#skaters in bold still active

[cool-fancier]

My Beloved Daredevil

Synopsis: In the crowded city, Bada noticed an unexpected skateboard performance that was attracting a crowd. She quickly recognized the skilled skater performing daring tricks as her adventurous partner, You. Bada laughed while admiring You's daring actions.

As Bada walked through the busy city streets, she kept a watchful eye out for any activity that might be approaching. The collective gasps and cheers of a crowd gathered around someone doing an exciting skateboard trick echoed  through the air.

Bada couldn't help but shake her head at the the spectacle.  She mumbled under her breath, "Oh God, what an idiot," her tone of laughter audible. She saw the skateboarder fighting gravity in the middle of the street with a mixture of amazement and curiosity.

Bada strained to see as the courageous skateboarder pulled off a particularly incredible trick. Her eyes widened as she spotted the recognisable skateboarder. She grumbled, "Oh no, that's my idiot," one more time.

In fact, the person who had made the spontaneous decision to put on a skateboarding display for the unsuspecting passersby was none other than her beloved partner, You. You, with your trademark fearless spirit, grinned widely as you took on each daring stunt.

Bada couldn't help but smile and shake her head as she watched Your bold performance. Only You could make a busy street into your own personal skatepark, she thought to herself.

The audience cheered as You finished your astounding performance with a final flourish, and Bada couldn't help but giggle. In order to get to her daring lover, she forced her way past those watching.

"You," she said, her voice filled with amusement, "you are absolutely insane."

You grinned smugly at her while their adrenaline was still rushing. "But admit it babe, it was pretty impressive, right?"

Bada chuckled and pulled You into an affectionate embrace. "Yes, impressive. Most obviously insane. But that's the reason I love you.

You's eyes twinkled with mischief. "So, do I get extra points for style?"

Bada pretended to be thinking for a time before laughing. "Okay, my daring daredevil, you get extra points for style."

Both of you shared a playful kiss among the cheering crowd, completely lost in each other's love. Bada would not have it any other way; life with You would always be an adventure full of laughs and surprises.

Bada couldn't help but be thankful for the joyous chaos that You brought into her life as the two of you strolled away from the congregated audience hand in hand. After all, loving her fearless partner was an adventure in itself—one she cherished with all her heart.

[uptrafficau]

Roll In Style: The Ultimate Guide To Roller Skates For Women

Roller skating is a fun and exhilarating activity that has been enjoyed by people of all ages for decades. Whether you're a seasoned skater or just starting out, having the right roller skates can make all the difference in your experience. In this blog post, we will dive into the world of roller skate for women, exploring the various benefits and features to help you choose the perfect pair that suits your style and needs.

Embrace Your Personal Style

Roller skates for women come in a wide range of styles and designs, allowing you to express your unique personality. From classic retro vibes to vibrant and trendy patterns, there's a skate for every fashionista. 

Whether you prefer a sleek and minimalistic look or bold and eye-catching colours, you can find roller skates that not only perform well but also make a fashion statement.

Optimal Comfort for Endless Fun

Comfort is key when it comes to roller skating, and roller skate for women are designed with this in mind. They feature padded linings, cushioned insoles, and supportive ankle collars to ensure a snug and comfortable fit. Look for skates with adjustable closures, such as laces or straps, which allow you to customise the fit to your liking.  With the right pair of roller skates, you can skate for hours without discomfort.

Enhanced Performance and Manoeuvrability

Roller skates for women are specifically engineered to provide optimal performance and manoeuvrability. They often feature lightweight materials that make it easier to glide and perform tricks. High-quality wheels and bearings ensure smooth and effortless rolling, allowing you to skate with ease.  Whether you're cruising around the park or trying out some fancy footwork at the rink, the right roller skates will help you achieve your skating goals.

Versatility for Different Terrains

Roller skates for women are versatile and suitable for various terrains. If you prefer outdoor skating, look for skates with durable wheels designed for outdoor use. These wheels are typically larger and softer, providing better grip and shock absorption on uneven surfaces.  On the other hand, if you enjoy indoor skating at rinks, opt for skates with harder wheels that offer better speed and manoeuvrability on smooth surfaces.

Health Benefits and Active Lifestyle

Roller skating is not only a fun activity but also a fantastic way to stay active and improve your fitness. It engages multiple muscle groups, including your legs, core, and glutes, helping to tone and strengthen your body. Roller skates for women provide an excellent low-impact cardiovascular workout that is gentle on your joints while still offering a high level of enjoyment.  So, lace up your skates and roll your way to a healthier and more active lifestyle! Conclusion  In conclusion, roller skate for women offer a perfect combination of style, comfort, performance, versatility, and health benefits. With a wide range of options available, you can find the ideal pair that matches your personality and meets your skating needs.  So, whether you're looking to unleash your inner fashionista or embark on an exciting fitness journey, investing in roller skate for women is a step in the right direction.  Get ready to roll in style and enjoy countless hours of fun and adventure on wheels! Read the full article

[alwayshappyhoursomewhere]

This is such a complex discussion and it’s probably best to wait until more news about The Ice come out before speaking, but I also want to vent a bit and it’s better to do it here on tumblr rather than twitter.

Whatever the reasoning leading to the casting choice, and whoever specifically made the decision (and who supported it), it has absolutely everything to do with the organizers thinking that women skaters don’t sell, and therefore are superfluous in a show. If you go to any japanese show, or even competition, you quickly realize that the audience is 90% female, with the occasional husband-dragged-by-the-wife-to-see-the-show situation. It’s also mainly middle aged wealthier women, often housewives, who can afford to spend a lot of money and time to go to every show and get the expensive first row tickets and buy ten colantottes and four boxes of mizuno merch so they can have more chances to win a ticket to the fanmeeting with shoma.

it’s the classic scenario of the female fans of male idols, and we all know that they tend not to be very friendly towards other women (hence why in Japan idols hide their relationships as much as they can, for example). And although we like to think that skaters aren’t or shouldn’t be ‘idols’, that’s how the top (male) skaters are viewed and treated, to different extents. Yuzuru is of course the extreme example, but there’s a sizable portion of Shoma fans who act in similar ways, although the fanbase is more chill.

I do think there has been some backlash at The Ice casting announcement (I am talking about japanese twitter here, because the reaction of fans outside Japan is irrelevant in relation to ticket sales). However, it’s actually been hard for me to understand what the main taking points behind the backlash itself are. My impression is that the fact that women were excluded wasn’t the main complaint, it was more about pricing (some of those vip plans are absolutely insane and unheard of) and probably some direct criticism aimed at shoma from shoma haters and usual suspects (I haven’t seen much of either tbh, but I haven’t tried that hard to look for it).

What I did see instead (from the japanese half of my timeline, which is mostly shoma fans) has been a lot of self-righteousness and defensiveness and all kind of attempts to frame this decision as something needed (‘there are so many shows in Japan, they need to differentiate’) and courageous (‘they’re trying something bold and new!’), or simply dismissive of criticism, as in ‘if you don’t like the concept, don’t go to the show!’ Or ‘if you want to see women, go to dreams on ice!’ . Or my very favorite: ‘figure skating was always seen as a women’s sports, so it’s good to have a show focused on male skaters where they can express themselves’).

On the other hand, I have seen very few posts along the lines of ‘ok, it’s too early to speak and I still want to support shoma, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to decide not to cast women’. It feels like you either support everything, or you are a hater (which is how these things usually work on social media, but I was living with the delusion that this part of the fandom was indeed more chill. At the same time, it’s always the people with the most extreme views talking the loudest, so I suppose many fans are just quietly waiting to see what happens). Now, i’m bringing up shoma not as a personal attack on him (obviously) but because 1) shoma is the face of the ice (and he’s also said at soi that he will be taking a more active role during ice shows this summer - presumably referring to the ice), and 2) shoma is the main pull factor of the show. The fans filling the first rows and spending big are mainly shoma fans, and this goes for other shows as well. Of course fans are happy to see other skaters (especially if male), and there are some japanese skaters who are very popular (eg kazuki), but there’s really nobody else among the active skaters who is close to Shoma’s popularity right now.

[re: lack of japanese male singles skaters, if you look at the cast over the years, other than 2021 when they only had japanese skaters (due to covid), they were always few, with shoma being the only one to appear without interruption since 2016 (2022 and 2023 only had kazuki). The focus on international skaters isn’t something new.]

What really saddens me is that in all this mess the main issue, meaning women being excluded from the show as a conscious choice, is being nearly entirely forgotten and sidelined (and even subtly treated, by the Ice itself and by many fans, as one of those ‘look at us, we are the ones doing it differently and like all pioneers and entrepreneurs we might be misunderstood and criticized, but we believe in our vision and we are transparent about it!’).

In the end, the message they are sending to female skaters is ‘you are not needed and this fanbase doesn’t care about you’, which is even worse coming right after Kaori made history with her third gold. The Ice announcement came out the day before her birthday, too, which made the whole thing even more tone deaf and insensitive, but I digress. (Now, the reasons why Kaori isn’t the star she should rightfully be are probably many, but it really has a lot to do with the fact that she’s not seen as conventionally beautiful in Japan, and that matters a lot).

Finally, to be honest I’m starting to get tired of ‘a new concept is needed to differentiate from other ice shows and therefore survive’ being used as an excuse to justify the choice to exclude women (I’m referring to the Japanese fan base here). Of course this ��new concept’ did NOT ‘need’ to exclude women. They chose to go with it because it was maybe the easiest and more profitable way to draw in a certain kind of fanbase (the big spenders) with the promise of hot male skaters performing with each other and to taiko drums (do I want to see it myself? Fuck yes), while at the same time trying to attract people from outside of the skating fandom (maybe younger crowds, as shown by the fact that the cheap seats are quite cheap for an ice show, and that there are discounts for people going in pairs or groups).

and it’s really like… I am so intrigued by the concept but I’m so upset that they chose to go about it in the most backwards way they possibly could, one which makes me feel like I could never support the show even if I want to (I’m hoping some new information comes out and makes me change my mind).

I’ve even seen comparisons with Kassouya (because Kassouya as per Dai’s vision also focuses on a concept of ‘powerful’ and ‘fast’ skating), a comparison that made me considerably angry because Kassouya managed to be interesting and edgy and new and powerful WHILE HIGHLIGHTING ITS FEMALE SKATERS (side note: it also did what all other shows are too greedy to do, aka it downscaled things, made prices affordable, and didn’t act like Tokyo is the only place where you can make money - but I digress again).

tl;dr: this is a long vent post, I’m sad and disappointed (but not surprised) that the specific issue of women being excluded is not much of a talking point at all in japan, and I doubt it will impact sales much. Everyone is going to lose their minds the second shoma skates shirtless to taiko and we get a million videos on twitter (they’re being smart enough to allow smartphone photos and recordings this time, and the Aichi show is going to be used to lure the people waiting to see how the show looks like before buying their Tokyo tickets), and that’s going to be the end of the story.

(I am hoping to be proven wrong)

The Ice casting decision reeks of misogyny. It's doubly disappointing as a Japanese ice show considering just how good/deep their women's field is. Kaori not only being reigning world champion, but having made history with it just so recently, rubs salt even further into the wound. Makes me wonder if they're falling into the same thing I keep seeing posted on various platforms of the women's field being "not interesting" anymore - various arguments around this statement.

No matter the reasoning, it's extremely disappointing. Especially with just how they openly stated it to, though I guess it doesn't leave anyone wondering just how intentional it was to have them all left out.

Thank you for your thoughts! This probably serves as an answer for my poll. I am still using this to comment on some of your thoughts under the cut and share some additional points from my view.

The decision of an all male cast is strange and uncalled for especially considering their deep field of women. I really wonder what lead to that final decision. I totally get the disappointment and anger even if I like most skaters that are announced for the show. But tbh from my point of view Japan has a lot of mysoginistics way of thinking instilled in their culture, so internalized mysoginy may have played a part, even if probably or hopefully nobody went like "we hate women, so we don't want them". From the reaction by Japanese fans I came across the criticism wasn't as negative as the reaction from the English fandom. In the end the Japanese fans buy the tickets.

We can't tell if the producers buy into the "women skating is not interesting anymore" or if they have other reasons. There is not any justifiable reasons to exclude women single skaters imo! One thought appeared on my mind though: from my outside observation the Japanese single women skaters do not have the same "superstar" status as the male skaters in Japan and maybe that plays a part why they are deemed by producers as "not a selling point"???After Mao Asada no other female Japanese skater got as much attention. It's a shame especially as Kaori has three world titles now! She deserves so much better. All of the Japanese ladies deserve better in general! (Though the women discipline is popular with tv ratings in Japan yet I don't see the same hype around the women skaters as male skaters in the fandom and fans will attend shows not casual tv watchers. Again just an outsiders observation of the Japanese fandom, so by no means any sort of factbased.)

I also think it's maybe in Japan but to me it doesn't feel like a Japanese ice show, bc besides Kao and Shoma and Satoko if you can even count her as she isn't perfoming apparently (that's the wildest point imo to have Satoko and not have her skate 💀) there are not many Japanese skaters announced and I mean the men field in Japan is deep too. So when all male, where are they? Where is Sota, Yuma, Kazuki, Koshiro??? I mean Nika Egadze a stronger selling point than any of them? 🙃

Many things are worth criticizing but the transparancy of the "concept" is not a negative point for me. Transparancy is always good, even if it's not transparent about the reasons for an all male cast. It's better to sell tickets when ppl know what to expect than to let ppl buy tickets blindly expecting certain skaters that then would not fit their concept. They did try to sell tickets last year before anyone was announced and that seemed to have sparked criticism inside Japan, maybe a reason why there is a complete annoucement about their casting decisions, even if it wasn't a decision anyone asked for.

Maybe this decision for an all male cast is also just a promotion stunt. Whether we like it or not, it was a "hot topic" today in the fandom and trended on Jpn Twt.

Whatever lead to that decision I feel like one thing is clear looking at SOI (a show that has the same producer) that new concepts for ice shows are needed. As much as I hate the "empty seats" discussion, shows don't sell as strongly as they used to, not even in Japan (unless it's Yuzu's show but then it's also focused on a male skater and on one skater only). They need new concepts and I am not against having a new concept, but the big question is whether that new concept had to EXCLUDE women single skaters performing???? Absolutely not.

Only time will tell if their "concept" will get ppl interested to buy tickets or turned off. We'll find out in July. And frankly in the end our view doesn't matter much as the majority of us won't be the target audience for this show.

[sunskate]

Ice Dance Junior World Champions: change partners

2008 Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates🥇. Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier🥈. Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butakov🥉

2009 Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein🥇. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani🥈. Ekaterina Riazanova/Jonathan Guerreiro🥉

2010 Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov 🥇. Alexandra Paul/Mitchell Islam🥈. Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin🥉

2012 Viktoria Sinitsina/Ruslan Zhiganshin🥇. Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin🥈. Alexandra Aldridge/Daniel Eaton🥉

[uglytsumugi12]

shine▲polyhedric tri-lights 【ep 4】

♢ characters: natsume, sora, tsumugi, madara

♢ season: winter

― ☆ ―

Sora: HaHa~! HiHi~! HuHu~!

Ice skating is so funn~♪ Sora wants to jump just like a figure skater!

Madara: Hahaha. Sora still looks the same even while ice skating, doesn't he? Rather, he looks even more energetic than usual ♪

Now. What about the other two…

Natsume: WeLL, this is rather eaSY. We wouldn't want to make fools of ourselves in front of the puBLIC, after aLL.

I'm not bad at exercisING, I simply do not want to waste my enerGY. Please don't get the wrong idEA.

Madara: Ooh, you're right, Natsume-san. Although you tend to get overshadowed by Sora's unique physical abilities, your foundation is good!

By the way, I can't seem to find Tsumugi-san?— …Oh? That figure holding onto the railing at the entrance, that's….

Tsumugi: A- Ah, I'm okay! Look, I can even let go of the railing—

U- Uwaah–?!

…Haha. Looks like I accidentally fell~….

Marada: No way, no way! I would've never expected Tsumugi-san to know how to skate so well~¹

Natsume: You walk as pathetically as a newborn faWN. Where did all that boldness and self-praising from before GO?

Even your hair got completely frizzy from the coLD², mophEAD. SeriouSLY, I'm disappointed in yOU.

Tsumugi: Aah, what kind of insult is that…?!

I was confident until I started skating..~ When I was little, I knew how to skate quite well…

Perhaps growing taller has made me less agile.

Madara: Hmm. Tsumugi-san is so tall that keeping his balance is quite hard, isn't it? I guess that's part of the strenghts and weaknesses of having a nice figure.

Alright. Lemme escort you!

Hold my hands until you regain your childhood senses, Tsumugi-san ♪

Tsumugi: Thank you, Mikejima-kun.

Ahh, I didn't know skating after a long time would be so hard… I thought it was the same as cycling or swimming-- once you've learned it, you never forget it…

Maybe if I skate a bit, I'll be able to regain my old senses. Until then, thank you for helping me… ♪

Sora: HeHe~? Giant-san and senpai are sliding so elegantly, just like ballroom dancers.

Natsume: I think what you mean is more like ice dancING.

Either wAY, we only need to bring out the sporty apeal of Switch through extracurricular activitIES. I don't think it'd be possible for it to happen in such a short span of tIME.

