spades. The best about it all is where part 3 is gonna pick up. Stay tuned...

Otherwise, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your day.

#spider-man into the spider-verse #into the spider verse #spiderverse #itsv #spider-man #spiderman #marvel #critique #analysis #long post #Good Stuff

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virtchandmoir · 5 years ago

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Olympic ice-dance champions Virtue and Moir: 'We’re so proud of our relationship'

June 18, 2019

The Canadian gold medallists talk to Eoin O’Callaghan about winning gold, maintaining a professional relationship and ignoring fan fiction

Virtue and Moir perform at the 2018 Winter Olympics: ‘I went into the penultimate lift in Pyeongchang and I got chills because I felt the energy and electricity in the building shift’. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

There’s a guy at a bar nursing a drink. He looks up and catches the eye of a girl nearby. They share a knowing glance. And that’s the moment. It’s a scene from a litany of TV shows and films. But, it’s also the story of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s rebirth. And given the hopelessly romantic and cinematic dimension to their partnership, the story fits perfectly.

“We were on a charity trip to Scotland [in 2015] and they were showing an Olympic video,” Moir remembers. “I looked over at Tessa. We kind of have our own language. And I was like, ‘We’re going to do one more Olympics, aren’t we?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, yeah’. I turned around to the bartender, ordered three more beers and just thought, ‘Okay, here we go’”.

At the time, the celebrated Canadian ice-dance duo were on a break. Embittered and irritated with skating, they’d stepped away from competing and were mulling their next move. After a period of unprecedented success between 2010 and 2012, things shifted substantially prior to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The entire experience, which culminated in a bitterly disappointing silver medal, was clouded by a simmering rift with coach Marina Zoueva and newspaper claims that the ice-dance result had been fixed by American and Russian judges.

It was supposed to be Virtue and Moir’s perfect swansong but instead they headed into presumed retirement full of anger, frustration and resentment. Moir, in particular, was disillusioned by all of it.

“I was just kind of sour with the sport,” he says. “I didn’t want anything to do with it. I went into a period of excessive partying and doing anything that wasn’t figure skating, really. I went and built a house with my brother. I shut the whole world out and shut everything down.”

But the break – regardless of the emotions that came with it – was badly needed. “Gaining the perspective to reflect and reassess was paramount,” Virtue says.

After discussing a comeback in more detail, they earmarked former Canadian ice-dancers Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon as coaches and were eager to move to Montreal and get things started. But during their first conversation, Lauzon wanted them to explain their motivation for returning. It was a pre-requisite, he told them.

“That floored us,” Moir says. “We couldn’t get out of it by just saying, ‘We want to win.’ He just said, ‘Well, that might not be enough. You need more than that if you want to come to our school.’ It came down to the fact that we just felt we had more to give.”

In a new place and with a new coaching team, they were determined to push boundaries and rediscover the sport.

“We weren’t conforming to any one thing,” Virtue says. “We lost this sense of trying to appease everyone else. We were more secure in who we were as people and athletes. We were more secure in what we stood for, what we valued and the art we wanted to create. I always loved skating but you can get hardened by it and it’s discouraging and disheartening. You can lose that spark. Montreal ignited it again.”

In September 2016, they stepped into a rink in the Montreal borough of Pierrefonds and competed for the first time in two-and-a-half years at the Skate Canada Autumn Classic. The short dance was an electric, sensual tribute to Prince. Paired with the tenderness and contemporary slant of their free dance, it was a magnetic and thrilling package.

Even so, it seemed a long shot that they would get the better of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the French duo who were back-to-back world champions and unbeaten in two years. So, it was astonishing when Virtue and Moir ended the year on top of the Grand Prix podium for the first time in their careers and followed that up with a World Championship gold in 2017.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir celebrate after becoming Olympic champions. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

“I don’t think people truly understand how difficult that is,” Moir says. “Three years is a long time. The game had evolved. And we’re back in the arena, with the bright lights and everyone’s faces looking back at us again. We did everything we could to prepare but there were a lot of tough steps. The goal was to not be our old selves. We knew we made a mistake in 2014. We didn’t pick music that was dear to our hearts and weren’t personally invested in a program. We vowed to never do that again.”

The new era was exciting but still left Virtue slightly underwhelmed. She was expecting something bigger, more explosive.

“I thought we’d have this Ziggy Stardust moment,” she says. “‘Representing Canada, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’ and the whole crowd would turn and gasp and say, ‘Who? Who’s that blonde girl? That’s not Tessa.’ I thought we would totally reinvent ourselves. But it was finding the balance. ‘Are we doing things differently just to be different or to be better?’ And that was a constant dialogue between us.”

For Moir, the entire process became a safe harbour as he navigated a particularly difficult period.

“2017 was probably one of the hardest years of my life,” he admits. “There were a lot of personal struggles. I lost some very important people. I had a best friend and then a grandfather pass away. Through it all, skating became an anchor. I used to think of it as a job. Now it was getting me through and giving me hope. Through all the heartache, it seemed worth it. Heading into the Olympic season, we were ready for almost anything.”

In the build-up to Pyeongchang, they were consistently behind Papadakis and Cizeron, particularly in the free dance. So, they dramatically altered their sombre Moulin Rouge routine to make it more Olympic-friendly.

“We changed about two minutes of our program entirely,” Virtue says. “We listened to people for eight years telling us we needed a big ending, people on their feet and the music to reach this massive crescendo. That’s the Olympic moment people want. Once we were able to find that, it soared and began to take shape.”

It worked.

The subsequent free dance performance sits alongside Torvill and Dean’s 1984 Bolero as the greatest ice-dance moment in history. Those four spellbinding minutes were not only enough to ensure astounding and unlikely Olympic golds for the pair but to also define Virtue and Moir’s legacy.

“I had never felt momentum during a performance before,” Virtue says. “We felt flow in Vancouver [when they won gold in 2010] and we chased that feeling for eight years. I went into the penultimate lift in Pyeongchang and I got chills because I felt the energy and electricity in the building shift.”

A different kind of momentum had been growing for a while too.

Unlike their French rivals, Virtue and Moir took part in the team figure skating event a week earlier and quickly became viral sensations. In front of a global audience, the intensity of their chemistry, their innate closeness and the suggestiveness of certain choreography whipped new-found fans into a frenzy, especially across social media. When they found out Virtue and Moir were not involved in a romantic relationship, they didn’t really accept it. Instead, they started to fantasize.

There are dark corners of the digital sphere devoted to them, including some intense fan fiction. The disciples – and there are a lot of them – obsess over every look and every caress. “It’s probably healthier to avoid it,” Virtue says.

But that’s easier said than done. Last year, Moir spoke eloquently about the impact his unique athletic setup had on his personal life and how some partners found it difficult to properly understand his dynamic with Virtue. Before the Olympics, he was already daydreaming about what was on the other side. It’s why he’s so ready to move on to a new post-skating chapter and focus on things he spent so long sacrificing.

“I was ready for that transition,” he says. “It was always skating first and I was finally at a point in my life where I could be a contributing member of my family and actually search for a life partner.”

Their relationship is a curious thing. When I ask Virtue to define it, she takes a deep breath. “We’re the worst at answering this question”, she begins. “I wish we could help ourselves and everyone else.”

She speaks uninterrupted for a few minutes. It’s essentially a meandering run-on sentence. Then she apologizes profusely for not supplying the right answer. But, of course, she had done. It’s why the moment of their eyes meeting in Scotland explains so much of their story. Words are limiting and what Virtue and Moir have goes far beyond that, almost existing in the abstract.

“We were made for each other, in a work relationship,” Moir says. “There’s real love there. We’re so proud of the business relationship we have. And that’s the story we want to tell more than anything. Judging by my girlfriend’s Twitter, I think fans are disappointed a little bit that we’re not a couple but we have a very amazing, unique relationship that hopefully young people can look at and think, ‘Wow, that should be inspirational in its own right’”.

When they stood on the podium immediately after their Olympic victory, Virtue – normally so poised – uncharacteristically welled up. “It was seeing 20 years flash in front of me,” she says. Her voice cracks so she nervously laughs to cover the lump in her throat.

“The little seven and nine-year-old kids who got together, who didn’t speak and who just skated around a rink holding hands. On the world’s biggest stage, with all of that pressure, in that very moment ... I was just very proud of Scott. It’s funny. We both have this thing where it’s hard for us to acknowledge our own success but we’re able to see it in each other.”

Currently, there’s an adjustment period. It’s not about the Olympics anymore. There are touring shows to produce and various other projects to plan for. They both admit that fully appreciating what they have and what they’ve gone through together is something that will only come much later.

For Moir, he’s still struggling to wrap his head around the last year and a half. “I don’t know how to explain it and I don’t think I even have a proper perspective on it yet,” he says. “It seems like it was a fairytale when I look back now.”

—The Guardian

#tessa and scott #off ice #interview: the guardian #i liked the scotland bit #(the only part i read)

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thehanniecorner · 5 years ago

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Yes, I realize that this post is coming out nowhere near January, but I have been finding it difficult to keep up with blogging lately, so it is what it is, right? Hopefully, things have calmed down enough in my life that I can get back to writing semi-regularly, but no promises yet! Regardless, I read a lot in January and am eager to share my thoughts with you. Let’s get started!

I hope this reaches her in time – r.h. Sin

Rating – 1 Star

Unfortunately, I started off my year with what may turn out to be my least favorite title of 2020. I hope this reaches her in time is a poetry collection, and while I like to pick up poetry once in a while, I didn’t connect with this collection at all. First of all, it felt like there should have been a little more editing, as I found a number of sentences and word choices that I think might have just been typos. Beyond that, the poetry itself reminded me of the “Tumblr style” where poets just break a normal sentence into multiple lines to make the words feel deeper than they really are, which is not a style I enjoy at all. The good news is, however, that my reading can only get better from here, right?

Emergency Skin – N.K. Jemisin

Rating – 5 Stars

After reading an incredibly underwhelming title, I decided to give N.K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin from Amazon’s Forward collection a try, figuring that an author this popular couldn’t possibly let me down. Thankfully, my instincts were right and I loved this short story so much. Given how short this experience is, I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that this is a phenomenal science fiction story with the best usage of second person narration that I have ever seen in literature. This was my first title by Jemisin and I can’t wait to read more of her work in the future.

Randomize – Andy Weir

Rating – 3 Stars

Since I loved Emergency Skin so much, I wanted to give another short story from the same collection a try, which led me to Andy Weir’s Randomize. This wasn’t bad at all, but I didn’t love it to nearly the same degree as Jemisin’s work. The hardest part for me is that the central premise, involving the security of gambling machines and whether they can be hacked or not, felt both flimsy and info-dumping in its setup. The ending was pretty satisfying and I had fun reading this, but I came away from the story feeling like not enough had really been done with the universe. I’m hoping to get to more of the Forward short story collection a try in the coming months, so I hope I enjoy the others more than I enjoyed this one.

Interview with the Robot – Lee Bacon

Rating – 4 Stars

I decided to pick up an Audible subscription recently in order to read more audiobooks, and Interview with the Robot was one of the Audible Original productions available one month, so I decided to pick it up. This short audiobook with a full cast follows a robot who looks like a young child. She gets apprehended by the police and has to tell her strange life story to a social worker in charge of her case.

While listening to this story, I had a smile on my face from beginning to end because it was just so charming and adorable. That said, however, there were a few pretty good twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and definitely made me feel a lot of empathy towards the protagonist. Overall, my main complaint is that it was just too short, at around three hours of listening. I want more from this world in the future, so I hope some sort of sequel comes out eventually.

The Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski

Rating – 3 Stars

2020 is the year that I work my way into adult fantasy, and other than reading Game of Thrones last year, reading The Last Wish is one of the first titles that I have ever picked up in the genre. This series follows Geralt, a witcher, which is a type of mutated human that fights monsters, as well as the many people that surround him. This specific book is a short story collection that follows, for the most part, Geralt as he goes from contract to contract, killing monsters.

I love the lore and world of the Witcher universe, but I’m not totally convinced that I appreciate the writing style. It’s hard to tell if this is because of the translation or this is the intention of the original author, but there was a lot of distance between the narrator and the events happening, which made me feel disconnected from the story. I still intend to continue on, especially after I completely fell in love with the TV series, so I hope that I will connect more with future books and get used to the writing style.

The Outsider – Stephen King

Rating – 4 Stars

Stephen King is an author that I should read way more than I do, because I only pick up one or two of his books in a year, but I almost always enjoy them. As it turns out, The Outsider is no exception. This horror novel follows a group of detectives as they investigate the death of a young boy in a small town. The obvious suspect is the town’s little league coach, as the evidence is quickly mounting up against him. As the case opens up, however, conflicting details emerge and the truth becomes more difficult to grasp.

