#we're going to see everyone going through the ringer

[chirpsythismorning]

birthdaygate = guaranteed happy ending for Will

[mongpht]

Rollo Flamme - Student Council President Uniform SSR [translate]

PART 1

Noble Bell College - Bell Tower Interior

Rollo: Hmm… it's a bit cool. And sunrise time is getting later and later every day. Hmmm… It's a good time of year. I can spend less time in the classroom listening to silly stories from mindless students. Time to do what I have to do today before everyone wakes up… Besides, I wouldn't want those annoying creeps to find me.

Noble Bell College - Bell Tower Upstairs

Gargoyles: jumping.

Rollo: Yeah, shut up, you two! You bloody gargoyles! It's not nice to jump around like that. Why don't you two behave yourselves?

Gargoyles: * calms down *

Rollo: Yeah, I'll do you on my next day off. I can't bear to abandon what I've started. If you understand, leave already. I have important work to do… Finally. They're really annoying, aren't they? The mere fact that they live through magic is terrifying, and the noise… If I hadn't been watching the bell tower, I wouldn't have noticed those blocks of stone… Isn't that right, Salvation Bell. Hmm… You're very handsome today. How nice it would be if everyone were like you. It rings when it should ring and is silent when it should be silent. Nothing is ever so right and certain.

Rollo: …Оh. The sun will be up soon. Gotta get everything cleaned up before the ringers come. Let me hear your beautiful sound tonight. Oh, Salvation Bell!

PART 2

Noble Bell College - Courtyard

Rollo: You won't hear any nasty mages here. Let's take a break….

???: Headman, it's you!

Rollo: Huh?

Vice President: We've been looking for you, Rollo-kaicho*. I can't believe you had lunch here.

Rollo: You--

Vice President: Rollo-caicho, you eat bread for lunch. I didn't know that because I didn't see him in the dining hall.

Rollo: Yes, that's right. Two croissants and 16 grapes. And a cup of coffee with milk. Exactly that much, no more and no less. It's a fixed lunch every day, 365 days a year.

Vice President: What, every day? The same thing every day?

Rollo: If you choose to, you won't be driven by unnecessary desires. It's refreshing and very satisfying. I recommend it to you as well.

Vice President: I can't do that. I'd get bored too quickly.

Rollo: … I'm sorry you don't understand. What's more, you want something from me.

Vice President: Oh, yes. The teacher was just looking for Rollo-kaicho. He wants to know as soon as possible if the book report you recently submitted can be put in the newspaper.

Rollo: A newspaper?… If I take the morning paper, I take the morning edition of the Brilliant Country News.

Vice President: Yeah. It's amazing to be in such a big newspaper! That's what Rollo-caicho is all about. They told me again in class today that kaicho was the only one who passed his Potions test with a perfect grade.

Rollo: Hmm. Not a big deal.

Vice President: You're the very modesty! The other day you even made a hard-to-grow aquatic magic plant bloom. The teacher was very impressed. I have great respect for you. There is no other magician in this academy who knows as much as Rollo-kaicho knows!

Rollo: I see. mumbles Ironic, isn't it?

Vice President: Is something wrong?

Rollo: Don't worry about it. In fact, thank you for talking to me. And for your concern.

Vice President: Don't mention it! But while you're here, may I join you for lunch?

Rollo: … Absolutely not. We're almost done eating. Let's go straight to the teacher. Excuse me, I'll leave you to it. We'll have lunch next time.

Vice President: I see. Then I'll join you another time!

Noble Bell College - Lecture Hall

Rollo: … It's carefree. So carefree… I don't know what I'm thinking. Oh, that's not even the point. Let's go to the staff room.

PART 3

City of Flowers

Rollo: Good afternoon… Yes, that's right. I need my usual set of forms and envelopes. Yes, one plain white one… Hmmm, I agree with you.Even if some would call it anachronistic*, letters are a good thing. It's not as convenient as emails or phone calls, but the time spent means less careless remarks. What, are there cheaper ones from other manufacturers similar to this kit…? No, let's go with the usual. Changing your writing style in the middle of writing won't help. Everything has to be consistent… Yes, indeed. Thanks for everything. See you later… Good salesman. As a citizen of a town that loves a righteous judge. As a college student, I have to learn from you… This town is easy to live in. The people are nice and the scenery is wonderful. But these beautiful flowers are also held in place by magical power … Flowers …. Magic … Hmm…mmm…mmm…Hahaha…..

Goat: Bleh.

Rollo: Hmm. Is that a goat? What's wrong with you? Are you hungry? Unfortunately, I don't have anything you can eat right now. If you want to be fed, go to the others…..

Goat: Bleh.

Rollo: What? You're after my envelopes? How disgusting… Don't touch it. Don't eat my stuff. Besides, eating paper can make you sick to your stomach. I'm not saying it's bad. Give up the idea… Hey, stop it!

Goat: Bleh.

Rollo: You little goat. If you don't want to let go, here's an idea…! Ha. No, there are people here… If this creature wasn't valued in the city, I'd give him a good shove like that. You're just lucky.

Goat: Bleh.

Rollo: Don't chew on my clothes! The City of Flowers is beautiful, but except that such unhygienic behaviour is unacceptable...

Noble Bell College - Student Board Room

Rollo: "As you can see, I'm doing well, just like before. Take care of yourself." I wonder if I'm being too polite. Well, that's good. That's enough to let my parents know I'm living here without any problems. These people are fans of worry… Since then… very… … …

Rollo: … …Right. I'll see if I can add a few more additions to the letter. I won't be able to sleep well tonight anyway. I'll work on it to the best of my ability. There's plenty of time.

kaicho: forefather/elder anachronism: an erroneous, intentional, or conditional attribution of events, phenomena, objects, or persons to another time, epoch relative to the actual chronology.

[likeshipsonthesea]

I love your recent posts about Eddie and Shannon and their relationship. I just don’t see how the show can address any of that with the way they’ve written this arc. There’s no one who can criticise Eddie’s feelings of ‘she was the love of my life, I’m broken without her’ except us the audience. There are no characters who saw their relationship as it actually was, so how can the show steer Eddie in that direction? I feel like they’re gonna leave it as she’s his Great Dead Love and that’s that

i see what you mean, and tbh i'm not sure what the show is going to do with this arc on-screen. they have a bunch of storylines to tie up in this finale episode (here's hoping we don't get any cliffhangers 🤞) and i don't know how much time they will have to devote to eddie, or even what they want to do with that time. it's possible they have a completely different perspective on this and will take it a whole other way, but i have faith that the show will tell the story they want to tell and, if the past six seasons are any indication, i will enjoy that story

all that being said, if we're talking dream arc, this is what i would want

as far as who can tell eddie "hey, you're looking at your marriage with rose-colored glasses, this is how it actually is," i've got two ideas for this. one is eddie himself, and the second is his parents, specifically helena, who has been rumored to be in the s7 finale. i'm kinda more excited about the second, so let's get the first one out of the way

eddie himself - hopefully after the clusterfuck that is explaining to his son that he's been seeing a dead ringer for his dead mom and she cosplayed as mommy to give eddie closure, eddie will talk about this in therapy, and through the skills he's learned and a frank discussion (pun intended) he will be forced to confront the reality of his marriage and start to address the trauma he has from everything with shannon

p cut and dry, my typical eddie-goes-to-therapy kinda story. we've all been here before.

