#gotta score one for July

[backmarkerr]

please....can u speak on the conspiracy

So the conspiracy (more like a theory, really) is that Kimi was pushed out of the team starting in 2008 to make way for Fernando, who was more appealing to the big sponsor coming in. Before you click out thinking "Max, that's stupid, no team would throw a championship for a sponsor." I agree! But keep in mind that they didn't throw the championship, they fully expected to win the WDC with Felipe (and almost did) and did in fact win the WCC in 2008 with Felipe and Kimi despite everything. But there were really suspicious things going on. So with that in mind...

It's 2008. Kimi has just won Malaysia, the second race of the season. Three days after his win, there's this:

.

Ok, kinda weird, but whatever. F1 runs on rumours, right? Suggesting that Kimi might retire when he's doing so well is silly. And in the article they seem to be pretty ambivalent over whether it would be Felipe or Kimi to leave.

Fast forward to Spain two races later. Kimi scores his second win of the season and takes the championship lead. The season is shaping up pretty well for the defence of the title, you’d think this would be a good time for him, but again, the story du jour is Ferrari wanting Alonso in Kimi’s seat for 2009.

[x] I guess now we know at least Massa's seat is secure...?

If you’re like me, that sounds stupid. The reigning champion just won the last GP and his contract runs until the end of 2010, so this media narrative makes no sense. Something pretty catastrophic would have to happen for that to ever come to fruition, right?

So anyway, he gets a first row start in Monaco. Great, that's almost a surefire win/points, right? Wrong, he got a drive-through penalty due to the team not fitting the wheels to the car on time before the race start. Not a great race and he ends up outside of the points. Lewis is now ahead in the WDC by 3 points. Not really a disaster, but...

[x] what on earth...

[x] again the talk of retirement.... I mean, it's weird, right?

Zero points in Canada due to being rear-ended in the pitlane, which the team can’t control. Then he’s back to being neck to neck with his teammate and Lewis by the time the British GP is done in early July, with all three drivers on 48 points. Good news, right? Just gotta stay on track and not fuck it up somehow.

[x] sigh... (this one's a little harder to source as it was printed media, but I've seen this exact interview quoted in different pages)

So anyway, they change his front suspension for the next race in Germany. Kimi has always been very sensitive to changes in the car, so he knew something was wrong. Ferrari (via Michael, who was then head of development) say he's just not adapting well to the upgrades. Maybe, sure, but why aren't you bringing upgrades that are geared towards your world champion?

(an interesting remark from Mark Hughes here if you scroll down to the comments, which adds weight to Kimi not being listened to when it came to car development in 2008)

Bar a podium in Hungary, Kimi scores 0 points in 4 out of the next 5 races. It takes until either Monza or Singapore (hello crashgate!) for Ferrari to put his suspension back as it was.

He proceeds to get 3 podiums in the remaining 3 races but it’s not enough to catch up. By Singapore he was already 27 points behind his teammate (reminder this is the old points system) and very much expected to play the supporting role. In the penultimate race in China he very obviously gave up P2 to his teammate:

"I know what the team expects." [x] / [x]

Yet the narrative in the media and from Ferrari themselves is that his motivation is bad and he's not assertive. It was so pervasive that to this day people still parrot it and say he just didn’t care after 2007, despite Kimi always stating he was fully committed and clearly getting annoyed whenever journalists asked about his motivation even years later.

Montezemolo at the end of 2008 even 'joked' that "Kimi in the recent races was replaced two or three times by a friend, but next year he'll be back." Basically saying that Kimi wasn't really present, you know? An interesting thing to say when this absent driver scored 18 points in the last 3 races (three consecutive P3s), while the one who was amazing and had the team's full backing scored 20 (P7, P2, P1).

A whole 2 points' difference, maybe someone should hire that "friend"...

So why did they do this?

Well, the theory is that Santander (I promise this isn’t like the dumb Sainztander takes) wanted a Spanish-Brazilian lineup due to financial interests (Spanish bank, big market in South America with a looming IPO in Brazil), so Kimi was basically being pressured out of the team from early 2008 onwards. Like I said at the start, the team weren’t really throwing away 2008, as they expected to win the WCC with both drivers (they did) and Massa to be able to win the WDC, which would of course be beneficial for their new sponsor. And he almost did. Almost.

[x] they're not in charge of driver selection but this specific driver line-up would good for them. (this archived copy of the article is from 2010, but the text makes it clear it's from 2009)

Of course at this point we have to wonder if a team like Ferrari would bow down to a sponsor's demands. I can't tell you what the internal considerations were or how much money was on the line, but it's also not like Santander were telling them to get rid of Kimi for a bad driver, you know? Fernando is a great driver, so from Ferrari's perspective they were just trading a great driver for another great driver who also appealed to this huge sponsor, and an Alonso-Massa line-up would be solid. And with the previous talk that Ferrari and Alonso had already inked a deal in 2008... It's just difficult to believe there isn't a grain of truth here.

So the alleged initial plan of having Alonso in 2009 was foiled when Kimi activated the renewal option in his contract. It was then that he was bought out of his last year (apparently paid for by Santander).

[from the book The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen]

As we can see, by the end Kimi was also fed up with what was going on, especially people pointing the finger at him and at his motivation, and his frustration is very clear in interviews like here at 2.35 and here:

Publicly, Ferrari said they wanted someone more in line with how Michael used to be (ironic since Montezemolo allegedly didn’t like how Michael made the team his), who could communicate with the team and give better feedback (ironic when Todt, Dyer, Stella and others said Kimi was very clear and precise.) Kimi himself has always stated that he wasn’t the issue, that his motivation was never lacking and that the real reason he was pushed out was politics and money.

[x]

[x]

If it had only been the mechanical stuff, I’d be willing to chalk it up to just bad luck and incompetence. Shit happens. But with all the rumours around it even before things went bad on the track and Kimi stating that his work and performance weren't the reason he was let go it becomes impossible for me to think there wasn’t an actual push going on to replace him.

Hell, even famed Ferrari fanboy Sebastian Vettel didn't think it was realistic for Kimi to return to Ferrary in 2014 precisely because Kimi isn't one for "bullshit" and "politics". Why would he choose to say that specifically? And according to Finnish media Kimi’s 2014 Ferrari negotiations included Montezemolo personally apologising to him. Now why would he apologise if they hadn’t done something wrong?

Personally I think Kimi's "certain people did certain things" refers to this. He never trashed anyone and always said he had no ill-feelings. And I believe him. But it doesn't mean nothing happened, lest we forget how well he handled Lotus not paying him.

The thing that really bothers me is that Kimi got the reputation for having low motivation and not caring about what he was doing (I heard that take just last month from an F1 youtuber, how Fernando was hired in 2010 because Kimi had mentally checked out 🙄), when obviously someone who wasn’t motivated and didn’t care would have simply called it quits under these circumstances. Instead he got P3 in the standings in 2008 (I know he’s talented, but he must have been trying at least a little), trained hard to lose enough weight to use KERS in 2009 (why would he do that if he didn’t care) and took the team’s only win that year despite the car being shit. Interestingly, pundits acknowledged his good performance complicated things when it came to Ferrari’s rumoured hiring of Alonso. So imagine how much more complicated things would have been had Kimi done better in 2008?

Anyway, this is long, but if you want something longer then I definitely recommend this post here. You might not agree completely with the original authors (there are parts where I wish there was more info), but I think they offer a lot of good research and information regarding the overall situation back in 2008/2009, and it's a good jump-off point for your own research.

But yeah. 2008 could have been everything. Or at least better.

[be-my-ally]

A Tour of the Penthouse

ugh naming one-shots is the bane of my existence. I'm terrible at coming up with titles.

Hello! I am back! not that I ever left, but I've been on a bit of a writing break the past few weeks - not intentionally I might add, so I am mighty pleased to be *inspired* and writing again. Much more in the pipeline coming soon, but first, a fun little smutty 1973 vegas one night one-shot!

warnings: 18+, p in v, oral (v receiving), mirrors... that's it folks, short and basic but hopefully still hot! this doesn’t feel super elvis-y to me but i think that might be the self-doubt creeping in after it being so long since i last posted (i hope)!

For the prompt: “No. Don’t talk to her like that."

pairing: 1973 Elvis x female reader (note: photos below are from the stax studios sessions in memphis July 22nd about 2 weeks before the vegas dates this fic is set in, but if he was willing to wear velour in tennessee in july, I don't see why not in vegas in august).

wc: 4.4k

You’d had the fantasy, the idea of being plucked out of the audience, the concept of a tap on the shoulder; “Please, miss, come with us.” But you’d known that was purely fantastical. You’d not been handpicked to be here this evening, you’d handily bumped into the brother of your best friend’s husband - a tenuous link if ever there was one who’d happily offered you an evening’s entertainment after you’d embarrassingly admitted you’d come to Vegas alone in the vain hope of scoring an Elvis ticket. The embarrassment waned pretty fast though when he’d apologised for not being able to do better than a back of the balcony seat, but that, perhaps because you’d sounded so embarrassed or pathetic, he knew someone with a standing invite to “not an after-party, just, casual drinks after the show.” Even so, you’d not believed you’d get anywhere near Elvis himself. Yet, somehow here you were, drink in hand, being flirted with (inexplicably terribly)  by one of his entourage as you pretended not to be solely focused on his friend and boss, talking mere feet away. He suddenly whirls around to you, talking loudly to the man in front of you, 

“No. Don’t talk to her like that, man, c’mon.” Elvis shakes his head, “You gotta do it right if you’re gonna try.” The thin man, his name escaping you as entirely inconsequential now you’re being faced with Elvis himself, takes a step back as Elvis practically pushes him to the side, taking his place directly in front of you, hand brushing your arm in greeting. “ Just ignore him hon.” You nod, a little starstruck at being so close to him, having watched him from the balcony earlier that night it was almost a little jarring to go from such distance to so close. The top of his head and bridge of his nose had been more visible to you than anything else, the novelty of now being able to see up his nose one of the many thoughts rapidly running through your head. Oh God, how did I end up here? And, Lord, is that really Elvis talking to me? Competed to be at the forefront of your mind, although admittedly along with Is he really wearing velvet velour in Vegas? 

