#it's crazy to think of how little control you actually have over something going viral

[skellagirl]

every once in a while this post starts getting notes again and you know what......... I have literally no idea how the FUCK this has gotten to almost 75k lol, it boggles my entire brain

We’ve been watching Danny Phantom a lot lately. Here’s some slightly older buddies!!

[talkingpointsusa]

Tim Pool hosts an absolutely idiotic panel discussion on “deep state weather manipulation”

We have been seeing a lot of disinformation lately about the recent hurricanes in the south, particularly the false claim that the United States government is somehow controlling these hurricanes and using them to somehow steal the election. It’s a claim that’s stupid on its face but that didn’t stop Tim Pool from hosting a completely batshit insane panel discussion on supposed government weather manipulation. It turned out to be about as dumb as it sounds and I figured that we needed a lighter debunk after the last post. Let’s let Tim introduce the topic and then the co-panelists (who are all internet lunatics but I’ll get into each individual when they’re introduced) and then we’ll get on to debunking some conspiracy BS.

00:07, Tim Pool: “All these corporate journalists are livid cause Marjorie Taylor Greene was tweeting that they can control the weather. Of course she’s referring to militaries, powerful individuals, the general — the man right? But the media wanted to make it about the Jews because that’s the only way they can go after Marjorie Taylor Greene when she talks about geoengineering, cloud seeding, and other weather manipulation techniques that are available.”

Yeah, there’s a long history of antisemitic coding revolving around the word “they” but leaving that aside for now let’s talk about weather manipulation.

There’s a great recent article in the Atlantic that goes over some of the details about cloud seeding and geoengineering but suffice it to say that these are both really new technologies that really don’t have the kind of power that these guys think they have.

Take for instance cloud seeding, the process of injecting silver iodine into clouds in order to create artificial condensation. Cloud seeding is only semi-affective at best right now and as the article notes, we can’t artificially create clouds right now and we need clouds in order to seed them. Scientists have tried to artificially dim the sun in the past but that’s an extremely finicky process that requires releasing a quadrillion carefully calibrated particles into the atmosphere. It’s not like you can just pull a lever and then boom, different weather. That’s not a thing that exists outside of imagination land.

As for hurricanes, the notion that anybody can create a hurricane out of thin air with the current technology that we have is ridiculous. We can *barely* make it rain (and even then only with the right conditions) and these dumb-dumbs think that we have the kind of technology to control something as powerful as a hurricane?! If somebody tells you that the government can create hurricanes, the only reasonable response is to laugh in their face because clearly they don’t know what they’re talking about.

00:46, Tim Pool: “This results in this massive viral conversation from tones of people about, can the government make hurricanes? Ok, well that seems a little bold but some people are talking about actual weather manipulation. We’ve talked about Operation Popeye a little bit on Timcast IRL because the subject came up where the US Military was cloud seeding as a weapon of war to wash out roads in Vietnam.”

Except that there’s no proof that this operation was actually successful. Just because the government tried to do something doesn’t mean that they actually succeeded.

Also, trying to wash out roads with cloud seeding is a far cry from the government being able to create targeted hurricanes. Anyway, here are the panelists. I’ll let them introduce themselves and then I’ll explain how every single one of them is completely batshit crazy.

01:26, David DuByne: “Hi, I’m David DuByne, I run the Adapt 2030 channel and the Civilization Cycle podcast. I was a former coffee buyer in Myanmar and when we were purchasing coffee there circa 2012, we were encountering cold leaf damage, leaf kill on the top, and then the bean density was decreased but talking to the farmers they told us that their great grandfathers who were also farming at that time in the 1880’s experienced the same cold wave but you realize, and this is in Myanmar so I was a global warming believer, so I went back to the end of the 1880’s to take a look and then suddenly I found these cycles through history that eb and flow food production and that follows right along with civilization cycle and decline, apex and decline.”

Congratulations David, you’ve discovered what seasons are. Nice job buddy.

David DuByne is a climate denial grifter who’s YouTube channel is all about how the economic collapse is coming any day now, climate change is fake, society is going to reset, and you’ve got to buy his junk to “adapt”. His arguments are the usual climate denial nonsense like “Well, if global warming is a thing how come it snows sometimes?” (I guess when he discovered seasons he stopped before he discovered the difference between weather and climate).

It’s just brain rot stuff and I have no idea where Tim even found this guy since he’s not that well known. We don’t hear from him too much over the course of this episode which I think is a positive thing.

Let’s move on to the next grifter.

02:27, Ransom Godwin: “I am Ransom Godwin, I’m the host of Mountain High Time, a YouTube channel and you know, I’m not an expert on anything I’ve just been around the circle continually getting banned everywhere cause I seem to find the right topics to talk about that are taboo I guess. So I keep getting banned and now I’m the co-host with DuByne on Civilization Cycle where we talk about how things are changing and you know, some of these things like global warming. I’m not a fan of global warming, I don’t believe that, but I also don’t believe that governments have enough power to control things as big as hurricanes, I just don’t see it happening.”

I love how this dudes entire qualification is just “I’m kind of a dick and keep getting banned on social media”.

Ransom’s a former DJ turned weirdo right-wing YouTuber and later David DuByne’s co-host. The dude has one thousand subscribers on YouTube, again no idea where Tim found this guy.

I guess he’s the one arguing for the reasonable side of the aisle. They didn’t get a meterologist or someone who actually knows what he’s talking about, just a guy who’s big introduction is “I GOT BANNED FROM YOUTUBE ONCE”. Also, he later admits that he thinks that the government can amplify the strength of hurricanes so he’s not even that reasonable.

03:04, Brian Smith: “How you doing guys? In2ThinAir. I run the In2ThinAir channel. I am a creator, private researcher.”

Tim Pool: “You gotta slide over to your right a little bit.”

Please don’t, I’ve already heard enough of this guy for one lifetime.

So, Brian Smith is a self-proclaimed weather expert and the owner of the In2ThinAir YouTube channel. A cursory look at his channel shows videos with titles like “🤯 DOG Climbs the GREAT Pyramid IN EGYPT! - MESSAGE From the GODS!”, “🤯Trump 2nd Assassination Attempt PREDICTED By TIME Magazine!” and my personal favorite “SOLAR FLARE Shows 'Phoenix Rising' Ahead of Total SOLAR ECLIPSE!!”

Now, if those extremely illuminating titles didn’t tip you off, this guy is…how do I put this delicately? COMPLETELY FUCKING BANANAS!

Half of this guys videos are of him ranting about a coming spiritual war and sounding like that guy on the subway that everyone tries to avoid! This is not a serious person.

Speaking of unserious people, the final panelist is a weirdo chemtrail guy who appears to have made up his own system for classifying clouds.

03:31, Shane Cashman: “Very excited for this episode today. Shane Cashman, host of Inverted World Live every Sunday at six on YouTube and weather channel reject and I study fake clouds.”

Tim Pool: “What’s a fake cloud?”

Shane Cashman: “Well there’s a classification system, there’s a whole bunch. There’s vintage clouds, god made.”

I can see why this guy got rejected from the weather channel because I found absolutely nothing on this classification system outside of Tim Pools YouTube channel.

Shane’s one of Tim’s “news writers” and is mostly here to represent the chemtrail weirdo contingent of Tim’s audience. This whole thing is a circus full of disinformation spreading clowns.

With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at the actual discussion and debunk some BS. Tim starts off by asking the question on his audiences minds and accidentally lets a bit of his reasoning for hosting this panel slip.

04:54, Tim Pool: “Alright, so the question that everybody wants to hear first I suppose; did the government make the hurricanes to destroy the southeast so that Kamala Harris can win the election?”

Shane Cashman: “Make or manipulate?”

Tim Pool: “Well, I went for the most extreme version of this story.”

Yeah, I believe that. This whole thing is basically just Tim dragging the dumbest people he could find onto his channel so that they can launder government weather control conspiracies to his audience and get him more money as a result.

Anyway, Ransom has really dumb thoughts on cloud seeding.

05:13, Ransom Godwin: “No, I don’t think they can control it. Now, manipulating it is another topic because obviously they do have a lot of cloud seeding programs and a lot on the internet right now they’re talking about lasers seeding clouds as well and I looked at their experiment and this is a very small room and a little thing. However, the sun we just had a flare. That produces enough electrons to seed lots of moisture so whenever you have a solar flare combined with a Hurricane and maybe some manipulations I think they can do a Ho Chi Minh trail type thing and make it rain more.”

Ok, this is extraordinarily stupid for a wide array of reasons.

The only thing less developed than standard cloud seeding is laser assisted cloud seeding. That technology is extraordinarily experiential and can barely influence standard weather, let alone hurricanes.

No cloud seeding technology can influence hurricanes. As I said before, hurricanes are extraordinarily powerful and the amount of energy required to manipulate them is greater than our current technology affords. The clouds found in hurricanes also contain less water droplets that silver-iodide targets making influencing them with cloud seeding even more infeasible.

There are so many moving parts in this conspiracy too. So the shadowy government cabal needs to wait for just the right solar flare and then just the right Hurricane and THEN they can influence the election. This is ridiculous.

06:01, Brian Smith: “I believe they can create them. I don’t think it’s as easy as people may think. This is a combination between HAARP, lower level things like NEXRAD, and the simple radar towers, 5G.”

Yeah, one thing that you’ll notice about this Brian Smith guy is that he likes to just throw out a lot of conspiracy buzzwords and never provide specifics. This is one of the massive red flags that the person you’re talking to shouldn’t be taken seriously. The enemy of conspiracy is specificity.

For example, how exactly can 5G influence a Hurricane? That’s just stupid on its face. Next thing you know we’ll be hearing about how the lizard people are using vaccines to create hurricanes. It’s alt-right mad libs.

To give you an example of this in action, here’s what happens when Tim asks Brian for specifics.

06:15, Brian Smith: “Things can be manipulated, the jet stream can be controlled. There’s definitely examples out there where they have hurricanes that were sitting in one area with a lot of military around them like the airplanes and stuff like that as if it was a project. They were working on it, it was getting bigger and smaller and then eventually dissipated.”

Notice how again, there are no specifics. Just “well there’s definitely some examples out there, just trust me”.

Tim then asks an armour piercing question.

06:33, Tim Pool: “When was that?”

Uh-oh.

Don’t get me wrong, Tim is a terrible interviewer whose main goal is laundering his guests extreme positions to his audience but that’s a really really basic question. If this “independent researcher” is what he says he is this should be a slam dunk.

Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

06:37, Brian Smith: “They started — they started doing that in the 40’s and 50’s.”

Tim Pool: “When they started creating a hurricane?”

Shane Cashman: “Project Cirrus. Creating hurricanes? 1948 is when they started dropping silver iodine into Hurricane King.”

Brian Smith: “47 was Project Cirrus, that’s when they dropped dry ice into a hurricane thinking it would dissipate it. It actually caused it to hook a turn into right into Florida and actually killed somebody.”

Oof, saved by Tim’s idiot co-host.

Nothing about what these guys are saying about Project Cirrus is true. While a lot of people did blame Project Cirrus for causing the hurricane to hook a turn into Florida most scientists nowadays agree that the notion that 80 kilograms of dry ice could even remotely impact a hurricane is pretty ridiculous.

Hurricanes are strong, unpredictable, and make unpredictable turns all the time. For example, Hurricane Charley made an unexpected turn in 2004 which led to Tampa being spared and Sarasota being hit. In 2005, Hurricane Wilma made a sudden 90 degree turn towards Florida. There’s no evidence that the shadowy cabal of Democrat operatives had any role in either Hurricane or the countless others that made unexpected turns in the past.

Tim reads the first quarter of the Wikipedia page for Project Stormfury and then makes a remarkably dumb statement.

08:29, Tim Pool: “I’d actually assume that creating is substantially easier than manipulating because planting a seed is very very easy, moving a tree is very very hard.”

Ah yes, because trees are equivalent to a giant tropical storm. What are we even doing here?

08:40, Tim Pool: “If, so you have a small depression form and then it starts to expand and grow as the storm grows wild and crazy. The implication to me that you could move a thirty mile wide Hurricane sounds pretty nuts but the idea that you could seed with a very small and I mean very very small portion of warm water that creates the beginnings of what could create a hurricane seems much more plausible. Not that I’m saying it’s possible, I’m saying it seems easier to plant a seed than move a hurricane.”

Both sound pretty nuts to me considering that modern cloud seeding technology hasn’t even came even remotely close to the level it would have to be to create a hurricane. Neither of the options that Tim has given here are scientifically feasible. We are not even close to being able to generate the amount of energy that’s needed to just create a hurricane out of thin air or even increase its size. The only way this metaphor would make sense is if planting a tree required enough energy to wipe out all life on the planet!

I’m definitely using “it’s easier to plant a seed than move a hurricane” in my day to day life though.

So, they yap on about how cloud seeding was utilized in Dubai once and I’m not going to waste your time with it. Just because one piece of technology exists doesn’t mean that some larger scale piece of related technology also exists. We can call people with FaceTime but that doesn’t mean that Star Wars-esque holographic projectors exist. We can fly through the sky on airplanes but that doesn’t mean that we can teleport.

10:23, Shane Cashman: “I wonder if you could go back to 1861, there was that colonel they called the rain maker who went out and literally bombed the atmosphere and said I could create the — and he had a patent for it right? And then he took credit for every storm.”

This is an argument you hear from weather control conspiracy theorists all the time, this is a Marjorie Taylor-Greene line too. Years ago somebody filed a patent for a machine that supposedly could control the weather so that surely must mean that the government can create hurricanes now, right?

The problem is that patents are absolutely meaningless. There have been patents filed for; full body teleportation systems that transport the body through “hyperspace”, greenhouse helmets, and devices that calculate your life expectancy. Do MTG, Tim Pool, and Shane Cashman mean to tell me that we can secretly teleport because some nutcase filed a patent for it years ago? And in case you were wondering, none of the specific patents that these guys always cite are compatible with modern technology and science. I couldn’t find the specific thing that they were talking about but provided that it does actually exist, it’s still some dumb patent from the 1800’s and that doesn’t prove anything.

Anyway, time to learn about HAARP. They harp on about HAARP for a bit and then Brian decides to try and prove to the others that HAARP can influence the weather. It’s predictably very stupid.

12:35, Brian Smith: “That’s not the point though. HAARP’s not creating the hurricane, HAARP’s adjusting the atmospheric conditions on earth to allow hurricanes to be formed in a certain area on earth.”

None of these dumb-dumbs know what HAARP is. I feel like HAARP is one of those things that people talk a lot about but nobody actually seems to know what it does. Enter morons like Alex Jones who exploit that lack of knowledge to push conspiracy theories about HAARP because it has kind of a scary sounding name.

HAARP stands for High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, it is a research facility located near Gakona, Alaska. The purpose of HAARP is to study the ionosphere which is the highest ionized part of earths atmosphere. The way that HAARP does this is by sending radio signals into the ionosphere which causes electrons to move in waves. It’s pretty complicated stuff and I’m not really an expert in this particular field, nor is 99% of the population including Brian Smith.

The fact that what HAARP does isn’t really clear unless you read up on the science, which is a pretty complicated process in and of itself, is something that conspiracy theorists have taken advantage of. Lots of people have claimed that HAARP is used to control the weather (they never elaborate on HOW it’s supposed to do this). HAARP research data is actually pretty public and they offer annual tours of the site.

Anyway, Tim doesn’t believe in HAARP conspiracies…for now. So as a result everybody starts selling him on why HAARP is controlling the weather.

14:05, Shane Cashman; “I think it’s more than just controlling weather. I think they’re burning — they’ll tell you they’re burning a hole in the ionosphere, which is where radio transmissions go, migratory birds use the ionosphere the magnets with their cryptochromes, it’s affecting something. I think it doesn’t just stay in the hole, I think there’s a ripple effect honestly. And other people would say that by doing this — you ever hear of cymatics? Like with frequencies used to make sound become matter. I think there’s something to Tim’s point. The leap — that’s for me is where I’m thinking. If you can control something through frequencies like cymatics does with shapes and matter or sound into matter, that’s the reason it could potentially be controlling weather.”

One of the games that conspiracy theorists will often play is throwing out a bunch of complicated words and concepts and capitalizing off of their audiences ignorance around those concepts to sell a faulty premise.

Shane Cashman has no idea what he’s talking about here. Cymatics is the study of visualizing audio frequencies and has nothing to do with HAARP or the weather. If we’re taking what he’s saying seriously, we essentially are being asked to believe that somehow sound frequencies can manipulate the weather and create hurricanes.

Also, they’re not “burning a hole” into the ionosphere. They’re heating small portions of it to study it’s effects.

This part is pretty funny. Presented without comment.

15:19, Tim Pool: “I’m concerned about this right, because we got a few super chats from people saying HAARP is disinformation or distraction, one thing that we know that intelligence will do is fake conspiracies, that’s the real conspiracy right?”

HAARP’s a psy-op everybody!

“Yeah, all this dumb stuff that guys on my side are saying including everyone around me at this very table…that’s the CIA bro.”

I guess that’s one way to do damage control.

16:06, Brian Smith: “I try to tell people that when — a lot of people bring up HAARP and I’m like, you know, HAARP is like an idea. It’s a thought process of a very powerful type of technology but it’s old and I think it’s possible that yeah, the whole term is being used as a distraction now to discredit people who talk about it. I do think there’s a technology that’s bigger than HAARP that can do exactly what HAARP conspiracy theories are saying that it does though.”

This guy is such a dick. Five minutes ago he was all in on HAARP conspiracy theories but then when he gets the most mild pushback I’ve ever seen it becomes “Yeah, I think that HAARP’s a distraction from this bigger weather control station that I won’t name in this video”. This is embarrassing.

However, Tim’s brilliant analysis got me thinking. Brian seems almost intentionally dumb. Could it be that he’s a CIA operative using Tim’s dumb Russia-funded YouTube show to poison the well and make conspiracy theorists look bad? I think we’re getting close people.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve stopped taking this “panel” seriously. They start talking about CERN and “anti-matter weapons” and I honestly don’t care about what their thoughts on that are. People aren’t throwing black hole grenades around and the entire CERN leg of the discussion just comes across like a bunch of twelve year old boys making stuff they think sounds cool up. They then have a very dumb discussion about AI.

