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mega-ringsandthings-world · 11 months ago

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Just a quick ask-

If the Red Force in the JT AU ever decides to lay low on Dawn Island (while looking for the Gomu fruit) with Luffy tagging along because, of course, he is lol, how does the whole mountain bandit debacle go down? Number one, Shanks is well-known at this point; years go by, and all, but still, his face was plastered into every single person's face at least once for the last six years. He's probably almost Emperor level at this point, and the pirate/marine world still says his name with awe, sympathy, and fear.

So, are they undercover? Shanks and crew dress down, hide the red hair and straw hat, row to shore just far enough out so the inhabitants can't see his ship properly? Also, I don't know if this version of Shanks would just shrug his shoulders and take the bandits' taunts. I mean, he could; it could be a "I've eaten scarier things for lunch, and this is barely a fly of an inconvenience." Or maybe it's because they're undercover he can't do anything? That would absolutely grind his patients and when he can finally just stab the guy na break his face in it’s gonna be so cathartic. Is this why he won’t loose his arm this way here but later? Because he just beats the bandit into an inch of his life before he can capture Luffy?

Also is Mihawk here? Just hanging around or is he off doing secret war lord stuff.

Also, is this how Garp finds out about Luffy? Or I’m completely off base with all of this but hypothetically if this all happened what the out come?

Anyways, this AU has brought me so much joy through such a hard semester and general few months. It really made my year; thank you.

Ohhh we're diving into the good parts here. Yessssss. To start, yeah, Shanks' face has been cemented into the public collective, and he's peaking. Already wildly powerful, but still a ways off from emperor status. At this point in the timeline he's gone into a period of 'calm', he's overcome the initial hurdles he faced after Loguetown, and is now taking a more protracted approach to climbing the ladder, i.e, stuff like the Gomu fruit. There's only so much that brute force and violence can bring at any given time, and he's instilled enough awe, sympathy, and fear in people that he can afford to dip down a bit. All that is to say that, yes, AU Shanks does in fact lay low at Dawn island for a year like in canon. Which brings us to the actual laying low part. Luffy is at the ripe age of six now, is fully glued to Shanks, and Shanks has free time on his hands. So he decides he wants to begin training Luffy in the ways of pirating, but he also does not want anything to threaten his well-being in any way, shape, or form. The compromise is to take Luffy along with him on this clandestine mission for the Gomu Gomu. (that Dragon agreed to let Luffy go was due greatly to Luffy's incessant whining getting in the way of him writing his political treatises) They do have to go undercover, or at least proceed very cautiously and secretively. (this is the part were Shanks dyes his hair) What helps them is that the inhabitants of Dawn Island, minus the nobles, are sympathetic towards pirates and their cause against the WG, and actively work to conceal Shanks' presence on the island/his ship. And Shanks has visited the island briefly once before, when Luffy was born on it. He's known to the inhabitants. Shanks would disregard the bandits in much the same way he does in canon, and never engages with them for the sake of the mission, up until the point when they try to lay a hand on Luffy, and that in particular does grind on him, because of Luffy having to witness everything and not understanding why Shanks doesn't fight back, they way Shanks has been teaching him to. So there's some pent-up unconscious rage at play when he finally lets loose on the bandits. The bandits come after Luffy because Shanks has been found out and the bandits were sent to retrieve Luffy, and while Shanks kills the others, one still does take Luffy. But the chase after him goes on for days instead of Luffy being found at once, so technically Shanks loses his arm much later than he does in canon. Garp already knows about Luffy at this point, but he's never had any concrete leads/opportunities to make a grab at him. When he finds out Shanks is on the island with Luffy, he decides to make a move and kidnap Luffy and stow him away with Dadan, where unbeknownst to anyone else, Garp is also hiding Ace with. Which leads into a whole other mess for a later date. Mihawk is in the middle of the formation of the Warlords, but he visits Shanks regularly on the island, which makes this period one of their hardest so far, as they have to be separated. Their individual tasks distract them, though, Shanks has a handful dealing with Luffy and searching for the Gomu Gomu, and Mihawk likewise has a handful with the new Warlords, so they stay busy enough to withstand the other's absence. Right back at you! I'm so glad you like it so much! It's really making my year too, it's so much fun!

#one piece #op #opla #dracule mihawk #akagami no shanks #hawkeye mihawk #red haired shanks #mihawk one piece #shanks one piece #mishanks #mihawk x shanks #op marines #loguetown au

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hana-bobo-finch · 13 days ago

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(MORE PDBC QUESTIONS!!)

What's Fincg Island like? In my head I'm imagining it like Wuhu Island from Wii Sports but...that probably isn't right lmao. You've mentioned a town square before, so is there one central city with exterior cities occupied by the clans? Or does basically everyone minus like...tutrmeister and TBYTF live there?

Also, what do the little Pumpkin Daddy gophers mine for?

OHHHH YEEEES QUESTIONS….YEEEES AHAHAHAHA

gonna start with the simple question: the pumpkin daddy gophers dig for a variety of things. Nothing really in particular. Mostly malachite and copper, probably. Their real job is to keep the internet and power running. How they manage to do that with little pick axes I have no idea, but they do. The group is called “camp work” and they’re under the supervision of the legendary pumpkin daddy spider hybrid. Camp work is completely situated underground so most people never even realize how much work is going on. They get paid in key lime cookies. They’re known to be very fickle and if their working conditions aren’t absolutely perfect they’ll stop working, thusly shutting off the internet for everyone. Because of that Internet is very sparse on fincg island so it’s not used all too often. They also sort of act as messengers considering they can get around so fast (sort of think like Venus’s buds if Venus’s buds were extremely annoying and couldn’t heal you) but nobody likes them so they don’t do that too often.

and okay. Longer answer. What’s fincg island like:

I don’t fully know cause I’ve never taken the time to fully flesh it out, but there is a lotta miscellaneous details and traditions that I’ve came up with over the months so there is some stuff.

Firstly, it’s a really big island. Thusly there’s a lotta varying environments and such. I dunno how big it is because admittedly I’m terrible with any form of measurements because I have no sense of scale but uhhh maybe like 2,000 miles from north to south and 1,000 from east to west. That could be very inaccurate to what I’m picturing because again, the concept of scale does not exist in my head. My own shortcomings aside, I’ve never actually drawn a map of fincg island (usually abbreviated to FI so I will continue to do that from now on) or anything but uhhh I guess I could do an unofficial rendering of it right now:

yeahhh like this kinda. Not an all too interesting shape, kinda just an oval-ish blob. As you can see the regions are split more so split into directional terms rather than occupied clan zones. There are no real clan owned territories, it’s all just kinda a big mess, but clan headquarters are situated in different regions, meaning there are a higher ratio of certain clan members to others in certain areas as clan members tend to flock there. The central area is more of a mix of everything, but the northern region is mostly pumpkin clan, the southern region is fish clan (not that there are any members but the headquarters is situated there), western region is Ramsay clan (again, not many members actually there but it’s still seen as Ramsay clan territory) and the jørgan clan in the east. In general, FI is similar to Russia in its span of environments and such, and they share a lot of plants and animals because FI is loosely based on Russia. But moving on.

The history of the place isn’t well known because pumpkin daddy never bothered to preserve it so a lotta it is lost to time. The old owner of the island was some guy named Toprumo who was the equivalent of a piece of white bread. he was very boring and nobody really had any strong opinions on him. After pumpkin daddy took over, Toprumo was pretty much erased from history entirely. so it’s fitting the exact same thing happened to pumpkin daddy once he disappeared (mini side tangent but I fucking love the idea of just disappearing from history and stuff, it’s such an interesting concept to me. It’s probably especially evident in PDBC because PDBC is, very literally at its core, my effort to prevent an old story from being forgotten to time. Like I am just yapping to a small group of people in my mutual circle but it is the Only way to prevent that bastard finch from being forgotten completely. Anyhoo tangent over)

There’s one long road that goes across the island in a plus-sign shape. It’s the only road on the entire island because cars are so sparse that no roads are really needed. It has the incredible, beautiful name of “looney-lane-wane.” There’s a small group of traffic officers who are situated to patrol it but because there’s so little actual activity on the roads they just kinda hang out and do whatever they want, usually painting the road, so it’s kinda become one long mural (how safe it is to paint over road markers…probably not very safe. But somehow the only reported traffic accidents were all from pumpkin daddy and that’s probably because he probably shouldn’t have a license in the first place). The roads lead to factories, of which there are four in total: one in the north, one in the south, etc etc. These factories produce a myriad of different things, they don’t specialize in anything in particular.

The eastern region is…probably the least important which is why I’m starting with it first. Not a whole lot goes on over there, at least nothing that doesn’t go on in the rest of the regions. It’s the most populated region other than the central area due to the jørgan clan being situated there, and having the most consistently nice weather. Again there’s nothing special about it, at least not off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s something but its REALLY hard to find throwaway lines about certain aspects of PDBC because I have 10 different notes, each over 20k words long that I have to sift through and it’s a pain in the ass. But yeah I don’t think I ever mentioned anything about the Eastern region in particular. In terms of biome it’s kinda like a seasonal tropical forest I guess? There are stretches of unused land but for the most part it’s pretty populated. Not all too interesting, if you want to be forgotten, the eastern region is the place to go

The central area (which doesn’t actually have a name despite being the main city, I should probably make one some time) is pretty much the main city. It has the highest population density—which still isn’t that much, for its size FI has a rather low population—and is the main hub for everything. Because of that it’s quickly accessible by lots of different means of transportation. Even though the clan headquarters are deep into their respective territory, most of the clan leaders actually live considerably closer to the central city so they can access it more efficiently. It hosts a lot of the big events and such, and has loud speakers all around for any announcements being made (the other regions have this too but its most noticeable here). It hosts the Sunborn/Subborn (either name is valid) tree in its center square. The Sunborn tree is a pathetic, fallen tree, that’s really more of a glorified stick. It fell in front of the fish clan headquarters, triggering hidden land mines (technically they weren’t land mines, they were little creatures called Gerbombs that are explosive gerbils but whatever) that the Ramsay clan planted there. When sushi woke up to see the front of her headquarters completely destroyed, she called the other clan leaders and sure enough, they realized their headquarters were surrounded by Gerbombs too (which they safely removed, don’t worry the little Gerbombs are ok 🥰🥰🥰). Because the tree falling was the reason there wasn’t widespread damage in the headquarters, or worse, the clan leaders (minus the Ramsay clan of course) banded together in a rare show of unity and planted the tree in the central square to represent their bond. Ribbons are tied to the tree on dates of great importance to symbolize unity. The Ramsay clan hates this damn tree as you could expect but yeah that tree is in the very center of the main city.

