#this might also be based off me when I played soccer as a kid lol

[samcscreams]

I got this idea from @krikeymate here

“Are you sure you really want to do this?” Sam asked as she walked hand in hand with her younger sister 

Tara just looked up at Sam and shook her head with the biggest grin on her face. 

“Okay big girl. Go give it your all” Sam kissed Tara on the forehead as she ushered her off. 

Tara had recently become infatuated with soccer and insisted she try out for one of the local YMCA teams. Of course their mother was nowhere to be found so Sam took it upon herself to take Tara to try outs. 

Sam’s chest burned as she watched Tara run with the other kids, as she was already a head small than most of the players. If Tara got hurt Sam would never forgive herself for taking her to tryouts. But those big brown eyes, how could she say no. 

That was two years ago.

Tara was now a star player, the fastest on her team. She mainly played striker after the one incident where they put her in defense and some kid from the other team rammed her so hard she flew out of the field. Tara was completely fine but Sam had a “talk” with the coach after that. 

Sam was at every game and practice with anything and everything Tara could need. Snacks? Check. Water? Check. Ice pack, Sun screen, extra inhalers? Check, Check, and Check. Some of the parents eventually try and talk to Sam but she’s not there to socialize. She just wants to watch her baby sister be the star that she is. A couple parents are almost intimidated by how prepared and supportive Sam is. How is she already a better parent than they are? 

The whistle blows and that’s half. The team hustles in for a water break and a pep talk. They're only up by one so they need to stand their ground in this next half. 

“Great job guys. As a reminder let's keep our eye close on number 18. They’ve got a great cross and we can’t be caught off guard.” The coach is optimistic about his team winning in the second half. That is until the refs pull him aside. 

“Sam” Coach called 

Sam confused got up from her place next to Tara and walked over.

“Ya?” 

“So I know what we talked about before with Tara and everything. But there’s this rule that the Y mandates.” He hesitated to finish his sentence 

“What’s the rule?” Sam asked feeling like something was wrong

“I have to put Tara in as goalie. Now before you get mad, if I don’t we have to forfeit the game.”  He grimaced at Sam waiting for her to blow up. 

“What kind of stupid rule is that?” Sam wasn’t as mad as she thought she would be. It could have been worse. Honestly out of any news he could have given her it was the best. The goalie is protected more than a regular player. Sam was more upset that Tara would have to play a position she’s never played before. 

“I know its dumb but rules state every player in the under 10 bracket have to play every position on the field to make it fair. I put off placing Tara in goal as she’s well ya know. Small” 

Sam didn’t know whether to agree or be mad the coach thought less of her sister. 

“She’ll be fine. Just let me tell her.” Sam said walking away 

“Hey baby girl I know this might not be what you would like but your coach has to put you in at goalie for the second half” 

“What why?” Tara groand at the idea 

“Its some rule the program has in place. Every player on the team as to be goalie at least once.” Sam stated 

“Aww fine. I really wanted to score again.” Tara had a passion in her eyes that made Sam buzz with delight 

“You can score every goal next game.” Sam said giving Tara a little nudge 

“Well if goalie is what they want goalie is what they’ll get. Im small so they’ll underestimate me. Then i'll show’em who’s boss.” Tara was determined to be the best goalie she could be. Her team was gonna win and she would protect the goal at all costs. It couldn’t be that hard she thought to herself. She’s watched her sister for years. All she has to do is what Sam would do. And Tara did just that. 

If a player broke through there defense Tara met them head on. She new the closer she was to the player the bigger her body would be in the way of the goal. She made five saves. One was a bad kick and an easy scoop. Two were her quick thinking and kicking the ball out and the other two were half way decent shots. Tara was so proud of herself even if she wasn’t scoring to help the team out she was protecting their goal. 

Sam thought she might pass out. Tara had full forced run at two people sliding to get the ball. She could have easily been hurt. Sam didn’t take into consideration how often Tara would be running and sliding into danger while playing goalie. She knew she was probably over reacting but still. 

“Corner Kick” Yelled the Ref. 

Corner kick Great… Sam thought to herself. She couldn’t even see Tara anymore amongst the players crowding in the box. Sam looked at the score board 4-3 and a minute and 30 seconds left. Shit, it’s now or never for the other team to tie.  

Tara found herself crowded with players from both teams. She couldn’t even see over anyone to where the ball is coming from. But that didn’t stop her. If she couldn’t see the ball then she would listen for it. She closed her eyes and focused on a sounds of the grass. Then she heard a big swish and thud. They must have kicked it. Tara looked up to watch the ball fly threw the air. If the player wasn’t on the other team she would be impressed with the control and power of the kick. When the ball landed everything went slow-mo. Every one looked around to try and find the ball but Tara saw it first. Being lower to the group allowed her to see through the crowd and find it. Before she could even think twice Tara dove for the ball. She looked down and she had it. She actually had the ball! She was about to get up when she felt a striking pain shoot through her torso over and over. Then WHAM. She couldn’t see. The pain traveled through her nose to the back of her brain. It knocked the wind out of her. Tara opened her eyes to a girl kicking the ball in her hands over and over again. (Which is illegal by the way) She had missed one of her kicks and kicked Tara square in the nose. Tara felt the blood leaking down her face as she stood up. She felt wobbly but noticed she still had the ball. She ran forward and dropped kicked it as far as she could. The players chased after the ball leave Tara along in her goal bleeding profusely. 

Sam didn’t breath until she saw her sister again. Once she saw tara break out of the masses ball in hand she jumped with glee. Only to be halted as she was staring from the side lines she saw red. Blood. Taras face was covered with blood and and it was all over her jersey. Sam was certain Tara would be crying if she was bleeding that badly but her sister just stayed in the goal eyes every so carefully watching the ball. Sam lunged forward but a hand came out of nowhere holding her back. 

“Let go” She growled 

“20 seconds and we win. Tara did good. You running on the field would causes, problems” It was the coach holding Sam back. He was right. Tara seemed to be perfectly fine other than the blood loss. She wasn’t crying or seemed to be in any pain. So Sam just stood there, eyes locked on her sister waiting to see. 

3…2…1… The whistle blew. They had won. Tara immediately locks eyes with Sam. Before her teammates could even congratulate tara on a good game she was sprinting full speed for her sister. Seeing Sam let Taras body know she was in a safe place to hurt and hurt it did. Tara started to cry before she could reach Sam. However, Sam knew the second they locked eyes her sister needed her. Tara flew through the air with how fast she was running straight into Sam’s arms. 

“Did I do it? Did I protect the goal?” Tara said through muffled cry. 

“Of course you did big girl. Im so proud of you.” Sam said as she pulled Tara back to get a better look at her nose. 

Before Sam could go get their bag, hands from all around them reached out with towels, wet wipes, and water. The parents of other players understood the importance of Sam staying with Tara until she calmed down. 

Tara just clinged to Sam as Sam cleaned her face up. Taras nose didn’t seem broken but she defiantly might have a black eye after this. As time went by Tara started to relax more and the bleeding stoped. Her teammates congratulated her on a job well done as they all went home. 

“You think you're ready to start walking home?” Sam asked looking down at Tara

“Mmm ya” Tara added reaching for Sam’s hand. They said their goodbyes and headed home. 

“You were amazing out there today” 

Tara perked up at the compliment. 

“Well I couldn’t have done it with out you.” Tara admitted 

“How do you mean? I was just cheering you on like always.” Sam watched her sister walk next to her. 

“I protected the goal like you protect me. Ive never even played goalie until today.” Tara didn’t even look up at Sam as if her words were a simple fact that everyone should know. 

Sam just squeezed Taras hand. Her heart fluttering at the reassurance that Tara dose in fact know how much she means to her. 

“Wait but why didn’t you flag the refs down after you got hurt?” Sam asked oozing concern 

“The goal wasn’t safe yet. If the game stopped and I saw you I don’t think I would have been able to pull it back together to finish. I didn’t want to let my team down.” 

“Oh baby girl you didn’t let anyone down. But maybe next time it’s okay to say you got hurt. Okay?” 

“Okay fine.” Tara seemed upset she couldn’t play through injury. Maybe her baby sister’s tougher than she thought. 

[captainhysunstuff]

I think that was the first time I've seen you draw any of the Wammy boys, and it makes me want to know your headcanons for them, either inside our universe or just in general.

Henh, I draw them from time to time. Probably not in the last few months, but... every once in a while~. ^__^U Oh boy, for as long as I've been in this fandom, I don't think I've ever really put my thoughts/headcanons about them into solid words before. I'll try to make this not a disorganized mess:

Mello

I feel like his rivalry with Near gives him a sense of purpose. A goal to strive for. Whenever he has a set goal, he goes for it 120%. That try hard attitude is exactly what holds him back though. Being so laser focused may stress him out and cause him to overlook things and make more mistakes or ignore simpler solutions. He forgets to take breaks, and his fatigue creates more problems, particularly with schoolwork.

We only get one glimpse of him "off the clock" where he's playing soccer/football with his classmates (and laughs after clocking someone in the head with the ball, lol). That one instance tells me that he might have a slightly mean sense of humor (he's also seen pulling some kid's hair and Roger makes him let go of them), but of course the kid was okay and he knew it. If he had actually seriously hurt someone while joking around, I'm not sure if he'd just laugh it off. Probably try to say it wasn't a big deal, but still keep an ear out to make sure so-and-so was really okay. Very tsundere. I may be giving canon!Mello too much credit, lol. Although, he does express that he didn't want to kill Soichiro in the end. The kidnappings were horrible scare tactics, but he made sure that they would be returned alive if the demands were met (fuck his mafia crew though, *snort*).

He'd be more openly caring with people he, well, cares about. Matt as an obvious canon example. I think it's very telling that Matt isn't present during the Mafia arc. Mello leaves the orphanage alone, and he doesn't seek Matt out until after his base blows up. So, he strikes me as someone who wants to deal with his own problems by himself and not drag anyone he cares about into his personal drama. The mafia and kidnappees are just tools to him, but anyone close is out of the question unless the situation is dire. Matt was probably the only person he could reliably contact at that point (he does contact and crash at Lidner's place for a while, but surely he had to have recovered somewhere after the blast before he could get back into the action). How he expresses regret over Matt dying while being part of his plan emphasizes this sentiment.

A character I really associate him with is Amethyst from Steven Universe, especially if I want to think of how he'd be without the pressure of that rivalry, and even with it. Amethyst has the kind of humor that can come off as callous that I'd think Mello would have. What really shines for me is their shared inferiority complex and how they deal with them. I see a lot of Mello's view on his rivalry with Near during Amethyst's arc concerning her conflicts with Jasper. Neglecting personal time to have fun because the complex is weighing her down and making her try harder and become a more toxic person to be around ("Who has time for any of that when Jasper is out there?!"). Her anguish at doing so much to get better and it never being enough to get what she wants ("I can't win... No matter what I do, no matter how hard I work..."). The whole episode "Reformed" where Amethyst keeps trying to make a form that Garnet (whom I associate with L) would approve of by comparing herself to and emulating other gems. Telling people to "stay out of it" when they try to interfere or stop her from doing something drastic. The difference being that she gets positive results when she finally opens up and allows people to help her achieve her goals and not hyperfixate anymore. By the time Mello finally reaches out for help and realizes that he needs to put aside his animosity towards Near to ultimately stop Kira, it's essentially too late for a happy ending.

The only aspect where this character comparison falls apart a bit is with how lazy Amethyst can be (not bubbling the Desert Glass pillow despite living right next to a sandy beach, not being trusted to catch a monster hiding in her room). However, my counterargument is that we don't really see Mello in his downtime outside of that soccer game just chilling. Also, I'd like to reference L's "monster speech" about studying even though they don't really care about grades. It shows Near there, but I think it applies to all three of them, and Mello's only trying so hard specifically to beat Near first and foremost, not because he wants to study and get smarter for a future career ("All that practice stuff is no fun.").

Matt

Hmm... He's a malleable character to me, and that's pretty cool. He seems like a "go with the flow" kinda guy. Tell him to do something, and he'll be like, "Yeah, sure. Let me save my game first." I sort of accept whatever the fandom wants him to be in the moment, no matter what it is. The fact that he's the third smartest at Wammy's tells me that he's an effortlessly smart guy. Maybe he's good at memorization and can visually remember the answers to test questions without having to study that hard (like how I was at school, lol). Maybe not come up with the answer on the spot, but if you put something in front of him, he could go, "Oh, right," and correctly answer it. He has a little characterization in the manga, but I only just recently finished reading it, his scenes included. He really only seems to be part of the Kira case to help Mello and that's it. He doesn't seem too interested in the case itself, but Mello asked for his help, and he said, "Sure, dude. I'll try." Thus, it's why we see him gripe about how much work Mello's making him do, getting sidetracked by how cute Misa is, and speculating whether or not Mogi's her boyfriend, lol. Just a chill dude overall.

His chillness makes me think that ordinarily he'd keep to himself. Probably not to the extent that Near does, but if left alone, he is more than happy staying alone. He minds his own business, thus why he doesn't dissuade Mello from his rivalry or stop him from leaving Wammy's House (not that anyone could stop Mello from doing anything). But if someone extends an invitation, he'll accept it and try his best.

Also, "Mail" is pronounced "Mile." According to the Wiki, the katakana is written as "ma-i-ru." If it was "mail," it would be "me-i-ru" or "me--ru" I believe (henh, the his name would be close to Mel). Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's "mile" for me, and it ain't changin'.

Near

The first phrase I think of whenever I think of Near is "little shit~." XD I say that in an entirely affectionate way of course. Although, that "little shit" attitude only comes out when he's actively engaged with someone else. Not necessarily hostile, but definitely a little condescending, and it's very easy for him to rub people the wrong way. Perhaps he knows he has this effect on people, either intentionally or not, and this is why he keeps to himself and declines invitations to hang out? He probably doesn't even like being around people (he judges people very harshly in the manga). Maybe even mildly misanthropic. He might resent that he's co-dependent and has to rely on people on the daily when he gets older and leaves Wammy's House.

The reason he has the best grades at Wammy's is because he can fully focus on the tests and assignments he takes and doesn't make many technical mistakes. Makes me wonder if he's a slow test taker or exactly a mid-speed test taker? Or maybe he's effortlessly fast? Then, Mello wants to be fast, too, and that causes Mello to make more mistakes due to rushing when he could probably get better grades if he took his time?

It's very hard for me to talk about Near without bringing Mello into the picture. Their rivalry is such a focal point with their characters in the story. The rivalry is almost completely one sided in my opinion, but Near probably encourages it because he thinks Mello needs that goal. So, every once in a while, he'll make remark or do something that will purposely annoy Mello, reigniting that fire under his ass to make Near eat his dust. In the harsh judgment vein, he believes Mello's identity has been shaped around the competition and that he'd be lost without it. Kind of like how Near canonically becomes a bit despondent after the Kira case ends: taking the L mantle, but just going through the motions. Detective work doesn't seem like his passion; he was just groomed for it and is good at it. He'd be more than content to just lie around, making card castles and play single-player games all day. Maybe an occasional visit from respected company, but they'd better leave in a timely manner or be relatively unobtrusive, lol.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning, I have a ridiculous headcanon where Near has psychic powers in the anime. Thank the anime’s short hand in how he singles out Mikami as X-Kira by making his eyes glow and the room spin. I stand by that he blew up a guy’s head with his mind in the Re:Light special. Hey, if Beyond Birthday being born with shinigami eyes is canon, why not humans with psychic powers? Wammy’s is good at finding these eccentricities~.

Mello and Near's Tactics

I really do love how the narrative intention seemed to be that after Light defeated L, L was essentially split into two people with those two extremes amplified to 11. It creates a pincer attack around Light: Mello aggressively hitting the Task Force from the outside, putting traumatic emotional stress on them, and Near poking and prodding away from the inside trying to gradually create a mutiny against Light while acting like he's working alongside them. Mello brings the fear and pressure (and suspense in that he's just floating around doing who knows what after the raid), and Near seeds the doubt and inner unrest. When mashed together, they wouldn't make L exactly, but a being/team more effective and terrifying than L (surpass him together, indeed). Lord help their Watari, lol.

--

I suppose those are my thoughts on the main three in a decently sized nutshell. Feel free to say I'm wrong or unfounded. I'm no expert with these characters, so hopefully my headcanons and interpretations don't piss anyone off too much. ^__^

[shoichee]

GoMs + Kagami, Hanamiya, Teppei as Pokémon Trainers

Pokémon x Kuroko no Basket Crossover

Headcanons on KNB characters if they were trainers

For only the “Generation of Miracles” (plus Kagami), I wanted to show that they are prodigies in the pokémon universe by each giving them the appropriate specialty legendary/mythical pokémon respective to their anime counterpart abilities/personalities.

Also, as GoMs in the pokémon universe, I was careful to also choose some of their respective pokémon based on base stats and the consideration of type variety, unless a team had most pokémon sharing a type for a reason, in addition to already choosing pokémon based on their pokédex entries.

I have also given pictures of said pokémon suited to each KNB character below the cut.

Warning: spoilers on KNB characters, it’s a given

Kuroko Tetsuya 

his lack of presence would directly translate into the pokémon world pretty nicely and would make him pretty attuned to ghost pokémon floating about, but that won’t necessarily mean he’ll have a full team of ghosts

I feel like he would accidentally just pick up the mythical pokémon, Marshadow as a kid without knowing its reputation and would just let it follow him around like a buddy… and then they would become an official trainer-pokémon relationship later on // they’re both tiny and usually unnoticeable; they’d be best friends

he’d definitely have a Zoroark, since these pokémon require very strong bonds with their trainers, and they’re infamously known for their illusions and trickery; for Kuroko, he probably saw right through a Zorua’s (pre-evolution) tricks back in the day and then it became intrigued by him and joined him along the way before evolving into the Zoroark we see present day // this is a tribute to Nigou as well, since they’re both dog-like/fox?????

surprisingly, he’d have a Hatterene just trailing behind recently; Hatterenes hate extreme emotions emitted from humans and I’d feel like it would just be lured in by his dry personality

Hatterene’s color scheme is literally the same blue and pink like Kuroko and Momoi, so Hatterene is very much a Momoi who chases Kuroko around while he doesn’t mind it at all

his 4th pokémon, Vanilluxe, came to be when he spent hours hiding in the tall grass for a Vanillite (pre-evolution) to show up; he was willing to go out of his way to catch one because he wanted an ode to his love for vanilla milkshakes

all in all, he would be the trainer who is able to instantly connect and make friends with other pokémon around without even trying; ironically, he would have the most variety of typings in his team because of that

he’s the protagonist trainer who would always be the first to openly stand up against the villain teams and foiling their plans, but he would need the support of the other GoMs (cough) to take down the team bosses

he would definitely be friends with N (BEST franchise character)

he’s a “youngster” trainer like a “youngster joey” vibe KDJWORKWKW but like he’s pretty OP by the end of his journey

Kise Ryota

Cinderace with its hidden ability Libero is perfect for our blondie; Libero is an ability that allows the user to become that type of the move it just used until it uses a move of a different type, and then it’ll switch to that next type (I thought about Greninja with its Protean ability at first because it’s the OG ability and it's the exact effect just a diff name; but Cinderace’s design is a soccer motif and it reminded me of Kise in the old Teiko days)

Kise would very much be a renown model in the pokémon universe, and he’d idolize Elesa (from Pokémon B/W and B2/W2); both are blonde models too LOL (except she dyed her hair black in B2/W2)

so he’d have a Luxray (non shiny OR shiny, both suit him), because since he looks up to her so much and she’s an electric-type gym leader, he’d probably have an electric-type of his own

I would think he’d have a dragon-type pokémon like Haxorus to connect him with Aomine (a dragon-type trainer) since in the anime, Aomine was Kise’s mentor and role model in basketball; it would give him a fighting chance with Aomine if they ever faced each other in a pokémon battle

he would have a shiny Sylveon, and he would love to dote the ever living fuck out of it and feed it poképuffs (maybe from Murasakibara’s café LOL) and sing with it, and every time it sweeps someone’s team with its Moonblasts, he’ll cheer it on so much BDHWIRWI it also adds a certain connotation to his idol reputation as this “approachable guy” with his adorable Sylveon too

this guy has an idol status not just in the beauty/fashion industry, but also in the sports world (especially in Unova’s sports stadium in Nimbasa city)

he’d meet tons of other models and fashion icons like gym leader Nessa, champion Diantha, etc. WHEW JUST SAYIN

he would have his face plastered everywhere on trainer PR videos and even getting offers for some minor acting roles in Pokéstar Studios

one day, while he’d be at the studio, there was a whole commotion how the studio and the museum had their deliveries mixed up because the studio had the real meteorite while the museum had the well-made prop of a meteorite; and uh, it turns out this meteorite had the alien virus that pretty much had its DNA mutated into a Deoxys

long story short, being a very experienced trainer, Kise would manage to catch it after hours of chasing it in the wild areas nearby

over time, he and this particular Deoxys would come to have enough mutual respect for each other to be able to battle as a proper trainer-pokémon duo

that being said, he won’t resort to using it unless it’s life-threatening; note: he changes its Formes using a chunk from the meteorite in the studios he broke off (Deoxys [and its many forms] is further reference to his versatility as a basketball player)

Midorima Shintarou

as a man who seeks for good luck and fortunes he’d stack up on a Chimecho for sure and… 

