#really obsessed with the idea of charles shaving

[omegalerc]

ricky have u seen. i need you to see. do you See. https://x.com/sweetyoua/status/1870508713943163169?s=46

I SAW THIS ONLY BRIEFLY AND WASNT ABLE TO PROPERLY ADMIRE AND ABSORB IT PROPERLY INTO MY BRAINSPACE!! would have just posted screenshots but i think watching this video is a sort of daily mandated thing… like just look at the choobs. look at them bouncing. then loop it again over and over. Also discussion time since i wasn’t able to draw a proper conclusion, his legs are definitely shaved right. like those princess legs that are trotting like a horse from my little pony are hairless and BARE

[bwoahtastic]

"Nico for sure used to do karting under a fake name" obsessed with this idea.

Baby Nico and baby Lewis meeting at a karting competition and immediately becoming best friends. Lewis doesn't really hang out with the other kids because they're mean to him and they hate that he beats them, but Nico is nice to him, telling him what a good race he had and inviting him to join her for lunch. Lewis thinks that Nico is so cool. She knows so much about F1 and loves karting too, plus her dad knows so much and is nice to him, which can't be said about all of the parents (I feel like Keke would just shave off his moustache and suddenly become unrecognisable).

Nico and Lewis spend months emailing back and forth, and are always so excited to see each other at karting events. Lewis's sisters tease him SO MUCH about the photos he has of him and Nico, which annoys him so much because they're just friends shut up Nicola! (That's actually Lewis's sister's name btw) Lewis thinks it's a bit weird that Nico and her dad always travel with six really muscular guys (I do think Mika should be in charge of Nico's security), but Nico says that it's just for protection, and once Lewis's dad has talked about it with Keke and is totally fine with it, Lewis stops worrying.

Nico invites Lewis on holiday and he gets to do so many cool things for the first time with her. He gets to ride in a private plane, ride in a helicopter, go surfing and snorkeling and scuba diving. And through all of this he still has no idea that Nico is a princess. Everyone around them speaks in French, which Lewis doesn't understand, and he assumes that when the bodyguards call Nico princess, it's just a cute nickname. He just assumes that all of the weird stuff about Nico and her family is because they're rich, not because they're royal.

One night when they're teenagers, Nico and Lewis sneak out to go to a nightclub in the local town (Mika following them so he knows they're safe). They have a few drinks and get a little tipsy but mostly dance. Nico even helps Lewis flirt with a local girl, and Lewis makes sure that no one bothers Nico. Unfortunately, the paparazzi finds out that Nico is there, and when they leave, they get photographed. Mika steps in to make sure they're safe, but the pretty little princess of Monaco stumbling out of a Greek nightclub with an unknown boy is definitely making the papers.

The family rushes back to the palace in crisis mode to prevent the pr disaster and Lewis finally learns that his best friend is actually a princess. He's a bit hurt that she lied to him for so long, but when she tells him that she just wanted to be normal he forgives her. It does also explain quite a lot of the weird things she's said over the years. Lewis also meets Nico's little cousin Charles who is very sweet.

Lewis and Nico stay best friends throughout the years. She goes off to university, and he's making his way through the junior formula series but they always make time for each other. When he makes it in F1 she goes to as many races as possible. He doesn't win Monaco his first year, but she gives him a kiss on the cheek instead of Fernando, and it brings him luck throughout the year. Lewis is very protective of Nico as her flirting with Jenson becomes more serious, and more than once he warns Jenson of what he will do if Jenson hurts her.

Oh plss!

Lil 5 year old Nico begging her papa to race and her mum is unsure about how they will do it safely without anyone recognising them but Keke will happily shave his moustache because he is excited his little girl wants to share that with him! (And then he would wear a fake moustache outside of the racing lmao)

Lewis not having many friends in karting until this tiny blonde girl shows up and shares her candy with him while talking about the karting race ans she is so nice to him! Also Keke is kind to Lewis and even helps mend his kart after it breaks down.

Lewis and Nico emailing and always hanging out at races until Nico invites Lewis to come visit her when he is close to Monaco. They don't go to the Palace but to the apartment the family own too (Nico prefers it over the cold palace, ans maybe her parents divorced so papa lives there with her now)

Lewis gets to do all kinds of cool stuff eith Nico and he alwsys just assumes it's cos Nico is rich, has no clue for years until they get photographed outside a club and Nico panics so much!

They get whisked off to have the pr team talk to them about strategy and Lewis learns his best friend is the princess of Monaco... he would be so confused and a little hurt but Nico is still his best friend and he understands why she hid it!