now, for the good stuff 😈 (putting this under a read-more bc i have Thoughts)

helena. the diaz mother we all know and have complicated feelings over. or not-so-complicated feelings over, given the "don't drag [chris] down with you" line. i know i keep asking y'all to think of things from the white woman's perspective, but bear with me just one moment while i do this again

helena married into a large mexican family in the 80s. she had a mother in law whose cooking was renowned, a husband always away on business, and three children to bring up along with keeping her home together. given how everyone in their family seemed to treat shannon, i'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume there were some heavy expectations on helena to be the wife everyone thought ramon deserved, and i'm gonna assume that meant a lot of tradition--cooking the right things, doing the holidays the right way, teaching the kids the right values, etc. etc.

i think it was hard. i think helena didn't always meet the expectations put on her. i know it was played as a joke, but during ramon's retirement party, eddie and pepa were concerned that helena was cooking a specific dish (i can't remember which one atm) until abuela assured them she was in charge of it. meaning this is probably a running joke, helena not cooking things as well as she ought to.

also, raising three kids with a physically absent husband in a town that (i'm assuming) is full of in-laws seems hard to me, too. (if this is sounding familiar, yes i'm about to make a shannon comparison just gimme another second). the stories we hear about eddie as a kid are yes, reflections of traditional masculinity and eddie falling short of that, but also reflections on his parenting--how could helena let her son try to cook? that should be her job, she should be watching him! how could she let him try to drive at 8? tsk tsk and all that

i think helena has become a part of the diaz family fully, but i don't think it was always easy, and i think when her son married a white woman who didn't fit the expectations of a diaz wife either, helena recognized that. i think helena saw herself in shannon so clearly.

and instead of breaking the cycle and offering shannon that support and empathy that shannon (and young helena) needed, helena enforced those expectations even harsher. helena did it, so shannon had to, too.

maybe it was out of protection--she wanted shannon to fit into the family the way helena had learned to. maybe it was common generational sentiment, i.e. it's the Right way or it's the way I did it so therefore you have to do it that way, too. maybe it was a means of reinforcing her own place in the family, as she was no longer the newbie, shannon was.

whatever it was, i don't think she was conscious of it, and especially after shannon left her son, helena refused to acknowledge she was anything like shannon at all.

until now.

(yes i've found my way back to the point, i usually do i promise--and yes my adhd meds are THRIVING rn)

both helena's husband and son have done a lot of emotional work in the recent years and i think it's likely she would take a queue from them (and if her daughters are anything like me, i'm sure they're trying to nudge her towards a therapist at every turn). helena very well may be in a place where she can acknowledge how the expectations she's lived under may have been stifling, and given her son's recent encounter with kim, she very well may be in a place to acknowledge how similar shannon was to her.

and that's where, dear anon, your point comes in.

because helena was there for shannon and eddie's entire marriage. ramon was working, eddie was in the war, abuela and pepa were in la, but helena was right down the street (idk if she was actually right down the street but you know what i mean). helena knew shannon as an 18-20yo woman, as a new mother, as a struggling mother. she was in the unique position of watching shannon go through a marriage alone and remembering exactly how that felt.

kim may look like shannon, but she has no idea how shannon felt during her marriage. eddie can say all the things he wants to say, but it's like talking to a gravestone. i think helena can say the things eddie needs to hear, even if he may not want to hear them.

....and now i really wanna write that conversation. fuck.

[superleeleehipster]

Feeling Nostalgic...

Hey everyone, long time no talk... very long time, lol.

I just wanted to get something off my chest.

So I was going through some stories on Nine Lives, wanting to find something to read and get lost in, and I was just kind of hit with nostalgia.

I was by no means here when the official Caryl fanbase really kicked off, but I began following it in the year 2015. Doesn't sound very far now, but if you think about it, that was nearly 10 years ago, and I fell in it hard. I began looking at all of the amazing blogs and posts that talked about how awesome caryl is and how there were hints here and hints there about them eventually getting together. I soon began making my own posts and trying to keep everyone positive and just talk about our common love. I started writing my own fanfiction, and some of the stories that came out of me in those years, I'm even surprised at how creative I was.

We weren't necessarily stressed about things or other ships or what have you; we just enjoyed caryl and what it was.

Fast forwarding to now, and I feel like this fanbase has gone through the fucking ringer. Bad writing, bad showrunning, shipbaiting, ship wars, gaslighting, trolls chasing Melissa off of Twitter, all that mayhem. We have just gone through so much crap. Now it's like we're holding our breath while we wait for the Daryl Dixon spinoff to give us what we absolutely deserve, but are constantly being pulled back and forth about it.

And the worst part is, some of us are just so tired of being let down that we might be thinking, "even if it goes in our favor... would it be worth it at this point?" And I wouldn't blame those people, I really wouldn't. We've all gone through some hell.

Anyways, to make a long story short... anyone else miss the old days?

Back then, all we did was speak about the shared Caryl scenes in the latest episode, and how Daryl's hair curling around his ears makes him look handsome. Or Carol showing her growing fierceness and self confidence. All the while, so many amazing writers were punching out fanfiction novels that would put the very show's staff of writers to shame. Life was good; we just enjoyed the fanbase we were in.

I just miss those days, you know?

Now everything is so complicated. It's like a once clean river has gotten polluted and no one knows how to clean it up. At the end of the day, most of us just want to enjoy Caryl and the beauty that it was and still is. But so many things are dirtying the water, it's so hard to bring the focus back on why we all came here originally.

Hell I haven't written anything fanfic wise in over a year, and that was only after not writing anything a year prior too. My mojo just got muddied up like the rest of it.

I don't mean to make anyone depressed of course; I'm just venting a little bit I guess. I just miss when things were so much more simple. Could we go back to that? Maybe... if Caryl actually becomes canon and it's done right for both the characters and the audience, but we'll see though.

In the meantime, I'm just going to read some fanfics and remind myself of why I joined in the first place. Maybe that'll remind me of how much I enjoyed writing for these characters.

Have a good day/night/week loves.

[desertfangs]

For Daniel!

18. Do you prefer to see this character suffer or know peace? Angst or comfort? Both?

28. Do you get defensive about this character? If yes, then why?

18. Do you prefer to see this character suffer or know peace? Angst or comfort? Both?

Oof that's hard. Because in my heart, I prefer Daniel to be comfortable and comforted by those he loves. I want him to be happy. He's earned it. (They all have!)

And while I usually write fluffy or happy endings, I usually have to put him through the ringer a little bit first. (I love the hurt/comfort trope a lot.) Fluff and silly stuff is fun, but think it's really interesting what characters do in hard situations and how they manage to get out of them or what will make them open up and actually say the things they need to say to others, etc. So while I don't like seeing Daniel suffer, I do enjoy reading and writing fics where he's not having a good time and seeing how it plays out and what he does about it. Sometimes it doesn't end happily, and that's okay, too. Sometimes things don't.

But in my heart, he is often comfortable in bed with Armand or Marius (or both) and making the other person watch ridiculous YouTube videos about miniatures.

28. Do you get defensive about this character? If yes, then why?

No....? Maybe occasionally? I mean, I think in fandom one always sees takes or headcanons or ideas about characters that make you stop and go "Wait, what?" But I've really made an effort to train myself to go Huh, that's interesting take, I wonder why they think that? instead of knee-jerking to the "Wow, that's dumb" side of things. And I mean, let's be honest, sometimes you just Do Not See It and that's fine! We don't all have to have the same carbon-copy idea of these guys in our heads. (I'm sure plenty of people have the same reaction to many of my takes and headcanons, and that is also fine!)