Togekiss; he used to have its pre-evolution Togepi to solely to try to make it stand up while sleeping for good luck (according to the pokédex), and the more he kept trying, the more he made it attached to him and before he knew it, he had a fully evolved Togekiss // he’ll NEVER admit that he loves it to bits, though

this might be unexpected at first glance, but he’d have a Mega Absol; hear me out, it’s called the “disaster pokémon” according to its pokédex, however it is only named so because it warns others of disasters when it appears SO IT WOULD WARN MIDORIMA OF INCOMING BAD LUCK

he’d probably receive a Rowlet from Momoi as a gift from her laboratory, and he didn’t have the heart to abandon it; he’d evolve it to a Decidueye… and just… keep it (this pokémon is a reference to his no-miss shots)

ultimate good luck bringer: Ho-Oh ✨

would have the most “balanced” team out of everyone in terms of type-coverage (reference to him having the most coverage in skills for basketball, from shooting to absolute defense to having ball-handling skills)

he’d totally avoid Akashi’s Kadabra (pre-evolution of Alakazam)—who will be mentioned later down in the list���because it’s said to bring bad luck, as well as avoiding all the Ninetales because he doesn’t want to risk accidentally pulling off one of their tails and be cursed

he’ll avoid caverns as much as possible (but it’s impossible to avoid them all) because those are the habitats of Golbats (who will supposedly give bad luck if one bites you) but if there wasn’t a leeway for him, he will literally LATCH onto his Chimeco and keep his Togekiss and Absol out of their pokéballs to guard him LMAOOO

I would feel he would constantly strive to fill up his entire pokédex, so he’d be a pokémon master in training in a sense; he’s someone who wants to prepare himself for any situation and opportunity, so being a pokédex filler would always provide him an encyclopedia on potential pokémon to either stay away from or catch more of because of certain luck factors

make no mistake though, he’s a seasoned pokémon battler, don’t fuck with him

Aomine Daiki

an intimidating Garchomp would be his ace™️ pokémon, ummmm have you SEEN its base SPEED stat??? it’s a monster

we’re gonna go overkill and give this man a Mega Rayquaza just for the sole fact that he’d be the “ace” trainer of ALL ace trainers and veterans alike

however, because of his “lack of practice/training” like in the anime, he’d probably just stick with these two pokémon, since usually Garchomp already sweeps everyone’s teams without a sweat

homie is probably napping on top of one of the laboratory roofs (probably the one Momoi works in) or escaping to a nearby cliff or hill to relax and keep a lookout for any promising trainers that pass by him

is a trainer who pretty much kept one-shotting all the trainers throughout his journey in the region (aka that’s us protagonists when we play against NPCs)

he would also be that trainer who wiped the floor with the current champion so badly that he felt that all his “training” leading up to that moment didn’t even feel rewarding (plus there’s those countless trainer battles before where it didn’t feel thrilling), and so, he just left the league after, waiting for the day a sufficient rival could show up in his life

he’s definitely cleared the challenging battle systems of each region (probably back when he still had some passion for battling and had a good full team): Battle Frontier, Battle Tree, PWT tournament, Battle Manson, Battle Tower… you name it, he’d probably be done with most of them, if not, all

Murasakibara Atsushi

he’d have a Bewear, Appletun, and lots of variants of Alcremie’s just hanging around him

note: you should search up all the variations of Alcremies yourself, hint cough, it’s 60 variations total

maybe he’d have a Snorlax chilling nearby because it’s so huge

Murasakibara would be a Pokécafé owner AND HE’D HAVE HIS BULKY BEWEAR AND HIS SNORLAX GUARD THE SHOP, YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH ME 

or he would UNLEASH his G-MAX forms of Alcremie’s

and he’ll just use his pokémon to make the tastiest poffins, poképuffs, and pokécurry

he’ll never bring out his final pokémon, Melmetal, unless it’s an absolute emergency and his shop is in danger

he would love Kuroko’s Vanilluxe, in a sense where he would always impassively joke about eating the ice-cream pokémon and Kuroko would just constantly hope he’s not being for real

he wouldn’t be motivated by ambitions like other trainers would have, he just wants to chill and loaf around all day; if someone pissed him off about he was a “weak” trainer or how they were becoming overly cocky when talking about their goals, he’d be right there smiling and ready to annihilate them | (• ◡•)|

Akashi Seijuro

Espeon would totally fit him as his first pokémon; its eyes are very reminiscent of his feline irises, and it’s tiny in size but a very powerful sweeper when set up right AND THEY’re ~calm~ while being capable of either sweet or very calculating later on / LIKE PET, LIKE OWNER

Tsareena; this one has a literal attitude of a queen and its pokédex is pretty terrifying in which one kick from its legs “leaves a wound in the opponent's body and soul that will never heal”... sound familiar?

Nidoking, cough I wonder why I picked this guy he’s a king, but jokes aside, it’s here to add more type variety to his team, and it’s mostly there to be a status inflictor (aka poisoning) and hazard setter with traps for his opponents… sound familiar with how he initiates his shogi strategies?

Mega Alakazam. that’s it. this pokémon has 5000 IQ like ?? would totally wipe the floor with Akashi in shogi if it tried

you thought Aomine had an overkill legendary, but Akashi has Hoopa, who’s capable of a Confined form and Unbound form, representative of his two contrasting personalities 

he’s an ambitious trainer aiming to become a Pokémon Master, and he’s one of those feared prodigies that all the region champions just lowkey sweat hearing about him coming to wreck their leagues apart

his pokédex would be damn near completed

he looks more into a pokémon’s utility and how it can fit into his strategies; it just turns out that most of the capable/eligible pokémon he ends up picking are psychic-types because they all tend to have extremely high intelligence to pull them off

Momoi Satsuki

Mega Altaria fits Momoi’s aesthetic of being cute, but very dangerous if you underestimate it, and I wanted a cute connection to Aomine who I primarily headcanoned to be a dragon-type trainer, so Altaria is a dragon-type pokemon that I picked out (perfect alternative would be Mega Gardevoir if she never met Aomine)

Blissey is a pokemon that brings happiness to anyone that eats their eggs, and it very much fits Momoi’s personality

Tapu Lele is a totem pokemon that has incredible knowledge, and is known to be able to outsmart any opponent during battle, referencing her pre-cognitive defense research abilities

she would definitely be constantly mistaken as a pokémon “Beauty” (yes that’s a trainer title), but in actuality, she’s training to become a pokémon professor as an assistant 

Momoi’s “professor specialty” would definitely be her researching about a pokémon’s current stats (plus their EVs and IVs) and would pinpoint their level of potential and thus, predict their growth (and the steps taken for a certain type of growth) // she’d probably become really famous in the world of competitive battling because a lot of trainers would try to approach her to help “train their teams”

Kagami Taiga

I think he would ironically have a Lopunny because it used to be Alex’s but she just left it in his care and now he has this prankster bunny that’s basically an Alex 2.0 to other pokémon in its vicinity ?? but it has hops like Kagami so

a hotheaded, short-tempered guy like Kagami would have an Incineroar (they… kinda look the same) 

Krookodile would be very much up his alley… its offensive stats are also not something to take lightly, especially when paired with moves like Earthquake and Foul Play

Kommo-o would be a pokémon that embodies Kagami’s personality very well: it seeks to battle only strong opponents for the reason to defeat the “darkness,” and its presence is more than enough to scare the weaker opponents away; Kagami has been mentioned as the ���light” many times throughout the series, and his piercing gaze on the courts generate suffocating pressure on the opposing teams // it’s also a pseudo-legendary pokémon on the same base-stat caliber as Aomine’s Garchomp (hinting at their game against each other) ( ᐛ )

last one I’d find really amusing to give for Kagami would be Victini, the adorable mythical pokémon said to bring only victories for its trainer… and it’s a reference to his ascendance to the top of the Winter Cup after defeating all the GoM’s teams

oh yeah, I forgot Mega Lopunny existed so I’ll just attached that right below

anywho, so he’s a rising pokémon trainer who wants to become a pokémon master… but only for the battling part LOL like he doesn’t believe in “catching ‘em all” so to speak because he’d be someone who would believe in winning battles with the pokémon you truly bonded with; in other words, he’d probably only catch new pokémon if he feels a certain connection with them

but because of that, he doesn’t have much info on other pokémon besides his own, and it bites him in the ass when he has to try to figure out ways to take down opposing teams

reluctantly would team up with Kuroko after finding out many of the competitions require double battling but he doesn’t have a single strategy for it, and then Kuroko would pop out of nowhere and offered a hand to be his double battle partner until he learned how to double-battle on his own

spoiler alert, they totally start becoming travel companions in exploring the world together

of course Kagami would have battle strategies, but he isn’t like Akashi where he would actively look for the appropriate strong pokémon for his strategies; he makes strategies to accommodate his existing team

Kiyoshi Teppei

HE HAS A LUCARIO, NOT ONLY THAT A MEGA LUCARIO; they both seek for justice and they’re extremely loyal, and they both are able to read their opponents very easily 

HE ISN’T CALLED THE “IRON HEART” FOR NOTHING, I CAN SEE HIM WITH A SHINY METAGROSS JUST BEING AN OFFENSIVE TANK YET BEING ABLE TO SWEEP, JUST LIKE AN ACE WOULD

he would live a double life: a shopkeeper of his grandparents’ pokémon item/antique store by day, pokémon ranger and patroller by night

he would keep his local area safe (ง'̀-'́)ง

yes, I only see him as a steel-type trainer

he’d be so precious with his pokémon and meticulous in his care for them: he’d probably shine his Metagross everyday or brush out his Lucario’s fur, just because !!

and his pokémon would be fiercely protective of Teppei in return, mostly because they noticed he has bad knees and they don’t want him to strain them any further(;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`)

Hanamiya Makoto

no debate, he’d have a shiny Hydreigon… dude that pokémon is an absolute nightmare to level up and evolve, let alone tame, but back when it debuted in Pokémon B/W, it was the most OP pokémon out there // shiny variant of it because it has a similar color scheme to the Kirisaki Daiichi basketball team, and he’d probably have a shiny version just to flaunt it off and piss people off

Salazzle with a hidden ability Corruption, where it allows it to poison any pokémon regardless of type or ability; again, it’s to piss the trainers off in battle

and finally, a Dracovish; a person like him would totally have this inherently fucked up pokémon just for the sole purpose to disturb the hell out of his opponent trainers, but make no mistake: it’s an underdog sweeper 

look, he’s an admin of some sinister villain team and he has his other Kirisaki Daiichi starter players as his personalized grunts (they’re like a specific sect of the villain team; e.g. Shadow Triad or the Seven Sages of Team Plasma)

you might wonder, why don’t I give him a “spider” pokémon, since the webs are the analogy used to compare to his strategies in basketball? too many villains have Ariados in their teams and Galvantula is a friendly, fuzzy tarantula soooo it wouldn’t fit Hanamiya at all

I don’t think he would have any deep motive to be villainous other than to just enjoy people getting fucked over by his own deeds and actions; sometimes, it isn’t so deep

“it’s your boy, Guzma Hanamiya” if you get this reference I love you

End Note: “Mega” forms and “G-MAX” forms are not separate pokémon, but rather, temporary power-ups during battles; they are just shown to show the differences in appearances compared to their original forms when they transform.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO Origins “Ramirez.”

This is what my rain wanted to write today, so this is what you guys get to read lol. I am a slave to the whims of what catches my stupid brain’s fleeting interest. This was actually pretty fun o write though, so I hope you like it :)

The sound of steel cutting over ice: it’s sharp like the scraping of a blade on concrete though much more satisfying. It’s a sound he associates with weightlessness. He imagines that if he could fly this is what it would feel like. He holds his arms out to the side cutting backwards across the ice in large sweeping strokes, his feet moving in familiar patterns so effortless he could definitely do them in his sleep. He spins in a tight circle rotating  over the ice on the tips of his toes using the picks at the front of the skates to gain purchase against the cold, frozen material.

“Yo! Angel!”

He skids to a stop sending up a wave of ice crystals against one wall.

On the other side of the rink a youth hockey team is practicing drills.

“Looking good, baby.”

If he had rolled his eyes any harder he might have been able to see his spinal column.

He could see them waving at him through the glass arms around each other like they were about to break out into the throws of passion. 

Wasn’t it so nice that both of his exes had gotten together.

He sighed, guess that’s what he got for only dating within the olympic team. HE stepped off the ice and sat down on the bench pulling off his skates and setting them to the side. The two lovebirds walked closer.

Christina Swanson and Michel Castle both up and coming olympic competitors working together on a partnered ice routine they were sure was going to win them a gold medal at next year’s winter olympics.

Both of them were super hot Christina with the body of an angel and michel with the body of a greek god, but all Ramirez wanted to do was punch Michel in the dick and slap the bitch look off of Christina’s face. He wondered if that was the way everyone felt about their exes.

“Fancy seeing you here.” Christina giggled, “Michel and I were just discussing how good you are in b-”

He held up a hand, “The last thing I want to hear is a score roster for my private performances.” He pulled on his sneakers, “So if you will excuse me, I’m out before this gets petty.”

Michel smirked, “Oh come on Angel, just a bit of friendly banter. You know you would probably skate better if you got that stick out of your ass.”

“Hmm that’s weird because I distinctly remember that being your thing.” He threw his skates over his shoulder and walked past the two of them trying to ignore their side comments. He found it very funny that they were being rude to him when he distinctly remembered it was Michel who had cheated on him with christina the second time and christina who had dumped him the first time.

Not for the first time he wondered if he shouldn't just pick one side and stick with it, at least then he wouldn’t have to run risk of being forced to watch his exes dating each other...or never mind he was sure he could find a way to make that happen. He always seemed to have the worst luck with girls, or guys. He had the worst luck dating in general.

He stepped out into the hallway walking past another group of kids at the rec center and then out into the hallway where the elderly janitor was pinning up notices to the cork board.

“Morning Elliot.”

The old man turned around, “Oh Morning Angel.” The two men shook hands.

“Good yo see you up and about. The youth seem to like to sleep in, but you know what I always say early to wake early to rise.”

“Keeps a man healthy and wealthy and wise, yeah, I know.” He glanced over the man’s shoulder and towards the new gloss holo-posters. The largest one stood out, it was a recruiting poster for the Marine Corps, “Go to space with the marine corps.” He read aloud, “What are they on about.”

Elliot waved a hand, “Didn’t you hear. They’re flying that new fangled interstellar space whachamachallit out in the next few years. Guess they are looking for marines in case they get attacked by-” He wiggled his fingers, “Aliens.”

Ramirez laughed, “Cool.” He glanced up at the sky, “I’ve always thought it would be cool to go to space.” 

Elliot waved a hand, “Don’t you have some ice dancing to do or something, kid.”

His shoulders wilted a bit, “yeah, guess I do.”

He said goodbye to the old janitor and stepped out into the Texas sunlight. It was hot out here after all the ice.

Overhead he could hear the distant roar of jet engines from one of the nearest air force bases. Seemed like they had been working with jets a lot recently. He swore he had seen about a million and a half of those M-90s fly overhead in the past few weeks.

He walked over to his car and slid into the Driver’s seat staring blankly out the windshield.

What was wrong with him?”

He had been like this for weeks.

All mopy and pathetic…. Was it because of his exes, the last breakup, nah he was over them.

He slumped down in his seat and started the car heading home  with a case of some serious moodiness. When he got back he could almost forget about his issues since he was immediately tackled by his younger sister who proceeded to beat the ever loving shit out of him in a wrestling match. But then again she was also on her way to becoming an olympian, so that didn’t surprise him.

This family was pretty talented at sports.

His older sister played soccer professionally, and his youngest brother was star of his middle school football team so something could be said about that.

“Morning Angel, how was practice today?”

“Absolute shit.”

“Hey watch your language.”

“Sorry mom, just hit a slump or something.” 

HIs father looked up from his tablet where he was sitting at the table, “Sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah yeah, fine. I’m just going to head out today maybe catch up with friends or something.”

“Alright have fun, don’t do anything stupid.”

***

He had gone and tried to do tons of stupid things, but none of those things were what he really needed. Nothing could take his mind off the increasing feeling of dissatisfaction, which he couldn’t explain for the life of him, and that night found him sitting on the roof watching the sky darken as the sun set behind the distant line of hills. The air was hot and dusty, so he only wore shorts and a white cotton shirt  where he lay against the roof’s sloped surface. A breeze rolled past him, a breeze that carried with it the sound of some pretty colorful cursing in his family’s native tongue.

He frowned and glanced over the edge of the roof.

“Abuela!”

His grandmother held up a hand to shut him up as she crawled onto the room still cursing violently and grumbling, “Why do you always have to go and mope in places restricted to old people.” Still speaking spanish.

He helped her onto the the roof to sit next to hi her old wrinkled hand gripping onto  his arm like a steel vice. People said he had a lot in common with his grandmother. He had definitely inherited her dark tan skin dark, almost black, hair and amber eyes, “What are you doing here?”

“I told you, I’m up here to see what you’re moping about. Did practice not go well today.”

“No of course it did.”

“Exes? 

“No.”

“Get rejected?”

“No.”

“Than what do you have to complain about?”

He smiled at her bluntness and leaned back watching as the first stars winked into place in the night sky, “I don’t know… I just…. You ever just feel sort of empty?”

“That’s called crippling depression.”

He snorted a smile, “No, not that. I mean like you aren’t doing something you should be doing, or that your life the way it is is meaningless.”

“Your one year away from being an olympian.”

He sighed and sat up resting his arms against his knees, “That’s the problem though isn’t it. I am a year away from being an olympian and it's not…. Well it’s not exciting. Shouldn't I be super nervous, excited or even proud.” He shuffled his feet, “I mean I have been working on this for years, I used to love skating…. But now…. I mean I still like it, don’t get me wrong, but it all seems so…. so …. Petty.”

He turned looking over to find her raising an eyebrow at him. 

He shrugged, “Never-mind.” Just me being dumb I guess.

“No keep going. I’m listening.”

“Well… I'm at the peak of my game, the best I will ever be, and I should be proud of that, but the more and more I think about it the less…. Important it seems. Like I just… It's like I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing off for praise and admiration only to get old and break down and then regret my youth. I have always been good at any physical activity I tried, and instead of using it for something worthwhile or useful, I'm doing this.”

“Isn’t the pursuit of betterment in itself a worthwhile cause?”

He shrugged, “I have no problem with other people doing it if that’s what makes them happy, but I just…. I don’t know if this is what makes me happy anymore.”

“Then quit?”

“After years of training. Wouldn’t that be wasting my life and my talent. Years of preparation just thrown in the trash”

“Better to waste a decade than three. Believe me, I am old enough to know. Besides, you're not even old enough to drink. I can hardly consider the years being wasted ”

Overhead, the stars winked down on him. 

***

He walked into the rink the next day like on any other day skates hung over his shoulder. He sat on the bench with the others listening to their coaches discussing sponsors , discussing how things were going with getting their team ready, about who was going to be doing what, but he could barely pay attention.

He looked around at the others, friends he had had for many years, watched them lean forward in their seats eyes wide with excitement. He could practically hear the eager beating of their hearts as they bounced on the balls of their feet. 

And he felt….. Nothing 

He glanced over at Michel and Christina, the two most vapid people he had ever met (yeah he was apparently great at picking them), and saw the eager hungry expressions on their faces.

Even they were ready, willing and prepared.

They looked excited.

He felt frustration, anger and hopelessness beginning to build up inside him. He stared down at the skates sitting in his lap. He stared out at the ice rink, a 30 by 60m oval of ice where he would be paraded for the rest of his short lived career until his young body degraded and he either walked off or someone younger and more talented pushed him off.

It was hopeless 

He felt meaningless.

He stood abruptly, skates clattering to the floor. He watched them as if in slow motion clatter and bounce. All eyes turned to look at him. His coach looked on in confusion.

“Angel, are you ok?”

The voices echoed in his head, and he turned walking out of the rink ice skates left forgotten on the floor. He heard footsteps behind hi, voices calling his name.

“What is he doing?”

“Why’s he being such a drama queen.”

He walked out into the hall passing by the cork board where-

He paused glancing down at the poster from earlier.

The marines.

A hand reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, “Angel,  you ok.” She shrugged the hand off and walked out into the parking lot. He could feel the eyes of the other skaters pinned to his back staring at him. They loved drama, and this was getting interesting.

He stood in the parking lot staring at the sun and swiveling his head.

Ah, there.

He began walking across the parking lot.

His coach grabbed him by the arm, “Angel, are you ok. Do we need to call someone. A hospital maybe. Perhaps you should sit down and take a breath and let your head clear.”

“My head is clear.” He heard himself say.

He stepped up to a door in the little strip mall and shouldered it open, stepping into the cool air conditioned room. The carpet was drab and grey, and nothing could be heard but the distant sound of a vacuum and some typing. The others piled in after him as he swiveled his head looking for the correct door.

He found it.

He pushed it open startling the man behind the desk whose name tag read Sgt Myers.

He seemed surprised as the odd eclectic group crammed themselves into his office.

Sgt Myers tilted his head, “Can I help you?”

Warm honey light dropped from the window onto his strangely patterned uniform.

“How do I sign up?”

“ANGEL! What are you doing!”

Behind him the others gasped. Sgt. Myers looked very confused.

“Er Well, we have some paperwork and a background check.”

“When is your next bus leaving.”

“Tonight.”

“Can you get me on it?”

His coach grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, “Angel what are you doing! Have you gone insane! Is this some sort of psychotic break. Do I need to call your parents! You can’t just throw away your life by joining the army.”

Ramirez pointed at the wall, “Marines.

Sgt Myers sat with his mouth open.

Ramirez shrugged his coach off, “Can you get me on that bus.”

“Er…. yeah. I guess we probably could. You’d have to do a physical and….”

“Done.”

More protests raised from the back.

“This isn't about the breakup is it?” Michel wondered.

Ramirez snorted, “Not even close, but getting away from you will be a perk.”

“Angel, try to think for a moment.”

