#legit only tagging that because i feel like i just got hit with a brick
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pmrin · 6 months ago
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guys oh my god sea monsters cant be amphibians because. their rib cage expands whenthey breath. i shit you not i cant make this shit up the animation detail of luca's shoulders moving in the shot when alberto tells him to breathe when he first goes on the surface legit makes them amniotes. they have to be reptiles. oh my god. my worl just fell apart.
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mebiselfandi · 1 year ago
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i hope this is not gonna annoy you but i was reading your rant about your writing and i was like😔 because goddd i adore them so much the way you write them characters, dialogues or try to explain how they feel in such situations always make me😞 even when you write smut bc dang do you know how much i reread strawberries and cream (it should be illegal) it just the way you always portray them so beautifully it's crazy (like how did u make c*m eating so sweet i cried and horny everytime i remembered that) also i sent this ask bc i just remember your newest neymessi fic and I'm devastated thinking at the possibility of you deleting that work bc goddd i remember the first time i read it i was crying so hard literally need to weep the tears out so i can read the next paragraph and then after I'm done i was pacinf around my room thinking about the next chapter bc u tagged it as it will be sweeter and how i was just so excited to read that bc if i have to live with the possibility of them just ending like that and not talk it out and have a heavy makeout session after just throw me to the ponds full off crocodiles in florida it would hurts less, you make me so attached to these characters that the possibility of neymar hurting bc leo leaving him after the heart wrenching love confession makes me☹️☹️☹️
i hope you'll find your joy and to not feel pressured to writing again because you have such a talent and i will always be happy to read every works you put, finally just wanted to say so glad to have such a talented writer in this fandom🫶🏼
Hi nonnie👋💕
When I got your ask I was like hm what’s this? Only to be hit straight in the feels with a truckload of bricks. ‘Annoy’ me you say. Something like this could never annoy me. This was legit me reading your ask holding back tears:
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Tbh I was in a massive writing slump since like end of April. Idk what happened. I got a lil sad, then sick, then even more sad, then my birthday came up, then I got burnt out, next thing I knew it was June and my writing skills just switched off. Nothing all of May(except that one fic I barely remember writing while sick and fueled purely by spite). So when I wrote the last Neymessi fic, I was like not doing great at all. But idk I felt like I had to write something and the idea had been swimming in my head. But writing too sad fics when you’re already sad just = feeling shit about your work. Plus I felt so bad about writing, I thought it would be my last fic ever.
But I mean now I’m no longer feeling weird about writing and I can see the fic from an objective pov. I made a ton of typos and used the same words like twice in one sentence and just cringe phrasings. I could’ve done it better. However, I managed to write 4000 words when I thought I couldn’t. So I won’t delete it cause I can be at least proud of that fact. Also I’m not a quitter, if I delete the fic, the knowledge will haunt me forever. But I will be writing the second chap and I have ideas.
Now I feel kinda bad about it cause I know I said chap 2 will be sweeter buuuut I think it might still be sad. But only because I wanna write a 3rd chapter which will be sweeter. However keyword is sweeter…not sweet. Uh it’ll be a bittersweet ending cause either way Leo’s still leaving but I could never bring my heart to be entirely miserable like that. So don’t worry, it’ll end wellness 😌 but chap 2 is mostly just gonna be Leo’s pov and thoughts then chap 3 will be them finally talking after we hear what Leo’s thinking.
Also…about strawberries and cream though I logged into my ao3 for the first time a couple weeks yesterday and I was so shocked? Last I checked it was at 400 now it’s almost doubled😭😭 I’m so shook. But I’m glad you liked strawberries and cream. It’s one of my fave fics I wrote too.
You’re so sweet anon🥹🥹 like not to be like annoying about comments or wtv. But it always helps to know there is someone who likes your story and you aren’t just writing to the air. And to know I made you react so strongly to it is insane to me. But seriously, thank you so much for this, I’m legit gonna think of this message whenever I feel like I can’t write🫶
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consistantly-changing · 6 months ago
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[Image descriptions in order: screenshots of tags left on the post. They say: #literally #i stopped posting bc no one engages with my fics at all #its not a pleasant feeling #i dont want to have to join fucking discord servers or some other forums just for the off chance that ppl might be discussing my fic #you have to leave comments on fics #or else what is the point]
[#how infuriating to know there are people saying nice things about you who won't say them "to" you]
[#i remember finding out once #that a group of mutual fandom acquaintances had an entire roleplay server based off one of my fics #meanwhile it was sitting at 50 hits 3 likes and 0 comments #then they got upset at me for shelving the fic like #what did you expect]
[#yeahhhhhhhh #every day my desire to write again is knocked down by shit like this]
[dude feed your writers and your artists #making art is lonely and we share it to find community]
[#ao3 #fandom #i struggle with the lack of comments so much #like i legit feel like theres no point in posting sometimes might as well just keep shit in the google docs]
[#my Non-Secret AO3 account's been updated recently too and there hasn't been much engagement #it kind of soured me on updating those stories for awhile]
[why is there this weird push to make fandom less accessible to OTHER FANS?]
[#writing #i get kudos nearly every day and it's lovely #but i get comments like #once every few months #people are reading but not leaving their thoughts #and ngl that kinda sucks]
[#How are writers supposed to know you like their work if they CANNOT see it??? #How are they supposes to stay motivated and write more if they cannot see how many people actually like it??? #I am writing 13k-15k chapters; do you know how LONG that takes??? How much time and effort??? #It's why I reblog the chapter index as much as I do; I NEED people to tell me if they like them #Otherwise it just feels like I'm posting my stuff on a brick wall that nobody is looking at #It's SO demotivating; to the point where I start to wonder if it's even worth continuing at times]
[#Brb literally crying at the very idea of how cheated I would feel if people did this for my fics]
[#(I keep discovering people that have-according to them- been gushing about my writing on discord) #(often I didn't even know these people existed because they never left me a comment) #(sometimes it's only months later through discord that I learn lots of people loved a scene that I thought totally flopped-) #(-because nobody ever once said anything about that scene in my comments.) #(if nobody says they liked it-I assume nobody liked it. please tell me if you like it.) #(you can tell your friends too but I'm gonna get a lot more out of it than they are.)]
[#yeah I got like six kudos the other day on a 150k fic from three years ago #and i was like ok clearly someone has shared this in their discord group and they've all read it and that's lovely! #they must have said really nice things about it for the whole group to presumably have talked about it a lot (it is 150k of fic) #wish a single one of them had said that in a comment instead of me having to just imagine the situation!]
[#fics literally need comments to survive like #yeah its for yourself and for the joy of creating #but its a STORY #with detail put into it and plot twists and things that i want to #im TELLING YOU a story #of course i want to see how the people im telling the story to think lol #PLEASE comment]
[#i tried to get back into writing fic #but the sheer lack of comments made me feel less motivated #kinda need feedback or i feel like my writing is getting lost into the Void #so i deleted the fic and gave up]
[#this #like my god why go to such lengths to NOT tell the author you liked their fic #this sort of thing leads to despair and to writers quitting #please let writers know you appreciate their work #please #why must we beg for crumbs]
[#yeah #I try to avoid being driven or encouraged by comments too much #no matter how much I deeply love and appreciate everyone who DOES take that time #because people are tired and busy #but that feeling of if I stopped 10000 people would take my place #that hit kinda hard today]
[#i had this experience #people were talking about my fic on a server i wasn't on #meanwhile i was having an existential crisis because no one was commenting on the fic itself #i was ready to abandon it until someone told me about the server #only a few years ago i could expect at least 20 comments on each chapter #now if i hit double digits that feels like a win #fic writing woes]
[#please do this #writing is hard #← prev tags #Ain't it #l see people rave about my stories on rec lists or see lovely comments in the bookmarks #You're already writing all that down #Why would you not tell ME #You know I am a human person right? #I publish these this for you to enjoy; I want to SHARE them with you]
[#sometimes i will get half a dozen kudos on the same fic in one day #(my fics are not popular so this is notable for me lol) #and it does make me wonder if the link just got posted in a group chat somewhere that i'm not part of #i did once get added to such a group chat and i was like... why didn't any of you comment?]
[#yeah I had dozens of docs on ff.net #ao3? 2 #what's the point of writing fanfiction when it can stay perfect in my head and I get the same level of engagement anyway #I posted to find people to talk about the stuff I liked #nobody wants to chill so I don't post anymore]
[#THIS #I'll randomly get an uptick of kudoses on an older fic and know someone shared it in a group chat #But no comments :/]
[#jfc that just makes me want to scream #hey kids guess what - if you create these little book clubs and exclude fic authors #you won't get any more fic #i can't tell you how much the comment count on my fics has gone down over the years #because this generation of fans think that kudos or inbox-squeeing or DMs is a substitute for an actual comment]
[I've been told by a reader "they love your fic in my server" and like oh... Okay, guess I'll never find out. Oh well.]
someone I follow on the bird app just announced they're starting a very exclusive private fic server because they and a bunch of other people want to talk about how much they love the fics they're reading, and as an author can I just say that a really great place to talk about a fic you love is in the comments for that fic
I understand that people are trying to create safe spaces, but as the number of comments that I get on my fics dwindles with each passing year, knowing these spaces exist where my fics are being discussed, places that I am excluded from, makes me want to write fic LESS
I mean I guess who cares, right, because if I stop writing, there's 10,000 other people that will continue...but if you participate in a fic "book club" server and you say nice things there about a fic you loved, maybe copy and paste that into a comment on AO3?
the only thing fanfic writers are asking for in return for hours of hard work is attention. please don't rob us of the one thing that we hope for when we hit "post"
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takamikeiigos · 3 years ago
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Okay I know made an ask already like 2 days ago🙄 but what if hawks s/o had to fake their death on a mission for like a month or 2😮‍💨 and when they come back the first thing they do is look for hawks even though they’re tired, beaten and look like complete shit😩😩 I’m just such a sucker for these kind of tropes !!!
Also how’s ur day been :))
ayo i got you fam!!!
this was legit all i could think of for like 3 days so i hope it's okay!!
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Title: "You Came Back to Me"
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences (for now)
Relationships: Hawks x Reader
Tags: temporary character death, violence, drinking as a coping mechanism (minor on hawk's part), emesis
Word Count: 2.8k
Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3
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You look up at the villain who currently has you pinned to the floor, your ragged breaths leaving your mouth with every rise and fall of your chest.
His vibrant green eyes are piercing as they stare down at you, his expression wicked and merciless as he presses his foot harder against your throat as a warning.
"Here are your options, darlin'," he pulls his foot away, instead opting to sit back on his haunches. He brushes your hair from your face and rests his hand on your cheek. It makes you flinch and your breath hitch.
"You either find a way to dissappear, or I'll track down that precious little birdy of yours and take his wings for myself."
○ ○ ○
- three weeks prior -
"Let me come with you. Please."
"Kei.." you say softly as you back the rest of your necessities in your bag, finally turning to look at him.
He's on edge, you can tell by his posture. His wings are drawn tight to his back, but his feathers are puffed out. It reminds you of how hair stands on end and goosebumps make them selves known under fear and stress.
"You know I can't.."
"This is too much for one person to handle." His arms are folded across his chest now as he leans against the doorframe of your shared bedroom.
"You don't think I can handle myself?" The words leave your mouth sounding offended, and he instantly deflates.
"That's not what I meant. If you didn't know what you were doing, you wouldn't be working for one of the top agencies in Japan." Keigo steps forward, now in your space, and you can see a faint trace of fear flicker across his face. "I just.. this man is very dangerous, y/n. And if anything happens.."
"Hey. It'll be okay. It'll only be a month and I'll be home before you know it. I won't let anything happen, I promise." Your hand falls against his cheek and he nuzzles into it, both of his hands coming to rest against your own.
"You promise?" he asks quietly, needing one more confirmation that you'll be home and safe in a couple weeks.
"I promise."
○ ○ ○
"Have you made your mind up, sweetheart?" Kimura, the man who has had the utmost pleasure in beating you within an inch of your life, asks. He slams you against the brick wall of the alleyway one more time for good measure, his hand wrapped firmly around your throat.
"Please.." you gasp out, your hands coming to wrap around his wrist, trying to relieve the pressure against your larynx. "P-please promise me you won't hurt him, that you w-wont lay a hand on him.."
He chuckles darkly, tossing you aside onto the cold, dirty floor of the alleyway.
Your vision is blurring, slowly darkening at the edges, but you manage to see him move a few feet away, bending down to pick something up off the ground. You blink sluggishly and suddenly he's in your space once more, holding the object, which you soon realize is your phone, in your face.
"Go ahead, songbird. Give him one last goodbye."
You cringe at the abuse of the nickname that you hold so dear, but weakly reach out and take your phone from his hand, Hawks' number already dialed.
All you had to do was hit send and that would be it.
You close your eyes and rest your head against the brick wall, taking a deep breath to steady yourself. You can feel tears burning as they make themselves known, clinging to your eyelashes and not yet falling to your cheeks. You blame it on the amount of pain you're in, but you know the true reason is because you're absolutely terrified.
You press send.
As it rings you notice Kimura bringing out his own phone, holding it up and aiming it in your direction.
What a sick bastard.
"Baby bird!" Keigo's voice comes cheerfully from the other line. Though it warms and calms your senses, it still makes you sad knowing that he's completely oblivious to what's about to come.
