#i was going to caption this 'the two wolves inside me when i have to write battle scenes' but.

[non-un-topo]

I have to write a whole chapter length battle scene

[ohbo-ohno]

can't stop 'what if'ing about ghoap... like what if soap was less impulsive and instead of tying you up and keeping you just let you go in the morning... but not without putting tracking/mirroring stuff on your phone while you slept. keeping tabs on you, doing research, and then finally letting ghost in on his little plan.

it'd start small, anonymous messages on various apps (even fucking duolingo for chrissakes) telling you that someone is coming for you, is coming to take you away, don't fight it bonnie, just get ready to be a good girl when they come. then the pictures start coming. photos of your apartment, of you doing laundry, of you kissing some guy you met outside of a bar with the caption why would you do this to us :(. it's fucking terrifying. it doesn't matter how many times you block them or change your number, the messages and pictures keep coming. the police won't do anything about it because you haven't been harmed and they have no way of knowing who's doing it. little 'gifts' start arriving. at first it's a single flower, no note or anything, left on the doorstep. then handcuffs. then a bloody knife. then a framed photograph of you as a child, something that you know was in your mother's home until it showed up tucked behind your storm door. you start feeling insane, like there's no escape from whatever the fuck is happening to you. it's a daily bombardment of fear that comes to a fever fucking pitch when you realize that the outlet next to your bathroom sink (the one that's never worked for as long as you've lived there) has a red light glowing from inside of it. with trembling hands you unscrew the face plate, only to find the smallest little camera you've ever seen. you take it to the police, who, again, do nothing. by the time you get back to your apartment from the police station, you get three photos of yourself entering and exiting the police station with the message you think the little piggies will save you from the big bad wolves?

suddenly there's a month of radio silence. no notes, no pictures, no gifts, no nothing. you would have thought it was a relief, to get a break from all of the terror, but it's not. now you're more high strung than ever. you inspect your apartment weekly for new hidden cameras, change your phone number twice just in case, and even fill out the paperwork to break your lease so you can move. the paperwork is still sitting on your kitchen table when you're awoken in the middle of the night to a big, strong palm clamping down on your mouth as your eyes snap open to two huge figures towering over you. a vaguely familiar voice speaks and your blood runs cold.

ye miss us, bonnie? we've missed you too, so very, very much.

anon this is so so so SO good and I have absolutely nothing to add. if you ever write this as a full fic shoot me the link and I will read it faster than the speed of light

[milkshaketg]

skewbald belgian named Inksplash. palomino cream or smth.

Florence and Tuscany go the realm. feline hall. human was a bitch who “I turned out fine so they should, too.” maybe I make her too sick to be able to tell anything. black cat companion with purple eyes who can see your death.

someone who comes face to face with their killer who through time loop shenanagins it isn’t in the past it’s the current except they’re alive even though they did kill them and the killer is just like nonchalant or at least appears unbothered

like others are in a time loop and she comes back and is like what

another character just disappears and it isn’t mentioned at all until dead girl returns and is like where are they and everyone else is like who

maybe they come back somehow except not alive

au self inset w Joot in JoJo where I’m a lesbian and therefore an outcast and he and I find solidarity in that and whatnot. I yell at him for how he treats his mom.

Dollarpaw as in sand dollar

SSO Vid Ideas:

dive into SSOblr

Autumn “TroyTheBoy” after their fursona Troy

Featherbelle🥦

Nicodemus(Nico)

Griffin

Wolfgang

fear look in her eyes as the sword is about to come down on her, but is saved by someone else last minute. she doesn’t question it. she just runs. she has no idea what happened to that person.

Angela on a throne looking kinda shocked and surprised and anxious and Akuma is at her feet, all seductive n draped over her n shit and just staring at the viewer sure of herself. not smug, though. just confident.

pink haired self insert for FE3H to draw a Ashe, Catherine, fuckin uhh other pretty lady, maybe Sylvain? Felix? anyone tbh. Claude, too. ladies as well ofc.

-traumatized lady, cannot be on the battlefield or she shuts down. mayb a new crest, a special one. bc she’s special :>

-self regenerating from a big battle who lost everyone and everyone was starving then offered herself up to eat and they found out she couldn’t die by mutilation alone, eventually was captured and used as a human shield and then ofc this fucks her up real bad so they erase a ton of memories so now she’s just ditzy lady being studied except gently at the monastery. ig she can’t really work out bc regeneration.

Flayn x Dedue

someone with a pet named Cream Cheese

self insert where I’m broken and Dirk fixes me I’m a cyborg except he’s got complete control now and I become a husk just used by him to accomplish his misguided deeds. robot turns to flesh eventually even the tail n shit.

oh wait fuck he’s gay.

we don’t gotta fuck it can be platonic extremely fantastically toxic codependency

I am a pet.

this again, except I am a lesbian who forms an unhealthy codependent relationship with Sylvain. he’s chasing my friend who I have a massive crush on, so I approach him. he ofc thinks I’m going for him/his crest but is visibly taken aback when I admit I’m in love with my friend and I need him to back off. we chat a bit and become acquainted or whatevs. he does. then after the five years comes back and she’s dead, I’m heartbroken obviously. emphasis on bad disassociation too. and boom, codependence. then he’s basically backed into a corner and forced to marry so he chooses me bc he knows I’m not tryna use him for his crest. I’m literally 90% into girls thank u.

fire emblem + blorbos + desired self inserts

Canary method(if you’re gonna act like a clown I’m gonna treat you like one)

did I fuck up my circadian rhythm in middle school? because this is not a case of bad habits.

no food :(

issues at work bc girl I don’t have peripheral hearing. god I feel so fucking disabled.

Ottalie

Muse

Rush retains the same mass no matter her form, in addition to being albino.

(hey, are you alright?)(pans to me full strawberry outfit + strawberry makeup + accessories)(yeah, why?)

goth in beanie: are you okay?

strawberry: yeah, why?(HEAVY pink blush w white freckles + lashes and whatnot)(holding my stuffies)

goth in beanie: alright,,,

caption: inside you there are two wolves

me, blank expression: listening to a cat get graphically and brutally murdered and remembering how violent my favorite books as a kid were

Skyclan’s Destiny or whatever is literally just skyclan getting slowly slaughtered one by one

dark eyes of ebon

Rose looked up at Silva. She honestly looked kind of pathetic, one of her lashes hanging haphazardly and her lipstick was smudged. She had seen better days, certainly.

She looked from Silva’s hand, to her face, then back to her hand, not even seeming to register her face wasn’t all that visible. Without much hesitation she took her hand. She had no reason to even consider refusing the help. This was a safe town, no one knew who or where she was so no one would be coming for her. If she had articulated these thoughts they would have sent a pang of pain through her, but as luck would have it her brain stayed full of fluff for now.

“Thank you, appreciate it.” She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, flashing a smile at the girl. “Now… do you happen to know where we are? Of course you do, you must if you’re out here. Could you show me to” she looked down at her unsightly appearance. She didn’t even want to know what her face looked like. “I guess going out isn’t an option, now is it? You know the direction to Fen’s stable? If you could be a gem and take me there.”

Mon: 10-3

Tue: off

Wed: 10-2

Thurs: 5-9

Fri: off

Sat: 3-7

Sun: 10-3

SpectrumSetup-B8

stealthnest127

[aro-comics]

Music (Part 2)

NOTE: This was originally uploaded in 2 parts (too long for instagram) but it was intended to be read as one, so I’ll be pasting the descriptions one after the other as well as putting a complete image description for the whole post after.

Part 2 - in which amatonormativity makes it near impossible to have things to fully relate to and enjoy like everyone else does. Personally, it didn’t really hit me that listening and singing along to songs about romance was something you COULD actually relate to. I thought it was a kind of melodrama that everyone just did because it was a social norm/code, not because people actually felt that way 😭 The song in the second last slide is Before I Cave In by Too Close To Touch :) Do y’all also love very messy breakup songs for the drama and the drama only??

Part 3  PART 2 CONTINUED - this one's a little more personal, haha. The songs are Wolves, Survive, and Architects, respectively, all by Rise Against. Sorry if rock/punk/post-hardcore isn't your cup of tea 😭 Listening to this kind of music was one of the first times I understood what it meant to relate 100% to a song. To sing every word and mean it, from the bottom of my heart. A lot of the music I liked growing up were about break-ups and romantic relationships gone wrong, but even if I enjoyed the melody, I knew deep down that I didn't fully understand what the song was about or was interpreting them in a different way than was intended. With songs like these though, messages about finding the strength to keep going, deciding to actually do something when you know things are wrong and taking charge of your own fate ... it’s way more relatable. I had a rough childhood, and lyrics like these remind me of what it took to keep going even when I wanted to give up on everything (not to be negative lol, I’m doing a lot better now 💚). Was there a song/artist that made you realize what it meant to relate to music fully (or is this just me)?

[Image Description:

Slide 1:  Title slide. “Music. II: Non-Romantic” In the background are drawings of headphones, stationary, a portable music player and a sheet titled ‘lyrics’. 

Slide 2: Text Slide. “Amatonormativity makes romance entrenched in our music.”

Slide 3: Slide shows an alternating series of small drawings and text. 

“Whether it’s a breakup,” (to the left, a drawing of two people having a fight) 

“A crush,” (a headshot of a brunette with a broken heart drawn on their shirt)

“Unrequited feelings,” (a drawing of a girl staring at another girl who doesn’t notice her)

Slide 4: Previous slide’s format continues onto this slide. 

“Falling in love,” (a drawing of hands holding a note. Inside is a stereotypical heart with arrow, inscribed with initials ‘H+J’. Bottom says ‘-luv u’)

“Jealousy,” (the person who was holding the note looking up, annoyed. In the foreground of the sketch the object of affections is leaning woefully into the arms of a girl, melodramaticallly saying ‘woe is me’)

“-it’s always about romance.” At the bottom left Celia stands talking to viewer, looking a bit dejected. 

Slide 5: Panel of Celia talking to the viewer but looking down. “As an aro, to be honest, it’s really alienating.”

Slide 6: Celia singing with her eyes scrunched shut, her fist raised in front of her as she pretends to be upset like the lyrics of the song. The background is a sharp goldenrod yellow to indicate the musical nature. 

In the background the lyrics are drawn in rough white brushstrokes: “Two hearts that beat in sync but they could never be”

Slide 7: Panel switches back to usual colour, and Celia seems to have snapped out of the moment. She says “- well that was … not relatable. At all.”

Bottom right corner: “But it’s also nice to sing along with things that you really believe in, relate to.”

Slide 8: Celia sitting on the ledge of an outdoor table. In the background are mountains and a forest. She is listening to music on a set of large red headphones. Caption at top reads “I guess that’s why I like rock music.” 

Slide 9: Text slide: “It’s not that I think pop, or other music genres aren’t socially aware. But I find that there are some great rock, punk, and post hardcore bands that sing about social issues, past traumas, healing, growth, and thriving.” 

Slide 10: Text slide: “I love singing along with them, acknowledging all of the unjust things which exist in this world, but still finding the beauty in life and the strength to not only survive but try and make things better.”

Slide 11: A musical slide with illustrated lyrics and a bright yellow background. Celia sings with a microphone in one hand, and her other hand raised in a stereotypical rock hand sign. 

Lyrics: “The smoke you ignored is a flame you can’t contain.”

Slide 12: A musical slide with illustrated lyrics and a bright yellow background. Split panel of Celia singing back to back. For the left side, she is signing more aggressively and seems to snarl. On the right, she stands up straighter and seems more hopeful. 

Lyrics: “Life for you has been less than kind/ -but how we survive is what makes us who we are.”

Slide 13: A musical slide with illustrated lyrics and a bright yellow background. Celia continues singing, smiling with her fist raised again. 

Lyrics: “Let’s decide to be the architects the masters of our fate”

Slide 14: Celia lying on her bed, listening to music on a set of headphones connected to her phone. Caption: “... it’s just so much more relatable than romance, I think.”]

[remingt0nleith]

thorns | remington leith

try & find the hidden palaye royale song title in the fic! & additional A/N at the end. 

A/N: hi wow long time no write :( SORRY! I have ideas and I try to write then my brain just doesn’t want to put the ideas on the word document. + y’know having depression doesn’t help things bleh... BUT I did write a full something finally (yay bare minimum author things!) This was requested! gonna keep trying to turn out requests & work on dark cherries also my birthday is on thursday and i’m turning 24 (wow im getting old help) & also the bastards comes out the day after so yay! lets chat about it when its out ok?

Request: Where Remington cheats on the reader and she finds out, but he does everything he can to get her back? 

Thorns - A Remington Leith one-shot. || 1.9K words || under cut.

The catalyst for a ruined night came in a round of shots. Emerson poured the amber liquid into hot pink shot glasses that the boys had picked up days prior. Remington wasted no time in downing his, barely flinching at the bitter taste that now coated his tongue. 

“Slow down there, cowboy” 

Sebastian laughed before throwing his own shot back, placing a hand on Remington’s cheetah print covered shoulder.

“We can’t have our lead singer fucked up out of his mind, can we?” 

The eldest brother chided playfully as he took the bottle from Emerson and poured more shots.

As the brothers drank and talked anxiously about their first show of a new tour, Remington’s phone buzzed in his back pocket, taking it out he suppressed an eye-roll at the message filling his screen;

My Love <3: HEY BABY JUST WANT TO WISH U LUCK TONIGHT YOU’LL KILL IT. LOVE U. 

He wasn’t sure what had gotten into him lately, usually, he’d be thrilled at the love and adoration his girlfriend of three years was showing him. She was always cheering him on, listening to his music, and supporting his band in every way she could. Although she was unable to come to most shows due to a fast-paced work schedule she always made a point to let the band of brothers know they had her support. That should’ve been enough to keep Remington happy but recently he had become cold towards his girlfriend and as he put his phone away without responding all thoughts of her disappeared as well. 

Remington headed backstage after the show still high from the performance. The adrenaline from the encouraging crowd and kick-ass concert his band delivered had Remington feeling happier than he had in months. Once in the dressing room, the boys quickly changed out of their sweaty stage attire into more relaxed outfits, and like clockwork, shots were once again being handed out.

Once everyone had a decent buzz going the boys and their crew headed out to a nearby nightclub to celebrate the success of the show. Remington realized halfway to the club that he had forgotten his phone in the dressing room, a fact that didn’t phase him, in fact he was happy to be rid of the constant ringing. 

Once inside the packed club, Remington waved goodbye to his brothers and made his way to the bar.  His buzz had diminished slightly in the car ride and that was a no go for Remington so he ordered a drink, which quickly became two, then three before he headed to the dance floor. 

Packed in a sea of bodies the singer danced to the music, enjoying the happiness that came from the night’s events as well as the alcohol in his system. When a manicured hand grabbed him and pulled him close, he didn’t object, instead, he wrapped his arms around the dark-haired beauty. 

The pair danced together to the techno music blaring overhead, strobe lights illuminating their faces, hands roaming freely over each other’s bodies before the woman leaned in and planted a sloppy kiss to Remington’s lips. 

If there was a moment of panic, a spark of recognition somewhere in the sober part of his mind, Remington ignored it. Instead, he deepened the kiss with the gorgeous stranger, when the pair eventually pulled away from the kiss, they headed to the bar for more drinks. 

When Sebastian came to let Remington know it was time to head to the hotel, the frontman wasted no time in asking this new girl if she’d like to go with him. Much to the dismay of the older (and wiser) brother, she said yes and everyone piled into the van and were chauffeured back to the hotel to continue the party. 

Morning light filtered through the window a sign of a new day, but as Remington opened his eyes the gravity of last night hit him. He was alone in his hotel bed, the white sheets crumpled and covered in streaks of makeup (his or hers, he wasn’t sure). Flashbacks of last night filled his mind and all at once he realized the hickeys on his body were from a stranger, the realization filled him with shame and dread. 

He found his phone which had been placed on his nightstand by one of his brothers or their touring manager (who always cleaned up after the boys’ wild nights) and on it were several unread texts and calls which came in at varying points of the evening. 

[9:13 pm] My Love <3: It should be time for u boys to be on stage! I’ll be stalking twitter for updates and vids love u 

[12:02 am] My Love <3: Watched a ton of vids that are already being posted! Get back to me when u get this my love so proud of u xx 

[3:56 am] My Love <3: Guess your phone died or your out celebrating a great night. Call me when you see this or wake up. I love you. 