OK THE WESTERN REGION. Much like the east there isn’t much lore to this place but I do have some stuff about it that’s kinda interesting. While the west is in generally expansive, mostly just dusty stretches of land and dangerous canyons, it’s actually one of the most populated regions due to one aspect: the stock market. The stock market isn’t what you’d assume it is, it’s a physical place that’s situated inside of an expansive dome, cutting it off from the rest of the barren area. It’s the complete opposite of the rest of the region. The stock market is a very trippy place, it’s almost all artificial, even the air. It’s almost always night and hourly music plays from loud speaks like it’s animal crossing or something, and there’s lotsa like…magic and wizardry goin on there. It’s simultaneously the main shopping district of the entire island and the main prison system. It started off as a prison, but the prisoners quickly learned they could basically start their own society almost and used their talents to start up their respective markets. Non-prisoners soon flocked there as business was booming there, and some also went for a simple escape from normality. Soon it became more populated with regular people than inmates. The black market is also situated there, an inmate realized they could dig underground and so they created an expansive tunnel system where illegal goods were sold. She became the head of the black market after that. The rest of the western region though? Very boring. Almost completely empty and it’s extremely controversial because the Ramsay clan headquarters is there. The one part other than the stock market that has any sort of…anything, is a large abandoned building that has what’s called the control room, but that’s a long story not worth getting into.

The southern region, again, doesn’t have much lore to it (there’s a lot of overall details of the island but nothing specific to certain areas). It has a lot of beaches and lakes, and is one of the only sources of water on the island, ans the water there is especially clean and rich in minerals there, so it is thusly highly protected. It can get really hot there so pumpkin daddy stays far away from it. Boating is a popular activity there, and it’s also the first place many go after moving to the island so it has a dense population of foreigners. It’s almost always storming there though, like to a dangerous degree. The leader of the jørgan clan can control the weather (looong story there) and he tends to go a bit crazy with the storms sometimes. It’s extremely windy there, so most outdoor objects have to be weighed down in some way, and there’s almost always lightning. It’s almost completely necessary to have an umbrella there, and some way to protect yourself from falling debris because lightning hits the tops of trees and buildings a LOT. basically it is a constant danger zone but nobody cares. The fish people for the most part live there, as it’s where they were originally fish. So it’s mostly foreigners and fish who live there. Not recommended to go to the southern coast to find a partner because intimate relationships between people and fish people are prohibited.

and finally the northern region. It’s the coldest place on the island, and the home of pumpkin daddy and the hybrids. The hybrids don’t come out during winter as they’re extremely sensitive to cold, so you won’t see them often, but they’ll occasionally venture out during the peak of summer which can get pretty warm. It’s not very populated. It’s most known for the margarita mountain range, the titular mount margarita being the highest point of the mountains, and the home of TBYTF, which makes it a rather dangerous area. The northern region is the hotspot for tbytf enthusiasts, as the gel it excretes tends to fall down from the mountains into large vats that are ripe for studying. There are also volcanoes in the southernmost parts of the north, but they aren’t all too active. The northern region was the first area to be populated, but is now the least populated as people migrated to other areas. Turtlemeister is from there. There’s, as I mentioned, an illegal crab restaurant there, and there’s also an assortment of mines with…questionable working conditions! While mudslides afflict all of the island, they’re especially bad in the north, making the ground almost constantly muddy in the warmer months. The ground freezes over in the fall and winter, but that can make it extremely slippery. There’s also a small stretch of land called Kurt’s field, noticeably flatter than the rest of the land, where a plane once crashed. The plane’s remains are still there, but the land is occupied and it’s generally agreed to not go there often. THE NORTH IS ALSO HOME TO THE SKULL ABYSS!!! it’s a mass graveyard that was meant to be put in the west but couldn’t be built due to not having enough space there, so it was moved to the north. It’s actually a subsection of the alcoves that’s open to the public. The skull abyss isn’t its actual name, really it’s called the land of resting but people just call it the skull abyss because that’s a lot cooler sounding. It spans over 50 miles and is populated by little magic skeletons who don’t really bother anyone aside from the occasional prank. If you’re there to mourn a loved one, the skeletons probably won’t bother you. Too much. The north is probably my favorite part of it, a lotta what happens there happens in the mountains but yeah

MOVING ON. FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION WUHU ISLAND because although geographically and culturally it’s nothing like it, there is one similarity!! i points. what the hell is an i point. ok ok so in the island flyover game mode in wii sports resort you can go aaaall around the island and gather i points which is essentially just information tidbits about each place you visit. anyone who played wii sports resort as obsessively as I did doesn’t need to be told all this but yeah. Fincg island has those, specifically because gourdie is the wii sports champion (very impressive accomplishment and how dare you even suggest otherwise) and wanted them put in. The i points around fincg island are pretty…unprofessional, I guess, it’s not like they could provide any helpful information for people. They’re usually just unrelated ramblings barely tied to the area they’re in, or they’re just personal information that Definitely shouldn’t be out there in the open.

So!!! Another aspect of FI is the bugs. It has a serious bug problem. The bugs evolved to develop lots of different self defense mechanisms and they’re just a huge pain in the ass to deal with. They’re also evolving to gain sentience at an alarming rate. There are already some bugs who arguably have reached human levels of intelligence and people are NOT happy about that. These include the butterflies, who nobody actually realized were butterflies at first because they just seemed like a random annoying duo who liked to steal artifacts (bugs and artifacts, I know. this was actually before I played bug fables, this is all a coincidence I swear 😭) . They only were discovered to be butterflies when they flew away to Mexico. probably should’ve been obvious from the start but people on FI aren’t very observant. There are probably lots of other bug people who people haven’t realized are, well, bug people. There’s also a roach who I absolutely love, she’s a little dancing roach who wears little tiny boots and has a disco ball. I love her. But other than THOSE bugs, who could probably be assimilated into human society…some are just annoying. They spread disease, first of all, so peace isn’t an option. There are glue bugs, who when you kill them they release an intense, fast drying liquid that glues together whatever it touches (usually your hands) for a couple hours. And worst of all, there are aphids. Not only do they destroy crops, but they carry a disease that targets your hand muscle making it so they have painful cramps and they’re forced into a stiff position. It’s extremely painful and it comes on so slowly that once you realize you have it, it’s too late. It can be cured but the pain lingers for months. So basically bugs are a huge problem. They’re also extremely manipulative! Don’t listen to the bugs they WILL gaslight you

Ghosts aren’t bad though. Yeah. Ghosts are just lil pests you might have to call pest control on to get them to go back to the spirit world but they’re not that bad. They’re around almost everywhere and just kinda hang out. You can become their friend if you want. There are also skeletons, stuff like that. But they’re not harming anyone so just let them be.

FI has its own language, sort of. Nobody speaks it, in fact it’s actually illegal to speak it, but there are some miscellaneous words of this language thrown into conversation here and there. There’s no actual grammar structure or anything, so it’s hardly even an official language. But it exists.

Beef grows on tree. It tastes horrible but cows nearly became extinct after a disease swept through so beef trees were made to protect cows.

Tv programs don’t have sponsors. They just let anyone make commercials for a small fee. The tv industry is a mess there.

The most lucrative business is bananas. They aren’t grown on trees, no, they’re grown in long strips of water. I don’t know how but they sprout from the ground in enormous sizes.

It has its own currency system. It is not at all fleshed out yet, all that’s known so far is cool coins and shmorgle coins. Idk how much they’re worth but yeah

Most music there follows a certain pattern of telling a story. Melody and rhythm are seen as less important than the messages it conveys. There’s one exception, a highly anonymous pop punk artist who nobody knows the name or face of. I should yap abt them sometime actually. Anyway

OK OK TRADITIONS. there are a lotta FI traditions.

First of all, there are festivals every week before and after a season change. During these festivals they say tiny threads fall from the sky, and if you find one and tie it to your index finger you get good luck in some form. They come in different colors, green being the rarest. Counterfeits are rampant.

There’s also the naming tradition, which I’ve talked about before I think. It’s the norm to change your name at a certain age to fit yourself better. Your original name, called your birth name, is an extremely sensitive part of one’s identity and should only be said by family members or partners.

On the topic of which, calling people by pet names, even strangers, is much more common and acceptable. Stuff like hun and sugar, they’re the most common and it’s not seen as weird to do so. It’s seen as being polite in fact (stuff like babe though…that’s still weird do not call anyone that)

Wearing eyeliner is extremely common. There are brands that are particularly cheap and don’t wash off easily, making it easily accessible to wear for long periods of time. Flashy jewelry and outfits are also the norm for any gender.

Marriages have slogans. Yeah. When you marry someone you get to make a slogan for your relationship! It’s a completely useless tradition!

When death occurs, it’s common for a water horn sound to play over the speakers. It’s expected to have a half minute of silence.

Blue is seen as an unlucky color! Much like how some cultures avoid certain numbers for bad connotations, they avoid the color blue.

ANYWAY there’s a LOT more but this is getting too long so. That is all for now.