..HM, looks like they're having fun over heRE. Come ON, let's skate on our oWN, SoRA.

Sora: Yes! Let's skate together so that we don't lose to them two!

Madara: Hehe. They look so full of energy, I kinda envy them.

Tsumugi: Mhm, you're right. This whole project... Sora-kun said he wanted to work on it. I find myself regretting having chosen Switch's form in it by myself before I was aware of that…

During the "Magic Lantern Fest"… He'd said that Switch will show to the world many beautiful things.

If Switch's future is to show to the world many of the stuff Sora-kun loves, then…

We'll have to show him things he might love in more details, like parkour, or other physical activities.

Ah… This will be quite the challenge, won't it?

Madara: What you're saying is really nice, though I doubt anyone would take you seriously with how you're waddling around like a toddler right now, y'know?

Well, I agree with you that the juniors--rather, the newcomers--are pretty much breaking our initial norms.

Like with the recent success of ALKALOID, CrazyB's boldness, and such.

They come from an outside system working differently from ours… And they're skillfully breaking the old traditions.

Hmm.. Oh! I think there's a more accurate precedent to them, right? Trickstar. They were the one to break Yumenosaki Academy's old system. Ah, I can't possibly talk about this topic without mentioning their story.

Tsumugi: That's right. And thanks to that happening, Eichi-kun also looks much happier than before…

Oh, speaking of newcomers… Oukawa-kun is also one of them, isn't he? I feel that since you've been more active in Double Face, your usual mood has also quite changed.

Now that we have something to protect, we're taking our unit activities much more seriously. I wonder if this has to do with the juniors' influence…

If so, I think it'd be very nice ♪

Madara: Ohh. Hm. I wonder, if I try to see things similarly to Tsumugi-san's point of view…

Well now that you mention it.. Right after ES was etablished, I was mostly working behind the scenes, which caused my idol activities in MaM to decrease.

Since Double Face was formed, I've been able to perform much more. I wonder if this is thanks to Kohaku-san's help.

Tsumugi: If I had to say, I do think it is~♪

I'll have to learn from you. In no way must I disturb Sora-kun and Natsume-kun's development.

I feel that if I do this… They'll be the ones inspiring me to climb even higher.

Madara: Haha, those youngsters… They grow faster everyday. If you're too slow for them, they might not even wait for you to catch up!

First of all, we gotta get you to skate! C'mon, do you think you can try without slipping?

Tsumugi: Yes! I'll do my best…♪

—

1- the phrasing doesnt rly go like this but id thought itd fit mama more in a teasing/ironic way LMAO 2- here natsume uses a term like..."white fur" which is kinda like how animals have their fur standing on end when its cold outside. which also kinda bring back to the fawn as well

― ☆ ― ♢ previous chapter ♢ next chapter

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[morningfears]

Drag Me Down

Rating: M | This is smut! No one under 18!

Summary: You and hockey player!Calum have an interesting relationship. Is it flirting? Is it harmless fun? Regardless of what it is, it landed you an ice skating lesson that ends in so much more than a new skill. (Featuring prompts [yes, I’m still writing those] 1 and 3 for @thesubtweeter​ | Semi-public sex? (I mean, the rink is empty but in an ice rink)

Word Count: 6k

As unusual as it was, even for a Saturday morning, the campus ice rink was empty. It sat devoid of life and silent, save for the sound of your shoes hitting the concrete floor, and you clutched your jacket a little tighter to your body as you felt a chill rush over you. Though you’d only been in the building a handful of times, and only ever on game days, it was cooler than you’d ever felt - something you attributed to the lack of occupants milling about the vast space - and you almost regretted the outfit you’d chosen for your meeting (you weren’t sure that you could call it a date, though you desperately wanted it to be one) with Calum.

You felt slightly self-conscious, dressed in a black skater skirt with a white t-shirt tucked in and a jean jacket a friend had painted for you thrown over top, and wished you’d gone for something more practical - like jeans, maybe a nice sweater - but when you spotted Calum leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs, you didn’t have much time to agonize over your decision. He was dressed comfortably, in a pair of black jeans and the green Empathy hoodie you longed to steal from him, and watched as you crossed the empty space to meet him. It was then, the look he gave you - a slight raise of his eyebrows, a quick swipe of his tongue over his lips, a ghost of a smirk - that made you decide that, no, you didn’t regret your choice at all.

You wouldn’t admit it, not out loud, but if it got Calum to look at you like that, you would gladly put up with any amount of frozen limbs. 

You felt a slight charge in the air as you approached him. It was an ever present tension, always there whenever you were around Calum, and it was almost too much for you to handle. The air felt thick with electricity, an underlying current that made your heart begin to beat just a bit faster and the butterflies begin to swirl in the pit of your stomach as goosebumps pricked at your skin. It was instantaneous, the only response to his gaze you seemed to be capable of, and you were both aware of it.

Your head felt muddled with too many thoughts, all of them about Calum, and time seemed to slow as you closed the remaining gap between the two of you. You finally stood close enough to smell his cologne, a scent so heavily associated with Calum that you’d never again be able to smell it without thinking of him, and lost yourself in your proximity.

You hated the effect that he had on you, that he was able to turn you into a lovesick fool with one glance in your direction, because you honestly had no idea where you stood with him. Some days you imagined he liked you as much as you liked him, that he caught a whiff of your perfume and felt his heart pound in his chest and his cheeks heat with a bright pink flush. Others, you wondered if he was just enjoying toying with you because there was no way he could be as interested in you as you were in him.

On those days, the days where your thoughts ran in an unpleasant direction, you reminded yourself that Calum wasn’t like that. Though he was one of your university’s most well-loved hockey players, one of the team’s stars since his freshman season, and a well-loved figure on campus, he was genuinely a good guy. He had a big heart, bursting with love, and would never string you along. 

Not when you made it so fucking obvious just how head over heels you were for him.

Although Calum was friends with almost everyone, and at least respected by those he wasn’t friends with, you never imagined that you’d find yourself counted amongst them. You ran in completely different circles, lived completely different lives, but the universe had thrown you together in Chemistry 101 and, well, who were you to question the universe?

You were almost ashamed to admit it but when you first met, on the first day of your chemistry lab, you expected Calum to leave all of the work to you. Although you found him attractive - your friends joked that they’d never seen you stare at anything that wasn’t a textbook that long - you assumed he’d be like everyone else, quickly realizing that you were a stickler for good grades and taking advantage of that. You assumed he’d be another asshole, ashamed to be seen even looking in your direction, however, you were sorely mistaken.

Calum was smart, brilliant, even, and driven. He worked just as hard as you did on lab reports and put in an equal amount of effort every time the pair of you put your heads together to figure out a new set of problems. You divided the out of class activities evenly and met an hour before lab to finishing compiling the work into one cohesive document. He took his studies seriously, just as you did, and you felt guilty for assuming the worst.

What made you feel even worse, though, was that you’d assumed the worst of him as a person, too.

You’d been paired with athletes before, football and basketball and baseball and soccer players, that were all incredibly difficult to deal with. They never spoke to you unless it was to ask for the answers to the online quizzes and you felt certain that Calum was going to be the same. But, to your surprise, he was incredibly easy to get along with.

He was quiet for the first few classes, observing you as you worked and only really commenting on the lab work, but when he figured you out - you later realized that that was what he’d been doing, deciphering you as if you were some sort of puzzle - he threw you for a loop.

Your relationship began with teasing remarks, little jabs here and there about how cute it was to hear the good girl swear when you made a mistake or how much he liked flustering you whenever he sat a little closer than normal, and pet names. You wondered, briefly, if those were just because he’d forgotten your name but that thought was erased when he wrote it at the top of a lab report before tossing it into the pile on the professor’s desk.

He’d been doing it for months and though you couldn’t exactly say you’d gotten used to it - hearing him call you ‘pretty girl’ or tease you for saying ‘fuck’ wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you got used to -, you’d come to expect it. His words still made your heart race and your face heat, especially as he seemed to grow bolder and bolder with each week that passed, but you knew that you’d miss whatever the pair of you had the moment it was gone.

You wanted to believe that he was genuinely flirting with you, that the compliments and pet names meant something, and that he had a genuine interest in you but your insecurities sometimes got the better of you and you wondered if he just enjoyed watching you trip over your own tongue whenever he got particularly bold. He could’ve had anyone, anyone at all, so why would he choose you?

But, as you attempted to ground yourself in the present, you realized that you couldn’t bring yourself to ask that question and risk putting an end to him doting on you. So, whatever it was that linked the pair of you, you resigned yourself to simply settling in for the ride and letting whatever was going to happen, happen.

And spending the day alone with Calum was what was happening.

You liked to believe that ending up in an empty ice rink with Calum was the universe, once again, meddling in your life. You hadn’t planned this, you’d intended to spend your day off on your couch with a bowl of popcorn and a bad movie, but those plans had gone up in smoke (not that you really minded) when you mentioned wanting to learn to ice skate as you and Calum waited for your professor to hand out the week’s lab assignment.

He’d spotted the bruises on your knees from a fall you’d taken at the roller rink, a collision with an overly ambitious teenager, and spent a solid few minutes teasing you - “You sure that’s what happened? Hm. If you say so, pretty girl.” - before accepting your explanation. As your cheeks burned from the insinuation (and the few fantasies that managed to nestle into the darkest gutters of your mind), he’d asked, “Do you just roller skate or can you ice skate?”

When you lamented your inability to ice skate, or inline skate, and expressed a desire to learn, Calum wore the brightest smile you’d ever seen. It was beautiful, truly happy and almost giddy with excitement, and you committed it to memory without even noticing. “Meet me at the rink on Saturday,” he instructed, “I’ll teach you.”

You were rendered speechless, surprised that he wanted to spend time with you out of class, and didn’t register that it wasn’t a question (though you both knew your answer would’ve been yes if it was). You nodded dumbly, too awed to dwell on the fear you held for ice skating, as you watched him take the assignment sheet from your professor. “I’ve got a friend who has some skates you can borrow.” He paused then, his eyes narrowing and his lips curling into a smirk, before he added, “This’ll give you an excuse to hold my hand.”

Though he said it jokingly, you both knew that his words held nothing but truth; you would’ve jumped at the opportunity to touch him - or have him touch you - and here he was, handing it to you without a second thought.

The moment you left lab that day, you were a mess of emotions. You were ecstatic, thrilled to be seeing Calum outside of class, and surprised that he wanted to see more of you. But, beneath your excitement, you were petrified. You always had an out, a solid limit to the amount of time you spent together, and you were worried that with no clock ticking away the minutes, you would do or say something that broke whatever spell Calum had to be under. You were nervous, unsure of what you could talk about and what he was expecting of you. You were also nervous about being on the ice.

You knew that you were going to spend your morning falling on your ass, in front of the man who occupied most of your thoughts, as your balance was shaky even as you stood on solid ground. And this was the first time Calum would be seeing you outside of class and the occasional game. He was used to seeing you dressed down, casual and comfortable for a long day of classes or after work, so you wanted to make a good impression.

The knee high socks you usually reserved for street skating and the heeled boots that you’d only worn a handful of times weren’t exactly practical but practicality was not on the agenda for the day.

The silence between you only lasted for a moment but as your thoughts moved at the speed of light, it seemed to drag on forever. Calum took his time drinking in the sight of you, his eyes lingering on the exposed expanse of thigh, and you tried not to let him see how nervous you really were as you sank your teeth into your bottom lip and waited for him to speak.

“You didn’t have to get so dressed up for me.” His voice held the teasing lilt you loved to hear, an amused tone that told you he took joy in the way your cheeks heated and your eyes dropped from his chest to the floor. “But you look cute, pretty girl. I like the socks.” Your flush deepened as you snuck a look at him from beneath your lashes and caught sight of the smirk that looked like it belonged on his face. After a beat of silence, of waiting for you to retort with something witty - a feat that you had yet to manage, though you desperately wanted to throw him off his game at least once -, he reached into his bag and handed you a pair of skates. “Here. These should fit you.”

He watched, his eyes shining in the bright rink lights, as you studied the pair of strawberry red ice skates - Moxi skates, the same as your roller skates - in your hands. When you grinned, he breathed a quiet laugh before turning and gesturing for you to follow him down the stairs. You trailed behind him, your eyes on his back as he headed for the bench, and only sat beside him when he patted the wood to his left.

He dropped his bag to the floor and pulled out his own skates, the hockey skates he wore with a sturdier boot and blade than the ones you were borrowing, before making quick work of lacing them up. Lacing your skates was the only ability you felt confident in so you worked alongside him, your fingers yanking the beige laces tight around your ankles, and failed to notice his gaze on you as you secured them.

“You could’ve had me on my knees.” When you shot him a bewildered look, your eyes wide and lips parted in confusion, Calum grinned and gestured to your skates. “I was going to be chivalrous and lace up your skates for you but it looks like you don’t need me,” he teased, a laugh leaving his lips as he watched you return to the task at hand and tie your laces in a bow. “But that’s alright. I can still dream of getting you on your knees.”

You bit your lip, cheeks burning as you chose to ignore Calum’s teasing words, and shook your head to clear it as you pressed your feet into the floor to test the fit of your skates. “Lacing skates is the easy part,” you answered with a shrug. “It’s, well, everything else that I’m worried about.”

As he always seemed to do, Calum continued on like nothing out of the ordinary had been said and nodded as he stood from the bench. “I would lie and tell you that I won’t let you fall but you’ve been known to call me on my bullshit, so, I’ll try my best not to let you fall. How’s that?” He offered you his hand, a laugh leaving his lips as you wobbled upon standing, and you did your best to hide the pout you knew was coming.

“Doesn’t really make me hopeful that I won’t be leaving with a sprain of some sort or maybe a sliced off finger,” you mumbled, hands still clasped in his as you tried to find your footing on the mat by the bench, “but I appreciate the honesty. Alright, let’s do this. The faster I fall, the less afraid I’ll be. I think.”

“Oh, well, in that case,” Calum began, his hands loosening their grip on yours as he took a half step back, “I could just let you go on your own, then. You could get a few falls in while I take a few laps and warm up.” He offered a nonchalant shrug, sparing a quick glance out at the ice, but you could tell that he was joking by the look in his eyes when he met your gaze once more and how his grip on your hands loosened but didn’t let go completely.

“Absolutely not.” You tried to sound stern, firm in your insistence that he remain by your side, but the words came out in a laugh as you tightened your hold on him. “If I go down,” you began as you lingered near the entrance to the ice, “I’m taking you with me.”

Calum laughed at your comment and shook his head as he watched you stare out at the ice with a concentrated frown on your lips. That was still fairly new, you were still finding your footing when it came to teasing him back, but it was welcome. He enjoyed it almost - but not quite - as much as making you blush.

He’d asked, as soon as the comments and little jabs started to veer into flirtier territory, if they made you uncomfortable. You’d assured him that they didn’t. When he asked for your permission to keep the comments coming, to keep flirting and teasing, you gave it to him enthusiastically.

You wouldn’t admit it, not out loud and not to Calum, but you loved the feeling his teasing brought you. You loved the burn you felt in your cheeks and the butterflies you felt in the pit of your stomach. You loved the way his shoulders lifted and he smirked after making you look away or lose your train of thought. You loved being left speechless, unable to do anything but giggle or bite your lip, and you knew that Calum loved it, too.

It was the best part of your week, and his, and you were both content with it being nothing more than a bit of fun - for the time being, anyway.

“If you wanted me on top of you, all you had to do was ask. Would’ve been much easier than all of this,” he said, gesturing out at the ice as he sent a teasing wink in your direction. He bit back his laughter as your gaze dropped to your feet and stepped out onto the ice, your hand still firmly in his grasp.

“Who says you’ll wind up on top?” It was said beneath your breath, a huff of words that you didn’t even have time to think about until they were already out of your mouth, but Calum heard you loud and clear. He raised his eyebrows, surprised by your retort, and laughed as he watched your eyes widen and your mouth drop open. “I… that’s not what I, I didn’t mean - fuck.”

“You didn’t mean fuck? Sure sounds like you did.” He knew what you meant, the smirk on his lips told you as much, but he was clearly enjoying watching you attempt to clarify your words. When you opened your mouth once again, only to find yourself unable to speak, he shook his head. “Relax, pretty girl.” His voice was soft, soothing but with an underlying hint of amusement, as he gestured for you to step out onto the ice. “I’m just messing with you. Come on, out on the ice. Don’t go stiff. Try to relax and don’t watch your feet.”

You tried to push the burning embarrassment you felt out of your mind as he pulled you out onto the ice, your hands intertwined as he skated backwards. He remained quiet, his eyes trained on you as you furrowed your brows in concentration and desperately tried to remind yourself not to stare at your feet. You tried to watch him, instead, and tried to copy his footwork but he made it look so effortless.

You struggled to stay standing and you were certain that you were holding Calum’s hands tight enough to cut off the circulation but he didn’t seem to mind. “Keep your knees bent and try to put your weight on the balls of your feet,” he instructed as he watched you attempt to shuffle your feet.

Calum bit back the teasing comments he wanted to make as he watched you attempt to keep your balance. You looked so focused and desperate to get it right that he didn’t want to shake the little bit of confidence you were managing to build. Instead, he said, “You missed the game last night.”

