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mystech-master · 4 years ago

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F/GO High School/Modern AU BS

Me and @rex101111 have been talking about a modern/HS AU ft. as many Chaldean servants as possible. Here are the ideas we came up with (I am pretty much cut and pasting our message convo, so this is a mixture of both me and Rex's ideas):

Gil is the douchbag Senior everyone hates but his dad owns the school or whatever so he can do whatever he wants. The only decent person who willingly hangs out with him is his childhood friend Enkidu who's hoping he can un-douch his bro. He has kid Gil as his little brother and Caster Gil as his older bro who both agree that he sucks (Gil is the loser middle child of the family), Caster Gil wonders what Enkidu sees in his shit head brother. "He's too good for you." "Blow it out your ass." "One day he's going to wise up, see how much of a shit you are, and when you're all alone don't come crying to me." Caster Gil is in college studying political science, Kid Gil goes to a fancy boarding school. Archer Gil goofs off and throws parties

Scathach is a swimming class teacher, mainly b/c I recall underwater training being a part of Cu's regiment under her tutelage. People were jealous of the Cus for like two seconds when they find out the swim teacher is their mom, then they see her having them do an extra twenty laps and ignoring when OG Cu starts floating in the water. "CU DIED!" "YOU'RE NOT HUMAN!" while Scathach is like "you have two seconds to stop playing around before I ACTUALLY drown you" and he's back to doing laps.

Yeah with 4-5 Cus (if you count Setanta from Arcade) that is like 5 brothers.

Nightingale as school nurse, she is friends with Asclepius who works at a hospital associated with the school (strictly professional, but the students think otherwise).

Side note, keep in mind you can have multiple servants be the same type of teacher, just for different classes/grades.

King Hassan is the old Religious History teacher. Every one thinks he's older then the rock is the school is made out of. He has a scary face and a scarier voice but most students consider him the most fair and patient teacher in the whole school. He always gets a lot of food gifts before Ramadan form the students. (A few students, such as the Guda twins and Mash, call him gramps.) The other Hassans are his grandkids, like actual grandkids. He's super strict with them because he expects a lot from them. He always praises them when they do well though. He made sure they ALL got into his class and they've been living in fear ever since. They love their grandpa but by Allah they know not to disappoint him. The only one to ever get out of anything is kid Hassan (one of the hundred face). Cursed Arm is oldest, then Asako (the main hundred face), then Serenity.

"I am very disappointed in ALL of you, have you all lost your heads? I swear I-*to kid Hassan*-ah no Habibi not you you're fine here have a candy-*back to the rest*-I KNOW you're better than this!"

VERY traditional guy, Cursed Arm mutters "Oh for God's sake" while doing a pop quiz and King Hassan looms over him and growls, "No Blaspheming In This Class Room"

For the various Artoria/Arturias, I imagined Lancer and Lancer Alter being sisters, so Saber Alter is a cousin. That leaves everyone else to just be sisters with one brother. Mother Lartoria owns a casino and gas her own yacht in reference to the summer event where she became a Ruler. If you want MHX could be a part of the family as a massive fucking Star Wars nerd. MHXX and MHX Alter are her mom and sister (so MHXX is a third sister for the two Lancer Artorias)

For Irisviel, I remember in one of the Nero Fest things that she was called Therapist Iri. Maybe she starts to get into that b/c she wants to help her adoptive son Shirou (instead of a big fire like in Zero it can be an orphanage fire thing, similar situation but a much smaller scale) , so she is the school therapist/psychiatrist. Like Maruki in P5 Royal.

Iskandar died in his 30s, Waver is around his 30s as Lord El Melloi II. The two are old college friends who still hang out and Alexander is Iskandar’s kid.

If you guys want you can see this as the two being gay dads since I know that ship is popular.

Fran had an abusive father before Babbage and Moriarty got involved. In the og story, Frankenstien has a scientific mindset like his creator, here Fran has a talent in the field, but she also hates it b/c it reminds her of him. Like imagine being talented at the thing your abusive parent was good at/known for. Moriarty tried to get it into her that SHE'S the one with the talent, not her college dropout bum of a father, "From you tell me of him Victor couldn't engineer his way out of an argument with a cat, you have a magnificent mind my dear, not letting it flourish to spite him would be a horrible waste...it's your talent, your skill. Not his." He smiles that smile she loves that scares every one but she knows he only smiles like that when he is absolutely convinced of something, "and you can out perform him without breaking a sweat."

Moriarty teaches Fran sign language while Babbage teaches her some engineering.

Jekyll is going for a major in medicine with a minor in law (in the actual irl story Dr. Jekyll was a doctor in medicine and law).

For science associated servants, you got da Vinci, Babbage, Edison, and Tesla as possible science teachers.

The Jeanne sisters. Without the Avenger BS, the reason Jalter (or Joan as one series of fics calls her) could hate her here is just inferiority complex and being compared to her perfect saint big sister all her life. Joan does have her talents, based on the summer event an, but again she doesn't acknowledge her own talent b/c of her always being compared to her older sister., in the 7 counterfeit events she is a really good artist. And it is the typical thing of Jeanne actually being scared out of her wits of being less than perfect because of all the expectations thrust on her. She gets one A- and runs to the bathroom crying and Joan has to swallow her pride and actually have a conversation with her sister for the first time in years. Jeanne Alter lily puts up Christmas decorations super early, much to Jeanne Alter/Joan's displeasure.

"IT JUST TURNED NOVEMBER CHILL TF OUT!"

"CHRISTMAS!"

Martha is Jeanne's BF since middle school and has this HUGE dog that scares everyone and growls at anyone expect Martha and Jeanne. She calls him Terry.

Rex loves Penthesilea. and we talked at length about the situation between her and Achilles. Can you not tell that he likes a woman who can kick his ass *gestures to all of his Baiken posts*

Rex's idea: I think they had a fight when they were little and Achilles, being a little shit back then, made fun of her for being a girl, and Penth has been sore about it ever since. She keeps running into big misogynistic meatheads that reminded her of that and she just got angrier over the years. She's a wrestler and can knock out just about every dude in school by herself. Achilles is very regretful about back then and wants to apologize but Penth ain't having any of it.

My idea: I thought they were on opposing HS sports teams and when Achilles handed her ass to her he forgot to drink his respect women juice and then Penth got all pissed.

In this AU, Penth and Hippolyta's dad was a general who taught them how to kick the ass of men twice their size since they were seven or something.

Penth surprises everyone when a festival comes up and she gets picked to be the one to organize everything...and does a spectacular job. Another surprise is that she plans on being a business major when she goes to college (Obligatory Amazoness CEO jokes)

Bedivere is the Arturia Pendragon family butler with a prosthetic arm. He's also the security guard, last guy that tried to steal something or cause trouble got slapped right out of the window he sneaked in from.

Francis Drake and Artoria Alter Lancer are work friends (referencing them both being associated with the Wild Hunt in F/GO's lore).

Beni-Enma is the short and shorter tempered lunch lady, last kid who mouthed off at her during lunch got smacked upside the head with her spoon. She's sweet, but if you're in detention and have to help her in the kitchen she's a mini Gorden Ramsey, "IT'S RAW DECHI!!!" She can also come into the home EC class where Shirou is her best student. Also her roasting of the other girls like in her quest. Getting Fs in Beni's class is the worst, because it isn't just an F, it's a meticulous dressing down of exactly why letting into a kitchen should be considered a war crime, dechi.

The three Avenger Nobus are three different people. 1st Ascension is basically Archer Nobu, then you got Oda Kipposhi, and then the mom is Ascension 3 with Demon King Nobunaga. The youngest Ascension 1 Nobu is a musician. Demon King Nobu is one of those "super scary but also super polite people that only makes them scarier" type, basically a female koei Nobunaga from samurai warriors (check out some cutscenes form the games with him, he's a treat).

Imagine Demon King Nobu mom in a business suit.

Suzuka Gozen and Sei Shonagon are the textaholics who always talk in slang to the point of it sounding like they speak a different language. Murasaki is the librarian but Sei is like that ONE student who just makes her job so much harder.

Every week it's "No phones in the library Miss Shonagon." while Sei rolls her eyes and types out twitter post like "fugly ol librarian at my school needs a life lol"

Oui Katsushika is a gifted art student, and her dad (not a floating little octopus), is just a normal dude with a squid/octopus like beard. She's the teacher's pet in De Vinci's art class.

Eresh and Ishtar come from a rich family, Ereshkigal is the older sister so she had a shit load of responsibility to take over the family business while Ishtar basically gets to party her life away. Rin is the cousin they each try and swing their way. Eresh wants Rin to keep up her studies and get into a good university, Ishtar wants Rin to loosen the fuck up and admit that she likes that scrawny Emiya kid already.

BB is the host of a talk show downtown so she is kind of an absentee mom. Meltryllis has prosthetic legs that she specifically asked to be made into stilts b/c she wanted to be taller, and Passonlip has a massive rack that makes life difficult (either people staring, people assuming she's gonna be a home wrecker b/c said staring must be intentional, etc.), and of course he also has prosthetic arms to match her canon claws, obviously not as massive.

Hijikata is a very serious police officer but his wife Carmilla just uses this to have fun in the bedroom. They have two Dobermans. Hijikata's route has him patrolling near the school so most of the kids know as that scary police dude that has a picture of his wife in his pocket. One day a famous Idol called Eli-chan~ (yes spelled with the ~) is about to perform in the town and the kids can't stop talking about her, so Hijikata overhears. But, being the serious dude he is he shrugs it off until he sees a picture of this "Eli-chan~" and realizes it's his sister-in-law that came to visit and suddenly the influx of parasitic paparazzi near his house start making sense.

Carmilla: "Now you see why I hate them?", Hijikata: "No you cannot send the dogs after them honey."

She almost ran one of them over in her, very expensive, car and when that reporter says she should be locked up Hijikata corrects that would only happen if she had hit him...and she would be fined. For littering.

Okita Alter being Hijikata's partner, while Okita is her younger sister who's looked up to Hijikata since she was a little kid but she has asthma and such so she's afraid she might not get accepted.

Sigurd owns a metalworks shop (referencing his myth where he was raised by the dwarf Reginn), he met his wife Brynhildr when she was disowned by her overly controlling father.

Ozymandias, Nitocris, and Cleopatra are all the high board members of a company. Nitocris specifically got wind of Scheherazade's abusive husband situation and after getting said husband arrested, she offered Scheherazade a job.

Atalanta is a college student/TA who worked with Achilles' dad who ends up at their HS for a program or something, Achilles' dad has told him a lot about her.

Amakusa Shirou is an uncle married to the CEO of Babylon Gardens Pharmaceuticals, Semiramis. Semiramis herself is kinda chill if REALLY scary. She had to be pretty cutthroat to get to her position in the company, but Amakusa Shirou helped her mellow out, but she is still a massive tsundere.

"You know you COULD poison their lunch." "Semi, dear, I'm not going to poison my coworker's sandwich for being an ass." "It wouldn't kill them! Just a bit in their peanut better and they'll be stuck on the toilet for a week, no harm no foul."

Rex initially said Taiga would be an overly enthusiastic gym teacher but then I remembered that she was a homeroom/English teacher in Fate canon, but either or can do if you wanna be unique.

For Quetzalcoatl, Wrestling club supervisor when she isn't the senior year gym teacher. Some of the male students laughed that they didn't think a woman would know anything about wrestling. Two piledrives later, the students have earned a new appreciation for the importance on how not to be two pieces of shit. She's big on Lucha as in canon and during Halloween she gets JAGUARMAN to have an exhibition fight with her. They make a show of it but later on Taiga admits that Quatz could have CRUSHED her if they were actually fighting. She takes the wrestling club out for homemade Mexican food after tournaments

For Siduri, there's a bunch of rumors she's dating Caster Gil but it's strictly professional, Caster respects her too much to consider that. Archer Gil hits on her relentlessly, she manages to wound his ego more severely then anyone else simply by being unfailingly polite in her rejections and treating him like what he is, a teenage punk jumping higher than he can handle to land.

Ibaraki is Shuten's adoptive little sister after she was taken from an abusive mother, hence why Ibaraki looks up to her. Ibuki is either Shuten's big sister who had to take on a guardian role, or just her mom. Shuten and Ibuki have a bit of a strained relationship because Shuten saw the way Ibuki acted as they grew up, taking more and more responsibilities onto herself and refusing any distractions. And she decided that her biggest nightmare is to wake up one morning and realize she's turned into Ibuki so she tries to do everything to avoid that, hence their relationship not being the best. Ibaraki is kinda stuck in the middle because she wants to side with Shuten but she sees where Ibuki is coming from. Messy.

Caren is still Kotomine’s daughter, but he isn’t a good dad and in rebellion she sleeps around despite being a woman of god. Including sleeping with local punk Angra Mainyu. Angra Mainyu seems like a bad guy but he has a shit load of issues due to being blamed for everything going wrong in his old town, eventually coming to believe them and thinking he will cause nothing but problems. Caren banging him gives him a type of closeness he’s never felt, but under very warped circumstances.

For the Tamamo family, Vitch totally fucked her way up a corporate ladder or something, imagined Tamamo Cat working at a Cat Cafe if she were a Student. Tamamo no Mae accidentally fed her prev BF a food he was allergic too, and that kind of haunted her and scared her rep. IDK basically she seriously fucked up a previous relationship, either on purpose or accidentally, and that kind of hurts her deeply so she wants to start over with Hakuno.

Nero and Tamamo no Mae are rivals over this one guy.

Kiichi Hougen is the adoptive mom, Benkei is the family friend/uncle, Taira is Ushiwaka's older sister. Taira isn't on the best of terms with her family, some drama way back caused a rift and nowadays Ushi is the only one who's willing to talk to her and visit. Benkei never lets her go alone because he doesn't trust Taira one bit. Taira and Ushiwaka are Kintoki and Tomoe's cousins (I say Tomoe b/c apparently her husband and Ushiwaka were half cousins, with their grandpa having kids with their grandmas. I tried to make a whole family tree out of a few servants).

These are the ideas we had the most to talk about, if you guys have any suggestions for your fav servants in this AU, let either me or Rex know. Or just reblog and say them here. Who knows maybe you have a much better idea for a Servant we already mentioned.

#fgo #fate series #fate grand order #high school/modern au #high school au #f/go #fate/grand order

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supercasey · 5 years ago

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TF2 RED Headcanons by an idiot that can’t pay attention well enough to read the comics

Back on my bullshit, because I apparently can’t shut up tonight. This is gonna be a big, possibly in-cohesive mess, and will probably have more focus on Scout, Pyro, Sniper, and Spy since they’re my favs, but I still felt like writing down all my dumb headcanons/ideas regarding everyone’s favorite mercenaries (at the moment at least; I might make another post like this later on, hopefully after I’ve read the comics)! Sorry if any of these seem OOC, I’m just goofin’! (Putting this under a readmore because WOW this got LONG)

Every Sunday afternoon, Scout, Pyro, and eventually Sniper when he tells everyone that he's a trans guy, hold a makeshift “Trans Buddy Club” meeting, which mostly consists of Scout mindlessly rambling about drama on base, Pyro nodding along, and Sniper occasionally adding his two cents/spilling tea as well.

Scout can speak fluent French, on account of his mom making sure to teach it to him so he could have more of a connection to his dad, but no one found out until a little after Spy told Scout he was his dad. It wasn’t long after this that Scout revealed that this entire time, he’s known every single thing that Spy's ever said to him in French, but he didn't say anything because he thought it would be funny to keep the ruse going (also because he really liked being praised in secret). Cue Spy freaking tf out because oh no, now his kid knows that he's secretly a huge softie for not only his son, but his whole team.

Sometimes Spy and Scout talk shit in French right there in front of the team, but no one has any fucking idea what they’re saying and to be honest it’s pissing Soldier off the most, much to the father and son duo’s amusement.

Pyro secretly has a little black rabbit named Lucifer (Lucy for short) in their bedroom, which they only take out to get some fresh air and hop around very early in the morning, before anyone else is awake. The only people who know are Medic, Spy, and surprisingly enough Soldier, whose raccoons became friends with Lucy.

Sniper has a goldfish in his RV, but it died three months after he joined the team; he has no idea though because Miss Pauling replaces it every time one passes away, so now Sniper is convinced he has the world’s oldest goldfish.

Scout and Soldier both really want a dog, but they're not allowed to have one on-base. :(

((Heavy plans on sneaking a dog in next Christmas and no one can stop him. It’s gonna be a Border Collie named Bandit, and it gets the most attached to Scout and Heavy.))

Demo is no longer allowed to make mixed drinks for parties; the last time he did, he got everyone so shitfaced that they had to cancel work for three days in a row in order to recover from it.

Continuing off of that: drunk headcanons.

Demoman: Unassuming drunk. Acts like he usually does, unless he’s gotten particularly shitfaced for a party/event, in which case he’ll be slurring so bad that no one can understand him anymore.

Pyro: Giggly drunk. Is just laughing the whole fucking night at nothing in particular, which scares anyone who’s still sober. If they’re too far gone, they’ll start mumbling something that sounds like it’s in Spanish.

Spy: Party drunk. An absolute fucking mess, he’s trying to impress everyone and keep their attention on him, which usually leads to him standing on tables and dancing until he falls and passes out.

Sniper: Sleepy drunk. Out like a fucking light at the slighest bit of alcohol. If he wakes up and keeps drinking though, he’ll just be slurring like Demo, only with a lot more anger in his voice. Let him sleep, or he’ll fucking stab you to death.

Scout: Clumsy drunk. Bumps into anything and everything; eventually has to be given a sippy cup for his alcohol because he dropped three glasses in a row. Talks even faster than usual, until he accidentally fucking pukes on someone.

Soldier: Calm drunk. Instead of getting loud and aggressive like most would think/fear, he’s just… chillin'. Just watches the shitshow as it happens, not even laughing when people get hurt/fall down. Kinda terrifying if we’re being honest here.

Engineer: Depressed drunk. His depression goes through the roof if he has too much, so he doesn't drink more than a few beers if he can help it. If he does accidentally drink too much, he'll be sobbing his eyes out in no time flat.