With Daniel especially, we're not really given anything about his family life or backstory before the interview and even after he's a vampire, there are enough gaps in his story to fill a strip mall. So everyone is just extrapolating their ideas about him from what we're given based on their own ideas and experiences, and that's going to create a lot of variation. Which is fun!! We're not all gonna come to the same conclusions, and that makes things interesting.

I've been in this fandom for a long time and I've loved Daniel for a long time, so I have a lot of ideas about him built up in my head. I've had to reconcile new canon information with my mental image of him a few times over and that always caused some growing pains ('Oh he's mad now??? And building model trains? That's not mad!') And sometimes someone's take where at first I'm like "Huh, never thought about it that way" becomes my favorite new headcanon.

So in short, like... no? I certainly try not to be. And even if I don't jive with a take about Daniel, it doesn't hurt me for someone else to have it, you know?

Thank you so much for the ask!

[still-breathing-au-p3r]

Hello 👋🤗

So, this isn't an ask but I had to mention just how much I LOVE this AU of yours!!! As a hardcore Aragaki-sempai lover, I love the idea that he survives but I also love the realness you put into the story. He may have survived but he's not at 100% yet. If he even WILL be back to 100% at all. The emotional ringer your story has put me through is amazing!!! Please keep up the good work, I look forward to the next installment!!!! <3

(Hi there!)

(I can't tell you how delighted we were to see this in our inbox this morning-- what an excellent thing to wake up to!! We're having an absolute blast writing this beast so we are SO glad to hear that you're enjoying the AU just as much \o/ )

(We've been in a constant state of Emotionally Compromised over these characters and our best pal Shinji in particular since February, so please imagine the two of us reaching through the screen to shake your hand in solidarity lol )

(We have PLANS going forward that we are suuuper looking forward to inflicting on sharing with everyone, so there will be plenty more emotional turmoil to enjoy lmao )

(Thank you so much for this message, it was incredibly sweet and genuinely made our whole entire week!! )

[tobiasdrake]

Into the Tower of Antsudlo to face our kinda shitty destinies.

So it turns out it's a jetstream, not a portal. I'm disappointed.

This is it. I hope the door that no one could open wasn't this one because it just took two baps with the Coral Hammer on the Coral Bells nearby to budge it. The Docarri build the Coral Bells. Surely they meant something else.

Alright team, let's make camp here at this inexplicably flammable lumber pile half-submerged in water.

So. That sucked and I hated it. We all got put through the ringer on that trip. Except you, Garl, because even total dickweeds can't bring themselves to be mean to you. You're a cinnamon roll. Keep doing what you're doing.

Key takeaway is that we're going to fucking die. That's a downer. But we knew that already so it's not that much of a downer, right? ...right?

...

I'm going to bed in my soggy bedroll. Good talk, everyone.

...that actually means a lot to me.

Okay, maybe we've got this. You aren't even supposed to be here and that means you might be able to change things up! We've got this!

Do you think the Docarri come here and leave all this pottery? There's a bunch of jars and stuff that's definitely not naturally occurring.

No, wait. Obviously the tower isn't naturally occurring, so the pottery may have been left behind by whoever built this structure to begin with.

Sorry, I'm still a bit shaken up.

I'm sure this is fine. We were probably meant to do this, right? Completely normal method of transportation.

SHIT THAT'S THE DOOR

Probably! It's a door, but it looks important! Guys! Break the pipe! Do something! Don't let it pass us by! GUYS.

You guys are fucking useless.

Except you, Garl. You're my bestie.

And you, Serai. We adore you and we're glad you're with us, regardless of whatever might be going on with you.

Zale, I give you a lot of shit but you're pretty cool too.

Everyone else here is fucking useless.

THE DOOR

Great work, team. We all pulled together and made it through. See, Zale? I told you we didn't need to resort to petty vandalism to get here but no, you wouldn't listen to me.

What are we, thugs or something?

Now, this looks much more like an ancient door sealed away that no one has ever crossed through. Look at those markings. There's something almost spiritual about this place. Teaks could probably spend a lifetime examining these carvings.

Well, that's not much of an obstacle. Garl, you still got those pressure cooker bombs of yours?

Just because I deserved this, that doesn't mean I can't be mad about it. Remember me as I was. Crying and shrieking obscenities that can't be published in most sections of this library at the World Eater as it swallows me whole.

Why didn't it open? Aren't we supposed to be children of fate or some shit? Defective-ass fucking prophet gave us some defective-ass prophecies. "You are the Chosen; Go to the door that only opens for the Chosen WHOOPS IT DOESN'T FUCKING OPEN I GUESS I'M LYING."

I hope I drowned that fish before we all died.

Oh you're on the other side of the Liar Door. That's fantastic. Hang on a sec... Zale, give me those papers I gave you. Yeah, the ones we wrote out during training.

Right. Here we go. Ahem.

This here's a court summons. I will expect to see you in the courthouse at Mirth, right after we build one, so that we can settle the matter of false advertisement.

Awfully informal. Are you coming with us? There's still room in Garl's backpack if you want to be Cargo.

Codes are flexible. They're social structures that only exist because we choose to let them. The only power they have is what we pretend they do.

So that's a "Yes you can" but "No you won't".

Guessing that's the true name of the Fleshmancer, then?

Yep, that's the Fleshmancer.

Shot in the dark, have you ever considered solving the Fleshmancer problem with violence?

Alright, I get it. "The consequences would be dire" or whatever.

GARL NO

Love the enthusiasm but please don't let your mouth write checks that I don't know if we can cash. I am not ready to throw hands at the Dweller of Strife's dad. When I suggested violence a moment ago, that was not me volunteering our services.

Well, the Chosen Ones door wouldn't open for us and we're failing at our prophecies. So. Probably not. I'd say that's a definite no. We are not who all this predestination shit had in mind.

But beggars can't be choosers and I don't care if you're a god or not, those ratty clothes do not imply a man with many options. So we're the best you've got. Deal with it.

Oh, sure. Piece of cake. We live in a tropical paradise so. Y'know. We're definitely equipped to hit up the fucking arctic on a goose chase for a homeless deity who smells of book must and mold.

Oh. Not even going to let us find warmer clothes first. Straight to the arctic.

Okay, but I'm taking three books with me as collateral. If this winds up being a trap and there is no artifact, I'm burning them for warmth.

[skyderman]

8, 12, 16, 20, 24 for superlatives :D

omg that's so many! *rolls up sleeves*

8. who is the tallest? the shortest?

i thought it would be anathema but it's actually stelmaria at 6'5! tall barbarian queen ♥ shortest goes to either knurgag, who's a kobold, or tarók, who's an aarocokra (raven), neither of which have canon heights as far as i can remember.

(pictured: stelmaria, knurgag)

12. who is the best singer?

haha i think that would have to go to my two bards, eliard tack and althaea arravis rev'rian tiil siilvendar. yes i just wanted to type out her full name. yes she is an elf. between the two of them they would have the most obnoxious of contests. second to them is zephyr :) he just has a nice voice.

