#italian boxing boots

[skipper1331]

Butterfly // Alessia Russo

Brody Armstrong once said: "When you meet someone for the first time, that’s not the whole book. That’s just the first page" and she’s totally right. When you first met Alessia you didn’t know that quote, you could barely speak let alone read but over the years, when got older, you started to understand it. The day you met her, the first page was written and your story began. Now, Alessia and you have been together for 9 years, 3 of them married and it‘s still not finished.

age 4

You have known each other since you were 4. The two of you lived in the same street and played at the same playground.

You were building a sandcastle with 3 towers, two of them already finished when a little girl ran towards the sandbox you were sitting in. As clumsy as the girl was she stumbled over the edge of the box, falling on your towers, smashing them under her body. With wide eyes you looked at the blonde, her face full of sand "i‘m sowwy" she apologized immediately. You looked to your mother who was talking to a stranger. "That‘s my mum." the sandcastle smasher pointed at the woman next to your mother. "You broke my castle" she looked at you before filling your bucket with sand, ready to build a new castle. "I‘m Alessia"

"My name is y/n"

That day Alessia and you became friends.

age 6

Less was standing at the table, drinking something while she watched you. You were running around in the Russo garden, trying to catch a butterfly. But not only her eyes were on you but also the eyes of her mum and your mum. "She‘s my butterfly" the blonde admitted without thinking. "Lessi, she’s not a butterfly, she’s a girl." her mother said to her, not liking that she referred to you as an animal. "Then, she‘s my girl!" she put down the glass of water and ran back to you with the intention to help you catch the butterfly. It didn‘t work. Either it was too high to reach or no longer in sight so you decided to kick a ball instead.

age 10

The two of you were in training when one of your teammates stood on your ankle. It wasn’t on purpose but when the italian saw you go down, holding your ankle, crying, she ran up to you, pushing the girl away from you. She didn't want her around you any longer. "Please stop crying, butterfly" Lessi begged as she wiped the hair out of your face. "It hurts" by now the coach joined you as well, taking of your boot. You winced, Alessia instantly put her arm around shoulder, trying to comfort you and sort of protect you. Your ankle was red, surely there was going to be a bruise "Let’s get you to the sidelines, okay?" Coach said as the helped you up but you couldn‘t put weight on your foot. "I got it from here, coach" the blonde grumbled as she took your hands. "You sure?"

"Yes" when the coach walked away to the others girls Less took the matter in her own hands. "I‘m gonna carry you to the side" she stated as she picked you up with an ease. She carried you out of the way and sat you back down slowly. She sat beside you, glaring at the girl who hurt you. As a thank you you laid your head on Lessi‘s shoulder.

In that moment, Alessia promised herself to protect you forever.

age 14

When Alessia was 14 she realized she liked girls. That she liked a girl, a special girl. You. She loved the way your laugh sounded, she loved the way you smiled. She loved the way you would take care of her if she had been clumsy, she loved your kindness. She loved your eyes, the way they shone. She loved that she could make you laugh and blush. She loved you, you‘re her butterfly.

You fell in love with Alessia a long time ago, probably to a time where you didn‘t know what love was. She made you feel special.

It was after a home game when Alessia first kissed you. Alessia scored a hattrick and you scored as well. It was afternoon as her mum picked you up, "see you in 30 minutes, butterfly?" the striker asked as her mum dropped you off. She loved to call you butterfly and has done it for years now. Everybody knew. "Yes. Thanks for the ride, Carol!"

"No problem, honey"

Later that day, you met at your spot. It was a bench at the small lake your town had. "Your hattrick was amazing!" you stated proudly as she got off her bike. "Your goal was a banger though" she smiled as sat down next to you, her hair still wet. You blushed under her gaze, the tip of your ears turning red "no need to get shy, butterfly" the italian smiled while she pinched your cheeks "stop it" you whined as your cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. "I- i can‘t" her hands cupped your cheek as she gazed in your eyes, getting lost in them. "Lessi" you breathed as her face inched closer. You could feel her breath against your lips. Her gaze flicked to your lips before she looked back in your eyes. As she made the final move with pushing her lips against yours you rested your hands on her knees, not knowing where else to put them. It was your first kiss with Alessia and your first kiss in general, you didn‘t even know how to move your lips so you didn‘t and neither did Lessi. "Oh my god," she whispered as she pulled apart "i‘m so sorry." Quickly, she grabbed her bike and cycled home, leaving you alone at the bench. Dazed, your fingers touched the spot where Alessias lips had been a minute ago. "Wow"

age 15

Behind closed doors, you kissed multiple times a day. It was one of your favorite things to do yet you were not offically together. Sometimes she asked you to take you out on a date and sometimes you asked her but the girlfriend question has never been asked, both of you too shy.

You were hanging out at her house, sitting on her bed while she sat on the bean bag. "You don‘t know what happened today"

"Tell me, butterfly"

"You know, Josh, the dark haired guy. He asked me out" you laughed, letting your head fall into her pillow. "What?!" the striker shouted, jumping off her seat. She didn‘t find it funny at all that Josh asked you out. You, her girl, her butterfly. "What did you say?" she asked as stepped closer to you. "I said no," a sigh of relief left her body "did you think i would‘ve said yes?"

"I don‘t know?" she admitted, you weren‘t fully hers yet. "Lessi," you pulled her on to you, your fingers playing with the hem of her shirt "I want to be your girlfriend"

"Be my girlfriend, butterfly."

The two of you shared a sweet kiss, the first one of many as girlfriends.

age 16

"Do you want sleep at mine, tonight?" your girlfriend of one year asked. "My parents and brothers won‘t be home until sunday afternoon" her face turned bright red as she played with your fingers. "I would love to"

You didn‘t know why you were nervous, you had stayed at Alessias house multiple times but this time it felt different, for the both of you. "Hi, butterfly" the blonde smiled as she opened the door. "I hope you‘re hungry because i made lasagna" you stepped into her home - your second home - as she closed the door. Pressing a kiss to your temple she pulled you into the kitchen. "It looks perfect, baby"

Your girlfriend and you ate dinner on the couch while watching Mamma Mia. After finishing the dish, the empty plates rested on the coffee table. Alessia was hugging your smaller figure with her head hiding in the crook of you neck, the movie long forgotten. Your legs were tangled together while you played with her hair as she started to press kisses along your neck. "Baby" you breathed, only encouraging her to leave some hickies on your neck. Her kisses trailed up your jaw and then to your lips which she kissed passionately. Her hands held your neck while your hands made their way under her hoodie, scratching her back, occasionally running your fingers over her abs. It made her go crazy. "Do you wanna go upstairs?" she asked, wanting to take steps further with you. Her lips were just as swollen as yours. "Yeah"

In her room, she immediately started to kiss you again, grabbing your waist and pulling you in to her. Your arms looped around her neck as she walked you back against her door. She pulled on your (her) hoodie, asking If she could take it off. Within seconds you got rid of it. "You‘re so beautiful" the italian whispered as she looked over you. "Take yours off, too" - she did.

On her bed, she was hovering above you, the two of you only in your underwear. "Are you sure you want this?" she questioned, just to be sure. "Yes, lessi. Yes" you smiled at one another before you leaned up to re-connect your lips.

"I love you"

"I love you, too"

age 18

Long distance. With Lessi being at unc and you being in England, it was hard but you managed. You had to.

"Were gonna be okay even when i‘m at unc, don’t we?" Her voice was quiet, afraid of your answer. She was playing with your hair while your head rested on chest "of course we will" you stated confidently. Yes, it would be hard, maybe even horrible at times but you loved her and she loved you. "You won‘t find another girl, promise me." Your head snapped in her direction as she looked so vulnerable. "Lessi, i love you! There‘ll never be another girl, okay?" your girl nodded shyly as you whispered "i promise you" before kissing her forehead.

To be honest, your relationship had it‘s problems with her being far away. Jealousy, and longing were the two biggest problems on both sides but you communicated your feelings and worries. And in the end, it made your relationship grow stronger.

age 21

Lessi was nervous. For months, she had planned this day. Ella was her savior because she couldn‘t talk to you about it like she normally would. The italian was about to propose to you. For years, you have been her girl, her one and only. She knew you were the one, she wanted to spend forever and longer with you. The plan was simple: the two of you would visit your hometown and her brothers would distract you as long as she needed them to so that she can prepare everything at your spot. She had the blessing of your parents, from everyone that was important to you.

As she finished preparing everything, she texted in the siblings group chat.

Less

ready.

"Lessi is waiting for you" Luca said as she scanned her text. "What?" you asked confused, not understading anything. She told you she would get food. "Go to your favorite spot" Gio stated as she pushed you gently out of the door. And you did.

You saw her standing near the lake, she looked beautiful under the sun light. Rose petals were spread on the floor, music playing softly in the backround. "Baby, what’s this?" you asked, admiring everything around her. "Butterfly," she grabbed your hands, pulling you in front of her "when I was 4 I met you for the first time and when I was 14 I first realized that I liked you, I kissed you for the first time, too. In that decade you became my butterfly. I‘ve never told you why or how but that changes now. It was a summer day, you were at my house. I remember drinking some water as you chased after a butterfly. Then you became my butterfly. You‘re my biggest supporter, my number one fan, you bring the best out of me as a football player and human and I love you so much. I couldn’t have wished for a better friend, best friend and girlfriend" you were crying by now while she took a deep breath before she continued. "I want you to be my wife." As she went down on one knee, she pulled a velvet box out of her pocket "I promise you to cherish you and I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make you happy so will you make me the happiest person alive, will you marry me?"

"Yes!!! A thousand times yes!"

A year later, the two of you got happily married and you could proudly call yourself Y/n Russo.

age 23, summer 2022

"We‘re champions!" you shouted as you jumped on Lessi who hugged you like her life was depending on it. "We did it" she mumbled into your neck, still completely in shock. When your feet touched the ground, you didn‘t let go of your wife and neither did she. Surrounded by your own little bubble, you only cared for one another in this moment. As Alessia pressed a lingering kiss to your forehead your little bubble was broken by an Ella Toone. She jumped on both of you, one leg around Less' hip and one around yours as she hugged you in a death grip.

Each lioness was drunk as hell. Everyone had their jerseys on and their medal around their necks as they danced. "I‘m so proud of you" you whispered against your lovers lips. "I love youuu" she replied in her drunken state, twirling you around. "My name on your back always does things to me" she almost moaned, her fingers tracing over the letters of her - your - name.

Both of you felt at peace, surrounded by each other, your family and friends. It was a night to remember.

age 24

The world cup dream came true. Less and you were in the squad. As you heard the news you squealed, jumped up and down, ran through your home. Your bodies were filled with pure joy.

The first night in Australia was wow. You couldn‘t believe that you were actually here. Also that the two of you shared a room was amazing; waking up and going to sleep in each others arms.

When your off day came by you slept a little longer than you normally would. Lessi had her arm around you, already awake as she traced her finger over your tattoo. Shortly after the euros, you decided to get matching tattoos so now there rested the 23 on your collarbone while she got a butterfly at the same spot on her body. It was nothing big but it held so much meaning behind it.

Your story began 20 years ago and still hasn't come to an end nor does it intend to end as you promised one another in your vows.

Each day, the story of the 23 and butterfly will continue.

—————————

[eimids]

Game day shenanigans

Lionesses x reader

Part 3 of the mini series about lionesses

(Let’s just imagine that Leah is playing again)

warnings: Vomiting, blood, angry Lucy

The game had went relatively well till the half time. It was aggressive and the Italians were really throwing some tackles in. It was all good though because you were on the lead. You’d already scored 3 goals while they had only one. It was you, Lessi and McCabe who had scored.

The Italians were especially rough on you. Sliding tackles every time they could. Lucy did not appreciate that at all. You were skilled and got good chances but they were ruined by the opponent. Most of the tackles were on the thin line of legal and illegal. Still usually they were ruled as legal. It pained you to be so much on the ground with the opponents getting away with it.

During half time Lucy suggested that you should be subbed off because they were clearly targeting you. Like you had an X in your back.

“I’m not going to be subbed just because they tackle me. I can handle it Lucia!” You said a little annoyed. Just like she had not trusted your skills.

“I think y/n can handle it for now. If they keep getting more reckless with the tackles, you will be subbed off” Sarina said as the last decision.

You took a sip from your water bottle as you tried to calm yourself. You went to Lauren James to get away from people (Lucy) who annoyed you.

You chatted for a while before your skipper Leah gave you a pep talk before going to the second half. You walked back to the pitch through the tunnel and warmed up a bit. When the whistle was blown you quickly got the ball to you. Running with it as you got closer to the penalty box. When you got inside of it, you were quickly tackled. Someone sliding straight towards your legs which had you tumbling to the ground. Your head got collided with someones boot.

First thing you saw was blood on the hand. The next was Lucy coming running towards you and the two opponents who caused this. She was yelling at them. Next came Leah with the big hand chestures. They had some pushing and pulling before the referee intervened. Giving a yellow card to the woman who tackled you.

“Fuck off” You heard Lucy yell.

Lucy still wasn’t happy about it and kept mouthing the referee and opponents which got her a yellow card. Leah kept talking to the referee, more calmly than the older woman.

You on the other hand had been surrounded by your teammates. They were motioning for a medic to get over to check you out. You felt dizzy and Georgia was hovering over you to shee if you were okay. You didn’t really know what happened, all you knew is that you were bleeding and in pain.

You could walk off the pitch by yourself which led to the crowd to applause for you. When you got to the medical room you could feel something turning in your stomach and quickly your that days food was on the bin next to you. You knew after vomiting that it was a concussion. The medical staff gave you some pain meds and sent a message to Sarina that you wouldn’t be able to continue.

The medical staff started to clean the cut on your forehead and then stitched it up.

“It’s going to leave you a little scar but nothing major. But you do have a pretty bad concussion which means that someone is going to have to look after you for couple of days. We’ll give the person some advice when you know who’s looking after you” The woman said to you after stitching you up and examining you.

After that you were allowed to leave the medical room to the changing room to get some more clothes off so you could watch the rest of the game.

To your surprise, Lucy was sitting in the changing room.

“What are you doing here?” You asked her confused.

“That stupid referee gave me a red card” She said sounding angry. You just started at her angrily.

“Lucia what did you do” You asked sternly.

“Well the woman who tackled you kept laughing about it so I just showed her hoe to tackle properly” She answered casually with a smirk on her face.

“Well I believe if you got carded it wasn’t exactly a legal tackle?”

“I was clean but the referee has something against us” She answered rolling her eyes.

“God your so stupid” you said while sitting next to her.

“I wasn’t going to let them hurting you just slide. I had to do something” She said defensively.

“Yeah but getting a red card isn’t the way. You are like Katie McCard” You joked.

Later on you would see the video of Lucy tackling the girl. It was not clean tackel, you knew it and she knew it. But for that you invited yourself to her house so she (and Kiera) would have to look after you.

—

[velvet-vox]

My Top 10 Favourite Male Villains of all time.

"How arrogant of you to think that any of us are anything but irrelevant". -John Greer, Person of Interest (2011-2016).

There comes a moment in a blog's life where some things are just long overdue, and while the argument could be made that this happened way too early, I'd say that as long as this helps me to find my groove, I am free to experiment as much as I want.

So..... Villains.

Gotta love them. As long as I do not meet them in real life. This post is in particular about male villains since I have one dedicated to their female counterparts in the pipeline so expect that to come soon enough and for this part to be rewritten. By the way, "villain" is a generalisation, I can totally put antivillains, antagonists or more general antiheroes in this list; your definition of "Bad Guy" can vary greatly and so can mine, someone like Walter White from Breaking Bad could have made it in here. My taste is very unusual, so prepare yourself for some unexpected picks.

Also, since these are meant to be some big celebratory posts, for the occasion I'll reveal my Italian heritage and translate every line of dialogue in Italian and publish it separately with a link, so that English readers who are learning Italian can exercise.

Here's also a follow up to this post, the first part of my top 30 favourite female antagonists of all time. Check it out, if you are curious to see more.

The bad girls

But first, some honourable mentions:

Oropo (Wakfu): Once you see the number 2 spot for both this list and the female villains list you might notice that I tend to gravitate towards characters with wasted potential more often than not, but while we're just talking about this guy, I cannot stress enough the amount of unceremonious mishandling that lies within his concepts and execution. Really needed two seasons of 25 episodes each to explore it to their maximum.

Tai Lung (Kung Fu Panda): I love him, but not as much as others, it's a matter of personal preference. He's an amazing antagonist, so even if he is just an honourable mention, I wouldn't call him a lesser villain by any stretch of the imagination; I once felt like he was too sympathetic for his movie's sake, but looking back at it again, he's actually moderately evil for a lot of reasons, even if Shifu is the main one.

Bill Chyper (Gravity Falls): It's been way too long since I watched Gravity Falls, I really can't give you an accurate opinion on this guy anymore.

Flintheart Glomgold (DuckTales 2017): That season 2 episode. If you know what I'm talking about, you KNOW. Also the music for that whole sequence was a banger, really driving home the deranged nature of that twist reveal.

Big Jack Horner (Puss in Boots The Last Wish): I feel like when people praise Jack for being a breath of fresh air in a stale environment, they often forget just how good of a villain he was in his own right without the larger industry wide void of truly devious antagonists that act out of pure malice.

The Wolf (Puss in Boots The Last Wish): Two villain entries from one movie? Of course it was gonna be The Last Wish, what else could it be? Honestly I don't even wanna talk about this guy, you need to experience the movie for yourself.

Rob (The Amazing World of Gumball): Everything I have to say about this guy gets talked about much better by the number 6 Spot on this list, but as it stands Rob was my first villain OTP and the guy who opened the box of Pandora for me on what an antagonist could and should be, since then my perception of villainy only widened and now I enjoy their role in a story in much different way.

And now, with that out of the way, let's finally start with the ranking of my personal favourite male villains of all time.

Major spoilers down below:

Number 10: Silco (Arcane)

This guy is the reason that brought me to specify who or what counted for this list as trying to simplify Silco into one specific group of characters is a challenge that can only end in a misunderstanding of what makes Silco such a complex and fascinating character with an amazing character arc, that ends with him not being redeemed, mind you, but allows the audience to grieve in such a way that would make a side character death jealous.

When writing an antagonistic character, Silco is my goal and high standard, and just for that he deserves all of my respect and endless praise.

Now, admittedly, Silco's arc takes a while to kick in, but it works out to his advantage by the end of it since you don't realise just how much you've grown to care for him until he's dead and you're left with the surprise.

10 out 10, the nation of Zaun would have been much better (worse) with him than with Vander.

Number 9: The Riddler (DC)

The Riddler is literally my ride or die villain, when I'm in the mood for him, he's literally my favourite antagonist ever; when I am not in the mood for him, I completely forget about his existence.