Overall, I really enjoyed the mystery and couldn’t stop reading for the entirety of this 600-page tome. Stephen King has a way of making long books feel like they go by in an instant. Unsurprisingly, however, the ending was incredibly underwhelming. Additionally, The Outsider is connected to the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, which I didn’t know, and I got pretty spoiled for the events of that series, which is unfortunate. On top of all of this, I would like to take a moment and point out that the graphic depictions of the child’s death did not really need to be so detailed, much less have those horrific details brought up at least a dozen more times over the course of the book. It just felt gratuitous after a while. I enjoyed this book immensely, but the details I mentioned above kept it just barely out of five-star territory.

Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire

Rating – 4 Stars

Since The Outsider was quite a lengthy read, I wanted to pick up some shorter titles again, leading me to finally pick up the start to a fantasy series that has been on my radar for a long time: Every Heart a Doorway. This series follows a group of children that found doorways to their own personal versions of Narnia and Wonderland. At some point, however, their newfound homes kicked them back into the normal world and they have to learn how to cope with returning to their own life. A halfway home of sorts was founded for children struggling with this task, and as it turns out, bringing a bunch of children together who have all gone to vastly different worlds can cause some pretty crazy antics and disagreements.

I love the characters, but didn’t find the plot of this overly engaging. Given that my rating is still high, it’s clear that my disinterest in the plot wasn’t a deal-breaker by any means, but I just struggled to stay interested, especially given that I guessed the big plot twist almost immediately. Since these books are so short, I will definitely be reading the sequels. In fact, given how late this wrap-up is, I can say with great certainty that my February wrap-up will have a lot of news regarding my progress on this series.

Outer Order, Inner Calm – Gretchen Rubin

Rating – 3 Stars

I like to try reading books that push me out of my comfort zone, and it has been a long time since I read anything that might be considered a part of the self-improvement genre. Therefore, as a chronically messy person, I thought reading Outer Order, Inner Calm might be an interesting adventure, given that the whole book is dedicated to getting rid of unwanted junk to keep life peaceful.

This was an incredibly easy read. The writing style was simple and easy to digest. Reading it was actually a pretty pleasant and relaxing experience. That said, however, I’m not sure how useful I actually found the book, as the advice felt like it was playing it pretty safe. For the most part, the tips went like “Get rid of things you don’t use anymore” and “Clean your house” with about 75 different variations, each. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I got much out of it.

Everything My Mother Taught Me – Alice Hoffman

Rating – 4 Stars

My final read for the month of January was another short story from an Amazon collection like the Forward collection. This is Everything My Mother Taught Me, and it’s my first attempt at reading Alice Hoffman. This follows a young girl who is living at a lighthouse and trying to navigate coming of age with her dysfunctional mother around her. I can’t say much more than that given how short the story is, but I did really enjoy this. This is a common complaint for me with short stories, but the main reason it didn’t get five stars is because it just didn’t feel fully fleshed out. When I read Emergency Skin, I felt like Jemisin did a phenomenal job of packing a full story into a short amount of pages, and Everything My Mother Taught Me didn’t manage this as successfully. I’m still quite eager to pick up more books by Hoffman, however, as I enjoyed her writing style.

Well, now that it’s almost March, I have finally shared what I read in January. What did you read in the first month of the year? Let me know in the comments below!

January 2020 Reading Wrap-Up! Yes, I realize that this post is coming out nowhere near January, but I have been finding it difficult to keep up with blogging lately, so it is what it is, right?

#books #reading #tbr #wrap-up

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blackevermore · 5 years ago

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Falling

[ Zair x Kurt Wagner ]

Summary: At its basic Zair falls off a roof and Kurt saves her.... (I was trying to follow a prompt and failed. I’ll get it next time)

Genre: fluff honestly

Warning(s): Language

Word count: 3,682

A/N: Sorry if this sucks ass I haven’t had time to sit and write and this was meant to break my block ;w; I promise I’m not this bad.

"So you're telling me you haven't played around with his powers yet?" Peter asked, running circles around Zair as she tried to get to the front of the school. They had just finished outside training with the other trainees and teachers, and Zair needed a nap. Hank had singled her out to be a defence against short-range attack since she developed her powers to hold two mutations at once. While it was great skill development for both competitors, it was body draining on her part. Even with her personal training of being able to handle to combine and use different mutation, she still couldn't fight for more than thirty minutes. It also sucked when Hank put Zair up against Peter, who by the way was more annoying on the battlefield.

"No, I haven't, I don't really play around with other people's powers." Zair unzipped her jacket to allow the air to flow over her to cool down. The last power she used was a fire type, and it left her feeling like she was walking next to the sun.

"But that's like the whole point of your power," Peter sped to stand in front of her causing her to stumble back a bit. "You're such a party pooper Zair. If I had your power, I would do amazing things!" Peter threw his hands up to do jazzy fingers, and Zair stared at him blankly. She couldn't remember how they became friends, but she was sure it had something to do with taco Tuesday heist two years ago.

"Peter you can barley use your own power without eating every 5 minutes." Zair pushed around him and continued into the building.

"I'm a growing boy Zair! Growing boys need to eat!" As Peter yelled towards her, the other group of a student caught up with Hank in front. Hank shot him a look and Peter returned a goofy grin which made the younger students behind Hank swoon.

"Could you not yell crazy things out loud?" Hank crossed his arms, leaning to the side clearly unimpressed. Peter only shrugged before blowing a kiss to his fangirls and speeding into the building.

~~~

"Heya Black Magic, wake up!" Zair stirred from her bed and rolled over to the voice above her. Her dorm mate Em was hover right above her lounging black clouds.

"Black Magic?" Zair blinked a few times as she searched for her glasses beside her. Once they were on, she looked towards Em, who only nodded and crossed her arms behind her back. The clouds moved Em from above Zair to the side so the girl could sit up.

"Ya know because your skin turns black when you overheat and magic because ya magical." Em wiggled her fingers in the air. She was clearly high off her ass again, which was typical of her, Zair was so used to it, yet it always made her laugh. Zair chuckled and nodded in approve of the name. "Anyway, are you still coming to the roof tonight to watch the light show the freshmen are putting on?"

"Oh yeah that is today, isn't it. Um yeah, I'm still coming, but I might be a bit late. I have homework to still do that I've been putting off and Miss Raven is not happy about. Zair rubbed the back of her neck as a phantom ache crept up from her shoulder. The aftershock of the hit she took from Peter was still taking its toll on her.

"Oh damn that history report! I still haven't done mine, I haven't even picked a topic yet." The clouds under Em quickly evaporated, which made the girl fall straight to the floor. Zair shot up to help her but Em held up a hand to tell her she was alright.

"It's due in two days." Zair sat back down on her bed, double-checking over Em who slowly got off the floor, god the girl was going to give Zair a heart attack.

"Yeah, I know. I'll get it done somehow." Em said, smiling weakly in an attempt to ensure Zair all was well. Zair nodded and looked down to her feet under her bed. She should really start on finishing her project so she could get to the light show on time. Just then, the sound of teleportation filled the room before the sour smell of sulfur followed behind it. Zair held her nose and quickly opened the window to let the smell out.

"Dear god Kurt! Don't bamf into small places, man! You'll kill someone one day." Em coughed trying to wave the blue smoke out of her face. Kurt went wide-eyed, he started his long ramble of apologetic cries as he tried to air out the room as well with his tail.

"I'm very sorry, Emma." Kurt worryingly smiled.

"Yeah it cool, just use the damn door next time. You aren't even allowed to be in here."

"I know, but I had to talk to Zair and I just couldn't wait." Kurt turned to his girlfriend with confidence that quickly faded with him becoming bashful. Zair turned from hanging out the window and walked over to him.

"What's up blueberry?"

"Liebling I was wondering if you will come to the light show with me tonight?" Kurt's eyes lit up with hopes that she would say yes. Of course she would say yes, but it never failed to amaze her that Kurt could still doubt their relationship thinking she turn him down. They've been dating for a year now and every time Kurt wanted to ask Zair out for a date or a gather he always got cold on his feet in fear of rejection. She understood why due to his very unfortunate past. Kurt was strong, he had it be, however deep down he was still that little kid wondering why he was called the devil so often.

"Kurt, who else was I going to go with?" Zair's shoulders dropped with a sigh and smile. Kurt perked up with happiness; his tail swayed excessively behind him like a cat almost hitting Em. Em reached out to catch the tail and pull it to get him to calm down. Kurt gasped and bamfed away and came back to stand behind Zair. Em rolled her eyes and walked to the door to leave.

"I catch you later Zairla, Peter agreed to make brownies for tonight, so I need to go make sure he doesn't trick Scott into spiking them. Later!" Em waved as she left, leaving the couple alone in the room by themselves. This was clearly a setup to give them alone time, and Zair wasn't too sure if she was okay with that or not. It's not that they haven't been alone before, of course they have, just not in a dorm together. Zair could feel her face starting to heat up as she thought of Em's intentions. Nothing was going to happen! Nothing ever did, yet Em and the gang always thought something did. Zair felt her chest rising and falling faster than before. She needed to calm down so her body wouldn't react. Just then, Kurt reached down and took her hand into his to get her attention. Zair turned around to look up to him but caught sight of her now blue hand and yanked it away. Kurt giggled and retook it, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles.

"Your a blue as me," Kurt's voice was sweet and lower, his accent sounded heavenly as he spoke to Zair.

"Yeah well, I can't help it." Zair lowered her eyes, trying to avoid him as best as she could. With how close they were nothing could calm her down or turn her back to normal. Kurt leaned in to kiss the top of her head as a bit of comfort.

"You're beautiful."

"So are you."

"But blue looks a lot better on you." Kurt nuzzled into her hair smiling. Zair rolled her eyes as she put space between them and kissing his cheek before pulling away completely.

"Okay blueberry babe I got homework to do. With you here, I won't do it, and I really don't want Raven making me run for an hour like she did Rhia when she snuck Parker in." Zair sat down on her bed now with her laptop and books beside her.

"Ja, I also don't want to get caught in the girl's dorm....again." Zair eyes shot up at the memory but before she could retaliate Kurt was waving and teleporting out of the room. Zair puffed out her cheeks in defeat at how embarrassing that event was. Kurt had a nightmare and came to Zair believing that if he stayed for a moment, he would feel better. Instead, they both ended up asleep on top of each other. It was a sweet moment together, but total hell when Professor had them both in his office the next day scolding them.

~~~

Outside Zair's window, the sun was slowly sliding down beyond the horizon. She had just finished the last bit of her history report and was backing away her laptop and books when a knock came across her door. She walked over and twisted the nob expecting Em to be standing-or floating on the other side. Instead, Peter stood leaning against the door.

"Hey Black Magic ready for the light show?" He managed to say through thick chunks of brownie hanging out his mouth. Zair scrunched up her nose in disgust, trying her hardest to not be as disappointed in his lack of manners.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Where's the rest of the gang?"

"Fighting with the juniors on who gets to sit on the roof. If we go now, I can zip us past all that and find us a private spot." Peter winked playfully, and Zair shook her head. It was their thing to playfully flirt, even before she dated Kurt that's how she and Peter bonded. Peter finger gunned and moved out the way for Zair to move into the hallway and lock her dorm room door. They started towards the third set of stairs that went up to the attic.

"Come on Zair Bar, race me." Peter sang as he sped up and slowed down beside her.

"Peter, I told you I don't play with people's powers unless they give me permission to explore them." Zair stopped walking and turned around to face Peter. Somewhere between her talking and turning around, he managed to run off and get a snack and come back. After he shoved it in his mouth like an animal and swallowed, he wiped the back of his mouth with his hand and gave her a goofy smile. He then reached above his head to grab his goggles and slid them down over his eyes. Zair knew what that means, so she bent down to make sure her shoes were as tight as they possibly could be. She rose back up and took a deep breath to activate her powers. Within seconds, her fingers turned black, which meant her DNA had changed, and she was ready to play every speed game Peter had available.

"Zairla," Peter said. "You have my permission to race me and lose."

"Game-" she couldn't even finish as a gust of when flew right past her and up the stairs. Zarlia yelled a quick 'no fair!' before taking off and catching up to Peter. They were neck and neck when they noticed they were climbing over their friends who were still fighting with the juniors. Zairla couldn't help but crack a smile at how fun it was to be moving faster than time, so fast that everything froze and the world was at your mercy. No wonder Peter had a bad habit of having sticky fingers. How could you not? Once they were over their friends and into the attic, they raced to the windows that were open and onto the roof.

"I won!" Peter shouted, falling to his ass as he proclaimed his victory.

"Won? Won where? I won!" Zair commented. She was ultimately out of breath once reality caught up with her. Her lungs felt like they were on fire and her skin couldn't figure out if it wanted a hot sweat or a cold. She sat down next to Peter and punched his shoulder to shut him up.

