#overall I'm still happy about the turnout!

[ourpokemonteamtournament]

Round 20 - Roundup:

Overall Results:

Archeops: 70.5% / Glameow: 29.5%

Dreepy: 47.8% / Shiny Spectrier: 52.2%

Blastoise: 49.6% / Hisuian Lilligant: 50.4%

Orthworm: 45.7% / Ambipom: 54.3% - 92

Beautifly: 57% / Iron Leaves: 43%

Hisuian Arcanine: 71.9% / Cyclizar: 28.1%

Another Form Bites the Dust: We have our winners in Fall/Autumn and Winter Sawsbuck.

Guess Whose Back: The winner of the Round 19 Losers Bracket is ~ Summer Sawsbuck! Who is now back in the tournament bracket.

Biggest Turnout: The poll with the most votes was Blastoise vs Hisuian Lilligant with 131 votes!

Wallflower: The poll with the least amount of votes was Beautifly vs Iron Leaves with 79 votes.

Biggest Discrepancy: The Pokemon with the most votes overall was Hisuian Arcanine with a wopping 71.9%. And poor, poor Cyclizar only got 28.1% votes. Leading to Cyclizar never standing a chance against Hisuian Arcanine with a 43.8% difference in votes.

Head to Head: Hisuian Lilligant won over Blastoise with a 0.8% difference in votes.

Notable Moments: Wow, wow, wow! We had the closest poll yet with Blastoise and Hisuian Lilligant! It was so so so close to tieing but Hisuian Lilligant squeaked through with the narrowest lead yet! Also thank you all for the kind words following my Monday post about the car accident. Happy to tell you all I'm feeling completely better and the pain went away Thursday.

Reminder: If one of your favorites from this past week lost there is still a chance to save them! To help a loser out, vote on the Losers Bracket to get one Pokemkon back in the tournament. Round 20 Losers Bracket.

Round 21 Masterlist

[gunnerkriggcritical]

Now that my Gunnerkrigg polls have closed, let's take a look at the results...

My first poll asked a simple question: Do you feel like Gunnerkrigg Court has slipped in quality of late? And with 56 votes, the results were pretty skewed in one direction.

80.4% believe Gunnerkrigg is losing its touch. A very small minority of 1.8% think GKC has not slipped in quality; a smaller but more significant minority of 12.5% think it has slipped in quality in some ways, but not others.

These results are pretty clear: the fandom isn't overall satisfied with how the comic is proceeding.

-

For my second poll, I asked: For those who feel Gunnerkrigg has slipped in quality, about when do you feel this slip started? The turnout for this poll was very significant, with 101 votes!

I'm actually really interested in these results. 11.9% said the comic started declining with "The Mind Cage." 5.9% said the comic began its decline with the introduction of Jerrek. A pretty significant minority of 14.9% said "Other" (if you're willing, I would love to hear what other option you would've put on the poll!).

But most interestingly to me: the final result was a tie. 33.7% said the comic began its decline with the introduction of Tony, and an equal percentage voted for the introduction of Loup. Really interesting and intriguing stuff! For me personally, I would've put the beginning of the end squarely at Tony's introduction, but I can definitely see where everyone else is coming from.

Honestly, to inject a little more of my personal viewpoint: I would also say that, even after the intro of Tony, although the comic was declining, it was still salvageable. After Loup, there wasn't really any going back.

-

For my third poll, I asked you: What flawed element of the comic do you feel is the biggest problem? With 71 votes, the results were a little more mixed here.

The winner was Annie's lack of agency, with 23.9%. Close behind, people voted for Tony being the comic's biggest problem at 19.7%. Then it was the story moving too quickly at 16.9%, characters behaving OOC at 15.5%, Loup at 8.5%, other at 8.5% (again, I'd love to hear your voices on this!), and confusing plot points at 7%.

