#i know not a thing about valorant whatsoever BUT i know you like this man SO a casual lil gold aes board for YOU!

[gogogobarry]

Nostalgia!

ONE WORD PROMPT DRABBLES! | not accepting (planning to do one a day!)

nostalgia for @iruludavare​​ !!

By all accounts, it’s a stunningly beautiful day in Sinnoh’s Floaroma Meadow. The sun is glowing just above the surrounding treeline, casting its soothing rays across a breathtaking range of flowers--a multicolored display overflowing with bright colors and abundance. And yet, aside from the two trainers perched near the famous Honey Man’s reclusive abode, nobody else is here to take in this picturesque panorama. Sometimes, this secluded natural treasure really is Sinnoh’s best-kept secret.  

However, despite the peaceful atmosphere, Barry is growing restless. Frustrated.

“Ack...!” the blond mutters, throwing his head back with melodramatic despair as his latest attempt at crafting a top-tier flower crown somehow ends up tangled in a knot. As another mess of stems and wire tumbles from his grasp, Barry also flops onto the grass, dragging hands down his face in a rare show of resignation. “’Rena...I don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of thing,” he mumbles. “I’m like, not getting it at all.”

Serena, sitting serenely nearby, glances up from her own delicate work with an arched eyebrow...and an understanding smile. She’d been half-expecting this outcome. When the Kalosian champion first announced her brief return visit to Floaroma and relaxing plans for the day, Barry--in his excitement to see her again--showed up right away, even though he knew nearly nothing about flower crowns...or the time-consuming weaving that went into them. And so, Serena watched poor Barry scramble to put his crowns together at a blistering pace, only to see each hastily-constructed craft fall apart in his hands. At this rate, he was going to end up planting all of the fresh bulbs she had brought along from the nearby flower shop.

“Don’t worry. We can still save this one,” she reassures with her usual steadfast patience, taking up Barry’s crown to tenderly disentangle the mess of stems, her fingers working with careful precision. “You’re getting better at this. You just need to take a little more time, and be a little more patient.”

“I know...” Barry admits with a touch of sheepishness, turning over in the grass to observe Serena’s floral ‘rescue operation.’ However, the blond’s whimsical mind can’t help but wander as his friend’s words sink in. A little more time.

Barry’s hazel eyes flicker across the bountiful meadow, sudden recollected memories shifting in and out of focus. Lucas’s Kale stealing an entire jar of Honey out from under his nose. Kouki chasing him around the flowery field because Barry poured copious amounts of Honey in his shoes. He and Hikari exploring every corner and edge of the meadow until the sun set (or the Honey Man yelled at them,) convinced that the flowers hid a secret treasure near the treeline...

Barry sighs, nostalgia thrumming in his heart now. Back then, it seemed like he had all the time in the world. Back then, it felt like he could charge full speed in any direction without any consequences whatsoever.

However, after being too late to save Lake Valor, too slow to keep pace with Jupiter’s assault at Lake Acuity, and too weak to stop Hikari from entering the Distortion World, the veil of innocence was somewhat lifted from Barry’s eyes. Time, he realizes now, is precious...and always marching forward.

I have to keep up with it.

I can’t afford to relax. I should be focusing on getting stronger, faster-- 

“I fixed it. The tangle wasn’t too bad this time,” Serena announces with a soft smile, placing the rescued flower crown atop Barry’s head and unknowingly snapping the blond out of his desperate thoughts. She can’t help but laugh at the Twinleaf native’s quizzical reaction...and Barry feels his worries melt away as he grins too, adjusting the floral wear while striking a jaunty pose. “Hey thanks, ‘Rena! I look like royalty now, right?”

Serena rolls her eyes good-naturedly, returning to her own project with a shake of her head. Freshly contented, Barry continues to stretch out on the grass, gazing out at the now-setting Sinnohan sun. All in all, it’s been a full day of reminiscing, relaxing, and crafting with a good friend. Perhaps time can stand still for just a moment longer, preserving this nostalgic feeling for the both of them. Just like old times. 

There’s a rare moment of comfortable quietude before Barry speaks his mind again.

“I feel like I’ve been running around so much lately with so much stuff to do. Got no time to relax like this anymore...” he muses with a rueful smile, picking at his crown thoughtfully before letting loose a dramatic, full-body shudder. “Arceus, ‘Rena...I don’t know how people like you and Hika handle so much responsibility all the time. I’m aging over here! Growing up stinks!”

“You get used to it,” Serena replies lightly, a touch of sadness tinging her gaze as she looks up from her flowers. It’s her turn to linger on the beautiful setting sun now, knowing fully that it would never truly set for her. The secret burns in her chest. Time is precious, to be sure, but If only Barry knew.

If only he understood how much time she really had.

[lesya-writes]

ch. 3 excerpt

Merlin’s life as Arthur’s manservant was never boring, at the very least.

But not being boring wasn’t exactly a point in its favor. For all that his life lacked in boredom, it made up for with tiring chores, an assortment of errands, having fruit thrown at him, and of course, yelling. There was lots of yelling, of his name specifically, though it wasn’t the “good kind”, as Will would put it.

Merlin thought that that would be the end of it, but he should’ve known things would never resolve to be easy for him.

Arthur had dragged him out at the ass crack of dawn onto a field outside the city to train. The training, however, seemed to consist of wailing on Merlin with various weapons while Merlin tried his best not to die. He’d fallen over many times and he had assumed armor was supposed to provide some sort of protection, but it only made it hurt more when he hit the ground.

“Come on Merlin, up and at ‘em.”

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?”

“Because, Merlin, if you’d been paying any attention whatsoever, you would’ve known that Camelot is hosting a tournament.”

“A tournament? I’ve heard of those. It’s where a bunch of men hit each other with sticks, right?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. Merlin didn’t see it, as he was currently on the ground with a helm covering his face, but he could certainly feel it. Arthur, Merlin had observed, had a fascinating skill of being able to project his emotions outward so they could be felt by all. Or maybe that’s just me?

“No, Merlin. It’s where knights prove their valor through combat. I don’t expect a country bumpkin like you to understand, but you could show a bit of respect.”

Merlin snorted.

“That’s what I thought,” Arthur said drily. Merlin sat up and took off his helm, then squinted up at the sky. The sun was up high, signaling the coming end of the morning. Merlin tried to get up, but his body had other thoughts.

“Ugh,” he groaned. “I won’t be able to move for a week.”

“Stop complaining. You sound like an old man.”

Merlin groaned again.

“You’ll be fine!” Arthur said, exasperated and commanding, as if he could force Merlin to be well simply through his power of will alone. He could do that, Merlin thought. If he had magic, that is.

But, since he did not, Merlin remained a sad groaning heap on the ground.

“Arthur,” he said pitifully. “Go on. Go on ahead without me. Leave me here, to die with dignity.”

“I don’t think I can do that, since you don’t have much dignity to speak of. I’ll gladly leave you here to mope, though. I wouldn’t want such negative energies to pollute the castle and my chambers.”

“Negative. Energies,” Merlin said this slowly, like he was trying the words out, seeing how they felt and tasted. The words felt as foreign in his mouth and they felt coming out of Arthur’s; they clearly didn’t belong to him.

“Just something I heard Morgana talk about. Well, ‘talk about’ is being generous. She was making fun of Lady Ana. Apparently she heard from some learned man that one must clean their rooms by filling them with flower petals. It’s meant to get rid of negative energies. Whatever that means.”

Merlin stared up at him.

“Right.”

He decided he was done whinging and somehow managed to get up despite his aching muscles and the weight of the armor pulling him down. Arthur ordered him to pick everything up and follow him. Merlin struggled, to put it lightly, but somehow managed all the metal and shields (with no help from that sodding bastard) and ran after the prince.

Once they’d made it to the armory, Merlin was glad to drop everything. He heaved a deep breath, trying to discover how he’d made it all the way here without dropping dead.

Arthur moved towards him and proceeded to undo the straps holding the armor together. Merlin would’ve been startled, if he was capable of feeling such a thing at the moment.

“Why couldn’t you train on the field? You know, with the rest of the knights? Who are knights and know how to fight, unlike me?”

“I can’t be going around showing them my skills now, can I?” Arthur asked in a low voice, brow raised.

“So you hide? A bit cowardly, isn’t it?” Merlin asked just to see Arthur bristle. Merlin was not disappointed.

“I’m not scared.”

“No?”

“No. I’m merely using every advantage possible to secure a victory. Something I’m sure you would know nothing about, seeing as you’ve never been to battle.”

“But this isn’t a battle. This is a mock-fight between two people.”

“True. But the principle still stands. You can’t show your hand to the enemy. And for this tournament, every opponent is an enemy, a false one, but an enemy nonetheless.”

Merlin hummed. “I suppose that makes sense. After all, if you can’t win fair and square…”

“I can very much win fair and square!” With that, the last piece of armor fell, metal on stone deafening the silent armory with a loud clanging sound.

“I suppose we’ll see,” Merlin replied with a smirk and before Arthur could give any order, Merlin rushed out, running back to Gaius. He needed to wash up and he had bruises that needed tending. He supposed Arthur would just have to find him there, though Merlin preferred it if he didn’t.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 178

September 5 

A bit of late night journaling here because it was a busy day and I needed some decompression time after the kiddo and the kittens were safely asleep. Today was the day I set aside as our big cleaning day and have been warning the kiddo about for the past two days. To say he was unenthused would be putting it mildly. A lot of that is my fault because I am a lousy housekeeper and have never gotten him used to the simple pleasantness of a clean house, and to be honest I sort of agree with him when he says that he likes his room messy. I don't like, actually enjoy a messy room, but I do enjoy a room that requires none of my attention.

 I suspect that he and I share the common ADHD trait of visual static, where familiar things in your surroundings literally drop out of your mind's eye until you are required to notice them for some reason. I can be surrounded by old plates and stacks of mail and balls of yarn until they're nearly cocooning me and never notice until my husband sighs and starts picking up or nudging me to do it myself. Then I open that mind's eye and suddenly am grossed out and have to clean up. I am okay if the kiddo never becomes a fastidious man, but I do need to know that he will have an acceptable threshold of "this is gross and I must correct it." We have some work to do there. 

In any case, today we alternated working on our own rooms and on cleaning the living room. The strategy was a half hour on our rooms, a half hour on the living room, and then a half-hour's break, which included an episode of The Good Place. The first round was like pulling teeth. The kiddo was intensely whiny, did not want to do anything, demanded to know why we needed to clean, etc, etc, etc. I scolded him over the whiny voice and he complained in a normal voice, which was at least more bearable. Eventually, though, he did accustom himself to the idea that we would be cleaning today, especially with the deal sweetened with the promise of a Good Place marathon and something good to eat in the evening if we got a lot done. I also went in several times to help him with tricky bits in his room, places where the old papers or clutter had piled up in a way that threatened to overwhelm him, or in one case where he needed a new peg to fix his bookshelf. Luckily that shelf has given us enough trouble over the years that I had a whole package in my toolbox and we got it fixed up easily. 

After three rounds, so basically an hour and a half of work, his room looked not perfect, but much better than it had. Wonder of wonders, once the bed was made with fresh sheets and soft blankets, he decided that maybe he didn't want to sleep on the floor after all and snuggled into his real bed tonight for the first time in two months or more. (I have made up his bed nearly as many times as he has pulled the sheets off for fort-related purposes with no success in getting him to sleep in the bed,  but this time an extra-fuzzy blanket seems to have done the trick.) 

The living room was challenging because it's a place where a lot of our stuff tends to accumulate when it comes up from the car. Things come into the apartment and never quite get where they're going, so I have little snowdrifts of items in the corners, waiting for my attention. That's actually one reason I started cleaning by organizing our bedroom closets and other storage spaces, because I didn't have any places to put the things I needed to put away. Just putting stuff away took the majority of my cleaning time in there, followed closely by "fixing the damn vacuum cleaner again." It really has no capacity whatsoever for coping with cat hair. But we got the living room cleaned and vacuumed, even used furniture polish to spiff up the coffee table and got all the gross stuff out from under the couch cushions. Again not perfect, but so much better! An hour and a half was not enough to finish my room, which also wound up being the staging area for our major laundry project, but it got much better and I have continued picking at it throughout the evening. I need to figure out how to get the two massive contractor bags full of clothes to donate down to the truck. I may wind up taking some of each and putting them into a third bag because discretion is the better part of valor. Tomorrow is for finishing the bedroom and cleaning the kitchen, after which point the house is going to be in the best shape it's been all year. I'm quite proud of myself already! 

The kittens had a good day today, if by good I mean "eating like piranha and climbing on everything." They hit a milestone this morning when Robinton escaped the playpen and went wandering around on his own, so now the playpen tops have to be zipped when I'm not in the room. It won't be much longer before they can go into the three level kennel, but they have to figure out gravity and momentum a little better first. I didn't get to play with them as much as I'd have liked, but they got a couple half hour play sessions and of course they have lots of room and toys in the duplex playpen so it's not like they're deprived and lonely. And as much as they would deny it, they got a lot of food and ate all of it. Even Audiva now goes for the wet food with gratifying enthusiasm! We're now living through the food-change poops and that is never exactly fun, but this too shall pass. So to speak. 

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Captain America: The First Avenger

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe...

Where Today We Are Looking At The First Movie With The First Avenger, Captain America...

When I Saw The Trailer For This Movie, I Had No Idea Who Captain America Was, I Had Seen The Original Movie With Matt Sallenger When I Was Younger But I Had Absolutely No Memory About It Whatsoever And After Watching The Nostalgia Critic's Review Of It, I'm Glad I Don't...

So I Went To The Comics And Bought An Omnibus Of Captain America Comics With The First Few Issues, And I Liked It To The Point I Couldn't Wait To See The Film In Theatres, However, When I Saw The Captain America Costume I Started To Not Hold Out Much Hope For The Movie As It Didn't Look Like Captain America From The Comics

And The Idea Of The Human Torch Playing Cap Instead Of Someone Who Hasn't Been A Superhero Just Added To That But Luckily, When I Saw The Film I Absolutely Loved It But Is It As Good As I Remember It?...

Let's Find Out As We Watch Captain America: The First Avenger...

The Film Starts In The Arctic, As 2 Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Are Taken To A Ship That Has Been Uncovered By A Russian Oil Team, Lasering Their Way Into The Vessel, The 2 Agents Find The Vessel Iced Over. Discovering What Looks To Be A Red, White And Blue Shield Covered In Ice, One Of The Agents Tries To Contact Nick Fury, Saying That He Has To Know About What They Found...