You nodded, slightly distracted as you tried not to lose your balance, and offered an apology. “I was planning on coming but I had to fill in for a coworker. Didn’t figure you’d miss me.” You shot him a smile, glancing at him from beneath your lashes, and he shook his head fondly.

“Can’t help it when the loudest supporter in the building isn’t here,” he teased. You felt your cheeks heat and you dipped your head to return your gaze to the ice as you allowed him to continue pulling you along. 

It was no secret that you got into the games. It was almost expected that you and your roommate would be the loudest fans in attendance, ready to yell at any player or official or fan who stepped out of line, and he was right. It would be hard not to miss the pair of you. 

“I just get passionate, okay?” You huffed a sigh, pretending to be annoyed by his teasing, but you’d heard from a mutual friend that he loved the support - and hearing you curse when someone hit him a little too hard - so you kept it up. “And, I mean, I need to get my aggression out somewhere.”

“Aggression?” Calum raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing that you were capable of any real aggression - your rants were never truly aggressive, never really angry, and always adorable to him, anyway -, and laughed as he nodded. “Sure. You’re aggressive and I’m the Queen.”

“Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.” Your words dripped with sarcasm but Calum’s face remained impassive as he watched your lips curl into a pout. “No one around here appreciates my sense of humor,” you grumbled, more for the sake of saying something than to actually complain.

“Your sense of humor is comprised of the worst puns known to man, jokes that only you understand, and sarcasm that you explain so you don’t hurt any feelings.” You gaped at him, feigning offense though you knew his description was accurate, and tugged your hands away from his grip.

“Wow. Okay, well, I think that’s my cue to try and skate without you holding my hand, thank you very much.” It was a struggle to keep a straight face, especially when he smirked as you started shaking the moment you let go of his hands, but you tried your hardest as you focused on the ice beneath your feet.

“Have it your way,” he hummed as he skated just far enough away from you to be out of your reach. “This’ll be a good time to teach you how to stand back up.” 

“Are my puns really that bad?” You hadn’t moved more than a few inches as you wobbled on your skates. Calum remained close to you, always out of reach but close enough to move in if you really needed him, and laughed at your question.

“Yes. They’re shit. But they’re cute coming from you.” It was high praise coming from him - he gave compliments but they were often shrouded in teasing jabs - so you took it for what it was and grinned at him. However, before you could thank him - and maybe tease him for liking your awful puns - you felt yourself beginning to fall.

“Don’t flail,” he reminded you as he moved closer to reach out and grab your hand and stabilize you. “You’ll break-“ Before he could finish his sentence, your panic took you both down.

True to his prediction, Calum ended up on top of you. He reached out to keep the full impact of his weight off of you and you both groaned as your back - and bare legs - hit the ice while his hands hit beside your head. You were both quiet for a moment, taking in the shock of the impact, before he laughed. “Don’t land on your hands,” he instructed you. “You could break something.”

You barely heard the words that left his lips. You were more focused on the fact that his lips were inches away from your own. He was checking to make sure you hadn’t hit your head, his hand freezing as he grabbed your chin and lifted your head to look him in the eye, but nothing - not even a potential concussion - mattered when you could feel his weight on you.

“You could at least pretend that you’re not enjoying this.” It was a joke, the words laced with the teasing lilt you would never be able to disassociate with Calum, and it was said as he shifted a little closer to you. You held your breath and let your eyes slip shut, waiting for him to lean in and press his lips to yours, but after a moment of silence, you had yet to feel anything.

When you opened your eyes, you were met with sight of Calum smirking at you. “We should get up. Don’t want you to freeze.” It took everything you had not to scream in frustration as he pushed himself to his feet and steadied himself before reaching out to help you up.

Calum didn’t hesitate to laugh at the pout on your lips when you finally managed to get back on your feet. You weren’t happy with him, clearly, but he loved seeing you squirm as you shied away from his gaze. He wanted to leave you in suspense, to make you wait until the very end of the lesson, but you’d suffered enough. He knew that your legs were going to be bruised - just as your ego already was - so he gave in. “Come here, pretty girl,” he laughed, using his hold on your hand to pull you a little closer to him.

You kept your hopes to a minimum, half-convinced he was teasing you yet again, but to your pleasant surprise, he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours. It was a quick kiss, a barely there press of his lips against yours, but it was enough to send your heart rate skyrocketing and set your blood on fire. Your skin burned where his fingers touched and you found yourself warm for the first time since you stepped foot into the rink.

All too soon, the kiss was over. Calum pulled away from you and grinned at the way you blinked away the stars you’d seen. He gave you a moment to compose yourself before he released his hold on your hands and began skating away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Your voice had a whining tinge to it, more desperate for his touch than you would like to admit, and you couldn’t seem to stop the words that were spilling past your lips. “We were in the middle of something!”

“You catch me, you get another kiss. You came for a skating lesson, didn’t you?” 

You both knew that you wouldn’t have said yes solely for the ice skating lesson and you both knew that you wouldn’t have worn the outfit you did without reason but it wouldn’t be Calum if he gave you what you wanted without getting something in return. So, you nodded.

Your pout slowly faded as you attempted to follow Calum around the rink. He never strayed too far from you, just far enough that you couldn’t reach out and touch him, and made conversation as you grew more confident on your skates. The pair of you talked about school and music, about movies and plans for your holidays. You asked about his friends and him about yours. It was casual, the easiest conversation you’d had in years, and you didn’t want it to end.

However, you finally saw an opening and decided that you’d rather return to the conversation later than miss your opportunity to kiss Calum again.

He’d been consistent in his speed, moving slow enough to remain near you but fast enough to put distance between you, but found himself slowing as he got lost in the conversation. It took you longer than you would’ve liked to notice how close he was but when you finally did, you grinned and moved in to grab his hand.

“I caught you!”

Calum glanced down at your hand in his and smirked, shaking his head when he realized that you had, in fact, caught him. “Well, I’m a man of my word.”

Just as he had done earlier, Calum brought his hand to cup your cheek and leaned in to press his lips to yours. This time, you were prepared. You pressed closer to him, desperately wishing you could feel his body heat, and lost yourself in his embrace. As your hands moved to tangle in his hair, his hands moved to grip your hips. He pulled you closer to him, pressing you tight against his body, and deepened the kiss.

You would’ve been content to remain there forever, desperate for a breath of fresh air but unwilling to take it as that would mean parting from Calum, but he knew that would be a disaster waiting to happen. It was hard enough to keep you both balanced, he didn’t think he could manage with even more of a distraction. So, he pulled away from the kiss and grabbed your hand.

Calum pulled you across the ice without a word, his hand warm in your own. You wanted to ask what he was doing but found yourself unable to speak. You felt tongue tied and fuzzy headed so you relinquished your control to him. When you made it back to the bench, Calum took a seat and pulled you down onto his lap. He immediately returned his lips to yours as his hands slipped beneath your jacket.

You sat there for what felt like a lifetime, your hands tangled in his hair as his moved from your waist to brush the tops of your thighs just beneath your skirt. You were content to remain there, just kissing him, but Calum had other plans.

Calum lifted you from his lap and gestured toward your skates. It took a moment for you to realize what he meant but when you saw him untying his own, you followed his lead. You made quick work of unlacing your skates and returning to cover to the blades before passing them to Calum. He shoved them into his bag, alongside his own, before he stood from the bench and slung it over his shoulder. He reached out a hand to you and guided you through the rink to the locker room.

It wasn’t ideal, and definitely not what you imagined your first time sleeping with Calum would be like, but you didn’t really have it in you to care as he dropped his bag onto the ground and crowded you against a set of lockers.

You didn’t care if you were technically in a public space where anyone could interrupt. You didn’t care that your body ached from your fall earlier. You didn’t care that the metal of the lockers dug into your skin.

The only thing that mattered was the feeling of Calum’s lips on yours, his hands on your skin, his body pressed against yours. You couldn’t focus on anything in particular, not when the feeling of Calum was so overwhelming, so you stopped trying to make sense of anything that was happening and just let yourself enjoy it.

You tugged at his curls as his hands dipped a little higher beneath your skirt. “This okay?” he asked, his voice muffled against the column of your throat. When you breathed your consent, he hummed against your skin and let his fingers explore the expanse of your inner thighs before his thumb brushed your slit over your panties.

“‘M glad you wore a skirt,” he confided, his voice quiet as he pulled away just enough to get a look at your face. “Makes this easier.”

“Glad I didn’t wear shorts under it,” you agreed, voice breathy and high as you gripped Calum’s biceps when his fingers nudged your panties to the side.

Calum didn’t bother to retort as he teasingly dragged his fingers along your slit. You took the time to return his kisses, pressing your lips to his neck and nipping at his warm skin. You felt like this was a dream and hoped desperately that you wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.

Calum took his time teasing you, brushing his thumb over your clit and rubbing barely there circles before moving away. You weren’t surprised, it was just like him to tease you even as you were willingly giving him whatever he wanted, but you were frustrated as you begged him for something more.

He pressed his lips to yours to silence your begging - and the moan that he knew was inevitable - before he slipped a finger into your heat. He took his time, far longer than he should have given your location, working you open. You were grateful for his kiss as it kept you from making far too much noise as he worked his way to two fingers and began circling your clit with his thumb.

“Are you sure you want this?” He wanted to be sure, certain that you really wanted him, because no amount of flirting and teasing equaled consent.

“Yes, Cal. Please.” Your words came out as a whine, your lips parted as your hands desperately clung to his biceps. He nodded, glad that you were so enthusiastic, before he unbuttoned his jeans and pulled away to grab a condom from his bag.

It only took a moment for him to slip inside you. Once he bottomed out, he stilled for a long moment to allow you both time to adjust. When you started shifting, desperate to feel him, he began to move. It felt like hours passed, feeling Calum fill you in the best way, but you had no way of telling how much time passed as you felt yourself barreling closer and closer to your end. With his thumb on your clit and his lips on your neck, you found yourself unable to do anything but breathe his name.

Your orgasm hit you harder than any other ever had. You imagined it was the build up, the months of verbal foreplay that made the reality that much sweeter, and swore you saw stars as you cried his name. He followed after, his hips stilling against yours as he rode out his own pleasure, and he remained still against you as you both worked to catch your breath.

“That’s definitely not how I expected to spend my Saturday,” you informed him, your voice breathless as he pulled away from you and helped you steady yourself on legs that felt like jelly.

“If telling yourself that helps you sleep at night…” Calum tossed you a wink, his cheeks flushed from the exertion and his hair slightly damp with sweat. “But I don’t hear any complaints.”

“Shut up,” you huffed, biting back laughter as you adjusted your clothes. “No complaints, other than how sore I’m going to be tomorrow. Don’t know if you know this, but ice is really fucking hard and leaves a bruise when you fall on it.”

“Seriously? I had no idea. Come on,” Calum nodded toward the exit, his arm moving to wrap around your shoulders as his other held his bag. “There’s a diner near here.”

“Isn’t this a little backward? Sex and then a date?”

“Who said anything about a date?”

When you fixed him with a look, your eyes conveying the panic you felt in that moment, Calum grinned. “We’re not doing anything out of order. What do you call the skating lesson? Give me a little credit, pretty girl.”

“You’re gonna give me a heart attack, Cal,” you huffed, your arms folding over your chest as you let him lead you out of the building.

“Get out of your head and live in the moment. Be aggressive.”

You huffed again, your cheeks heating with embarrassment as you reached out to playfully whack his stomach. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“You have no idea, pretty girl.”

____________________________________________________

Author’s Note: .....this got way long. Anyway. I had an idea and ran with it. I really want to go ice skating, my dudes. And hockey!Cal just....does something to me. Also the inspo for this. Oof. I’m sorry.

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[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

the story of us

this was requested by @fantasylover16. I genuinely had so much fun with this thank you! I hope you enjoy. Also I said nb jack frost rights and I meant it.

masterlist; my links

This is a story about two people.

One died three hundred years ago and has been alive since then. They have white hair, whiter than the stars, than burning light, than heaven itself. They have blue eyes that remind you of cracked ice in melting winter. They have ivory skin, some say like porcelain, it's more like liquid opal.

The other is twenty two years old. He has black hair, like jet fuel, and midnight. He has green eyes that hold oceans lost to time, that hold memories. He has brown skin that reminds you of cool forest floors and water glistened rock.

This is a story about who they are.

"Percy!" His roommate shouts from the kitchen. "Get your butt down here and tell me if the blue skirt goes better with these glasses!"

He laughs as he pulls a sweater over his heads and grabs his phone, slipping it into his back pocket. He feels the press of his pen as he pats himself down to make sure he has everything and when he is satisfied he bolts down the passage and stops short of the kitchen where Hazel Levesque is parading in front of their grand mirror on the opposing wall. She is decked out in black platform ankle boots, white fishnets that draw out the colour of her skin, slightly dark than his, a bright blue skater skirt and a soft pastel blue crew-neck not unlike his own.

"You Hazel Levesque," He grins bright and unrestrained, "Are a vision."

"Yes," She mutters still swopping between two pairs of clear-framed glasses and scrunching her nose, "But is it enough to bring my crush to their knees?"

"If Reyna doesn't bow down to you I think we can assume she's in desperate need of glasses."

"Well then maybe I should take both pairs and offer her one." She muses, pulling at her afro distractedly.

He snorts, turning to the counter and grabbing a bowl and whatever cereal he can reach first.

"Well," Hazel turns to him, he can see the smile she's trying so hard to hide, "Shall we be off then?"

He blinks at her, blinks again, points an unsure finger at his chest.

"Oh you don't expect me to brave Reyna on my own do you? Besides we're matching today it'd be quite ridiculous if we went out separately."

"But—" He looks to his bowl, as barren as the desert, "But my cereal?"

"I'll buy you breakfast on the way!" She waves the concern off, grabbing his hand and pulling them both out the door.

Despite their height difference, she makes it look far less like he's letting her pull him and far more like she has the strength to straight up carry him across the country.

"Hazel," He giggles, "Slow down."

"I can't Percy," She shakes her head vigorously, practically running through the park next to their building and into the bustling streets beyond. "If I don't do this now I'll lose all my courage and spend eternity in self-damned misery." Her brown eyes, turning honeyed as they catch the sun through the round glasses framing her face, flash bright and bold.

He stops them, pulling her in for a hug, unable to stop the laughter shaking his body." You have never been a coward Hazel Levesque. No matter the day, time or outfit you have always been brave enough to stand up and do what's needed. And telling Reyna you have a crush on her is just another battle you absolutely can win." He pulls them apart, setting a steady green gaze on her excited one. "Now let's get some coffee, and a mint tea for you because you're hyper enough as it is, and then we'll go find the love of your life and I can finally show you the google-doc I have for your wedding."

She strangles his ribs in another hug and then takes a deep breath as she steps away. "What would I do without you Percy Jackson?"

"Let's never find out," He smiles, slinging an arm over her shoulder and directing them towards the Chaos House.

As per its namesake, walking into the café is like being lost in a crowd of sleep-deprived, adhd kids all connected to caffeine IVs. In short: it's chaos. Its their favourite place on earth.

Being hit with a wall of noise after the quiet of awakening nature feels like being sucker punched directly in your ear canal. Percy cannot help but grin as he takes in the racing patrons and the sound of coffee beans being ground and the smell of cinnamon and honey and endless activity.

They immediately spot a group of their friends and bolt for the booth they're all squished into.

"Reyna isn't here." Hazels voice is pitched with panic, "Oh gods what if she's sick today? What if she fell in a ditch on her jog this morning?" She stops right in the middle of the café, brown eyes wide. "What if she knew I was trying to do this and decided to stay home today to avoid seeing me?"

He grabs her arms already shaking his head. "My darling, I need you to take a deep breath. You are spiraling."

Wildness is still tracing her expression but he feels her shoulders rise and fall as she gulps air.

"Okay," He says gently, "Now we're gonna go to our table, have a good time with our friends and if and when Reyna shows up you're going to tell her how you feel and I'll meet you back at home so you can let me know when the wedding is."

She smacks his shoulder gently, nervous giggles escaping her. "Alright fine. I hate when you get reasonable. It's very disconcerting."

"Good thing it's rare," His lips twitch, and they finally start towards their friends.

A loud chorus of hellos and how are you’s ring around his head as they get nearer and he feels right at home amongst it all.

"What's up losers?" He flops down next to Jason, pressing a shoulder into the blondes side in a hug.

Annabeth sits next to the blonde, squished between him and Piper, a leg over Jason's thigh and her hand intertwined with Piper's. Frank is on the opposite side, a casual arm slung over Leo's shoulder. Hazel squeezes in besides Leo and sighs dramatically.

"What's wrong Levesque?" Piper frowns, reaching over to clasp the girl's hand.

"She's feeling put out because she had something very important to do today and her plans are being delayed because a certain someone isn't here."

And just as their friends start reassuring and ribbing her in equal parts Percy's phone rings. With a frown he pulls it from his pocket, as he gets up and waves to say he'll be back in a minute.

"Hello, this is Percy Jackson."

He's not paying attention to his surroundings as he listens to the person on the line so when his shoulder slams into somebody he almost topples to the ground. When he turns around to say sorry there is nobody there; his frown only deepens but then the voice on the phone is pulling his attention and he makes his way outside.

