#us renata mains are crying today

[time2commitbastardlyactions]

So Renata didn't get a Coven skin, but Akali got TWO??

If Renata was never going to get one, then I can accept that, but Akali is just such a weird decision...

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Yamata-no-Orochi (Part 3) Betrayal

*kicks the legs out from under the table, one by one*

You’d been stuck for hours. It was extremely late but you couldn’t sleep. Caesar and Chu Zihang drove in circles before finally parking in an alley to wait. At first, it was all emergency vehicles -- Police, Fire, and EMS -- then there were many reporter trucks with satellites mushrooming from their roofs.

After that, the streets got very quiet and occasionally you spotted dark sedans driving far below the speed limit, like sharks on the hunt. Hydra was looking for Mingfei and Erii.

You lay in the back seat to keep hidden. You were still in your silver Cheongsam and heels. You stared holes in the back of the driver's seat and listened to the radio. Seventy six people were dead. Only a single person was injured. They were painting it as some wild street race gone wrong. People were describing fiery debris. Bodies, some of them in various degrees of dismemberment, were strewn all over the street. It would take days to recreate the scene. One of the things the reporters quickly picked up on was the lack of wounded. How could a car accident be so catastrophically fatal?

But the noise of the radio faded away in your mind. Instead you were remembering when you first saw Z. It wasn’t in real life. You first saw him in your dreams. When you were hurt or frightened by the nursery staff, Z would appear and ask you what you would like to happen to those people. If they stuck you with needles you would say, “I wish they would be stuck by a million needles.” And then watch as they were stuck, screaming and crying in pain, just like you were.

Or if you were beaten by the nurses, something horrible and perverse would happen to them in your dreams. Like one round nurse would swell up so big and red you could see her veins through her transparent skin and wherever you popped her she would bleed.

When you first saw Z in real life, it was the special day when you graduated from the preschool section to the adolescent section and started to use your soul skills in experiments. He stood tall and proud, his bright red-gold eyes gleaming at you. He smiled at you, a warm smile like he was the king and he could have picked anyone in the world but he picked you. That smile was a gift that beckoned you to run towards him. You thought it was a dream. But he opened his arms and hugged you.

In the back of the car, tears fell at the memory. You’d never been hugged before. Ever. A warmth spread from his arms and his body and filled you. It made you bright. It opened your mind and heart and let him in completely, without reservations. After that he was your best friend. Between him, you and Renata, you felt privileged, you learned quickly how to navigate your dangerous world and soon you were the oldest and most successful hybrids there. You were sure to go to the capital.

It was only at Anton’s death that Z showed you the truth, but he didn’t help you survive Black Swan overtly. You still had to watch your friends die. You assumed Z died too. He never reappeared in your dreams again until you nearly died in Chizuru and then you were so happy to see him again. But your relationship changed into something far more intimate. You didn’t know if you were ready for something like that. But he certainly did.

At least he never lied. He never explicitly said he loved you. He didn’t even say you could love him either. He said you didn’t know any better. Of course you didn’t. He’d groomed you since you were a child.

Remembering that made it hurt all the worse. A great shadow has fallen over your past. Now you had no happy moments to reflect on with Z. Everything was full of crevasses that hid questions and doubts. Like the boulders that would forever separate Izanami and Izanagi from each other in the underworld, you and Z were now irreconcilable.

“I haven’t seen a patrol in the past 15 minutes. Think we’re clear?” Chu Zihang asked.

“How the hell should I know? We take a risk if we wait 15 minutes or an hour.” Caesar responded. “You okay back there MC?”

You look up at him, his blue eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. “I’m pissed.” you growl.

“I bet you are.”

There was more to be said but now was not the right time.

You end up making it a room across from the hotel where Erii was staying. Lu Mingfei was waiting for you there.

Mingfei cracked open the door and then let you in.

“Take off your clothes!” Caesar said coldly.

His voice was so sharp and harsh that Lu Mingfei immediately did so, removing his shirt.

When Mingfei unbuckled his belt, Caesar snapped. “Keep your pants on… turn around.”

“Oh, you were so serious I thought I had to take off all my clothes.” Lu Mingfei said.

Chu Zihang and Caesar curiously admired the dense lines of scars on Lu Mingfei’s back. They were so numerous that you could not find a single unmarked spot on him. It was like he had endured a beating of a thousand strokes or had rolled over a bed of knives. Even Caesar and Chu Zihang were stunned speechless.