Lewis also meeting little Charles who is Nico's shadow and comes ro snuggle her seeing Nico is upset! Cuties!

Nico qnd Lewis continuing to be friends as Lewis climbs his way up in motorsport and Nico goes to university, and Lewis is so happy to have her come along to races once he makes it to f1! He knows there is rumours about them dating, but Nico is like a sister to him!

And pls sksk Nico kissing Lewis's cheek instead of Fernando's (she does eventually give in and kisses his cheek too lol) and it brings him good luck!

Lesis being wary of jenson flirting with nico cos he is such a playboy, but he csn see Jenson is different around the princess, so kind and calm and so clearly in love!

[polyklok]

I’m gonna be posting physique/appearance headcanons for all the members first, including a version I made using this picrew! First up is our boy-

Nathan Explosion, physique/appearance

Pickles

Skwisgarr

Toki

Murderface

28 years old, though a lot of people assume he’s older

6’4, the second tallest member of the band (After Skwisgarr, obviouslies)

258 lbs and built like a wall. Very wide, low center of gravity. Sometimes jack-off fans will run into him and just…bounce back off. A fucking tank couldn’t knock this guy over.

He looks chubby, and while he is very soft, but he’s actually quite muscular underneath it. Strong boy.

His hair is perpetually greasy. He washes it regularly, he just has an oily scalp and is too lazy to fix it. He doesn’t mind.

Also, let’s be completely honest, that shits dyed. He was born with light brown hair and began dying it and growing it out as soon as he got an allowance when he was a kid. Now, he makes klokateers check it multiple times a week to make sure no brown roots are visible.

Mf scowling all the time like-

Resting bitch face? He’s got resting demon face.

Speaking of face, he’s very adamant about keeping it clean-shaven. He doesn’t like the itchiness of stubble.

I’m obsessed with him having a slight underbite! The idea is cute to me

He got gauges as a celebration for completing the first Dethklok album. He only changes them about once a month.

Fans send him lots of plugs, both bought and homemade. It goes viral in the fandom every time he changes them, ESPECIALLY if it’s something a fan custom-made. It’s considered a great honor.

He doesn’t like wearing any other pants besides jeans, extremely picky about it. He and Charles once got into a fight about wearing dress pants at a formal event (he still wore jeans).

Actually, he’s very specific on how he likes his clothes (and everything else in life) and buys at least three of something once he decides he likes it. It just so happens that his dad is the same way, so he has a lot of kooky pun-based graphic t-shirts he wears around the house that used to belong to his dad.

He wears eyeliner, paints his nails, shaves his legs, and you can’t do anything about it!

Seriously though, Nathan shaves and moisturizes his legs. He loves the smooth, clean feeling afterwards. It’s how he treats himself on his more self-conscious days.

Everywhere else is still hairy though. Hairy arms, hairy chest, hairy stomach, hairy-

He actually has a skincare routine. After starting band life, he figured he needed to clear his face up, since he had acne from oily skin. It’s nothing fancy, but it helps, and he’s very strict about sticking to it.

Even buys special face paint for the shows so it doesn’t make his acne worse.

Unlike other bands members cough cough Murderface cough cough he actually showers every morning. Right after a show, as well. He just hates feeling gross.

He gets a custom cologne made so he always smells like a mixture of blood, smoke, and…coconut?

It’s strange but it honestly really works for him.

His hands are fucking huge, could probably engulf your whole face in them.

At the same time, really soft. Soft, huge, warm hands. Like a bear’s paw. But less claws. He clips his nails every time he paints them.

Overall, very large and very special guy, 10/10, would totally recommend.

[safetycar-restart]

For boypussy day of kinktober: what do you think the different drivers would look like down there? Who keeps themselves neat and trimmed, and who lets their bush grow out? Who likes to be waxed and smooth all over? I feel like this is important scholarship we all need to know!

Ooo this is such a good question!!! I really love this :)) you’re very right it’s very important scholarship, and this blog definitely counts as a peer reviewed source.

MAX:

I think max would be trimmed, but not shaved? He’d have a short hair that he turns regularly, but I also think that as the relationship progresses he wouldn’t trim as often? Like he gets more comfortable around you and stops obsessively trimming himself so it gets a little longer but you don’t mind at all.

SEB:

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually think that he’d have a full bush? He just…. Doesn’t like shaving all that much? I think when he was younger he would obsessively wax and shave, never being caught with any hair. But as he got older he started letting it grow and now he has a bush.

PIERRE:

Pierre waxes and likes to be all smooth. Which confuses you to no end considering that he has chest hair, but oh well. He can do whatever he wants.

