#something I wrote and posted on SB about a year ago

[alchemist767676]

Scarlet Embers

My dearest Monica— Monica stared at the letter in her hands with wide, uncomprehending eyes and told herself that she would not cry. —I'm overjoyed to hear news of your safe return, but I'm afraid that I must deliver to you terrible news— She hadn't wept in years, not since her time chained up in that horrible cell knowing that her death was rapidly approaching. —I'm afraid that your father was caught in the middle of a skirmish between bandits and students from Garreg Mach two months ago—

She hadn't shed any tears when she felt the Ashen Demon's sword pierce her heart or when Shez knelt over her, a look of distraught horror on her face. —it seems that he had gotten caught up in a bit of bad business while he was trying to find where you had been taken— She'd kept a straight face through everything that had happened since—her friends looking at her with expressions of barely concealed loathing, having to endure the monsters that kidnapped and tormented her for months looking at her like she was one of them… Even knowing that Lady Edelgard despised her. —we should have told you sooner, and I deeply regret that you have to learn about it this way— This shouldn't even hurt very much, it's not like she was close to her father or anything. It had been months—oh, Goddess, she hadn't seen her father in months—since she last talked to him and she was perfectly okay with that. But knowing— —your father was killed in the fighting.

She would never see him again. She felt her eyes starting to sting and she did her best to hold it in. She would not cry here—she would not. She kept telling herself this, even as she felt her shoulders shake with the effort of holding it in, even as she felt the tremble in her throat as a sob desperately fought to escape it. She kept telling herself this even as the first tear fell. A deep, wracking sob escaped Monica's throat as she started to cry for the first time in years. Everything that she'd dealt with for the past two weeks—from her untimely death, to seeing the expression of pure hatred in Lady Edelgard's eyes, to how she humiliated herself in the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, to when that downcast messenger told her to read this letter in private—all of it came down on her at once. And once she started, she couldn't stop. This wasn't the kind of reserved graceful crying that Monica read about in stories or saw in operas, this was raw, ugly sobs. Snot ran down her face and Monica was sure she was ruining her uniform by wiping it away, but she truly didn't care anymore, not about anything other than howling her grief out, for both her father and the world she knew before. She heard the door to the changing room she'd sequestered herself in creak open and Monica did her best to quiet her sobs—she failed, obviously—and pulled her legs up onto the bench, hoping against hope that whoever it was would just ignore her. She didn't need to be reminded of how much her friends hated her right now. Someone knocked on the thin wooden door separating the stall from the rest of the changing room and a sweet, melodic voice came through, "Hello? Are you alright?"

It was Dorothea. Monica felt like the Goddess herself must have been mocking her at this point. She desperately wanted to do something, anything to make her leave—anything that meant she wouldn't have to see her closest friend's hateful gaze now of all times—but she couldn't stop herself. More violent sobs wracked her body as her traitorous mind recalled seeing her on stage, fighting alongside her, that last night in Enbarr Monica shared with all the Black Eagles before the end. The door slid open and Monica turned away, covering her head with her arms as if she could somehow hide from Dorothea even as she stood right in front of her. Another sob escaped her throat and she curled inward, wishing she could just disappear entirely. "Oh," Dorothea said and Monica was certain she could hear the disappointment. Dorothea had thought there was someone who deserved to be comforted, but instead, it was just her. A long pause stretched as Monica continued to cry—her embarrassing collapse showing no signs of stopping anytime soon—and Monica hoped for a moment that Dorothea had simply left, decided that she wasn't worth her attention. Instead, she heard the wood of the bench she was on creak as a second person settled on it. She felt a warm, comforting hand on the back of her head, stroking her short hair, still done up in the stupid braids that she had thought were cute four years ago. Monica heard Dorothea's voice, hesitant and unsure but caring nonetheless. "Um… Monica," Monica felt her breaking all over again at the reminder that she was no longer Monie in Dorothea's eyes, "I know we've had our differences these past two weeks, but are you…? Well, obviously you're not alright."

"N-no," Monica choked out, curling in on herself more. She continued between sobs, "E-everyone h-hates me for things I don't r-remember, Lady Edelgard despises me, and… and… I think I'm losing my mind!" She kept leaving places, certain that she was going somewhere else, only to wind up right back where she started, or finishing her chores only to find that her work hadn't even started yet. And then there was what happened at the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. She was certain that she'd attacked the Ashen Demon in a terrified panic, that she'd run for her life a mere moment later. And then she wound up right back in that clearing, the Ashen Demon's cold eyes drilling into her soul. "Oh, Edie doesn't hate you," Dorothea said. She apparently respected Monica just enough not to pretend that everyone else didn't or that she wasn't a step away from being locked up for everyone else's safety. "N-no she does. More th-than anyone else. A-and she's right to," Monica forced out again, not even sure why she was bothering to say anything. Kronya had already burned every bridge in sight before Monica arrived. Maybe having Dorothea at her side just made her feel safe again, even though she was anything but. Monica waited for Dorothea to leave, but it never happened. Dorothea waited next to her, running her fingers through her hair until the sobs finally, mercifully died down. She even continued to sit next to her as Monica kept trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. By the time that Monica was collected enough to focus on much of anything, Dorothea was still by her side, managing to give her a look of concern. As the last of her sobs finally died away, Monica tried to work up her courage to ask a question that had been lurking in the back of her mind since she arrived here. She didn't want to ask and ruin this moment, the first moment she'd had since she arrived here where things felt like how they were supposed to be. But it was going to end anyway, so it might as well end on her own terms. "What did I do to make you hate me?"

Dorothea narrowed her eyes and Monica flinched under her hard gaze. "I think you know." Monica muttered miserably, "I know it must have been something truly awful. You're too kind to hate me for anything less." Dorothea's expression turned confused and she hesitated for a moment before offering, "you called me a, and I quote, filthy commoner whore who should go back to selling herself on the streets of Enbarr so the people who deserve to be here don't have to deal with your stench. And this was after you stole my books and told me that you did so because you didn't think I could read." Monica flinched and let out a sad, croak of a laugh. "Yeah. That sounds just about like what it would take." Part of Monica entertained the idea that Kronya knew this was coming and had alienated everyone just to make her life more difficult. More likely, it was just that Kronya was a vile excuse for a human being who liked making other people upset. "Do you… do you really not remember any of this?" Dorothea asked, a mix of confusion and genuine concern in her voice. Monica shook her head without saying a word. She had no idea what had happened in the time that Kronya had been impersonating her, she had only the vaguest idea of what happened before then. It certainly wasn't what she remembered. It all seemed so much worse. "Maybe I should take you to Professor Byleth and-" Monica suddenly sprung up, eyes wide with terror even as a few stray tears continued to fall. "No! Not her! Anybody but her!" Monica's chest still ached with the memory of the Ashen Demon's sword running through her heart every time she walked past her, every time she was forced to sit through her lectures in class. She couldn't let her know anything about any of this. Despite it all, Monica still didn't want to die. Dorothea stared at her with wide-eyed shock of her own and placated her, "Okay, okay! Then maybe you want to see Manuella? If you're forgetting things and… having personality changes, you probably want to see her anyway." "Manuella," Monica muttered under her breath. Manuella had also been part of the Imperial army and Monica had enjoyed the old songstress' company, even if she still maintained that Dorothea was the superior performer. Kronya had probably seen fit to make Manuella despise her too, but that mattered less than it did with the others. If someone needed help, Manuella would care for them. She was safe. "That sounds nice." "Alright then," Dorothea said, helping Monica up to her feet. "Let's get you fixed up." Monica followed more in a daze than anything else. She knew it wouldn't last, this strange, twisted world seemed determined to make her miserable at every corner, but it was nice to be so close to Dorothea again.

[zonkutonshorrifyingpeenie]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

tagged in by the lovely @borealopelta thanks bb! <3 <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

9

What's your total AO3 word count?

23,958

What fandoms do you write for?

i've primarily written for powerwolf with my extremely-specific-furry-au, but I've also written for AFK arena, fnaf, and there's a couple bakugan ones that I want to try and get back to working on as well, or indeed, working on writing in general ;A;

Top five fics by kudos?

Light's On - fnaf sb - 81 kudos

Reunions Sacrifice - afk arena - 60 kudos

A Were's First - powerwolf - 25 kudos

It's 3am... - powerwolf - 16 kudos

Charles' Nightmare - powerwolf - 11 kudos

Do you respond to comments?

If I actively remember to, yes.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely A Were's Last, which was almost exclusively written to induce tears in... two people at most lol

sometimes you just gotta write non-canon no-point angst shit ya feel?

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Honestly, I haven't written many if any explictly happy fic endings, they seem to lean more melancholic most of the time which definitely doesn't say anything about my mental state what are you talking about

but, Sleeping On Your Alpha Can Be Something That's Very Personal, Actually and It's 3am... would probably count as at least my least sad fic ends

Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully no. but some of my fic-connected posting has certainly garnered some strangely passionate responses.

Do you write smut?

Yep

Craziest crossover?

None of my fics are crossovers

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, and if they're desperate enough to steal from me, I think I'd feel sorry for them

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not explictly, no. The closest I've gotten to anything like co-writing has been like... a couple of discord fic-lore convos that turned into semi-writings and also all that rp shit i did over a decade ago.

All time favorite ship

I don't exactly have a metric for rating any of my ships above the other, they all grab me by the throat in differing ways

though, by genre at least, i do gravitate towards gay old men, so, take that as you will

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Buddy I could just list my entire writing folder here and I doubt I would actually be exaggerating T-T

The mental illness has gripped me far too hard the last few years...

But, there's always hope, right?

What are your writing strengths?

environment descriptions and turn-of-phrase, I suppose. I like to think I'm fairly ok at getting a general vibe across in the... 12 paragraphs before i get to even a speck of dialogue lol

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

My monolingual ass could never. I'd be too afraid of fucking it up

First fandom you wrote in?

the first thing i remember writing for was fuckn like... an mmo game. i think it was the Sacred one when that was around... i think??

but that was purely written in random linebook when i was a child and didn't understand the concept of fanfiction yet

the first thing i POSTED anywhere was probably bakugan or homestuck. I genuinely can't recall exact order, but I do know for certain fact that I worked on this one bakugan fic for far FAR too long during highschool recess and lunch breaks

Favorite fic you've written?

In terms of published, definitely AWF, my beloved domestic furry au that is definitely not semi-dead-in-the-water-it's-fine ignore my tears

unpublished, there's certainly a few that I'm having a very pleasant and fun time with writing, even if the going is very slow.

If you were forced to write only one genre for the rest of your life (like James Patterson lol) what would you want it to be?

Probably Fantasy or Mythology, lot of wiggle-room within that, and I tend to lean more fantastical in my worlds and such anyhow.

I'm gonna tag in @deerfests I reckon! And open-invite ofr anyone else that wants to hop in as well!

[burgiethewriter]

Asks for a Fic Writer! 🔆

Tumblr really didn't want to show me this, the fiend, but I was tagged by @randomsquirrel (thank you!)

How many works do you have on ao3?

Oh only about 1,365 (6 if I remember to post another tonight)

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

2,676,845 I am very mentally well thank you for asking

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Whatever ones the brainworms are currently wiggling in. So currently it's ffxiv and ffxvi and a little dash of sso

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Breakfast NSFW Stranger Things steddie. Which is actually the sequel to the second most kudosed one but I guess we're all sluts for domesticity.

Monster in the Bed more NSFW Stranger Things steddie. The lines of kudos emails I got from those two were fantastic.

Sunny-weather Snuggles and now for something COMPLETELY different, SFW mlp appledash. I used to have this little tradition, I suppose, of starting a new '30 day otp challenge' for every ship I liked. Don't think I ever finished one though.

Garden Party which is another SFW mlp fic but this time rarijack (I love their dynamic).

Odd Tattoo NSFW wtnv cecilos, god knows why I gave it the mature rating. I actually had this on ff.net initially, it's THAT old. But wtnv is just that popular I guess (for good reason! Night Vale my beloved).

5. do you respond to comments?

I do now after sitting there making flustered noises for a good ten minutes.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Funny thing about me, I never remember my fics. Ever. Legit I surprised myself one day discovering a stash of estimeric fics that I just. Don't remember writing. I feel like there was one though. It could be Frozen Wasteland SFW ffxiv which is about the bloody banquet at the end of arr which. Yeah. The saddest part is that I never went anywhere with it because then I started sb and met Lyse and um. Yeah.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Starlight Kittens sfw ffxiv Lyseka I think. There are probably happier endings but that's the one that immediately springs to mind.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes there are weird 'this is so cringe wtf' comments but hey it's not my fault if they don't embrace the cringe.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I was called sin mother for a time for a REASON okay. All kinds, vanilla, kink, monster, you name it. Very much into a/b/o and monsterfucking but I keep overthinking it and that kills the mood so fast.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

[hides the ffxiv/ffxvi one under the bed] I mean yeah. Craziest one was probablyyyyy the Gotham x SSO one. I can't remember what happened but I remember the crossover.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge but it's not like I go looking. Wouldn't surprise me if someone had stolen an sso one though, some of those kids man...

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Again not to my knowledge but I also know that ffxvi is very popular in other languages so honestly I'm waiting for it.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I swear to god I have but I can't find it (unless Jack posted it??? It was years ago though) but I suppose the Wild West AU also counts? Green-eyed Drake's Revenge was the last one (god I miss that era so fucking much I met some of the best people but also the worst but I just really loved being a part of such a big project).

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

The answer probably would've been easier before I played ffxvi but uhhhh yeah it's Terence/Dion from FFXVI. Which you wouldn't know from my fics for that fandom (I keep getting distracted by other ships) but like. Canon gays. Hello. How can I resist. Ship that makes me go 'eeee' and then think about for a while after I see it.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Haha what unfinished WIPs I don't have those scattered everywhere. I would like to actually finish Frozen Wasteland (linked above) someday but there's also a phoenixflareknight fic that I'm slowly pecking away at but it has no real plot or anything so I don't think I'll finish that. And the aforementioned ffxiv/ffxvi crossover.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Making anything look good, baby. Or so I've been told. Sheer determination? Dialogue maybe?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

"And where is all of this action taking place?" Shrug emoji. Descriptions.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I think it's fine as long as there's a translation somewhere.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Sonic. I don't think I published any of them though. It's probably better that way.

20. favourite fic you've written?

There are a few that spring to mind but I associate them with an ex-friend so ew but Lost and Found is the ffxiv/ffxvi crossover fic I do have published where I put my character and her sister and the arr-era Scions into the world of ffxvi. I love it and wish it got more attention but maybe the time's just not right yet, idk.

I tag @tiredassmage @trusted-friend-ffxiv and @sso-eden-dawnvalley

[dearweirdme]

Hi,

My first time writing an ask. I've been reading some of the posts on your blog and some of the answers you give to your asks. I've been agreeing with a lot of stuff you said.

I just wanted to say something about this whole "wooga squad" debate that's been happening in your asks.

This whole "but his friends" is such an anti behavior. Like, it's literally what BTS antis use to drag them all the time. Prime example would be Supreme Boi. All BTS members but rap line in particular get dragged by antis for their friendship with the guy. They use SBs behavior and attach it to the members. And armys always defend the boys against these stupid allegations but for some reason for Tae it's different.

Tae's only fault is that he happens to have famous friends who said or done something controversial years ago.