[10:20 am] 5 missed calls

[10:27 am] *attached photo* REMINGTON.... FUCK YOU.

The photo on his phone screen displayed the girl from last night under the covers as a passed out Remington slept beside her. The caption didn’t say anything besides a winking emoji and she tagged him and his band’s account. 

Instantly, he was dialing his girlfriend’s number, hands shaking as he paced around the spacious hotel room desperately waiting for an answer.

“Hello?” 

Rose answered, soft voice hoarse from hours of crying. 

“Fuck, I’m so sorry..” 

Remington started to explain, words tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could form them.

“Save it” 

Rose snapped before continuing her voice harder and more assured now than it was just moments ago. 

“I never thought you’d do this even as the band started to gain an audience, I told myself that I had nothing to worry about. All the pretty girls and boys didn’t matter because what we had was strong but it sucks being proven wrong huh?” 

Remington’s sudden surge of tears prevented him from speaking as the pain in his chest grew with each word. The saddest part of it all was that she was right and that ripped him up inside. 

“Rose I-” 

he whispered, voice barely audible even to himself. 

Instead of an answer he was left hearing the sound of the call disconnecting. 

The tour passed by in a daze for Remington and while his brothers desperately wanted him to be more present, they understood. He’d get on stage and sing, forgetting about the pain in his heart for that hour or so, as soon as the curtain closed the ache in his chest was back, a cruel reminder to the life-changing mistake he’d made.

Rose had cut off all contact with her now ex-boyfriend instead choosing to go through Emerson to inform him she was moving out of their shared apartment in LA. 

Each night in his hotel bed, memories of the past three years filtered through his brain until he exhaustingly cried himself to sleep. 

Remington used Emerson’s phone to send a series of texts to Rose to apologize, to accept full responsibility but the only reply he received was instructions to give Emerson his phone back and to leave her alone.

Just as quickly as the tour started it was now coming to a close a few months later. The boys were back in LA for a sold-out show in typical Los Angeles fashion. Remington never stopped trying to get ahold of Rose -- he sent flowers to her new address, letters where he begged for her back, apologizing and pleading for her forgiveness yet he was never awarded a reply. He didn’t blame her at all but that didn’t mean the pain hurt any less, he’d do anything for a second chance. 

Shots of vodka were taken, cheers and high fives were given and the boys hit the stage.  Remington gazed out into the crowd, a see of silhouettes behind bright stage lights.  After a few songs, Remington sat down at the end of the stage, dark boots quietly thumping against the side. 

“Y’know fans like to think we’re perfect” 

he stated which earned a chorus of “I love you’s” as well as cheers from the crowd. 

He smiled before continuing, 

“As much as I love to hear it, it’s not true and sometimes we royally fuck up. I fucked up and these past few months have been hell so I wrote this song.”

The crowd applauded as they watched their favorite singer head to the piano, the spotlight shining on him as he sat down. 

“This song is called Thorns,” 

Remington began to play a hauntingly slow ballad about losing the love of your life and how apart of you is lost as well. 

The pain in my heart is defeating me

Cracking me open for all to see

I’m numb to life, deep inside

Needing you to realize, you’re the better part of me

An illusion of love is what I fear

Taking each step is now unclear

A rose garden in my dreams,

You leaving now in front of me

Take my heart it’s filled with thorns

A rose trapped inside a perfect storm

Throw me to the wolves I’m on my knees

Begging for my rose to please believe

I made a mistake that I can see

Yet this pain without you is deafening

My heart of thorns cuts me deep 

Paralyzing me and making me weak

Please my rose I beg you, have sympathy.

The rose garden in my dreams,

But you’re leaving right now in front of me

Take my heart it’s filled with thorns

A rose trapped inside a perfect storm

Throw me to the wolves I’m on my knees

Begging my rose to please believe 

I love you Rose it’s all I know, I’m sorry for all my sorrow

By the time the song ended, Remington had tears blurring his vision. He was so wrapped up in playing the song he didn’t realize he had started to cry but to the audience that just made it so much more beautiful. 

After the show, Remington hurried off the stage in order to collect his emotions but in the dressing room sat Rose. Her blonde hair was curled and she wore a red dress and in a true movie moment a dozen roses sat in her lap. 

“Rem that song…” 

she started but before she could finish, Remington ran over and threw his arms around her, hugging her to make sure she wasn’t just a figment of his imagination.

“I’m so sorry”

he whispered once she hugged back. 

“The flowers were from Seb” 

Rose mumbled, green eyes flicking down to them after their hug. Sebastian must have ordered them because he knew what Remington was planning. That was his older brother alright, always playing the papa bear role. 

The singer’s mind was racing a mile a minute, he had a million questions but all he could do was apologize. 

Rose shushed him with a chaste kiss before speaking,

“By no means have I forgiven you completely. That song however beautiful doesn’t make everything go away but I’m willing to work on us”

Remington nodded, happy she was here and willing to give their relationship another shot.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” 

he whispered, wrapping her in another hug.

They knew it would be a long road to get back to where they were before but Remington was happy he had his Rose back in his life. 

xx

A/N: omg that song was not that good I came up with it on my own though and I’m not a lyricist lol hope u enjoyed xx 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWB 1x04: The Wrong End of a Telescope - Analysis

So, I really loved this episode of TWB as well. Lots of good stuff in it.

Early on, the call the CRM the “hidden city.” I was really glad they said that because it further proves our Avalon theory. (Read HERE.)

There was more talk of luck and being lucky in this episode as well. The group gets to a high school and decides to go in, both to get out of the rain and to scavenge for supplies. 

They end up dividing into three groups: Huck and Hope, Felix and Elton, Iris and Silas.

With Felix and Elton, they happen upon some iodine, and Elton calls it the “Holy Grail of water purification.” So, water theme. They also come upon a walker who’s stuck in a locker. (That rhymes, hehe.) But it’s actually locked into the locker with a padlock. It makes Elton claustrophobic and we some flashes of his past, though they’re not entirely clear yet.

I think this is an important theme, though. The walker is imprisoned and can’t get out. Felix couldn’t get it out if he’d wanted to because it was locked in, and he didn’t have a key. So key and lock theories, imprisonment, etc. At one point, we even saw Felix picking a lock, so it was there a lot.

It also becomes clear that there’s an animal, a predator, in the high school. We see it drag a walker away and hear it growling. As it turns out, it’s a wolf, living in the vacant school. Sirius Still feels, no? The first thing I thought of was the Up the Wolves song from Still and the idea of Beth being the mother wolf.

And get this: Huck and Hope are the ones who see it. They are looking at it (from behind a door) and decide it’s acting weird. It’s not pacing around or really trying to attack them or running away. It’s standing in the doorway like a sentinel. Huck apparently knows a thing or two about wolves and says it’s probably protecting it’s young.

So, we have a mother wolf protecting its children in a school with yellow walls and lots of water jugs. Hmmm.

The other thing is that Hope took a lesson from Huck and the wolf and applied it to her father. (We also get flashbacks of Hope arguing with her father in this episode, before he left with the CRM. He tells her some things that at first seem pretty innocuous, but also make me think she might be special in some way. We’ll have to wait to find out how/why.)

Anyway, Huck says sometimes you think you’re reading a situation right, but really there’s a lot going on you don’t know about. She said this in reference to the wolf. It wasn’t really out to get them; just protecting it’s young. And Hope took that and applied it to herself saying perhaps she’d totally misunderstood her dad all those years and there was a lot more going on than she knew.

So, for me, the line about being a lot more going on that you’re not seeing could apply to Beth and TD, no? But also, the fact that Hope applied it to her dad gives me hope that maybe Beth’s story will, as we’ve theorized, be tangled up with the father and his research in some way. I can’t help but compare him to Dr. Edwards, who was also a research doctor.

Also, side note: Hope is SUPER smart. Like her dad. She knows about chemistry and how to build chemicals and compounds and such. Pretty cool.

Now let’s talk about Iris and Silas. It has crossed my mind in earlier episodes that they might become love interests at some point, but it wasn’t clear, so I truly wasn’t sure if that’s where it was going.

As of this episode, it’s VERY clear there will be romance between them. Why? Because of all the Beth/Daryl parallels.

The two of them get locked in a gym together for a short time before getting out again. The dialogue and vibe was very Bethyl. First, Iris, who love art but hasn’t been pursuing it in past years, picks up paintbrushes. Then she gets embarrassed and says they aren’t essential. But he says they’re essential to her and puts them in her bag. So he’s supporting her in her art. Reminded me a lot of Daryl telling Beth to sing.

The dialogue wasn’t word for word in this case, but had a lot of the same meaning. For example, Silas says Iris is different now, being a leader. She says, “I’m trying.” And he replies, “you are.” So, we have parallels to both the line where Beth said she wished she could just change, and Daryl said she did. And also to when Beth said Daryl got away from his past. When he denies it, she says, “you did.”

Silas also opened up to Iris about the negativity in his head and how he can’t escape it on the inside. But “out here” he doesn’t hear the negative voices. It reminded me of Aaron and Daryl talking about how Daryl sometimes needed to be “out here” in 5b, with Buttons.

There was also a “you okay?” exchange, kind of like Bethyl in Beth’s cell in 4x01.

There were signs all over the school for a Sadie Hawkins dance. They made a funny joke in which neither of the kids had heard of it and assumed it was the name of a girl who went to the school. My high school did the Sadie Hawkins dance, but all I really know about it is that it was girl’s choice and less formal than prom. But I wondered if there was more to the symbolism here, because the signs for it were EVERYWHERE and it was really emphasized. So I looked it up. Look what I found:

I think the emphasis of the girl’s choice is important, especially as we’re dealing with romance here and in both cases—Beth and Iris—the girl really reached out to the guy, rather than vise versa, and helped him come out of his shell and open up to her.

Also, notice the dog reference (Dogpatch) in where the Sadie Hawkins dance originated from. I’m kinda thinking that’s why the writers chose it rather than just doing a prom theme. It has canine roots! ;D Also reminds me of the “dog trot” in Still.

They also shared “green soda.” Obviously the green thing, but Silas just randomly found it and Iris really liked it. I feel like this was the teenaged version of Beth and Daryl’s moonshine.

There was a really adorable moment when Iris and Silas danced together to music. Obviously the music gave me Bethyl vibes. There wasn’t really any dance themes around Beth and Daryl in particular, but I couldn’t help but think of his line about singing out in public. Most of his other “I Nevers” have since come true in some way, and I’ve long suspected that, at some point, he and Beth will sing together in some capacity.

I have no idea what that will look like, but Iris and Silas dancing felt like some version of that. He kept objecting that he didn’t know how to dance, but she talked him into it and they figured it out together and were laughing and smiling and having fun. Yeah, I ship it. ;D

The next thing I noticed has to do with the Pink Theory. This episode did this thing where they kept showing flashbacks. Not of the man characters per se but of the school before the apocalypse hit. So, it would show kids walking through the halls, dancing at school dances, having fun, etc. And it kind of zeroed in on one girl who was very happy and somewhat popular. Lots of people talking to her, taking her picture, etc. She was very happy. And she had pink hair. The significance of that didn’t hit me until about halfway through.

We even saw a guy at her high school smile at her, as though there might be some romance blooming there.

Iris sees a picture of this same girl in a yearbook. The caption says, “most likely to march to the beat of her own drum.” That made me think of Beth because 1) pink hair 2) drum = music reference and 3) Beth definitely marched to the beat of her own drum, taking a different path than the rest of the group and kind of existing outside the main story line.

At the very end, we see a walker with pink hair. It’s obviously supposed to be her. So, it’s sad, because she died in the school. Symbol-wise, I do think she represents Beth. She was a teenager (18), enjoying her life and romance was perhaps even blooming for her, when everything was cut short. She was sort of like the sacrificial lamb.

And then we have that wolf image. I feel like they’re hinting at the death of the lamb and birth of the wolf, here. And this works for these characters too as they grow and mature and leave their innocence behind. So, pretty potent—not to mention biblical—symbolism here. The lamb and the wolf are mentioned together often, especially in the book of Isaiah. 

Hope and Huck find foodie supplies and there’s all kinds of symbolic goodness here. Pretty sure there’s some peanut butter on the shelf, Huck grabs sardines, which are a type of fish. 

There’s a walker with a missing leg that got caught in a grate (missing foot symbolism). At one point, Silas finds a flare, which is sitting right next to a water jug. (Lots of those in the school, too.)

So, interestingly, we had the pink theme in both FTWD and TWB this week. (FTWD = Rich Bitch walker and TWB = pink haired Beth proxy.) We also saw flares lit in both. One by Al on the roof of the office building and one by Silas in the school.

Silas has an anger moment, lashes out, and accidentally hurts Elton. He gets depressed about it and wants to be left behind, but once again, Iris reaches out to him and helps him work through it. And they all leave together at the end.

Then there’s the coda. Yes, this episode had a coda. There weren’t any SUPER obvious Beth ties, but we saw “test subjects” being experimented upon. 

So this obviously has something to do with the girls’ dad and where they’re going. But any after-the-credits-coda I can’t help but link to Beth. And then there’s the bite/cure theory. So I’m definitely side-eyeing this. The woman we see doing the tests calls them “Test Subjects” just as Jenner did in Season 1 of TWD. Very interesting.

[yehet-me-up]

Frozen North ~ Night Three

PAIRING: Chanyeol x reader

GENRE: Horror/Suspense/SPOOP in general/light romance (because who else would I be?)

WORD COUNT: 2,160

RATING: PG13 (nothing gruesome, but knowing me there will be swearing)

SUMMARY: You run a late night radio show dedicated to telling scary stories and urban legends, the creepier the better. Listeners call in and share their own, creating a small but loyal community of folks like you who love this sort of thing. One night, a man calls in with what sounds like an all-too-real story and before you know it, you’ll do anything to make sure he’s safe.

Frozen North Masterlist

‘I don’t like this,’ Daniel says, coming into the booth with his bag slung over his shoulder. ‘Shit like this gives me the heebie jeebies.’

You stare at the number on the screen, running an anxious hand through your hair. ‘I don’t like it either. Something is seriously wrong here.’

He folds his arms and leans against the door frame. ‘And you’re sure this isn’t some stunt?’

Your eyes widen at his insinuation. ‘Do you think I’m doing this?’

Daniel sags with relief, awkwardly coughing. ‘No, I just- I’m glad you said it’s not you but… would have been nice if this was all some game.’

‘Yeah, it would have been.’ You stand and quickly close down your station. ‘I don’t think it is.’

He shuts off the studio lights, holding the door open for you. There’s a hauntedness behind his eyes that makes you shiver in the darkness. 

‘Me neither.’

When you get home the first thing you do is find food to shove in your face. The life of a grad student isn’t the most glamorous, but you make the most of it. Normally you try and cook a balanced meal, even though you get home so late. But tonight you grab a pack of mini muffins and pull out your laptop. 

You need answers, and you won’t sleep until you find them.

Grabbing your phone, you shove a muffin in your mouth and text the number, trying not to feel like you’re slowly going insane.

Y/N 12:31 AM: Chanyeol? If you’re there can you please tell me if you’re alright?

While you wait, you email yourself the photo from his FaceTime call. A reverse image search turns up nothing and you frown. Searching the most obvious place, you type his name into the advanced search on Facebook. 'Chanyeol’ garners 526 results. None of the first dozen or so listings look like him. You try to search Alaska but it brings up two profiles with default Facebook anonymous photos.

Frowning, you bite your lip. Instinct makes you type in ‘Seattle’ and instantly his profile comes up. You gasp and almost upend your laptop onto the floor, narrowly catching it with your quick reflexes.

His profile is set to private. ‘Dammit.’

It doesn’t give you much. A high school in Redmond, Washington. It says he attends the University of Washington too. Once for undergrad and now for grad school. No indication of years attended or major studied. No job listed. No friends list to dig through. The void of information makes you ache.

But it does give you one key thing - his last name. Park.

In under a minute you have his instagram profile pulled up. loey61.

It’s absolutely him. Gone are the fear and exhaustion from his face, he looks so real and alive and energetic in his photos he reminds you of the sun. As you scroll through his feed your heart squeezes insistently in your chest. His smile dominates his face, crinkles forming at the corners of his eyes as he laughs in photos.

