#we were not expecting or they might f*ck up the ending. i refuse to believe it is the latter so let's go MD cult!!!!!

[theinfinitedivides]

Eun Ae pregnant (not in canon i mean Da In is expecting her first child with Seung Gi).............. talks of an extension to part two.............. exactly what is going on with My Dearest and is this just good luck piling up on top of good luck

[mofieroll]

You Too (Jotaro Kujo x Fem!Reader)

Inspired from my in-character interaction with @mistaeq! Dedicated to them for motivating me to write! 💛

A Post!SDC Jotaro x Reader one shot where you bond with Holly, who you call Seiko, and pamper your man Jotaro.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Trauma

Word Count: 3k

Two years have passed since the events of the Crusaders' trip to Egypt to save the life of Holly Kujo from being taken by her own Stand. To say that the trip was memorable is an understatement. It was too memorable. The memories of built friendships and increased attachments in just a span of fifty days were unbearable, for fate made the surviving comrades of the group pay for all the joyous moments with the pain of death and eternal separation.

It was hard. Painful. Frightening. Heartbreaking.

It was excruciatingly traumatizing, that even the boy who appeared to be unbothered and distant, the boy who put an end to the cold-blooded century old vampire's curse, couldn't deny it.

Jotaro Kujo couldn't get away from the memories of his dying friends, and so, the supposed flashbacks became inescapable nightmares.

But fortunately, that was until you came.

You met Jotaro a month after he came back from his trip. The meeting was a mere coincidence as you were a year lower than him, you personally did not and had no intentions of getting to know him. It just so happened that Holly or Seiko, his mother, came across your small shop that sold self-designed accessories made from recycled materials. You had told her you search and pick the materials —mostly trash— yourself, which certainly piqued the woman's interest and told you, “Is that right? I have a son, and don't tell him I told you this, but he loves marine animals! It seems you are both fond of nature so I'm sure you'll get along— Oh! I'm sorry dear, we haven't introduced ourselves! I'm Holly Kujo, but you can call me Seiko~”. She was a sweetheart, so you saw no harm in accepting her offer that led you to become a close acquaintance of the Kujo Family.

Much to the matchmaker's Seiko's dismay, it took a year for you and Jotaro to confess that your platonic feelings are in need of a level up. She is Jotaro's mother and your first Kujo friend, of course she'd notice if something was up between you and Jotaro that you both refused to talk about! When you finally re-introduced yourself as Jotaro's.. cough.. girlfriend, Seiko was delighted and decided to treat her second favorite couple (next to her parents Joseph and Suzie) to a nice romantic dinner! The unplanned date embarrassed Jotaro, but he endured it as it gave a good start for the new level of your relationship with him.

Until then, Jotaro became more and more protective. You found it sweet knowing that your boyfriend, former acquaintance, cares about you and shows affection in ways you quite expected for a forbearing man like him. He's not a man of words nor materialistic gifts but a man of straightforward actions— yet he remained mysterious.

Jotaro has been avoiding you since the week has started. He distanced himself yet guarded you as you walked home after class everyday. Everytime you tried to catch him, he's nowhere to be seen. You started to get frustrated, and you know you wouldn't get any explanation even if you corner him and face him alone.

Seiko called you today and asked if you could have dinner wih them, which you excitedly agreed to because you were actually on the way to the Kujo household, a paper bag —which contained your newly designed rings and necklace— in hand.

With Seiko greeting you outside their gates, you entered their traditional mansion and told her about the happenings from the previous days. Even with the mention of Jotaro's sudden actions, Seiko chatted with you nonchalantly.

“Dear, you know my boy would do things that can be a little too unexpected even for me,” Seiko stated, “But if there's one thing or two that I can assure of, is that he means no harm..” You stopped in your tracks as she faced you and tucked your hair behind your ear, smiling, “And he cares for you, [Y/N]. I think, that may be his way of showing it!” Seiko spoke with softness, hopeful that her words would reach you and get rid of any confusion that would spark a misunderstanding on her stoic son's intentions.

You smiled back at Seiko with teary eyes, touched by her comfort. You pulled out the necklace from your paper bag and showed it to her, quietly telling her that it's your gift, only to receive an enthusiastic squeal and hug before you locked the accessory around her neck.

“It looks perfect on you Seiko! I wonder if I'd be as beautiful as you when I reach your age..” You sighed and pouted at Seiko, holding the paper bag on your middle.

“Oh, you!” Seiko playfully hit you as you both giggled, “You shouldn't say such things to a middle aged woman, [Y/N]! I might believe you!” Seiko joked while you insisted that you're sincere about your compliment.

Your chat continued on until she told you to run along and check on her boy, not forgetting to tease that Jotaro misses you. You face warmed in pink, which Seiko found so cute that she had to pinch your cheeks. With her positive and welcoming presence, your determination to face Jotaro fueled.

Seiko informed you that she'll be preparing dinner. You replied, “Mhm! I'll drag Jotaro and we'll meet you here at the dining room! Is that okay?”

“Okay~!”

—

Meanwhile Jotaro, who hasn't come out of his room the whole day, heard you and Seiko pass by. He was sitting in the far corner of his room but the combined voices of yours and his mother's particularly blasted through his ears. He's.. happy.. that you're both safe and sound.. but— why are you here? You should be at home! Did something happen? Did someone bother you? Wait.. did you come here alone? Didn't he tell you even before that you shouldn't go out at night? What if.. what if something happened to you? What if someone showed up and.. and took you away? Took you somewhere.. he can't reach.. What if his dreams were to happen? What if—

Knock! Knock!

Jotaro's sweating face turned to look at his door as his breathing became more unsteady. His eyes widened, brows clashed, and his mouth was agape, gasping for more air. His fists were clenched and he was trembling, who's knocking? Who's trying to get him again?

“Kujo?”

Jotaro stopped breathing for a second while his body still trembled. The voice that called him held sweetness and concern in it but he was still in a dark trance. What if someone's trying to deceive him?

“Seiko called me, may I come in?”

His widened eyes calmed, turning his tormented expression into one of those longingness. His shuddering arm reached out as he subconsciously stood and walked towards his shut door. His cold hand gripped the handle.. but he didn't have the slightest strength to pull it himself. What is he doing? He can't face anyone like this, especially..

On the other side of Jotaro's door was you, with a hand that also gripped the cold handle, waiting for the right timing to enter. Your heartbeat has increased its pace, indicating your uptight feeling of facing him after not seeing him for over a week. You were nervous and a short flashback of your first meeting with Jotaro popped up in your mind. Has it really been two years?

Jotaro never directly told you of his.. episodes. But, there were times where you just happened to observe that whenever you were late on your meeting, he immediately scoops you in a hug while he trembles; or whenever you randomly visit him on weekends and you enter his room only with a knock, he abruptly charges at you with his folded fist stopping inches from your worried face. He didn't tell you about what's haunting him, not even once. Yes, you were undeniably frustrated by him avoiding you, but you love him well enough to have the willingness to act up whilst having patience.

You waited for more minutes before speaking again, “I'm gonna enter now, alright?” You assured, carefully sliding the door behind you and turning on the light switch after you entered.

Your eyes wandered after it adjusted to the lit room, locking on the form of a slouched man in the corner, sitting with a knee up that had his arm and head resting on it while his other knee was folded. You quietly sighed and walked close to him, hiding the impatience to throw yourself at him and pepper him with kisses, mumbling i missed yous. You would have done it, but that kind of affection.. goes for later.

You sat beside Jotaro and placed the paper bag on your side. You weren't too close nor too far from him, just enough to have your hand caress his messy dark hair. You loved seeing him without his hat, seeing his flawless face be shadowless. But if he took it off, the reason is either he's agitated or.. sleep. There was a time when you told him that he should take off his hat indoors and a time you tried to take it off yourself, but he completely ignored you at both and kept the hat on.

“How are you?” You asked without expecting a reply. It was to make him acknowledge your presence, and that is because you didn't know that he's been waiting for you to come in since the moment he heard your voice.

Jotaro wanted to answer. He wanted to lock you in his arms and.. say sorry. He wanted to apologize for neglecting you but— how is he going to do that without telling you too much?

“Why the f*ck did my mother call you? I don't need any help. That b*tch.”

There it is, his method of putting up a tough facade, the swearing that would prompt anybody to think that he needs no help. It worked on you once, but you're not just anybody to him now.

“Mhm. Seiko checked up on me while I was heading home from.. somewhere. She invited me for dinner,” You informed. You didn't want to tell him that you were on your way here even before Seiko called you, knowing full well that he's against you ‘roaming’ at night alone.

You continued to comb through his hair as he answered, “For real [Y/N], I'm fine. Leave. I don't need you to stay here— or.. or something.”

Your hand lowered to his upper back and started to rub circles, “Would you look at me and say that again, Kujo?” you asked in a slightly teasing tone, trying to light up the mood.

You started humming a soft melody, a melody that somehow always soothed Jotaro. The first time you hummed it was when you were cooking dinner for him and Seiko wasn't home. He got into a fight that day and he was abnormally quiet, not the usual, resulting to a tension between the two of you. You hummed the melody to ease the atmosphere, and when you were placing his plate on the table, he suddenly grabbed your wrist and muttered an apology before he told you to ‘keep doing’ what you were doing. The melody was just random, so you did your best to remember its tone and hum it whenever you both need comfort.

And this time, he was soothed again, but he isn't going to be swayed so easily even if he wants to.

“F*cking go away.” He huffs, “You're just like the annoying b*tch. Leave me alone.”

No, stay. He stated in his mind the complete opposite of what came out of his mouth. Of course you didn't leave and continued to hum and rub circles on his back. He may be one of the harshest men you've met, but you have a counter for that. Well.. you're stubborn.

He remembered what you said about heading home from.. somewhere. Where was that? “Where were you coming from?” He asked in a demanding tone.

“Doesn't matter where I was, Kujo. You're still not looking at me.” You retreated your hand from his back and crawled to sit in front of him in crossed legs before placing your hands on his large ones, “I wouldn't mind being like Seiko, although..” You squeezed the top of his hands, bowed your body and peeked at his face where your warm [E/C] eyes met his tired yet enchanting aquamarines. Your lips quirked into a small smile, “You wouldn't want your partner to be your second mother, would you?”

Partner?

Jotaro looked at you blankly, not realizing how close your faces were, “You're still worrying about me too much, I'm fine. I'm.. I'm just remembering..” You straightened and held his cheeks, gently pulling up his face before standing on your knees. You shifted your hand and cupped his face, delicately looking at him to encourage him to speak.

In that moment where he's putting his toughness down, you've completely set aside the issue from the past week. The thoughts that Jotaro might've had enough of you because he thinks you're oblivious to his personal issues— all gone. Holly's words echoed through your mind. Mother truly knows best.

“Egypt.. friends dyi—” Jotaro cut his words and sighed deeply, “..all of it is hitting hard. You won't understand.”

You bit your bottom lip and nodded. He's right, you would not be able to understand, but that's temporary. It'll take more time for him but you're willing to wait, “I.. dream of you..” He swallows the lump in his throat while you wipe the sweat forming on his temple, “I dream of you dying too.”

With that, you were able to catch on more of what happened before you came in his life. People close to him died. People who he probably traveled with.. might have died right before him.. or not. And now he's being haunted, probably by the guilt or by the experience itself. You're still skeptical, but it's considerably clear now.

Your eyes that looked at your hand which wiped his bead of sweat shifted to his eyes, and you saw fear. He was frightened, not only by the past, but also by the possibility that he might lose you too.

You retreated your hands and sat on your legs as you and Jotaro continued to communicate through your eyes. Your heart was thumping fast against your chest, now of sympathy.

“Jotaro, I..”

This time, you threw yourself at him. Arms snaking around his neck, your face buried on his shoulder. You wrapped him in a tight hug as it took him time to return the affection, wrapping his arms around your back and pulling you even closer as he closed his eyes and basked his head on yours. You and Jotaro savored the hug for a while, not thinking about anything else aside being in each other's arms.

“I'm here.. and I'm telling you that I'll be here to love you longer than that delinquent head of yours expected.”

You broke the hug gently, a hand shifting to cup his cheek while you also reached for the paper bag. Jotaro opened his eyes as he felt you fix his sitting position so you could sit —with crossed legs— on his thighs, laying your back on his chest.

“See this?” You lifted the paper bag with both hands, giving Jotaro the chance to once again wrap his arms around your waist. He doesn't mind giving in to your touch as of now.

Jotaro grunted, “Inside this lovely recycled and eco-friendly paper bag are things that.. uhm.. how do I introduce it..” You slowly placed your head on his shoulder, putting the bag down between your legs. You contemplated as you stared on the wooden ceiling, “I know! The things.. consider it as our promise to each other, Kujo. Am I clear? Yep, I'm clear!”

