#this is driving me fucking crazy btw. putting him in front of a US flag in the imperialism/capitalism movie

[logray]

AVATAR (2009) AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

[fallout4treasures]

(Pre-Romanced) Danse reacts to F!SS finding an old ukulele. Because it’s fun!

"Hey, the music shop's still here." Sole made a beeline for the store without another thought.

"Uh, soldier-" He tried to keep her on their path but it was too late. The new knight was practically skipping away, strolling into the building and leaving Danse to follow begrudgingly behind. He was not looking forward to trying to drag Sole out. He just wanted to get back to Prydwen, and sleep on an actual mattress for the first time in a week. Everything from his head to his feet begged for rest. How did she even have the energy to bounce around like that?

When he walked inside he was met by her empty power armor, standing limp in the foyer. When he looked around, the place seemed to be in the same state everything else was in. Broken, buried, or burned. There was the occasional instrument or song book, but the soldier he was looking for was nowhere to be seen. "Sole?" He finally called out, trying to hide his irritation. 

"In here! Look!" She came from the back room holding a tiny instrument that resembled a lute. She came prancing towards him with it, practically walking on her toes. He did notice a lightness come over him while she buzzed with excitement as she held it up for him to see.

"What is it?" It almost looked like a toy, but even through his helmet he noted the details in the woodwork and figured someone put too much work into it.

"It’s a ukulele! I haven’t even held one since college...  I can’t believe it’s still in good shape." She pulled it back to her and thumbed over the strings, producing a series of cringing, sour notes. "Well, it might need a little love."

“That thing is ancient. It’s well past fixing.”

“She just needs a tune, Danse.” She shot an annoyed look before focusing on each individual string. The sharp, painful notes tensed his shoulders, causing the pulse in his head to turn to a throb.

“Just finish collecting your junk and let’s go.” He barked, ignoring the hurt look that flashed in his friend’s eyes. 

“Fine. Grump.” Sole huffed as she attempted not to sulk back to their power armor.

The rest of their trip was oddly silent, and the guilt from had started to weigh on them by the time they made it back to the airship. He wanted to take Sole aside to properly apologize, but she disappeared the moment they stepped out of their armor, leaving him alone with his thoughts. 

After some food he noticed his headache fade away, and he thought he would take the opportunity to get some extra sleep. It proved fruitless, however. The man tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position but the soft mattress was driving him crazy. He just needed some air, he decided as he rolled lazily out of bed. He slipped on a tshirt and his jumpsuit, not bothering to zip it up all the way just to stroll around the Prydwen. 

Once he left his room he heard the familiar whirring of the ship, but there was something else lingering. Almost too light to hear, but as he made his way closer to the center it became more noticeable. He could tell it was music, even while being drowned out by machines, but it sounded so peculiar. He followed the sound, intrigued by the light and airy melodies. As he made his way up to the rafters the sweet and nimble notes were becoming clear, and he could even start to make out a soft, but familiar, voice crooning along.

“... I used to live alone before I knew ya. And I've seen your flag on the marble arch, and love is not a victory march. It's a cold and it's a broken Hall- aw, fuck. C’mon.” Yep, that was Sole. He smiled to himself, pleased to hear she had proved him wrong. As he crept closer he saw she had made herself comfortable in one of the corridors, her back pressed against the metal with her legs sprawled out in front of her. Her focus was fused to her hand as she struggled moving her fingers to the speed she carried before. “Hal-lel-u- damn it.

“You fixed it.” Danse interrupted, startling her from her fixation with the chords.

“God, Danse, you scared me.” She tried to laugh it off, her the flush of red that spread across her face revealed her bashfulness. “What are you doing up here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” He replied as he sat beside her, letting his own legs spread out as well. 

“No one ever comes up here, and I didn’t want to bother anyone.” He released a pained sigh at her answer. 

“Speaking of which, I wanted to apologize. About earlier when you found the- what did you call it?”

“A ukulele.”

“Right. I feel I was harsh with you, I should have been more patient…” She let her head fall slightly forward, just enough for her hair to cover her face. He was met with no verbal response, however, so he continued. “I understand that you feel nostalgia for pre-war relics, especially those you relate to…” And still there was silence. He let out a huff of air through his nose. “So...  I’m sorry. For being short with you. And for hurting your feeling. And- '' The paladin was interrupted by an abrupt snort. When his head whipped around to look at Sole she was covering her face and trying to hide from him. “Are you laughing?”