Videos taken with a shaky hand at concerts. Sleepy selfies with his hand on his chin and his hair a mess of odd angles. Photos from a weeklong trip he took to Japan last year. 

It feels as though you know him, but you’ve never met; you’d have remembered the man with brown eyes and a voice like a roll of thunder. 

The bars he goes to with his friends are the same ones you frequent with your friends from school, with people from the station. He has no less than ten photos over the past few years of Suzallo library - the stained glass and the soaring Gothic architecture that surrounds your favorite study spot.

How have we been orbiting each other for years and never met? From his captions you gather he’s studying the anthropology of music. The buildings are right across from each other on campus. You frown and chew on the inside of your cheek. So strange.

Rallying your mind, you click on his most recent photo, dated a week ago. A photobooth photo, if you had to guess, of him in his bedroom playing the guitar, a pick between his teeth. The caption is the guitar emoji and the dancing man emoji.

The comments are what worry you.

Hey Chan, where are you? You missed my gig Monday at Showbox, what gives?

Helloooooo are you alive? Did Radiohead call you to tour and you’ve abandoned us?

Yo what time are we meeting for that study group on Thursday i totally forgot to write it down hahaha

Mom’s getting worried C, why aren’t you answering your phone?

The last comment catches your attention and you click on the profile. 

The family resemblance is uncanny, and the photo of the two of them from Christmas wearing matching reindeer antlers confirms it. With a shaky hand you click on the message button. ‘Shit, what do I say?’

You decide to just be straight with it. I think we should talk. My name is Y/N and I’m a radio host in Seattle. I think your brother has been calling in. Unless he’s the kind of person to pull some kind of crazy prank, I think he’s in danger. My number is 206-972-6347 if you prefer to text me. The show is The Long Night on 107.9 KJWZ and he’s called in the last two nights. The recordings should be up on our website.

It’s 1:57 AM at this point, so you don’t expect a response. There’s not much else you can do at the moment, so after dragging yourself through your nighttime routine you crawl into bed. 

As a last bleary thought you pull up his IG profile and send him a message.

I really hope you’re alright.

Aside from the usual messages from your friends, instagram alerts, and the like you have nothing from Chanyeol or his sister. With a sigh, you get ready for class.

Through a meeting with your thesis advisor, two seminars, a class you TA, and three hours in Suzallo studying and writing and trying not to watch for him, you anxiously check your phone every few minutes. Nothing.

By the time you arrive at the station you’re feeling anxious and desperate. On any other day it would amuse you how much you care about some random person, but this doesn’t feel random. It feels like fate, or some cruel joke God is pulling on you. 

Daniel gives you a tight-lipped smile when you come in the booth to set down your bag and coat. ‘Any word?’ he asks, eyeing the way you clutch your phone tightly.

‘No.’ You sigh, ‘I found him online, though.’

For once he doesn’t say anything back, just nods for you to continue.

‘I found his Facebook and his Instagram. I reached out to his sister. There’s all these worried comments…’

Suse stands up from the desk in the booth when she sees you and sets her headphones on the stand. She hurries into the room and puts an arm around you. ‘How’s it going with the mystery man? We’re all dying to know.’

You lean your head on her shoulder briefly before showing her the blank screen on your phone. ‘I messaged him last night, but there’s nothing. I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, but I’m afraid for him.’

She sighs and snaps her fingers. ‘Dammit, I was hoping this was just a prank.’

‘Me too-’ you start, but get cut off by the dinging of your phone. You haven’t had it off silent since 2008, but this is a special occasion.

You pull up his message, heart thundering in your chest, and watch as photos come through. Six of them. Finally, a video. 

The photos are dark but they show a smooth white surface, lit by a moon high in the cloudy sky. All slightly blurry and from different angles, but it’s no mistaking this is the ice he’s been talking about.

‘Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt but it’s-’ Daniel starts, pointing at the clock.

‘So don’t,’ Suse says and waves him off.

You hit play on the video and the sound of wolves howling and wind makes your stomach drop. It’s only eleven seconds but it feels like it takes an eternity.

‘Oh, shit,’ Suse says behind you.

‘I know.’

‘No, look.’ She points to the vague outlines of dark lines on the video. ‘Are those bars?’

You play it over twice more, turning the brightness up and squinting. ‘Fucking hell, I think you’re right.’

Suse nudges your shoulder. ‘You should try to call him, he just sent these.’

‘Good idea.’

You hit the call button and wait while it rings. The longer it goes, the more Daniel points to the clock showing 8:06, the higher your anxiety rises. Finally, it ends. An automated message tells you yet again that the subscriber has not set up a voicemail box and you want to scream.

Frantically, you send him a text. Where are you?

‘If he doesn’t message me by intermission... I’m calling the cops.’

Suse shrugs on her coat and whoops. ‘Atta girl. I have to pick up Jimmy from work but if you need anything, call me. I mean it.’

‘Thanks.’

She leaves and you stare at the phone and the way those three little dots aren’t appearing. Daniel makes a noise of distress and you sigh. ‘Alright alright, I’m going.’

The show goes smoothly as it can. You thank yourself profusely for having Sundays set aside to pre-script the shows for the week. Lord knows where you’d be right now otherwise, with how much this Chanyeol situation has taken over your thoughts.

You and David the regular discuss the latest episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Someone going by the handle CryptidAndProud reads a decent Jersey Devil-inspired story they wrote. A weird crop circle in South America gets a good amount of traction. All the while you tap your foot and watch the clock tick on. Every few minutes you check your phone, refreshing your messages and instagram, hoping you’re not missing anything.

Just before the 10pm intermission a call comes in that makes you sag with relief.

1-907-613-2458 - UNLISTED NUMBER - NOME

You smash the answer button, cutting off one of the callers who is commenting that the crop circle ‘kind of looks like a dick from the right angle, right?’

‘Hello?’ You hardly recognize your own voice - high, frantic, worried. For long seconds the only thing you can hear is the distant sound of scuffling and what sounds like another man’s voice in the background. ‘Chanyeol?’

‘I’m here.’ He sounds so tired you feel it in your bones. ‘I don’t- I’m surprised I’m still here, honestly.’

‘Why is that?’

‘She came to me this morning. Before dawn,’ he says. The phone crackles and you hope the call didn’t drop. ‘I don’t want her to take me. I want to live.’

Suddenly, you want to cry. It seems incomprehensible that on Monday you didn’t know him at all, but by Thursday you’d give anything for him to be okay. You want to scream at him, asking if he’s safe, but you swallow it down harshly.

‘I want that too. How can I help you? Do you know where you are? I saw bars-’

The call cuts out and static fills the air. 

‘Hello? Chanyeol?’

Nothing. Your mouse hovers over the end call button but you can’t force yourself do it. The silence of the studio settles over you, not comforting like it usually is, but strangling, suffocating. You hate it with every fiber of your being. Daniel rubs his eyes in the booth, looking at stressed as you feel.

Clearing your throat, you hit end. The digital switchboard lights up, all sixteen lines filled with flashing lights. People out there, waiting to comment. 

‘Well. I don’t - I don’t know what to say. You guys have known me for years, most of you anyway. This isn’t something I’m doing. I think this is… something real. Something dangerous. If any of you know anything about Chanyeol Park, please call in. This has to end. I’ll be right back.’

You motion to Daniel and he queues up the ad break. With a sigh you slip off the headphones and they clatter onto the desk. Stroking your thighs anxiously you debate calling the police right this moment. Your phone rings, vibrating so loud against the wood of the desk you reel back and almost smack the back of your head on it. 

It’s not him and you want to howl. But it’s a Seattle number, and you’ve only given yours out to one person this week. Hitting accept you lift the phone. 

‘Hello?’

