#so getting to have all the fun w none of the responsibility via games is like

[earl-grey-love]

I'm so damn happy about the sims infants! 😭 They're even better than I thought they'd be! Now I can play all kinds of new stories with them & the dlc.

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Ep15

I forgot this guy’s name, Yao or something? Honestly, I don’t care enough to research this, like, at all. I hate this guy. My friend and I now refer to him as the Hype Man, so I might just call him that from now on. But I wanted to say that I didn’t realize he was in it so early, so when I saw him, I was like, “That fucking guy!!” And I also totally missed that the point of Jiang Fengmian leaving was to take this worthless piece of trash somewhere. I wish he’d died haha. But then I guess there’d be less reason to hate him, and I enjoy hating him.

I can’t believe this is the first paragraph that people are going to see. If you’re reading this now, you’re like, why do I want to read this crap? And y’know what, I can’t blame you. The next few episodes are gonna be rough. I don’t even know if there will be much to say on my end. My friend, after watching these few episodes commented something like, “Huh, that really dragged.” I could only agree, pulling my hair out from the headache these few episodes were giving me.

Okay, but seriously, Yao is so pathetic here! Talking about how he never thought they’d end up like this, and, “Oh, we were just a small clan, woe is me!” It’s amazing that he turns into the biggest prick, always right there hyping up the scapegoat-blame game rhetoric. Sorry, I hate this fucker.

A rare nice moment from Madam Yu. It was sweet having her show a caring side, packing medicine for her husband, snacks for her daughter. But of course, it was because Jiang Yanli had come to say goodbye to her earlier. Jiang Cheng is really like his mother—they can’t do anything for kindness’s sake, there’s always an obligation to the kindness.

I hate Wang Lingjiao, but I love her, and I love hating her. I’m conflicted. She’s just such a fun, evil character, more fun than Xue Yang in my opinion, probably because she actual interacts with the main characters in the story. It will forever annoy me that Xue Yang gets so much attention for appearing in a long-ass flashback (via empathy) and what should have been a flashback (Chang Clan) but wasn’t because they wanted it to be padding, I guess.

Anyway, Wang Lingjiao. She’s fun, she goes completely nuts—what’s not to love about her? She’s also someone who is so similar to Madam Yu, but because she also is ambitious and wants to take over Lotus Pier, Madam Yu wants her dead. Haha!

While Madam Yu is, objectively, a horrible person, I actually really like how her bodyguards aren’t treated like servants. I like that there’s mutual respect there, as there should be when you’re talking about protecting someone. Unfortunately, I think Madam Yu treats them better than her own family in most cases. It’s cool that the Jiang Clan doesn’t rely on servants to get food and tea and whatnot. These are things that the disciples and leaders must do for themselves. By contrast, the Jins have so many servants—it’s almost obscene by comparison.

Also I want to point out how hot-headed Jiang Cheng gets here, while his mother is just cool as a cucumber. It really shows you how unready he is to actually lead (which she points out). He’s so emotional, quick to anger, yet he has none of the foundations to really lead a group of people. Even when the disciples are explaining to them what happened to the kid and the kite, it’s Wei Wuxian who is keeping everyone calm and asking the questions.

I love that his first reaction here is to insult Wang Lingjiao’s intelligence. We’re basically getting a parallel to how he reacts to Wen Chao, which is fun because you can see how his behavior hasn’t changed at all. He uses his wit in both situations and is easily able to outwit both Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao. What’s kind of interesting is that Jiang Cheng will speak up now when he wouldn’t before. And I wonder is it because he is guilty for being silent earlier with Wen Chao, or is it something else? I think ultimately Jiang Cheng blames Jin Xizuan, Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian for what happens to his parents and to Lotus Pier. Even though, logically, it would have been destroyed anyway, he still wants to place the blame on someone who he can reach. All this is to say, I don’t think Jiang Cheng regrets not speaking up at the Wen Indoctrination. So I think he feels superiority over Wang Lingjiao really because he thinks she’s a stupid woman. And duh, she is not that clever. But she is smart enough to be able to use what talents she has to get ahead. She apparently is favored over Wen Chao’s own wife (who knew he was even married—not me lol), and you have to be ambitious and have some smarts to get that far. That’s not to say that Jiang Cheng wouldn’t treat a man this way too—I think he would. I think he picks and chooses who he’ll stand up to. He’s on his own turf, she’s an invader, she’s a woman—she only brought a few henchmen, right? He’s also been charged with watching over Lotus Pier in his father’s absence. Maybe he just wants to look big for once. Just a thought. Take it or leave it.

So, I think Madam Yu is enjoying this. She’s getting two things she wants: the Wens are going to leave and she gets to beat the shit out of Wei Wuxian. She doesn’t even have to be prodded to punish him, right? She barely waits until Wang Lingjiao has finished speaking. This has something she’s wanted to do for a long time. I think she’s hit him before, yes? But she can go all out right now, since Jiang Fengmian, his only real protector, is gone.

Also Jiang Cheng! Man, he’s torn apart! He hates to see this happening to Wei Wuxian—yes, he blames him for all that shit, but he doesn’t want to see this happen to him. It’s actually harder to watch Jiang Cheng in all of this than Wei Wuxian, who mostly remains as stoic as he could possibly be while she’s whipping the shit out of him. And again here, we get Wei Wuxian telling Jiang Cheng not to interfere, because the last thing he wants is for Jiang Cheng to be penalized too. He’s fine receiving this punishment because it’s a “better me than him” kind of a thing. It’s harder to watch someone else suffer than to suffer ourselves, right? I’m like that, idk if you readers are, but I think a lot of people are like that. I mean, I’ve always been that way, but it’s been amplified since I became a parent. And not only is he accepting of being whipped by Zidian, he’s ready to lose his fucking right hand. The hand that he wields a sword with. His dominant hand. He is ready to lose it with absolutely no fuss. That’s how much Wei Wuxian cares about Lotus Pier. His response is, “I’ll have to learn how to use my left hand.” It’s a passing line, a line when you can’t even see his face—but do you get how big that is? Jiang Cheng is up there losing his mind, completely emotional, crying, yelling at his mother to stop—Wei Wuxian is just silently gritting his teeth and taking it. They’re both brave (I would not want to stand up to Madam Yu), but different kinds of brave, y’know?

I do love this part. I’m not gonna lie. Seeing Madam Yu slap Wang Lingjiao around is something that’s deeply, deeply satisfying. I guess it’s just nice to see Madam Yu’s anger turned towards an actual villain, since up until this point, it’s been directly mainly at Wei Wuxian and her own husband. I think this part is forever tainted if you know how the story goes, because Madam Yu is just on fire! But if you’ve seen this series before, which hopefully you have (otherwise spoilers abound), you know it doesn’t end well for her. I like this plot device here, making you think that the good guys are going to come out on top, and then reversing it so quickly as soon as the Core-Melting Hand shows up. One minute, you’re cheering, the next, you’re…not.

I also want to point out how quickly things reverse here as well. Jiang Cheng is trying to protect and comfort Wei Wuxian throughout this whole scene, which is something we’re definitely not used to seeing. This has always (and I mean always) been more of Lan Wangji’s thing. But in kind of a nice twist of fate, we actually see Jiang Cheng caring for Wei Wuxian. But then, boy, do things change! We see a complete reversal of this behavior—first Wei Wuxian has to be there for Jiang Cheng’s emotional state, and then his physical one. And the man does not complain about it at all.

I want to say that I didn’t cry in my first watch of CQL until episode 50. That is 100% the truth, so help me God. However, when I watched this scene in the donghua, I cried like a little bitch. Cried probably isn’t the right word—how about sobbed. I sobbed. I think because I knew it was coming when I watched CQL, it didn’t really affect me (plus my husband was right there, not paying attention, but still on the couch with me, so I tend to not cry as much when he’s around. I like to cry on my own, okay?). Having said that, the second time I saw this scene, I fucking cried, and I really didn’t stop until after they told Jiang Yanli, because that sweetheart crying makes me cry, okay? I have a really hard time watching things about children and parents, because I always think about my own parents and my own kid, so it just makes me really emotional. The idea of never seeing your parents again, especially in such a traumatic situation, at the age of what—17? That’s something I can’t even begin to imagine. In a word, horrific. Traumatic isn’t even a strong enough word to describe the emotional and mental turmoil that a teenager would be going through. But I can probably ramble about that later.

And my heart breaks for Wei Wuxian here too. Even though she hated him, even though she treated him so poorly, I’m sure he still thought of her as something akin to a mother. She was the only mother figure he had in his life who was still living, so there was definitely an attachment there (and this is proven later). Even being acknowledged by her here must mean something to him. She may hate him, but she trusts him to keep her children safe and to protect them. It’s honestly so sad.

Ugh, this is hard to watch. As a mother, the idea of sending your kid adrift when you know you’ll probably never see them again is so heartbreaking. The connection you have with your children is something that no other relationship can match, whether you physically bore your children or not. They are a part of you. Like, let’s be real, raising children is difficult—they can test your patience, make you angry, make you sad and hurt (toddlers don’t care about you, yeah, I said it)—but you love them in spite of it all. And for me, I can never really hate Madam Yu. I can find her attitude and treatment of certain individuals deplorable, but at the end of the day, she loved her children. Was she a good mom? No, probably not. But I don’t think Jiang Fengmian was a good dad either (although I think he tried a bit harder). But I think she loved A-Cheng and A-Li, and I think she trusted Wei Wuxian to protect them. I think she gave him that shred of respect at the end.

In case you’re wondering, I fucking cried through to the end of this episode. I mean, Jesus, Yanli just gets immediately thrown into another boat and tied up with her brothers, after finding out that her mother might be dead already, and then her dad abandons them too. I just can’t.

I’m sorry this was short (maybe I’m not sorry, depending on how much you like the episode). I’m going to try and knock out more than one episode per week because I just don’t have a lot to say. These are mainly getting through the plot episodes, if you know what I mean.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

[halothenthehorns]

PROFESSOR TRELAWNEY'S PREDICTION

Harry was in such a giddy mood after the last chapter that it took him a little longer than usual to settle down and try to read, putting all of his delays on this one feeling, and refusing to admit that now that school was coming to an end, he knew he should remember something that he'd been ignoring all year.

Harry's euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week.

"Can't believe it didn't last for months," James beamed, still unable to knock the pride out of his voice, not that he was trying.

The rest of the school was in exactly the same mood, the beautiful weather out every window leaving all the students with fantasies of lounging around.

"But of course that's the time exams are set," Sirius muttered in disgust.

They couldn't though, as student exams began, and they were forced to make their brains concentrate,

"You're starting to give me flashbacks," Remus sighed, rubbing his forehead in that remembered pain.

despite the summer fast approaching. Even the Weasley twins had been caught studying,

James spazzed and then pretended to faint in shock, while Sirius 'broke down' crying about how he was so disappointed in them.

Lily and Harry couldn't help giggling along at the pair of them, while Remus looked about ready to join in except he couldn't do anything to theatrical with the baby in his lap.

which was fair considering they were about to take their O. W. L. s.

"Alright, I'll give them a pass for that," James nodded, coming out of it.

"Yes fine, just this once," Sirius nodded in agreement as he wiped his eyes.

Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests),

"Really wish that was a joking title," Lily muttered in remembered disdain of how accurate it was.

and was now prone to telling off anyone and everyone who so much as made a peep disturbing him.

"Whelp, there goes that good mood of his, that he had for five seconds," Remus rolled his eyes.

He still wasn't as bad as Hermione.

"Oh bloody hell," James winced, remembering all over again the amount of tests that girl had to cope with.

Harry and Ron had long since given up asking how she was going to all of her classes,

"Still don't comprehend how you could give up on that," Sirius asked, knowing he'd pester the girl to no end until he got his answer.

"Don't I know it," Remus sighed, Sirius having pestered him to no end when he realized he'd been hiding something, and not having let up until he figured it out.

but they couldn't help but ask when they saw her schedule, which had two exams being taken place at once.

Lily went cross-eyed at the thought of one exam in the morning and one that evening, let alone double it!

Ron began the conversation very carefully, since she was known to explode when anyone spoke to her.

"Well can you blame her?" Harry asked with a bit of an edge, remembering those moments a little too well.

He asked if she was sure of these times, and Hermione had a mini freak out as she double checked them and said yes of course they were right.

"Right," Sirius said with a frown, drawing out the word past its normal syllable count. He wasn't questioning that part any more than before, just how she was bleeding doing it.

Harry asked if there was a point in asking how she was going to pull that off, and she told them no.

"That's when you ask again," James pointed out.

"And again," Sirius seconded.

"Until she's told you after the millionth time you ask," James concluded.

"Trust them on this," Remus said with a suffering sigh, "they have way too much experience on that front."

Then she asked if they'd seen her Arithmancy book, and Ron admitted he'd borrowed it for some fun,

"It's good he's branching out into subjects he isn't taking," Lily muttered, thinking he was quite brave to poke fun at her at a time like this.

though quietly enough she couldn't have heard. Harry got distracted by a note arriving via Hedwig from Hagrid.

They all perked up again, though without much hope. They all knew what was coming, as nothing had changed.

He read out that Buckbeak's appeal had been set for the last day of their exams.

"Guess that's kind of a good thing, you might could sneak out and see him," James muttered without any enthusiasm, knowing if they could they would have done it already.

Harry was still reading though, as the note said the Ministry was coming up here to do it,

"Ugh," Lily muttered in disdain, thinking that wasn't any kind of professional at all.

and they were bringing an executioner.

"Why, would Hagrid know that?" Remus asked, going just that little bit paler from shock at this blatant disregard of Hagrid's rights for his appeal.

"Maybe he does have a friend at the Ministry that warned him," Sirius said listlessly, the reason didn't matter, it still made him see red with anger.

"But, but that means," Lily tried to splutter, but she was so angry she couldn't get the words out. None of them needed her to, they all knew what this meant. The Ministry had set its mind, and that appeal had just turned into a literal execution, making it all the more ghastly that this was being done in Hagrid's house!

Ron was furious as he snapped they couldn't do that, just ignore all that reading he'd done for this appeal!

"You tell them that when they arrive," James nodded seriously, knowing this wouldn't be the only things he'd like to say to every one of those pompous, arrogant, gah he was so angry he was running out of insults in his own head!

