#ripping yarns review

[montypythonswine]

Ripping Yarns (1976/1979)

I recently watched Ripping Yarns written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones on Youtube and I really liked it, some of the episodes I liked more than others (a favourite episode doesn't come to mind). Michael was really good in it (and he looked so handsome in it - added bonus 😏). The other actors of which all of them I'd never heard of before were really good. Even though I can understand why Terry J didn't star in any other episodes apart from the pilot, I kind of wished that he did feature or at least as like a guest star or a cameo. I loved that John did a cameo in the final episode (Golden Gordon), that's so funny.

I really recommend watching it if you haven't. It's all available in Youtube

[ckmstudies]

July 12th:

Officially a week out from the exam. I didn't get as much done as I planned as usual haha. I did two and a half hours of review and figured out my weakest area was area five which focused on integrated audits, attestation engagements, compliance and government audits which I find strange since felt confident while learning the material. But it is a lot of reports that are almost the same just slightly not, so I guess it does make a bit of sense. My best area was area three which focused on risk, evidence, and sampling. I also find this strange because I did not feel confident while learning this material haha. Tomorrow I'll do a few practice questions in area five and skim the book again for things I know I'm confused on and then take the next simulated exam. In my review today I found a couple of avoidable mistakes that I would have caught if I'd slowed down so this next simulated exam I'm going to focus on reading slowly and carefully.

Today's accounting topic: All control deficiencies need to be communicated to management in writing within 60 days of the report release date. While significant deficiencies and material weaknesses need to be communicated to management and those charged with governance in writing by the report release date.

Other activity: I started crocheting a blue shirt back in May and then ran out of yarn. I've put off ordering more but I finally did last week and the yarn came in the mail today! I finally get to finish this shirt but I keep making mistakes and having to go back rip

[brokensenseofhumor]

Ok heres a review of inside out 2 (major spoiler warning)

Ok so, was it good? Duh.

The whole movie was absolutely beautiful. The little yarn-sand-grainy texture on the emotions was a really cool detail, there were so many nice moments, and I thought Anxiety would be my fav but it turned out to be Ennui

My top 5 favorite scenes are:

when Ennui fucking lost her shit after sadness stole her phone

Ennui’s introduction

The Anxiety attack scene

Joy snapping

Anxiety just ripping out Riley’s sense of self not even an hour after meeting the OG emotions

My only two problems with the movie were the pacing and the bland OST. I know that the theme about the whole movie is Anxiety and that it’s Disney, ofc the OST won’t be Spiderverse level, but honestly there were some moments that should’ve just sunk in, like when Anxiety and Co. jarred up the OG emotions and sent them to the vault.

I personally believe that the movie should’ve had a soundtrack kinda like this:

I’m never gonna shut up about this specific version of I Like To Move It, will I?

Other than that, yea, this movie is great and I absolutely recommend it, Solid 9/10 for me

[lifesarchive]

DEVIL HOUSE by JOHN DARNIELLE (REVIEW)

quickly: a true crimes writer moves into the building where the murders in his latest book took place (a writer questioning the ethics of his process / the past catching up with the present / lasting works of art / stories about stories / small towns outside of big cities / housing, drug, and mental health crises / mothers who love their sons / SATANIC PANIC! / swords, knights, and castle doctrines / the monsters are the people, but are the people monsters?)

This is not horror and hardly a thriller. There are no ghosts, demons, or spirits. There are indeed bumps in the night, but they come from the living. It’s a fresh take on mystery writing, but not really mystery either. It’s an exposition. We follow the main character, Greg, as he completes his latest true crime novel. The voices change throughout the story, so sometimes Greg is speaking to us, other times to someone else. The fun part of this story is the writing and the behind-the-scenes peek into the world of true crime. The not-so-fun part is the ending. 

John Darnielle’s writing spirals and descends. He takes his time moving around the subject, encircling it with details, getting closer and deeper at the end of every paragraph. Then, as you are rounding the last bend, the entire picture becomes clear from the inside out. It was like unraveling a beautifully woven ball of yarn, expecting a rare jewel at its center, but finding the end of a string instead. (Maybe, this is the entire meta point of this story… life is just a series of strings ending. Nothing special.)