Ramirez held out his arm allowing the man to scan the implants under the skin. There was a beep as the information automatically filled out the paperwork on file. The man looked through his background check, and seeing nothing major he shrugged. “I'll send it out to be approved…. But Kid….. maybe you should think about this for a minute. No hasty decisions.”

Behind him the others threw up a ruckus agreement.

He stayed calm, “it’s my life and my regrettable decisions to make.”

He couldn’t really argue with that.

“Angel, why are you doing this. You’re too talented to be wasted in the army. Please just come back, you’ll feel better once you get back on the ice.”

He turned to look at his coach, the other members of his team who looked on in confusion. He felt surprisingly calm and collected, “You’re right.” They looked relieved, “The ice does calm me down, which is why I don’t want to make it a career.”

More uproar.

He raised his voice, “You guys are all so excited, and the fact that I’m not just proves that I shouldn’t be here.” His heart was hammering now as his body began to catch up with his mind.

He felt the beating, pounding of his heart, the rush of blood in his head, the fluttering feeling in his chest.

And he felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, his nose and eyes prickling with heat.

A shiver of excitement rolled down his spine, and a grin broke out across his face.

There it was.

He hadn’t felt that sensation in a 

Very

Long 

Time 

He held up a hand against their protests, “Look I am going to miss all of you, and I wish you luck. I am super proud of all the work I have seen you guys give to this, but this is where I have to say goodbye.  Have made my decision. I am going to be a marine.” 

***

“You did what!” His mother’s voice was loud over the phone as he slouched back against the tarnished bus seat as the other young men and women filtered on.

“I joined the marines?”

“Angel Antonio Ramirez, tell me you are joking.”

“No mom. I…. I did what I had to do.”

Behind her in the house he could hear the gasps of his younger sister, “But Angel, we were going to go to the Olympics together.”

That part he did feel a bit sad about, “Sorry Izzy, but you were always meant to be the cool one in the family.”

“What is going on?’ His younger brother asked.

“Your brother joined the marines.”

“Cool.”

“Not not cool.” His mother said, “ANgel get your ass home right now.”

He sort of just smiled as -- from the background his father cut in, “Sounds exactly like something Angel would do.”

His mother was about to protest when rockus laughter cut through the background. She went silent in confusion before, “Abuela?”

“Go get em boy! See those aliens!.” She continued to laugh, “Proud of you angel, was hoping you had the balls to go and do it.”

“You knew?

“Course I knew, runs in the family. Your grandpa  ran off to join the army during the pan-asian war didn’t he?”

“Well yeah.”

“Proud of you Angel, now go get em.” She continued to laugh, and that made him smile.. Even if it was just her supporting him, he would be ok.

A sigh, his mother, “Angel, are you sure this is what you want.”

“Yes mom, I’m sure.” 

“Ok…. well call us and let us know ok?”

“Yes.”

“Love you.”

“Love you to.” 

He hung up and leaned back in his seat just as another weight dropped down beside him. He looked over, coming eye to eye with a short-blond woman with blue/hazel eyes, and a short blond buzz.

Damn she was cut.

“Sup.”she said sensing him staring 

“Nothing much.” He Said with a smile. He held out a hand, “Ramirez.”

She took his hand with a strong grip, “Maverick. So what brings you onto this ronchy ass bus.”

He grinned, “Long story.”

“I’m sure we’ve got time.” 

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #367

“i should warn you that you may fuck me, but chances are i’m gonna fuck you over”

Where was the last place you went for vacation? The beach. When was the last time you wore makeup? Halloween. Do you watch soaps or drama series? If so, which ones? Not currently. What’s your favourite tomato variety? I hate tomatoes. What was your very first pet like? Dad had a dog named Trigger when I was born, but I have no memory of her, so I'm excluding her. I consider our first family pet to be Chance, a cat my mom took in after finding her literally in the trash. She was... god, incredible. She was a loyal friend, and I can imagine no greater mother than she was (she legit fought off a rottweiler head-on to protect her kittens). She was so smart, so gentle, and just simply amazing. I'll always miss her. What was the best school project you remember doing? Looking back, despite the fact it TERRIFIED me before, that would be my senior project presentation. It was about snake misconceptions and fallacies, so I made a slideshow to present to the special ed class. I made drawings for them to color, word searches, all that kind of stuff. They were just the sweetest and seemed really into it. What’s your favourite type of fish to eat? None. What kind of an old person do you think you’ll become? I really... don't like thinking about this. Like I'm weak enough now at 25, I can't imagine how my, say, 60s would be. I hope and just about pray that my physical health will improve, but I'm just going to exclude that part entirely from this answer. Personality-wise and such, I have a feeling I'll be the quiet and sweet kind, the one that loves her (hopeful) spouse like crazy, and comes most alive on Halloween if I live in a place where children come trick-or-treating. I imagine I would LOVE that. I'd love to be the type that goes on morning jogs to help stay spry. Which well-known person’s death shocked you the most, if any? Steve Irwin and Chester Bennington might be tied. Both were so, so sudden. Steve was like, invincible to my childhood eyes, and when I heard about Chester's death, I thought it was just a sick rumor. Two amazing people that died way too soon. What’s the craziest colour you’d dye your hair? That would depend on personal opinions. I want to dye my hair LOTS of colors though, if that tells you anything. What’s the coolest hobby one of your friends has? Uhhhh. Idk. Name a video game you can play over and over again: Shadow of the Colossus. It's a pretty short game if you know what you're doing, and it's super relaxing to me and just so goddamn pretty to look at. Every time I've played it has just been a pleasant experience. Do you like meatloaf? Yeah, it's fine. How about Meatloaf? I know who he is, but I've never really listened to his music. Do you take time to do charitable work? If so, what do you do? No. ;_; Especially with all the free time I have, I really should... What is something that will make you laugh instantly? Okay, don't ask, but if I for a SECOND see that commercial of Mr. Clean dancing while he's cleaning, I will die because of memories. What is something you hope you will never inherit from a specific relative? Diabetes. It runs heavily in my family. Name a movie you wouldn’t watch solely based on its name: The Human Centipede. No. Thank you. Have you ever played in a stack of hay bales? No. What’s your dearest souvenir? The stuffed moose I got at Cabela's during a visit to Ohio. I named him Brownie, and he was my "childhood plushie" we all have. Is there a lot of graffiti around your neighbourhood? Not in the actual area I live in, but there are DEFINITELY places where it's a pigsty of distasteful shit. Have you ever made your own soda? (Soda Stream doesn’t count!) No. Do you have a hobby that forces you out of the house? If so, what is it? Nature photography. Have you ever been part of a theater group? No, that stuff doesn't interest me. What’s the most ecological thing you do? We recycle, and I also use metal straws. Would you stop eating meat, if you had to raise and slaughter it yourself? Absolutely. There is no fucking way I could do it. What’s your favourite board game? Why do you like it best? I like Clue just because of the mystery-solving factor, and I think it's kinda cool how you can think ahead and use other's findings to your own advantage to win the game pretty early. Besides English, what other languages can you speak? Some German. It's gotten pretty weak with neglect, though. Besides English, what other languages can you read? I can read German well. What thing/person/happening has made you the happiest you’ve been? This is a complicated answer that I just don't feel like elaborating on. What’s the most freeing thing you’ve ever done? Letting Jason go. Have you ever had a restaurant dish that was made with bugs? If not, would you even want to try one? No, and I'm not interested. Have you ever tasted birch sap? No. How about the young buds/shoots of spruce trees? No. Which edible flowers have you tasted? Honeysuckles. What has been your worst restaurant experience? Well, it's a fast food restaurant, but lemme tell you about my vegetarian encounter with Burger King. I ordered their veggie burger. Which they have. It's not a secret. These idiots gave me a bun with tomato and lettuce, and I think mayo on it, after sounding confused when Mom was ordering for me. Mom went back in there of course to tell them, and oh god was the manager pissed, lol. I got my veggie burger in the end. What’s the most immature, adolescent thing that still makes you laugh? Some sexually inappropriate jokes can still get me sadly, lol. Have you ever had a life-threatening condition? If so, what was it? Not literally, but boy do I think depression counts. Do you ever compare your life to somebody else’s? If so, why? Y E P. I can't tell you why, I just... do it. I look at other's successes and am just like, "Why aren't I there yet?", and beat myself up about being a failure. What is a food item or a dish you absolutely cannot stand? Brussel sprouts, asparagus, runny eggs, many other things because I'm just mega picky. Have you ever had a custom print done on a shirt? If so, what was it? Just the spray paint kind that vendors like to do at the beach and stuff. I don't remember any I got, though. What does your favourite mug look like? It's black with a Markiplier quote on it, given to me by Sara. :') Do you ever read other people’s survey answers? Yeah! Friends', anyway. I love learning all the obscure things about them. Do you like daytime or night time better? Why? Daytime, specifically early morning, because it's better for my depression. Are you more comfortable as a leader or a follower? A follower that isn't afraid to speak up when I'm really against something. What is your favourite song right now at this very moment? I've been really into "7empest" by Tool lately, and the synthwave edit of "Voices" by Motionless In White. If you watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, who was your favourite character? I don't remember it well, but I think I liked the butler. Was there even a butler? Who was your first online friend? Emma. :') Do you have any plants in your home? No. If you wear makeup, what’s the most outrageous colour you use? I only ever use black. What was the last photograph you took? My cat being adorable while sleeping. <3 Have you ever submitted a video to Funniest Home Videos? No. What was the first sport you learned how to play? I want to say soccer? I absolutely hated it. Do you have a headache at the moment? Yes, actually. I've really been attacked by the Covid shot side effects. Are your parents still together? No, thank god. What was the last hot food you ate? I made a chicken and I think pesto (some Italian noodles, idk) Healthy Choice bowl for dinner last night. Have you ever seen a meteor shower? No. :( Do you ever feel afraid people will question your sanity? I'm sure people have before, and back then? Rightfully so. Which X Factor audition(s) was/were your favorite? Never watched it. Were you a straight A student in spelling and grammar? Always. It's so weird how it's gotten worse with time since leaving school, even though I write... Were you a straight A student in math? Yeah, no. I usually got Bs or Cs. What is your favorite shade of yellow? Pastel. I don't really like yellow. What is something you want to accomplish before you turn 30? Have a stable job. Are you afraid of getting yelled at? YES. Do you feel a connection to the moon? It's not something I think about, so not really, but I do believe all things in the universe are connected in some way. We are simply a part of nature, as all else is. What does your heart long for? Contentment in who I am and where I am in life. I know I also miss being in love. Do you know what your purpose in life is? We have no innate purpose; we make our own, and I want mine to be to show others that there is always hope for yourself in yourself, and also to spread the message of love of all animals. Did you decorate a pumpkin this year? Last year I didn't. I really should change that this go around. Have you ever seen a fox? Yes! They're a kind of rare sight here sadly, so when I had the opportunity to photograph a fox tragically as roadkill, it was a photographic experience I won't forget. God, I wanted to pet it (I obviously didn't), but I did talk to it about how beautiful (s)he was as I got some shots. I never had a harder time leaving one of those angels I've taken pictures of. Do you find Halloween fun or scary? FUN!!!!!! Is there anything about Halloween you find offensive? Not at all. What do the trees look like where you live? I mean, there's a variety, but the staple that you see literally everywhere are pine trees. What is your dream vacation? Somewhere with mountains, clear lakes, cool weather, beautiful and various wildlife... What was the best vacation you’ve been on so far? Disney World as a kid. What is the best class trip you’ve been on? The zoo in the 5th grade. It was the one occasion I got to see meerkats. Did you like field trips when you were a kid? I lived for them. Do you find museums boring or interesting? I find science museums to be very, very fascinating. Art ones are great, too. What are three issues you are passionate about? LGBT rights, the pro-choice movement, and wildlife conservation, to name a few. Would you ever wear a shirt with your country’s flag on it? No. I'm not patriotic enough at all. What size is your bed? Queen. What’s a medicine that makes you sleepy? When we were experimenting with my Klonopin dosage, I learned that 3mg was enough to knock me on my ASS. Do you like bath bombs? I mean they're pretty, but I wouldn't waste money on 'em. Who are your favorite small YouTubers? Yikes, a looooooot. But this also depends on what you think qualifies as "small." Most of my favorite "small" YTers are tarantula keepers or sub-1M let's players. Who are your favorite big YouTubers? Markiplier obviously, Snake Discovery, Good Mythical Morning (even if I don't watch them anymore, they are veeery dear to my heart and I will always support them), Sam & Colby... Again, there's a lot. When you don't watch TV and YT instead, you really get attached to a lot of them. What was your favorite girl group when you were growing up? Would you believe me if I said Pussycat Dolls? haha Do you like Disney movies? Um, DUH. Were you ever in the popular crowd? No. Have you ever used an outhouse? UGH, at like childhood sports games, yes. I could NEVER nowadays, oh my god. Could you possibly write a successful novel? I think I have the creativity to, but not the dedication. Are there any foods that make you gag? Beans, for one. I just canNOT with them. It's a completely involuntary reaction. Have you ever had blonde highlights in your hair? I think I did? Who was the last person you video-chatted with? The lady who was seeing if I qualified for TMS therapy. Do you think sleeve tattoos look trashy? Definitely not, I love those. If you had to get a portrait tattoo, who would it be of? I don't actually want one, but if I did, I'd go to a serious professional to get THE Darkiplier smile. :') If u know u know. Do you have any stickers on any of your electronic devices? No. Do you think half blonde/half dark brown hair is attractive? It looks great on some people, but it's not my favorite combo.

[wannabemerida]

I had so much fun writing my first kid fic with the help of my beta, @heartthrobphilly  and basing it off of @bluevlvvt ’s artwork (the link above!) —— Word count: 2.6k Prompt: Phil offers to drive his friends daughter (lola) to her ballet lesson. he runs into a cute dad with his daughter rosie. he offers to drive lola to her ballet lessons every week after that. (slow plot development lol) Warnings: light cursing, angst —— It’s 3:02pm as Phil waits outside of Brookside Elementary School. According to Ian, Lola usually exits through this door and waits to be retrieved from the playground. So far, there’s no sign of the little blonde girl playing outside.

A shout of “Uncle Phil!” catches his attention and he turns around to the soccer pitch just in time to see the kindergartener running at him, embracing him in a hug when they collide. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m taking care of you tonight, remember? Your dad has a big business dinner, and your mom is in Wolverhampton for her job, yeah?”

“Ohhhhh, I just thought Grandma would be taking care of me again,” the six year old explains, not seeming particularly fussed.

“C’mon, let’s head home.”

Two hours later when Phil suggests they order Chinese to the brick house, Lola quickly shuts his craving down. “Uncle Phil, we can’t have Chinese tonight, Thursdays are always Kraft Dinner nights, dummy!”

“Hey Lola, are you done with your dinner? You have ballet soon and still need to get ready!” Seeing Lola’s face that has a bit of the cheesy noodles left on it from quickly scarfing down her meal, Phil grabs a paper towel from the roll on the kitchen counter.

“Yeah! Do you have my leotard?” Phil grabs the light green leotard out of the overnight bag that Lola had brought along, handing it to her with the napkin, (“Lols, you’re a mess!”) her slippers, and a pair of tights.

The drive to the Portner Ballet Studio takes about 15 minutes, with Phil accidentally hitting every red light possible. This causes Lola some distress, claiming that the five minutes she has before class “isn’t enough to talk to Rosie, and she’s the only nice one there that I like.”

Nevertheless, when the raven-haired man and his favorite “niece” enter the building, a small girl with fluffy brown hair immediately runs up to Lola and hugs her. “Rosie, this is my Uncle Phil!

“Lola! You’re finally here! Daddy said you might not be coming today because you’re normally here before me,” the brunette pauses, “but you’re here now, see, Daddy? I told you she would come!”

Phil is frozen. The man who walks up behind Rosie is the most beautiful person Phil has seen, and that’s saying something, considering that Chris Hemsworth exists. But no, the curly brown fringe, hazel eyes, tall, lanky stature, and his soft face (not to mention his monochrome aesthetic and “best dad in the world” travel mug) easily outrank even the likes of Thor.

“Um, hey?” Phil is snapped out of his trance, needing to be able to respond to the greeting. “You’re Lola’s uncle?”

“Well, um, sort of? I’m really good family friends with Lola’s dad, and so I’m kind of an unofficial uncle to her.” Had he been responding to anything else, Phil probably would’ve stuttered, but the number of times he’s had to explain the title makes it so he can explain perfectly, even in front of someone this stunning.

“I’m- I’m Dan.” The two men glance over at the young girls who are chattering animatedly.

“Oh, yeah, Phil Lester.” Dan holds his hand out for a handshake.

“Rosie’s my daughter,” he says quietly, but there’s no mistaking the fondness he has when he says it.

“I can tell, she looks just like you, without the black and white.”

“Oh, I guess we do? My parents keep saying she looks like, um, Angie-” Dan’s voice decrescendos as he gets further along his sentence.

“Angie … is Rosie’s mom?”

“Oh, um, yeah.” Phil’s heart drops.

“Cool.” Not cool. Dan has a wife. Dan had a kid. With his wife.

“Have you got any kids?” Dan asks, a light blush still visible across his cheeks.

“Ah, no, I didn’t have time to find someone in Uni and now I’m single with 2 masters degrees.” Phil unconsciously plots a way to make himself seem more interesting.

“What are they in?” Dan asks, looking genuinely curious.

“I got my first one in English language and linguistics, and my second in post-production editing.”

“What do you do with those? How do they fit together?”

“I’m a special effects engineer for Disney, and they don’t really fit together to be honest,” Phil pauses, “although I do make YouTube videos and that kind of meshes them together,”

“Wow, um, cool,” Dan stutters.

“So what about you?”

“Huh?”

“What’s your job, besides ‘best dad in the world’?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m stupid.” Phil giggles, thinking of how his father would reply with ‘Hi stupid, I’m dad!’. “But I’m a writer for Vogue and I dabble in fashion photography. It’s mainly just taking photos of Rosie if I’m being honest, but the photographers sometimes get sick and I end up doing the shoot.”

“Vogue? Like, the fashion magazine?” Phil doesn’t know much about fashion, but he’s seen the magazine numerous times in the Tesco checkout lane.

“Yeah, well, technically it’s British Vogue, but…”

“Yeah.”

There’s a calm but slightly awkward silence as the conversation loses direction. The two men avoid eye contact, not wanting to make it worse.

The silence is broken by Dan’s tenor voice. “So what films have you worked on?”

“I got to work a bit on Spiderman: Homecoming, but the Live-action Beauty and the Beast was pretty fun. You know the scene where the gold leaf comes off of the ceiling to go on Belle’s dress?” When Dan nods, Phil breaks out into a grin. “That was me.”

“Wow.” Dan breathes out. “After she saw that, she kept trying to put stickers on her ceiling in the hopes that they would transfer to her shirt. It was a nightmare.”

“Ah, sorry.”

“Nah mate, it was kind of funny as well. I’ve got a few photos that I’ll save for when she graduates.”

“She’ll love that,” Phil chuckles, and the deep, throaty sound makes Dan’s heart stutter. “So you’re into fashion?”

Dan blushes. “Yeah? I mean I can’t really afford any designers, but I’ll turn into a fanboy at times.”

“Why do they charge so much? Like, half of the suits these designers make look identical to something I could buy from a department store for thousands of dollars less.”

“Well, a lot of designers carefully hand-make every piece, whereas the stuff you get in a store has probably been made by a pre-programmed machine and poorly paid workers in a factory. There’s also differences in fabric types, quality, and origins. And, a lot of designers will tailor the suit to perfectly fit you for a slightly higher price. If you go to a department store-”

“I see what you mean when you say you turn into a fanboy, but thank you for the mini lesson on why celebrities are willing to spend so much money on a navy tux. Your insights are amusing.” Phil grins.

���Did you also know that navy suits are better investments than black ones? It’s because the blue fits into so many more settings than a black one.”

While Phil could watch Dan talk about his passions for hours, just watching and memorizing how the lines change across his face, and God, that dimple, Phil supposes his relentless staring would get a bit creepy. “So what are the ballet lessons like? I’ve only been to a few of Lola’s performances.”

“Oh, um, well, they spend the first 20 minutes warming up, and then they move to the barre where they practice a bunch of stuff that’s in French that I can’t remember, and then they start to go over the routine for their next performance.”

“What is it?”

“What?”

“Their next performance?”

“Yeah! Sorry, I’m stupid,” Dan blushes for what must be the fiftieth time since he first met Phil. “The studio is putting on The Firebird.”

“No! Um, I mean, you’re not stupid. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with The Firebird. What is it about?” Phil has heard the name before, but only in the context of movie scores resembling Stravinsky’s composition. “It sounds kind of intense, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know much, but from what Rosie’s told me, the firebird gets caught by a prince and when he lets her go she helps him defeat the magician to save some princess, but I’m pretty sure I’m missing like half of the plot. I would say to just Google it and not to go by my word,” The nervous laughter emitted by Dan makes Phil instantly worry that he might have made the brunet uncomfortable or misread Dan’s friendliness as a blossoming friendship when it might have been a ploy to gather gossip for the nosy ballet moms.

“Thanks, I think I’ll trust you on that.” Dan offers a small smile at Phil’s response, letting the two men fall into silence as they watch the group of young girls and 3 boys practice their pliés and dégagés. An hour and a half later, the children exit the studio and find their guardians to go home.

“It was nice meeting you, Phil,’’ Dan admits as Rosie and Lola exchange a goodbye hug. The six words send Phil’s heart into overdrive and he feels his cheeks heating up.

“Yeah, you too, Dan,” Phil replies, proud of himself for not tripping over his words. Looking back, Phil’s whole interaction was impressive, considering his track record of ending up injured in some way.

