#(I heard on Twitter that it’s Law month so we’re starting off with my favorite outfit of his)
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Victorious
#trafalgar law#trafalgar d. water law#op law#one piece#op fanart#(Finally got enough time to draw something after some very hectic weeks)#(I heard on Twitter that it’s Law month so we’re starting off with my favorite outfit of his)#(It’s just so satisying to draw his fluffy cape and all the tattoos)#(He may be a bit roughed up in current events but he’s still bringing the attitude)#(Hopefully I’ll have enough time to draw this week as well)#my art#digital art#fan art#wano arc
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A Night In Las Vegas
requested by this anon: “I had the BEST idea: CC!Quackity came up with the idea of his Las Nevadas character arc after going to Las Vegas and meeting Reader there. Maybe one night the reader decides to go and twitch and finds quackity doing a lore stream and the reader is like: no way, it’s the guy I met in Vegas.”
{I love this concept, sorry it took so long for me to get out}
Quackity x reader
trigger warnings: some swears
premise: after getting ditched by your friends on the last night of your long weekend in vegas you run into a very interesting guy who doesn’t hesitate to befriend you. But what happens months later when he still seems to be running circles in your mind?
{covid don’t exist here, no sir}
{for the sake of the story, readers favorite color is blue, if its not, either pretend it is, or get over it}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:34pm
“You can’t just- you can’t kick me out!” You yelled.
Your bestfriend laughed, “Just find somewhere to go for a few hours! Me and Hunter want alone time!”
“A few fucking hours!?! Seriously?!” But your duffle bag had already been thrown at your feet, and the hotel door room was swinging closed, muffled giggles coming from inside.
Groaning, you picked up your bag, where were you supposed to go now?
“Not that I was like- listening in or anything- but damn that sucks.”
You jumped turning to see a man with black hair sticking out of his beanie standing in front of the door diagonal from yours.
“Uh- yeah. Last night in Vegas and I get ditched for a random hook up,” You scoffed, “I should’ve known it would happen.”
“That’s not cool, uh- I’m Alex.” He stepped forward, offering his hand.
Somewhat reluctantly, you shook his hand, “(y/n).”
He nodded, “I was going to head out for a late night wander, find something to do-, preferably away from all the hookups that seem to be happing around us right now. If you want to come.”
You glanced around, “Seriously?”
“Oh- god that did sound kinda creepy didn’t it,” Alex scrubbed a hand over his face, “Sorry- I- you can just forget about this then-”
“No! I mean- You don’t seem like a rapist or anything. I’ll come with.”
He grinned, “Poggers, you can, leave that, in my room, if you want. Just seems like a pain to lug around everywhere.”
You bit your lip, “Leaving my belongings in a strangers room while I go with said stranger to find something interesting to do, sure- why not?”
~~
10:57pm
Somehow, you found yourself wandering out of the hotel lobby, and onto the crowded streets along side Alex.
“So.... whats your favorite color?” He asked as you walked.
You laughed, “What?”
“We’re like, total strangers- it was a question, to get to know you.” He tucked his hands into his pockets.
“Oh, well-” before you could finish your sentence, there was a large amount of gasps and yells from the crowd in front of you.
“What’s going on?” Alex asked quietly.
You craned your neck to look over the crowd, gasping, “The water show! With the fountains outside of Caesar’s Palace!” You grabbed his hand, tugging him with you to push through the crowd, “This was the whole reason I agreed to this trip- but we never got to it!”
You shoved your way through the crowd until you got to the front, pressing against the barrier to watch the fountain display.
“Holy shit.” You heard him mutter from beside you.
You grinned, “It’s impressive right?”
“Imagine the coding it would take to get those things to stay on time.”
~~
11:27pm
After the show had ended, you had kept wandering for a while, up the strip, asking various questions back and forth.
You had found out that he was a Minecraft youtuber and a law student, though you’d had to admit, you weren’t too knowledgeable on either that subject.
Now you were both staring up at the Dave and Busters sign, “This is a good idea right?”
He nodded, “Definitely. Come on, I’d bet I could beat you at skee ball!”
Laughing, you followed him into the building, and up the stairs toward the arcade entrance, “Your on!”
After buying the credit cards for access to the games, you grabbed his hand, dragging him over to the skee ball lanes.
“Lets go!” He shouted, a few minutes later, upon realizing your score was a total of 10 points behind his, “I’m popping off!”
You laughed, “Okay, what game’s next?”
Nearly an hour later, you had both run out of credits, and laughing, made you way up to the prize area.
“Do you think its possible to compile our tickets?” He asked.
“Why?”
You followed his pointing finger to the large stuffed dragons sitting on one shelf.
“We need him.” You said immediately.
After picking out a bright red dragon, you began to argue over the name as you made your way to the counter.
“What about Carl?” You suggested.
He shook his head, “I have a friend named Karl.”
“How ‘bout........ Phil?”
“I also know a Phil.”
“Hmmmm, what about Sebastian?”
“He doesn’t look like a Sebastian!”
You frowned, “Well do you have any ideas then?”
Alex thought for a moment, “Albert.”
You looked down at the dragon, “Albert it is.”
At the counter Alex convinced the reluctant worker to allow you to use both the cards credit totals, and then you went happily on your way out of the building, stopping to take a picture of Albert in front of the sign, which Alex posted to twitter with the comment of, “Look at our son!”
You’d staid mostly out of frame, but he managed to get about half of your side, since you were the one holding Albert.
“Do you think any pf the buffets are still open?” Alex asked.
“I hope so, I’m starving.” You giggled.
~~
12:06am
The buffet was somewhat deserted, and you and Alex had grabbed seats in one of the corners after getting plates full of food.
Albert sat on the table between you as you talked.
“So it’s roleplay- but in Minecraft?” You asked, barley holding back a laugh.
He nodded, chuckling, “It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s like- huge. Especially since technically I’m getting back into the main lore now, with the whole project: vegas thing.”
“Project Vegas?” You asked.
He nodded again, “My character, he’s been through almost everything that's happened, and everything always ends to blow up in his face, literally sometimes. He’s built contries from the ground up- as stupid as that sounds- but they always fail, but this one won’t fail.
“I’m partnering with another guy on the server to set up a whole economy, he’s making a bank, and I’m making- well I’m making my own Vegas.”
You took a sip of your drink, “What’s it going to be called?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet,” He admitted, “I wanted to just call it Las Vegas but the names already taken.”
With a chuckle you shifted in your seat, “What about....- what about Las Nevada's?”
He laughed, “I like that.”
“Tell me more about this server then, I still don’t understand the story.”
With another chuckle he launched into the story, “Well, it all started when this guy called Wilbur Soot decided he wanted to start a nation....”
~~
3:18am
“Blue.”
You were back at the hotel now, still with Quackity, sitting out on the balcony of his room. Some how, you had ended up having some slightly deep talk about life and death and a million other things before lapsing into silence, simply watching the blinking lights of the city.
“What?” He asked softly.
“You asked me my favorite color, ten minutes after we met. It’s blue- that's my favorite color.” You shivered against a cold breeze.
Alex shifted minutely closer, “Why?”
You shrugged, “It can be so many things. Deep and dark and mysterious but also light like the summer sky and filled with hope. There’s a million shades from happiness to anger, and to everyone it could mean something else.”
“I like that.” He said quietly.
~~
7:04am
You yawned, rubbing sleep out of your eyes as the car drew closer to the airport.
Alex tapped on the steering wheel in time with the music, quietly humming along.
“Oh, I see my friend, they actually waited for me.” You said as the car pulled up to the curb.
“How considerate.” He chuckled, climbing out of the car.
You followed suit, retrieving your duffle bag from the back seat.
“Well, it was cool knowing you Alex.” You said.
“Likewise.”
Before you started to walk away you remembered, and quickly turned back to where he was standing, pulling Albert out of your bag, “Here, he’s yours. You spent more tickets on him than I did.”
He shook his head, “Keep him. I give you full custody of our son.”
“Oh- okay... bye then.”
You barley made it a few steps before he was quickly catching up to you, grabbing your arm and spinning you to press his lips on yours.
“Good luck with your shitty friends.” He breathed, before hurrying back to his car, leaving you flustered and running to catch up to your friend.
~~
One and A Half Months later
It had been over a month since the Vegas trip, but you still hadn’t gotten Alex out of your head.
You had clicked, on some level, and the late night conversation you had shared seemed to keep you thinking about him.
Now, you scrolled aimlessly through twitter, checking the trending tags until you came across one called “LAS NEVADAS”
Now that piqued your interest, and clicking on it, you found posts of people live tweeting an event- no a live stream. And not just any live stream- a Minecraft stream.
Quickly you opened a new tab, pulling up twitch as fast as you could.
What was the name of his channel? Oh god why did you forget?
Returning to twitter you searched until you found a link, following it to a new twitch tab.
And there he was.
The boy who had been doing laps around your mind was actually there, talking to another character.
“Look Sam, you and me, we could control everything. I need the bank to help fund Las Nevada’s, we can be partners.”
You sat, watching the stream, enthralled.
Once it had ended, you still could hardly believe you found him, quickly following another link back to his twitter and opening a direct message.
Y/n: Um, this is awkward, idk if you remeber this, but we met in vegas, about a month ago, and I had no idea how to find you until the stream today
quackityHQ: uh, hi?
qusckityHQ: proof?
Quickly you sent him the picture you had taken of him with Albert,
y/n: uhhh, bam, proof?
y/n: our son is sitting on my head board right now
quackityHQ: holy shit
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mtmte liveblog issues 4&5
its delphi time babey
I'm sorry but drift & co look like such fuckin nerds on their scooter things on the cover lmaooo
oh god. seeing the first page just reminded me of how horribly confused i was for this whole little arc the first time i read it. i was like ok, who are all these new characters, and also why does everyone look so similar
anyways now i now what's going on. i love first aid
love the running continuity of rung being the literal only psychologist on cybertron (except for fr*id but that's later). no wonder everyone's fucked up they all have to share a single therapist
ok i find it extremely funny that first aid was demoted from doctor to nurse, as if that's a thing that happens EVER - I mean it'd be one thing if first aid was a nurse practitioner (which i doubt is a position that exists here), at least that demotion would make sense, but like...the doctors i work with don't know how to do most nurse stuff (like BP, cathing, vaccinations, hell even using some of the thermometers - that's all stuff nurses/etc do), so demoting one to a nurse would be a disaster (just like promoting a really good nurse to a doctor would be a bad idea). anyways i know I'm being pedantic but it Be like that when you work in the medical field and read something that has medicine-related stuff in it
i love swerve giving ratchet the tiniest free drink ever lmaooo
is that skids being a rowdy drunk in the bg lmaoooo
unironically i love medical statistics. keep it comin
i love magnus’s giant sternal chestpiece thing. its like a bird’s sternum but without the massive pec muscles attached
i love magnus and rodimus’s dynamic so much
oh pipes....im so sorry but this fun space adventure is going to be not so much fun for you
ratchets ideologies are certainly interesting, and i liked seeing how they changed over the course of the story
drift: why would i be SCARED of the DJD, I've got a SWORD, two swords even,
hvbhajkhfbsdjkf pipes really said ‘oi, you two - what's this, then?’ that's the most british fucking thing, that's literally something i say when I'm doing an overexaggerated british accent, oh my god,
PIPES IS SUCH A TINY DUMBASS. ILY SIR BUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING
aaaand now you're covered in dead bodies, pipes. look at your life, look at your choices
drift epic sword moments
drift confirmed for the kinda weird guy who has katanas that he uses to like, cut up fruit and water bottles in his backyard while rodimus films him
‘i thought i heard...bickering’ lmaooooo
ah, so its covid
this arc is how i feel working in healthcare lmaooo especially now that i probably have covid
so rewind condensed the entire war into an 11 second long cringe compilation. nice
seeing the mechanical stuff past tailgate’s visor is so cool
poor tailgate, this guy is getting slammed with history from multiple sides. and like, bias is inevitable in ANY sort of recounting of events, especially controversial historical events, so poor tg just kinda has to take it all in and decide who to listen to
that’s...not really how immunity works, guys. also, you shouldn't be exposed to so much disease with proper ppe usage
is there even such thing as ppe in the transformers universe?? there are fluid- and contact-transmitted illnesses, so there SHOULD be
is there even OSHA in this universe??????? unbelievable
first aid, holding a giant fucking claw clamp: we haven't tried EVERYTHING............
first aid read a human wikihow article on how to jumpstart a car and took notes
i love tailgate’s ‘mom says its my turn on the xbox’ pose
tailgate has a point - he’s from pre-war times, where things weren't as grey so of course he would try to divide the two sides into ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’
CYCLONUS BE NICE DONT HIT UR FUTURE HUSBAND
go get some character development and then maybe you'll feel better
seeing the word quarantine is making me twitchy w/my possible month-long complete isolation quarantine on the horizon
drift pulling his swords on pipes and ratchet pushing down drift’s arms...lmao
poor pipes...even tho this is completely his fault, its still rough
also jesus, pharma and ratchet look so goddamn similar, reading this was so confusing the first time around
drifts idea of subduing pipes involves turning into a cool car and also posing with his sword
also. never gonna be over drift’s massive thighs. jesus man
ooof now drift has the rona. ouch
poor drift, his covid realization is getting overshadowed by pharma being flung around
first aid bustin thru w/the epic medical nipple clamps and some Big Boi Backup
ok that's an epic pre-beatdown speech from fort max right there, daym
im just gonna continue on w/issue 5 now for continuity’s sake. yay!
the cover of tailgate in magnus’s autobot school is so cute
and we open with an incredible shot of fort max str8 up ripping a guy in half. i mean, to be fair, he DID just give an epic speech about how much he was gonna do that, and he certainly followed thru
yeahhhhh, fort max is not doing so well atm
when he puts that dudes head in his chest vent thing and then snaps it shut....man
also i fucking LOVE when their faces are shaded all in black w/only the eyes/mouth fully drawn...fantastic stuff
ratchet: phew i am not equipped to deal w/this level of Fucked Up Mental Trauma. u good m8?
ratchet is already writing up a referral to rung for fort max as this is happening
drift is just laying on the ground dying like, oh hey yeahh I'm still here too
i fucking love when punctuation is drawn in story - like here where first aid has a little ? over his head....fav
ratchet holding drifts hand ;_;
ok tbh ambulon having switched sides 10 yrs ago is wild bc like, 10 years is barely any time for these guys, especially in a war that lasted 4 million years. that would be like a human switching sides in a war like, 3 months before it ends. probably. i sense some math bs, I'm just extrapolating here
all that mexican standoff shit is going down and first aid is just like But That's None Of My Business
ah so ambulon is an asymptomatic carrier
and there's first aid with the save! iconic
pharma calling ratchet ‘buddy’ hbvakjdsbfhkasdf
ooooh i love that they figured it out - and i love that twist, that transforming is what triggers the start of symptoms. remember when drift turned into a cool car? yep
s/o to Ambulon Transformers for helping me in my medical terminology courses, bc now ill always remember: Leg(tm)
also this explanation makes a ton more sense (in universe, at least) than the whole ‘i guess we as medical staff have been exposed to enough Germz that we’re more immune to this or something’ theory
ah, i love the meaningless (to me) alien robot medical jargon
drift and ratchet hhhhhhhhh
‘I'm too wide’ fort max L O R G E
also once again drift is forgotten in favor of a bunch of other dramatic stuff happening vbhjksdfbjhskdf
godddd i love tailgates little flashbacks where we see how Important and Special he is, complete with his ‘bomb disposal’ arm label...augh its so good!
and tailgate’s autopedia page even reflects his lies! like, did tailgate go edit that first thing upon waking up??? seriously, I'm fascinated by tailgate’s meticulous dedication to his fake life
also the fact that ultra magnus believes everything he read on autopedia is amazing lmao
ultra magnus: you think somebody would just go on the internet and tell lies?
fuckgin love magnus’s long ass name/title placard
tailgate hvbahjkdfbjhaskf i mean, he’s gotten the abridged version of everything else, of course he would assume that’d be the case here too...but not on magnus’s watch
magnus cant even say ‘fun’ hvukdasdbjfkjsadf i love my uptight law dad
love rung implying that upon questioning, he would easily divulge a patient’s name and maybe even information about said patient’s treatment while under him....love the disregard for patient confidentiality and hipaa in general
not that hipaa seems to exist here, at least not in a fully realized form
also i mean the above genuinely, i think rung’s tendency towards at least slight malpractice is very interesting
poor red alert....super bad luck that HE was the guy to get roped up in that overlord business
I'm glad that, at the very least, red alert was able to prove that he was Actually hearing something to rung, rather than get brushed off completely
god magnus and tailgate’s interactions are golden
also tg is much more sarcastic/quippy than anyone gives him credit for tbh
‘thought warfare,’ ultra magnus says with complete seriousness. god i fucking love this comic
now i can tell pharma apart from ratchet bc pharma has let his true Petty Bitch nature emerge and you can see it in his expressions
the whole ‘tarn is addicted to transforming’ thing didn't really go anywhere, right? i feel like i noticed that on my second readthru as well
also pharma is such an interesting character given the context of him like, trying to strike a bargain w/the djd to keep them from destroying delphi, but that arrangement inevitably kinda making him lose it as the situation escalates. he’s also just really entertaining bc i feel like he kins the joker or st and probably gets into really heated arguments w/people on twitter about just abt anything
‘sound bomb’ i love this comic
another important facet of pharma’s character becomes clear around this time as well - how he’s really into ratchet. i also choose to read them as awful exes tbh, it makes their dynamic even more entertaining
‘killmaster, with the wand’ is one of my favorite running remarks lmao
also, was killmaster even a character before mtmte? or, if he was, was he an important one? it would crack me up the most if he literally didn't exist at all, but any way you spin it is still funny
ratchet’s tiny humansona facing off against pharma is wild
‘I'm miles from anyone i truly care about’ brutal, ratchet, drift is dying like 2 floors away (im p sure)
SUDDENLY DRIFT IS HERE, ACTUALLY
oh don't worry first aid, that sure isn't the last we’ll be seeing of pharma
so like, did first aid save everyone by posting that data log to his wreckers fan blog or something? lmao love it
i love the pretty fucked up reveal of ratchet having stolen pharma’s hands. like, damn dude.
and that wraps up the delphi arc! our first true ‘arc’ of mtmte, and a fantastic one at that. short and snappy and fresh, with some very clever writing and cool new characters, and a lot of great plot threads to be picked up later. plus, we got to see the beginnings of drift and ratchet’s whole thing (and ratchet and pharmas whole thing). and the lost light gets some much needed extra medical staff, so everyone wins!
well, we’ll see how fort max feels about this all pretty soon.....
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Our Favorite Villains - Transcript
Follow along with the episode here if you’d like to!
Alex: If you haven't heard about Anchor, it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain. It's free, there's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer, and Anchor will distribute your podcast for you, so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many more.
You can even make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything that you need to make a podcast in one place. So download the free Anchor app, or go to anchor.fm to get started.
Alex: Hi, I'm Alex
Nick: And I'm Nick.
Alex: And this is Ice Cream Parasocial, a podcast that covers as many different topics as there are flavors of ice cream. Today, we'll be talking about our favorite villains in media.
Nick: I want to start out by apologizing. If I sound like shit, I have a little bit of a cold.
Alex: Yeah, just a little bit.
Nick: We've been putting off recording for a couple of days, because I didn't want to record with a sick voice, but it has not gone away. So.
Alex: Yeah, this is about as good as it's been in a minute.
Nick: I'm sorry. We all have to deal with it. Uh
Alex: Yeah, this was after me putting enough Vick's Vaporub on you to like, drive every animal in the house to like, go away.
Yeah.
Nick: Yeah, if you don't follow me on Twitter, I posted some pictures of the dogs hiding their noses.
Alex: Yeah. They, uh, that was a lie, actually. They didn't leave. They just, um, buried their whole faces in the blankets. Cause they were just like, "I'm not going to get up. But I'm sure not happy about what's happening right now."
Nick: Yeah. Winston is a rough Collie and he's got his nose-- from the very top of his head all the way to the tip of his nose is 12 inches long, and he buried his nose all the way up to his little eyeballs under a blanket to get away from the Vick's smell, but like, didn't leave the bed that I was laying on.
So, well, he's not he's, you know, he's just really pretty. He's not very smart.
Alex: Yeah. He's just really loyal. He didn't want to leave your side during this trying time.
He's very loyal to a fault.
He'll do whatever it takes.
Nick: I'm pretty sure he's laying down just on the other side of this door to make sure that we're not dying.
Alex: Yeah, he's a good boy. He does his best every day. Oh goodness.
Nick: Uh, but yeah, uh, speaking of social media: on Instagram, by the time this episode is up, there will also be a picture on Instagram and Twitter for the official podcast. That is the best piece of art I have ever made in my life.
Alex: Oh yeah. It's a real delight.
Nick: And it has everything to do with this podcast. It's promotional for this episode and I love it. Please go check it out. I don't care if you follow us on--
Alex: This is a call to action to look at this picture only.
Nick: Yes. And, uh, if you're listening to us on a platform that you don't usually listen to us on because we're not on a whole lot, hopefully soon we'll be on everything.
But as of right now, we're on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Radio Public, and YouTube. So hopefully we'll be on Apple Podcasts soon, and then we'll start begging you to go and review us there.
Yes.
They have like, weeks to months of a waiting list because so many people are starting podcasts.
Alex: Yeah. Like I know of at least like three or four people that are starting podcasts like right now.
Nick: Yeah. Well, and the information that I had seen was even older about it, you know, taking a long time to get set up on Apple Podcasts, because so many people are starting podcasts and I'm like, I think that information was pre-quarantine. So I can't imagine how long it will take for us to get there, but hopefully it'll be soon. So.
Alex: Like, I'm pretty sure that these microphones that we're recording on were considered like, essential by Amazon as well, because we got them in like 24 hours.
Nick: Mhmm.
Alex: So podcasting is a very accessible thing to do at the moment.
Nick: Absolutely.
Alex: Oh, goodness. Especially with Anchor--
Nick: Especially with Anchor!
Alex: It's the easiest way to make a podcast!
Nick: Which you already heard our ad for the beginning of this.
Legitimately, lots of love to Anchor. It's made it really easy to do this.
Yeah, no joke. Uh, I love you Anchor.
Alex: Thanks, Anchor.
Nick: I would probably kill for you, but please don't read that in a court of law.
Alex: [Laughs]
Nick: Anyways. Uh, talking about villains.
Alex: So, speaking of villains.
Nick: [Laughs]
Speaking of villains, like me, who would kill.
Alex: [Laughs]
For anchor.fm.
Both: [Laughing]
Alex: Oh no. Are we going to be the first podcast to ever have an Anchor sponsorship revoked?
Nick: Eh, probably not the first.
Alex: Yeah. That's fair. Just one of them.
Nick: [Laughs]
Yeah. We'll be one of many, I'm sure.
Alex: One of many.
Nick: Um, so villains.
Alex: So villains.
Nick: [laughs] I think we have a lot of crossover in our favorite villains.
Alex: Probably.
Nick: Um, but I guess first let's talk about what makes a good villain.
Alex: Yes.
Nick: Because this is something that we talk about a lot. We'll pause a show in the middle and just be like, "I love them". Just like, "I love how well that scene was written" and like, "all of the meaning behind that".
Alex: Yeah. Oh my God.
Nick: I guess some previous context that may or may not be needed is about how we met and started dating.
Because we met at this, um, youth hangout for queer kids, and we had kind of, we-- we'd been like, kind of hanging out, but not really, um, because we were in the same groups together. And then we started talking about movies and cartoons, and realized that we had both wanted to go to college for film.
Alex: [Chuckles]
Nick: I think at that point I'd already dropped out, but you were still gung-ho to be going to school for film, and we were just like--
Alex: Oh yeah.
Nick: Oh, we're both going to school for film.
Alex: Oh yeah. Like you had dropped out of film school. I was not yet in film school, and I was on the precipice of dropping out of film school.
Both: [Laughing]
Alex: Truly a match made in heaven. I'm pretty sure the way that I picked you up was that I was like, "Oh yeah, I want your phone number, so that maybe we can work on a project sometime."
Nick: Oh yeah, that's right. It was doing this specifically like, oh you know, so we can like talk about movies and stuff.
Alex: So we can talk about movies.
Nick: Like, you know, maybe talk about getting into a project together. And now we've been married for almost two years, and we're finally starting a project, and it's not a movie.
Alex: Yeah.
Both: [Laughing]
Nick: We've been in a relationship for five years.
Alex: Yeah.
Nick: Almost.
Alex: Oh, god.
Nick: Yeah, we're like less than a month away from, from that. I'm just like, yeah. That's basically it now.
Alex: Yeah, pretty much.
Nick: Time is an illusion.
Alex: Yeah, pretty much.
Nick: So we like to talk about movies. We like to talk about cartoons. We like to talk about media in general, and we are awful to watch movies and TV shows with, because we will pause, and just talk for a half hour, and then play again, and totally forget where we were.
Alex: Insufferable.
Nick: ADHD is fun.
Alex: Oh yeah, absolutely. Like yesterday I think-- or no, day before yesterday-- we've been watching Korra, and, um, we like paused it like 10 minutes before the end of an episode or something and then just didn't finish it until the following day, during which we watched like seven more minutes of that same episode, paused it and then almost didn't finish it until I was like, "Oh no! We never finished that episode!"
Nick: Yeah, because we were just so into talking about the characters and, um, the villains and the anti heroes and all of that stuff. And I think that that one we're having a lot of trouble watching, just because if you don't know, the legend of Korra is a spinoff series of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it follows what happens after the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender have grown up and died off and it's about the whole next generation. So we have a lot to say.
Alex: So much.
Nick: And I think that we also have a lot to say about what other people have to say about it. So we'll just get like five minutes in and like something will happen.
And I'm just like, Oh my God, did you see that article where somebody said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we'll just go for like 20 minutes. I was just like, Oh, what were we doing?
Alex: Just shit talking avatar clickbait.
Nick: Yeah.
Alex: But what makes a good villain?
Nick: What makes a good villain? I feel like that's a really, really hard question to answer, because depending on the story, I feel different things make a good villain.
Alex: Right.