Heavy: Cuddly drunk. It’s very, very hard to get him drunk, since he’s really good at holding his liquor, but if you do, he’s gonna be hugging and carrying everyone he can get his hands on; you can expect him to have Medic and/or Pyro on his lap once he’s drunk enough.

Medic: Angry drunk. He wants to start fights with fucking everyone, all his rage coming out once he’s had a few too many; god help anyone who tries to stop him. Luckily for all involved, Heavy is more than capable of holding him still until he tires himself out.

BONUS Miss Pauling: Dumbass drunk. With too many bottles in her, she’s gonna be the one shouting and encouraging Spy to act reckless, while also encouraging Engie to drink more because quitting is for losers. Will pass out within an hour or so of downing her first drink.

BONUS The Administrator: Stereotypical drunk. Slurring, stumbling, she’s got the whole nine yards, but she’ll be damned before she let’s anyone see her that messed up. Secretly sips wine at work.

Okay, back to my rambling.

My personal headcanon names and ages for Scout’s older brothers, going from oldest to youngest: Grant 34, Timothy 32, Jacob 31, Arthur 31, Patrick 30, Malcolm 27, Curtis 26, and Jeremy (Scout) 23.

((Also, I’mma go off on my headcanon personalities for them, which are based off of how I’ve tried portraying them in my "Jeremy" fic.))

Grant - 34 years old - Bisexual - Occupation: Veteran/Construction worker - Personality: the oldest of the bunch, he takes it upon himself to keep his little brothers in line/help Ma out as much as he can. Enlisted in the Air Force after he graduated high school, and still takes a lot of pride in his veteran status after serving overseas three separate times. The family peacemaker.

Timothy - 32 years old - Homosexual - Occuptaion: Cartoonist - Personality: the gentlest of his brothers, he often gets roped into helping Grant keep the pack from running too wild. Bit of a softie; loves his husband and loves his job. Closest relationship is with Scout. Doesn’t approve of Scout being a merc but is too scared to say so. The family heart.

Jacob - 31 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Freelance guitarist - Personality: the firstborn of the only set of twins, Jacob is a lot more abrasive and instigating than his twin brother. Can’t grow a beard for shit, which pisses him off. Doesn’t get along well with Timmy, despite them both being talented and devoted artists. The family sword.

Arthur - 31 years old - Pansexual - Occupation: Carpenter - Personality: the second born of the only set of twins, Arthur is far more outgoing and nonchalant than his twin brother. Has a beard and loves it more than life. Secretly has a boyfriend, but is too nervous to come out. Gets along better with Jacob after they’ve become adults. The family shield.

Patrick - 30 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Hairdresser - Personality: probably the least social of all of the brothers, he prefers staying out of sight and out of mind tbh. Used to practice cutting everyone’s hair when they were kids. Doesn’t talk to his brothers that much, mostly due to being busy/forgetting to call more. The family shadow.

Malcolm - 27 years old - Heteromantic Asexual - Occupation: Wrestler - Personality: the most aggressive and physically competitive of his brothers, there’s nothing he won’t do to win a fight, save for using weapons/lethal force. Hard to get along with, but he still loves his brothers to bits, and was overprotective of Scout when they were younger. The family instigator.

Curtis - 26 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Bartender - Personality: was a total fucking mama’s boy growing up, and constantly got in trouble with his brothers for tattling on them. Still argues with Scout every time they see each other. Wants to make Ma proud, but it’s hard for him to keep a job for very long. The family drifter.

Jeremy - 23 years old - Transmale Pansexual - Occupation: Mercenary - Personality: (This is mostly for how he was as a kid) was constantly following his brothers around (especially Malcolm) in hopes of getting in on the fun. Was always treated as the family baby, so everyone was a bit scared to wrestle/fight with him for fear of getting him hurt. Very close to Timmy and Ma. The family runt.

No one on RED team can fucking drive well, save for MAYBE Sniper, but even he hates doing it. Spy gets so goddamn mad within two seconds of driving, Pyro can't stop swerving, Scout drives like a 16 year old who hasn't realized their own mortality yet, Medic jumps at every little inconsistency on the road, Heavy shouts at other drivers for being too slow/fast, Demo's depth perception is shit, Engie drives like a 90 year old grandmother, and Soldier is fine except he will literally shoot at other drivers for tailgating him/cutting him off.

The whole team has designated “Team Bonding Days” thanks to Miss Pauling, which involves playing board games, card games, and video games (in a slightly more modernized AU) together… this, of course, goes badly sometimes. The worst incident they ever had was a bad game of Monopoly that almost ended Heavy and Medic's friendship.

Uno is forever banned from Team Bonding Days. No explanation is needed.

Off the battlefield and in the base, Miss Pauling had the team set up a chore wheel, which is only occasionally followed. Engie is the most dedicated to following it, while Demo and Sniper try everything in their power to avoid cleaning the base.

Spy sometimes disguises himself as other teammates in order to get out of doing his chores, which has led to a lot of shouting matches that ended in Spy being forced to admit it was his fault.

Spy's favorite teammates to disguise himself as are Engie and Scout. He likes being Engie because he gets to be more affectionate with people without being found out, and he can act as Scout incredibly easily due to knowing him so well (tbh he's so good at masquerading as Scout that it's scary).

For Halloween, everyone put their names in Soldier's hat, then proceeded to pull out other teammates’ names to dress up as for their Halloween party. I dunno exactly who would be who, except that Scout traded around to get Spy, steals one of Spy's suits, and just goes around the party bonking people with a plastic baguette he bought online and speaking in a purposefully bad accent.

Spy: Mon fils, you can speak perfect French and you fucking know it. Please stop making a fool of ton père.

Scout: Hohoho, wee wee, I am a fucking frog that gets pegged by baguettes, hoho!

((Spy is this fucking close to committing filicide.))

Everyone can actually cook pretty well, but only very specific things for each merc: Demo can mix and blend drinks (not just alcoholic ones) like it's nothing, Pyro and Heavy like baking, Medic can barbecue anything, Scout knows how to make a lot of shit from scratch (thanks, Ma), Spy and Engie can grill like the true dads they are, Soldier will deep fry every piece of food he eats, and Sniper makes the best soups and stews imaginable.

In order of least to most messy bedrooms: Spy, Heavy, Engie, Sniper, Pyro, Demoman, Medic, Scout, and Soldier. You'd think Scout's would be the worst, but Soldier's room looks like a literal fucking war-zone.

Even when they're not working but get injured in some way (namely from shenanigans/horseplay), people will straight up kill themselves in order to respawn without the injury. The pettiest thing anyone ever respawned off-duty for was Medic suiciding over a tiny ass paper cut.

Demoman is scarily competent at the weirdest of times. For instance, Engie was once trying to figure out how to fix an issue on one of his turrets, only for Demo to stumble over, completely shitfaced, and point out the problem as well as the solution, before passing out under Engie's worktable. Demo doesn't remember this at all.

The first time Engie swore in front of the team in excess (due to dropping a hammer on his foot while he was tinkering), everyone was absolutely horrified because they had only ever heard him say “fiddlesticks” and the like.

Medic's room may not be the messiest, but goddamn is his office a fucking bomb waiting to go off 90% of the time. No one but Medic can find anything in the mess, which is just fine by him.

Heavy likes to sing (mostly just to Sasha) when he's cleaning her in the locker room. The others try to be within hearing range when he does this, because holy fuck, Heavy is a very good singer! He mostly just sings soft songs/lullabies, so his singing is sometimes used by the team insomniacs to help them get some much needed rest.

Okay, another group one. The mercs during shopping trips together:

Demoman: Sneaks a shit ton of alcohol into the cart when no one's looking. Starts complaining if he has to be at the store for too long; will try and sneak away to go home at least once during the trip. Accidentally bumps into a display case and makes a huge fucking mess.

Pyro: Sits obediently in the cart the whole time, occasionally nabbing candy and stuffed animals off of nearby shelves. Will puppy-dog eyes their way into getting everything they grabbed, no matter how much it is.

Spy: Somehow managed to steal an employee uniform and he pretends to work at the store the whole trip; the other mercs keep accidentally falling for it and asking for his help. This all goes to shit when a Karen starts shouting at him over something he didn't do, and he straight up slaps her.

Sniper: King of forgetting wtf was on the list and just grabs shit on the grounds of “Doc said we needed milk, right?” and other such excuses. Knows where everything is despite never having come here before.

Scout: “Gimme the list, I can get everythin' in, like, ten minutes!” Wants to speedrun grocery shopping due to years of shopping with his mom and brothers. Will run loose if left unsupervised and accidentally bust ass on some spilled milk.

Soldier: The one who spilled the milk that Scout busts his ass on. Insists he knows where he's going, but doesn't. Gets into a fistfight with a soccer mom while everyone's waiting to check out; the soccer mom won.

Engineer: Has a full, printed list of everything the team needs, which is organized by aisle number. Is the one who gives into Pyro's begging. Team Dad; keeps an eye on everyone and stops the soccer mom from murdering Soldier.

Heavy: Pushes the cart the entire time. Spends way too money on stuff in the protein shake aisle. At one point runs the cart down the aisle and let's go because Pyro wanted him to, and it ends up crashing into Demo.

Medic: Argues with the pharmacists at the pharmacy counter. Got lost with Soldier until they found Scout unconscious, so he had to perform CPR in the dairy aisle and a fucking paramedic criticized him the whole time; the paramedic hasn't been seen since.

BONUS Miss Pauling: Tries to more or less chaperone this shitshow of a shopping trip. Starts out cheerful and happy, ends up threatening to put child leashes on every last one of these dumbasses.

After Spy taught him how to dance in Expiration Date, Scout goes to him occasionally for advice, such as how to change a tire, how to cook certain things, how tf to do laundry, etc. Spy secretly loves that Scout does this, and tries to help him as much as he can.

Everyone on the team has called Engie “Dad” at least once, even Spy and Medic. No one comments on it.

Medic has been known to go on hour long tirades about anti-vaxxers, with Engie sometimes joining in.

Heavy buys Pyro stuffed animals during his trips to visit his family, which has started a tradition of everyone buying Pyro stuffed animals/toys when they go somewhere without them. Pyro's room is starting to look like a preschooler’s dream bedroom.

Scout calls his mom every other Friday, and he’ll occasionally let his teammates talk to her. Soldier always goes on and on about how good a soldier Scout has been (Scout cries like a baby), Medic tells her about Scout’s latest injuries (Scout damn near chokes him over it), Sniper is just glad to talk to a mom who won’t scold him for the whole phone call, Pyro hums music while Scout’s Ma sings the lyrics for them, Heavy talks about living in huge families with her, Demo asks her how she’s doing and if he can help her out at all, Engie is polite and also praises Scout, and Spy just tells her he’ll call her later before hanging up (Scout punches him for being rude to his mama).

Spy calls Scout's mom on the Fridays that Scout doesn't, mostly to check on her and sometimes to get into some, uh, “steamy” conversations over the phone. Sniper overheard a conversation between them once and now he can't look Scout or Spy in the eyes anymore.

And that's all I've got for right now! I hope you all liked my stupid headcanons!

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kenkamishiro · 5 years ago

Text

Ishida Sui’s Review of 2019

I didn’t think I’d ever finish this with my onslaught of classes including pharmacology, but I somehow managed! 6k word count, the longest TL I’ve done to date besides Parvati’s interlude for FGO. Lots of insight into Jack Jeanne’s production and what Ishida’s been up to for the past year. It was tough to translate because it was so long, but I had a lot of fun.

Let me know if there are any mistakes, I’m sure there’s a whole bunch. Have fun reading!

Original can be found here.

＊＊＊

2019. I’m reflecting on this past year while flipping through my agenda. Since I’m writing this for my sake, there’s going to be a lot of sections without much explanation.

January

○ This was when Jack Jeanne had yet to be announced, so I was mostly doing preliminary work at the time. Stuff like “BU” and “character facial expressions” will be finished some time this month, is written in my schedule book.

○ New Year’s party in Tokyo from the 16th - 19th. The New Year’s party is a joint party that’s comprised of the 4th editorial department (Shueisha’s seinen magazine branch) that’s held every year in January. I attended the party with the staff every year during serialization, minus my first year.

2019 will be the first New Year’s party since the series ended, but I thought I should stop inviting the staff to attend since we’re not working together anymore (plus it’d be a hassle), so I didn’t really invite anyone. But the day before the event, Editor M brought up the topic inside the taxi and asked, “Are none of the staff coming this year?” (Even if they’re invited now, it’s going to be impossible, asking them to fly the next day and causing a ruckus…) When I replied, “Hey, I’m sure it’d be fun if you invited them and they all came~”, the editor contacted Goubaru-kun, and after said, “He said he’s going.” Guess he wasn’t busy. In the end, the staff during serialization and several people from OB and OG came, almost identical to the lineup from previous years, and it occurred to me that maybe I should have just invited them from the start.

Anyway, at this year’s New Year’s party, I don’t really remember much of what happened. I talked with my senpais from back when I was an assistant for Kingdom, and outside the venue I sobered up from the agoraphobic dizziness I was feeling inside. At the second party I remember people talking to me haphazardly and being photographed. I wish I’d refused. Also, I was sexually harassed by Rikudou Matsubara, my senpai from the same region as me. This New Year’s party will be my last.

February

Briefing session for the game held in Tokyo. Key visual created. It says here [on the agenda] that I want to go to Kagoshima. Every week there’s a checklist for 10 km of jogging and weight training 2-3 times a week. I spent about a week doing some composition work. It ended up being helpful for me, but it made me decide not to work anymore with people with different levels of interest from me.

○ TRPG is written for the 28th. Usually we use the DX (Double Cross) system, but this time one of our participating players, M’s schedule was under mysterious attack. As game master, taking consideration of everyone who’d made time in their schedules for tonight, I thought we could switch to Cthulhu and asked them to wait an hour. 2 hours later I finished coming up with a scenario and began the session. It was fairly fun.

March

Finish BU this month, is clearly noted down. BU stands for bust-up, which are drawings of characters in standing poses [sprites] that are common in ADV games. Normally, since it takes a huge amount of work, the BU work is always divided up. The original drawings are done by the illustrator, in this case I do the base illustrations (line drawing & colouring), and using them as the base, the department sharing the work cleans up the line drawings and recolours it...that’s how the process goes. But since I’m a mangaka and don’t have the technology needed to make gaming assets, I thought it’d be best to leave it to the pros in that field, so that was how that stage proceeded. At that point in time at least.

I also had plans written down to go to Kagoshima. Looks like I didn’t go.

○ TRPG on the 25th. Player M’s schedule lined up with ours, so we played DX with 6 PL plus me as GM. We went to the aquarium, were attacked by witches, and so on.

April

Finish BU, is faintly written down. It seems like the work was more or less completed earlier this month.

○ High school friend K’s wedding on the 6th. Up until then I’d only been to two other wedding receptions. The weddings were for a different friend from high school, and Tajika-san, one of my senpais from Kingdom. This suddenly reminds me of that time at Tajika-san’s reception, when I took a super early flight because I absolutely didn’t want to be late whatsoever, but I ended up not being able to fly for about an hour and a half because of engine trouble or whatever, so I entered at almost the same time as the bride and groom during the reception…

K’s wedding was the first time in my life where I was present all the way from the wedding to the reception, but how should I put it, I was struck by a beam of light. I don’t know who he’s getting married to, I have no clue what their relationship is like. But I was somehow bombarded...by all these thoughts that became jumbled in my head, like the energy in this place, the power of their oaths, questioning what it was, how light isn’t always justice.

I got the feeling that this was what proper, respectable humans take part in, but since I'm fine with not being a proper, respectable human, I decided to not do anything other than what my heart desires.

I'm definitely not good with places where I’m in the spotlight. But congratulations.

○ “Play Sekiro” is strongly noted down. Thank you for supporting me in the first half of 2019.

○ TRPG for the 29th - 30th. DX. Player M’s character dies.

May - June

My schedule book is starting to look more scattered now. On the other hand, since I’ve got a good memory of this time, I can write while recalling the events.

○ I did the covers for the Touken stage play book.

I drew the cover illustrations for the Touken [Ranbu] stage play that Mikasano-san, who I’m grateful to for his work on the anime and movie scripts for TG, worked on. In my mind, it feels like I'm watching the back of who I'd consider my older brother in the creative world, or a fellow comrade on another battlefield fighting to the death. I think it came out quite charmingly, so I’ll include the links for now. Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

During this time of work for Jack Jeanne, I was working on “model sheets”. Blueprints for the characters’ attire, not just from the front but also the internal structure.

Unlike most other games, Jack Jeanne has “performance costumes” in addition to normal attire. Because of its “revue” theme, costumes that will be worn onstage needed to be prepared. I was shocked when I suddenly admitted that I needed model sheets for 5 different performances (spring, summer, fall, winter, final) for the 6 main characters, making 30 designs in total.

Back in the TG era, these kind of drawings that I just explained, or drawings that needed a lot of layers, were a pain in the ass. Plus I wasn’t good at them, so I thought that I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life if possible. But it seems like I have to do this myself. With a sense of determination, I decided to work solely on this for all of May. At the same time, I made nothing but curry for all my meals. There’s no deep reason behind it, but my aim was to kinda boost my ability to concentrate daily by choosing to be decisive in that action.

○ Working on model sheets It came with an unintended effect. Because I spent a month on work that required balance and consistency, my right-left checking skills got better, and completely unrelated, I improved in drawing perfect copies. The design work for the model sheets itself became really fun to do, starting around when I became obsessed with the scarf design (sumo wrestler drawing) I definitely couldn’t use for Neji’s summer costume. I discovered that it’s precisely because I’m not good at this that my labour bore fruit. I feel like this was my experience for the latter half of the year.

July

The cast members were chosen. Unlike TG, there are 6 people + 1 person who can be referred to as the main character, so it was interesting to have a cast with some breadth.

Seems like lyrical work was the main thing I worked on.

Lyrical work. In Jack Jeanne, each performance contains several songs to sing and dance to, so each one is supposed to be sung. ...hence the lyrics.

