#like how will they know you've shortchanged them

[neptunes-sol-angel]

Title says it all! Pick the picture(s) that you're drawn to the most, then scroll down for their corresponding message.

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Pile One

What Needs Protection?

You need to be more private about the things that you're trying to manifest and any spell-work that you do. If you're in tune with your psychic abilities, then I'm getting that any plans in store for you that your spiritual team sends you messages about, KEEP THEM TO YOURSELF. It seems like anything related to the occult that you practice, needs to be discreet when it comes to family members, friends, and what you post on the internet. Knowledge is meant to be shared, but some things reside in the occult for a reason, your gifts, relationship with spirituality and the divine, is not for everyone's eyes to see or for any and everyone that you believe to be trustworthy. Even though no one can mess up what's for you in the end, protection is still needed to prevent any unnecessary drama from others trying to bring obstacles your way.

What Needs Exposure?

I feel like a lot of you are actually new in your spiritual journey and are receiving intuitive downloads or seeing more signs that remind you of someone that's no longer living, but very close with when they were still alive. Whether you are new or a little bit more seasoned in this journey there's this message to move inward in this path, some of you could still be on the superficial side of spiritualism which could be insulting to some of your guides because it's giving off the impression that you're in it for the aesthetic when there's an actual calling for you to partake in. There's a need to be more trustful with with your guides (god(s), ancestors, angels, etc) and to communicate with them more, as well leaving offerings for them. It's very important to build a connection with them instead of just leaping in with them to ask them for guidance and assistance for rituals.

Pile Two

What Needs Protection?

You need to be more protective over your time and energy! You know that quote "givers need to learn boundaries, because takers don't have any"? That's exactly the message that I'm picking up for this pile. There are attributes that you have that remind me of the sun, you're resourceful, regenerative, you create your own energy and produce your own light effortlessly that makes others gravitate towards you, but you must be careful with burning yourself out sooner with the way you're not limiting yourself on how much you give. People could rely on you for direction, money, emotional support, or even insight that they plan to take all the credit for. I'm sensing mainly that if you guys are creatives, keep your ideas to yourself, do not tell what you plan to create unless it is finished. Another is that some of you need to have more credence, you give away your visions and ideas because you don't believe you're capable of executing them yourself and you need to stop shortchanging yourself like that. I notice you guys keep saying "no" to yourself a lot on the things that could benefit you, try working on exerting that no onto the people that you should set boundaries with, especially if there's someone that you've been having a bad feeling about for awhile.

What Needs Exposure?

People in this pile have a story that needs to be shared. Whether it's autobiographical or fictional, there's something very personal that you've worked hard on in your life that needs to be public. Maybe you've triumphed over situations that would have broken other people, and the experience and wisdom that you've gained from this could inspire others who are going through situations that they feel that they won't make it out of. You may downplay what you've persevered because you it's something that you've adapted to, but what you may view as easy, can show people that when they encounter a big mountain, they don't need to be intimidated by the thought of how they're going to get over it, they just need to go around it.

Pile Three

What Needs Protection?

You're sitting on some tea that needs to be kept to yourself. Someone or a group of people could be trying to involve you in some mess, but you need to know that that drama has nothing to do with and that you need to stay out of it. Don't give in to the peer pressure of joining cliques, because that bond together out of gossiping about others, will not have long until they're turning on each other and you. If there isn't any drama that's going on, then there's a message for people in the pile who are going through a phase of wanting to impress others or do things for a person or a group who are either high in status or something else that you'd like you to be a part of. Your self esteem and individuality needs protection, do not place everybody on a pedestal or put so much of your faith into regular people. You may see yourself as the diamond in the rough thinking that you need someone or something to give yourself meaning, but that's the quickest way to fall into manipulation and a spiral of confusion about who you are.

What Needs Exposure?

Your ability to stand on your own needs more exposure. Maybe you have a parent or someone in your work/school environment that's underestimating you by believing that you're codependent and incapable of having a mind of your own with a backbone to follow it, but you gotta show these people better than you can tell them, that you're not someone to push around or someone to discredit when it comes to your accolades and the things that you've worked hard for. Maybe some of you are hesitant to make a certain move that involves parting ways with someone who's toxic towards you, but you have to acknowledge that you've lived a life before them and that you are safe and strong enough to create a life without them. And once you do, I feel like there's this boost of prosperity, positive attention, or a period of luck that you may experience as a confirmation that these people are not the reason for your success, you're blessed because you are, not because they were in your life, especially if they were creating blockages in your money and opportunities.

[rametarin]

Yall young people have so much to look forwards.

Yeah, if you're environmentally and ecologically conscientous, it has never been a better time. Do you know why we didn't already have electric cars?

It's not because of some massive coverup and greedy oily oil barons. The energy barons have always maintained desire to invest in and reap benefits from anything that reaps dividends. Energy will always reap dividends. Renewable energy, if even worth investing in, will reap dividends like the expensive, hard process of mining and drilling for oil and then refining and selling it.

It's because the technology and the science simply wasn't there. Not enough to practically and economically provide for our needs. When you see people screaming about how "It already existed!! We just need to.. rethink our needs!" You've likely come across someone that takes a radically bad stance on exactly what an individual's needs are.

There exists a kind of crunchy, borderline totalitarian asshole that, believe it or not, isn't the usual kind of totalitarian asshole, which is often associated with the right wing and Nazis! This totalitarian asshole asks, "What does a person need, really?" And their answer is, "An overarching state and society to govern for The People, and provide for them what has been determined to be their Needs."

When they say, The People, they don't mean you and your individual requirements. They mean the abstract, conceptual, platonic Man, the conceptual human person, and then they ignore you and try to interact with this conceptual ideal. And then they determine how to ration for you. They'll demand you conform to their plan, and then maybe you'll get X amount of a thing to live on, no more no less, as they brag about providing for The People.

Shortages will inevitably happen from this approach, and then you'll survive on half of that, which has been determined to be your new needs. That's the sort of person that thinks you can survive on X-much of resources, if only they can huddle you and a hundred other someodd people onto public transportation that operates on a timer and engineer cities to have a maximum capacity (which will inevitably be overcapacity as more people than they expected arrive to exist there) and their carefully conceived brave new world where they've used shitty math to shortchange people comes back to bite everybody.

Need housing? They deign to stick you into a locker sized Chinese style apartment and think, great, I've created livable housing for millions of people in the same space as used to house hundreds! Yay me!

Need food? Oh, simple; they'll just feed you food that's as simple as possible and emphasize vegetables because they're non-controversial and don't require as complicated a growing cycle or as messy as what happens when their needs aren't met and there's cruelty or unsanitary conditions to worry about. No one goes to court advocating on behalf of pumpkins. So, "wouldn't it just be easier if you were vegetarian or vegan? Your needs would be so much easier to mee! C:"

That sort of person believes if you just "make personal choices" to be as low maintenance and nonmobile and rock eating as possible, the little electrical power generated for transportation and heating and keeping the lights on should be enough to design a whole society around NOW! Don't you want that!? Me neither.

