#even if he does not win the poll I’ll use him somehow at some point. in the future or something | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gretavanbrie · 6 months

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Landslide (J.T.K.)

Summary: You’ve loved him for as long as you can remember, does he feel the same?

Pairings: Jake Kiszka x F!Reader

Warnings: no smut for this part just pure ANGST ;), established friendship, swearing, unrequited love, light portrayal of anger, jake & y/n are a little dramatic but aren’t we all?? mentions of childhood, alcohol consumption… if I missed anything lmk, I’ll fix it no issue!!

A/N: I’m actually really excited for this one!! This is based on the winning answer of this poll I did, if you guys are looking for a bit more context on what this is about. I may have hurt my own feelings a couple times amidst writing this, I had my Jake lane friend read it and she was not too happy with me so hopefully this will strike a nerve for you guys as well!! If not that’s cool too! My writing is pretty sporadic so I’m gonna try and put out as much content as I can if you guys end up liking this story. I’m a waitress so my hours are long and unpredictable I do apologize in advance lol. I’m debating on if I should leave this as is, or make two long parts, or even start a mini series…not too sure yet but lmk what you think!!! Also this is vaguely proof read. If there are any mistakes, bare with me.

Part 2 | Part 3

Here you were, standing in front of the mirror, clammy hands nervously smoothing down the fabric of the dress you adorned. You made it a point to pull out all of the stops today, you’d washed and beautifully dried your hair. You gave one last look at your makeup before running your hands through your hair and heading to grab your bag. You let out a shaky breath picking up your phone.

The boys were back from tour and some mutual friends were having a little gathering as a welcome back. Any other time you wouldn’t have been so uneasy but the conversation you had with Josh had been replaying in your head the entire time they’ve been gone.

“Are you ever going to tell him?” You immediately recognize that voice.

Everyone was outside as the small farewell party for the commence of the tour had somehow migrated towards the backyard of Josh’s lovely home. You clear your throat in an attempt to rid the uneasiness in your voice.

“Excuse me?” You turn setting down the bottle of wine you were going to pour for yourself. He stood at the entryway of the kitchen as you feigned a confused expression to which he saw right through.

“Y/n..we may not hang out as much as you and my brother do but I still know you just as well. If not more, it seems” you just stared at him for a moment trying to find a good way out of this before quickly turning around and finished pouring yourself a glass. With your back still turned you speak up knowing there’s no use in hiding it anymore, if there was one person you could trust with this information it would be him.

“It’s just not a conversation to be had, he’s my best friend nothing more. It’s just a silly crush it’ll go away” you waved your hand to seemingly brush it off as you turned to face him. Not the whole truth, but not necessarily a lie? God you didn’t even believe yourself, how could you expect him to. You brought the glass to your lips letting the smooth red ease your nerves.

“A silly crush that’s lasted since senior year?” The minute those words left his mouth your eyes widened in shock. Quickly swallowing to refrain from spitting your drink all over his nice white shirt.

“What do you mean by that?” you stare inquisitively not knowing he was privy to just how deep this ‘silly crush’ had run.

“Oh c’mon don’t play coy. Like I said, I know you. We were friends first..lest you forget.” You giggled recalling the vague memory of 2nd grade recess, he stepped further into the room before continuing on.

“You keep too much to yourself, you’ve gotta stop sacrificing your own needs for the sake of what you think the other person wants. Disregard me as his brother for the time being, right now I’m coming to you as a friend. I’m not here to pressure you into telling him anything, that is your own decision to make. I just want you to ask yourself if this is what you really want. I mean come on your twenty-seven now y/n. You think I haven’t noticed that you’ve refused to see anyone since summer going into senior year?’

“That’s not true” you cut him off, defending yourself.

“I wasn’t completely celibate I was seeing that one guy Liam for some time… a-and Henry my sophomore year of college. I’m just not looking for anything.” Truth was, you were at one point. You convinced yourself getting under someone was the only way to get over another. Until you realized neither of them were Jake and that’s why you could never see them as a part of the long haul.

“And did you ever make it official with them? Or better yet, did they last any longer than 8 months?’ He challenged. You looked down at your feet defeated knowing there’s no use in denying any more. You know he knows. There was a beat of silence before you spoke up once more.

“I’d rather him be my friend than nothing at all, Josh.” you said quietly looking up at him as he embraced you in a hug running his hands through your hair.

You hear him sigh before he quietly speaks into your hair.

“I know.”

———————————————————————————

You shut your eyes and shook your head as if to rid the memory. You had wracked your brain enough about it. Josh was right and you knew it, it’s been nearly 10 years but you hadn’t always had feelings for Jake. For a while actually you would nearly gag at the mere thought. Albeit there wasn’t much room for romance during the pre-pubescent “cootie” stage of your life.

Your parents and the Kiszka’s became rather close throughout the years. You and the Kiszka clan wreaked borderline havoc growing up. With all the trouble you got into it was only a matter of time your parents would cross paths. Once they realized the five of you were inseparable they decided there was no use in staying strangers. Danny and his family soon came into the picture and you considered yourselves a bond to never be broken from that point on.