The topic of what to do with the lyrics was brought up in November 2018. What happens typically is that, let’s say there’s singing in an idol game, then a company that specializes in it is asked to produce the songs. Even for Jack Jeanne, there were several candidates I could pick and choose from. But after a quick look-through, frankly speaking, they all looked the same to me. There’s one person that’s good, it’d be great if we could get them...is what I thought, but, “Even though I don’t have the skills, I’m the one who understands this world the best,” crossed my mind. ...should I try? I tried it. To be honest, I was super embarrassed since it’d be seen by a lot of people, but it evolved into, “Who cares if you’re doing it?” And so Jack Jeanne’s lyrics were tasked to me.

I mentioned this earlier, but there are multiple songs for each performance. So if you combine those plus the opening and ending songs, that makes 17 songs in total. Lyrics for 17 songs that I’m fully responsible for. What the hell...am I doing? Maybe it was from that moment that I started losing it.

Including the lyrics that I’d been working on bit by bit every month, the remaining ones were finished in one go this July. By the time I finished everything, my current state was, “Give me more songs...let me write more lyrics!” But it wasn’t over just yet.

August

Every time I meet someone I tell this story. I’m thinking of keeping it up. Here I am, relieved to have finished the lyrics, when a message pops up on the Skype group chat. It’s from Yamashita Daisuke of Broccoli.

To briefly touch upon Yamashita Daisuke, he is a young man who’s been involved with this project since October of 2018, and a poor soul who was tasked with conducting very important meetings on his third day of working at the company.

The producer from Broccoli was going on maternity leave, so he was scouted as her replacement. As an aside, if I have to be honest, the exchanges between me and Towada-san, and Broccoli’s Jack Jeanne team up until then were quite frustrating. “How about doing it like this?” they would counter. And we’d respond with something like, “This part is going to be developed later on, and since this will become foreshadowing for the entirety of the story, it can’t be modified that easily.” This kind of situation, having to explain everything in detail one by one, going 3 steps forward and being held 2 steps back, had been going on for about 3 years, so the two of us would often whine about it over drinks, going, “When should we quit, this is ridiculous,” etc.

Finally when things began going more smoothly, the producer who was leading the project took her leave, so I wondered if we’d be able to get along with Yamashita Daisuke, but he was, how should I put it, very diligent. For the last year I've been working with people who don’t put in their best effort, so I was very hopeful and thankful to him.

But I digress. This was the gist of the message that Daisuke sent.

“Kosemura-san’s who’s in charge of musical composition wants ‘scratch vocal tracks’ for when the singers are recording.” “Does Ishida-sensei happen to know anyone he could ask for this favour?” “I’m sure it won’t be a problem for you!” “Frankly speaking, it’s okay even if they’re bad.”

Huh. Well, as you might have already guessed, even with the lyrics, it’s impossible to really understand the song at first sight without knowing what kind of rhythm, what kind of emotions are being expressed in the bar measure. Of course we’d need ‘scratch vocal tracks’ to explain the general feeling of the song.

Now, what Daisuke said was, “Do you have anyone you can ask? It’s okay even if they’re bad. Or even you can do it.” But if I found a “it’s okay even if they’re bad” kind of person, we’d still have to show them how to sing it and explain how the rhythm goes. Daisuke already knew which was probably why he asked for the favour. “The person writing the lyrics would be able to make the scratch vocal tracks the fastest.” ...come to think of it, the demo songs that Kunimitsu sent me every time that were sung using Vocaloid, weren’t they also scratch vocal tracks?

Daisuke must have been in a pinch trying to figure out how he should ask me candidly. Ishida-sensei, I couldn’t just ask you to sing it, so I had to ask in a roundabout manner.

I’d already given my answer, but I was still hesitant. It’s true that after I finished writing the lyrics for the 17 songs I’d already lost sight of myself, but if I sang, my singing would reach Broccoli and Kosemura-san’s team’s ears. But I couldn’t just leave poor Daisuke hanging.

So I consult Towada-shi, whom I’d been collaborating with in creating the scripts for Jack Jeanne, for advice. (He had been in charge of TG’s novels, and I’ve known him for a long time.) “Did you check Skype?” “I did.” “What do you think?” “Start by looking up scratch vocal tracks,” so we paid a visit to YouTube. The first search result that came up for ‘scratch vocal track’ was a video of a vocalist who was used to sing a scratch track for AKB or something. I see, so that’s what it looks like. Innocuous, but I could see it was very professionally done.

And the second result that came up was Tsunku♂-shi. The figure of Tsunku♂-shi himself recording a scratch track for his idols. The producer himself became an idol, and was singing really cutely, in his emotions and how he sang it. “This is it?” I said. “Yeah, it is,” Towada-shi agreed. If Kosemura-san and his team, and the people who will be performing the songs have to listen to it, it’d be a disservice to them to half-ass it. I don’t like people who don’t try their best. That means I have to show that attitude myself. Let’s come out of my shell for poor Daisuke as well.

“You’re gonna become Tsunku♂.” “Yeah...I’m gonna be Tsunku♂!” And that was how I became Tsunku♂.

I replied to Daisuke on the Skype group chat. “Understood, I’ll do what I can.”

So this guy, who doesn’t even know what the ‘D’ in DTM stands for, first downloads the software, and begins setting up a recording environment. Other work is pushed aside. I set 3 days to work on this.

I timidly begin working on the scratch tracks. From the perspective of someone who doesn’t have to listen to their singing for a living, it starts out as a living hell, but you get used to it as you listen to it over and over.

And so I kept learning new things. I noticed I was harmonizing with myself.

Just like Tsunku♂-shi, I’d change the voice for each character. If it was Jack (male in a male role) I’d sing like a man, and if it was Jeanne (male in a female role), then like a woman, while the main character Kisa (female) should sound cute... No, Kisa needs to be cuter! I re-recorded her part many times. Depending on the song, I’d sing for 7 people. I was Jack Jeanne now.

Tsunku♂ (I) recorded 17 songs in 3 days, and sent the data first to Towada-shi. Since I was now Tsunku♂, I no longer felt any sense of embarrassment.

“I listened to it,” the reply came, and I called him. Towada-shi was roaring with laughter. I regained the embarrassment I’d forgotten.

“Oh no, I was laughing ‘cause I was impressed,” he said, but my heart was already as fragile as that of an abandoned dog.

“Even this is a big help to Kosemura-san, and Daisuke should be grateful, right?” Yeah. Although Towada-shi guffawed at me, Daisuke will surely thank me. And then he’ll definitely tell me what a good job I did!

I dumped the music into the Skype group chat. “I did what I could,” I added.

How will Daisuke react to my Tsunku♂? I waited restlessly. Three days later on August 5th, a formal message arrived after it was received.

“Thank you very much. We will schedule a meeting with Kosemura-san…”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. My hard work got dismissed with, “Thank you very much.”

Daisuke, why? I thought you were in a pinch, so I...were...were you fooling with me from the start? Answer me! Daisuke! Just tell me I did a good job, or follow up with something, I’m fine with anything! So much for my heart being like an abandoned dog, it’s more like a grown-ass man left naked on a snowy mountain. I did what I could! This feeling was welling up inside me, but was it myself that managed to do it?

○ Later, at a meeting with Kosemura-san “It’s great that you could do this much for us. You didn’t have to do all that.” With the gist of those words, a warm blanket was finally placed over my heart, which had almost frozen to death.

“I didn’t know how to respond. I wasn’t sure if Sensei was the most who did it in the first place,” Daisuke said, so I decided to satisfy myself by threatening, “I’m gonna tell this story until the day I die.”

September

○ Responses to the Questions to Ishida Sui contest We did a “Ask anything to Ishida Sui” contest as a project for the art book “zakki:re”, where purchasers could apply with a postcard. I was writing the replies for them.

I thought there’d be a lot more questions about TG or its contents, but surprisingly there were a lot of questions asking for life advice. There were quite a few questions that I had to seriously think about to answer.

It was kinda tough since there were over a hundred of them, but I thought it’d be nice to get in touch like this every once in a while.

○ BU work for Jack Jeanne Once the music-related tasks like lyrical composition and scratch vocal tracks were completed, I worked on BU. ...BU work? Wasn’t it finished back in April?

Well, a similar situation arose just like what happened with the lyrics. Regarding sprite quality I might not be able to beat the pros, but since I’m the one who best understands how the characters look best and their body balance, I had decided to do all the line drawing colouring myself in June. I had no clue whether I’d make the deadline or maintain the quality, but thanks to Broccoli’s understanding, I was allowed to make it myself.

I realized once again that I’m terrible at splitting up work. If I can do it by myself, I will.

Plus, it’s, how should I put it, starting from my TG days, even though it wasn’t a lot I got to see various types of workplaces. I’d see places where there was no sense of responsibility whatsoever, or the work may have been divvied up appropriately, but it felt like they were making something without a sense of purpose, like a main plot line that isn’t going anywhere.

It’s impossible to accomplish big things with that kind of stance, and I understand that the more people that intervene, the more uncertain the core becomes, so I didn’t like that kind of approach. It makes me wonder whether there’s any meaning in creating a work that’s conservative and unchallenged, and if it’s nothing more than a money grab.

Since I don’t have any desire for material things, getting fed up about it is useless, but I just can’t help thinking about it.

Of course, it may be difficult to get what I want 100% of the time, but I want to create things in an environment that I think is beautiful, even in places that I’m slightly involved in.

...in other words, BU work is tough, but I began remaking the sprites once again by myself. This was the toughest work I’ve ever done out of everything, including the serialization...

○ Scratch vocals training camp at the end of September I went to the recording for the scratch vocal tracks. Based on the scratch tracks that I made, we got professional vocalists to sing it again properly. This is what the actual cast would use as a reference to sing. (So my version was like the pre-scratch vocal track.)

I was stuck in Tokyo for almost a week. Wake up, get ready, go to the recording studio. Come back at 8 or 9 pm, rest and sleep, repeat.

It was like I was back in school, and since I don’t have a steady lifestyle, I enjoyed it.

Kosemura-san’s team is really great, and I know I mentioned this before, but I felt like their workplace was a very healthy production site. When I was drawing manga, I never had much time to talk with fellow manga artists, and I’ve never had the chance to experience what other professionals’ workplaces were like, so it was very exciting for me to see people as professionals tackle one thing seriously. The vocalists were as amazing as I expected, and although my scratch tracks were played at a loud volume to annoy me, I had a great time.

The game might have a high level of entry, but it’s worth listening to just for the songs, is what I truly thought.

○ Parting words to Editor M-shi This might have been back in August, but from 2018 to 2019 I had a lot of things on my mind, so I began talking to the editor.

In between the 11 years of serialization starting from my rookie days, I’d received guidance from him so it wasn’t easy, but I expressed to him that we should keep our distance for any future works.

“I want to become absorbed in myself, not to Ishida Sui or Tokyo Ghoul,” I told him. The other part said he also felt the same way, and accepted it. The next time we meet, I hope we can talk about what we’re into, what we’re going crazy over, he said.

And so, 2 months after that conversation was the scratch vocals training camp in Tokyo, and I had the chance for the two of us to talk again. That day I was completely tuckered out from recording the scratch track, but it was a day filled with accomplishments.

He took me to a restaurant with delicious food in Ebisu or somewhere, and after concluding our brief business meeting, I tried throwing out the cliched, “So, what are you up to lately?” As the lead writer, there was a part of me that was curious about how he was doing after that talk we had.

The editor began talking about homemade curry.

...that’s what he’s into? I decide everything from selecting and picking the ingredients myself, and next time I want Ishida-kun to also see how delicious the curry is...he told me passionately, but how should I put it, the conversation wasn’t very spicy.

The food was delicious.

October

○ BU work

What’s hard about BU work is that it’s difficult to separate the layers according to the face, hair and clothes, and they all have to have the same style and touch to it. If it was manga, then maybe...no, even in manga, there’s still some need to match the outfits, but it doesn’t really matter to that extent.

It’s because I don’t like game sprites. “This character has so much energy from their sideways pose! Amazing!” This never happens…

Around this time of the year, my older sister called this elaborate task, “the task you’re probably the worst at.”

○ The bean life I’m not really fat in particular, but I made up my mind to try dieting. At the time, my body fat percentage was at 18%, and I’ve never been below 10% ever in my entire life, so I’m thinking of aiming for that. Instead of eating rice with unseasoned chickpeas and black soybeans, I began my lifestyle of consuming vegetables and cuts of meat with less fat. Hopefully I can achieve my goal in about six months’ time.

○ Ano-chan, Honda Keisuke, and I After Ano-chan left “You’ll Melt More!”, her official Twitter account removed every single account she was following, but for some reason only two people remained. Those two people were Honda Keisuke and Ishida Sui. To Ano-chan, Honda Keisuke and Ishida Sui belonged in the same category. After some time passed, even we were removed, but I consider this one of my hottest mysteries of 2019. Ano-chan! I’ll always be waiting, so let’s have tea some time with Honda Keisuke!

November

○ BU Need I say more.

○ Main cast’s first recording session from the 26th - 27th.

I visited Tokyo with Towada-shi to supervise the main cast members’ recording session. Wow, everyone was so amazing~

Of course, not just the main characters. Terasaki Yuka-san who plays the main character, Tachibana Kisa, was wonderful as well.

In this kind of game genre, the position as the main character feels less important than the male characters, but I want her to stand firmly in this story’s script. I thought it’d be nice to have the main character not stand out too much and have her watch over the male characters, and I felt that Terasaki-san’s voice and acting fit that image perfectly.

About the cast members, it seems like there’ll be a chance to speak to them eventually, so I’ll come back again.

○ 1 month into the bean life I’m steadily losing weight. Basically I always work from home. I go to the gym and supermarket 2-3 times a week. I started cooking for myself. I got a brand new refrigerator to replace the one that suddenly broke. It actually cools things down now. Living standards have risen.

December

○ I break off ties with M who I played TRPG together with. He was a former classmate who was even chief assistant at some point during the series’ run, but eventually he ended up getting fired due to falling asleep at work. He said he’d attend the last session for the story that day (although his own character had already died), and I was working on a schedule to accommodate him, but once again he cancelled at the last minute.

It’s fine to cause trouble for me (although I’ll probably get pissed), but I can’t overlook treating others the same way. And it’s not the fact that his schedule didn’t match up, it’s because he was complete trash who didn’t know how to behave like an adult once he made plans with others, that I felt sorry for the other TRPG people who took time out of their schedules. Since I felt ashamed when I was together with him, I decided I’d had enough.

This was a year where I cut ties with a lot of people, but I think what they had in common was that I was ashamed to be with them. From now on, I don’t want to associate with such people.

What’s more, when I finally told him, he didn’t even try to deal with it and just gave up, responding, “So that’s how you felt about me. Okay. My bad.”

I won’t go anywhere with those kind of people again.

○ The bean life ⇒ the potato life. I changed it to potatoes.

○ BU is over...

On December 17th, I finally finished the BU work that I spent ageeeeeeeees on.

Although I said that serialization is tough, as long as I finished 18 pages a week that was it (although there were times where I was chasing myself with other work), so I could finish it as long as I didn’t sleep. I somehow managed to finish both the manuscripts and the colour illustrations this way, so expecting BU to be similar, I wasn’t really scared about it never ending, but BU truly was despair. When is this gonna end? I’m even working super hard… This is how it went on the entire time for over a month.

There were about 200 different sprites I had to make myself, including the different costumes and poses, and I had to do all of them.

For one thing, when, “This process is necessary,” came out, I had to go through the same process roughly 200 times, that it felt like I was facing the final boss who already transformed many times. Also, it’s like not equipping myself with a lot of equipment and recovery items in the previous town, but the dungeon I somehow managed to enter is extremely dangerous and even though there’s no safe points anywhere in sight, the boss suddenly comes up behind you, and you go I’m gonna die I’m gonna die

○ If you eat a lot while you’re losing weight, you’re going to have a bad time.

On December 15th I had trouble concentrating, so I tidied up the living room, created a space in the middle of the room, and darkened the lights. After an hour of meditating, only the sound of my breathing could be heard in the room, and so I went back to work with renewed concentration after confronting the issue (like a monk?).

On December 16th, I’ve been working the entire time since morning. I thought today was going to be the last day, but an entire day has passed and I don’t have any energy...

I’ll buy a midnight snack, replenish my energy, and end it once and for all. I’m trying to lose weight, but I went to the convenience store while thinking about how I’m gonna eat a katsu sandwich (I didn’t have the energy to cook).

While looking for something at a convenience store I can eat during weight loss, I think back over the last few months.

Like how it seems like BU is finally over, how a lot of things have happened, how I’m working hard, how lately I’ve been eating only potatoes, vegetables and meat.

And then I suddenly thought, “I wonder if the reason I don’t have any energy is because I haven’t had any rice lately.”

...I thought I should go on a diet in October, so I’ve been living a very modest life since then. Thanks to that, my weight has steadily decreased, and my body fat percentage has gone down 3% to 15%. What will happen if I continue with my relatively strict dietary restrictions during this difficult time?

...even if you’re losing weight, there’s a technique you can set up to binge eat during periods where weight loss stagnates, called cheat day (though results may vary), but what is it that makes no-cheating so inefficient even for weight loss?

...should I have a cheat day today?

“Huh, is it really okay?” I asked my mind. “Do it!” was the answer I got. From that moment, everything around me morphed into things I could eat.

No exaggeration, my knees trembled.

I crammed into my shopping basket carbohydrates, carbs, more carbs… It’s okay just for today, I say as I shove cream puffs, dorayaki, pudding, Family Mart chicken and ice cream. (Even if it's a cheat day, it’s probably not a good idea to take non-nutritional foods, but shh.)

With food in both hands and in high spirits, the first thing I ate was the delicious part of the Family Mart chicken.

I groaned loudly, all alone in the room.

Alright, let’s finish this work! I was energized, but my blood sugar levels spiked so much that I felt extremely sleepy and went to bed instead.

The next day on the 17th, I wake up at 4 am and immediately notice something unusual. My body is burning. I’m sweating.