#not a pikmin post #woohoo spent like 2 hours writing this!!! worth it!!!#pdbc

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basuralindo · 1 year ago

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Okay so everyone's outfits in the stitch event are very referential to modern tourist wear in hawaii (minus the epaulettes), like to the extent that I could tell you what stores they shopped at, and I just need to tell you Azul went to Na Hoku

(Or possibly a similar competitor brand like Makani Hawaii, but the shape and style of this Very much resembles na hoku's older stuff)

Which is THE high end jewelry store of the islands, which caters to tourists while also implementing a lot of actual traditional designs and materials.

So basically, if a wealthy guy wanted Hawaiian jewelry, and was neurotic and researched ahead of time to find something classy and authentic, he would end up with Na Hoku specifically. So, exactly Azul behavior.

(also worth noting that if you wanted to find something that's very much Hawaii, but zero risk of appropriation or looking like a tonedeaf dick, monstera leaf is a perfect choice. So, some credit to my guy on this.)

It also looks like he's wearing a higher end aloha shirt (judging by fit and print) that would be used more as business wear than a casual tourist shirt, all signs point to him doing his research. (The belt has nothing to do with Hawaii but we do have a lot of overpriced ripoff Tibetan themed shops there, and someone pointed out it's reminiscent of Jamil's hair charms, so maybe he couldn't resist lmao)

#twst spoilers #twst stitch event #azul ashengrotto #btw Floyd looks like he raided an abc store and whaler's village. maybe also ross #Lilia and Riddle went to those tourist shops catered to relatively conservative white ladies #jack got all his jewelry and probably his shirt at those import souvenir shops #and idfk what Ace did but he's dressed like he's gonna go sit in a blowhole #I did warn you all that I'm not gonna shut up about this

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shaineybainey · 2 years ago

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There's a poll that has Mikayla Makoola vs Bree Davenport, and listen, while no one asked, the choice is obvious for me:

Mikayla Makoola - hands down

Because while Bree was cool and all, Mikayla was just great. For one, she stayed true to who she was. She didn't really get influenced much by the people around her, and she didn't seem to have the need to people please. Throughout the series, she grew in multiple good ways as a person.

Also, while she could clearly handle combat a whole lot better than Brady and Boomer ever did, she didn't turn it into a competition.

Matter of fact, she and Boomer, the only two people who were there throughout, never became competitors. They actually became better friends who relied on each other even during war time.

Meanwhile, Adam, Bree, and Chase are always at each other's throats, ESPECIALLY during times of trouble. (And don't say, "All siblings are like that!" No. No, they're not.)

And look, this is gonna irritate some people, but y'all gotta blame the writers rather than getting upset with me: the Davenports (minus Tasha and Douglas) are just a disloyal bunch, period.

Yes, it's been years, and yes, I need to stop bellyaching about it, but it was just unreal. If someone was to save my life more than once? And s/he remains a great friend to me through thick and thin? Oh, you bet that person's always gonna have a seat at the table. I'm not gonna feed that person to the dogs at the first chance I get of being in power!

What kind of toxic?

Meanwhile, Mikayla, though she's definitely weirded out by the triplets, and though they get on her nerves so many times, she remained a great friend to them. Actually, she and Boomer were best friends when the series ended. I imagine they would still be the same up to this day.

And look, if she and Mason wanted to, they really could have usurped the kingdom. Brady and Boomer were so gullible that Lanny was able to trick them into doing all sorts of things that could have really gotten them killed and got Kinkow in trouble. He got pretty close sometimes to taking the throne for himself.

Mason and Mikayla are smarter. If they wanted to, they could have done it! They know the island better, have better rapport with the Islanders, are better fighters, and they already have the trust of the twins.

Overthrowing them would have been easy!

But they didn't. Because they're good people. And they had the patience (albeit begrudgingly) to wait on Boomer to grow into his full potential.

And you know what? He was getting there! He was still pretty childish by the end of the series, in all honesty, but he was really shaping up to be a great king!

Mikayla was there for Boomer through thick and thin, too. And he was there for her.

The Makoolas were just great people, man. Mikayla was a fantastic young woman who had her head on straight and who was always ready to defend her country, her family, and her friends.

So, yeah. Mikayla's the obvious choice for me.

#random fandom rants #Pair of Kings #Lab Rats #Mikayla Makoola

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kariachi · 2 years ago

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Unlike Ossys and Erinaens, Perison have a democracy of sorts going on. Positions of power among Osmosians are generally kept within family lines, with some exceptions mostly involving either people dying or vanishing without a suitable clanmate to take over or people being deposed. Among Erinaens there’s not really positions of power, with elders voluntelling youths to apprentice for the Council, the Council having no real power, and for the most part people just doing shit as it comes up and turning to the most experienced fucker around when needed. But Perison actually vote. Closest the other two get is when Ossys are deposing somebody.

They used to be a monarchical system, with the oldest established and often largest herd within an region being in charge, but times have changed and now they have a system of councils working from the bottom up.

It’s a multi-layered thing. Each herd (each technically an off-shoot of a family) is led by the eldest woman, almost invariably- they outnumber the men by enough there would have to be a serious die-off before a man was the only senior available- but sometimes a woman’s a bitch and people defect to the next in line. But, individuals can vote on who represents their herd to the local government. This can be city-wide or region-wide, depending, we’ll get there in a second. What matters at this point is that people get to vote on this shit. Who varies from herd to herd, but generally you can’t lose the right and the minimum voting age is on average between 35 and 40- and while most herds allow men to vote and even hold office now, neither is by any means universal. Most councils impose a population minimum to elect a representative, usually around fifteen to twenty voting-age adults.

Now on the ‘what counts as a local government’, it really depends on where you are and how things are set up. Generally in urban areas we’re talking a city council, made up of one member of each herd- so between 4 and 12 people usually. The same goes for towns, though they tend to be smaller. But what’s the real determining matter is- sometimes a town is just one herd, and then they bump their representation up to the regional council by default.

The herds are self-governing on their own land, with their own rules and such, and herd even pays it’s taxes as a collective whole. What the city and town councils are in charge of is the public areas- the ones not under the claim of any one herd. Public gathering locations, the areas Bachelor Herds stay in when they’re in town, any governmental buildings, public universities and trade schools, things like that. They use their share of tax money to keep them in shape and fund any community programs available, and also decide on and arrange the enforcement of the rules and such as they pertain to these public places and to interaction between herds, as well as setting the baseline rules for trade with other communities and with the Bachelor Herds. They also act as intermediaries between herds if there’s an issue.

Really all councils work like that. The regional council does that shit- minus the ‘space where Bachelor Herds rest’ that’s it’s own whole thing outside of cities and towns and is handled by bachelor councils, which we’ll get to- for all the space in a region that doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of a city or town. Greater regional councils then handle their shit- minus the ‘places not under jurisdiction’ portion- for a collection of regions. Continental does the same for the greater regions. Planetary council takes the ‘outside jurisdictions’ portion back and handles things between continents, more or less.

Sometimes a regional council is far enough removed from others to be a highest position under planetary all it’s own, and more often so with greater regions. To use Earth for reference, all the islands between Peninsular Malaysia and Australia would probably be considered a greater region, but not part of a continent, meanwhile Hawaii would be considered a region outside of any greater region or continent, and so both would send representatives directly to the planetary council.

There’s also the Interplanetary Council, which is made up of Ha’n’s various ambassadors plus a representative from the Planetary Council and who handle matters involving other worlds and governments as well as setting the rules for the Fai’r System.

Now, I mentioned at the start there that this is a democracy ‘of a sort’. Perison only get to vote for who represents their herd. Each council decides who will represent the whole in the council above amongst themselves from amongst themselves. Generally the vote is whether to keep the individual already in that spot or to replace them with somebody else currently on the council, and then votes are held to fill voids working their way up.

Basically, if a continental council decides to replace their representative then that’ll free up a space among them, the greater regional council represented by the promoted individual will pick one of their own to fill that spot, which will open up a space to be filled by the regional council under that individual, and so on until we get a herd having to vote on a new representative for their local council. An individual cannot be demoted back into a position they had prior.

There’s been an instance someone being dropped from the Interplanetary Council and ending up directly back on her local one.

Note that this doesn’t apply to ambassadors, who are the only individuals involved in law and policy making that aren’t elected officials. Like most elected officials ambassadors start off with essentially a ‘Representative Degree’ (not actually a political degree, it’s covers any bases where you’re representing another individual, group, area, or field), often pairing it with studies on non-Perison cultures alongside astronomy, languages, politics, economics, etc. The big hope is to get a job either at an embassy or representing a company or group off-world. When openings for an ambassador position are expected to, well, open, then interested individuals submit their credentials, the Planetary Council pick their favorites from the group, which are then sent to the Interplanetary Council for the final decision. Ambassadors have no term limit, and are typically associated solely with one planet or collection of planets but can be replaced at any time and are required to live on Ha’n for an equal or greater amount of time as at the embass(ies) for which they work.

Council positions as a rule have a term length of five to ten years, depending on the region and the position in question. Term limits vary wildly. One Greater Regional Council can impose no limits on their representative, while another can impose a two term limit. Individuals are restricted by the limits of the councils they directly represent and serve on, not those beneath them.

Example: Fevvrie serves three of her five available terms on her Greater Regional Council before being replaced. Popular and much loved with her herd, who enforce no term limit, she’s quickly reinstated on her City Council. Unfortunately her City Council only allows two terms as their representative, which she more than served between her time on the Regional and Greater Regional Councils. This means she can’t return to her previous Regional Councilmember position unless she moves to another city and is elected by another branch of her family.

“But Achi!” I hear you say “You mentioned the Bachelor Herds, and this all sound very focused on the Settled Herds!” You’re right! They have their own stuff going on with the council thing!

Bachelor Herds aren’t represented in the Settled Herd politics, but they do have their own councils. Each Bachelor Herd is self-governing, and considered to have full authority over everything within about seventy feet of their caravan while they’re on the road, and within twenty feet while stopped within Settled Herd territory, excepting with regards to crop fields and orchards, wherein their authority ends at the boundary of the growing space. As decided by the Planetary Council as part of a bid to standardize the rights of bachelors. These herds participate in a similar system to Settled Herds, where each one votes for a representative from within their herd to become part of the Regional Bachelor Council.