(pictured: eliard tack)

16. who has the most scars?

i love this question because i haven't thought about it before somehow. anathema, stelmaria, and myrhaen all have been through the ringer. it's difficult to say. anathema's backstory involves her holding her own in a dangerous and desolate world for a while prior to campaign events, and then subsequently fighting many powerful foes. not to mention that she's basically a celestial inhabiting a corpse. that being said she's good at hiding and avoiding serious damage in general. stel's a barbarian, so she's used to taking significant hits. she was also a monster hunter in her backstory, so i can see her having a lot of reminders from that time. myrhaen just kinda gets fucked up. they're a ranger in a dangerous land. and it's worth mentioning that they lost their leg too. but they've learned some valuable lessons about survival in their time. zephyr is a runner-up simply because he's my longest running character and has been through some shit at this point, but he's also generally good at avoiding damage.

(pictured: myrhaen + lilter the hawk)

20. who has the most siblings?

almost all my characters are only children! zephyr has an adoptive brother, rend, so canonically it's him. but now i'm imagining stelmaria with like 5 siblings back at home that wrestle her whenever she comes home and that image is just too good

(pictured: zephyr and rend)

24. who would win a battle royale with all the others?

NOOO DON'T MAKE MY CHILDREN FIGHTTT anyway it's anathema. no contest. (at least, at the moment... level 20 zephyr might be another story.) zephyr and stel would pose the largest threats, but as long as she keeps her distance from stel's axe, she quite literally has the power of a god to work with. now i'm imagining everyone else teaming up to take her down. depending on which version of her we're talking, they'd probably have to!

(pictured: anathema)

thank you for the ask!! these were so fun! ♥♥

send me a superlative ask!

[atlasisnothere]

I'm gonna say it: I think they should never have had to put in all of that set-up and rehashing of what happened in Boba Fett ep 5 .

Like, they really just said "cool we're gonna get Mando and Grogu to the *throne room* and in there is a disillusioned *Bo Katan* and then that's when we stop" as if that's meant to be a really satisfying start to the season. I know that recently there was that weird Jon Favrou lore drop about how the first 2 seasons took place over a couple of years, and they might be wanting to try and convey *time passing* in going to nevaro and going to the armorer and what have you, but this feels really off-kilter in a strange way.

From where I'm standing, they should have started the episode with Din already heading to Mandalore and Bo-Katan and gone from there. There's plenty of time to establish time skips, maybe even sprinkle it in to off-handed dialogue, maybe Din is in a call with Karga as he's approaching the planet and karga expresses how much he wants Din to see the refurbished town or whatever.

It annoys me as well that as much as streaming services have ruined the modern media consumption, larger properties have the space to utilize streaming culture. They treated this episode like we needed to be coddled and we needed to be retold all of the things that Din is aiming for this season, when they just completely ignored the incredible marketing opportunity to tell everyone to start their re-watch of the previous seasons, maybe even restructure some of the things on disney+ to put those Boba Fett episodes under the Mandalorian banner proper, and ignored how they could really lean into that aspect of how streaming as a whole works at its fundamentals. We didn't need to be re-told everything.

They could have generated so much more hype, but most importantly, could have given the writers and the rest of the creative team so much more time to really explore and have fun with the show if they just let them start from a point that actually matters to the story. Think about how it's going to be in future re-watches of the series as well, we as the audience right now know why this sort of thing makes a little bit of sense, there was a pandemic and nothing could be worked on for 2~ years, but going back later will make this episode look even worse.

Look, I know that there's probably a lot of intricate things do with contracts and episode orders and the like, especially with the disney overlords being as restrictive as they are, but they really did not need to have that entire episode be low-energy set-up, especially with how the previous seasons have ended. If anything, they should be ramping up the tension for the start of every season.

Something, something, artistic intent and the flow of a story, you get the gist of what I wanted to say.

(Let's try and ignore how those Boba Fett episodes should have been put-up as a mid-season-break bonus episode for The Mandalorian. We all know why this episode was messed up, and idk who was in charge of Boba Fett but they really put Mando's team through the ringer and it shows.)

((still love the show though, those moments with Grogu and Dad I mean Din are goddamn Delightful))

oh I 100% agree! the pacing of this ep was just weird and it felt very much like half of it was a recap of what we already knew. like if you're gonna sideline boba fett in his own damn show to set up this season, then why are we needing the same information fed to us again? like yeah, the armorer wants din to atone in the waters of mandalore. we knew that. mandalore is considered by most to be an uninhabitable wasteland. we knew that too. and yeah, the trip to nevarro felt unnecessary and pretty much like the writers were like 'hey, here's something to show that time has passed!' which is even further confusing the timeline. plus the stuff with IG-11? also felt unnecessary, and kind of led me to believe that the episode was going to centre around din attempting to fix him until we showed up on that planet with bo-katan. and then it just. ended there? it felt like everything and yet also nothing happened in that episode.

but no, I agree that the moments with din and grogu were adorable, especially with din teaching grogu about the ship and really cementing grogu's choice to be a mandalorian like his dad. I like that they kept that consistency around that choice and didn't backtrack it with din contemplating sending him back to a jedi again or anything like that to create another point of conflict (although I do find it funny that of all the things they needlessly recapped from those bobf eps, they didn't explain why grogu is back with din - like yeah, if you didn't watch bobf, we'll explain everything else to you again BUT why din went from tearfully bidding his son goodbye to once again carting him around the galaxy).

I'm hoping that things will pick up and get into the groove again with the next couple episodes, and I don't think that this episode was all bad, but I think it was definitely a drop in quality from the opening episodes of the first two seasons.

[the-firebird69]

This is a beer that. we were thinking of brewing It's very popular and. went all over the world and people liked it And it was a reminder of Oktoberfest and went October came around. They bought a lot of it. and it was a beer hall beer. It tasted just like it. And I had it myself. And I know that it tastes like beer, all beer, which really tastes great. It's fresh and it is. from right around the corner. And it is a balance of hops and barley And it is a nice, clear Amber and it has kicked to it. And it really tastes good It's not bitter. It's not sweet.. So we wanted to make this again. And one of the St Pauli girls showed up. and she said I want to get back at them because they didn't pay me friend. anything. And it's happening a lot. We're hearing it all over the world that these morons, when they're in control, didn't pay anybody for anything. for anything. And the women hate them. And we think the woman is good workout, said they are. They had to to make it. They had to actually work at jobs.. And they did. And they still do it. They do. OK, now they do very well. So he wants to hire the same. polygrel back and we do a new picture. and we would make it for the label and she'd have the real beer mugs and real beer And she said she can have them. And we know And we're going to try and do this We do need a middleman. and we know who is doing it and we don't want them to do it again. And if you want to get back at them, they probably took over your beer company. If you did everything else and they ruin it because they're irresponsible children. Right now they're getting devastated.