21:42, Tim Pool: “The fascinating thing too is, I remember watching these old sci-fi movies where they’re trying to find a chemical formula for a cure or something, and they’re in a computer and the computers like running a simulation and it shows like the chemicals and everything and that was sci-fi. AI literally does that now. So, they collect all of our health data, put ten million different files from various humans and various ailments into the computer and let the AI run through it and they don’t go to do anything. Basically the AI brute forces all the data and finds patterns and then it says ‘we discovered that every single person who is suffering from pancreatic cancer also had this one weird marker that no one’s ever noticed before’ because it can see patterns we can’t recognize. Then doctors are like wow. Then if you take some random persons medical data, load it into the AI, they’re gonna be like in ten years you’ll have pancreatic cancer because you have the same marker as them and we can treat it right now.”

So AI apparently can predict if you have cancer now.

There are some AI tools that have been developed to identify if a certain cancer patient is likely to respond to certain drugs like checkpoint inhibitors and some that can identify cancer, the tech isn’t currently even remotely close to where Tim’s saying it’s at.

Take for example, a recent AI tool debuted by the Royal Marsden NHS foundation that can accurately identify cancer. While the AI can identify cancer in people, it’s extremely far away from being able to detect hidden markers that indicate that the person may be suffering from cancer. Even the researchers behind the tool admit as much, quote:

“In the future, we hope it will improve early detection and potentially make cancer treatment more successful by highlighting high-risk patients and fast-tracking them to earlier intervention,”

So yes, what Tim’s saying might very well be the next step for AI’s utilization in medical research but we aren’t quite there yet. If that were the case we’d be throwing parades in the streets because we’d have basically cured cancer.

22:40, Tim Pool: “So if you were to load all the worlds weather data in real time, constantly, into an AI it’s gonna show you basically a map of probabilities where storms may form.”

There is technology being developed to predict the weather using AI but that still doesn’t mean that people can control hurricanes. That’s a massive leap.

Tim Pool also has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to climate change.

26:44, Tim Pool: “We did a show, I think a few months ago, maybe more than a few months ago. We were talking about the poles shifting and one of the interesting things that was brought up that I didn’t really think about but it’s so obvious is that there’s a glacier in Indonesia. That there’s a gigantic ball of ice on top of a mountain in Indonesia and it seems crazy because it’s a warm area but at the high altitudes these glaciers take very very long times to melt. And so, thinking of that, and then hearing stories about global warming it really does feel like — when I hear about climate change scientists, and you know or whatever, or the climate scientists and blah blah blah, it feels like a kindergartener trying to explain what’s going on with the weather without having enough data or understanding of the billions of years.”

What?!

So, let’s break this down. Glaciers exist on top of mountains in Indonesia so that means that climate change is fake…that’s it, that’s the argument. Never mind the fact that those exact same glaciers are literally melting because of climate change or the fact that there’s really no connection between both of those topics.

Science is also fake apparently.

27:45, Tim Pool: “I think there’s a strong possibility when you look at everything, actually I think it’s a 100% probability, we are wrong about all science. To be fair, 99.9. What we get right is what we can replicate. We can make video games, we can drive cars, so science does get us to these points where we can predict and make these systems. But to predict global weather, I don’t know that humans have been around enough, tracking enough data, to really understand what’s happening.”

Even in the context of this video that statement doesn’t make any sense. Tim was just going on about how AI can predict the weather (which we now apparently can’t do) and cancer, not to mention all the stuff about how we can apparently manipulate the course of hurricanes.

Also, David DuByne is an idiot who sucks.

28:09, David DuByne: “Let me combine these two ideas and then Brian, I’d like to get your opinion on it. So, going back to this, if you’re going to really control weather, not manipulate it, not modify it, you’re going to have to have sensors about every foot on the planet to understand what’s going on from the ground level up to what? 18,000 feet, maybe 20,000 feet? The same thing is true with what we get fed with global warming and global temperature data. They don’t have sensors everywhere. In the oceans it’s barely a cover, they might have a few buoys out there. And when they’re talking about overall land temperatures, there’s very few temperature data stations collecting data anywhere and they’re trying to say the entire planets heating at this uniform rate in this area but it’s not.”

There are over 100,000 weather stations around the world. Furthermore, there are satellites monitoring the climate and there’s the fact that our recorded temperature data shows that the present keeps breaking records in terms of heat. In short, David DuByne has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.

Half of the episode is just these guys making stuff up about climate change. They play an extremely boring slideshow from DuByne for a majority of the other half of the video that’s basically “hey guys, look…weather patterns exist” and I’m not going to bother looking at that. They then go back to talking about weather modification and it’s basically the same stuff as before. If you want to watch it, go right ahead. It’s just the same dumb crap from the beginning constantly being repeated ad nauseam.

Conclusion:

Wow, I’m pretty sure I lost brain cells looking at that one. When Tim Pool is the most reasonable person in the discussion, you know you’re screwed. It’s probably going to be a long time before I look at another one of Tim’s panel discussions because these are just way too long and everyone there has a bad habit of saying absolutely nothing.

Original Video:

Tim Pool. “Geoengineered Super Storms & Government WEATHER CONTROL | the Culture War with Tim Pool.” YouTube, 11 Oct. 2024.

[soundorp]

How did Fifine A6T Mics got viral?

Fifine A6T mics… Trust me they are not the cheapest, not the best quality, probably. And while I have encountered the brand before, Fifine might not be as famous as other brands, but guess what? It was a superstar on Amazon! People were buying it like crazy back in January, and even now, months later, it’s still on top. But why? That’s what I’m going to figure out! We’ll dig into why Fifine is such a hit. Maybe there’s something special about it that others haven’t noticed yet.

The Case for Fifine A6T Mics

I guess the first question is why not the Fifine A6T? It’s $47 at the time I’m writing, has overwhelmingly positive reviews, works on PC, Mac, and PlayStation, and it includes absolutely everything you need to get started. The mic itself, a boom arm, a desk clamp, a shock mount, and even a cute little pop filter with a smiley face on it, as it works with PC, Mac, and PlayStation! With all these features and glowing reviews, you’d think it would be flying off the shelves. But why isn’t it getting as much attention as it deserves? It’s a mystery, but one worth solving. Maybe Fifine has some secrets that lets them offer such a great deal.

Review of Fifine A6T Mics

According to me, The voice quality is excellent and so is the silicone isolating bands. The quality all around for the price is hard to beat. The arm itself cheap, but for the price it’s reasonable. I think It’s not much better/different than the <20 dollar options for just the arms themselves from other brands which look identical. So for this price range, it’s fine. If you were doing this professionally, the arm would be the first to upgrade.

Build Quality

The mic feels quite a bit cheaper than it looks in the pictures, actually. It’s shockingly light. While it may not meet expectations in terms of weight and build quality, its functionality is praiseworthy.

Exceptional Sound Quality

The microphone captures clear and crisp audio which provides professional-grade sound suitable for streaming, recording gameplay videos, and online gaming sessions. It enhances engagement for both the user and their audience.

Side Address Design

The A6T microphone contains a side address design, meaning you speak into the side of the microphone rather than the top. This design is complemented by the pop filter, which only attaches in one orientation, ensuring correct placement.

Boom Arm Performance

The included boom arm effectively keeps the microphone in place, but its lightweight construction creates concerns about its durability over time.

Accessories and Cable Ties

While cable ties are included with the A6T microphone, they may not meet expectations. I think Upgrading to better cable ties might be necessary for a more secure cable management solution.

Ease of Setup

The FIFINE USB Microphone is plug-and-play, requiring no complicated setup or additional drivers and is accessible for users of all levels of experience which makes it a hassle-free option for everyday use. No additional apps are required; simply plug it in, and the RGB lighting confirms its activation. However, the inability to customize or disable the RGB lighting without muting the microphone may be a drawback for some users.

Mute Button Convenience

The microphone features a built-in mute button for added convenience and control. It allows instant muting without disrupting the flow of content during live streaming or quick breaks.

Long-Term Durability

Despite its affordable price of $50, the microphone has been reliable over a span of two years and serves well for everyday PC use, chatting, gaming, and streaming.

Noise Suppression Considerations

The microphone lacks custom software for noise suppression which may lead to picking up background noise, such as mechanical keyboard sounds. However, this can be addressed using third-party software like OBS audio filters or Discord’s built-in noise suppression.

Overall Value

Despite minor issues with noise suppression, the microphone’s quality, convenience, and affordability make it a highly recommended option, specially if you pair it with additional filters for improved performance.

Performance Comparison

Gain Control: The A6T microphone features a large knob on the bottom for adjusting gain. However, the indicator for gain level is inconveniently positioned and doesn’t accurately correspond to the position of the knob, potentially making gain adjustment less intuitive.

Software Support: The A6T microphone lacks dedicated software, meaning there are no official drivers or apps provided. Consequently, there is no support for features like VST plugin integration for effects such as noise gates or compressors, nor is there support for audio mixing.

Windows Volume Slider: Adjusting the volume slider on Windows does not affect the A6T microphone when using default drivers.

Limitations: The absence of official drivers and software features might be seen as a drawback for users who rely on advanced audio processing or customization options.

Workarounds: Despite the limitations, alternative solutions are there for audio processing needs. These solutions demonstrate that while certain features are lacking, they may not be critical if the microphone’s performance meets expectations.

Performance Evaluation: To assess the microphone’s performance, it’s important to test its capabilities in various challenging scenarios which will help users to make informed judgments about its suitability for their needs.

Comparison with Blue Yeti

Blue Yeti Comparison: The Blue Yeti microphone, though costing about twice as much as the Fifine A6T and coming with fewer accessories, produces a sound quality that is similar to what you will hear from the A6T.

WAN Show Sound: The sound quality you typically hear on the WAN Show serves as a reference point for comparison. This reference provides context for understanding the performance of the A6T and other microphones.

Evaluation: Despite any limitations or differences in sound quality, the A6T microphone is considered to sound “pretty darn okay” by the speaker. This subjective assessment suggests that.

Personal Opinion: The A6T may offer satisfactory performance for its price point and intended use. My assessment is based on personal opinion and experience, rather than extensive laboratory testing or technical analysis.

Performance Results with Dayton Audio EMM6

Reference Microphone: The Dayton Audio EMM6, a calibrated omni-directional microphone, serves as the reference for comparison.

Frequency Response: In case of frequency response, the A6T performs surprisingly similarly to other USB microphones. However, there is a noticeable drop in a certain range, indicating a slightly darker sound profile compared to some other models.

Comparison with Elgato Wave: The Elgato Wave stands out as an outlier, producing a brighter sound profile. However, this brightness comes at the cost of picking up more sibilance, particularly harsh “S” and “ss” sounds.

Overall Performance: Despite some variations in sound profile among the compared microphones, the differences are not substantial. The field is close enough that there isn’t a huge disparity in performance from the worst to the best USB microphone options considered.

Consideration for USB Microphones: If considering a USB microphone, the performance differences among various models may not be significant enough to warrant a clear preference. Therefore, factors such as price, features, and personal preferences should also be taken into account when making a decision.

Comparison with Higher-End XLR Microphones

And believe it or not, I kind of see the same thing when I compare it even to higher end XLR microphones. Compared to an Electrovoice RE20, a mic that costs literally 10 times as much as this entire complete solution, the on paper results are shockingly close. And in the real world, the RE20 is better, but it’s certainly not 10 times better. However, that is under somewhat ideal conditions. Better microphones can have advantages that go beyond frequency response. Like for example, background noise rejection. If you’re alone in a room hanging out with your friends on Discord, you do not need a $450 mic, this is great.

I have discussed about this Mic in my Blog Post, Click Here to read now.

To know more about Recording Video & Audio Gears, Click this Link

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[dannythedog]

Ok hot take (and besite I’m not coming for you here at all bc I know a lot of the time you dont talk about their drama or personal lives unless its something serious but) no doubt over the past few months greta blew up lol not a bad thing its just a fact. Before they went viral on tiktok for their snl performance a few months ago they had a fan base but nothing like this. To put it in perspective almost every show they did was like the troubadour. And like I said nothing wrong w new fans or more fans. Music is a universal experience and I’m glad they’re getting recognition. But I’ve noticed a lot of new fans (not all) are #1 younger and a little bit immature and #2 overly interested in their personal lives and the gossip and they take it waaaaaaaaay too far and that kind of behavior is what makes bands stop sharing their personal lives all together like pretty soon all the gfs are gonna have to be as private as jita and they arent going to talk about anything personal. For example, I cant say exactly how ik bc I dont want to get clocked but I’m a close friend of a good friend of the significant other of the girl who was walking out of gretallica with sam and the fandom really embarrassed themselves with that. Shes been a longtime friend and shes in a very healthy happy committed relationship and she actually had to take down photos of the guy shes with off her ig because people were harassing her so much and commenting stuff like “see she has a bf” and making tiktoks and some fans even went as far as to dm the guy and make him and her super uncomfortable and its not like she can delete her socials or go private bc shes a musician and publicity and social media is important to her job. But regardless of that situation (and it shouldn’t even matter if he WAS with her) do fans like that not think she doesnt say something to sam or the rest of the guys and they dont find out about that? And how weird it is? And how embarrassing it is for them when fans are acting like that to friends or loved ones? All I’m saying is ik a lot of new fans are young and excited and theres nothing wrong with that or being curious about the personal lives and relationships of famous people you like but there’s definitely a line and its been getting crossed A LOT lately and I just wish people would stop. Ive been a fan for years and them getting bigger is awesome, bigger shows, more followers, more people loving their music and their message. But a lot of it is bad too like this situation and some similar situations like when people thought josh was dating paige like sometimes the digging and harassing is too much and as a long time fan I can tell you honestly I can tell it’s starting to take a toll bc their vibe and how they interact with fans is starting to change a little bit and it’s disappointing to see and disappointing that fans who arent crazy dont get as good of an experience because of shit like that. My philosophy has always been like its ok to wonder but if they arent sharing it with you outright theres a reason so wonder all you want but dont dig, ask, harass, or make people uncomfortable to find out.

I agree. This is really starting to get out of control. I saw someone on tiktok who commented "What if hannah left that pic of her 'bf' up to cover up the fact she's dating sam now" and I even told that person that they were reaching and rumors like this can really damage her relationship with her bf if they're still together. I'm really disappointed with how the fans are treating people in the guys' lives. They won't want to interact with us anymore and it's gonna suck so much. We really need to just chill out and not make every little thing a problem. It's gonna burn us in the long run

[ereawrites]

HCs: Camboy! Batboys

this was requested by: anon

taglist: @daddyissuesmademe

Dick Grayson:

He probably gets into cam work after Barbara mentions it: not necessarily as a suggestion for Dick to do it, maybe just mentioning it in passing while she’s doing her genius computer-y stuff. Dick laughs at first, but he definitely goes home and researches it a little more, and he thinks it’ll be some fun if nothing else. No one has to see his face, right? He can just wear a mask!

Cautiously makes an account (careful to hide it from Barbara) and ends up getting 100 subscribers in under a week. His first videos are pretty tame, just recordings of him doing some light exercise and a few stretches, working up a bit of a sweat before he starts playing with himself. No toys that are too fancy at first, but people love it.

Probably didn’t realise that he would get off so much on this. He’s definitely a bit of an exhibitionist, past lovers can attest to that, but he didn't anticipate how much it would turn him on to be watched by total strangers. The anonymity of it is actually quite comforting, and he feels like he can let loose in a way that he hasn’t been able to before. Probably comes harder on camera than he’s ever been able to achieve by himself before. Definitely goes for another round after he switches off the livestream.

Dick’s a natural performer, and that shows when he’s on cam - he kind of loves being the centre of attention like this. You can visibly see him get excited when people leave comments or tips on the livestream, and he’ll always thank the person and put on a little show for them, maybe even moaning their name. People go crazy for it, so his livestream comment section is always buzzing.

Audience is probably a good mix of male and female. Everyone has a crush on Dick Grayson, and everyone finds ‘Nightwing’ hot. Dick’s completely fine with this, and he tries to appeal to everyone with his videos by keeping them pretty ambiguous most of the time.

He definitely does a few male/female-oriented livestreams though, maybe as subscriber milestones or special events. Sometimes he lets his subscribers buy him toys (usually vibrators or cockrings) to use in these videos, or he’ll let them vote on a specific act to do. Not so many private videos - he kind of wants as many people as possible to see him.

Entry fee to his livestreams isn’t too high - he doesn’t necessarily need the money, and he really enjoys doing it, it’s one of the sexiest things he's ever done - but oh boy, he’s going to empty your bank account through the tips alone. You just can’t help it when you’re in there. He teases, he grinds on pillows instead of showing anything, he takes his sweet time, and people get desperate. He’s hot, okay?

Top tags: flexible, athletic, male moaning, striptease, toys

Jason Todd:

Jason probably gets into cam work as a way to reclaim his body and sexuality. He definitely watches camboys and camgirls a lot, and one day he sees one with scars - this guy’s totally owning it, and Jason wants to be able to do that. He's very, very tentative about it, and probably spends a few months just filming himself and not putting it anywhere, but it does wonders for his confidence. 

When he finally decides to make an account, he probably puts a limit on the number of viewers for a while, just to get used to things. It’s pretty standard stuff: him getting himself worked up, stroking up and down his body, then masturbating on camera. He keeps his face completely cut off, and doesn’t really talk much, but his body is on full display and...wow. He gets great reviews, and the exclusivity of his streams only build the hype.

Slowly, Jason will remove the limit on the number of viewers, but that entry fee is pretty high. He tells himself it’s a smart move (hey, guns are expensive), but he also kind of likes the idea of people paying to see his body. At first, it’s purely as a confidence boost, but soon the concept of people actually getting off to him really sinks in - then, when he's on cam, he’s imagining people getting themselves off at the same time as him. It does wonders for him.

After this little revelation, he branches out a bit more with his videos. He lets himself be freer vocally (and he’s loud), and when people go wild for that, he manages to push himself to do some dirty talk - saying what he’s imagining, or what he wants to do to his watchers, or describing fantasies. Maybe with a voice modulator, like in his helmet, or maybe without so people can hear how hot he is. Tips start absolutely pouring in at this point.

His audience is around a 40-60 male/female split. He normally keeps the dirty talk pretty ambiguous. Part of his cam persona is being a rough top/dom, so either way, he can cater to his viewers. If he builds a rapport with a certain viewer (someone respectful, who tips well and gets along with him), he’ll definitely consider doing a private stream; he might even switch to his more subby side, for the right person.

