#this is the second time ive been interviewed by the local news | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

callmeelle22 · 3 years ago

Text

Blue Dream IX

Pairing: Iris West x Barry Allen

Rating: E

Chapter Word Count: 6, 258

Summary: A series of sporadic dates between Iris and Barry turn into something more, a story in its own making.

Chapter I: Primetime

Chapter II: It's Cool

Chapter III: Anything

Chapter IV: Comfortable

Chapter V: The Way

Chapter VI: Say Yes

Chapter VII: Brave

Chapter VIII: Blue Dream

Chapter IX: He Loves Me; Because she looks like a woman drowning in bliss, a woman draped in desire, the look of it hugging like a second skin. She looks like the way women might be described in romance novels, so satisfied she can’t think of anything other than being wrapped up in the man giving her the satisfaction. She looks like the woman in some fantasy or dream, ascending the clouds, spread out and open in an expanse of blue. She sings it in her head, you school me, give me things to think about; invite me, you ignite me, co-write me, you love me, you like me; incite me to chorus, at the same time that she sings out loud, “god, Bear, baby yes,” her eyes fluttering closed at only the very last minute. (Read below or on AO3 linked on the chapter.)

He Loves Me

You love me especially different every time

You keep me on my feet happily excited

By your cologne, your hands, your smile, your intelligence

You woo me, you court me, you tease me, you please me

You school me, give me some things to think about

Ignite me, you invite me, you co-write me, you love me, you like me

You incite me to chorus, ooh

She tells him she loves him on a Friday night.

A week later, and it's the first night in a long while that she doesn’t get to stay at home because Barry has asked if he can have her time tonight. He doesn’t give her any details, only tells her to come over to his place around 8 and to be prepared to stay over. He seems particularly animated, when he asks, and it makes Iris wonder why, if he’s got something planned or if it’s just that he’s happy he gets to spend the time with her, even if they’ve been around each other more than usual this week.

So, the entire day, she’s dizzy with excitement.

Her taping of Good Morning, Central City is mid-morning. The segment tapes live at 9:30, which gives her some time to down a cup of coffee or two to settle her nerves, and then carefully apply her makeup. She dresses in one of her favorite dresses, a long sleeved wrap dress in black with soft, pretty flowers printed on it and a pair of shoes that boost her confidence, tall black pumps with a gold heel and gold double chains around the ankle. The neck of the dress dips and the delicate material flirts with her lower thighs; she feels pretty in it, in a lighter, brighter way than she’s found herself feeling before. Her makeup is subtle, except for the dark maroon lip, and she’s had her hair blown out and it hangs in soft fingered out curls just past her shoulders. A small black bag is all she takes to keep her keys and cards and then she’s out the door.

WCCTV, the station that houses the studio, is a short drive away, tucked into a neighborhood that Iris doesn’t frequent. She isn’t sure what she was expecting of the station, but it’s a squat little building in an unimaginative cream and brick scheme that would look like any other commercial building if not for WCCTV printed in large blue letters on the building and the satellite dishes spaced intentionally around it.

A news producer meets her at the door, a thin young woman with thick red hair piled into a high ponytail who introduces herself as Katherine.

“We’re all excited to have you here,” the woman says, smiling as she leads Iris through a number of desk cubicles towards a back room. She recognizes a couple of the anchors from the station, who all look either intensely focused on their work or bored out of their minds.

“Thanks,” Iris says politely. “It is a little overwhelming here, though.”

Iris doesn’t love speaking in front of people, which is why she's firmly on the invisible side of her work, but she isn’t as nervous and she figures she could be. There’s that feeling in her belly she connects with nerves, but it’s slight; instead, she’s ready. This can change the trajectory of her blog, invite more viewers and more paying ads. It could invite more stories, people who see her and trust that she wants to do right by them and their lives. She’s practically giddy with the idea.

Katherine’s response is an easy grin. “I know it seems that way, but you’ll be fine. You look fabulous so that’s one concern out of the way. Plus, Alexa and James are phenomenal at getting people to open up at the same time that they project a sort of calmness. It's fascinating to watch and I can tell you’ll be great.”

“Thanks, Katherine. I really appreciate that.”

Iris is led back to a small room where the two anchors for Good Morning, Central City are standing with four other local internet stars. Alexa May is tall and blonde and exactly like what one thinks about when they think of a news anchor: pretty and personable on a killer black skirt suit, though Iris is a little surprised at the naturally kind gleam in her eyes. James Broderick is even taller, his dark hair styled to look windswept, his ice blue eyes looking constantly around the room, as if he’s always wondering where a new story might be.

Iris steps in to greet the other four guests. They include a short Somalian woman in a beautiful bright purple hijab who cooks and shares recipes on YouTube; a stocky white guy known for his skits on TikTok; a dark-skinned Black Instagram beauty guru; and a non-binary Mexican person who discusses true crimes on Snapchat ala Buzzfeed Unsolved. It’s an eclectic collection of people and Iris feels honored to be a part of this group. She’s watched all of their videos in some fashion, though she’s more partial to Aya, the home chef, and Nadine, the beauty grammer. Still, they each have large followings and to be included gives Iris such a sense of pride, that she’s a little drunk with the force of it.

“You guys ready?” Alexa’s strong voice pulls all of their attention immediately, and Iris passes one more look through the crew of them before locking eyes with Alexa and James.

She nods her assent.

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

At 8, Iris pulls into Barry’s two-car driveway right next to his Jeep backed up into the drive as usual. The garage is open, though, and she takes that as an invitation to walk into the house, finding the kitchen door unlocked. She steps in and presses the button that closes the garage, locks the kitchen door behind her.

Her giddy mood has stuck with her.

The segment had been a quick fire round of questions and answers, with the hosts wanting to know how they all got started, what motivates them to do what they do, and the ups and downs of being in spaces of both influence and criticism. It’d been fascinating to hear the stories of the others, and afterward, they’d all exchanged contact information with the idea of collaborating on future projects.

After, she’d gone to lunch with her dad and Wally, who’d all but hinted at a watch party planned for the following night. She'd merely shaken her head at her family’s love of partying.

Now, she’s at Barry’s and she recognizes that tonight is going to be different. Because she knows that she’s going to say it. After the last part of her interview, where she’d all but explained to Alexa and James that she’d fallen in love with someone, she understands that there is no way that she can announce it on television and not tell the man himself.

It’s fairly dark in the house; there is a small light on above the stove. She continues through the quiet living room, a single table lamp lighting her path down his hallway. She pauses to pull her jacket off, tossing it over the arm of the sofa as she treks towards his room. That’s where she finds Barry, sitting in the large overstuffed chair in the corner near the window.

She takes a moment to look at him, in a pair of soft looking pajama pants and a simple white t-shirt, tattooed arm hooked behind his head as he sits wide-legged in the chair. His dark hair is only the slightest bit messy. Iris likes the look of the breadth of his shoulders, the bulge of his biceps, the print of his sex visible through the thin cotton of his pants. He’s not overtly sexy in the way that other men she’s dated have been, but there’s something about Barry, his eyes and his mouth and his length, that really gets to Iris.

She drags her eyes away from him and that’s when she suddenly notices the two gift-wrapped boxes sitting in the middle of his bed, the large bottle of wine and two glasses on his bedside table, a couple of pre-rolled joints sitting beside them too.

Iris steps further into the room, her heels heavy on his hardwood floors; the movement is enough to catch his attention and his head pops up, those sea-foam eyes glittering behind the wire frames of his glasses as he smiles up at her.

(And, Iris will realize later, her entire body floods with her affection for him, the feeling familiar in that the thought comes so much easier now, comes to her so smoothly that she doesn’t know how it’d once felt so difficult to get the words across.)

“Hey, beautiful,” he greets as he stands, unfolding his long frame from the chair. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”

“That’s okay,” she smiles at him as he comes to a stop in front of her. She naturally reaches out to wrap her arms around him, tightening them around his waist. His touch is automatic too, his big hands landing on her neck, thumbs trailing softly across the skin on her cheeks. She falls against him, his firmness and his warmth and the soft smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He leans down and kisses her, a peck and then another, and then a longer one, his tongue easing out to coax her open. He pulls back first, though slowly, and Iris chases after him. He obliges with another kiss, this one longer, wetter, Iris squeezing him to her.

“Hi,” she speaks, voice a little faint.

“Hey, beautiful” he repeats. He thumbs at her bottom lip, the tip of his finger tracing gently over the line of her mouth.

“What’s all this?” she asks, when she pulls away from him this time. She gazes around the room again, at how the only lights on are the bedside lamps and at the weed and wine waiting on one of those tables and the gifts sitting neatly on the bed.

“It’s a celebration,” he says with a wide smile. “Well, it’s your Friday night routine, just here. I got the wine and the weed, and Thai ordered out here for a bit later.” His smile dims a little, becomes unsure. “And I thought we could talk about your segment today; maybe actually watch it. I recorded it.”

“Really?” Iris’s eyes widen in slight surprise. “I know my dad and Wally did because we’re gonna have a watch party at dad’s place tomorrow. And probably Linda, but...”

“Of course I recorded it, baby.” Barry gives her an indulgent look. “I tried to watch some of it at work, but we got called out on a case before you came on. Then I thought it’d be better to wait to watch it with you.”

Iris doesn’t have a response other than to bite at her lip, eyes trained on him, the reality of his kindness rendering her momentarily speechless. Barry doesn’t acknowledge her silence; instead, he plants another firm kiss to her mouth and steps away from her, nodding at his bed.

“Is this all okay, though? Maybe you can open your gifts and then we can pour the wine and turn on your interview?”

Her smile is big. “Yeah, Barry, of course.”

She looks over at the sleekly wrapped presents before going to sit on the edge of his bed. She makes quick work of unclasping the buckle around her ankle, leaving her shoes strewn on the floor, and then she hops up into the middle of the bed, pulling the two boxes in front of her, her dress riding up to the top of her thighs.

One of the boxes is bigger than the other, though it’s lighter than the heavier one. They’re wrapped in shiny gold paper with dark blue bows sitting in the corner of each. She picks up the bigger present first, tearing through the paper. She recognizes the garment box and thumbs open the top. Nestled in white tissue paper is a pile of red silk, the material so soft and delicate it looks like waves on the cardboard.

“Bear?” she questions, picking up the folded clothing. It’s a nightgown and matching robe. The gown is almost like a dress she’d wear out, with thin straps and a split up the right side, except the fabric of it is so light, one can tell it’s only made to be seen by a lover. The feel of it in her hands is so nice and Iris knows that this isn’t like the inexpensive dresses she buys for herself.

“I thought that you could have one to keep over here sometimes,” he says when she catches his gaze. He looks a little bashful, cheeks slightly tinged pink. “I know that Friday night is largely your thing, but maybe every so often you can spend it with me.”

“And wear this?” Iris asks, her grin widening slowly.

Barry nods.

“I think that this is really a gift for you,” she says and he barks out a laugh.

“It is my favorite color.” He grins. “And I admit that when I saw it, the first thing I wondered was how it would look as I took it off of you.”

Iris rolls her eyes in jest. “Pervert.” She fingers the material again. “So you picked it out yourself? In a store?”

“You have no idea how embarrassing it is buying women’s lingerie. The sales lady kept making these innuendos and I thought I was gonna pass out, I was blushing so hard.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Iris laughs as she reaches over and pinches his cheek. “You did good though. It’s so soft.”

Barry beams at her. “Can I get a kiss as a thanks?”

Iris shakes her head. “Not until I open this other one. I could hate it and then that would overshadow how much I like this nightgown.”

He snorts. “Even if you do hate it, I’ll still get to see you in the nightgown and, honestly, that’ll make my night.”

“Like I said: pervert.”

He just chuckles as she picks up the heavier box and claws at the paper on it. It looks like some sort of leather book, and once Iris pulls all of the paper off, it takes everything in her not to just start bawling right then and there. It’s the journal she’d seen at the fall festival, except in a pretty royal purple instead of the coral she’d picked up there; this one’s definitely a better choice. It has the rose gold edging that the other had and her name is stitched in that same color at the bottom right corner of the journal. She flips through it, fingering the heavy cream paper. Handwriting catches her attention and she turns to where Barry has written a message on the first page in small, scrawling script.

Iris,

I think I knew that I was falling for you during fall fest, when I saw you staring down at the notebook with such a look of reverence on your face. I could see in that moment how much you loved your craft. It made me curious about you, about someone who’s goal in life is to be the voice for those who can’t or simply won’t. And when I started to read your work, I saw your heart in everything you wrote, in every line that scrolled across my computer screen. I wanted to know that heart.

Now that I do, now that I’ve seen it firsthand: in the way that you touch me, in the way that you smile at me, in the way that you make me feel like every day is new story to experience, I want to be able to experience it for as long as you’ll let me. Because you are a lightning bolt, Iris, brilliant and electric. You are beautiful and tenacious and the single most fascinating person I’ve ever met.

So keep putting your heart into your stories, and I’ve no doubt that everyone who reads it will love it as much as I do.

Barry

“Barry,” she says, breathes really. She looks up at him, his expression nervous, his eyes tracking her. She feels the moisture pricking at the corners of hers and she blinks, letting the tears fall.

“Iris.” His voice is a little raw as she gazes up at him. “I’m sorry. Please don’t cry. I can…” he cuts himself off as he reaches for the journal. Iris swats at his hand and brings the notebook closer to her. “Iris?”

Another tear, and then another and then more, roll down over her cheeks and Barry stares at her, hand outstretched, mouth agape.

“Iris,” he tries again. Wordlessly, she places the journal back down in the box and then she crawls over to him, planting herself in his lap. She wraps herself around him, legs locking around his waist, arms crossing behind his neck. He closes his mouth, but his features are still twisted in turmoil. “Baby, please tell me why you’re crying.”

He asks this as he reaches up to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Everything in Iris seems like it’s settling now, even as the tears fall. Even clearer than before, she can read the story of them, like the book is in front of her, words bold and in technicolor. She can see the dream she’s living in, the vision of them laughing with each other and making love to each other, for days on end, one that plays out like a movie in front of her.

She tightens around him, trying to get as close as she can without crawling inside of him—she really wishes she could right now—and she sniffs, looking down at Barry through her wet lashes. She takes a deep breath. And then she tells him.

“I’m crying because I love you.”

Much like the last time they’d had this conversation, Barry’s body stiffens beneath her. He asks carefully, “And loving me makes you cry?”

She nods and Barry looks stricken. It’s what she needs to bring a modicum of levity to the moment and she huffs out a small laugh. “These aren’t sad tears, Barry.”

Iris can physically see him exhale, letting out a shaky breath. His shoulders lose their tension and he gives her a tentative smile. She returns it.

“For someone who always seems to know what I’m thinking, you completely missed the mark here.”

Barry shakes his head as Iris notes the flush climbing up his neck. “The tears threw me off.” He wipes at her face. “Please never do that again.”

She laughs. “I’ll do my best.”

Barry runs a hand down her back, over the fabric of the dress she’s wearing, and he grips her chin with his other thumb and forefinger, bringing her down so he can stare into her eyes.