“Oh, I’ll do my best! If you say so, Sir!” Sir? To be faced with him in all his physical glory - velour and all, was hindering your ability to form thought or words. He chuckles at you, seemingly finding your obviously flustered state endearing, while nudging the other man again,

“Now - before I had ta step-in and save ya, what was he promisin’ ya? A tour?” The other nods sheepishly, as you agree, 

“Oh - uh, yes, um your, uh, friend - uhh, sorry, what was it again? Oh uh, Red here, was saying he could take me to have a look around the showroom, while it was empty-like. If uh, if I was interested.” You cringe internally as you feel yourself stumbling over your words. Elvis scoffs, rolling his eyes beneath tinted glasses. 

“The showroom? That was the best you could do, huh boy?” He shakes his head in seeming exasperation, turning back to you to ask, “You ever wanted to see a dressing room… or uh, my suite?” Of course you have, who wouldn’t have done?  

“Oh. Well, I uh, I can’t say I’ve considered it before.” You wince internally, trying to keep your outer expression neutral, was that seriously your best reply? 

“No? Well honey, I’ll have to take you back and show you some time.” You can’t help the giggles escaping, nor the slight snort that preceded them - too utterly flustered to worry about playing it cool.  

“C’mon EP, that’s not playin’ fair, you’re practically bribing the poor girl.” Red says it almost without thinking, and you can see the nerves play out on his face, hoping Elvis would react the way he’d intended. 

“Bribing?” He scoffs, “With you as the competition,” sneering he turns back to you, “go on then, doll, who’d you pick? Me or this ol’ lug?” He puffs out his chest as if showing off. 

“Well, uh, Mr. Uh. Mr West. You’re very nice and all, but -“ Red laughs in response,

“Don’t worry darlin’, I knew I was fighting a losin’ battle soon as he stepped over here.” He nods, “I’ll try my luck over there, you two enjoy your night.” He smiles, although you can tell he’s a little put out. Elvis looks pleased with himself, hip cocked and hand inserted into his bright gold belt, seemingly waiting for you to have something else to say. 

“That - that’s not the outfit you were wearing earlier.” If you could smack yourself right now, you would; of course it wasn’t the same outfit, why would he stay in a stage costume all night, you wish you could take the words back but Elvis smiles, a little ruefully, pulling his hand from his belt to run it through his hair. 

“Well honey,” He drawls out the endearment, elongating the syllable break, as if debating whether to tell you, or perhaps an attempt at making his voice sound even more appealing. “It’s, a bit embarrassin’ to admit, but… I’ve got a bit of a  habit of splitting my pants…” He looks at you, solemnly shaking his head,  “Just you know, with all the movin’ and shakin’ on stage, I seem to go through a lot of them. Made it through the show alright tonight, but apparently climbing down them stairs off the stage at the end was too much for ‘em.” 

“Oh.” Your eyes widen as you take that in for a second, mind gone as you imagine the white crystallised suit of earlier, splitting down the seam and then all the way down his legs, imagining it falling off of him completely, him stood nude and glorious against the spotlight of the stage. You realise he was still talking, “Huh? Sorry - What’d you say?” Elvis rolls his eyes, 

“I said, listen, how’s about you come and take a look? Are you any good with a needle?” You’re slow to the uptake when being faced with his southern drawl and seemingly random question and you panic for a second; he’s still looking at you, watching your expressions with unblinking eyes beneath his lavender shades, you can’t think of what to say in response, such an easy question, but what level of skill does he even need? You gape at him until he finally seems to take pity, shrugging a little, 

“S’alright if you’re not, it’s just my fingers, I’ve never got the hang of it,” He lowers his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “My ma tried, but I can never thread it quite right.” He mimes trying to thread a needle, comedically - tongue out, and one eye closed. You burst out laughing, mostly from sheer relief from being able to form thought again. “You must at least know how to hem?” 

You nod, a little offended, “Of course! I made this dress!” He looks you up and down, and you feel yourself stand up a little straighter, an almost subconscious reaction to his looking, while smoothing the pockets down as surreptitiously as you can for his inspection. 

“Made it fill out just right too.” You squirm on the spot in response, you can’t work out if you should be offended at being reduced to essentially free labour, or that you somehow find it totally acceptable just because he’s made your tummy flip with that one little sentence. 

“Well, you know, just thought maybe, maybe I could just get you to take a look and let me know what you think I should do.” 

“Oh uh, sure thing - Yes, absolutely, I could do that.” He grins at you, in reward for your compliance, before pressing a hand into the small of your back, directing you to the elevator. 

It’s overwhelming, the feel of being with him in such a confined space, focussed on the door in front of you for the mere seconds between floors. It’s all you can do to keep yourself together, the smell of him, the feel of his hot palm still against your back making your thighs clench. Elvis seems to be in a world of his own, fingers gently rubbing your back, humming under his breath. You’re not quite sure why you’re both pretending you really were going to look at a torn jumpsuit. But when you start to follow that line of thought you can feel your heart-rate increasing and panic start to rise - it’s not that you don’t want to do whatever he has in mind, just that you’ve never done this causally before. All you can do is quickly attempt to distract yourself by curiously assessing the decor. 

Somehow though, mere minutes later, small talk and short tour over, you find yourself sitting at his dressing table, jumpsuit in hand as you peer at the split straight along the seam of the crotch. 

“Well, er, Elvis, here’s the thing - I think it might be beyond repair - or, at least it’s beyond what I can do with a travel kit.” He nods, solemnly, from over your shoulder, his sideburn hair tickling your cheek, and hands starting to span across your ribs. 

“Hmm, guess I’ll have to send it to get mended then,” He tugs it out of your grip, balling it up and throwing it off to the side.

“Oh, well - yes, I’m sure someone will be able to - oh!” His hands creep further around your ribcage, until he’s just ever so slightly brushing his fingers further against your breasts. You shiver as his breath gets heavier on your, puff of laughter at your immediate physical reaction sending goosebumps across your exposed skin. He brushes your hair out of the way, gently tucking it behind the other ear, while his other hand remains spanning your ribs, thumb moving in delicate small circles. The small part of your brain not totally preoccupied solely with the sensation of him behind you wonders if you should be doing something yourself, turning around maybe, but before you can move you feel him lean back in to your neck, lips barely two inches from your skin.They brush against your ear and you squirm away, shuddering a little. 

“Oh,” Elvis laughs, “That’s a no for that, huh, sweetheart. I’ll have to pull out my special moves for you then.” You nod, rapidly, starting to explain that he definitely should pull out any and all moves just nowhere near your ears, but as you’d swung your head up you’d made thunking contact with his nose. 

“Shit! Son-of-a-mother -“ He swears loudly as he takes a sudden step backwards, knocked off balance, and you whirl around apologies tumbling out of your mouth, 

“Oh god, oh, god I’m so sorry.”  He’s pulling his glasses off of his face, a red mark spreading from the bridge of his nose up to between his eyebrows where your head had knocked them hard against his soft skin. “Oh god! Your face!” He blinks at you for a moment, rubbing at the redness, before his face breaks into a crooked grin.

“Can’t say I’ve bumped noses in a while.” He’s still rubbing the spot even while he’s joking and you can’t bring yourself to laugh with him, the embarrassment rolling down your spine, your cheeks turning red to match his. 

“Oh god, maybe I should just go,” You stand from the chair, looking around for your purse, “I don’t know what I was thinking - this is clearly a sign, I’ll be out of your hair in a moment.” He rushes to stop you, hand grabbing your forearm, 

“No, no, please, look - I’m fine now,” He gestures to his face, “bet it won’t even bruise.” You shake your head, “No, look, we just needta be face to face.” His hands grip your waist, eyes telling you to stay, and once he’s sure you’ll stay in place, he brings his hands up to cup your cheeks, “See, you can’t headbutt me from here, just needed to look at each-other.” You nod, gently, barely moving your head. 

“Well, you might be right,” His thumb brushes over your lips, hand moving to clasp the back of your neck, drawing you closer. You stumble towards him until you’re pressed against his front, so close that you’re practically inside his jacket, resting against his shirt. 

Your eyes fall closed as his lips meet yours, he’s hungry for it, capturing your mouth, tugging your lip between his teeth. You feel a little like you’re being devoured, melting against him, his other hand moving to your ribs again clutching you to him and holding you upright. You stumble backwards when he starts to walk forwards, still gripping your body and still pressing his lips against yours. 

He pushes you back onto the bed, leaving you to scrabble backwards up towards the pillows, watching him strip his jacket off.  He immediately goes for his shirt, rapidly unbuttoning it. He’s slimmer than you thought, all tan lean corded muscle, with just a little layer of fat over his stomach and you find your mouth watering as you take in the soft covering of his chest hair. He seems to assess the situation for a moment, before unbuckling his belt, taking his plush velvet trousers off, unveiling his lack of underwear, half-hard cock flopping out. 

You try to swallow your moan, he looks you over, reassuring;  “Don’t worry, I got the sound locked darlin’. S’not like the house, but it’s good enough. You can be as loud as you like.” You almost immediately put it to the test when he hikes your dress up to your waist, exposing your panties, yelp escaping. You stare up at the red canopy, breath hitching as you take in the mirrored ceiling - you can’t take your eyes off of it, watching Elvis’ naked back, the small scattering of moles as he moves. His hands curl around, deftly unzipping your dress even from underneath you, loosening it enough to pull it off. Your head rolls back, watching your nakedness be slowly unveiled. You’ve never been body shy but somehow being unable to look anywhere but at yourself makes you a little self-conscious, and you’re glad when Elvis moves himself back up to be covering you.

“What’d ya want honey?” He slides a hand down, pressing a long, masculine finger against the soft cotton of your panties. “You going all shy on me?” You shake your head,

“No, no - I don’t, I don’t know,” He pushes the fabric into you, gathering the wetness already pooling there, wet patch slowly spreading.  “Take - take ‘em off, let me, need them off Elvis, please.” He grins, finding your slight desperation amusing, 

“Hmm…but they look so pretty doll,” He circles your clit through the fabric, “You sure?” You nod, 

“Uh-huh, please -“ He hooks his fingers into the waistband, pulling them down your legs, getting you fully nude. He chucks them onto the floor and you flush at the sound of the wet fabric hitting the floor. Elvis soon distracts you though, resting on his elbow alongside you, pointing out how you look in the mirror. 