But Before We Can Find Out, We Go To A Flashback In Norway In The Year 1942, As A Hydra Tank Barges Into A Church, So The Leader Of Hydra, Johann Schmidt (Played By Hugo Weaving) May Enter With Soliders To Find The Tesseract...

(Imitating Agent Smith From The Matrix) Mr. Anderson...

Searching A Tomb, Schmidt Finds Something That Looks Like The Tesseract But As Schmidt Points Out, The Tesseract Was The Jewel Of Odin's Treasure Room And It's Not Something Someone Buries...

Asking The Caretaker Where The Tesseract Is To The Point Of Threatening To Destroy The Entire City, The Man Points To A Big Wooden Wall Carving Of Yggdrasil, The Tree Of The World, Which Is Where Schmidt Finds It...

With The Caretaker Telling Schmidt That He Contol The Power Of The Tesseract And He Will Burn For It, Schmidt Kills The Caretaker Before Walking Out...

Meanwhile In New York, We Go To An Army Enlistment Center Where Steve Rogers (Played By What's Left Of Chris Evans After Playing This Character For Many Movies) Attempts To Join The Army Only To Not Get In Due To His Bad Health..

Going To A Movie Afterwards, Steve Gets Mad At A Guy Who Doesn't Care About The Newsreels And Wants The Cartoons To Roll Which Leads To A Fight Outside Between The 2 Of Them...

Saved By His Best Friend, Bucky Barnes (Played By Sebastian Stan) Who Got Himself Enlisted And Is Shipping Out Tomorrow So, That Night Him And Steve Take 2 Girls (One Being Possibly An Ancestor Of Clara Oswald) To The World Of Tomorrow Expo Where They See A Science Demonstration Done By Howard Stark (Played Here By Dominic Cooper)...

Going To An Army Recruitment Center At The Expo, Bucky Tries To Stop Steve From Enlisting Again (As He's Been Lying On His Enlistment Forms And That's Technically Illegal) But Not Willing To Sit On The Sidelines Anymore, Steve Tells Bucky That He's At Least Got To Try No Matter What The Cost...

Telling His Friend To Be Careful And To Not Do Anything Stupid, Bucky Leaves, Overhearing His Conversation With Bucky, Steve Is Confronted By Dr. Abraham Erskine, A Scientist Who Works For The SSR Who Offers Steve A Chance To Get What He Wants...

Meanwhile At Hydra HQ, Johann Schmidt Has Arnim Zola (Played By Toby Jones) Work On A Machine That Will Transfer The Power Of The Tesseract Into Weaponry For Hydra....

Activating The Machine, Arnim Zola Is Cautious When Raising The Energy For The Transference But Schmidt Is A Patient Man And Places The Machine At Full Power Which Causes A Interesting Effect But It Works...

With The Energy They Have, Zola Tells Schmidt That It Could Not Power All Of His Designs But Change The War As Well As The World...

A Few Days Later At The SSR Base Camp, Steve And A Bunch Of Other Guys Are Briefed By Agent Peggy Carter (Played By Hayley Atwell) And Colonel Phillips (Played By Agent K Himself, Tommy Lee Jones) Who Tell Them About The SSR And How They Will Be Choosing A Man To Be The First In A New Breed Of Super Solider...

Cue The Training Montage!

Well, I'll Admit Steve Isn't Mulan But He Got The Flag!

With Erskine Deciding That Steve Is The Right Man For The Job, Phillips Fights Erskine On It As He Believes That Steve Is A Loser And That A Man Named Hodge Is Better Decision As He Passed All Their Tests, But Looking For Qualities Beyond Physical For This, Phillips Decides To Throw In A Dummy Grenade Which Steve Gladly Takes For His Fellow Soldiers, Saying That He's Still Skinny, Phillips Walks Away...

With The Experiment Happening The Next Day, Erskine Pays Steve A Visit In His Bunk Where He Asks Erskine Why Him? This Leads Erskine To Tell Steve How He Was Recruited By Adolf Hitler Himself To Join The Nazis But Telling Hitler That He's Not Interested, Hitler Instead Sent Schmidt Who Shares A Passion With Hitler For The Occult And Myths...

However Unlike Hitler Who Believes It To Be Fantasy, Schmidt Believes It To Be Real And That There Is Some Great Power Left By The Gods Waiting To Be Seized By Man. Hearing About Erskine's Formula, Schmidt Could Not Resist Taking That Power For Himself, But When Schmidt Took It There Were Unfortunate Side Effects...

Saying That The Formula Amplifies Everything That Is Inside Of The Person, With Good Becoming Great And Evil Becoming Worse, He Says That That Is Why Steve Was Chosen Because A Strong Man Who Has Known Power All Of His Life Will Lose Respect For That Power Where A Weak Man Knows The Value Of Strength And Compassion...

Before Tomorrow, Erskine Has Steve Promise Him One Thing, That He Will Stay Who He Is, Not A Perfect Solider But A Good Man...

Back At Hydra HQ, Schmidt Tells Zola That His Men Have Located Erskine And Tells Zola To Give The Order To Kill Him...

Taking Steve To The SSR's Hideout, Peggy Takes Steve Into A Lab Where The Experiment Will Happen...

Meanwhile At Hydra HQ, Schmidt Is Visited By Some Of Hitler's Generals Which Leads To Him Showing Them The Results Of His Work By Saying That Hydra Is Developing An Arsenal To Destroy Schmidt's Enemies In One Stroke Including Germany, Which Leads To Him Wiping The Generals Out With One His New Weapons...

I Guess We Can Change The Name Of The Musical To Springtime For Red Skull...

With The President Retasking The SSR To Go After Hydra, Steve Wants In But With Erskine's Death, Phillips Considers The Project A Failure As Erskine Promised Them An Army Of Super Soliders And That Just Having Steve Is Not Enough To Win The War.

However, A Senator Believes Different After Both Him And The Country See Steve In Action And Offers Steve Another Opportunity To Serve His Country...By Selling War Bonds....

(Start At 0:22)

And What Can I Say About This? I Absolutely Love It! There's Only One Other Thing That Could Top It And That's If They Played This...

Doing A Performance At An Army Camp That Goes Horribly, Steve Runs Into Peggy Who Reminds Steve That Erskine Wanted Better For Him Than To Just Be A Performing Monkey, Seeing Wounded Soliders Come In From The 107th, Steve Remembers That That Is Bucky's Troop Which Leads Him To Talk With Phillips About If Bucky Survived And Phillips Makes It Look Like He Didn't...

Asking If Phillips Is Planning A Rescue Mission For The Ca, Phillips Tells Steve No As They're 30 Miles Behind Enemy Lines That Are Heavily Fortified And They'd Lose More Men Then They'd Save, But Unable To Accept That Steve Plans A Rescue Mission With The Help Of Peggy And Howard Stark, Who Takes Steve Into Enemy Lines On Board Stark's Airplane...

Parachuting Into Enemy Lines, Steve Boards A Truck That Takes Him Into Hydra Base, Once Inside, Steve Rescues The Missing Soliders Including The Howling Commandos (With Two Of Them Played By Damien Dahrk And Spider-Man's Principal?)...

(Start At 0:31)

With The Soldiers Fighting Hydra And The Base Exploding Around Them, Steve And Bucky Go Up Flights Of Stairs Only To Be Confronted By Schmidt...

(Start At 0:30)

Back At The SSR Camp, It's Believed That Rogers Is Dead But...Yeah, Steve Survived As Well As The Soliders From The 107th Including Bucky...

Meanwhile In Washington, Steve Is About To Get A Medal For Valor By The Senator But Of Course He's Not There...

Stan Lee Cameo!

Returning To The SSR's Headquarters In London, Steve Shows Peggy The Locations Of The Hydra Bases That He Saw On Schmidt's Map While Bucky Tells Them About The Weapons Factories However, Hydra Has Shipped The Parts To His Main HQ Which Is Not On The Map...

Phillips Tells Carter To Coordinate With MI6 (Which Makes Me Wonder If Captain America And James Bond Have Ever Teamed Up) To Look For Schmidt's Main Base, While They Send Rogers To Deal With The Other Bases...

With Phillips Putting Together A Team To Help Steve, Steve Already Has People In Mind Which Leads Him To Recruit The Howling Commandos And Bucky To Help Him...

The Next Day, Steve Goes To Meet With Howard Stark, But While He Waits, He Talks With Margaery Tyrell Which Leads To Her Kissing Steve (And Who Wouldn't Want To Kiss Her) Only For Them To Be Spotted By Peggy Despite Steve Thinking That Her And Stark Had Something Going On...

When Stark Talks With Steve, He Tells Him That There's Nothing Going On Between Him And Peggy Before He Shows Steve Some New Shields Until Steve Finds A Prototype Made Out Of Vibranium...

(Imitating Black Panther) Wakanda Forever!

Which Will Work...

(End At 2:02)

Not Happy With What Is Going On With His Bases, Red Skull Tells Zola To Finish His Mission Before Captain America Does Or Else...

Attempting To Get Zola Back To His Headquarters As Quick As Possible, Zola Ends Up Boarding A Speed Train That Unfortunately Passes By Where Cap And His Crew Happen To Be...

Using A Zip Line, Cap, Bucky And The Other Howling Commandos Board The Train Only To Be Confronted By Hydra Soliders With Major Weaponry...

Major Weaponry That's Powerful Enough To Burst Open A Wall...

After Dealing With The Soldiers, Another One Enters And Blasts Bucky Out Of The Train Only To Leave Him Hanging By A Handle, Attempting To Save His Best Friend Steve Tries To Reach For Him But Unfortunately The Rail Breaks And Bucky Just Falls To His Death...

But In Good News, They Capture Arnim Zola...

Phillips Interrogates Zola Who Doesn't Say A Damn Word Until Phillips Gives Him A Letter That Shows Him That The Red Skull Has Turned On Him And Believes Zola To Be A Liability Which Leads Zola To Spill His Guts On Red Skull's Plan...

Finding Steve In A Cafe That Him And His Friends Went To Before It Was Destroyed, Peggy Finds Steve Having A Few Drinks To Try To Dull The Pain Of Losing Bucky But Like The Flash, Due To His Powers He Can't Get Drunk...

But Peggy Tells Steve That It's Not His Fault And If He Believed And Respected Bucky Then He Should Honor His Decision. Understanding That, Steve Swears To Go To Go After Schmidt And Destroy Hydra...

Steve, Peggy And The Howling Commandos Fight Hydra's Soliders Off, But Eventually Steve Catches Up With Red Skull Only To See Him Take Off In His Massive Plane, But When Phillips And Peggy Commandeer Red Skull's Car, They Attempt To Catch Up With It...

(Captain America) You Remember The Little Red Button?

(Phillips) You Don't Have To Tell Me Twice!

(Pushes Little Red Button)

Catching Up With Red Skull's Ship, Steve Kisses Peggy Goodbye, Before Hopping On Board...

As Steve Sees Missiles Targeted For Every City On The Planet, More Soliders Appear To Fight Steve, With Him Defeating Every Single One Of Them, Before Facing Off Against Red Skull...

(Start At 0:28)

With Peggy Contacting Steve On-Board The Plane, She Tries To Direct Him To A Site To Land But There's Not Enough Time And He Has No Choice But To Force The Ship Down...

Peggy Talks With Steve For As Long As Possible Till His Ship Crashes....

We Get A Montage Of What Happened After The War Including A Scene Where Howard Stark Finds The Tesseract In The Ocean And Peggy Keeping A Picture Of Steve Before Cutting To The Future! As Steve Wakes Up Years Later In A Hospital (That Looks Like It's In The Past) By A Woman (Who Is Supposedly Sharon Carter Except Instead Of Emily Van Camp It's Amanda Righetti From The O.C.) Who Is There To Tell Steve What's Going On...

However, The Game Playing On The Radio, Is A Game Steve Went To Years Ago...

(Start At 1:17)

After The Credits We Get A Sneak Peak Of The Avengers Before The Movie Ends...

And That's Captain America: The First Avenger And I Absolutely Love This Movie...

The 1940s Setting Is Fantastic, I Love The Story, I Love The Characters, I Love The Villain Despite Everyone Saying That He's Lame And Honestly I Have No Idea Why Hugo Weaving Did Not Want To Come Back For A Sequel As Red Skull Is Such A Good Character And A Great Villain In This Movie, I Love The Effects In The Movie With The Hydra Weaponry, The Costumes Are Great And It Is One Of My Favorite MCU Films And I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke Saying That Next Week We're Tackling The Avengers!

[justaramblingromantic]

“This blanket is freaking thin!” ft EiRin 😙

50 Random Writing Prompts

Characters/Pairing: Kobayashi Rindou and Tsukasa Eishi/EiRin

Type: Fantasy/Medieval!AU, Worthy of a Namet!verse, Freestyle

Word Count: 2841

A/N: Oh man, I think I drank a bit too much nonsense juice when I wrote this, wahaha! Hope you like, friendo~! Thanks for the ask!! <33

XxXxXxXxXx

He did not have to open his eyes to sense that she was up to mischief, again.

To be more precise, she was trying to sneak up on him, again.

Eishi sighed inwardly. He did not move, lying on the bed with his back still turned to the source of disturbance, the latter trying her best to be as stealthy as possible.

“…Rindou.”

The surreptitious movements paused.

“Yes?” she sounded so innocent, as if she wasn’t doing anything shady at all.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in!” she chirped in reply. Since she had already been found out, the redhead abandoned all pretense at subtlety and dove straight at her master.

Eishi rolled over and jackknifed before she could pin him with her pounce. He still ended up with an armful of warm, soft, sweet smelling woman…who was also very happy to nuzzle into the side of his neck and brush herself up against him like an overly affectionate vixen.

At least this time she was clothed, he thought. He still could not help but flush all the same.

“…Rindou,” he chided as sternly as he could. “We’ve already discussed this. You’re being improper.”

This partner of his had always been unruly and mischievous for as long as he knew her. And ever since she took on a living form, his life had only grown even more complicated.

And exciting…in a completely outrageous way.

“Go back to your own bed, please,” he uttered in a strangled tone when she slithered under his covers and cozied up to him even more. She was very distracting. His pulse quickened.

“But it’s warmer here with you,” she protested as he tried to peel her off. “This blanket is freaking thin, so we should share our body heat~”

That sounded like a logical conclusion to make…only he was starting to suspect that she was only using it as an excuse. That suspicion was further compounded by her happily running her hands down his torso, the brush of her lips along the side of his throat, the flick of her tongue darting against his skin where his pulse beat strongly-

“I’m cold,” she purred, wiggling ever closer. “Warm me.”