Hera

This idiot trump could have a whole bunch of stuff about this. beer. and she's saying he fooled our son and our son doesn't know. And all sorts of stuff. And he's looking at this stuff saying somebody put up a completely fraudulent. post. The whole thing is wrong because they came up with the name and it's these two and Dave and Carol. And this guy is writing all this stuff, and everybody knows it's a lie And he keeps doing this to our son constantly And he is always wrong and everyone tells him he's wrong. And it's like he's motivating himself to do something hateful to our son. And we don't want that. And we don't want him to harm him. A son found out about it. And he's gonna bring this **** through the ringer like nobody's been through it And Hera too, found out about Sarah. These idiots are going to bring. about change. And they're going to be inside of the demon. and we will fuse the demon after we take their brain out. And everybody's going to want to question them. and kill all their people to try and find out where they are. And we're going to do it to them over and over until they're gone. Coming up very soon too. And she says, yeah, we're gonna take your brain out and hers, and we're gonna cart it around, and you're gonna think it's you 'cause you're so stupid And people can kill you 'cause you're gonna keep saying it's you. and she's talking to trump, of course this is gonna rule. I see what they're saying. It's a function. We also wanna make the demons. And I'm gonna cart this **** around. and blame the demons. No, we're gonna blame this idiots, and we're gonna stuff a few of them inside the demons. So if their brains get blown out, they think they're doing it. And these guys don't think they're doing it, and they'll tell everybody.

Thor Freya.

And very nice, very well planned out. And now we're gonna help execute the plan and these two idiots will suffer in their son for their idiotic **** with us.

Olympus

[songbirdtayler]

Im posting this here since no one will see it and I don't want my brother to find it in my journal. I still want to die. I keep thinking about it every day. It's been this way for months on end and it's at the point where I'm not scared to die. I already have things mostly planned out. I know when and which day would work best, Im gonna write a will soon and then letters to everyone and maybe do some videos in case the letters are unreadable. I just need to get that all done and choose how to go out. I do want a bit more money before I go so my family has less to worry about but they can sell all my stuff im not giving to people. They won't have to worry about another mouth to feed or the upstairs being too hot, they can move my fans downstairs to help keep things cooler and hopefully make the electrical bill go down some. They also won't have to worry about another person getting COVID. I won't weigh them down anymore. I won't weigh anyone down. I won't ever have to be in pain or cause anyone more pain again. It will be my last act of pain. Sure it's a big pain but they'll be okay. Everyone I care about has people there for them. They won't see me become a bigger monster, they'll be able to have some good memories of me. I don't want them to have more bad memories of me. I don't want to hurt them anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to hurt. Everything hurts so much. My heart hurts so much. I'm not strong enough to keep going on. I'm so tired of being hurt all the time. Things just keep getting worse. I've managed to hurt my best friend so much that he doesnt even love me anymore. We're still friends but it hurts ya know. And it hurts more knowing that I'll never even be close to the one he likes. I can't make him comfy anymore, I can't make him happy or laugh or support him etc. I just hurt him it seems like:/ he used to really love me but I ruined that. I ruin everything I touch. That's the other reason why I gotta go. I don't want to ruin more things. I just want everyone to be happy and okay. I don't want to make the world a darker place. I think I've done all I can, I don't see what Im needed here for anymore. I don't think I really matter. Its hard to see why I would. How can a monster matter ? Not only that, people don't really talk to me...I'm ignored a lot so I stopped really reaching out. I'm pretty lonely most of the time tbh. I'm not someone people really check in on or want to spend time with. I'm just here. Im not even good at what I used to be good for so I don't even have people really reaching out for those reasons now. It's pretty funny people always tell me they love me and care but they don't really reach out or try to talk to me one on one yet they always will for other people. I can't even be treated kindly when I'm clearly worried about someone else yet they love me. The irony of it all. If you care then why don't you try with me!!! Do you see why it's so hard to see why I matter? If I matter why don't people try..I don't get it. People know I'm going through a rough time yet they still don't even reach out. IM NOT THAT STRONG IVE BEEN THROUGH THE RINGER OF PAIN I NEED SUPPORT AND CARE GODDAMNIT. So I gotta be a monster it's what makes sense. Maybe I would have been stronger if I had more support and if things stopped getting worse all the time. But I don't have either of those things. All I have is more pain and suffering and loneliness and seeing myself further descend into being a bigger monster. I try so hard to do good and be kind and happy and a good friend but I keep fucking up. I can't even do something simple. I was too greedy letting myself live this long. If I was gone noone of the pain I caused would have happen and I wouldn't have to experience all this pain. I would be at peace and people would be happy but I'm foolish and hopefully. I won't let that get the best of me now tho. I'll be gone before fall. I don't have enough strength to make it to my bday.

[salted-fish-girl]

"Like what ya see, Yeager?" Ymir and Hitch did a full spin to show off their dresses. 

"Don't get any ideas now. I only belong to my baby." Eren offered Ymir a brittle smile. Yup! Shadis will be losing his remaining hair tonight.

Jean groaned when Ymir dragged Hitch back to their hotel room because Historia needed help with her gown. 

By the time they arrived at the ballroom, Bertholdt was already trashed and was talking nonsense.

"What does he have that I don't have?" 

"Nothing!"

"I know right?!" 

"Chicks are weird like that!" 

Reiner thinks he's the best for making sure Bertholdt's glass is always full, it is a terrible idea, considering they're not even halfway done the whole night.

Where are they?

'We're on our way.' is the only text he got. 

"¡Maldita sea, que buena esta!"

Eren turned around to see what warranted Connie's Spanish. 

Annie is a dead ringer for Elsa in her fitted light blue dress. Armin and Annie are too busy eyefucking each other to notice that they got the room. 

Then comes the third wheel… For a second Eren almost didn't recognize Mikasa who's wearing a strapless pink dress. Though not as revealing as the other dresses, it gives him a sense of unease seeing his friend in it. 

Armin looked like a downright casanova with Annie holding on to his right arm and Mikasa holding his left. They slowly descended through the grand staircase with the spotlight following them. What the fuck? 

Didn't those two hate each other? Eren is perplexed seeing Mikasa and Annie talking amicably while his best friend presumably went to get drinks. 

So far, everyone is having a good time except for Bert and well… him. 

"Want my jacket?" he whispered. He didn't want their friends to hear him ask for the nth time. Mikasa never really disappoints, she always knows what he needs. Despite the noise and all this distraction, she still hears him. She turned around with her usual expression of 'what do you need, Eren?' written all over her face. 

"Do you want me to hold it for you?" He looked good in his blazer but if Eren's not comfortable, Mikasa will gladly take it off his hands. 

He facepalmed knowing that she misunderstood but instead of explaining he surprised himself "Want to get out of here?" 

Eren never fully understood but he can see how truly selfish he is. She didn't even ask why and just nodded at him. 

He took a hold of her wrist and pulled her away… just like when they were kids. 

What he didn't know and something that Mikasa will never admit is that she felt just as selfish as he did. She knows he's going to win prom king with Historia as his prom queen. And while she's been resigned to her fate of seeing Eren with some other girl, when Eren asked her, the sleeping fire in her heart took over. There was nothing she could do but let the flames devour her. 

He holds her wrist and pulls her away like when they were kids, Mikasa felt like a princess that she reads in her storybooks long before she met Eren Yeager. Perhaps the most important part is, he is Mikasa's prince… I want to be just the two of us, for a little while longer. Just tonight. 

As soon as they entered a nearby diner, Eren saw a group of college boys eyeing Mikasa like a piece of meat. He cursed under his breath. 

Eren put an arm around her and ordered. Mikasa didn't question his arm on her shoulder nor his decision to not eat at the diner. Her face brightened up when he handed her a strawberry milkshake. "Don't drink it all at once. You'll have a brain freeze." she smiled at him and nodded. 

They were laughing and halfway through the fries when they arrived at Eren's hotel room. 