“So you love me?” he wonders. His voice dips, lower like midnight walks on a beach in the fall or like early morning talks before coffee and reality ease in. He pulls the glasses from his face, folds them on the table beside them, and gives her all of his attention. She likes being surrounded by him like this, by the look of him and the smell of him and the feel of him. She stays wrapped around him like a koala and Barry holds on to her too, gripping her chin and pressing her to him with a wide palm to the small of her back.

“I do,” Iris nods. “Very much.”

Iris can see the joy brimming in his gaze. “Can you tell me?”

“Tell you?”

“What you love about me.”

Barry shifts so that he’s sitting more comfortably on the bed and she’s perched even closer in his lap, the crotch of her panties almost pressing against his belly. He pushed the boxes and wrapping better towards the edge of the bed.

“For example,” he says, and he lets go of her chin to touch his palm to her chest. His hand is warm through the fabric of her dress. “You know that I love this heart, how gracious and compassionate it is.” He reaches down and picks up on her hands, rubbing a thumb along her knuckles, along the rings that adorn her fingers. He brings it up to his mouth and presses a few tiny kisses along the pads of her fingertips. “I love these fingers, because it’s through your writing, your typing, that you show yourself, even when you can’t always physically or verbally.” He goes back to her face, his thumb caressing the middle of her bottom lip. “I love this mouth: the way that it smiles and laughs, the way that it purses when you’re annoyed, the way that it feels on my own.”

Iris can’t help it when she licks her lips, tongue swiping at Barry’s thumb. He makes a soft grunting sound.

“Tell me, Iris.”

She thinks back to the second night they’d been together, when he’d been hard inside of her and he’d asked her to tell him how he felt fucking into her. She decides that this is even harder, not because she doesn’t know, but because when she speaks it, it’s officially there, written out in the sky, heaven coming to collect on its bet.

“I love your tattoos,” she starts, tentatively. She unhooks one of her arms from around his neck and touches at the skin on his arm, tracing the outline of a white daisy. “I love that you did it as a way to remember your mother; I love that you were brave enough to put the iris on your heart, even when I wasn’t sure how to receive that.” She reaches up to trail her fingers along his brows. “I love your eyes. I love the look of them, the fact that I can’t actually name what color they are; I love the way you look at me, how you can tell my feelings by just watching me, how it seems like I’m the only one you see whenever we’re out together.” She lets a nail trace the outline of his mouth, dropping her hand to rest on the back of his neck. “I love your mouth too; the way you always say things that make me feel beautiful or smart or loved.” She licks her lips again. “Or make me blush, like when you’re saying those dirty things when you’re…”

Barry gives her a deep smirk, those eyes flashing in a way that makes Iris’s body clench. Her thighs close around him.

“Like me saying those dirty things when I’m…?”

She rocks her hips. “You know.”

“I do,” he nods, “but I want to hear you say it.” He grinds up into her. “When I’m what, baby?”

“When,” she licks her lips again, slower this time, buoyed by the way his eyes darken, “you fuck me.”

“Mmmm,” Barry groans and then his grin changes to something a little indecent, darker and dirtier. “You know what else I love?”

Iris shakes her head, though she thinks she does.

“I love the way you respond to me, when I’m saying those dirty things to you when I’m fucking you.”

Iris rocks her hips again and she knows that it’s an involuntary moment. Because, like always, she responds to him easily, fluidly, like they’ve become extensions of the other.

Barry fingers at the hem of her dress sitting around her thighs. “Take this off,” he demands. “I want to show you how you look.”

Even with her brows furrowed in confusion, she does what he says, pulling the dress up and over her head. She reveals to him her bra and panty set, a dark green that even she thinks makes her skin glow. He fingers the lace at the top of the cups of her bra, at the same piping along her hips.

“As pretty as this is,” he murmurs, “I want it gone too.”

She unhooks the bra first, staring back at him. She tosses the bra on the bed beside them, her breasts sitting heavy on her chest, nipples already pointing out at him, seeking him, his fingers or his tongue or the nip of his teeth.

He helps her off of him so that she can take her panties off. Then, instead of letting her climb back on top of him, however, he positions himself so that he’s facing the side of the bed. He pulls her to him and sits her so she is sitting between his open knees, her back to his chest.

This brings a different part of the room into focus. Iris has always paid more attention to the wall length window on the other side of the room, the one that Barry will open when they’re together sometimes, taunting her with the eyes she’s sure she’s seen peeking through their blinds and his. The bed sits on a platform facing front, a television mounted on the wall above a stand that holds his game consoles and a few other knick knacks. But on the other side, there’s a bookshelf, above which hangs a mirror. Of course Iris has known it was there, has looked into it as she’s done her makeup or straightened one of Barry’s stolen shirts on her. But it looks almost dangerous now, only in that she can only imagine what Barry has planned for it. In the mirror, she can see all of her. It’s not an extremely large mirror, but it spans the length of the bookshelf and it’s just high enough that, on the bed, Iris can see both of their bodies.

“Barry?” she questions as she looks over her shoulder at him.

“I know you like it when other people watch,” he says, and she almost rolls her eyes at the smug, laughing look on his face. “But I want you to watch you right now. To see yourself the way I do; to see why I felt so compelled to come to you that first night.”

Iris’s lips quirk up slightly. “I didn’t look like this the first night you saw me.”

“I’ve got a great imagination,” Barry winks.

Ignoring his statement,

(but not the way her heart fills with love for him, the kind that sits heavy in her chest, bold and open; the kind that stays strong in her belly, flipping and fluttering and always present; the kind that dips low in her sex, warm and wet and wanting)

Iris turns back to the mirror and catalogs what she sees: her naked body cocooned in his fully clothed one; her brown eyes bright with anticipation, his darkened with barely disguised lust. There are still traces of her lipstick on her full mouth, and some of it is on Barry too, a look that shouldn’t be as arousing as it is. The fabric of his clothes are so soft on her bare skin, and the warmth of the heat through the room only serves to heighten her desire. Barry moves her hands, throws them over either side of his thighs, and uses his to open her legs; the move puts her even more on display, the gold necklace she’s been wearing all day nestled in between her breasts, her belly taut, the pinkish brown lips of her pussy already slick.

Barry circles a hand gently around her throat at the same time that he palms the inside of one of her thighs, holding her open, rubbing gently at her skin.

“I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you,” Barry says to her, whispers it, his voice soft in her ear. “I admit I was drunk that first night, but I saw you and it was like, like the entire world came into focus. I think my body knew I would love you before the rest of me could even deny it. And, by some miracle, I got you to take me home with you.”

He touches her lightly on her neck and then moves down, the tips of his fingers feeling on her breasts until he circles a nipple. She gasps, the sound more like a low moan, and Barry smiles at it.

“You were so responsive,” he explains. “I’ve never seen anything like the way you respond to me; it’s so electrifying, baby.”

He circles one nipple with the rough pad of his fingers, pinches at it until it fully hardens, the action almost painful in that she needs more. He moves to the other nipple, does the same thing, and Iris grinds her hips, hoping to move the hand still gliding on her thigh closer to where she always wants him.

“It can be the slightest touch,” he continues, running his nails down the space between her breasts. She proves his point, whimpering a little as he glides down to her belly, and then up again, adding a finger as he goes down once more, and then up. It should not feel like this, such an innocuous move. But he’s right; she’s so responsive to him. This ghost of a touch, just the barest hint of his fingers on her, and she’s heated, her thighs quaking, her sex fluttering.

“Barry,” she sighs, catching her gaze through the mirror. He licks those pink lips, eyes honed in on her, and in that moment, she sees that it is mutual. However true it is that she so easily reacts to him, he is not unaffected. He is, just as much as she is, the truth of it right there in his wrecked countenance: the burning gray of his eyes, the pink flush of his cheeks, the colorful bunch of the tattoos on his arm as he holds her tight.

“I’m in love with this pussy, too,” he mumbles into her neck, his pale hands moving to grip her thighs. The sight of it is a touch obscene, his lightly tanned skin on the umber of hers, his long fingers pressing into her flesh. He doesn’t touch her sex, not right away. Instead, he squeezes her thighs before repeating his pattern of running his fingers up and down, up and down again.

“Look at it,” Barry groans, and she watches his gaze go down to her before she looks at herself. She knows her own body, but Iris has never looked at herself like this, has never spread her legs in front of a mirror when her lips were wet like this, flushed red like this, puckered open as if begging for the stretch of his cock.

“Look at how pretty you are, baby.” His voice sounds like music to her. “Look at how slick you get for me; how open you get for me.”

“Bear,” Iris moans.

He chuckles. “I know. I wanna fuck you right now too.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“Because I’m not finished playing.”

Iris gripes at that, throwing her head back on his shoulder and canting her hips toward his hand.

“No, be a good girl for me, Iris.” Those nimble fingers inch toward the middle of her. “Be a good girl and keep looking while I finish playing.”

He waits until she looks back at the mirror and then he starts. That first touch to her sends electricity coursing through her. He swipes a finger straight up the middle of her slit and she jerks, followed quickly by a limb-loosening moan when Barry sucks the digit in his mouth.

“I love the taste of it,” Barry says.

He reaches back down again, uses his index and ring fingers to hold her open and then dips his middle finger into her. He fucks that finger into her slowly, rubbing against her walls as if he’s trying to memorize the feel of her, gathering the slick of her on that finger.

“I love the feel of it.”

He shifts to use all three of those fingers, dipping them in her wet and rubbing them over her. This is where he finds his rhythm. Iris catches, and this time holds, the sight of them in the glass. Her hair is a curly mess, the strands hanging loose and tangled around her head. Her lips are swollen from how often she keeps tugging the bottom one between her teeth, her chest heaving as she prays for release. In all of that, Iris swears she’s glowing, eyes darkened and alight, her entire body lit with pleasure, bringing out the honeyed undertones in her skin. She looks raw. She looks fucked. She looks like a woman who sings out whenever she can, you woo me, you court me, you tease me, you please me.

And Barry holds on to her, fingers moving a little erratically, going between fucking his fingers into her and massaging her swollen clit with his wet fingers. All of it is, a lot, the way his fingers look slicker and slicker until she’s dripping down onto his wrists, the way that their different skin colors seem to matter right now only in how erotic the contrast looks right now.

“Come, baby,” Barry says. “And watch yourself.”

She does, watches herself as she comes, watches Barry watch her as she does. And it’s as beautiful as he says. Because she looks like a woman drowning in bliss, a woman draped in desire, the look of it hugging like a second skin. She looks like the way women might be described in romance novels, so satisfied she can’t think of anything other than being wrapped up in the man giving her the satisfaction. She looks like the woman in some fantasy or dream, ascending the clouds, spread out and open in an expanse of blue. She sings it in her head, you school me, give me things to think about; invite me, you ignite me, co-write me, you love me, you like me; incite me to chorus, at the same time that she sings out loud, “god, Bear, baby yes,” her eyes fluttering closed at only the very last minute.

“I love you,” Barry tells her, after, as she blinks through the haze of her orgasm.

With low, shaky limbs, she turns around, crawling on top of him and pulling him out of his sweatpants only enough that she can slide down the length of his dick. He stretches her, even as wet as she is, her cream coating him. Then he wraps his arms around her, pulling her down to him, all the way until there is only the ocean blue shade of his eyes filling her gaze, so different from the molten whiskey of hers, though nothing in Iris doubts that the same expression shines in both of them: that of a craving for this to last until the last breath shudders from their bodies, that of the love that she hopes makes that dream come true.

“I love you too, Barry.”

And this time, they only watch each other, reading each other, their climax hurtling toward them with the sort of rugged elegance that has always accompanied her idea of love. It’s bliss, la, la, la; da, da, da; do, do, do.

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

“So Iris, tell me,” Alexa May starts. Iris inclines her head as she awaits Alexa’s question, the other woman’s gaze kind and curious. “Are any of the stories on your blog particularly personal to you?” James Broderick nods his head at the question.

“Well, they’re all personal to me,” Iris tells her with a side grin. “But I assume you’re asking if one of the stories I’ve written is particular to my life?”

“Exactly,” Alexa gives her her own smirk.

Iris shakes her head, pauses for a minute as she decides how much she wants to say on a widespread television

“None of them are,” she says, carefully. “But I’m working on one.”

Both Alexa and James’s blue eyes light with interest.

“Oh really?” James questions.

Alexa leans toward her, crossing her slim legs and settling her elbows on her thighs. “Is it a love story?”

“It is,” Iris laughs softly. “It’s a story still being written, so I don’t want to give too much away. But I can tell you that it’s about two people who’ve found something neither had been particularly expecting. It’s about two people who’ve struggled to find acceptance in different ways, to fight through the pain they’ve experienced. It’s about two people who feel into each other’s lives in one of the easiest ways possible, like puzzle pieces clicking or locks being secured or some other metaphor for two people who just… fall into place.” There’s a round of sweet chuckles from Alexa and some of the other guests. “Most importantly, though, it’s about two people who’ve stumbled right into something out of a storybook, something that can only be described as love.”

There is a pause. And then Alexa sighs. “God, that’s beautiful.”

Iris presses a hand to her heart, trying to keep in the surge of emotion that floods through her in that moment.

“Yeah,” she agrees. “So are we.”

“And there you have it, viewers,” James says, pulling the attention away. “Keep a lookout for that love story on What a Life You’ve Lived. Thank you all so much for watching. We’ll be right back.”

You're different and special

You're different and special in every way imaginable

You love me from my hair follicles to my toenails

You got me feeling like the breeze, easy and free and lovely and new

Oh when you touch me I just can't control it

When you touch me, I just can't hold it

The emotion inside of me, I can feel it

#westallen fanfiction #strangers to lovers #iris west #barry x iris #barry allen

13 notes · View notes

yessoupy · 4 years ago

Text

the @imetyouonljpodcast episode this week gave me lots of thoughts and feelings about star wars. more like, reminded me of all my thoughts and feelings around my first fandom. thus, I decided to write my own journey into and throughout star wars fandom, and what it means to me. buckle up, this story spans decades.

my very first memory of anything star wars-related is a yoda puppet that my grandmother had. it had to be from the original run of the movies, because I was maybe 4 in my first memory of it, and i was born in '86. my sisters and I loved it, and one of our cousins was deathly scared of it so we'd chase him around the house with it.

my second memory of star wars was going to the movie store with my dad and sisters and seeing our favorite yoda on the cover of a VHS. "yoda yoda yoda! daddy, it's yoda!!! can we get it?" we were holding up the display cover for return of the jedi. dad said no, we couldn't get that one yet because we had to watch them in order. so we rented a new hope and all I remember was falling asleep while artoo and threepio were trundling across the tatooine desert sands. at five I guess I was too young.

in early 1997 the special editions of the original trilogy were aired in theaters and I was in 4th grade. dad took us to see one of them (I think empire, at some point we'd finally finished a new hope). at school that grading period I sat next to a boy named mark and he noticed I was drawing little x-wing silhouettes on my paper. "you like star wars too?" he asked. when I said yes, he declared that because of my name, he was going to call me skywalker. that's the name on the back of my high school letter jacket.

in fall of 1998 I started the 6th grade and I came home from school one day to a hardbound book my mom had checked out for me from the library. heir to the empire by timothy zahn. mom pointed out where it said on the cover it was a trilogy, and I could get the other books when I finished this one. she hadn't found the young jedi knights series for me. she'd checked out a GROWN-UP star wars book.

in spring of 1999 the phantom menace came out and my parents' friend took me to see it on opening day because neither of them were free and I HAD to go that day. later on that year she took me to a star wars exhibit at the museum of fine arts. that was also the first time I saw a monet and a renoir. the exhibit had costumes (real costumes!!!) from the original trilogy and the newest prequel. I bought a book about the myth of star wars in the museum gift shop.