This is why we didn't switch to 100% renewables. The technology and science just does not exist, yet. Yes if we have absurd amounts of (currently toxic, currently difficult to develop and acquire components for solar cells) solar power, we're going to use it, but outside of using giant flywheels or liquid salt heat batteries to power things when the sun isn't shining, we just do not have base load coverage for the needs of society without shortchanging and radically redefining society and how it functions.

The way they would propose society to function is very centralized, top down and authoritarian. That does not meet our needs for personal liberty. But they don't care about that.

And this is important, because the science and technology ARE creeping up to the minimum by which we'll be able to generate enough mega or giga amps required for every individual person. We finally will have the battery capacity to actually store and DO something with all that renewable and nuclear fission derived power!

THAT is the secret sauce, people under 25. THAT is the beauty of this era! It isn't that humanity is "finally sloughing off the yoke of the aristocrats." It's that the actual science and technology is close to fruition where it isn't a violation of physics and entropy to actually have nigh infinite, free electrical power, without either polluting the atmosphere with particulates until it's unbreathable mess, polluting the land and sea until everything dies in the eco-system, or trying to live "within the means" of what renewables can do and rationing our power consumption to one hour a day.

Just having the ability to switch out a fuel powered jet engine with a rechargable solid state battery for turbofan jet engined flight, just having electrically driven boats, we save so much pollution and inefficient energy consumption from even happening. I can't emphasize enough just how big a game changer sufficiently powerful and capacitied batteries are and how essential they are to address power needs.

They change EVERYTHING. They make it possible so residential solar and wind can charge up a house battery, making it possible to function with emergency energy during hard times. They make it possible to outperform internal combustion engines by just simply not consuming enormous amounts of power while idling in traffic. They make transporting power easy peasy, rather than using large pipes or driving it on trains or truck convoys to deliver it.

You kind of came in at the last second of the game and you're probably horrified at the prospects of the world just plain collapsing from climate change and pollution. The Greta Thunbergs of the world didn't help, and then the reactionary Andrew Tates performing by arguing with them really didn't help.

Alternatives to plastic that either are biodegradable or actually recyclable have been developing since the 90s. Plasma wands for particulate free garbage incineration have been available for some time, dealing with our toxic materials can't go in incinerator problems. Heavy metals and carcinogen pollutant areas can be cleaned via use of specific kinds of grubs and earthworms, which rend the materials inert. Biodegradable biomass can be handled before it becomes methane, or the methane captured and put to use.

The biggest alarmists promising unless we "radically do something NOW" are often the kinds of people that believe if you'd just surrender personal autonomy, personal liberty, personal mobility, expectations of actually having a home of your own to live in, then they could have their Brave New World they want. They hate nuclear power because, "it's not radically upsetting to the status quo enough."

It's important to realize solutions are either there, or have been worked on since decades before you were born and either are already being employed, are in the process of getting employed, or are almost ready for the system to capitalize on and solve big problems. And the people screaming about how "no one is doing anything/ they're doing nothing because of greed/ short sighted selfishness" have a very particular bridge to sell you.

[bcbdrums]

Best and worst Kim Pissible episode in your opinion?

ohhhhh.... not favorite, but actual opinion on best and worst....

okay well....i think we have to exclude Grande Size Me. there is universal agreement that that one is the worst. it was designed to be bad, and it was bad.

okay so.... worst episode... there's a few i could pick, but i'm gonna go with The Cupid Effect. it's...not funny. wade is the age of kim's brothers, i think everyone forgets... so he's like...at least six years younger than monique? he's like, 12? when he makes this ray to manipulate her feelings. it's EXTREMELY unethical. is it something a baby villain kid with uncontrolled seemingly limitless power like wade might do? yeah...maybe. he's shown plenty of questionable morality throughout the series.

and then, ron gets in on it... ron knows better, should know better, that what wade is doing is wrong. yeah it's "just a cartoon" but i didn't ilke the message that was being sent here... and overall, it just wasn't entertaining? i'd have to watch it again, but it's in my list of 'forgettables' or 'skips.' one i would only ever watch if i was doing a straight binge, you know?

best episode... ohhhh boy that is WAY harder. it's almost impossible to choose one.

..............i just noticed the typo in your ask. LOL oops sorry i just died cackling. okay anyway.

i haven't done a full watch of the show in awhile, but i think i'm going to go with "Naked Genius" unless i think of something else. the writing was on point, the humor was great, the plot was solid, and the six main characters (kim, ron, rufus, wade, drakken, and shego) all got to do something. no one was shortchanged in dialogue or screen action. ron 'learned his teen lesson' as it were, in how disney serials and sitcoms of the era are typically supposed to go. it hits all the marks, is clever, and never gets old.

there's others that check all these boxes too, but i feel like this one checks them the best. and, you don't really need much prior knowledge coming into the episode? someone could watch this as their first ever KP episode i think and get the idea.

you've got me wanting to do a full rewatch lol, not through my shipping goggles but to compare episodes for things like this. thanks for the ask!!

[natjennie]

i dont want to make a bad faith interpretation, but it seems like people in the ofmd fandom who are maybe used to putting their writing somewhere else or maybe haven't posted writing before are misunderstanding some of ao3's features. which is totally understandable it's an overwhelming website. now I'm not an expert, I dont have like. a degree in database management or library sciences or something, but, as someone who is very particular about the fics I read, I thought I'd say some things.

mainly, tags on ao3 work directly for both what you want to include and what you want to exclude. so, for instance, when I'm searching for an ofmd fic, I can specify ed/stede included, and izzy/ed excluded, so nothing that has been tagged as izzy/ed will populate on the list. but I think writer's don't usually think about tagging their fics with the "negatives" as in, you're usually advertising the selling points rather than potential downsides, right?

and you're looking at your fic from the point of view of the person that wrote it. you know how it ends you know the specifics, you have a biased opinion about the degree to which those things feature in your fic. for example, if you write a line about someone getting stabbed and bleeding, but it's very very minor and vague, you might not think to tag it. but if someone specifically searches excluding blood as a tag, it means they really don't want to see that. so you not tagging it means they might see your fic, read and love it, then get triggered by the inclusion of injuries and blood. even though you knew it was no big deal, the character was fine, there was barely a description. but that's just your perspective.

same with the idea of character death. if they get revived or if they come back as a ghost or something, you might not think to tag it because it's not the main point of the fic, it's not a big deal, it gets resolved. but someone who specifically excludes character death doesn't want to read a character dying. no matter the end result.

do you know what I mean? and I think this gets really prevalent specifically for alternate universes, and the specific tagging etiquette for them.