CHARLES:

Charles hates having hair down there. He absolutely hates it, but he also doesn’t like waxing because it’s way too painful and also because he refuses to allow a stranger to see his pussy. Which means he shaves. Except he absolute hates shaving and complains and gets ingrown hairs. One day you offer to help him? And he loves it so much? So uh…. Shaving Charles is now your job.

LANDO:

Lando shaves, except he has a little stripe of hair. You’ve never questioned why he has that little stripe but lando is very fond of it? The little stripe is very important to him.

ESTEBAN:

He shaves, and he also calls you over when he shaves? You don’t help him, but he just gets bored. You used to chat to him through the bathroom door when the relationship started but shaving is now a communal affair. You and Esteban shave every Sunday morning, each shaving yourselves while you chat about your upcoming weeks.

MICK:

Perfectly shaved. Like…. Absolutely perfectly. Like inhumanly perfectly. You’ve never seen or felt a single hair or ingrown hair on his pussy and you have absolutely no idea how he accomplishes this. Especially because you’ve never heard of him shaving? You literally live with him and have never caught him shaving?? Not once?? He’s like…. A shaving ninja.

[umbraja]

Body Hair Positivity: Good or Gross?

It’s been a trend lately to embrace a more diverse image of beauty. Freckles and muffin tops, dark skin and curly hair, scars, tattoos, unusual proportions, crooked teeth, pretty much anything is supposed to be accepted under the banner of Body Positivity. 

But what about body hair?

And I’m not just talking about armpits or legs. I also mean unusual body hair. The kind people don’t talk about. The kind women aren’t “supposed” to have: chest hair, happy trails, beards, back hair. The kind that doctors call hirsutism and is often associated with hormonal imbalances from things like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Cushing Syndrome, medication side effects, menopause, or even just genetics. It affects somewhere between 5%-10% of women depending on the region surveyed but may be higher as it can often go undiagnosed.

It’s not like we’re taught how healthy body hair should look.

Humans have been removing body hair since before recorded history. Archaeologists have found evidence of early humans using clam shells and shark teeth to remove body hair. Ancient Egyptians are well known for their full body waxes. Ancient Greeks considered it “uncivilized” for a woman to have pubic hair. Roman boys celebrated their entry into manhood with a mandatory first shave. And medieval European Ladies plucked daily to remove all hair from their brows, temples, and neck - some even plucked their eyelashes. The “New World” was no stranger to body hair removal either. Thomas Jefferson, and many others, wrote of some Native Americans’ depilatory obsession.

“With [Native Americans] it is disgraceful to be hairy on the body. They say it likens them to hogs. They therefore pluck the hair as fast as it appears.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

In the non-native US, body hair removal wasn’t really a big thing until the 20th century when we did a complete 180 on the subject. Before that Puritan values made sure that most body hair was covered by clothing so few bothered to remove it since no one was gonna see what was under all that cloth. Now recent studies say that 93 to 99 percent of American women regularly remove their body hair, making it one of our most widely practiced beauty norms. Girls as young as 10 are pressured into shaving, waxing, plucking, threading, anything to remove errant hairs as soon as they start to sprout. Refusal to do so leaves us open to bullying, both on the playground and in the office. Visible body hair can cost a woman jobs, promotions, and relationships so most of us remove it, no matter the cost. Which one study worked out to be more than $10,000 over the course of her life for the average American woman who shaves. If she waxes instead the bill goes over $23,000.

So what happened?

“Where eighteenth-century naturalists and explorers considered hair-free skin to be the strange obsession of indigenous peoples, Cold War-era commentators blithely described visible body hair on women as evidence of a filthy, ‘foreign’ lack of hygiene.” - Rebecca Herzig, Plucked, a History of Hair Removal

The driving forces behind hair removal in America are the same three that cause most of the nation’s problems: greed, sexism, and racism. Let’s go in chronological order. 

As the “Age of Enlightenment” began to secularize European politics, Imperialists needed a new excuse to justify their expansion into non-European territory. Naturalists like the still famous Charles Darwin handed them pseudoscience. It’s debatable whether or not these naturalists intended their work to be used as the foundation for white supremacist ideology that still plagues us today but there’s no question about how racists interpreted it. They saw evolution as a line that went from ape through colored people and ends at Aryan. Real science tells us that’s not at all correct and if anyone is closer to cave man it’s white people who often have Neanderthal in their DNA. But they didn’t have genetic sequencers back then so they used physical traits to “prove” it instead. Part of this was a gross mischaracterization that body hair could be used to determine a person’s place within the line of human evolution. They claimed people with coarse, dark hair were closer to apes and those with thin, light hair were more evolved. Guess who picked up on that concept in the 20th century.