His hand drifts over your bare stomach, somehow gently but firmly brushing over your skin and up to your chest, large sweeping circles - your breath catching as his hand trails closer and closer to you breast, rings warmed by the heat of his hand rubbing against your skin. Every time you think he’s going to touch you, properly, he returns to circle your stomach and if you could form a thought you’d ask him to speed it up, but as it is his mouth is attaching to your collarbone, gently sucking down, little bruises forming. Finally, your back arches to meet him. He finally brushes his fingers over your nipple, tickling, you gasp as he lightly pinches one, an immediate jolt of heat to your core. His hands brush down your sides, leaving you panting, before he wriggles down, pulling your legs with him, so that you slide down the bed, situating himself between your thighs. He runs his hand through his hair, finger-combing the fluffy hair backward, eyebrow arching, 

“You ok with this baby?” You nod, not quite able to believe Elvis Presley is offering to go down on you but there he is, gripping your thighs, placing his head between your legs. “C’mere then.” He kisses the soft skin there, a little line across to the crease of your thigh. His breath tickles and your thighs tense in response. He murmurs something you don’t quite catch before he moves to press a kiss right above your clit. His fingers move from your legs, one hand remaining where it was, the other coming to stroke your labia, spreading your inner folds, feeling where your slick is already sticking your skin together. 

“Lawd, hon-ey, you always get this soppin’ wet?”

“Oh god, Elvis, I haven’t - no-one’s ever,” You can feel him chuckle, the vibration making you gasp, but he doesn’t respond, simply wets his lips and dives in. His hands hold you open for him, and he manhandles your legs to keep them open and apart, your burning core on display for him. He flicks between lapping at your inner and outer folds, his fingers coming up to replace his tongue, scissoring into you, so that he can lick up to your clit, sucking onto the sensitive bundle of nerves.He’s clearly skilled, and the wetness, the newness of it - the shock of it all only adds to your growing heat; and the way you feel yourself start to tremble as the sensation grows.

Your hands clutch at the sheets, trying to avoid gripping his head even as your hips thrust up in response to his tongue spearing into you. You can’t look away from the image of his head between your thighs, enjoying the way his back ripples and how when he pulls back the bridge of his nose and eyebrows become visible. Reminding you who it is between your thighs, as if you could forget from the feel of his famed lips. His tongue licks its way up and down your folds, before tongue-fucking into you. His fingers move back as soon as he moves his tongue away, constantly touching you in some way. Your hips jolt and he moves his mouth up to suck on your clit; everything coming to be too much. He licks you through it, your stomach clenching as the pressure grows out from your core, orgasm starting to fizz through your veins, ringing in your ears.

You shudder as it hits, Elvis leaning back a little, rubbing gently with his fingers, your hips rolling in pure pleasure, until he leans in again to kitten-lick your sticky, wet, skin. Your thighs suddenly slam together of their own accord, and you feel his cheek on your thigh before you hear his “oof” at the sudden impact.

“Oh god, not again.” You try to sit up to apologise but you’re still breathless, and with your core still tensing from your orgasm you struggle to even manage to get onto your elbows. “Oh-no.” Elvis pops his head up, so you can both see each other properly, growling at you. Your head rolls back at the sight of him, sweaty upper lip and a mix of unidentifiable shiny wetness on his chin. 

“You are trouble.” He quirks a grin, as if to ensure you know he’s at least half-kidding, shaking his head at you, “‘m starting to think I needta tie you down if I don’t wanna be battered.” You gasp, back arching and he chuckles at your visceral reaction. “Not right now though, huh, gotta - wanna be in you.” You nod frantically, affirmative words spilling out of your mouth. He slides back down to rest his head between your legs, holding your thighs open with a tight grip. 

“Now, you be nice to lil Elvie, you hear me?” He whispers right against your sensitive folds, breath tickling, talking directly to your vagina, as if it might behave of its own volition, “I don’t think you have hands… or legs… but just in case. No more hittin’ me. Got it? I ain’t afraid to make you behave.” You burst out laughing when he does a high-pitched voice in response to himself, “Yes, sir, Elvis, sir, I’ll behave.” making it seem as if your vagina had just agreed with him. He’s smiling when he pushes himself back up, pulling himself to flop down on the bed at the same height as you, before rolling over, pushing an elbow onto the other side. He tugs on his cock for a second, before lining himself up, sinking into your hot, soaking, heat. 

He groans, pressing into you as you adjust to his length within you, feeling the sweat on his chest rub against your skin. He’s slow at first, building up to forcefully thrusting into you, famous hips  moving at speed. 

“God, you’re tight, don’t do this often do ya honey?” You shake your head, and then nod, trying to respond, “Not too tight though huh, doll, you’re just - just perfect. Perfect for me.” He punctuates each sentence with a hard thrust, your response catching in your throat - practically choking yourself.  He drags you back against him, hands gripping your hips. Jolting your body back and forth as he slams into you, shifting you to fuck into you at just the right angle. You have no idea what noises were coming out of your mouth, only that you were certainly babbling something. He seemed incapable of silence himself, a stream of curses and praises continually falling out of his lips. 

He pauses in his thrusts, preoccupying himself with stroking a finger the length of your vulva, feeling where your bodies are joined. Your eyes fall closed, lost in the sensation of him. He moves back again, sliding his hand up to brush his thumb across your already sensitive clit, your back arching in response. He grunts above you, his thumb keeping pace, and his cock thrusting in at the same speed. It doesn’t take long before the way he’s knocking perfectly into your already sensitive core sends you into orgasm again, clenching down on him and shuddering, your mouth agape and your eyes shuttering closed as the waves of pleasure crash over you. 

He drags you back from it, hips stuttering at a rapid pace, lasting only a minute before you can feel him jumping inside you, his face screwed up tight, mouth opening as he rapidly pulls out, shooting his cum across your stomach. He groans in pleasure, and you tip your head up to meet him, kissing him as aggressively as you can manage in your post-orgasmic state. By the time he pulls away, rolling off to the side and flopping onto his back, both of your lips are bitten and red-raw. You make eye contact in the mirror, watching both of your chests heave as you try to form coherent thoughts again. He’s covered in sweat, fluffy hair starting to curl at the ends with the exertion of it all, and you stare at your own flushed state for a moment, wondering how on earth you’d ended up here. 

“So, don’t needta tie you down then, honey, just gotta tire you out.” Elvis’ voice was gravelly, and you murmured an agreement, 

“I don’t normally flail so much.” You admit, somewhat jokingly. He grins, rolling onto his side to rub your stomach, avoiding his cooling ejaculate, 

“Oh so I’m just special huh?” You nod, 

“You must know that.” He stares at you, and you try to convey with your eyes the depth of feeling by which you mean it, not wanting to scare him by saying it out loud. You think he gets it though, when the next moment he’s smiling a little bashfully before rolling off the bed and stretching beside it. You take the chance to assess him all over again, now that the heat and speed from before is over, taking your opportunity to drink him all in, from the tan line high on his thigh, to the slight swell of his tummy all the way up to his little nipples, and to the slight shadow forming on his chin. He seems to appreciate the attention for a minute, smirking at you, before he wanders off to the ensuite, 

“You hanging around for a lil bit, sweetheart? D’you wanna come to the show again tomorrow?” You wonder if it was intentional that he’d ask this where he couldn’t see your expression, calling out from the bathroom as he starts to turn on the water. But, in what world, in what universe could anyone turn down such an offer.

“If you’re inviting me!” He hums back in response and you feel a giggle rise in you at the next thought that pops into your head, “‘sides, got a promise of a tour didn’t I - Red’ll be expecting me.” You hear the faucet suddenly turn off, although the shower stays running and the next thing you know he’s striding out from the ensuite at that, bouncing you on the bed from the force of his jump onto it, growling as he pins your squirming, laughing self down, his knees on either side of you. He’s struggling to maintain a straight face as he manages to capture both of your wrists in one hand, the other tickling your sides as best he can,

“You better not. You want a tour, I’ll give you a tour. You hear me, little girl?” His hands feel like he’s only playing but his face was deadly serious - you nod rapidly in agreement, 

“Yes, yes, Elvis - yes, I was only kiddin’ I swear!” You manage to make out through your giggles and he growls again, ceasing the tickling and pressing a kiss to your cheek, still practically smothering you, leaving little teasing nibbles down your neck. 

“Fuckin’ Red.” He mutters against your skin, 

“I swear I was only messin’ with you.” He huffs, but nonetheless kisses your lips once more, before releasing your hands and clambering off. He holds out a hand, 

“C’mon - the shower will be hot now. Get you all clean and tucked up in my bed, somewhere no-one else can try and steal you.” You grin as you allow yourself to be pulled up, happily going with him and excited to see what the next day’ll bring. 

[britt-kageryuu]

The stream starts to Mikey in a chef outfit, but he isn't in a kitchen this time.

"Shell-o Everyone! Welcome to the stream. Today, by popular vote in our Discord, were playing one of the Papa's Games! Specifically we're starting with Papa's Freezeria Deluxe." Mikey explains while getting the game on the screen.

"I wanted to start with Papa's Pizzaria, but Freezeria won the poll. Now I'm just glad Dee was able to set up a good emulator so I can play these games." He grumbles as he moves over to the Character Creator.

After setting up his character and naming them Mikan, they watch the opening cutscene.

"Starting up a Summer Job of a tropical island, ooh that fine print saying I pay for all the upgrades~. And will be left to run the shop on my own with next to no training." Mikey says with some sarcasm, "Running a fancy milkshake place all on my lonesome."

"Alright let's start the tutorial... wow that's complicated for a tutorial! Glad for the order ticket." Mikey starts the mini games, and chooses the correct flavors, "Okay careful with the whip cream and drizzle. What are those purple things? So weird. Order up!"

The little score screen shows he just barely missed 100%.

"Guess the toppings were a little off? Well second order, let's go."

Again just short of 100%.

"Okay, a different minigame? And I win extra decorations for playing! I get dress up my character and customize the lobby area! I will buy every piece of furniture and clothes I can!"

A couple customers later~

"Oh a Closer? They're even more harder on the scoring their order... joy! Well let's get these done so I can customize the lobby like I forgot to do."