I immediately wake up, and overflowing with energy, I head for my desk. I’m working actively, and I finish the BU work. It felt like I was pushing forward with only positive energy, feeling uplifted.

I break out a laugh at a slight joke I found funny from a foreign drama (The Mentalist) I’m playing while working. The greenery of the plants and the lighted sink glisten, and the scenery is vivid.

What is this?

I suddenly recall the story of a YouTuber I saw recently. He lives in a region where medical marijuana is legalized, and he explained in detail what changes would occur if you smoked cannabis.

To put it roughly, you feel calm and your senses sharpen. Trivial things can become funny, and funny videos can make you roar with laughter.

Then maybe...I thought, I'll watch Nagareboshi (a comedy duo) on YouTube. Usually I go, haha, that's funny! But that day I exploded with laughter...all of their videos were just too funny.

I learned that when you’re losing weight and suddenly eat a lot, it alters your mind and body as if you smoked cannabis. (※ Just to be clear, I don’t know what cannabis is like.)

Thus the BU work ended with me being high as a kite.

(※ I’m covering it with mosaics for now. I’ll remove it once I can announce it.)

○ I stopped playing TRPGs. I’ve been doing it for about two and a half years, but it also helped me in honing my creative skills. I’d sometimes perform, so it was useful when I was recording the scratch vocals… It was a good experience, managing to vicariously live the energy of ending a story. It was a story about a group of friends, so it was easy to appreciate.

Summing up 2019

After the weekly series finished in 2018, I was in a daze for a few months, but in 2019 I worked only on Jack Jeanne for the year.

This year I tried various things, and trite as it may seem, felt the possibilities within myself expanding. I had many opportunities to realize how important it is to keep a distance from bad things that don’t do anything for me.

During my work on Jack Jeanne, I vaguely thought about my future creations. The work I’m doing now in game production is fun so I wonder if I can keep working in this field, but I’d also like an environment where I can release things more constantly.

I can’t promise anything specific, but I’m going to work on things that I want to do.

I look forward to what 2020 has to offer. Have a happy New Year.

2019.12.31 Ishida Sui

#Jack Jeanne #Ishida Sui #Translations #my translations #time to hibernate

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ducktracy · 4 years ago

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166. steamlined greta green (1937)

release date: june 19th, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: friz freleng

starring: berneice hansell (junior), mel blanc (bartender)

it’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it?

the title appropriated from the song “greta green”, streamlined greta green chronicles the adventures of a little car who wishes to grow up into a taxi cab, much to the chagrin of his mother, who wishes he’d follow the footsteps of his father and become a touring car. tex avery would expand upon this premise 14 years later with his own short, one cab’s family, where the little child wants to be a sleek hot-rod instead of a taxi like his father. interesting to see how times change!

“lullaby of broadway” underscores a busy street scene as we open. trolleys, cars, you name it, all narrowly avoid crashing as they bottleneck through a busy (and poorly regulated) intersection. two cars inevitably crash together, spurring an altercation. reducing the anthropomorphic cars’ dialogue to nothing but furious honking through means of a muffled trumpet is a wonderful touch, furthering the whimsicality of the short as a whole. angry exchanges morph into a heated wrestling match--suspension of disbelief works well as a nearby stoplight turns red and signals the cars to stop. they take a breather at opposite ends of the “ring”, and once the stop sign turns green again, they go back at it. the scene itself is reminiscent of the epic sequence in porky the wrestler where the entire wrestling ring is transformed into a train. perhaps not as exaggerated, but still enough to warrant praise.

fret not--the majority of cars seem to uphold a camaraderie as we hone in on a taxi dance hall. jaunty animation of anthropomorphic cars dancing together fill the scene inside (as does some sign gags, one sign reading “five can dance as cheap as one”), accompanied by a chorus of the title song. by this point, the merrie melodies songs were on their way out the door. i don’t believe i mentioned it before (probably too preoccupied by digesting the racism of the cartoon), but the merrie melody before this, uncle tom’s bungalow, was the first merrie melody to exclude a song entirely. the songs were a detriment to the cartoons rather than a bonus, and as a result, the songs themselves became much more halfhearted in the cartoons they were featured in. here is no exception.

all of the taxi cabs are happily dancing together. all except one, a lady taxi sitting politely aside with nary a dance partner. she turns bashful as a taxi approaches her for a dance, and in a clever twist, the lady taxi plops a coin inside her meter, switching the label from vacant to occupied. anthropomorphic cars aren’t as mind-bogglingly inventive as they used to be (just look at the pixar films), but for 1937, this entire cartoon is extremely creative. friz has worked with anthropomorphic cars before--he animated the beginning part with piggy of this wonderful scene from you don’t know what you’re doin’!, which still holds up as one of my favorite merrie melodies. the animation here (as in 1937 here) is wonderfully jaunty and fluid, and to boot we’re met with an innuendo as the lady taxi’s meter continues to rise. following in the steps of tex avery and his love of jackpot gags since day 1, the meter turns into a slot machine, winning the jackpot, and a plethora of gold coins shower out as the male taxi happily collects the coins into his hat, much to the bashfulness of his partner.

away from the busy city is a quaint little backyard, where we stumble upon the star of the picture--a tiny little car reading a book on how to be a taxi cab. the underscore here is “my little buckaroo”, which would find a home time and time again in many a warner bros cartoon (such as the 1938 friz freleng cartoon with the same name, as well as the daffy duckaroo, my little duckaroo...) the little car sighs longingly as he reads. the backgrounds are beautifully painted, conveying the homely nature of the scene rather nicely. very atmospheric, very nostalgic. the car’s mother emerges from the garage, honking and searching for her son junior.

mama car finds junior engrossed in his book, to which junior panics and hides the book behind his back. the power of domineering motherhood prevails as junior reluctantly forks the book over. “i wanna be a taxi,” he protests indignantly after seeing his mother’s shocked expression at the brazen literature her son was reading. “a taxi? of all things! i want you to grow up and be a nice touring car like your father.” berneice hansell’s squeaky vocals are endearing as always as junior refuses. “i don’t wanna be a touring car. i wanna be a taxi!”

not having any more of it, mama car drags junior by the “ear” (one of the metal covers of his tires) and takes him inside their humble garage abode. as mama car prepares junior’s lunch for school (gasoline of course), you’ll notice a wonderfully clever visual gag--a framed portrait of an old car from the early 1900s hangs on the garage wall, affectionately labeled “grandpa”. my initial thought was that this was a dig on the 1933 disney hit the three little pigs, which couldn’t be too far off. this wouldn’t be the last time friz rips on disney--wait til’ his behemoth pigs in a polka 6 years later.

with lunch prepared, mama places the lunchbox in junior’s seat, much to his displeasure. junior takes off, with mama cooing at him to run along to school, stay away from traffic, “and keep clear of those railroad crossings...”

junior reaches the intersection between auto school and the city. his plight of decision is accented by a visual dotted line as he reads both signs, turning his head, trying to make a final decision. the school bell tolls like a funeral bell--with that, junior plays it brave and heads for the city instead. city life already asserts itself as intimidating as junior attempts to cross the bustling city streets. as the stoplight turns red, he readies himself at the line, preparing to take off, but once the light turns green, he’s repeatedly run over (or run above?) a number of cars as the cars zoom forward beneath him, rendering the little car paralyzed. very fun, smooth, hurried animation. once traffic clears, the light red again, junior is now in the company of an older, slower car, who patiently waits for the signal to go. once the light is green, the sound of the bell throws the old car into a boxing frency, shadow-boxing with an invisible enemy. this gag was referenced all too many times in the disastrous porky’s moving day by jack king just a year before.

junior gets jostled around by traffic as he wanders aimlessly into another intersection, eventually throwing himself into a safety zone (one thinks of picador porky), a fitting underscore of “little man, you’ve had a busy day” accompanying junior as he frantically pants, trying to catch his breath, his heart (where the engine is) beating furiously. more jaunty animation as junior, ever the genius, breaks the physical restraints of the cartoon world as he lifts up the painted lines and carries the safety zone with him. caught up in complacency, he tumbles straight into an open storm drain, weaseling his way out on the other side of the street.

suddenly, relief--a gas station catches his eye. he approaches, the gas station serving as a soda fountain of sorts, manned by a bartender voiced by (who else?) mel blanc, asking “what’ll ya have, son?” the gas comes in a variety of flavors--strawberry, grape, orange, etc. junior signals the orange, which is “powerful stuff, son!” junior has his fill, and instantly the gas takes effect, sending jolts through out his body as the engine explodes in a rhythmic cadence (a classic warner bros gag). after the initial shock, junior is revitalized and ready to go--”gee, i can go fast now! watch!”

predictable yet endearing, junior takes off in a flash, much to the bewilderment of the bartender. a camera pan reveals junior standing at the bartender’s side, clearly pleased with his work, much to the awe of the bartender. junior’s attempts to show off are endearing and serve as suitable momentum to the inevitable climax as he zooms over to the railroad tracks, “yoo-hoo!”ing the bartender. “shuffle off to buffalo” underscores the sound of an approaching train, hurtling across the railroad tracks as junior observes in awe. if my memory serves me correctly, the particular footage of the train used here is the first of many reuses--this train pops up in a number of cartoons, the one coming to my mind right now being porky’s picnic in 1939. perhaps it was used before this and my memory is just poor, but, at the very least, i can say that it’s the same train.

junior, now cocky, decides to race the train to show off, speeding alongside the tracks on a rural stretch of road. his excitement is cut short by a road hog--literally. a giant pig shaped car, labeled ROAD HOG in threatening bold letters slows junior’s momentum, junior honking angry “barks” at the offending car. junior attempts to pass, but to no avail. instead, the road hog grows even more obnoxious by stretching its tires out to hog the entire stretch of road. thankfully, a bridge comes to junior’s aid as the road hog is sent riding above the support beams, with junior passing below and now in front of the road hog.

road hog taken care of, junior gets gutsy again as his attention focuses once more on the rival train. determined to out-perform, junior attempts to race alongside the train, casting looks of validation occasionally to see just how well he’s holding the lead. the energy of the next handful of scenes is just swell--friz’s knack for musical timing comes in clutch as the railroad crossing bell dings in hurried succession with the beat of the jaunty music. some tashlin-esque camera angles as the train heads straight for the audience, with junior crossing over the tracks just before it, narrowly avoiding an inevitable collision. the charade is repeated again (with the footage flipped), but the energy is just as strong the first time around, especially with the key of the music elevating up a notch to D instead of C, heightening the anticipation and adrenaline.

even if the energy is rampant, it can’t be maintained for the remainder of the cartoon, just watching junior do his gymnastics. friz knows this, too, which is why we get a view of junior’s gas gauge dropping to empty. predictably, junior stalls out on the train tracks as the train approaches. the train hurtles towards the audience, junior cowers in fear... and fade out to black.

i give friz credit, as i didn’t expect this to happen at ALL. i assumed his mother would swoop in out of the shadows to save the day and give him a stern talking to afterwards, but instead we’re met with a rather bizarre and somber scene. an ambulance tow truck hauls an off-screen junior to the auto garage hospital, and we’re met with a rather moody surgery montage. the suspense is extremely thick--the directing here is very cinematographic, very tashlin-esque, and VERY well executed. we never once see the injured junior. we have a split-screen montage of the surgery, showing oxygen being pumped, utensils passed around... the directing is top notch. very brooding, very smart to withhold junior from the audience, as well as concealing most of the faces of the operators. the minor key rendition of “my little buckaroo” does wonders to maintain the somber mood.

outside, we see mama car pacing aimlessly around, tearfully “oh dear”ing all the way through. the suspense doesn’t stop--the back door creaks open. after a beat, we see little junior, alive and mostly well, covered in bandages, running to his mother. they embrace lovingly, but that doesn’t exclude junior from a good lecture.

another wonderful turn of events as we hear the all too familiar bellow of a train whistle during mama’s lecture. junior displays how much he’s learned his lesson by darting straight towards the tracks once more, hungry for a race. all the broodiness, all the moodiness, all the tears and heartfelt sorrow are thrown out the window as junior’s need for speed prevails once more.

what also prevails once more is the train. junior manages to dodge the train at first, mocking the train in the process, but in the midst of his gloating, he’s oblivious to the other train hurtling straight behind him.

again, junior gets hit. junior is relatively unscathed, albeit dazed as we fade back in from black. iris out as we see that the train is now in shambles, taking a much more severe beating than junior did.

i have to say, i thought i knew where this cartoon was going--i certainly was mistaken! i assumed it would be much more disney-esque, much more cutesy and endearing than it actually turned out to be. with that said, i ended up enjoying it a lot more than i would have as a result. the music score was lovely all the way through, as was the animation and the creativity. as i said, talking cars aren’t as surprising now, but this was pretty damn innovative for its time, and they certainly made the best of their surroundings and setting. the dark turn the short took was wonderful. energy was high all through the cartoon, but especially during the climax, and the broodiness of the surgery scenes serve as a strong juxtaposition to the previous scenes. it’s certainly evident both tex avery and frank tashlin have rubbed off on friz--as they should. friz is a solid director who is WAY too underrated for my tastes. his timing, both musical and comedic, is impeccable, and his cartoons are wonderful to watch. he doesn’t get as much praise because he’s not as “wacky”, but subtleties are just as, if not more so, important than wild animation, and i’d argue that especially for its time, this is pretty wild! tashlin’s camera angles and filmmaking techniques and tex’s need for speed and absurd humor both rub off on friz as we see here, and it pays off extremely nicely. at first i wasn’t too enthused to watch this cartoon, as i figured it’d be your “standard” merrie melody, but after seeing the end i would definitely recommend you to watch it. it’s fun, light-hearted, and it wouldn’t hurt to watch just once. go check it out!

link!

#lt #streamlined greta green #reviews #looney tunes #freleng #long post

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nate-the-content-creator · 5 years ago

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Beer!! Money!!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, here is your winner! Roman Reigns!” Jace Reznor spoke into his announcers mic, signalling the end of the Smackdown Live main event which had been Reigns vs. Baron Corbin. things had turned in Romans favor when the Uso’s had intervened on Roman’s behalf. Taking out Ziggler and Roode witha double splash through the Spanish announce table. roman was able to capitalize on that shortly afterward, by delivering a rather intense spear, which still had Corbin clutching his ribs in pain from.

‘Sorry! About your damn luck!’ The crowd erupted into cheers upon hearing the music of the Tennessee Cowboy. Those cheers became louder, as James Storm appeared on the entrance ramp, carrying a cooler in one hand, and a beer in the other. He handed that beer to Roman as he passed the wrestler on the stage, as a congratulations on winning his match.

“Oh Bobby...” Storm sighed. He had grabbed a microphone from one of the ring aides, after sliding his cooler which was undoubtedly filled with beer into the ring. Storm entered soon after through the top and middle rope. Roode had crawled into the ring to check on Corbin, but his attention was drawn to his old tag team partner soon after. “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, that big Samoan sumbitch whipped your ass good. But, I know a great cure for an ass whoopin’.”

Storm opened his cooler, and pulled out two beers. One of which he handed to Roode. “Drink up, you’ll feel better.” Storm used his microphone to pop the top off of his beer, before taking a sip. “Bobby, what happened to you? You went from a tag team, and a great single’s competitor and champion. And now your some lapdog to a guy who can’t get over no matter how many pushes he’s given.”

That drew an ‘ooooooooooh!’ from the crowd, and someone even shouted out the word ‘burn!’ Storm took another sip from his beer a few moments later, ignoring the dirty look Corbin was giving him from where he was recovering in the corner.

“Now I came out here to extend you an olive branch. You and I could pick up where we left off,you can drink that beer, and we can be one of the greatest and most dominant tag team’s in wrestling again!” There were mixed chants of ‘yes’ and ‘Beer Money’ amongst the VCW crowd. “Or you could stay a midcarder’s lackey.”

Roode looked to the beer in his hand, which he had yet to open, then to Corbin and Ziggler who had crawled back into the ring to help Corbin to his feet. He looked back to the beer, and suddenly snatched the microphone out of Storm’s hand. “You want to know my answer...” There was a rather intense look on his face, as he looked Storm in the eye. “I only have one thing to say to that! Sorry! About your damn...!” The word ‘luck’ was barely heard when Roode dropped the microphone to crack Corbin over the head with the unopened beer bottle. Glass and beer went everywhere as Corbin collapsed. Ziggler would have acted, but Storm had caught him with a huge superkick, that sent him fling out of the ring.

Roode and Storm then picked Corbin up, and deposited him on his back via the Beer Money Suplex. The two wrestlers stared at one another, before simultaneously crouching down. The crowd began going crazy, their cheers revving up like a jet engine.

“BEER!!” Storm stood up, both arms raised in the air.

“MONEY!!” Roode yelled, his arms too were raised in the air, the crowd loudly echoing both words at the reformation of the tag team.