Btw, regarding Bogum, he left that church (that he was born into) and was looking for a new one (sometime last year I think I saw some photos) . I remember how when Tae, Bogum and Lisa went to that "wild" after party people were cracking jokes left and right how Bogum is in the toilet of that club on his knees praying but I think that if he genuinely was so homophobic he would have negotiated for himself not to go to that after party or he would leave.

Back to BTS and their friends. Apart from a few people we don't really know anything about their close friends circle so it seems extremely unfair to me to only judge Tae.

You can't judge someone based on the words that were said a decade ago. People change, Namjoon wrote a whole song about it. Yoongi talked about it too.

It's funny because jikookers used to use Tae's smoking/vaping as a reason why JK would never be with him because he said about his dislike of smoking about decade ago. And just a few months ago he was spotted with a vape on welive.

That anon is assuming way too much in their asks, literally throwing PHS and Peakboi under the bus while admitting they don't know anything about them.

Sorry, it's a lot, I'm rambling. Just wanted to say that I agree with a lot of your reasonings.

I'll sign as alice

Hi Alice!

Thank you for your ask. I agree it's all very anti behavior. Latching on to rumors and incidents to explain why Tae cannot be queer. Even when his own actions point to exactly that. While shippers are always accused of assuming too much and filling in the gaps with our imagination, this whole debate in my inbox is them doing the same. Nobody knows what Wooga squad is really like. The 'evidence' of them being bad is so weak. Celebs are often placed under a microscope, so I tend to believe that, while some members of Wooga might have traditional views and have done and said stupid things, they are not actually bad people.

[moongothic]

So I wrote this god forsaken post the other day because of the Crocodad brainworms, hoping doing so would clear my mind, but no, appearently I wasn't done, there's more shit I need to yell about, so here we go, Crocodile Specution Part 2

Not me coming back to this post a day later with an edit because I realized that not only is that SBS quote mistranslated, but it straight up debunks Crocodad from ever being plausible

I went and double checked how Oda had phrased his answer (in Japanese, SBS from Vol 78, page 86) to the SBS question and he explicitly stated that Crocodile became a Shichibukai in the first half of his 20s ("20代前半で", literally "first half of his 20s" and not mid-20s as the OPWikia fantranslation claims), and canonically, he would've been 27 when Luffy was born. (Crocodile's 46, Luffy 19)

So the canon timeline makes Crocodad just straight up impossible, unless he somehow still got pregnant after transitioning and managed to hide that while a Shichibukai, because the theory assumes that Crocodile's secret is that he's stealth trans. And I mean, I guess it's possible he could've transitioned years after becoming a Shichibukai, but there is no fucking way in a million years that he could've kept that a secret, and based on the interaction he has with Iva-chan in Impel Down, Iva-chan seems to know something about Crocodile that he doesn't want "revealed", so then that secret can't be him being trans since it wouldn't be a secret and wouldn't work as actual blackmail so like??? It just doesn't work???*

I dunno man, I'm emotionally devastated, I was straight up losing my fucking mind over this theory, trying to figure out if it was actually plausible or not, and. Well, I did. I managed to debunk it. But only after getting severely emotionally attached to the idea and the sheer storytelling potential it could've had

Like trans Croco is still plausible and I will never be normal about Crocodile ever again, but. God

RIP Crocodad, you will be fondly remembered in AU fanfics

*Edit again because I can't stop thinking about this stupid asshole god fucking damnit Considdering how Iva-chan talked to Kuma about him becoming a Shichibukai (at Marineford) I feel it'd be unlikely and would make little sense for Dragon want to be at all affiliated with a pirate "government dog", even in secret. But also. Hypothetically:

Crocodile could've moonlighted as a Revolutionary while a Shichibukai and like tried to leak info about the Government's plans etc to the Revolutionary Army

At one point or another he would've gone no contact with the Army though (because he had a weapon of mass destruction to find and a civil war he wanted to start and Dragon would not have been cool with that), which could've just added to why Iva-chan felt the way they did about Kuma joining the Shichibukai too

If Crocodile did transition years after becoming a Shichibukai, even if that was public knowledge it kinda would make sense nobody would bring that up because at this point, whatever scandal that might've caused would've happened almost 20 whole years ago. Also we don't know how often he would've been on the news back then, all we know is that he started appearing often on the news after doing his Heroics at Alabasta 16 years ago. Hell it's plausible Crocodile only ever got his one and only bounty before getting picked for a Shichibukai, and if he didn't really do much in public to get talked about and didn't settle down anywhere specific until like 18 years ago (after transitioning specifically)... There could be people who might not have noticed that one Shichibukai suddenly becoming a man. Hell if most people aren't aware of Ivankov's abilities, some people might've just been like "dude must've hit puberty late" / "he was a woman? That can't be possible, you must've imagined things"

Iva-chan's wording for blackmailing Crocodile might've been less about outting him and more of a vague way for them to threaten to detransition Crocodile (just written by Oda in a way that wasn't too obvious?) ((Tho Iva totally could've just said that, regardless of if Crocodile is trans or not, the average man does not want to become a woman so the threat would still be like REAL regardless of if it was involuntary transition or detransition))

Like.

I'm adding this to get this out of my system, like yes, there is still an argument and a theoretical, vaguely plausible scenario where Crocodad could still be real. I highly fucking doubt it. Like I feel desperate and delusional just writing that out (which I am, both, absolutely, 100%), but it's still theoretically plausible, I GUESS.

But whatever genuine faith I had in the theory is still gone.

(Below is the original post, now entirely moot) (At least as far as Crocodad goes, Crocodile's behaviour is still strange in Marineford so there could be something to it, just not Crocodad (at least the way I envisioned it). So please enjoy the general speculation anyways, just ignore the Crocodad parts)

Originally I thought it'd be good enough if I just rewatched some relevant parts of OP here and there, but in the end I just absolutely caved in, went and reread most of Marineford. Mainly because I knew I was forgetting scenes and stuff, and Toei adding/changing things can easily affect a character reading. Also it was just going to be easier to go through the manga and save all of Crocodile's scenes into an image folder for easier browsing, mainly because there's so much shit that happens between those scattered scenes it can be hard to like focus on one thing (especially if you're trying to specifically FIND those scattered scenes and appearances)

Anyway, because I had completely forgotten about this somehow (I'm such a fake fan smh)

We did learn that Whitebeard kicked Crocodile's ass at some point, to the point it left him Extremely Bitter About It, and him losing to Whitebeard is known to the Government at least

And very conventiently I came across this SBS Snippet about that

"D: I have a question for Odacchi. In "The White City", chapter 762 of volume 76, during the scene where Law stabs Cora-san, I found Crocodile printed on the paper Cora-san was reading. So what was that article about? P.N. Yamamoto・Sugiyama・Hori O: Yes. I'm quite impressed you found this one~. As you've pointed out, if you look really closely, you can find Crocodile there. This was from the time when Law was 10 and Doflamingo was 25; 16 years ago from now. Crocodile was 30 at the time. Similar to Luffy, back when he was young, Crocodile's name spread across the seas with incredible momentum, but soon after he was admitted into the Shichibukai in his mid-20's, he tried to fight Whitebeard and was completely and utterly crushed by him. Though he seemingly calmed down at this point, his eyes became set on the kingdom of Alabasta, and it happened to be precisely during this time period that he was being featured in the papers as a hero who hunted down pirates. In other words, that was an article reporting the acts of heroism by Crocodile at the time!"

So I think that pretty much confirms that it was Whitebeard who broke Crocodile's dreams, maybe even being the one who took his left arm.

It's still the sheer intensity of Crocodile's reaction though that's so interesting here. Like is it just him being bitter about "some weakling" landing a hit on Whitebeard but he couldn't, or is it even because that attack came from one of Whitebeard's followers, someone Whitebeard was supposed to be able to trust? Like why is Crocodile unable to trust anyone? What happened to give him his iconic trust issues? Did he get backstabbed too, and did that sight just trigger a horrible memory in him (a cherry on top of the pre-existing bitterness), thus his wild outburst? Who knows

This does also tell us a lot about the canon timeline actually, since we know Crocodile was at Roger's execution 24 years ago, where he like many others was inspired to go out to the sea and find One Piece, just a few years before the Ohara incident (only bringing that up because as much as I want Crocodad to be real, if it requires him being a former Revolutionary even for a few years, then we need to somehow believe he got inspired with a dream but didn't act on it for some reason for five whole years because the Army didn't exist for another two years and Luffy wouldn't be born for another 3 from there) (Of course, we do know that Dragon had been the captain of a group of Freedom Fighters (as we've learned from Vegapunk's flashback), so it's not like Crocodile couldn't have been a part of the forces even before they became the Revolutionary Army, it just feels odd if he had been as we've never heard as much as a suggestion that there could be another Founding Member of the Revolutionary Army beyond Dragon, Iva-chan and Kuma) (But again, there's many ways you could explain how Crocodad could still be real despite these things. Like I mentioned in my first post. There's many potential explanations. It's just the more you need to explain it, the less plausible it feels to me (which I only care about because I want to speculate about canon, like I love me a good headcanon but I want to speculate about canon here))

After Roger's death Crocodile did some pirating for about 8 years until he "retired as a Shichibukai" in Alabasta after his asskicking (can't tell if he decided to make his base in Alabasta immidiately after his asskicking or if he wandered around for a few more years before settling down there), and he proceeded to do his adorable Pirate Hunting Heroism Thing. Which we know was meant to be just a front he put on to gain the trust from Alabasta's people and the King so nooobody would ever suspect a thing. Like good god dude was playing The Long Game

(Sidenote, if Crocodile had been a part of the Freedom Fighters and/or the Revolutionary Army, it would make sense if deep inside he wanted to like, "maintain peace" even just a little, wouldn't it? Like of course the Army and Crocodile want to yeet the World Government into the bin first and foremost, but that doesn't mean either party nececarily want to allow random pirates to just run amock and ruin people's lives. So while defending the people of Alabasta definitely became a tactic for Crocodile to gain the people's trust, I do wonder if at he might've done it sincerely for a short while?)

Of course we now know that Pluton wasn't even in Alabasta, it's all the way back in Wano, so even if Crocodile had successfully usurped the country he still wouldn't have gotten the thing (poor dude just wasted like a decade of his life for nothing lmao) But I do have to ask; how, when and where did Crocodile learn about Ancient Weapons even existing, and where did he get the idea he might find Pluton in Alabasta? Like they aren't common knowledge at all, even Dragon had been shocked when Robin confirmed the existence of Ancient Weapons to him. So where did Crocodile find out about them? Did someone tell him about them, and if so, who? Did he learn about them soon after his asskicking and immidiately went after Alabasta because of it, or did he settle down in Alabasta first simply wanting to grab the throne for himself and later learned about how he could be sitting on top of a nuclear gold mine?

Mind you, Robin didn't join Baroque Works until 6 years ago, we don't know for sure if she joined when BW was being founded or if she joined a few years into the operation, so without her it's not like Crocodile would've been able to get what he wanted. So it does feel like between Robin being the only thing who could confirm existence of Poneglyphs (and read them), and the fact that Crocodile gave out orders etc exclusively through Miss All-Sunday, I feel like Robin joining should be what allowed Baroque Works to go into full operation at all

So to recap canon timeline

24 years ago Roger dies

22 years ago Ohara burns, the Revolutionary Army is founded

19 years ago Luffy is born

16 years ago Crocodile is making a name as a hero of a Shichibukai after having his ass kicked and dreams ruined, making base in Alabasta

6 years ago Robin joins Baroque Works

I dunno I just want to keep this mind for theorizing and for headcanons. Crocodile was a pirate for 3-8 years (depending on his involvement with the Revolutionary Army and if there was any at all), and then spent about 10 years in Alabasta having fun with his casino and protecting Alabasta for questionable reasons until Baroque Works went into full motion with Robin joining

Now, back to Marineford for a bit. There's something that's bothered me a lot about what we see of Crocodile in Marineford, and that's the timeskip between Crocodile attacking Whitebeard and when we next see him.

Crocodile makes his way onto Moby Dick to attack Whitebeard the second he spots him, Luffy deflects said attack and Whitebeard's underlings get between Crocodile and Whitebeard.

The next time we see Crocodile, he's off the ship. We never see how, when or why he got off the ship, but he did.

And this I find interesting for multiple reasons. Of course, most people tend to point out that during this time Sengoku announces to everyone that Dragon is Luffy's father, and we never see Crocodile's reaction to this. Even if you put Crocodad aside, knowing Crocodile may have known Dragon due to his past with Iva-chan, the ommission of Crocodile's reaction is very suspicious, considdering all the other reactions we end up seeing (including Kuma's non-reaction, which like, in theory makes sense since Kuma did know Dragon, but also, Kuma's dead, he had no reaction, and his involvement with the Revolutionaries wasn't known yet to the readers, so having his reaction was kind of pointless???)

But then when you add Crocodile getting off Whitebeard's ship, it just gets even more suspicious

Like. I think Oda wants us to just assume that someone off-screen managed to get Crocodile to back off the ship and he's trying to get back to Whitebeard, since he's fighting off Whitebeard's underlings in that next scene on top of getting sent flying Jozu, so it is certainly plausible. Someone pushed him off and he's annoyed he can't get back to Whitebeard now there's resistance. I think that's what Oda wants us to believe is happening.

But it's this line Crocodile says here that's messing with me

Now. Problem. Translation issues. Kinda. Fantranslation on the left, official translation on the right.

I'll get into it a moment but needless to say the implications of what Crocodile says on this panel is actually kind of important, but the thing is. Like, fantranslations aren't always correct, since they are questionable fantranslations from like 10+ years ago at this point. Of course, the same can be applied to the official translations, especially when the official translations go through actual localization while the fantranslations are often far too literal to be genuinely accurate. Translation is an artform, alright, it's not at all a straight forward thing, thus neither translation here is fully reliable

And try as I might, I was not able to find raw scans of this chapter (560) so I could check what Crocodile says in this panel myself. And annoyingly, I can't make out what he says in the anime either ("zuibun tou muita"???), at least not clearly enough to then try to figure out how to write it (like with what kanji) to try to retranslate it myself (plus I could be mishearing the line)

So this bit needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt, alright

But if Crocodile is actually saying they've "gotten far behind", doesn't it kind of sound like he's actively trying to chase someone?

Of course, that could be just him complaining the amount of distance that's been put between him and Whitebeard, but if so it'd be a strange way to complain considdering Whitebeard has not moved an inch-- Crocodile hasn't fallen behind chasing him, he's just been pushed away, right?

But then, he gets pushed even further away from Whitebeard by Jozu, he has his little chat with Doflamingo, yells at Whitebeard when the old man gets stabbed, then saves Ace from Execution Attempt One after having gotten close enough to do so (which is in the opposite direction of Whitebeard mind you) and finally saves Luffy

It's completely possible that Crocodile was trying to get back to Whitebeard to kill him, but between Jozu proving himself as a force to be reckoned with and Whitebeard showing himself "being weak" Crocodile gave just up, figuring getting to Whitebeard was too much effort at that moment, and that he'd get another chance later.

But he never does attempt to get closer to Whitebeard again, not that we see that at least

Instead he chases Luffy around the battlefield

So I can't help but to wonder if that line with questionable translation choises wasn't about Whitebeard but Luffy instead. Did Crocodile during that missing scene, where he hears about Luffy's father, decide to abandon Whitebeard, intentionally got off Moby Dick and backed away, only to have Whitebeard's crew chase him and Daz (since they didn't realize Crocodile was backing off)? Daz thus clearing a path for them to move towards Luffy while Crocodile was holding off the people chasing them? (We don't see when Crocodile gives Daz the orders to assist Luffy either, so he could've given those orders immidiately after he got off Moby Dick) Was Crocodile complaining not about getting further away from Whitebeard, but from falling behind on Luffy?