The Regional Bachelor Council serves as intermediary between herds, sets standards such as who has right of way when paths intersect and how much of what can be foraged from any one area by any one herd at a time. They also work closely with the Regional Council, ensuring that the needs and safety of bachelors is taken into account when it comes to regional policy. You’ll also see Greater Regional Bachelor Councils, who work closely with the Greater Regional Councils, though never Continental ones anymore, those died out when the planet stopped having regular wars. Again, election to these positions works the same as for the Settled Herds, with herds electing someone to their regional council, which then selects one of it’s own for the greater one.

While Councilmembers from Settled Herds will typically have a set residence, often a private apartment in whatever the base of operations is for the council on which they serve that belongs, quite literally, to whoever currently holds their position- to the point that individuals any higher up the ranking than City/Town Councilmember and lower than Interplanetary Councilmember are expected to hand their keys over to the council they represent and stay with their herd for the few weeks prior to their re-election vote- where they usually live alone, Councilmembers from Bachelor herds commonly work remotely. The exception to this is a yearly in-person meeting, where each councilmember and a small entourage will travel to the meeting site, often close to the base of operations for their sister council, where they’ll meet and deal with each other before heading for the base of operations to work with in-person with the Regional or Greater Regional Council. For the month or two this goes on the council and entourage are considered a Bachelor Herd all their own for legal purposes, and the smaller groups they stay in when traveling are afforded legal protections, again as decided by the Planetary Council.

The non-ambassador member of the Interplanetary Council lives on the same station as the member of the Planetary Council and primarily works remotely as a go-between for the Planetary Council and the various ambassadors. They also come together with the Ambassadors for a yearly in-person meeting, typically either on that same station or at a neutral third location off-world.

Outside of emergency situations, Settled councils above the city/town level are considered off the clock during the three longest months of the Women’s Calendar. Bachelor Councils, like City/Town Councils, are never fully off the clock, though they tend to be more leisurely about things during the winter months.

Legally the only limits to becoming a councilmember is that one must be an adult and have a ‘representative degree’, but in action due to the age-based biases amongst Perison rarely are individuals under the age of forty elected.

#perison #damn this turned out long

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bophtelophti · 9 months ago

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Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, West Virginia: plain squares. Normal, reasonable.

New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Iowa: plain circles. Also fine.

Rhode Island, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Montana: Plain squares with the state name. Helpful if you can't remember what state you're in, I guess.

New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee (secondary), Wisconsin, Oregon, Hawaii: A little more creative than the basic square or circle, but still a nice, simple sign shape.

Vermont, California: Add the state name and a bit of color to an otherwise simple shape. Not too bad. But also, I live in California and the state highway signs don't always have the word "California" on them. How many of these are exaggerated?

Michigan: That big M in that font is the logo of the University of Michigan. Sure do love their college football, Michiganders.

New Hampshire, Pennsylvania. A recognizable state symbol that still makes a fairly simple sign shape without getting in-your-face about it. Minus points to New Hampshire for still using as a state symbol a rock formation that collapsed in 2003.

New Mexico: The red Zia sun symbol is one of the best icons of any state and fits well with a simple round sign. Having to fit around the number makes the proportions a bit wonky but overall I like it.

Kansas: Oh, I get it, it's a sunflower. I like the concept and the shape, but I worry that in yellow it could get mistaken for a caution sign.

Utah: The drawing of a beehive is a little cartoonish; more detail than a highway sign needs. Pushing it.

Washington: The head of George Washington is just a terrible shape for a sign. Ridiculous, absolutely not.

Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota. Using the shape of your state as the shape of a sign sometimes works, and definitely communicates that they're state highways. I'll allow it. Bonus points to Ohio for having a state that's actually shaped like a shield.

Louisiana, North Dakota, Arizona: State map and name seems a little redundant in my opinion.

Florida, Tennessee (primary), Oklahoma, Idaho, Nevada: States that aren't well suited to be the shape of a sign, but they squeeze them in there anyway. Trying too hard.

Minnesota: Tiny map and state name and multiple colors, too much going on.

Nebraska, Wyoming, Alaska. Simple shapes with the state name on top and a symbol on the bottom. These ones seem a little crowded, and the symbols are mainly too small to really come across. Alaska is the best of them since the Big Dipper is a simpler design than Wyoming's cowboy and Nebraska's Covered Wagon With Two Passengers Being Pulled Over A Hill By A Team Of Oxen.

Colorado: You'd think the state flag would be a good design for a highway sign, but it just comes across as garish and squeezes the number into the bottom half.

South Carolina: State name, and tiny map, and tiny state symbols inside the tiny map? Take it back to your license plates, buddy.

State Highway Marker Designs for Every US State

by u/lostinrabbithole12

#highways #signs #america #maps

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one-more-offbeat-anthem · 4 years ago

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The thing about grief is that it’s got all these goddamn layers, and just when Dean thinks he’s sorted out all his shit, there’s another thing to deal with.

That’s where he’s at this morning.

He woke up at four and watched Cas breathe next to him for a full hour, continually reassuring himself that Cas was, in fact, still alive. Eventually he started feeling like a crazy person and hauled himself out of bed, which landed him where he is now, standing in front of the big bay window in their kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee.

It’s nearly six now, the coffee half-cold, and part of Dean wants to go get his slippers so his feet aren’t directly on the chilly tile, but instead he’s...stuck here.

Sometimes this feeling goes away when the sun fully comes up, when light floods the kitchen (painted yellow, per Cas’ request) and the rest of the house. One of their first post-Chuck priorities (minus pulling Cas topside) was moving out of the bunker.

Sure, it had been Dean’s first real home, after that long-burned house in Lawrence, but it was underground, and something about suddenly realizing that he was forty-two and actually free for the first time in his life made him want to get out as fast as possible, away from all those memories and towards the light.

Hence the cup of coffee--even cooler now--in a mug clumsily painted by Cas with sunflowers and the big kitchen with an island and an honest-to-god hanging pot rack and Dean’s slippers, in their living room by the big, squishy green couch (they’re shaped like bunnies, Jack picked them out) and the three rooms upstairs--a guest room, for when Sam and Eileen (frequently) visit, Jack’s room (crammed with books and Legos and a race-car shaped bed Dean built himself because, surprise surprise, you can’t buy fun toddler beds for toddlers that are adult-sized), and Dean and Cas’ bedroom, where Cas is still soundly sleeping.

“Hello, Dean.”

Or not, apparently.

Dean turns to see Cas standing at the foot of the stairs, in his pajamas, with a sleepy, lopsided smile on his face. Dean gestures at Cas and he pads over, shoving himself under Dean’s free arm and plastering himself against Dean’s side.

“’S early,” Cas says, yawning and reaching for Dean’s coffee. Dean pulls it away from him and Cas tilts his head up at Dean, frowning.

“It’s cold,” Dean replies, “And you can get your own.”

“But I don’t want to.” Cas pauses. “How long have you been up?”

“Couple hours.” It’s nice to feel Cas against him, warm and solid and real. Decidedly not a dream.

Cas, as always, can tell what’s eating at him, and he moves away, pulling Dean’s fingers away from the mug and setting it on the kitchen table. Then he takes Dean’s fingers and presses them against his wrist. After a few seconds, Dean starts to feel Cas’ heartbeat, steady and regular.

“I’m still here,” Cas says, moving his hand to hold Dean’s properly. “Come back to bed?”

Dean nods, swallows. “Yeah.”

Eventually, Dean drifts off as sunlight starts to seep around the curtains. He’ll be woken properly two hours later by the aforementioned adult-sized toddler trying to wedge himself into their bed, but for now, he holds his hand against Cas’ heart and lets himself sink back into slumber.

#like I LOVE baby!jack but something is HILARIOUS about adult-sized toddler jack doing toddler things #userstarry #usershey #cillabee #flowersforcastag #I FEEL ANNOYING TAGGING PEOPLE IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO STOP lemme know and I *will*#anyways!#offbeatwrites #almost forgot my own writing tag asdlfas;dfs

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terephintik · 2 years ago

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Unbound(Illumixreader) chapter 5

You were sitting on the bed, leg crossed as Mito sat across you on the chair, hands crossed.

"How do you know Ging?"

"I've read about him in papers, haven't actually met him though."

Your slight outburst after hearing Freecss's name had resulted in this little interview session with Mito.

"How did you end up on this island?"

"I was sailing alone up north, but suddenly a storm hit and me being a rookie, couldn't handle it, so here I am."

You cooked up an excuse as fast as you can. You were grateful that normal population were devoid of the knowledge about nen, so she won't be able to pick up little disturbance in you aura.

If it was any other day you would have been able to control those tiny flecks, since you were out for a whole month, so it was a little hard to control your aura.

The questioning session was over after an hour as Mito was not able to sense anything suspicious.

"If you're hungry you can come downstairs, I am making lamp stew," she said getting up from her former sitting position. She was about to exit the room but halted suddenly, turning around. Your guard rose instinctively.

"Your belongings are in the bathroom, over there." She signed towards the direction and left.

You sighed to yourself as you stood up from the bed, legs wobbling a bit due to your former bedridden state.

The first action you commenced was to dash towards the bathroom. You rummaged through your newfound belonging as you checked the little items it held.

drive✓

files✓

10-metal tubes✓

Illumi's cell phone✗

An unfamiliar emotion started to erupt in your chest, as you further searched through your dirty piles of clothes but to no avail.

You looked around the bathroom for any clue regarding its whereabouts; you started to look around the room but halted as an idea hit you.

You started to disperse your aura, covering the entire house, to feel every corner of the house, every movement, and every shape.

But much to you despair, you sensed nothing except for the normal ambiance.

Mind blowing up with hundreds possibility as what could have happened to that piece of metal as you gathered up all the items, tucking them around your clothes.