★ ★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS

Some personal context… I came across this one because I was scouring the goodreads tag for “horror” and looking for interesting things that came out in the past year or two. The cover got me, as they tend to do. I rarely check the reviews before I read the story, but I always check after, just to see what there is I might have missed. I think I liked it more than most. As interesting as this book was to read, it didn’t deliver the THRILL I thought it would. It read like a poet writing a Wikipedia page… an intricate balance between truth and perception and the philosophy of cause and effect.

I recently read TROOP, and one of my gripes was the dialogue for the young teens that the story centered on. It felt so outdated and inauthentic. The dialogue, actions, and inner monologues for the teens at the center of DEVIL HOUSE were immaculate. Perfectly nuanced, and varied. The sophisticated unraveling of emotions and motivations is moving. He totally encapsulates the angst of aging. Now that I think about it, I actually would’ve loved to have seen John Darnielle do a version of TROOP.

The story is divided into 6 parts, and they each have different voices.

1: Chandler

We open with our good friend Greg Chandler, whose family lineage of kingship becomes a recurring thematic element in this story. He introduces us, right off the rip, to who he is, what he does, and his latest project. His agent has hipped him to the story of a couple of people murdered in an old porno shop in Milpitas, CA, outside of San Jose. 

He walks us through his process… one of immersion, invasion almost, that requires him to be in the places where these crimes took place. He, again with a nudge from his agent, devises a plan to purchase ‘DEVIL HOUSE’, which has been renovated, turned from a shop into a home, and is currently for sale. As he goes through the process of buying the house and moving in, he takes time to expound on the details of the case. He gives us an introduction to necessary persons and places, and at the end of Part 1, he tells us that what he discovered differs from the story that is told. He also tells us that he does not want to write the story he was sent there to write.

2: White Witch

Here, the story changes abruptly. Now, our narrator is no longer talking to us. Now, attention is directed to ‘The White Witch’, and we have become the ‘White Witch’ being addressed. (An interesting use of narration perspective, though I understand how some could find it jarring and confusing.) Eventually, we will come to know her life… a high school teacher who murdered two students while they were invading her home. Part 2 is a grand spiral around the details of her life leading up to the invasion and murder. In the open, she was just a school teacher. In the end, standing on the beach with bags of body parts, she has turned into the satanic WITCH living in the hills. Both in some real reality, but also in the minds of those always needing a villain to blame the evils of the world on.

3: Devil House

Our narrator returns to addressing us, and the White Witch’s story is paused. Now the focus returns to Milpitas, to Devil House before it was known as such. We get a grand historical overview of the influences that conspired to make the porno shop possible. This includes the history of the land and the landlord. However, the bulk of this part of the story is about the last occupants of Devil House, before our narrator Greg. 

We go back to it when it was MONSTER ADULT X, a porno shop on the side of the highway where 17-year-old Derrick works, unbeknownst to his parents who only want to best for him. MONSTER ADULT X (I’ll refer to it as MAX from here on out), is in its last days as the owner Anthony Hawley can’t keep up the rent payments.

Hawley closes the place down, but because Derrick still has his key, it is open to him. He hangs out there drawing and sketching. Then his friend Seth starts joining him. Then their homeless friend Alex, who’s been missing for some time joins them and lives there. Just at the tail end of things, Alex’s friend Angela pops in for some of the fun. 

This is their paradise, away from the impending world of adulthood and all its anxieties and broken promises. Things are fine until the landlord starts showing the place, in preparation to sell.

4: Song of Gorbonian 

A short and unexpected chapter, written in Olde English. Obviously, this is an imaginative prelude for some of the story’s later motifs and actions. Yet, it could just as well be a short story written during a reprieve Greg was taking from writing Devil House… or a rambling from one of MAX’s occupants during its last days… who’s to say? The Song of Gorbonian is a tale of a young king’s promise to avenge his father’s death and restore the gods of the old world.  

5: Devil House

In this part of the story, Greg updates us on the stories of MAX’s occupants. He catches up with modern-day Angela, Derrick, and Seth, all living different adult lives far away from Milpitas, having escaped any punishment, (but receiving tons of blame for the murders). The only one we don’t get an update on is Alex, who has managed to disappear. 

6: White Witch

Now we are back to the story of the White Witch, but not like before. Instead of standing in her place while Greg speaks to her, we are instead placed in the shoes of Jana, Jesse’s mother, one of the kids killed by Mrs. Crane, The White Witch. We are standing in Jana’s shoes as Greg reads (or summarizes rather) a letter Jana wrote. In reading this letter back to her, we come to understand the forces that shaped the life of the home invaders we met in Part 2.