A woman’s voice comes through. ‘Hi, it’s... me Yoora. Chanyeol’s sister.’ She sniffles, she sounds as though she’s been crying. ‘I listened to your show. I think we need to meet up.’

~~~~~~

Tagging @yeoldontknow​ @enthusiastt​ @itskindofafairything​ @gogh-suck-it​ @nshitae​

[wolvesandfanfiction]

Scared | Dialogue Prompt #2

“You know, it’s ok to admit you’re scared.” “Yeah?” “Yeah. I mean, I am. Scared, that is. I’m terrified. If I didn’t have you guys, I’d be curled up in a ball crying by now.”

"Argh", I gasped in pain as I sat upright in my chair. My hands flew to the sizable baby bump protruding from my torso. The entire wolf pack stopped eating lunch and turned their attention to me. Everyone in the cozy dining room at Sam and Emily’s had a worried expression, but the one worried beyond anyone else was Paul, my husband, and imprint. 

“Y/N!”, Paul anxiously exclaimed as he rushed to my side from the table to a chair in the living room. “Is everything alright?”, he prompted, only seeming to get more anxious by the second. The other boys from the pack seemed anxious for an answer as well. Sam had stood up from his chair at the table, and all of the others were turned towards my direction in their seats. 

“Everything’s fine, Paul”, I comforted him. I took his hand in mine and gently squeezed it. Then I held the palm of his hand to where the baby had kicked me. “The baby is getting very good at kicking, that’s all. In not too long, he or she is going to be able to join you and the boys on the soccer pitch”, I continued. 

Relief was clear on the faces of everyone in the room except for Paul. Sam sat back down next to Emily, and all the wolves except Paul resumed eating. I had learned how hard it was to separate the wolves from food quite a while ago.

Just eight short months ago, I had found out about the pregnancy. Paul had his suspicions, as my period was severely late. However, I had waited to tell Paul until I had taken a couple pregnancy tests and I was more certain. 

That day, during my lunch break at work, I went out to a baby store and I bought a onesie. It had a picture of a plain stick figure man captioned with, your dad, and a stick figure superhero that said, my dad. It was a little inside joke between the two of us that I had always thought of the pack as the superheroes of the supernatural world. 

I remember telling him about the pregnancy like it was yesterday. 

“Hey, Paul?”, I asked, just as we finished eating dinner. 

“Yes, sweetheart?”, he had replied back. 

“I picked up a little something during lunch today that I want to give you. Can you wait here for just a minute while I go get it?”, I asked him. 

“Y/N, I’m never going to deny a present”, he said cheekily, as I went into the front closet to retrieve the box with the onesie. 

As I reappeared with the box wrapped in a baby blue wrapping paper and a powder pink bow, the anticipation on his face seemed to be killing him. He did not, however, seem to be clued into the meaning of the gift based upon the colors of wrapping paper that I had chosen. I handed him the box and sat back down next to him at the island in the kitchen. 

Paul ripped into the wrapping paper in a way that would put wolves devouring their pray to shame. In mere seconds, he had the box open and was looking at the onesie. It took what felt like minutes for him to read and process what the onesie said. He became very slow and deliberate in his actions immediately upon taking a good look at the gift inside the box. 

“Does this mean . . .”, Paul said, tentatively. He lifted his gaze from the gift box to my face, trying to measure my response to his question. His gorgeous chocolate brown eyes were full of hope and excitement.  

“I’m pregnant!”, I confirmed. 

As soon as I had the words out of my mouth, Paul had pulled me out of my seat and into his strong embrace. We spent minutes this way, just the two - well, three of us. 

"I'm so happy!", he whispered into my ear, his voice full of raw emotion. 

"I'm glad you're so happy. I can't wait to have a family with you!", I responded into his warm embrace. Paul simply held me closer to him as a response to my statement.

Moments later, Paul let go of the embrace, so that he could kneel down and talk to my belly. As I looked down at him, I could see that tears of joy were starting to flow down his cheeks as he thought of our future together and the thought of bringing a baby into the family. 

"Hi", Paul said to my stomach, before placing a kiss just above my belly button. "I know that we haven't met yet, but I promise to be the best daddy that I can be. Even though I just found out about you, little one, I already love you so much. I can't wait for you to arrive so that I can meet you!", Paul continued. I started to cry tears of happiness at his words. From that moment on, Paul had shown only joyfulness and exuberance at the idea of being a father. 

Two months later, once my first trimester was over, along with the highest risk of miscarriage, we had told the pack. Early on, Paul had told Sam, and I had told Emily, but none of the rest of the pack knew. It had been hard to find a time to tell everyone. We wanted to tell all of the pack and the imprints at the same time, but everyone was so rarely in the same place at the exact same time. We ended up convincing Sam to let us tell the pack and all of the imprints at the next bonfire. 

"I think that there's one more announcement before we go", Sam said as the fire slowly dwindled towards embers at the end of the night. 

I took one look at Paul, before standing up with him. Public speaking had never been my strong suit. He took my hand in his and lightly squeezed in it support. 

"Well, there's no use beating around the bush", I had said.

"We're pregnant!", Paul joyfully announced. 

The whole pack had offered their congratulations to us one by one and two by two. It felt so nice not to have to hide this from the pack anymore. I spent so much time with them, it was so hard not to let anything slip here or there. 

Since then, the pack had been so supportive. Jacob and Jared had offered to cover patrols for Paul on days when we had doctor's appointments, birthing class, or Lamaze class. Emily and Kim, both having already had their first children, reassured me that everything would be fine and gave me pregnancy tips anytime that it was relevant. Embry helped Paul paint the nursery since Paul was worried about the paint fumes if I helped. The whole pack looked out for me even more than they did before. They truly were a beacon of support in the times where I was overwhelmed, or nauseous, or just needed a laugh. 

"Are you sure it was just a kick and not a contraction?", Paul asked me, worry in his voice, pulling me back into the present moment. 

"Yes, Paul", I said soothingly. "I am 100% certain that it was just a strong kick", I continued. 

Though the rest of the pack could hear everything - they were after all just on the other side of the room - they were actually giving us a moment between ourselves to discuss this. Normally, they had no problems with butting into private conversations held in public spaces. 

"I can take you to the hospital if you're not sure. It's not a bother. Do you want me to go get the overnight bag? I can go get it in a flash", Paul said, talking a mile a minute with fear evident in his eyes. 

"Paul, darling", I said, squeezing his hand again. "I promise that I am just fine. I am no more uncomfortable than any other woman who is eight months pregnant", I reassured once again. "Are you sure that you are okay? You seem a little jumpy", I asked, concerned about him.

"I'm fine", Paul answered, managing to keep his voice even and calm. "I just don't want you to be in any unnecessary pain. I want to make sure that as soon as you need to go we leave for the hospital. I just don't want to screw this up", Paul continued. His voice betrayed him this time, cracking in fear. 

“You know, it’s ok to admit you’re scared”, I cautiously stated, before squeezing his hand again. Paul had been my rock throughout the pregnancy, but it was worrying that he wouldn’t acknowledge his own fears. 

“Yeah?”, he asked, slight relief evident in his tone. 

“Yeah. I mean, I am. Scared, that is. I’m terrified. If I didn’t have you guys, I’d be curled up in a ball crying by now", I said warmly. "It wouldn't be normal to be not scared. Something this important, everyone gets scared", I continued. 

"Maybe I am  . . . a little scared", Paul slowly stated. 

I leaned into him as much as I could to hug him. He gingerly placed his arms around me and pulled me into him. 

"But just think, after this, we're going to have a baby. It's all going to be worth it", I whispered into his ear. 

Paul nodded. For now, his worries seemed to have been quelled.

A/N: Yet another great writing prompt from @rjwriting 

[jaeminlore]

six hours until dawn εïз nct

group: nct hyung line category: thriller warnings: blood, gore (minor)

Yuta peeked over a short wall, towards where the man was walking into the sanatorium, a wolf by his side. He climbed up onto the wall and crouched, looking down. "Alright, Yuta, you can do this. C'mon." He jumped over the wall and rolled in the snow, the wet substance sticking to his shirt. From somewhere inside of the sanatorium, a wolf howled. Yuta shivered and ran a hand through his hair. He looked up at the sanatorium windows. The sanatorium looked like an old castle, torn and decrepit. It seemed many of the stone windowsills and accents had fallen down a long time ago. Now they lay in broken ruins under a snowy blanket. Beside him was a fountain, also broken. Whatever water used to be there was now soaked up in snow and a broken statue of what used to be a gargoyle. He approached the front door rather daringly, ready to confront the man who hurt Sicheng. Who killed him. Inside the sanatorium was even more like a castle post-war. That, or a creepy asylum from a horror movie. The building was abandoned, crumbling at every corner. There were two doorways, one labeled as a chapel and the other as an administration office. Yuta walked towards the chapel first, his spirits a bit shot at the fact that the door needed a security pass to be opened. "Damn it," he hissed. Cupping his hands around his eyes, he peaked through the window. Inside was that man, tall and layered in coats. He was tossing something at the two wolves beside him. Yuta grimaced when they bared their teeth. He decided to find the key card and confront the man. Since the administration hall was the only place to go, that's where he went. In the first office to his right, a yellowed newspaper was set on the desk. He picked it up and read the headline to himself, "Reporter assassinated on Blackwood Mountain." He put the newspaper down, figuring he was wasting time, and checked the next room over. On this room's desk was some kind of doctor's form. Yuta turned it over and read the messy scrawl on the other side. One of those guys tried to BITE me! I'm going to report it to Dr. Bowen! He turned it over and read the actual form: Report Follows RE: the initial state of the twelve miners after the collapse of the mine, and subsequent rescue, at Blackwood pines. Admittance: on receipt of the twelve patients at the Sanatorium's medical facility, we fully expected to find emancipated shells of men, starved and confused. Thankfully, the miners appear cogent and relatively healthy, attributed to their apparent discovery of emergency food supplies in the mine. Inhibited respitory function was detected in a few of the older men, as predicted, as well as symptoms of pneumonia.

Psychologically, after being trapped for 23 days, the shock of reintergration has been difficult for some of the group: though their outward health is better than excepted, they do seem affected by their time in the mine. TREATMENT: due to the delicate nature of some of the patients, we have closed off the A wing of the Sanatorium. Psychological evaluations will take place as soon as possible. The men with respiratory problems have undergone a bronchoscopy, and have been prescribed streptomycin. The others are simply kept under strict, 24 hour observation. — Dr. Nicholas Henry Fowlis Bowen Yuta felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he shivered involuntarily. Something felt off about this entire thing. He quickly exited that room and, having walked down the dark hallway for awhile, found a sign labeled "Morgue." He walked down the stairs and entered another room. There, buried under what looked to be fresh guts, was a machete. Without a second thought, as he felt he had already seen too much today, Yuta grabbed the handle and strapped it to his jeans. The room was bare, with darkened wood as a floor. There was some kind of ashy tint to everything, and Yuta felt creeped out just by the aesthetic of it all. He noticed what looked to be a telegram. Reply immediately : reporters and snoopers to be kept away at all costs. To Mr. J. Dragg — Incident Update — - 12 survivors received at sanatorium - showing signs of mental trauma may need to contain - Local press now have scent of blood, becoming a problem. - Please advise further Yuta threw the piece of paper back onto the desk ("Who wouldn't want to report this lovely place?") and quickly left towards the next room on the way to the morgue. He stopped in the doorway, after hearing a mysteriously rhythmic tapping noise. The source of the noise was a lot scarier than Yuta had intended. It was some sort of contraption: a hand waving back and forth by mechanics. The closer Yuta got, the closer he could smell that it certainly was an actual hand. He crinkled his nose and tried not to think about it too much. He looked closer and saw that there was some kind of tag tied around the wrist. Yuta reached forward to grab and read it —

SNAP! The hand must've served for some kind of bait, because a bear trap had been hidden underneath. It snapped up, capturing two of Yuta's fingers in it's sharp hold. Yuta felt a searing pain in his fingers, and he had to bite back a legitimate scream. He couldn't open the trap, no matter how hard he tried. Yuta looked down at the machete strapped to his pants. He really had no choice. He picked up the machete and braced himself, fear and adrenaline pumping blood through his already severed fingers. He lifted the machete into the air. "Three, two — oh no — one!" SHIIING! The slice of the knife made Yuta see stars, and he screamed loudly this time, shaking his severed hand in pain. [something at the end of the hall is alerted at his screams. it creeps closer] "Eeny meeny miney mo, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go... I don't know where the heck to go... okay..." he muttered, looking around the room. Perhaps fate was on his side, because the room seemed to be some kind of old nurse's office, and there was an entire case full of bandages. Yuta grabbed a roll and tied it around his hands until he felt that it was okay enough for him to continue on. He walked into the morgue finally, and searched the shelves on the walls first. He didn't find a key card, but he did find what looked to be a very distorted skull in a jar. The skull was huge, but the jaw seemed small. The skin was discolored and grotesque. "This place just gets weirder and weirder." Since Yuta could never really leave things alone, he decided to take out all of the body drawers and look at them. The first one he opened held a dead man in a uniform, who had a chapel card in his front pocket. "Thank you," Yuta snatched it up. He opened another one and saw nothing but a registration of death. Name: Mark Lee Assessment: body was not discovered until post-24 hours after death. Sections of the intestine and kidneys were apparently eaten by something. The last one he opened had nothing but a death tag: "Michael Bowen; attacked by inmate. Fatal lacerations to the throat. Nice..." Yuta grimaced and stalked away from the drawers. He turned to see another chapel entrance near the back. He half-wondered if people had funerals here. He unlocked the chapel and walked into what seemed to be simply the staircase to the chapel. To his right, a wolf let out a sharp bark. "Ah!" Yuta shouted in surprise. He turned and ran up the stairs, the dog nipping at his heels. "Easy!" he squealed once he realized he was at a dead end. "It's okay," he lowered his voice into something softer, "That's it. Good boy." The wolf finally whimpered softly, and sat back on it's haunches. Yuta kept walking until he ended up in what seemed to be an usher's room, where a window overlooked the chapel. He looked through and saw the man leaving the chapel, perhaps making his way back outside. Yuta groaned in frustration and climbed down the stairs, back towards the actual chapel entrance. He stuck the key card in. Once he was in the chapel, it wasn't long before the second wolf caught a whiff of him and tried to attack. Yuta held his palm out and began to speak softly yet again. "It's okay. Easy, boy." Once the wolf seemed satisfied that Yuta had no intentions to harm it, it calmed down and went back to minding its own business. Yuta approached the middle of the chapel. All of the pews had been taken out, and the place looked like a small clubhouse more than anything. An old armchair sat in the middle, with a side table and a large cigar waiting beside it. Yuta picked up the cigar, noticing it to be the same brand as the butt he and Sicheng found in the mine earlier. He put it back in its case and walked over to the man's trunk. Opening it, he saw bones, seemingly fresh and somewhat meaty. He grabbed one.

To the left, a map hung on to the old wall. It was marked up in the same way the one in the mine was. Only instead of repairs, this one was covered in creepier captions. "American man died here," Yuta read one, "Canadian teen died here," was another. And finally, a bunch of red circles with the label "sighting." Newspaper clippings about death were tacked to the map, along with a picture of what seemed to be twelve men in overalls, all smiling for the camera. Below the map, a pistol lay seemingly unused, and a green jacket was hung up nicely. Yuta grabbed both. Ready to pursue Sicheng's attacker, he went to leave the building. The man seemed to like to be safe, for he put a padlock on his door upon leaving. Before he tried to escape, Yuta whistled the wolf over and handed him the bone he had previously taken. He patted the canine's head and told him goodbye. Yuta then pointed the pistol at the padlock, covered his face with his arm, and shot the lock at nearly point-blank distance. Figuring he had already lost a lot of valuable tracking time, Yuta darted down a set of stairs, into a dirty room. There were visible pipes everywhere, some dripping with dirty sewer water, others completely dry. He kept walking, and the throbbing in his fingers seemed to get more noticeable as the minutes went by. Simply choosing to ignore this, Yuta went towards the next door he saw; also padlocked. There was a barrel in front of the door, so Yuta grabbed it and shoved it out of the way. It fell into its side, spilling oil all over the floor. Yuta winced and pointed once again at the padlock. He shot at the lock, and sparks flew from the metal on metal. They caught on the oil, and it quickly spread a fire around Yuta's feet. "Oh no." He looked around and realized every other barrel was labeled as one with flammable liquid, and that if he didn't get out now he might become human barbecue. He jumped over the fire and away from the door as quickly as he could before one of the barrels exploded, sending him face-first into the stone ground. - [a figure in a white mask watches through security footage as a couple passes a gate. as it closes, he clicks his remote, locking the gate.] "I can't believe Taeil is dead," Taeyong muttered. "I can't believe how he died," Kun replied. Just the thought of what a shaken Doyoung and Ten had recalled to them had Kun shivering in fear. "No, I mean what if they were wrong?" "What?" Kun looked at his older friend. "Maybe we should have checked the shed to see if it was really true" "I don't know," Kun hesitated, "There are some things that once you see them, you can never unsee them" "I guess... but some things you need to see for yourself," Taeyong seemed troubled. "I'll take their word for it," Kun said. "Thank goodness we're already here. Let's get this thing working."