Nick: You know, I, something, another question that I put for like a-a conversation starter is does a good villain mean that they're are sympathetic villain? In some stories: yes. They need to be sympathetic for that to be brightening, any kind of, you know, without us just blowing them off.
Alex: Right.
Nick: But in other stories, I feel like if they were sympathetic, Then the protagonist would just kind of get blown off because it's like, Oh, well, I don't know. You know?
Alex: Yeah. Yeah, like I feel like it's almost relational to the protagonist in a certain kind of way where it's like, Oh, you know, I definitely have like my pieces of media where it's like the characters themselves aren't super deep.
Um, and like, I can absolutely admit that where it's just like, Oh yeah, like, I liked this villain because they look cool and they have a good time, but the protagonists in those pieces of media also tend to be a little bit flat.
Um, and I think that that's totally fine, but then like the villains that tend to be in the media that I like that is uh, more like complex. That's also how the protagonists are, is like, there's a lot of nuance to them.
Nick: Right.
Alex: Um, so I think you really have it like spot on there. It's just like what, what's the rest of the tone, like?
Nick: Right. You know? 'Cause one of the villains that I have on here is Count Olaf as one of my favorite villains-
Alex: Oooh, yes!
Nick: -Because he's not sympathetic. You want to throat punch him.
Alex: Oh, he sucks.
Nick: And just like move on with your life, you know, but he still has a-a symbolism and he's the main villain of that story. But by no means, is he the only villain in that story, you know, And he just reminds me of such a classic villain that is evil for one reason, and one reason only. And that is his own personal gain.
Alex: Yes.
Nick: You know?
Alex: Yes. And I kind of liked that you put them on there too, because I feel like with Count Olaf, he's definitely like a character with a lot of depth, but not out of like any sort of like a sympathetic or like deep backstory thing, but just because there's so much intrigue around him. And, uh, just that, it's just like, how does he do the shit that he does, you know?
Nick: Right. Well, and I think that he's a really, really great villain too, because of what he means to the story, you know? You've got these brilliant, genius children that are surrounded by idiot adults.
Alex: Oh yeah.
Nick: You know, and having the tragic backstory that I have, you know, I have definitely had it where, when I was a kid, I would try to talk to an adult about another adult doing something bad.
And while they might be able to be like "Oh yeah, like that is bad" after a while of talking.
Alex: Yeah.
Nick: When the person would go through and do it again, they'd be like "Oh no, they're, they're different." Or like "That's not them." And, you know, Count Olaf, shows it in a very goofy way with his different get-ups and like all of this stuff, but watching it, you know, definitely kind of triggered memories, but not in like a, not in the like bad triggered, you know, but it was kind of like, it definitely made me think of like how apt of a-a character that is, you know, for these kids.
I-I am by no means comparing myself to those children who are absolute geniuses, but it's definitely, I can imagine being a kid or being below 18-
Alex: yeah.
Nick: -And watching that and being like, yeah, it's so obvious, you know, and I definitely would love to see what parents watching that think about that. You know? I-I wonder how many conversations it started or how many thoughts it started about believing your kids, even when it doesn't seem super obvious to you that this person is bad or like that this person is finding different ways around things to hurt your kid.
Alex: Right.
Nick: But it's like put it in such a goofy way that's like really entertaining to watch. [laughs] And so I'm just like, that's, I just love Count Olaf as a villain because he starts so many conversations.
Alex: God, yeah. That is such a good point.
Nick: So I guess that's for me, that's what-that's kind of the thread between all of my favorite villains is that they start really good conversations.
Alex: Oh my gosh. I feel like that is such a good way of hitting the nail on the head with this kind of thing. I feel like sometimes a good villain is almost representational. Um, I feel like on the surface Count Olaf is, uh, sort of one of the goofiest, two dimensional villains that you can think of,
Nick: Right.
Alex: But he definitely is like one of the best villains that I can think of for that exact reason, especially for children who do grow up with a lot of like trauma and that kind of nature, and like grow up in like the system, how hard it is for kids in general to bring cases against like adults in their lives.
Um, yeah, God, that is such a good point. I really love that.
Nick: Right. And I really love that, like, until you start thinking of it that way, you probably don't think of him as being that great of a villain, you know, even putting him on here. He was one of the last ones that I added to my list and I quote,
"putting him next to the others it's hard to see him being on the same level and perhaps he's not, but I just, I just have to give love to a villain that is so classic,"
but, you know, actually talking it through beyond the couple of notes that I put down, I'm like, Yeah, no, he is a fucking fantastic villain,
Alex: Right? Like pretty S tier, you know, like not necessarily like a sympathetic villain or something or somebody that you would like want to hang out with, but like very classically, like-
Nick: Just Grade-A bad guy.
Alex: Just good, good, bad guy.
Nick: [laughs] Alright, you want to talk about one of yours?
Alex: Sure thing!
Nick: I feel like we talked about Olaf for three years.
Alex: Absolutely. Cause I would love to follow up on that one with sort of my analog for that: um, another person that I don't find super sympathetic. Uh, but I do find to be a pretty good villain, which is The Handler from The Umbrella Academy.
Which, um, I'm trying to figure out how much to talk about her.
I'm going to try and stay away from plot as much as possible.
Nick: Good luck.
Alex: Um, just for people that haven't watched season two yet.
Right.
But just like, I feel like she's also someone that is so representational of like literal systems.
Nick: Right!
Alex: Um, and also someone that has put so much of herself into the establishment and like so much faith into it that it's kind of like consumed her in this way that she kind of genuinely thinks that she's doing the thing that she's supposed to be doing, that's like better for everyone. Um, and season two it's a little bit, uh, kind of on the fence about that one, but especially in like season one and early season two, I love a good villain that mirrors people that you might meet.
Nick: Right, absolutely.
Alex: Like, Oh, we love a good bad boss [laughs]
Nick: Yeah, she definitely was just kind of in season one, a big stand in for just like the world's shittiest boss that, you know, will actually slit your throat if you don't get things done on time.
But I think that even still in season two, she holds some of that capitalism propaganda kind of thing of she loses her position and, and really loses her identity and is willing to do whatever it takes to not only get her position back, but go even further. And I feel like that's really, I hate to say apt again, but apt for how capitalism kind of makes us all be.
Alex: Yeah!
Nick: You have to work as hard as you can to get all the way up the ranks. And you know, you slip up once, maybe twice and you're demoted and everything goes downhill and you either find a way to deal with that or you don't. And. You, you know, you spiral. And I think that there's so much, especially in the United States where we are, there's this really intense correlation between your job and your identity?
Alex: Yes!
Nick: I feel like, especially since we got married, whenever I talk about you. Just cause you know, you come up more in conversations because people like to call you my other half. And like, that's one of the first things that comes up after I tell people your name is "what do they do?" And it's really hard to have hobbies outside of a job.
Alex: Exactly.
Nick: Especially, in the generation that we're in. If you do have a hobby outside of a job, you're trying to make it become your job.
Alex: Exactly.
Nick: And I feel like that's a lot kind of how she seemed to be, was just this, her identity was very, very intertwined with her job. And so it, to her, it must've felt like her identity got stripped away.
And then she was like, okay, well, I don't like that powerlessness. So I'm going to flip it around.
Alex: Exactly, exactly. And like, that's something that I think is so interesting with the whole commission and that I love so much that originally that was just kind of like a funny kind of gag about the show during- I'm gonna talk a little bit about season one since it's been out for a minute.
Nick: Yeah, it's been out for over a year.
Alex: And I just think it's so interesting seeing someone like Hazel compared to like the handler, um, when it comes to like when your job starts to turn against you. And just kind of, especially with the handler, what I thought was so interesting about her, especially like hearing you talk about it. Um, the flip in season two makes a lot of sense to me because of the way that capitalism is talked about is like this huge, like meritocracy and just sort of like, Oh, you're supposed to get what you work for.
And like, you know, this like thing happens to her and, uh, she expects to be welcomed back and she made this huge, like sacrifice for the commission and to just kind of deal with what she dealt with. Then it's like, of course, she's going to kind of, have a reaction to it. And it's really interesting seeing the ways that different people react to things like that, because I feel like that's a very much a moment where either it radicalizes you or you like latch on harder ever until the establishment.
And she kind of did both.
Nick: Yeah. Somehow she did both in all of the worst ways,
Alex: Literally.
Nick: And talking about things now, 'cause we hadn't really gotten into this conversation too, too much because we wanted to have this conversation on the podcast.
Alex: Yes.
Nick: And until this conversation, I didn't sympathize with her at all.
I was just like, yeah, I know she's 100% bad. Like, well, nobody is a hundred percent bad. She's like 99% bad. And so I really don't sympathize with her, but thinking of it and talking like this now, I'm like well, you know what, actually,
Alex: right.
Nick: You know, if I had a job and I had to leave for reasons and I came back and they were like, Oh yeah, you're demoted. I would be pissed. I would lose my ever loving mind!
Alex: Oh yeah.
Nick: I wouldn't go to the links that she does, but that's because in, uh, in our universe, jail exists
Alex: [laughs]
Nick: and I don't want to go there!
Alex: Would not like to go to real jail.
Nick: Would not like to go to real jail! [laughs]
Alex: Oh gosh. So that was definitely my, a big one for me was the handler. I have a lot of feelings about her.
Nick: Right? Since we're on the umbrella Academy, do you want to go to your other one?
Alex: Yes. We just finished up watching it. So that's why I have so many from them.
Nick: Yeah, a lot of these favorite villains, uh, I've mentioned in the previous episode that I have a bad memory and I'm probably going to mention it in every episode because I have a bad memory.
Uh, But a lot of these are shows that I just watched so they're my favorite villains right now. In two months, they'll be different. And probably two months ago they were totally different. Um, a lot of these shows are just shows that we recently watched. And if I was able to unlock all of my memory, they would probably be completely different, you know?
So. Don't come at me for my favorite villains. Don't be like, how could you not talk about XYZ villain? They're the best one that was ever made.
Alex: Right? Like, I'm just like, I've consumed so much media in my lifetime. I don't know.
Nick: I've consumed so much media in the last couple of months.
Alex: Yeah.
Nick: What else was I supposed to do?
Alex: Right?
Nick: I'm not going outside.
Alex: [laughs] Right. No. Yeah. I'm absolutely the same. Like so many of mine are things that I've watched recently. So grain of salt, but, um, one of my favorite recent villi-villians, uh, one of my favorite recent villians is Vanya Hargreeves. [laughs]
Oh my God. I live and die for Vanya Hargreeves.
Nick: That one, we really probably shouldn't get too much into what happens in season two, because if we talk about anything about season two, it'll be a spoiler.
Alex: I can and will cry.
Both: [laugh]
Alex: That's a promise and a threat. [laughs]
Nick: But, at this point, if you haven't seen season one, I just I'm so sorry at this point, like that's your bad.
It was one of, it's been in the top 10 on Netflix for forever. Season one came out over a year ago. I'm sorry. Go watch it before we ruin it. Just pause this, leave, come back. We'll be waiting. Okay. Are you back now? Let's talk about Vanya Hargreaves.
Alex: Let's talk about her. She's the best.
Nick: [laughs]
Alex: Oh my God. I love her so much because like I love a good heel turn so much.
Um, and I think they did it really well with her, um, because I love that they don't pull any fucking punches. Um, like the stuff that she does is pretty heinous, but also I love that they don't shy away from the fact that like, pretty much at every turn when things go wrong with her, the obvious option, and the thing that pretty much all of the siblings and everyone, like, even not the siblings agrees, is like the best intervention is like rehabilitation. Um, and like just fucking talking to her and being nice to her. And I love it when a show. Is willing to not just be like, Oh yeah, this person became a villain, but you're still supposed to like them.
So the most they're going to do is like kind of shove someone a little bit. Like, no, she like. I dunno, she like kills people like multiple people. And like, one of them is like a nice old man, like, you know,
Nick: a nice old monkey
Alex: a nice old monkey, like he's adorable and she just like- Oh, it's brutal. But like, At pretty much every turn, you still sympathize with her because of the way that they play out what she's going through.
I don't know if that's a thing that everyone sympathizes with, but I definitely do.
Nick: Yeah, absolutely. Like for me the first time that I watched it through, when it first came out, I didn't see any of it coming the second time I knew it was coming and I still was like, "Oh my God, that's right!" And even the third time when I finally like watched it with you, I knew! I just watched it like a week before.
Alex: Right.
Nick: And I was just like, Oh, my God. I forgot already.
Alex: That's cold.
Nick: But again, with my personal tragic backstory, I get it, man. If I had those powers, I get it. I would snap. You know again, please don't play this episode in a court of law.
Both: [laugh]
Alex: After I have snapped, please don't-
Nick: After I have snapped. Uh, can somebody please go through and scrub this episode from the internet? [laughs]
Um, but, you know, with having all of her memories erased from her childhood and having them all come rushing back at once and also then, you know, turning around and asking your family for forgiveness, for the bad things that you've done since realizing that, that you didn't have any of these memories as a kid.
And. You know, after having been manipulated and "dealing" with said manipulator, uh, and coming back to like beg for forgiveness and like talk. And having them lock you up because they're scared of you. I would have snapped. I would have snapped so much sooner, probably, you know,
Alex: Oh my God. I ooh that whole scene, I- just like ask Nick. I was dying because like, Oh my God, The whole, like fact that the, um, the little like jail cell thing that she's in is like soundproofed, killed me because it really. I feel like did extra, just in the fact that, uh, like everyone, except for Luther basically was on the side of like, "Hey, no, she's our sister. We need to let her out and talk to her because she's still our sister." And like, she cries at bugs dying. Like, are you kidding me? Like she was going through something, but like, she can't hear any of that. All she sees is people yelling and she's like in a little cage.
Nick: Right. She can't hear any of that.
And also at the end, all of them decide to side with Luther anyways, you know, they're not happy about it, but they leave her in there. So, you know, she can't understand that they ha- they were arguing for her and that, you know, Luther kind of overpowered them. But I also think that it's really funny because in that scene, that was the most, um, diplomatic argument that they'd had all season, you know, like Diego almost killed Luther in episode one, but if you'll notice he didn't draw a weapon at all in that episode against Luther-
Alex: Rude!
Nick: -Like suddenly they're just talking?
Alex: [scoffs] Bad timing.
Nick: Right. You know? So like, of course she's gonna snap. And so I feel like she is an incredibly sympathetic villain. And I love her and I just... [chuckles]
Alex: Right, I just feel like it's so masterful that you can make a villain that's like that sympathetic and also like, so distructive.
Nick: Just absolutely brutal.
Alex: Just so brutal. Oh my God. I love her so much. And I feel like this is a good introduction to what. I talk about as my, you know, how some people have like, um, fantasy football leagues?
Nick: Yeah. [laughs]
Alex: I have a uh, fantasy DBT group. Um, because- [laughs] I am a big fan of dialectical behavior therapy. And, um, I'm not going to give like a whole thing on that, but basically like for those who don't know, uh, it's a therapy that's largely geared towards people who have been through like, traumatic situations.
And a lot of the time, uh, when we're watching a piece of media, I'll do the, like, pausing it to talk for like half an hour thing, except I'll like, pause it and I'll turn to Nick and I'll be like, I have a new person that I want to invite to my fantasy DBT group. [both laugh] And Vanya is definitely in the fantasy DBT group.
Nick: Oh yeah. Absolutely.
Alex: Along with several others on this list you will meet soon.
Nick: Yeah. I think a couple on my list too. You're just like, come on, man. Come on.
Alex: You're invited. I believe in you.
Nick: Yeah. I think that a couple that you really want to be in your DBT group... Some that kind of started your fantasy DBT group where Zuko and Azula.
Alex: Yes!
Nick: And I think that it's really funny because on my list I have Azula. And on yours you have Zuko,
Alex: I sure do.
Nick: Uh, just since we've been talking about yours for a minute, I'll I'll go ahead and talk about Azula.
Alex: Hell yeah.
Nick: Uh, she's very arguably a sympathetic villain.
Alex: Yes!
Nick: And I think that following up after Vanya, I can't say that Vanya is simpathetic, and Azula's not, you know, you know, she has some very serious, very obvious mental health issues, you know, in the last couple of episodes, there's a point where even Zuko kind of is like, Oh, she's kind of lost it. And, I love that because he acts like it's so minimal how much she's lost it. And meanwhile, she's like over there, like sweating and panting and she's got the most fucked up haircut. Cause she gave herself- [laughs]
Alex: She has like the full like breakdown bangs and everything. Like we've all been there.
Nick: [laughs] Right, um, and I feel like with those two, it brings up a very intense conversation about nature versus nurture because they're siblings, they were raised by the same parents, you know, they both had the same mom, the same dad.
And so I feel like it's easy to say, Oh, well, Zukos nature is to be a good guy. And that's why he ended up a good guy. And Azula his nature is just to be uh, crazy, I guess, but. I feel like it's still a lot: nurture because Zuko had such a more intense, close relationship with his mother who was the nice one. And it seemed like Azula had a lot more of a relationship with her father who was an asshole.
Alex: Right.
Nick: And, you know, that's not saying that, Oh, well, if you have a mother figure in your life, then you're just going to turn out to be a good guy. And you know, if you more only have a father figure, then you're just going to be a little asshole. That's not it. The characters were-
Alex: Yeah. Absolutely.
Nick: You know, down to the point of like Zuko and Azula's grandpa on their mom's side-or their great grandpa on their mom's side was avatar Roku. So like she was meant to be their good half and the dad was meant to come from the bad half: big, huge air quotes on good and bad, but, you know, uh, And something else with Azula that I definitely can kind of relate to is that she was born a prodigy.
Alex: Yeah!
Nick: And that's something that got mentioned is, you know, at first, when she was young, she didn't have to work for her fire bending skills, she just had them. And, you know, as someone who was the smart kid, when I was younger and like got put into all of these like big, smart kid classes and saw the other kids that got put into the big smart kid classes, you kind of go one of two ways where either like you start pushing yourself to insanity, to continue being the smart kid and the prodigy, and like still be seen as perfect because you've been kind of bestowed with this perfect-ness and, you know, everybody sees from you and you feel you have to keep up; or you get totally overloaded and give up, I got totally overloaded and gave up. Azula got obsessed with that perfection because she was so young.
Alex: Yeah.
Nick: When she got, uh, You know, when she was already being told, Oh, you're a prodigy. You did it perfectly like you're so much better than your older brother. And, you know, so I think that following that path of perfection definitely led her to having that breakdown, you know, and not being able to have genuine friends.
Because she was so obsessed with being seen as like the most perfect and the most powerful, you know, especially with her dad being, being in, wanting to be the most powerful man in the world. How do you follow that up?
Alex: Exactly.
Nick: Especially with your brother being an outcast and totally banished and like, you know, seen as a loser, you have to work so hard for people to not think that you're going down that same path as your stinky little brother, you know?
Both: [laugh]
Alex: Exactly. Yeah. And I feel like even like, from the perspective of like, you know, when she kind of goes off the rails as well, and just kind of thinking about the things that sorta lead up to that and like the family dynamics and all of that, and just like. How much- I don't know. I found a lot of like sympathy with her and like her family dynamics, especially with Zuko where like in their own way- like, you can very much tell that, like, she just kinda wants to have like a family, but she doesn't totally know what that is supposed to look like in a lot of ways. Like, not like she just wants that, but like, I feel like in a lot of ways she does want that. It was just like, "you should come back and live with us."
But like she doesn't, she's a really classic example, I feel like, of people use the tools that they have in order to navigate their lives and like the things that she's been shown her whole life have been, you know, like manipulation and just like shows of force and things. So it's like in order to get like love, which is something and like, Being able to be around like her brother again, like she does all these things that like, as we're watching it for the first time, we're just like, Oh God, like that's so shitty.
And it is shitty, but it's like, kind of thinking about it again. And like seeing her, especially in like season three, like ah, damn , this is just sort of what she knows how to do. And she might not even totally know she's doing it.
Nick: Right. You know, because, with the adults that she had in her life, especially with her and Zuko's mom leaving when she did, I mean, not that she had a choice. Zuko had a lot more time with their mom who was the good one, but then Azula was so much younger. I think that there, I think there's a point where she talks about like, not even remembering what their mom looks like.
Alex: I want to say so.
Nick: You know, so of course, like all she knows is her crazy ass dad and her crazy ass grandpa.
And she knows that her dad killed her grandpa to get power, you know, and seeing him get that power through brute force and through manipulation. How else is she supposed to, you know, go about? And I think that Zuko then in the beginning definitely shows that same, but he's so blessed with having his uncle Iroh to guide him and show him that that's not how it's done, but Azula doesn't get that.
And it's, it's really easy to sympathize her thinking sympathize with her. Thinking about those specific things, but I feel like it's also really hard because she did have opportunities to, fix that and-and be able to think critically about things. And she just chose not to. And I, and I don't know, i-it's one of those things where like, it's just hard, you know,
Alex: Mhmm.
Nick: Like I understand why she did everything that she did. But then there's just so much to me, that's like, come on you could've just...
Alex: Right. Like, come on, man.
Nick: You know, like your friends turned against you to join the other side. Like that could have been your opportunity, man. And it's like for the show, I'm so glad that they didn't then have her turn around and be the good guy because that would have been so annoying if every single bad guy who was like, Oh, actually it's time for my redemption arc now.
Alex: I'm radio rebel! [ laughs]
Nick: I'm radio rebel! I'm lemonade mouth! [laughs] But just thinking about like, if she were a real person, I'm like, come on, man. You could have.
Alex: Right. Absolutely.
Nick: I'm just like, you're going to continue to be on the side that everyone that it seems like you do love and care about in your own way is against?
Alex: Like, I feel like she reminds me a lot in that very same way of, um, like kind of what we're talking about with the handler of just like, what happens when the thing that, you know, Kind of turns against you and is like destabilized and it's just like, do you like cling on for dear life or do you like jump ship?
And it's just like, God does she cling on for dear life!
Nick: Oh, she clings on for dear life. Meanwhile, Zuko, you know, jumped ship and realizes that, uh, there's better things for him to do then try to please his father and family, and like,
Alex: yeah,
Nick: the sweet, awkward boy,
Alex: My sweet, sweet boy, God, I love him so much. [Nick laughs]
Oh my goodness. Like it's so funny because I'm just like, do all of the villains that I like come in twos and like follow a pattern because now I'm just like, yeah. So I like the handler and Vanya and then it was just like, yeah. And then Azula and Zuko. And I'm just like, yeah. So then you have the one that's like very establishment and kind of like loses it.
And then you have the one that like, kind of, uh, [laughs] Is that is like very sympathetic and, um, I'm very proud of them for going as hard as they did. Uh, but it still manages to remain sympathetic [both laugh] like that's something that I also really appreciate with them writing Zuko is that like, he didn't really go to being like on Aang's side until , like way towards the end. Um, despite the amount of times during the show that you're like, okay, this is the time I'm so ready. It's all happening. It's gonna happen. Um, but it doesn't, and it's always so frustrating, but again, it's one of those things where I'm kinda like glad that they waited until it made the most sense, because again, it's like you live your whole life, just kind of knowing this one thing and just kind of in pursuit of this singular goal, that your brain is just kind of structured around it.
And like, that's another thing that I love so much that like, while I was watching it, I was like, Oh, that's kind of like, Interesting that they did that, but the more I think about it, um, the more I appreciate it is like the whole like, breakdown that he has.
Nick: right where he like gets really sick?
Alex: Yeah, where he gets really sick and just kind of is like- I think he's like passed out even, or just like dang near for like several days, because of just like this moral decision.
Like, you know, I feel like that's something that I'm really glad that they gave him credit for. Um, and I feel like also kind of speaks to maybe some of why Azula didn't like defect or like why things like hit her as hard as they did. It was just sort of like how much this family has like told them that the things that they are doing is like the right way to be, that it's just like being physically ill, you know?
Nick: Right, absolutely.
Alex: And I'm just like, man, I love this 'lil guy so much and just kind of like watching him learn to navigate the world is so fascinating. And he's just such a teen.
Nick: Right?
Alex: I love villains that you can just very much see the aspects of them beyond, um, like what makes them like a villain. He's very much a teen boy. I love that about him so much.
Nick: Yeah. I think that that's something else that makes him a really, really good villain, and then hero, is that being young adults, I feel like- being young adults that have done not great things ourselves, like not as bad as them,
Alex: [chuckles] yeah
Nick: But you know, like, being a teenager and just wanting to be accepted and just wanting love and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And being willing to do whatever that takes and just following what your parents and like older people have told you is like how things are, and then starting to get older and realizing that that's not how it has to be, you know. And I feel like it really strikes a chord, you know, thinking about Zuko and then thinking about growing through your teens and like young adult stages of like everything that you do and everything that you think and say is dictated by authority figures in your life. And then kind of moving on to having less and less of those authority figures being authority figures, you know, even if they're still there. Kind of starting to be able to think for yourself and realize things and it really can make you physically sick to kind of make that change, you know? And for real humans, that change is really, really slow. For him, that kind of like s- that switch flipped really fast.
And so that sickness really got him.
Alex: Absolutely.
Nick: Yeah. I think that it's really incredible to watch it and see this like thing that I know that I've gone through. And I feel like a lot of people have gone through with, you know, growing up and getting a little bit older. I say that like, I'm super old, but like-
Alex: Ancient.
Nick: -Getting into the more, like getting into your early twenties and like. Really finally becoming an adult, even though there's never a point where you like really are an adult.
Alex: Yes.
Nick: I keep thinking every year, like this is the year somebody that like, people are gonna see me as an adult, but then everybody else also gets a year older and they're like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, honey, you're still a baby, and I'm like, shit! [laughs]
Alex: Oh my god [laughs]
Nick: But,you know, I don't know. [laughs]
Alex: That is so real. Like the only people that see you as an adult are like teenagers.
Nick: Right.
Alex: And it's just like "oh man, still?"
Nick: Right and I'm just like your babies though! [both laugh] Um, but just watching that and it feels very real that he got sick and it, it I'm really glad that that was there. [chuckles]
Alex: Mhmm. Big, agree.
Nick: You know, it's really almost frustrating when villains don't have that kind of like big averse reaction when they have a redemption arc where they're just like, "I'm cool now!"
