#how do we remove karl and add dream

[dteamain]

this might sound mean of me but... i do think karl is the problem with banter. he’s just so.... beast-ified. when george first joined there was a glimmer of hope because george is, in my opinion, more personable and less robotic, but they went straight back into guest episodes with randoms.

karl tries to take control of the narrative both within the episodes (steering the conversation aka interrupting people) and outside of the episodes (pays the company for guests). but also one thing that annoys me that doesnt really have anything to do with the quality of banter is that karl acts like hes a one man show. he does it with 5/5 content (“if it wasnt for me u guys wouldnt get this content ur welcome” - even though the reason there was 5/5 content for so long was because HE was busy) and he does it with banter (“I’M trying to do xyz”) even though we found out george plays a larger part in post production (idk if thats the right word) than karl or sapnap.

sapnap is also very quiet in the episodes which doesnt help. though i think he’d be more down if there were less guests and they were just hanging out. he was more present in george’s first few episodes than anything he did with just karl.

karl just wants it to be something very bland and boring which is the true mr beast way.

i totally agree with most of this. i think karl has a hard time not taking the lead. i think that's what makes his personal projects so great and passion filled.

however it does hinder collab content like banter, i totally think he takes the lead with the style of banter and all that and i think he is heavily influenced by mr beast.

i told everyone in our little discord gc that banter reeks of mr beast. i 100% think not only sapnap but george as well would thrive with a more friends based podcast where they can relax and be themselves. sapnap literally came alive in both the yard episodes when he could just be the bro-dude he is

[auramindedd]

Fixed? Never - SMAU*

Part 3

CorpseHusband x FemReader

Warnings: cussing

A/N: again, any posts with a “ * ” attached to “smau” has writing in it. imma focus A LOT more on just the social media n message perspective, but y/n n corpse meet in this part soooo i had to add some writing :) something else b4 i forget; i’m updating my masterlist and changing it into a directory post that way you guys can also request through a google form! i’ll have requests open at all times unless i get too stressed out or if they overfill. due to me changing my masterlist, there’s gonna be about 6 posts i think. also,, thank you guys so much for 600 followers! i’ve been hitting a bunch of milestones and haven’t been remembering to say thank you, but just know that i appreciate every single one of you... also i love reading y’all’s comments 😭

🤍 directory

🕊 previous

☁️ next

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You make sure you’re set up before 6 PM, which was probably a mistake. You can’t sit still, you’re starting to get nervous, and you kind of just want to run away to McDonald’s.

Sure, you know Ludwig, Dream, and Rae, but it feels like you’re at school all over again. That anxious feeling of having to be with people while your best friends aren’t around.

You’re leg is bouncing, your nails are tapping on your desk, and you can’t stop running your hand through your hair. It probably looks like a fucking bird nest by now.

You start streaming, deciding that maybe talking to your supporters will make things a bit better.

“Hey, loves,” You greet in a not so Y/N-fashioned way. Of course, the chat catches on, and you’re being called out for it. You can’t help but giggle at the fact that your supporters know how you usually are.

@user: What happened to, “Hey, bitches!”

@user: Ou, someone is nervous.

Yeah, they obviously know you very well.

“Alright, let’s start over.” You clear your throat for dramatic effect because, well, when are you not dramatic? “Hey, bitches!” Yup, even you know that just feels right.

After a while of talking to your supporters, Rae sends you the Discord invite and the Among Us code. You join, feeling your nerves start to come back.

“Y/N!” Rae exclaims in excitement when she sees you’ve joined the Among Us lobby.

“Hi,” You say, shyness lacing your voice.

“Oh my God! The cutest voice.” Jack says. Wow, what a compliment coming from the Jack_Septic_Eye.

You take time to introduce yourself to everyone, trying to calm your nerves.

“Are we gonna start?” Ludwig’s impatient ass asks.

“We’re waiting for Corpse.” Rae explains.

Shit, another person you have to introduce yourself to?

“Hey, Corpse!” Sykkuno greets quickly, very obviously racing to be the first to say hi to Corpse.

“Hey, Sykkuno,” Corpse chuckles, and woah, the last thing you expected. You can’t help but be surprised, and you know it’s showing on your face. Why? Because your supporters are teasing you in the chat.

“Corpse,” Rae says in a sing-songy tone. “This is Y/N.” And your heart drops to your fucking stomach. Every single time it happens when you have to meet someone, but now your heart is beating even faster because you’re obviously the only one who hasn’t met Corpse. They’re all expecting a reaction out of you...

“Hey, Y/N.” His deep, husky voice says. You can hear the smile in his voice and it helps ease your nerves.

“Hi,” You greet, shyness still lacing your voice.

Corpse chuckles, “So cute.” Now you’re blushing. Great...

Rae starts the game, saving you before the others can start teasing you.

Crewmate.

You’ve only played Among Us once, in a public server with Dream, George, Karl, and Alex, and then you got bullied for not knowing what the fuck to do.

To say the least, you’re pretty glad to be Crewmate and not Impostor.

“Y/N!” Jack shouts, walking up to you. You slightly jump, forgetting they’re playing with Proximity Chat.

“Jack!” You shout back, letting his astronaut catch up to you.

“We were expecting a reaction.” He says, and of course they were.

“Uh, yeah, I don’t know. I feel like he hears it a lot, don’t want to add on to the list of Things People Say To Him Everyday.”

“Yeah, he’s probably very grateful for that.”

“Grateful for what?” Charlie walks up to you two.

“Nothing,” Jack drawls. You’ve just met Charlie, but you know that he’d tease both you and Corpse about one another’s voices.

“Oh, I know!” Charlie exclaims, but before he can say what he knows-

“Okayyy! That’s enough interaction with Charlie for today.” Jack says, and you take that as a, ‘Walk the fuck away now, Y/N!’

You walk around, trying your best to finish tasks, but when it comes to the card swipe in Admin, you want to quit life as a whole.

“Ugh, I fucking quit.” You groan, slamming your hands on your desk. A deep, rumbling chuckle comes through on your headphones.

“Having trouble?” Corpse teases.

“Yeah. I wanna rip every strand of my fucking hair out.”

“Swipe it slower.” And with that, you try again. Voila! Just like magic.

“Well if I would’ve fucking known.” You groan, Corpse chuckling.

“Here, I can help you with the game.”

“Yes, please, I don’t know shit about it.”

“You know, you cuss a lot for having such a sweet, innocent, and cute voice.” Corpse laughs.

“Yeah,” You drawl. “I know, bad fucking habit.” You slap your hand over your mouth. How does someone cuss in every sentence? Get a filter, damn.

Corpse walks around with you as you both finish tasks, explaining how the game works, and giving you tips for when you do end up being an Impostor.

Honestly, you could listen to his voice all day. He’s also really sweet.

“What are you two up to?” Brooke asks, doing tasks in Electrical with you two. Corpse told you to make sure you’re always aware of your surroundings when you’re in Electrical. So, naturally, you’re freaking out, but silently and internally.

“Brooke,” Corpse warns. He doesn’t even have time to finish his warning. Brooke kills him, his body flopping over, the one bone sticking out from the top of his body. Your mouth falls open.

“Hey, Y/N. Let’s be besties!” You don’t know what to do, but ay, #girlsupportinggirls, right? So, you walk with her. She helps you along the way, also telling you tips on the game, explaining how everything works. Then, after about a minute, a whole 60 seconds, Corpse’s body is reported.

“Why Corpse? Such an innocent man with a beautiful voice.” Lud fake cries.

“Get over it,” Brooke says.

“It’s Brooke! Brooke’s an Impostor!” Lud shouts.

“What? No! I was with Y/N for a lot of this round.” Brooke defends herself, and oh fuck, who the fuck do you defend? You’ve just met both of them, one of them will possibly hate you forever.

“Y/N?” Sykkuno grabs your attention, snapping you out of your thinking.

“Yeah, she was. She wouldn’t have had time to kill Corpse. Where was the body?” Well, there you go, potentially ruining yours and Corpse’s blooming friendship. Sad Girl Hour, type beat.

“In Electrical,” Charlie says.

“Yeah, no way she would’ve had to time to kill him.”

Nobody’s voted out. Brooke hasn’t even told you who the second Impostor is so, you don’t know if you should stay with her or not.

As you and Brooke are walking around, or skipping as she sees it, and holding hands, Dream pops out of a vent. Well, there’s Imposter two.

“Woah! Dream, way to out yourself out.” You tease, throwing your head back and laughing.

“Please, you’ve been with Brooke the whole time. Don’t say anything.” Dream begs, making you and Brooke giggle.

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“Thank you,” He starts walking away from you guys, but not without finishing his sentence that you thought was already finished. “Cutie.” And there, finished.

Fucking finished! Tweedle-dee, tweedle dum! Whoopty-fucking-do! Fan-fucking-tastic! A-fucking-mazing!

And of course you’re blushing for the whole 80,000+ people watching to tease you about.

“Oh my God!” Brooke squeals. “What was that?!”

“I’ll explain later,”

•*•*•*•*•

“Y/N, how could you?” Corpse says, offended.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to do.”

“She’s my enemy, Y/N. We were supposed to stick together. I told you some tips and tricks, explained how to be a badass Impostor, everything!” Wow, he’s a good fucking actor.

“I can very well do the same thing, bitch.” Brooke spits, all in a playful manner - you hope...

“Not better than me, bitch.” Corpse retorts, his astronaut getting closer.

•*•*•*•*•

Imposter.

With Corpse.

Great.

Your enemy. Or as he put it, “Enemy who he can maybe, and most likely, will become friends with in the near future.”

“Follow,” He says, and even though he’s your enemy, you do.

“I gotta do my own thing.”

“You don’t know how to do shit.” Corpse scoffs.

“Okay then, what the fuck are we gonna do?”

“Double kills, all the way, but only when we meet up with each other. So, right now, we’ll both go our own ways, but when we see each other again, we’ll walk to a pair and do a double kill if we can.” Corpse explains.

“Brooke told me not to do double kills often. It won’t help get through a game.”

Corpse snorts, “Brooke doesn’t know dog shit about this game.”

“Fine,” You groan, going along with it only because you don’t know dog shit about the game either.

As Corpse explained, you two do double kills every time you meet up. You two managed to get double kills where people rarely go - Shields, Comms, and the top of Cafeteria.

After killing Rae and Sykkuno, the game ends. You made sure to leave Brooke and Dream alive.

“Period, we did that!” You exclaim, everyone else groaning and complaining about how you two should never be an Impostor duo again. “But I still fucking hate you because you hate me!”

“Exactly!” Corpse retorts in the same tone as you.

•*•*•*•*•

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Taglist - comment or message me to be added!

* if your username is in bold, please reach out to me; you’re at risk of having your username removed that way i can clear space for other tags. *

@cherry-piee @littlered00 @sunnywinterdays @strang-ersclub @callmemaeve-y @powerpuffyn @kusuinko @where-thesundoesntshine @letglimmersayfuck @coryisagee @a-dot-dev @ifilosemyselfagain @tayloryorkscurls @lex-prplatmngrl @letsloveimagines @youretheonlyonewhomakesme @smiithys @mikayladoesntknow @clubfairy @mirahg @thurstyforholland @thatsouthernblondewiththeass @majasophieanna

——————————————————————————

Tags - ignore::

[dreamteamspace]

MCYT subway au Part 3 because I’m a sucker for attention and the 2 ppl who made part 1 and 2 noticed me

Holiday Shift

- Everybody who works on the holiday gets double. Those that can’t work have to put their name on a list. Lowest entries and those that don’t enter need to work the shift. It’s Phil’s idea don’t ask

- George is the first to put his name there but Sapnap skribbles it out and makes sure everybody else gets their name in first. It’s his punishment for leaving Dream and him alone for rush hour when Karl was sick. Dream wasn’t all that mad but Sapnap Will Not let that shit slide

- Tommy gladly takes the oppertunity to not have to spend the entire day awkwardly hugging relatives and being told to keep their elbows off the table. Convinces Tubbo to join them, supposedly for the Money

- Dream: “So Karl did you put your name on the list yet?” Karl: “What list??”

- Shift staffing: George, Tubbo, Tommy and Karl

- George becomes the reluctant babysitter of what feels like three kids

- “Karl stop WASTING the bread we NEED THAT.”

- Tommy is told to go pull what they need for monday out of the freezer. Tubbo offers to come with him and holds his hand the entire time. They’re best friends your honor. Tommy promises Tubbo to make it up to him

- George does about 60% of the work on a four person shift. Swears to murder Sapnap on sight. Probably slaps a pastry in his face later

Promotion pt. 4: Taking Over

- Tommy begs Techno to join in support of Wilbur. Techno reluctantly agrees because he can’t really say no to Tommy and because he doesn’t really want to become manager anyway (too much paperwork and he’s fixating on the origins of vedgetables) 

- Tommy now adds #WilburForManager to his pogway stickers. Wilbur is also reluctantly Growing Soft in face of Tommy’s undying support

- Nobody knows why, but Quackity has the unspoken ability to make Schlatt give him sick leave or remove him from shift?? All Quackity has to do is point to his phone and give Schlatt a smug Look.

- Ppl are suspicious but really Quackity just has a video of Schlatt kissing a baby kitten in the face and talking to it in a high pitched soft voice

- Wilbur needs to visit extended family and leaves for 2 weeks. The day before he leaves is surprisingly light-hearted and Wilbur admits that Schlatt isn’t the worst manager imaginable. He lets them waste things sometimes and has yet to give anybody a cut for not showing up to a shift

- Dream can’t openly go against Schlatt, silently wishing he’d just put the milk in The Right Spot before his shift. But no. It never is. It’s always somewhere else. Always.

- Schlatt continues to place things in slightly different places than they belong and following his whim more than the rules. One time he didn’t order the dark chocolate cakes they sell because “Who likes those anyway”

- Phil is there more often to make sure Wilbur’s work is covered. The war continues to rage in stolen glares and misplaced ingredients.

- Bad and Skeppy are slowly genuinely growing concerned, watching the whole thing go down like a movie.

Promotion pt. 5: Adopted On Sight

- Schlatt tells Tubbo he’s doing great One Time because he literally saved Schlatt’s ass from being fired for the whole cakes thing by biking it to the nearest store that sells them and getting some

- Tubbo will now follow Schlatt around to ask him how he’s doing, if he did everything right, if he needs any help, how his morning went so far

- Schlatt does Not Know how to handle Tubbo and suddenly wishes for Wilbur to just Come Back and Take His Kid. Tubbo wishes him a good morning and good night every single day. How is he supposed to keep up his tough old man appearance like this

- Tommy is still on Wilbur’s side and purposefully makes Schlatt’s life just a little more difficult. Small pranks. Stickers on the cakes, wasting them. Writing #TommySupremacy on the sandwhich wraps with markers while nobody is looking. Taking 4 chairs to the back to stack them on top of eachother and stand on them to reach the ceiling. Being the teenager he is.

- Tubbo think it’s funny and that’s the main thing keeping him going really

- Schlatt confronts Tommy but with no results. He turns to Phil to ask him what to do and Phil is like, you don’t do anything. That’s just Tommy for you. Usually Wilbur keeps him occupied with the Dreamon hunting and now he has too much free time

- Quackity is using the blackmail more and more. Does he even work here anymore? When was the last time anybody saw him apart from looting the expired sodas? He’s the only one who can order avocados on a spanish site online that don’t cost their weight in gold

- But as it tends to be with good friends, Schlatt knows the amount of blackmail he has is enough to fill everybody’s need for drama here for the rest of the year. Also he can’t say no to Quackity

- Fundy recieves yet another apology card from Wilbur from Ireland, a whole postcard with a picture attached and a little doodle of a fox. He finally caves and forgives him, now refusing to do Schlatt’s work anymore.

- Dream is Popping Off. Nobody can stop him from working once he starts. He’s 2 months ahead on Literally Everything. Somebody help him

Promotion pt. 6: The Finale I promise

- Wilbur returns! Schlatt is THIS close to throwing in the towel

- Tubbo says he wants another sleepover, wanting to de-escalate the whole manager war. Tommy has to stay true to his promise in the freezer and they convince Wilbur together. Techno was on board before they even asked

- Unbeknowedst to them, the Dream Team + Karl wanted to stay in that night as well to sabotage Schlatt

- Both groups stare at eachother in confusion at first

-They combine their resources to figure out a way to sabotage Schlatt. Dream is growing increasingly quiet and unsure while Tommy stares at The Adults with dissapointment. Tubbo tries to get a word in about how Schlatt isn’t That Bad but they all yell over him. “The milk, Tubbo! Why can’t he put the milk back like a normal person!”

- Eventually Tommy pulls out his bravery and tells everyone to Shut Up

- Everyone stares at eachother

-Tommy: “How come you guys yelling over bullying somebody out of their work sounds less mature than when my literal nephews are screaming at eachother over 10 year old pokemon cards??“

- The adults stare at eachother even harder

- Dream shyly clears his throat. “From an outsider perspective, you know, uh, I should probably be fired for plotting against a fellow manager-“

- Wilbur finally finds his tongue. “Maybe this wasn’t the most... mature idea.”

- Everybody carefully agrees to apologize to schlatt and never speak of this again. Tommy has unknowingly gotten a lot more pranking rights

- They spend the rest of the night organizing the storage, hunting Dreamon, Dream telling them about that one time he ate a living frog, and taking turns playing some free racing game on Karl’s switch

- Lots of laughter, return to their shifts the next day

- They wait for Schlatt to come in to work and pull him to the back. Only Bad and Skeppy are already allowed inside while they keep the doors locked for anybody else

- Dream issues a formal apology to him and tells him everything, and Wilbur jockingly mentions they were really close to pouring food coloring into his rubber gloves as they try to laugh it off

- Schlatt stares at them

- “You know what? I quit. I don’t want to be the manager anymore. I feel like the dad of lord knows how many kids. Phil is some kind of angel. Wilbur please adopt Tubbo and Tommy again, as long as our store isn’t on fire I’m never going to complain about them ever again. Dream you might wanna phone Quackity.”

Insiders

- After a good, short era of peace within the establishment, the Drama Bois are getting bored and latching onto new things

- The bets on whether Skeppy and Bad are a couple or not are getting ever higher, especially as they’ve started letting them behind the counter. They figured out pretty quickly that they’re officially not together, but that just makes the betting all the more exciting. Do they like eachother? Are they hiding it? Are they just really good friends? Are they THAT oblivious or just really good at covering it up??

- Bad especially becomes good friends with Dream, George and Sapnap, and yet they’re all just as split as everyone else on whether he likes Skeppy or not

- Bad pretends to be but is in fact not oblivious to this at all

- Dream especially will often tell them they’re being VERY close to eachother or how cute they are next to eachother, revelling in teasing his friend, especially as Bad will sometimes start to get flustered while Skeppy manages to somehow stay 100% cool

- One day when a middle aged white woman is extremely unhappy with her order she starts talking down on George about being uneducated, and too clumsy for being useful at all, and how they should fire him. George asks her if he should just get the manager and she gladly agrees, only for Dream to swoop out of a back room, a good head taller than her, and sternly tell her if she can’t treat employees like human beings then he will ban her from the establishment immedietly. The woman stutters, takes her order and leaves, cursing something as she goes.

- Bad and Skeppy were sitting at a table nearby quietly the entire time, and Bad has this a-little-too-wide smile on his face.

- Dream murmurs something about having to go, but the seeds are planted. The idea has bloomed. Bad is ready to get his teasing revenge.

- Just as they’re closing, George puts away the milk that Dream left on the counter, telling Dream that he’s putting it away. Bad: “Wow George, that’s so thoughtful of you!” George: “???”

- Dream, softly telling George he can go home earlier and he’ll take the rest of the shift so George can catch up on sleep: “It’s okay, just go. I’ve got this.”

- Bad, just as George left, slurping his milkshake innocently while Wilbur and Sapnap are in earshot: “Awww, Dream! That was SO nice of you!”

- Dream, knowing exactly what this is for: “I’m just... nice to my friends!“

- Bad: “Really?! How many times do you let Sapnap go home earlier?” Sapnap: “You let George go earlier AGAIN?” Wilbur, having waited his entire life for someone to finally notice this: “George is getting so much favored treatment, Dream. But you’re really just good friends, right?“

- If looks could kill they’d all be dead at that point. Especially Bad, who continues slurping his milkshake as the chaos unfolds and Dream knows there’s no escape

@labbyyyyy @karlljacobs

[icarus-07]

People always say Tommy's got plot armour, but im like 90% sure he's also got Karl armour.

I read somewhere about a theory that the egg is an anomaly that was created to try and right the timelines after Karl messed with them. And the eggs pretty damn convinced that Tommy needs to die. Its very insistent about that. Like weirdly insistent that Tommy specifically should die even though other people, like Ranboo, have been immune to it. So I got to thinking about times that Karl could have saved Tommy's life in a way that fucked things up enough that the egg would want him gone.

And I remembered what Wilbur said after their fight with Dream, about how there was a spot opening up in the afterlife for Tommy that Wilbur came through. Which is weird, since it was Tubbo whose life was at risk, so why didn't Wilbur say it was for Tubbo? Why make the point to say it was for Tommy? So it makes sense that maybe Tommy was supposed to die in the fight against Dream somehow. Maybe through sacrificing himself for Tubbo or falling off the cliff or something like that. And I was thinking about how Karl might have stopped that.

And I think it would have to do with Punz. Because lets be honest, Tommy isn't a very rich dude. I genuinely don't think he could have found that much money in such a short time while he was also theoretically grinding for war supplies. Tommy lost everything in exile and lets be honest that dude is always super poor cause he hates getting his own stuff. And we know he didn't steal it because someone would have spoken up about it at this point. So let's say theoretically, Tommy didn't pay Punz enough to sway his loyalty. Punz never gathers everyone and they never show up to save the two of them. Tommy and maybe even tubbo die. Karl needs to stop that, and he's the one that adds more money in order to fully pay off Punz. I mean, Tommy said it himself, he didn't actually think Punz was going to show up, maybe he felt that way because he knew the money he gave wasn't actually enough. The only reason it was enough was because Karl saw the timeline where it wasn't and added onto the sum in order to save Tommy. It also lines up with Karls other methods of changing things, he's always super subtle about it, like removing the button, giving Ranboo the heart of the sea as a gift, and so on. Doing something small like adding a bit more money into that chest seems in character.

And now that the eggs here, it wants Tommy gone, since he shouldn't be alive at this point in the timeline. Makes you wonder what would have happened if Tommy actually did die. Why Karl would have gone through the trouble to stop what seems like a big enough plot point that the egg feels the need to change it. How different would the timeline be?

I feel like others have pointed this out and I'm a bit late to the party but its just such a cool concept to think about so I decided to put my thoughts into words lol.

[darkeninganon]

(I wanted to write what I thought Quackity did to Dream. Warning for gore, blood, very heavy torture, passing out (as a fear/pain response), and willful ignorance of torture. If you spot something else, message me and I will add it and apologize profusely. How I described Dream was based off @winifreyd and their White Enderman Dream Design. Go check out their art!)

"SAM!" Sam practically lept through the lava at that moment. The fear in the voice calling his name overriding all common sense. But he froze, Tommy was no longer in there. "SAM!" The voice calling out for Sam was the voice of a monster who deserved to be in there, a monster that killed people for fun. A monster that was finally feeling fear. "You can scream as much as you want, Sam's not coming." Dream stared at Quackity, the scarred man held a hammer and kife, casually swining both as if they weren't weapons. "How?! What are you.... Why?!" Quackity barked out a fit of laughter, resulting in Dream cowering into the corner more. So, so close to the lava. "I already told you Dream..." He raised the hammer up slightly, holding the top towards Dream, "I want that fucking Book." "I...I burned it, I told you that!" "Then tell me what was in the fucking book!" "N.... NO!" Dream straightened up, trying to put on a brave face. "You think I'm going to make myself obsolete? You're dumber than-" Dream's head was whipped to the side, his mask flying off into the lava. His body collapsed as his brain fought to register what just happened. "Maybe, just maybe, if I beat your skull enough, I can crack your head open and actually see what is going on in that brain of yours." Quackity spoke so casually, the hammer having a dash of blood on it already. Dream shook his head, ears pinned against his head, backing even further into the corner. Quackity smiled as he stepped closer to Dream, invading the prisoner's personal space. "Man, I see why George could have loved you. Without that ugly-ass mask on, you actually have a nice face." He casually put the hammer away, raising the knife up to eye level. "Shame I have to ruin it. I'm sure Gogy will forgive me." A hand wrapped around Dream's mouth, pinning his head to the wall, wile Quackity straddled Dream's waist, keeping himself safe from the prisoner's thrashing legs. Dream's hands flew up, clawing at the on pinning his head and keeping him from talking, muffled scream accompanying the chaos of flailing limbs. The knife came closer and closer to Dream's face, and, unable to contain his fear, Dream closed his eyes. A shooting pain blossomed in the left side of his face; his right eyes flying open as he tried to scream, jaw unhinged, tried to claw Quackity's hand to the bone, tried to throw Quackity off into the lava, tried to do something to make it stop. Quackity eventually pulled away, staring in utter fascination at a weird, fleshy-looking ball that he had pinned against the knife. "Huh, you know, I always thought your eyes would be green, what with how much you liked the color. You don't mind if I keep this as a reminder of what they actually look like, do you? Maybe give it to your precious Gogy? Show it off to Tubbo and Tommy?" He was laughing, pocketing Dream's.... Dream covered the left side of his face, realizing that everything had shifted to the right. No, no Quackity couldn't do this.... what would Sapnap and Karl think? "Who cares what they would think?! Who would be afraid of you if they found out you pissed you fucking pants!" Quackity barked out, still laughing and pointing at Dream. Sure enough, a darkened stain spread from his crotch down his pant legs. Tears began to burn Dream's cheeks as he pulled his legs up to his chest, tail curling around the stained area, hoping to hide what his body just did. Except, Quackity grabbed his right ankle and pulled it towards himself, dragging Dream away from the wall. "No no no. We aren't done yet, not until you tell me what was in that book!" He took out the hammer, lightly pressing it to Dream's knee. Dream shook his head, still refusing to give Quackity the desired information. Dream would not be removed from the story, not yet. "All right then pal, you asked for it." With that Quackity raised the hammer and brought it down on Dream's knee. A sickening crunch-crack resonated through the cell, followed by a scream. Sam cringed, throwing his hands over his ears to block out the screaming and crying. "This is all for Tommy.... You did this for Tommy.... You are protecting Tommy..... If someone else knows what is in the book.... You can kill Dream, and Tommy will be safe..... Tommy can relax once Dream is dead..... This is for Tommy...." Tears fell from his eyes, but he just kept repeating his own personal mantra, praying that the screaming would stop soon. "SAAM!" Dream sobbed, crawling towards the lava, his legs dragging uselessly behind him. Quackity kept laughing, even as Dream's voice slowly gave out. "Sam.... please, I'm sorry.... Please...." "Oh, now you're sorry?" Quackity chuckled, slamming a foot down on Dream's shattered knees. Dream cried out weakly, reaching out for the lava. Quackity huffed at the lack of response, walking up and resting his full weight on Dream's shoulders, making sure to place his knee right between the blades. Quackity then grabbed Dream's outstretched hand, taking the knife back out. "You'll never hold another weapon, so long as I can help it." Dream watched in horror as Quackity cut off all his fingers in one fluid motion. A loud ringing filled Dream's ears, Quackity was talking, but it sounded so far away. His head suddenly felt weightless.... in fact his whole body did, and he felt.... cold? Where was that ringing coming from?! It was so loud and annoying. And why was the lava suddenly much brighter? "Sam! Something happened!" Sam jumped up at Quackity's yelling, lowering the lava to bring the cell into view. He took out his staff, the Warden's Will Breaker. But nothing could have prepared him for what greeted him. Quackity was fine, blood smeared across his face, hands, and shirt collar; Dream was on the floor, muttering and twitching, drool frothing from between his lips. Sam was quick to head over, nearly vomiting as he got closer and could see what happened in detail. Dream was missing an eye, blood from the socket matting his once white fur, his legs were bent in strange directions right at his knees, one of his hands was missing all its fingers, urine, blood, and drool stained his prison garb . And now he was on the floor, muttering nonsense, his remaining eye rolled up into his skull as if he were possessed; his mask was nowhere to be seen. Sam snapped out of his horror just long enough to grab Quackity and drag him out of the cell, leaving Dream to deal with whatever was going on. Sam could never let anyone find out what he had done, or they would hate him more than they already did. They needed Dream alive and, in some mental capacity to bring back Wilbur. Sam could only hope not too much damage was done. Ranboo stared out at the snow-covered landscape. Someone, somewhere, was crying out for help. Begging for mercy. Ranboo found himself crying, his red eye burning more than usual. He had been enderwalking just moments before. Ranmoo the bear woke him up with a nudge. He didn't want to be alone tonight though. He walked, to the portal, through the community house, past the badlands and the prison. He walked to the little cottage Tubbo called home, all the way in Snowchester. Ranboo was practically silent as he climbed the ladder, curling around Michael in his tiny bed. His son woke, slightly, giving a confused honk as he looked at his dad. Ranboo shushed him, and the two fell asleep peacefully. If only the same could be said about the prisoner, just a couple hundred miles away, in his cell.

[lost-in-the-80s]

You Don’t Want My Love - Chapter 8

Pairing: Duff McKagan x reader

Words: 3,969k

Summary: Guns n Roses hires a new tour assistant, but nobody thought that Duff would fall for her.

In this chapter: Is Paris really the city of love? Y/N and Duff are about to find out.