Harry though had the strong feeling that they could, and would, as the Committee had already proven they'd do exactly as Lucius wanted.

"Sounds about right yeah," Sirius hissed, his hand starting to twitch like he wanted to curse Malfoy into oblivion right then. If Malfoy could get away with doing these types of things, what else did he have running for him at that Ministry!?

The younger Malfoy, who hadn't been nearly as public since that last game,

"Wish he'd stay that way forever," Remus snarled.

gained back some of his old attitude for this news.

"How, could, he, be, pleased, with, this!" Lily said slowly and carefully to stop herself from screaming at the top of her lungs, not with her infant still in the room anyways. It just blew her mind that he hadn't learned a damned thing, even after his cruel acts to Harry all year and her son had still won fairly, even after Hermione had taught him right how words could hurt and he'd gone right back to it! What would it take to make this boy see this wasn't okay?

He made it plenty obvious from his comments that he felt personally responsible for what was going to happen to the hippogriff, and couldn't be more pleased about it.

"I cannot begin to say just how wrong that is." James scowled, hoping against hope something could still be done, anything that would get this animal out of this putrid situation he didn't belong in. All this for a couple of scratches on his arm, when Malfoy had deserved that in the first place!

It was all Harry could do to stop himself imitating Hermione and hitting Malfoy in the face on these occasions.

"You have much more restraint than any of us," Remus nodded seriously.

"It vaguely helped he would most often do this with Snape around," Harry said morosely, his face making it clear that probably might not stop him again the next time he saw him.

The worst part of all was that because of the strict security still around, they had no chance to go see Hagrid, and couldn't sneak out because his cloak was still in the secret passage.

"You just going to leave that down there forever then?" James sighed, randomly wondering if the twins had come across it and perhaps taken it or anyone really, they couldn't be the only kids to know about it.

Harry did look like he was regretting this decision as well, he'd just been so upset and paranoid about being caught around that statue so many times that if anyone, Snape or at the time Lupin, caught him there again, he might lose something far more valuable to him then that Map, he couldn't have stood it if someone took his cloak away next. He still might have risked it though just to see Hagrid, but there was also the matter that he had no way of getting out of the castle with all of those securities, so it was a moot point in the end. Once he explained this to the others, they looked like they understood more, though as unhappy about it as Harry. Remus especially, though Harry had left his name out, Remus guessed it all the same.

Exams began and Harry's first was Transfiguration,

James couldn't help but perk up just a bit, wanting to know how his son had done in his old favorite class.

which didn't seem to go that well as the students came shuffling out comparing progress, asking if points were taken away for this or that.

"It didn't say what you did," James said swiftly.

Harry grimaced as he muttered, "mine had been the one to blow steam."

"Well that's not so bad," Sirius said bracingly, "if it had just waited another few seconds, no one would have even known and you'd have gotten full marks."

Harry gave him a friendly smile for the attempt, but his thoughts had been much like his fathers, and he'd been hoping that by now with his magic he may have gotten some sort of hint at what he might be best in. It certainly wasn't his father's old branch, which wasn't improving his mood.

Then there was Charms, where Harry put a bit too much oomph into his magic and accidentally used his Cheering Charm too strong on Ron, who had to be escorted out while he laughed himself silly and had to be calmed down to try his own.

Lily couldn't help a giggle herself, saying, "honestly I can't see you getting too bad off for that, at least you've shown you can do it."

Harry gave the expected laugh back, though still right on being annoyed that it clearly wasn't his mother's either. Despite how often they kept saying how much he was like them, he was still looking for some sort of connection to them back then even through these feeble means rather than possessions they'd once owned or even people. He had vividly remembered Ollivanders words about their strengths in magic, and the longer he didn't excel in one of these two the more it annoyed him.

Then it was off to study for Care of Magical Creatures,

"Well that one should be easy enough," Remus said lightly, noting like the others Harry's bad mood, but unclear why it was there. Since he wasn't saying it they assumed it had something to do with his memories, so he was still trying to keep things light as he finished, "all you did was study flobberworms all year, plus that one class where the fire salamanders came."

Harry nodded in agreement, forcing himself to shake away his problem which was probably just a stupid want, and focus on the here and now, where he could make plenty of connections to his parents.

which Hagrid made an ease of during the exam, since he was clearly preoccupied.

"Guess you can't rightly blame him," Sirius said in honest sympathy.

Their goal was to make sure their flobberworm was alive after an hour.

"Easiest exam ever!" Remus said with just a touch of envy, they'd never gotten off so easy in that class with Kettleburn, though upon reflection that may have been a good thing.

Since this creature survived fine when left alone,

"See, you did learn something in that class," James pointed out with chipper.

they had no problems with this and instead tried to comfort Hagrid. He was barely keeping himself together as he admitted that Buckbeak was starting to get restless from being tied down too long.

"That'll happen with any animal," Remus nodded sadly.

They didn't get long to think on it though as they had Potions next, which was a disaster.

"Can't even rightly blame you," Lily sighed. Harry couldn't help feeling disappointed in himself all over again, knowing that was his Mum's favorite subject now and wishing he could be better in it, not much he could do though with the teacher he had.

Harry's Confusing Concoction was far too runny,

"Does Snape make all of his exams an unintended joke?" Sirius couldn't help but demand, slightly amused as he remembered Harry's first year and his Forgetfulness Potion qualification.

and when Snape inspected it he wrote down what looked to be a zero.

"It's a bleeding miracle Harry hasn't failed every year with that kind of biased," James growled.

Then they had History of Magic, where Harry wrote as much as he could on all the information Florean Fortescue had given him on those witch-hunts,

"Always a good strategy," Lily nodded, "do the most with what you can, bullshit your way through what you don't."

Harry couldn't help a startled laugh, finding it more amusing as time went on his Mum was clearly relaxing and not being so uptight.

all the while wishing he could have some ice cream now in the boiling room.

"I wish they'd serve ice-cream with every exam," Sirius sighed, "it would certainly make me more willing to show up."

Their second to last exam was DADA.

That caused mixed emotions in all of them. They all still couldn't help but perk up whenever Remus was mentioned, he was clearly doing such a good job with the class and he had gone out of his way to take an interest in Harry's dementor problem. Then of course that lead to his more odd behaviors, and it left them confused all over again what on earth had happened to him this whole time. Had growing up alone and away from his friends really changed him that much? Twelve years was a long time, and none of them really felt like they had a right to judge if he had.

Remus was the only one who didn't agree with that last assessment, thinking that all the time in the world shouldn't have changed how he felt about Harry, wouldn't have done anything for his conviction of protecting and helping Sirius, but as they still had no new information on it, no one really said anything.

Lupin set up an interesting test for them, an obstacle course outside,

"You always did come up with the best ways to make that class fun," Harry told him fondly, his conviction that Professor Lupin was his favorite DADA teacher he ever had still holding true no matter what he learned of his personality on the side.

Remus offered him a wane smile for the compliment, before morosely turning back to the baby and half hoping he'd fade back out again soon, while still somehow trying to hold onto the flicker of hope that his future actions would properly be explained.

which Harry breezed through as he properly remembered every way to deal with every creature they'd learned about.

"Least I aced that one," Harry beamed, remembering his annoyance at his Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration grades again. So he hadn't blossomed in his parents best subjects, but he had in another. Their obvious praise at him now, as he'd clearly done that without Remus having given him any extra help, made them as proud as anything.

Ron had a little less luck, getting sidetracked by the hinkypunk,

"He got out alright though," he said unnecessarily, since Remus had still been around and had to get him out before he finished, "and he fought off the boggart just fine, so he still got really good marks."

and Hermione nearly got a perfect score as well, if it wasn't for her boggart.

Lily remembered back to when the boggart had first come up, and the girl's ire that she hadn't had a go. Lily had laughed then because this student didn't seem to need such practice.

She ran out screaming,

Then she blanched in shock along with everyone else at that reaction.

as she sobbed that McGonagall had been in there telling her that she'd failed every class.

They couldn't help it, all of the boys cracked up laughing. Lily tried to scowl at them, but then she remembered Ron's joke that this would actually be her boggart, and she couldn't help a light giggle of her own at how right he'd been. It still wasn't right to tease her, since she was stressed beyond all reason this year, but the fact that she really thought this still was laughable. Even with the extra workload, they'd still been under the impression she was top of her class in now literally every class.

Ron clearly wanted to laugh,

"Don't blame him," Sirius couldn't help but snicker one last time.

but he never got the chance as they left and went back around to the front of the school to find Cornelius Fudge.

"What's he doing there?" James grumbled, his despise of the Ministry nearly having reached the same level as Sirius'. First what had been done to his best mate, his brother, and now everything with Hagrid had put the justice system he'd been hoping to join at an all-time low.

He caught sight of Harry and greeted him, who responded back in kind while Hermione and Ron stayed hovering back, never having been on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic.

"Guess I can't blame them," Remus said with a wince, his own thoughts at the Minister being on the school grounds giving him his own spike of fear. He remembered back chapters ago about his worry of what he was getting let out, and possible retribution for his being around children. Would it reach all the way to the Minister of Magic, and Harry just hadn't heard about it because it had been handled quietly? He tried to keep himself calm by making a face at the baby, which worked effectively in making them both laugh, the others wondering why Remus' sounded so strained all of a sudden.

Fudge then explained to Harry that he was here as a witness for the Committee since apparently they were set to kill some hippogriff,

They may have already worked this out, but it didn't lessen their hatred of the situation any.

Sirius looked disgusted as he leaned back into the seat, grumbling, "I'm not even surprised at this point, bet they were all paid off to just skip that appeal."

Harry didn't want to believe it, but couldn't think of anything to argue the point either. No one even wanted to ask what the Minister was supposedly doing dealing with this low level type thing, the answer wouldn't make the act any better.

and since he'd had to come to Hogwarts anyways to check in on the Black situation, he offered.

And that didn't make anyone feel any better either.

Ron jumped in to ask if the appeal had happened, and Fudge looked confused as he told Ron it wasn't until later.

"Confused as to why anyone would question him," James said through clenched teeth, "or confused at how his own system is working!"

Ron pointed out that the hippogriff might not need a witness for an execution then, he could go free.

"I honestly want to cry at how sincere he's being," Lily ground out, looking the opposite of tears she was so frustrated by this wrongdoing.

Fudge didn't have a chance to respond as he was joined on the steps by an old wizard and a man fingering an axe.

"Merlin could they be any crueler about this!" Lily howled in outrage. Showing up to Hagrid's front door with that! At this point she wouldn't even be surprised if they didn't do this the humane way, and just simply lopped off the creature's head while Hagrid was watching and then walk away like that was okay!

"Can't believe the Minister himself is there, they're so blatantly-" James had to click his jaw shut to stop his own voice from rising in pure frustration of this continued mess.

Ron tried to say something, but Hermione cut him off by giving him a subtle kick.

"Please tell me Hermione isn't really going to stick up for this," Sirius asked with something remarkably close to hatred.

"No," Harry snapped back at once, "she'll tell in a second, but she'd never after all she did to try and stop it."

Sirius backed down at once, he'd still been unable to stop himself from drawing a lot of parallels to that hippogriffs situation and what he was envisioning as his own, but now when he replayed that, it had been crueler than he meant.

What really bothered him was that Harry kept watching him with a frown in place, and Sirius wasn't really sure why. Harry had been looking at him a lot like that through the whole book, it was that same plagued face that meant he really wanted to remember something. The fact that Sirius still feared for his own futures sanity and Harry couldn't answer that wasn't helping anything.

When the three had left, Ron demanded to know why she'd stopped him, and Hermione explained that as his Dad worked for Fudge, it wasn't a good idea for him to go yelling at his boss.

"Well, damn," Lily finally got out after chewing on that for a moment, "guess she's got a point."

"Guess it wouldn't have been worth it," James agreed with a suffering sigh.

Hermione tried to say that so long as Hagrid kept his cool, there wouldn't be a need for an execution.

Harry's tone as he read that made it clear that Hermione hadn't meant that any more than they did.

She didn't sound any more sure of it then they felt.

"Why does this crap keep happening to you at the worst of times?" Remus grumbled to no one.

Harry's and Ron's last exam was Divination,

"Least this should be another cakewalk," Sirius offered, anything to keep Harry from shooting him looks. Was it just him, or were those going up in frequency every time Buckbeak was mentioned?

and they made their way unhappily to her tower to find the other students trying to do some last minute reviewing.

"What are they even studying?" Lily asked in wonder. "All we've heard in that class is make it up as you go along."

Harry just shrugged, he'd tried his hardest not to take that class seriously after his first lesson, it hadn't always worked, but he didn't think that was going to change.

They found Neville looking down in confusion at his own book at the section for crystal balls and asked them if they'd ever seen anything in that class?

"Think I found a fly trapped in there once," Harry muttered without any enthusiasm, his skin starting to itch all over. Something, it was definitely that feeling rising up in him again. Something was about to happen...

Ron said no while constantly glancing at his watch, counting down the time to Buckbeak's appeal.

"If she's going in alphabetic order, the boys might not even make it down there in time even if they were going to sneak," James moaned, thinking Trelawney was probably going to take forever.

She was calling the students up one by one, and when Neville came back down from his turn and Harry asked what had happened, Neville refused to tell as Trelawney had told him if he did he'd have an accident.

"Oh for the love of," Lily huffed, more than at her wits end between the fate of Buckbeak and now this teacher on top of it was putting her in quite the foul mood. Now she was still picking on Neville on top of everything!

Ron scoffed that was convenient, and admitted that he was starting to think Hermione was probably right about their teacher,

"Starting to?" Remus rolled his eyes, even with the proof that he did know she was a Seer, she still annoyed him to no end, and didn't really think she should be indulged.

she was a fake. Harry agreed without any real care, still watching his own watch, now set at two.

"Least it's going faster than I thought," James muttered, Harry and Ron's actions clearly meant that this time they may really go for it and be with Hagrid right then, which was surely needed.

Parvati came down next, telling the boys that her's had gone wonderfully as Trelawney had told her she could be a real Seer,

"Don't," Sirius told Lily, taking great pleasure in cutting her off for once. "Leave the kid be."