You crouched over the ledge of the window, activating gyo. You scanned the scenery below for any traces of your aura, though the possibility was in minus, or perhaps any traces of the bear who earlier.

Picking up quite a few, you jumped down the window, activating zetsu and began following the trail down the forest.

Standing in front of a familiar scene, you got some hope. Repeating the same process, the one back at the resident you did a full-three sixty of the forest but to no avail.

The stars were shining brightly over the outstretched sea, making the water sparkle in its wake.

"Must've fallen into the sea," you said as you looked at the glittering water with disappointing eyes. It almost looked like the ocean was teasing you; bullying you as it took away the only thing you could call yours.

You sighed, defeated. You were about to turn on your heel but your attention was caught by the bubbles surfacing at irregular intervals.

Someone was drowning.

You dived without a moment's hesitation. Once activating en to get a better grasp of the situation, you sensed uneven waves and more bubbles emerging.

It was coming from the northeast direction. You wiped you head in that direction to be meeting with a familiar tuft of hair. It was Gon, Ging's son.

Pivoting your body in water, you swim to his aid. He was weighed down by a big boulder, against the steep wall of the cliff. He was struggling under the rock-big enough to wreck a large yacht.

He was the same boy who saved you from that bear, the revelation was shocking at first but when you got to sense his strong yet immature aura you came in term with his immense potential. He is Ging's kid after all.

Signaling him about your presence which seemed to calm him a little, you examined the placement of the boulder. You put your hands by your side, flat on the wall behind, your back in the same position-flat on the wall and your feet on the rock.

In one swift motion you emitted the aura from your feets, sending the rock swimming away.

Gon was about to lose consciousness due to lack of sir but you grabbed him by his arm, taking him to the surface.

As soon as his nostrils were met again with those familiar odorless smells, he coughed and gasped for air.

"What were you even doing?" you asked him as calmed down a little.

"I-I was f-fishing but the fist w-was too big for me to handle, so I fell t-trying to catch it, "he answered while steadying his breathing.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine now."

"Oh! And thank you!" he said enthusiastically.

"Umm...What is your name know?" he asked, his octave rising with every word. He had too much energy for someone who was dying a moment ago.

"Faye" you answered with the pet name given to you.

You could've used your newly discovered real name but decided against it because you wouldn't want Ging knowing it, what if Gon tells his father about you when he visits him.

You don't want that, you don't want him finding you this early at least.

The only reason you told Illumi was because of the fact that he saved you and you had a feeling that he won't tell anyone, though it was a risky wager, but you were willing to take it.

Something about him felt familiar to you, something from the past you don't remember, especially those pupil-less eyes. The first time you had made contact with his eyes, they seemed recognizable only for a split second, and they were hypnotic, almost felt like a magnet, pulling you towards him.

You wanted to stare into his eyes yet not. So you opted to avoid them altogether, you knew something would happen if it linger there for a few more seconds.

"Thank you, Faye-san!" Gon chimed in shifting your attention towards the boy you forgot was even there.

"Its fine, I was only returning the favor," mumbling the latter part to yourself.

"You should probably go home, it's dark, and "you continued looking at the stars.

"Won't you be coming with me? Mito-san is making lamb stew," he said cheerily, getting up.

"No I wo-Where'd you find that?" you said pointing at the object that had fallen from his pocket.

It was Illumi's cell phone.

"This?" he said whilst picking it up.

"When I fell into the water, I saw it stuck behind the rock. So, I went to grab it, I did manage to go it out but as you know I got stuck instead... Is it yours?" he explained quickly, bringing forward the device for you to see.

"Yes, I was looking for it all over, "you answered taking it in your hands.

"Alright then, I'll be going before Mito-san gets angry!" he informed you but you were too busy examining the device, to respond.

"Thank you, Gon" you said only to be replied by silence.

You lifted your head and saw him running towards his house. You smiled to yourself, he reminds you of the kids back at Aeiba Island.

Looking down, you fumbled with the device, trying to figure out it's working, how to contact Illumi, however it was busted.

#illumi zoldyck #illumi x reader #hxh illumi #hxh fanfic

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ask-paperville · 5 months ago

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1- like them all really, but Siffrin and Odile a bit more

2- the tutorial kid

3- secret one with loop if you know, you know.

4- memory of sadness? (Don’t remember for sure the name but the one where enemies run away from you)

5- like them all too, but for me events with Bonnie hit really close to me.

6- jackpot baby! As soon as possible.

7- those timelines where Siffrin dies and loop back are REALLY erased or they just continue without him? And what the hell happened to the island to north of Vaugard?

8- I would like to actually see all of their adventures, see Bonnie’s sister, see loop join to them, maybe even journey to the island…

9- I am 100 % convinced that colours disappearance and island erasure somehow connected, also I think that maybe those who stayed on island are still alive and live good and that wish to erase everything about island is a deliberate wish made by someone in power there to hide their technology or something from everyone.

10- like I said, the islanders are alive and well on their island. At least that I think.

11- it’s a bit sad but I head-cannon that those little crystals on Odile glasses are her father’s as in Ka-buan tradition on turning their dead into gems. Also Bonnie is definitely half islander because of few think I noticed like sometimes you can see little stars when they excited or the cat shaped eyes.

12- I was just a sucker for loops and time shenanigans, but this game changed that…

13- If I remember correctly I was on my 127 loop when I get to the last act.

14- most of Loops, and most of Siffrins. I actually like all the portraits really)

15- thinking about it, I can’t even think what would you even CAN change in the game everything work as intended I think even frustrating parts.

16- definitely rock type, I actually look like Isabeau minus buff. I don’t really like sport to be honest but I am not fat or skinny sooo yeah. Rock type it is.

17- pretzels.

18- what you feel when the game ended?

in stars and time ask game 🌌

1- favorite character?

2- favorite npc?

3- favorite soundtrack?

4- favorite memory?

5- favorite optional event?

6- do you have a battle strategy you’d like to share?

7- anything you’re still curious about in-game?

8- any post-game things you’d like to see?

9- any theories on unanswered questions from the game? (about the forgotten island, why colors disappeared, etc)

10- any headcanons about the in-game world? (about the forgotten island, craft types, just like. world building hcs, etc)

11- any character headcanons?

12- what got you interested in the game?

13- if you’ve played the game, how many loops did you do? if you’ve played it multiple times, whats the least amount of loops you did? the most?

14- favorite character portrait(s)?

15- anything you’d change about the game? be it game mechanics, a new feature, a change in plot, etc

16- what craft type do you think you’d be?

17- if you could have any of the snacks bonnie makes during the snack breaks, which would you choose?

18- free question!! send a question of your choice or treat this as an opportunity to let receiver ramble about anything they’d like

#in stars and time #ask game #spoilers isat

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ganymedesclock · 4 years ago

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So I discovered the trailer for Belle (2021), and it’s making me think about what I love about Beauty and the Beast riffs, and what makes a story scratch that particular itch for me or not.

And I think a huge part of it for me is the examination of monstrosity as a social role. To just use Disney’s animated classic as my base for comparison here, Adam, The Beast, is not literally cursed with fur and fangs, claws and horns- he has those things, and may have mixed feelings about them, others certainly have bad reactions to them-

-his curse is ostracization. His curse is to not be seen as human. What actual, physical features he has are irrelevant to that. They’re just quirks he can learn to live with, or a further excuse to tell himself he deserves this isolation, this frustration, this misery.

So the breaking of the curse, to me, is not the scene where Belle sobs confirmation of what we knew well before then into his stilling chest and brings him back, minus those quirks- if anything, that his happiness comes with the loss of those things has seemed to me (and I’m not alone) as almost something of a betrayal depending on how it’s framed.

By contrast, to me, the breaking of the curse is the ballroom scene, and the moments leading up to it. Adam returns to Adam, rather than The Beast, at the point that he decides that he deserves to be treated like a human being- not as a labor of love from Belle, but from himself. Yes, it’s love with Belle that they dance together, that they have this ball scene when there’s no high society to impress, but before that point, he had to make a decision; that he can clean up and dress nice and have an evening. That he deserves to.

When we first see The Beast, he has all of the means and resources to act like a prince, to present like one. He could make himself comfortable and be surrounded by splendor, but the truest thing he suffers under is he’s ceased to see himself as worth the effort. It’s not as if he could cut the fur down and prune back his claws, file down the horns, and look the way he feels he ought to- the way he thinks he should. He’s broken every mirror in his house except for the one he hides from, and this is a gesture of absolute defeat. He knows what he looks like. He can’t pretend he doesn’t. The only way he can tolerate this is not looking at himself.

As a neurodivergent queer person, the monster in the mirror is something I have a very complicated relationship with. I have an “advantage” in some ways. My appearance is not shocking to most people. I do not benefit from an obvious mobility aid or assistive device; I speak within a range people think of is normal. I have an “unusual haircut” for a “girl” and I don’t aggressively correct people on my pronouns or presentation.

But I’ve always had this feeling, that perhaps, my fangs and fur were simply easy things to trim off, and it’s so easy to wonder, would I still be okay if they weren’t? Because really, it’s none of the granular details that make a monster. For every imagined horror creature, there’s almost certainly a real animal it resembles, and real animals are not monsters. A monster is a monster; anything else, we believe, has a place, has a home. Deserves to exist.

To be a monster is to be a thing that doesn’t fit, or, more directly, to be a monster is to be a thing that is unaccepted. Rejected for not fitting. Unworthy of love, from within, or without.

At the end of the day, I know, factually, I am not a monster. I know that I’m a real person. I know that I deserve dignity and respect and love, even if only from myself. I’m not owed another person to love me just to prove that I can be, but, also, no man is an island; as humans we seek each other one way or another, romantically or platonically. That’s a fact of anyone, not just people who struggle to see a real person when they look at their reflection.