After some near perfect scores, and a weird minigame later~

"These little letter probably have to bo with events later like, I gotta theme the lobby to match right? Well onto the next day." Mikey watch as he gets a new customer and ingredients, "Nick, okay. Maui Meringue, and Cloudberry weird things to put on a milkshake. That's a whip cream right?"

Mikey starts on the orders when he looks over at chat while waiting for the blender, and checks the lobby, "Oh I forgot to check the upgrades! Oh a gold envelope? So I get a fixed recipe with special bonuses if I get a good score on this? Sweet!"

.....

"Okay, end of the day, and finished the minigame now to get some upgrades!"Mikey announced.

Before he could the 'Choose a Special' part of the tutorial pops up.

"Oh, choose the special, put up some of the decorations I just got first, and Shop" Mikey loked through the options, but only had enough for the doorbell which will tell him when a customer enters the shop. He browsed through the decorations part of the shop for a couple minutes.

"Okay, let's continue!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few new customers, ingredients, and days later. Not to forget a new Coworker, who would act as a waiter/delivery person named Shelly.

Also trying out the food truck mode for a few minutes.

"Okay, bought the Auto Icecream dispenser, now next day..Now Celebrating Starlight Jubilee? Kinda looks like the Fouth of July. Holiday related toppings and the characters where costumes. WAIT I should've dressed up me and Shelly for this!" Mikey facepalm, and with a dramatic sigh continues, "After I finish the day.

The stream went on for a good hour, with Mikey muttering about the customers saying the topping were off by the width of a grain of sand.

And wishing he could clean the stuff he accidentally dropped out of the cup, because the full 100% service day was still out of his reach.

Though the audience was interested to here him get close to going Dr. Delicate Touch on his keyboard a few times.

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

Masterpost

I was going to make this longer, but the person I was watching for reference did a 3 hour stream as a part 1.

[lovezbrownies]

Imagine if Lorelai and Lauren were after the same darling...💀

oomf... you're brilliance scares me...

i wouldnt dare imagine it oomf...

BUT if i were to imagine it, then it would definitely be a big mess, Lorelai and Lauren are distant cousins, Lorelai's father being 3rd cousins with Julie. Julie's father kept his last name while Mason Marlowe's father took his wife's last name.

Thus whenever there would be any big family reunions (very common occurrence, the McCanister's are a very close knit family) They'd see each other occasionally.

Lorelai liked Lauren, though she thought Lauren was too abrasive and Lorelai definitely dislikes the amount of vivid colors Lauren likes to wear. Lauren on the other hand likes Lorelai too but thinks she's too boring and vanilla, no matter what crazy plans she wants Lorelai to do with her Lorelai would persistently refuse against it.

But let's imagine Lauren and Lorelai went to the same University together, (Medical School comes after uni usually) And majored in the same majors let's say BioChem. And there one by one they met you, another student of the university.

You met Lauren in the introductory class, where she had approached you after the lecture and joked around about the professor and the course material. shit Lauren felt lucky that she managed to catch up to you and make you laugh and such. She scored hard as you two spent an hour in cafeteria talking and laughing, thank fuck she had the same schedule as you and walked with you to your next lecture, exchanging numbers on the way.

Lauren definitely falls in love first but also falls in love harder, you can easily make her heart beat faster than it should, give her the tingles whenever you touch her, and give her the urge to always have her on a body part of yours no matter what. Especially your thighs, lord the way they'd touch hers as she sits next to you in the lecture hall make her combust!

Lorelai on the other hand is more lucky than Lauren, begging her parents to let her experience the true uni student life was so worth it. Seeing how she was the one assigned to be your dormmate! You two met shortly after you and Lauren parted ways, you two had a 2 hour period without classes and you wanted to set up your side of the room and meet your new roommate!

"Hey if your roommate's an ass just tell me, I'll shove my boot so far up their as-"

"Got it! Thanks Laurie!!" You cut her off, not wanting her to go off on another violent bout.

You and Lorelai hit it off! It was so much fun getting to know each other while unpacking, sometimes you'd take something out that would catch her attention and you'd talk in depth about whatever it is! And the best part is you have no clue who the Marlowe's are, since all you said when Lorelai hesitantly told you her full name was "Marlowe's a cute surname!"

Soon however your phone begins to ring, you excuse yourself and go to the hallway to answer whoever was calling.

"Hey! What's up with your roommate? Are they an asshole? It's okay, I live nearby you can-"

"Oh no actually my roommate's awesome! We hit it off so fast!"

"Oh really... Hey, what's their name? Maybe I would know them!" Lauren definitely wasn't planning on searching whoever this bastard is and ruin their reputation inside out.

"Oh her name's Lorelai Marlowe! Super cute and kind! You'd like h-"

"Lorelai Marlowe?? You're dorm buddy is Lorelai Marlowe?? Are you sure??"

"Uh, yeah? That's what she told me at least... Why?"

"Nothing nothing... Say, does she have cool tan skin? Long brown hair? Green eyes?"

"Wow! How'd you know? Are you guys friends?"

"You could say that... Hey listen I gotta go, love ya."

"Oh uh-" And the phone cut off, how weird was it she said Love you? Maybe she just says that to her parents whenever she calls, who knows!

Soon after, when Lauren knew you'd be busy in class (which she skipped) she went on to confront her conniving traitor of a distant cousin, "Hey dickweed." Lauren calls out to Lorelai, she knew your dorm number since you told her, Lorelai spins around surprised to see Lauren standing tall and proud at her door, her face ice cold.

Confused Lorelai smiled awkwardly, "Hey... What are you doing here...? How did you-"

"Doesn't matter, I don't care. But you need to fucking change dorms now."

Lorelai scrunched her face now a little angry and confused, "What? Why?"

"Because what belongs to me is sharing this nasty dorm with you, and I don't want you near them at all. Do you understand? Or do I need to rephrase it for your feeble mind?"

Feeble? What is wrong with her what did Lorelai even do to get Lauren this mad?

Now also getting upset Lorelai attempted to defend herself, "What's yours? Do you even hear yourself? You can't own people Lauren! And fuck you no I'm not changing dorms just because you-"

Lauren was never nice, she never claimed to be, and when she doesn't get her way, she always turns to violence. Much like now, slapping her own family before grasping Lorelai by the shirt collar, "I don't think you heard me, you filthy traitor. Do not ever. EVER. Approach them. They are mine." Lauren aggressively says, damn near spitting on Lorelai's face with how angry she was.

Thrown to the floor by the much more physically talented Lauren, Lorelai coughed watching Lauren walk off.

Lorelai was no quitter, and she'll be damned if she gave into Lauren's harassment.

In fact she will become closer and closer to you, cuddle you when you're sad, help you with your studies, laugh with you. She will pull at your heartstrings until you inevitably choose her. Love Lorelai, kiss Lorelai, touch Lorelai, be passionate with Lorelai.

Or Lorelai would wish, the following day you had been acting a little weird, kind of stand offish but Lorelai chalked it up to being nervous with a new dormmate or something, she didn't have the time to think over it as she woke up late for her morning class. Yet when she returned she found your half completely empty, everything you put up and took the time to organise had been swiped off, it was as empty as when she first saw it.

Lorelai would try all she could to call and text you, only to get caller busy every single fucking time, until she got one singular text from you as her heart jumps from joy.

'lori lori lori i never knew u'd be such a creep lol i told u i wont let u be near whats mine. dont try coming near them so help me god i will fucking kill you.'

It was so painfully obvious that that was Lauren, texting from your phone, yet Lorelai tried one more time to text you, to call you only to find out she's been blocked.

Lorelai's meakness had caused her to lose someone so precious, and allow someone so vile to reap the rewards.

Lorelai should've been more careful, who knows what type of rumours go around, they can even affect roommates. But that's okay, you have Lauren now, caring Lauren, touchy Lauren, winner Lauren.

[bellybiologist]

January 2025 Announcements and Retrospection

Rolling into the new year! Gonna start the announcements, then go a bit into how the year's gone afterward.

======

January's Poll will be up shortly! The winning theme is "Game Over," and I will go into detail on the poll post. One that could be fun with a broad scope!

December's Patreon Fills are still in Progress! I have the last 2 sketched and partly lined, so they'll be done this or next week.

Commissions are still Open! Comms are still a bulk of my monthly income, so i'm still accepting submissions, even if you're already on the list! I understand the wait time is long, but all commissioners are free to add to, adjust, or change orders they've already made at any time! Just contact me to through any method you'd prefer to discuss any changes to an existing order. Click here for the form for a new submission!

A new Reward Request Post will be going up! Patrons are free to leave one in there even if you already have one from last month's! November's requests will have expired though! So if those haven't been drawn, you will need to re-suggest them. December's will expire when February rolls around. See this document to see whats on the list, what expired, and what has been done!

======

Alright! So 2024. 😅 This was honestly a pretty disappointing year for several reasons (July and November come to mind), but there are some upsides! I managed to wipe out a few debts to help me make the money i need per month a bit more easily in the final couple months... though part of that was negated because rent went up. 😒

I've unfortunately not been able to save up to go visit my boyfriend, and had very little time to indulge personal projects. The one I did start (my OC height chart) is still missing some boys! I'm hoping I can at least squeeze some of that in and also save up to fly north once this year. While I'm not finishing as many commissions as I'd like, I did knock out a bit more than 30 orders, while also filling 78 stream requests! That's very much not nothing, and I'm pleased with the work that i have finished. (Gotta keep score for my own health, haha). That said, I'm gonna still try to do my best to try to catch up a bit more this year I'm going to try to be a bit more engaging on social media as well, especially after the big exodus from, well, X.

I really couldnt have made it without my most faithful patrons and customers, so a big thanks to you guys as well! I'm being tentatively optimistic despite it all, so let's try to make it to 2026 now, yeah?

[blindrapture]

SATURDAY JULY 23RD, 2011 (Goodbye, Swamp Queen)

5:40 AM Man, we passed out. We're still on the rooftop. The colors in the sky are noticeably different. A lot more reds this time. "What did you dream of?" Uh? Like. Seeing a haunted house? There was a ghost that startled me. Why, what did you dream of? "There was a face looking into my dream from behind a wall. Like a snake's face. I could feel it was there, because it didn't feel like it belonged in my head at all." Uh. Okay. Maybe we should get moving early today, then.

