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wulfies-kpop-fanfics · 4 years ago

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One Photo → Mark Lee [7]

↳ Pairing: Mark Lee/Reader

↳ AU: Soulmate!AU - The first touch of two soulmates permanently scars their bodies.

↳ Word count: 3,097

↳ Chapters: Prelude | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | You Are Here! | 8 | 9

⁙ Summary: For an end of the year photography project, you’re tasked with taking a photograph for your favourite group, NCT127, and coincidentally, discover your soulmate.

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SATURDAY - 7

You awaken to a streak of morning glow shining into your bedroom through your window, the curtains slightly parted. You feel warm and comfortable, your polar bear plushie tucked neatly in your grip. When you manage to gain some semblance of morning vision, you notice that Mark wasn't with you. Before you can jump to conclusions, though, the smell of eggs and bacon wafts into your nose.

Standing and grabbing your glasses from your desk to put them on, you yawn and make your way out of your room, following the smell of breakfast.

"Here, make sure you crack it so there aren't any eggshells. The most important part is that you make sure the water is bubbling, but not boiling all the way. Then we carefully slip the egg into the water from the bowl."

Your feet idly carry you down the hallway from your room, and your eyes follow the sound of conversation and a fork scraping a plate. You meet eyes with Donghyuck, who is sitting in your makeshift dining room, freezing just as he takes a bite of scrambled eggs, his eyes wide and staring straight at you. Without a word between either of you, he chews and swallows, getting up and quickly shuffling into the kitchen.

Furrowing your eyebrows and licking your lips, you approach the arch of the kitchen and peer inside. Rhiannon is standing next to Mark, who is dipping a slotted spoon into a pot of steaming water. There's a breakfast in bed tray next to them on the kitchen counter, already topped with toast and bacon on a plate accompanied by a glass of milk.

Donghyuck comes back into your view, leaning toward Rhiannon and whispering in her ear. Her head snaps to look in your direction, elbowing Mark in the side. He nearly drops what looks like a perfectly poached egg, but still successfully manages to put it on the plate.

Mark, too, looks over at you.

"You couldn't sleep for like, five more minutes," Rhiannon is the first to speak, her words causing your cheeks to heat up. She quickly places a metal cover over the plate, shoving Mark in your direction.

Mark stumbles for a moment but quickly approaches you, taking your hands in his. He sheepishly smiles at you, leaning forward to kiss your cheek. "Go," he starts, kissing your other cheek, "back," kiss "to bed," kiss. "I wanted this to be a surprise." He's gently leading you to step backwards, down the hall and all the way back into your bed. He smooths the covers over your legs, kisses your forehead and then dashes from the room.

Your mouth hangs open with genuine surprise, your eyes glued to your bedroom door. It's not long until Mark appears again, carefully carrying the little table into the room with him.

"You really didn't have to do this for me," you remark as he gently places the table over your lap. "I should be the one cooking for you."

"You will have a million chances to cook for me in time," he said, nudging the table closer to you and lifting off the little metal cover that hid your plate. The bacon was crispy, one poached egg was on top of a piece of toast and the second piece had strawberry jam spread to the edges, just the way you like it.

"Thank you, Mark, this is too sweet, I feel bad," you laugh softly as you pick up the toast with jam to take a bite.

"Don't feel bad, I had fun cooking these, (Y/N). One second, though." Again he dashes from the room and comes back with his own plate with toast, bacon and scrambled eggs. You scooch over enough so he can fully join you again in bed, and you both share a quiet breakfast.

You begin to notice an aura in the air as you look at Mark. He seems cheerful, poking away at his meal and occasionally looking back at you, cheeks full of food and his lips decorated with crumbs from his toast. Today was the last day you would see him in person for who knows how long. You would have to let all this go- all the time you spent with him, his cheerful expressions and his touch.

You quickly peeled your eyes away from him, poking your egg with your fork and watching the yolk spill down the edge of your toast. You didn't want this week to end.

"Your exams start next week, right?" Mark's voice is soft as if he knows exactly what you're thinking about.

"Yeah," you reply, "then I have to wait for my graduation form, and then I can go to the ceremony, hopefully."

"I feel like I might have taken away any time you would have had to study," he comments dejectedly, and it makes you look at him again.

"No," you retaliate quickly, taking in a deep breath, "I've never really needed to cram like people do in the movies- I study subjects as I go. I could technically do all my exams today and be confident. Please don't feel bad, I already do."

"Ever since I met you I've been dreading today," Mark says, placing his fork and knife down on the empty plate sitting on his lap. "The day I had to leave."

You licked your lips, taking a long blink. His tone of voice made your stomach flip and your chest hurt like you were being stabbed. "Me too. I, uh, was thinking… I wanted to go to the airport with you."

Mark's eyes widened. "Really? I mean, I'm happy, but aren't you worried about all the fans and the media?"

"Yes," you nod, "but they're all going to find out eventually. I just want to spend as much time with you as I can."

"I do too," he agrees, finally wiping his mouth. "I just don't want to pull you into a world you might not be ready for."

Slowly you nodded, looking back at your nearly finished breakfast. You finish off your egg in silence, scraping up the last of the yolk with the final corner of toast. "You're a good cook," you say, a small smile tugging at your lips.

Mark laughed sheepishly, standing up. "Only because I had help. Can I take that?"

"Y-yeah. I'll get dressed. Thank you."

Mark loomed over you for a moment, gently placing his plate on top of yours and lifting the tray off your lap. "Okay. We'll leave when you're ready." With that, he was gone.

You were glad you hadn't decided to wake up early and put on makeup because if you did it would have been ruined almost as quickly as Mark left your sight. It wasn't that your mind was racing with thoughts, with what-ifs. No, it was just the idea that your life changed so quickly in one week - and now you had to go back to your normal life like nothing had happened at all.

You would be able to see him again sometime in the future, you knew this, but when he left the room, pain hit you like a wave, knowing that when he went to customs at the airport, it would really be the last time you saw him - indefinitely, until something brought you back together. So you cried, hoping to get all of it out now.

Finally dressed and looking like you had banished evidence of your tears off your face, you grabbed your backpack and looked inside. Two items were neatly secured in a cloth tote bag lined with green tissue paper - the photo frame that was neatly wrapped in bubble wrap and your most prized piece of clothing. It was the Star Wars: The Last Jedi sweater you bought on your trip to Florida with Rhiannon in the year previous, nearly three sizes too large. Smiling sadly, you ran your thumb over the fabric, then closed your backpack and secured it over your shoulders.

When you exited your room, everyone was waiting for you in the front hall. The day wasn't a happy one despite the sun bursting through the patio door, especially judging from the aura of melancholy that hit you as soon as everyone laid eyes on you.

"Ready to go?" Rhiannon was always the bravest to speak first, gently taking Donghyuck's hand. You in turn gently took Mark's hand, squeezing it ever so slightly.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

The further you went, from the dorm to the subway and from the subway to the streetcar, you felt increasingly sad. You knew that everyone was feeling the same way as you since the entire way had been completely silent. You and Rhiannon already knew the way, so the boys just followed your lead, sitting and exchanging sad smiles when any of you made eye contact.

Next stop. Next stop. Next stop. Change here for line two. Next stop. Change here for streetcar.

Once you arrive at the airport, their manager meets you. He eyes you and Rhiannon sternly until Mark speaks up, and once he is finished the manager reluctantly nods and leads you to the first-class lounge. The lounge is nearly completely empty, except for where the rest of the group is, surrounded by luggage.

There is little exchange of words when Mark and Donghyuck both take their luggage from the others. All of you gather around a flight board, watching for the Vancouver gate. You hear distant conversations, your mind almost blanking out. You took Mark's hand, causing him to look back at you with a sombre smile.

"It's not forever, you know," was the first thing Mark said to you since leaving the house. You can barely make eye contact with him, nodding and leaning into his side.

"I know, but it feels like it." You lifted your arm, looking at the scars that decorated both yours and Mark's bodies. "When I graduate I'll visit."

Mark's smile became more genuine, looking down at you with a sparkle in his eyes. "You won't just be visiting, you'll be moving."

Your eyes widened for a moment, and then you also begin to smile. "I hope so." You both settle into a mutual gaze, one that isn't exactly awkward, but it's not happy either. "Mark," you say again, after waiting far too long.

He raised his eyebrows at you, nodding questioningly. "What is it?"

You take in a deep breath, taking off your backpack and opening it up to pass Mark the tote. "As commissioned." You held it up to him, and his curious expression changed back to a genuine smile.

"Thank you," his voice was barely above a whisper, taking the tote from you and peering inside of it. "What else is here?" It sounded like he was asking that to himself as he pulled out your sweater.

"It will remind you of me," you add quietly, "and it will probably fit you better than it fits me."

"(Y/N), I can't-"

"Please?" Mark looked you in the eye as you muttered that one word, noticing that tears you had long thought you had been rid of were beginning to surface.

Mark quickly tied the sweater around his waist and gently set the tote with the photo frame to the side so Johnny could pick it up, quickly engulfing you in another hug. "Okay," he whispered, letting you dig your forehead into the crook of his neck. "Thank you."

Not long after, a small chime rang through the lounge as the next lineup of gates appeared on the large screen everyone was lurking around. It was time for the boys to head for their gate. You were reluctant to leave the tight hug Mark nearly trapped you in, and you could feel that his breathing was beginning to stutter like he was crying.

"Come on," you heard Jaehyun from beyond the grip of your soulmate, "we can't miss our flight."

You gripped your fingers into the fabric of Mark's shirt, but you knew you had to let go. As soon as you separated, Mark reached for your hand, wiping his face.

Mark and Donghyuck insisted that you and Rhiannon were allowed to walk with them until they went through security, so you decided to go with them. Your heart thumped in your chest when you remembered that fans would be waiting for them. Mark squeezed your hand gently once you tensed, hearing the sounds of camera clicks getting closer and closer. Soon enough you were bombarded by flashing cameras and stunned fans who were staring at you with varying degrees of surprise and confusion.

Mark waved toward the small crowd with his free hand, leading you past them with an experienced fervour. Once you arrive at the end of the line, still inwardly panicking, Mark turned to you, taking your other hand in his.

"I'm going to miss you," he said, smiling shyly. "Send me lots of pictures from your graduation, okay?"

"Of course," your mind was nearly taken off the crowd until Mark kissed you. Nothing like you haven't done before- sweet and loving- just like you had come to adore and sometimes crave. Only this time, so many other people were watching you. Once you separated your lips you caught him in a hug. "I love you,"

"I love you too, (Y/N)."

You took in a deep breath, standing next to Rhiannon and taking her hand as everyone began to put up their luggage and go through customs. You waved back at them, putting on the best smile you could, trying to keep from looking at the multitude of photographers behind the black ribbon barricade.

Once they were out of sight, everyone had their cameras trained on you and Rhiannon. Taking her hand, the two of you pushed back through the growing crowd and ran as fast as you could to a place where you both could lay low until the fan sites lost interest.

Once you got home, you dreaded going onto the internet, knowing you would see yourself, red-faced and melancholy, basically attached to Mark at the hip. So, you shut yourself in your room.

"Are you studying?"

Night had fallen when you woke up from your impromptu depression nap, so you had rubbed the sleep from your eyes and headed to Rhiannon's room. She looked back at you from her desk, the light from her laptop the only source of illumination in the house.

"Kinda," she sighed. She rolled her computer chair to face you, crossing one leg over the other. "I've been mostly pretending to worry about my studies and instead checking my phone every five seconds for a text."

"They're probably busy," you mumble, inviting yourself into her room and sitting on her bed. "I miss them."

"I do too. All we need to do is save up enough to move, I guess," Rhiannon said, turning back around and opening one of her textbooks.

"If only it were that easy."

She scoffed when she heard you. "Yeah, if only."

You licked your lips, laying down on top of the sheets of Rhiannon's bed, taking her stuffed turtle into your arms. "Have you been on the internet today?"

You could hear her chair moving again, her mouse clicking and her keyboard following after. "Yeah," she answered with a sigh. "It's not all bad, thank God, but people are really trying to speculate who we are."

You groan into the fabric of the turtle. "I really hope people don't feel like they have to, like, deduce who we are and start following us around."

Rhiannon didn't answer. After a minute, you put the plushie to the side and sit up, looking at her silhouette framed by the light of her computer.

"You okay?"

She perked up, shrugging. "I guess. I suppose that it's all, y'know… sinking in. This week I've just been thinking about Donghyuck and I, but now the rest of the world is going to be involved, too. Even if we have the scars to prove it, some fans will never let them go."

You looked down. "Yeah, you're right. I guess that maybe we shouldn't have gone. I just didn't want to say goodbye."

"Me neither." Rhiannon sighed audibly, and then the gentle tapping of keys on her keyboard became the primary noise in the room. You stayed sprawled out on her bed, not fond of the idea of being alone.

"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?" As soon as you finished your question, the typing stopped. The deadly quiet made your heart thump in your chest, worried that she would say no.

"Yeah. I don't want to sleep by myself either."

Sighing with relief, you smile. "Are you going to keep studying?"

Rhiannon hummed. "For another while yet. You can sleep if you're tired, I'll keep it down."

"Okay." You quickly made a trip to your room to grab your polar bear and your phone, and then you did your best to snuggle in the sheets of Rhiannon's bed, claiming the left side as your own. You placed your phone right by your pillow, too afraid to unlock it and see your face on Soompi, Allkpop, Koreaboo and worst of all, Twitter.

You stayed awake and listened to the sounds of Rhiannon's studying, slowly dozing more and more. Once you were on the cusp of sleep, your phone buzzed. Then it buzzed again. You groaned, turning over to grab it. Running your fingers along your pop socket, you wondered if you should even look at what the notification was. That was when your screen lit up again with another faint buzz, revealing Mark's contact photo and a line of sparkling heart emojis.

You found yourself donning a tired smile as you unlock your phone to read Mark's texts.

Mark: I'm not sure if you're still awake but I thought you might want to know that I'm safe and we are all settled in Vancouver

Mark: my mom said that you are very pretty

I miss you

Mark: aaaaaa you probably really are asleep please sleep well, study hard, I love you 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

You: I love you too Mark, rest well, I miss you too

Before temptation could get the better of you, you locked your phone and quickly shoved it beneath your pillow, holding your polar bear tightly. You did your best to focus on Rhiannon's typing once more to lull you back to sleep, wishing with all of your might that the next couple of years would pass you by while you slept.

#mark lee #mark lee x reader #mark x reader #nct #nct127 #nctu #nct scenarios #nct imagines #reader insert #fanfiction #kpop fanfictions #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines

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healthishealth · 5 years ago

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I made it outside yesterday (recovery day 6). I'm so thankful that I have a balcony to sit on and feel the fresh air and warmth of the sun. Unfortunately, my apt is not accessible and has tons of stairs, so I've been trapped here since my surgery on Friday.

I had an L4/L5 and L5/S1 laminotomy. When the surgeon opened me up, he confirmed that I actually have a duplicate nerve root at L5/S1, not a cyst. He took a picture (those of you who know me should know that made me really happy) and he's going to show me how much bigger that nerve root is since it has two nerves wrapped in one sheath! He also confirmed his suspicion that my nerve roots exit the spinal canal much higher than the average person. This, he said, would explain why my pain did not match what he was seeing on my images - a validating statement that reminded me I wasn't making this all up in my head.

For years (8 to be exact), I have suffered from sciatica. It was really bad at first and then I don't know if I "got used to it" or perhaps it got slightly more tolerable, but it was only this past year that it became unbearable again. Every time I would see a doctor, they would look at my imaging and tell me that the minimal disc bulges I had on those two levels should not be causing me so much pain. In fact, one of my doctors suggested it could be psychosomatic and asked if I knew about CBT (I work in mental health, so this was a huge 🙄 for me).

Nevertheless, I refused to give up, even though my doctors were giving up on me. I finally found a pain management doctor who believed me and also wasn't afraid to prescribe pain medicine while I sought answers. After exhausting my options with him (i.e., steroid injections, exercises, medications, etc.), he referred me to a neurosurgeon. I'm too exhausted to go into detail about the horrific experience I had with this doctor, but I will one day. She eventually suggested I have a fusion and disc replacement (without ever seeing me in person except for 2 visits in 2016). I felt this was pretty aggressive for someone my age, so my pain management doctor referred me to see someone else.