#pro wrestling au #james storm #robert roode #beer money #roman reigns #dolph ziggler #baron corin #oc #jace reznor

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labetalol · 5 years ago

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psycho-pass s3ep3 summary + thoughts + analysis (spoilers)

hi! i’m typically making this post for those who can’t watch it but wants to read spoilers! so here we go!

this episode mainly was to progress the mystery of a supposed suicide of a doctor who worked with a current candidate for some sort of political office. i CANNOT remember the names and the wiki pages havent updated, but theres 2 candidates as of now, a former wrestler and a pop star. the doctor worked on the pop star’s campaign but developed a stalking tendency towards her. he gets checked into a mental facility and then he supposedly jumps out the window. arata shindo believes he was actually trying to escape, thus leading kei ignatov + arata shindo to look into this further. they basically break off and conduct mini-investigations, unauthorized by chief shimotsuki.

in this episode, we mainly see development of character between all the main cast. below i will talk more about this, but lemme continue the main arc: kei and temma todoroki, the older enforcer, usually are paired up to investigate the wrestler candidate while arata and irie pair up to investigate the pop star. the main thing i think they figure out is that there is some sort of third party between the candidates that can be undetected by scanners and do evil bidding without people noticing. this is exemplified through an attack on the 2 enforcers, 2 inspectors, and someone from the wrestler’s campaign. a few disguised men came and attacked them, killing the campaign manager and injuring irie. they weren’t flagged down by anything and got access to the hotel in and out, so obviously something is off if these bad guys are able to move around like that.

the episode ends with kei becoming suspended due to him hitting someone due to personal reasons. below i will explain more because that deals with his characterization development!

ok finally some character development!!!!

arata: “we need to exercise human judgement. that’s why the dominators have triggers.” HUGE STATEMENT! this is such an akane thing to say, i am really happy someone made this observation! obviously, this characterizes him to definitely have empathy. the context was todoroki was about to kill someone with the dominator, but arata stopped him and allowed kei to arrest him instead. this is huge because this is what akane did in season 2 as she attempted to talk someone down to 299 so she could do nonlethal attack rather than killing a latent criminal.

kei: ok he definitely had a lot of lore added in here and i LOVED IT! his fighting skills from his time in the military obviously is shown in this episode with his easily disarming a man with a shank with a FLASHLIGHT! but i really like this societal issue on immigration. context: kei is married and has a blind wife, who he accompanied to the doctors on consultation for eye treatment. some old guy was angry he had to wait, and noticed kei coming out, being done with his appointment and all. the old guy started yelling and getting angry that an “immigrant” went before him. kei maintained his cool but you can definitely tell he was having none of it! next scene was him and todoroki interrogating some people from the wrestler’s campaign. so context: todoroki is related to a few people working on the campaign, so they express their disgust at how a family member became a latent criminal and look down upon him. todoroki is shown quiet, small, insecure, whereas in the office hes all big talk and strong, so it shows how it really hurts him. kei notices and then PUNCHES the dude, who reports him to shimotsuki who puts him on suspension. its only episode 3!! anyways i liked this because it shows kei’s empathy as well, where he knows family should mean the world and seeing how todoroki’s family treats him makes him upset.

-todoroki: we learn here that he actually was a product of genetic engineering, so him turning to a latent criminal makes everyone be like: he was supposed to be amazing, superior, but instead he’s just an animal, etc... and he is obviously deeply hurt by this mentality. he’s all alone and it defintely reverts my initial opinion that i didn’t really like him.

-irie: there was a funny scene where (as i explained above) there was a scene that a few men broke in and launched an attack on the group, so irie was there getting beat up and a little robot thing, those yknow the ones with the high pitched voices and big heads was like: you are being hit with a large force on the head, meaning you are probably being assaulted! probability of winning is small, best strategy is to escape! and irie was getting absolutely pummelled and was like OK I WOULD IF I COULD DUMBASS!!! and i loved it! i like his character now, he definitely has his own charm where he likes the looseness and freedom of not living under sibyl. i also liked this scene because another whole essay can be written on how psycho-pass’s society reliance on technology doesn’t always work.

-akane: AKANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY MENTIONED HER SAYING “wasn’t she the killer inspector? the top notice inspector who lost her mind??” LIKE???? do they mean killer inspector like shes great :) hah! or like SHE KILLED SOMEONE???? i am so lost and i dont know if this was in the sinner of the system cases but i have no clue whats going on with akane and apparently she just upped and killed a man and i need to know why and how and please give me more akane please.

-irie x arata: ok i cannot finish this post without mentioning... there was a scene where arata and irie were off investigating together and LEGIT the sun shone down on arata, lighting up his eyes, irie watched him pet a cat, they talked about how even without hope, some of the latent criminals irie knows are the best people around, and arata agrees... i almost feel a relationship coming along! i know psycho pass had yayoi x shion so perhaps they’d also have a gay relationship too.

-speaking of yayoi... GUESS WHAT BITCHES SHE’S BACK! AND SHE GOT HER HAIR LET DOWN AND A SMIRK AND I AM READY TO SEE WHAT SHE BRINGS IN NEXT EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WIG

#sorry for the long post #there was just so much to say!!!!!!!!!#psycho pass #psycho pass season 3 #psycho-pass #psycho-pass s3 #psychopass3 #psycho pass 3 #arata shindo #shindo arata #kei ignatov #kei mikhail ignatov #yayoi kunizuka #akane tsunemori #pp3 #personal #long post #psycho pass s3e3

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ghostofviperwrites · 5 years ago

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Caught Out

I’m cleaning out my old stories. This is another of my old ones when I first started writing wrestling fanfiction, when the SHIELD were still together.

Pairing: Dean Ambrose/FC

Category: Angsty

“Call me. Now!” You swallowed past the big lump in your throat that had formed as soon as you heard the message. You had been expecting the call and had sent it to voicemail to give you a minute to think. God you were so stupid, you thought fingers trembling as you dialed the phone number of your boyfriend, Dean Ambrose. You stood nervously in the mall where you had headed for some stress shopping after everything went to hell this morning.

“Did you think he wouldn’t tell me?” Was how he answered the phone. None of his usual pleasantries or sweet endearments. Just straight anger.

“I’m…I’m s…” You stuttered only to be interrupted by his loud “Shut up!” he growled before you heard him take a deep breath. “Come home now so we can deal with this in person.” He said before hanging up abruptly.

You sank down onto a bench in the mall walkway, laying the multiple bags of clothing you had purchased with Dean’s credit card at your feet. This was the first time Dean had ever been angry at you. He never raised his voice or yelled at you. You debated not returning to the home you shared with Dean. You didn’t want to deal with the confrontation that was sure to happen. But you had so much stuff there. Jewelry and clothes, handbags, all presents from Dean. The two of you had been together for over a year and you had just moved into his home in Las Vegas a month or so ago. You hated to lose all that stuff. With Dean you had found a nice sugar daddy who wasn’t home very often and spent a lot of money on you to make up for it. You didn’t want to lose that. And all you had to do was fuck him when he was home. Being that the man was gorgeous, that wasn’t a hardship at all. And when he was gone, well, you could always find someone to scratch that itch. You wondered just how much Seth Rollins had told Dean.

Maybe he didn’t tell Dean everything you mused. Maybe I can spin it. Make Dean think Seth got the wrong impression. Feeling more confident that you could talk your way out of trouble you began digging through your purchases. Finding what you were looking for you bee lined for the bathrooms, stepping into the handicap stall and stripping off the jeans and bebe tank top you were wearing. You hurriedly stepped into the royal blue skintight bodycon dress you had just purchased before rummaging through the bags for the silver stilettos you had gotten to go with them. Exiting the stall you pulled your hair from the ponytail it was in and let it tumble down your shoulders in waves before touching up your makeup.

As you drove the BMW X5 Dean had leased for you towards your home, you thought about the events that had brought you to the situation you were headed into.

Flashback

You had met Dean’s partners, brothers as he called them, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns about a month after you started dating Dean. You would have had to be blind to not notice how gorgeous the men were. And you was positive they were attracted to you as well. Most men were. You had been blessed with flawless looks, and you used them to your full advantage. Being a natural flirt you were constantly teasing the men and blatantly flirting with them, even in front of Dean. He didn’t seem to care much, he knew you were a flirt and he trusted his brothers implicitly. And as time went on he began extending that trust to you. The flirting with Roman had stayed about the same throughout the year, but when you and Seth were alone, the flirting seemed to take on a more serious tone and became more real with light touches being exchanged. Many times you had caught Seth eyeing you with clear lust. You had honestly expected him to make a move. After a while, when he never did, you figured out his loyalty to Dean was holding him back and you decided to give him the green light. But Seth seemed to miss many signals. You began to get frustrated and figured the man was dense and would need to be hit in the face with it.

Your opportunity came this morning. Dean had been called in as a last minute fill in after another superstar unexpectedly had fallen ill to handle some local interviews. In his rush he had forgotten that Seth was coming over and the two were going to hit the gym together. When Seth had arrived you took the opening. Offering Seth breakfast to make up for Dean’s oversight you cooked him a hearty meal of bacon, eggs and pancakes. Leaving him to eat you stepped into the living room and stripped off the yoga pants and t-shirt you were in, then stripped off your bra and panties before moving to lean in the doorway of the kitchen. It took a moment for Seth to see you, so intent was he on shoveling food into his face.

When he saw you with a come hither smile on your face he pushed his chair back, languidly looking your body over. The corner of his lip turned up in a cocky smirk as he crooked his finger and beckoned your forward. When you were situated on his lap Seth drew your face close to his, his warm breath making your nipples tighten. You pressed your mouth to his lips sliding your tongue past them before he broke away.

“You wanna know what I’m gonna do?” Seth said, his voice gruff.

“No baby, what are you going to do?” You responded pressing your chest against his. You let out a startled yelp when he stood up abruptly dumping you on the floor.

“I’m gonna tell Dean what a whore his girlfriend is. That is what I’m going to do.” He spat, looking down at you in disgust before storming out of the house.

You had sat on the floor in humiliation for several moments before you jumped to your feet, rushing to get dressed. Grabbing Dean’s credit card you had headed straight to the mall. You needed to get out of the house and figure shit out before you panicked.

You pulled into the garage of Dean’s home and shut off the engine taking a nervous breath before pasting on a smile and strolling into the house. You were met with Dean sitting at the table, in the same spot Seth had been in for your failed seduction attempt. You froze in the doorway your smile faltering at the coldness in Dean’s icy blue eyes.

“Dean” you started when he simply stared silently at you. “I rushed home. I don’t understand what’s going on. Why are you upset with me?” You lied. The chuckle that came from Dean was devoid of amusement.

“Oh you mean I shouldn’t be mad that my girlfriend threw herself at my best friend?” He asked sardonically.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t throw myself at him.” You lied again.

“Are you calling Seth a liar?” Dean asked staring at you with a raised brow.

“No! I’m not saying he’s a liar. Just maybe he misread the situation. I mean, you know we always flirt. Maybe he took it the wrong way.” You reasoned.

You had to bite back a smile as Dean seemed to think over your reasoning and nodded his head along. You knew you could talk your way out of trouble.

“So you think Seth misunderstood?” Dean asked.

“Yes. I promise. I’ll tone back the flirting. I won’t even flirt with him ever again.” You promised quickly pleased to see Dean nodding in agreement.

Dean’s head jerked up looking past you. “You see Seth, you just misread the situation.” He said making you spin around in shock seeing Seth leaning against the door jamb with his arms crossed, Roman Reigns standing next to him with a blank expression. “You totally misunderstood my girlfriend climbing her naked ass onto your lap.”

“Shit.” Seth said. “Now I feel like a fucking idiot. I’m sorry Y/N. What exactly were you trying to convey when you straddled me?”

Dean turned expectant eyes on you. You felt sick to your stomach, quite unsure how to spin the current direction of the conversation.

“What about when your tongue was down his throat?” Dean asked when you didn’t reply. “What were you trying to tell him there? Cause you know it’s kinda hard to talk with your tongue in someone’s mouth.”

Seeing you was caught red-handed you tried another tactic. “I’m sorry Dean. I’m so sorry. I just got so lonely and we were finally going to spend some time together and then you got called out for work. And you’re always at work, always on the road. I was just looking for some attention.”

“So you tried to fuck another wrestler who is on the road just as much as Dean?” Roman snorted.

“Don’t try to guilt me.” Dean snapped at you. “You know how much money I spend on your ass to make you happy? How much of my money you spend when I’m gone? You knew what you were getting into so don’t try that bullshit.”

“Baby, I’m sorry. I made a mistake.” You pled, allowing tears to leak from your eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Please, please don’t throw away what we have. I love you.” You fixated your eyes on your boyfriend, hoping to use them to your advantage. He never could turn down the puppy dog eyes.

“Give me your phone.” Dean suddenly said.

“What? I’m not giving you my phone.” You said. You jumped when Roman pulled your purse off your arm and removed your phone tossing it to Dean.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” You indignantly yelled at the big man who simply glared at you.

“What’s your code Y/N?” Dean asked impatiently as he was met with a lock screen.

“I’m not giving you my code. This is ridiculous.” You stated.

“What’s on here that you’re so adamant about me not seeing? You want me to trust you and take you back, yet you won’t even let me look at your phone.” He chuckled humorlessly.

You shrieked when Seth grabbed you from behind, pushing your towards Dean who grabbed your wrist and forced your finger onto the home button to unlock the phone. Seeing him maneuvering towards your messages you sagged in defeat. It was over, there was no way to talk yourself out of the things on your phone. There were multiple messages to your various fuckbuddies including nudes you had sent, as well as texts to your friends bragging about using Dean.

“Well.” He said after a few moments. “Glad to see half the guys in town have gotten to fuck my girlfriend.” His lip jumped in anger as he read through the damning messages. You jumped when he slammed your phone down on the table, the screen shattering on impact.

“My phone!” You yelled.

“Your phone?” he said in disbelief. “I believe I bought the fucking thing. I can do whatever the hell I want with it.” Dean rose to his feet coming to stand in front of you who where you were still standing loosely in Seth’s hold. He gripped your chin in his hand making your whimper and try to escape his grasp. Seth’s hands tightened on your upper arms holding you in place. “Whole fucking town has pictures of your pussy. And here I had to practically beg to get you to send me one.”

Dean withdrew his hand in disgusted anger muttering under his breath while you looked on in fright. You hadn’t seen this side of Dean before. But Seth and Roman were smiling. They knew this Dean. This was their brother. Not the watered down man he had been while trying to impress you. For some reason Dean had gotten it in his head that he needed to get married and settled down and had turned his back on his self to achieve that. Both Seth and Roman had tried to talk him out of it and make him see you were using him, but the man was stubborn. They were sorry he had to go through this to see what you were trying to pull.

“And on top of all that you have the nerve to try to fuck my brother?” he growled as he paced.

“He wanted it.” You yelled. “Why aren’t you mad at him? Seth wanted to fuck me too.”

“Of course he did.” Dean snarled getting in your face. “You’re a hot piece of ass and he has a dick.” You watched warily as his face shifted, the anger draining and being replaced by a look of cold dismissal. “You know what, I’m done. Get your shit and get the fuck out of my house. I don’t want to see or hear from you again.”

#dean ambrose fanfic #wwe fanfic #wrestling fanfic #mywriting #ghostofviperwrites

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darkarfs · 5 years ago

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This is gonna make so many horrible people unhappy. EVERY Takeover has had at least one match-of-the-year candidate on it. Some of the most emotional moments in that brand have come from cards that even aren't quite as good. I even considered not doing this list, because, by all accounts, NXT Takeover: Tampa isn't even going ahead. But then I thought, fuck it, let's celebrate, taken all together, for my taste, the best wrestling product in the history of mankind. It's not just moves; it's emotional investment, sharply-focused, character-based storytelling, intricately-performed spectactle from the greatest physical specimens ever to lace their boots. It FINALLY legitimized Western women's wrestling in the mainstream (Michelle McCool, Trish, Molly, Mickie, Jazz, Victoria, you all were stunning performers in your own right, but you and your kind were, until NXT, only given 3 minutes: the longest women's match IN HISTORY, until 'Mania 32, was Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James at Wrestlemania 22, and it got 9 minutes.), it's got some of the greatest tag wrestling ever seen on ANY brand, it's created the longest-drawn storytelling ever, it's the best of the indies, the best of the WWE, wrapped up in a sequence of shows that were epic without being FIVE FUCKING HOURS LONG.

Where do I even start...?

Honorable mention: Takeover: R Evolution (I have to, because I've only got 10) Sami Zayn spends over a year, clawing and sweating and tearing walls down, just to get to the top of the mountain in NXT. He has the opportunity to cheat, but does it his OWN way, as beautiful, unique babyface Sami Zayn...before being no-scoped by his best friend, who debuted THAT NIGHT. The undercard isn't as strong, so I can't officially include it, but this payoff, this triumph, and this tragedy represents everything the first era of NXT was, and kickstarted it, truly, onto its first golden era. So, properly, then...

10. Takeover: Rival If you leave this list feeling like the title reigns, and thus, ERAS, of Zayn/Owens are a little under-represented by it, I completely understand. After all, so much good came from that time. American Alpha soldifying themselves as the dominant tag team, the Iron-Woman match between Sasha and Bayley, Becky Lynch putting all the pieces together, Enzo and Cass actually being GOOD...it was, still, at its heart, a developmental brand at that time. It had indie megastars, yes, but it also had the likes of Bull Dempsey. And that's not a dig at Bull Dempsey, it's just that those early Takeovers were an eclectic mix of skill levels, which is what NXT was at that time. It was a place to showcase these people. That said, some of these cards were truly *fantastic.* Case in point: Takeover: Rival. Not only was the undercard completely stacked (Hideo Itami vs. Tyler Breeze over-delivered; we had the first and still SOMEHOW ONLY Fatal 4-Way match between the Four Horsewomen; and Finn Balor vs. Neville was a solid match of the year candidate), but the main event was the first step in one of the most storied rivalries in the history of wrestling: Zayn vs. Owens. The video package is one of the best NXT ever did, and the match...was a masterpiece of simple-but unexpected booking. Zayn mistimes a leap to the outside, hits his head, and Owens responds by powerbombing him over...and over...and over again, until the ref stops the match. Zayn loses nothing, because he was never pinned, Owens is made to look even MORE the loathsome monster, and Zayn's title reign ends after just a month, without the champion nor the championship devalued in any way. It showed that NXT knew, even then, how to reward fans for their emotional investment.

9. Takeover: Portland Right now, NXT feels like it's approaching the very end of a special time in its life. Like it's on the verge of hitting critical mass. One of either Gargano or Ciampa probably leaving the company after the next Takeover, and the reign of the Undisputed Era seems to be crumbling, too. In yesteryear, this would indicate a raft of very important call-ups, neccessitating a shift in the roster and a period of calm centered around more patient character-building. NXT's existence now as a third brand throws that formula into uncertainty, but it definitely feels like they're ramping up to a finale, because goddamn, this is NXT almost at a point of self-parody. Every match is so. MUCH. Lee/Dijakovic is the pinnacle of HOT wrestling (and Lee, will you marry me?) Bianca Belair breaks out as an actual superstar...just as Charlotte decides to visit and to ruin everything, which is just dreadful timing. Gargano/Balor being everything we need it to be, and also Balor pinning Gargano with his fucking dick. And the Broserweights being VERY DUMB...but also VERY, VERY GOOD. The only thing that lets this card down...and this is obviously subjective...is that NXT has almost come TOO FAR, now, in its delivery on its main events, in that every kickout starts to beggar belief. On the level of Triple H/Undertaker at Wrestlemania 28, in that I still love it, but...hoo, it can be exhausting. Depends on how much Ring of Honor you like in your gumbo, I guess, but it feels like everyone on the roster is racing toward Tampa to explode, like a wrestling Crisis on Infinite Earths, and then MAYBE...things can calm down. Just a hair. Y'know, if Tampa even...still happens.