because, from the writer's point of view, it's a fic about them being doctors. or something. and you've written all these thousands of words about hospitals and medicine and stuff, so you tag it alternate universe - doctors. because that's what the fic is about. but you're forgetting that, by virtue of them being doctors in hospitals and texting and answering calls, they're in a modern au. you didn't think that was the main part of the fic, but someone specifically avoiding- or specifically looking for modern au's is shortchanged by your use of only the tag au - doctors. rather than covering the broad genre first.

and I know you're putting your writing out there for free and you don't owe anyone anything, but ao3 is an archive. it's a database. it's free access to information, and being inaccurate in your labeling is an injustice to you, not getting the credit or audience you deserve, and potential readers, reading something they didn't sign up for, or not being able to find something they want.

think of it like a literal library. when you go to the young adult section, you want young adult novels. if a children's book ended up there because the author neglected to market it as a children's book, you'd be pretty annoyed at the organization of the library. because that's not what you were looking for.

so I guess I mean, for all the memes about those giant blocks of text as tags for crossover fics or w/e, please be generous in your tags. there is no algorithm to ao3, there is no word association by the search engine. when I search, or exclude, cats it is only going to comb through and provide, or remove, fics with the tag cats. nothing else. it works like putting things in quotes in google. please tag your fics as literally as possible.

that's it. rant over. thank you :)

[troglobite]

laskfjsl

okay separately i watched season 3 of hilda and was a sobbing mess for the last 35 minutes of the final episode.

also i would bet money that netflix shortchanged them and said "FINE you get ONE more season. but it's only EIGHT episodes, because fuck you."

because season 3 could easily have been 2 more seasons on its own. like come the fuck on.

they introduced AND resolved their ENTIRE FAMILY LORE in fucking EIGHT EPISODES. that's shitfucking absurd.

but also i cannot begin to comprehend how AMAZINGLY they executed that to make me a sobbing, blubbering mess at the end. absolutely fucking destroyed me.

something about hilda just. really. fucking hits me. which is wild because i don't identify with her at all. i find her mildly annoying because, like my mom, when children recklessly endanger themselves by ignoring their friends and parents in media, it drives me UP THE FUCKING WALL.

i got immune to it as i watched, and the world of the show also goes out of its way to demonstrate that realistically, in this world, nothing's gonna happen to hilda. the consequences are always otherworldly or strange or narrative, and she can tumble down as many cliffsides as she wants and be fine. and so can everyone else! absurdity. but it means that when she doesn't listen, it's like, well yeah i guess to you your mom WOULD be overprotective, because you've scaled sheer cliff faces and tumbled to what, in the REAL world, would be sure death, and come out almost entirely unscathed. so yeah i get it. lol

and it matches the fantasy/magical world of the show so it works.

but anyway point being i don't relate to her in any way, or any of the characters, really. and i'm not someone who HAS to to care about or enjoy a piece of art or media, CLEARLY.

but i mention it to say that something about the show, story, characters, art, ethos and thesis, etc. just absolutely gutpunches me.

the deerfox episode? bawling every time i watch it. absolutely emotionally devastating.

and i don't cry at every episode. i am COMPELLED by it, though. it makes me FEEL and THINK. it's just so well done.

and the series finale, all 80 minutes of it, just absolutely destroyed me.

it was a situation where i could see all the narrative beats and the "twists" before they were revealed, but all that means is i'm an adult watching a children's show and they're incredibly good storytellers for me to know what's happening.

and knowing it, and knowing likely how it would end, etc., i was still absolutely devastated.

and they make you reckon with SERIOUS SHIT in the finale. even though everything ended up being okay, they really made the stakes REAL. and it was HEAVY!

and just so effective.

i was bummed because in looking up who the voice actor for mr. pooka was, i got spoiled for some plot points and i was REALLY annoyed about that.

but then they ended up being relatively minor plot points because it didn't reveal anything about the CONTEXT of those reveals, so they were still incredibly impactful.

oh one thing, though, and i guess spoilers for season 3 if you haven't watched it (and i HIGHLY recommend it. seasons 1 and 2 and the movie are AMAZING, and season 3 is DEVASTATINGLY good)

when her dad shows the fuck up out of nowhere and is like "haha i'm cool, right? :D you take after me! let's go do things! haha i'm completely broke! let's go out to eat! i have a weird job to do, yeah, come with me! haha lemme let you drive at an unreasonably young age! we're out in the middle of nowhere, it's fine!"

let's just say i sat stonefaced or grimacing through that entire episode, reliving some extremely identical memories of my own. lol

spoilers over

anyway, something about the heart of the show is so profoundly moving, and i absolutely love it. i highly recommend it, and i am in awe of how much they accomplished in season 3.

also miriam margoyles is in it!

[endgameriverdalepodcast]

How much would you pay a 10-year-old for drugs, mija? Find out our answers this week by listening to the new episode of Endgame here!

[howtofightwrite]

My favorite DND character to roleplay, has been formally trained in combat for most of her life, and is very, very skilled as a result. Not to mention she dedicates most of her downtime to practicing (fantasy) martial arts, as that's what she loves to do.

But the issue is, I don't know how to convey that in roleplay, as I'm just a nerd who's never stepped into a martial arts gym or dojo before. What should I do?

You're running into a limitation with D&D, and not even realizing. This isn't a flaw per se, it's something D&D does very well, until you get off script.

To set up a false dichotomy, there are two ways you can create a fictional character: You can create an organic mixture of experiences, skills and outlooks; and blend that together into a coherent individual. Or, you can take a per-built archetype, and then tweak it slightly, to fit what you need.

The advantage of the first approach is you're creating the simulacrum of a person. This is likely to be, “more realistic.” However, it is a lot more work, and it can create characters that are much harder to communicate to the audience. Also, if you have an unconscious bias, you can easily create characters that are completely unrecognizable to the audience, failing the, “more realistic,” component of this approach.

The second approach is to start from a prebuilt archetype. You're already doing that here, you're just running into a situation where you're cross-threading two different archetypes, and then asking, “wait, what happened here?” Depending on the amount of relevant literature you've read, you should have a pretty solid grasp of the various archetypes is your genre. In the case of D&D, you don't really need to ask how to roleplay as a wizard, or a rogue, or (in most cases) a fighter. In fact, most of the base classes are pretty easy to improv roleplay (even if this does shortchange some really interesting classes like the warlock and sorcerer.)

If I told you, roleplay your character as a monk, you'd probably have a much easier time grasping that concept and running with it. If you want a single sentence answer, that's probably your best bet. Your character is fairly close to a monk, and honestly, if I was building a character like that, I would probably have main-classed Monk, and then focused on the weapons with the monk keyword. (Players forget that monks actually have a set of weapon proficiencies. and it's relatively flexible these days. You might even be able to find a splat that lets you add some additional martial proficiencies to your monk list. Historically the monk weapon list was pretty underwhelming, but newer editions have more appealing lists.) (There's a third party Monk spec, in the 5e SRD, Way of Iron, that lets monks use a lot of martial weapons, and armor, with some limitations. I'm not sure if there's a similar option from WotC, though it's certainly possible.)