This is story about they meet.

The conversation is a whirl of information about his upcoming course and what his supervisor needs from him. By the time he ends the call and tucks the phone back in his pocket his whole body feels like it's taken on the sky all over again. He has the urge to check if another grey streak has graced his hair. Instead he leans against the wall, ignoring the way his clothes catch against its roughness. He can feel the cold seeping through the cracks in the brick and into the threads of his sweatshirt.

He looks down, pulling his arms over his chest in an attempt to keep the warmth in but as he takes his arms away from the wall he sees the frost outline of his fingers. A clear, already melting handprint marking the brick like a graffiti tag. He steps back, away from the wall, to find his whole body outlined. It reminds him eerily of the chalk markings they do at murder investigations. He's not entirely sure this isn't prophetic.

The frost, little beads of ice skittered in shape, is melting at a rapid rate but the colour catches Percy's eye. It's not the usual dulled, muddy ice that coats his windows in the morning and sits atop the grass each night. It is blue, bright and pure, and looks... happy?

He's definitely going insane. The lack of coffee is getting to his brain and he has officially going mad. He should go inside and get warm and sit with his friends and have 3 espresso shots in a row.

But the phone call is still rattling his nerves and he can't bare to face the café without all his wits about him. So he studies the melted frost outline, curiosity moving him forward to trace it with his fingers. He doesn't expect to feel cold like winter mornings and snowball fights and sleigh rides coursing through his bloodstream. It's shocks him right into a new state of being. It reminds him of a poem his mother used to say at the beginning of each winter. The poem was long enough that he was always asleep by the end of the last verse but he recalls the first part clearly now

Jack Frost was in the garden;

I saw him there at dawn;

He was dancing round the bushes

And prancing on the lawn.

He had a cloak of silver,

A hat all shimm'ring white,

A wand of glittering star-dust,

And shoes of sunbeam light.

The thought is so ridiculous Percy has to laugh. It bursts out of him unexpectedly but once he starts he cannot stop. It feels like the world has turned on its side but he's still walking upright. Everything is slightly dizzying but strangely amusing from this angle. He laughs harder, ribs aching, cheeks stiff, and eyes bright. He's sure people are staring at him like he's mad but he cannot stop. Until he stumbles over the pavement and is falling to the inevitable crunch of his facial bones.

It happens almost in slow motion. He sees the ground coming towards him, bubbling up like it's going to swallow him whole. He stared it down, refusing to close his eyes, as if challenging it to hurt him, to take him as he goes. But then hands, freezing cold even through his layers of clothing, wrap around his waist and he is being hauled up in a rush of wind and dizzying speed. He bumps into a hard chest and feels as if he's stepped into a freezer.

"Hey," A voice low and playful crackles through him, "You okay?"

He turns around slowly, and is not at all prepared for the site he is greeted with. There is so much all at once, startling and glowing and fracturing. His eyes catch an warm icy gaze, blizzard white hair, pale skin, cold-kissed lips, hands running with blue veins and silver rings.

"You okay?" The stranger repeats, looking at him with concern.

He honestly doesn't know if he has the ability to talk. His mouth opens, his throat bobs, but words are lost cargo.

"Can you hear me?" The stranger asks, accompanying the question with sign language.

Percy responds automatically, raising a fist and moving it back and forth; his head accompanies the action but still no words come out.

They smile at him, and start signing another question. He doesn't bother to stop them, tell them they aren't deaf, he can hear, he just can't talk. He's speechless.

Are you okay? They sign.

He nods, and the words stuck in his throat finally tumble out. "Yes, yes," It is croaky with overwhelming emotion, "Thank you for catching me. I’m sorry I uh—" He doesn't have any respectable excuse for being mute for the entire first half of their interaction. He is just completely struck by everything the stranger is.

"Ah so you can hear me," The stranger laughs. He decides the sound is what makes stars. "Well I'm glad you're okay. I'm Jack."

Percy snorts. This cannot be real. Ice, him thinking about Jack Frost, and suddenly his saviour's name is jack? What has the universe been doing with its time to plan this?

“I'm Percy," He stares at them curiously studying the snowflakes that seem to cling to their floppy white hair despite the snow season being weeks away, and the blue eyes that hurtle him to the Abraham lake in Canada. A holiday his family had taken a mere year ago and one of the most beautiful places he's ever seen.

His demigod senses are peeking out their window, as curious as he is. The action puts him on high alert. His instincts are usually only alerted when he's in danger or............. in love.

"What are you?" He cannot stop the question. His mouth has a self-controlled function and no way to override it.

Jack raises their brow, "What are you, Percy?" His name sounds like luxury rolling off the stranger's tongue.

But the question throws him off guard and before he has time to drool over them again he is pulling his pen out and twirling it between his fingers anxiously. "Are you here to kill me?"

That barks a laugh from Jack, who looks so entirely amused he can't help but wonder if he can frame the moment to keep with him forever; a brow quirked, a slight dimple on their right cheek as their smile grows, and bunched freckles as their nose scrunches slightly.

"Get a lot of assassination attempts do you?"

“You have no idea," He feels his eyes roll in annoyance, an automatic reaction after all these years.

"No Percy," Jack says softly. It brushes across his skin like cool paint and snowy pine leaves. "I am here because the moon told me to be."

"The moon?" He sputters, "What do you mean the moon?"

"I mean exactly that. I talk to the moon and it answers."

He can feel his legs grow weak. "The moon— the moon— the....... moon," He mutters, staring at Jack.

They are silent as he attempts to compartmentalize his thoughts. "You know what?" He finally speaks, "That's not the weirdest thing I've ever heard. The children of Demeter talk to grain so this isn't that far out of reach."

Jack just looks at him with a patient, gentle smile on their face.

"So what are you? A child of Selene?"

"I am not a demigod." They shake their head. "I was chosen by the moon three hundred years ago. I am the spirit of winter."

The silence stretches between them like taffy. He isn't sure he's heard this right.

"You're—" He cannot even bring himself to say it.

"Yes, I'm Jack Frost."

Percy's legs give our from under him. Jack is not quick enough to catch him but he lands on a pillow of snow right before he bruises his knees. "You're Jack Frost?"

"Yes. And you are Percy Jackson."

"How—how do you know?"

"I've been alive for a very long time. I know a lot of people."

He just hums, trying to wrap his head sound another layer of myth and fable that makes up the fabric of the world.

"Why are you here?" He finally gutters out. "I mean I know the moon told you to come but why?"

"I uh have a theory but I need to ask something of you in order to know if I'm right."

He frowns, staring up at the stranger. No not stranger. Can you even call someone who's been around for centuries a stranger? What are they a stranger to? They have seen and heard and learnt and loved more than he ever has or ever will. It's more like he is the stranger. "What do you need me to do?"

"I just need you to summon water for me."

A thousand questions sit like caught snowflakes on his tongue but he let's them melt instead of spilling them into the world. Instead he gets up and concentrates on all the water sources surrounding them.

A reservoir one hundred miles away, fire hydrants near bursting with unused pressure, a small pond in a small park about five miles south, and of course the ocean in front of them, no more than fifty miles within reach.

"How much do you need?"

"Give me fifty liters."

He closes his eyes and imagines the pond, the water rippling within it. He imagines holding it in his palm as he would a basketball ball. When he feels a cool sensation wash over his skin he opens his eyes once more and sees a swirling blob of water surrounding his hand, dancing to the beat of his pulse.

"Is this enough?"

"Plenty," They smile and then their hands are reaching out and as if the water knows they're calling to it, it bounces over in little bubbles. As it touches their fingers a ray of light bursts from the contact and it turns to ice. Jack sucks in a breath, watching in amazement as the water freezes and hits the ground in a flurry of snow.

"What?" Percy cannot hold in his curiosity any longer. "What is it?"

"The moon was right." They look at him, eyes sparkling with something more than awe or curiosity.

"About?" He prompts.

"We're soulmates."

This is a story about their destinies.

"We're what?" Percy whispers. He has never gotten loud when he was surprised or angry or sad. He has always been soft.

"I usually need my staff to solidify water but if I use elements touched by my soulmate I can do it without aid."

"This is ridiculous!" He sputters. There is absolutely no way this is real. Seriously? Soulmates? He would laugh if he wasn't so outraged.

"You don't believe in soulmates?"

"It doesn't matter what I believe in!" He growls, "This whole ordeal is completely insane."

"What would it take to convince you Percy Jackson?" Jack just smiles, it is shining with happiness like it hadn't before.

"I have no idea because I have never heard of or encountered a soulmate." He hisses.

"Do you know why you can see me?"

He shakes his head, thoughts swirling faster than the hurricanes his further looses.

"Because you believe in me."

"I thought you had control over who sees you and who doesn't?" He raises a brow.

"Only with children. I can choose to show myself whether they believe or not. I have the ability since enough of them do believe." They say. "But adults are different. If they don't believe I cannot make myself appear to them. I am simply a ghost of their childhood past."

"I don't understand." Percy cannot wrap his mind around this. "How do you know you can only make ice out of whatever water I touch?"

Jack looks around for a brief moment before catching sight of something behind them. In a split second they are there and then they're back.

"Watch," He pours the water from the bottom he'd nabbed over his hand. It falls to the floor as liquid as it had started out.

"That doesn't prove anything, how do I know you're not just making sure you don't turn it to ice?"

"I cannot touch anything without freezing it, especially water." They worry at their bottom lip with their teeth, thoughts flying across their face. "It's like your friend Leo." They nod their head towards the café where Percy can still see his friends snuggled into the booth. "He doesn't necessarily turn everything he touches to ashes but he will always leave a warm imprint no matter how or what he has touched."

"How do you know that?" He gapes.

"Immortality gives you a lot of time to know the world." They shrug. "Now do you believe me?"

"I don't know." He answers truthfully. "I mean if we are soulmates..." He tries to form the question into some semblance of sense and order. "Does that mean I'm tied to you? That we have to like I don't know get married and spend eternity together?"

"No," Jack says gently, "No you can deny this bond if that is how you feel. It does not mean anything except that the universe put our souls in the same constellation. We are free to pick and choose who we love."

“And how will it work if we do decide to get together?” He frowns, “I will age but you will always stay the same.”

They look at him, head tilted, ice eyes bright. “But you know that’s not true.”

Everything in him barrels forward like a tidal wave. It cannot be. No-one knows. Not even his mother. “What isn’t true?” He will play this carefully, like the strings of a harp. He will not let his life crash through the ground.

“Why are you hiding it?”

“I’m not hiding anything.” He is adamant in his stance. He will not bow.

“You are denying the life you chose.” Jack considers him. “Why?”

“I’m not denying anything.” He huffs, “I’m just taking it slow.”

A snort bursts of them, arrogant and amused. “You are taking becoming a God slow?”

“I want to live with my friends before they figure it out!” He cries, all the fear and terror and worry burning through him.

Jack moves closer, presses a cold hand to his shoulder. “It is okay to be scared and angry and worried but do not forget that you are worthy of the title and you should wear it like a crown, not a burden.”

“There is always some burden in this much power.” He is bitter. He is right.

“Come,” Jack pulls them together, “Go meet your friends.” The hug is so cold but comforts him to the bone. “And when you are ready to make a decision, just whisper my name and i will answer, no matter where i am, or how far apart we are.”

He studies the person before him, beautiful and strange in an inviting sort of way, like no matter how much he learns about them he'll always want to know more. "Well you are very pretty."

They laugh, and the sound lights up the ocean inside him. "Thank you."

“Live Percy Jackson.” Jack Frost whispers.

And then Percy is standing outside a café, an icy wind dancing between his fingertips, and the impression of a freezing hug still clinging to his clothes. He realizes he feels happy. He feels safe.

This is a story about their love.

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

[image id: a poem by John P Smeeton titled "Jack Frost in the Garden" the poem reads:

Jack Frost was in the garden;// I saw him there at dawn;// He was dancing round the bushes// And prancing on the lawn.// He had a cloak of silver,// A hat all shimm'ring white,// A wand of glittering star-dust,// And shoes of sunbeam light.

Jack Frost was in the garden,// When I went out to play// He nipped my toes and fingers// And quickly ran away.// I chased him round the wood-shed,// But, oh! I'm sad to say// That though I chased him everywhere// He simply wouldn't stay.

Jack Frost was in the garden:// But now I'd like to know// Where I can find him hiding;// I've hunted high and low —// I've lost his cloak of silver,// His hat all shimm'ring white,// His wand of glittering star-dust,// His shoes of sunbeam light"

the background is a light blue and white marble. end id]

Tags: @fantasylover16 @queen-of-demons-and-hell @nishlicious-01​ @leyontheway @caffeinated-croissant

[bcbdrums]

Worth Remembering

Happy birthday, @cocoa-at-night!!!  Inspired by these stunning fan arts: 

Art 1     Art 2     Art 3

Links to read on other sites:

AO3     FFn

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Drakken looked around the outdoor skating rink with a grimace, the corner of his mouth twitching as he watched the spirals of skaters. A number of people and children orbited near the outside edges of the rink, where guard rails were set up to aid the less confident and less experienced. The center of the rink held the bold, who were getting away with as many tricks and stunts as the rules would allow. And the vast majority of people, the average skaters, moved casually in the space between the other two groups.

Drakken wondered if he would get dizzy watching too long, and if it could give him an excuse to get out of the activity. But a tug at the bottom of his shirt heralded Shego's insistence, so he withheld a groan as he turned to where she was already seated on a bench outside the rink, pulling off her shoes to put on the rented skates. Drakken sat beside her to do the same, but he was aware of her critical eye on his face.

"Look, you're the one who wanted to do the whole...normal couple dating thing," Shego said. "And we did your nerdy movie last weekend."

"It was a drive-in," Drakken grumbled. "Why does anyone actually go to a drive-in..."

He didn't miss Shego's blush, and considering that very little of the movie had been seen with all of the other activities they had gotten up to throughout its duration, he didn't think she had room to complain. Nevertheless, her date choice for that weekend was...

"Roller skating will be fun," Shego said flatly.

"Oh you sound very enthused," Drakken retorted.

"Look, I just want to do it, okay?" Shego bit back.

Drakken grumbled to himself as he started pulling off his shoes, taking another look at their surroundings. The blue of the sky had begun to give way to the piercing gold of the summer sunset, and he wondered how long it would be until the massive light poles surrounding the rink would be turned on. There were also large strings of lights hung between the trees around the rink that crossed over the top, no doubt to provide a certain ambience once the sun went down.

He couldn't deny that the idea had an element of romance to it...though it couldn't compare to breaking multiple public indecency laws in the back of the hover-car. It was less the roller skating itself that had him hesitant, but rather...

"Why?" he asked, turning back to Shego. She was finishing knotting her laces atop the skates, and he followed the line of her green legs up past her knees to the short denim shorts she wore. She had already taken off her cropped black linen jacket and tied it around her waist, the green tank top underneath bringing out the natural beauty of her vibrant eyes.

Drakken glanced at his own attire as he bent over to tie his skates: dark blue athletic shorts he'd dug out of his closet that felt far too short for the times, being several inches above his knee, and a very old light blue shirt with small rainbow accents on the collar, sleeves, and hem, of which he'd already undone three buttons due to the July heat. He was sure he looked ridiculous, especially considering the way his flower had seemed to laugh at him in the mirror after he dressed. But they were going to be outdoors for hours, engaged in a different physical activity than the one he had been hoping for, so...he had dressed for it. Shego had seemed pleased at least.

"Just something I wanted to try, will you lay off?" Shego griped in answer to his question. As she stood from the bench and put on her finger-less gloves she smirked at him. "What are you, chicken?"

Drakken frowned. "I happen to be very good at roller skating, thank you very much!"

Shego's eyes widened. For a moment she had no response, and as Drakken adjusted his own gloves and rose from the bench, recalling the feel of extra weight on his feet, he wished the gloves weren't necessary so he could feel more of Shego's hand in his. He wrapped his fingers around hers as they moved toward one of the entrances to the rink, and he was surprised by the slight wobble to her initial movements.

"Then...why didn't you want to do this?" was Shego's incredulous question as they stood at the break in the fence.

Drakken hesitated, watching the other skaters both for safety and in reminiscence. He led them out onto the rink slowly, keeping near the rails so they could move at a more leisurely pace. If Shego wanted to do more, he would wait for her cue.

"I just got tired of skating alone, all right!" he bit out quietly, battling the unpleasant memories and trying to focus on the present. He easily slipped back into the familiar activity, and Shego at his side was a very pleasant change from the past.

"...What do you mean?" Shego asked after a moment, looking up at him curiously. He watched her push her hair over her shoulder, holding his gaze and seeming nothing but genuinely interested as she waited for a response. Finally, Drakken sighed.

"As a child I would roller skate alone in the street outside our home. No one ever wanted to play with me, even when mother bought me a basketball hoop." He quirked a smile. "I can do a slam dunk on roller skates."

Shego pushed his side in a light shove with their joined hands, grinning. "Sure you can."

"And in college... When a mixer was planned at the local roller rink, I was thrilled at the opportunity. Finally, a social event where I would fit in. But..."