He strode up the the cable car station, with Taeyong following quickly behind. Beside the door, there was an axe, its blade stuck in the wood. "Look, an axe! I feel much better with an axe." Kun tugged the weapon free and checked it over. Taeyong pulled at the door handle. "Great," he muttered. "It's locked. Break the door down, will you?" Kun shook his head and fearfully looked behind him before whispering, "If we make a bunch of noise, he's gonna hear us." "Have you got any better suggestions?" Taeyong asked, his eyes narrowing at the locked door in distain. "I don't know. What about..." Kun trailed off until he saw a window, just to his left. "Look, a window!" Taeyong eyed the small frame. "I couldn't fit my pinkie finger in there if I tried." "No, come on," Kun walked over to the window and began to try pushing his body through. "You won't fit in there either, Mr. I-eat-MacDonald's-four-times-a-week." "Fine," Kun muttered. Taeyong did have a point there. He walked over to the door and swung the axe down, tearing up the wood until the door finally opened. Inside of the station, nearly everything was turned over and thrown around. It looked as if a tornado had gone through. Papers flooded the floor, and furniture was turned on it's side. "This is crazy," he said. "Weren't we just here a few hours ago?" Taeyong asked, hiding his hands behind his shirtsleeves. "This must've just happened." "What is going on?" "It's gotta be the guy ... the one who got to Ten and Doyoung ... and Taeil..." "He's gotta know this is the only way back," Kun deducted. "Don't say that," Taeyong fretted, his pupils darting from side to side. "Look, the cable car is all the way out there." Kun looked out the window and gestured for Taeyong to do the same. Indeed, the cable car had been turned on and off at just the right time to have it hanging right in the middle of the cable. "Well... I mean that's not far right? you can jump it?" "I'm not superman, Tae. Flattered, though." Kun turned around and headed for the back of the station. "What are we gonna do then?" "I don't know." "Everything is so messed up," Taeyong whined. Kun ignored Taeyong's complaining and instead studied the map on the wall. "Hey, look, a fire tower!" "Hey, Magellan, maybe we should get this cable car working and get in the road, huh?" Taeyong finally snapped. Kun knew Taeyong's anger was just out of worry, so he continued to look around. He found the control panel and sighed as he studied the buttons. "No key, no cable car." "What about the fire tower on the map?" "It's an option," Kun shrugged. Taeyong rose his eyebrows, looking hopeful, "Maybe it has a radio or something! I mean it would wouldn't it?" "Probably, yeah."

"We've got to get to the radio." "Let's go, then." They exited quickly, and Taeyong kept from fretting out loud until they were off the ladder of the cable car station and well on their way to the radio. "What if it doesn't work?" "It will," Kun promised. "If it doesn't, we need another plan." "Maybe we can just climb down," suggested Kun. "Climb down what?" Taeyong looked at Kun curiously. "The mountain." Taeyong stopped for a moment, having been shocked by Kun's suggestion. "Are you serious?" "Hopefully we won't have to." "Do you think the psychopath is just going to give up and run away?" Taeyong said sarcastically, taking larger steps to catch up with Kun. "No," Kun admitted, "but maybe we can find a safe place and hole up. You know, wait it out. It'd be a lot easier to do all of this in daylight." "As long as we don't hide out in the lodge," Taeyong said smartly. "That's where he expects us to go." "Right," Kun said, leading them both across a long wooden bridge. The moon could be seen in the distance, leading the way for the two of them as it spotlighted upon the snow. Just across the bridge, there seemed to be a dead end in the form of a cliff. Kun went to get a closer look. Taeyong followed, his eyes trailing the ground. "Be careful around here," he said, pointing to a danger sign that had been buried halfway under the snow. Hearing a grunt behind him, Kun turned around, startled. An entire herd of elk had snuck upon them, apparently unnoticed by the two distracted boys. Kun gripped his axe. "Why are they coming closer? Taeyong?" "I don't know," Taeyong hissed back. If they stepped back any, they might fall off a cliff. If they stepped forward, they would walk into a heard of what looked to be a bunch of angry, antler-clad deer. - [the figure in the mask stands at the doorway of the bathroom, watching as jaehyun is relaxing. his body is hidden by bubbles, and with earbuds in his ears, he has no idea that someone else is in the room.] [the figure leaves, slamming the door shut behind him. the candles in the bathroom blow out at the gust of cold wind.]

Jaehyun took off his earbuds, startled by the abrupt noise of the door slamming. "Hello? Guys? What are you doing out there?" He chuckled under his breath, "Being creepy, probably." After receiving no answer, Jaehyun sighed and got out of the bath. He grabbed a towel off of its hook and tied it around his waist. Carefully, so he wouldn't slip, he padded across the tiled floor towards where he had placed his clothes. Only a single sock was left on the chair, causing Jaehyun to let out a huff of annoyance. "Seriously, guys?" he yelled. "We're still doing pranks? This isn't cool, ya know! Not cool at all!" He walked out of the bathroom, "Doyoung? Taeil?" In the hall, candles were placed in threes everywhere, creating a strange ambiance to the lodge. Jaehyun half-wondered if Doyoung had botched up the lighting, and they had to use candles to see. That didn't explain the red balloons — each painted with a large black arrow — tied to the staircase. He began to climb down, grimacing, "This is all really funny guys: watch Jaehyun parade around in a towel ... but I'd really like this to be over now." He landed on the main floor and looked around. When he spotted no one, he frowned and continued down to the bottom level, "If you're trying to freak me out, you're succeeding!" The last balloon he could see pointed into the theater room. Jaehyun walked in slowly, expecting the three boys to be waiting with his clothes, a movie title screen on the projector. Everyone would laugh at Jaehyun and Ten would toss him his clothes and tell him to get dressed before he got to cold. Then they would watch something stupid like Anchorman to ease the tension. Instead, he was greeted with an empty room, and nothing playing on the screen. "Guys, stop! Come on, I'm done with this! I really don't appreciate the silent treatment anymore!" The doors to the theater slammed shut then, and Jaehyun let out a yelp of surprise. He looked towards the screen and saw that it was stuck on some kind of old movie countdown. "Hello, Jaehyun," a voice appeared over the speakers. Its distorted tone frightened Jaehyun, and he found himself turning every which way for the source. "Looking for me? I don't think you'll have much luck by looking, Jaehyun." "What's going on?" Jaehyun asked, his voice shaking slightly. "You'll only see what I want you to see. And I have a lot to show you," the voice chuckled, "Open your eyes." The screen turned black before a video of Jaehyun in the bathroom could be seen. "He's quite handsome isn't he? A beautiful bathing bird." "What? Why did you..." Jaehyun subconsciously tied his towel closer to his waist. "Do you think he has any idea what lies ahead? Do you think these were the last happy moments of this creatures life?" "Why are you'd showing this to me..?" Jaehyun asked, his face turning red with rage and embarrassment. "Why are you watching?" Jaehyun turned around to look for the source of the voice, and when he turned back to the screen, it had changed videos. Jaehyun gasped in horror. "Taeil!" he yelled at the screen, as his friend was mercilessly sawed in half with no warning. "WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU MANIAC, WHAT DID YOU DO?" "I'm going to give you ten seconds," the voice said calmly. "Nine ... eight ..." "No," Jaehyun backed up into the wall. "No, no, no, no, no!" "Seven ... " "Please no!" Jaehyun yelled. His entire body felt paralyzed, and he wasn't sure he could fight back even if he tried. The figure in the mask strutted in then, swinging the theater doors open. He had a syringe in his hand. "Jaehyun?" "No!" Jaehyun screamed, looking for another way out of the theater room. The maniac twirled the syringe in his hand as he spoke in a sing-song type of voice, "Jaehyun..." "Please, don't!" Jaehyun screamed. He tried to run past the maniac, and push him aside so he could bolt. He didn't anticipate the maniac's manic grip on his arm. He felt a sharp pain on the side of his neck, and suddenly everything was numb. He closed his eyes. [...]

[nomanicsdak]

New Post has been published on https://manicdak.com/home-sweet-sparta/

Home Sweet Sparta

FIGHTING AWAY THE SADNESS

 I am just going to complete some new locations and try to find my treasure feathers to start off with just to work out a bit of this sadness. RIP Pickles and Phoibe. I spot a cultist nearby as I’m trying to suss out my treasure maps, and hey—I’m not passing these dudes up for later anymore. Vengeance is mine!

Eventually I just give up on figuring out the treasure maps and find a mirror island, that I try to solve, but— I can’t. I move on to more locations and maybe I’ll come back to that later. It’s kind of eating at me though, like the Sphinx puzzle in the last game, so we shall see.

I’m on some Dionysus themed island in some place called the Crane of Paxus and there is a Quest exclamation point calling to me, so let’s go see what that’s about rather than wandering aimlessly.

A RELEVANT QUEST

Your Mom Wuz Here

Okay, here are the deets:

“blood or change the Phoenix must choose” is the caption on graffiti nearby that some dude is angry about. This seems rather relevant to the mom quest, doesn’t it? Should the artist be silenced or not? Not obviously. 

Okay, well, I am hired to end the graffiti artist. He doesn’t want me to kill the artist though. Which is good, because I don’t want to do that either, even if this dude whom lives in a cave wants to incite violence against my pirate mom. I gather useless clues for some reason, because the art dealer tells me exactly where to find the guy before I even search for them, but search for them I must to complete this part of the quest.

After I gather all the pointless clues, I find him in a cave with an Alpha bear. My MO is now to tame these majestic beasts so I can complete the location, then let them go. If I need random pelts for upgrades I can just take out some boars and wolves. In any case, the artist is well protected by this bear, but I find his hidey hole and get him to confess. He won’t do it again, because he does actually like Phoenix. He was just commissioned by the Spartans and/or Athenians (I forget) to get rid of her. I make him pinky promise not to do any more graffiti and the matter is settled. 

Since I’ve stumbled my way back into the mom quest, I’ll just continue to look for Phoenix. I finish all the locations on the island first. I do find a sweet bow that turns all my plain arrows into poison arrows. After a minute I realize that this may be too cool of a thing and worry that I have another cursed object. It is not! Hells yeah! Just some sweet loot. nice. I get dressed up in my Sunday best (upgrade my Snake armor) to visit mom. She’s having a meeting of minds about protecting the town that I walk in on. Obviously she’s stunned to see her dead child. Lol, the first thing I tell her is about Kassandra. She immediately picks up that she’s cult brainwashed.

Phoenix, Myrrine, Mama!

We cry it out, obviously.

Myrrine vows to get Kassandra back from the cult.

ISLANDS IN THE STREAM

But first! There is an invasion from the neighboring island that we have to take care of and I learn that she has aligned herself with the Spartans because her rivals have Athens on their side.  We learn that the rival island used to be cool, but the new leadership has some manifest destiny ideas. Not cool. That’s why they’re fighting, they want to expand. 

She says I remind her of dear old Spartan!dad with my fighting; I choose not to tell her I know Nikolaus is not my bio!dad at this point. That’s the last thing I’m going to divulge just to get all the other dialogue options out of the way. Let’s see if she knows what the damn cult wants.

They’re just afraid of us and our badass genes I guess. Let’s “give them a reason to be afraid!”

WHO’S YOUR DADDY?

Now to the bio!dad question!

lol, okay, now the game acknowledges that I met Nikolaus as an adult. Myrrine makes sure to remind me that Nikolaus did raise me, so he is my dad. I mean, I would be cool with that if he hadn’t THROWN. ME. OFF. A. CLIFF. 

In any case Bio!Dad was in the picture before Nikolaus, and he was looking for Myrrine specifically I guess. Then he poofed away never to be heard of again. I choose to tell her it’s okay that she didn’t tell me, and–Cut scene over. That did not answer anything! We’re just moving locations, probably so Myrrine can be captured/killed just as we reunite and before I can get answers because Alexios must live a tragic life.

 I am choosing all the reunite my family replies, instead of bloodthirsty murder the cult options. I don’t know if this matters, but yeah. Nice guy assassin over here. *shrug* We still have not returned to the dad question. We’re probably going to have to battle rival island first, because her general arrives to announce a symposium. 

I wonder how this is going to differ  from Pickles’s Symposium. Should we take bets on whether or not Alkibiades shows up with a goat?

Alas, turns out I don’t get to attend. Maybe later though, because she has given me a few tasks to help defeat the rival!island. First, I must find her missing admiral that disappeared on a peace mission. Just kidding, Aspasia shows up to the symposium to try and convince Myrrine to leave, because that troublesome Rival!Island have sent assassins! Aspasia points me to a cave so I can defeat them, but I’ve already been there. Do I need to go back? Or are the bad guys going to respawn?

Of course they respawn, so I have to dispatch them again—though this time they are soldiers and not cultists. It seems like Rival!Island sent them at first, but it turns out that—well, they did, but also the leadership over there are cultists, and also the kings of Sparta might be cultists too. This explains a lot.

EVERYWHERE A CULTIST!

Now we are going to find the missing captain and weaken their defenses!

When I finally rescue cap he lets me in on his cult suspicions, but we already knew that. He goes back to tell Phoenix and I work on weakening the island by pillaging the quarry that I already pillaged twice already. I guess this is what I get for clearing locations before doing quests.

Done with that—now there is a blockade to deal with. 

C’mon, let’s uncover this cultist and let mom retire in peace with Aspasia and her right hand General, Tim (her name is also begins with Tim. Who knew there were so many Tims in ancient Greece?)

Alexios, who has never heard of the Hydra, wants to dismantle the cult by cutting off all the heads.

Myrrine wants to go back to Sparta to fix things from the inside, and it looks like she’s going to convince Alexios to come with her. Everybody is sad, like… the camera focuses on super sad General Tim. Are she and mom a thing? Head canon/possibly real canon accepted!

WHO’S YOUR DADDY? : TAKE TWO

Before I rejoin Myrrine in Sparta though, she wants me to find my bio!dad.

Is she going to finally tell me who he is instead of a vague idea of him?

Vague idea it is. She won’t tell me, because he is so hard to describe. She just gives me an island to find him and wishes me good Posidons for my journey. The game now gives me helpful hints on how to grind as if I haven’t been playing already for eleventymillion hours. 

Geez, maybe it’s just a hint that I need to be a higher level for the new Dad quest? I hope not. Should I try to find out how to work mirror island, or go straight to it? 

I consult the map and discover that mirror island is also Dad island both my ideas have converged, so I might as well jump right in.

THE LOST CITY

Turns out Mirror island is super easy when it’s the right time to do it. I make it into the cave and Alexios is confused about how he’s going to find dad in this musty old place full of skeletons. 

Now I am in a volcano getting burned and sliding down inescapable tubes. I’m going to assume mom didn’t send me to certain volcano doom. Maybe dad is Haephestus? Nah.

When I’m through the volcano, I have found “Gateway to the Lost City” I hope there’s dinosaurs down here. Let’s see the cult try to stop me when I come ridin’ in on a T-Rex. Ahh, this underground city has a nice window to the sea and some old dude. 

What Lies Beneath This Triangle?

Some old dude that Ikaros is friends with. I call my bird a traitor and the old dude welcomes me to Atlantis. Okay, that makes way more sense then a journey to the center of the earth situation. I mean, we’re clearly not in the underworld. I already went down the Hades hole and there was nothing in there but cultists.

Alright, it’s Pythagoras himself, this old dude. Father of triangles, and father of me. Whoo, boy, if only my good friend Demokritus could see me now! Should I tell Pythagoras about Atomic theory?

Alexios (and me) are very confused, cos P◺is supposed to be very long dead. He doesn’t even explain to me how he’s still alive and living all locked up in Atlantis, but he does explain that he sent Ikaros to bodyguard me. This explains how a single eagle can take down an entire ass boar all by itself I suppose. 

In any case P◺ has no time for my want of a family reunion. He wants to seal away Atlantis so the bad guys can’t get hold of the knowledge here. Alexios is grumpy now. What is his part in all this scholarly nonsense?

P◺ tells me my purpose is to protect the secrets of Atlantis.

My Bird Has Betrayed Me!

Cool, cool, cool. It would surely have been nice for at least one person to tell me about this mission prior to, well…now. We are not happy about this, but of course I’ll help P◺. He is my dad supposedly, Myrrine seems to think I need to be here, so okay. (I can choose the ‘you haven’t earned my help’ option, but tbh that doesn’t fit my MO.) 

Wait–wait–wait!  P◺ is sending me on an adventure to find and discover some artifacts needed to unseal a door to the secret knowledge. They are in the hands of lesser beings and can corrupt the minds of the beholders as well as protect themselves.

Firt of all: Why are we unlocking the knowledge that you want to lock away, dadums?

Second of all: Is this not the plot of the Adventure Zone: Balance???

Okay, watevers. I’ll get your artifacts if only because I want to see what’s behind door number one for myself!

Oh, whoah! We’re back in the future.

LAYLA TIME!

It’s Layla!

Layla and the Dr. are the current times adventurers. I know I haven’t mentioned their names before. Anyway, she is super excited about this Atlantis discovery. The Doctor thinks she’s delirious from too much time in the memory machine. Layla makes the good point that none of this is any weirder than anything else that had happened, and clearly the staff of Hermes is what’s keeping good old P◺ alive. Why not.

We make the trip out to the middle of the ocean to find Atlantis and the staff I suppose. 

Hey, I wonder if P◺ is still down here! I do not find out, because I am Alexios again now. Time to get back to it, Ancient Greece style!

BACK IN THE DAY

First things first is to visit mom, and not blame her for not straight out telling me that she was shackin’ it up with a 150 year old math dude, because I obviously would not be believing that shit. Sure mom, long dead P◺ is my dad. Uhuh. I can understand the reluctance to come straight out and say it.

When I return to my mom Alexios does indeed ask if Mom knew he was old as hell. An awkward convo for mother and son indeed. We reminisce about Sparta now that we’re back. I’m going to say it doesn’t feel right to be here. I mean: A. Stepdad tried to kill me. B. I’m buds with an awful lot of Athenians now. The only Spartan I have befriended is a defector, so… Maybe I don’t want a happy Spartan homecoming, ma?

Before we can go visit our old house Myrrine wants to show me where she taught me to fight. Good times. We choose not to help some kids kill some wolves, which I regret, and then head on home. Myrrine reminds me of the ways of Sparta. I guess she can feel me getting too sympathetic. We are sharing some good family memories in any case at the old homestead when Brasidas shows up.

Cool dude. Where were you when I needed some cave backup, eh?

Anyway, he’s mostly here to exposit about how we can’t get the family home back because it is in Stepbro’s name now. Turns out, nobody likes that guy. To win back our home, have to go on a quest to get the king’s good graces by finding some Spartan ‘traitors’ who are providing armor to some rabble rousers.  I do not get a chance to tell everyone that I did not in fact assassin Nikolaus. *shrug* I guess it’s for the best that he just disappears forever.

Instead of doing this quest, I clear out all the locations on this section of the map including a “Boar Fight club”. Do people fight the boars? Or do the boars fight each other? I do not know!

The First Rule Of Boar Fighting Club Is–

Anyway, I get back to getting the traitors and now visiting my mom at grandpas grave where she tells me how great and awesome he was. Sure. I can agree with that I guess. Myrrine asks to see my spear and she magics some memories out of it.