“Are you done looking? I’m kinda cold.” Mingfei peeked over and startled at the sight of you. “Ah! You didn’t tell me MC was here!”

“She doesn’t care, stop wiggling!” Caesar hummed. “Incredible self-healing ability. A trauma of this magnitude would take at least 3 weeks to heal even at a top-notch medical center. But only eight hours have passed since you were attacked. You should have bled to death on the spot.”

“That’s because the wound began to heal itself the moment he was injured. The blood vessels stopped bleeding on their own, so the blood was locked in the body. The cells filled in the wound by a high rate of division. Even the ruptured tendons were repaired.” Chu Zihang said. “This self-healing ability surprasses that of Chisei Gen and MC.”

Could this be why the principal rated him as S-rank?” Caesar mused. “If he always had this ability, wouldn’t he make the perfect meat shield? If we have another gunfight with someone, we can send him in front of us to Main Tank the damage while we lay down suppressive fire!”

“The so-called lack-of-childhood must have been an act, then? Boss, you’re so familiar with the term ‘main tank’. What do you play? Warcraft or Warhammer? Anyways, shut up about that, we’ve got a bigger problem!”

“We already know, even if you didn’t come to us, we came to you. Every news channel is broadcasting what happened last night.” Caesar grabbed the remote from the chair and turned on the TV.

You already knew the story, so you don’t bother watching it again. Something else was bothering you. Caesar said she was 21, and was staying at a love hotel, but he also said she was wrapped around his finger. Didn’t Caesar say that he was hoping for Erii to fall in love with Mingfei? The whole idea suddenly made your skin crawl!

“Caesar. Is it alright if I go to the bathroom?”

“Huh?” Caesar looked up from the TV. “Yeah sure whatever.”

You walk inside and shut the door and get as far away from the door as you can and lean against the wall. You cross your arms, your nails biting into your biceps. You understood that Erii was potentially dangerous and that was evident today. But all you could think of was Z’s gentle hug, his indulging in your punishment fantasies, the play time and the jokes. It was all fun until it wasn’t. You recall the souvenir Mingfei got from her after she rescued him, a little duck bath toy. You’d tteased him for playing with it. Mingfei said he would never bathe with a duck.

He wasn’t that much of a kid.

Fire like a kiln blazed in your stomach. This was the person Mingfei had wrapped around his little finger? As Caesar had so blithely put it? You flush the toilet and pretend to wash your hands and open the door.

The boys were already moving on, talking about something else.

Caesar was standing next to Mingfei and handing him a card. “Meet at Pier 7 in Tokyo Harbor. The address is written on this.”

“What if she loses control while on the ship?” Lu Mingfei looked frightened.

Caesar handed him a box of medication encased in a glass vial to Lu Mingfei: “Isoproterenol, a strong anesthetic. Give her this medication. It will reduce her vital signs to a minimum and she will sleep until she gets to China. Give her some glucose half way through the trip.”

“But she’s very weak now!” Lu Mingfei raised his voice. “Injecting a very weak person with a strong anesthetic and only living on glucose for seven days? What if she dies?”

Caesar patted his shoulder: “We don't want her to die either, but this is the most feasible way to deal with it right now. She is a deadly weapon that could get out of control at any moment. And we can neither continue to hold this dangerous weapon nor return her to the Hydra, so the only way to do that is to send her out of Japan. It would take a bit of a risk, but it would get her out of Tokyo, the center of controversy. She’s the strangest hybrid we know of, perhaps related to the awakening of the White King. And with her gone, it would be the equivalent of a dangerous element being removed.”

Wait a minute. This didn’t sound like Caesar. The way Caesar was talking about her to Mingfei was not the way he talked about her to you. The way he talked to you was that she was a beautiful girl and that hoped Lu Mingfei and the Uesugi Clan Chief would get together!

Mingfei seemed convinced by this however.

Chu Zihang spoke up. “Caesar and I have discussed this before we came. And this is the only way. Find an excuse to take her out and bring her to the dock tomorrow at exactly four in the morning. She trusts you and should agree to board the ship with you.”

Chu Zihang’s words were like a bomb going off. “Uh… excuse me!” You say.

“What is it?” Caesar asked, his voice slightly dismissive.

“Why don’t you just tell her the truth?” Your face was awash in indignant confusion.

“What? Are you kidding?” Mingfei squeaked.

“No, I’m not kidding! Caesar just said,  ‘make up an excuse’. You’re going to lie to her!” You lower your voice to a whisper but point sharply at the hotel across the street. “Do you think she’s stupid?! When she finds out that you’re lying, she will go absolutely nuts!”