5:41 AM Went down the stairs, but the stairs leading further are blocked by a door that won't budge. We've gotta go looking around storage. It's still all.. y'know... boxes and mannequins. But there's more rooms. god I'm yawning

5:42 AM okay we've checked a lot of doors. what are we. looking for? "another way down." I'm just seeing a ton of boxes. some, like, metal pipe scaffolding, stuff that you can build makeshift stores out of. a stack of flyers. NO STEALING! NO ABUSE OF STAFF! VIOLATORS WILL BE PUT INTO STORAGE. huh. well luckily, we just had free samples last night, we didn't steal anything.

5:43 AM "Dammit. There's nothing. Maybe there's a key in one of the boxes, but there's way too many boxes to just go searching blindly." Yeah, I'd rather we not do that. And what if the key's not even up here but on some security guard downstairs? Or someone who's gone home! "But then what? We're not climbing down this building on the outside. I don't have the grappling hook anymore, y'know!" We might have to try and cross the border ourselves, now that we've had the rest. "And potentially get into a shootout with the new border patrol." Potentially. "sighhhh. okay, yeah."

5:44 AM ..the way back is blocked by a lot of mannequins. "Where did they..?" Is someone in here with us? "Aaaah!" now there's mannequins behind us. "Jordan, it's the mannequins! They're moving by themselves!" I've gathered that now! Stay back! Or, like, talk to us! We don't want to fight! now the ones by the stairs are closer. okay donnie, back-to-back, they move when we're not looking. "No, they're still moving! I can see them!" well then I guess we forced their hand. Stay back!!! For fuck's sake!! We have weapons! .."please kill us." what? "use your weapons. please. kill us." it's a garbled and muffled voice. from within the mannequins. do we. do we have to? ..a mannequin grabbed donnie's gun. dragged the barrel to its own forehead. "kill us."

6:33 AM There were a lot of them. It took about a dozen whacks in the head to kill the first one, and then once one had died, suddenly the doors to the staircase opened up, and all the mannequins from the other storage floors came up asking for a piece. So we worked together, Donnie whacking with her rifle, me with Tiger Stripes. (We were not going to waste the last of our ammo on this. We would have had to switch to whacking shortly in anyway.) And, steadily, we cleared the floors until there was nothing left asking for death. I can't say this was the.. most pleasant experience, but. We made it to the mall proper. The lights are off right now. I guess it's not a 24-hour mall. But that's okay. We're just looking for a Door.

6:35 AM "Score!" rabbit hole? "Crisps! Beef jerky! Fruit! Ready-to-eat food!" oh shit! are there any slim jims? grab what you can! "I'm grabbing plastic bags! You get some drinks!"

6:39 AM What about this hallway here? It looks unnaturally long for what the building's like on the outside. "Gotta be! Let's go!"

6:40 AM End of the longgg hallway. There's a door here. Here we go. On the other side will be another world, or maybe we'll be back on Earth. :D … It's a security office. Two big beady-eyed prawn-men in uniforms, who had previously been watching us steal food via the monitors in front of them, are now turned around, looking right at us. This was not a rabbit hole door.

6:41 AM RUNNING FROM THE LAW

6:42 AM ducking in a clothing store

6:43 AM I think we bamboozled them "jordan…" oh. this is a clothing store. the mannequins are all looking at us. uh. shhhhh! we're not here! you didn't see us! … also, um. do you guys happen to know the way out?

6:44 AM they pointed us to the bathroom across from the clothing store. we're. sneaking. across. looking around for security. trying to be reaaaal quiet with our bags. … OKAY WE'RE IN but this is still just the bathroom. option for male and female. uh. do we each try one? donnie wants us to stick together. okay. let's. eenie meenie miney mo? men's bathroom.

6:45 AM MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, GAGGED CUSTOMERS ON TABLES, BINS FILLED WITH DISCARDED SKIN, EMPTY MANNEQUIN SHELLS WAITING TO BE FILLED WITH MEAT AND SHRIMP-MEN WITH BONESAWS AND BLOOD-SPLATTERED VISORS LOOKING RIGHT AT US

6:46 AM So that was the wrong room. It was the women's restroom that was the rabbit hole. Simple mistake. Now we're stepping out in a T.J. Maxx. The lights are off here too, but at least the exit is right there, leading out to Earth, where it should.

6:48 AM We're here! On Earth!! Outside! In the red sky!

6:50 AM A little looking-around told us we're in a town called Fresno. At first I thought that was an Italian restaurant, but, no, it's a place! In California. And with a T.J. Maxx comes a parking lot, and with a parking lot comes the chance of hotwiring a working car!

6:54 AM SUCCESS WE ARE ON THE MOVE AGAIN EVERYTHING'S COMING UP MILHOUSE

7:15 AM Reached a town called Kernan.

7:20 AM It's all the same, deserted streets, a notable lack of cars except for the occasional broken-down hunk. We've been passing a lot of graffiti, and I've made sure to slow down so I can write it down. "CALIFORNIA DYING OF FEAR" "LISTEN TO THE STOMPING SIRENS: FUCK IT ALL, JUST DANCE" there are a lot of drawings of what I'm pretty sure are Legsteps o_o "MY DADDY'S GOT A GUN, YOU'D BETTER RUN" "DRAW A STAIRWAY FOR MY GOD TO SPITE THE SOFA OF MY FAITH" "WHAT DID DOCTOR CLOUD DISCOVER IN THE GENERA?" "^ Answers." "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "HEY JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "WHERE IS JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" I'm seeing that message in a lot of hands. This has got to be what EAT was talking about. And I see it, I just don't get it. Donnie's grabbing my hand. "We're gonna find out together. I've got your back, and you've got mine." Yeah. :)

7:36 AM With no sign of people anywhere, I think we'd best keep moving. Leave this town. We've gotta look for people.

7:52 AM Lots of vultures in the sky again. "Look! On the side of the road! A hitchhiker?" They're looking at us, but I mean, we're a moving car, we're a rare sight. They don't have any bags, or any broken car, or even any visible weapons. It's just some woman in greasy plaid. "...she's walking into the road." Well, roll your window down so we can talk, but I don't plan on stopping. "Hey! Are you okay?" ...she's. still walking out into the road. and when I slowed down, so did she. I think she's planning on "WHAT THE FUCK" SHE OPENED ONE OF OUR BACK PASSENGER DOORS AND JUST CLIMBED IN "EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" "I have looked into it further." What? donnie "WHAT?" stopping the car. "The graffiti has many copycats by now. I believe some unrelated humans assumed it was some kind of inside joke or quote and are spreading it." donnie "Hey! Hey! Who the fuck are you, get out of our car! I have a gun! You stink like a wet dog!" she is looking at us, or, past us? hard to tell. Are you.. Salmacis? a very mechanical smile. "You remembered." oh THANK FUCK donnie's annoyed but is a lot less alarmed. "Okay, can you not do that kind of thing again?" "You were in a moving vehicle. I was not going to be able to communicate everything in a brief few seconds as you passed by. If you wish to resume driving, we can talk on the way." donnie and I are looking at each other

7:53 AM Donnie's driving now, I'm in the passenger seat so I can talk with EAT. And they've scooted over to the opposite side so they can see me better. Um. Hello, Salmacis! "Disarming greetings." How.. have you been? I like your.. Camper… donnie "it fucking stinks" well I think she's kinda pretty "This was the nearest body on hand. I have been observing, inquiring, learning, as well as some other activities you are best ignorant of." o_o "Understand, I mean that not out of a desire to keep you in the dark. The other activities have involved a lot of killing. You asked." I.. asked how you've been. donnie "you're not gonna get a good answer. it's not a human." "Actually. I have been scared." o__o "I am not used to not knowing something this large. The nature of Rapture. The changes coming to my planet. I am not used to feeling scared." It's a rotten feeling, but if you can get past it, you get a lot of adrenaline! "I am used to adrenaline. Each of my bodies has its own chemical rhythms, and adrenaline is easy to trigger. I am not used to not knowing. This is something of incredible size merging with us. This is not a force of military might, or even a new Fear, I am used to dealing with those. This is…" An entire universe. "..it is?" You, uh. You didn't know that one? "It had occured to me as a possibility. Where did you hear this?" Oh, god. Tiresias, definitely. But there was a guy in New York too, who was the first to tell us. A government guy. "They're holding back from me. The government does not surprise me, but Tiresias? He can normally be trusted. Do you know of his certainty?" Uh! Not necessarily? It could have just been the closest way of explaining it to us at the time. Or. .… sigh. let me just show you the journal.

8:07 AM Got my journal back. "Appreciated." You're.. ...you're welcome, EAT. o: (donnie's tensing up. she's.. dammit, I know.) "I see what you mean. It may have been a lie-to-children. However, it strikes me as close to the truth. This would explain why I cannot enter Xanadu myself." It would? Wait, you can't? "Whenever a Camper enters a Door, it blacks out, and I lose that body entirely. I have never recovered one of these bodies." ...Indisen… "The presence of Indisen on Earth, outside of the Doors, complicates it for me. I would have expected my lost bodies to become the cadavers that they should be and just fall over on the spot. I would have expected all my missing Camper to be corpses in Xanadu. But they are not." Is this also what the Camper Festival is? Because you don't know about that either. And it's a whole bunch of Camper, in Xanadu, doing their thing. "These are all connected, I am positive of that." donnie "This is all fascinating, but, what about the graffiti here in California? Someone's looking for Jordan. And, hell, we're here now. Should we be worried? Threatened? Should we leave?" Yeah, EAT, you're kinda the only reason we're here. ...another smile. o_o <_< >_> … ouo?