For the first time, this new surgeon listened to what I was saying and actually believed that I could be in a ton of pain despite my images only showing "minimal disc bulging" at 2 levels. He showed me my scans and actually walked me through his thought process. He pointed out the "cyst" and said he thinks it could be a duplicate nerve root. He also drew pictures for me, explaining how nerve roots normally exit the spine and how mine seem to be exiting much higher up. He pointed to some bone erosion he noticed on the right side and suggested I get new imaging done since the last one wasn't very clear. Most importantly, he was straightforward with me and said this surgery might not fix my pain, but at the very least, we would eliminate one of the possible sources for my pain. The worst case scenario (barring any rare complications from surgery) would be going through surgery and not having my pain resolved. He also referred me to see his colleague for one more opinion, since his opinion conflicted with the first surgeon I "saw."

Fast forward to my surgery day - I'm pretty nervous, but once I meet my anesthesiologist, I'm much more at ease. He's a huge USC fan and alumni. The doctorate student (SRNA) working with him that day was also at USC, so we all bonded over that and I felt reassured that they would take good care of me. Both of them kept telling me what a great decision I made and that the extra year of PA school at USC's program is so worth it (woo!). Next, my surgeon came and marked "YES" on the right side of my back and they told me I was ready to go. I kissed Alex and my mom and the SRNA gave me a dose of propofol as I was being wheeled away.

Things happen at double speed once you enter the OR. EKG stickers get placed on me as an oxygen mask is strapped over my face. My gown is hooked up to a hot air pump (my favorite) and the anesthesiologist tells me he's going to start giving me the sleepy stuff. My left arm burns like my veins are on fire. I'm reassured this will pass quickly and it does. Someone stands over me and switches my oxygen mask and I drift off into anesthesia land.

My eyes peel open and they feel watery. Am I crying? I am. I hear myself gasping for air and saying, "I can't breathe!" Looking back on this, I think they probably had just pulled the intubation tube out, so I probably woke up during that and got scared that I wasn't breathing on my own. This has never happened to me before (or if it has, I don't remember). I then burst into tears again because the sciatica I had going into surgery was gone.

I'm still off of my medication for my autoinflammatory disease due to the risk of infection if I'm immunocompromised in any way. My drenching night sweats are back and I'm not feeling that great, so hopefully I can go back on medication after my post-op appointment on 3/17. In the meantime, I'll just be here...resting...reminding myself I'm not a burden...allowing myself to ask for help when I need it. Special shout-out to my mom for flying out last weekend and taking care of me and my MVP, Alex, for being the actual best human in the world and loving me unconditionally.

It's been a long week. I've made a lot of progress, but I've definitely had setbacks (both mentally and physically). My sciatica came back a bit a few days after surgery, but has not been as painful as before. I'm hoping my nerves just need some time to settle down and realize they're not being compressed anymore. I do worry that 8 years was too long and that permanent nerve damage was done, but I'm just letting that thought hang out and I'm trying not to engage with it too much.

#autoinflammatorydisease #spinalsurgery #laminotomy #chronicillness #mentalhealth #undiagnosed #medicalmystery #periodicfeversyndrome #behcet's disease #surgery #invisible illness

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silviasutton1989 · 6 years ago

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The True Kings Ch. 8 “Win”

A/N: Wow I can’t believe I got 8 chapters out already. I won’t say much just a quick but endearing thank you to all of you who take the time to read my stories. (You make my week with every comment like and reblog)!

Count:1800

Rating: Teen (angst and maybe some foul language)

Catch up: Chapter 1 1.2 2 3 4 5 6 7

Summary: We look into how Liam and Drake met and how that parallels with the way Liam deals with Drake’s engagement to Riley. (Liam fans PLEASE do not be mad at me I actually cut out a lot of dialogue and changed my ending at the last minute because I didn’t want to make him seem too much of an ass ....but he probably will later sorry.)

“Get your lazy ass up before I get you up myself!”

Drake had always thought of his dad as the greatest man on earth. But it wasn’t until his father landed the job as a king’s guard that Drake saw him as a literal knight. From the stories his dad would tell him, he would imagine his father decked in silver plated armor, on the biggest horse, saving the king from evil doers with his mighty sword. His perception changed however the day that his father finally gave into his pleading son and allowed him to spend a day at the palace while he worked.

“Leo, how the hell are you letting Liam beat you?”

Drake sat at the bottom of the stadium as King Constantine and his guards were high at the top watching the two brothers on the track desperate to catch their breaths.

“I’m not letting him do anything, Father I’m tired we’ve been doing this all day.”

“I don’t care if you pass out down there! You win dammit!”

“How about you come from under that parasol and show me how?” Leo and Liam share a similar smirlk between them both laughing at Leo’s words.

Drake didn’t dare laugh- though he wanted to- for underneath that umbrealla Constantine's face was red and strained.

“Oh you think it’s funny. Do you know how you look right now you can’t outrun your little brother! I should be the one laughing at you!”

Their laughter stops as they see their father move from his shade into the sunlight.

“I tell you what… race again. This time Leo if you don’t win you will spend the night in the dungeon.”

“You can’t be—“

“On your marks!”

Leo brushes past his bother as they quickly get into starting positions.

“Help me out little bro?” Leo asks with a million dollar smile, his brother nods in agreement.

“Get set…GO!!!”

The boys shoot out down the track. In seconds Leo gets a starting lead his blonde locs blowing freely as he turns the curve, his dark hared scrawny brother several paces behind him.

“That’s my boy! That’s the future king!”

Drake couldn’t be sure why but for some reason he began to cheer for the underdog. “Run run you can beat him Run!!” Drake cheers.

Soon Liam begins to pick up speed and by the next curve his older brother was behind him.

Liam never let up in his pace, running as if his life was in danger. He finishes the race far ahead of his brother before falling out of exhaustion onto the tarmac.

“What the hell Leo?!” Constantine was furious bundling down the stadium, his guards in toe, before gripping Leo by the shoulder. “What kind of king are you?”

“ I’m tired! I told you that.” Leo’s father drags him off the track forgetting Liam entirely.

“We will be here until Prince Liam is ready to go…why don’t you go say Hi….see if you can make a friend.” Drake’s father gives him a playful push.

Drake walks up to the dark haired boy, who’s still splayed out on the ground his chest heaving up and down as he gasps for air.

“So….um you think your dad will really put him in the dungeon?”

Liam looks up at the scraggly haired boy standing over him. “Probably not. Leo has father wrapped around his finger.” Drake offers him a hand and Liam takes it standing to his feet.

“I’m Drake.”

“Liam.”

“Hey I bet you can’t beat me?”

Liam’s smile grows as wide.

“Oh yeah? Well I’m not going to go easy on you.” The prince says before getting into his starting position.

“Same!” Drake exclaims before following suit. The two boys count down before racing down the field neck and neck.

Drake watches on as the ball is beginning to come to a close.

“You ok babe?" Riley asks him taking his hand in hers holding it tightly. “You're not nervous about our closing dance are you?” She says with a knowing smile. The Portovian tradition of the guest of honor must close the night in a final waltz had Drake on edge the moment Penelope mentioned it to them.

"I just don't see why we Liam can't do it. Am I agitated? Yes nervous? No." He brings his hands to the back of his neck, his tell tale sign that something is bothering him.

“Well if it isn’t our dance why do you look so…bothered?”

Drake’s eyes go to Liam. He is waltzing with the Duchess of Portovia and has that generic smile painted on his face.

“ I think Liam is mad at me.”

“Wh…why would you think that?” Riley already knew their friendship was strained since the engagement . She didn’t bother to tell Drake about how the whole unity tour started. She knew he would never want a grand wedding but he smiled through a week long of balls so far for Cordonia, for her, and…for Liam. Not wanting to stoke the fire she decided to tell Drake the tour was her idea hopefully buying Liam some time to come around.

“We usually run every morning…we have since we were kids rarely ever missed a day Now every morning I wait for him and he doesn’t show. I mean maybe I'm just being crazy but...he doesn't really talk to me..just at me you know. Like he sees me but doesn't really look in my direction."

Riley can see the pain in his eyes, "I'm sure our engagement has been a shock for him. it's only been a week and with the whole tour maybe he just needs some time to process it all?"

Drake continues to watch his friend as the dance comes to an end. "Yeah maybe you're right Sutton....hey I'm going outside for a moment. Get some fresh air ok?"

"Ok but come right back don't think your going to leave me out on that dance floor alone."

He gives his fiance a quick kiss before standing from the table. "Oh I plan to dance you off your feet tonight"

The cool night air calms him instantly. Maybe Riley's right he just needs time to process the whole thing. He wanted to talk to Liam to apologize for hurting him. But every time they were around each other Liam treated him like on of his councilmen, with a clear mental wall up blocking Drake in at any chance.

He takes one finale breath before hearing the music for the closing waltz.

"Here we go" He sighs before going towards the ballroom.

He pulls on the doors but...they don't open.

"What the hell...Hey!" Drake beats on the door, but no one answers.

"Maybe they just can't hear me or..." His heart beat rises with flashbacks of the Homecoming Ball attacks. He runs back to the veranda; glad that he remembered the back service entrance of the grand house.

"It seems Drake is missing in action at the moment." With a sly smile Liam holds out his hand to Riley . She barley notices it as she looks around the room for her fiance.

"He said he would be right back I..." She trails off as she sees all the eyes on her. Waiting for her.

"We mustn't keep them waiting Riley."

Drake's heart is throbbing through his chest, never has he ran this fast. He zips through the service entrance running into several wait staff on his way. Finally he makes it to the ball room the crowd circling around the dance floor He moves past the nobles trying to get a clear view of who was dancing. He finally makes it past the crowd to see Riley and Liam gliding past him. He couldn't be sure if the pain in his chest was from all the running or his heart breaking by how great they looked together. He didn't want to watch but his feet wouldn't move.

Riley goes straight to Drake once the dance is over.

"What happened to you? You said you would be right back." she tries to take his hand but he shoves it into his pocket.

"I um..I got locked out...I tried to get back. But you two were..." Drake takes his hand from his pocket and sticks it out to Liam. "Thank you for stepping in for me." The king quickly shakes his hand trying his best to hide the shame in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Riley...I really did try to make it back. I don't know what..." He trails off at the touch of his lovers hand to his check.

"Hey it's ok there will be plenty more dances. But I think I know of a way you can make it u to me." A playful smile grows onto Drake's face as they leave the ballroom.

Liam heads to the bar needing a drink more than ever. Hoping the 2 shots of whiskey would settle the pain in his stomach.

"I know what you did just there." to his left sat Olivia. "And may I just say I didn't think you had it in you to be a vindictive ass Liam." She smirks as she takes a sip of her wine.

"I have no idea what your talking about." he states ordering another glass .

"Oh you don't?" Olivia moves his glass out of reach to get his attention. "So you didn't tell your guard to lock he door?"

Liam jerks the glass back, "Let's talk about what happened the night of the attacks, Olivia. Since all of a sudden you've decided you can actually talk to me"

"Don't change the subject." she scoffs rolling her eyes." I just came over to give you kudos. You hurt your best friend and the best thing about it is he doesn't even know. You stabbed him in the back and he turns around and shakes your hand. Ha!" she takes another long sip of her wine.

"But let me give you a word of advise. You wont win Riley's heart treating Drake like crap. Trust me I know from experience." She downs the rest of her glass. "If someone wants to be with you you would know it by now.

Liam sits at the bar for at least an hour after Olivia left. Sleep had been the lat thing on his mind in weeks but he felt so tired.

It's early the next morning and Drake stretches as he watches the sun creep into the sky.

"You ready to eat my dust?" Drake whips around to see Liam, stretching his legs on the stairs.

The two men share a look between them trying their best to apologize in their own way for their actions. Hoping that the silence was all that needed to be said.

"I'm not going to go easy on you." Drake says. He smiles getting into the starting position

"Same." Liam states before following suit.

The men count down before racing down the driveway neck and neck. No one ahead no one behind.

Tag List: Ok so I do not want to upset anyone so I’m going to put this with the tags every time. If you want to be on the tag list permanently (this one is randomly selected with some permanent in as well) let me know. If you DO NOT want to be tagged ever just send me a message I will not be upset.

@walkerismychoice @darley1101 @speedyoperarascalparty @mfackenthal @jadedpixiescribbles @boneandfur @andy-loves-corgis @blackcatkita @missevabean @snyggflicka @stopforamoment @agent-zephyrkah @endlessly-searching-for-you @indiacater @choiceswreckedme @tmarie82 @liam-rhys @viktoriapetit @bobasheebabyficlibrary @alicars @katurrade @jlouise88 @mrsdrakewalkerblog @walkerisbae

#king liam #drake walker #the royal romance #choices fanfiction #angst #frienship #the true kings #chapter 8 #mc x drake

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auburnfamilynews · 4 years ago

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Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

To hell with Georgia.

While this is being written, the nation has been riddled bemused by the misfortune of our Chief Executive’s recent diagnosis, but that’s going to take a quick and staunch back page to what will transpire ‘tween the hedges once the sun sets this evening.

I’m not even old, and I remember a time wherein the Auburn-Georgia rivalry was... civil. Maybe it wasn’t completely healthy, or polite, but we didn’t seem to get into it the way that we do now. Amen Corner held importance, but we didn’t stir in the true hatred until Thanksgiving arrived. I even enjoyed listening to Larry Munson’s gravelly bourbon drawl.

I also didn’t grow up in Georgia.

Things were fine for most of my adolescence. Georgia was a competitive series, where neither team really threw together a serious winning streak. Georgia’s four-game streak from 2006-2009 was the longest streak by either team in the series since Auburn won six in a row in the mid-to-late 1950s. We had some absolute classics, especially throughout the 90s and 2000s — the First Overtime Game in the SEC, Ronney Daniels going wild, Cadillac’s coming out party, 4th and 15 in Auburn, 4th and 11 in Athens — but I never felt awful after losing to Georgia. It was like losing to a friend who just got the better of you that day and you knew that tomorrow you’d have your revenge.

Then, the strangest thing happened.

It was almost like spiking the ball at the Thanksgiving backyard football game and then pantsing your brother while taking the last slice of pumpkin pie and the best spot to watch Home Alone. I thought we were friends, and then you want to come and gloat like that? I never expected it.

Then again, I didn’t grow up in Georgia. Can’t say I even knew a Georgia fan for the majority of my life. Why all of the sudden rudeness? It was hard to feel bad about what happened three years after the dancing escapades.

In fact, it was nearly impossible. The schadenfreude was even sweeter three years after that when several Georgia coaches hit the deck when a miracle occurred, and even better when we turned their own native son against them in 2017.

Still, this has been Georgia’s rivalry as of late. While we treated Alabama like our Super Bowl, they realized that the Nerds in Atlanta weren’t any sort of real rival, and turned their true attention to us. Mark Richt made a living off of beating Auburn (and lost it in Jacksonville), and Kirby’s somehow managed to end up getting the benefit of some of the worst coaching in Auburn history (and major injuries) to help him beat the Tigers four out of his first five tries.

Today’s pandemic-dampened festivities lead into a blood match tonight. It’s turned petty. It’s turned nasty. It feels like we all grew up in Georgia as of late. We can at least hope that the masks will somewhat silence the effect of a grown man barking at you.

SERIES HISTORY: Georgia leads the series 60-56-8 and has won three straight games in the rivalry including the 2017 SEC Championsip.

LAST MEETING: Georgia beat Auburn 21-14 last season at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn nearly erased a 21-0 deficit, but a critical error on a pass from Bo Nix to Harold Joiner on a late fourth down killed Auburn’s hopes. The Tigers fell by a touchdown at home.

LAST WEEK: Auburn took down Kentucky 29-13, getting three touchdown passes from Bo Nix (both to Seth Williams) and three turnovers from the defense, while limiting Kentucky’s offense to nearly nothing in the second half.

Georgia struggled with Arkansas, trailing 7-5 at halftime before Stetson Bennett IV threw for two touchdowns on the way to a 37-10 victory. The Bulldogs ran for less than three yards per carry and had real trouble getting going overall.