In between the breaths of this letter, Greg is restoring Devil House to its former glory… breaking glass and pulling up carpets. 

7: Chandler

The perspectives change again. Now we are standing in the shoes of Greg’s childhood friend, as we reconnect with Greg after several years and he expounds on the new project he is working on, writing about a murder in Milpitas where he (we?) grew up. At the close of Part 7, we learn that this has all been a fabrication. Derrick, Seth, Angela, Alex… not one of them was real. At least, not in the form that Greg portrayed them to be in his book. The real culprits were likely men living on the streets, squatting for the night, running into the landlord, and reactions ensuing. 

Greg reveals his grand philosophy on what the public expects from true crime, and how the true story of Devil House would not satisfy the psyches of the consumers. Then the book fades out in a hazy memory of childhood, where the days were spent playing games.

Before I could complain too much about the ending, I had to remind myself that Greg told us exactly to expect: “What I learned contradicts the account I first read, which I understand to have sprung from the need for a certain sort of telling, a hunger for known quantities.” In other words, the salacious story of teens murdering to defend their clubhouse is something cooked up by the collective psyche, not by reality.

More than a fictional true crime book, this entire work seemed to be a rumination of the big machine of true crime itself and how we respond to these violent acts as a society. What do we want from these stories? Who do these acts of violence affect? At one end of a story, a person may look like a demon, but if we trace back all the influences and occurrences, we may find this person may have been someone else at some point… and if it is true that they were someone else, how much responsibility do we place on all the option-less choices people are forced to make, and on the uncontrollable forces that shape the boundaries of our lives?

[leafsbabe]

Enchanté Cafe review:

- bracelet is spelled correctly which it should be so this isn’t a plus it’s just not a minus

- hoodie is big and soft and heavy which i love and the print seems very durable

- knit sweaters look like shit on the inside and i’m afraid to wear them because the yarn is tied all halfassed and it looks like it could fall apart it looks cute on the outside but the quality is not worth the price imo

- the shipping bag landed at customs open which both of the people working there were worried about because something could have easily fallen out, no idea on what part of it’s transatlantic journey it opened up but it wasn’t ripped at all the glue just became unglued, the entire bag is without rips or tears it just opened up by itself which is not good 

- bracelet was in a blue box with Enchanté written on the lid and a little good quality cloth bag with branding on it as well, hoodie came it an Enchanté re-closable(?) plastic bag, knit sweater came in a one use RIC3 plastic bag

- their team did not fill out the international shipping and customs forms correctly and it was incredibly hard (and i mean incredibly, it took several days, crying multiple times, several phone calls, a three hour round trip to the customs office and once we were there even the experienced customs agents took another hour to figure things out) to correct their mistakes (not complaining about the price of customs because that was expected)

- Danny also runs Enchanté and RIC3 (or did he just changed RIC3 to Enchanté idk and idc) through a third party platform called the loyalist (so that’s what shows up on your paypal and stuff after paying) while also not having contact information outside of an email which makes it incredibly hard to correct their shitty paperwork when you need to provide an address and shit so that your purchases don’t get sent back to the US

7/10 would not order again 

[mywifeleftme]

65: Young Marble Giants // Colossal Youth

Colossal Youth Young Marble Giants 1980, Rough Trade

When I went to the record shop today, it was with the intention of picking up some interesting-looking, relatively obscure record to review later this year, but ended up going home with a physical copy of Colossal Youth, an album I’ve heard a billion times. For my purposes, this was kind of dumb: lots of people have written about Young Marble Giants, and I agree with the consensus. (Consensus: Minimal, quiet, mysteriously perfect post-punk with mousy female vocals and no drums.) Not least among these writers is Simon Reynolds, whose detailed liner notes from this 2007 Domino reissue also appeared in his essential book on post-punk, Rip It Up and Start Again, that introduced me to YMG in the first place. He does a superb job of evoking the post-punk (and adjacent) scene of the day—let’s revel in the list of artists who earn mention in Reynolds’ write-up:

Public Image Ltd., Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Cabaret Voltaire, the Pop Group, Scritti Politti, Throbbing Gristle, The Slits, Pere Ubu, Brian Eno, A Certain Ratio, The Residents, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Can, Reptile Ranch, Desperate Bicycles, Swell Maps, The Fall, The Raincoats, Essential Logic, This Heat, Red Crayola, Kleenex, Joy Division, New Order, Cocteau Twins, Everything But the Girl, Stiff Little Fingers, Carmel, The Style Council.