"There is someone here in California who claims to know you. I have met him, though it was fleeting. He gave his name as Derek Taylor." Derek?? Really?? O: "You know the name, then." He's!!! I mean, if he's who he says he is... then he's someone I know!! Someone I would want to meet! Then! Where? Where did you meet him? "I met him in San Francisco, though I have no reason to be certain he is still there." Argh! But why? Doesn't he know the first rule of asking someone to meet you somewhere??? "I'm just the messenger on that one. He said to tell you he would either be in San Francisco or Los Angeles." Huh. Okay, that's.. helpful! "I said I would look into it, and I did." smiling again. "This is, as you put it, the overture of our continued friendship." !!! :D ...car swerved. donnie definitely didn't like that. I mean. right. I am.. pleased you are approaching this so respectfully. "We have no reason to obstruct one another. Everything I have seen from you, from both of you, suggests you are an ally. Victoria, do you hear me too?" I think that's you, donnie she said "I'm listening, yes." "You are unsure of whether to trust me. I respect your trepidation; it has worth as a survival instinct. I do not believe I can simply talk my way into your good graces. But, if you two are willing to remain in California for a few days, I will earn your trust through action."

"...there's something you've failed to address." "What's that?" "Why? Why do you, the all-powerful god of whatever, want us to trust you? What are you planning on doing that is going to require our trust? I mean, require, to the point that you can't just do it anyway without us?" "I can learn from you. I have already been learning from humans by observing at a distance. For more years than there are numbers, I have been doing that, I found comfort in it. Normally, when threats come, they are nothing to me, and I can just watch humans die to it. I grew comfortable in that too. But everything has changed and will continue to change, and for once it's something that is a threat to me, to my continued existence. I cannot just keep going by the motions. I need to change my approach. I wish to try." ...donnie is silent. "I am making no effort to attack either of you. Do you acknowledge that?" "I do." "Do you have any more questions for me?" "Yeah. Why does your body stink so bad? You had vultures following you, y'know." "Those vultures were Camper." "What?!" what?! "As long as a body can contain my water, it is a valid vessel. Birds can travel faster than humans and gather information unheeded. As you have demonstrated, they do not arouse suspicion easily." donnie, I just, I fucking love this thing she rolled her eyes "As for the stink, it's probably because this Camper had been dormant in a pile of mud for the last several months." "Well. Thanks for.. getting in our car." "Sarcasm noted. I'm learning what you dislike." "Lesson for the future: Very, very few humans like that." ...........…<__<;;;;;

8:14 AM and, as abruptly as it entered, salmacis opened a door and just fell out of the car. donnie's breathing sighs of relief and I'm just.. hand on the window.... goodbye, swamp queen.…

8:29 AM Town of Madera. We've stopped to get our bearings. Maybe also to air out the car a bit.

8:30 AM "So." ...yeah? "I don't.. get it. But it is here. And it wants to help us. Says it does." It told us that Bones is here. "Bones?" Derek. "Wasn't he.. some friend of yours from Georgia?" My best friend. We stayed at his house, and he wasn't there. I had hoped he wasn't dead. And he's here, in.. one of two cities. "We need to find a road map for California. We need to start checking some buildings. Figure out which city is closer."

8:41 AM trolling around, checking the buildings that might be of help. hotels. government buildings. if we can find a damn Publix or something, those have tons of magazines near the entrance. Donnie's checking out buildings on foot, but I said I'd take the car to look in the other direction. because I.. don't mind.…

8:48 AM there's donnie, shouting and waving for me. I think she's found one.

8:49 AM she did. and we're sitting inside this book store now, looking at the map.

8:52 AM "Right. So. We're actually in a good spot here. San Francisco and Los Angeles are both.. really close." Oh, neat! "However, they are in opposite directions. We can either go 3 hours north and hit San Francisco, or 3 hours south and hit Los Angeles." And so, if he's not in one, it's 6 hours in the other direction. Okay. That doesn't sound too bad. "God, I really hope we didn't go all this way for him to just say 'nice hat' and that's it..."

8:54 AM jesus, okay, yeah, the car does still.. reek. we'll... leave it a bit longer. there's no time limit on all this.

2:22 PM We slept for longer than intended, in the cover of the bookstore, but we kept our stuff with us, and if anyone came by, they weren't interested in our car. So we ate some of our snacks and got on the road again! I'm driving.

4:50 PM "Slow down, do you see that?" It's San Francisco. With a very blatant dome of blue sky above it. Little specks are flying around the sky. "Those must be the Ants. I wish I could make them out from here…" The RAF, or the Anonymous going by the name of the RAF, must have amassed here as well, then. This will probably be another place that cares about money. "Shit."

4:52 PM We were almost considering turning back and trying Los Angeles first when we saw another hitchhiker coming for our car. This one wasn't EAT, though. It's a young woman named Evi who was trying to get to an RAF meetup before her transport got grabbed by "the Morphs."

4:53 PM The Morphs are the bird Fear. I've seen them come out of lightning, Donnie's seen them swirl around and change the landscape, and now apparently Evi's seen them grab whole cars and carry them away.

4:54 PM She's trying to join the California branch of the Anon squad. They're going to stage an attack on the rich people who live in San Francisco and are calling for all volunteers. "Didn't you hear? The billionnaires are partnering up with the Fears and causing the red sky!" I.. don't think that's true. But we'll drive her to this meetup.

5:30 PM Well, much like Las Vegas, this place looks quite safe. There are some zombies in the streets, but they're not even hostile, they're just stumbling around. Maybe the Fears are in cahoots here?

5:34 PM The signage around here is rather consistent in calling this Sanctuary Francisco. Evi says that's legit. The name was changed. That keeps it consistent with New Sanctuary. I guess it's good advertising.

5:41 PM She's directed us to a semidetached little house. Donnie had a nap on the way here, but she's awake now. We're gonna go in and see.

5:44 PM There's only a handful of people here. The leader, as pleased as can be to see new volunteers, is a lady named Heaven. There's also a gruff dude named Cody, who cannot keep his eyes off Donnie. There’s three teenagers in Guy Fawkes masks, too. Tiger, Winston, and Jackie. This is about as American a group as it gets.

5:46 PM Hey, Heaven. So you guys are.. with Anonymous? "They're not really called that anymore. They're just Rise Against Fear." Yeah, but. There's already a branch of the military called that. shrug "News to me." Okay. And. Evi told us, on the way over here, that.. the Fears are allied with billionaires? "Oh yes. There's a lot of documentation on this from leading members. I subscribe to the idea that the Fears are actually bribing the rich, as they correctly identified that's the language they'd listen to most, but that when the Fears have completed their plans, they'll just kill them all anyway." Right. That's a reasonable supposition. But do you guys think.. the rich caused the red sky? "100%. It's all the pollution, it's finally caught up with us." ......right. You got beverages here? I am parched!

5:50 PM god they're utterly clueless. oh, uh. hey. tiger, right? "hey." I'm jordan. "hey jordan." how's it. how's it going. "boring." yeah. I get that. "do you want to ditch this place? there's a party going on a couple blocks away." oh. really? are you sure that's, like. okay? "yeah. heaven and cody have a plan they need us for, but that's not gonna be ready for a couple days. I just came here to get my DS." oh fuck, what model? "it's the 3DS! it just came out this year! it's so cool, it's like 3D movies but without the glasses!" ohhhh!!!! dope!!!! "do you have one?" oh god no! I have an old DS. "like a DSi, or a DS Lite, or...?" the. the old one. the first one. "oh..... damn. grandpa gaming." don't you go there! we'll go toe-to-toe, and I can get really rowdy! "haha! so, I'm about to head to the party with jackie and wince. do you want to come with?" yeah! let me just go get donnie, and we'll follow you.

5:53 PM Donnie's talking with that Cody guy. Hey! Hey, Donnie. c: "Hi! Jordan! Let me, um. You're not gonna believe this." What, does he have a 3DS too? "This is Cody. Or, as I knew him, CodeMaster64. He was my ex." Oh! Wow! Damn! "I know!" cody "And you are?" I'm.. DJay32. I mean. I'm Jordan. Donnie and I came all the way from England. "To come here? Did even England hear about us?" Oh! No! No, Anonymous are kinda obscure; I feel like I'm more famous. We came here looking for "Well, who the fuck are you?" I'm! The White Jester. I probably shouldn't have said that. "That... name is familiar. Okay, I'll admit, I've heard the name. Can't place where..." I'm sorry for!! Insulting the RAF. A lot is happening right now. I came to get Donnie. donnie "What's happening?" a party. few blocks away. "..that does sound like fun…" cody "Go on, Don. We'll talk more later."

5:57 PM ON THE WAY TO A PARTY

9:16 PM It was, indeed, a party. Mostly young people who have nothing else to do. The music's a little too bland for my tastes, or, at least, I'm not familiar with most of it, so I found where all the gamers were hanging out and spent time there. :3 Donnie's gonna head back to the house, but I'm gonna stay a little longer.

9:32 PM "FEAR AT THE DOOR!" everyone's freaking out

9:33 PM It's a. It's a zombie. A single zombie.

9:34 PM "HE KILLED THE FEAR!" "THIS GUY'S AWESOME!" Thank you, thank you. -w- I guess I can get used to this crowd. :D

11:10 PM Got back. Heaven's got a cot for me to sleep in. Donnie was waiting for me. We're gonna spoon... .w. This place isn't bad. It's kinda a little piece of the world that was, frozen in time. And if everyone here is helpful, we'll be able to find Bones-- or confirm that he's not here, so we can move on! Maybe even pretty quickly.

11:11 PM I just.. I wish that this place really is, I wish that it isn't too good to be true.

(Attached: “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me for writing this note, but I can’t ever think back to these times without cringing and wanting to cry. I don’t know how I made it out of all this alive, and how I managed to get into the mess in the first place is an even murkier subject. I don’t like spending too much time thinking about it, though, as I don’t want to fall back into that rabbit hole. It's a nonlinear subject, though, as those memories have been written over with words. In the end I, like him, was able to create. Right now it's undecided if I’ll be able to create my way out of this pit, but I am still creating context, meaning to these memories. I doubt I’ll be able to do what he does and create life, create sound, create the very idea of magnificence itself, but at least I’m able to create a reason to live out of the ruins of my spiritual death. At least I'm able to create HCEAT.”)

[PREV LOG] [TABLE OF CONTENTS] [NEXT LOG]

[2dkapsddr]

July 5th, 2024 - Arcaea, DDR WORLD, SDVX EG

goooood morning everyone!!! make sure to start your day off with a nice little run of CHAOS FTR-10+!!!