Jotaro clicked his tounge in annoyance as you lifted your head from his shoulder when he was about to rest his head against yours. Why can't he just cuddle you without you moving too much? Can't you and him just cuddle in peace?

You shifted again, now face to face with him. You acted surprise when you saw his furrowed brow, “Oh? Kujo is annoyed with the mighty [L/N]?”

“Just get it over with, woman.” Jotaro supported your back with an arm, watching you as you struggled to hold his free hand with one of yours. You had set aside the paper bag, the things in it now hidden in your other hand.

When you finally settled with wrapping your small hand around his palm so his fingers were loose, you smiled up at him and swiftly leaned in to kiss the tip of his nose. Jotaro turned away, snorting to at least lessen his flustered state. Where is his hat now that he practically needs it?

Jotaro felt a cold thing graze his skin, along with what seems to be two fingers pushing the thing on his. He glanced and saw you inserting a ring on his pinky with a serious face. You were glaring at his hand, your smile only returning when you successfully inserted the ring.

You let go of his hand and was about to wear the other ring yourself when he grabbed your wrist, snatched the ring and easily inserted the accessory on your pinky, all of it with only one hand as his other arm was still supporting you.

You were taken aback, ready to question him when he pulled you into a bridal position and locked your upper body with his arms within a second. You chuckled instead of saying a thing, wrapping your arms around his torso.

“Keen for a cuddle, huh, Kujo?”

“Good grief. You're one brave woman to challenge me.”

As you and Jotaro became ignorant to your surroundings, a flash of a camera resided from the slightly opened door, the sound being followed by a muffled kyaaah! which, with no doubt, came from the adorably giddy mother of the impatient man in your arms.

[End!]

[sprstories]

Scriptliss x Protagonist? (not the reader tho,, the character)

(Note: as you can see, this isn't a "x reader" thing, the protagonist and the reader (for me) are separate people, like the reader controlling protag, and in the ending he finally does his own choices, so please don't hate this). (2: i will stop putting the titles of every story oof).

The protagonist finally asks Scriptliss for a date, which he gladly accepts.

Protag threw everything out of his closet, trying to find something he liked. after all he would try to impress his bff n' crush.

He taked a deep breath, nervous and almost regretting everything. Cursed the moment he asked Scriptliss for a date.

He looked at himself in the mirror, and smiled. There was no going back, he wished with all his might not to fail as usual.

He took out his keys and opened the door, took one last look at his house and he filled himself with courage.

"I'm ready"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Protag looked up at the sky, sunny, radiant, beautiful, perfect for his date.

In a way, this moment reminded him of the first time he came to this place, sunny and radiant, as if nothing was happening, he met Aaron, the narrator (and who knows if he is narrating this now), He crossed on a boxdragon, and there for the first time he met..

— Protag, over there! —.

Scriptliss.

And then he saw him, meeting the demon, he looked beautiful, although the only difference was that he had a red pullover instead of his short shirt, and he also wore boots instead of leaving his feet bare with his pants, and speaking of pants, it was still the same.

But for him it would always be beautiful.

— Be careful of what you imagine, Protagonist. — something appeared behind him.

— Oh sh- Cogen! —.

Protag almost screamed, he didn't expect Cogen to be here.

— Sorry about Cogen, I had to bring him, or he will get into the personal lives of others. — Scriptliss grabbed Cogen, pulling him away from the gray boy. The floating diamond, still without a face, seemed somewhat insistent. — So.. where do we go, mister dating?

— O-oh, yeah. I was thinking of going for a walk, having a smoothie, watching the sunset... basic things. — protag laughed, nervously.

— hey, i like that last idea. Let's go. —.

the demon took the hand of the colorless one, causing him to finally have colors on his face, specifically red.

He felt like he was exploding inside, and Cogen probably reading his thoughts didn't help.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

— Don't worry Antagmom, i know how to take care of a child. —.

— No, you don't. — Scriptliss yelled, getting a bad look from dusekkar, then running away along with Protag.

— Why did you said that? — .

— Well, when i was a kid, Dusekkar took care of me for a while. Obviously everything went wrong, and now I have a scar on my back. —.

— I'm not going to ask what happened to you. —.

They both walked into an ice cream parlor, ready to order a milkshake rather than just ice cream.

— What flavors do you want, Protag? —.

— Difficult to choose. Maybe... just strawberry chocolate. —.

— Cool. Me too, please. — He smiled, confident of himself, but there was something that made Protag suspicious.

The worker just nodded, opening a refrigerator to get milk, and the chosen flavors.

Protagonist saw a poster out of the corner of his eye, apparently they also sold milkshakes with two straws. Scriptliss noticed that.

— Oh, hey, you want a milshake with two straws? Some Robloxians say that two people can drink the same shake, and that it is even bigger. Isn't that awesome? —.

— You didn't know? —.

Scriptliss stopped smiling, somewhat embarrassed.

— Well... being locked up for a long time makes me miss a lot of things. —.

The protagonist thought about it, and it was true. Scriptliss being locked up for so long he missed many things, all the experiences he lost... he will help him to regain everything.

— Well.. what if we... *gLUp* take the milkshake with two straws? — and then he got hit by Cogen. Absolute worthy.

— Really? thanks, thanks! — Protag now is blushing like a crazy, because Script just hugged him. — hey uh... sir? — Apparently he wanted to get the worker's attention, which worked. — We will take the milkshake with two straws.

For some reason, he was very happy about this. Although little did he know of the truth, that everything had been planned by Scriptliss.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After drinking the milkshake and the protagonist almost had a heart attack because he was so close to Scriptliss, sunset finally arrived, and both lovebirds were heading to the closest hill in the new part of the city, with a spectacular view. Cliche and romantic in its own way.

They both sat, gazing at the beautiful view, the sun gradually setting to show its bright stars and a beautiful moon will show.

Again, the protagonist looked to the side, this time focusing on Scriptliss's hand that was a few meters from his. It was so tempting to entwine both hands.

But he had to take the first step if he wanted to have something with the demon.

He closed his eyes, and let himself be carried away. He brought his fingers to Script's hand, feeling the touch of the other that made him feel like an entire zoo was in his stomach.

Then he felt how the other's hand acted on its own, grasping and entwining both hands.Then, very shyly, he looked at his partner, who was smiling at him in a sweet and pleasant way.

Quite a contrast to the Scriptliss he saw the first time. The therapy was effective.

— U-uh, OH, sorry, i- i didn't mean to.. —.

— no, no, it's okay. — he smiled, again. The protagonist swallowed hard, he could feel the words climbing up his throat to come out and confess in one go.

But it was now or never.

— Hey, Script. I have something to tell you ... — Protagonist murmured, lightly squeezing the demon's hand. — I... I.. —.

— He has a crush on you. — F*ck you, Cogen.

— HA!? — Boom, protagonist died (only inside).

— ... it's not a surprise. —.

— WAH!? —.

— what? — Scriptliss giggled. — you're pretty obvious. —.

— bu... but.. you know it all the time? —.

— It took a while, even if everyone insisted that you liked me, I refused to believe them. —.

— but.. why? —.

— I find it hard to believe that someone amazing likes me. — Scriptliss giggled, again, making the colorless one feel weird. — Besides that I thought that everyone wanted to play with my feelings. —.

— Did they want to make you think that someone finally loved you because you think nobody loves you? motherf-.

— no silly, what i'm trying to say is that... i like you too, protag! —.

Protag just stared at him, then he finally talks.

— li-like.. you love me? —.

— Yeah. — Scriptliss blushed, playing with his fingers and looking down. — Really ... you started to interest me after everything that happened, you were always there when I needed a hand, you were there when I was crying for Tess's message, you accompanied me in all my therapies, and I never thought I would find someone as good as you. Someone finally made me feel so... secure about myself for a long time. Protag i.. are you crying?

— yeah... nobody ever told me those things. — he sobbed. — you're so good, a-and pretty, and a really good friend, but i hate being friends because i want to be something more than friends with you. —.

Scriptliss now was the only staring, speechless.

— So.. — Scriptliss recovered, putting his arm under the arm of the protagonist. — Do you want to be more than friends? maybe.. a couple? —.

— ...yeah, i really want to be with you, forever. —.

They both joined their foreheads, because they were both terribly shy to give the first kiss. Still, they were happy, especially the protagonist, to finally be able to confess his feelings (although Cogen has done it before) really relieved him a lot. Now he couldn't regret anything.

Let the moonlight witness the new love that blooms in the hills.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

extra: After leaving the hill, holding hands, they go for a walk, the first walk as a couple. On the way they met Antagon, Dusekkar and Lanter. The latter basically took them for some reason. In the middle of the drag, they both reveal their new relationship to Lanter and he congratulates them, then leaves to tell everyone. Everything went well.

[emy-loves-you]

Wrong Numbers and Useless Gays Chapter 6

Who the F*ck’s Rebecca? OR How the 3 Gays got Together

Virgil learns about Roman’s childhood, specifically his sister and how he ended up dating Patton and Logan.

Warning: Misgendering of a character (but no one knows that the character is trans)

Yes, Roman and Remus are brothers. Explanations are listed at the bottom

Chapter 5 | Masterlist | Chapter 7

V- (2:07 PM) Let it Go was the best song in Frozen and you cannot convince me otherwise

R- (2:07 PM) I respect your opinion, but hear me out: Love is an Open Door

V- (2:08 PM) No

R- (2:08 PM) What about Fixer Upper?

V- (2:09 PM) Still no.

P- (2:09 PM) I really liked Olaf’s song about Summer!

L- (2:10 PM) I personally enjoyed the reprise of First Time in Forever.

R- (2:10 PM) You like almost any song with a reprise

L- (2:10 PM)I will not argue that, as successfully executed reprises are “lit.”

R- (2:11 PM) Ah, and who among us could forget the absolute BOP that is… that weird ice-cutting song.

P- (2:11 PM) I don’t know, Roman. I think that song is, pretty COOL

R- (2:11 PM) Oh, lookout

V- (2:12 PM) What? He’s just saying it’s a CHILLED out groove.

R- (2:12 PM) Ugh

L- (2:12 PM) We might need you two to leave this chat if you don’t stop.

Virgil laughed, throwing his phone on the bed and stripping out of his clothes. He just finished jogging home from Janus’ (he didn’t own a car right now, preferring to walk or have Janus pick him up). It was a lazy afternoon in late September, and all Virgil wanted to do was get out of these sweaty clothes and maybe take a nap. He heard his phone go off multiple times as he got dressed, probably Patton and Logan arguing about the purpose of puns. He flopped down onto his bed and grabbed his phone, checking the new messages.

P- (2:14 PM) Lo, the Princes are calling.

L- (2:14 PM) Tell Roman not to answer, Patton. We’ve been over this.

P- (2:14 PM) They’re asking about us, Lo.

L- (2:14 PM) Tell Roman to hang up. They’re not worth it.

P- (2:15 PM) They’re yelling now, L. They brought up Rebecca. What do I do?

L- (2:15 PM) Just walk into another room, Patton. Ignore them. Do you want me to call you?

P- (2:15 PM) No, I’m good. Just keep texting me. I need a distraction.

Now, Virgil had no idea about what the fuck was going on. But he knew how to distract someone. He’d just have to trust them to tell him later.

V- (2:16 PM) Did you know that octopi have 3 hearts?

L- (2:16 PM) What

P- (2:16 PM) That just means they have more love to give!

V- (2:17 PM) The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds

P- (2:17 PM) Such a good bird!

V- (2:17 PM) Babies do not regularly produce tears until they are 1-3 months old

L- (2:18 PM) Ah, I think I understand now

V- (2:18 PM) A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time. It stands for 1/1000th of a second

L- (2:18 PM) Falsehood. A jiffy is 1/100th of a second

V- (2:19 PM) Sorry, my hand must’ve slipped.

L- (2:19 PM) You would be unable to walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they have no solid surface.

L- (2:20 PM) An asteroid about the size of a car enters Earth’s atmosphere roughly once a year. However, it burns up before it can reach us.

L- (2:20 PM) The highest mountain known to man is on an asteroid called Vesta. It is approximately three times the height of Mount Everest.

P- (2:21 PM) I think they hung up. Thanks for keeping me company, Kiddos!

L- (2:21 PM) It was not an issue, Patton.

V- (2:21 PM) Yeah, no problem Pat. Now can someone explain what just happened?

L- (2:23 PM) As you can probably tell, I am not home at the moment. Apparently, Roman’s parents decided to call him and an argument broke out. The rest is not my place to say.

Virgil bit his lip, refusing to look at his phone screen. Did Virgil have the right to ask about that. It was obviously a very sensitive topic, and Virgil had only known Roman for about 3 months now. Virgil felt like he knew a lot about his 3 crushes (their quirks, their favorite sweets, their goals in life), but he knew very little about their lives before Virgil had met them. Which was fine; they knew very little about Virgil’s life, too. But he desperately wanted to help Roman; to make him feel happy and safe and loved. Virgil sighed, setting his phone on his nightstand. If Princey wants to tell me what’s going on, I’ll listen. If not, I’ll just have to deal with it.