Probably you know all of those bands (excepting perhaps Reptile Ranch and Desperate Bicycles? Both worth your time!), but it goes a long way towards establishing what a unique black diamond of a record Colossal Youth was to have stood out among that crowd. And Young Marble Giants did stand out—as Reynolds points out, on the strength of that debut LP and a pair of scant EPs Young Marble Giants immediately became Rough Trade’s second highest-selling act of 1980–81, behind only Stiff Little Fingers. The reaction to the 2007 reissue was similarly rapturous.

Let’s revel too in Reynolds’ use of language to describe them, the kind of ecstatic ekphrasis that has always excited me in rock writing:

“The individual songs have something of the ‘rightness’ of things found in nature—leaves, snowflakes, pebbles, sea-shells—that are at once miraculous and yet commonplace, marvelous and unassuming.” “…like an old fashioned pocket watch with its casing open to reveal the moving parts, the Young Marble Giants sound would be pared and bare, its meshwork of cogs and spindles exposed in all its intricate distinctness.” “…a feel that was dynamic and propulsive yet curiously suppressed, subdued, even furtive.” “The brothers’ instruments wound tight around each other like fibres twinning into yarn.” “[Allison] Statton sang with a plaintive simplicity and cool pallor of tone that bypassed all the mannered drama of the singerly arts.” “…the sheer emaciation of the sound…”

That’s the kind of writing I can read for ages, analysis that is gestural, pushing at the connotative possibilities of language to compass a pleasure as physical as it is intellectual—really, it’s generous they threw a pretty good record in with the liners. As to why I came home with this and not any of the dozens of other albums I held up for a squint and a sniff, it comes down to a certain satisfaction in finally sliding a record onto the shelf that I always knew I would eventually own. Young Marble Giants have a historical compactness to match their miniaturist sound. I suppose the real pleasure is in owning such a perfectly small and self-completed thing.

65/365

[margysmusings]

[mhkeiger]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: RESTORATION HARDWARE (RH) ITALIAN WOOL & ALPACA KNIT THROW.

[genre-history-theory-23]

From notes -

Made to be rustic with traditional post-civil war typeface. "Tied" together with yarn. Ripped manuscript on the front. A lot of text on the back. Slightly brown text on back. Lots of browns, tans and black, text is mostly black. Natural coloring.

Inside the book there is immediately three pages of acclaim for the novel, exactly three pages of quoted reviews and their respective authors. But I want to focus on the front one. "A remarkable historical discovery." It seems like the focus of the critics is on the work of Gates rather than Crafts. This ties nicely into what media thrives on - how this quote tremendously bolsters its marketablity. IF it were praised primarily for its content, it might appear solely as another black POV narrative, but since it is the "first" this gives it an edge and an "ooh" factor. Not that it's not worth noting and even admiration but I see it as an overreliance on this aspect that might take away from the story itself. It's worth noting that in today's art market there's more emphasis (and funds!) put into the marketing of a product than the actual product itself. Often the intention of the art is drowned out by the goal of getting it out there for consumption rather than appreciation.

[qudachuk]

A Radio 4 series dives too deep with the street artist, while the Irish Independent goes big on ripping true crime yarn. Plus, an otherworldly gem at the PromsThe Banksy Story (BBC Radio 4) | BBC SoundsI’m Not Here...

[trendzitions]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Men's 3 Piece Items Bundle- 1 Athletic Shorts/ 2 Athletic Pant's- Size M- EUC.

[marjaystuff]

New Blog:  From a Book

For Christmas, my sister Anne gave me a new book, Crochet Cute Critters by Sarah Zimmerman.  Some background, I do love to crochet.  I learned how to crochet when I was 12 from a neighbor.  Since then I have always made blankets and scarves.  Things made with patterns someone taught me or I memorized.  I struggled to read the foreign language known as a pattern.  This year, my aunt has taught me some more about reading patterns, but she still had to walk me through them and then I memorized them.    

Now with this book for beginners, I am reading patterns.  That is not saying all my critters look like the critters in the book right off.  There have been bad words yelled and lots of stitches ripped out!  I am still working and learning to read each of the directions.  That is not including Yoshi’s sheer excitement with yarn tempting him to attack with claws to catch the moving target.  