Sometimes, maybe once a month, he brings out the leather gloves/jacket. Jason loves the way that people go crazy for it, even though he feels he’s at his most dangerous like that. Possibly even does a few roleplay scenarios - it feels a little awkward at first, but he finds his rhythm quickly, and he really enjoys it. He’s considering branching out into audio porn, too (now that his confidence is soaring).

Top tags: dirty talk, buff, edging, interactive, growling

Tim Drake:

Yeah, he definitely knows about Dick and Jason’s accounts, and they definitely inspired him to start his own cam account. For Tim, it’s a way to explore his sexuality in a way that he doesn’t really get to in real life - he can be whoever he wants to be, live out whatever fantasies he wants, and he gets to control whatever happens. He probably toys with the idea for a few weeks, but he just can’t resist the temptation for any longer than that. It's just so appealing to him.

Tim absolutely gets off an insane amount from cam work (knowing he’s exposing himself like that is a huge turn-on), so he probably hacks into the website to send his account to no.1 on the recommended page. He goes viral for the content, though: he’s got a super high-quality set-up, he knows his angles, he plays things up for the camera. He does his research, and he loves to look pretty for his viewers.

Very much into kink, and not shy about it. He’s 100% confident that no one can trace his account, and he wears a mask (inspired by Dick), so he can totally let loose. This is basically just a way for him to explore what he’s into - think anal, overstimulation, breathplay, etc - and people watching just heightens all the sensations tenfold. He’s always sure to tell his viewers how much he gets off on them watching him play with himself.

He loves doing private shows, too. It’s all very exclusive and professional. People will pay ridiculous amounts of money just for 20 minutes alone with ‘RR’, because he’s always so busy with other viewers: Tim lets each private viewer tell him exactly what to do to himself, though, so it's definitely worth it. He ends up with a whole drawer full of toys and accessories that people have bought him as gifts.

Probably a more male-oriented audience, but he gets a few girls as well - Tim also often finds himself interacting with other popular camboys/ camgirls on the site. He does a lot of collaboration videos, for example mutual masturbation or letting himself get bossed around by another creator, and viewers go absolutely nuts for it. He probably gains around 500 new subscribers each time, purely because he’s so cute and everyone on the site just wants to ruin him.

His absolute favourite thing to do is carve out a whole day in which to cam. He starts with teasing himself (nipple play + breathplay, mostly) for a few hours, on and off, interspersed with chatting to his followers - he works it up into something more intense, comes once, and then breaks out the toys and does it all over again, multiple times. Poor baby is absolutely exhausted by the end of it, but very pleased, and approximately 5000 dollars richer.

Top tags: anal, gag, lingerie, multiple orgasms, femboy

Duke Thomas:

Duke gets a lot of comments on his physique, a lot of attention on both social media and IRL, and he loves to brighten people’s day. Cam work was kind of a natural move for him: he probably stumbles across it while he's watching porn one day, and he’s drawn in immediately. Sets up an account after a few days of working out the technicalities - he's coming into this prepared, so he can enjoy himself without a worry while he’s working.

He probably flies under the radar for a few months, with a few dedicated subscribers who tip well and love him, but he doesn’t mind, he really is just in this for a little fun and a good orgasm. His account blows up after he posts a particularly lengthy video with lots of edging (requested by one of his subscribers), and stuff just takes off from there. Duke still maintains close relationships with many of his viewers after this, and most of his videos are inspired by suggestions.

More than anything, Duke enjoys knowing that people are getting off to him, and it makes his day when people thank him in the comments (plus, he gets a little power rush from it). He’s a people-pleaser, and while being watched is definitely a turn-on for him, it’s mostly about the knowledge that he's satisfying others. That’s what really gets him going, and he’ll often edge himself until he knows all of his viewers have gotten off too.

While he’s never really explored the world of kink, beyond a few things with partners, Duke’s absolutely open to branching out. It’s all good fun, after all. He gets his followers to decide on something new for him to try out every week, and makes a little series of it: his favourites so far have been wax play, semi-public settings, and making himself come while still in his jeans (that video got thousands of views).

He’ll do a private show now and again, but the majority of the time, it’s livestreams that everyone can watch. Duke likes to randomly pick out a few viewers on each livestream, and make them feel special for a while, so people can mostly get their fix off that. He probably also makes an OnlyFans, where his viewers can pay a little extra to get some exclusive pictures and shorter clips.

His audience is majority female - girls just fall for Duke, with his sunshine personality, and the way he can be cheery and sweet right up until the moment he comes. Duke’s also very much about making porn more female-oriented, so he probably plays to this demographic a lot, and asks his viewers a lot of questions about what they want to see.

Huuuuge praise kink. If people rave about him in the comments, he literally moans when he reads them, and more often than not he has to take a little break to cool down.

Top tags: loud, popular with women, grinding, ball play, spitting

[sta-bright]

My First Tumble

Hi Tumblr,

I was inspired to get a Tumblr account, believe it or not, from Netflix's 2021 four-part docu-series "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel." Although I highly doubt anyone cares enough to read any of my posts or has the attention span to read anything longer than a few sentences written by a 23 year old with her boobs out, *just in case,* SPOILER ALERT.

The (main) topic of the show focuses around Elisa Lam, who vanished in early 2013 when she was staying at the Cecil Hotel and was then found dead in one of the four water tanks on the roof 19 days after being reported missing (I think I have that correct but don't hold me to it, imaginary readers. It was something like that.).

Anyway, "...to make a long story short"... "too late" #cluereference, Elisa had a Tumblr blog. It seemed to be a good setup for how she was writing very personally, which is what I want to do, so here we go. I have a blog page for the business I own, but to be honest, it's geared more toward, well, business, so I don't feel like I can write freely, or only like the "good" or "normal" part of myself, the good stuff geared at an audience without scaring people away or whatever. So for this one, I don't really care as much about proper grammar or spelling, just somewhere to write my real thoughts if and when I can focus enough to sort them out enough to put them down. I have a bunch of journals, but they are all over the place and I can't write fast enough, so I'm going to try this out. I have a lot to say, and I think even just putting it out there even though I know no one cares might help me feel a little bit of relief, even if anyone does read it and might think I'm an idiot or whatever.

I wasn't sure what to name my blog, and I'm not sure if there's a way to change it in the future, but for now I have decided on "Sta-Bright." Most of my family and some of my close friends call me "Sta" and my partner David calls me Sta Bright, which I think is really cute and makes me happy, so here we are. I use the word partner because I think the word boyfriend is a little too young for us and our relationship warrants a higher level than that. ANYWAY, there is the background information for you, my new friend, Tumblr. I already feel better.

So, this show really pissed me off for a few (many) reasons. I've legitimately been pacing around all morning. First, even the title of the show is misleading. The death of Elisa Lam was not a "crime." It was a devastating incident of accidental death highly likely (as confidently confirmed by all professionals involved) related to a psychotic episode of her mental illness, Bipolar I, which I also happen to have. Netflix using the title "Crime Scene" to lure watchers in is disgusting within itself. Good for you, Netflix. Holla for the dollas! Make that money, baby.

Then, beyond the fact Netflix milked four episodes out of a glamorized case that was ruled an accidental death for this reason not even long after finding Elisa, it is the whole ordeal of the reality and dramatizing of this saga that is so sad.

Upon the release of the famous elevator footage the day she went missing, it went viral almost instantaneously.

*Hold please* I actually just read an article by BBC.com where director of the series, Joe Berlinger, says, "For the average viewer it's another compelling story you watch and then move on to the next. But for who this happened to, it's the worst moment in their life. It's a real tragedy for that person and that family." LOLOLOLOL OKAY JOE!!!! Is this why you spent FOUR EPISODES talking about bullshit theories to keep people hooked and open more discussion? You know that this is not out of respect. Shame on YOU!

"If you look at the other tellings of the story, you'd see she's the victim of some horrible, evil presence that took control of her.

"Those kinds of narratives, I think, are incredibly disrespectful and probably why the family just didn't want to deal with another show that was going to exaggerate the circumstances of the tragedy."

So is this why you made a show exaggerating the circumstances of the tragedy? Lol. "We need to talk about the ghost stories" Or do you need to talk about them to open a can of worms to more losers who fixate on the case? OR IS THAT JUST ME? I don't know. Lemme tell ya what. If anything ever happens to me, please make sure this Joe Schmuck doesn't make a pathetic docuseries about it.

Then, aside from the pathetic profit of Netflix, the actual details of what happened and how society and the "web sleuths" investigated, obsessed, and chimed in on this case is a whole other ballpark about society's minimization and lack of knowledge or respect for mental illness on its own.

THEN, there is a quote by Amy Price, the manager of the hotel during the incident, who is now profiting on a book she is writing about HER experience:

"I want to share my story," she says.

"But this isn't a horror story or anything like that. This is a story about struggle."

Okay, Amy. Whose fucking struggle are you writing about here? I legitimately don't know if she is referring to hers or Elisa's, but either way, it's gross.

It makes me so sad that this whole situation warranted MILLIONS of theories, millions of internet trolls writing articles about the "BIZARRE" death of this girl. This case is not fucking bizarre. It is unfortunate but it is not bizarre. This case was plastered all over internet lists with the titles "bizarre, unexplained cases of missing people." It's not unexplained, and it only was not for long.

These "web sleuths" were busy having a blast, going to the crime scene, smiling as they recorded, posting videos about their stupid theories. Trolls posting their dumb, far-fetched theories without knowing all of the facts, thinking they know better than the professionals, who DO have the findings, did do the labs, did do the investigations. And people still insist that THERE HAS TO BE MORE.

Of course, I don't know all the facts either. BUT, according to the actual professionals involved rather than the entire population of people who love a good "mystery," Elisa's toxicology results showed that her levels of the medications she was supposed to be on signified she had not been taking them as she should have been. They also found bottles of her medicine that had more pills than prescribed, also showing that she had not been taking them.

THEN, she was removed from the room she had been sharing with a few others due to "odd behavior" leaving weird post-its telling them to go away, or whatever. THEN, apparently going into the hotel lobby and screaming "I'm crazy!" or whatever it was.

Although all experiences with mental illnesses are unique, all of these details plus the footage, both detailing erratic behavior, leave no doubt in my mind that the professionals, SHOCKINGLY, CRAZILY, may be right! Who thunk it! I have legitimately acted in the ways described and shown in the video. I don't and couldn't understand HERS, but I understand MY paranoia, hallucinations, experiences I have had, and the actions that are presented, and I guarantee some would look very similar to that footage. Ask the few people who know me best what it's like when I'm not on my meds or fuck them up. I legitimately saw myself in her actions.

Yet, the internet losers had to fixate on a death metal artist who had stayed in the hotel for a few days A YEAR before any of this happened and legitimately ruined his life. His alibi was completely valid and he was dismissed by investigators. He was out of the country, he had tons of substantial paperwork and proof that he was, but that didn't matter.

Because no one takes bipolar disorder seriously, dismissing it as just mood swings, people being dramatic, seeking attention, being lazy, and everyone needs something more sensational, THIS wasn't even an option. They needed to fixate on crazy, fun conspiracy theories, watching the footage over and over and over again, sitting in their caves with their thumbs up their asses writing about their ballpark theories, internet bullying innocent people instead of doing any research on bipolar disorder, instead of defending or considering that it was a psychotic episode, which literally all of the official facts and footage present.

Clearly I'm not a professional either, but like... watch the show and you tell me. You tell me what you think is likely. You tell me what the professionals agree on. But before you make that call, try reading a little bit about bipolar disorder. Try reading about the psychotic episodes that can come with it. It probably won't change your mind, but oh well. It probably is just the hotel being haunted, ya know. Right? This is just my little rant that doesn't matter.

If you want to think it was a ghost, a demon, if it was a murder even though she literally had zero signs of any physical violence and there was zero evidence of it and all evidence the other way, you do that, boo. Have a blast. Hey, I 100% could be wrong, right? Absolutely. Who am I? Just a little dramatic, stupid, crazy nobody.

That's just my take, no better than any other internet trolls, I suppose. When all is said and done, in my little fantasy world, I guess people would just take bipolar disorder seriously and understand the severity of it. People would take it to consideration for the actions and words of those who have it. That's not fun, though. Everyone loves money, everyone loves a good story. Everyone loves making fun of people. Everyone loves a disability you can see. Everything I do is just me being an oddball. Everyone loves to be an internet bully.

I'm sorry for Elisa and her family who have had to deal with years of this. Years of people dismissing the severity of mental illness and obsessing over ghost stories, obsessing over the number of likes or views they get, money they make off of it.

Wow, that was a blast. I'm fairly confident no one will read this, but I feel a lot better that I put that out there. Again, I'm a little nobody, so nothing I say matters, but that's just my take on all of it. I've given up trying to convince anyone that I'm anything but weird, because I know no one will care or accept that. I'll just keep making people feel uncomfortable and keep looking like an idiot. Woe is me, am I right?

You have a blessed day now.

[tylerfm]

welcome aboard, tyler golightly, student #10. we are excited to set sail with you !  has anyone told you that you look like charlie gillespie? according to our records, you hail from edinburgh, scotland, prefer he/they, are non-binary (demi-boy), and are here to study communications. we also see you received a spot on the ss university because of your money — we won’t tell anyone. during your first few weeks here, other students said you were + confident, + ambitious, but also - selfish. it sounds like you spend most of your time at the basketball court. upon checking your luggage, we noticed you packed a soccer ball covered in sharpie drawings. hopefully your roommates don’t steal it!

hello again, little loves! maeby (24, she/her, pst, also play duckie) here with student #10, my second character and cutest lil himbo/thembo, tyler! ♡ tldr; scottish kid with a silver spoon starts anew and tries to make up for their reputation back home but also just wants to party. or: enby footballer actually just wants to play music, keeps it on the dl. i’m so stoked to plot with everyone, like this post and i’ll come to you or hmu if you’re down!

stats

given name: tyler thomas golightly nicknames: ty, tie-dye, golightly (mostly by coaches and jocks) birthday & zodiac: december 12th, 1997 & sagittarius ♐︎  orientation: pansexual, non-binary (demi-boy) hometown: edinburgh, scotland hobbies: the beautiful game, collecting vinyls, playing basketball, restoring their grandfather’s motorcycle, photography, playing piano, songwriting, eating everything, trying to learn french favorites: sunday roast, david bowie, celtic fc, claude debussy, toronto raptors, white nail polish, nachos, nando’s, stella artois, elvis presley

biography

tw: parental death, depression, drug and alcohol abuse

from the moment they were born, tyler and his siblings had their entire lives lined out for them. their father came from a family with very old money that now owned a number of lavish, upscale hotels and expected only the best from their lineage. their mother was a classically trained pianist who had toured the world as a teenage prodigy and had all the best intentions as a mother. still, to tyler, every step of the way felt like ticking off a checklist with ‘pompous ass’ listed as the end goal. top boarding schools were supposed to lead to cambridge or oxford and then prolific careers as surgeons, lawyers, members of parliament, or business moguls. tyler’s siblings all seemed to fit the bill with ease and for a while, so did tyler, until he was old enough to show any kind of personality.

(tw: parental death) growing up, ty was a goofy, naïve kid who spent all day playing music with their mother and singing at the piano with her. sitting on that piano bench was tyler’s only real escape from the elitist world they didn’t really fit into. none of their siblings had taken a real interest in of their mother’s passions, but tyler was at her side every moment they were able. rather than one of the pre-selected career paths his father insisted on, tyler grew up wanting to follow in his mother’s footsteps and be a musician. his father taught him very early on that music was not an option. it was when he shipped off for boarding school that things really escalated. by the time he was sixteen, he had been through five boarding schools. and just when they thought things couldn’t possibly get worse, the unthinkable happened and their mother died suddenly from a brain aneurism.

(tw: depression) the day they lost ty’s mother, his life fell to pieces. he fell into a deep depression and quit everything that reminded him of his mother, especially music. the only thing that fell through the cracks was football (soccer to some), which their father had always loved, so they had always hated. tyler had always been athletic but reluctant when it came to sports, but when their father put them into football this time around, they ran with a newfound rage and abandon. when his father remarried a woman half his age less than a year after becoming a widower, that increased tenfold. he threw everything into playing and training, and stopped trying to process his mother’s passing. they were noticed by a club recruiter only a couple of years later and played on a second tier team with talks of being recruited to the premier league until a few months ago, when they absolutely lost control.

(tw: drug and alcohol abuse) nothing in tyler’s life worked. their relationships with their brothers and father were positively abysmal. he’d always bonded with his only sister for being the odd ducks out, even if she’d always fit in better than him, but even she wasn’t speaking to him if she didn’t have to. they were in the closet about their sexuality and gender identity to everyone but their sister, and it was starting to eat them alive. it had been several years since the death of his mother, but tyler had succeeded in filling every moment of those years with either football or drugs & alcohol to avoid processing it (or anything else). now, the pressure was high and they felt the whole world of football watching them. eventually, they cracked. he quit his football team in a horrible screaming match with the team manager that went viral online and in a single moment, it looked like his career was over before it began.

rather than face the problems that had caused their breakdown, ty holed themself up in their family home for months, only leaving when his father threatened to cut him off if he didn’t go out and do something. in this state, his sister didn’t think they would make it on their own. it was during this time that his sister pushed them into a therapist’s office once a week and personally oversaw their recovery. not long after, his sister showed him an advert for the ss university and went behind their father’s back to pay for it. mere weeks later, tyler golightly had their life packed into suitcases and the ss university was setting sail. he left his sister with the promise that he would watch how he partied and that more than anything, he would use the experience to start over with a clean slate. now all that’s left is to do it.

wanted connects

–  rich kids club: tyler was once told by their father that their family had more money than god and they’ve never forgotten that. if your char was also born with a silver spoon, they may know each other already or just bond over their shared experiences! tyler hates their father and that side of their family, so they’re not always the biggest fan of other wealthy people.

–  clandestine music friends: tyler’s mother was an esteemed classical pianist and taught ty to play the piano very early on. for a long time, tyler thought they would follow in her footsteps and become a pianist as well. when she passed away, he gave up music ‘for good’. however, ever since they’ve been on the ship, they’ve been secretly picking up playing the piano again! someone is bound to have walked in on them and is now keeping their secret.