KEY STARTERS:

Auburn

Bo Nix: 16-27, 233 yards, 3 TDs

Seth Williams: 6 catches, 112 yards, 2 TDs

Eli Stove: 4 catches, 55 yards, 1 TD

K.J. Britt: 11 tackles, 1 TFL

Owen Pappoe: 8 tackles, 1 sack

Roger McCreary: 4 tackles, 1 INT

Georgia

Stetson Bennett IV: 20-29, 211 yds, 2 TDs

Zamir White: 13 carries, 71 yds,1 TD

George Pickens: 4 catches, 47 yards, 1 TD

Nakobe Dean: 7 tackles

Richard Lecount III: 3 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 PD

Nolan Smith: 6 tackles, 1.5 sacks

KEYS FOR AUBURN:

Get over the Georgia headache. This team isn’t better than Auburn. They want to be Alabama, but they’re not, and will likely never beat Alabama while Kirby is leading the program. However, for whatever reason, Gus Malzahn has allowed Georgia to become his biggest bugaboo. Auburn had the better team in 2014, but the Texas A&M defeat the week before sent us into Athens on a down note. If Gus realizes that Sean White’s arm is broken in 2016, we just run the ball and win. The SEC Championship is a wash, since Kerryon Johnson’s injury was more than we could handle, but last year never should have seen us go scoreless for three quarters. Gus needs to prove he can go into a road rivalry atmosphere and win. He’s 0-fer in Athens, Tuscaloosa, and Baton Rouge. He gets two opportunities in those places this season. We may never have a better chance in Athens with what we saw from them last week and how little the crowd will be a factor. He absolutely has to win this game, and it could end up as a positive turning point in his career. How do you do that?

Keep Bo Nix upright. Nix wasn’t sacked once last week and only pressured twice. That was Kentucky, this is going to be the best defense we see all year. Bo took some good shots last week looking downfield, but I think we may see the full extent of the Chad Morris offense this week, with plenty of short and intermediate passes mixed in. Let Bo weave in the pocket, and work on settling his happy feet just a little bit so that he can make the necessary pass. He’s not going to leave Athens with a clean jersey, but taking a hit’s the price to pay in this rivalry.

Win the run game on both sides of the ball. Auburn must do a better job of running the ball, even if to give the defense a little bit of a rest. Kentucky sped the game up and reduced the number of possessions last week and Auburn looked like they got a little antsy as a result. If the Tigers can do the same thing, and run for over a hundred yards at a respectable clip (3.8+ ypc), then I think we’ll be in good shape. Defensively, you have to make Stetson Bennett, or J.T. Daniels, or D’Wan Mathis win this game. Rodney Garner’s going to rotate his guys up front, so hopefully we see them get stronger as the game moves along like last week.

Play necessarily rough. They deserve it. With a little bit of this, it may force Georgia into a repeat of the penalty-fest they put on last week.

STRESS-O-METER:

Let’s do this. Plenty of time for dark liquor and aggression before kickoff. War Damn Eagle.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/3/21499601/game-preview-and-open-thread-4-auburn-7-georgia

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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suzume42 · 7 years ago

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Give me an AU and I’ll give you 5+ headcanons for it

I LIVE! Sorry for the long absence, but I’m back in the game again, hopefully. And here we are on the 5+ again! @bluebeirry requested Broly x Trunks, pregnancy and with their blessing, I’m writing it as mpreg. Sort of influenced by DBZ Abridged.

1) It happens in the future, where Broly now lives with Future Trunks and Future Bulma. Originally Future Trunks had thought to take Broly back to the future with him as a way to help preserve the peace of the past, but they’d grown closer together during the time it took for past Bulma to upgrade and expand his time machine. So when they go to the future together, it’s as a couple and they settle into a steady enough routine trying to repair and rebuild as they can. Everything goes fine for about a year, then Trunks seems to catch a bug that won’t go away. He’s tired all the time, has trouble eating, can’t seem to stand certain smells anymore, and most horrifying (to Broly), he starts routinely throwing up, typically in the mornings but also after smelling certain scents. Broly’s terrified because Saiyans never vomit, not unless they’re either deathly ill or through some other form of outside interference, like certain kinds of poison. 2) Bulma has a suspicion but doesn’t voice it. How...how could it be that? She’s trying to both gather fuel for the time machine as well as work up her courage to go back to the past herself to try and get help when Trunks actually comes up with a solution: What about Future Nappa? Surely he had to still be around, right? So she gets to work on trying to contact him and finally manages it. He’s still in America, in the ruins of California but he comes flying over at her request after getting his affairs in order. The first thing he does when he arrives is go to greet them, but once he catches a whiff of Trunks, Nappa hops back and congratulates them from a short distance, his stance that of someone trying to show they are no threat. Trunks and Bulma are confused until they realize that Broly is standing very protectively by Trunks’ side with his teeth bared in a silent snarl and his tail moving in an aggravated motion, and visibly ready to move in front of Trunks if he needs to. But...congratulations? 3) Nappa, after they get Broly calmed down and reassured that the other Saiyan isn’t a threat, clarifies it for them: Trunks is pregnant. Something seems to click for Broly but Bulma and Trunks are still so confused, so Nappa winds up having to give them essentially the Saiyan Sex Talk. Basically some male Saiyans can get pregnant and Trunks just happens to be one of those, either naturally or through some quirk of his being a half-Saiyan. Broly must have already realized it instinctively, hence his protective stance. Bulma winds up inviting Nappa to stay with them for a while and he does; he’s a good house guest and explains a lot to them. Like some of Broly’s recently strange behavior, which is basically him establishing and maintaining a territory both to mark it as his own as well as to ensure a safe area for Trunks and their child. As well as stockpiling, which Bulma had been wondering about when Broly started to bring back several large dinosaurs and other large meat animals, but hey, who was going to turn down food in this world? Especially with two Saiyan stomachs to fill (even if both Trunks and Broly are comparatively light eaters to other Saiyans)! 4) He leaves after a week, but sets up a communication link with Bulma if they need to get in touch with him again. And...well, life goes on and they get ready for the incoming baby. Trunks and Broly have a few fights on what Trunks can and can’t do, which, uh, winds up with Broly spending a few cold nights on the couch, but they eventually settle on a system that seems to work. And now that they know he’s pregnant, so much seems obvious now, like Trunks’ hoarding of sheets and blankets and pillows (to create a legit nest with) and even more especially Trunks’ recent obsession with drinking some unusual brand of strawberry-kiwi soda that he somehow keeps finding whenever they go out to shop and/or forage. Broly tried it once and....it really wasn’t to his taste....nope. Though they do wind up with another fight (really more Trunks just yelling at Broly) when Bulma repairs some of the Capsule Corps’ medical tech enough to give Trunks a full check up and it reveals that he’s carrying twins. Broly looks pole-axed for days when Trunks tells him and Nappa thought Bulma was joking when she told him; he’s the one to clarify to her that twins are rather rare for Saiyans and so are often taken for a lucky omen. 5) They do have some trouble at points but the biggest issue was with some bandits that tried to raid their home. The bandits had heard about the stockpile of food, both through people seeing Broly carrying his kills back to their home and from all the trading he and Bulma had been doing to get other necessary items. It....it doesn’t end well for them....not at all and Trunks has to spend hours calming Broly down afterwards. Bulma immediately gets to work on rebuilding and strengthening the old defense system that used to be in place at her home, before the androids. It’s not much compared to a Saiyan’s might, but it clearly gives everyone some extra peace of mind once it comes online. Though now more cautious, they continue to focus on getting things ready for the incoming babies. Bulma’s the one to notice Trunks growing his hair out and is curious about it until one day she walks in on him and Broly snuggled together on the couch for a nap, with Broly’s tail holding gently onto Trunks’ now elbow length loose braid and it clicks. She says nothing about it but does go out of her way to get him more hair ties and the like. 6) They’d wondered about the length of the pregnancy. Saiyans only carry for about seven months, but humans carry for nine and Bulma only carried Trunks for about eight months. So they were wary when seven months passed and were more or less ready when Trunks’ water broke about two weeks later. He goes through about fourteen hours of hard labor before finally the twins are born. Broly and Bulma help Trunks through it, even if in Broly’s case it mostly meant letting Trunks nearly break his hand and yell at him a lot. But finally the twins are born and everything starts to settle down. It’s a pair of girls; they both have full heads of dark purple shaggy hair and soft, fluffy dark purple tails.When they open their eyes, it’s show they have the same shade of crystal blue as Trunks and Bulma; Bulma cracks an admittedly lame joke about the Briefs’ genes being strong, but it gets a laugh from Trunks and a smile from Broly so she counts it as a win. The older girl is named Beryl and the younger girl is called Plumeria; Berry and Plum for short. 7) Broly’s not too good with them at first, overly jumpy at their cries and clearly nervous about holding them but he soon settles into place and becomes a dedicated father. Nappa is later named an honorary Uncle, to his obvious joy, and he’s clearly set on spoiling the girls. 8) Zamasu and Goku Black stand no chance. Absolutely not a one.

#broly x trunks #broly/trunks #broly x princess trunks #mpreg #tw: vomit #long post #Broly #Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan #future trunks #bulma #future bulma #5 headcanons #i had too much fun wit this

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9r7g5h · 7 years ago

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Remember All - P14

Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess

Overall Rating: T+ (Rating subject to change)

Genre: General

Summary: Given another chance, left with her memories of their first time through, Gabrielle knows there’s only one option for her- let Xena live. Whatever she had to do, whatever she had to change to make sure that would happen, Gabrielle was willing to do it.

Words: 2,977

AN: Shhhhh, I know distance and travel times were a real thing and in reality it would be a little over a month for the same travel time, but shhhhh. Xena bends the laws of physic all the time, she can bend the laws of geography as well. Also, sorry for the short chapter. I’m dealing with Irma, and kept getting distracted I’m not sure if I’ll lose power or not (hopefully no), but if I do and I don’t update for a while, that’s why. I hope you guys enjoy this for what it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own Xena.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, ???

They didn't stay long. The moment Gabrielle's wounds were treated Xena broke down camp, her movements quick and efficient as she packed. She only paused every few moments to glare at Gabrielle when she tried to help, just silently pointing back towards the single bedroll she was leaving untouched, the command clear in her movements.

Gabrielle gave in and laid back down, allowing her eyes to slide shut for the little while Xena worked. When Xena was finally done, everything packed and once again on Argo, the fire a smoldering pile of ashes, she gently woke her and helped her up into the saddle, sitting in front so Xena's arms could wrap around Gabrielle's waist. Tying the last of their things on, Xena mounted up behind her, carefully turning Argo towards the clear path that would take them to the port city, thankful for the moon that lit their way.

"Try and get some sleep if you can, Gabrielle," Xena said, one hand pressing against Gabrielle's temple until Gabrielle's head laid on her shoulder, an almost pillow if not for the armor. "We have a long few days ahead of us."

Gabrielle didn't respond- even as Xena pushed Argo forward, pushing her as fast as she dared to in the night on the dirt road, the passage bumpy and uneven, Gabrielle still fell asleep. Uneasy, disturbed with half formed nightmares that were terrifying in their familiarity, but still sleep nonetheless.

It was the last official sleep she got, neither she nor Xena willing to stop for more than absolutely necessary. To eat, to check and change her bandages- the longest rests were so Argo could sleep, when her steps became stumbling and her breathing faltering, only continuing to push herself when Xena whispered into her ear, asking for another few miles, another few minutes, until they reached the next clearing or stream. Please, girl, just a little bit more...

And while Argo slept, after she had polished off whatever food the clearing and Xena could offer, still they didn't sleep. Instead they talked, going over everything Xena needed to know about Hope to destroy her. To make sure, once she was dead, that she could never return.

No fire- her father's element was fire, and while the flames would destroy her, she would only return from the ash. She was scared of Xena- why, Gabrielle couldn't be sure, but she was. There was no reason, for in the last world Hope had been protected by Ares' request of the Fates, and Hope had known that for Xena to kill her would mean her own death. Perhaps because this world had no promise, had no Ares to insure she would be safe, the god remaining absent this life? Gabrielle wasn't sure, but it was a fact she knew, so she told it to Xena.

She told her everything she knew about Dahok, about his followers, about the Priest of the Blood and the Priest of the Flesh, about the Destroyers Hope would bear into the world. About the destruction to come and the hell this world would live through if they failed. Gabrielle spend those few short hours while Argo rested to tell Xena everything she knew.

All while Xena listened intently, the dark circles growing darker under her eyes with each passing day but remaining unnoticed as Xena listened and prepared.

They took turns dozing in the saddle while Argo ran, light little naps that kept them awake enough to continue on, to push forward towards the port city. There, it would be at least a week on a boat to get them to Greece- they could catch up on their rest then, recover from the push this last flight from Britannia was costing them. Luckily the road remained clear- while they came across evidence of Romans, none tried to fight them, and the remains of camps they found were old, hurriedly broken down so the troops that had rested in them could move on. Whatever Boadicea was doing to keep the roads clear for them, it was working.

For a week they traveled like this, pushing and pushing and pushing- much like they had when they had had Eve, Gabrielle realized in a hazy blur as she controlled Argo, Xena's forehead pressed against her shoulder as she took a snort nap. Much like they had when the gods had tried to kill their child, forcing them to flee as quickly as the world could allow.

For a moment she was confused- where was Eve? Why were they on a single horse, where was their child?- until with a shake of her head she remembered, the solidarity moment of panic enough to drive out the exhaustion weighing on her mind and limbs, bringing her back to reality. A reality that stank of fish and the sea as Argo climbed to the top of the final hill that overlooked the city they had been heading towards.

It was quiet, calm and peaceful- beautiful in its own way. A simplicity that hung over the town, creating an illusion of a safe harbor for travelers, those by land and sea alike, until the next stage of their journey. It was their return home, the rest that could only be offered by a ship at this point, and seeing it, Gabrielle, as much as she hated the sea, couldn't say it wasn't loved.

Xena stirred after a moment, blinking away the sleep, wincing as she sat up- it was the only position that worked, hunched over to use Gabrielle as a pillow, but it always left her sore after. Rolling her shoulders to work out whatever kink had grown there, one hand leaving where it had rested on Gabrielle's hip to wipe the sleep from her eyes, Xena stared out over the city as well, though it was a different prize her eyes were searching for. Nodding, she pointed off to the right, where the larger ships were waiting.

"There,” she said, pointing towards the largest of the ships, its masts tall and proud. “A Thessalonian trading ship. They’re sure to stop by Athens, and we can disembark there. From there it’s only a few days to the centaur village.” Without waiting for Gabrielle to reply Xena reached around her and took the reins, kicking Argo into a slow, steady trod- they would be hard pressed to have her do more at this point, she was so exhausted. Her head low, her steps trodden; it was only her love for them that kept Argo from bucking them off and refusing to stay with them, a love Gabrielle was grateful for.

It didn’t take long before they reached the city proper, the sun still in the process of actually rising as they stumbled in. Immediately Xena slid off of Argo, reaching up to help Gabrielle down to her feet- while her wound had avoided infection, it still wasn’t healing, the gash still long and large down her back, leaving her aching and sore and only partly able to function on her own. A worrisome development, though Xena tried to deny it. Whenever she changed the bandage, she pointed out that the lack of sleep could delay healing, smearing a new layer of poultice over the wound before rewrapping it, firmly trying to believe her own lie.

Gabrielle was sure it had something to do with Hope. The monster couldn’t leave a mark on her like she had in the last life, so she had found some other way to do so.

“Go get us some supplies while I go talk to the captain,” Xena ordered, glancing over towards the little market that was just starting to open up, stall vendors appearing in a sleepy haze to begin peddling their wares. “And get Argo something nice.” She gave the horse a quick pat, leaning up to whisper something in Argo’s ear. When Argo neighed in response, shaking her head, Xena gave a small, soft smile before turning towards the docks, heading directly towards the boat she had pointed out before.

It didn’t take long to restock their supplies, most of the merchants eager for a sale (even with one as haggled as she made it), with the few who put up too much of a fuss quickly folding under her glare, none of them willing to fight against the clearly exhausted, clearly dangerous woman standing before them. One even threw in an extra apple for free, the man almost shaking in his boots, a treat she quickly passed off to Argo, who ate it gratefully, nuzzling her shoulder in thanks when she was done.

That task finished, Gabrielle couldn’t help but begin to wander, the strange city familiar from her memories.

The inn Xena had settled her while she went to get safe passage for them both, where the kindly inn keep had kept her well stocked with food without a complaint. The pier she had clambered onto after the inn had been burned, where a mob had waited. In the distance, just back where they had come, the forest where the Knights lived.

Part of her wondered if they were still there. If they knew about Hope this time, if they had tried to kill her, if the one who had died at Hope’s hands before still lived, or if some other fate had taken him. Part of her was curious, almost curious enough to suggest, when she found Xena, that they go check. See who was there, what help they might be able to offer, any resources they might be able to pass on to them.

Instead she shook her head and put the thought out of her mind. The knights had proven almost useless last time in fighting the banshees- how would they help with Hope. And besides, going to check out a ruin from her previous past was why they were in this mess. No need to keep tempting the Fates when she didn’t need to.