A/N: This chapter is pure fluff! There is a line in French, but the translation is below in italics. The high school story is true btw, I was the one who stayed sleeping lol

Tag list: @roger-taylors-car @ladieswttda @teasid @metalheartofgold @slashscowboyboots @ginny-rose-sixx @rumoured-whispers @vinylvintage @metalupyourash​ add yourself to my tag list :)

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

A week passed after that morning, nothing very exciting happened in Y/N's life. Guns n Roses did two successful shows in Scotland and soon after they got on the bus towards France.

They got there very early in the morning, after a long rainy night. Drops still dripped from the leaves of the trees and the asphalt had taken on a darker shade of gray, while the sun fought for space between the clouds that covered the sky.

Open-mouthed, Y/N admired the city through the bus window, her dream had always been to meet Paris, unaware of Duff's gaze fixed on her expressions, making a smile appear on the blonde's lips.

"I can't believe we're in Paris!" She exclaimed, her eyes shining with joy.

"Me neither," Slash said smiling, the realization that his band was touring Europe was still going on, and he couldn't be more proud.

"I always dreamed of coming here, but I never thought it would come true." She smiled, turning to the boys, her back facing the window.

“Well, we have the day off. You can enjoy doing what you've always wanted to do here! ” Izzy said, he was sitting next to her.

“I'm going shopping! Then I want to have coffee in one of those bistros that we see in the movies.”

"It looks like you already have a plan then." Izzy smiled slightly at her.

"Is there room for one more in this plan?" Duff asked. He was sitting across from her, smoking a cigarette.

"Sure! We can go out right after breakfast if you agree. ”

"It's fine with me!"

---

After a tasty breakfast, the two of them met in the hotel lobby. Duff in a leather jacket and black jeans while she wore a red sweater with jeans and black high boots.

Walking side by side, they followed the receptionist's recommendations, walking just a few streets before reaching downtown.

Entering a busier street, several people came and went along the sidewalk, making it difficult for them to move.

In a quick, almost unconscious movement, Duff took her hand, guiding the way through people until they reached a quieter street.

As soon as his skin touched hers, she lost herself, her legs still moved in rhythm with his, but her mind moved as fast as a hummingbird's wings.

His fingertips were dry and callused against the thin, smooth skin of her hand. Her fingers were so small compared to his that they almost disappeared during the gesture.

However, Duff didn't realize what he had done until they arrived at a peaceful avenue full of shops. He felt her hand tightly holding his and a small smile appeared on his lips. For a few seconds, he feared she would let go of his hand, after all his help was no longer needed, but she didn't.

In fact, she only let go of his hand when they entered the first store, needing both hands to feel the fabric of a sweater and go through the hangers.

They visited many stores and although Duff thought he would be bored to go shopping, he ended up having fun. Not because he liked to stand beside her while she went from hanger to hanger, or because he liked to carry the bags for her, but because he was with her.

Every time she left the dressing room asking for his opinion, he couldn't contain the small smile that formed on his lips.

Leaving what appeared to be the thousandth store, she suddenly stopped in front of a window. Its glasses had frosted glass details and clothes in shades of black and brown were exposed.

"What's it?" He asked worriedly.

"It's Chanel." She said with a sigh.

She looked at him and saw his brows furrowed. "It's my favorite griff."

"Let's go in then!" He said, pulling her hand into the store.

The floor was light marble and the walls were white, there were adorned pilasters in the corners and the ceiling was very high, decorated with a large crystal chandelier.

Passing slowly on the hangers, Y/N touched each fabric subtly, feeling the material against her skin and smiling without believing that she was in Paris, personally looking at the fine clothes that inspired her so much to study fashion.

"Bonjour je peux vous aider?" A middle-aged saleswoman wearing a bun approached with a friendly smile.

"Good morning, can I help you?"

"What?" Duff asked.

"Oh sorry, I didn't realize you were tourists." She smiled gently. "Do you need any help?"

"I'm just looking around, I studied fashion in college, I always wanted to see your store in person." Y/N smiled.

“You have a degree in fashion! That's great!" The saleswoman raised her eyebrows in admiration.

"Yes. Chanel has always been my favorite griff, it influenced me a lot to choose the fashion college. ”

“In this case, come with me to the second floor. We have beautiful dresses from the latest collection there, you will love them.”

The saleswoman guided them up an arched staircase with marble steps and black handrails to the second floor where the dressing rooms were and a session full of dresses and party clothes.

“This one is one of Karl's favorites, do you notice the ruby ​​details on the collar? They're from Australia.”

"It's beautiful!" Y/N responded, lightly touching the white dress that the saleswoman was showing her.

Passing the countless hangers, Y/N lifted her hand to her mouth when she saw a red dress, full of small sparkling stones. The dress was the most beautiful she had ever seen.

“Ah, this is Louise. It is inspired by Italy. ” The saleswoman approached explaining. "These little stones are quartz, they fit a lot, don't they?"

“Yes, they really do. It's the most beautiful dress I've ever seen in my life.”

"Try it," Duff said, drawing the attention of the two women.

“Yes, you should try it, dear! I'll see if we have one in your size, I'll be back in an instant. ” She smiled leaving the two of them in the room.

Putting the hanger back in place, Y/N turned to Duff. He smiled in her direction and she almost forgot what she was going to say.

"Duff, you know I can't afford a dress like that."

Before he could answer the saleswoman returned.

"I think this one will look perfect on you." She went into one of the changing rooms, hanging up her dress and turning on the lights for her.

Reluctantly, Y/N entered the dressing room, changing her clothes for the dress. The saleswoman offered to help her with the zipper, entering the dressing room and closing it quickly.

"Wow, it looks beautiful on you, dear!" She exclaimed.

She wasn't lying, the dress was really beautiful on her, fitting so perfectly that someone could think it was made especially for her.

"You need to show it to your boyfriend!"

"Oh no, he isn't-" Before she could finish the woman opened the door, stepping out of the way so Duff could see her.

"Wow." He sighed. "You look beautiful!"

She felt her cheeks flush as she murmured a "thank you".

“You should take it, dear! It looks great on you. ”

"Oh no, I can’t affo-"

"Here." Duff took the wallet out of his jacket pocket, offering the saleswoman a card. "Use this card please."

Smiling, she took the card and went down the stairs.

"Duff, you don't have to pay for the dress for me!" She crossed her arms, she didn't like to depend on others.

"I don't need to, but I want to."

"But Duff."

"Y/N, the dress looks beautiful on you, it would be a mistake not to take it."

She stopped for a moment looking him in the eye. "Fine." She said subtly before entering the fitting room to remove the piece with the help of the saleswoman who had already returned.

---

"What do you want to do now?" Duff asked when they left the store.

“How about we go get something to eat? I'm starving."

"Finally you talked about food, I was almost eating one of my fingers," Duff said laughing, looking at his fingers with a weird expression.

Arriving at a bistro, they chose a table on the sidewalk of the establishment, so that they could admire a little more of the city while eating.

"It's beautiful here, isn't it?" Y/N said when she finished eating.

"Yes, very beautiful," Duff said, filling his mouth with what was left of his croissant, making her laugh slightly.

"What do you want to do afterward?" She asked.

"I don't know, we could go to that park." Duff pointed to a park directly in front of the bistro.

"Good idea!" She smiled

"I'm going to pay, then we go, okay?"

“No, no, no! I’m paying." She stated, looking for her wallet in the bag.

"Why do I get the impression that you are going to buy me coffees until you match the value of the dress?"

"Because that’s exactly what I am going to do." Getting up, she walked quickly into the bistro.

---

The park was extensive, its trails were made with small white cemented stones and the trees around it seemed to be very old, although they had lost all their leaves during the winter.

They walked for almost an hour, admiring small art exhibitions and talking about long stories from the past.

The temperature started to drop and the sun started to set over the horizon, bringing a purple-gray color to the city.

Y/N had her arms crossed in front of her, trying to keep her warm, while Duff rubbed one hand against the other in hopes of warming his cold fingers.

“My class was super excited, their dream was to go to that exhibition, while my best friend and I were just going to miss two days of school” She was telling him the story about her trip in her senior year of high school.

"We spent the whole morning in a park and while everyone went to take pictures, she and I stole two scooters for hire and we kept walking around the same block of the park all morning."

"What? You stole a scooter!? ” Duff said laughing. "I never thought you were like this, Y/N!"

"What could I do? We were bored! .... And in the afternoon it got even worse! We spent an hour and a half visiting the exhibition, after that we got tired and realized that we had 5 more hours free, but nothing was interesting to do. We sat in a less busy area and I read while she slept.” She laughed at the memory.

"So you didn't enjoy the trip at all?" He asked laughing.

"Nope."

"My God." He laughed. "And where is this friend of yours?"

“She lives in Norway now. We speak in letters every month, but we haven't seen each other in years. ”

"It’s a shame." He stopped in front of a fountain. "Maybe it’d be possible to visit her after the tour."

"Maybe." She smiled slightly.

"Three days is not enough time here, there is so much I wanted to see." She sighed.

He didn't answer, and she turned to face him, he was looking at her, his eyes full of a glow that she had seen before, but she couldn't identify.

"What's it?" She said softly, putting a lock behind her ear.

He took a step closer to her, their bodies mere inches apart.

"I want to kiss you..." He said in a low tone, licking his lips, as he leaned slightly towards her.

"But I'm only going to do it if you want to." His hand touched her face, his cold fingers making a shiver grow on Y/N.

His lips were so close to hers, she could feel his hot breath against her skin.

She froze, her heart raced and she couldn't formulate words so she just nodded slowly.

Closing the distance between them, Duff pressed his lips gently against hers, moving away after a few seconds.

She opened her eyes and saw his gaze fixed on hers. He still kept his hand on her face, waiting for some kind of reaction.

Gathering all the courage she had, she stood on her tiptoes and pulled him closer by his jacket, smashing her lips against his and enveloping him in a hot, passionate kiss.

One of Duff's hands found her waist, bringing her even closer.

His tongue asked for permission to invade her mouth and after getting it, their tongues danced in synchronized ballet, as if they had already rehearsed hundreds of times.

"You don't know how long I waited to do this." He whispered when they pulled apart.

---

The way back to the hotel was quieter, the night had reached the city and the cold wind was blowing against them through the streets of Paris.

Duff had his arm around her shoulders the entire way, while she hugged his waist.

Arriving at the hotel, they walked slowly through the corridors, so slowly that Y/N could have counted all the chandeliers on the walls.

They had all the time in the world and weren't ready to say goodbye yet, but the number 25 appeared, it was her room.

"We’re here." She said calmly, looking into the blonde's eyes as she came out of his embrace.

"See you tomorrow?" He took her hand, intertwining their fingers.

"You know you will, Duff." She leaned against the door, lifting her chin to keep her gaze fixed on his.

A light laugh left his lips as he remembered that fateful night in Scotland.

"What?"

"I had a dèjá vu" He smiled, putting a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"What do you mean?

"That night in Scotland."

She frowned.

"Don't you remember?"

She shook her head slowly. "No."

He laughed again. "You were standing just like this." He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Asking me to kiss you." A smug smile appeared on his lips.

"Oh my god!" She closed her eyes, wishing it had just been his imagination.

"It would have been an interesting proposition if you weren't so drunk."

"I'm not drunk today, am I?" She bit her lower lip, smiling.

A smirk appeared on Duff's lips as he leaned down to kiss her again.

"Good night, Y/N," Duff said as he backed away.

"Good night, Duff."

He leaned down kissing her forehead for a few seconds before slowly letting go of her fingers and heading towards his room.

---

The next morning Y/N woke up with the biggest smile, she still didn't know what was going on between Duff and her, but she was happy.

Entering the hotel's restaurant, fear took a hold of her heart. She didn't know if Duff had told the rest about them, and the last thing she wanted was for them to be making jokes, like that night when they slept together.

The first thing she saw was Duff, he looked up from his plate, looking her straight in the eyes, almost as if he had felt her presence before he even saw her.

He gave her a small smile as he followed her every move.

Taking a cup of coffee and a slice of pie, she sat between Steven and Slash at the table.

"Woke up late today, Y/N," Axl said. "Did you come back too late yesterday?"

"Not really, I arrived around seven."

"We passed at your room around six, we were going to a restaurant, but you weren't there," Steven said.

"Ah, it’s okay, I ordered room service." She smiled slightly.

"What made you wake up so late then? You are usually the first to arrive." Axl insisted on the topic.

"It took me a while to get to sleep last night."

"Insomnia?"

She looked at Duff, seeing him smile slightly. "Something like that."

---

The afternoon soon arrived and Y/N left her room to go to the soundcheck with the boys.

Looking across the hall she saw Duff, propped up against his door.

"You’re beautiful today." He whispered as he approached her, leaning over to steal a small kiss.

"Thanks." The compliment had made butterflies rise in her stomach.

A door opening made Duff take two steps back.

"Were you waiting for me?" Steven asked, smiling as everyone walked towards the elevator.

"Uh-huh." She said quickly.

Arriving at the lobby, Y/N was stopped by Izzy.

"Y/N, I need you to do something for me."

"Sure, what’s it?"

"Erin will be arriving at the airport in about an hour, I need you to pick her up and go with her somewhere."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't take her to the soundcheck."

"Why?" She frowned.

"Axl does not concentrate when she is there, we have to do everything twice ... Go with her to a beauty salon or whatever."

"Fine..." She answered slowly.

"Here, take the band’s card." He handed over the card before heading towards the bus.

"Ah!" He turned around. "Here... for the taxi!" He handed her 50 euros, finally leaving the hotel.

In the distance, she could see Duff looking at her without understanding what had happened.

She shrugged, offering a small wave before Izzy pushed him into the bus and closed the door.

---

The day was starting to get boring. Erin's flight was delayed by almost an hour and all she could think was that instead of being with Duff, she would have to spend the rest of the afternoon with her.

Not that she could complain much, Erin was a nice girl, kind of an airhead, but a great company to have fun with.

But she would rather be watching Duff playing his bass while wearing his Cowboy hat.

Her flight finally arrived, and Y/N moved to the line of people waiting for passengers, holding a papal with Erin written with pink lipstick.

A thin scream filled the airport when Erin identified Y/N, making people around look at them.

She took a few leaps until she reached Y/N, wrapping her in a hug.

"Hi, Erin!" She said hugging her back.

"I missed you!" She smiled.

"I missed you, too, Erin!"

"I was upset that you never called me when you were on vacation." She pouted, making Y/N give a nasal laugh.

"Sorry, I was very busy."

"I forgive you, but only if you promise to call me next time!"

"I promise, Erin."

"Let’s go then? I'm missing my little redhead." She started walking.

Y/N took a deep breath not to laugh at the nickname. "The plans have changed, we only go to the arena when the gig’s about to start."

"What do you mean?" She stopped, turning to the other woman.

"Izzy told us to have a girls' day. I thought we could use a massage."

"Izzy said that?" She frowned.

Y/N nodded in agreement.

"That's weird."

"Weird or not, I have the band's card." She held up the card, showing it to the girl.

"In that case, let's go! A full massage can take more than an hour!" She started walking quickly, making Y/N quicken her pace.

---

After nearly an hour and a half at a massage parlor, Y/N and Erin went to a coffee shop, ordering cake and hot chocolate.

The place was small and cozy, the walls were painted in shades of cream and the chairs had flowery green cushions.

Taking a table by the window, they started talking.

"Has Axl given you a lot of trouble?" Erin asked.

"No, he's been calmer these days. The biggest problems are Izzy and Steven."

Erin looked her in the eye, encouraging her to continue.

"Izzy is a pain in the ass when he's high, and Steven doesn't even know where he is when he uses it, I have to act like his mother."

"That sucks! Good thing Ax doesn't have any problems like that. But I think it's just because they're on tour, as soon as it's over they'll get better."

"I hope so," Y/N said smiling. "And how are things between you and Axl?"

Erin stopped with the cup halfway, not knowing whether to speak or not.

"Things with him are ... complicated…. He can be romantic and kind when he wants to, but most days he ends up taking his anger out on me."

"What do you mean?"

"We fight a lot, but I love him, and I know he loves me, so eventually we will get better." She gave a small smile before bringing a piece of the cake to her mouth.

Y/N nodded as she sipped her hot chocolate, deciding not to dwell on it.

"And how’s Duff going?" Erin smirked.

Y/N's eyes widened. "What about Duff?"

"The last time I was here he was hopelessly in love with you. Axl said he spent all day talking about how beautiful you are."

A smile appeared on Y/N's lips.

"Don't tell me he hasn't made a move yet?"

"He actually did." Her smile got bigger.

Erin propped both elbows on the table, looking intently at the girl in front of her, curious to know more.

"He kissed me yesterday."

Erin shrieked, smiling at the news.

"The boys must have gone crazy!"

"They don't know yet."

"Why not?"

"Because even I don't know what we are yet. Besides, I work for them, I don't want to say anything before I'm sure it's serious"

"Yeah, it makes sense. Do you want me to be quiet about it then?"

"Please."

"Relax, my lips are glued together!" She said laughing.

---

Arriving at the arena, Y/N walked calmly through the countless corridors next to Erin, while listening to her chatter about the Christmas party at her father's house.

She stopped in mid-sentence when she saw red hair entering a room.

"Axl!" She screamed, running towards the door when he stuck his head out.

She threw herself into his arms as he hugged her tightly, mumbling how much he missed her.

Y/N smiled at the scene when she was pulled by the arm into a room.

The light was off and the only illumination present was the reflection of one of the stage spotlights that reflected through the window.

Adjusting her eyes to the brightness, she could see the figure of Duff in front of her, covering her with his height.

"I missed you." He said before pressing his lips against hers.

His hands found her waist, pulling her closer as her hands went up to his hair, tangled in its strands.

Their tongues danced together as he guided them until she leaned against cold material.

Using one hand to feel the surface, she realized it was a table. They should be in a dressing room.

Y/N sat on the table, increasing her height in a few inches, making Duff's job easier.

She tangled her legs around his waist, bringing him closer, while he lowered his hands to her ass, squeezing her flesh tightly, making a small moan leave her lips.

Starting to apply kisses to her neck, Duff was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Duff!" It was Slash.

"What!?" He pulled away from her neck, shouting towards the door.

"We have to go on stage, we’re already late!"

"Shit," Duff murmured. "I'm on my way!" He shouted for the door.

"I think I'm going to have to leave you alone now." He smiled, stealing another kiss from her. "Come and see the gig."

"I'll be there in a minute, I promise." She smiled at him, kissing his lips one last time before he walked out the door.

Alone in the dark, Y/N sighed, her fingers went to her lips and a smile appeared on them.

"Well, I think I can get used to it." She murmured.

[idiopath-fic-smile]

more 1950s lesbian amis

continued from this.

in which grantaire makes coffee, and a friend.

“Good morning,” said Chester. “Is that a new dress?”

It was not. Grantaire looked up warily from her sketchpad. She wasn’t good-looking enough for this to be anything but a ploy.

“Do you need something, Chester?” she asked in her sweetest voice, all cotton candy fumes.

“Secretary’s out this morning,” he told her. “That’s why there’s no coffee yet.” And there, it all clicked into place. 

Grantaire schooled her face as blank as she could make it; if she was going to reach his conclusion, he’d have to drag her there.

“Thank you but I picked up a cup on my way here,” she said, nodding at her half-empty styrofoam cup. After last night’s disaster at the Musain, she had been unable to even imagine the L ride to the office without a fortifying blast of caffeine. 

Chester stared meaningfully; Grantaire stared back, meaningless.

“Grantaire,” said Chester, as if talking to one very stupid, “do you think you could brew us a pot?”

Grantaire blinked. “Does this normally fall to the staff cartoonist when the secretary’s away?”

Chester made a suppressed sound of deep irritation. He spread his hands, appealing. “Listen, I could struggle through trying to make coffee for the office and no doubt poison everyone trying, or you could do it, and add that homey little touch I know all the fellas would appreciate.”

Homey. It was not a word you’d apply to Grantaire’s garden-level one-bedroom, which boasted stained wallpaper and a stove straight out of the Coolidge administration. Homely, maybe. Chester was the one with a home, and a wife, and a fat little baby and the money for a comfortable life.

“It’s only fair to divide the work according to natural aptitude, sweetheart,” Chester was saying, and it was the sweetheart that snapped Grantaire like a rubber band, that word deployed like a pat on the head, like penny candy for a crying baby, like a scrap of baloney to a dog, like it could only ever be the bitterest pity or the cruelest joke in concert with Grantaire’s face, with Grantaire’s entire being.

“‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs,’” she murmured in an agreeing tone.

“Now you got it,” Chester started, then frowned.

“Karl Marx, Chester,” said Grantaire. “Keep up, or someone might need to place a call to ol’ Joe.”

Chester’s entire countenance soured. “This is why you should leave it to the men to make the jokes,” he said, “and stick to what you can do--”

Grantaire stood. “I’ll make the coffee,” she said.

“There,” said Chester, “did that need to be such a production?”

The “Golden Ratio,” according to a high school Home Economics course which Grantaire had frankly passed by the skin of her teeth, was one to two tablespoons of coffee for every six ounces of hot water. Grantaire remembered this by virtue of having gotten it wrong many, many times. She was no good with math but the machine took thirty-six ounces of water, which meant the ideal amount of grounds was somewhere between six and twelve tablespoons.

“Stars shining bright above you,” Grantaire hummed under her breath, measuring and dumping coffee grounds into the filter. One, two, three, four, five.

Grantaire had gotten it wrong in high school because nobody in her house drank coffee. She hadn’t discovered the jolting benefits herself until her first year of art school, as the deadlines began to pile and the available time to meet them began to wane.

“Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you,” Grantaire hummed. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

If there had been a way to brave the choppy academic waters of work and criticism without chemical assistance, that path had been invisible to Grantaire. She had tried, she had cried, she had turned down “diet pills” that the other girl in her program swore by only because Grantaire figured her own figure couldn’t afford to be more unflatteringly stick-thin.

“Birds singing in the sycamore trees--” Eleven, twelve. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

The scrutiny and the pressure tempered the freedom of those heady days away from her parents. The expectation that Grantaire was only studying art as a way of killing time, until some charitable man came along to marry her, unless the poor dear simply couldn’t find anyone--she had found a survival strategy of her own, a roughly stitched-together patchwork of sarcasm and wine and more sarcasm, and coffee brewed so thick and strong it barely qualified as liquid.

“Dream a little dream of me.” Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Grantaire went ahead and dumped in the rest of the bag.

Grantaire was making shaky progress on her first deadline when Douglas stopped by her desk.

“Listen,” he blustered, “is this some kind of a joke?”

“Hm?”

“Your coffee’s undrinkable, it’s--” he faltered as Grantaire took a long swallow of the tarry substance in her mug. It was gritty and bitter, but by the standards of her art school years, only qualified as “medium dark.”

“Doug,” she said calmly, “if it’s too strong for you, you’re free to add plenty of milk and sugar.” She took another sip, meeting his eyes all the while. 

He spun on the heel of his expensive dress shoe. As he stormed away, she could hear him mutter, at a passive-aggressive volume designed to be just-barely audible, but audible nonetheless, “No wonder she doesn’t have a man yet, can’t even make coffee right.”

“Grantaire?”

She looked up. The secretary was back from wherever she’d been, apparently.

“Hello,” said Grantaire, hoping that if she kept a friendly enough countenance, the secretary might not notice that Grantaire did not remember her name. “Are you feeling better?”

The secretary smiled, polite. She was young but plain, although not as plain as Grantaire. “Thank you, it was my mother, actually. She’s a little under the weather so I stopped home to bring her some soup and heat it up for her.” Grantaire nodded as if that kind of filial duty was a part of her daily life, too. 

“Well, I hope her condition improves soon.” “Thank you, that’s very kind.” An awkward pause began to bloom. Into it, Grantaire blurted, “Sorry if you had the coffee today.” “Oh,” said the secretary, “no, no, I drink tea.” Of course she did, thought Grantaire. She had the look of someone well acquainted with the proper use of a cup and saucer. She lowered her voice slightly. “Douglas informed me all about this morning’s coffee maker adventure.” She lowered her voice a little more. “In some detail.” “Yes, I must have lost count spooning in the grounds,” said Grantaire blandly. “I can’t imagine how it slipped my mind.” “I can,” said the secretary with a crooked smile. Somehow, with both eyes wide open, she gave the impression of winking. “Say, Grantaire. I don’t suppose you could take your lunch break with me? There’s a park across the street, it’s very quiet. Private.” Grantaire nodded. “Good,” said the secretary. That crooked smile again. “My name is Combeferre, by the way.”

“You know, I saw you the other day,” said Combeferre as she neatly removed a packet of celery sticks wrapped in waxed paper from her lunch bag. “Did you.” Grantaire ran through her mental list of places she’d been over the past several days. If she was very, very lucky, maybe Combeferre simply meant that she’d glimpsed Grantaire at the Jewel, picking up some groceries for her tragically empty fridge. Combeferre glanced around the park in a very natural, off-hand way. “At the Musain,” she said. Grantaire’s stomach dropped. She could feel her grip on her turkey sandwich going white-knuckled. “Chester and Murray, such a pair of jokesters,” she said at last. “I suppose I was being hazed last night--” “No, I saw you last Thursday,” said Combeferre quiety. “By yourself.” Grantaire hadn’t been in there for more than forty-five seconds. Had all of Chicago seen? She felt something bubble up inside her. “So,” said Grantaire, trying to match Combeferre’s even, calm voice. “Is this blackmail, then? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until I’ve gotten my first check, I’m a bit light at the moment.” Combeferre blinked. “Oh dear,” she said, “oh no, you misunderstand me completely. I saw you from inside.” “You were there?” said Grantaire, feeling very dumb for not having picked up on any sign of Sapphism earlier. There was nothing obvious in her manner or dress. The comment about stopping home to see her mother might have suggested she was still living with her parents, and thus unmarried, but plenty of girls did that. Of course, not every woman of a woman-loving bent chose to broadcast it to the world like that short-haired Amazon in the bar restroom. Combeferre’s hairdo and clothes were no doubt chosen for hiding, like Grantaire’s. “Do you have plans this weekend?” Combeferre asked, and Grantaire attempted not to look entirely pole-axed. Was this a pass? Grantaire felt no immediate pull, but, wretchedly, she realized she was lonely enough to consider it. She raised her eyebrows. “You see, I belong to, um, a social organization,” Combeferre continued, unaware. “We could use some new members, and it would be so nice to know someone else at work--” “Is it a book group?” said Grantaire. “A tupperware exchange? A cat appreciation society?” Combeferre smiled. “I do like cats,” she said. “No, we’re. Hm. The Chicago branch of a group of like-minded individuals who find ourselves on a slightly divergent path from the majority of mankind. It’s a very relaxed, informal thing. We’re meeting at the apartment of a friend for spaghetti dinner on Saturday. I can give you the details if you’re interested.” “And you’re all women?” Grantaire said. “We are,” said Combeferre. What the hell. It wasn’t as if there was a line of people waiting to make Saturday night plans with her. “Alright,” said Grantaire. “Wonderful.” Combeferre gave her an address, although Grantaire didn’t know the city well enough for it to mean much without a map. Her eyes briefly scanned the park again. “And I should add that you don’t have to use your real name,” she said. “In fact, I think most of us don’t.” “Some tupperware club you’re running, lady,” said Grantaire, and Combeferre half-laughed. “I was going to leave you a note,” said Combeferre, “on your desk, explaining everything in advance, but then my mother was sick and there wasn’t any time.” “If anyone saw what you wrote,” Grantaire started. “In shorthand, of course. None of the men would understand.” “I can’t read shorthand,” said Grantaire. “I took a course on it but that was about the time I realized my future would need to be elsewhere.” “I was going to be a physician,” said Combeferre dreamily. Grantaire turned to face her. “I had the grades, you know. Biology was my best subject, and I enjoy helping people.” “What happened?” Grantaire asked uneasily.

“Oh,” said Combeferre. “I had a marvelous professor. I’d asked him to write me a recommendation, and he pulled me aside and explained that if I’d have to do twice the work for half the respect, which was of course the truth. I considered nursing, but a life of emptying bedpans and dodging the head doctor’s wandering hands didn’t appeal.” “So instead you empty inboxes and dodge Richard’s wandering hands,” said Grantaire. “You’ll fit right in with my friends,” Combeferre said with another smile. “I’m sorry about what my friend said to you last night. She has an excellent heart and is a key part of our set, but she can be somewhat severe.”

“Do you mean the Hippolyta who cornered me in the powder room?” “Undoubtedly,” said Combeferre. Then, “oh, and definitely don’t call her that!” “Wouldn’t dream of it,” said Grantaire.

[adazhang-221257]

Week 9

Watch episodes 1 and 2 of the series ‘The Genius of Photography’:

Episodes 1 FIXING THE SHADOWS questions

1. What year was photography ‘invented’?

1839

2. Who were the key people (one English, one French)?

French： Louis Daguerre

English： Henry Fox Talbot

3. What is the main difference between the two systems?

Daguerre fixed the image to a smooth, mirror-like metal plate. He made disposable(one-off) images. When viewing Daguerre's work, the light was reflected through the image. The light ranges from bright white, which is definitely reflected, to deep black. The biggest drawback is the inability to replicate the original photo. Daguerre is trying to open up a huge market, most personally.

Talbot presented the image on paper, and the way to get the image was from up-side-down to normal look after exposure. Talbot wanted to satisfy people their own desires

4. What do they suggest was the unintended consequence of photography?

The photographs were no longer random, because of how they are cropped, they became intentional.

Photographs revealed the details of the world and told us what should be focused on.

The consequence of the born of photography symbolized the coming new era. It changed the world and the way people understood the world. We entered the world of information and images.

5. What is Edward Muybridge famous for doing?

Motion study

The anatomy and the frozen moment which was interested Muybridge once when he was doing an experiment on the horses.

6. What was the first method of popular sharing of photographs?

The introduction of the card. It was small and easy to be posted.