"Bertholdt is a bit drunk… I'm worried about Armin." Mikasa doesn't want to go back but she also doesn't want anything bad to happen to her friend. 

"Armin can surely take Bert!" they laughed as they cheered for their blonde friend's romantic endeavor. 

"Did you know that Annie thought that Armin has a crush on me?" 

"Armin, you dog!" 

“I can imagine Armin getting an aneurism if his dear mother-” Eren not so subtly points at Mikasa “didn’t approve of the girl he is pining for!”

“Really?” It's been an ongoing joke about how Mikasa is Armin’s mother. “This comes out from a guy who refuses to go home unless I drop him off at Armin's house because he insists on kissing him goodnight!”

“Shut up! I was drunk!”

Their sides are splitting because of laughing too much. 

"hahahaha!" 

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Is that why the two of you had this intense rivalry? To think you accuse me of being dramatic by calling Jean my mortal enemy!"

[usedpidemo]

Hiatus.

Hello everyone. π here.

Today I come bearing unfortunate/fortunate news for you all: I will be taking a prolonged hiatus, effective April 1st.

I know we're close to the 1st anniversary from the creation of this blog, but after careful consideration and advice, I have decided to step away for some time. To be quite honest, I was already thinking of a hiatus far back when 2022 started, but I've kept the problem under the rug as long as I can in the hopes that it will go away. Instead, it worsened and ruined my already splintered confidence and self-esteem that requires urgent healing and repair. Besides that, my loneliness is killing me even more especially the more time I've spent online. With that in mind, I will try to keep distance away from Tumblr and other social sites while I deeply reflect, re-evaluate, and repent.

I don't know when I will come back, hopefully it won't be long, but when I do, I will return a much better person with a healthier outlook on things. Please don't worry about me. I have to tackle this by myself and overcome. It's just a natural cycle of life.

If I've ever rubbed off on you the wrong way because of how cynical I generally am, I'm sorry. I know that life gives all of us shit and we just want a refuge from the troubles of this world, even for a few minutes, but sometimes, we just act based on how we feel at that moment. I've been really going through the ringer these last few months and I reacted without awareness for how it would affect the people around me. Again, I'm sorry.

Thank you for your continued support over the past 11 months; whether you follow me, liked and reblogged whatever hot garbage I posted, helped me with my stupid questions, sent me asks, or have only read a single word of my work. You are the lifeblood of this blog and I couldn't be more grateful and humbled you gave me a chance.

Delivered with love,

π

TL;DR: Taking some time off to clear my mind and spend some time away from the internet so I can continue working properly upon return.

(Feel free to send asks or message me privately here or on Discord, I might periodically check once every 2-3 days and answer, but no guarantees. See you then!)

[ashleycatchemm]

1-07: Now Or Never

Part 7 of ??

Pairings: Reggie x Reader, Luke x Julie, Willie x Alex

Summary: (Y/n) (L/n) has been able to see and feel ghosts ever since she was little, which made it hard to tell the ghosts from the humans. Everyone has always thought she was a bit crazy, even her best friends, Julie and Flynn. But when three ghosts with a love for music appear in Julie's garage, suddenly (Y/n) doesn't seem so crazy anymore.

Song: Now Or Never (Julie and The Phantoms Cast)

Season 1 Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩👻 ♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩

After a couple of hours of flipping through the book, I got through the whole book twice and wasn't able to find a thing. I huffed in anger and rubbed my head in annoyance "Damn it. There is no way I'm going to Caleb for those damn answers." My phone suddenly started buzzing, my ringer being turned off, pulling the phone out of my back pocket, I noticed the caller ID to be Julie.

I swiped to the right to answer the call, bringing the phone up to my right ear I said "Hey Julie. What's up?" She was quick to respond "Oh no. Don't 'Hey Julie' me." I flinched a little at her tone of voice.

"First Flynn gets angry at us and now you skip school? Aren't you at least a bit determined to make it up to her?"

I shrugged while getting up to sit on my bed "Well, Yeah. Of course I am. You guys are like family to me." Julie huffed in anger on the phone before speaking "If that's true, than meet me at my moms studio. Pronto." With that she hung up, not even giving me a chance to respond.

Taking the phone away from my ear, I stared at my lock screen for a couple of seconds before getting up to go put the candles and books back in the compartment.

♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩👻 ♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩

I walked over to Julie's house and was quick to knock on the door only for Julie's father to answer. "Oh, Hey (Y/n). Julie just headed out back." He threw a thumb over his shoulder and I was about to respond when a small tune of what sounded to be an electric guitar and a bass could be heard coming from the back of the house. I widened my eyes while stating "Sounds like Julie already started without me, I better get going!" Squeezing past her dad I was quick to make my way to the studio.

♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩👻 ♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩

Once I made it to the studio Julie opened the door and was about to slip inside, only for her to notice me and gesture for me to go in. I nodded my head a bit to the tune of the guitar and bass, only for Julie to walk in next to me, shutting the door behind her.

"Guys."

This caused both boys to stop playing and look at the two of us. Reggie turning around in the process. "You aren't supposed to be playing out here alone" Reggie was quick to correct Julie as he stated "But we're not alone" Luke came up from behind him, throwing an arm over Reggie, pulling him close for a hug from behind " 'Cause we always have each other." Giant smiles sat on the two of their faces as Reggie looked back at Luke and pointed at him, only to quickly bring his hand back down and look back over at the two of us.

Reggie chuckled a little as Luke took his arm back and stepped a few feet away, I went over to the couch as Julie said "Ugh" Before unplugging the amp, I flopped back across the couch, legs crossed on one end, my head sitting on the pillow on the other. Luke took off his guitar and explained "But...but we had the volume level on one." Reggie was quick to throw in his input as Julie walked over to stand in front of the piano.

"But we rocked it, on volume ten."

Reggie was quick to gesture behind him to the amp as he asked "Want us to play it again?" I snapped one of my fingers at him, causing my fingers to look like a gun as I pointed at him while stating "Yes." Luke cheerfully went to grab his guitar, Reggie's attention was now on me, as was Julie's, she narrowed her eyes at me and was quick to say "No." in response.

Luke let out a sigh before sadly putting down his guitar as she unplugged the other amp. Reggie's attention was still on me, as was mine on him. He raised his brows at me, a small smirk gracing his lips as he sent me a wink with a smile showing his pearly whites. Taking off his bass, Luke pointed at Julie "We've actually been waiting for you to get home" Reggie turned around, rubbing his hands together in excitement as their attention was now on Julie.

"Ok, so we have some pretty major news to tell you."

Luke explained as Julie waited patiently for the news "We had a band meeting earlier, and..." Luke pointed at Reggie, as he hit his hands on his thighs in a drum roll, All while making a weird face. This caused a giggle to escape my lips. Reggie stopped drumming and glanced over at me, a smile on his face, before looking back at Julie. "We wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve. And no, you're not dreaming" Luke stated as Reggie cheerfully brought his hands together in excitement, the two of them smiling brightly.

Julie let out a slow sigh, not to thrilled about the idea as she stated "Oh." In a boring manor. Causing both of their smiles to drop as Luke said "Oh, uh.....oh, she said 'oh' um..." he chuckled quickly in fake amusement, now starting to grow aggravated as he's been told 'no' twice in one day. "That's what you say when you get socks on your birthday, not when you're invited to join the most epic band ever." I let out a small chuckle at their disappointed faces.