The thing was, she wasn’t trying to seduce him. Unfortunately, he was seduced all the same. There was something she craved from him, and she was never ashamed or shy to beg it boldly from him. Her tongue tickled his skin. Her warm breath flustered him.

“I need your heat,” she demanded silkily against his neck. “Please, Master, may I~?”

He swallowed. This was the contract that he shared with her, that bound her to him and vice versa.

“Yes,” he mumbled in consent, his arms instinctively coming up around her, even as she smiled and parted her lips, sinking pearly white fangs into his flesh.

That sharp prickle of pain was the familiar prelude to the near blinding flood of pleasure that filled his mind shortly after. He gasped and bit his lip, keeping perfectly still as she settled happily unto him and hungrily lapped at the mark, coaxing more of those crimson, rich drops of blood welling to the surface. Her pleasure, almost hedonistic and pagan-like in its sheer, unfiltered, delight, washed over him as well, effectively doubling his own enjoyment of the act.

Lavender pupils silently dilated. Eishi bit down harder on his lower lip, swallowing the groan that threatened to rise from his throat. His ears buzzed. He turned his face towards her crimson hair, losing himself in the heady perfume of her scent. His fingers dug subtly into her waist, holding her tighter, pulling her closer…

She was much less restrained in expressing her euphoria. His blood sang inside of her, and she reveled in the throb and swell of its sweet, rapturous power. She squirmed on her master’s lap, moaning as his taste became all that she knew, his warmth spreading in her like wildfire. It had always been like that; his light chasing away the constant, cursed cold that lurked in her, and she was hopelessly addicted to this exhilarating feeling of life.

A few minutes later, she forcibly reined in her voracious appetite, careful not to take more than he could give. It was so tempting, though. She brushed her lips eagerly against his neck, lavishing happy, affectionate kisses now that he wasn’t being a starchy prude and trying to peel her off, red as a tomato the whole time. Well, he was still red as a tomato, but-

She pulled back slightly, a little punch-drunk giggle escaping her as she cupped his flushed face and peppered even more playful kisses on his chin and jaw and mouth. He could taste the copper of his own blood on her lips, and shuddered at the sharp spike of arousal that elicited in him.  

“Rindou,” he groaned, breathless. She had that effect on him. “Stop. Stop.”

His hands came up to her shoulders, slowly but firmly easing her off of him. She growled softly at being denied, and curled her own limbs around him stubbornly like a little monkey. Much to his consternation.

His voice, still husky and lust-addled, was now injected with a thread of familiar exasperation. “What are you doing.”

“Not doin’ anythin’,” she uttered. “M’not lettin’ go for nothin’ either.”

Her petulance was not unfamiliar to him. She was already like that, even back when he only knew her in her sword form. This was also partially his fault, for indulging her as he always did.

Which left him with a dilemma.

“…How do you propose we retire to bed like this?” he asked in consternation over her head.

Rindou brightened and pulled back slightly to look at him again, glad that he had asked. Before she could open her mouth to share her opinion, he also had a sudden epiphany and quickly added. “Separate beds, please.”

The redhead frowned at him.

“You used to keep me close with you all the time,” she accused crossly. Even during bedtime, he laid her beside him every single night. Granted, it was customary for most knights to keep their weapons close by in the event of a sudden attack or a night raid, but he guarded her too, to keep her out of the hands of those who desired to harm her or take her.

As such, Rindou really did not understand what was so different now and was increasingly aggravated by his constant rejection. She didn’t like being pushed away by him. It made her feel cold and discontent and violently unhappy.

“…Yes. That’s because you were a sword,” he pointed out warily. Not a siren-like, alluring, impossibly beautiful young woman who seemed to possess no inhibition whatsoever and was also completely oblivious to the difficult position that she was putting him in…quite literally.

Her limbs tightened around him in her annoyance. “I’m still a sword! Just in a different shape now!”

Eishi had to remind himself to close his eyes as her fair bosom swelled with indignation…inches from his face.

She didn’t have to speak the obvious; he was acutely aware of her shape. Especially when it was pressed against him like now, barely concealed in a paper thin, chemise shift. He was not a stranger to her magnificent curves, which was why he was so desperately trying to put some much needed distance between the both of them before he ended up inadvertently doing something gravely improper to her.

Furthermore, this was exploiting the innocent, wasn’t it? Through a series of stressful, dire events, he had bound her to him and now he was also harboring some distinctly ungallant thoughts towards her. Never mind the sacred knightly vows he took of valor, chivalry and protecting those who could not protect themselves, he already felt like a cad as it was.

Rindou could hardly care less about his moral dilemma.

“Am I still yours or not?” she demanded to know, wanting to hear the confirmation that he wasn’t planning to toss her aside and depart like all the others who had come and gone before him. Not that she would let him, but still-

“Say it. Say that I’m yours.”

He opened his eyes, that distant lavender hue sharpening on her face. He just stared at her for the longest time, as if finally finding an answer to a very difficult problem.  

“Yes,” he replied at last, so quietly it was almost a sigh. “You’re mine.”

She beamed at his admission, spoken so slowly and carefully, as if he was tasting the words on his tongue, testing and accepting the full weight of his claim for the very first time.

“Good! Your sword wants to lie with you.”

He had the strangest look on his face at her expectant request. That sounded wrong.

“…You mean ‘sleep,’” he corrected.

She sent him an odd look of her own. “Of course I meant ‘sleep!’ What else is there to do?”

While Eishi was muttering to himself (perhaps he was praying for patience and deliverance), Rindou finally clambered off him and dove under the sheets, settling in for bed, now finally content after having her way. He took longer to follow suit, gingerly lying back down and feeling very jumpy.

She clicked her tongue at his hesitation. “Why are you so scared? I’m not gonna eat ya!”

“You already ‘ate’ me,” he muttered, finally easing in beside her. He was still rather stiff and ill at ease. She snickered and petted him.

“And you’re absolutely delicious~” the redhead sang, turning her head to grin at him. His ears were starting to turn red again. “Fine. I won’t eat you anymore tonight. Promise.”

She did, however, wiggle closer to him and throw her leg over his. She also snuggled into his side so comfortably, like she had always belonged.

“Can you just lie still and not move. Please.” He sounded faintly distressed. The more she rubbed up against him inadvertently, the more his body reacted to her unintentional stimulation. Eishi was very close to cursing the base urges of his disobedient self. Funny; how it always went haywire whenever she was around – he usually had much better control than this.

“I’m trying to get comfortable,” she huffed back at him. She was frowning a little too, as she squirmed. “There’s something hard poking me down there-”

She gasped loudly, as if all the dots had finally connected in her mind and she abruptly realized what that ‘something’ was. She lifted her head so quickly she nailed him right in the chin before he could react and explain himself. That collision hurt her, but since she was of the rather hardheaded sort, Eishi came out worse from the encounter. The poor man saw stars. He clapped one hand over his aching jaw, groaning.

Rindou was too outraged to sympathize with her master’s pain. No wonder he had been pushing her away all this time! She had finally discovered the real reason! She knew why now!

The flames of righteous fury engulfed her. She scowled.

“You! You’ve been hiding another sword on your person all this time!” she accused, sounding thoroughly indignant. “How can you do that to me – we agreed that I’m your only!”

The redhead was very determined to get rid of the usurper. Her hand dove beneath the sheets and fumbled clumsily with the hem of his nightshirt before finally, blindly, finding the offending item that he had cleverly concealed there, nestled right between his legs. Her fingers wrapped firmly around the hilt and she tugged with all her might, like a farmer doing her best to dislodge a long, fat daikon out of the stubborn earth.

Eishi blanched.

“Rindou.” His strangled squeak were an entire three octaves higher than usual. It was a miracle he could still speak when the woman was still going at it with all the vigor of one attempting to extract the Excalibur from the sacred stone.

He hastily grabbed her wrist to stop her, lest she actually succeeded in her endeavor and uproot his entire bloodline right there and then. He gritted his teeth, ears ringing from the brief but excruciating experience. Maybe that was the sound of his yet unborn descendants screaming for mercy, ten generations down the Tsukasa family tree. His eyes met hers grimly, as she stared back at him with wide, surprised eyes.

“That’s. NOT. A. Sword.”

XxXxXxXxXx 

Omake

He hadn’t been very happy with her that morning, for rather obvious reasons, even though she had shown an appropriate amount of contriteness for the misunderstanding last night. Rindou was sincerely sorry, though that had not stopped her from biting back snickers whenever he stood up and hobbled around gingerly due to the soreness between his legs, no thanks to her. He had glowered wearily at her muffled mirth, but otherwise had largely ignored her.

It was a good thing that they weren’t scheduled for patrol duty that day; surely Eishi would have been even grumpier than he already was. Instead, they were sequestered in his office where he was somehow buried in paperwork. Again. Rindou was meek and obedient as could be up until mid-noon, and then she got tired of being boring.

“How long are you going to be mad at me?” she asked him point blank. In her mind, she had already prepared a list to argue her innocence “In my defense, I didn’t know; I’ve never seen a naked body before except my own! And I don’t have that strange little stump you have; nobody ever told me that men have little extra bits of meat hanging between their legs!”

Eishi twitched at her passionate entreaty, and he seemed especially triggered every time the word ‘little’ was mentioned in reference to his…bits.

“You called it a sword last night,” he muttered, offended by her change in opinion. She squinted at him, not understanding his pique.

“What’s it for, anyway?” she asked, immensely curious. It was a curiosity that he was quickly beginning to recognize could be extremely destructive whenever left unchecked. He hadn’t exactly been in the mood to answer her questions last night, too busy curled up in a fetal position in bed. That was after they had made that really awkward trip to the healer’s quarters and the latter had laughed until he was rolling on the floor after he heard what happened.

“That healer said that all men have one. Really? Do they all look the same?? Can I see yours?”

Eishi turned a dark red at her barrage of questions. He stopped what he was doing and stared at her like she was crazy.

“…No. You can’t see mine.” He paused as another worrying thought occurred to him. He frowned. “Also, you’re explicitly forbidden from looking at other people’s swords, am I clear?”

“Huh?” Rindou was confused and getting a bit annoyed herself by his unreasonable restrictions. He wouldn’t show her his and he wouldn’t let her peek at others’ too, how unfair. “Then how am I ever gonna know what it looks like?”

“You don’t need to know what it looks like,” he retorted with an unusual amount of forcefulness, getting more and more flustered by the second. Why were they even discussing this? He was silently dying of mortification and the woman before him had absolutely no idea, as usual. “We won’t speak of this topic any further, so forget all of it.”

But Rindou did not understand what the whole fuss was about. A weapon that only men had and nobody was supposed to talk about…? This sure was one big mystery, and all over something that didn’t seem very useful to her. Perhaps it was like a holy artifact? Something symbolic and only decorative in purpose? Then why hide it away? Shouldn’t he be parading it around everywhere?

She was also quite sure she had overheard the healer mention something about ‘family jewels,’ though Eishi had spluttered and waved him off before more could be said. …A jeweled sword? Definitely decorative, then, she concluded decisively. Her desire to see it grew.

Unfortunately, he was weirdly agitated so maybe she should try her luck again another time. With reluctance, the redhead dropped the topic. At least he wasn’t ignoring her anymore.

“Tsukasa?”

“…Yes?” He was almost dreading to hear what outrageous things she was about to say next. Rindou widened her eyes and projected all the sincerity she could muster.

“M’very sorry I broke your secret holy sword.”

…

…secret…holy-

The white-haired knight emitted a…croak that was almost part bewildered incredulity, part laugh of despair. It was either that or cry. He gave up. He started to massage his temple.

“…It’s not broken.”

She perked up at the good news. It’s not broken! “Then, can I see-”

He groaned, loudly. She was going to be trying her hardest to get into his breeches for the next few days, wasn’t she? Just the very thought of it made him break out in cold sweat.

“…No. Just no.”

XxXxXxXxXx

[jcmorgenstern]

@superohclair oh god okay please know these are all just incoherent ramblings so like, idk, please feel free to add on or ignore me if im just wildly off base but this is a bad summary of what ive been thinking about and also my first titans/batman meta?? (also, hi!)

okay so for the disclaimer round: I am not an actual cultural studies major, nor do I have an extensive background in looking at the police/military industrial complex in media. also my comics knowledge is pretty shaky and im a big noob(I recently got into titans, and before that was pretty ignorant of the dceu besides batman) so I’ll kind of focus in on the show and stuff im more familiar with and apologize in advance?. basically im just a semi-educated idiot with Opinions, anyone with more knowledge/expertise please jump in! this is literally just the bullshit I spat out incoherently off the top of my head. did i mention im a comics noob? because im a comics noob.

so on a general level, I think we can all agree that batman as a cultural force is somewhat on the conservative side, if not simply due to its age and commercial positioning in American culture. there are a lot of challenges and nuances to that and it’s definitely expanding and changing as DC tries to position itself in the way that will...make the most money, but all you have to do is take a gander through the different iterations of the stories in the comics and it’ll smack you in the fucking face. like compare the first iteration of Jason keeping kids out of drugs to the titans version and you’ve got to at least chuckle. at the end of the day, this is a story about a (white male) billionaire who fights crime.

to be fair, I’d argue the romanticization of the police isn’t as aggressive as it could be—they are most often presented as corrupt and incompetent. However, considering the main cop characters depicted like Jim Gordon, the guys in Gotham (it’s been a while since I saw it, sorry) are often the romanticized “good few” (and often or almost always white cis/het men), that’s on pretty shaky ground. I don’t have the background in the comics strong enough to make specific arguments, so I’ll cede the point to someone who does and disagrees, but having recently watched a show that deals excellently with police incompetence, racism, and brutality (7 Seconds on Netflix), I feel at the very least something is deeply missing. like, analysis of race wrt police brutality in any aspect at all whatsoever.