7. What method did photographers first use in order to claim photography as art?

They instinctively turned to oil paintings for inspiration and confidence. Photographers followed the painters' path to create their work.

8. What company did George Eastman start?

The Eastman Kodak Company.

9. What did he invent (three things)?

The film

Kodak camera

Brownie camera 

10. What year was the $1 Brownie camera released?

1900

11. How old was Jacque Henry Lartigue when he was making his family photo albums?

19

12. What were photographic artists doing when snapshots become popular?

They were making differences with vernacular photography.

They tried to make photography as a branch of fine arts, they were doing imitations of drawing and paint makings. The pictorialists were looking at the past, they retreated in terms of the art style and contents. There were no cars or machines or poor people in pictorial pictures.

13. What did Edward Steichen take up during WWII?

Started aerial photograph, precision and sharpness are the main purposes, rather than arty vagaries.

Episodes 2 DOCUMENT FOR ARTISTS questions:

1. What was Karl Blossfeldt’s book from 1925?

Art Forms in Nature

2. What form of recording was he using?

Use the encyclopedic form to record the world typologies. On the shiny commercial paper.

3. Who was the first person to do this?

Anna Atkins

4. What are some of the things Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed?

Blast furnace

Water towers

Some bizarre creatures of industry

5. What did August Sander try to create a typology of in Germany in the 1920s?

Human typology

"The Face of the Times" in 1929

What Sander wanted to speak behind his photos are the chaotic conditions of Germany in the 1920s. 

6. What does Alexander Rodchenko believe about photography?

The camera is the tool of the new man and artist.

He used the camera to serve political reality and serve the people.

7. What did he try to change?

Changed the Belly Button Photography, tried to tell people about a different way of photographing the world. He was photographing the new society.

8. What magazine did he start?

USSR en construction

9. What technique did he use in the magazine?

Photomontage

10. What was Eugene Atget doing in Paris?

Documented the city ancient core from back street to shop front.

In the 1920s, he created the unique typology of the old Paris.

Towards the end of his life, he started to capture the undocumentary possibilities of photography. His photos then became to document the different range of reality.

11. What was Man Ray interested in exploring?

Ray was into the area of unreal. He interested in dreams, desires and the mediums unconscious mind.

12. What process did he discover?

Solarization

13. What is the famous photo Man Ray took of a Marcel Duchamp work?

The Large Glass

14. What famous exhibition happened in Stuttgart in 1929?

Film and Photo Show.

15. How did Stalin ‘remove his enemies from history’?

Using black ink on the faces.

16. Who brought Eugene Atget’s negatives to the USA?

Berenice Abbott

17. What organisation did Walker Evans work for in the 1930s before he was sacked in 1937?

The Farm Security Agency.

18. What did he photograph when working for them? 

To portray the government positively.

The wife of a sharecropper in 1936

19. What did Bill Brandt photograph during WWII?

A new type of social disorderAir-raid shelters and Londoners

=========================================================================

Planning for the second series

Intention

My general intention for this series still focuses on the idea of showing both the tradition and modernity within the food, examining how food can speak about different cultures. 

The tradition of drinking tea is one of the popular cultures of China over the centuries. In terms of showing the traditional side of my work, I think tea itself is already a good medium to speak about its own culture. Tea has a sense of tranquillity, and it indicates the length of history. In order to show the modernity, I decide to use some modern books and flowers as decorations in the backdrops and supported with modern colours of lighting and composition. For me, books are also the representation of the sense of serenity, so I think tea and books will be a great combination. 

Reading while having a cup of tea has already started a long time ago in history, until now, in today's society, people also like to brew a pot of tea and read a few pages of a book in their quiet and leisure time. I think this series of photos can reflect people’s modern lifestyle, like what they would do to relax, as well as portraying the peacefulness of that moment.

Planning and preparation

Research on techniques

1. Christina Leopold

I like the texture and beauty of the food in the foreground. Rather than using the plain backdrops, it is a good idea to include some other relevant objects to construct the photo.

The spoon works as a leading line in this picture. Leopold uses a spoon to lead our eyes to view from the front of the focal point to the rest of the objects.

The colour of the food on the plate corresponds to the colour of the waffle on the background, building up the connection and communication in between.

2. Nikolay Osmachiko 

The dark yellow-toned lighting helps a lot with creating the traditional atmosphere. The lighting comes from the top and leaves the shadows formed on the wooden table. The use of lighting lightens up the foreground and makes the teacups look clearly. It also puts the background into darkness and creates this profound depth for viewers.

The act of pouring the tea adds interesting elements and meanings to the photo as well as generating a sense of tradition. 

3. Suzy Hazelwood

The combination of books and tea creates a sense of serenity and leisure. I think having this combination in the photos is a great choice. 

My thought for the second series is to include some books to build up the atmosphere and meaning of the photos, I think it is a good idea to look at how other commercial photographers have done with the books in their photos. I think having the book opened would generate the feeling that someone is reading it.

Contact sheets

I found that lighting and composition are a bit hard to control due to the limited tools and space, so in the first few shots I was trying to get the good lighting and the right direction of where it should come from. 

I especially like IMG 0175 as the depth of field is created and the patterns on the cup are clearly shown.

In this contact sheet, I have taken most of the photos from the top angle. I think this angle is successful as it highlights the composition and geometric patterns formed by the props. Also, by including the hand within the pictures allows the photos to be more eye-catching.

I was also testing the lighting and background in this contact sheet. I thought it would be good to use some wooden materials to be the backdrop, however, that didn't turn out as I expected. And I also don't think that natural lighting can be helpful neither.

Reflection

While I was doing the second series, I was also thinking about the final presentation of my work. At the moment, I was thinking about making a web layout to promote food culture. So the style of this series would be generally similar to the previous one, such as using the same lighting, composition, colour and so on. For now, I decided to name this series "Culture - Tea".

Continuing with a similar style, this series was also taken against a pure black background. Normally, when photographing the idea of drinking tea or reading a book, the common thought is to include furniture in the backdrops to generate warm feelings. However, I would like to go against the common thoughts and portray them in my own style. I think it magnifies the content of the subject and the beauty of food. Although it may look plain as there is not much information shown, it produces another mysterious atmosphere that makes people wonder. The simplicity allows the audience to feel a more tranquil atmosphere and pay more attention to the relationship drawn between those subjects. 

Geometric shapes appear naturally in black backgrounds. They are made of the vague outline of the flowers, the arrangement of the book and the plate. Taking from the top angle creates an opportunity to portray these geometric lines more directly. The uses of colours and lighting are similar to the previous series. 

Books play a big role in portraying this group of photos, they not only make the picture hierarchical and structured but more importantly, they elevate the meaning of the pictures. From my perspective, tea and books have a lot in common. They can both demonstrate the idea of tradition and modernity as they both contain a long history.

Portraying the movement is the primary goal that I am aiming to achieve in this group of photos, as well as trying to show the combination of stillness and movement. So I photographed the interaction between the hand and the object to find that sense of motion. In my planning, I have thought about photographing the idea of pouring water, however, due to the limited space, I have not found a way to carry it out. So I photographed the steam of the tea instead, which I think also turned out quite well.

I'm not sure if the size of the cup is okay in this photo as it might seem to be a bit big. I chose this one because I like the depth of field and the patterns on the cup, helping the audience see and feel the sense of tradition clearly. The flowers in both the foreground and back are also making connections with the patterns on the cups.

My favourite part is the steam, and it looks more stand-out against a black background. I think it's a good way to show the movement and it makes the picture look more vivid, rather than just a still life. While I was adjusting the photo, I didn't make the steam too obvious as I still wanted the teacup to be the main focal point.

I think this one is a good example of showing the benefits of shooting from the top angle. It highlights the composition of objects, and the geometric lines formed on the background. The angle enhances the coordination of the image, allowing the audience to see the radiated pattern on the plate.

This is a typical picture of the hand interacting with the food. The hand reaches in from the left corner, forming a diagonal line that connects with the edge of the book. The book is placed open on the table with the tea on the top, showing the movement of reading the book. The overall picture shows a sense of tranquillity and leisure, and the gesture of hands enhances the meaning of the photo.

Feedback for moving on

Taking photos of the abstract forms of tea or books. I think I can take some close-ups to show the details of each small part. I'm not sure if I'm going to abstract the item in the next shot, at the moment I prefer a simple close-up shot, but I'm going to try it and see what it looks like.

Rather than looking for something new to take pictures of, I would like to use what I have got already in these two series and develop them. I will mainly focus on showing the details of each element by doing close-ups. I think these new photos can also be used to build up each series.

[acsversace-news]

Fade up on a cheery tourist video for Minneapolis, lit with contemporaneously cheese-ish overbrightness, then cut to a title card telling us it's April 27, 1997 -- one week before Lee Miglin's murder. Then we're at the gorgeous, massive loft of David Madson. He's on the cordless, pitching himself for a project, and he promises he won't let the caller down as Andrew Cunanan looms into the frame, and this probably isn't the first time he's done this, but he has his t-shirt tucked into his jeans and no belt, like, why is this a thing on TV?

Cunanan awkwards up to David's workspace, his arms stiffly at his sides, as David hangs up and celebrates: "They said yes!" "I'm so happy for you," Cunanan oozes, sounding about as sincere as Siri. David looks doubtful, but out loud he accepts Cunanan's well wishes, then softens and notes that, "this weekend," they both said things they regret. Can they put it behind them -- "just be friends"? "I don't regret anything I said," Cunanan says. David manages not to roll his eyes and asks if they can move on, then. "Sure," Cunanan says flatly. David heads off to shower. Cunanan continues to stand, immobile, by David's desk, the smile leaking off his face.

David relaxes under the water, and while this isn't the Psycho shot set-up -- and while I know David is not killed in this scene -- it's still tense. Way in the back of the shot, you can see Cunanan start to come into the bathroom, then, when David turns the water off, hastily withdraw. David comes out to find the apartment empty, he thinks, but then at the end of the bedroom hallway, there's Cunanan, David's dog Prints on a leash. (The real-life dog was a Dalmatian, which the dog playing him is not, so at first I assumed thanks to the location of the episode's events that the dog's name was Prince, as in "Rogers Nelson.") Here again, I know the actual Prints came to no harm, at least from Cunanan, and I don't think the production would depart from the generally accepted timeline to make us watch a pet suffer, but Cunanan is already acting so lights-on-nobody-home two minutes into the episode that I don't want him anywhere near the hound, fictionalized narrative or no. Anyway, Cunanan doesn't say anything, so David has to prompt him as one does a child: "Taking Prints for a walk?" "Yeah," Cunanan tries to chirp, and heads for the door. David's like, "…k," and goes to get dressed.

When he comes out, though, he finds Prints tied to a leg of his desk…and Cunanan once again Nosferatus into the frame, his face a bland mask. So he's…not taking Prints for a walk, David asks, untying the dog. The buzzer goes off, and David asks who it is. "It's Jeff," Cunanan duhs. David asks if they're going out, and Cunanan duhs again that Jeff's coming up. David has clearly been trying up to this point not to betray his impatience with Cunanan's toddleresquely obtuse behavior -- no doubt because one of the things he said "this weekend," which he is going to regret more than he could ever have imagined, is that he isn't into Cunanan that way anymore -- but finally snaps that he has work to do. "It won't take long," Cunanan says, continuing to stand like a mannequin as the buzzer sounds several more times.

Then he snots, "Could you get the door?" Fern loses control of the accent somewhat as David eye-rolls that he doesn't have time for this, but gets up to answer. Cunanan's Manson lamps flip on as he hurries to say that it'll give them a chance to talk about him. David's given pause: "What did you just say?" Cunanan repeats that, when he brings Jeff up, it'll give them a chance. To talk about him. (The buzzer doesn't admit people from the loft; David has to go down in the elevator and physically open the building's front door. I lived in an apartment with that "set-up" for a while, so I didn't think much about this on first viewing, except to clock Cunanan's rudeness, but it's made more of later.) David shoots Cunanan a silent "you wish" look and storms out. Prints goes the front door when he's left and whines a little.

Downstairs, David lets Jeff in with a familiar "hey." It's nice to see Finn Wittrock as Jeff Trail at last, but like everyone else, he's coming in at the miserable end to his own story, so I'm bracing for that as Jeff asks grimly, "How's he?" Equally grimly, David says Cunanan proposed. "Are you serious?"

"Said I was the man of his dreams…his last chance at happiness." Jeff pulls another ffs face as the elevator arrives and asks how David got out of it. "Told him it was illegal for us to get married," David sighs. In the elevator, David adds that Cunanan thinks Jeff's why David says no: "Thinks I'm in love with you." Jeff snorts, "D'you tell him he's the reason you said no?" "He has no one," David says sadly, almost to himself, and Jeff snarks that he should ask himself why, but David warns Jeff, "He knows about us." What this means is debatable; per Maureen Orth's Vanity Fair piece, Jeff "was known to have warned" David that Cunanan "was a liar," but I can't find any indication in contemporary news accounts or elsewhere that David and Jeff were romantically involved, except in Cunanan's resentful fantasies. Jeff's say-WHAAAAAT head turn suggests that that's the implication here, though, as he adds in disbelief that "no one knows!" "He has this feline intuition," David says.

Coming down the hall, Jeff urges David not to feel sorry for Cunanan. Why not? Jeff does. "Not anymore," Jeff says. In fact, he never wants to see Cunanan again, and he's only there because Cunanan stole Jeff's gun.

Inside, Cunanan is lying in wait behind a bookcase, holding a hammer and wearing no expression. David finds Prints once again tied up to some furniture and angrily calls for Cunanan, but Cunanan is busy lunging at Jeff as he's closing the front door. Cut to David watching in horror and Prints barking as we hear the squelchy sounds of Cunanan beating Jeff to death. Jeff hollers. Prints barks. David backs away along the sectional as stripes of overkill blood spatter hit him and the walls of the entryway. Finally Cunanan subsides and stands up, in an odd hunchy posture reminiscent of Karl from Sling Blade. He whips some blood off the hammer and walks towards David, who crab-walks away from him along the couch. Hard to see how even Cunanan would think stroking David's face with his bloody hands, one of which is still holding the hammer, is comforting, but that's what he does while whispering that it's okay.

He touches his forehead to David's, then cradles him, covered in Jeff's gore. David somehow does not vomit all over this delusional creeper, instead allowing Cunanan to escort him as though he's an aging invalid to the bathroom; seat him; start getting undressed, removing his blood-caked glasses but still taking care not to touch the lenses; partially undress David; and move them both into the shower to wash off the blood. David is in shock throughout this oogy process but occasionally flinches away from Cunanan's affectionate ministrations. He finally manages to ask if Cunanan's going to kill him. Cunanan sounds surprised: "No!" But you killed Jeff, David says, twice. "Why?" "I lost control," Cunanan murmurs, not sounding like that's the case at all. But he loves David. David, shivering with revulsion, pushes Cunanan's hand away: "No. No! Call the police!" Cunanan tries to calm him but David scrabbles away, repeating, "Call them! Do it now!"

Cunanan puts Prints in his crate, like, could someone actually walk that poor pup? David, dry and dressed, pads fearfully out of the bedroom and into the loft's main area, where Cunanan is sitting in the dark. "Andrew?" David quavers. Cunanan melodramatically switches on the lamp on David's desk. The cordless is in front of him. "Did you call?" "I'll call them if you want me too," Cunanan says, fidgeting. "You haven't called," David says, despairingly. Cunanan says he's been worrying -- about David, who asks for the phone, but Cunanan has prepared his manipulation carefully, and goes into a disingenuous presentation about how it's David's apartment, David let Jeff in…what will the police think? David, in tears, demands the phone again, and gets an utterly chilling stare in response.

Cunanan sighs actorishly, gets up, and makes a big show of "giving in" to David's wishes by handing him the phone. David calls 911, but Cunanan is musing that he'll get 30 years, but David will get 10, and he just can't allow that to happen. He draws the gun out of his waistband. The 911 operator has answered by now, but David is ensorcelled by Cunanan massaging his own temple with the butt of the gun and whining that he can't let "this" destroy David's life. Slowly David hits the off button and hands the phone back. Cunanan beams. I distract myself from the urge to reach through the monitor and flick Cunanan in the eyeball by trying to figure out who Cody Fern looks like -- it's partly Dax Shepard, but it's someone else too, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

…Andrew McCarthy! Man, that was bugging me. Not as much as Cunanan's bugging me, as he comes into the bedroom where David is sitting, becalmed by horror, on the bed and starts digging through David's drawers for Damning Gay Stuff: porn with titles like Bear Love, some S&M gear. He comes to the bed with it; David withdraws, terrified, but Cunanan is focused on arraying all of it neatly on the duvet and informing David that the cops won't see victims in him and David -- they'll see suspects. David's like, but you'll tell them I didn't do anything, I'm not a killer. Cunanan blares that "they hate us, David," they've always hated us: "You're a [F word]." David moves to the edge of the bed and babbles that he needs to talk to his father, ask him what to do. Cunanan condescends that in that case his dad would have to turn him in, or he'd be committing a crime. Does David want to put him in that position? David has had it, and announces he's leaving; Cunanan gets between him and the door, but says David can, once he's "thought this through." David looks at the space between Cunanan and the door and repeats that he wants to leave. "Once you've thought it through," Cunanan repeats, blocking the door and fixing David with another chilling stare.

With no real choice, David exhales, and Cunanan closes the door on the camera, leaving me to think about what I would do in that situation, how I might escape, how effectively Cunanan leveraged his own self-loathing into a loathsome trap to keep Madson under control.

Later. Cunanan has seated himself near the door, on the floor, and appears to be asleep. David eases himself up off the bed and is about to try to slink out when Cunanan's eyes open and he asks with a Starman head-cock, "Were you going to leave me?" David says no, but Cunanan's on his feet in an instant, protesting that he was going to leave. David thinks fast and says Prints needs a walk -- he'll shit everywhere, start barking, draw attention. Cunanan, who seems to have forgotten there's a dead body moldering directly beside the front door, chooses to believe this more-flattering-to-him excuse, and lets David out of the bedroom…

…but once David has retrieved Prints, there's still the matter of Jeff's remains, the lake of blood in which they're resting, and their location, which makes egress basically impossible without one creature stepping on or in the crime scene. Cunanan comes up beside David and pulls an inappropriately snotty what-a-hassle face, then drags David's entryway rug over to the body and tells David to turn away. David does, but soon can't resist watching Cunanan awkwardly rolling Jeff up in the rug and just as awkwardly trying to heave him out of sight, a task he's eventually obliged to ask for David's help with. David manages not to openly gag as they drag the body around behind part of the sectional; he also manages not to snark at Cunanan that a mere four paper towels and no cleanser is not going to do anything except smear the gallons of blood on the floor around, but when Cunanan semi-realizes this and leaves off bothering to go wipe his hands, David grabs the dog and makes for the door. Cunanan cheerily offers to come along. David says he doesn't have to, and Cunanan immediately sours: "You don't want me to come?" David stammers that if he's tired…"Do you want to walk him without me?" David has to say no, he doesn't, like, obviously he does, and you obviously know why, so maybe have one moment of emotional generosity and skip the fucking playacting, but no, Cunanan strides over and repeats that he thinks David wants to go without him. David thought he might be tired. "Do I seem tired?" Cunanan grits, and David's like, jfc, fine, let's walk the dog.

On the elevator, of course a neighbor has to get on with the two men and Prints, and Karen cheerily greets both David, who very obviously looks like he just ate a handful of bugs, and Andrew, who doesn't respond or even blink.

I can't say I "applaud," exactly, the show's and Darren Criss's choices, which make Cunanan not just scary and weird but also an asocial and annoying asshole -- but they're certainly effective. I want to punch the kid in the dick. As Cunanan blouses his sweatshirt over the gun once again stashed in his waistband, Karen croons at a whingy Prints that "someone's not having fun on the elevator today." "No. Guess not," David grunts. On the ground floor, David wishes her a pointed nice day, then pauses before disembarking: "Are you gonna hurt anyone else?" "N…o?" Cunanan says. David needs him to promise, which of course Cunanan has no problem doing because: compulsive liar. "Nobody else will get hurt! As long as you're by my side."

On the sidewalk, David makes nervous eye contact with a fellow dog-walker while rambling about a story he just thought of, that he wasn't home last night and he can pretend to be discovering the body for the first time -- and by then, Cunanan will be "long gone." Cunanan, already not having it, pulls up: "On my own?" David sees a mother and child approaching on the sidewalk and gulps. "Let's go back." They turn back to the building, Cunanan possessively patting David's neck.

As Cunanan is packing them up, there's a knock at the door. Inside, David looks stricken; outside, David's co-worker Melinda is telling the building manager David would never miss work. Prints is barking and whining as David starts for the door but Cunanan grabs his arm, asking if he really wants to be there when they open the door and see what's inside. The manager bustles off to get the keys, but when she opens the door, it's clear the two sides of the door aren't in the same timeline, because Prints bolts the loft, and the women find it empty. Well, except for all the blood, some of it drag marks leading to the rolled-up rug. Melinda gasps. David and Cunanan, meanwhile, buckle up for the worst road trip ever.

MPD homicide detectives Tichich and Jackson arrive at the loft building, and Tichich is struck right away by the fact that the patrol officer has to come down to let them in. Outside the loft, the women brief the detectives: the manager, Jennifer, used her key because the dog sounded "distressed," and Melinda chimes in that David never misses work. She's trying to say she found David's body when Tichich interrupts to ask if it's David's apartment and what she can tell them about David. He's nice, he's 33, he's a talented architect…does he have a wife, Jackson asks. He's gay, Melinda shrugs, and Tichich frowns and passes a pair of rubber gloves to Jackson, which I guess could be something they were going to do anyway but, in the context of the season's continuing commentary on how far we've come (or…haven't) in our cultural assumptions about the queer community, is probably something we're meant to notice.

Tichich squats down and sort of peers into the end of the rolled-up rug, but doesn't unroll it. He opens the wallet on the counter with a pen; it's David's. "Wasn't a robbery," Tichich remarks. A patrolman notes there was no sign of forced entry. Tichich clocks the heaps of dirty clothes in the bathroom, the blood spatter on the floor, the hammer in the sink where Cunanan dumped it. I'll note here that, while reporting on Trail's murder describes the weapon as a "claw hammer," this is what you or I would merely call a…hammer, with a blunt head for nailing and a bifurcated "claw" for prying. Based on what we later see of Trail's scalp and skull -- or what Cunanan left him of it -- it's clear Cunanan used the claw end of the hammer; I'm not pointing this out as an inaccuracy. I do think it's noteworthy that, in accounts of murder/true-crime writing, bad acts committed with what would be described only as a "hammer" in literally any other situation will always have involved a "claw hammer," because it sounds so much more brutal. And…is much more brutal, obviously, but I think the idea takes root subliminally, as it had with me until I took a second to confirm it on Google, that there is a specific, discrete tool that looks more like a scythe and seems only to exist for homicidal purposes, versus the garden-variety rubber-grip hammer we all have in the junk drawer.

…This has been Tool Time with Sarah D. Bunting. Insert your own urg urg Tim Allen noises here and let's move on to the detectives finding Cunanan's carefully arranged tableau o' porn 'n' lube. Jackson seems not to know what he's looking at; Tichich does, but evinces little judgment, except in the typically narrow-minded scenario he spins, in which "a guy turns up" whom David "probably" didn't know, "they do what they do…this extreme stuff," shit goes south, and David "ends up in a rug" while the other guy runs. So, note here that they assume at this time it's David in the rug -- and that Jackson has just found the ammunition Cunanan is using. Tichich wonders where the gun is, but the short version is, they're already behind.

The coroner arrives. Tichich continues obsessing about the buzzer situation until Melinda asks for a word: David had a friend staying with him that weekend, an Andrew "Cone-onan or something." She describes him to Tichich, adding that Cunanan did a lot of bragging that "didn't sound right." Tichich confirms that Cunanan had dark hair -- and that David has blond hair. Inside, the coroner is saying he doesn't want to unroll the rug there, lest valuable evidence fall out, and on a side table, Tichich spots a Polaroid of David and (we'll see later) his dad, and carries it over to the rug, asking the others what color they think the victim's hair is. Cut to a truly gruesome shot of the ruins of Trail's head as they confirm that guy's hair is black. So now they understand it's not David in the rug…but they think it's "a man named Andrew Coo-nay-noon," and Tichich is now preoccupied with the fact that, if David is alive, that means they entered the premises illegally, so they have to go back and get a search warrant so they don't screw the pooch in court later. So now they're even further behind, and given Tichich's sticklering about the warrant, it's dumb and shitty of him to inform Melinda and Jennifer that David isn't the victim, "he's the killer," but okay.

Shot of a child's hand running through reeds as young David and his dad, who's toting a rifle and a thermos, hike alongside a lake. David dashes into a cabin, followed by Dad. Dad shares out coffee into two tin mugs, and they happily sip it. Later, David claps his hands over his ears as Dad takes a shot, then pulls David to the water's edge and wades in to retrieve the duck he's just killed. David sadly squats beside the bird and cradles its dead head in his hands. David runs off. Dad chases him, and kneels next to him, reminding him that they talked about this: "I explained. Okay?" At the end of the day, a brooding David asks if Dad is mad at him. Going against every expectation watching TV and movies has ingrained in us for this scene, Dad says of course he isn't: hunting isn't for everyone, and that's okay. "We can still go on hikes," he offers, adding that he enjoyed his coffee with David very much. Aw. It's not entirely clear to me given what happens later whether this actually happened, but it's still sweet. Dad takes David's chin and says he doesn't ever want David to be sad.

In the present day, David puts his hand out the window of Jeff's Jeep and strokes the air the way he did the reeds as a kid. In the driver's seat, Cunanan bugs out to Technotronic, car-dancing along to "Pump Up The Jam" and seeming legit wounded that David isn't reacting positively to yet another tone-deaf response. Later on, Cunanan is boasting through a huge mouthful of sandwich that he's "close" with Lee Miglin -- "Maybe you've heard of him?" -- and that the border won't be a problem; they'll get more than enough money from Lee to live in style in Mexico, plus he's been "moving product across" "for years" and he knows people. Who knows whether his whole drug-dealer persona had any acquaintance with reality, but it was definitely something that was out there amongst his circle. David can't with this fucker or with his sandwich, staring into the middle distance and not saying anything, at least until Cunanan glibs that David should start thinking about his "new life." Cunanan lies that he respects that David probably wants to "part ways" once they get to Mexico, "but we make such a great team? And the truth is we have no one else." Satisfied that he has now made this true of David as it is for himself, he takes another enormous bite.

Tichich returns with a warrant and the crime-scene team. Jeff's body is taken out, then unwrapped at the morgue. His clothes are cut off as the camera pans up to his…well, it's more tears and holes than face, now. Hideously on-point work by the production designer. Jeff's jeans are folded away to reveal his tattoo (actually Marvin The Martian; here, the generic alien they could get the rights to). The coroner finds Jeff's wallet, and ID, as the fellow dog-walker from earlier is telling the detectives that normally David would have Prints off the leash, so it was odd that he didn't when she last saw him. She didn't notice anything else about their demeanors, which is when Tichich gets a call on his Cornish-hen-sized flip phone that the victim is neither David nor Cunanan.

Those two are exiting a rest-stop men's room, Cunanan slinging his arm with awkwardly chummy possessiveness around David's shoulders.

David freezes up when a woman in a Benz gives them an icy look, paranoid that she recognizes him. Cunanan snorts that that's impossible, but David is insistent; she looked at him like she hated him! Cunanan flips to psycho mode and suggests going after her, running her off the road, and asking her why she looked at "my friend," "the nicest, kindest person" in the world like that. David yells at him to stop, that he promised nobody else gets hurt. "Whatever you say, David," Cunanan says primly, peeling out, and although I'm physically becoming exhausted by it and him, I have to give it to this episode: it really gives you a sense of how firmly Cunanan must have had David pinned, mentally, and how slowly and awfully the last days of his life must have gone by, how he must have wanted to scream not only for help but also in Cunanan's face that he's a striving dickwad.

As the detectives arrive on Dad Madson's doorstep, Cunanan burbles that he's "so glad" David "decided" to come with him. David doesn't dignify this version, saying through tears as he stares out the window that he keeps playing over what the cops will "find out about" him -- and he realizes he's done this his whole life, "playing over and over the moment people find out about me." Presumably this is why we saw the hunting trip.

Dad insists David didn't kill Jeff Trail. Tichich remarks that people saw him and Cunanan "calmly" walking the dog while Jeff's body was rotting at the loft, riddled with holes from a claw hammer that belongs to David.

David is upset at the prospect of his parents having to endure gossip about him in their small town. Who's "gonna buy from" Dad's shop?

Dad is continuing to deny that David is capable of this. Tichich informs him that Cunanan's friends in San Diego describe him as "reliable; intelligent. 'Generous' is a word they use." We know him, Dad says. He didn't do this. Tichich sighs that "there's a great deal you don't know about your son."

David wonders aloud if he got in the car because he was afraid Cunanan would kill him, or if he was afraid "of the disgrace." Cunanan murmurs that David knows he would never hurt David, which David rightly ignores. They stop at a roadside bar and Cunanan stashes the gun in his backpack as they head inside, where a woman and her guitar launch into an acoustic version of the Cars' "Drive." Cunanan urges David to eat something; he'll feel better. David ignores this also and gets up to pee, which Cunanan allows. "Who's gonna tell you when / it's too late?" begins the singer, and on my first pass through the episode, I was like, dang, that sounds like Aimee Mann. The camera then pans around to a medium shot, and I was not looking 100 percent at the screen but said aloud to the cat, "Wow, they got someone who even looks like Aimee Mann. What are the odds?" Well, it is Aimee Mann, it turns out, so: pretty good odds, apparently. Anyway, David's in the bathroom stall, contemplating his odds vis-à-vis breaking the window and shimmying out of it, and to my surprise, he does break out the window, then clear off the glass when nobody comes rushing in to stop him. "Who's gonna pick you up / when you fall," Aimee sings as David stares, terrified, out into the parking lot, probably thinking Cunanan's "feline intuition" will have him waiting directly under the window to apprehend David.