Virgil woke up from his nap to the sound of his phone going off. He blindly felt around for it, his face still firmly planted in his pillow. He finally found it, turning it on before he lifted his head to read the text. It was a private message from Princey.

R- (3:02 PM) You’re probably wondering what happened today.

V- (3:02 PM) I am, but you don’t have to tell me if you’re not comfortable. I’ll respect your privacy.

R- (3:02 PM) As much as I appreciate that, you still deserve to know.

R- (3:03 PM) Do you mind if I call you? This doesn’t feel like a conversation to have over text.

Virgil thought about it for a moment. He originally never wanted to call Roman, simply because he might recognize Virgil’s voice as Anxiety’s. However, not only was Virgil 99% confident that Roman had never even heard of The Dark Sides, Virgil’s head was still foggy after his nap. Before he knew it, he was already calling Princey’s phone.

“Virgil?” Roman didn’t sound as… grand as Virgil expected. His voice was subdued and slightly hoarse, probably from the screaming match with his parents.

“Heya, Princey.” Virgil cringed at how gravelly his voice sounded. He’ll need to get some water after this conversation is over.

“You sound so tired. Oh my stars, did I wake you up? I’m so sorry. I’ll let you get back to sleep-”

“Princey, it’s okay. Just finished my nap. Might not talk much, but ‘m all ears.”

“Alright. Where do I even begin?”

“Take your time. ‘m not pressurin’ you or anythin’.”

“(sigh) You’re right. I guess I should start at the beginning. I grew up in a very... conservative household. My parents expected me and my sister, Rebecca, to be perfect. ReeRee was my partner in crime. We did everything together up until highschool. My parents expected me to get a football scholarship and date the hottest girl in school. I did those things, not because I wanted to, but because they wanted me to. ReeRee was a different story. When my parents signed her up for cheerleading, she tried to join the football team instead. When they told her she should wear her hair in a ponytail, she cut it off to match mine. I didn’t understand, and it made me angry. It was like looking in a funhouse mirror; she was starting to look more and more like me, and yet each change made my parents angrier. Why was looking and acting like me a problem? I thought they liked this version of me! One night in the summer before junior year I was really frustrated and I took it out on her. I told her to stop acting like me. I knew she didn’t deserve my anger, so I went to Patton’s place to cool down. By the time I came home, my parents refused to acknowledge that I even had a sister. I pushed her away, and now I’ll never get her back.

After that, things changed. I was so angry, and everything I saw reminded me of her. I quit the football team, because every time I went down to the field I expected to see her. I dyed my hair, because every time I looked in the mirror I saw her staring back. I stopped caring about what my parents thought, ‘cause it was their opinions that dragged me into this mess!

I had already been friends with Patton since Freshman year, but me and Logan had been at each other’s throats . We were always bickering about something, and sometimes I used our arguments to vent out my anger at whatever was wrong at the time. I didn’t even realize how much I had cared about Patton and Logan until I learned about the LGBTQ+ community. My parents were super strict, and Patton and Logan didn’t exactly flaunt their relationship. I had no idea that liking guys was even an option . Once I learned about it, my parents quickly tried to shut it down. Everyday, they’d start their day telling me that ‘homosexuality is a sin’ and ‘God made you to be the gender you were born with!’ If they had told me that before ReeRee left, I might’ve believed them. But by this point, I didn’t care about a single thing they told me.

So one day, I’m arguing with Logan about who knows what, and suddenly we’re inches apart, and I remember pa saying ‘ a boy should never kiss another boy.’ And just think, ‘Fuck it.’ And now me and Pocket Protector are suddenly making out behind the school building. Microsoft Nerd asks why the hell I decided to make out with him of all people, and I break down right there. He agreed to keep it a secret, but he refused to do anything more than a simple make-out session until he had Padre’s consent to do so. Which I understood, consent is important, cheating is bad.

Now we’re having these ‘sessions’ at least once a week for almost 4 months. Patton eventually walked in on us and he was understandably upset. I explained what had happened and that I’ve had a crush on both of them for a while. And they’re like ‘cool, we’re polyam.’ And now I’m starting senior year dating two men, which mom and pa were not okay with. I told ‘em to fuck off and we moved away as soon as we graduated. They still call occasionally, asking when I’m gonna get my life together and get over losing ReeRee. I haven’t blocked ‘em yet in case they find her or change their minds.”

Roman finally took a deep breath. “Sorry about the rant. Didn’t realise how badly I needed to get that off my chest.”

Virgil snorted. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Told ya I’d be a good ear. And Princey?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t gotta do anything to impress someone else. You bein’ you is good enough. And if Rebecca could see you, I’m sure she’d be proud as hell. And don’t be ‘fraid to hit me up if you need someone other than your SOs to rant to; I’ll always be here for ya, Princey.”

“... Thank you, Virgil. I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear that until you said it.” He sighed, and Virgil could hear the sound of running water. “I’m gonna go drink some water. My throat burns like a bitch right now.”

“Same. Catch you later?”

He could hear Roman chuckle to himself. “I guess you shall. Farewell, Storm Cloud. And pleasant dreams!”

Virgil blushed. The way Roman said his nickname… it made Virgil’s gay heart nearly explode. He quickly hung up and buried his face back into his pillow. I’ll get water later. AFTER my heart stops racing.

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Now, for those of you wondering about why Virgil doesn't realize that Roman and Remus are brothers, I'm gonna put a quick explanation here, 'cause I don't know how to casually fit this into the story. 1.) Remus has never told Virgil his deadname or his last name. He's probably told Janus (since their pretty close) but Virgil doesn't know. 2.) Remus has never told Virgil that his brother's name is Roman. Additionally, when Virgil is talking about the 3 gays, he only calls them "Pat, Lo and Princey." 3.) Roman's parents didn't tell him that Remus transitioned, so he doesn't know that Rebecca now goes by Remus. Also, none of the characters have actually sent pictures of their faces, so none of them have any idea what the other looks like. 4.) It is a total coincidence that both twins moved to the same town. Remus believes that Roman still lives in their hometown, and Remus could be dead for all that Roman knows. There is no logical reason for them to think "maybe Virgil's friends with my long-lost sibling" 5.) Virgil would NEVER out his friends like that. He tells Janus and Remus everything, but he would NEVER betray Roman's trust like that. Same thing for telling Roman about Remus. Roman might know that Remus is trans, but he doesn't know about Remus' background. ONE LAST THING: Roman and Virgil will eventually see each other face-to-face but WON'T recognize each other's voices. This is because during the phone call Virgil is still groggy from waking up and Roman is still hoarse from screaming.

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Taglist: @bisexualdisaster106 @self-taught-mess @itawalrus @arodynamic-enby @sanderssides-angst

[sapphire-knight]

Wuuuuuuu, hi guys, part 2's here

((Read part 1 here))

- here we are again, ready for the continue?

- I'm asking because I'm not- but someone has to write this.

- ok, so. Let's get back to the dark side' living room, where the situation is not... the best

- after Roman left there was a moment of silence. Cold, suffocating, deathly silence.

- no one dared to say anything. No one knew what to say. What happened?

- even the air seemed to freeze

- none of them was actually sure how to process all of that, but everyone knew that this was a trouble.

- but let's get into details of what they're feeling, shall we?

- Patton was silently crying. He didn't even understood when he started to cry, but the tears were rolling down his cheecks, while the guilt entered his mind. How the damn did he missed the sign? How did he not understand sooner how Roman was feeling? Why didn't he try to be more constructive with his criticism? He's the heart, he's the core of the feeling, he should have realized that the prince was hurting, he should have noticed his fake smiles after a rough critic, he should have helped! Why didn't he pay attention? He could have done more... and now he regrets every single sugar-coated bad thing he said... he really didn't meant to, he thought that this was the best way to tell his concerns about Roman's idea, he thought that he was helping the creative side. But the problem is that he didn't thought it the right way, he failed.

- Virgil wasn't feeling any better, obviously. He was shaking, covering his mouth with us hands, irregular breathing and still looking at the point where the prince sunk down. What did he do, what did he do, WHAT DID HE DO? He too was feeling extremely guilty, for everything. Some people would say that Virgil had all the rights to say those harsh, burning, heavy and costant critics to the romantic side, because of how Roman himself treated Virgil in the past, but the point is... the prince did everything he could to show how sorry he was, how bad he felt for treating the anxious side like that, for antagonizing him... and how did Virgil thanked him? With his bitter and acid criticism? Virgil was disgusted by himself. He wanted to be accepted so much, to not have to be the bad guy, to being loved by the light sides, and what did he do with the love of one of them? Crushed it like a piece of paper, without regards, without pity. He felt like a monster. Roman only hoped to be forgiven and Virgil hurted him. How could he forgive himself? He couldn't.

- Logan was, surprisingly, the one who felt more guilty for everything. Se seemed to have... shut down. Vacant expression, perfectly still, really light breath; it was almost like if he just dissociated from the whole situation, in order to not let his feelings crush his heart in tiny pieces. What was the worst part, you might be asking? Well. The absolute worst part for the logical side was that he KNEW it. He KNEW that Roman was faking his smile, he noticed how the tense the prince was everytime they started to pointing out the flaws in his ideas. He KNEW how Roman's pride was nothing more than an elaborate facade. He knew that because he saw Roman having a breakdown time ago but, even that time, he didn't act. He didn't do anything. He didn't know what to do, he doesn't understand how emotions work, he though that he would only make things worse if he tried to say something. He thought that Patton or Virgil, who knew more on the matter of feeling, would have helped the prince. But it didn't happen. Probably they didn't saw anything, the most logical ending of that situation was that Roman forced himself to calm down before anyone could see him, and just acted like nothing happened. Maybe... if only that day he TRIED to help the prince, maybe now they will not be in this situation. Why didn't he try? Why did he left? How could he be so... so heartless...?

- if the three light sides are full of guilt, the two dark sides are THIS CLOSE to explode from the rage.

- if Remus didn't already start to hit the three with all his forces was only because of the shock. He didn't expect it... well, no one did, but he surely didn't thought that his twin would just... left. When he saw his brother standing up he thought that Ro was FINALLY gonna snap for everything that was said to him, but... he didn't... he... he said he was sorry. Sorry for not being good enough. WHAT KIND OF BULLS*IT WAS THAT? WHO MADE HIM THOUGHT SOMETHING LIKE THAT? WHO MADE HIS TWIN DOUBT ABOUT HIS VALUE? WHO. MADE. HIM. HATE. HIMSELF. THAT. MUCH? He was gonna kill them, he was gonna soffocate them with their own complaining, with all the things they said, WITH A THEIR DAMNED CRITICISM. Who the HELL they think that they are to talk sh*t about his brother's WONDERFUL ideas? Oooooh, he was gonna make them pay for EVERYTHING. He didn't care for the fact of being called "dark side", who the hell cared for a random etiquette without actual meaning? It meant that they saw him as a monster? Well, that monster was gonna vent all his fury on them.

- Deciet's reaction wasn't nearly as furious as Remu's one. Or, at least, in the first monent. Because, in the first moment, he only felt lost. He thought to completely understand how the prince felt about the criticism, he thought that he knew Roman's rage, he thought that he was gonna fight back all the bad words he listened in his life, but it wasn't like that. Roman wasn't angry, he didn't want to make the three light sides pay for their words, he didn't want to make them feel awful for what happened. When he said that he was sorry, his words emotions were... genuine... he was truly sorry. You hear how wrong does this sound? Yeah, Deciet hears it too. Why was Roman acting like this? Why did he felt so wrong? What happened to him...? He was not thinking logically anymore, his mind went almost blank and the rage took control of him.

- ((everybody, go grab some popcorn or sone tissues, this is gonna be fun))

- the strange shocked freeze finished and, oh boy, everything explodes

- before anybody even tried to speak, Remus was already ready to hit the light sides with all of his fury, fidgeting nervously with the morning star in his hand, barely containing his rage, waiting to make sure that Deciet doesn't want to stop him this time and, to be fully honest, Deciet would have loved to see Remus smashing ia morning star on the three light sides heads. But, thank god, he still had sone common sense, despite the rage.

- he tries to say to Remus to put the morning star down, but it felt like all the fury locked his throat, he couldn't bring himself to speak, everything hurted. So, he just told the duke to not hit anyone with a sign.

- Patton's cry wasn't silent anymore, even if he tried, and failed, to suffocate all of the sighs and the hiccups with his hands.

- they wanted to talk, to understand, even to scream, but it felt like the situation wasn't even real. It seemed to... strange, or was it just that their brain refused to accept what just happened?