Last time, Phil wound up with a broken ankle, having paid more attention to the cute digital renderer than the set of stairs they were walking down. It wasn’t all for nothing, though, Phil having gained the cute man’s phone number. Not that that did much for his love life, finding out two days that the boy he had his eyes on was dating the very female gaffer of their most recent movie, but that’s not the point.

This time, nothing will happen, because a) Phil dropping Lola off at ballet was a one time thing, so most likely, he’ll never see Dan again, and b) Dan has a daughter, who is his genetically, which means he has (or had) a wife, all summarizing that no matter how cute the brunet is, Dan is straight.

Not that Phil’s brain will accept that Dan is off-limits as a possible partner. Over the next few days, the image of soft brown eyes, curly fringes, and lanky limbs continuously make appearances in the back of Phil’s head. The very effective distractions cause Phil’s co-workers to worry, and PJ’s repetitive “have you been sleeping okay?”s have driven Phil to the point of insanity.

The answer to PJ’s question is quite easily “no”, Phil having only slept well once that week (he refused to admit it but that was the night that he got off to the image of a faceless figure who looked suspiciously like the boy who wouldn’t leave his head.)

By Wednesday, Phil was fed up with his brain’s reaction to not having seen Dan since the previous Thursday. Pulling out his phone, he does the only thing he can think of to satisfy his hungry mind. He calls Ian.

“Phil? Do you need something?” is the answer he gets when Ian finally picks up.

“No, um, I was just wondering, would you like me to take Lola to ballet again tomorrow?” Phil looks at the lines he had written down on a notepad, an effort to keep himself from going into a 20-minute rant about how in love with Dan he is.

“Sure, I guess? Why are you offering?”

“Just thought that you and Pam could use a break,”

“Oh, okay then, thanks! Same as last week?”

“Sure! Talk to you later!”

Phil’s convinced that his squeal of excitement was the reason that the people who lived across the street turned their lights on and not the fact that their smoke detector went off. He probably set that off too, in hindsight. And caused the stove fire.

23 hours later, Phil finds himself standing inside the dance studio again, surrounded by shrieking kids, chattering parents, and the faint sound of the top 20 radio playing in the background.

“Mister Phil! Where’s Lola?” Rosie pulls on Phil’s sleeve, stopping when she sees her best friend walk out of the bathroom.

“Why, Miss Rosie, she’s right there!” Rosie giggles, pulling out of a hug with Lola.

“I know that now, silly.” She and Lola run into the studio, eager to get to do the optional partner stretches before class starts.

“Are you Lola’s father?” A woman dressed in a skirt suit and heels walks up behind Phil.

“Oh, no, I’m just a family friend. I occasionally take Lola to ballet to give her parents some alone time.”

“Ah.” The woman sticks her hand out for a handshake. “I’m Angela Wright, Rosie’s mom.”

Had there been a small creature under it, Phil’s heart would have killed it from the speed at which it fell. He knew that Rosie had a mom, that Dan had a wife, that Dan wasn’t available. So why did it still hurt so much?

“Oh, cool,” Phil responds a moment later, his voice considerably deflated.

Phil’s unspoken question is answered right as it pops into is head. “Dan contracted the flu, and is stuck at home in bed, which is why I’m here this week. I’m normally responsible for taking Rosie to taekwondo while he takes care of ballet lessons, but that evidently won’t work this week. Honestly, it’s just like Dan to get a winter disease in the middle of summer.”

“I was going to ask about setting up a playdate between Rosie and Lola, but…” Angie trails off.

“Yeah,” Phil nods in understanding, not liking this woman any more than he did a minute ago. “I’m gonna go sit down.” No response comes from the woman, but Phil’s not particularly bothered.

Maybe he should be nicer to the wife of the man he’s stupidly trying to woo, but he just can’t. How is he supposed to be nice to his competition, who’s already clearly won?

When he vaguely notices the ballet instructor make a big motion with her arms, Phil decides that watching a group of five and six year olds is an adequate distraction from the turmoil in his brain. After 10 minutes of watching the kids do various tasks, jumping and prancing around the room, he zones off.

“Uncle Phillll, come onnnnnnn!” wakes Phil from his trance, no longer seeing the ballet students in the studio but now milling around the lobby and leaving. “Class ended like, forever ago! Can we leave? I wanna go get ice cream!”

A quick look at the clock told Phil that class had only ended 5 minutes ago, but to an antsy six-year-old, he supposed that could feel like an eternity.

“Lola, we aren’t getting ice cream. I’d rather not have your parents be mad at me for loading you up on sugar, right?” The small girl pouts but grabs Phil’s hand, dragging him to the car.

While it was easy getting Lola into her car seat, getting her out was a whole other task. It took Phil, Ian, Pamela, a blanket, 2 stuffed animals, and a lullaby to successfully remove the sleeping child out of the carseat, into the house, and onto her bed where she could sleep without interruption.

Once he was back in his car, Phil sat in the driveway, resting his head on the steering wheel, regretting ever offering to take Lola to dance lessons at all. Remember back in college when all those crushes were single? You fucked up, bud.

[peterstanslizzie]

Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.14 (Random Acts of Miranda)

A Miranda-Centric Episode

- The episode starts off with Gordo spewing out random facts about Trinidad and Tobago to Lizzie but she’s laser focused on finishing an article she’s writing for their school’s web-zine and doesn’t want to be interrupted. 

- She hands over a soft-copy of her article about the film, ‘The Mummy’ to her teacher Mr. Lang and mentions to him she’s planning to write about the upcoming school play written by their drama teacher, Mr. Escobar. Unfortunately for Lizzie, her teacher is too busy doing his crossword puzzle and didn’t listen to anything she said. 

- Side note: It’s sad watching this episode and knowing how the actor who played Mr. Escobar, Daniel Escobar had already passed on due to complications from diabetes. 

Miranda Gets The Starring Role

- At the school cafeteria, Gordo is talking to Lizzie about possibly working with her as a photographer one day when she becomes a famous reporter. Aww, he’s already planning out his future with her but Lizzie doesn’t see it happening lol. 

- Miranda runs into the cafeteria all excited and without realizing, she pushes Larry Tudgeman out of her way when he’s picking up something off the floor. Poor Larry! Miranda should have helped him up and get a new plate of Brussel Sprouts for him. 

Not cool Miranda! 

- Anyways, Miranda reveals to her friends that she got the lead role for the school play. But she only got it because there wasn’t much competition and the drama kids wanted to act in something cooler. Lizzie is especially excited for Miranda because none of them has ever been in a school play before. Well, except for Gordo:

3rd Grade Gordo looks really adorable here

Eddie Thomas?! What are you doing here?

Another recognizable guest star on the show. Neat!

- Mr. Escobar is conducting a rehearsal session in the school theatre and Miranda is running her lines with a boy who is played by Orlando Brown of ‘That’s So Raven’. I’ve completely forgotten he guest starred on Lizzie Mcguire before. I think his appearance here predates That’s So Raven because that show only premiered 2 years later, after Lizzie Mcguire in 2003. 

- Miranda is actually doing a terrible job rehearsing because she seems to be over-acting everything and she also doesn’t understand the concept of ‘stage directions’ either. 

This is a funny frame to stop on 

- She then rehearses a scene with Larry’s character and does a poor job again. I am surprised to see Larry also being cast for the play. Mr. Escobar must be quite desperate to fill in the roles.

The Big Night is Here

- We skip to opening night, specifically the moment the play is about to start and Lizzie gives Miranda a stuffed cow toy for good luck. It was first given to Lizzie by Miranda to act as a good luck charm for her soccer playoffs and it actually worked. 

- Lizzie’s family and Lanny are also present in the audience but both Matt and Lanny are clearly disinterested to be there. Matt is busy playing a video game and Lanny is just sleeping on Matt’s arm. 

How cute is that?

- The play starts and I gotta to tell you, Larry is a pretty good actor. The same cannot be said about Miranda, however, because the moment she steps (I mean, runs) onto the stage, the stumbles and hits her toe. She proceeds to limp towards the front of the stage and even manages to mess up her lines again. 

- As the show continues, she seems to get even worse because people are now getting up and leaving the theatre. Yikes! She’s also written some of the lines she couldn’t remember on her arm and to top it all off, she manages to destroy some of the props along the way. Even Lizzie cannot defend Miranda’s bad performance. 

A Bad Review and Miranda Acts Up

- The next day or maybe a few days later, Lizzie is writing her review of the recent play in her living room and she is joined by Gordo. She’s struggling to write anything down because she just can’t bear to give her best friend a bad review. Gordo thinks she should be honest and write what she thinks. Lizzie decides to meet him in the middle and write an honest review that is hopefully worded positively.   

- Lizzie’s fears come true and Miranda is offended by her review because she wrote that her “best effort comes up short”. Oh, here we go again; Another ‘fight’ between Lizzie and Miranda. No shade to the writers but it seems like most of the arguments on this show are always girl vs girl, mainly involving Miranda. 

Miranda really needs to stop throwing the word, ‘jealous’ around so much. It’s so aggravating to watch

- Lizzie tries to make amends with her at the cafeteria but Miranda is giving her the silent treatment. Lizzie tells her that she was trying to do her job as an honest reporter but this triggers Miranda to accuse Lizzie of being jealous (AGAIN?!) that she’s the star of the play. Girl, bye. This is the second time in the season she accuses Lizzie of being jealous; The first episode being episode 1.10, ‘I Do, I Don’t’. 

Again, poor Larry has to suffer again from Miranda’s rage

- Gordo catches up to Miranda and hands over Lizzie’s full review and a tape of her performance to her; He basically wants her to watch back her performance in the school play and to understand that her acting was terrible that night. Gordo is the real MVP here; He knows how to handle situations like this, especially ones that involve bickering between best friends. 

- Miranda watches back her performance in her room and based on her expression, she finally realizes she stinks lol.

Parallels

- Jo is in the kitchen packing lunch for her husband’s softball game tomorrow and she tells Lizzie that she’s going to go with him to support his team. Lizzie is surprised and confused about this because her dad isn’t very good at the sport and her mom doesn’t even like softball. 

- Jo explains to Lizzie that it doesn’t matter if she hates softball or the fact that her husband is bad at it, all that matters is that she comes out to support him no matter what. This strikes a chord with Lizzie and she now thinks she should be a better friend to Miranda. Really? I think Lizzie was absolutely in the right when she’s being honest but reasonable when reviewing her friend’s performance. In fact, Miranda should be the one apologizing to her. 

- In the next scene, Lizzie is walking up to Mr. Escobar and the other students plus Miranda and her drama teacher is reading Lizzie’s review of his play out loud. Knowing now that Lizzie wrote this in her review, “The entire play is dragged down by Miranda Sanchez’s performance”, I found her review to be a little harsh actually. So, I kinda understand Miranda’s anger towards Lizzie.

- Lizzie hands over an alternate version of her review to Miranda, one that is very positive and apologizes to her. Miranda surprises Lizzie and admits how terrible she was in the play after seeing the tape Gordo gave her. She doesn’t want Lizzie to throw away her journalistic integrity just because Miranda is her best friend. And Lizzie tells her that she wouldn’t have written a review of Miranda’s performance knowing how much it had affected her emotionally. 

- Miranda apologizes to Lizzie (thank goodness) for being so mad at her. She randomly comes up with the idea that if she’s a bad actress, she has to be a good singer. I never came across this correlation before but sure, Miranda..whatever floats your boat. 

- I believe this is the second night of Mr. Escobar’s play and Miranda is so pre-occupied by her conversation with Lizzie, she forgets that she has a scene that she needs to act in asap.

Miranda Sings ‘Reflection’ for Glee Club

- We fast forward to Miranda’s glee club recital and she starts to perform ‘Reflection’ by Lea Salonga from the movie, Mulan. Luckily for her and the audience members, she gives the audience an incredible performance.

It’s only fitting Lalaine (the actress who plays Miranda) sings this song not only because she’s an actual singer but she’s Filipino like Lea herself.

B-Plot: Matt and Lanny Want Walkie Talkies

They are definitely plotting something here

- Matt and Lanny enter the kitchen in the Mcguire home and Matt asks his mom, Jo if she can give him $90 to buy Walkie-Talkies by using the “Start High, Go Low” method. She doesn’t give in to his request and suggests they should earn the money themselves.

- They begin to start fishing for spare change all over the living room and the payphones outside but it isn’t enough. Lanny comes up with an idea to hold a mini garage sale and sell most of Matt’s things like his toys, books and clothes in his room and communicates this mentally into Matt’s brain.  

- In the second half of the episode, we see Matt playing with his newly purchased Walkie-Talkie. Jo and Sam notices him playing with it and questions him how he got the Walkie-Talkie to which he responds he earned it. Well, they are about to find out how he earned it soon.

They are just...shocked lol

- They enter his room and immediately notice how empty it is. Well, I don’t mean to question you both but how on Earth did you not notice Matt moving most of his things out of his room and out of the house? Anyways, they are just dumb-founded at the whole thing and Matt just nonchalantly walks out of his room like nothing weird happened. I really hope Matt didn’t sell all of his stuff just to only get back $90 in total because that would be such a rip off.

Overall Thoughts

- This episode was a bit strange to me; It might be the pacing or the actual story-lines. First of all, this is a very Miranda-centric episode, which I don’t mind. I think for Lalaine, who is a very good actress to act as someone who is in turn, a bad actress is very hard to do and she manages it so well.

- I didn’t like how Miranda accused Lizzie again of being jealous in this episode; It makes me think that Miranda has some underlying issues with Lizzie that she needs to address in my opinion. But I’m glad she apologized to her friend. However, I have a problem with Lizzie trying to always be the pacifist in the sense that at the end, she was ready to retract her initial review just to make Miranda happy. If my friend is bad at something, I’m not going to lie and say he/she is good at it. I will be honest but kind about it. 

- The B-plot with Matt and Lanny is just another waste of space to me. It’s weird how no resolution was shown by the end of the episode. I at least wanted to see how Matt was punished or at least being taught a lesson by his parents on screen.  

[canaryatlaw]

well, today....could’ve gone better. I could go on a bit but I’m also pretty tired so we;ll see how that balances out. I woke up at 6:30, a bit nicer than 6, got to the courthouse a little after 8:30 and pretty much realized I basically had nothing to do for the day, so I just spent most of it floating around doing small stuff here and there and coming up with stuff for me to do, but yeah, it wasn’t terribly exciting. Things wound down a bit early so I headed out a few minutes before 5 which was nice since I had to go to soccer shortly after getting home. I got home a few minutes after 6, ate some food and changed, and was back out the door by 6:35. the buses worked thankfully and I made good time to the field. I can’t remember if I said this before, but the set up was the first two teams played at 6:30, and the next two at 7:30, and then the winners from both of those matches played the final game at 8:30. we were set to go at 7:30, so if we won we immediately had to go back and play another game, which was somewhat less than desirable to say the least. we had lost to the team we were playing the last time we played them, but it was pretty close from what I could remember. only problem going in was by the time they were ready to go we only had 8 players there, when we were supposed to have 11, and we had to start anyway, and idk man, I was just off my groove tonight, like the feeling of being in sync and trusting my reactions that I’ve had for the last few weeks was just gone and I kept just not doing well with the ball, and it seemed like most of the team was having an off night as well. they got a few goals in while we were still down people (no surprise there) but we did eventually get up to 11 players as more people arrived and their scoring became a solid amount less frequent. Then another issue arose around some supposed rough play and fouls being called. from what I understand, a kid on the other team got mad that one of our players “tried to trip him” which anyone who’s ever played soccer knows is total bullshit, whenever you’re trying to get the ball from someone you’re basically trying to trip them. but he was apparently mad about it and called my teammate a f****t which of course led to a lot of anger being expressed and some people started shoving and for a second it looked like it could be really bad, but they were able to settle everyone down. At half time we did our best to regroup and, and I got the full story since it took place halfway down the field from me so it was kind of hard to get what was going on. of course when I heard this I was very mad, especially given the fact that the player in question hadn’t been kicked out of the game, because that kind of stuff is supposed to be an automatic red card getting you booted from the game immediately. and I obviously had strong feelings about this, so when we were getting back on the field I approached the refs and somewhat less than totally respectfully told them that if one of my teammates got called that again the person better be ejected from the game. I then started to walk back to my position, but ended up getting called back to where they were because they had asked to speak to the team captains, and I guess we’d now established I was the captain, at the last game of the season lol. so the refs basically just gave a warning that any derogatory names and such would not be tolerated, and to their credit the captains on the other team looked like they were taking it very seriously and were like “we talked to him, it won’t happen again” the kid really should’ve been booted to begin with but the refs said they didn’t hear it and they couldn’t kick him out based on “hearsay,” I kid you not he actually used that word and it took allllll of my self-control not to whip back around and be like “dude I’m a fucking lawyer, don’t tell me about hearsay” because I felt like that would not have gone over very well, lol. so even though apologies were exchanged we were still gonna do our damndest to at least tire the other team out as much as they could so they’d be at a disadvantage for their following game, because after that incident they deserved it. about halfway through the second half I had been staying back and guarding the goal box more as opposed to going up with the defense as they normally do, because it was obvious that I was not fast enough to catch someone with the ball coming down the field, so I might as well stay closer to the goal. then at some point there were a whole bunch of us in the goal box at close range and I started going towards the ball trying to steal it, but instead the girl launched the ball up and straight into my face, maybe 5 feet away from me. Now listen, I’ve been hit in the face with a soccer ball many times in my life, and I can normally tell that I’m going to be fine and just shake it off, but do to the close proximity and the force behind the ball, this was definitely a bad one. someone on my team was like “uhh that sounded like a nose breaking” but thankfully everything was still in place, just going to have a massive bruise on my face from it (can’t wait to walk into work tomorrow with a huge bruise on my face and everyone being like Rachel what the FUCK lol. if we had had subs I would’ve traded off and gotten off the field, but we didn’t so I stayed in and played the rest of the game. I was definitely getting a headache from the hit and was a bit more wary about approaching other players, but thankfully there wasn’t very much time left in the game. and yeah, it is what it is, a disappointing ending to a very great season. Like honestly, I had so, so much fun this season, feeling so much joy and happiness I never thought I would experience again. I went into this season thinking I was such a shitty player that was of course gonna be the weakest player on the team, but they actually helped build my confidence in myself to the point where I feel comfortable actually playing and feeling like a valued member of the team, and I missed that feeling so, so much. I could go on and gush more about my love for soccer and how great this season was, but like I said at the beginning I am very tired and need to go to sleep, so we’ll move on for now. took two buses home and then watched tonight’s episode of 9-1-1 which was pretty good, after that I showered and started getting ready for bed and now I’m here and oh lord am I tired so I’m gonna do that now. Goodnight sweeties. Love you lots.

[nyanzaya]

@if-that-so inquired: 💋💖💄👓🔫🔮🎤🎪🍸🍯🍰⛄⏳💐⚾🌊🌵🍒🐝💳👠👻💉🃏😊🙁 tbh i want to ask all... And also, there are some i already know but i just want to make sure 😘 

oc questions

💋 What traits do they like in other people? What traits do they not like?

Iza: The traits Iza likes in other people is intellect? He likes smart people, but he also doesn’t like smart people. He loves people who are a little gullible/inattentive because he would take advantage of it in small ways to get what he wants. Direct people are his favorite but also his bane because he hates to be put in the spotlight when they call things/point things out.

Zuo: Zuo likes when someone is laid back, fun and just a calming presence to be around. The traits he dislikes are: Deceptive, dishonest, indecisive and of course provoking in terms of trying to rile him up and get him angry

💖 Do they have a significant other? If so, who?

In their canon they were significant others; but things happened and now they are broken up even though under the sheets they still want to be together. You could say that they are still significant others but if they find anyone else to be with instead of each other then they let each other go. In a way you could say Zuo and Iza are still significant others with each other but as of right now they don’t have a significant other-- (and if i were to make this blog single ship I think I might make them significant others again but it would be like wild af)

💄 Do they care about their physical appearance? What’s their routine like?

Iza: He cares a lot about how he looks. From how his hair is style to the make up he has on. He wants to look the best and be the “best in show” Often, he is asleep during the day but whenever he does wake up he washes his face, fixes his hair to look well-kept and then he puts on eyeliner and depending, mascara. The eyeliner is always a cateye. He has a bunch more make up but he stays with the simple stuff because he feels that if you put too much you’re just ruining how you look, then he makes sure his nails are well-kept and manicured so if he’s not sleeping or working he will be tending to his nails

Zuo: He doesn’t care that much about how he looks? All he cares about is looking presentable and then going about his business. He doesn’t care for “looking the best” if anything he’d just want to look cool even if he doesn’t wear anything that’s flashy. Zuo does style his hair to hide his ears but sometimes they perk up from under his hair and it’s super cute

👓 Do they have any physical or mental disabilities?

Iza: I MEAN. He doesn’t have any physical disabilities but for mental-- like PTSD then yes lol. MMmh I guess hypersomnia because he is constantly and I mean cooonstantly sleeping even though it’s more like naps(like 16-24 hours at least) Anxiety and depression too.

Zuo: He doesn’t have any physical disabilities and for mental it’s almost the same as Iza’s except he doesn’t have hypersomnia. With what they both lived through, they would have these types of mental disorders but they ARE NOT diagnosed for it

🔫 What would they die for? Kill for?

Both of them would die to help their kin be free from servitude and they’d kill for it too. Iza already does kill for it, but Zuo tries not too. Though, unlike Iza, Zuo would kill and die for his significant other(whether it’s Iza or not), but Iza would kill for his significant other even if it means he kills them or someone else lmfao

🔮 Do they have any magical powers or abilities? If it’s a realistic world, what religion do they follow?