This vote was pretty close! I personally voted for the story moving too quickly - I really feel like the reason GKC feels so weird of late is because Tom is compressing everything and speedrunning it to get it over with more quickly. But I can see everyone - and this includes me - is mourning Annie's agency as our main character, and I have to agree with that. She doesn't feel like the protagonist anymore, and it doesn't feel like she is on a personal journey of character development. She just feels like someone who stands around and occasionally reacts to stuff. And, for a character who was previously so interesting and nuanced, that sucks.

-

Those are the results! I'm really happy with the response, so thanks so much for voting. If you have ideas for more polls, please feel free to suggest them to me! I always love hearing you guys' opinions and thoughts about the comic and its decline. Again, thanks!

[dragon-yule]

Today is the last day to post gifts!

Since there are still some people giftless, I’ll put a general call here for people who are willing to make alternate gifts for them. If you’re willing to make another gift for someone, just send me a message and I’ll let you know who to make a gift for tomorrow!

[haikyuu-imagines-and-others]

Voting Polls are Closed!

And we had a CLOSE race for the past 3 days but ultimately it seems you guys are very much compassionate to what I (as the author) would be cool with writing!

So thank you very much for keeping me in mind while voting <3 It means the world to me

With that being said, and the results being given: I will be deleting requests that I feel I can not complete/am not comfortable with/did not catch my eye!

It’s obviously nothing against you all!!! I’m sure at the time I received your requests there were sparks of interest and ideas, but the longer they sit there while I work on those sparks of interest and ideas for others, the less inspiration and motivation I have to pull from for those requests!

Once the ask box is cleaned out - I’ll make a post of the requests that’ll be staying and then open the ask box for new requests! Of course, this opening will only last for 2 days as I don’t want the same thing happening again, ya know?

But I’ll make a separate post for that announcement and findings, okay?

Love y’all, and thank you for participating in my madness <3

-Admin Satori <3

[qqueenofhades]

i'm genuinely curious... is it even possible to win in states like florida and texas at this point? even in georgia, after it flipped blue in 2020, the republicans rushed to make things even harder for marginalized voters (i'm pretty sure that's why this runoff is happening a month earlier? i could be wrong, but that's what i've read). with everything so divided between the democrats and literal fascism in the gop, i feel like every time we make any kind of progress they'll strip it back and make things even more difficult. i really don't mean this to sound cynical, and i'm so sorry if it does, i'm just curious. i wasn't old enough to vote in 2016 (i still had a few months before i turned 18) so i feel like my experience w elections in this country has generally been so much division that's only gotten worse

Yes, it is possible, and I'll tell you why:

Fascism is not inevitable.

This is not Pollyanna-ing, or "hopium," or whatever else the professional doomsayers like to jump in with (borne of the same school of thought that brands happy endings in fiction "unrealistic," because clearly the Real World is nothing but pain and suffering all the time) whenever someone expresses cautious optimism for the future, as if it's a coolness contest to see how to be the most pessimistic all the time. I'll tell you how I know: because if the Republican Party in its current incarnation thought that its ideas were genuinely popular or actually supported by the American public (and not just a grudging corollary of WAH WAH GAS PRICES!), they wouldn't spend absolutely ALL THEIR TIME doing their damndest to suppress voters. They wouldn't dwell endlessly on imaginary fraud, make endless voter suppression laws, run psyops convincing younger (and thus liberal-leaning) people that it's a waste of time to vote, etc etc. They are SHIT SCARED of any change that makes it easier for the general public to vote, because they know if they do, those people will vote, the Republicans will lose power, and due to the shifting demographics that see old Republican voters dying out and picking up only a minority of the next generation, they will not get it again. They are especially horrible right now because they are TERRIFIED, especially after seeing those Gen Z numbers for the Democrats. But because youth turnout overall was still bad, they likewise bought themselves a few years more to hang on. Still, the future is ours, not theirs, and they are fucking losing it.