- the second option was the more realistic one

- no one of them seemed able to accept this situation

- for both of the parts this felt just so... wrong. It was all just wrong. How did they ended up in this situation? When did the three light sides' criticism became that harsh? When did they started to hurt? .... When did Roman started to fall apart...?

- that hellish and tense silence was broken by the duke (if he couldn't hit with his morning star he could try to use words-) "What. Have. You. Done?" He was trying to contain his fury, it was impossibile to not notice.

- "what have we done...?" Virgil replied, snapping out of his paranoic spiral of thoughts

- "What the HELL have you said to my brother to make him feel that bad?" Remus asked again, with a serious tone that made everything only sound more and more wrong

- "I- I don't know- I didn't want to- I'm so- so sorry" Patton voice was that shaky and light that it was difficoult to understand what he was saying

- "HOW THE F*CK IS THAT POSSIBLE THAT YOU DON'T KNOW? YOU'RE THE ONES TO BLAME FOR THIS, WHAT THE HELL DOES "I DON'T KNOW" MEAN? YOU DID THIS." the duke knew that he couldn't keep a fake calm for long

- both Virgil and Patton istintivly took a step back, and that made Remus only more angry.

- before a disaster could happen, Logan spoke up "Patton isn't lying... we really don't know how this happened. We, or at the very least, I don't remember how we ended up like this. It wasn't our goal to make Roman's insecurities get the best of him, I swear". It was almost shocking hearing the sentiment in Logan's voice, he sounded just like if he was going to break in tears, and even if his expression didn't show all those emotions, his eyes betrayed all of his sadness, all the guilt, all the desire to say how sorry he is without knowing how to do it.

- Emotions already are a maze for people who didn't try to block all of them, pretend to not feel anything; for Logan they were an impossible mess, they were strange... he thought that they didn't make sense for a long time but now, now that the grief is torturing him inside, he understood that they made sense, but not always in the way that someone hoped...

- (last time I made Roman suffer? This time looks like I'm making the rest of them suffer- mostly Logan for some reasons-)

- Deciet didn't want to believe him, it was the hard way, it was more easy to just think that the light sides didn't care about Roman, it was easier to have someone to blame for all that happened.

- because being sure of who to blame means that you don't have to ask yourself what is really causing all of this, you don't have to doubt everything you thought you knew about the situation... and you don't have to take in consideration the worst case scenarios.

- but, surprise surprise, Dee and Remus knew that the light sides' guilt was real, they weren't acting.

- "what do you wanted to do then? Why did you said those things?" Thd liar side asked when he finally felt like speaking.

- "only to help" Patton answered, calming down a little bit "we thought that telling Roman what was wrong was the best way to help him make something perfect, like he always wants to". The emotional side took a deep, before continuing "if only I knew what our criticism did I would have stopped immediatly, I would have tried to be more- more helpful, more constructive... I would literally prefer to die if that meant that my friends will be happy." Did Patton really thought every word that he said? Yes. He did. With all of his heart. And everyone agreed with him.

- the only thing is... yeah, now they have clear that no one wanted to do something bad and they're all worried for Roman... but what was the prince doing?

PART 2 IS FINISHED, I'M PROUD OF MYSELF (and I have to start working on part 3, if I don't get lazy it's gonna be easy)

Well, part 2 ended and I still don't have a title, that's professional

Taglist: @jajathelivingmeme @purp-man @sanders-sketches @knightinsoftpastels @absolutesandersidestrash @croftersgamer @ragingdumpsterfiremess @twilight-glow @draw-your-perfect-world @roses-bubbles @hayden-going-insane

Part 3 is outttttt! Read it here

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card chapter 39 - review

AT LONG LAST!

Real life really takes the will to do lengthy things away from me, even if it’s for fun.

But I love Cardcaptor Sakura so much, so I take this almost as a “duty” to pay respect to this wonderful series. I love when things are done properly and not left “hanging”, so here we go, even if a bit delayed compared to usual: (long)THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER 39 under the cut!!

I’d like to start with a small consideration before going with plot-centric rants: I have noticed the post with this chapter obtained a lot less notes than usual, but it’s a trend that has been going on for a while. I’m not really sure what could be the cause, it can range from Tumblr shadowbanning posts from the tag search if they include a link (so the posts are not visible that much anymore, despite my efforts to make a second text post), to people preferring other sources to get their chapters (and that’s fine), to the fandom moving altogether to other sites and communities, or....to the fandom’s interest slowly fading away. Since it seems we’re almost going towards the climax, I’m not sure how to react to the latter option. I think this is supposed to be the moment in which the fandom’s interest is the more active, but I could be wrong. Anyway, if that’s the case, then I guess it’s really time for CLAMP to wrap it up.

Without further ado, let’s analyze this chapter!

The color page was L O V E L Y. Oh my gosh Sakura-chan, look how grown up you appear here. More beautiful than ever. She’s even re-using a sweater from another color illustration, lol. It’s perfectly fitting with the autumn season and I loved it!

Let’s bother her a little more

Starting off from where we left in ch. 38, Sakura is blown away and Syaoran tries to have The Shadow look for her once again, but....”fooled once, not fooled twice” thinks Kaito, isn’t it? Kaito wants Sakura to do stuff on her own, so he literally “throws” her into a dark tree hole, where her shadow can’t be traced, because well....there’s none. He isn’t looking particularly amused while he does this, well, what I mean is that it’s not like he’s having sadistic fun, causing her troubles. His face is kinda apologetic when he's all “here comes the knight but thanks, no thanks”, as if he understands that Syaoran wants to save her, but he cannot really do otherwise. Sakura needs to do this alone, in order to produce a fitting card. Would you care to tell us readers what this damned card is, Kaito?

The first conversation

Kaito is in the mood for some memories. Memories of the first time he spoke with Akiho. I found it interesting that he used the verb “having a conversation with” rather than “meeting”, and the reason is also pretty easy to guess: for him, it wasn’t the first time. He saw her (although from afar) when he analyzed her through that ball, to determine whether she had magical powers or not.  And their first conversation didn’t start in the best of ways: Akiho’s first reaction is to run away. But what can you expect from a little girl who was used to be considered a bother and only basing on her magical capabilities, and not as a human being. So when Kaito asks her if he bothered her, her confusion is plain visible on her face: Is he talking to me? Me, who is usually the bothering one here?

And so she’s surprised big time when he actually shows to be interested to know which book she was reading. NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE ever did that for her. Remember what environment she grew up in. He is the first and only one wanting to even have a conversation with her (her family only made “questions”). By the way, thanks to Impatient Scans, we actually aknowledge Akiho here might be reading “Momo”, by German writer Michael Ende. That opens a whole new box of questions, starting from “IS THIS where Momo takes her name from? Who gave it to her? What is her real name? Could the story actually be giving plot hints?”

All in all, let me just say I loved this flashback. I always love when there’s a Kaito or Akiho flashback, because I’m so hungry for their background story. I know the story has to sacrifice a bit of the other characters in order to show more of them, because 30 pages are just 30 pages, after all. But it’s ok, that’s also the reason why I’m glad I warmed up to both of these 2, because every month I have more things to look forward to, and I generally am never disappointed with a chapter’s content.

There’s no turning back

As if on cue, Momo starts an inner monologue on Kaito and Akiho, and how much he changed for her.

He really didn’t care about anything, before. He couldn’t be bothered to do anything. He was a very apathetic boy, some fans have theorized he could be on the brink of depression himself without even realizing it (again, consider what a shitty environment he grew up in, a den of delinquents).

And yet.

Among all those criminals, he raised his hand. His voice loud and clear, “I’ll go”. He, the boy who found everything a bother, decided something for himself for the first time ever, and to assist someone else, no less. Momo wonders, to herself, what changed inside of you? Cause something must have changed.

This was another part I really really loved. All the memories of their travels together. You can see the different countries they’ve been to, and their body language, that implies there was still some kind of “distance” between them. Akiho seems still kinda “wary” of Kaito in these shots (and with a reason, who would trust anyone if they were raised up like she did?). But we can see them being more relaxed and at ease the more they spend time together, and it’s on this time spent together that Momo puts the focus on. It’s where Kaito should ideally start to find the answer to the big, complex question.

What made you do this?

Momo muses over how Kaito learned to do all sorts of things in order to please Akiho and to make her live in a healthy environment (remember Akiho saying that Kaito makes by hand all her meals?), finally not neglected but at the center of someone’s attentions. She makes a random example on the tea. Why someone who didn’t give sh*t about how tea tasted, went all the way down to learn how to make it in a delicious way? I love how CLAMP cleverly used the word 術 with the furigana “sube”, which means “how to do something”, but with the same kanji and the reading “jutsu” it also means “spell”. This probably to imply that some magic might have been included in this learning process, err. XD

I also loved how Momo thinks that Kaito needs to look at the truth straight in the eyes, without turning away. Could he be scared to admit the truth? Loving someone (and hear me again, love of any kind, not romantic love exclusively) comes with a little fear. For someone who never experienced it, all the more. It’s a totalizing feeling that might destabilize you.  If he doesn’t wake up to this, it’s gonna be too late. That’s literally what Momo says.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE SHOCKER OF THIS MONTH! Momo and Akiho’s mom knew eachother, and Momo even received her ring and the task to look over her daughter, and Sakura as well. “My Alice, and that girl’s Alice”. I mean, I knew Akiho’s mom was going to be important, but dammit she really looks like she’s been the one moving some plot threads since long time!!! I love this.

The nightmare

And here comes the part where I start screaming “WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING HERE”. Sakura finds herself in a strange land with big flowers (she’s still tiny, let’s remember that), flowers that can actually speak. At her surprised face, the flowers reply “You wished for this, didn’t you?”.

EH?

And then we get to this creepy scene of Akiho appearing out of nowhere, with her experiment outfit, calling Sakura in a dead tone. I was seriously freaking out at the panel composition. Made entirely to evoke creepiness. Apparently, we’re in Alice’s story. Yes. BUT WHICH ALICE?

The strange reality turns into a nightmare. Literally.

Everything turns dark, Sakura is having another one of her dreams. The “shaaan” and the clocks are a sign of it. MCF appears behind Akiho, who this time is in the same position she was when she was turned into a magical artifact by her clan. Sakura’s face twists in horror even before MCF opens his robe, because she knows who’s under it. The last time she saw MCF in a dream was also the last time she saw who was under it. Her heart and mind scarred irreparably forever. And there he is. Syaoran, dead in his eyes. Sakura’s shrieks “NO!!” in horror, she completely refuses to believe this is a real thing. Now, I don’t really know what’s happening here, because after this, everything breaks and she captures GUESS WHAT, the “Break” card. So it’s hard to determine if it was a real dream or only an illusion. Maybe Kaito made her go into her subconscious to find bits and pieces of what she experienced before, in order to shake her enough to produce the right card. Because, if all of this is coming from her, then it means a part of her brain does remember despite the time rewindings of Kaito. And it’s very important. She saw Akiho’s past when she was trapped inside Akiho’s book, but all of that was erased when Kaito rewound time. Well, not from her heart, however, because she hugged Akiho tightly while crying. So now what do we have here? A part of what she’s not supposed to remember. I think this vision is a twisted mix of horrifying things she saw previously, and indeed her natural reaction is to destroy in pieces what she’s seeing. Quite literally, since the two kanji for “Break” actually mean “Destruction”. Is this the card Kaito was looking for? I’m not sure. Because he said that “Rewind” went quite close to it, and I can’t make out any relation between “Break” and “Rewind”. I still have the impression the card he might want her to make has got more to do with “restoring” things to how they were before. So, if it’s instead Kaito the one who made her see those things, he might have wanted her to wish to bring everything as it was before. HE needed a strong reaction from her. But she made “Break” instead. Will it be ok for him so we can move on to the climax?

I have to admit I kinda loved the more creepy and nightmare-ish atmosphere of the last 10 pages. Sakura evidently has got something big going on, and it’s time she talks to Syaoran about this. It’s time she tells him fair and square what’s she’s seeing more and more often. It’s about him too, at this point. She can’t keep this a secret anymore, not when it’s eating her sanity and peace of mind away.

Next chapter is going to be published in the February issue, in stores on the last days of December if everything goes as usual (for New Year’s they always anticipate the release of that issue). So we have another unexpected break as I already said, and I kinda figured it when I saw CLAMP going on a trip 20 days ago. It’s ok, we can do this! If we’re approaching the climax, it make sense that they take vacation now, so afterwards they can work fully straight into the finale.

Thanks for reading this long rant, and I wait for your comments!

[deveharrington]

[8 new theories] + Response to anon: On the way David uses his words, his masks, and his social intuition (or lack thereof).