When compared to many other entries on this list, Riddler is definitely more on the pop culture side of antagonism, and when you've been around for almost a century, you tend to have many different versions of the same character written by different writers, so I wanted to highlight here my favourite versions of him:

Arkham Games: He's hilarious. He's not my ideal Riddler, but whenever he comes on screen, his whiny rat's ass voice stimulates my pheromones.

Batman The Animated Series: I've heard somewhere that this version of him is disappointing, and to that I'll say... yeah, but only when he wasn't on screen, because otherwise, he kind of slayed.

Matt Reeves The Batman: This is the version that rekindled my love for him after so long. Out of every interpretation of The Riddler throughout the years, this is the one version that treated Edward more as a character rather than an obstacle for Batman to overcome, and for that I'll be eternally grateful.

LEGO Batman The Videogame: My very first introduction to The Riddler and the Batman universe as a whole, this version has a permanent place in my heart , I love how much information and emotion you can get out of him by just looking at his mannerisms and quirks alone; unironically, being silent helps him reach that quote on quote idealised version of Riddler that I was talking about earlier.

Number 8: The Snatcher (A Hat In Time)

There are many things that can carry on a villain in a story, their evolution, stage presence, complexity, thematic contrast to their counterpart, and so on and so forth. While an antagonist can check off many of these boxes simultaneously (like the one pictured), there's one box that is almost impossible to truly nail perfectly: comedy.

You see, comedy is subjective, and when your main antagonist is also the funniest part of a given story, it becomes hard to also match a sense of gravity and menace that allows them to also be an imposing threat, even harder is to give said antagonist depth and a tragic backstory.

But somehow, out of nowhere, The Snatcher from A Hat In Time manages to simultaneously be the funniest character in his section of the game, carrie said energy throughout the whole experience even down to the DLC, simultaneously strikes the balance between being scary, wholesome, sympathetic and tragic, exude an insane amount of charisma, all while having a deeply disturbing backstory that touches on some heavy themes and re contextualises his actions into something more complicated and out of a broken man, everything I just said + he's the biggest bastard in his videogame and never repents nor does he have his actions called out.

Snatcher really has all the right cards that make a stationary character work and uses them to his maximum potential, and it works because his character arc throughout the game is more about becoming affectionate to Hat Kid than it is about redeeming himself.

Lastly, his voice actor, Luke Sizemore, aka Yungtown, really sells the performance of this devious soul eating worm and burns his catchphrases into your brain for the rest of eternity, much like his boss theme,

Your Contract Has Expired

A song that switches around being scary, epic, energetic and desperate in a short, yet perfectly paced amount of time. You need to listen to it regardless of if you've played the game or not.

Fool.

Number 7: Judge Claude Frollo (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

You can never say no to a classic.

There's nothing that I could say that hasn't already been said by thousands of videos on YouTube, but I'll try anyway: you see, Frollo is the reason why we need a new term to identify certain villains that aren't "sympathetic" but still make you feel some sort of human emotion and a form of "I wish someone could give you the care you need to fix your life", I guess the term empathetic exists, but when do you really see it used?

Now, don't get me wrong, Frollo is absolutely not sympathetic in the slightest, he wants to r##e a Romani woman that's way younger than him, but you can still feel that he's very troubled about it in the Hellfire scene and has definitely a lot of unidentified issues and internalised bigotry that could be worked through, even if it's too late to work through them right now.

In general, I feel like people forget that the main reason why past Disney villains worked had to do more with their human traits juxtaposed to their malice rather than just their plain wickedness, otherwise the Horned King from the Black Cauldron would be top of the Disney villains league and that couldn't be further from the truth.

We should really strive towards writing more villains like Frollo, less omnipotent beings that end up falling flat because they don't have much thematic relevance aside from being a threat (Bill Chyper works because he represents Ego and he's used sparingly) and more average vicious individuals who use their power and influence to get what they want.

All in all, if you've seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame, then you know why this guy is here, but just to cite a couple of repeated points, the Hellfire scene is perfect. It's immaculate. It's unreproducible; there will never be another scene like this coming out of the House of Mouse or animation ever again, the excessive amount of stars and elements that came together to create this gothic classic is so vast that it's literally a miracle.

Frollo is truly the personification of the dark, twisted side of humanity peaking through the door and into your mind, from which he shall never escape as his performance still remains perfect to this very day.

Number 6: The Spot (Spider-man across the Spiderverse)

"You've hit me with a bagel!" It's still the greatest villain origin story of all time. There's truly something maniacal about this reveal, like the entire universe was shattered and reality was shocked at the mere realization that while Miles was having his coming of age moment back in the first film, this guy was having his normal life completely and utterly shattered by a combination of both our heroes stepping up to do the right thing and our doofus lack of foresight and self reflection; all of this stuff is hilarious and completely made up for the film but good god they did such an amazing job tying all the elements together in an unexpected way that makes sense and parallels the journey that our protagonist faced in the first movie.

Like with Rob from The Amazing World of Gumball, and a little bit like number 2 on this list, I just really enjoy the concept of turning background characters who had no relevance whatsoever into the big bad of the story who's been there all along and the heroes (and the audience) just couldn't notice.

With The Spot in particular, there's that sense of satisfaction of turning the wasted potential of a villain who has been underestimated for literal decades and treated as a "villain of the week" (God do I love the meta narrative of this movie) into an actual competent, well written antagonist that is aware of his reputation and strives towards bettering himself and his powers.

He's also the funniest character of his movie too and the voice acting of Jason Schwartzman only accentuates his mannerisms and pettyness.

He also has the coolest usage of portals I have ever seen and his whole "There's a hole inside all of us" metaphor is simultaneously hilarious and very deep personal information that can only be understood if you put yourself into his shoes.

I can't wait for Beyond the Spiderverse to come out and see how his arc resolves, more importantly, I wonder if he's going to rank higher in the future.

Number 5: Lord Shen (Kung Fu Panda)

"Happiness must be taken. And I'll take mine"

.....

What a character.

What a movie.

You cause so much pain and suffering, because you don't understand the people around you, and then those people banish you, and you can't understand why, so you start to believe that they hated you.

They never loved you, so you keep causing pain and suffering but it's not that easy anymore; the guilt starts to resurface, all those bodies keep piling up, but you can't stop because then it would have all been for nothing; so you keep chasing those dreams of grandeur because that's all you have left; the emptiness in your heart can no longer be filled by love, so you try to fill it with something else.

You try to fill it with power. You try to fill it with glory. You try to take everything else for yourself so that you can fill that cup, but it doesn't work, because that cup has no bottom.

And so you're left... with yourself.

And the damage you've done. But now it's different; you've failed. You are left with nothing. Nothing.

And so you outrage, for the last time... And then it all ends. Forever. And you've finally come to accept this, after all....... Who could ever love you?

Number 4: Spamton G Spamton (Deltarune)

You know, in retrospect, it's kind of insane what Toby Fox managed to achieve when creating Spamton.

Not only because Spamton feels like the most insane combination of ideas ever conceived, but also because Toby Fox created such a complex character with such a complicated language and personality and then not only shafted it all aside for the players to go out of their way to interact, but also made all of this in what are officially 2 or 3 cutscenes at most (4 if you consider his shop encounter as one) and only one of them being truly mandatory.

You spend so little time with Spamton, and most of that time is spent fighting him, and yet by the end of it you've become enlightened by the knowledge of him, that after a while... you forget how scary it all was.

All the memes comparing Spamton with Turbo are 100% correct and justified, Spamton truly is Turbo but better; you go through an insane rollercoaster of emotions with this character that you are left absolutely dumbfounded when it all comes to a stop and you go back to play the rest of chapter 2 normally.

His insane mannerisms and mood swings are pretty funny at first, but once you peel back the layers a bit they reveal a pretty realistic and sad portrayal of mental illness, mania and hysteria coupled with an unhealthy amount of social distancing, loneliness, and abandonment issues, that reinforce into your brain the idea of someone lacking proper healthcare and needing to be locked away from society for their (society) own good, simulating the vicious cycle that Spamton lives by: nobody wants to help him but he's still expected to act like a regular individual despite the amount of hardships he's facing and the lack of a support system keeping him from falling back into his bad habits.

I'll admit, I've considered putting Spamton in place of the Number 3 spot on this list; but then I've realised that on an objective level, the next entry totally deserves to be ranked above Spamton; plus, with at least 5 more chapters of Deltarune on our way, whose to say that one of the next gremlins won't be able to dethrone even the number 1 spot?

Drumroll for our top 3:

Nox, the Watchmaker (Wakfu)

There will never be another experience in my life as cathartic as watching the first season of Wakfu for the first time ever again.

On a later rewatch, the initial problems that you've noticed throughout the first half of the season and a little bit in the second half become too apparent to ignore, but the first time everything that goes from the ball tournament to the finale is one of the best paced arcs of television, and everything that happens when the team reaches the Sadida kingdom is just peak Wakfu.

And the king, the culprit, the crown jewel of properly paced stories and arcs is no other than the sad clockwork dilf himself: Noximilliem Coxen the Watchmaker.

Arguably, the greatest sympathetic villain of all time. There has never been another case of a character who has committed such vile, unspeakable crimes, and yet still managed to make me root for them while simultaneously not putting down the heroes.

And let's not be mistaken here, Nox is pretty evil:

Aside from the generic murder, Nox also defiled and stitched together the corpses of multiple victims and turned them into his obedient puppets in order to commit even more murder and genocide in order to achieve his goals.

Also, this is one of the funniest crimes Nox has committed: he abused his dog. It's really not that hilarious nor is it that important in the context of the show, but if you look back at it from an outside perspective then it's really like: Oh yeah. That happened too. Lol.

One of the best parts of his entire arc is his defeat. The "20 minutes" scene deserves a "One Villainous Scene" coverage video to forever immortalise it amongst the greatest. Everything from the music, the subversiveness, the cinematography, the voice acting and just the general art direction of it is worthy of an Eminem award at the Oscars, there's genuinely nothing wrong with this scene, it's truly immaculate.

Words alone cannot do justice to the treacherous, gut wrenching emotional rollercoaster that is experiencing his story for the first time. An hour long video essay would only serve to cover the basics and fundamentals, while for the real deal you need to watch the first season of Wakfu for yourself.

Number 2:

Bradford Buzzard (DuckTales 2017)

And now it's the perfect time to pull out my final wild card, the hole of the sink of my autism, the masterpiece of wasted potential that is Bradford Buzzard from the DuckTales remake of 2017.

When you'll also see the number 2 spot on my villainesses list, you'll come to realise that this spot is more of the "I really wish I could put this at number one but I can't because objectively he doesn't deserve it and the majority of things I love about him in canon were probably an afterthought and in fanon were never plausible to begin with."

And that's how I feel about Bradford Buzzard, an antagonist I spent more time thinking about than probably anybody else on the Earth.

The show runners were so genius for this: we are going to create an original character that will probably struggle to maintain a foot print on the franchise due to the way the Duck verse works, we'll give him an insanely cool backstory and motivation, all coupled with interesting character traits and ideology, we'll make him the ultimate foil to Scrooge McDuck that has been working with him for literal decades, we'll make him the one who has got the closest to isolating Scrooge and destroying his family, and THEN we'll turn him into a generic anime villain that shoots lasers and fumbles his own plan and loses because of insane plot armour and contrivance. Good job writers.

Anyway, I should probably make the case for why this guy ranks so highly in my mind to the point of almost taking the podium for my most liked villain of all time, especially when compared to the stiff competition that we just went through.

Now, part of it is just because this is a personal top 10 and so I can put whoever I want in whatever order I want. But also, with Bradford in particular, there's a personal aspect of relatability, various interests, and passions all coming together to make him stand out in my brain.

The thing is, I've had a pretty strong connection to Disney's Duck's comic books my entire life, even if my love for them came dwindling over time, so when I finally started watching the Reboot and it was amazing, all of that buried passion and love finally re emerged back to the surface, turning me into an annoying super fan. But while season 1 and 2 were great, season 3 actually gave me something to latch on for the rest of time even after the show had ended: the character of Bradford Buzzard.

You see, DuckTales, both in the shows and comics, always had a plethora of villains; from the crazy, megalomaniacal millionaires, to witches, demons, and other mythological creatures, to power hungry aliens, to straight up super-villains. But while all of that is true, there has never been another villain, aside from Magica, Glomgold and Rockerduck at traits, that was built specifically as the anti Scrooge McDuck, and even further, there has never been another antagonist who challenged the very core ideas and concepts of the entire franchise.

Bradford is like the Frank Grimes of DuckTales: just a regular, average, real world guy who's fed up with the nonsensical constant state at which their fictional universe operates and seeks to correct it in the most logical way possible. And while Frank was ultimately a victim of a world in which he couldn't conform, Bradford's outrageous and extreme plans and methods put him on everybody's hit list until he was left all alone, but not before indirectly causing every major disaster throughout the reboot's runtime.

A cold, calculating, machiavellian mastermind whose impact and presence secretly permeates the show, right till the very end.

Shame he wasn't written better.

And now, for the one and only,

Number 1:

Qilby (Wakfu)

Qilby is the biggest example of an anomaly that you could ever observe in a work of fiction. The first time experiencing a story is the most important and impactful moment of that story, as every future rewatch won't be as good as the first. In particular, this is an important aspect of twist villains, as they can only surprise you the first time, since at future rewatches the twist becomes predictable.

Furthermore, if the twist ends up ruining the character that was established up to this point, or it doesn't make any sense, then the story is kind of ruined and it only gets worse on future rewatches, since now you know that everything that you are seeing right now is ultimately worthless and doesn't provide any value.

So why do we love twist villains and keep churning them out? Well, you see, it's a matter of execution. A bad guy introduced in an unconventional manner is much more memorable than one introduced in a straightforward way; the twist can also serve to showcase different aspects of the character before becoming an obvious obstacle, be it quirks, interests, personality in casual settings, or cunning.

Let's not beat around the bush.

If Nox is the single greatest sympathetic villain of all time, then Qilby is by far the greatest twist villain of all time, and the crazy thing is, that he surprises you two times in a row, at first by revealing himself as more evil than you could ever imagine, and then, by outing himself as more complex than you could have ever anticipated.

Let me paint you the picture: you just finished the first season of Wakfu, and you are still pretty fresh of the hype surrounding Nox, so you think to yourself "Oh, now every future antagonist is ruined because nothing could ever top the emotional gut punch that I just went through. Whatever, I'm going to stick around just to see if the story gets worse" and you start the second season.

So far, everything is normal, even better of the first season in terms of engagement value, but you can't help but feel the lack of a Nox like figure inside of the story, but at this point, you just accept it.

Then the final six episodes roll around and OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING, HAS THE WHOLE SHOW JUST GONE INSANE?

Somehow, in some mystical, french, magical way, the season 2 finale is arguably even better than the ending of season 1 despite the fight having less buildup and introducing a lot of brand new characters and an entirely irrelevant faction into his conflict.

The entirety of the scene in Emrumb is some of the best writing I have ever experienced in any work of fiction, and the music accompanying it only accentuates the repressed dopamine being released after various episodes of filler, all of them important for this moment to be as impactful as it is.

Qilby is also just a great, tragic character, that is simultaneously an unforgivable bastard that tried to kill his family and doomed his entire race for a family trip, and a sad, nihilistic man still trying to reconcile his love for his family and his need for knowledge and discovery; his curse never truly allows him to move on or relate to others but his ego and need for his forgetful brothers attention just pushes him even further into resentment, ending up damaging himself and those around him, until he's finally isolated again by the vary people he harmed and showed his love towards.

He's as good as the evil secret sibling trope can get and I never get tired of watching him on screen. His reveal scene to Adamai still gives me the chills to this very day and demonstrated me just how good the surprise villain concept can get when it's executed correctly.

Just an all around great show.

[dear-indies]

Hello! What are some of your favorite Pro-Palestine, Anti Zionist fc's you'd like to see used more? I want to make an OC and have zero ideas but I want to try to only use FC's that, like, aren't heartless pieces of shit, ya know?

Cherien Dabis (1976) Palestinian / Jordanian.

Michael Malarkey (1983) Palestinian, Italian-Maltese / Irish, German.

May Calamawy (1986) Jordanian, Palestinian / Egyptian.

Dina Shihabi (1989) Palestinian, Saudi Arabian / Norwegian, German and Haitian.

Nemahsis / Nemah Hasan (1994) Palestinian.

Angel Guardian (1998) Palestinian and Filipino.

Noor Taher (1999) Palestinian and Lebanese.

Saint Levant (2000) Palestinian, Serbian / Algerian, French.

Josie Totah (2001) Palestinian / Lebanese, Italian, Irish, German - is a trans woman.

+ an entire masterlist of Palestinian fcs!

Also, since lots of people are asking here's a masterlist but PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE POSTED AND/OR SPOKEN ABOUT PALESTINE!

Why I'm not adding people who have only asked for a ceasefire.

HERE is @leepacey's list.

I also have a private list you're welcome to DM me for, both also have people who support Isr*el for people to avoid.

Vanessa Redgrave (1937)

Miriam Margolyes (1941) Jewish.

Charles Dance (1946)

Patti Smith (1946)

Duke Erikson / Garbage (1951)

Annie Lennox (1954)

Butch Vig / Garbage (1955)

Juliet Stevenson (1956)

Peter Capaldi (1958) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Steve Marker / Garbage (1959)

Hugo Weaving (1960)

Michael Stipe (1960)

Liam Cunningham (1961)

Sabrina Ferilli (1964)

Paco Tous (1964)

Robert Del Naja / Massive Attack (1965)

Björk (1965)

John Cusack (1966)

Shirley Manson / Garbage (1966)

Aasif Mandvi (1966) Indian.

Serj Tankian (1967) Armenian.

Tricky / Massive Attack (1968) Afro Jamaican / Anglo-Guyanese.

Kathleen Hanna (1968)

Benedict Wong (1971) Hongkonger.

Boots Riley (1971) African-American, one quarter Ashkenazi Jewish (maternal grandmother), small amounts of German, English, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Scottish, Wampanoag.

Ava DuVernay (1972) Louisiana Creole.

Gabrielle Union (1972) African-American.

Poorna Jagannathan (1972) Indian.

Haifa Wehbe (1972) Egyptian / Lebanese.

Kimya Dawson (1972) African-American.

Ava DuVernay (1972) African-American.

Cat Power (1972)

Sarah Sophie Flicker (1973) Jewish.

Omar Metwally (1974) Egyptian / Dutch.

Maxine Peake (1974)

Itziar Ituño (1974)

Nelly Karim (1974) Egyptian / Russian.

Mahershala Ali (1974) African-American.

Sara Ramírez (1975) Mexican and some Irish - non-binary, queer and bisexual (they/them).