...not a great way to start the morning for most people, but i actually had a very good reason for doing this!!! that's because... today was my very special n very awesome ARCADE DAY!!! i was going to the arcade finally!!! and as such, i needed to make sure i was in the proper headspace and condition (chaotic condition btw) to make this the best session i could...

admittedly, i kinda maybe had to pick up a red bull before playing because i was feeling a little sloppy sleep-wise, but it all paid off when i got there because By Golly!!! these were only warmup scores and i wasn't really expecting to get much out of them, but i ended up pulling out some insane stuff from this warmup...??? started off with an insane 29p upscore on Scarlet Police on Ghetto Patrol (ESP-15), followed by a sightread 14 PFC on Sweetin' Fruity (ESP-14, 36p), but best of all: a sightread 15 PFC on Odore!! Virtual Animal!! (ESP-15, 41p) as my very first sightread 15 PFC and 15 PFC #9??? gotta get roppongi A as my 10th... it'll happen soon... ohyeah also an AAA GFC on POSSESSION ESP-17!!! i could probably clear this one with Flare EX actually, just gotta reduce my perfects by a little...

yet somehow, these absolutely Insane scores weren't even the highlight of the whole session. while they were greatly cool and appreciated, i had actually come with a certain goal in mind and a certain desire to accomplish it and prove my worth. and the result of this very goal lies in this next, upcoming, insane score i'm about to show off... those around me have pushed for me to finally take the next step in level PFCs and claim a 16 once and for all, but i've always felt too nervous to take that step and claim it...

that, however, was all about to change with this new score. after several attempts, going from a 930k to an AAA in the tiny span of DDR WORLD's release, i thought i was finally ready to prove my worth by getting this one... and GET IT I DID!!!! OUT OF FOCUS (CSP-16) 57P AS LEVEL 16 PFC #1!!!! ALL PERFECT AND ABOVE ON A 16.65 IN THE 3ICECREAM DIFFICULTY SCALE!!! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND ON SUCH A WACKY CHART TOO BUT I DID IT AND I'M SO HAPPY DSLKJFLSDJFLKDSJFLDSJF;LSDJ

...whew, okay, but i still had a bunch of credits left over and a bunch of time to keep gaming and rolling for some really good scores!!! and so i did!!! got a sick 4g GFC on POSSESSION (ESP-17, could maybe get a Flare EX clear on this?), some silly 13 attempts, a PFC on Top The Charts (CSP-14, 40p), and a flare EX clear on Somehow You Found Me (CSP-16)!!!

also got some sick awesome upscores on SDVX including this MASSIVE near-S on ouroboros [EXH 16], followed up by three new 17 excessive clears on Bokura no 16bit Warz [MXM 17 969], BLAZE BREEZE [MXM 17 969], and Poppin' Candy Fever!! [MXM 17 971]!!!!

[mytastessuck]

Meet The Residents

Hey kids! The Residents first studio album!

...Yeah, I never really got through it before without tuning out.

It's as avant-garde as an art rock band gets. It just sounded like random noise to me every time I heard it. Coming back after getting older...yeah, still not my favorite. I'm glad I get to keep the blog name. I was surprised by the appearance of an old favorite though. We'll get to it on the track listing.

Boots

Sounds like pained yodeling while playing on kitchenware. Love it.

8/10

2. Numb Erone

No professional training, bitches! And they still keep a tune against their best efforts to avoid it. Gotta respect that.

7/10

3. Guylum Bardot

Bringing in the woodwinds so you motherfuckers best be scared now. You can actually relax to this track which creeps me out.

8/10

4. Breath and Length

Very ominous and creepy, especially with what sounds like a toy dog barking and those freaky ladies singing. This is what I'm hear for: audio assault.

9/10

5. Consuelo's Departure

Lookit, your TV's decided to join a band! And it's in a battle against the walls playing the trumpets! Most cool.

7/10

6. Smelly Tongues

They found the guitars again and they'll make you feel like how they smell. Good string work on this.

8/10

7. Rest Arja

Good piano work. Shows that just because they refused professional training, it doesn't mean they don't take their craft seriously. Like, this is something you can hear being played in a concert hall.

8/10

8. Skratz

Alright, done with the normie stuff. Back to noise. This feels like getting drunk on laced beer at a harsh noise concert. All in all, another Fourth of July for yours truly.

7/10

9. Spotted Pinto Bean

Getting into the longer stuff now. This one has a choir singing throughout it but then whimsical music! And back to creepy horror movie pacing. Wonderful.

8/10

10. Infant Tango

This is the song that surprised me. I've listened to it by itself so many times, I've forgotten it was on this album. I love Infant Tango so much, I sing it out loud to myself whenever I'm left by myself in a room for over 30 minutes. It's one of the more accessible songs, even with the breakdown, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the croaking.

10/10

11. Seasoned Greetings

Sounds like something from a Hammer Horror film. Good energy. Works for the album.

9/10

12. N-Er-Gee (Crisis Blues)

Speaking of energy...I'm getting a lot of Third Reich and Roll vibes from this track. Might explain why I like it so much. It's chaos distilled at the tail end of a crazy ass album. Good work.

9/10

Album Score: 81/100

Join me next week (or else!) for the review of The Third Reich n Roll. See what I did up there? That's called foreshadowing.

[astralscrivener]

for the fic ask game! ★✎ϟ (for this one, in my case it's gotta be every angsty moment you write, especially every time keith cries or has a breakdown in soopits lmao <3<33)

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

gonna use SOOPITS for this question as well! in terms of chapters that are already posted, for what i wanted to write:

keith's almost assassination. i had been sitting on that for YEARS. that chapter started as a oneshot idea shortly after s3 aired (and the fandom put together in like 5 minutes that "shiro" was a clone). the oneshot never came to fruition, and then when i started SOOPITS i realized i needed to use it. desperately. the broganes angst. the klance angst. the chaos of "oh okay so we just have a secret assassin on our ship drifting in space. cool cool cool". very among us. i tried to write an among us oneshot a few years later during late 2020 and then realized that was essentially the entire s5-6 arc

the s6 finale (6.06 & 6.07). i had the ending of s6 planned FOREVERRRR i had the scene of lance in the black lion in my mind for YEEAAARSSSSS i had the keith & lance vs kuron + shiro vs sendak fights in my head FOREVERRRR i would constantly make music videos in my head to those chapters on my walks to class for a good 2 or 3 years. i dearly miss walking across the quad with starset or the score or hidden citizens blasting in my head.

the KEITH BREAKDOWN in OPERATION KURON (6.05). another chapter i had rattling around in my mind for years. like hey it sure is fucked up that your older brother is actually a clone who tried to kill you! you know all those walls you had up? it is NOT going to be enough to hold this breakdown off. MAN. MAN

hardest scene? the goddamn TRIAL. before the current chapter which is giving me grief (gameshow rewrite), the trial chapter took me AGES. i started it in like september 2019. by the time i updated it, it was ten months later. july 2020. covid had started. everyone's lives were in shambles. i rewrote it dozens of times. i watched judge judy as "research." i had extensive talks with nicole. i hated writing that chapter so bad but i feel like the ending was rewarding enough

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

so i actually do have a reliable answer for this. keith and lance almost always have a very "us against the world" kind of mindset in my fics, and i guess someone reading one of my fics one time didn't look at the author that closely and realized it was me when they did their whole "you and me" "us against the world" shtick so. devoted klance ig! disgustingly in love dumbasses!

ϟ tell me what moment/scene in [fic] made you sicko in the window.jpg to read and i’ll tell you which scene made me feel that way to write

my GODDDDDDD first of all thank you. i also go bonkers over writing keith being emotional. he's very repressed in public / in front of the team and in private he is a mess and emotional. boy has walls up

scenes that made me sicko in the window to WRITE are indeed all the scenes where keith is emotional, especially those scenes in s4 (particularly 4.05) where he tells off kuron. stand UP for yourself bestie !!!

also, all of the scenes in 6.06/6.07 with keith, matt, and lotor, and then in 7.01/.02/.03 with keith, matt, and pidge. i LOVE writing keith and matt as friends/relating to each other, but also i love writing keith and pidge as besties who relate to each other. i am having a GREAT time making matt avoid his own trauma.

oh and also? the entire operation kuron chapter. actually just all of 6.05-6.07. absolutely fucking bonkers. cackling at my monitor the whole time

thank u for the asks these are fun !!

fic ask game!

[reinereix]

problems :))

my parents have been fighting continuously over extended familial problems and my mom blames it all on me that bcuz of me they are fighting. my dad blames my mom that she doesnt look after me and cuz of dat i score less marks. they have been extra like super extra pressurising me to study but since July ion even feel like and even if i get 45/50 they scold me! my friend scored 46 and compared me to her... my tution teacher told my parents that i dont pay attention in the class nor tuition just because i yawn... and because of that my parents have been extra pressurising me. i dont even get free time.. of my own.. always telling me to study (im in 9th grade). my mom's getting a lot over controlling now. she asked me to delete ig cuz its a "distraction" when its the only one app which makes me feel like yeah im doing well (tho ik im addicted) In July 2023, i once accidentally posted a meme of my teacher (not made by me) on my story and a bitch snitched on me and told her and the teacher complained the principal and she called my dad! and i got real bad scolding in a very harsh tone by my dad i swear... after dat day i have never been the same. they dont even trust me when i say it wasnt me who made it. i lost my appetite... i lost my energy. I WAS JUST WASNT THE SAME. i almost blacked out in the middle of shopping... my mom tells me she should have killed me when i was born. i should have been born as a cow not human and if i was she would have beat me up in the worst possible way. she runs behind me with a heated pressure cooker and knife etc if we even get in an argument. today she picked up my guitar to hit me. before it was a chair. my parents threaten to rot me, lock me up, break my legs, hands etc. my mom says im not worthy to be a human and when i say her the things which she says me she's triggered and wants to hit me. and i cant even justify/explain myself because that's considered talking back. cant shut the door for gods sake. one time it slipped from my mouth that i might be in depression infront of my mum and all she said was "dats why u gotta study" "what pain/sadness do you have? do you not get food? clothing? shelter? do we not provide you with everything you need" my parents forbad me to take part in any extra curricular activities and forcing me to take part in quizes and what not, like debates? competition regarding intellect which ive absolutely no interest in...plus watching yt explanation videos is also not allowed atm DUDE IM SO DONE.. i cant even visit my friends, nor go out w them... i cant even tell my dad im using insta...i cant even tell them ab my male friends, cant even introduce my male seniors (who are like my brothers) to them, cant invite them over either...its an unending list.. i wished to write more but nvm! thanks for reading :) i hope you are having an amazing day/night <3 with regards - T ps im from India

[breakfromwork]

June 6-July 6th, Washington

We wandered downtown Port Angeles on the June 6th, where we posed with one of the dozens of sculptures around town.