I think it can be compellingly read that batman does heavily play into the military/police industrial complex due to its takes on violence—just play the Arkham games for more than an hour and you’ll know what I mean. to be a little less vague, even though batman as a franchise valorizes “psychiatric treatment” and “nonviolence,” the entire game seems pretty aware it characterizes treatment as a madhouse and nonviolence as breaking someone’s back or neck magically without killing them because you’re a “good guy.” while it is definitely subversive that the franchise even considers these elements at all, they don’t always do a fantastic job living up to them.

and then when you consider the fetishization of tools of violence both in canon and in the fandom, it gets worse. same with prisons—if anything it dehumanizes people in prisons even more than like, cop shows in general, which is pretty impressive(ly bad). like there’s just no nuance afforded and arkham is generally glamorized. the fact that one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, I will admit, does not help. im not really sure how to mitigate that when, again, one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, but I think my point still stands. fuck you, killer croc. (im just kidding unfuck him or whatever)

not to take this on a Jason Todd tangent but I was thinking about it this afternoon and again when thinking about that cop scene again and in many ways he does serve as a challenge to both batman’s ideology as well as the ideology of the franchise in general. his depiction is always a bit of a sticking point and it’s always fascinating to me to see how any given adaptation handles it. like Jason’s “”street”” origin has become inseparable from his characterization as an angry, brash, violent kid, and that in itself reflects a whole host of cultural stereotypes that I might argue occasionally/often dip into racialized tropes (like just imagine if he wasn’t white, ok). red hood (a play on robin hood and the outlaws, as I just realized...today) is in my exposure/experience mostly depicted as a villain, but he challenges batman’s no-kill philosophy both on an ethical and practical level. every time the joker escapes he kills a whole score more of innocent people, let alone the other rogues—is it truly ethical to let him live or avoid killing him for the cost of one life and let others die?

moreover, batman’s ““blind”” faith in the justice system (prisons, publicly-funded asylum prisons, courts) is conveniently elided—the story usually ends when he drops bad guy of the day off at arkham or ties up the bad guys and lets the police come etc etc. part of this is obviously bc car chases are more cinematic than dry court procedurals, but there is an alternate universe where bruce wayne never becomes batman and instead advocates for the arkham warden to be replaced with someone competent and the system overhauled, or in programs encouraging a more diverse and educated police force, or even into social welfare programs. (I am vaguely aware this is sometimes/often part of canon, but I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s the main focus. and again, I get it’s not nearly as cinematic).

overall, I think the most frustrating thing about the batman franchise or at least what I’ve seen or read of it is that while it does attempt to deal with corruption and injustice at all levels of the criminal justice system/government, it does so either by treating it as “just how life is” or having Dick or Jim Gordon or whoever the fuckjust wipe it out by “eliminating the dirty cops,” completely ignoring the non-fantasy ways these problems are dealt with in real life. it just isn’t realistic. instead of putting restrictions on police violence or educating cops on how to use their weapons or putting work into eradicating the culture of racism and prejudice or god basically anything it’s just all cinematized into the “good few” triumphing over the bad...somehow. its always unsatisfying and ultimately feels like lip service to me, personally.

this also dovetails with the very frustrating way mental health/”insanity” or “madness” is dealt with in canon, very typical of mainstream fiction. like for example:“madness is like gravity, all it takes is a little push.” yikes, if by ‘push’ you mean significant life stressors, genetic load, and environemntal influences,  then sure. challenge any dudebro joker fanboy to explain exactly what combination of DSM disorders the joker has to explain his “””insanity””” and see what happens. (these are, in fact, my plans for this Friday evening. im a hit at parties).

anyway I do really want to wax poetic about that cop scene in 1x06 so im gonna do just that! honestly when I first saw that I immediately sat up like I’d sat on a fucking tack, my cultural studies senses were tingling. the whole “fuck batman” ethos of the show had already been interesting to me, esp in s1, when bruce was basically standing in for the baby boomers and dick being our millennial/GenX hero. I do think dick was explicitly intended to appeal to a millennial audience and embody the millennial ethos. By that logic, the tension between dick and Jason immediately struck me as allegorical (Jason constantly commenting on dick being old, outdated, using slang dick doesn’t understand and generally being full of youthful obnoxious fistbumping energy).

Even if subconsciously on the part of the writers, jason’s over-aggressive energy can be read as a commentary on genZ—seen by mainstream millennial/GenX audiences as taking things too far. Like, the cops in 1x06 could have been Nick Zucco’s hired men or idk pretty much anyone, yet they explicitly chose cops and even had Jason explain why he deliberately went after them for being cops so dick (cop) could judge him for it. his rationale? he was beaten up by cops on the street, so he’s returning the favor. he doesn’t have the focused “righteous” rage of batman or dick/nightwing towards valid targets, he just has rage at the world and specifically the system—framed here as unacceptable or fanatical. as if like, dressing up like a bat and punching people at night is, um, totally normal and uncontroversial.

on a slightly wider scope, the show seems to internally struggle with its own progressive ethos—on the one hand, they hire the wildly talented chellah man, but on the other hand they will likely kill him off soon. or they cast anna diop, drawing wrath from the loudly racist underbelly of fandom, but sideline her. perhaps it’s a genuine struggle, perhaps they simply don’t want to alienate the bigots in the fanbase, but the issue of cops stuck out to me when I was watching as an social issue where they explicitly came down on one side over the other. jason’s characterization is, I admit and appreciate, still nuanced, but I’d argue that’s literally just bc he’s a white guy and a fan favorite. cast an actor of color as Jason and see how fast fandom and the writer’s room turns on him.

anyway i don’t really have the place to speak about what an explicitly nonwhite!cop!dick grayson would look like, but I do think it would be a fascinating and exciting place to start in exploring and correcting the kind of vague and nebulous complaints i raise above. (edit: i should have made more clear, i mean in the show, which hasn’t dealt with dick’s heritage afaik). also, there’s something to be said about the cop vs detective thing but I don’t really have the brain juice or expertise to say it? anyway if you got this far i hope it was at least interesting and again pls jump in id love to hear other people’s takes!!

tldr i took two (2) cultural studies classes and have Opinions

[applekitty]

‘game dedede’ is not a good person to ship escargoon with and here’s why

im glad my escargoon analysis resonated with lots of people. i saw some comments on it, which i feel the need to reply to because they’re on my post. a small few comments have been about the main focus of this whole multi paragraph crazed yammering; game dedede

(content warning: i talk about the horror comic killing stalking for four paragraphs. wow i bet this content warning doesn’t give mood whiplash at all)

now, game dedede isn’t much of anything. he’s a non-character, as he has no discernible personality in the games that isn’t really much of anything more than a catalyst for people to project a personality onto. as are all the game characters, because kirby isn’t focused so much on plot and indepth character development as it is about the gameplay. nintendo’s always been good at gameplay,  so they have basically stuck to what they’ve known and sprinkled small plot bits around places and entirely discarded anything other than hints personalities so that way they have an excuse for pure gameplay and fun to occur. it’s the same way with mario, and zelda, and usually basically all of their properties. yes, even pokemon, though usually when pokemon gets too plot heavy we get games like sun and moon, which are basically just cutscenes upon cutsc- 

what was i talking about? oh, right, game dedede.

game dedede is usually seen by the fandom as a variety of things, but the main one is nice. and by nice i mean he is usually portrayed as someone who is typically valorous and is doing the right thing, not someone who is necessarily pleasant, though some like to make him pleasant or jolly. if you know me or have even been on my blog even once on pc you’ll notice the cool deviantart stamp i got from one of my friends. i fully agree with the things it entails; dedede not being your typical uwu ‘do nothing wrong’ monarch that he’s often now plastered as because he did the whole ‘i help this cat’ in rtdl or because he wanted to keep nightmare from coming out of the fountain in nightmare in dreamland and.. whatever the name was of the game that it was a remake of.

people usually want to be able to root for the protagonist, and since dedede was a protagonist and / or in the right in a few occasions, we want to see him as a good guy doing good guy things. and there’s plenty of different ways to take that, as there’s both evidence for and against him being a morally light character. but that’s not really the point of what i’m talking about here. regardless of your own personal opinion on how ‘game dedede’ morally is, he is not a good person for escargoon to be with. there’s a reason why i said someone should be shipping him with an oc rather than game dedede, and it’s precisely because ‘game dedede’, even if he somehow zapped into the anime verse, would not be good to ship with him.

and it’s not based on chemistry or because game dedede is secretly or openly evil or something like that. it’s purely because escargoon is still a victim of abuse. and if you’re someone with a few braincells you want him to get out of that abuse and go find a new husband who’ll love and care for him. for escargoon to get game dedede seems to make sense at first because escargoon is so devoted to the anime one, but when you look at it, it’s not healthy at all.

this is essentially taking escargoon’s old abuser, wiping away all the ‘sins’ of his character just to make it so escargoon can date him. just so he can date an idealized version of his abuser. this person is quite literally just his abuser but with a mental coat of paint. 

allow me to draw comparison.

i’m going to go off here about a comic that i warned about at the top of the post. i’m not going to go too indepth about it due to the sheer nausea i might cause people if i do. it is a rather extreme example sheerly due to the content of said comic, but i can’t think of another better one off the top of my head. there’s a comic named killing stalking which was a big note for socio-political talk i think a few years back. it was a horror comic about a killer and a stalker wherein the murderer takes the stalker in, breaks his legs, and keeps in his house. the stalker, who already had sexual interest in his kidnapper, is abused due to various here and there reasons, and then after a while the comic begins the two’s sexual-romantic yet still abusive relationship. here’s the thing. the two of the characters are both men, so the relationship is gay.

many took to tumblr and various other medias smacking the comic for the display that it created (the comic chock is full of fairly nauseating things that are worth calling disgusting, but are expected of a shock horror comic) and the association it made between gay men and murderers, as well as making gay men look predatory and dangerous. normally said comic wouldn’t have been much of a problem or very noteworthy if it were about a straight pair, but it was about this Evil Gay Murderer Pair, so it was a source of controversy like shit is an attractor of flies.

despite the controversy that the comic had gotten, and the treatment in-canon it had of its characters being very clearly evil and in the wrong and clear deservance of being detracted, something strange happened. not in the comic, but in the people who decided to support said comic. people decided to support it for a number of reasons, one being that ‘oh it’s a horror comic i like horror despite what controversy or effects it may have on people’. i remember seeing it once, on my dashboard, i think. or back in the day when i was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with this comic that everyone on my dash was just going to town on. people were shipping the two main, gay characters with eachother. and they weren’t doing it in a way that was ‘oh the murderer is so hot look at him in all this blood’ sort of way. it was in a much more.. ‘cozy’ position. it was fluffy. it was shown as cute. at first i thought it was because people were fucking weirdos, but i remember this one caption that has been recalled in perfect paraphrased clarity to me.

‘some people make aus to make their ships more angsty, but i’m out here making mine healthy lol’

people were taking the murderer, the main person who was causing the problems in the comic, and turning him into a loving husband for the stalker (who was shown as very mentally ill and in desperate need of love and attention). people were making the pairing that the comic itself showed as horrifying and awful to be fluffy and cute and devoid of any problems. so that way the victim was no longer hurt. it was an au. the murderer had a new personality, he was a changed man who never hurt anyone, so he was perfect for the stalker. that way, the ship could be had but there would be no issue whatsoever.

and to be quite honest, that’s what we have here. we have an offshoot of that. though obviously the source material is much less dangerous in our case, we still have a victim in desperate need of love in an abusive relationship with someone who hurts them. then, we have people shipping said victim with a new version of that abuser just to wipe the slate clean. just to keep the ship going without anyone objecting to it, because it can all be explained away as an au or what have you. though, i’m sure the ship in killing stalking was very much bashed by people (at least, i hope it was), while this one isn’t.

i can hear my strawman in the replies already going ‘well thanks for the tangent. but ching, game dedede’s a different person. he is legitimately a different canon than anime dedede, meanwhile this is people making things up that the canon doesn’t support. if you dated a twin you won’t apply the sins of the twin on the other one, would you?’ and if this were a real life situation, you’d be correct. 

it’d be wrong to place the sins of one twin onto another sheerly because one was an abusive asshole. but since is a real life scenario, putting a victim of abuse back with someone who looks exactly like their abuser would most certainly create extreme fear and panic in that victim. it wouldn’t matter if one of the twins hasn’t done anything, the potential relationship would forever be ruined and it’d be out of their control. and no one, no self respecting person, should ever have a victim date them if they look exactly like said victim’s old abuser. that’s just asking for mental troubles and constant panic attacks.

but that’s if this were real. it’s not real. this is video games and cartoons. it doesn’t come down to that, it comes down to us and what we decide to do, and what we decide to ship. these are not real people. we are putting them together for our own amusement because you’d think they’d get along. and doing this with a ship like this with game dedede says, to me, "I do not care if it is abusive in canon, I want to ship it anyways without any problems or people calling me out, so I’ll make it so people can’t do that by stripping the abuser of their abusive characteristics and make it so this abusive ship is all sunshine and rainbows". this is especially poignant if escargoon is stripped of all his abuse as well, allowing for him to be shipped more easily. it is quite literally going ‘nope’ when one is confronted with the very real trauma of a character and discarding it. don’t get me wrong, some things in canon should be discarded in some sources of entertainment, but a character’s abuse being discarded entirely for the sake of shipping just does not sit well with me.

of course, people who ship it are absolutely not thinking this maliciously when they ship discountdesuka, but that’s what it is irregardless of what they are thinking.

‘game’ dedede / escargoon is a ‘what could’ve been’ situation. 

it is an idealized version of dedesuka, one which throws a key aspect of escargoon’s out the door purely for the fluff and the cute gay moments that could’ve been. and sadly enough, it’s probably what escargoon dreams and hopes could happen (which is arguable because escargoon gets suspicious whenever dedede is nice to him), but it never does.

i understand why people do it. i know they don’t have some secret plan to be evil by creating secret abusive content that has hidden messages in it so everyone will ship abusive ships or something ridiculous like that, and if you thought that i thought that you’re very wrong. 

in some’s cases (as shown by the tags on my escargoon post), they want to reclaim a relationship which was blatantly homophobic in execution and turn it into something better. others just want a cute ship because their version of ‘game’ dedede is morally better than his anime counterpart, and wouldn’t hurt escargoon. they want to make wholesome content to drown out canon’s shows of abuse and negativity. which is understandable to want, but to show respect to the concepts the show puts out, isn’t something that should be embraced with ‘game’ dedede/escargoon. 

but there is no undoing what anime dedede/escargoon is in the show, and what it means to give escargoon over to ‘game’ dedede instead. ‘game’ dedede / escargoon is not abusive by any initial means, but it is still something that should not be shipped regardless.

it is disrespect to escargoon’s status as an abuse victim to  ship him with the same exact person who abused him and say it’s okay because ‘he has a different personality’. 

i am begging you. please ship escargoon with your oc or some other game character.

[mal-likes-biscuits]

⌆ a nervous tic or habit they do, Mal and maybe a quick one for Imperius?