Carice van Houten (1976)

Karen Olivo (1976) Puerto Rican [Spanish, Indigenous, possibly other] / Dominican Republic, Chinese - is non-binary (they/them).

Haaz Sleiman (1976) Lebanese - is gay.

Antonio De Matteo (1978)

Joelle Mardinian (1977) Lebanese.

Alberto Ammann (1978) Argentinan.

Daniel Brühl (1978)

Max Collins / Eve 6 (1978)

Kayvan Novak (1978) Iranian.

Residente / René Pérez Joglar (1978) Puerto Rican.

Immortal Technique (1978) Amerindian, Spanish, French and African.

Hend Sabry (1979) Egyptian.

Luis Bordonada (1979) Mexican.

Kate Box (1979) - is gay.

Ser Anzoategui (1979) Argentinian and Paraguayan - is non-binary (they/them).

Dorra Zarrouk (1980) Tunisian.

Amerie (1980) African-American / Korean.

Angelica Ross (1980) African-American - is trans.

Dargen D'Amico (1980)

Gustaf Skarsgård (1980)

Madeleine Sami (1980) Fijian-Indian / White - is a lesbian.

Khalid Abdalla (1980) Egyptian.

Arian Moayed (1980) Iranian.

Massari (1980) Lebanese.

Tahar Rahim (1981) Algerian.

Kaan Urgancıoğlu (1981) Turkish.

Shawna Farmer / chubbycartwheels (1981)

Beth Ditto (1981) - is queer.

Morgan Spector (1981) Ashkenazi Jewish / Irish, German, some Scottish and English.

Jesse Williams (1981) African-American, Seminole / Swedish.

Amanda Seales (1981) African-American / Grenadian [African, at least one quarter European].

Riz Ahmed (1982) Pakistani.

Arthur Darvill (1982) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Emel Mathlouthi (1982) Tunisian.

Rajshri Deshpande (1982) Indian.

Niamh McGrady (1982)

Yolanda Bonnell (1982) Ojibwe, White / Indian - is two-spirit and queer (she/they) - is open about having OCD and ADHD!

Macklemore (1983)

Luna Maya (1983) Indonesian.

Amir Eid (1983) Egyptian.

Aisling Bea (1984)

Mohamed Emam (1984) Egyptian.

Mahira Khan (1984) Pakistani.

Alex Meraz (1984) Mexican [Purepecha].

Sami Zayn (1984) Syrian.

Jena Malone (1984)

Zawe Ashton (1984) Ugandan / White - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Siobhan Thompson (1984)

Ravyn Ariah Wngz (1984) Mohawk, Tanzanian, Afro-Bermudian - is a Two-Spirit trans woman (she/her).

Kristin Chirico (1984) - is questioning their gender, “encompassing a lot of things” but is not yet sure if she’s nonbinary or a gender non-confirming woman and uses they/her - openly bisexual and demisexual and have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, and asthma.

Tamanna Roashan (1984) Indian / Afghani.

Asia Kate Dillon (1984) Ashkenazi Jewish / Unspecified - non-binary and pansexual (they/them).

Burak Özçivit (1984) Turkish.

Enjy Kiwan (1984) Egyptian.

Kid Cudi (1984) African-American.

Sepideh Moafi (1985) Iranian.

Lilan Bowden (1985) Taiwanese / English, Welsh.

Alex Meraz (1985) Mexican [Purépecha].

Aabria Iyengar (1985) African-American.

Rahul Kohli (1985) Punjabi Indian.

Marina Diamandis (1985)

Troian Bellisario (1985) American, Louisiana Creole [African, French, English] / White.

Sonam Kapoor (1985) Indian.

Carmen V. Ortega Baljian (1985)

Carsie Blanton (1985) Jewish.

Haley Webb (1985)

Yani Gellman (1985) Ashkenazi Jewish, possibly other.

Giulia Michelini (1985)

Lewis Hamilton (1985) Afro Grenadian / White.

Eréndira Ibarra (1985) Mexican - is bisexual.

Karim Kassem (1986) Egyptian / Egyptian Jewish.

Mihaela Drăgan (1986) Romani - is queer.

Asim Chaudhry (1986) Pakistani.

Jenna Coleman (1986) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Diane Guerrero (1986) Colombian.

Whitney Greyton (1986) Black South African / Namibian - is queer (she/they).

Fahriye Evcen (1986) Turkish.

Amber Riley (1986) African-American.

Ericka Hart (1986) African-American - is non-binary femme, queer, and polyamorous (she/they).

Lido Pimienta (1986) Colombian [Wayuu, Afro-Colombian] - is queer.

Mihaela Dragan (1986) Romani.

DJ Snake (1986) Algerian / French.

Alba Flores (1986) Romani, Spanish [including Andalusian] - is a lesbian.

Saagar Shaikh (1986) Pakistani.

Mustafa Ali (1986) Pakistani.

Lily Gladstone (1986) Kainai Blackfoot, Amskapi Pikuni Blackfoot, Nez Perce, Dutch, Cajun - she/they.

Pidgeon Pagonis (1986) Mexican and Greek - is intersex and non-binary (they/them).

Guz Khan (1986) Pakistani.

Eugene Lee Yang (1986) Korean - is gay.

Bob the Drag Queen (1986) African-American - is polyamorous, pansexual and non-binary (he/her).

Asim Chaudhry (1986/87) Pakistani.

Marwa Agrebi (1987) Tunisian.

Mercury Stardust (1987) - is non-binary trans femme (she/they).

Sasha Velour (1987) Russian Jewish / Ukrainian, other - is genderfluid (she/they when not in drag, she while in drag).

Susan Wokoma (1987) Nigerian.

Munroe Bergdorf (1987) Afro Jamaican / English - is trans.

Michael B. Jordan (1987) African-American.

Juliana Huxtable (1987) African-American - is trans.

Nicola Coughlan (1987)

Anjana Vasan (1987) Tamil Indian.

Pearl Mackie (1987) West Indian / English - is bisexual.

Erika Ishii (1987) Japanese - is genderfluid (she/they/any) - also posted on Brennan’s post: “Thank you for always being thoughtful with your advocacy and direct in your action. From the river to the sea.”

Michaela Coel (1987) Ghanaian - is aromantic, boycotted the Sydney Festival 2022 for Palestine.

Carina Shero (1988)

Joe Cole (1988)

Elsa Hosk (1988)

Kendrick Sampson (1988) African-American / English, Scottish, German, Cajun/French, Danish, Norwegian.

Kelly Piquet (1988) Brazilian.

Navild Acosta (1988) African-American - is non-binary queer (he/him).

Brennan Lee Mulligan (1988)

Swara Bhasker (1988) Indian.

Aiysha Hart (1988) Saudi Arabian and English.

John Early (1988) - is gay.

Sabrina Dhowre Elba (1988) Somali.

Joel Kim Booster (1988) Korean - is gay and has bipolar disorder.

Gratiela Brancusi (1989) Romani and Greek Romanian.

Frank Waln (1989) Sicangu Oyate Lakota Sioux.

Rakeen Saad (1989) Jordadian.

Morfydd Clark (1989)

Mary Lambert (1989) - is a lesbian.

Meyne Wyatt (1989) Wongutha and Yamatji.

Dina Torkia (1989) Egyptian / English.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe (1989) Afro Barbadian and Afro Jamaican - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Laith Ashley (1989) Afro Dominican - is a trans man and asexual.

Shea Couleé / Jaren Kyei Merrell (1989) African-American - non-binary (they but she/her while in drag).

Emma Watson (1990)

Mitski (1990) Japanese / White.

Arrows Fitz (1990) African-American - is non-binary (he/they/she/it).

Shirine Boutella (1990) Algerian.

Luke Baines (1990)

Julia Jacklin (1990)

Josh O’Connor (1990) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Paapa Essiedu (1990) Ghanaian - and donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Lolly Adefope (1990) Yoruba Nigerian.

Tabria Majors (1990) African-American.

Rosaline Elbay (1990) Egyptian.

Katie Findlay (1990) English, Hongkonger, Portuguese-Macanese, Scottish - is queer (they/them).

Poppy Liu (1990) Chinese - is non-binary (she/they).

Shareena Clanton (1990) Blackfoot, Cherokee, African-American, Wangkatha, Yamatji, Noongar, Gija.

Maren Morris (1990)

Kiowa Gordon (1990) Hualapai, White.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock (1991) Afro Barbadian and Jamaican.

Joe Alwyn (1991)

Emily Ratajkowski (1991)

Jari Jones (1991) African-American / Filipino - is trans.

Vico Ortiz (1991) Puerto Rican - non-binary (they/them).

Denée Benton (1991) African-American.

Dylan O'Brien (1991)

Bonnie Wright (1991)

Ramy Youssef (1991) Egyptian.

Sarah Kameela Impey (1991) Indo-Guyanese / British.

Ali Burak Ceylan (1991) Turkish.

Seychelle Gabriel (1991) French, Mexican / Italian, including Sicilian - also has Spoken up for Sudan.

Alexa Nikolas (1992)

Emma D’Arcy (1992) - is non-binary (they/them).

Jarvis Johnson (1992) Unspecified.

Tasha Cloud (1992) African-American - is a lesbian.

Jess Bush (1992)

Rosa Robson (1992) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Jade Thirlwall (1992) English, three eights Arab [Egyptian, Yemeni], small amount of Scottish.

Faia Younan (1992) Syrian.

Merhan Keller (1992) Egyptian.

Julien Solomita (1992)

Pauline Chalamet (1992) Ashkenazi Jewish / English, Scottish, Irish, French.

Hari Nef (1992) Ashkenazi Jewish - is a trans woman.

Paloma Elsesser (1992) African-American / Chilean-Swiss.

Katie Gavin / MUNA (1992) - is queer.

Rupi Kaur (1992) Punjabi Indian.

Joana Ribeiro (1992)

Medalion Rahimi (1992) Iranian, Iranian Jewish - uses she/they.

Conor Mason / Nothing But Thieves (1992)

Rose Matafeo (1992) Samoan / Scottish and Croatian.

Zaqi Ismail (1992) Tanzanian.

Cailin Russo (1993)

Tara Emad (1993) Egyptian / Yugoslav Montenegrin.

Younes Bendjima (1993) Algerian.

Bobbi Salvör Menuez (1993) - is trans non-binary (they/them).

Stormzy (1993) Ghanaian.

Chance the Rapper (1993) African-American.

Raveena Aurora (1993) Punjabi Indian.

Naomi McPherson / MUNA (1993) West Indian and Irish - is queer and nonbinary (they/them).

Freddy Carter (1993)

Ghali (1993) Tunisian.

Jordan Alexander (1993) German, Irish, African-American.

Charlotte Day Wilson (1993)

Mia Khalifa (1993) Lebanese.

Maria Thattil (1993) Indian.

AJ Tracey (1994) Afro-Trinidadian / Welsh.

Ben Barlow (1994)

Asia Jackson (1994) Ibaloi Filipino and African American.

Isabella Roland (1994) Jewish.

Josette Maskin / MUNA (1994) Jewish - is queer and nonbinary (she/they).

Aimee Lou Wood (1994)

Rose Williams (1994)

Joseph Quinn (1994) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Jasmin Savoy Brown (1994) African-American / English, German, one quarter Norwegian, some Scots-Irish/Northern Irish - is queer.

Theo Tiedemann (1994) Asian - is trans non-binary and gay (he/they).

Little Simz (1994) Yoruba Nigerian.

Huda Elmufti (1994) Egyptian.

Dylan Gelula (1994) Ashkenazi Jewish / Unspecified.

Arsema Thomas (1994) Nigerian / Ethiopian - is non-binary (she/they).

Earl Sweatshirt (1994) Black South African.

Kurtis Conner (1994)

Julien Baker (1995) - is a lesbian.

Kehlani (1995) African-American, French, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Spanish, Mexican, Filipino, Scottish, English, German, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Choctaw - non-binary womxn, lesbian and polyamorous - she/they.

Achraf Koutet (1995) Moroccan.

Lucy Dacus (1995) - is queer.

Jack Wolfe (1995) - is queer - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Daniel Caesar (1995) Afro Barbadian and Jamaican.

Archie Madekwe (1995) Igbo Nigerian (one quarter), White.

Jazzelle / Jazzeppi Zanaughtti (1995) Afircan-American.

Elvina Mohamad (1995) Malaysian.

Stanzi Potenza (1995) - is non-binary (she/they) - has epilepsy and ADHD.

Willow Pill (1995) - is trans femme, has cystinosis and is autistic.

Bree Kish (1996) ¼ Black.

Alessia Cara (1996)

CMAT / Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson (1996) - is bisexual.

Josefine Frida Pettersen (1996)

María Isabel (1996) Dominican.

Mustafa the Poet (1996) Sudanese.

Lorde (1996)

Florence Pugh (1996)

Lowkey (1986) Iraqi / English.

Denzel Curry (1995) Afro Bahamian and Unspecified Native American.

Brandon Soo Hoo (1995) Chinese.

Lily Gao (1995) Chinese.

Halema Hussain (1995) - Sylheti.

Jessie Mei Li (1995) Hongkonger / English - is a gender non-conforming woman who uses she/they.

Grace Van Dien (1996)

Diana Veras (1996) Dominican.

Abdelhamid Sabiri (1996) Moroccan.

Lauren Jauregui (1996) Cuban [Spanish, possibly other], likely some Basque - is bisexual.

Ally Beardsley (1996) - is non-binary (they/them).

Thea Sofie Loch Naess (1996)

AURORA (1996)

Leo Sheng (1996) Chinese - is a trans man.

Imaan Hammam (1996) Moroccan / Egyptian.

Tavi Gevinson (1996) Ashkenazi Jewish / Norwegian [converted to Judaism].

Quintessa Swindell (1997) African-American / White - is non-binary (they/he).

070 Shake (1997) Dominican - doesn't like to put labels on her sexuality.

Zara Larsson (1997)

Faye Webster (1997)

Alison Oliver (1997) - donated an auction to Cinema4Gaza.

Juliette Motamed (1997) Iranian.

Madeline Ford (1997)

Asa Butterfield (1997)

Scene Queen (1997)

Micheal Ward (1997) Afro Jamaican.

Xiran Jay Zhao (1997) Hui Chinese - is non-binary (they/them).

Lori Harvey (1997) African-American.

Mayan El Sayed (1997) Egyptian.

Hania Aamir (1997) Pakistani.

Sisi Stringer (1997) African Australian.

Omar Apollo (1997) Mexican - is gay.

Kaiit (1997) Papuan / Gunditjmara, Torres Strait Islander - is non-binary (she/he/they).

Piper Curda (1997) Korean / English, Scottish - is apsec.

Iman Meskini (1997) Tunisian / Norweigan - is pro Palestine!

Clara Nieblas (1997) Mexican.

Janella Salvador (1998) Bisaya Filipino.

Ethel Cain (1998) - is a trans bisexual woman.

Joanna Pincerato (1998) Mexican, Syrian. Swedish and Italian.

Joanna Arida (1998) Jordadian.

Chella Man (1998) Hongkonger and Jewish - is deaf, trans genderqueer and pansexual (he/they).

Benedetta Porcaroli (1998)

Em / Not Even Emily / Still Not Emily (1998) Taiwanese / Chinese.

Luna Carmoon (1998)

Gretta Ray (1998)

Clairo (1998) - is bisexual and has juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

SANTAN / Dave (1998) Edo Nigerian.

Salsabiela A. (1998) Unspecified.

Ariela Barer (1998) Mexican, Ashkenazi Jewish.

Celeste O'Connor (1998) Kenyan - is non-binary (they/them).

Wegz (1998) Egyptian.

Jessica Alexander (1999)

Rafaela Plastira (1999)

Minami Gessel (1999) Japanese / Ashkenazi Jewish.

Kenna Sharp (1999) - is queer.

Samara Joy (1999) African-American.

Sab Zada (1999) Chinese, Filipino, and Hispanic.

Zoe Terakes (2000) Greek Australian - trans masc non-binary guy (they/he).

Anthony Lexa (2000) - is a trans woman.

Marissa Bode (2000) African-American - is disabled.

Odessa A'zion (2000) Ashkenazi Jewish, English, some Irish, Northern Irish, Welsh, German.

Reneé Rapp (2000) - is a lesbian.

Celia Rose Gooding (2000) African-American - bisexual and gray asexual, uses she/they - also saw somewhere they don't like being called a woman.

Lucas Jade Zumann (2000) Ashkenazi Jewish / possibly German.

Cat Burns (2000) Liberian - is queer, autistic and has ADHD.

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (2001) Tamil.

Andria Tayeh (2001) Jordanian and Lebanese.

Freya Allan (2001)

Ari Notartomaso (2001) - is non-binary (they/he).

Rachel Zegler (2001) Colombian / White.

Maria Guardiola (2001)

Hope Ikpoku Jnr (2001) Black British.

Morgan Davies (2001) - is a trans man.

Corey Maison (2001) - is a trans woman.

Ahmet Haktan Zavlak (2001) Turkish.

Kei Kurosawa (2001) Bisaya Filipino and Japanese.

Rhea Norwood (2001) - has type 1 diabetes.

Aaron Rose Philip (2001) Afro-Antiguan - is a trans woman who has cerebral palsy.

Denise Julia (2002) Filipino.

Nessa Barrett (2002) Puerto Rican.

Yara Mustafa (2002) Jordanian.

Iris Apatow / Iris Scot (2002) Ashkenazi Jewish / Irish, Scottish, Finnish, German.

Kosar Ali (2003) Somali.

Paris Paloma (?)

Madeleine Hyland (?)

Bobby Sanchez (?) Peruvian [Quechua] - is Two-Spirit and trans, uses she/her sometimes they/they).

Nick Hakim (?) Chilean / Peruvian.

Micaela López Bianchi (?) Argentinian.

Jas Lin (?) Taiwanese - is queer (they/them).

Georgia Maq (?)

Eddy Mack (?) Jordanian.

Ellie Kim / SuperKnova (?) Korean - genderfluid, transgender woman (she/her).

Alexia Roditis / Destory Boys (?) - uses they/them.

Violet Mayugba / Destory Boys (?)

Narsai Malik / Destory Boys (?)

David Orozco / Destory Boys (?)

Neil Turner / Los Campesinos! (?)

Tom Bromley / Los Campesinos! (?)

Kim Paisey / Los Campesinos! (?)

Rob Taylor / Los Campesinos! (?)

Jason Adelinia/ Los Campesinos! (?)

Matt Fidler / Los Campesinos! (?)

Raul Briones (?) Mexican.

Britton Smith (?) Black.

Farrah / farrahescapes (?) Emirati.

CJ / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Pangasinense Filipino.

Gian / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Pangasinense Filipino.

Rapha / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Pangasinense Filipino.

Gab / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Pangasinense Filipino.

Sevii / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Ilocano Filipino.