Although Jake had deemed you guy’s best friends summer going into 5th grade year, you were closest to Ronnie in high school. You were girls together. During the time of first periods and finding out boys can be attractive you migrated towards each other and found solace together within the testosterone-tainted group you had formed. You’d always struggled making friends, you didn’t normally speak unless spoken to. You weren’t necessarily shy, you just always felt like you didn’t really fit in with all the rest.

Once you crossed paths with Josh 2nd grade, he left you no choice but to be his friend. He was overly inviting and basically dragged you to join him on whatever crazy idea him and his twin had gotten into next. You chose to not complain given he was actually nice to you and took time in making sure to include you.

You had remained school friends for the years following, hangouts limited to recess and lunchtime until around the summer before 5th grade when you moved a few houses down from their own. You saw them playing outside from your bedroom window one day and begged your mom to run down there and greet your friends.

You and your ponytail came flying out of the house screaming “Josh! Jake! It’s me!!! From Ms. Crowley’s Class!!! I live by you now!!!”

“Y/n!! Is it really you!! We can play at home now!!” Josh exclaimed, his twins' smile growing ten fold.

“You have to meet my brother and sister, we can all play together now!” Jake said, calling out for Ronnie and Sam. You were quickly introduced to the two and although they were a couple years younger, you were kids, and found joy in whatever silly games you had come up with together nonetheless.

As you sat up against the tree cooling off from the intense game of freeze tag you all had just played, you saw Jake walk up and sit beside you.

“I can’t believe you moved close to my house, loser. Today was fun.” the boy said, ruffling your hair.

‘Hey! Quit! I’m not a loser.” you laughed pushing his arm away.

“Yea-huhh, that’s why you couldn’t catch me during tag.” he mocked, you squint your eyes at him playfully before pushing him away from you.

“That’s why you have cooties!” You retaliated feeling defensive now.

“See! Sore loooserrr” Jake sing-songed.

‘You’re being a meanie now Jakey, it’s just a game” you pouted looking to your feet. You probably were just being sensitive but you hadn’t known better. His expression softened realizing his words might’ve stricken a nerve.

“Oh come on, you know I’m kidding, you’re my new best friend. Especially now that we live so close” he said, lips tugging into a shy smile as he softly elbowed at your side. You whipped your head up to look at him

“You think I’m your best friend? You promise?” You said as hopeful eyes met his own. No one had ever made it a point to deem you as such. A friend is one thing, but a best friend was something far more special in your mind.

“Pinky promise.” he assured, hooking your smallest of fingers with his own.

————————————————————————————

The sentiment was sweet and you were thankful you had friends like them growing up, it made life a little easier knowing you had a constant. Easier until teenage hormones came into the picture and Jake was no longer your boy-ish ‘best friend’ and had started growing handsomely into his features. His face became more chiseled, his chest a bit more filled out, voice dropping a couple octaves lower and not to mention he grew taller. It all happened too fast for your awkward teenage self to process. One day he was regular old Jake and the next he was…hot.

So, you did what you thought was best. Denied any and all attraction and gaslighted yourself into thinking it would go away. It was Jacob for fucks sake, your life-long friend who you considered a brother to you. You and Ronnie had gotten suspiciously closer that year, you brushed it off as ‘needed girl time’ but as years passed you realized you were just trying to distract yourself from Jake in hopes that if you saw him less, the attraction would eventually metastasize.

Boy were you wrong because Jake was adamant on including you in every hangout as he began to gain popularity. You had convinced yourself things would drift off throughout high school, thinking the boys would deem themselves ‘too cool’ to hang with you now and the silly pinky promise he made would be brushed off as immature to him. But it wasn’t, he instead kept his promise. His friends soon becoming your own, girlfriends never lasting long because ‘you and Ronnie are more important to me than any other girl’ he says. Finding yourself at their house more often than you had expected for this new chapter of your life and before you knew it, you had grown closer than ever, and your growing crush more suppressed than ever.

You were shaken out of your thoughts as your phone began buzzing. An incoming call from none other than Veronica herself. You quickly picked it up, bringing the phone to your ear.

“Girl where are you?! You promised you’d be here by the time I got here” you heard her whine on the other end. “Everyone is already mingling, the boys are late yet again and I have no one!” You laughed into the line knowing she was just exaggerating.

“Oh come on Ron, it can’t be that bad you know Mike a-and Dave’s girlfriend.” You tried reasoning, knowing you’d be just as anxious if your friends hadn’t showed up just yet.

“I’m sure they’re already there, talk to them for a little bit okay? I’m sorry, I’m leaving now I just got caught up finding what to wear” you continued, not necessarily a lie although you didn’t want her to know the real reason you were stalling was because today could possibly change the entire trajectory of your life. Dramatic to say the least, but true.

“It’s okay y/n, I was giving you shit. I’ll be fine… wait a minute. Did you say you were looking for something to wear?? You’ve never cared about that stuff, who are you trying to look good forrrrrr?” she teased.