Moving on a little bit though, to some smaller things

It really is also strange how Crocodile spares Ace's life. Even the Government knew about his beef with Whitebeard, and considdering how Crocodile feels about both Luffy and Whitebeard, he should have no reason to try to spare Ace's life, even if he hates the Marines more.

And yeah, considdering how Luffy ruined not just his plans for usurping Alabasta but also stopped him from touching Whitebeard like less than 5 minutes ago...

...He shields Luffy from getting cut down by Mihawk. And aids Daz at the same time.

This is just absolute bizarro behaviour from Sir "I kill useless underlings for fun" Crocodile. Again, even if he doesn't want the Marines to "win", considdering how he should not be on good terms with the Revolutionary Army (regardless of if they were actually affiliated in the past or not), he should have no reason to give a flying fuck about Dragon's son, let alone the idiot who ruined his plans

Regardless of his reasoning, dude is not happy about any of this, not at all

The last thing Crocodile says at the end of this battle, was him telling Jinbei "if you want to protect something, do it right".

When Whitebeard finally dies, we do see Crocodile's reaction to it. Considdering his previous outburst, you'd think he'd have like, strong opinions about it. But doesn't he seem like he's... pre-occupied, thinking about something else???

Like, doesn't he seem kind of... distant? Detached?

Sure, maybe by this point he had kind of emotionally prepared and knew he wouldn't get his vengeance on Whitebeard and missed his opportunity. But if so, wouldn't he have a bit more of an, I dunno, an annoyed, pissed off expression?? Instead of that?? (Also minor addition, but it is kind of interesting that of all these reactions, Crocodile seems to be the only one facing to the right, Doflamingo facing kind of straight ahead at a slight angle aside. Because you could like, see it as a sign that while everyone else is focusing on Whitebeard (looking to the left), Crocodile has already "turned his back" on it and is focusing on something else. And soon enough after these panels Akainu continues his pursue of Luffy and Jinbei, a pursue which multiple people do step in to try to stop, but the last one? It's Crocodile, being the last person we see to step in to deal with Akainu ensuring Luffy and Jinbei's escape.)

Not really connected to anything but I just keep on thinking about this one panel. Mainly because when I see people bring up Crocodile reading the news about Luffy defeating Big Mom as confirmation that he's invested in Luffy, they tend to use the anime screenshot of the scene

Because yeah it does kinda look like a "proud dad reading about his son" etc. But what I'm really interested in is original the manga panel

'Cause boy howdy do they not look the same at all

Motherfucker looks like he's aged like 20 years

And I'm not sure what to make of that at all. Like. If I'm not misremembering I think this is actually the first time we saw Crocodile's face post-timeskip, so part of me wonders if Oda originally did intend to make Crocodile look considderably older from pre-timeskip and just went back on that decision later on

But, regardless of if that's the case... That's not the expression of a proud father at all, is it? Like??? I'm not even sure what to make of it, doesn't he look kind of... sad? Stressed out?? It's so strange????

Like, because don't know canonically yet what Crocodile currently thinks of Luffy, if we wanted to still believe he has a grudge against Luffy, even if he was displeased, annoyed and even jealous about Luffy pulling off a stunt he never could've, I still can't imagine THAT being his reaction to reading about it.

But if he does actually care about Luffy and is worried about what kind of trouble he's going to get into next... I dunno, would that explain that expression???

I dunno man, this panel just haunts me

And now, in the present.

Crocodile's back at it again, trying to create his Utopia, this time with Mihawk by his side (also Buggy, as their mascot). Which is an interesting choise- Crocodile justified his invitation to Mihawk based on how neither of them trusted anyone and how together they'd be less of an easy target to take down, but he did also mention that Mihawk is known as a Marine Hunter. Which. Y'know. Considdering how Crocodile feels about the Government, yeah, greatest swordsman aside it makes sense he'd want to team up with Mihawk.

But it also truly makes me wonder about where the Cross Guild plotline is supposed to go from here.

Buggy has his little moment of inspiration and realizes he wants to get One Piece and become Pirate King, but neither Mihawk nor Crocodile seem to be interested in that at all

If anything, Buggy blurting that out made poor Crocodile age like 10 years between panels from being so angy

(It's just funny because Crocodile is supposed to be 7 years older than Buggy but based on how they look in the average panel you'd think it was the reverse lmao)

Of course, his anger is understandable considdering 1) Buggy may have singlehandedly ruined Crocodile's Utopia Plans once again, this time taking even less effort than Luffy 2) That IS Crocodile's broken dream Buggy is talking about. Like, he's rubbing salt directly into Crocodile's wounds

But Crocodile still wanting to make that Utopia is so interesting, 'cause like.

He probably understands that as long as the Government exists, they will continue to try to hunt him down. Same for Mihawk, and every single pirate out there (including the Strawhats). They will never know peace until their bounties are nullified, which isn't great for Mihawk especially since he seems to yearn for a quiet life. But surely it's not the only reason Crocodile wants to destroy the Government, right

(Sidenote, did I misread or did the fucking Government just send the three remaining Seraphim to Empteebluffs to take down Cross Guild??? Like as if I wasn't curious enough about what kind of a fruit power Vegapunk gave to S-Croc considdering he can't replicate Logias, could we maybe see Crocodile fight his Seraphim? Oda please, I am dying, if that's gonna happen please I need to actually see it, don't have it happen off screen I will perish)

Like. We know Crocodile wants to destroy the Government, that's what the military force is for, that's kind of why Cross Guild came to exist and possibly part of his reasoning for inviting Mihawk

Where is this going, where are these plot threads leading? Like it would be so strange for Oda to introduce this plot thread if they're only going to get wiped the fuck out by the Seraphim, and I can't imagine Crocodile and Mihawk actually joining Buggy and trying to get One Piece first (especially if they don't have the Poneglyphs for it)(and again, that's Crocodile's broken dream, even if Buggy did somehow inspire him and reignite that flame there's no way Crocodile would do it under Buggy's name), neither should have any interest in that

Like??? Is Crocodile just going to take over the Cross Guild from Buggy and bringing them to war against the Government with the Revolutionary Army?????????????????? I mean Dragon seems to be on the move since he contacted Vegapunk??????????????

But also

Like, considdering all the shit Crocodile has done and/or attempted to do, even if they were exes (or hell, especially if they're exes), I find it hard to imagine Dragon would just welcome Crocodile and Cross Guild into the Army with open arms.

Or maybe they would because they'll need all the help they can get?? And having the greatest swordman in the world on their side against the Government would be extremely useful, would it not???

If Crocodad real, it would make for one hell of a reunion though and I'd be dying to know how Luffy would feel the stupid alligator meeting his dad. (Robin too, I'd love to see her reaction)

Although, considdering Luffy is going to be escorting Vegapunk to Elbaf (at least that's the plan rn), and if Dragon is on the move, and if Cross Guild has three Seraphim on their asses and one clownish ship ready for them... Might they all meet in Elbaf????????????? Thing is I don't think Luffy would want to pause his adventure to help his dad take down the government mind you, but also, Vivi is in trouble and he did want to go save her????????

I just

Where the fuck is any of this going Oda

Is Crocodad real

If so, what the fuck is going to happen next

(Just whatever the fuck it is, Oda, please don't make it stupid and transphobic, please, for the love of god)

(Also I literally just found out about this panel from a short Red promo Oda drew and I swear to god if that's supposed to be Luffy and his mom I will fucking cry)

(Like do not fucking tell me I have been loosing my god damn mind over Crocodad for the past two weeks only to find out I missed this page because I didn't give a shit about RED when it first came out)

[holykillercake]

Hi! I'm a reader that loved your fanfictions about Killer and the one you wrote for Kid. I don't know if you read the spoilers of the sbs 104 of one piece but I wanted to tell that you really got a point about these two and their story. Especially how they are "ride or die" for each other and the crew, and how the tried always to survive and move on from bad situations. I always felt, even in the canon story, that the was something bittersweet about their whole being and behind that violent appearence. I just wanted to thank you so much for writing them so good, I felt like your version of them was right and on character. You did an amazing work! Can't wait to read more!

I read your message a few weeks ago and I remembered how it brought me to tears of joy. So thank you for taking some time to write me this, I appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart.

I read briefly the sbs (because even neck down in the dumpster of anxiety and dog shit that is my existence, I am a simple woman. I see kid pirates, I click it). Still, I’m planning on sitting down to catch up properly asap.

I felt very anxious before posting my first fics with the boys because I wanted to feel as comfortable as possible writing for them. And I feel like I got to a good point and it makes me so so so happy when other people feel it too and share it with me!!

It’s been quite a long hiatus, but chapter seven is already in my drafts, and most likely will be posted on Christmas! Hopefully next year I’ll keep a better posting schedule 😩 just wanna say I am not giving up on H.E!!

Thank you again, dear reader ❤️

[that-sarcastic-writer]

Lost Time (Soldier Boy)

Mind games til we lose control drabble

Pairing: Soldier Boy X FSupe!Reader

Summary: After the disaster at Herogasm, you and Soldier Boy blow off some steam, and make up for the loss time. Takes place during that one scene at the beginning of ep7, but like not that. Just same place. This is just porn without a plot I'm sorry.

Warnings: 18+, minors dni, unprotected sex (pls children wrap it before you tap it), p in v, oral (f receiving), fingering, creampie, dirty talk bc its Soldier Boy, praising kink, bit of degrading, drug use, brief mentions of stormfront, allusion to attempted sexual assault (NOT from sb). Slightly occ ben, I make him slightly less horrible. This is one is kinda heavy so strap in.

WC: 2k

A/N: pls I'm sorry, I know I'm bombarding yall with soldier boy (smut) I promise I was gonna take few days and post something else, but I was just sitting here thinking how I havent seen any fics of sb eating pussy so I wrote it. I promise I'm not turning into a sb blog, i have a dean winchester fic coming, I just so happened to finish this one in one sitting in like 2 hours. Dont unfollow me pls kay enjoy the sin love yall. Ps I know this is too long to be a drabble but idk what else to call it so just accept it.

Soldier Boy Masterlist

Comments and reblogs are highly appreciated!

"And you remember that chick Liberty?" You asked Ben absentmindedly, an arm behind your head as you held a joint to your lips with the other. You heard him hum, his face pressed to your stomach as he left sloppy kisses on your skin, "So turns out she was like a nazi." 

"What the fuck?" He snapped his head up to look at you with a twisted look on his face. You looked down at him and nodded, taking a long drag of the joint before placing it on the ashtray next to you. 

"You didn't know?" 

"Fuck no. I was a soldier during World War II, you think I would've been in the same room as that bitch had I known she was a nazi?" He scoffed and shook his head, looking like he was questioning his life choices. "Fuck, and to think I founded Herogasm with her." 

"Yeah well," You shrugged, watching him with a raised eyebrow as he laid his head on your bare thigh. He was a surprisingly good listener. And since you were pretty much catching him up on all the supe and Vought business he had missed, he was particularly attentive, as well as he could be with you naked and him between your legs of course. "Her and Homelander were fucking, like they were public and everything. And honestly it doesn't surprise me, that motherfucker is a weirdo. And that's saying something." 

"You know the fucker? He recognized you at Herogasm." He raised an eyebrow at you, you could hear the slight bit of possessiveness in his tone. Funny how some things didn't change. He would always throw a fit if he found out you talked to other men, he was the only man in your life. Yeah as if. 

You snorted at him and shrugged, running your fingers through his long honey strands, "Some. He wanted me to join The Seven years ago. I thought about it, and then the motherfucker tried to get me to fuck him in exchange of joining the team. And you know exactly how well that went when you tried it the first time. Told him fuck off and he didn't like it. And of course Vought didn't give a shit when I told them what he did, so I left and they got Noir instead." 

"At least I took no for an answer," He scoffed with both a mixture of disgust and anger. "And for the record, I didn't ask you to fuck me to join the team, I wanted to fuck you, and after that I wanted you to join the team, but those weren't mutually exclusive."

"Oh right, you were such a gentleman." You rolled your eyes at him and chuckled, hoping to humor him, but he still had a hard expression on his face. 

"But he didn't—" 

"No Ben, he didn't do anything. It was a long time ago, I haven't seen him since. Well, not before Herogasm." You reassured him, fingers threading to his scalp, making him close his eyes and hum lowly. 

"I don't know what I would've done if he had laid a fuckin' hand on you when I wasn't there to protect you." He mumbled, his lips pressed against your thigh, you barely heard him, but you did. You sighed softly. 

"Yeah well you're here now. So relax, relax before we have to go fuck some more people up. Enjoy this while you can." You emphasized, biting your lip softly. You saw the way his expression changed, and his pink lips twisted into a smirk. 

"Yeah I'm gonna fuckin' enjoy this alright." He bit his lip, positioning himself so that your legs were on either side of his broad shoulders and he was laying on his stomach. 

You watched with glazed eyes as he drew a line on your stomach and pitched the side or his nose before he dragged it across your stomach, the white substance lingering in his nose. He sat on his elbows, eyes closed as he sniffled and hummed. 

"Christ, that's some good shit." He chuckled, wiping his nose with the back of his hand and looked up at you, pupils so dilated that you barely see the green in his eyes. But you didn't know if that was from the drugs or lust, maybe both. "But this is better." 

You gasped, body jolting when he dipped his head and dragged his tongue over your clit, suckling on the bud for a second or two before he lifted his head up again, leaving you whimpering. 

"Best goddamn pussy I've ever had the pleasure of eating," He rasped, teeth digging into his bottom teeth as he threw your legs over his shoulders, pulling you closer to his face and dived back in, but not before he muttered, "Can't get enough of it." 

He had you like this for hours. Alternating between fucking you with mouth and fingers, and actually fucking you. Ever since you got back from Herogasm, your failed attempt at killing Homelander and pretty much hijacked The Legend's place, you had been in this room, with Ben all over you. He had always been insatiable, but even back then he would get tired too, and would take breaks. But now, he wouldn't keep his hands off you, he was relentless. You pretty much had to beg him to stop and give you a break. To which he surprisingly agreed. But that was maybe fifteen minutes ago, and he figured it was time to continue, while he still could. Make up for the lost time, you guessed. You weren't complaining though.

His long fingers eventually joined the rhythm of his expert tongue. The second you felt two fingers slip into you you began to feel an ache in your stomach. You gave up on words a long time ago. You were nothing but a mess of whimpers and moans by then. Something that definitely fueled Ben's ego, he loved watching you fall apart for him. He knew your body perfectly, and the second one of your hands flew to pull at his hair, he knew he found your trigger. And his fingers curved over that spot, over, over and over until he had you crying out and he felt warm sparks on his scalp. 

Your juices coated his tongue and fingers as you shuddered, your shaky thighs clamping around his head. You were panting, and you could hear your heartbeat thump against your head so hard it made you dizzy. You closed your eyes, hissing softly when you felt Ben's fingers leave you, but his tongue was still drawing slow figure eights on your clit. 

"Such a sweet girl. So fuckin' sweet," He coaxed as he pulled his face away from you. You were still shaking from your high when you felt his lips trail up your stomach until he found your neck, and he was attacking that too. "Now that I got you nice and wet, I'm gonna fuck you real good before those fuckers come in and spoil all the fun. I can hear Butcher outside." 