8. Takeover: Philadelphia If there's one man that's become synonymous with NXT, it's Johnny fucking Wrestling. You know, what would happen if a meerkat put on muscle mass and became the best set-piece wrestler this side of Daniel Bryan. We knew since he started his tag team with Tommaso Ciampa that he was an exceptional wrestler, but it wasn't until Philadelphia, and his INSANE match with Andrade "Cien" Almas, that we saw him as truly the industry's next star. It was the first Takeover match to go over 30 minutes (Sasha/Bayley at Respect went EXACTLY 30, don't @ me), it was the first NXT match to get 5 stars from Dave Meltzer (if that matters to you), and it set a new bar for Takeover main events. And while the undercard doesn't live up to it, it's still loaded with excellent matches. A.O.P. vs. the Undisputed Era is something special. Shayna Baszler makes her Takeover debut, and while she's nowhere near her prime, it cemented her immediately. Velveteen Dream and Kassius Ohno have a very fun match, and Aleister Black and Adam Cole have a ludcriously stupid no-holds-barred match, featuring two men doing with chairs what no one ought to do with chairs. But as good as all of that is, it's really a one match show, but what a match, and Ciampa ending it by being an utter bastard yet again.

7. Takeover: Brooklyn I Does the first Brooklyn Takeover feature Canadian Destroyers, 18 kick-outs and "fight forever" chants? It does not. Does it create moments of wrestling happiness that are rarely, if ever, replicated? It sure does. Firstly, Blue Pants appears and helps the Vaudevillains defeat Blake and Murphy. Seems quaint to look back on it, but it made everyone SO goddamn HAPPY that night. If you're forgetting, Leva Bates (that wrestling librarian in AEW right now) was once a comedy jobber in NXT, who wore Blue Pants. Adorable. Ignore what happened on the main roster (which is something you'll probably have to do with a lot of these shows, I imagine), but the Vaudevillains were once incredibly over (I promise!), and their win was one of several beam-inducing moments from this stellar night. Samoa Joe destroyed Baron Corbin at the height of his game, Apollo Crews debuted brilliantly (again, ignore what happens next!) and Balor and Owens' ladder match was also fantastic. Also, what's Jushin Thunder Liger doing here?? Wrestling like he's in his early 30s, that's goddamn what!! But of course, the reason we're all here is Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, and...there's still something in my eye. Anytime people want to rag on NXT for being "predictable," remind them that giving the people a moment they've genuinely prayed for...is a good thing. Bayley besting Sasha Banks at her prime just made us all...so happy. All of us. Everyone. When that curtain call took place, it was so earned. The narrative of women's wrestling dominated most of 2015, and this moment, this match, was the apex of that narrative.

6. Takeover: Chicago I And speaking of feelings...hello, Ciampa, you godless fuck. And so begins maybe the actual greatest rivalry in all of NXT. It is truly an odyessy, with twists, turns, injuries, betrayals, wounds torn open, and this is the nexus point. Well, the seeds had already sort of been planted, because Triple H knows what he's doing. Ciampa almost ALMOST turns on Gargano after their terrific match in the Cruiserweight Classic, only for the team to die another day...and what a death it was. After a great ladder match, the two stand atop the ramp, and you think "will it happen?" And the absolute bastards show you the copyright logo, just to make you think the show ends there, because it always does, seconds after that happens. You unclench, you breathe out, relax...Ciampa whispers "this is MY moment" and then...It is a perfectly engineered bait-and-switch, and exactly as vicious as it needs to be. Pats on the back, all 'round. This moment alone makes this a worthwhile Takeover, but there's also a hell of an undercard. The women's triple-threat (Ruby Riott vs. Asuka vs. Nikki Cross) is stellar, Bobby Roode and Hideo Itami have their respective best Takeover matches ever, and then there was Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne. An absolute show-stealer of a match, a star-making performance for both men (especially Dunne), it cemented the career of several men, and was a fully-formed GREAT show, as opposed to a good show in service to a storyline.

5. Takeover: Brooklyn IV Gargano and Ciampa's battle of brotherhood, betrayal and brainwashing was supposed to blow off at Takeover: New York, but because God hates necks, Tomato Champion was out of action, making this the final singles encounter to date, until Tampa (again, IF it even happens). This is the weakest of their 3 excellent encounters (which still makes it better than any match over SummerSlam weekend), but it also features Johnny Stupid running into a speaker, because his dumb ass can't seem to quit Ciampa. It's one of the greatest long-form feuds for a reason, mirroring Bret and Owen from 1993 into 1994, with all the repeated imagery, the callbacks, the nuances, the psychological cruelty. The street fight at Chicago II is MAYBE better, but this undercard, for me, is a lot stronger. It featured the Undisputed Era vs. Moustache Mountain, aka the Brothers Shithead vs. the Proud Circus Bear and His Beautiful Son. Velveteen Dream vs. EC3 was the closest NXT got to WWE-style storytelling and was still brilliant (remember when EC3 wrestled?), and HEY, wouldn't you know it, Kairi Sane was once a character with dimensions, as evidenced by an amazing match with Shayna Bazsler. But what makes this undercard truly stellar is Adam Cole vs. Ricochet. It is so nice to see Ricochet used well, etc., but I will still never stop pissing myself at Cole nailing him square in the jaw with a superkick WHILE HE'S MID-MOONSAULT UPSIDE-DOWN SWEET JESUS. Sometimes...sometimes...things fall exactly into place.

4. Takeover: WarGames (2018) The WarGames Takeovers are just so silly. It's a silly shoebox, filled with huge, silly men who only barely know why they're killing each other. It's as close as we ever get to WWE's now-terminal problem of "set aside whatever feuds you have right now, because it's Stipulation Month!" (see: Hell In a Cell, most Money In the Bank shows, though Elimination Chamber largely sidesteps this). The other Shoebox Takeovers are really good, no doubt, but this one stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. But there is not a bad match on this card. Kassius Ohno rides Matt Riddle's knee all the way to heaven; NXT shows why 2-out-of-3-falls is fast becoming its signature stipulation with the excellent blowoff between Sane/Baszler; Sexy Mindgames Prince had a star-making match against Tommaso Ciampa, showing why he may be the best overall character in NXT right now, and sweet lord, Aleister Black vs. Johnny Wrestling. It somehow showed that Gargano was JUST AS, if NOT MORE engaging as a dirtbag than as a good guy. And those Black Masses are presents just for me, a guy who tends to like more community theater in his wrestling than flips ("I ABSOLVE YOU...OF ALL YOUR SINS!"). And then we get to the Shoebox, and gosh it's silly! The Viking Experience, Ricochet and Pete Dunne take on the Undisputed Era, and...its a fucking LOT. 45 minutes of spots and smashing, with just a sprinkling of story, with Fish locking Dunne in his cage so he can't participate in the match. Since this seems to be what this match is designed for...let's rattle off some spots! Ricochet, jumping from one ring to the other! That amazing face-off that recreates the Captain America: Civil War poster! Perhaps the beefiest Tower of Doom in all of wrestling! And then Ricochet proving just how amazing he is...with the double moonsault off the top of the cage. What a stupid thing to do in an amazing, amazing show.

3. Takeover: Dallas I get it; a lot of people might not rank this Takeover quite so high. But it might be my actual personal favorite...? Overall...? More than any other Takeover, this show feels the most like it's filled with living, breathing superheroes. Many NXT stars are seen as just indie guys whose only gimmick is "I'm a very good wrestler," making them almost anti-WWE at the core. But NXT doesn't get enough credit for being, at its core, the best aspects of WWE. The showmanship, the things that elevate mere wrestlers to things like monsters, gods, and demons. I will always like my NXT WWE-style: the best wrestling cut with the most theater, the most camp. And Dallas is that concept, writ large. Baron Corbin coming out with lil' skulls on his shoulders. American Alpha finally becoming Super Saiyan Nerds. Asuka killing our hero, because Bayley is a person, and Asuka is a goddess who can perform brain surgery with her feet. Finn Balor coming out and going actual Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Samoa Joe. It's excellent wrestling, near-mythic visuals...and then we get to Nakamura/Zayn. The most special moment of a very special night. It is, from nearly every perspective, perfect. The hype of the crowd, salivating with anticipation. That moment when Nakamura appears in silhouette, and that violin note slides like a knife across steel, to reveal the man who set New Japan aflame. Sami Zayn getting the best possible swan song in a promotion built almost entirely on HIS back. The end of his era. That bit where they just KEEP PUNCHING ONE ANOTHER. I know it's not a perfect show (Balor/Joe stops for 3 minutes to address a cut on Joe's forehead, stalling its momentum; that Corbin/Ares match isn't as good as it could be) but that all means nothing. It's a sentimental choice, and I'd make it #1 if I could.

2. Takeover: New Orleans I went around and around in my head, and this one and #1 kept jockeying for position in my brain. But these top two Takeovers are literally note-perfect, from ship to shore, soup to nuts, top to tails. So if this is YOUR favorite? (Honestly, maybe 1 person I know who loves wrestling as much as I do will even see this mess). I'm here for you, and I understand. But this show has TWO 5-star matches from the Wrestling Observer, and I don't ever agree with that. In this case, I agree with BOTH, in the North American Championship ladder match, and the first (and so far, BEST) match in the Gargano/Ciampa feud. Everything. Is. Amazing. Shayna Bazsler became Women's Champion after BEAST-MODING her SHOULDER back INTO IT'S SOCKET to show that, YES, she gets pro-wrestling. Roderick Strong shocked the world (and the System) by joining the Undisputed Era and becoming the final Chaos Emerald needed to make that stable Super Sonic. Aleister Black took the championship from Andrade "Cien" Almas and SMILED, I fucking SAW IT! And it all depends on what you want from your wrestling, but Gargs/Tamps might actually be the best main event in Takeover history, at least from a storytelling standpoint. The crutch, the neckbrace. Each man going back to their DIY roots (the tag team - they didn't build another ring when that one broke), and then sitting side-by-side, like they did at the Cruiserweight Classic. Brothers. Completely spent. Destroyed. No one but each other. And then Ciampa shits any chance at redemption up the goddamn wall, cementing his own destruction. Every. Bit. Counts.

and #1...

Takeover: New York For a whole bunch of other wrestling fans, this has the greatest main event in Takeover history. But first, let's take a minute to appreciate how lucky we are, or were, that NXT exists. It justfies the existence of WWE, artistically, almost by itself. If this one's only slightly worse than New Orleans, it is argued, it's that the North American title ladder match was TOO good, and hurt every other match on the card. It has been argued. Not by me, but this one is somehow the most perfectly paced, perfectly sized wrestling card, on its own, ever. Every match, through alchemy or magic, manages to enthrall the crowd equally, and completely. The Viking Raiders vs. Grumpy Smaller Undertaker and the Human Pinball was off the hook incredible, and that warm "thank you" feeling has translated, currently to a man trapped in a room and a man trapped in Vince McMahon's scorn for smaller wrestlers, respectively. Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream put on an absolute fantasy match, pitting the best of MMA vs. the best of WWE-style theatricality, and adds to the complete, demented character-world of this brand, and the fact that Dream WINS against one of the hottest new prospects is so deserved, and shows that he can, and will, shine forever brighter. Then AAAAGH WALTER vs. Pete Dunne! WALTER LAYS into poor Dunne, his chops alone having you believe that after the match, he's going to run into the arena's parking lot to FIGHT THE CARS. Then Shirai vs. Baszler vs. Sane vs. Belair and goddammit how do I even expound on that without crashing thesarus.com? And then Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole wrestled for. 40. MINUTES. With Gargano as the defacto heel because it was allegedly Cole's time. And by the match's end, he had the crowd more behind him than maybe they ever had been before. Is it a bit much? Yes. Too many kickouts? Probably. But it stands as the apex of Johnny Wrestling's journey. After everything had been taken from him: DIY, his health, his sanity, even his chance at revenge...the only thing he has left is the NXT Championship. And in that moment, he is invincible, he is more than enough.

What a show. What a host of shows.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

#long post

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justshamie · 6 years ago

Text

It’s been a while.

When Fareeha get’s hurt and she doesn’t think it’s bad and Angela needs to keep up with the stubborn Amari. Slow burn.

The low hum of VTOL’s engines sounded throughout the hold area. The roaring shouts of Reinhardt's could be heard even down in the most deserted parts of the huge ship. The whole team was getting back to the watchpoint after a successful mission and nobody seemed to care about how tired they were. Zarya and Reinhardt were arm wrestling on the debriefing table in the main area, while Tracer cheered on them piloting the ship. Even the old Commander Morrison seemed to be in a good mood as he sat on the couch looking closely at the duel.

"Please do not strain anything, I would prefer not having you in the infirmary just because you went too far" Angela sighed, knowing that she might as well not say anything, either of the two wouldn't dare to give up. She came up behind Winston asking how far from the base were they. Estimated time of arrival: 22 minutes.

"You are still coming in for a check-up when we get there" Mercy glared at Reinhardt, who just smiled putting all of his force in the death grip he was in with Zarya. Neither of them seemed to budge, but the grin on Zarya's face showed that she was having fun.

"Don't worry, my friend! I got this under control!" the old man roared trying to glare down the Russian wrestler.

"Yes mooom!" Hana smirked from the corner she was sitting in together with Lucio. Angela just put her fingers to the bridge of her nose. She loved whole of the Overwatch family they created, the old and the new additions, but after the recall first week of their comeback she became like mother to the younger members of the team, and after three months of operations she still couldn't get used to being called 'mom'. Even Bastion who seemed to be only understood by Lucio and Zenyatta, beeped happily and waved his armored hand at her, seemingly saying something polite.

She glared at the two youngsters that were lost in their world. "I'm not letting anyone go this time." Angela sat down in her usual spot, close to the big door. She looked around giving each of them a quick glance turning on her visor and checking their vitals. Everyone seemed to be a bit bruised maybe had a few cuts, but they all seemed to be in the best condition they could, after the hell they just went through. Angela felt like she was missing something. Something or someone.

"Did anyone see Pharah?" she tried not to look as concerned as she was.

"She went downstairs, said she needed... HA! TAKE THAT!" Hana started to explain, tapping at the handheld game. "... some time off."

"Ten minutes to landing!" Winston shouted from his chair. Angela decided she still had the time to find and check-up on Fareeha. She was excited when she first heard that she was going to join them, but she never expected to be hit with the familiar feeling from seven years ago. The feelings like her whole world was shaking and she couldn't think straight. That feeling that only came to her when she was around Pharah. The once small child that wanted to find justice in the wretched world. Now grown up and battle-hardened warrior, with perfectly curved jawline and that long stare that seemed to look right into your soul. Angela melted under that stare. As much as she didn't want to squander their friendship, she stopped lying to herself and admitted that she indeed might have had feelings for Fareeha, which were more than just friendship. She came down the stairs into the hold area, only to find Pharah halfway lying on one of the chairs still fully in her armor.

"Are you alright?" Angela asked quietly, voice filled with worry.

"I'm fine,” came the even quieter response. "I'm just tired."

"You went ahead without backup, are you sure nothing happened?" there was a moment during their mission when Pharah suddenly disappeared from any radar. The only indication that she didn't go AWOL was Jack's 'I sent her ahead, she will be back in a moment’ when Angela gazed at him ready to find her at all costs. After they got back onto their transport Fareeha hasn't said a word and disappeared somewhere. Angela didn't have the time to even check if she needed any immediate help. Jack reassured her that Fareeha would say so if that was the case. Maybe she just needed some time alone.

"I'm fine," the all known answer that Pharah had perfected.

They landed inside the base not much after. Winston took to unpacking any equipment that needed checking or restocking. The whole team getting ready for celebration. Angela wandered off to the medbay to take a shower before starting to take anyone for a visit. 'At least I can get the dirt and blood off myself' she thought sighing. She was tired. After having twenty minutes to herself and barely putting on a fresh coat, there was already people waiting in the med bay for her. Everyone was eager to join the celebration and probably the drinking festival that was going to start soon. She couldn't blame them. They all had their own methods to relax, she would rather sit down in peace and quiet and read. She was happy about the mission ending well and that there weren’t any casualties, but she didn't feel the need to drink till she passed out. Something tugged her at the corner of her mind telling her to still be cautious.

"Doctor! You should join us!" Zarya roared when she finished filling her medical report and telling her she's done. Angela felt a big hand on her arm. Strong but gentle. Zarya smiled from ear to ear when she turned around to look at her.

"I will think about it" Mercy replied with the same wide smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. She didn't mind joining their drinking from time to time, but not today. She saw Zarya scrunching her brows looking at her expecting a different reply.

"Aleks, I'm sure Angela will join us if she will want to" Mei's voice sounded softly from the couch near the entrance.

"Sorry" the big Russian woman suddenly became much smaller than she was. "I'm just worried our dear doctor will become a social recluse. That's all."

"I'm just tired Aleksandra. I'll join you next time." Angela smiled at her, knowing she meant well. She knew them both, and she knew she didn't need to pretend in front of them. She was a human after all and she wasn't perfect. She said her goodnights with them, knowing that they were last to wait. Turning off the light in the medbay she went into her office. The moonlight letting her navigate to her couch, where she fell silently covering her eyes with her arm. All the fatigue making her let out all the air out her lungs and breathing in again. It was a long day. All that she wanted was to close her eyes and fall asleep. During her hazy state in between sleep and consciousness a thought hit her.