"H-Hey, Kei.." you try your best to keep your voice steady, but the damage from excessive force to your throat is unforgiving and the words leave your mouth sounding raspy and distant.
"Y/n, where are you?" Keigo's voice drops an octave and you can tell his worry has set in, which was exactly what you wanted to avoid.
"I'm okay, just uh," you pause mid-sentence, your throat tightening around the words as tears threaten to spill again, "just got knocked around a lil bit."
Your laugh comes out bitter. You hate the sound of it.
"Y/n. Tell. Me. Where. You. A-"
"Kei, listen. I need you to know how much I.." your voice betrays you and cracks, and you suddenly find that you can't fight the overwhelming fear and sadness coming over you. You weakly bring a hand up to wipe at your battered cheeks, tears continuing to fall and mix with the grime and blood that covers your skin.
You try again to steel yourself, another deep breath falling from your lips shakily, making your lungs rattle. It's becoming harder each second to keep your eyes open and your mind focused, but if you make it through this one phone call, you know you'll be able to rest easy.
"I need you t'know how much I love you. 'N that everything's g'nna be fine. That you'll be okay. And to not c-"
Suddenly a gunshot rings out and your whole world stands still for a split second, before turning completely sideways.
You register warmth blossoming over your abdomen, spreading and soaking your hero uniform. You can hear Keigo frantically yelling from where your phone slipped from your hand and landed on the concrete next to your head. And the last thing you see is Kimura holstering his gun with one hand, tapping away on his phone with the other.
"What a shitty ending for a hero, don't you think?" Kimura grins down at you.
Yeah. What a shitty ending for a hero.
○ ○ ○
The quiet trickle of water finds its way to your ears, and the feeling of something cold and damp against your forehead is a soothing contrast to how hot your body feels.
Opening your eyes feels as though it takes half of whatever strength you have left, and your vision swims. Suddenly hit with a wave a nausea, you lean over and vomit over the edge of the bed you're laying on. Luckily there's a bucket on the floor, and you assume it was placed there for a reason.
That someone placed it there.
In a panic you sit up, your wounds pulling tight and your body protesting. Your vision swims again and it takes you a few moments to ground yourself.
"Ma'am, please don't move too fast. You'll re-open your wounds and you're already in bad shape," a quiet voice projects throughout the room. You look up and notice an older man, probably in his sixties, sitting in a chair next to the bed you're currently occupying.
"Who are you? Where's Kimura?" You grit out, grabbing the edge of the blankets and tossing them off of you. The man in front of you is ready for your attempt at escape and he places steady hands on your shoulders, pushing you back onto the bed.
"Please! My name is Daichi Tanaka, I am a doctor! I found you in an alleyway near Higashiosaka. I would have taken you to a hospital but you begged me not to," the man pleads, his hands persistent on your shoulders.
You glare at him momentarily, before relaxing back onto the bed, still weary of his intentions.
"Kimura? Is that the name of the person who did this to you?" The man - Tanaka - asks hesitantly.
You ignore his question in favor for asking your own, "How long have I been out?"
Tanaka stares at at you, seeming to contemplate answering, but you figure he finally realizes you aren't taking any shit because his answer comes out with a sigh.
"A little over a week. You've been in and out, your fever finally broke this morning."
Over a week. You've been out for over a week and you don't know where you are, where Kimura went, and where Keigo-
Keigo.
It all comes crashing back to you and you lie back, your hands resting over your eyes.
Tanaka seems to have been reading your mind, because he pulls your phone from the nightstand next to you and passes it over.
"I wiped as much blood from it as I could. You have many new notifications and quite a few missed calls. I wasn't able to unlock it to call anyone, but it seems there are many people worried about you." Tanaka stands then, making his way toward the bedroom door.
"I will give you some privacy for now, but expect me to be back in twenty minutes to check up on you."
With that, Tanaka leaves, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
You stare down at your phone, the screen cracked and a few specs of blood and dirt tucked into its crevices. You type your pin in and pull your notifications up, Keigo's name amongst others filling the screen.
You don't realize you're crying until a small hiccup forces its way from your mouth, your cheeks wet with tears.
You notice a voice-mail from him, and though you know it's only going to make you more upset, you force yourself to open it to make sure he's okay.
His voice floods the room and it immediately breaks your heart at how wrecked he sounds. You can tell he's been crying by how gravelly his voice sounds as the message plays out.
"You know," Keigo laughs bitterly over the phone, "I punched Ryosetsu in the face for letting you go on this mission alone. Gave 'im a real nice shiner on your behalf."
The message goes quiet and you can hear what sounds like a glass bottle being opened in the background, Keigo's quiet sniffles also making themselves known.
"Fuck, y/n. They didnt even.. they didnt even find your body. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that, huh?
"They wouldn't even let me anywhere near the scene, I had to sit back at the office while they kept me informed. He said there was uh.." you assume Keigo pauses to take a swig of whatever he's drinking based off the tink of the glass bottle, "heh, he said there's a low chance you're even alive because there was so much blood. Fuck."
You grimace at how blunt he is with the statement and how distant his voice sounds. You can only hope that he hasn't been drinking as often as your thoughts are telling you.
"Please come back to me," he whimpers over the message, and a new wave of tears fall down your cheeks. "Please.. I can't do this without you."
○ ○ ○
A few days pass.
Tanaka refuses to take any of your shit.
He most definitely refuses to let you leave until you had one more solid meal in you, and one more day of rest.
You're still a little weak, bruises and abrasions littering your skin ( not to mention the nasty bullet wound Tanaka managed to sew up for you ) but you finally have enough strength to stand and walk on your own.
He pleads with you to stay one more day, just to ensure you're strong enough to be by yourself, but you shake your head and bow before him.
"Thank you, Mr. Tanaka, but I have to keep moving. It might be unsafe for you if I stay."
So instead he writes down his phone number on a crumpled piece of paper and hands it to you, patting your hand briefly.
"You're a strong one, just be sure to take care of yourself." He smiles kindly at you, and you nod before taking your leave.
○ ○ ○
Days go by as you hop around from town to town, only stopping for food and rest.
It's been a little over two weeks since you made the decision to distance yourself to ensure the safety of your friends and Keigo, and nearly two months since you were assigned the mission. While you knew faking your death was the only way to keep people from asking too many questions about why you suddenly disappeared, you weren't expecting to actually get shot and almost die.
You keep up with the recent events as best as you can, continuously watching news coverage and especially keeping tabs on Keigo's agency.
Your breath catches in your throat one day while you're moving through a rural seaside town, large red wings and a familiar hero uniform immediately catching your attention.
A flood of emotions run through you and it takes everything in you to not run up to him and hold him. But the fear of Kimura's prying eyes hold you back, and you steadily remind yourself that you're doing this to protect him.
You keep your distance and watch his every move. He's staring down at his phone for a while and after a few moments it rings. He brings it to his ear and though you can't hear what he's saying, it must be something important.
Because soon enough his wings are spread out and he's taking flight into the afternoon sky.
○ ○ ○
'Pro-Hero Hawks makes appearance in. Tanabe - finds lead on hero killer'
'Hanamatsu hero case still under investigation'
'Top Hero Agency in Japan pursuing hero killer - Kimura'
The news headlines on your phone cause your blood to run cold. How foolish of you to think Keigo would let this go so easily.
To think he wouldn't trace every piece of evidence and go to the ends of the earth to take down someone who hurt you.
○ ○ ○
You keep tabs on him as best you can. It begins to feel like you're stalking him, in a weird way, but you'll be damned if you did all of this just to put his safety on the line.
Keigo stays in Tanabe for the time being, the week passing by in a blur as you track his movements.
You figure Kimura went into hiding since his criminal activity fell flat after your encounter with him, but Keigo is as persistent as he's ever been, nitpicking every lead that comes his way.
A few days later word gets out that Kimura has been spotted in the village of Hidakagawa, just thirty minutes northwest of Tanabe.
You only hope you can get there before Keigo does.
○ ○ ○
Hidakagawa is exactly what you pictured, a perfect little town for a low-life criminal to live under the radar.
Its quiet and rural, its occupants living their lives happily tucked away from the bustling life of the city.
A few squad cars rush past you as you look at the map you have pulled up on your phone. It seems a little out of character for such a small town, so you push yourself forward and follow them.
○ ○ ○
When you finally catch up to the squad cars, the scene before you makes your hair stand on end.
Keigo has Kimura pinned to the ground, battered and bruised, his fist closed around a one of his feathers that he's currently wielding as a blade. A few dozen officers surround the scene, guns drawn and on edge.
Kimura smirks up at him and whatever he says is out of earshot, but its enough to piss Keigo off and send him into a frenzy.
"Kei, stop!" You find yourself yelling shakily. You finally manage to push through the barricade of officers and it's then that Keigo makes eye contact with you, his closed fist halted in the air.
Kimura takes the split second of distraction to knock the blade from Keigo's hand, flipping their position so the winged hero is pinned to the floor of the temple. He pulls out his gun and cocks it, pressing it to Keigo's forehead.
All the while Keigo keeps his eyes on you.
"I thought I told you to stay away, little one," Kimura grits out, wiping a trail of blood from his mouth, "Now it looks like your little hawk is about to lose his wings, all because someone can't listen."
You move on impulse when Kimura turns his attention back to Keigo, and you grab the handgun from the officer closest to you.
You waste no time in firing a bullet, hitting Kimura right in the temple. But as it strikes he squeezes the trigger of his own gun on impulse, which is still trained on Keigo, a second round going off.
- to be continued -
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tbh i was super nervous to post this bc im so new to the fandom but here we go!!
also i just made up random characters bc im not quite caught up with the manga, and also picked random spots in japan that i know absolutely nothing about
rip to my writing skills lmfao
♡ ky
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scintillatingshortgirl19 · 3 years ago
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Loki’s Line About Betraying Everyone
I need to talk about this line (spoiler: I’m not happy about it). I was going to just include this in the full episode response post I’m working on, but it got long enough that I decided to make it its own.
First of all, here’s the full quote: "I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home. I know what I did. And I know why I did it. And that's not who I am anymore."
Y'all, I'm less emotional about it now but this line fucked me up when I first heard it. It hit me like a ton of bricks while watching the episode for the first time because I was actually doing fine and wasn't significantly bothered by anything up until that point, and then came that line and I suddenly almost felt physically ill. I actually wrote up a post about it that night but never posted it because it was essentially just a lot of screaming, so I've now taken pieces of that and formed a hopefully more coherent post (though it still contains a good amount of screaming). So, I get that the idea that Loki’s betrayed Thor over and over is a Commonly Accepted Thing. It's really a lot more complicated than that, and there are a lot of gray areas involved, but fine, I'll give them that one. But - when did Loki betray his father? When did Loki betray his home?? I’m not just mad about it, this is...a legitimate question. I mean with the father thing, I guess the only thing could be the nursing home in Ragnarok/taking the throne from him? Which is irrelevant anyway because this Loki didn’t do that and doesn't even know it happened in the main timeline?? And besides, it PALES, like, hilariously, in comparison to any one of multiple things Odin did to him before that (not counting any fanon here - just the canon things that we know of!) I am just so confused, especially about the betraying Asgard thing. WHEN? LITERALLY WHEN? Guys, there is no film in which that took place.
If I trusted the narrative, I would say the most logical thing to conclude - at least about the betraying Asgard part - is that this is a setup for Loki to later realize he actually saved Asgard by causing Ragnarok (because that's the closest thing I can think of to "betraying his home"), which could even tie into something about, idk, helping him realize he’s capable of being a hero? (or something) and it would be a good follow-up to the moment he found out about Ragnarok in episode 2, but...fuck, the way these lines were framed it really doesn't feel like anything like that is going to happen. I could be wrong, but these just didn't strike me as lines that are at any point going to be contradicted or even revisited.
And moving onto another part of the quote - "I know why I did it." Uh, I guess good for Loki for apparently knowing that...but the audience sure doesn't?? This is something we're just now being told and have not been shown at all?? I have a feeling Loki thinks he knows why but it unfortunately doesn't have anything to do with some of the biggest actual reasons, which are the abuses done to him that helped make him who he is. Even more unfortunately, I also have a feeling the creators are on roughly the same page as Loki here. So yeah, that's a real shame.
The core problem here seems to be where the writers are coming from, and @iamanartichoke worded it really well here, so I’m just going to quote her: “either the writing is being lazy by oversimplifying Loki’s motives, or it’s being deliberately misleading in order to retcon the character, or the writers genuinely believe that’s what happened, which implies a misunderstanding of Loki’s character kinda from the get-go - at least on what drives his villainy and what fuels his anger, which are pretty significant things.” I do think there’s a slight chance they were using Loki as an unreliable narrator here and the audience was supposed to pick up on the subtext (more on that at the end of this post), but I doubt it, and I think it’s very likely one or more of the options listed in the quote. 