"Well, considering you're panting like a dog? I won, I can handle it, maybe if someone actually played with their powers, they wouldn't be dying from an asthma attack."

"Suck my di-"

"Guys! How did you get up here before us?!" Bea, Zair's water bending friend, called out from the window behind them.

"She finally raced me and lost!" Peter answered.

"Shut up, Peter!" The words were taken right out of Zairla's mouth as a very annoyed Kel march over and fell straight into his lap. Kel was Peter's short tempted girlfriend that was continually telling him to shut up. Zair couldn't figure out why or how they got together, but she was happy for her friends.

"Zair!" Zair turned her head to call of her name and came face to face with Kurt. He looked a bit upset to see her there with Peter. "You already came up?"

"I-" Zair turned towards Peter ready to throw a punch.

"Don't worry I got you," Kel said, holding up and hand before turning and punching Peter in the chest. "You made her race you on purpose you ass."

"Oh yeah, you were gonna walk her up, my bad man!" Peter laughed off the hit, and the sour looks both of the girls came him. Zair took Kurt's hand into hers and pulled him down to sit next to her so she could curl up next to him.

"Sorry, I allowed that dick to distract me, we can burn his twinkies later if it makes you feel better?" Zair apologized, trying to kiss his cheek but ended up on the tip of his ear. Kurt's tail wrapped around her waist and he nodded, turning his head to actually capture her lips. They didn't fully kiss often, due to school rules which they tried to follow as best as they could. Whenever they found themselves alone with the chance to, they always took it. Zair was surprised to learn that Kurt liked kisses mored than she ever could and always stole one before teleporting away.

"Wunderbar," Kurt whispered nuzzling into Zair hair. Soon the freshman came over the loudspeakers placed around the lawn to announce they were ready to start. Every two months each grade had to present something for an art grade. Two months ago the Sophomores did glass paintings in the windows which was cool and all until Scott shot one out on accident.

The freshman started with fireworks that were hand made. One student would throw a bag into the air, and another student who had the power to create energy arrows shot them. Big explosions of colours took over the sky and lit up the whole school. Zair clapped along with everyone else in amazement that the freshmen were able to put this together. Nothing against them, she knew how she was as a freshman, but when they put their mind towards something it really paid off. While the two students did the fireworks, another pair of student fly into the air with their powers activated covering their whole body in different colours. It was the star twins that had just enrolled in the school. They did dance around the sky leaving behind light trails behind them. They finished up their dance routine with drawing a giant x-men symbol in the air. The next set of students were a girl blowing bubbles from her mouth and another girl blowing smoke into the bubbles. When they got high enough above the school they would burst and glitter like shimmer fell back to the ground. Zair held up her hand as some of the glitters fell right above her. When she brought it down to look like it shimmered then disappeared.

"I swear they are so creative," Zair whispered to Kurt who was more into looking at how beautiful she looked as the lights bounced off of her skin. He snapped out of it when he saw her staring back at him.

"Ja, ja they are." Kurt quickly answered and continue to look at his darling. Zair noticed his eyes but pretended not to as she turned back to the sky. The show was coming to an end after a few more students showed off their powers. Finally, the grand finale was the firework group and the star twins. The arrow kid was going to shot five arrows at once, and the star twins were going to attach their powers to the arrows to make them start changing colours before hitting the bags. As the same time, the bags would be in bubbles filled with the glitter like power and when it got hit the sky would shimmer with 'stars'. It sounds impressive; however, Zair and her friends became very doubtful that it would work.

"I think we should go before this becomes a mess and Ororo makes it rain," Em said floating above the gang on her clouds.

"Oh god, I just did my hair. I don't fucking need this." Kel said getting off of Peter's lap and stretching. Zair agreed as she got to her feet and helped Kurt up.

"I'll stay and let you know how it went," Bea called over her shoulder as the gang went to the window. When Em tugged on the window it didn't move, she tried a few more times and still the same. Peter tried the window next to it but the same thing happened. After checking all the windows on their side of the roof, it was clear that the angry juniors had locked them out.

"We can break it?" Peter offered already aiming up to take out the glass.

"Nah man, if we do that they'll tell and I'm not trying to be working side jobs this winter to fix one window." Em replied, crossing her arms and thinking for a moment.

"I'll get it," Kurt called over his friends and was gone in an instance reappearing in the attic undoing the locks. Everyone thanked him and started to climb through. Zair was the last in the line and looked back just to see if the students had started the finale yet. When there was still a wait, she shrugged and started to climb back through the window. For some reason, Zair misstepped and fell back on her leg, still hanging out the window. Instead of just landing on her but and stopping, she curled up on herself and started falling down the roof. Everyone gasped and tried to get back out the window to catch her but couldn't.

"Bea catch her!" Em yelled out, but it was too last and Zarla fell right into Bea who started rolling too. Bea was able to catch herself before she got too far down, but that also meant not getting a grip on Zair.

Everything felt like it was in slow motion the way Zair hit the edge and went over. She had finally stopped rolling, but now she was falling, and her fear made her unable to move. She had to do something, but she couldn't fell anything. She heard the loud gasp from the kids below her, so she closed her eyes and prepared for impact.

"I got you." Kurt's arm wrapped around her quickly and felt the internal pull of force warping around her. It was a quick invert feeling of travelling through space and time. She only bamfed once, and it always made her head hurt from the rapid change in temperatures as they travelled through a place in hell and then back to earth. When they came back from the cloud of sulfur, they were standing on the roof again.

"Are you okay?" Kurt worried voice snapped Zair out of her panicked enough to answer him with a nod.

"Yeah, I'm fine just shook up a bit." She answered him, gripping onto his shirt for dear life.

"Miss Zairla! Are you okay?" The professor yelled up from the ground below.

"Yeah! I'm good!" Every on the ground gave a harmonized sigh of relief.

"From now on the roofs are completely off-limits. All of you must join us on the ground if there are ever to be outdoor events. Good Job, Kurt." The professor shouted then signalled for the freshmen to finish up their show. Zair looked up to the sky and watched as the grand finale got into action, they pulled it off, and just then the whole yard lit up in white light as the glittered mimicked the stars.

"Kurt?" Zair turned back towards Kurt, who now has his tailed wrapped up her leg and arms tightly across her back. He was refuse to let go as long as they stood there.

"Ja?"

"Teach me to teleport. I need to be able to catch myself if that ever happens again." Zair sighed and gripped his shirt tighter. She wasn't afraid of heights, but the act of falling always made her sick to her stomach.

"You won't need it, I'll always be there to catch you." Kurt used one of his fingers to pull her chin up to have her look at him. "You'll never fall without me." Zair smiled but dropped it and shook her head.

"But when your not able to I need to be able to use your powers a lot more than turning blue. Please teach me." Zair whispered the last bit in hopes he wouldn't turn her down. The look in Kurt's eyes told her he was fighting back a no, wanting to insist that he would always be there but he knew that he wouldn't, not always.

"Okay, I will."

"Thank you." Zair stood on her toes to kiss him and Kurt bent down to meet her half away.

#my blueberry #kurt wagner #nightcrawler #s/i x canon #self ship #Self Insert #f/o #fictional other #my writing #failed prompt #I'm sorry #asdfghjkl

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asenatheoperator · 6 years ago

Photo

(I don’t have great skills to draw my own OC like many people in here but at least i have games to use making my own OC :) ) ’’There is a old saying of my people ’The sheep separated from the flock is eaten by the Wolf.’ And let me tell you, on this mountains...Its very easy to find yourself separated from the flock.’’ Asena

Real Name: Dilara Gümüş

Unit: Special Forces Command

Position: Defender

Birthplace: Izmir, Turkey

Date of Birth: 05 June 1983

Age: 35

Height: 5′9′’ (1.75M)

Weight: 143 lbs (64kg)

Biography:

Dilara Gümüş, daughter of a police chief father and a history teacher mother. She and five year older brother grow up in a very disciplined family but both of them liked to break rules..Actually, her brother Mustafa break the rules she just followed him from behind and take the blame with him. She saw him as kinda a idol figure. She played football and basketball with him also they went to watch Karşıyaka’s matches together. But when she’s 16, Mustafa conscripted to the Army. When he was gone she start focusing on her school more, she wasn’t a GREAT student but she always managed to survive. Also with her mother’s influence she start getting into the history, when she read a book about the Turkic Mythology she was amazed and soon she found herself in her room surrounded with history books about the mythologies.

Five months later after her brother conscripted to the army bad news came from the South Eastern Anatolia. Where her brother and two other soldier died in a mine explosion during a combat patrol. From that day she promised herself to avenge her brother but there was one problem, Turkish Army wasn’t conscripting females so she had to take the hard way, enter the Military Academy which was one of the most hardest thing to do in Turkey. In 2000 she managed to pass the exam and entered the Kuleli Military High School which Kuleli was one of the most prestigious and oldest Military High School in the world also it was the first step to enter the Harbiye Military Academy. In High School one of her teacher see her interest in history, one day he find her in library reading a book about the History of Asia he joined her and had a long discussion about the history, her teacher as knowning she’s going to be a officer in the army he gave her the nickname ‘’Asena’’ which Asena is a wolf goddess in Turkish Mythology also in Turkic Nomad Tribes woman who fought alongside their husbands or for their husbands was called ‘’Asena’’ that conversation with her teacher encouraged her more and give a morale boost. Five years later in 2005, Dilara was one of the Military Cadet entered the Harbiye Military Academy in Ankara. In Harbiye her fast decision taking impressed the officers but her old habit ‘’Breaking Rules’’ start catching up to her again. 22 year old girl sometimes was causing trouble and get into fights with her class mates in football matches, also once she caught while trying to escape to get something from outside which still today she not told what was it..After she scolded by her commander she put her head back together, worked so hard to not get kicked out from the army when she came this far. On her final year in 2010, Special Forces Command was looking for new candidates to fill up the ranks, in history there wasn’t a female Operator wearing the famous Maroon Beret in history of Turkey. When she heard General Halil Soysal Commander of the Special Forces coming to recruit volunteers the thing she wanted was coming to her on a gold plate. She worked on Academy’s GYM after the classes and worked on her aim when they were in firing range, it wasn’t easy to be picked to the Special Forces of course also it wasn’t easy to complete the training after getting picked, so she must put more effort into this. Three weeks later General arrived and talk with the cadets ask them is there any volunteers to join the Special Forces, Dilara and ten other candidates volunteered. General was surprised when he saw a girl volunteer for this but he accepted it first he and operators he bring tested the cadets in Harbiye with few tests, running,quiz,shooting etc. Again Dilara surprised others and she was one of the four cadets to go Gölbaşı and have a shot to be part of the Special Forces Command.

Three years later after completing her training she became the first woman wore the Maroon Beret in history. With that she start taking part on Anti-Terror operations in Middle East and South Eastern Turkey. In 2016 during the Operation Euphrates Shield she injured in a mine explosion, almost lost her leg. When she’s recovering in hospital Dilara start designing a mine she can use anywhere and deploy it fast like a C4. First version of the Gulyabani interested the Command then with Aselsan’s involvment project get bigger in 2018, first prototype made and given to the Dilara Gümüş. Now joining Rainbow, she may add few more things on this deadly disc with help of her fellow operators.

Psychological Profile:

Brave, smart and a football maniac with a rebel soul. She loves to setup traps and play with her prays because of this she go out alone by herself, many times during so called ‘’Hunting’’ Patrols on the South Eastern Anatolia and Northern Iraq mountains, she move alone without her team and hunt down terrorists even sometimes she plays with them and lure them into her traps setup in caves or random places. She usually never allows people to have low morales around of her, she makes everything to put a smile to her comrades faces, she known with her melodic voice and she usually sing ballads while using snipers or DMRs.

Also when you talking football with her please don’t mention the Göztepe vs Karşıyaka rivalry, she may go nuts over it.

Unique Gadget:

Gulyabani: x4

She can throw Gulyabani mines on the ground and when mine is triggered it does 50 to 100 damage on the enemy operators, if friendly operators near the explosion it hurts them too and if the mine deployed in range of Jager’s ADS, burst out mine can be targeted by the ADS. Because of that its better to deploy it outside the objective room.

Gulyabani mines can be detected with IQs Spectre and destroyable with rifle bullets and Thatcher’s EMP grenades.