"Sorry. I'm honored, but I can't think about anything but Flynn right now. She's still mad at me for lying. She hasn't even texted me back."

Julie stated worriedly as Luke looked away "Yeah you're in a tough spot..." Reggie nodded his head in agreement "Yeah" he said as Luke looked back at Julie and asked "So, do you wanna join the band?" Julie's frown was quick to turn into an angry scowl before stating "Read the room dude." And walking over towards me, I stared at her in confusion as she opened her mouth to say something only to get cut off by Luke.

He stood close behind her "Oh come on! We need you, and you need us because you need music." This caused Julie to turn around and listen to the two of them, my eyes landing on Reggie as he looked at Julie and Luke "We found this poem that you wrote.." looking at Reggie, Luke stated "And Reggie and I, we added this really cool melody to it." I watched as a giant smile formed on Reggie's face, causing my heart to beat a bit faster within my chest.

A smile of my own sat on my lips as I stared at him. Luke took out and unfolded a piece of paper as he stated "It sounds awesome." Julie's stern voice now grabbed all three of our attentions, the boys looking away from the paper, as I looked away from Reggie, only for all eyes to land on Julie. "Where did you find that?" Luke was quick to pull Reggie in front of him, only for Reggie's eyes to land on me, rather than the girl in front of him.

"Uh... definitely not your dream box"

Julie stepped forward angrily "You went through my stuff?!" She ended up pushing Reggie out of the way to get to Luke. Reggie fell on top of my legs as Luke was now getting chased by Julie around the piano "I know, but..." Reggie was quick to get up off my legs, a light blush coating both of our cheeks as he looked over at Julie with a smile "Yeah, we can do that now!" I let out a small laugh as he smiled down at me, moving my legs I nodded my head for him to sit down, which he gladly did.

Once he sat down, he put his arms back along the top of the couch, as I threw my legs back on top of him, causing him to grunt from the impact of my legs. "No! No you can't! Boundaries! Give it back!" She slammed her hands on the piano in anger and distress. Luke hopped on the bench seat before stating "No! Hey, you need to realize how insanely talented you are. Ok? Listen to this." He put the paper down on the piano and read it to her.

"If somebody hurts you..."

She tried to grab the paper out of Lukes hand only for him to quickly hide it from her and keep it out of reach. "If somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too." He then started singing "And my life, my life would be real low, zero, flyin solo..." Reggie nodded his head along with the tune before adding a "Oh-oh" at the end with a smile. Julie and Luke both looked over at Reggie who now sat on the couch with me, only to look back at each other.

"It's a killer melody"

Luke stated, only for Julie to sigh and respond with "I wrote that about Flynn, when she was helping me with all my mom stuff. I gotta go."

Julie turned around and headed towards the door while gesturing for me to go with her "Come on (Y/n)." I sent her a confused look, as she stopped to face me "Why do I have to go?" Julie let out a sigh in slight aggravation "Because she's your friend." I scoffed while crossing my arms a cross my chest "Yeah, a friend who thinks I'm crazy, and calls me a drunk." Julie shook her head.

"You know what? I don't feel like having this conversation right now." She continued to walk toward the door only for Luke to speak up "Hey, what about the band?" Julie stepped outside the door before turning around "Oh....I almost forgot. Stay out of my room!" With that she slammed the doors shut and walking away.

"Yeah?"

Luke asked before hopping off the piano and running over to the door. Luke stuck his head out of it "We will if you join our band." He shouted at Julie. I looked over at Reggie, only to see him giving me a stern look "What?" I asked as Luke hopped back up on the piano, summoning his guitar to play it. Reggie's eyebrows raised as he stated "You know you should help Julie look." I shook my head, all while narrowing my eyes at Reggie.

"And why should I? All Flynn does is attack me about my drinking problems."

Luke stayed quiet, strumming his guitar, deciding to keep out of this conversation. "She does that because she cares, and is worried about you." My angry eyes looked off to the side, not having a response to give. After a couple of seconds of silence, Reggie sighed "Look." Reggie stated, all while placing his hands on my shoulders, my eyes landed back on him.

Reggie's green eyes stared into my (e/c) ones "Flynn is just looking out for you. Just a little harsher than Julie is, because she doesn't want you going down a bad path. I know that right now you'd rather not bother with her, but she's still your friend, so please, try to help look for her? Because it would be the right thing to do." Reggie sent me a small smile, and I stared at him for a couple of seconds.

A groan in annoyance left my lips as I swung my legs off of his "Fine! I'll go." Reggie's smile grew as I got up and marched over to the door. "Just, stay here." I pointed to the both of them before walking out the door and slamming it shut.

*Reggie’s P.O.V*

A smile sat on my face as I watched (Y/n) leave. A warm feeling spread through my chest at being able to convince her to go help Julie. My arms stayed along the top of the couch as I stared longer than needed at the door that slammed shut behind her. The sound of Luke's guitar being the only thing heard in the room until he cleared his throat, grabbing my attention.

I looked over at Luke, the smile still sitting on my face as I moved my arms down from on top of the couch. "Man, you've got it bad." Luke chuckled as the smile left my face, only to get replaced with a confused look. "What?" I asked, Luke chuckled and stopped strumming his guitar.

He looked up at me "Come on man." His hands wrested on his guitar as he continued "You two have only known each other for two days, yet you both act like you've known each other for two years." I shook my head in response to his claim.

"Luke, we barely know each other. I can't have a thing for her- I don't have a thing for her."

I sternly shook my head in denial, but over all felt my cheeks grow warm in response to my statement. 'I don't like her like that. Sure she's attractive. But it's only been two days. Two flipping days!' I felt my heart beat a bit faster just from the thought of her.

Luke chuckled in response before giving a shake of his head "Okay, keep telling yourself that Reginald." I rolled my eyes at the use of my first name, as he went back to strumming his guitar.

My boots came up onto the coffee table in front of me, crossing one leg over the other. My eyes drifted back over to the closed door, only for a smile to tug at the corner of my lips. 'Maybe I do feel something...' the thought stayed in my brain for a couple of seconds, only for me to quickly shake my head 'But she's a human and I'm a ghost. There is no way this would work.' I let out a small sad huff as my smile quickly faded away.

I sat up and took my boots off the table, bringing my feet back down to the floor beneath me. I was quick to move my attention away from the door and walked over to Luke who was by the piano.

Prev // Next

[sunlightandsuffering]

a little dilfren lol

One hand on the wheel, one clutching the gear shift as he readies himself to take off, god he's missed this. It's electric, the feeling of being in the car, the adrenaline, the feeling of going 100, 120, 140, 160, building up, up, up, as fast as he can push it. Bypassing, the other racers easy, his car way faster, pure speed, the purr of the engine. The call of the crowd at a meet-up, his pretty girl on the sidelines watching him excitedly, dark-haired beauty waving at him, knowing he'll win his race.

He can hear the crowd around him, he's ready to go, ready to fight, to win, eyes flashing to the rear view mirror for a quick scan of the crowd and everyone is there.

Without preamble his left foot finds the floor as he steps on the clutch, right had switching through gears from neutral to reverse, and wait what?

The call of the crowd turns a little higher pitched, sounds a little more childlike, a little more like "Daddy are you going to use super gear?"