“MC.” Caesar took a breath. “MC… I know how you feel but now is really not the time.”

“No, you’re being cruel. Mingfei, you should know better!” You snarl. “You are her only friend, her only one! You are under an obligation to be upfront with her or else you’re no better than Herzog! You should know better. All of you should know better!”

“Hey…” Caesar growled, his eyes darkening. “This is completely different. Don’t compare me to that asshole.”

“What if she loses it? You don’t know if she can handle that sort of information. She’s extremely mentally unstable!” Mingfei whimpered.

“There is nothing more destabilizing than being betrayed by the people you trust.” You stare at  Caesar accusingly. “After all this time, after all you know about me. You turn around and pull this?” You take a shaking breath. “She is a child.”

The room descended into an uneasy silence and no one moved or spoke. The only sound was the continuous rain on the window and the rumble of distant thunder.

“That’s your plan? Tell her the truth. Are you going to take responsibility for her going on a rampage after she hears that she’s dying? Not everyone is that strong, MC.” Caesar was completely expressionless. He only got this way when he was upset.

You take a breath and let it out. You start to speak and nothing comes. You shake your head, struggling. “The man who told me I was dying was the man who loved me.” 

You turn away and leave the room to regain control of yourself.

A few moments later, Chu Zihang exited with a box of tissues but he quickly saw it wasn’t needed. You were just staring blankly at the wall in the hall. 

“Caesar has decided to let you go. He wants you to stay with Mingfei tonight and go with them to the docks tomorrow. Take the ship to China with them.”

“What’s stopping me from telling her the truth on the way there?”

“Mingfei will drug both of you.” Chu Zihang said.

You turn to look at him and then immediately turn away, your heart sinking. “He views me the same way. So much for the ‘I'm not Godzilla’ speech huh?”

“Things aren’t always black and white. A lot has happened. You’re in obvious danger from something we don’t understand. You may not realize it but your mental state is not the same as when you arrived.” Chu Zihang’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper. “Your mind is going too.”

You just shake your head. “All I hear are excuses. Excuses for him to be a hypocrite.”

Chu Zihang sighed, and you see for a moment how tired he was.. “You don’t have any say in the matter. The decision is unanimous, not only between me and him, but also Lu Mingfei.” 

You drop your arms from your chest, limply.

He looked down at you, his eyes cold. “If you defy the orders, I won’t hold back. From your training you should understand what I mean.”

The door opened and Caesar walked out. “Alright, let’s go Chu.” He paused next to you, his eyes cloudy. “I care about you. I really do. But there’s too much you just don’t understand. We’ll talk about getting you back to Japan once this is all over.”

You look up at him and shake your head. “The key to my survival is in Tokyo. If I leave, you won’t see me again..

He reaches out to hug you and you let him. You take a deep breath of the smell of his shirt which still smelled of those fine Cubans. It might be the last time. He really did believe what he was doing was the right thing even though it directly contradicted what he said before. 

“Don’t say goodbye. I’ll see you later.” Caesar said. “Keep an eye out on the two love birds.”

He walked away and didn’t bother looking back.

You return to the room with Lu Mingfei and sigh. “What a mess.”

He laughed but there was no humor in it.. “Yeah no kidding.” He was holding a modified pistol in his hand, one of Caesar’s Desert Eagles!

“What… are you doing with that?” You shiver violently. 

“If she gets out of control, I will have to shoot her. The bullet inside is specially made to be completely lethal. Even to dragons.” He mumbled. His eyes were dark pools and you couldn’t read the emotion in them. “If, for some reason that doesn’t work, you’re to finish her off.”

“Will you use that against me too?”

After a long silence he continued. “Turns out we actually are going to be at war this whole time. Me and Erii were never going to happen. You and I were never going to happen. I tend towards being a human. You and Erii tend towards the dragon side. If we go to battle, we have to use all our resources against each other and fight tooth and nail. It doesn’t matter if you sit together on a Ferris wheel or… talk all night on the phone or… run through the streets in the rain.”

He lifts his head to you. “If that day comes, we just have to grab our weapons and fight.”

He looks back down at the gun. “You were raised to fight. It’s what you know. But Erii… she doesn’t know anything.”

Outside the window it was pouring rain.

[ffxiv-swarm]

prompt 17: fade

She never thought she’d walk these streets again. Nothing is the same as when she’d left.