“‘Oh hush Ronnie, it's just been a while since I’ve gone out and felt hot. Just needed a boost of confidence today is all, no secret fella or anything” you giggled.

“Yet…” she laughed.

“Yea yea whatever, let me go so I can head over” you said grabbing your keys and slipping on your shoes.

“Okay okay, byeeee love you!” She said before quickly hanging up.

“Love you too” you said to no one in particular, smiling to yourself at your dear friend's abruptness.

There was no reason for you to be so nervous, it’s just the boys and Ronnie. It was Jake that had you so uneasy. You had replayed yours and Josh’s conversation enough times to knock some sense into yourself. You weren’t going to lay it on him full force but tonight was your chance to let your guard down and not shy away from him. Maybe even flirt, as best you could anyway, if things were smooth sailing. He’s been single for some time this was your chance to maybe plant a couple seeds. You wanted to see if there was even the slight off-chance he may just like you back and you’d be able to look back at how foolish keeping it from him was.

It was easier said than done as you started second guessing your entire look. You felt as though everyone would think you were trying too hard but that wasn’t the case, you’d gone out in more extravagant looks than the white linen sundress you settled on. It was flowy and stunning, casual but beautiful enough to make you feel at your best. Your hair cascaded beautifully down your back from your blowout, you put on your expensive perfume. You felt great, the only significant difference was that you wore a little extra makeup and you took the time to do your nails. You knew it was purely the anxiety talking. Plus, no one even knows how you feel about him other than Josh.

In attempts to calm yourself, your hand reaches for your phone as you stop at a light. Opening your Spotify you hit shuffle on your playlist. You sighed and smiled as the familiar guitar from Cannock Chase by Labi Siffre started playing. You and Jake loved this song, singing it on too many drunken nights to count. It truly was a beautiful song. You decided to just enjoy yourself and let the evening take its course rather than stressing out about it.

————————————————————————————

You pull into the long driveway of your friend Spencer’s house seeing all the cars parked out front. You find a good spot and walk up to the door seeing a few others talking by the front steps, you recognize his fiancé and smile politely walking towards her.

“My god, y/n is that you? You look absolutely stunning.” She smiled as she wrapped her arms around you before pulling away and linking arms, guiding you towards the entrance of her and Spencer’s shared home.

“Mmm and you always smell amazing, have you been inside yet? We missed you like crazy, Ronnie’s been inside waiting. I think the boys are here already though-“

“Thank you Claire, I appreciate it. I’ll be sure to find them” you cut her off smiling gently as you gave her hand one last squeeze before stepping inside. Claire is a lovely woman but has a bad habit of rambling, you find it endearing but others seem to tire of her rather quickly.

Upon crossing the threshold into their home you’re immediately greeted by the short brunette.

“Finally! The boys are here, come on, we've been wondering where you were.” You nervously laughed as Ronnie grabbed your hand and dragged you towards the backyard.

You weave through the small bunch of people gathered in the living room and kitchen before you walk through to the sliding door, stepping onto the patio. Josh spots you and immediately heads over to give you the warmest of hugs.

“I knew it was you, I’d recognize that perfume anywhere. Glad you could make it little one” you smiled in his embrace at his terms of endearment, your cheeks warmed at the sentiment.

“Thank you Joshy, I’m so happy to finally see you. It’s been far too long.” you smiled up at him before you were quickly swept away.

You startled as you felt strong arms wrap around your waist from behind lifting you up and twirling you. You laughed recognizing the familiar cologne, you see his chestnut brown locks as he sets you down.

“And who might this lovely lady be?” Jake jokes, stepping back to get a good look at you.

“What an extravagant greeting, I see you’ve been gone long enough to forget about a girl like me” you joked back, hand coming up to rest on our chest as you feigned a look of hurt. Your favorite bit with him now taking it’s course.

“Ahhh, nonsense. A girl like you? Unforgettable'' he assured in his familiar cockney accent flashing you that infamous smirk you’ve grown to love. You looked down bashfully as you blushed yet again. You’ve almost grown sick of how quickly he can turn you into mush, you know he means nothing by it. You can’t help but wish maybe he did.

“Oh come on, you’re just saying that.” You laughed as you walked over to pour yourself some wine. Opting for a white this time given your attire. God forbid your nerves get the better of you and you spill it all over yourself.

You can’t help but notice you and Jake had accidentally coordinated outfits. He bore a cream colored blazer, akin to his cream colored pants. The muted brown button up he had on underneath was unsurprisingly left open with a couple of his pendants decorating his chest. He looked handsome, to say the least.

“Hmm you don’t sound so excited to see your lifelong friend, I’ve been gone for months and this is the treatment I receive?” He exaggerates, giggles escaping between words not able to take himself seriously.

“I thought we were besties y/n” he laughs, feigning a hurt expression knowing that would make you crack.

You can’t help but let a giggle escape your lips, the joke now running dry.