–  missed connection: ty thinks he falls in love every other minute, but if he doesn’t go for it, he usually just forgets them and moves on to the next gorgeous smile or melodic laughter. this person has been on their mind since the day they laid eyes on each other but didn’t actually get to meet. whether it was in the hall, while they were drunk at the sand bar, or even out in one of their excursions, something about them has ty going crazy.

–  exes: ty may think they fall in love more often than a character in a rom-com, but the truth of the matter is that they never really commit to a relationship long enough to get past infatuation. there may be one person they’ve been seriously in love with, but the rest were flings for a season, friends with benefits, or one night stands; short-term. not much has changed now that they’re on the ship, but with the entire cruise/schoolyear ahead of them, who’s to say it won’t?

–  party friends! one night stands! people they met while travelling for football matches! folks from boarding school! family friends! any other connections you’re feeling!

[iron--spider]

not at all funny (whumptober - asphyxiation)

“Peter,” Tony says, watching as Friday tracks the kid’s trajectory, following his arc as he flips through the air. “Peter Parker.”

 “Uh oh, full name time, what’d I do?”

 Tony watches him do another outrageous flip, spinning at least three times in the air. The web he lets go of soars like a party streamer. He shoots another one, swings from it, and quickly shoots one more, launching himself high.

 “What the hell is with all the acrobatics?” Tony asks, flying up higher. Peter shoots more webs, completely unnecessarily, and they firework all around them. “I know you’re a part of the circus, but you’re at your day job right now, bud—”

 “Part of the circus?” Peter laughs. “I’m just happy, okay, aren’t you happy?”

Tony snorts, watching as Friday lays out their path back to the compound. He’d considered bringing a jet, but he knows Peter likes the long swing and fly back. 

 “Of course I’m happy,” Tony says, as Peter does another couple flips, more webs flying all over the place. “Always a good feeling to save a bunch of kids.”

 “They were so excited to see us!” Peter exclaims. He spins sideways in some kind of double helix, rolling out into another long swing. “And that puppy? I mean—the situation could have been real bad, but it was real good! Because we were there! And now everybody’s safe!”

 Tony shakes his head—Peter has no business being this endearing. They’re flying through town now, a little low for Tony’s tastes, but the buildings aren’t as high over here and Peter’s gotta have something to latch onto. He’s certainly giving people a good show, and everyone on the ground that Tony can see has their phones out to film his antics. “Listen, I get the spider celebration, but don’t your webs take a lot to make? Don’t you slave over that shit? Let’s settle down, Crockett, or you’re not gonna make it home.”

 “Ugh, fine, always spoiling my fun,” Peter says. “Lemme just—”

 He lets out what could only be called an explosion of webs then—some of the web bombs, the super bursts, the works for big battles, and Tony rolls his eyes at the wastefulness, but he can’t help but smile. 

 It feels like something inside of him knew what was coming next, and he watches as the kid flips and spins and drops directly into the powerlines, landing stagnant amongst his mass of webs. Tony’s heart sinks a little—Peter’s limbs are all tangled, his arm sticking out up by his head, and Tony’s just about to break into full blown panic when he hears Peter laugh in his ear. 

 “Wow, wow, okay,” Peter says. “That was—that was unexpected.”

 Tony hovers there, glancing down to see everybody watching. “Uh, really? Really really? Because even if I didn’t see it coming, I saw it coming. Because you attract these things, buddy boy, with all your crazy flipping and excess webs.”

 “I’m a little stuck, just a little stuck.”

 “Uh, you think?”

 Peter laughs again, too delighted for someone in his situation. “Well, aren’t you gonna help me?” he asks, twisting around a little bit, slipping his left arm out of the hole it’s trapped in and through another part of the webs. 

 It reminds Tony of jumbled up string or headphone wires, and it drives him a little insane looking at it. “Nah, I’m gonna see how you handle this one for a few minutes here,” Tony says. He clears his throat, going off com so Peter can’t hear him. “Uh, Fri, give me a good way out of those webs for Pete, please.”

 “Right away, Boss.”

 “And, uh, he’s not gonna electrocute himself, right? We built in shit to keep that from happening, right?”

 “We did. And he should be safe, unless the line gets severed.”

 Tony nods to himself. Peter’s almost like one of those damn pigeons. Tony moves to hover a little closer, and he can’t help but laugh as Peter methodically moves in and out of the webs like a goddamn spider, ducking and tugging his legs in and out. Tony wonders if he could just break it all if he pulled and pushed hard enough, but clearly, that’s not an attempt he’s gonna make.

 Tony goes back on coms. “Good lord, kid,” he says, laughing harder. “What a mess. You’re ridiculous.”

 “Yeah, well, I—”

 Peter moves the wrong way and falls. But he doesn’t drop all the way to the ground, and when Tony looks closer, to his horror—the kid is hanging by his fucking neck. He’s kicking and struggling and grasping at the offending web, and there’s a gasp from the crowd below.

 Tony swoops over, his heart in his throat. He grabs Peter around the waist with one arm, holding him up so the web around his neck isn’t strangling him. But it’s tight as hell when Tony grabs at it with his free hand—Peter’s webs are some of the strongest material Tony’s ever come in contact with, and he can’t just snap it off, despite the fact that he’s wearing the suit.

 “Kid, can you breathe?” Tony asks, right up close to him now, and he flips up the faceplate so Peter can see him, even though he’s still wearing his own mask. “Tell me.”

 “Oh—like, barely,” Peter gasps, voice ragged. 

 “Okay, okay,” Tony says, holding onto him tight and hoisting him up a little higher. “Okay, uh—” He’s stuck between cutting it off and burning it off, knowing both aren’t the best case scenario and both will absolutely hurt Peter. But it’s less likely that he can actually cut through the webbing with anything he’s got right now—damn Peter for being so damn smart and so dumb at the same time. Create an incredibly strong material. Strangle yourself with it.

 “I have to burn through it bud,” Tony says. “Gimme a sec. Just one sec.” He aims his pointer finger at the webbing around the kid’s neck, listening to him wheeze, and Friday quickly selects the right tool and power level. Tony starts before he gets any sort of permission because Peter is still actively being strangled, and Tony feels him jolt a little bit when the laser hits his suit.

 “Tony—” Peter gasps, clearly in pain, voice already breaking.

 “I’m sorry, kid, I’m sorry,” Tony says, wincing himself, barely able to look at the brightness of the laser. He should put his faceplate back down, but he wants to offer Peter some kind of familiar comfort. He hopes he doesn’t look too horrified. He can’t control his face. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna fix it, I’m gonna fix it, just a second—”

 The first layer of webbing snaps, and Tony can see Peter’s suit going black. 

 “Just a little bit more—” Tony says, and Peter tries to take a big breath, the web still cutting off his air supply. Then the second layer snaps, just as the laser comes in contact with Peter’s skin. Peter gasps, and Tony bats the webbing off of him. He puts his faceplate back down, and then he takes off without another word, still holding Peter.

 “Oh my God,” Peter rasps, coughing, as Friday boosts thrusters by fifty percent. “Oh my God.”

 “Yeah, oh my God,” Tony says, as his own heart rate flashes on the screen. “You’re such a moron sometimes, Pete. It’s too much for my damn—you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

 Peter sticks to him, holding on tight. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

 Tony sighs, instantly feeling bad for the moron comment. “Don’t be,” he says. “Shit, just—you need—you’ve gotta—”

 “I know,” Peter says, and he reaches up with one hand, patting the burn on his neck. “I know, I know, ugh, I know.”

 ~

 “The video went viral,” Happy says, standing behind the two of them as Tony deals with the burn on Peter’s neck. There are horrible red rings around his throat, which Tony hopes heal up real quick, because they make him feel dizzy and sick. Happy keeps talking. “It’s already got 6.7 million views on Twitter, uh, user shootingwebs says WHOA SPIDER-MAN BE CAREFUL DON’T HANG YOURSELF WE NEED YOU—”

 “Very nice dramatic reading,” Tony deadpans. “You should be on the stage.”

 “I’m just telling you the news,” Happy says, with a sigh. 

 “No one genuinely thinks I did that on purpose,” Peter says. His voice sounds like he screamed til he lost it, and Tony wishes he just wouldn’t talk until he doesn’t sound like that anymore. “Right? I mean—”

 “No,” Tony says, opening up the bandage and pressing it carefully over the new wound. Thankfully, it’s small, and it’ll be gone soon. “No one genuinely thinks you did it on purpose. Everybody saw you flipping around like a flying Bruce Lee with your stupid web streamers.”

 Peter snorts, and reminds Tony of his own laughter before the kid made the whole thing Not At All Funny. 

 “Uh, a mom of one of the kids from that weird collapsing building thing you were at—right before this,” Happy says, glancing back and forth between the both of them. “She, uh, tweeted out her thoughts, hoping...Spider-Man is okay.”

 Tony rolls his eyes, heaving a sigh.

 “That’s nice,” Peter says, squeaky voice still intact. “That’s really nice of her.”

 “We’re gonna have to make a legitimate statement,” Tony says, rubbing his eyes. “I’ll have to think up the right thing to say…” Even though the whole thing was literally like a Three Stooges skit, Tony feels shaken down to his core. Watching Peter nearly hang himself, having to hurt him to fucking help him—he wasn’t exaggerating, about the heart attack. Peter is gonna give him a heart attack.

 He slaps his hands down on his knees, and looks at Peter hard. “Your webs are too strong. Never thought I’d be saying that. I could barely burn through that shit without literally cutting through you.”

 “Good!” Peter says, brows furrowed. “Listen, this isn’t—an everyday situation—”

 “Uh huh, uh huh,” Tony says, nodding drastically. “Never again. No more web streamer celebrations. No matter what we did previously. I love when you’re happy, I always want you to be happy, but clearly, too much happiness means you’re gonna get tangled up in your own webbing and the power lines and almost goddamn hang yourself.”

 Peter pouts, looking away, and Tony sighs again.

 “Don’t worry,” Happy says, looking at the kid. “Before the whole Iron Man gig, Tony once fell off the side of a building while he was at a rooftop party and firefighters had to come and get him.”

 Tony rolls his eyes. 

 “He wasn’t even drunk,” Happy says, grinning.

 A wide smile splits across Peter’s face, and okay, fine, that’s worth Happy sharing that incredibly embarrassing story. 

 “This’ll blow over,” Happy says. “We just gotta get Clint out there and make him do something stupid and we’ll be golden.”

 “You work on that,” Tony says, pointing back at him. Then he points at Peter. “You—promise I never have to see you with a noose around your neck again, whether it’s made of your own webbing or not.”

 Peter presents his hand, and sticks his pinky out towards Tony. “Pinky swear,” he rasps. “The most powerful kind of promise.”

 Tony scoffs, overwhelmed, for a second, with fondness. Then he locks their pinkys together, and they both squeeze. “Good,” he says, when they let go. He hops down off the counter. “Now I’m gonna go call May and explain Spider-Man’s latest viral incident.”

 “Have fun!” Peter says, voice breaking.

 “Uh huh,” Tony says, walking away from him, trying to suppress his smile.

 Jesus, this kid.

[kickassviv]

Pernille Harder: "I first dared to say that I would be the best in the world when I got away from Denmark"

Danish national team leader Pernille Harder was only a fan of the women's soccer World Cup. However, due to her high profile on and off the field, she left her mark on the tournament. Berlingske has met her for a conversation about love, homophobia, the fight for equality and the ambition to become the best in the world. And about two parties that got the national team leader out of the chair.

Credit to @magdaerikssons for the article and disclaimer, google translate was used to translate into English.

Is there a Danish "Liebes-Spionin", a love spy who helps the Swedish women's team against a victory?

That's how the German newspaper "Bild" speculated about the Danish national team leader and Wolfsburg player Pernille Harder in the heat during the just over the World Cup in women's football in France.

The newspaper had noted that the "Bundesliga's best player with a good knowledge of Germany" was constantly found among the Swedish players because of the girlfriend and defender Magdalena Eriksson. Eriksson plays daily for the London club Chelsea.

Two days before Berlingske meets Harder in the French city of Rennes, a picture of her and her boyfriend, both wearing Swedish national team jerseys, went viral on social media, not least in South America:

“It's a little crazy. I've gained 10,000 new followers on Instagram and I haven't even posted the picture myself. Many are from South America. I don't know what it is about homophobia down there, but it obviously means a lot of two female soccer players openly dare to show their love, ”says Harder, who also notes that she has lost no followers because of the picture.

It's 38 degrees hot, and the blue-and-yellow fans are trying to hide in the shade of bars and cafes before heading out to the stadium where the double world champion Germany, with some of Harder's teammates, waits.

Commander's Tour de France as the roe Instead of just being upset that it missed out on Denmark's participation, Harder has been taken to the World Cup as a Swedish roigan. The qualification smoked on the floor, among other things, as Denmark, due to a conflict between the national team and DBU, could not place teams against Sweden in the fall of 2017 and therefore lost 3-0 at the desk.

Now, instead, she is undertaking her own personal Tour de France in cities such as Nice, Paris, Rennes and Lyon. To support her girlfriend, who otherwise beat Denmark in the World Cup qualification, and to become smarter in her sport:

“It gives me another perspective to be here as a fan. I sense what the football gives off the field to all the fans. When you play a final round, you don't think so much about it off the field. But now I realize how big it all has become with fan march, etc., and that makes me want to put even more heart into it on the track in the future, "says the 26-year-old star, while the Swedish fans agree a new kind of song.

Harder and Eriksson have been together for five years. The Dane has not been exposed to homophobia or hate emails herself, but decided in the spring of 2019 to go actively into the debate on homophobia. This happened after FCK star Viktor Fischer was met by homophobic calls.

In a broadcast on TV 2, Harder openly talked about how she had previously fallen in love with a guy, but fell for Magdalena when they both played in Linköping:

'I didn't really think much about it. It just came very naturally. You have to be with the one you love. I have always felt that if there is something I want, then I do it and do not go into what other people think. And then I also have a good family that totally doesn't care who I love, just like it is pretty normal in the women's soccer world, "says the Wolfsburg player.

According to Harder, in the men's football »a front figure is missing. There are certainly gay and bisexual men in men's soccer too, but they obviously dare not stand out because the tone is different in the dressing room and among the fans. That is a sorry trend. You have to be proud of the one you love '.

More edge in women's football Courage to step up in the homophobia debate, Pernille Harder shares with female U.S. national team leader Megan Rapinoe, who up to the World Cup declared that her team would not accept an invitation from President Donald Trump if they returned home with the World Cup trophy. In addition, Trump was too homophobic and condescending to women:

"There are several in women's football who dare to have an opinion, although that may not be the opinion that other people think one should have. And so it gives something more edge. After all, not one of the really big men's team players actually does. Maybe just with the exception of Zlatan, ”Harder points out. Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimović has, among other things, commented on the Swedish immigration debate.

A party in Basel In addition to the fight against homophobia, Harder's main theme is gender equality. And here we are approaching the canceled match against Sweden and the football conflict with DBU.

Instead of looking back at the conflict, Harder first takes a mental detour to Switzerland. In 2018, the FC Basel football club held an anniversary party that got Harder out of the chair.

Before the party, the club had decided that the gentlemen should attend a gala party with a three-course menu, while their female counterparts were asked to sell the ticket and were literally eaten off with a sandwich:

“It's incredible that it can still occur today. But that's why it's so important that we have enough self-respect to say. And that women know what value we have. If we don't, they just do it again. And that is exactly why we had to take that fight with DBU, 'says Harder.

Similarly, Harder and teammates from Wolfsburg said when the club in 2017 asked the women's team to postpone their championship party until it became clear if the club's men's team avoided relegation.

When the women's team won "The Double" again the following year, no-one was thinking of issuing a ban - even if the men again fought relegation.

The conflict between the national team and the DBU was primarily about the remuneration of the women's team players. A sub-agreement between DBU and the Players' Association was landed in October 2017. But negotiations are soon on a long-term agreement, so that the national team is in control if Denmark should be able to arrange the European Championships in 2025 at home.

And here too the national team leader is ready to make demands. However, she fully agrees that in the future there will also be a difference between women's and men's salaries and bonus schemes, simply because Denmark does not have a women's league that can afford to pay the domestic players sufficiently in salary.

This is why DBU has to step in with scholarships, and then "there is something else you can't get," Harder points out.

The decisive point, however, is not the money, but that the national teams - regardless of gender - must have the same conditions for all the matches:

“Now just take the planes. Now we have to go to Georgia soon and play the European Championship qualifier. It is such a match that we risk playing a draw and thus lose important points to qualify for the European Championships in England. So it's mega important. But we are definitely traveling over there with two stops where we have to get up at 05:00 in the morning. DBU should, therefore, charter an aircraft. After all, they do this to the gentlemen, and so does the German and Swedish Football Federation for their wives, ”Harder points out.

Of other differences, the leader mentions that, unlike the gentlemen, the women travel without a cook and only occasionally have a volunteer analyst who can help understand and illustrate the tactics of the opponents. According to Harder, it is also not OK that the national team has only 18, and not 23, players with:

"It's a problem when we have to play 11 against 11. Then the physical therapist has to get into the field. There, I think we can demand equality and that it must be completely the same regardless of gender. And it's not, ”Harder points out.

The conflict was not the main problem Although the conflict is still filling, it is definitely not the whole story of why Denmark is not on the field in France:

“We simply weren't ready physically after the summer holidays in 2018, when we were going to play against Croatia and Sweden. Before the two matches went well. But we have learned from that and have now got a new physical trainer in Peter Krustrup. "

Harder is also confident that Peter Møller's new director of football, Peter Møller, will address the women's case to the DBU board.

She is aiming for Denmark to qualify for the European Championships in England in 2021, just as she hopes that Denmark can secure the European Championships in 2025:

"It will be crazy for Danish football, but we can learn something from them down here about how to set up fan zones and use modern, hard-hitting discos rather than always horn music for the matches," the national team leader says.

Although the level in France is high, Harder is not intimidated on behalf of Danish women's soccer: “We have a good team, and now we work with physics. This is where we need to put in. We are already fully involved in the technical, football and tactical aspects. "

According to the leader, a number of new talented players are also emerging, such as Emma Snerle from Fortuna Hjørring.