It doesn't. Cunanan's other defining trait, self-pity, has him marinating in the parallels between the lyrics of "Drive" and his own situation. As I've said, I respect the line that Criss has to walk here with this character, who is both a psychopath and a brat, and if the decision was taken to give the viewer some so-called aid and comfort by tipping Cunanan towards "pitiably hateful" versus "opaquely charming," I get it.

I also get…Crying Dawson.

Nobody's going to drive Cunanan anywhere except crazier, and I don't think we're intended to feel sorry for him. And I do not. David reappears, alas, and Cunanan grabs his hands across the table. David shoots him a confused look.

Another flashback, this one to David showing his father a departmental award his thesis has won. Dad's response is once again very explicitly, almost fantastically approving and warm: David put in the work, he deserves this. David then blurts that he's gay, and after a long pause, Dad asks for a moment: "I don't want to say the wrong thing." I think this is what David means when he plays the moments over and over; what I still can't quite nail down given the stylization of the dialogue in the two scenes is whether he's playing back what really happened, or revising it to make it go right. What gives me pause in this second flash…something is that it doesn't go all that well; Dad can't lie and say it doesn't matter, because "you know what I believe." Maybe David wanted to hear that Dad doesn't have a problem with it, but Dad "can't say that." What Dad can say is that he loves David more than he loves his own life. David's eyes spill over. There's no need for crying, Dad tells him, then asks why he waited to win the award to come out. David half-smiles. "Good news…bad news."

Then he wakes up in the back of the Jeep, which…to my point. And it doesn't really matter, but we'll get into that later. For now, Cunanan is nowhere around. David emerges from the car in bare feet, and you still hope, even knowing that it won't happen, that he'll just climb a tree or melt into the woods silently, get away somehow, put those hikes he took with Dad to use and beat the story. But Cunanan appears, holding the gun, and greets him happily. "You're not wearing any shoes!" He grabs David's hand and leads him back to the Jeep, breathing in the country air, like it's their third date.

At a diner, David asks if Cunanan remembers where they met -- on Market Street in San Francisco, a year and a half ago. The fancy clothes Cunanan wore! His "high-society friends"! He sent David a drink; David thought, who does that, "in real life"! Cunanan had everyone laughing! You can see where this is going to go, that David's reminiscence of admiring and envying Cunanan's wealth and sophistication has a sneering top note to it, but Cunanan is oblivious, preening at the memory of their $1000-a-night hotel suite and how he swanned to David about changing rooms three times to get the view he wanted. "Except it was all a lie," David finishes. "You've never worked for anything! It was all an act." This serves two purposes, I would say -- in the scene, there's the sense of a suicide-by-cop maneuver on David's part, a let's-just-play-our-cards attitude, and outside it for the viewer, a tiny tiny measure of justice in David at least clocking Cunanan for all his grand bullshit -- but you can imagine how Cunanan feels about it.

Cunanan, seeming really not to know: "What's wrong with you?" David asks if that's why he killed Jeff when he obviously loved Jeff -- that "he figured you out in the end."

"Took him a few years but he finally saw the real you," David adds. "And you killed him for it." Cunanan swallows his dread and makes a flirty moue, saying that if David thinks that night in San Fran was great, just wait 'til they get to Mexico. He blathers on about staying for a month in a fancy hotel, a room with a patio, telling the cute waiters they're movie stars from Los Angeles. David is disgusted: "You can't do it, can you." Cunanan's face falls: "I can't what?" "Stop."

In the car, Cunanan stares out onto the road. David is sitting with his back to the door, and asks why Cunanan sent him down to get Jeff. Cunanan doesn't want to talk about it. David snaps that he did it on purpose; he wanted David to see it, wanted to make David a part of it. He didn't lose control at all; he planned the whole thing. Cunanan whines repeatedly in a tone usually reserved for, like, getting turned down for prom or something that he doesn't want to talk about it. David keeps pushing: does he think they're outlaws together or something? "I'm nothing like you." Cunanan still won't discuss it so David grabs the wheel, grunting at him to stop the car. Cunanan whips out the gun, points it at David's chest, and wails that David needs to stop talking about the past, that they had a plan, they had a future.

He whips the car down a dirt side road, parks, and pulls David out, still ranting about the plan. David quavers that they still have a plan as Cunanan slings him onto his knees and, at gunpoint, bellows, "Convince me!" David begs for his life -- to the detriment, I'm afraid, of Cody Fern's American accent -- and describes the adventure they'll have together after they get money from Lee. Cunanan says David doesn't believe that, but David word-paints the place they'll live, and wisely throws in some details about Cunanan learning Spanish fast because he's "so smart," and how he'll help David, because he's always helped David. Cunanan is lulled by this for a moment, then raises the gun again: "It could have been true." David seems to see that he has nothing to lose, and gets up, telling Cunanan to listen to him: it's over. They have to contact the police. This has to stop. Cunanan's face is a smear of self-loathing: "Why couldn't you run away with me?" He'd have run away with Jeff, but not with Cunanan. He'd rather go to prison. "It's not real," David says, out of ways to explain. "It could have been," Cunanan mumbles. "No," David says, not willing to pretend now that it's over. "It couldn't." Cunanan slumps and starts to turn away. David, almost in disbelief, turns and runs towards the decrepit trailer that's near the Jeep. Cunanan turns back, sights the gun, and fires three times, but misses…

…and David lurches into the trailer, and locks the door of what is now the inside of the hunting cabin we saw earlier. He hears clinking, and turns to see Dad, unscrewing the thermoses and pouring coffee. David draws carefully near, and takes a cup from Dad, who smiles affably at him. David, delighted, smiles back and takes a seat. He takes a long sip of coffee and closes his eyes, and grins. What a lovely Jacob's Ladder to give this young man to climb into a sense of peaceful homecoming and acceptance, amidst the utter and pointless terror of his last moments.

Because of course David doesn't make the trailer. Cunanan shoots him in the back like the gutless shit he is. David manages to turn himself over and hold up his hands. His childhood hand strokes the reeds. Cunanan shoots him, through his hands, in the eye, and then as the sun goes down, snuggles with the body, finally able to possess him in death. Nestled on David's dead chest, his head right under David's unseeing shot-out eye, Cunanan looks at a cricket sitting on David's shirt, then gets to his feet and uncricks his neck. The camera pans up to watch him drive away, then up farther, over the grass, over David's body, over the darkening lake.

[junker-town]

Who’s the best NBA player in 2021? Let’s argue about it

Anthony Davis or Karl-Anthony Towns? Giannis or Kawhi? Or maybe it’s still Kevin Durant.

We’ve finished our countdown of who we think will be the 101 best players in the NBA in 2021. Hopefully by now, you’ve checked out the whole thing. If not, start here and begin the journey.

When we did this four years ago, there were only two real options for the top spot. Twenty-eight-year-old LeBron James had just won his second title, while 24-year-old Kevin Durant had just narrowly missed out on his fourth straight scoring title. Conrad Kaczmarek chose Durant No. 1, but reaction was split at the time.

This time, the choice was much harder. James will be in his late 30s in 2021, while Durant will be 32. Meanwhile, a flood of younger players could stake their claim to the top spot if they continue to develop over the next four seasons.

In polling our panel of 10 drafters, we found five players with legitimate claims to the No. 1 spot. Here is the argument for each of the five, made by different members of the panel.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The case for Anthony Davis

By Tom Ziller

I almost had a panic attack when I won the No. 1 pick in the NBA 2021 draft. This is how legacies are destroyed! I would have much rather picked No. 3 or 4, where I could make a safe pick from the leftovers and second-guess the unfortunates in front of me.

But No. 1 it was. I considered four names based on the contours of our exercise: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Kevin Durant in addition to my eventual choice: The Brow.

It ended up being a series of comparisons that led me here. Giannis is wonderful and a smart pick at No. 2, but Davis has done the unicorn things more consistently for longer. The same applies to Towns — he’s incredible but has only been able to show that for two seasons. Davis has been unreal for four.

As for Durant, he’ll be 33 entering the 2021-22 season, whereas Davis will be just 28. It’s similar to where LeBron and Durant were entering this season in terms of age. We don’t yet know if KD will age like LeBron — in other words, we don’t have evidence that Durant will continue to add and refine skills and make his body a masterpiece. Durant has also had injury issues LeBron did not. By passing on Durant here, I’m making a small wager that he won’t continue to gain power into his 30s as LeBron so clearly has.

Of course, Davis is a walking bag of maladies. But I have faith that his body will get right and so will his team, whether that’s in New Orleans or elsewhere. The Brow is still the future of the league until someone forcibly takes that title from him.

The case for Giannis Antetokounmpo

By Tim Cato

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not the best player in the league right now, but he’s close enough (an All-NBA second teamer) and young enough (22) that no soul would dare deny the possibility. Giannis is mesmerizing. Everything about him is endless: his wingspan, his potential, the amount we love him.

But let’s resist the urge to fall into long-winded esoteric praise — boy, could I — and examine what Antetokounmpo would look like as the league’s best player.

Last season, Antetokounmpo became the first player to finish in the top 20 in all five major statistical categories. That raw, all-around impact that Antetokounmpo can exert on every facet of the game will be present for years, especially as he refines his feel for the game and develops veteran instincts that you don’t expect a 22-year-old to possess. Imagine how much more polished a 26-year-old Greek Freak could be, and sweat bullets at how that would manifest itself against your favorite team.

Can Antetokounmpo shoot better? He shot 27 percent behind the arc and 34 percent on long two-pointers last season, which isn’t good enough. Both of those figures are worse than LeBron James has ever shot in a season — and yes, since we’re wondering if Antetokounmpo can claim James’ mantle, that’s a fair comparison. Giannis doesn’t need to be a good shooter; he isn’t one right now and still a borderline top-five player who can literally — and I do mean literally in its truest sense — do everything else on the court.

Still, I’m a believer in his ability to improve that jumper. Everyone on this list has at least one major hurdle. Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant must stay healthy. Karl-Anthony Towns needs to completely rework his defensive approach. Kawhi Leonard has to add more playmaking depth to his offensive palette.

Comparatively, a 26-year-old Antetokounmpo improving to shoot 33 percent on three-pointers — the same percentage James shot while winning MVP in the 2008-09 season — feels like a much simpler path. Giannis picked up basketball just a decade ago when he was 12, and has still learned so many requisite skills so easily and so quickly that I can’t deny him learning one more.

And if Antetokounmpo does that, I don’t think this is even a debate.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The case for Kevin Durant

By Mike Prada

A lot changes in the NBA in four years but not at the very top of the league. Four years ago, we were arguing Durant vs. LeBron James for the No. 1 slot in 2017. Four years later, Durant and LeBron battled in the NBA Finals as the two best players on the floor — with Stephen Curry maybe in the conversation as well. Not much really changed.

So when projecting the very best player in the NBA four years down the line, history suggests it’s actually best to go with the best player right now.

Kevin Durant is the best player in the NBA right now, especially after his 2017 finals performance. True, he didn’t have the best 2016-17 season, nor does he necessarily carry the label in the eyes of traditionalists (like my colleague Tom Ziller) who still favor LeBron.

But when the games mattered most, one player was omnipresent in all aspects of the game. One player hit the toughest shots. One player supplied the scoring binges that held off opponent runs and put games out of reach. One player protected the perimeter and the rim, all while swooping in for boards to kick-start the devastating fast break. That player was Kevin Durant. (Reminder: He was recovering from a knee injury, too.)

Durant has a history of foot problems, but he’s also a 7’0-small forward who can get his shot off anytime he wants. That doesn’t age, especially on a loaded team like the Warriors that can save his legs until he’s needed most.

With LeBron too far along in the aging curve and the other options not quite there yet, Durant, at 32, is the easy choice for me to be the best player in the game in 2021.

The case for Karl-Anthony Towns

By Ricky O’Donnell

It’s already fair to say the NBA has never seen a big man like Karl-Anthony Towns. Not one that has this much shooting ability, this proficient a floor game, and this bounty of athletic grace. Not one already so productive at just 21 years old, only two years removed from his freshman season at Kentucky.

When you look at numbers Towns has put up through his first two NBA seasons, the only comparisons can be to names like Olajuwon, Shaq, and Robinson. And that’s mostly just points and rebounds — none of those Hall of Fame bigs could shoot like Towns, who canned 102 three-pointers at a 36 percent clip last season.

Consider that Towns made more three-pointers in 82 games last season than Davis has made (78) in 335 career NBA games. That 82 is a big number, as well. Towns has played in every game since being drafted, something Davis, Durant, and Joel Embiid can only dream about.

The big question for Towns is how good he can be on the defensive end of the floor. That’s common for young big men. The bet here is that another season under Tom Thibodeau with the guidance of Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler will push Towns to be a more consistent defender.

When that happens, watch out.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The case for Kawhi Leonard

By Kristian Winfield

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: If Kawhi Leonard didn’t re-injure his ankle in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against Golden State, the Warriors almost certainly lose that game. They probably don’t lose the series, but they don’t become the greatest playoff team of all-time.

Leonard’s injury single-handedly turned a 23-point Game 1 lead into a series sweep in favor of Golden State. That’s how dominant he is on both ends, and he’ll only get better.

As it stands, Kawhi’s a player who’s a visibly better defender than he is a scorer and playmaker. That’s a huge compliment, because he averaged 25.5 points for San Antonio and was the end-all-be-all for its offense last season. His offense is pretty damn great, too.

Sure, Leonard will turn 30 in 2021, and I made it a point to shy away from players over that age. But Leonard’s a two-way player the likes of which most people my age haven’t seen, and he finds ways to get better every single season.

I’m riding with Kawhi.

INTRO | FULL LIST | TOP 100 OF 2017 | HOW WE DID IN 2013 | SNUBS | 101-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1 | THE CASES FOR NO. 1

[elliotthezubat]