Basically, the gamble the GOP made in this election was that they could howl about The Economy (which is doing shockingly well overall, despite high inflation etc), and voters would just ignore all their ludicrously dangerous nutcase beliefs on abortion, democracy, election denialism, etc, and vote for them anyway, even though they offered absolutely no plan to fix it apart from their usual method of blaming the Democrats for everything. Well, to say the least. That did not work. Election deniers running for positions where they could majorly influence state elections got across-the-board thumped, and abortion rights won everywhere, even in home of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul (ugh) Kentucky. Voters do care about The Economy, but they also do care about basic things like bodily autonomy and representative democracy, and they aren't willing to throw those things away and go full MAGA even if WAH WAH GAS PRICES. That matters, and it will also matter in 2024, when we have to do this all over again.

Likewise, the Republican establishment/media is finally starting to visibly turn on Trump-- not because he's literally the worst person alive, but because they're realizing what an electoral liability he is, and all they care about is power. Once Trump is in the way of that, they will get mad at him, but Trump won't go away quietly and will do his best to burn them down on the way out. If the GOP is turning against Trump, there may also be less opposition if or, pray God, WHEN the DOJ finally fucking indicts him and drags his stupid orange ass to jail. That is likewise a good thing.

Anyway: yes, Democrats (and democracy in general) can win in Florida and Texas, if they put in the bottom-up effort rather than immediately trying to flip the flashy and high-profile offices. Both of those states have been institutionally designed to maintain the crazies' power, and it works very well. But if people keep putting in the work, it will not be forever, and the Republicans know the tipping point is not far in the future. There are more of us than there are of them. Fascism is not inevitable. It works by disheartening you and making you decide that there's no point in fighting, because it will just happen anyway. That is not true, and it needs to be challenged whenever it turns up as "received wisdom." Because. Yes.

Anyway, once more and as ever: Vote every election, especially if you are under age 45. Vote Blue. Make the Fascists Big Sad. Repeat.

Thank.

[biancaarivera]

signed, sealed, delivered i'm yours 🏈🌟 griffanca

TAGGING→ @biancaarivera & @griffinsayoc

WHEN→ End of semester

WHERE→ Brittany Hall 

GENERAL NOTES→ Bianca’s ‘B-Hall’s Second Floor Crew Rooftop Extravaganza’ goes off without a hitch, especially when she gets to spend most of her time with Griffin. Catch these feels with a dash of vandalism below.