It is amazing that with this book, my sister gave me a chance to learn a new skill and allow me to stretch to the next level. A book that allowed me to spread my passion for crocheting.  A book that opened new worlds.  And isn’t that the point - isn’t that what books are really for, to open our eyes to new worlds.  

Elise Cooper sent in a couple of items to add this week.  There is a guest review of  The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Preston and Child about special agent Pendergast. The interview of Sarah Sundin and her newest book, The Sound of Light is so interesting.  Certainly any book that focuses on courage and bravery is pertinent to our times, no matter what year it was written about.

[ninalanfer]

Make 9 2022 Review

Make 9 2022

I think maybe I picked these patterns for a reason. So let’s review shall we?

(I’ll link to my ravelry page for the projects where that’s applicable)

Grusvägar by Stine HoelgaardJohansen  Was a pleasure to knit. So much fun with something happening on each row. Knitted in by Permin’s Esther. It’s pretty, it’s comfortable, it’s very wearable. Only thing is the sleeves are too wide, and I might actually rip those out halfway and take them in more aggressively than I did.

Majas Mamelucker Leggings by Maja Karlsson (aka the Lilly Pond Leggings) Still a work in progress. I started these relatively recently. They’ve also been put on hold, because I thought I was knitting them too small. But after blocking and testing I’m on the fence. Also, I decided against following Maja’s pattern at all and winged it on my very own. So they probably shouldn’t be under this name any more. But anyway.

Maja Cardigan by Hélène Magnússon Man I’ve struggled with this cardigan. At first because Lettlopi is friggin’ rare right now. And has been for the last few years. And when I finally managed to get the amounts and colors I wanted, and swatched them together, I didn’t like it. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I had in mind. So I put it away until I could get hold of some other colors. That happened to be now, last December (2022). For reference: I started planning this cardigan sometime in March 2021. You’d think I would be excited to finally start this thing. But... No. I swatched again. Didn’t like the borders except for the middle big one. So I changed those out. Swatched again. But it still wasn’t working. At this point I had to ask myself: I’ve changed almost everything about this cardigan, from the way I’ll knit it to the colors and the borders and everything. Do I really want to knit it? There’s so many other sweaters and cardigans I’d like to knit more than this. So, long story long, I changed my mind. The yarn will get a new home in some other project.

Maia Summer Top by Belly Helms I knit it, I love it. It was fun (if a little arduous) to knit. Partly because of the yarn (slippery and thing) and partly because that’s a lot of pattern to follow. You gotta keep your tongue in your mouth at all times. But I love the outcome. I’ve worn it a bunch. I’ll wear it a bunch more. Also, pattern was just the way I like patterns to be. More like a recipe. Highly recommend. Aurelia Tee by Anna Strandberg Honestly, I’ve almost started this a hundred times. I bought the yarn. But what stopped me was my experience with how much dye the yarn would bleed in the wash after. It’s the same as the Grusvägar Slipover. Esther by Permin. And while that was fine with that particular sweater, since it’s only one color. This one would be two. And not anywhere near each other on the colorwheel. So I felt I needed to wash the yarn properly before knitting. And boy was that a hurdle to get over. Since they come in balls, I had to ofc first make them into skeins. And yeah... that’s a lot of yarn to skein. And then wash. In two separate baths, and... yeah, you can only hear why I haven’t started this yet. But now the yarn has had a bath and is ready to go. But a thin tee isn’t what you wanna knit in the middle of winter. So I’ll await warmer weather!

Silva by Ivar Asplund I’ve bought the yarn. But why is every project ever on needles 3mm? They’re never free. Still looking forward to this though. Ivar Asplund’s patterns are usually really well written and laid out. And for little me who haven’t done much braids before, I might need it.

Goldfern by Jennifer Steingass I’m still spinning for this. I had hoped to finish at this (last’s) year’s Tour de Fleece. But I didn’t. And I burned out hard on spinning last summer. So it’s been on the backburner for a while now.

Slipoverlinne by Anna Bauer I’m almost all done with this one. Winter themed and everything. Was a lot of fun to design all the borders and I might’ve put way too much effort into it. Fun to knit too. Only now I only have the last two border on the back left, and the armholes and the neckhole. ... ... Yep. I’m out of yarn.