I read every expanded universe book our local library had, which was a lot. I had a lot to catch up on, too, since heir to the empire had been published in 1992. you never saw me at school without a star wars book. I read while walking in the hallways, even. in 6th grade I read during lunch, since I was in varsity orchestra with 7th and 8th graders and was terribly shy. they'd tell me I should socialize at lunch, not read my books, but... I wanted to read. I had a lot to learn. I have a lot to know.

I was in 7th grade when I read vector prime, the first in the new series. my first class of the day was science, and the boy I had a crush on was in that class. we had DEAR time at the beginning of that class - drop everything and read. not a hardship for me. that day, I read the part of the book where chewbacca was killed. I looked up, astonished. heartbroken. I locked eyes with the boy I liked. he nodded at the book and I showed him the cover. he nodded sympathetically. "they killed chewie," I whispered. he said "I know."

I wrote original characters in star wars fan fiction when I was about 13. I had an internet friend named rachel who lived in brisbane. then there was dave and 'roswell' who gave me ideas for my story. I loved being able to talk about the wide world of star wars with other people. we used aol instant messenger and email. my username in those days had 'skywalker' in it. I am pretty sure we met in an aol chatroom. I didn't find much of use on the official star wars site and I have probably visited it fewer than 10 times since 1999.

I read those books all through middle and high school. they were my christmas presents and my birthday presents. I moved into our family beach house after college. it sounds really nice but I didn't have running water because it was the summer after Ike hit. I would go to the used book store on 23rd street and buy a stack of star wars books and read them while I waiting for calls to interview for a teaching position. weekends I'd go into town to stay at a friend's house and help her with wedding stuff. I'd shower there, too. that's where my new stash of star wars books started, with me catching up on the legacy of the force series I hadn't read in college and then finishing up through the fate of the jedi as those came out. I felt that I had grown up with these characters. I remembered when kyp was just an orphan han rescued, when jacen and jaina were five years old, when corran horn had no wife, no kids, and was just finding out who his family was. I had capital o opinions about what color lightsaber i would have and why (silver; bc corran), I knew the geography of the galaxy and where everyone was from and my favorite planet was dathomir because women ruled it. I knew all of these characters' histories and motivations and the difficult decisions they'd made and had to live with. I loved them.

i never ventured into the online fandom space for star wars, even after I'd found other online fandom spaces, because I didn't feel like there was anything anyone could add to it for me. I was satisfied with all I'd gotten. sure, favorite characters had been killed (after chewie, the one who stung most was Mara, luke's wife), but people die. and in such a long-running series spanning so many years and trillions of miles of space... you come to expect it.

people would ask me ALL THE TIME when the sequels were coming out and I said never. then, disney bought star wars. initially I was excited (tears of joy happy) to have sequels confirmed. my mind raced, imagining a trilogy centered on the events surrounding jacen's descent to the dark side. the original actors would be the right age for that. who could play jacen?

then, the announcement came that the canon was now 'legends' and they wouldn't be taking any of it into account when writing the sequels BUT that didn't mean we wouldn't see old canon favorites. they announced adam driver as the villain and I thought "jacen." I held onto the idea that this knowledge I had, these years of knowing these stories, would still be worth something. that I'd be able to add new information to my mental bookshelves and maps. that my universe would expand further.

the force awakens was a bitter disappointment. I was upset from the crawl, leia's title making it clear to me that she wasn't chief of state, she wasn't the mother to three children, han wasn't her husband, and all of her history I'd grown to love really was gone. what I saw was the older version of a woman I'd met when she was 18 and hadn't seen her since her early twenties. I didn't know her.

I didn't know the galaxy, either. starting with the new jedi order series, a map of the galaxy was included in the front of each book with the planets named so you knew where everything was happening. the new galaxy was bare. it was small and knowable. while the hosnian prime system was destroyed in the movie, I'd never known it, and all the planets I DID know were similarly blasted out of memory. where was dathomir and its fierce warrior witches? if their planets were gone so were their people.

as the movie trudged on, a retelling of a new hope, I kept thinking, "at least let his name be jacen." I hung my hopes on this sith character being han and leia's son and sharing that name of the boy I'd known and the man who'd grown up to turn to the dark side. at that first shout of 'BEN!' I was angry. Ben?? that was the name of LUKE'S son! that was MARA'S child! Ben??? with three letters jacen solo and ben skywalker were also dead to the galaxy.

I know, I know. I should get over it. I AM thankful for poe dameron. the x-wing books were always my favorite. poe was familiar to me the way other new characters weren't. he was part of the new republic navy. I knew what that was. he flew an x-wing. I knew what that was.l and what company manufactured them. he was from yavin IV, I knew where that was and what it looked like. finn was a stormtrooper, yes, but the empire had not stolen children to be raised as stormtroopers. they were recruited like any other position. his story wasn't real to me, it wasn't something I could easily accept. and the idea that the new republic just LET the first order rise? leia's new republic would NEVER. but leia wasn't chief of state in this universe. leia hadn't had that power.

I read a lot of articles about the force awakens and the reactions to it, and never saw myself in any of them. the star wars fanboys whom I'd never known were painted as being angry because their fan knowledge was useless and "boo-hoo poor widdle fanboys" they would be mocked, rightfully. but that's why I was angry, ultimately. everyone I knew and loved was dead. worse, they'd never existed. "what do you think will happen?" some unsuspecting coworker would ask. I'd shrug, but inside I was yelling "who the fuck knows! my favorite characters don't exist anymore. nothing I know as this person you know as SKYWALKER means anything anymore."

it only got worse from there. One day I spent four hours figuring out how far the casino planet was from the drifting ships in the last jedi and doing math to figure out how long it would REALLY take to get there, using old canon star wars physics. I couldn't suspend my disbelief during that movie. everything was wrong. (the other space physics quibble I had was from TFA when poe is using comms while in hyperspace, and dropping out on a command and not... when nav told him to?? you'd fly right through a star!! were they HOVERING in hyperspace? none of it made sense.) I knew too much and too little to enjoy it.

TROS was a narrative mess already retconning new canon and I decided that I would only keep what I liked about the new canon (poe and his family) and pretend the old canon is all there is. one day I'll write the story of poe being part of the storied rogue squadron being sent by leia's new republic to put down the fascist upstarts at the edge of the unknown regions. one day.

one more quick story -- i met my college friend’s three kids for the first time when the oldest was 6. i’d sent a toy lightsaber as a gift when he was born, because i believe every child should get their first lightsaber from a skywalker, and his father had shown him the movies when he turned 4. when i walked into the house i said hello and he said, “i have some questions about star wars.”

we sat on the couch with the tfa visual dictionary, a book he’d gotten out of the library. every question he had was an excellent question, and i couldn’t answer any of them. “why does his lightsaber look like that? and why does he have the extra blades?”

“well, kiddo, let’s see what it says here about how lightsabers are made. i used to know all about it, but they changed everything on me.”

---

what i love about star wars since disney bought it:

poe dameron, cassian andor (and all of rogue one, i got over the fact that the movie wouldn’t be about rogue squadron it was PERFECT), solo (a fucking DELIGHT), the mandalorian, and i’m sure the cassian andor live action will be amazing and i’ll love it.

#star wars #fandom thoughts #i've just spent SO MUCH of my life being a star wars fan #and being perfectly happy to describe myself as such #edit i tried a read more but it didn't work so sorrryyyyyyyy

34 notes · View notes

kingjasnah · 4 years ago

Note

Is there the full list of brandersons favourite games reposted somewhere?

i dont think so? or not that ive seen. u can literally just sign up for the newsletter on his website but screw it ill just post them for u. it sure was a TRIP scrolling past these to get to the interlude though. undertale is on this list.....im shakign at the thought that adolin was based off ff10 tidus but i cant get it out of my head now

#10: Katamari Damaci

I love things that make me look at the world in a new way. Katamari did this in spades. It is an imaginative, bizarre vision with unique gameplay. It is like nothing else in the world and I love it for all its strangeness and occasional lack of gameplay polish.

I was transfixed the first time I played it, and have looked forward to it being remade and rereleased on multiple different consoles. I love the cute—and somehow creepy at the same time—storyline. It feels like a fever dream more than a game sometimes, and is probably the closest I’ll ever get to understanding what it’s like to do drugs.

#9: Undertale

This is an oddball on this list because I think it’s the only game that is not a franchise from a major studio—but is instead an indie game, which I believe was originally funded on Kickstarter.I loved how this felt like a novel as much as a game. It was one person’s vision; a single story told really well, with a huge amount of personality. The humor was just my kind of wonderful/terrible, and I was instantly enamored with the characters.That probably would have been enough, but it is a nice deconstruction of video games as a medium—and has not one, but multiple innovative gameplay mechanics. Together, the package left me enamored. This is a work of genius that I feel everyone should at least try, even if it ends up not being for them.

#8: Fallout: New Vegas

I have played all of the core Fallout games, and I was one of the (it seems few) who was really excited when it moved from turn-based tactics to first-person shooter. While Fallout 3 was good, it didn’t have the charm of the first two.New Vegas delivered on everything I was hoping to see. The charm was back, the writing sharp, the quests imaginative. The gameplay was engaging and branched in a variety of directions, the gunplay was solid, and the atmosphere immersive. I of course love the first two games in the series—but New Vegas combines everything I like in gaming into one package. (As a note, I own the Outer Worlds, and am looking forward to digging into it. Consider this item on the list a recommendation of other Obsidian games—like Knights of the Old Republic Two—regardless of genre, as I’ve found them universally to be superior to their contemporaries.)

#7 Super Mario World

When I was eleven, I flew (alone, which was very exciting to me) from Nebraska to visit my uncle Devon in Salt Lake City. Before I left, my father gave me $200 and told me to pay for my own meals while on the trip—but of course, my uncle didn’t allow this. At the end of the trip, I tried to give him the money, which he wouldn’t take.I mentioned my dad would take the money back when I got home, but that was okay. Well, my uncle would have none of that, and drove me to the local mall and made me spend it on a Nintendo Entertainment System. (This uncle, you might guess, is an awesome human being.)Since that day of first plugging it in and experiencing Mario for the first time, I was hooked. This is the only platformer on the list, as I don’t love those. But one makes an exception for Mario. There’s just so much polish, so much elegance to the control schemes, that even a guy who prefers an FPS or an RPG like me has to admit these are great games. I picked World as my favorite as it’s the one I’ve gone back to and played the most.

#7: The Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3)

I kind of miss the golden age of adventure gaming, and I don’t know that anyone ever got it as right as they did with this game. It is the pinnacle of the genre, in my opinion—no offense to Grim Fandango fans.This game came out right before gaming’s awkward teenage phase where everything moved to 3-d polygons. For a while after, games looked pretty bad, though they could do more because of the swap. But if you want to go see what life was like before that change, play Monkey Island 3. Composed of beautiful art pieces that look like cells from Disney movies, with streamlined controls (the genre had come a long way from “Get yon torch”) and fantastic voice acting, this game still plays really well.This is one of the few games I’ve been able to get my non-gamer wife to play through with me, and it worked really well as a co-op game with the two of us trying to talk through problems. It’s a lovingly crafted time capsule of a previous era of gaming, and if you missed it, it’s really worth trying all these years later. (The first and second games hold up surprisingly well too, as a note, particularly with the redone art that came out a decade or so ago.)Also, again, this one has my kind of humor.

#6: Breath of the Wild

I never thought a Zelda game would unseat A Link to the Past as my favorite Zelda, but Breath of the Wild managed it. It combined the magic of classic gameplay with modern design aesthetic, and I loved this game.There’s not a lot to say about it that others haven’t said before, but I particularly liked how it took the elements of the previous games in the series (giving you specific tools to beat specific challenges) and let you have them all at once. I like how the dungeons became little mini puzzles to beat, instead of (sometimes seemingly endless) slogs to get through. I liked the exploration, the fluidity of the controls, and the use of a non-linear narrative in flashbacks. It’s worth buying a Switch just to play this one and Mario—but in case you want, you can also play Dark Souls on Switch... (That’s foreshadowing.)

#5: Halo 2

Telling stories about Halo Two on stream is what made me think of writing this list.I’m sometimes surprised that this game isn’t talked about as much as I think it should be. Granted, the franchise is very popular—but people tend to love either Reach or games 1 or 3 more than two. Two, however, is the only one I ever wanted to replay—and I’ve done so three or four times at this point. (It’s also the only one I ever beat on Legendary.)It’s made me think on why I love this one, while so many others seem to just consider it one of many in a strong—but in many ways unexceptional—series of games. I think part of this is because I focus primarily on the single-player aspects of a game (which is why there aren’t any MMOs on this list.) Others prefer Halo games with more balanced/polished multiplayer. But I like to game by myself, and don’t really look for a multiplayer experience. (Though this is changing as I game with my sons more and more.)I really like good writing—which I suppose you’d expect. But in games, I specifically prefer writing that enhances the style of game I’m playing. Just dumping a bunch of story on me isn’t enough; it has to be suited to the gameplay and the feel of the game. In that context, I’ve rarely encountered writing as good as Halo 2. From the opening—with the intercutting and juxtaposition of the two narratives—to the quotes barked out by the marines, the writing in this game is great. It stands out starkly against other Halo games, to the point that I wonder what the difference is.Yes, Halo Two is a bombastic hero fantasy about a super soldier stomping aliens. But it has subtle, yet powerful worldbuilding sprinkled all through it—and the music...it does things with the story that I envy. It’s kind of cheating that games and films get to have powerful scores to help with mood.The guns in Two feel so much better than Halo One, and the vehicles drive far better. The only complaint I have is that it’s only half a story—as in, Halo 2 and 3 seem like they were one game broken in two pieces. And while 3 is good (and Reach does something different, which I approve of in general) neither did it for me the way Two did, and continues to do.