They had skated around the back of the rink, and they both lifted their free hands to shield their eyes from the sun until they rounded the curve. The sun was hot at Drakken's back, and he reached up to undo another button on his shirt.

"But?" Shego pressed gently.

"...No one noticed me anyway. I was still a third, fifth, even eleventh wheel. The only time anyone ever sought my company was for...help with their homework, or studying for an exam. It was all I was good for. Shego..."

He spun to face her, rolling backwards and taking both of her hands in his. Her expression was still open and curious—so unlike the mocking and sarcasm he had grown used to over the years of trying to deny his feelings for her.

"Go on," she said quietly, her fingers rubbing his gently.

He thought over other memories that were bubbling up, of being the one left out of inside-jokes and not invited to after-parties when the college mixers had ended. And skating skillfully and impressively around a brightly lit rink, the disco ball casting glittery flashes over his tricks which he had done for hours hoping for any attention, only to receive none at all.

"Never-mind," he said bitterly, glancing away.

As they neared the next curve Shego took a lead in their path and brought them over to the railing near the entrance.

"I've never skated before," she said plainly.

Drakken's brow furrowed.

"What?"

Shego shrugged. "I've never skated before."

Drakken thought of her very slight wobble as they had first started toward the rink, but other than that she had seemed every bit the experienced skater as he. He shook his head lightly in confusion.

"I don't...understand."

Shego's fingers rubbed his palms absently as her gaze fell.

"We didn't really have enough money for things like bikes or skates, even after the comet. Global Justice taking what little we did have, you know... When I was about thirteen, one of the girls at school was having a skating party for her birthday and I was invited. But right as my mother and I arrived at the rink, Team Go got a call. The party was over when we got back, and...there was never really time for things like skating after that anyway. Especially not after we lost our parents."

Shego shrugged again.

"This always looked like fun when I was a kid. I just wanted to try it."

Drakken considered what Shego had said, and what she had previously told him about her restrictive past due to the misguided organization that had taken charge of the child heroes. As a bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face, he focused back on the present.

"But you've been skating just fine?" he asked in perplexity, remembering her initial statement.

Shego gave a small grin. "Not much of a challenge compared to rocket skates and hover-boarding."

Drakken grimaced and wiped his brow, unfastening another button of his shirt as the sun heated his skin.

"...You're more than halfway, you might as well finish that," Shego said.

"What?" Drakken asked, blinking in confusion.

Shego's cheeks were slightly pink, and she nodded meaningfully at his loose shirt. His brow rose as his face colored in response, but he dutifully finished unbuttoning the shirt, waving one side of it back and forth to fan himself briefly.

"So...how about these tricks?" Shego asked, moving off of the wall and pulling him back out onto the rink. "Maybe they have a basketball hoop around here they could roll out."

Drakken smirked and let go of her hand, skating quickly ahead and spinning around to face her when he was about ten feet away. Shego's confusion faded to laughter as Drakken's flower emerged on its vine, wrapping around her waist several times and pulling her to him.

"Not sure what this has to do with roller skating...whoa!"

Shego thrust her arms out for balance as the vine suddenly unraveled, spinning her away from Drakken in circles as he skated broadly around her, catching her hand just as the flower released her. He then spun her back into his arms and dipped her over his knee, grinning cockily down into her eyes. Shego's return smirk caused him to blush.

"I've...never actually gotten to try that one before," he said shyly. "Modified now of course, with Flower—"

Shego set a finger over his lips as she chuckled in response and puckered her own meaningfully. But as Drakken leaned down to kiss her, his flower was suddenly in between their faces.

"Flower..." Drakken muttered in annoyance.

The vibrant bloom made a quick loop in the air with its vine and then hovered over Drakken's shoulder, seeming to watch him.

"I think it wants to skate too," Shego said with a grin.

Drakken righted them, setting an arm around Shego's waist as the flower did another loop before moving around to rest on her shoulder. Shego laughed.

"And do tricks, apparently," she continued, raising her brow at Drakken.

He blushed, the color in his cheeks only deepening as Shego's arm snaked around his waist while her other hand crossed his body to find his free one, then lacing their fingers together.

"Well..." Drakken said as they began skating slowly around the polished surface again, hip to hip. "The rink doesn't close until eleven..."

Shego grinned. "Plenty of time. And later, if you want..."

Drakken perked up.

"...If we take out the security cameras, we could defile this place like we did the drive-in last weekend."

Drakken felt a rush, but also a pang of nerves as he considered how wholly exposed the rink would be, cameras or not.

"...Or a secluded park bench," Shego suggested, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Drakken looked down to where their feet moved in unison, cutting perfectly symmetrical lines down the side of the skating rink. He brought his eyes up to her face where she was grinning at him.

"How about some new memories, first?"

She leaned up and kissed his jaw softly in response.  And Drakken knew the heat in his face in that moment had nothing to do with the sun.

[baphomet-media]

Getting Psyched - A The World Ends With You Retro Review

Genre: Adventure Subgenre: JRPG Developer: Square Enix, Jupiter Publisher: Square Enix Platform(s): DS Release Date: July 27th, 2007 Hours Played: 42 hours this playthrough

You’ve almost certainly heard of this game, especially if you’re into JRPGs. When a game advertises itself as being “from the team that made Kingdom Hearts,” I was sold instantly as a kid. One look at the game’s box art confirms that Tetsuya Nomura had a hand at this game with his distinctive bold art style. But the game itself was something that nobody at the time had predicted. The game has an urban fantasy story unlike much that had been told at the time. Furthermore, the game was made to push the DS to its limits and create a battle system that could only work on the DS’s two screens. Does this cult classic live up to the hype, or is it just a janky mess? Let’s find out.

Story

TWEWY opens by introducing our protagonist, an antisocial teen named Neku Sakuraba. Neku unexpectedly awakens in the iconic scramble crossing of Shibuya, Tokyo. To his surprise, the crowds seem to walk right through him, and a strange pin appears in his hand that allows him to read the thoughts of passersby. Neku quickly learns that he has been thrust into the Reapers’ Game, a seven-day death game where the Players are the recently deceased that must partner up to fight the Noise, hostile part-animal-part-tribal-graffiti creatures that seek to erase the Players. What’s more, each day Players must complete missions given to them by the Reapers within strict time limits while avoiding the reapers themselves. If they can make it to the end of the week, they might just be able to return to life.

Along the way, Neku will meet a chaotic cast of characters including Shiki, the headstrong seamstress who is eventually able to get Neku out of his angsty shell, Beat and Rhyme, a pair of street-smart siblings with heavy 2000’s skater vibes, Joshua, an abrasive, sarcastic, literal Christ figure who’s somehow a good guy? Or maybe he’s a bad guy? Or… maybe he’s a good guy again? On top of that, the Reapers themselves vary wildly from the contrasting duo of the laid-back Kariya and the high-strung Uzuki to the lone radical Minamimoto. The game does a good job of having a full roster of characters without overloading the player. Furthermore, while most characters seem wacky at first, they all have motivations and layers behind them that become clearer as you progress through the story.

Without spoiling anything, nothing is as it seems in the Reaper’s game, and multiple parties are vying for control for different reasons, meaning the whole thing feels like one big political intrigue story on top of an urban JRPG. Even on my most recent replay after having played the game countless times over the years, I was hungry to put the pieces together. While the main storyline mostly follows Neku’s perspective and doesn’t explain a lot of the behind-the-scenes interactions and motivations of the secondary characters, the game fortunately has a Secret Reports feature, which are written by a certain character who seems to know way more than they let on. These Secret Reports are near essential to understanding the game’s true story, and reveal whole layers to the plot and world that the main story doesn’t even touch on.

Needless to say, I loved the story of TWEWY. Everything feels perfectly crafted, leaving no loose ends, while still leaving the player wanting more. If anything I wanted to see more of Neku and his friends after the game’s conclusion just hanging out in real life.

Gameplay

TWEWY is a JRPG, but in the loosest sense possible. In the overworld, the player controls Neku, guiding him around the various streets of Shibuya on the touch screen or with the face buttons. Unlike in traditional RPGs, outside of story events the player must deliberately initiate combat with the Noise. By scanning their environment they can read the surface thoughts of passersby, but also reveal noise symbols in the environment. By tapping on these symbols, the player can queue up battles with the noise, and can even chain multiple battles together for back-to-back fights that multiply your drop rate.

In battle, Neku and his partner are sent to separate Zones, with Neku on the touch screen and his partner on the top screen. Neku fights the noise by activating the abilities of pins he has equipped, called Psychs. Each psych has its own activation method, from swiping on an enemy to tapping empty space, to scratching on the screen, to shouting into the microphone, and more. It’s up to the player to equip Neku with the best pins, though pins level up as they are used, becoming more powerful and sometimes evolving into even stronger pins.

On the top screen, Neku’s partner fights the noise by using the DS’s face buttons to move through a combo map and select certain finishers. By selecting the right finishers, you can charge your Sync gauge to perform a powerful special attack. Both characters share an HP gauge, damage to each character subtracting from each side. If you’re following along, that means the game expects you to control both Neku and his partner at the same time. This can be tricky for new players, but you quickly get used to it. Additionally, you can have your partner auto-fight with a customizable delay, meaning you technically don’t have to control your partner at all. However, if you really want to deal major damage and wipe the floor with the Noise on higher difficulties, you’ll want to master battling with both characters at once. When I first played the game in 2007, I found the parner battling to be too difficult to keep up with, but now that I’m older and more experienced, I find the combat to be incredibly deep and rewarding. Additionally, the game rewards back-and-forth control of Neku and his partner with the Light Puck mechanic. Essentially, when one character performs a combo finisher, the light puck is passed to the other character, and passed back when that character does a finisher. In this way, you can build up a damage multiplier based on how quickly you rally the light puck. This creates a natural back-and-forth flow of using Neku until his psychs discharge, then getting a few hits in with his partner, and so on.

My only complaint about battles is that in later fights on higher difficulty the Noise will attack so frequently on the partner’s zone that it’s difficult to get attacks off with them at all. Your partner has a limited block/dodge, but it only does so much and there’s often tons of Noise attacking at once. It’s not insurmountable, but it can be frustrating at times.

Outside of battle, the player must constantly keep up with a few things, food, swag, and difficulty. Both Neku and his partner can eat food and wear clothing purchased from many shops around Shibuya. Food offers an up-front bonus as well as a permanent stat increase once the food is digested by completing battles. However, you can only digest so many times per real-time day, meaning you have to prioritize high-calorie foods before smaller snacks. I found the digestion limit to be a bit too limiting. It can be removed in the post-game, but it still makes food hard to deal with for someone that is effectively bingeing the game.

Swag are articles of clothing that offer flat stat increases, but also have abilities that are unlocked by showing it to the right store clerk. Each clerk can unlock the abilities of specific clothing, and you can unlock more by buying enough stuff from them to fill up their Friendship Gauge. I thought it was fun to slowly make friends with each store clerk, and I felt bad that I couldn’t hang out with them or reciprocate some of their obvious advances, though I’m sure it’s assumed that Neku cherishes his friendships with them after the game’s conclusion. However, you can’t just equip any old piece of clothing to any character. Neku can’t just pull off a dress and cargo shorts right off the bat. Each piece of clothing has a Bravery rating, with characters whose bravery is below that rating being unable to wear the clothing. Fortunately, bravery increases as you level up, and can also be increased by eating food. By the end of the game, you’ll be able to have Neku and company wearing whatever clothing you want.

Lastly there’s Difficulty. The game has four main difficulty levels, being Easy, Normal, Hard, and Ultimate. You begin the game in Normal, but once you unlock a difficulty, you can change it on the fly from the pause menu. On easier difficulty enemies have less HP and deal less damage, but you get fewer XP and worse pins. The reverse is true on higher difficulties, with some of the best pins in the game being available exclusively as drops on Ultimate difficulty. To aid you in this, you can also change your level at any time. Unlike in a standard RPG where your level is immutable to the player aside from leveling up, in TWEWY you can freely choose your level from one to the highest level you have achieved. For each level below your max that you set your level, you get a multiplier for drops. This can be combined with the battle chaining multiplier to get ultra rare drops, some of which have less than 1% and even less than 0.1% drop chances normally. This gives the player an incentive to level up aside from just stat bonuses, and rewards players who go out of their way to engage in battles. As above, battles are largely optional, but it heavily behooves the player to battle as much as they can, not only because you get drops and experience, but increasing your level gives you more wiggle room for harder fights such as bosses.

There are tons more smaller features, but these are the main ones. I thoroughly enjoyed the vast depths of the game’s mechanics and found the difficulty settings to be really engaging and a novel approach to RPG player advancement while still affording accessibility. I was enthralled for multiple hours as I struggled to get the best gear, feed my team the best food, and equip the best pins to get as strong as possible. Until the very end of the postgame, it never felt like mindless grinding, as you can just breeze through the story on Easy if you really want to, but where would be the fun in that?

Presentation

TWEWY is probably best known for its vibrant and bold incredibly urban street-art-themed style, which shows in not only the art, but the UI, music, and writing. The character art is that hard-outlined and overdressed Nomura art style that fans of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts have come to love, and the backgrounds are all vibrant and stylized to fit. The pixel art of the character sprites and Noise are all incredibly expressive, with Neku’s idle animation as he jams out to tunes on his headphones being one of my favorites.

The game’s music is unabashedly lyrical, covering a vast array of genres including JPop, Punk, and Hip-Hop, with many different styles of each. I loved almost every song in the game, though I found one of the overworld themes to be a bit grating at times. Other than that, the music is pretty great, and what’s even better is you can buy CDs of each of the game’s songs in the game to have your own personal sound test right from the menu, even going as far as to allow you to set the background music on the menu itself.

The game even has voice acting, though it’s limited mostly to battle quips and wordless expressions for cutscenes. I actually really enjoyed the voice acting and thought they nailed each character. I was honestly surprised at the audio quality the developers were able to pack into this game. The music was a very slight bit tinny through the DS’s audio chip as is to be expected, but barring that the vocals and voice overs were super clear and the instrumentation of the songs were well mixed.

Overall, the game’s presentation is about as good as it gets on the DS, giving even home console games a huge run for their money.

Conclusion

Honestly it’s hard to say anything bad at all about TWEWY. The game was a bit hard to approach at the time, but it’s aged magnificently. These days, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it’s the best (at least non-Pokémon) game on the DS. Honestly though some might be turned off by the game’s quirks, I think TWEWY is a masterpiece that everyone with a DS should pick up and play. I can’t wait to see how the newly-released sequel stands up, but honestly the original is a tough act to follow.

Score: 10 / 10

[csykora]

After ‘84, Igor felt the pieces were beginning to fall off the Red Machine. 

He hated being called a robot as much as he hated being called a soldier. He didn’t know what the world wanted the Green Unit to do on the ice or off it, how they had to behave, before someone would believe they had feelings. On the worst days they were too tired and numb to feel anything else.  

When he’d met Bobby Clarke, who he thought looked like a hockey angel with a blond halo and no teeth, Bobby commented about the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. Igor didn’t know how to say that he’d definitely never been allowed to go to Afghanistan, and under the uniform he didn’t deserve to be a soldier, for good or bad. The national team was a tool of the Soviet government: at the same time it was a comfort for ordinary people in cold little apartments in mining towns where the players grew up and also a prop in the illusions that kept everything how it was. 

The illusion went skin deep: every time they left Russia, Igor was issued a snappy winter coat and brand-name Western clothes, so no one would think the Soviets looked poor.

[A black and white photo of the Green Unit posing, smiling except for Igor, in matching windbreakers with saddle shoulders and bold stripes. This was a hot look, about 10 years before the Soviet Union Costuming Department thought it was a hot look]

Underneath the coat or the beautiful red sweater, everything was a mess. At one point, at a tournament in Canada, a Canadian player would hit Igor from behind. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except the Soviet management hadn’t provided enough hockey pads. Igor was wearing a partial set he’d borrowed from a high school team that played in the host arena earlier that day. (Across Europe and Canada I bet there are grown men, still hockey fans now, who have no idea they once owned game-worn gear from the world’s top scorers. To Igor’s fans those pieces might be worth as much as he ever earned in his CSKA career.) He would play the rest of that tournament with broken ribs.

The only outsider he’d met who seemed to understand, however briefly, was their friend Vanya. Asked what it was like playing against those Russian robots, Wayne said, 

“Robots don’t hurt when they lose.”

By June 1985, Slava was recovering from that knee injury that had sidelined him for half the last season. He and his little brother Tolya, now a CSKA rookie, drove back for the start of training. Their car was hit, and Tolya was killed. Slava thought about leaving that season, but their parents told him to keep going, and just try to live for two people.

In November, the players at Arkhangel heard a rumor: someone had written an article, in a Soviet paper, that criticized the hockey program. Anything that wasn’t awe was criticism. Someone got their hands on a copy, and Igor, Vova, Sergei, and Slava huddled around their usual table that evening, hiding each other as they read it in turns. Igor reread it twice. He’d read Canadian and American papers that dragged the Soviet system, but never something like this, that got it--almost--right. It didn’t have all the details to understand the illusion--how they trained, how Tikhonov acted behind Arkhangel’s walls--but it guessed some.