And yet, at this same time, I can’t help but feel betrayed, left behind, when the narrative goes that if the monster does everything right its reward is to be shaped into the likeness of a Real Human Being. Because you can’t just pull a feathered skin off me and make me like I “should be”, like my various diagnoses and self-identifications all present me as an aberration from. If you showed me a me without any of those qualities, that’s honestly the thing I’m the most afraid of, a me without me. A Miss Perfect who’s a good, normative daughter, and in my insecurity I wonder if people would like her so much better than me that they wouldn’t miss if I was gone.

Which, that’s nonsense. I know a lot of people who care about me the way I am. But nobody ever said fears had to be rational.

At the end of the day, as much as I hate the idea of being a monster to others, I also relish the notion of qualities that are categorized as monsters. I love dragons. I love putting big, horrible teeth and leering eyes and wings and claws on heroic characters. Because brought into the light, qualities are just qualities. And if you bring those qualities into the favoring, soft light of stories about human connection, romances, queerplatonic bonds, friendships and found family alike, those qualities can even be charming, alluring, inspiring; a character can look like anything and we still feel a rush of reassurance that this specific character is there.

And that’s the other side of Beauty and the Beast: Adam is running away from being a monster, and Belle is trying to run away from who she is, too. Because Belle is the other side of that trap.

Let’s be honest; it isn’t just that Belle’s an outspoken woman with opinions. It’s that she’s pretty. She’s the prettiest girl in town. She’s someone people want, people have expectations for- and those expectations have little room for what she actually wants. Hell, that’s one of the major dangerous driving forces of the climax- Adam nearly gets murdered by a mob because Belle made a choice that her community really didn’t like, especially Gaston, and it’s easy to point to Adam as the wrong choice because he’s pointy.

“Beauty”, as much as “The Beast”, are dehumanizing categories that people are sorted into. The doll and the monster. One is considered beneath monstrosity; beguiling, an object of appeal and desire but not someone with opinions, oh no, and not someone able to make a choice that you disagree with. People driven to the fringes by opposing forces but regardless find each other in the place they’re trying to find room to breathe in.

And that, I think, is one way some of these riffs can, for me personally, miss the point- and that’s not a mark against them, it’s just that there’s a specific thing I see in this story, and it’s very specifically not, “to be beautiful and desirable to mass public consumption is the way to be happy; we will have a story about how to rehabilitate someone so they can be beautiful too” but rather, “what does it mean when people stop seeing you as yourself, whether the alternative is perfection or a monster? what would you do to be seen clearly?”

#writing ruminations #beauty and the beast #readmore

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lightdancer1 · 3 years ago

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I will say re: Azula and the Gaang

The Gaang initially post-war are filled with a lot of bitterness and anger to Azula and their initial reactions, minus Suki's, are shaped by that and the immediate postwar headiness as well as the harshness of realizing how little the Fire Nation actually welcomes the brave new postwar world. Azula is a convenient scapegoat for a lot of problems....and then as they grow older and in the cases of Aang and Katara in particular have kids of their own they realize with an utter horror what they actually did.

Zuko also finally has that reaction hit him like a sledgehammer when he becomes Izumi's father and belatedly tries to reform himself and his kingdom, but by then it's locking the barn door after the horses were stolen and made into glue and Burger King hamburgers. By then as far as everyone except Aang and Katara know, Azula is either in some far distant Siberia equivalent or straight up dead.

Aang does find out not only that Azula is alive, but where she is. He and Katara go to meet her five years after the war to apologize for things and to introduce her to first two children (Kya is an infant at the time and Bumi is two)....and over the next five years find a cautious friendship with Azula simply from realizing they're dealing with a person and not the sinister figure they fought in the war.

Katara finds out that Sokka knew the entire time because he was dating Suki and because she convinced him that she could not hate someone their own age and chose to gamble on the idea that her people with kindness could do what people with the iron fist could not. Sokka eventually goes to meet postwar Azula in the sixth year after the war and they end up nerd Bro-TP, though that's the sum total of her interactions with the Gaang.

Aang knowing where she is not least making sure the Avatar knows where one of the most potentially dangerous people in the world is and where she could or would leave if she did ultimately relapse. The Gaang make mistakes at the start because wars do not teach people kindness, and by the time everyone realizes how badly they've fucked it up the Fire Nation's over-militarized society after a century of war is in low-tier Weimar style civil war while Ryukyu and Karakorum are openly becoming secessionist and taking their veterans and rebuilding the armies of the old kingdoms, as well as the Thai Kingdom which happens to be where Mai's family and ancestry came from......and which is so unfortunate as to have Ukano as the person of the family who'd fit into the royal title.

And by the time De Nile drains away and they're stuck with hardcore reality the Weimar-style strife has turned into all out war with three all-Fire Nation factions battling it out and three smaller kingdoms seeking to carve out their own territories, with Ryukyu and Karakorum in particular the most successful at it.

And once again the Fire Nation's neglect of Karakorum means that it has a sudden and unpredictable surprise when Ogodei Khagan reacts to the spite of the Fire Nation to his people by re-establishing the old kingdom and desiring to regather the Ulus and then, in the medium term, to straight up shift from there to outright conquering Capital Island and reversing the verdict of the Unification Wars.

Ryukyu by contrast aims to rebuild the old Ryukyu Kingdom.....and knows of one scion of the Royal Family who's neatly turned up alive again and has direct line descent from the royal house who would make an ideal Restorer Queen.

#atla aus #exile idea au #second earth kingdom au

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ravenadottir · 3 years ago

Note

Yo! I had so many questions I wanted to ask you while you were gone but I of course wasn’t gonna send in asks while you were on hiatus! I wanted you to have peace. But I should have written them down!! 😭

Now I only have this one question. I saw your ask to Mango about Chelsea’s super power and now I want your take on this. Not on Chelsea but an islander or islanders of your choice. What super powers would you give your favorite islanders? They can have more than one power like super heroes do if you feel like it fits.

hi! i missed you!

oh oh oh oh!! anything you remember, send it my way! i need something to help me wake up from this brain coma i've been in. i blame cmm for that...

ok, so i love this question, thank you for sending it to me! i'll definitely focus on a lot of them because well, i love the genre, and i love talking about them 🥺

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

lucas

fire. he's able to start it, besides dominating and bending it over to his own will. sometimes uses it for (partial) evil and more. being the anti hero i think he is, i would LOVE to see lucas playing with fire while delivering a speech that instigates the good guy in front of him. in a cool, well cut, all black suit with just one (1) red scarf on the lapel, or his neck, he would look amazing sending blazes everywhere! i even have a song for him: play with fire. aaaah the idea of lucas and fire sends me to heaven, hell, purgatory and back! he can be like tuxedo mask, regarding how he annoys everyone with his smugness.

gary

colossus. strength and possibility of turning into a dense metal at will? gary is perfect for it! he has the body shape and weight, and the skills for the maintenance. picture this: you walk down the hallway to go to the bathroom, only to hear him moaning in there. you're uncomfortable, thinking the worst, only to open the door and see him oiling his joints and almost falling on the floor. "a little help? i can't reach some places..." please, give me metal body gary, it would clear all my trauma! plus, as he is in the villa, he would exercise his comic relief role.

carl

brainiac with technology/time bending. (@lasswithumor's idea for 'time' makes me smile! thank you for the inspo!) not actual brainiac from dc though, let me explain. i always get the sense carl could be tony stark or bruce wayne, minus the assholery. he's much humbler and quiet, but still very capable. as for time bending being his power, it could make him overcome this sense of running out of time he always seems to have. he might have a hardship about it because he never seems to find a balance, so this skill is probably the only thing he could actually be good at, and benefit from.

noah

talking to the dead, like klaus hargreeves. something i would love to see is how tormented he would be while it happens. distressed noah is a beautiful concept, and part of the reason why he would be such a troubled character. picture this: he uses those people to fight in exchange of favors, like finding out who killed them, or to tell their families how peaceful they are now, among other things. noah and ghosts ring different to me, and the thought of him being troubled? even more! not like klaus, but definitely close to that. i love that "short temper" side of him, and in this context, it would be perfect. plus, his looks being similar to something from the 1920's, without the hat. so white shirt, suspenders, dark brown pants. ugh, he would look so good in it!

henrik

vines and plant banding, like layla williams in sky high. there's no other answer for him. i thought about making him avalanche, from x men, but i see him more connected to plants than any other element of nature. the way he would smirk and grow a small vine around his pinky while talking about a brilliant idea he just had? PLEASE. GIVE - IT - TO - ME, I LIVE FOR SMUG HENRIK! and you can be damn sure his looks would include this ponytail, by @juggalohenrik.

kassam

at first i thought invisibility, because of his personality and how he behaves in groups, but then it hit me, supersonic scream. he can take his frustrations out on a single booming scream and be done with it. i would love to see kassam being teased and beat up, only to get up from the ground, scrapes all over, bloody nose, only to position himself and close his fists to focus, before delivering a resounding scream to round it up real nicely. that's definitely a power he would find useful and excels in. the visuals definitely don't hurt either!

bobby

he's a very peculiar boy, and so his powers would have to be too. it might sound crazy, but hear me out! laughter inducement. the power itself can cause the person to laugh so hard, eventually the air is expelled from their lungs and they have quite the death! it's gruesome and i love it, it's the perfect juxtaposition between it and bobby's personality that is so bubbly. picture this: battlefield, gary smugly says "i guess that's the only way you could make someone laugh." to which bobby replies with a laugh "including you, tin can" while making colossus!gary laugh and fall on the floor because of it. it might require lots of energy, so bobby can't always cause mass laughter, just like in the villa... jk jk jk! i just know his uniform would be clown like, before priya adjusted to a beautiful dark teal piece. before that? goofy pink mask and cape with sprinkles, and tights everywhere else. he would also be the type of hero that is a comic relief. ironically, in this case.