“Alright, alright. I guessss I missed you '' you say, wrapping both your arms around his waist. He gives the quickest peck to the top of your head.

“It’s good to see you sunshine, been too long” he gives you one last squeeze, you smiled at the old nickname he called you as you pulled away.

“Did you forget about us?!” You hear Danny exclaim. You whipped your head towards the back door sliding closed as the self-proclaimed “better half” of the band stepped outside.

“How could I? With the million random voice notes I’m sent a day…not a chance” You tease walking up to hug Sam.

“Glad I could aid, you look fantastic y/n. Definitely better than when we left” Sam teased tapping his chin as if in deep thought.

“Hey! Not cool man.” you jokingly retort as Danny comes up to give you a side hug.

“Yeah your hair’s longer or something or..you put on blush? Fuck, I tried. I don’t know what girls do but you look great” Danny says pulling back to examine you, you blushed at all the sweet gestures.

“She’s always been a looker!” Josh blurts in his exaggerated Midwest accent, raising his brows giving you a cheeky smile. You giggle at his candor.

“Yeah? You’re like…glowing, I’m glad to see you so happy. Also I didn’t tell you when I saw you but I don’t know why you were nervous on what to wear, this dress looks beautiful on you” Ronnie says smoothing out the flyaways on the top of your head. You and Josh make eye contact, he flashes you a look knowing exactly why you were nervous before averting his eyes and taking a sip of his mixed drink.

“Thank you guys I really really appreciate it, but this is a celebration for you! We haven’t seen each other in quite some time, let's make the most of it yeah?” You say raising your glass.

Jake would never say it out loud because he loved teasing you, but you did look rather beautiful today. Sam was right, you looked different. Good different. Maybe it was the hair, or maybe it was having some stress-free months without them. Jake knew they could be quite the handful and maybe this time away from each other caused this new glow, so he thought.

Whatever it was, he admired the way your hair blew softly in the wind. How the midday sun had created the perfect glow on your skin. He especially loved how the sweetness of your perfume matched your sweet personality. He was extremely proud to have you in his life.

“Cheers to that!” Sam exclaims raising his seltzer can.

“Alright! First order of business now that we’re all here "Josh butts in, waving a finger in the air. We wait patiently for his supposed plans, all you hear is the faint music for a second before he speaks up again.

“Yeah.. I’ve got nothing. Although it is a rather beautiful day..” he continues looking around at the beautiful midday sunlight. The six of us break into laughter at his wit.

“Doesn’t Spencer have a pool table? I say we play a couple rounds and catch up?" Sam offers looking around for approval.

‘I’m in, everybody down?” Jake speaks up, moving to stand beside you. Hums of approval circulate as we all migrate inside towards the billiards table. Before you fully enter Spencer’s spare room you feel a hand on your lower back. Turning, you're met with Jake's familiar caramel eyes.

“Hey.. whenever you’ve got time, you mind if I get a word alone with you?” He asks. You should feel worried given the question but he seemed…excited? You couldn’t precisely read the emotion clouding his irises.

‘Um, sure. I-is everything okay” you couldn’t help the anxiety that burned in your chest.

“More than. Just gotta share something special with you.” He says flashing you a warm smile, quickly easing your nerves.

“Okay then, I’d love that.” You smile before you two make your way inside the room seeing a couple of others have also decided they wanted a go at pool. You spot Ronnie sitting next to Danny on the loveseat and plop down beside her. Taking a long sip from your wine.

“Thirsty?” She laughs, boy she has no idea.

“Yea just needed some refreshment in my life, you know?” you wink at her before setting your glass on the table beside you. She giggles before continuing her conversation with Danny. You watch as the boys argue over who gets solids and who gets stripes.

“You ever gonna learn how to play pool y/n?” Jake teases knowing you’ve never been the best at it. You decide to entertain it.

“Only if I come across a good enough teacher.” You quip smiling up at him.

“Come on then, I think I know a guy” he smirks, reaching his hand out to help you up. You gently take his into your own, pulling yourself onto your feet. Josh takes your spot on the couch as Jake walks you both towards the table and hands you the stick.

You smile at Sam on the other side of the table. You immediately try and get into position going solely based on what you’ve seen. You hear a chuckle behind you as Jake presses himself against your back and adjusts your aim so it’s pointing towards the white ball. Your breath hitches in your throat at the proximity. He clears his throat before abruptly stepping back and shoving his hands in his pockets. Weird.

“Your position was correct, but you were pointing at the black one..you definitely don’t wanna shoot at that just yet” he laughs. “The white one does your dirty work, use it to bounce a striped ball into the closest hole. You and Sam will take turns shooting at your respective balls unless-“ you can’t help but snort, you quickly cover your mouth realizing you’ve interrupted him.

“Hey, get your mind out of the gutter” you just shrug as he smiles. He continues on demonstrating and explaining the rules until you feel confident enough to play a match by yourself. You were grateful Jake has always been so patient with you.