📬

Anonymous: 

I wanted to say thanks for the interesting read and also wow, it’s really amazing how different our perception can be. I never got the ’laid-back’ vibe from DD. Or rather, I get that he tries to project it, but always thought it‘s a mask and in reality he’s just as insecure and high-strung as GA, only hides it better. And I never believed he doesn’t care for his image. I think it hurts him badly that it’s forever tainted. Remember his words that he doesn’t expect his kids to be proud of him?

Hi anon, thank you so much for this message. I need conflicting perspectives like these brought to my attention, otherwise, as you can see, its very easy for me to get into a thinking groove.

I still stand by my claims, but I am willing to change them anytime in light of new info. Opposing opinions like this help connect the pieces in the end and put everything in perspective. It is invaluable to me, so thank you :)

Your ask brings up a lot of great points, so many that I put my response under a cut due to the length. But, before the cut:

Here is a table of contents to summarize, and if anyone is interested in these topics: 

The “short” version of my response to your ask.

The way David uses his words

David places more value on words than actions, and thinks the two are interchangeable. 

David and the excuse, “why bother?”?

David and using excess and indulgence to lose himself. 

David lacks the intuition to read others. He cannot see people for what they are, and maybe he doesn’t want to. (Could be related to him always wearing a mask). 

David and Gillian’s insecurities as both a compatibility AND incompatibility between them. 

On Gillovny (yep, I can somehow relate everything to Gillovny): David and Gillian both have an insatiable greed for this relationship, but they cannot act out of their own fear and insecurities. 

My current theory on why Gillovny is blocked right now (nothing to do with Monique).

*** And to Monique (Hi!), please deliver this message to David: 

(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh David, your refusal to grow up essentially puts you in the Majora’s Mask universe. Haven’t you noticed that you’re constantly repeating the same mistakes over and over and over....? It doesn’t help that you seem to have a mask and excuse for EVERYTHING. I’m sorry about your terrible fate. But you’ve brought it upon yourself.)

(1) 💣 The “short” version of my response to your ask:

I agree with you that the laid-backness is a guise. And I could understand him using a guise if he were performing any progressive action in his career to warrant a guise, but he is not. Maybe the difference between us here is what we’re seeing beneath the guise, but I also believe that his guise has changed, even if its just a subtle change.

I said in my first thesis he has a drive to excel, is competitive, and wants to be seen. I still believe these things. But now, in his current phase, the guise isn’t even laid-back, its “I don’t give a f*ck”. To me, this is a red flag. 

** Its like he knows his career is nothing but he doesn’t want anyone else to tell him about it (his ego makes him want to be the source of all knowledge). So he’s just in “f*ck you” mode at any kind of input coming his way. 

** ACTUALLY maybe this is why it seems like he is ignoring so many issues in his life right now? It might be connected to his natural drive to succeed not being satisfied by his “career”. 

The biggest problematic piece of evidence, for me is reports of him being rude to fans in person, outright ignoring them/not engaging with them online, denying them what they’ve paid for, etc. Why bite the hand that feeds you, while at the same time announcing all the projects you have lined up for the future? It is an aggressive way to treat fans, but David gets by with using the “innocent exploring artist” MASK.

Another piece of evidence: I still see the situation as him doing nothing but I am looking to be proven wrong in the very near future. I haven't listened to his recent podcast about his future projects. I just can’t stand him nowadays, lmfao. 

Also, I created all the ideas of this response before the sofaology nonsense came out lmao! If it turns out that this is the “secret project” he’s been hyping then... LMAO!

For now, my conclusion of the situation is that David is applying some “all or nothing” thinking to his situation, and its throwing his decision making out of control. Like he’s looking at the ends only, not the means. He keeps having projects shut down, but can’t learn that he needs to start somewhere and build his skills and reputation, not just cry out advertisements for himself with no guarantee of fulfilling his many promises. 

I want to agree with you that he (still) cares about his image but... if he did, then what the hell kind of messages is he trying to send right now? And, could it be that he really is just NOT self aware AT ALL? That he might lack the intuition to read others, so he has developed a weird idea of how to interact socially. I say this because he expresses himself so weirdly. Also, maybe he assumes others wear a mask because he wears so many masks himself. So, he doesn’t place value on the way he comes across, only on the words he says?

I mean, and sorry, but let’s illustrate it with his disgusting “relationship”: what the fuck kind of messages is he sending to his kids? to his wife? About love, companionship, partnership, and family (example: “sorry, family, I don’t have time for you because I only have time for - I won’t say it.)? 

BUT it could be that he doesn’t mean to send these kinds of messages? I don’t want to think that he would try to put that image out there on purpose. 

So, what if he really is not aware of himself?? Like, is he THAT selfish that he only thinks about himself and NEVER others? Never even the way they see him? LMao?? Probably not, it might just boil down to a lack of social intuition (hence the “conquering” attitude with women)? That doesn’t make total sense but it does for me?? for now, I guess? I don’t know, lmao. 

(2) 💣 [THEORY 45] The way David uses his words.

I”ll just say this before going forward in hopes that it will show where my perspective is coming from. And this is just what I see:

When david uses words to express himself he mixes his honest sentiments with one or a combo of the following:

- Self-deprecating humour - to give an illusion of humility

- Edginess - to give an illusion of honesty, or some noble quest of “fighting the system” and to get you on his side. 

- Sensationalism/shock value - to get your attention and maybe distract you from the fact that what he is actually saying is either a) completely unfair to opposing views b) not founded upon evidence, but personal bias or c) just complete nothingness. 

- Overly convoluted/deliberately unknowable references - to a) again, distract you from the fact that what he’s saying is complete nothingness, or b) maybe to demonstrate his literary “prowess” and at the same time prevent you from researching the source of his statements.

- Imposing himself/dominating the conversation/making everything about him - a) to fool you into thinking that what he’s saying is correct and/or b) to make himself seem more interesting

*** I think he uses all these tactics because he is really scared that people will get bored of him...

*** BECAUSE he constantly needs people’s attention on him!!!!! He can’t risk people.... NOT paying attention to him!!!!!!

(And to my anon who once sent me some info talking about how David needed one of his girlfriends to constantly remind him that she loved him...thank you! and I didn’t forget about you! I’ll answer your ask... one day!!)

So, here is David blowing his own mind with his incomprehensible strings of alphabet letters because he is both a player AND easily played: 

You’re right, its all an illusion, a mask. But to what end? I think both David and Gillian are just like that, they constantly want the position of power. Humility is out of the question, but this contributes to their insecurity because humility is a socially valued trait. Maybe they are just not comfortable fully expressing who they are. I see this more for David than Gillian. You said, “David hides it better”, so absolutely this is the case, but I’m just asking, why does he feel the need to hide? 

But I can at least respect Gillian because i’ve never seen her really try to project “humble and relatable”. Actually, part of the reason why I love her so much is because she seems open about her insecurities. 

David plays his fans with the “innocent guy” mask and people fall for it. The players and the played just attract each other, I guess.

(3) 💣 [THEORY 46] David places more value on words than actions, and thinks the two are interchangeable. 

To your point about David and Gillian both being equally insecure and using a guise, absolutely. The only thing that makes me hesitate to end the conversation there is the massive difference in their careers. (Will elaborate later). 

For now, I will focus on a theory on how David is rationalizing his guise. You mentioned what he said, that “his kids would not be proud”, but, David, does this mean that you should do nothing to try to make your kids proud? 

Or, he might see his  reputation as “forever tainted”, but, David, does this mean that you should do nothing to try to improve your reputation?

I swear there is a quote of his (which I can’t find anymore, maybe I just made it up? lmao) where he said something along the lines of, “the problems men have are problems they’ve had since the beginning of time”. 

Now, David, come on. Is he saying that we should not even bother to correct ourselves with our actions? We should not try to improve, progress, or contribute to society through innovation? Imagine if women said, “women have always had the position of inequality, so we should not even bother to fight?”. 

To me, these statements of his are just red flags: examples of “all or nothing” thinking. 

Please consider it with what I said about the way David uses his words. 

My theory is that he feels that that as long as he can admit the truth of the situation, then this somehow excuses his actions. Like, his words are so powerful they can be used in the place of corrective action. 

And when he “admits a truth”, he sways the tide with his words to get people on his side. He uses self deprecation to convince you he is self aware. He uses edginess to convince you he is a badass. He uses humour to just make you happy and agreeable. He dominates the conversation to make you feel that he was the one with all the answers/arguments, or perhaps recreate a teacher/student dynamic.

I think he just sees too much power in words, and not just words, but ONLY HIS words. And of course this is not helped by his identity being tied to his education, and also not helped by the fact that he has been able to get his way through excuses. 

So, he just manipulates things to allow him to do whatever he wants in the future. Actually, there is a problem in this in that it can then be hard for people to know what exactly he wants (he has fooled them with his words) and therefore they cannot help him get exactly what he wants. Maybe that is why he is not progressing? Because he is trying to do everything on his own? David, you need to listen to others because you can’t even see yourself. LMFAO. 

This leads to the next two theories:

(4) 💣 [THEORY 47] David and the excuse, “why bother?”. 

It seems like his bread and butter. I’m sorry but I see him as carrying around a lot of judgments that maybe he feels are useful for directing his efforts and constructing his image, but in reality are just limiting him. 

And I think goes hand in hand with:

(5) 💣 [THEORY 48] David and using excess and indulgence to lose himself. 

This is just my perspective. I see that, with David, If something ends up working for him, he will exploit it to the ends of the earth. 

For him, it is not about progress but lateral movement. More and then less, give and then take.

AND he is able to detach himself from his feelings (example: lack of passion) because he is so good at creating arguments and agreeing with himself.

So, to relate to our discussion, I think me might just be saying, “why bother working any harder if I don’t need to?”. But how much lower is the dude gonna stoop past the Sofology nonsense? Lmfao. 

(6) 💣[THEORY 49] David lacks the intuition to read others. He cannot see people for what they are, and maybe he doesn’t want to. (Could be related to him always wearing a MASK). 

I’ll just repost what I wrote in my response to your ask. I want to elaborate on this, but I have nothing more to go on other than Brad Davidson being a scammer right in front of David’s eyes. 

Onto the copy and paste: 

Could it be that he really is just NOT self aware AT ALL? That he might lack the intuition to read others, so he has developed a weird idea of how to interact socially. I say this because he expresses himself so weirdly. Also, maybe he assumes others wear a mask because he wears so many masks himself. 

So, he doesn’t place value on the way he comes across, only on the words he says?

I mean, and sorry, but let’s illustrate it with his disgusting “relationship”: what the fuck kind of messages is he sending to his kids? to his wife? About love, companionship, partnership, and family (example: “sorry, family, I don’t have time for you because I only have time for - I won’t say it.)? 

BUT it could be that he doesn’t mean to send these kinds of messages? I don’t want to think that he would try to put that image out there on purpose. 

So, what if he really is not aware of himself?? Like, is he THAT selfish that he only thinks about himself and NEVER others? Never even the way they see him? LMao?? Probably not, it might just boil down to a lack of social intuition (hence the “conquering” attitude with women)? That doesn’t make total sense but it does for me?? for now, I guess? I don’t know, lmao. 

(7) 💣 [THEORY 50] David and Gillian’s insecurities as both a compatibility AND incompatibility between them. 

Let’s first discuss the compatibility aspect, and I guess it starts and ends with a similarity. So, they are compatible because they both have the same insecurities about being nothingness. 

To quote Daria, 

[David and Gillian] wear superficiality like a suit of armor, 'cus they’re afraid of looking inside and finding absolutely nothing. 

I think maybe both of them just have that fear. I think it might be because they want so badly to be in a position of power and position of provider. 

They can’t fully accept that they are nothingness and its ok to be nothingness, its ok not have the answer all the time, and its ok have to rely on others when that time comes. 

Notice how they talk about mindfulness/meditation almost to like, demonstrate that they are in sync within themselves but they kind of overlook the fact that no person owes anyone an explanation. They have no need to prove themselves. But it could be that they are just describing their lifestyle, sorry, lmao, I’m just always suspicious lmfao.

So, now let’s discuss the incompatibility. Which I see as the way they respond to their insecurity. 

Gillian = action and progress in the face of fear.

David = the complete opposite, resignation and rationalization in the face of fear (combined with letting himself off the hook with rationalizations)

Literally, Gillovny could be blocked by a situation where Gillian is putting in the effort and David is not. 

Although even I can see that i am very biased towards Gillian because I agree more with acting in the face of fear vs. doing nothing at all. But one is not more correct than the other, it is just my personal preference.

After all, anons keep telling me to resign myself and accept whatever this situation is supposed to be, but that is simply not my way :)

(8) 💣 [THEORY 51] My current theory on why Gillovny is blocked right now:

David and Gillian are the ones blocking Gillovny.

Its funny how similar they are in terms of really deep, personal, and unusual traits. David and Monique are the same on the surface (and apparently he can’t see past the surface), but David and Gillian have like… twin dark souls. 