Alex: No, it's cool now though.
Nick: Oh, no, we're good. We're good, actually,
Alex: actually I'm cool now.
Nick: [laughs] So speaking of villains that turn around-that just kind of like all of a sudden they're like fine now.
Alex: Surprise!
Nick: Surprise! I would love to talk about the diamonds from Steven universe. I, they are some of the most controversial villains.
Alex: Yeah.
Nick: But I love them all four of them [Alex chuckles] because, the reason that they're so controversial is because it's so easy to make them a stand-in for whatever you want them to be.
Alex: It really is.
Nick: And that's why I love them, you know, and for me, they always represented family. And to me that meant that always like meant something really deep because. [chuckles] Having my tragic backstory [Alex laughs] and having like, I didn't have great parents and they reminded me so much of that kind of thing of, you know, the pivotal episode when white diamond tries to pull pink diamond out of Steven, you know, and is like screaming and crying about how his name isn't Steven, it's Pink. He'll always be Pink, no matter what he tries to do. And like talking about how he's being silly for acting like this and talking about, uh, how he's acting like a spoiled child and like how she's so over all of his tantrums while she's throwing a huge tantrum.
Alex: Literal tantrum,
Nick: A literal tantrum. And I, I, I know that he has like that perfect line that I can't remember now, and I should have looked it up, but of just like "Oh, well, If I'm a spoiled little brat, that's throwing a tantrum then, uh, what are you?" I think that it is really frustrating that their redemption just kind of flipped like that really fast, but also it was very obvious that the show was coming to a close.
Alex: [chuckles] Yeah...
Nick: So I don't know that they could have done it any slower, but I think that it's also one of those things where. They realized all of the harm that they'd done. And so I think that making that flip was really still pretty realistic. And really necessary that it had to, it had to happen. And I think that it's also really easy to say that it happened super, super fast because we ha- we got that time skip and I don't know, it's just... and I, I love them as villains, even because after their redemption, they're still fucking awful, but they're trying, and they have to be reminded because I know you haven't seen the last, er-because I know that you watched the movie, but I don't, you haven't seen any of Steven universe future. Um, right?
Alex: I don't believe so, no.
Nick: Yeah. Uh, in the, or I can't remember if it's a movie or if it's Steven universe future, but they're still like slipping up and like calling him Pink and like, you know, and, calling other gems "lower life forms" still. And, but I think that it was really important to show that because they needed to grow.
And I think that that was some criticism that they got was that they flipped so fast that they didn't actually like grow. And then the show writers were just like, Oh, well just, just fucking wait a second. [both laugh] I love that they were able to make up and kind of fix things, but still show that they were growing and changing and they were still learning.
I also really love what they did with their redemption and forgiveness arc, where they let Steven still, you know, kind of talk to them and teach them and be civil with them without just kind of giving into their every whim and, you know, being overly nice to them in the name of forgiveness, because that is definitely something that I've seen in like different villain redemption tropes before is like, " Oh, well all is forgiven. We're good." And it's like, uh, all might be forgiven, but we are not good.
Alex: We are certainly not good.
Nick: And the diamonds having this idea of like, "Oh, we're forgiven and everything's good." And having Steven say "no, you're mostly forgiven. But we're not good. You still have a lot to learn and a lot to work on." And I think that that's really, really important to have a kid's show.
Alex: Yes, especially in the context of like, kind of talking about those sorts of relationships is like, I think a lot of the time where like inclined to give people a pass just for trying. [chuckles]
Nick: Right.
Alex: When it's like, you know, people should still be held accountable, even if it's like also being gentle. You know, even if it's like, I do care about you and I want you to do better. And that's why I am challenging you instead of just being like, Oh yeah, that's just how it is sometimes anyways, the past is the past, that's water under the bridge, goodbye! You know?
Nick: Right. Just like. Ah yeah, like you're still saying kind of crappy stuff, but like, you know, you're not like actually killing people anymore, so it's fine.
Alex: So I'm pretty sure we're good actually. [both laugh]
Nick: But yeah, I, I love them because they can stand in for so much because like, you know, for the people where it, they don't see them as like being stand-ins for fam- for shitty family members, they do see them as like politicians or capitalism or society at large. And I think that that's what makes them so great is that no matter what you see them as they still piss you off.
Alex: [laughs] That is so real.
Nick: Y'know, and even with pink diamond, like so far, we've only really talked about the other three, but like pink diamond is an incredible villain, because you, even after you learn about her being a villain, there's still so much of you that loves her because you've known her as this - as Rose this whole time. And this, this idealized different version of her that had changed.
So it's really easy to be like, Oh no, but like, That's Rose she's changed. She's different, but like there's still all of these moments and full episodes that show that like, even though she had grown and changed, there was so much that she still needed to do to grow and change into like being the best version of herself that she could be.
Alex: Right.
Nick: Which was Steven, you know, and I saw a theory a while back about it that was talking about that, about how her realizing that she needed to grow and change made her Rose, and then realizing that she had grown and changed as much as she could as Rose is what made her decide to have Steven and like become part of Steven because she'd done all that she could as, you know, what she was.
And that is such an incredible redemption, you know, for her, while also still being able to understand that there was never really a point where she was the good guy.
Alex: Right. Exactly.
Nick: You know, and they go into it in Steven Universe Future, where Steven has to deal with a lot of that stuff where it's like, he spent his whole life thinking that he was the good guy and being the good guy that it kind of came back to bite him in the ass, you know, as he got older and like starting to actually have to deal with things and kind of becoming the villain in his own story. And I just, ah I love it so much. [laughs]
Alex: Oh my Gosh.
Nick: Even though people wanna like, not love it. I'm just, I do. [both laugh]
Alex: Oh man, I really need to watch Steven Universe Future now cause that sounds really good.
Nick: I think that everybody should watch it, but yeah, like all of the Diamonds are such good villains because even with Pink, you know, just like with Azula you can understand where a lot of her anger and issues stemmed from. And even though you wish over and over again, that she would just fucking learn and do better, you can see where she just can't.
Alex: Right, where it's just like ingrained.
Nick: Right, where it's just so ingrained that like, pretty much the only thing that she can do is completely change into a different person, you know? And it's just, I love it. I love it. I love it. [both laugh]
Alex: Hell yeah.
Nick: I think that that's about all I can say about the diamonds right now.
Alex: That's so good.
Nick: Cause it's been, it's been a while since I've seen Steven Universe, so it's not fresh on my mind, but I know that I love them as villains.
Alex: Exactly, yeah. Just like one of those things where it's just like, "I don't know exactly how I feel, but I know that it's positive." [laughs]
Nick: Right, I absolutely should have used this episode as a reason to go back and binge watch everything.
Alex: [laughs] I'm doing research for the podcast.
Nick: Right. And I definitely did go back and kind of like do quote unquote "research" for this, uh, for some stuff but I thought that I would just kind of, for some reason, I thought that I would just kind of like remember more stuff as I went and I just didn't.
Alex: Imagine having a working memory.
Nick: Imagine.
Alex: Oh, gosh.
Nick: But yeah, you've got two that I am very excited to talk about.
Alex: Oh yeah, I sure do. Because I have, um, everyone's favorite icy boy. [laughs]
Nick: Everyone's favorite villain that is awful at being a villain.
Alex: He's real bad at it. Like I-- [laughs]-- um, the Ice Cream-- "Ice Cream"...?
Nick: The Ice Cream!
Alex: The Ice Cream Parasocial.
Nick: Welcome to our podcast, The Ice Cream, and--
Alex: The Ice Cream-- Ice Cream Parasocial is very bad at being a villain. [laughs]
I started to say at being a podcast. I hope we're not that bad at being a podcast yet.
Nick: I mean, we're only at episode two, so we're kind of bad at being a podcast.
Alex: Yeah. Like it hasn't happened.
Nick: Episode two is always bad at being a podcast.
Alex: But, uh, but yeah, no, the Ice King , from Adventure Time, Simon Petrikov. I love, I love him so much. Cause like, talk about a fucking 2D villain that ended up becoming extremely 3D while also still managing to be extremely 2D.
Nick: Right.
Alex: Oh my gosh. Um, like the first few episodes where you start to kind of figure out like who he is. And like, his backstory are so interesting because I feel like a lot of the things that I think are so fascinating about him are sort of like, I don't know. It like really makes you think a lot about like personality, I guess, and just brains and what makes us... us.
Nick: Mhmm.
Alex: And just like the amount of times that people will have interactions with him , who know him as Simon and like knew him, before he was the Ice King, who kind of like want that from him. And like, he can't really give that to them. And it's like frustrating for everyone involved.
Nick: Right.
Alex: And it's just so like interesting to kind of see those interactions happen. And just kind of like... when I was watching through Adventure Time and a lot of these episodes, uh, for the first time, going into my tragic backstory ever so slightly--
Both: [Laughing]
Alex: Uh, just dealing with a lot of mental health stuff, for myself and for just like some people in my life, it really was like cathartic, I guess, uh, to just sort of see a character that felt so representational of just the sort of like, not knowing who someone very familiar is. And almost then coming back around to like, love the new person anyways.
Nick: Absolutely.
Alex: Which I think is something that I do really appreciate a lot about adventure time. Is that in the end, like, you know, it doesn't really end up with him, like going back and like becoming Simon, like it's just like, no, I, one of my favorite quotes that I wish I knew off the top of my head, but.
Towards the end of adventure time, one of the later like ice King episodes, there's something in there that's something like, "I'm the ice King and I'm worthy of love too." and it just really like hit because it's just like, you know, when I was watching through the first few episodes, where you like, kind of figure out his backstory, I remember having a lot of like, emotions about it and just the sort of like, Oh man, you know, like dealing with mental health and like kind of this loss of a sense of self, or like sense of like other people that I knew in my life.
Um, And just kind of being like, man, I really want to get that back. Like, it really sucks that that's gone forever. And then like kind of going through a bunch of emotional acts in my own personal tragic backstory TM, um, and then ending up as an adult watching like some of the finale episodes of adventure time and like seeing this little moment happen where he kind of gets away from this, like, you know, sort of like two dimensional, silly villain kind of thing that he does to just be like, Hey, no, like I'm a person also. And you can also like me, you know?
Nick: Right, absolutely.
Alex: I'm my own guy. [laughs]
It's something about that just really hit was just like, no, there's things to love about this too. I also just love on the surface, um, just with him, how much he just, wants affection and like how much that changed over the course of the series and how at the beginning it was very much like, Oh, it was like this creepy old man towards-
Nick: just stealing princesses.
Alex: [laughing] Yeah. Like just stealing princesses and then over the course of the series, just sort of becoming just like, he just wants some pals. He just wants friends.
Nick: Right, and
Alex: just
Nick: kind of figuring out that the companionship that he thought that he wanted with the princesses, he was able to find it in other places with just having friends.
Alex: Right.
Nick: I feel like that's something that people genuinely go through, is you know, thinking that they, really want this relationship, this romantic relationship with people, but, in reality, all they really want and need is like a couple of good friends, a couple of good pals.
Alex: [laughs] Right. And like, that's one of the things that I love a lot about adventure time too, is that I feel like it's a show that very much kind of grew with its audience. Um, and just kind of even using that as an example, and thinking about like, you know, when you're growing up and you're a preteen to like a young teenager and everything is about like, Oh, you gotta date.
And like, you have to find a partner, or something, um, partner feels like a weird term. Cause I started to say like boyfriend or girlfriend, but like, you know, gender neutral something, find someone to date, I guess. Um, and that's like the whole thing that you do, and then just kind of like growing up and being like, Oh, I can get this from other places. I feel like that's so much, like a lot of the tone in the show is just sort of like, just kind of growing up with the people that grew up with it, um, until I kinda came to a close and they did so many satisfying things, with the ice King in like the final season.
And I'm just like, man, if you haven't finished adventure time, then you should really finish adventure time. Cause it's amazing.
Nick: Right, I really want to go through and rewatch it now because-
Alex: Same!
Nick: I vaguely like, I, I know what you're saying and I know that I've like, I know that I've seen it and I know that I know the story, but like I don't have a whole lot to add because I it's been so long since I've seen it like to the point that I believe that if I watched it, it would be like the first time again,
Alex: No, yeah, same.
Nick: So I'm just like-
Alex: It's been a few years.
Nick: Yeah. I'm was just like, I should definitely rewatch that.
Alex: Yeah, like, I feel like that honestly just speaks to how much it hit me uh that this is like my one memory, like the one, my one brain cell is just clinging desperately to the ice King from like, I don't know, 2018 or whatever.
Nick: Absolutely.
Alex: [laughs] But yeah, that was one of my big boys that I really wanted to get to one of my cartoon boys. I'm realizing now how many of mine are very mental health oriented. [laughs]
Nick: Well, I mean, that makes sense. Like, I know that I kind of talked shit about people being defined by their jobs in the beginning, but your job is in mental health and like, [ laughs]
Alex: Yeah, like it's something that I'm passionate about and I feel like I would be passionate about, even if it weren't my job. Um, but yeah, and like, that's definitely a part of the lens that I used to look at media and it shows.
Nick: Right.
Alex: Because my other big boy that I really wanted to talk about today is, from a little show that I feel like doesn't get enough love, and it should get more
Nick: Nowhere near enough love.
Alex: It's amazing. Um, if you haven't watched Kipo on Netflix. I forget what the full title is. I always just call it Kipo
Nick: uh, Kipo and the age of wonder beasts?
Alex: I believe so. Yeah.
Nick: Something like that, but I mean, you can find it just by looking up Kipo. Nothing else is called Kipo.
Alex: Yeah. Like, um, it's a really, really, really good show, and it has a villain that actively made me mad when I started to like him.
Nick: Oh yeah. Same, and I knew, cause I watched it before you watched it. And then we were watching it together and I knew it was going to piss you off when you started to like him, because in the first, like half of the season, it was just very much like, yeah, fuck this guy. I want nothing to do with this guy. Get him off the show. I hate him so much, but I knew the twist that was coming and I was like, you are going to be so mad.
Alex: Get them out of my fucking sight.
Nick: Right. They're just like, Oh, this guy sucks. And I'm like little do you know, he sucks AND he has a tragic backstory.
Alex: Yes. And you're going to love him. [laughs]
Oh my gosh. Scarlemagne, I- oh my God. He also very much follows my theme of villains that I adore when they frustrate me, because they don't, um, know, how to be good. Or like when you, think that they're going to, uh, I know that there's like a term. A term for like, whatever the opposite of a heel turn is, but I don't, I guess like redemption arc.
But like, when you think they're going to have a redemption arc and then they kind of like psych you out with it.
Nick: Right. Because they just don't, you can like, see that they just don't comprehend.
Alex: Right. Like they're just not quite there yet. And like, that's something that they do with Zuko, I feel-
that's something they do with Zuko a few times that made me real mad every time, but I'm also glad that they did it. And it's something that they did with Scarlamagne that I was like, Oh my God, I can't believe that they're doing this. That's amazing. And then they [laughs] and then they faked us out and I was like, Yeah, that's fair. [laughs]
Nick: Right.
Alex: That makes sense, because it makes so much sense for his character. Um, just because so much of what goes on with him is very, again, like the tools that you're given to navigate the world are the ones that you use to navigate the world.
Nick: Absolutely. You know, and when it starts to get into his tragic backstory and right before it kind of shows why he starts thinking the way that he does it's so just, it's so sad because you get to watch him kind of have that mental break and that kind of mental shift of, you know, being really trusting of everything around him, to realizing that the only way that he's going to be able to survive in this world is by being a villain and by being a total asshole and, you know, and the way that the show does it by showing him years after being said asshole, it's just like, ah, man, like, why is he like that?
And then they show you why he's like that. And you're like, I mean-
[both laugh]
-fair that's fair, but I don't like it
Alex: [laughs] That is so true. Like, honestly, just the fact that like walking away from like the episode where you start to figure everything out and I'm just like, you know, a lot of the time I keep coming at things from, uh,
I really like going on the like, am I the asshole? subreddit and I just keep being like, everyone sucks here [laughs] you know, um, and it's just so wild with him, like how he was very much another person where it's like, he does a lot of really awful shit, but like, while he's doing it, you're still just like, no, yeah that's fair. [laughs]
Nick: Right. You know, I feel like it's not too much of a spoiler to say that, you know, he does start to really care for Kipo. She's the main character. And everybody loves her. Like, you know, he starts to really care for her and there's things that she asks of him that he genuinely tries to do. But he's been in this mindset for so long that he just can't.
Really, uh, he thinks that what he's doing is good and to us and, you know, to the other characters, it's so obvious that what he's doing is not good, but he genuinely thinks that he's showing affection at this point, because that's all the affection that he's known for the last like half or more of his life, you know?
Alex: Yeah. And like, it's so interesting with their relationship too, because it reminds me a lot of like the, um, uh, concept in like, Learning in psychology of have like assimilation and accommodation, um, well, where it's basically just like adapting the world around you to like fit your existing worldview when you get new information, versus adapting your worldview when given new information.
And I think that's so much of what makes the bait and switch like really like hit with that whole sequence is that you. I think that it's like, Oh yeah, you see the, you know, he knows that Kipo is good. And like, that means that he's like learned in that his worldview is changing and you know, it doesn't necessarily work like that off the bat, especially when you're dealing with somebody that has that much going on and has had to navigate the world that much with just like so much going against him, I guess, um, that then to see that it was more of a situation of just like, Oh no, this one person is good.
Nick: Right?
Alex: No, everyone else still sucks. But this one person is good. My love language is murder.
Both: [laugh]
Nick: God. I know that we are not popular enough to get somebody to animate a bit, but all I want is for somebodyto animate my love language is murder.
Alex: My love language is murder!
Nick: Like, somebody who's got like little heart eyes and then like they say murder, like a knife shows up. [both laugh] Oh, that would be so funny.
Alex: Oh my God. Just like, add that to like the five love languages.
Um, in order I'd say that I'm usually kind of a gift giver, but outside of that, I do, I do really like murder. [laughs]
Nick: Oh my God.
Alex: Oh, God. [ laughs]
Nick: All right. And this has been Ice Cream Parasocial! [laughs]
Alex: Do not read this in a court of law [laughs]
Nick: but do follow us on Twitter and Instagram @parasocialpod and on, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, uh, Ice Cream Parasocial, and hopefully soon I'll be able to tell you to give us a good rating on iTunes.
Alex: Yeah!
Nick: We'll see ya next week!
Alex: Please. Apple podcasts. Notice us. [both laugh] I'm begging you.
Nick: apple senpai notice me. [laughter, followed by outro song]
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Show and Tell pt 3
Read part 1 here
Read part 2 here
ok this is the last part. It’s a little longer. Please let me know what you think!!!!
Part 3
Y/n’s apartment wasn’t tiny, it wasn’t big by any means, but she’d had enough room for a few parties and it took more than three seconds to walk from her kitchen to the bathroom. But having spent every second of the past week closed off from the world...the walls had to be closing in, they just had to be.
Her phone was nearly as bare as when she’d first bought it, all traces of an online social life deleted during a midnight sob fest, along with the constant flow of texts from her family and friends who were concerned. She had a list of excuses for her boss for whenever she could will herself to step outside her door let alone go to work. And then the crying ensues once more when she remembers that all she needs to slap down on their desk is a copy of this week’s Cosmopolitan.
“Who is it?” Her voice cracked as she unraveled from the thick blanket Harry had given to her for Christmas, stepping lightly towards her door with an angry fist on the other side.
“Your favorite sister-in-law.”
“Oh, God,” y/n murmured to herself.
“I have ice cream!”
Gemma was in fact, equipped with the typical girl-to-the-rescue essentials, rocky road ice cream included among other teeth-rotting treats. All things Harry would hiss at with a smirk.
Fucking Harry. She’d made it fifteen seconds without his smug face behind her eyes.
“I’ve already tried making myself feel better with food.” Y/n kicked the door shut while Gemma situated the mound of junk food on her kitchen island. “Doesn’t. Work.”
“I know it’s no cure, but just think about how annoyed he’d get if he saw all this shit.”
Y/n’s lips curled into a smile for the first time in a long time. “All right, you got me.”
***
“Ugh, I hate when Ross is with Emily.”
“I know,” y/n gushed, biting off the end of a twizzler. “They were so wrong for each other from the beginning!”
“Speaking of…” Gemma started, sighing when y/n rolled her eyes. “You didn’t think I’d come over here and not ask, did you?”
“A girl can dream, can’t she?”
The bag of twizzlers was snatched out of y/n’s hand and Friends was paused on a commercial.
“What happened?”
Y/n peeked out from under her lashes, swallowing against her dry mouth. “What—he didn’t tell you?”
Gemma shook her head. “He hasn’t said much to us other than he’s pissed, and he’s never buying candles again, whatever the hell that means.”
“I’m not even sure how it got to this point. We were fine, at least I thought we were fine...now I’m wondering if things weren’t as okay as I’d imagined.”
Gemma nodded, biting her tongue so she wouldn’t push her into anything she wasn’t comfortable with sharing. “Sometimes we have to take a step back before we get a clear view of the picture. When you’re around someone so much, especially someone you do care for, it’s easy to miss those red flags popping up.”
“I want to say it’s all his fault…”
“But…”
“But I can’t. I’m not exactly innocent here, as much as I’d like to be.”
***
The fumes boiling inside Harry didn’t settle so easily. Every time he checked Twitter to mindlessly scroll through late at night, there was always something about him, or rather her. Speculations were running wild, and he couldn’t stop his brain from succumbing to the same question across all the headlines.
Are they broken up?
Did his fame scare her away?
Are they in love?
A cycle of fear and guilt coursed through him daily, topped off by the pit of anger that was never fully sated. Deep down he knew, he knew he’d have to point his finger at himself, he just wasn’t ready to. Not when he hadn’t heard her voice or seen her face in weeks.
“Sooo, Valentine’s Day.”
Harry moved the chicken around his plate, shrugging his shoulders. “What about it?”
“Come on,” Gemma scoffed. “It’s the national day of love. How perfect would it be if you two—”
“Stop. I didn’t agree to lunch to have this conversation. We’re fine.”
“Oh really?” Gemma raised a brow, abandoning her soup to cross her arms over her chest. “Then please explain to me why you’ve been nothing but a pouting baby—”
“I have not!”
His sister rolled her eyes, chuckling under her breath.
“I mean it.” He sighed, dropping his fork against the plate and digging his palms against his eyes. “Okay. I may have screwed up. But so did she.”
“Mhm.”
“She—you just don’t get it. I...ugh!”
Gemma clanked her spoon against the steaming bowl. “Sooo, Valentine’s Day.”
***
Their first date wasn’t iconic. There was no fancy dinner or sweet picnic by the lake. No hungry kisses under an unexpected rain or shy goodbyes at either’s doorstep. But as more and more dates were added, the first one was long forgotten, and often lied about when their family asked or the few friends who were included in on their relationship were begging to know where Harry took her.
Which is why Harry was begging the universe to let things play out differently this time.
He tightened his coat around his neck and breathed into his clasped hands before stuffing them into his pockets for whatever warmth they could provide. His nose was a bright red and his toes were numb, and if he recalls correctly, history was already repeating itself.
It wasn’t until y/n strode around the corner, all bundled up, with the hood of her coat draped over her head that his nerves kicked into high gear. Her skates hung over her arm and her breath swirled in a mini fog every few seconds. Her eyes were bright though, standing out amongst the generous snow that had appeared overnight.
“Hi.”
“Hey.” He bit his tongue to stop the pet names from slipping out. It was too soon. “I’m glad you came.”
She shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”
I can think of a few reasons…
“I’m just happy to see you. S’been a while.” He sucked in the cold air, letting it fill up his lungs before his next words. “A month and nine days.”
“Ten. A month and ten days.”
“Yeah, yeah s’what I meant.” He cleared his throat and picked up his skates, nodding over his shoulder. “Shall we go?”
Y/n nodded and followed him towards the frozen pond. They sat beside each other on a little bench and slipped their shoes off, their eyes casually drifting to the side, and apologies were exchanged when their elbows bumped together. Once they were ready they stepped onto the ice, slowly. Y/n turned to ask him if he was alright, but his bare hands caught her eye.
“Harry, your hands are gonna freeze!” Y/n ripped her gloves off and held them out, face scrunched up in concern as he stared down at her hands.
*
“You steady?”
“Yeah.” Her giggles were music to his ears, the reassurance he needed that this date was going well. She was happy. And he was on top of the world. “I haven’t gone ice skating in years.”
They found their rhythm, a few laps around the pond with nervous glances and shy smiles. It wasn’t until Harry’s confidence molded into cockyness that things started to go downhill.
“Can you go backwards?” He slid up beside her, holding back the urge to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“I’m lucky I can stand up!”
“It’s not too hard, look.”
Harry did manage to make it three feet before his balance started to cave. He caught himself, sparing the embarrassment he would have endured if he’d fallen on his ass.
“See?”
Y/n dug her teeth into her lip, shaking her head but decided to try anyway—after all, Harry was a klutz on land, if he could do it, so could she.
“Okay.”
“Just take it slow, like that! Good! You’re getting it!”
When she looked up she had the biggest smile on her face, the last one for the night that would be molded into his mind forever. Right as Harry was about to congratulate her, her skate slipped and her body lurched forward. She ended in a suspense of wobbly limbs, the desperate search for her stable balance when Harry’s hand shot out to steady her. But he was wearing his new gloves, the leather ones that came with a heavy price tag, the ones with no grip.
He managed to grab her arm only for his hand to slide down the length of her coat, and when he tried one last attempt to link their hands together the only thing he accomplished was hauling her to the ice. Her body flipped and her screams sent chills down his spine.
“Y/n!” He dropped to his knees, ignoring the cold and the burn. “Sweetheart, darling, I’m so sorry! You okay? Say something, please, love! Say you’re alright!”
When he helped sit her up the only thing coming out of her mouth were groans and mumbles about her head. Harry tore his blasted gloves off and reached behind, pressing his hand against the back of her head to feel for any kind of a bump, but what he felt was wet, and when he brought his hand back it was covered in a bright, red blood.
“Oh my God, oh my God! We gotta go, gonna take you to the hospital.”
“What?” She groaned. “Why? I just fell?”