Primary: SVD Dragunov, MPT 76

Secondary: Yavuz 16, Zigana M9

Gadget: Deployable Shield, Barbed Wire

Quotes:

Spawning:

‘‘Kızagan, help me to win this.’‘ ‘‘Alright boys and girls, lets kill our friends’‘ ‘‘I hope Craig steps on my mine, he still not paid me his debt’’ ‘‘Now you gonna ask me why i have SVD, it is a long story’‘ ‘‘I hope Glaz is ready for this’‘ ‘‘Here we go..’‘ ‘‘If we lose this, no beers tonight’‘ ‘‘Brother, watch over me’‘ ‘‘Başlıyoruz..’‘ ‘‘Bugün kaybetmek yok.’‘

Placing Gulyabani:

‘’Mine out!’‘ ‘‘Gulyabani deployed!’‘ ‘‘I wonder who will be heading to Tamag today’‘ ‘‘Go, kidnapp someone my little Gulyabani’‘ ‘‘Hunting time’‘ ‘‘Haydi Rastgele’‘ ‘’If ADS destroy this i’ll be pissed!’‘ Gulyabani kills friendly: ‘‘Ooops..’‘ ‘‘Sorry.’‘ ‘‘I told you to not stay around of it’‘ ‘‘*Whistles nonchalantly*’’ ‘‘I’ll buy you a drink after this’‘ ‘‘NOT MY FAULT..Well kinda’‘ ‘‘Bu iyi olmadı..’‘

Reinforcing:

‘’Ahhh, i feel more safer’‘ ‘‘Wall Safe!’‘ ‘‘This made it better’‘

Barricading:

‘’Door’s closed!’‘ ‘‘Hey, im Castle now’‘

Deploying Shield: ’’Shield up!’’ ’’Are we sure this can hold bullets?!’’ Deploying Wire: ’’Barbed Wire down!’’ ’’Wire down, if you cut your legs, not my problem!’’ ’’Wire down!’’ ’’Ov! Wire down, also anyone got a bandage?’’ Reloading: ‘‘Siktir! reloading!’‘ ‘‘Ahh hadi ama!’‘ ‘‘I’m reloading!’‘ Reviving:

‘’Aww, did you get hurt’‘ ‘‘My grandma had this..She did not live long’‘ ‘‘Reviving teammate!’‘ ‘‘Friendly do- NEVERMIND!’‘ ‘‘Friendly down!’‘ ‘‘Where’s Doc when you need him’‘ Spotting: ‘‘Enemy located!’‘ ‘‘Düşman Görüldü!’‘ ‘‘Here is my pray’‘ ‘‘Is that Blackbeard?’‘ ‘‘Guests arrived!’‘ ‘‘I got tangos in sight’‘

(For five hours i worked on this...Im sorry if there is a grammar mistake (Probably alot) also this OC is open to RP if anyone wants it ofc)

#rainbow six siege #r6 #r6s #r6siege #OC #ocrp #tired #tried

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tippitv · 7 years ago

Text

Recap: “Scoobynatural”

Welcome to my first recap in... a very long time!

Right off the bat, Dean is engaging in fisticuffs with a giant stuffed dinosaur. Or perhaps a person in a fuzzy dinosaur costume. Sam taps in and Dean whips out some holy oil and starts sloshing it all over the dino like it's free vinaigrette at the Olive Garden.

Remember when that stuff was super rare? The holy oil, I mean. Anyway, he sets the dino on fire. It explodes in a shower of melted foam and green fuzz. Presumably the Winchesters double-checked to make sure a person wasn't in there.

A shopkeeper named Alan---we're in a pawnshop here---is glad to be alive. Some guy named Jay shows up to see what all the ruckus was about. It's pretty obvious he's the bad guy even though he seems nice because 1. he gets a fair amount of exposition about owning a lot of real estate and 2. he's wearing this outfit.

Alan offers the Winchesters anything in the store as thanks for saving his life. Dean picks out a big flat screen TV. I can't decided if this is in character or not because I can't remember where the show last settled on Dean's characterization.

Back at the bunker, Sam pores over the lore trying to figure out what it was they just fought. Dean quotes Elsa from Frozen: Let it go. Sam is baffled and let me tell you, I was clenched up thinking they were gonna make a "what are you, a little girl?" joke but they didn't. Phew. Dean wants to show off his new "Dean Cave," which I promise you is not a weird goatse thing.

There's beer and games and two old recliners, which I guess means Castiel has to sit in Dean's lap if he shows up for movie night. The centerpiece is their old new TV.

The TV sparkles with an eerie purple light and the Winchesters stand there staring at it even though nothing good can come of it. Suddenly, they're transported to a cartoon world where Sam and Dean are the same height.

The Impala is also magically there because, Dean guesses, the keys were in his pocket. Imagine what would've popped up if he'd had condoms in his pocket and this wasn't a kids' cartoon...

They soon find out exactly which kids' cartoon when they go for a drive to the nearest malt shop and find the Scooby Gang. The poor Mystery Machine looks so homely next to the Impala.

"Great, so we're stuck in a cartoon with a talking dog," Sam grumps as he sees Scooby slurping up a malt. Dean defends Scooby and the rest of the gang, except for Fred. He says the characters are their role models. "We do the same things! We go to spooky places, we hunt monsters! We fight ghosts!" Sam's like, "Our ghosts don't wear masks! And we don't have a talking dog!"

Now, there were a couple of ways they could have gone with this joke. Dean could have said, "Well, we kind of had a talking dog once," or even, "Hey I was kind of a talking dog once!"

But the joke they make is, "Cas is kinda like a talking dog." So, I propose that, much like Scooby Doo is named after its talking dog, Supernatural be named after their talking dog.

The Winchesters introduce themselves to the gang. Dean kisses Daphne's hand which seems like kinda a dick move in front of her boyfriend even if everyone is a cartoon. They find out Scooby has been named an heir to the recently deceased “Colonel Sanders”.

Sam thinks they should be trying to find a way out, but Dean reminds him that the last time they got stuck in a TV show reality they had to play their parts.

They get themselves invited along to the reading of Colonel Sanders's will and hit the road. Dean grumbles about how much he hates Fred because of his "perfect hair, can-do attitude, and that stupid ascot." I'm pretty sure that's a neckerchief, but whatever. He challenges Fred to a race, which the Mystery Machine handily wins because... Baby's not used to driving on cartoon roads, maybe. Meanwhile, a shadowy figure emerges just before the cut.

At the reading of the Colonel's will, everyone finds out they have to spend the night in a haunted mansion to get their million-dollar inheritance. If I somehow come into possession of a mansion before I die, I'm going to have everyone do this, except instead of ghosts it's going to be haunted by male strippers.

Sam's about to tell Velma they're all in a cartoon but Dean shushes him up. "They don't know they're in a c-word!" Oh the age-inappropriate mental image! Anyway, everyone gets to their gender-segregated rooms and Dean puts on a comfy "sleeping robe." He says it's like being wrapped in hugs.

Daphne and Velma have a very het conversation about Sam Winchester while a cloaked ghost goes roaming through the mansion. As happens normally in the regular show but not in the Scoob-verse, the ghost is preceded by a drop in temperature.

Everyone goes running when they hear Cousin Simple scream bloody murder and find that he's been... bloodily murdered. "Well, gang, it looks like we've got another mystery to solve," Fred cheerfully announces. The Winchesters are both aghast at his casual attitude towards death. Lol

Although to Dean's credit, he's just putting down Fred to try to score points with Daphne. Wait... that's not a credit! The brothers realize that if cartoon people can die, it means they can die, too. Dean's more worried about Scooby than his own fate, because the show's been renewed for season 14 so he ain't dying anytime soon.

Suddenly, the mysterious figure from earlier bursts through the doors! It's Cas. Or "Cass" as the show continues to insist on spelling it.

Flashback to how Castiel got into the cartoon: He was in the bunker looking for the brothers, having just returned from Syria with fruit from the Tree of Life. How'd he get those past customs? He had to fight and love his way through a pack of Jinn to get them. "I think I'm technically married to their queen now!" he calls out in the empty bunker. The magical TV sucked him into the cartoon.

The Scooby Gang overhear the Winchesters and Cas talking about the killer stuffed dinosaur from the pawn shop. They say they're just talking about a book they're writing. Cas blurts out, "It's called The Killer Stuffed Dinosaur... in Love..."

The ghost shows up, does some ghost stuff that scares everyone, and disappears again. Scooby and Shaggy jump into Castiel's arms and he just... pitches them onto the floor. They find the lawyer in one of the rooms, decapitated. Sam and Dean have possibly literally never looked more disturbed by a death on this show.

Everybody decides to go look for clues. Dean tries to split off with Daphne but Fred gets in the middle of them like he's about to get the threesome awakening of his life. Velma practically humps Sam all the way up to the attic, and Castiel ends up with what's left. "I once led armies and now I'm paired with a scruffy philistine and a talking dog." That's a weird judgment after knowing Shaggy for 2 minutes.

Velma cannot shut up about Sam's broad shoulders and he has no idea why. It's called heteronormativity, Sam! He tries to convince her ghosts are real but she says most villains are just unscrupulous real estate developers.

Meanwhile, Dean's still trying to hit on Daphne when he inadvertently sends them all down a trapdoor to the basement. He ends up flirting with the ghost, to his dismay.

No really. After the standard Scooby Ghost Chase Musical Montage, everyone is reunited and Daphne tells them, "Dean had him by the thigh!" and Castiel's like, "YOU WHUT??" and Dean's all, "I almost caught him, that's the point!" Sam's reacting to him like this and I don't know why:

The ghost barges into the room where they're all being straight and starts throwing people into walls and out windows. The Winchesters beat the ghost off with iron candlesticks. You know what I mean.

Shaggy ends up with a broken arm---something that's never happened to him---despite Cas's best efforts. Sam and Dean decide they have to tell the gang the whole truth. This leads to all of them having an existential crisis. Dean gives them a pep talk about what heroes they really are. Man, if only all existential crises were this easy to fix.

Sam wants to arm the gang with guns but Dean reminds him. "That's a Scooby-don't!" Instead he tells Fred and the others to build a trap. This involves a Rube Goldbergian setup of soap bubbles, coconut, chains and a washing machine.

Naturally, this backfires on them and Castiel ends up in the washing machine with Scooby and Shaggy.

Luckily there's a second equally complex but much more successful trap that uses the trapdoor and a salt ring in the basement. Why would a ghost fall through a trapdoor instead of hovering? Shut up that's why.

The ghost turns out to be this poor dead kid whose spirit was tied to a pocket knife that belongs to Jay. He's been making the kid scare people in the neighborhood so they'll sell their property to him.

Now, the Scooby Gang isn't around to hear any of this. Just Sam, Dean and Cas. So they work out a bargain with the kid and promise to set him free when they get back to the real world

The kid pretends to be the cartoon baddie who was wearing a mask all along so that Velma and the others don't have their world view changed. Why can't they just leave now? It's not like anything they do in the cartoon has an effect on Scooby canon, does it? This episode aired decades ago.

Dean sends Daphne off with Fred, Castiel bids a fond farewell to Shaggy and Scooby, and Velma grabs Sam and dips him into a kiss. Dang, she's like the cartoon Becky. He'd better get out of there before she sets a real trap.

The kid zaps them all back to the real world, where Dean smashes up the TV to get the pocket knife Jay hid in it. He... could have just turned it upside down and shaken it. Sam torches the knife, making me wonder why it didn't burn when they flambeed the dinosaur.

I mean, they have Castiel right there. Couldn't he have just taken the kid to heaven? Or is he persona non grata up there again? I have the hardest time where the chess pieces are sometimes.

Anyway, Sam and Dean confront Jay at the pawn shop where he's conveniently about to get Alan to sign sale papers for him. I feel like you'd need a notary public for this kind of thing or... something. Dean is wearing a red neckerchief, which baffles Alan a bit.

Flashback to explain how Jay used the haunted knife to scare shop owners in the neighborhood, including Alan and later the Winchesters' new TV. How did he ever plan to get it back, though? The Winchesters did some digging and found out Jay hasn't been paying his taxes.

Suddenly the local cops show up, sirens blaring, because they do that for tax evasion in this reality. Jay is led away in cuffs, cursing, "I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling middle-aged men kids!" Dean is so tickled that he looks right at the camera and goes,

Sam and Castiel are old grumps about the whole thing. I mean, so am I, but not as much as them.

I give the episode 3.5 Late Great Hellhounds out of 5.

Thanks for reading! This took about 14 hours to work up so I hope it's enjoyable for readers. And like, no pressure or anything but I have a virtual tip jar via ko-fi here:

https://ko-fi.com/A4017DA

#supernatural #recaps #tippitv #scoobynatural

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joeborrelli · 6 years ago

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A friend asked me: Hello there, friendly neighborhood Joe!I am wishing to know your thoughts on the subject of the DC's Joker as currently presenting in the continuities, namely the yesteryear revelations of SPOILER There actually being 3 Jokers.Please to be sharing your wisdoms!