'Fareeha'

She stood up in a second feeling dizziness hit her head. The Egyptian soldier haven't shown up in the medbay since they landed. Nobody even mentioned anything about her throughout all the visits. 'Maybe she just went to sleep' Angela knew that Pharah wasn't one to say that she's hurt, but at the same time maybe she was just as tired as Mercy was. 'What if she is hurt?' sudden panic went through her mind. Fareeha even with her reluctance to admitting to being wounded didn't have the habit to miss the after-mission check-up. Even if it was just a formality, she knew that writing reports is part of the job. She grabbed a first aid kit from her desk and her big fluffy sweater that replaced the white medical coat that was laying on the ground. Never knowing when she even managed to take it off. Leaving the medbay she heard the sounds of music and laughter in the far end of the corridor. At least the rest were enjoying themselves. She went the other way following path to the living quarters and found herself in front of Fareeha's door. 'What was she going to say when she opens it?' Angela felt out of place. 'She's an adult I can't treat her like a child and scold her'. Biting her lip, she knocked on the door without realizing what was she doing. She heard a quiet thump of metal hitting the floor and a few moments later they opened. Fareeha was standing in front of her, slouching and holding herself up by the wall. Her eyes were dark, and she looked like she hasn't slept for the past few days. As much as Angela felt confused and lost before knocking on the door it got replaced by worry and concern.

"Fareeha, I..." she wanted to say something that would make the soldier feel better, but words got stuck in her throat. Pharah in all of her might looked powerful and intimidating, but the person in front of her was just a shadow of that image.

"Angela" she paused for a moment, looking like she found her salvation. "I didn't expect you here."

"I expected you at the infirmary" the doctor answered quietly, squeezing the first aid kit. 'Why are we doing this, she should be lying in bed, she's hurt. Stop pretending in front of me.'

"I'm sorry I fell asleep." at this Angela barely kept her calm demeanour.

"You are hurt." it wasn't a question, it was an accusation. 'Why didn't you tell me. I don't want you to feel this pain.' Angela's mind was filled with different thoughts. Fareeha just stood there in front of her barely holding herself upwards, she could have stopped it, she could have caught her on the battlefield. In between bullets and rockets, in between the roaring of Raptora's engines she could have found her and helped her. Yet here they were. Standing in front of each other, not sure how to continue this. Fareeha noticed the red aid kit in Angela's palm. She didn't say anything anymore, she moved to the side letting the blonde in. Door shutting slowly behind them. Angela put an arm around her and helped her settle on the bed. Slowly she took in the soldier's room. A punching bag in the corner next to a window that was looking out at the cliffs outside, the moon high up in the sky lit it just enough not to turn on the lights. One of the windows open letting a cold sea breeze inside. It was much messier than she expected, clothes sprawled on the floor with drawers and wardrobe open. It looked more like a teenager's room. A desk next to the bed with tons of pictures hanging above it, of her mother, of Overwatch old and new, of her team at Helix, of Egypt. Just looking at them Angela realized that Fareeha may have not been very talkative and social, but she appreciated and loved her family and friends. Angela took notice of one picture especially. She and Fareeha were standing just outside the huge VTOL with arms hung around each other and big grins on their faces. 'Our first day back together at Overwatch' Angela thought fighting tears. Her foot hit something hard and metal underneath the bed, when Fareeha was settling down. She looked down and the realization downed on her. It was part of Raptora. A usually polished back plate of the armour was laying on the floor. Bended and ruptured in the ways it wasn't supposed to be, dirty and bloody. Angela wanted to ask what happened but the look on Fareeha's face told her there were more important things now. The Egyptian was laying on her stomach breathing making quiet wheezing sounds. No more 'I'm fine', just deep brown eyes looking directly at her. No lying, no pretending. Just Fareeha, hurt and defeated. Angela forgot about everything, focusing just on her goal of getting her back to health. She brought the top Fareeha was wearing upwards showing all of her back. Feeling blood in her mouth she realized how hard she bit down on her lip when she saw it. Bruises, scrapes and wounds were everywhere, it seemed as if the armour wasn't pierced fully but all the metal that was moved lodged itself into Fareeha's body. It came off with the back plate that was laying on the floor and now her whole back was mess. Angela wanted to shout at her why she didn't say anything, but knew it wasn't going to help now. Mercy turned on the nightlight next to her and started with the wounds that cut through the skin. Blood already dried staining Fareeha's skin with deep red colour. She got up, feeling Fareeha's stare at her. She went to the bathroom grabbing a bowl from under the sink and filling it with warm water. Not daring to look in the mirror, she felt like it was her fault, she should be in the med bay the moment they landed. A towel that was hanging on the shower's bar seemed good enough to clean the wounds. She came back setting the bowl on the night stand and getting to fixing the state Fareeha was in. Through the whole process of cleaning, disinfecting, spraying with painkiller meds and bandaging, Fareeha didn't make a sound, with her eyes firmly locked on Angela. Slim fingers working with precision not to cause any unnecessary pain to the soldier. A deep breath left Pharah's mouth.

"I'm sorry." she turned her face the other way. Was it always this way between them, the silence filling in the blanks in their conversations, long looks exchanged, no hard topic touched, just running away. Angela's mind went on a tangent, she needed to get her on the medical table, do X-rays, check her lungs, the wheezing still present while she took shallow breaths. Her ribs could be broken, any reason that could cause her pain came to her mind in an instant. A warm hand gently caressing her cheek pulled her out of it. Fareeha swiped the tear away from her face, looking at her again.

"I'm sorry." she repeated, gently squeezing her hand. They interlaced their fingers, Angela felt how her heart started slowing down, only Fareeha calmed her down like this.

"I need to get you to the infirmary," she said after a moment. "I need my staff, and you need an x-ray."

"We don't want to stop a party." Fareeha smiled weakly and Angela felt something inside of her start to boil.

"You are so stubborn," she raised her hand, pinching the bridge of her nose. She tapped her wristwatch and without thinking she called Mei. Moments later she saw the image of the Chinese scientist sitting on as she assumed Zarya's lap. She didn't turn on her camera.

"Angela! Did you decide to join us?" she was grinning, being squeezed by Zarya.

"Are you talking to the doctor?" the Russian chimed in sticking her head next to Mei's. Fareeha sighed deeply, turning her head away.

"Mei, I need you two to bring me a stretcher from the infirmary to Fareeha's room." suddenly the grins on both of their faces turned to expression of concern.

"Is everything alright?" Mei asked urging Zarya to get up.

"Yes," she answered looking at Fareeha's back. "No, I have it under control. Can you please not tell anyone else? I have a stubborn Amari under my care."

So I wrote this Pharmercy thing a while ago and I don’t really post much these days, so I decided I will post this instead. If you guys like it I can post it on Ao3 and I also have more, that I’ll keep for myself if noone is interested.

#pharmercy #fanfic #pharah #mercy #fareeha amari #angela ziegler #overwatch #my writing #slow burn #fic #theres more under keep reading #also i have more if you guys want to see #give me a heads up

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awkwardbluefish · 6 years ago

Text

He’s done caring

——

A/n- so I really love this story I did and thought you guys may enjoy it! Warning for swearing!

Summary: Tim Drake lets out the anger and betrayal that he’s been bottling up. It’s unexpected to the others. (Who may or may not get a verbal smack down :))

——

Tim’s pissed. Bruce is mad and disappointed and he grits his teeth because he’s on his last reserves of patience and tolerance.

Batman is behind him not Bruce because Batman is the best character to tell your child off apparently. Not Bruce the awkward father but Batman. Not Bruce who puts a hand on a shoulder but Batman who grumbles and growls. (Tim always gets Batman)

Tim has had enough of Batman.

The roar of the engine chuffs to a stop and Tims out in a second flat, yanking his stupid cowl off. His steps are fast and silent against the caves dark and cold floor, he walks to his station yanking off peices of his suit off as the others stare.

And really he can’t blame them, the tension could be cut by a knife. That and he’s covered in blood. Nearly died but that’s Jason, remember?

Bruce, no, Batman levels him with a glare that means I’m disappointed as he heads to the others. And would you look at that! With a swish of the dark bellowing cape Batman became Bruce the father who has a hand on Dicks shoulder. The father who pats Jason’s back, the father that ruffles Damian’s hair and the father who smiles at Duke and Cass and isn’t that fair?

Tim scowls because he’s sorry, he’s sorry and it’s not his fault. Never really was was it? Can’t Batman see that? Can’t Bruce?

Because-

I’m sorry I wasn’t groomed to be your perfect heir, that I wasn’t raised in a goddamn tube to be a miniature assassin that tries to kill people on first meeting them. I’m so sorry I’m not a boy who grew up in the circus that is loved and adored by everyone despite breaking a lot of hearts, sorry I don’t seem to shit sunshine’s and lollipops. I’m sorry I ain’t that spunky kid who’s a zombie that stopped killing people. So sorry I’m not an assassin who chose the hero way instead of killing and sorry I’m not a genius hacker who knows everything.

So sorry Bruce, gosh what’s wrong with me? Oh- that’s right! Everything to you!

“Tim.” And would you look at that? It’s Bruce’s face but an underline of Batman. Of course it is.

“What?” He doesn’t bother holding his annoyance in, doesn’t try pulling out the innocence card, I died card, the brat card I’m your favourite card because that wouldn’t work for him.

Because Bruce is going to ask why wasn’t all the information collected? someone’s always asking him for a favour, asking if it’s done, blaming him when it isn’t and he isn’t a fucking robot dammit!

“All the information wasn’t collected.” He states. And he’s Batman, he expects an answer despite it not being a question so Tim shrugs. Watches as his jaw twitches and Tim raises an eyebrow with a smile as he plays with the metal red robin logo. Running bruised knuckles over cold metal completely aware of the audience watching and waiting.

“Tim.” It’s said heavily, tiredly and Tim grins at Bruce. Because the Batman is tired! And Bruce was going to sleep last night while Tim worked his ass off collecting all the information he possibly could despite it being Bruce’s job. And it’s not his fault the drug dealer didn’t follow their own schedule, it really really isn’t. It wasn’t his fault a wrestler affected by Ivy tried to strangle him to death.

It wasn’t a question so he sits on his bench, twirling and twisting the symbol in his hands as Bruce sighs, runs a hand heavily over his face. The others continue to watch, not uttering, not daring, to say a single thing.

“You nearly got yourself killed because you didn’t collect all the information!” Ohh looks like the Batman cracked. The others gasp like it’s a fucking drama show and Tim rolls his eyes because fuck it.

Fuck it all.

“You mean the information you were supposed to collect?” Tim says and watches as Bruce, finally Bruce, falter ever so slightly. Just a second before he’s Batman again with that stupid perfect posture and glower. Bruce has obviously never met Janet Drake before.

“I was busy-“ he’s actually informing Tim of something? Wow that’s a first!

Tim doesn’t care.

“What, sleeping?” Batman’s jaw clenched and Tim can see him wallowing in his own pity. Down his usual depressing spiral.

“So wouldn’t that mean you almost got me killed? Because you didn’t collect all the information? Because you were sleeping?”

Batman can’t apparently speak anymore and isn’t that usual? Faced with a problem that’s his fault and he can’t even get the guts to face it? Tim is so done with Batman. Jaw clenched and lips thin he stays silent like he’s on a covert mission.

Dick steps up.

“Tim that wasn’t necessary.” Soft and gentle like soothing a wild animal. He was a robot before, what’s changed?

Tim ignores him as he fiddles with his symbol again, fingering the bird part. The robin part. Well he’s no longer robin anymore so what’s the point?

“Tt. As if Drake can say anything reasonable in the first place. Imbecile.”

Tim narrows his eyes as Dick sighs in exasperation but in fondness. And it’s it so cute when the little demon talks down at him? Just fucking adorable.

“Timothy!”

“You’ll regret that Drake!”

So he said that out loud, huh?

“Well it’s the truth,” Tim hums as Jason snickers, everyone pays a blind eye to Duke who is walking away. He’s new.

“Apologise to your brother.” Tim blinks as he turns to Bruce, he’s a part of the family now is he? So why is Damian never told off at the constant insults? Or maybe he wasn’t apart of the family then.

“You know Bruce, no.” Silence.

And then Batman’s gliding towards him, glower in his stance and anger in his eyes.

Tim doesn’t care.

“You know what Damian? I don’t regret saying that so deal with it.” Damians never regretted his words so why should Tim? Damian hisses and it’s so cute the way he looks like Bruce right now. Maybe Dicks right Damian can be cute.

Black blocks his view so Tim cranes his neck to look up at the towering furry in front of him. He twirls the disk in his hands again as he smiles sweetly up at Bruce.

“You are currently bleeding all over the bench, we don’t need this right now.” Tim continues as if he hadn’t heard him.

“Do you want to know my biggest regret?” He asks and watches as Cass turns away, she already knows. Damian looks interested, giddily waiting so he can turn it against Tim. Good luck with that brat. Dick puts a hand over a blood covered shoulder and Tim forcefully shrugs it away, ignores the look of hurt.

“Get it over with,” Bruce spits, tired and angry and Tim, well he doesn’t care anymore. He stares at Batman straight in the eye and watches as he stands as tall and still as a iron poll.

“My biggest regret?” Memories flood him, of all his hard work waisted and ignored while others get praised. How Damian and Jason has killed and somehow Tims the bad guy. How easily Dick throws him off and how Bruce praises Cass when she didn’t kill a man. Tim got told he couldn’t be trusted again. Some family.

He shoves the symbol at Bruce’s chest and watches as he stares at it, everyone stares a it. Eyes widen, apologies on the tip of tongues.

Tim doesn’t care.

He laughs and says.

“My biggest regret? My biggest regret Bruce Wayne, is becoming robin.”

— hope it was okay! ——

#tim drake #dick grayson #batfamily #damian wayne #jason todd #cassandra cain #batfam #duke thomas #bruce wayne #batman #red robin #my writing #dc

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jennylamb2006 · 6 years ago

Link

Decline 45th High School Reunion

I cannot attend the reunion for reasons cited below but rest assured that my spirit will be there.

I remember attending 9th grade home room in the fall of 1969 as a skinny 14 year old not knowing what my future will be at East Paterson High School. Well I am 63 years old and the results are nearly in.

I had just finished 8 years at St. Anne's Parochial School. I had a good friend named George Wolfe who had dated Rhonda Frattolillo. He attended Fair Lawn High School so I felt lost in the new environment.

Growing up on 18th Avenue I had also known Tommy Moriarty. I spoke to a childhood friend the other day. She told me about the passing of Tommy who died at the age of 62. Tommy had down syndrome. He lived with his rather large family on 16th Avenue. My memory is hazy but some of the details of my childhood have stayed with me. We grew up together for the period of roughly 1965-1968. Many hours were spent sleigh riding on the small hill located near Tommy's house on 16th Avenue. One day my family's dog ran out the door and it seemed like at least 20 children including Tommy tried to catch him. Pepper ran into the woods near the Garfield Water Works. Eventually despite the snow and other dangers Pepper was returned. I asked my Mom about Tommy being different and at the time the term retarded was used. My Mom who was generally soft spoken told me that God made all children in his likeness. Soon after this I was standing on top of 16th Avenue hill waiting to sleigh down it. Tommy was there and asked me if I was his friend. We rode down the hill on the sleigh together. Rest in peace Tommy.

At East Paterson High School I remember being called to Dr Varese the Principal's office in 1972. I was nervous but he congratulated me on receiving a New Jersey State Scholarship. I believe my father who was a Veteran of World War II at Pearl Harbor had something to do with it. I did not serve in the military the draft had ended when I became eligible. Besides I had seen enough fighting outside the third wing of the high school to realize that it was just plain stupid.

I was interested in sports especially baseball throughout my high school years. I am enclosing a picture of my high school jacket. I was too nervous to ask any girls to the proms but if I had the nerve I would have asked Roberta Fisher. Please hug her for me at the reunion. She is a good friend and a wonderful lady. I remember wrestling with you and realizing that you were a skilled wrestler. I remember playing one on one Basketball with Tony Zappala and losing but I was not intimidated by his New Jersey All State superior skills. I remember pitching my first inning in Varsity baseball and realizing that my 80 MPH fastball was not enough to win a ticket to the Major Leagues. But I loved the competition and had some meager success to build on.

After high school I attended College and continued to play baseball. In 1974 I pitched a three hitter against the 11th ranked community college in the nation putting our team in first place. I remember Dennis Walling hitting a double off me in the first inning. When I walked back to the bench my coach told me he was a really good hitter and somehow I got him out the next three times I faced him. Walling went on to have a Hall of fame career in the major leagues. But my ego grew really large that day. I wanted to pitch the 2nd game of the doubleheader but the coach thought otherwise.

In 1974 I heard Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run and my life was changed. If you are ever in a bad mood play this song and you will know what I mean.

In 1976 I dated the first love of my life named Linda Lane. Her father was a wealthy businessman from Paterson New Jersey. Linda attended College in Pennsylvania. I remember driving down to see her and wondering what the future holds for me. In 1977 I proposed to Linda at Valley Forge State Park. She said yes if we could resolve our religious differences. This was true love only encumbered by my Roman Catholic faith vs. her born again Christian beliefs despite the fact that her father was Jewish and her mother was Roman Catholic.

I broke up with Linda and decided to take my 1968 Chevy Nova (I had rebuilt the engine in the snow of the 1977 winter) and move to California. I lost the opportunity for inherited wealth for the California dream by humming the Beach boys songs of the 60's as my friend Lamont and I drove to Long Beach California. I also had an Accounting degree from William Paterson College and $5,000.00. I planned to retire by age 40 with $100,000.00. I remember saying that I had no intention of reading another book until I have some fun. While we looked for apartments I found one but when Lamont turned up to sign the papers it was rented. I found another and made sure Lamont was not there to sign papers. There are bigots apparently all of the country. I really hate bigots.

In late 1978 I met a California girl with a golden smile named Laura Lambert that has graced my life for 40 years. That year I also met Ron Beaman from Nebraska. We have been friends all these years which I consider myself lucky. The next 8 years were spent living in a two bedroom apartment one block from the beach playing basketball with about 40 friends every weekend. I owned a small accounting business.

In 1980 I cried when John Lennon died.