I’ve written about Malthael’s mortal quirks in this Ask. However, I can also tackle nervous habits/tics specifically, because I think they are quite different. Content below the break for length!

Malthael - Nerves

An important thing to note is that it is extremely difficult to make Malthael nervous. Any anxieties he experiences he keeps buried deep down, and he does not display them externally (at least physically). He also suffers from a serious case of over-confidence in most situations. He knows he is correct. He takes action based on that correctness. 99.9% of the time, he is right–

–Except for the 00.1% time when he is very wrong.

Being wrong about something unsettles him deeply. When he was an Archangel, he found the concept of failure absolutely unfathomable. The fracturing of the Chalice’s Truth and the loss of his Wisdom was the main thing that drove him to madness, because without them, he was capable of mistakes. The immortal, all-seeing Archangel of Wisdom does not make mistakes.

The mortal Aspect of Wisdom does err, however, and more frequently than he would like to admit. When this happens, he tends to freeze up physically as his mind sorts through all the variables of the situation in an attempt to fix it. We’ve seen this reaction several times in my fics (most notably in “A Light in the Darkness”). This is also the moment when he is physically most vulnerable, because he experiences a metaphorical “soul leaving the body” sensation and forgets he should be doing something his physical form.

[“A Light in the Darkness”: Chapter 3] 

Chith made to follow, then turned to see Mal unmoving from his post. The older man watched, entranced, as a group of Wolves helped the Emperor regain his balance. Hakkan’s gaze darted about the crowd, until his eyes abruptly met Mal’s. They stared at each other from a distance, incredulity spreading across Hakkan’s face, while an unreadable fury of emotions crossed their friend’s.

“Malthael!” Lyndon screamed. “Regrets later, running now!”

The lore-seeker blinked, turned from the Emperor, and sprinted after them.

Which is where this expression comes from:

If he can’t shake himself from this feedback loop, or find a solution, he goes immediately from nervous/unsettled to Aggressive Existential Panic:

[“A Light in the Darkness”: Chapter 3]

He bit back profanity and tried to halt the feelings assaulting him, but the flow of memory grew, stealing his breath and turning his vision grainy. Death had not helped him, then. It had taken him. Completely.

“Death consumes all, fool. Do you think yourself an exception?”

He unconsciously tightened his grip on Chith’s arm, shaking his head violently to try and clear his thoughts. “Do something,” he growled.

“I cannot,” Chith whispered. He had gone very still, his eyes wide and white.

“Stop them.”

“I cannot. The most I ever summoned was a single ghoul, and you know what it did? It laughed happily and then died. Again.” He pulled his arm away from Malthael, his shoulders shaking.

The break in physical contact was enough to temporarily wrench him back to reality. Panicked shouts from the crowd returned, along with the voices of the Wolves, who were now very close indeed. Ashamed and frustrated at his actions, Malthael tried to reassess the situation, but found his mind locked in place.

Or, in visual form:

His consuming the Black Soulstone at the end of Reaper of Souls is also a perfect example of the Aggressive Existential Panic reaction, where he skips right over any other potential solutions and slaps the overkill button.

This is all to say that when it comes to nervous quirks, Malthael’s are not subtle, and if he is displaying them at all, it means he is only a step or two away from falling apart and entering the realm of Very Bad Decision Making.

I’ve specifically avoided discussing the Reaper-voice component of his panic reaction in any of this, because I firmly believe those are due to his intrusive thoughts/PTSD, and are not a natural part of his nervous behaviour. They can certainly exacerbate the situations I listed above, but they are in addition to his base instinct to either remain completely impassive or jump right to Losing His Shit.

Malthael - Uncertainty

A lesser variant of this is his reaction to uncertainty, which is a fractional step above his reaction to failing, and is usually only triggered by one thing: him attempting to navigate interpersonal situations that he cares about.

Pictured above: the rare moment when Malthael realizes he’s been an utter dumbass and conveys the emotion externally.

Most of the time, Malthael has exactly zero fucks to give about social interaction. He is honest and objective, and he prefers to surround himself with people who accept that about him and prize it (or, at least tolerate it).

However, as he spends more time in mortal form, he gradually bonds with a core group of individuals, and also learns to temper some of his more brusque reactions out of respect for his friends. He is capable of feeling embarrassment when his cocky overconfidence does not brush it aside. It is not an emotion he likes whatsoever; no one does, to be sure, but Malthael particularly dislikes it, because it usually means he is also feeling emotionally vulnerable, and his experience in dealing with that (and capacity to do so due to personality) is limited.

In any of the above situations, he has a tendency to hunch over, avoid eye contact, or tightly clutch anything he is holding. 

[Tales from Tristram: “Justice and Wisdom Walk Into a Bar”]

“And you are in a committed relationship,” Chith continued. “Unlike your brother.” (…) “You are, aren’t you?” Chith asked, his expression growing unsure. “I assumed, given how you look at each other. And you share your meals. And, well, a great deal of your time.”

“Farah has exquisitely good taste in food,” Malthael said, remarkably even toned. His knuckles, however, had turned white from clutching his mug too hard. An almost imperceptible colour crossed his pale cheeks. “Also, she is intelligent, and enjoyable to converse with. Unlike…certain others.”

This is not a face/mannerism he makes often, but a good summary of how he feels in situations like the above.

As you may have guessed, the person who triggers these sorts of reactions in Malthael the most is Farah. He is uncomfortable being snarky with her in the same way he is with Lyndon or Tyrael (though he certainly enjoys bantering with her in a witter and less rude fashion). As snark and sarcasm are his go-to conversational habits, when he is left without them, he tends to do things like the following:

[Tales from Tristram: “Echoes”]

He raised his finger in reply, silently asking for a moment. Eventually he located a book, withdrew it, and added it to the stack. Then he turned and stared at the ceiling above her, looking as though he wasn’t sure what to do with his limbs when they were not wielding either books or weapons. Strands of hair branched out messily from the one side of his head, a marginally impressive feat given their length. He looked neither awake nor nearly as self-assured as he had that night outside Tristram.

Gradually, this reaction is replaced by the quietly simmering affection we see him displaying for her in later stories, as he becomes more comfortable with his human emotional capacity, and also learns to trust. He still slips up from time to time, though, and Farah, Lyndon, and the others get a good chuckle when the Aspect of Wisdom suddenly becomes speechless because he cares too much.

Imperius - Nerves

The Archangel of Valor, much like Malthael, does not get nervous about things. He and his brother are similar in that they are both overconfident and tend to assume they are right about everything. While Malthael’s arena is large-scale strategic planning, Imperius’ is battlefield skirmishes.

The difference is that when Imperius is confronted with his mistakes, and is nervous or uncertain as a result, he takes one of two actions: he either does exactly what people are telling him not to do (see: “Wrath”), or he laughs. The former reaction tends to occur when his self-worth is threatened. The latter, when he doesn’t want to look like a fool in less serious situations.

Imperius is that individual who will let loose a hearty belly laugh if you point out his mistakes. His shoulders will shake with mirth. If you point this out, he will laugh even harder. The laughter amuses him and makes him feel better. It also ensures that at a point, the person speaking to him cannot talk loudly enough to be heard.

Aka: “I AM THE GREATEST WARRIOR IN ALL OF CREATION HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

As an immortal, his capacity to understand this reaction and self-analyse is limited. I assume a mortal Imperius could gradually acknowledge this habit and par it down to allow him to accept and act on constructive criticism.

[theburningsensationofpoetry]

BMC Ghost AU: Meeting Michael Mell

(I tried my hardest (´∀｀；) It sucks, but bare with me...I’ll fix anything that doesn’t seem right, I just used a Shakespeare translator...I didn’t research much.)

For: @wowthatsartbruh and @gelasticat

Michael awoke from his bed feeling a chill up his spine.

Surprising enough he didn’t feel the need to yawn, or even stretch. Odd, but it happened every once in a while.

He sat up visibly awake, feeling an energy around him. A familiar one.

He stepped off his bed starting to step down the stairs to the kitchen. He took in the smell of freshly baked waffles from the toaster. His mom knew it was his favorite, but why today? Today wasn’t a special day?

Michael excitedly ran down the stairs, trying not to trip (Which he didn’t!) to stop dead in his tracks.

He saw his two moms visibly sobbing.

Michael’s face turned from happy to mortified. “Mom? Nanaya? What’s wrong?” He tried to give them a weak smile, but to find they weren’t listening.

“Guys?” Michael moved forth to grasp his mom's shoulder, but finding his hand slipping through her skin, like a hologram.

Michael’s whole body shook at that one moment. He looked up to his mom’s faces.

“Guys? Please I’m right here!” Michael shrieked wailing his hands in the air. He went around them and found himself wanting to create tears from his eyes. But nothing came.

“Please.”

He looked to his side, on the granite counter was a jar...The jar read ‘Michael Manning Mell’.

“This is not true.” he muttered under his breath. He gritted his teeth took in a moment. “THIS IS NOT FUCKING TRUE!”

He gripped at his hair, not feeling the least bit of pain.

“This is all a dream. If I close my eyes, everything will be okay...It will be okay” Michael continued to chant this to himself

….

….

before he opened his eyes to find a shorter girl staring at him intensely.

“Uhh hi?” Michael choked out, still feeling a tad anxious and concerned on what’s happening.

She had a bob cut, a bigger frame, she had a caramel skin tone, but peculiar she had red marks on her neck, her neck seemed to be thinner and longer than her body proportions. Giving her a creepy vibe.

“Good morrow to you, sir, please follow me.” She spoke in a tone of some sophisticated white person. Michael was cautiously following her. He found himself walking away from his moms, leaving to the living room.

“Am I…”

“Dead? Aye, t'will take you a moment to remember thy death. It is common.”

He stopped and took a moment to think. Did he really die so young. He died looking like...Like him? He was going to look like this forever?

The girl must have saw the discomfort, for she spoke up “don't worry about the appearance or family or future, look forward to thy life as a spirit.”

He sighed walking forward with her…

“What's your name?”

“Christine.”

They didn’t speak much but by the looks of it she seemed okay...And if he was dead he was going to needed to get used to it.

He found himself in his living room to have multiple guests in it.

All ranging from creepiness levels.

Michael screeched like a bratty 5 year old who just lost their elsa slippers.

“broth'r don't be afeard of my comrades, those gents are valorous people.” The short ghost insisted.

Michael gulped nodding.

A young man came forth with his body having multiple gunshot wounds in him. He put forth his hand, Michael hesitantly shook it. “Refer to me as jake sir.” The man nodded before stepping aside.

A lady came forth with a large hole in her neck, another bullet hole. She had a beautiful outfit. She reached for michaels hand, they shook hands and she pulled him into a hug. “Names brooke sweetie.”

The blonde girl walked away, to a reveal a stern looking young women.

She wore a nurses outfit and had a gunshot on her left side of her chest. She is a brunette, and she looked pissed.

She took michaels hand roughly and shook it.

“Names chloe, got it?”

Michael nodded quickly terrified of this ghost.

Then a scary looking female came through. She had half of her right face skin torn apart. Her right arm was torn off. A big gash was in her cheek.

Luckily as michael suspected he's dead, so he couldn’t vomit right now even if he really wanted too.

But when that girl gave him a soft smile and gave him the softest handshake he ever got. He knew she was a good person. Just a little broken.

He gave a toothy grin, giving the girl a small fragile gasp.

She skipped off along with the others leaving on more boy in the back to introduce himself.

He walked forth and Michael couldn’t help but let his lips part. The boy looked beautiful. Well he had flaws of course, like how something dripped a bit from his eyes, or how he had a some splotches of bumps giving him an ill look, but yet… if you looked at him something brought you a sense of honesty and comfort.

When he walked forward, michael was sure his non-beating heart did a flip.

Jeremy shook his hand and smiled.

“Aye good day huh? Your looking mighty fine and plump!” Was Michael hearing right. Plump? What the fuck.

“Wha-what. Fuck you!” Michael exclaimed not loudly, but in a mildly raised voice.

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and he cleared his throat. “sir thou must has't not heard me right. I said thee wast looking very fine and plump, or would well rounded be more to your liking?”

“Asshole.” Michael stated walking away crossing his arms over his stomach.

Jeremy looked grieved, as well as confused.

Jeremy walked to the opposite side if the zig zag line of ghosts avoiding michael.

Meanwhile michael was angry, everyone was nice yeah, but the one guy he thought was cute was an asshole.

“well now that thou has met everyone, thee can explore as a ghost! t shalt be the most excimenting. And no need to tell us your name, we know already!” Christine clapped her hands together in enjoyment. She starting to move through a wall scaring michael, before he hit his head and thought ‘your dead dingus’

He found everyone around him moving to go somewhere and he decided to go see his moms, but before he could he felt a cold hand upon his shoulder.

It was the jerk from before.

“broth'r, methinks we didn't formally meet right...did I do something wrong...?” Jeremy spoke starting to fiddle with his left sleeve.

Michael turned around and took a look at this kid. He didn’t seem to aim to make fun of him. From the looks of it, he looked to be from a different age. He looked like a weird guy from a history book.

“First of all yeah! You caused some beef with me. I don’t like being called a fat pig.”

Jeremy gasped slightly.

“Sir! I would never call you a pig! Fat yes, but that is a wonderful thing! Thy legs has't wonderful curves, thou has't better structure than any here, thou stomach is most likely soft and comfortable, thou has beautiful stripped marking of a god like creature, thou lips are thick and grand! Thy shouldn't be ashamed of your figure, you should be most joyful! As a handsome man yourself, I would be hounderd if you even found one thing beautiful in I.”

Michael was not processing what he said whatsoever.

He was stuck on the words he got ‘beautiful, grand, god like…’ Did someone think his weight was...beautiful?

“Is this some kind of joke? Like thanks and all, but your beautiful too.”

Jeremy's eyes shot up.

“W-what sir?” “You're beautiful too. I don’t know if you meant what you said, but look..” Michael took a step further to Jeremy. “You got a beautiful figure as w-well. You have a well sculpted body, you have beautiful eyes, your hair looks like really really soft. Can I pet it?” Jeremy nodded and Michael being taller pet Jeremy's hair and giggled. “I was right. It is soft. Look.. You're beautiful too. And if you think...My weight is beautiful then you gotta be over a 10 to me.”

Jeremy looked shocked then broke out into a smile. He got down on one knee and spoke “My dearest Michael would you be proudest to be engaged to me.”

“What.”

“My dearest-”

“I heard that, engage? Wouldn’t you want to, i dunno take me on a date?” Michael giggled.