Eren's eyes flash back to the rear view mirror to see his 'crowd', three excited little faces in the back of his SUV, Hana bouncing happily in the middle in the smallest carseat while Nico waves his hands next to her, Yumi leaning her head against the window, uninterested. Suddenly, it's all clear, his left foot is on the floor, there is no clutch, his hand switching gears so easily because his prized race car is actually a practical black SUV equipped with about a hundred different safety measure and car seats.

To top it all off, his dark haired beauty is not excitedly cheering for him in the crowd, she's glaring at him from their porch, like she knows he's thinking about racing with their three children in the car.

Seconds later, his ringer chimes through the bluetooth in the car and all the children cheer, 'Mommy!'. He accepts, staring at her, cool grey eyes from the drivers seat and her voice comes through the speakers, clear as day. "Eren you'd better not be thinking about any reckless driving." He swallows nervously, "I'm not, babe I promise." "Are you sure, because I know that look in your eyes, I can see it from here, you're going to tear out of the driveway at 60 km/h and you're going to drive around like you're in a race car." "Promise, babe, absolutley not, I'd never." It's silent for a beat, and he watches her relax a little from where she's standing on the porch. Eren is hopeful maybe she'll come over and even give him a kiss for his troubles.

It is his three year old that once again rats him out, "Daddy is going to take us super gear mommy!"

Of course, the rest of his brood all piles in, "Yeah," Nico asserts helpfully, "We're going to drive super gear and be so fast!! We're in a race car, just like the one in daddy's garage!"

He can see Mikasa's murderous mama bear rampage a mile away before she even hangs up the phone, and after checking all three of his mirrors, he does exactly what she said he was gonna do and tears out of the driveway at 60, tires spinning, and turning the wheel so fast his children scream in delight.

"Eren--" her voice is menacing but he cuts her off quickly as he gasses it down their empty street, "See you later baby." Sometimes Eren misses his race car, but the SUV isn't the worst thing ever... especially not when he has his own personal fan club in the back cheering him on.

[yourmandevine]

And in case I don't see you: Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight (or: some personal news)

No sense burying the lede:

One month shy of four years after joining up, and with something like 570 columns, features, blog posts, and blurbs in the rear-view, today's my last day at The Ringer. Barring some unforeseen Friday afternoon news, my final piece will have been about the Knicks' best-laid plans not quite panning out the way they intended. Let it never be said that the basketball content gods don't have a sense of humor.

I'm grateful to have spent four years sharing a masthead with some of the best writers on the Internet, and to have carved out a niche on what I've felt was, pound-for-pound, the best NBA team in the business. I'm grateful I got to co-host a podcast with two great friends for a while, to everyone who took the time to listen to it, and to everyone who said (and still says!) nice things about it. I'm grateful to have gotten the chance to be part of the Ringer Union, and to have played a small role in trying to make a company I loved a little more fair and equitable.

I'm grateful to have gotten the opportunity to grow and develop as both a writer and analyst. I feel like I'm better at this job than I used to be, thanks in no small part to the freedom and support I've enjoyed. I'm grateful to everyone, past and present, who has made The Ringer the sort of place where someone like me could level up.

I'll still be writing about the NBA on the Internet. (And talking about it into a microphone again, too.) I'll say more about that soon. Right now, the only thing I want to say is: thank you.

Specifically, I want to thank some of the many people whose names never showed up on the things I published, but who were indispensable to every one of them—and, beyond that, to so much more of what The Ringer makes. As much as this company is about the on-air personalities on your favorite podcasts, it's also about the literal scores of people who bust their asses every day to try to make sure we're making the best stuff we can.

It takes a lot of people to make us look good. Here are the names of the ones who helped me.

MY EDITORS

Nobody edited me more often than Matt Dollinger, Justin Verrier, or Chris Almeida—three very different dudes, but all patient, professional, and kind, despite the sheer tonnage of words I dropped on their heads. Many thanks also to culture czar Andrew Gruttadaro (without whom the Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup and Pete & Pete pieces wouldn't have happened), Aric Jenkins, Ben Glicksman, Chris Ryan, Danny Chau, Donnie Kwak, Justin Sayles, Mallory Rubin, Megan Schuster, and Riley McAtee for pinch-hitting over the years. I'm sorry I never once hit a word count. I hope it all still hung together OK.

THE COPY DESK

I can't stress enough how comforting it has been to know that everything I write will pass through the hands of copy chief Craig Gaines and his crack team of copy editors and fact-checkers. It never ceased to amaze me that they would routinely and graciously take thousands of words about, I dunno, the Pelicans defense, and treat it like it mattered, and make sure I didn't sound dumb (or, at least, any dumber than usual).

Mil gracias to: Abou Kamara, Amaar Burton, Analis Bailey, Charlotte Goddu, Chris Grismer, Damian Burchardt, Dan Comer, Daniel Chin, Isaac Levy-Rubinett, Iza Wojciechowska, Jack McCluskey, Jacqueline Kantor, Jordan Ligons, Julianna Ress, Julie Kliegman, Kellen Becoats, Kjerstin Johnson, Lex Pryor, and—last alphabetically in this group, but certainly not least—Shaker Samman.

THE ART DEPARTMENT

One of the fringe benefits of working here has been knowing that, when my post is ready to go up, I'm going to get to see whatever rad thing David Shoemaker and his team have crafted to put up at the top of it. (Pro tip: If you write a long enough thing to get the feature build, they give it the bigger and wider art, which looks even friggin' cooler, IMO.) It's a true delight to know that, even if the words aren't all that good, the pictures will be. Thanks to David, Alycea Tinoyan, Matt James, Neil Francisco, and Jonathan Bartlett for making sure that's true.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM

I know, this sounds crazy, but apparently it's not always easy to get audience members excited to read a bunch of words about, like, the Spurs' bench? And yet, the perennially underappreciated and over-yelled-at-on-the-Internet social team never stopped working to find ways to do it. Shouts out to Alex Stamas, Amelia Wedemeyer, Bridget Geerlings, David Lara III, Jomi Adeniran, Julie Phayer, Keith Fujimoto, Kiera Givens, Logan Rhoades, Nicole Bae, Pat Muldowney, and Rubie Edmondson for tirelessly running up that hill.

AUDIO/VIDEO

Isaac Lee and Steve Ahlman produced Heat Check, and they were absolutely wonderful to work with every single week. So were Bobby Wagner and Jim Cunningham when they got spot starts with me, Gonz, and Haley. Isaiah Blakeley, Jessie Lopez, Jonathan Kermah, and Sasha Ashall were always great when I popped up on other shows, too.

Jason Concepcion and Jason Gallagher put me on NBA Desktop twice, including once when they encouraged me to say the phrase "step your pen game up, you word-broke motherfuckers," which stands as one of the proudest moments of my career.

I didn't do much other video stuff here, but when I did, I greatly enjoyed working with, learning from, and joking around with Cory McConnell, Dylan Berkey, J. Kyle Mann, Jackson Safon, Mose Bergmann, Richie Bozek, Ronak Nair, and Sean Yoo. (I haven't yet crossed paths with Aleya Zenieris, Chia Hao Tat, or Donnie Beacham, but they're getting thanked, too. It's a thank-o-rama.)

And, one last thanks:

ALL OF YOU

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve the kind, considerate, passionate, and conscientious readers and followers I've accumulated over the years. All I can do is promise to try to keep doing it, and to try to reward your time and attention a few times a week.

Thanks for sticking around. See you again soon.