Then again, it’s been eight years. People have died or moved away or simply changed their habits, and she sees nobody who might recognize her. (It’s supposed to be a good thing, with her spying for the Alliance under a fake backstory and a fake name, but she takes one step, and another, and expects every minute to hear a glad cry of Portia! from a long-missed friend.) The shop on the corner that used to sell newspapers and cigarettes is a bookstore now; she wonders if everything still smells of tobacco. There’s still a pushcart vendor on the sidewalk, but it’s a man selling shoes instead of a woman hawking baked popotoes and hot sandwiches. Even the graffiti is different.

She holds her head high, breathes in (still the same smells, snow and ceruleum and the grime of a thousand smokestacks), and keeps walking. She’s a ghost in her own skin. Here, there can be no Portia bas Gallius. Here, she is Renata bas Fulvus, unattached socialite with a well-bred dog and a keen interest in new metal alloys. She’s contoured her face, dyed her hair, and adopted a smooth, deferential stance. Today she’ll make her report to her handler (a man who gives his name only as Drusus, as Eorzean as she isn’t), meet up with Audentis to compare their days, and retire to plan their next move. She won’t falter. She won’t—

She turns a corner onto a main thoroughfare. It’s crowded, but it’ll be a shortcut home. And then she sees the sign, and it’s like being slapped.

Tirus Family Hairdressers and Salon

One breath. Another. Another. The cold air is a knife in her chest.

Run. She could do it. It’s just across the street. Cross the asphalt, push the door open like she did a million times in her youth, hear the little bell ring as she steps inside. Listen to the chatter fall silent as her aunts and cousins realize who’s come in, who’s come home. See her mother’s face as she looks up and—

And—

(My blood, my heart, you’ve come home! Oh, I missed you so.)

(Traitor! Betrayer! You’re no daughter of mine!)

(You can’t be my daughter. My daughter is dead.)

She closes her eyes. Chokes back a sob.

Turns and fades back into the crowd.

[womenofcolor15]

STORY TIME: Former NBA Star Stephen Jackson Spills All The Gag-Worthy Tea About Why He Left His Ex-Fiancée At The Altar

Former NBA star Stephen Jackson sat down for story time to reveal the real reason he called off his wedding with ex-fiancée Imani Showalter. And the story is juicy AF. More inside…

It’s story time! And this is a juicy one.

Former NBA star-turned-Big3 baller Stephen Jackson was involved in a longtime relationship with former “Basketball Wives: LA” star Imani Showalter. However, he ended up calling it quits with her… AT THE ALTAR. But, there’s a good reason.

While smoking in an IG Live, the professional athlete decided to share everything that went down behind-the-scenes the day of his wedding to the mother of children, Imani. He never said her name, but it was obvious who he was talking about.

He started off the video with a disclaimer, saying he was not speaking out to “demean nobody.” He wanted to just shared his side of the story. He also dropped some gems on the young brothas who were tuned in:

”The moral of this story is, find you one woman, love her through the good and bad and build with her. Because I’m tellin you, if you think having a whole bunch of hoes and having multiple kids by more than one woman is something to brag about, it will ruin your life. Thank God it didn’t ruin mine but it will add a lot of stress to your life,” he said.

According to Stephen, he met Imani in New York and they dated for a few years before their relationship got rocky. She moved to San Antonio with him and he even won a championship with the team. However, the organization didn’t like the way Imani dressed and felt she was a bad influence on the other WAGs, according to him, so he ended up not renewing his contract with them.

They moved to ATL and then Indiana. Stephen popped the question, proposing during his tenure with the Indiana Pacers, but the couple decided they would tie the knot in Houston, TX, where Stephen is originally from. He said he loved her, but he was adamant about having a prenup in place before getting married.

“I take care of a lot of people. I’m never letting one woman control of all the hard work I’ve done in my life. None of these muhf*ckas was in the gym with me. So I told myself whoever I’m married to, they signing a prenup off top. It’s not even a second guess,” he said.

No word on how much of his money he flossed and used to GET her in the first place, but we digress.

They originally had the prenup drawn up 3-4 months before the wedding, however, Imani was dragging her feet with signing it. He brought it to her attention several times before the wedding and she always had an excuse as to why she hadn’t signed it yet.

During their wedding planning, Stephen suggested they have his pastor officiate the ceremony. Imani didn’t want that. She wanted to use a pastor one of her friends suggested – a man she hadn’t even met before.