Monks are the class that tend to spend their entire life studying martial combat. The class's defining characteristic is their ability to fight effectively without gear. There's a metagame stigma against it, but it's entirely valid for monk to multiclass. (The reason the stigma exists is because one level of monk can be a very potent “splash,” for optimized builds. There's a lot of potential for abuse here.) So, if your character spent their formative years studying martial combat, and now works as a mercenary, it would be entirely plausible for them to have started with a level of monk, and then start taking fighter levels.

Monks tend to be extremely disciplined (in previous editions the class was hard locked to lawful, if that helps you understand.) These are characters who have dedicated their lives to combat. They're also likely to be pretty relaxed and confident in the face of nearly any threat they can potentially overcome. Even against impossible odds, it's not like they're going to crack, they're simply more likely to have a fatalistic view of the situation.

So, why am I saying, “monk,” when that wasn't what you were asking for? It goes back to what I said about this being a limitation of D&D. There isn't a good way to graft martial arts onto a character. It's not like a game like Shadowrun or World of Darkness, where you can simply put a few points into the relevant unarmed combat skill. In some editions you could take a feat to give you unarmed fighting, but D&D heavily punishes throwing a punch if you don't know what you're doing. Further, outside of the monk, there really isn't a way to establish that your character dedicated their life to martial combat. You can add that as roleplaying flavor to a normal fighter, but it isn't particularly reflected in game. So, while your character is (in theory) extremely familiar with combat, they're still working off the same stats as the farmer turned mercenary who's been doing this for six weeks, but has the same XP pool.

So, this loops back to that false dichotomy I started with. You can either start by assembling your character piecemeal, or by creating an archetype. You're going to do the same thing in most RPGs, except the game has already chosen which route you'll take. In the case of D&D, you're picking a class, short of homebrewing a class from the ground up (which is very daunting), you can't really create a new class, piecemeal, to fit your concept.

In contrast, if an RPG starts with a point-buy system, you're creating a character from scratch, when you roll them up. Now, in most cases, even with point buys, the game will provide you some kind of example templates to work from. It can be pretty difficult to establish what a character should look like, if you've never seen a completed character sheet for it. As a result, you will see some optional archetype build suggestions.

In reality, there's a spectrum between the two points on that dichotomy, especially if you start from an archetype and then work away from it, expanding them into a full character. There might be value in, “assembling,” an archetypal character out of their component parts, though that would be more valuable in critiquing the archetype itself.

With the way D&D is designed, it expects you to start from a pre-established archetype for a character. Now there's still a lot of freedom to completely reinterpret the frame you're offered, and come up with an entirely different read on one of the classes. (Previous editions lightly suggested doing this with the rogue in the Player's Guide's text, but it is an option for any class.) Also, multi-classing (especially with class levels that reflect an earlier era in your character's life) can be a really interesting way to make a character stand out, and give them more of a unique identity. (Just, be aware this is also a tactic in munchkining, and if your DM says, “no,” they have legitimate concerns.)

-Starke

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[zalrb]

Another huge fan of your blog checking in! How would you rank these shows you've been discussing lately in order of the quality of the writing: TVD, Gilmore Girls, Downton Abbey, That 70s Show and The Office? (It's funny that I happened to list The Office last because in terms of writing quality I think it would rank first on this list for me - but I totally get that you and many followers may feel differently!)

I don’t think it would be out of place to put The Office first because it is a well-crafted show, particularly the first few seasons (I personally think it runs out of steam around Pam’s first pregnancy), it’s a show that’s fantastic with details,

one of the reasons why I said I like Pam and Jim as a couple but I really love their slow burn moments is because of all the details that make their relationship like particularly when Jim has to work in the annex because of Michael took over his desk and he’s away from Pam all day and every time he sees her, she’s laughing with Roy or doing something else and he spends the entire day thinking she didn’t miss him but when the day is over and he gets to his desk, he sees that he has seven voicemails and they’re all from Pam telling him about her day because he isn’t there --- taking away my shipping lenses, that’s beautiful writing but I would probably put Downton Abbey first though I enjoyed it considerably less -- second less on this list.

It’s first because of the characters, not that I don’t think The Office has great characters because they do and I wouldn’t call any of them one-dimensional but Downton Abbey wrote characters that kind of came into the lives of the people who liked the show, like when every series began it was almost crafted like a family reunion for the viewer, you’re back at Downton, and I think it was the actress who played O’Brien that said there’s a character for everyone and even though I personally found all of them - save Violet - unlikable, they were strong characters and given faults and attributes in equal measure and the contradictions were expressed in a way that was for the most part organic. And what I mean by that is having just rewatched Black Sails, an issue that I had with the show is the way the characters explained the motivations and thought processes of other characters in expository dialogue, once in a while it’s fine but because it’s repeated, it’s lazy to me:

whereas Downton lets the characters’ actions or words speak for themselves and then uses a quick piece of dialogue that sums up those contradictions without it seeming like an explanation or without it seeming non-conversational

The Office is second.

To be completely honest, I think That 70s Show and Gilmore Girls could be interchangeable in this spot. I’m choosing to put That 70s Show because I think the writing tapped into exactly what teenage life in a small Midwestern town would be like i.e. sitting in the basement with your friends, watching TV, smoking weed, goofing off and it’s an entirely separate world from upstairs where your parents are and that wasn’t my life as a teenager and I wasn’t a teenager in the 70s but the specific details of small things that are big moments like a first kiss, getting drunk for the first time, a first job, has aspects of universality to it and the writing emphasized that very well while they wrote characters that could be like The Cheerleader, The Tomboy, The Boy Next Door, The Pretty Boy, The Bad Boy while also nuancing them so they’re not one-dimensional (and when the show starts making them archetypes, there’s an entire episode about how nothing changes and they don’t change and develop and they make fun of themselves, although the best course of action should’ve probably been to end it) and they’re also able to interact alone together

With Gilmore Girls and that writing, it’s the ability to juggle the amount of storylines that it does without the episode or the series feeling overcrowded and that’s actually not a small feat.

Rory and Lorelai are pretty much a 50/50 split and then throughout the series, Emily and Richard get more time and then there’s Jackson and Sookie and there’s Paris and her arc with small town shenanigans with Kirk and Taylor and then you have the Inn with Michel and there are characters that definitely feel shortchanged by the writing *cough* Lane *cough* and I would argue Dean but I would also argue that Dean wasn’t meant to be anything other than a first boyfriend and was built for Rory but for the most part, I would say that you know these characters, you know their dynamics to the town or to Lorelai or to Rory or to both and they have their own storylines that you don’t necessarily need to see through but are fleshed out enough that they feel like real people.

This is something TVD never got, almost every new character felt like an unnecessary addition because they weren’t doing much with the characters that they had --- why am I seeing Enzo when you’re doing nothing with Tyler, why am I seeing Liv when you’re doing nothing with Matt. And TVD is last because of well the various things I post on my blog.