I think there has to be some magic because well, tbh the world is based around drrr and there’s supernatural creatures like faeries and demons so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was even a little bit of magic but, Iza and Zuo don’t have any magical powers or abilities. Iza isn’t exactly religious but the religion he follows is the religion of a cat god who was almost entirely erased from the world and sometimes when he refers to “God” he refers to her, but he does reference the christian God quite a bit and might have a bit of a god complex because he preaches for people to “Turn yourself into God and you won’t ever be killed.” Now ZUO WELL, I think he actually is religious but he is not a devote follower. I think he follows the same religion as Iza with the cat god but he isn’t a devote follower of Her, he prefers to keep religion and things like that to himself. Where Iza and Zuo differ between the religion is Iza says She is a vengeful and cruel god who wants to punish all who have hurt her children or kittens(As in her followers), while Zuo says she’s a benevolent God who wants to fix the things she had done wrong. Iza and Zuo don’t talk about religion to each other often because they could never agree.

🎤 Do they play any instruments?

Neither of them play instruments, unless you count singing as an instrument then Iza sings! Zuo would get frustrated with instruments but if he did play he would probably play drums

🎪 What would their favorite ride at an amusement park be?

Iza: The ferris wheel so he can look down on all the people because he loves to feel superior and better than them :sob:

Zuo: A big crazy roller coaster because he would love to feel the wind and the rush of adrenaline

🍸 How do they act when they’re drunk?

Iza: He’s honestly? Really emotional when he’s drunk? Lol like, he really easy to influence too and just the littlest things would make him burst into tears like LOL oh god if he saw something really cute he’d just “Oooh~ MY GODS-- That’s the cutest..i--eeeeoh my gooooood” Like Iza please...dont cry because of a really cute looking puppy or kitten lol

Zuo: I ACTUALLY HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF IT FOR ZUO BUT I THINK HE WOULD BE THE CALM FUNNY CUDDLE TYPE OF DRUNK.

🍯 Which era of history would they most like to live in?

Iza: I think he’d want to live in like, oh gosh probably the future tbh?

Zuo: He’d want to live in the era with kings and queens because he was a royal knight and he misses his king :(

🍰 What’s their favorite food?

Iza: He loves horse meat? I don’t know why

Zuo: I think Fugu because he isn’t afraid to get poisoned by a fish

⏳ How do they feel about death?

Iza: Iza finds death to be a beautiful thing? I don’t think he really...idolizes it... because in his head its “You’re not really dying, you are being transformed into something else.” which like, okay Iza. I mean I GUESS. and he says that you don’t ever actually die, you get reincarnated as something else to learn a new lesson

Zuo: For real Zuo doesn’t like death, hates death, and wishes it never existed because he can remember his past lives and how he died and what he hates most about it is: coming back and having to figure everything out again and finding Iza/his soulmate and convince them that “We are destined to be together, please, believe me you don’t remember but I do.” and YEAH HE GETS REALLY SAD ABOUT IT

💐 Do they collect anything? What’s their most prized possession?

Iza: Iza collects plush toys because he feels comforted whenever he has one. His prized possession has to be his collar because he got that from his first master? And he’s had it ever since? He wears it literally all the time, partly because one he kinda misses his first? And second to deter people from taking him

Zuo: I don’t think Zuo has ever collected anything? Not from what I can recall but his most prized possession has to be the glasses he wears because he got that from his mom because she didn’t want him to be unable to see just how colorful the world actually is (they are both colorblind)

⚾ Do they play any sports?

Iza: He doesn’t play any sports? But I mean if you count hunting small animals and occasionally people as a sport then yeah he does LOL

Zuo: He plays whatever sport he can, though his favorites are soccer and football, mostly football for really obvious reasons

🌊 What one place do they really want to visit and why?

Iza: France! Because he wants to visit Paris since he heard it’s the city of love

Zuo: Germany! He wants to see the castles and try the food

🌵 What languages do they speak?

Iza: English, German, Japanese

Zuo: English, French, Japanese

🍒 What are some items they always carry? What weapon do they favor using if they exist in a world where weapons are necessary?

Iza: He always has his pocket knife, but he’s very reluctant on using it because he would rather talk with words than get physical and fight(Unless it’s Zuo then he will fight Zuo), wallet, needles because he can hit puncture points really well when he’s fighting/hunting

Zuo: This white envelope that holds his catnip cigarettes that he rolls himself, his sunglasses and wallet

🐝 What stereotypical high school clique would they fit into?

Iza: He would fit in that…. Drifter or an Outsider clique? The one kid that goes around and comes off as a social butterfly but is just fine on their own and is also the one that ends up knowing literally everyone else's business while no one knows his.

Zuo: I think he would be a jock lmfao just, obvious reasons? To burn off steam and because he wants attention

💳 What one thing that they don’t need do they waste the most money on?

Iza: Oh gosh...he wastes money on a lot of things ...like he doesn’t need make-up but “Bitch I need my eye liner and blush.” and strawberry milk because “Shut up! I like it, I desire it, and I will have it.” and plush toys because “It makes me feel GOOD.” And designer knives because “I just think they are neat and I want it for my collection.” Like, someone stop him

Zuo: Hmm for Zuo? I don’t think he really spends his money-- but sometimes he’d impulsive buy weird things like slippers that look like bread? Or weird figurines lol it’s so hard to say accuse there’s a lot of weird things xD But if it looks interesting and funny he’d buy it, it dont even matter what it is

👠 What kind of shoes do they wear?

Iza: Iza has a lot of shoes he wears? Like he’ll wear heels(Like any type of heel) sometimes but most of the time I think he wears slip-ons, sneakers and slippers and if he’s dressed up he’d wear derby.

Zuo: He’s so easy and simply: Sneakers. Slip-ons, slippers  

👻 Do they believe in ghosts, aliens, and the occult in general?

For both of them, yes! I think Iza is kind of skeptical about it but Zuo insists aliens and ghosts are real. Iza is more into the occult than Zuo, like witchcraft and magic because he wants it to be real

💉 Which Deadly Sin do they most correspond to? Which Heavenly Virtue?

Iza: Lust for his sin and oh god… for a heavenly virtue uhm…. Hope or Fortitude

Zuo: Wrath for his sin and for his heavenly virtue it’s Justice or Temperance

🃏 If you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, what would it be?

Iza: Death because it represents major transformation and new beginnings, and transformation, passage, and change. Another one would be The Moon(symbolizes illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be. Perhaps a misunderstanding on your part, or a truth you cannot admit to yourself) and The Devil(symbolizes ambitions and is also synonymous with temptation, addiction, and depression)

Zuo: The World because it represents that things have come full circle, a journey has been completed, and a long-term project has come to an end. Another one for him would be The Sun(symbolizes positive energy, joy of living and enthusiasm) and The Hanged Man(symbolizes trial or meditation, selflessness, and sacrifice)

😊 What do they consider to be their best quality? What actually is their best quality?

Iza: He would say his best quality is his charm. His actual best quality is how tactful he can be, let alone romantic

Zuo: He would say his best quality is how brave he is. His actual best quality is how self-confident he is in himself

🙁 What do they consider to be their worst quality? What actually is their worst quality?

Iza: He would say his worst quality is how lazy/procrastinating he gets. His worst quality has to be how vainful and superficial he can actually be, let alone him using it to manipulate situations to get what he wants.

Zuo: He would say it’s his outbursts of anger, but actually his worst quality impulsive behavior because he just does it...he doesn’t think about it

[restorerjourney]

Week 5 of 7 in Mazatlán

July 31, 2021

This week started with hardships for me personally but ended with victories, deeper unity with Christ and our team, and freedom. When I create my weekly reels on instagram for this week I was surprised to realize that there were so many clips of us dancing with flags which represents freedom! Freedom is not just a feeling but a revelation of who we are and what God has given us the authority over. It’s a lot to take it in and I feel that I might understand it more in hindsight what God is making us go through as a team. 

To start off, like I said before the beginning of week was really rough. One of our team members decided to start a relationship with another team member at a different DTS and they both are here in Mazatlan. The rules were clear when we signed up for DTS that during DTS we shouldn’t start dating with another DTS student because we want this season to fully focus on God. It sounds harmless to date, but now as a team we could see the repercussions. Although the leaders were lenient during our lecture phase, during outreach phase they drew the line clear that they should put their relationship on pause only until after the outreach is over. This is because we are going as a team..we are in a foreign country..our purpose is to serve the nation that we are going to..etc etc. It’s obvious why, but that couple struggled and despite them thinking it was a private matter, it affected our team’s unity and trust. Long story short, God intervened in our team..in his heart..and in mine. The old Alicia would have been apathetic about how he felt and focused more on the boundaries that we crossed, but I felt the Lord change my heart during DTS. The Lord really guided me on how to approach my fellow team member who is like my little brother and learn to not judge him but to empathize with him. God showed me how to be with him in the hurting yet teach him the effects of the choices you make and how there will always be a cause and effect in life. It took so much out of me, but I am so glad God intervened the way he did and because we all do fear the Lord, were able to come back together as one. They decided to obey the Lord, to submit to the leaders and the rules, and surrender their relationship to God. It was a fight worth fighting for and I feel like I’m learning a glimpse of what parenting could actually look like LOL ( Dear Lord have mercy). 

Literally almost every day or every other day, one of our team member would be spiritually attacked. But I see each time that it happens, we would all gather, interceded, pray, declare God’s truth, repent, and be restored. It’s so exhausting but so beautiful. This time I got attacked mid-week when I was getting impatient of not getting my period and letting doubt enter my mind. I knew God told me that I was healed and to trust in His promises just like Abraham had to trust God when he was told to sacrifice Isaac. It made no sense why I was going through this...I was feeling “God why did you even let me go through that healing process? Wouldn’t it been better if I didn’t go through it?”. and that’s when I realized I had to repent of this old habit of mine that I allow myself to think that my ways are better than God’s. God told me I was healed, he told me it was my declaration of no longer agreeing to self-hatred that restored me, and to trust in His promises that I will be a mom one day. I just was getting so tired of waiting, not knowing, so I asked a sister from a different DTS to pray for me. When she prayed for me with another friend it was pretty weird. She was shaking and screaming and although she warned me about it before, I was kind of scared. During the entire time of praying I didn’t hear much from the Lord but just focused my eyes on him. She shared that she felt so much strongholds over me and that I need to repent of any ancestral sins. I prayed about it but God didn’t really highlight anytime for me. I then shared that experience with my parents and they were pissed haha. They were like “ who told you this? What are they teaching you”..and I realize then it was their involuntary parental bear instinct that was coming out of them because they didn’t agree with what she said at all. And then that’s when I realized, did I personally hear anything from God about it...and the answer was no, but I believed her. I started to question everything and everyone who prayed over me and that I believed without going before God and confirming it. 

I realized then that I was getting too comfortable of getting prophetic words and relying on someone’s physical voice speaking over me compared to the internal voice that I hear from God which requires faith. I had to repent and was reminded by God that I hear His voice best for me and that’s because of Jesus. That usually when people pray or have a prophetic word for me, it’s to confirm what was already told to me. Just because some random person comes up to you and speaks something true about your life and it sounds good, if you don’t hear this from the Lord yourself or if he doesn’t confirm it...it’s probably not from God. They say it like this, if you get a prophetic word, just put it on a shelf, don’t just directly receive it. I knew what God said to me the day I got healed a month ago and I am given a chance again to cling on to God’s timing.

Because the pandemic is still pretty bad here we are still limited to not be able to continue our alpha course or go to Stone Island, but we’ve been doing intercessory prayer. We also got to do bible distribution at a new neighborhood. The moment we got off the trucks, a lady who works at the store told us to come and gave us free cold water! It was so encouraging to see how God was using her to refresh us before we gave out bibles. During our time there, couple team members felt a dark presence over some of the homes and it happened to be those who refused to receive the bibles. I met a lady named Olga who had right knee pain and when we prayed for her, she felt better and was so thankful for what we were doing to her community. I met another man who looked sick when he came out and I asked, he said he had COVID. We always wear our masks and kept our distance but for a split second there was fear in my heart but I felt the Lord asking me to pray for him. We socially distanced ourselves and I prayed for healing, for protection for his family, and he was so encouraged. To be honest, we have been encountering more and more people with COVID and it really is by God’s grace that there has been no outbreaks in our team or at the baes. 

We did street evangelism too which was really cool that I want to tell you guys about. I’ve never done this before with any other mission’s team in my life but we had no agenda but just asked God as a team what he wanted us to do. We asked God where, who, and what we were going to do. Each team member would share what God spoke to them and it’s like a puzzle piece that we put together of what God is trying to lead us. We felt God has highlighted to focus on children this week. He showed us doing nails and braiding hair for the kids..he showed us doing a dance routine for them ( since they love BTS here)... he showed us giving candies...he showed us doing prophetic art with them.. and he showed us playing soccer with them. We prepared as much as we could and finally we asked God where and he led us to a park close to the base. We shared with each other that even if one kid showed up, that the one kid is worth it in Jesus’s eyes. We went and everyone we met ended up being children! I met a girl named Wendy and her sister who wanted to get their nails done. We sanitized our hands of course and wore masks as I did her nails. We got to know each other and I shared the gospel with her. She accepted Christ but it is perhaps because she was Catholic. I shared with her that being a Christian is not just about being good to be accepted, that despite us not being good, we are accepted. I believe she really felt the love of God. 

The last highlighted ministry for me was Racham’s ministry which in Hebrew, Racham means “mercy”. This Christian organization is under YWAM but is also funded by the government. They focus on children from the slums who were abandoned, sexually, physically, emotionally abused, and are in need of help. We are not allowed to post any pictures on social media because of the government and for outside volunteers, we can only visit them once a week for 2 hours. The leaders there asked if we could teach them about unity. There are currently 15 children there, almost 60% boys, 40% girls all under the age of mid teens. We created a skit for them based on 1 Corinthians 12: 14-22 and although it was hard work, they loved it. We did a drawing activity, painted their nails, provided sandwiches and juice, and played soccer with them. They shared in the end how thankful they are to us and one of them shared their testimony of how God has been working in his life. I could see God’s life in his eyes and all the children were so precious. What broke my heart as we were walking back to the base was what each child has gone through. All the girls were raped, and all the boys either sold drugs or were addicted to drugs. One of the boy was found homeless and alone for 2 weeks because his father abandoned him. It hurts my heart so much right now even typing this because when I played with them before knowing, I wouldn’t have ever guessed they went through hell at such a young age. They are so precious to Jesus...and as much as I am angry against the injustice towards them, God reminds me that those offenders will get judgement from Him. He reminds me that although those children are poor on earth, theirs is the kingdom of heaven and they have such a great inheritance. I feel so privileged to get to meet them and love on God’s children.

I can’t believe I’ve been living here for over a month and this is the longest I have been in outreach. I think I am getting used to the humidity? but there are times it kicks my butt and I’m sweating like I’m in a sauna. The food has been difficult too since Mexico doesn’t have that many healthy options and almost everything is too sweet or too salty. The food tastes good don’t get me wrong, but knowing my body, it hasn’t been adjusting well, but I’m managing as best as I can. Oh I almost forgot, we had an extra $3-4,000 donation given to us as a team so after prayer, we decided as a team to pour half of it to a church plant in Stone Island, and the other half for those who are in need of oxygen tanks at Calvary Chapel which is where the pastor who is church planting in Stone Island attends. Right now, Mazatlan is doing the worst out of all of Mexico and the hospitals are at full capacity so those who need oxygen are having to buy them or wait till there is room at the hospital. 

I also had some extra fundings sent by friends and after prayer I felt the Lord asking me to pour it all on 4 different missionaries here at the base. I’m so grateful that just as those who obeyed and financially supported me, I could do the same for someone else and bridge my friend to help those in need in Mazatlan. 

I’m also enjoying my experience in Mazatlan once a week by trying out different local restaurants, buying tourist souvenir’s for friends, and seeing the different parts of the city. We only have 2 more weekends after this so despite feeling tired and ready to go home at times, I want to look back and have no regrets that I could have done more. 

Prayer requests:

1) Grace and endurance to finish this race strong. That we would give it our all and still ask for greater things that God has in store for us to see in Mazatlan. I’m still asking God to not let me be comfortable and content for what He already has done but for even more!

2) Unity. We’ve been reading Hebrews and Psalm together as a team, and our unity held by Christ is what allows us to thrive and not just survive.

3) Health protection: We all have been feeling pretty fatigued.Yoonkyung has tendonitis on her right thumb and wrist, Esther has food poisoning, I have back, shoulder, and neck pain with no cycle still, and Sebin has back pain too. As we encounter more people with COVID during ministry, would we be protected and that we wouldn’t carry to the locals here.

Thank you amigos and amigas <3

Alicia

[inazuma-eleven-translations]

DanSen Novel 1

So I’ve just finished reading the novel version of the Inazuma GO vs Danball Senki crossover movie and I wanna talk about my favorite parts. And when I say ‘finished reading’ I mean ‘read all the Inazuma parts and skipped the DanSen parts because if Muraku’s not there I’m not interested’.

An Overview

The book is 198 pages long and covers up to the scene where Fran is ‘rescued’ by Tenma and the others.

The novel expands on the background of both the birth of Shinsei Inazuma Japan and the LBX.

There’s new scenes that aren’t in the movie.

It’s very slow-paced. The first 100 pages focus slowly on the lead up to the exhibition match between Shinsei Inazuma Japan and Inazuma Legend Japan.

A translation of Volume 1 can be found here.

So I won’t be translating it, buuut like I said above I wanna talk about my favorite parts. Note: I will use MY personal translations (which are very liberal because LOL) not the translations from the link above.

Araceli’s Personal Fav Parts

So the first scene that caught my attention is the opening of Chapter 1 Two Worlds, where Tenma is running late to after school practice

Matsukaze Tenma was only a first year, but he was the Captain of Raimon soccer club. While he still had a few more months of being part of the soccer club’s kouhai - junior - members, soon enough new members would join and in turn become Tenma’s kouhai. Tenma knew that meant at the same time the current third years would graduate, so Tenma felt a strong responsibility to take his role as Captain very seriously.

‘I’ve got to pull it together! From next year I’ll become a senpai!’

Two things here. 1 - the third years graduating is acknowledged. I don’t feel particularly strongly about Amagi, Sangoku and Kurumada but it’s still emotional for the soccer club... members leaving... The second thing is TENMA AS A SENPAI PLEASE I WANNA SEE. This is so cute. He’s already shown he’s becoming more mature and responsible in Chrono Stone and Galaxy. Tenma senpai... He’s just too tiny and cute to be a senpai...

Also: 

Gouenji, Kidou and Endou are described as Raimon’s Old Boys which is... funny to me... Since Minamisawa calls Kidou etc.. an ‘old man’ in the drama CD. Hah.

The scene is as follows: Hibiki has an important announcement for certain players he called to Raimon’s soccer building. It reminds me of the original series episode 69 - Birth of Inazuma Japan!

Tsurugi’s eyes are, once again, described as ‘long and sharp’. This reminds me of the scene from the games when Aoi says that ‘Tsurugi’s eyes have a really kind expression when he smiles’. Uhh... So Kyousuke has really pretty eyes I guess.

Tenma calls Yukimura Yukimura-san. Cute.

Tsurugi lets Tenma know Hakuryuu is there too.

Then GOOD PART:

Nowadays, Hakuryuu and Tsurugi were good friends who would sometimes meet up and practice together.

They meet up and practice together?? Hakuryuu and Tsurugi BROTP. Hakuryuu’s school is still not confirmed though, lame.

Then BEST PART IN THE WHOLE BOOK - a physical description of Kirino. I cannot... describe... my sheer joy... This is the canon physical description of Kirino...

His long hair was gathered on both sides and hung down low. While he had a gentle-looking attractive face, his eyes shone with resolute determination.

My baby is once again canon beautiful and I’m happy. Shut up.

Next Hibiki tells them they will be the new Inazuma Japan and play an exhibition match against the Inazuma Legend Japan. They’re nervous but all accept one by one, until it’s Hakuryuu’s turn. Hakuryuu’s been quiet the whole time, until Tsurugi teases him about being afraid. The smartass replies:

‘So the reason I’m here is basically because there’s no way these guys can win against the legendary players by themselves’?’

Show off. Last to accept is Kariya, who’s basically bullied into joining the team, even though he’s really reluctant. Kariya exists to be teased by everyone lol.

Then Hibiki tells them there will be a training camp for a week before the exhibition match. So they all have this training camp together at Raimon school and that means that they all spent all that time together THAT I DON’T GET TO SEE ;w; Don’t tease me like that... No wait - do tease me. I want Hakuryuu Tsurugi bromance.

Locker room scene. Inazuma Legend Japan.

Gouenji is described is wearing his hair in ‘pomade’ style for the first time in a while. According to my dictionary pomade comes from French, but I don’t know what it means. I guess spikes?? Anyway, to his teammates this feels ‘refreshing’, and Endou says it it feels like his ‘old friend has returned’. Gouenji feels the same about Endou wearing gloves.

Kazemaru fixes his hair in front of the mirror. Nice. My boy needs a mirror to make sure he looks pretty. No hastily tied ponytail for him - he’s gonna do it the neat way. Yes I know I read way too much into this.

Okay, we’re skipping the whole match to land on Fei’s description.

His light green hair looked like two long rabbit ears...

RABBIT BOY CONFIRMED.

Next the super super cute part that talks about how the Ina girls and the Danball girls bond.

The girls gathered together and talked about the differences in fashion between the two worlds. They talked about the stylishness and cuteness of the outfits they were wearing, and got a feel for the atmosphere of each of the world based on what celebrities were popular over there.

THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE ERASED and they’re talking about cute boys and clothes. My kind of girls. I’m not even kidding. I wanna hear this conversation so bad. What idol does Aoi-chan like??