#3: Final Fantasy X

You probably knew Final Fantasy was coming. People often ask if the way these games handle magic was an influence upon me. All I can say is that I’ve played them since the first one, and so they’re bound to have had an influence.On one hand, these games are really strange. I mean, I don’t think we gamers stop quite often enough to note how downright bizarre this series gets. Final Fantasy doesn’t always make the most sense—but the games are always ambitious.Ten is my favorite for a couple of reasons. I felt like the worldbuilding was among the strongest, and I really connected with the characters. That’s strange, because this is one of the FF games without an angst-filled teen as the protagonist. Instead, it has a kind of stable happy-go-lucky jock as the protagonist.But that’s what I needed, right then. A game that didn’t give me the same old protagonist, but instead gave me someone new and showed me I could bond to them just as well. Ten was the first with full voice acting, and that jump added a lot for me. It has my favorite music of the series, and all together is what I consider the perfect final fantasy game. (Though admittedly, I find it more and more difficult to get into turn-based battle mechanics as I grow older.)

#2: Bloodborne

Those who follow my streams, or who read other interviews I’ve done, probably expected this series to be at or near the top. The question wasn’t whether Souls would be here, but which one to pick as my favorite.I went with Bloodborne, though it could have been any of them. (Even Dark Souls 2—which I really like, despite its reputation in the fandom.) I’ve been following FromSoftware’s games since the King’s Field games, and Demon’s Souls was a huge triumph—with the director Hidetaka Miyazaki deserving much of the praise for its design, and Dark Souls (which is really just a more polished version of Demon’s Souls).As I am a fan of cosmic horror, Bloodborne is probably my favorite overall. It really hit the mix of cosmic and gothic horror perfectly. It forced me to change up my gameplay from the other Souls games, and I loved the beautiful visuals.I am a fan of hard games—but I like hard games that are what I consider “fair.” (For example, I don’t love those impossible fan-made Mario levels, or many of the super-crazy “bullet hell”-style games.) Dark Souls is a different kind of hard. Difficult like a stern instructor, expecting you to learn—but giving you the tools to do so. It presents a challenge, rather than being hard just to be hard.If I have a problem with Final Fantasy, it’s that the games sometimes feel like the gameplay is an afterthought to telling the story. But in the Souls games, story and gameplay are intermixed in a way I’d never seen done before. You have to construct the story like an archeologist, using dialogue and lore from descriptions of in-game objects. I find this fascinating; the series tells stories in a way a book never could. I’m always glad when a game series can show off the specific strengths of the medium.In fact, this series would be #1 except for the little fact that I have way too much time on Steam logged playing...

#1: Civilization VI

This series had to take #1 by sheer weight of gameplay time. I discovered the first on a friend’s computer in the dorms my freshman year—and I can still remember the feeling of the birds chirping outside, realizing I’d been playing all night and really should get back to my own dorm room.That still happens, and has happened, with every game in the series. I have a lot of thoughts on this series, many of them granular and too specific for this list. (Like, it’s obvious AI technology isn’t up to the task of playing a game this complex—so could we instead get a roguelike set of modifiers, game modes, etc. to liven up the games, rather than just having a difficulty slider that changes a few simple aspects of the game?)I’ll try not to rant, because I really do love this game series. A lot of people consider IV to be the pinnacle of the series, but after V unstacked units—and VI unstacked cities—there was no way I could ever go back. If for some reason, you’ve never played this grand patriarch of the 4X game genre, it’s about starting with a single stone-age settler who can found a city—then playing through eras of a civilization, growing your empire, to try to eventually get offworld with a space program. (Or, if you prefer, conquering the world.)It’s a load of fun in the way I like to have fun, and I feel like the series has only gotten better over the years. My hat is off to the developers, who keep reinventing the series, rather than making the exact same game over and over.Now, about that request for difficulty modes...

there are runner ups but for the sake of anyone whos on mobile and cant get past a read more (first of all omg im SO sorry) ill refrain. anyway he thought WHAT loz game was the best before botw?

#mix between HARDCORE judgement and like. yea. yea ff10 was pretty good wasnt it #but i dont think its anywhere near the best of them #long post #im read mores dont work imm so fucking sorry this is so long #MOST of these games are good its just so wild its so wild its SO wild #asks #Anonymous

20 notes · View notes

aristephes · 4 years ago

Text

Part Nine

What does one do when one is 125kgs, depressed and suicidal?

In my case, I rolled around in bed feeling sorry for myself and tried to think of ways to beat the negative self-talk. One day, during a doctor’s visit, I saw a flyer for an organisation that basically said they could help me. I took that as a challenge. I mean, what did I have to lose?

I went in for a chat and an assessment and they said that they could put me in contact with other people that had similar issues. That there would be group work and that there would be an opportunity to recover. Recovery at that point meant losing weight, losing the depression and getting my life back, because that is what I so desperately wanted.

So I joined this group, and we started off by doing art. Art therapy. Making things with plaster and wire. I figured this would be messy and fun. I was not disappointed. I made a couple of ‘friends’ in the group, people I felt comfortable talking to and we were encouraged to be mindful of other people’s situations and be gentle with one another in respect to sharing information.

Pretty soon, they had me working on a newsletter... Little did I know that the newsletter would be a way for me to jog my creativity back into gear. It gave me a great opportunity to feel useful and like I had a purpose and that was all I could ask for at that time.

Of course, I had a purpose, I was a husband and father... but I needed more than that. I needed fresh air and social contacts to keep me going outside and keep me engaged.

This worked wonders. The next thing I knew, I was asked if I wanted to train to teach a program that would be peer led. I agreed to this. And here’s where things literally took off. I was flying to the mainland on a regular basis, training and preparing to run that course. I was over the moon. I had never felt like I could be of that kind of use. But my lived experiences were valued by this organisation and I suddenly found myself falling into the web that would soon get tangled and mangled.

Still, I maintained my course and the manager of the organisation’s office in my town was basically preparing me to work for them. So, I began my first course and ran it. It went down well. I then became a speaker ... an educational peer worker ... I was paid by the organisation to tell my story to the public. This was a scary process, I live in the Bible Belt of the island and it’s small town talk that can make one become a pariah very quickly in the hands of the wrong people.

Then, that manager left... I had been down THIS road before... back in the day. And the results were pretty much coming up similarly. They wanted me to work on some of their committees, which I did. Again, lots of flying to the mainland. At the same time, I was with another organisation, that was and advocacy group in my state. They had me going to meetings all over the island. It was great. I was travelling, meeting lots of people in the mental health space, I worked on a committee for the local hospital and all the while, I was being sucked into the “volunteer” trap. While yes, I was getting paid for my time as a lived experience consultant, I was being lumped with a lot of stuff... Stuff that at first, I didn’t mind doing... but it was evident that things weren’t exactly going my way.

The first organisation had a job going for a peer worker and all I had to do was sit an interview. It looked good on paper. I had the opportunity and I had been studying for my Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Work. I just had to sit in the interview and say my piece. Except my brain, foggy and my throat closed up from nerves and I could barely answer the questions in front of the panel. Turns out they hired someone else... Despite my years of volunteering with them and working with them, it just wasn’t enough. I was gutted.

The second organisation, meanwhile, had a change of CEO and I was asked to come onboard and help with a project there. I would be paid a nice sum if I could just set up a group in one region. A region famous for rejecting outsiders. What could possibly go wrong?

In the end, that failed - not because of any wrong doing on my part, but because of the insular nature of the region and their intolerance of people that “didn’t understand the dynamics” of their culture. Their loss.

By now, I was becoming more and more distressed. Jobs had been promised all over the place, but every time I tried to find that angle, someone had left and the offer was now defunct. When I said that I told the organisations that I would no longer be volunteering for them, things got heated.

The CEO of the second organisation emailed me with a terrible letter, saying I was a back stabber... Nice... I wasn’t in fact, stabbing anyone but myself, because I was the one taking all this onboard, while they merely moved on to greener pastures.

The first organisation didn’t care that I left. They used me and threw me away. A mental health organisation that is supposed to have a duty of care, threw me away like a piece of garbage. I would never go back to them.

The second organisation got a new CEO after the abusive one left. Then I started getting phone calls, asking for me to come back into the volunteering - and I agreed to for a short period to help them get things rolling again. And I did that... except it started to become one thing after another... Can you do this? Can you do that?

It really wears thin after a while. You put your heart and soul into things and you get a great big kick in the arse. I told them that if I left, the regional group would collapse. It needed leadership and I was their leader. But I wasn’t prepared to be the one to do all the work and no one else would volunteer to do it. So... I left. It was hard, it was really difficult to do it, but I had to cut ties.

Being used is not for me. I hate it. With a passion.

So, what the hell, world? I finally lose some weight (got down to 116kgs from 128kgs); get my mojo back for a little while and then all these organisations suck the goddamned life out of me. For what?

But there was ONE organisation that I hadn’t counted on. One that I was involved with, on and off, which treated me like a true, valued member of society and knowledgeable in my field of mental health peer work. The jobs came a little at a time, but there was a great deal of support from them. I liked the people there. They were friendly and supportive and caring. I wasn’t ‘volunteering’ with them, I was being consulted. It’s a much nicer way to go about business.

During these years, from 2011 - 2017 I had grown and recovered from my terrible bout of depression and angst. The anxiety and the back and knee pain didn’t go away, but I was able to do things again. Engage with my family and friends and actually care about life. Those five years from 2007 - 2011 were hell. I don’t ever want to go there again. Five years of hell on earth, and then six years of recovery were what it took for me to get my act together.

However, I could not trust ‘employers’ or people in positions of power because they had all used me and thrown me away. Except for that one organisation that is based on the mainland that treats me as a consultant. I could deal with that because they know the value of treating people with lived experience as experts in their field. This is the main difference between them and the other organisations that seem to feel I was just there for them to use.

Then what comes next? I’m on the road to recovery, I’m functioning sort of okay, except for massive memory issues, brain fog and chronic pain... What comes next?

That, my friends, I shall answer in Part Ten.

#bpd #bipolar #mental health #true story #true love #my writing #trans #ftm

2 notes · View notes

hellishvu · 5 years ago

Text

Imagine BTS: with you who loves to play with their hands/hair

— hehe i’m currently writing this in mexico, on the plane, and on the bus back home...gays let me tell you... i’m very excited to start opening my story requests and the new look of august is looking good! also sorry about last story, i really couldn’t figure out how to add “read more” and it was acting dumb! also this imagine is probably the longest i’ve ever wrote and the real reason why it took so long to write !

Kim Namjoon: ˚✧₊⁎

Namjoon has been on tours and busy traveling to different shoots and interviews. You promised Namjoon you would come with him the next tour saving up all your vacation days to be with him on the bus you two are on right now.

You couldn’t guess how many hours of sleep he got. Half the time he gets the appropriate amount and the other time he gets less then 5 hours. You could tell by the the middle of the day wether he was grumpy or stressed out. Wanting you to hold his hand way more often being needy almost, you complied though everytime.

“Aren’t you tired Joon?” Namjoon leans on your shoulder typing at his phone listening to instrumentals trying to catch lyrical inspiration.

“Nope, need to write lyrics.” See when Namjoon comes up with an excuse of why he isn’t tired. That’s when you know he’s actually running on small amounts of sleep. You yanked your blanket from your backpack laying it on top of Namjoon seeing his suspicious glance.

“Are you sure angel?” Rubbing his hair, that was the man’s weakness and if he was tired he would fall asleep in minutes when you rubbed his hair. Looking out the bus window playing with his hair.

“Mmh stop rubbing. You know that’s my weakness!” Namjoon whines turning around when he places his head in the crook of your neck. Running your hand through his hair you couldn’t help but snicker seeing he looked like a big baby but he was your baby.

“I wonder what happens when I do that and why it gets my angel so mad.” Placing a kiss on his cheek while he wraps his hands around your neck basically putting more of his body on your side then his own seat.

“Not sleeping.” Namjoon says quietly hoping you didn’t hear but you did sending you to give him more cheek kisses. The rest of the members were sleeping and it happened that you wanted the hard working man to go to sleep finally when he has a chance.

“With the spell of love I command Namjoon to fall asleep.” You couldn’t finish your sentence seeing that Namjoon fell asleep already in your arms. Smelling his fresh scent hair that he washed before leaving to be bus.

Namjoon woke up seeing the roads of just freeways, yawning not realizing that he was well still on top of you. Grumbling you press him closer wanting him to go back to sleep.

“Angel go back to sleep. Still have.. 2 hours left.” He heard your breathing slow down because you were half asleep. Namjoon couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter because even if you weren’t awake fully you still called him angel. Namjoon went back to sleep even if in the back of his head he should be working on lyrics. That could wait he suppose.

“So you know that sculptor that I was basically couldn’t stop talking about?” After the bus ride the group separated, now being in a car with only Namjoon. Namjoon asks with a voice of interest while you search for a place to eat after the long bus ride.

“Yeah of course, what about them?” Driving because well Namjoon couldn’t. You love it when Namjoon talks about things he loves even if they weren’t understood by other people he loves it anyway.

“Well their workshop is here and I’ve been meaning to meet them.”

“But?” You asked knowing there was something holding him back from meeting this person that he gets inspiration from.

“But what if they don’t want to teach me? Or they think I’m stuck up?” You lowered the music when the lights were red. Namjoon looking out of the window before looking back at you.

“Angel who ever thinks you are ignorant is completely blind. I’m sure they will be so happy to teach you, you’ve brought many army to their creations of work.” With one hand you drove and the other quickly running your hand through his hair, Namjoon turning up the music once again.

You drove to a local restaurant to grab something quick to eat seeing the workshop was starting sooner then you’ll like. Namjoon almost chugging his entire ice tea and his meal. You rested your hand on top of his wanting to calm him down. You wouldn’t want him to throw up in front of the sculptor.

“Sorry, just nervous.”

“Joon Ive seen you nervous but this is something else.”

“Okay I’m excited, nervous, scared, and going to throw up all in one feeling.” Namjoon sighs pulling his hands up to his face. You ordered the check, going back to Namjoon pulling his hands down to see his face.

“You will be fine okay? And if anything happens you can call me.” Placing a tip you walked out with Namjoon holding his hand feeling his palms sweat. He went from sucking on the mint the restaurant provided to biting on it in mere seconds once he saw the building.

“You will be okay! I will wait outside and if anytime you think you can’t do it. Just wave at me and we’ll be out here.” Parking in the lot of the building, Namjoon seeing his confirmation of his ticket to the workshop. Taking deep breathes he opened the car door stepping out, cleaning his suit, and checking his breath. Before he walked in the building he waved at you, you responded to him by blowing him a kiss.

An hour or two went by, you going from playing music and singing in the car to hearing the local radio of your favorite celebrities interviews. Humming a tone you looked out to see many different people walk out with their sculptures. Some of them had just classic bowls while others had details pieces of work that could belong to a museum.

You tried to look for Namjoon till you saw him and the famous sculptor laughing together. That moment made you proud of Namjoon seeing that he took a chance and his reward was that he got along with his inspiration. Namjoon pointed at you in the car, you were taken back but waved seeing the sculptor pat him on the back before going back to the building.

“Wait before you drive! I got you something. Well I made it.” Namjoon gets in the car hearing you turn on the engine. Setting a cardboard box smelling the freshly dried clay, you hummed opening the box seeing a crab holding a heart.

“A crab—”

“Holding a heart! A heart for you!” Namjoon lifted it from the box turning it around for you to see all the beautiful details he put into. You kissed him on the cheek setting down the crab sculpture.

