#judo man!!

[jtl07]

Hi JT! I’m not sure it’s possible to challenge you, but I’d love to try: Glasses, classroom, romcom!

okay finally got some time (how dare work actually be work) but also wow WOW ask an ye shall receive because goddamn this batch of prompts has succeeded in being a challenge lol

anon, i feel like i don’t actually write romcom that much so this was a fun mindpuzzle to practice. thank you for playing!!

“I just don’t get it, Lil.” Ava huffs from her perch atop the edge of their homeroom teacher’s desk, the heels of her feet kicking against it. Behind her, she hears Lilith sigh, which Ava takes as a sign for her to continue her rant. 

“She’s the kindest, coolest in judo practice but the moment she’s off the mat, it’s like she’s a completely different person.” 

Another sigh. “In what way?” 

“Like -” All four of Ava’s limbs get in on the telling “- okay, yesterday I saw her in the hall and waved but she literally said, ‘Do I know you?’” Ava groans, smacking her face with her hands as if it would get the entire experience out of her head. 

“Well, if I was Beatrice, I’d probably pretend I didn’t know you too.”

Ava swivels around, arms out wide to try to smack Lilith, who ducks, expert as she is after years being friends. She doesn’t even pause in her typing. “Lilith, I’m serious,” Ava whines, pulling her knees up to her chest. “Did I do something wrong?”

Lilith shrugs. “It might not be you. Maybe she gets temporary amnesia every time she goes onto the mat. Or maybe the mat triggers some kind of - I can’t believe I’m saying this outloud - subconscious persona that she doesn’t remember outside of practice. Or -” 

A soft cough at the doorway stops them both - with Ava nearly falling off the table when she finds the object of her angst and affection standing just inside the classroom. Because holy shit, Beatrice looks great, as always, but also: when the hell does she wear glasses???  

Beatrice glances between the two of them, must consider Lilith the safer of them as her gaze settles on her. Which, fair, Ava thinks grudgingly, considering how she can’t stop herself from gawking at Beatrice in glasses. Still, she wishes she could get Beatrice’s eyes on her like it is during judo practice, feel the soft touch of her adjustments, hear the note of approval in “good job” that always makes her feel like she could fly to the moon - 

“- okay, Ava?” 

Ava blinks, finds both Lilith and Beatrice watching her, concern written in similar lines across their faces. She shakes herself bodily. “Yeah, I’m fine. Did you need some help?” she squeaks, totally casual. 

“I just need to input those for Beatrice’s class,” Lilith answers, gesturing to the folder Ava’s currently sitting on.

“Oh, sure.” Ava doesn’t realize her mistake until she’s already leaning towards the side. The side that is the edge of the table. The side that is nothing but open air.

She flails for a half-second, hoping to negotiate with gravity, but like always - in judo, on the stairs in the rain, stepping out of the bathtub, and here - it doesn’t give in. Ava closes her eyes as she feels gravity win and thinks: Fuck. 

The ground isn’t what greets her though. There’s a clatter of something falling to the floor and a gasp she recognizes from Lilith, but what surprises Ava the most is the warmth all around her. It’s strong, familiar. 

Ava pries open eyes she hadn’t known she’d closed. Turns her head to find Beatrice, wide-eyed and so, so close. 

“Are you alright?” she asks, and Ava has to keep from losing her shit completely because she can feel Beatrice’s breath against her cheek. 

“Yep,” she squeaks, totally normal. 

She feels Beatrice shift and her feet finally touch the ground. Ava’s loath to let go, now that she knows what Beatrice’s arms feel like fully around her, now that she has Beatrice’s eyes on her fully now, looking at her like - actually, Ava’s not sure what she’s looking at her like. It’s not the wary suspicion from the hallway, but something different. Something like recognition.

Beatrice takes the glasses Lilith is holding out to her, slowly, carefully puts them on.

“Oh,” Beatrice breathes, realization and wonder spreading pink across her face, “It’s you.”

[samgirard]

└asher hong and john jayne

[jackalopedaily]

Jackalope Daily Day 357

[miyku]

[platinum-iridium]

the high heels situation is worse in the revival. give scully sensible shoes

[marimuntanya]

this judo game !!!

[viviae]

All the drama about the boxing and refusing to mix contact sports makes me laugh because my 25 year old ex boyfriend who has been doing mma his entire life got his whole ass handed to him by a 15 year old girl once because they were the same weight class.