I think with both David and Gillian there will just always be the internal conflicts they have within themselves. They have an image they want to portray, they want to be seen as strong but also vulnerable. I think they want to teach but still see themselves as learning. 

** They want the position of power but also have an insatiable greed themselves, as if they need someone else to be in power as well to provide for them....!!!!!

(I know Gillian said that she wouldn’t like a relationship where the man is the boss, and I love her for saying that, but all humans, male and female, need their partner to be a provider of something.)

** and they want to give but maybe their own greed AND personal insecurities stop them from involving themselves completely. I will offer this as a potential blockage of the Gillovny relationship. Literally, insatiable greed *fans self* mixed with crippling self doubt *cries and writes a gentle love letter to both David and Gillian that I will never send*. 

AS IN: 

Their greed = insatiable need.

And their insecurity = cannot even act to fulfill each other’s needs. 

SO WHAT IF they have a NEED they can’t satisfy because they are literally paralyzed by fear from their insecurities? 

... They have a NEED and they can’t ACT? ooooooooh bby!!!!!!!!!!

*** I could actually see them as being so short sighted in this relationship, probably from how emotionally exciting it must be, that they cannot even see that all they need to do is... ACT. LMAO. And by act I mean take it to the next level. Enough of the boy/girl sh*t everyone can see that this is something about a MAN/WOMAN. 

Maybe David and Gillian show their true colours when they are separated:

David shows he is a boy with his boy/girl nonsense “relationship”

Gillian shows she is a woman with her man/woman relationship. 

?? I’ll just leave it at that for now. 

Its just... If only they could get it into their hard heads that there is no need to hide... from their own love...

Anyways, thanks so much, anon. let’s talk anytime! 

[your-lady-star]

Fire Emblem Warriors ”””Controversy”””

You know, I’m starting to think that calling something random and small a “controversy” is slowly losing its value and becoming more and more of a buzzword, pretty much along the same lines as saying “this character that did a cool thing is a mary sue” and “anyone who supports this pairing supports pedophellia, rape, abuse (insert offensive thing that isn’t actually happening here)”. Because, let’s face it, if something as minor as this is what’s making you lose your mind and rage all over the internet, you might want to rethink your life decisions.

To be honest, I’ve pretty much grown immune to people in the Fire Emblem fandom going berserk over the tiniest thing, but it doesn’t make it any easier for me to deal with anytime I have to go on the internet and browse through anything remotely Fire Emblem related. It’s seems like any time we get news regarding anything Fire Emblem related, someone somewhere is trying to make a controversy out of it. Though, to be fair, I don’t really think this could even be called a controversy. It’s just a petty complaint and another case of people being stupid and needy.

Let's cut to the chase. People are getting pissy because the most recent news about Fire Emblem Warriors revealed that the playable cast will be predominately filled with characters from Shadow Dragon, Awakening and Fates. And these people really just need to grow the f*ck up.

Pretty much any person that treats this detail as the biggest trigger seem to be overlooking one major thing. It says that it will predominately feature characters from these three games. It doesn’t say that every playable character in Warriors will come from these three games. Which means that to anyone who can read and think should realize that characters from the other Fire Emblem games will be playable, but they won’t be as abundant.

There. I literally refuted this entire “controversy with just three sentences.

In fact, I can refute the other half of this controversy with just one simple statement.

The other half of this “controversy” is that the article we we’re given also states that not every lord from the games will make it in because a large amount of the lords wield swords and including all of them would be too much. And as you can imagine, this has set off the very easily offended. But I can shoot down this argument with just this.

When making a fighting game that has a large cast of playable characters, what it the most important thing to keep in mind while doing so?

Variety.

You don’t want a roster of characters where most of them are just copy paste with very little changes made to them to make them feel unique. You want each character to stand out in their own way and fit a certain style that different kinds of players can attach to. This is the reason why guide videos are made for fighting game characters, it’s so that people can better learn how to use a character and find what playstyle fits them best. Just take Smash 4 for example. It gave us over 40 characters, each of them had a different and unique play style that catered to different players. Okay, yes, there were some copies here and there, but the overall roster was very diverse and pretty solid. But that’s just a roster of about 40 characters. So imagine having to do the same thing for a series that has over 100 characters!

I think it’s safe to say that no one would be able to accomplish a feat like that. A task like this would probably drive someone mad and to the brink of exhaustion before they even get halfway done. So it doesn’t really surprise me that they won’t be able to get every character into the game, and this especially applies to the lords. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of the lords in Fire Emblem use swords. And creating multiple play styles for characters that primarily use swords without any of them overlapping is a pretty difficult thing to do. And considering that not only do a lot of the lord's use swords, but a lot of the most popular characters in the franchise use swords, needless to say, it doesn’t surprise me that they can’t include everyone that uses a sword. They need to accommodate for the other weapons in the games and make the roster equal in terms of weapon distribution.

And just because we aren’t going to get every character at launch, it doesn’t mean that we won’t ever get the characters. This is pretty much the same thing that occurred with Heroes. Not every character in the series was available on day one because having that many characters done by release date would be way too much to handle. But as time went on, they’ve slowly worked to include more characters into the game through both the banners and the grand hero battles. They’ve not only worked to bring in characters from certain games that don’t have a lot of representatives, but they’ve also created alternate versions of characters that play differently compared to their original counterpart, despite the outcry from jagoffs who confuse variety for fanservice. And this is very likely to happen the same way for Warriors. New characters, both from the games already represented and newcomers, will be added to the game, most likely as dlc. Of course many people hate dlc, but if there’s anything that Smash Bros, Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart have shown us is that Nintendo knows how to do dlc properly. So I have no problem believing that they’ll be able to handle the dlc for Warriors.

So to wrap up our little discussion, we have yet another thing to add to the list of stupid overblown controversies that have been started up by whiny ignorant brats who desperately want to be seen as smart and make the Fire Emblem community look back. And we have another reason to show just how many people out there are so willing to believe anything they see posted and not use their brains for even the smallest second and realize that these people are full of sh*t. Because at the end of the day, this whole thing will go down as yet another forgotten controversy that will have no affect on the game's sales and will only proceed to make these people look more like idiots, as they 

so 

often 

tend 

to 

do.

At the end of the day, you might be wondering why someone like me would go so far out of my way to address these idiotic acts and bring to light just how pointless they are. But, the reality is that unless people like me address these idiotic acts and bring to life just how pointless they are, they will just get worse and worse and no one will do anything to stop it. It’s been said many times, and I will repeat it: ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away. Staying silent and just silently praying that the problem will just resolve itself overnight not only shows just how much you don’t care about the damage it’s causing, it just shows how lazy you are to get off your a** and do something about it. Even if you don’t have the power to affect it on a greater cause, just bringing it to light and encouraging others to do the same will help to make things better. Sunlight is one powerful disinfectant and the more of it you can shine on something, the stronger it gets. The Fire Emblem fandom has already been thoroughly poisoned several times in the past few years and it’s made it one of the most toxic fandoms to be a part of. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I see state how they are afraid to become vocal in the fandom because unless they agree with everything everyone is saying, they are immediately shunned and treated like they aren’t a true fan. And this only goes to show just how horrid, obsessive, closed minded, sadistic and downright disgusting some people can truly be and why they shouldn’t be allowed to be a part of any fandom.

This is the reason why I take so much pride in my opinions and refuse to shirk from the fandom just because I don’t think the same way they do. I’m not doing it for my sake, I’m doing it for the sake of those who aren’t brave enough or vocal enough to do the same. I’ll gladly wear the title of being the discourse of the Fire Emblem community if it means that I’ve been able to help others out there who have been through much worse.

My expectations for Fire Emblem Warriors is the same as the expectations that I have whenever I play any game: let it just be fun. Even if it isn’t this massive juggernaut that is treated like a deity, I’ll gladly enjoy it if it means I can have as much fun and sink as many hours into it as I’ve sunk into Hyrule Warriors (seriously, my playtime on that game is ridiculous). I’ll still lap it up even while the fandom is having a meltdown because their favorite character didn’t make it in, despite that they would likely just be a clone of another character.

Keep this in mind guys, because I’ve learned something crucial. You would probably only love that character because getting a sh*tty version of what you like is better than not getting it at all. And if the only reason why you want them in the game is because they’re your favorite character who you would marry in a millisecond and not because they have potential that makes them unique from the others, maybe you need to take a step back and analyze who is the one really being petty.

[smokeybrand]

Casting Call

I wanted to address this casting of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano. Personally, i think it’s inspired casting. Seriously she’d be my first choice, acting wise. Dawson has grown leaps and bounds in her craft plus, she has a real passion for the lore. We all know Dawson is a total nerd but she adores Ahsoka as a character. That much passion for the role, coupled with the inspired direction and vision of Favreau, give me confidence that she’d be great in the part. The only actress i’d say would be a better fit would be Laura Harrier. She looks like Tano even before the makeup but her build might be slightly too large, i think. That, and the only thing i have to judge her acting ability on is Homecoming where her role was mitigated to a glorified cameo. Still, i can see why cats would want her over Dawson based on aesthetics. The other reason? Not so much.

Rosario Dawson is a transphobe? Really? Come, on man. I actually looked into that case a little bit and it kind of sounds like it’s a cashgrab by the complainant. I mean, the bulk of their case is discrimination but, after reading over the complaint, it skews more toward “hostile work environment” because they was misgendered on site or whatever. Being called your old gender is not the same as being called a faggot or freak but fine. I get that. Cats feel some kind of way about stuff. The thing is, though, f*cking quit. If it’s that bad, quit and leave. Why stay someplace where you feel uncomfortable or perceive yourself to be hated for being you?  I mean, this person openly admits that the Dawson family has known them for twenty years as whatever they were before. You show up at their door post-transition, sight unseen for years, and expect them not to have something to say about it? That’s jarring and takes time to accept. People have to adjust to such a drastic change. They have to learn how to live around your choice. Popping up and just expecting everyone to okey-doke such a drastic alteration to their perception of you is a little ridiculous to me. That acceptance sh*t goes both ways, you know? But, okay, they’re calling you your old name and referring to you as your old gender. Sh*t hurts your feelings, i get it. What i don’t get is how the f*ck you’re suing Rosario over that sh*t, even though she wasn’t doing it. How is she responsible for the actions of other people in her family? How are you mad she told you to suck it up and act like an adult? You’re fifty-years-old, man!

The other parto f her case is even more dubious to me. Apparently, Dawson and a relative went to the apartment they provided this person for free, because this transgender individual refused to leave. I assume it’s been several months of complaints and derision at this point so a clean break between parties would be best for everyone. This transgender person swore they had no place to go and that they couldn’t get back to New York, even though they freely admitted to having a support system out there and half a year’s worth of wages, plus a stipend from Dawson, herself. They were living rent-free in an apartment provided by Dawson and were only responsible for personal bills like food yet, didn’t have enough for a return ticket home? How? Full time wages for a carpenter in California, they moved out here to help with some of Rosario’s home renovations, is about $57,000 a year. Half that is $28,500 dollars. You made 28 grand, before taxes, and couldn’t get home? Really? You had no choice but to squat in a residence that was not yours, for what i imagine is several months, with damn near 30 racks in the bank? Seriously? You want to scream “hate-crime” when they physically drag your disgruntled ass out of their house after months of futile back and forth? Really?

I don’t think Rosario Dawson is a transphobe. I think she doesn’t suffer assholes and this cat sounds like an asshole. They’re not suing Dawson for hostile work environment, they’re suing for discrimination. You’re fifty-year-old, transgender, lesbian, who has known this family for decades. Dawson flew you out, hired you full-time at a comparable rate to others in your field, and gave you a rent-free place to stay. That alone gives you thousands of dollars a month in savings. I imagine all of this misgendering and sh*t was either them ribbing you or legitimate mistake because of the decades long relationship they had with you, as another f*cking person. As far as that assault? You were squatting in their property. I don’t agree with them getting physical with you, if they actually did, but, at the same time, you were effectively stealing from them by not leaving. It wasn’t like you couldn’t afford to go, you had at least three months worth of wages, probably closer to six. Bare minimum, you have 10 bands, fluid! You really saying you can’t make it back home with a minimum of $10,000 in your pocket and this expansive support system waiting on you? You have no choice but to slander Rosario in Out magazine, the most bias press available? This smells of bullsh*t to me.