DEATH CITY DAYS CHAPTER 56

insert text here

Chuuya: *looks through peephole* "!!!" *looks around apartment--and levitates trash out of the way and into the closet* hirotsu: chuuya? are you home? Chuuya: "C-Coming!" *apartment is clean...-ish* *opens the door* hirotsu: ....*wipes a glass table with his finger*....hmm. dusty... Chuuya: -_-; "I've been busy." hirotsu: busy with work, or grieving? Chuuya: "Wh-What? I'm...just working." hirotsu: on what exactly? Chuuya: "Things--lots of things!" hirotsu: *raises a brow* care to elaborate? mito: owo~? Chuuya: "...Research. Investigating." hirotsu: oh? Chuuya: *clears his throat* "N-Nothing concrete yet. Will keep you updated...sir." hirotsu:...*glances at the closet* make sure you take the trash out properly. kouyou raised you better than that. Chuuya: >____< "GOD DAMN IT!" hirotsu: *glaaaare* Chuuya: o\\\o "I mean...yes, sir." -elsewhere- Hibana: "Did you put out the trash?" mikami: *nods* ryuuko: yes. Kishiri: *shoved into a garbage can* -_____- ryuuko:...*sly grin* Hibana: "...Ryuuko...You should be rewarded!" ryuuko: thank you...i suppose. 7///7; mikami: ^^; Kishiri: "LET ME OUT OF THIS THING!" Hibana: *hands Ryuuko a gift card* "Buy something nice for yourself." -elsewhere- Anya: -\\\- "So embarrassing..." tsugumi: what happened? Anya: "I ran into Licht--and could barely form a sentence..." tsugumi: ooooh~? Anya: *covers her face* "I wanted to say 'I'm glad to run into you,' but I mumbled so much it sounded like, 'I'm into you.'" ao: oh my~ Anya: *she's turning red all over* "I want to die..." mio: *pap pap* Anya: Q~Q "Maybe I'll switch to homeschooling...again." tsugumi: dont say that! D8> Anya: TT_TT "I just feel foolish." tsugumi: *pats her back* it's alright. we all make mistakes sometimes. Anya: "I-I just want to stop screwing up..." tsugumi: *hug* Anya: >~< *hug* -elsewhere- Jonah: *disguised as Lisa* lisa: *urk* Jonah: *high pitch* "I'm so happy to be back with my friends! I couldn't stand being stuck in that cruddy workshop with that weird furry guy!" lisa:....*grips fist* Jonah: "He was so annoying! Always banging on his equipment--and other things." lisa: *grabs him and throws him into the wall* .... shut up. *her tone is harsh and cold* Jonah: *still wearing her face* "Oh, did I touch a nerve? I swear it's like you actually liked that Vulcan--" lisa: *grabs him by the neck* if you dont shut up....i'll kill you here and now... Jonah: *coughs out a laugh* lisa: *grips tighter* Jonah: *shakes his head, resuming his usual face...but not the body* "Okay, okay, I get it..." -elsewhere- Tool: "Ah, just what I needed!" *at a junkyard, his hand moving to grab a piece--* *Someone else's hand grabs it, too* yu: oh! uh.... ._.;; Tool: "??? What you need this thing for, kid? The scrap metal says it doesn't want to have to chose between us." yu:....eh? o.o~?? Tool: *listening to the metal* "Uh huh...Uh huh...Okay." *hands it to Yu* "It wants to go home with you." yu: oh. um... t-thank you....i think. Tool: "The metal said 'He's so moe!'" yu:....eh? *head tilt* Tool: "Don't ask me--the metal said it. What you need it for, anyway?" -elsewhere- Kunikida: *reviewing reports* -THUNDER BOOM- Kunikida: "???" *looks outside* "Rainstorm?" kirako: seems like it. Kyoka: *hiding under a desk* atsushi: it's ok kyouka. *pats her head* Kyoka: Q~Q atsushi:.... Kunikida: *hands Atsushi headphones* atsushi: *nods and hands them to kyouka* Kyoka: *listens...* =_= -the music is soft and relaxing- Kyoka: *sighs* ^^ *leans against Atsushi* atsushi: ^^; Kyoka: "Zzz..." atsushi:...*picks her up and carries her to one of the bed's in the clinical room* Kyoka: "Zzz..." *curled up* atsushi:... *tucks her in with her doll* Kyoka: *content sigh* =w= "Zzz..." atsushi:.... *exits the room* Kunikida: "Not bad. Good work." atsushi: *small smile* *A drop of water hits Kunikida's head* Kunikida: "...Get a bucket. We have a leak." atsushi: r-right! -after fixing the leak- atsushi: should i go up to the next floor to make sure nothing got damaged? Kunikida: "Please do so--" Dazai: *kicks down the door* "Hey, all!" *he's soaked* atsushi: O-O;; kirako: *shaking water off her umbrella and raincoat* *sigh* Kunikida: "We do have doorknobs. And umbrellas. And don't want a wet floor." Dazai: "Sorry--the rain was just really bad outside. What's up, Atsushi?" atsushi: kyouka got scared by the storm, and kunikida gave her some headphones. she's asleep in the medical room now. yosano: *sigh* the medical room isnt for nap time...but i'll let it slide for now. Dazai: "Ah, good planning!" *wringing his clothes dry* "...So, any update on that thing I told you about?" atsushi: oh! uh...w-what thing? Dazai: "...Someone stopped by my apartment." atsushi: ?? who was it? ranpo: pics or it didnt happen? Dazai: -_-;;;; "Sorry, I didn't ask Q's mom for a photo." atsushi: ??!?!! Dazai: "Weird, right?" ranpo:...that wasnt Q's mom. atsushi: eh? Dazai: "???" ranpo: think about it. why would a woman looking for her child go up to some stranger's door step? if she really wanted to find her child, wouldnt she go to the agency itself? or even the police? Dazai: owo;;; "...Because she thought I would do a good job of finding her son?" -aaand cue mass facepalm- ranpo: ...what exactly did she look like? Dazai: "She wore a hat." ranpo: is that all? im gonna need more details than that. im a detective, not a wizard. Dazai: "Trenchcoat? Glasses? Shoes?" ranpo: hmm. like sunglasses? or regular glasses? Dazai: "Sunglasses." ranpo: on such a gloomy day like this? Dazai: "...Maybe she was hiding from crying?" ranpo: did she seem to be crying? Dazai: "...She was calm, when not yelling." ranpo: how long did she say her child was gone for? Dazai: "A month?" ranpo: and just how long has Q been _in_ the port mafia, hmm? Dazai: owo;;;;; "Um...Well, I was 14 when he joined--" ranpo: so then Q being gone for a month would be impossible. Dazai: owo "...IT'S NOT MY FAULT! I WAS DISTRACTED BY HER SOB STORY!" ranpo: anything else to note? Dazai: *pulls out the photo--from his wet shirt pocket* "Here..." ranpo:....*there is a look of unease on his face* Dazai: "??? What?" ranpo: do you....notice anything unusual about this picture? Dazai: "...It's old?" ranpo: *shakes head* look at Q. -the picture shows Q....as he looks currently, walking along a street....the picture seems to be candid- Dazai: "I'm looking." ranpo: how old does he look? Dazai: "...Not much different than now..." yosano:....that sign... Dazai: "Which sign?" -in the photo, there is a sign advertising a sale- Kunikida: "Hmm...That is a good bargain..." yosano: i saw that same sign just a few days, if not a week, ago. Dazai: "...So, a fake mother." yosano: the question is....who is this person, and why Q? Dazai: "Maybe I could describe her more for an artist's rendering?" -elsewhere- Mori: "Nothing." ???: sir? Mori: "No progress..." ???: i see....that's unfortunate, sir. Mori: "Hmph. I'm going to take a break. Clean up." ???: understood sir. -elsewhere- Belkia: Q~Q *tied to a tree* otogiri: have you learned your lesson? Belkia: "How can I learn a lesson when I did nothing wrong?!!!" -elsewhere- Kid: "And you have no idea who stole your merchandise?" clerk: n-no sir. kirika: *casually chilling in a chair* Kid: "Hmm...Been reading these reports. May be able to find your culprit." clerk: thank you sir. Kid: "Come along, Kirika...We have another lead." kirika: neato. Kid: "What do you think? Magician thief? This just seems...silly." kirika: when we find this bastard, im gonna just beat him up. Kid: "...How...complex." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: TT~TT reimi: ?? Mr. Tsubaki: *goes into fox form* "I feel cold..." reimi: *getting the kotatsu out* here you go. Mr. Tsubaki: *crawls underneath QUQ "Thank you..." reimi: ^^ no problem. Mr. Tsubaki: *still shivering, sniffing* reimi: ?? is something wrong Mr. Tsubaki: "Just lonely..." reimi: hmm... Mr. Tsubaki: *curls up in his tail* "I-I just need sleep..." reimi: ok then. good night. Mr. Tsubaki: *whimpers, as he closes his eyes* -elsewhere- Sakuya: *yawn* naho: zzzz lilac: zzzz Sakuya: *puts his arms around Naho and Lilac's shoulders* naho: =w= lilac:...mm... Sakuya: "Zzz..." -elsewhere- kirika: *waiting* *Someone in a black catsuit is sneaking through the skylight of a museum* kirika:...*small grin* Thief: *removes a powder...and traces a symbol onto the jewelry case* kirika: yo. Thief: "?!!" *turns around--and blows powder into Kirika's face* kirika: tch- *The powder's symbol has opened a portal into the case* kirika: huh. well then. *goes in after* *Inside the portal is...a stage* kirika: barrier type magic, eh? not bad. Thief: "I try..." *pulls on their suit--removing it to reveal a woman in a white magician's suit* "And I do put on quite a show!" kirika: suuure ya do. listen. how about i just wreck your shit now and we can call it a night, how about that? Thief: *pouts* "But I was hoping you could be my lovely assistant..." *snaps her fingers* kirika: unyeh? *Kirika is now in a magician's assistant outfit--with cat ears* kirika:....ok. it's murder time now. Thief: *holding up a saw* "Sorry, magicians don't kill--we just cut people in HALF!" *lunges* -CLANG- kirika: *claw blades out* cute. but out of your league. Thief: "D'aw, my assistant wants to go solo?" *lets go of the saw--which is still levitating and pushing against Kirika, as the Thief pulls out...a rainbow-color set of scarves* "So sad..." *blows her nose into a scarf--sending out glitter* kirika:.....*eye twitch* *The Thief is not there--and is going back through the portal with jewels* kirika: *running after....rather quickly i might add* Thief: *leaps through the portal--but her foot is still inside the portal...* -grab- -YOINK- -RIGHT INTO THE WALL- kirika: boom. biatch. Thief: X____X -security steps in soon after- Thief: TT_TT "I just wanted pretty jewels for my new trick..." -later, elsewhere- Arthur: *yawns, sitting in the kitchen* maki: cant sleep? Arthur: *shakes his head* "Just...a bad dream. Hoods." maki:...ah.... Arthur: "If I face them again...I can't wait to knock them down." -elsewhere- Poe: *yawn* karl: zzzz Poe: *tucks Karl into his little raccoon bed* karl: =w= Poe: *lies down in his own bed* -morning- Kid: *yawn* stocking: morning~ *kiss* Kid: ^\\\^ "Morning..." *smooch* stocking: sleep well? kirika: zzzzzz *crashed out on the couch* Kid: "Yes, I--" *notices Kirika* "???" stocking: *looking at phone* ah. seems she busted our phantom thief. Kid: "Oh? That's a good accomplishment..." *spots the newspaper article* "...What is she wearing?" stocking: yikes. kirika: dont make me....zzz...kick yer ass.... Kid: o_o;;; "...Maybe we should leave this room and let her finish up on sleep." -elsewhere- Relan: *feeding cheese* "Here you goo, buddy." buttons: ^o^ *nom nom nom* Vulcan: owo *whispers to Shinra* "He has a pet rat?" shinra: yeah. Vulcan: "...That is so freaking cool." Relan: *overhearing* "I-I saved him from Giovanni--" shinra: o-o; Vulcan: "...That bastard...was going...to hurt...that...rat?" Relan: owo;;;; -elsewhere- Hibana: *making pancakes* gabriella: morning~ *kiss* Hibana: >\\\w\\\< "Oh, that gets you a special pancake." *smooch* -elsewhere- higuchi:... *with flowers, walking to the graveyard* Gin: "..." higuchi: hey rain. i know it's a day early but....happy birthday. Gin: "..." higuchi:....she didnt deserve what happened to her. Gin: "No, she did not. And what can be done...is to honor her life." higuchi:...yeah. Gin: "...I am sorry for what my brother did to Rain." higuchi:...i talked to him about it...he saw her break her condition. he was...just trying to end her suffering as....that beast. Gin: "...Does not change what has occurred...And what motivated her to take such action..." higuchi:...*grips fist* mori... Gin: "???" higuchi: .... Gin: "I wonder...what Mori did...Hmm...I'll look into this..." -elsewhere- Lucy: *puffed cheeks* atsushi: oh um... hi lucy. ouo; Lucy: "?!!! Oh...You. Hello. Hmph." atsushi: o_o;; um... soooo.... Lucy: "Why haven't you used that coupon I sent you?!" atsushi: oh! right! i'll come by later today! OwO;; Lucy: "You better--because I know where you live!" atsushi: ^^; we...live in the same building. ^^;;; -glint- atsushi: ??!! *looks up*.... Lucy: "???" *looks up* atsushi:....thought i felt something...watching us for a moment... Lucy: "Feel? Like, what kind of feeling?" atsushi:...i-it's probably nothing... -in the air vent, something watches- yana: hmm... FD: *incom* "Update?" yana: seems we got a few lovebirds around... *checks in some other cameras. including kunikida's room. fukuzawa's room. etc.* Kunikida: *reading* yana: *zooms in on a few photo frames* -a few photos. including those of sasaki and rokuzou- yana: hmm... Kunikida: "..." *pats the photos, before exiting the room* yana:.... *typing some stuff up*....hmmm... Kenji: "I don't like this color...Maybe the yellow?" yana: *checks another camera to the tanizaki's room*.... *quickly changes to another camera* yeesh. Dazai: "..." *staring at the ceiling* yana: whats on your mind today, mr former mafia... Dazai: "..." *YAAAAAWN* yana: -_-; -elsewhere- Belkia: "BAM! Told you I was innocent!" *holds up a newspaper* otogiri: ah. so it would seem. my humblest apologies. Belkia: "Hee hee...I'll accept your apology--but it'll cost ya!" -elsewhere- mito: *mew* Chuuya: *wiping the counter* "??? Hungry, kitten?" mito: ^w^ Chuuya: *opens the cupboard, now organized, and removed a tin of cat food, opening it and setting it on a plate* "Dig in." mito: *nom nom nom* Chuuya: "..." *turns on the radio as he washes dishes* -a soft jazz song plays- Chuuya: "..." *continues washing and drying before heading to the bathroom to empty the litter box* -elsewhere- Meme: "Want to head to the arcade?" mio: sure. Meme: *smiles* "Great! I can't want to play you at the fighter games." mio:...*small smile and holds her hand* Meme: "!!!" ^\\^ mio: ... .////. Meme: "Is...this okay?" mio:..y-yeah. of course. Meme: *small hand squeeze* "Thanks..." mio:... *blush* Meme: "I'm glad for...this moment." mio:...m-me too... Meme: "...I really like you, Mio." mio: i like you too...a lot... Meme: "R-Really?" .\\\. mio: *nod* >////< *smooch* Meme: O\\\\\\O "..." >\\\\< *smooch* mio: >/////< so.... um...uh... .////////////////////////. *steam coming off her head* Meme: *steam off her head* o\\\\O "...Yeah..." mio:...arcade? ^///^ Meme: *smiles* "Arcade..." *holds her hand...and kisses her cheek* mio:..thanks. -elsewhere- Yohei: *thumbing through papers* coworker: workin hard there? Yohei: "You know it..." *he has a separate folder of certain Dokeshi...* coworker: glad to hear. tell chie and toru i said hey, alright? Yohei: *smiles* "Will do. Thanks." -elsewhere- Hyde: "One strawberry cone, please!" clerk: coming right up. Hyde: *looks around at other patrons* -elsewhere- kirako: ._____.;;;; Dazai: "Well?" kirako: uugh. mom wants to do a vidchat later tonight. and i just know how that's going to go....*sigh* Dazai: "Because she'll be asking whether you're married yet?" kirako: or at the least in some kind of relationship... Dazai: "...What if you introduced me as your boyfriend?" kirako: e-eh? o///o; Dazai: "Like for pretend? It would get her off your back." kirako: well. it might help. thanks dazai. *smiles* Dazai: "Anytime...So, when should I be around for vidchatting?" kirako: this afternoon or evening most likely. Dazai: "Cool. Should I come back then?" -elsewhere- Medusa: *reading a book* neian: zzzz Medusa: *looks over at Neian* "..." *steps outside* shaula: yo. Medusa: "Hello. Surprised you are awake." -elsewhere- Lucy: *attending to customers* atsushi: *taking a seat, coupon in hand* Lucy: "...Oh. There you are. What will you have?" atsushi: i'll have...chazuke please. and some green tea. ^^; Lucy: "..." *small smile* "Coming up, Tabby." *turns around* atsushi: *small smile* *spots someone outside the window*.... O_o;;;; Akutagawa: o_______o atsushi: *hides behind menu* O-O;;;;;;;; (thinking: i saw nothing i saw nothing i saw nothing i saw nothing) Akutagawa: *suddenly sitting next to him* "What did you order?" atsushi: O_O;;;;; (thinking: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) Lucy: "Food's coming along, Tabby. Here's your WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE?!" atsushi: O-O;;;;;;;;; he sort of......wandered in? owo;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Lucy: "...Hmph. Well, the capitalist in me wants money, so order something or leave--" Akutagawa: "A piece of Atsushi." atsushi: please do not cut off my leg again. that was a dick move. Lucy: o_____o "He did WHAT to you?" atsushi: it was earlier in the summer, but he straight up cut my leg off! i mean i got better, but still! -a few people are staring now- kirika: and here i thought lunch wasnt gonna be entertaining. Lucy: >___< "For cutting off Atsushi's leg, you better order a ton of food from our fine establishment to make up for that!" Akutagawa: *looks around* "Why is everyone staring?" Gopher: *sipping his ice cream soda...with two straws* atsushi:...can we finish lunch then take this elsewhere? OuO;;;;; Lucy: *angry face* "Yeah! Because when I get off work, I'm going to tear off your--" Akutagawa: "Very well. Give me two of everything on the menu." Lucy: *pleasant face* "Coming right up, sir~" atsushi: OuO;;;;;;; -after that- Akutagawa: "..." atsushi: *SWEATING* Akutagawa: "Do you know why I wanted to speak with you?" atsushi: i can only tell it's going to end badly for me. very badly. Lucy: *spying from the bushes* Akutagawa: "It is as I said: I want a piece of you." atsushi: soooo....you want to fight me? is that it? Lucy: *glaring, ready to intervene in this epic forthcoming battle--* Akutagawa: "In a sexual way." Lucy: .\\\. atsushi: .......... *atsushi.exe has stopped working* odasaku:...huh. well i'll be. Akutagawa: "I have been doing a lot of reading, and I think I would do quite well at shoving my rock-hard--" atsushi: WOAH NOW LETS JUST BACK UP THE BUS HERE!! Akutagawa: "??? Is that not the proper way to get you sexually excited?" atsushi: um.... *SWEATS* (thinking: i've gotten myself in some deep shit now, huh? SOMEONE HELP PLZ) Akutagawa: "Now, then, let's go back to my place and--" Lucy: "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" *leaps out of the bushes* atsushi: oh thank god! *hides behind lucy* save me from the crazy man. QuQ Lucy: *pat pat* "Gladly...Now listen here, you stupid dark emo bastard! I am not letting you get anywhere near my man--" Akutagawa: "...What?" atsushi: >/////< *smooches lucy*.... I PANICKED OK?! >///////////< Lucy: o\\\\o "..." *smooch* >\\\\< Akutagawa: !!!! *heartbroken* atsushi: .////////////.;;;; Lucy: "I PANICKED, TOO!" Akutagawa: "..." *glares, hot tears falling down his face, as he raises Rashomon over Lucy...sharp and ready to slice her* atsushi: ... !!!! *TIGER ARM BLOCK* Lucy: "Eep!" Akutagawa: "Move! I'll kill her!" Lucy: "I-I can protect myself!" atsushi: akutagawa. WHAT THE FUCK MAN?! see, this is why you drive me nuts, you try to hurt the people close to me! Akutagawa: "Like how you're hurting me right now?!" Lucy: -__-;;; *summons Anne* atsushi: .... i know you're probably mad at me for rejecting you, but considering everything you've done to me and the others up to this point... Akutagawa: *crying...as he shoves Lucy and Atsushi into a tree--then runs away* atsushi: oof...ow... s-sorry about all that... a-are you ok? Lucy: .\\\. "..." *starts laughing* atsushi: eh? w-what's so funny? Lucy: "Th-This whole thing was so goofy! Ha ha ha..." *inadvertently hugging him as she giggles* "I-I'm just happy he didn't kill us..." atsushi: *blush*...*small hug* -elsewhere- mafioso: *shooting targets* *SLAM* mafioso: ?? oh, hey akutaga- *SLICE* mafioso 2: !!!!! HOLY SHIT! Akutagawa: *covered in blackness* "..." *multiple tendrils appear* mafioso 2: *sending a call* um, akutagawa's gone nuts, GET THE SEDATIVES!!! Akutagawa: *slashing at targets and random people* "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" higuchi: *ducks* !!! ryunosuke! Akutagawa: *faces her--and growls* higuchi: !!! *bracing for impact* Akutagawa: *crashes at her feet...sobbing* higuchi: ??? ryu...nosuke? Akutagawa: "He's with...another person!" higuchi:....ryu...*pats his back* rashomon: D8> *sad pap* Akutagawa: *fetal position* higuchi:...*looks at gin with a concerned expression* Gin: "...I'll bring him home." *picks him up* -elsewhere- Dazai: owo atsushi: and that's what happened. Dazai: "..." *clasps Atsushi's hands* "Name your firstborn after me." atsushi: d-DAZAI!! >////< Dazai: "Hee hee...I'm kidding! I know you'll name the baby after Lucy." atsushi: =/////= Dazai: "So...You like her?" atsushi:....i-i guess... ./////. Dazai: "Well, with that kind of...ambivalence, you better take it slow." atsushi: r-right. one baby step at a time.. Dazai: "...You two going to need protection from Akutagawa." atsushi: so i guess more combat practice then? Dazai: *nods* "And maybe a bodyguard." -elsewhere- Takehisa: *washing the Matchbox* tamaki: *humming* Akitaru: "Doing good, Tamaki?" tamaki: yeah, so far. Akitaru: "Well, I hope the training helps. The obstacle course should put that Benimaru training to the test." tamaki: *nods* i'll do my best! Akitaru: "All I can ask for!" *pats her back* -elsewhere- Poe: *sorting books* student: burning the midnight oil, i see? Poe: *smiles to himself* "Well, got to keep these tomes organized." student: ah. Poe: "Speaking of which, are you finding all you need here?" student: *nods* Poe: "Well, if you need anything for tests or studies, let us know." -elsewhere- Kuro: *in mascot uniform* "...Is money really that tight?" mahiru: it wouldnt kill us to pitch in. Kuro: "...Fine. But I get an hour for a nap." -elsewhere- Kunikida: *sorting papers* -evening- mama haruno: hello kirako. kirako: hey mom. ^^; Dazai: *off-screen* owo mama haruno: so how have you been? kirako: same as usual. Dazai: *inches closer but still off-screen* mama haruno: that's good to hear. kirako: yeah. mama haruno: still single? kirako: wellll- Dazai: *pops up* "Hello!" mama haruno: ah! who's this now? kirako: this is dazai, he's my- Dazai: "Boyfriend! How you doing, ma'am?" mama haruno: oh it's such a pleasure to meet you! kirako how come you didnt tell me sooner? kirako: -_-; i wanted it to be a surprise, mom. Dazai: *nod nod* "I am so happy with your daughter, Mrs. Haruno!" mama haruno: im so glad to hear that ^^ Dazai: *holds Kirako's hand* kirako: .///. Dazai: "So, when we going to have you over for dinner, ma'am?" kirako: o///o; -later- kirako: t-thanks for tonight. at least that got her off my case for a little while, hopefully. *small smile* Dazai: "Hey, anytime you need a boyfriend, I'm your man." *smiles* kirako: ^^ Dazai: "...Your mom seems like she really cares about you." kirako: *smiles* she's a good person, if a bit proddy, haha. Dazai: "...Having a parent checking in on your life for good reasons must be pretty awesome." kirako:...*pats his back* Dazai: *holds her hand* kirako: did you need to spend the night? Dazai: *nods* -elsewhere- mito: zzzz Chuuya: *wipes sweat from his brow: the apartment is now cleaned up* *looks over at Mito...carefully picks her up* mito: =w= Chuuya: *sets Mito down into a cat bed, before he crawls into his own* -the calender shows that rain's birthday is tomorrow...- Chuuya: "..." *stares up at the ceiling* {rain: *smiling*} {Chuuya: "You look like you're in a good mood."} {rain: ah! m-mr nakahara! y-yo-you startled me!} {Chuuya: "Heh. Sorry. Just...you're smiling."} {rain: well, my birthday is coming up soon.} {Chuuya: "Oh, happy birthday! Have any plans?"} {rain: i might just get some coffee or something. i-it's probably not that big of a deal for the others.} {Chuuya: "??? Maybe they got a surprise party or something..."} {rain: i kind of doubt that...it's be a waste of resources on someone like me...} {Chuuya: "...That's sad. I mean, a birthday should be a good day..."} {rain: yeah...i guess....} {Chuuya: "Well, I should treat you to a drink."} {rain: *blush* r-really? i-i-i mean i-if you're busy, i wouldnt want to intrude-} {Chuuya: "Hey, it's your birthday--I have to do it!" *smiles* "So, any bar you have in mind?"} Chuuya: *trembling, silently weeping* mito: zzzz.. Chuuya: *turns over* ("What do I do tomorrow...?") -elsewhere- Lucy: *brushing her hair* anne: ^^ Lucy: *finishes, setting down her brush* "One weird day..." *stretches* -early morning- Vulcan: *snoring* karin: *streeetch* up an at-em, kiddo. Vulcan: *pulls up sheets--revealing his walrus-decorated socks* "No." karin:.....*getting an ice cube out* Vulcan *snore* karin: didnt want to do this, but.... -she puts it to his neck- Vulcan: O______o *leaps out of bed* "AAAAAH!" karin: morning. Vulcan: "...That was mean." *pouts* -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *in fox form, muttering in his sleep* "N-No...Let her go..." reimi: mr tsubaki? are you alright? Mr. Tsubaki: "No!" *sits up, awake from his nightmare, panting* "...I-I'm sorry..." reimi: *sad face and pets him* Mr. Tsubaki: TT^TT "Stupid nightmares..." -elsewhere- Kid: *in the shower* stocking: *drying her hair* Kid: *smiles* "Feel more awake?" stocking: yep. Kid: *turns off the water, takes his towel* "And clean?" -elsewhere- Dazai: *yawn* kirako: zzzz.... Dazai: "..." *small hug* -elsewhere- Akutagawa: Q~Q -knocks- gin: ryu? are you doing better? Akutagawa: "...My urge to kill is now an urge to maim." gin: *sweatdrop* Akutagawa: *sniff* *hugs his plushie* gin:...ryu... Akutagawa: "He rejected me..." gin: .... Akutagawa: "All because of...that scrawny doll girl." gin:....*opens the door* Akutagawa: *looks away* gin:....*pats his shoulder* Akutagawa: *gross sob* gin:... Akutagawa: *shudders* "So stupid..." gin: ryu.... Akutagawa: "I-I'm not worth anything for anyone..." gin: dont say that... Akutagawa: "Wh-Who would ever want me?" gin: you have your sister, your friends, you arent alone. Akutagawa: "..." *hug* gin: it's going to be ok... Akutagawa: *crying* -elsewhere- Kyoka: "You. What?" atsushi: .w.;;;;; yeeeeah. Kyoka: *staaaaaaaaaaaaare* "What have you done with the trolope?" atsushi: kyouka! Kyoka: *holding up a switchblade* "Answer." atsushi: we-we just kissed! that's all! we didnt do anything sexual! Kyoka: "Kissing can be sexual--and you better not be doing anything sexual. Not without this." *hands him an unopened box of condoms* atsushi:.... *soul attempting to leave his body* odasaku:....*silent weeping of shock* Kyoka: "Good thing school will have a sexual education seminar next week." -elsewhere- Rin: *looking at a map* izumo: *examining the surroundings* Rin: "So, there used to be a statue over there?" izumo: yeah. madoka: what kind of statue? is it like the fox statues? Rin: "That'd be awesome!" Shima: "Nah, it was more like a bird?" -elsewhere- Arthur: *stretching* -at school- Relan: *passing in his homework* marie: good job, relan. Relan: ^\\\^ "Th-Thanks, ma'am..." Arthur: *hands in his* marie: could use some work, boyle. but still good. Arthur: >_< "O-Okay...Thank you." -elsewhere- Anya: *writing notes* rowena: *writing notes* Stein: "--and weaponizing one's own soul wavelength can release these Soul Force attacks. This is a difficult maneuver..." tsugumi: ... Stein: "It starts by concentrating on one's own soul wavelength...being aware of it...gathering it into one ball inside your body..." *inhales...then lays his hand on his desk and--* *BOOM* mio: O-O;;; rowena: oh! tsugumi: gagantous! rowena:...'gagantous'? Anya: -_-; "We still don't know what she means." Stein: "...Bring in my new desk." -elsewhere- Chuuya: *opens his locker: he has left flowers in there...for later* eijiro: *peeeek* eyyyy ozaki! whats up? Chuuya: o___O *slams his locker shut--right on his thumb* >_____O "...F-Fine..." eijiro: *wince* ouch. Chuuya: Q~Q "..." *starts laughing* eijiro: y-you need the nurse, dude? Chuuya: "Y-Yeah..." *laughs* "I guess I have some bad luck..." TTWTT eijiro: yikes. kohaku: then you and kotatsu will get along great, since she's always getting in lewd scenarios. it's pathetic~! Chuuya: Q___Q "...I only banged my thumb in the locker door. And that's kinda mean to Kotatsu." kohaku: does it look like i care? eijiro: piss off, aanba! *looks at chuuya* just ignore her, she's just rude to everyone for some reason. Chuuya: "Okay...Um, I'll head to the nurse...Ow…fuck..." -elsewhere- FD: "Hmm...That's no good." yana: <whats up?> FD: <I had looked into one location of the book...> yana: <and it wasnt there?> FD: <No. But I did find some other books...> *holds up one with diagrams of devices* yana ... <the fuck is that?> FD: <Something called 'Magic Devices.' Or 'Demon Machines'? The translation is a little hard...> yana: *rolls over in her chair and takes a peek* FD: <Something about 'mind manipulation'?> yana:... hmmm... -elsewhere- Hyde: *rips off a bandage* "Ouch!" licht: -_-; Hyde: "Okay...I can take off the rest." *he is covered in bandages* "THEN I WILL WIN THIS BET!" -elsewhere- Lucy: *organizing her locker* -elsewhere- Kid: *chopping vegetables* stocking: *humming* Kid: *smiles* "I'll sweeten this dish up..." -elsewhere- Chuuya: "...Been a long time. Too long." -no reply- Chuuya: "...Happy birthday, R-Rain..." *holds flowers* "I brought th-these for you..." -silence- Chuuya: "...I never asked enough what your favorites were." -...- Chuuya: "..." *still holding the flowers as he gets on a knee and rests a hand along her gravestone* "...I know you're...not here. Those...those bastards, what they did to you..." -no answer- Chuuya: "...I'm going to make this right, Rain. And they all will pay." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *lying back in the baths* =\\\= -elsewhere- Vulcan: "How're the Iron Owls working out?" maki: great! thanks vulcan! Vulcan: "Excellent! Your little, um, fireballs like them?" maki: pusupusu and meramera like them a lot! ^^ Vulcan: "That's good...Had some difficulty getting their measurements to fit into the Owls." maki: aww, i could always change their size too if it didnt. Vulcan: "Without them losing their power?" -elsewhere- Hibana: "Hmm...No, not right..." ryuuko: something wrong, commander? Hibana: *shows a catalog of dresses* "The white one?" -elsewhere- Wes: "Once more, from the top..." liz: *playing notes* Wes: *keeping time, before turning to another performer* -elsewhere- Dazai: *preparing a salad* -something watches through the air vent- FD: -_-;;; "Is he only making dinner?" yana: *yawns and flips to another camera* Kunikida: *flexing in the mirror* yana:... *snerk* Kunikida: *then he looks at his arm* "..." *pulls out a set of tweezers* yana: the fuck is he doin'? Kunikida: *tugs on a small hair on his bicep* yana: *flips to another camera* kirako: ^^ *playing with mii* hehe~ mii: ^w^ FD: "Huh. A cat person." yana: i'll keep the cameras out of reach for this room. FD: "Good plan...So, she likes cats and the boy in the bandages." yana: you mean suicidal trench-coat dude? didnt you meet him once long ago? FD: *nods* "I will say, watching his life unfold has given me new insights." -elsewhere- Meme: *smiles* mio: *asleep next to her* Meme: *hug* -elsewhere- Benimaru: *sips tea* -elsewhere- Bakugo: *mutter grumble growl* eijiro: whats up? Bakugo: "...Mom's dog pissed on me." eijiro: yikes. Bakugo: "GRRRR!!! Too adorable fluffy creature!" *shakes his fist impotently* -elsewhere- Iida: *doing leg exercises* tensei: prepping for the sports festival? Iida: "Indeed. I've been waiting so long for this." tensei: you'll do great. *smiles* Iida: "..." *bows* "THANK YOU!" -elsewhere- Victor: *setting rocks out along his table* -elsewhere- Kunikida: "..." *tapping a finger along his book* "...Damn it." -silence- Kunikida: *leans back in char* ("How long has it been?") {sasaki:....*uneasy*} {Kunikida: "...We are doing all we can."} {sasaki:...t-thank you. sorry...this whole thing still has me shook up....im too afraid to go back to my own apartment...} {Kunikida: "...It is likely not a good idea to go back."} {sasaki:....would you mind if i stayed with you at your place for the time being? a-at least until this all blows over?} {Kunikida: "...That would be acceptable. Will the couch be acceptable?"} {sasaki: i suppose...i'll try not to impose too much.} {Kunikida: *nods* "There's the bathroom. There's the kitchen. Do you have any food allergies?"} -some wind rustles outside the window- Kunikida: "???" *looks* -just some wind...seems it's getting dark outside- Kunikida: "...It's late." -no one else answers- Kunikida: *sighs...* *opens his book, pulls out...* {sasaki: it's nice...being able to share an apartment with someone...} {Kunikida: "Hm. You frequently lived alone?"} {sasaki: i did live with my fiancé before he died....*sad smile* you sort of remind me of him...} {Kunikida: "Oh? How so?"} {sasaki: you both have a strong sense of ideals...and you kind of look like him a bit. *smiles*} {Kunikida: -\\\- "Hm. I do hold to my ideals...} {sasaki: ^^ it's an admirable trait, for sure.} {Kunikida: "Thank you. Few appreciate it."} {sasaki:...*holds his hand* i miss him...} {Kunikida: "..." *pats her hand* "I understand."} {sasaki:....*hug*} {Kunikida: "!!! ..." *pat pat*} {sasaki:...could i...sleep in your bed tonight?} {Kunikida: "...What?"} {sasaki: !! .///. s-sorry, i just...sort of spoke without thinking...} {Kunikida: "...Would it put your mind at ease?"} {sasaki:...i suppose. 7///7} {Kunikida: "...Very well."} {sasaki:...*smiles* thank you, doppo} Kunikida: *sits there, silently weeping* -elsewhere- ???: im surprised you even visited her grave today, mori. Mori: "It seemed appropriate to." ???: and here i thought you didnt even like her, given how you treated her. Mori: "...Do you know what she was like when I first met her?" ???: i cant say, i wasnt there. Mori: "Self-loathing. Insulated." ???:.... Mori: "Because of who she was--what she was--she saw so little of herself and could not move forward." ???: so then why did you- Mori: "So she could direct that loathing to someone else: me." ???: but why you? Mori: *smiles* "Because perhaps I am self-loathing, too." ???: ??? i wouldnt have been able to tell. Mori: "I know how to hide it...I learned from the best." ???: ....do you regret it? what all you did to her? if higuchi's accusations are true, then you're the reason she- Mori: "I do not focus on the past. Just the future." ???:.... i see. Mori: *lays down a black rose at the grave* ???:...... are you going to visit _her_ grave as well?? Mori: "...Yes." ???: very well. i'll just wait outside the gates for you then. Mori: *approaches her grave* "...Hello." -no answer- Mori: "...God, I miss you." -silence- Mori: "You were certainly different from other people who work for me." -...- Mori: "...I suppose I felt something for you that I did not for many other people." -....- Mori: "Devotion. Companionship...It was nice." -nothing- Mori: "..." *pats her tombstone* "I...I..." elise: ...you know she isnt buried here. why are you pretending she is? *she looks confused* Mori: "Dramatic effect." elise: -3-; riiiight. Mori: *pats the tombstone* "...I think I'm ready to return." -elsewhere- yana: *checking cameras, turning up music to drown out the sounds from the other room* *Camera shows Kyoka holding a jar...* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the room next door to yana’s* yana: -_-; (thinking: i seriously dont wanna go in there...) zoey: *moan* FD: *lightly prodding the tip of his boot against her entrance* "You like that, yes?" zoey: y-yes! FD: "Who's a naughty girl?" zoey: i-i am, master! FD: "Indeed you are...Should I go deeper?" zoey: p-please! FD: *presses* zoey: *moan* FD: "Your voice is melodic..." *he leans down--and puts his hand along her throat* zoey: *blush* FD: *presses a bit more on her throat* "Sing for me..." zoey: ahh~<3 FD: "Good...What do you want?" zoey: i-i want you, master! d-do with me as you please~ FD: *smirks, as he turns her over and pats her behind* -elsewhere- mito: zzzz =w= Chuuya: "..." *strokes Mito* mito: *nuzzles into his hand* Chuuya: *small smile* "Sure are affectionate..." mito: *purrs* Chuuya: "Hee hee...I'll have to get you a treat." mito: ^o^ Chuuya: "Maybe something with a lot of flavor." -elsewhere- Relan: "...Do I need a weapon?" maki: when all else fails, a crowbar works. Relan: "...'Kay." *takes up a crowbar* "So, I just--" *swings--and falls* maki: woah, easy there! shinra: *nice catch* Relan: @~@ "...I'm not cut out for the field like this..." shinra:... *pats his back* yu: it's ok, mr relan. if you dont feel comfortable going underground, you can help me and mr licht look after the base. Relan: "N-No...I-I want to go..." Victor: D: "I'm not going?!" -elsewhere- Poe: "...I think I'm going to be sick." karl: O^O~? *Someone has pulled down his books, leaving them disorganized* Poe: "...Karl, did you see who did this?" *looks serious* karl: *points to a random student* kirika: you lil shit. Poe: "And why, young lady..." *seeming to grow taller, darker, more fearsome* "...did you do that to my books?" kirika: 'cuz i have a problem with authority. Poe: "...I can fix that..." *opens a book* rowena: still working, brother? Poe: owo;;; "...Yes? Just disciplining a misbehaving student by shoving her into a book of unimaginable torment where her nightmares will gain physical form and destroy her mind, body, and soul--" kirika: yeesh. rowena:...*sweatdrop* *tiny chop* dont be so petty. -3-; Poe: Q~Q "B-But she messed up the books!" rowena: *chop to kirika's head* kirika: *grumbles* -elsewhere- Patty: "MARGARITAS!!!" stocking: HELL YEAH! liz: ^^; Patty: *sets out the glasses--and a large crazy straw* -elsewhere- Black Star: "What're we doing tonight, gentlemen? And Soul." soul: motherfuckin battle of the ages. aka. mario party 2 drinking game. sayaka: *has out the orange juice* lets do this shit. kilik: ^^; Black Star: "...So, non-alcoholic?" -elsewhere- Konro: *passes out the plates* fang-hua: thanks for the meal. Tsukiyo: *excited* owo "Smells so good!" Konro: "You're very welcome." *sits down* -elsewhere- Dazai: *takes out a jump rope* -phone rings- Dazai: "???" *answers* "Yo." atsushi: you arent trying another suicide attempt are you? Dazai: OWO;;; "...No? I was just...baking a...water." atsushi:....'baking a water'? Dazai: "Getting a glass of cake!" atsushi:....dazai... Dazai: OWO;;; "...I was going to jump rope." atsushi: were you really?...*he seems concerned* Dazai: OWO;;;;;;;; *along the carpet are nails* "Over a floor of rusty nails..." atsushi: dazai! that just sounds painful!.....are you having one of your depressive moods? Dazai: "My feelings breed creative ways of suicide that I can add to the list of what does and does not work!" atsushi:....do you want to talk about it? it might help... Dazai: "...I'm lonely." atsushi:...did you want someone to come over? Dazai: "..." *nod nod* "Yes." atsushi: ok. -ultimately, atsushi, kirako, and kyouka went over- kirako: *letting him rest his head on her lap* Dazai: Q___Q Kyoka: "...So many nails." atsushi: *helping to pick them up* (thinking: he probably would have gotten tittinus from this...) odasaku:...*smiles* good job, kiddo. Dazai: "I just want to die..." kirako:.....*stroking his head* it's ok...you're going to be ok... Dazai: "H-How..." atsushi: you got us, right? *smiles and sits next to them* Dazai: *whimper* "Y-Yeah?" atsushi: we'll help you one step at a time. *smiles* Dazai: *grabs Atsushi's hand* atsushi: !!...*small smile* Dazai: "Thank you, friend..." *weak smile* atsushi: not a problem buddy-erm, dazai. kirako: ?? Dazai: owo; -elsewhere- Patty: *passed out* liz: *carrying her to bed* Patty: *small groan* "Salty drinks..." -elsewhere- Patty: *small groan* "Salty drinks..." -elsewhere- mii: =w= *snoozing* kirako: ^^ *pet pet* Dazai: "..." *pet* mii: ^w^ Dazai: *smile* "Really affectionate." kirako: do you want anything to eat, dazai? Dazai: "N-Noodles?" kirako: alright then. mii:... *spots something, and walks over to a vent, batting at it with a paw* D8< Dazai: "??? You got mice in here?" kirako: i sure hope not. Dazai: *looks at the vent* yana: o-o;;; *cough* -a small glint can be seen- Dazai: "??? What was that?" kirako: what's what? yana: shit. shit shit shit shit shit. Dazai: "Something in here?" -the mouse is veering back- Dazai: "I think I see some mouse's eyes?" kirako: D8 ew! i should call the exterminator. yana: *SWEATS* o-o;;; Dazai: "Better do that. Just hope Mii is a good mouse catcher." mii: *glaaaaares at the mouse* yana: *flips the cat off* fuck you tom. fuck you. Dazai: "..." *tries to pull off vent cover* -the mouse vanishes deeper into the vents- Dazai: "Darn...Got away." yana: *sigh of relief* i should avoid at apartment for a while...hmmm... let's see what the neighboors are up to... -elsewhere- Junichiro: *locking himself in his room* O_O takuto: zzzzz yumikage: O-O;;;; tsurugi: OuO;;; mitsuba: GET OUT HERE COWARDS!!!! shinoa: oh dear. -elsewhere- Black Star: *banging on the door* "Stop hogging it! I need to go!" -elsewhere- higuchi:....gin? is everything ok? you look uneasy... Gin: *shaking* "Wh-What the hell..." higuchi: gin?! *grabs her shoulder* what is it? Gin: "H-Head..." higuchi: ??? Gin: "He kept her head..." higuchi: ??? w-who's head? Gin: "H-H-His previous...I don't know!" higuchi: breathe gin, breathe! Gin: *clutches Higuchi* "His old secretary...Her head...He kept her head..." higuchi:....*her heart drops into her stomach in horrified shock* no...t-then...the blood.... Gin: "Wh-What? What blood?" higuchi: the blood in her diary... *she gets it out*....mori...wrote something in her blood...it still makes me nauseous reading it.... Gin: "...Higuchi...What is that?" higuchi: some time ago, someone gave me shizuka's diary. i think it might have been naoya... Gin: "...So, he beheads her...while she was, what, writing?" higuchi: i think she wrote her last entry before she-.... *examines the bloody text* Gin: "...What does it say?" higuchi: ...i dont...want to say it... *she hands the diary to gin* god damn... Gin: *glances...* "...He gets pleasure from this...this madness." higuchi: he...he's insane.... Gin: "...Why have you been looking into this? Why now?" higuchi:....rain.....when she died.....she was pregnant with his child. Gin: "...God." higuchi:....*grips fist* i wont forgive him for what he's done to her... Gin: "...What now?" higuchi: ......i just dont know..... Gin: *shivers* "...We need help. He can't stay in control here..." -elsewhere- Kid: *flips a pancake* stocking: *humming* Kid: *smiles* "You didn't over-do it on the alcohol, did you?" stocking: not tooooo much~<3 Kid: "Hee hee..." *small kiss on her cheek* "I wouldn't know too much about that..." -elsewhere- elise: zzzz Mori: "..." *sips a drink* ???: she almost looks peaceful... Mori: *puts a finger over his lips* "Shh...Let her rest." ???: very well. Mori: "I thought so...I will retire now." ???: understood. i'll call it a night as well. -she walks over to the wall, and puts herself back onto her charger- miura: good night, sir. Mori: "Good night..." *walks to the closet* -yep, shizuka's head is still there- Mori: *small smile* "Hello." shizuka: ... *she cant reply, she's a head* Mori: "I would like to tell you about my day..." -silence- Mori: "I visited your grave. Quite nice." -...- Mori: "The words on your tombstone...They were emotional...The font was...was..." -....- Mori: *wipes his eyes* "I think...there will be a child that I wish you were mother to..." -....- Mori: "You remain in my thoughts. I will let you rest now. Good night." -elsewhere- FD: *lying, naked, in bed, staring at the ceiling* zoey: *lying next to him, naked and panting, love juices still dripping out of her* FD: "D-Damn...You came. Hard." zoey: ah...<3 -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Good test run, everyone. Hope the tools work for you." -early morning- Meme: *yawns, turns over* mio: *nuzzle* zzzz.... Meme: .\\\. "..." *small hug* mio: =///w///= Meme: *closes her eyes, holds Mio a bit more closely* -elsewhere- rowena: *brushing her hair* lenore: zzzz.... Poe: *fast asleep* rowena:... *puts blanket over him* Poe: =w= karl: ^^ rowena:... *pet pet* karl: =w= lenore: *in human form, stretching* you sure take care of him, huh? rowena: *nods* he....has a lot of darkness that surrounds him. i just want to see him be ok. Poe: "Mmm..." lenore:...i see... Poe: *yawn* "Huh? Wha--?" rowena: oh. good morning, brother. ^^ Poe: "Morning..." *stretches, gets out of bed* "Sleep okay?" -elsewhere Sakuya: "Wake up..." naho: *yawn* Sakuya: *smiles* "Sleep okay?" -elsewhere- Hibana: *sneezes* -elsewhere- Kuro: *playing 3DS* -elsewhere- tsugumi: *taking notes in class* Anya: *searching for her pen* yana: *glancing around* Meme: *asleep* -elsewhere at school- atsushi: *taking notes* Kyoka: *looking around them* atsushi:... *glances at lucy...small smile* Lucy: *looks up--blushes deep, looks back down to her notes* .\\\\\\\. Kyoka: "..." *sharpening her pencil* rowena:... *noticing akutagawa* o-o; Akutagawa: *gaunt, pale, somehow has a small rain cloud over his head* Q~Q rowena: *sweatdrop* um... mr araragi? Akutagawa: *growls at her* rowena: OwO;;; Sid: *chops Akutagawa's head* "No." Akutagawa: TT~TT rowena: ^^; Kyoka: *whispers to Atsushi* "I got my pencil ready..." *it's dangerously sharp* atsushi: kyouka no. Kyoka: "He is a threat to neutralize before he hurts you." atsushi: *sweatdrop* Kyoka: "...Oh, and before he hurts the trollop." Lucy: D:< -elsewhere- Patty: -~- "My head..." julie: *pap pap* Patty: "Thank you, sweetie..." *yawns* julie: ^^ roxanne: rough night? Patty: "Margaritas are eeeeeeeevil..." roxanne: ^^; Patty: "May I have some medicine?" -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Don't get distracted! Or you'll fall into the trap!" shinra: *focused and running* Vulcan: "..." *smirks, as he pulls a lever* -rockets with shark like features are shot at them- tamaki: O-O;;; Relan: "WHAT THE ACTUAL FRICK?!" Maki: "Ah, they have little cute shark faces on them!" iris: ._.; Vulcan: "Run faster! They pack quite a bite!" Relan: *running* "Faster faster fast--" -amazingly, nobody died from that- -elsewhere- Tool: *repairing a guitar* io: *watching* Tool: "Then, Io, I'll have to replace the strings, sand down the back to get rid of some water damage...Amazing what you find in landfills." io: *shiny eyes* saki: ^^ Tool: "Wait 'til you hear it! Sure to be melodic..." *thumbs along one string--which snaps in two* o_o; io: uh-oh. Tool: "I-I can fix this..." -elsewhere- Kid: *reviewing a mission form* "..." maid: hard at work, sir? Kid: "Trying to be...Just curious about this destination." maid: oh? Kid: "Father suggested meeting Fire Brigades..." maid: like the 1st? Kid: *nods* maid: i see. Kid: "There are...certain investigations worth considering." maid: hmm... Kid: "The 1st has been involved in some surprising developments, whether members accused of crimes or worse..." maid: yikes. Kid: "Will you make sure our home is protected while I am out?" maid: of course sir. Kid: "Then I will depart..." maid: best of luck, sir! Kid: *nods, exits* stocking: do your best honey~ *kiss* Kid: =\\\\= "I try, my sweet. I will return..." *kisses her hand* stocking: hehe~ ^///^ Kid: ^\\\^ "Good luck today..." -elsewhere- Benimaru: "...Someone left trash on our front step." fang-hua: ??... ._.; um....is that a person? Benimaru: "Yes. They look worse for wear." hinata: *poke* is he dead? ???: "Not..." hikage: EEK! ???: "..." *stomach growls* fang-hua: sir? are you ok? Johannes: -~- *groan* fang-hua: sir? Johannes: "I'd like warm milk, please..." fang-hua: r-right... kabuki, get him inside. kabuki: *already on it* Tsukiyo: "Weird looking guy...What's your name?" Johannes: "Jo...Zzz..." hinata: jojo? hikage: what a bizarre adventure. Johannes: "Faust...Zzz..." -elsewhere- Lucy: "...Any plans after school?" atsushi: maybe check the arcade out? what do you think, kyouka? Kyoka: "I think I will defeat this interloper at all games of combat." Lucy: ^^# atsushi: ^^; odasaku: baby steps kiddo. baby steps. Lucy: "..." *takes his hand* atsushi: o///o Lucy: "...What?" -\\\- "I-I can do this..." atsushi: .