“Wait here.” As fast as he could move he raced to get the shoes she’d left near his. Her skates were pulled off and replaced, then he helped her to her feet. “Come on, go slow, easy.”
“Is that blood?” She froze on the ice, eyes widening at his hand grasping her arm.
“Yeah, yeah, m’takin’ you in. You’re gonna be fine—”
“That’s not—that’s not from my head!” She reached her own hand back, yanking it before her worried eyes. “Oh my God!”
“You’re gonna be fine, sweetheart. But we gotta get you to a hospital.”
*
He shook his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. “No thanks, m’fine.”
“Harry, please, I think these will fit. They’re wool, they’ll stretch.”
“You need them.”
“I have more.” She pulled a second pair of gloves from the pocket inside her coat and slipped them on. “Now take these.”
He slowly slid the gloves over his hands, careful not to catch them on his rings. They stretched enough, it wasn’t a comfortable fit, but it kept the bite of winter air from stinging his skin.
“Thank you.”
She nodded and adjusted her hood before skating away. Harry kept his eye on her as she rounded the pond, once, twice, and then the third time she stopped a few feet away.
“Why aren’t you moving?”
He shrugged. “Don’t feel like it I guess.”
“But this was your idea?”
“Yeah, it was.” His head dropped to his chest, and the familiar shake of his shoulders had y/n skating up to him. “M’sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? We can leave—”
“I miss you. I miss you so fucking much.” His eyes were filled with tears ready to spill when he looked up. They were a bright, glassy green, with the flecks of burnt gold on full display.
*
“Your eyes…”
“What about ‘em, love?”
“They’re...green…”
Harry chuckled and pulled the bandage further up her head. “Get some rest, darling. Y’keep fidgeting, your gonna push the bandage off.”
“And gold…”
“What?” He laughed.
“There’s gold in there, I see it.”
The lights went out as the nurse pulled her cart out of the room, reminding Harry she’d be back in half an hour to check on y/n’s head.
“Why don’t you try to sleep.”
“I am asleep.”
“No, love, just a little relaxer y’got in there. Loopy, yes, how about you close your eyes, hm? M’not goin’ anywhere.”
She did as he asked and let her eyes drift shut, humming a soft melody as Harry pulled a chair up to her bed.
“Y/n, go to sleep.”
“S’your fault y’know?”
“I’m sorry, I’ll shut up now, okay?”
“No.” She shifted in the bed, kicking the blanket away and pulling it back up to her chin. “When I fell. Woulda landed on my hands if you hadn’t grabbed me.”
“I—I was tryin’ to help.” His voice was a choked whisper.
“Best first date ever.”
She drifted off after that, which Harry was thankful for, thankful for the thirty minutes he had to break down in the corner of the room before he had to pull himself together.
*
“It’s just too much, being here. Thought it’d be nice but, but it’s not. I’ve tried so hard to protect you, and I can’t,” he cried. “I hurt you no matter what.”
“Harry you can’t take all the blame.” Y/n sighed and tugged on his sleeve. “C’mon, let’s go sit down.”
They ended up in Harry’s car with the heat on full blast. His eyes had dried up but neither of them had uttered a word. Three songs had run their course, and once the fourth started, y/n hit the dash to silence the radio.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “I know you wanted to keep me safe...but I think things got out of hand. It wasn’t healthy...what we were doing.”
Harry’s eyes dropped down to the gloves resting in his lap. “We didn’t talk. I never knew how you were feeling...just assumed that keeping you hidden was how I could keep you happy.”
“I’m happy because I have you. You’re what makes me happy.” She reached her hand over the console and slipped her fingers between his, warding off the last of the cold. “I shouldn’t have outed us the way I did. I was angry, and hurt, and, I just wanted to have the upper hand. It always felt like you did...and I guess I wanted you to have a taste of losing it.”
“I never meant to control you like that.”
“I know, baby. I know you had good intentions.” She squeezed his hand, offering a small smile. “I should have spoke up,” she whispered. “It’s not fair that I expected you to read my mind.”
Harry’s shoulders relaxed back into the seat. He returned a broken smile and reached his hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “I still love you, y’know.”
“I love you too.” His cheeks were a bright red when she pressed her lips against them, traveling to his mouth where they spent a generous amount of time together.
“We have a lot of time to make up for.”
“A month and ten days,” Y/n hummed. A moment later her face twisted into concern. She ran her tongue over her lips before speaking. “We don’t have to go back out there, do we?”
Harry laughed, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Not if you don’t want to.”
“Did you really think it was a good idea to try and recreate our first date?”
Harry put the car in drive, keeping one hand intertwined with hers in her lap. “S’Gemma’s idea! Went on and on about Valentine’s Day!”
“Well I guess it worked.”
“We’ll have to let everyone know.”
***
hi thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought!!!
#i wasn't going to post this#i feel like its kind of a dud#the whole story i mean#but here we go#Harry Styles#harry styles writing
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College {G.D.}
Summary: Family weekend at her sister’s college doesn’t go quite as she expected it to but Y/N is unexpectedly and completely satisfied with the outcome.
A/N: This is just a random thought that came to my head and it kinda ~exploded~ lol. There isn’t going to be a part 2 and I’m not making this a series but I do plan on doing other imagines that you could say ‘go along’ with this (it doesn’t make sense right now but it will later on. lol.)
Warnings: cussing (???)
WC: 10.2k
masterlist
The ride to my older sister’s college didn't take as long as we expected. Mom and Dad finally took a weekend off from working at their busy law firm to make the drive to see Lindsey.
"We made a four-hour drive in just three and a half hours," my dad chuckles to himself, "impressive right, Jenny?"
"Sure Gregory." Mom replies with no emotion as she closes her laptop and slides it in the brown Michael Kors bag she always carries around. My dad has always been really laid back and goofy. He's a lawyer for the firm my family owns and my mom runs the whole place. He doesn't have near as much to worry about as her which makes her attitude towards this weekend pretty understandable.
I text my sister, Lindsey, letting her know we’re here and she confirms that she will meet us at the main building.
All three of us pile out of the car. I grab my rolling suit case and close the back of the Range Rover. I'm the only one that grabs a bag as I am staying with my sister in her dorm while our parents stay in a hotel.
We walk up to the main building and I see the banner that reads 'Welcome Family and Friends to Savannah College of Art and Design Family Weekend.'
Lindsey is attending SCAD for photography, as it has always been her passion. She's been taking pictures since she found our parents’ old polaroid when she was seven. She's now twenty and in her second year of college.
It's my senior year of high school and she has been trying to convince me to come here for college.
Art and design really isn't my thing, but when I tell her that, she still tries to push it.
"Mom! Dad! Y/N!" I hear a screech from an oh-so familiar voice.
"Sweetie! Hi! I've missed you so!" Mom exclaims as she pulls Lindsey into a tight hug. This is the first time all day I've seen her smile.
Not trying to be one of those daughters but I know Lindsey has always been Moms favorite. Dad never acted like he had a favorite though so it didn't bother me too much. He's always treated Lindsey and I as if we’re equal.
"Hey bear, you look beautiful as always." Dad says as he engulfs her in a hug as well.
"Thanks daddy," Lindsey starts as they pull apart then she looks at me, "and my favorite sister in the entire world!" She pulls me into a hug. "I've missed you the most," she whispers in my ear.
"You better have," I whisper back. She grabs my bag and rolls it for me. We follow her as she begins walking closer to the tall building in front of us. I catch up to her and walk by her side as Mom and Dad walk hand-in-hand behind us.
She explains what is what and what is where as we walk straight through the main building and out of the doors on the other side. We are now at the court yard of the school. She leads us down the sidewalk that makes a huge circle around the grassy area, with a few alternate paths to take. We go down one of the other ways and eventually make it to another set of doors.
"This is my building. It's so much nicer than the one I lived in last year."
"Well honey, we told you we would have paid for you to live in an apartment." Mom chimes in.
"Yeah but what fun would that have been? I came to experience college. Plus, I survived." We get to the elevator and she presses the button for the sixth floor. That seems to be the highest you can go considering it is the highest number next to any of the buttons. We finally make it to the top and Lindsey's "front door" is only three doors down from the elevator.
Convenient.
She opens the door and we are immediately in the kitchen. It's small but has all of the appliances a regular kitchen would have.
There's a small bar with two barstools and then directly after you pass that is the living room area. It has two small couches, a coffee table, and a flat screen T.V. mounted on the wall. The decorations are adorable but not the way I would decorate. It's simple but artsy– as it should be considering Lindsey and her roommate are enrolled in an art school.
"Do you like your roommate? Is she nice? Do we need to get you your own apartment to live in?" Mom bombards Lindsey with questions.
"No Mom I swear I do not want to live in an apartment. You can stop asking now." And with that my mom stops talking. Lindsey puts my bag in her room and Mom sets her laptop up on the bar and takes a seat on one of the stools.
"Really Jenny? We just got here. Don't you want to spend some time with Lindsey before getting on that thing?"
"Business doesn't take breaks, Gregory." That has always been something she has said since I was little. Lindsey just rolls her eyes and begins to tell us about her recent photography project she's been working on for class.
Not even a minute into her story, the door swings open and a girl with long brown hair walks in with five other people behind her. I assume this is my sister’s roommate and her family.
"Hey Linds!" the dark haired girl yells as her and her followers gather into the kitchen and close the door.
"Cam! You're back sooner than I thought you'd be. Mom, Dad, Y/N, this is my roommate, Cameron, and her family."
"It's so nice to meet you all! I've heard so much about you Y/N! This is my mom, Lisa, dad, Sean, brothers, Ethan and Grayson, and Ethan's girlfriend, Blair." Everyone mingles and I take a seat on the couch and look at my phone for the first time since I got here.
I have multiple notifications from snapchat, Instagram, and twitter but the few notifications I wish weren’t there are the texts from my ex-boyfriend.
- - -
Micah
Y/N i am sorry. idk how else to make it up to you. it meant nothing forgive me please.
hello?
real mature Y/N. stop ignoring me we aren't 5.
answer me please.
REALLY FUCKING IMMATURE THANK GOD I CHEATED ON YOUR ASS Y/N YOU DONT DESERVE ME ANYWAYS.
- - -
"Hey are you ok?" I look up to one of the boys Cameron introduced as her brother. The other one and the girl come over to me as well. They look alike so it’s kind of hard to tell who is who.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine!"
"You looked a little upset," the other guy says and the girl grabs his hand. I assume that is Ethan considering Cameron said that's his girlfriend.
"I swear, I'm fine!" I say with a smile. I really am fine. Micah cheated on me two months ago. It bothered me at the time because I thought we loved each other, but I quickly realized that wasn't love.
"I'm Grayson," the guy who asked me if I was ok first speaks up, "this is my twin brother Ethan and his girlfriend Blair."
"Yeah she knows that dude. Cam already told her." Ethan smacks the back of his head then sits with Blair on the opposite couch. Grayson shrugs off his brother’s slap and plops down on the coffee table in front of me.
"So, where are you from?" Grayson asks.
"A small town right outside of Atlanta. It's only about a four-hour drive from here," I pause for a second as they took that in, "unless you drive like my dad, you can make it in about three and a half hours."
"That's crazy. We're from New Jersey and that's a twelve-hour drive." Ethan starts.
"And that's why we fly." Grayson says giving Ethan a look. "We love our sister but we couldn't do a twelve-hour road trip with our parents." He whispers the last part I assume not to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Blair gets up to go to the bathroom and Ethan walks into the kitchen to get a drink. Grayson stays sitting in front of me and I'm perfectly fine with that. He's not exactly an eye sore.
We continue to ask about each other and I find out him and Ethan are seventeen like me.
"Alright, so Lisa, Sean, Dad, and I are going to take Lindsey and Cameron out for a late dinner. We're going in their rental car since it's bigger so here's the keys to our car. Be careful if you four go anywhere." My mom says as she leans over the couch from behind and hands me the keys.
They all leave and we are all alone in Cameron and Lindsey's apartment.
"So what do y'all want to do?" I ask.
"Well," Grayson looks down at his phone to check the time, "it's only almost eight and the sun sets at nine so we can ride to Tybee Island and watch it set on the beach?"
"Yes good idea!" Blair jumps up off the couch, clapping her hands.
"That's fine let me go change really quick then we can go!" I say as I fast walk to Lindsey's room and shut the door behind me. I take off my t-shirt and Nike shorts and slide into my high wasted jean shorts and a plain, black tank top. I walk out of the room and grab the car keys and my phone off the couch where I was previously sitting and make my way towards the door. The twins and Blair follow closely behind.
The car ride to Tybee Island was about a thirty-minute drive from the college. That gave us just enough time to walk a little way down the beach and find a spot to watch the sun set.
"Babe, let's go watch down here so it's not awkward for new girl when we're making out." Blair says with a sneer. Ethan looked at me with sorry eyes but I assume she didn't mean it in a bad way considering she doesn't really know me. He then looked at Grayson as if he needed approval.
"It's fine dude. Go ahead. Y/N's cool I like hanging out with her. Just meet at the car around 9:45 to 10." Ethan nods with a smile and walks off with Blair– after she rolls her eyes at me that is. Grayson and I sit there for a minute before he speaks up.
"I'm really sorry about Blair."
"Why are you sorry?" I lightly laugh
"I don't know she's always just been very protective of E and me. I used to date her best friend and she started dating Ethan not too long after." He picked up the sand between his legs and watched it fall as he spoke softly. "Brooke and I broke up about six months ago and I haven't talked to her since. But, of course, Blair has been around and Brooke's been with her. It wasn't a bad break up or anything, I just wasn't feeling it with her. It's like she took the fame to her head and I wasn't dating the same person anymore."
"What is she famous for?" I ask, almost wishing I didn't. Grayson took a good 30 seconds to answer so I thought I said something wrong. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"No you're fine," he chuckles, "she's not famous for anything but dating me." I give him a confused look because I genuinely do not know what he means. "I mean I guess 'fame' wasn't the right word. More like the attention got to her head." I think he realizes that I'm still confused so he continues talking. "I'm Grayson Dolan."
"I mean I know you're Grayson," I pause, not wanting to offend him in any way, "but I don't know why she would get so much attention from dating you."
"Oh gosh," he laughs, "you really don't know who Ethan and I are, do you?" I shake my head and give him an apologetic look. "We make videos on YouTube."
"Oh!" I smile, finally realizing who he is, "You're one of the Dolan Twins other people talk about in their videos!"
"Bingo!" he smiles.
"Yeah I've heard of y'all I don’t know why it didn’t click before. I'm sorry I haven't watched any videos, I mostly only watch Colleen/Miranda, Shane Dawson, and Vlog Squad." I look out at the ocean in front of me, kind of too embarrassed to look at him.
"It's fine I promise. Just sounds like you have to get to know me in person and not over the internet." I feel him smiling at me then I smile down into the sand.
"Sounds good to me." We talk more about our families, friends, school, and life as the sun sets in front of us. He tells me more about Brooke and how she has tried to reach out to him but he's not interested.
"But yeah, about Blair, just ignore her. Really I wish Ethan would just break up with her." I give him a questioning look and he continues. "She used to not be bad. The four of us always hung out and it was fun. But after the break up, she's changed a lot. It's like any girl that's around, she has to let them know that she's dating Ethan then intimidates them into thinking they can't date me. Then she complains about everything and-" he stops and looks at me, "I'm sorry I'm just talking your ear off about her and I swear I'm not this negative of a person."
"It is perfectly fine I swear to you. If you need to let off some steam go right ahead, I'm here to listen."
He thinks for a minute then starts again, "it's just been a long trip with her. We left LA Wednesday to get to Jersey then flew out here this morning. The things she does and says make us look bad and we aren't those types of guys."
"Well, you've made a pretty good impression on me so far and she hasn't had any influence on that." I smile at him and I see him blush a little but he quickly looks back down. The sun is almost gone, as if it sunk into the ocean. It's darker and a few degrees cooler. Now I'm regretting the tank top and shorts.
"Ya know, if I had a jacket, I'd totally give it to you." He moves closer to me and I start to smell his scent. He puts his left arm over my shoulders and wraps his right arm around the front of me, holding his own hands to keep us together.
Normally, if this were anyone else, under any other circumstances, I'd push them away.
With Grayson, it just feels right. I'm not sure what this is to him, or if I will even speak to him after this weekend, but for some reason I just let it happen.
I've never been known as one of those girls who just give it up so easily. Micah was the only guy I ever had sex with and if I could take that back, I would.
But like I said before, I thought I loved him. I thought we would be together forever and I thought we were each other’s one and only. Obviously, I was wrong and I’m so glad I was.
My thoughts are interrupted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I automatically assume it's my mom wondering where we are so I just answer it.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Why have you been ignoring my texts?" That is not my mom’s voice. I feel my face get hot and I knew it was red with anger. My lips clinch together as I hold in the words I've been wanting to say to him. "Hello? Y/N?" I keep quiet as I try not to let this work me up too badly. I haven't heard his voice since the day I caught him in bed with some girl in his dorm room.
Imagine driving an hour away to surprise your boyfriend at college and walking in on him and some girl doing it.
I hope he got an STD.
I hang up the phone and place it in my back pocket as I stand up. "We should probably get back. Mom and Dad still have to get a hotel for the night so they'll need the car."
"That's fine. Also, I uh- I'm sorry about the whole arm thing just then." Grayson says as we walk back towards the car. I smile at him but I know he can't see me because of how dark it is from the sun completely disappearing.
"It's fine, I promise." I wrap an arm around his waist and he drapes his over my shoulders. We walk like this until we reach the car and part our ways to the opposite sides.
"Finally," Blair scoffs towards me, "you said 9:45."
"I said 9:45 to 10, Blair. It's 9:55." Grayson defends. If I didn't know how Blair was, I'd think Grayson was just being a total douchebag to his brother’s girlfriend. But because of what he told me, I know he's just retaliating her snide remarks.
I keep my mouth shut and unlock the car. I hop in the driver’s seat and Grayson gets in the passenger side. Ethan opens the back door for Blair and I can't help but admire how gentlemen-like he is.
We ride for about 15 minutes with no sound but the radio. I'm too scared to say a word because I don't want Blair to say anything out of the way to me. Seconds later, the radio is interrupted by a phone call. It's my phone ringing through bluetooth and I automatically decline as soon as I see it's Micah.
"Is that who was on the phone at the beach?" Grayson questions. I quietly nod. "Is he your boyfriend?"
"Ex," I quickly say, "I don't have a boyfriend." In my peripherals I see Grayson nod his head and slowly look out the window with a smirk on his face.
"Gray isn't single are you, Gray?" Blair suddenly states from the middle of us two. Before he has time to answer her she continues, "him and my best friend Brooke have had a thing for years! They broke up six months ago but I know for a fact they're getting back together."
"And what facts are those, Blair?" He adjusts himself in his seat so he can look at her face-to-face.
"I just know. I predicted you two would be together and I’m predicting now that it will happen again."
"Those aren't facts," I hear myself say. "Did I say that out loud?" Blair seems taken aback and Grayson and Ethan snicker.
Honestly, at first I wasn't sure if what Blair was saying was true. I mean, it shouldn't mean anything to me anyways but I already had such a good impression of Grayson so far, I didn't want to have to think he was a liar. But since her "facts" weren't so much of facts, I start to realize what Grayson meant by her making them look bad.
We finally make it back to the visitor parking lot at SCAD without hearing another word from Blair. Ethan and her get out quick and are out of sight before I even get my seat belt off.
"Did I say something wrong?" I laugh, referring to Blair’s sudden disappearance.
"Not even close. Everything she says is wrong so don't sweat it." Grayson chuckles a little, "you are, although, the first person to say something smart back to her. Props to you Y/N." We laugh for a second together then start getting out of the car. "I am single by the way. Just want you to know that." I smile at him through the car, as we are standing on either side we just slid out of.
“Good to know.” I smirk and close my door. He does the same right after. We walk around the tall building since it locks at a certain time every night.
The walk is silent but comfortable. Grayson is super sweet and I'm really growing to like him as a person. We reach the building our sisters live in and take the elevator to the top. When we walk in, everyone in our families are sitting in the living room and Blair on her phone at the bar.
"Alright, I think it's time we head on out." My dad says and Mom grabs her things.
"Us too. Lots of activities tomorrow." Lisa speaks up. Grayson and Ethan follow their parents out and Blair doesn't move. I assume she's staying the night with Cameron.
Mom and Dad hug Lindsey and I and say their goodnights. They let us know we need to be ready by eight in the morning so that we don't waste the day. I'm not sure what they have planned, but knowing Mom, it will be a lot.
Lindsey and I settle in her room after we both have showered and got ready for bed. She looks down at her phone and squeals a little. "What?" I question.
"Nothing." She quickly looks up with a straight face. I let it go because I'm too exhausted to try and figure her out– trust me, it's a long process to get something out of Lindsey. "So, what's new? Love life? Any cute boys you've met lately?" I see where she's getting at with this but it's literally not even what she thinks.
"Linds, I talk to you every day. You stay updated on everything in my life. What could you possibly not know about me?" She gives me a 'bitch-the-fuck' look and I laugh.
"Come on, Y/N. How do you feel about Grayson?"
"Grayson who?"
"Y/N!" She hits me with a pillow and I quickly hit her back before getting comfortable again.
"I don't know," I begin and play with my fingers, "I mean I only just met him and I'm super nervous about ever trying anything with a guy again because of what happened with Micah. But I can tell, just from talking to Grayson, that he is nothing like all the other guys I've met. He's also not very hard on the eyes." I smile down into my lap, looking at my fingers.
I hear a laugh and quickly look up towards the door where it came from. "Oh cute, new girl has a crush on our Gray. How... sweet." She pauses. "Did I say sweet? I mean pathetic." It's Blair and she has her phone up as if she's recording the whole thing.
In fact, I know she is recording because I hear the beep after she stops the recording. "And that's going straight to Grayson and Ethan. Consider us even for you back talking me in the car. Don't cross me, boo."
Lindsey stands up but I quickly pull her back down on the bed. "Leave it alone Linds, it's not worth the drama. Just let her have it." She surprisingly listens to me and I assume it's because she's matured so much since she's been here. I can still tell she wants to swing at the little blonde and I don't put it past her that she will beat her down.
"I just came to see if one of you had lotion but I can just go ask Cam since you gave me enough Y/N." And with that she walks out of Lindsey's room, slamming the door shut behind her. My phone vibrates and I dread looking at it because I just had a deep feeling it was Micah. Luckily, I was wrong but I saw it was a number I didn't have saved. I unlocked my phone and went to my messages to see the text.
- - -
Unknown
hey gorgeous, this is grayson. i hope you don't mind but i got cam to ask lindsey for your phone number. i had a really great time hanging out today and I hope we get the chance to do it again tomorrow. goodnight pretty girl, sleep good.
Me
i had a lot of fun too! thank you for everything! goodnight!
- - -
I don't say much because I didn't know what he was going to think after he saw the video. But his text did make me feel butterflies over and over whenever I read it. I put my phone down and tell my sister goodnight. She sets an alarm for us to wake up early enough to get ready and I pass out the second she turns out the light.
My parents arrive to get Lindsey and me before Cameron and Blair even wake up. I’m very grateful for that because I do not want to run into any of the Dolan's or Blair.
I assume she has already sent the video and I'm sure she will say something in front of everyone if they're around.
My family and I explore around campus most of the morning and Lindsey shows us some of her favorite spots to study and hang out.
We take a break from walking at a small coffee shop. Mom sets up her laptop, of course, and the rest of us sit around her sipping our drinks. I got a mocha iced coffee as it's the only coffee I really like. I've never been obsessed like a lot of people are.
"It's 10 now," Dad says as he looks at his watch, "and we told Sean and Lisa we'd all meet for lunch at 11:30." I feel my face get hot and I automatically feel like I'm going to throw up. I try to come up with an excuse as to why I won't be able to go to lunch but I know it's a lost cause. Mom and Dad will make me go and I'll end up having to face the Dolans back at Lindsey's dorm anyways.
Once I realize I won't be able to completely avoid Cameron's family, I accept the fact I will be seeing them at lunch.
I excuse myself and go to the bathroom. I study my outfit in the mirror. I adjust my maroon, flowy tank top and look down at my holy skinny jeans. My white converses look sad as they don't look near as white as they were the day I got them. I hear the door swing open and quickly see the familiar face of my sister.
"Are you ok?" She asks softly and rubs my back.
"Yeah, just not very excited about lunch."
She nods her head because she knows it's because of Blair. "Has Grayson texted you?" Her face grows a huge smile and mine shows a small one.
"I mean he texted me last night but I left my phone at your dorm so I don't know if he's texted me any today."
"I figured you didn't have your phone because I texted you a few times about Mom today and you never replied." She laughs then checks her makeup. "But lunch should be fine. You know I'm here for you if anyone has something to say." I hug her then we walk back out to our parents. We end up staying here for about another thirty minutes then head back to Lindsey's dorm so she can turn in a paper really quick. She already had it written she just needed to submit it.
"I'm sorry guys, I totally forgot about it because of everything that was going on yesterday and today. But it isn't considered late until 11:59 pm tonight." Lindsey says as she unlocks her front door.
I hold my breath and just pray Cameron and everyone else isn't here. Luckily, they aren't. I half jog into my sister’s room and grab my phone and get it out of the night stand I hid it in.
I have twelve missed calls from Micah and eight unread texts from him. I skim over them quickly and delete after I read them. They basically were just more apologies and cussing me out for not replying.
I look at the few Lindsey had sent me about mom before she knew I didn't have my phone and I chuckled.
I have a few from the group message with my friends but I ignore those and look at the last one I have.
- - -
Grayson Dolan
sucks we missed each other this morning. see you at lunch! :)
- - -
I smile at the text and start to type a reply. I remember the video and how he probably hadn't seen it yet when he texted me this so I delete the text, slide my phone in my back pocket, and walk into the living room.
"I guess we should go ahead and get to lunch with Sean, Lisa, and their family." Dad suggests.
"They want to meet at a sea food restaurant on the island so that's probably a good idea, Gregory." Mom confirms.
"Hi! Just four?" The hostess asks my family as we walk in through the double doors of the restaurant.
"We're actually meeting another family here." Mom corrects her.