‘You got this y/n!” You hear Ronnie cheer, flashing you her bright smile. You blow her a kiss as Sam initiates the game. Your turn comes and you throw your hair over your shoulders and lean into position. Jake quickly averts his eyes to be respectful although Josh wasn’t shy with it at all.

“Damn mama, lookin good.” he playfully winks, raising his glass to you.

“Oh hush” you laugh before making your first shot that unfortunately didn’t go in but after a couple tries you got the hang of it and you and Sam were down to a close match. You hear Danny and Josh narrating the match like some football game as it comes down to the last few balls on the table until eventually only the 8-ball remains.

This was it. You were one hit away from winning, if you missed this Sam would win and you wouldn’t let that boastful man win any time soon. You may have calmed down over the years but you were still just as competitive as your younger self. You adjust the stick between your fingers, closing one eye to aim just right.

Point. Shoot.

The familiar thud of the ball falling in sounds. You swiftly turn to the long-haired man standing behind you.

“I did it Jake, I did it!!” You exclaim getting lost in the short high of your win. Letting your excitement get the best of you, you tackle him in a hug wrapping your arm around his neck.

“Can’t believe it took you so long to give in and actually play” he says, arms still wrapped around you, pulling back and staring at you. The realization settling in that you may be way too close for comfort. You swore you saw his eyes flicker down to your lips, you brushed it off as wishful thinking. You allow your eyes to run across his face a couple times. Seeing how the tour has treated him. His stubble subtly grew atop his lip, focusing on how soft they looked. His hands tighten around your waist as his breathing picks up. You realize you’ve lingered for too long as silence washes over the room.

You loosen your grip on him and step away from his embrace. You look around seeing everyone had dispersed talking with others. Suddenly feeling very awkward, you clear your throat adjusting the fabric of your dress before combing your fingers in your hair in an attempt to recollect yourself seeing as you now feel incredibly flushed. You clear your throat before speaking up.

“I think I’m gonna step out for a sec” you smile meekly, grabbing your glass.

“N-no yeah, by all means” he gestures towards the door adjusting the lapel of his coat that you had so desperately clung onto moments before.

————————————————————————————

You rush out smiling politely at everyone you pass on your way to the back deck. The sun has started to set, the beautiful golden hour shining brighter than ever across the yard. You step outside feeling the breeze brush past your skin, quietly thankful there was no one out here. You tuck a strand of hair behind your ear as you sit on the porch swing.

You stare off trying to process whatever the fuck that was. God, he just made your heart flutter without any thought. The way he leaned up against you. The way his eyes seemingly locked onto your lips for a split second. It was all too much, were you being delusional? Either way you needed a breather before you made any mistakes. He was your friend, he would never deem you as anything more. He’s seen all your ugly awkward phases, there’s no way he’d see you in any sort of romantic light especially with the amount of beautiful women he meets, he could have anyone.

“Can we talk?” You heard his voice as the sliding door shut. You turn and meet Jake’s eyes as he steps closer in your direction.

“Of course! Sorry, I didn’t mean to just run off. I think the riesling might’ve gotten to me a bit” you force a laugh.

“Come sit” you continue as you pat the spot next to you on the swing. He adjusts his coat before taking a seat and running his hands through his hair.

“Ahh don’t worry about it, I just figured I wanna tell you sooner than later. This is special to me and I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while” his tight-lipped smile showing as he toys with his bracelets before looking up and turning to face you.

He grabs both your hands in his and your heart beat quickly accelerates.

“You’re important to me, y/n. And I think it’s time I share this with you, I can’t hide it any longer. I've been avoiding it because I couldn’t find the right words to say…” he says as his eyes lock in on your own, his thumb gently rubbing over your fingers.

What the fuck is happening? You think to yourself.

“What is it, Jake? You can tell me anything you know..” you say hopeful eyes gazing up at him.

If this was going in the direction you’d hoped, all your dreams would come true. You quickly brushed it off not wanting to get your hopes up.

“I know, sunshine.” He chuckles softly.

“Um, I wanna start by saying I value how close we are which is why I need to make this known..”

Oh my god, is he…

“I’ve been deciding on wether or not I want to pursue this and I don’t think the answer could’ve been clearer, its been in front of me this whole time for fucks sake” he gives a breathy laugh as he scoots closer, eyes boring into your own. His eyebrows furrow for a moment like he’s unsure if he should continue but it's quickly replaced by a smile.

This is it.. is this his way of telling you he feels it too?

“Fuck it I’m just gonna say it..”

Please say what I think you're gonna say..

“Yeah?” You prod, the hope in your tone making you internally cringe.

“..I started seeing someone from our crew…i really like her y/n” he smiled looking at his shoes.

Oh.

The minute those words left his mouth your world seemingly went mute. Your ears rung like you had just been dunked under water. Your smile faded as your face became agonizingly hot and your throat tightened. How could you be so foolish? You should’ve known better. Of course he wasn’t about to confess his undying love for you as you would to him, you let your hopeless romanticism take over and now you’ve hurt your own feelings. Your dress suddenly feeling too tight on your body. You hair was touching all the wrong places. There probably was no need for the internalized dramatics but you wanted to crawl out of your own skin right now.