//////. Kyoka: "...You hurt his hand, I'll smash your face." Lucy: "?!! Hey!" atsushi: ^^;; -a few meters behind- Akutagawa: *clawing the corner of a building* naoya: ._.; akuta, dude, chill. Akutagawa: *thunderous growl* naoya: OwO;; Akutagawa: "I will end them all..." naoya: woah, you are verging dangerously into yandere territory there. Akutagawa: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!" naoya: ...go ask kajii. Akutagawa: "...You ask Kajii, while I end them..." naoya: *sweatdrop* Akutagawa: *follows* Lucy: "Bet I can win you a prize." -elsewhere- Chuuya: *sets out a box of wine* Mori: owo; "...I thought you would bring the good stuff?" Chuuya: "Not a time for celebration." *pours out a glass* kouyou: ?? miura: ....*small glare at chuuya* Mori: "Well, I _did_ call this meeting, so...Um...Updates?" kouyou: from what we've gathered, the girl from special department was most likely a victim of the rats. Mori: "And any hint where the murder was committed? Location?" kouyou: from the information from the autopsy, she was likely killed in the old subway tunnels. Mori: "So, hiding in dark, dank places." Chuuya: "Sounds familiar." Mori: "???" kouyou: chuuya? Chuuya: "...I meant the last time something like this happened, it was in a tunnel." ("And Mori would know about hiding in the dark...") Mori: ^^; "I'm sure you did..." ("...Is he...?") miura: ?? Mori: "I want analysis for a clue as to which tunnel she died in..." miura: right. Mori: "Any other pressing business?" Chuuya: "..." *sips more wine* -elsewhere- Kid: "Hello. I am here as a representative of the DWMA." dia:...*nod* the commander's office is this way... Kid: "Thank you...I am Death the Kid." dia: *nod* company commander dia volkov. Kid: "Where is your role in the chain of command?" -elsewhere- Izuku: *in his school uniform* "I-I think my muscles got bigger." ^\\\^ eijiro: nice! Iida: "Yes! The exercise program here will have you prepared for the upcoming competition!" Bakugo: "...Like your hand motions are building up your arm muscles, spaz." momo: *chop* behave. ochako: im totes pumped! how about you, todoroki? Todoroki: "...I just want this over with." ochako: hmm... Izuku: "??? Um...M-Maybe we just need a bit of a break? I could get some sports drinks..." tsuyu: seems like a good idea. Izuku: "I'll go get them!" Bakugo: "And pick good flavors!" yuuji: *getting some big city cola* hitoshi: .... yuuji: *notices izuku* oh hey....you're....midorino, was it? Izuku: "??? Oh...Um, hello. And it's, um, Midoriya..." yuuji: ah. one of mr aizawa's students, then? Izuku: *nod nod* "Y-Yes? You know him well?" yuuji: yeah, he's kind of been my life coach of sorts since starting here...one of the few people who actually bothers with talking to me... Izuku: "Wow...I mean, that's great! It's surprising he is so attentive, but then again he is really focused on his students' development. Furthermore--" yuuji: *sweatdrop* y-yeah... 7_7; Izuku: "...I'm rambling, aren't I?" yuuji: do you want an honest answer or a nice answer? Izuku: ^^;; "I'll just take that as a yes. Heh." yuuji:...*small smile* seems he's got an interesting bunch to work with, eh? Izuku: "We're definitely eclectic....Lot of abilities, personalities..." yuuji: *nod* must be nice...having friends. Izuku: "??? You...aren't friends with teachers here?" yuuji: other than aizawa, no one else really talks to me....probably has something to do with me being...you know, an ex-villain? Izuku: "..." *nods* "D-Didn't want to bring that up..." *hides his notebook behinds his back* "...Do teachers have social gatherings?" yuuji: i guess they do? hitoshi: *already walking away with his soda* Izuku: *feels shiver up his spine, looks around* "???" yuuji: oh, seems that other guy from the general department left already... Izuku: " 'General department'?" yuuji: for those that arent in the hero department. mainly just learning how to control their quirks and what not. there's also the support department too. Izuku: "Ah...It's all helpful." yuuji: i guess. -elsewhere- Lucy: "Here's your order." liz: thanks. Lucy: "You're welcome. If you need anyt--" Patty: *already gobbling fries* Lucy: o___o; liz: ^^; Patty: "Seconds, please!" *holds up empty plate* Lucy: "..." *smiles* "Coming right up!" -elsewhere- miura: any updates, kajii? Kajii: *has a black eye* "I wish..." miura: im still somewhat bitter that those rats got the jump on me back then. and that brat elise ripped my head off. im just lucky my CPU wasnt affected. Kajii: "So am I..." *head pat* miura: -_-;; hopefully keek will have results on that machine sometime this week. Kajii: *pouts* "I could figure it out..." miura: and risk me getting taken over again and attacking people? best not to risk it. Kajii: "Hmph..." *goes back to fiddling with device* -elsewhere- Karim: "..." foien: *listening in* Kid: "--regarding some affiliations your Brigade has had with...undesirables." Burns: "..." dia: ... Kid: "Tell me a bit about Rekka Hoshimiya." -elsewhere- Mephisto: "Yummy~" felisia: ^^ *rubs her stomach* hard to believe im having a second child... Mephisto: *offers a fork-full of cake* "And I'm delighted~" felisia: ^^ ...i'll be honest, im nervous. after what happened with stocking....will i even be a good mother? Mephisto: "..." *forehead kiss* "You already are." felisia:....*blushing with tear filled eyes* Mephisto: "..." *hug* "Stocking loves you, and you are good to her. And you will be good to our future child." felisia: t-thank you, mephisto. that...means a lot. Mephisto: *smiles* "I love you...and I will be with you." felisia: *hugs and crying tears of happiness* Mephisto: "Hee hee..." *pats her back* -elsewhere- Johannes: *slurping noodles* "So gooooooood!" Benimaru: -_____- reimi: ^^; Johannens: *holds up bowl* "Seconds, please!" -elsewhere- Jeje: "...The universe feels at peace." metsu: ^^; Jeje: *lies back, sighs* "So quiet..." metsu: *leaning against him* u///u Jeje: *puts an arm around her, lets her rest her head against his chest* metsu: =///= Jeje: *soft sigh, holding her close* metsu: .... zzzz Jeje: *pulls up sheet over them, closes his eyes* =\\\= *small snake-like sound as he sleeps* -elsewhere- mito: *asleep, purring* Chuuya: *staring up at the ceiling, blank expression, but tears falling* mito: zzzz Chuuya: "..." *small pet* mito: =w= Chuuya: "...I miss her. So much." mito: zzz.... Chuuya: "Why didn't I...How could I not know..." -silence- Chuuya: "I loved her..." -...- Chuuya: "...and I will avenge her." rain?: *sniffle* i-it hurts... Chuuya: "???" *looks around* -no one there- mito: *yaaawn* zzzzz Chuuya: "...What is wrong with me?" -...- {Q: zzzz....} {Chuuya: "...At least he's resting."} {Q:.....*yaaaawn* mama?} {Chuuya: "...Hey, Q..."} {Q: mmmn? *yaaawn* hey chuuya....*rubbing his eyes* i had a scary dream....but then you and big bro dazai saved me, and rainy kissed you. dreams are weird, huh?} {Chuuya: o\\\o "Y-Yeah...Weird."} {Q: *yaaawn* im still tired and im sore everywhere....wait, why am i in a car?} {Chuuya: "J-Just...going for a ride."} {Q: oh....ok....zzzz...} {Chuuya: *sigh of relief*} {-the car is now approaching its destination to drop Q off-} {Chuuya: "..." *picks up Q carefully*} {Q: zzzzz.....} {Chuuya: "..." *carries Q up to his room...*} {Q: mama....zzzzz} {Chuuya: "..." ("Poor kid...")} {mafioso: is errand girl parking the car then?} {Chuuya: "...Rain, and no, she went home."} {mafioso: did anything happen while you two were out?} {Chuuya: "Nothing we couldn't handle..."} {mafioso 2: did she have one of her sexy slip ups?} {*CRASH*} {Chuuya: *holding #2 against the wall by their throat*} {mafioso: woah! chuuya what the hell's gotten into you?!} {Chuuya: "If I hear you talk about Rain like that again, you'll be in the hospital, for two weeks, without pay."} {mafioso: what the heck man, what are you, in love with her or something?} {Chuuya: *tightens grip on his throat* "Shut up..."} {mafioso 2: grk-} {mafioso: chuuya! dude! chill!} {Chuuya: "..." *drops him* "Stay out of my way."} {mafioso: ....man, what got into him all the sudden?...} {Chuuya: *carries Q to his room...*} {Q: zzzz...} {Chuuya: *sets Q down in his bed* "..."} {Q: *clutching his doll* =w=} {Chuuya: *sits by his bed, watching* "..."} {Q: zzzz... mama....} {Chuuya: *tucks him in*} {Q: =w=} {Chuuya: *passes hand along Q's forehead to brush away his hair*} {Q: zzzz...} {Chuuya: *exits*} {-on the drive home-} {Chuuya: "...Maybe coffee to start?"} {-'please....dont scare me like that anymore...'-} {Chuuya: "...I won't. I promise."} {-upon arriving home-} {Chuuya: *looks around* ("Kind of empty here...")} {-silence-} {Chuuya: "Maybe...she and I could..."} {-...-} {Chuuya: "I'll ask her, tomorrow."} Chuuya: *sobbing* mito: ?? Chuuya: "R-Rain..." mito:...*crawls up to his head on the pillow, softly licking away the tears* Chuuya: *hugs Mito* mito: ^w^ Chuuya: *ugly sobs* mito: *nuzzle* Chuuya: *keeps crying, shaking* mito: *purrs* Chuuya: *cries until exhausted...* mito: *still purring and laying on his chest* Chuuya: *sob...breathes in...* "Zzz..." -morning- Johannes: *snoring* fang-hua: seems his friend called saying they'll pick him up. Benimaru: "About. Time." kirei: ^^; *A snake slithers through the room* hikage: WAAAH!! hinata: EEK! kirei: !! reimi: O-O;;; Mikuni: "Howdy howdy!" fang-hua: *sweatdrop* can we...help you? Mikuni: "We're here to pick up a loser." Benimaru: "..." *points at Johannes* reimi:.... *looks at jeje.....her blood runs cold* Jeje: "...Oh." reimi:...... fang-hua: sir? your friends are here to pick you up. Johannes: "Great!" *stands up, shakes Benimaru and Kirei's hands--hard* "It was a pleasure staying here, Kirami and Bunbunmaru!" Tsukiyo: o____o ("IS NO ONE GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE FUCKING SNAKE TALKED?!!!") kirei: ^^; Benimaru: -____- "Get out, or I'll burn you and bury the ashes." Johannes: owo;;; *steps back slowly and hides behind Mikuni* Jeje: *stares at Reimi* "..." reimi: i'll just....return to the shrine *walking away* Tsukiyo: "???" Jeje: *slithers after Mikuni* Mikuni: "Thanks, y'all! And don't be a stranger at my fine shopping establishment!" Johannes: "Send me skin samples! I love comparing humans and vampires' DNA!" Tsukiyo: o____________o Benimaru: -_-;;; "I don't know how I will do it, but somehow I will blame the 8th for this." fang-hua:..... kabuki:...that was.....interesting. Benimaru: *looks around* "...Perhaps you should speak with Reimi, Kirei." kirei: perhaps... -elsewhere- Arthur: *staring at microwave* "...Finish already." shinra: *getting his school supplies ready for the day* Relan: *tying his shoes* iris: need help? Relan: ^^; "I-I'm fine...Done this enough..." -elsewhere- Kid: *crosses "1" off his list* stocking: busy day today? Kid: *nods* "Now I visit the 2nd Br--" Patty: "TAKE ME WITH YOU!" liz: *sweatdrop* Patty: "Takeru! Takeru! Take--" Kid: -___- "Fine. You may come along." Patty: "YAY!" -elsewhere- Lucy: *groans* anne: o.o~? Lucy: "This work all takes too long...I want a break." anne: *pap pap* -elsewhere- Akutagawa: *growls* hirotsu: still bitter? naoya: yeeeeeep. Akutagawa: "Kill..." naoya: owo; Akutagawa: "I will not be denied..." hirotsu: *backing away slowly* Akutagawa: "...Hmph." *sulks into the shadows* naoya:....damn. hirotsu: ...*takes a long drag on his cig* to say he isnt good with rejection...would be an understatement. *The shadows seem to be shivering* naoya:.....*looks at gin* ... Gin: "...Very well. I can speak with him..." naoya:...*pats her back and nods* Gin: "...Ryu?" Akutagawa: *growls from the shadows* higuchi:...ryunosuke? come on, talk to us. Akutagawa: "I don't wanna..." higuchi:.... Gin: "...Get out here, or I will not make you any dinner." Akutagawa: "..." Q~Q *steps out* higuchi:.....*awkward pap* Akutagawa: TT~TT "I want to kill him...and her..." naoya:.... Akutagawa: *his stomach growls* TTT~TTT -elsewhere- Patty: *glomp* takeru: >//////< hito: *sweatdrop* Kid: -_-; "I'll let you two..whatever, while I meet with the Commander. Please direct me to their office." -elsewhere- lana: *walking home* *siiigh* what a day... -she's coming up past poe's house, seems the window is open...huh...- ???: *singing* "How did I live? I taste every wasted minute..." lana: ?? *looking around* *The music comes from inside* ???: "...From the things that might have healed me...How long have I been sleeping?" lana: *peaks into the window* *Poe is inside, singing to himself as he shelves books* lana: ..... *a small blush creeps along her face* Poe: *not noticing* "How did I live? Was I kind enough and good enough? Did I love enough? Did I ever look up and see the moon and the stars and the sky?" lana: ....*ducks under the window, listening* .... ./////. Poe: " All of my life I spent searching the words of poets and saints and prophets and kings..." *approaches the window to set a book on the windowsill* lana: *hiding* O-O;; Poe: "Life and love, I don't deserve..." *sweeps dust off the sill outside* lana: ...... (thinking: edgar...) Poe: *hums the last part...* lana: ..... *as soon as the coast is clear, she continues on her way, a small blush still on her face* Poe: *looks around* "??? That's odd..." karl: ?? Poe: "I thought I...I thought someone was nearby." -later- lana: i'm home! Mr. Shephard: "Welcome back! How was today?" lana: busy. but i managed to get by. *smiles* Mr Shephard: "That's good. I'm almost done with dinner." lana: ah. -later- Mr Shephard: "...Honey? You don't like the meal?" lana: it's good, dad. thanks. ^^ Mr Shephard: "Something on your mind?" lana: eh? just...thinking about stuff... -that night, after her father went to sleep- lana:.....*staring up at the ceiling* .... (thinking: still cant stop thinking about it... cant believe i didnt notice how smooth his voice is...) o///o >///< (thinking: what am i thinking?! i mean, yes, he has a nice voice, and he always is looking out for me...sending me letters....and a gentle personality deep down….} ….. o/////////////////////o oh. oh my god. *pulls the blanket over her* oh my god im in love with him. *Text message alert* lana: !!! *scrambles to get her phone and checks it* Poe: [THIS DEVICE KEEPS MAKING NOISES!] lana: ^^; [that's to let you know when you have a call or a message] Poe: [...Oh. How do I stop the noises? I asked Karl to fetch me the mallet.] lana:...*small smile* [not sure. but on a different topic, how has your evening been?] Poe: [Quite alright. Made dinner, Rowena brought dessert.] lana: [ah. i had dinner with my dad too. ^^] Poe: [He cooks?] lana: [sometimes, yeah.] Poe: [Is he good?] lana: [as good as any i guess, haha] *laying down, hugging her pillow close to her* Poe: [Maybe he could teach me a lesson...] *knees pulled up as he sits in bed, petting Karl* lana: [maybe.] ... [you probably have an early start tomorrow, huh?] Poe: [Libraries always have early days, yes. And you?] lana: [same here. i'll call it a night here. get some rest, edgar. ^^] *almost types 'i love you', but decides to send it as is*.... .///. Poe: [Sweet dreams] *send* "..." .\\\. "Too schmaltzy?" karl: =w= zzzzz Poe: "..." *pets Karl before putting on his nightcap and lying down in bed* lana:....*laying down and closing her eyes, imagining him gently singing into her ear*.... u///u {Poe: "Stars shining bright above you...Night breezes seem to whisper 'I love you'..."} lana: =//////= .....zzzz {Poe: "Dream...a little dream of me..."} -elsewhere- Patty: >\\\\\< liz: how was the visit? Patty: "HE'S SO TALL AND CUTE AND I WANT TO BRING HIM HOME TO MEET LORD DEATH!" Kid: -____-;;; "I barely recognized anyone in that Brigade." stocking: *pats his back* Patty: "I brought back souvenirs, though!" *holds up a firefighter's helmet--and a pair of boxers* liz:... -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: "...You recognized the snake?" reimi: .....just a hunch Mr. Tsubaki: "...Not like others don't know I'm here...Did you get a sense of dread facing Jeje?" reimi:....yeah. a bit. Mr. Tsubaki: "...Then we'll be on our guard." *pats her shoulder* reimi:....right. -elsewhere- FD: *reviewing dossiers* yana: *playing some games on her phone* cant wait to get this plan going already... FD: "Don't we all. But reviewing these materials takes time." yana: feels like it's been months. FD: "Well, you have been gathering research for us..." yana: *nod* i figured out a few...interesting things... but seems im not the only one doing some digging.... *she has two addresses written down* FD: *frowns* "What are those addresses?" yana: some pests who have been giving us trouble and are trying to find us....should we deal with them? FD: "Please. But find what valuables they have..." yana: *grins* alright. with any luck, they could make useful recruits. FD: *small chuckle* yana: so who's gonna be our first visit? FD: "Hmm...Who is 'Keek'?" yana: not sure. but we'll find out soon enough. *grin* -elsewhere- yuuji: *kicking rocks on his way to his dorm room* Izuku: "Hey there!" yuuji: oh hey...midoriya, was it? Izuku: *nods* "Heading back to the dorms?" yuuji: yeah, i kind of live there. dont really have anywhere else to go. you? Izuku: "I live with my family right now..." yuuji:.....must be nice. Izuku: owo;;; "...Want to have dinner?" yuuji: me? you sure about that kid? i mean...given my rep- Izuku: "I-I-I insist! My mom is a great cook!" yuuji:...well...ok then. you seem persistent. Izuku: *nod nod* "It-It's just this way, not too far..." -elsewhere- Hibana: "Now, what have we learned~?" mikami: o-o; poor rino... Rino: *wearing a 'Hibana is always right' shirt* >\\\\< "THIS IS HUMILIATING!" Hibana: "Smile." *holds up her phone* Rino: "..." *gives Hibana the finger* gabriella: *glares at rino* Rino: o____o;;; *stops, puts on a fake smile* Hibana: *smiles at Gabriella as she snaps the picture* "That's better..." -elsewhere- chie: *washing toru* toru: ^o^ Yohei: *filming* "He takes to water like a duck..." chie: ^^ toru: *splash* XD chie: ah! haha! Yohei: "Careful, kiddo--you'll get more water on the floor than in the bath." chie: ^^ Yohei: *holds up baby towel--blue with a whale on it* toru: waio! waio! Yohei: " 'Whowl'! Look at the whale on here, Toru." *smiles* toru: ^w^ chie: ^^ Yohei: *dries Toru* -elsewhere- {Rekka: "Forgot about me?"} {pearl: father hoshimiya?} {Rekka: "What's up? Been a long time, Pearl..."} {pearl:.....why?} {Rekka: "Why? Why what? Can't I say hello to you? It's not like I've been dead or anything..."} {pearl: w-we saw you die.....you were impaled right in front of them.... why did you join the hoods? WHY? why would you do that? betraying karim, father li, the whole 1st!} {Rekka: *smiles peacefully, closes his eyes* "To give you a better world~"} {pearl: by hurting innocent people? *tears falling* you hurt people, children even!} {Rekka: *approaches her* "They were not those to be saved...God's light was not on them."} {pearl: .....*noticing figures appearing around them* !!!!} {-flame humans, screaming out in pain-} {Rekka: *half of his face is on fire* "We are blessed..."} {pearl: *screaming*} ???:....rl...pearl! pearl: *her eyes snap open* AH! dia:.... ruby: are you ok? pearl:.... Karim: "?!" pearl:....*shaking* Karim: "Hey...It's okay...You're safe." pearl: *tears falling as she hugs him tightly* dia: .... Karim: "!!! ..." *pat pat* "It's okay...Just a bad dream..." pearl: *trembling* Karim: *pats her back* "Let it out..." pearl: *holding him, crying* Karim: "I'm sorry...But it’s ok, it's over now." dia:...... *looking away* Karim: "Dia, get some water. Please." dia:.....right.... *exits* -elsewhere- yuuji: *sitting at the table, awkwardly staring at his plate* Izuku: "??? Something wrong?" yuuji: eh? n-nothing just....feels surreal, i guess. Izuku: "...Well, I hope this hot meal fills you up." *smiles* yuuji:...y-yeah... thanks...i guess.... Izuku: "Mom, need any help?" inko: when you kids are done, i could use help with washing dishes. ^^ yuuji: *small wince* Izuku: "I-I can do that, Mom!" *looks at Yuuji* "??? Okay?" yuuji: y-yeah...i'll...head out after that. Izuku: "Oh...Y-You should come back soon. I got video games..." yuuji: noted. -elsewhere- Jonah: *giggling* guruna: kurukurukuru ^^ irina: and just what are you two whelps snickering at? guruna: it's a secret! >Xp Jonah: *now wearing Irina's face* irina: ...the braid is on the wrong side. guruna: then wouldnt it be a perfect mirror, kuru? Jonah: *smushes his own face--resembling Nozomi* irina: .....how disgusting. Jonah: "I see resemblance!!!" irina: *grabs him by the neck* *glaaare* was that insult directed at me? ^^# Jonah: *coughing* "I-I though it was cute...?" irina: ..... -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Sushi!" shinra: alright! tamaki: yeah! Takehisa: *passing the plate* "Arthur, stop sneaking off others' plates." -elsewhere- lana: *working night shift* .///.; Bellhop: "??? Feeling sick?" lana: AH! oh. wha? o-oh! im fine! just....i-im fine, really! Bellhop: "...Well, you just looked distracted. Guest giving you trouble again?" lana: no. just...i-im fine. manager:...*feeling her head* you feel warm... lana: -n-; Bellhop: "I can take over. Want to take a break?" lana: you sure about that? Bellhop: "Right on! Go lie down a bit." lana:... manager: go home today, get some rest. -on the walk home- lana:....*sigh* what's gotten into me? (thinking: do i really feel that way about him? all because of his singing? im being so silly....i mean, there's so much more than just that. he's sweet, poetic, always glad to see me...) .//////. (thinking: AHHH! THERE I GO AGAIN! ah jeez...) ???: "Wh-Wh-What?!" lana: O-O NYEEEEEE!!! ?!?! *turns* Dazai: "What'd you mean by that?!" lana:....can i....help you sir? Dazai: *looks up--then smiles widely* "Hey! I know you!" lana: uh....*reaching for mace in her purse* Dazai: "You're the girlfriend of Ranpo's boyfriend!" lana:....eh? ^^; Dazai: *takes Lana's hand, shakes energetically* "I'm Dazai!" lana: i got mace! Dazai: "Oooooh! Is it lethal?" lana:.... *quickly running up to poe's door* edgar. your friend's weird coworker is pestering me -_-; Poe: *opens the door a crack* .\\\. "L-L-La-La--" Dazai: "Oh, you know where he lives?" lana: may i come in please? this weird guy is bothering me. Poe: O\\\\\\O "W-W-W-ell--Well--Welcome!" *throws open the door, gesturing* lana:... .///. ok then. *goes inside* Dazai: "Yay! Let's have some drinks and--" *Poe slams the door in Dazai's face* *Dazai is stunned--then falls backwards down the stairs* lana:...thanks edgar. *smiles* Poe: o\\\\o "I-I-I'm happy to help." *holds up a plate of cookies* "I was baking!" lana: oh. thanks. *nom*. this is really good, thanks edgar. ^///^ Poe: >\\\< "I tried really hard with these. Mother used to make them. I just never get the right amount of cinnamon..." lana: *smiles* Poe: "H-H-How was work? I thought you were working today..." lana: um...i guess im a bit under the weather? ^///^; Poe: "Oh. I'm sorry. Tea?" lana: s-sure. .///. Poe: *heats up water on stove* "...Which do you prefer? Green? Black? Fruity?" -later- Poe: *sips* lana:.... .///. soooo anything new happen recently? Poe: "I trained Karl to check back in books!" lana: wow. *smiles* that's great! Poe: *nod nod* *goofy smile* "H-He's quite smart! People don't appreciate how smart raccoons are. Very crafty." lana: yeah... .///. *shuffling a bit in her seat* Poe: "??? Is...there something wrong with that chair? I meant to reupholster it..." lana: i-it's fine, really! ^///^;; Poe: "...You look red." lana: *squeaks out* must be the hay fever! i mean the weather! i mean-... i may need to lay down. .///////////.;;; Poe: !!! "Oh no! Why didn't you say so earlier?! Please, let's take you to the couch..." lana: um... .//////. Poe: *takes her hand, rests another hand on her shoulder as he guides her* "I have you...I won't let you fall." lana:....*gulp* ./////////////////////////////////////////. Poe: *leads her to the couch* "Now lie down..." lana:....*laying down, bright pink in the face* t-th-thank you...edgar.... .///////////////. Poe: ^\\\\^ "An-An-Any time, Lana...I-I'll get you a compress?" lana:...s-sure... .///////. Poe: "Coming right up!" *departs for the kitchen...he left his coat next to the couch* lana:....*shivering* c-chilly.... *pulls his coat over her like a blanket*.... u/////u Poe: *returns with the compress* "I'm back!" *sees her* o\\\w\\\o;;;; lana:...... *bright pink in the face and steam coming of her head*......uuuum......i can explain? Poe: "...I'd like to hear it." lana: w-well, i got a bit chilly, w-with the autumn weather and y-your coat was there so...um... .///////////. Poe: "..." *nod nod* "I...could get you a blanket?" lana:...i-if you want.... 7///7 (thinking: i cant just say 'no, i like the way it smells' I'LL SOUND WEIRD!) Poe: *removes one from the closet* "...I was thinking..." lana: hmm? Poe: "I...feel cold." owo;;;; ("WHY ARE WORDS ESCAPING MY MOUTH?!") lana:....did you want to sit next to me then and keep each other warm? OwO;;; (thinking: OH GOD KILL ME NOW) Poe: "And share the blanket?" owo;;;;;;;;;; ("ARG!!!! ASDKLJASDFLKJASOIUSLAJDG!!!") lana: sounds gre-ah-*COUGHING*....*squeak* yeah Poe: "..." *sits beside her, awkwardly holding part of the blanket to her* lana:....*softly leaning against him* .////////. Poe: .\\\\. "..." *pats her shoulder--the one nearest him* lana:....so.... Poe: o\\\\o "Y-Yeah?" lana:....you ok? Poe: "Better now!" lana:..y-yeah....me too....*small smile* 7///7 Poe: "I-I-I'm glad you visited." lana: y-yeah...me too.....you know....your hands may be freezing.....but the rest of you is nice and warm.... Poe: o\\\\o "No one has ever said that before." lana: w-was that weird? ^^;;; Poe: "...It felt...comforting." ^^ lana:... *blush and leans into his chest*... .//////. Poe: o\\\\o "Wh-What are you...?" lana:......*listening to his heartbeats*....mmmm... Poe: "Wh-what is it?" lana:...just...comfortable. Poe: o\\\o "...Did you hear my heartbeat?" lana:... 7////7 y-yeah... Poe: "...It's really fast isn't it?" lana: yeah...s-same here. Poe: "...I-I-I like being with you, Lana." lana:...i-i like...being with you too.... Poe: "..." *smiles* "Thank you..." lana:.... ^^ *laying against him, content* (thinking: baby steps lana, just take it a day at a time...) Poe: o\\\\o *holds her carefully* ("SCREAMING INTERNALLY") -elsewhere- Akitaru: *tossing sound-orb up in the air* karin: *working on her mech* Akitaru: Comin' along good, doc." karin: ^^ Akitaru: "How tall can this robot get?" -elsewhere- Meme: "SMASH THEM!" mio: UWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! *pressing buttons like crazy* tsugumi: woah, she's really getting into it! Anya: "She's...certainly energetic." ._.; Meme: *Mio! Mio! Mio!" ao: my my. mio: *fire in her eyes* layla: this is probably the most effort i've ever seen from her. chidori: so intense. rowena: hmm? Meme: "She'll get the top score--just watch!" -elsewhere- Sakuya: "...Boo." mahiru: WOAH! sakuya jeez... naho: OuO kuro: oh look, it's the green yandere and the fujoshi-pire Sakuya: "what? it's hilarious watching you get the crap scared out of you, Mahiru." mahiru: =n=; naho: *not even watching the movie, she's totally focused on mahiru and sakuya* o///w///o Sakuya: "So, Mahiru, you got any soda left?" *takes Mahiru's and sips from it* mahiru: yes, but that doesnt mean you can mooch. bad sakuya. naho: OwO (thinking: INDIRECT KISS OH MY GOOOOOSH >w<) Sakuya: "D'aw, what's wrong? Don't want to share?" *takes another sip* mahiru: cant you buy your own? naho: O///////////w///////////O Sakuya: "I could...but this is hilarious!" *sips more* mahiru: =n= naho, could you keep your boyfriend on a shorter leash? naho: ^^ mahiru:....*remembering who he is asking*.....*looks at sakuya* are you messing with me just because or for your girlfriend? Sakuya: -_-; "I'm behaved. Mostly." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *in fox form, playing with a squeaky toy* reimi: ^^ Mr. Tsubaki: *shakes the toy before tossing it* "...Did you want to play with it?" -elsewhere- Gopher: *curled up in a ball* eibon: *making some medicine* inori: are you feeling any better? Gopher: TT^TT "Tummy ache persists..." kotone: D8> dont....die brother.... Gopher: Q^Q *reaches for Kotone's hand* kotone: *holding it tightly* Gopher: "I-I'll be fine." *weak smile* "Just a tummy ache..." -elsewhere- Kid: *writing notes down* stocking:.....*grin* Kid: *not noticing* stocking: *waiting for him to pause.....then nibbles on his earlobe* Kid: *shudders, sits up* >\\\\\\o "A-Ah~" stocking: *whispers* so cute~ Kid: >\\\\< "Stocking..." stocking: hehe~<3 Kid: *blushes* "You only get more affectionate each day..." *holds her hand* "And I fall in love with you more and more." stocking: same here kiddo~<3 Kid: *small smooch* stocking: ^^ Kid: *holds her hands* "I'm done for now..." stocking: *smile* Kid: "How was your day?" -elsewhere- keek:...*coming to* nngh....nghuh? what the.....w-where the fuck... barkova: *snarling* keek: AH!! *backing up to the wall* FD: "I do apologize. Barkova gets agitated around strangers." keek: w-w-WHERE AM I AND WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! WHY AM I NOT IN MY ROOM!? FD: "I wanted to recruit you. Isn't that lovely?" keek: w-what? I DONT EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE!...what's beeping? -there is a collar around her neck- keek:....what is that? FD: "A bomb." keek: w-w-what?!?! FD: "I will need your services." keek: WHY ME?! WHY A BOMB?! Q_Q FD: "So that you don't tell..." keek: *trembling, tears falling* FD: "Now...What do you know about me?" keek:..... FD: "What have you heard about Rats?" keek: ....the rats in the house of the dead. lead by a man known as 'fyodor dostoevsky'. a group of notorious thieves and killers. their leader's ability, crime and punishment, can- FD: "Shhh...Don't say another word. Please." keek:........ FD: "I can't have you naming this ability...and you won't." keek:....*gulp* o-o;;;;;; FD: "Or else you’ll… lose your head~." keek: w-w-what do you want out of me? do you want me to beg for my life? FD: "To start." keek:....*on her hands and knees with her face on the ground* PLEASE DONT KILL ME! I DONT WANT TO DIE! I'LL DO WHAT YOU WANT OF ME JUST DONT BLOW MY HEAD OFF! *KICK* keek: GRK- *collapses* ow...w-what the heck....im begging for my life! what more do you want out of me? do you want me to give you some title? fyodor the great? master fyodor?.....fyo-daddy? zoey: *glares at keek* IM THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO CALL HIM MASTER FYODOR YOU WRETCH! keek: w-who the fuck? FD: "It is alright..." *pats Zoey's shoulder, before looking at Keek* "Names are not necessary, for now. I simply demand your obedience until my plans for you conclude." keek: o-ok! i'll comply! FD: *smiles* "Very good. My associate will debrief to learn what you know..." keek:....... yana: *pats her shoulder* welcome to hell, kid. keek: Q____Q FD: "Get what you need, Yana--and leave them in condition to return." zoey: ...... FD: "...Oh, don't be jealous." zoey: *hugs his arm* ...... FD: "..." *pats her head* zoey: *blush* FD: "You can play with the new toy soon. But right now we need something from them..." zoey: of course, master fyodor~ FD: "Good. And if you behave, you will be rewarded." zoey: ah~<3 FD: "Now, did you finish the tasks I gave you?" zoey: *nod* FD: "Very good. You may take a break now..." -elsewhere- Hyde: "Rude!" licht: -_-; Hyde: "Taking the last soda....Meanie." licht: kranz went to the store to get more, you arent going to die. Hyde: "...Well, I'm already a vampire, so--" julian: i can offer you canned coffee. Hyde: "...I was hoping for something sweeter." romina: ya'll want some fruit punch? Hyde: owO "Yes!" licht: melon punch. Hyde: "...Okay, sure." -elsewhere- lana: *streeetch* that was a good nap... Poe: "Zzz..." lana:....(thinking: holy shit. im in love with him. i havent felt this way about anyone since junior year of high school...)..... *blush and leans against him* Poe: *small stirring* lana:....*pretending to be asleep* Poe: *yawns, grunts slightly, eyes barely opened* lana: ... Poe: =_= *looks around...then spots Lana* ._. lana: zzzzz.... Poe: D: *barely audible squeak* lana: *softly breathing* Poe: ("She's so cute when she sleeps and her breathing is like a gentle breeze along the ocean--but I am totally mad right now with the fiery passions of lovey-dovey-love-stuff and scared half-to-death!!!") lana: *listening to his heart beating* (thinking: is he that flustered? i guess its comforting im not the only one who’s nervous, haha...) Poe: ("Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!") *suave, soft voice* "Lana?" lana: O////O IM UP IM UP I WASNT SLEEPING ON THE JOB!....oh.. *AHEM* ^^;; Poe: D: "I-I-I just...Sleeping. You. Here. Sorry." lana i-i-it's fine, really. Poe: o\\\\o "...Do you feel rested?" lana:.... *blush* yeah. Poe: "...So...Muffins!" lana: sure. sounds nice. *sitting up, her hand brushing against his for a moment* Poe: *happy shiver* o\\\\w\\\\o;;;;;;;;; lana:..... .//////. Poe: "...CRANBERRIES!" *falls off the couch* lana: edgar are you ok? *helping him up* Poe: "J-Just overwhelmed...with muffin recipes on my mind." owo;;; "Blueberry. Pumpkin. Carrot..." lana:...i see. *looking at one of his eyes that is peaking through his bangs*... .///. Poe: *blink blink* "???" lana:... *blink* w-was i saying something just now? Poe: "...Not that I noticed." lana: ah...right... *leaning in, unaware of what she's doing* Poe: o\\\\\\\o *frozen* -their lips are only an inch apart- lana:.... O//////O oh! um.... .//////. er.... Poe: "L-Lana...?" lana: hmm? y-yes? o///w///o;; Poe: "Your lips are near mine." lana: *sitting back up* *AHEM* .... >////> oh. s-sorry. Poe: >\\\\\< "N-No need to ap-apo-apologize..." -later- lana: see you later then? Poe: owo "Not if I see you first. Ha ha ha ha!!" o\\\w\\\o lana: *small chuckle*....hey edgar? Poe: "Y-Yes?" lana: 7////7 im not sure how often you hear this, but....*kisses his cheek* you're quite handsome. Poe: o\\\\\\\\o "Wh-What you just do? Wait, who's handsome? Wha-What?!" lana:... ^^ *hug and kisses the other cheek* s-see ya! *runs, bright red in the face* >////////< Poe: o\\\\\\\\\\\o "...Karl, please hold all of my calls. I have to collapse now." *falls back rigidly onto the ground* karl: O-O; Poe: xwx -elsewhere- Anya: *sorting mail* rowena: *reading letters* ^^ Anya: "??? You seem pleased." rowena: seems my parents and brother are doing well. Anya: "Oh. But you see your brother all the time..." rowena: oh, i mean our other brother back home. Anya: "??? You have another one?" rowena: *nods* edgar is actually the middle sibling. Anya: "Oh. An older brother?" rowena: *nods* Anya: "Hmm. What does he do?" -elsewhere- Higan: "Food ready yet?" tsubaki: just about. Belkia: "Starving..." -elsewhere- Akitaru: "You don't have to go on this mission. I mean, Tamaki, if you don't feel comfortable--" tamaki: i want to go. im a soldier too, darn it! Akitaru: "..." *smiles* "Then follow this order: you're joining us in the Nether." tamaki:...right. (thinking: i'll make up for all my follies here. for me, for the others....) *remembering amber and rekka* (thinking:...for them.) Akitaru: *salutes* "Dismissed." tamaki: ....*inhales* ....*sighs* ok. starting now. im not gonna be the same ditz i used to be! *slips and faceplants onto the floor*.... ok. starting _now_. Takehisa: "...I was mopping there. Did you not see the sign?" shinra: on the bright side, she isnt losing her clothes this time. tamaki: I WILL END YOU, KUSAKABE! -elsewhere- Giovanni: "Approach." guruna: kurukuru~ lisa:.... irina: ... Giovanni: "..." *takes Lisa's chin in his hand* lisa: *tenses* Giovanni: "Will you follow my orders?" -elsewhere- Hibana: *sipping her wine* "...This chair is uncomfortable." man: TT_TT hanako: *in her play pen, coloring* gabriella: ^^; Rino: o_o;;; "...What the--" *spots Hanako* "...What on earth is with her and that 'chair'?" man: save me TT_TT mikami: ^^; the 5th sure is interesting... ryuuko: *holding mikami close* i'll protect you from this lechery. Hibana: ^^# " 'Lechery'...?" ryuuko:... 7-7;;; mikami: ^^;;; -elsewhere- Lucy: *sighs, sits down at table* "Can finally have a meal..." *has a plate of fries* anne: ^u^ Lucy: *smiles back at Anne, as she puts some ketchup on them* "Not the healthiest choice..." *bites into burger* "But so good..." -knocks- Lucy: *mouth full of burger* "???" *wipes her mouth, looks through peephole* atsushi: *waves* Lucy: o\\\\o *opens the door a crack* "H-Hey, Tabby..." atsushi: sorry to interrupt your lunch. just checking to see how you were doing. Lucy: *still wiping ketchup from her mouth* "F-Fine..." -///- *opens the door, gestures* "Come in, or whatever..." atsushi: *smiles and enters* Lucy: "...You, um, want something to drink or eat? I got fries..." atsushi: sure. ^^ Lucy: *gets a can of soda* "...I'm...glad you stopped by." atsushi: ..... soooo, the death bazaar is coming up soon. Lucy: "??? That flea market?" atsushi: yeah. i was wondering. i-if you have the free time, maybe we could...go? Lucy: "..." .\\\. "A date?" atsushi: ....yyyeeeesss? O///w///O;; Lucy: "..." *pouts, blushing* "Y-You better buy me something good while we're there..." atsushi: sure thing! ^////^; Lucy: ^\\\^ "Then it's a date...Atsushi." atsushi: O/////////////o s-s-see you then lucy! yana: oho, seems the weretiger scored himself a date....but that's none of my business~ Lucy: "..." *smooch* atsushi: O//////////////////////////////////////////O *steam coming off his head* yana:...huh, well that escalated. Lucy: "...Don't make me pour that soda over your head." -_-; -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *reading a book* Q_____Q fang-hua: tsukiyo? is everything ok? Tsukiyo: "I found this book about...the Nether..." fang-hua: ?? i've heard the commander mention something about it once... Tsukiyo: "It's scary...Like, one of the stories is about how there is no light..." fang-hua: *listening* Tsukiyo: "They sent an expedition...only one returned...blind." Q~Q fang-hua:....*hug* Tsukiyo: *shudder...pat pat* -elsewhere- Karim: "How you feeling?" pearl:...b-better now...thank you, father fulham. Karim: *nods* "Want more tea?" pearl:...i would like that. Karim: *pours some* "...I can't imagine what it was like..." pearl:....im trying my best, to be strong. but it's hard some days... Karim: "We all go through that...and it's just about persistence." pearl:...r-right. Karim: "Need some time off?" -elsewhere- Dazai: "Pogo stick!" yosano: i have concerns. ranpo:...bruh kenji: ooooh, neato! Dazai: "Who wants to try it first?" ranpo: hey kunikida, i'll pay you 5 dollars to- Kunikida: "No. Not for less than $10." ranpo: $15? Kunikida: "Give me the stick for pogoing." yosano: i'll be on standby. Kunikida: *gets on the pogo stick and--* -elsewhere- Patty: "I DIDN'T NEED TO SEE THAT!" lord death: >///-///> liz: well now we're all even… Yumi: "CAN NO ONE KNOCK?!" liz: so sorry. -elsewhere- Emine: *sitting in the trash can* lin: D8 Emine: "I feel comfortable." -elsewhere- Meme: *playing a video game* -elsewhere- Izuku: *walking to corner store* satsuki: *staaare* Izuku: "???" *looks around* satsuki: *blink* Izuku: *spots her* "?!!! Wait...Are you Tsu's sister?" satsuki: *nod* are you tsu's boyfriend? Izuku: o\\\\\\o "Um...I'm a boy, and a friend." tsuyu: oh, hey izuku. *wave* Izuku: "H-H-Hi...I was just surprised to see your sister here." tsuyu: we're just out running errands. you? Izuku: "Same...and I wanted a snack." ^^; -elsewhere- Chuuya: *showering* “…..” *tears streaming* -knock- Chuuya: "???" *turns off the water, puts on his towel, looks at the peephole* kouyou: ... Chuuya: *calls through* "Hang on--I just got out of the shower..." *steps back to his room, dries off, puts on a shirt and pajama pants before opening the door* kouyou: feeling better? Chuuya: "...No." kouyou:.... naoya: eeeeyyy we came over too! *waves* Akutagawa: "..." Chuuya: *glares at Akutagawa* naoya: i brought booze! *holding up a beer can* Akutagawa: owo; *hides behind orange juice* kouyou: *sweatdrop* Chuuya: "...I'll get glasses..." -and so- naoya: *plastered* hoo yeah that's good shit! >///u///< kouyou: *asleep on the couch* Chuuya: Q~Q "It hurts so much..." Akutagawa: TT____TT naoya: aww c'mon chuuchuu, ya had one shot'a bourbon. Chuuya: "It's not the bourbon that hurts!" T~T naoya: nyeh? Chuuya: *sniff* "This bastard killed her..." Akutagawa: "?!!" naoya:.....oh.....*looks at akutagawa* you want to talk to him or should i? Akutagawa: "...I think he'll kill the next person who speaks to him. You talk to him." naoya: jeez akuta, where's the trust? Akutagawa: "...Fine...Chuuya, do you know why Rain was there?" Chuuya: *cringes* ("H-He knows?!") Akutagawa: "To take down Fitzgerald." Chuuya: "...Eh?" naoya: *already got up to give them a moment* Akutagawa: "She came onto that ship, intending to be the one to sacrifice herself to drag Fitzgerald down with her, pulling him to the ground..." {rain: my name is.......mito kosaka} Akutagawa: "I remember before she leapt from the ship, she said a name..." Chuuya: "...What name?" Akutagawa: "...Mito Kosaka." Chuuya: "..." *falls back in his seat* *tears falling* naoya:.... Akutagawa: "I don't know why she would--" Chuuya: "She...was killing herself..." Akutagawa: "???" Chuuya: "..." *ugly sobbing* Akutagawa: "...I made things worse." {bakeneko:.... i t...... h u r t s.....} Chuuya: "Why did she have to suffer?!" *slams his fist on the table* naoya: woah there, easy now... Chuuya: "Everything! Everything!" kouyou:..... chuuya... *The glass is starting to rise from the table* naoya: chuuya calm the fuck down! Chuuya: *flips the table* -SLAP- kouyou:....*serious face, tears streaming* Chuuya: *knocked to the floor* "..." *curls up into a ball* kouyou:....*soft hug*...... Chuuya: *shaking, sobbing--holds onto her* Akutagawa: "..." naoya: ...... kouyou: *humming* Chuuya: *closes his eyes, still shaking* -later- Chuuya: *asleep* Akutagawa: "...I'm sorry." kouyou: ...... naoya: did you know it was her? that beast? Akutagawa: "...I had a feeling." naoya:....maybe when he gets up, you can talk to him about it. before this whole incident, he considered you a friend. i think part of him still wants to... Akutagawa: "...'Friend'?" naoya: *she nods*.....i consider you a friend too. Akutagawa: "...Why?" naoya: me or chuu? Akutagawa: "Well, you, since I can't ask him--he's asleep." naoya: well, we do work together, dont we? plus you seem lonely. just thought i'd help you get out more. Akutagawa: "...I am just...rejected." naoya:.....is this about the weretiger? Akutagawa: TT~TT *nod nod* naoya:....that's rough, buddy. Akutagawa: "He's with some string bean with a bad attitude..." naoya: ?? Akutagawa: "I want to destroy her..." naoya: woah ok lets back it up a bit there. Akutagawa: "I will keep her head on my mantle..." naoya: O-O;;; Akutagawa: "Then I will stand over that tiger..." naoya: *backing up slightly* Akutagawa: "And I will be his lord..." *sneers* -elsewhere- atsushi: O.O why do i have this sudden feeling of dread? Lucy: -_-;; "What, you don't enjoy my company?" atsushi: t-that's not what i meant at all! it's just...n-nevermind, it was just a sudden chill. ^^;; Lucy: "...Maybe put on a sweater?" atsushi: good call. -elsewhere- ???:....oe......hey poe buddy? you ok? Poe: owo ranpo: oh hey, you're up. Poe: O_______O "HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!" ranpo: one of your ghost roomies told me you clonked out. im just makin sure you arent dead or something. Poe: ._.;;; "...Are you an angel, then?" ranpo: you arent dead, dude. otherwise your sis would kill me. i think. Poe: .______. "How long was I unconscious?" ghost maid: about 2 hours after miss lana left. ranpo: oh, so your girlfriend visited? *puts on glasses*.... ooooooooh i see. 7w7 Poe: D:< "THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED?!" *looks at the clock* "...I hope I didn't miss anything I was supposed to do in those two hours..." ranpo: i wasnt implying sex, but i do know she smooched ya on the cheek, i can see the lip balm on your cheek. im not gonna judge, dont worry. Poe: O\\\\\o "IT WASN'T A DREAM?! OR A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM?!" ghost child: nope. ghost child 2: she even called you handsome, hehe. Poe: o\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\O *head gets hotter* ranpo:....*squints*..... eh, 4/10. Poe: "I NEED TO BE ALONE!" *runs* ranpo:....eh, he'll be fine....ish. -in his room- Poe: *hugging a pillow* o\\\\\\o {lana: 7////7 im not sure how often you hear this, but....*kisses his cheek* you're quite handsome.} {Poe: o\\\\\\o "...Almost no one has ever said that because they just say I look creepy--" *slaps his face* "...I was rambling. Sorry. I-I-I have long thought you were...beautiful."} {lana: *blushes and brushes his bangs back and leans in to kiss him*} {Poe: "!!!!" *pulls back...as her lips touch his* >\\\\\< } -elsewhere- Bakugo: *collapsed on the sidewalk, holding his knee* hanta: yeesh, what happened? Bakugo: "I fell off my bike!" hanta: you alright man? Bakugo: "I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT THIS IS DEKU'S FAULT!!!" -elsewhere- Kid: "..." *chuckling* stocking: what? Kid: "Just...how embarrassed Mother and Father were." stocking: yeah. Kid: *holds her hand* "And I'm happy you're here." stocking: hehe~ im happy you're here too~ *kiss* Kid: ^\\\^ "My wife..." stocking: ^////^ Kid: *small smooch* stocking: mmmm~ my cute hubby~<3 Kid: .\\\\. "Am I really 'cute'?" stocking: *nods* cute, handsome.....*licks his earlobe* sexy~ Kid: O\\\\\O *shivers* "Oh man..." *pats her side* stocking: *smirks and pins him to the bed* Kid: *mouth hung open* "Oh my..." .\\\. stocking: *traces a finger up his chest and to his chin* your move, honey~<3 Kid: "Oh~?" *his legs intertwined with hers, as he puts his lips to hers* stocking: mmm~<3 Kid: *kisses from her lips to her cheek, pulling her legs down with his* -elsewhere- kirako: aaah... u////u *small shudder* Dazai: *smiles* "More?" kirako: oh fuck, yes. Dazai: *one hand massages her wrist* "My, my, such language...Do I have to punish you?" *he brings her hand down to her sex* kirako: *moan* Dazai: *whispers in her ear* "Slide it in..." *he guides one of her fingers along her folds* kirako: *already doing so* nnngh~ u///T Dazai: "You're a naughty girl, aren't you?" *let's her play with herself, before he licks one of her nipples* -elsewhere- Kyoka: *stare* atsushi: *wide awake* o-o;;;; Kyoka: "Has the doll girl corrupted you yet?" atsushi: no, lucy isnt 'corrupting' me. ^^; although i get the feeling of being watched. yana: ohoho you have no idea. keek: Q-Q Kyoka: "Yes. I know. I am staring at you right now." atsushi: not like that...like someone is stalking me...watching me without me knowing where they are.... Kyoka: "...That just sounds like Akutagawa." atsushi: Q-Q;; Kyoka: "...Maybe invest in black-out curtains?" *it is shadowy and dark outside* atsushi: probably. Kyoka: *closes the curtains* Akutagawa: Q____Q kirako: AHHH~! Akutagawa: "?!!!! What the devil was that?" *sends his Rashamon up to that window--* Akutagawa: “…………..” Dazai: "So good!" kirako: *moans* yana:... as if i dont hear enough of that as it is. zoey: AHHHHH~!<3 keek: O_O;;; w-what was- yana: you dont wanna know. FD: "Take it deeper…" keek: O____o ?!?! Q~Q (thinking: god save me)