lottie

rogue. the power and the visuals fit in so well! sucking up someone's power and/or energy SCREAMS lottie's personality all over! if i could adjust it so the girl doesn't manifest it unless she wants to, that's even better. lottie with dark hair and a streak of platinum, or the opposite, would look another level and i'm here for it! plus, the gloves... AAAAH THE GLOVES. she would smirk before taking them off and turning that grin into a determined smug expression before touching her enemy. PLEASE!

priya

TURNING - PEOPLE - INTO - GOLD. i said what i said. similar to medusa's power of turning people into stone. flowy dresses for the goddess looks, a smirk on her lips while she does it, and golden shiny eyes that glow bright when she throws her gold curse upon her enemy! she's goofy, so you know she has a cheesy catchphrase, but i can't think of anything right now. it's there, i just need to find it.

hope

mind control. CAN I JUST SAY? she practically has that power already. being persuasive and having the power of negotiation the way she already does would fit in perfectly. and if i may add, storm looks like the uniform and the "bright white eyes" while it happens???also! hope as the person who plans the attacks and defense.

marisol

persuasion. similar to allison hargreeves. one word and they will do it. at first i considered super strength, for being so unexpected to someone that petit, but if you account for her personality, persuasion as a super power is so much cooler! plus, she doesn't have to try hard, the seed of argumentation is already there. in her origin story you could have marisol having a moral grey area where she debates whether or not using those powers in court. i would love to see this dilemma and her going through it, since there's a clear distinction in what she considers right and wrong, and the ethically correct options to choose. as looks go, all she needs is a suit, similar to the prom one, and definitely a ponytail and gloves.

ibrahim.

flying and speed. something about rahim screams traditional super hero persona and i can't help but stir into it. he's perfect for the superman alter ego, the one that talks about justice and fights the big guy for the little ones. rahim has a way of going around and making people's lives better, at least that's how i see him. i asked for @itsrealityboo 's approval about this, because you know, she's the authority on golf boy, and she added something really cool that i hadn't thought about: "I will say that I could definitely see Rahim as a part of a team tho, like the fantastic four! I think because of his insecurities, he’s need some type of support system or even older mentor. He’d definitely go through that awkward phase of learning how to manage his powers if he wasn’t born with them lol"

i definitely agree after reading it, it makes so much sense! i don't know if that need comes from being the younger brother, or having those expectations at home (about being suave and all) but that would for sure be a part of his origin story as a superhero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

in case you missed the asks i sent about superpowers, here is chelsea, by mango, and elisa, by kc

#litg lucas #litg gary #litg noah #litg henrik #litg kassam #litg bobby #litg lottie #litg hope #litg priya #litg marisol #litg elisa #litg chelsea #litg ibrahim #litg #litg season 2 #love island the game #love island the game season 2 #queue

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miracleonice87 · 4 years ago

Text

Begin Again

a Mathew Barzal song fic

a/n: a one shot based on “Begin Again” by Taylor Swift. obviously I don’t own any of Taylor Swift’s music/lyrics! I’m not even a big Swiftie anymore (edited: lol dying bc I wrote that before she released folklore and evermore and sucked me RIGHT back in) but I love her “Red” album and always listen to it in the fall. also, the NYC traffic/parking/location situation in this is purely fantasy BS, lol.

summary: Mat Barzal meets Hayden Parker (fictional) in a coffee shop, and they start something new.

warnings: swearing. talk of a concussion/migraines/weight loss — otherwise, complete and total fluff.

______

With a deep breath, you glanced at your reflection in the mirror hanging near your front door before you left your Brooklyn apartment. You hadn’t worn these heels for several seasons now — he hadn’t liked it when you wore high heels. You had let his opinions — on your clothes, shoes, music, books, movies, and friends — dictate how you lived for too long. You smirked now, admiring how the pointed-toe snakeskin stilettos looked paired with your raw cut black jeans and silky pink blouse. He would’ve hated this look (“too gaudy,” he would have said), which made you love it that much more.

You popped in one AirPod and flipped the inside lock on your door before pulling it closed. You made your way down the hall as the lyrics started to flow.

There is a young cowboy, he lives on the range

His horse and his cattle are his only companions...

You fought the urge to roll your eyes thinking about your former flame’s constant unwarranted comments about this classic ballad which often wafted through your apartment from the record player in the living room.

“I don’t get this song — like, is he singing to himself?” he would ask. You never bothered to tell him the real background and meaning — you loved the song, and you got it. You always had.

Emerging from the main entrance of your building, you hummed along to melodies from your favorite playlist, and walked the three or so blocks to your destination. Soon, you were stepping in from the bustle of the street to find solace in an only-slightly less busy coffee shop, one you had come to frequent because of its location — sandwiched within the six blocks between your apartment and the fashion magazine where you were interning this semester.

“Hi, one large double shot mocha, please?” you requested, stepping up after the man in front of you paid for his order. You tapped your AirPod to pause your music, just in time to hear: “Nice shoes.”

You lifted your head and glanced toward the pick-up section of the counter, where a classically handsome man in his twenties stood donning a well-tailored navy blue suit. Your heart lurched in your chest as you realized he was looking straight at you.

“Me?” you inquired softly, just to be sure, as you slipped your bank card back into your wallet. He nodded, smiling. “Yes, you. Nice shoes.”

You bit your lip involuntarily, slowly walking his way to wait on your coffee. “Thanks. You’ve got nice style yourself,” you complimented, and you were surprised by your own boldness in that moment. Something about his confidence made you confident, too. And something about his model good looks seemed unsettlingly familiar somehow.

He extended his hand as you took your position next to him. “I’m Mat,” he greeted. You couldn’t help but smile, nearly breathless from his innate charm.

“Hi, Mat,” you replied, engaging his handshake. “I’m Hayden.”

“Hayden. Pretty name for a pretty girl,” Mat mused, holding onto your hand for just a moment longer than was customary. You knew it was silly — God, was it silly — but you felt yourself blush at his flattery.

“Large Americano,” a barista called out. Mat stepped forward, thanking her and stuffing a bill — you couldn’t help but notice that it was a large one — into the tip jar atop the glass pastry display. He turned back to you as he unfastened the lid and blew gently on his coffee. Another thing you couldn’t help but notice — his perfect pink lips.

“So, Hayden, are you a native New Yorker?”

Hmm, you thought. Why isn’t he running for the door after getting his drink? You decided to play along, feeling more daring than you had in ages.

“I am not,” you confessed. “I’m from Maine, actually.”

“Ah, still an East Coast girl,” Mat remarked with a grin. “I’m from the West — near Vancouver.”

You arched your brows. “Wow, Canadian, huh?” Mat chuckled.

“Born and raised. You know what they say, though: opposites attract,” he commented, hazel eyes piercing into you even as he took a cautious sip from his cup. You studied his face — he seemed more familiar with each word he spoke.

“They do say that, don’t they?” you retorted, skirting his inference. Just then, the barista set your mocha on the counter.

“Thank you so much,” you said, also pushing a tip into the jar, thankful that Mat’s attention was on grabbing a cup sleeve from the island nearby instead of on the much smaller bills you had to offer the staff.

You turned toward the island, too, reaching for the cinnamon. Mat offered you a sleeve as if it was second nature, and you graciously accepted, trying to relax the muscles on your face that seemed to have permanently turned upward into a smile since you’d been in the man’s presence.

Suddenly, you gasped.

“Islanders,” you whispered under your breath as Mat watched you stir your cinnamon into your drink. He froze.

“What?” he asked with a nervous laugh, wondering if he had heard you correctly. Your eyes darted around, making sure no one within earshot was paying attention.

“You play for the Islanders. Right?” you asked softly. He nodded, silent, ducking his head a bit; you began to backpedal.

“Oh, God... I didn’t mean - I, uh... I promise I’m not like a hockey fangirl, or anything,” you choked out, cheeks flushed. Your hands started to shake slightly as you replaced the lid on your to-go cup. “I just, uh, my brother. My brother played hockey. He always talked about you, and, uh, I just realized that that’s why I recognized you.” You winced.

“This... this isn’t as weird as it sounds, I swear,” you insisted. “It’s just that, my brother played in the Q. He was good, and, uh, I knew about all the other good hockey players, because of him.”

Mat’s demeanor had quickly changed — from slightly uncomfortable to giddy. He was smirking at you while you sputtered, taking a sort of masochistic pleasure in watching you squirm. His grin was infectious.

“What’s your last name?” he asked when you finally stopped talking. “Parker,” you responded, the two of you stepping away from the island and taking up residence near the front windows of the cafe.

“Parker... Parker,” he repeated. You were distracted by how good your name sounded falling from his tongue. Then, he gasped, too.

“Oh shit, your brother’s Nick Parker? Damn, how’s he doing?”

Your brow quirked as you watched the light flicker on in his eyes when he pieced it together. A National Hockey League star recognized your brother’s name, your name. What the hell was happening?

You cleared your throat, attempting to come back into orbit. “Uh, yeah, he’s good now. He, uh... it was a battle there for a couple years. He had migraines every day for about 16 months... lost a lot of weight. It was... it was tough,” you told him, your voice lowering noticeably. Mat watched you carefully, concern written all over his striking features. It was evident that Mat knew your brother’s story.

Your older brother Nick had been a top 20 prospect in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as a teen, playing forward for the Halifax Mooseheads. But after a nasty late hit during a playoff game, he had been left with a debilitating concussion and, after a long period of unsuccessful rehab, had been forced to walk away from the game just as he was entering his prime.

Those troubling days hung like a thick, black fog over your family’s history, and you suddenly recalled being 15 again, cross-legged outside Nick’s bedroom door for hours, begging him to let you into the dark room to hold onto him as he cried, both because of the pain and because of the weight of his unrealized dreams. It had taken countless neurologist appointments, physical therapy, and your parents’ unwavering insistence that he regularly see a sports psychologist for him to return to some semblance of normalcy after a long road to recovery.

Now, minus the occasional treatable migraine, Nick was thriving. You beamed at the thought, your well-polished black nail picking at the corner of the cup sleeve on your mocha as you looked back to Mat and continued.