“It’s beautiful. I love it.” Leaning back from Namjoon, he pulls you by your neck pressing a kiss against your lips. He wanted to show you how grateful he was for you. To encourage him to take chances.

Kim Seokjin: ˚✧₊⁎

The morning was a special place for you, wether Seokjin came home late or early enough to catch you awake. You always know you can wake up to him. The face of pleasant sleep and dreams till he woke up fluttering his eyelashes yawning to see you admiring him.

“Didn’t know my cutie was a stalker.” Seokjin’s voice was starting to come back. The deep voice making you rest your head on his chest. His heartbeat against your ear and the warmth of his body that made your heart whole.

“You look cute sleeping.” Seokjin rested his hand on his stomach but it didn’t take much long for you to grab it holding the hand of his. Placing kisses on his knuckles hearing him snicker from how cheesy you are. You two could lay down all day and listen to eachother’s breathing.

“I’m sure I do.” You place the entirwing hands on top of your chest, you checking the time on your phone with your free hand. You had enough time with Seokjin before he had to get ready, him humming your favorite song looking into your eyes. The butterflies that Seokjin caused even months into the relationship.

“Give me kisses.” You cooed at him resting your chin on his chest seeing him have a slight grin. You now holding both of his hands with yours.

“1 Kiss.. 2 kiss... 3 kiss... 4 kiss.” Seokjin press his lips on your forehead, both cheeks, and finally ending it with your lips. Earning you a smile before giving him the same treatment.

The next morning was well a special one. Since it was your first month living together you wanted to celebrate in a special way and what better way was breakfast in bed!

“Y/N! Where are you?!” You heard Seokjin scream from the bedroom while you were getting his meal prepared. Almost sprinting back to the bedroom so you could keep your surprise a secret.

“What is it?” Peeking from the door trying to keep your secret from showing in your voice. Seokjin rolled over to your side of the bed wanting to get the cuddles he needs.

“I will come back to bed, just have to wash some dishes.” Sending him a sweet smile before he yawned. Running his hand through his bed hair, you could just go back to bed with him and play with his hair but you knew that you couldn’t break.

“I can help you with the dishes.” Seokjin hoarse voice making your knees weak but you brushed him off. Couldn’t go ruining your surprise, now you thought about it the food was probably getting cold while talking to him.

“No! No it’s fine baby. Just stay in bed and I’ll be back quickly.” Kissing his forehead he nods going back to laying down but not without giving you a look of confusion.

You checked the warmth of the food, getting the freshly toasted bread from the toaster. You tried your best to carry everything in one hand and you swore you had dropped some strawberries on the way to the bedroom. You’ll just have to clean them up later.

“To my wonderful boyfriend.” Cheering with your high pitch voice you opened the door seeing the bed empty with no Seokjin found.

“Seokjin?” You asked placing the breakfast on the drawer filled with freshly cleaned clothes. Peeking into the bathroom you saw Seokjin brushing his teeth noticing you were standing behind him.

“What is it cutie?” He raised his eyebrow before spitting out the toothpaste. You pointed out the bathroom door, Seokjin whipping off the water on his shirt seeing the breakfast perfectly made.

“Aww cutie... I’m so sorry. If I would’ve known I would have gone back to sleep and woke up to find my prince charming bringing me breakfast in bed!” Pressing his body closer to you forcing into a hug while you whine in his chest.

Another morning you remember waking up and not seeing Seokjin by your side. You yawned rubbing your eyes maybe thinking your vision was messing with you. The house was empty and silent making you dread of being alone.

Searching through the house, no bubbly Seokjin was found and that made you take out your phone. See the thing was that Seokjin when he leaves earlier then expected he puts a cute little note about it but you haven’t seen one.

The moment you send it the door opens with Seokjin. He opens his mouth not realizing you were in the living room. Seokjin held a black plastic bag which seems to be filled with take out breakfast food.

“So... first I thought you would overslept since you stood up really late and second I thought if you did wake up you would stay in the bedroom.” Seokjin places the bag on the living room table.

“So we both ruined eachother’s bed in breakfast plan?”

“Basically.” You two bursted into laughter, trying to do all this cheesy stuff but it never goes plan but you both know this was better. Opening the bag the box of yours had bold letters of your name and hearts around it.

“I love you.” Seokjin quietly says holding your hand. You kiss him on the cheek loving the moment of pure love. You love the man in front of you and you couldn’t see yourself with anyone else.

Min Yoongi: ˚✧₊⁎

Yoongi mumbles to himself, tapping his finger on his coffee lid waiting patiently. Maybe he wouldn’t be set up for the 6th time but he wasn’t counting... The warm cafe that once brought memories of first love and first encounters turned quickly into first disappointments and first heartaches. Yoongi was in a relationship but he had been neglected for months now.

Months of waiting by the person that so claims they love him, but he doesn’t remember love being so cold. He had doubts of his thoughts for a whole, thinking that he was selfish for wanting more time with them. That was till the massive amounts of make up texts he recieved saying the occasion “sorry” and “i’ll make it up to you.”

Yoongi felt a hand on his hair, almost feeling his body heat up from the touch. The lovable touch that he hasn’t felt in his chest for so long. Thinking it was the famous set up of his lover he turned around to see you, standing next to his booth at the cafe looking silly before realizing that this person was not your friend you thought.

“Oh. Oh! Shit I’m sorry. Should’ve made sure it was my friend before playing with your hair.” You apologized retreating your hand to stick by your sides.

First time someone apologized to Yoongi instead of Yoongi saying sorry for the mistakes of others.

“I would say it’s common, but it’s not everyday where someone plays with my hair.”

“Oh, yeah single club sucks a bit.” The saying made Yoongi freeze, single? Was there something he was missing? Like an amount of kisses he was suppose to get, an amount of hugs, and an amount of I love you’s?

“Oh actually I have someone. They should be here soon.” Yoongi quietly said looking into your eyes seeing the look of realization.

“Oh then I should probably go then.” Before leaving you said another “sorry” waving a goodbye to sit on the other side of the cafe. Going back to the main reason of why you were here, looking at your text messages of your friend telling you they couldn’t make it. It was fine you needed alone time anyway, to do work of course.

An hour went by, your lingering eyes raised up seeing the male still alone. Not even bothering to look around anymore for his someone. You tapped your fingers on the table seeing if an idea could go well such as asking if you could seat by him. You rubbed your eyes seeing them strain from working, the bright light came back into your vision but a shadow figure was in front of you.

“Excuse me?” The same voice from earlier you recognized. Blinking a couple times seeing the male from earlier acting rather shy sitting in front of you. His backpack on the ground of his chair meaning that he wanted to stay where he was. Yoongi even brought his drink along praying that you’ll let him stay.

“I was wondering since my significant other kinda stood me up and I got tired of the pity looks of the waiter. I just thought if I could sit with you. And my name is Yoongi.” Yoongi softly says smiling at you, placing his hands on the table leaning against them. The eagerness of getting to know you maybe was showing through body language but you couldn’t notice because you couldn’t stop staring at his hands.

“Of course. No problem, my friend cancelled plans so it would be nice to have company. My name is Y/N by the way.” You cleared your throat closing your work. Focusing on the person in front of you. Wondering who he was and why did he seem unbothered by being stood up?

“So how often are you stood up?” The question took him by surprise noticing he kinda tries to slouch on his chair to hide himself. Clearly you kinda jumped the gun you frantically had to think of something to say.

“Sorry again none of my business.” Seeing Yoongi look at the door of the restaurant, no sign of them. Disappointed but he sadly wasn’t surprised they wouldn’t show.

“This is the 6th time... in a row.” His voice quietly says the last part being embarrassed that he was still with them even after being bluntly ignored like left over litter on the ground. You did a quiet “oh” not realizing that this man Yoongi was actually having problems of his own. You two talked for hours till the restaurant was going to close and a waiter reminds you two of the closing time. Last call for any drinks was made while you saw Yoongi sip on his wine giggling with you. A genuine smile was on his face that he wished could stay on forever.

“Well you could always come over. We just met but if you need someone. Call me.” Writing your number on some bright neon pink sticky note that was found in your pencil pouch. You paid your check for the restaurant. Paying for Yoongi of course not wanting to put him into finical trouble.

One night you were getting ready for bed. Standing in your bathroom yawning before brushing your teeth. You heard a loud obnoxious ringtone that you probably should have changed by now since your best friend Namjoon loves to call spam you. You answered the phone hearing a slight voice that you heard before. It was Yoongi, you looked for an shirt while holding the phone against your ear.

“It’s 11pm Yoongi what’s up?” Turning on the bright light that hurt your eyes for a bit before adjusting to the brightness. Hearing Yoongi start a sentence before ending it and then trying once again.

“You know my lover? They poofed they left a note and just left me behind. I went home after work and found all of their stuff was gone.” You could tell he struggled to tell you, although just barely friends you wanted to be there for him. The sound of a helpless heartbroken man on the other line. You couldn’t leave him like this.

The night was introduced with Yoongi, his soft hoodie with pants that seemed he just chose and put on. You let him in, the warm hot coco already made for him to comfort. Coffee seemed too late but it would’ve been perfect for him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” The silence killed you, your mind still trying to wrap around how someone could just poof out of a relationship espically with Yoongi.

“Nope just want to watch movies.. but not love movies dear god. Do you have Chainsaw Massacre?” Yoongi sat down on your couch seeing the freshly popped popcorn you made due to wanting to catch up on your tv-show.

“Of course I do.” You laid next to him, stuck in the middle of “do I leave him alone in his own space” to “should I cuddle him or is it too early?”. Your stare spoke volumes to Yoongi catching you staring at him.

“Yes you can play with my hair.” Not the answer you expected but you took what you were given. Yoongi took off his hat running a hand through his hair before laying closer to you.

“Thank you.” Yoongi cooes when you play with his hair, wanting to stay in this position forever. Not caring what was going on with his life or his head. This moment was and is forever perfect.

Jung Hoseok: ˚✧₊⁎

You were hired for your expertise, having many happy customers and clients. To you it didn’t matter how famous they were you were on the case. But those different jobs completely switched when you were hired to protect the famous boy band Bts. That’s when you met Jung Hoseok, the man that changed the stoic persona and sometimes shoving people in airports and turned you into one of the softest person in this earth.

It was probably not the best idea to get together with a client but you couldn’t help when at the end of your shifts Hoseok would give you a present wether it was your favorite food or a teddy bear you accepted them. Days spent with you two shamelessly flirting till one day you asked him out in the middle of an airport waiting for security to clear them through... probably not the most romantic setting but he said yes in an instant.

Today was a big deal because they were coming back to Korea which means media will probably be all over them and knowing Hoseok he likes to put on a smile and show army’s that he loves them but it could be overwhelming fast.

“Are you going to be okay?” You asked sitting next to him in your all black outfit on the plane about to set down at the airport. You prepared your walkie-talkie to talk to the other security guards on your belt, silencing it so it could be quiet with you and Hoseok.

“I’ll be fine honey.” Hoseok likes to call you honey even if it sounds like you two were 90 you wouldn’t have anyone else tell you that.

“And if anything happens I know my ninja will save me.” Pinching your cheeks making you close your eyes with content.

“I didn’t chose the outfit I would have a bulletproof vest and those colorful halloween costumes.”

“Yeah because that screams security.” Hoseok chuckles resting his head on your shoulder wanting to get some alone time with you before chaos.

The time has come and time to show your “protect sunshine at all cost and his wonderful friends” mode was on. You were known on twitter for being one of the scarier but good looking guards. Many times you don’t have to use force to move the fans you can just give them a stare and they would kinda lean off.

Of course Hoseok never well seen it because he was too busy with army’s and waving at them, sending hearts to them. While you on the other hand was in a battlefield trying to keep them not too close where personal space was invaded.

The hard part was done, the flashing lights, the screaming, and the sometimes shoving was set and done for now till the next couple months. Driving in the dark vans that just scream “a famous person is probably in here” but the technology of tinted windows no one finds out it’s Jung Hoseok they are passing by. Holding hands with Hoseok because you were the giant softie. Caressing the back of his hand with your thumb.

“What does it say here? ScaryBtsSecurity is apparently trending everywhere?” Hoseok announces from the back seat you tempted to turn around and see who they are talking about.

“Honey, they are talking about you?” Hoseok was actually confused but seeing the photos, man did you look scary like you eat metal for breakfast scary. Hoseok looks at the photo and back to you seeing actually two different men.

“My giant softie?! Scary?” Hoseok chuckles switching seats to right behind you putting his hand over your shoulders through the spaces of the seat. Whining you tell him to not distract you from the road.

“If they knew.” Hoseok chuckles switching back to the middle seat seeing you trying to find his hand once again.

“Not soft!” You say wishing he was in the front seat instead of the back, but protection was more important than you touching his hair so you’ll just have to wait till you get home.

“So scary! You have no mercy!”

Arriving at Hoseok’s home you were excited because you had never seen his house before. It was a home that screamed Hoseok, the small plants in the front provided by Namjoon. The swinging chair that was painted by himself. The kitchen seems clutterful but just the right amount you can still find everything.

“My home!” Hoseok holds your hand while showing around the place. The photos of you two haven’t been hung up because you two got together during the tour so he couldn’t get them up.

The night came and most of the day was spent you helping him unpack and sorting out his clothes. He cooked one of his favorite meals for you to try while you stared at the wonderful man in front of you. When he ran his hands through his hair because it got in his face or when he tastes the food humming in satisfaction.

“So what is in your wardrobe?” Hoseok asks while you eat the perfectly home made meal. You choking on the food, never wanting Hoseok to ask that question.

“It’s all black.”

“You’re not serious-” The stare you gave him back was confirmation you are 100% serious.

“What do you sleep in? What if you want to go out? You just always look like a security guard?” Obviously there was things that you two needed to learn about each other but you were happy to explain.

“Well I don’t go out unless you guys do. I help with concerts and such so I’m basically everywhere you guys are.”

“I thought you just went to every concert to support.”

“I would go to every concert even if I didn’t have to and you know that.” Pouting because why would Hoseok ever think you didn’t enjoy him or his passion for music and the band. Hoseok disappeared into the stairscase of his home leaving you with your now cold meal.

“Here! No black and all security Y/N! I want to know the real soft honeybun you are.” Hoseok lifts up the Mang bt21 throwing it at you. He was already in his own matching with you if you decided to wear it.

“If I wear this, I get to play with your hair as much as I want.”

“And you get to hold my hand.” Hoseok shows off his hand no longer with rings but just his natural hands. You sent him a smile picking up the pajamas off the ground.

“You have a deal!”

Park Jimin: ˚✧₊⁎

It was time for you to hang out with Jimin for once in a while. The date or the outing was planned days ahead wanting to be perfect and no plans to be intrupted or ones that could go wrong. Jimin looked in the mirror fixing his hair before putting a pair of sunglasses on. He heard knocking seeing you peek on him getting ready.