Okay. Here we go. First off, I AM going to read it because I do consume most any Joker/Harley Quinn content, even if it's mostly a guilty pleasure these days. When I was an edgelord and I liked him it was fine, but when EVERYONE became an edgelord and I saw how corny edgelords were, I was like NOOOOOPE. I also recognize that I'm going to write a lot of text on something that doesn't really bother me all that much and that matters of taste are purely subjective and the internet is already loaded with hot takes because WHATEVER I AM RIGHT AND ANYONE WHO DISAGREES IS WRONG WRONG WROOOONNNGG (But seriously, comics are all about selective continuity, so play with the ideas however you want and I actually like fun-griping about this stuff so long as it remains fun. Anyway....) Second, I DO NOT CARE for the work of Geoff Johns. I never got why he was so heavily praised because he writes like he's writing the narration for movie trailers. I can almost hear that Inception BWOOOMP sound with every bit of dialogue he writes. ALSO he headed the ship when DC was going their Before Watchmen bullshit and trying to tie Alan Moore's Watchmen thing to their regular DCU, which both narratively doesn't work (Moore always said that people took the wrong lessons from Watchmen) and is a slap in the face to Moore's wishes. Finally, ugh, IT WERE THREE JOKERS ALL THE TIME The whole twist comes from Batman sitting in some God-throne and asking the universe deep questions. The big one he asks is what's Joker's real name. Even ignoring the fact that the whole mystic space setup is way more Green Lantern than Batman (Johns did do some pretty good work on his GL run) then its also weird that Batman doesn't already know. I have always sort of assumed that part of their shared mania is that they're pretty much aware of the backstory of each other's lives. Paul Dini wrote once that Batman and his crew don't particularly care about what made Joker the way he is, only the damage that he causes now. (see attached image) But the big thing that rubs me the wrong way about the whole thing is that it feels like they're replacing the pillars of narrative that support the whole Batman universe. It's an old trick and it's one that just instinctively rubs me the wrong way. When Scott Snyder did his run on Batman, he introduced both the Court of Owls - which Bruce's father's SECRET SON was involved with - and James Gordon's psychopath son. While these narratives fit Snyder's general emphasis on Gothic Horror narratives, they also require that the Batman universe STRETCH to accomodate them. Put simply, how can they keep such major parts of a character's life so hidden? Why are they so behind the scenes that they suddenly pop up with no warning and become THE NEXT BIG THING BATMAN HAS TO DEAL WITH. Put simply, I can believe in a world of bat-ninjas effortlessly ziplining across the city more easily than I can believe in a secret brother because the former has been established over time as the way the Batman world works, while the latter is just a big shock value dramatic twist. And I can also believe in a singular twisted crime genius with a love/hate relationship to Batman, rather than three separate mad psychopaths playing a cup and ball game with Batman. Plus, honestly, it kind of screws with the dynamic between the two. Joker and Batman have had hundreds of fights, hundreds of conversations, hundreds of arguments, and hundreds of tragedies between them. They have real emotional baggage between them, and that makes their relationship appealing. Suddenly I have to figure out which Joker shot Barbara Gordon in Killing Joke and which Joker Batman saved in Last Laugh and which Joker cried in Harley's lap in Brian Azzarello's hot mess cash grab of a Joker comic? Honestly, the whole idea sounds like something a fan fiction writer would come up with. I tend to share my take on the Joker with David Brothers: ===>> My idea about this is that the Joker got stuck in his own gimmick. At first, he’d do something crazy to get someone off his back. It was so outlandish and insane that he had to keep it up, or else people would know he was soft. And when you’ve made a living out of being the hardest man around… you can’t afford that. So, he’s trapped. He can never escape, because escaping means it’s game over. At the same time, Batman is the only one who can save him. The Joker does all this stuff to get Batman’s attention to be put back into jail and away from a place where he has to keep up the facade. I kind of like a pathetic Joker. It isn’t something I’d like to see always, but it’s a very human and believeable take. As far as silent moll Harley Quinn goes… wow! I didn’t think I’d dig the take, but it worked out really, really well. In a way, she was one of the most threatening people in the book, and I think it’s because she never spoke. She’s that Stand By Your Man girl. She’s there for support, and sometimes support means machinegunning a dozen people and skinning a man alive. It’s a little scary, and the silence means we get no insight into her character. We just know she likes luxury and stands by the Joker, no matter what. I’m such a stan for Harley, though. Like I said, nothing I want to see constantly, but a fun little peek into an alternate take. Frank Miller’s not-funny Joker in ASBAR was another one I liked, because it made super murderous Joker into something inhuman, interesting, and actually kind of scary, if more than a little overwrought. I’d love it if Genocidal Kills a Thousand People a Day Joker retired forever. It’s by far my least favorite Joker, and the least original take on the character I can think of. I like a Joker that goes deeper than just “Waheyhey CRAZY! BY THE WAY I JUST KILLED A MILLION PEOPLE BATMAN WHATCHA GONNA DO HUH?” At that point, Batman should just take one for the team and give Joker accidentally beat Joker until nothing’s left but a puddle of blood. That Joker isn’t doing anything but hurting Batman as a character. Someone break his neck or toss him down a deep hole or just shoot him in the face, seriously. And let the Riddler take his place. ===>> There. I wrote it. David, you owe me a beer.

#the joker #joker #dc comics #comic books #superhero #batman #stuff I wrote

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aemilythings-blog1 · 5 years ago

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Whether you have mastered getting out every weekend on an adventure or are still getting there (in which case I have just what you need right here), having some friends to do it with pretty much makes it way easier, and keeps it fun of course! But what happens if your regular partners cancel or bail, or, you just have no (adventure) friends?

In this day and age, the small niches of outdoor activities are much easier to get into thanks to the internet. No longer do you have to grind away in social circles, trying and hoping to meet the right people.

Right now at our fingertips, a whole world of adventure buddies awaits!

FINDING ADVENTURE BUDDIES!

Knowing where to look makes all the difference! But also knowing HOW to ask is important. For most of the suggestions below, I’ll outline some basic principles to help you get the most out of that platform.

In all interactions with people online and also in the real world, it’s worth being cautious to begin with. Never go on an epic adventure straight away, start slow on something easy that you could handle by yourself.

Meetup.com

This was the place it all started for me. Meetup.com is a great website for getting into different activities, and not just outdoor ones. After going to my first meetup event, a short hike, I instantly started connecting with people and making outdoorsy friends. Many of them are still my friends years later.

After a year of attending events, I took the over the group and ran it for about 2 years. At each event I saw how people bonded and became friends, and I’m fairly certain many of them are still friends to this day.

To get started on Meetup, look up the activity you want to do, and simply join a handful of groups that look promising.

A good idea is to see how the group is run, and look for things like how many people they allow on an event. Too many is not good. Also, see if they take safety seriously by giving appropriate warnings or cautions. This isn’t a definite indicator, but helps a little.

Attending an event is simple, you just RSVP on the website (or app) and then go on the date specified! To see how it all works, you can read my post about it right HERE.

Everyone is in the same boat on Meetup events. Most are new to the activity, and just as eager as you to get to know other people.

One Easy Way You Can Have an Adventure Every Weekend!

10 Ways Adventure Sports Will Change You!

Facebook Groups

In the last few years, Facebook groups have become increasingly popular for seeking out adventure buddies. To find the groups, search for the activity in your area and then simply join!

The hardest part is putting up a post looking for someone. Once you have done it a few times, it’s much easier.

A good idea is to be honest about your skill level when posting. There will always be other people at your level in the group. If you are seeking someone more advanced, some incentive always helps, like offering to drive, buy beers or dinner, as these people will always be getting these kinds of requests. So be different, and appreciate their time!

If your post doesn’t receive the attention or reply you were looking for, simply delete it and post again in a week or two. Sometimes, timing is everything, and many people may simply have missed your post of been busy at the time.

Instagram

Though it’s not the most obvious place to find people, you can occasionally meet adventure buddies on Instagram. Commenting or direct messaging is how its done, and it’s a good idea to build a relationship with the person first before going that next step. Unlike Facebook groups, it’s a more personal medium, and requires the right social tact when approaching people.

When messaging people, always consider how your message will be received. If it's out of the blue with no prior interaction, it may be best to comment on their photos first and have conversations that way before going all out.

Tinder

Believe it or not, the dating app ‘Tinder’ is now becoming very popular for meeting adventure buddies! Since location and hobbies can be matched, and practically every single person is using Tinder, many have reported great success in finding an adventure buddy. And hey, if you are single, you might even find your other half in the process!

The key for using Tinder for finding adventure buddies is to make your profile look platonic, rather than going for the usual dating setup of photos and description. To see how one girl is finding adventure buddies on Tinder, have a look at her article HERE.

Activity or Interest Based Apps

With our phones becoming practically glued to our hands, it’s no surprise there are new apps emerging built for the sole purpose of meeting like minded people. Adventurocity (Iphone only) is one such app, but there are many others, often made for locals of countries.

Head into your Apple or Android app store and search your preferred activity (or things like outdoor/adventure buddy). In the future, I predict these sort of apps will only grow.

Forums

Before Facebook and mobile apps, internet forums were the place to meet up with people. Many still exist and are very active. Just like Facebook group posts, put up a post with what you are looking for, stay honest with your abilities, and try again if it doesn’t work.

The downside to forums is that you receive email notifications to replies on your post, rather than a instant phone notification like from Facebook or other mobile apps. Emails can get lost in junk folders, and some people prefer having them come through only once a day turning on their phone settings to match this. Still, it's always worth pursuing all avenues if you want to find a cool bunch of people!

In the Outdoors

And of course, you will always meet people in the outdoors. I've met many friends while out doing an activity or just being outside. Those natural interactions have led to some great adventure buddies who I have gone on to do fantastic trips with. Say hello as you pass people on the trail, be open to meeting people.

The best thing about the outdoors is the community you join. Nothing beats the friendships you make out there and the bonds you form!

Got any of your own tips for meeting adventure buddies? Leave a comment below!

The post, How to Find Adventure Buddies, first appeared on www.theverticaladventurer.com

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weirdunclegamer · 7 years ago

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First playthrough of Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (co-op)... Complete!

Oh man it’s been a long time again since I wrote about a game. Or… anything actually. Let’s see if I still remember how to do this.

So for me Nintendo’s Wii console was like… the console of Returns. That is, returning game series’. There’s some obvious stuff there that literally has the word in the title like Donkey Kong Country Returns, or Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. But there were others as well, including this game, a sequel to Treasure’s N64 title Sin & Punishment; Sin & Punishment: Star Successor.

Ah man now here’s a game genre I wish there was more of and I honestly don’t even know if it has its own name? You control a person in the foreground, who can be moved around (usually on the ground only but there’s exceptions) and you aim via reticle into the background to shoot down your enemies/obstacles. Wild Guns (SNES/PS4), Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS), um… the boss segments from Turok Evolution for GBA? If you know any of that you know what genre I’m talking about. It’s almost like an into-the-screen shmup, like Star Fox, or that one 3D Gradius title, but you’re not traveling forward and you (generally) are stuck on the ground? People know what I’m talking about right? I actually really love this genre, this is the sort of shooter hybrid I can get behind.

S&P2, which I am going to shorten the long name down to, is, amazingly for Treasure, a sequel to S&P1. Now that’s not amazing in the sense that they made a sequel, something they once claimed they didn’t like doing (I’ve talked about it before so… whatevs) but more so in that it’s actually a story carry on from the previous title. Treasure games tend to be… light on story, to put it mildly. So seeing them actually write a proper sequel is kinda nutty. We follow the son of the first games’ protagonist, and a female companion. They’re escaping from evil people. Going to be totally honest with you, it’s actually an oddly “deep” story about race, and the evil people actually working for some cosmic tyranny with whom they’ve struck a bargain to gain independence for the world they hail from and… I dunno, the game itself didn’t explain any of that, that was in the manual. The game explains little, really, and is more interested in character stuff… sometimes? They try to have some sort of statement about humanity in there using the protag’s dad as a basis for how he see’s humanity, but honestly for me it sorta ended up creepy and when his mom, in a flashback, says the line “don’t call him a monster, daddy’s not a monster, daddy’s just daddy” it really felt like they didn’t realize how much that sounds like she just called him an abusive partner… It’s not what she meant, it’s setup for the main protecting the girl’s humanity (while not being human) with a reuse of the line at the end of the game. But man… that line really put me off pretty hard.