Glasnost was beginning, a long rustling cracking thaw opening new streams of information and communication like Igor had dreamed. The Canucks drafted him that year, and then Vova. The Devils had dibsed Slava and Lyosha a few years before, and the Flames wanted Sergei. There was a place for them, waiting, if they could ever get to the NHL. But there wouldn’t be any thaw in Arkhangel as long as Tikhonov ruled it.

The ’85 World Championships were held in Prague, and ’86 in Moscow. Igor played both, and nothing else. For two years, no one saw him outside the Soviet Union. 

In December of ‘85, CSKA was supposed to tour North America. Igor was dressed and ready. Then he heard his passport, which he had used a hundred times before, had run into problems. Coach told him not to worry, but to stay behind in Russia and--how convenient--keep training for the championships in Moscow. Igor woke up at three in the morning to watch the games he was supposed to be playing. He learned that Canadian journalists were asking about him: apparently, he had tonsillitis. Igor wasn’t entirely sure where his tonsils were. 

Two months later CSKA played in Sweden. Strange, how his tonsils still weren’t better, and his passport was still missing. Two nights before they were set to leave Tikhonov called him into the office, in front of the team, and told him so. But the next evening Tretiak, now a more senior officer, came out to visit the barracks. He hugged Igor and promised him he would do what he could to get the passport by the time they were supposed to leave the next morning. Igor went to bed hoping. At 4:30 AM the coaches woke him just to tell him the passport wasn’t there yet, so the team really would be leaving without him. 

The third time it happened, he was told to go back to the passport office to file everything all over again--maybe he had fucked up his passport. He didn’t bother. Taking away travel had been one thing. But doing it in front of the team, in front of the Green Unit, so that he knew that they knew that he had let them down somehow, broke his heart. 

He was still allowed to play inside the Soviet Union. As long as he was with CSKA, the other Greens treated him the same as always. If they had known how bad things were going to get, Igor thought they would have done more sooner, but he knew that they didn’t understand what was happening. In between games, he spent his days in office buildings, being grilled about suspicious activities like listening to rock music, calling his mom too often, or kissing Canadians. 

“I was at fault all around. That I gladly gave interviews to journalists. That I liked the NHL...that I like rock music. That the living standard there impressed me. All this was raked up into a pile. I was the enemy. Because, you see, if I liked the American way of life, then in general I was an American by heart. All of this they said about me.

By nature, I am clearly a Russian. I do not like everything in America. It cannot be that somewhere is as in a fairytale, and somewhere else is total darkness.

Particularly, it seemed, my [friendliness] offended the preservers of government secrets….I also knew a little English. Therefore I had the possibility to rub elbows with whomever I might come in contact: hockey players, journalists and even immigrants. And, they assumed, to each of them I could give important information--everyone getting an equal share, no doubt, in order to be fair.”

He couldn’t talk to his friends from other countries, or his Russian friends either when they traveled without him. On the street outside between the rink and the party offices, none of his former fans would speak to him, except to ask or tell him their opinion if he really was a traitor.

He was wanted everywhere but home. Obviously, no other country believed that a 25 year-old athlete who had been the best in the world six months before had been brought down by tonsillitis multiple times in a row. There’s only so many tonsils a person can have. Obviously, every other country thought Igor must want to defect, the one thing he did not want and couldn’t convince anyone of. So each host on the international hockey circuit was bouncing on their toes, first Canada, then Sweden and so on, thinking maybe the Soviet Union would slip up and let him come to their tournament, he'd defect, and then they’d get to keep him. Obviously, the Soviets noticed that, and squeezed tighter.

Each time the team left on tour, he was told to spend his time alone training harder and hope. If he was good enough, maybe he’d make the next tournament. His body, always a battle-ground with Coach Tikhonov, became a hostage situation. The more Tikhonov told him to train, the less he ate. Eventually he was eating mostly fruit, and restricting his water intake. 

He stopped pretending to defer to anyone.  He used to be the sober one between his hot-head wingers, and now he egged every fight on. Sometimes he faked an American accent, calling Coach “Tikhonoff” the way American broadcasters had at the '81 Olympics.

One day at the rink he bumped into figure skater Lena Batanova, who “knew nothing about hockey and could not have cared less.” She had been through worse training than he had growing up, only to win two World Championships, and then be slighted from a third. They understood each other without having to say anything.

[Igor washing dishes in their Moscow apartment, turning to glance at Lena pressing up him.]

That summer he stayed up late talking with his friends, and realized he wanted to marry Lena. He asked her the next morning, and she said yes. Behind Igor’s back, Slava, Vova, Sergei, and Lyosha went to Coach Tikhonov’s office, and told him that they would play every other day of the year if they had to, but they would be going to Igor’s wedding. Coach wouldn’t allow the three days for a traditional Russian wedding, but he had to give Igor one.

Waking up the morning after the wedding, Igor checked the mail and found a summons to appear before the Central Committee of the Communist Party. His friends, who I imagine lying hungover on his and Lena’s new couch and floor, rushed for their unused books to help him study up on Communist doctrine, in case he got quizzed. This is presumably when Lena woke up, realized she’d married a whole line of hockey players for their one communal brain cell, and rolled back over. Igor reported the next morning, probably with flashcards Vova had made for him in his pocket.

The Party officials congratulated him on getting married and gave him the wedding gift they were sure no one else would have gotten: his passport. We have to guess the logic here, if there was one. It’s possible the Party thought he wouldn’t risk his wife, or that two years had just been enough to realize the team wasn’t working without him. 

But he was allowed to go to Canada for the Calgary Cup before the end of ‘86, and everyone had questions about his two years of tonsillitis. Igor, for the first time in his life, didn’t talk. But that just left the hockey world to gossip. Two months later it was announced he’d be in Quebec City for another tournament, and right before they arrived a Quebec newspaper printed a version of the night out with Gretzky--with quotes, they claimed, from Wayne. This time the tournament organizers called someone from every team up for a pregame presser. I imagine Igor shrugging at his KGB handlers and sliding away to the stage: nothing could stop him talking now.

Except the Canadian journalists. They wanted to interview Team Canada first. Igor stewed, and then looked up to see an oncoming Wayne. Someone had asked him about the alleged quotes in the article, which Igor had snagged a copy of to read the second they let him loose in Canada. Apparently Wayne hadn’t. 

“‘Believe me, Igor,’” Igor remembers Wayne blurting out. “‘I didn’t say what was printed in the paper. I’ll tell them it didn’t happen! But what is your position now?’”

“‘Do not worry,” Igor promised him. “‘Now, everything is okay.’”

“Oh, awesome,” (I’m assuming again) Wayne said. “So do you want to come over later and hang out in my mom’s basement?!”

“If the KGB pulls a gun, then call me.” --Wayne Gretzky

Weirdly, I’ve never seen this inspirational quote cross-stitched on someone’s wall. 

The next Canada Cup was held in August ‘87 in Hamilton, Ontario, which is like, basically next door to Wayne’s parents’ house. So the afternoon before the first game, Wayne sent his dad Walter to the hotel where the Soviet team was staying. Walter asked in Ukrainian if he could chat with Igor, who had to come down to the hotel lobby to meet him, since visitors were absolutely not allowed to wander up to players’ rooms. Walter invited his son’s friend over for dinner. Igor cut eyes at the KGB agent in the corner, and said he had to go upstairs and ask Coach. Tikhonov said no before Igor started talking.

Igor came back downstairs and apologized to Walter, who thought hard for a minute. He told Igor to ask what if the whole Green Unit went to Wayne’s house for team bonding? Coach Tikhonov considered, and said no, and Igor went back to Walter. 

Walter hitched up his suspenders, and announced to the KGB that he would talk go to Coach Tikhonov now.

He told Tikhonov he would be honored if Coach came to dinner at his house that evening, and if Coach felt like it, he might bring the boys over too. Tikhonov said he’d love to. 

Tikhonov, Igor, Vova, Sergei, Slava, Lyosha, and a KGB operative spent a delightful half hour packed in a car together driving to the Gretzkys' house, where Walter and Phyllis were throwing a cookout. Walter and some of his local buddies had barbecue and corn on the cob on the grill, and Phyllis had quizzed her son about his Moscow trip before throwing up her hands in despair and making a big batch of her mother’s Polish dumplings and sausage.

Nothing makes me happier than the image of Wayne Gretzky, beaming from ear to ear, handing famously fussy little Igor Larionov a piece of barbecued corn on the cob. Igor had to explain that yes, they had corn in Russia, but they ate it on a plate and not like squirrels. Walter offered him a beer, and Igor looked to Coach Tikhonov before saying no. Tikhonov allowed the players to have a soda.

Wayne started asking him how everything had been since the last time they hung out, and didn’t get why his friend wouldn’t talk to him at first. Igor might answer one question, and then act like he didn’t understand. Sergei and Vova really didn’t speak English, and kept elbowing Igor to explain what was going on and why Wayne was smiling at them like that, but Igor was still pretending he only spoke Russian and hesitated to translate for them. Finally Wayne realized Igor was clamming up every time Tikhonov got within earshot.

Wayne went to Walter to change the game plan. Walter would use his Ukrainian to ask Coach Tikhonov about his many amazing accomplishments, while Wayne told the whole party he wanted to show the other boys his medals, which were all down in the basement. Unfortunately the Gretzky family’s basement was very small, and housed Wayne’s many, many medals, so only two people could possibly fit down there at a time: one Gretzky, and one Russian. Tikhonov thought about it, decided he didn’t care about someone else’s medals, and gave the okay.

 Just in case, Wayne deputized his dad’s buddy Charlie, who did not speak Russian or anything like it but was somebody’s dad from suburban Ontario, to chat up the KGB agent.

So Wayne began to escort the Green Unit, one by one, down to his family’s basement. At the bottom of the stairs, he handed them a beer. The two of them chugged their beers together, trying not to take suspiciously long or laugh too loud, and then ran back up to change out for the next boy.

Nothing happened that night. It didn’t change anything, except that Tikhonov never found out. The Greens had been able to get one over on him, because they didn’t have to do it alone.

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[inscapeblog]

Design and Context: Subculture Valentino Vivian

Introduction

The design has been a significant part of human society and is now a part of our lives more than ever. This is made so because of the internet and the growing popularity of social media. Anyone with a smartphone and internet can connect with the world, be it carefully taken photos or well-edited videos. Design inspiration can be taken from anywhere, like a pattern on a leaf or the specific grains on tree bark. Culture is also a significant influence on design, although, in this essay, we will investigate the influence of subcultures in design. This essay will define what a subculture is and will examine various examples of how certain subcultures influence the design and prove that subcultures in context can help provide design solutions. This essay will discuss multiple subcultures that birthed new forms of design.

Defining Subcultures 

In this section, we will discuss the definition of subculture and its characteristics. The more commonly known definition of subcultures is “the concept of a subculture implies a minority culture that is of subordinated and secondary nature in relation to a dominant majority culture” (Zackariasson et al., 2014). Based on this definition, a subculture is based on a long-standing culture like music, fashion and architecture and adopting certain practises or beliefs of that culture that do not necessarily match with the original culture. Subculture in this regard is similar to a group of friends going to the cinema to watch a movie, but one group does not like the choice of the movie by the group, so then they would decide to watch a different movie. 

Making reference to the definition of culture is “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.” (Oxford Language). From this definition, Nathan Bolton state that these subcultures are in opposition to accepting the customs and ideas social behaviour of the culture in question (Boltan, 2012). He uses a study that focused on gang crime in working-class American teens, the culture in which they derive from gang culture in America, although they were mostly anti-utilitarian. These troubled teenagers would be able to relate to one another by sharing their short time crime stories/experiences “ The gang inverted the values of the majority culture, deliberately pursuing the mirror image of the American dream.” (Boltan, 2012) 

A book that is focussed on the subject of consumer behaviour defines subculture as “people who share a set of secondary values” (Niosi, n.d.) The definition states that one can be part of one or many different subcultures, but the individual is part of a larger community within a smaller community. What places people in subcultures are based on Material culture, social institution, beliefs, aesthetics and language as this makeup much larger, broader cultures like music, Christianity and the French-speaking population. Subcultures are also formed based on a trait that is very different from society; for example, Vegans are a subcultural group that believes that its wrong to consume animal products and, in doing so, has an effect on climate change. Vegans are different or have a trait that others do not.

When defining subcultures, there are some definitions that are positive and others that have negatives connotations. When referring to the negative connotations, it is usually stated that the smaller group within a larger culture do not agree with their belief or ideals of that culture. As an act of rebellion, they form their own group, which then becomes its own culture within another culture. When referring to the positive connotations, this is more so in the commercial field. This is where success is attained by a brand where there are a large variety of people from around the world of different beliefs, languages and aesthetics, just to name a few (Zackariasson et al., 2014). An example of this positive connotation can be seen with the Sony Playstation community; Sony’s Playstation 4 is one of the highest selling consoles of the past four years. They were able to do this within the gaming community. There is a subculture in gamer who prefer the PlayStation 4 over other consoles, thus creating more subcultural in terms of games.

The significance of Subculture in identifying and solving a design problem

s in mainstream society.”(LumenLearning, n.d.) The first argument is that pop culture caters to the mainstream but forgets about those not in mainstream society; this would then create a void of diversity in the design field. If all designers were to design with a pop culture mentality, a large majority of the designs the world would be exposed to would all be the same or have taken a similar approach. If we look at the economic point of view, if companies used one method of solving design solutions, it will show in their designs, not only that, but it would be difficult to interest investors as one would see that there is no difference in the design approach.

Subcultures allow designers to view the design problem through a different lens as they would typically do. Subcultures are various ways that people consider a topic or culture; this then breeds room for diversity in design. By using or designing with subcultures in mind, then broadens the skillset for designers, allowing them to venture into new ways of designing. As an example, if a designer were to start using elements of the Hip hop subculture in their design, they see how bold fonts would work with specific colours. Another way in which subcultures are essential to design is that they inform the designer on the connotations of certain elements, colours objects. An example could be that in mainstream culture, Monster energy drink can be viewed as the second-best energy drink, whereas in the skater culture, Monster is the best, and nothing compares.

Music is one of the most diverse phenomena; the sharing, critiquing, and enjoyment of music is one of the primary activators for subculture groups. Discussions are had, and opinions are formed, dividing people into these subcultures. Due to these many subcultures being created, there is an untapped market for designers. “ designers translate this idea of a music and internet subcultural “scene” into a product design worthy of those individuals amerced within theses subcultural groups.” (Allen, 2009) The creation of these products allows more people to be made aware of these other subcultures that one could identify with, thus increase and growing that specific subculture.

It is essential for designers to know about subcultures and what subcultures bare good prospects. Having knowledge of subcultures is essential in terms of inclusivity. It is well documented that member of the LGBTQ community have been scrutinised over the years, and this community also serves as a subculture. In 1905 the arrow man was created by J.C Leyendecker, which revolutionise design and advertising. The illustration was placed on many magazine covers; the man is said to be the J.C Leyendecker partner, which means that the arrow man is the first homosexual male to make it onto magazine covers. As a result of this design, making it on the magazine cover made the public at the time know that there is a subculture or community where homosexual males are welcomed, and that pop culture is evolving to include them. Design helps inform and influence the public, steer change. (Martin, 2019)Examples of successful application of  in spatial design

Skatehalle, Berlin, Germany

Skatehalle is a wooden skate park located in Berlin, German. Skatehalle is a space purposefully designed for the enjoyment of the skater community. The park is made up of ramps, rails and bowls all used to perform tricks. In the skater culture, they value creativity, risk and freedom, which are very prominent in the park's designs. Their bright, colourful murals express the core values of skaters pushing risk. Skatehalle is effective in the sense that because of the ever-growing skate culture, some or most cities did not approve as it was seen as a delinquent activity. As a result, many skateparks were built and are still popular to this day  

Spodek Arena

The Spodek Arena is a multipurpose arena located in Katowice Poland. This arena annually hosts the IEM Katowice Esports tournament. The arena is designed to cater to the need of the Esport gaming community. In these tournaments teams play games like Dota and League of legends for Trophies, these are highly sponsored event. Elements that make this space for the subculture of Esports gamer is that they have multiple large screens and seating from the floors to the rafters for maximum amount of spectator. This type of design ia effective because many gamer set ups use neon light set ups and most the time the gamers are in their rooms doing extraordinary things with no audience, so the arena is designed in such a way that these factor are non existent.  

 Conclusion

The study and knowledge of subcultures are significant as this knowledge will help any, and all designers reach different audiences. Having knowledge about different subcultures can also help designers find new ways to approach design problems using elements from different subcultures to create new and impactful designs. When designing, it is also important to know what certain elements of a specific culture or subculture mean in order not to offend or give off the wrong messages. Subcultures are a significant part of the design. 

Reference List

Allen, B. (2009). CULTURALISTIC DESIGN: DESIGN APPROACH TO CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL GROUPS [Ebook]. Retrieved 10 March 2021, from http://etd.auburn.edu.

Boltan, N. (2012). Essay on graphic design through the effects of subcultures. [Ebook] (p. 1). Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://issuu.com/nathanbolton/docs/how_subcultures_have_effected_graphic_design1.