”I spent about $400,000 on the wedding, y’all. Pastor don’t matter to me. I just want to marry you. I don’t even give a damn. Now, we at two weeks before the wedding. Everything planned and ready to go. I’m like, ‘Look bruh why I got to keep asking you about this prenup. It ain’t like you don’t know what’s on it. What motives? This what I told her, what motives you on?! I ain’t on nothing, I just ain’t had time to sign it planning a wedding.”

Chile, we were stuck at $400K.

Fast forward to the day of the wedding and the prenup still hadn’t been signed.  Yes, this is giving us Kandi & Todd pre-wedding vibes too.

”So, this the day of the wedding. Y’all ready for the good part. We wake up that morning, I’m getting dressed. All my groomsmen. In the back of mind, all I’m thinking about is this damn prenup,” he shared.

”We in the back room and the preacher come in with his assistant and my nanny come in with a spooked look on her face. She pulls me to the side and she like, ‘She still ain’t signed it.’ So, I said, ‘I ain’t getting married then.’ Steph [Stephon Marbury] was like, ‘She ain’t sign the prenup, what we even here for?’

”The preacher steps up, remember the preacher? He says ‘Hold on, now I know you love this girl. Don’t make a drastic decision. I think you should just let God handle it.’ I said, ‘Huh?’ He said, ‘As the pastor, I don’t believe in prenups.’ Now I know why she was fighting for you. You don’t believe in prenups. Damn what you believe in. I put everything in God’s hands and God is telling me to put the pen in her hand and make her sign this gotdamn prenup. That’s what God tellin me. So God tellin you and me two different things.”

Oop!

At this point, the wedding is OFF and Stephen is CRUSHED.

”When we first get back to the room, I break down crying. Honest to God truth, I was hurt,” he explained. “I wanted to marry her, bruh. I break down crying for like twenty-thirty minutes. I’m hard down crying. I didn’t think a woman would take me to this point over a piece of paper. And we got a child together. I was honestly hurt. I was in there hard down crying. And this is when I fell in love with Mike Bibby mama. I’m talking like snot everything. As a grown man, I ain’t never cried like that. Mike Bibby mom grab her bare hand, wipe the snot and everything from my face and picked my chin up and she said, ‘You became a man today.’”

Stephen said someone from Imani’s side told him she wanted to speak to him, so he goes to chat with her. She’s hysterical, saying she’ll sign the prenup, but Stephen was hip to game.

”Listen I was born at night but not last night. Anytime anybody signs anything where they’re crying, under any type of stress, that shit can get thrown out. I was already told that by my folks so I was already on game. So the sh*t she tried, thinking I was going to buckle so it could get thrown out. No sweetheart. You chose your decision. Claim under distress that’s what it’s called,” he said.

Bloop.

So, Stephen heads downstairs and he said Stephon Marbury was in the DJ booth. He said the first song he played was Kanye West’s “Golddigger.”

“That sh*t was classic my n*gga.” Stephen said.

Hmmm.

Then, Stephen revealed he ended up sleeping with one of her friends:

“This the sickest part of the whole thing. After we had partied in the hotel, me and partners was getting ready to go out. Two of her main squeezes that was with her, was with us that night. And I’ma keep it funky, I downed one of ‘em. Ya feel me. But that’s her friends though. Yeah I did it. Shole did. If ima trick $300,000-$400,000 Ima get some get back. They couldn’t wait.”

Wow.  Even if she was wrong for what she did - in his eyes - does he believe this makes him a good person automatically? Especially sexing her friends on what was supposed to be their wedding night?  He's telling on himself as well about his character, which shouldn't suddenly be affected because you're hurt.

We have our thoughts on this, and on all men who paint a woman out to be a golddigger after voluntarily dating her for years but being conveniently blind to who she was during all those years, but tell us yours.

You can watch the full story time below:

Following their falling out, they were involved in a nasty child support and custody battle. Years later, Stephen married a woman named Renata Jackson in 2009. They ended up calling it quits and were embroiled in a messy divorce. They ended up reaching a settlement in 2015.

  In sports news...

  “Bron is the best all-around player we’ve ever seen, but he hasn’t passed Kobe or Jordan.”

- Stephen Jackson pic.twitter.com/SwbhnLaeBe

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) April 20, 2020

  GOAT talk! Stephen Jackson said LeBron James is the best all-around player we've seen, but he's hasn't passed Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. Peep the clip above.

  Photos: Getty

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/04/21/story-time-former-nba-star-stephen-jackson-spills-all-the-tea-about-why-he-left-his-ex-fi