You half nodded, still a bit blazed from both the weed and your orgasm, but you still helped him shrug off his ridiculous robe. He unraveled it and tossed it aside before taking his already hard cock into his hands. He grabbed one of your legs and held it over his shoulder as he sat back on his knees and positioned himself at your entrance. He slipped in with a groan, his face twisted into a pleasured expression as he watched the way he slid inside your walls with ease. You were already so cock drunk and fucked all you could do was moan. 

"I don't know what I love more, eating this pussy, or fuckin' it." He was drawing back and slamming back in with enough force to make your body slide on the mattress. God, Soldier Boy fucked like he fought, ruthless and with purpose. 

Your head was thrown back, eyes screwed shut and your hands were clutching the sheets so tight you thought you were going to rip them. Though by then the whole room was tossed, somehow some pillows had been ripped in half and you were sure the brick wall had dents in it. It was absolutely messy, filthy and absolutely intoxicating. He was intoxicating. Everything about him. 

"You're squeezing the fuck outta my cock, you wanna come my pretty Violet?" He rasped and panted, his forehead and chest glistening with sweat as he watched the way he fucked himself in and out of your tight walls. And fuck did he love it. "You need me to make you come again? Is that what my pretty slut needs?" 

"Yes! Fuck Ben, please." How you were speaking, you had no idea, but you screamed it, overstimulation and the aching need for release making your vision blurry with tears. 

"Fuck, yeah give me what I want. Come for me, do it now." He ordered, sneaking a hand between your bodies and rubbed quick harsh circles on your clit until he had you crying out and your eyes flashed violet. "Fuck, shit, that's it." 

Your leg hung over his shoulder as he leaned down and held himself up on his forearm as he snapped his hips quickly but more shallow like he was trying to get himself over the edge. You were so drunk on your high you barely noticed when be grabbed your hand placed it on your lower belly, his own hand right of top of yours, and you sure noticed when he pushed down on your belly with the slightly bit of pressure on it and spoke in your ear. 

"You feel that? That's exactly where only I fuckin' belong. Not Homelander, not fuckin' anyone, me." He rasped, a groan leaving his lips when he gave you one final thrust and spilled inside you. 

He kept himself braced on his forearm so as not to crush you with his weight, but his body still laid on top of you, still inside you. Hazily, you threw your arms over his neck and ran one of your hands through his damp hair. His heavy breaths and your own filled the room, but other than that you laid in silence, simply soaking in the feeling of each other. Fuck did it feel right. Too bad it didn't last. 

"Oi children!" You heard an unmistakable cockney accent as the doors suddenly opened, followed by a pair of collective groans. 

"Fuckin' Christ. Can't even fuck my girl in peace." Ben groaned as peeled himself from you and sat up, naked as the day the boys found him. 

"Oh Jesus, please put that away." Hughie muttered to Ben, face red as it could get at the sight of you two naked. 

Despite your still hazy state, you were quick to pull the sheets over your naked body as you sat up. You inhaled sharply as you brought your legs to your knees, muscles already screaming at you for your reckless activities. You eyed the three men in front of you. Legend was going on a rant about the room you destroyed, Butcher was berating Ben for his shitty Intel on Mindstorm, and Hughie just stood there mortified. 

"It's not like you've never seen a dick before. You do have one right? Or do you just have a pussy down there and that's why you act like one?" Ben chuckled, looking directly at Hughie as he stood up, cock half hard and with no urgency to grab his robe from the ground. 

"Ben, stop harassing the kid and put your dick away." You scolded him, being pretty much the only person on this earth that could tell Soldier Boy what to do without being threatened with bodily damage. He glared at you, but complied nonetheless and wrapped the robe around himself. "And you two could learn to fucking knock, save yourself the trauma." You sighed as you looked around the bed for your clothes but they weren't on sight. Until you felt something hit the side of your head and fall on the bed. 

"Asshole." You glared at Ben as you grabbed the hoodie sitting beside you and slipped it on, the smirk on his face making you roll your eyes. 

"Anytime sweetheart." He winked at you before turning his attention to Butcher and Hughie who were going back and forth about Mindstorm. Guess they could find an address after all. 

Well off you were. At least you were able to make up for lost time. 

[sorveteir]

Questions 1, 3 and 5

How do you answer two Ask at the same time? ;-;

I have been in the FNAF community since 2014, when the first Youtubers were doing gameplay, and I strongly follow the theories every year. With the release of FNAF SB I started to leave the theories-only community and came to the fanarts, and I was already thinking of FINALLY making FNAF arts.

I admit I stumbled and fell face first into the daycare, I wasn't supposed to be here, because at first I didn't like the Daycare Attendent, it was too cute and confusing, it made my head feel buggy because I felt something was wrong, until I noticed a huge resemblance to Puppet and the world took on colors. (Yes, I thought it was weird because of a confused nostalgia), then I started reading the Daycare fanfics and started converting myself LOL

Trivia that almost nobody cares about: Child Y/N was not supposed to happen at FNAF SB, I wrote it to happen at FNAF 1, but I did some scribbling with Daycare and it turned out better dkasdkks

Daycare Attendant gives me a nostalgic and weird feeling every time I see it, seriously, I don't see many theories talking about it, but it is too bizarre for lore. His clear resemblance to Puppet always gives me the creeps lol

I don't even remember what I said 2 seconds ago, imagine knowing how long I've been here LMAO, but my first post in the fandom was on July 10th

Sun ass The Sun and Moon random doodles :D

[docholligay]

Hi Doc! I'm looking to buy a nice wine to celebrate with tonight and I've got about $100 set aside for it. Is that enough to buy a good wine with, or should I splurge a little more? I'm not necessarily looking for a high alcohol content, but I'm not afraid of that either; I'm looking for something that tastes lovely and goes well with fish. Do you have any recommendations?

Wine Anon: Ok so I consulted my co-celebrator and here are some answers!

I thought we were doing a fancy dinner but we're getting a bunch of sushi with some appetizers (edamame, maybe some oysters.) We aren't doing dessert with dinner tonight. We are eventually going to do a 3 course dinner with dessert, and we will be getting several bottles so I'll def have to come back to you for that!

I'm very new to wine, I know that I like rosé and some sweet whites? The last white that I got that I liked was a pear wine from Olive Garden (I know, I am the Haruka of my relationship.) It was actually the wine that convinced me to not give up on trying new wines! I think I'd only had a few up until then and they were dreadful. I think I don't like dry?

Wine comments from my so: dry, woody, not sweet, not leggy, anything he can taste the tannins in is a no-go so no reds? He favors white but he won't say no to a good rosé. His first wine love was a 5y Sauvignon Blanc he had at a some fancy rich dude's party when he was 17 so he can't recall the name haha. He mentioned New Zealand and Chilean wines were good.

If it comes down to it, I don't mind getting a good bottle heavily favoring his tastes (we're doing this for him) but if you can think of 2 bottles that we'd both separately like, I wouldn't mind that either.

Thank you so much for your help!

First of all, congrats to your mancandy for knowing the difference between tannic and dry. There's a huge misconception that dry means tannic, and they're totally different things. I assume it's because tannins have a sort of dryish feel in the mouth. Anyhow, I DO want to argue the fact that reds are exclusively tannic--there are plenty of low tannin reds--but that's another post, as red wouldn't really go with what you were eating unless we were really trying to make it stretch.

Secondly, all of this assumes that you have no interest whatsoever in sake. I LOVE sake, and it's my always go to for sushi, and my frequent go-to for light fish dishes in general. But it's not super accessible, and some (wrong) people flat do not like it.

Thirdly THANK YOU SO MUCH for just giving me a goddamn number!! My least favorite word on EARTH is "affordable." It's meaningless. Just tell me your number! I may not be able to HELP you, but I won't JUDGE you. For anything you need help finding. So bless you, and it was a MAJOR reason I decided to answer this. Whites tend to be cheaper (unless they are Champagne) for a wide variety of reasons, so I don’t think MUCH on this list will hit about 35-40. 

A note: Unless something is WIDELY available commercially, I just recommend TYPES of wine. I would go into your local wine store and ask for these varietals, depending on which one you choose. They may even be able to help select one to go with fish!

So for him, I DO recommend a Sauvignon Blanc, or another high acid wine. The fish used in sushi is mostly fatty and rich, for fish, and these high acid wines give a real element of freshness and even slightly of salt.

You want to know one of my favorite SBs? It's actually something you can get at the goddamn COSTCO, Kim Crawford SB. I don't know if I would call it an OCCASION wine, depending on how we think of things, but it is special enough to be a Shabbat wine in my family, I think you can get it in most grocery stores, and it never disappoints.

If you want SB, but not though, I'd go with a Fume Blanc, which is one of my favorite wines no one seems to know. Fume Blanc is SB, honestly, but made in the US, and pretty much always highly oaky and dry. I love it, but I love that oak shit. Fume Blanc is hard to find nowadays, because of declining knowledge of the name, winemakers are just labeling stuff " Sauvignon Blanc" which, yeah, it's the same grape, but I like to know which SBs have seen some oak, you know? Anyway, I like the rich oakiness paired with salmon rolls especially!

If you want to go with something TOTALLY different that I think he'd like, I think that a Muscadet is going to have a lot of those same flavors while giving him something different. It's BONE DRY, and the acids from it are going to give a lot of those same pleasant associations as SB. A good Muscadet is probably the most expensive thing on this list. 

My favorite budget sushi wine, period, is Ovum Big Salt. You are not looking for budget wine, but if you ever are like me and eating buy one get one half off rolls while reading a book, I love Big Salt. It's a Riesling-Gewurztraminer (Somehow I doubt I spelt that second one correctly) blend that legitimately has strong salt overtones. It's also great with coconut shrimp. (Come to think of it, dry Riesling would be a good pairing with this, too)

For you!

Sweeter wines are tougher to pair with sushi than his tastes, but that shouldn't say at all that it's impossible! If you like something labeled pear wine at the Olive Garden (ahahahaha I'm sorry but ahahaha) the wines you like are probably not just sweet in a WINE sense, but probably TRULY sweet.

So I'm going to push you a little bit! These are sweet in the wine category, or if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t eat a lot of sugar, but they aren’t like...fucking moscato or something. A bit more refined, a bit more elegant, and a good way to move into developing your palate, while not being OVERTLY challenging for a newbie. 

My wife is at times (often) a Haruka Lite, just one calorie, and moving her to a better and wider palate, I’ve had a lot of luck with bubbles. I think because they are widely fun in their own right, and give another quality to what might otherwise be a too-straight-on glass of wine, so that’s the direction I went here.

Prosecco, specifically a demi-sec. Demi-sec is the sweetest variety of prosecco, and I confess I give this to you more to try and put you on the path of expanding your wine palate than as a specific pairing--like I said, sweets are hard--and you’ll almost certainly need to go to a wine shop to find a version that is both demi-sec and GOOD, which is doable but not easily accessible*.

Now if you want something I ACTUALLY think goes with sushi, I recommend Cremant. Cremant is champagne, made in France, not made IN Champagne. It’s the same shit. It offers a lot of the complexity and delight of Champagne without the cost (Champagne is ALSO a lovely choice! But I generally recommend that if you’re both drinking the same bottle.) I think it’s one of the greatest secrets of the wine world--it’s not like the French terroir outside of Champagne sucks. You will almost certainly have to get this in a wine shop, as it’s not well known by people casually (which is a goddamn shame) in America--the UK tends to have a wider range of them.

I L O V E Cremant. Love. A favorite bubbly. Maybe my favorite, actually? I mean I love Chapagne but like, I have a baby and a mortgage and a budget.  And Champagne goes great with sushi! Cremant is, I find, a little less intense than Champagne, which I think will be really good for you as a “beginner” and also the price point tends to be SO APPROACHABLE. Anyway on this one I actually DO have a couple brand recs, because this a thing I drink A LOT, and I’m going to break my ruling about not reccing certain brands ahaha. 

J. Laurens Cremant de Limoux --I think this bottle is like 20 bucks locally? It IS more Brut (dry) but I still think it’s really nice, with a citrusy quality that pairs really good with richer fish

Kuentz-Bas Cremant d'Alsace-- I fucking love this bottle. It’s 25, I think, bucks, at my local wine shop. It’s almost...creamy? I know that sounds insane but I can’t think of a better word. I love Alsatian wine in general though. This is a really nice, light wine that I think pairs with TONS of stuff, and would be good with a wide variety of sushi styles. 

I had a really amazing Rosé Cremant years ago that had a quality of sweetness to it, but I bought it in a goddamn Tesco in London and so I DOUBT you can find it here. I have it written down in my travel journal though, I think. 

ANYWAY I HOPE THIS HELPS SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG. 

*This puts me in mind of the One Good Moscato I have ever had, at Alinea (in and of it itself one of the highlights of my life) where it was still too sweet for me personally, but I could recognize the complexity and mastery in the glass. I was shit shocked. Someone remind me to ask @keyofjetwolf what it was, I think she wrote it down, and as I recall it was not a spendy bottle, even. 

[disneydeb1928]

One Piece Theory: The SWORD Initiative

The SWORD Initiative 

SWORD first appeared in Chapter 956 when it was discovered that X Drake, a member of the 11 Supernovas was, in fact, an undercover Marine. Not much is known regarding this organization other then Drake is the Captain and Koby is also a member.

Storytelling: Oda is not a newbie when it comes to storytelling. I’ve said it a million times, but I will say it again: Oda has mastered a very unique type of storytelling. Many others will tell you the same thing. He is a man who values how you feel about characters above how you may feel about his organizations overall. This is why, he always introduces characters, allowing you to make your own judgements before revealing more information on them. With that being said, some people may believe that since this is a recent addition to the plot that this organization must not have been around long. However, that just isn’t true. Oda would never create something this relevant to the story that isn’t routed deep in the past. He loves to make his reveals and have us gasp because suddenly something that happened 200 chapters ago now makes sense. With that being said, I think it is safe to say that there is more to this organization that meets the eye. Therefore, let’s first establish their existence within the established timeline.

Timeline:

X Drake was born on October 24, 1491. We know that he was taken in by the marines when he was 20 years old (in 1511) after the incident of Rosinante stealing the Ope Ope no Mi from his father’s pirate crew. The wiki says that “He [would] eventually enlist as a Marine himself” indicating that he didn’t join right away.

Drake doesn’t appear in the story until chapter 498 (in the year 1522). That means that there are 11 years unaccounted for. In that time, we know he apparently rose to the rank of rear admiral before defecting (Ch. 509)  – again no timeline specifics have been give (but I don’t doubt we will get them in the future).

However, me may be able to speculate based on other Marines.

·         Tashigi was able to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Ensign (skipping Warrant Officer) in the couple of months that took place between the Loguetown Arc and the Post-Enies Lobby Arc. After the timeskip, Tashigi was a Captain (skipping 4 positions). Therefore, overall, for her to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Captain, it took roughly 2 years and a couple of months.

·         Similarly, Smoker was able to from a Captain to a Commodore and then to Vice Admiral in the same time period (2 years and a couple of months).