“What? No! I’m crying. From being devastated.” No matter how hard she tried to hold back, she was erupting into a fit of giggles. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to see how far you would go.”

“That was uncalled for.”

“A bit. But frankly, so was the apology.” Her laughs slowed into a warm smile that, along with her statement, caught him off guard. “Everyone’s allowed to have a bad day, Danse.” With that she went back to her instrument, mindlessly strumming and playing with different chords. He didn’t think he wouldn’t ever get used to her understanding when it came to him snapping at her. It didn’t happen often, but when it did she would seemingly let it roll off her back. 

He still wanted to explain himself, but the words left him as her notes turned back into the song she was practicing before. The music and her voice seemed to anchor him in his spot, letting it weigh his eyelids close. His head fell sleepily on Sole’s shoulder, which she accepted happily. Sole ended up drifting off eventually as well, with her nose taking in the sweet aroma of his dark hair.

I wanted to get the ball rolling with an idea I had in my head. I’ll do the other companions if asked nicely! Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley was the song, btw.

[troubleisfree]

this is going to be like a very long, detailed, and mostly my personal observations and notes. as it was my first time seeing neymar and the brazil nt in person, i want to remember everything i can while its still fresh. it was a very exciting and at the same time surreal experience because i see those people all the time on tv games and now there they were few feet away from me...

i took the photos and videos. i am usually pretty good at that but i guess the excitement got the better of me because they did not come out fabulous. tumblr is being stupid with not letting me upload more then one video in a post, and i wanted everything together, so i ended up putting them up on youtube.

the hotel 9/3/2018.

so first i went to the hotel (very close to where i live) on monday 9/3. as it was labor day, i was off work and at a bbq/pool party abt 10 miles from home for the day. brazil nt was scheduled to leave the hotel for their first training at 4pm so i left the party early and, after some traffic drama, made it to the hotel little after 3.40pm. there were not too many people so i had a decent view but i also moved around a bit. some of the support staff was coming out already. a few minutes later, firmino was the first i saw, he waved and went straight to the bus.

then a group of marquinhos, douglas costa, fabinho etc came out together. only marquinhos paid any attention to the fans, waving and smiling but didnt stop.

then another group, including casemiro.

then alisson came out. he was really sweet, smiled, stopped with the fans, signed stuff. interacted the most of anyone else with the fans. 

then another group - i think richarlison (idk him really), filipe luis, thiago silva. thiago was just as nice as alisson, stopped with the fans, signed stuff. he looked to me a bit shorter irl then on tv...

willian came out alone next.

at this point, it was almost 4pm, my excitement had totally built up and i was so anxious to see my boy ney. i started thinking that maybe he will get there separately cuz i hadnt seen coutinho and tite either. but there he was! coming out last with barely a minute to spare before 4pm (the timestamp on my photo is 3:58:59pm lol). he was the very last one to come out, chewing on something, with his typical swagger. he waved but didnt stop and the bus left as soon as he got on. he looked just as hot in person as on tv, the cameras dont lie lol. really handsome and very very sexy! i mean, i expected it, i have seen his photos lol but omg he looks so damn good you cant help those dirty thoughts! i felt like an absolute fangirl! this is neither here or there, but he looked to me a little bigger then i expected. just kinda...fuller?

i only took one photo of him cuz i wanted to look at him with my own eyes rather than thru the camera ;)

it was such an incredible experience seeing neymar and the rest of the guys in person so close that i was shaking after! like for real my hands were shaking, my legs were shaking. and i couldnt stop grinning for a good half an hour after. i went to the boardwalk to calm down a bit and just absorb the experience. people passing by probably thought im crazy or reading love letters on my phone or something cuz i just couldnt stop grinning but i didnt give a flying fuck what they were thinking - i had just seen neymar!

my notes and impressions:

1. OMFG I SAW NEYMAR FROM FEW FEET AWAY. just that, my brain was really way too frazzled to process any other impressions lol

the game 9/7/2018

so after some c. drama, despite my initial hopes, i had accepted that i am not going to go to the game. and then the day before i find out I AM GOING!!! i was so freaked out with excitement lol!!!