Xen / Cup of Jo / cupofjoemusic_ (early 20's) Ilocano Filipino.

Grey Gritt (?) Ojibwe and Metis - is genderqueer (they/them).

Elaine Crombie (?) Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Warrigmay, South Sea Islander, and White.

Nori Reed (?) Korean / Unspecified - is non-binary (she/her).

Shahd Khidir (?) Sudanese.

Arewà Basit (?) Black - uses she/they.

Majid Al Maskati / Majid Jordan (?) Bahraii.

Jordan Ullman / Majid Jordan (?)

+ please let me know if you want more!

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: November 23, 2024

Reworked Character #1: Marco Rossi

POTENTIAL TRIGGER: Viewer discretion is advised due to references to neglect, self-harm, alcoholism, SA, death, and torture.

Real name: Marchrius Dennis Rossi

Alias: Intelligent Soldier

Occupation: Major of the P.F. Squad

Retirement plans: Become a mechatronics engineer, foster a bunch of kittens, and start a company that designs and develops functional computer models, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity programs for both military and civilian usage

Special skills: Proficiency in lightweight firearms, mechatronics engineering, computer science, intimidation tactics, and drunken-style boxing

Hobbies: Creating artificial intelligence and technological viruses from scratch, calculating complex mathematical equations and running times of computer programs in his head, taking naps at his desk, completing crossword puzzles, and stargazing

Likes: Cat cafes, maintaining his manliness, his quick mental calculation, going on smoke breaks with Tarma, Eri, and Tequila, and subway rides where there are little to no people around him

Dislikes: Large lines in front of restaurants, being wrongfully distracted from work, spending vast quantities of time away from Perifa and Midori, computer crashes paired with slow Internet, and torture

Favourite food: Chinese noodles (preferably its mildly spicy) and barbecued burgers and hotdogs with onions and honey-flavoured carrots

Sexuality: Sex-repulsed, aromantic asexual

Gender: Male

Age: 17 (in 2022), 23 (in 2028), 25 (in 2030), 27 (in 2032), 29 (in 2034), 36 (in 2041), 38 (in 2043), 39 (in 2044), and 42 (in 2047)

Blood type: A-

Weight: 162 lbs. (73.48 cm)

Design: He's a 5' 7" (170.18 cm) Italian-American ectomorph with an average musculature, broad shoulders, ivory skin, a cleft chin, and dull turquoise eyes. Marco sports wavy strawberry blonde hair, characterised by a large forelock that falls to the tip of his nose on the right side. On the left, two short, thick strands with subtle waves curve gracefully above his eyebrow. His features are further accentuated by well-groomed sideburns and a neatly trimmed chinstrap beard.

He bears occasional dark circles under his eyes and a distinctive glass left eye in a lighter turquoise hue. He has accumulated several battle scars: a few stab wounds on his right shoulder; vertical cuts on his chest; a deep slice mark extending from the left side of his nose bridge to the back of his trapezius muscle; multiple lacerations and severe burns on his back; a large patch of scar tissue on his right lumbar region; and bullet wounds on both calves and one on his left thigh. To cope with his emotional pain, he has a history of self-harm, which has resulted in the horizontal scars visible on his right forearm, hips, and inner thighs.

He's well-known for his cutting-edge, cybernetic left arm crafted from sleek, high-strength metallic alloys and advanced, artificially intelligent flexi-circuits, allowing for enhanced strength, agility, dexterity, and precision. It also has micro-sensors and neural interfaces seamlessly integrating with Marco’s nervous system for intuitive control. It possesses a high-strength, serrated blade made of tungsten, capable of extending up to 12 inches (30.48 cm) from the forearm. It can temporarily deploy an energy shield that surrounds him, providing protection from incoming attacks. This shield is powered by advanced capacitors and optimised for maximum efficiency using AI technology.

Marco's military gear consists of a white headband, a metal dog tag necklace with his name, and a platinum grey sleeveless shirt. He wears a crimson vest with four pockets and an embroidered logo of the P.F. Squad on the back, alongside khaki-green army cargo pants tucked into his olive green paratrooper boots. He also wears a leather belt with a snap-on silver buckle, mahogany gloves, a sheath for his combat knife, and a gun holster for his trusty handgun. The pockets of Marco's army cargo pants carry two boxes of cigars, while his vest contains a gilded lighter he found in Gerhardt City, a black case for his garnet-hued reading glasses, and an old photograph of pre-teen him, his father, and his childhood cat on a leash at a park during autumn.

Over his shirt, he wears a Soldier Plate Carrier System (SPCS) with a MultiCam pattern, which carries his walkie-talkie and ammo for other firearms. His right forearm is wrapped in worn gauze, and he wears two black bandoliers that form an X-shape, holding bullets for his handgun. Marco carries a khaki-green load-bearing backpack containing camping equipment, tactical explosives, portable ammo boxes, a canteen full of water, a Gatling shot, and a thunder shot. He's always carrying around a red-orange laptop adorned with a bronze circle on the lid, housing a black six-pointed star at its centre. This custom laptop serves as his mobile command centre, where he develops malware to breach enemy cybersecurity, tackles various classified technological assignments for the military, and works on personal software projects.

He wears his father's circular, gilded watch on his right wrist, using it to check the time as a reminder of his father's enduring presence and an opportunity to seek guidance from the past. The timepiece features an ivory dial with burgundy hands and black Roman numerals from I to XII, interspersed with four thin etchings. Additional details include a secondary display bar showing the time and AM/PM indicator, while a leather strap is secured with a matching gold buckle.

Character summary: He's a charismatic and cautious leader who takes immense pride in his high intellect, computer expertise, and masculinity. He's a self-reliant introvert who prefers to accept help and emotional support from others when absolutely necessary. His stoic demeanour is a constant, making it challenging for him to show humour or vulnerability. Due to being a workaholic, he has developed a harmful habit of neglecting his own basic needs, including eating when necessary. He mainly struggles with loneliness because he finds it difficult to form meaningful connections due to his exceptionally high intellect, which can make it challenging for others who may not be able to keep up with his level of understanding. He also struggles with major depressive disorder, trust issues, a fear of abandonment, and unresolved trauma stemming from past experiences. While Marco tends to internalise his emotions, he has learned to open up to trusted individuals when his burdens become too overwhelming to bear alone.

Despite his gentle and taciturn nature, he's capable of being ruthless and will fly into a deep rage when General Morden's name is mentioned near him. When interrogating others, he employs a menacing tone, his aloof demeanour making those on the receiving end feel uneasy and intimidated. He doesn't hesitate to wield threats of violence or exploit vulnerabilities, and with Trevor by his side, his intimidation factor is amplified. He's a socially awkward loner who doesn't tolerate distractions and has a strong fear of losing his current friends.

When experiencing great distress in relation to past trauma, he's prone to having a full-blown mental breakdown and indulging in suicidal ideation. Marco tends to get stressed easily, which has led to him developing a chain-smoking habit. He privately grapples with self-harm and binge drinking, often consuming multiple beers at once, while concealing his struggles with alcoholism and suicidal thoughts from those around him. He attempts to conceal his struggles with alcoholism by either excessively partying or withdrawing socially, and privately harms himself due to his reluctance to burden others or cause unnecessary concern. Additionally, he struggles with denial, finding it difficult to accept the loss of his father and former war comrades, and resisting the idea that he needs professional mental health support.

He has a dry sense of humour that he rarely showcases, and when he does, his witty remarks often blend English and Italian. Having learned some Japanese from Tarma and Eri, he occasionally sprinkles Japanese phrases into his jokes. He deeply cares about his friends and will stop at nothing to protect them, even if it means putting his own life at risk. He finds great comfort in the presence of his best friend, Tarma, thanks to his breezy and optimistic attitude. Although he doesn't always show it, he genuinely enjoys Tarma's jokes and appreciates listening to them, even if they occasionally test his patience. Additionally, he cherishes his calico shorthair cat, Perifa, a heartwarming birthday gift he received from Fio prior to the Survival Island Occupation.

He’s in a polyamorous queerplatonic relationship with Fio and Tarma, a bond that satisfies his deep-seated longing for emotional intimacy. He’s close friends with Trevor, regularly mentoring him in computer skills like reading binary code and enjoying social time together, but their occasional marijuana use has raised concerns due to Marco's pre-existing unhealthy smoking habits. He holds Tequila in high esteem, recognizing his pivotal contributions to the success of the Regular Army and S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. special forces unit. He deeply values his wisdom, open-mindedness, fatherly demeanour, and exceptional covert agent skills. He dislikes accompanying Nadia on shopping trips because her constant meddling and overly inquisitive nature frustrate him.

Having never experienced raising children, he had always doubted his ability to provide love and be a good parental figure, consumed as he was by his own interests and mental health issues. But everything changed on Christmas, in the aftermath of the Unforeseen Invader Conquest, when he adopted an abandoned baby girl. With the guidance and support of his friends, he discovered valuable parenting skills and named his new daughter Midori. He transformed into a loving, supportive, and overprotective father, dedicated to ensuring her happiness and safety. He made it a point to offer wise advice, hoping to spare her from his own past mistakes.

He found immense joy in watching Midori form close bonds with his friends, affectionately regarding them as uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Her friendship with Pocke, Walter's adoptive son and a Martian infant, brought him equal delight. He was particularly grateful for the ways his friends nurtured Midori's passions: Tarma and Alisa encouraged her interest in engineering, while Walter and Trevor fostered her love of music. He can't imagine a world without his adoptive daughter, who has brought him a new sense of purpose and motivated him to overcome his personal hardships.

He often mistakes Sophia Greenville for his mother due to their similar appearance, and he's always embarrassed when he accidentally calls her "mom”. Nevertheless, he's deeply grateful for the maternal affection she shows him, treating him like a son and unknowingly becoming the kind of mother he wishes he had. He finds comfort in spending quality time with his cat, affectionately referred to as his "dramatic little princess”. He enjoys engaging in playtime, giving gentle pets, and even using soothing baby talk to calm his feline companion. He's easily offended by people who rudely insult cats, going as far as to comfort the insulted feline and silently glaring at the person who uttered such words.

Whenever he's had too much to drink, he starts to act rowdy, easy-going, overly affectionate, and clingy. When sexual activity is mentioned, he reacts with extreme discomfort as he finds it to be disgusting. He’ll either become nauseous or start gagging, displaying expressions of strong distaste towards the person discussing the topic. If he unexpectedly encounters someone engaging in sexual activity, he often experiences a panic attack, feeling lightheaded and overwhelmed. In such situations, he usually tries to seek comfort and support from a trusted individual to talk to and receive a reassuring hug. This experience may also trigger unpleasant thoughts related to sexual matters, leading him to fear that he's somehow perverted and disgusting. He'll only lose his temper with others if they say something extremely rude to him or his friends, intend to hurt his loved ones or tell him blatant lies. Although he tends to have a pessimistic outlook on life, he sometimes manages to see the brighter side of things. 

He has a sleepwalking habit, often accompanied by vivid dreams of fighting or killing someone, which greatly annoys and frightens Tarma, who’s frequently the target of these nocturnal episodes. He resents being hailed as a war hero due to his intense aversion to fame and his conviction that conflict should prompt sombre reflection, not glorification. He dislikes flirtatious advances and has low tolerance for complaining, bullying or excessive talking, which can trigger irritability and extreme defensiveness. He feels uneasy with romantic inquiries and is secretly intimidated by Gimlet, whose rape threats, relentless verbal aggression, and frequent heated confrontations leave him on edge. He has a commanding presence that demands respect, and his consistently serious demeanour can make him seem intimidating and unapproachable to others.

He's incredibly introspective and prone to questioning the intentions of his friends and his own worthiness of having meaningful friendships. He defines his masculinity by embodying traits like physical strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness. However, he makes a conscious effort to avoid toxic masculinity by ensuring his behaviour doesn't harm others' feelings or self-worth. Despite this balanced approach, he admits to having some vanity regarding specific issues he considers unbefitting of his ideal masculinity, such as sagging pants and carrying toys, as he sees these as detrimental to personal dignity. Whenever he encounters a pair of glowing red eyes, he's either deeply unsettled or irresistibly drawn to them, captivated by their aura of curiosity and command. This hesitant fascination occasionally leads him to wander aimlessly until it directs him to a destination of its choosing.

He’s a consequentialist who believes people's actions are judged by their consequences. He thinks it's more logical for individuals to prioritise not causing harm to others and maximising the welfare of both themselves and others over personal gain. In his view, everyone should act in ways that benefit themselves and others, taking into account fully informed and rational preferences. He believes that all conflicts are gradually moving towards equitable unification and collective strength for humanity, paving the way for a new era free from violence, hate, and political corruption. From his perspective, all life forms have the capacity for destruction, and if their creative drive is surpassed, it can lead to severe consequences, ultimately undermining the act of creation.

Backstory: Marchrius Dennis Rossi was born on April 13, 2005 in Twin Falls, Idaho, United States. Marco's mother, Katalina, was a researcher for a secret government project, and his father, Salvatore Rossi, was stuck in a dead-end office job. His parents had a distant relationship and had Marco, hoping that a child would bring them closer together and fix their broken marriage, but they often ignored each other and argued. Katalina had never wanted Marco, viewing him as an unplanned consequence and a responsibility that hindered her career. His father provided unwavering support and care, while his mother was neglectful and emotionally absent, hiding her true behaviour behind closed doors. But despite this, Marco shocked his parents by exhibiting a fast-growing intelligence at a very young age.

From the moment he opened his eyes, he muttered his first word, "daddy". He learned how to walk at 3 months old and showed advanced motor skills by 5 and a half months. He skipped object permanence altogether and completed his first crossword puzzle at just 1 year old, astonishingly understanding political terms. By the age of 2, he had memorised all 50 U.S. states and read two books in their entirety, demonstrating a profound understanding of their documented subjects: moral philosophy and psychoanalysis. By 4, he was answering calculus-level questions and describing his feelings about endangered animals in zoos with sophisticated vocabulary.

From the age of 2, he would occasionally see a pair of glowing red eyes in darkened corners or places drenched in darkness. He described them as always watching him and swore that they belonged to a living, breathing creature that seamlessly blended into the darkness. When he turned 5, he created an imaginary friend as an excuse to enjoy his alone time and avoid befriending the children who frequented the local park. This imaginary friend was named "Jubby", and Marco often drew him, depicting him as an anthropomorphic snow leopard with golden eagle wings, Komodo dragon legs, and a face covered in a ball of black scribbles.

Before he turned 6, his neglectful mother, Katalina, grew fed up with how "weird" he was. She was also annoyed by his persistent fear of a glowing pair of red eyes that watched him occasionally and his uninterested attitude towards forming connections. While Salvatore was away from home, Katalina took matters into her own hands and packed her belongings. Before leaving, she noticed Marco standing before the basement door, which was wide open. She investigated and saw the same glowing pair of red eyes, which terrified her.

Believing that Marco was attracting an evil spirit, she pushed him down the basement stairs and locked the door, hoping to contain the perceived threat. Abandoning Marco, she left the house, leaving him absolutely terrified. Marco attempted to cope with the trauma by conjuring up Jubby, but he claimed that his imaginary friend never came to his aid. This painful realisation marked the day he began to harbour resentment towards his mother, feeling unappreciated, unloved, and viewed as a burdensome presence in her life. When Salvatore returned home and discovered that Marco was trapped in the basement by Katalina, he was infuriated. His father attempted to track down Katalina, but it was too late. This traumatic event instilled in him a lasting fear of heading down into dark basements alone.

During his time in grade 1, Marco struggled to make friends and often looked sad when he saw other children with their mothers, a concern his father noticed. To cheer him up, his father brought home a Turkish Angora with a black, orange, and white fur coat, which sparked Marco's love for felines. As a result of his childhood cat's fondness for eating bugs, he affectionately named her Grubley. At the age of five, his father introduced him to the world of computing, igniting a passion for computer science that would last a lifetime. Salvatore was always supportive of Marco and his passions, encouraging him to excel in school, chase his dreams, and make the most of the opportunities life has to offer.

Marco knew he had an uncle, but his father forbade him from seeing him. Salvatore had warned him that his uncle was untrustworthy due to his con artist lifestyle and struggled with alcoholism. However, he was permitted to visit his aunt and grandparents, who were incredibly kind. They encouraged him to appreciate nature and the simple things in life, rather than spending all his time on the computer. He has fond memories of his grandfather teaching him how to barbecue. His grandmother, an immigrant from Italy, taught him some Italian and often shared photographs she had taken in her home country before moving to the United States.

His father unknowingly sparked his interest in the Tuatha Dé Danann, an ancient race of demigods that existed before all life, and two antediluvian places, Atlantis and Ultima Thule. He would silently observe his father spend a short amount of time researching these fascinating topics when not working. Marco would eventually discover that he has a slight hint of Tuatha Dé Danann DNA, leading him to wonder if others might also have ancestral ties tracing back to the Hadean Eon.

He was bullied by many students for being perceived as "friendless" and for having an abnormally high intelligence, leaving him feeling isolated. A few students attempted to befriend him, but he rebuffed their efforts, fearing they would eventually abandon him. He also struggled to connect with them on an intellectual level, feeling like an outsider. During high school, he was involved in a few physical altercations, but he typically managed to defuse the situations with his words or, if necessary, defend himself relentlessly. In his spare time, he mastered the unconventional art of drunken-style boxing, giving him an edge in self-defence. Despite his school troubles, he excelled in all his classes and achieved outstanding grades in mathematics and computer science courses.

Before graduating from a state technical high school, Salvatore died due to health complications caused by Huntington's disease. Shortly after, Marco's beloved cat, Grubley, peacefully passed away in her sleep. Marco was devastated by these losses, compounded by the shocking revelation that his father had been secretly battling Huntington's disease without ever sharing his struggle with him. The last gift his father gave him was a red-orange laptop, which was intended to be a graduation present. Rather than letting the tragedy consume him, he transformed his grief into a driving force, cultivating resilience and independence. To move forward, he made the difficult decision to distance himself from his remaining family, seeking to leave the past behind and forge a new path.

He began developing artificial intelligence to engage in online debates and sophisticated computer software, including anti-viruses and error-checking tools, as a means to earn a living and hone his programming skills. He went so far as to meticulously rebuild and upgrade the desktop computer in his father's old office at home, enhancing both its design and performance. Marco decided to attend officer's school at the Academy of Special Technologies and subsequently joined the prestigious Peregrine Falcons Squad shortly after graduation.

Unlike many of his peers, he quickly distinguished himself through his exceptional leadership skills and computer expertise, earning him a spot as 1st Lieutenant of the P.F. Squad. This was also when he met Tarma, forming a fast friendship after discussing their interests, reminiscing on their childhoods, and having a couple of beers. Tarma was his first real friend, whom he holds dear, despite viewing him as a “maniacal gearhead”. Through his friendship with Tarma, he discovered the value of having friends and stepped out of his comfort zone to befriend the other members of the P.F. Squad and Regular Army. He would also gradually develop a queerplatonic relationship with Tarma as he deeply cherished their friendship and came to realise that it filled a void of emotional intimacy left by his father's passing.