Treasure is not known for their stories however, they are known for gameplay, and gameplay this game has to spare! As I said I love this style of game, and the love actually started with the original S&P on N64, which I only discovered due to testing the game when I worked QA at Nintendo of America for a couple years. I was the first (possibly only) person on the team who managed to perfect the last boss on the hardest difficulty. I was so jacked up on adrenaline that I literally kicked my chair across the room, threw my control down on the table, stomped over to my team lead and loudly declared “THERE! I DID IT! IT’S ALL GOOD!”. The lead looked me flat in the eye, calm, and said “and you recorded it?” and the point is I know what a balloon deflating feels like. Anyway, fast forward to this game and I was not disappointed. Okay I’ll admit the aesthetic of the game feels… odd, compared to the original, but I got used to it and honestly it has its own unique flavor that stands it apart from its predecessor. The gameplay is solid, with two main additions that help allow the action to be kept up; you can now hover around the screen off the ground (see? exceptions, just like I said) allowing for more movement options when dealing with evading attacks, and a charge shot, which is a simple addition, but a nice one. More tools and options in any situation is never a bad thing. All the actions of moving, evading, standard shooting, and your melee strike, are all preserved from the first game as well, no omissions. My favorite stage in the game easily is this long desert hover bike stage where the cutscene leading into the highway ride has the girl wordlessly walk off screen, then return all of three seconds later riding some indigenous animal and her jacket tied around her waist. The best part is, like I said, the boy rides a freaking hover bike anyway, only she rides the animal. The boss is a giant Final Fantasy looking leopard monster, followed by an equally FF looking bird monster, THEN THEY LITERALLY JUST FUSE FOR NO ADEQUATELY EXPLAINED REASON. You don’t even kill them, you “prove” yourself to the fused beast via combat then it flies you the rest of the way. This game made me yell “I WANT TO FIGHT THE MOON!” in the let’s play I did of it with a friend so like, ten out of ten.

Speaking of that, the co-op. The original game had co-op as well, and it was… not a good idea. In fact it was arguably the worst idea, and only those speedrunners with too much time on their hands who do the 2 player 1 controller thing should bother with it because it is literally 2 people controlling the one character. One person on movement the other on aiming. It’s not a good idea. The co-op in this game is a great idea because player 2 is just a spare reticle and gun to join in the fight, it’s proper 2 players, it makes the game a little easier… yah, good idea. Cue “good idea, bad idea” from the Animaniacs here.

All in all I really loved this game, and as it’s exactly a Treasure fare, short high speed action game, it’s the kind of experience you can just pop in again at a later date when you have the itch. It’s got some funny moments, some dramatic moments, Treasure’s usual mass of crazy imaginative bosses, and a decent soundtrack. Definitely check it out. And of course, happy gaming!

Seriously not enough “light gun” games on the Wii and the console was tailor made for the style. A crying shame.

#Nintendo #Nintendo Wii #Treasure #Treasure Games #Sin & Punishment #Sin & Punishment Star Successor #Sin & Punishment 2 #I need a genre name for this #video games #gaming

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fmdtaeyongarchive · 5 years ago

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↬ that half-full moon looks just like me right now.

date: spring 2016 / summer 2019.

location: seoul, south korea.

word count: 2,063 words, not including lyrics.

summary: n/a.

notes: creative claims verification. trigger warnings for suicidal ideation and depression because, well, most of this is early/mid-2016 ash, who was going through some shit mentally. he was actually going to a therapist back then though so... 2019 ash could learn a thing or two from him.

spring 2016.

the melody was one that first came to him in the midst of 2016 on a night walk. he didn’t go on those often, especially not in 2016, when every trip outside of the safety of his bed felt like the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. his therapist had said he should appreciate the little steps he could take in getting past that. he didn’t have to phone up any of his friends (god, he didn’t even know how many of those he had left after leaving everyone on read for weeks at a time) to hang out if his fingers refused to press the call button on his phone, but leaving his room was still progress. being able to walk down the street without cowering in fear that a reporter or sasaeng might be around any corner was still progress.

it was pathetic that leaving knight’s dorm by his own choice was a feat now and it was humiliating that his manager had seemed hesitant to let him leave. not because he thought ash was going to go out and meet a girl and get the group in even more trouble than he already had, but because the look in his manager’s eyes said he wasn’t confident ash would return if he let him go out on his own. i’ll try my best to resist the urge to walk in front of a car, ash had thought bitterly as he left, but there hadn’t been much humor in it. with the way his brain chemicals were working lately, he couldn’t promise anything. the intrusive thoughts weren’t even urges, really. they’d be better described as a flip switched into autopilot that ash only fought against the push of out of guilt. there wasn’t much of a rational explanation for the guilt. it’d be less for his manager to worry about if ash were to conveniently stop being around to cause problems, and, even better, ash wouldn’t have any problems to deal with himself then. maybe it was only his remaining selfishness masquerading as guilt.

he’d told himself not to think about that as he’d left the property of the building knight’s dorm was in, hands in the front pocket of his dark hoodie and eyes glued to the ground. healthy coping mechanisms hadn’t become second nature to him yet (he had to question if that would ever happen) no matter how many therapy sessions he’d gone to after his manager had forced him to seek help out of concern for his well-being, so compartmentalizing would have to do for now.

ash didn’t have a destination in mind as he set out, following wherever his feet led him instead. he strayed further and further from the streets other people were walking, uncomfortable with the wave of anxiety that would wash over him at even the thought of making eye contact with someone who might recognize him, until he ended on a road littered with a variety of shops, some already closed while others had their lights on in the darkness of the night. he craned his neck to glance at the sky, but there was never anything to see up there past the light pollution and smog. the blurry tops of the street lights were the closest thing to stars in sight.

it wasn’t so late that only the twenty-four hour shops remained, but the moon was rising slowly in the blue-black sky and by the time ash turned on his heel to return home, he knew even more shops would have gone dark for the night, but he needed to do something, go somewhere, so that he wouldn’t feel even worse about himself when he returned to knight’s dorm and spent all night in bed staring at the ceiling of his room.

maybe ash would see if there were any good restaurants on the street. he wasn’t hungry, but picking at food in front of him without ingesting any of it had become as regular as the three meals a day he was supposed to have now. it would still feel like some form of normalcy, which was better than the constant free fall of insecurity and self-loathing he lived in lately. if he spent enough time somewhere, he could at least feel like he’d accomplished something.

it wasn’t until he came across a shop that was mostly bare save for words spelling out its status as a music shop that ash came to a halt and considered the door. there was one window in front of the store to see inside and the visible setup wasn’t anything very fancy. it looked empty, though, from what he could see and it didn’t seem to be the kind of place that would experience a surge in customer base before they closed down for the night, so he gave himself silent permission to reach for the handle and step inside the shop. his booted feet lightly thumped onto the old floor of the shop and ash was hit with a wave of half-nostalgia. he’d been frequenting music shops for as long as he could remember and simply seeing the displays of instruments against the walls and the aisles of sheet music brought back memories from his childhood, but whenever he visited the sorts of places he’d known so intimately back in san francisco now that he was in seoul, there was always something that felt off. it made his memories fall into an uncanny valley of remembrance.

ash pushed that away, bowing his head in polite greeting in the direction of the worker behind the checkout counter without making eye contact.

“welcome! let me know if you need anything,” the woman’s voice rang out with a confidence that was overwhelming to ash even in its understatedness. a thank you formed on his tongue as his eyes scanned the shop and fell onto an upright piano shoved away in the corner. it was clearly not on display for sale from its worn state and odd positioning.

“am i allowed to play that?” ash asked before he could stop himself. “uh, i mean, can i try it out?” he rephrased in an attempt to not make it sound like he’d come in the store just to play their piano. the woman gave her permission with a visible hesitance and ash bowed his head once more in thanks, still insisting on only making eye contact with the piano instead of her.

as soon as he sat down, the melody that had been forming in the back of his head the entire walk began to wriggle its way into his fingertips. music had been come and go lately, but when it came, it came with the comfort of familiarity that had become rare. something about the dark night around him, the empty streets, the starless sky, it’d all built into a whirlpool inside his chest that he needed to get out in some way. ash pressed experimentally at the keys to test out their unique personality and once he’d familiarized himself, he began to play. there was some self-consciousness to it, as he was starkly aware of his company. normally, he would have no problem playing for someone, but his self-critical state of mind made him far too focused on the oddness of entering a music shop just to use their piano to compose.

after some time of playing without any comments being made in his direction, ash fished his phone out of his pocket and recorded the song he’d been fine-tuning, softly singing parts of lyrics that had come to mind on the walk and as he worked out how the notes would flow together.

“why do i feel so empty for no reason at all?” he sang in hushed tones, mindful of keeping his voice low enough not to travel over to the register and disrupt the worker. even in quiet tones interlaced with its fair share of unsure mumbling over undecided lyrics, the song mourned of what was missing. when lyrics came to him for the past few weeks, they’d all been of numbness or heartbreak, but that wasn’t strange when heartbreak was so fresh for him and numbness had installed itself firmly in the middle of his chest to get him through. he couldn’t write of love when it’d left him or joy when he’d forgotten how it felt.

when he became aware of the night again, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed around him. he hadn’t checked the time when he’d arrived, but once his fingers stilled on the piano keyboard, it was late enough that the shop should be closing. he was surprised it hadn’t already. he stopped the most recent recording and stood from the bench, looking in the worker’s direction apologetically. he turned to see her eyes were already on him and he grew embarrassed, head dipping once again.

“thank you,” he managed to get out, ready to rush out and leave before realizing he should at least buy something to make up for all of the time he’d wasted at the piano. looking around him frantically, he grabbed the first thing he could find that he could rationally used — two packages of drum sticks totaling just over seventy thousand won.

note to self: don’t use a public music store as your personal composition studio ever again, ash admonished himself.

summer 2019.

it was another night of settling in to work on his album. he’d been at a loss of what to work on next, so he’d hunted down a collection of flash drives from years ago to search through in hopes of finding something that could work with the new album. he’d avoided the ones he’d found to be from 2016, but when he’d exhausted the more recent drives, he resigned himself to rifling through the 2016 files. he didn’t like to revisit his songs from that time too much now. they reminded him too much of how alone he’d felt and how much he’d wanted to give up. it was still tough, but nothing would ever compare to the hell he’d sunk to back then. hearing anything from that time always felt like toying with a cursed object, like it would put him in danger of falling right back into that level of despair if he wasn’t careful enough.

the song was several files deep into the drive, but when ash opened it, memories of writing it came back to him. he remembered the night at the music shop and how he’d gone home and spent all night reworking the lyrics afterwards. it had stood the test of time surprisingly well and the emotions he’d poured into it were a good fit for the second half of his new album. other than an official recording, all it needed was improved production. three years prior, ash hadn’t known what he was doing as much in that department as he did now.

once the instrumental was polished and ash had laid down new vocals in the studio along with the rap verse he’d reached out to jaewon for, ash set to work on arranging it. instead of playing it off as a straight ballad like he’d had in mind originally, ash wanted to create an atmosphere that would emphasize the feeling. the night he’d first written it was fuzzy in his memory, as a lot of 2016 was, but he wanted to recreate what he could remember and embellish it with his contemporary understanding of it. he wanted it to sound like background music for a silent night being driven through the city and the gentle distant fade-in piano introduction was his first move to make that a reality.

it turned out being heavier jazz-r&b in production than ash thought he’d envisioned when writing it that night, and he implemented percussion far more intensely than the initial bare-bones production had done. the use of percussion was a point he was praised on when he first showed off the piece, a fact that gave ash a swell of pride in his own musical growth over the years. even as he celebrated his own progress, though, he wished he could say he’d grown as much emotionally since the song’s first creation as he had musically. in a way he’d tried not to read too much into, it still hit a little too close to home.

#fmdverification #suicidal ideation tw #depression tw #&& queued

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aithne · 5 years ago

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(Illume) Tomika's letters, 9/5 - 9/28/1583: The Lion and the Unicorn

9/5/1583 Kanazawa

Dearest Yukiko,

Saying that the last few days have been busy would be the understatement of the age. Akechi probably told you after we visited that he suggested we go clean out the nest of vipers that Kanazawa, the Lion Clan headquarters, has become. He said that Ryoto and Sachiko were there, Usagi is there and posing as a Dragon clan ambassador (to which Haku replied, "I will kill her. Slowly."), and General Isamu was probably somewhere around as well. (Ryoto being the Lion Clan Lord, but you knew that.)

Reiko also asked for advice concerning her situation, which is the first time I believe I have heard the full story about the ugly trap the kitsune is in. (Who would have thought that the kitsune and the Thrykreen are possibly the male and female of the same race?) He had no useful suggestions for her other than the possibility of killing her mother, at which she looked utterly appalled. Killing Edi-lo would restore the Demonbane's honor, since she was the cause of its loss in the first place, and he would probably give up his crusade against the kitsune at that point. Reiko, however, seemed to consider this and reject it as a possibility. So she either sacrifices her life, sacrifices her immortality and loses all of her spells as well as all of her spirits, or does nothing and dies anyway.

It's not a situation I envy. She looks haunted these days, does the kitsune.

We decided to load everyone into the mirror, tell the ships to sail around the north end of the island and meet us on the other side, and use Gryphon Air to fly to Kanazawa, almost due east of Tokyo.