“Earth to y/n? Aren’t you gonna say anything” he laughs, scanning your face for any sort of emotion. You’d learned how to keep a good poker face dealing with his plethora of girlfriends. You faked a bright smile as tears threatened to spill over.

“Y-yeah!” You clear your throat realizing your voice has broken.

“Is everything okay?” He asks cutting you off before you could continue on. You still kept the insufferably wide fake smile on your face.

“Everything’s great! I'm just so happy for you Jakey, she must be a very special girl and I'm glad you’ve found someone who can put a smile like that on your face” you said, taking your hands from his grasp and rubbing his arm. You made sure to bring out your old nickname for him to convince him you were being sincere.

Jake was listening intently but knew you were lying. He’s known you for years, if he had know any better he’d say you looked heartbroken but decided not to press on it.

‘There’s no way she’s upset, she sees me as just a friend.’ Jake thinks to himself.

“Y-yea i just wanted to tell you today ‘cause she’ll be here any minute now and i’d love for you and Ronnie to finally meet her” he says, now seemingly unsure of himself.

“Wow! Y-yeah.. I mean I’d love to!” You say nervously running your fingers through your hair. God, how were you gonna get through meeting her so soon after the love of your life, who didn’t know he was the love of your life, had just single-handedly shattered your heart.

“Great, i'm so happy you’re my best friend sunshine” he says standing up opening his arms signaling he wants a hug. You rise and give him a quick embrace.

“Yea… me too.” You say as you try and fight off the tears once his arms wrap around you.

You excuse yourself to grab another drink. You rush inside but of course you just had run into Josh on your way to find the strongest bottle of alcohol this house could provide.

“Woah slow down little lady— hey… you okay?” he says, noticing your glossy eyes.

“Peachy. Now, if you’ll excuse me for just one second” you say trying to squeeze past.

“Ah-ah-ah, not until you tell me what’s got you in such a hurry.” He says grabbing your wrist.

“I just need a second alone, please josh..” your voice trails off into whisper, you were trying your best to stay composed but the more he kept poking and prodding at this fresh wound the more afraid you were of completely imploding.

“Oh, okay..” he complies, releasing his grip as he watches you snatch the entire bottle of wine and make your way to the guest bathroom. You were gonna need some liquid courage to withstand meeting whoever this chick is. You didn’t mean to be so sour but you felt foolish.

————————————————————————————

You sat down on the closed toilet seat after locking the bathroom door and thanked whomever that this wine bottle was a twist cap. You took a few sips before processing everything.

10 years.

10 years of convincing yourself that this would go away, but it somehow only grew stronger.

10 years of being irrevocably in love with one of your closest friends.

You were stupid enough to think he would feel the same way when he’s legitimately touring the world and has any girl he chooses at his feet.

Why couldn’t it be me?

I should’ve spoken up sooner. It’s all too late. Would he have even liked me back?

You let your head drop as tears clouded your vision, you succumbed to just letting them fall freely now that you were in private.

You wept for your inner teenage self knowing all she wanted got squashed right before your eye. Life can turn on a dime, you shouldn’t have wasted so much time hoping one day he just might make a move. I mean josh was right, you pathetically remained single because you only had eyes for his brother… for the most part. You’ve mingled but none of them could ever truly get your mind off of him. And for what? He’s just a guy. Albeit, a guy who is incredibly kind to you, knows all your in’s and out’s. How you like your coffee, all your favorite songs. He knew that you had to sleep with one extra blanket in bed because the only way you can fall asleep is if you're wrapped up in it. He knew that you would only ever accept flowers if at least one of the petals has wilted because lest we forget, we too are all but a little damaged. He’d grown to know all your weird habits as if it was second nature to him. He was what every girl desired.

You'd devoted yourself to him, built your life around him almost. Your earliest memories are plagued with him and his family and now everything has come crashing down faster than you can handle. You had a feeling deep down that you needed to get over him years ago so who are you to sit here and feel sorry for yourself. You knew better than to think he could ever love you back. You knew blind faith would come back to bite you in the ass.

It was stupid to wait so long with all these bottled up feelings towards him, you feel like you’ve wasted so much of your time helplessly hoping in silence and now who were you meant to seek advice from. You can’t tell your best friend he’s just broken your heart because you’ve been madly in love with him since you were seventeen. You can’t tell Ronnie because, although you’re incredibly grateful for it, she would come to your immediate defense and the last thing you wanted was a big fallout at their welcome home party. You’ve never been in more internal conflict than now.

You allowed yourself to shed a couple more tears before touching up your makeup and chugging down some more of the cheap Riesling. They would come looking for you any second now.

You collected yourself taking one last glance in the mirror before exuding a shaky breath as your hand reached to turn the knob. Stepping outside your met with Josh leaned up against the wall. Was he waiting for you to get out?

“There you are..” he whispered, swiftly grasping your arm and dragging you right back into the bathroom.