Harder welcomes the high viewership of the World Cup, which has seriously given women's football its popular breakthrough. In England, the fight against the United States was the most-watched TV show of 2019:

"I also don't understand if people can't see the exciting thing in eg. the battle between France and the United States. There are 40,000 at the stadium, high pace, chances, and fighter will. Now I have also seen men's football at the stadium several times, so it is not because I think 'hold it up, where does it go 100 times stronger', 'notes Harder.

Football camp in Ikast As we speak, several fans pass by in national team jerseys with women's names on their backs and no longer just men's stars such as Mbappé, Messi and Müller.

As a child, Harder had only one possible role model, Brazilian Marta, but it was now United gentlemen David Beckham and Ryan Giggs who hung in the children's room. Back in the nineties and nineties, there was also no opportunity to attend a girls' soccer camp.

That's the main explanation that, a few years ago, Harder and her sister and cousin decided to start a girls soccer camp:

“I want to pass on some of what I have learned both on and off the field. I even train the girls some of the time and give presentations. And this year I also had my mental trainer who gave parents some tips on how to be good parents. "

The world's best is the goal In 2018, Pernille Harder was named the second best Danish footballer ever to be Europe's best. The first to achieve this honor was Allan Simonsen in 1977. But despite the lack of World Cup, the goal remains to be the world's best footballer.

“I know it might not be very Danish with the Janet Act and all that. And I also dared to say it out loud first when I moved away from Denmark. But why is it so dangerous to say that I want to be the best in the world? One must dare to put words into one's dreams. And the worst thing that can happen is only that I don't reach it, but then I have pushed myself to do my utmost. "

The dream, which she first put into words when she came to Sweden, was born in Ikast. “Recently, I found a style that I wrote when I was ten years old. And there I wrote that I would be the world's best in ten years, 'says Harder.

The road over there is provisionally over Wolfsburg, where this year the club has invested in five to six new players to be able to conquer the Champions League trophy, which lost after another defeat to Lyon.

But Harder, whose contract expires in 2021, is open to trying her hand at a new country and league - also to learn a new language.

"German is doing very well," laughs Harder and continues:

"Although I do not always have a say in whether the pronoun should come in the middle or at the end."

During the World Cup, there have been rumors that Real Madrid are looking for the striker. As one of the last major clubs in Spain, the "king's club" now also enters women's soccer. Before the World Cup, the women's match between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid set a spectator record in Spain with over 60,000 on the limbs.

“We must say that both Denmark and Germany are behind. In England and Spain, they are targeting a professional league, where big men's clubs also invest in women's soccer. It would be optimal if we also did it at home. But it is clear that e.g. FC Midtjylland does not have as much money as Manchester United, so it will cost in the beginning, 'says Harder, pointing to FC North Zealand as a men's club, which is now also focusing on women's football.

On the team with Magdalena? A new club change could also open for the girlfriend couple Harder and Eriksson to put an end to the long-distance relationship, which is, however, facilitated by a direct flight connection from Hanover to London:

“Right now we are each running our own race. But we are about to be where we can again play on the same team. Defenders are slowing down a bit, but Magdalena has become one of the key players on Chelsea's team entering the Champions League semi-final, "Harder points out.

If the pair are on the same club team, there will also be no danger of the relationship being put to the test in a Champions League match between Chelsea and Wolfsburg:

“None of us can stand to lose. I want to win everything. Also in ludo against children. And so will Magda. If she loses cards to me, she won't talk to me for the rest of the day, 'says Harder, laughing.

But in France, the couple both get something to laugh at. Magda and the other Swedish players secure a bronze medal at the World Cup. Yet another image of the couple kissing each other goes around the world. Although Pernille Harder has not been on the field, much has been noticed by the Dane during the World Cup.

[sunshinejs]

Drunk Incident [Part 2]

[Part 1]

Okay so here it goes!! I can’t believe I spent 3 hours writing this... But it’s a friday night and I had nothing better to do.

For more emotional effect, listen to ‘This I Promise You’ by NSYNC.

Reblog, like and give me your feedbacks on this one ❤️❤️

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Word count: 2.5k -ish

“What?!” Melissa exclaimed “What the hell do you mean y/n might not be coming for the wedding?”

 Connor winced at his cousin’s tone; knowing how upset she was feeling right now. The look she was giving him right now made him wish he could just dig up a hole and crawl into it.

 If Connor knew he was going to be in this situation now with her, he’d never agree to coming over for dinner when she and her fiancée asked him to.

 Melissa Brashier was a scary woman when she’s mad and both Connor and Dylan made sure they’d never, ever, get on her bad side. Well, until today.

 “Uhh….” He dragged, trying to find the right words to say; at the same time, he was avoiding her gaze “It’s a long story, Mel…”

 Melissa gave him a pointed look, “What did you do this time, dumbass?”

 So, Connor went ahead and told her what happened at Shawn’s party; thinking there was no way she’d be angrier than she already is.

 Oh boy, was he wrong.

 “Connor David Brashier!” She hissed “Are you for real?! Did anything else happen to you and the girl? If you say yes, I’m going to beat the shit out of you!”

 “No!” Connor answered quickly without hesitation “Nothing happened, Mel! I didn’t even know who the hell she was, I don’t remember it happening, I left the party alone and I woke up alone. But someone caught the thing on video and it went viral so y/n saw it”

 “Obviously, dipshit” Melissa rolled her eyes “Please, for the love of God; don’t get shitfaced like that ever again, Connor”

 “Never again” He agreed.

 Connor fiddled with his fingers as you came across his mind. It’s been a whole month since everything happened and since he last spoke to you. He respected your decision and gave you your space.

 Dylan obviously told their parents everything that went down and Connor spent an hour on the phone with them; listening to them (mainly his mother) lecture him about getting drunk and making things right with you. Not that he didn’t know that already, but since he was mostly at fault; he kept quiet and took whatever she was hitting him with. He deserved it.

 Even though he agreed to the time-off, he couldn’t deny the fact that it has been hard for him. His mind wasn’t 100% with him all the time and everyone he was working with, especially Shawn and Brian, knew that. He wasn’t focused in doing his tasks, his smiles were rather fake than genuine and he wasn’t making jokes/insulting Brian like he usually does. Everyone knew Connor wasn’t himself at that moment and they knew to just let him be and not question anything.

 It doesn’t take long for Shawn and Brian to figure out what happened with him. They saw the video somewhere on Twitter and immediately thought of you. They tried talking to Connor about it but he always brushed them off.

 It’s just a time-off, he always tells himself. He can’t be talking to his friends about it like he actually lost you completely.

 It was just a phase in their relationship. He wasn’t going to lose you. It was you and him against the world. It’s always us against the world. You promised him.

 Melissa noticed Connor went silent after that. A small part of her felt guilty for blowing up on him like that. She assumed his family already did that and Connor didn’t need to hear more of it right now.

 “So… Are you two broken up or something?” Melissa hesitantly asked.

 Connor’s head shot up at her words and he immediately shook his head “No” He firmly said “It’s just a little time-off, Mel. She needs the space and I completely understood it. What I did put her through that night was horrifying for her and I hate myself every day for it”

 “Don’t beat yourself up too much, okay?” She told him “The important thing is you knew what you did was wrong and you’ve apologized to her. She is going to come around eventually, Con. I know her”

 “I know you want her at the wedding, Mel” Connor sighed heavily “But I haven’t spoken to her in a month and I don’t know if I should reach out to her just yet. So, I can’t guarantee she would come”

 Melissa nodded understandingly “I’ll talk to her, okay?”

 xxx

 “You’re coming right?” Melissa pressed.

 “Mel,” You bite your lower lip, letting out a sigh; trying to figure out how to say no to her in a way that wouldn’t hurt her “I know I promised I’d be there but Con and I…” You hesitated for a moment “We aren’t in a good place right now”

 “I get that, babe” She said with sympathy “I’m really sorry to hear that but y/n, we’re practically like a family. I love you like my own sister and you know that. I’d really like it for you to be there for my big day”

 You let out a groan. There was no way you could say no to the bride now since she basically pulled the ‘we’re a family’ card on you.

 “Okay, fine” You agreed “I’ll come, Mel… And I ‘m sorry for trying to use Connor as an excuse to not come. That isn’t fair for you or Blake”

 “Hey,” Melissa spoke “You and Connor are going to be just fine, alright? I totally understand that you’re upset with him and you have every right to be. But just know that he’s really sorry about putting you through that and he’s really beating himself up over it”

 You smiled sadly “He told you, huh?”

 “Connor wishes he could hide things from me, babe” She snorted “I can read that kid like a book”

 “This is just a rough phase in your relationship” She reminded you “You’re y/n and Connor; you crazy kids can get take anything life hits you with and still have each other at the end of the day”

 Melissa was right and you knew that.

 You probably overreacted on the whole thing. Connor obviously didn’t kiss the girl, let alone sleep with her. It was just a little incident that happened while he was drunk and you were sure he had no clue what was going on. You couldn’t let him blame himself forever. When you burst at him over the phone, it was all in that moment where you couldn’t think straight and your emotions were in control of your mouth and body language rather than your mind.

 Like Connor, you too were miserable. Connor is your everything; your best friend, your lover, your rock. He’s always the first person you’d go to for anything. He was the first one you called when your father passed away; he was the first one you called when you were given an academic recognition in your course. Whatever the news was, Connor was the first one to know. It’s always been that way and nothing about that was going to change.

 So, the past month without talking to him was the longest you’ve ever gone without speaking to each other. Sure, you had fights here and there but none of them lasted more than a day. Connor hated the idea of his girl going to bed while they fought. He never wanted you to cry yourself to sleep over something stupid he might have said over the fight. In the end, if you were in your own bed or if he was away on tour; he’d make sure to call you up and gave you that reassurance you needed.

 I love you, baby. We’re okay. We’re always going to be okay.

 You knew you were the one who called for the time-off but that night, you just needed to hear him say those words. That reassurance that always made you certain that things were really okay.

xxx

As you entered the church, you immediately found Connor’s family by the front. You knew Connor was busy running around since Melissa and Blake hired him to be their official photographer.

 You slowly made your way up to their bench, clearing your throat as you interrupted their conversation “Hi” You greeted shyly, pointing to the seat beside Dylan “Is this seat taken?”

 Dylan smiled widely when you stood before him. He wasn’t sure you were going to come today; he hasn’t spoken to you in a while and he figured since you and Connor still weren’t speaking, you wouldn’t show up for a Brashier family event.

 “Not at all, sis” He answered, letting you sit down next to him “You look amazing”

 “Thanks, Dyl” You smile, leaning forward to greet the parents “Mark, Sarah; it’s so good to see you again”

 “Oh honey, we’ve missed you so much” Sarah gushed as she reached over Dylan and gave your hand a gentle squeeze “How are you doing? Is everything good?” She asked worriedly.

 “Everything’s good” You reassured “Just been busy with uni, that’s all”

 “You should come by sometime again” Mark spoke up “We miss having you around for dinner, kiddo”

 “And bring your mother along!” Sarah chirped “We haven’t sat down for a proper family dinner in ages”

 “I’ll be sure to tell mom” You nodded “Family dinner would be great”

  Connor only entered the church after Melissa and her father did. He was busy taking separate photos of the bride and groom in their rooms so, he didn’t have time to scan through the crowd to see if you actually showed up for the wedding.

 He caught a glance of his family from the corner of the venue and when his eyes shifted from Dylan to you, he froze. There you were in person, after a few weeks since he last saw you, sitting with his family like nothing bad ever happened.

 You looked breathtakingly beautiful in your maroon dress. Your hair was curled nicely and you did your makeup perfectly. To Connor, you were the most beautiful person in the world.

 And when your eyes met his, and you gave him that warm smile that always melts his heart, he felt like his breath hitched.

  “You may now kiss the bride!”

 You cheered loudly for the newly wed as Melissa and Blake laughs through their tears and finally seals their first kiss as husband and wife.

 Your eyes trailed back to where Connor stood; getting a shot of the perfect moment for the couple. You knew in your heart that this is exactly what you wanted with him.

  At the reception, Sarah and Marah made sure you sat with them at their table. They basically wouldn’t let you out of their sight. Not that you mind or anything, you loved talking to them. They always have the best stories to tell you that kept you entertained for hours.

 Connor came up to the table twice but you two didn’t talk much except for exchanges of ‘hello’. He was dying to pull you out of the reception so you could talk but he made a promise to Melissa and had to fulfil his photographer duties.

 “I’m surprised you came” Dylan told her once he noticed his parents were engaged in a conversation with another couple that sat with them.

 You shrugged your shoulders and took a sip of your champagne “It’s Mel’s big day. She sounded like she would kill me if I didn’t turn up”

 Dylan laughs, nodding his head in agreement “Yeah, sounds like Mel”

 “Are you okay?” He hesitantly asked “With Connor?”

 You smiled at him, nodding “We haven’t talked about it but I’ve done a lot of thinking, Dyl. I’m okay”

 He let out a sigh of relief “That’s good… He’s an idiot but I hated seeing you two so distant”

 You let out a chuckle “Yeah he’s an idiot... But he’s my idiot”

 The song changes and your heart beats faster when the familiar intro played loudly over the speaker. It was your song. The first song you and Connor ever danced to together.

 It was either Mel knew that and was trying to work up an angle here or it was just a plain coincidence. Either ways, you just knew you had to go find Connor.

 “I’ll be right back” You told Dylan, who only nodded in respond.

 You found Connor by the dance floor, getting a picture of Melissa and Blake dancing together. You walked over to him, tapping his shoulder lightly. When he turned around and saw you standing before him, he blinked in surprise as he lowers his camera.

“Hi” He shyly greeted.

 “Hi” You muttered softly, offering your hand to him “Dance with me?”

 Connor nodded his head instantly, because there was no way in hell he would ever say no to that. He dropped his camera off by the DJ booth, taking your hand in his as he leads you to the dance floor.

 Your hands immediately went around his neck and he wrapped his arms around your waist as you two begin to sway lightly to the music. You let your head drop to his shoulder as Connor pulled you closer; needing to feel you as much as he could.

 “I’ve missed you” He spoke up after a while since you started dancing “So, so much”

 Tears were forming in your eyes as you nodded against his shoulder “I missed you too, Con”

 “Does this mean… We’re good?” He asks hopefully.

 You pushed yourself away from him just so you could look at his face. His eyes were watery too, like yours. You smiled at him and nodded “Yeah baby, we’re so good”

 Connor let out a sigh of relief as he pressed a kiss to your forehead.

 “I love you” Connor said “And baby, I’m really sorry for everything… I’m never putting you through that again”

 You shook your head “No Con, I overreacted over everything and it was stupid. I’m sorry too”

 “You have every right to overreact” He insisted as he continued to sway you to the music “I would’ve reacted the same way, babe. You have nothing to apologize for”

 “No more fighting please” You requested “My poor heart can’t take another minute without my Baby Brash”

 He chuckles and tighten his grip around you “Deal, princess”

 Connor twirls you unexpected, making you giggle loudly. As he pulled you back closer to him, he sings softly to you “And I will take you in my arms and hold you right where you belong. Til' the day my life is through, this I promise you”

 He looked over to where Melissa and Blake are dancing and he caught her glance. She smiled widely and nodded at him, which he returned.

 “Hey babe?” Connor called out to you as you hummed in response “Can I promise you something?”

 “What is it?”

 “Someday I’m going to put a ring on this finger” He tapped your ring finger, saying with full confidence “And someday, that’s going to be us” He directed towards the newly wed.

 You looked up at him and he could see the way you were blushing at his words “Yeah?” You asked as he nodded in reply “Well you better” You grinned.

 “Because it’s always going to be you and me against the world, bubs”

[shhh-no-ones-home]

media mania(*) peter parker x reader

+++++++++

Okay so y'all know that tik tok trend of the girlfriend standing in front of her SO And dropping her towel? Yeah well that was the inspo for this so enjoy.

Also this takes place way in the future, after thanos and graduation, and all that other fun jazz. Think like their both college age.

* - it's implied but doesn't have a follow through. They've been together for a long time (and are trying to get pregnant to say the least)

Song: baby by carla thomas

tag list: @cynic-spirit

+++++++++

I finished drying myself off and brushing out my hair before opening tik tok. I never meant to get addicted to it but It just kind of happened. As I scrolled through the 'for you' page I found a video that intrigued me. It was a lady dropping her towel in front of her unsuspecting boyfriend and her filming his reaction. I laughed at first before realizing that I had, in that moment, the perfect set up for this to possibly work. I was still in a towel and had a phone with a tik tok account on it. What could possibly go wrong? other than, possibly someone else in the compound seeing me naked but that was a risk i was willing to take.

I started recording, showing myself in my towel quickly in the mirror before walking down the hallway to where peter was. I closed the door so no passer bys would see us and made my way to him. He was sat at his desk, playing a game, trash talking as best he could into his headset. I watched the small hairs on the back of his neck raise as I got closer. When I was close enough i dropped my towel and waited, it took him a second to notice me. I smiled widely to myself as he took a quick side glance at me, realizing what was happening after a second look. His mouth hung open as he dropped his controller to the desk. I laughed, watching his reaction as well as the shakiness of my hand holding the recording phone. His mouth hung open.

"Wow."

He said, making me giggle. Then realization washed over him.

"what, You wanna do this now? Like it's time?"

He asked in disbelief, making me laugh more. I nodded and he stood up, walking towards me but getting choked by his headphone cord. He made a weird croaking sound before pulling them off. I laughed as the recording stopped. I went to post it but dropped my phone to the ground as he picked me up, draping me over his shoulder.

"Ah! Peter put me down!"

I laughed, watching the tiles disappear behind us as he opened the door and walked with me back down the hallway to our shared room.

"Peter I'm naked!"

I protested as held me tightly to him.

"You said now."

He quipped back, making me shake my head.

"We could've done it in there, then no one else would see me. You know we dont exactly have our own private wing."

I said a little panicked. We were in the compound after all, and no matter if we had our own wing or not there was still a chance patrol would be walking around. Or cap for that matter, Sam liked to take jogs around the building.

"No ones out, it's fine."

Peter squeezed my leg as he kicked the door open, walking me across the room and dropping me on the bed, making me laugh.

"You dork, what if Sam would've been out?"

He laughed a little bit.

"But he wasnt. Now do you really wanna do this? Like it's time?"

I nodded, sitting back a bit.

"So says the calendar. I was gonna ask tonight but I saw a tik tok."

I blushed madly at the thought and he just shrugged.