[brokemultidotexe]

Life in the Fastlane

Pairing: Racer!Yoongi x Reader

Summary: Street racing wasn't something you wanted to experience until your roommate dragged you to one. You end up realizing that it's nothing like the movies and that the bad boys can be the ones with the biggest hearts

Word Count: 5.5k

Warning: None

Genre: Action(?)

Part: ONESHOT

You glanced at yourself in the mirror. Jimin had managed to push you out of your comfort zone for tonight. You had promised Jimin last month that you would finally go watch him race. The fact that it was illegal didn't sit well with you but you eventually gave up that argument after watching Jimin’s face light up when he would talk about it. Since the cheating boyfriend fiasco, you hadn't been smiling much and that's how you ended up here in black skinny jeans that were just a little too low and a little too tight. The shirt was too low for your liking and hugged your curves and while this wasn’t something you would normally wear it was hard not to admit that you looked hot.

"Y/N get your sexy ass out here, it's time to go." You looked at the clock, it was already eleven o'clock. You took one more look at yourself in the mirror.

"It's only one night." you told yourself, "we're doing this for Jimin."

"Y/N!"

You jumped at the sudden yelling. You grabbed your phone and license; you didn't want to carry a purse. You walked out of your bedroom and could see Jimin standing by the door with his arms crossed. Of course, Jimin was just dressed in a fitted t-shirt that showed off just how nice his body was and some ripped jeans. It took a lot of arguing for you to agree to wear this after Jimin claimed you would stick out like a sore thumb and everyone would stare at you. You weren’t one to welcome attention so you decided to follow your best friend's advice.

It took all of thirty minutes to get there. You hated Jimin's bucket seats in his car and it felt odd having the back seat completely gutted. Jimin pulled up and parked into a line with a bunch of other cars. It honestly looked like an independent film version of Fast and the Furious that was close to reaching the end of their budget. She snorted at her own thoughts and Jimin raised an eyebrow at her before getting out of the car and walking around to the front of his car. You soon followed and walked up to Jimin and you leaned your hip against the front of Jimin's car.

"So, what now?" You looked around and there were about thirty to forty people mingling, some were drinking others weren't.

"Well, I have to find Yoongi and give him my share." You watched Jimin pull out a wad of money. You learned awhile back to not ask where he got that kind of money. "Will you be okay by yourself for a few minutes?"

"Yeah." Truthfully, you didn't want to be left alone but you also didn't want to look like a lost puppy following Jimin around. You watched as Jimin left and you folded your arms across your chest and looked out over all the people. You felt so out of place but you found this group of people oddly interesting. It was like watching a family reunion or something. Your eyes roamed your surroundings and fell on the building behind everyone. You saw the letters sprawled across it Kim and Sons Auto Shop.

"Well, I haven't seen you around here." You looked to your left and saw a guy with a hoodie and noticed his eyes looked at your body from top to bottom. "You must be my divine intervention for the night." His voice made you roll your eyes.

"I doubt it," you said dryly. You weren’t in the mood to deal with anyone; you were here for one reason and one reason only. To support Jimin and then get home and binge watch Netflix until you passed out.

The guy raised his eyebrow and took a step closer, "I could get us out of here, take you to my place nearby and give you a night you won't ever forget." He ran his hand down the curve of your side resting on her hip.

You scoffed, "You've got a hand, which I can promise you will be the only action you'll be getting tonight."

"You've got a mouth on you, I bet-"

"Jeon!" You watched as the guy turned around. Your eyes went to the guy walking over to them. The guy was in ripped jeans, combat boots, a white shirt with a button-up shirt opened over it. You were jealous of the guy's boots. If only you could afford a pair that nice. The guy pulled the guy's shirt causing the guy to stumble away from them. "The girl is out of your league Jungkook, you want a level playing field go grab one of the whores congregated around hyung."

"Screw you Hoseok, the girl can make her own-" You watched as the guy grabbed Jungkook by the collarbone and roughly pulled him towards him to get him off balance and then turning and kicked his back causing him to stumble away from him. Jungkook glared and cursed at Hoseok but he was unphased by it. Your eyes were wide watching the exchange between them.

"Why don't you get one of the whores to go nurse that injury?" Hoseok said as Jungkook walked away with his hand rubbing his back. Hoseok turned and held his hand out to you, "I'm Hoseok."

You shook his hand, "Y/N." You peeked over Hoseok's shoulder to see Jungkook heading back over to the group of people you saw before.

"Ignore Jungkook, the punk thinks he's God's gift to women when he’s on something. From what I've heard though is that God shortchanged him in a vital area." You found yourself laughing, "So are you here by yourself?"

Just as you were about to answer Jimin walked up, "Okay, we're good now. I wanted to take you to meet-"

"Yo Park!" Jimin turned around and smiled. You watched as they fist bumped and Hoseok swung his arm over Jimin's shoulders.

"Y/N, meet Hoseok." Jimin looked between his two friends with a look of hope.

"You can call me Hobi." Hobi smiled, "But we've met, Jungkook tried to lure your girl home."

Jimin laughed out loud, "I would have loved to see him try." he looked at Hobi, "Are you racing tonight?"

Hobi rolled his eyes, "It's my turn for flags."

Jimin laughed and Y/N was confused and apparently, it showed, "flags are the flag or makeshift flag that you bring down at the line for the race to start. Unfortunately, Hobi here picked the short straw." you laughed as Hobi grumbled.

"Actually, since I'm not racing tonight I was wondering if you could take a peek under my hood. I don't want Yoongi sniffing around, he'd probably change out a part to help him win."

"Why would some random guy come sniffing around your car?" you asked and the looks you got made you embarrassed by your question.

"Yoongi is Hobi's brother, he runs the races." you made an o shape with your mouth and nodded.

“Adopted brother, but he’s still my hyung.” You could see the underlying affection he had for his older brother despite the normal sibling annoyance.

You turned at the sound of a deep voice carrying over the crowd, "Alright, we've got four racing tonight. Taehyung and Jin just radioed back and the roads are blocked and ready to go. Get your shit and let's roll!" The small crowd cheered and you looked back to see both guys looking excited.

"That's my cue." Jimin gave Hobi a fist bump and turned to give you a hug, "See you at the finish line" he winked and you watched him walk away.

"You ready to see how we live?" Hobi smirked.

"Let's do this." Hobi cheered and you laughed to yourself but followed Hobi as he led the way into the sea of people. You walked through and you saw all the different types of people. You could see why Jimin fit in here.

"Tae! Jin!" Hobi grabbed your hand and dragged you over to two guys.

"Yo!" They both smiled at the guy, "Jimin tells me you drew the short straw tonight."

Hobi gave them both the finger before turning to you, "Y/N this is Tae and Jin, they work here at the garage with my brother."

The guy that looked like he should be on the cover of Vogue shook your hand, "Ravi de vous rencontrer" you gave him a small smile before you dropped his hand. You could see Hobi rolling his eyes.