getting there was so frustrating! first i had forgot to charge my phone before leaving work so i only had like 30% which was nowhere near good enough for my plans of copious pics and vids. so i had to run into a bodega to buy a charger for the car. then for some complicated reason we had to leave from the ues and fucking DRIVE. crosstown. on a friday. at 6pm. straight thru freakin time square with its gazillion tourists. on top of rush hour. even though the schedule said 8pm, the tickets said the event starts at 7.30 and i wanted to be there early to see the warmups and at 7.02 we were still not even inside lincoln tunnel ffs! i was FUMING and ready to jump outta the car and start yelling at the other cars to get a goddamn fucking move on i got places to be people to see! just ugh. so frustrating. the only upside of taking so long to get to the stadium was that by the time we got there my phone was almost 100%...

anyway, finally at 7.25pm we got there and thru all the checks etc (my joke of a miniature purse was shown as an example to another girl with a slightly bigger purse and praised by security for being perfect size which pissed me off because of their dumbass rules it had is smaller then my regular WALLET ffs and it barely even fits my phone so in no way is it a ‘perfect size’ except maybe for dolls or tiny aliens. but they had the stupid clear bag / tiny purse rule in effect and all i cared at that point was getting in so whatever. still, fucking terrorists. obviously also for more important reasons than just being the cause of my having to have a tiny purse but yeah fucking terrorists). 

the stadium was buzzing already. apparently the 7.30 start was for the warmups so perfect for me. this was the view from our seats.

when we got to our seats, the usa team was out already. and the canarinho was interacting with fans. and then brazil came out. 

ney was warming up with coutinho

after stretches, he did some practice shooting. this one didnt go in.

after that the team went back inside and the canarinho came behind the barriers to interact with the fans (photo below especially taken for a.)

time for the teams to come out. for some reason the tunnel was on my side of the stadium but the benches were on the other side and they lined up there for the anthems. (again, for a.)

then the us anthem and, since we dont do things here on a small scale, the flag rolled out was the size of the whole stadium lol

in the first half neymar was playing in front of me. in the beginning of the game i took a few photos and then i stopped because i wanted to watch the game and see with my own eyes not concentrate on the phone... still, here they are

here is the penalty. i didnt catch it go in because i was looking at it happening rather then my phone. i also removed the sound cuz there was screaming when it went in lol. it was a VERY soft penalty btw...

my notes and impressions:

1. it was a friendly so not surprisingly, it was not an edge-of-your-seat game. still brazil dominated the crap out of the usa team. the difference in class and quality was glaringly obvious.

2. it was strange not supporting my country’s team. but only when i thought about it. otherwise my soccering heart belongs to brazil 100%, without a doubt.

3. watching a game live vs tv: both have pros and cons. again, after watching every week on tv, seeing these guys live in person is simply incredible. just absolutely surreal. like, they are moving, running, kicking right in front of you. you can hear the ball being kicked. feel the tension. see what they are doing without the ball. watch their interactions away from the camera. feel the power of the crowd. its just so much more immersive. at the same time, watching at home the curated game content is... convenient. you get closeups. you get facts from the commentators. your bathroom is nearby (i did carefully time my liquid intake that day to avoid venturing into stadium bathrooms and thank god it worked lol). so imo, watching a game on tv is not really that much worse then watching it live. i always felt like i am getting a completely filtered version on tv and it is filtered but it is not horrible. yes, you are missing out on stuff but its not a total loss.

4. the stadium was about 40% full, 32k of 82k capacity. but it felt more like 2/3, probably because on the other side many sections were not even open so most everyone attending was spread out in one long side and the two goal sides.

5. brazil fans were out strong! i’d say about 70% of the people were brazil fans, and of those about 90% had on brazil jerseys. yellow galore lol. the usa fans were constantly chanting but when the brazil fans decided to make the effort they drowned them out easily and completely!

6. the usa fans were in the section behind one of the goals. throughout most of the game i thought oh cute they are constantly singing their hearts out supporting their clearly outplayed loosing team. then they did iceland’s viking chant. yes, it is a cool chant but its iceland’s. idk why so many have been plagiarizing it! first portugal did it in the wc, then i saw another, and now the american outlaws (the usa ultras)... let iceland have its thing people. i did not appreciate it but no big deal. BUT then they did something that pissed me off - few minutes before neymar was substituted in the 80 min they chanted fuck neymar. i was not best pleased to say the least! lick sweaty balls jealous motherfuckers!