"Oh yea! They're already seated. Follow me right this way." I feel my heart racing as we get closer to the large table. Mom and Dad sit on one end with Sean and Lisa. Ethan is sitting at the end of the table, Lindsey takes a seat beside Cameron, and I take the only available seat which happens to be beside Grayson. Blair, however, is missing and there are no extra chairs left.
Where is she?
I keep silent for the most part. I only speak when I order and when I’m spoken to. Towards the end of lunch, Mom gets a phone call so she excuses herself from the table. I roll my eyes as she walks away and I guess Ethan notices. He giggles and I look up to him and Grayson staring at me.
"What was that for?" He asks.
I look down the table and Dad is deep in conversation so I proceed to explain. "She's just always done that. No matter where we are or who we're with, work always comes first. It just gets old after a while." I look back down at my shrimp and take another bite.
"When I graduated high school, she missed me walking across the stage and getting my diploma because something came up with work." Lindsey adds. The boys and Cameron give us apologetic looks.
"She's not a bad mom though," I reassure them, "we never go without and we kind of like that she doesn't hover."
"That's good!" Cameron exclaims.
"Alright guys, I'm sorry to be the one who asks," Lindsey starts and puts her fork down, "but where's Blair?" Cameron snorts and Grayson rolls his eyes. I listen closely because I've honestly been wondering the same thing.
Grayson speaks up first and it takes me off guard for a second. "She sent us some video last night in a group chat and it was just very disgusting. The way she talked about Y/N and made those remarks was way out of line. And the fact she sent it to us because she thought we would find it funny shows she doesn't know us like we thought she did."
"So I broke up with her. We took her to the airport this morning around 10." Ethan adds and looks in my direction. I’m unable to keep eye contact so I look down in my lap for the hundredth time this meal. I feel Grayson's body turn towards me.
"I'm really sorry for the way she acted, Y/N. I hope you don't hate us." I lift my head and smile. Ethan and Grayson are both smiling and it makes me feel a whole lot better.
Now I feel super bad about not texting Grayson back.
After everyone is done eating, it is almost one o'clock. Our parents decided for us all to stick together for the rest of the afternoon.
We end up going back to Savannah and exploring downtown on River Street. It has tons of shops. That's my favorite thing to do– SHOP!
The parents head to a pub and get some drinks. The five of us walk together. We go into a bunch of candy shops and souvenir places. We find a boutique and I basically fall in love with all the clothes.
"Ethan, come with me and Linds to this candy shop down here and Grayson stay with Y/N in the boutique." They both agree with their sister and I grab the last few shirts I want to try on and I head to the dressing room.
"I'm really sorry, I'll be quick!" I say to Grayson as he sits in a chair outside of my door.
"It's really fine. Take your time beautiful." He smiles at me and I get major butterflies in my stomach.
My phone vibrates and I quickly check it before I start changing.
- - -
Lindsey
ur welcome ;)
- - -
I quietly laugh at my phone then put it down.
Once I'm done checking out, Grayson and I walk across the road to the river. I lean on the railing and look into the water. Grayson does the same. "I really want to apologize again for Blair."
"You can stop apologizing! I swear it's ok." I giggle, placing my hand on his shoulder for reassurance. This is probably the thirteenth time he's said sorry since we talked about it at lunch but I know he just feels bad. "I know what she said didn't come out of your mouth."
"Yeah but she was part of our group and what she says to people represents us. Ethan and I have built our whole fandom around positivity and believing they should put positivity into everything they do. Having her around was just putting us two steps backwards. Thankfully, E broke it off before any of our fans saw it."
"You guys are pretty amazing." I turn to him more and smile, “And I don’t say that about just anyone!”
"But I'm more amazing than Ethan, right?" Grayson giggles a little and I just give him a look. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Ya know," I begin to say, pausing considering if I should even say it at all, "right here, with you, is the happiest I've been in a long time."
Grayson moves closer to me, wrapping me into a hug. My bare arms rub against his t-shirt and my bag from the boutique hits him in his butt.
"Woah there princess, take me out to dinner first." I squeeze him a little tighter, "I'm pretty happy here with you too Y/N." We both let go and he looks in my eyes, looks down at my lips then quickly back into my eyes. His face gets closer to mine and just as I can feel him breathing and I think he's about to kiss me…
"Oh my gosh it's Grayson Dolan!" I hear a screech. We both pull away and look in the direction of the voice.
"Grayson!"
"Gray where's Ethan?"
He's bombarded with questions and cameras in his face. He looks back at me and I give him a huge smile, letting him know it’s ok. This is his life and I'm honestly just some girl he met yesterday. Who am I to be the one who denies his supporters the opportunity to talk to him face-to-face?
If this were thirteen-year-old me and Grayson was Justin Bieber, I would have fainted on the ground– so I understand how they're acting.
Grayson takes a few pictures and answers their questions.
"Are you here visiting Cam?"
"Yes actually!" He replies.
"When are you going back to LA?" A different girl asks.
"Wednesday. Going back to New Jersey tomorrow."
"Where's Eteeweetee?" Another girl again. I assume she means Ethan.
"Somewhere around here. I'm not sure."
"Is she your girlfriend?" He doesn't reply to this one. I don't blame him but he could've just said no. I wouldn't have been offended.
"Alright everyone we got to go. It was nice meeting you all. I love you!" He grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers, and begins pulling me through the sea of girls.
We see Ethan, Cameron, and Lindsey a little ways ahead of us. Once we're out of the crowd, I notice Grayson is still holding my hand. I don't do anything about it though because I'd be crazy to.
He's super sweet and super cute and honestly I hope this isn't just something that only lasts this weekend.
"We met Mom and Dad and they gave us the keys to the car so we can get back to the dorm. They're going to stay down here for a little while." Lindsey says waving the keys in our faces.
Great timing because some of the girls started swarming again when they saw Ethan was here too.
"Let's go amigos!" Cameron says as she skips ahead of us.
"So do you think I'm going to be able to see you again? Ya know, after this weekend is over?" Grayson asks me, breaking the silence between us. We have been sitting in the patio chairs on the balcony of our sisters’ dorm, overlooking the courtyard and the college students bustling below us, for about an hour now. Ethan, Lindsey, and Cameron are inside watching some movie Grayson and I have no interest in.
"Well," I begin to answer Grayson's question, "really that is up to you." I take a sip of my drink and sit it back down on the table between us. I look over at him through my Ray Bans and smile as I study his confused face. "I mean I would love to see you again, but you have to want that too for it to happen." I keep my smile to let him think I was just messing around with him. In reality I am actually trying to figure out what this is and how he feels.
Not that I'm trying to jump into another relationship of any kind but somehow, after these past twenty-four hours, I've grown to really like Grayson. I could see him as a potential boyfriend, yes, but he also lives on the other side of the country most of his time and when he's home, he's still not very close. Regardless, I know for sure I want him in my life even if it's just as a friend.
"You know what Y/N?" Grayson asks as he sits up from his chair and grabs my hand that is draped on the arm rest of my seat.
He intertwines our fingers the way he did earlier in the day.
"What's that Gray?"
"I would love to see you again, too." He kisses the back of my hand and gives me a big cheesy smile. I can’t help but return the cheesy smile too but then I look back out over the courtyard to try to hide my face turning red. That fails though since Grayson continues to stare at me.
"Guys! Check out twitter!" Ethan says running out of the sliding glass door and shutting it back.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Just look!" Ethan replies, still not looking up from his phone. I stand up from my chair and walk inside to grab my phone.
Cameron and Lindsey are nowhere in sight. I pick up my phone and have a texts in a group message from Lindsey.
- - -
Lindsey
cam and I went to get the parents! be back l8r.
Cameron Dolan
Y/N is in charge E & Gray
Ethan Dolan
that's lame
Me
h8rs gonna h8 ;)
Lindsey
truuuuuuue
- - -
I grab Grayson's phone as well since it’s sitting beside mine and walk back to where the boys were. Ethan had taken my seat so Grayson pats his leg indicating for me to sit in his lap– so I do.
I sit on his right leg and drape my legs across his left. I hand him his phone and we both go to our twitter apps as if it is choreographed. I first notice that I have a billion new notifications. Then I notice my followers.
"Woah. I had six-hundred followers this morning. Now I have two-hundred thousand?" I’m shocked for obvious reasons. I mean it's not like I have any media that would go viral so why would I be getting so many followers?
"Our fans should be private investigators." Ethan chuckles, "We haven't posted anything with Y/N or followed her on any social media so it's crazy that they had found her so easily!"
Grayson stays silent as we all scrolled through our twitter.
"Should I be worried?" I ask as I turn my phone towards Grayson and then Ethan, showing them one of the tweets I was tagged in.
@DolanStan321 not to be a party pooper but uhhh good luck to @Y/T/N if she is dating gray. this fandom is hard to get along with.
Grayson's jaw clinches when he reads the words of his fan, and I begin to worry a little.
"Are you gonna tweet something, bro?" Ethan asks.
"Should I?" Grayson questions back. Ethan just shrugged as his response. I stay quiet and continue to stare at my phone–except I’m not on twitter. I’m texting my friends from back home about my current situation since they are blowing up my phone. "It just sucks that I can't have a friend without them assuming things."
Friend.
For some reason that word hurts a little bit... even though that is exactly what I am to him.
Nothing more.
Don't get me wrong, if all Grayson is and ever will be to me is a friend, I'll take it. He's too precious of a human being to be picky about where he's placed in your life.
"Y/N, go retweet my tweet so the people know." Grayson suggests. I nod my head and click on his name from one of the billion tweets we're both tagged in together.
@GraysonDolan Y/N and I are not dating... as of right now.
Boys are so confusing. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
If I'm confused about it right now, I'm sure his fans are as well. But, maybe that's what he wants. He wants them to wonder.
I retweet and like the tweet as I was told and lock my phone.
"Well, in other news. Cam said I'm in charge so I say we go get FroYo!" I stand up from Grayson's lap and start walking in the living room area. The boys follow behind as they agree with my idea. "let me go potty first though." I chuckle then rush to my sister’s bathroom.
I check my face out in the mirror as I'm washing my hands and decide I look fine to go out in public like this. My all black Nike shorts and oversized t-shirt go fine with my 'I-kinda-just-do-not-care' look.
I walk out of the bathroom, turning off the light but slow myself down when I hear talking from the living room. I know I shouldn't eavesdrop but I couldn't help myself.
"E, I know it's crazy but I really like her already. It's weird I know and it will be hard to make it work but I've never been so willing to try with someone." I feel a smile come across my face as I listen to the words I know are coming from Grayson's mouth.
"I can definitely tell, bro. You know I support you in anything you do, bro. I think you should go for it if you really like her."
"I've never felt this way about anyone. Not even Brooke. How do I tell her?"
"That I'm going to let you figure out for yourself." Ethan states with a sigh, "But we leave in the morning to go back to Jersey so just remember that."
I decide to walk out since I had been standing here a little too long. "You guys ready to go?" Grayson stands up off the couch and walks to me.
"Yes ma'am!" He says as he randomly pulls me into a huge hug. I hug him back and feel myself smiling as his scent fills my nose.
Ethan's phone starts to ring, killing the mood a little bit. "It's Blair." he says with no emotion. Grayson and I look at each other and then at his brother. "Should I answer?" he asks.
"Whatever you do, I support you, bro." I smile as I think about the fact Ethan said this to him moments ago.
I love their relationship.
"I'm going to then just to make sure she made it back ok. You two go ahead, I'll catch up later."
Grayson shrugs and waves at his brother since he is now on the phone with Blair.
"Well, let's go I guess." Grayson shrugs. We walk to the elevator and wait in silence for the doors to separate. We get in and it is still silent and the doors open at another floor.
Grayson pulls me closer to him to make room for the two girls who are getting on. He moves me in front of him and wraps his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on my head. Gray and I are still silent but we hear the girls whispering.
"Yeah I think that is him. He has the earring." Is the only thing I can understand from what they’re saying. I don't turn to them and neither does Grayson. Then, I hear the sound of a camera. That's when I feel Grayson's body move away from mine and turn towards the girls.
"Oh my gosh we are so sorry!" The blonde girl says. She sounds kind of scared but I'm not sure why. I turn and watch what Grayson is doing.
"What's your names?" He asks them politely.
"I'm Katie and this is Ellie." The brunette says and points to her blonde friend.
"We are huge fans!"
"Yeah, like, huge!" Katie adds.
"Well, would you like pictures?" Grayson asks them.
"OH MY GOD YES PLEASE!" Katie screams.
The girls take pictures of each other with Grayson and I just stand there watching. I smile knowing this is making their whole day.
"Can we get a picture with you, Y/N?" Ellie asks. I'm a little taken aback but I nod my head and the girls take their pictures.
Finally, the elevator opens and Grayson grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers for the third time today, and pulling me out with him.
The girls follow closely behind. "It was very nice to meet you two!" Grayson says while we walk away and we both wave. Thankfully, they take his subtle hint and don't follow any longer.
The FroYo place isn't far from the dorm so Grayson and I walk. He keeps my hand held tight and I can’t stop smiling. It’s getting pretty dark, thankfully, so he can't see how giddy I am at the moment.
"I kind of feel bad for Ethan honestly." Grayson says out of nowhere.
"What do you mean?"
"I told him I support him, and I do, but he's going to want to get back together with Blair. He doesn't need to be with her." He paused for a second then continues with his thoughts, "she just makes us look bad but I know he loves her and he’s stuck on who she used to be.” I nod my head.
"Micah, my ex who called over and over again last night, was bad for me too. It took a lot for me to realize it but I was never in love with him like I thought I was." I feel his stare on me. It’s like he wanted me to keep explaining without actually asking me to explain. "Like I said, I thought I loved him but he was just very abusive to me verbally. I didn't realize I didn't deserve to be treated that way. Well, I drove over an hour to his college to surprise him and caught in bed with some other girl." Grayson's grip on my hand gets tighter as if he felt bad for me. "I was upset for about a week but then I was over him. I mean being with someone you 'love' for so long and then a week after it's over, just not feeling anything anymore. He was someone I gave my everything to. My time, my effort, my-”
"Virginity?" Grayson interrupts. I think it’s a little odd that he so openly said this but I really don't mind.
"Yeah, that too." I chuckle out. He doesn't say anything else but gives me that ‘please-keep-explaining’ stare again. So I do.
"Long story short, I gave this guy so much, thought I loved him, then I was over him before I could even blink. I've always been told that you have that first person who shows you how not to love and for me, that person was Micah." Grayson smiles at me and opens the door for me as we reached the FroYo building. "So," I continue as we take our spot in line, "maybe that's what Blair is for Ethan. That person who shows him how not to love. Sadly, he’s going to have to learn that himself."
Grayson nods in agreement, "I sure hope you're right Y/N."
We grab our separate bowls to put our FroYo in and walk up to the separate machines. Grayson gets a mix of flavors and I just got regular cake batter. We scoop our toppings into the containers then went to pay. I insist on paying for both of ours but Grayson swipes his credit card before I could get my cash out.
"Well played, Gray." He gives me a cute little smirk then we walk outside to a bench since it feels so good outside.
"Let me try yours." He says and opens his mouth. I scoop out a good amount with one of all of my toppings on it and put my spoon in his mouth. He makes a face indicating he likes it.
Without me having to ask, he scoops me some of his with his spoon and feeds it to me like I did him.
"Mine is better but yours isn't too bad." I giggle.
"So I guess that means we can't trade?"
"That's a negative." I look down at my own bowl and mixed the toppings in a little more. I cross my legs and get comfortable on the bench. We watch the people walk past on the side walk in front of us and across the street. "What's it like in LA?" I ask since I have never been there.
"It's pretty fun sometimes but I like Jersey better."
"I'm sure. I mean it's your home so I don't blame you."
"Don't get me wrong though, I do love LA. It has so much more to offer than our little town in NJ does." He takes another bite of his FroYo then sits his spoon down in his bowl, "Y/N, can I tell you something?"
"Anything, Grayson." He positions his body so he’s facing me completely which causes me to stop eating my FroYo, too. I sit it down on the bench beside me and stare into his hazel orbs.
"This is probably really stupid," he starts breaking the eye contact, "but for some reason I feel like you were put in my life for a reason. I've known you for not even two full days and my feelings for you are stronger than they've ever been for anyone I've ever met." I feel my insides rumbling with butterflies and my cheeks blushing. I pick his chin up with the hand that isn’t intertwined with his and bring his eyes back to mine.
"Nothing about that was stupid, Gray. Especially because I feel the exact same way." My hand leaves his chin but he is still eye-to-eye with me. He begins getting closer and closer to me and my eyes naturally shut. Our lips are inches apart and we are about to kiss each other until:
"Gray! Y/N! There you two are!" Grayson and I pop up and see Ethan running towards us. "Have you checked your social medias?"
"Nope. Been kinda busy bro." Grayson says through gritted teeth.
"Oops." Ethan chuckles out, "but look." He turns his phone towards us and shows a picture of Grayson and I in the elevator. I guess that's the picture those girls got when Grayson had his arms around me and his chin resting on my head.
Grayson grabs the phone and smiles.
"You gotta admit, it's a pretty cute picture of us." He pulls out his phone and goes to his own twitter app so I do the same thing.
@ogdolarstan so did grayson straight up lie to us about dating that girl?
That girl.
Is that who I am known as now?
@graysarmpithair why's everyone freaking out? if grayson is dating her, there's nothing we can do but support the relationship.
I kind of feel a little sick looking at all of the replies so I lock my phone and sit it down in my lap. I think Grayson notices so he puts his phone down too and grabs my hand.
"Hey," Grayson squeezes a little to get my attention– as if he didn't already fully have it, "don't let them get to you. The fans are super over protective. I don't want them to scare you away from me."
I couldn't help but smile at his words. I look up at him and don't know what else to say. I’m not sure how to thank him for reassuring me that he wants this.
If we had kissed already, I would have pecked his lips to thank him but that was rudely interrupted.
I notice Ethan had walked into the FroYo place to get his serving since he missed out.
"Thank you, Gray." I look deep into his eyes, letting him know how much I really appreciated him. Then, our moment starts to happen again. He brakes our eye contact, looks down at my lips again, then back to my eyes. Before I know it, he’s leaning in again. I start to do the same, closing my eyes for the second time as well. And, as if they were made for each other, our lips meet.
Finally.
That's all I can think. Finally, he kissed me but also finally I’m able to see how I really feel about Grayson.
I don't want to admit it, especially after such a short period of time, but I have fallen for Grayson Dolan.
We finally made it back to the dorm with Ethan and both our sisters were back.
"How were the rents?" Ethan asks. Lindsey and Cameron look at each other and start laughing.
"Oh, they were something!" Lindsey giggles.
"They were pretty wasted!" Camron states.
It’s about 12:30 and we all are sitting in the living room, talking, playing games and enjoying each other’s company. Grayson and I haven’t left each other’s side all night and I'm sure our sisters have noticed.
"How cool is it gonna be," Cameron begins, "me and you are best friends and now our siblings are going to date!" I feel my face get red as I look down in my lap and laugh.
"We're officially stuck with each other forever!" Lindsey says as she jumps up out of her seat.
"You two are insane," Ethan rolls his eyes playfully, "but right. I can't wait to have Y/N stuck in my life forever."
"Woah now," I hear Grayson speak up, "don't jinx us. We aren't even official yet."
"YET!" They all three screamed in unison.
We sit around for about thirty more minutes before Cameron and Lindsey stand up, indicating they were going to bed. "Y/N, I'm sleeping with Cam tonight so you and Gray can have my bed." and with that they are both gone.
I know Lindsey wasn't lending us her bed for sexual reasons, she just wants to give us more time with each other since Ethan is half asleep on one of the couches already. We both stand up and walk to my sister’s room. He closes the door and walks over to me sitting on the bed.
"I'm so tired but I want as much time I can get with you as possible." He lays beside me on the bed and drapes his arm around my waist.
"You're too cute, Gray." I say as I play with his hair. "Go to sleep though. You have to be up early."
"Alright," he groans and I reach over to turn off the lamp. We make ourselves comfortable and he cuddles me from behind.
"Goodnight pretty girl, sleep good." He kisses my cheek then he was out like a light.
Goodnight Grayson.
I know Grayson is trying hard not to wake me as he gets up to leave, but I don't want him to leave without me saying goodbye to him. I mean, who knew when I'd see him next?
I feel him lean down and softly kiss my forehead. Before he can walk away, I wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him. He picks me up and wraps his arms around my waist and I wrap my legs around his body.
"I'm going to miss you so much beautiful." He speaks softly as he holds me in his arms. I feel the butterflies fill my stomach and a smile grows across my face. I look up him to let him know I'd miss him too. He continues looking at me and I can't help but stare back.
His face is as perfect as his heart and I really can't believe how lucky I am to even have gotten to meet this beautiful soul.
Grayson leans in slightly to kiss me and I meet him in the middle.
We kiss for a few minutes and we somehow end up back on the bed. We lay there for another few minutes, Grayson hovering over the top of me, not breaking the connection of our lips.
"Bro, Mom & Dad are here to get us, let's go!" Ethan says through the closed door with a light knock.
"Alright," Grayson drops his head, speaking towards the door, "I'll be there in a minute." Ethan doesn’t say anything else so he looks back at me. Laying on his side and me laying on mine. "You're perfect."
He pecks my lips before I can respond.
"Nobody's perfect, Gray." I give him a soft smile and caress his face. We stare in each other’s eyes for about thirty seconds before he brakes the silence.
"Promise me something, Y/N?"
"Anything."
"I know this is going to be hard, but please don't give up on me. On us." I’m taken aback for a moment but I really start to realize that Grayson's feelings for me were equally as strong as mine are for him.
"I promise you, there's no way I will ever give up on this, Gray."
We seal it with a kiss and he begins to get up again. Part of me is very upset that the time for him to leave has finally came. But I also know we would have to deal with this eventually.
I jump up and wrap my arms around his neck one more time. I kiss him slowly to let him know how serious I am about him.
Once we let go of each other, he heads towards the door and I follow.
"You ready?" Ethan asks as his brother comes into view.
"I guess." Grayson lightly replies, sounding a little bummed. I walk over to Ethan and hug him goodbye.
"I'm sure I'll see you soon." He says into the hug, letting out a little laugh.
"Oh you will," I giggle and look over at Grayson, "don't get my favorite boy in any trouble.”
"What do you mean? He's the trouble maker." Ethan gasps.
"I’m so glad I met you.” Grayson whispers before they walk out of the door.
I hug him again and kiss him one last time.
Oh how I wish I could just spend every moment with that perfect boy.
I walk back into Lindsey's room and see Grayson's shirt he took off before we went to sleep last night on the ground.
Smiling to myself as I pick it up, I debate running down the hall way to give it to Grayson as an excuse to see him once more before he’s miles and miles away.
I decide not to so that I’m able to keep it with me, as if I have part of Grayson with me at all times.
Even though I haven’t officially admitted it out loud, I know I love him. That short but oh-so-strong four letter word really works in mysterious ways and I’m just glad it has worked out in my favor.
Tags: @atlas-of-a-human-soul @lexi-victoria @agirlssfantasy
#grayson dolan#grayson dolan imagines#imagine grayson dolan#grayson dolan fanfic#grayson#dolan#dolan twins#dolan twins imagines#imagine dolan twins#dolan twins fanfic#ethan dolan#ethan dolan imagines#imagine ethan dolan#ethan dolan fanfic#imagine#imagines#fanfic
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Author Interview: David Viergutz
I had the pleasure of meeting David (online) by complete chance. I was mindlessly scrolling through my Instagram feed one night and came across a post from a writer that I follow. He had just finished reading this book with one of the most beautiful covers I’d seen in a while. I read the caption then immediately went to Goodreads to see what this book was about. I was HOOKED from the synopsis and added it to my “Want To Read” list.
I went back and commented on that post, gushing over the cover and saying how I needed to read this book. Sometime after I get a message request from this guy, David Viergutz, I am shit with names until I get to know someone (online and in-person) so it never dawned on me who it was.
But I opened the message and he was saying how he saw my post and offered to send me an e-book in exchange for an honest review and I JUMPED at the chance and I am glad I did. I knew from the first page of his book I was going to love it and I did. I also hoped that he would be down for an interview and I was elated when he said yes.
David is an amazing writer and author and I look forward to seeing his career take off because I know it will. I encourage every one of you to go and get a copy of his books you won’t regret it.
Why don’t we start off with an easy question, why do you tell us who you are and a little about yourself?
So, I’m a bit of an oddball in the writing community, or so I feel. I’m a father of two (15 and 2, yeah…I know…) and a Law Enforcement Officer. I joined the Army straight out of high school and became a LEO shortly after. I had ZERO idea I wanted to be a writer. It wasn’t until my wife came around, about 10 years later, who convinced me I COULD be a writer. It was interesting, she looked at me and said, “Write the damn book!” after we had discussed how I had wanted to write one since I was 12. Like so many others, writing fell to the wayside as work took over.
Besides work, and writing, I’m a personal trainer and have my own business, and I recently dove head-in to leatherwork. I’m still learning, but it’s fun.
My wife is also a LEO and a medical student. I’m just counting down until residency so I can retire at 32 and write full-time, haha.
You are the author of The Box And The Bird a novella that came out in October 2019 as well as The Demonic Compendium a wonderful novel that I've had the pleasure of reading. Can you tell my readers a little about these books?
The Demonic Compendium is my flagship into the world I am writing. I never set out to write a book, I set out to create a universe. Most of my favorite series end so soon and I wish there was more. In writing epic-fantasy, I wanted to make sure this wasn’t an issue for my readers. That being said,
The Box and the Bird is a taste of The Demonic Compendium Universe, also known as The Darkenverse. (Think Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Star Wars Expanded Universe). This book is a fast-paced intense read that follows Samantha Lawson as her husband Richard returns home from a business trip with something terrible. This book ties into the main universe, but is not considered on the main timeline. I offer it free on my website davidviergutz.com.
The Demonic Compendium is my bread and butter and the first of many in the series. While it is epic fantasy, I bring in some elements that I think set it apart. Anti-heros, doom-and-gloom, dread, epic-battles and a fully immersive world. One reader said he felt like he wasn’t just in the story, he was also watching my main character Shaw cast wild demonic-magic and tromp through the castle.