“You look stunning.” Softly said as you caressed his arm seeing him blush with the compliment. Jimin poked out his tongue when you so “fixed” his hair. He complained that it looked good already.

“There was just a strand out of place.” You pouted seeing Jimin look back into the mirror closely trying to find anymore strands that were not in place.

You two walked to frozen yogurt, Jimin admiring the small moments when he isn’t shoved into cameras or the spotlight. Where he could just act natural with his delightful boyfriend. Frozen yogurt was your idea even if Jimin at first wasn’t fond of it but with a little convincing he was sold.

Walking in the bright colorful store smelling the scent of the different flavors and the toppings, hearing the pop music slightly in the background. You grabbed the size you wanted to fill with the sugary delight of the frozen snack. Jimin following right behind you sampling the flavors ranging from red velvet to the classic vanilla. Smiling at him you got your go to flavors before adding your favorite toppings. Sitting down across from Jimin. You started gobbling the frozen treat but stopped almost immediately when you heard a whine from him.

“I want to take a photo.” Jimin pulls out his phone and you couldn’t help but chuckle placing your plastic spoon back into the cup and shuffling it closer to Jimin’s cup.

“Are you done?” Grabbing the spoon licking the frozen yogurt you took back your treat. Snickering you saw Jimin stick out his tongue.

Jimin’s hair was one of your favorite things about him. The softness of it and the different colors of it always fits him. I don’t think there is a bad hair color on your lovely boyfriend. It was soft and divine always being the softest. Going to bed? You played with his hair even if he complained about you messing it up he always secretly loves it. So of course you take every opportunity to touch his hair or every excuse in the book, going through it all before Jimin stopped believing you sometimes.

You moved his hair from his eyes since he looked down eating his frozen yogurt, Jimin sending you a smile before secretly taking a scoop of your ice cream. Chuckling seeing your widen eyes when he placed it in his mouth doing an exaggerated moan.

“There was dust in your hair.” Ruffling his hair Jimin put his head down just accepting the teasing giggling at your excuse.

“No there wasn’t.” Jimin feels a bit of frozen yogurt on his lips, licking his lips from the melted cream residue. You kissed him across the table having your hand behind his head pressing your lips to his.

“Let’s go.” Jimin suggests separating from the kiss first. Scooping the last amount of frozen yogurt so he could throw away the bowl.

You pulled out the list of places to go while Jimin looked around the glowing city, smiling while he sees cute merchandise on the displays of stores even if he wanted to buy it he knew he had no use for it really.

“How about a park?” Jimin turns to you, his beautiful hair flowing due to the wind. He looked gorgeous and you found yourself dumb founded for a bit till Jimin snapped in front of your face.

“Sounds great.”

The day was still bright and the park had some people in it but not too much that either of you felt uncomfortable to the point of being paranoid if one of them knew it was Jimin. The natural breeze felt nice to the touch and the skies were clear.

“Do you want to take a photo together?” You asked seeing that your profile was lacking you and Jimin. You wanted to show him off to your friends because he was absolutely amazing and downright specular.

“Of course, always picture ready for you.” Jimin wraps his hand around your neck pulling you closer to him feeling his body heat.

You brushed your hand his hair, him looking up at your hand wondering what you were doing. Moving some strands of hair before clicking your tongue happy with the look.

“Just wanted to style it before the photo.” Jimin raises his eyebrow at your excuse of touching his hair. You raised your shoulders trying to push the excuse.

“You know you should be my hair stylist.”

“Really?”

“Yeah because you touch my hair more then they do.” Teasing you was Jimin’s speciality but you know it’s all in good fun because you always got him back with tickles or kisses which made him blush and laugh uncontrollably.

You were about to kiss him and attack him seeing Jimin was already ready for the attack reaching out his hands to stop the attack but you’ve heard a buzz near his hair causing you to stop in your tracks.

“What is it?” Jimin asks walking closer to you while you took the same amount of steps back. Crossing his arms he wondered what was going on with you.

“Jimin there’s a bee in your hair.” The bee flew around Jimin’s head before landing on the top of his fluffy hair. Pointing at it Jimin shook his hand around his hair but he didn’t see no bee.

“No there isn’t you just want to touch my hair, darling if you wanted to touch it you can just tell me—” Jimin stops mid sentence when he heard the familiar buzz in his ear standing completely still almost like a rock.

“There really is a bee isn’t there.” Jimin’s fear in his voice rises when you slowly nod. It took every bit of his gut to not start running around.

“Oh god!” He heard it in his ear once again starting to run now. It was his life or the bee’s and he has a will to live that’s for damn sure. You couldn’t help but laugh at your boyfriend running around while a small creature that probably means no harm is chasing after him. Hell he is Park Jimin, even a bee knows beauty.

Kim Taehyung: ˚✧₊⁎

Taehyung and you sitting at the science laboratory for a school project. Being the two nerds you were Taehyung decided to work on it during a weekend. The mixture substance that you two had to create for a final exam sort of thing. Present it to the class, pretend like you know what you are talking about, and get an A. The board of education about the substance half of it was bullshit you put on the board to fill up space and the other half was actual evidence enough that you were confident that you could get an A.

“Okay but we don’t want the details to fall off let’s use heavy duty glue.” Taehyung suggests grabbing the glue that definitely says “stupid people do not use.” all over it. Taehyung getting some on his hand but not giving another thought thinking he’ll just clean it later.

You helping him glue them also getting the sticky stuff on your hands but honestly you didn’t realize till the project was finished. You standing behind to see it all of its glory. The images of the formula and the iconic “By: L/N Y/N and Kim Taehyung.” on the front bold and clear for everyone to see.

You highfived Taehyung about to let go but you couldn’t. You turned to look at the hand seeing he was holding your hand, the visible sign of struggle when he also looks at you. Your eyes landed on the extreme glue and back to Taehyung.

“No...no no no no.” Taehyung frantically says running towards the glue dragging you along. You yelp out to remind him you’re stuck with him quite literally!

“Taehyung! I’m still stuck to you.” The palms of your hands were stuck to his so you decided the most comfortable way was to just hold his hand. Plus you two wouldn’t want to walk out with your palms stick together that would have looked weird.

“How do we get this off? Are they going to need to chop it off? It’s my writing hand!” Taehyung tried to grab his phone from the desk. Grabbing it in his non-dominant hand was another struggle. Typing at the google search of how to take it off, but the stupid signal was horrible at school. The system decides that it would be a bright idea to have poor reception to have the kids focus more on school.

Hoseok heard a door ring than heard slamming on his door, groaning as he got up from the couch the comfortable position ruined once he got up. Eating a quick chip before opening the door seeing you two. You are Hoseok’s best friend and also wingman you like to say on many days. Taehyung on the other hand had little to no clue who was Hoseok thinking that maybe he saw him from a english class?

“Oh you two are dating? Congratulations.” Hoseok stuffed his mouth with another chip whipping off the crumbs on his shirt. Only you and Taehyung would be working on a project on the weekend so the helpful list was short.

“We are not dating, we are stuck together.” Taehyung raised the hands. Hoseok well not taking you two seriously pulling at your hand to let go before you yelled out of pain.

“Oh— You two are serious.” Hoseok pulled Taehyung’s arm to come inside his house pulling you with him. Hoseok grabbing his phone searching up how to get rid of glue from skin while you and Taehyung sat down awkward distance away from eachother.

“Here you’ll need to go to nearby store. Since my car is broken down you’ll need to walk.” Hoseok passed you a list trusting you more than Taehyung. You nodded walking out the door holding hands with Taehyung.

“Let’s hope we don’t see anyone from school.” Taehyung whispers in your ear, you looked at your phone seeing the walk there was rather far so you plugged in your earphones disregarding Taehyung.

“You aren’t going to share?”

“Huh?” You unplugged your earphone seeing Taehyung sigh.

“I said “You aren’t going to share?” Taehyung pointed at your earphone feeling left out and just seeing two people holding hands but completely ignoring eachother would be seen as odd.

You surrendered passing your earphone to him, playing the music once again seeing Taehyung bob his head to the beat making you smile a little seeing someone enjoying your music taste. You held his hand tighter getting used to his soft hand rubbing your thumb on the back of his hand.

The actual store was filled of “Are you two dating?” it ended up with you and Taehyung trying to come up with a sensible answer that didn’t embarrass you two. It was also filled with Taehyung picking snacks on the way to the supplies, stopping at almost every colorful candy packaging and cookies that were all different types of flavors.

“Here it is!” You grabbed the supply shaking it a little. Taehyung gave you a thumbs up for the success of your eye. The rest of the items were found in a short amount of time.

“So why are you taking this class again?” You asked grabbing some snacks on the way since the walk is rather long. You two didn’t have money for a bus pass and the money you spent on the supplies were provided by Hoseok.

“I heard it was a good way to see your study skills are up to par and if I want to take much more advanced classes might as well work my way up. If I work hard enough I can help more and more people.” Taehyung snacks on the chips, you holding the bag while he basically feeds you. At first you two were awkward crimson blush rising on Taehyung’s cheeks when he fed the chips to you.

“That’s nice. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. You’re kind Taehyung, the world needs more of you.”

“Well thanks Y/N. You’re not too bad yourself.” Taehyung sways your held hands still sharing your earbuds, smiling when his favorite song comes on.

“You hear this? Holy shit I’ve been waiting to meet a fan so I could take them to a concert.” The time stops when you two stare at eachother’s eyes seeing them glimmer. Taehyung couldn’t take his eyes off you but he felt his face heat up looking back on the ground.

“I’m sure we can go sometime.”

“Is that a date?” He couldn’t believe his ears. You were good looking to Taehyung and you seemed to be smart and kind so maybe it could work out. Taehyung wanted to find out.

“I don’t know, is it?” You raised a eyebrow walking up the steps of Hoseok’s house throwing Hoseok the supplies to get the sticky love hands away. While Taehyung dreaded the moment your hand lets go of his, placing his thumb against his palm longing for your hand.

Jeon Jungkook: ˚✧₊⁎

Jungkook felt his heart race, speed walking pass all the crowds of people he thought were good. Jungkook pushing through people getting glares he couldn’t care less though because all he wanted was to go see his demon boyfriend on the other side of the realm. Plugging in his earphones to distract his running thoughts of the beytral.

Jungkook learned that elves were never the so kind and genius people that just wanted peace. They got their peace all right but by blood shed and cries of lives taken away from the demons. To learn that your kind is a complete lie made Jungkook want to run, run so far away from this house of elves but running away from your own loyal house was known as crime and who even knows that dating you a demon that they were going to let him off easy.

Jungkook basically slammed on your door wanting you to hug him, run your hand through his hair that you always do no matter how much he claims to not love it. He’s always loved it and he’s yearns for it when you two are seperate. He heard the door open seeing you almost jumping on you, he wasn’t suppose to look at that, he wasn’t suppose to hear what his so called leaders were talking about, and he wasn’t suppose to have such a responsible of knowledge on his shoulders.

You had no idea why Jungkook was basically hugging you like it would be the last one. You rubbed his back seeing him slowly break apart from the hug seeing his eyes flutter him trying to form a sentence.

“Here we should go inside.” You pulled him into your house, it wasn’t the best but it felt homey and that is why Jungkook spent more time at your house then his. His felt forced like the drawings when he was little that his mother forced him to make even if he didn’t want to or the forced pressure of all of his older brothers awards clear on display to remind Jungkook that he needs succeed or else he’ll be a failure to his family.

“Everyone just lied to me. Everyone pretended we were the good guys.” Jungkook whispers out when he entered your home making sure you closed the door behind him.

“Koo what are you talking about?” Your thoughts ran seeing Jungkook so worried so all over the place. You tried to reach out to him placing a hand on his shoulder but he basically shivered up like a cold rush ran through his body.

“I heard something I shouldn’t have. I learned the real reason why elf’s are where they are now. I learned the truth and it can possibly kill me. Elf’s were never the so beautiful and elegant creatures everything thinks. We killed your kind for fun. We— We never needed a war but we started it anyway.” His eyes piercing through yours, you could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t lying, yes Jungkook was known to sneak around and let curiously get the best of him but now? Curiosity could get him killed.

“Koo it’s fine.” You tried to reason with him, to keep his mind at bay for an hour or at least a minute but that only made him erupt more. Jungkook wasn’t mad at you at all. He was mad at himself of how could he just believe something so idiotically.

“No it isn’t! Every bad thing that happens, demons are blamed for! A elf getting caught? He’ll just say “A demon made me do it!” and everyone defends that elf blindly.” Before Jungkook could start crying, his voice become bitter you pulled him into a hug once again. Hearing him sniff into your chest knowing that history of the kinds, you two were different and you never want to let your kind get in between him and you.

“Thank you for everything.” Jungkook voice comes out muffled but you could tell how genuine he was. You held his hand when he separated from the hug. Smiling at him, you hoped that even if he was taken away from you. You would always run through his mind.

“If you want to run away, from everything. I will go with you in a heartbeat you know that right? You know how much I love you?” Placing a kiss on his forehead wanting to a see a smile from Jungkook even if it was just a small smile. You would take anything to see Jungkook get better.

“I know I just... should I do something? Leave an anonymous article about the truth? So the realm could understand? The wolves, the fairies, the demons, and the humans? Should I do something?” Jungkook said placing his hands on your chest looking up at you. His ears twitching as like when he was confused expect this wasn’t a math problem. This was something that could ruin kingdoms or worst destroy them.

“When you’re ready. I’ll be here with you, by your side. You know what to do Jungkook.” The heart racing at some point you could see Jungkook’s eyes sparkle. You pressed your lips against his seeing his elf ears go red and your demon horns warming up from the love you two have.

“Now let’s go cuddle and let me hold your hand.” Dragging him by his hand you let him lay on your chest his face humming when you ran your hand through his hair. The favorite position fit like you two were meant to be.

“No one will seperate us. I love you for you not because you’re an elf or your status. I love you Jeon Jungkook.” You meant every word wanting to comfort Jungkook even when he didn’t show he was anxious you could sense it, almost like your soul was connected with his.

A/N: finally USED THAT ONE YOONGI GIF!! that’s all... that’s the authors note.

#bts #bts x male reader #bts imagine #bts jungkook #bts jimin #bts namjoon #bts seokjin #bts taehyung #bts yoongi #bts hoseok

221 notes · View notes

saleintothe90s · 4 years ago

Text

414. Dick Tracy Garbage found on eBay

(see previously, 1996 Olympics Garbage, Y2K garbage)

(Daily Press, June 15, 1990)

Dick Tracy was the first hyped move that I remember back in 1990 when I was six. I remember one of the rare times my parents I went to Coliseum Mall seeing Madonna as Breathless backpacks in a store window.

I however, have a sad association with the movie. A couple of years after the movie came out, our cable had a free preview weekend, I guess. It was the day before my dad was going out to sea for two months, and he watched Dick Tracy a couple of times that day while fixing up the house, packing, etc. I’ve never revisited the movie since, because it just reminds me too much of that anxiety with my dad going out to sea all the time.

However, I remember the merchandise.