Bianca leaned her back against the ledge that set the parameter of the rooftop, the cool bricks scratching against her exposed back, and sipped the orange soda from her red solo cup. Her eyes skirted around the party, absorbing each and every member of her second floor community that had actually shown up for one last hoorah before their spring semester officially came to an end. Everyone told her that the friendships she would forge her freshman year would almost certainly come to an end. People changed, especially after parting ways for summer break, which made it impossible for anything real to survive. In that moment, with familiar faces surrounding her reflecting fondly on their time together the last several months, she didn’t believe that it was possible to lose touch with any of them. She imagined them meeting again next year on the rooftop, drinking orange soda and eating store bought sugar cookies, and every year after that. It was unrealistic, of course, but she thought that she could pretend for just one night that everything was perfect and so she did. Her eyes landed on a familiar pair of beat up sneakers and her heart skipped a beat in her chest. Before she even looked up she knew exactly who it was. Griffin. He was talking animatedly to a few others and she smiled fondly even though she was jealous that she wasn’t part of the conversation. Although Griffin would deny it, he was the kind of person that everyone wanted to be best friends with. It was obvious, too. Everyone on their floor admired him dearly. She waited patiently until his conversation died down and held her hand up to wave at him, desperately hoping to gain his attention even if it were just for a few minutes. Griffin was always glad when semesters came to an end, but there was something especially satisfying about this one. Sure his grades weren’t as good as he or his coaches wanted them to be, but after everything he’d gone through, he was just glad that he made it to the end. Not only had he survived, but as he was surrounded by friends laughing, joking around, and overall enjoying themselves. There was really one person he had to thank for that more than all others, and that wasn’t just because she was currently the party host. “One more minute and the whole thing would have been full of Jell-O,” he added to the conversation for another round of laughs. With a smile still on his face, Griffin felt the familiar feeling of someone looking at him. Turning to see who it was without giving it much thought, his smile only grew when he saw it was Bianca. The current party host, and in a lot of ways his personal savior, waved him over, and Griffin gladly walked her direction. “Looking for someone to get you a refill?” he joked as he gestured towards her cup. “Since I’m officially still your RA, I probably shouldn’t tell you that there’s some pretty suspicious smelling drinks floating around here.” Bianca straightened her shoulders and ran her fingers across the fabric of the skirt of her white halter dress, hoping that she looked as good as she thought she did before she left her dorm room that morning, as Griffin made his way over to where she sat. Before he even opened his mouth to say something, she was already smiling. She used to be embarrassed by it, by the way she was always smiling whenever she was around him, but then she realized that he was always smiling back at her and suddenly it was her favorite thing to do. It felt like the best type of thing to share with someone. A giggle escaped from her lips and she shook her head at him, holding her hand up to stop him before he dived into his dorm rule handbook. “Hey I never promised that everyone would listen to my no alcohol rule!” she warned. “If it counts for anything, I’m completely sober. You can even check my cup if you want,” she offered playfully, thrusting the red solo cup into the air before her. “You should sit with me, though. Or are you too busy being the life of the party to spare poor little me a few minutes?” she teased and provided a tiny pout in hopes of reeling him in. Griffin narrowed his eyes in mock suspicion as he peaked into her cup. Even if it had contained anything that it shouldn’t have, he wouldn’t have been able to tell it from where he was, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “I’ll let you slide this time,” he teased before taking a spare chair and pulling it over closer so that he could join her. There was absolutely no denying that pout when it was used. If you asked him, it was even more effective than puppy dog eyes, but then again they did usually seem to accompany it. “I don’t know about being any sort of life of the party,” he said with a small shake of his head and a bashful grin on his face. “This whole thing is all for you.” Looking around the rooftop for a moment, he noticed just what a great turnout that she had. Sure it wasn’t too hard to get people to follow once the word ‘party’ was said, but he believed it was more than that. Everyone on their second floor got along surprisingly well for being a group from such different background, and he knew Bianca was a big part of it. No matter how busy she was with work, rehearsing, or even saving the world, she always seemed to make time to bring some happiness to his life. “I consider myself lucky to be talking this party’s queen. You sure you’re not going to miss this place a little?” Bianca beamed as Griffin decided to stay, pulling a chair up right next to where she sat. She pretended to wipe a sheen of imaginary sweat from her forehead as he checked her cup, a relieved “Whew, thank