“J-josh what the fuck? What are you doi-“ you were cut off by him shushing you and locking the door.

“Listen, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think he would actually make it official with her. I thought she was some fling of his. If I had known I would’ve warned you.”

“So you know about our conversation?” You softly ask, trying to tame the lump growing in your throat.

“Yea, she’s here and Jake said you ran off after he told you he wanted to introduce you to her”

“Oh my god, I probably embarrassed myself. I wasn’t thinking Josh, I was just afraid I’d lose it in front of him” You say bringing your hands up to rub your temples. Josh reaches to grab your wrists, holding your arms in front of you.

“Hey, hey.. stop stressing yourself out. Everything happens for a reason, okay? You didn’t embarrass yourself, no one suspects a thing. I just wanted to make sure you were alright, it's pretty big news for you” he says, thumb rubbing gently on your forearms. The waterworks were conjuring up again, a small tear slipped as you met his eyes.

“I waited too long Josh…” you whispered.

“You were right. I shouldn’t have done this to myself. I-I mean, am I crazy for wishing someone could love me the way I love them?” You questioned rhetorically, your teary eyes staring into Josh’s pity-filled ones. You hated how he was staring at you. You didn’t need pity, you knew the mess you got yourself into.

"Not crazy at all, sunshine.” Hearing Jake's nickname for you coming out of Josh’s mouth felt wrong. Especially right now.

“Come on. let's take a deep breath and greet the guest, shall we?” He offers. You inhale a sharp breath before nodding your head in compliance, it was gonna happen one way or another, might as well man up for now and wallow in the privacy of your own home.

————————————————————————————

You both make your way into the living room seeing everyone gathered around the couch. A few people seemed to have gone home, there were a lot less people than when you showed up. Sam, Dan, and Ronnie sat on one couch.

Your eyes peered over to Jake in the kitchen talking to a beautiful blonde. She was wearing black silk blouse and some mom jeans. It was casual but elegant, you envied how effortlessly pretty she was.

“Hey.. stop getting in your head.” Josh whispered in your ear. Claire and Spencer waved for you to come join everyone. You took your seat as Ronnie got up from her spot next to Sam and came over to sit next to you.

“Where were you? You like..disappeared” she giggled. You smiled at her as best you could.

“The wine wasn’t sitting well, I needed a breather” you laugh hoping she believed you.

The only reason you never told any of your friends about your feelings for Jake was because at first you were convinced it would go away, so why embarrass yourself by telling someone something only for it to not be true in a few weeks and potentially jeopardize an entire friendship. Then as the years went on of you gaslighting yourself into thinking it would go away, all of a sudden 10 years had gone by.

“Ugh I feel you, Sam made me the nastiest marg earlier. I thought I was gonna yak” she says clutching her stomach. You laugh along with her, thankful she didn’t pry any further.

You were broken from your conversation as Jake walked in the room, his hand locked in hers as he guided her in.

“Alright everyone, this is Laura. My beautiful girlfriend.” He says leaning in to kiss her cheek. Jake seemed like he’s had one too many, his words slightly slurring but you don’t question any further. She politely smiled and greeted everyone. Jake notices you, his eyes twinkle before shining you a bright smile and gesturing for her to come meet you.

“Y/n, Laura. Laura, y/n.. this lovely lady has been one my best friends since elementary school” he introduces, slurring his words a bit gesturing towards you with an open palm. You smile wide and rise to give her a quick hug, Josh watching you intently. Your hospitality is admirable.

“Oh my gosh! You’re y/n! I've heard so much about you, I love your dress” she compliments.

Fuck. She’s actually really nice, it sounds terrible to say but you were secretly hoping she was bitch so you wouldn’t feel as bad for being so upset. Your moral compass however, refuses to allow you to feel negatively towards anyone undeserving.

“Thank you, you're so kind. It’s a pleasure to meet you” you smile bright as your cheeks flush from the sincerity of the compliment. She excuses herself to the bathroom, as Jake gestures for the two of you to take a seat yet again. The constant sitting and standing was starting to wear you out.

“Soooo what’d you think?” He says

“Short interaction, but she seems like a great girl Jakey. As long as you're happy I’m happy.” You give a tight-lipped smile, toying with a loose string on your dress.

“That’s it? That’s all you're gonna say?” he asks, stumbling over his words. There’s a certain tone he brought on that you didn’t like.

“W-well I don’t know what you want me to say… a-are you drunk right now?” You say, now adopting a confused expression.

“You could at least act a little more enthused for me. I mean do you even care at all? I was excited for the two of you to meet” he says, scooting back in his spot. He seemed offended, where was all this coming from?

“I-I’m sorry? I don’t know why you’re getting so upset with me. What do you want me to do Jake?” You say lowering your tone so the others around you do catch wind of whatever disagreement this seemed to be.

“You know what…just forget it, you could at least act like you care.” He spat, harshly grabbing his drink and abruptly leaving from his spot beside you. You sat there in shock.

What the fuck.