·         Therefore, one could speculate that to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Vice Admiral it would take around 4 years and 6 months. Since Rear Admiral is only one rank below Vice Admiral I’m going to say that the times are probably similar. [Disclaimer 1: I say this recognizing that there are probably 1000 different things that go into promotions within the Marines (such as accomplishments, age, etc) and that not every person is going to advance at the same pace. With that being said, I do think that we can still learn a lot from it – He’s not a background character after all]. In conclusion, I think 4 years and 6 months is a decent ballpark to aim for and I am willing to speculate that it would have taken Drake at least 4 and a half years to reach the rank of Rear Admiral, putting his age at around 24 (placing this in the year 1515) [Disclaimer 2: This age is completely based off the possibility that Drake joined the marines during the first year he was with them]. All this means, is that at the earliest Drake was a Rear Admiral by 1515.

We are led to believe that his defection has always been staged, and that from the beginning, everything he did was towards advancing SWORD’s goal. So that means SWORD has existed since before the beginning of the series.

We do not know how long he was a pirate before he made his appearance, however, by the time he did, he already had a full crew and a bounty of 222,000,000. We know that Cavendish became a Supernova in 1521, so I think we can make that the latest that Drake could have possibly left the Marines.  

Flashing forward, I think we can pretty much conclude that Koby joined SWORD at some point during the 2-year timeskip.

The Creation of SWORD

If that is the case, that we can conclude one of two things. Either:

1.      Drake created the SWORD organization and began his own mission alone

2.      SWORD already existed before that point and someone approached him to join and start his mission

There isn’t enough information available at this point to really say either way. However, I would speculate that SWORD wasn’t Drake’s idea.

Possible SWORD Members

1.) Issho / Fujitora & Ryokugyu

Issho and Ryokugyu are both new Admirals to replace the positions that Kuzan and Akainu left open during the 2-year timeskip. From what we’ve seen of Issho’s personality, I think he is probably one of the more likely options for SWORD members. He intentionally blinded himself when he became disgusted with all the evil and corruption he had seen in the world (Ch. 799). Some might say that he joined the Marines to fight that evil but perhaps the Marines are the evil he wanted to fight? We’ve seen multiple instances where he put the good of the people above capturing Luffy and the Straw Hats. So much so, Akainu and him got into a heated debate that ended with Issho being band from any Marine base until Luffy was captured (Ch. 801).

Outside of personality wise and evidence of him going outside of Marine orders, there is another reason he is on this list, as well as why I grouped him with Ryokugyu, who we know almost nothing about. And the answer to that is: The Folklore of Momotaro.

An excerpt of the Folklore of Momotaro:

“When he matured into adolescence, Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or "Demon Island"). En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings"). At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends penetrated the demons' fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons' plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive.”

It has been said before that Aokiji, Akainu, and Kizaru’s Admirals alias are based on the three animals that helped Momotaro (pheasant, dog, and monkey). A fan wrote to Oda in the recent SBS (Vol. 76) and theorized that Fujitora and Ryokugyu (The tiger and ox) are based on the oni (demons) that Momotaro had to face during his adventure, which would imply that they could be against the World Government. Oda jokingly responded, “I’m not saying a single thing about whether this theory is correct or incorrect, okay? (cold sweat)”. If this is true, I think this could serve as proof that they are either members of SWORD or even the Revolutionary Army.

2.) Kuzan / Aokiji

Kuzan, very similar to Issho, has had multiple instances where he has deviated from what Akainu refers to as “absolute justice”. For starters, he was the once responsible for allowing Nico Robin to escape from the Buster Call on Ohara by providing a small boat while also a trail of ice for her to leave safely. Another example is when he (similar to Issho) didn’t arrest Luffy because he defeated Crocodile, saving Alabasta.

However, I think a big reason why many people speculate that he may be a part of SWORD are the parallels between him and X Drake. After the timeskip, we discover that after losing the Fleet Admiral fight between him and Akainu, Kuzan resigned from the Marines. Afterwards, he became affiliated with the Blackbeard Pirates, just like how Drake resigned and created the Drake Pirates. I will say, that these similarities give just as many reasons as why he would be a SWORD member as for why he isn’t. It’s possible these stories are too alike for Oda to tie them to the same cause. However, it is possible that the SWORD initiative is all about going undercover as pirates. But if that was true, then why is Koby not undercover? Just food for thought.

3.) Smoker & Tashigi

If we were to make a list of likeable Marines, Smoker would probably slotted right behind Koby. From the moment he comforted that crying little girl in Loguetown, he gained a lot of fan-fare. I think a lot of people hope that Smoker is a member of SWORD. Like the previous two Admirals above, he has had his fair share of compromising the Marines’ belief in “absolute justice” in order to do the right thing. In fact, out of all of the Marines mentioned on this list, he has done this the most. All of those moments have served as an example of his character. Outside of that, I think it is interesting that Smoker decided to request transfer to G-5 at the beginning of the timeskip, a place known for having difficulties. I think it is definitely possible Smoker is a member.

4.) Rosinante

Very similar to Kuzan and Drake, Rosinante placed himself undercover in order to stop his brother, Doflamingo. It is very possible that this was a very early SWORD mission. Or it could have what led to the creation of SWORD.

6.) Sengoku & 7.) Monkey D. Garp

Like Smoker and Tashigi, these last two are an example of ‘we like them, so we want them to be a part of this good organization’.

Honestly, I have tried to wrap my mind around why the heck Garp is even still involved with the Marines. The only other ‘D.’-bearer we know that was in the Marines, was Jaguar D. Saul, who ended up defecting in order to save Nico Robin during the Ohara Incident. If Garp is not a member of this shadow organization, then there is a deeper reason for why he joined the Marines and stayed.

[thesuitelife547]

“I’m sorry to the fans of B1A4” CNU’s Last Interview Before Enlisting [ARTICLE TRANS]

This is a re-post from something I previously had on my tumblr. This is just the translation of the questions and answers. I don’t have the link to the original article yet with the pictures. I have obtained the original articles! Thanks to Shimybana04 on Twitter!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Thanks!

- Marisa

[t/n: I just combined the 3 parts of the questions. The introduction parts were all basically the same]

Last year, idol group B1A4 went through a big change. Members Jinyoung (28, Jung Jinyoung) and Baro (27, Cha Sunwoo) left WM Entertainment after their contracts expired leaving CNU (28, Shin Dongwoo), Sandeul (27, Lee Junghwan), and Gongchan (26, Gong Chanshik) to be arranged into a 3-membered group.

 Although it was a path chosen in order for them to develop themselves, but when seen from the viewpoint of the fans that have been cheering for them, there are many regrets. The members cannot ignore these types of feelings the fans have. And at their first fanmeeting as a 3-membered B1A4, held last month on the 5th, CNU stated, while crying, “I can’t repay what is owed to the heart even if I try to repay it for the rest of my life.” With a sorrowful heart, he was apologetic for being unable to keep B1A4 as 5 members as the oldest.

 After the fanmeeting, CNU is enlisted in the military last month on the 22nd. He is the first B1A4 member fulfilling his duty and was preparing for the second stage of his life. Before his enlistment, Star News met with CNU for a ‘Let’s Have A Meal’ interview. It would be his last for the fans before the enlistment. We met CNU at in Seoul at a Korean-style full course meal restaurant as he felt grateful and apologetic towards fans as he thought about having to leave for a little.

 How are you feeling right before you enlist in the army?

It feels surreal, a little complicated. There are times when I feel empty, uneasy, and even liberated. Of course I have to go, but as it gets closer, there are various types of overlapping emotions.

 Is it a bit burdensome since you’re going later? [t/n: as in age wise]

Haha. Going late isn’t something to be proud of. As an artist, I have activities and unavoidable situations therefore rather than being burdened, I’m worried about the members. My biggest worry is about leaving the younger ones behind.

 What kinds of things did you talk with the members about?

It’s more like we don’t really talk about the big thing. Haha. Still, they decided that they’d go with me the day that I do enlist.

 When you look at the other celebrities that went to the army, there’s always talk about how they really miss girl groups. CNU-ssi, what girl group do you think you’ll miss the most?

Um…I’ll go with being a fan of Oh My Girl. I should take care of our kids. Haha. They’re popular in military units. Nowadays they’re becoming more popular and they’re also my company juniors. It’d be nice if they could visit, if possible…haha. But since I think that could possibly put pressure on them, I want to tell them that I understand if they can’t come.

How do you spend your time?

I’ve been busy recently and I think I’ll continue to be up until the day before I enlist. It was eventful for us last year, too. I was in a drama and more recently we were preparing for our fanmeeting. There is a fanmeeting in Japan scheduled for February, but I can’t attend because I’ll be in the army. We were preparing for various things. Since there was a little bit of a change to B1A4, we were preparing a lot of things in order to show fans a good image of us. We were seriously planning a lot of things.

 Can you tell us about what you had planned?

There was the fanmeeting. I also thought that it’d be good if B1A4 were able to quickly put out an album. It’s been such a long time since we released an album. I’m really sorry to the fans for undergoing this change. I thought that quickly releasing an album would be a way to ask for a little forgiveness from the fans. I wanted to have an album, fanmeet, and even a concert.

A little while ago you held a fanmeeting as a 3-membered group. I figure that it would feel differently. You even shed a lot of tears…

Rather than it being anyone’s fault that B1A4 is in a situation where we have to continue as a 3-membered group, I think everyone shares responsibility. I think we should live while being apologetic to the fans. The 5 members are the ones directly in B1A4, but B1A4 isn’t just ours. There is the company that made us and also the fans. For someone out there, B1A4 being in their life could be everything to them and there could also be people who feel like we’re the ones who give them energy…I feel like we committed a great sin to those people. It’s not like I want to find out who did what, I’m just very sorry about this situation and I think I cried a lot.

 I think those feelings would be bigger since you’re the eldest.

That’s right. There’s a sense of regret to it, like ‘If I had done a better job, wouldn’t it have been a better situation?’ I feel sorry towards the fans and the members. The fans who had come to the fanmeeting told me a lot of things like, “It’s not your fault, don’t feel sorry,” but I think I’ll have this apologetic heart for the rest of my life. I think I should have it for the rest of my life. Because we made a crack in their memories of us, I think I should pay it back in the future.

Your first activity after your contract renewal with WM Entertainment was a drama. You challenged your first project, SBS drama Miss Ma: Goddess of Revenge. How was it? [t/n: they wrote more like how Miss Ma is his first like drama role. He was in a previous drama, but that was a daily drama and is considered to be in a different category]

Just acting on TV is such a great opportunity for me. It’s a project that I’m very thankful for. The fans have also seemed to have wanted me to be in a drama. I’m really happy that I was able to have an opportunity to try it out. I was able to work with mostly everyone besides the children actors, so I was able to really learn a lot. I think that this project was able to lay the foundation for future growth.

 In the past you’ve done a lot of musical activities before, is there a difference between that and acting?

There’s a difference either way. Some of the continuing habits that I have from musicals sometimes appeared when I was acting for TV. There were times when my seniors gave me advice on some of the technical stuff, like telling me to calm down my tone. And because Sung Jiru-sunbae and I were together a lot, he taught me a lot about the type of attitude that an actor should have and the type of skills while at the filming site. It’s a project where I really learned a lot.

How was your chemistry with your senior actors?

Kim Yoonjin-sunbae really looked upon me favorably. I’m really thankful. Because she hadn’t seen me as actor CNU before, I think she worried about how I would act. After the script reading, we went out for a company dinner and while we were there, she spoke to me first saying, “Your speaking and breathing are good, it’s clear that you’ve prepared a lot for this. I’m very grateful.”

 I was even more touched because such a big senior had said that to me. She also taught me a lot about acting while we were on site. She acknowledged and liked me as a singer and has also monitored and listened to the songs that I have written. It was such a big opportunity for me to be able to share those things with my senior. There could be a prejudice by other actors for being an idol turned actor, but I’ve been acknowledged as an actor and singer. I’m very thankful.

You had a love line with Go Sunghee.

There’s only a one-year age difference between Sunghee-noona and I, but I think dropping the age difference between us made the love line more comfortable. She treated me very well. I’m thankful. It is a love line but it’s a bit of a disappointment that we hadn’t held hands or hugged. Haha. We said that we should do another project together. It was fun acting together because she has such an easy-going personality.

 You and Bae Dohwan, who was also in drama, played a cop. Did you guys have any preparation beforehand?

One of my friends from high school is a real cop. As soon as I was casted I had called that friend and asked him detailed things like, “How do you salute?” or “Can you take off your hat when you’re in the station?” I think I was able to get information rather easily because of my real-life cop friend.

Together with Sandeul and Gongchan, after the contract renewal, I think that you guys would have become stronger together.

I think that it has. I have certainly become more concerned about things that I wasn’t concerned about before and as the eldest, I feel like there are more things I have to take responsibility for. We also see each other and contact each other more.

 I’m curious about your reasons for renewing your contract.

From the very beginning I had no desire to leave. Of course there’d be complaints and misunderstandings since we were in this company for so long; however, no matter how I saw it, they grew us and it was because of this company that I was able to debut, so my feelings about renewing my contract grew. Even though I can’t promise to stay with them for the rest of my life, at least for this time I had wanted to renew my contract and stay together.

 I don’t think the 5 of us thought the same thing. Although it’s something that the company knows now, at the time of our contract renewal, it wasn’t like I didn’t meet with other companies. There were good offers from many good companies, but in the end, I believe that it is with this company that I’m able to securely do the things that make my heart comfortable to my fullest extent. Sandeul and Gongchan also had that kind of mindset.

When you go to the army, who will you think about the most?

The fans is first place. I believe I’ll think about the fans the most. While I should also think about my family, friends, and members, of course, I think I’ll miss the fans the most. Even at our recent fanmeeting, seeing all of the fans gathered together and holding signs to cheer for us I thought, “There’s no greater blessing than this for me.” I don’t think I should ever forget about my gratitude for the fans.

 What are your plans after you get discharged?

I feel like my time spent in the military is the second part of my life, it feels like I’m starting the turning point. Thus far in order for B1A4’s activities to go further, I feel like we have gotten onto the footholds and once I’m discharged from the army, I think we’d be able to fly and run stronger. I’ll also run step by step towards the planned things that I wasn’t able to do before enlisting in the army. I have a lot of debt for the fans’ hearts, so I have to pay it back, even if it’s just a little.

 I want to release an album as soon as I’m discharged. So far there are about 8-9 songs that I have written. Sandeul also has written about 3-4. We have been worried about what direction our music should go in as we continue as a 3-membered B1A4. The songs that I have written while worrying about that is enough to fill a regular album. I think quickly finishing and releasing a B1A4 album after I’m discharged is my goal. I think with the first step being music, I’ll be able to let go of this apologetic feeling that I have towards the fans.

[efrmellifer]

Stories you want to write, but haven't

...yet

I was tagged by @to-the-voiceless. Thank you!!

1. Okay let's get the AUs out of the way. I started my Lover’s Mask AU (Majora's Mask-inspired AU where Etien and Aymeric fill the roles of Anju and Kafei) but when FFxivWrite happened, I moved it to the back burner and then haven't picked it back up yet. I will! What I have down so far is maybe an outline and definitely the intro, and/but I'm debating how deep into Ishgard-Clocktown I'm going to go, because if I go VERY deep, the fic will be a novella. But the gist of it is Nidhogg is coming (in place of the moon falling), so there are three days left for people to rout him or be ready for the fight. Aymeric and Etien's wedding has been doomed by the great wyrm. Now he’s gone missing. But they have promises to keep. Whatever waits for them at the dawn of the fourth day, they're going to greet it together.

I have to make a Skull Kid is Eula van Darnus joke somewhere.