She huffed but held her tongue, to his surprise.

then waltzed off to join her friend. Ron was called next,

They noticed that obviously this wasn't in any order, so they kind of wondered how she was picking, but it didn't really matter, she could have just been doing it randomly to keep them on their toes.

and Ron made a face as he left, leaving Harry alone.

"Why do I get a bad feeling about leaving him for last?" Lily sighed, thinking Harry may well spend an entire hour now trying to be convinced there was some death dog after him.

When he did come back down, Ron finally told Harry that all he'd had to do was look in a crystal ball, but he hadn't seen a thing so he'd just made something up on the spot, though he didn't know if she'd believed it.

"Well clearly you need some help from Lavender," Sirius smirked, now he clearly wasn't the only one watching Harry, whom the longer he read the more strained his voice was getting.

Harry couldn't help it though, he just knew something was about to happen, and it was making his headache like no other.

Harry said he'd meet him back in their dorm as he went up for his turn, going upstairs to find Ron's described setup.

"Well Ron had the right idea," James sighed, "I'm pretty sure all you've got to do is make something up on the spot and you might get away with it."

"Still can't believe you didn't drop when you had the chance," Lily muttered.

She greeted Harry and had him take a seat, telling him to take his time for something to come to him. Harry watched the white swirls within the glass, but nothing was happening.

"I think I'd be a little more worried if it did," Remus said honestly with a twitch of his lips, then frowned when Harry hardly reacted. He hadn't been this stressed in a while now, so for him to be acting like this meant something really big was about to happen...in Trelawney's room...

When the silence continued, she prompted him,

"Thought she said he could take his time," Lily rolled her eyes.

and Harry began describing the first thing that came to mind, Buckbeak. Trelawney was very interested, asking if this hippogriff still had its head?

Sirius couldn't help a little gag, what a horrid thing to ask him! They'd all said all they could on this matter though, so it really wouldn't do any good to keep at it now.

Harry said yes at once, and Trelawney tried to coax a different answer out of him, asking if perhaps an axe was hovering above him?

"Bloody hell I think she's enjoying herself." James groaned, starting to look a little green from that description, coupled with how much the teacher seemed to be enjoying herself trying to get Harry to picture this gruesome sight.

Harry snapped no, and instead wistfully said it was flying away.

Harry dearly wished this had been what was bothering him, it certainly gave him a seconds moment of relief which could possibly mean that he was right, but he got about as long to think on it before his headache returned with such a force he could hardly read the words, meaning he hadn't yet gotten to the part that needed saying to make this go away.

Trelawney was disappointed as she told him that would have to be all and excused him. Harry got up and turned to leave, when he heard from behind him a deep rasping voice say 'it will happen tonight.' Harry spun back on the spot to find his teacher sagged over in her chair, her eyes open but gazing on nothing, her mouth half hinged open.

"Is, she having a fit or something?" Lily couldn't help but ask with genuine worry, but Harry paid her no mind as the moment had come, and he read in a hurried breath.

Harry wondered if she was having a fit, she was twitching all over and growing color in her cheeks, but before he could think to do anything she said again in the same heavy voice she'd never used before:

"THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT'S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT... BEFORE MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT... WILL SET OUT... TO REJOIN... HIS MASTER..."

The instant relief of pressure Harry finally got as he sighed at that memory being restored to him was ruined the second he heard the noise.

Sirius felt himself blackout for the span of a few seconds before he lunged off of the couch and looked like he was going to sprint out the door. James wasn't giving him a chance, lashing hold of his arm so tight Sirius yelped in pain, but it clearly didn't register as he sobbed, "oh god, oh bloody hell, oh Merlin, what did I do-"

Remus smacked him then, hard. It didn't seem to do anything though, Sirius was shaking so hard he was likely to bite his tongue off, and it wasn't too hard to picture what his eyes might look like in twelve years, they were just slightly tinged with madness now as he stuttered out, "twelve years! Who, who else could that mean, oh please just kill me now, I don't want to know what I did!"

He made such a horrid noise, like an animal slowly dying, as he tried to wrench his arm free and cover his ears, starting to curl in on himself. The one thing he'd ever cared about most in his life, and he had done something to get his family killed! He'd gotten James and Lily killed, he'd caused Peter to die, he'd been the cause of Harry's whole life turning into a raging shit storm every other month, all because he'd done something that he didn't think he could bear finding out about anymore. Whatever it was would never justify what that Seer had just called him. A servant, someone who had clearly made all of this possible!

How long he stayed out of it as his life literally felt like it was crashing in around him he didn't know. So many things he'd been trying to repress since he'd heard his bleeding name in that paper were drowning him all over again, and he didn't even care about how he'd been framed for murdering those people because he clearly deserved that sentence in Azkaban, it didn't matter why he left because he shouldn't have, he deserved every last second of it.

He'd thought it had been himself crying at first, but then something inside of him twitched as a new noise entered. Harry was wailing at the top of his lungs, and that same instinct that had driven him to comfort James and Remus through all of these horrid things they kept hearing about reawoke, drowning out whatever he was feeling and helping him to bottle it up and shove it far away as he looked around in confusion to the howling child who was being uneasily held in the arms of his future self.

That thought would give anyone's head a whirl, but that's what was happening. Harry stood tall and proud as his father, cradling his own infant self with clear unease, but that may have been because he kept throwing fearful looks over in his direction. Harry kept walking towards the stairs and back, like he wanted to leave and get the baby out of the room, but couldn't bring himself to do it because he kept circling back and watching Sirius with wide and fear filled eyes.

It took several thick swallows before the rest of the room came back into focus. James nearly had him smothered into his chest he was hugging him so hard, muttering over and over again that he could never blame him, while clearly trying to talk Remus and Lily out of putting some sort of spell on him that would force him to relax.

Both were shaking so hard it was a miracle they were on their feet, but they were watching him with such wide eyed concern it nearly shamed him as much as the aching hatred for himself had.

Here he was, making this all about him, when clearly there were more important things to worry about.

He tried to pull away, but James's arms only tightened all the more, so Sirius tried to muffle out, "I can't breathe," whereas in reality he was only really sucking in air because of the reassurance that through all of this, James still couldn't find it in himself to hate him. James had gotten everything he wanted out of life through the girl of his dreams and his baby, and still when it was shoved in his face that Sirius had been the cause of taking it all away his brother had refused to show him anything but insistence that he'd never believe it for a second.

It nearly reduced him to tears all over again, but he was being persistent now as he tried to wiggle free, now more determined than ever to save these lives no matter the cost to him. He'd find out what he'd done and take his punishment happily if it meant saving their lives. He finally got himself free only to meet the darkest of hazel eyes, making it clear Sirius had nearly scared the living daylights out of him, literally, but the moment he was out of those arms Lily had marched over and sat down beside him.

She grabbed his face and made sure he was looking into those ever green eyes as she told him with the utmost conviction, "it's going to be alright. We'll never let that happen to you." Personally she was still a little stunned herself, as she'd never seen him break down before. Sirius had always held himself as a proud man who only let the world see just how good he knew he was. While in the years that she'd fallen for James and gotten to know Sirius more properly as the brother he'd become, she still couldn't ever have believed he was capable of this severe a reaction to something he must know just wasn't possible.

He gave a sullen nod as she released him, gave him a quick kiss on the brow, then scampered over to her son/ sons and did her best to soothe both of them who were equally freaking out, one just more vocally than the other.

Remus flopped down in her empty seat and looked torn between wanting to kill Sirius for giving him a heart attack or hugging him and never letting him go like James had been trying. He settled on all of their fallback, making a joke. "Please give us a warning next time before you go into shock."

Sirius desperately tried for a smile he just didn't feel, because on the inside he was still a shriveled up mess. He may have gotten his emotions under control enough to save face, but he now knew without a shadow of a doubt that dead little part of him wouldn't come back. This was more proof than any he'd ever had before, and still he couldn't do anything about it. Feeling like a lost child, he unfurled himself but couldn't bring himself to lean away from James who still had his shoulder pressed into his. Remus copied that a moment later by leaning into him as well, and though feeling squished, it was pretty much all that was keeping him in place.

Lily and Harry walked properly back in then, Lily cradling her now much more complacent charge. She looked for a moment like she was going to hand him over to his Godfather, but Sirius couldn't help but turn his face away, feeling like he should never have the right to hold that baby again.

Lily would have vehemently disagreed and told him in alphabetical order how stupid that was, but while being squashed like he was he couldn't have carried on the act if he wanted to, so she relented, for now.

Harry looked the most sheepish of all, like he wanted to apologize for this whole mess and go give Sirius a hug himself to reassure him all would be okay, but the words failed him even before he could put them together. The more this carried on, the more he knew this day was the most important of his young life. Something happened on the day of Buckbeak's supposed execution, it involved Trelawney's prediction, and it involved Sirius Black. Whatever it was though would not sit in his mind for any length of time for him to understand how it all fit together, so he was sure if he began to start and try to do anything about it he'd pay dearly and the last thing his family needed was another episode.

Still he hesitated before picking up the book, like he was waiting for permission from someone to say it really was all going to be okay which came from Sirius himself, without any of his usual warmth. "Go on, get it over with."

Harry couldn't help a frown, he still sounded so desolate like at any moment an executioner was going to show up for him, but his friends on either side of him looked so fierce like they'd murder Voldemort himself before they let that happen, Harry didn't argue the point.

Before Harry could even think on that, Trelawney came back to herself with a start, muttering about how she must have dozed off for a moment.

Harry really didn't think at this point he could be any more surprised, the harsh reaction from his Godfather because of that mess left him with only an inkling of shock that she clearly had no idea what she'd just done, unless she was faking it, which Harry really doubted.

When Harry remained frozen in shock, and Trelawney asked what was wrong, Harry tried to tell her what she'd just told him about the servant of the Dark Lord.

Lily grimaced, to be perfectly honest when Harry had read out the return of the Dark Lord bit, that had been what she'd been caught on, until her brother began having a panic attack. Now no one even dared to venture what that could mean for their Harry. None of them knew how Seers actually worked, was it possible this was all wrong, or could somehow be stopped?

With Sirius' eyes closed and his head flopped back against the couch like he was still wishing he could start his gravestone, no one was going to linger on it.

Trelawney told Harry he was being ridiculous, she would never begin to try and predict such a thing.

Remus felt something twitch in his mouth, like he wanted to make a joke at her expense that she held that kind of restraint, but considering he was far more worried on making sure Sirius kept breathing it just wasn't coming out.

Harry stumbled away, his mind winding like the staircase, trying to figure out if his teacher had just made a real prediction.

'Oh, of that we've no doubts' James sighed, his mind still flying in every direction possible, and he wasn't going to stop until he landed on the proper meaning for that prediction which did not involve his best friend.

He tried to think of something else, like she'd been faking it for an end of year trick.

'Could explain why the other students were so freaked out and wouldn't talk' Harry couldn't help but think, trying desperately to put his mind on any more pleasant topic, but the horrible silence that still lingered wasn't leaving a lot of room, and Harry couldn't bring himself to be the one to break it. Plus he knew deep down that wasn't true, or he was sure he wouldn't have reacted so strongly to it.

When he did get back to the main castle he hardly noticed the people walking past him for the outside, laughing and joking about school finally being over.

'Once, just once, can't Harry have some peace in that place' was Sirius' first real coherent thought as he zoned in and out of the story lifelessly, still considering it a viable option to slink out of the house when no one was watching, which didn't seem to be happening any time soon.

He found his two friends in their normal place in Gryffindor tower, but before he could tell them what Trelawney had said, the words died at the look on their faces.

'How can something else have happened in the fifteen minutes since the last bomb?' Lily wanted to snap, feeling like her nerves were about to be frayed right out of her body as she cradled her son all the closer.

Ron explained that Buckbeak had lost.

"Oh," was softly echoed through the room with one glaring left out. It's not like they'd forgotten per say, but Sirius' plight had sort of made it fade back into their mind. Now that it was back in the foreground, they just didn't know what to say. What could they say? What had been done was wrong, and the government doing this wasn't encouraging. It started with the unfair trial of the hippogriff, but the corruption could possibly keep going up until someday someone else got an unfair trial and a beheading because the right bribe was paid off to get rid of a person. Harry hadn't thought it was possible to feel worse, and realized he was wrong as he forced himself to keep going.

Hagrid had sent another letter, explaining that the execution would take place at sunset, but he didn't want them coming down to see it happen.

"I don't want Hagrid to see it," Lily grumbled softly under her breath, the first real time someone had spoken up making them all give a little start, but the baby seemed to enjoy the voice again as he made a gurgling noise watching his mother's face.

Harry said he still wanted to go, he wouldn't just let his friend sit around on his own waiting for this to happen.

James made sure Harry could see his pride filled smile, knowing he'd do and say the same thing in a heartbeat. Screw the rules, his friend needed support. Since his own friend was acting vaguely comatose, James leaned into his shoulder with a little more pressure.

Ron pointed out they had no way to get there, and Hermione asked where he'd hidden away his cloak. Harry told her, then said he didn't dare go and get it because if Snape caught him there he'd be in serious trouble.

Harry paused expectantly, never having been more grateful for his choice of words, but there was no comeback. They were all growing more worried the longer this carried on, Remus even reaching over and pressing his hand into Sirius' nose just to make sure air was still coming out.

Sirius did respond by pushing the hand away, but he still wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.

Hermione asked for the spell that would activate the witch hump, and Harry told her but then tried to protest, which she ignored by walking out.

"What were you even going to say?" Lily asked, starting to feel a little jittery. She'd grown so used to the boys interrupting near constantly that the prolonged silence was starting to give her the creeps.

"But you shouldn't be caught there either," Harry responded, his own worry at the situation still at hand. Of course they both knew Remus and James were just at a loss for words, in no mood to be playful, teasing, or anything when their friend was acting the way he was, so until Sirius snapped out of it this could last for a bit.

Ron asked if she'd really gone to get it?

'Be a little worried if she went to the kitchens' James wanted to mock, though kept his mouth shut and still half hoping Sirius would say that instead.

Indeed she had, returning some time later with the cloak tucked down her front. Ron was in awe, saying first with Malfoy then Trelawney, now this, what had gotten into her?