We have some cultists talking to grandpa Leo. Ohh, he’s disagreeing with them and pissing them off.  The cultists want Xerxes in charge, and they promise to kill all Leo’s ancestors. 

That explains a lot.

FAVORS FOR KINGS

Pausanias Looks Like He’s Scheming

After those memories, a king shows up. His name is Pausanias. He thinks the laws that led to the whole cliffing thing are archaic. 

I say he sounds progressive. I mean it as a compliment, but he’s not having it. He says I’ve been hanging out with too many Athenians. And then he doesn’t stop talking for a while about Spartan laws and, really, I forget most of what he said. He’s co-king brother is the more conservative one who loves the old laws and Spartans are always killing everybody even their own selves, which was a reply to me wanting to live in a peaceful land.

Okay, whatevs. Seriously, do I have to get my old home back? Can I just get back on my boat and travel the lands? Well, if my mom wants to live here, I will help her out and also…Pretty sure I have to do these quests to advance the game. 

Now I have to go end to this Krypteia rebellion for Pausanias. These elite soldiers are just out there killing everybody for funsies. Alexios things that this is going to pit the king brothers against each other. TBH, Pausanias is probably going for that exact thing.

Right, so, after dispatching the rogue Krypteia, I report back to Brasidas who shows me to the kings. They are fighting it out in their chambers as you do in Sparta I guess. Conservative bro is Piiiiiiiissed when I’m introduced. Why, dude? All I ever did was get thrown off a cliff, and kill a bunch of your guys, but that’s seemingly besides the point in this game unless they are plot relevant guys. Did I kill any plot relevant Spartans?? Okay, I guess I did… Huh, also broke king grumpy pants’s nose, which Pausanias is eager to remind him of. Well—I guess I’ve been playing this game so long that I forgot what happened in the beginning.

King Fight Club

I stick up for my mom and tell the kings to blame me for everything of course. They give me two options now: A-Make Sparta my home. (no thanks?) B-Hunt down the betrayers! (The cultists?) I choose B, because, I know Ma is into it, but I’m not keen on putting roots down in Sparta. I’m sure you have concrete plans for me though, game. Le-Sigh.

King Grumpy-pants wants to know who I think the betrayers are. Probably him. Though maybe that’s what he wants me to think. *strokes chin thoughtfully*

Okay, well, both King Grumpy-pants and Pausanius give me tasks to prove myself. GP wants me to fight for Sparta in Boeta. I just argue with them and get yelled at, because fuck those kings. I have to go to Boeta anyhow, but not so fast! Pausanias has a task for me too.

He gives me–an ESCORT mission???? For Sparta’s Olympic champion–but I have to make sure he wins the event. What in the hell, dude???? Seriously, if these leads to me having to murder the entire Athenian squad, I’m going to be mad. 

[shiawasewokubaru-blog]

Ghibili fare

The sleeping Totoro inside the cave

Ducklings in the hot spring

You better return to where you are belong to.  You are not able to give me things that I want the most.

“You can’t come here! Go back! Huh...? It’s getting dark soon, return before it gets dark.”

“Who are you? Fairy Dust?”

The scene of Koanashi consuming tons of food and his body becomes bigger.

The Stone muskets appeared in Princess Momoko. Those are used in fighting against the Family of Boars.

The board of introduction for “My Neighbor Totoro”

The translated version is as follow:

“That’s awesome! Daddy have been dreaming to live in a haunted house since I was little.” The father of two daughters said.  The two daughters named Satsuki, studying Grade 6, and Mei, aged 4.  They met a creature that looked like a Raccoon, an owl, and a bear, which carried a pouch filled with acorns.  Hence, they believe that this creature is living in the old forest.

If you find them, you must discover them. If not, that’s because you don’t believe their presence.”

Two girls, Mei (two piggy tails) and Mitzuki (short hair), are running towards their new home with excitment

Into the woods, a huge Chinchila sleeping inside the tree hole peacefully

Satsuki is carrying sleeping Mei at the bus stop in the rain. Meanwhile, Totoro is waiting for the bus beside them.  Satsuki and Mei are waiting for the bus that their Dad’s riding on.  How about Totoro? Is it waiting for the same bus..?

This is the monologue of Satzuki to Totoro when she is waiting for the bus in the rain.

Translated version:

“Totoro?

Wait a second. I lend it to you.

Be quick, Mei is slipping down now.”

The scene that appears when their mum is about to leave the hospital.  They are all watching Mum smiling in the patient’s room

The entry to another world -- from Spirited Away.

Translated capture:“I don’t like it here. Let’s return, Daddy!”

Translated capture:

“Mummy, here is a big news today, because Mei said there is a huge fairy chinchilla. I want to see it so badly.”

The introduction board for Howl’s Moving Castle. The translated version is as follow:

Sophie’s old room. 

Howl’s moving castle is ‘walking’ on the greenland

The main fuel and the heart of Howl’s moving castle

The heart of Howl’s Moving Castle.  A demon, named Calcifer, ‘signed’ a contract with Howl.  And he lends his power to Howl, Howl gave his heart to Calcifer in return.

Sophie is cleaning the house

Marukuru is questioning Sophie of why she is here. Meanwhile, Howl’s coming down from the second floor.

Kakashi no kabo is standing outside the window 

The city after sun is set -- the scene from Spirited away

The hot spring room

The bridge leading towards the oil industry

The forest where Totoro is living in.

The delicious breakfast “burnt” by Calcifer. 

The introduction board for Princess Momonoke. Translated version as follow:

During Muromachi period, the time when breakdown of timocracy happened in Japan, there was a forest located far away from human being.  Many Gods are living in the forest, including Wolf and Boar, that can speak.  They attack humans, who want to make incursion into the sanctuary, so humans worship them as Gods of the Mountain.  One day, Ashitaka, the young warrior of Emishi village, is cursed by the demonized Boar God; Ashitaka has to travel to the west to seek the cure, but unexpectedly gets involved in a fate-changing event.  Lady Eboshi, the head of a fierce campaign that is agglomerating ores, seeks to build up a society for human being.  To accomplish that, deforestation is the way to develop the society.  Meanwhile, Princess Mononoke, named Shan, was raised by Wolf God and is feared by humans.  Shan and the Gods fight against those living in the fierce campaign in order to protect the forest.  Both sides have their own belief, in this war, there is a group of samurei want the head of Kirin, the Lord of Aniaml Gods, for longevity purpose.  Hence, yielding a tri-party war.  Ashitaka and Shan meet each other in such incidence so that they get to treasure each other.  However, the war does not only killing the innocence, but also the head of Kirin is decapitated and taken away...

The princess, Momoko, stands on the mountain looking at the fierce campaign. There are two white wolves come along with her.

The Lord of Animal, Kirin

Ashitaka mounting on his red elk, Yakul, to cross through the forest.

Translated capture:

“It’s fine. You are in the forest, and I am staying in the fierce campaign. Let’s carry on for the rest of our lives.  I will mount on the red elk to find you.”

-- Princess Momonoke

Translated capture:

“I think I see Satzuki and Mei are sitting there on a tree trunk smiling at us”

Translated caption:

“Sorry, I made this happened and got you involved in it. 

I was really amused by the time you falling from the sky,

I thought that it must be something SPECIAL happened.”

Translated caption:

“SHUT UP.

Why should I hire you?”

Translated caption:

“This is the present from Totoro. It’s really great.”

The introduction board for Castle in the sky. The translated version is as follow:

The junior mechanist, Pazu, meets a girl, named Sheeta,slowly sinking from the sky with the necklace shinning like a diamond with bluish green light.  That is actually the heir of the Castle in the sky.  The necklace actually is the aerothorium crystal, which possesses a power to make everything floating in the sky.  The Castle, Laputa, is Pazu’s father discovery.  Even though he passed away, nobody trusts his claim.  

Unfortunately, Pazu and Sheeta are prosecuted by the Force, which attempts to find out Laputa.  Sheeta keeps being captured, while Pazu is freed in return of assisting the head of Force, Muska, to search for Laputa.

Another party, the air pirates, has the same target -- aiming to take away the aerothorium crystal.  They assist Pazu to rescue Sheeta from the Force, and get into Laputa.....

Pazu (front) and Sheeta (back of Pazu) are running on the rail while being chased by the air pirates

The airship of air pirates, named Tiger Moth, is flying in the clouds.  The captain of the airship is called Dola. 

Translated caption:

“Come.  Be good.”

The scene of the robot recuing Sheeta from the fire. And Pazu is riding a plane towards the destructive building to take Sheeta away from the danger.

Translated caption:

“Sheeta, I come to rescure you!”

“Pazu!”

Laputa, the castle in the sky, is invisible because of the heavy layers of clouds. 

Translated caption

“The control room, Laputa is inside.

My pop saw Laputa in this clouds”

The introduction board for Spirited Away. Translated version as follow:

A girl named Chinchiro, who aged 10, looks unconcerned and a little lazy -- the children nowadays are always like that.  

In the trip to a new neighborhood with her parents, they goes to the wrong direction and thus gets into ‘a mysterious world’. Her parents eat the food selling by the street vendors, so both of them turn into pigs.  While Chinchiro’s name is taken away, her name is changed to ‘Sen’. Chinchiro has to work for the witch, named Yubaba, for survival.  The bathhouse is providing services, such as healing and resting, for God and monsters.  Chinchiro works hard in such environment, and meet Haku and River Spirit.  After the period of training in her life, Chinchiro grows up and become mature.  What would happen to a child who is under a life-time protection, and become alone all in sudden?  Can Chinchiro go back to where she originally from?

The hallway to the baths.

Translated caption:

Different scenery appears at different angles, which is the magic of Raccoons revealing the beautiful old days.

Translated caption:

Same as you, a lot stronger than before

The child of a witch has to leave his/ her own house to train up for a year in order to become independent.  Kiki brings her black cat, named Jiji, to another city an settle down.  The friendly and kind bakery owner, Osono, suggests Kiki works for her as she has the special skill -- flying with a bloom.  This is how Kiki’s delivery service starts. 

Kiki meets an artist, Ursula, and a boy with a dream of flying in the sky, Tombo Tapoli, in such busy city.  Kiki is eventually used to the new life.  However, she gets a fever, and her magic becomes weaker in the following days.  Can she still do the delivery service, and continue her training for the rest of her days in this city?

Kiki’s mum is a witch, who works in her own laboratory.  There are full of dried flowers and herbs.  

Kiki’s grandmother is sitting at the back (laughing at her daughter being failed at her experiment, again?)

The name of the bakery

Kiki is bored and laying on the cupboard, zoned out.

Kiki is flying with a bloom while the bike is under testing on the traffic

This is Kiki’s client home.  In order to find out the black cat doll that was left somewhere else outside on the street, Jiji pretends to be that doll temporarily.  Unfortunately, there is a dog in the house, which makes Jiji anxious and whispers “Kiki, come back quickly...” (translated caption)

The introduction board for Porco Rosso. The translated version is as follow:

There are 4 young men and a young lady obsessed with aeroplanes in Italian Mar Adriatico.  They always want to fly into the sky without limit.  However, the guys has passed away from the war as they fell from the sky while driving the aeroplane: one fell into the blue ocean, another one fell onto a land of nowhere, they are respectively all disappeared in different place and can’t be reached out in the world.  That leaves the lady and the last guy surviving.  

That guy cursed himself, and gave up his human appearance... 

The night view of the Edirne Castle, which is located in the ocean.

The pig, Marco Pagot, is laying on the beach banch under the sunshine

[redhoodedwolf]

less-than three

HERE HAVE A RANDOM SPONTANEOUS VALENTINES DAY FIC???

I was reminiscing with my roommate yesterday over the tumblr boyfriend I had like five years ago, fondly remembering how we’d message each other and hating how we didn’t have a chat feature back then but i digress

anyway I decided to put Derek and Stiles into an online/long distance relationship so have some fluff :D

d-hale: Hey.

star-wolves: Hey! How was your day?

d-hale: Pretty good all things considered. Been a long week.

d-hale: and you? How was class?

star-wolves: ugh, class was class. almost skewered myself on a lacrosse stick AGAIN

d-hale: ???

d-hale: I won’t ask.

star-wolves: But don’t you care about my well being??! DEREK RUDE

d-hale: of course I do

d-hale: But that’s the fifth time you’ve typed those words out to me, which is why I don’t need to ask. 

star-wolves: aw sweet

d-hale: am not

d-hale: change the subject

star-wolves: fiiiiine. You’re working on a new project, right? You patreon update was subtle at best but it’s the new client you talked about yesterday right??

d-hale: Yes. I’m almost done, but it’s been eating up a lot of my time.

d-hale: sorry about that

star-wolves: HEY NO work is totally important don’t ever apologize for puttin bacon on the table

star-wolves: As long as you’re not working yourself too hard I have no complaints. 

d-hale: I’m fine.

star-wolves: now is that an actual ‘I’m fine’ or a ‘Stiles can’t know I’m actually screaming inside so I’ll say I’m fine’ I’m fine

d-hale: your brain will always amaze me for how it works in such different ways

d-hale: But I do mean it. I’m actually enjoying this one, the client is easy to work with it’s just taking time I wish I could do other things with.

star-wolves: like what ;) ;) ;)

d-hale: Charming.

star-wolves: DON’T DENY ME

d-hale: Never.

star-wolves: DEREK YOU TAKE THAT SASS AND PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET

d-hale: I’m wearing pocket-less sweatpants what now

d-hale: and that was not an invitation to imagine me in sweatpants

star-wolves: you take out all the fun

star-wolves: ANYWAY SUBJECT CHANGE but can you believe it’s almost been a year of us chatting already? 

d-hale: Oh yeah. Valentines right?

star-wolves: Mhmm. I complimented your photographs and you couldn’t wait to meet the man who would lay down such respect upon you.

d-hale: I sent you ‘thanks’

star-wolves: UM NO I distinctly remember it was “Thank you very much for your compliments. I’m new here so it’s good to see people appreciating my photos.”

d-hale: and then you sent me back a thesis-long ‘you’re welcome’ 

star-wolves: hey if it wasn’t for that thesis you would have left it at that thank you so 

d-hale: You’re right. I’m lucky.

star-wolves: I just made a really embarrassing noise. You’re lucky no one is here with me.

d-hale: You’re not at home?

star-wolves: Library. Had to snag a couple books for an essay

d-hale: You should do your work instead of talking to me.

star-wolves: nooooooo I can do both! 

d-hale: What’s the essay for?

star-wolves: ...AP English.

d-hale: And isn’t that the class you’re struggling most with right now? 

star-wolves: STOP BEING LOGICAL I WANT TO TALK TO MY BOYFRIEND

d-hale: And we can talk. After you get work done. I should take a break for dinner anyway it’s already past eight

star-wolves: You need to eat! Go! 

d-hale: And you need to write that essay. I’ll message you in an hour, see where you’re at, and then we’ll decide if there’s enough time for a skype call.

star-wolves: Deal. Talk to you soon!

d-hale: Bye

“Stiles! There’s a package for you!” Sheriff Stilinski called as he stepped into the house at 6:17 AM on the dot, a USPS box in hand.

Stiles bound down the stairs in nothing but a hastily thrown-on pair of sweatpants, rubbing a towel over his wet hair. He furrowed his brow in confusion. “You just found it on the porch? I checked last night when I got in and didn’t see anything.”

His father shrugged as he wiggled his jacket off of his shoulders. “Maybe it was a late delivery. I’m headin’ to bed, kid. Have a good day at school.”

Stiles gave his dad a soft smile. “’Kay. Sleep well. Eat when you get up!” 

His father waved a hand over his head as he ascended the steps languidly, obviously exhausted from a double overnight shift. 

Stiles draped his towel over his bare shoulders and eyeballed the box his father had left on the kitchen counter as he pulled open the junk drawer and rooted about for a moment to find the good, sharp scissors. He hip-checked the drawer closed and then approached the box.

The package was addressed to him, nothing suspicious on the outgoing address. His gaze shifted up to the left on the label and his heart jumped into his throat. He muffled his surprised noise with his wrist, narrowly missing stabbing himself in the forehead with the scissors. 

Stiles snapped a photo of the box and sent it to Derek with a text box full of question marks.

He didn’t waste any time and quickly sliced the box open and set the scissors aside to pry away the stubbornly clinging tape. Once he got the cardboard flaps open he noted the folded up sheet of notebook paper settled on top of some red tissue paper. 

Stiles grabbed the the note first and unfurled it, though he was itching to pry back the tissue paper and see what Derek sent him. 

Stiles,

I’m glad you reminded me earlier this week, so I was able to send this to you right on time. First off, Happy Valentine’s Day.

Stiles’ eyes widened. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and double checked the date. Sure enough, February 14th flashed up at him underneath the glaringly early hour of 6:21 AM. 

Stiles only had twenty minutes before he had to head to school for morning practice, but even the threat of Coach’s shouting and Jackson’s berating couldn’t get him to leave this spot. 

It’s now officially been a year since we started talking. Thank you, by the way, for not giving up on me. At first, you were just an encouraging voice from a dumb blogging website, but because of your support I am happy with what I’m doing now.

Of course, I’m also thankful for your love. But this is our meeting anniversary, so I won’t go too much into that.

But it is Valentine’s Day, so I decided to send a gift as well. It’s no flowers, but I figured that was a relationship anniversary thing so I held off on those. Four months.

I hope it fits. I remember you talking about how much you wanted the jacket the one son had in the family portraits series I did a few months back. I think it would suit you well. 

Stiles couldn’t hold back any longer. He reached for the tissue paper and pealed it back, revealing soft-looking red fabric that he immediately dug his fingers into to feel how warm it was. Stiles set the letter aside momentarily as he pulled the folded clothing article out of the box. 

As it unfolded, giving Stiles the full view of its amazingness, something hit the ground at Stiles feet. Looking down, he spotted a handful-sized plush wolf holding a packaged bar of chocolate. Stiles gently picked it up, grinned at the dumb plastic heart eyes and knew Derek had picked it out specifically because it looked so cheesy. 

Stiles turned back to the letter, jacket and plush squeezed between his arm and his chest. 

The chocolate is just a little something extra.

Have a good day, we will talk soon. 

I love you.

Derek Hale

Stiles let the towel around his shoulders hit the ground with a slightly heavy wet plop and shrugged the jacket on over his bare torso, the warm fleece of the zipper hoodie instantly sedating the goosebumps over his arms. 

Stiles snapped a photo of himself in the hoodie, throwing up a peace sign, and saved it to his Snapchat story with the caption ‘my boyfriend is the best boyfriend’ with a little dog emoji. 

Then he sent a photo just to Derek of him hugging the plush between his hand and his chin, a blinding grin on his face, eyes squinting up at the camera.

Stiles officially had no more time to waste and had to get ready to go to school. But he couldn’t wait for a response from Derek. He rushed upstairs to get ready while simultaneously opening up the skype app to give Derek a call. He didn’t have time for a video call, but a voice chat would be sufficient. 