Batgirl Crop-Top Hoodie by Me I still really want this. The cropped wool sweater is pretty much the perfect thing to wear when you’re a little cold but not cold cold. And I really need a couple more of them. This just hasn’t happened because other stuff have taken the first place in the que and I haven’t even bought the yarn for it yet. It’ll come with me on my make9 for next year though ^^

---

Congratulations on making it all the way through this! This is mostly for myself, so I can go back and see what’s happened with my knitting and such. It’s a little bit like journaling, right? Getting all the thoughts out there and freeing up space in my brain for next year’s projects!

[jesuisgourde]

The story of Alan Wass saving Peter from a punch-up in a 24 hr shop, told in A Likely Lad vs a typewritten version posted to twitter in 2016 or thereabouts.

A Likely Lad transcript:

I was in a newsagent in Camden Town one night, two in the morning, and I was a bit drunk and got into some argument with these five Somali lads, and they started attacking me, and Alan came out of nowhere - he had a big hat on, long coat, swept them all up in his arms and put them through the window of this all-night shop.

Typewritten 2016 transcript [First part from a screenshotted video, the rest from twitter posts]:

Alan Wass contributions to Albion personel personal safety No. 3 'The 'onegreat push for Arcady' incident of 2005 (?) It was about 4 a.m. And myself and Alan were the survivors of a 3 days expedition into urban intoxication. Our research had taken us as far as the Camden Town end of Kentish Town road and in a newsagents/ refreshments bordago we exchanged strange burring noises as I showed him a recent copy of the now defunct music magazine the NME... I was the subject of an interview and review in that weeks edition and as such I held the well-known periodical for dramaticeffect. A group of 4 or 5 Somalian hoodlums entered the shop at that moment, and the sensor device above the door announced each of the chaps' arrival ith a little analogue 'ding' ok people ...before I continue with this rip-roaring yarn, I want you to try and guess (a la 'question of Sport') What Happens next

Alan was taken with them menacing posturing of the Somalian boys.. he knew one of them and began passing round a bottle of screwtop wine he hadnt paid for yet The shopkeeper just stared , his trigger finger near the alarm [Illegible] One of the boys looked at me, his head tilted to one side. O I'm adorning this visit to the mise en whatsit, ..the truth is..all I remember is one of the lads insisting that he knew me ..but couldn't place me ..then he saw the NME cover, and blinked with what could have passed for innocence in that awful harsh light I have already gone on about, trying desperately to capture here the seedy illumination in that place, in all these places. A row of bulging, explicit figures jostled for pornographic attention on the shabby top shelf. I was distracted for a second by 'classic cock monthly', which was cleverly designed to resemble the vintage automob-ile magazine . I wondered if there were copyright issues, and was slapped out of this odd thought by a sharp blow to the side of the head. My hat flew off, and the NME front cover came apart a I crashed against the racks of papers. all Albions monthlies and weeklies and tv guides and spankmags..the hat that I was wearing on the NME cover was now perfectly fitted on a photograph of a top-heavy lass with a saddle under one arm . chaos. I threw a punch at the face At that point I dodged a kic k, but was jumped from behind of my attacker and fell under a battering of kickc and clobbering.. Here's where it happen'd

and I see it clearly in my sometimes muddled memory Alan – in striped trousers tucked into huge riding boots – ran into the cluster of boys – scooped them all up in his arms and ran them through the glass doors of the shop front. He somehow was collosal, suddenly appeared 20 foot tall. They lay shocked in the broken glass, and mostly scattered, one of them stood up and screamed abuse at us but Alan's face – scaring even me – cast a spell on him. He visibly crumbled and ran off as sirens w ailed in all directions. It was like seeing a mother hen collecting her chicks he had this superhuman strength in him.. and I know that exageration colours these type of anecdotes, but I also know what happened... And that's what happened.. scooped them up and dashed them out and down and fucked them off. Be-jaysus

[justcourttee]

And They Were Roommates- Pt 1

A/N Trying another soulmate chapter fiction cause I’m a sucker for them :)

Marinette doodled on her wrist, tuning out the professor in favor of annoying her soulmate. She was working on the third flower when a faux cough caught her attention. She dropped her pen, flashing her professor a warm smile, as she propped her chin on her hand.

“Am I boring you Ms. Dupen-Chang?”

“Quite the contrary Professor Lupez, the history of the Mexican-American War is riveting, but if I may, I believe you are reviewing the wrong War with our finals approaching next week.”