'She's making sure no one messes with her friends without her doing something about it' Sirius realized, wanting to smile and praise the girl aloud, but the words got lost somewhere on the way out. He was torn between wanting to get the attention off of him, a foreign concept itself, and the beginnings of bubbling warmth that his family really was standing by him even through this foulest of revelations. If the way he could return the favor was getting the mood back to where it should be, then so be it. He now determined he'd have to work this out of himself at the next chance. He tried to sit up more properly but still being sandwiched all he really accomplished was giving the two half cautious looks as they eyed him hopefully for finally giving a real sign of life, but Harry may not have noticed as he'd kept going.

Hermione looked pleased at the praise as they went downstairs, hid themselves away in a room and waited for the last set of footsteps to scurry away and a door slammed before they were all clear.

Harry couldn't help a startled little blink, the smallest of feelings inside his gut telling him to pay attention to that, but he was far more focused on ignoring another mounting feeling. It wasn't fair it was happening so soon after the last one, but he never did get to decide when this happened, and as the sun continued sinking down, he was absolutely positive this night was an important one in his life.

They all tucked up under the cloak and made their way unseen down to Hagrid's, who let them in despite saying they shouldn't have come.

"I'll weep the day he does close the door in your face."

Maybe Sirius said that a little too loudly, maybe his voice cracked and he still looked more wretched than he had in his life, but the attempt finally gave all of them the release they'd so sorely needed that the vile escaping the room was nearly visible.

Hagrid was somehow acting even worse than before, though this time he wasn't crying, he looked so lost the tears had been easier.

Lily couldn't help her lip trembling a bit like she was fixing to cry for him. It just wasn't right, no matter how many times she said it or thought it she could never say it enough that what was happening to him shouldn't be. Between Hagrid and Sirius her maternal instincts were going haywire in wanting to comfort her friends, but unable to do anything she instead settled on smoothing out her sons hair and never growing tired of the way it stuck right back up.

He tried to offer to make them some tea while explaining that Buckbeak was getting in his last sunlight out in his pumpkin patch, then he dropped the milk jug which broke on the floor.

The others all thought that the strain coloring Harry's voice was because of his stress for Hagrid, which was a part, but they didn't know Harry was forcefully fighting back another memory blast already. How was this possible, happening twice in the span of a few minutes, but he had no control as a tempo began at his temple from the pain of a sharp memory fixing to be returned.

Hermione instead began to clean it up and replace it, while Harry asked if Dumbledore could do anything to fix this? Hagrid explained that Malfoy had set it up despite the headmasters try, and as Macnair was an old friend of Malfoy's no one could do anything.

'Macnair was a Death Eater,' that thought trickled through all of the Order members, as they tried their best to keep a roster and suspicions had been going on for ages about him implicated in several deaths. Well that didn't improve anyone's mood, as it only confirmed yet another Death Eater was still out and about in those times, working for the Ministry.

Dumbledore was coming down to be with Hagrid though when it happened.

"Aww," Lily coed, she was willing to put her suspicions and annoyances at the headmaster's actions aside momentarily when it came to her son and Sirius just for that moment that Dumbledore truly was trying to be there for his friend like Harry.

Harry promised they'd stay to, but Hagrid wouldn't allow it, saying Harry didn't need to be in anymore trouble.

Sirius was so sick of hearing that he was yet another cause of problem in his Godson's life, he considered trying to get up and leave again, but since he was basically a sandwich between his two friends who didn't look like they were moving any time soon, he just tallied that up to another thing he could use as his excuse later when he really did leave for good. He was already planning it out in his mind, the moment he got the chance he'd make a break for the door and he'd disappear before he caused this blight of events for his family. They may try to stop him, why he wasn't sure at this point, but he could throw these types of things at them and make a break for it while he was sure they'd be hesitating.

Hermione was crying over in the kitchen as she found another jug of milk, but then she screeched in shock and nearly dropped that one to as she exclaimed she'd found Scabbers.

"What?"

That was the most random thing that could have been said right then, that it actually distracted everyone in that moment from anything else. Harry forced himself to keep reading, to confirm Hermione was right, though everything in him told him she was.

They all stopped to stare at her, and she came over to the table and had to fight for a moment before the rodent came sliding out.

Harry made a funny rasping noise of disgust as James lit up with equal amounts of confusion and laughter as he praised, "oh that's great. Can't imagine what on earth happened-"

"Don't," Harry moaned, cutting him off and shocking as he clutched at his head, tears nearly streaming down his eyes as he pleaded, "don't say that, it's not right."

Lily turned concerned at once, wrapping an arm around him protectively as she asked, "Harry what's the matter?"

Remus couldn't help giving him an odd look mixed with the beginnings of fear for Harry, worried he was dealing with too much having such another painful memory returning so soon, as he asked, "yeah, you should be happy Ron's rat-" but then his own voice failed him, and he started blinking when something clicked. Since the very first time Scabbers had been mentioned, Harry got this odd little act around him about his best friends pet, frowning or something similar though he'd never been properly able to explain why. The description of that particular rat, bloody hell it did match the same one he looked at more than any other rat in his life, and Scabbers had a missing finger, just like...

"Oi, Moony," James was waving his hand in front of his friends face, saying, "yoo-hoo, blanked out on us mate. You figured out Harry's problem. Quite the show that Crookshanks never did, eh?"

Remus had to clear his throat hard for a moment before forcing a goofy smile onto his face, he was being ridiculous of course, it was a coincidence. Which, which he didn't believe in... shaking his head hard he said, "err, right, no sorry, ah, let's keep going."

Lily looked utterly annoyed at that, as she felt they were brushing this pain off a little too lightly, but then she took a good look at Remus' lined features, and how the momentary news had already worn off and Sirius was right back to being lackluster, and she also knew better that Harry couldn't have explained what was really bothering him anyways without suffering for it, so she didn't argue the matter, only increased her hold on her son as he flickered through a few pages as he'd lost his place. He seemed less eager than anyone to go on though, because while that had been the memory return his brain had been warning him about, the pressure still hadn't fully left! What about this day could be causing him more pain from this one afternoon then he'd felt any times previously? Now he knew it had something to do with Scabbers...and Buckbeak, and Trelawney's prediction, and Sirius, but the puzzle pieces refused to fit together, and he had no more of an idea for the ending then anyone.

Ron was just as shocked as anyone as he asked his rat what he was doing here?

"That's a very good question," Lily grumbled, finding this more unbelievable the longer she heard about it. Scabbers was alive this whole time! That fight between Ron and Hermione should never have even happened! It was odd though, that the little pet had pulled something like this off, since he was sick and usually was never mentioned anywhere but in Ron's pockets. How had he wound up in Hagrid's of all places?

He snatched up the squirming rodent, who looked terrible. He was thin as could go, with very large bald spots,

Remus couldn't help but wince, having heard a few tales about animals looking for somewhere to burrow up to die, had Scabbers just been doing that? His physical description clearly meant he was living towards the end of his life, obviously he was just being paranoid, it was just fate being all the cruller to him that he had tried to see his absent friend in a common garden rat.

and still he was trying to fight away from Ron, who held tight trying to convince his pet there were no cats around.

They all frowned at that, finding Scabbers bound of energy kind of sad, like maybe he was trying to put up one last fight before his old body gave out. It was rather odd he seemed so insistent in being away from Ron of all people, shouldn't he recognize his owner's voice?

They didn't get any time to think on it when Hagrid glanced out the window and saw the others approaching, and he told them they had to leave now. He opened up the back door and led them out to where Buckbeak was clearly on edge as he watched them all and flapped his wings in agitation.

That caused a shiver in all corners of the room, it wasn't too hard to imagine that the poor beast did get a feeling for what was coming for him, as intelligent as he was.

The three tried to give one last protest, saying they'd tell what had really happened, but Hagrid wouldn't have it and told them to go.

The combination of Hagrid doing his damndest to keep them out of trouble even while his beloved pet was about to be murdered in front of his eyes gave all of them a ball sitting tight in their throat, wanting to argue on the side of the kids and say this couldn't be true, more grateful than ever Harry at least had someone like Hagrid who wouldn't let them stick around to see it.

There was nothing more they could do, and despite it being the last thing they wanted, they all tucked back under the cloak and began to leave, Ron slowing them down slightly. Hermione begged him to hurry, she couldn't stand to watch this.

"You and me both," Lily nodded, bringing her son up to lay up on her shoulder like she was going to burp him, but really just keeping him as close to her as possible. He soon began amusing himself by grabbing hold of her thick red hair instead, and Lily almost enjoyed the momentary distraction of untangling his good grip while forcing herself to keep listening.

Ron though was having some issues, they were only halfway back to the castle but his rat was still forcing its way with all of its might out of his pocket, now trying to bite the hand Ron was using to keep him in place.

This was so random that no one could really think what could be going on anymore. The emotional turmoil of the group felt like they'd been going chapter after chapter about Harry nearly dying all day again, when really they were all just exhausted mentally from hearing about all of these bad things happening around Harry.

Below them they heard the sound of men talking, and despite Scabbers loud squeaking protest, they heard quite clearly the thud of an axe.

Harry didn't really get that out without nearly stuttering himself into silence, closing his eyes hard for a moment and trying to process what he'd just read, while something else in him told him to keep going. Sucking in a deep breath, he looked around to find the others looked just as shocked as he did, the build up to that unfair act having finally been carried through not making it any easier to hear. Unwilling to let himself freeze up now though, Harry finished.

Hermione's knees began shaking as she whispered she just couldn't believe they'd done it.

Then he closed the book and put it aside, indicating the chapter was done, but needing a moment before he could keep hearing anything. He wasn't the only one.

[missolitude]

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Review

I don’t usually do game reviews but I’ve recently finished playing Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and I was urged to publish my thoughts and opinions about it. First off, this is the first and only game of the Franchise that I picked up, the main reason for that being that I’m primarily interested in well written RPGs and Odyssey promised what I look for in games: Choices and consequences, multiple endings, a well written story, romances and deep connections with other characters.

In my opinion the game fell flat on all of these criteria, and I will attempt to be as objective as I possibly can but my review of it will ultimately be less than favorable. If you are a fan of the game and have enjoyed it, I am happy for you, but if you are looking for an opinion that will bolster yours, you will not find it here. Also, there will be spoilers for the main story as well as side quests so if you haven’t finished the game, stop reading. You have been warned.

Graphics are great and the world is huge, but ultimately without substance

First of all, let’s start with the few positives. As someone who is mostly focused on a game’s substance, graphics are not what matters most to me, but they are admittedly the game’s strength. The game looks good and the graphics are great, the world is massive, there are endless locations to explore by either foot, horse or boat, and if you are a completionist like me, you will easily get 200+ hours of playtime out of the game. However, and this is where the negatives start already, the game seems to favor quantity over quality.

Once the novelty of the game wears off you will be quick to notice that the landscape is repetitive, and few of it is actually noteworthy or unique. Once you know one island, one temple, one military fort, you know them all. There are entire islands with just one single location on it that can be explored, the rest is lifeless and without substance. None of the citizens in cities or on the streets can be interacted with, nor will they react to you, unless you count some disgruntled huffs and cursing if you run them over with your horse. All of them can be killed without consequences to the story, the bounty you get can be paid off with just one button click and a couple of hours in you have so much money that this minor sum barely seems a noteworthy sacrifice.

Of course, don’t count the many times when you will be attacked by a lion or a boar or a wolf in close proximity to a random side quest NPC and accidentally kill the quest giver or the random person you need to make a delivery to and need to reload an earlier save, since all weapon attacks (it doesn’t matter if you use an Axe or a Spear or Daggers) are automatically AoE (even more so when using fire damage) and you will hit whoever stands close to you and unless you always use your bow in these kinds of situations, there is no safe way for you to make sure not to hit friendlies.

The majority of side quests are fillers and devoid of meaning or content, designed to get you out into the world. Kill a couple of Athenian soldiers, come back, get your reward, kill a couple of Spartan soldiers, come back, get your reward, destroy a couple of War Supplies, come back, get your reward, kill a couple of bandits and destroy some ships, get the stolen money/ring/whatever personal item from xyz, come back, get your reward, repeat ad infinitum. The quest dialogue becomes so repetitive that after a while you will be tempted to kill the quest giver and whoever you chose as your protagonist, not your target. ”I took care of them, everrry last one.” ....Please spare me.

Many world areas are level locked and you will need to grind if you want to explore them all, which means at some point you will experience these tedious, meaningless side quests and wish there was an easy way out or a short cut, and it exists in the form of an experience booster that can be acquired via microtransactions and you will wonder if the game was intentionally designed that way.

As a mercenary that will do jobs just for money you will work for both Athenians and Spartans in their war efforts, and the way in which quests are designed makes it even more obvious that it ultimately doesn’t matter which side you take. Areas will either be governed by Athenians or Spartans and you can weaken their defenses by destroying war supplies, killing soldiers and assassinating their leader. This unlocks a conquest battle in which you can choose to fight for either side. This is completely pointless from a story and character point of view, even more so when you consider that you can sabotage one side just to defend them in battle. Where’s the sense in that?

Your protagonist will mindlessly go along with it and seems to be completely unaware of the irony and idiocy, so either they are oblivious, spineless or generally without own motvations or agenda. Yes you get some experience and loot for conquest battles but other than that this game mechanic is utterly pointless. You could conquer the entire game world for one faction and it wouldn’t change the outcome of the story, the political climate, or how people react to you, you won’t be locked out of quests, nothing changes. It’s just a way for you the pass the time whilst nothing of substance was accomplished and to distract you from the fact that it is altogether meaningless and without consequences, as is the majority of the game.

There are only a couple of instances when you can influence minor parts of the story. Don’t let that fool you, there is only one ending, you can only change minor variables within that outcome. You have a say in how many family members will survive your journey. Sometimes you can decide where someone of importance dies, and that will influence whether you will be able to unveil and kill all of the Cultists that are responsible for destroying your family. One decision makes it possible for you to spare a Cultist who was blackmailed and actually wants to leave the cult, at which point he will give you the necessary information you need to unmask another Cultist. (Which is nonsensical - he has the proof you need on him, you should get it when you search his body regardless, period. His free will in that matter should be completely irrelevant.) At one point you can decide to let a couple of plague victims live and if you do the rest of the island will, unsurprisingly, become infected and the population dies. But these are the only actual choices with consequences the game will give you.