During his time in the P.F. Squad, Marco created a computer virus for fun, which inadvertently spread to the Regular Army's mainframe server. The virus destroyed several security systems, compromised the lowest echelons of the Regular Army, and nearly triggered the launch of a nuclear missile. Fortunately, a military scout named Trevor, whom Marco would meet years later during his recruitment into the P.F. Squad, managed to stop it. Marco refuses to discuss this potentially disastrous incident, even after a few too many beers.

When the Amadeus Syndicate served as the scientific and medical branch of the Regular Army, Marco met Doctor Amadeus, the organisation's founder and Nadia's clone mother. They had a cordial relationship, and Doctor Amadeus was particularly impressed by Marco's exceptional computer skills. She wanted to utilise his talents for a bioengineering experiment, aiming to create super soldiers using abandoned Martian and Invader technology.

During a battle against a terrorist attack, Marco suffered severe injuries and was taken to one of the original Amadeus Syndicate's medical facilities to recover. Doctor Amadeus seized this opportunity to force herself upon him to collect semen and DNA samples, leaving him deeply traumatised. The experience was so distressing that Marco tried to suppress the memory, inadvertently forgetting much of the history and purpose of the Amadeus Syndicate in the process. He also swore his revenge to kill Doctor Amadeus one day for what she did to him. As a result of this event, he began to act strangely anxious and slightly aggressive when in a hospital or near Nadia for prolonged periods of time.

During the first coup led by General Morden, he scraped together the remnants of the Regular Army government forces to reassemble the P.F. Squad. He became the leader of the governmental resistance against General Morden but at a great cost. As he, his comrades, and his friends were approaching the last known base of the Rebel Army, disaster struck. General Morden and his soldiers ambushed them, seizing the opportunity to decimate the remnants of the P.F. Squad, leaving Marco with mental and physical scars that would haunt him forever. 

Marco endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of General Morden, Allen O'Neil, and the Rebel soldiers, who brutally tortured him, gouged out his left eye, and severed his left arm. After experiencing a strange tingling sensation of familiarity, General Morden realised that Marco possessed Tuatha Dé Danann heritage. Intrigued, he discreetly collected DNA samples from Marco, which would later be utilised by the Amadeus Syndicate for experimentation in bioengineering and advanced military technology. The cruelty continued as Morden forced Marco to witness the slaughter and torture of his comrades and friends. Devastated by the losses and horrors he experienced, Marco teetered on the brink of giving up. He was even convinced that his best friend, Tarma, had perished, plunging him into a deep depression. 

However, Tarma managed to escape the Rebel Army's clutches and staged a daring rescue, reuniting with Marco. With Tarma's emotional support and his own newfound rage, Marco found the strength to keep fighting. Before confronting General Morden, Tarma constructed his prosthetic left arm using technological debris and cutting-edge medical technology available to the Regular Army. However, it took him a couple of weeks to adapt to his new limb. Together, they became legendary heroes, ultimately defeating Morden and restoring world peace. Marco's bravery earned him the rank of Major, but he soon grew to resent his war hero status as he realised that the media often glorifies conflict.

Marco continued to lead the P.F. Squad together with Tarma, who is the true linchpin of the elite task force of the Regular Army. Marco joined forces with Tarma, Fio, and Eri for a second mission to thwart General Morden's second coup. Although the mission technically failed, as they captured a Martian troop from the Pipovulaj Army disguised as General Morden, the Regular Army's higher-ups deemed it a success nonetheless. This moment got on Marco's nerves as he deeply desired to see General Morden brought to justice and face the full consequences of his actions.

Following this success, Marco attempted to resign, but his higher-ups quickly denied his request. They insisted on his participation in a mission to eliminate the remaining remnants of the Rebel Army and other operations addressing threats to global peace such as the Pipovulaj Army.

[darlingshane]

the big bad pineapple

Frank Castle x GN!Reader

Rating: G

Word Count: 703

Summary: Frank thinks you have a terrible taste in pizza.

Content/Warnings: Crack, Fluff, Eating, Pizza, Established Relationship, Gun Mention.

Prompt: Frank/anyone, he's Italian and his partner puts pineapple on pizza and Frank's APPALLED. He can take torture but this is too much. – for @daredevilexchange's Prompt Fest.

– Read below or at AO3.

On your way home, you order a couple of pizzas for dinner and by the time you arrive, Frank has already invited himself into your apartment. As you close the door, you can see from the entryway he's made himself at home as usual, leaned back on the couch, with one foot propped on the edge of the coffee table, his hands busy scrubbing a shotgun with a brush, and an assortment of cleaning tools and weapons laid all around him.

“Hey.”

“Evening, sweetheart,” his lips curve up, glancing at you as you take off your coat and place your bag down before walking up to the couch.

Standing behind him, you hold his head and tilt it backwards as you lean forwards to capture his precious mouth. Your lips bounce thrice against his, and after the third he smiles as you press one more kiss on the bridge of his nose.

“Foot,” you semi-scold right after, straightening your posture.

“Sorry,” Frank scoffs, moving his boot away from the table. “Y’know, the fact that you care more about your little table than the guns is concerning.”

“Well, I refinished that all by myself. I care about my little table, the same way you care about your stupid guns. If I went stomping on them, you wouldn’t like that either, would you?”

“Fair enough. Won’t happen again.” He pauses his task and takes a good look at the table, “it ended up pretty good.”

“I know,” you really took pride in learning how to restore used furniture to make it look new, and that piece in particular is one of your favorites.

The doorbell rings while you’re changing into comfortable clothes, and it’s Frank who answers the door to collect your dinner from the deliverer.

After placing the two boxes on the breakfast bar, he opens the one on top, and as expected, you hear him grumbling and cursing from the bedroom when he discovers your chosen toppings for that one in particular. You had a craving for pineapple, and you ordered a second one specially for him, cause you’re pretty aware that your dear Frank doesn’t do pineapple on pizza.

He’s as simple as he’s stubborn.

“Would you relax and open the other one, grouchy smurf?” you pinch his butt as you walk behind him, “I got you one with sausage and mushroom.”

His face contorts in utter disgust as he slides that one to your side, “I don’t know how you can eat that.”

“To each their own, I guess.”

“I’d rather get shot in the head again,” he states, picking up a slice of his own pizza, folding it, and shoving half of it into his mouth.

“You know… you could just say thank you, for a change,” your eyes roll, grabbing a couple of refreshments from the fridge before sitting at the bar, “there’s no need to bash my taste in food.”

“Baby, you got a terrible taste in pizza, what can I say?”

“Said the one with an asbestos mouth,” you remark, side-eying him, “do I complain about your coffee breath? No, cause I don’t care. Guess I have a terrible taste in men, too.”

“I have coffee breath?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Say what you will, but coffee breath is normal. Pineapple on pizza? That’s an atrocity that shouldn’t even exist.”

“You’re insane, Frank. It’s just pineapple,” you let out a chuckle, digging into your delicious Hawaiian pizza, “have you even tried it?”

“Don’t need to.”

Grinning, you move the slice in your hand towards his mouth, “come on, have a little taste, baby. No one's gonna know the big bad punisher got an itty-bitty bite of pineapple pizza.”

He promptly swats your hand away, scowling, “keep that thing off my face.”

Amused, you shake your head and stop teasing him, no matter how entertaining it is to see him passionately hating something as harmless as pineapple on pizza.

There are some leftovers at the end and the next day, out of your sight, he takes a bite of your so-called atrocity to discover it is not as bad as he thought, but not in a million years he would ever admit that to you or anyone else for that matter.

[tuliptired]

Hiii!!! I love your fics sm ahhdhsbsb 🤭🤭🤭

Can I request a Ray or Egon one-shot with a GN or male rockstar reader? It could be present time or college days, I think them having a bit of gay panic would be fun, have a good day!!

Warrior in Woolworths

Pairing: Ray Stantz/Rockstar!Male!Reader

Warnings: Minor violence/blood

Shoutout to the Ray fans out there I salute you all

Better formatting on Ao3!! (italics and such)

 Ray pulled his trusty leather jacket closer to himself, hands in his pockets when a chill ran through the dark street. If he was going to this thing, he was gonna look the part.

He was given two tickets to a concert held in a venue he just couldn’t find. They were a gift- given to him by the short redheaded girl in his advanced algebra class for bringing all her work when she was stuck with tonsillitis.

“Gee, thanks!” Ray took the two slips of paper from her in the empty hallway. He pursed his lips, willing to take a chance. “Would you like to come with me?”

Her smile weakened. “I’m sorry. My boyfriend wouldn’t want me to.”

That crossed one person off the list, at least. In the moment, he wasn’t really trying to insinuate any sort of date. Back in high school, most of his friends were girls, and they loved live music. Their moms would get tons of pictures before they left and thank him for being such a good friend. College was surely complicating things.

He would’ve asked his sister, or one of his cousins, but they had their own things going on. Besides, the name of this band seemed a bit too extreme for his Aerosmith family. Where was this place, anyway? He’d circled the block at least twice, and the little part of New York felt more like a place where good kids whose parents paid for tuition shouldn’t be strolling around.

He had his friends- they were guys. Apparently guys were the ones to invite to concerts. But Peter wanted to have an early night. Which corner store did he have to solicit to get directions around here? Egon was a laughable option. Ray finally stopped his aimless wandering when a few kids in denim ran down the street, skipping down some steps and into the basement of a dimly lit dive.

Ray followed, the excitement and body heat of the minuscule hall spilling out when he opened the door, squeezing through and trying to hand a ticket to someone he assumed was supposed to handle them, though he was slumped back on a stool, smoke surrounded him. Ray just slipped the paper into a cardboard box filled with others, suddenly anxious at how packed it was. Even more smoke hazed up the air, floating up to a skylight and dancing above the heads of those who chose to hang off a balcony that wrapped around the room. He found himself imagining what this place used to be, velvety red remnants of what was once a hidden and cozy Italian place or even a comedy club covered up by large stage lights, posters, and spray paint.

Your little group made it out amidst screaming. Lots of screaming, so loud that the uproar alone shook his shabby barstool from the ground up. It was dark, the only things visible above countless people were the silhouettes of instruments and their attached handlers.

No introduction, no opener, just pure noise. Even bigger than the screaming, bass and bass drum fighting for capital over the space. Guitars cut through everything like a laser, sharp and clear. Everyone was going absolutely insane, and Ray just needed a second- just a second to pick apart sound and voices and words. 

The first song was over as soon as it started, a commotion of applause around him. The lights finally came up, ever so slightly, and he was starting to understand the hype. 

There you were, guitar around your shoulders and gripping a microphone like your life depended on it. You looked like you’d gone mad, in chunky boots and reflective leather.

“I’m pissed,” your voice rang out into the mic, and you were greeted with cheers across the board. When those died down, you started again. “People are trying to change what we do. They’re trying to make it something it’s not.”

You really knew how to get a crowd going. And maybe the butterflies in his stomach coming out of their cocoons- you sounded nothing like he expected. “Rock isn’t digestible. It isn’t a commodity. It’s dirty, it’s improper, it’s starved.”

The next song started after that. Harder, more aggressive, but more vocals than anything. You sang even better than you sounded. Ray could feel his bones rattling, hair sticking up on every part of his body as your fingers glided across your guitar. You played even better than you sang.

He stopped keeping track, at some point just feeling like pure energy. He was in a vacuum while the drummer hit the snare, a raging and vibrating vacuum. But it was far from unpleasant. This was a room full of people who had been wronged, downtrodden, ignored, and this was their release, musical or otherwise. Someone brought out a saxophone, something he could appreciate as a fellow woodwind. It helped that the frontman- frontperson? Was pretty damn good at what they did.

There was a slower song, sardonic and dark, where you were practically having relations with the microphone stand. Everything about you was teeming with a gnarly power, and Ray couldn’t even make out your features. Only the shine of white light bouncing off your clothes and accessories. You kept playing guitar like it’d kill you otherwise, and it all made him incredibly flustered. He clutched his hand over his heart. He wanted you bad, and he couldn’t even tell if you were a girl or not.

Ray wished it would never end, feeling the adolescent indignance and passion flow through him like it was intravenous. But, all good things had an expiration, and your band was backstage not long after midnight. He felt he’d be imposing if he mingled among the revolutionaries, but he needed to walk a bit, before he got too excited and tried to hit something.

When Ray found his car the next street over, he could barely get off the sidewalk when a police officer blew into his whistle.

“How long have you been parked here?” The man had his hands on his hips.

Ray blinked. “About an hour or three. Is that a problem?” The officer pointed up to a sign, which read that parking had been restricted here for most of the night.

He pulled out a pad of paper, muttering about “college kids” and “no one listens”, when Ray’s pulse quickened, clammy hands rubbing the nape of his neck. He’s never gotten a ticket before- whether that was because he was a good driver or conveniently avoided the cops was beside it all. There’s no way he had the money to pay for it, and no way he’d wanna bother his parents for it. How much were tickets, anyway? 

“What’re you doing?” An unfamiliar voice sounded from down the sidewalk, somewhat hidden in darkness.

The officer squinted and went back to scribbling out the fine. “Mind your own business and go home,” he shouted back.

“You can’t give him a ticket, I know that guy!”

He looked between Ray and the stranger, pen in hand. “You know this guy?”

“Duh.” There was a second of silence. “That’s Steve.”

The policeman stared at Ray like he was a felon, and Ray stared back just as dumbly. He’d go along with anything, if it kept his record clean. He stuffed his things back in his blue shirt pocket, stalking off slowly and continuing to talk of “damned punks” and “too old for night patrol.”

Ray stood under the orange street lamps, dumbfounded with his back against the passenger door. His wallet’s savior emerged from the shadows, and his breath hitched when he got a better look. You were the one on stage! With the guitar and the voice and a lot of dark stuff under your eyes. Crazy hair, at least to his understanding. You don’t see more than 5-6 different styles at an Ivy. Chains and rips on taut black leather- you definitely don’t see that at an Ivy. You had your jacket tied around square hips, exposing arms and shoulders with discreet tattoos. Self-done, perhaps? Regardless, that was NYU behavior, not Columbia. And you weren’t a girl. Should he still want you?

“I don’t think your name is really Steve.” 

His mouth opened and closed while he tried to remember English. “No. No, it’s Raymond.” He cringed inside. Why use the objectively lamer version of his name? He’s embarrassing himself in front of the funky rockstar. “Ray,” he corrected.

And the funky rockstar smiled at him. “You gotta fight back, Ray. Don’t let them take your $2.”

“You lied to a policeman over $2?” Ray questioned some of the virtues he’d been raised on.

You shrugged. “Money is money. You shouldn’t get hassled for parking on the street.” Huh. He’d never thought of it that way. “Did you enjoy it?”

“Enjoy getting a ticket?”

“No, dude, the show.” 

Oh yeah- he was at a concert for a super awesome band and their frontman, as he just found out, just covered for him. “Yeah, it was great.” It was more than great, dummy. It was electric, exhilarating, galvanizing, bewildering. “It was really, really great.”

Ray felt a tinge self conscious as you watched him, unblinking, fearing he had offended you somehow. “You don’t go to these things often.”

He nodded, guard dropping a bit. “What gave it away?”

You pointed out the clunky glasses tucked into the pocket of his shirt. “My mom said I should bring them wherever I go,” Ray laughed bashfully, pulling them out and sliding them into his dark jeans. 

He felt proud at making you snicker. “It’s cool. Half my bandmates wear contacts.”

“Where are they, anyway?” Ray realized you were out and about without them. He was probably holding you up from something. 

“They’re around here, somewhere. We’ll run into each other eventually.” Your attention shifted to his Camaro, running a hand over the paintjob. “Your car’s awesome, man.”

He already knew that, but the confirmation was nice. “Really? It still needs work.”

“Can’t even tell,” you peered into the passenger side window, “I’ve only seen these when they’ve been stolen.”

Ray didn’t wanna just leave you here, if that was true- even though you seemed more than capable of fighting off a few muggers. Perhaps he just wanted more time with the cool musician. “Wanna take a drive?” he ran a thumb over the back of his own knuckles. “See if we can find your friends?”

Ray went to a concert, alone, got a parking violation, and there’s a really peculiar guitarist sitting in his passenger seat, Doc Martens on his dashboard. And he couldn’t even bring himself to care about your shoes scuffing the interior fabric. 

“Where’re you looking to go?” He took note of how empty the city street seemed, the only light coming from lamp posts and 24-hour shops and restaurants, occasionally poking out of home curtains.

“Wherever you’re willing to take me.” Ray swallowed, bringing the car to life as you sat back, hands behind your head. He hadn’t been with many girls romantically, but they’d never been so comfortable so soon- not even his other male friends, let alone a stranger. A very alluring stranger.

You turned your head to face him casually. “No one gave you shit, right?”

He drove slower than you should on a residential road. “I don’t think so. I was at the bar the whole night.”

“Good.” Your belts and chains made clinking sounds as you crossed one ankle over the other. “The bar’s no fun. Find the guy messing with the speakers and tell him you know the color of my underwear, that’ll get you up close.”

“I’m not sure my guess will be correct.”

“It’s always green on show nights, I can show you-” Ray struggled to keep his eyes on the turn he was making when you shimmied up, thumbs in the hem of your pants.

“I believe you,” he successfully got onto another street without veering onto the sidewalk. “When’s your next show?”

Ray had a small grin as you slumped back down. “Not for a crazy long time. Not here, at least.” That news sucked. He should hassle you for a phone number, if that wasn’t too bold. So you could be pen-pals, obviously. “We’re friends, right?”

He kept driving, not entirely sure of where he was going and scared he’d instinctively take the route back to his dorm, but at ease at the feeling of rolling rubber on asphalt. “In all of 10 minutes.”

Your laughter filled his car. “If- when we find them. We usually bounce around a few more shows, drink some, crash somewhere for the night. Wanna come with?”

Ray would’ve leapt at the opportunity to have the night with his new friend, but his old friend needed him. Peter went to bed early to be rested to see his dad the next afternoon. He wanted Ray there as a buffer, in case his day at home was as grating as he expected it to be. “I’m sorry, I promised my friend I’d go out with him in the morning.” he frowned, seeing that it was already past his bedtime.

He’d like to think you were a bit disappointed. “No problem,” you pulled out two little white things, “the least I could do is treat you to a smoke.”

The car slowed at a fairly useless stoplight in the desolate intersection. You lit his own before he lifted it to his lips, but the one in between your fingers refused to ignite next to the sparking lighter. “Outta fuel,” you uttered.