[lindasharonbn]

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

We’re thrilled to announce that CRO expert Karl Gilis will be speaking at YoastCon on November 2! Karl Gilis from AGConsult is one of the most influential usability and conversion optimization specialists in the world, and our personal go-to-guy if we need advice on these matters for Yoast.com. We’ve asked him 5 questions, or actually 6, to warm you up for his talk on YoastCon. Read on if you want to find out which trends annoy Karl the most and what the most unexpected improvement was he ever saw on a website.

Don’t want to miss the ‘conversion comedian’ on stage? Get your ticket now for YoastCon 2017!

AGConsult is specialized in optimizing website conversion and usability. If you could give people only one advice to improve their site’s conversion, what would it be?

That’s a very easy question to start with :-) No, it’s an incredible difficult one. On a more generic level I would say: listen to your clients and visitors.

What words are they using?

What questions do they have?

What do they really like about your product or service?

How did it help to make their life better / easier / …?

Use these insights to rewrite your copy. Because your copy is probably written from your point of view: you talk about what you think is important. Don’t do that. Focus on what your clients think and say. Use their words. Don’t sell the way you want to sell, sell the way people want to buy.

If you want a more practical hands-on tip, I would say: get rid of all the clutter. Print a typical and important page from your website, such as a product detail page or your order form. Take a red marker and draw a big red cross on all the things that you make you wonder ‘Why is that here, isn’t this a distraction from my main message’? Remove all those things.

Less clutter will result in:

Faster loading times, especially when you have lots of fluffy stuff or stock photos that don’t add to your message.

A cleaner look. And yes: the less elements you have, the clearer your message will be. 
A great example of this is the top part of the homepage of Airbnb, especially now they finally removed the sliders and the video background.

More room to add things that will result in more sales. Things like social proof or a sense of urgency.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

Scientific evidence is what drives you. Do you have an example where your research wiped the floor with design trends and hypes?

Don’t get me started about design trends and hypes. Most of them don’t increase sales or conversions. They only help design agencies and designers make more money. When a design change is not driven by a business or user need, it’s a big gamble to change something.

3 examples:

Sliders with different messages They’re part of almost every theme for WordPress and other platforms, because they’re fun to make and beautiful to look at. But they don’t convert.
Your website is not a piece of art. It’s a tool. A sales tool.
 When we removed the slider on the Suzuki homepage and showed 2 static images instead, this resulted in 55% more clicks in the same screen real estate.