Honestly, I can explain Loki's line about betrayal (and his general lack of acknowledgement of his own trauma/legit grievances against his family) pretty easily in-universe. It makes sense that Loki himself would frame things as him betraying everyone who's ever loved him as if they never did anything to wrong him first, or that he would try to ignore what Thanos did to him in favor of putting all the blame on himself (coping with his trauma and loss of control by denying it). Or hell, maybe he would even straight up subconsciously invent a betrayal that never even happened, like the one about his home. I can totally understand Loki seeing the events of his life that way! That all lines up with his complete lack of self-worth, and to have him 1) recognize his mistakes and take responsibility for them (which has happened at this point in the show), but then progress on to 2) realize he isn't solely to blame for literally everything, and 3) recognize the role of his family and others in understanding why he is the way he is - that would be a very satisfying arc and is the natural direction that the story should take in episode 6. The problem is, I don't think the show is going that way. I think we're either supposed to take it at face value that Loki did in fact betray everybody who ever loved him (as if Loki is a reliable narrator when he's most certainly an unreliable one), or the audience is supposed to figure out that Loki's an unreliable narrator here - but the latter won't work, because the creators have to follow through on that subtext at some point and actually do something to indicate that what Loki said wasn't 100% true, and it doesn't feel like they're going to. You can't expect your audience to put any weight on subtext or even pick up on it in the first place if you never actually confirm anything, and your audience won't know your narrator is unreliable unless you tell them. If Loki being an unreliable narrator in that specific moment was their intention, only a small subset of fans are going to pick up on it. So the way they're framing it so far, the audience is simply going to see it the same way Loki does and not realize it's incorrect. 
Unfortunately, as stated earlier, I think the most likely explanation is that the writers either don’t understand Loki, are being lazy, or are deliberately retconning. So while I take a degree of comfort in the in-universe explanation, it’s pretty damn infuriating to consider where the writer’s minds were probably at in reality, and how this set of lines is presenting Loki to the casual audience. 
Tagging @iamanartichoke and @delyth88 if you guys have any thoughts?
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stinkysam · 3 years ago
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Hey hey. I was wondering if I could ask for some help. My writer's block hit me like a brick, and I wanted to know if you would help me come up with some good ideas.
I have a character list and prompt in mind, and if you could, could you please tell me what comes to mind when you get those characters and prompt.
Characters:: Amajiki Tamaki, Sukuna Ryoumen, and Ukai Keinshin.
Prompt:: Alternate Universe- Mermaids.
If you'd like to do this, please tell me whatever comes to mind, and I'll be sure to tag you once I write out the fic.
I honestly had no ideas and then when i started typying i couldn't stop lmao. hope it helps you somehow ?
s/o is a merperson
Amajiki Tamaki
I don't really think an AU is necessary for that one since either he or reader could have a mermaid quirk. But if you don't want a world with quirk, it could be like him spending a lof times around fishes like in public aquariums, or maybe he works there. And one day he sees something new, a new specie that wasn't there before ? Yet he can't seem to actually see them. Maybe he just didn't recognize the fish or a weird reflection of people around him ? Though he keep seeing it. He vaguely asked his colleagues or guides but no ones knows what's he talking about. He finally manage to fully see the new fish, but it's not actually one : a mermaid.
Sukuna Ryomen
He's a fisherman. He's still a bitch tho. He don't care much about fishes, he just wants to be away from dumb people (aka the whole world) so he fishes and sell what he gets without really caring if it's good or not (some people got sick because he gave them old stuffs). He doesn't care what he catches, if he has to put them back in the water or not. "theyre just fishes, fuck off". One day he catch a big one though. Maybe he should keep it to eat it like a selfish glutton. Or sell it at a high price. indecently high price yeah. except its a mermaid. What the fuck is he supposed to do with that shit ? his first idea is to sell them to get rich. the only reason why he doesn't do it is because somehow that "fish" is not that stupid. Like, the two friends that look like they hate each other, always nagging and challenging and insulting one another.
Ukai Keishin
Basically like in the manga. But one night he sees something in the water by taking the kids to beach training camp. Sure he had a few drinks but not to the point of hallucinating. So next night he comes back and sees the thing again and he's fucking panicking because what the fuck is that ? is it dangerous for the kids ?? throw his sandal at the thing to make it go away except it throw it back at him ???? he goes to apologize when he sees an human form except it wasn't an human. So each night he comes back awkwardly placing stuff in the water as an apology, and if you could avoid killing them, that would be very nice. You throw a fish at him yelling that you get it, he's sorry, can he stop giving you food that you're not even fond of now ? The whole thing feels like a huge fever dream because, hello, he's talking to a mermaid/merman, what the fuck ? Ends up coming here every week-end to see them.
They're the merman
Hamajiki Tamaki
he fucked up. you weren't supposed to see him. and now he's panicking that the whole world knows about mermaids. He's going to be hunt down and he will be studied or fried to be eaten. fuckfuckfuck. Except you knew about him and his kind since a long time. in a panicked state he plans a way to kill you so you can't speak. But you know because you can hear his bones shaking lmao so like, he tries to stab you, but you had replaced the knife by a face plastic one, so you "die". But he panics a little because omg he's a fucking murderer, so you finally speaks, scaring him shitless, but you end up explaining yourself and so does he, and turns out you've been helping him for years on, sending fishes or food his way, making sure people don't go too much where mermaids are.
Sukuna Ryomen
He eats flesh. fish or humans or animals he doesnt care. meat is meat. he's heckig pissed because the water he's in is dirty af. there's floating trash. There's legit a floating fridge. Your plan was to clean the area because c'mon that's discusting. except something grabs your leg and bite you, you have no choice but to throw hands. you survive but you're as pissed as him because a fucking fish bit your ankle ffs. you're still cleaning the water but you're making sure to not even have a single toe touching it. sukuna is near, watching you, ready to drown you if you fall. you have big stick in your hand to bonk him if he goes too close. though he appreciate you cleaning his water, "please don't call it that, its not diapers" he's hungry so on top of that you have to throw fishes at him. maybe one day you spot someone taking a piss in the pond or lake- and let's just say poor soul won't ever piss outside anymore as something darted out of the water to almost rip his dick out and something else knocked the first "thing" away while also kicking him and insulting him for being gross. with that sukuna and you became acquintances.
Ukai Keishin
People knows mermaids and mermen are real. which is good because man gives zero shit about being seen. plus some human stuffs seems really interesting (beach volley). and he kinds of love screaming at hyper kids (hinata, nishinoya, tanaka.....) to scare them as they don't know who's yelling at them. and the human who's often with them is kinda nice to the eye. so he discreetly tries to get your attention without really showing himself. just really cute. okay imagine his wet hair please i would die please thank you sir
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winstonhcomedy · 5 years ago
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“Dope A-F” - 8/29 - 9/16 - “Headlining in Roanoke/Fairfax, and a 9/11 show ”
Well I am officially tired of doing this blog. I am fatigued. Keeping up with my new schedule is almost impossible. Three blog posts a week coupled with new videos, new material, shows, and my day job is proving to be too much. So I am going to do this blog until I am not going to do it. It has been almost a year since I started keeping track and I think I have grown so much as a comedian since then, but it is just becoming super hard.
So without further ado let’s hop right into it and check out what’s been going on the last few weeks with #cutecomedy. Come on LAYDEES!
8/29
I headed up to Roanoke to close out a show at Blue 5. Chaz Blevins was putting on the show and he had a pretty solid lineup. Johnny Camacho was hosting, and the openers were Chaz, this dude Zack White, and Melissa Douty. So I knew I was going to have to bring my A game. 
I got up there a little early to set up my camera. The room is amazing. It is downstairs at the restaurant. It is like a cool tucked away speakeasy.  After setting up my camera I went upstairs to grab a bite to eat. I had some egg rolls stuffed with bar b q and Mac and cheese. It was delicious. 
When I went back downstairs people had really started to fill in the show. It was going to be a super fun night. We started about 15 minutes late to give people a chance to get seated and get drinks. Then Johnny got on with it. 
Johnny had a solid set warming up the crowd. He got some pretty big laughs, and had the audience as ease before he brought up Chaz. Chaz then did well. The crowd was super supportive, and he basically started his set shitting on Johnny which was funny. Then I told Johnny I was waiting for the callback shitting on him. Then 5 minutes later Chaz did it and Johnny and I busted up laughing. He went on to have a solid set.
Then Zack White went up. I had never seen this dude before and he was definitely funny. He was definitely alt and weird, but it really worked with this crowd. He threw a baseball into the audience and then faked an injury and laid on the ground.
Then Melissa Douty went up and she absolutely destroyed. I mean tore the roof off of the place. Everybody loved her. She did about 20 and it laugh after laugh. She was going to be incredibly hard to follow. She is from the area, and definitely was able to relate to the audience and get them on board. So after she slaughters it is my turn.
I go up and realize I know have to reset the room. So I use the first 5 minutes of my set to kind of ease people into what they are about to see. I do some crowd work, and try to get them on my wave length. This starts to go well and I am building up momentum.
I talk to a few audience members and get some pretty big reactions. I then weave in some material and it is killing even harder. I think talk to a few more audience members including a girl I found out later was Chaz’ daughter. I was really having a lot of fun. I was only supposed to do 30 but I went well over that. I was able to do a bunch of new at the end and get a good response and actually work some stuff out which felt nice. I’d totally give this set an A-. I felt good being able to follow Melissa after how hard she killed.
After the show I talked to a few people and then went over to a bar to hang with Johnny, and a few others. After hanging I hopped into my car and headed home.
8/30 
The next night we had The After Show. Which is our political comedy roundtable show. This time Chris wanted to focus this one on sexuality. So I booked Jason Kusterer (White Cis/Het comic), Katherine Malone (black trans female comic) , Samantha Padgett (white female trans comic), and Sammy Major (black/gay/Non-binary) to be on the show. 
I got to the show early and tried to set everything up. I put the furniture on the stage with Kat. I then ordered a grilled cheese, and set up my camera. I had a really fun time catching up with Kat. I hadn’t seen her in a super long time. 
Then Samantha showed up. We all went to the green room and got situated. We tried not to talk about the topics for the show too much, but we did come up with some interesting things to cover in the show.
Then everyone else showed up. It was a good hang going on. We didn’t have a huge crowd. Honestly it was one of our lighter attended shows. I’d say there was about 25 to 30 people there. I also took a few polaroid “Eddie Pooks” pictures that turned out great.
After about another 20 minute wait we started the show. I went out there and brought everyone else out. Then we went right into it. 
I am always torn because of this show. I think it is important and interesting, but it isn’t always the funniest show. The audience is tight because these are hot button issues, but when you do get a laugh it feels so damn amazing. I had some pretty good lines, and really it was kind of an amazing show. I think we learned a lot, and laughed quite a bit, but I don’t always feel good during or after this show. This is one of those shows where I need people to tell me it was good. I’d give this one a C. Good jokes, great subject matter, but not a ton of laughs. 
After the show I hung out with some friends and caught up. Got a few drinks and then went to Waffle House. Where I met a drunk rapper who was surprised to find out I was a comedian. He kept trying to brag and put me down. He was like if you're a comedian why aren’t you at The FunnyBone. It felt so good to be like I am there in two weeks. He was wasted. After this I headed home and got a good night’s sleep.
9/1
I headed up to Fairfax with Paige the next day. I had asked Taylor O’Sullivan to come do a guest spot, but he didn’t respond in time. Paige and I listened to a horrific true crime podcast, and just talked about comedy. I had also asked my buddy Dom Grayer to drop by and do a spot on the show, and I extended a guest spot to a Pittsburgh Comic named Joe Esch.
John Coulter had booked me to headline his room at Blue Iguana. I had asked for the night even though we were going to have a poor attendance due to the holiday.
We get there and we get a nice hang going. There is only like 8 or 9 people there, but honestly I am just excited to do around 30 minutes. I love longer sets. I set the lineup after I find out Joe and Dom can’t stay after their sets. So I set it up as a piggyback show with Joe, Dom, Paige, and then I'd close out. I also tell them to work a little cleaner up top. The only reason I said this was at the behest of Coulter. He said it is a little older crowd, and they're conservative (not in their politics, but just keep it cleaner). 
Joe said he could do it, and then he went up and didn’t work clean. It was some pretty sexual material, and honestly it didn’t seem like he wanted to be doing the show. This might just be his energy, but legit it was like why did I give this dude a spot? I get it. It’s not a huge crowd, but I offered you time because you were looking for time. He did fine, but John made me light him early just due to the subject matter. He then brought up Dom Grayer to the wrong name, and I legit was like well shit. 
Dom went up and cracked them though. He had some solid pops, and he had a good set. He was followed by Paige who did well as well. Nobody did terribly. It was just a light show.
Then it was my turn. I went up and did a lot of crowd work up top. I’d say 10 minutes or so before going into my material. It was all working really well. I was able to connect with these people and understand that even though there was only a few of them they wanted to laugh. I got everyone involved and a few more people walked in.
All of my stuff was working. The jokes, and the crowd work was dope. I tried a few new things, and then got off stage. After this Coulter asked me to do an encore because 6 other people had just walked in at the end of my set. So the audience cheered and I went up and did 25 more minutes of crowd work, and new jokes. This was awesome I got some huge pops, and I got them sit in the front row. it was truly a special night. I’d give this set an A-.
After this Paige and I headed back to RVA. I hit up Taylor again and he met us at Denny’s for a late night meal. Then we all headed our separate ways. 