And before anyone worries ‘this is so sexist, having the girls talk about clothes and shit’ nahhh man this is pretty much exactly how I expect Japanese girls to act with each other lmao.

Last scene of interest: Yukimura, Kirino, Hakuryuu and Tsurugi are on water-gathering duty and have a short scene that’s not in the movie.

-Yukimura asks Kirino a question and calls him Kirino-kun. Why’s this matter? Means Yukimura’s more polite than I thought. 

‘Kirino-kun, what do you think of Yamano Ban and the others?’

-Kirino takes a while to answer the question, as if he’s choosing his words carefully. Kirino personality UP! He’s careful about what he says. I love this boy.

-Hakuryuu calls Yukimura by Yukimura-san. So Hakuryuu IS a first year. I didn’t know that but it explains a lot.

‘Thank you, Yukimura-san! To be honest, I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while.’

-Hakuryuu is super suspicious of the LBX crew, as is Yukimura. Kirino and Tsurugi are more willing to trust them, even if they’re also suspicious. Great foreshadowing - oh wait, this scene is not in the movie.

-Yukimura says the LBX gang might just be pretending to be their friends to get close to them so they can erase them too, but Kirino says he’s overthinking it.

Hakuryuu, however, sides with Yukimura.

‘I can buy Yukimura’s theory.’

Tsurugi tells him to cut it out, but Hakuryuu ignores him. LOL. I need more of these two, PLEASE.

And that’s it. For now. The book was fun. Read the translation if you like. And if you’ve anything you wanna add/ say please do!

[meditatemoremedicateless]

Dear Kate, (I couldn’t get her out of My mind)

Fandom: Life is Strange

Pairings: Chasemarsh, ambermarsh

Major tags: fluff, angst, possession

Words: ~ 6,800

Summary: Kate has a horrendous Thanksgiving with her family, interrupted by some nice pictures from Victoria’s bathroom. She runs into Chloe Price and Rose Amber and joins them for a smoke.

Read the full story on AO3

Dear Kate,

Happy Thanksgiving! I can't be totally sure you're going to be the one to wake up, but I'm praying you will be LOL! I've been reading and re-reading your notes on the fam so I can say the right stuff. For instance, I won't call out Aunt Martha for being a raging homophobe, I WILL ask Lynn about soccer, etc. I'm gonna kill it. I'm great with parents! Probably.

I had our study date with Stella, and everything went fine. I said I'd try and be careful with the addys and it was just a bad week and she relaxed. I think maybe the reason she was avoiding you was because she was dealing, and she'd feel judged if you found out? She didn't really say but those are the vibes I got from her.

I got an 'A' on the Brothers K essay! I left it on the desk so you could read it if you'd like, maybe throw some of my clever points out in class when you get back ;) No need to thank me. Unless you want to, in which case you can buy me something off my wishlist on Amazon.

Speaking of which, I was thinking we could do some sort of gift exchange before we head home for Christmas. Dana wants to do a secret santa and I signed us up, I hope that's okay. But I'd also like to get you some stuff. Can you think of any way we could buy each other gifts without the other knowing about it? I'm thinking I'll just literally bring gift bags with me when I go shopping so you don't have a chance to wake up before I get them wrapped lol. Lastly, I wanted to buy some of the girls in the dorm HP scarves. I'm thinking Alyssa - Ravenclaw, Stella - Slytherin, Max - Hufflepuff/Gryffindor, Dana - Hufflepuff, Juliet - Ravenclaw, Taylor - Slytherin, Courtney - Slytherin/Ravenclaw? Honestly I don't know them that well and I literally have no idea how long it's been since I've read HP so I might be off-base.

@your story about Vic and the porn: THAT IS AMAZING HOLY SHIT. Like I'm sorry I woke her up (I was a little wacked out that week, my bad lol) but that's so funny. I can't believe she worked up the guts to yell at you. I think I'd strangle me for waking me up that early if I was her.

I know this is a little dark but I wish I could spend Thanksgiving with my family. Or, at least, I wish I knew if I'd like them enough to spend it with them. Your family seems great but the holidays seem depressing AF honestly. I really hope it's you tomorrow, not me. I'm probably going to cry or some shit if that happens. I wonder what I'll even do if I get to meet them.

Last thing: I've discovered that I'm actually pretty good at singing?? which I did not expect. You never told me! So I jammed out with Max a little and it was really cool and fun and she brought up the possibility of doing covers on Youtube. It would probably be at least a kind of ongoing thing so . . . do you think you'd be up for it? I know things are a little weird between you two rn, and I don't know if you sing, so I thought I'd ask.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.

X O X O ~ Katie

Kate let herself have a smile. It was so much less frightening to wake up with time lost as long as one of these notes was there.

Thanksgiving with the Marsh family this year was at Aunt Martha's, like it is most years, even though it's much smaller than what Kate's family had. Mobility was a pretty continual issue for her, so she stayed home unless she absolutely had to, and Kate's mom did the best she could to make sure she wouldn't have to. Aunt Martha was a miserable middle-aged woman whose husband had died too young while her bones withered away from tumors that, by most estimations, should have killed her. She was exactly the sort of person that Kate had been taught to sympathize with, to help selflessly. But, try as she might, Kate hated her, hated that suffering had made her so insufferable, and hated that there was absolutely nothing Kate could do that she thought was of any value.

As Kate sat in the living room on a couch across from Aunt Martha's chair, she wondered what Martha would have to say if she knew Kate had sex with women, or that there was the spirit of a dead girl that made her do evil things living inside her. If wanting to be a children's author and a vegan was too much disappointment for her, what would that do to her poor, fragile heart? Maybe it would be too much for her, and Kate would never have to spend another holiday in this musty house.

Kate had been having more trouble keeping her misanthropic thoughts out of her head since she'd been putting herself together. That, apparently, was the price of letting yourself fall apart. Or abusing drugs, it wasn't totally clear which.

"So, Katie, tell me how school's going. You're a senior, aren't'cha?"

Kate nodded. It was the same few questions every year.

"Where are you applying to college?"

Kate sighed. "I'm not. Blackwell has a two-year program for seniors, and I'm taking college credit there."

"Oh, I see." She paused, but Kate could already feel the next question coming. Aunt Martha didn't disappoint: "But why stay there when you could go to a real college?"

Kate bit back the sarcasm that wanted to rise inside her. "Because most universities don't have a career-oriented program for English majors, nevermind for people who want to do what I want to do."

"Mm, right," Aunt Martha replied, nodding her head as she remembered. "Children's books, right? It hardly seems like you need a college degree forthat. Or . . . is that the point?"

God, not this again. Why did Kate's family think that her desire to go to university was some cloaked attempt to be unsupervised around boys? When had she ever needed supervision to stay away from boys? Kate's eyes narrowed; "I'm not planning on finding a husband in college, if that's what you mean," she said.

This was always a sore subject between them, because that is precisely what Aunt Martha had done, and what Kate's own parents had done. Her insistence that she wouldn't do the same at least only came off as stubbornly independent to her mom, but to Aunt Martha, it was like it was an insult, like Kate thought she was better than her because she needed a man less.

Aunt Martha seemed to sense the tension, and she laughed. "No, of course not. I suspect we'll be waiting a while before we find a man who can keep up with you. I can't imagine an English department will have many boys ready to ask a girl like you out."

Kate bunched up her skirt in her fists, her leg bouncing up and down as a vent for her irritation. She wished Mom and Dad would call her in to help with Thanksgiving dinner, but the kitchen was small and Kate was, honestly, a terrible cook, so they never did now that she was old enough to only be called on when she was needed.

Aunt Martha was always like this. She didn't insist, like Mom did, that Kate had been taken in by the hairy feminists who insisted on women doing everything men can do to make themselves feel better for being unable to have a happy family. No, Aunt Martha had almost always seemed to recognize that there would never be a point where Kate would agree with her vision of a good life. She just thought Kate was tragically stupid. That Kate thought the world could give her something that a good family couldn't find by the grace of God. She thought Kate was materialistic, naive, and most of all, unwanted. And Kate couldn't help but hate her for it.

"So, sweetie, how is the abstinence club going?"

Kate choked on a bite of shepard's pie, the only thing she could really eat on the table because she'd made it herself. It took a few seconds of hitting her chest with her hand before she felt like she could safely breathe again, and everyone looked at her with concern.

Kate shook her head to regain her bearings. "Um. Yeah, it's doing really good. There's not a lot of people in it, but it's very supportive. We have movie nights in the dorms and watch documentaries. It's good."

Dad looked from his food, concern clearly written on his face. "Are kids still giving you trouble about it? I know you said there were some girls being mean about it."

"Aha. Yeah," Kate said, nervously brushing some loose strands of hair behind her ear. "I think they got bored. Bullies, you know, they just like to get a rise out of you, so." Kate returned to trying to eat her food.

Kate hated talking about bullying, but she hated it twice as much with Lynn and Katrina listening. She always wanted them to believe that people were kind to Kate, and that she was kind to them. She wanted them to think that being kind would pay off. Not everyone was ready to accept that people are cruel, and you can't make them stop with kindness. Certainly not at their age. She also seriously didn't want to talk about the abstinence club, because if she let it slip that the membership was half Muslim and that the facilitator (Kate) wasn't even abstinent, this Thanksgiving dinner would completely implode.

Kate decided to take things into her own hands and change the conversation. "Lynn! How's soccer been?"

Lynn shrugged. "It's okay. It's not as fun anymore since we started being ranked, though."

Aunt Martha seemed amused. "You still get trophies for playing, though, don't you?"

Lynn seemed both taken aback and confused. She couldn't understand why the question was loaded - it's not like she watched the news or spent much time on the internet.

So, Kate interjected on her behalf, "I get that. I don't like competing, either, it kind of spoils the fun."

Lynn nodded, but Aunt Martha just raised her eyebrows. At the very least, she didn't say anything in response, just returned to her food.

Kate's phone buzzed. It would be rude to check it during dinner . . . but she just really didn't want to focus on dinner right now.

Victoria: Does your Thanksgiving suck as much as mine rn?

Kate smirked, settling her phone on her leg. She was careful with a touch screen - she didn't need to look to type, especially thanks to auto-correct.

Kate: more. Kate: my dad just asked about the abstinence club

"Kat?" Kate asked. Her sister gave her a glance. "How's robotics?"

"I quit."

Now that was something shocking. And disheartening. "But you love robotics," she replied.

Katrina seemed to think it over for a second, then shrugged slowly. Kate knew, of course, that Mom had always hated that Kat was so involved with robotics - it kept her out of the house for hours after school, and competitions often took her away for weekends and demanded even more hours away from home from her. Just like Kate had thrown herself at service projects and youth programs to stay out of the house, Katrina had been well on her way to becoming a professional right out of high school thanks to years on the Robotics team. Kat didn't really want to make a career out of it, though, and Mom had never understood putting so much time into developing skills you weren't going to use. If she knew her kids were doing it to stay away from her, she was just spiteful about it.

Victoria: wow Victoria: My family's just getting hammered because they can't stand talking to each other Victoria: You win though

Kate: thanks i know Kate: also they asked if you were bullying me still

Mom was the next one to speak up. "Oh, Katie. Maria Anderson sent me a copy of your school newspaper. You didn't tell us you had won a photography competition, sweetie. In LA, that's so exciting!"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess I just forgot, I'm sorry. I've been really busy with school this semester." And the competition was in San Francisco.

Now Dad chimed in. "Have you been getting more involved with photography? I know you were unsure about it when you signed up."

Kate thought about it for a second, then nodded. She took a bite of shepard's pie, and the conversation halted, waiting for a better reply. "Yeah, actually. I'm the photography professor's student aide, and one of my friends is actually going there just to study photography."

Mom seemed intrigued. "Oh? The fashion photography celebrity from the pamphlet?"

Kate nodded affirmative.

"Well, that's exciting!"

Kate shrugged. "I guess. He's kind of self-important in real life, though."

Dad snorted. Then he said, "Well, I guess once you get famous, it's easy to get like that."

"I guess."

Victoria: Oh? bullying you? Victoria: What did you tell them?

Kate: i mean you were totally bullying me Kate: i just said everyone got bored bullying me because you can't get a rise out of me

Victoria: roflmao

It was several minutes before Kate got the next message from Victoria

Victoria: You're right. I should probably make it up to you. Victoria: So you're still at the dinner table, right? Now would be a horrible time to get caught doing something terribly un-Christian?

Kate: i mean, yeah?????

Victoria: You probably shouldn't open up your messages again for a while, then.

Kate had absolutely no idea what that meant. Or did she know what it meant, just not believe it could possibly be happening? Even when her phone buzzed again, she thought the idea was so ridiculous, she must be getting ahead of herself and-

Nope.

Victoria had sent her a picture without a shirt on, leaning against the door of what appeared to be a pristine bathroom. Her skirt was pulled down just enough to expose her underwear, which was pink and it matched her bra and-

Kate dropped her phone. It startled her a lot worse than everyone, but it startled everyone.

"Oh, sorry," she said, retrieving her phone from the floor.

"Katie, put your phone away at the dinner table," her mother admonished.

There was a second photo now. Now it was a selfie instead of a mirror photo, with Victoria sitting on the counter beside the sink. Her skirt was pulled all the way down to her ankles now, and the angle somehow managed to get her eyes and collar bone and breasts in good lighting. Victoria really knew how to use a phone camera.

"Mhm," Kate said, slipping her phone in her pocket.

She could barely eat after that, and she dropped her fork several times.

Kate decided to go for a walk after dinner, which she had done nearly every Thanksgiving in the past years, though not previously to text girls sending her bathroom selfies.

Kate: WTF!! Kate: I was with my family!

Victoria: I invited you not to look.

Kate: You call THAT inviting me not to look?

Victoria: You're the one who looked.

Kate: That's gross logic. Victim blaming.

Victoria: Oh? So you didn't like them?

Kate's jaw felt rigid for some reason, like she was holding back a scream. She was walking awfully fast down the sidewalk, making her way towards the wealthier part of the suburbs.

Kate: That is not the conversation we're having. Kate: No bathroom selfies without warning. Illegal!

Victoria: But . . . bathroom selfies are okay, then?

Kate decided to reply to that question with another question: a random handful of emojis followed by a question mark emoji.

Victoria: God you're such a lesbian

Kate felt a tingle run down her spine just reading the word. She'd always felt like her liking women and her being a lesbian were two totally different ideas. She couldn't help the first one. But the second one always felt like she had to do something, be someone she wasn't to earn it. She believed she had soundly rejected the life 'lesbian' implied to her. But now, here she was. A lesbian after all.

Kate: You know you're the first person to call me that without meaning to be mean.

Victoria: Yeah, I'm not a tool.

Kate could tell she was in the richer part of the suburbs now by how much better-lit the streets were. The roads looked recently paved, the lawns recently trimmed. It was the sort of upkeep you could only really afford if you had someone else do it for you.

Kate: Hey so I have a weird favor to ask

Victoria: Need me to slash someone's tires?

Kate: No? Kate: Why? Is that a thing people really do? Kate: Could you get me a vibrator?

Victoria: That's literally not weird at all, one Victoria: Two, this implies that you were making those godforsaken noises thanks to your HAND? Victoria: I'll get you a vibrator AND a gag

Kate: Hey, you know, I actually feel really weird about all of this. LIke, all of it. Like what is going on right now. Like how did we have sex? And how are you flirting with me right now? None of this makes any sense.

Victoria: you're telling me Victoria: I'd like to say I'm not questioning it, but I'm not actually the sort of girl who can not question anything, lol Victoria: But if I remember correctly, you had a nervous breakdown and then seduced me? Victoria: And I'm honestly surprised you can even recognize flirting Victoria: What with you being a founding member of the school's abstinence club

Kate: I guess I'm just totally losing my sense of identity and replacing it with lesbianism

Victoria: yikes Victoria: but also nice - solid improvement Victoria: no offense

Kate laughed. That was right, wasn't it? If Kate was still who she had been at the start of the month, Victoria wouldn't be flirting with her and sending her sexy pictures during Thanksgiving dinner. If Kate was still who she had been at the start of summer, someone who never would have kissed Victoria just to mess with her, then Victoria would still be mocking her, defacing her club posters right in front of her, just shitting on her at every turn. The only reason Victoria was treating her nicely was because she changed. The Kate that Kate still thought of as herself, the version of her that she was just on vacation from and would be again one day, she would never be in this situation. Victoria didn't like Kate. She liked whatever mangled version of her this was.

Kate: None taken. Kate: You're not exactly regular-me's type, anyway

Victoria: Wow, savage much? Victoria: You don't think I'm cute?

Kate: Oh you are Kate: I just like nice people

Victoria: haha! Victoria: That's fair Victoria: So who do you like? You know, normally.

Kate: I feel like you seriously do not comprehend the Christian + Lesbian experience

Victoria: Try me.

God. Was she seriously going to talk to Victoria about this? Of all people? Then again, who else did she have? Katie? How would Katie possibly understand? She'd never been interested in Kate's chastity vows. She would have broken them if Kate hadn't first. The way she always talked about which girls were cute and who Kate should date with absolutely no regard for how much it hurt her? Katie was just a fundamentally different person. Restraint just wasn't written into her personality.

Kate: OK fine Kate: I literally monitor myself to make sure I don't develop feelings for anyone Kate: Because there is no version of that that isn't a disaster. Kate: Step one, like a person. Based on my inclinations, probably a girl. Oops. Put on the brakes. Kate: Step two, date a person. I took vows. And I took them knowing it wasn't going to be easy. I don't think I could ever be close enough with someone to call it dating and not be tempted. Oops. Put on the brakes. Kate: Step three. Fall in love. But I'm not going to be sticking around here. I'm going to go off to college and I don't really plan on coming back. Fall for someone in college? We just break up or get married and those are samely awful because marriage is a sham that helps reinforce white supremacy in America and marriage is only going to distract me from getting through my education. And hey, getting dumped sounds pretty bad, too. Oops. Put on the brakes. Kate: So I don't "like" anyone normally. It can't be anything but a train wreck.

Victoria never seemed to start a message and not finish it within seconds. She was sure of what she wanted to say before she even tried to say it. You can see indecision in those little "..." that pop up on your phone, and Victoria's lasted longer than Kate expected.

Victoria: ... but you like me?

Dammit. Kate had said that, hadn't she? For Katie's sake. So Katie wouldn't be lonely. Of course. That's really why this was all happening, wasn't it? Because Kate told a little white lie in hopes of helping someone?

Kate: For now.

It was curt. It was mean, and honestly, probably a little degrading. But Kate sent it anyway. Victoria was quick to respond.

Victoria: I can live with that. But I have to tell you, I think your brakes might be broken.

That's not all that's broken. The thought made Kate smile, but it also hurt like a hole had been made in her lung.

Kate wished she could explain her situation. She wished she could explain that she never meant to take Adderall, she never meant to kiss Victoria, she never meant to do anything but keep living her closed-off, secure, closeted life, but that the choice had been taken from her. She wished she could explain that she only let the thought of having sex with Victoria be anything more than the most passing, unwelcome fantasy because she wanted to get back at an invader in her own body. She wished she could be cruel and tell Victoria that she wasn't as special as she must think she is, because absolutely none of this was about her. She was just the girl around when any would have done (any girl she didn't fear falling in love with, at least). Victoria thought she'd taken advantage of Kate - she even apologized for it the next day. The thought hadn't even seemed to occur to her that she was the one being taken advantage of.

But, in the end, Kate had to admit she was having fun.

Kate: Send me another photo.

Victoria didn't text back. Kate was fairly convinced that was because she was listening, and here in a few minutes she'd have a new picture of Victoria to titillate her for absolutely no reason other than she wanted it. Victoria, as bossy as she was, liked being told what to do. Kate had never felt the impulse to obey. She wondered how easy it would have been for her to keep living her life as planned if she didn't have to struggle every step of the way against herself. If only obedience was as easy for her as it was for Victoria.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw something that had haunted her dreams. Something that had always seemed far away, ephemeral, not really part of the same world that Kate lived in, sort of like Katie. No matter how much she'd seen it, she never really thought of it as something real.

The girl with the blue hair stood on the porch of one of the nicest houses on the street beside a short, black-haired woman. They each had a cigarette in their mouths, chatting amicably after a Thanksgiving dinner. Chloe Price: The girl of Kate Marsh's dreams. How strange it was that they'd never talked.

Finally, Chloe caught Kate standing there next to the driveway, looking at her with wide eyes of wonder and, frankly, fear.

"Yo!" she called. "Is that Kate Marsh?"

Kate just blinked. Of course. Of course they had met, and Kate just didn't remember. "Chloe Price?" she called, knowing full well the answer.

"Sup?! Wanna bum another cigarette?"

Another cigarette? Looks like that was another thing Kate didn't know she'd been doing. "Sure," she replied, and walked up the unfamiliar driveway to stand on the porch with Chloe and the unfamiliar woman.

"Hi, I'm Kate," she said, offering a hand to the Unfamiliar Woman.

"Rose," the woman replied as she shook Kate's hand, a wry smile on her face. "A friend of yours I take it, Chloe?" Rose asked before taking another drag from her cigarette. Kate absolutely hated the smoke from cigarettes. She was resolved to put it in her lungs.

Chloe nodded with a smile. "You can take it all the way to the bank. Kate here is an art student at Blackwell and co-friend to one Max Caulfield. She plays the violin beautifully and assists Mark Jefferson, fashion photographer and total hottie, as his class aide."

Kate had absolutely no idea how Chloe could possibly know all this stuff about her when all Kate knew about Chloe was that she ate at the Two Whales diner sometimes, and she didn't exactly have definitive proof of that, either.