The professor raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms to stare down the French girl.

“And which war do you feel we should be covering?”

“You hardly touched on the Korean War and dismissed any questions we might have had on the subject, it will be on the final right?”

Sighing, the professor turned back to the board writing ‘Korean War’ in large letters, tossing the chalk on her desk with more force than necessary.

“Since it is our final review day, I will entertain you this one time Ms. Dupen-Chang, but believe me when I say, I will not miss our little interactions when the semester ends.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

Marinette smirked as she picked up her pen to jot down a few notes, peeking a look at her wrist in the process.

“Got caught again? Good. Pay attention in class.”

Her smirk widened as she rolled her eyes. The man always knew what to say, such the romantic. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Marinette began counting down the minutes until her final class ended. After all, American History was the least of her worries and with less than a week till her first final, she’d much rather be at the apartment studying anything else but this.

The clock had just hit the fifty mark and students were already out of their seats, Marinette along with them.

“Ms. Dupen-Chang, a moment please?”

She let out an involuntary groan as she made her way down to the front of the class. Professor Lupez was finishing packing her bag, not paying one mind to Marinette as she bounced from foot to foot, eager to leave. Finally, she took her seat, crossing her arms to look at the girl.

“Have you reconsidered Marinette?”

“Professor Lupez, I adore history, I really do. But it’s not something I want to do for the rest of my life, designing is, and I’m really good at it.”

“It’s your second to last semester Marinette, you’ll be graduating in the spring. You’ve taken enough history credits to satisfy your minor in history and you’re three credits away from having a double major. Would you at least consider that? I hate to see someone with your obvious love and affiliation of the topic not even consider it.”

Marinette let out a sigh, twirling a loose strand of hair.

“I’ll consider it Professor Lupez, but I want to finish my business degree and look into a major in business, not history.”

The professor simply nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“That’s all I wanted to hear. I hope to see you in the spring Marinette,”

“I thought you were going to be so glad to rid yourself of our little interactions.”

“Please,” Lupez rose, collecting her bag in the process. “No other student has been able to rival my knowledge. It would be a shame to never see you again.”

Marinette turned to leave, a smile growing across her face.

“You as well Professor Lupez.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The jingle of keys in the doorknob caught her attention as she looked up from her notes in time to see Chloe fall through the door, dropping a multitude of shopping bags in the process.

“Is this your way of preparing for finals?” A smile tugged at  Marinette’s lips as she watched the blonde adjust her hair in  the mirror beside the door.

“Dupen-Chang, it’s called retail therapy. Finals are the most stressful part of college and a girl needs to be ready to look fabulous to cover the stress wrinkles.”

She shuttered, sending Marinette into a fit of giggles. Standing up from the couch, she waded through her textbooks to pick up the nearest bag. Together, the two of them managed to make it to their shared room in one trip. As the blonde began to unpack, she blindly threw a shirt in Marinette’s direction.

“What’s this Chloe?”

“Don’t be dull Dupen-Chang,” she rolled her eyes as she pulled out another shirt, examining it closely before slipping it on a hanger. “It’s a new shirt that didn’t fit me how I wanted it to, but I bought it anyways because it should look decent on you.”

“I’m touched.” Marinette wiped a non-existent tear from her eye, holding up the shirt to examine it.

She opened her mouth, only to be cut off by the sound of the front door slamming shut. The two girls shared a grim look before they made their way across the hall, standing in front of Adiren’s door, the light sounds of destruction echoing from inside.

“Adrikins? You okay in there?”

There was silence before the sound of shuffling feet made their way to unlock the door. He pulled it open to reveal red and puffy eyes. Chloe pushed her way inside, dragging him to the bed with her while Marinette leaned against the doorframe, assessing the damage he had done. All the pictures of him and David were torn up and scattered across the floor, David’s scarf laid in different spots, ripped in two, strands of yarn fraying outward.

“David broke up with you?”

Adrien nodded softly, falling into Chloe’s outstretched arms.

“Well he’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous then.”

“No, he’s not, he just found his soulmate, that’s all.” Adrien’s voice cracked as he inhaled sharply, trying to stop a new wave of tears.

Marinette sighed, joining the two on his bed, rubbing his back lightly as her and Chloe both shook their heads. The three of them had been attending Metropolis University for the past four years and every year, Adrien fell quickly and deeply in love with a guy only for them to leave just as fast, leaving him a broken mess.