Before Ray could finish gazing down at the center console for his own, your calloused palms held onto either side of his jaw, pressing your unlit cigarette to his ablaze one. It was so close to a kiss that he found himself wondering where to put his hands, one gripping the steering wheel and the other the firm shoulder of the seat next to him. Which was stupid, because kisses were reserved for his mother’s cheek. And girlfriends who called him Raymond and kissed him at the door but never ended up calling again. And girl friends who called him Stantz and only kissed him at the door to get their moms off their backs.

You definitely weren’t his mom, or a girlfriend, or even a girl friend, and Ray felt himself wishing, deep down and with sweaty palms, that there weren’t two rolled partitions between you both. Something about your presence made him want to let go of the engineering department, cutting the lights during the day to save energy, always having his glasses in case of an emergency. The casualness in which your fingers framed his face while the embers burned from one end to the other made him wanna be something dirty, improper, and starved.

Someone appeared behind them, probably waiting a while, and mashed their horn impatiently. Ray remembered that he was behind the wheel, green light reflecting into the car when he hastily pulsed the gas. His father would be incredibly disappointed with his son- nearly sullying his record (for $2), letting a stranger dig their heels into his leatherwork, smoking. Pretty much half his extended family smoked, they just managed to hide it from each other. The shame was still there. Blowing nicotine inches away from the face of another man when you had a duty to everyone else on the road. Dirty, improper, starved.

The car rumbled along. Ray wouldn’t call himself innocent or inexperienced. 6-foot-something and pretty solid, he drank, cursed, had to shave every so often, got into plenty of trouble. It just didn’t seem like your kind of trouble. But was that always a bad thing? 

You had your nose pressed to the glass of the window, suddenly taken by something outside. “Pull over real quick! You’ve gotta try this one place.”

He did as you said, parking in the white glow of a Chinese spot, following you in after you took a final drag, crushing the tobacco under your heel. “I’m telling you- instant hangover cure.” you held the door open, jacket now back over your shoulders.

“You’re hungover?” Ray questioned, eyes adjusting to the bright ambiance. It was a smaller place, not unlike any other takeout spot in the city, void of customers at the late hour.

 “Not yet,” you smirked over your shoulder. Ray watched timidly as your hand slid a few wrapped, green candies to a girl sitting behind the counter. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

The girl, who probably should be in bed, fought you quietly in Cantonese, and you simply apologized. “Alright, I’m sorry. Two of the usual. Oh, and two beers. Please.”

Ray took the liberty of grabbing two frosty bottles from the freezer, not missing how the girl disappeared up the steps into her house, rather than the restaurant’s kitchen. “How much?” he asked over your shoulder.

You shook your head fervently. “Doesn’t cost anything.”

“You’re stealing?” he whispered harshly.

“No!” you whispered just as intensely. “They never make me pay.”

“Oh,” Ray dropped his defenses, following you to a round table in the middle of the square floor, “how come?”

You leaned back in your seat, wooden legs an inch or two off the ground. “Some guys tried to rob the owner. I stopped ‘em, watched the store a few nights, and now she lets me eat for free.” Ray’s eyes just short of popped out his head when you lifted the hem of your shirt over a bit of your abdomen. “It’s how I got this.”

There was a dark, running scar close to your ribs. “How- why- are you okay?” He fretted, astounded at your laissez faire attitude.

“It’s fine, it’s old. I knew he had a shiv.” you slung your arm over the back of the chair, having opened your beer.

“You knew, and you still spat with them?” He could imagine you in a narrow bathroom, attempting to stitch yourself up. “That’s…brave,” he couldn’t lie.

You leaned forward, opening his drink for him. “Just community. She made sure everyone was fed at night, anyway.” 

“That’s your movement,” Ray ran a finger up and down the damp glass, “isn’t it?” Getting shanked in the dark to keep a small business safe was definitely the unseen side of the subculture you subscribed to. 

He watched as your eyes lit up with the same passion you had on that stage. “Yeah! Community, safety, liberation- can’t survive if we’re all taking from each other. It’s why I make music.” Ray smiled at your selflessness. Handsome and heroic, in a roguish way. He was wrong. He still wanted you, bad. 

“You’d be a hot drummer.” That certainly caught him off guard, almost sending alcohol flying out his nose. 

Ray put a hand to a dry nostril, just in case. “What?”

“I mean it,” you bent at the waist over the table. “Little hairspray,” you mussed his growing hair, “little eye-gunk, tighten the shirt, shoulder tat- you’d be perfect.”

“You’re just saying that,” Ray sat obediently as you tried to dry-style him. He’d let you do that all night, if you felt like it.

An older woman, probably the owner, came down the steps, carrying two bowls in pink pajamas. You sat back, leaving his hair a mess when you rubbed your hands together in excitement. “Thank you, Mrs. Tsang.” you passed him a set of chopsticks. “You’re not ready for this.”

“Where to next?” You asked Ray, stepping out onto the sidewalk.

“Wherever you want,” he tried his best to etch your image into his long-term memory before you both ran into some guys.

Tall, big, guys, managing to tower over you both, each in more leather than you had in your closet. You didn’t look as scared as Ray felt, his knees threatening to buckle, as you just held onto a plastic bag holding the remains of your dinner. “Were we in your way?”

“The old lady around?” the biggest one grunted, getting awfully close.

You stood, unfazed. “Yeah, and I am too.”

He jabbed his finger into your chest, barely far from nose to nose. “You wanna get cut again?”

“Barely felt it last time.”

The drop of sweat on Ray’s forehead hardly had a moment to roll down before a fist flew to the middle of your face, a grotesque sound ricocheting off the walls of the empty street. The gang of strangers, once they saw you were sufficiently hurt, bolted into the night, Mrs. Tsang appearing in the window of her establishment.

“Are you okay?” Ray panicked, helping you steady yourself inside, collecting your gushing blood in your cupped hands, ignoring your complaints about how he made you drop your noodles. His heartbeat raced as a few drips got onto his shirt, feeling even more disoriented when the owner said a few things in another language.

“Bathroom,” you pointed a red finger down a hallway near the steps. Ray got the door open, and you woozily sat on the sink, body weight leaning away from the mirror at your back. “Aid kit in the cabinet.”

You were right, and it was sitting next to a half full bottle of liquor. He slowly pried your hands from your nose, bracing himself. “Let me see,” he coaxed you, cringing at the air you hissed out through your teeth.

It wasn’t all bad, Ray could tell that underneath all the blood was just a little discoloration and a deep gash. “At least it’s not broken,” he said shakily, ducking behind you to let some cold water run over a towel he found in the little white box.

“Another point for me,” you managed to get out through pained groans, blood trickling into your mouth. 

Ray tried to remember his boy scout training, bringing himself to wipe away some of the drying nastiness from your face. “This happens often?”

He scarcely touched you when you recoiled in pain. “Why d’you think they kept this stuff in here?” you attempted a weak smile.

This wasn’t gonna get done without some outside help. He grabbed the bottle by the neck, passing it to you, hands on his hips as you pretty much emptied the entire thing. Ray resumed, and the gentleness of the cool cloth, combined with the alcohol, seemed to relax you. “You’re pretty dauntless.” he stood in between your legs.

You hummed lazily- apparently a pretty crazy lightweight, at least when you were losing liters. “Someone has to be.”

When all the reddish brown was gone, Ray inspected that wound. It was fairly deep for a punch, still red and open to the air. Stitches, this needed stitches. “You’re gonna hate me for this,” he frowned, plucking a suture from the sterile container.

“I’d never,” you half-slurred, though you swallow at the sight of the barb.

Ray was halfway done, stuffing his fear and channeling a camp counselor as he brought the thread in and out the skin of your nasal dorsum. He didn’t know where he was expecting this impromptu outing to go, but definitely not here. But he didn’t really mind, either- he’d stitch you up a thousand times over if it meant he could hold your face. He couldn’t be bothered with what that said about him when he had your skin under his fingers.

“Taking care of me,” you muttered, not even flinching when the needle dove out to be tied in a knot.

“Someone has to,” Ray stepped back, pleased with his medical handiwork. His mother would be proud. “How’s that fee-”

“Be in my band.”

“What?”

You looked catatonic. “Go to Canada with me- California- wherever.”

Ray had a humorless chuckle, doing his best to wash his hands behind you. “You’re drunk,” he rationalized with himself, not looking into your eyes when he put a child’s bandage over the now closed wound.

You tried to turn to him completely with your butt perched on the edge of the sink, but you lost your balance and had to be held upright by him. “I’ll teach you the drums- something. I just don’t wanna lose you. Forget about that stuffy school.”

Hands on your ribs, he so desperately wanted to agree. To do what your spirit had been begging him to do and run away. Dirty, improper, starved. You changed his perspective in a matter of mere hours- shouldn’t he have to?

“I have to stay here,” he forced out, “I have things here.” 

Your eyes were partly pained, partly glazed with your intoxication. Your green Lamb Chop adhesive stuck out like a bullseye somewhere below knitted brows. “Can we compromise?”

“I don’t understand how this is a compromise,” Ray sat mortified in the 24-hour tattoo clinic.

You laid on your stomach, pants hiked down just under your tailbone, where a tattoo gun was currently inking you with “R.S.”. “You didn’t wanna run away with me,” you laughed drunkenly, the humorous part of being inebriated manifesting itself.

He shrunk, a pang in his chest somewhere. The tattoo artist eyed Ray for a moment. “I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be sorry,” you let your eyes close. “I don’t wanna remember you sorry.”

“Are you sure you don’t want one?” you nabbed a marker from the front desk as you both left. 

“I’m sure,” Ray nodded, trying to figure out where to go. He should find your friends- drive morning and night until he found them, before he dropped everything and drove out the state with you in the backseat.

A few accented voices interrupted him, and he abruptly realized that he was grasping your hand. Your bandmates, hobbling over after their own adventures.

“This is where you went?” the British bassist started. “We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Ray heard you groan, and you wordlessly started pulling down the collar of his jacket, exposing the tag. “Can I?” you clumsily held up the stolen marker.

He let you, and you meticulously scrawled your initials into the white slip of fabric. A reminder, for as long as he kept it- almost like a tattoo for those who weren’t ready to be dirty, improper, starved. And he was never getting rid of this thing.

You finished, adjusting it for him and just taking a moment to hook your fingers in his pockets. Ray was gonna miss you, so hard. He felt like a teenager again, except this time he didn’t feel like he wasted your time, in an uncomfortable suit, spending date money his parents trusted him with. Maybe he could learn to live like you did, if you’d wait long enough.

“Could you and your boyfriend hurry?” your friend complained. You sighed, booze still in your system.

“You won’t forget me?”

“Never.”

You reluctantly peeled away from him and down the street with your friends. Ray watched your retreating figure as you walked off into the darkness, until you turned fast on your heels, sprinting over and jumping into his arms. The kiss was messy, and rushed, probably splitting your stitches and aggravating your sinuses. Laced with the fact that you’d be scattered around the country for an unknown amount of time. But it was the realest one Ray’s ever had.

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

The Bracket is Finally Here!

Spotify playlist with (almost) all songs in the tournament

Remember you can leave propaganda for any of these songs in the ask box both before and during the polls

(The image kinda smushed it all together but there's a written version at the bottom)

Written matches under the cut:

(Parenthesis on the song title: Additions to the title or other titles commonly used for the song in animations and animatics) ([blank]: a placeholder for a word that might variate in the title according to the animatic, usually a character's name)

Bracket 1, Side A:

You'll be back - Hamilton Musical VS. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Set it Off

I cut myself (shaving) - Talkshow Boy VS. Curses - The Crane Wives

Kiss Me, Son of God - They Might Be Giants VS. Open Up Your Eyes - My Little Pony: friendship is magic

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay VS. Ready as I'll ever be - Tangled the series

Sincerely, Me - Dear Evan Hansen Musical VS. Promiseland - MIKA

Wine Red - The Hush Sound VS. Once Upon a December - Anastasia (Movie)

Everything at Once - Lenka VS. Little Miss Perfect - Written by Joriah Kwamé

Good for you - Dear Evan Hansen Musical VS. Never love an Anchor - The Crane Wives

Cupid - Jack Stauber VS. The other side - The Greatest Showman Musical

Eight Wonder - Lemon Demon VS. How bad can I be? - The Lorax (Movie)

Just Take My Wallet - Jack Stauber VS. Blue Lips - Regina Spektor

Baby Hotline - Jack Stauber VS. Tongues and Teeth - The Crane Wives

Poison - Cavetown VS. I'm the Bad Guy - Wonder Over Yonder / Caleb Hyles cover

Partners in Crime - Set It Off VS. It's tough to be a God - The Road to El Dorado (Movie)

Are You Satisfied? - MARINA VS. Brave as a Noun - AJJ The Band

Me, you and Steve - Garfunkel and Oates VS. Oh No! - MARINA

Bracket 1, Side B:

It took me by Surprise - Maria Mena VS. Father - The Front Bottoms

Hayloft - Mother Mother VS. When You're Evil - Voltaire

I Know I'm a Wolf - Young Heretics VS. Ordinary - Written by Joriah Kwamé

Anything you can do - Annie Get Your Gun Musical VS. Left Brain, Right Brain - Bo Burnham

Christmas Kids - Roar VS. I Know Those Eyes / This Man is Dead - Thomas Borchert

The Dismemberment Song - Blue Kid VS. Allies or Enemies - The Crane Wives

Turn the Lights off - Tally Hall VS. Boys will be Bugs - Cavetown

Ghosting - Mother Mother VS. Villain - Stella Jang

Defying Gravity - Wicked Musical VS. Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

Crossing the Line - Tangled the Series VS. Runs in the Family - Amanda Palmer

Everybody Talks - Neon Trees VS. Under My Skin - Jukebox The Ghost

Saint Bernard - Lincoln VS. Line Without a Hook - Ricky Montgomery

The History of Wrong Guys - Kinky Boots Musical VS. Order Made ([blank]'s Order Made) - RADWIMPS

Charlie's Inferno ([blank]'s Inferno) - That Handsome Devil VS. Lemon Boy - Cavetown

Ultimately - Khai Dreams VS. Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko

The Zombie Song - Stephanie Mabey VS. When He Sees Me - Waitress Musical

Bracket 2, Side A:

Interlude IV - Zach Callison VS. Honey, I'm Home - GHOST

Little Lion Man (Not your fault) - Mumford & Sons VS. Confrontation - Jekyll and Hyde, the Gothic Musical Thriller

The Other Side of Paradise - Glass Animals VS. I Won't Say (I'm in Love) - Disney's Hercules

El Muchacho de los Ojos Tristes - Jeanette VS. Feelings are Fatal - Mxmtoon

The Religion of Loneliness (Lonely Religion) - Syudou VS. Ikanaide - Soraru and Mafumafu

The Killing Kind - Marianas Trench VS. Touch-Tone Telephone - Lemon Demon

A Good Song Never Dies - Saint Motel VS. Achilles Come Down - Gang Of Youths

If you were gay - Avenue Q Musical VS. My R ([Blank]'s R) - KurageP / cover by Rachie

Stray Italian Greyhound - Vienna Teng VS. No Children (I hope we both die) - The Mountain Goats

I can't decide ([Blank] can't decide) - Scissor Sisters VS. OO is a receiver ([Blank] is a receiver) - Ura Commander-P

A Sadness Runs Through Him - The Hoosiers VS. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring

Dr Sunshine is Dead - Will Wood and the Tapeworms VS. A Crow's Trial (A [blank]'s Trial) - Vane

The Riddle - Scarlett Pimpernel Musical VS. Crush - Tessa Violet

Be Nice To Me - The Front Bottoms VS. My Ordinary Life - The Living Tombstone

Sweet Talk - Saint Motel VS. I do adore - Mindy Gledhill

I wish you liked girls - Abbey Glover / I wish you liked boys - Cover by Jasper Isaac VS. Like Real People Do - Hozier

Bracket 2, Side B:

Stronger Than You - Steven Universe VS. Hurts Like Hell - Fleurie

Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! at the Disco VS. Butch 4 Butch (Sweetheart's Piano) - Rio Romero

Two Birds - Regina Spektor VS. Amnesia Was Her Name - Lemon Demon

Love Like You - Steven Universe VS. Escapism - Steven Universe

Everything Stays - Adventure Time VS. This day Aria - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

My Whole Family ([blank]'s Whole Family think they're gay) - Bo Burnham VS. Popular - Wicked Musical

The Bro Duet - Written by Alexander Sage Oyen VS. Cabinet Man - Lemon Demon

Self-inflicted Achromatic - Nekobolo VS. Welcome To The Internet - Bo Burnham

The Moon Will Sing - The Crane Wives VS. Dream Sweet in Sea Major - Miracle Musical

What is This Feeling? - Wicked Musical VS. There! Right there! (Is [blank] Gay or European?) - Legally Blonde the Musical

Goodbye (Look who's inside again) - Bo Burnham VS. This is Home - Cavetown

Pad Thai - Jack Stauber VS. How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical VS. The Nowhere King - Centaurworld

Rät - Penelope Scott VS. Therefore You and Me - TadanoCo / E ve cover

Fish in a Birdcage - Fish in a Birdcage VS. Devil's Train - The Lab Rats

The Game of Life - Yuzuhico VS. Dust and Ashes - Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 Musical

[hurpdurpburps]

The Otherside Picnic Michelin Guide

Instead of prepping all the shit I have to do for an upcoming 80-hour work week, my procrastination has led me to writing this list, which is mostly a food-focused curation of my OP Pilgrimage Destination List, with new additions that I've discovered since publishing that.

I like to eat and my 4 years of working as a food journalist have sorta ingrained a subconscious razor-sharp attention to mentions of food in the media that I consume (pun intended). Armed with 5 years of experience living full-time in Tokyo, I've decided to redirect my powers for the Greater Gastronomic Good.

All photos featured are taken from Tablelog/official sources. I haven't been to any of these places myself, but you bet your ass I will be visiting most of them and writing up reviews on here when I'm done.

1. Kitchen Nankai Jinbocho (キッチン南海 神保町店)

The "Western food" (洋食) place Sorawo and Toriko visited for a quick builder's lunch in Vol 6 (File 20 - T is for Templeborn).

In case you're interested in what our protagonists ate:

Sorawo ordered the tonkatsu curry (カツカレー) topped with cheese, while Toriko went for the fried flounder and ginger pork with rice (ひらめフライ生姜焼きライス).

From the photos on their Tablelog page, raw egg seems to be the most popular topping for curry, which is surprising to me since cheese seems like the most intuitive candidate. Best to bring a healthy appetite since their portions look absolutely huge.

2. Sichuan Cuisine Aki Jinbocho (四川料理 秋 神保町本店)

The Chinese restaurant near Jinbocho station where Toriko and Sorawo held their first ever afterparty together after hunting the kunekune.