“But sir, with all due respect, I have been waiting for a moment to meet you in person and marry you.” He smiled then turning red “B-but not like this! I wouldn’t want you to ever perish from your family! I j-just always saw you and I w-wanted to marry you alive. W-when you spoke of being, attracted to males, I had the same thought. Knowing it was wrong in my time, b-but times have changed and michel would thou be honored to marry me!” Jeremy was a persistent piece of shit, but Michael found it cute.

“Okay how about this…” michael learned close to jeremy. “If you take me on one date, your choice of place, and if it's good I will consider marrying you.” Michael smirked seeing the joyful and terrified look on jeremy's face.

“You have my word. I shall find the perfect place for us!” He started to scoot off when michael yelled “You have two hours!”

Jeremy shrieked moving faster.

Michael wheezed out laughing enjoying Jeremy trying to have a good date.

He went to see his mom's,he found his mom's where seated on his bed holding their hands together.

Having a better look at the room he saw something on the wall. Scorch marks. It was coming back. The electricity running through his body. He swore he felt a shock go through him. He took another look at his moms who hugged once more.

He stepped forth to his moms, and tried to wrap his arms around them.

He wish he could tell them it would be alright, he wished he could be their by their side. None of that was going to happen. He was going to be this age forever, he was going to watch his family get old and die.

He felt himself sick at his nonexistent stomach at the thought of that. He found himself having to move out of the room not before he found himself saying one last words to his moms.

“Please stay strong.” He swore he saw their head snap up, but he decided to leave the room, before he could get a response.

He walked down the stairs, forgetting he could easily fly if he knew how.

He found Jenna and jake playing goldfish.

“How do you guys play if ghosts can't move things?” Michael asked shocked and ashamed.

Jenna rolled her eyes and looked to him. “Yeah we can!” She had a really raspy voice...dang…”we put it backup and its really light so we can move it!”

Michael shrugged and went to go play with them. Eventually the whole group was playing and he was learning more about them.

Like how their all cursed. Great….

It seemed like a long two hours passed, because finally Jeremy showed up.

“Michael! A-are thy ready for our date?” He sheepishly smiled putting his hands behind his back smiling.

Michael chuckled putting his cards down to go forth with Jeremy.

“Is jerry going to kiss Michael?” Brooke whispered but not really.

“I hope so.” Jenna also didn’t really whisper causing both Michaels and Jeremy's cold faces to feel warm.

“Jeremiah is going to mess it up. Ten bucks.” Chloe scoffed laughing.

“We don’t have money chlo Chlo.” Brooke said softly.

“It's an expression darling.” Jake spoke up.

Jeremy decided to link arms with Michael, Michael shrugged it off venturing forth to wherever Jeremy was taking him.

Jeremy was taking him to a wall… “Hey Jeremy?” Jeremy hummed in response looking up at him. “Can we use the front door and walk their? If possible?” Michael flicked his thumb across his pointer finger, a typical thing when he got anxious.

He was visibly uncomfortable with being ghost. Just dying. He wanted to pretend he was alive for the most part.

“Of course!” Jeremy chirped leading Michael to the front door.

They had to phase through it, but Michael was okay for the most part.

They walked down the cold street not feeling the chills that would have ran through his human body.

They walked for at least 15 minutes mindlessly chatting when they arrived at a local zoo, the zoo was fairly big, but it was not as big as some up in New York.

Jeremy took him through the gate to see all the animals they could.

Most were just covered or put up, but Jeremy knew the animals that where there.

He wanted to show Michael the penguins or the lizards.

He went for the penguins.

They walked back of the park, usually for the employees.

Jeremy showed him the way to the door of the penguin exhibit, Bowing as he did.

Michael softly giggled sending a butterfly up Jeremy’s empty stomach.

Michael walked through hesitantly...but then looking amazed as he saw what’s before him.

Glimmering in the little light their was, the snow around the area.

A little pond with a light waterfall.

Michael stood amazed.

Jeremy walked through chuckling as Michael stood amazed.

Truth be told Michael has only been to petting zoos as a kid. He just was never close to them in his hometown.

Jeremy led him to a ledge and layed down. Michael sat down with him looking down at the penguins that sat protecting eggs.

Jeremy wrapped his lanky arm around Michael, smiling.

Michael smiled contently looking at a the penguins once more.

One particular penguin stepped off of their egg they were sitting on.

The egg wiggled and a chip went through.

Michael gasped scooting a forward a bit, not getting out of Jeremy’s grasp.

More chips came through the egg, a fuzzy penguin came out.

Michael was looking at it with pure wonder and enjoyment.

“Jeremy.”

“Yes?”

“I might take you up on that offer.”

[ihackedmywayuptothetop]

I’m finally ready to talk

I said weeks ago I would make a statement. So here it is. I don’t much care for my ex anymore. He punched me twice. I had been not wanting to deal with an interrogation over speaking up and honestly it’s been tough. He was my best friend. Although I broke up with him a year and a half ago and separated myself from him for many reasons I chose to continue to have a very casual and sometimes sexual relationship with him. I knew I was in danger and playing with fire but at least I could always retreat to my own home. Its been hard to let him go as I really always thought he would be my husband someday but again luckily humor fills my soul as I have been wrong in that department a couple of times before him. It’s hard for me to trust somebody new. What are their intentions? You never can know. Love is a risk and I was left to ache alone this betrayal without my best friend. I hope someday my life will soften and somebody else’s love may brighten. I’m not always lucky In that way. I have felt a lot of depression in my life but at least it’s familiar. I doubt my anxiety will ever really leave me but I hope someday it will lessen some.

I have been thinking about the concept of bravery today and holding my head up high. To be present in all places we still go. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I will continue on and I denounce his name. I don’t even care to mutter it. This comes from me finally relinquishing any form of contact or relationship to him whatsoever. It stings as I shared my life with him for over four years. This being by far the longest in 6 years we have gone without speaking. It burns because I always thought he would overcome his demons. But in the end as always I must laugh because real men do not hit women. I may be shy sometimes and not want to let anybody into deeper levels of who I really am even if I can be the loudest in a bar. Not many people really know me. But thank you for reading. I may even be in danger because he did threaten if I tell anyone that he would kill me. I laugh at the thought of death as I laugh at the thought of there being any honor for putting your hands on a woman. I lived in constant anxiety and fear of losing a man I couldn’t control when he became angry with demons that can take over ones soul. I always thought there was more light than dark and hoped he could be the man I wanted him to be. But he has not and I laugh in the face of men who hit women as they show no valor in using their women given strength against another woman. He is no longer a man in my eyes. I even found out he already likely has done the same thing again already. Unfortunately, Like molasses I am stuck here and need to just give him space for the rest of his life. I will wear my head up high and my sadness hopefully will pass. As I always say, only the strong survive and stay in Boston and when I’m done being depressed the city will know.

Ps- I hope he learns from this. I know he is upset I posted this and honestly ironically he is the only one who prob reads it. He read this and is upset but did not try and kill me. So thanks Adam for allowing me to have “freedom of speech” I hope he does get help and doesn’t repeat this again. His dad was a horrible guy and the cycle needs to end. The point of this isn’t to shame Adam or put a hit out for him. Trust me I could and I get asked often what I want to have happen. I keep diaries and always have since I was like a little kid for myself. These words I hope will help me grow but I mostly do it to take time to reflect. You don’t learn much in life if you don’t take the time to be with your thoughts and try and make sense of them and my life’s story. I want to express myself and then grow from it. This is my diary and unfortunately my story now. The only thing I have control over in this crazy life is the narrative. I will rise from the ashes in time.

[manga-com-sal-e-pimenta-blog]

Earning Money Online - Stop Your Day Work

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Interpersonal shopping brings together e-commerce along with social networking and it has been an improvement for online businesses. Human communication is the key in order to product promotion and to excitement up sales. Consumers accelerate the stream of information via product recommendations. You can find the products that you may not easily find by yourself.

When I heard Leo was the new spokesperson, or "brand ambassador", for TAG timepieces, I anticipated seeing his face on billboards as well as in my favorite magazines. If they do a commercial, I might just dissolve. But knowing about Leonardo Dicaprio's involvement in environmental and environmental issues, wonderful usual capacity back purely commercial ventures, I discovered he must use this limelight as a way to push for help of help of these initiatives. Well, I was right! He could be using the royalties from their ambassadorship for TAG wrist watches, not for profit, but to further his favorite cause: minimizing the effects that humans are having on the planet. Besides Dicaprio consider donating all of his royalties from the MARKING watches contract, he is likewise adding millions of his own funds to the pot.

SSX was previously a snowboarding game having a childish love of life to go along with the over the top hands per hour. EA required some time to show us that SSX has exploded a bit with their upcoming release SSX: Fatal Descents.

Kershaw (5-2) plonked five hit outs. Within the last few 39 inning against the Makers, he has just given up an overall total of a few runs. He threw 107 pitches and leads MLB in TIME.

[gldngrl7]

Karamel Fic: Permission to Flourish (1/11)

Title: Permission to Flourish

Author: gldngrl7

Date Started: February 12, 2017

Rating: T for Teen (I know!  I can’t believe it either!)

  Author’s Notes:  

This story is the sequel to Bulletproof. Please read that one-shot before diving into this one.

I swear – sometimes I have no idea where some stories come from – and this is one of those stories that’s a complete mystery to me. It just came to me not long after writing Bulletproof of the vocation where Mon-El would find his calling after leaving National City and I just couldn’t NOT write it.

There is angst in this story but I promise a happy ending.

There’s a few original characters in this story. I hope you like them.  I hope you love them.

Comments are welcomed, flames are destroyed with my freeze breath.

  Chapter 1/11

         I've been around for you

                       I've been up and down for you

                                         But I just can't get any relief

        I've swallowed my pride for you

                        I've lived and I’ve lied for you

                                         But you still make me feel like a thief

         You got me stealing your love away

                           'Cause you never give it

                                           Peeling the years away and we can't relive it

           I make you laugh

                    And you make me cry

                                            I believe it's time for me to fly

       --REO Speedwagon - “Time for Me to Fly”

  Six years after leaving National City:

Mike Matthews’ day job was stressful and noisy and, not infrequently, leaked into his nighttime, despite his ability to work efficiently and occasionally at super speed when not observed by others. So when he had time alone in the peace and quiet of his secluded garage apartment, he liked to veg in front of the television – at least during weeknights.  He flipped on the television to watch a favorite sci-fi program – the one indulgence he seemed to be allowed during his busy week.  But just as he got comfortable, his hand tucked behind his head on the couch, his show cut away and a news crawl immediately appeared on the screen.

A nationally recognized news anchor appeared on the screen, her face stricken and pale.  Mike knew immediately something was horribly awry somewhere and straightened up, sitting at the edge of his seat.

“Breaking news from National City this evening.  Reports are pouring in, confirming that…what appears to be alien spaceships have arrived on the outskirts of the city near the Port.  We are hearing reports that these aliens are hostile – I repeat…they are hostile.  Forces are gathering in the city to repel the aliens at this time, with Supergirl being at the forefront of this fight…..”

The news report droned on but Mike heard none of it, his attention diverted by the buzzing of his cell phone on the coffee table. Sensing who was on the other end of the call, he answered it in a flash.  “I’m watching,” he announced, before the caller could even ask.  “Am I ready for this?  I don’t see how I have a choice.”  Mike whisked out of the room and returned with a duffel bag, dropping it on the floor at his feet.    “I’m already getting my things.  Just going to lock up before I leave.  See you there?”  Mike hung up the phone and dropped it into his bag.

It took less than a handful of seconds to lock the deadbolts on his door, hoist the duffel over his shoulder and take to the sky like he’d never known anything else.

*****

 Dominators!  He should have known.  After Kara fought the Dominators years ago on Earth Prime, it seemed only a matter of time before they’d show up here on Earth-38.  Arriving just in the nick of time to join the fight, as Supergirl, Superman and Martian Manhunter, along with a throng of heroes he’d never seen before, struggled to bring down a horde of berserkers, Valor wasted no time jumping into the fray.  And ‘fray’ it was, to be sure.  It appeared Supergirl and her team had invited others to their fight, including heroes he could only assume were her allies from another Earth.  Mike caught sight of Guardian fending off a Dominator with his shield, as well as Alex using her powered exoskeleton to toss one of the aliens into the waiting blast of fire from a man he can only assume was Heatwave.

He hovered over the Dominator shuttle plying it with his heat vision until is sputtered and then exploded.  Gathered Dominators stopped for a moment, realizing that their ride back to the mothership just bit the dust, which allowed Valor to invite himself to the party.  Landing on the ground, he puts his weight behind a single punch that sent one careening back into the ship’s fire.

“One down,” he told himself.

“Behind you,” someone shouted.  An orange streak flashed before his eyes and the apparent Dominator behind him disappeared to…he didn’t know where.

A second later, the orange flash materialized into a person beside him.  “I’m Barry,” the man in the blood red suit announced, an open grin on his masked face.

“Ah!”  Mike immediately recognized the name as the speedster from Earth Prime who befriended Kara long before Mike’s arrival on this planet.  “Barry Allen…nice to meet you finally.  I’m Mike…uh…Valor,” he indicated his suit.  “Is there a plan here?”

Barry tossed him a small bag.  “Put one of these behind the ear of each Dominator you come across.  Other than that, knock them around until the tech geniuses get their stuff set up. Then get clear when we get the signal.”

“And the signal is…?”

“You have super hearing?” the speedster asked.

“Yes.”

“Then keep your ears tuned to the comms. You’ll hear the signal when it comes,” he answered cryptically.

So they went to hand-to-hand, taking out the horde and trying to stay alive.  Dominators were extremely strong, their strength rivaling that of Superman, Supergirl and Valor, so as they fought, it was best to avoid physical contact whatsoever. He concentrated on using his speed to place the tiny transmitters.  At one point he looked around, but Supergirl was nowhere to be found.

An ally went down and Mike went after her, pulling her from the melee of attacking aliens.  He dragged her from beneath the body of a Dominator and removed her from the fight. She looked up at him and smiled behind her red mask.  “I’m Speedy and you can fly.”

“Valor,” he provided his codename for her. “And…yes I can.”

“Cool.”

“Are you okay?” he shouted over the noise.

“I’ve had worse,” she pluckily replied, rubbing at an injured shoulder.  She came off as much more petite than she actually was, and she wore an outfit made of thick red leather.  Whipping an arrow out of her quiver attached to her back, Speedy notched it into her bow. “Thanks for the assist, but there’s no rest for the wicked,” she said with a roguish smile, before diving back into the fight.