9/4
After a few days off there was a new mic in town. I went over to Isley Brewing to do their mic after work. I got a beer and did some writing before the mic. It was a fun night because I got to see and hang with a bunch of my friends. Buhe was hosting, and we had Paige, Taylor, Adam Chiodini, David Luzader, Samantha Padgett, Jake Snyder, Carlton K, and a bunch I know I am forgetting.
Buhse shows up and gets the list ready. He tells me I am up first. There is an ok crowd, but the setup is weird. It is really bright in there because it starts at 7 and it definitely seemed like these people were surprised comedy was happening. 
After his set he brought me up and I think I did as well as I could have. I had a lot of new stuff, and it all did pretty well. I tried one thing for the very first time and I am so happy that it worked. I wasn’t killing and I stumbled in a few spots. There was a giant Jenga game on stage so after every joke that bombed I’d take a brick out and drop it on the floor. This got a couple laughs, but I mostly did it for me. I give this set a C.
I watched a few more sets and then Paige and I headed over to Home Sweet Home. I got some writing done, and ordered a delicious dinner. I got to see some other friends like Patrick Nowaczyk, Taylor Baldwin, and Jason Kusterer. Jason had me going up like 5th which I was excited about.
There actually was a tiny little crowd there. The best part was they were into the show. They were having a fun time. After a few comics did ok it was my turn. Kusterer gave me a funny intro and I just tried a bunch of new stuff. I did some of the earlier stuff, but changed the inflection and tried adding some tags. it worked ok. I enjoyed my set. I’d give it a C+. 
I went downstairs and talked to my friends a little bit more, including Beswick. It was a dope night. I then packed up, said goodbye, and headed home. 
9/6
On Friday I had a spot on Wabi Sabi. I hit up a few people to ride with my but only Taylor could go. We headed up and had a good time. He was actually able to grab a guest spot. 
The lineup was going to be Klingman, Liz Carr, Taylor, Torrey, me, Luray and then Wingle. It was supposed to be a packed show. So we knew it was going to be fun. 
The show starts, and they're a rowdy crowd. Klingman has a pretty good set. So does Liz. Taylor only did about 90 seconds he had freaked himself out so much, but he didn’t bomb. Then Torrey had a pretty hot one. By the time he got off stage the audience was wasted. They were loud, and wanted to interrupt the show. 
I go up and legit don’t get a single joke out. I am in a battle with the audience for 15 minutes. I am battling drunks and hecklers. I am shitting all over them and being mean. It is killing. The audience loves it. Which is frustrating to me. This goes on and I get some huge laughs, but I am not having fun. I was glad I overcame the adversity, but hated that I had to. I'd give this set an A-.
Then Luray and Wingle went up. I didn’t watch their sets because I was so freaking upset about mine. I got to decompress and then I got ready for ‘Sex With Me Is Like”.
We all got back on stage after (except for Liz and Luray who didn’t want to). Jaye Toler got on stage, but hadn’t done a set earlier. it was a super fun game this time. I had some huge laughs and only one joke didn’t work. Every time they said something about me I had something about them. I got Taylor involved and I had the last joke. I made fun of Jaye and it destroyed.��
After the show I drove Taylor back and then headed home to pass out. 
9/7
The next night I was one of the headliners on Castleburg. I had been ‘banned” the previous month by Mike Engle because I had bailed on it the previous two to do paid gigs.  Which wasn’t a big deal at all, and made sense. I was so excited to be tasked with being a part of the two year anniversary show. 
Mu Cuzzo and I were the headliners. I had invited a few coworkers and told myself I was only going to do new stuff. There was a pretty good sized list of comics. 
I was stoked to see my coworkers, and super stoked to see some comic friends to hang with like Mike, Anthony, Adam Chiodini, Jack Parker, Ben Oliver, Heather Joyce, Danny Dunlea, Jake Snyder and plenty others I am sure I am forgetting. I set up my video camera and told people if they wanted their sets I could get them for them. I had a few people take me up on the offer. 
I love the bartenders here. They are so nice, and so much fun to talk to. They look forward to and enjoy the show. Definitely a dope venue with killer staff, and good beer.
There was a pretty good crowd, and since I knew I wanted to have the freedom to do new stuff I asked to be the first headliner to go up. I knew that Mu would be doing his best stuff, and really bringing it so even if my new stuff failed at least he could pick up the slack and it wouldn’t be a shit show.
The crowd was pretty good. They were into it from the beginning of the show. Mike had a good set and so did the comics in the first round. The winner of that was Heather Joyce. Then it was my turn to go up,
I had a dope set. Almost all of my new stuff worked. I was able to work on wording, and got some solid laughs. I was super happy to do 12 of my 15 minute set as new. It feels like I am progressing and becoming a better comic. I didn’t murder, but I had some jokes get really good pops, and I felt like I broke the crowd open a bit. I'd give this set a B.
The rest of the show went well. Mu had a really good set. His material was clicking and he used his energy to his advantage. It was cool to see him pull that set together and put something tight together. 
The rest of the show was fun. Anthony had a hot set, and Jake Snyder ripped a mic stand in half and just held half of it on stage. It was hilarious. All in all a super fun show.
Afterwards I hung out with some comics, and talked shop. I got to sit and hang with my coworkers a bit to which was really dope. I had such a wonderful night. It all ended with Jake, Danny Dunlea, and I going to Denny’s to have a super late meal. Afterwards I headed home to pass out. 
9/8
The next day I went to Busch Gardens and had an absolutely wonderful time. Legit just a great experience. I haven’t been all year and can’t wait to go back in October. Afterwards I had time to go do some time at the competition at Hof Garden. 
This show is hosted by Mu, Jameson, and Kate Carroll. Everyone does five minutes and they grade your set like American Idol at the end of the show they have the last month’s winner close it out, and then they go announce the winner from this month. 
I was definitely the most experienced comic at this show. I should have just done a set and not put myself in for the contest, but one of the things you win is a spot on a live podcast that has a pretty good following and I could use that.
I was up 3rd or fourth and there was a nice intimate crowd there. I asked Ryan Mather to record my set and he obliged. The first few comics did ok. They got some good pops, but the crowd was ready to laugh. I told myself I was going to only do new material. I didn’t want to do my best polished shit because that doesn't accomplish anything, and this way even if I lose I can be stoked that I worked out material.
I went up and had a super fun set. I didn’t kill, but all of the jokes worked. I riffed some good stuff, and added on to some bits. This was an extremely fun, and productive sets. I wish all open mic sets felt like this. 
After I got off stage I went and hung out in the back. I didn’t feel like watching a ton of sets. I got to hang with Brian Mann (who had a really good set), Ryan Mather, Melissa Harris, Ben Oliver, Bryan Williams, Taylor Baldwin, and a few others including a comic I hadn’t seen in a long time. He came to hang and not perform, and support his buddy who was closing it out. 
I had a female comic ask why I didn’t give notes and I had to explain I don’t give them usually to female comedians. I don’t want to come across as “mansplaining” comedy, and I've had female comics ask for notes and then I watched them throw them in the trash. It is just easier for me, and better business to not really do that. Last thing I need is someone who doesn’t know me saying they saw me telling a woman how to do comedy. 
After everyone had gone up they went to add up the scores. Brock then went up and he had a solid set. He did a new song thing, and people seemed to dig it a lot. 
After this they brought, myself, Beth Tucker, and Brian Mann on the stage. They all said really nice things about us, and then announced the winner. It was me. I was super stoked. Afterwards I hung out with a bit, but headed out pretty quickly because I had work in the morning. 
9/9
The next day I headed up to The Southern after work. I got some flyers from Jeyon for our show we have in October at Holly’s. I set everything up and got ready for the show. I was pretty stoked because I had a friend from college that I haven't seen in like 9 years say they were coming. When they showed up it was super fun to finally catch up
We had a pretty good crowd show up actually. They were into it from the beginning. I got to see a bunch of my friends go up. Like Brandon Beswick, Alex, Paige, JR, Chris, and plenty of others. Everybody does pretty well. 
It is finally my turn. I go up and thoroughly enjoy my set. I am getting in a good rhythm of trying new stuff, and keeping what works. The new really hit pretty hard tonight. I didn’t destroy, but the jokes are getting better. The progress is amazing to feel. I’d give this set a B-.
After the show I headed home because I was exhausted. I said goodbye to my friend and dipped out. 
9/11
Tonight I had a 9/11 benefit show put on my Nick Deez to do in Newport News at Cozzys. I was co-headlining and was excited for it. I headed down right after work.
I met Nick, Ian Nightengale, and Torrey Huggins for dinner. We talked shop and ate some pizza before headed next door to Cozzy’s to record my podcast before the show. The episode turned out great. I had Ian and Nick go up against Rock and Torrey. Super funny episode and I cannot wait to release it. 
We then get ready for the show to start. The lineup is Torrey, Ian, Rock, Nick, Tim Macklin, AC Smith, Brent Schreiber, myself, and Fred McKinnon. 
We were worried about a crowd, but honestly we got about 25 people in there. Which is super dope for an off night. The show got started and it was dope.
They were a little tight for Torrey’s set, but he woke them up. Then Ian had a really strong set as well. This just kept building. AC had a hot one, then Brent, then Rock had a super offensive set. Nick did some newer stuff during his set. Then Tim went up before me and it just didn’t stop.
I went up and went straight into crowd work. We were running a little behind, and I didn’t want them to get tired. So I just addressed the crowd for about 10 minutes, and it was working really well. Like I was killing with the crowd work, and then at the last ten minutes I did a bunch of newer stuff that hit really hard too. I got off feeling really good about how it went. I’d give it an A-. 
After my set I packed my stuff up and hung out until the show ended. Fred had a good set, and I got to go outside and talk shop with the guys. We talked about some comedic frustration and limitations that we have to put up with. Sometimes it is good to just vent a bit, and then you feel way better. Afterwards I got in my car and drove back to try to make McCormacks in time. 
I luckily did. I got there with only one comic left so I got to squeeze in before him. The crowd was dead. Like two people paying attention, but I did brand new stuff. I just needed to say into a microphone to work on it. I bombed super hard, but a couple ideas got a few laughs so I know where to start. I’d give this set a D-. 
As soon as I was done I headed home to pass out. I had a long day the next day.
9/12
I drove up to DC to host for my buddy Dan Lamorte at DC Comedy Loft. I got there a little before showtime, and got to meet the other comics. Which included Maggie Crane, Michael Terry (who I had met with Dan in Richmond last year) and Trevor Wallace (IG comic) who was headlining downstairs but popped up for a guest spot.
It was a light crowd, but they all were fans of Dan’s so they were into it. Dan was doing a guest spot downstairs as well so there were a lot of moving parts. I went up and had a good hosting set. They liked me and I didn’t have to do any crowd work.  I just did some newer and older jokes. They all worked, and I had the crowd warmed up. I’d give this set a C.
Next up was Trevor. It was obvious that standup wasn’t his first love. He got huge on IG and he had a great stage presence and was extremely likable on stage. It just didn't seem tight at all. it looked like a dude doing what he thought standup was supposed to be. He is huge, and selling out rooms. I respect he is working on the craft, but he is definitely an internet guy that jumped over to standup because it was another avenue to make some money. 
After his set I brought up Maggie Crane. Michael Terry told me that I would need to do some time in-between comics because Dan might not be back from his set downstairs. So after her set I went up and did a few more jokes. They also went well. I was just worried that if he wasn’t back when Michael got off stage then I’d have to stall again. 
Michael went up and had a solid set too, and right before he got off Dan showed up. I brought Dan up and sprinted over to Big Hunt to try to get another set in before my night was over.
I got to go up pretty quickly after I got there and I felt pretty good doing newer material. The crowd was weird, and they didn’t dig everything and I went too hard no anti-vaxxers apparently. I’d give this set a C. 
I then sprinted back to Comedy Loft and caught the end of the set. I got to hang and chill for a bit before packing up and heading home. I was stoked because this was the earliest I'd gotten to leave DC in a while. 
9/13
I was so excited because this weekend I got to feature at the Richmond Funny Bone. This was going to be my second weekend featuring there. I was so ready for it to be better than the last. I was extremely nervous, but knew it was going to be fun because my friend Anthony Thompson was hosting. I was also worried because the last time I featured there my dad was at the show. So this was bringing up all kinds of memories. 
The early show was Vicki Barbolak (America’s Got Talent) headlining. It was an ok sized crowd. Nothing crazy, but definitely close to full. It was the whitest I have ever seen a crowd there. I am used to this club being more of an urban club. I knew I was going to have to adjust my material, and was worried this might end up being a long weekend. 
The show starts and Anthony goes up to warm them up. Then I go up. I do ok. I could not get in a good rhythm. I was scared and I felt like all of my stuff wasn’t working. I powered through and did my time, but I was not happy with this set. I’d give it a C-. 
Afterwards I watched some of Vicki’s set, but mostly got a bite to eat and tried to decompress before the second show. After the show ended I didn’t even really talk to the people coming out. I was too ashamed. I didn’t kill, and I didn’t feel like I deserved to be there. I did here from several people that I did better than I felt, but that doesn’t mean much. 
The second show the headliner was James Lawson. It was definitely a black crowd, and I was ready to show what I can do. Anthony went up and we could tell this crowd was going to be better.
Then I went up and definitely had a better set. I wasn’t killing but I had some pretty good pops. Nothing completely bombed, and that was a relief. I did some fun crowd work and got off on a pretty big laugh! I’d give it a C.