goodness,” falling from her lips. She had decided ages ago that landing Griffin as an RA was truly a blessing. Not only was he a chill kind of guy who gave her and her neighbors freedom to be true college kids as long as they didn’t do anything too wild, but he was one of her closest friends. In fact, out of all of the people that she had met during her freshman year at NYU, she was certain that he was her favorite. She rolled her eyes at him and tried to brush off his compliment, but his words caused her head to drop down bashfully in order to conceal her blushing. “I don’t know if they’re here just for me. Susannah in 234 still calls me Brianna even though we had the same history class together on top of living on the same floor.” Deep down Bianca knew that people liked her. She wasn’t as personable as Griffin, but she definitely knew how to make friends now that she was in college. She credited it to becoming more comfortable in her skin and, even though she had Sawyer to deal with, life didn’t feel like such a huge competition anymore. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she peered back up at him with a smile on her face. “I think I’m going to miss this place more than a little,” she corrected. “You know, when I found out that I’d be rooming with Sawyer, I begged my dads’ to help me figure a way to opt out of the first-year housing rule. I’m really glad they made me stay,” she admitted, laughing softly. Would anything have been the same if she hadn’t lived in Brittany Hall? Would she have made friends with Griffin? Would she even be a Ranger? Some things felt like fate and she liked to believe that both would still be true regardless of her living arrangements. It felt especially true at times like this, with him looking at her with his dark eyes and a smile playing at the corners of his lips. She could easily stay like this for the rest of her life. “My studio is great, though, which I’ve already told you,” she finally added. “I can’t wait to be sleeping in a full sized bed again.” Griffin chuckled to himself as Bianca explained Susannah couldn’t get her name right. He couldn’t really argue with her there, but he knew that was one example out of a full roof of people. Looking over at her and seeing the bashful smile on her face, he hoped that she’d realized the same. Knowing her name or not, she’d touched a lot of lives, and that wasn’t even counting the ones she’d saved by being a power ranger. “I’m really glad that they made you stay, too,” he added before taking a drink from the soda he’d been holding. Imagining the year without Bianca on his floor seemed impossible. Their lives had become too intertwined after their shared potential world ending experiences. They went together and without her, the memories would have had a much more sinister ending. It wasn’t something that he would ever be forgetting. “And that they didn’t get you moved to another room on some other floor.” Griffin set his now empty cup down by his feet and rested his forearms against his legs so that he could lean in and hear her over the lively conversations that surrounded them. “Well now you’re just bragging,” he teased at the mention of a full sized bed to spread out over. “Some of us are still going to be suffering on baby sized dorm ones. I wonder if I can fit by bed from home in my suitcase somehow.” Bianca paused, nodding her head ever so slightly as his words reached her ears. I’m really glad that they made you stay, too. Nothing was more validating than having him admit that. Even though the admission most likely meant nothing serious, she still took it seriously. Things had been weird for a while during their school year, with Griffin being held hostage by Devone and saying things that he hadn’t meant yet still managed to hurt her feelings. Even though she was well aware that it wasn’t him who had been so mean to her, there was this tiny fear that he truly felt negatively about her and she’d worry if she was being too intense, too annoying, too… Bianca. But then he said things like that, things that he could casually drop into their conversation before sipping from his pop, and she was reminded that Griffin liked her exactly the way she was. Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach when he leaned over to her, so close that she could count the freckles on his cheeks if she wanted to (she wanted to) and smell his cologne (it was one of her favorites that she had grown to love after spending countless nights in his dorm watching Netflix), Bianca grinned. And then with what little bravery she had in her, she scooted her own chair over to close the distance between them, the metal legs scraping against the concrete roof. Her knee bumped into his leg and she didn’t move it, instead liking the way his jeans felt against her soft skin. She giggled at his jealousy of her living situation, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “I’m not bragging! Okay, maybe a little bit. At least you’re used to the extra long twin beds by now?” she offered hopefully. “Maybe some sort of shrinking device exists out there that can help you with that. I think your room would be 90% bed if you did that, though. If you ever feel too cramped, you’re more than welcome to spend the night at my place. Eury claims that I’m a bed hog but it’s not true at all.” Griffin allowed the soft punch to sway him in his chair like the hit had contained a lot more power than it actually had. There was no doubt that she could pack a lot of power in those small fists of hers if she really wanted to, he’d faced her in a fight before