Valor flew up for an overhead view, taking out a few Dominators with his heat vision and by diving down upon them with his super speed and a punch combination.  It went on and on, a seemingly endless supply of attacking Dominators, until finally the signal was given and Mike soared above the crowd to watch as high pitched whine pass over the city in a giant wave, taking out all of the remaining Dominators.  The creatures grabbed for their “ears” and screeched in pain before crumpling to the ground, dead.

When it was over, he dropped like a stone, slamming feet first into the pavement, his knees bending to absorb the impact, his royal blue cape fluttering dramatically around him.  Clark was the first to approach him, their matching grins telling the tale of a long-held friendship.

“Clark,” he greeted, joyfully.  Clark’s impossibly strong arms wrapped him in a welcome embrace, his hands slapping Mike powerfully on the back.  Mike returned the embrace with equal back-slapping fervor, as men do.

“What kept you?” Clark joked.

“Can’t believe you started the party without me?” Mike shook his head.

“Well, if you hadn’t decided you needed to make a dramatic and well-timed entrance….”

“I’m on the other side of the country,” Mike reminded his friend and mentor.  “Philadelphia isn’t exactly a stone’s throw.  Besides, it looks like you had everything handled.”

“Come and meet the rest,” Clark grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the milling crowd.  He took them through each of their names, assuming that the others had already experienced their introductions.  He had already met Barry and Speedy, but there was also Vibe, Black Canary, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, Jesse Quick, as well as the team of time travelers that included Heatwave, Vixen, White Canary and Firestorm.

He looked for her.  Surreptitiously, unwillingly, his eyes darting away from each face, hoping to find hers somewhere in the crowd, but to no avail.  He felt his heart sink, though he hadn’t been wholly unaware of the hope he’d been carrying within.  Even through the supersonic flight to National City, he hadn’t really taken the time to truly consider seeing her again.  He’d been more concerned about an alien attack and what it might mean.  Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to examine the possibility too closely.  

“She’s with J’onn and Bruce,” Clark told him.

“I wasn’t—“

“You were,” Clark insisted firmly.  Mike’s shoulders slumped with defeat, finally admitting to himself that his heart had been searching for her in the crowd. “It’s okay,” Clark said, his hand grasping Mike’s shoulders in comfort.  “She’s returned to the DEO.  They managed to capture a Dominator and they wanted to secure it before interrogating it. Kara’s there to keep Bruce from killing it.”

“I see.”

“Do you want to join them?” Clark asked, expecting his friend to jump at the chance to see Kara again.

“No,” Mike replied, shaking his head and taking a step back.  “Probably not a good idea.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Clark exclaimed. “You’re going to come all this way and not even see her?  After six years?”

“Just a coward, I guess,” he shrugged, a kernel of truth hiding beneath the sarcasm.

“She doesn’t think that about you, Mike.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Mike said, placing his hands on his hips.  “It’s been six years.  Maybe it’s best if we just…forget.”

‘Then why haven’t you done that already?” Clark needled him.  “You think I haven’t noticed that there hasn’t been anyone in your life?”

‘There has—“

“Anyone real, I meant.  Sure, there have been dates here and there, but no one you’ve considered committing to long-term.”

“You know as well as I do, it’s not that easy.  Not every woman is like Lois,” Mike pointed out. He hadn’t seen Lois in over nine months, not since Samuel was born, and though they emailed on a weekly basis he still missed her.  She was the big sister he’d never had.

“You’ll never find your Lois if you don’t try,” Clark argued.

“How do you--?”

“I know you,” Clark cut him off.  “I know you – maybe even better than you know yourself. Maybe you’re not looking because you know you’ve already found her.”

“C’mon, Clark,” Mike begged, studying the tips of his blue boots.

“I know it’s hard,” Clark placed a hand on Mike’s shoulder.  “The first step is the hardest.”

Mike considered Clark’s position a moment before shaking his head.  “I can’t,” he decided.  “I just…can’t.  I’m sorry if that disappoints you.”

“You could never disappoint me,” Clark promised, a sad smile on his face.  “If you’re not ready, you’re not ready.  I’ll tell her.”

“Damn it, Clark!”

“She asks about you,” Clark confessed.  “When you were training, I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t talk about what we were doing or how you were progressing.  And I’ve kept that promise, even though it made her angry.  But those days are gone and all she wants is to know how you are.”

“Really?” Mike asked.  Why would she possibly want to know about his life?  He left after coming to the realization that she would never feel about him the way he felt about her.  He wanted to respect and honor that, so he removed himself from her sphere in hopes of easing her awkward discomfort.  “Why?”

“She cares about you, Mike,” Clark replied. “Maybe your leaving made her realize just how much….”

“No,” Mike shook his head.  “She was very clear.  She did not have those kinds of feelings for me.”

“We have a saying here on Earth about absence making the heart grow fonder.”

“I don’t want ‘fond’,” Mike answered, sadly.  “I never did.”

Clark tilted his head to one side for a second and listened to something outside of the human range of hearing.  Mike attempted to tune in, but without knowing where to focus, Clark could be listening to a football game on a television set three miles away for all he knew.

“Apparently defending the Earth against alien invaders makes the humans hungry.  Big Belly Burger?”

“Nah,” he answered, nonchalantly.  “I’m not—“

 “You don’t need to rush back,” Clark said, ramping up a pitch to convince him to stay, that Mike already knew was going to succeed.  Mike rarely denied Clark anything.  Logically, he knew that Clark was simply playing for time, in an effort to get Mike to stick around for a while longer.  Time he would use to try to convince him to see Kara, or worse, orchestrate an ‘accidental’ meeting.  But he’d rarely been able to withstand a full on Clark Kent Mid-western charm offensive. “Stay for one meal.  Meet the rest of the gang.  Get to know them for five minutes.  I know they have a lot of questions about you.”  Clark chuckled, indicating that Mike was going to be in for an intense but friendly interrogation, before adding, “You just flew three thousand miles across country at hypersonic speeds and then fought a cadre of Dominators.  You need to eat.  I insist. I’ll even pay.”  Clark used his mentor voice, which made staying for dinner non-negotiable, but then lightened the conversational tone by grinning, “And I’m sure Bruce would love to see you.”

“Great,” Mike sighed, his voice notably lacking in enthusiasm.  He had a complicated relationship with Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. The Dark Knight.  They were allies and, with Philadelphia being closer to Gotham than Metropolis, had proved over time that they would always have each other’s back when in a tight spot.  

But Bruce wasn’t his friend, so much as he was Clark’s and it was a dynamic not unlike befriending the best friend of one’s older sibling.  While anyone who gave Mike a hard time would feel Clark’s wrath, Bruce was given carte blanche in this arena and took a nearly sadistic pleasure in running roughshod over Mike at every opportunity.

“Clark, please tell me you haven’t told Bruce about what happened with me and Kara six years ago,” Mike’s stormy grey eyes begged. Between the three of them, Kara hadn’t been a forbidden subject, after all, she was Clark’s beloved cousin.  But Mike had always steered clear of divulging the specifics of the night that drove him away from National City.  Away from her.  Instead, Mike had always chosen to speak of Kara’s positive qualities whenever the subject came up in Bruce’s presence.  To that day, Clark and Lois were the only ones that knew the full extent of Mike’s heartbreak.

Clark’s grimace was all the answer that Mike needed to his query, but he compounded the already sinking feeling in Mike’s gut by adding, “How could I predict that a situation like this would bring us all together?”

“How could you not? This,” Mike indicated the field of battle, strewn with Dominator corpses, “was bound to happen sooner or later.”

Clark looked around and nodded.  “Point taken.”

“All you did was give him ammunition.”

“You know he’s just baiting you.  You should try standing up to him.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s just baiting me.”

After a moment a wide grin spread across Clark’s face, and he sighed in a somewhat melodramatic fashion, a hand over his heart. “The student has become the master.  I couldn’t be more proud.  I’ll tell him he can knock it off now.”

Mike did a double-take, his eyes widening to a nearly impossible size.   “Are you kidding me?” he asked, stupefied.  “This is all been some sort of an elaborate test?”

Clark’s laugh was hardy and unrepentant, his eyes sparkling with mirth.  “In the beginning it was just supposed to be a joke, but then it just became a kind of tradition.  We wanted to see what it would take to break you…but we never could.”

“Good to know I make an excellent verbal punching bag.”

“Hey,” Clark defended.  “It wasn’t without purpose.  You’ve seen how it can be, people wanting to tear you down even though all you want to do is help them.  Sometimes it’s hard not to lash out, not to get angry—sometimes it’s hard not to say, ‘I quit.  These people can save themselves.’  Bruce and I just wanted to thicken your skin a bit, especially in light of the reason you came to me in the first place.”

“My skin wasn’t the problem,” Mike pointed out. “It was my heart.”

“Well, you know what I think.  You’ve made your heart so bulletproof nothing’s getting through, and that’s no way to live.  You need something to remind you of why you keeping fighting.”

“I have something,” Mike reminded his friend.  “I have twenty-four somethings, which is why I need to get back to Philly sooner rather than later.”

“Let’s get changed and we can meet the others at Big Belly.  It’s just a few blocks down.” Clark threw an arm over Mike’s shoulder and led him from the field of battle, leaving the agents of the DEO to clean up the mess.

TBC

[lasespecias]

Your own Credibility

Every one of us makes up within a period of time as well as needs towards do an item good, important, and rewarding. Have anyone get hold of consumers who genuinely wish to do injury, damage, etc day after day? When there are such persons, that doctor needs to be small amount of and significantly the beginning of the very day is mainly positive in addition to filled having in advance looking views. The fact that is the best way it really should to end up being, often most people would not always be making the amount of progress i’m experiencing approximately issue is only one of regularity. Consider the main period about occasions. We get excited by any strategy, some sort of idea, as well as an take action. We quietly resolve to move it further. In most cases, such thinkings come that will you whenever we will be fast paced executing different things. Constantly, when people have done doing whatsoever it was basically that people ended up performing, often the idea or maybe concept diminishes, and we all are quit itching our own brain wondering actually was basically which had been and so exhilarating. Elements attract more challenging as soon as show your purposes using other folks. Statements similar to ‘I morning going to help make a publication the coming year, ‘I want to offer my classic attire towards the Salvation Army happen to be heard by others plus filed apart. Sooner or maybe later, while those exactly who heard your company’s proclamations recognize that you didn’t post disaster on these people, that they cope one through much less esteem. Your personal standing continues to be damaged. Trustworthiness indicates trying to keep an individual’s term. It again is simply a function of how believable you were. It can be a measure of a man’s may a single accomplish making trustworthiness? Below are a few proposals: Discern reputable peopleThink associated with a human being (at family home, deliver the results, club) who seem to one have esteemed for his or her reliability. Why do you respect your man? How exactly does he or she often retain the concept? Recognize that person strongly, sit back and watch exactly how he / she will go pertaining to fulfilling their promises. Of an this person. Move as well as speak to him or her. Most, maybe all, trustworthy people is going to be willing to take a moment and also chat with people. They may certainly not all be capable of explicitly tell you about their internal responses towards credible lifestyle, but people likely will possibly be able so that you can ensure that you get useful remarks in how they perspective all their assignments, a lot more these people go about fulfilling these. It will be a terrific session in order to consistentConsistency can be the property of sincerity. The individuals an individual work with need to feel this you do not alter colours enjoy the chameleon from an individual circumstance that will another, as well as display various behavior before different persons. Consistency needs will. At this time there will possibly be a lot of occasions once your bravery in addition to truthfulness will likely be tried. These are generally the very moments inside when the fine are usually distinguishable by the fantastic. The great do the problem at once, prove braveness, in addition to continue with the suitable issue. Individuals who possess the fine top quality associated with reliability are usually unaltered by simply the ones who encircle committedCredible people are inspired by means of challenging commitment to every little thing they carry out, on this respect these are players not mercenaries for existence. Their own valor originates from their own determination that will their result in thus they could always choose the courage to handle the prospects. Will comes along from determination. If you are really committed towards an underlying cause, everyone will discover the valor to facial area the odds. Acquire Nelson Mandela. Having been fully commited, hence he observed often the will for you to remain sane and quiet in revenge of twenty-seven years regarding was initially commonly presented individual rewards by means of the white government authorities to present up his crusade. He or she refused when. That seemed to be empatheticCredibility plots up with ease when you actually are genuinely concerned pertaining to other folks. Empathy would mean putting all by yourself around the different person’s site, and dreaming the consequences of any particular steps. Given that many people are mankind, we all very much have similar wants at a new a number of quality. Most of us possess a have for really like, caring, friendship, esteem, and even hope. Agape comes by acknowledge that My spouse and i am powerful from within and do not have to damaged others to leave them realize. True sturdiness is extracted from exhibiting genuine treatment and problem for other individuals, specially when an individual have the upper hand. One great sort of the high quality is normally Nelson Mandela. Soon after simply being addressed hence monstrously intended for as long, he / she demonstrated any degree of compassion several humans have been able so that you can undertake. The guy simply just forgave people that perpetrated demise, physical violence, along with injustice from any whole region on typically the silly point of view of epidermis real great Mandela’s fullness surfaced when he came away with jail, started to be Lead designer with the Republic of To the Africa, along with from that towering seat of capability, thought we would indicate absolutely no rancor inside the folks who experienced caused a lot personal experiencing for your man. He only forgave these folks. That appeared to be accurate agape. His or her standing to be able to suffer from regardless if his ex-wife had been arraigned connected with questionable dealings. This kind of is definitely the mesmerism of accord. Sadly, lots of of people mistake accord to get ‘t think of yourself as00 just what you are notWe often make an effort to work themselves since another individual. The cannot give good results, since most of us will have found over. Many of us could not hoodwink almost all the individuals all the exact time. Moreover, God has turned each you of you and me quite uniquely. Just look at yourself. Who share the exact same physical benefits that everyone get? Simply by the exact token, few-people share the exact same intrinsic functionality you contain. And there is a sufficient amount of space on this subject earth for some more such as one! Thus quit that will be actually not. Alternatively, start centering on what anyone are, what your strengths are, and what exactly you can do by using them. Your own discovery can amaze you actually. It definitely will give you the inside get in order to challenge what together with who seem to anyone really tend to be. Your expertise will travel up by means of advances, for the reason that you are usually projecting whatever you genuinely are actually. Share your own personal fearsWe frequently choose to be able to continue to keep our dreads that will ourself. When ever this occurs, often the fears normally increase in our minds. Typically the imagination plays tricks with our value, and we all will often be paralyzed. Do not let the get lucky and people. Its usual pertaining to humans feeling afraid. Whenever you experience reluctant about a thing, share it all along with a couple shut down allies. This particular is certainly not an indicator associated with listlessness. The actual trick lies in knowing several people do you know integrity in addition to genuine aspect for people can help all of them make one feel significantly better in addition to shared your individual fears together with are some inquiries to ask when ever building your individual credibility: Can it worry my family if very own actions were created public? Residence were to help find out this particular with regards to yet another person who I maintain respect, exactly how would I think about them and also their? It is possible to most awful performance achievable plainly have been to retain my concept? The truth of the matter is of which humanity simply cannot enjoy just about any real growth unless one can find enough reputable people on this earth. In fact, the planet runs upon faith in addition to confidence. Examine what’s prepared for the currency exchange payments inside your family resources – perhaps that will be nothing at all without having authority and even have confidence in. When ever that believe in will be shaken, the good news is operate on often the currency! As a final point, remember the storyplot of often the guy exactly who cried hair. And once your trustworthiness is actually in thought, you own a Himalayan task restoring it. Your own personal credibility is like some sort of Chinese bloom floral vases. It is superb, and respected by almost all. Drop this, and it again is practically impossible to reconstruct it. Build your own personal expertise, together with then defend it the life relied upon the item, because the item really does. Understand more: .

katequigley.com

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from Your own Credibility

[hogwartsuniversity-rpg]

Sample Application

Hey all! Here is a sample app written for Sirius Black, who admin Zev will be playing! Hopefully, this helps give an idea of what we are looking for, but it should not be taken as a template! 