The rest are pseudo choices and the game will only make you want to believe that your decisions matter. Starting with what horse you choose - which is a non-choice. No matter which horse you pick, all of them will be called Phobos, and once you get Horse skins/designs as quest rewards or in form of microtransactions, its exterior will change anyway. Shake Markos’ hand or hug him? A non-choice. You will meet him later on and he won’t even reference it. Whatever you tell Phoibe at whichever point of the story? No consequences whatsoever, what happens to her is unavoidable. Let a couple of thugs go or kill them? A non-choice. Maybe they will make a brief appearance later on at which point you will kill them and that will be the last you ever heard of it. Kill a Cultist or save the baby? A non-choice. If you decide to save the baby the mother won’t even thank you and you get another side quest to then kill the Cultist. If you decide to pursue the Cultist (an old unarmed woman), she runs into a cave, past a pack of hungry wolves - there’s no way she could have survived the encounter, with or without you there.

What happens in the main story will remain unchanged. You will bring down the cult and destroy its Pyramid artifact, you will restore your Spear and with it your legacy, you will retrieve artifacts to seal Atlantis and you will find out who your real father is. All in all the story was disappointing and unoriginal and predictable. The few twists that there are are hardly surprising, most characters seem shallow and lifeless, the way certain scenes are written is just atrocious. Just to give one example: When you first meet your sibling after believing that they are dead your entire life they will not even blink an eye and tell you to leave and you just... go? You don’t ask questions, you are not surprised, you don’t argue, you just leave. Pretty realistic, right? After which your sibling will mindlessly beat another Cultist to death... yeah.

The dialogue is often flat, awkward and inconsistent, to the point where it constantly breaks your immersion. Quest givers will not acknowledge when you have already fulfilled their quest, or already know certain things they reveal to you, your protagonist will contradict themselves and often even within a couple of minutes. During Barnaba’s conversations at the Olympic games I played Kassandra as someone who doesn’t believe that the Gods have any sway over her destiny, and she made fun of God worship and said with a certain aggression that the Gods shouldn’t dare try to meddle with her life. In the next sentence she suggests to make an offering to Zeus. Split personality much?

There is also a huge disconnect between what you know as a player and what your character knows. You will unveil a Cultist via the menu mechanics and Kassandra will act surprised when they reveal who they are. The game will constantly spoiler itself and the pacing is all over the place. Your sibling is not the true leader of the Cult - if this should have been a surprise they shouldn’t have given me a Cult network that makes this clear from the start. At some point your mother will urge you to find out who your real father is - which I did, since I was curious if she had any unique dialogue about him and I just assumed that this was the game’s hint that I would get the most out of the game if I did his storyline now.

Turns out the storyline of who your real father is and what his true purpose is (and yours) will act as a sequel to the main story, and I had still about 40% of the main story left at this point. It felt like a huge spoiler (the irony, I know) and it made the actual ending of the main quest seem like an afterthought. I also was disappointed that you couldn’t decide what to do with the Cult’s Pyramid artifact - this could have been meaningful for a change but I suppose the game didn’t want to risk having possibilities in case they wanted to reference the ending in a sequel. Disheartening, to say the least.

The dalliances (I refuse to call them romances) with other characters mostly feel awkward, flat, superficial and cheesy. For the most part the game fails at conveying any deep connections or emotions and the majority of characters feel like a momentary fuck buddy - jump into bed with them and forget about them a minute later. Daphnae gets an honorable mention: you get the chance at deepening your relationship with her over the course of the game and you will have an actual decision that decides her fate in the end and the outcome might pull at your heartstrings. There aren’t any deeper consequences to that decision and no matter what you do, you will never see Daphnae again, but it is more than I expected and more than you get with other flings.

And of course there is Alkibiades. He was a pleasant surprise on every level, he is well written, complex, multi-faceted, dorky, flirtatious and intriguing. When you first meet him you think he’s a drunken hedonist at best and a perverse sex addict at worst. When you meet him again later, you begin to think he might be shady. But when you do more quests for him your perception on him will be challenged and you realize  there might be more to him than than meets the eye. You will meet him several times during the course of the game and each time adds something to his character and your connection with him feels genuine and meaningful.

I also loved the chemistry with Brasidas and I had high hopes for a meaningful relationship with his character but the game failed to do anything with it. I also romanced Kyra and her character was well-developed but the culmination felt forced and too dramatic. I would have understood that Thaletas, Kyra’s lover, wanted me dead had I not cultivated our relationship and even retrieved his father’s helmet from the bottom of the sea, but I have. I did the questlines for both Kyra and Thaletas and it didn’t matter. Thaletas forced my hand after finding out that Kyra chose me over him. I merely wanted to defeat him in combat but the game didn’t give me that choice, I had to kill him and Kyra hated my guts after that. I wasn’t angry at her for hating me, I was angry at the game for denying me choices. This could have been handled in any number of ways. You could have urged Kyra to communicate her desires to Thaletas. You could have chosen to talk to Thaletas yourself and be upfront with him about your intentions. You could have made this poly, we are in Ancient Greece after all. I’m all for drama and passion but this could have been handled with some semblance of intelligence and foresight and well, communication. That is an option in relationships, you know? It should have been an option here, and up to the player whether they take it or not.

As a last point I will mention the atrocious Greek accents. Many people have already said how forced they sound and they do, but nobody has ever questioned why they are even there in the first place. These people are in Ancient Greece, they speak in their mother tongue and English is merely the fantasy equivalent of that. People do not speak English with an accent in their home land. And don’t give me any weak excuses à la “that’s just how the animus translates” or “all Assassin’s Creed games had accents this is just the way it is” or “this is just to make the game sound more exotic” - no, no, no. It was a design choice and in my opinion it was a terrible one. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad with a more mellow and natural accent but it felt so forced and stilted it made listening to the NPCs unbearable most of the time, and it constantly broke my immersion. Look, if you want to make a game more exotic record it in Greek with Greek voice actors and add English subtitles. Or just leave certain names and designations and terms in Ancient Greek if you must, but having English spoken in a strong Greek accent makes no sense whatsoever.

All in all the game was pretty to look at and it certainly has potential and worthwhile ideas but they are poorly executed. Most of all, the substance was lacking. I felt like all of my actions ultimately didn’t matter, I found myself questioning my protagonist’s motivations and with that, my own. Why was I so intent on finding my family when not even my protagonist seemed to be overly concerned with their fate? That is especially true for the first half of the game. At no point did I ever feel like I could influence the story, or flesh out my character’s personality, or roleplay. Most of the time you only have two dialogue options, none of which ultimately matter. This feels especially unnatural when trying to have philosophic discussions with Sokrates. You often were caged between two extreme answers and there was no sensible middle option that would have seemed much more appropriate.

None of this would have been so terrible if this game would sell itself as it is, a combat focused open world game with a basically linear story. However the game was advertised as a game with choices, romances, consequences, and there were barely any to speak of. What infuriated me most was this deception. Yes of course you have certain choices - do they influence the world around you or the story? Mostly they don’t. Do you have multiple endings? No you don’t. You merely change certain variables within it. Is it an RPG? No, it certainly is not. I can only judge this game as it presented itself and it failed to deliver on its promises.

[buckybarnesappreciationsociety]

Pool Party Crashers (Who Invited You?)

Summary: All hell breaks loose at Izzy’s first off-campus pool party!

Pairings: Dad! Bucky X Izzy  

OFC: Reader, Little Stevie, Nat, Wanda, Steve, Sam, Tony, Maddie, Aurala, Zach

Word Count: 1,913

Warnings: NONE

A/N: Thanks again to @shy2shot for the prompt. 

Prompt: “While at a party, you hear screams coming from the main floor and you see flashing lights out of the window. You assume the party is getting busted. What walks through the door is much worse than a police officer.”

Izzy and Maddie settled into college life. Between classes and on campus social activities, she rarely spoke to her family. Their sophomore mentors understood leaving home for the first time made the young freshmen homesick.

The upperclassmen had ice cream socials, movie nights, shopping trips, and group meetings to allow the freshmen a chance to voice their opinion about whatever’s bothering them. Izzy vented about her aunts and uncles, the Avengers. She didn’t want anyone to shun her because sometimes, they were a bit over the top. The other students chimed in how cool it was to have Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for family. Izzy talked about her life in Stark Tower and her dad, James Buchanan Barnes. No one had a negative comment about the former Winter Soldier. One of the students wanted Captain America’s autograph!

Meanwhile, Bucky felt lost without hearing from Izzy. Yes, she’d send a text every now and again, but he wanted to actually hear her voice. Y/N assured her anxious husband Izzy was just fine. College life is different from high school. It proved to be quite an adjustment.

Stevie, on the other hand, loved being the only child at home. He and Bucky went fishing, camped out in the backyard under the stars, and much to Y/N’s dismay, Stevie rode on the back of Bucky’s Harley Davidson.

Sitting in the common room, Bucky stared at his cell phone. Y/N walked in and shook her head. “James, what are you doing?”

“I haven’t heard from Izzy in 3 days. What if something’s wrong? Do you think Hydra found her?”

Bucky began hyperventilating. Y/N rushed to his side, rubbing circles on his back.

“James, breathe sweetheart.” Her soothing voice coupled with deep breathing calmed the flustered dad.

“Baby, Izzy’s doing well. She’s busy with classes and social activities.”

“What kind of social activities? Wild parties and drinking?” Bucky jumped up, stalking towards the garage.

Y/N had enough. She caught up to her husband staring him down. “James Buchanan Barnes! You need to calm down!!” Her voice boomed. “OUR DAUGHTER DOES NOT DRINK, NOR DOES SHE ATTEND WILD PARTIES!!!”

Bucky’s eyes were wide and his mouth shut tight. Y/N shot daggers at her husband. Stevie thought it best not to say anything. He and Sam played Minecraft on the new XBox One S.

“Mom’s really angry at dad. I’m staying out of her way.” Stevie stuffed a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

“Yeah, Bucky messed up big time. Serves him right.” Sam didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for the beleaguered super soldier.

After the tongue lashing from his wife, Bucky decided it best to go and workout. Y/N was on the warpath! Good thing Steve, Tony and Wanda were out running errands. No one stood a chance with her wrath.

Y/N and Nat sat at the kitchen island, watching Stevie and Sam play video games.

“What did you do with Barnes?” Nat smirked.

“He’s in the gym pouting and taking his frustrations out on an innocent bag.

In the meantime, Izzy and Maddie were planning to attend their very first college pool party. One of the upperclass students, Aurala, invited some freshmen over to her house for food, fun, swimming and most importantly, NO ALCOHOL!

But, what would college be without a keg or four, right? A few fraternity members decided it would be cool to crash the party and bring beer. Aurala’s parents trusted her to be responsible and not have anyone over with drugs or alcohol.

Izzy couldn’t believe she and Maddie were invited. To say they were excited didn’t come close. The ecstatic young ladies went shopping for new bikinis, towels, flip flops, and lip gloss.

A nice freshman, Zachary, had his eyes on Izzy. He was handsome, courteous, and highly intelligent. Y/N met him and approved of their friendship, but kept it from her overzealous husband.

The day of the pool party, Bucky phoned Izzy. “Hey sweetheart. How are ya?”

“Dad! Hi. I’m fine...you?” She sounded nervous and Bucky picked up on it.

Perplexed, Bucky furrowed his brow.“Buttercup, is everything alright?”

Maddie motioned for Izzy to calm down. “Yes daddy. We’re on our way to the gym. Gotta keep my body in shape.”

Bucky choked, “WHAT!!! NO ONE IS WATCHING YOUR BODY!!”

Izzy and Maddie could hardly breathe from laughing. “James Barnes, calm down!!!”

“Wait a minute young lady. Did you just call me by my first name?”

“I sure did. Stop being so overprotective. Maddie and I are fine. Now, I love you. Give my love to everyone. Smooches.”

Throwing a pillow at her flustered roommate, Maddie scolded Izzy. “You have no earthly idea how to lie? Your dad is NOT dumb. He’ll figure out what we’re gonna do and mess it up.”

Izzy groaned, “I’m sorry Maddie.  Maybe he’ll forget about it?”

Looking at each other, “Nope...he won’t!”

To a “normal” parent, it probably would’ve been overlooked. But, to James Buchanan Barnes, he knew something wasn’t right. Taking his concerns to Steve, they devised a plan to discover what Izzy was hiding.

POOL PARTY FUN

Zach, Maddie and Izzy arrived at Aurala’s home via taxi. It wasn’t far from campus and they split the fare.

Ringing the doorbell, Aurala greeted her guests. The excited threesome were led to the pool area. A rousing game of volleyball was taking place in the pool, while some played ping pong and video games.

Zach chased Izzy around the deck; Maddie joined a few of her classmates in the pool. Things were going great until a few frat boys decided to crash the gathering.

POOL PARTY RUCKUS

Aurala, visibly upset, told the rowdy bunch to leave. She didn’t want any trouble. Adhering to her wishes, they left, but decided to return unbeknownst to her.

Some of the older girls and guys started drinking and everything went downhill from there. The party spilled out into the back and side of the house.

Izzy, Maddie, Zach and some other attendees decided it best to go upstairs and sit this out, while Aurala tried to calm things down.

Well, by now, no one was paying any attention to her. Someone brought a beer bong and a round of “chug-a-lug”  began.

Suddenly, blue lights flashed throughout the house. Everything went silent. Zach thought it was the police. Nope! It was James Buchanan Barnes, Steven Grant Rogers, Edward Anthony Stark and Sam Wilson, piling out of two SHIELD vehicles.

What ensued next was like a scene from “COPS.” You could hear the “Bad Boys” theme as the fierce foursome entered the premises.

Steve, dressed as Captain America, asked where Aurala’s parents were.

“Th-they’re not here. W-we were fine until some frat boys crashed.” Aurala was visibly shaken.

Growling, Bucky called Izzy. “Isabella Marie Barnes, get down here now!!”

Zach and Maddie looked at Izzy, “Oh shit. You’re in trouble now.”

Pushing herself off the floor, Izzy and company made their way downstairs. Tony and Sam were chastising the crashers, Steve spoke to Aurala’s parents via phone and Bucky waited for his beloved daughter downstairs.