The Demonic Compendium takes place in the wake of a terrible tragedy that has befallen a budding kingdom. We follow Shaw as he is forced to make terrible decisions for the greater good, and hopefully, find his purpose in the process. Not to give too much away, but there’s a reason my personal mantra for writing is:
“The hero doesn’t always win. The good guy doesn’t always get the girl. Things are going to get a lot worse.”
What was your inspiration for these stories, where did the original spark come from?
Well, I truly wrote the book I wanted to read. I thought back to a few captivating moments from what I’ve read and seen in movies and wanted my readers to get chills as they read the epic moments. Think about when Gandalf stands on the bridge with his infamous line. Or King Leonidas when he boots the emissary into the hole. Or when the Red Ranger screams “Tyrannosaurs!” I wanted a book FILLED with those moments, so I focused on those big events, and built a world to fit it.
The Demonic Compendium is the first book in your debut series, how many books do you have planned for the series altogether?
It’s hard to say. I’ve purchased covers for three additional books, as well as a novella from the same timeline following another lead character. As long as my readers love it, I’ll keep writing it. That said, I have a new series flagship releasing this year in the urban-fantasy genre.
Steering away from the book related questions. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I spoke above about my wife giving me inspiration to write this particular book, and get to the end of it, but my overall spark came when I was about 10 years old. I carried a black notebook with a home-made floppy-disk holder on the inside cover. I’d write my story paragraphs out, then read them to my friends and transfer them to the floppy disk.
This was my art, because I had failed art…I couldn’t connect two dots, I would have just eaten the crayon because I thought the assignment was stupid. I find my ability to write is a carry over from my ability to speak, so I stuck with what I was good at.
From idea to publication about how long does it take you to write a book?
Planning and plotting are about a solid two weeks (part time, a few hours a night). After that, my pace is a steady 1000 words an hour. On a good day (I’m married with kids remember) I can pump out 10k if I’m left alone. Most of my books are planned and plotted for 100k, minus the novellas. So, math aside, I’d say 30 days. I wouldn’t say a month, because life likes to drop a dragon in my living room. Now that I have my business processes down, 30 days is an accurate guess. When writing TDC, I had to learn the business, hire a cover artist, formatter, etc, so that delayed my process.
Both of your current books are indie published why did you choose to go this route and not the traditional one?
I love working for myself, and as I see my books as my art, I am reluctant to give that up. I’m very much a self-made-man, and I feel when my writing is loved and only my own efforts are responsible, it’s just that much sweeter when I make a single sale.
Which authors inspired you to write?
This is a tough one, as a lot of authors I enjoy have a lot of overlap. I prefer their methods instead of just their stories so I’ll mention those. From Dean Koontz, I loved The Husband for the mind-bending twist. Michael Crichton for the adventures in Jurassic Park, and Garth Nix for his epic magic in The Abhorsen Series.
What is the best writing advice you’ve heard?
Write the story you want to read. You don’t need to please everyone; you just need to please your fans.
Can you tell us about your writing process? What’s a typical writing day for you?
I’m a musically motivated to write. When I sit down at my desk, I make sure the music I’m listening to matches what’s happening in the story. There cannot be any words however, it must feel like I’ve got my own theme-song as I narrate on paper what I’m seeing in my mind.
My process is that of a plotter. I start with my epic moments, then think about who I want to be a part of them, then build in my what-if statements.
What-if a dragon lands in my living room?
What-if it looks terrifying?
Now, I’m forced to answer my own questions with more plotting.
And then it seems to be entirely confused.
And then it has crippling self-esteem issues.
I then arrange these series of thoughts into an outline, expand on them, and use that to write pages.
If the perfected productive writing day existed what would it look like for you?
I’m an easy fellow.
5:00 AM-6:59 AM workout.
7:00 AM-7:59 AM post-workout shake, shower, get ready, chores at home.
8:00 AM-11:59 AM in the office with hot coffee.
12:00-12:44 PM break to warm up meals and walk around neighborhood.
12:45-3:45, edit what I just wrote
4:00PM-5:00 PM, marketing, social media and business functions.
5:01-8:00 PM family time to include dinner.
8:01-11:00 PM, read, more writing or hobbies.
Why do you write?
Because I can’t afford to pay an author to write books exactly how I want to read them. I love my own stories.
What is the hardest thing about being a writer?
Okay besides the usual gripe that I hear/read people hear/write about, self-esteem, doubt, anxiety, introverts, socially awkward etc.…
How about the fact that we’re trying to make money on a commodity that has fallen to social media, instant gratification, and the digital age? The average e-book sells for $2.99. That’s a lot of books to sell just to fill the gas-tank.
What are you currently working on?
Book Two of The Demonic Compendium: The Queen of Duska
Cereal of Third City: A novella from the TDC series timeline
The Bullet Board: An action packed urban-fantasy heist.
Lastly, what is the best advice you can offer someone who dreams of one day being an author?
Fake it until you make it. Undoubtedly you know something I don’t about writing, even if you’ve only written a Facebook post. You are the expert of YOUR stories. Stop looking for validation from others on how THEY would change YOUR story.
If they don’t like your story, they can write their own. Give yourself some credit and when you’ve finish something, anything, show it off, and be proud, it’s your art.
Author Links:
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Book Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Question of the day:
If you could ask your favorite author a question what would it be?
#Author#indie#indie author#indie writer#self publishing#Self published books#self publishing resources#author interview#David Viergutz#The Demonic Compendium#The Demonic Compendium by David Viergutz#independent publishing#publishing#book#books#reading#am reading#writing#writing process#writing advice#writing community
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Krypton Season 2: Every Superman and DC Comics Easter Egg
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Is there another show as packed with Superman and DC Comics lore as Krypton season 2? If there is, we haven't seen it!
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This article consists of nothing but Krypton season 2 spoilers.
Who would have ever thought that the best DC Comics show on TV would turn out to be a Superman prequel? Well, to be fair, it's either Krypton or the bonkers and bizarrely sweet Doom Patrol. But Krypton managed to avoid nearly every single prequel pitfall in its first season, and then raised the stakes and flipped everything on its head with a reality altering season finale that opened the door to even crazier storytelling in season 2.
Well, Krypton season 2 brought countless opportunities to dive ever deeper into Superman and DC Comics lore. We're here to help keep track of it all. Let's get to work...
Krypton Season 2 Episode 1: Light-Years From Home
Read our review of "Light-Years From Home" here.
- Before we start on this episode, it should be noted that there has been a six month timejump since the season one finale.
- The ceremonial robes Zod is wearing at the start of the episode as he gives his address feel slightly reminiscent of Jor-El’s “jailer” robes in Superman: The Movie. And while there were similar wardrobe choices in season one, it's always worth pointing out how this show pays tribute to that movie at every chance it gets.
The fact that now everyone (since the Rankless appear to have been gentrified out of existence) are now prominently wearing their house sigils and have adopted more uniform dress is again reminiscent of Superman: The Movie. The more colorful garb that Kryptonians have adopted in the wake of Zod’s “make Krypton great again” campaign is more reminiscent of how the planet was depicted until roughly the 1980s in the comics (and then again more recently).
- The speech that Zod delivers opens with “my fellow Kryptonians” and references “Kryptonian exceptionalism” as he justifies his imperialistic plan for Krypton...just in case you had any doubt about where this show views the kind of rationalizations that charismatic leaders offer for imperialistic adventuring throughout history.
And just to keep the focus on Zod for a moment, his plan to terraform other planets is reminiscent of his plan in Man of Steel, which itself referred to the imperialistic Kryptonian M.O. of years past. While Krypton isn't in continuity with Man of Steel or the DCEU, it's still a pretty cool connection.
- Adam Strange has taken to a more colorful wardrobe this season, including a red hoodie (which prompts Seg, later in the episode, to point out that “red’s your color!”) Indeed it is, as that’s the dominant color on Adam's costume from the comics.
- The moon of Wegthor was first mentioned in Superman #141 in 1961. It has appeared on film in Man of Steel (which Krypton still has a number of aesthetic similarities to) in Jor-El's era. I'm not gonna spoil it here, but if you click this link and look for the Wegthor entry, you'll get a glimpse of what might be on the way for this moon.
Wegthor never had a space elevator in the comics, but it's pretty neat that the Zod regime was able to whip this up in six months. The miners are extracting an element known as "solarium" which, as far as I can remember, doesn't have any kind of DC Comics counterpart.
- Not only is this the first time we’ve ever seen the surface of Wegthor in live action, this is also to the best of my knowledge the first live action depiction of Brainiac’s homeworld of Colu. It is...surprisingly lush. Also, I defy any future movie version of Brainiac to be half as perfect as Blake Ritson's portrayal and look on this show.
read more - Krypton Season 2: What's Next for Brainiac?
- The Sunstone crystal that Seg is carrying around “contains the energy of a 10 billion year old yellow sun.” For comparison, our actual yellow sun is just under half that many billions of years old.
- Seg saying he’s “got a bad feeling about this” is reminiscent of one of Han Solo's favorite expressions in Star Wars.
- Lobo is here! The character was created by Roger Silfer, Keith Giffen, and Mike DeCarlo in the pages of Omega Men #3 way the hell back in 1983. Initially a somewhat throwaway baddie, Lobo grew to prominence in the pages of Giffen and JM DeMatteis' brilliant Justice League International, before evolving into a full-blown (and beloved) parody of everything that was wrong with comics in the late '80s and early '90s. We have a much more detailed history of Lobo right here.
The character you're seeing on screen here is a perfect distillation of everything that made Lobo such a sensation when he reached his peak popularity, from dropping trademark phrases like referring to himself as "the Main Man" or his go-to expletive of "frag" (not to be confused with "frak"). Syfy is betting big on the Main Man, as they've already commissioned a Lobo spinoff TV series.
Amusingly, Adam asks Lobo if “the rest of the Kiss Army” are on the way, which is downright hilarious. Fans have also pointed out the similarities to Rob Zombie, who in turn was inspired by Kiss.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 2: Ghost in the Fire
Read our review of "Ghost in the Fire" right here.
- One of the weapons Lobo uses to threaten Seg and Adam appears to be the kind of mace usually favored by Hawkman. We've been promised Thanagarians for a long time on this show, and I think we're due for some kind of Hawkman appearance. I really hope it happens this season.
- Lobo mispronounces Seg-El’s name as “Siegel” which is no coincidence, as Seg is named for Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.
But since we're talking about Lobo, he rattles off a whole bunch of Lobo-esque facts and history in profane, rapid-fire fashion.
He mentions the Church of the Triple Fish God, which Lobo was indeed the custodian of during DC's excellent 52 weekly series in 2006-2007.
He says his name translates to "he who devours his enemy’s entrails and thoroughly enjoys it," which is straight out of the comics.
He specifically mentions killing his parents, but also makes oblique references to actually having killed the entire Czarnian race with genetically engineered "scorpion rattlers," again...accurate.
- The name "Flamebird" is invoked for the first time this season (it was mentioned as a codeword by Jax-Ur during season one). Flamebird was a superheroic identity adopted by Jimmy Olsen when he would go on crime fighting adventures with Superman in the bottle city of Kandor. Since then, a number of other characters (most Kryptonian in origin) have used the name and costume. But I believe this is the first time the name has ever been associated with a Raoist creation myth. It will be interesting to see if this show ever decides to explore Flamebird as an identity.
- The idea that Kryptonian physiology can adapt to the rigors of the Outlands is cool, and speaks to the overall adaptability of the species. After all, Kryptonians are powerless under a red sun, but under a yellow sun gain "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men." So this little tidbit of info about how adaptable Kryptonians are seems like a subtle piece of worldbuilding to help explain why Superman is able to do what he does on Earth. It's a nice touch.
- The poor guy that Lyta beats the absolute crap out of is named Lor-Ran according to the credits. Perhaps you, like me, got excited thinking his name was Lor-Van, which would make him a relative of Lara Lor-Van, who would be Seg-El's daughter-in-law, or more succinctly, Superman's mother. But you, like me, would be wrong.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 3: Will to Power
read our review of "Will to Power" here.
- Brainiac's home planet of Colu looks amazing and weird from the outside, as it should.
- The green/corrupted Fortress as Seg’s "mind palace" to indicate Brainiac's control of him is a nice touch.
- The architecture on Krypton is starting to look more and more like the kinds of structures seen in Superman: The Movie.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 4: Danger Close
read our review of "Danger Close" here.
- During the flashback, Kem is repeating a joke/fable about Rondors that we heard during season one.
- Also, as we see the first meeting between Lyta and Seg, it looks like the binding scarf has House of El colors (ala Val’s costume)
- “A little short to be a Sagitari” is a reference to the first Star Wars movie. When Princess Leia first meets Luke Skywalker he’s wearing a stolen Stormtrooper uniform, and she remarks that he’s “a little short for a Stormtrooper.”
- The silver sheets on Lyta’s bed are reminiscent of the silver sheets on the Fortress of Solitude bed in Superman II. If you go by Superman Returns continuity, that is likely where Superman and Lois’ child was conceived, so perhaps this encounter between Seg and Lyta is where little Dru is conceived. Well...at least that's what I thought until it turned out this Lyta was likely a clone.
- Adam’s anxiety about a version of the future where it appears that time and the universe have just come to a halt makes me wonder if this show will indeed somehow tie into the version of Crisis on Infinite Earths coming to the CW DC shows. It’s extraordinarily unlikely, I’ll admit, but I can’t rule it out completely.
- We see Cor-Vex in a cradle containing shiny red, blue, and yellow blankets, which is once again reminiscent of how baby Kal-El was swaddled in Superman: The Movie.
- They’ve played the whole “Zod is from the future and Superman’s greatest enemy” so chill on this show that when he speaks in familiar turns about the Phantom Zone “that horrific place” it’s easy to forget that he would indeed know.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 5: A Better Yesterday
read our review of "A Better Yesterday" here.
- When Jayna talks about Dru-Zod being unwilling to stop “until everyone kneels before him,” well...you know that this is once again a wonderful reference to Terrence Stamp’s most famous Zod catchphrase.
- It is purely coincidental that Jax-Ur says “whatever it takes” here, and her context is completely different from that of Avengers: Endgame, of course.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 6 Review: In Zod We Trust
read our review of "In Zod We Trust" right here.
- Jax-Ur has been a sympathetic character throughout this series, but with her murder of Lyta, her heel turn is more or less complete. Sure, the character still has redeeming qualities (as do all villains on this show), but now you can see how she eventually ends up exiled to the Phantom Zone and menacing Superman on Earth.
- Kryptonian names in this episode include Tai-Un, Ton-Re, and Taz-Ran. As far as I can tell, none of these are from the comics, although Taz-Ran does call to mind an earlier episode’s Lor-Ran, so perhaps they’re related. It’s also a slight anagram of “Tarzan” who was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also created Jon Carter of Mars, a character who had a profound influence on the creation of Adam Strange.
- There’s another, although far more nebulous (and coincidental) connection with one of those names, though. Ton-Re calls to mind the name Tomar-Re, a Green Lantern Corps member who patrolled Space Sector 2813. Tomar-Re wasn’t Kryptonian, but DC felt compelled at one point to explain why the Green Lantern Corps were unable to stop Krypton from exploding. Well, it turns out, they TRIED, and Tomar-Re had planned to stabilize Krypton’s unstable core using, you guessed it, Stellarium, the same mineral that is being mined on Wegthor. Anyway, there’s no actual connection between Ton-Re and Tomar-Re, I just thought that was worth pointing out.
- The Codex plays a major role in this episode, and it was the primary driver of the Man of Steel movie, which this show continues to resemble in little ways, even though they exist in different corners of the DC multiverse.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 7: Zods and Monsters
read our review of "Zods and Monsters" right here.
- Doomsday’s origin story was first told in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter Prey by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding. That was the direct sequel to the famed Death and Return of Superman story, although there, Doomsday’s origin was a little different. Instead of being a Kryptonian undergoing a procedure to produce the perfect soldier, he was a small creature, fired off into an inhospitable environment to be killed over and over again, until, after 30 years, he evolved into Doomsday.
Here, there are two Kryptonian scientists creating Doomsday. One is named Wedna-El, a name that does indeed have roots in Kryptonian history. Wedna Kil-Gor was the mother of Val-El in the comics, and first appeared in The Krypton Chronicles limited series in 1981, which, of course, has some influence on this show.
The other is Van-Zod, and while as far as I can tell that name has never appeared in the comics, Van is a common Kryptonian name. There was, however, a Van-Zee, a resident of Kandor who adopted the superheroic identity of Nightwing (no, not Dick Grayson).
There are some fun touches with the costumes in these flashback sequences. For starters, they’re both “ancient” and also kind of art-deco sci-fi. There’s a touch of the Flash Gordon serials about their looks, and of course Flash Gordon was a massive influence on Superman in general and Krypton in particular in the early comics. But also, Wedna’s “S” has a hint of the Man of Steel version of the logo about it, as well as a little of the Earth-2 Superman.
But there’s lots going on in the (relative) present of this episode, too...
- Seg’s pep talk to Nyssa is the most Superman-esque moment the character has ever had, and Cameron Cuffe pulls it off brilliantly. You could imagine Kal-El himself pumping up Flash or Green Lantern with something similar, and it’s the inspirational power of the members of House El that count for a lot. The wink he throws in at the end helps, too, a nod to the early Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, the George Reeves TV series, and many comics from Superman’s first 50 years.
- And, of course, we have the “Cor-Vex is now Jor-El” moment, which needs little (if any) explanation. But again, Seg has a big moment, and his speech to the newly named Jor is reminiscent of the one Marlon Brando’s Jor-El gives to baby Kal-El before launching him into space.
- They even give us a hint of the John Williams theme there. Krypton has been wise not to deploy that too often, but when they do, it matters.
- Seg finally gets to wear the “S” and you can tell Cameron Cuffe relishes it. Nice touch that he has to open his jacket to show it off.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 8: Mercy
read our review of "Mercy" right here.
- The Black Mercy has been teased since the earliest episodes of the show, and is the subject of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ all time classic Superman story “For the Man Who Has Everything.” For more on that story and other Alan Moore Superman tales, click here.
Here, as in that tale, Lyta begins to see through the facade of this “perfect world” and her own anxieties cause it to collapse and escape the Mercy’s influence.
During Lyta’s fantasy, Seg’s white ceremonial gear makes him look an awful lot like Brando’s Jor-El at the beginning of Superman: The Movie.
Incidentally, the Black Mercy was also the subject of an episode of Supergirl, although they didn’t lean into the body horror of it all the way they do here.
- A number of space sectors are rattled off. Sector 2813 is indeed Krypton’s sector (and neighbors are own (2814). Others mentioned include 2683 and 2684, although I believe only 2684 has ever actually been shown in the comics. Don’t forget, kids, it was the Guardians who divided the universe up into sectors, so this show is basically tempting us with some Green Lantern action down the road, and we need to see it.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 9: Blood Moon
read our review of "Blood Moon" right here.
- Doomsday’s utterly R-rated slaughter (not to mention his murder of Kem) feels straight out of the character’s comic book appearances...but bloodier.
- Adam mentions “the only person” who could potentially stop Doomsday. Three guesses who that is.
- And we finally get to see the destruction of Wegthor. It’s impressive that something that has long been a kind of Silver Age Superman trivia answer gets such weighty, dramatic, and effective treatment on TV.
Krypton Season 2 Episode 10: The Alpha and the Omega
read our review of "The Alpha and the Omega" right here.
- Annnd after all those other sectors were mentioned in episode 8, we finally get a shout out to our own home, Sector 2814! Of course, that’s where Brainiac is taking poor, innocent Jor-El...
- Val tells Seg that Kem will be remembered as “Kem-El.” In the comics, well...Kem-L was the creator of the Eradicator, and he wasn’t as nice a guy as our beloved Kem.
- As far as I can tell, all of Adam’s stuff about his home life here is entirely created for this show.
- Seg’s perfectly delivered, “General, would you care to step outside?” is a wonderful homage to one of the all time great Christopher Reeve line deliveries in Superman II.
- Oh, and while we’re talking about Superman movies where General Zod was the villain, you’ll note that Seg had a chance to break Zod’s neck here, but didn’t...unlike a certain OTHER Superman movie…
- Zod being subjected to the Black Mercy he had been using on others feels very much like the end of “For the Man Who Has Everything” which ended with Mongul under its influence, and living out his own fantasies of conquest.
- Adam Strange not only finally gets his jetpack, but gets something resembling his comic book costume!
- Lobo's return would indeed seem to set things up for his solo TV series, or at least for his continued presence on Krypton Season 3 (which as of this writing hasn't been renewed...but it had better be!).
- Nyssa ends up on Rann...and spots winged troops flying overhead, presumably the cause of the carnage she sees. Are those Thanagarians, the Hawkmen who have long been known to go to war with Rann? Or...are they Darkseid’s Parademons? The Omega symbol in blood on the cave wall could speak to the latter.
We wrote about this crazy scenario (and more threads from the finale) in more detail right here.
Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter!
Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.
Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!
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Aug 14, 2019
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Felix Cartal: New Music, Coke Slurpees & Polka-EDM?
Felix Cartal Interview.
Canadian music producer and DJ, Felix Cartal first began his music career by playing the bass guitar for a local punk band called Dysfunctional. It wasn’t until after the band’s break-up in 2006, that Felix began to fully experiment with electronic dance music.
Cartal, who is often referred to as “Felix Cartel” after being mislabeled by one of his music promoters early on in his musical career, struggles with the typo to this day. The prevalent mispronunciation of his alias has prompted him to add “felix cartal not felix cartel” to his Instagram bio.
Regardless of how people refer to him, there’s undoubtedly only one Felix Cartal and his catalogue of catchy tunes like “Keep Up,” “New Scene,”and “Love Me” have placed him on our the radar in 2019. This is Take 5 with Felix Cartal!
New Music: “Love Me” Featuring Lights.
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Dayanna Ramirez: I’m here with Felix Cartel [sic], how are you? I’m so excited that you’re here today.
Felix Cartal: I’m good, thanks for having me.
Dayanna Ramirez: Thanks for being here at the Nexus Lounge in Miami beach.
Felix Cartal: It’s very ‘loungey.’
Dayanna Ramirez: Do you feel very comfortable there?
Felix Cartal: I do.
Dayanna Ramirez: So, I’m going to ask you some really crazy questions, but also maybe some serious ones. So, let’s start with maybe with like a serious one. Do you want fun or serious?
Felix Cartal: I’m down for either.
Dayanna Ramirez: Okay. So, first you had something coming with Lights. Tell me more about it.
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our faces when we hear our song on the radio @lights
A post shared by felix cartal not felix cartel (@felixcartal) on May 6, 2019 at 6:22pm PDT
Felix Cartal: It’s a single that I did with Lights called Love Me, came out on Valentine’s Day.
Dayanna Ramirez: Oh, cute!
Felix Cartal: Yeah, Love Me, Valentine’s Day. I’m Canadian and she’s Canadian as well, and I’ve been a fan of hers for so long. I met her last year at a party and we just kind of connected and wrote this song together and now it’s finally out and it’s going really well.
Polka-EDM?
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Dayanna Ramirez: That’s awesome! Alright, so we’ve ‘broken the ice’…now, we’re going to get into some other questions. So, you’re in a car with your favorite DJ. Who is picking the songs and who is this person?
Felix Cartal: Oh Man. Well, I feel like if I’m in the car with my favorite DJ, then he has to be picking the music. Isn’t that…
Dayanna Ramirez: Is that fair? Or you could like co-pilot.
Felix Cartal: I think I would probably pick Justice just because they’re… like kind of the guys that got me into a little bit of a dance music. And they had an essential mix that I always thought was amazing because it was really unpredictable. So that’s why I would let them pick the music because they’d throw in something weird that I wouldn’t expect and I would be like ‘respect guys, respect.’
Dayanna Ramirez: So on that note, is there a music style or something and kind of heard, that you would want to experiment with that you haven’t done yet?
Felix Cartal: Interesting. I grew up playing in bands and stuff, so I think I’d like to go back to doing it a little more like live music and live instruments with some of my songs. But I don’t know, sometimes when I think about genre mashups, there’s so many bad ones that I’m scared a little bit. Like, this is like, you know, like Polka-EDM and I’m like ‘No! that never never should have happened!’
Dayanna Ramirez: I feel like maybe you can make it work somehow…
Felix Cartal: You’re giving me way too much credit.
The Crazy Dutch Life.
Dayanna Ramirez: Too much then. Okay, here’s a scenario and I want you to be perfectly honest with me. This is going to be a hard one. Okay? You’re a Superhero, but you can only choose one of three different abilities. One, you can predict when someone is about to fart. Two, you can tell when someone has had a new haircut. Three, you glow but not in the dark. What do you choose?
Felix Cartal: Those are all terrible. Is that the idea? Like they all really bad?
Dayanna Ramirez: Yes. They’re all really terrible superhero powers.
Felix Cartal: Probably the fart one just cause then I can avoid it. I can Just like, slowly exit the room.
Dayanna Ramirez: That’s probably a good idea. I would probably choose that as well.
Felix Cartal: Gross. A little gross and not a great super power, but if those are my options [laughs].
Dayanna Ramirez: So, let’s say you’re given the ability to trade places with one person from the industry […] for one day. Who do you pick? And what would you do? Would you go back to Justice?
Felix Cartal: No, I can’t do them again. That’s not fair. I kinda just want to be Tiesto for a day. Just cause’ I love him and he’s always been amazingly nice to me. But I feel like we’re very opposite people. So, I think if I’m going to be in someone else’s shoes I might as well go to the other end of the spectrum. Just experience that crazy Dutch EDM life [laughs].
Dayanna Ramirez: How crazy do you think it will get?
Felix Cartal: I don’t know. Probably, like if he has a bunch of gigs, it could be like multiple private jet flights in one day, that could be nice!
Dayanna Ramirez: That could be so terrible.
Felix Cartal: Yeah, sounds horrible.
Coke Slurpee.
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you can stop texting me mom i got you and dad your vinyl
A post shared by felix cartal not felix cartel (@felixcartal) on Oct 18, 2018 at 12:50pm PDT
Dayanna Ramirez: Okay. Name one ridiculous thing that you would be able to add to your rider. Let me rephrase that, what would you add to your rider if you could? And it has to be ridiculous.