Darwin further complicated matters in his attempt to explain why some white people were hairier than some indigenous populations by associating hairiness with evolutionary backsliding and mental illness.  

“[Hairiness in Europeans] is due to partial reversion; for characters which have been at some former period long inherited are always apt to return. We have seen that idiots are often very hairy, and they are apt to revert in other characters to a lower animal type.” - Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man

Other scientists and even medical experts of the time ran with this idea and before long the educated elite considered hairiness (along with other non-Aryan traits) to be a symptom of disease, insanity, and criminal violence. The uneducated masses were more familiar with freak show displays of unusually hairy people as “missing links” to our primate ancestors. Both cases considered having body hair to be a very bad thing. They’re also very bad science and not at all true.

Despite these very strong, racist feelings about body hair, it still wasn’t common for American women to remove it beyond the upper lip, neck, jaw, or between the eyebrows. Most women don’t have much hair there and those that did rarely had time or money to invest in removing it. Also they wouldn’t be caught dead admitting they had to so historical records might not be accurate about how many women actually plucked. For the first half of American history peach fuzz and other light hair was seen as normal and clothes covered the rest. But the 20th century not only saw women wearing less cloth and showing more skin it also saw them calling for gender equality. Critics of women’s liberation often accused suffragettes of sexual inversion - aka acting too much like men, which they saw as an abhorrent threat. To really drive this point home they often depicted women’s rights activists as being hairy, thus politicizing our pits. Pair this with the “hygiene” movement’s embrace of already mentioned racist views on body hair and you have a recipe for weaponized shame.

“Self-consciousness brings timidity, restrained action and awkwardness. The use of Del-a-tone relieves the mind from anxious watchfulness of movement.” - 1919 Del-a-tone depilatory advertisement

Enter Capitalism. Producers of hair removal products wanted to up sales so they did the exact same thing that was done with every other beauty product on the market - shame women into buying their stuff. It’s debatable if this was motivated purely by greed, in an attempt to reach an untapped market, or if the resulting gender oppression was intentional but men were spared of this aggressive shaming (until recently at least). Women, on the other hand, were flooded with advertisements for body hair removal products. From the first “razor for women” in 1915 to 21st century laser hair removal ads, women are constantly being reminded of our body hair. It doesn’t take a genius seeing ads that call smooth skin “attractive” or “sanitary” to extrapolate the opposite - that body hair is ugly, and dirty. A series of ads for Del-a-tone depilatory products even called it “necessary” for sleeveless fashion and suggests that not using their product will lead to social anxiety. Pair that with only ever using shaved models in all of fashion advertising and you send a pretty clear message: female body hair is something to be ashamed of. Advertising works. Now most American women actually feel gross if they’ve missed a shave, despite body hair being perfectly natural and not at all dirty. This disgust is so strong it has even bled over into an aversion toward male body hair which has seen a sharp decline in popularity since the shaggy chested disco days. Now men are being inundated with “manscaping” advertisements and expectations of manicured if not completely removed body hair.

So that’s the background but where’s this going?

While female body hair removal is firmly ingrained in western beauty standards, a new generation of women are rebelling against those ideals - body hair included. Recent studies have shown a shift in body hair trends among young women. Only 77% percent of women 16 to 24 reported regularly shaving their pits in 2016 and 85% shaved their legs, down from 95% and 92% respectively just two years prior. Since then we’ve started to see models, celebrities, and everyday women with unshaven pits and hairy legs. Body positivity campaigns have even gotten a few advertisers to include body hair in their ads. Now you can see razors actually shaving hair from women’s bodies instead of inexplicably running over baby smooth skin. 

Women have always told ourselves that hair removal is a choice but we’ve never before been encouraged to choose not doing it. Instead we’ve been brainwashed to think it’s dirty and disgusting and that no one will accept us for being hairy. Today’s young woman is actually presented with a choice, “to shave or not to shave” and a lot of them are choosing not to. Which is great news for people like me who have hirsutism and are sick of being shamed for how nature made us. 

But we’ve still got a very long way to go before I can be confident that my neck beard won’t hold me back both socially and professionally. A lot of the women who have publicly displayed body hair in recent years have come under attack by people calling them various shades of “gross” and some have even been sent death threats. It’s one thing for a rich and famous Hollywood movie star to take that kind of risk but for an autistic office worker living in a conservative backwater that’s a whole different game.

Whatever your thoughts and feelings on body hair, America still hasn’t escaped the shame of the last hundred years. Women are still very much judged for being hairy. A lot of people still think it’s gross. I’m not one of them but I’m full of unpopular opinions.