D'Angelo, W. (2020). Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Global Lifetime Sales – January 2020. VGChartz. Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://www.vgchartz.com/article/442352/switch-vs-ps4-vs-xbox-one-global-lifetime-salesjanuary-2020/#:~:text=The%20PS4%20has%20sold%20106.99,Xbox%20One%2046.36%20million%20units.&text=The%20PlayStation%204%20outsold%20the,and%20Xbox%20One%20are%20down.

DiBlasi, A., & Willis, V. (Eds.). (2014). Geek rock : An exploration of music and subculture. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('https://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='https://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;’>https://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a>

LumenLearning. Pop Culture, Subculture, and Cultural Change | Introduction to Sociology. Courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/pop-culture-subculture-and-cultural-change/.

Martin, M. (2019). The Leading LGBTQ+ Milestones in the World of Design. Architectural Digest. Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/lgbtq-design-milestones.

Niosi, A. Subcultures. Kpu.pressbooks.pub. Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/introconsumerbehaviour/chapter/subcultures/.

Zackariasson, P., Wilson, T., & Dymek, M. (2014). The video game industry. Routledge.

[dark-strangeson-virgil]

Having Pride

Words: 4.5k

Summary: Remy and Emile take their younger friends to pride for the first time, and the boys get to experience a full day of pride and being unapologetically themselves.

Remy chuckled lightly to himself as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He had switched out his usual sunglasses for a pair of multi-chrome aviators. He eventually decided on wearing a white muscle shirt with a rainbow mouth graphic on the front, along with some grey acid wash shorts that reached his knees and simple black converse. On his wrist sat a simple rainbow bracelet, which made him smile at his reflection. He could hear the chaos of his friends in the background, all trying to get ready themselves. Remy was ecstatic. It was June, his favorite month of year solely because it was pride month. He had been out since middle school, and he had gone to his first Pride Parade the previous year with Emile, so he was excited to bring his younger friends to experience the magic along with him. 

He looked around at each of his friends, admiring all of their outfits. 

Patton looked absolutely adorable as usual. He had a pastel rainbow skater skirt swishing around his legs, paired with a simple flowy white tank top with a single sunflower in the center. A rainbow flower crown sat atop his head, as well as a small rainbow striped heart pin on his shirt and simple white sneakers. It was sweet and clearly showed his pride but could also be worn as a more casual outfit in other circumstances (minus the flower crown, that might seem a bit out of the ordinary for everyday attire). The finishing touch to his look was a nice amount of blush scattered across his face and nose. 

Patton was currently having an excited conversation with Roman, both boys sporting huge grins across their faces. As Remy glanced over to the other boy he noticed he was dressed much more extravagantly than usual, which made Remy smile. Roman truly did love being eccentric and bold, but his anxieties and fears of judgement often prevented him from expressing himself how he wanted to. It made Remy happy to see that he was making some progress on his confidence, especially on a day that was focused on having pride in yourself.

Roman had bleached his hair and temporarily dyed it rainbow (he planned on dyeing it back afterwards, but he liked the look of dyed hair and was considering changing his hair color again in the future). His shirt was a tank top which read the word “King” with a crown atop it in rainbow lettering. His shorts were a bit more simplistic, simple white athletic shorts with a small rainbow stripe down the side. On his feet he wore white converse with rainbows and clouds scattered across him, and he had gotten Virgil to do his makeup so that one eye was a circular rainbow that extended to the edge of his face and a red liquid lipstick on his lips.. (When he had finished Virgil had stared at Roman in awe for a moment. Roman assumed it was just Virgil admiring his own work but he actually just thought Roman looked absolutely stunning, causing a bright blush to adorn his cheeks.)

Speaking of Virgil, Remy turned his head slightly to look at the emo boy in question. After finishing Roman’s makeup (and being a flustered dumb gay for a moment) he had moved on to his own, doing a natural look with eye shadow and then creating an intricate rainbow pattern with eyeliner that covered the sides of his face. He wore a pastel rainbow tie-dye-esque t-shirt which read “I Can’t Think Straight”, in cheesy horror movie font. Above the shirt lay a simple necklace with a rainbow line down the center. His shorts were a plain black denim that reached his knees, and he ended up choosing simple black vans with rainbow soles as his finishing touch. It was a nice outfit but one that Virgil felt comfortable in, which was the best of both worlds in Remy’s opinion. He sat on Remy’s couch, scrolling through his phone and occasionally tilting it towards Janus to show him a funny meme. Janus would rarely show any more of a reaction than a smirk, but that was enough to satisfy Virgil.

As for Janus, he had also chosen a more “all-out” approach. He was sporting a truly killer rainbow vertical striped halter jumpsuit, which made him look quite elegant when paired with the solid black sun hat he wore atop his head. He had a casual rainbow eyeliner wing on his eyelids and plain black sandals. He had clearly put effort into his outfit, yet he managed to look effortlessly casual while wearing it. When he had walked in Patton had nearly choked on the pink lemonade he had been drinking, immediately running over and engulfing Janus in a hug while squealing out, “Oh my gosh you look amazing! Where did you get that jumpsuit?” While Janus’s stomach was busy swarming with butterflies the others had complimented him, quickly returning to their previous conversations. After a moment Patton had returned to his drink, making sure to tell Janus one more time that he looked spectacular.

Currently Remus was creeping over to Janus and Virgil, planting himself directly in between the two to show them some video about the “World’s Oldest Octopus” he had found on YouTube. Remus’s laugh had almost gotten an actual laugh out of Remy upon first sight, simply because it fit him so well. He had on a pair of light-was denim overall shorts with frayed edges and a rainbow on the chest, as well as literal PLATFORM rainbow sneakers (Yes, Roman tried to warn him those were impractical for him to wear all day at a parade, No Remus did not care or change). The true gem that clearly said this outfit fit Remus perfectly, however, was his hat. It was a baseball cap which read, “I’m so gay I shit RAINBOWS”. Though it was truly a shock at first, everybody immediately agreed that Remus’s outfit was perfect.

As Remy continued to observe Remus’s attire a scream of “FALSEHOOD!” burst through the room, startling everybody and drawing their attention to the corner where Roman and Patton stood with a now blushing Logan. He swiftly cleared his throat before addressing the room. “My apologies for the sudden outburst. Patton and I had a minor disagreement, seeing as he believes squirrels are ‘adorable’ while they are in fact quite dangerous. Please continue with whatever activities you were engaging in prior to my, uh, surge of enthusiasm.” As he turned back to the pair, Remy took a moment to glance at Logan. He had a rainbow striped button-down tucked into the longer black skirt Patton had convinced him to wear. Initially he had been hesitant, but eventually had agreed as long as the skirt could extend slightly past his knees. He had a pair of converse that seemed to be dripping rainbow paint, giving him a more relaxed look than most had ever seen him in. It suited him, honestly.

Returning to his reflection once more Remy began to adjust his hair in the mirror for a moment before feeling gentle arms wrap around his waist from behind as a soft kiss was pressed to the back of his neck. Smiling, he turned around and found himself face-to-face with Emile, his lovely boyfriend. In Remy’s eyes Emile looked absolutely adorable in his outfit (Actually, Emile always looked like absolute perfection according to Remy, but today was a special day). He had switched his usual frames for his glasses out for rainbow ones, as well as an absolutely precious pair of rainbow suspenders. His shirt had a unicorn on the chest, along with the word “PRIDE”, and he wore a pair of light-wash mom jeans. As Remy reached for his hand he saw the bracelet Emile wore on his wrist, matching the one Remy wore on his own. Suddenly filled to the brim with love for his boyfriend, he pressed a quick kiss to Emile’s lips before engulfing him in a hug. They both took a moment to just breathe, relax before all the inevitable excitement they would experience throughout the day. Being in one another’s presence was always soothing, even if they didn’t say anything.

After a minute of just standing in each other’s arms, they separated. “You look amazing. Ready to go?” Emile whispered softly, looking up at Remy.

“Yeah, I think so. Come on, boys! It’s time we head out, especially since we still have to stop at Starbucks on the way!” Like a wave the young boys all ran out to the minivan Remy would be borrowing from his mom for the day, grabbing a mini pride flag each on the way out. Remy was the last to exit, locking the door as he did so.

--

Roman felt like he was about to burst. This was all so exciting! In school he always felt more like a subdued version of himself, his anxieties pressing down on him. But here with his closest friends at an event where having pride in who you are is encouraged, he felt weightless. Like he could truly be himself. He had dyed his hair rainbow for god’s sake! And he loved it! As he walked through the street with his friends in search of a decent food vendor, he turned to Remy and Emile. The two noticed and turned to look at the younger boy, who was sporting one of the widest grins they’d ever seen.

“Thank you both so much for bringing us here today! It’s absolutely amazing!” Roman gushed, feeling brighter with every word that left his mouth. The two older boys looked at the boy fondly.

“Of course, Ro! Glad you like it!” Emile replied, with more of a soft cheeriness. Remy nodded in agreement, leaving Roman to return to observing around him. Pride flags of many sorts were hung in many windows of nearby apartments, as well as people sporting their own flags along the streets. There were small booths with vendors selling all sorts of pride merchandise. As he continued to admire the sights around him, Roman was caught off-guard by a girl walking past him, stopping him quickly. 

“Oh my god, I love your hair!” The girl had a dark brown pixie cut, as well as a pan flag tied like a cape around her shoulders. Her makeup truly stole the show, however. It was a beautiful design that had clearly taken a lot of time and effort, and was done in the ace colors. It matched her shirt, which also had the ace flag across it. On her shirt sat a small pin, listing that her preferred pronouns were she/her. Roman beamed at the compliment, turning to look at the girl.

“Thank you so much! I adore your makeup!” He gladly responded with a compliment of his own.

“Thanks!” With that the girl walked in the opposite direction with her friends. Roman could feel the newfound confidence bubbling within him. Such a small interaction somehow meant so much to him. Maybe it was because of how genuine and sweet the girl had been with her compliment, or maybe it was just that a stranger had taken the time out of their day to talk to him. Either way, he found himself giggling as he practically bounced over to Logan and Virgil.

“Isn’t this wonderful! Everybody here is so sweet! And the streets are FILLED with rainbows! It’s all so beautiful!” As Roman practically sang with glee he threw his arms around his friends’ shoulders, with Virgil to his left and Logan to his right.

“Yes, it is actually quite a lovely and welcoming environment.” Logan was definitely more relaxed than his friend, but you could clearly hear by his tone that he was genuinely excited to be there.

“Yeah, Princey. It’s pretty chill.” Virgil offered a small smirk, which softened into a more genuine smile when he saw the look of pure glee on Roman’s face. ‘God, how does this boy make me so soft?’ he thought to himself, though he found he didn’t really care as long as he got to see that pure joy on Roman’s face as often as possible.

“Oh, I think I see a hot dog stand in the corner. I can go order food for all of us quickly, what would each of you like?” Logan looked back at his friends.

The two boys each voiced their orders, Roman reaching into his back pocket to pull out his wallet. Logan swiftly put a hand on his wrist, stopping him.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about expenses. I can pay for all of us.” Logan stated plainly. Roman and Virgil both eyed him with something akin to wonder. 

“You sure about that, specs? None of us mind paying for ourselves.” Roman responded in a softer tone than he had spoken in practically all day.

“Of course, I really don’t mind. All I ask is that you all remain here until I return, that way I don’t find myself lost trying to find you.” Logan’s kind offer, though a small gesture, only served to further brighten the mood of the group.

“Thanks, Lo. You’re the best” Virgil piped up, with Roman quickly nodding in agreement. With a small smile of his own in response, Logan took off in the direction of the food stand, skirt swishing with the breeze and leaving Roman and Virgil on the outskirts of their small group of friends.

“Hey, Ro?” Virgil said after a moment of silence.

“Yes, stormcloud?” Roman easily returned, expecting their usual lighthearted banter or possibly a comment about the scenery.

“Now don’t get all super cheesy on me or anything, but it’s, like, nice to see you so happy here.” Virgil had begun mumbling more than actually talking about halfway through his sentence, but Roman heard him clearly.

“What do you mean?” Roman could feel his heart swelling, though he was slightly confused by what Virgil had meant.

“It’s just, you seem so worried about what people are thinking sometimes. And don’t get me wrong, so am I. Anxious thoughts are a bitch.” This got both boys to laugh for a moment before Virgil returned to speaking, his voice a bit firmer and clearer this time. “But  you seem, like, happy here. Like you’re not so worried. And it’s nice to see you like that, or whatever.” he finished his sentence, scratching the back of his neck as he began to wonder if he had been overly emotional. When he met Roman’s eye, however, he found him staring back with gentle, wide eyes and his mouth formed into a small, “o” shape.

Meanwhile, Roman’s heart felt as though it were close to explosion. His friends cared! Virgil cared, and he wanted Roman to be happy! That was so sweet! 

“Thanks, V.” Roman suddenly got the urge to hug the boy in front of him. Before he could talk himself out of it, he reached over and wrapped his arms around Virgil’s shoulders. Virgil froze for a small moment, before wrapping his own arms around Roman. They stood like that for a moment before Roman realized his face had begun to burn, gently pulling away.

“So, where’d you get your shirt? It fits your vibe very well for how bright and colorful it is.” Roman changed the subject easily, though he still felt a warmness within him. 

“Hot topic of course. Would you expect anything else from me?” the two quickly fell into their usual antics, with their playful teasing clearly present. As Logan returned (with Remus in tow, who had offered to help him carry the food) a knowing grin crossed his face, clearly noticing the slight red tint across each of his friends’ cheeks as they continued with their banter.

--

Patton finished off the last bite of his meal, squishing the paper the hot dog came wrapped in up into a ball. He began scanning the area around him, hoping to find a trash can. After a moment of looking he spotted one, next to a booth. The booth itself looked very pastel and cute, easily catching Patton’s attention.

“Hey guys! We should go look at that booth, it seems nice!” He chirped as he began skipping over, skirt flowing around him as he did. Logan was the quickest to follow, ever alert and watching, and soon all of the boys were standing in front of the adorable pastel booth.

As Patton reached the front of the booth, he noticed that most of the items sold there were smaller accessories. They seemed to have pins, patches and stickers of many assortments (all LGBTQ+ related though, of course), as well as a few rainbows and dad caps. He could hear as his friends approached and began looking along with him, continuing to scan through the items. Almost immediately he heard a gasp from Remus, followed by a shout of, “Oh, I HAVE to get this.”

Patton turned to look at Remus and saw him holding up a hat  in a very similar style to what he was currently wearing, only this one was white and had the words “Love whoever the fuck you want” embroidered in rainbow thread. 

“Dear god please no.” Could be heard from Roman, which overlapped with Logan’s comment of,

“That would suit you quite nicely. It is very much your style.” Remus grinned at Logan’s response, quickly turning back to his brother.

“I’m getting it, brother dearest! LOGAN said it looked hot!” Remus cackled. He failed to notice the way Logan’s face immediately resembled a tomato, or his quiet utterance of “Those weren’t my EXACT words.”, as he handed the person running the stand a ten dollar bill. While they counted his change Patton returned his gaze to the patches in front of him, smiling and winking at Logan after noticing his current state.

‘Oh, all of these are so cute!’ Patton observed. He thought of the light-wash denim jacket he had at home, and realized it would look quite nice with a few patches added on. Plus it would allow his jacket to become gayer. As Patton knew well, everything could always be at least a little bit gayer.

The first patch he picked up had two pastel rainbow cherries with adorable smiles, which Patton immediately knew he needed. Directly next to the cherries he noticed a decent-sized rainbow lightning bolt, which immediately made him think of Virgil. ‘If I get one of these I’ll be able to remember my best friend every time I wear my jacket! That’s amazing!’ The lightning bolt joined the cherries in Patton’s hand.

After assessing his options for a moment Patton found himself with five total patches in his hand. He had the lightning bolt and the cherries, as well as an absolutely adorable-looking unicorn with a rainbow mane, a simple rainbow with clouds around it and the word “PRIDE” written in rainbow lettering. It wasn’t a huge amount, but he was happy with what he had. He could always find more patches to iron on online. He grabbed a small pin stating that he used he/him pronouns last minute before approaching the register.

The person running the stand clearly appeared to be older, with their gray hair cut into a bob. They had warm brown eyes that seemed to overflow with kindness and a gentle smile. Their shirt displayed the nonbinary flag across the front, along with the pronouns they/them. ‘It’s nice to see the older generations showing their support and being able to embrace their identities.’ Patton thought as he fished in his wallet, handing his money over to the person. They tried to give Patton his change, but he insisted they keep it as a thank you for showing support and pride and helping give LGBTQ+ people a safe and welcoming space. That was something that the older generations didn’t always understand but was so crucial and helpful in improving the mental health of LGBTQ+ teens especially, and he knew that very well.

The group stayed at the booth for around five more minutes before finally deciding it was time to leave, knowing they needed to head over to the stage that was set up nearby if they wanted to make it to the show being performed by a local drag queen in fifteen minutes. Patton secured his pin onto the front of his shirt, dropping his patches into his skirt pocket before following Remy, who was leading the way.

--

Patton felt exhausted, but in the best way possible. The sun was just beginning to set, signalling that it was time for the boys to start walking back to their van and head home. His feet felt heavy from the weight of walking around all day, and he could feel his eyelids slowly weighing down. Though he was tired, he still felt his happiness from how well the day had gone glowing within him. His first pride had been so lovely! And he had gotten to spend the entire day with his bestest friends in the entire world! And earlier on a group of kids that seemed to be around his age had complimented his outfit and said he looked adorable! All in all it had been one of the best experiences of Patton’s life.