She found Xena just as she was finishing haggling with the captain, their handshake firm and strong as they happily accepted the terms they had reached. Glancing towards the ship, Gabrielle tilted her head to the side in question, handing off the reins to Xena so she could take control of Argo.

“Come on,” Xena said with a small, tired smile, jerking her own head towards the gangplank. “I ended up knowing the captain. He owed me a couple of favors. Got us a private cabin, and a stall for Argo below deck.” Together the three of them boarded the ship, a young boy, barely fifteen by the look of him, hurrying over to take the reins from Xena.

“Take good care of her, you hear,” Xena said, her voice taking on that sharpness that had the boy straightening, a flicker of something in his eyes as he nodded. Reaching into their money pouch, Xena pulled out a dinar and pressed it into his hands, shifting slightly so the others jingled against her hip. “Make her happy, and there’s more where that came from.” A look of greed joining everything else on his face, the boy nodded and gave a sloppy salute before turning, gently tugging Argo after him, asking her if she had a fondness for carrots.

Their own room was small, just enough room for two hammocks to be strung side by side from the ceiling, a single port window their only view into the outside room. But after the week they had had, it was glorious.

They barely spoke, taking just enough time to drop their bags in one corner, for Xena to check Gabrielle’s back and for the two of them to share a quick, exhausted kiss before climbing into their respective hammocks- Xena taking the one by the door, always on alert even as she fell asleep, Gabrielle by the open window, where the cool sea breeze could soothe her already gurgling stomach. Not that it mattered; within a short moment they were both asleep, finally truly asleep for the first time in a week.

It was deep, deep and dreamless, and for that, Gabrielle was thankful.

For the week they rested, recovering from their push. When they weren’t sleeping or devouring half the ship’s food supplies, they spent their time on deck, talking. Sometimes about nothing, sometimes about Hope, Gabrielle continuing to fill Xena in on everything she needed to know, on all the information Gabrielle had gathered from her “visions” that might help to end her for good in this life. Sometimes they said nothing, just stood staring out over the water, their sides pressed together as they watched the waves below. Part of Gabrielle wanted to fill those silences, perhaps use them to begin explaining the nature of their world to her, but instead she accepted and relished them, enjoying the small peace. While things would be different, still there would be little of it to come.

Her back still didn’t heal. A fact that had Xena pursing her lips, an almost angry look as she cleaned the skin and rebandaged her back, a look of her deep in thought as she wondered.

For a week they continued like this, their strength returning as the ship sailed towards home, the hull empty and the sailors ready to see their homelands, purses heavy with coin. It had been a long time, one of the sailors mentioned to Gabrielle when she asked about his past when he came to join her by the railing, since any of them had seen home. A sentiment Gabrielle could attest to.

It was peaceful, it was quite, and for a week, even with her stomach churning, Gabrielle liked the sea.

Almost to the point where she wished it could just be like this. The ocean, the sky, the two of them with the occasional sailor for a new conversation; whatever evil that waited for them perpetually off in the distance. Always at peace, always safe, the smell of salt and the clean, constant breeze helping to soothe her mind even if it did make her back sting when it sunk through the bandage and touched the still open wound. It was such a small price to pay for everything else, to the point where Gabrielle almost wished it could be like this forever.

But all too soon they reached Athens, the city growing on the horizon. All around the sailors yelled out in excitement as the vague blur began to grow, becoming more and more distinct as they grew closer. A few even began to sing, a song of land and home and long missed wives and children. Of love and excitement and the slightest hint of bitter, because even though these men were glad to be home, part of their hearts did belong to the sea. Belonged to the ocean and longed for it even when they were in the arms of their loved ones, a longing that, eventually, would pull them back. Pull them back and take them back out to the edge of the horizon, to the vast, unending blue until, finally, they were once again longing for home. A continuous cycle, until they either died by the sea or were buried on land, forever parted from one part of their life or the other.

Everything contained within that song, the words that were quickly picked up by the other sailors and even Xena as they worked towards reaching the shore, the song picked up by the wind and almost twisted into something unearthly, ethereal, the pure joy only just darkened. Only Gabrielle stayed quiet, the words unknown and foreign to her as she pulled on ropes and tied knots, the handful of weeks in their past life they had spent on ships letting her help. But she listened, listened and memorized as much as she could for later, making a mental note to ask Xena later for the rest.

It was a good song, and even if she couldn't sing it, she could write it so others could sing it later.

They were almost the last ones off the ship when it finally docked, standing off to the side while the sailors all called to their captain, joking about when the next trade was to take place, taking them from their homes once more. The boy who had been taking care of Argo came up eventually, once the others had cleared out, giving Argo actually enough room to be on desk without risking her bumping anyone overboard. And it was clear he had done a good job- Argo walked with her head high, her steps quick and purposeful, eyes gleaming with a barely contained energy. Her coat had been well brushed, her stomach was ever so slightly rounder then it had been (an addition of a few extra pounds that Xena glanced at before raising her eyebrow, an amused look on her face as Argo shook her head), and her tail and mane had even been braided, little colorful strands of string holding the ends of the braids together.

The boy got a handful of dinars for his troubles, his eyes wide as Xena paid him- it was perhaps almost as much as he had gotten for the months he had been on board, and he thanked them profusely before giving Argo a quick kiss on the snout and racing off the ship, heading straight towards what Gabrielle had to image was home.

Xena thanked the captain one last time, paying him the remainder of what they owed, and then they were off. Slow at first, skirting the townsfolk as quickly as they could without hurting anyone, and kicking into a canter the moment they were free. Straight towards the centaur village.

Which, by the time they reached it a few days later, was nothing but ash.

#Xena #XWP #Xena: Warrior Princess #Xena fanfic #Xena fanfiction #XWP fanfic #XWP fanfiction #Xena: Warrior Princess Fanfiction #Xena: Warrior Princess fanfic

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Who’s won Week 1 of the NFL preseason so far?

Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images

Tom Brady’s realtor, Daniel by-god Jones, and the legend of Adam Gase all got major boosts.

The NFL returned last week. Kind of.

The Hall of Fame Game was technically football, just like the cardboard rectangle of Ragu and shredded mozzarella-ish cheese you got in elementary school was technically pizza.

This week, the league countered the preseason’s ongoing lack of quality with a major uptick in quantity. Thursday night unveiled an 11-game slate that could rival what you’ll see on Sundays this fall, assuming you squint really hard or drink until Garrett Gilbert looked like a stretched-out Baker Mayfield. Some games came down to the wire. Ones involving the Lions and Jaguars did not.

We’ll have more winners once Week 1 concludes. Assuming there are winners. But so far, who has won the first true week of the preseason slate?

It certainly was not this first name:

Not considered: David Fales, who lost exactly as many yards as he gained

Fales entered a Patriots-Lions game that was somehow out of reach in the first quarter and walked a sturdy tightrope of awfulness for Detroit. He completed only five of his 14 passes, gaining 62 yards in the process. Impressively, he was also sacked six times — 30 percent of his dropbacks! — for a loss of ... 62 yards.

He wasn’t entirely neutral, however; Fales did manage to throw an interception to defensive end John Simon. It was just as bad as it sounds:

Simon says: #Patriots ball .@johnesimon51 | #NEvsDET pic.twitter.com/wp0ye8r8yK

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 9, 2019

Fales was responsible for Detroit’s only three points of the night. His interception led to a Patriots touchdown, however, leaving his impact at a negative-four points.

Now, on to the actual winners of the NFL preseason’s premiere week:

8. Whichever Sotheby’s realtor handles Boston’s high-profile clients

Tom Brady put his Boston-area five-bedroom, seven bathroom estate — which features a 2,400-square-foot guest house and a driveway that parks 20 cars — up for sale this week. Any money he’s left on the table in negotiations with the Patriots will be made up from the bids of too-rich Massholes.

It’ll cost you $39.5 million to cook in a kitchen once stocked with avocado ice cream, or do yoga in the same room where Alex Guerrero once regularly prescribed stretching and hugs to prolong a Hall of Fame career. This is a tremendous Brady-bump — a similar five-bedroom, 8,800-square foot house in the same neighborhood sold for only $5.6 million back in May.

Assuming a six percent commission split between two realtors, the two primary sellers of this estate would clear more than $1 million for making the king of the finance bros’ dream come true. And if multiple Bravo reality shows have taught us anything, it’s that elite realtors are wonderful people who truly deserve this money.

Not considered for this list: Other Chestnut Hill-area realtors

Pitching the opportunity to live in the same neighborhood as Brady and Gisele is easily worth a 10 percent bump in asking price. Now that the neighbors who respectfully declined to attend every neighborhood pot luck are leaving, sellers may have to settle for a mere $1.8 million for their 3,000-square-foot home.

7. Antonio Callaway, who absolutely made this catch

I don’t care what the refs (incorrectly) ruled. This was awesome.

Didn't count but INSANE effort by Callaway pic.twitter.com/pRgqnInqHW

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) August 9, 2019

6. Alpine doctors

One of medicine’s more forgotten specialties got a boost this week when Antonio Brown posted a picture of his gnarly feet and invited the world to ask: arrrggggh why?

What could have caused Brown’s feet to develop a rind like a poorly stored wedge of Montgomery cheddar? ESPN analyst Chris Simms originally landed on fungal infection before correcting the culprit to frostbite from a cryotherapy session gone wrong. The Raiders have neither confirmed nor denied this — while the feet were a sticking point on Hard Knocks, though there was no real insight into the cause — but yeah, given the grossness of those feet I’m inclined to believe the most outlandish possible cause for these symptoms.

The question now is when Oakland can expect its superstar acquisition to return to the field.

What makes frostbite diagnosis tricky is that no two cases are identical. However, the photo tends to support the idea that Brown has Stage 2 frostbite, which is characterized with either blistering, or hardened skin — which cracks and peels off. The real risk here is that Brown has done damage to the blood vessels in his feet, which, according to the Summit Medical Group, can take up to six weeks to be revealed.

Hopefully the damage is minor and Brown will be back on the field soon.

Until then, Brown will be working closely with Dr. Bubba. He is a St. Bernard’s with cask of brandy around his neck and, sadly, fictional.

5. The kid whose bike was destroyed by J.J. Watt

Watt returned to his home state when his Texans bunkered down in Green Bay in advance of their preseason opener against the Packers. This afforded him the chance to take part in one of the league’s finest August traditions: riding the bikes of local children who’ve come to watch training camp sessions. Players pick out a waiting child, hand over their helmets, then make the trip down the DreamDrive from the locker room to the field before practice begins.

Watt, the human embodiment of a Great Dane loose at a dog park, promptly crushed his loaner bike.

(video courtesy of @ClintStoerner)

“It was pretty awesome until I broke the bike,” Watt told reporters afterward. “The bike that I was using was not equipped for a 290-pound man. The seat broke off. We have purchased a new bike for the boy, so I apologize for that.”

Watt makes nearly $17 million annually, so the aggrieved child likely came out of this deal with a solid upgrade. Plus he gets to tell his friends about the time a Hall of Famer came to town and ruined his bike for the rest of his life. A nice little Tuesday for him.

4. The ongoing legend of Adam Gase’s, uh, peculiarness

We knew about the eyes — that Gase’s face existed in an atmosphere solely made of whispers informing him his exact time of death. This week we got some insight as to why. The Athletic’s Dan Pompei took a deep dive to explore the foundation of Gase, only to find it’s built from caffeine, coaching cliches, and the self-care of an unattended minor.

“You would get these texts from him until 4 in the morning on a regular basis,” says Tannenbaum, now an ESPN analyst. “I don’t think he sleeps a lot.”

Fueled by five or six 20-ounce cups a day from the Kuerig coffee maker that is an arm’s length from his desk, and maybe a Red Bull here or there, Gase has energy like a power plant. And it doesn’t wane in the wee hours.

There’s also the fact Kevin McCallister had a more responsible diet while left unsupervised in the hit movies Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Well, and pizza. With pepperoni. When Gase was with the Dolphins, his office often was filled with the aroma of a pie from Pizza Loft in Davie. When the owner of the restaurant sold the business, he put a clause in the contract that required the new owner to deliver pizza to Gase every night for one year. So Gase ate pizza every night.

Gase is not likely to prepare a meal on his own. When Jennifer recently left him home alone to dog sit for a day, he texted and asked her to order him lunch from Uber Eats.

This revelation of late-night annoyances and childlike disdain for utensils was quickly swept aside by the fact Gase and his wife scheduled their second child’s Caesarian section around his football schedule. His son Wyatt was born at 10 a.m. in the middle of the 2013 NFL season. Gase was back at the Broncos’ facilities — where he was an assistant coach — to greet Peyton Manning for their weekly sit-down by 2 p.m.

This is all, of course, bonkers. But this? For a preseason game?

Did Adam Gase just take smelling salts before a preseason game? pic.twitter.com/gVINzrkcjW

— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) August 8, 2019

These are not the actions of a successful NFL head coach. They are the actions of a man in a wedding dress attempting to blow a car to smithereens.

3. Former Phoenix College star Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, who will somehow be played by Mark Wahlberg in the film version of his life

Sheehy-Guiseppi went from sleeping on the grass in Miami to a tryout with the Browns this summer. The former junior college All-American had the slimmest of NFL prospects, but found a landing spot in Cleveland after effectively hustling his way into a workout this summer. His 4.38-second 40 speed earned him the chance to put on a Browns uniform Thursday night, and he once again burst through a door that had only been cracked a sliver.

WHAT A MOMENT Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi returns a punt 86 yards for a TD — and the whole bench clears to celebrate pic.twitter.com/anLZ3EEgAT

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 9, 2019

Everyone on the Cleveland bench went completely apeshit for this return. It turns out they had a pretty good reason.

2. The Patriots’ passing offense without Tom Brady or Rob Gronkowski, somehow

New England got its long-awaited revenge on Matt Patricia Thursday, breaking a months-long losing streak against the Lions by absolutely thrashing Detroit’s second team to start the preseason. That in itself isn’t amazing, but the way the Patriots did it is. Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham combined for 326 passing yards and three touchdowns. Two of those went to undrafted free agent Jakobi Meyers, who sure as hell looks like the latest college-quarterback-turned-receiver to turn Bill Belichicks frown ... into a slightly more neutral frown.

.@jkbmyrs5 for six.#NEvsDET | #GoPats pic.twitter.com/IUm9fkIY7s

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 9, 2019

New England needs a big target who can unstick himself from opposing defenders now that Gronk’s gone into the party bus business full time. Meyers looks like he could fit that bill.

1. Giants general manager Dave Gettleman, who may have been right all along

We all had a nice laugh when the Giants selected zero-time All-ACC selection Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft. We reveled in Gettleman’s long, strange list of justifications for drafting a passer who may have been available at the team’s second first-round pick, or maybe even on Day 2. We marveled when the Giants inadvertently recreated the pointing Spidermen meme in offseason camp.

But it turns out Jones may have been the right pick after all (I am certain I won’t regret writing this in September, of course).

Drive 1: Every single Daniel Jones pass -5/5, 67 yds and a TD Say goodbye, Eli pic.twitter.com/MURmdOceVD

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 8, 2019

It’s Week 1 of the preseason and it was against a Jets team without the best players in its budding secondary, so maybe Eli Manning shouldn’t retreat into retirement just yet. Still, Jones’ solid debut gives at least some hope there’s balm in Gilead for a suffering Giants team that still may not have found the bedrock of its bottoming out.

Jones finished his night as SB Nation’s top-rated rookie passer, though he wasn’t the only young New York quarterback to turn heads Thursday night. Both Sam Darnold and Jones finished their 2019 debuts with perfect passer ratings. That’s literally the best they could have hoped for.

Maybe MetLife Stadium won’t be a swirling vortex of depression this season after all.

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kierongillen · 8 years ago

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Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine #27

Spoilers, obv.

In short, you do it to yourself, you do, and that’s what really hurts. But as Mark E Smith put it to the Inspirals, Nobody ever said it was gonna be easy. That was a pretty indie start to the notes. Also, incomprehensible to anyone outside of certain demographics. Well, we all have google now. We’ll be fine.

Normally hard issues are hard for everyone. Jamie and Matt go down with me. In this case, the brunt of the problem was mine and mine alone…

(Well, Jamie had to wrestle with the establishing shots in the space and Matt had to do 10 pages with about 2 issues’ worth of colour schemes (and try to solve a visual logic puzzle too) but for once I think this mainly fell on my neck.)

But we’ll get to that, as the results of a lot of heartache are only in a certain section. The rest is relatively easy. Relatively.