Unlike what the name implies, it seems to be a run-of-the-mill Chinese place that kinda does a jack-of-all-trades menu rather than any focused niche in Sichuan cuisine. They even have peking duck on the menu according to their Tablelog page, but I can't guarantee if it'd be any good.

If you want to follow what SoraTori ordered, then go for the cashew chicken (鶏肉のカシューナッツ炒め), cumin lamb (ラム肉のクミン炒め) and water spinach (空芯菜), and wash it all down with Tsingtao beer.

3. Cafe Pause Ikebukuro

The cafe where Toriko and Sorawo had their first fight. Its location right behind Junkudo presumably translates into a lot of foot traffic from bookworms. Reviews that I've read say that more than half of its customers come here just to read in peace, and it's got free wifi to boot, so the ambience's probably top notch as well.

The cafe regularly updates its menu (but not online, sadly) and offers a wide range of cafe staples such as fresh pasta lunch sets and homemade baked goods. If you want to recreate Sorawo's one-woman feast, you can check to see if the menu has some or all of the following items:

Taco rice

Chocolate and sour cherry cake

Matcha terrine

“Tart of the day” topped with raspberries

Caffè latte

Grape-flavoured black tea (ぶどうの紅茶)

Check out their website and Instagram here.

4. Maison c

Also nearby Junkudo is this cosy little wine bar in Ikebukuro where Sorawo and Toriko had a rather gloomy dinner after the Ninja Cat saga in Vol 2 (File 8 - Little Bird in a Box).

They don't have a website or a menu, but from what I could glean from their Instagram, they serve mostly seasonal French-Italian fare. Order some sparkling red wine and a prosciutto-salami platter for that SoraTori experience.

Place looks tiny so I wouldn't try to visit with more than one companion, or at least not without a reservation (strictly by phone).

6. Keio Plaza Hotel Shinjuku

The buffet that The Girls stuffed their faces at for their first anniversary dinner in Vol 7 (File 22 - Toilet Paper Moon) is the Glass Court Super Buffet, located on the 2nd floor.

The line in the book about roast beef being their signature is probably true. I mean LOOK AT THIS:

Other shout-outs from the book (MASSIVE HUNGER WARNING):

Picking away at the appetizer of sakura shrimp and lily bulbs as we talked, our first glasses were soon empty.

I gluttonously loaded up my plate with fresh fried tempura, mussels, foie gras with strawberry sauce, Berkshire pork and mountain vegetables fried in miso, and tom yum noodles. Toriko got a chicken stir fry with chili peppers, chicken liver and bamboo shoots in garlic, a bunch of Iberian ham, and more. It was a lot of meat, but she also had a Caesar salad and yuba maki rolls, so she still succeeded in having a somewhat stylish plate overall.

Just a bit of an intermission here to note a couple of slight mistranslations. The Japanese text is as follows:

揚げたての天ぷらとか、ムール貝とか、フォアグラの苺ソースがけとか黒豚と山菜の味噌焼きとかトムヤム麵とか、欲望のまま皿に取ってきた。鳥子は鶏肉の唐辛子炒め、砂肝と筍のガーリック風味、たっぷりの生ハムなどなど、やたら肉が多めだったけど、ちゃんとシーザーサラダや野菜の湯葉巻きなんかも取っていて、全体として小洒落た感じにまとめることに成功していた。

砂肝 (sunagimo - lit. "sand liver") refers to the gizzard. The name is derived from how the organ works, which stores bits of grit to help grind up food before it's digested, since birds can't chew.

生ハム (nama hamu - lit. "raw ham") is a term for generic proscuitto, and is not interchangeable with the much more culturally/geographically-specific parma ham or jamon iberico.

We both went to the buffet and came back, having gotten gratin, paella, beef curry, and other heavy foods that would pair well with red wine.

Toriko asked between bites of roast beef. It was the type the chef cuts as you watch, and I’d gotten some too. This was supposed to be one of their best dishes here and the taste reflected that.

I got a tiny cake and a confection called nerikiri, then poured myself a cup of black tea.

It was Crêpes Suzette, warm crepes in an orange sauce with coconut ice cream on top.

The second half of the night takes place at the Aurora Sky Lounge on the 45th floor.

Definitely a great (and very convenient) choice to bring a date to get in the mood.

7. Chichibu Waraji Katsu Tei (秩父わらじかつ亭)

After escaping Hasshaku-sama in Vol 1 (File 2 - Hasshaku-sama Survival), Toriko and Sorawo had dinner at a waraji katsu shop located within the food court of a recreational complex that was connected to Seibu-Chichibu station.

This complex is called Matsuri No Yu (祭の湯) and the only waraji katsu shop here is Chichibu Waraji Katsu Tei (秩父わらじかつ亭).

Here's their Tablelog page. According to reviews, the standard serving size is two pieces of katsu. Miyazawa really wasn't lying about meat overflowing from the bowl.

8. Masan's Home (琉球酒場 ま～さんの家)

The Okinawan izakaya that Sorawo and Toriko pigged out at after finding themselves on Kokusai-dori in Naha.

Their Tablelog page features a very extensive menu. Jimami tofu and sea grapes are a must if you're visiting Okinawa for the first time, and I also recommend going for the local sashimi platter as well as other Okinawan specialties such as rafute, Okinawa soba, goat sashimi and bitter gourd stir-fry (ゴーヤチャンプルー).

Honourable Mentions

1. Mendokoro Maruwa (麺処 まるわ)

In case you missed it, there was an OP x ramen collab back in 2018. You can read all about it in my first ever tumblr post (literally I made a whole ass tumblr acc bc I felt like I NEEDED to share it with the world lmao).

I'm not sure if the Ultra Blue is still up on the menu (probably not after all these years), but if you're enthusiastic about the restaurant's link with the series then perhaps it's worth checking out. Their signature is the basil salt tsukemen (バジルソルトつけ麺) so it wouldn't be too different from the Ultra Blue in terms of base flavour profile.

Here's their Tablelog page and Twitter.

PS. This place is in Chiba prefecture, outside of Tokyo. So like idk maybe plan it before a Disneyland trip or smth to be more time-efficient.

2. Kayu San Chin Keio Mall (粥餐庁 京王モール店)

The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) food therapy restaurant that Sorawo and gang visited in Vol 3 after the events of the Kotoribako was KOGA Seibu Ikebukuro (皇雅西武池袋店), which closed down a few years ago.

While not a perfect replacement, there's a store specialising in Chinese-style congee located at the Keio Mall in Shinjuku, called Kayu San Chin (粥餐庁 - lit. "congee restaurant" in Chinese).

Their menu is similar enough (sans the TCM tea selection that was apparently a signature offering by Koga).

3. A Whole Buncha Meat Places

Kozakura treated Toriko and Sorawo to a luxurious steak lunch near Shakujii-kōen station after the kidnapping incident in Vol 4 (File 12 - The Matter of that Farm). While Meat Bar Modavaca (ニクバル モダ・バッカ) has since closed down, there's more than a handful of places where you can try out the quintessential "sizzling hot plate" Japanese steakhouse experience for yourself.

Ikinari Steak (いきなり！ステーキ) is the most easily accesible place where you can order a cut of beef by weight. It's a chain, so don't get your hopes up with regards to the meat quality, but it's also a convenient and budget-friendly option. Website here.

Steak Kuni (ステーキくに) is a similar concept business but on a much smaller scale - with only three locations so far split between Tokyo, Natori in Miyagi prefecture and Koshigaya in Saitama prefecture. Website and Instagram here.

Beef Up Tokyo is a chic joint nestled somewhere near the Yaesu side of Tokyo station near Kyobashi. Which bumps it up really high on my to-try list based on the location alone (I'm pretty sure my usual hotel is max 2 streets away from it). They have basic options that start at 1,800 yen for a 200g cut of run-of-the-mill sirloin, to A5 marbled wagyu going at 3,600 yen for the same size. Which is a steal imo. Click here for their Tablelog page, Instagram and official website.

Pound-Ya Roppongi (听屋 六本木) is another option if you want to splurge a little bit more on quality. Their wagyu steaks are priced at 2,200 yen/100g for the rump/round and 4,000 yen/100g for the sirloin, with the filet taking the cake at 5,600 yen/100g. Tablelog page and Instagram here.

PS. I KNOW that you laughed at that name.

[petra-creat0r]

Deltarune: Fool's Fate Ch. 6 Secret Boss

Talked about her in my post about Fool's Fate Chapter 6's insane plot, so here she is. Good ol Miss Soxs Calzino. If Doggone is my most unhinged secret boss, then Soxs must come in second purely due to her Dark World being the most unhinged. Literally came up with it off a single joke that spiraled and spiraled and spiraled until snowballing into what it is now while I was on call with some of my friends.

Though even for how unhinged Soxs world is, she may just be the most well adjusted of my secret bosses, say for some anger issues and an irrational hatred for Snas the Hermit and Sans the Skeleton. Most of her trauma isn't even caused by old mystery man. Or at least she doesn't see it that way, she barely knows who the mystery man is because she just doesn't remember him that much.

For her name, one can probably tell that Soxs comes from, well, Socks. Because she's a sock puppet. Her last name, Calzino, though, well it also means sock. It's just Italian for sock. Her name is Sock Sock. Though Calzino does sort of sound like a mobster name. (Likely just because it's Italian.)

Soxs doesn't really have a text quirk. Unless you can consider speaking like a mobster and sounding like a Boston Elmo a text quirk, but that's more of an accent. The soul mode used in her battle is the yellow soul mode, making her share a soul mode with Spamton.

As could possibly be inferred, Soxs is Sans's sock. Instead of actually putting it away, he just brought it to work with him one day and left it there. Eventually placing a box over it. In the Dark World, she becomes a sock puppet sorta creature. It was a little difficult figuring out how to keep Soxs at least some what original when there are so many Sans's sock secret bosses, but I think making her a girl helped. (She's trans partly out of spite.)

Backstory under the cut

Soxs Calzino has always been something of a renegade. Even back in her original world, she never seemed to follow the rules and was always at least a little bit rebellious and disobedient. Other socks might've been happy falling in line, getting paired and put away, but not Soxs. Even when others tried to make Soxs fall in line, she'd always find a way to go on her own. This upset many around her, including her identical twin brother, Boots.

Eventually, either because those in her original world got fed up with Soxs's rebellion or just because Soxs yearned for greener pastures and thus went on to find them (Soxs will never say which one it truly was, though it seems both are somewhat correct), Soxs found herself in the convenience store Dark World. Seemingly all alone in a strange new place. Soxs didn't seem to mind the solitude all that much though, especially with how more lax this new Dark World seemed to her old one, and she eventually made a friend. A Rabbuster named Dusty who also seemed a bit of an outcast aw well.

The only grip Sox seemed to have was with the ruler of the convenience store world, The Hermit. The old milk carton didn't seem to do his job at all and would rather sell milk than be a ruler. Something about that irked Soxs, how could she stick it to the man when the man didn't care? Still, it was because of him the world as a whole had such a chill atmosphere, so she couldn't complain too much.

At some point, Soxs met a man. A strange someone also out of place who seemed equally disgusted by the Hermit, though for other reasons. After learning that Soxs also didn't seem to like the Hermit and believed herself to be a much better leader, actually doing her job while still maintaining the laid-back nature of this place, the man offered her a deal to help her achieve that. Not only would Soxs be able to stick it to the Hermit, but she could rule this world in a way to allow other rebels to try and stick it to her.

With a shrug, Soxs accepted the offer, figuring she had nothing to loose. And so with the man's assistance, mostly through offering information and giving tips, Soxs was able to form a rebellion. One that swore to over throw the Hermit. Even though the man helped Soxs as an informant and possibly influenced others to be more substantiable to listening to her, much of Soxs influence seemed to come from her own charisma. Just needing to know the right people to talk too.

Even with Soxs's influence and growing rebellion though, the Hermit didn't seem to care. The old milk carton even offered to just step down and let Soxs take his place. The rebel sock wouldn't stand for this though, demanding a proper fight. The Hermit shrugged and said "okay" before Soxs stormed off to plan some way to take down the milk carton while still getting him to care.

Over time as Soxs planned though, the man seemed to leave and some of her influence seemed to fizzle out, with most now just seeing her and the few that remained under her as a gang of petty criminals rather than some epic rebellion. Pretty much to today, Soxs has been planning her uprising against the Hermit, especially since he "exiled" her to the Backstreets where her gang's secret base was set up. (He really didn't, even he claimed she couldn't leave without an employee card, there was no way he was gonna stop her from leaving if she actually tried.)

That was until a group of Lightners entered her turf...

-------------------------------

Hehe. I hope ya'll like Soxs, I had a lot of fun making her and the rest of the convenience store Dark World. My friends and I were pretty much dying of laughter all call while coming up with it, especially Snas.

It wasn't mentioned in the backstory, but the man did technically give Soxs a Shadow Crystal at some point, but either she never exactly looked through it before misplacing it, or it just didn't change anything as she mostly just saw Sans and was still too focused on her goal of getting Snas to pay attention to her rebellion. I sorta like the later. "Oi yeah! I knows our world ain't real and we're all just inanimate objects, but that don't matter 'cuz my hatred for that old milk cart'n is real, ya dig? Who cares if our reality ain't really real if it's real ta us?" All the other secret bosses are secretly jealous she wasn't traumatized by learning the Truth.

Another little tidbit, Boots did not exist until I was writing this and remembered, "hey, socks go in pairs", and had the idea of Soxs having a twin. I searched up synonyms for sock and bootsee came up, so named the twin Boots. Together they are Boots and Soxs. I like it because together they sound like your basic beat-boxing beat.

[tearfallpixie]

Make Mama Happy - Chapter 14

Tags: @nerdraging4point0 @thesazzb @synthetic-wasp-570 @circle-with-me @beaker1636 @itsjustemily @witchyweeb34 @agravemisstake @cookiesupplier @cncohshit @faceless-mirror @nonamessblog @yournecessaryevil @black-damask1999

@lyschko666 @vinyardmauro @skulliecadaver-blog @some-daniela @latenightmusiclover @rye14-blog1 @somewhere-diamond @Shilohrosechicken @abiomens @awkwardalex @rumoured-whispers @miss570

Addie: Hi! We’re going shopping today. No getting out of it. I don’t care what happened between you and my brother. We’re still friends.

N: Not in the mood Addie. Maybe later.

Addie: I said no getting out of it. Heather told me you weren’t busy.

I rolled my eyes as I glanced at the texts and then back up at the mall that she had demanded I meet her at. I didn’t make it to Scranton often due to it being about 20 minutes from my house. It wasn’t technically far but I didn’t have a reason to come out this way unless I was making a local wine delivery. She had demanded that I meet her at Nordstroms so I weaved my way through the mass amounts of people that came out on the weekend to get to the high end clothing store.

“You came!” Adriana exclaimed wrapping me in a hug when I found her in the dress section at the back of the store. When she let me go she took my hand and pulled me deeper into the dresses.

“You didn’t really give me a choice.” I teased her as she tugged me to the nicer short dresses.

“Put this on.” She ordered, pulling a cute black piece off of the rack.

“Wha- I don’t need a dress for anything.” I protested, shoving it back at him.

“Wasn’t a request. The dressing rooms are over there.” She pushed it back into my hand and turned me to face the dressing room. I glared at her but she crossed her arms over her chest and I knew I wasn’t getting out of this so I disappeared into one of the stalls. “You have to show me when you have it on!”

“You have to stop being so annoying.” I called back jokingly. The dress had a lace collar and a skirt that flowed longer in the back than in the front. I honestly looked incredible in it and did a twirl in the mirror, letting out a soft giggle.

“Let me seeee it!” Adriana whined.

“Fine!” I laughed, throwing open the door. I stepped out and did another twirl in front of her. “Happy?”

“Oh! Its beautiful on you! Now time to find shoes that go well with it.” She took my wrist and drug me through the shop, abandoning my stuff in the stall.

“What is this about? I’m not getting this stuff.” I tried to pull myself free to no avail.

“Yes you are. If you don’t I will and gift it to you.” She started looking at all the shoes and holding them up to me before shaking her head and moving on to the next pair.

“Whyy?” I asked slumping to the chair near where she was looking.

“Because I am taking you out to a nice lunch after this.” She scanned two more boxes before standing up. “Found them!” She pulled a cute boots with think heals that gave me about two inches of height and handed them to me. “Put them on.” I did as requested and went to the full-length mirror that was at the end of the aisle. I looked absolutely adorable especially since I threw my hair up into a messy bun this morning that really complemented the outfit. “Perfect. Let’s go check out.” We collected my clothes from the dressing room and went to check out, throwing my clothes in a bag to drop off in my car.

“So where is this place you are taking me to lunch?” I asked.

“This delicious Italian shop. It’s the only place we Italians can honestly say is good around here besides mamas kitchen.” She took my hand and pulled me down the street to the shop. I stumbled along behind her, still not use to the new shoes yet. “Oh! I forgot to grab something while at the mall. It can’t wait. Go grab us a table why don’t you?” She shoved me towards the doors of the shop and ran off before I could say anything.

“What the hell?” I whispered. I rolled my eyes and stepped inside the restaurant To hear soft orchestral music playing.

“What’s the name on the reservation?” The lady behind the desk said in a snippy voice. She was obviously not one to mess with and I wasn’t about to fuck around and find out.

“Mauro I think.” I mumbled.

“You think?” She glared at me.

“My friend made the reservation but just ran off. She’ll be back though.” I said more like a question. That earned a ‘humf’ from the lady and she walked off quickly. I followed her back until she stopped at a table in the corner that was occupied by a very familiar red hair streaked drummer. “Here’s your table.” The lady walked off before I could protest, and I watched as the man turned and looked up at me with a shocked expression.

“Nichole?” He whispered, standing up quickly. “You look stunning.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, taking a step back.

“I was supposed to meet Addie for lunch.” He explained and I rolled my eyes. Of course she would do this to me.

“Addie, the same girl that took me on a shopping trip this morning and then just ditched me at the door? That’s comical.” I growled. I turned to leave but he grabbed my arm. “Don’t touch me!”

“Wait. Please. Can we just talk for a second?” He begged. I rounded on him with a glare that could put him 6 feet under. He flinched back but didn’t let go of my arm, desperate to get me to stay.

“Talk about what? How you can’t admit that this was all a giant joke? Ha-ha so funny. Or do you mean how you abandoned me at Ricks place? Even better how about how you told me to just get over my feelings like they were nothing? Fuck you, Vincenzo.” I ripped my arm from his grip and stormed out of the building to the sidewalk.

“That’s not what I meant! Can’t we just admit this entire situation was fucked up and move on?” He asked, rushing after me. I really wanted him to fuck off right about now so I could go hunt down Adriana and give her an ear full.