Leaning against the wall with his massive arms folded, Bucky narrowed his eyes at Izzy. Zach wanted to introduce himself but thought it best not right now.

Feigning innocence, Izzy looked at her dad with puppy dog eyes. “D-dad? Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Where do I begin? First, you sounded a bit off when we spoke. I knew you were lying. Second, the tracker in your necklace alerted me to trouble. Shall I keep going?”

Izzy became enraged. “YOU PUT A TRACKER IN MY NECKLACE??!!! C’MON DAD!! GIVE ME A BREAK!!” She stomped outside by the pool, burying her face in her hands.

It hurt Bucky to see his daughter upset. Sitting in the deck chair next to her, Bucky reached out for Izzy’s hand and she pulled back.

“Dad, when will you ever trust me? Yes, I lied; yes, things got out of hand; yes, I’m kinda glad you showed up. But, I’m in college now. How long before you let me go?”

The hurt on Izzy’s face broke his heart. “Sugar Plum, this is a new experience for me. Ya see, I never dreamed I’d ever be worthy enough for a girlfriend, much less a wife and kids. You, Stevie and your mother are my heartbeat. Should something happen to ya, it’d kill me. Please forgive me. I just love’ya so much.”

A tear rolled down Bucky’s jaw. Izzy scooted over for him to sit next to her. “I’m so sorry. I know you worry about me but you have to know I’d never do anything stupid like drink alcohol or do drugs. We were having a really good time until the frat boys showed up. Aurala asked them to leave and they came back.”

“I’m just glad you’re alright. Just don’t lie to me baby. Makes me think you don’t trust me.”

Hugging her dad, “Only if you’ll cut me some slack. Trust me to do what’s right. I’ll never do anything to put myself in harm’s way.”

Nodding, Bucky agreed, “I’ll try. Don’cha lie to me again.”

Zach walked outside and cleared his throat and extended his hand. “M-M-Mr. Barnes? H-hi my name is Zachary. I’m a friend of Isabella’s. N-nice to meet you sir.”

Bucky flashed his metal hand but thought better. “Nice to meet you son. James Barnes.”

Looking between he and Izzy, “Is he your boyfriend?” The word caused bile to rise in Bucky’s throat.

“No dad. He’s a really good friend. Mom liked him the minute they met.”

Eyes bulging, “Your mom knows about him and I didn’t??”

Izzy simply kissed Bucky on the cheek. As the crowd dispersed, Maddie, Zach and Izzy were taken back to campus.

Tony made certain the dean would hear about the frat boys antics and they would be dealt with accordingly.

Steve, Tony and Sam waited by the tinted window SUV as Bucky escorted Maddie and Izzy to their dorm room.

Maddie thanked him for coming when they did. Things could’ve really gotten out of hand.

“I’ve had an eventful night dad. Think I’ll shower and go to sleep. Uh, I appreciate you guys showing up. Please give me a chance to prove to you I’m responsible.”

Kissing the top of her head Bucky replied, “It won’t be easy, but I’ll try. I love ya so much baby girl.”

Giving Bucky a huge hug, “I love you so much Daddy Buckwoo. You’re the best.”

Two lessons were learned from this:

First, NEVER lie to your parents; especially if they’re a former master assassin with  endless tracking resources. Communication is key!

Finally, trust your daughter to be responsible. You raised a young lady with high moral values. Your baby bird has left the nest. Allow her to fly!

[next-lvl]

Majority of my followers know what Wakfu is, but not all know about the game: how many wounds it left in my heart, and everyone else’s. This post isn’t gonna be precisely explaining the wrongs that Wakfu did, I just wanted to mention that, in aftermath, it was a disaster of a game that left its most loyal players hurt, disappointed and immensely sad. I still keep meeting people who love this franchise, but can’t stand the game anymore since it’s.. Changed too much and didn’t stay enjoyable, to say mildly. I’m surrounded by, literally, traumatized veterans who look back at the good old days and shed tears. And I’ve been talking a lot about GW2 recently, not for no reason.

I want you to heal, just like I did. I mean.. I’m still hurt over Wakfu and I’ll stay this way forever, but I found a game where you can feel safe, loved, cared about. Devs in GW2 are humans who talk to us, who put smileys and memes in their posts, who hang out on reddit and ingame. This’s one of the major and striking differences between Wakfu and GW2. I’m still genuinely stunned by my own experience with customer support, I had a few troubles during my 1.5 years in GW2 and the response was not only fast and effective, it was HUMAN AND CUTE. I’m still not over it. Now that I’ve been invited to be a creative partner.. I’m still not over it too. They shower their regular players and content creators in gentle attention and kindness. I cry. During the 5+ years of being the most active and visible artist in Wakfu fandom, literally promoting it with thousands of drawings, I’ve never got a tiniest bit of official recognition. Not even a single placement on official media. When I took part in contests, I never won. Overall it’s been a one-way street. During my first 1.5 years in GW2, I’ve been noticed, picked up by the team, pampered and spoiled to the point of barely believing it’s true. That’s my personal experience, but it should indicate Anet’s general attitude towards the players. They. Do. Care.

I just wanna try and convince more ex-Wakfu players to give GW2 a shot. The two games are different in the visual and core gameplay aspects, yes, transitioning from an isometric 2D turn-based to a 3D, real-time game was somewhat harsh, but boy, how glad I am that I did it.

There’s EVEN MORE TEXT, brace yourselves. :D In GW2, I found everything that I wish was in Wakfu.

GW2 is a true sandbox. You log in, you do whatever the fuck you want. Level your first (second, 12th, 33rd, 68th) char? Grind mobs and dungeons? NO. Run around, look for events, explore, literally everything you do and everywhere you go, gives xp. You can level via crafting! Which, btw, is relevant throughout the entire game, unlike in Wakfu.

You do have dungeons of two kinds, and you CAN farm them if you want, but it’s your deliberate decision. There ARE farms in GW2, but they’re fun, if you’re not trying to get a legendary weapon in a month. I personally like running around with a bunch of random people who are there to FARM events in a specific map, but that happens once every two months.

Said legendary weapons ARE hard to get and yes, they can get you burnt out in no time if you don’t have a concept of a “long term goal”. Leggies are a prestige item, and, just like other prestige items (auras, specific minis, skins, etc), they’re meant to be your ultimate show-off item. People see you and know that you’ve been through.. A lot. BUT. Your hard-earned prestige item is to stay prestige. I assume you know relics in Wakfu? Then you must know what happened to them after a few years.

There’s no devaluing in GW2. Your trophies stay relevant and rare. Your prizes, your exclusive titles, skins, etc stay exclusive. You aren’t losing half of your wealth just because the devs decided to revamp ALL GEAR FOR THE THIRD TIME.

Speaking of the gear, the orange set you get at 80, is endgame gear. GW2 is 5 years old, so that orange gear is. People crafted it on the release and.. It stayed endgame. Yes, there’s also pink gear, which ~5% better than orange and is only needed if you do high lvl fractals or are min-maxing in raids. If you’re casual or just starting, you don’t even have to think about it. But once you craft your set, it stays relevant forever. People’s effort is never shoved up their asses.

There’s no constant carrot-on-a-stick gear upgrades. Level cap is 80 since release and will stay so. The game promotes safety and stability, that’s what attracted me. You take a 2 years break? No problem, you log in and go play. Nothing has lost its value, you don’t feel inferior, you don’t need to catch up to play with your friends.

Which reminded me: there’s a wonderfully done level downscale system. You’re a lvl 80 in a lvl 16 zone? Your stats are auto-adapted so the enemies you fought as a noob are still dangerous, and your reward (xp/gold/materials) is adapted to your true lvl. You go and play anywhere you want, and get fair rewards.

Crafting materials of all levels are also demanded and relevant. Oh yeah, you can run around for hours just gathering wood/ore, familiar to Wakfu players? It’s nice and relaxing until you meet another player. Well, in GW2 all gathering nodes are NOT shared. You see a tree? It’s your tree. That dude who runs up to it won’t steal it from you.

Oh also there’s no kill steal! Which is big, imo. You’re encouraged to play together, to help people kill stuff, to contribute to any event you see around, since everyone gets rewarded equally.

Legendary stability of GW2 servers. Lemme just say: there’s no weekly maintenance. There is. No. Downtime. Even on the big update days, you can download and play pretty safely. If there’s a hotfix, the game KINDLY WARNS YOU that you need to update and you have TWO FLIPPING HOURS to do so. Before you did that, you still can play, finish whatever you were up to.

Everything revolves around player’s happiness and convenience. There are constant quality-of-life updates. Your bags are full of crap? Here, salvage it into materials with two clicks, then deposit into your bank with two clicks (from anywhere in the world), then compact the rest of your shit. Yeah, with two clicks. x’D

There’s wonderful Fashion Wars. The game offers so much customization, and it’s taken so seriously, that it’s one of the endgame aspects. There’s 30000+ achievement points to earn, which are mostly fun and make you go out of your usual way. Dailies? You get 10 points and 2 gold for doing 3 easy tasks that take ~15 minutes.

There’s LORE. There’s fun little interactions all over the world. You just did an event? Stay here and listen, probably npcs will say/do something and start another event, logically following the previous one. The world lives and breathes. You can just walk around and observe. You’ll learn so much. And of course, there’s always a good cause to laugh. Dialogues/reactions are just hilarious sometimes.

Regarding the lore: there’s a so-called personal story which accompanies you up to lvl 80, then there’s “living world”, smaller events and single maps being rolled out every once in a while - so far there’s 2 seasons available, and 1 being “historical”, not playable anymore. In that season, they fucking crushed the main capital city. It changed forever. It was an epic event, which I missed, but watched people’s videos later. Then season 2, then HoT, then season 3, and now we’re waiting for PoF, second expansion. The updates have picked a nice pace and are frequent now.

There’s just so much to do. Just go, dive into the world and drown forever. :3c And meet me on the bottom. x’DD

GW2 feels different from Wakfu, but I found similarities for myself. It’s a sandbox after all, and later endgame has a lot of strategy. GW2 is never tank-and-spank. You just, literally, can’t facetank shit here. You gotta use your skills wisely, time your dodges, play with traits/passives until it all flows together. You’ve got a HUGE BUILD FREEDOM. There’s 9 classes, each having at least 3 defined roles, with more variations. You don’t just go ranger (oh archer it’s like a cra rite??) and do pew pew from max distance. Well, yes, you have a bow and can pew pew.. Or you can be a melee fighter, you can be a full blown healer/support.. As a ranger, yes.

I’ll be wrapping up now, I swear. GW2 is true f2p. Which of course does have a few restrictions (can’t trade or use map-chat), but you can get to 80, gear up and explore to your heart’s content before you decide to pay. I personally played for 5 months, every day, before I bought HoT.

Why’d you buy an expansion? More story, more maps, new class traits, gliding in HoT and mounts in PoF. The expansion and living world content has been constantly improving, visually, mechanically and lore/writing-wise.

Other than that, there’s a gemstore offering cosmetic and convenience items (gems can be bought for cash OR ingame gold). There are infamous rng boxes, but none of those are p2w. GW2 is oriented at the western consumer, which means, yeah, they know that we hate p2w and they’ll never do that to us.

*breathes out* I had to get that off my chest. I wanna talk about GW2 forever, but it’s exhausting to do one-on-one. :P Hopefully someone’s still reading this!

Now lemme remind you that now I have those partner links, if you use this to create a new account and play for free (for an hour or two months? w/e), or this to buy an expansion, I’ll get paid a bit. Not much, but it definitely helps!

And I was gonna write this wall of text regardlessly of the partnership one day, now I just have more incentive. x’DD Plus, we’re gonna have a beta weekend on 11-13 august, where you can preview the second expansion for free! It’s a perfect timing to write this post and try convincing you. You’ll just need a f2p account, and you’ll be given a lvl 80 boost and whatnot for that beta weekend. I’m not sure yet, but I assume you WILL. Just please register using my link above, so that I get paid for the two hours I spent on this post. :D

[junker-town]

THIS WEEK IN SCHADENFREUDE: Ohio State fans suspect a Deep Ohio State plot

J.T. Barrett blackmailing Urban Meyer? Kevin Wilson leading a coup? Your weekly tour of the best in college football internet anger plants its flag in Columbus.

Ohio State took a home pounding against Oklahoma on Saturday night, dropping the Buckeyes from No. 2 to 8 in the AP Poll. Buckeyes fans were so angry that this week, they’re all LOSING THEIR BLACK STRIPES and being featured on THIS WEEK IN SCHADENFREUDE. Let’s dive into the best of Ohio State’s post-OU internet scene.

We start our journey in Urban Meyer’s Twitter mentions.

Everyone was supportive of the man who’s now 62-7 with a national championship at Ohio State.

Meyer had criticized ex-OSU assistant Tom Herman in the press this week, after Herman said he couldn’t “sprinkle some fairy dust” on his new team at Texas to make it good.

I mean, other than faking a heart condition and leaving @UF in shambles with murderers and criminals. #dealwithit #fail #tosu

— Bob Loblaw (@guiltybyproxy) September 10, 2017

Just a reminder @OSUCoachMeyer you lost and you suck and are a terrible excuse for a human being

— Mock Wahlberg (@FredJonesWalter) September 10, 2017

@OSUCoachMeyer #notmadjustdisappointed

— Jason Guffey (@guffalito) September 10, 2017

WTF @OSUCoachMeyer You suck leave Ohio State good recruiter not a good coach

— BEAT ARMY (@lilbuck55) September 10, 2017

Buckeye Conspiracy Theory No. 1: Is J.T. Barrett blackmailing Meyer to keep the starting QB job?

The only way JT Barrett keeps his starting job is if he has some serious dirt on @OSUCoachMeyer #Buckeyes

— Alex (@10115721) September 10, 2017

A message board thread posits the same question:

What does JT have on urban Meyer? Why is he so in love with this below average QB? Does he want to win championships? This QB is not going to win ilia championships!!!

Buckeye Conspiracy No. 2: Is Meyer’s own offensive coordinator plotting to take the head coaching job?

The denizens of Buckeye Sports were restless, and some are buying that Ohio State’s OC is plotting to overthrow Meyer.

THREAD: “Absurd Conspiracy Theory:”

Kevin Wilson might be looking for an elite head coaching job, and what better place to consider than where he is currently located.