Jamie’s cover: we’ve smiled at this a little, in that the discussion of Baphomet’s hair is the closest WicDiv has come to the debate around Billy’s hair in Young Avengers.

I personally just like that he’s still rocking his big metal pole.

Alison Sampson’s cover: Alison is one of those creative force of nature sorts. There are artists who can just be givenn a “Draw this character” instruction but Alison isn’t one of them. She really needs to know everything, so we talked a bunch, and ended up with something distinctly oblique, about confusion. If anything about this issue says that we’re not making it easy, this would be it.

While we’re talking, Alison’s collaboration with Steve Niles, Winnebago Graveyard has just been solicited, and you should order the living shit out of it.

Page 1

The idea for this scene occurred to me – marking your death day – and was so instantly upsetting that I obviously had to write it. Generally speaking, that’s our magnetic north.

Yeah, a WicDiv calendar does seem like an obvious Merch thing to do for Christmas. We’re trying to sort it out.

Having Amaterasu on the page torn out was Jamie’s choice, and an obviously good one given Minerva/Amaterasu’s enmity.

On a craft level, you’ll see how absolutely basic this is – establishing shot with dialogue to link it to internal scene (with dialogue individual enough for readers to know who’s saying it.) Five panels. Two characters. I wanted it simple, if only for contrast – but also a suspicion that the middle section would be harder than it was, and Jamie needed to save his energies.

As a writer in comics, you’re always spending resources. They’re not always money.

Page 2-4

August 9th would be the week after the Ragnarock we saw in issue 6. Putting that whole sequence at the cusp of the world being upended is clearly a thing.

Man, I love Minerva’s hair.

I suspect I was thinking IT with the darkness coming up the sink. IT is the King book which sticks with me, shall we say.

This is an unusual comics “thing” we have to consider – Image ask us what pages we want to send out as previews, and we generally speaking cut it as tight as we can. We’d like to keep as much fun stuff for when people read the issue. It’s a teaser taste, not a first course. So cutting on page 3 would be the place to go… which we didn’t, because that would leave whether Minerva in peril unresolved, which would imply that’s what the rest of the issue about. That’s not what the issue is about in any way, and we’d loathe to give that impression as i) it’s not true and ii) that would be boring impression to give.

Page 4 has some great panels – the pummelling by Baal with Minerva curled behind him. Minerva shell-shocked. Baal’s big-brother glance back. Nice.

Page 5

Enigmatic!

Six panel grid grounds it, obviously.

Page 6

Once more, a return to the five panel. Robust comics. If you're writing a comic, and you don't know the artist, defaulting to a five panel is rarely a bad move. Study Garth Ennis comics. It's not the flashiest of choice, but it's dependable and gives the artist a lot of freedom.

(There's sparser panel selections you can use, but they're a big risk to take if you're not sure you're going to get it back in the art.)

The thing I think of here is Jamie being very annoyed that I’d settled on May 1st, as that meant the panel had to be that wide to fit the calendar design bits in.

Page 7

“Phased” probably says it all.

Page 8-9

Okay. I suspect this is the bit that anyone other than the regulars will be reading this for.

Let’s get the basics out of the way first – each story is delineated by the colour block behind it. Read from left to right in any individual sub-story.

So on this first spread, the top 4 panels of the spread (signified by that big red block behind them all and the outlines) first, then the six bottom panels on the left (orange), the six bottom panels of the right (green), etc.

Obviously we were worried about this for comixology (It’s almost impossible to read in a PDF, obv) so we talked to them about the guided view, which actually walks you through each of the sub-stories perfectly. Yay comixology

It’s printed a little less bright than we’d hoped, so we’ve considered garishing it up a bit for the trade. That said, we’ve had far less “huh”S than we were perhaps expecting.

(In practise, being lost in a whirl of time and space was part of the intent – as the title says, PHASED. You can absolutely read it like you're looking at snowflakes.)

What’s it about? Well, bar the aesthetic effect of decentralising the narrative (and other things) there was the problem of 27 and 28 having a lot of work to do. I had… a lot of solutions. At one point I was thinking that ALL of 27 and 28 would be like the Phased section, just to do everything I wanted them to do, with issue 27 just ending with a page which read <CONT.>

(The one idea which made me smile was playing with doing the whole issue like Ray Fawkes' magnificent graphic novels The People Inside and One Soul. The chapter title would have been BUY THE PEOPLE INSIDE, IT’S REALLY GOOD.)

In the end, I started writing without thinking about how I was going to present it, and generated a bunch of scenes. Far more than was required. After doing all that, I stepped back, and everything tilted a little, and I saw the way through the maze. A lot of the material could just be excised and (after I’d killed a darling) moved to in Imperial Phase Part II. As such, it was a case of arranging what we had into something that felt like a meaningful sequence.

And it ended up actually fitting into 10 pages. I’d budgeted 12, which meant I had 2 spare pages which I used in the final scene for added mood. PHEW!

Oh – the other general thing to say before actually talking about the specifics is that I’ve always wanted to do a comic that runs at the pace of the PREVIOUSLY ON bits of TV shows, and this is the closest we got to that.

On a craft point, it’s worth noting how we tried to introduce various ideas to it. The first 4-page sub-story with Sakhmet/Persephone is the first thing you see and stretches across the spread, with the two other stories as simple blocks. Plus you can read those first two panels as their own things. The coming back to that scene at the start of the page would hopefully make you realise they form a line, and have another look at the colour blocks. The more challenging layouts come later, after the ground-rules have been introduced.

Or so’s the theory.

Anyway! Content! Obviously a lot of closing off stuff people would be wondering about given the last few issues. If WicDiv isn’t doing that story here. Or, at least yet. I know I would be wondering about what London made of a multi-story monster appearing to attack the shard.

(That the first baal scene is commented upon by the second baal/norns scene is another hand-hold to get people through it.)

Man, I still love Baal’s beard.

Page 10-11

More attempt at hand-holding – the top of both pages being six panel stories, and the second story running across the bottom page, and able to be read by itself.

I suspect the actual hardest thing is the phone messages – partially as the natural order of phone messages confuses the reading of a panel (as in, the new messages are at the bottom) and partially as it turns the Baphomet/Persephone sequences in story in a story. As in, we are now in the present day with Persephone texting Baphomet while thinking about what happened at Christmas.

Not easy. But – y’know – Phased.

Cass continues to go for most sweary character of 2017. I occasionally read people don’t like WicDiv saying that all the characters swear too much. I can imagine Cass leaning into their face and screaming “I SWEAR TOO FUCKING MUCH! MOST OF THE REST JUST SWEAR A LOT. PAY SOME ATTENTION, FUCKNOSE!”

Yes, “someone creates apparitions of your dead family so you can have Christmas dinner with them” may have been one of those “Yeah, that’s really upsetting. Let’s do that” ideas.

We had to work on the colouring here to get the desired effect. In the first pass it was much brighter, which left it too cheery. A “they may be in heaven” sort of vibe. We ended up with something much more sickly.

Persephone’s expression though. :(

Page 12-13

Now we start just going across the page to pummel that in.

If this sequence has a backbone, it’s the Norns, of course. All other stuff is fragmentary – there’s a throughline with Cass.

The nomenclature ShinTwo(tm) only came to me as writing, and made me basically bang my head against the table. I’ve had quite a few people ask if I’m referencing one random star or another. No. This is just the sort of thing a certain sort of pop-star does.

Sticking TM at the end of a sentence and fucking with the punctuation is a joke I first fell in love with circa-Amiga Power. Never forget how ludicrous a corporation’s attempt to own language is. Give them the respect they deserve.

Cass’ body language throughout the dance sequences is just a joy. The first panel on the previous page too. I’m a dancer – by which I mean, I throw myself onto the floor with joy and little care of how bad I look… but god knows I’ve got enough friends who find the whole thing hard. I’ve played Dionysus here IRL enough.

The Cass/Dio conversation here is something I was worried about, and pleased it seem to have gone down well.

Page turn, to show change of direction, obv…

Page 14-15

…and into Cass experiencing another god’s power. I can imagine her end of year list updating.

And this spread is where we start tearing at the morings, and doing a horizontally aligned six panel grid across the middle of the page. Yes, writing this issue was very much like solving a puzzle – as I said, I’d written far more stuff just in terms of raw dialogue and ideas, and working out what could be arranged artistically was the thing.

The middle block also creates a time gap between the opening scene and the latter one.

That the backbone to all of this is a rave sequence draws a lime to where we’ve done similar things – namely, issue 8. However, where it’s 8 panel was about beat and flow, this is about confusion.

Page 16-17

Yeah, another mix up. Shifting sands are shifting and another set of moments.

The Sakhmet panel is bleakly amazing. Nice work, guys.

Man, this spread is a world of awesome. I’m glad I ended it with a joke of the BEEP.

Er… it’s been an odd arc for me. I was writing it with an idea what I wanted it to be, and was annoyed with myself that it wasn’t for what I felt was too long. Drugs, decadence, self-destruction, sex, awfulness… and it was mainly tying up necessary business from Rising Action. I wanted it more awful, and I was frustrated as I couldn’t get it there.

That’s no longer a problem. I think the themes of the arc are undeniable, both in form and content. I should have relaxed a little – the point of these two arcs was always the slow burn. For better or worse, it really is what we wanted.

Page 18

The Cassandra Project was a game mod I wrote for in the early 00s. I did say everything I've done gets worked into this fucker.

(Lead character Charlotte Williams is certainly a early example of a Gillen character – a self-described Sylvia Plath With A Sniper Rifle. Even if you can get it working with whatever current Deus Ex is, I wouldn’t recommend it for my writing. It’s an exciting mess of my influences. It may as well have been called THE CASSANDRA PROJECT: KIERON HAS JUST READ PLANETARY AND STILL REALLY LIKES THE INVISIBLES.)

Page 19

Jamie added the insert panel to show David Blake, as it’s been a while since we’ve actually crossed paths. This led to a somewhat intricate series of questions over how to actually letter the fucker to get the exchange between Blake and Cass to work. We ended with the ellipsis speech balloon, which is always a sweetie.

(For those who are following craft, I wanted the big panel on the machine to reintroduce it as a larger thing. The whole issue has been so cramped and it needs to breathe. Or rather, loom.)

As an aside, “Loom” is a word I over-use in my panel descriptions.

Page 20-21

Yeah, those spare pages I had were really useful at this point.

I played with cleverer grids, but a straight STATEMENT/JUXTAPOSED IMAGE six-panel seemed to do the trick.

Lots of set up for the specials here, most obviously the “rumours about 455.” Also, at the half-way point of the whole two-part thing, we get the meaning of the title. Imperial phase.

I suspect this sequence was strongly influenced by the research for 455, generally. It’s easy writing Blake when you’ve been wallowing in research.

The bathing-in-blood is a nod towards the ever-popular Countess Bathory, who actually invented the bath. True fact.

Madness is a loaded word, and I wish Blake didn’t throw it around so casually – hell, Cass too. It’s much more about obsession and addiction and excess. Still: we’ll try to walk this line.

Lots of lovely Imagery from Jamie here. The Dark Knight Returns Baal/Minerva is the one which makes me smile most, and Dionysus’ is the one which breaks my heart.

Page 22-23

And we finally mention a question that’s been asked ever since the Norns appeared in the book.

Man, Skuld and Verðandi are getting chatty.

Page 24

Man, getting to end an issue with a splash image for dramatic effect. This must be what BKV feels like ALL THE TIME.

Seriously, Matt and Jamie do some wonderful things here. Getting the level of oppressive looming darkness is absolutely what the issue is about, and it’s a testament to that.

Page 25

Comrade Rossignol, my old partner in crime, game developer and co-writer on The Ludocrats, and I have a line we tend to quote to one another. It’s a paraphrase of a quote from Ballard: “My advice to anyone in any field is to be faithful to your obsessions. Identify them and be faithful to them, let them guide you like a sleepwalker.”

We quote it as: “stay true to your obsessions and your obsessions will be true to you.”

It’s basically been our respective careers’ magnetic north, but there’s certainly times when I wonder how good it's proved for us as human beings.

Next issue is the end of Imperial Phase Part 1, which – thanks to all the hyper-compression of this one – actually lets to linger with space. But we'll get to that soon enough.

Anyway – thanks for reading. See you next month.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #Writer Notes

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joonie-beanie · 8 years ago

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Oh, Baby (Namjoon x Reader) Pt. 14

[Pt 1] [Pt 2] [Pt 3] [Pt 4] [Pt 5] [Pt 6] [Pt 7] [Pt 8] [Pt 9] [Pt 10] [Pt 11] [Pt 12] [Pt 13]

Pairing: Namjoon/Rap Monster x Reader Rating: M Genre: Smut/Mafia-ish AU

Words: 4,676

Summary: You were only supposed to have seen him twice. Only twice, no more, but now you’re getting dragged into situations you never wished for and Namjoon just keep showing up.

A/N: :D Look, I did a thing! Thank you all for waiting patiently~ I’m literally posting this right before I leave for work, I was rushing to proof read it lol. Hopefully I didn’t miss too many mistakes :p

Black fabric mask secured over the lower half of his face, Jungkook waits tensely in a coffee shop half a block from his family’s penthouse. Its 2 minutes before noon, and his leg bounces nervously under the table, his coffee already gone cold.

Managing to get a whole of 3 hours of sleep the night prior, still too bothered with the thought of you potentially being in trouble to be able to get some shut eye, Jungkook had slipped out of the house early that morning, requesting his regular chauffeur to take him to campus a tad sooner than usual. The driver had complied, toting him half way across the city to the usual spot where Jungkook was dropped off and picked up. Jungkook then left as usual, walking towards his building, but this time he had no plan on going to class. As soon as the Jeon heir was far enough from the car which had dropped him off, he ducked into a building and watched through the old, clouded windows for the car to leave. It took a few seconds, his driver likely confused as to why Jungkook was going into that building when he usually didn’t, but luckily a car wanting to get by honked in slight anger, and the chauffer immediately placed the car in drive and coasted away as if nothing had happened.

Sighing thankfully to the impatient college driver who had honked, Jungkook waits in the building for a few long minutes. He wants to be perfectly sure that his car won’t circle back around to look for him, and when 5 minutes pass and there’s no sign of his chauffeur, Jungkook determines that he’s safe.

Nodding to himself, determination for what he now has to do settling in his gut, Jungkook shrugs his book bag off his shoulder, unzipping the main pouch. Today his normal folders and notebooks are nowhere to be found, replaced by a spare coat, hat, and a mask. Jungkook knows that his father has men stationed all over the city—maybe not on the lookout for him, since as far as they know nothing out of the ordinary is going on—but Jungkook won’t risk anything. It seems to him that his father is currently scheming with Taehyung against Namjoon, judging by the small amount of their conversation he had overheard last night, but Jungkook needs Namjoon by his side. He needs Namjoon’s friendship because right now Namjoon holds all the information Jungkook wants to know about you. And…more so…Namjoon truly isn’t too bad of a guy, in Jungkook’s eyes—better than his father, at least—and Jungkook doesn’t feel well knowing that his family is possibly working to…hurt Namjoon in some way.

So, changing his jacket, hiding his face behind a plain back mask, and tucking his hair beneath a dark blue hat, Jungkook had left the building he’d taken refuge in, walking back into the city. He didn’t want to risk a taxi or a bus, so he had braved the chilling winds and had walked the crowded streets of Seoul. After nearly 40 minutes he finally arrived at the café Namjoon had requested he wait at—the brief text containing the location arriving at just shy of 5am that morning.

And now here he is, Jeon Jungkook, eyes boring into the watch on his wrist, the second hand ticking past the 12 mark, officially meaning that it was noon. His leg continued to bounce with nervous energy, hand reaching into his pocket to check his cellphone, and as soon as the device is in his hand, it buzzes, a new text message lighting up the screen.

Unknown:

I’m stopped behind a bus at the light outside the coffee shop. Come now.

Reading the words with unsteady concentration, Jungkook quickly stands, bumping into the table as he reaches for his backpack and heads outside. Not bothering to correctly zip up his coat, the cold air immediately soaking into his skin, Jungkook glances both ways down the congested street, breaking into a jog when he spots the bus a little ways up the sidewalk, a black car with tinted windows momentarily stalled behind it.