“This situation that you and Ricky caused.” I reminded him harshly over my shoulder.

“Again with the Ricky thing! He said you two were ok now!” If steam could physically come out of the body it would be pouring from my ears in that moment as I rounded on him.

“We are but that doesn’t mean I have to forgive you!” I hissed, jabbing a finger into his chest. He was the one to take a step back now, fury filling his eyes.

“Forgive me? You’re the one stuck on a dumb mistake that he apologized for.” He spat. It felt like we were going around in circles to which there was no end.

“Oh, so this is now my fault? You really don’t know when to shut the hell up do you?”

“Jesus! You’re twisting my fucking words. I did not say it was your fault.” I went to protest but he cut me off. “Just shut up for a god damn second! Please!” We stood there glaring at each other for a moment before I relented and crossed my arms over my chest. “Thank you.” He didn’t immediately continue so I raised an eyebrow and noticed how he frowned and shook his head.

“Well? You wanted me to shut up, so I assume you have something to say.” I huffed.

“God you’re fucking annoying you know that?” I let out a frustrated noise and stormed off once more, intent on getting as far away from him as possible. “Shit. Nichole!” I heard his footsteps chase after me and felt him grab my arm once more.

“Haven’t you done enough damage?” I sniffled, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Baby-“

“Don’t call me that.” I protested weakly, making a futile attempt to pull my arm free.

“Baby, look at me.” He murmured, taking my chin in his hand and forcing me to look into his eyes. “Let me start over.” I glared up at him, the tears in my eyes and on my cheeks making him sigh and look ashamed. His other arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me against him tightly, effectively pinning me in place so I couldn’t run off again. “I am the biggest dumbass in the entire world, and you can call me that for the rest of our lives but one thing I will not do is let you walk away. I won’t- I can’t let you go because- fuck Nichole, I love you. I love you so fucking much, and I was stupid to not say it back. I was so scared that night that you just said in a sex induced haze so I waited to see if you would say it again after that. But you didn’t so I thought I was right, and you didn’t mean it. I’m an idiot but I won’t let you leave me. Because I can’t lose you again.”

“Vinny?” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“Gladly.”

[lewinblue]

Sunny m'dear, the Ben Mears thoughts/thots are back to cause their usual chaos (lol).

-Literally nobody in the coven house ever goes hungry. If nobody eats it means that they were either too preoccupied with a hunt or somebody forgot to pay the gas and electric bill (lol).

-Everybody in the house learned to cook their own shit from an early age. Sure nobody's a gourmet chef or anything but it certainly feels like it sometimes.

-Ben's favorite thing is when he gets to make his Aunt Cindy and Uncle Sean's recipe for apple and cranberry roasted chicken. He'll let the roaster brine in the fridge for a couple of days and add the herbs and spices just before it gets set on top of a bed of carrots, onions and celery. That thing starts cookin, the entire household won't stay outta the kitchen.

-Father Callahan may be an Irishman but damn that man can cook Italian dinners like nobody's business. Lasagna, caccitore, gnocchi, you name it, he's got it in the recipe box. The lasagna's super meaty and cheesy and he even uses the tomatoes from the backyard garden to make the sauce.

-Of course who could live without Matt Burke's pasta bolognese? It's totally delicious but man does it have a ton of garlic in it. One of the coven members ate the leftovers before a hunt, ended up burping in the face of a vampire and it ended up killing the creature.

-Mike and Lucy will make a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and they add a little bit of dill and chickpeas to it. They even use all the dark meat from the chicken so it has all that good flavor in there.

-You've made all kinds of stuff too. A real favorite in the cold months is steak au poivre soup with all the potatoes and stringy little onion curls. Your homemade mac'n'cheese is a big hit too and there's almost no leftovers the next day.

-Mark and Randy will help you cook without question. Mark has a pretty good reign on the kitchen utensils but Randy usually uses his little baby knife to cut bread and apples. Randy loves helping you bake but Mark likes to go full mad scientist and work with the meat and it's only then that Ben has to be on standby to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

-Two members of the coven, Frank and Beth Daniels, are both from the Mi'kmaq Indian territory and they both make alot of the stuff they grew up with for Sunday dinners. Beth still has her grandma's baked bean recipe which takes a few days to prepare but damn it's delicious. Frank will make his family's bannock recipe for breakfast and homemade blueberry jam from his and Beth's orchard. You're pretty grateful whenever he and Beth come for Thanksgiving dinner because Frank constantly has to talk the men of the house out of deep frying the turkey every year (thank God he's a firefighter to boot, lol).

-Mark definitely takes the leftovers for lunch the next day. He loves it cuz it means not having to eat the gross school lunches and he loves seeing the look on the faces of all the snotty school bullies too (lol).

Sunny I'm sorry, I'm a big foodie and I didn't eat much this afternoon for lunch so this made me extra hungry 😋😋😋😋 (I'll have to elaborate more on the turkey fiasco, that might end up becoming a fic in November, lol).

Lol this made me so hungry.

I can just imagine a mayhap early on while schedules are still being worked out and everyone is figuring out what each of them are capable of. On more than one occasion there have been at least three dishes made because Father Callahan thought it was his turn to cook but Matt Burke had a taste for his bolognese and there are still left overs from last nights meal and of course someone insisted on dessert so now everyone is eating Thanksgiving quantities on a normal Tuesday.

[the-lion-guard-88]

Decided to make an introduction post so…Hello!

I am The Lion Guard 88, I am a 17 year old female (She/Her) who has a YouTube channel of the same name (8.8K+ subscribers)

Rules for my Tumblr:

Be respectful to everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, religion, beliefs, etc; I will not tolerate any discrimination/harassment or any sort.

If you need to vent to me just DM me, don’t say it in the public chat, I will try my best to help out as much as I’m not that good at helping people in my opinion.

Do not ask me personal questions such as where I live or to reveal my face.

Do not abuse the ask box ability; do not send messages that are part of my DNI list.

Anyways here’s a bit about me

I am Italian-Armenian-American, half Middle Eastern

Favorite Food: Hamburgers

Favorite Drink: Diet Coke

I am Bisexual

I am Christian

Favorite Movie: The Lion King

Favorite TV Show: The Lion Guard

Favorite YouTuber: SMG4

Favorite SMG4 Character: SMG3 and Mr. Puzzles

Simp list: SMG3, Ragatha, Rosalina, Crimson Knolastname (If he wasn’t a dick), Mr. Puzzles, Tari, V (Murder Drones), Julie Joyful

Semi-simp list: SMG4

Kin list: Kion, SMG3, Angel Dust, Mario (2023 Movie), Luz Noceda, Amity Blight, Stolas, Puss in Boots

I have Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, Anxiety Disorder and I am an introvert (I may have depression but I’ve never been tested because I’m told I don’t need one but I lowkey think I am due to multiple different tests from HEALTH WEBSITES saying I am)

Birthday: July 12th (Cancer)

Favorite Season: Winter

Favorite colors: Neon green, Black, and blood red

What I want to be: Actress

Other things I like: Cats, Lions, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, Lackadaisy, Glitch Productions, Meta Runner, Sunset Paradise, Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus, WALL-E, Amphibia, The Owl House, Nimona, Game Of Thrones, South Park, Animaniacs, Drawing, Cosplay, Roblox, Nintendo, Super Mario (Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite), Demon Slayer, Memes, YouTube, Acting, Theatre, Horror Movies, Scary things, Halloween (the holiday), Puss in Boots, Disney (Older movies), Pixar, Dreamworks, Illumination, bubble tea, LGBTQ, I support transgender, Indie animation, Chemistry and Chorus Class

Things I don’t like: Cheese (Not all), homophobes, transphobes, xenophobes, zoophiles, Roblox Slenders, Stranger Things, Bluey, socializing, betrayal, backstabbing, people talking over one another, being interrupted every 3 seconds, being distracted while trying to focus (it gives me anxiety attacks), politics, DNI’s, AI, AI Artists, AI Supporters, Content Farms, Content Farm Supporters, Genocide Supporters, R*pe supporters

DNI list: Proshippers, Pedophiles, NSFW artists, homophobes, transphobes, xenophobes, zoophiles, p*rn promoters, spammers, racists, sexists, ableists, whitewashers, blackwashers, AI Artists, AI Supporters, Content Farmers, Content Farm Supporters, Genocide Supporters, R*pe supporters, Groomers, TERFs

Socials:

YouTube

Tumblr (You are here)

Deviantart

Wattpad

Roblox

Discord

Credit to blinkies.cafe for the blinkies and whoever made the other stuff

You made it to the end, have a good day!

[ellenchain]

Which are the preferred personal vehicles of 47, Diana, Lucas and Olivia?

I know that 47 has access to the hearse in Freelancer and while that is his brand of humor, I don't see him using it much.

I bet Lucas had a bike he drove recklessly after he escaped from the institute (misquoting B99's Hitchcock, he has nothing left to live for and drives like it). But after he got Olivia, he upgraded to a car. But I can't decide if it's funnier if he goes directly to a football mom suv or if he drives something like a muscle car and only when someone makes an offhand comment on its safety, he switches to the suv. (Hi Mr Grey. Olivia is settling in nicely. Is it true you drove her in an Impala? My husband has one as his project car and those safety ratings are terrible, I would never pick up my kids in one. .......Haha, of coirse I wouldn't either, my car's at the garage nd this is just a rental........fuck).

Diana probably has a landrover, reinforced like a small tank.

I bet Olivia drives a cute hybrid or electrical car.

47.....sleek Italian sports car? In black, of course.

oh boy how I LOVE that question! Honestly, I've been thinking about that quite a lot recently, I don't even know why, but it crossed my mind

And I like your headcanon, which I absolutely agree with! They probably all have several cars, they are rich, they can drive whatever they want. But there are one or two cars that I associate with them…

I think 47 loves cars, especially old cars. He certainly has a penchant for spending his money on classics. But an everyday car? Next to his many sports cars (e.g. Lamborghini Aventador)? Probably a rich (old) person one like a Porsche Panamera (in red because it's probably his favourite colour, I mean his tie is always red):

But I think he prefers to drive his classics. Unfortunately I don't know much about them, but he seems to love this black one in Freelancer a lot!

I can well imagine Diana in a sleek little sports car. She certainly has to get around a lot and quickly. Power woman style (but still reinforced like a small tank, as you say. She knows her enemies and how to protect herself from them). I think Diana has a lead foot on the highway (that's what we say in Germany when you drive way too fast) So why not an Audi R8 in blue? Her little show-off car

47 loves driving in it. But not so much when Diana is at the wheel (vroom vroom)

Ohhh Olivia, our cute little mouse, must have been driving around in a junk car for many years. But she values environmental protection, so she got herself a small, affordable electric car recently (after the old car died). Everyone thinks the car is ugly, but she loves her green box a lot, her Honda e:

(this car is so ugly, it's insane)

And Lucas. Oh, he probably sees cars purely as a commodity. And yes, he certainly made sure to drive a decent car in Olivia's school days so that no one would be suspicious, but I think he has several cars (despite being against capitalism). One for missions, where you get a lot in, get through every terrain, etc., probably a Dodge Ram 1500:

(I don't know much about American cars, but here in Europe these things are way too big for our streets and are more used by hunters or forestry workers because you can pack a lot onto the loading area)

He probably has a small SUV for everyday use (in the city), because the weapons have to go somewhere, right? A Dacia Duster is probably something for him - relatively cheap, yet robust, not a posh car, just an SUV:

(I'm starting to get the feeling that I am going to sell you a few cars)

BUT in the depths of his garage in Berlin he has his greatest treasure, his old Opel Corsa B in mint green:

This thing has seen a lot and is 30 years old. All doors except the driver's door can only be opened from the inside, the boot can no longer be locked properly and when you hit the gas pedal, the car only gets louder and not faster. Air conditioning: Roll down the windows manually. But he loves it with all his heart and enjoys driving around Berlin at weekends to get a Döner at his favourite Döner stand 💘

(47 only drives with Lucas in absolute emergencies in this car, which sometimes makes strange noises and the lack of insulation makes it feel like your arse is about to hit the road. 140 km/h (around 85 mph) with this car is like a death sentence, but Lucas has fun)

[sophiamcdougall]

So to sum up

This was yesterday: * Wake up with a migraine * Take the last of my "emergency supply" of ADHD meds * Contact Boots to say 'hey, remember how you decided not to bother to reorder my medication, didn't tell me and left me to run out? Well, you said you'd text me when it came in and you haven't, what's up?" * Boots doesn't have my meds * Boots is fucking rude about it too * Already upset. HAHA I know nothing. * Call another pharmacy. Discover that the fucking global shortage of ADHD meds has struck again * Call all the other pharmacies. * Nothing. *Call GP *GP says to call the psychiatric clinic * Tell GP: "They WILL say there is nothing they can do and to call you back." *GP says to call the psychiatric clinic *[Still migraine] *Time to start work! I have a document to edit this afternoon! * Call psychiatric clinic. Psychiatric clinic does not answer. Says to call in office hours. It is office hours *Call psychiatric clinic several more times *[I hate making phonecalls! They make me stressed and uncomfortable!] *Psychiatric clinic answers. Psychiatric clinic says there is nothing they can do and to call the GP back. *Call GP back. *GP says "Oh, you're completely out of meds"?? as if this was a surprise. *GP says they will try to get me an urgent referral to the psychiatrist to get me prescribed something else. * I say I don't! particularly! want! to do that! I just want my normal, boring medication and even if the 40 and 60mg pills are out, might it not be available in another dosage somewhere? *GP, who keeps interrupting me literally every two seconds, to the extent that I think less "man" and more "honestly needs to read the description for the condition we're talking about" has apparently not thought of that. Will call me back *Edit document *[Still migraine] *GP somehow manages to interrupt me several more times to tell me they're trying to do Things which is nice but not! helpful! when you are trying to edit a document WITH A MIGRAINE! *GP finally says that while there is no way on God's earth to get me 120 mgs of my medication, I CAN get 100mg. Which you'd think we could maybe have got to SEVERAL HOURS AGO but OK. GP spends a long time arguing with me that this is a good idea even though I am not arguing back and agree with him. *Finish editing document. Time to go to GP, to get new prescription for 100 mg! Troubles nearly at end! *Migraine maybe fading? * SLAM foot into large box where keep craft supplies. * Wait for pain to subside. * It doesn't. * Think toes are broken. Can't walk. *Have to walk. GP about to close. GP not on bus route. *Hobble, gasping and wincing half a mile to GP. Hobble, gasping and wincing (and occasionally singing Italian pop music under my breath to take mind off pain because it's That Bad and we do what we got to do at this point) further half mile to Pharmacy. *Walking mile not good for foot definitely at all. * Pharmacists watch me limp into their shop in obvious dismay. "Hi!" I say brightly "This is unrelated to why I'm here!" * Pharmacy interested in toes. Says maybe toes aren't broken? Aren't black. *I agree maybe I'm making a silly fuss and only later think that it had been less than an hour at this point and despite what fanfic will tell you, injuries take longer than that to GO black.¹ *Get my 100mgs of meds. *Limp to bus stop, * Get home. Eat a consolatory ice lolly. *Hobble to bathroom to wash hands *Inexplicably, just to add baffling insult to ludicrous injury, a pile of towels falls on my head.

[¹Today still not black, but still cannot walk and even the weight of bedclothes unbearable -- they're broken as fuck.]

[stardustndreamsofsilver]

Dinner Party

Jake x Reader (f)

Warnings: mentions of alcohol, allusion to smut

Coming home from work, you walk into the house smelling amazing. You and Jake were having a small dinner party this evening, so you knew he was making something amazing.

Walking into the kitchen, you say, “Oh my god, babe that smells amazing! What are you making?”

Jake continues to stir one of the pots as he leans back to give you a kiss. “I’m making some zuppa toscana. It has a cream base, potatoes, Italian sausage, kale, onion, and garlic. Then for anyone who’s vegetarian or vegan, I’m making minestrone.”

“Both sound amazing. I’m going to go change and then I’ll come back and start on the desserts.” You say as you walk to the bedroom.

You change into a black turtleneck and a knee length tweed skirt. After pulling on your boots, you walk back out and go to the kitchen. Jake glances at you and then takes a double take.

“You look amazing. Very sexy librarian.” He says with a wink, putting his hands on your hips and pulling you in for a kiss.

“Oh thank you. And this?” You say gesturing to his outfit. “Very pirate chic.”

The two of you laugh and he gets back to the soup and you start on your desserts. You make chocolate mousse, one regular and the other dairy free. Putting them in the fridge to set up, you go to set the table. 

You sit the last bowl down when your first guest arrives. Opening the door, it’s Josh and his partner. You smile and show them in. Josh immediately goes to find his twin and you catch up with his partner. The two of you go into the kitchen after a few minutes and you help prepare the rest of the food. You slice the bread, make a charcuterie board and open the wine to let it breathe a bit before dinner, all while chatting with everyone.

It doesn’t take long for the rest of your guests to arrive. Everyone snacking on the appetizers and talking until the last guests arrive. Once everyone was there, you all sat down to eat. But not before Josh raised a glass and said, "To the beautiful hostess for making tonight happen and the average looking host for the food." Laughing, you all cheers to that.

You all chatted, drank, ate, laughed and enjoyed the company. Everyone had a great time. It’d been a long time since you’d been able to all get together. The whole evening was wonderful. 

It was pretty late when the last guest left. Shutting the door behind them, you turned and sighed. You had such a good time with friends and family, but now it was time to clean up. Your least favorite part.

Walking through the living room and into the dining room, you notice most of the dishes are already gone. Grabbing those that remained, you take them to the kitchen. Jake looks up from the sink and smiles at you. 

“Hey darling, I’ve got the dishes tonight.” He says.

“You don’t have to do that, I can finish them up.” You say.

“Nope, I’ve got this. Why don’t you put away the candles, placemats and things? Then when we’re both done we can just sit and relax before bed.” He says.You kiss his cheek and agree.

You’ve got everything put away in no time at all. As you’re putting away the last box of candlesticks, Jake leans against the kitchen doorway, drying off his hands and watching you. You turn and he tosses the kitchen towel over his shoulder and crosses his arms grinning. 

“You make a great hostess, y’know that?” He says.

You giggle and say, “And you make a great host.”

Walking over to him, he straightens up and you wrap your arms around his neck. “This was nice. We should do this more often when you’re home.” You say.

“Yeah, it was. But I do have to say, as much as I enjoyed this, I’d rather spend my time at home with just you.” He says, giving your hips a squeeze.

You smirk and say, “Well you have to share me, at least sometimes.”

“Mm, I don’t think I like that. That just makes me not want to do this ever again. Want to have my girl all to myself at all times.” He says bending down, kissing the place just under your ear on your neck.

With a sharp inhale, you pull back and say, “Well you have me all to yourself now.”