After this I hung out for a bit. I got some food, and just chilled. After James set I got to talk to a few people and actually got to give out some #cutecomedy stickers. After everyone left I headed home to prepare for the rest of the weekend. 
9/14
The next day I relaxed at home, did some cleaning, and watched the Virginia Tech football game. It has been really difficult to do it without dad, but I have to. After hanging out for a while I headed into town ready to have two great sets.
I get there and Vicki is doing an interview with a lady who wrote a book. She is getting like a recommendation from Vicki so she can post it online. She says she is too christian and can’t really watch the show, but she wanted to sit for a while. So her and her husband take the comics table which means I have to take down my camera. Which straight up is annoying as shit. Especially since she wasn’t going to stay for the whole show. There were other tables that had open seats. She could have sat there, but nope. Had to move the camera. 
The show starts and it is almost full. Anthony had a solid hosting set. I went up and had a really strong feature set. I was super proud of it. I didn’t do any crowd work. Just 20+ minutes of my material and they really enjoyed it. I did a new opener and put my old opener after it. Which kept it fresh and gave me two big pops up top. I closed pretty strong too.  I’d give this set a B+
Afterwards I went and ate and did video editing in the green room. After the show I went outside and met with people. I had a good buddy from high school who has come to a few shows show up. He gave me some strong compliments and he said he loved that I didn’t do crowd work. He said it was all material, and it was awesome. That means a lot to hear since I worry my crowd work is way better than my jokes.
The second show starts and they are rowdier than the first crowd. Anthony did well, and addressed a table of hecklers. I went up and had a hot one. The jokes worked, but where I really got them was the crowd work. There were two tables doing ladies night, and I was able to pick on them. One was wasted and the others were classier. There was a dude and his wife in the front who were super into the show. Super handsome dude, and gorgeous lady so I was able to bring them into the fold. Such a super fun set. I’d give this one a B+/A-.
After my set I headed over to meet up with my buddy Kenn for a bit. We chilled and talked and I told him I had to go back to hand out stickers. I had people say I was better than the headliner which is bull shit, but still nice to hear. I handed out a bunch of stickers and got a good number of people to follow me on social media. 
After all of this Kenn and I went to grab a bite to eat and catch up. Then I headed home. 
9/15 
This was a super chill day. I got Pho and hung out with some friends. I also went to Coco and Hazel which is a dope milkshake place in town. They have ginormous shakes with cake and cookies on top of them.
I then headed over for the last show. It was pretty full for a Sunday. I got to talk to Vicki a bit and she was super sweet. She had some kind words for me and said she’d be in touch. 
Anthony had a good set, and then I felt really good about mine. I did a good mix of material and crowd work. They really dug what I was doing. I got some huge pops, and felt the confidence to try a new joke(it didn’t work). The audience was one of the best Sunday audiences I have ever seen. I’d give this a B.
After my set I got my check and dipped out. I wasn’t feeling great, and I was just ready to kind of unwind and relax and go to bed.
9/16
After work I headed to a pretty productive therapy session. After this I headed up to The Southern. 
When I got there I set everything up. I moved the tables, and set up the PA. I had it looking really good. Unfortunately Monday Night Football kind of kills comedy in this area. We didn’t have a huge crowd.
We did have a lot of my friends come out though. Mu, Bryan, Adam Chiodini, Paige, Heather, JR, Chris, Shane Hill, Sam Wood, Samantha Padgett, and plenty of others. 
The show was actually pretty fun. Everybody did ok, or if they didn’t it was good for them. I went up and had a solid set. I did mostly new stuff. I had two brand new bits, and new tags for bits I did last week. So it was incredibly productive for me. I’d give it a C. 
After my set I packed up and headed home. I was exhausted. I ended up not sleeping well. My dad has been weighing very heavy on my mind lately. I doesn’t seem to be getting easier. It definitely feels like it is getting worse. 
I DID IT! Caught up again. I’ll be back Thursday with tomorrow’s shows. I love you laydees and baybees very much. I don’t know if anyone reads this, but if you do thank you! Thanks for supporting #cutecomedy !!! xoxo see you soon.
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True Love is a Lie
Request: Hey, could pretty please do a one shot about reader, that has a past with Lucifer and is still in love with him although they're not together anymore, but suddenly she has to deal with the news that he's having a son. The end is up to you 💕 Nick!Lucifer from supernatural
REQUESTS ARE OPEN
Word count:1.21k
Warnings: Implied depression, arguing/yelling, a small amount of cursing, implied cheating (not really implied), Lucifer (legit warning), terrible writing, ANGST, Supernatural
Pairing: NIck!Lucifer x Reader, implied Sam x Reader
A/N: I FINALLY GOT THIS OUT YAYAYAYA. Sorry if this is not what you wanted exactly and so sorry if this feels rushed.  Also sorry for the terrible writing and grammar. I realize that this isn’t really how Lucifer acts but bear with me, cuz you are the love of his life. Thank you for the request though darling!!
Y/N/N = Your nickname
F/C = Favorite Color
I don’t own you or any character in this story
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Every day it was the same routine: wake up, eat, pray to Lucifer, hunt, eat, and sleep.  You didn’t know why you prayed to Luci every day, he stopped answering them months ago. It may be due to the fact you still loved him.  How could you not? He treated you like a princess when you were together; he treated you better than any person you dated in your lifetime.  He made sure every day that he would not abandon or hurt you.  He may be the King of Hell, but to him you were his queen. Then, completely out of the blue, he left you.
He disappeared without a trace, no note, no goodbye, no nothing.  You looked for him everywhere, asking for leads from your hunter friends, checking the news and weather, and even summoning demons. What did that give you? A whole lotta nothing. You were just about to give up hope until the Winchester brothers, Castiel, and a particular British Man of Letters show up at your doorstep.
“Hey there, Y/N, can we come in?” Sam said with a slight smile. You’ve known the Winchesters for pretty much your whole life. John and your father used to hunt together from time to time.  As you all got older, you also hunted with the brothers.  You lost contact when Lucifer came into your life.
“Of course Sammy! I haven’t seen y’all in forever!” You said as you hugged Cas and the two boys. “Hello I am Y/N, and you are?”
“Davies, Mick Davies.” The British man stated as he held out his hand. You gladly shook it and led the boys into the kitchen.  You hand them each a beer and motion them to sit on the stools surrounding the island.
“You may want to sit down for this Y/N/N...” the older brother started, “Lucifer is having a nephilim with a woman named Kelly Kline.”  Dean’s words hit you like a ton of bricks.  How could Lucifer leave you to have a child with another person he probably only knew for a few months? That was supposed to be your life with him; you two were supposed to leave the hunting life for a domestic one and start a family.  Mick’s voice pulled you from your thoughts, “Do you have an idea of where they both might be?”
Tear threatened to spill as you relayed what little information you had gathered while looking for Lucifer. ��Sadness and confusion quickly turned into anger and pain.  The man who swore that he would love you for the rest of history cheated on you and is now the father of this monstrosity.  You wanted nothing more than to kill him and Ms. Kline with your own bare hands.  Angry tears threaten to trickle down your face as the brothers, Castiel, and Mick shared all the information they were able to gather.  
“Y/N, knowing this information may be detrimental to your safety… perhaps it may be safest for you to stay in the bunker with us.” Mick inquired, genuine concern etched onto his face.
“You’re right, Lucifer most likely knows how much this hurts me, and he’d know that because of this, he’ll be endangered.  The coward’s supporters will come after me, I’m not safe here anymore.” You stand and head to your once-shared room and pack what little clothes the hunting life has given you.  “Let’s leave this hell-hole.”
The long ride back to the bunker is quiet, the subtle purr of the impala lulled you to sleep.  Your dreams consists of the memories you had with Lucifer, from the first time you met to the first time he said he loved you.  He was the first one to say those three little words, which completely stunned you.  Then without warning, your dreams led to a dark room, the sound of Lucifer calling your name wakes you up.  
Your eyes adjusted to the light and you realize you’re at the bunker.  Slightly disoriented from the dream, you follow the Winchesters, to the best of your abilities, to your temporary room.
“This is your home now until all of this blows over.” You thought to yourself and emit a bitter laugh, eyes beginning to water as you replay the day’s events in your mind.  The tallest Winchester notices your impending breakdown, pulls you into a hug, and lays on the bed with you in his arms.  The emotions you tried to repress break loose and you cling on to Sam as if stopping you from floating away.  You end up falling asleep in Sam’s arms from your lack of energy.  He stayed with you throughout the entire night, calming you down when you woke up from Lucifer trying to enter your dreams.  
The next morning, the two brothers were heading out to go grocery shopping and asked if you wanted to go.  You politely declined, you just wanted to stay in bed and sleep.  Luckily for you, you weren’t going to be left alone.  Cas and Mick decided to stay to watch you and to keep you company. You didn’t complain, you hardly even left your room.  They checked in on you from time to time; Mick even watched a season of AMC’s The Walking Dead with you.  You finally decided that now may be the best time to wash up, so you kick Mick out and head to the bathroom.  As you turn on the water, you can’t help but to feel someone is watching you.
Getting out of the shower and putting on pajamas, you can still feel it.
With a flutter of wings, Lucifer appears in the doorway behind you across the room; his face tear-stained and a single (F/C) rose in his left hand.
“I uhh went home and saw you weren’t there.” He disguised the silent sob in his voice to make him seem strong, but it made him all the more weaker.
You couldn’t turn around to look at him, you couldn’t even gather the courage to make any sort of noise as you sat down on the bed.
“I got you a rose…”  He said as he walked slowly toward you. You get up from the bed and walk away from him, widening the distance between you two. His breath hitches in his throat.
“Please… say something.” He choked back a sob, his composure quickly crumbling.
“How could you?” you say barely above a whisper.  “How could you do this to me?! You made a promise!”
“Princess, please listen to me.  I did this for your safety, you would’ve--”
“No! I’m done Lucifer. I’m done with you! You made a promise and you crushed it to pieces… Now leave before I pierce your heart with an angel blade.  I don’t care that I can see your wings. I don’t care that I still love you.  Get the hell out of my life!”
With that, he lets out a strangled sob and vanishes, and you collapse to the ground in a heap of tears.  
Never again did he try to contact you. You moved on, but never forgot.  You were happy, as you could be at least, with your new life with Sam, but it wasn’t the same.  It never would be the same again.
A/N: So what did you guys think? pretty different than what I usually write lmao.  Lemme know what you think, feedback is greatly appreciated. And as always:  REQUESTS ARE OPEN AND MY PERMANENT TAG LIST IS OPEN!!!!!!!
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beautifulramblingbrains · 7 years ago
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Bound By Honour - Chapter 3
Pairing: Eric/OC *Sarah* Fandom: Divergent/Insurgent Rating: M -
Eric has the best hand in all the factions, but can’t seem to get to grips with his life as a parent to two grown Dauntless members. The honour is passed to Sarah as she battles with the woes of an unruly daughter and a wayward son. Balanced with a intricate web of personal struggles and outsiders, can they stop their family from falling apart?
A/N: Here to bring your daily portion of drama.
Tags: @singingpeople @equalstrashflavoredtrash @pathybo@beltz2016 @ariwolff14 @lostinthebeans @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995@jojuarez26 @tigpooh67 @mom2reesie @lilu46 @murmelinchen
The factionless camp is a plot just outside of Amity. It’s pretty large, spread with brick houses from old buildings as far as the eye could see. It had its own guarded entrance, the dauntless camps made from dark green tarpaulin tents starting from either side of it and running parallel to a flimsy wire fencing. Jack remembers the debate on whether they needed to be fenced in anymore. It seemed as though anyone could scale it if they tried; even a small child, and the factionless plowed the fields of Amity freely during the day anyway.
The reason why Eric hadn’t authorized to lower the fences, is because he thought that if the did, it would give the Factionless ideas on becoming a whole independent unit - and he didn’t want that, not from people who he saw as wastes of space. He said ‘oppression with a society like theirs was vital’, and stuck by it. Though, he could agree that their help in Amity made the seasonal weather changes and the forever increasing requests on produce far easier to maintain and reach each year.
“Assholes and elbows, everybody out!” A senior officer commands at the back of the truck once they come to a stop. It’s every man for himself, everybody rushing to grab their equipment and exit without being the last.
Jack is marched with the other new faces to a freshly bleached-smelling tent with cots of beds lined symmetrically either side. Men and women shared; not that that was unusual. Everything is basic, everything is bland, and it is cold. Jack breathes in deeply, trying to forget the ebbings of homesickness already cursing him, and locates a bed.
“Consider yourselves lucky with having the rest of the day off. We rise at zero-six-hundred hours!”
Next to each bed, they are given a small line of drawers for their things and a dim lamp which was already on for their arrival. Jack decides it’s best to settle himself in, make it as comfortable as possible, put his clothes away at the very least. Dumping his rucksack on the bed, he begins unfastening the straps.
“You’re the Coulter’s boy.” An unfamiliar voice has Jack peer up to a guy probably younger than him. He appears to be claiming the cot directly next to his, but facing him from across his bed, nonchalantly copying with unpacking.
“It that obvious?”
The guy studies him closer. “Your shoulder-width sure says so.”