after all, but luckily for him, those days were behind them. Things were much better now. Outside of possibly dealing with sore cheeks from smiling too much, there wasn’t any danger involved. “Let’s never bring that shrink ray idea up around Syria.” Griffin said her name softer so that no one wandering by could overhear that part of their conversation. “She’d probably do it, and it’d go wrong and we’d all end up like in that one movie where the kids get shrunk and they’re stuck in the backyard.” Looking over at Bianca when he heard her offer, he couldn’t help the confusion that crinkled his forehead anymore than he could the blush that colored his freckled cheeks. “Oh, uhm, I,” he very unhelpfully stumbled over his words as he struggled to pick out words that actually made any sort of sense. “You and Eury before, huh?” he finally settled on with a soft chuckle. He’d spent a lot of time with Bianca, and a lot of that even hanging out together on a bed as they watched movies, but none of that prepared him for thinking about Bianca in bed. “I bet you at least steal covers,” he teased as he recovered from the thoughts her invite had put in his head. Bianca grabbed onto Griffin’s arm to stop him from swaying. “Oh, stop it!” she yelled at him exasperatedly through the smile on her face, giving his bicep a little squeeze before letting go. As amusing as the thought of a shrinking device was, she had to nod her head in agreement when Griffin expressed his concern. “You’re probably right. There’s no way that something like that wouldn’t backfire on us, especially if it fell into the wrong hands. If we want to relive Honey, I Shrunk the Kids we should just make a trip to Disney World and go on the movie set ride,” she replied. Even though she had become desensitized to the madness that the universe was by her Ranger duties, if she thought about all of it she was still shocked that a shrink device could actually be made by her alien roommate. All thoughts of aliens and Rangers and strange devices flew out of her head when she noticed Griffin’s bashfulness over her boudoir offer. If it weren’t for the bright city lights and the lamp posts that lined the building she wouldn’t have been able to make out his blush in the dim lighting, but she did and it made her worry that she had said the wrong thing. But then his facial features smoothed back out and a gentle laugh fell from his lips and she was able to breathe again. “Nope, not even a cover stealer but I will stick my cold hands and feet on you,” she warned in an enticing tone. She could picture having private slumber parties with Griffin, where they ate take out and cuddled as they watched movies. That would require them to maintain their friendship though and with how busy they both were, she was scared it’d be difficult. “I just don’t want us to lose touch, you know? It’s easy to be friends with someone when you bump into them on a daily basis. I don’t want us to be the people who always make plans with each other but never follow through with them until one day, they stop making plans altogether because their friendship obviously doesn’t matter anymore and the only way they know about each other’s lives is by random Facebook or Instagram updates,” she babbled, her eyebrows drawing together as her fears spilled out. “I would hate to find out about your wedding from photos shared on Facebook.” Griffin had never been to Disney World before, but he had no doubts that it would be much better than somehow living out the movie in real life. Just imagining the giant dust bunnies they’d face if shrunk in his dorm room was enough for him to know that he didn’t want to go out that way. There had to be other ways. “That’s even worse than stealing covers,” he teased as he imagined her ice cold feet finding him under the otherwise warm bedding. It sounded a lot better than he was pretending. As Bianca’s tone turned more serious, he leaned his leg over to gently press against hers. “Hey, there’s no way that’s going to happen,” he said with complete certainty in his voice. “We’ve been through too much, and you’re sort of one of my best friends.” Outside of Liam, Bianca was the person he felt most comfortable going to with things. “I feel like I can talk to you about, you know, stuff. Can’t really tell anyone else all the crazy stuff I’ve been through.” He looked over at her with a hopefully reassuring grin on his face. “Besides, I don’t really use Facebook.” “Then I guess I’m the worst person to share a bed with,” Bianca retorted in a sing song voice before she blew him a kiss, feigning self absorption. She could pick up Griffin’s teasing from a mile away, especially after having endured a year of whatever their quick back and forth banter was. “Luckily for you, when you sleep over I’ll be kind enough to wear socks,” she assured. Her fears slowly dissipated and her heart swelled in her chest when he promised her that they wouldn’t grow apart. “No way, huh?” she began to tease her way out of her feelings, but ended up dropping her gaze to her lap where her hands were clasped together. Although she had secretly yearned for more, she could more than happily settle with being just friends with Griffin- especially if that meant best friends. She pushed her leg back against his before peering up at him through her lashes. “You’re absolutely one of my best friends. And not just because of the island and… everything else that we’ve been through. I like you for you,” she finished. Lightening the mood, Bianca squinted her eyes and pursed her lips to stop from grinning. “I know, you’re way too cool for