Funitsu's orb turned up several interesting things, by the way. General Omura was nailed to a wall, upside down, and men were preparing to torture him. Muriko, who I've never met but I believe you have, was lying on some sort of hard surface, the sign of the Covenant burned into his chest. Everything else seemed to be more or less status quo.

We arrived in Kanazawa on the fourth of September. All things considered, it was a bustling town with little obvious civil unrest, and the Unicorn Clan for some reason had a compound quite near the Lion Clan's compound. The librarian wanted to go speak to his semi-adopted clan, and he went off, while my husband contacted his own factors in town.

The librarian came back, and his eyes were grave. He gathered all of us around and told us that all of the Battle Maidens guarding the Unicorn compound were dressed in mourning white, and Storming Bear is dead, assassinated. The deed was done by someone with a dimension door sword--much like ours.

Storming Bear's two daughters are here, and in negotiations with Ryoto. Knowing that Ryoto is controlled by the twilight spirit, we knew that the girls were in trouble.

The other very troubling thing is that it appears that Storming Bear left instructions to the effect that if he died, the Unicorn Clan would fall under the control of Lord Soshi. You know, the one who travels with us. Funitsu returned and said that his people knew about the assassination, but it hadn't been their work--though it had been set up to look like it.

All put together, it smelled very much like a setup. If nothing else, it was a tangled knot of intrigue to unravel.

Funitsu scried on Ryoto, and requested Reiko's assistance. She said that Ryoto (who was badly wounded a number of months ago) was being healed by Sachiko--but was being harmed by him at the same time, with magics designed to thin his blood and hamper healing. And Naoko, the mage who has been tracking our reality-door wakizashis, was somewhere near the city, as well. Another thread around the knot, indeed.

We set about untangling the knot. Haku left to go speak with Storming Bear's daughters--Thunderstorm and Sun Bear, who we met last time we were in Aomori--about Usagi, to warn them that she was not actually representing his clan. Panda and Gryphon went to speak to Ryoto, as Panda is officially a member of the Lion clan.

[At this point, Yukiko, I am pulling things together from the various reports of your retinue. Many things happened in very short order here.]

Haku explained about Usagi to the Unicorn daughters, and then established the fact that Funitsu, at the time that Storming Bear had been killed, was with all of us together at Skyhome. Panda, on the other hand, established a pretext for Ryoto and gave him a drink of the true source. She, ah, stretched the truth a little bit, and said that what was in the vial was Gryphon's tears, which she claimed had a healing power to them. (I suppose samurai can lie when they want to. Good to know.) After the true source took effect, she explained quickly about Sachiko, and the fact that he was surrounded by a web of lies and vipers.

He then asked Panda to take over the Lion Clan for the moment, while his mind and body recovered. He also asked for some warriors to use as guards, as he no longer trusted anyone close to him.

The rest of us had gone to talk to the Unicorn daughters, when Tadaki recieved a message from Panda, requesting immediate assistance. Usagi was evidently walking to the door of the Lion compound, and once she realized that Ryoto was no longer under control, she was likely to kill him. Haku, Tadaki, Jeron and the Thrykreen we had with us went to help Panda and Gryphon. The librarian, said, "Naoko is approaching--I don't know why, but it can't be good."

So we put the Unicorn daughters into the mirror, and the librarian, Funitsu, Reiko, and I waited for Naoko to walk into the room.

When she did, she recieved a very unwelcome surprise in the form of the librarian's sword in her side. We had a brief yet interesting battle; there was an acid fog and a prismatic spray, a spell I've never seen used in combat. (Must learn it! Most effective.) When the smoke cleared and the librarian cut off Naoko's head, Funitsu was a statue. The rest of us had been badly shocked with electricity, but would live.

(Ssssh, Yukiko, don't tell, but my heart twisted when I saw him like that.)

I rapped on his head with my knuckles and remarked, "This is the hardest I've seen him in months."

Reiko replied, "We could leave him like that, you know. How would you like control of Clan Scorpion?"

I hemmed and hawed and finally declined. She and I laughed about it, a little. Sometimes, we are kindred spirits. She knew exactly what I meant by my remark--and I knew exactly what she meant. We have something in common, she and I: an affection for a man who isn't interested in either of us.

Assured that Tadaki could probably do something about my husband, we bundled the statue into the mirror.

At the same time, the others were fighting their own battle. Tadaki turned Usagi into a mouse, which Haku killed and is going to have stuffed and mounted as an example to those who wish to misrepresent themselves as part of his clan. An explosion near Ryoto's quarters alerted them to the fact that Sachiko was present and pissed as hell, and they turned their attention to that battle. Sachiko had very little chance against even a bit more than half of the retinue, but managed to get in a Harm on Gryphon, a spell he was unacquainted with and I presume never wants to have cast on him again.

Naoko had the other two reality-door wakizashis on her--the Crane and the Lion. Reiko picked up the Crane sword and experimentally held it to her leg. There was a flash, and the most extraordinary thing happened. Reiko's hair was no longer a lightless black, but the pure silver-white that is so common among my clan. It looks very odd on her, and I'm afraid that scarlet is no longer going to be her best color--nor is gold, her other favorite color. We gave the Lion wakizashi to Panda, since she was actually a member of the clan.

We all met up at the quarters we had rented, and patched each other up, Reiko draining herself dry of healing spells. We discussed amongst ourselves possibilities for resolving the knot we'd only partially untangled, but decided to leave most of the discussion for the morrow.

The next morning, after Tadaki had unstoned my husband (after asking me if there were any modifications to, ah, his natural equipment that I wanted. After a moment of deliberation in which I recognized that the change I desire is one he could not effect, I declined), we went to talk with Ryoto, and then the Unicorn girls.

Ryoto was easy, after gathering a number of healers to him that Reiko made sure weren't going to harm him. He did more or less force Panda to accept permanent leadership of the Lion Clan, so now Panda is Lady Morimoto.

The girls were a bit more difficult to settle. Neither of them were really suited to clan leadership; Thunderstorm is a warrior at heart, a bit limited in her intelligence but fearsome in battle, and did not really want the responsibilities of leadership, and Sun Bear (whose nickname is Sunny), though intelligent, is only fourteen. They had been here in Kanazawa to see if one of them could marry Ryoto; they had realized that he wasn't the best choice, but he was the best they could think of.

Sun Bear will be a good leader in five or six years, as long as she has some guidance along the way. Panda took the girls aside and asked them if they had anyone among their clan that they liked and who would make a good leader. Both of them immediately named, of all people, the librarian.

(I had to leave the room briefly, as I was in danger of losing my composure to a fit of the giggles. I returned in good time, however. It's just that the librarian, when I met him, seemed the last person who would be pursued by women, and now he's attracted a kitsune and these two girls.)

Panda posed the question to Hiroshi, and said he had the option of marrying either--or both--of them, if he wanted. After some pondering, he chose to marry them both.

A state wedding is in order, and in contrast to all of the weddings we have performed in the past few months, this one could be public--and, in fact, needed to be public. We have too many people to take by mirror (and the Unicorns are notoriously intolerant of magic), so we will be caravaning up the coast with the Unicorn detachment. It should be about three weeks; we will be traveling slowly.

Reiko is beside herself with excitement. Evidently, the kitsune adores organizing parties. Go figure. We'll be dropping by to visit while we're traveling, I'm sure.

So, let me sum up here.

We are now traveling with the leaders of the Scorpion, Lion, Dragon, and Unicorn clans. We have a strong alliance with the Crab and a shakier one with the Phoenix. My own clan, the Crane, has evidently been decimated. (I hope my father is still alive. I am afraid I don't have a lot of optimism that he's escaped Arenro's clutches.)

I think, Yukiko, that we might be winning.

Pray we have a quiet three weeks. It would do us all some good to have a rest.

With greatest affection, Tomika

9/25/1583 the road to Aomori

Dearest Yukiko,

So many letters have I started and then torn up. Without battles, I seem to have a lack of things to tell you, and I am terrible at poetry. We are nearing Aomori, caravan in tow, and I have finally become used to sitting a horse though I still have no interest in learning to fire a bow from horseback. Much as several of the Unicorn men seemed to be interested in teaching me.

It has been a strange and quiet time. Hiroshi has been acquainting himself with his fiancees in the time-honored tradition of going out hunting with the two of them. (They are occasionally accompanied by our two kitsune; along with her hair color change, Reiko's fur color has changed to a stark white, without even shading towards the tips of her tails. And she seems to have gained another tail from somewhere, as she now has three.) Oddly enough, I think all of them may be well-suited, in different ways. Panda and Nibori are still acting, when they're off-duty, for all the world like lovesick teenagers. It's very sweet and I have been telling myself that I mustn't be envious.

It seems Reiko and Jeron have taken up again; evidently her anger at the Thrykreen was short-lived. I don't think I've ever seen the kitsune as happy as she has been for the last little while. She has been in her element, planning a state wedding, and perhaps the strangest thing of all is that she seems to be sleeping with nobody but the Thrykreen general. These days, she is rarely seen out of the company of either Jeron or Gryphon, and though she is still odd, her grip on reality seems to be more certain than it has been. She still talks to people none of the rest of us can see, but perhaps I have grown used to that.

It as if something has been settled in her mind, lately. I think she has made her decision about what she's going to do about her father's persecution of her people, though she has told nobody. (I realize that you love him, Yukiko, but...genocide seems to be an overreaction to one's wife sleeping with other men.) I have been trying to tell her that with her white hair, she'll look better in clear blues and greens, but she refuses to give up her scarlet kimonos. It's very easy to tell her and her mother apart now, even to the untrained eye, which is likely a blessing.

Tadaki has been being Tadaki, contacting the hengenyokai in every territory that we pass through. Haku has been much busied with messages from his Clan, as well as finding a taxidermist who will preserve the body of the mouse that was Usagi.

And so the time has passed, slowly.

Tomorrow we reach Aomori, and we will hold a pair of weddings. We have been scrying on those that remain of our enemies. Hideyoshi seems to be moving north in some sort of wagon, healers bent over him; he has been gravely wounded in some battle recently. Arenro was alone, perhaps outside of Tokyo. The mage looked tired and worn, and there was a blue haze outside his window.

Amaya, the mage who has been trying to capture the Demonbane, was in Sapporo. Oddly enough, she was looking for Edi-lo. And when Reiko and Funitsu scried on the Demonbane, they saw him, looking at us, looking at him, looking at us...

The Demonbane waved.

Reiko muttered, "I knew it."

Sakura, the mage who is tracking hengenyokai, was examining a map that seemed to be showing Tadaki's current whereabouts. Hitomi, the mage who was assigned to track down Lao-tzu, was in a place that looked much like Aomori. Her head was shaved and her scalp had been tattooed. She was begging for scraps in the street, her eyes empty of thought.

It looks like she found him, and he got the better of her.

I will burn a prayer to the kami that your delivery goes smoothly. I am sure you are tired of being pregnant, and the fact that your child seems to be somewhat reluctant to emerge from the womb cannot be reassuring. It will be soon, I promise, and with any luck the delay in your delivery means that we will be able to attend the birth.

All wishes for your health and happiness, Yukiko.

With great affection, Tomika

9/26/1583 Aomori

Dearest Yukiko,

The weddings went off without a hitch, and Hiroshi has embarked on what will be the first of two wedding nights. Sun Bear will spend the night among us, as her turn is tomorrow night. I do like her, as I like both of the girls. Thunderstorm is quite pleasant company, especially since she and I can swap tales of battles fought. And it is easy to forget that Sunny is so young; sometimes, she seems very adult in her outlook on things.

All of us now are Clan Leaders except the kitsune. Reiko seems to be perfectly happy with her relative unimportance, however.

Earlier today, on our way into town, we located Hitomi and gave her a drink of the true source. We elected to leave her as is, with the belief that she is a beggar tattooed into her skin.

I find myself becoming rather fond of the company of the Unicorns. They are barbarians, it is true, almost as bad as gaijin. But there is a certain rough honesty to them, and their politics are very simple. Quite a change from either of my clans--the one I was born into, and the one I married into.

You are in all of our thoughts as we wait. Do have Akechi send a message the moment you go into labor.

All my love, Tomika

9/28/1583 Aomori

A member of the Black Hand came to us and requested audience yesterday, we granted it, and it was noted that the man looked quite glazed. Reiko murmured, "He has some sort of mind control on him."

The man said that he had been contacted by someone who wanted him to carry a message to us, asking for a meeting. He was to carry a message back from us, three hours hence, with a time and location. He told us where he was supposed to meet the man who had contacted him, and then Haku asked Reiko to dispel the control on him.

She accomplished this, and it turned out that the Black Hand member had no idea about being asked to carry a message, seeming to wake and saying, "I'm sorry, lords, I hadn't realized I was walking into a meeting."