Felix Cartal: Has to be ridiculous? Well, I (already) have a ridiculous thing on my rider.
Dayanna Ramirez: Okay. What do you have?
Felix Cartal: I have like a Coke Slurpee from 7/11…
Dayanna Ramirez: Okay, that’s delicious.
Felix Cartal: Yeah, but it’s kind of been a hassle for people. I think I took it off actually like a few months ago, just because people would always bring it to the club and they were like trying to keep it half frozen. I was starting to feel like I was being an inconvenience and I really don’t want to be that.
Dayanna Ramirez: So, would you maybe remove that from your rider and I add something different?
Felix Cartal: I did the opposite of the question [laughs]. No, I actually saw this the other day on Twitter. Someone said it- it’s not ridiculous, but I just thought it was nice. Like, ask the club to make a donation to a charity of your choice.
Dayanna Ramirez: Oh, that’s really cool!
Felix Cartal: Which actually, it was a really great idea! Because there’s so much dumb [censored] people put on their riders, and I’m like, dude, do you really need the cheese platter? Like really?
Dayanna Ramirez: I mean, why can’t you have both though? A cheese platter and a donation?
Felix Cartal: No! I’m laying down the law that DJs should all remove their cheese platters, cause it’s getting out of hand! [laughs]
Dayanna Ramirez: It’s too much cheese guys! Too much cheese.
Felix Cartal: Yeah, no one’s eating that much cheese before they DJ.
Upcoming Shows.
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lonely little terrified hearts, are we all just fakin it?
A post shared by felix cartal not felix cartel (@felixcartal) on Dec 23, 2018 at 6:54pm PST
Dayanna Ramirez: Alright, so what’s next for you? Any upcoming collaborations? New music? Tours, etc.?
Felix Cartal: Yes. So, I’m starting a tour halfway through April with Frank Walker, he’s another Canadian DJ. Very talented young man. And yeah, we’re playing with a bunch of shows together. I think it’s about 14 dates, all across North America. And we have a song coming out as well, but the release date is to-be-determined.
Dayanna Ramirez: Oooh, You guys always keep me hanging with these releases.
Felix Cartal: I’m hanging too, I wish I knew [laughs].
Dayanna Ramirez: Well, thank you so much!
Felix Cartal: Thanks for having me.
The Interview.
from Dance Music – Nexus Radio http://bit.ly/2vLKKx1
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Highly Agile Team Training: It’s A Jungle Out There
As much as I bemoan the inevitable spring arrival of our fresh-faced consultants (shameless plug: check out “Baby-Birds: A Care and Feeding Guide for In-House Counsel”), I can usually find a way to insulate myself from their never-ending fountain of theoretical opportunities for efficiency. What I can’t seem to duck is the quasi-mandatory trainings with outside consultants. You know the ones I’m talking about, the perky Stepford types who come armed with their seasoned smiles, personality quizzes, and pop-psychology theories that are targeted at making you a better version of your corporate self.
Since my company apparently signed up for one of those “consultants of the month” clubs and hasn’t figured out to how to quit yet, I’ve been subjected to quite a few of these. To date, I’m a blue INTJ eagle with reformer and Ravenclaw tendencies who is best suited to being a lawyer, reality television producer, or honey badger patronus. Thank goodness, I paid attention on career day in high school. I just don’t have the stomach for 90 Day Fiancé.
These days, I apparently also don’t have much of a stomach for consultants peddling what I can only describe as the “it’s so obvious, I can’t believe we’re paying good money for this” method.
Enter Highly Agile Team training. Allow me to summarize the three tenets of this method which will purportedly make you better suited to be a part of such a team.
Point one: Show up on time to meetings. End the damned things on time.
Point two: Set an agenda for said meetings. Send out the damned thing in advance of meeting so people have time to read it.
Point three: Be honest, open, and truthful (or, to use one of my new favorite, not at all an HR issue, acronyms — H.O.T. Yeah, that’s right. Go forth and be H.O.T.)
There, I just saved you half a million dollars in consulting fees.
Here’s the jaw-dropping part (okay, I grant you that the price tag is pretty jaw dropping in itself, but wait, there’s more): the business lapped this up like they’d never heard of such radical, outlandish behavior. Imagine, being punctual and prepared for a meeting, and saying what you mean instead of saying one thing at the meeting and dissecting it like an episode of Thrones the minute the meeting is over. What novelty! We could change the world! Or as I like to think of it, we could all be attorneys!
Seriously, I sat there watching my internal team members scribbling notes in their H.O.T.-branded notepads and gazing up at the consultants like they’d just cracked the code for calorie-free pizza. I started to wonder if maybe I’d grown too hard, too cynical, too unwilling to appreciate fresh perspective when it was offered.
And then the consultant wrote asses on the white board instead of assesses. So, no then.
I will say this for Arthur, consultant extraordinaire and purveyor of Highly Agile Team training and all things H.O.T., he could read the crowd well enough to know there were more than a few doubtful faces (thank you Quality and Safety VP). It didn’t take him long, but Arthur eventually narrowed his consultant’s gaze on me, taking on his most professorial tone.
“You read skeptical to me,” he says. “Crossed arms and closed off posture are body language symptoms indicating I don’t have your full buy-in.”
Instead of pointing out that body language symptoms make it sound like I have the fever and chills and in dire need of a decongestant, I offer Arthur a broad smile. “Oh no,” I say breezily, “I’m really enjoying this session. I just should have brought a cardigan with me.”
He eyes me, debating whether to move on and let it go or try and use me as some sort of shame-based teaching moment. He goes for the latter.
“So, Kay,” he says, squinting at my name placard, “how would you assess your H.O.T. behaviors? On a scale of one to 10.”
“I’m a solid eight, Arthur.” I know, I know. I’m a total 10 and so are you, dear reader. At least when compared with my seatmate, Andy from Sales, who I’m pretty sure hasn’t been able to find an open and honest conversation with two hands and a flashlight since the Reagan administration. But I don’t want to invite Arthur to pick on me further. We’re paying this guy by the hour.
“Pretty confident in your assessment, Kay.”
“She’s definitely an eight,” pipes up Randy from R&D. Thanks, buddy. I’ve never been so thankful to be described as an eight in my life.
“She’s the lawyer,” Jim from Finance adds.
Sensing a fellow bullshit artist, Arthur withdraws and declines to make eye contact with me for the remainder of the morning session. Smart move, Art. Smart move.
Once we’ve all had a turn assessing our H.O.T. behaviors (and that’s assess, friends, not asses), we move on to the part of training that everyone loathes — role playing. I brace myself as Arthur dutifully proceeds to move small teams through conflict-resolution role scenarios that are frankly as pleasurable as a root canal when the anesthesia has worn off.
Still, I learn a few things from watching my fellow business partners struggle. This is tough stuff for them. They don’t want to be blunt. They don’t want to have the difficult conversations. They don’t want to be perceived as anything other than amiable team players. And that’s where we add value. We’re not afraid of conflict — conflict and resolution is what we do best. We know that when two parties are motivated enough, there’s always a path forward, even if it means cutting our way through a jungle of barbs and ankle-turning twists to find it.
Hours later and sick to death of role playing, we reach the pinnacle of our H.O.T.ness. We use our newly acquired skills to look inward and decide … what animal would I be in the corporate jungle? Seriously, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment, since as you regular readers know, I love to wax poetic in these columns as to my trials and tribulations in the in-house jungle.
My business partners pick solid, if predictable picks: Lions (courageous leaders), cheetahs (fast and agile), and monkeys (fun and clever). Bless the Quality and Safety VP who deadpans that he’s the baboon from The Lion King, a little wild-haired and crazy, but generally in the right.
Warily, Arthur turns to me. “What about you, Kay?”
“I’m an African honey bee,” I say sweetly.
“A honey bee?” He doesn’t want to ask, but he just can’t help himself. “Please elaborate.”
“I’m a hard-working team player with just a bit of a sting when needed.” Actually, what I really want to do is have my watershed Network moment here and tell him I’m the one-eyed crocodile you never see coming, rising from the murk to rid the corporate watering hole of the weak all in the name of keeping the company herd strong. I don’t say this, mind you, because I like my job and it’s easier to do my job if my business people think I’m a nice person. Or at least a useful person who can help them navigate their way out of the jungle to yes.
I do get at least one other unexpected joy out of this particular training. I get to decide what jungle animal Arthur (and others of his ilk) would be. After much deliberation, I settle on the majestic capybara. Not because I have any idea what their function is in the jungle, but because they are the largest of the rodent species.
Kay Thrace (not her real name) is a harried in-house counsel at a well-known company that everyone loves to hate. When not scuffing dirt on the sacrosanct line between business and the law, Kay enjoys pub trivia domination and eradicating incorrect usage of the Oxford comma. You can contact her by email at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @KayThrace.
Highly Agile Team Training: It’s A Jungle Out There republished via Above the Law
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Marvel Trailer Madness 2.0
Marvel is really on a roll! Okay, it wasn’t exactly in the same week like last time, but still. It was pretty soon after Marvel gave us a special look at the upcoming Captain Marvel, that we finally got our first look at Spider-Man Far From Home! And that’s not all, there were some trailers that aired during the Super Bowl for not only Captain Marvel but also for Avengers Endgame! So I just thought to put them all in 1 post. Let’s discuss!
Captain Marvel Special Look
I think this trailer was more to show off Carol’s personality and oh my I love her already! So it starts with Carol on a motorcycle on her way to meet Nick Fury in some sort of bar. And they are talking about the Skrulls that have infiltrated earth. We see a shot of a Skrull shapeshifting and it looks painful af (insert ‘that shit hurted’ vine). Then we see Carol in the subway again, beating that old lady. After she’s done she’s blowing her hair out of her face, like oh yeah, I just did that haha. After that Carol is proving to Nick that she’s not a Skrull, which is a pretty funny scene. We then go to the Kree planet (still looks stunning), see Jude Law’s character (whatever his name is haha) fighting/training Carol. A few seconds later we see some shots that we have already seen before in the other trailers (her accident, Carol on top of the subway) and some more shots of that epic space battle (her power!). Finally, we have a little bit at the end with Carol and Nick again. Best line: “Says the space soldier who was wearing a rubber suit.”. LOVE IT, Carol’s face afterward is priceless, haha.
Here are my favorite shots:
Spider-Man Far From Home Teaser Trailer
Well, this is way more than a teaser trailer! They showed so much stuff, I’m still surprised by that. So we start out with Spider-Man at this support for the homeless event with Aunt May. I guess she took the fact that Peter is Spider-Man pretty good by the looks of it. Then Happy walks with a huge check signed by Pepper Potts! (as some people have pointed out). We have some exchanges between Happy and Aunt May, which results in a very confused Peter (you and me both Spidey). You can see Peter packing for his school trip to Europe. Which I am pretty stoked about because I live in Europe! You can see him picking up some stuff at Delmar’s with a quick cameo from Mr. Delmar himself. We then have a shot of Peter swinging in New York while he’s on his phone (don’t text and swing people). May asks if he has packed everything, including his suit. Which he is NOT taking with him, not so smart Peter. Europe would love a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! Although I bet everything that happened in Infinity War and possibly even Endgame has had a big impact on him and now he just wants to have soke fun with his friends. Then we go to Venice and the gang’s all back together. We have some shots of Peter and MJ interacting with each other, so cute! Now comes my favorite part! Nick Fury finally meets Spider-Man. I loved how they revealed he was in the room. I was so shocked when Ned got shot I was like what’s happening?! Then I heard Fury and I almost screamed from excitement. Next up are a lot of shots. Nick and Peter are on a boat off to who knows where, the gang is now in London, we get our first look at the new red and black suit (which looks AMAZING), Fury and Maria Hill (I think) are shooting at some monster, some more actions shots. For the finale, Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. He looks great, his powers look really Doctor Strange like to me. Last but not least, we have Flash praising Spider-Man and right after that he's insulting Peter, which is hilarious.
So the movie looks amazing. I can’t wait for all the Peter and Nick Fury interactions. I’m just really excited about this one! Here are my favorite shots:
Captain Marvel Big Game TV Spot
Only 30 seconds, but boy do we have some great moments in this trailer! The best thing about this trailer is obviously the Higher, Further, Faster chant and scene! This will be in a lot of my Instagram captions! So we have Carol and Maria Rambeau at the air base about to kick some major ass! Just like Maverick and Goose have a catchphrase, so do Carol and Maria! HIGHER FURTHER FASTER, BABY! Oh, I love it! So a quick summary of what we see in those 30 seconds: Carol is fighting off some weird ships in the air, she’s in this awesome uniform standing up (it looks to be some form of ceremony), she’s fighting Jude Law again, Nick Fury walking with a pretty serious look on his face & Carol being a badass in space! Not a lot of new stuff, but I loved it!
Only 13 days left! I'm seeing it March 8th. In The Netherlands it opens on the 6th so I might go to one before the 8th as well, but we’ll see. Here are my favorite shots:
Avengers Endgame Big Game TV Spot
Saved the best for last! Again only 30 seconds, however, it’s all new footage! So the trailer starts out showing us all the fallen Avengers (I miss you guys). The logo gets dusted AGAIN. The first thing that came to mind with those first shots of the actual trailer: darkness. I honestly think the movie is going to have a very dark tone following the evens of Infinity War. Anyways we see a very abandoned New York City. Then we go to a support group which Steve is attending and he looks pissed. And he says: “Some people move on, but not us.” Which twitter has turned into a meme. If you listen closely it kind of sounds like he says bananas and now that’s all I hear when I see this trailer haha. Okay, moving on. The music intensifies and we see Tony and Nebula working together, the team outside of the Avengers compound looking up to the sky (is this Tony coming back to Earth after fixing the Benatar with Nebula?!), ROCKET somewhere on Earth, Natasha practicing her shots (maybe she’s just blowing off steam, cause she hits the mark every time), War Machine and Ant-Man are suiting up. Now we see Thor on what looked to me like Thanos’s farm/planet. However, my sister said that it also looked like Wakanda and it does. So I’m not sure where he is but he doesn’t look too happy. Next up we have Clint with what seems like his arrows on his back (I literally have no idea where he is), Cap strapping on his shield (he’s even shaking if you look closely) and finally a gorgeous shot of the team at the compound! Even Rocket is in there, he’s so cute!
I love how all the Endgame trailers have given nothing away but still make me so excited for this movie! This movie is the one I have been looking forward to ever since Infinity War ended and I can’t believe we’re so close to it! Only 2 months left. Hang in there everyone. Here are my favorite shots:
Those were all the trailers! I really enjoyed making this one and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Which Marvel movie of 2019 are you looking forward to the most?
Stay flawless and have a marvelous day!
XO
Yenai
#Entertainment#marvel#avengers endgame#endgame spoilers#captain marvel#captain marvel spoilers#spier-man far from home#far from home#mcu
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Danger Signs, Aurora Climbs, Morgan Stanley’s Fine
Danger Signs, Aurora Climbs, Morgan Stanley’s Fine:
IPOooo … Oh My God, We’re Going to Crash!
Hey, I heard you missed us … we’re back! (Yeah.) I brought my pencil. Gimme something to write on, man!
Sorry about the two-day hiatus, but life happens. While I was away, the market broke out to fresh all-time highs. The Dow is above 29,000, and market bulls are eyeing 30,000. Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, and everyone gets delusions of grandeur!
But there’s one thing that didn’t change while I was out. As usual, with the advent of new market highs come the inevitable “the last time this happened, everything went to hell” articles. Today’s “clear danger sign” example comes from MarketWatch.
The article interviews AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSE: HDGE) manager Brad Lamensdorf. It opens with the comical line: “When pigs squeal, feed them.”
Excuse me while I try not to have Deliverance flashbacks here.
The “pigs” comment refers to an age-old adage on Wall Street. When investors are craving overhyped initial public offerings (IPOs), investment bankers will feed those “pigs” with more overhyped IPOs. But, as Lamensdorf notes, this can be a “clear danger sign.” He elaborates:
Over-priced IPOs usually occur toward the end of a long bull run when stocks in general become very overpriced. Why does this happen? Generally because investors have lost their sense of reality. They are willing to buy stocks on hyped stories instead of the facts.
(It kills me that we can’t edit direct quotations. Why two different spellings for “overpriced,” Brad? Why?)
The last time we saw this kind of excessive exuberance and resurgence in failed IPOs was 1999, aka the dot-com bust.
The Takeaway:
The dot-com bust is the new “Black Monday” (which was the new 1929 crash, which was the new Panic of 1907, yada, yada, yada). It’s brought up every time a new indicator gives the impression that the current bull market run is ending. It’s the Godwin’s law of finance.
Now, I agree with Lamensdorf that many investors in the IPO market lost their ever-loving minds last year. Following the WeWork debacle, the IPO market all but imploded. Speculative venture capital investors became much more conservative after former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann took them for a ride.
The problem with screaming “the sky is falling” every time an indicator throws off a bearish signal is that, eventually, no one will believe you … Chicken Little.
This indicator is no different. Unlike 1999, the entire market isn’t driven by IPOs. Back then, investors were fixated on any and every internet dot-com company. It didn’t matter that most of those companies’ business plans were written on fast food napkins — if they had one at all.
Dot-com companies were the market back in 1999. IPOs are not the market in 2020, nor were they in 2019. If they were, we would be talking about WeWork like we talk about Bear Stearns and the financial crisis.
Is this explosion of losses in the IPO market concerning? Sure. Is it bad for speculative IPO investors? Definitely. Will it stop the current bull run? Nope.
The current market is so much more than just overhyped IPOs. It will take more than this one indicator to give a “clear danger sign” for the market as a whole.
In the meantime … you know what to do after you feed the pigs, right? You make bacon!
I can think of no better way to bring home the bacon than by joining Paul Mampilly’s True Momentum research service.
Paul sifts through the stock market’s scruff so you don’t have to. Instead, he recommends standout stocks that are primed to soar higher.
And as this bull run continues, you’ll need stocks with true momentum to keep the bacon — er, gains — rolling in.
Click here to see why Paul’s True Momentum is your perfect companion for the 2020 bull market.
Good: It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby
What you wanna do, be traders? Investment bankers? Gains-makers?
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) just made bank on earnings … we’ll call it money for short. The investment banking giant blew Wall Street’s expectations away, posting a profit of $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter. The consensus was looking for $1.02 per share.
Revenue soared 27% to $10.86 billion, bro. Now that’s some green. Know what I mean?
But Morgan didn’t make its money wheeling and dealing in equities and trading, no. Morgan got paid in the fixed-income market, where revenue surged 126% to $1.27 billion.
It’s certainly an unexpected turn of events, given that we’re 10 years into a bull market, but being less aggressive paid off big-time for Morgan Stanley.
It’s also a nice contrast to the woes plaguing the IPO market right now. A word to the wise from Morgan Stanley: You don’t need to be aggressive across the board to grow your wealth.
Better: Lifting the Cannabis Haze
Dude … wait … what happened? Oh, we were running a business! I guess we should, like, fix it or something.
I’m not sure if the cannabis market has fixed itself yet or not, but investors certainly think the sector has baked long enough.
Pot stocks have made a comeback in the past week, and former Great Stuff favorite Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) is showing signs of life … thanks to Cowen analyst Vivien Azer.
Azer reported on the ICR Conference this morning, telling clients that Aurora’s management was working with creditors to restructure its debt.
She also noted that the Canadian cannabis firm looks to control spending and focus on sales. (Focus on sales?! Duuude … that’s a great idea! We should totally sell this stuff.)
As part of her note to clients, Azer reported that sales of Aurora’s Cannabis 2.0 products (such as gummies and chocolates) exceeded expectations. Azer then reiterated her outperform rating with a $4.61 price target on the stock.
So far this week, ACB shares are up nearly 40%. While this is good for investors, the stock remains down more than 70% in the past year. What’s more, Wall Street may not be convinced to buy back into ACB until the company reports earnings next month.
Best: Squeezing Mr. Robot
iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) is about to go on a rampage, and there’s nothing Will Smith can do about it this time.
Beaten down by an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, iRobot finally got some relief this week when both sides signed the “phase 1” trade agreement.
Doing so lessened tariff pressures on iRobot, which has an extensive supply/manufacturing chain running through China.
With a sigh of relief, investors returned to this outperforming home-robotics specialist in droves. The stock is up more than 15% in the past two weeks, with bullish sentiment driving IRBT above psychological resistance at $50. (And you thought psychology and robots didn’t mix!)
While the rally has investors excited, short sellers are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. According to ShortSqueeze.com, more than 46% of iRobot’s float (i.e., shares available for public trading) are sold short. In other words, nearly half of all IRBT shares on the market are shorted.
This is a powder keg just waiting to explode for IRBT. All it’ll take is one little spark to send the shares skyrocketing as short sellers rush to avoid potentially heavy losses. (Just look at what happened to Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), which more than doubled in just a few months due to short sellers covering their sold positions.)
The catalyst for such a move could be something as benign as IRBT shares moving above technical resistance at $55. Or, it could be next month’s quarterly earnings report. Either way, IRBT is primed and ready to run.
You Marco. I Polo.
It’s Reader Feedback time!
It’s been a bit of a rough week, and I feel like we could use some encouragement around here. (I know I could, at least.) So today, I’m going to be a bit shameless and share some of the great things you have to say about Great Stuff.
Let’s start with this short-but-sweet email from Barbara M.:
Thanks for all the laughs! Love, love your writing! Keep it up. Get your mind out of the gutter, as someone just said.
Thank you, Barbara! But I’m afraid that if I took my mind out of the gutter, there wouldn’t be anything left of it. (My mind or the gutter … I’ll let you decide which.)
Next, we have this delightful feedback from Dawn B.:
OK, I admit, I just read my first Great Stuff email — love it! But tell me again, what happened to the little boy who said the king had no clothes on? (Isn’t that what the derivatives excuse was all about? “Don’t worry, I can’t explain it and you wouldn’t understand it anyhow, just the brainiacs in the financial markets, the nerds!”)
Love your sense of humor and your no-nonsense assessment of the information. What I’m curious about is all this information and misinformation — some of it coming from the president himself! So, how do we know what’s real and what’s Memorex?
Thanks again for a refreshing, witty, delightful read!
I completely forgot about those commercials! “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Here’s a little Ella Fitzgerald commercial for those who don’t remember.
(For you young’uns out there: Back in the day, we had to record music and videos on these things called cassette tapes and VHS tapes. It was barbaric, and we liked it.)
I’m glad you love Great Stuff, Dawn! And if you’re worried about all the misinformation out there, just keep it dialed in to Great Stuff and BanyanHill.com. We’ve got you covered.
If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.
And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.
That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Until next time, good trading!
Regards,
Joseph Hargett
Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing
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IPOooo … Oh My God, We’re Going to Crash!
Hey, I heard you missed us … we’re back! (Yeah.) I brought my pencil. Gimme something to write on, man!
Sorry about the two-day hiatus, but life happens. While I was away, the market broke out to fresh all-time highs. The Dow is above 29,000, and market bulls are eyeing 30,000. Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, and everyone gets delusions of grandeur!
But there’s one thing that didn’t change while I was out. As usual, with the advent of new market highs come the inevitable “the last time this happened, everything went to hell” articles. Today’s “clear danger sign” example comes from MarketWatch.
The article interviews AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSE: HDGE) manager Brad Lamensdorf. It opens with the comical line: “When pigs squeal, feed them.”
Excuse me while I try not to have Deliverance flashbacks here.
The “pigs” comment refers to an age-old adage on Wall Street. When investors are craving overhyped initial public offerings (IPOs), investment bankers will feed those “pigs” with more overhyped IPOs. But, as Lamensdorf notes, this can be a “clear danger sign.” He elaborates:
Over-priced IPOs usually occur toward the end of a long bull run when stocks in general become very overpriced. Why does this happen? Generally because investors have lost their sense of reality. They are willing to buy stocks on hyped stories instead of the facts.
(It kills me that we can’t edit direct quotations. Why two different spellings for “overpriced,” Brad? Why?)
The last time we saw this kind of excessive exuberance and resurgence in failed IPOs was 1999, aka the dot-com bust.
The Takeaway:
The dot-com bust is the new “Black Monday” (which was the new 1929 crash, which was the new Panic of 1907, yada, yada, yada). It’s brought up every time a new indicator gives the impression that the current bull market run is ending. It’s the Godwin’s law of finance.
Now, I agree with Lamensdorf that many investors in the IPO market lost their ever-loving minds last year. Following the WeWork debacle, the IPO market all but imploded. Speculative venture capital investors became much more conservative after former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann took them for a ride.
The problem with screaming “the sky is falling” every time an indicator throws off a bearish signal is that, eventually, no one will believe you … Chicken Little.
This indicator is no different. Unlike 1999, the entire market isn’t driven by IPOs. Back then, investors were fixated on any and every internet dot-com company. It didn’t matter that most of those companies’ business plans were written on fast food napkins — if they had one at all.
Dot-com companies were the market back in 1999. IPOs are not the market in 2020, nor were they in 2019. If they were, we would be talking about WeWork like we talk about Bear Stearns and the financial crisis.
Is this explosion of losses in the IPO market concerning? Sure. Is it bad for speculative IPO investors? Definitely. Will it stop the current bull run? Nope.
The current market is so much more than just overhyped IPOs. It will take more than this one indicator to give a “clear danger sign” for the market as a whole.
In the meantime … you know what to do after you feed the pigs, right? You make bacon!
I can think of no better way to bring home the bacon than by joining Paul Mampilly’s True Momentum research service.
Paul sifts through the stock market’s scruff so you don’t have to. Instead, he recommends standout stocks that are primed to soar higher.
And as this bull run continues, you’ll need stocks with true momentum to keep the bacon — er, gains — rolling in.
Click here to see why Paul’s True Momentum is your perfect companion for the 2020 bull market.
Good: It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby
What you wanna do, be traders? Investment bankers? Gains-makers?
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) just made bank on earnings … we’ll call it money for short. The investment banking giant blew Wall Street’s expectations away, posting a profit of $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter. The consensus was looking for $1.02 per share.
Revenue soared 27% to $10.86 billion, bro. Now that’s some green. Know what I mean?