social media. Which is ultra annoying because whenever you do post something it still manages to get a million likes,” she exaggerated. Griffin hadn’t realized just how good it would feel to have the sentiment echoed back to him until it happened. Despite living on earth for nearly a dozen years, he never fully overcame the doubts that his childhood on Nexus instilled in him. Rejection and being told he was unworthy and a bad person stuck with him, making it hard for him to get close to people. He liked to hold people at an arm’s distance both for his safety and for theirs. Bianca had managed to sneak past his defenses and into his head before he’d even realized it. “Then looks like neither of us are getting rid of each other.” Griffin laughed as Bianca poked fun at his social media habits. “Don’t hate because people love my photography skills.” People followed Griffin for a number of reasons, being QB at NYU being the most common, but it was safe to say that no one followed him for his abilities taking pictures. It didn’t require much skill to point his phone at whatever he was eating (or more likely his empty plate filled with crumbs since he forgot to snap it before), but he liked to pretend all the same. “The trick is to always leave them wanting more.” Bianca let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as Griffin jumped into another joke about his socials, but her mind was still buzzing with his affirmation. Without saying another word, she twisted in her chair and threw her arms around his shoulders to pull him into a tight hug. There were only so many things that could satisfy Bianca and her incredibly high standards. The fact that Griffin could so easily do it scared her sometimes, but mostly she was grateful that he had chosen her back. As her fingers gripped at the ends of his curly dark hair, she knew that no matter what they were both in this for the long haul. Brittany Hall was just another chapter coming to an end and despite how sad it was, she was excited to see where the future would take them. But their business wasn’t quite done with the dorms. Reluctantly detaching herself from him, she reached over to the opposite side of her chair and grabbed her purse, pulling out two sharpies, a small bottle of nail polish, and a sheet of gold star stickers for good measure. She arched an eyebrow at him with a sly grin on her face. “I know I’ve already asked you to break the rules for me,” she began, holding out her hand to stop him from interrupting before she finished her spiel. “But, I always want us to be apart of B-Hall. This is where we first met and we have so many great memories here together, it’d be a shame if we didn’t leave our mark. I want to be able to come back here in ten years and have a tangible memory to look at. So,” she stood up, her dress swishing around her thighs. “Let’s find the perfect spot to place our autographs.” Griffin saw Bianca turning her chair, but he was still surprised to find her arms around his shoulders, tugging him into a strong hug. While he didn’t really shy away from physical affection, it wasn’t something he was used to either. Despite being caught off guard, Griffin kicked his mind into gear and back into action, sliding his arms around her back to hug her close to his chest. The sweet scent of her shampoo overwhelmed his senses in the best way until the hug ended and he leaned back into his chair somewhat awkwardly. Like always, Bianca clearly had a plan on her mind, and he was just glad to be along for the ride. As she began to explain, he tried to hold back a smile. She anticipated anything he could say to discourage her before he’d even thought it. It was one of the many things he liked about her. She knew what she wanted, and she went after it. Maybe one day she wouldn’t be out to break dorm rules, but he knew he’d miss it when that time came. “A little destruction of property?” he teased since it was expected of him more than actually being against it. It wasn’t like school officials frequented the roof looking for autographs left behind. “I’m just glad you didn’t have a can of spray paint hiding in there.” Griffin caught himself glancing at Bianca’s legs as she’d stood up, putting them closer at his eye level than they usually were. Embarrassed and hoping she didn’t notice, he stood up to join her. “Lead the way, Superstar.” Bianca’s face brightened when Griffin decided to go along with her plan, instantly linking her arm through his and pulling him in the direction of the opposite end of the roof. “We aren’t destructing the property. If anything, we’re adding value to this building,” she promised as they navigated through the crowd. She would never let him know that she had already thought forever about where the perfect spot to sign their names would be, but she had. It was the south corner of the building and in that exact spot one could obtain the most wonderful view of the New York City skyline. Abandoning her position glued to his side, she stepped forward into the corner and carefully set her tools down. She placed her hands atop the ledge and ran them across the scratchy brick surface, as if she was summoning the universe to tell her where to begin writing. She tapped her finger right in the middle, where the corner came together, and looked over her shoulder at him. “What do you think?” Griffin shook his head with an amused smile on his face. He didn’t think her reasoning would fly if they were to actually got caught, but he was positive they wouldn’t. He had a feeling that the administration was already looking the other way about their spontaneous roof party. It wasn’t exactly a quiet affair after all, but after a long semester, they all deserved to blow off some steam. Following Bianca through the party and over to the opposite side of the building, he took in the view in front of them. It was a big difference from the slums of Nexus where he’d spent his childhood hiding. “It’s perfect,” he agreed as he reached his hand over to run it along the brick surface she’d chosen. “A little suspicious at how fast you picked it,” he teased, softly bumping his shoulder against hers. “But I like it. It’s a great view. I think it’s worthy of your autograph.