-Admin Zev

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION;

Name/Alias: Zevia/Zev

Pronouns: She/Her/s

Age: 18

Timezone: PST

Trigger Warnings: Redacted

Activity Level: On the dash probably a 7-9. As your admin, I will always be around!

About You/Previous Experience: I have admin’d one roleplay before and have been roleplaying for five years. I also aid for a help blog from time to time. Also, see the About Us page.

BASICS;

Desired Character: Sirius Black

Gender/Pronouns: He/Him/s

Sexuality: Bisexual, actively not thinking about this as he is working through internalized homophobia from his upbringing.

FC: Ben Barnes, Matthew Daddario, Ezra Miller

Scholarship Status: None, supportive of the expansion.

Major: Literature

Extracurriculars: Begrudgingly in the Slug Club

PAST;

Sirius Orion Black should have been his parents’ pride and joy. As the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son of the Black family, he was expected to be the next great patriarch. The Blacks traced their heritage to a Baronetcy granted after the English Civil War and have an honest-to-goodness framed page from Dungale hanging in the foyer to prove it. However, somewhere along the line one of the ancestors had been a younger son, and when the titled side of the family died out, forgotten drama deprived the surviving branch of inheriting the title. A fact Walburga and Orion Black remain jealous of to this day. Sirius, for his part, couldn't care less about family history, except to laugh at the striking similarity to the Elliots in Persuasion. Lady Susan remains his favorite Austen, but that is mostly because he doesn’t think he makes much of an Anne Elliot. For one thing, he doesn’t see the value in a persuasive temper, though perhaps that’s because he’s spent most of his life fighting against his parents’ expectations. He was meant to be proud and powerful. You can really spit those words out, what with all the P’s, as it didn’t take Sirius long to learn. When he was young he and his parents could play the part well enough; they’d dress him up and he’d smile just right so he might be smirking (like his father did) for all their rich friends, but when they were alone, well… relations between the boy and his parents been frosty for most of Sirius life.

He never liked to talk about it, or think much about it if he could help it, and maybe that’s why he can’t remember when their relationship flew south for the winter and never came back. It could have been when he was five and his parents wouldn’t let his new black friend come over, it could have been when he was eight and first heard them talking about ‘filthy queers,’ or when he was nine, or when he was 6, or, or, or… Or maybe those were only the times' fuel got added to the fire. The truth, he knew deep down, was that in addition to being horrible people, his parents were simply unprepared to be parents. Babies are loud and messy and emotional and everything his parents hated. Sirius later thought of them as more actively abrasive versions of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. They were wealthy and careless and absentee and, well, Fitzgerald never gets into how the daughter grew up in the end.

So, Sirius rebelled. In everything he ever did. He wore his hair long and stayed out too late. He tried to run away three times before he was 15. The third time he got dragged back into the house by his ear he saw Regulus’s face— tired and drawn— and they might be less than a year apart but Sirius never wanted his little brother to look that old again, so he stopped running. Still, he never stopped regarding himself as a soldier in a one-man war and was always searching for the next inch of ground he could gain from his parents. He was determined to love everything they hated. He never regretted fighting them, either. Every cut from a bottle shattering against the wall near his head after Walburga drank too much was a medal of valor. Every bruise Orion left on him (always where clothes would cover it) after Sirius pushed just far enough was proof he was winning. Every screech that pierced his ears was a war cry. Once when Sirius was 13, Regulus asked him if he had any sense of self-preservation whatsoever. “Yes,” Sirius had told his brother, “I’m preserving myself against them. You ought to as well.” Regulus infuriated his brother because he bowed his head and went with all the shit their parents said, but in some ways, Sirius couldn’t help blaming himself. He’d rebelled, he’d separated himself from the Blacks. That had left his parents with only Regulus. They funneled their anger, their hatred, at Sirius, yes, but he knew they pushed their manipulation, their pressure, onto Regulus. As pissed as Regulus made him, he got it. Maybe he didn’t understand it, how he could play their games, but he got it. They were his parents. Hell, Sirius wouldn’t have fought so hard if they weren’t. On some level, Sirius knew he was pushing back because he wanted what every kid wants; for his parents to engage with him, to love him. Regulus sucked up in search of that, Sirius fought back. At least, the war had started that way. By the end, Sirius wanted nothing to do with them, but at its roots, well. Some rich kids smashed expensive cars into trees, he smashed himself into his parents’ ideology. Same basic principle.

As a result, he’d been planning his escape to Uni for practically as long as he could remember. He’d accepted going to Hogwarts as a legacy student, mostly because of the school’s somewhat funky reputation, and actually leaving was one of the most liberating experiences of his life. He’d been to boarding school before, but with overbearing headmasters and Walburga and Orion never more than a short drive away, that hadn’t done much to elevate the stifling nature of his childhood. That said, he’d taken every chance to fuck around in the past and had every intention of continuing the tradition at Uni. He might be able to angst and brood like Mr. fucking Rochester, but he honestly preferred what he would call a certain care-free roughness. Chaotic Good, as he described his sixth form DnD character. Consequently, he’d never been fond of self-reflection, but if he’d bothered, he’d have realized that those first few months with James and Remus and Peter were terrifying. He’d been so angry his whole life, he never really learned how to make friends casually. So, when he met the three of them during Freshers Week and knew in an instant he wanted them to be friends, he threw himself wholly into making it happen. Any scheme James thought up, any late night Remus wanted to stay up talking, any homework Peter wanted to put off to play just one more round of chess, Sirius agreed, no questions asked. He never thought about the possibility of being rejected, only plowed forward with everything he was. In the year that followed at Hogwarts, he did everything in much the same way: full speed ahead, no questions asked.

He didn’t mean to be careless or to run over people's lives with his own, he just couldn’t bring himself to care that he did. Sirius lived for the moments and didn’t see anything wrong with that. He was of the opinion that anyone who had a problem with him, his friends, or their pranks was too sensitive, and they only hated people who deserved it. Grey area was a concept Sirius had a hard time grasping. He and his friends were good, nothing they did could be evil. People like his parents were evil, no one who was associated with them could do anything good. He had no illusions of being perfect, (that, after all, would be boring) but in the end, he was one of the good guys.

As his second year at Hogwarts opens, that certainty is flagging. He’s grown up to realize some of the pranks he’s pulled and the ways he’s acted have been very, very not cool. Other people have told him he needed to lay off before, but he’s always dismissed them as being uptight. He knows he has a… big personality, and that people listened to him, that he could goad people into doing things. So, coming to those realizations, he’s starting to see that he’s been hurting people. And it’s messing with his head. He’s thought back to all those pranks and jokes that had been just so funny only to hear a voice keeps telling him “you are just like your parents.” Whether that particular thought is true or not, he’s trying to change. He’s struggling with what needs to change and the walls of stubbornness he’s built up, but he’s promised himself he’ll at least pay attention. He has no plans to follow the rules to the letter, or anything crazy like that, but he is growing more aware. Of himself, and of the world around him.

EXTRA;

Headcanons:

My bio may have made Sirius sound more brooding and, well, serious than he is. This boy is a goofball— he is cuddly and (deep down) kind, once you get past the layers of well-meaning snark. His friends mean the world to him and yeah, he loves a good party, but he’d sooner take a quiet night talking with friends somewhere the worries of the world can’t find them.

Sirius makes it a point of pride to know both pop and “high” cultural references. He’s a literature major, and very fond of the classics (the Romans were ridiculous and knew how to party), but ultimately, he’s a nerd, as much as he tried to be cool and a “”bad boy.”” He loves Star Wars with his whole heart. Everyone thinks it’s because of Han Solo. In fact, he thinks of James as much more of a Han. He’s cast Peter as Luke, Remus as Leia, and himself as everyone's favorite walking carpet Chewbacca.

Sirius smokes and he’s trying to quit the habit. It just goes so well with his whole aesthetic but, well, people keep telling him it’s “”killing him”” so. He also drinks, but not enough for it to be a problem. He’s only properly drunk once. 

Sirius sometimes thinks he’s more messed up than he has a right to be, and doesn’t like feeling sorry for himself. That said, he’s not that brooding a guy. He’s happy at Hogwarts and it’s not completely wrong to describe him as “carefree.” He loves his friends and he’s a troublemaker. He’s really just a big kid still.

He has two styles of clothes: Cool BadboyTM and 80′s Disaster. He loves ugly sweaters and mortifying the more fashion-minded of his friends. 

He wants to be a good brother and truly loves Regulus, but he feels like he’s let their split go on too long to be mended.

Aesthetic and Quotes: https://fallendog-starblack-aesthetic.tumblr.com/

ANY CHANGES?;

Nope!

[vfr-blog]

WRESTLEJAM 5

God where to start with this one. Well I was told to be brutally honest, so I will be BRUTALLY honest. Here we go.

First off they were supposed to open doors at 5pm and didn’t open them till nearly 530pm. The fan fest was fun as I got to meet Ricky “the Dragon"Steamboat.

After a Hall of fame ceremony that saw Paul Orndorff get inducted by Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, and Tracy Smothers get inducted by Paul Lee, the show started with Steamboat welcoming everybody to Wrestlejam 5. He was promptly interrupted by the AWF Tag Team Champions; Brian Valor and Alex Taylor who attacked Steamboat, who fended them off and got a you still got it chant in the process. Teddy Long came out and told Valor and Taylor that they had a tag match for their belts later on against Crimson and JP Magnum.

Match 1

King Shane Williams with his queen vs Mike Jackson

Old school style by Jackson …Shane had some good offense, to be heels Shane Williams’ valet didn’t do much with ref distractions. At one point Williams had the ref distracted while Jackson on the outside and she didn’t even touch him,she missed a couple of queue’s like distracting the ref too early, she is nothing but eye candy. Williams finished Jackson with a piledriver while the ref was distracted. I don’t know why a ref distraction was needed there,but it is what it is.

Ryback came out to address the crowd and said he had shoulder surgery and can’t perform he got interrupted by Teddy Long who ask if Ryback booked the show. Paul Lee interrupted and had audio trouble. (The start of what would the worst audio in wrestling history.) He said Ryback was scared to face “the Real NatureBoy” and proceeded to elbow drop his jacket. This guy trys so hard to be Flair even in promos, Ryback called him out on it and said people call him a Goldberg wannabe but Paul Lee takes impersonation to a whole new level. Ryback then said since he can’t wrestle he had a surprise opponent for Paul Lee in the main event.

Battle Royal Tracy Smothers won this horrible 6 man, yes I said 6 man Battle Royal, thank God it was short.This was complete crap and chaos that served no purpose whatsoever.

Match 3 The jungle Kings (Lex Lee and Kevin Kaufman) vs The Boys from ROH.

Lots of fast paced spots in this one. They did a funny spot where everyone got body slammed by Kevin, only for him to be body slammed by the ref who went for a cover on one of The Boys and got a 2 count via Lex counting. Jungle Kings won with the Katy Perry (yes you read that right their finishing move is called the Katy Perry) kind of awesome name if you ask me.

Match 4 Vader vs ironman   Vader tried talking on the mic only to have more audio problems which was a recurring theme throughout the show. He issued an open challenge accepted by Iron man who has horrible ring attire, a welders mask and a blacksmith apron.

This was complete crap, just horrible, and I have all the respect in the world for Vader and his career, but he does not need to be in a ring at this point.Vader over with a Vader bomb. I’m glad this was short.

 Match 5 Brian Valor and Alex Taylor  vs Crimson and JP Magnum

Crimson was the best part of this otherwise short and horrible match. This match was a showcase of what not to do in the ring. Taylor’s timing was off on everything and he looked like he had no clue what he was doing, although I will admit Valor does have a beautiful frog splash. Valor and Taylor retain the titles after shenanigans behind the back of the ref.

Match 6  Paul Lee vs Buff Bagwell with Robbie Rude

Typical Paul Lee match. This guy is horrible in every sense of the word. It showed that Buff is past his prime, slow as the day is long in the ring, the only good thing about this match was the top rope flair bump through a table. Buff over after a distraction from Ryback   Main event Tokyo Monster Kahangas vs Fly Guy for the AWF World Championship How can you be a World Champion if you don’t defend it anywhere but Ringgold, Georgia? Kahangas beat Fly Guy down on the ropes for a good 30 seconds, how was it not a dq? This match was complete crap. There should have been a DQ countless times in this match. Fly Guy over with a moonsault. Kahangas attacked him after the match.

All in all this show was complete crap and a waste of money. The only good thing that came from this was I got to mark out for Steamboat and The Boys. The audio was crap all night long. The only good match was The Jungle Kings vs The Boys. The fact that they had in house commentary was atrocious and if I never hear “Oh Hamm Yeah” again I will be happy.

Final verdict: Wrestlejam 5: “Oh Hamm No”

Disclaimer:these opinions are mine and reflect my views and mine alone