"We need to go; otherwise Yoongi will start bitching at me." Hobi started walking towards the cars and you followed. Once Hobi broke through the crowd you saw four cars lined up behind a spray-painted line. “I bet he rigged the straw pull so I would have to sit out for this race.” You glanced over at Hobi and laughed.

"Someone say my name?" You looked towards the voice. Your eyes raked over his body. From his stark white hair to the plain gray t-shirt. You could admit to yourself that he was hot.

"Yoongi this is Y/N, Jimin's friend that he’s been talking about." Hobi smiled at his brother.

"Ah, the infamous hermit." You felt your face heat up. "Glad you could join us rebels tonight." Yoongi winked at you and you just raised an eyebrow.

"So, are we ready?" Hobi asked.

"Nah, Jeon showed up bitching about his back.” He glanced at Hobi before continuing, “but serves him right with the way he goes for girls who are spoken for while their guy is here." Yoongi shrugged. "He went inside the shop to lay down." you could see Hobi looking smug, obviously proud of himself.

"Hobi you said you wanted me to look under your hood right?" Jimin was walking towards what you assumed was Hobi's car.

"Wait, why is Jimin checking under your hood? You're here every day. I mean fuck you work here. I could have done it yesterday." Yoongi had his arms crossed.

"Because I'm so close to leaving your ass in the dust, and who knows what you'd pull," Hobi called over his shoulder leaving you alone with Yoongi.

"Nice best friend you have."

"Nice brother you have." you challenged which caused him to raise an eyebrow at you.

"Well aren't you a spitfire."  You rolled your eyes, "So what did Park have to do to drag you out here? Steal your books? Hold your laptop hostage?" you didn't say a word, all you had to say you could express with your middle finger. Yoongi smirked, "Is that an offer?"

You felt your face grow hot and you looked over at Hobi and Jimin, who was already under the hood. "So, when did all of this start?" you found yourself asking.

"What do you mean?" You just twirled your finger around motioning to all the people and cars, "Oh, it’s pretty much been the same group of people for a long time. Park is probably the newest member. Your boy has skills, I'll give him that."

"So, are you racing too?" Yoongi nodded. "So how much is riding on this race anyway?"

Yoongi shrugged, "Not a lot, about three grand."

"Three thousand? As in dollars?" It felt like your eyes had actually bulged out of your head.

"What else would it be in? Monopoly money?" his chuckle irritated you.

"How is that not a lot of money?"

"Races can easily get up to at least eight grand on a good night. I guess I don't really think about it being an obscene amount anymore." you were speechless. Was he out of touch with reality? Because you could never imagine eight thousand dollars not being a lot of money and you came from a very well to do family.

"Alright let's get this over with" a voice behind you made you jump and she saw Jungkook make his way towards his car not even sparing a glance at you, but you could see him limp just a little bit.

Yoongi laughed out loud "You look like shit Jeon."

"Fuck you!" Jungkook got in his car and Yoongi called out to Hobi to round up everyone. You just stood there as everyone started moving towards the lineup.

"Hey stay here, if you have any problems just yell for Tae or Jin" You nodded hearing Hobi yell over at you and you watched Hobi give you a wink from across a few cars as he walked out in front of the cars. He waited until everyone was in their respective cars. It looked like it was going to be Jimin, Jungkook, and Yoongi. You didn't know what to expect but you jumped hearing all the cars start up. Hobi pointed to each car and each revved its engine. You assumed this meant that they were ready.

"Hobi, use your shirts!" You turned and saw that Jin was the one yelling as he stood up in his truck bed. Hobi gave him the finger but took off the button up shirt and held it up. You chewed on your bottom lip, your stomach was doing somersaults. You were nervous and excited all at the same time, you had no idea what to expect. You watched as Hobi raised his shirt over his head using it as a flag. He held it there for a few seconds before bringing it down. He crouched and turned to watch all three cars shoot off the line and down the road. It didn't take long before all three cars were out of sight. Hobi stood up and walked towards you your hair windblown but donning a huge smile on your face.

"Awesome isn't it?" You couldn't help but smile with him. The guy’s energy was contagious.

"So how long does the race normally last?"

Hobi shrugged, "Depends who's driving, but with hyung it's normally about four or five minutes."

Y/N didn't know if that was slow or fast, but it sounded really fast. Your eyes stayed on the street as Hobi explained that the track would loop all the way back around to here so they didn't have to go anywhere. They just had to sit and wait. After a few minutes, Hobi bit his lip and bounced on his feet.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just that normally we start picking up the cones now from the roads so the cops are less likely to get called. Tae asked me to go with him because Jin went to get food because he had the munchies."

"Go ahead, you can go. I'll be fine." You waved him off.

"You sure?" you watched Hobi chew on his bottom lip.

"Yeah. Go." You watched as Hobi gave you a smile and told you that he'd be right back. You just stood there watching for the cars, it felt like forever but you were sure it was just your eagerness to see the end of the race. You watched Jin’s truck pull out onto the road with Hobi sitting on the side.

You were bouncing on your toes the anticipation was killing you. "COPS!" You spun around looking and everyone was splitting up and jumping in cars. You could hear the sirens off in the distant. You didn't have a car, Jimin was your ride and you had absolutely no idea what to do. People were pulling out and you didn't know a single person. Everyone you knew was either racing or gone.

You saw a black car screech to a stop in front of you. The door flew open, "Get in!" before you had time to even make a decision your body was in the car and pulled away fast enough to throw you back against the seat.

You looked over at Yoongi. His face was hard with concentration. Your heart was still pounding in your chest. You never expected cops to show up, yet the adrenaline had you on a high that you had never felt before. You found yourself smiling and eventually found yourself laughing.

Yoongi turned his head to look at you, "You think this is funny?"

You couldn't catch your breath but you were waving your hands and shaking your head no. But your body was betraying you. You couldn't stop the tears from forming in your eyes from laughing. "I'm sorry." you tried to get a grip of your giggles, "I've just never been through anything like that." You were trying to take deep breaths between each attempt talk. "I honestly don't know why I'm laughing."

Yoongi smirked, "It seems the hermit experienced her first adrenaline rush."

Your eyes widen seeing a cop car pulling towards the center of an intersection, "Yoongi!" your hand went to his arm and Yoongi's attention shot back to driving and your breath hitched in your throat as Yoongi whipped his car to the right. The back of his car barely missing the cop car as he shifted and pushed the car even faster straightening them out.

"Y/N you can let go now," Yoongi said through a clenched jaw. You looked at her hand and immediately removed it. He had nail marks on his arm where you were gripping him so tightly.

"I'm so sorry!"

Yoongi laughed, "Its fine. Normally when I get to feel nails digging into me, it's on my back while I'm fucking someone."

You scrunched up your nose at his narcissism, but couldn't ignore the skip in your heartbeat. You leaned back watching Yoongi navigate the streets with ease, but you could still hear the sirens which kept you from getting pulled in at watching Yoongi drive.