"Well, Chloe, that's quite an impressive introduction-"

"-Thank you Mrs. Amber-"

"- But maybe Kate should get to talk about herself instead? And maybe you should light her cigarette, as she clearly doesn't have a light."

"My bad."

Kate held the cigarette in her mouth, bracing herself for what was to come. Chloe lit the cigarette and Kate inhaled and it felt like death and Kate immediately began to choke and cough.

Chloe pointed at Kate with her cigarette between her fingers. "You see, she keeps telling me she's a smoker, but I think she's just flirting with me."

Here Kate was, having one of the worst cardiovascular experiences of her life, and there Chloe was, making jokes at her expense like they were close friends. What in the actual goddamn?

"Are you alright, hun?" Rose asked as Kate managed to finally get a lungful of clean air. She nodded, not really aiming to talk so soon after embarrassing herself.

"Well, then, I hear-" she gave a pointed stare at Chloe, who just smirked before putting the cigarette back in her mouth, "- that you've taken over my daughter's TA position. How is that going for you?"

Wait, what?

"Rose . . . Amber," Kate mumbled, fitting the pieces together. Her eyes flicked up to Rose's face, wide with shock. "You're Rachel's mom."

Rose nodded. "That I am. Or I was, when she was still interested in having a mother." There was clear frustration in her face as she said it, but it cleared up a moment later. She shot Kate an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't say things like that in front of a stranger."

Chloe waved it off. "Nah, don't worry about it. She's heard me say worse. Katie here has been helping Max and me with some . . . extracurricular activities lately."

"I . . . have?" Kate asked. But Chloe said it without hesitation, she couldn't just be making it up, could she? "I mean, I have been, yeah," she corrected.

Rose conceded the point but still said, "Forgive me, Kate. It's our first big holiday without Rachel home and I'm . . . being bitter."

Chloe cracked a smile, snapping a finger gun at Rose. "And a little drunk!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, all right, and a little drunk. But mostly bitter."

"I'm . . . sorry, that must be so hard for you."

Kate suddenly felt stripped bare, exposed in an unusual way. She felt ashamed for the petty ways she'd been acting the past few days. There were people outside of her life, outside of her head who were having real problems, real concerns, and they still seemed to hold it together. Somewhere in the past few weeks of struggling against herself and abandoning all responsibility, the missing persons posters that littered her school had all become invisible, and she had forgotten that she missed Rachel, that she should care that Rachel was gone. Some people, though, didn't have the luxury of forgetting just because other things were going on.

"Yes . . . yes I suppose it is," Rose said, a faraway look in her eye as the embers of her cigarette glowed bright. She extinguished her cigarette on an ash tray left out on the deck railing and sighed. "I think some part of me thought she'd come home for the holidays. That she didn't . . . I don't know what it means."

The implication, though, hung in the air between them, a miasma worse than the cigarette smoke. Kate and Chloe both took a drag from their cigarettes to try and distract themselves from the thought of Rachel dead and buried somewhere, though the lack of oxygen and ensuing coughing fit did a much better job at distracting Kate than the nicotine.

After a moment, Rose said, "Well, I'm going to head inside. The Chardonnay isn't going to drink itself, I'm afraid." As she turned towards the door, she clapped a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "Just come in when you're ready."

Chloe nodded with a good-natured smile, and then Rose went inside.

Kate raised her cigarette again, but hesitated before it reached her mouth. Chloe laughed, and Kate tilted her head in confusion. "You don't have to smoke it, dude. Like in all seriousness, you should quit while you're ahead."

Kate pulled the cigarette away from her mouth and stared at it for a second. She considered smoking it just to be obstinate, but, honestly, the shtick was getting old for her. There were parts of 'no responsibilities' that she liked, but smoking was not one of them.

"Yeah, you're right." Kate extinguished her cigarette and leaned on the railing opposite of where Chloe stood.

"So, Chloe Price," Kate started, folding her hands in front of her. "You seem to know a lot about me. What's there to know about you?"

Chloe looked pleased at the prospect of talking about herself, and held her cigarette at her side once she'd finished what looked like the last of it. She blew up, trying to keep it out of Kate's face.

"Well, Katie, I'm nineteen years old, a natural blonde, my favorite color is blue and I like long, romantic walks on the beach. Oh, and I'm chainsmoking outside of my best friend's house to distract myself from the most depressing Thanksgiving I've ever had, and let me tell you, I've had some bad ones."

As much as Kate might like to ask about that, there was something far more interesting to her: "So, you and Rachel were close?"

Chloe quirked her eyebrows. "Was it the hundred or so missing persons posters or the breaking into your principal's office? Thanks, by the way."

Kate blinked. "For what?"

Now it was Chloe's turn to look confused. "For the . . . key to Wells's office? Max and I couldn't have done it without you, seriously."

I helped them break into Wells office? Katie, what are you getting yourself into here? Chloe doesn't know that you don't know what happened. Just stay cool and be vague.

"Oh, right, totally. Did you find what you were looking for?"

Chloe shrugged, tilting her hand back and forth to answer, 'eh.' "Kinda," she said. "Figured out that Nathan's a psycho, not that was news to anyone. Couldn't find Rachel's file though, which was shady as fuck considering they still had mine, but it didn't exactly leave us a lot to go on."

"Hmm. That's too bad."

Chloe nodded, then finally reached over to drop her cigarette butt on the ash tray. "We'll keep you posted. Anyway, how was your Thanksgiving?"

"Uhhh," Kate had no idea. It was a disaster, like it always was, but that wasn't really what stuck out in her mind. "It was . . . bad."

"How so?"

Chloe was not part of Kate's life. She was friends with Max, who Kate was friends with, so their spheres were not entirely divorced. But, obviously, Chloe was trusting Kate with something important, even if she had no idea what it was. Despite her rational inhibition, Kate got the feeling that Chloe was somebody that she could trust. And also probably a lesbian, judging from the rainbow shirt she wore in her profile picture on Facebook. Maybe this was the closest Kate would have to somebody she could tell about her fucked up situation.

"Well. For one, my parents asked about my abstinence club."

"Oh yeah, Max mentioned that you were in that. Why's that bad?"

Kate crossed her arms over her chest. "You promise not to tell Max?"

"Uh, yeah, sure . . ." Chloe looked both concerned and also overwhelmingly curious. "Why?"

"Well, I had sex last week."

Chloe said absolutely nothing at first. Her expression changed very slowly from concern to confusion to shock to understanding.

"Yeah, that seems like that'd be a weird conversation, then. Especially if - wait. Like, your first time?"

Kate nodded.

Chloe held her hand up in the air, "Eyyy, nice one!" She didn't drop it when Kate only stared at her hand, but after a second she seemed to realize the issue. "May-be? Are you happy about that? I don't know how the whole . . . abstinence thing works."

Kate giggled a little, then raised her hand for a high five. Chloe complied quickly, hitting her hand so hard that it gave a satisfying clap, although it also hurt like hell. Kate shook her hand to restore the feeling in her palm.

"So? Blackwell kid I know? Who's the lucky g-..." Chloe froze, inspecting Kate quickly and in no way subtly. "Yeah, I'm going to need you to help me out here - your sexuality's a little hard for me to suss out here."

Kate, despite herself, was growing fond of all these girls who, whatever else they thought, could distinctly sense that Kate was not-straight. After being friends with Alyssa, Stella, and Dana for a year, it was nice to experience a sense of normality. Not that she blamed them for the heteronormativity, really, it's just that everyone took her disinterest in relationships as some sort of shy girl shell that romance would one day crack. They thought she asked not to be touched because contact was uncomfortable for her. Even Alyssa, who was in the abstinence club too, never seemed to consider that relationships and touch alike were something Kate craved, and that is precisely why she said no.

"She's a girl. And you probably know her, so I feel like I shouldn't say."

"Ugh. Fine. But you're leaving me with some real gossip blue balls here, you know."

Kate gagged at that whole comment. "Gross. But, anyway, not only did I nearly die because I had to talk about the club, but then she goes and sends me pictures of her in her underwear during dinner-"

"-nice; continue-"

"- and I'm, you know, a bit new at this, so I lose my cool a little bit, nearly trip and stab my own neck with a fork, that sort of thing. So the whole dinner basically sucked."

"Reasonable, reasonable." Chloe paused to think for a second and then added, "Is it by any chance Victoria?"

Kate can't even muster up a facial reaction for how off-guard she was for that comment. "H-how did you-"

"Oh my god - holy shit! You had-"

"Ssshhh!"

Chloe had the biggest, goofiest grin on her face. "You had sex with Victoria Chase? Nice one, dude! I tried negging her for like two years, never went anywhere."

That left Kate a little more guarded, but mostly awkward. "I mean, yeah, because that's gross and misogynistic. Have you tried, I don't know, not doing that?"

"Pfft." Chloe considered it. "Yeah. I mean, no, not with Victoria, but like, in general. Why, what'd you do?"

"I-" Kate thought about what she had done, precisely. Had an emotional meltdown? Probably wasn't what did it. Just sort of grabbed her and kissed her? That actually sounds closer to sexual assault and definitely not something she was about to advise Chloe to do. What had actually, you know, worked? "I - uh." Kate's skin flushed red the more she thought about it. No, no, Chloe wasn't asking about those things, that was what probably made the sex continue, not start. Honestly, why should she even tell Chloe? What was it about this weird girl with beautiful arms that made Kate want to impress her?

"I - I dunno. I just. Kinda. Asked if she wanted to make me orgasm I guess?"

Chloe's shock looked both real and performative in its intensity. "Literally? How do you have so much game? You're like 5'5" and cute as a button."

Kate had been getting the impression throughout the conversation that Chloe was flirting with her. Now she was sure of it, and it was doing absolutely nothing to help her feel less embarrassed and overstimulated by this situation.

Kate reached up and scratched her head. The wind and walking had loosened a lot of her hair from its bun and now tufts of it were uncomfortably stuck in bobby pins, over her ears, and otherwise making nuisances of themselves. "But I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell Max about any of this. I don't want her to think less of me."

Chloe held her hands up. "Hey, I won't, but she's also not one to slut-sh-"

"It's not about that. I just . . . don't want her to know."

The look Chloe gave her was awfully suggestive, but she didn't pursue the topic further. "Well, all right, that's fine with me. I think I'm going to head inside, though, it's getting kind of cold for me. You good getting home?"

"Oh yeah I'm . . . uh . . ." Kate looked down the road that she'd come from. It wasn't familiar. She didn't normally walk this far - she must have been gone for over an hour by now.

"Want a ride?"

Kate didn't have to ask which car was hers - it stuck out like a sore thumb in this neighborhood. Still, Kate got the feeling that yes, she really did want a ride.

"Nice truck," Kate said as she looked back at Chloe. To her own total lack of surprise, she caught Chloe checking her out - she switched to a pleasant smile as soon as possible, but it was still a fraction of a second too late. "Sure, I'd like that."

Chloe grinned again, and the devil there in Kate's heart woke up. Kate could see the scene in front of her just like she had with Victoria. If she wanted to, right now, she could probably have sex with Chloe. They could go for a ride a little past where Kate was supposed to get home, where the street lights weren't so frequent and everyone just parked where they could along the side of the road. There wasn't really enough room in the truck to do the sorts of things she had Victoria had done by the looks of it, but Kate liked the look of Chloe's arms and her hands, and she was pretty sure that would be enough to get her off. She had already promised not to tell Max. All she'd have to do is suggest it.

Kate's phone buzzed, and she broke the lingering eye contact between her and Chloe to check it. About half an hour ago there was a picture of Victoria lying on a large bed, her feet in the air and her face held up by a hand. She must have been using a selfie stick, because no one could get such a clear shot of their butt from above without one. Then, just now, there was a message.

Victoria: Did you literally die?

Kate laughed underneath her breath, but, honestly, she felt like she'd been kicked in the gut. What in the world was she doing? What gave her any right to take and use girls just because she wanted to? That's not who she was. And, more importantly, she knew that's not who she wanted to be. Orgasms and control were nice, but maybe they weren't worth giving up all of her integrity.

"C'mon, I'll take you home."

Kate: no, sorry, just got busy Kate: Maybe once we get back I could see more of that in person.

"Mmhmm, yeah. Thanks, Chloe."

Victoria: Maybe so.

Dear Katie,

Thanksgiving went fine. Aunt Martha was, as expected, unpleasant. Katrina dropped out of robotics (I blame Mom).

Kate paused there. How much should she explain? Everything was getting so complicated, and as much as she wanted to spite Katie sometimes, she very well might be the one in charge of Kate's body come the morning. At the very least, they should talk about how Katie got the key to Principal Wells's office. She should ask about what Max and Chloe were up to, and give Katie a heads-up that Chloe seemed to be into her. And she should probably explain what was happening with Victoria before things got any weirder.

It's been a long day. I think I'm going to just go to sleep. Try to get some homework done this weekend, and make sure you're nice to Katrina and Lynn. I don't know how you feel about kids but I love those two a lot.

I hope you have a good day,

Kate

Kate deleted all of her messages from Victoria before going to bed.

[miresims]

Some of the pics of the family I’ve been playing for months now (with breaks here and there). The Ricci-Marin-Lodge-Baileys 

This family started with sisters Tanya and Daphne Ricci. I believe I grabbed Tanya off the gallery and just made her a teen sister. I think Tanya was in the stylist career and Daphne ended up being a scientist. Tanya liked neighbor Adam Koepp (sim made by me years ago based on a book character) and they ended up dating very shortly because... Adam got married overnight to an older woman, Lucy Jordan, who was actually Tanya and Daphne’s next door neighbor (mccc perks! lol actually i’m not sure why this happens to me since i have it so sims with love relationships with my own sims can’t get married randomly but oh well it made for a good story) so Tanya broke up with him and moved on. She eventually got together with Evan Marin (i got him and his two kids off the gallery, so if you made him, here you can see some of his descendents lol thank you he was a very great sim) who already had 2 kids, Khloe and Noah. He was in the business career. They had two more girls, Evie and Abigail. 

Daphne got married to Milo Jordan-you guessed it! Lucy Jordan, now Koepp’s son. Milo was a soccer star and also had a daughter with someone else before he got together with Daphne: Rosé, who eventually moved in with them after her mom passed away. Daphne and Milo had a son named Romeo. And that’s it for original gen. 

Oldest 2nd gen kid, Khloe, grew up and I moved her out because we needed space so I just let mccc do its thing and she got married to.... Adam Koepp. To say I was shocked was an understatement. Like I said Lucy was older than Adam so she passed and Adam was single again and Khloe wasted no time lol. Lucy and Adam had a daughter together, Maya (meaning she was Milo’s half-sister and Khloe’s step daughter). Khloe and Adam had a son, named Niel. I don’t know what their jobs were because I didn’t play with them. I think I moved Khloe to the city with her bestie and played with her there but I can’t remember what she did. 

Noah also grew up and married childhood friend Ara Willis-Nam (The Willis-Nams are a family I made years ago and I loved playing with them so I always add them to my new saves as townies). They had a kid named Xander. I played with them for a little while but I can’t remember what they did.. I think Noah might have been a soccer player? I have no idea. 

Rosé was a bit wild lol She wanted money to move out of Milo and Daphne’s house so she went after elderly Jay Huntington who had quite a bit of money and lived in this very nice apartment in the city. Jay’s son had just gotten married to Maya, Rosé’s aunt. So that’s how they met. and then Rosé got pregnant with Jay’s kid and she got to be part of the inheritance. Healthy baby boy Bradley Jordan was born and she moved out to a very nice house. She later got married to Leo Bailey (whose dad had 11 more kids with like 5 or 6 different women lmfaofjksjfkf). They had two more kids Isla and Benjamin. 

I can’t remember Evie and Abigail’s childhood so it must have not been that interesting. Evie got married to Adam Lodge (got him off the gallery, thank you) and she was a veterinarian. Her dad bought her a small clinic and she was very good at it. Evie and Adam (yes I only noticed their names after they had gotten married lol) had twins Faith and Henry. 

Romeo married his super hot best friend Derek Robins. The Robins are actually the Goths except with a surname I like better. So he was rich and hot. Good for you Romeo. Romeo was a writer and Derek was a body builder. 

Abigail moved to the city with her amazing girlfriend whose name I can’t remember and since they never got married I can’t see her in the family tree. Once they got older they moved in with Romeo and Derek. And they lived in as a very gay happy family. No kids for either couple. And that’s it for gen 2. 

Niel and Xander had their respective families generated by mccc. Niel married Jane Pryce and they had a daughter. Skye. Xander married Leah Something (can’t remember) and they had two kids: Andrea and Dean.

Faith married Xavier King. Faith was very very pretty as you can see. She has her grandpa Evan’s eyes. Xavier was a bar man and Faith was a musician? I think? I can’t remember. They had a son Ezra.

Henry got his high school girlfriend Meredith accidentally pregnant right after high school. Meredith didn’t want to be a mother and they eventually broke up. Henry had Indigo move in with him and his parents right after she was born. He eventually got married to Maddie Malone, who was a little bit younger than he was but they made it work. They had a kid together, Eliott. And that’s it for the relevant 3rd gen. 

And we get to the two current households I’m playing with these days: The Bradfords and the Baileys.

During their teenage years Indigo and Ezra, cousins, had a friend group with other teenagers, and they both had a crush on the same guy. Elio Bradford. Elio and Indigo were best friends but Ezra was the one Elio was dating secretly. Elio eventually came out and Indigo moved on. Indigo then got together with Benjamin Bailey, who was a part of their friend group and... who was also her great-grandmother’s sister’s step-daughter’s son. I honestly didn’t remember that part when I got them together. But oh well it’s not like they’re blood related or anything. Indigo paints and Benjamin keeps a garden and makes floral arrangements. They have a kid named Jack. 

Ezra and Elio got married and they have a daughter. Esther. Indigo was her surrogate mother. Elio and Ezra asked her a little while after she had Jack. That way Esther’s got some of Ezra’s genes since Indigo and Ezra are cousins. Elio has a extended family so I’m thinking of having Ezra and one of Elio’s sisters or cousins have a kid too. We’ll see lol. They def have the space. Ezra is a musician like his mom and Elio is a soccer player. Lots of athletes in this family.

Eliott is now a young adult and mccc got him married to a Lauren Thompson. She and her kid whose name I can’t remember right now live with his mom Maddie still in the Ricci-Marin house I played with from the beginning. But I’m not playing with them anymore. I’m not saying I won’t play with them again. Or with Skye who is married to Sebastian Kinnear (one of the descendents of the dude who had 12 kids too lmfao) and they have a daughter Sasha. Or maybe with Andrea and her husband whose name I can’t remember right now. or Dean and his wife. They’re all from my direct line tree so I could end up playing with either of them if I get bored of the two households I’m playing with now. 

Ezra, Elio, Esther, Indigo, Benjamin and Jack all celebrated together harvestfest together and had a very nice time. As for pets, they’ve all had pets from the beginning but they’ve all died. The Baileys have Nika right now, who is an elder jack russel terrier. Elio and Ezra had Mouse and Pato who were actually Xavier and Faith’s cats but they’ve both passed by now :( I’ll probably get them a pet the next time I play with them. 

Also, you can’t see Jack here but he also has Evan’s eyes. He’s 5th gen and he still has one of the founders’ features. Strong genes, I guess. I was hoping he’d be a red-head like his dad but he has dark brown hair like everyone else in the family. Esther does too. 

And that’s it for now. So yeah, this family has had a couple little messes and there... but nothing too bad. 

[tumblunni]

Random list of still WIP npc charries I need to make for this game, yo

* Mayor Grandma The Ultimate

Not actually anyone’s grandma but like... Everyone’s Grandma. That whole ‘village elder as a goddamn force of nature’ kind of character. She’s the Big Good. She’s this tiny unassuming gran who had a history as a legendary hero and is now the super amazing mayor who can solve goddamn anything and defeat any threat against the village and just... HOLDS US ALL WITH HER GRUMPY LOVE I’m imagining her like the protagonist’s gran in The Wee Free Men, or Granny Weatherwax from other discworld books, or the grandma from Summer Wars, or the grandma from Jade Cocoon 1 who even turned out to be literally the deity of badass grandmas who came down into mortal form to slap the shit out of some fools. (The “grim midwife of life and death” is a really fucking badass title)

Anyway she isn’t actually technically the ‘mayor’, she’s just like.. village elder under old country rules, but Regis is the duke that was sent down to Officially be ruler of this province. Officially. It’s just that absolutely everyone knows that the duke is just a figurehead and Ancient Powerful Gran Of The Old Ways is the real power behind this well-oiled machine of a town. Even Regis knows, lol! The previous duke was a total asshole that got served a slice of humble pie by gran and they were fighting at every turn, but now Regis and Mortimer are the Comparatively Less Stuck Up Noblefolks and the town is better off for it. Still, even if Regis isn’t evil like his brother, he’s still a bit foppish and occasionally stupid about what it actually takes to run a town. So they do come into conflict sometimes, but mostly its like BFFs quarrelling instead of the old Shephard Grandma Brings The Wrath of The Heavens Upon Rich Man No Matter How Many Rich Man Guards He Has, Seriously We Found One Of Them Upside Down On Top Of The Roof How Did That Even Happen

And then also i think that she might have a larger role in Blair’s plot cos Blair is kinda like the new Village Hero In Training. But she’s INTENSELY reluctant about it! Not cos she doesn’t like being buff as fuck and punching through walls, but because she doesn’t think she could ever be better than supergran. Cos like.. “yeah I’ve got the muscles but I don’t have the brains, how could I ever cope without you?” She gets really fucking sad at the very idea that supergran might be retiring, and like.. might die someday. So it’s someone who’s clearly qualified for the role repeatedly rejecting it and bringing up more and more perfectionist excuses why she isn’t ready yet, just because she cares so much for her mentor figure and wishes she could fight the tide of time. And that’s how Blair became the Miss Perfect rival type character, and why she’s so humble and oblivious of her own strengths. Also I think this same plot would have links to mortimer and sorrel too, because there was An Event that happened 15 years ago that was what caused mayorgran to start feeling as if she’d hit her limits and the town needs a new Hero. Apparantly ~something~ happened that was like.. the one time mayorgran ever found a problem she couldn’t solve. And also at that time mortimer and sorrel used to be childhood friends, since they’re cousins, but suddenly sorrel’s mum fell in status amoung the noble family and there was a huge upheaval of the town’s status quo. What exactly is this mystery...?