“I guess we should put out for a new roommate then.”

He sat up stiffly, his eyes darting between the two girls as if daring them to argue. Chloe threw her hands up in the air, letting out a defeated sigh.

“If you’re so sure Adrikins. Mari and I can deliver him his stuff, you just get some rest. We’ll order your favorite take out and be back in an hour or so.”

He nodded, falling backwards on his bed, lost in thought. The two girls stood up, making their way to David’s old room, collecting a few stray boxes on the way.

“This is ridiculous Dupen-Chang. We need a no partner roommate policy. This is the third roommate we’ve replaced since January, all of them breaking Adrikins heart, it is unacceptable, utterly unacceptable.”

The girl just nodded as she pulled David’s suitcase out from the closet, packing his clothes as tightly as she could. Chloe continued to ramble on as the girls filled box after box.

“-and where does David plan on going? Is he just going to move in with his soulmate and hope he’s not a serial killer? That is stupid! I mean seriously, how stupid is this boy? I thought he was in the honor college?”

Marinette just shook her head, picking up a nearby pen, tossing the cap into the trash can.

“Can’t write much tonight. Threat Level Heartbreak”

Tossing the pen into the trash as well, Marinette stood, gathering the two closest boxes.

“Let’s call David and figure out where to drop this stuff off. We’ll put out the roommate ad later tonight.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Around midnight, Marinette shifted from under Adrien and Chloe, causing the two to fall into each other on the couch, neither waking. She pulled the blanket over her friends, turning back to clean up the mess they had made. She threw away the take out containers, reaching for the empty ice cream when she felt the familiar tingle on her arm.

“I have waited the appropriate amount of time, correct? Threat resolved?”

A small smile threatened to take over her whole face as she tossed the empty containers. Setting the trash bag outside their apartment door, she pulled out the pen holding her hair together.

“Threat resolved. Surprised you’re still up.”

The previous statement disappeared from her arm, a new one beginning to etch in its place.

“Wanted to make sure you survived, I know the complexity of that threat.”

She let out a quiet chuckle, leaning down to pick up the spoons scattered across the coffee table. Moving to the sink, she gently scrubbed away her marks, uncapping the pen to respond.

“I think I’m getting better at it. Easier and faster each time.”

Letting the water run, she washed the few dishes, placing them on a towel to dry.

“Your friend should make better partner choices.”

“Hell yeah he should.” Marinette mumbled under breath as she ejected the Titanic disk, placing it in its case before turning off the TV. Moving to the bathroom, she ran her toothbrush under the water, placing it in her mouth before washing her arm again.

“Definitely.”

She just finished brushing her teeth when the tingling caught her attention once more.

“Get some sleep Angel”

Her ears burned from the nickname he insisted on calling her. She always hated when the twenty four hours had passed and the ink faded on it’s own. Washing away the ink was always a quick and effective way to communicate, but if she wanted to leave a message, she left the spot alone and her soulmate would be marked for a full twenty-four hours before the message disappeared.

“Will do mon amour. Goodnight”

Crawling into her bed, Marinette pulled out her phone, sending a quick email to the University Newsletter to request a spot for the roommate ad.

“What do you think Tikki? Can we manage to get a roommate that will last at least one full semester?”

Tikki flew from the doll mansion that Chloe had insisted on buying for their kwamii’s. Something about living in comfort and luxury is better for their powers? Honestly, Marinette didn’t care, as long as Tikki and Pollen were happy, so was she.

“I think it’s something you shouldn’t worry about right now Marinette. After all, your first final is in less than a week, the less stress the better.”

Marinette nodded, placing her phone on it’s charging pad, settling into her pillow.

“You’re right Tikki, after all, I made some extra commission money this month, making rent should be easy, even without a roommate.”

The kwamii nodded, placing a light kiss on her chosen’s forehead, watching as the girl drifted off to sleep.

“Sleep well Marinette.” Tikki flew back to the dollhouse, settling into their own bed, careful not to wake Pollen. Within minutes, the kwamii was asleep.

A tingling threatened to wake the sleeping girl, but she was too tired to open her eyes to check. In perfect script, four words etched their way into her skin while she slept, something that happened every night after her soulmate was sure she was asleep.

“I love you Angel”

And just as quickly, the confession disappeared. Three years of writing to each other and neither would admit it, but they both knew. They had both fallen for people they had never met.

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