Jack smiles to himself. If only he knew though how much he loathed his father’s influence over him. “You already know who I am then, is there any point in introducing myself?”
“No, Jack,” the guy jokes. “The names Ryan but I go by Chip too.” Jack’s frown is so unique to his father and it urges Chip to continue. “Chipped my bottom tooth when I hit the net the moment I jumped into Dauntless. It’s quite a funny story actually. As I landed, my first flew up weirdly into my mouth with the momentum and tapped my bottom tooth. Usually it’s the top, but no, nothing is ever normal for me.”
“I can relate to that,” Jack mentions.
“I called out something like ‘I chipped my tooth!’ and they wrote down Chip. Voila.”
“They didn’t let me choose a new name. It was already Jack the moment I jumped.” And if he had his second chance, he’d call himself Ardvard to really piss his dad off. He keeps himself concentrated on folding his clothes and putting them in the drawers so he couldn’t show his frustration.
“You also didn’t choose to be here, did you?”
Jack doesn’t like the fact his emotions must be so readable, narrowing his eyes at this chatterbox next to him.
“Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Chip puts his hands up in apology. “I won’t talk anymore and let you fester.”
At the bottom of Jack’s rucksack, he pulls out his headphones at long last, placing them over his ears and playing music while falling back on top of the sheets, covering his eyes with his forearm.
Chip merely scoffs and shakes his head. If he wanted to sulk for his entire time here, it’s going to be a really long month for him.
Sundays are usually Eric’s day off. He’d maybe go to the gym for a little longer than usual, eat with his family at lunchtime, cut his hair, watch Sarah in the shower, maybe toss himself off afterward with plans to screw her later. But no. It’s different today, and for the first time, he doesn’t know whether he should continue on with the usual by the way Sarah blanks him 
He doesn’t like it.
He watches her flit through the kitchen, cleaning each surface twice; even after she touched or moved anything. He even watches her fill the washing machine with annoyance while his coffee grows cold on the table in front of him.
Eventually, April brings the distraction he needs. In baggy sweats, she places herself next to him with some terribly pale face. He pushes his cold coffee towards her. “Heat it for me,” he commands. She does groan in agitation but does it none the less, only to slouch back next to him straight after.
“Mom, I need something to eat.” April uses her whiny, soppy voice full with hopefulness.
Sarah barely looks at her. “Do it yourself.”
Eric and April share a glance. He then lifts his chin, taking a breath before speaking. “I think the kitchen is clean, sweetheart.”
“It won’t clean itself. And April, before you go anywhere, you will tidy your room.” Sarah still doesn’t acknowledge them when she passes, disappearing into Jack’s vacant bedroom.
“Don’t tell me she’s sulking over Jack actually doing something with his life,” April whispers, beginning to lean forward tiredly on her forearms. Eric whacks her to make her sit up straight.
“You were drinking last night?” he asks.
“Of course.” She yawns and it pisses him off. “It was Saturday night.”
“Cut your shitty attitude, go shower, and then go to the gym. You’ve missed breakfast which is your own damn fault.” He sips the coffee quickly. “And that means now, blondie.”
Whether his daughter sensed the tense atmosphere or not, he’s more than happy she doesn’t serve him backchat. He couldn’t deal with her mouth and a wife that has legit gone crazy, and by the sounds of it - throwing the vacuum against any solid surface she could possibly find.
April doesn’t shower, leaving the apartment exaggeratingly yawning no more than five minutes later with her hair in a bun and a large sweatshirt, casually mumbling, “Chow for now.”
Still festering in domestic annoyance, he notices the cable of the vacuum is plugged in the hall, so he casually strolls over and kicks it out, ceasing the endless white noise. As Sarah appears, he smiles viciously. “It’s me.” She doesn’t share his enthusiasm and as she turns he grabs her arm. “What are you doing, Sarah? You’re stressing over nothing.”
“I’m keeping myself busy.” Her cheeks are flushed pink, hair stuck to her forehead. It’s in her eyes though that he can see everything that she’s not saying. She actually looks kind of repulsed by him - that’s not entirely unusual...
“You want to-”
“Haven’t you got somewhere to be?” Sarah’s so blunt it takes him by surprise. She plugs the vacuum back in and he pulls it out like a spoilt child.
“You don’t want me here, fine. I get it. Be angry at me all you like but it’s not going to change anything. Fucking deal with it.” She ignores him, the worst thing she could possibly do. “I’ll go fucking somewhere else!” He flings his hands up exaggeratedly in the air while storming to the bedroom to grab his jacket and collect his phone. He’s still putting it on when he reappears, just as, she again, plugs the vacuum in and disappears into Jack’s room.
That’s when he loses it.
This was always a problem. He was two sides of a coin; one shiny, one in absolute filth that no amount of soaking could clean. He never thought about what he did before he did it, and could never confess the guilt he would feel afterward.
Eric yanks on the stretched cord that lead into the room, not realizing his strength as the vacuum comes crashing out of it, and Sarah lands on all fours in the doorway.
She was fucking holding it.
“Sarah, shit I-” He steps closer as she rolls back onto her ass and leans against the inside wall.
“Get out.” It’s whispered so low he doesn’t know whether he thought it instead. She wipes at her face, still not able to look at him. “Get out, Eric.” The calmness of her voice is more threatening and telling than her words.
He wanted to stay and argue. He wanted to try and get through to her that this wasn’t anything to be worried over. He wanted to say he was sorry and imagined them forgiving each other and moving on. Instead, he does nothing and leaves his little wife be, along with a small fearful voice nagging in one ear that perhaps this was beginning to spiral out of control - out of his control. And he had no idea what he could do about it.
Wedged into a communal shower, the water running black beneath their feet, Jack still finds himself chuckling from time to time. The steam creates a mist high above their heads, voices echoing. He couldn’t have found better people to be with if he tried. Their team effortlessly formed a unique friendship in just one day alone 
“It’s supposed to be the introductory day, instead my ass has been flogged worse than my initiation. In fact, worse than anything I’ve done yet.” Chip scrubs at the thick lines of dirt under his chin with a bar of soap. “I can take beatings, yelling, gun practice for hours on end, but those fields are something else. Those Amity’s must be ripped.”
Jack lets the water pour over his head for a long while as Chip continues rattling on next to him. His eyes slide to the right feeling eyes on him. He’s being watched unsubtly by a girl maybe a year younger, freely letting him see everything; the way her hair drenched over her shoulders and leading to her breasts, the toned abdomen glistening under the water. She smiles at him once he realizes he is staring a little too long and he forcibly smiles back before turning his head to the wall in front of him.
“You have interest…” Chip whispers suggestively.
Jack merely rubs a hand through his short hair, clearing any shampoo left. “Nah…” he drawls. “I need to focus.”
“She really likes you.” Chip is making this conversation too obvious by continuously glancing over to her as he turns under the water. “Jennifer or Jenny, I think she goes by.”
“She could be called ketchup for all I care.”
“You got a girl back home?”
Jack shuts off the shower, grabbing his towel hanging next to him and wrapping it around his waist. “No,” he snaps a little harshly. “I wasn’t sent here to pick up girls.”
His friend shrugs. “May as well have some fun while you’re here though, right? Maybe you should-”
“Maybe you should keep your mouth shut.” Snatching up the bottles of his shampoo from home, he looks Chip right in the eye. “Concentrate on your own business, not mine.”
Again, his friend finds himself holding his hands up. “Jeez, okay…” And Chip watches Jack leave. “Chill…” He shrugs to the girl who disappointedly looks away.
Sarah’s too busy in her preparation for her second meeting with Erudite; papers fanned around her in the boardroom, to notice Blake Hammond watching her from the open doorway. 
There’s a bit of a ruckus from the other meeting rooms and offices; people skimming past, so she doesn’t have the sense to look. But he does. He watches her bite the end of her pen, then down to a flattering pair of heels, letting his eyes run up her patterned stockings to the hemline of the classical A-cut dress she wears that had risen up ever so slightly.
“Knock knock.”
Sarah jumps, her head jerking over towards him. “Oh, Mr Hammond!”
As she stands to shake his hand, he smiles pleasantly at her, closing the door behind him. “Please, call me Blake.”
“Betty was supposed to fetch me when you had arrived. I’m sorry…” she trails off as he rushes to pull out the chair for her to sit back down, grabbing the seat closest to her for himself.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I told her not to bother. Seemed a little too formal.” He remembers the folders in his hand and places them in front of him. “The plans have been drawn.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“It took a while as something far more important came to my attention. Regardless, I tried to get them drawn up as soon as I possibly could because of the issues we had in the last meeting; a lack of information, and I didn’t want it to appear any less important or as if I am wasting your time.”
Sarah shakes her head. “I wouldn’t worry.”
“Good. Well, I’ll dive right in. Of course, I am here for the preparation of the expansion, but also-”
“It still hasn’t been decided if this is actually going to go ahead yet,” she reminds him. The last thing she wanted was him to ride too high on his horse.
She expects some sort of subtle tantrum, but instead, he graces her with one of his unique smiles and unnerving her to no end with a confident stare. “That’s a given.” His words are too smooth, too low. She eventually has to clear her throat and focuses on the papers in front of her. “What I was going to say, is that there is a more damning problem I’ve stumbled across. It’s not the most pleasant of subjects, but I think you will agree that is indeed the most urgent.” Blake pulls out a small-scale map and passes it to her.
It’s a complete maze of runways and the layout of the factions. It’s hard to distinguish exactly what he is referring to. She hates to admit it. “What am I looking for? You can’t expect me to see what you see by handing me an unnoted map, Mr Hammond.” Sarah lays it flat to allow him to clue her in.
A smirk plays on his lips that she doesn’t see as he leans closer. “Our three factions; Erudite, Dauntless, and Candor have the same waste system under the cities grounds. Abnegation’s is veered off on a single system on a much smaller scale, and Amity runs with the land in the opposite direction.”
“...Okay.”
“The system has sat underneath us for countless years, adapted to our city.” With his two index fingers, he positions off a section on the map. “The problem is here. This is the evacuation.”
“That’s beyond the wall.”
“Yes. It’s collapsed,” Blake states clearly. “We need to close it off and redirect it… here,” he points it out. “Before we have a sanitary crisis.”
Sarah now believes she is not fit to deal with Erudite and wishes Eric took this damn project on. “This is a state of affairs that needs to be considered by all the factions. This isn’t an individual problem we can head all the decisions for.” It’s the best response she can come up with under the pressure.
“Your husband, Mrs Coulter, is certainly one person who can head this movement, or at the very least brandish it vital. I mentioned this in a briefing, and it’s actually humorous if I think about it, but the people of Erudite are calling for me to front the repairs and take over some of the cities responsibilities.” He leans back in his chair and puts a hand to his chest. “I don’t want to encroach on your husband's domain. Believe me, I really really don’t. I’m new to this game and my persistence was fighting for what my faction wanted. But this is beyond what we want. This affects multiple factions. I’m just the nose who stumbled upon it.”
Sarah swallows dryly. “So, what do you want me to do about it?” With such a harsh question, she still manages to make it sound pleasant. “Surely if it was that important you would insist on meeting with Eric?”
“I just assumed Erudite business is run through you now. You were both adamant.” Blake is leaning so far back in his chair with a look of expectancy; as if she was about to suggest something completely miraculous. Sarah only feels like she is floundering.
“I will speak with Eric. I’ll make it a priority.” Even she doesn’t recognize her own voice, and with his twitching lips, he also knows that she is at a loss.
“Photos!” Blake suddenly remembers. “I took the opportunity to gain photographic evidence so there is no delay - unlike the last problem we had. A lady like yourself shouldn’t have to venture to the source of the sewers, ma’am.”
“That’s very considerate of you.” As she studies the photos of what looks the mouth of a cave crumbling on one side, she feels his stare.
“Myriad…” he suddenly mumbles causing Sarah to slowly peer up at him.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m going to name the expansion and new parts of the buildings Myriad. I may even name the entire project that. Has a better ring to it, wouldn’t you say?” he asks. She is at a loss for words. He chuckles before adding, “...Almost like the shade of your eyes, what a coincidence. All the myriad shades of blue.” She can’t help but blush, her cheeks tinging noticeably pink. “I’m sorry if I have embarrassed you. I just found it quite fitting. Screams Erudite, don’t you think?”
“Shall we concentrate on the blueprints for the expansion?” Sarah rushes.
“Certainly.” Blake flicks through his papers. “And shall we name the sewer problem Roses?” he mumbles with his eyes still downturned to the sheets in front of him. “I have never been taken with the smell of them.”
“That’s a matter of perception.”
While she is blunt; her tone anything other than amused, he seems to be. “You’re very much right.”
“This guard malarky is a piece of piss,” Chip comments while they watch the buzz of factionless life from inside the pathetic excuse of a fence. “Do you ever think, when the factions were being made, Amity was truly the leftovers; you know, like factionless, so they made another faction to accommodate. 
Chip still peers off into the distance as Jack snaps his head over to him. “You know what, you think too much, that’s your problem.”
“But who really decided that? ...This is the factions, we shall name them this and stuff them with people with these traits.”
Jack kicks a stone out in front of him. “I… mate, I really don’t care. What’s done is done.”
“What do you care about?”