"Works for me."

He said, a smirk spreading across his face. I raised a brow at him before he bent down and kissed me passionately. I hummed into his mouth as he pushed me further up the bed.

"Let's do this."

°°°°°°°°°

I sat on the couch in the lounge and scrolled through my phone, watching more tik toks and answering more of people's comments on the video I had posted of Peter's reaction. It had kind of gotten crazy after i posted it a few weeks back. i didnt think anything of it but I was shaken from my thoughts when I heard the ringing of the phone. I sighed deeply before answering it, shuri popping up in front of me with a wide smile on her face.

"Hey."

I said cooly. She just looked at me knowingly.

"Why didn't you tell me you were trying to start a family? Imagine a little super baby running around!"

She said excitedly. I was so confused, and that must've shown on my face.

"Look,"

She said, pulling up a news article for me to see.

"This was posted this morning about the tik Tok you made! Everyone is saying it's about time you two get to it."

She joked and my eyes went wide. We hadn't told anyone we were trying yet. After all we'd been together for a while but we didn't want anyone to expect anything from our attempts.

"Shuri was does the article say exactly?"

She pulled it up and started playing the feed. I watched the telecaster in worry.

"Young avenger y/h/n filmed yesterday her and her long time boyfriend before getting busy. The trend has popped up on the popular app tik Tok of women dropping their towels for their boyfriend's to catch their reaction. In the video y/n's partner asks if 'its time?' confirming media accusations that the couple have been trying for a third member of their family. We have reason to believe-"

I dropped the feed, cutting him off as I went back to shuri.

"How could they possibly get that we are trying to start a family out of that?!"

I said angrily, crossing my arms over my chest and falling into one of the chairs at the table. She just shrugged.

"I don't know, but is it true?"

I sent her a look and hesitated before answering.

"Well yeah but we weren't telling anyone until it actually happened. Do you know how much pressure that puts you under? It's bad enough I've been stressing about trying anyways and now everyone's gonna start asking how it's going. And I am not ready for that!"

i watched her as she just shrugged.

"dont think too much about it. you dont have to confirm anything with anyone."

i pouted a little bit but my attention being pulled away when peter walked into the room.

"hey baby."

he said, pecking me on the cheek.

"hey shuri."

he said, sitting next to me and taking my hand in his.

"hey peter."

she said knowingly and he looked at me a little confused. i rolled my eyes.

"the news has been reporting that we are trying to start a family."

his eyes went wide and i watched a deep blush creep to his face.

"theyre what?"

he croaked out, making me laugh a little bit.

"i was kind of surprised too, i mean i did post that video weeks ago. i guess it just took longer for it to go viral?"

i asked looking to shuri.

"doesnt it always?"

she asked and i shrugged.

"well either way id better get going, brother needs help with something."

i nodded.

"tell him we say hi."

she nodded back before disconnecting the call. i looked back at peter who was just staring at the table.

"are you okay pete?"

i asked, rubbing his back absentmindedly.

"i dont know y/n, knowing that people know weve been doing that makes me feel weird."

i sent him a pity smile.

"would it make you feel better knowing it paid off?"

he looked at me and raised a brow.

"what do you mean?"

i inhaled deeply.

"well, i wanted to wait to tell you but... im late."

he looked a little confused for a second before it clicked.

"wait, like late late? like we could possibly be pregnant?"

i laughed a little bit and nodded.

"i havent taken a test yet but possi-"

he cut me off when he brought me into a tight hug.

"we could be pregnant?"

he asked again, more excited this time. when he pulled away he held my arms in his hands.

"we could be pregnant!"

he practically yelled, making me laugh.

"oh my god."

he said pulling me into another hug.

"i love you so much."

i hugged him back, kissing his neck lightly.

"i love you too peter."

he pulled away and stood up, taking my hand and dragging me up too.

"come on! weve gotta go get a test!"

he said, pulling me out of the lounge. i just laughed at him as he led us down the hall.

"peter youre gonna take my arm off."

he looked back at me but kept walking.

"time is of the essence y/n."

i shook my head at him and picked up the pace.

"goof ball."

[letterboxd]

Life in Film: Ben Wheatley.

As Netflix goes gothic with a new Rebecca adaptation, director Ben Wheatley tells Jack Moulton about his favorite Hitchcock film, the teenagers who will save cinema, and a memorable experience with The Thing.

“The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it.” —Ben Wheatley

Winter’s coming, still no vaccine, the four walls of home are getting pretty samey… and what Netflix has decided we need right now is a lavish, gaslight-y psychological thriller about a clifftop manor filled with the personality of its dead mistress—and a revival of one of the best menaces in screen history. Bring on the ‘Mrs Danvers’ Hallowe’en costumes, because Rebecca is back.

In Ben Wheatley’s new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s best-selling 1938 novel, scripted by Jane Goldman, Lily James plays an orphaned lady’s maid—a complete nobody, with no known first name—who catches the eye of the dashing, cashed-up Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer).

Very quickly, the young second Mrs de Winter is flung into the intimidating role of lady of Manderley, and into the shadow of de Winter’s late first wife, Rebecca. The whirlwind romance is over; the obsession has begun, and it’s hotly fuelled by Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas, perfectly cast).

Each adaptation of du Maurier’s story has its own quirks, and early Letterboxd reactions suggest viewers will experience varying levels of satisfaction with Wheatley’s, depending on how familiar they are with both the novel and earlier screen versions—most notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Best Picture winner, starring Laurence Olivier Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson.

Why would you follow Hitchcock? It’s been 80 years; Netflix is likely banking on an audience of Rebecca virgins (the same kind of studio calculation that worked for Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born). Plus, the new Rebecca is a Working Title affair; it has glamor, camp, Armie Hammer in a three-piece suit, the sunny South of France, sports cars, horses, the wild Cornish coast, Lily James in full dramatic heat, and—controversial!—a fresh twist on the denouement.

A big-budget thriller made for a streamer is Wheatley coming full circle, in a way: he made his name early on with viral internet capers and a blog (“Mr and Mrs Wheatley”) of shorts co-created with his wife and longtime collaborator, Amy Jump. Between then and now, they have gained fans for their well-received low-to-no budget thrillers, including High-Rise, Kill List and Free Fire (which also starred Hammer).

Over Zoom, Wheatley spoke to Letterboxd about the process of scaling up, the challenge of casting already-iconic characters, and being a year-round horror lover. [The Rebecca plot discussion may be spoilery to some. Wheatley is specifically talking about the du Maurier version, not his film.]

Armie Hammer and Ben Wheatley on the set of ‘Rebecca’.

Can you tell us how you overcame any concerns in adapting a famous novel that already has a very famous adaptation? How did you want to make a 1930s story relevant to modern audiences? Ben Wheatley: When you go back to the novel and look at how it works, you see it’s a very modern book. [Author Daphne du Maurier is] doing stuff that people are still picking up the pieces of now. It’s almost like the Rosetta Stone of thrillers—it tells you everything on how to put a thriller together. The genre jumping and Russian-doll nature of the structure is so delicious. When you look at the characters in the book, they’re still popping up in other stuff—there’s Mrs Danvers in all sorts of movies.

It remains fresh because of its boldness. Du Maurier is writing in a way that’s almost like a dare. She’s going, “right, okay, you like romantic fiction do you? I’ll write you romantic fiction; here’s Maxim de Winter, he’s a widower, he’s a good-looking guy, and owns a big house. Here’s a rags-to-riches, Cinderella-style girl. They’re going to fall in love. Then I’m going to ruin romantic fiction for you forever by making him into a murdering swine and implicating you in the murder because you’re so excited about a couple getting away with it!”

That’s the happy ending—Maxim doesn’t go to prison. How does that work? He’s pretty evil by the end. It’s so subtly done that you only see the trap of it after you finish reading the book. That’s clearly represented in Jane Goldman’s adaptation that couldn’t be done in 1940 because of the Hays Code. That whole element of the book is missing [in Hitchcock’s Rebecca]. But I do really like this style of storytelling in the 1930s and ’40s that is not winky, sarcastic, and cynical. It’s going, “here’s Entertainment with a big ‘E’. We’re going to take you on holiday, then we’re gonna scare you, then we’re gonna take you around these beautiful houses that you would never get a chance to go around, and we’re gonna show you these big emotions.”

After High-Rise, you ended up circling back to more contained types of films, whereas Rebecca is your lushest and largest production. How was scaling up for you? Free Fire does feel like a more contained film, but in many ways it was just as complicated and had the same budget as High-Rise, since it’s just in one space. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is literally a contained film, that’s right. What [the bigger budget] gave me was the chance to have a conversation where I say I want a hotel that’s full of people and no-one says you can’t have any people in it. You don’t have to shoot in a corner, so that scale is suddenly allowed.

Elisabeth Moss and Tom Hiddlestone in Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’ (2015).

The other movies I did are seen as no-budget or, I don’t even know the word for how little money they are, and even though High-Rise and Free Fire were eight million dollars each, they’re still seen as ultra-low budget. This is the first film that I’ve done that’s just a standard Hollywood-style movie budget and it makes a massive difference. It gives you extra time to work. All the schemes you might have had to work out in order to cheat and get around faster, but now it’s fine, let’s only shoot two pages today. We can go out on the road and close down all of the south of France—don’t worry about all the holidaymakers screaming at you and getting cross! That side of it is great.

You had the challenge to cast iconic actors for iconic roles. What were you looking for in the casting? What points of reference did you give the actors? I don’t think we really talked about it, but [Armie Hammer] definitely didn’t watch the Hitchcock version. I can understand why he wouldn’t. There was no way he was going to accidentally mimic [Laurence] Olivier’s performance without seeing it and he just didn’t want to have the pressure of that. I think that’s quite right. It’s an 80-year-old film, it’s a beloved classic, and we’d be mad if we were trying to remake it. We’re not.

The thing about the shadow that the film cast is that it’s hard enough making stuff without thinking about other filmmakers. I’ve had this in the past where journalists ask me “what were your influences on the day?” and I wish I could say “it was a really complicated set of movies that the whole thing was based around”, but it’s not like that. When you watch documentaries about filmmakers screening loads of movies for their actors before they make something—it’s lovely, but it’s not something I’ve ever done.

The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it—“we’ll use this shot from 1952, that will really make this scene sing!”—then you’re in a world of pain. Basically, it’s my interpretation of the adaptation. The book is its own place, and for something like High-Rise, [screenwriter Amy Jump] has the nightmare of sitting down with 112 pages of blank paper and taking a novel and smashing it into a script. That’s the hard bit.

Armie Hammer and Lily James in ‘Rebecca’.

Current industry news is not so great—cinemas are facing bankruptcy, film festivals in the USA are mostly virtual, Disney is focusing on Disney+ only. How do you feel about a future where streaming dominates the market and the theatrical experience becomes, as we fear, an exclusive niche? Independent cinema was born out of very few movies. If you look at the history of Eraserhead—that film on its own almost created all of cult cinema programming. One movie can do that. It can create an audience that is replicated and becomes a whole industry. And that can happen again, but it needs those films to do that. They will come as things ebb and flow. The streamers will control the whole market and then one day someone will go “I don’t want to watch this stuff, I want to watch something else” and they’ll go make it.

It’s like The Matrix, it’s a repeating cycle. There’ll always be ‘the One’. There’s Barbara Loden in 1970 making Wanda, basically inventing American independent cinema. So I don’t worry massively about it. I know it’s awkward and awful for people to go bankrupt and the cinemas to close down, but in time they’ll re-open because people will wanna see stuff. The figures for cinemagoers were massive before Covid. Are you saying that people with money are not going to exploit that? Life will find a way. Remember that the cinema industry from the beginning is one that’s in a tailspin. Every year is a disaster and they’re going bust. But they survived the Spanish Flu, which is basically the same thing.

Two months ago, you quickly made a horror movie. We’re going to get a lot of these from filmmakers who just need to create something this year. What can you identify now about this inevitable next wave of micro-budget, micro-schedule pandemic-era cinema? I’ve always made micro-budget films so that side of it is not so crazy. There will be a lot of Zoom and people-locked-in-houses films but they won’t be so interesting. They’re more to-keep-you-sane kind of filmmaking which is absolutely fine. Where you should look for [the ‘pandemic-era’ films] is from the kids and young adults through 14 to 25 who’ve been the most affected by it. They will be the ones making the true movies about the pandemic which will be in like five years’ time.

People going through GCSEs and A-Levels [final high-school exams in England] will have had their social contracts thoroughly smashed by the government after society tells them that this is the most important thing you’re ever gonna do in your life. Then the next day the government tells them “actually, you’ve all passed”, then the next day they go “no, you’ve all failed”, and then “oh no, you’ve all passed”. It’s totally bizarre. Anyone who’s in university at the moment [is] thinking about how they’ve worked really hard to get to that position and now they’ve had it taken away from them. That type of schism in that group will make for a unique set of storytelling impetus. Much more interesting than from my perspective of being a middle-age bloke and having to stay in my house for a bit, which was alright. Their experience is extreme and that will change cinema.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers in ‘Rebecca’.

It’s time to probe into your taste in film. Firstly, three questions about Alfred Hitchcock: his best film, most underrated film, and most overrated film? It’s tricky, there’s a lot to choose from. I think Psycho is his best film because, much like Wanda, it was the invention of indie cinema. He took a TV crew to go and do a personal project and then completely redefined horror, and he did it in the same year as Peeping Tom.

There’s stuff I really like in Torn Curtain. Certainly the murder scene where they’re trying to stick the guy in the oven. It’s a gut-wrenching sequence. Overrated, I don’t know. It’s just a bit mean, isn’t it? Overrated by who? They’re all massively rated, aren’t they?

Which film made you want to become a filmmaker? The slightly uncool version of my answer is the first fifteen minutes of Dr. No before I got sent to bed. We used to watch movies on the telly when I was a kid, so movies would start at 7pm and I had to go to bed at 7:30pm. You would get to see the first half-hour and that would be it. The opening was really intriguing. I never actually saw a lot of these movies until I was much older.

The more grown-up answer is a film like Taxi Driver. It was the first time where I felt like I’d been transported in a way where there was an authorship to a film that I didn’t understand. It had done something to me that television and straightforward movies hadn’t done and made me feel very strange. It was something to do with the very, very intense mixture of sound, music and image and I started to understand that that was cinema.

What horror movie do you watch every Hallowe’en? I watch The Thing every year but I don’t tend to celebrate Hallowe’en, to be honest. I’m of an age where it wasn’t a big deal and was never particularly celebrated. I find it a bit like “what’s all this Hallowe’en about?”—horror films for me are for all year-round.

What’s a brilliant mindfuck movie that perhaps even cinephiles haven’t seen? What grade of cinephile are we talking? All of the work by Jan Švankmajer, maybe. Hard to Be a God is pretty mindfucky if you want a bit of that, but cinephiles should know about it. It’s pretty intense. Marketa Lazarová too.

‘Marketa Lazarová’ (1967) directed by František Vláčil.

What is the greatest screen romance that you totally fell head over heels for? I guess it’s Casablanca for me. That would be it.

Which coming-of-age film did you connect to the most as a teenager? [Pauses for effect] Scum.

Who is an exciting newcomer director we should keep our eyes on? God, I don’t know. I would say Jim Hosking but he’s older than me and he’s not a newcomer because he’s done two movies. So, that’s rubbish. He doesn’t count.

[Editor’s note: Hosking contributed to ABCs of Death 2 with the segment “G is for Grandad” while Wheatley contributed to The ABCs of Death with the segment “U is for Unearthed” and also executive produced the follow-up film.]

What was your best cinema experience? [Spoiler warning for The Thing.]

Oh, one that speaks in my mind is seeing The Thing at an all-nighter in the Scala at King’s Cross, and I was sitting right next to this drunk guy who was talking along to the screen. It was a packed cinema with about 300 people, and someone at the front told him “will you just shut up?” The guy says “I won’t shut up. You tell me to shut up again and I’ll spoil the whole film!” The whole audience goes “no, no, no!” and he went “it’s the black guy and the guy with the beard—everyone else dies!” That made me laugh so much.

Do you have a favorite film you’ve watched so far this year? Yeah, Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Related content

Classic Gothic Literature to Film—Jennifer Boddaert’s list

Ava’s Dark Romance list

Ben Wheatley’s Life in Film list

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

‘Rebecca’ is in select US theaters on October 17, and streaming on Netflix everywhere on October 21.

[honeypiehotchner]

Deception -- part eight

You guys are crazy. But thank you for all the love on this story. I’m going on another mini-vacation this weekend, so this is the last update for a bit. Love you guys xx.

Also weird note, but I have a love-hate relationship with John’s character in season four, but that hair? 10/10 he looks so hot

I’m incredibly glad I didn’t become an actual practicing therapist. I’m awful at it.

           I thought I was doing good, but that was before my one and only patient woke me up, on my patio, with a concerned look on his face.

           “John?” I ask, taking in a deep breath as I realize I’m outside. And that I fell asleep. Which also means I must’ve slept right past his appointment time. “Oh, God.”

           “Don’t worry about it,” he murmurs. “But you’re running a fever, so let’s get you inside.”

           I try standing on my own, my body protesting, causing me to fall into John’s arms – do not think about how strong he must be. “I’m so sorry.” I glance down and see broken shards of my mug swept up into a neat pile. “That was my favorite mug,” I murmur sadly.

           “Hey, I said it’s okay,” he replies softly, sliding the glass door open. “All I’m worried about is getting you inside. And I’ll get you another mug.”

           I nod without really thinking about it or anything for that matter, letting him guide me to my couch where he lays me down, his hand resting on my forehead.

           He frowns. “You’ve definitely got a fever.” He looks around, grabbing a blanket and covering me – and if I wasn’t so sleep deprived, I’d be fighting him and telling him to leave my house this instant.

           “I’m fine,” I mutter, waving him away, the blanket falling. “You don’t need to take care of me.”

           He ignores me, silently covering me up once more. “Do you have a thermometer?”

           “John, you don’t need to—”

           He begins walking away before I can even finish my sentence, rummaging around in the kitchen. “Found it,” I hear him closing a drawer and walking back over to me on the couch. “Come on.”

           I glare at him.

           “I’m a doctor,” he reminds me. And then a little firmer, more serious, he says, “Open.”

           I let him stick the thermometer in my mouth, still pouting like a child, but he walks away again, not caring and not paying my toddler-like reaction any attention.