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Griffin turned on the flashlight so they could better see there brick where they’d be writing. “We’ll have to come back up here every year or so to make sure it’s still here.” Bianca leaned back against Griffin’s arm when he bumped his shoulder into her, tilting her head back to see his face better. “Shush,” she admonished, quickly pressing her pointer finger against his lips. She turned away from him as soon as he used the flashlight on his phone to light up her writing surface and grabbed the permanent marker, popping the cap off and sticking it on the other end. Tossing her long dark hair over her shoulders, she leaned forward and began to sign her name in her neat and loopy cursive handwriting. Bianca had been the girl in high school whose doodling routine consisted of her repetitively jotting down every possible variation of her signature before deciding on the perfect one and committing it to her memory. “Well, let’s hope that NYU never hires a competent security crew so that we can always sneak up here,” she slowly said as she concentrated on the movement of her hand. It didn’t matter if there was the best security ever, Bianca would make sure to always find a way for them to come back to the roof. She grabbed her sheet of star stickers and carefully placed one right after her last name, nodding her head in satisfaction. “Your turn!” she exclaimed, passing him the marker and grabbing onto his phone. Griffin smiled against Bianca’s finger, but obeyed as he stood there silently for a moment, taking it all in. They’d already overcome a lot through the year, and leaving their signatures behind as they continued on to even bigger and better things felt important in a way that he hadn’t expected it to. Of course there was still a long way and many classes to go, but the fact that he had hope for it all again meant everything. Glancing around as Bianca mentioned competent security, that they clearly didn’t have at the moment based on how none had broken up the party, Griffin shook his head. “You’ll have to use your winning smile on them if they do,” he said as he looked back and saw her perfectly looped signature was finished and even had a star at the end to match it. Taking the marker from her hand, he hunched over slightly as he scribbled his much messier autograph beside it. “What’s a guy gotta do to get a fancy sticker by his name?” he asked as he recapped the marker and admired their names written together. Deciding he’d make up for his lack of preparation in the sticker department, he uncapped the marker again and added a poorly drawn football after his name. “There. Perfect.” Bianca ducked her head and tucked her hair behind her ear, discreetly touching her cheek in the process to feel if she was blushing or not. Unsurprisingly, she was, but it didn’t stop her from flashing him the best smile she could manage even though she was sure he wouldn’t notice. “It’s kind of silly, I know,” she replied, hoping that Griffin didn’t think she was a complete loser for being a freshman in college still signing her name with stickers. It had become a habit of hers and she liked the way a shiny gold star looked beside her name. She also liked how Griffin’s name looked beside hers and decided that they were a great combo in every sense. “I think you should consider majoring in art,” she commented, pointing to the little football he had drawn beside his name. As an additional protective measure, Bianca covered their markings with a coat of clear nail polish. “I think that this is the best that we could do considering the materials we’re working with. I love it,” she confirmed, her eyes trained on their masterpiece. It had been the worst and best year of her life and yet there they were, standing on a rooftop on a warm spring evening. She was happy despite it all and she hoped that he was too. “Thank you,” she finally added, turning to face him. “For everything.” And for the second time that night, she wrapped her arms around him for a gentle hug, her hands pressing against his back and her face hidden against his chest. Griffin shook his head with a small smile refusing to leave his lips. “I don’t think it’s silly,” he added as he watched her preserve their impromptu artwork. He was no longer surprised at how prepared she was for things. Whether she’d had this plan in mind before she got to party or not, Bianca had everything they needed either way. “Me? I should be thanking you.” Griffin wrapped his arms around Bianca and hugged her snugly to his chest. In his mind, it was impossible to thank her enough for everything she’d done for him. Making him feel like he was special and worthy of being remembered was only the latest in a long list of things he was grateful for. “So, thank you,” he said, doing exactly what he said he should be. “It’s cool to be a part of something like this. It’s like we’ll always have a part of us here. I mean, you know what I mean…I hope.”