2. The Dragon AU. No, the other one. This one is really just an excuse to write more smut, but having Aymeric be the more obviously h*rny one this time, and shamelessly so, because *handwaves* dragon rutting seasons. It's going to involve a lot of my headcanons for dragons, and worldbuilding (and implicating Thordan I and Co.) But it WILL end in desperate clutching of the bedsheets and florid imagery. And biting. Lots of biting. Reow.

3. The Foundations of Estinyan, or: I need to go back and actually write Estinien falling in love with Etien. He references several moments where the feelings are cropping up, but what about before that big “oh shit” moment when he carries her to Aymeric half-dead after fighting Zenos, huh? Part of the problem is that I have to decide when some of those moments are, though the evening in the Churning Mists is nailed down, and really, him destroying that cannon in SB is ripe for the using.

4. Etien's evolving feelings on her role as the Savior of the Star/the tool used for salvation. This is another one I reference a lot, but never actually wrote an examination of. For example, how I wrote her being sad/suffering imposter syndrome about her role a lot in ShB, and how I mentioned her anger with people keeping her “on task” after the Vault, aaaaaages ago. But I think now that she’s forced to stay on the sidelines, and eventually stay home, she’s going to be doing a lot of thinking and her feelings are going to come to a head. Fight with G'raha most likely almost definitely involved. After all, it’s not like she can fight Hydaelyn (*looks over at the Squeenix staff*)

5. I started a fic about Estinien worrying about losing Etien and Aymeric to Societal Expectations, but I don’t think that’s going to see the light of day until closer to 5.4. I’ll post snippets if you ask, though ;D

6. I need to write something about Etien and her adventuring friends. Like, I hint at/mention Taerin from time to time, I’ve mentioned Jordyn and Dae here and there; I should have people pick a dungeon/trial/game event and make a fic out of it. That might be fun. That, OR I need to write dinner parties. Etien is close with a lot of heads of state; they should have dinner.

6a. Befriending Zenos, maybe? Etien knows the loneliness, knows the feeling of being let down over and over by one’s father, knows that the road those things lead to forks at a certain point. She and Zenos just took different branches. This common ground is strong soil, she can cultivate something in it.

7. Maybe maybe maybe a study of Etien’s fleeting crushes before she fell tail over ears for Aymeric. (Yugiri is the only one coming to mind at the moment but with Etien’s pan ass running all over Eorzea, remembering more wouldn’t be hard)

8. How Betula Got Her Name. I chose her name like a thousand years ago, and it’s a very funny (to me) botany joke. So I’m waiting for the right moment for Aymeric and Etien to have a Naming The Babies Talk, whereupon I will play this ace in the hole and everyone will go “WHOA”.

I think just about everyone I’d tag has been already, so I taaaaag: @ladyofthegunblade (if you want!) and anyone who’d like to do this! you can say I tagged you; I’d love to see what’s been perking in your minds!

[spongebobsins]

Everything Wrong With The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

(Full disclosure: I actually did this before on DA a few years ago, so this is a spruced up version of that post. It’s been updated with my current standards and some new jokes but isn’t totally different. Still, hope you enjoy)

1.Viacom

2.There’s a whole opening scene with pirates, yet Patchy is nowhere to be seen

3.This guy thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to step out of the way of the door before the guy came out.

4.Because this is a SpongeBob movie, I can ignore a lot of stuff here, but there are like 50 pirates here, and only like 6 tickets.

5.These pirates are making a huge rowdy mess…and yet if I was there, it wold still be one my better theater expereinces.

6.Wait, the movie within the movie just starts with no title? There’s s no title in the credits, which is part of the movie within the movie, so what kind of movie has no title in it at all?

7.Also, the screening just starts with no trailers?

8.Why wasn’t the manager here to begin with, if the place was open.

9.They seriously called the cops about the cheese? Can’t someone else just…put cheese on it

9.“Weird sound in dream turns out be normal sound waking them up” cliché.

10.It being a dream forgives a few sins…but it’s still a dream cliche so..

11. Let’s talk about the Krusty Krab 2. How could have a hugely popular restaurant, function for this only with only ONE in existence?

12 Also, at no point do we see them hire extra employees for the other  KK, there’s just a new manager, but there’s like 2 employees in this place besides Mr Krabs. …How did a place like this ever function with only two employees, anyway?

13.Spongebob has underwear in this shot, but when his pants…open up, he’s nude.

14.Also, Butt joke.

15.SpongeBob’s teeth should not be in good shape if he only brushes his eyes.

16.Even for SpongeBob, barging in Squid’s shower is…creepy.

17.There’s nothing under this rock so where did Patrick’s pants come from? 18.All this excitement over a place that has never been mentioned before now.

19.Wait, KK 2 is next to the first one? That’s really stupid.

20.”Lord knows I’ve tried” Which lord though? Is relgion a thing under the sea?

21/know Plankton doesn’t always have common sense, but he seriously has never heard of the letter Z?! Or at least he hasn’t seen that file clearly there.

22. Plan Z seems to be Plan Porn, ew.

23.The Chum Bucket isn’t directly across the street like it should be.

24.How he does not hear his screams?

25.Also, the plankton smear vanishes in the next shot.

26.“I paid 9 dollars for this?” ‘I paid ten”. That’s racist.

27.I know SpongeBob is” immature” but Squidward is literately the worst worker ever, so why was he picked? At least SB is a good worker.

28.If you listen really closely, you near hear Mr  Krabs whispering jackass. That’s sinful because he said swearing is bad back in Sailor Mouth and got trouble with his Mom over it.

29.Another butt joke. 30.Wait, he doesn’t like people touching the crown yet he hired someone to clean it?

31.Even if this is meant to a different character than the God Neptune, why are we only just now knowing there’s a King of the sea, especially since he’s so close to a place the leads apparently go to a lot?

32.How the hell did no one notice Plankton taking the crown? Mindy is looking in the general direction of it, and while plankton is tiny, they should at least hear it moving or something.

33.There’s no guards outside to possible see the crown flying away.

34/Goofy Goober has a lollipop in this shot, but when that hand thing comes out, it’s gone

35.  There’s only one row of chairs in the nut bar here, but when SpongeBob starts to leave, there’s another corner where more chairs are over there. 36.And they’re drunk, in a family film.

37/They didn’t kick them out for getting drunk in front of kids?

38.Wait, if they’re at the KK 2, who is taking care of the first one right now?

39.”You left one DAMNING piece of evidence-” Whoa, Language!

40.We did not see Plankton bring paper with him at all so I must question this.

41.Also, Mr. Krabs could try to find some stuff he wrote to show this isn’t his handwriting. 42.There’s never a phone here but it’s now there for this joke.

43.How can Plankton hear over anything over the phone if Mr Krabs hung up?

44.Mr Krabs’ clothes magically grow back

45.Discount My Leg!

46.Everyone in the Krusty Krab magically appears before that part, and disappears right after. Hell, you can see two fish eating in the background like nothing’s happening!

47.Patrick, out of nowhere!

48.Patrick being horny for Mindy goes nowhere and is a bit creepy.

49.The wheels are made of pickles in this shot, but when they leave, they are real wheels.

50.There’s seriously no one at the Krusty Krab or even outside to see this?

51.Stereotypical hillbillies are Stereotypical, and a bit annoying.

52.”No Patrick they’re laughing next to us” Hey, only I get to be pedantic around here!

53.How did no one see that guy coming?

54.How did she get that footage?

55.I like that the airhorn from the previous scene is sitll here but it was nowhere to be seen before than so..

56.The thug doesn’t recognize Patrick from earlier.

57 No one in the bar is seen with any tools normally used for bubble blowing, and since they somehow don’t know it came from the bathroom, no one in that room should be suspected.

58.They were standing in place the whole time and everything was far away when they beat up the double dude, so how did Patrick get the key?

59.Villain asks who can stop them now and it cuts to the heroes cliché.

60.A monster having an part that looks like a talking old lady makes no sense  and you know it, so let’s move on.

61.How did the bubble soap get outside?

62.The stairs to the trench randomly appear and reappear throughout this scene.

63.Patrick has only worn those underpants once in the whole show…and it was in an episode after this movie!

64.Even with that carriage, how did Mindy get here so fast? She has no mermaid magic.

65.“Did you see my underwear?” “No Patrick ‘ “Did you want to?” …Ew.

66. The plankton statue in complete in this shot, but in the next shot it’s under construction.

67.I know Plankton wanted Neptune to fry Mr Krabs, but since he controls everyone, couldn’t he storm the castle and use the bucket on Neptune to get the job done quicker?

68.Hate to get critical, but sometimes these cuts to Dennis ruin the flow of scenes.

69.How does that seaweed stay on?

70.“Why did we jump over the edge instead of taking the stairs?” Spongebob would be great at SpongeBobSins.

71.This song is awesome until you realized they lazily reused some title card music from the show.

…But it’s still awesome, so..

71. ”Even the hideous disgusting monsters!” That’s racist.

72.“That way you’ll never found out that he stole the crown” Dennis is an idiot.

73.Man, what is with this movie and characters appearing without being heard?

74.You know, randomly walking around underwater in a desolate area with barely any fish isn’t really that efficient, given what he’s using them for as we find out in a minute.(Although it clearly worked before so this sin is debatable)

75.Why does he wear his diver’s outfit while on land?

76.“Alexander Clam Bell!” Booooo

77.Okay, so how did Plankton get the crown all the way here anyway?

78.How the heck did they not see that huge crown this whole time?

The entire scene is insanely emotional, especially for SpongeBob. I’m not made of stone so…yeah.

78.The pirates ruins it a tad though.

79.Discount Potty, which makes the lack of Patchy worse. He’s even voiced by Stephen!

80.“Tears bring someone back to life” cliché.

81.Also, these detectors do not work that way.

82..Because a bit of water will bring dead fish back to life, right? It makes sense for the duo but not the ones that have been dead for ages.

83.Poop joke.

84.The Hasselhoff cameo is funny but how many kids even know him, even I 2004?

85,I’m not even gonna ask how Dennis got here with the boot. Still sinning it, of course.

86.Hoff barely feels this epic battle going on, on his back.

87.You’ve got a time limit but sure, 10 seconds to liftoff.

88.They made a big deal out of that lock but now it’s just gone.

89.Karen isn’t there before SB and Pat show up, but now she’s here.

90. Why didn’t he put the bucket on Neptune beforehand? Would have made this a lot easier, makes my previous sin more of an issue.

91.Now the talking cheese is gonna preach to us!

92.This is amazing, one of the best things ever…but it’s also the biggest Deus Ex Machina ever.

93.”No freakin’ way!” The soundtrack version changes this because freakin’ is just too intense for kids I guess.

Eh screw it, sin removed!

93. From the looks of it, the town literally fixed itself in a matter of hours.

94.“I was just tell you that  that your fly is down!” …He doesn’t wear pants. 95,Freeze frame ending.

96.The credits feel the need to inform us that Karen is a computer wife.

97. Way too many minutes of credits for the sake of padding the soundtrack. 98.Post credits scene. SpongeBob is my favorite Marvel movie.

MOVIE SIN TALLY: 98

SENTENCE: Beaten senseless (by every able boded patron in the bar)

And after a slight delay, this is finally done. Even though I had to refurbish something I already did, this sitll took some more, to see what new sins to add and what to keep I tried my best to make sure the sins are good here and hopefully only a few are weird/filler.

This is certainly a few easy movie to sin, but is still highly enjoyable. Might do a win post for it someday, we’ll see. But for now, here are the sins of a good representation of the series.

With that out of the way come back in about mid February or a bit later as dive into Season 4 and see how sinful it ends up being. I’m judging all SpongeBob on the same level, so we’ll see how the sins are.

See ya then.

(Dedicated to Stephen Hilenburg)

[polizwrites]

WIP Update 9 Mar 2022

Had a fairly good writing week - I touched 4 fics  (3 WIPs & 1 new work) for a total of  2047 words.   I posted the next chapter of my Star Wars AU  (Mando!Bucky,  Jedi!Steve & bounty!Tony)  and wrote a @flashfictionfridayofficial   ficlet that crossed over with a @winterironmonth prompt.

I’m up to 10 active WIPs  (with a couple of maybe TBCs)  with my current deadline being the WinterIron Month  event which wraps at the end of this month and the WinterHawk Bingo which wraps up the end of April. 

On the crafting side, I have two Stuffed With Character commissions  slots open for March at the moment.

See  below cut for the specific bingos/challenges/etc I am working on -   feel free to send me prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding any of these projects   (or any other WIPs I’ve got out there) – they really help feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

WinterIron Month (WIM) - Runs thru 31 Mar 2022)

Working to get a couple of fills in for this event featuring my two faves.....

* SFW Friday: DIALOGUE:  Matched this up with the Flash Fiction Friday [#FFF142 Bursting the Bubble ]  prompt of 514 words of insecure!/pining!Tony POV with a happy ending -  A Burst Bubble, Reblown.  Currently on Tumblr, will probably go out on Ao3 sometime soon. 

WinterHawk Bingo - Round 3 [WHB_R3] (Runs thru 30 Apr 2022)

Three fills posted - one WIPs at the moment - shooting for a Row 1 bingo at minimum.  Need to start focusing on this bingo agaon.

* B1 - Red Room!Clint -  Winter Soldier training Red Room recruits with prospective title  Love in a Dangerous Time? Started thinking thru some ideas for this & will probably be looking for a collaborator.

* B2 - Stuck in Elevator -  probably will podfic  Livin’ It Up (While We’re Goin’ Down)  – if I can manage to read steamy stuff aloud!      

*I1 - Harry Potter AU - looking for ideas/collaborator for this, since am not a huge HP fan. I have Very Vague Ideas on this.... 

* I5 - Body Swap - see   FREE + Supernatural Elements  from BIB above.

Stucky Bingo - Round 3 [SB R3] (Runs thru 31 May 2022)

Eighteen fills with 3 WIPs and a  couple of Vague Ideas. Shooting for a Column O bingo to start.  

* N5 - KINK: Sugar Daddy  - Working on a new chapter for  Takin’ What They’re Givin’ (‘Cause I’m Workin’ for a Livin’)?  - I have about 200 words of background/outline so far.   

* G3 - “I thought you were smaller”     The second chapter of Never More to Go Astray  filled this prompt and posted Friday, coming in at 982 words.

* O2 - AU: A/B/O  - planning to use this on the next chapter of  Flawed Hypothesis, which is Steve POV and currently sitting at  69 words. Current Last Line: But now they were living in a new century, where men could love and marry other men.

* ADOPTED2 : Incubi/succubi AU -  Combining this with a  @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt  of Setting Heaven On Fire, and using a poem I wrote years & years ago as lead-in for a  Stucky-by-proxy fic  - currently sitting at 224 words. Current Last Line:   It’s not my fault if they consider it a sin.

Steve | Tony | Bucky Bingo Round 2 [STBB R2]  (Runs thru 30 Jun 2022)

Seven fills, and three WIPs.  Taking advantage of the One Fill, One Bingo opportunity

* N2 - AU: Western  - possible crossover with MWAPB  Next Door Neighbors  – I have a decent idea for this one  (semi-inspired by a recent re-read of  Laura Ingalls Wilder A Long Winter) and jotted down about 225 words’ worth of notes/VERY rough draft.  May hold on to this to see if I can crossflll with an upcoming TSB square.  