As he approaches the car, his feet suddenly falter as he realizes that he’s currently putting himself in danger. He has no clue what’s going on right now—who he can trust and who might be hiding in the city ready to hurt him. As a Jeon he had been targeted before. Once or twice, but nothing serious. A kidnapping attempt here or there by people desperate to use him as ransom in return for monetary repayment from his father, but all attempts had been thwarted by family men—faint screams ringing in Jungkook’s ears, but he hadn’t put all the pieces together until he’d gotten a bit older.

Yet, despite the danger, Jungkook regains his stride, especially when the light in front of the bus turns green, the tinted car honking urgently. He can’t stall for much longer, and Jungkook rushes forward, pulling open the passenger door, grateful to see Namjoon occupying the driver seat.

“Christ kid, hurry it up,” Namjoon sighs as he steps on the gas, following behind the bus. Jungkook rolls his eyes, dropping his bag on the floor between his feet.

“You could have actually stopped somewhere to wait.”

“I could have, but everything feels risky nowadays,” Namjoon mumbles, eyes casting to the side. Jungkook can immediately tell how tired the older male is, dark bags hanging under his eyes, unkempt facial hair prickling his chin and upper lip.

“Hyung…,” Jungkook says, voice sympathetic yet serious. His eyes harden, heart steeling as he shifts to face Namjoon. “What’s going on? Please, you need to tell me…”

“The other day--,” Namjoon starts after a moment of hesitation, knuckles turning white around the steering wheel. “Y/N came over. I was trying to make things right after everything that had been happening. It went well, really well…,” he says with fondness, his defenses momentarily dropping, but as he continues recounting what had occurred Jungkook sees his body curl in on itself, anger staining his face.

“I got a call that morning from a client. Left Y/N to sleep because I figured I’d be right back…I asked Yoongi to check on her. He…,” Namjoon takes a moment to calm himself, throat tight, adam’s apple bobbing. “He got there and saw Y/N in Jimin’s car. Jimin somehow got into my apartment and took her. Yoongi gave chase, but…”

Stopped at another red light, Namjoon slams his fist on the dashboard, and Jungkook winces, heart sinking into his stomach.

“She’s gone?” the younger whispers, hands laying stiffly in his lap. Namjoon bites his lip, trying his best not to give into all the dark thoughts lurking in his mind.

“She is—but I’ve got people looking for her. We’re going to get her back, Kookie--,” reaching over, Namjoon places his hand on Jungkook’s knee and the younger startles, immediately batting Namjoon’s hand away, his eyes filled with rage. However, when Jungkook sees the hurt and pain on Namjoon’s face, that spark of anger dies, and he hunches over, pressing his palms to his face.

“I know this isn’t your fault, hyung…I’m sorry. I just—”

“You can blame me if it makes it easier,” Namjoon responds, dead eyes tracking the road. Jungkook shakes his head, taking a deep breath as he pushes any potential tears back into their sockets.

“I won’t blame you. I can tell that you’ve changed, Namjoon hyung. You care for Y/N, and I can tell this isn’t easy for you, so I’m sorry I reacted like that, I just…she’s my friend, you know?” Jungkook says quietly, loosely hugging his arms to his chest. “I don’t have many, and none else like her, considering father’s—”

“Right, your father,” Namjoon interrupts, suddenly remembering the reason he’d had to call Jungkook out in public to meet like this. Jungkook’s eyes widen as well, and the two males stare at each other, surprised.

“Right, right—my dad!” Jungkook recalls, eyes searching his lap as he tries to remember everything he had overheard the night before. “I—last night a guy named V showed up at our door. He told me to call him—”

“Taehyung,” Namjoon growls, swerving into a small parking lot and shifting the car into P. He can’t trust himself to continue driving calmly when he’s got all this shit on his mind—and Taehyung is not helping. Especially after he’d touched you…and now he’s apparently making ties with Jungkook’s father, which isn’t good…

“Yeah,” Jungkook nods, biting his bottom lip with his teeth, his eyebrows furrowing. Last night he hadn’t been able to recall where he’d heard the name before, but pairing it with Namjoon’s reaction…

“Is that they guy who hurt Y/N? At the club?”

“Yeah,” Namjoon sighs, fingers coasting through his messy hair. Jungkook scowls.

“Right…now that I think about it, it makes sense. The guy was such a goddamn flirt—even with me—”

“Taehyung is very…open,” Namjoon says cautiously, and then shakes his head, getting back to the situation at hand. “What did he say to your dad?”

“I went looking around last night because one of our maids broke a glass, and on my way back to my room I overheard my father and Taehyung talking. They…said something about…,” he furrows his eyebrows, trying to recall the faint words he’d managed to pick up on. “They mentioned a girl, your name, bait, and a ball next week. They--! They said something about another man, and how my father was glad he had trusted Taehyung’s friend, Jimin…”

“Oh, fuck,” Namjoon groans, palms dragging down his face. “Fuck--! I forgot that Taehyung and Jimin are friends, those little assholes—”

“…the person who took Y/N from your apartment—you…said his name was Jimin, right?”

“Yeah,” Namjoon grits, palms pressing into his straining eyes. “Yeah, it was Jimin. And if Taehyung got Jimin to do his dirty work and kidnap Y/N, and Taehyung is suddenly your dad’s best friend, then…”

The car falls silent, and Jungkook and Namjoon’s eyes meet.

If Taehyung and Jungkook’s father are working together against Namjoon, then—

Jungkook sees the flash of distrust that momentarily passes through Namjoon’s eyes, and while Namjoon and Jungkook have never truly been friends, the younger’s heart aches.

“Hyung—Namjoon hyung I promise I’m not against you, please,” Jungkook says, leaning over to rest his hand on Namjoon’s thigh. He can feel Namjoon’s muscles stiffen beneath him, but his face gives away nothing.

“Y/N is my friend, and I’ve done nothing to hurt her—I only want her to be safe. That’s why I called you last night! That’s why I called Jin hyung to get your number! If I knew who Taehyung was and was a part of my father’s plan then I never would have called—”

“What you’re saying makes sense, Kookie,” Namjoon sighs, eyes falling shut as he leans his head back against his seat. “But the mafia is good at playing mind games, and I wouldn’t put it past your father to somehow—”

“I promise I’m not on his side!” Jungkook yells, voice cracking as he slams his fists on the dashboard, head hanging low. His fingernails dig crescents in the skin of his palm, jaw flexing as frustration bubbles in his chest.

“You know I never wanted this…I’ve known you for years, hyung. Have I ever been the ideal kid to my father? No…no, I fucking hate that family. He already has my hyung doing his bidding—he doesn’t need me. I’m just a backup—a little puppy he thinks he can tote around, but I’m…I’m not! I just want to fucking run. I don’t want to go back there—not now, knowing that he has apparently decided to use my only true friend as bait for you. It’s fucked up, hyung…

“Please believe me,” Jungkook begs, lifting his head to look at Namjoon. The elder is staring, but there’s no anger or distrust on his face. Just…sympathy.

“I never wanted this.”

“I know you didn’t, Kookie,” Namjoon assures him, reaching over and placing his palm on Jungkook’s head. He ruffles the boy’s hair fondly, continuing to try and soothe him as Jungkook’s forehead drops against the dash, his chest shaking as he attempts to wrestle his emotions back into their cage.

“Hell, you’re the one who kicked me in the ass and made me realize that I needed to treat Y/N better,” he says, laughing tiredly. “I know you wouldn’t turn on her like that. You’re not a good puppy anyway—you don’t follow orders and you’ve got too much of a bite.”

“Asshole,” Jungkook laughs, lifting his hand to swat Namjoon away, and the elder smiles.

“So what should we do, then?” Jungkook asks after a minutes, sitting back in his seat. Namjoon presses his lips together.

“I’ve got my men around Seoul keeping a look out for her. Yoongi tried to trace the street camera’s that caught his chase with Jimin, but when Jimin diverted into a sketchier area of the city we lost sight of him.”

“Damn…”

“Exactly. And we were looking into figuring out who might have a motive to make a move against me like this, but…I suppose with your help I now have a pretty good idea,” Namjoon scowls. “I don’t even know what the fuck I did to piss him off…”

Jungkook sighs, mimicking Namjoon’s scowl. “Sometimes you don’t even have to do anything. Father likes to ruin lives for fun. You might just happen to be his next pick.”

“Wonderful,” Namjoon growls, anger building up in him once again.

“But, hyung, if my father and Taehyung are in on this…do one of them have Y/N? Or is there a third party involved?”

Namjoon actually pauses at Jungkook’s speculation. A third party wouldn’t be too far of stretch…but then again the Jeon’s have locations all over that could likely be used to hide you…

However, before Namjoon can actually open his mouth to express the possibilities flooding his mind, the sound of his phone ringing cuts through the thick silence in the car.

“Who the--?” he questions, quickly digging the device out of his pocket. He catches a glimpse of the name lighting up the screen and frowns in question, Jungkook’s eyebrows furrowing as well when he sees the contact information.

“Jin hyung? What--?”

“Hello?” Namjoon says, hushing Jungkook with a wave of his hand.

“Namjoon? Oh thank god, hey—I’m here with Hoseok—”

“Hoseok?” Namjoon repeats, not understanding why the fuck Jin is calling, but he pauses when he hears the phone being passed along, and suddenly Hoseok voice’s is in his ear.

“Namjoon, listen to me. I just saw Y/N—”

“WHAT,” Namjoon yells, Jungkook immediately scooting closer, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. “Where is she?! Who--?!”

“I’ll tell you everything I know, but let’s meet up first. It’s safer to talk about in person.” There’s a pause. “Jin is saying that we should meet at his apartment, since it’s likely the safest place right now. I kind of stepped in a little so they might be suspicious of me…and god knows your house isn’t safe—”

“Hoseok, I swear to fucking god if you don’t tell me—”

“He’s a little nervous right now, Joonie,” Jin’s voice cuts back in. Clearly the eldest is a little shocked by the situation as well. “Let’s meet at my apartment, ok? We can talk about it there.”

“Ok,” Namjoon agrees, jaw tight. Yet, even though he’s angry a sliver of hope slips back into his conscious. If Hoseok saw you then that at least means that you’re still alive.

“Good. See you soon.” And with that, Jin ends the call.

“Was that Jin hyung? Do they know something about Y/N??” Jungkook questions, grabbing Namjoon’s shoulder, also desperate for answers. Namjoon gives the younger’s thigh a quick pat and then revs the engine of the car back to life.

“We’re going to meet him right now, so we’ll find out.”

Three days in captivity isn’t treating you too well. Your arm is throbbing, eyes straining in the dim light of the room. As the days grow colder, you find yourself huddling under the tattered blankets which had been lining your bed.

Mr. Meanie—who you had overheard is called Jaehyuk by some of his men traversing the halls—had been kind enough to have a maid bring you food and bandages the first night of your stay. The maid had given them to you with a cringing smile, obviously feeling bad for your situation, but helpless to lend a hand. You had thanked her quietly, eyes red from the crying you had done that afternoon.

But Jimin’s words kept ringing in your head—“don’t lose your will”—so you’d managed to pull yourself together, focusing on correctly bandaging the fresh wound on your arm. It wasn’t too deep, but still ailed you when moving around. It would definitely take a while to heal.

After that you’d scouted the room carefully, unsure if any kind of surveillance had been planted to keep an eye on you. Luckily, it seemed that being locked in a room from the outside with no window available to jump out of was surveillance enough, and for that you were grateful. The last thing you wanted was for some uncaring man to be watching you 24/7.

The morning of the second day, the same maid from before unlocked your door and handed you a plate of food. It seemed like whatever scraps were left over from Jaehyuk’s breakfast, but—to your grumbling stomach—even the smallest amount tasted like heaven.

Before she could leave, you had quietly asked about the possibility of a shower, and a pair of clothes to change into. She seemed surprised by the request, but you bowed to her humbly, and she promised that she’d ask. Not too long after, your door had opened again, and the maid passed you a stack of folded clothes.

“He…Jaehyuk-sshi said I could only give you this much. Please try to make due—they’re some of my old belongings,” she said quietly, giving you a small ‘hwaiting’-like smile, and with that she was gone. Grateful that she’d even gone out of her way to ask on your behalf, you quickly stood and changed into the new garments you had been given—an old gray sweater and a pair of thick sweatpants.

Better than Namjoon’s boxers and thin t-shirt, at least, you had laughed meekly, but that night you’d still fallen asleep with Namjoon’s clothes tucked close beside you. They were currently the only reminder you had that maybe you’d have a shot at getting out of here…

And while late at night your trust in Namjoon would waver, your sleepless mind doubting his loyalty to you, you focused rather on not losing hope. It’d only been two days…that wasn’t too long, in the scheme of things…right?

Now, on the morning of the third day, something seems to change. At 9am your door clicks open—the sound of the lock being turned from the hall outside—and you straighten from your position on the bed, where you’ve been huddled over, lost in your thoughts. You expect to see the maid walk in—usually she brings you food around this time every day—but your heart nearly stops when you see the pudgy form of Jaehyuk step into the room.

“We’re going into the city today, so hurry up and eat,” he says, mouth turned downward in a perpetual scowl. He steps forward and drops the plate into your lap. You jump in surprise, looking up at him, and his eyes scan you up and down, hand reaching out to grab a piece of your hair.

“Filthy,” he says, tugging on it, and you wince slightly. “You’ll need to bathe and get properly dressed before we leave. The bathroom you may use is down the hall—third door on the right. I’m going to leave the door to this room unlocked, so you can take care of that yourself, but--,” he reaches forward and grabs your chin tightly, forcing you to look him in the eyes. “If you try to escape or betray this sliver of trust I am placing in you, expect that you will get your retribution.”

And with that, he throws your face away, turning on his heel and exiting the room. The door closes in his wake, but doesn’t lock shut, and you stare after him, scowling.

What a rude man.

Hurrying to eat your breakfast, when you’re finished you set the plate on the edge of the mattress and then carefully walk to the door. You’re paranoid that perhaps it’s booby trapped, but luckily it’s not, and when you pull on the door the bright hallway greets you—your sight momentarily blinded by the change of scenery.

You know you’re not a princess but would it really be too much to ask to get some proper lighting in that goddamn prison cell of a room?

Padding down the hall, your bare feet moving against the polished tile, you count 3 doors down on the right and then push open the ajar door. Your hand finds the light switch on the wall, and the bathroom lights up before you, decorated with brilliant greens and blues. The shower is located on the farthest wall, textured glass paneling caging it in, and you make towards it—the idea of warm water washing over your skin suddenly sounding heavenly. However, as you step forward, a movement catches your eye, and you glance over, catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror above the sink.

You look like hell. The wound on your arm is red and irritated despite the fact that you’d attempted to clean it every time you’d been granted permission to use the restroom. Your eyes are a little sunken, hair messy, and lips chapped thanks to the cold weather.

“Damn,” you whisper, sighing, tears feeling like they may emerge, but you hold them back. Now is not the time.

Stepping over to the shower, you pop open the door and reach inside, turning the water on. As it heats up you quickly discard your borrowed clothes, noticing a towel and a new set of clothing stacked near the toilet. Curious, you kneel over and take the new clothing into your hand, noticing how expensive it looks. Clearly there’s a reason Jaehyuk is taking you into the city today, you realize with a frown, and then step into the shower, wondering what will be awaiting you later on.

An hour later, you find yourself shoved into the backseat of a 5 seater car, all of the windows tinted. Two buff guards sit on either side of you, unbudging, and you attempt to make yourself small between them. In the front is Jaehyuk in the passenger seat, his chauffeur driving.

“We’re going to the bank today,” he had told you earlier, before entering the vehicle—his grip crushing your wrist. “You’re going to help me get my money back, so act like a good girl in front of the people, alright?”

You rub your bruised wrist at the recent memory, looking down at the dress Jaehyuk had given you to wear. Apparently his daughter had always dressed nicely to show off her wealth, so you’d been given one of her dresses to wear, the maroon fabric stopping just above your knee. Jaehyuk had forced you to do your hair and put on make-up as well, claiming that “you need to cover up that sickly face of yours so you don’t look like a sex slave.” How nice of him. But, either way, you had listened, making up your face and hair until he said you at least looked “somewhat presentable”.

On a day in the middle of the week, the streets of Seoul are crowded, but even so Jaehyuk’s chauffeur calmly navigates the road and manages to pull up to the large building the bank is apparently a part of.

“Out,” he barks, and one of the bodyguards moves to let you out of the car. Once on the street, Jaehyuk grabs your arm, and you wince, his fingers digging into the arm he likely forgot that he sliced open a few days prior.