I’m not a member of the LBGTQ community. I don’t consider myself an ally. I consider myself a reasonable, intelligent, person. I find it stupid to hate a someone for something that doesn’t have anything to do with me. If you’re gay, that’s your business. If you’re trans, that’s your business. If you’re Batman, that’s you’re business, Bruce. I don’t care nor do i need to. That’ a personal journey, a personal truth. If you want to share it with me, cool. If not, that’s cool too. That’s why, when i read this complaint, it looks suspect. Rosario Dawson doesn’t even come up until the end where the assault occurred and, even then, she was described as “holding her down” while Dawson’s aunt or somebody, fought with this transgender person. That sounds like there was an altercation and Dawson was trying to get between the two, probably so this exact situation wouldn’t occur, and that’s if she even physically intervened at all. I mean, Rosario Dawson is not only famous, rich, dating a Senator who is a staunch supporter of trans rights, but she, herself, identifies as bisexual - a part of the very community this person claims she’s discriminating against! For real? Why the f*ck would Rosario jeopardize all of that, over a squatter? No, i think that little part was tacked on so this person could go after Dawson directly because, literally, up to this point, it was everyone else AROUND Rosario committing the transgressions. Everyone around Rosario ain’t famous, though.

This whole situation sounds like an employee was unhappy with the terms of employment and decided to take advantage of their employer’s status as a celebrity for a quick cashgrab. The leaking of this case to the press was meant to damage Rosario’s image in a means to force a “go away” settlement. Do i think there was discrimination? Not any more than this person would have had to deal with as a fifty-year-old lesbian. There might have been ill-intent but never from Dawson, herself. I imagine she snapped and said what she said to this person, after weeks of complaints or a stressful shoot somewhere. Do i think there was an assault? Sure, maybe, but not in the way this person is describing. It doesn’t make sense to me that Rosario, herself, would put her entire career at risk over something so pedestrian. Dawson is well aware of the current political climate and cancel culture. She was right in the thick of the MeToo movement. Ma ain’t stupid. Rosario has wanted to lay Ahsoka for years. You think DIsney would let her if this suit had any teeth? Do i think there’s a semblance of responsibility that must be taken by the Dawson family? Of course. They were dicks to this person and owe them an apology. Do i think Rosario Dawson has to cash-out because her family were assholes? F*ck no. Sue them, they’re the ones who hurt your feelings and that’s the crux of this argument; Rosario is the famous one. Rosario is the rich one. Rosario has to be the target or no one gets paid.

There’s fault on both sides here, i freely admit that, but i don’t think Rosario is involved the way this person says she was. I think this person knows what side the bread is buttered on and is looking to capitalize on this whole SJW/PC, cancel culture, bullsh*t, for a quick payout. Believe all of the gender minorities before actual evidence because they’re so oppressed. Cancel everyone who doesn’t share our politics or, heaven forbid, waits for facts and uses logical assumptions to deduce bullsh*t. For all intents and purposes, this person sounds like an asshole to me. Look at it objectively; Rosario flew this person out from New York, put them up in a rent-free apartment, and paid them a full-time wage while also giving them a stipend to get on their feet out here. This person did nothing but complain and refuse to leave the apartment when both parties agreed for a separation. Instead, this person squatted for weeks to months, freeloading on Dawson, while pocketing thousands of dollars. Seriously, how do you think they’re paying for this Hollywood ass lawyer? They can’t get home but they got money to hire a lawyer, though. Okay. Like, you don't get to be magically absolved from the repercussions of being an asshole just because you decided to transition. No one committed a hate crime against you because they threw you out of their house, yo. You were being a dick and got dealt with as such. ll this “Believe everyone, all of the time” sentient is getting out of hand.

Or, i could be wrong and Rosario Dawson is ball of trans hate who spends her time keelhauling those people in between campaign stumps and acting roles, i don’t know. Pretty sure she’s not, tho. Also, Brie Larson as Mara Jade is a mistake. That’s bad casting, man. Alexandra Daddario, Emily VanCamp, or Alexandra Breckenridge fit that role much better.

[smokeybrandreviews]

NBA Rant: Inmates Running The Asylum

-So i wrote this yesterday but couldn’t post it. Apparently, Tumblr wouldn’t let me log in. So, i’m posting it today. I know there was a lot of sh*t that happened last night but i’ll get to it in the next rant.-

Whoo, boy, this post-Paul Clippers tenure has been a goddamn roller coaster!

We are 19 games into the season and, goddamn, what the hell is going on in Lesser-LA? You lose Paul. Get shafted in that trade for a bunch of sub-par and injury prone role players. Give Griffin a 173 mil contract on the hopes he’ll actually see the court for the duration and then he goes blows out his knee. Your Coach/GM favors the f*ck out of his mediocre son so you constantly miss out of beneficial trades because he refuses to move his kid, which breeds animosity in the locker room. You have absolutely no offensive talent on the floor outside of the injured Griffin. AND you’re next best asset, Jordan, is on the way out. Cats have actively been shopping him around, too! The Clippers are a f*cking mess. You’d  think Junior Buss was running that team. While i’m on that topic...

Should the Clips fire Doc?

It’s been, what? Half a decade and the closest they’ve gotten to a title was the second round? Seriously, the Clips have never been contenders, as much as analyst want you to believe otherwise. Now that they’ve lost Paul in a terrible trade facilitated by Doc, Lost Griffin to injury for the foreseeable future, and have had rumblings of nepotism f*cking up that locker room chemistry, methinks it’s about time for a change. There are some interesting candidates available. Speaking of…

The Grizzlies have fired their coach in an attempt to placate a disgruntled Marc Gasol because that’s how you assure a talent like that, with uncertainty.

Dude’s in a contact year and you’ve installed an interim coach, after firing the coach he actually like, the season before last. Dave Jeager is a goddamn savant at basketball and you send him away in favor of Fizdale? Really? Okay, buddy. On top of all of this, you still might trade Gasol? Why even fire Fizdale then? That doesn’t make a lick of sense!! I had the Grizz in the Playoffs with the lack of competition out West but this is shenanigans. They might as well tear it down and start from scratch. Like the Clippers.

Cats are kind of overreacting to the Cavs right now.

Whether we want to believe they’ve lost it or not, they are still the clear favorites out East. There are no teams that, in a playoff environment, can beat the Cavs in a seven game playoff series. No teams except for the Celtics. The C’s are a force right now and it’s scary. They’ve played brilliant hoop and rattled off an pretty substantial win streak. It’s early, of course, but barring another catastrophic injury (RIP Gordon Hayward) these cats have a real chance to dethrone King James as the Tyrant of the East. Boston looks like they won that trade because, as much as I love Isiah, he ain’t the cure all for what ails the Cavs, man.

Also, Derek Rose is out with yet another knee injury.

Kid’s the new Brandon Roy. Unfortunate…

The Lakers are surprisingly fun to watch.

And they’re winning. I don’t expect them to sneak into the playoffs without an actually star, their core is WAY too young to compete with anyone, but they have shown signs. Ball’s court vision would make any team envious and Randle is a legit force in the paint. Plus, we got all of the cash. All of it. Next offseason should be interesting wooing actual, legitimate, talent to Lalaland. While I’d hope to snatch PG and/or Marc Gasol and another star talent, we’ll probably end up with LeBron or some sh*t. Whoo.

Boy, the Kings gon’ Kings.

They missed out in a trade for Andre Drummond last year in favor of snatching Buddy Heild. Like, Divac had that sh*t done. All that was needed was ink to paper and the Kings would have one of the post players in the league right now. Instead, Viveck vetoed that sh*t because he saw Buddy as the next Curry. Buddy disagreed. Hours after the trade, he literally said his game is nothing like Steph’s game. And, surprise-surprise, the Kings suck this season. But guess who is second out East? Yessir, Detroit. Behind that brilliant play of Avery Bradley and solid anchor action of Drummond, the Pistons have surprised all year. The Kings, not so much. Can you imagine Drummond in Jaeger’s system, playing alongside Collie-Stein or that other trash big they have Scary! What could have been…

Giannis is a goddamn monster!

His time is mediocre but Giannis is a f*cking unicorn. The Bucks better figure out how to keep kid happy because with ability like that, he can write his own story in the NBA.

Kristaps is a Goddamn monster, too!

After severing ties with The Zen Master and Melo, Porzingas has thrived. He looks like he belongs on the court, that he IS a franchise guy.

I like how everyone is surprised that OKC experiment isn’t panning out like they thought.

I called that nonsense the second Anthony waived his No-Trade clause. Everyone wants to say Russ out here balling and that he deserves his MVP and that’s cool or whatever but did they win? Did he take a bad team and elevate them into contention? Did he will his lackluster squad into the West Finals against a stacked Warriors team? No. Russ lost to the guy who he beat out in MVP votes, James Harden. Last season’s MVP WAS Harden. But because he ain’t average a triple-double, he didn’t get the nod. His team beat Russ, and i say run becuase that’s all they were; The OKC Russel Westbrooks. Consistently. His team beat Russ in the Playoffs. Convincingly. His team made it to the Western Conference Finals. The only reason Russ put up the numbers he did was because he was the only viable option on offense. Harden took his guys and made them better while average a near trip-dub all season. Harden should have got that crown last season but politics dictated otherwise. It’s funny to me how The Beard has maintained his numbers and his team is actually doing much better than last year, but Russ is tanking, That’s what happens when you put two ball-dominate guys on the court together, especially when one is coming off winning the most prestigious award outside of an actual chip, for being a ball hog.

On the plus, Paul George is all but guaranteed to be in Laker gold next season because of this nonsense.

Come on home, PG. We love you out here i SoCal!

Ayesha Curry bad as well, manq.

That really doesn’t have anything to do with the current state of the NBA but I saw her picture pop up as I was doing research and, goddamn, Ayesha Curry bad a hell, manq!

The Sixers look legit.

My cousin got drafted to their G-League team, the 87ers (?) so I have a vested interest in their success all of a sudden. It sucks that Simmons is out with an ankle injury but Embiid looks like the truth. They ain’t ready yet, the Cavs proved that last night, But they’re close. The League post-Bron should be mighty interesting. Between the promising kids out in the city of Brotherly love, Those surprising Knickerbocker with that Unicorn of Porzingas as the franchise, All that potential down in Lalaland, and the Greek Freak’s little tribe in Brew City, we good for another decade as far as quality hoop is concerned.

[ouraidengray4]

Why Not Everyone Is Worth Forgiving

Have you ever seen two kids have an argument? As a teacher, I mediate kid arguments all the time, and man, is it a fast process. Usually, I just listen to each kid yell their grievances at me (Why are you shouting? I’M NOT SHOUTING!), then I get to demand they apologize to each other, and enjoy what is almost always an instantaneous resolution. When you’re a kid, forgiveness is usually the cheapest, easiest thing in the world; it’s a hug, a laugh, and, boom, instant friendship!

It doesn’t always come so easily though, even for kids. I remember when I was in elementary school, a friend of mine told me she had a sister and months later, I found out it wasn’t true at all. Boy, was I mad. I didn’t speak to her again until middle school, when she totally called me out on it in the locker room, that I had refused to forgive her for such a stupid, little thing. There I was, in my gym shorts and training bra, being publicly shamed for having held a grudge for so long. I decided, from then on, that forgiveness would be a virtue everyone would come to associate with me: I was gracious. I was understanding. I was forgiving. Never again would I be that 12-year-old in the training bra, bitterly refusing to let go of a past slight. Never!

But as an adult, forgiveness is like Pilates class; when you do it, you usually feel great afterward, but sometimes you feel awful going, awful doing it, and awful afterward, and you know you should have just stayed home, watched Hoarders, and gone some other time.

Almost a year ago exactly, I had a pen pal. Yes, that’s sort of weird, and yes, it really happened: I had an adult pen pal, a former college acquaintance. Truthfully, I knew I had met him in college, because those were the Facebook friends we had in common, but I didn’t remember him in any way. He hit me up on Facebook with this completely random and unexpected gesture, saying, Hey I think everything you post is rad, and you’re rad, and we should be friends. It happened to be a really solid time for me; I had finally learned how to effectively manage my depression and anxiety, and was really living a half-decent life, going to back to school, getting my sh*t together in a really grown-up way. He asked if I wanted to be pen pals. I said, "Uh, sure."

You can probably imagine where this is going if you’re human and have a pulse.

I had no idea what that meant. I was hoping he understood that clearly he would be the first to write, because I had no idea how grown-up pen pals worked. He was living abroad, enjoying what appeared to be a very glamorous, bohemian lifestyle. In the photos he posted, it was clear that he had a dog and cool-dude digs. And oh, he was handsome. I wondered where the hell he’d been in college, when I was pining after some miserable artsy kid who eventually left to study acting in England.

And then his letter came.

It was a four-page explosion of scribbled drawings, backstory, hopes, and dreams… and it felt like a masterpiece. I spent hours pouring over it; I brought it to work with me, carefully enclosed in a book, like something precious, secret, almost sacred. I showed it to my best friend in quiet wonder, asking,Who the hell is this guy? And what the hell is this wonderful thing? I spent days crafting a reply. I poured my heart into it; this process was fun and new and wildly curious and exciting. The next few months proceeded like this, eagerly awaiting letters, trading ecstatic Facebook messages, pinging each other to exclaim that the mail had arrived—we traded exclamations of I got it! I got it!!!!