* G1 - Thunderstorm  -  Using this for the upcoming Chapter 5 of To Tame a Werewolf  - the first draft is complete and will probably post on Friday.

* O4 - Lazy Sunday Morning -  have a smutty WinterIron idea for this one; need to get it jotted down and then  hold on to see if I can combine with an upcoming TSB or BBB square.  

Started something to combining the following squares for the One Fill, One Bingo badge:    B5 - “Aliens, again?”, I5 - Lifeguard,  N5 - Barbeque,  G5 - River Rafting, O5 - Wakanda.    Avengers + Guardians in a partying mood = a huge headache for T’Challa.   It’s currently sitting at 339 words. Current Last Line:   I’m Sam, Sam Wilson – another friend of Steve’s.

Agent Carter Bingo [ACB] - (Runs through 1 Sep)

Picked  up this 4x4 card last month - no fills planned yet, but I’ve got a   long-languishing  unpublished WIP that will slot nicely into at least   one, possibly two of these squares.   Holding off on actively working on  anything til I can clear my plate a bit.

Avengers Bingo [AvB] (Runs thru 24 Dec)

Two fills posted and 0 WIPs - I decided to further challenge myself by pairing up  each square with a unique combo of 2 original MCU Avengers! With the help of the STB Enthusiasts Discord folks - I’ve got all 16 squares   planned out, at least in terms of who to write about, and half of them   have some sort of idea or crossover square to go along with them.       Feel free to toss other plot bunnies my way…  

* A2 - On the Run  - Natasha & Steve - crossover with  MWAPB - Farmer’s Market?   post CA:CW Wakanda ?

*  A4 - Mutual Pining  - Steve/Thor - crossover with  MWAPB - Thor.

* A3 - Reunited  -   Clint & Natasha  -  Endgame Ronin scene?

*  B3 - Road Trip  -  Bruce & Thor  - Post Grandmaster, pre-Thanos  space shenanigans

* C1 - Opposites Attract - Clint/Thor  - there was a fun Tumblr headcanon going around about a Bumbling Foreigner whose ignorance of local customs  results in him flirting with/proposing to the prince - this seems like a perfect matchup!  

*  C3 - Reincarnation AU  -  Natasha & Tony  - post-Endgame

* C4 - Bodyguard AU  -  Thor/Tony  -  young!Tony - crush on Cap plays into attraction  (obvious title - Thunderstruck)  - holding on this til next round of TSB.  

* D1 - Friends w/ Benefits  - Clint/Steve - crossover with MWAPB Hawkeye/Clint Barton.

D2 - Romeo & Juliet AU  -  basic idea:  Steve (jock) & Tony (geek) trying out for title roles in R&J - despite their respective friend groups thinking it’s a terrible idea.  Both cliques end up becoming friends.  

* D3 - Bed Sharing -  Bruce/Natasha - AoU compliant.

Man With a Plan (Steve Rogers) Bingo [MWAPB] (Runs thru 31 Dec)

Three fills, 2 WIPs and several Vague Ideas.

* B2 - Next Door Neighbors  - see  STBB AU: Western  above

* B3 - Farmer’s Market  - see  AvB On the Run above

* I3 - Thor  - see AvB Mutual Pining above

* G1 - Bucky Barnes -  will fill this with chapter 3 of  Never More to Go Astray   which is in first draft form at 1100 words.  I was shooting for 3 short  chapters with one from each character POV, although the Muse is poking me to make this a longer fic with probably 3 more chapters to get through another round of POVs.

* O2 - Sex Pollen -  Teenage Groot pollen =  aphrodesia  hijinks. Quill & Gamora warn the  couple (stucky)/throuple (Stuckony)  ahead of time, so no dub-con. Will see if this can cross over with a TSB or BBB square once those bingos start their next rounds.  

* O3 - Hawkeye/Clint Barton  -  see AvB - Friends w/ Benefits  above.

————–

On  other creative fronts:  I finished Sonic the Hedgehog and have a couple of figures cut out for a con later this year.  

if you’re looking for one of a kind gifts (for a friend or something for yourself!)  you can plan ahead for  the next holiday season and check out Stuffed With Character   over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 80!). They’re  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design requests  for any fandom!

[patriotsnet]

Who Won Yesterday Democrats Or Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-won-yesterday-democrats-or-republicans/

Who Won Yesterday Democrats Or Republicans

House Senate Pass Bill To Exempt Graduation Ceremonies From Covid Orders

Marjorie Taylor Greene vs Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | 2024 Election Prediction

Michigans schools could be a step closer to having more leeway to host commencement ceremonies, after the Senate and House on Wednesday passed a fast-tracked proposal to exempt the events from pandemic emergency orders.

Most local school boards have done a good job of mitigating the risk of COVID, bill sponsor Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, said on the Senate floor. We should trust them to safely manage their own graduations.

Related:;GOP wants to exempt Michigan graduation ceremonies from COVID orders

The approval in both chambers comes a day after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the state is easing restrictions on Thursday, making masks not required outdoors for gatherings of up to 100 people.

COVID-19 cases are rapidly declining in Michigan, reaching their lowest point in six weeks on Monday. Whitmer has said she wont fully lift all the state restrictions until 70 percent of adult residents are vaccinated.

Robert Leddy, a spokesperson for Whitmer, didnt say if the governor supports the measure, but said she continues to encourage families and school districts to hold ceremonies to honor students’ incredible achievements while ensuring the safety of all attendees.

Currently, graduation ceremonies are allowed, but they have to adhere to certain capacity limits.

Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, was the lone Democrat in the Senate to support the exemption, saying her vote represents the will of her district.

The Time For Democrats To Go Nuclear Was Yesterday

In the U.S., constitutional law guarantees pregnant people the right to have an abortion without interference from the state. Judicial precedent also empowers Americans to preempt any state law that flagrantly violates their constitutional rights: Even before an illicit statute takes effect, individuals can seek a court order barring state officers from enforcing it.

The pro-life movement abhors these legal niceties. In recent years, red states have routinely enacted de facto repeals of Roe v. Wade, only to see their unconstitutional laws nipped in the bud. Of course, conservatives did not respond to these setbacks by revising their agenda to better fit the demands of law and procedure. Rather, they used every tool at their disposal including unprecedented violations of Senate convention to assemble an anti-abortion Supreme Court majority. Meanwhile, in Texas, Republicans devised a cockamamie scheme for nullifying abortion rights immediately with just a small favor from their friends on the high court.

This pretext is absurd. As Voxs Ian Millhiser writes, the tactic could be used to undermine virtually any constitutional right. Imagine, for example, that New York passed an SB 8style law allowing private individuals to bring lawsuits seeking a $10,000 bounty against anyone who owns a gun.

Eric Tiffany Trump To Make Final Election Push In Michigan

Two of President Donald Trumps children will be making stops in Michigan on Thursday as they stump for their Republican father with days to go until the Nov. 3 election.

Tiffany Trump will host a Breakfast With Tiffany event at 9 a.m. in Birmingham.

Eric Trump will host two events. First, theres a Make America Great Again event at Hope Sports Complex in Lansing at 2:30 p.m. Then, he will host an Evangelicals for Trump event at ResLife Church in Grandville in Kent County at 6 p.m. Mansur Shaheen

Recommended Reading: Who Donates More Money Republicans Or Democrats

Paul Mitchell Quits Gop Over Trump Fraud Claims

U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell of Dryden says he’s;leaving the Republican party over disgust and disappointment with President Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the election.

In a Monday letter to Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and GOP House of Representatives leader Kevin McCarthy, Mitchell lambasted Republican colleagues for refusing to speak out against conspiracy theories and baseless claims of election fraud.

It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote, wrote Mitchell, who added he voted for Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

The retiring representative requested his political party affiliation be changed to independent for the remainder of his term in office, which finishes Jan. 3.; He is being succeeded by Lisa McClain, a vocal Trump supporter, to represent the 10th district that covers Michigan’s Thumb.

Mitchells decision came after Electoral Colleges convened nationwide Monday to formally elect Democrat Joe Biden, who won more than the 270 electoral votes required to secure the presidency.;

Since the election, Mitchell has spoken out against several unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud promoted by Trump and his supporters.; He is the second Michigan Republican, along with retiring Rep. Justin Amash of Cascade Township, to switch party affiliation to independent during Trumps term.

Senate Approves Hertel As Health Director

Senate Republicans on Tuesday continued their protest against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 orders but stopped just short of rejecting the appointment of her new state health director.

Elizabeth Hertel, a former GOP legislative aide who Whitmer appointed in January, will remain director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Related:

In tense hearing, Whitmer official defends MI COVID nursing home strategy

Sixteen Senate Republicans voted to block Hertel, with several voicing concerns she will work in lockstep with Whitmer to continue restrictions they deem overly onerous.

But GOP Leader Mike Shirkey and three colleagues joined Democrats to approve the appointment in a 18-16 vote. It was a symbolic move because the upper chamber only has the authority to “disapprove” appointments within 60 days, and the GOP did not have the 19 votes needed to do so.

My vote in favor of Elizabeth Hertels appointment does not reflect agreement with her decisions as deputy director and now as director of MDHHS, but rather my belief that her background and expertise make her qualified for the job, Shirkey said in a statement.

In our conversations, I have made it clear to Elizabeth that I will continue to push for an end to the nonsensical loophole that allows the department director to control and harm the lives and livelihoods of Michiganders for months or even years on end.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Are In The Senate Vs Democrats

Cal Cunningham Concedes North Carolina Senate Race

Democrat Cal Cunningham conceded in the;North Carolina;Senate race on Tuesday, saying in a statement that he had called Republican incumbent Senator Thom Tillis to congratulate him on his victory.

“I just called Senator Tillis to congratulate him on winning re-election;to a second term in the U.S. Senate and wished him and his family the best in their continued service in the months and years ahead,” Cunningham said. “The voters have spoken and I respect their decision.”

CBS News projects that Tillis has won the race, after Cunningham’s concession. Tillis led Cunningham by nearly 100,000 votes as of Tuesday. The presidential race in North Carolina is still too close to call, although President Trump is currently in the lead. The full results of the election in North Carolina are unlikely to be known until later this week, as the deadline in the state to receive absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day is November 12.

Huizenga Tests Positive For Covid

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga said Wednesday he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to a planned appearance in Grand Rapids with Vice President Mike Pence.;

The Zeeland Republican announced results from what he called a rapid test while Pence spoke in west Michigan. Huizenga said he was tested offsite, per event protocol, and is awaiting results of a separate diagnostic test that is typically more accurate.;

In the meantime, I am self isolating until I have confirmed results, the congressman wrote on Twitter.;

Earlier today, I was expected to appear with the Vice President. While taking part in offsite testing protocols, I took a rapid test that came back positive for COVID-19. I am awaiting the results of a PCR test and I am self isolating until I have confirmed results.

Rep. Bill Huizenga

Pence spoke at an auto supply company near Grand Rapids, where he defended GOP President Donald Trumps handling of the pandemic and touted the countrys pre-coronavirus economy, among other things.;

Trump, who tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago, is back out on the campaign trail and doing well, Pence said. The president, who is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in recent Michigan polls, is scheduled to speak at a Muskegon rally on Saturday.

We are opening up America, and we are opening up American schools, Pence said.;

Watch his full speech below via WOOD-TV 8. Jonathan Oosting

Also Check: Are Republicans More Wealthy Than Democrats

Republicans Demand Answers About Private Jet

Republicans say they are giving Gov. Gretchen Whitmer until Wednesday to answer 43 questions regarding her trip to Florida or they could launch an investigation.

House Oversight Committee Chair Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, said Thursday he has sent the Democratic governor a list of questions regarding her trip to Florida on a private jet from March 12 to March 15.;

They include:

When did you make the decision to go to Florida?

Outside this trip, while Governor, has the governors nonprofit, Michigan Transition 2019, paid for any other travel?

Was there any official, or state business purpose of this trip?

How many people were on the plane?

These questions are both reasonable and important to giving the people of Michigan certainty that their governor is following proper procedures and acting within the bounds of the law, Johnson wrote in the letter.;

Here are the 43 questions Chairman Johnson sent to Gov. Whitmer. He wants answers by 10:30 a.m. on May 27 . #mipol#mileg

Sergio Martínez-Beltrán May 20, 2021

Whitmer has until 10:30 a.m. Thursday to respond to the questions, Johnson wrote.

Any failure to act in good faith or a full refusal to answer these questions may result in further investigations by the House Oversight Committee, Johnson wrote.

Whitmers office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment by Bridge Michigan.

Related:

Whitmers office said the governor paid $855 for her seat.

Trump Attacks Snyder After Fox News Appearance

House GOP Leads Democrats in Total 2022 Retirements

Former Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told Fox News he voted for Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, earning the ire of President Donald Trump Thursday night.

Im a proud Republican, Snyder told Fox News Neil Cavuto on Your World. Im an American first, and we shouldnt let partisanship get in the way of good decision-making for our country and Joe Biden is a much better decision than Donald Trump.

Snyder endorsed Biden for president in September. Trump is set to visit the state on Friday afternoon for a rally in Waterford Township, before returning again on Monday, a day before Nov. 3. He also held a rally in Lansing on Tuesday. Mansur Shaheen

Snyder cited the presidents tax bill from 2017, tariffs he has imposed on goods from Canada, Mexico and other trading partners, and the governments COVID-19 response as reasons for why he chose to vote against Trump.

Failed RINO former Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan was a disaster with respect to the Flint Water CATASTROPHE, and a very bad Governor overall. He hurt so many people with his gross incompetence, Trump responded to Snyder on Twitter Thursday evening.

Failed RINO former Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan was a disaster with respect to the Flint Water CATASTROPHE, and a very bad Governor overall. He hurt so many people with his gross incompetence. He reminds me of Sleepy Joe!

Mansur Shaheen

Also Check: Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much

Judge Approves Flint Water Crisis Settlement

Flint residents can start registering to receive their share of a landmark legal settlement tied to the Flint water crisis, after a federal judge on Thursday granted preliminary approval of the $641.2 million settlement with the state of Michigan and other parties.

Residents have until March 29 to register to participate in the settlement.;

Not everyone in Flint is eligible to receive money. The proposed settlement includes 30 claims categories to account for people harmed by the water crisis.

The bulk of the settlement money, about 80 percent, will go to people who were minors when Flint switched its water source in 2014. Much of the rest will go to adults who can prove they suffered physical harm or property damage as a result of the crisis.

Once registered, residents have until Aug. 26 to submit documents supporting their claims. That could include medical records, evidence of property damage or other paperwork.

Before funds can be released, U.S. District Judge Judge Judith Levy must grant final approval. First, shell hold a public hearing July 12.

Some Flint activists have criticized the settlement, arguing it excludes too many city residents who should be eligible for money. Proponents of the settlement say it’s good for the city.

Lawyers for Flint residents continue to pursue lawsuits against two engineering firms that did not join the settlement, as well as a separate lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.;

Republicans Seek End To Secretary Of State Appointment

A new measure making its way through the Legislature would require Michigan Secretary of State branches to open for walk-ins.

The Republican proposal comes in response to Secretary of State Jocelyn Bensons decision to shift to an appointment-only system to modernize the agency and end pandemic-related transaction backlogs.

If you want to use the appointment system that works, you still have that option, House Oversight Committee Chair Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, said Thursday during a hearing.

But for some people that don’t work, they need that walk-in option.

Related:

Renewing plates, licenses in Michigan can take months, despite promises

The House measures would require the Secretary of States branches to provide a minimum of eight hours in-person without the need of an appointment.