Now that is a tricky question. All of Jack’s thoughts had been on showing he was just as capable as Eric thought. That he could survive without being close to home. And that he was eager to follow his father up the ladder to leadership like he always wanted.
That was a farce. Really in his mind, he’d gone along with it because after initiation and the build-up, life wasn’t so planned out and simple as he thought. He wasn’t satisfied. He didn’t like the idea of leaving home at first but came to see it as a chance to find himself.
However, he still felt lost. “Surviving the month,” seems to be the only logical reasoning he had at the moment. Steeling his jaw, he keeps his sight out in front of him.
“What’s it like being a Coulter kid?” Chip continues regardless of his friend's hostile appearance.
“Privileged.”
“And your mom’s a Stiff. That’s unusual-”
“Don’t talk about my mom.” He’d heard it all before; all the provoking insults, all the slurs against her, and it was partly why he said privileged; intentionally mocking himself over something that had been said before. They couldn’t be any more wrong. “I’m out of here,” he says suddenly, sauntering off towards the main gateway.
Chip looks to and fro between their small chosen group, signaling for them to stay there as he races to catch up. “That’s against protocol! Jack, stop!”
“Stay here then. I’m still patrolling. I’m just doing it over there, through the woods.” He smirks so much like his father over his shoulder. “Taking in the scenery.” He thinks for a moment before adding, “Need a piss too.” As long as Mark or their intakes instructor didn’t see them, no one would bat an eyelid. They were too busy splintering the groups on different activities to pay much attention anyway.
While Jack walks calmly, Chip keeps throwing a look back to the camp, stumbling to keep up and steadying the gun hanging from his shoulder. “I swear, I will point fingers if they find out. I’m not lying, so don’t expect me to.”
“Whatever.” Jack shrugs. They reach the tree line and he thunders straight through, finding a spot to unzip his flies. Whilst he’s pissing, Chip is still a nervous wreck.
“What if there are people out here?”
In annoyance, Eric’s son leans an arm against the tree, still occupied. “ We shoot ‘em. I don’t know, depends.”
“On what?”
Jack smiles to himself, zipping his flies and turning to his friend. “If they shoot at us first.” He begins hacking his way through the undergrowth, ascending a natural bank with the sound of Chip clumsily following. Reaching the top, they come to a lazy pace and Chip soon begins to relax, only occasionally mumbling to himself.
Amity had it good, and so did the factionless now. Jack’s mesmerized by the very tops of the trees swaying above him. Through the parting of them, small dashes of light were thrown down, highlighting bright blue and purple wildflowers. Below him, by his feet, moss grew on fallen logs, some type of mushroom clinging to the base of trees. In passing, he dipped his finger in the sap of a tree, memorizing the feel of the bark under his hand, the waxy layer on small leaves or the furs of the stems. Finally, he crouches down to the track of an animal, a content, honeyed smile on his face from the relaxing atmosphere around him. “The animals are still free, even behind the wall,” he murmurs, completely forgetting that Chip is behind him.
“Thanks.” Confused, Jack peers over to his laxed friend still standing, steadying his gun from swinging as he turned. His face must say ‘For what?’ because Chip runs a hand through his sandy blonde hair before continuing. “You made me remember that there is more than just us here.” Jack doesn’t reply, turning back to measure the size of the print to his outstretched hand. “That we’re lucky to be here now. Well, I’m lucky. If you hadn’t of wandered off I’d still be watching a dusty track road and rubbish skimming the floor.” Jack stands up to look for a trail in hopes of finding whatever it was that had passed through there only shortly before they arrived.
“Stop talking. All anybody and everybody does these days is just talk; nonsense, shit, who has more than me, the weather. Be quiet.”
“Be quiet and listen to nature,” Chip suggests with a blissful sigh.
“No, just shut the fuck up. You don’t have to listen or see or feel what is around you. A quiet mind brings it.”
“Is that why you use headphones?” Chip asks.
“Does it matter at all why I really do anything?”
“You are the most wayward person I’ve ever met.”
“And yet, you still talk endlessly to me.”
Chip shrugs this time, peering down to the ground. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing.” Jack’s eyes are a deep ocean when he decides to look back up from the forest floor to him, his expression altogether smothering what really rippled through his vast mind.
“We should head back.” The tall Coulter boy stands to his full height but decides to walk side by side this time then trailing off ahead. They walk wordlessly, Chip having taken some incentive from their conversation. Descending the bank they had traveled across for a change of scenery, the break in the trees is ahead of them that would expose the furthermost corner of the factionless camp.
Jack turns his head to Chip as they walk out into the warm rays of the sun, and briefly smiles.
A few shots ping from the floor and off a nearby tree that startles them both, Chip throwing his hands up to a group of Dauntless they hadn’t noticed. “Friendly!” he shouts at the top of lungs. “Jesus Christ!” he pants, nervous laughter breaking his composure, turning to Jack to comment.
Jack Coulter isn’t looking at anything other than his hand pressed to his right shoulder, bringing it away to look at the crimson spilled between his fingers. “I’m hit. I’m hit. They shot me.” His face blanches and he tips backward, losing his footing at the same time Chip grabs him.
“Man down!” Chip calls out to the Dauntless patrol, pulling the strap of Jack’s gun from him and applying pressure, using most of his weight. “You’re good, man, you’re good.” He pleads with the other patrol to hurry up with a swift glance then back to his fallen friend. “Just a flesh wound…” he comforts him.
Sarah doesn’t know the people Eric is talking to. She allows distance between them while waiting for whatever conversation they are having to end. It’s also not the first time in her life she has peered through the window of the gym and training room. Many years ago, when she was just a girl of eighteen, she remembers coming to find Eric here. It’s a weird sensual feeling; a fleeting moment of familiarity, all that might have lived before deemed itself suddenly brand new. She wanted to believe the fingerprints in the dust of the small lip of seal of the window were hers. It was a strangely comforting idea 
When Eric dismisses the conversation, that’s when she makes her break. It’s a sullen, sweaty smell and lighting, various grunts from around the room that she ignores. Eric sees her coming, opting to drop the weights into their holder after only seconds of using them and shows his broad back and admirable lines that she knew of that still managed to pang the small muscles in her stomach.
He’s somewhat breathless when he turns and puts balled fists onto his hip, his vest considerably loose around his neck and a stain of sweat looping down his chest. “Wife,” he addresses her, but it’s not exactly kind.
“There’s… some things we need to talk about. I was hoping to catch you in your office but…” Her brows furrow, glancing at anything but him and crushing the folders to her chest. “...you weren’t there, so I thought you’d be here. So now I’m here.”
“Well, that ain’t obvious,” he snorts to himself.
“It’s something very important. Erudite want some answers-”
“Fuck Erudite. I’m not in the mood to talk right now.” He casually bats the air, opting to sort through the weights and lifts one in practice. “I’m done with work today. I actually thought you may just want to speak to me in general because you’ve barely uttered a word for a day or so. That was a stupid fucking idea obviously.”
“I’m trying-”
“It seems I’m always fucking trying but it’s like hitting a steel gray wall.”
Sarah sighs through her nose. “Please don’t talk over me.”
“Well, I’m getting bored of it. I’m bored of this - shitty tip-toeing.” He scoffs to himself. “In fact, I can’t even tip-toe, my shoulders are too bogged down with other people’s shit and attitudes, along with your…” He flicks a hand up and down her. “Personal issues, or whatever the fuck this is. A day is enough. This is enough.”
“This is enough?”
“Yeah,” he calls out over his shoulder. “It is.” But he’s beginning to sound less confident, trying fruitlessly to distract himself with a plain stand of weights.
Sarah drops the folder from Erudite to the floor. “Then I have had enough of this.” As she turns he’s quick to close the distance and grabs her arm, dragging her back as she fights feebly, her heels scuffing the floor.
“Don’t walk away from me.”
“Then don’t expect me to deal with things the way you do. This may not be a big deal for you, but you could respect me enough, at least, to comprehend exactly how I’m feeling.” She shrugs his hand off of her in a final act of defiance. But before she can fathom what he’s doing, he bends down and scoops up her foot, removing her heel and forcing her to cling onto him with her balance off. “Eric! What!”
“I don’t like these.” He inspects the shoe, then flippantly lobs it over his shoulder. 
Sarah purses her lips, poking at his piercings above his brow while kicking off the other shoe to regain her balance. “I don’t like that!”
Eric pulls her hair out. “I don’t like that fucking bun, never have, and you still wear it more often than not.” He smirks incredibly close to her face, probably intending to intimidate her.
“Your hair looks stupid longer. Cut it,” she pants with the command, blowing hair from her face.
“The thing you do with your eyebrow is condescending,” he mentions and she has no idea what he’s talking about. What thing?
“Oh, you’re a fine one to talk! Your nostrils flaring are.... are.” Her nose scrunches up and she continuously stutters.
“Sarah syndrome strikes again,” he claims. “But while we’re being utterly honest…” his voice drops low and he leans more into her space. “I have to admit, I like it when you do that.”
“Don’t patronize me! Don’t glide your way out of this with your scrambled words…” She looks to his arms. “...and body. That’s not how these things work.”
“How do these things work? What fucking things?” Only minutely he glances behind her, then licks his lips. “...You, er, you checking me out?” Sarah glances behind her to a group of people leaving, and then at the clock above the door. The large room has grown vacant, probably completely aware of Eric and his wife bickering and opting to leave.
“No, Eric.” She waggles a finger, backing up, still barefoot and hair loose. She knew what he was doing; he was twisting this conversation, distracting her. “Don’t!” Sarah hits a stand of exercise equipment behind her. Scrabbling around it, she makes it only to the nearest pillar that ran parallel throughout the large room.
She would gasp if she had time. His hands clamp onto her upper arms, spinning her, pushing her hard enough against the pillar to keep her pinned, but not enough to hurt. “I saw your email about whether I’d spoken to Jack. I have.” He eases up a little, his words softer than before and eyes searching; a sense of normality settling as they stared at each other. “You could’ve asked me that yourself.”
“But we had a fight…” She says delicately, tilting her head in a way Eric loved. A fleeting image of a time when Sarah was younger ignites his blood.
“I don’t know whether this is obvious to you by now or not, but I fight with everybody.” He twirls a strand of her hair around his larger fingers, stroking the side of her cheek, then neck and shoulder, brushing down her cleavage for a moment. “You trust me, don’t you? You trust me to look out for our son and do what’s best? Let me take some pressure away from you.”
Sarah tries to look away but can’t help fluttering back up to him. “That’s the thing, Erudite-”
“Fuck Erudite for tonight. Tell me first thing tomorrow. Just tell me what I want to hear now.”
She rubs her lips together before answering, “Okay, I trust you.” And his smile is radiant. But as she leans towards him, her head cradled sweetly against his chest with strong arms binding around her, that radiant smile drops.
Maybe he should have mentioned that it wasn’t really Jack who he spoke to, but Mark. That there had been an incident where Jack was shot from friendly fire and their son was extremely lucky that the bullet went straight through, missing his vitals, and currently residing in Amity’s infirmary.
Instead, Eric stares out from over the top of her head with a dead expression, knowing that he lied so dishonourably, and says nothing.
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xpwewarchive · 4 years ago
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XPWEW Friday Night Pyro (1-24-2020)
Friday Night Pyro January 24th, 2020 Portland, Oregon Chiles Center
Opening Segment: All Man Music hits and Huge Pyrotechnics, Balloons & Streamers from the fans on the aisle as All Man walks out with All Woman as the NEW XPWEW World Heavyweight Champion. Easily one of the best feel good moments for Pyro, XPWEW in general. And yes the crowd begins to chant “You Deserve It” chants followed by a new chant “All Man” to the tune of “Seven Nation Army” almost a soccer chant at this point. All Man surely presses the microphone to his lips and says: “This one is for ALL of us” *huge pop. “This is for ANYONE who was told that they weren’t big enough, strong enough, quick enough, smart enough.. Scott Steiner enters Steiner grabs the mic after All Woman says some kind words he says “Ever since I first saw the all man I knew that you were Championship material and with an assist from me, the largest arms in the world woo the big bad booty daddy you are now not just all man. You can say you “To be all man, ya gotta BEAT all man”
Champagne Clausen enters* Champagne: holds up papers Champagne: “I hold right here hands. The XPWEW Official “Articles boos of Confederation” *Scott Steiner: hold up whataya talking bout some Abe Lincoln horseshit, you lost like a chump now hit the bricks and stand in the back of the line asshole pop Champagne: Scott I know you are getting older and you aren’t as quick on the draw as you once were, biggest arms look at those arms I could smoke those arms. This is the article of confederation and if the all man was The Man he wouldn’t have used his case your luck last Sunday ok because on page 6 **All Woman grabs the papers out of Champagne’s hand and starts slowly ripping and tearing it page by page crowd goes crazy All Man: Welp I hope you had a PDF file. I mean come on now that I’m the world heavyweight champagne ;) You still walked out of Guilty As Charged with a ...weight belt. Champagne: I told you to not make a stupid decision that you’ll regret later, you made a very very poor choice Sunday night because imas far as I’m concerned your just holding that title FOR me All Man: ah cut the template grudge promo Curtis (laughs) I mean really why would I hesitate, I did exactly what you would have done in the same situation. You forget that you’ve been traveling around a few years off and on ive been applying this craft for 18 years. 18 years culminated to 3 seconds last Sunday and I pinned you to the mat. Fair is Fair Champagne: You wanna talk fair? Articles of Confederation! Page 6! The bell rang and I never got to stand up. Ruling states at the beginning of a contest both competitions must be stood upright before the bell rings, look at this footage Plays footage Champagne: I was not at a verticle base
GM Romeo Roselli enters Romeo: Champagne I’ve reviewed the footage, so have the board of directors and we put it to a vote Monday morning and we kept that vote secret until now. Unanimously it was decided that you were however crouching down. You were standing on both feet, thus beginning the match fair and square Champagne: What about the articles of.. Romeo: OVER RULED! *pop All Man: I’ll cut all the nonsense off right now. Champagne me and you. Tables Ladders and Chairs, tonight? crowd pops For the xpwew heavyweight championship OF THE worlllllld Champagne: Your on!