"Does this happen every time you guys race?" Yoongi shook his head.

"Nah, I mean it happens every once in a while, but we try to keep it as low profile as we can. Tae and Jin set up traffic cones at some intersections that cross into the route we take. But sometimes the cops come looking, that's why we have radios." He motioned to the one sitting in his cup holder, "If anyone sees the cops coming everyone knows to get out fast. Everyone has their own place they go so they don't follow one another and end up with all of us if they manage to follow us."

You bit your lip, "Has anyone ever been caught?"

Yoongi's mouth thinned. "Namjoon, he um" He cleared his throat, "He flipped his car taking a turn while running. He was okay luckily, but they ended up taking him in. They gave him a deal, he could tell them what he knew about our club and he'd only get six months. He ended up telling them to go fuck themselves which ended with him serving a year." Yoongi was concentrating on the road but you could tell he could probably navigate these roads with his eyes closed. "He gets out in three months."

It made you worry about Jimin racing. You didn't know what you would do if your best friend ended up in jail. Yoongi looked over at you. He didn't say anything but after a moment put his attention back on the road, "If you're worried about Park don't. He's a great racer, probably better than most of the people that have been racing with me for years. He'd be able to ditch them easily. While his car doesn't have as much power as mine it can turn a corner on a pinpoint. It's actually pretty impressive." This made you beam with pride.

"So where exactly are we going?" You had already gotten lost after about the ninth turn.

Yoongi smirked, "We're almost there."

You looked out the window. You had been driving around for about a half hour and managed to get far enough to where they no longer heard sirens about fifteen minutes ago. You weren’t sure just how far the location he chose was. Your ears perked up once you heard the crunch of gravel under the tires. "Seriously where are-" your question was cut off when you saw his headlights shining over a lake. "This is where you go?" you looked over at him and you watched him shrug as he came to a stop and turned the car off. He unbuckled the seatbelt and got out of the car. You followed and had your hands wrapped around you as you walked towards the water. The moon was reflecting on the water. You really wanted to take a picture of it with your camera because the scenery was absolutely beautiful.

"You know I've come out here quite a few times and I've never met a single soul. I like to think this means that no one knows about it." You watched as Yoongi walked over to an old picnic table and sat on the table propping his feet on the bench. He waved you over, "Come on we've got some time to kill before we meet back up."

You walked over and sat on the table. You barely knew this guy and here you were in the middle of the night by a lake. Like that wasn't weird or anything, but you didn't feel any uneasiness. You actually felt very comfortable around Yoongi. "So, what got you into racing?" you looked over at him. His elbows were resting on his knees as he looked away.

"Sorry, you don't have to answer that." Your cheeks flushed in embarrassment of possibly crossing the line with someone you just met.

Yoongi was shaking his head, "No it's alright." He cleared his throat and sat up resting back on his hands. "So, I've known Namjoon all my life, he lived right down the street from me and Hobi. It wasn't exactly the best neighborhood and after a few fights, Namjoon’s dad started inviting me over. He would have both me and Namjoon working on cars with him until it got dark. It kept us out of trouble and me and Hoseok didn't exactly have a father figure. Eventually, he started tagging along once my mom picked up her second job. So, all three of us would be over there and he would teach us everything he knew about cars." Yoongi smiled, "He always loved the fact that Hobi constantly kept the mood happy and bright. But the three of us never outgrew our love for cars, even after Namjoon’s dad taught us everything he knew. We all took auto shop in high school and it was a joke because we had already learned everything they were trying to teach us. When it came time to start thinking about college's we knew our mom couldn't afford to send us. A cousin had told Namjoon about racing and how his brother made decent money. So Namjoon and I started building a car together while we worked full time that summer, I gave my mom what I could to help but the rest went to parts. We built that car from the ground up and by the end of the summer we were finally able to race."

You were completely engrossed in his story, "So I'm assuming you won your first race."

Yoongi laughed, "Oh hell no, the engine stalled after the fourth turn. We had to roll the car home." He looked over at you, "But we learned what worked and what didn't. Eventually, we started winning and each time we won Namjoon would refuse his share, he told me to put it towards Hoseok’s college fund. My mom never found out, she thought we both got great scholarships." You couldn't help but smile with him. "I managed to get a semester out from graduating before I dropped out."

"Why?" You weren’t expecting that.

"Namjoon’s dad got really sick and Namjoon was still in college and was on an actual scholarship. His dad needed help in the shop and I knew he wouldn't ask any of us. So, I told him I graduated early and that I'd help him in the shop until I found a job. This man single-handedly made sure that both Hoseok and I stayed out of trouble and brought us into his family, and you don't walk away from family. So, I started working there full time. The pay wasn't an issue, I made enough racing that it covered whatever his dad couldn't afford. Eventually, he got too sick to come in, so I took over until Namjoon graduated." Yoongi shrugged, "I never really thought twice about my decisions. Eventually, his dad passed and Namjoon got the shop, I guess even though things changed I didn't. I never left and went back to school. I stayed and helped Namjoon run the shop and once Namjoon got arrested he asked me to take over until he got out."

"So does Hobi work at the shop?"

Yoongi nodded, "Yeah, he works there when he's on breaks and sometimes during the week."

You smiled, “I guess a family that races together stays together."

"Eh, kinda. I never wanted Hoseok to start racing, I did everything I could to make sure he never had to."

"Are you still helping pay for his schooling?"

Yoongi shook his head chuckling, "No, he pays for it all on his own. We fought for the longest time about him racing. He'd come with me so I guess part of it is my fault; I mean I introduced him to all of it. He has an actual scholarship now; he races because he wants to. We fought for months about it; I wanted him to concentrate on school. Eventually, he told me he was going to race and it could either be with our group or he'd go find another. I knew he'd be safer with me than anywhere else, so he races and I get to deal with his smug smile every time he wins." Yoongi leaned up and brushed his hands off on his jeans, "What about you? You're practically the exact opposite of Jimin from everything I hear. How did you two end up roommates?"

You laughed, "That's actually a funny story."

"Go on." He motioned her with his hand.

You rolled your eyes, "So I applied out here in my senior year of high school because I wanted to get as far away from my mother as possible. So, freshmen year I get assigned my dorm room and I get Jimin's cousin as my roommate. We hated each other, I wanted to concentrate on my studies and she wanted to do every possible thing she could to drive me insane. Anyways, we both start dating around the same time; things get easier because we're never there at the same time." You glanced over to see if he was still listening. He seemed genuinely interested in your story, so you continued. "This goes on for almost our whole freshmen year until eventually his cousin is kicking him out of his room and he’s forced to bunk with me because he had nowhere to go. As time went on we ended up getting along closer and getting more personal with our talks. We're two months out from summer break and come to find out me and his cousin have been dating the same guy who happened to be Jimin’s roommate. I had never been to my boyfriend’s dorm so I never knew who his roommate was and when we did talk he always referred to Jimin as his roommate."