(from seller scout_mom026)

Patches? The Eat Lead! one is kinda funny, but unless you’re a die hard Madonna fan, who is going to put the Breathless one on their jean jacket?

(from seller srfinkrat)

This Breathless doll that looks nothing like Madonna.

(From seller dylans-auctions)

I guess this could come back in vogue since we all have to wear face masks. haha, get it vogue.

A child’s belt.

What kid was playing with a ball and paddle and marbles in 1990? Those paddles always broke. There was a cartoon recently (was it Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, or Family Guy? I can’t remember!) where someone gave a kid a ball n paddle and they said, “it broke already”.

(seller palmertoys)

World’s most boring puzzle.

(seller karen4831)

Here’s Big Boy Caprice puzzle style.

(seller mariachi007 )

Does anybody else remember character suspenders? I remember my mom buying me Mickey Mouse ones that were grey.

(seller kypicker)

Along with suspenders, it seemed like every licensed character had a bathtime set too.

(seller garbsafari)

There’s a video on YouTube of a Dick Tracy premiere in Baltimore and everybody in line is wearing these shirts. People were treating this like it was Star Wars !

(Daily Press, June 1, 1990)

A local clothing and shoe store in my area, A&N was advertising the shirts on June 1st, telling people to beat the rush.

(Daily Press, June 13, 1990)

Roses called the shirts “the newest fad”

(seller witalis120 )

(seller rafalosophy)

(Pensacola News Journal, June 15, 1990)

“Warren Beatty, in character as Dick Tracy, is interviewed by Leonard Maltin in a special that has only aired once.“ -- I watched about two seconds of this and Dick Tracy was talking about blueberries?

Entertainment Tonight Segment

Oh yeah, I wanted to apologize for not being around too often this past May. I had surgery on May 12th on my stomach, and recovery has been slow. Eating is miserable right now. I got in trouble for not drinking 64 oz of water a day and had to spend last Friday hooked to an IV for three hours. It wasn’t bad, I watched South Park on mute and read a book about gymnastics.

#1990 #dick tracy #movie merchandise

5 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Fans hoping for major DC news in lieu of an actual San Diego Comic-Con are definitely going to get just that at DC FanDome, a digital event designed to be watched at home like a real con.

Originally set up as one epic night of panels and reveals, DC announced that it will be splitting FanDome into two separate and distinct events: Hall of Heroes, which will be held in late August, and WatchVerse in mid-September.

The August date still holds most of the big-ticket items. It’s billed by DC as “an epic world designed personally by Jim Lee featuring special programming, panels and exclusive reveals from a wide variety of films, TV series, games, comics and more.” Functionally, it’s the Hall H of FanDome.

This DC FanDome trailer gives fans a good glimpse at what they can expect from the event:

Here’s everything else you need to know about DC FanDome:

DC FanDome Date and Time

The first DC FanDome event, Hall of Heroes, kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 1 pm ET. Sign up to watch here!

DC FanDome Schedule

Here’s a rundown of all the panels happening during DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes. The panel descriptions below are courtesy of DC. All times are ET:

1:00 PM – Wonder Woman 1984 Panel

“Wonder Woman 1984 stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal, and director/co-writer/producer Patty Jenkins join forces with Brazilian hosts Érico Borgo and Aline Diniz to celebrate the fans in a big way. They will answer questions from fans from all over the world, talk fan art and cosplay, and reveal an all-new sneak peek at the upcoming film — plus a few more surprises!”

1:25 PM – WB Games Montreal Announcement

“Gamers! You won’t want to miss this first look at an exciting new game, and Q&A with its developers.”

1:45 PM – The Sandman Universe: Enter the Dreaming Panel

“Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs, G. Willow Wilson and Michael Sheen discuss the legacy of The Sandman comic book series and how it has been expanded with new stories, adapted into new mediums, and enthralled audiences around the world.”

2:15 PM – Multiverse 101 Panel

“Get schooled in this engaging refresher course on the creation of the Multiverse with DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee, Warner Bros. Pictures President of DC-Based Film Production Walter Hamada, and Berlanti Productions founder/DCTV mega-producer Greg Berlanti.”

2:40 PM – Flash Movie Panel

“This 101-style conversation with The Flash filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, star Ezra Miller and screenwriter Christina Hodson will give fans a speedy rundown on the first-ever Flash feature film.”

2:50 PM – Beyond Batman Short

“The Batman of Swinging Sixties culture clashes with the Batman of the far-flung future when Batman Beyond and his mentor, Old Bruce Wayne, intercept a broadcast of the 1966 Batman TV show!”

2:55 PM – The Suicide Squad Panel

“What else would you expect from The Suicide Squad but the ultimate elimination game? First up, writer/director James Gunn takes on fan questions, then brings out Task Force X for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred Squad Showdown that tests every team member’s Squad knowledge — and survival skills!”

3:40 PM – BAWSE Females of Color within the DCU Panel

“What’s a BAWSE? Find out here as some of the hottest actresses across DC television and film sit down with celebrity DJ D-Nice and Grammy-winning singer/actress Estelle to discuss how they use their confidence and vulnerability to navigate their careers in Hollywood. Panelists include Meagan Good (SHAZAM!), Javicia Leslie (Batwoman), Candice Patton (The Flash), Tala Ashe (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Nafessa Williams and Chantal Thuy (Black Lightning), and Anna Diop and Damaris Lewis (Titans). Catch the entire full-length conversation at McDuffie’s Dakota in the DC WatchVerse.”

4:00 PM – Legacy of the Bat Panel

“Calling all Batman fans! Don’t miss this discussion on the wide scope of the Batman universe, including the Batman Family of characters. Key talent from comics, TV, and games will provide insight into the world of Caped Crusader.”

4:30 PM – Joker: Put on a Happy Face

“Featuring interviews with filmmakers and industry legends, discover the origins and evolution of The Joker, and learn why the Clown Prince of Crime is universally hailed as the greatest comic book Super-Villain of all time.”

4:45 PM – Surprise DC Comics Panel

TBA

5:10 PM – I’m Batman: The Voices Behind the Cowl Panel

“Everyone has their favorite Batman. But for audiences around the world, their favorite Batman has a local sound. It’s time to meet the voices behind the cowl. Hear what it’s like to be one of the many global vocal actors portraying the Dark Knight when the Super Dubbers, who lend their talents to the Caped Crusader on screens big and small all over the world, come together for the first time ever.”

5:30 PM – The Snyder Cut of Justice League Panel

“Zack Snyder fields questions from fans and a few surprise guests as he discusses his eagerly awaited upcoming cut of the 2017 feature film and the movement that made it happen.”

5:54 PM – The Flash TV Panel

“Executive producer Eric Wallace joins cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, and Brandon McKnight to discuss all things Flash with Entertainment Weekly’s Chancellor Agard. Team Flash will break down both parts of season six and look ahead at what is to come with an exclusive trailer for season seven. Fans will also get a look at the exclusive black-and-white noir episode ‘Kiss Kiss Breach Breach,’ which will be available on The Flash season six Blu-ray and DVD on August 25.”

6:10 PM – Black Adam Panel

“Star of the first-ever Black Adam feature film Dwayne Johnson sets the stage for the story and tone of the new movie with a fans-first Q&A…and a few surprises.”

6:30 PM – CNN Heroes: Real Life Heroes in the Age of the Coronavirus

“While DC features iconic fictional Super Heroes recognized around the world, CNN Heroes shines a light on real-life, everyday people making a difference in their communities. Now, as the global Covid-19 pandemic has turned all of our worlds upside down, CNN’s Anderson Cooper introduces you to the frontline workers, advocates, neighbors, and friendly strangers who are coming together to help us through this crisis.”

6:50 PM – Titans TV Panel

“’Titans are back, b*tches!’ That phrase kicked off an explosive second season of Titans that culminated with the long-awaited emergence of Nightwing as their leader and the tragic death of one of their own. And as a new mysterious threat looms, season three promises to be the biggest yet! Join executive producer Greg Walker and series stars Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Conor Leslie, Curran Walters, Joshua Orpin, Damaris Lewis, with Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly for a preview of the new season as well as a discussion on the ‘Fan Favorite Moments’ of the first two seasons.”

7:05 PM – Aquaman Panel

“Aquaman director James Wan and King Orm himself, Patrick Wilson, take a deep dive into the world of Atlantis that Wan created, revealing their favorite behind-the-scenes moments from the largest DC movie ever!”

7:15 PM – “Ask Harley Quinn”

“She has gone toe-to-toe with Batman and the Justice League, and taken down The Joker and the toughest villains of Gotham City, but at DC FanDome, Harley Quinn faces her toughest challenge yet — answering burning questions from DC’s biggest fans in her own tell it as it is, no-BS style. If you love the Harley Quinn animated series, this is one you cannot f—king miss!”

7:20 PM – Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Celebration Panel

“As an Amazon and a god, Wonder Woman is truly timeless. So, it’s hard to believe she’s turning 80! Join Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot, along with a very special guest, as they reflect on the character’s influence on them personally, and look forward to the 2021 celebrations!”

7:25 – Tomorrow’s Superheroes with Jim Lee

“DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee joins Bing Chen, founder of the global non-profit collective Gold House, to discuss the important contributions of Asian artists and writers in comics and comic book–inspired entertainment.”

7:40 PM – SHAZAM! Panel

“Zac Levi and the cast can’t tell you s#&t! Sworn to secrecy on the new script for their upcoming movie, Zac and a few of his SHAZAM! castmates talk with the Philippines’ #1 DC fan, Gino Quillamor, about what the next movie might be about, while commenting on everything from panels to the other Zack’s cut — and even have a few surprise guests drop in!”

8:10 PM – Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Panel

“Will Arnett hosts the highly anticipated video game reveal from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the Batman: Arkham franchise.”

8:30 PM – The Batman Panel

“The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves joins host and self-professed fangirl Aisha Tyler for a discussion of the upcoming film…with a surprise (or two) for the fans!”

You can check out the full DC FanDome schedule here.

DC FanDome Live Stream

While DC FanDome is free for all to enjoy, you will need to create an account on DCFanDome.com in order to watch the event. You’ll then be able to access each panel via the DC FanDome program scheduler.

Following the conclusion of The Batman panel at the end of Hall of Heroes, the Fandome schedule will then cycle back through two more times, giving you three shots to watch in a 24-hour period.

DC FanDome: WatchVerse Date and Time

DC will host a second, on-demand FanDome event called WatchVerse on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 1 pm ET. While viewers will be able to access all content in any order they please, the event will only be available for 24 hours.

This event will include the previously announced panel on the expansion of “DC’s Watchmen Universe” discussion with Damon Lindelof and Tom King talking Rorschach, a Joker War panel with Batman writer James Tynion IV and Batgirl scribe Cecil Castellucci, a Three Jokers panel with Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, a panel on John Ridley’s exciting upcoming The Other History of the DC Universe, and more.

The post DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/34jSTev

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

2 notes · View notes

lover-of-mine · 4 years ago

Text

I was tagged by @maaaiiittteee 💜💜

Relationships / breakups?

I had a really messy break up with my first bf cause he cheated on me, i had an even messier break up with a guy that wasn’t really my bf, not officially anyway, and there’s my current bf, we’ve been together for 6 years now 🥰

Kids?

I don’t have any and i currently don’t want one lol.

Siblings?

yes, an older brother.

Pets?

A cat, Luna, she’s mine and my bf and there’s the family dog, Zidane.

Surgeries?

Yes, I had my deviated septum corrected in 2017.

Tattoos?

none. lots of planned ones tho lol

Countries?

I’m from Brasil and that’s the only country I’ve ever been in.

Been on an airplane?

Yes and I hated every second of it, the only reason i got in it to go back is cause I desperetaly wanted to go home.

Been in an ambulance?

Yes. Fun ride lol

Sang karaoke?

not in like, a karaoke bar or something like that, but in uni we once got mics and a projector and sang to karaoke tracks on youtube lol.

Ice skating?

No, never. I really want to, but i’m a waking desaster and people keep recommending me not to. It’s probably smart.

Been on a cruise?

No.

Ridden on a motorbike?

Only on the back.

Ridden a horse?

Yes, when i was a kid.

Stayed in a hospital?

yeah, for the surgery, and I once passed out and i had to stay for observation.

Favorite fruit?

Apples

Favorite color?

Purple. And Pink and Blue. But mostly purple.

Last text ive sent?

laughs and a “its useful”

Coffee or tea?

I dont know lol

Favorite pie?

i have no idea whats the name of it in english but i really love this cream one my aunt does.

Favorite pizza?

canadian bacon and cheddar

Cat or dog?

I like both

Favorite time of the year?

autumn, I think?

Met a star?

I don’t think so. I once met some football players and i once got my mom some autographs from this Brazilian singer but honestly the whole experience was really weird.

Flown in a helicopter?

Nope.

Been on tv?

i was in a game show when i was little, like, 3 or 4 and once i was queueing for the midnight screening of a dc movie, i think it was Justice League, but i’m not sure, and the local news interviewed some of us there. They were doing a piece on the movie theater and we were in line for like 8 hours? something like that, so they added us to the story....

Broken a leg?

I have permanent demage on my right ankle, but I never properly broken any bones, it was in the tendon and i have ligament damage on my hand. Problems of being a jock i think lol.

Seen a ghost?

that depends...

Been sick in a taxi?

nope.

Seen someone die?

thank god, never.

i dont know who to tag, so if you want to do this i’m tagging you.

#tag game

1 note · View note

sciencespies · 4 years ago

Text

An Uncrowned Tudor Queen, the Science of Skin and Other New Books to Read

https://sciencespies.com/nature/an-uncrowned-tudor-queen-the-science-of-skin-and-other-new-books-to-read/

An Uncrowned Tudor Queen, the Science of Skin and Other New Books to Read

England’s most notorious dynasty owes much to the trials of a 13-year-old girl: Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. On January 28, 1457, the young widow—her first husband, Edmund Tudor, had died at age 26 several months prior—barely survived the birth of her only child, the future Henry VII. Twenty-eight years later, in large part due to Margaret’s tenacious, single-minded campaign for the crown, she saw her son take the throne as the first Tudor king.

Margaret never officially held the title of queen. But as Nicola Tallis argues in Uncrowned Queen: The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudors, she fulfilled the role in all but name, orchestrating her family’s rise to power and overseeing the machinations of government upon her son’s ascension.

The latest installment in our series highlighting new book releases, which launched in late March to support authors whose works have been overshadowed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, centers on the matriarch of the Tudor dynasty, the oft-conflicting science of skin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet’s tragic past, the twilight years of Japanese isolationism and a Supreme Court decision with lasting implications for the criminal justice system.

Representing the fields of history, science, arts and culture, innovation, and travel, selections represent texts that piqued our curiosity with their new approaches to oft-discussed topics, elevation of overlooked stories and artful prose. We’ve linked to Amazon for your convenience, but be sure to check with your local bookstore to see if it supports social distancing-appropriate delivery or pickup measures, too.