“Don’t act out of the ordinary,” he warms you quietly, letting you go, and you nod, following beside him obediently as you walk into the building. The inside of the lobby is bustling—the building clearly home to more than just a bank. There’s a wall of screens near the back with current stock rates for companies all over the nation, and there even seems to be a broadcasting center built into the building too.

However, you try and remain focused, dutifully following Jaehyuk as he confidently walks through the packed main floor of the building and to the area that actually resembles a high class bank.

“Hello there sir, how can I help you today?” the woman behind the counter asks, smiling pleasantly. Jaehyuk smiles back, though the action is obviously fake.

“I currently have some of my money stored under my daughter’s name and was told she’d have to be present in order to have the sum transferred back into my account, so I brought her here to get it all settled.”

“Ah, alright, we can take care of that for you,” the woman responds, still smiling, and begins asking Jaehyuk about his personal information. You attempt to pay attention to the conversation at hand, hands folded in front of you politely, but there’s so much going on that your attention is constantly torn between turning elsewhere.

However, at that moment a male steps up on your other side, asking another teller if he could borrow a pen, and when she grants him permission he goes to grab a pen from the counter and immediately proceeds to accidentally drop it on the ground.

“Sorry!” he says, laughing, and ducks down to get it. It’s at that moment you feel a tap at your ankle and instinctively jump, head turning down to look at what made the feeling.

Your heart nearly stops when you see familiar black hair and questioning dark eyes. Hoseok, you recall his name, lips parting. He had never been anything but kind to you, in the few interactions you’d had, and he also had ties to Namjoon in some way—

Holding your stare, he inclines his head towards Jaehyuk, eyebrows furrowing in question, and in response you minutely shake your head side to side, face stiff and giving away nothing. Hoseok’s eyes widen slightly, realization that you’re not in a good situation apparently hitting him, and at that moment Jaehyuk’s arm tightly wraps around your waist, dragging you back to reality.

“Did you hear her?” he asks, though you can hear warning in his calm tone. “She asked if you give permission to have the funds transferred back into my name.”

“Oh, yes, of course. You have my permission,” you immediately respond, smiling, and listen as the teller on your other side asks Hoseok if he’s alright. He’d been down on the ground too long just to be retrieving a dropped pen, after all.

“Oh, sorry, my shoe was untied!” he laughs her off, thanking her for letting him use a pen. She bows her head respectfully, and Hoseok turns to leave the counter, but not before he brushes his fingers against the top of your hand.

A promise that he’ll get help, you surmise, and the hope and desperation that floods your chest nearly has you breaking down in the middle of the bank.

Oh god please, you think to yourself, forcing yourself to smile at Jaehyuk when his fingers dig into your waist. Please let Namjoon know I’m alive.

[Pt 13] | [Pt 15]

#namjoon x reader #fic #oh baby #rap monster x reader #namjoon fic #bts mafia au #namjoon #hoseok #yoongi #jungkook #jin #taehyung #jimin #bts fic #idk what other tags to do I'm in a rush lol

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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20 Fantasy Hockey Thoughts

Every Sunday until the start of the 2018-19 regular season, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's "Daily Ramblings".

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. A player that I’ve been asked about a handful of times is Erik Haula. He went from being a fourth line center on a bubble playoff team in Minnesota to anchoring the second line and second powerplay unit on a powerhouse. He scored 29 goals and 55 points in 76 games. Recording career-highs in goals, assists, points, shots on goal, hits, power play goals, power play points (18 times as many as his previous career-high) and time-on-ice is groovy for a 27-year-old. But, is this a mirage or a trend to come?

It’s difficult to assess his previous work as his role is completely different than it was at any time during his tenure with the Wild. But, is that role secure? Vegas will be players in free agency this summer. If they fail to land the big fish in John Tavares, that doesn’t necessarily mean Haula is safe as the 2C long term.

The Golden Knights made two very astute draft picks last June in selecting Cody Glass (sixth overall) and Nick Suzuki (13th overall). Both players are tremendous talents. Both players are centers. Neither is able to be sent to the American Hockey League next year due to the CHL-NHL agreement, and it can be argued that at least one of them will be given a very long look at cracking the lineup as soon as this fall. Long-term, Glass and Suzuki present major obstacles to Haula maintaining his offensive deployment. If you’re a Haula owner, it’s a situation that needs to be watched very closely.

Another situation to keep an eye on is the psychological aspect of the entire Golden Knights’ squad. This is a team that could be ripe for an extra slow start out of the gate next fall. The Stanley Cup hangover is real. And this version may hold extra drowsiness. (june2)

2. Something I wonder sometimes: Does Alex DeBrincat get overlooked in drafts next year? As far as rookies go, he’s never discussed among the elite of this year’s crop, which isn’t necessarily a huge fault of the hockey community. This was an absolutely loaded year for rookies. All the same, DeBrincat had 28 goals, over 50 points, over two shots per game, and did all that playing under 15 minutes a night. He did garner more ice time as the season wore on, though, and this team needs scoring from its wingers beyond just Patrick Kane and hopefully a rebounding Brandon Saad. Maybe he flies under the radar and gives us a reasonable average draft position (ADP) for 2018-19? Maybe. (june1)

3. Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds was once a must-own power forward in leagues that counted penalty minutes. You could count on him for at least 25 goals (which he has reached five times) and at least 100 penalty minutes (which he has also reached five times). But, he reached neither mark in 2017-18, with his decline chronicled in a Geek of the Week article published in February.

So, what happened? Simmonds missed seven games in 2017-18. Although that might not seem like a huge deal, it sticks out more when you notice that his points per game has declined for the second consecutive season (from 0.74 to 0.66 to 0.61). His plus/minus has also taken a hit over that span, as he has been a combined minus-35 over the past two seasons. In fact, Simmonds hasn’t been a plus player since 2009-10. Frequent line shuffling also often made Simmonds the odd man out, as he spent significant time on the third line.

If you’re programmed to draft Simmonds as a top-100 player because of his history as a power forward, you’ll want to break the habit for your next draft. Having said that, he could provide solid value outside the top 100 if he can bounce back in one or more of those categories. (june3)

4. How much impact can we expect from Ilya Kovalchuk? The recent history of greats returning to seek former glory isn’t a lengthy one. There’s Jaromir Jagr as the gold standard. The Czech wizard returned from a stint in the KHL at age 39. He played at a 64-point pace during the first three years of his celebrated return and brought more than his value to each squad.

Alex Radulov returned to the NHL after an eight-year hiatus (plus a cup of coffee with Nashville sprinkled in) as a 30-year-old. He’s played at a 65-point pace in the two seasons since – with the tasty 72-pointer this past season. He was also five years younger than Kovalchuk will be and landed on a power play unit featuring Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and John Klingberg. Pretty primo stuff.

We’d like to assume that Kovalchuk won’t be returning simply to enjoy the nightlife in a city like New York but rather he’ll sign somewhere where he’ll have a chance to chase that elusive Stanley Cup. If that’s the case, then he should be provided with ample surrounding talent and positive deployment. Where he goes in fantasy drafts will depend on his landing spot and how people view his potential. But, judging him on his KHL performance, his NHL pedigree and his (hopeful) desire to win, he should be valued as a potentially impactful winger to add to the fantasy ranks. (june2)

5. Kevin Shattenkirk to get back to 50 points: Injuries derailed his season, but Shattenkirk was settling in nicely for the Rangers with 23 points in 46 games. Maybe it was injuries, maybe it was Alain Vigneault, but he was playing just over 20 minutes a game until he left the lineup for good. There are some talented young defensemen like Brady Skjei and Neal Pionk but he should be their go-to guy on the blue line, for better or worse. He should be able to add a couple minutes per game with heavy top power-play usage included. If there’s one thing the Rangers don’t lack, it’s speed and skill up front. Their defensive woes likely continue but they’ll be fun to watch in the offensive zone, and Shattenkirk should be a big beneficiary here. (june1)

6. Jack Eichel to finish top-5 in the Art Ross race: Eichel’s performance to this point of his career has put him in the same company as some of the greats to play this game in the past and the elite currently in the NHL. Two things hampered him last year: injury and team underperformance. That underperformance mainly came on the power play where their relative shooting percentage went down about 18 percent with him on the ice, leading to Eichel having fewer power-play points (20) in 2017-18 than in 2016-17 (24) despite six more games played. In a full, healthy season with that power play returning to form, he should be over a point-per-game player. (june1)

7. Bo Horvat to reach 70 points in 2018-19: Even if time together was somewhat limited due to injuries, Horvat and Brock Boeser gave us glimpses of the magic in the future for the two of them on the ice. Horvat’s 82-game pace was 57 points and he did that while not even being on pace for 20 power-play points. With both Daniel and Henrik Sedin retired, this is Horvat’s and Boeser’s team now. They should both be near or past the 20-minute mark per game and both with an added year of chemistry together. There is a lot of upside for this duo in 2018-19. (june1)

8. A recent article recently quotes Marc Bergevin as saying Montreal isn’t likely to deal the third overall pick. It never really made sense in the first place; the Habs need to start stocking the cupboards. This isn’t a team one-impact player away from the Cup.

From a fantasy hockey perspective, though, it’s kind of disappointing, I think? For fantasy hockey owners in redraft leagues, we don’t care if the team is going to be good in three years. We need the team to be good now. Fantasy owners need legitimate centers to feed guys like Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk, Artturi Lehkonen, and Brendan Gallagher. It’s in the best interest of the team and its fans for the long-term to hold that pick but the selfish fantasy owner in me wanted to see them trade it in some sort of package for a top-end center.

Ah well. Maybe they’ll still sign John Tavares.

(Editor’s note: they will not sign John Tavares) (may31)

9. Alex Galchenyuk to get back to 30 goals: At some point, the Montreal coaching staff realized Galchenyuk could be a pretty good offensive option on the power play when he’s put in a spot to succeed; i.e. his weak side in a one-time spot off seam passes rather than in the slot like TJ Oshie. And lo! He tied a career-high with nine power-play goals. The issue was at five-on-five where he shot 6.5 percent, by far a career-worst, having never shot below 9.6 percent before, and possessing three seasons of at least 12 percent. If the team keeps him as a focal point of the power play (fingers crossed), and that five-on-five conversion rate regresses, there is a big rebound season coming in the goal-scoring department. (june1)

10. The Habs’ Artturi Lehkonen is one player whose ADP I’m interested to see in September. I doubt it’s even inside the top-200 given his horrific start to the year depressed his numbers (remember, he had two goals at the All-Star Break, and both goals came in the same game). All the same, his 82-game pace for shots was 203 and to do that as a 22-year old in his second season on this roster is impressive. He doesn’t even need a bigger role to be a fantasy contributor next year but consistent top-six minutes with top power-play time should help. (may31)

11. It’s hard to see Pierre-Luc Dubois being undervalued going into drafts next year given that by the end of the year he was on both the top line and the top power play unit for Columbus. But people are scared of Tortorella’s … let’s call it whims. Dubois was a monster down the stretch for the team with 16 assists and 26 points in 33 games post-All Star Game and on the top line there’s no reason not to think he can’t post similar numbers over a larger sample next year. Getting to 35 assists with guys like Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson, or Josh Anderson on his wing is doable. (may31)

12. Reader Ian Duval asked: “I’m very curious to hear people’s opinion on Wheeler moving forward. What type of production would you expect over the next couple of years?”

The first thing that comes to mind with this question is Blake Wheeler’s age. This may not seem to be the case given the Jets’ group of young scorers, but Wheeler will turn 32 at the end of the summer. For an early first-round pick, Wheeler hasn’t taken a conventional path. He should be considered somewhat of a late bloomer, debuting in the NHL at age 22 and posting his career high in points at age 31. An age-related decline is inevitable and could begin next season, but to what degree?

About that career high in points: Wheeler has remained consistent in scoring between 20-30 goals over the last five seasons, yet he exploded for a career-high 68 assists, which was tied for the league lead. So with the bulk of the points coming in the form of assists, the question becomes whether the assists are primary or secondary. Well, you’ll be happy to know that 48 of Wheeler’s 68 assists were of the primary variety, which also led the league and was seven ahead of the next-highest performer in that category. So, no major fluke or expected regression.

Having said that, 91 points will be a very difficult number for Wheeler to reach two seasons in a row. But, with Mark Scheifele as his regular center (and hopefully for a full season this time), Wheeler should be fine. Eighty points should be within reach next season, then probably something like 70-80 points the season after. Wheeler has missed just four games over the past five seasons, so those numbers should include virtually no injury discount. (may30)

13. No one player’s fantasy stock has increased more this postseason than that of Braden Holtby, who was No.1 on Tom Collins’ Top 10 list this past week. Holtby should be back in the discussion of top 10 fantasy goalies, even after a subpar regular season. Then again, I get the feeling that you could pick goalies next season by throwing a bunch of names into a lottery drum. Okay, I won’t spoil the very measured and proven process that we have here at DobberHockey by suggesting that you be completely random.

But still: How will I know that a goalie that I would pick in the second round will be that much better than one that I pick in the eighth round? I expect a ton of debate and not as much variance than in the past between where individual goalies are ranked. (may30)

14. By the way, how much can a strong playoff performance improve a player’s fantasy value over the following season? You may want to read the article Playoff Heroes written by Rick Roos nearly a year ago, which really sheds some light on this topic. I’ll also put this out there, since I mentioned Guentzel earlier:

Guentzel career regular season: 0.66 PTS/GP

Guentzel career playoffs: 1.14 PTS/GP

We’re at a point in which we should be judging Guentzel more on his regular-season play than his playoff performance. Without regular first-unit power-play minutes, Guentzel’s upside is unfortunately limited. That is, unless there’s something to those Phil Kessel trade rumors. Then Guentzel keeper owners might have something to celebrate. (may30)

15. Lars Eller has been otherworldly in the postseason. Should the Caps win the Cup, there’s no chance that Eller wins the Conn Smythe. There are too many other worthy players that play more minutes at the top of the lineup. The significant improvement of Eller and his third line, though, is a big reason why Washington finds itself in the Final. (may29)

16. Aleksi Heponiemi appears to be heading for Finland. The second-round Florida pick from 2017 has absolutely shredded the WHL over the last two seasons to the tune of 204 points in 129 games. At the age of 19, he has nothing left to do in Junior. The move to Finland would get him a year playing at a very high level of men’s hockey at which time he would presumably find his way to the Panthers roster. I’m sure dynasty owners were hoping he would be in the lineup for 2018-19 but it appears they’ll have to wait another season. (may29)

17. Here is something that kind of quietly slipped into Elliotte Friedman’s ‘30 Thoughts’ this week and not really mentioned anywhere else – Ducks’ Ryan Kesler may not be playing next season. At all. His hip is in a bad way and although he won’t have surgery, they are trying a rehab method and he may end up taking the year off. Anyway, if that happens he won’t return until he’s 35 and I have my doubts if he can regain any fantasy relevance at that point. I also don’t like it for Jakob Silfverberg owners, unless they can find him a talented center to play with. He seems lost without Kesler – and the ‘real’ Kesler never really came back last year. (may28)

18. I was looking through the UFA goaltenders for this summer and I will list and rate them all here for you. A rating of 10.0 is a Connor Hellebuyck type, a rating of 0.1 is Antti Niemi-type, a rating of 5.0 is like a Steve Mason or Scott Darling …

1. Jaroslav Halak, 6.5

2. Anton Khudobin, 6.0

3. Jonathan Bernier, 6.0

4. Carter Hutton, 6.0

5. Cam Ward, 5.2

6. Laurent Brossoit, 5.0

7. Harri Sateri, 4.5

8. Andrew Hammond, 4.3

9. Michael Hutchinson, 4.2

10. Ondrej Pavelec, 4.0

11. Kari Lehtonen, 3.5

12. Chad Johnson, 3.3

13. Scott Wedgewood, 3.0

14. Adam Wilcox, 2.5

15. Eddie Lack, 1.5

As you can see, there are no easy fixes for teams struggling to stabilize their goaltending and it’s why all teams should have at least seven and ideally nine or 10 in the system. Instead, what we see is five or six per team and then they cherry-pick from the NCAA or Europe as needed. (may28)

19. However, there are several goalies hitting RFA status this summer and a couple of them can be acquired I’m sure. Philipp Grubauer and Calvin Pickard lead this list, as well as David Rittich. And I think it’s a good idea to hit Juuse Saros with an offer sheet that Nashville will, of course, match but then they’d be stuck with $12 million or more just for goaltending. (may28)