But Morgan didn’t make its money wheeling and dealing in equities and trading, no. Morgan got paid in the fixed-income market, where revenue surged 126% to $1.27 billion.
It’s certainly an unexpected turn of events, given that we’re 10 years into a bull market, but being less aggressive paid off big-time for Morgan Stanley.
It’s also a nice contrast to the woes plaguing the IPO market right now. A word to the wise from Morgan Stanley: You don’t need to be aggressive across the board to grow your wealth.
Better: Lifting the Cannabis Haze
Dude … wait … what happened? Oh, we were running a business! I guess we should, like, fix it or something.
I’m not sure if the cannabis market has fixed itself yet or not, but investors certainly think the sector has baked long enough.
Pot stocks have made a comeback in the past week, and former Great Stuff favorite Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) is showing signs of life … thanks to Cowen analyst Vivien Azer.
Azer reported on the ICR Conference this morning, telling clients that Aurora’s management was working with creditors to restructure its debt.
She also noted that the Canadian cannabis firm looks to control spending and focus on sales. (Focus on sales?! Duuude … that’s a great idea! We should totally sell this stuff.)
As part of her note to clients, Azer reported that sales of Aurora’s Cannabis 2.0 products (such as gummies and chocolates) exceeded expectations. Azer then reiterated her outperform rating with a $4.61 price target on the stock.
So far this week, ACB shares are up nearly 40%. While this is good for investors, the stock remains down more than 70% in the past year. What’s more, Wall Street may not be convinced to buy back into ACB until the company reports earnings next month.
Best: Squeezing Mr. Robot
iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) is about to go on a rampage, and there’s nothing Will Smith can do about it this time.
Beaten down by an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, iRobot finally got some relief this week when both sides signed the “phase 1” trade agreement.
Doing so lessened tariff pressures on iRobot, which has an extensive supply/manufacturing chain running through China.
With a sigh of relief, investors returned to this outperforming home-robotics specialist in droves. The stock is up more than 15% in the past two weeks, with bullish sentiment driving IRBT above psychological resistance at $50. (And you thought psychology and robots didn’t mix!)
While the rally has investors excited, short sellers are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. According to ShortSqueeze.com, more than 46% of iRobot’s float (i.e., shares available for public trading) are sold short. In other words, nearly half of all IRBT shares on the market are shorted.
This is a powder keg just waiting to explode for IRBT. All it’ll take is one little spark to send the shares skyrocketing as short sellers rush to avoid potentially heavy losses. (Just look at what happened to Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), which more than doubled in just a few months due to short sellers covering their sold positions.)
The catalyst for such a move could be something as benign as IRBT shares moving above technical resistance at $55. Or, it could be next month’s quarterly earnings report. Either way, IRBT is primed and ready to run.
You Marco. I Polo.
It’s Reader Feedback time!
It’s been a bit of a rough week, and I feel like we could use some encouragement around here. (I know I could, at least.) So today, I’m going to be a bit shameless and share some of the great things you have to say about Great Stuff.
Let’s start with this short-but-sweet email from Barbara M.:
Thanks for all the laughs! Love, love your writing! Keep it up. Get your mind out of the gutter, as someone just said.
Thank you, Barbara! But I’m afraid that if I took my mind out of the gutter, there wouldn’t be anything left of it. (My mind or the gutter … I’ll let you decide which.)
Next, we have this delightful feedback from Dawn B.:
OK, I admit, I just read my first Great Stuff email — love it! But tell me again, what happened to the little boy who said the king had no clothes on? (Isn’t that what the derivatives excuse was all about? “Don’t worry, I can’t explain it and you wouldn’t understand it anyhow, just the brainiacs in the financial markets, the nerds!”)
Love your sense of humor and your no-nonsense assessment of the information. What I’m curious about is all this information and misinformation — some of it coming from the president himself! So, how do we know what’s real and what’s Memorex?
Thanks again for a refreshing, witty, delightful read!
I completely forgot about those commercials! “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Here’s a little Ella Fitzgerald commercial for those who don’t remember.
(For you young’uns out there: Back in the day, we had to record music and videos on these things called cassette tapes and VHS tapes. It was barbaric, and we liked it.)
I’m glad you love Great Stuff, Dawn! And if you’re worried about all the misinformation out there, just keep it dialed in to Great Stuff and BanyanHill.com. We’ve got you covered.
If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.
And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.
That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Until next time, good trading!
Regards,
Joseph Hargett
Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing
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Aug 6, 2019
1. “Southern Charm” star Shep Rosewon’t back down after mocking a woman for collecting cans on the streets of New York. On Monday night, Rose posted a video making fun of a woman sitting on the street next to several trash bags filled with cans. Although the woman covered her face with her hands, he recorded her anyway and can be heard saying: “Look at me. Nice cans! I mean, the cans you have!” He captioned his Instagram story, “I love double entendres. Yes she was camera shy. But she laughed.”After Rose shared the video, social media erupted with backlash.
One Twitter user screen-recorded the video and posted itto emphasize disappointment in Rose’s behavior, writing: “Is this Southern Charm? … Cheap way to get ‘laughs’ from followers but there is nothing funny about homelessness. I’m DONE w/ him.”
Rose responded to the fan in her Twitter comments by saying: “Omg. I offended you! Ok. Here’s the plan, sensitivity training 5 times a week. Then intensive therapy (hot yoga?) followed by a public flogging in the town square. Then i move to Siberia and live in an igloo for 4 months. At this point. I think I’ll be cleansed of your disapproval.”
To another commenter who expressed upset, Rose, unbothered, wrote on Twitter, “Unfollow then. No big deal.” Rose also refused to clarify what he considered comedic about the situation. “Doesn’t matter. You follow me. You can easily get out of the situation. It’s not a binding contract. I am not responsible for your happiness. If i miss the mark in your mind just keep scrolling,” he said.
Bravo declined to comment.
2. Cameron Diaz truly took the plunge when she married Benji Madden. In a rare interview, Diaz spoke to InStyle about her very private marriage to the Good Charlotte rocker. “I don’t know if I was ready [when I got married], but I knew Benji was special. He’s just a good man,” she told the magazine of their 2015 nuptials. “There’s no bulls–t. It’s really refreshing. I’m really grateful for him. I like doing my own thing.” Diaz, 46, also said her marriage to Madden was “the best thing” to ever happen to her. “My husband’s the best. He’s the greatest human being, and he’s my great partner,” she shared. “Marriage is certainly hard, and it’s a lot of work. You need somebody who’s willing to do the work with you, because there’s no 60-40 in marriage. It’s 50-50, period. All the time.” The former actress — she officially announced her retirement from Hollywood in March 2018 — previously said she waited until 41 to get married because she hadn’t found the right person.“I think it’s a matter of I just hadn’t met my husband, you know? I had boyfriends before. And there’s a really, really distinct difference between husbands and boyfriends,” Diaz told pal Gwyneth Paltrow at a live event. “And I have a husband who is just my partner in life and in everything. Talk about two very different people! We are so different from one another, but we share the same values — we’re totally two peas in a pod. We are both just weird enough for each other.”
3. Jeff Bezos ditched last week’s pretentious Google Camp in Italy to meet girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s parents, but the couple has apparently now jetted off to Europe to party with the elite.Billionaire Dreamworks founder David Geffen — who attended Google Camp, even giving Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom a rideon his $400 million yacht — posted a group photo to Instagram Tuesday morning that included both Bezos and Sanchez aboard the massive boat. “Having a great time in the Balearics,” Geffen captioned the picture, taken off the coast of eastern Spain. Also in the photo were Joshua Kushner and supermodel wife Karlie Kloss, ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, agent Michael Kives and lawyer Lydia Gray Kives, and entrepreneur and oil heir Mikey Hess, who is reportedly engaged to Meghan Markle’s designer pal Misha Nonoo. Megayachts like Geffen’s — plus scores of private jets and gas-guzzling SUVs and sports cars — caused quite a stir at the three-day Google Camp, which was focused on climate change. Last week, instead of heading to the extravagant summit with the likes of Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey, the Amazon honcho, 55, met Sanchez’s parents, Eleanor and Ray Sanchez. A few days later, he joined Sanchez, 58, as her ex Tony Gonzalez, who is the father of her 18-year-old son Nikko Gonzalez, got inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Ohio.
4. One of the few women to hold an executive post at Tinder is suing parent companies IAC and Match Group as well as former CEO Greg Blatt for wrongful termination. Rosette Pambakian, Tinder's former Head of Communications, claims that Blatt barged into a hotel room after a 2016 holiday party and began 'forcibly groping [her] breasts and upper thighs, and kissing her shoulders, neck and chest.' This all happened 'without [her] consent' according to the lawsuit She states in the court filing, which was obtained by DailyMail.com, that she had been hiding from Blatt at the time of the alleged assault, retreating to the room after he said: 'I get hard every time I look at you. Let's get out of here.' Pambakian claims Blatt did apologize, but that her complaint was never fully investigated despite the fact that there were three witnesses present, including his executive assistant. She also notes that one day after Tinder's current CEO Sean Rad reported her allegations to executive at IAC and Match Group, 'Blatt exercised approximately 5 million stock options in Match Group, realizing over $44 million in value.' Pambakian claims that for the next two years she was 'marginalized, subject to additional harassing, offensive, and insulting behavior, put on administrative leave, publicly accused of consenting to her attacker’s advances, and finally, wrongfully terminated by Defendants' this past December.
The company would not comment on this new filing, and instead referred back to a previous statement that addressed these allegations.
'The Match Group Board – with the assistance of experienced outside counsel from two nationally recognized law firms – promptly conducted a careful and thorough investigation under the direction of independent Board members, concluded, among other things, that there was no violation of law or company policy, and took appropriate action.'
Pambakian and other Tinder executives sued Match and IAC seeking $2 billion a year ago for allegedly bilking them by manipulating financial information to create a lowball estimate of Tinder's value.
She also detailed the alleged assault in that filing, which the company stated was 'meritless.'
The suit states that she informed 'Blatt and Chief Human Resources Officer, Ms. Nelson, about the reporter’s inquiry' into the allegations, and that her 'own perpetrator' told her to instead 'explain the ways Tinder combats sexual harassment, and to throw the reporter off the story.'
Blatt was later asked to resign his post because of the assault according to Pambakian, who says that Blatt told her she would need to 'sign something' in order for him to be able to stay in his position.
At the time, she had just refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
She was placed on leave in August 2018 after she and other employees filed their lawsuit, and terminated on December 18 via email.
'Upon information and belief, Defendants terminated Plaintiff in retaliation for speaking out against Defendant Blatt for his sexual misconduct and for participating in a lawsuit against the Company Defendants related to her stock options,' states the filing.
'As a result of these actions, Plaintiff was forced to surrender millions of dollars in equity granted to her as compensation for her work as an executive at Tinder.'
Pambakian is seeking damages to be determined at trial for eight causes of action, including: Negligence, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Sexual Battery, Gender Violence, Ralph Act Violation, Negligent Misrepresentation, Wrongful Termination and Retaliation for Engaging in Protected Activity.
5. Tom Brady just finished his 20th Patriots training camp. The 42-year-old quarterback is taking this time to get his head back in the game while on a remote island in the Bahamas at a luxurious beach house with a fully-equipped gym and a practicing field. During his interview with Men's Health magazine, he spoke about getting ready for the next season, what he keeps in his fridge, and his pliability-focused workout routine.
Brady says he always starts with the massage table to get his muscles going for his workout. But while on the road, he never leaves home without his pliability roller.
'I use it always before my workouts—which is critical—and then always right after,' he said.
Then, he heads on over to the resistance bands and does drills such as squats, lunges, and some planks.
During his workout, he wore a shirt that said 'pliability' which he also said he 'does a lot of.'
The 16-time division champion says he tries to get in four to five workouts a week.
His favorite exercise? The butt blaster 'because it blasts my butt' and went on to say that he enjoys working out his legs. His glutes are his 'engine' which he adds he 'needs more of.'
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"My Content Obsessions for 2019" (Content Lab, Ep. 19)
Before we get started, I have an important piece of housekeeping to address -- Content Lab will now be coming to you on Fridays, instead of Wednesdays, at 11:30 a.m., Eastern.
Ladies, gentlemen, cats, dogs, otters, and squirrels -- it is 2019, and I am back, as is the Content Lab podcast! And man, I am excited.
For the vast majority of the past month, I've lived in a holiday-induced haze of drifting between eating pie and feeling shame about eating said pie while lifting at the gym. So, I am ready to shake off the cobwebs.
The best part about a new year is that it's a new beginning, clichéd as that may sound. I'm a big fan of fresh starts, so I want to spend this episode sharing with you what's on my mind for the coming year.
Both with content creation, and for the Content Lab.
Enjoy!
Listen to the Episode
What Will Be My Content Obsessions in 2019?
First, I want to think with a more video-first mindset. Or at least with a mindset that embraces video as equally as I do writing.
The obvious reason being that, while there will always be space for the written word, video is one of the most effective (and quickest) ways to establish trust with an audience or an individual, and foster a more human-to-human connection.
(Also, I after spending more than a week editing Myriah Anderson's utterly inspiring Video for Sales getting started guide -- which just launched this week at impactbnd.com/video-for-sales -- I kind of have video on the brain.)
So, one of my objectives for this year that I'm that I'm particularly excited about is ensuring IMPACT is a best-in-class example of how to use video in your content and marketing.
As part of that goal -- I'm pushing myself to create more video personally, even though I'm not terribly comfortable in front of a camera -- for email messages, articles for IMPACT, and more. Thankfully, I've got Vidyard GoVideo to help me out with that, which I'm more than a little obsessed with.
(Learn why I love Vidyard GoVideo.)
Next, I want to be more... open-minded about robots, and how AI will shape the future of what I do as a content creator.
I've always feared the moment when they would design an AI that could flawlessly mimic my writing style and endless devotion to the original Law & Order series. But after learning about what Forbes is doing with AI to empower their writers with a more bionic approach to robots, I'm intrigued.
For those who haven't heard about what Forbes is doing:
Forbes now uses a CMS called Bertie. Bertie uses artificial intelligence to suggest headlines and propose topics for contributors based on their publication history.
"That's nice."
OK, here's the "big deal" news. The team at Forbes is currently testing an AI-driven tool within Bertie that gives Forbes writers a very rough draft to build upon, instead of having them start a new article from scratch.
In addition to starting copy, this "rough draft" might include links to other resources -- both internally from Forbes, as well as other sites -- and images.
This is a big, big deal.
I mean, just imagine never having to be bossed around or mocked by a blank screen again. Never having to create something from nothing, because your new best robot friend had already curated some raw materials for the express purpose of empowering you to write something powerful and valuable.
It's this idea of content creation bionics -- of leveraging AI with a "How can we help humans?" approach, rather than a "How can replace humans?" one -- that I had never considered.
My only gripe when I first initially learned of this innovation, however, is that it seemed pretty much a luxury of those publishers and media giants with big budgets.
But yesterday, I was introduced to nDash.co's Content Brief, which is based off a similar model of providing an AI-researched brief on a search term input by a human, that they wish to write about:
I took it for a test drive with the term, "why website accessibility is important for businesses," and within minutes, I received an extensive set of resources in this content brief:
Unlike Bertie, which creates a rough draft, nDash's Content Brief is clearly a robot-aggregated set of statistics, summaries, and links.
That said, there's enough here for me to keep using it, because it brought together so many resources that I would have had to go out and independently mine for myself. Although, I'll still probably do a bit more research on my own, as well.
We're living in exciting times, content friends.
Third, I want to bring more order and focus to the idea of pillar content and topic cluster strategies.
I don't want to dive too deeply into what I mean by this at the moment, but for now, here is the problem I've identified. Search engines -- particularly Google -- favor websites with a limited number of focus areas. Preferably one.
While the topic cluster model brings some semblance of order to content strategies that were once completely arbitrary, we're still not too far away from organizations having... well, tons of random topic clusters floating around in cyberspace, disconnected from each other.
My goal this year is to solve for that in a way that brings even more order to the way we develop content strategies and helps us better network our content for search engine visibility.
So, stay tuned on that front.
Additionally, a goal I'm carrying over from last year is to continue to push the boundaries of what it means to create content that's as absurdly helpful as possible.
Our mission here at IMPACT is to be obsessed with leading those within our community -- readers, clients, whomever -- to success. To make your jobs easier every single day.
So, if I'm not pushing myself to give more, and do more, and show more, then I'm not doing my job.
That may sound overly simplistic, but we believe that is the core of what it means to be inbound. An innate sense of altruism, where you don't stress about hiding your secret sauce. Instead, you give it away for free.
I did that with my pillar on how to create a content style guide, and I was nervous. I literally gave away my whole process -- workshop guidelines, worksheets, templates, and all.
Then, I saw this message in IMPACT Elite, and I was blown away:
My goal is to create more moments like this for myself, and empower others inside and outside of IMPACT to do the same. That's what it's all about, folks.
Finally, I want to continue to innovate with Content Lab, so it is the most valuable podcast it can possibly be.
I've already spoken with a few of you and gotten invaluable feedback on what you love about the podcast already, and what is on your wishlist for Content Lab in the future.
Don't worry, you'll continue to hear interviews with some of the best content brains in the industry, and I'll still be sharing some of my favorite tips, tools, and tricks for being a rockstar content creator. My goal is to make sure I'm doing it in the most helpful way possible.
With that, happy 2019, everyone! I'm so excited to embark on this new year of content creation together.
Subscribe to the Content Lab Monthly Newsletter
Once a month, I'm going to send you an absurdly useful newsletter will tons of insights, tips, and tools for you to make your content amazing. It's that simple.
Here's what it looks like, so you know what shenanigans you're getting into with me:
So, what are you waiting for? Go to this page and sign-up.
Connect with Content Lab
Okay, first, you've gotta subscribe to Content Lab on Apple Podcasts. That way you'll never miss an episode!
Content Lab: Twitter, Instagram
Liz: Twitter, Instagram
Or you can comment on this episode below! I'd love to hear from you.
from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/content-lab-goals-for-2019
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Announcing the 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey
Posted by Whitespark
It has been another year (and a half) since the last publication of the Local Search Ranking Factors, and local search continues to see significant growth and change. The biggest shift this year is happening in Google My Business signals, but we’re also seeing an increase in the importance of reviews and continued decreases in the importance of citations.
Check out the full survey!
Huge growth in Google My Business
Google has been adding features to GMB at an accelerated rate. They see the revenue potential in local, and now that they have properly divorced Google My Business from Google+, they have a clear runway to develop (and monetize) local. Here are just some of the major GMB features that have been released since the publication of the 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors:
Google Posts available to all GMB users
Google Q&A
Website builder
Services
Messaging
Videos
Videos in Google Posts
These features are creating shifts in the importance of factors that are driving local search today. This year has seen the most explosive growth in GMB specific factors in the history of the survey. GMB signals now make up 25% the local pack/finder pie chart.
GMB-specific features like Google Posts, Google Q&A, and image/video uploads are frequently mentioned as ranking drivers in the commentary. Many businesses are not yet investing in these aspects of local search, so these features are currently a competitive advantage. You should get on these before everyone is doing it.
Here’s your to do list:
Start using Google posts NOW. At least once per week, but preferably a few times per week. Are you already pushing out posts to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? Just use the same, lightly edited, content on Google Posts. Also, use calls to action in your posts to drive direct conversions.
Seed the Google Q&A with your own questions and answers. Feed that hyper-relevant, semantically rich content to Google. Relevance FTW.
Regularly upload photos and videos. (Did you know that you can upload videos to GMB now?)
Make sure your profile is 100% complete. If there is an empty field in GMB, fill it. If you haven’t logged into your GMB account in a while, you might be surprised to see all the new data points you can add to your listing.
Why spend your time on these activities? Besides the potential relevance boost you’ll get from the additional content, you’re also sending valuable engagement signals. Regularly logging into your listing and providing content shows Google that you’re an active and engaged business owner that cares about your listing, and the local search experts are speculating that this is also providing ranking benefits. There’s another engagement angle here too: user engagement. Provide more content for users to engage with and they’ll spend more time on your listing clicking around and sending those helpful behavioral signals to Google.
Reviews on the rise
Review signals have also seen continued growth in importance over last year.
Review signals were 10.8% in 2015, so over the past 3 years, we’ve seen a 43% increase in the importance of review signals:
Many practitioners talked about the benefits they’re seeing from investing in reviews. I found David Mihm’s comments on reviews particularly noteworthy. When asked “What are some strategies/tactics that are working particularly well for you at the moment?”, he responded with:
“In the search results I look at regularly, I continue to see reviews playing a larger and larger role. Much as citations became table stakes over the last couple of years, reviews now appear to be on their way to becoming table stakes as well. In mid-to-large metro areas, even industries where ranking in the 3-pack used to be possible with a handful of reviews or no reviews, now feature businesses with dozens of reviews at a minimum — and many within the last few months, which speaks to the importance of a steady stream of feedback.
Whether the increased ranking is due to review volume, keywords in review content, or the increased clickthrough rate those gold stars yield, I doubt we'll ever know for sure. I just know that for most businesses, it's the area of local SEO I'd invest the most time and effort into getting right -- and done well, should also have a much more important flywheel effect of helping you build a better business, as the guys at GatherUp have been talking about for years.”
Getting keywords in your reviews is a factor that has also risen. In the 2017 survey, this factor ranked #26 in the local pack/finder factors. It is now coming in at #14.
I know this is the Local Search Ranking Factors, and we’re talking about what drives rankings, but you know what’s better than rankings? Conversions. Yes, reviews will boost your rankings, but reviews are so much more valuable than that because a ton of positive reviews will get people to pick up the phone and call your business, and really, that’s the goal. So, if you’re not making the most of reviews yet, get on it!
A quick to do list for reviews would be:
Work on getting more Google reviews (obviously). Ask every customer.
Encourage keywords in the reviews by asking customers to mention the specific service or product in their review.
Respond to every review. (Did you know that Google now notifies the reviewer when the owner responds?)
Don’t only focus on reviews. Actively solicit direct customer feedback as well so you can mark it up in schema/JSON and get stars in the search results.
Once you’re killing it on Google, diversify and get reviews on the other important review sites for your industry (but also continue to send customers to Google).
For a more in-depth discussion of review strategy, please see the blog post version of my 2018 MozCon presentation, “How to Convert Local Searchers Into Customers with Reviews.”
Meh, links
To quote Gyi Tsakalakis: “Meh, links.” All other things being equal, links continue to be a key differentiator in local search. It makes sense. Once you have a complete and active GMB listing, your citations squared away, a steady stream of reviews coming in, and solid content on your website, the next step is links. The trouble is, links are hard, but that’s also what makes them such a valuable competitive differentiator. They ARE hard, so when you get quality links they can really help to move the needle.
When asked, “What are some strategies/tactics that are working particularly well for you at the moment?” Gyi responded with:
“Meh, links. In other words, topically and locally relevant links continue to work particularly well. Not only do these links tend to improve visibility in both local packs and traditional results, they're also particularly effective for improving targeted traffic, leads, and customers. Find ways to earn links on the sites your local audience uses. These typically include local news, community, and blog sites.”
Citations?
Let’s make something clear: citations are still very valuable and very important.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s look at what’s been happening with citations over the past few surveys:
I think this decline is related to two things:
As local search gets more complex, additional signals are being factored into the algorithm and this dilutes the value that citations used to provide. There are just more things to optimize for in local search these days.
As local search gains more widespread adoption, more businesses are getting their citations consistent and built out, and so citations become less of a competitive difference maker than they were in the past.
Yes, we are seeing citations dropping in significance year after year, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need them. Quite the opposite, really. If you don’t get them, you’re going to have a bad time. Google looks to your citations to help understand how prominent your business is. A well established and popular business should be present on the most important business directories in their industry, and if it’s not, that can be a signal of lower prominence to Google.
The good news is that citations are one of the easiest items to check off your local search to do list. There are dozens of services and tools out there to help you get your business listed and accurate for only a few hundred dollars. Here’s what I recommend:
Ensure your business is listed, accurate, complete, and duplicate-free on the top 10-15 most important sites in your industry (including the primary data aggregators and industry/city-specific sites).
Build citations (but don’t worry about duplicates and inconsistencies) on the next top 30 to 50 sites.
Google has gotten much smarter about citation consistency than they were in the past. People worry about it much more than they need to. An incorrect or duplicate listing on an insignificant business listing site is not going to negatively impact your ability to rank.
You could keep building more citations beyond the top 50, and it won’t hurt, but the law of diminishing returns applies here. As you get deeper into the available pool of citation sites, the quality of these sites decreases, and the impact they have on your local search decreases with it. That said, I have heard from dozens of agencies that swear that “maxing out” all available citation opportunities seems to have a positive impact on their local search, so your mileage may vary. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The future of local search
One of my favorite questions in the commentary section is “Comments about where you see Google is headed in the future?” The answers here, from some of the best minds in local search, are illuminating. The three common themes I pulled from the responses are:
Google will continue providing features and content so that they can provide the answers to most queries right in the search results and send less clicks to websites. Expect to see your traffic from local results to your website decline, but don’t fret. You want those calls, messages, and driving directions more than you want website traffic anyway.
Google will increase their focus on behavioral signals for rankings. What better way is there to assess the real-world popularity of a business than by using signals sent by people in the real world. We can speculate that Google is using some of the following signals right now, and will continue to emphasize and evolve behavioral ranking methods:
Searches for your brand name.
Clicks to call your business.
Requests for driving directions.
Engagement with your listing.
Engagement with your website.
Credit card transactions.
Actual human foot traffic in brick-and-mortar businesses.
Google will continue monetizing local in new ways. Local Services Ads are rolling out to more and more industries and cities, ads are appearing right in local panels, and you can book appointments right from local packs. Google isn’t investing so many resources into local out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to build the ultimate resource for instant information on local services and products, and they want to use their dominant market position to take a cut of the sales.
And that does it for my summary of the survey results. A huge thank you to each of the brilliant contributors for giving their time and sharing their knowledge. Our understanding of local search is what it is because of your excellent work and contributions to our industry.
There is much more to read and learn in the actual resource itself, especially in all the comments from the contributors, so go dig into it:
Click here for the full results!
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