If so, would Wilson care if our fan base called for Meyer's head? Who would be next in line on Meyer's staff? Would Wilson care if our fans thought Meyer was over-riding his ideas in this dysfunctional offense? Maybe Meyer partially is, and maybe that would be justification in his mind?

It goes deeper.

Just a note, -long time Wilson confidant, Bob Stoops, was in the building last night. Who would Wilson be more loyal to?

Yes, this is pretty f-ing absurd I agree...and I would like to have more faith that backstabbing and conniving like this doesn't go on..but stranger things have happened.

Hopefully, Meyer watches his back.

The first person to reply was really, really sure that this is happening:

Not a conspiracy at all.

It goes deeper.

Weren't you watching last week? It's no coincidence that Wilson's former team had a 21-20 lead against OSU. There's been rumblings that IU had knowledge of OSUs first half game plan. Who else but Wilson could've supplied that information? There's lots of talk about how shady Wilson is in how he interacts with the rest of the staff. At some point Meyer will have to cut ties with Wilson before the end of the season.

Another member of that board suggests Barrett is aging in reverse, a truly devious maneuver against Meyer.

THREAD: “He’s aged 20 years in 4.”

JT looks old. Like a 39 yr old veteran with ice packs on both knees just trying to grind out one more season of glory before his body goes out to pasture. The problem is he's not 39. This is not a 16 yr NFL vet giving it one last harrah. This is a college football player who should be in the best shape of his life! What happened to this kid? He used to be able to run! Never confused for a burner but he certainly could pickup his feet and move making him effective at chewing up yards on the ground. Now he looks like he's moving in slow motion out there. His 40 time must've slipped from about a 4.6 to a 5.2 during his extended tenure at tOSU. Old grandpa looking QB smh. Old and tired

Let’s stroll on over to r/OhioStateFootball.

THREAD: “To all the JT fans, who said he shouldn't be benched...”

THREAD: “Save the Barrett hate”

The first comment:

Can we start now?

THREAD: “I'm an Army cadet and I'm planting a flag once Army wins.”

Try to stop me.

I can’t think of a more moving example of U.S. military personnel planting a flag. The Black Knights play at Ohio State next week. Baker Mayfield did this Saturday:

Baker Mayfield plants the OU flag in the Ohio State logo at midfield http://pic.twitter.com/Ovas203PqP

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 10, 2017

Others at r/OhioState were furious.

THREAD: “Fuck Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners.”

I never thought something like what Mayfield just did would piss me off so much. Don't plant shit on our field. Especially not on the "O". You RESPECT the "O". You piece of shit. Just take your W, go home and run around out there. You looked like a kindergartener out running like that. Learn to respect your opponents next time, asshole.

Later, a revision:

EDIT: I know we can be dicks too, I was just in the moment talking and getting pissed that's all

THREAD: “How I feel after the OSU Vs Oklahoma game.”

Via Haedman on Reddit

At the Bucknuts forums, users feared the mods were in on the conspiracy.

THREAD: “Barret is the Problem (respond quick!; mod deletion imminent!)”

THREAD: “Hey Staff

How about growing a SET and demanding to know from Urban himself when this crapshow offense is gonna stop and these 4 and 5 star recruits will be played to the strengths and potential??? 3 of the last 4 games and the same old crap offense!

The first response:

Well said! Sick and tired of hearing our "WHAC SOURCES", they are all full of shit! Please give me some honest intell on what the hell is going on inside the WHAC! Prince still sucks, JT is still inaccurate, and the WR still suck! It this staff didn't bring really good recruiting info. I would cancel my membership! Duane will probably lock this thread now!

THREAD: “Have Fun”

Recruiting after that.

Ohio State has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and could finish with the highest-rated class in the history of recruiting rankings.

THREAD: “Urban needs to change ...”

Or be fired. I'm sorry, I can't watch this dogshit anymore. Fucking pathetic!

THREAD: “If you have 9 captains”

You have none... Is this any different than the old saying... if you have 2 QBs you have none... just something to think about...

Leadership is about what you do and not what you say... Urban has been talking a good game but for the last 3 years but you have to start wondering about his actions...

Can't he see that "his" offense has been figured out especially with a QB that lacks the ability to "perform" on the big stages he has been on... We should all be so thankful for Cardale Jones and Tom Herman in 2014 or we would be 0-fer right now on NCs... at this point in time unless something drastically changes we will not beat PSU or SCUM this year... just won't happen...

THREAD: Leadership

For a team with 9 captains, I'm not seeing a lot of leadership on this team. We played flat 90% of the game tonight.

THREAD: “Last post from me for awile”

THREAD: “This team sucks on defense”

We can't cover an old lady. I'm a life long buckeye and I'm done. Urban Meyer is the most overrated coach in college football. Losing to this shit is deplorable. Bye bye buckeyes...

Here are some comments on articles at Eleven Warriors.

I cannot imagine how fucking easy it is for an opposing defensive coordinator to prepare and coach against our offense. Our offense seriously looks like a Division 5 high school offense. It's absolutely pathetic and it's embarrassing. I REALLLLY wish I could be a fly in the wall in some of these meetings when we play legitimate teams. Their defensive staffs seriously have to laugh their asses off at how impotent we are.

And:

Urban is to blame for everything, you pissed the last 2 years, 2 years ago you screwed up against MSU, you cost your players and coaches and buckeye nation back to back nattys. Why don't you just call the damn plays. Too damn bad you can't coach as good as you can talk, you couldn't carry Nick's or Dabo's jock strap right now. If you can't do any better than this, then quit!

Facebook was a battlefield, too.

One user wrote:

They should fire Urban Meyer, bench JT Barrett, rip up the turf, get rid of Brutus

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Brutus, fleeing the vicinity

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The Buckeyes suck. TJ barrett can not hit the broad of a barn. And 4&5 star receivers who can not get open or catch the ball when they do.

Dikirim oleh Bill Lewis pada 10 September 2017

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Fucking pathetic display of awesome option football Urban I can't wait till they finally can your ass. Should've done it...

Dikirim oleh Shawn Smith pada 10 September 2017

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Cut his pay or fire him

Posted by Douglas Noble on Sunday, September 10, 2017

After a Big Ten title game loss a few years ago, Meyer ate a pizza ...

Surrounded by family, Urban Meyer eats postgame pizza very quietly in corridor beneath Lucas Oil Stadium. http://pic.twitter.com/80FtTVegWQ

— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) December 8, 2013

... so some people tweeted his wife to make sure he didn’t eat another.

@spinnershells No Papa John's tonight. OK?

— The Cincy Buckeye (@TheCincyBuckeye) September 10, 2017

The good folks at Eleven Warriors made a 12-minute, 44-second video of nothing but sad Ohio State fans leaving the Horseshoe.

Everything here’s melancholy. But if Buckeye melancholy your thing, it’s great.

One commenter says:

Generally speaking, we have the most irrational fan base in all of college football. I could care less what they think.

[duanecbrooks]

The Return Of Girls Gone Write     Further unmistakable evidence that women, by and large, are the superior writers: the former George W. Bush press secretary and current Fox News host Dana Perino's my-life-with-my-dog-Jasper memoir Let Me Tell You About Jasper...: How My Best Friend Became America's Dog and the large-screen sprite Anna Kendrick's personal/professional memoir Scrappy Little Nobody. These two books are, frankly, flat-out joys to read, the former being a frequently warmhearted, often humorous, always heartfelt telling of her life and experiences with her pet dog Jasper, who, as she convincingly claims, has become the real and true star of the Perino family; the latter being an engaging, sprightly, consistently witty literary self-examination of one of the modern-day American cinema's most succulent and most appealing chicks. To partake of these tomes consecutively, both from beginning to end, is to spend quality time with a pair of delightfully quirky, keenly aware, firmly articulate she-babes who, each in her own way, have a marvelous sense of proportion, a marvelous refusal to see themselves as having any kind of Greatness.             Before getting into just exactly why these superb books are superb, allow me to go into how I first became aware of Kendrick (If you'll remember, Perino first came into my life via her first-rate within-the-George W. Bush-administration memoir And The Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side). Kendrick caught my attention, as do many other other folks and things these days, via YouTube. Specifically, first, during a compilation of Kathie Lee/Hoda's "best" Today "celebrity moments," wherein, when Kendrick was asked whether or not she'd like to play a game, she facetiously mimicked Nader and replied mock-earnestly: "No! I hate games! I hate fun, I hate laughing!" (Later, she was shown doing some mock-dirty dancing with said girls); second, during a trailer for one of Kendrick's more recent theatrical films, namely Get A Job, the aforementioned trailer's two highlights, for me, being 1) this scene where Kendrick's filmic character, Jillian by name, is sitting on the floor lamenting the fact that she spent almost all of the money she had on a BITCHIIN' pair of shoes, while clad in a pair of equally bangin' black toreador pants that, given her sitting position, magnificently show off her magnificently long, lean legs and her magnificently-proportioned bare feet; and 2) a long shot of Kendrick adorned in a man's white shirt and tie and black high heels and again displaying those stylishly long, lean legs. Thus I was already primed, due to being previously turned on by Kendrick, to favor her tome.             It's here where I'll deal with the highlights of both books, the places where our memoirists especially grab ahold of and, simultaneously, charm and delight us.               .Perino, on the vast network of fans/friends that has developed due to her having Jasper: "It is a bit wonderful that through television and social media, Jasper and I became friends with so many people across the country. I enjoy interacting with my followers and fans, and I really feel that we have modern-day friendships--people I've never met, but that I've come to know over time through short digital interactions. It has widened my circle of people I talk to, and it's deepened my appreciation for people from all walks of life. I now get a chance to communicate with people I wouldn't have ever known; the Internet has given us a way to connect and network that didn't exist before. We're all neighbors now (with the proper amount of fencing to keep things friendly).               "Often this new group of people has cheered me up or warmed my heart just when I needed it. Working in politics and live cable television can be stressful, and switching off at the end of the day isn't always easy. Jasper's following has actually given me a way to set aside the work portion of my day and exchange some messages with my electronic friends, which helps me keep grounded and cheerful."                 .Kendrick, on her brother Mike: "My brother is my hero. I've idolized him since the day I was born and I still do. He's responsible for at least sixty percent of my personality, for better or worse. I'm told that if you're an only child, you grow up thinking you're the center of the universe, and if you have tons of siblings you grow up with a healthy perspective on how small you are in the grand scheme of things. I'd like to think that my brother told me I was a worthless brat often enough that I got the same effect...     "Mike's main interests [when we were kids] were watching Star Wars, playing Magic: The Gathering, and avoiding his annoying little sister. The only time he happily included me was when he wanted to play 'Pro Wrestling Champions,' as I was an ideal partner on which to inflict moderate injury."           .Perino, on Jasper's television debut: "Jasper made his debut on The Five [Perino's Fox News political talk show] as a sleepy puppy at just two months old, and a star was born. I brought him on set and when we were back from commercial break, I showed him off for the camera. He looked right into the lens with his deep blue eyes (a Vizsla [Jasper's breed] is born with blue eyes that eventually turn amber). He snuggled into me. Hearts melted.             "Jasper has tons of personality and is as photogenic as any dog I've known. On Jasper's birthday, my [The Five] producer lets him come on the show and he sits on a chair, for the most part, wearing a bow tie collar, and you would think he knows exactly what he's doing when he looks into the teleprompter. He's certainly better behaved than [Five co-host Greg] Gutfield."             .Kendrick, on her early period as an actor: "Starting in theater gave me a basic work ethic that I may not have gotten if I started in film and television. I worked six days a week, eight shows a week (two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Mondays off). It wasn't so much the schedule--I worked in accordance with child labor laws--it was that I was held accountable for my work.             "Once, during rehearsals, our director was playing with the shape of a musical number that involved most of the cast--which jokes should stay, where they should go, etc. He decided to try reinstituting a small joke I'd had in a previous draft, and we started the number again from the top. I lost where we were in the music and I opened my mouth to say the line, a measure too late. He was already shaking his head and signaling the pianist to stop.             "'Anna just lost a line. Let's go back to how it was before and start again.'"         .Perino, on her period as W.'s press secretary: "[B]ecoming the White House press secretary was the best thing that ever happened to my career. I learned so much--about policy, world affairs, management, and politics.             "But the most important lesson I learned working for President Bush was about character and how to conduct myself under stress and attack. I found out how to be productive despite obstacles, and appreciated how a communicator can help calm a situation, advance a negotiation, or lead to a solution.               "The press secretary is the pinnacle for a public relations professional--it was the opportunity of a lifetime.                 "But having worked in politics for so many years, I'd built up a fairly tough exterior. The daily battles can wear a person out, and in some ways, I became edgier and harder than I'd ever been.         "It was also a lofty position, and the surest way you can lose your way in Washington, D.C., is to let any of that power or prestige go to your head.             "Throughout those years [first dog] Henry kept me from losing sight of what was important in life: appreciation and gratitude for my health and blessings, and the love I shared with [hubby] Peter and our dog."     .Kendrick, on her early life as a struggling actor: "The next pilot season [for television series] was starting up, which meant I was usually sent on one to four auditions a day. I discovered MapQuest and wrote down directions by hand since I didn't have a printer. Between that and my growing knowledge of the city, I was only getting lost, like, six times a day. Pilot season is grim because you're sent in for everything, no matter how wrong you are for it. I kept a mountain of clothes and accessories in my trunk so I could go from the fourteen-year-old goth daughter on a TNT drama to the spoiled twenty-two-year-old receptionist on a workplace comedy. It's obvious now that splitting my focus made it responsible for me to do well on any of them, but I was in no position to turn down auditions.               "How do I describe my personal life during this time? I met funny, interesting people. I went to art galleries downtown, I performed a one-woman show for free on the street corner. Except none of that's true. I spent most of my time trying to find ways to occupy myself without spending money or ingesting calories."                     .Perino, on what she terms Jasper's "protest pee": "When I wrote And the Good News Is... I received a lot of gifts for Jasper, including an embroidered quilt with the Great Seal of the United States. It is beautiful and functional. [Peter and I] take it with us to our friends' homes if we are invited to stay the night, because, well, you try telling Jasper he can't sleep on the bed. With the quilt, we're covered. Literally and figuratively.                   "When we're at our place in South Carolina, leaving him in the house is even more stressful. For a while, whenever we'd go out, we'd come home and find that he'd peed on the floor. As soon as we'd walk in, we'd know something happened, because Jasper would grab a toy as he always does, but instead of frantic joy and butt wagging, his tail would be down and he'd look guilty. It was hard to discipline him because you're supposed to catch them in the act. [Hubby] Peter would get pretty made at Jasper, and I'd feel terrible.                 "'He's so scared to be left alone,' I'd say.           "'No, he's being a brat,' Peter responded."                   .Kendrick, on behavior at showbiz events: "There's a campaign called #AskHerMore, which was started by some thoughtful, intelligent females (Lena Dunham, Reese Witherspoon, Shondra Rimes, etc.). It aims to ensure that when women attend events, they are asked about more than their dresses. Men don't answer questions about their clothes; why should we [women]? A simple and understandable request.                 "However, if people could ask me less, that would be great. I would love it if we could limit my red carpet topics to my favorite colors, what sound a duck makes, and my thoughts on McDonald's All-Day Breakfast--blessing or curse?"                 Also: Nearly the final half of Perino's book consists of various @FiveFanPhotoshops pictures that very humorously show Jasper in a collection of quite colorful poses--Jasper painting a portrait of Perino's former boss, W.; Jasper as a race-car driver; Jasper and Perino involved in the Kentucky Derby with the latter on top of the former, et al. And Kendrick's tome closes with a "Bonus Reading Group Guide," wherein there are "a few questions to help you get the most out of your reading experience."(As an addend, Kendrick wittily 1] apologizes for the "fact" that her "Guide" offers no red meat for those of us who "happen to run a trashy celebrity news blog that requires you to peruse the content of privileged cretins like me"; and 2] gives us permission to "use these questions [in the "Guide"] as a template for creating misleading but juicy headlines." She winds up by, also wittily, summing up what she, so she claims, is conveying: "[F]amous white girls are really fun to be mad at") Among the queries asked in the "Guide":                                        .."Though every page of Scrappy Little Nobody is perfect in every                           way, which part is your favorite? Make a list (it can be a Post-it that                           says, 'Every part is my favorite') and tape it to your chest for the rest                                 of the day."                                        .."When Anna compares Zac Efron to Charles Manson, is she making                                 a joke or trying to warn us about a potential murderous mastermind?"                                .."In the sections about Alexa Chung and Olivia Palermo, the author                           viciously maligns two innocent and very fashionable girls. Is Anna a                           shady, basic bitch, or the shadiest, basic-est bitch?"                                       .."Anna makes a lot of bad decisions. Can you think of a time when                                 you've made a bad decision? Oh wow, really? We're gonna pretend                                   you can't think of a single example? YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER                             THAN ME?!"             And thus there are the books of Dana Perino and Anna Kendrick, the former being a greatly stylish, consistently witty, always loving paean to a dog who is not only a beloved pet but, as Perino very convincingly limns, one of the most well-known and well-regarded personalities in America (easily, happily, well above and beyond any yammering about "animal rights"); the latter being an engagingly lively, undeniably honest, unrelievedly funny self-portrait of a celebrity gal who is obviously on the sides of life and living, whose unflinchingly upbeat, never-say-die attitude comes through in literally every paragraph.                 In the much-lauded theatrical film The Magic of Belle Isle, the single Mom Charlotte O'Neill (Virginia Madsen), during an evening dinner with her daughters and that evening's guest, the renowned Western novelist Monte Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman), asserted: "I've always felt that a book does something no friend could: Stay quiet when you want to think." To partake of the Perino and Kendrick tomes as they "[s]tay quiet" is to have you "wanting to think" about them--always favorably and, very often, with unsheathed laughter.