Every deity must have been looking down at him just then because the call connected, which meant Derek actually had time to answer his call.

“Stiles,” Derek’s gravely voice filtered out of his phone’s speakers as Stiles struggled into a graphic t-shirt.

“I love you, too!” Stiles shouted, leaping for his phone. “I love you, too! Shit, Derek, way to say it first in a fucking letter of all things!”

Derek chuckled, and Stiles’ face burned with the force of his grin. “Wanted to do a little more than type it, you know?”

“Shit of course I know. But I wanted to say it first!”

“You were the one who confessed to me and got us into a relationship in the first place. I figured it was my turn.”

Stiles huffed as he pulled the hoodie on, swapping his phone from hand to hand as he slipped his arms into the sleeves. “Fine. I’ll accept it.”

“You can do it next time,” Derek said, in almost a teasing way.

Stiles scoffed as he began shoving his school things into his backpack and then checked his lacrosse bag to be sure he had clean clothes and all of his stuff. “What next time? A proposal?” he joked.

“Hmm. In a few years, sure.”

Stiles choked and stubbed his toe on the leg of his desk chair. “Fuck you, Derek Hale. Okay, shit, I’m going to be late to practice. But I really had to call you. Sorry if I interrupted anything.”

“No, it’s fine, just getting ready for a shoot this afternoon. I’m glad you called. But I don’t want you to be late, so I’ll let you go.”

“I’ll message you after practice. I need to see you tonight,” Stiles admitted, feeling slightly vulnerable.

It wasn’t easy, having a long-distance relationship. It was made easier by things like skype and immediate replies. But Stiles longed to have Derek with him in person.

Two months until graduation, Stiles reminded himself. Then summer. 

“We’ll make it happen,” Derek replied, voice soft.

“I love you.”

“Love you too. Get going.”

Stiles disconnected the call, cursed at the time, and sprinted out of the house. Two months. Two months.

Then Derek. 

[womenofcolor15]

Lauryn Hill & Rohan Marley Respond To Selah’s Childhood Trauma Video + Selah Clarifies Her Comments, Ask Fans Not To Bash Her Parents

Selah Marley opened up for the first time about childhood trauma she suffered during a two-hour long IG Live session, revealing how her mother, Lauryn Hill, beat her and her siblings like “slaves” and how her father, Rohan Marley, being absent has negatively affected her relationships with men now. Get into the family healing process inside…

  Selah Marley – daughter of famed singer Lauryn Hill and entrepreneur Rohan Marley – is on a journey of self-healing as she relives her childhood in an effort to understand her life choices and to become more self-aware.

The 21-year-old often goes on her Instagram Live to share her thoughts and opinions on whatever topic is on her mind. During a recent session, she brought up a topic about generational trauma and began to open up about her own experiences and how she’s still processing childhood trauma.

In a two-hour long Instagram Live video, Selah shared what it was like growing up with her “very angry” Grammy Award winning mom, who she said disciplined her and her siblings with belts and switches. She compared the experience to “slave owner sh*t” and said “all Black parents were on that slave owner sh*t.”

Selah said she’s still traumatized by the sound of a belt hitting.

"You go walk to your doom — it’s like walking to your death. And my mother is an amazing woman, but, um, she obviously didn’t do everything right," she shared during the Live.

        View this post on Instagram

                  happy father’s day, dad :D too bad you can’t see this bc you’re blocked, but i love you still lmao but on a more serious note, let’s definitely take this time to appreciate our fathers & even more so, black men. this world has not always been nice to you and i see that. & so, i love you, Dad, for your resilience, your optimism, your wisdom, and your care. i don’t know what i’d do without you & so, i want to ensure that i never take that for granted. so i include all my fathers in these pictures because it takes a village to raise a child & you’ve all definitely raised me well. so here’s your day! i love you, Dad(s).

A post shared by @ selah on Jun 21, 2020 at 12:02pm PDT

The granddaughter of Bob Marley also got vulnerable when she talked about how her father, Rohan Marley, was largely absent from her life.

Selah said she saw and mother and father fight a lot, so she “didn’t really see much peace.” When her dad left when she was 10, she said she feels like a part of her stopped growing and maturing. She said she struggles in relationships with men because she's angry at them (projecting the feelings she has for her father), but also feels she needs them.

"I came to the conclusion of how much of my life I’ve f*cked up and how much of me is f*cked up simply because my dad just wasn’t around," she said. "And there’s just a void where there should be a person. And it’s honestly really hard."

Selah said her mother was going through her own trauma when she was a kid, dealing with the music industry,  trying to save a relationship with a man whom she had five kids with who seemingly no longer wanted her, on top of being a mother. 

“She’s Lauryn Hill,” she said. “She’s getting attacked by the media. She was also going through her own sh*t. She had five kids with a man that — they didn’t really get to know each other. So they were always arguing, always fighting.”

She recalled being awake in her room, crying, while her parents fought and argued.

“I don’t think she realizes how much that sh*t affected me,” she said.

Peep a clip from her Live below:

Selah's venting session caused an uproar of comments and DMs for Selah - many people sharing they too have experienced the same childhood trauma. Taking up for Selah, people started dragging her mother for her mistakes.

        View this post on Instagram

                      A post shared by Ms. Lauryn Hill (@mslaurynhill) on Aug 13, 2020 at 1:57pm PDT

L-Boogie caught wind of the controversy and addressed it in a lengthy post she shared on Facebook and Instagram.  The"Lost Ones" singer seemingly blamed systemic racism as the reason why she disciplined her children the way she did. She said an "entire opertation" was trying to take her down and that energy was shared in her home life.

"To me, I am just me. If I am guilty of anything it is disciplining in anger, not in disciplining," Lauryn wrote. "The toxic venom I ingested for standing on principle, and confronting systemic racism far BEFORE it was the thing to say or do (everything you NOW celebrate everyone for!)—the people who called me CRAZY and have yet to apologize and say ‘oh yeah, we were wrong’, OF COURSE that seeped into my home, it was intended to. An entire operation trying to break an artist with a voice and knowledge of herself—way ahead of her time—was in motion. I was affected, my family was affected, my children were affected."

Lauryn said once she realized how she and her family were being destroyed she walked away. She said she did so in order to protect her children.

"When I realized that the pressure on me was so incredibly hypocritical and unfair, criminal even, that even my children weren’t allowed to be children, I stepped away. I wasn’t removed, I STEPPED AWAY. Weening myself and my family from the addictions that systems of control attempt to use through fame and celebrity is no joke. It’s painful and people were not above using my children to keep exploiting me. Keeping a child sober minded in the midst of everyone trying to seduce and bribe and coerce is an incredibly challenging thing to do. Sell a few million copies of a recording and see the wolves and sharks for yourself before you determine what’s appropriate and what’s not. The danger was REAL! And this danger I faced alone, unsupported as I should have been, and dumped on by the same people who only a few years before built a fortune off the same gifts they later tried to deny and then COPY. My life has been about protecting my children from all kinds of danger, and that’s only possible when you protect yourself from the danger as well."

The "Ex-Factor" singer acknowledge Selah's feelings and said she has a right to feel the way she feels. Now, she's focused on healing with her daughter and her family.

"Selah is on a road to healing and contextualizing her childhood, and is allowed her process, but if you come for me, come for your own mama, and those absent fathers—come for them too, your grandparents, your great grand parents, your great great grand parents, your great great great grand parents, Caribbean parents, African parents and everyone else damaged and judged for being black and forced to conform and assimilate to western standards of ‘order’ shaped through the filter and lens of anti-blackness."

"Selah and I speak often and she knows we are both working through our stuff—the exploitation, the abandonment, the mistreatment and the muzzling of our own gifts and intelligence to make it more comfortable for others, which is a big mistake to do, it can ONLY lead to implosion or explosion. We’re both learning and healing, and each of my children has a similar story and journey. All of you in a rush to crucify someone, careful who you string up or nail up."

While it may have been harsh, Lauryn justified the way she disciplined her children as a way to them from being shot down in the streets.

"My children are strong-willed and powerful, better I discipline them at home than have them shot down in the streets or locked up. They are not necessarily passive people, and they’re also learning how to navigate a world full of beauty but also full of danger. This was in no way easy to do as a single parent battling a public attack for not conforming, and single-handedly financially responsible for so many. My children’s families on both Hill and Marley sides have been hunted and persecuted for speaking out against and challenging the social, political, economic and spiritual dynamics that require a terroristic fear be put in Black people in order to control them."

Read her full response below: 

Uhhhh black people, what??? Selah has every right to express herself, I encourage it, but she also got the discipline...

Posted by Ms. Lauryn Hill on Thursday, August 13, 2020

Thoughts on Lauryn's response? 

        View this post on Instagram

                  My Beautiful Family .. #LIONORDER nice one @edenmarley ‘ Love Unconditional ‘

A post shared by Rohan Marley (@romarley) on Aug 11, 2020 at 7:45am PDT

After Selah's IG Live went viral, Rohan shared a throwback family photo of himself with his children with the caption, "My Beautiful Family." He also responded to what she said about him in the video.

"Selah's expression on Instagram is a healing process for her. I'm very happy that she is fearless in her expression," Rohan said in a statement through his publicist. "I love her very much and do apologize for any contributions I may have added by arguing in front of her as a child. I've grown as a man, a spiritual being and a father. I am constantly growing and will teach my children to always take the higher road in any disagreements. I will be there for her no matter how many hours, days, months or years it will take. I will be the best Dad that I can be. One Love."

Let's hope he keeps his word.

Following the buzzy headlines and extra social media traffic, Selah hopped back online to clarify her comments.

        View this post on Instagram

                      A post shared by @selah on Aug 11, 2020 at 2:44pm PDT

  "I spoke on that subject for two hours.... It's complex," she said in the "clarity" video. "It's a very complex topic, and really what I was discussing was how a lack of unity in the household can create severe trauma that you're not even aware of," Marley addressed in the IG Story video that was preceded by a written note. "And now, I had to go back and see where these different things impacted my life and how they impacted my life. At the end of the day, I never said my father was a f*cking deadbeat completely. I just said that he wasn't as present as I needed him to be.... Don't go bashing my f*cking father and my family."

"I never said that I did not love them. I said their shortcomings created trauma that I now need to consciously and actively heal from.”

She said she hopes by starting this larger conversation, it will inspire others' transparency, vulnerability and openness in discussing their own family traumas.

Peep her Live and her IG Story posts (where she also addressed the trolls) above and below:

  Selah continued the conversation in another IG Live video, thanking everyone for their support on her journey: 

        View this post on Instagram

                  so many of you guys reached out to me in DM that you’ve had similar experiences.. it’d take 5 weeks to respond to everyone, so i wanted to get on live to share my thoughts with you about my healing process. hopefully, some of you may find this useful. if not, that’s fine too! we all have unique experiences, personalities, and needs; so what works for me may not work for everyone. & that’s fine! but i did want to share what i could & open the floor for a more general discussion on how to heal core wounds. at the end of the day, i’m not an expert—just a young adult figuring it out for herself that figured i could share a couple things. i really wish @instagram allowed you to see the comments when it posts these lives because you guys say some of the most profound things i’ve ever seen. i’m eternally grateful for your contribution to these conversations because you guys add a layer of depth, understanding, and resonance that’s genuinely needed & appreciated. i want to specifically say thank you to everyone who rocks with me & contributes to the true healing, growth, and love created in these conversations. oh & btw, if you don’t agree with me, please feel free to excuse yourself & keep it pushing—especially when/if you come to my “live.” i’m still having trouble understanding why some people stick around for the sole purpose of perpetuating negativity. P.S. that apple sauce was great

A post shared by @ selah on Aug 13, 2020 at 10:11pm PDT

Looks like she's headed down the right path to healing with supportive parents behind her. We Selah and her family the best.

  Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/08/14/lauryn-hill-rohan-marley-respond-to-selah%E2%80%99s-childhood-trauma-video-selah-clarifies-her-co

[thenoisebeneaththesnow]

Totengefluster is one of Germany’s premiere black metal exports blurring the lines between symphonic and pure black metal.  They have just released their new album “The Faceless Divine” via Black Lion Records.  We’d like to thank the band for their time in answering our interview.

What served as the primary inspiration for calling the album, “The Faceless Divine?”

Narbengrund Nihilis: Since this album has no concrete concept it was hard to find a fitting title for it. One day Totleben (guitar, orchestration, artwork) came up with a few ideas, including „faceless divine“ and we agreed, that this one reflects the music best. The „Faceless divine“ is a metaphor for death itself. It seems that Death has countless faces at the same time it has no face and each of our songs deals with death or loss in different ways…  and since we’re Totengeflüster we have to whisper a bit about it, too, shouldn’t we? 😉

You have a bonus track on the album called “Entflamme Mich” which may be one of your most powerful yet.  Can you talk  about the meaning/background behind this track? Narbengrund Nihilis: This is a very special track, first because it differs musically from the rest of our album (one of the reasons why we decided to use this one as a bonus track) and second because it is one of the two tracks with German lyrics. What can I say about it? It’s about feeling dead inside, but then there is this spark from outside that ignites this damned feeling, this corpse we’re trapped in. It feels, that everything that matters in this life, is to burn, even if it eats us alive. „Entflamme mich“ is somehow a kind of wrong-headed lovesong. Of course this track is highly emotional, it’s lyrics are romantic and sick at the same time. This one is more kind of a „Gothic(Metal)“ song than black metal but I’m very proud of it, for it has one of the strongest lyrics on „The Faceless Divine“. Maybe one can see it as the spiritual successor of „one with the void“ – which is somehow funny, cause „one with the void“ was our first track with English lyrics and also a misfit on our former album „Im Nebel der Vergänglichkeit“.

“Grant Us Thy Blessing” is another powerful track on the album.  What about that one?

Narbengrund Nihilis: This one is our…. pssst… hidden title track, therefore the lyrics are all about „The Faceless Divine“ but in a very „positive“ manner. Death is fair. He comes for all of us, he doesn’t care about our religion, our wealth, our skin color or our sex and so on. There is also a cross reference to religion, as death is seen as an angel (of death of course haha) and it seems, that it is the only angel who cares about us, for he simply takes care of us. Death also can be an easement, for example when you’re old or deadly ill or simply depressive.  I think of life as a circle, so death is just the beginning of something new, are molecules are going to kind of a huge resource-pool and are put together into something new. Somehow, we are a part of everything and everything is a part of us.  

What did you want to do different artistically with this album that you didn’t before? 

Narbengrund Nihilis: There were many things that we’ve planned, but not all could be transposed. We wanted to sound more „serious“, this is why we (to be honest: Totleben) reduced the presence and the amount of the orchestra, so the album could sound more „metal“. Totleben wrote the first two albums almost single-handed, this time we interacted much more with him during the song writing process. There are also some innovations on this album, for example it is the first time we use „electronic“ effects as you can hear best on our track „on carrion wings“, furthermore the use of the vocals is more experimental.  

Why the decision now to use mostly English song titles?

Narbengrund Nihilis: I guess we just wanted to get more through to our listeners. It was also was an experiment, how would Totengeflüster sound with English lyrics? So… nothing special about this, I even cannot say if the lyrics on our next album will be English or german or even french? Everything is possible.

What was the biggest challenge with this album and what did you do to conquer it?

Narbengrund Nihilis: This time we had to work quite fast, at least for our circumstances. We wanted to start a tour in late October and we wanted to release the new album, before we’re on the road. The problem was that this decision was not made until the end of 2018 and the decision to release an album instead of an EP was made just a few days ago… Maybe, this doesn’t sound that problematic to an outsider but you have to know, that Totleben did nearly everything by himself (except the mastering): the recording of each of our members, the artwork, the mix and so on…

What moods, environments suit you the most when composition?

A Calm and quiet environment is the best for me. When we played live in bigger cities and I was around there … I realized that those busy and loud places could never be a place to compose things. When I composed “Grant us thy Blessing” or “On Carrion Wings” I was at my fathers place. It’s a very calm place with a lot of nature around. Perfect place to rest and focus on yourself.

How did you hook up with Black Lion Records and why did you decide to not self-release?

Because we had serious issues with the distributor of Pale Essence Music. We still wait for money from 2017…. so … When I founded Pale Essence Music everything was planed very different. But… what can you do when your the smaller fish. Sure I fought back and found solutions but they led to the point to let go of my own Label and join Black Lion Records. I was very happy that Oliver of BLR knew us already and is supporting us to this day. Without him “The Faceless Divine” would have had a much harder start into this world. So I’m very thankful for his help.

The new album almost sounds a bit like you toned down the symphonic element.  Was this a conscious decision to go for more of a raw approach?

Totleben: Well, the symphonic follows the overall riffing…. If it fits … We can go with a lot of orchestra, if the song demands to be more raw … sure … we have to leave it less orchestrated. You’re absolutely right, “The Faceless Divine” is using less orchestra than the other albums … it just came that way without being forced. I think the album does not lack any atmosphere … things are more balanced I think. Sure, I still love our albums, each one is unique. Lets see where the journey will go with the fourth… if there will be one … one day.