It will also waive late fees on registrations until walk-ins are reinstalled and would extend the grace period for expired driver licenses, enhanced licenses, state IDs, permits and certifications to September. The proposals will apply retroactively from April 1.

Adam Reames, the legislative policy director at the Secretary of State, told lawmakers the agency supports waiving late fees and a staggered extension of grace periods.

But the appointment-only system is the best operational model and should remain, Reames said.

Don’t Miss: How Many Seats Do Republicans Have In The Senate

Protest Expected To Draw Hundreds

Multiple Michigan militia groups are planning an armed protest Sunday at the Lansing Capitol that could draw several hundreds of protesters, Michael Lackomar, team leader of the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, told Bridge Michigan.;

Lackomars group and several other Michigan militia organizations including the Michigan Home Guard, Michigan Liberty Militia and Michigan Militia Corps Wolverines will likely be in attendance, he said.

He said the groups main grievance is the state Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 restrictions, which have destroyed businesses. Lackomor said they are also dissatisfied with the way the state government handled the election although he said that Democrat Joe Biden probably won.;

The plans come amid warnings from an internal FBI report about armed protests in all 50 capitals nationwide and in Washington, D.C, this weekend until Bidens inauguration next Wednesday.;

The planned protests follow a chaotic week in D.C., when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress convened to count the nations Electoral College voters.;

Before the siege, Trump told supporters that Congress should toss out the election results, and urged them to march to the Capitol and show strength. The riots left five dead, including a police officer.;

On Wednesday, the House voted to impeach Trump for a second time for his role in inciting the insurrection. The timing of a trial in the U.S. Senate remains uncertain.;

Whitmer Says No More New Restrictions

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is doubling down on her decision not to add new restrictions or regulations amid a surge of coronavirus cases in Michigan.

Currently, the state has the highest case rate in the nation by far. On Wednesday, the state reported 7,955 new COVID-19 cases.

Related:;Michigan at ‘record high’ for COVID-19 hospitalizations of children

In a media appearance dominated by talks about the benefits of therapeutic treatments, Whitmer blamed the increase on the publics fatigue and the variants of the virus in the state.

That’s precisely why instead of mandating that we’re closing things down, we are encouraging people to do what we know works as the most important thing that we can do, Whitmer said. It’s not a policy problem, it is a variant and compliance problem.

Whitmer also said the state is focusing on getting more people vaccinated.

Her decision goes against what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised the state to do.

In a White House briefing this week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky called on the state to implement stronger restrictions and mitigation protocols.;

Also Check: What Percentage Of Republicans Support Trump

What Difference Does The New House Majority Make

The Democrats took control of the House, having gained more than the 23 seats they need to take over the lower chamber of Congress. Americans voted for all 435 seats in the House.

The Democrats could now launch investigations into Mr Trump’s administration and business affairs, from tax returns to potential conflicts of interest.

They could also more effectively block his legislative plans, notably his signature promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

But analysts say dealing with a hostile House may suit the president, who is known both for his partisan style and ability to switch positions. They say he could either choose to accuse the Democrats of obstruction or try to reach deals to get legislation through.

Female candidates performed particularly well. Two 29-year-old Democrats – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Abby Finkenauer – are due to be the youngest women ever to win House seats.

Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women and Sharice Davids and Debra Haaland the first Native American women to be elected to Congress. All are Democrats.

How the mid-term elections broke records

[junker-town]

NBA playoff predictions: 1 big question about each Western Conference series

The West is wide open. Our team communities preview each series and give their predictions.

The NBA playoffs are finally here, and they arrive with what appears to be a wide open race in the Western Conference. Yes, the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are back again, but they enter the postseason as a No. 7 seed after needing to qualify through the play-in tournament. LeBron James and Anthony Davis have battled injuries all year, and there are several teams who think they have what it takes to dethrone the Lakers as conference champs.

The Los Angeles Clippers are back in the playoffs after blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Denver Nuggets inside the bubble during last year’s playoffs. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George lead a team that will be one of the favorites to win it all, but they again have to go through Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks to start their playoff run.

The most enticing series of the first round might be Denver vs. the Portland Trail Blazers. These two teams played an instant classic seven-game series in 2019, and you know presumptive MVP Nikola Jokic and Blazers star Damian Lillard are ready to put on a show.

Now that the playoffs are finally here, we asked the SB Nation NBA communities to preview their team’s matchup by asking one big question about each series. The communities also gave their predictions on who will win the series, as did staffers Sabreena Merchant, Sydney Umeri, and Ricky O’Donnell.

No. 1 Jazz vs. No. 8 Grizzlies: Predictions and preview

Jazz 52-20 vs. Grizzlies 38-34

Offensive efficiency: Jazz 116.5 (4th) | Grizzlies 111.7 (15th)

Defensive efficiency: Jazz 107.5 (3rd) | Grizzlies 110.5 (7th)

Net rating: Jazz +9 (1st) | Grizzlies +1.2 (14th)

Season series: Jazz won 3-0. The Jazz swept the season series, but two of their wins were decided by four points or less.

Who is the most important player for your team in this series and why?

James Hansen of SLC Dunk: For Utah the most important player is Rudy Gobert. Gobert was the reason Utah had the #1 record in the league during the regular season and the Jazz need that dominance to carry over into the playoffs. Gobert’s ability to patrol the paint while also guarding his man will be the thing that gives the Jazz a chance to win every game. The narrative that Gobert gets played off the floor in the playoffs will be put to bed pretty quickly if Gobert does in the playoffs what he did all season.

Parker Fleming of Grizzly Bear Blues:

Ahead of the series, our Grizzlies community wrote:

Ja Morant rose to the occasion like no other, going toe-to-toe with a MVP finalist — one of the 10-15 greatest players of all time. As the national media clamors about Morant’s shooting, he made them when he count, drilling a career-best 5 three-pointer’s. No matter who was in front of him, he managed to find his way into the paint to get off that floater. He also locked in defensively (5 steals) by getting into passing lanes and staying aggressive on both ends of the floor.

The Grizzlies have a future superstar that is built for these moments, and he’s only going to continue adding to his legacy.

Prediction from Ricky O’Donnell: Jazz in 4.

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

No. 2 Suns vs. No. 7 Lakers: Predictions and preview

Suns 51-21 vs. Lakers 42-30

Offensive efficiency: Suns 116.3 (7th) | Lakers 109.8 (24th)

Defensive efficiency: Suns 110.4 (6th) | Lakers 106.8 (1st)

Net rating: Suns +5.9 (3rd) | Lakers +2.9 (8th)

Season series: Suns 2-1. Phoenix won the first two matchups, and the Lakers won in May.

The Lakers are the heavy favorites to win the series despite being a No. 7 seed going up against a No. 2 seed in Phoenix. What worries you most about the opposition going into this series?

Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen and Roll: If I was coaching the Lakers — which I’m not, so please stop tweeting me your suggestions for the center rotation — I would definitely be most afraid of Devin Booker as far as threats from the Suns go. Los Angeles should have enough big men to limit Deandre Ayton, and their corps of guards should be able to make life hell on Chris Paul over the course of a series, even if they obviously won’t stop him.

But while Booker isn’t huge at 6’6, he most reasonably approximates the type of big wings the Lakers have most frequently struggled with this season, and they don’t necessarily have a perfect matchup for him. Wesley Matthews and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are both good options, but I’d be much more confident in Alex Caruso, Dennis Schröder and Caldwell-Pope slowing the smaller Paul than I am of the Lakers making things quite as hellaciously difficult on Booker. The offensive end and the Lakers’ health concern me most in this series, but if we’re picking Suns threats, Booker is the one I’d most fear. I’m confident they can win this series relatively handily if healthy because of their matchup advantages in AD and LeBron, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Booker has one or two big games.

Dave King of Bright Side of the Sun: Well obviously what worries me are Anthony Davis and LeBron James, two of the top five players in the NBA when they are healthy. Even playing a little slow on Wednesday, Bron posted a triple double and drained a half-blind 34 footer to seal the win. So that’s a worry. A big worry. And two weeks ago, without Bron there, Anthony Davis dropped 42 points on the Suns in regular season game. Given his performance in the Bubble last year, you’ve got to worry that AD is the best 7-foot jump shooter in the playoffs. Other worries include the Lakers’ top-rated defense making up for their non-Bron-non-AD offensive struggles. The Suns will have to execute like madmen and limit turnovers (which they are good at) to overcome the Lakers defensive pressure. I do think every game is going to come down to: (1) the 3P shooting will decide the first 47 minutes and (2) if it’s close, it’s all about who makes the hero shots and who misses.

Silver Screen and Roll: Lakers in 5

Bright Side of the Sun: Suns in 7.

Sydney Umeri: Lakers in 6.

Ricky O’Donnell: Lakers in 6.

Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images

No. 3 Nuggets vs. No. 6 Trail Blazers: Predictions and preview

Nuggets (53-29, expected: 55-27) vs. Trail Blazers (50-32, expected: 51-31)

Offensive efficiency: Nuggets 107.7 (4th) | Trail Blazers 104.7 (10th)

Defensive efficiency: Nuggets 104.4 (20th) | Trail Blazers 101.5 (11th)

Net rating: Nuggets 104.4 (20th) | Trail Blazers 101.5 (11th)

Season series: Cavaliers 3-1. Chicago beat Cleveland 113-98 on Feb. 13, but the Cavaliers bested them in the other three meetings.

These two teams played a classic seven-game series in 2019. There are tons of storylines on both sides. What will be the swing factor in this series?

David Deckard of Blazer’s Edge: Obviously any discussion of Portland versus Denver starts with superstars and styles. Nikola Jokic is the presumptive MVP, the most unique player on the floor. He can stand in the middle of Portland’s defense, commanding the floor. If the Blazers single-cover him, he’ll score. If they double, he’ll pass. The Blazers are decent defensively when they can hem opposing players into defined spaces and swarm them. Jokic provides a natural counter, making them move their feet...a serious weakness.

Lillard provides a different kind of threat. He might as well be an Olympics-level skier, the way he gets downhill whenever the Blazers need a bucket. You cannot stop him from getting into the lane and either picking up the foul or a layup. That ability has freed him up for his preferred shot: the three. He has range to the moon and nerves of steel. Like a boss battle in a poorly-designed video game, opponents see Portland’s hit point bar nearing zero and think they have the game won, only to watch Lillard take on superhero form, pour in 17 points in the quarter, and lead his side to victory. They can’t stop anything he does, let alone everything he does.

If those two superstars end up cancelling each other out, the series will probably come down to whether Portland’s three-point shooters can counter Denver’s ability to create mismatches. Michael Porter, Jr. is a 6’10 small forward. The Blazers field 6’4 Normal Powell at that position. Carmelo Anthony and Enes Kanter play significant minutes even though their defense is so sus, it might as well be wearing a “Imposter” name tag. If the Blazers can’t pour in points, they either have to get their Denver counterparts in foul trouble or hope the Nuggets have an off shooting night.

Ryan Blackburn of Denver Stiffs: Health on the perimeter is the most concerning factor for the Denver Nuggets entering this series. It’s no secret that the Portland Trail Blazers have plenty of firepower, and while the Nuggets have big strengths up front with Nikola Jokić and Michael Porter Jr., the guard position has become something of a rotating M.A.S.H. unit. Jamal Murray is out for the season which cannot go understated. Monte Morris is back but still dealing with the effects of a hamstring strain. Will Barton is still working his way back from a similar injury. PJ Dozier, maybe Denver’s best defensive guard, may not be back for this series.

The Nuggets are going to have an ordeal surviving without their normal guard firepower. They will likely be starting Facundo Campazzo, an older rookie, and Austin Rivers, who they signed on April 20th. They also brought in Shaquille Harrison, an excellent defensive guard and complete non-shooting threat offensively. That, along with the returning Monte Morris, is the extent of Denver’s guard rotation.

Let’s see if Nikola Jokić can work some much needed magic.

Denver Stiffs: Nuggets in 7

Sabreena Merchant: Nuggets in 7.

Sydney Umeri: Nuggets in 6.

Ricky O’Donnell: Nuggets in 6.

Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images

No. 4 Clippers vs. No. 5 Mavericks: Predictions and preview

Clippers (53-29, expected: 55-27) vs. Mavericks (50-32, expected: 51-31)

Offensive efficiency: Clippers 107.7 (4th) | Mavericks 104.7 (10th)

Defensive efficiency: Clippers 104.4 (20th) | Mavericks 101.5 (11th)

Net rating:

Season series: Cavaliers 3-1. Chicago beat Cleveland 113-98 on Feb. 13, but the Cavaliers bested them in the other three meetings.

The Clippers won this series in six games last year. Do you think the outcome will be any different this year based on what you’ve seen during the season?

Sabreena Merchant of ClipsNation: This series barely went six last year thanks to Luka Dončić’s heroics. This year, despite the two teams ranking closer in seeding, the Clippers are better by point differential, the Mavericks are worse, and L.A. has an axe to grind after the humiliation suffered in the bubble last year. The Clippers should win in five. The key will be Kawhi Leonard and Paul George playing like the all-NBA players they are and forcing Dallas to play whack-a-mole to figure out a way to defend the two of them together. George struggled in the bubble, but he’s in a much better mental space now and coming off a dynamite regular season.

The Clippers are simply too talented for the Mavericks. They have the edge at every position in the starting lineup except for point guard, and all five of those players can defend Dončić in a pinch, giving the Clippers the ability to run a variety of different coverages and keep the third-year wunderkind off balance. They also have a deep experienced bench, including two former champions in Rajon Rondo and Serge Ibaka, and a jack-of-all-trades in Nic Batum, all of whom are new to the Clippers and don’t carry the burden of this franchise’s history. They chose this matchup, and they’re going to show why.

Kirk Henderson of Mavs Moneyball: Largely no. At this point, Dallas fans quite understandably hang on to the game four superhuman performance from Luka Doncic resulting in the overtime stepback game winner. They look at the series outcome and say “we took two games from them!” That’s true on paper, as a win is a win. But they really only felt in control of the other victory. The Clippers dominated the rest of the series, piling up double digit leads with relative ease. There are some differences, of course. This time around, Dallas has a bit more depth with Jalen Brunson and Dwight Powell playing. But just as the Mavericks are healthier, Los Angeles seems to be getting healthy at the right time too.

Scoring won’t be a problem for the Mavericks this series. It’s the defense that should be of concern. Mainly because the Clipper offense is quietly dominant, with a fleet of guys shooting the ball *really* well. The Dallas defense, though, is a problem; after an off season that attempted to correct some of their defensive struggles (mainly through a Seth Curry for Josh Richardson swap), the Maverick defense has been worse for large chunks of the 2020-21 season. The root cause for that lies primarily at the feet of Kristaps Porzingis who tore his meniscus in the bubble playoffs and came back slow to start this season. Frankly, he looks like a shell of himself on defense, barring a short stint in March where he showed promise. There’s a lot of thought and hope that he’s been dogging it in May following an ankle injury, just so he wouldn’t get hurt before the playoffs. But any astute observer would note that defense is as much about timing and rhythm as skill and athleticism and Porzingis hasn’t looked right for a while and just about any metric would back that up. If he looks like even a passable defensive player, the Mavericks might have a chance. Otherwise this might be the same song as last year, just a different verse.

Clippers Nation: Clippers in 5.

Ricky O’Donnell: Clippers in 5.

Sydney Umeri: Clippers in 6.