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We shared our hopes and dreams, our greatest fears, our weirdest inclinations; soon I felt like I knew him better than I knew most of my closest friends. Trinkets were exchanged. He sent me a little drawing pad, a cartoon, and a dedication on the first page. I sent him a friendship bracelet (remember how easy those were to make? Apparently not so much for adult hands). Our avoidance of any topic even remotely romantic felt electrically deliberate, the implications present at every turn.Where do you see yourself in five years? With someone I love, somewhere good.

You can probably imagine where this is going if you’re human and have a pulse. I fell head over heels in love with him. It was the single most romantic thing to ever happen to me; it was like a movie. It actually might be a movie, probably one starring Rachel McAdams.

Yes, that is a matronly support bra under my cool leather jacket. What of it? / Illustration by the author, Mikayla Park

We arranged to meet in DC in the spring. At this point, everyone knew this special thing that was unfolding in my life. What will you wear? What will you say? This is it! He and I texted for days beforehand. We chatted about everything, as we usually did, easy and effortlessly, as though we’d known each other forever. The conversation veered toward romance. My pulse quickened. It’s hard to find love, he wrote. Sure is, I said. Well, I’m going on a weekend trip with this girl I’ve been seeing, so we’ll see how it goes. Cross your fingers for me!

Girl. I’ve. Been. Seeing. The words punctured all the air in my tiny apartment as I stared at my phone. Even as I began to tear up, I furiously started making excuses for him. Of course he’s seeing someone, Mikayla. What did you expect? He’s a guy. Guys have needs. This is understandable. I forgave him immediately, because that’s what you do. Back in that middle-school locker room, I’d stood there in my training bra and chosen to become someone generous, so I wasn’t about to become an ungenerous girl in a matronly support bra in my own living room, butt-hurt at my pen pal for taking girls on dates.

So instead, I cheekily told him that I couldn’t really cross my fingers, because I was in love with him myself. I tend to go balls to the wall with stuff like that. He rambled on a little about feelings, and timing, and distance, without ever really saying anything in reply.

I went to DC anyway, of course. I had a plane ticket, and my mother was expecting me, and when your mother is expecting you, what the f*ck else is there to do? I wasn’t giving up, either. No. I didn’t care who the this girl was; he and I had something special, and I had pages upon pages of letters to prove it. What was he thinking? I felt like I was gearing up for the fight of my life; he belonged with me. Why couldn’t he see that? I wrote him a good-bye letter just in case, feeling positive that I would show it to him someday, when we were old and married, and laugh about how he almost lost me entirely once. I tucked it into my pocket for good luck.

We planned to meet at a coffee shop at noon. He was two hours late. I cried into an overpriced latte and told myself he was probably late because he was losing his mind in confusion. I forgave him immediately, trying to feel magnanimous while wiping the snot from my nose.

When he finally arrived, he gave me a bag of coffee as a gift and asked why I was crying. I told him, mustering up my best Rachel McAdams, that I had fallen in love with him, that this was something special, something worth fighting for, that I would move to his far-off country for him if that was what it took, that I could teach anywhere, if it meant we could have our shot. He rambled on a little about feelings and timing and distance, looked sad, and then asked if I wanted to get gelato. I wanted so badly to ignore it, but the no was written all over his face, all over the way he very delicately physically separated himself from me. I tearfully shrugged and said OK.

We spent the rest of the day together, exploring DC, eating food, taking photos. I felt like I was holding myself hostage. I really just wanted to punch him in the face and leave, but I felt guilty. I couldn’t leave him like that; he hadn’t asked for any of this. We drove around in his mom’s convertible, listening to old indie rock. We drew pictures and left them in a box by a garden. Two cartoon characters saying I don’t know and I don’t know either. At the end of the day, I gave him the good-bye letter I wrote him. It was generous and sad. I couldn’t be his pen pal anymore; it wasn’t fair to me, and it wasn’t fair to the girl he was with.

No one seems to know! / Illustration by the author, Mikayla Park

That night, he told me he had reread all of my letters (which he had inexplicably brought with him) searching for signs, for clues, wondering where he had gone wrong. Had he missed romantic signals somewhere? He thought we were clearly just pals. I felt guilty, like I had ruined this wonderful thing we had by breaking an invisible rule. I didn’t forgive him, because there was nothing to forgive; it was all my fault. As I sat on the plane the next day, I texted him that I missed him already. He texted me back a link to a song in Portuguese. I desperately searched it for some hidden meaning.

Within my brokenheartedness, I felt an undercurrent of guilt, like I had wronged him by falling in love, that I made something out of nothing, that his intentions had been pure and I had somehow sullied it with my own agenda.

I don’t feel that way anymore.

In hindsight, I’d like to go back to that day and punch myself in the face, then get the hell out of there, as far from him as possible. I’d like to tell my former self that I didn’t do anything wrong.

Look, even now I want to believe him! Maybe he didn’t mean to lead me on; it is so ingrained in my nature to forgive him, to try to understand, to make excuses. Maybe he never meant for it to go that way at all; maybe he honestly, truthfully, never even thought about it. Maybe he’d ignored the scribbled hearts ALL THE F*CK OVER MY LETTERS. Maybe he has intimate female pen pals all the time, and nothing like this has ever happened… but seriously, that just makes him stupid, which is almost as bad as being cruel. And guess what? You don’t have to forgive stupid, either.

His relationship with that girl was just slightly more serious than he’d led on; they’re now married and have a child. I unfriended him on Facebook and unfollowed him on Instagram, although he doesn’t seem to know it yet because he still likes all my posts (hi, I guess you know now).

I unceremoniously tossed his letters out with the trash one day.

Yeah, no one wants those letters. / Illustration by the author, Mikayla Park

Intent is a thing, I know. It’s a thing, and it matters. And forgiveness is also a thing, and it’s nice, and it feels good. But for f*ck’s sake, not everyone is worth forgiving. I don’t feel weighed down by any continued resentment, but I feel free from the obligation to be gracious and forgiving. There is plenty of room in my heart for both.

Sometimes things don’t end in a hug and a laugh and, boom, friendship! Sometimes the most someone deserves is not you—and that’s not heavy, that’s not a burden. The girl at the coffee shop who waited two hours for a guy who didn’t appreciate her? She deserves my forgiveness. As for the rest, I’ll be the girl in the matronly support bra opting out of Pilates class, waving my middle finger from the couch as I watch Hoarders. And I don’t feel bad about it one. Single. Bit.

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[smokeybrand]

NBA Rant: Inmates Running The Asylum

-So i wrote this yesterday but couldn’t post it. Apparently, Tumblr wouldn’t let me log in. So, i’m posting it today. I know there was a lot of sh*t that happened last night but i’ll get to it in the next rant.-

Whoo, boy, this post-Paul Clippers tenure has been a goddamn roller coaster!

We are 19 games into the season and, goddamn, what the hell is going on in Lesser-LA? You lose Paul. Get shafted in that trade for a bunch of sub-par and injury prone role players. Give Griffin a 173 mil contract on the hopes he’ll actually see the court for the duration and then he goes blows out his knee. Your Coach/GM favors the f*ck out of his mediocre son so you constantly miss out of beneficial trades because he refuses to move his kid, which breeds animosity in the locker room. You have absolutely no offensive talent on the floor outside of the injured Griffin. AND you’re next best asset, Jordan, is on the way out. Cats have actively been shopping him around, too! The Clippers are a f*cking mess. You’d  think Junior Buss was running that team. While i’m on that topic...

Should the Clips fire Doc?

It’s been, what? Half a decade and the closest they’ve gotten to a title was the second round? Seriously, the Clips have never been contenders, as much as analyst want you to believe otherwise. Now that they’ve lost Paul in a terrible trade facilitated by Doc, Lost Griffin to injury for the foreseeable future, and have had rumblings of nepotism f*cking up that locker room chemistry, methinks it’s about time for a change. There are some interesting candidates available. Speaking of…

The Grizzlies have fired their coach in an attempt to placate a disgruntled Marc Gasol because that’s how you assure a talent like that, with uncertainty.

Dude’s in a contact year and you’ve installed an interim coach, after firing the coach he actually like, the season before last. Dave Jeager is a goddamn savant at basketball and you send him away in favor of Fizdale? Really? Okay, buddy. On top of all of this, you still might trade Gasol? Why even fire Fizdale then? That doesn’t make a lick of sense!! I had the Grizz in the Playoffs with the lack of competition out West but this is shenanigans. They might as well tear it down and start from scratch. Like the Clippers.

Cats are kind of overreacting to the Cavs right now.

Whether we want to believe they’ve lost it or not, they are still the clear favorites out East. There are no teams that, in a playoff environment, can beat the Cavs in a seven game playoff series. No teams except for the Celtics. The C’s are a force right now and it’s scary. They’ve played brilliant hoop and rattled off an pretty substantial win streak. It’s early, of course, but barring another catastrophic injury (RIP Gordon Hayward) these cats have a real chance to dethrone King James as the Tyrant of the East. Boston looks like they won that trade because, as much as I love Isiah, he ain’t the cure all for what ails the Cavs, man.

Also, Derek Rose is out with yet another knee injury.

Kid’s the new Brandon Roy. Unfortunate…

The Lakers are surprisingly fun to watch.

And they’re winning. I don’t expect them to sneak into the playoffs without an actually star, their core is WAY too young to compete with anyone, but they have shown signs. Ball’s court vision would make any team envious and Randle is a legit force in the paint. Plus, we got all of the cash. All of it. Next offseason should be interesting wooing actual, legitimate, talent to Lalaland. While I’d hope to snatch PG and/or Marc Gasol and another star talent, we’ll probably end up with LeBron or some sh*t. Whoo.

 Boy, the Kings gon’ Kings.

They missed out in a trade for Andre Drummond last year in favor of snatching Buddy Heild. Like, Divac had that sh*t done. All that was needed was ink to paper and the Kings would have one of the post players in the league right now. Instead, Viveck vetoed that sh*t because he saw Buddy as the next Curry. Buddy disagreed. Hours after the trade, he literally said his game is nothing like Steph’s game. And, surprise-surprise, the Kings suck this season. But guess who is second out East? Yessir, Detroit. Behind that brilliant play of Avery Bradley and solid anchor action of Drummond, the Pistons have surprised all year. The Kings, not so much. Can you imagine Drummond in Jaeger’s system, playing alongside Collie-Stein or that other trash big they have Scary! What could have been…

 Giannis is a goddamn monster!

His time is mediocre but Giannis is a f*cking unicorn. The Bucks better figure out how to keep kid happy because with ability like that, he can write his own story in the NBA.

 Kristaps is a Goddamn monster, too!

After severing ties with The Zen Master and Melo, Porzingas has thrived. He looks like he belongs on the court, that he IS a franchise guy.

 I like how everyone is surprised that OKC experiment isn’t panning out like they thought.

I called that nonsense the second Anthony waived his No-Trade clause. Everyone wants to say Russ out here balling and that he deserves his MVP and that’s cool or whatever but did they win? Did he take a bad team and elevate them into contention? Did he will his lackluster squad into the West Finals against a stacked Warriors team? No. Russ lost to the guy who he beat out in MVP votes, James Harden. Last season’s MVP WAS Harden. But because he ain’t average a triple-double, he didn’t get the nod. His team beat Russ, and i say run becuase that’s all they were; The OKC Russel Westbrooks. Consistently. His team beat Russ in the Playoffs. Convincingly. His team made it to the Western Conference Finals. The only reason Russ put up the numbers he did was because he was the only viable option on offense. Harden took his guys and made them better while average a near trip-dub all season. Harden should have got that crown last season but politics dictated otherwise. It’s funny to me how The Beard has maintained his numbers and his team is actually doing much better than last year, but Russ is tanking, That’s what happens when you put two ball-dominate guys on the court together, especially when one is coming off winning the most prestigious award outside of an actual chip, for being a ball hog.

 On the plus, Paul George is all but guaranteed to be in Laker gold next season because of this nonsense.

Come on home, PG. We love you out here i SoCal!

 Ayesha Curry bad as well, manq.

That really doesn’t have anything to do with the current state of the NBA but I saw her picture pop up as I was doing research and, goddamn, Ayesha Curry bad a hell, manq!

 The Sixers look legit.

My cousin got drafted to their G-League team, the 87ers (?) so I have a vested interest in their success all of a sudden. It sucks that Simmons is out with an ankle injury but Embiid looks like the truth. They ain’t ready yet, the Cavs proved that last night, But they’re close. The League post-Bron should be mighty interesting. Between the promising kids out in the city of Brotherly love, Those surprising Knickerbocker with that Unicorn of Porzingas as the franchise, All that potential down in Lalaland, and the Greek Freak’s little tribe in Brew City, we good for another decade as far as quality hoop is concerned.