Yoongi started laughing, "You and Park didn’t realize this from the beginning? Wow, now I get why you two are so close."

You stuck your tongue out at him, "Jimin basically ended up being my roommate because I guess his cousin didn’t care about the cheating and refused to give Jimin his dorm back. He helped me heal my broken heart and practically disowned his cousin for being a dumbass and being a bitch about the whole thing. I almost told the guy I was pregnant just to make him suffer a bit.”

Yoongi groans, "oh my god." His face goes into his hands, "I know the guy is an asshole but damn, that's brutal." But you could tell he was having a hard time not laughing.

"Well, I didn’t do it!."

He shook his head, "Girls are crazy, like batshit fucking crazy."

"Careful, you're out here with a crazy girl in the middle of the night with no one in sight with a lake to toss a body in." You raised an eyebrow at him.

He leaned closer, "I'd love to see you try."

You continued to talk until Yoongi checked his phone. You could see his mouth frown in the glow of his phone screen. "I think we're good to head back now, I'll drop you off at your house."

"Okay." Yoongi helped you off the table and you got into the passenger seat while Yoongi held the door for you. He came around and got in starting the car.

"I think Park is going to kill me." You were about to ask why when your eyes fell on the time glowing from his dashboard. You had been out there for almost three hours.

"I think you're right." You ran your hands over your pockets, "Shit. I don't have my phone."

"I know." Yoongi looked at you and you groaned.

"I'm so sorry! I promise I'll shield your body if he comes out waving a knife." Yoongi laughed and you shot him a glare.

"I'm sorry but I just can't imagine you taking on Park." you raised an eyebrow, "What? I've seen Jimin lay out a guy double his size because he leaned on his car." You couldn't help but laugh.

It took about ten minutes until he pulled up to the small house you and Jimin shared. You heard Yoongi groan, "What?" He pointed to the car parked on the street.

"That's my brother’s car and I don't feel like facing the Spanish Inquisition. So, I think I'm going to do the most un-gentlemanly thing I've ever done and tell you goodnight from the safety of my own car."

"Oh, that's fair; send me in there all by myself."

"Exactly."

You rolled your eyes but you opened the door and got out. You almost closed the door but stopped and bent your head down so you could see him, "Thanks for saving me tonight, I actually enjoyed myself."

Yoongi leaned over into the passenger seat and looked up at you, "So does that mean we'll see you again?"

You bit your lip and smiled, "Possibly." Yoongi raised an eyebrow but smirked at you which caused you to roll your eyes, "Goodnight Yoongi."

"Goodnight Y/N." You closed the door and walked up the rest of the driveway and turned the doorknob and walked in. You saw two flashes of black hair and a pair of eyes glaring at you and Jimin was up and rushing at you before you could move.

"Where the hell have you been!? I called you a million times! I thought something happened to you!" Jimin was swatting at you over and over again as he talked.

"Ow ow ow! Calm down! I didn't have my phone!" You were rubbing her arms; you forgot how hard Jimin could hit.

"Yes, I noticed once I heard the buzzing on my floorboard!"

"I'm sorry okay! Yoongi stopped and picked me up." You really did feel bad about making your best friend worry. Jimin hadn't even popped into your mind once the car had stopped which didn't make you feel any better.

"That doesn't take three hours Y/N!" You could see that Jimin was slowly losing steam which was a small victory.

"In my defense, it took like a half hour to get to the lake."

"No, it doesn't." You looked at Hobi sitting at the table with his foot propped up on the chair, "It takes like ten minutes to get to the lake from the shop."

Jimin spun around to look at Hobi "You knew he was there?" he yelled.

Hobi shook his head, "No, I knew he had her. But we don't tell each other where we go. We don't want the other one to come in trying to be the hero" he shrugged.

"Then why did it take thirty minutes?" You were so confused.

Hobi smirked as he took a drink from his glass, "It seems to me he wanted an excuse to spend time with you."

AN: This has been sitting around for a while and I felt like finishing it up quickly because who doesn’t like the thought of a racer!Yoongi. Hopefully, you enjoy this as much as I did writing it. It hasn’t been looked over to look for mistakes because my fingers are tired and I still have to write tags lol.

[so-caffeinated]

I know you've focused on the damage that *other* Ellie in the other world does to Jules, but does the idea that there is someone else or there that looks like her that her parents loved before her ever infect this Ellie's life? Does she feel any sense of obligation to fulfill her heroic destiny or be the Ellie that her parents sometimes miss? PS the FiCoN university is amazing and an incredible distraction from real world probs :)

SUCH good questions. In short... yes. Definitely. To all of it. Part of the reason I’d originally intended to wait on this one-shot was that I wanted to deal with what happens with Ellie around this time and post it next. It might have to wait a bit... the schedule is a living thing I rework constantly though, so maybe I’ll wind up touching on this soonish... It’s definitely an element in the first sequel - particularly the obligation to fulfill her destiny as a hero - so I also don’t want to drag that out too long in the oneshots. 

I’m inhaling coffee and barely awake so I feel like this response is gonna get more coherent as I write it... But the oneshot I’d originally been going to do this week, the one that got scrapped, was set a few months before this and included the following line:

Between David needing help with Bethany and both Jules and Ellie coping in completely opposite - yet equally unhealthy - ways after their kidnapping, Will’s had his hands full with his family.

There’s a whole different draft of today’s chapter (that was far inferior) that I scrapped too that included this bit...

“Yeah… okay,” Ellie replies, shaking her head, a humorless laugh slipping past her lips. “I have absolutely no clue what it’s like wondering if maybe my parents wanted me to be someone else.”

Confusion melds with the defensiveness on Jules’ face and she doesn’t seem to have any idea what Ellie’s saying or how to reply. Buster picks up on her mood shift and whines a little, leaning his great, beastly head against her thigh.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jules demands. “They wanted you for like half a decade before you were even born.”

“No they didn’t,” Ellie argues, standing straighter and looking at Jules in total disbelief because how can she possibly not get this? How has she never figured this out. “They wanted an Ellie, but they didn’t want me. They wanted her, the Ellie from before… Have you seriously never realized that?” 

She hasn’t. The way she freezes and her eyes lose their confusion but gain a thoroughly guarded quality is absolute evidence of that. But she doesn’t say anything. For once, she’s waiting for Ellie to explain - she’s listening - and wow is that a change of pace.

“You think it’s hard to be you?” Ellie asks, shaking her head. “Try being the doppelganger for the child they lost. Do you think I never wondered if they wished I was her? If I was a disappointment compared to the other me that they lost?”

Just by virtue of being older and having more life experience earlier, Will and Jules have had the most story told about them so far, but neither Ellie nor Nate will be shortchanged. While I’m not telling things in chronological order, there are still some elements I really need to hit before I get to others. But... yeah, you’ve pretty well hit the nail on the head regarding what’s going to happen with Ellie. On the surface level, she deals much better than Jules with everything, but that doesn’t mean she’s unaffected. Far from it.