In 1986, Laura and I bought our first piece of Real Estate, a one bedroom condo. It was a bit intimidating. By 2008 we bought/sold over 100 properties, so much for being nervous.

In the late 80’s I met the first of two attorneys that I am also friends with. Gene Goldman is a good attorney whose only deficiency is being weak in billable hours. I believe his calming disposition helped me in dealing with homeowners associations.

By 1994 Laura and I had accumulated 10 pieces of real estate and I had obtained real estate Brokers licenses in California and Nevada. My first real estate sale was to a single mom. She cried when I gave her the keys and I did too when I received a check for $2,200.00 for about 4 hours of work. It seemed so easy. At the loan signing her parents apologized for her being gay. I did not know what to say to the assholes. I wanted the deal to go through so I kept my mouth shut. In 1996 my daughter Rhiannon was born (named after the Fleetwood Mac song of 1977).

In 2002 I attended two concerts, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in Las Vegas. This makes up for not seeing Bruce Springsteen at Mr. D’s on the corner of Market Street and Midland Avenue. I realized that Paul McCartney and the Beatles were God’s gift to mankind. How lucky were we to experience this?

By 2004 I had a million dollars in the bank and 8 properties. I would go down to the Las Vegas courthouse to buy foreclosures. One property I did not have any information on started bidding at $30,000. I knew the people bidding were attorneys who regularly bought so when the bidding reached $400,000 I started chirping in. I bought it sight unseen for $425,000.00. As I paid the lady one of the attorneys said he was upset and wanted it. I drove my Lexus quickly to the property which was in a gated community. It was a fixer upper that I hoped to sell $575,000.00 and make $30,000.00 on. Well in 4 months after remodeling the price had soared to $675,000.00. I had made $100,000.00 on a house bought sight unseen. My ego grew again.

In 2005 at Christmas time I walked into Wells Fargo Bank in Henderson Nevada with my daughter Rhiannon and asked the teller how much the Wells Fargo Stuffed Stagecoach was. She responded by giving it to my daughter telling her that I was their biggest customer. My ego expanded again.

In 2006 Laura and I met Lon and Mary Searle and their fine family. They are mormons that have great values. Of course we do not agree on Joseph Smith.

By 2008 my material wealth had diminished considerably but luck would have it I found out that my ancestors arrived at Jamestown Virginia in 1629 and I was the 12th generation. I decided to take Laura and Rhiannon and move to Williamsburg Virginia. There was no stopping my love for United States History which began reading about Ethan Allen and the Green mountain Boys at St. Anne's in 2nd grade. Sure Kennedy was shot that same year but if the truth be known it wasn't Oswald who did it. There was a severe recession on except I did not notice it because of my families history unfolded before my eyes. I found the original family cemetery and plantation and a historical figure named Dred Scott who did not have his birthplace recognized. I fixed that in a couple of years by connecting two documents 40 years and 700 miles apart. Isn’t history grand?

In 2009 I met Richard Lincoln Francis, clerk of the Southampton County Court in Virginia. He is descended from Abraham Lincoln and I consider him a good friend who is qualified to be President of the United States. He is my East coast attorney, we have had more fun than should be allowed. To give you an example we had a trial over a Hines lucky rock that rivals the OJ Simpson trial of the century. I have taught Rick the 8 things to drive a golf ball successfully. He is a terrible student who has a tendency to make phone calls while teeing off. I believe this violates some rules.

Since moving to Williamsburg Virginia I have written five books. My disdain for reading that occurred after college was over. The second book involving the research to discover Dred Scott's birthplace is being converted into a movie. It is entitled Walk With You, the story of Dred Scott and the Blow Family of Virginia. It is about 8 children 6 white and 2 black that grew up and bonded together to take on the President and Chief Justice of the United States. I have met Hollywood stars including Ed Asner. My time is currently possessed in seeing this venture is completed to fruition.

My life has been blessed by God and living in the greatest country in the world. I have lived the American dream which consists of association with all ethnic groups. My first twenty two years living in New Jersey were great. My next twenty three years in California were better. My next 8 years in Henderson Nevada were living the dream. The next 5 years in Williamsburg were amazing. And the last few years touring the United States with Laura are the best ever. Opportunities if you use education to advance yourself. If these members of our class are among the living: Robert Motta, Robert Hurley, and Joseph Lasica, please give them my best.

Our democracy is currently under attack by a greedy lying moron who has no business occupying the world's beacon of freedom head office. This will change soon. If any of the morons who voted for this clown have issue I will be happy to meet them outside the 3rd wing at EPHS and give them a taste of true Democracy from someone who has lived it. I have had only two fights in my life. I am undefeated and plan to stay that way.

Warmest Regards,

Jeffrey Allen Hines

Class of 1973

#walkwithyou

#neveragain

#bluewave2018

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nate-the-content-creator · 5 years ago

Note

While celebrating his victory over the new kid, Aries goes still as the lights cut, a single voice echoing through the speakers, chanting softly "I've become I've become I'm becoming...." before playing Fozzy's "Judas". The crowd erupts in cheers as the Jumbotron flashes a single question again and again "AM... I... EVIL?". Those words, that music, it can only mean one thing. AEW World Champion Chris Jericho is pulling off an Invasion, and he's brought the Inner Circle with him....

“Ladies and Gentlemen, here is your winner, and new number one contender for the X-Division Chapionship! The Greatest Faunus Who Ever Lived! Aaron Ares!”

Ares favored his injured knee, while his hand was raised in the air. He then motioned across his waist, letting the crowd know that he would soon be wearing the gold of the X-Division Championship soon.

However Ares didn’t have long to celebrate. Seconds later, the lights of the arena went out. The VCW crowd went silent, as just like Ares, they were wondering just what in the world was going on.

And then…

“I’ve become, I’ve become, I’m becoming…” Ares felt a chill run up his spine at that whisper that seemed to echo about the arena. Then the jumbotron flashed to life showing a question. “Am I Evil?”

The crowd erupted into silent cheers, as “Judas” by Fozzy began to play. It was still dark in the arena except for the jumbotron, but could Le Champion actually be here? Everyone got their answer a few moments later when the lights came up. Le Champion was indeed here. And he wasn’t alone. All the members of the Inner Circle were with him. Jake Hager, Sammy Gueverra, Santana and Ortiz. And they were all surrounding the ring.

Ares was surrounded on all sides, and was completely alone in the ring seeing as Locke had rolled out of the ring. Fine by him. Ares was used to being a loner. And if it meant fighting off wrestlers from another company with uneven odds with a bad knee? Well then bring it on!

Ares wasn’t going to wait for these schmucks to attack him in his ring. Bad knee or not, this was his ring. His ring damnit! He caught Le Chapion in the face with a running, or rather limping dropkick, managing to land on his good leg as he sent Jericho back to the floor. The Inner Circle was now in the ring. Ares managed to land a few blows onto Santana and Ortiz, and even got Gueverra in the nose, but that was as far as he got. Hager kicked out the back of Ares’ knee, which forced the wildcat Faunus onto his good knee.

The beat down on Ares commenced seconds later. Every member of the Inner Circle was now stomping and kicking Ares while he tried to get his hands up to protect his face. Gueverra then grabbed Ares’ injured leg, and began to repeatedly drive his elbow down into it, which caused the wildcat Faunus to cry out in pain.

Jericho had gotten back to the ring, having recovered from the dropkick. He got Gueverra to back off, and now had hold of Ares’ legs. Though Le Champion didn’t put the wildcat Faunus into the Walls. No, instead Jericho locked in the Lion Tamer, digging his right knee into Ares’ shoulder blades, and didn’t relent even though Ares was frantically tapping out. And as if to add insult to injury Gueverra was in Ares’ pained face, taunting the Faunus … and was subsequently met with a knee to the face!

Wave Aideen had seen enough, and had charged into the ring. Rivalry with Ares aside, he was not going to just sit in the back and let other wrestlers just come onto this show and do whatever they wanted! Wave nailed Gueverra in the face with a Shining Wizard, and he was not the only one to join in the fight. Locke had recovered, and had done a slingshot-DDT through the top and middle rope, and slammed Jericho’s head into the mat, making Le Champion release the Lion Tamer.

Though Gueverra and Jericho were temporarily out of the fight, it was still two to three … which became three to five. Ryder, Omega Red, and Inigo Daturas had charged the ring. Joining their fellow Dust Club member and friend in staving off the members of the Inner Circle.

Red, Ryder, and Wave proceeded to back Hager into a corner, and proceeded to deliver a beat down. Inigo and Locke were laying forearm strikes and kicks into Santana and Ortiz, before dropkicking the two. Stacking both of them up in the opposite corner.

Inigo irish whipped Locke into the corner, the dark skinned Mistrali hitting both AEW wrestlers with a body splash. Locke then got on all fours, signalling Inigo to make his move. The smaller wrestler charged forward, using Locke’s back for a springboard, and nailed poetry in motion, by hitting Ortiz and subsequently Santana with his right hip and thigh.

The Club then turned their attention to Jericho, who was slowly recovering in the middle of the ring. The crowd’s cheering sounded like a jet engine revving up, and Ryder and Omega Red aimed their fingers at Le Champion, as if aiming guns at the wrestler. The two leaders of the Dust Club then hit the AEW Champion with a combination superkick and a high knee.

The Club aided by Locke had forced the Inner Circle out of the ring, Wave having picked up the microphone that Locke had knocked out of his hands. Red grabbing Jericho’s hair, dragged Le Champion to his feet. Wave and Inigo then superkicked him out of the ring seconds after Jericho was dragged onto his feet.

“Hey Jericho!” Ryder yelled into the microphone Wave had offered to him. “Jericho, while you lie there hopefully as uncomfortable as you possibly can be. I want to ask you something!”

Hagar and Gueverra had retrieved Jericho, seconds later and helped him up to his feet. The Inner Circle’s invasion of VCW had backfired, and they were retreating up the entrance ramp.

“Let me ask you something Le Champion!” Ryder said those last two words in a mocking way. “One champion to another ... did you really think you’d just stroll into another show, try and beat down one of our best wrestlers, and just what? Walk out like it was nothing!?”

Inigo and Wave had gotten Ares back to his feet, letting him rest in a corner as Ryder continued speaking.

“Oh and another thing ... You think you guys were gonna walk out?” He pointed to the jumbotron. “Because I know a few guys who would take exception to that!”

“Wrestling has more than one royal family!” The VCW crowd went absolutely ape when Kingdom began playing through the speakers. All the members of the Inner Circle slowly turned around, and there they were. Cody and Dustin Rhodes, The Young Bucks, ‘Hangman’ Adam Page, and Kenny Omega. All the members of the Elite were standing on the entrance ramp, and the Inner Circle was now caught between a rock and a hard place.

And it was about to get worse!

The Elite and The Dust Club aided by Locke and Ares charged the Inner Circle, and commenced a massive beat down on the heel AEW faction. Both the Elite and The Club were driving the Inner Circle back into the ring, while slowly nailing their finishing moves onto every member of Circle other than Jericho, slowly thinning out their numbers.

The Young Bucks nailed Santana and Ortiz with dual Superkicks, spinning them around only for the two to get hit by Wave and Inigo. Those two being hit by Inigo’s Red Arrow, and Wave’s Shining Wizard. Omega and Red got Hager with dual V-Triggers, Dustin hit Gueverra with Shattared Dreams, before Cody followed up with the Cross Rhodes.

Ryder, Ares Locke, and Page were all focusing on Jericho. Punching any part of Le Champion they could find, before Ares rolled the AEW Champion back into the ring. Jericho tried to make a break for the other side of the ring, but Inigo and Wave were blocking him. Locke blocked off another portion of the ring, helping Ares up while never breaking eye contact with Jericho.

The third side of the ring was blocked off by the Elite, and Ryder, Red and Paige had the last side cut off. And as Jericho turned to face that side, he was suddenly blasted by the ‘Hangmans’s’ Buckshot Lariat.

Ares got Locke’s attention, motioning for the newbie wrestler to go up top. Picking up on this Locke quickly got on the top turnbuckle. He didn’t posture this time, just made sure he was clear, before delivering the Coffin Drop to a downed Jericho.

Getting up, Locke signaled for Ares to get into the ring, which he slowly did due to his injured knee. The wildcat Faunus then locked his fingers together across Jericho’s face, rolling over Le Champion and locking in the Last Chancery.

VCW went off the air with Jericho tapping out. Still locked into Ares’ Last Chancery.

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junker-town · 4 years ago

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The inventor of dropkicks fought fascists and got kicked out of Notre Dame

Art by Tyson Whiting

What have you done?

Giuseppe Antonio Savoldi is a legend. His accomplishments don’t make sense together as a list, because when you write them all out they look like the ramblings of a compulsively lying grandfather. His story is literally incredible, and now that I’ve heard it I think it’s my job to spread the good word and make sure everyone is aware of the absurdity that was his life.

I learned about Savoldi during an afternoon spent scouring newspapers.com for the term “charity wrestling.” No real reason. Thought it was a funny term. Turns out there used to be a ton of charity wrestling events. Anyway, that search led me to this headline.

The Los Angeles Times Sports Section, November 18, 1930

Good work, long-dead LA Times sports editor! You got me hooked. That combination of words, the fact it’s not just in the sports section but it’s the leading headline, I needed to know more.

I needed to know Joe Savoldi.

Pissing off the Catholic Church

The Savoldi family emigrated to Michigan when Giuseppe was a kid. In addition to anglicizing his name, our future star took up all the sports offered by his new, strange home. That led Joe to Notre Dame, where he played fullback on some preposterously talented, Knute Rockne-coached teams. I mention Rockne not because he was a very good and famous coach but because I wanted to say that (in a longwinded way) he’s responsible for Ronald Reagan’s presidential slogan, “Win one for the Gipper.” Maybe I’ll expand on that in the comment section if someone reminds me.

As for the dude we actually care about, Joe brought unmatched physicality out of the backfield. He paired that with some previously unheard-of acrobatics, diving over the pile for touchdowns when he didn’t feel like bulldozing his way in. Folks called him “Jumping Joe” or “Galloping Joe,” despite “Local Meat Monster” being the nickname that fit best. In addition to those wildly imaginative titles, after the 1929 season Joe could also go by “National Champion”. He helped pave Notre Dame’s way to the title and had them set up to be even better in 1930.

But trouble came in the final month of the season. It turned out Joe had gotten married in secret to a high school girl a few years prior. This news broke only after Joe filed for divorce, and boy did the Catholic Church not like that. Joe was forced to leave Notre Dame and without him the Fighting Irish nearly blew their chance at another national championship. Unfortunately (for Joe), they pulled it out against Army and finished undefeated for back-to-back titles.

Despite the abrupt ending, Joe got what he needed from his time at college. Those days at Notre Dame put him on the map and made him a hot commodity.

Pissing off the Packers

Green Bay’s owner Curley Lambeau liked what he saw in Joe. After Savoldi left Notre Dame, rumors quickly popped up that he’d been signed by the Packers. The trouble was that college athletes couldn’t be signed until their class had graduated, so Green Bay backtracked a bit and made it clear they weren’t going to do that — any honorable organization would never look to break the rules in order to acquire talent. This gave the Chicago Bears a window through which to scream “lol fuck that” and sign our hero to a contract.

Lambeau’s fumings are humored by the Green Bay Press Gazette, November 27, 1930

This was a pretty big deal, especially in the eyes of Lambeau, who sure complained about it a lot. He went so far as to point out the league could even kill off the Bears franchise because of the move. It never reached that point, but once Lambeau got all the jealous rage out of his system the league did fine Chicago $1,000 for every game that Joe played for them. The Bears happily paid the Joe fee and won their final three games — which included a 21-0 shellacking of Green Bay. Well worth the money.

Joe hadn’t lost a football game in over two years. Whether he’d grown bored or became annoyed at all the rules keeping him in check, it was time for him to move on. That’s when Joe found his true calling: wrestling.

Jumping Joe the Dropkicking Foe

As a wrestler, Joe got off to a rowdy start. After just his second match Joe received a 30-day suspension. Why? Because he head butted his opponent into the hospital (his first opponent also found himself in the hospital after their match). Ignoring the hospitalizations, Joe won that second match thanks to multiple “flying tackles,” which I think we can all agree is cool as shit.

Fast forward a couple years and Joe’s status in the wrestling world had erupted. Headlining events as a heavyweight, Joe proved he knew how to create spectacle. In 1933 he debuted his soon-to-be favorite weapon: the Flying Dropkick. He used it to blast opponents out of the ring, dazzling spectators with a move that in the words of 1930s sportswriters sounds especially brutal:

The drop-kick is the latest “hold” Savoldi has perfected, and like the flying boot, is used from a standing position without warning. Joe simply drops to the mat on the back of his neck in front of his foe and shoots his feet straight into his opponent’s face.

Bettmann Archive

That’s pretty much what he did for the next decade. He toured the world dropkicking fools, turning teeth into souvenirs until his next role came calling.

You know Mussolini, right?

So, World War II popped off and everyone agreed it was a bad time. The U.S. military, though, had a secret weapon: Joe. According to his son, they approached Jumping Joe because, “he could speak fluent Italian and knew all the dialects. He was put in Italy six months before the invasion of Italy.” Hand-selected to be part of the Office Strategic Service in their Special Operations branch, one superior declared that Joe was, “built like a gorilla and moved lightly as a leopard.”

The stories of his missions, now declassified, are well worth reading about. We’ll focus on Joe’s final exploit, which involved a race with the Nazis to track down Italian scientist Carlo Calosi. That race was won, naturally, by the team that included Galloping Joe. They yanked Calosi out of Italy, therefore keeping his knowledge of some newly-engineered torpedo technology out of German hands (and keeping a bullet out of Calosi’s head).

Once his time serving in the OSS was complete, Joe celebrated the only way that made sense: he went back to wrestling. Joe eventually settled down in Kentucky, retired from wrestling, and taught high school science for 11 years. That last statement may have been his most harrowing feat. Joe’s life was ludicrous at a nearly nonstop rate.

Meanwhile, I’ve put off getting groceries for three days so I’m going to go do that. For Joe!

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