We sent him off with a return message for the mysterious whoever-it-was to meet us at Storming Bear's tomb, as soon as possible.

When we arrived, there was one person in front of the tomb, cloaked against the sun. Reiko observed that he was glowing with great magics that were contained within him somehow. He was dressed in armor that seemed to almost be peeling away from him.

He man pulled his hood back. It was Hideyoshi.

He told us that he--the twilight spirit--was done. He had spent the past three weeks traveling and collecting the rest of the fragments who were scattered among the generals, and it was time for him to be finished with this fight. He asked, "Tadaki, may I see your orb?"

Tadaki argued, and Hideyoshi managed to convince him that all he wanted to do was to release the entirety of his spirit into the orb. Finally, the Sparrow consented, and held out his orb.

Hideyoshi laid his hand on the orb, which began to glow brightly, and then fell to his knees. He shook his head and asked, "What's happened? Where am I?"

The last thing he remembered was being present at Emperor Nobunga's execution. He has missed the last four months, the war, the blood that has been spilled at his orders--everything. We told him that months had passed, and then said, "Well, what's happened...is a long story."

Hideyoshi marveled at Hiroshi's transformation and Reiko's newly white hair, wondered at the fact that all of us seemed to have been turned into leaders of clans, was introduced to me, Jeron, and Nibori, and was shocked that Gryphon has become so large.

We will be bringing him through the mirror tonight to Akechi, and let him explain everything that's gone on.

Tomorrow, we go to Sapporo, to track down Amaya, and let Funitsu try to bargain with the Demonbane. Akechi told Reiko to ask the Demonbane about Jeron, and my husband, I think, hopes to bring about an end to the standoff between the Demonbane and Reiko without killing either one of them. If nothing else, we hope to find out if there are any more original Thrykreen still in the world. Reiko believes that with even a few more Thrykreen, the two halves of the race would eventually balance out, and the kitsune would no longer be a menace to the world.

I asked her, tonight, "Are you afraid?"

She shrugged. "I am a very small fox in a world filled with things that have sharper teeth than I do. Of course I'm afraid. But it doesn't matter what happens to me, Tomika. If I die tomorrow, I will have small regrets. But if I end the persecution of my people in the process, then my life will have had meaning. That's something few foxes can ever say about our lives. I've lived more lifetimes than any one being has any right to. This last one, at least, has the potential to redeem all the rest."

There was nothing I could say to that, Yukiko.

With greatest affection, Tomika.

Quotes:

"There was a recap?" "It was in Kris' livejournal." "Kris has a livejournal?" "Yes...." "Who is Kris? Oh, you're Kris!" --Ray and Storm

"This donut has fish on it!" --Graham

"I am old, Lady Panda..." "Oh, CRAP." --Ryoto and Panda, who correctly sensed that Ryoto was about to try to stick her with leadership of the Lion Clan

"You now have two hit points." "I don't feel so good. I'm moulting!" --Storm and Laura

"That's the hardest I've seen him for months." "We could leave him like that if you want. You want Clan Scorpion?" "Well...hm." ("REIKO!" cries Panda, OOC because she wasn't there) --Tomika and Reiko, about the petrified Funitsu

"She PINCHED me! HARD!" --Gryphon, about the first Harm spell we've seen this campaign

#so queued #gaming recaps: illume #D&D recap

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mattbrothersscriptwriter · 6 years ago

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Once Upon A Time

I’d like to have a little ramble and shout into the void about a truly unique, life affirming and heartfelt movie. Not because any of this hasn’t been covered before - I’d bet my guitar case full of coins it has. Not as a review or a hot take or a think piece, though perhaps it’s a little of all of those things. But because I recently rewatched the 2007 musical drama Once (dir: John Carney) and it reminded me how much this movie makes me fucking feel… which is also the hardest thing for me to eloquently put down into words but hey, I’ll try.

Once tells the simple story of Guy (Glen Hansard), a busker in Dublin who lives with his Dad and works in his hoover repair shop. He’s a talented musician but is still living in the shadow of a long since broken relationship, something that evidently both haunts and drives him. This inner conflict has inevitably kept him stranded in the same place – possessing the skills and the ambition to transform his passion into a career but lacking the courage and the heart to truly see it through. That is until he meets Girl (Markéta Irglová), a Czech immigrant who gets by selling flowers and the Big Issue. She’s a keen pianist and the unlikely pair quickly form a unique friendship, bonding over songwriting, heartbreak and Dublin itself.

Shot for next to nothing in three weeks, it’s a film so raw (and perfectly suited to that style) that just a single step in either direction would shatter the illusion. Too glossy and the magic is somehow lost. Any more ramshackle and there probably wouldn’t be a finished film to even worry about. Cillian Murphy was supposed to play Guy but dropped out, making way for director John Carney to convince Hansard, who was already set to write the music, to take the natural next step and just play the role himself.

It’s a story that manages to exist in the moment like nothing else I’ve really seen, thanks in part to the guerrilla style production but also thanks to its immense, bittersweet heart and commitment to bottling the ‘life as it happens’ feeling. It’s how we all experience life after all and it’s only afterwards that we may look back on certain memories as feeling like scenes from a movie: those perfectly captured instances where decisions have huge consequences and it feels like some higher power is writing you into a cruel plot twist or inevitable turning point. Its one thing to physically make a movie feel so grounded but to write and perform it that way too shows a real understanding of the tone they were aiming for – and absolutely nailing in the process.

It’s a joyful movie but an effortlessly melancholy one too. Like I said, it’s bittersweet. Anyone who has ever had a dream, ever been in love or ever wished for something more, you can understand and feel all of that through one look at Hansard’s exhausted face. Avoiding saccharine movie tropes and clichés, he’s simply a bloke who rides the bus with his guitar. Who chases thieves stealing his busking money. Who exists in our world. We probably see him every day, out on the streets or hunkered away in a corner of the tube. His or her music echoing through crowds, ignored by most but probably connecting to more people than we might think.

Guy never seems more vulnerable than when he’s hiding behind a forced smile or his sad, puppy dog eyes and watching this mask of happiness slowly blossom into something genuine is where the film really hits me. It reminds us that we have to seek change – or allow change to happen to us – to move from where we are to where we want to be.

I love how Guy is a thirty something pessimist whilst Girl, despite living with just as much of an uncertain, unstable future as Guy, is a ray of sunshine in comparison. She’s a stubbornly joyful extrovert, happily striking up conversations with strangers - a comically recurring trait that rewards her with casual piano practice in the music shop, helps to secure a bank loan for the recording session AND score a reduced charge for the studio hire later on. It’s the ‘if you don’t ask, you won’t get’ mentality, utilised by someone with no ulterior motives; a real pure soul who finds happiness in what she has, not what she’s lacking.

She speaks her mind, unconcerned with any risk of social awkwardness. Her abrupt “I have to go now” way of announcing she’s leaving becomes something of a catchphrase and it works wonderfully in establishing not just the generational difference between the two characters but the cultural one as well. I really love how we first meet her in the film – when she is drawn to Guy performing his most emotionally raw song (the amazing ‘Say it to Me Now’) all alone, in the middle of the night. This exorcism of his repressed feelings, expressed only through his music, is in fierce contrast to Girl’s happy go lucky outlook and she wastes no time in probing him for the truth.

This film is one of the most genius, underplayed and natural musicals ever – essentially doing the ‘bursting into song’ thing whilst remaining firmly in reality, never quite breaking that thinly veiled fourth wall that all other musicals do. Here, it’s in a beautifully captured song-writing-on-the-fly sequence (‘Falling Slowly’) or a late night jam session between family and acquaintances (‘Gold’) or in a great sequence where Girl sings lyrics to an instrumental track given to her by Guy whilst on a walk back from the corner store to buy batteries (’If You Want Me’). It’s so relatable; from the street kids watching her go past to her fluffy slippers to the clunky portable CD player in her hand. Who hasn’t done something like that? A more traditional musical might have been tempted to convert the pedestrians to background singers, cooing harmonies over her shoulder or snapping their fingers in a dance routine through the street but this film shows that life can be full of ‘movie-adjacent’ moments and not feel cheaply earnt whilst portraying them.

This movie is something of an Irish, folksy Before Sunrise – except Guy is probably in the period of his life where he’s actually living in Before Sunset (jaded, wondering what could have been) whilst Girl is firmly in Sunrise (open to new connections, optimistic about the present). They’re on different paths and perhaps even swap roles throughout, with Guy becoming more enlightened and eager for new experiences whilst we learn that Girl is caring for a small child who is product of her past. These two never really come to any real conflict themselves. The closest they maybe get is when Guy makes an awkward, kinda sad pass at her one night – but it’s practically all forgiven and forgotten by the next day. That’s real life too and I’m glad a moment like that is addressed in the story but promptly resolved. It doesn’t need to be this instance of overly contrived setup/payoff, it’s just a misunderstanding that the characters are aware enough to acknowledge and put aside. In fact, so much of this narrative goes against the grain. Guy never gets ‘the Girl’. He chooses to chase down a woman who is probably bad for him. And Girl ends up giving her husband another shot – a character we’ve never met and have barely heard about. Again, just because we aren’t aware of a person’s backstory doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or that we’re responsible for making any grand change to the way things pan out. Here, a kind gesture of purchasing a piano for a kindred spirit is more than enough… if a little unpractical.

So much of this movie acts as a mirror to the lives of the people making it. The struggling artist narrative is straight out of Hansard’s life, even recording the demo tape in the same studio as he once did. The ex-girlfriend who moved to London is right out of Carney’s own past. All of this helps blur the line between fact and fiction, The scene where Girl tells Guy that she loves him, unprompted and ingeniously unsubtitled, is perhaps the most quietly powerful moment in the film – because the line between performance and truth is shattered as we, like Guy AND Hansard, perhaps can’t tell who’s saying what anymore – the character or the actor. In reality, it may have been both. And it’s captured right there on screen. Lightning in a bottle.

Arguably, this film is set in the last era of when a story like this could be romantic – or at least romanticised. If it was made today, in 2018, Guy would be recording in his bedroom, uploading to Soundcloud, plugging his Patreon page and filling a Youtube account with cover songs sang directly to his webcam. There’s no doubt that the advancements in technology has added an artifice to the whole struggling artist thing and it means something very different in this day and age. Here, in the far flung days of the mid 00s, there’s no real social media presence (Myspace was sort of at its peak but was more of a Facebook precursor than the platform for music it slowly morphed into) and Guy ends the movie with a handful of CDs to show for his time in the studio. Ah physical media, how I miss thee… sometimes…

This is definitely one of those movies that is firmly lodged in my brain. Despite only having watched it twice, three times at most, I’ve had the soundtrack on rotation for ten years and the time I caught Glen Hansard himself in concert (at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2015, natch) was legitimately one of the most memorable gig experiences I’ve ever been to. Everything from the setlist to the showmanship to the intimacy to the grandeur, it was just incredible. An unplugged encore starting with Say It To Me Now up on a balcony in the crowd through to Falling Slowly on piano? Woop woop!

But I digress… this is a film that is firmly time-stamped in my memory. I watched it on the very same night that I first properly met someone who ended up becoming a huge part of my life. Nearly ten years ago to the day, me and some friends - energised by both the movie and the hazy summer evening - trekked across town to a housewarming party. This was a decision which would inevitably change the very direction of my life, which is insane when you really sit down and think about it… and being able to pinpoint the origin of such a huge personal crossroads is kinda what Once is all about so it really does resonate.

And I think this rewatch really did resonate, because I now saw myself more as the cynical, pessimistic person Guy is at the start of the film – just trying to keep on keeping on and push himself out of his comfort zone. To achieve something special or worthwhile. Without getting too personal, I can be my own worst enemy and while 2008 mostly feels more like a lifetime ago, there are times when it feels like it was just yesterday and I blinked and went from then to now in a flash. And we all have these moments. Be it meeting someone influential, deciding to move house, to travel to a new country, to quit that job and take that risk; they can be scary or freeing or even traumatic but they’re an element of life that movies strive to replicate… and this one just does so by downplaying the weight of these moments rather than draw attention to them in an artificial manner.

John Carney has said that the title of the film is in reference to other talented musicians and artists that he knew, who always said ‘once I do this and once I do that, then I’ll pursue my passion’ etc, referring to the realities (and the safety nets) of life that can sometimes stop people from taking the plunge and chasing their dreams. I’ve definitely felt the same way and have constantly had that conversation inside my own head: that once I get these things sorted then these things lined up then I’ll do such and such and how in the end, time just keeps on moving regardless… so you have to act.

This film is about making that choice to act.

#once #glenhansard #marketa irglova #john carney #ireland #dublin #indie film #musical #falling slowly

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