20. It’s been disappointing to see Tomas Tatar on the sidelines for most of the playoffs since Vegas acquired him at the trade deadline but sometimes a player doesn’t mesh immediately. It speaks to just one of the issues that can arise post-deadline with acquisitions. Regardless, they acquired Tatar because both James Neal and David Perron are UFA and it’s not certain both (or either) return. Tatar has posted four straight 20-goal seasons, averaging 24 goals per campaign in that span, playing just over 16 minutes on average a night. He should find himself in the Vegas top-six next year with power-play time and a return to 25 goals seems possible in those circumstances. (may31)

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts-26/

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mechagalaxy · 8 years ago

Text

Sten Hugo Hiller - 3320 10 Red Tons

Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat

Brought to you by ANN, A News channel for Mecha Combat

Highlighting the January 3320 10 Red Tons

I was losing my battle. The enemy had me surrounded, and their reinforcements were a torrent. I held stubbornly to my position, but as soon as four were taken care of, seven new had arrived. I am of course talking about the PAPERWORK. I fantasized about getting a bigger office, say about the size of the grand senate. There this paperwork would be so little I would hardly see it. But I had to consider the first law of paperwork: "Paperwork will expand to fill all available space." I had better get a very small closet as office, less room for paperwork there. Able commed me "Boss, the scramble on the anthill is about to start, better get over ASAP" He was talking of the 10 ton challenge on K3, I was not sure this was a winnable one, but I was hopefully a contender. I got out of the plains, climbed the foothills and settled on the slopes as my teammate held top spot. Scramble came and it was a madhouse. Stechman had joined up, taken the top and was about impossible to budge. I managed it a couple times, but that claimed three supers. New challengers rose up, and now I had to defend my spot on the slopes. Grabbing into my hatorade compartment I got a horrible surprise. MORE PAPERWORK. How had it managed to get into my mech? Nothing to it, a fifteen minute break to take care of it, and a blitz at the 35 minute mark. At my assigned time a flurry of attacks brought me to the top, but counterattacks and reclimbs burned my energy at an alarming rate. At the 40 minute mark I was at the top, but had no more energy. I was pushed down to the slopes, and my natural instinct, get another hatorade was rewarded with another bundle of paperwork. A well-placed fusillade from my left sent me down to the lower foothills. Some of the fire breached my cockpit and ignited the paperwork. The contest finished a few minutes later. Those who stood at the tops this time to receive Gold, Nephilax and invitations to steeper mountains in upcoming events were:

Div 1 (28 Players): Sal Vezzosi Jr, Phoenix`s Wrath (4m,51s) Div 2 (21 Players): Paul Knight, Spirit of Bunny (5m,37s) Div 3 (45 Players): Frank Stechman, Death`s Decievers (3s) Div 4 (29 Players): Bob Goetz, Death`s Brethren (1m,59s) Div 5 (36 Players): John Thorson, B. Dragons Gamma (3m,41s) Div 6 (37 Players): Chris Page, Death`s Curse (13m,30s) Div 7 (33 Players): Laz`Rei, Mad Pork (33s) Div 8 (41 Players): Ila Mari Anthonsen, t&t 1 (26m,28s) Div 9 (24 Players): Rich Gibas, Arctic Warfare (31s) Div 10 (23 Players): Trojan_, Wrecking Crew (12m,33s) Div 11 (8 Players): BorgQueen, Borg Squad Wars (3m,56s) Div 12 (4 Players): Laura Pecorari (1h,6m)

Total contestants: 329, Total Medals: 162 (of 180 possible)

Back to normal conditions in the lower divisions, not enough contestants to fill them up, one silver unclaimed in div 12 this time.

The scramble lasted about 45 minutes and was mostly a freewheeling chaos. Three Golds decided during the last minute, four more during the last five. In fact, the only contestant to hold onto the Gold for the entire scramble was unaligned Laura Pecorari in div 12.

No clan got more than one gold this time. The AFF family did well and secured three. None managed a repeat gold winning this time.

As I sat in my smoking wreck the gold winner, Frank Stechman (#52792) passed by. He jumped out with a fire extinguisher to help, I managed to coax him into an interview.

Sten Hugo Hiller Congrats on your gold, you deserved it!

Frank Stechman Thank you.

Sten Hugo Hiller You have had a long career, First entry into the KOTMs way back in `65. First CW I find references to you are with Bad Company in `68. In `72 you joined AFF, After serving with the Collectors, Reapers and Revenge you seemed to settle with the Collectors.. Then in `13 you joined the Bounty Hunters and in `18 the Highlanders. Now you are back in the AFF, Decievers this time.

Frank Stechman Yep, took a break for a bit and the AFF kinda got past my skill levels. I was one of the original aff guys back in the day

Sten Hugo Hiller Could be me who are mistaken, but your skill levels seem plenty good enough to wallop me. Not that it necessarily is considered something much in the AFF. But looking through your medal cabinet. Is this really your first KOTM Gold?

Frank Stechman Yea, I am pretty proud of it.. know I have always competed against the best..so not getting gold never seemed bad, just encouragement to try and get better .

Sten Hugo Hiller Never too late to shine. You gave a fantastic fight for it in my mind, I ran out of energy at the 40 min mark, and you seemed to be inexhaustible. But is the limited format more to your liking than the unlimited?

Frank Stechman I have learned over time that concentrating on one thing helps you succeed. I do enjoy the unlimited a lot but that is still a work in progress. I do want to give credit to those that have advised me along the way. Bob Goetz in particular has always been there for me whenever I had a question.

Sten Hugo Hiller Always nice to have a sounding board, pooling resources and thoughts are the main reason for clans, and Goetz is an acknowledged master. Have you managed to store enough resources that leveling is easy, or are you too feeling the pinch in the ferrite and crystal department?

Frank Stechman Good question, atm I am a poor boy but that is because of heavy leveling on my spec Squads. I think what they have done with the circuit fights is awesome, but still need a decent way to get ferrite without waiting for a laser sale

Sten Hugo Hiller Missile sale? The Double Mordrem also give quite a bit of resources for one crystal during a sale. Another change was yet another reduction in medals, 15 in each division now. Is that a development you agree with?

Frank Stechman I have 2 thought on the medals,1) It is great, increases competition 2) drives newer players away because they get nothing ( and we do want a bigger player base for sure)

Sten Hugo Hiller With 8 contestants in div 11 and 4 in div 12, seem there are plenty of medals for those who participate, but it is a question of time I guess. Speaking of time, how do you like the Chronos.? Want only them, or more in the once a year is too often camp?

Frank Stechman I would prefer a few less, maybe every other week, As it is I think there are too many.

Sten Hugo Hiller I shudder at the thought of two to three a week myself, on the other hand, gives me more time to catch an interview before the upcoming event. When it comes to the limited formats, you have several medals in the weapon type KOTMs. Are your weapon collection so big that they are your favorites?

Frank Stechman I lag terribly when loading the hangar. I try and keep enough weps to participate in any given weapon event, Personal favs are laser and fire but I enjoy all the weapon events.

Sten Hugo Hiller You have also participated in and gotten quite a few medals in the rainbows, what is your take on them?

Frank Stechman Is a necessary part of the game. Anybody who does not have all of the rainbow specs is missing out on a lot of the fun. They are relatively easy to make and is up to the player to decide which to concentrate on.

Sten Hugo Hiller The third type is weight limit. Do you prefer max tonnage or mechtype, say max 10 ton or Ants only? Kidding, say max 30 or Imechs instead?

Frank Stechman I would like to say 100 ton but atm there is not enough crystal equipment to field a fully filled squad. So I would say that 90-95 tons is by far the most effective for those that spend niodes frugally, btw my favorite mech is old school , Inferno.

Sten Hugo Hiller A bit hard to get enough mechs for the low level contenders. But. If you could chose an KOTM, you set the rules, what would it be?

Frank Stechman Wow, took me by surprise, how's about one wall of each mech with that wall having a ton limit? or even to make it easier each wall having a ton limit.

Sten Hugo Hiller A kind of single mechtype frontline? From your mouth to the Developers ears. During your long career and many discussions with friends in your clans. Have you any insights to share as to what mechs, equipment and weapons those who struggle should acquire?

Frank Stechman Best advice I can give is listen to those that know more, Clans are more than just someplace to battle. Make friends, chat, and share, make the game more than just beat this or that. The game will take on a whole different aspect is you do that.

Sten Hugo Hiller A valuable insight, Your friends are the most important resource. Speaking of friends, it looks like yours want to have the guest of honor at the celebration back. Any final words?

Frank Stechman Same as is on my profile.. Have fun, it is just a game.

Sten Hugo Hiller Thank you, and good luck on K2 in the upcoming four events.

Frank Stechman back at ya, GL

Upcoming event: Smaller Gateways Bring the mechs you want -As long as the total weight don’t exceed what is allowed for your division. Excess weight will remove random mechs from the formation and leave gaps a canny opponent will explore.

Event ends February 15 between 2000 and 2100 New York Time

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auburnfamilynews · 5 years ago

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Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images

We’re all going to take the Tigers, but which coward predicts the Flashes to cover?

Auburn’s going to finish Saturday night as a 3-0 football team, that’s all but assured. But what manner of undefeated will these Tigers be? Are we going to see some improvement from the disjointed offense that’s graced the field the first two weekends, or are we going to feel some of the same frustrations with the team that we have the first two weeks?

No need to watch if you can’t, for every possible outcome follows below!

***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE PICKS YOURSELF, JUST PUT THEM IN THE COMMENTS AND RYAN STERRITT WILL KEEP SCORE. MAKE SURE YOU PUT AN ACTUAL SCORE IN YOUR PICK AS WELL SINCE WE KEEP TRACK OF THE LINE AND THE OVER/UNDER***

#8 Auburn vs Kent State - 6 pm CST - Auburn, AL - Jordan-Hare Stadium

Auburn won’t struggle with this opponent. Kent State isn’t good. There really isn’t much to say here.

Kent State’s best playmaker, WR Isaiah McKoy, may make a play or two here and there, but Auburn’s defense will suffocate any redzone threats. I expect Kent State to have at least two red-zone opportunities ended by turnovers.

I’d like Bo Nix to hang around a little longer than normal tomorrow. A little extra game time can’t hurt. It seems like Auburn’s receiving depth will be thin, so this is a great trust-building opportunity for Nix and his receivers. I’m also looking forward to seeing (hopefully) all six of Auburn’s starting running backs. Auburn 52, Kent State 3

-Josh Dub

Kent State is a bad football team. There is 0 excuse for either side of the ball to get off to a slow start. Game is at night, opponent isn’t great & you aren’t coming off a super emotional win. This needs to be one of those 40+ pt beatdowns where multiple players get to be on the highlights.

What I want to see is a more efficient night from Bo, a 2nd RB stand out, someone at WR step up to prove they can be helpful, OL pancaking folks, very little snaps for Auburn’s key defensive players and LOTS of reserves. A dream scenario would be for AU to be up big at half & then allow Joey to run the opening game script to start the 3rd quarter with the 2nd team offense but I have seen enough of Malzahn to know that ain’t happening...

Still, Saturday is a chance to clean some things up before the meat of the schedule arrives. I expect a huge day on the ground with Auburn doing what they should do & then eating clock all 2nd half. Auburn 59 Kent State 3

-AU Nerd

Auburn is better by a wide margin than the Flashes at every single position. I don’t see this one being particularly close. I do see us getting a lot of guys as many reps as possible. However, if this game is within 14 after 1 people might get really restless. I can’t imagine a scenario where they score more than twice on our defense. Auburn needs to use this game to get better on offense. Auburn’s offensive line is what it is, it is now up to Dilly and Gus to figure out how to maximize what it is. I think Auburn scores early and often. I think Kent State struggles mightily in quarters 2&3 against a much deeper roster. Auburn wins. 35-0

-Son of Crow

Just what the doctor ordered! A bad football team shows up in Jordan-Hare Stadium for another night game on the Plains (someone should seriously contact the SEC offices about how we have to suffer through night games in September when it impacts our team’s ability to get a jump start on the next week…not to mention potentially lose prime seating at Waffle House). We’ve got a lot we need to see before hitting the road back to Texas for the SEC opener, so here’s what I think we need to see to win this game the right way:

Protect the football. For the love of God, protect the football.

Turn Bo Nix loose. It looks like we haven’t let him go through all of his progressions in practice by this point in the year, and are slowly trying to help him acclimate to the college game. This needs to change in a hurry Saturday. We can’t see anymore wheel routes left open or Marquis McClain streaking down field and it not be seen. Turn this kid loose, Gus. Let him play.

Hope DJ Williams is healthy, so he can start sharing the load of carries. He’s the only true every down back on this football team aside from Boobie. We need him.

Refine punting so it negates coverage issues. We need some more hang time from the punter from down under!

I want to see Kaleb Kim stay off his back and knock someone on their ass. Stay low, hit someone, and drive the block. If we don’t start seeing that fight this weekend, we’re a loss away from seeing changes along the offensive line.

I’m taking the under here. We’ve got a lot of guys out offensively that I’d like to believe could help us account for more points. But I’m also believing that Auburn’s defense refuses to care who they play, and instead continues to operate at an elite level. Auburn 38 Kent State 3

-Josh Black

A lot has been made of Auburn’s slow start on offense this year. This would be a good week to show some improvements before next week’s huge game in College Station. Kent State isn’t good, unlike Tulane, who I think wins at least 8 games this year which makes an already strong Auburn schedule look even better at the end of the year. The offensive line needs to show marked improvement this week. Auburn needs to hold onto the football, 3 fumbles last week wasn’t good. It would be nice to see more of the other Running Backs like DJ Williams and Harold Joiner or else you run the risk of running Boobee into the ground early in the season. Auburn wins but Kent State barely covers. Auburn 41 Kent State 7

-Will McLaughlin

I think Auburn can “athlete” this into a cover. Kent State is not good at all, and I have a feeling Gus is going to let the backups run the core offense for a bit to see if he has any more contributors for next week. Look for big games from Matthew Hill and hopefully DJ Williams. The defense shouldn’t be troubled, and you’ll probably need a full roster by the 3rd quarter. Auburn 45, Kent State 7 (UNDER, Auburn wins and covers)

-James Jones

Auburn covers and take the under.

Well finally the Tigers get to have a tuneup game right before starting SEC play in College Station next weekend. I look for the offense to look a little bit better and I wouldn’t be shocked if Nix is in there a little bit longer than you would traditionally see a starter go. As far as the defense goes, if D-Brown, Davidson and the rest of the starters are out there past the first or second series, some thing is very wrong. Auburn cruises to an easy one.

41-6 Auburn

-Drew Mac

I’ve been told this Kent State team is all-time bad. One would like to think Auburn could win 69-0 or something like that, but I’m going to account for a lot of second and third string action here. I think Auburn doesn’t quit hit the over, much to the chagrin of many I’m sure.

Tigers 42-3

-AU Chief

Kent State is real bad. Like, 117th out 130 bad. Considering the Auburn defense only allowed 6 points to Tulane, a respectable, middle of the road defense, I can’t expect Kent to do better than that. So then we have to look at the Auburn offense. In both games, the offense has struggled out of the gate only to find themselves after a few three and outs. Ideally, the offensive line will be able to pass block against a massively undersized defensive line, and for the first time Bo will settle into the pocket and have time to make some nice throws. Ideally. I’m less worried about Bo, though, than I am about the running game. We REALLY need to see a second running back emerge behind Boobee, whether it’s Shivers, Williams, or Joiner. I think it’s going to be Shivers Saturday who goes for 80+ yards and a score. Auburn 38-3.

-Ryan Sterritt

Until I see the offense run smoothly, even against a terrible opponent, I’m not going to believe that it’ll happen. I think we can run just about as vanilla a gameplan as possible and win going away, even without Seth Williams on the field. I do wonder if maybe not having him on the perimeter may end up having a similar effect to what happened with the Panthers when Kelvin Benjamin was injured. It forced Cam Newton to spread the ball around and the offense surged. After the stilted start, you can’t discount any possible fix.

More than anything else, we need to see the offensive line bully a bad MAC team. It has to happen. If we don’t average well north of 5 yards per carry and run with impunity, then I don’t know how much success we’ll actually have later in the year. We also need to see Bo Nix much more than you might see a normal starter in a similar game. I want him to get as many reps as possible before the SEC fireworks begin.

The defense will dominate, and Kent State’s not getting into the end zone more than once all day. I think we get a defensive touchdown AND a special teams score! Christian Tutt houses one tomorrow. Book it. Auburn rolls, looking better than last week, 49-6.

-Jack Condon

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/9/13/20864061/staff-picks-8-auburn-vs-kent-state

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