[robdelicious]

W MAGAZINE   Robert Pattinson Has Been Reading Lots of Batman Comics

On the morning of the fall 2020 Dior Homme show and dinner he would later host alongside the label’s menswear designer Kim Jones, Robert Pattinson is feeling a little sleepy. “I took two melatonin,” he says, from inside the walls of Le Bristol in Paris. “I just can’t wake up!” 

Dior Master Perfumer Francois Demachy, who was instrumental in making the eau de toilette, was also present for the unveiling of the commercial at dinner. “The Robert Pattinson video was finished and I used it quite a long time for inspiration before I finished the scent,” Demachy said.

Here, Pattinson shares some of his favorite scent memories, the podcasts that give nightmares and more.

Can you remember the first fragrance you ever wore?

I was thinking about this earlier. I think it was Joe Bloggs. I think my dad had it. Do you know the kind you get at a gas station and it just says “cologne”? I think it was that, or maybe Old Spice. I used to pretend to shave when I was a kid before I needed to shave and I put it on all the cream and everything and then did the whole process.

What is your earliest memory of fragrance beyond that?

I used to put it on when I’d be on holiday with my sisters. They’d be teenagers getting ready and I’d put on some kind of after shave and then grease my hair back with Vaseline and put it into a little rattail ponytail at the back and put on cycling shorts and everyone had to call me Johnny.

What was the best part of working on the Leonard Cohen tribute video for the new Dior Homme commercial?

I would never choose to play a part similar to the parts in these ads in a movie. Because I don’t think I’d be able to pull it off in a feature-length amount of time. But knowing that you can be a cool guy for, like, 45 seconds, it’s quite satisfying. I guess dancing in front of, like, 200 people by yourself too—that’s definitely not in my comfort zone whatsoever.

Some of your upcoming projects such as Batman and Tenant have some really eclectic casts. What has that been like, working with them?

I love playing in an ensemble so much. It’s kind of like, there’s no pressure. It’s great because someone else has to drive a block forward. I almost enjoy it more. Also, you spend so much time by yourself as an actor as well, it’s kind of nice being forced into meeting new people for a few months at a time. Make some new friends like John David Washington, for example, in Tenet. Like I got really, really good friends in the club.

What’s been the most surreal moment of your career so far?

I can’t really remember. There’s been low surreal stuff that I could tell you, but they all sound like humble brags.

You’ve been pretty vocal about your commitment to getting into character. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done to get into a character?

I always think getting into character is more about figuring out ways to show whatever you’re interested in at that moment in time. And so, that part: I love doing stuff with dreams and trying to do dream interpretation and what that has meant in terms of what you’re supposed to be shooting that day. It’s more just thinking that your subconscious is telling you how to do something. I don’t know if it’s weird or not. I mean, once you start doing it, it’s actually really fun and you feel more connected to the world in a stranger way.

What is the first thing you read in the morning?

Google myself. Just kidding. I really like Twitter. My Twitter feed is really good now because I’ve kind of got the most eclectic sort of sources of anything you could really possibly imagine. I have no idea what’s happening in the normal news whatsoever, but I know really random stuff all the time.

How do you get your news?

Most of my understanding of the world comes from hip-hop news websites.

What books are on your bedside table?

There’s a lot of Batman comics at the moment, a lot. And The Last Night of Earth Poems, the [Charles] Bukowski book, which is great. I read it last night.

What’s the last movie you saw in theaters?

That’s Little Women. It was great.

What podcasts have you been into lately?

I really do like the true crime ones—I think I play those most. You know what else I really love, which I think is so funny, Dear Joan and Jericha. And there’s this thing called Man In the Window, which was absolutely terrifying, which I fell asleep on a plane listening to and had the most awful nightmare. Absolutely awful story.

What’s the last song you’ve had on repeat?

I was listening to Shai Maestro.

What is the last concert you went to?

My friend Sam Bradley. That’s the first concert in a while.

What is the last thing you do before you go to bed?

I’m really obsessive about really nice eye masks, like blackout ones. I put that on because I just absolutely love them.

Source: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/robert-pattinson-batman-dior-homme-paris-fashion-week-interview-culture-diet/

[thorne93]

The Right Path (Part 2)

Prompt: (From request) Hi! I was wondering, would you it be okay to request a Charles Xavier x telepath!reader? Where they have a mind link since their ability first showed up and so they already know each other even before theyve actually met and then he finds her when he first uses Cerebo and he and Erik go to her first?? Its an idea ive had for a while, but im not nearly an amazing writer like you!