[buckybarnesappreciationsociety]

Party Crashers

Summary: All hell breaks loose at Izzy’s first off-campus pool party!

Pairings: Dad! Bucky X Izzy  

OFC: Reader, Little Stevie, Nat, Wanda, Steve, Sam, Tony, Maddie, Aurala, Zach

Word Count: 1,913

Warnings: NONE

Thanks again to @shy2shot for the prompt. I had so much fun writing about Izzy and her college adventures.

Prompt: “While at a party, you hear screams coming from the main floor and you see flashing lights out of the window. You assume the party is getting busted. What walks through the door is much worse than a police officer.”

Izzy and Maddie settled into college life. Between classes and on campus social activities, she rarely spoke to her family. Their sophomore mentors understood leaving home for the first time made the young freshmen homesick.

The upperclassmen had ice cream socials, movie nights, shopping trips, and group meetings to allow the freshmen a chance to voice their opinion about whatever’s bothering them. Izzy vented about her aunts and uncles, the Avengers. She didn’t want anyone to shun her because sometimes, they were a bit over the top. The other students chimed in how cool it was to have Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for family. Izzy talked about her life in Stark Tower and her dad, James Buchanan Barnes. No one had a negative comment about the former Winter Soldier. One of the students wanted Captain America’s autograph!

Meanwhile, Bucky felt lost without hearing from Izzy. Yes, she’d send a text every now and again, but he wanted to actually hear her voice. Y/N assured her anxious husband Izzy was just fine. College life is different from high school. It proved to be quite an adjustment.

Stevie, on the other hand, loved being the only child at home. He and Bucky went fishing, camped out in the backyard under the stars, and much to Y/N’s dismay, Stevie rode on the back of Bucky’s Harley Davidson.

Sitting in the common room, Bucky stared at his cell phone. Y/N walked in and shook her head. “James, what are you doing?”

“I haven’t heard from Izzy in 3 days. What if something’s wrong? Do you think Hydra found her?”

Bucky began hyperventilating. Y/N rushed to his side, rubbing circles on his back.

“James, breathe sweetheart.” Her soothing voice coupled with deep breathing calmed the flustered dad.

“Baby, Izzy’s doing well. She’s busy with classes and social activities.”

“What kind of social activities? Wild parties and drinking?” Bucky jumped up, stalking towards the garage.

Y/N had enough. She caught up to her husband staring him down. “James Buchanan Barnes! You need to calm down!!” Her voice boomed. “OUR DAUGHTER DOES NOT DRINK, NOR DOES SHE ATTEND WILD PARTIES!!!”

Bucky’s eyes were wide and his mouth shut tight. Y/N shot daggers at her husband. Stevie thought it best not to say anything. He and Sam played Minecraft on the new XBox One S.

“Mom’s really angry at dad. I’m staying out of her way.” Stevie stuffed a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

“Yeah, Bucky messed up big time. Serves him right.” Sam didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for the beleaguered super soldier.

After the tongue lashing from his wife, Bucky decided it best to go and workout. Y/N was on the warpath! Good thing Steve, Tony and Wanda were out running errands. No one stood a chance with her wrath.

Y/N and Nat sat at the kitchen island, watching Stevie and Sam play video games.

“What did you do with Barnes?” Nat smirked.

“He’s in the gym pouting and taking his frustrations out on an innocent bag.

In the meantime, Izzy and Maddie were planning to attend their very first college pool party. One of the upperclass students, Aurala, invited some freshmen over to her house for food, fun, swimming and most importantly, NO ALCOHOL!

But, what would college be without a keg or four, right? A few fraternity members decided it would be cool to crash the party and bring beer. Aurala’s parents trusted her to be responsible and not have anyone over with drugs or alcohol.

Izzy couldn’t believe she and Maddie were invited. To say they were excited didn’t come close. The ecstatic young ladies went shopping for new bikinis, towels, flip flops, and lip gloss.

A nice freshman, Zachary, had his eyes on Izzy. He was handsome, courteous, and highly intelligent. Y/N met him and approved of their friendship, but kept it from her overzealous husband.

The day of the pool party, Bucky phoned Izzy. “Hey sweetheart. How are ya?”

“Dad! Hi. I’m fine...you?” She sounded nervous and Bucky picked up on it.

Perplexed, Bucky furrowed his brow.“Buttercup, is everything alright?”

Maddie motioned for Izzy to calm down. “Yes daddy. We’re on our way to the gym. Gotta keep my body in shape.”

Bucky choked, “WHAT!!! NO ONE IS WATCHING YOUR BODY!!”

Izzy and Maddie could hardly breathe from laughing. “James Barnes, calm down!!!”

“Wait a minute young lady. Did you just call me by my first name?”

“I sure did. Stop being so overprotective. Maddie and I are fine. Now, I love you. Give my love to everyone. Smooches.”

Throwing a pillow at her flustered roommate, Maddie scolded Izzy. “You have no earthly idea how to lie? Your dad is NOT dumb. He’ll figure out what we’re gonna do and mess it up.”

Izzy groaned, “I’m sorry Maddie.  Maybe he’ll forget about it?”

Looking at each other, “Nope...he won’t!”

To a “normal” parent, it probably would’ve been overlooked. But, to James Buchanan Barnes, he knew something wasn’t right. Taking his concerns to Steve, they devised a plan to discover what Izzy was hiding.

POOL PARTY FUN

Zach, Maddie and Izzy arrived at Aurala’s home via taxi. It wasn’t far from campus and they split the fare.

Ringing the doorbell, Aurala greeted her guests. The excited threesome were led to the pool area. A rousing game of volleyball was taking place in the pool, while some played ping pong and video games.

Zach chased Izzy around the deck; Maddie joined a few of her classmates in the pool. Things were going great until a few frat boys decided to crash the gathering.

POOL PARTY RUCKUS

Aurala, visibly upset, told the rowdy bunch to leave. She didn’t want any trouble. Adhering to her wishes, they left, but decided to return unbeknownst to her.

Some of the older girls and guys started drinking and everything went downhill from there. The party spilled out into the back and side of the house.

Izzy, Maddie, Zach and some other attendees decided it best to go upstairs and sit this out, while Aurala tried to calm things down.

Well, by now, no one was paying any attention to her. Someone brought a beer bong and a round of “chug-a-lug”  began.

Suddenly, blue lights flashed throughout the house. Screams erupted as everyone scrambled to leave. Zach thought it was the police. Nope! It was James Buchanan Barnes, Steven Grant Rogers, Anthony Edward Stark and Sam Wilson, piling out of two SHIELD vehicles, with tinted windows and blue lights flashing.

What ensued next was like a scene from “COPS.” You could hear the “Bad Boys” theme as the fierce foursome entered the premises.

Steve, dressed as Captain America, asked where Aurala’s parents were.

“Th-they’re not here. W-we were fine until some frat boys crashed.” Aurala was visibly shaken.

Growling, Bucky called Izzy. “Isabella Marie Barnes, get down here now!!”

Zach and Maddie looked at Izzy, “Oh shit. You’re in trouble now.”

Pushing herself off the floor, Izzy and company made their way downstairs. Tony and Sam were chastising the crashers, Steve spoke to Aurala’s parents via phone and Bucky waited for his beloved daughter downstairs.

Leaning against the wall with his massive arms folded, Bucky narrowed his eyes at Zach, who just happened to be holding Izzy’s hand. The look on Bucky’s face caused the scared young man to back away and stand next to Maddie.

Feigning innocence, Izzy looked at her dad with puppy dog eyes. “D-dad? Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Where do I begin? First, you sounded a bit off when we spoke. I knew you were lying. Second, the tracker in your necklace alerted me to trouble. Shall I keep going?”

Izzy became enraged. “YOU PUT A TRACKER IN MY NECKLACE??!!! C’MON DAD!! GIVE ME A BREAK!!” She stomped outside by the pool, burying her face in her hands.

It hurt Bucky to see his daughter upset. Sitting in the deck chair next to her, Bucky reached out for Izzy’s hand and she pulled back.

“Dad, when will you ever trust me? Yes, I lied; yes, things got out of hand; yes, I’m kinda glad you showed up. But, I’m in college now. How long before you let me go?”

The hurt on Izzy’s face broke his heart. “Sugar Plum, this is a new experience for me. Ya see, I never dreamed I’d ever be worthy enough for a girlfriend, much less a wife and kids. You, Stevie and your mother are my heartbeat. Should something happen to ya, it’d kill me. Please forgive me. I just love’ya so much.”

A tear rolled down Bucky’s jaw. Izzy scooted over for him to sit next to her. “I’m so sorry. I know you worry about me but you have to know I’d never do anything stupid like drink alcohol or do drugs. We were having a really good time until the frat boys showed up. Aurala asked them to leave and they came back.”

“I’m just glad you’re alright. Just don’t lie to me baby. Makes me think you don’t trust me.”

Hugging her dad, “Only if you’ll cut me some slack. Trust me to do what’s right. I’ll never do anything to put myself in harm’s way.”

Nodding, Bucky agreed, “I’ll try. Don’cha lie to me again.”

Zach walked outside and cleared his throat and extended his hand. “M-M-Mr. Barnes? H-hi my name is Zachary. I’m a friend of Isabella’s. N-nice to meet you sir.”

Bucky flashed his metal hand but thought better. “Nice to meet you son. James Barnes.”

Looking between he and Izzy, “Is he your boyfriend?” The word caused bile to rise in Bucky’s throat.

“No dad. He’s a really good friend. Mom liked him the minute they met.”

Eyes bulging, “Your mom knows about him and I didn’t??”

Izzy simply kissed Bucky on the cheek. As the crowd dispersed, Maddie, Zach and Izzy were taken back to campus.

Tony made certain the dean would hear about the frat boys antics and they would be dealt with accordingly.

Steve, Tony and Sam waited by the tinted window SUV as Bucky escorted Maddie and Izzy to their dorm room.

Maddie thanked him for coming when they did. Things could’ve really gotten out of hand.

“I’ve had an eventful night dad. Think I’ll shower and go to sleep. Uh, I appreciate you guys showing up. Please give me a chance to prove to you I’m responsible.”

Kissing the top of her head Bucky replied, “It won’t be easy, but I’ll try. I love ya so much baby girl.”

Giving Bucky a huge hug, “I love you so much Daddy Buckwoo. You’re the best.”

Two lessons were learned from this:

First, NEVER lie to your parents; especially if they’re a former master assassin with  endless tracking resources. Communication is key!

Finally, trust your daughter to be responsible. Bucky raised a young lady with high moral values. Your baby bird has left the nest. Allow her to fly!

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