“But he’s finishing law school now, seeing a therapist and keeps himself in great shape, which helps. He’s getting married next summer to this great girl,” you finished, pride swelling in your chest at how far your brother had come. Mat’s eyebrows lifted, his worried expression morphing into elation.

“No shit!” he exclaimed. “Damn, I’m so happy for him. Tell you what, lotta guys wanted nothing to do with him when he was tearing it up. And we were all gutted for him after it happened.” You gave him a grateful smile.

“Thanks,” you said softly. “I’ll have to let him know you said that.” Mat nodded, then pressed on. “Maybe I’ll get the chance to tell him myself one day,” he added brazenly, casually taking another sip.

No response came to your brain, so you curled your fingers around your own cup and took a long draw, eyes darting to the activity outside the window, Mat’s never leaving your unsure face.

The church bells chiming from a nearby steeple were the only thing that could pull Mat’s gaze from you, as he checked his large-face Rolex. He seemed angered by the time staring back at him, and he ran his hand aggressively through his hair as his eyes rolled just slightly.

“Listen, Hayden, I hate to do this,” Mat began with a sigh. “But we’ve got a game in Pittsburgh tomorrow night, and the team plane leaves in like half an hour.”

You’re surprised by how deflated you feel in that instant, casting a downward glance at the shoes Mat had complimented only minutes ago, before you’d started feeling like maybe you’d known him your whole life.

A quiet, “Oh,” was all you could muster, still not meeting his eyes.

His hand then came to rest on your upper arm, and it’s only then that you noticed how big it was, long fingers curling easily around your bicep.

“But hey... I’ll be back late tomorrow night. Whaddya say we grab coffee here the next morning? Wednesday. Maybe 8?”

You turned your eyes upward to take in his face. He looked hopeful. He was hopeful that he’d see you again.

You nodded. “I’d love to, Mat. I’ll meet you here.”

Mat beamed, a relieved breath falling from his lips. “Good,” he commented. “I’ll see you then.” He leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to your cheek, leaving you reeling when he pulled away.

“Bye, pretty Hayden,” Mat said with a wink before turning and exiting the coffee shop, walking down the block to the Cadillac he’d just unlocked. He was still in sight when he glanced over his shoulder and threw you another breathtaking grin. You smiled back, frozen in place as you watched him drive away.

_____

Mat was going to be late.

At least, that’s what you had convinced yourself at some point within the last 48 hours.

He was either going to be late or he was going to stand you up altogether. So even though you woke up at 5:30 and initially felt the need to rush through your routine to get down to the coffee shop as quickly as possible, you didn’t. You forced yourself to slow down. Because Mat was going to be late. Or, he wasn’t going to be there at all.

So you were surprised when, after throwing on a red chiffon dress with tiny white flowers and a cognac leather jacket, you walked through the coffee shop door at 8:02 and heard, “Hayden!”

Your head snapped up.

At a corner table in the back of the shop was Mat, dressed in a smart grey sweater and distressed black jeans, a silver chain looped around his neck, standing to wave you over with a broad smile across his face.

He came. And he’d arrived before you did.

You walked over to Mat and he embraced you warmly, the two of you exchanging kisses on the cheek. He squeezed your elbow affectionately as you stepped back from him.

“Oh, here. Let me,” Mat said as he pulled your chair out and motioned for you to sit.

“Thank you,” you said quietly, his chivalry catching you by surprise. Once you were seated, he pushed your chair in slightly before taking his place across the table from you.

“I got you a mocha,” he told you, nodding at the cup in front of you. “Double shot, right?”

You nodded. “You’re sweet. Thank you,” you said, the two of you beaming at each other for a moment, lost in a daze.

“So how was the game?” you inquired, pulling you both back to earth. Mat cleared his throat before answering you.

“It was good! We won. It’s usually a tough battle with them but we kinda dominated, which was nice for a change,” he spoke, looking pleased.

“You score?” you asked teasingly as you sipped from your cup.

“Uh, yeah, actually,” he told you with a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his head. “Two goals and an assist.”

Your eyebrows lifted on your forehead. “Mat, that’s amazing! So my brother was right. You are good.”

Mat shook his head, trying to shrug you off.

“Ah, nah. I kinda think it had more to do with a good luck charm I met this week,” he remarked slyly. You licked your bottom lip before biting on it gently. Mat took notice, mirroring your motions as he stared at your lips.

“So, how’s work been this week?” It was Mat’s turn to deflect.

You told him how hectic it had been, with you arriving at the office around 9 and leaving at 6 on the day you’d first met, then departing after 7 yesterday, despite it being only a part-time internship in addition to the five classes you were taking online. He asked about your combination of on-campus and online learning throughout your college career in order to accommodate your dream internships, and he was already in awe of what a hard worker you were.

You pointed out that you weren’t the only one at the table with a crazy schedule, and you asked him how he balanced hockey with his personal life. He answered you easily, launching into stories about his teammates and his family and his friends who all kept him grounded in different ways. There was one name he kept bringing up — Tito. He told you that you’d have to meet him. Before you could hesitate, you said you’d like to. His visage brightened at that answer. He reminded you of sunshine.

He continued to regale you with a vast array of stories, stopping often to ask you questions and invite you to tell him stories of your own. It took a bit of time, but soon you were opening up about your own life — your parents’ recent and shocking divorce after 30 years of marriage, and your struggle with your grandmother’s death last fall.

It wasn’t all dark, though. In fact, most of it wasn’t. You also told him about the crazy theater actor roommate you’d had when you first moved into the city to study fashion at NYU, and how her frightening antics had eventually pushed you into accepting your uncle’s offer to pay for your own apartment in the city, as he was single and childless and had always delighted in spoiling you and your brother. You told him about your only two cousins on your dad’s side, two siblings bracketing you and your brother in age, and how the four of you were more like siblings than cousins. You told a slightly off-color joke at your own expense that most of your friends and coworkers would never laugh at, but it left Mat breathless, throwing his head back with boyish giggles flowing from his mouth like your favorite song. This caught you off-guard — you couldn’t believe he actually seemed to think you were funny. The last one certainly never did.

At some point, the conversation shifted to music. Mat’s jaw dropped when you told him that you own every James Taylor album on vinyl, after he told you that that’s one of his favorite artists of all time. He said he’s never met anyone who has as many James Taylor records as you. You simply shrugged. You explained that you and your mom have seen every tour James Taylor has been on since you were eleven and had started playing guitar. Mat’s eyes went wide — he told you that he dabbles in guitar, too.

After this, you quieted a bit. He noticed. It comes off to him as shyness, but you know what it really is. It’s fear. All at once you realize just how far you’ve let your guard down with this stranger. You’ve only just met this person, yet you have more in common with him than anyone you’ve encountered since moving into the city.

He sensed that something was off, so, in the silence, he reached a hand across the table and took yours in his grasp, stroking the back of it with his thumb. You looked into his mesmerizing eyes, and your hesitance melted.

After several more minutes of easy conversation, you check the time. You need to be at work in ten minutes.

“I’m sorry to be the one to break this up this time,” you started, and Mat sat back, looking understanding though disappointed. “But I’ve gotta get to work. Thankfully, it’s just right down the street.”

“Let me walk you,” Mat quickly insisted. You smirked at him, digging in your purse to find your office key.

“Didn’t you drive here?” you asked, chuckling. He simply shrugged. “Yeah, but if pretty Hayden works just down the street, I might as well walk her to the office and spend a few extra minutes with her,” he told you with a smug grin. You felt your cheeks get hot.

“Sounds good to me,” you admitted quietly. Mat nodded, then rose from his chair, reaching for his wallet to leave another tip.

“Thank you,” you said, putting your hand on his forearm tenderly. “For the coffee. For this.”

He smiled down at you. “You’re welcome,” he replied.

The two of you walked out the cafe door, which Mat pushed open even from behind you. You pointed in the direction of your office building and the two of you fell into step, side by side. Your heart leapt when Mat reaches for your hand. It felt unbelievably natural — which terrified you.

Your recent relationship history flashed through your brain all at once, like a film reel. Your brain screamed, “Slow down!” while your heart whispered, “Relax.” You weren’t sure which to believe. You opened your mouth to bring him up, to give a fair warning, to tell Mat that you might not be ready for... whatever this was.

Then, he started to talk about the movies that his family watches every single Christmas. You weren’t at all sure what had brought that subject to his mind — maybe your earlier questions about his younger sister back in Coquitlam — but you’re grateful for the diversion from your own messy mind. You decided to engage him on that topic instead, rather than bring up your last boyfriend who’d shattered you then walked away.

And for the first time in eight months, you decided to leave what’s past, in the past.

Like a pinball machine, Mat had already bounced to yet another new topic — his practice later this morning. As he finished a story about pranking Tito in the locker room after a skate last week, you bubbled over with giggles. He watched you with admiration and wonder coursing through his entire being. You eventually observed how he was gazing at you, and you sensed that he had something more important to say than his joke on his teammate.

“Hey, so, uh,” Mat started, clearing his throat. Your suspicion had been correct. “What are you doing tomorrow night, after work? We have a home game tomorrow at 7:30 and I, uh, I wanted to see if maybe... you wanted to go? I requested a ticket for you... just in case you want it. If you do... I was thinking maybe we could grab dinner after?”

The sentences Mat spoke seemed to be rolled into one giant question mark. His unwavering self-assurance had seemed to falter slightly for the first time since you’d met him, surprising you. You only needed a moment to consider your answer.

“I’d love to come watch you play,” you told him, wrapping your hands around his upper arm affectionately. You watched him exhale, a smile slowly overtaking his face.

“Thank God,” Mat breathed, making you both burst into hysterics as he leaned his head down to touch yours for a moment.

Bewilderment overcame you as you realized that you hadn’t felt this way about anyone in... you couldn’t even remember how long. You’d thought it might never happen again. That for you, this feeling might just be... gone.

You couldn’t believe that on a Wednesday, in a cafe, you’d watched it begin again.

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