Word Count: 1410

Warning: language (maybe??), child abuse, mental and physical abuse, depression…

Note: I LOVED this request. Thank you for sending it in. I am so sorry it took so long to write. I hope I did it justice dear. Plus, thank you for the super sweet note ; ) Beta’d by none other than @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @capsmuscles @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @harleyquinnandscarletwitch @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @myparadise1982sand @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @marvelloushamilton @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @hardcollectionworldtrash @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr​ @kaeling

James McAvoy:  @bohemianrhapsody86 @lenawiinchester

Charles Xavier: @bohemianrhapsody86 @lenawiinchester

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

“What else can I say to her?” Charles asked as he and Raven sat over a hot breakfast.

“Who?” Raven questioned as she bit into pancakes.

“The girl...in my dreams. Or...the girl whose dream I enter,” he corrected, a bit of a frown coming to his handsome face.

“Oh, her? You’re still doing that?” she asked with a raise of her eyebrow. “I thought you’d be past this by now.”

“Yes, Raven, I am still doing that,” he remarked, a touch of anger in his voice. “She’s a telepath like me, I’m sure of it. She must be a strong one because I can sense her from wherever she’s at, even when she’s unconscious, just think what she’s capable of when she’s awake,” he commented, more to himself than to her. He was in awe of you but other than your face in the dreams, he couldn’t get anything else from you. He was only able to hold up signs because he was awake in your dreams, manipulating himself and what he could do, but you still seemed bound by your dreaming mind.

“Why don’t you just give her your number?” she asked with an eyeroll.

“You know you’re not exactly delicate,” Charles said, his face pinching into annoyance as his eyes slid over to his adoptive sister.  

“And you’re in a bad mood because your dream-girlfriend isn’t talking to you,” she retorted as she lifted her coffee mug with a smug look and left the breakfast table.

He contemplated all week on a way to communicate more with you. Questions weren’t going to work because you couldn’t answer him, but he didn’t want to blather endlessly on signs in your dreams. You might think he was crazy, or you might not care who he was or what he wanted. He also couldn’t say he was a telepath or ask if you were, because if you weren’t, that was probably going to alarm you more than anything.

He couldn’t get past your dreams so far, probably because you were sleeping, and your mind had taken the wheel as far as where and what it was accessing so he couldn’t get a name, address, family name, last name, pet name, state you lived in, school you attended if any...He was at a loss. How could he get to know you more? He wanted to get to know you more than anything. He was utterly obsessed with you now that you visited him during the night.

Finally, he decided if he couldn’t get to know more about you, other than your eccentric dreams, he would have you get to know him.

---------------------------

Three more years passed. The dreams and Charles still appeared off and on, periodically. As soon as you graduated high school, your parents kicked you out of the house. At first, you had no idea how to deal out in the real world. First and foremost you needed a place to stay, and with no friends and family that would take you in, you sought refuge at the church. You only spent a few months there before you were granted a full ride scholarship based on your exemplary marks to a decent college and you clawed at the chance like it was your last ounce of air.

Now you were twenty-one, over halfway through your academic career. You still weren’t sure what you wanted to do, not entirely. Your ability to read minds seemed to make it difficult. You didn’t want any sort of job that would have anyone looking down their nose at you. Perhaps you could get into a scientific field, and only work with esteemed colleagues.

Charles was twenty four, in graduate school now. You knew this because he periodically updated you on his life. He told you when it was his birthday and gave you the age. He told you when he was accepted to graduate school and what he was studying. Psychology. It was fitting. You had a feeling he had the same power you had, but perhaps he could only communicate with those who were dreaming.

He was perfectly charming, or so he seemed. All you could go off of were his face, his body, and signs he held up in your dreams. But even if he had the personality of a potato, his face alone would probably make you walk on broken glass for him. You learned he had a sister, her name was Raven. You learned he was doing well in graduate school, in fact he was about to graduate. With a smiling face and a simple sign, he told you the date. Somehow, you wanted to give him a graduation present. Absurd though, considering you technically didn’t know this man and he didn’t know you. But still, you were bonded, shared a mind-link going on four years now. That must mean something, right? It wasn’t a coincidence?

He lived in New York, not the City. He lived in a quieter town up north. Quite a change of pace from you in your South Carolina home. You wanted to meet him, to hear his voice, to actually touch him, but alas you didn’t have a car. All you had was a lousy job as a waitress at a diner up the street to help pay for things the scholarship didn’t cover, there was no way you could afford a car or even a bus ticket there. Besides, what would you do once you found him? If you found him.

“Oh hi, you visit me in my dreams so I thought we could chat in person,” you thought sarcastically.