My 6'4 brother who does mma his instructor was a 4'11 woman who was like 150 pounds of unadulterated beef who kicked him so bad his cracked his rib.

But yeah tell me about how women are too fragile to fight

[marblebees]

GIRL HE LITERALLY IS SAVE URSELFFFFFFFF

[sorasan000]

Chapter: heart-wretching, punching you in the gut, including this scene btw

Me: he could still wriggle his way out of Yun's grasp but he doesn't the 2nd time because he gets it. This is hard.

[clochanamarc]

i had a group of students today and they said i was very good and like. i know i'm struggling but jesus christ that just healed my soul, yk? like i barely speak any italian, i'm far away from home, my voice is in danger of quitting on me, but my students seem to like me, and that just. makes me feel really okay.

[soo-won]

Judo's knowing stare...

The Fire Tribe arc is so much in hindsights everytime I open a volume again I need to sit down for a bit. Something is brewing in my head I just keep staring at this page I hope you get it. Like,, something about how the ddhhb captured the heart of the people by making these tales become reality vs how Suwon refuses completely to depend on them even though oh he so could! He was against someone claiming his right to the throne for being the descendant of Hiryuu after all. He could have technically confronted Soojin about it and be like "Hey actually...!". But he didn't, because even in the case Soojin was right it's still meaningless to Suwon and it wouldn't change a single thing. And Suwon is on throne for everything but that.

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MAN CRUSH FANDOM • MADE IN THAILAND

NARAVIT LERTRATKOSUM

[Nickname: POND]

[kayden-i-guess]

why oh why must all my faveourite female character get such unwarranted amounts of hate :(.

[hautsreadsmarvel]

Another threefer

Alright, let’s pick up the pace. Here’s our spread for this post:

Technically the second Ant-Man story (1958)

They don’t respect the hyphen here either, as you can see on the cover. They also don't respect your time with this one, so I'll be quick in covering it.

Henry discovers that ants use telepathy thru their antennae to communicate, devises a helmet to send and interpret ant telepathy, he learns his strength is unaffected by shrinking, he does judo on another ant, and he uses these newfound powers to defeat… SIGH… commie spies here to steal the scientific work of good red-blooded AMERICANS (O BEAUTIFUL FOR PATRIOT DREAM/THAT SEES BEYOND THE YEARS).

The cincher? Nothing remotely resembling the scene depicted on the cover occurs.

Technically the third Thor story (1952)

Loki gets free of his centuries-long imprisonment and wreaks havoc, largely by playing pranks (although he does push some people into the path of a subway train to distract Thor). Aside from introducing Loki, this is a pretty mid story. Some things that bring it down:

I like the silhouette art at the bottom of the page, but what is this new fucking power. He can make anti-matter particles? How? Proof? Source? Show me the passage in the Eddas?? What do you mean, “anti-matter”??? I don’t think that word means what you think it means, and this sequence is in fact too baffling for me to add any concrete text about it to the Marvel physics handbook.

Loki also uses hypnosis (again involving bright lights and visual elements), but Thor just has some inbuilt resistances to obeying specific commands because obviously. You know how gods have resistance to specific hypnotic commands.

Loki apparently loses his magic when wet.

This comic invokes one of my most hated phrases in all of fiction, the “speed of thought”. There are circumstances when it makes sense to invoke it. Describing the speed of a thrown hammer is not one of them.

And oh, of course, I forgot to point this out in the last Thor comic - the love triangle! Don Blake secretly loves Jane Foster, and Jane Foster secretly loves Don Blake, but Jane is also falling in love with Thor! AUGH! This is literally her entire personality. Jane even swoons for Loki, what even is this character. Oh. My. God!

“The Fantastic Four” (1961, issue 7)

This story is so irrelevant we can skip any attempt at a synopsis. Introduces a new alien species we will probably never hear from again, a “hostility ray” technology that can turn anyone affected angry and upset with whoever they’re interacting with, and a “shrinking gas” developed by Reed (but no antidote to it as Ant-Man has).

The one enjoyable part of this issue is the added characterization we get for the Four, altho Sue once again draws the short stick, while even Reed gets fleshed out to some degree.

[spaicymeatballs]

"Judo you, man!" 😊

[mmatigers2023]