           I pull the thermometer out of my mouth after a moment, looking down. “It says 37 degrees even, John, I’m fine—”

           “Put it back in your mouth,” he instructs. “It didn’t finish taking your temperature yet.”

           I sigh heavily, doing as I’m told. I listen as he sets a full kettle on the stove and walks back over, sitting on the chair beside the couch. I open my mouth to say something, but I quickly shut it when he shakes his head.

           The thermometer doesn’t beep for another few moments, signaling its finished. John stands and takes it from my mouth without giving me a chance to look, which only furthers my worry when he frowns at the reading.

           “What?”

           “38.1 degrees,” he shakes his head. “That’s a proper fever.”

           “It’s fine,” I wave him away, trying to sit up on the couch, but it does cause my head to spin. “It’s probably just a little virus, I’ll live.”

           “No, lie back down,” he practically pushes me back onto the couch. “You’re going to get some rest and I’m going to go get some chicken soup, but if I come back and you’re not sleeping…”

           “Yeah, yeah,” I groan, pulling the blanket up under my chin. “What if I lock the door?”

           “I’ll kick the door in.”

           I open my eyes to glare at him. “You wouldn’t.”

           “Would you like to find out?”

           “…no.”

           “Okay,” he nods. “I’m going to the store, but I’ll be right back.”

           “Fine.”

           I close my eyes then, and I don’t really remember hearing him leave, but the next time I open my eyes, he’s back and kneeling in front of me.

           “Hey,” he smiles. “I made chicken soup.”

           I have no idea why, but my response is, “You didn’t make it.”

           He laughs – at least it made him laugh – and says, “No, I didn’t, but it’s ready. You need to eat some so you can take some aspirin.”

           I close my eyes again, shaking my head. “I’m sleeping.”

           “I know you are,” he replies softly. “But I need you to wake up for just a few minutes. You can sleep again once you’ve finished eating.”

           I groan, eventually doing as I’m told, which is sitting up enough so I can eat some chicken soup and take some aspirin. John tried to offer feeding me since I’m still not totally here, but I’m here enough to feed myself. And conscious enough to know how embarrassing that’d be if he had to feed me chicken soup. This is embarrassing enough as is, but I can’t exactly tell him to leave with how stubborn he is.

           He has a bowl, too, sitting on the opposite end of the couch and carefully watching me. It’s a bit annoying, if I’m being honest. He’s like a mother hen. I know he’s a doctor, but this is a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?

           I curl back up as soon as I’m finished, shoving the bowl away from me on the tray. I can feel John still watching me as I lie down, wrapping the blanket tightly around my shoulders.

           And I’m asleep within minutes.

~~~

The next time I wake, it’s because John is putting another blanket over me. He sees my eyes opening and he shushes me, shaking his head.

           “I’ve just got to go back to work for a few hours, but I’ll be back later to check on you.”

           “You…you don’t need to do that,” I mumble.

           “I know. I want to,” he reminds me.

           “Fine,” I breathe, my eyes staying closed because they can’t be bothered to open at the moment. “Key.”

           “What?”

           “There’s a spare key…under the—the flower pot. So you can lock the door.”

           “Oh, right, yeah.” I hear his footsteps start toward the door. “Get some rest.”

           “That’s the plan.”

           The last thing I hear is his laughter before he leaves, the melodic sound making me wonder if this has all been one insane fever dream.

~~~

“John, I am so, so sorry.”

           “You’re feeling better, then,” he smiles, walking in after realizing I’m holding the door open for him. He’s got two bags in his hands, too. What the hell did he buy now? “Your fever’s gone down?”

           “John, you don’t need to take care of me.”

           He sets the bags down on the chair in the living room, turning back to give me a weird look. “And I thought I told you, it’s okay. I want to.”

           “Isn’t it weird?” I ask, wrapping my arms around me. “I mean, I’m your therapist. You’re not supposed to take care of your therapist when she’s sick.”

           “I know that,” he sighs. “But when I – When you weren’t answering your doorbell, and then I walked around and saw you passed out in the chair, the mug broken on the ground, I got scared.” He shrugs. “You weren’t responding for a few moments, I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance.”

           “Oh,” I mumble. I didn’t know it was that bad.

           “I wanted to take care of you today because it…” He pauses, shrugging again. “Well, it’s obvious you don’t have anyone else to. And I wasn’t going to just leave you passed out on the patio.”

           “But still,” I shake my head in disbelief – at what? At how sweet, kind, generous, giving, selfless he is? “You could’ve just as easily called an ambulance and had the hospital doctors look after me instead of you. You’ve spent your day here, taking care of me, I—” I shake my head. “It’s probably the nicest thing I’ve ever had anyone do for me. So thank you.”

           “Eh, hospitals are rubbish,” he chuckles, but I know he doesn’t really mean that. “And you’re welcome.” He pauses again, this time for a longer moment, just staring at me, and then he asks, “So, do you…have someone?”

           “Do I have someone what?”

           “To take care of you, I mean.”

           What an odd way to ask a woman if she’s single. “No, I don’t,” I laugh awkwardly. “And judging by the fact that you took care of me all day, I’m assuming you don’t either.”

           “No,” he shakes his head, suddenly bashful, looking down and examining his shoes before looking back at me. “No, I don’t.”

           I nod slowly, wondering if this conversation – this entire day, really – could be anymore awkward than it is right now.

           “So, you’ve been shopping.”

           “Right,” he blurts, remembering. He picks up one of the bags and hands it to me.

           Hesitantly, I take it from him, raising an eyebrow at how heavy it is. “What is it?”

           “Open it.”

           I do, pulling out…a mug. A beautiful mug. It’s marbled, in a sense. Blue, green, and hints of gold sprinkled about it. And in white lettering on the front it says “relax” in a cursive font. I smile softly, looking to him with my heart feeling like it’s going to beat out of my chest.

           “I love it.”

           He smiles then, too, almost in relief.

           “What’s the other bag?” I ask, not meaning to pressure him, but I am curious.

           He hands it to me without hesitation, explaining himself. “It’s just some more tea, and some honey. I think you do just have a viral infection – there’s been one going around for a few weeks. But some tea and honey should help with the sore throat and overall gross feeling. And of course, taking aspiring to keep the fever under control.”

           I shake my head, laughter bubbling out of my chest at the contents of the bag. “What would I do without you, doctor?”

           “Pass out on the patio?” He offers, obviously teasing me, to which I gasp.

           “That’s rude of you to bring it up. It was an honest mistake.”

           “What, passing out?”

           “Drinking tea on the patio,” I clarify. “I should’ve known I’d fall asleep. I stayed up all last night.”

           “What? Why?”

           “Calm down, doctor,” I chuckle, placing both bags back on the couch. “I just couldn’t sleep, that’s all. It’s taken me a while to get used to this place again.”

           I realize as soon as I’ve said it that I’ve said too much.

           Dr. Jane Stewart doesn’t have a big back story because she didn’t need one. I was supposed to be a therapist and only a therapist, meaning, I would never really bring up my personal life at all if possible. Meaning, I wouldn’t need a personal life to talk about.

           “Oh, have you just moved?”

           Good God, I’m an idiot. It’s the infection. Or maybe the aspirin. “Yes, actually,” I chuckle. “You’re my first client in this new home. And I guess you could say I’m doing remarkably well.”

           John takes the slight change of subject in stride. “Yes, I think you are,” he replies, but his tone causes me to look at him and really look at him this time because…he’s being serious. “Well, I won’t keep you standing around any longer. I’m glad you’re feeling better and all.” He starts migrating toward the door, his silent cue that he’s wanting to leave.

           Or maybe he thinks I want him to leave. In which case, he’s incredibly dull. I don’t want him to leave at all. But I can’t ask him to stay. That would be wrong of me and this is already wrong enough, him taking care of me all day.

           So, I let him leave. I thank him once more for all he’s done, and I shut the door after him as he walks out.

           I lean my head back against the door. I just know Mycroft is going to bring this up in our meeting tomorrow.

[foxydivaxx]

Dick and the Robins Chapter 2

Sorry for taking forever. I tend to procrastinate a lot xD. Anyways, onto the chapter.

As the weeks turned to months, there was still no sign of Dick Grayson anywhere. This naturally made a lot of people to panic, particularly the fans, some fearing the worst. Still the more levelheaded fans calmed them down reminding them about Dick’s otherwise trying year, first the Robin drama and other personal drama.

Still there were some Robins fans that found Dick overrated and were glad that Dick was gone thus starting weeks of endless online fan catfights over whether Dick was a hindrance to the group or not with thus against Dick citing the now viral video of him and Jason having that public fight as proof that he is a megalomaniac and thus not needed on the team. 

Those in support of Dick pointed out how Dick always cared and loved his brothers and put the group above his own personal ambitions and that the whole deal concerning his solo career  had more to do with their label than Dick himself. Some fans even went as far to drag Bruce into the matter feeling that he favoured Dick more than the other Robins despite there being little evidence for that. 

This naturally brought attention to the Dick and Barbara Gordon breakup itself. The two of them were seen as the ultimate power couple by some. Though there were a lot of fans that questioned Barbara’s motives and the relationship due to some videos of Babs being supposedly being abusive towards Dick. Neither one of them acknowledged this thus making the breakup even more suspicious.

Some fans theorized that Bruce may have had a hand in said breakup in order to protect his son citing a certain cryptic tweet that Bruce tweeted which some saw as a subtle diss aimed at Barbara:

That made some to theorize that Babs might have cheated on Dick. Some fans countered this by posting some old tweets of Barbara’s where she went on a rant about Dick allegedly cheating on her with different girls, tweets that the other camp quickly debunked leading to a fierce online battle.

The paparazzi begin to search around for the troubled popstar. Many have been searching for months but still no word about his whereabouts. Many questioned key members of the Wayne family, all saying the exact same thing:they do not know where Dick is.

This causes even more panic as many feared that Dick may have committed suicide or that something was wrong with him.

 Ironically on the very same day that fans began to debate over Dick was the very same day that Barbara decides to finally break her silence and explain the breakup during a recent interview to promote her upcoming album.

“How have you been lately Barbara?” the interviewer asked. Barbara simply nods curtly with the fakest smile she could muster plastered upon her face. She wore a black business suit, her red locks packed up in a bun. She pushes up her glasses and stares at the lady interviewing her.

The woman in question was from Arise TV, a very well known TV network in America. Barbara carefully studied the woman in question. She seemed like a nervous trainwreck, almost as though her boss forced her into doing this. The shabby hair and the wrinkled red skirt suit did not help matters. And what was with the terrible red lipstick and atrocious concealer they used on her?

“Oh I have been well. You know working and you know.....trying to get over a pretty bad breakup and all.” she said. This naturally caught the interest of the interviewer and also viewers all over the world that were watching the interview.

“And that brings me to a topic that has been raging on for the past couple months and that is your breakup with Dick Grayson. Now everyone wants to know what exactly happened as the two of you seemed to be so in love.”

It was then that Babs decides to put her acting skills to good use. Need to gain some sympathy in order to sell. 

She then looks down with a sad expression on her face. “We were in love.....till he cheated on me.” The interviewer now pays attention. “Is that so?”

Barbara is truly enjoying herself here. “Yes. He lost his virginity to me and yet he still kept on sleeping around with different women behind my back one of whom happens to be my assistant.”

That naturally got the attention of the media as soon numerous gossip blogs began to carry the story. 

Bruce is naturally angered by this and slams Barbara through yet another tweet.

A lot of people applauded Bruce for defending Dick. That proved to a lot of fans that Bruce cared for his son. Soon afterwards Donna Troy, a popstar and a good friend of Dick’s posted this:

More of Dick’s friends come forward defending their friend like always. The biggest shocker of all was Roy Harper since there were rumours of Babs sleeping with him.

“See!! That pretty much confirms the rumours about Babs!!” says one fan. “What an evil snake. Thank God for all these people defending Dick.‘ says another fan. “I hope Dick is alright. That evil bitch. Trying to make money off Dick’s name huh?”

Unfortunately for Dick’s supporters, Barbara not only blocked every single one of them in order to frame her narrative in a far more better position but her PR team were able to manipulate and bribe various media outlets who helped her to sell the Dick story and also tarnish Dick’s image even further as some Dick fans actually believed her.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Robins undo their earlier disbandment and announce that they were going to add a new member which earns them a lot of hate for obvious reasons.

Fuming, Bruce calls up Dick’s manager. “HOW COULD YOU FOOLS BE SO CARELESS?!! THAT BOY’S IMAGE IS AT STAKE HERE!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU TRY AND DIFFUSE THE SITUATION OR SOMETHING BECAUSE WITH THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING, HIS CAREER COULD BE OVER SOON THAN LATER!!” he shouts.

The manager sighed. “We tried our best but we got outsmarted by Miss Gordon.” he says

Speaking of Dick, the boy was hiding far away on a secret island that Bruce bought years ago. Anytime he wants to get away from the crazy media circus, he comes over here to hide. 

He watched Barbara’s interview via the TV in his room and sighs. He should have known that Babs would stoop that low to destroy him. Alfred also informed him of the blatant media manipulation and other news. Dick’s current management team who comprise of former Leviathan employees are not helping matters either as they did not do any form of damage control whatsoever.

I cannot keep on staying silent. It was then that his manager arrives. “Grayson you are needed back at Gotham.”

Gonna end it there. I know cliffhanger but no worries, things get more interesting in the next chapter. Did not put some characters there because I could not think of FCs for them. So give me suggestions guys.

[is-this-a-skam-account]

Shelter Chapter 1 by shawnie1718 (me) on ao3

Drummer!Lucas/Model!Eliott

Omega!Lucas/Alpha!Eliott

It’s that fateful Instagram story which helps connect a certain Omega and a certain Alpha.

(Someone asked me if I posted it on my tumblr because they couldn’t see the photos so here we are!)

———

It was that fateful Instagram story that Lucas’s friend Yann had posted which would later change Lucas’s life. It was only fifteen seconds long. The video itself was jerky and fuzzy, so it didn’t do much in the viewing department. But there in the center of the frame was Lucas, jamming out in the street with bins scattered around him. The jamming session had been totally unprompted. Lucas and Yann had walked up to a street performer as he was playing on his “set of drums.” Lucas had commented something which prompted the performer to ask “would you like to play?” Lucas hesitated and it was Yann who actually pushed him to perform. So Lucas got up there and began to play a simple beat, pretty soon mixing it up and playing more advanced rhythms. Lucas thinks he looks stupid in the video, with his backpack slung around his back and hair flopping around as he jumped. But Yann argues that “that’s what gives it character!” And of course his friend claims that he brought on Lucas’s rise to fame.

Lucas’s following on Instagram blew up when the video went viral. Everyone began wondering who the sexy drummer was that could create awesome rhythms totally unprompted. So, Lucas decided to feed a growing fan base a video of him playing the drums upside down. What else was a man to do? The internet went wild. Lucas didn’t really understand why, but he took it. Lucas then did a follow up video as a thank you, and decided to share with his fans his love for playing guitar and singing.

Thus, he earned the title of the “French Cutie Who Can Do Anything.”

Then came the night Lucas and Yann had been chilling in Lucas’s apartment (which he shares with two other people. Yann always gets upset at him for not getting an apartment of his own “since you have enough money!” But Lucas likes sharing a space. Plus, living with another Alpha and Omega is comforting.) He had been on multiple press tours by this point, and had just finished with his USA tour which hit the main cities such as LA and New York. But it felt nice to be back in Paris, in his apartment, nursing a crappy beer with a French TV show on in the background.

He was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, Yann doing the same but on the other side of the couch, when he suddenly got a notification. Lucas frowned, he thought he had his push notifications for Instagram turned off. He slid over to his messages and read the profile name. Srodulv? How do you even pronounce that? Sro-deulv? Shrodulvsjdn? Like what?

Lucas shoved his phone into his friends face, “do you recognize that name?”

Yann narrowed his eyes at the screen, “the ‘srodulv’ one?” Lucas gaped at him, how did he pronounce that so well? Yann continued, “nah, but you can click on the profile.”

Lucas was about to protest but Yann beat him to it, already tapping on the phone screen to pull up the account. Yann shoved Lucas’s phone back into his face before going back to continue mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. Lucas went immediately to the profile picture and ho- holy shit this guy was hot. His eyes trailed down to the bio where it read “elite model/actor 🇮🇹” Ah well that explains the hotness level.

Lucas continued scrolling to look through the photos. It was obvious the guy was an Alpha, from his air of confidence to his rather dominant features, like how tall he was or his sharp jawline. I bet that jawline could cut glass... Lucas shook himself out of his thoughts and decided to start from the bottom. It started off with some odd posts that didn’t seem to really fit together, some drawing and some videos of old animations. But slowly it turned into more headshots and posts of that sort, probably as he became more into his modeling career. Lucas clicked on one post which caught his eye. Lucas wasn’t sure if he was drooling as he looked into the steely gray eyes. Jesus, is he even real?

Lucas meant to click on the exit button, once, twice. You liked the picture! Lucas felt his heart stop. Nooooo. He looked down to see the date. Lucas wanted to chuck his phone at the wall. Three years ago. Fuck. No getting out of this one.

Lucas began panicking and hitting Yann on the shoulder “bro, mec, ow abuse!” Yann yelled. Lucas ignored his friends remark and shoved his phone back into his friends hands. Yann took a few moments to catch up through evaluating the phone. There was no way Lucas could voice what he had just done. He was too busy trying to fold in on himself. He heard Yann laugh and mumble a “duuude...”

“No, no!” Lucas said frantically and grabbed the phone from his friend, “don’t ‘duuude’ me! HELP me!”

Yann shrugged, “I mean, he’s a model right? He probably gets thousands of likes a day. He probably didn’t even notice.”

That helped calm Lucas a little. Yeah, maybe he didn’t notice. His hopes were crushed, however, when we got another notification. @srodulv sent you a message!

Lucas hovered over the message for a few minutes, really it felt like centuries, before deciding to open it. He first saw the photo @srodulv had sent him. It was a drawing of a small hedgehog sitting at a set of drums, spikes going everywhere. And another small sketch of the same hedgehog with a guitar in hand. Lucas smiled at the photo despite his efforts to repress his smile. He then looked down to see the next message

@srodulv: like what you see?