You wished you could talk with Charles. Find out all about his abilities. If he was able to control it. If he really is just confined to dreams or if he could hear anyone’s thoughts like you. You had a million questions for a complete stranger, but at least, after everyone, he seemed to be the only one who still wanted to be around you.

---------------------------

“Okay, so, uh, the electrodes connect Charles to the transmitter on the roof. When he picks up a... mutant, his brain sends a signal through a relay, and then coordinates of their location are printed out here,” Hank McCoy, the young genius in the room, explained to Charles as he was getting ready to put Cerebro’s helmet on his head. Erik was circling him, amused, as Raven watched on with curiosity and impressiveness.

“What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles,” Erik mused with a coy grin.

“Don't spoil this for me, Erik.”

“Oh. I've been a lab rat. I know one when I see one,” Erik commented.

Hank fussed over some more mechanics and dials before rushing back to Charles to check the device. “Are you sure we can’t shave your head?”

Charles calmly warned, “Don’t touch my hair.”

“Okay. It's working,” Hank informed triumphantly.

Charles could touch every mutant’s mind on the planet. Every one of them. And while he wanted to help them all, reach out to all of them, show them they’re not alone, he had one particular mutant in mind - you.

After four years of a mindlink, he finally had a chance to meet you. To find you. To help you. Hear your voice. He knew nothing about you, and yet, he felt like you two were the greatest of friends. He hoped that you wanted to be his friend too, perhaps his ever constant presence in your dream has been a nuisance and you wanted nothing to do with him, but he had to check. He had to see if you wanted to meet. Surely you were at least curious.

He concentrated hard and you were the first one he saw. In his mind’s eye he saw you in your true form for the first time, not in the dreamy, blurry, hazy world that was your sleeping mind. You were sensational. Simply stunning. He saw you sitting at a small desk, your face buried in textbooks. He marveled at the sight of you, nearly giddy with happiness as he saw the coordinates to you were printing out.

Now, he literally had a map to you and after all these years of yearning to meet you, to actually know the first thing about you. He could barely contain his excitement. So he and Erik set out, together, to find all the mutants on the eastern coast that they could for their mission.

[vangenius]

Lockdown thoughts

“Why do you have so many friends that are girls?”. Those are the words I used to hear a lot growing up from my mother. She felt that having friends that were girls would negatively impact relationships I would have in the future, maybe she had a point, in the end it was still being in contact with some old friend which doomed my marriage because of unnecessary jealousy throughout it which caused a lot of unneeded arguments and aggression from which was my better half.

The truth is my whole life I have always wanted a close-knit group of male friends. I’ve never found it very easy to get along with guys, whereas girls I seemed to be able to click easier with. This has plagued my mind for a long time. I see old friends in groups like that or I go to friends weddings who have a heap of groomsmen. I have always felt a sense of envy towards that.

Most my life I have always felt like an outsider, like I never really fit in well where ever I was. My first male best friend was in Primary school, his name was Charles. Eventually he went on to a Catholic intermediate/college and my parents thought it would be good for me to go to the same school because of that and discussions with his parents. So I ended up being forced to go to a school I didn’t know anything about or wasn’t interested in. I was Christian at the time and didn’t know anything about being Catholic nor did it interest me. The school as a percentage of people they would let in who were non-Catholic, however after I joined they began pestering my mum to get me baptized so I got put through the lessons and ceremony to appease them. My best friend however left in the second year, he moved to Australia and I was trapped in a place I felt out of touch with.

I went to school there for the next five years, I never felt like I belonged there, the school was obsessed with things like sport and that has never been me. I gained a small group of friends, Joseph, Diego, Richard, Anthony. Hanging out with them on lunch times was sort of a release from it all when I was going through my depression and anxiety for being there, I hated it. There were two things that made me leave the school. The first was that I went through a breakup with one of their friends who then pursued Anthonys friend group and started dating them which made me feel shit, I started getting invited out much less and having that linger in my head was terrible. The second was that being in another place I didn’t feel like I belonged in while I was in these dark periods was doing my head in. One day I tried to give myself alcohol poisoning to end it all but it didn’t work. I was probably acting out a lot at home as well and doing my parents heads in because I was so unhappy. Going to my computer after school every day was my way to escape reality.

An old friend from primary school, Elliot somehow ended up in touch with me, he invited me to a teen social group around this point and I really enjoyed the change of environment, I made some new friends, Thomas, Doyle and Martin at these weekly sessions as well as one of my favourite people in the world, Julia. They told me I should consider changing schools and going to Edgewater to try it out. It was much closer so I think that made it easier for my parents to say yes. I moved schools for 6th form. What I didn’t realise was how fragile the friendships I had with Joseph, Diego, Richard and Anthony actually were because as soon as I moved, I lost all contact with them which tore me up, I was not expecting that at all.