In his daze he felt a hand lightly tap the back of his shoulder, bringing him back to reality. Janus then moved to stand within his view as they continued walking in the direction of the car, looking almost… shy?

 “Hey, Jan. What’s up? Wasn’t today amazing?!” Patton found himself gushing even through his exhaustion, partially because he was just so filled with excitement and partially to calm his friend’s apparent nerves.

“Yeah, I guess it was quite… nice.” Janus seemed to relax for a second, smiling at the memory of the wonderful day he had experienced with his closest friends, before the worry crept back into his face like an infection. Patton opened his mouth to ask if he was alright but found himself stopping short as he noticed Janus reaching into his pockets, eyes cast to the street. Patton watched as Janus pulled three small items from his pockets, grasping them tightly in his hands. Patton’s face quickly morphed into one of puzzlement, confused as to what Janus was doing.

“While we were at that booth earlier I, uhm, noticed a few items that reminded me of you. You didn’t seem to notice them, so after you paid I decided to get them for you. It’s totally no big deal or anything.” Janus tacked on his signature sarcasm at the end, Patton immediately seeing through it and knowing it was a defense mechanism to hide Janus’s nerves but choosing not to mention it.

He opened his palm and Janus dropped the patches into it, with Patton almost immediately bringing them in front of his glasses to expect the items.

The first one had a truly precious shiba inu dog with a pride flag in his mouth, immediately causing Patton to coo out a small, “That’s so cute!” As he looked over to the next one he saw a beautiful blue rose, with the words “Pretty Boy” in rainbow lettering surrounding the flower. That brought a tinge of blood to Patton’s cheeks. ‘He thinks I’m pretty?’

“Oh, this flower is gorgeous!” He tried to cover up how a silly patch managed to fluster him. Janus didn’t seem to notice, so he looked over to the last of the patches in his hand. It was an adorable cartoon frog wearing rainbow overalls and the sweetest smile he had ever seen. Frogs were his favorite animal, and it made Patton happy that Janus had remembered such a small detail. He felt himself tearing up at the kind gesture from his generally more closed-off friend. He looked back up to Janus, finding the shorter boy staring at him with a look of clear false confidence masking his worry.

“I love these! You remembered my favorite animal! These will go perfect with the other patches I got once I iron them onto my denim jacket!” Janus’ eyes brightened at the praise, one of his more rare genuine smiles gracing Patton. “Thank you so much for thinking of me!” Patton reached over to give the other boy a quick hug, with the smaller boy burying his face into Patton’s shoulder for the briefest of seconds before they both pulled away.

“Oh, it was truly such a problem. It’s not like I care about you or anything.” Janus was back with his usual smirk and attitude, drawing a giggle from Patton’s throat that Janus would describe as nothing short of precious.

“Come on boys, we can’t spend all day out here!” Remy chided, prompting Patton to reach for Janus’s hand as he pulled them along the last few steps to the car.

--

Once everybody was situated in the minivan Remy paused to look back at his friends through the rear-view mirror. Patton was eagerly showing Virgil his lightning patch, with Virgil giggling along to something he had said. Roman, Remus and Janus seemed to be sharing stories about their day (it didn’t matter that they had spent practically the entire day together, those three were easily the most dramatic and any remotely special moment they had they wanted to share with each other), and Logan and Emile seemed to be in some sort of discussion about psychology. Of course those two would be able to jump right back into regular conversation, enjoying being able to talk about a shared passion for knowledge in the area of psychology together. One similarity between them all was that each of his friends looked truly happy and content, including Remy himself. 

Despite still being a teenager himself, his status as one of the oldest in the group led him to be more protective and caring over his younger friends. He had really been trying to make sure their first experience with pride was amazing and unforgettable, and from the looks on his friends faces he could clearly tell he succeeded. He felt his heart swell with love for his friends (not that he’d ever mention this, he had a reputation to upkeep for god’s sake).

“Alright everyone! We need one last picture together before we head out. Lean in bitches, all 8 of us need to fit!” Remy shouted in the car, his friends quickly attempting to find a position where they could all be seen. It took a moment (there were 8 teenage boys in a minivan all trying to fit into the frame), but eventually they got a decent picture. Remy sent it off to their group chat before stuffing his phone into his pocket and throwing his keys into the ignition, starting the journey home with a smile across his face. He reached across the enter console and used his right hand to grab a hold of his boyfriend’s, keeping his left hand firmly on the wheel and his eyes on the road. 

(A/N: Hi again! As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and any comments are much appreciated! I had a bit of help from some people explaining their personal experiences but I’ve never actually been to Pride, so if it’s not completely accurate I’m sorry, I tried my best to do as realistic of an interpretation as I could. I’ve been planning this for all of Pride month, and I’m really just thankful I managed to finish it before the month ended lol. Remember, your identity is ALWAYS valid and you deserve to feel proud of who you are. If you ever need to talk, my messages are open. <3 Happy pride everyone!)

Here’s a link to all of their outfits btw! Also I almost forgot but I said I’d tag you once this was finished so @aegis-the-ace !

[sincerelyreidburke]

Ice skate emoji for all!

(From these asks for my Kiersey drama club OCs!) It’s Monday... happy Quinn Theatre Hours! Let’s get to it.

⛸ Ice skating or roller skating?

(LOL, as I was typing these out, I almost straight-up forgot Quinn.)

Quinn: Ice skating for sure. I’ll never forget the first time Sebastián offered to take me skating. We went to an open-ice session at Faber; it was a lot of fun. I think he thought I wasn’t going to be able to hold my own on the ice, but of course I know how to skate! His reaction was so lovely. I’ll confess I’m no good at hockey activities, though. That’s his department, through and through.

Cole: I’m a really bad ice skater, but I still like to do it because it’s fun. :D

Claire: Ice skating! I used to figure skate when I was a kid. I kinda forget how to do most of the jumps, but I can still skate.

Reid: Bold of you to assume I have any coordination whatsoever. I would avoid both of these as a concept, but if I had to choose, let’s go with roller skating, because it doesn’t involve literal blades.

Allison: Aww, roller skating! That’s, like, a dream date of mine! But at one of those cute old-fashioned roller rinks, not the ones with strobe lights and weird shitty music.

Daniel: Oh, um... ice skating sounds kinda fun!

Kelsie: Ice skating, like at Rockefeller Square at Christmastime. But I don’t like being cold, so I’d better wear a big jacket!

Maggie: Okay, hear me out for a second; there’s this one music video where this girl rollerblades down a sidewalk with, like, some kind of colored smoke machine, and honestly? I want to do that. For the aesthetic.

Spencer: Roller skating. This one time in high school, I did a whole number in a show on roller blades. People thought it was really cool.

Ellie: Obviously ice skating. I’m from Vermont, and there’s a pond behind my house that freezes over in the winter. My brother plays hockey, and, like, I don’t really know how to play, but I can kick his ass in a one-on-one.

Jhiron: Honestly not a fan of ice skating, so definitely rollerblading on this one.

Ezra: Uh... roller skating, I guess? I like skateboarding way better than either of these. Also I have a Razor scooter. Both are efficient for getting around campus.

[screenshotpatrol]

E-Scooter Purchasing Tips

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Sure, as you may attract curious appearances from people who are not accustomed to grownups riding an electric scooter, then it is a bold street statement and also a trend values jumping on. But in the event that you're always emotion conscious in regards to the e-scooters, then don't forget the very first mobile phones seemed preposterous, but everyone has a phone.

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Belowwe shall glance at exactly what you stand to profit from preferring an electric scooter as the style of private transportation.

Portability

Most of the aided types of transportation, including bikes are bulky, and awkward to be thought about for practicality. Even the e-scooters, but are light weight, and foldable, thus boosting durability and easy storage.

Ecofriendly

An electrical scooter is an equally interesting solution for the green horn because it cann't create any pollution, with respect to carbon dioxide or even noise.

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While a bicycle scooter isn't an upgraded or fitness workout, it gives a great means to receive your own body moving.

They're beneficial in strengthening your heart together with activating your balance.

Safety

Every manner of transportation comes with an inherent danger. However, electric scooters are safer, specially in comparison to other sorts of particular electric vehicles such as electrical roller boards along with electric skaters.

Save Time

In busy cities, e-scooters can assist you to save time because they're portable and will get anyplace, so you won't have any problems taking shortcuts through a shopping mall or a playground.

Electric Scooter Vitality Consumption

Electric scooters give an simple means to tackle the steep climbs and extended distances with no troubles. On the other hand of the coin, the e-scooters need recharging, and this also contributes to a time expenses.

[everydayhybridity]

Some very accomplished and informed people have taken the time to read my book and provide endorsements. I am very grateful for these insights, especially from a collection of people whose work and achievements I so openly admire.

However, the really rewarding thing about these reviews is that they provide a succinct overview of the text. After spending so long grappling with these ideas and carefully constructing arguments in order to be as lucid as possible, it still comes as a surprise to be so well understood. My earnest thanks for these validations.

Anyway, here are what folks are saying about Skateboarding and Religion which will be released by Palgrave as an ebook very soon, and in hardback on November 8.

“Paul O’Connor’s Skateboarding and Religion is an exhilarating book; it is simultaneously a challenge to all mainstream ideas about religion and religious experience, and a rich and nuanced study of the religious dimensions of skateboarding. O’Connor interrogates the origin myths of the sport, sketches portraits of the saints and mystics of the skateboarding world, profiles a diverse group of skaters from different geographical and religious contexts and offers a sophisticated reading of the aesthetics and symbolism used by skateboarders. The sacred spaces of the sport, the impulse for pilgrims to visit and engage with these sites, and the ritual dimensions of their activities are chronicled, and the text is enriched by images that make the phenomena discussed comprehensible for the reader. This original and joyous study is a major contribution to the study of contemporary religious and spiritual trends.” (Carole M. Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Sydney, Australia)

“Through a sociologist’s nuanced analysis and a skateboarder’s commitment to the daring, Paul O’Connor makes clear the often surprising religiosity that underpins skateboarding’s culture, industry, and even the act itself. This groundbreaking book will convince even the most stubbornly secular reader that skateboarding is something especially sacred in the modern world.” (Christian N. Kerr, Writer and Editor at Jenkem Magazine)

“At once insightful, questioning and provocative, Paul O’Connor’s Skateboarding and Religion takes two seemingly disconnected phenomena and shows how they are intrinsically inter-related. This massively original study will be of interest to anyone concerned with the sociology of skateboarding and other youthful practices. Very highly recommended.” (Iain Borden, Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture, University College London, UK)

“In Skateboarding and Religion Paul O’Connor provides a valuable expansion of the sport-religion relationship bound to impact multiple interdisciplinary audiences. Most works on sport and religion focus on team and commercial sports. O’Connor’s work is unique in offering a much-needed analysis of religion in the neglected area of lifestyle sports. From the perspective of sporting subcultures, he crafts an innovative framework for understanding religion across multiple denominational, informal, commercial, geographical, and artistic practices.” (Daniel A. Grano, Professor of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA)

“A seductive synthesis of radically different genres, O’Connor’s alchemy fuses the sociology of lifestyle sports with religious studies. This bold foray into the academic unknown requires a leap of faith which counters the notion of skateboarding as a culture of destructive iconoclasts. O’Connor’s fresh accounting of this oft demonized subculture argues that the everyday lives of skaters disturbs the sacred profane dualism of classic notions of religion, and instead should be understood as a ‘lifestyle religion’. In this view, a shared ethos of progression, sacrifice, and most critically, ritual practice establishes a ‘communitas’ that helps skaters make sense of themselves in a neo-liberal, fractured world.  Hell yeah.” (Gregory Snyder, Associate Professor of Sociology, City University of New York, USA)

[and-then-yoi-happened]

Yuri on Ice Soulmate AU for the ask game?

Thisprompt took me a while too, and I’m so sorry! A short preface: Thetruth is, that this one was challenging for me. I personally don’tfind soulmate AUs that appealing, mostly because many of them are“people have a soulmate, they have to find one another, (insertoptional obstacle), happy end (or not, depending on the obstacle)”.My issue is that I dislike tropes where such life altering things aredecided by fate, you know what I mean? So after some thinking I cameup with the following soulmate AU setting, and I really hope you canstill enjoy it! :) Also this got long, oops

Ashort rundown on soulmates in this AU:

Everysentient being has a soul, but only conscious beings (aka humans) canunderstand that they have a soul, and therefore actively seek theirsoulmate. Souls can live for centuries on their own, but if theydon’t bond, they will fade until they cease to exist. Notevery soul has a soulmate. In fact finding a soul you want to mateyours with is one of the big challenges in this setting. Once you’vefound your soulmate and bonded it is important to keep the bondstrong through the current life and all the lives to come. In everyfuture life you will find your soulmate, which doesn’t necessarilymean that you’ll always be romantic soulmates, or that everythingwill always be easy relationship wise. On the contrary, each life forbonded souls is full of challenges that the soulmates have toovercome together. Only if they succeed their bonds will stay strong.As soon as two souls become soulmates, a soulmark will formover their hearts. The design is simple: just a ring with a diameterof approximately 1inch (~2,5cm) and it will alter from your skin tonejust like a birthmark does. Every future body of a bounded soul willcarry that soulmark from their moment of birth. When you meet yourother half in your future lives, and you look into each other’seyes, the mark will grow hot.

Headcanonsfor this setting:

It’s the canon setting and basically the canon story, but with the added soulmate trope

Both Yuuri and Victor have unbound souls

During his teens and up to his success streak Victor always thought he wouldn’t care about trying to find himself a soulmate in this life (or so he says, since he’s still a hopeless romantic deep inside).

Over time his mixed feelings and refusal towards the whole soulmate thing change. He starts to get curious and finds himself yearning to be so close to someone. He starts to choreograph Stammi Vicino.

Yuuri is anxious about the decision to make someone his soulmate. What if he judges poorly? What if the other person doesn’t want it, or is bound already?

The Sochi banquet happens, and Victor is even more excited about the idea of finding a soulmate. “Maybe Yuuri?” He thinks to himself, and immediately regrets it.

During his first few months in Hasetsu, he finds himself conflicted again. And he can’t help but be annoyed that he allowed himself to dream about an “ideal” version in which Yuuri becomes his partner in no time, and later on (after a whirlwind romance as you’d find it in the books) they’d bond.

His hopes come back full force during summer, but he tells himself to be patient, and to see if Yuuri gives him any signs or takes steps himself.

“Nevermind the soulmate thing,” he desperately thinks after the challenger, and shortly before their journey to the CoC, “just let me be with him.”

Meanwhile Yuuri tries to come to terms with his own feelings and how they’ve changed over the months since Victor first arrived in Hasetsu. For a while he’d tried to tell himself that all he felt for Victor was the admiration for Victor as a skater. Sure, Victor was a great, no a lovely person… and that heart pounding…?

They have their first kiss about a week before they travel to China. “Is this how is feels to kiss the right person?” Yuuri thinks involuntarily as they keep on kissing.

When Yuuri has a short taste of being apart from Victor during the free skate at the Rostlecom Cup, he realises how serious he feels about Victor. He cannot and doesn’t want to imagine how a life without Victor by his side would feel.

Victor is shaken and hopes that he understands it correctly when Yuuri peels his glove from his hand in front of the cathedral in Barcelona, and proceeds to slide the ring on his hand.

The short program together with Yuuri’s increased self doubts and anxiety bring back his old fears. What if Victor isn’t the right one? What if he was too bold and should have given them more time? Why did he have to go and buy rings of all things? He decides to back off. “Let’s end this.”

That was the wrong thing to say. He only meant the coach – skater relationship… didn’t he? He was happy with Victor, he wanted to stay by his side, he panicked and then…

Victor is hurt, confused, angry, and can’t understand: He’d planned to ask Yuuri if he’d understood the meaning of the rings correctly after the Gala.

Yuuri tries to reassure Victor (and himself) that this is about his skating career, but he can tell that Victor senses his doubts. Still, they calm down enough for the free skate.

The day between the short program and the free skate, Yuuri tries to focus, but he keeps thinking about their relationship and the soulmate bond. He decides to talk to Phichit. “But Yuuri, you have all the time of this life to make that decision. You do not have to rush it,” Phichit says.

The free skate starts soon, and Yuuri decides to only think about the skate for now. He delivers, and while the audience cheers around him he breaks his ending pose, and looks back at Victor. It’s true: he has the rest of this life for that decision.

He breaks Victor’s record, and Victor tells him he’ll come back to competitive skating. And Yuuri starts to ask himself, if he really wants to retire. Another season wouldn’t hurt, would it… He’d have Victor by his side, too…

They talk before the Gala. “Let’s focus on our relationship and the skating first,” Victor says, “I’m serious about this relationship, and I think you’re too since you’ve given me the ring, but we don’t have to rush this decision.”

This was a prompt for the ask game “send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it”.

Other answered prompts from that ask game: boyband AU, supernatural/dark fantasy AU, Phantom of the Opera AU, Royal AU, Royalty & arranged marriage AU, Vicchan lives AU, Wizard/Magic AU and Swan Lake AU.