Flat design and ghost buttons A few years ago designers decided that buttons shouldn’t look like buttons anymore. They introduced so-called ghost buttons. Where a button is just a square line around some words. So it’s more inline with the design and it doesn’t attract attention.
 Excuse me: your call-to-action should attract attention. That’s what it’s there for!
 What we’ve seen is when a site went from a normal button to a ghost button, the number of clicks on non-clickable elements increased with 600%. Because users had no clue where to click.

Video background They’re the new Flash and the new sliders rolled into one. So please avoid them.
 A moving background is always a distraction from your message. And visitors should focus on your message. 
We’ve done several tests where we replaced a video-background with a static background and saw an uplift. 
It’s no coincidence even AirBnB ditched their video background for -euhm- nothing. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with a white background.

As a consultant you must have seen changes on dozens of websites over the years. What was the most unexpected improvement that you’ve ever seen happen on a website?

Another difficult one. What probably surprises me the most is that I’m still often surprised. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned thanks to AB-testing. There are always exceptions to the rules and guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: there are best practices. But they do not always work on every website.

When you’re asking for a specific case, I think of the shopping cart of an online shop selling watches and sunglasses. We took away all friction, made delivery time and shipping costs extra clear and everything that is in the classical usability book. But the results were still disappointing.

Then we added the message ‘You’ve made an excellent choice’. And whoppa: sales went up by a huge margin. Why? Because we supported the user in his choice. We took away their biggest fear: will this watch or sunglass suit me? So, don’t only focus on taking away the imperfections of your site. Give compliments too!

Your specialization is conversion and usability, ours is SEO. Do you feel these two are interconnected, or would you rather see them as two separate areas?

They are interconnected. And more people need to realize that. On a generic level this is pretty obvious. When you attract lots of people to your site but they don’t do anything (buy, subscribe, …), you’ll be out of business soon. When you have a website that converts like crazy but you don’t have any visitors, you have a problem too.

But also on a deeper level SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are very connected. When we do AB-tests the big changes almost always come from changes in words. And I’m not talking about random changes, but using the right words that tickle the human brain. As I said earlier: if you use the same words as your clients, they’ll have the feeling you understand them. When you relate to their problems, dreams and hopes, they will more likely convert than when you use corporate lingo and only talk about features. And I guess your readers know that those things are also important for SEO. Use the same word as your audience.

In all these years I’ve never had big conflicts with good SEO specialists. I only have fights with black hat SEO people or those who use the old tricks that don’t work anymore (keyword stuffing, anyone?). Never forget: you’re optimizing for people. Not only for Google. And not for the sake of usability as such either. You’re optimizing your website for your audience.

Failure is an important part of finding out how to make things work in the best possible way. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for any of the big brands you’ve worked for?

Most big brands are afraid of failure. They don’t want to take risks. But that means you’ll reach a status quo. You have to take calculated risks. Based on user research and past experience you identify the weak points of site of page. And then you start making changes.

Small changes will mostly result in small results. Big, bold changes will result in big changes. Hopefully an uplift, but sometimes a drop in sales. But that’s why you test. And you learn something from those failures. What we often see is that our 2nd or 3rd test after a big failure, results in a big winner. And if you implement that winner, the gains of that will be so much bigger than that temporarily loss in sales or leads during the test. Big (and smaller) brands who understand this, will often choose to test more. And the more you test, the more you learn, and the more winners you’ll have.

Conversion optimization is not a project. Not something you do once. It’s a continuous process. And when you keep doing it, it will result in big wins. 
Just as it is with SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

We assume this interview has convinced people to go see your talk at YoastCon on November 2! In the unlikely case someone is still in doubt, what’s the main reason they shouldn’t miss your talk?

Who am I to answer why people need to see me? If you insist, I think there are 3 reasons: · My talk will be full of practical hands-on tips. Little tricks you can apply yourself and will result in more sales and conversions. · There’s also a more strategic layer that focuses on techniques and methods that you can also apply yourself. · You will laugh a lot. People call me the conversion comedian and I do my best to put a smile on everybody’s face.

Read more: ‘YoastCon 2017: Practical SEO’ »

http://ift.tt/2qrImbh

[evanstheodoredqe]

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

We’re thrilled to announce that CRO expert Karl Gilis will be speaking at YoastCon on November 2! Karl Gilis from AGConsult is one of the most influential usability and conversion optimization specialists in the world, and our personal go-to-guy if we need advice on these matters for Yoast.com. We’ve asked him 5 questions, or actually 6, to warm you up for his talk on YoastCon. Read on if you want to find out which trends annoy Karl the most and what the most unexpected improvement was he ever saw on a website.

Don’t want to miss the ‘conversion comedian’ on stage? Get your ticket now for YoastCon 2017!

AGConsult is specialized in optimizing website conversion and usability. If you could give people only one advice to improve their site’s conversion, what would it be?

That’s a very easy question to start with :-) No, it’s an incredible difficult one. On a more generic level I would say: listen to your clients and visitors.

What words are they using?

What questions do they have?

What do they really like about your product or service?

How did it help to make their life better / easier / …?

Use these insights to rewrite your copy. Because your copy is probably written from your point of view: you talk about what you think is important. Don’t do that. Focus on what your clients think and say. Use their words. Don’t sell the way you want to sell, sell the way people want to buy.

If you want a more practical hands-on tip, I would say: get rid of all the clutter. Print a typical and important page from your website, such as a product detail page or your order form. Take a red marker and draw a big red cross on all the things that you make you wonder ‘Why is that here, isn’t this a distraction from my main message’? Remove all those things.

Less clutter will result in:

Faster loading times, especially when you have lots of fluffy stuff or stock photos that don’t add to your message.

A cleaner look. And yes: the less elements you have, the clearer your message will be. 
A great example of this is the top part of the homepage of Airbnb, especially now they finally removed the sliders and the video background.

More room to add things that will result in more sales. Things like social proof or a sense of urgency.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

Scientific evidence is what drives you. Do you have an example where your research wiped the floor with design trends and hypes?

Don’t get me started about design trends and hypes. Most of them don’t increase sales or conversions. They only help design agencies and designers make more money. When a design change is not driven by a business or user need, it’s a big gamble to change something.

3 examples:

Sliders with different messages They’re part of almost every theme for WordPress and other platforms, because they’re fun to make and beautiful to look at. But they don’t convert.
Your website is not a piece of art. It’s a tool. A sales tool.
 When we removed the slider on the Suzuki homepage and showed 2 static images instead, this resulted in 55% more clicks in the same screen real estate.

Flat design and ghost buttons A few years ago designers decided that buttons shouldn’t look like buttons anymore. They introduced so-called ghost buttons. Where a button is just a square line around some words. So it’s more inline with the design and it doesn’t attract attention.
 Excuse me: your call-to-action should attract attention. That’s what it’s there for!
 What we’ve seen is when a site went from a normal button to a ghost button, the number of clicks on non-clickable elements increased with 600%. Because users had no clue where to click.

Video background They’re the new Flash and the new sliders rolled into one. So please avoid them.
 A moving background is always a distraction from your message. And visitors should focus on your message. 
We’ve done several tests where we replaced a video-background with a static background and saw an uplift. 
It’s no coincidence even AirBnB ditched their video background for -euhm- nothing. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with a white background.

As a consultant you must have seen changes on dozens of websites over the years. What was the most unexpected improvement that you’ve ever seen happen on a website?

Another difficult one. What probably surprises me the most is that I’m still often surprised. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned thanks to AB-testing. There are always exceptions to the rules and guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: there are best practices. But they do not always work on every website.

When you’re asking for a specific case, I think of the shopping cart of an online shop selling watches and sunglasses. We took away all friction, made delivery time and shipping costs extra clear and everything that is in the classical usability book. But the results were still disappointing.

Then we added the message ‘You’ve made an excellent choice’. And whoppa: sales went up by a huge margin. Why? Because we supported the user in his choice. We took away their biggest fear: will this watch or sunglass suit me? So, don’t only focus on taking away the imperfections of your site. Give compliments too!

Your specialization is conversion and usability, ours is SEO. Do you feel these two are interconnected, or would you rather see them as two separate areas?

They are interconnected. And more people need to realize that. On a generic level this is pretty obvious. When you attract lots of people to your site but they don’t do anything (buy, subscribe, …), you’ll be out of business soon. When you have a website that converts like crazy but you don’t have any visitors, you have a problem too.

But also on a deeper level SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are very connected. When we do AB-tests the big changes almost always come from changes in words. And I’m not talking about random changes, but using the right words that tickle the human brain. As I said earlier: if you use the same words as your clients, they’ll have the feeling you understand them. When you relate to their problems, dreams and hopes, they will more likely convert than when you use corporate lingo and only talk about features. And I guess your readers know that those things are also important for SEO. Use the same word as your audience.

In all these years I’ve never had big conflicts with good SEO specialists. I only have fights with black hat SEO people or those who use the old tricks that don’t work anymore (keyword stuffing, anyone?). Never forget: you’re optimizing for people. Not only for Google. And not for the sake of usability as such either. You’re optimizing your website for your audience.

Failure is an important part of finding out how to make things work in the best possible way. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for any of the big brands you’ve worked for?

Most big brands are afraid of failure. They don’t want to take risks. But that means you’ll reach a status quo. You have to take calculated risks. Based on user research and past experience you identify the weak points of site of page. And then you start making changes.

Small changes will mostly result in small results. Big, bold changes will result in big changes. Hopefully an uplift, but sometimes a drop in sales. But that’s why you test. And you learn something from those failures. What we often see is that our 2nd or 3rd test after a big failure, results in a big winner. And if you implement that winner, the gains of that will be so much bigger than that temporarily loss in sales or leads during the test. Big (and smaller) brands who understand this, will often choose to test more. And the more you test, the more you learn, and the more winners you’ll have.

Conversion optimization is not a project. Not something you do once. It’s a continuous process. And when you keep doing it, it will result in big wins. 
Just as it is with SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

We assume this interview has convinced people to go see your talk at YoastCon on November 2! In the unlikely case someone is still in doubt, what’s the main reason they shouldn’t miss your talk?

Who am I to answer why people need to see me? If you insist, I think there are 3 reasons: · My talk will be full of practical hands-on tips. Little tricks you can apply yourself and will result in more sales and conversions. · There’s also a more strategic layer that focuses on techniques and methods that you can also apply yourself. · You will laugh a lot. People call me the conversion comedian and I do my best to put a smile on everybody’s face.

Read more: ‘YoastCon 2017: Practical SEO’ »

http://ift.tt/2qrImbh

[lindasharonbn1]

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

We’re thrilled to announce that CRO expert Karl Gilis will be speaking at YoastCon on November 2! Karl Gilis from AGConsult is one of the most influential usability and conversion optimization specialists in the world, and our personal go-to-guy if we need advice on these matters for Yoast.com. We’ve asked him 5 questions, or actually 6, to warm you up for his talk on YoastCon. Read on if you want to find out which trends annoy Karl the most and what the most unexpected improvement was he ever saw on a website.

Don’t want to miss the ‘conversion comedian’ on stage? Get your ticket now for YoastCon 2017!

AGConsult is specialized in optimizing website conversion and usability. If you could give people only one advice to improve their site’s conversion, what would it be?

That’s a very easy question to start with :-) No, it’s an incredible difficult one. On a more generic level I would say: listen to your clients and visitors.

What words are they using?

What questions do they have?

What do they really like about your product or service?

How did it help to make their life better / easier / …?

Use these insights to rewrite your copy. Because your copy is probably written from your point of view: you talk about what you think is important. Don’t do that. Focus on what your clients think and say. Use their words. Don’t sell the way you want to sell, sell the way people want to buy.

If you want a more practical hands-on tip, I would say: get rid of all the clutter. Print a typical and important page from your website, such as a product detail page or your order form. Take a red marker and draw a big red cross on all the things that you make you wonder ‘Why is that here, isn’t this a distraction from my main message’? Remove all those things.

Less clutter will result in:

Faster loading times, especially when you have lots of fluffy stuff or stock photos that don’t add to your message.

A cleaner look. And yes: the less elements you have, the clearer your message will be. 
A great example of this is the top part of the homepage of Airbnb, especially now they finally removed the sliders and the video background.

More room to add things that will result in more sales. Things like social proof or a sense of urgency.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

Scientific evidence is what drives you. Do you have an example where your research wiped the floor with design trends and hypes?

Don’t get me started about design trends and hypes. Most of them don’t increase sales or conversions. They only help design agencies and designers make more money. When a design change is not driven by a business or user need, it’s a big gamble to change something.

3 examples:

Sliders with different messages They’re part of almost every theme for WordPress and other platforms, because they’re fun to make and beautiful to look at. But they don’t convert.
Your website is not a piece of art. It’s a tool. A sales tool.
 When we removed the slider on the Suzuki homepage and showed 2 static images instead, this resulted in 55% more clicks in the same screen real estate.

Flat design and ghost buttons A few years ago designers decided that buttons shouldn’t look like buttons anymore. They introduced so-called ghost buttons. Where a button is just a square line around some words. So it’s more inline with the design and it doesn’t attract attention.
 Excuse me: your call-to-action should attract attention. That’s what it’s there for!
 What we’ve seen is when a site went from a normal button to a ghost button, the number of clicks on non-clickable elements increased with 600%. Because users had no clue where to click.

Video background They’re the new Flash and the new sliders rolled into one. So please avoid them.
 A moving background is always a distraction from your message. And visitors should focus on your message. 
We’ve done several tests where we replaced a video-background with a static background and saw an uplift. 
It’s no coincidence even AirBnB ditched their video background for -euhm- nothing. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with a white background.

As a consultant you must have seen changes on dozens of websites over the years. What was the most unexpected improvement that you’ve ever seen happen on a website?

Another difficult one. What probably surprises me the most is that I’m still often surprised. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned thanks to AB-testing. There are always exceptions to the rules and guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: there are best practices. But they do not always work on every website.

When you’re asking for a specific case, I think of the shopping cart of an online shop selling watches and sunglasses. We took away all friction, made delivery time and shipping costs extra clear and everything that is in the classical usability book. But the results were still disappointing.

Then we added the message ‘You’ve made an excellent choice’. And whoppa: sales went up by a huge margin. Why? Because we supported the user in his choice. We took away their biggest fear: will this watch or sunglass suit me? So, don’t only focus on taking away the imperfections of your site. Give compliments too!

Your specialization is conversion and usability, ours is SEO. Do you feel these two are interconnected, or would you rather see them as two separate areas?

They are interconnected. And more people need to realize that. On a generic level this is pretty obvious. When you attract lots of people to your site but they don’t do anything (buy, subscribe, …), you’ll be out of business soon. When you have a website that converts like crazy but you don’t have any visitors, you have a problem too.

But also on a deeper level SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are very connected. When we do AB-tests the big changes almost always come from changes in words. And I’m not talking about random changes, but using the right words that tickle the human brain. As I said earlier: if you use the same words as your clients, they’ll have the feeling you understand them. When you relate to their problems, dreams and hopes, they will more likely convert than when you use corporate lingo and only talk about features. And I guess your readers know that those things are also important for SEO. Use the same word as your audience.

In all these years I’ve never had big conflicts with good SEO specialists. I only have fights with black hat SEO people or those who use the old tricks that don’t work anymore (keyword stuffing, anyone?). Never forget: you’re optimizing for people. Not only for Google. And not for the sake of usability as such either. You’re optimizing your website for your audience.

Failure is an important part of finding out how to make things work in the best possible way. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for any of the big brands you’ve worked for?

Most big brands are afraid of failure. They don’t want to take risks. But that means you’ll reach a status quo. You have to take calculated risks. Based on user research and past experience you identify the weak points of site of page. And then you start making changes.

Small changes will mostly result in small results. Big, bold changes will result in big changes. Hopefully an uplift, but sometimes a drop in sales. But that’s why you test. And you learn something from those failures. What we often see is that our 2nd or 3rd test after a big failure, results in a big winner. And if you implement that winner, the gains of that will be so much bigger than that temporarily loss in sales or leads during the test. Big (and smaller) brands who understand this, will often choose to test more. And the more you test, the more you learn, and the more winners you’ll have.

Conversion optimization is not a project. Not something you do once. It’s a continuous process. And when you keep doing it, it will result in big wins. 
Just as it is with SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

We assume this interview has convinced people to go see your talk at YoastCon on November 2! In the unlikely case someone is still in doubt, what’s the main reason they shouldn’t miss your talk?

Who am I to answer why people need to see me? If you insist, I think there are 3 reasons: · My talk will be full of practical hands-on tips. Little tricks you can apply yourself and will result in more sales and conversions. · There’s also a more strategic layer that focuses on techniques and methods that you can also apply yourself. · You will laugh a lot. People call me the conversion comedian and I do my best to put a smile on everybody’s face.

Read more: ‘YoastCon 2017: Practical SEO’ »

http://ift.tt/2qrImbh

[miettawilliemk1]

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

We’re thrilled to announce that CRO expert Karl Gilis will be speaking at YoastCon on November 2! Karl Gilis from AGConsult is one of the most influential usability and conversion optimization specialists in the world, and our personal go-to-guy if we need advice on these matters for Yoast.com. We’ve asked him 5 questions, or actually 6, to warm you up for his talk on YoastCon. Read on if you want to find out which trends annoy Karl the most and what the most unexpected improvement was he ever saw on a website.

Don’t want to miss the ‘conversion comedian’ on stage? Get your ticket now for YoastCon 2017!

AGConsult is specialized in optimizing website conversion and usability. If you could give people only one advice to improve their site’s conversion, what would it be?

That’s a very easy question to start with :-) No, it’s an incredible difficult one. On a more generic level I would say: listen to your clients and visitors.

What words are they using?

What questions do they have?

What do they really like about your product or service?

How did it help to make their life better / easier / …?

Use these insights to rewrite your copy. Because your copy is probably written from your point of view: you talk about what you think is important. Don’t do that. Focus on what your clients think and say. Use their words. Don’t sell the way you want to sell, sell the way people want to buy.

If you want a more practical hands-on tip, I would say: get rid of all the clutter. Print a typical and important page from your website, such as a product detail page or your order form. Take a red marker and draw a big red cross on all the things that you make you wonder ‘Why is that here, isn’t this a distraction from my main message’? Remove all those things.

Less clutter will result in:

Faster loading times, especially when you have lots of fluffy stuff or stock photos that don’t add to your message.

A cleaner look. And yes: the less elements you have, the clearer your message will be. 
A great example of this is the top part of the homepage of Airbnb, especially now they finally removed the sliders and the video background.

More room to add things that will result in more sales. Things like social proof or a sense of urgency.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

Scientific evidence is what drives you. Do you have an example where your research wiped the floor with design trends and hypes?

Don’t get me started about design trends and hypes. Most of them don’t increase sales or conversions. They only help design agencies and designers make more money. When a design change is not driven by a business or user need, it’s a big gamble to change something.

3 examples:

Sliders with different messages They’re part of almost every theme for WordPress and other platforms, because they’re fun to make and beautiful to look at. But they don’t convert.
Your website is not a piece of art. It’s a tool. A sales tool.
 When we removed the slider on the Suzuki homepage and showed 2 static images instead, this resulted in 55% more clicks in the same screen real estate.

Flat design and ghost buttons A few years ago designers decided that buttons shouldn’t look like buttons anymore. They introduced so-called ghost buttons. Where a button is just a square line around some words. So it’s more inline with the design and it doesn’t attract attention.
 Excuse me: your call-to-action should attract attention. That’s what it’s there for!
 What we’ve seen is when a site went from a normal button to a ghost button, the number of clicks on non-clickable elements increased with 600%. Because users had no clue where to click.

Video background They’re the new Flash and the new sliders rolled into one. So please avoid them.
 A moving background is always a distraction from your message. And visitors should focus on your message. 
We’ve done several tests where we replaced a video-background with a static background and saw an uplift. 
It’s no coincidence even AirBnB ditched their video background for -euhm- nothing. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with a white background.

As a consultant you must have seen changes on dozens of websites over the years. What was the most unexpected improvement that you’ve ever seen happen on a website?

Another difficult one. What probably surprises me the most is that I’m still often surprised. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned thanks to AB-testing. There are always exceptions to the rules and guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: there are best practices. But they do not always work on every website.

When you’re asking for a specific case, I think of the shopping cart of an online shop selling watches and sunglasses. We took away all friction, made delivery time and shipping costs extra clear and everything that is in the classical usability book. But the results were still disappointing.

Then we added the message ‘You’ve made an excellent choice’. And whoppa: sales went up by a huge margin. Why? Because we supported the user in his choice. We took away their biggest fear: will this watch or sunglass suit me? So, don’t only focus on taking away the imperfections of your site. Give compliments too!

Your specialization is conversion and usability, ours is SEO. Do you feel these two are interconnected, or would you rather see them as two separate areas?

They are interconnected. And more people need to realize that. On a generic level this is pretty obvious. When you attract lots of people to your site but they don’t do anything (buy, subscribe, …), you’ll be out of business soon. When you have a website that converts like crazy but you don’t have any visitors, you have a problem too.

But also on a deeper level SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are very connected. When we do AB-tests the big changes almost always come from changes in words. And I’m not talking about random changes, but using the right words that tickle the human brain. As I said earlier: if you use the same words as your clients, they’ll have the feeling you understand them. When you relate to their problems, dreams and hopes, they will more likely convert than when you use corporate lingo and only talk about features. And I guess your readers know that those things are also important for SEO. Use the same word as your audience.

In all these years I’ve never had big conflicts with good SEO specialists. I only have fights with black hat SEO people or those who use the old tricks that don’t work anymore (keyword stuffing, anyone?). Never forget: you’re optimizing for people. Not only for Google. And not for the sake of usability as such either. You’re optimizing your website for your audience.

Failure is an important part of finding out how to make things work in the best possible way. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for any of the big brands you’ve worked for?

Most big brands are afraid of failure. They don’t want to take risks. But that means you’ll reach a status quo. You have to take calculated risks. Based on user research and past experience you identify the weak points of site of page. And then you start making changes.

Small changes will mostly result in small results. Big, bold changes will result in big changes. Hopefully an uplift, but sometimes a drop in sales. But that’s why you test. And you learn something from those failures. What we often see is that our 2nd or 3rd test after a big failure, results in a big winner. And if you implement that winner, the gains of that will be so much bigger than that temporarily loss in sales or leads during the test. Big (and smaller) brands who understand this, will often choose to test more. And the more you test, the more you learn, and the more winners you’ll have.

Conversion optimization is not a project. Not something you do once. It’s a continuous process. And when you keep doing it, it will result in big wins. 
Just as it is with SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

We assume this interview has convinced people to go see your talk at YoastCon on November 2! In the unlikely case someone is still in doubt, what’s the main reason they shouldn’t miss your talk?

Who am I to answer why people need to see me? If you insist, I think there are 3 reasons: · My talk will be full of practical hands-on tips. Little tricks you can apply yourself and will result in more sales and conversions. · There’s also a more strategic layer that focuses on techniques and methods that you can also apply yourself. · You will laugh a lot. People call me the conversion comedian and I do my best to put a smile on everybody’s face.

Read more: ‘YoastCon 2017: Practical SEO’ »

http://ift.tt/2qrImbh

[elenaturnerge1]

Interview with Karl Gilis, AGConsult – YoastCon speaker

We’re thrilled to announce that CRO expert Karl Gilis will be speaking at YoastCon on November 2! Karl Gilis from AGConsult is one of the most influential usability and conversion optimization specialists in the world, and our personal go-to-guy if we need advice on these matters for Yoast.com. We’ve asked him 5 questions, or actually 6, to warm you up for his talk on YoastCon. Read on if you want to find out which trends annoy Karl the most and what the most unexpected improvement was he ever saw on a website.

Don’t want to miss the ‘conversion comedian’ on stage? Get your ticket now for YoastCon 2017!

AGConsult is specialized in optimizing website conversion and usability. If you could give people only one advice to improve their site’s conversion, what would it be?

That’s a very easy question to start with :-) No, it’s an incredible difficult one. On a more generic level I would say: listen to your clients and visitors.

What words are they using?

What questions do they have?

What do they really like about your product or service?

How did it help to make their life better / easier / …?

Use these insights to rewrite your copy. Because your copy is probably written from your point of view: you talk about what you think is important. Don’t do that. Focus on what your clients think and say. Use their words. Don’t sell the way you want to sell, sell the way people want to buy.

If you want a more practical hands-on tip, I would say: get rid of all the clutter. Print a typical and important page from your website, such as a product detail page or your order form. Take a red marker and draw a big red cross on all the things that you make you wonder ‘Why is that here, isn’t this a distraction from my main message’? Remove all those things.

Less clutter will result in:

Faster loading times, especially when you have lots of fluffy stuff or stock photos that don’t add to your message.

A cleaner look. And yes: the less elements you have, the clearer your message will be. 
A great example of this is the top part of the homepage of Airbnb, especially now they finally removed the sliders and the video background.

More room to add things that will result in more sales. Things like social proof or a sense of urgency.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

Scientific evidence is what drives you. Do you have an example where your research wiped the floor with design trends and hypes?

Don’t get me started about design trends and hypes. Most of them don’t increase sales or conversions. They only help design agencies and designers make more money. When a design change is not driven by a business or user need, it’s a big gamble to change something.

3 examples:

Sliders with different messages They’re part of almost every theme for WordPress and other platforms, because they’re fun to make and beautiful to look at. But they don’t convert.
Your website is not a piece of art. It’s a tool. A sales tool.
 When we removed the slider on the Suzuki homepage and showed 2 static images instead, this resulted in 55% more clicks in the same screen real estate.

Flat design and ghost buttons A few years ago designers decided that buttons shouldn’t look like buttons anymore. They introduced so-called ghost buttons. Where a button is just a square line around some words. So it’s more inline with the design and it doesn’t attract attention.
 Excuse me: your call-to-action should attract attention. That’s what it’s there for!
 What we’ve seen is when a site went from a normal button to a ghost button, the number of clicks on non-clickable elements increased with 600%. Because users had no clue where to click.

Video background They’re the new Flash and the new sliders rolled into one. So please avoid them.
 A moving background is always a distraction from your message. And visitors should focus on your message. 
We’ve done several tests where we replaced a video-background with a static background and saw an uplift. 
It’s no coincidence even AirBnB ditched their video background for -euhm- nothing. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with a white background.

As a consultant you must have seen changes on dozens of websites over the years. What was the most unexpected improvement that you’ve ever seen happen on a website?

Another difficult one. What probably surprises me the most is that I’m still often surprised. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned thanks to AB-testing. There are always exceptions to the rules and guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: there are best practices. But they do not always work on every website.

When you’re asking for a specific case, I think of the shopping cart of an online shop selling watches and sunglasses. We took away all friction, made delivery time and shipping costs extra clear and everything that is in the classical usability book. But the results were still disappointing.

Then we added the message ‘You’ve made an excellent choice’. And whoppa: sales went up by a huge margin. Why? Because we supported the user in his choice. We took away their biggest fear: will this watch or sunglass suit me? So, don’t only focus on taking away the imperfections of your site. Give compliments too!

Your specialization is conversion and usability, ours is SEO. Do you feel these two are interconnected, or would you rather see them as two separate areas?

They are interconnected. And more people need to realize that. On a generic level this is pretty obvious. When you attract lots of people to your site but they don’t do anything (buy, subscribe, …), you’ll be out of business soon. When you have a website that converts like crazy but you don’t have any visitors, you have a problem too.

But also on a deeper level SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are very connected. When we do AB-tests the big changes almost always come from changes in words. And I’m not talking about random changes, but using the right words that tickle the human brain. As I said earlier: if you use the same words as your clients, they’ll have the feeling you understand them. When you relate to their problems, dreams and hopes, they will more likely convert than when you use corporate lingo and only talk about features. And I guess your readers know that those things are also important for SEO. Use the same word as your audience.

In all these years I’ve never had big conflicts with good SEO specialists. I only have fights with black hat SEO people or those who use the old tricks that don’t work anymore (keyword stuffing, anyone?). Never forget: you’re optimizing for people. Not only for Google. And not for the sake of usability as such either. You’re optimizing your website for your audience.

Failure is an important part of finding out how to make things work in the best possible way. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for any of the big brands you’ve worked for?

Most big brands are afraid of failure. They don’t want to take risks. But that means you’ll reach a status quo. You have to take calculated risks. Based on user research and past experience you identify the weak points of site of page. And then you start making changes.

Small changes will mostly result in small results. Big, bold changes will result in big changes. Hopefully an uplift, but sometimes a drop in sales. But that’s why you test. And you learn something from those failures. What we often see is that our 2nd or 3rd test after a big failure, results in a big winner. And if you implement that winner, the gains of that will be so much bigger than that temporarily loss in sales or leads during the test. Big (and smaller) brands who understand this, will often choose to test more. And the more you test, the more you learn, and the more winners you’ll have.

Conversion optimization is not a project. Not something you do once. It’s a continuous process. And when you keep doing it, it will result in big wins. 
Just as it is with SEO. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Come see Karl Gilis speak at YoastCon 2017 on November 2 »

We assume this interview has convinced people to go see your talk at YoastCon on November 2! In the unlikely case someone is still in doubt, what’s the main reason they shouldn’t miss your talk?

Who am I to answer why people need to see me? If you insist, I think there are 3 reasons: · My talk will be full of practical hands-on tips. Little tricks you can apply yourself and will result in more sales and conversions. · There’s also a more strategic layer that focuses on techniques and methods that you can also apply yourself. · You will laugh a lot. People call me the conversion comedian and I do my best to put a smile on everybody’s face.

Read more: ‘YoastCon 2017: Practical SEO’ »

http://ift.tt/2qrImbh