Uncrowned Queen: The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudors by Nicola Tallis

Margaret Beaufort had little reason to dream of the throne. The Wars of the Roses—a dynastic clash between two branches of the royal Plantagenet family—raged on for much of her early life, and more often than not, her Lancastrian relatives were on the losing side. Still, she managed to find favor under Yorkist king Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville, embedding herself in the royal household with such success that she was named godmother to one of the couple’s children. All the while, Margaret worked to restore her son, Henry, then in exile as one of the last remaining Lancastrian heirs, to power.

Edward IV’s untimely death in 1483, compounded by his brother Richard III’s subsequent usurpation of the throne, complicated matters. But Margaret, working behind the scenes with the dowager queen Elizabeth and others who opposed Richard’s reign, ultimately proved victorious: On August 22, 1485, Henry defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field, winning the crown and, through his impending union with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the warring royal houses after decades of civil war.

Nicola Tallis’ Uncrowned Queen details the complex web of operations that resulted in this unlikely victory, crediting Margaret for her son’s success without lending credence to the commonly held perception of her as a “religious fanatic who was obsessively ambitious on her son’s behalf and who dominated his court.” Instead, the historian presents a portrait of a singular woman who defied all expectations of the era, pressing “against the constraints imposed by her sex and society, [and] slowly demanding more and more control over her life, until the crown on her son’s head allowed her to make the unprecedented move for almost total independence: financially, physically and sexually.”

Clean: The New Science of Skin by James Hamblin

A shower a day does not keep the dermatologist away—or so James Hamblin, a preventative medicine physician and staff writer at the Atlantic, argues in his latest book. Part history, part science, Clean addresses the many misconceptions surrounding skincare, outlining a compelling case for showering less and embracing (figuratively speaking) the many naturally occurring microbes found on the skin. To demonstrate his point, Hamblin swore off showering for the duration of the book’s writing; as Kirkus notes in its review of Clean, “He did not become a public nuisance, … and his skin improved.”

The modern personal hygiene and beauty industry owes much to post-Industrial Revolution developments in germ theory, which identifies microbes as vectors of disease that must be destroyed or avoided. But certain bacteria and fungi are beneficial to the body, notes Hamblin in an excerpt for the Atlantic: Demodex mites, for instance, act as a natural exfoliant, while Roseomonas mucosa blocks the growth of another bacterium linked to eczema flares. And though parabens ensure the longevity of commercial products including deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and lotion, these preservatives also eliminate helpful microbes, upsetting the balance essential to healthy skin.

“Ultimately,” writes Kirkus, “Hamblin argues for more skin microbiome research and greater biodiversity in all aspects of our lives, underscoring the value of pets and plants and parks to enhance our lives—and those that live in and on us.”

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

When Natasha Trethewey was 19 years old, her abusive former stepfather murdered her mother. This tragedy echoes throughout the former United States poet laureate’s work: In “Imperatives for Carrying On in the Aftermath,” she describes “how abusers wait, are patient, that they / don’t beat you on the first date, sometimes / not even the first few years of a marriage,” and reminds herself not to “hang your head or clench your fists / when even your friend, after hearing the story, / says, My mother would never put up with that.”

Gwendolyn Turnbough’s killing was a pivotal moment in the young poet’s artistic development, but as Trethewey writes in her new memoir, she avoided confronting painful memories of the murder for decades. With the publication of Memorial Drive—a searing examination of the author’s upbringing in the Jim Crow South and the disastrous second marriage that followed her white father and African American mother’s divorce—she hopes “to make sense of our history, to understand the tragic course upon which my mother’s life was set and the way my own life has been shaped by that legacy.”

As Publishers Weekly concludes in its review, Memorial Drive is a “beautifully composed, achingly sad” reflection on “the horrors of domestic abuse and a daughter’s eternal love for her mother.”

Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley

Tsuneno, the central figure in historian Amy Stanley’s debut book, was “the loudest, the most passionate” child of a 19th-century Buddhist priest named Emon. Restless and plagued by bad luck, according to Lidija Haas of Harper’s magazine, she endured three failed marriages before abandoning her tiny Japanese village in favor of the bustling city of Edo, soon to be renamed Tokyo. Here, she worked a variety of odd jobs before meeting her fourth and final husband, a mercurial samurai named Hirosuke.

In addition to presenting a portrait of a city on the brink of a major cultural shift—Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Japan and demanded the isolationist country reopen to the West in 1853, the year of Tsuneno’s death—the work conveys a strong sense of its subject’s personality, from her stubborn independent streak to her perseverance and self-described “terrible temper.” Drawing on letters, diary entries and family papers, Stanley revives both the world Tsuneno inhabited and the “wise, brilliant, skillful” woman herself.

To read Stranger in the Shogun’s City, writes David Chaffetz for the Asian Review of Books, is to “hear the sounds of the samurai trampling through the city, smell the eels grilling in tiny food stands, [and] see the color of posters for Kabuki performances.”

Deep Delta Justice: A Black Teen, His Lawyer, and Their Groundbreaking Battle for Civil Rights in the South by Matthew Van Meter

Journalist Matthew Van Meter’s exploration of Duncan v. Louisiana, a 1968 Supreme Court case that affirmed defendants’ right to trial by jury, is decidedly “timely reading,” notes Kirkus in its review. Arriving amid a global reckoning on police brutality and criminal justice, Deep Delta Justice demonstrates “how a seemingly minor incident brought massive, systemic change,” according to the book’s description.

The legal battle in question began in 1966, when Gary Duncan, a 19-year-old black teenager, was arrested for placing his hand on a white peer’s arm while attempting to de-escalate a brewing fight. Duncan requested a trial by jury but was denied on the grounds that he was facing a misdemeanor, not felony, charge of simple battery; a judge sentenced him to 60 days in prison and a $150 fine.

Duncan appealed the verdict with the help of Richard Sobol, a white attorney at New Orleans’ “most radical law firm.” As Van Meter writes in the book’s prologue, the two-year legal odyssey—reconstructed through first-person interviews and archival documents—eventually affirmed “the function of civil rights lawyers in the South and the fundamental right to a trial by jury” in all cases carrying potential sentences of at least two years.

#Nature

1 note · View note

teddy-feathers · 5 years ago

Text

look my problem with the au megamind where Roxanne is the alien and megamind is the reporter is i cant stop thinking about what i want out of that and how its probably not what other people want out of that which should mean 'oh shit i gotta write it' but really means 'in the next couple of months im going to rewatch megamind and be extremely frustrated because idk how to write these people as is let alone in an au'

but here are some thoughts

Itd have to take place on megaminds home world so like. have to develop that culture and frame it as the usual and other things as oddities

metroman still shows up at the same time the baby human does

roxan richie and metromans rivalry is less of a game and more of a metroman one up'd her ome to many times so now shes gotta take him out

its fine not because shes incompetent- in fact her death rays and pointy sticks are ingenious and have 0% public property or civilian causalities - but because metroman is not only impossible to kill, he adapts to anything that gets close (anything that doesnt kill him makes him stronger literally)

i guess this means theres a good chunk of the story that is centered around human adaptability vs perfect hero dudes adaptability

Roxanne Ritchie is actually a noted scientist or something at the local research facility - i figure blue people planet is really advanced and everyones at least a little technosmart but while it doesnt come as easily or naturally to Roxanne her way of thinking is really unique n shiz and shes an asset to every team....

but if you see her in a mask with some project from the lab macguivered into a gun trying to kill metroman well, no ones getting hurt and humans need hobbies and everyone respects the mask desptie the fact shes the ONLY human on the planet so its not like its hard to figure out who she is

she does spend a lot of nights having to rebuild projects and apologizing and such but basically everyone plays the plausible deniability card and asks her questions abiut what went wrong and okay so the masked menace failed after you let them steal our project but lets pretend for a moment the goal was to fix crops how would you say this did? and grumply shed revamp the guns weird side effect into an alien pollinating crop duster or whatever

got carried away when REALLY all I WANTED to say was

Whille Roxanne Ritchie is adaptable ingenuity and gets away at the last minute NOT because no ones trying to catch her but shes just that CLEVER and thinks ahead and shiz....

Megamind is the guy trying to interview her in the middle of a fight like he thinks he's cute - i mean he is but shes chasing after metroman and skids to a stop because this jerk stepped in for a comment. or shes lining up the perfect shot but theres a close up of megaminds reporter bag in the way

the thing is that maybe... blue people arent violent. a natural disaster hit recently and theyre coming back from it and if the two adopted alien kids want to play extreme tag well no ones getting hurt and Roxanne Ritchie will grow out of her competitiveness no doubt caused by just how superior EVERYONE on the planet is by finding her own niche and metroman will grow up and stop bating her because maybe he IS still better than everyone else and thats met with "oh very nice we're proud" but it doesnt really validate him or make him feel special because its just treated as a special thing he can do by everyong but Roxanne Ritchie and once he's found something that makes him feel good regardless of the attention or lack of it he'll stop playing too

but megamind? megamind has an imagination that loves drama and blowing things out of proportion and thats part of why his reports are so popular? like yeah everyones treating this super hero showdown with indulgence but megamind is good at framing theatrics so that this news story is actually a compelling narrative? and also everyone can see the tension is going to have one of these three "kids" confessing live someday

and maybe he gets carried away. one of those 'aw well next time you could do x or y' or has some technological creation that accidentally actually makes Metroman flinch during an interview

and Roxanne Ritchie starts paying attentionto him for the first time.

and minion warns him but he doesnt listen. minion is lower class and is afraid of being replaced like a pet like some people do but Roxanne Ritchie Ritchie doesnt have a minion and even if she did theyre Best Friends not like those other blue people minion uperclass people.

and he carelessly says something unforgivable and Roxanne Richie uses his ideas and actually succeeds in killing metroman

so she goes to prison - a place they had to build just for her because this hasnt happened since stars knows when

and somebody else is doing the camera because minion left just is gone and megamind looks defeated but testifies against her and is quiet and subdued and stpps being a reporter for a bit

and.... idk. i feel like we'll have to resolve the whole class system so minon goes underground and finds other minons who are unhappy with the way of things and if theyre ALREADY rebuilding society after that huge natural disaster that DIDNT blow up their planet thanks TO a minion well ehy cant they fix this too?

so theres a rebellion going on and theyve got a secret weapon to make blue people listen and idk but i feel like it's Metroman

and... how do stories like this go ive forgotten

minion wouldnt tell megamind or he would

metroman would break Roxanne Ritchie out of prison during the first riot of the minion revolt?

they talk and compare why they hated eachother and slowly work together and are actually a great team?

and then they need a reporter to make themselves heard as something other than minions going crazy

and so of course they go to megamind for help getting the story out

something something megamind is minions sidekick for this adventure

"Roxanne Ritchie was raised by the planet and turned against it and instigated civil unrest and killed a person who was also the good child etc etc instead of just growing up to face your problems"

"actually im alive and i finally found my place? helping out the real heros?"

"i mean i did try to kill him, but he forgave me and we're kinda working together because planet of moms and dads that raised us? yall actually are the ones who need to grow up and let go of the traditions that dont serve etc etc"

and megamind does a huge public apology to minion

and... uhhhhhhhhh fuck i really dont know how these storyies go

the blue people start making amends

metroman basically becomes a social worker for minion childern because finding their original families is a bit hard and most of these kids are just going to end up being raised by super dad but at least the rebellion minion families are actually geting to be their own family units and in a couple gens thatll be normal

Roxanne Ritchie goes back to being the token human in the lab and hangs up her super suit and is generally dissatisfied with this

until one night a hero breaks into her apartment to make her answer for her crimes and so for a legit hot second theyre fighting and megamind says something and Roxanne apologizes and then fighting stops being an argument and goes into banter flirting

the worss "where theres evil good will rise up to fight it" peob comes up a lot in this fic in different iterations

anyways megamind isnjust basically like hey wanna do this like. for the rest of our lives dramatic battle showdowns like its entertainment but like no theyre doing this for real?

the answer is hell yeah

and its a polyship and sometimes Roxanne is helping with the kids and then Megamind bursts in to "save" the family from her evil clutches and 90% of the time everything is improve

megamind kidnaps Roxanne to make metromind save her and a good half of the conversation is that hes an idiot for coming shes tried to kill him three times this week and hes bitching because do you know how hard it is to find a sitter for 30 odd minion kids this short notice and they better make it up to him

Roxanne is not superdad but the 30 odd minion kids adore when she comes over because they mob the villain so hard until finally mega comes to save her because hes actually very good with the kids

of course this poly ship isnt complete without minion and at some point minion and mega realize theyve actually been married for years and Roxanne and metro tease them shamelessly for it

minion and his race need a real name obviously

when Roxanne was a... graduate her senior project theses thingy was essentially "im going to go back to planet earth itll be great ive figured out were im from and how to go there in a reasonable amout of time" and everyone had to sit her down and explain that unlike metroman they knew where she was from the planet was just destroyed.

they never figured out where metroman was from because his direction sharply changed to follow baby Roxannes course and mirrored her coding despite very obviously how he had originated from elsewhere

this is important because his race is basically coming to conquer the blue people planet soon - the group finds out - and will download all the survival upgrades metroman has gotten to become unkillable and then just come down to the surface and be unstoppable taking the place over and whiping out the planet like theyve done many many times

a good chunk of the time trying to figure out how to stop them when this planet is REALLY against murder war and violence for good reason and even if they WOULD do that its impossible over looks some alone time that leads to megamind and metroman figuring out how to like kill him so when the bad guys show up theyll go "whelp better not fuck with them" and leave but between roxanne and minion they manage to not only stabilize metroman (Roxanne blood transfusions maybe???) but they manage to scare the aliens so bad they tuck tail and leave speading rumors that these are the scariest mfs in space (go minion)

metroman never lets Roxanne live down saving his life

eventually space humans show up to check the place out

megamind loves everything human despite most of the planet thinking theyre primitive and showing it

roxanne is reluctant to meet them at first but then really relates to them?

for a good long while it REALLY seems like megamind and Roxanne are just going to go on space adventures with the humans leaving metroman and minion - who really doesnt like them and also they kinda rub him the wrong way because he's non bipedal and they kinda make fun of him in a 'we totally dont mean anything by it lighten up' sort of way.

they don't go of course but they may have stolen a lot of atar charts n shit and who hasnt wanted to take a road trip through space with 30 odd childern who will need names and personalities and may be chopped down to a slightly more reasonable number by this point?

metroman loves space karaoke and his natural abilites mean he learns languages fast but no he still cant carry a tune

megamind and Roxanne still duke it out on various alien cityscapes

minion usually breaks them out of jail if theyre not to be let out the next day because nothing was actually damaged that didnt belong to them.

one memorable occasion it was metoman in a fight with megamind and they wont say what its about but both look very put out and minion looks smug

it doesn't matter in the end because Roxanne teams up with the childern to propose to them first

apparantly i had a lot more ideas about this then i meant to? i mean its not well thoughout out and despite the drama a good half the fic is just going to be cute relationship building stuff between the four of them

#megamind #megamind au idea #story idea #fanfic idea #my writing #i hope tagging shit makes it findable but x doubt

29 notes · View notes