7. we did a wave that went around the stadium like 4 times!

8. there was a small group of 13-14yo girls right behind us that whenever ney touched the ball or looked our way screamed ‘neymaaaarrr, neymaaaaarrrrrrrr, vaiiiiiii, vai neymaaaaaaarrrrrrrr’. one girl in particular was especially shrill and vociferous in her dedication to ney. no sense of decorum whatsoever lol. my bf was smirking at me and was like why dont you go sit with them. i on the other hand was thinking that while i wouldnt go sit with them, if some of my tumblr girls were here.... well those girls wouldnt even know what hit them!

9. i would definitely go to a game again! 

10. while the seats we had were really good, i wish there was an option to be even closer and still see the whole pitch. then again, for me it would probably only qualify as ‘close enough’ if im allowed to run along the sidelines lol. but then i wont really be able to watch the game. (hey maybe i can hang from the skycam hahaaaa!). yes, i am a neymar fan but i am also a fan of the game so i want both. i did not have any input in the choice of these seats but i think it was a good trade off - the closest where you can both see the guys and actual game. if i have to pick the tickets for the next game (hopefully i will go again some time!), i would be tempted by the lower levels but the barriers are pretty high so... i would probably go for the same - second level first row.

11. there was a guy sitting next to me with his date and he was trying to be all knowledgeable and impress the girl but half the stuff he was telling her was wrong lol! he kept pointing to douglas costa and telling her its firmino. i was cracking myself up listening to him talk complete bullshit but with such grand authority about technical game stuff.

12. at some point a loose ball ended up into the stands, some guy caught it, and 2 min later security came to take it away from him :/ why not let the guy just keep the ball?!? stupid. if it was me, i’d have made a fuss, maybe pretended that it hit me in the face and threatened to sue the stadium cuz they have not ensured the spectators’ safety or some such crap lol. see if they dont let me keep it to avoid a lawsuit.

13. the canarinho (for a.) - he was really great! interacting with the fans, dancing, hugging fans. really a fantastic mascot and absolute joy to watch! during the halftime he was out on the pitch, doing keepie uppies (in those shoes too!!! showing his brazilianness lol), and kicking balls into the stands

14. i was totally impressed by neymar. it was just so obvious how good he is and no, not because i am biased, which i admittedly am. i expected him to be good, duh, but to see it so clearly was amazing. he is not a fluke, he is the real deal. he stands out among even such quality peers as the rest of brazil nt! just something in the way he interacts with the ball, the way he moves, ‘sees’ his teammates without looking, turns on a dime, does the unexpected. i dont think he ‘thinks’ or ‘calculates’ at all his moves or that it is just a lot of practice, i think it is pure instinct in the moment, i.e. phenomenal natural talent. even though this was not one of his greatest games for sure, he just looked... special and different from the rest. most of the brazil players were displaying their clearly high quality but there is just something unique in the way neymar plays. even if you dont know who he is, what teams are playing, anything at all, you’d still pick him out and know that there is something extraordinary about this guy. if you unfocus your eyes so you see just all same yellow shirt figures, you would still be able to pick out which one is neymar. he did a bit of his skills and tricks and of course i wished he had done more. what i took away from watching him play live was that, in this average game, he looked as good playing live as he has in the past when i have watched his great games on tv. i dont know why. but watching neymar play live was an experience of its own. it felt like his average ‘live’ performance is as good as his great ‘tv’. i cant even imagine what it would be like watching one of his great performances live. while i dont feel im loosing so much watching games on tv vs live as mentioned above, i definitely feel that watching neymar in particular play live is on another level and im missing out when i watch him on tv instead of live. he is absolutely worth the price of admission. i was so disappointed in him for his wc antics but thats in the past now, and i have been reminded how right it feels to be his fan, not just for the nice things he does for kids/charity, his fun personality (and lets not forget the good looks, and oh boy they are SO GOOD lol) but his undeniably outstanding talent on the pitch. his game is just incredible. i hope he keeps healthy. i hope he gets his temper under control not just for a few games but for good. and i pray he always has the freedom to shine like he rightfully can. i am rooting for him to get the appreciation and acknowledgement he deserves, unadulterated by behavioral issues or personal drama.

ok, imma stop now. this post is huge, even by my standards.