On the 7th, we headed up to Deer Park to take a spectacular view of Hurricane ridge we'd been told about... gorgeous as promised.

Gae was preparing for the upcoming Port Angeles Garden Club meeting, creating a hat with a bee on it (Bee in a Bonnet theme), arriving at this colorful display:-)

My buddy Mike came out to PA for a bike ride on the Adventure Trail portion of the Discovery trail... great ride with nice views. Now we just need to cover the remaining 25 miles!

My nephew Zach, his girlfriend Iris, and their new family addition, Joey came to visit on the 16th, where we wandered the Peabody Creek trail that runs by the end of our block.

Zach's Mom and Dad joined in the visit on the 18th, where we caught up since our last visit at Christmas. Three generations!

Gae and I attended the PA Garden Club luncheon on the 19th, for a nice lunch and live entertainment (member presentations).

Gae and I rode the Discovery Trail along the waterfront to check out the areas of her responsibility in her new role at the Garden Club. Thankfully a large volunteer group will spread the load maintaining the trail and garden beds downtown.

The neighbor's girlfriend stopped by with 9 German Shepherd puppies she was selling. I gotta say, timing is everything, as Gae happened to hear them yipping, checked out the noise and added another member to the family. Meet Raina:-) Kind of hard to see between the two white pups.

I got over to Seattle for a round of golf with Andy and Mike on the 29th, followed by a Mariners game on the 30th. The team started well, but was crushed by the end of the game... fun time in spite of the score.

July 2nd I joined our visitors Debb and Kipp for a tide-pooling session out at Salt Creek Rec Area in the perfect weather.

It was a great day for seeing some amazing creatures in the pools, like this purple Sea Urchin.

Gae skipped the tide pooling to join in on a church group hike to Madison Falls, near the Elwa River.

Rob and Ben joined us for the weekend of July 3rd, and were happy to get up to Deer Park to take in the views. Behind them is Port Angeles with the Ediz Hook and the Strait of Juan De Fuca.

We made another trip to Deer Park with Kipp and Deb on the 4th, where the haze from Canadian Fires shortened viewing distances.

We took the Blackball ferry to Victoria on the 6th to visit Butchart Gardens... another flawless day:-)

The gardens were as spectacular as we remembered from our last visit over 30 years ago.

Here's Deb and Kipp in a tunnel of roses.

Gae wanted to ride the carousel, but we limited her to the bronze stationary horse... chalk up another injury free outing!

We headed for Chinatown after the gardens for some food, where we had to travel the narrowest street in Victoria. Built originally to keep the police from approaching illicit business by horse, giving owners and patrons time to hide their dirty laundry. I would HIGHLY recommend the Fan Tan Cafe, and specifically Spicy Lo Wor Won Ton, unbelievable good!

[quoteoftheweekblog]

SUE MONK KIDD - 'THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES' (FIRST PUBLISHED 2001)

First sentence:

'At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzz that hummed along my skin.' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.1).

On bees:

' "Bees swarm before death,' ... " (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.1).

'She reminded me that the world was really one big bee yard, and the same rules worked fine in both places ... ' (Monk Kidd, p.95).

' "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." ' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.152).

' "When a bee flies, a soul will rise ... " ' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.213).

On life:

'People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life.' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.2).

' "There is nothing perfect ... There is only life." ' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.265).

'It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.289).

On education:

'What kind of person is against "reading"? I think he believed it would stir up ideas of college, which he thought a waste of money for girls, even if they did, like me, score the highest number a human being can get on their verbal aptitude test. Math aptitude is another thing, but people aren't meant to be overly bright in everything.' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.15).

On Shakespeare:

'I was the only student who didn't groan and carry on when Mrs Henry assigned us another Shakespeare play.' (Monk KIdd, 2015, p.16).

On literature:

' "Who do you think you are, Julius Shakespeare?" The man sincerely thought that was Shakespeare's first name ... He also referred to me as Miss Brown-Nose-in-a-Book and occasionally as Miss Emily-Big-Head "Diction". He meant Dickinson ... ' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.16-7).

'It reminded me of a Grimm Brothers forest, drawing up the nervous feelings I used to get when I stepped into the pages of fairy tales where unthinkable things were likely - you just never knew.' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.52).

On civil rights:

' "Today, July second, 1964 ... the preseident of the United States signed the Civil Rights Act into law in the East Room of the White House ... " ' (Monk KIdd, 2015, p.21).

' "Have you registered yourself to vote?" ' (Monk kidd, 2015, p.108).

' "We can't think of changing our skin ... Change the world - that's how we gotta think." ' (Monk KIdd, 2015, p.223).

' "I'll be casting my vote for Mr Johnson." ' (Monk Kidd, 2015, p.293).

REFERENCE

Monk Kidd, S. (2015 [2001] 'The secret life of bees'. Amazon.com [E-book]. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Bees-Monk-Kidd-ebook/dp/B004P8ITOM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= (Accessed 26 October 2024).

[despair-to-future-arcs]

I still believe there’s something shady behind this.

I think so, especially given what I know about Kikue...

CHIAKI: From what I'm seeing of Kikue's profile, she score quite low on the exams during the first year.

Indeed and that is the part that confuses me, Kikue would never score that lowly; she actually did the most studying and even her own teacher stated that she would score very high which she was just as confused as the rest of us.

In fact, I think all of us at the time thought Ibuki or Akane was going to get kick out.

CHIAKI: Wait, you mean those 2?

Well of course and I'm not saying that to be harsh or cruel, it was obvious to everyone that either of those 2 were going to get the kick from Class 77, like it or not - that is how Hope's Peak Academy was run.

If you score the lowest of your Class year, one person is to be expelled, no exception; it was the same for our senior year too so studying for the exams was necessary.

So why... why did Kikue get expelled?! I still don't understand how it happen but it did!

...

...

...

Date: July 10th, 2010

*at the library, the girls of Class 77 were all studying together*

Man... why do we gotta study? I really don't wanna study...

But we have to, given that written exams are 50 percent of your exam grade.

Exactly, unless you want to be kick out then you better continue to study, even if you aren't good at it.

Easy for you to say, you 2 got talents that have history while mine is music, not sure why I have to write it and even Akane might do better because se at least has Nekomaru helping her and Shoji is in Class 76 so meaning I'm on my own.

Yeah but even then I tend to fall asleep, it's hard to focus on that stuff when all I can do is perform some tricks.

Yeah... honestly I think for those that have talents that aren't written; we all probably are gonna have a hard time.

Oh well, except for Kikue; she probably grade the highest of us!

*has a bunch of books around her and reading them and writing* ...

Yeah honestly thinking on it, Kikue getting the highest score would be easy.

Say Kikue... can you maybe give us some tips to help us out?

Hey, no cheating Kiriko! I thought that was clear we don't do that!

I know co-student council president but I just figure asking for some tips could be helpful and it's not cheating; just some advice and besides, it's not like we are asking for her notes; after all, it's just to help make studying easier for some of us.

You want some tips? Well, I wouldn't mind to give you all some.

Well if I have to give advice here; I recommend to keep your area clean, it helps when working also background music can really help too.

Whoa so listening to music can help?

Well yeah a psychologist name Francis Rauscher, whose research on music and the brain inadvertently prompted the whole “play classical music to your unborn child” craze, the brain can improve certain cognitive skills so maybe bring some headphones and CDs to listen to and it doesn't have to classical either, whatever music you enjoy and helps with studying should do.

Hmm, okay I guess I can do that; I was always told that not listen to my music but that's useful.

Indeed, as long as your not distracting others; you should be fine. While for Akane, I do recommend bringing some snack foods you can eat while studying; probably fish, nuts, seeds, yogurt and blueberries would help out.

Wait so your saying that food can help with studying too?

Yeah it can, choosing nutritious foods that have been proven to aid concentration and memory, even eating a good meal before exams can help as well. I can make some recommendations of what you can eat if it helps and write them down.

Okay, thanks! I'll be sure to keep that in mind and have Coach Nekomaru get me some.

Thank you so much Kikue, I think having you help us with studying really has help and might make it easier.

It's fine, after all; I think if we all want to success then it's best to work together and try to ask for help; that is what we should be doing so let's keep going.

'Kikue help with study group sessions, giving us all tips and advice to help with our exams, she seem like she would score the highest and even told us that even if we don't success; the best we did is at least try...but... but she didn't pass...'

[ilopisara]

20.05. 20:52 | Ilo Pisara vs METINATAJI LV 5 - 4

Alright, folks! Let's break down that nail-biter of a game where we edged out METINATAJI LV 5-4. First off, hats off to our boys for pulling through! Teppo Winnipeg was like a Swiss Army knife on defense—solid with those five interceptions and four hits. But buddy, you gotta work on not warming the penalty box so much; four minutes? What are you doing in there, knitting? Yuri Tarde was an absolute beast at center. Four assists and one goal? The guy's practically printing points faster than Monopoly money! And winning over 72% of faceoffs? Someone get this man a crown. Now let's talk about Macho Fantastico—four goals including the game-winner?! This dude’s hotter than jalapeños in July! Sure, ten giveaways might make him look like Santa Claus handing out gifts early but hey, when you're scoring like that who cares? Historically speaking, we've been riding high lately except for that hiccup against Edmonton Broilers (seriously guys?). We've got momentum now: three wins before this thriller show we're no fluke. Looking ahead—we need consistency if we want to keep roasting opponents instead of being roasted ourselves. Teppo needs fewer penalties; Yuri should keep dominating face-offs; Macho just has to stay fantastic without giving away pucks like they're free samples at Costco. So buckle up boys—it’s onward Ilo Pisara or back into tragicomedy territory—you decide! #IloPisaraForever