Enters Doxy
Enters new champ Kiera Hogan w/ former champ Amy Lee who is oddly not upset the title swapped deposits her losing it in a 4 way dance last Sunday at Guilty As ChRged
M1: Kiera Hogan w/ defeats Doxy Deity (during the match Audrey Carbine came to ringside and stared down Amy) Next week it will be a tag team match: Audrey Carbine will team with Doxy Deity to take on the women’s champ Kiera Hogan and her partner Amy Lee
James Westerbeck: guys I’m getting a huge breaking news scoop I’m here with the freight train! Freight where have you been buddy! Freight: Well I I I I said I got Mr. Troy Clausen out of the hospital, he’s doing better but he’s clinically depressed and doesn’t wanna speak to the press James: Well I’m sure I could sneak into the backseat and get a word with (Freight grabs Westerbeck by the shirt) HE DOESNT WANNA SPEAK RIGHT NEWOOOOW! shoves
Guilty As Charged PPV recap
In ring segment: Myron, Oliver and Kotto set the record straight with Ruckus, he got into some trouble but he’ll be back soon until then it’s Free Ruckus TIL it’s backwards
M2: Koto Brazil & Myron Reed w/ Jordan Oliver vs 3M Ultra & Jacques Dudley
Hell of a debut from the team of Brazil and Reed who had a great showing as Brazil pins 3M for the win!
M3: Leonard McGraw defeats Ethan Bedlam GT has aligned himself Bedlam and the both corner McGraw and Dragon Kid comes out and fends them off only to backspring kick McGraw for as long until McGraw gets back to momentum and takes Kid’s head off with the buckshot. Ryu comes out and hey again sides her alligeince with McGraw instead of Kid
(Garrett Thompson and Ethan Bedlam are now a tag team)
In Ring Segment: LOTUS wins cuts promo, goes to gorilla position and starts wildly smacking Rob Black around. Rob Black quits on the spot LIVE TV. Lotus berates Black for the grotesque rape porn past and he legit, no storyline he legit walks off and hides his face from the camera as Lotus walks behind him and he walks out of the arena and starts getting visibly frustrated. This looks very much real, looks like a shoot and Rob Black might have just walked out in his production job. Lotus screams like a social justice warrior and she’s gonna weed out the wrestling business one pervert at a time
IN champ Slayer enters with Rosemary they cut a very seductive promo with each other about the concept of LUST, There is a difference between love and lust and there’s a fine line between hate and love but Bryce we hate you, we hate you so much in fact that Rosemary isn’t afraid to fight you herself and since I won last Sunday Rosemary will get her wish. To fight you one on one. Now get out here Golden Child
Golden Bryce enters surveys the crowd do you want me to fight Rosemary, crowd cheers more than they boo. Then I’m gonna give you what you want.
Slayer: woah woah woah big guy slow down, remember the rules. One arm tied behind your back!
referee Kevin Madrox ties a rope around Bryce’s back
M4: 1 on 1 Golden Bryce must have one arm tied behind his back Rosemary defeats Golden Bryce thanks to a bit of Slayer interference and just like that Rosemary has a pinfall victory of former world champion Golden Bryce! Hahahaha Slayer conchairitos Bryce after leaves him in a bloody pool.
Golden Bryce/Action Bronson Vice ad
Friday Night Pyro comes to VICE Network on February 14th, 2020
Champagne enters
All Man enters
M5: XPWEW World Heavyweight Championship on the line Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match All Man defeats Champagne Clausen
(At one point GG with a bandaged yo head tries to interfere by scaling a 25 foot tall ladder and fall backwards off it onto Champagne down below who’s laid across a table but Champagne is able to move quick and GG crashes through the table so his interference meant absolutely nothing)
Near a high point of the match All Man is scaling the ladder and I guess Champagne dialed 9-1-1 because Brian Lee is out here and has his eyes set on All Man who is halfway up the ladder unneath the title about to win, Brian Lee slaps his hand around the throat of All Man and choke slams him over the ropes through a table on the outside and Champagne is able to scale up the ladder but All Man powers up and gets up somehow quick enough to smash Lee with a steel chair then smash Champagne across the back with the chair. Champagne falls off the ladder and All Man climbs it and retrenches the world title AND STILL! The champ All Man Champagne barking complains towards Brian Lee and starts throwing chairs around jaw jackin’ with front row members of the crowd All Man retains - show ends
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templeofgeek · 6 years ago
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Geek Fashion Icon, Catherine Elhoffer, of Elhoffer Designs talked to us about how she became one of the most popular fashion designers in the geek community. She has dressed celebrities, cosplayers and all manner of fan girls! She creates high-end Geek Bounding Apparel and is based out of Los Angeles, CA. Geek bounding is a subtle way to celebrate your fandom. Her designs are inspired by geek and pop culture. Her designs are high-end, align with modern styles and are made to last. Filling a much-needed void in the geek fashion world! Her design collections have been featured on Temple Of Geek Chic multiple times because we simply can not get enough of her style!
How long have you been interested in fashion/design and how did you get started?
I actually have hated fashion for most of my life, I got into design via costuming! I started in my local RenFaire when I was 15 and started making fae costumes for myself and friends. Then in college I took a fashion design course that I hated because it moved very slowly and the other students were not to my liking, but I loved because the professors loved me because I completely projects early if not on time (which was apparently something kids in the program didn’t do which was so odd to me). One of the professors pulled me aside and told me I needed to hit up the Theatrical Costume Shop because I was too smart for the Fashion program. So I went to the costume shop, got a job, started enrolling in the costume design courses (and it was a small program, pretty much me and at most two other students in other years the entire time I was in school), and then really honed my costume design and construction skills. It’s been almost a decade since I graduated, and I’ve been sewing and designing ever since!
Star Wars Inspired Designs
What inspired you to create Elhoffer Design?
Well the company is named after my surname, Elhoffer, which a lot of people don’t seem to get. They think my first name is El, which is funny to me. But I’ve been using the name ‘Elhoffer Design’ since I moved to LA to pursue costume design. It just made sense to get the URL and to put all my portfolio work onto that site to start getting work. Then I moved into working in geek fashion, due to working on a lot of geek parody film/web shoots and making some clothes to blend in (like a khaleesi inspired tunic that I’d wear on sets when I just needed to feel like a badass). I started working with some big companies that have a lot of licenses, and then when the last one fired me and kinda blacklisted me from other geek fashion companies, I decided to just form my own damn company and go at it solo, because I really loved designing geek apparel and had started to make a name for myself as a designer that created for women, not juniors, and who cared about shape and quality. I started hand-making pieces first, and then as that picked up I filed the LLC paperwork to make it a legit business.
Captain Marvel Inspired Cardigan
What do you feel sets Elhoffer Design apart from the rest of the crowd?
I was told early on in the life of my business that my designs are pretty distinctive, which I didn’t understand for a while. I was just like ‘well, yeah, that’s just my aesthetic, so of course it’s unique’. But it’s a combination of using fabrics that drape really well with colors and lines that tend to flatter the body. I don’t put colors together that clash, I often won’t use more than 3 colors in a single design (though that’s a rule I’ll certainly break if necessary, but I feel anything more than three colors gets to be too garish. Again, in most cases. I have plenty of sweaters that use four colors!). I also put pockets in every flared skirt I make, whether it’s a skirt or dress. Often wand pockets, too. And I also design for curvy women; my fit models are all well endowed, because those with less cleavage can always get things taken in, but rarely can modern apparel be let out or recut to accommodate boobs. That’s apparently unique, because not many apparel companies are designing for curves.
What has the reaction to your designs been like?
Well I’ve been able to expand from hand-making each piece myself to having a small staff of employees, a handful of factories that work with me, and a rather large stock of product on my site! So reaction has been pretty amazing! It actually shocks me how much people seem to love my pieces and work, because I am just so focused on the next piece or doing better and fixing my mistakes that I wasn’t really watching the growth happen in real-time. I was focused on prepping for the next convention or getting a production finished and shipped out that I wasn’t looking as much at the hashtags or the sales numbers! I’m thrilled, of course! And incredibly lucky that so many have been so kind and supportive!
Harry Potter/Raven Claw Inspired Wrap Dress
We understand that it is important for you, that as a business, you are minimizing your carbon footprint. Can you let our readers know a little bit about why that means so much to you and what you do to be environmentally responsible.
The fashion industry, and any industry that is mass-making things (so, every industry, really) is incredibly destructive on the environment. Between product being made cheaply overseas and then shipped over, put onto semis to be driven to a warehouse just to go back on a semi to be shipped to a brick and mortar store, and the lack of environmental regulations overseas (and now here in the US apparently), it’s just important to me to try to make a smaller footprint if possible. I’m not perfect; lots of my fabric used in my cut and sew dresses is still imported from overseas because the US just doesn’t mill textiles like we used to. But I do all my custom knitting in Los Angeles as well as the cutting and sewing of all my apparel. It lets me control more aspects of my designs, but it also means I know that there pieces aren’t moving around too much to make the final product. Besides electricity, I’m not doing too much damage on the environment. I’ve even been collecting scrap cuts from my factories to turn into gloves or other random things to try to reduce physical waste, too. We only have one planet, and I’m just trying to do what I can even as a business who’s mass producing and shipping things worldwide. By the very nature of my business I’m going to leave a footprint on the world: I ship out hundreds of packages a month and they go all over. I use plastic shipping supplies. Like, there are certain things that are just incredibly difficult to get around being an e-commerce site. But I do what I can.
What has been the most satisfying and the most difficult about your journey in fashion design?
By far the most satisfying thing is all the women who message me with pics or tag me on social media saying how they’ve never felt pretty or how they’ve never felt this confident in a piece of clothing. That’s why I do this. The most difficult thing has been dealing with social media and the trolls, nasty comments, the like. Sometimes people feel the need to say I’m a rip off or I’m too expensive, and I feel the need to educate them to help explain why I don’t have Walmart level prices; sometimes by educating they actually start to see the value in my prices, and sometimes they’re just there to troll and complain. So to that, I can’t help them. But I naturally want to help people, so I can get lured into replying to people who don’t deserve my time or energy because I always hope they’re there with the best intentions…
Star Wars Inspired Designs
Do you have a favorite designs, or one that is special to you?
It’s so hard to pick a favorite, because I really do love everything I design. I can’t make something I don’t love. And I also tend to love most the latest thing I’ve done as it’s fresh on my mind. I think my Scavenger dress, being one of my first pieces when I was hand making as well as when I started producing, is probably the most special. It kinda started everything for me.
Hogwarts Houses Inspired cardigan
Do you have any highlights from your adventures in Fashion?
I kinda want to brag for a second about pockets. I was at a company that sold to Think Geek and other major geek-clothing retailers, and I was designing a Jedi dress that TG was ordering. This dress was the first dress I was working on there, and I worked with the pattern room to put pockets in it. My boss hated that it made the dress more expensive, but I told her that we just had to do it. We’d be launching the dress at San Diego Comic Con through the company’s booth and I felt it was crucial to have pockets. Well, it became an instant best seller on the company’s site and at SDCC, because pockets. And at Think Geek all the comments were on how amazing it was that the dress had pockets (on top of the stretch of the fabric). So, within a year we have other companies that also sold to Think Geek putting pockets in their pieces. I like to think it’s because I pushed it so hard. Without those comments would other retailers care about pockets?? Probably not.
What can we look forward to from you in the future?
More (hopefully) great designs! I’m working on holiday season ideas right now and waiting on new samples that I’m excited about. I’m always trying to mix it up and try new styles and new things, so I’m very excited for some upcoming dresses and sweaters, as always.
Just for fun: What is your all time favorite Fandom and why?
Oh god. This is difficult. I guess Harry Potter, but only because I have a particular ship that is just full of really great people who I’ve bonded with over the years. And the fanfic is just so well done. Potter has provided me a lot of comfort over the years and helped me grow in so many ways. Yeah, Potter.
Hogwarts Inspired Sweaters
Lost Princess Wrap Dress
To shop Elhoffer visit https://elhofferdesign.com
  You can also check out our Temple Of Geek Features for Elhoffer Designs here:
Friendly Spirits Collection
Galactic Apparel Collection
Queens of Winter Collection
  How Catherine Elhoffer became the Queen of Geek Fashion Design! Geek Fashion Icon, Catherine Elhoffer, of Elhoffer Designs talked to us about how she became one of the most popular fashion designers in the geek community.
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