ALSO! she must have a big hat i just want her to have a really big hat (mayorgran, not sorrel, she’s fine with her medium hat)

* Sorrel’s mum

(and Regis’s sister and Morty’s aunt. It IS cousins when someone’s the son of your mum’s sibling, right? I can’t remember all the rules for first removed and stuff...)

Generic Mom. She’s just so NICE! Isn’t she nice? Don’t you agree? For some reason she had a falling out with Duke Regis in the past, and now she lives in comparative poverty and like.. no press statement has ever been released on WHY this happened, and everyone’s become rather distrustful of Regis because of it. What exactly is going on?

I kinda wanted to leave it vague at just this, cos you can’t exactly talk about her at all without spoiers. So yeah the next paragraph is gonna not reveal exactly what happened in that backstory, but it’ll talk about this character’s personality and what it.. actually is, I guess..??

SO...

...

...

A kind of over the top cloyingly “nice” person who really isn’t. A bit of Umbridge and a bit of an overbearing soccer mom. Like.. at first you’ll be wondering ‘why is Sorrel so self hatey when her mom is so nice to her’ but then it becomes clear that’s not what’s really happening. Mom only supports when you act how she wants you to, its a classic ‘living through your children’ situation where she pushes her kid way too far to achieve some goals they never wanted in the first place. And she’s a bit of a moral crusader, like she’s just.. SO convinced that she is ‘nice’, and that if she just acts ‘polite’ and ‘mumsy’ and cute and harmless and follows all the feminine stereotypes it balances out any horribly not nice things she does. Because she’s ‘not that kind of person’. Anything she does is good because she’s good, yknow? And anything Sorrel does is bad if it shows any sort of personality outside of what her mum has so kindly picked out for her, I mean why would you be so selfish, seriously! She kinda always lives like that, seething with resentment and selfish desire and looking for excuses she can use to paint someone as Bad so she is Justified in feeling superior to them and/or ruining their life. And her Nice facade covers up a lot of rather bigoted attitudes she holds, in addition to all the abusiveness. Ones that can be far more insidious cos she delivers them in such a Nice way and appeals to Logic and Compromise and oh but You Know, Everyone Knows, Isn’t It Just Natural And Biological, look at them getting Emotional. She’s very much the archetypical horrid nobleman that we were all so grateful that Regis wasn’t. Except she’s also way more devious and able to hide it beneath a relateable facade, so she can get these stupid naive townsfolk to do stuff that only makes life harder for themselves for the sake of like.. mythical trickle-down benefits that don’t actually exist. And oh, Sorrel, you know you could pass so well for a good Narcian lady if you dyed your hair, you know? Not like Regis’s filthy child. (She says, even though she also married a foreigner, just one from a majority white country...)

Basically she’s just gonna be a detestable monster, and the only pure evil person in the plot. And even more evil because she does such a good job hiding it, and has been able to spread her toxic influence to so many victims undetected for so long. Cos seriously, the story starts off with her being treated as a martyr and people clamouring to replace Regis with her, and it’s just gonna be So Damn Uncomfortable in retrospect when you do a second playthrough and see even Sorrel’s friends completely oblivious to her mum’s evilness. (″Friends? Honey, you don’t HAVE friends. Well, who do you need except little old me?”)

Also I was thinking randomly as a subplot there could be a thing that her mum was in charge of the town library once, and her planned renovations fell through and now the town doesn’t have a library at all, just this big abandoned building and The Enduring Shame. It’d be a good example of how she handles things, cos this is an Enduring Shame for Sorrel and not her. from Sorrel’s perspective she thinks that her mother trusted her with a big responsibility and she fucked it up and thus deserves the scorn. But really her mum just threw a sinking ship at her so she could take the blame, and then was all like “OH THE POOR GIRL IT WAS JUST TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY, PLEASE DON’T BLAME HER”. Spreading all these negative rumours to encourage Sorrel to never try and be independant ever again, but in a sneaky reverse psychology way so she could still look like a loving mother. But anyway this is how Sorrel ended up running a Secret Underground Library, her one form of rebellion against her mother’s control. She rescued as many books as she could when the library went under, and now she keeps them all crammed in her room and tries to spread them around without leaving any threads back to her. Cos she knows that her mum is super trusted, and that even good people can’t be trusted to keep secrets from her, and nobody would believe her if she tried to explain why it needs to be secret. So instead she just plays it off as if she’s just another person receiving books from the ghost library, and she’s totally searching for an answer to this mystery too, honest! It’d be a sign that you reached high friendship level with her when she’s like.. able to believe that you’d believe her if she told you her mum abuses her. And the first step of that is ‘hey remember that library we were questing for? its literally under my bed.’ Welcomes you to the secret trapdoor book heaven and you have a strangely romantic evening going OOOOMG FIRST EDITION TOLKEINS (or whatever the equivelant is in this universe XD) But it probably still takes her a while after that to open up about exactly why the library has to be secret, and to come to terms with the fact that she really doesn’t deserve how her mother treats her. So I’d definately give you an opportunity here to Fuck Up Massively by telling the mum about the library, yup. Gotta torment the player every now and again! XD ...but I mean if you’re reading this you know all the spoilrs so you’ll be fine, lol

* Quincy’s grandma (or possibly grand aunt?)

A stern and super professional businesswoman who has a bit of a quarrel with him over how exactly to balance profit vs like.. morality. She’s not a BAD person, her business isn’t so profit-heavy that its like all the actual atrocities you see in mega corporations nowadays. But she’s very distant from her customer base and also from what it’s even like to be poor. And she doesn’t believe that such minor things to improve the shopping experience would like.. actually change anything. What is ‘brand loyalty’?! What is this principle that if people are able to live more comfortably they’ll be able to spend more money on luxuries?? She used to be less greedygrump once, but she gets more jaded every year and keeps bumping money higher and higher up her priority list, abandoning things that used to seem important. And similarly she’s become super ‘I don’t need anyone, I’m better off being alone’, and developed this strained relationship with her grand-nephew. I think maybe I could add another layer of sad to this, woo! I think she raised Quincy alone after his parents were Giant Assholes and ran off. Probably stole a bunch of the family money, probably left her with a failing business that they’d ruined with all their selfish decisions over the years, and an angry mob out for blood against the brand name. And Quincy was very sickly as a kid, so she had to work a lot, leading to the distant relationship and obsession with profit. But she’s become so obsessed and paranoid of losing her money even after it became less of a death sentence, and she just keeps working super hard even though now she has time to spend with her family. And she gets scared seeing Quincy grow up cos she remembers how his parents turned into absolute monsters when she used to trust them so much. Being distant is better than getting hurt again... and god damn why does he have his mother’s eyes...

So yeah, they’re a bit estranged, and you can potentially help with that, woo! But mostly during the main game you’ll just hear about her cos everyone is like ‘oh, are you from [grauntie’s brand name]? why don’t you have this thing, she always has it’ and Quincy is like ‘no, this is my own store.. we’re a small business.. but umm, we’re cheaper..’ He’s trying to step out from under her shadow and prove that her philosophy is wrong, so maybe he can bring back the loving grauntie that he remembers from his childhood. i think maybe the ending could be that she turns up to inspect his new shop and they have some sort of merchant showdown and like... even if Quincy loses he still ends up proving her wrong because she sees just how much everyone in this town cares about him and how he’s improved various parts of their life by bringing access to these imported goods and just generally being a supportive community member. Maybe there are some things more important than profit...

Oh and also I think she was the one responsible for helping out Blair and Dionne when they were running from their abusive parents, and that’s why the two of them are the most friendly with Quincy at the start of the game. They hadn’t seen each other since they were kids, and Blair is kinda like I Owe You A Blood Debt, Is There Anyone You Need Me To Stab Grauntie looks back on this as a moment of weakness tho, and that’s why she stopped keeping in touch with them, she’s embarassed she used to be so sentimental. Cos like.. she spent so much money helping set up these girls with their own house and she lost out on a business opportunity (it was a property she originally purchased to turn into a franchise store) She can’t stop thinking about how tight the funds were around that time and how if she messed up she could have lost her own kid for the sake of helping some other kids... But then she turns up in town and its like Oh No I Walked Down The Street By Accident *gets buried in blair hugs* And she can’t stop crying seeing how much they grew up, and then they’re all like “we’ve been trying to send you a cut of the cafe profits for the last seven years!” and she’s like “NOOOOO, KEEP IT” *even more embarassed at doing even more irrational sympathetic actions*

Also possibly she could get a crush on mayor grandma cos they are both grumpy badasses of opposite? Strength gran vs wisdom gran!

+++

so yeh i made a bunch of grans/demigrans of various kinds, and now I am thankfully satisfied with this story’s gremp quotient

[sakuurae]

any writing tips u can share?? i adore your work so much, just the way everythings described flows so nicely~

Mmmm, im not the best with this, but ill try ^~^ thank you by the way! Ehehe, it means a lot.This advice will go on like stepping stones, haha.

1. This is probably the most broad thing i can say, but just keep on writing. When i used to tutor creative writing (or english as a whole, lol) i met a lot of students who were so focused on sculpting their writing to perfection, and the purpose of it was lost along the way. This happens a lot, from what ive seen, in creative writing. I feel as if when writers are more focused on creation their pieces to perfection in hopes of it being acknowledged and seen, theyre not writing for themselves anymore; thus, this leads into the second piece of advice. Practice makes perfect. Everything that you will write you are improving in every single piece—even if you dont realize it. The things ive written two weeks ago make me cringe, but thats a sign of improvement.

Work with your strengths, and improve your weaknesses.

Go back and read your old work so you can see what you like and dont like—what you should improve on or keep doing.

2. Write for yourself. The value of your work is so much more when you write for yourself because it makes you happy.

Moving onto the composition work…

1. Vocabulary bank. It takes a while to build up a wide vocabulary bank, but its worth it. In my opinion, its more engrossing to read a piece with a lot of high vocabulary over the simple words. It bumps up everything, and if theres a good sentence flow then its a plus.

I studied word lists everyday, and i always do every other day because i want to keep on building up my vocab. They are always out there, and its a total helper!!

For me, id rather read an entire piece that was written like an SRI test over pieces that dont have that much high lexicon.

This also becomes the case for the word said. There are many words out there to use aside said, like drones, equivocates, gasps, jeers, etc.

Ex: “He wanted to tell her the truth.” ➝ “He had an urge to apprise her of the concerning verities.”

2. Sentence structure. Some sentences are far too shot, and some are really extensive (and do not have commas, semi-colons—oh my goodness). Now, sentences dont always have to be extremely long; there should be a variety. Itll make the paragraph flow more, and you can get the emphasis where you want on certain places.

Ex: “His eyes shined under the darkness of the night. The smile that graced his face warmed you from the heart. And it was not an everyday occurrence for that to take place.” ➝ “The smile that graced his face made his eyes crinkle into crescent moons, the glint evident in his two orbs. It warmed you from the inside—his beaming grin—and it was not often you felt this from another individual.”

Speaking on this, try to not use the same prominent word twice in one sentence.

Ex: “He turned the paper face down, turning his head to face his friend.” ➝ “He turned the paper over, tilting his head to address his friend.”

3. Being metaphorical. Im not really sure how to elaborate on this; i guess it provides more depth/character to the paragraph?? Aah, heres an example instead.

Ex: “The sky was a calming blue, the cluster of brilliant stars surreal to your eyes.” ➝ “The curtain of aegean draped over the muted sky, golden pins splaying upon the surface.”

4. Adjectives. It bumps up your sentences—trust me. With more details, it becomes easier to picture in your mind. Have you read a smut without adjectives, and another smut with? The difference is quite prominent because with one you can imagine the scene with more detail, and the other not as well.

Ex: “His member was twitching, the pleasure of being inside you unbearable.” ➝ “His stiff member was twitching uncontrollably, the overwhelming pleasure of being inside you borderline unbearable.”

or

“Sweat dripped from his forehead.” ➝ “Beads of sweat slowly dripped from his forehead.”

But try to not be heavy on the adjectives… i still struggle with this, haha, but i think many readers can tell if you have a thesaurus in hand or not.

5. Paragraph breaks. This might not seem like a biggie, and it is completely up to you when you decide to break paragraphs, but there are times that one must paragraph break… like with dialogues or setting changes, or when a new character is introduced. Please… avoid the block… oh my goodness…

6. This might be a me thing… but go into detail with the actions. To say this under a brighter light, imagine this: actions during a kiss scene. When you kiss someone, you and the other’s mouths arent the only thing that are moving, and the touch of the lips arent the only thing youre feeling. 

Ex: “He pressed his lips against yours, his mouth prancing to the melody of your heartbeat.” (and thats it) ➝ “He pressed his lips against your own, his mouth prancing to the melody of your heartbeat as his hands trace the outline of your body. You palm snakes up his back, only to place it on the nape of his neck to tug him closer. At such a closed proximity, you noticed something else: his scent. There was a swirl of cinnamon and vanilla that intoxicated your senses… etc.”

What im trying to say is that going into some detail, brief or not, about actions will add more sparkle into the paragraph—especially dialogue.

Ex: “’You’re kidding me,’ he groaned, flailing his arms in the air animatedly. He was in a disbelief at the sudden news, lodged at a crossroads on how to respond. ‘You’re fucking kidding me!’

You took a step back, placing a fist over your heart cautiously. ‘I-I’m sorry,’ you uttered weakly, tears pooling at your eyes. ‘I didn’t mean to.’”

Obviously the apostrophes wont be there in the final product, lol, it would perturb me if i didnt write that grammatically correct, ahaha.

Think of these composition levels as a pyramid. From letters, to words, to sentences, to paragraphs, the purpose of the piece, etc. The letters would be the bottom. So if you mess up at the bottom of the pyramid, the rest is disrupted. I read over a paper before where the first and second base were horrendous, and i was correcting it so much. The student came up to me and asked me what i thought about the message of the piece, but i actually paused and thought. I was so focused on correcting the mistakes—paying attention to the mistakes—to the point i missed the entire purpose of the piece. So, honestly, proofreading will be your best friend here.

All of this falls under the tab of your style. Remember, dont try to force out word after word to sculpt your piece into perfection. Work with your strengths, find your weaknesses and improve.

On the finding inspiration and keeping motivation side…

1. Work at your own pace. Do what makes you feel like your best work will be exhibited, and dont let other deadlines push you at your limit. Personal deadlines would most likely take the fun out of your writing process, and you might miss some particulars youd wish to convey—so dont rush! Trust me on this, lol. I made this mistake again when writing overrated, and im so hesitant to even hit that upload button because of how much i rushed it to meet my personal deadline. I keep re-reading and editing it, but i know that if i spent my time on it and pushed aside the personal deadline then it would be better.

2. Inspiration comes at the most random of times. I got ideas from waiting in the line in the bathroom and in the middle of my english class; they come when you least expect them too. If you force it out then it wont be that good (for me, that is). Of course, you can go out and find inspiration by walking outside or listening to music, but dont try to force out ideas—let them come to you.

You can write about real life occurrences that have taken place, or base stories off those. ‘Two Cups of Sugar’ is based off my friends experience of trying to get a guys number at an ice cream bar, but always failing so she went back around seven times—and only got his name in the end.

An upcoming fic i have is based off my boyfriend and i, and how we came to be. To be honest, all my fics are based off some real life experiences i had, or some outrageous stories my friends have told me. ‘Study Sessions’ was some real events, and a few scenes in ‘After Hours.’ What im trying to say is that those simple stories can take you a long way. The scene that started ‘After Hours’ was my friend talking about a bar. It was supposed to be a 4k bar scene, but after thinking about her experience and incorporating it into my own piece, it built its own way to 21k, and an ongoing series.

3. Keeping up motivation. Depending on what youre writing, you should focus on those elements. For example, im writing two fics—one of them being a basketball au and the other a soccer au. My motivation for that has seriously been dying, so ive been watching basketball videos and soccer games to keep my motivation running. Also, it helps when writing out action scenes, ahaha. I also talk to my friends that play those sports and ask them about how they feel about it and the rules of the game. Just kindle your flame with more information.

I know im not the best at giving advice… and there is way more in this whole writing sphere that im not addressing, but i hope this helps!! This is just what i think, what i go through, and my opinion—i really hope this helps you out. I wasnt sure what department you wanted concrete information on, whether it be the writing process or inspiration side or etc, so i briefly did all three :)

I know its a lot, so thank you for spending the time to read all of this ^~^

[junker-town]

These are our worst childhood sports nightmares. What’s yours?

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

We all love watching sports, and most if not all of us enjoy or have enjoyed playing sports at one point. For many of us, our defining sports moments came as children, perhaps in Little League or just playing with our friends.

But not all sports memories are great, and we weren’t always carried off the field/court as champions. Sometimes, what sticks with us even decades later was quite painful, perhaps funny, and almost certainly embarrassing on some level.

Here are our childhood sports nightmares. Please enjoy our youthful trauma for your amusement.

Posterized

It was in eighth or ninth grade, and one day we found an elementary school where we could play some pickup basketball. This was mostly a mix of good friends and friendly acquaintances. There were no strangers here. My best friend Scott, who was a good four inches shorter than me, ended up on the opposing team for one of the games.

Scott was naturally a point guard, a tough-as-nails Rod Strickland type, if I had to pin an NBA comp on him. I was slow and mostly confined to the low post, though I had a surprisingly good outside shot for a time. None of that mattered on this day.

I found myself pedaling back, defending on a fast break, with Scott barreling towards me. I was concerned with who he might pass to, and committed the sin of failing to stop the ball. Before I knew it, I was much too close to the basket and Scott was determined to finish with a bucket. He jumped toward me, and I didn’t think much of it, other than wondering how I might block his layup, which up until this moment was the pinnacle of our finishing options.

But then a funny thing happened. Scott never stopped going up. His knee hit my chest at roughly the same time I remembered we were playing on eight-foot rims, and even that stunning realization could not have prepared me for the thunderous dunk he unleashed on me. It was almost exactly like that Chambers dunk, at least in my mind.

I texted Scott — we are still friends, have been since kindergarten — to ask him if he remembered this dunk, which of course he did.

“LOL, Tom Chambers as a Sun,” Scott said. “If I was more graceful/athletic it could have been like [James] Worthy.”

From my vantage point, under him, Scott looked graceful enough to me.

This was total humiliation. Luckily I was among mostly friends, and since my best friend Scott was the one who posterized me, I didn’t need to immediately retire, not only from basketball but from public life.

— Eric Stephen

Maximum Overdrive

In my hometown of Port Jervis, New York, we had this thing called “pitching machine baseball,” which was played after tee-ball and before free-pitch baseball. Essentially, the coaches would drag on to the mound one of those pitching machines with the giant rubber wheel, like this one:

JUGS Sports via Amazon.com

You’ll notice a couple of things about this beast. One is that it’s a high-powered device that requires being plugged in, which usually meant running a live extension cable across the first base line in order to reach the mound. Why not run it from behind home plate instead of across a major running path? I don’t know; why use it at all? You’re already asking the wrong questions.

You’ll also notice the giant, exposed rubber wheel that’s used to propel the ball at somewhere north of 60 mph. That’s not usually an issue when this thing is behind some sort of protective net, but perhaps you’re putting together by now that such a thing didn’t exist for yours truly.

You see, in “pitching machine,” while the coach operated the machine on the mound, there was still a kid who played as pitcher to make plays on the ball, end the play and then hand the ball to the coach. And then just … stand there I guess? Right next to this clear and present danger.

And so, after the third time a batter hit a line drive straight into the exposed wheel and ricocheted it into my cheek bone, I put down my glove, said “Gentlemen, thank you very much,” and never played another game of baseball in my life.

— Ryan Simmons

Beanball

I was a decent Little League ball player, although one could say my baseball career peaked around 8 years old. One excuse for why things might have gone south? How about our own coach regularly beaning us!

Where I lived, kids started with Tee Ball, then moved on to coach pitch, then on to kids pitching. In the coach pitch leagues, a coach pitched to his own team (with the opposing team placing a player next to him to field the position). We had coaches rotate pitching, and one of the coaches had a wild streak and managed to regularly bean kids when he was up there. And given that it was a coach pitching to his own team, you didn’t get to take your base. The coach was not throwing top speed by any means, but when you’re eight years old, you remember that kind of thing!

— David Fucillo

A scathing review

I’m fairly sure I’ve told this story on SB Nation before, but reliving your childhood traumas is at least [checks] 95 percent of the point of the internet. So let’s do it again.

In my early teens, before I could even dream of a growth spurt, my dad took me to almost all of my soccer matches. I’m not going to tell you that I lit the world on fire, but I was good for the level I was playing, especially when you take into account that I had an almost supernatural aversion to running (I still have this).

One day my mother took me instead. Most of our games were on grass, but this time we ended up playing on what was essentially concrete painted green. I was at left back. With nothing to slow the ball down, the game became about speed, and I was not at all equipped to deal with speed. My team lost, 2-0, and I got absolutely torched on one of the goals.

When I got back in the car for the 20-minute ride home, my mother said, “I don’t understand why your dad told me you were good.” The rest was awkward silence.

— Graham MacAree