Lucas wanted to go run...somewhere. No, what he really wanted to do was to just crater in on himself until he was nonexistent.

“Shit, he just messaged me again.” Lucas finally mentioned to his friend.

Yann huffed and sat up from his position on the couch to look over at the phone.

“So? Message him back?”

“Are you crazy?” Lucas squeaked.

Yann laughed, “uh, no. I mean, he’s a model right? Maybe being his friend could help boost your career!” Lucas eyes his friend, “also not that I’d date him, but man those eyes...”

“Okay, okay, get off me.” Lucas said grumpily and shoved his friend off his shoulders.

Lucas hadn’t really been into anyone ever since his crush on Yann. He still wasn’t out to his friends, or the internet. (Though he will say the internet is onto him. They are much smarter than his friends. The internet has speculated that he’s actually an omega despite the fact that he uses suppressants. They help him appear more beta like, especially in person.) He’s come to terms with his sexuality and secondary gender himself, but taking the step into the public eye is a large step. Well, more like a large jump. Especially with how much his life is on display to the world.

When he first presented as an Omega at 15, he was scared. He saw what happened to his mom, who was also an Omega. He loves his mom, he really really does. But he just doesn’t want to end up like her. So, he started taking suppressants. Luckily, his dad wasn’t against getting the prescription, because he was ashamed of having a male Omega as a son. So they agreed to keep that secret between them. That is, until Lucas moved in with Mika. He had to tell him about his secondary gender mainly because of his heats. That would have been a rude awakening for Mika if he were to walk in on Lucas. Lucas usually forces himself into heat, which means he stops taking his suppressants every couple months and sets aside a week for it to happen. He hates his heats. He hates how he becomes so needy, but at the same time he wishes he had an Alpha who could actually satisfy that neediness. Braving heats alone is not an easy task. Every time, it feels like his inner Omega is trying to rip itself from his skin, clawing at it, whining constantly. But it’s better than having an Alpha to control his every move.

Lucas pulls himself out of his thoughts and glances at his friend who is back on his phone, watching...is that a compilation video of dogs catching frisbees?

Lucas takes a deep breath, opening up Instagram.

@lucallemant: well I like the drawing. I suppose the artist isn’t bad to look at either.

He sets his phone to the side, heart pounding. Suddenly, his phone bings. He wasn’t expecting a response so quickly.

@srodulv: I would hope not.

Lucas felt like punching himself in the face he was so anxious.

@lucallemant: so...why a hedgehog?

@srodulv: maybe because someone always has such unruly hair. And maybe because someones nose just looks so boop-able.

Lucas is glad @srodulv let’s the change of subject slip by. But did he just say his nose was...boop-able?

@lucallemant: excuse me, what did you just say?

@srodulv: I think you heard what I said.

@lucallemant: heard? I didn’t hear anything?

@srodulv: you know what I meant! You’re mean... :(

@lucallemant: haha I’m sorry I’m sorry.

@srodulv: so do you accept my compliment on your nose?

Lucas smiled to himself, pretending to rub at his lips to make it seem discreet.

@lucallemant: I suppose I have to. And may I have the honor of knowing the name of the person who gave me such a nice compliment?

@srodulv: where are my manners?! I’m Eliott

@lucallemant: Lucas. Though I suppose you already knew that.

@srodulv: at least I know now for sure that your name is really Lucas. Not just “French Cutie Who Can Do Anything.”

@lucallemant: oh god that is going to haunt me forever, isn’t it?

@srodulv: haha I’m afraid so.

Lucas pauses before saying: so you’re a model then? What’s a model doing drawing ME of all people in fan art.

@srodulv: cmon if anyone deserves fan art it’s you!

Lucas blushes and tries to swipe it away before Yann sees.

@srodulv: I suppose I draw because it’s an outlet of some kind.

@lucallemant: that’s awesome. Well, since my fursona is apparently a hedgehog, do I get to know yours?

@srodulv: haha you know I would like to think of them more as soul animals, but thanks for that thought. My “fursona” is a raccoon.

@lucallemant: a raccoon?

@srodulv: yeah! They wear masks. 🦝

“Dude, quit smiling at your phone like that. You’re freaking me out.” Yann mumbles from beside Lucas, pulling him out of his little Eliott and Instagram bubble.

“Sorry...” Lucas said before letting his gaze trail back on his phone. He saw Yann roll his eyes, but Lucas just brushed it off.

@lucallemant: so how did a model such as yourself stumble upon me?

@srodulv: I couldn’t let a pretty face like yours slip away, could I?

@lucallemant: try again, this time without flirting.

@srodulv: ouch getting called out lol. But I suppose I was in a rough patch and your video sort of helped pull me out.

@lucallemant: which video?

@srodulv: that’s a surprise ;)

Lucas lets a smile take up his lips. His eyes drifted up to the time. Holy- it’s already 1:30 am? He’s gotta go to bed. Classes tomorrow. Thanks college.

@lucallemant: I have to go :( classes early tomorrow.

@srodulv: aw man, you’re still in high school?

@lucallemant: college actually

@srodulv: oh! What are you studying? (Last question for the night and then I’ll have to come to terms with our conversation ending D: )

Lucas snorted a laugh: I’m a bio major. (And I’m sorryyy! I wish I could keep talking too)

@srodulv: then show me how sorry you are. Meet me in Paris when I get back from Japan?

Lucas chewed at his bottom lip. Should he trust this guy? He is an Alpha...

But what’s the worst that could happen...right? Eliott seems like a nice enough guy. Lucas lets his inner Omega instincts take over on deciding what to do.

@lucallemant: sounds like a plan. When do you get back?

@srodulv: it’s a date! I get back in a month!

@lucallemant: looking forward to it. Goodnight, E.

@srodulv: goodnight, Lulu.

Lucas hugs his phone to his chest.

It’s a date!

[comments-on-kai]

[Facebook] EXO Kai’s Viral Tempo fancam became a Hot topic of conversation as it hits 672,000 views+9000 comments on Facebook; Nonfans and Muggles reacts positively as more turned into new fans and awareness of EXO’s new release grew among the GP

[T/n: As is the usual practice on Facebook most of the comments started with a mention of another Facebook username and the comments are directed to the friend/family/colleague that was tagged]

- So cool...wow I'm not an EXO fan but wow...this is crazy..can't even see his eyes but how are his expressions so varied;; the best seriously...this is the first time I've fallen for a male idol while watching a fancam

- I peed in my pants from  the very start I can only see his lips but he's so fvcking sexy I don't think he's human I can't breath I didn't even realize I was spacing out

- I'm not fan of EXO but this is fvcccccccccking cool

- so it's true that EXO is really cool...I'm going to be a fan beginning today

- that's it I'm stanning Kai

- okay I have zero interest in idols but this is an incredible video...I keep watching this....? i'm going crazyㅠㅠ 

- even someone from another fandom like me thinks he's a definite entertainer a definite Idol his dancing lines are crazy he's wearing the hat and making all these expressions of a dancer it's too sexy and driving me crazy

- so this is the EXO you like? I think I know now why you like him;;; ----->(Reply) Good so now that it has come to this point let's just stan him together alright

- but no who said EXO can't dance..??!! ----->(Reply) seriously who said that,,,,,??

- this was the video you were talking about isnt it?? wow... ----> (Reply) yes yes this was the one! I can't stop watching itㅠㅠ

- I don't even like idols fvck is that even a person isnt this crazy?? I'm rewatching this for the 5th time now,,

-Is this a new song? ---->(Reply)okay this is daebak

- look at Kai ---->(Reply) okay the song is definitely stream-worthy

- he still looks perfect while wearing that saucepan-looking fisherman's hat..the hot body+dancing line is crazy..

- no..seriously...i don't like this kind of thing alright..?but really this is too daebak...can't believe dancing can be something this attractive

- I feel indebted that I watched this for free;;;

- so he was this kind of incredible human being? i don't think he's human

- don't just look at Doh Kyungsoo look at this Kai too... Isn't it crazy? --->(Reply) wow...I think this is the 1st time I fell for someone through his dancing what is this..seriously EXO

- ya doesn't he dance so well it's fvcking sexy the expression is perfect and his body is perfect wow I'm this close to entering the EXO fanclub

- is this the one you were talking about? Tempo this is a good song and Kai is fvcking cool

- babe I think I've fallen for Kai;;

;- Wow..for real I had zero interest in EXO don't even know the kids' faces..but this...seriously I acknowledge this...fvck this is fvcking sexy is he even human..crazy I'm gonna rewatch this like 9999 times

- I feel like I'm gonna turn into an EXO fan ..even Doh Kyungsoo who appeared from time to time looked handsome...this video is crazy

- my feelings for EXO were just so-so and I don't even know their names well but this is crazy he's too sexy

- Do you know this? this time around Tempo is too good I'm watching Kai's fancam three times a day

- From another fandom but I acknowledge Kai's stage...he's too good

- I've only heard of the song but never seen the stage and this is the first time alright? damnn he's goodㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

- fvck this is so sexy seriously I'm gonna stan EXO now

- I'm not a fan but his dancing is another level right? they're all dancing the same choreo but the way he danced like his spirit was owned by it and his physique is solid too

- I'm going crazy I think I've fallen for him

- I'm gonna buy the album tomorrow...there's him in here and they have Kyungsoo too

- this is the best I've ever seen I'm not kidding

- is this like the 2nd 'Growl'? This is crazy fvck what do I do?

-  it seems like EXO is really as cool as how people say EXO is huh

- wait I don't like EXO but this is a bit crazy

- the dancing is great but wow his shoulders...so broad

- I said Kai is the best in EXO...also everybody in here is so handsome

- seems like our Oppas made a comeback ---> that's it I need to stan again

- from another fandom but seriously fvck!!! because Kwon Jiyong is in the army right now the best of dancing line kai can do whatever he wants!!!

- for real he's born with it

- his control of strength is amazing i feel like screaming "oppa please be gentle"...me with EXO...what if I start stanning ㅠㅠ

- this was the video I was talking about ..nosebleed

- hey if you watched this you need to watch a fancam called The Eve on youtube he's really sexy there too

- seems like the song this time around is pretty good?

- should I just be an EXO stan...? the other day it was Baekhyun yesterday D.O and now Kai...usually I'd just think oh they're good~ but these days the members are getting my attentionㅠㅠㅠ especially Kai his dancing is daebak..the sexy lines you can't explain with mere words, the moves that are finished right on point, his overflowing confidence, with fashion style that are always over the top but even that he could work out to his advantage..so what do you think? ----> (Repy) ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I dont think you "should stan" them, I think you're already stanning themㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ -------> Ah what should I doㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ also I kept reminded of D.O's way of speaking in 100DaysMyPrince and there he is a dancing little thing in the background..

- wow Kai this is seriously crazy...just by watching Kai and I know how the song flows..how does he change his facial expressions like word by word and the wave towards the end is something I should watch in secret without my mom's knowledgeㅋㅋㅋ seriously born to be an idol and a naturalborn dancer..also the person who recorded this should be appointed the camera director at inkigayo

- Ah what should I do about myself..I'm this close to stanning I watch this like 4 times a day is this what they call stanning...? Me...EXO...? Seriously I dont know

- I was just saying that the song this time isn't that good but after watching this;;; the concept is killer...this is totally my style

- I think even he knows while he is dancing this like " I am the King of all Dancing Kings" this kind of vibe

-no but EXO is so high-quality..... --->(Reply) I feel like being mesmerized but something,,,

- look at how his expressions kept changing isn't he too cool? wow.... ---> (Reply) this is Kai..the one I told you about

- you know how I'm an A*my, in the past I used to feel weird about skin exposure but recently I can't see anything else but Kai...he's so very sexy it's driving me crazy --->(Reply) It's because it's Kai.. it's okay because he IS sexy

- this time around it's too much...I think I have fallen for him seriously..haa

- if Kai wasn't a singer he would've been a dancer right... or at least a rapper..wow..I'm...he's so cool..I'm from another fandom but this Tempo is really

- Ya I think I'm turning into a stan;;;

- this the first time I'm watching EXO again in so many years after my high  school days... but Kai is still as good as ever wow

- look at that...that's the face of someone who is happy doing what he's doing

- Ah ..I'm drooling

- but truthfully Kai's dancing skills are unrivalled the other members just become so blurry he just stole all my attention

- look at this..the dance and the song isnt it so cool

- why am I reminded of Michael Jackson ...he's so good

- because of this, without realizing it i'm listening to the song a lot

-  can't even see his face properly but he looks handsome even his body is handsome I think everything about him is good looking sobs

-  the latest song is pretty good huh?

- seriously I think he's Korea's top sexy star...I acknowledge this he's ruining my ideal types list ㅜ

- my heart is beating fast after a long time...like that feeling when I went to to TVXQ concert during junior highㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

- ???? how could a person even dance this way? the feeling is unrivalled he's so cool I was gaping while watching

- this is the Male Idol one-top..fvck...

- whoa I don't even know who this if but he is too good

- this was the one I talked about look how every moves goes perfectly into place

- I had no interest in Idols but I think I'm smitten

- I've made up my mind he's gonna be my fave in EXO

- this is legendary

- he's such a beast...wow

- I don't know why I hated EXO in the past I'm a fool he's so cool can't believe I'm only seeing their charms nowㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ too good

- I'm a Muggle but he's fvcking handsome...also how does he dance so good,,

- from another fandom but I love how his expression changes all the time

- I don't like Idols but his expressions are so good and he's very sexy and all of them are very good looking... as expected not just anybody can simply hit it big

- Ya this is too good he's like Michael Jackson

- he's too cool that even if my cat at home watched this it would've meowed out "he's cool"

- why is this song so addictive

- I had no interest but at this rate I'm gonna be a stan

- he was born to dance look at how he's enjoying it all by himself

- hey I've actually watched this twice... for the first time in my life I actually watched the whole fancam hehe

- have you seen this? when I watched this for the first time I was so shocked now I've watched it like 5 times

- how should I say this..he danced it coolly?or he danced it in a very hip way?but the one sure thing is the way he danced it differs from the other boys it's like the dance took control over his body

- this was the one I saw on Youtube once you watch this you'll keep wanting to watch it over and over again that's what happened to me

- fvck I'm gonna stan him

- such an amazing dancer...he doesn't even rest for 1 second

- this was the one you said right? Kai is too much he's seriously too good

- this is art??

- his dancing lines...it's crazy

- definitely unrivalled

- I'm not a fan but I want to watch him in concert..and I want to buy the album too is this normal?

- his smiles fluttered me so much

- I think he knows he's very sexy

- I had no idea but his physique is amazing

- so THIS is EXO? ok but he is incredible?

- how can someone dance so carefreely but looks so powerful?>

- when is Kai coming out with a solo?

- I think if Kai dances right in front of me I might just die

- he's so amazing and so sexy..damn I think I'm a stan;;;

- who was the fool who said Kai gained weight was it another Kai they were talking about lmao

- when I said Idols are not sexy,,I need to revise that and exclude Kai from that statement

- wait wait...I didn't like EXO right? right? so what is this I'm blown away ??

- is this the reason why Kai is your fave in EXO? because he's so sexy? but I acknowledge he's really good what are his joints made off,,,

- you know how I'm a bt* fan right and I have no feelings for EXO but I think I'm having some feeling about them; like I KNOW Kai is handsome and all that but he's too sexy his dance is fantastic and his expressions ...I'm going crazy -----> (Reply) and they're so well dressed too!

- Eonni this is time around I think I felt for Kai after watching this --->(Reply) YES our Jongin-ie can be fatal and he does it so prettily too

- fvck I think I'm gonna start stanning him what do I do? ----> (Reply) look at this he's a pictorial master too -------> fvck this charm is different than when he is dancingㅠㅠ

- fvck I've totally fallen for him

---->{Reply) His real name is Kim Jongin

- look how good he is...and so fvckin sexy ------>(Reply) recently I found myself getting so into EXO fcvk

- isnt this the song that Keongjoo is really into nowadays -----> (Reply) is THIS why she's soo into it?? she's got taste tho,,

- his dancing lines...did you see this?? -----> (Reply) you have to admit this kid is beyond an Idol

- this is my first time watching the stage for this song...he's amazing ----->(Reply) Also..his body?,,,

- I think my graveyard is here ----> (Reply) you're late I saw this more than 10 times yesterday

- his facial expressions are so solid ---->{Reply) now THAT is how you do facial acting on stage

- I feel like I should move to EXO (from another group) what do you think? ---->(Reply) nooo you hated EXO didn't you? -------> I'm sorry he's this sexy I cant resist

- Wow fvck I can't stop cussing this is the first time I'm watching the stage for this song ----> (Reply) isn't it amazing...but this the kid who said he missed the fans and even got teary eyed when greeting fans ...you need to watch the music bank and music core stages ------> please find it for me

- I'm not a fan but I'm so into this??

--->(Reply) but he's fvcking good at dancing

- what's this what IS this this is over the top my heart is bursting ---->(Reply) the song and the dance is soo good but seriously he's dancing like he's possessedㅠㅠㅠㅠ -----> wow I'm checking out all the stages right now ..what is this,,,what is this feeling -------->(Reply)ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ that's good just come and join me on the other side

- this keeps appearing randomly on my tl and every single time I keep watching it it's driving me crazy...on that note you need to watch this too ---> (Reply) he's born to be an Idol...how can he do all those detailed facial actings with a look that gave up on eyesight,,,ha..

- we kept watching this together in class seriously an all-girl high school,, --->(Reply) why does my homeroom teacher kept showing us W*nna On*

- EXO have never caught my eyes but this is really Daebak...Kai is amazing his  dancing is incredible

- okay but he is so handsome and from this fancam I think his dancing lines are perfect... ----> (Reply) I think you're already stanning himㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

- suddenly I feel like mentioning youㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ya make sure you watch this his dance is so good I had goosebumps..and the facial acting is daebak too --->(Reply) I'm not even an EXO fan suddenly you tagged me..

- I don't even like EXO but his dance is so amazing? damn...who's the one in the white hat it's like watching his solo concert ----- >(Reply) this is Kai isn't it? that's right he's the one who dances really well

- why am I fluttered looking at Kai ---->(Reply)I already saw this and peed in my pants didn't I say when when we were drinking Kai is fvcking good at at dancing

- is this the famous fancam? --->(Reply) yesㅜㅜㅜthis is our Jongin-ieㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ

- his visuals are killing me

- what's this...it's such a good song