I spent the next two years in Edgewater with my new group of friends. Before I started there, Doyle introduced me to someone at his work called Rudy. When I got into the school I ended up taking a lot of classes with Rudy and Martin and I felt like we just clicked as people and the stuff we were into. I used to love hanging out with Doyle and Elliot a lot, they got me doing things like going to a 3-day concert camp thing that I thought I would never do, Elliot eventually moved to Australia however.

I ended up in a 3 ½ year relationship after college and moved to the North Shore when I was 17 as I didn’t take the news of my parents’ divorce very well, in hindsight this was a terrible idea. The problem with this was that being so far away in peoples’ minds, no one ever came to visit me. However I did try my best to visit all my friends whenever I was back in east Auckland. I would always end up at Doyle’s house for BBQ’s and hangouts with my ex or try and shoot some pool with Rudy and Martin. My ex eventually left me for one of Doyle’s friends and that entire group including Doyle stopped talking to me, inviting me anywhere, no one ever checked on me, etc.

I moved into my mum’s house after this breakup and always tried to stay in touch with the last male friends I had left from Edgewater, Rudy, Martin and Thomas. Martin and Thomas played in a band and we would always go to their gigs or the house parties they threw in Parnell. These were pretty amazing, there was always a bunch of people around. I think eventually as we got a bit older myself and Rudy felt like we were getting a little old for the parties, there was a party we showed up to where the kitchen was covered in shaving cream and there were 16 and 17 year olds around the place (by now we were in our 20’s) and we decided we have had enough. After that Martin ended up getting married to someone pretty awesome and we somehow lost contact, didn’t hang out anymore, etc.

I always considered Rudy one of my closest friends since college, he pushed me to do things like others couldn’t do when I was having anxiety about doing things, going to town, going to gigs, invite me to poker games with his friends, etc. He would go to IRC parties with me since we were 15 and I was too nervous to go alone, I always appreciated his drive and always considered him my closest male friend, it was easy to make him my best man. I sort of subconsciously used him and Julia as benchmarks for my own life (an internal rivalry is good to push you ahead sometimes). I know this was never probably healthy but I looked up to them both so much with how successful they were with things they did, study, work, etc. I felt I was on par with them for a good while but they eventually crept ahead of me in the last 10 years so now I just work on myself where I can.

Throughout the years, in between while I was in my longest relationship, I gained a few male friends through workplaces I was in, however in the end they only ever ended up being acquaintances because they never stayed in contact after they left the workplace.

After my separation a lot of people stopped talking to me. I felt disconnected from the world, stuck down a dark black hole. My hopes and dreams had been crushed, I had felt like I had wasted 11 years of my life. Rudy being the straightforward person he is, attempted to yank me out of my depression by implanting me into another country for two weeks. It was without a doubt one of the most amazing experiences of my life, I never would have dreamed I would get the guts to get back on a plane or go to Mexico and Belize of all places. I felt like I let him down however, I was still super depressed as usual, I didn’t know how to get out of my funk. At one point he threatened he would leave me in the next city if I didn’t cheer up. However after that I got extremely sick, I was throwing up violently, extremely dehydrated, had stomach problems. I think he felt sorry for me so he didn’t say anything like that again after that. I felt like I ruined his trip though. I did try my best to push myself to still do everything in my sick state but now I also just felt bad that I was holding him back from doing more.

The last time I saw Rudy he told me about how he had a friend who he had outgrown. He said he didn’t have anything in common with him anymore like he did with his other friends (he told me how him and his friends were buying property together to sell off). I believe he was talking about me as that friend he had outgrown. After seeing him for that beer I’ve felt super awkward and anxious about meeting up with him again as much as I want to so I just don’t message him anymore. I don’t want to be some sort of friendship burden on anyone.

I don’t really know where this leaves me, part of me maybe has to accept that I’ll never have a group of male friends I can feel close to. I’ll probably never be able to have those “bro out” sort of moments or get invited to things I would love to do. Part of me wonders if I tried so hard to hold onto male friends because my mum would say that line to me all the time but maybe I’m just not destined to be one of those people with close male relationships. I feel the people I meet going forward are probably going to be more like acquaintances and I should keep weary and a distance with them so I don’t continue to go through the hurt of losing friends like that anymore. I don’t really feel like I have much in common with people, I’m a bit of a strange person with the things I’m into. Maybe I just have to accept that’s who I am.