What plans do you have for the coming months?  Any chance of a US tour?

Narbengrund Nihilis: We’ve planned a mini-tour with our friends from Wolves Den and Frozen Gate, but this time we’ll only play in Germany and in Switzerland. We would truly love touring through the US! But I think due to our financial circumstances, there’s no chance in touring the US in the near future.

In your opinion, what do you think the most important German black metal releases have been in the last 20 years? Narbengrund Nihilis: This is a tough one! Puh, honestly there has been released so many good music in the past twenty years. Maybe the two “Nektar” chapters by Nocte Obducta? Or “Séance” by Dark Fortress? Really hard to tell, for I just can speak about mine and (perhaps) the opinion of my closer friends.

What artists do you think we would find the most surprising when it comes to the ones who have inspired you?

Totleben: Hm,… I would say I have many influences…. Besides Metal… I would say everything that transfers a certain atmosphere is good to me… Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Thomas Barrrandon (“Forever Yound, A Lie”) .. stuff like that.

What’s your advice for an artist considering moving to Germany?

Totleben: Be yourself. Get yourself a job. You will not make a living out of your art besides your very, very, very good.

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https://www.totengefluester.de/

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Totengefluster: The FACELESS DIVINE Interview (German Black Metal) Totengefluster is one of Germany's premiere black metal exports blurring the lines between symphonic and pure black metal. 

[wesonerdy]

Arya completes her revenge against the Freys, while Jon, Cersei, and Dany prepare for their wars. Full recap of Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere, “Dragonstone,” plus preview episode 2 “Stormborn”.

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Game of Thrones returned last Sunday for its seventh season, and the premiere was just as emotional as we anticipated it would be, especially in the aftermath of the *insane* Season 6 finale. Across Westeros, we saw the truth that #WinterIsHere, and the pieces had finally moved into position to launch the series into what will likely be a BEYOND EPIC finale.

“Dragonstone” begins in an unexpected place. Ahead of the iconic intro song, we get a scene of Walder Frey at the Riverlands. Initially, I’m thinking that we’re several moments BEFORE Arya guts Frey like a fish after forcing him to eat a pie made of his dead sons’ remains. However, we soon learn that this is, in fact, at a later time. Walder tells those gathered that he has assembled all of his family members for another celebration (so soon after celebrating their reclaiming Riverrun) and to plan for the changing seasons. Drinks are distributed as Walder salutes his house for destroying the Starks during the Red Wedding. However, soon his tone changes. Yes the Freys decimated House Stark, but they didn’t kill all the wolves. And as long as one wolf survives, the sheep are never safe. We flash to the Freys and they’re all choking to death. WHAT IS GOING ON? Well, Arya has thoroughly mastered the magic of the Faceless Men because it has been her this whole time disguised as Walder! She has just murdered practially every member House Frey without batting an eyelash. As she leaves, she gives a message to a girl that she spares from the massacre: “Tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.” HAVE. MERCY.

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

  Later on, Arya crosses the Riverlands, heading for King’s Landing. She comes across a band of singing soldiers, led by a man who looks curiously like Ed Sheeran 😉 . They share food, drink, and stories. And when Arya says that she’s going to King’s Landing to murder they queen, they all laugh. But we know that Arya is 1,000% serious.

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

In the post-intro credits, we travel beyond the Wall. Winter weather has well and truly arrived and is bringing hoards upon hoards of White Walkers, led by the Night King… even one that looks like a reanimated Wun-Wun *RUNS* This is likely one of Bran’s visions and when he comes out of it, we see that he and Meera are about to cross the Wall. They’re greeted by the new Lord Commander of he Night’s Watch, Eddison Tollet. At first, Edd is suspicious of the two, but Bran is able to prove who he is by telling Edd about himself and his encounters with the Army of the Dead. Bran is quite convincing, and Edd allows him and Meera inside. Next stop is Winterfell and Jon, right???

At Winterfell, Jon has his bannermen gathered to make preparations for the arrival of the White Walkers. He orders a search for dragonglass to produce weapons and that every man, woman, boy, and girl begin spreparing for battle. At first there is some pushback from Lord Glover at the idea that girls will fight, but Lady Lyanna Mormont shuts that down: “I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me…and I don’t need your permission to defend the North!” The Free Folk will man the castles along the Wall. The conversation shifts to the fate of the remaining Karstarks and Umbers. Several people, led by Sansa, want the families punished for siding with the Boltons. Their castles should be stripped and given to those who fought for Jon. However, Jon disagrees. He refuses to punish sons for their fathers’ crimes. It gets tense while the argument between Jon and Sansa unfolds. He puts his foot down, and calls on the leaders of House Karstrark and House Umber to rededicate themselves to House Stark, which they do.

Strangely, Sansa seems impressed with Jon standing by his decision. Jon is concerned because he doesn’t think it’s a good idea that she question his judgement publicly. Sansa reminds Jon that Joffrey also refused to hear criticism, and that shakes Jon up. She reassures him that he’s nothing like Joffrey, but that Jon needs to be smarter than their father and Robb. Yes, that means listening to Sansa’s counsel and treating her like an equal. In the midst of their conversation, they receive a message from Cersei demanding Jon and Sansa come to declare their fealty. Jon is clearly more concerned about the White Walkers, but Sansa argues that it’s important to remember their enemy to the South because Cersei would never stop until she’s destroyed them. Yes, Sansa has learned a lot from Cersei.

Later, Sansa watches as Brienne trains Pod (Tormund also watches with lust in his eyes, Briemund FTW). Littlefinger tries to talk to Sansa, implying that even though she might be safe at Winterfell, she can’t be happy. Before the conversation can continue, Brienne interrupts. Why does Sansa keep Littlefinger around? She believes she needs the Knights of the Vale. And Sansa also knows she can’t trust Baelish. She knows exactly what he wants from her… and maybe Sansa also knows how to use this knowledge to bring Littlefinger to his demise.

Sandor Clegane and the Brotherhood without Banners are making their way North as well. They decide to take shelter ast a deserted house, one that Sandor recognizes. It’s the house that he and Arya stopped at during Season 4 and were offered shelter by a farmer and daughter. Sandor beats up the farmer and steals his money because they’ll die anyway once winter comes. Now at the house, we see that the farmer and daughter are both dead; murder-suicide done to end the agony of starvation. Clegane questions Beric Dondarrion about his faith and why the Lord of Light keeps bring Beric back. For Beric only the Lord of Light has the answers. Thoros lights a fire and asks Sandor to look and describe what he sees. Sandor sees the Army of the Dead approaching the Wall. This must shake up Sandor because that night, when everyone is sleeping, he buries that farmer and daughter and attempts to say some ceremonial words. Thoros hears the digging, confronts Sandor about his guilt, and then helps.

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

In Kings Landing, Cersei is making her plans. She has a beautiful, massive map of Westeros commissioned. Cersei and Jaime have a conversation about how they’re surrounded by enemies, most notably Tyrion who sails with Dany as her Hand. “We’re the last Lannisters, the last ones who count.” So Cersei and Jaime will build a dynasty for themselves. This means they need some allies… and Cersei has invited Euron Greyjoy and his Ironborn to King’s Landing. He offers his ships, soldiers, and marriage. Cersei refuses Euron’s marriage proposal because she can’t trust a man who killed his own brother. However, Euron promises to convince Cersei by bringing her the thing she desires most… what might that be? Tyrion’s head? (During the conversation, Jaime and Euron have a heated tet-a-tet–Euron suggests that Cersei should try killing her brother, like he did, and she should get her a man with TWO hands *SNORT*)

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

For Samwell, time at the Citadel isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Rather than soaking up knowledge, she spends his time cleaning, caring for the sick (AKA cleaning bedpans), serving, and shelving books. During a session with an Archmaester, Sam tries to argue that he doesn’t have time to waste, afterall, winter is here! Shouldn’t he be in the libraries trying to find what will save them all. While the Archmaester believes Sam has seen the Army of the Dead, he’s less in a hurry. Despite the end of the Targaryens, the Long Night, and a host of other calamities, the world has survived: “The Wall has stood through it all. And every winter that ever came has ended.”

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Sam, in his impatience, steals a key to the restricted area of the library and takes a book,v”Legends of he Long Night”. As he’s reading the book (with Gilly and Little Sam), Sam learns that Dragonstone is built upon a mountain of dagonglass. And if this is the case, you can bet that a Jon/Dany alliance is forthcoming ASAP! The next day on his rounds to assist the sick, someone reaches out for Sam and demands to know if the Dragon Queen has arrived. It’s Ser Jorah, and judging by his hand that greyscale is getting much worse. But if anyone can help him, it’s the maesters at the Citadel, right? Sam is taken aback, but responds that he hasn’t heard anything about Dany’s arrival.

We then flash to Dany (with Tyrion, Grey Worm, Missandei, and Varys) arriving at Dragonstone. This is an extremely emotional moment for Dany and for us… the music certainly reflects the gravitas. Dany even touches the sand on the beach with such reverance. I cannot imagine what she’s feeling. Dany hasn’t been at Dragonstone since she was a baby. This is her ancestral home, her past and future. This is the place from where she will launch her plan to reclaim her birthright and destiny. I am still SO SHOOK. When Dany enters the throneroom, she tears down a Baratheon banner (recall that Stannis had been living at Dragonstone). Dany makes her way to what looks like a war room, with only Tyrion with her. She stands at the head of the table (a giant map of Westeros), and says her first words: “Shall we begin?”

Yes, my Dragon Queen and my Khalessi. YES, we shall begin!

  In this week’s episode “Stormborn” (Written for television by Bryan Cogman, directed by Mark Mylod):

Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) receives an unexpected visitor. Jon (Kit Harington) faces a revolt. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) plans the conquest of Westeros. (via HBO)

Maybe the Dany/Jon meeting is coming sooner than previously anticipated. Also, if Tyrion is plotting the conquest of Westeros, I’m thinking the first stop is Casterly Rock!

From the teaser trailer and extended preview (released after the Game of Thrones SDCC 2017 panel), you can tell that “Stormborn” is going to be action-packed. The preview images also provide more insight. When Jon gets that message from Jon about Dragonstone and the dragonglass, he will likely push for an alliance, and it seems his bannermen will push back. Littleginger might even try to involve himself in the decision-making. With that said, a Jon/Dany meeting might be coming real soon, anyway, especially if Melisandre has anything to say about it.

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

Courtesy of Helen Sloan/HBO

    “Stormborn” airs Sunday, July 23 at 9/8c on HBO!

RECAP: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 Premiere “Dragonstone” Arya completes her revenge against the Freys, while Jon, Cersei, and Dany prepare for their wars. Full recap of Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere, "Dragonstone," plus preview episode 2 "Stormborn".

[mavwrekmarketing]

Image copyright Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Image caption England celebrate winning the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany

The World Cup, the British Invasion, the Summer of Love, imported teams – and a bunch of US businessmen looking to make a buck – created a gleaming vision for professional football in 1960s America… only for it to quickly end in tears.

When Geoff Hurst smashed his third goal into the roof of the West German net in 1966, he not only secured the World Cup for England, he helped kick-start a bold plan to introduce the round ball version of football to America.

The venture launched on this day 50 years ago, but was facing an uncertain future just six weeks later.

The mid-1960s was the time of the so-called British Invasion of the US, when UK music, fashion, photography, drama and other creative arts were in huge demand Stateside.

That movement coincided with the emergence of fledgling satellite TV technology, which beamed the football World Cup in England to a captivated television audience on the other side of the Atlantic.

Their positive reaction to the football – a sport most viewers actually knew little about – prompted a group of US businessmen to get together to draw up plans to establish a professional football, or soccer, league in the country.

Image caption The programme for Washington Whips (Aberdeen) v Vancouver Royal Canadians (Sunderland)

And in a strange quirk to the tale, the UK also ended up providing a majority of the teams, which were reborn with new exotic American names for the duration of the US season.

So Wolverhampton Wanderers became the LA Wolves, Aberdeen the Washington Whips, Hibs the Toronto City, Sunderland the Vancouver Royal Canadians, Stoke the Cleveland Stokers, Dundee United the Dallas Tornado, and Glentoran the Detroit Cougars.

‘The next big sport’

Alan Rothenberg, the man who would later bring the 1994 World Cup to the US, was there on the inside when the plans were first hatched by that group of sports entrepreneurs.

“The 1966 World Cup in England had been shown on satellite television in the United States, and had been a big success,” he tells me.

“I think it was the first time satellite had been used to broadcast sport to any great extent. So a bunch of entrepreneurs said to themselves, ‘This is the next big sport.’

“There was no element of soccer evangelising. These were hard-nosed entrepreneurs, they knew sports, and they believed soccer was a great financial opportunity.”

Image copyright Keystone/Getty Images

Image caption The Beatles led the so-called British Invasion of the US in the 1960s

Back then Mr Rothenberg was a lawyer for sports entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team.

Cooke was also building the Los Angeles Forum indoor arena, and had an ownership interest in the Washington Redskins American Football team.

But as often happens with a new business idea, two rival camps of sports entrepreneurs emerged. It meant that a duelling, politically combative pair of leagues came alive at the same time, both seeking control of the marketplace and of the game.

Image copyright Doug Pensinger/Allsport

Image caption Sports entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke was a driving force behind the USA soccer league

They were the United Soccer Association (USA), headed by Cooke and his allies and sanctioned by the US soccer authorities and global governing body Fifa, and the “outlaw” National Professional Soccer League (NPSL).

“The others did not get officially sanctioned, but decided to go ahead anyway,” Mr Rothenberg recalls. “Also, we, as the official league, did not get a TV deal but somehow the NPSL did with CBS.”

Imported teams

To make matters worse, the original plan of Cooke and his allies – such as Lamar Hunt, who went on to be an original founding investor in Major League Soccer in the 1990s – had been to launch the United Soccer Association league in 1968.

But the NPSL again outflanked its official rival and announced it would kick off its league in 1967.

“The USA league owners said, ‘Jeez, we have got to do something.’ So they turned to international transatlantic relations,” says Rothenberg.

Image copyright Mikey Rito/Courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times

Image caption Dundee United (white) representing Dallas Tornado v Cagliari, rebranded as Chicago Mustangs

“They went to a whole lot of teams in England, Scotland, Ireland – and elsewhere – and brought them over to play in our league.”

Each of the American soccer franchises, which stretched from New York to San Francisco, was allocated an imported club, and each of the teams were given a new name, and in some cases new playing kit.

The rebranded Aberdeen, Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers (who represented Jack Cooke’s own franchise, the LA Wolves), plus Bangu of Brazil kicked off the league on 27 May 1967, just before the famous “Summer of Love”.

Non-UK clubs in the United Soccer Association league 1967

Boston Rovers – Shamrock Rovers (Republic of Ireland)

Chicago Mustangs – Cagliari (Italy)

Houston Stars – Bangu (Brazil)

New York Skyliners – Cerro (Uruguay)

San Francisco Golden Gate Gales – ADO Den Haag (Netherlands)

‘Bond Street suits’

A straight fee for agreeing to take part was paid by the league to each of the imported teams, with each US franchise paying the club’s expenses.

“There were a number of reasons we turned to the UK for the bulk of the teams,” says Rothenberg. “Remember it was the World Cup in England that had fired the initial interest. Also, by winning the tournament England was the uppermost soccer power in the world.

“In addition, it was the close season in England, and their FA was very co-operative in helping us find teams to take part.”

He adds: “It was also a time when British things were generally in vogue in the US, and the nexus between America and the UK was stronger then. And Cooke as a Canadian was very British in his outlook, very UK-focused, in his Bond Street suits.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Alan Rothenberg (left) went on to bring the 1994 World Cup to the US

“I walked into all of that as a 28-year-old. I was a vice president of the league and its general counsel, and I also became more or less general manager of the LA Wolves team too.”

In fact the LA Wolves went on to win the league, beating the Washington Whips (Aberdeen) 6-5 in a thrilling final on 10 July 1967.

“It was an abbreviated season and crowd turnouts across the board were disappointing,” admits Rothenberg.

“The fans who came along really got involved, but most of them were not soccer converts unfortunately. They were people from around the world who already knew the sport and were curious to see if our league would be a success.”

‘Financial disaster’

For every gate in five figures there were downsides, and indeed gates of over 10,000 were very rare. When Northern Ireland’s Glentoran (Detroit) hosted the Republic of Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers (Boston) only 684 people turned up.

With hindsight the US just wasn’t ready for two soccer leagues, maybe not even for one in 1967. At the end of the season the two leagues merged as the NASL, and Cooke got out after just one more season.

Image copyright Mikey Rito/Courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times

Image caption The US could not support two football leagues in 1967

“After the end of the first season it immediately became clear it had been a financial disaster for both leagues,” says Rothenberg.

“All the owners who had invested money had been optimistic. But it was a great unknown that they were taking on, and ultimately they proved to be too early in trying to introduce soccer.

“It was inevitable that soccer would eventually become part of the US sporting landscape, with the big breakthrough of the 1994 USA World Cup.

“But 1967 provided a kick-start and soccer gained momentum in the 1970s – with the NASL, Pele, the New York Cosmos, and a great explosion in youth football which laid down the roots for future decades.”

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