Your face suddenly felt hot, your throat tightened aggressively. You needed to get out of this house. You did care, too much. That’s why you felt your entire body go numb as tears clouded your vision. Why was he being so mean? Today has been the worst day ever. You swiftly get up from the couch and collect your things. You think you’ll make it with a successful Irish goodbye but of course with your luck, Josh catches you just before you slip out the front door.

‘Hey, where are you going” he asks.

“I can’t josh, I need to leave. I’m so sorry I just- I don’t know what came over him or how much he drank in the amount of time between our conversation and now but suddenly I’m the bad guy?? I don’t even know what I did wrong, apparently I don’t care enough? When you and I both know that’s far from the truth. I just wanna go home josh…please. I think I really fucked it this time and I need to process everything a little bit, okay? I really don’t mean to ruin your welcome home party, truly. I’m so glad to see you guys and maybe you and I could grab lunch this weekend to make up for me leaving so soon and bringing this drama.” You ramble, furiously wiping the tears streaming down your face. Josh doesn’t say anything, he just frowns and pulls you into a much needed hug.

“Alright mama, don’t worry about it.. you haven’t ruined anything. He probably had too much to drink. As far as I’m concerned I’m the only one who knows about this little fallout. Text me when you’re home, okay? Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” He questions.

“I’m okay, I was only kinda tipsy and that whole thing really sobered me up.” You let out a pathetic laugh at how humorous this all was. He rubs your arm before allowing you to make your way out.

You felt guilty for leaving so early, you didn’t mean to make it about you and you would’ve stuck it out but given Jake's newfound attitude towards you, you didn’t feel very welcomed anymore. Maybe you could’ve been more enthused but this was also heavy news for you. You start feeling regretful as you realized you had been a bit insensitive. You would have shown more joy for your best friend but how were you meant to give any more than that?? I mean she left for the bathroom in the middle of the greeting for fucks sake.

You sighed feeling at a loss. Granted, your feelings weren’t his responsibility but how exactly was he expecting you to react? You weren’t necessarily jumping with joy at the idea. But then again, he had no idea about your feelings. In his eyes, his best friend wasn’t matching his energy on something he deemed important. You start wracking your brain on everything you could’ve done to avoid this, essentially kicking yourself while your already down.

You make it to your car, hoping to just go home, have a night of reflection in a warm bath. As you sit down your phone vibrates in your hand.

Message from: Sam Wam Bam🕺🏻

-some friend you are..

Sam?? What the fuck? Why is he saying that?

Message from: Jake ❤️

-don’t even bother reaching out anymore.

wow.

He must’ve said something to Sam. Now sam probably thinks you were being a shit friend and ditched him and his brother at their own welcome back party after sharing the news with everyone.

You dropped your head to rest on your steering wheel as you realized you seemed inconsiderate to the people who didn’t know about your repressed feelings for the man. You felt like you ruined everything. You knew better than to get your hopes up, why did you think today would be any different and he would spontaneously have feelings for you? Foolish.

You let out a sob at their messages knowing this whole situation has been misunderstood. Because of it, everything was crumbling down around you.

So…thoughts? How we feelin’?

330 notes · View notes

4haechie · 4 years

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son of apollo!donghyuck

pairing: son of apollo!donghyuck x child of athena!reader genre: fluff, comedy, some adventure/action, pjo au, e2l au words: 3,173 warning: couple of curse words here n there a/n: i reference a bunch of pjo characters in this so if u haven’t read pjo *crowd booing*

so donghyuck’s the son of apollo right

there’s like no arguing when it comes to that

he’s extremely talented at singing and making music, dancing, rapping, songwriting, so he’s no doubt apollo’s offspring

and he’s naturally gifted at archery as well

you can’t spell haechan without ACE teehee

u on the other hand

you’re athena’s child

you love to read and write you’re incredibly smart ofc

you love competing and winning and taking part in strategy making to bring your opponents DOWN 💅🏼

athena’s the goddess of wisdom as well as warcraft so needless to say you’re exceptional in both fields

you’re not just textbook smart, no no, you’re able to apply all the knowledge you learn…well…irl

not to mention you’re good with all kinds of weapons

ur fave weapons include swords and spears :D

you’re okay w knives too!!! and daggers!!! you’re not picky

but you’re better w longer blades just cuz u have more experience w them

fun fact: you’re the head of the athena cabin and donghyuck’s the head of the apollo cabin

you’re both great leaders, always doing your best to make the best strategies to win capture the flag, the chariot races, and other fun activities chiron plans for the campers 😁

but . you guys are Sworn Enemies

actually the better term to use would be “rivals”

you guys r So competitive to the point where you actually developed a rivalry during your first few years at camp half-blood

donghyuck LOVES to win but so do you… so obv he’s gonna go out of his way to make sure he/his cabin wins

that doesn’t mean you’ve ever backed down from his challenges…

if he’s competitive you’re twice as competitive

one day after breakfast during your fifth year at camp when you’re both about 18, chiron decides to host a good old game of capture the flag

u know . for old times’ sake 😼

once he makes the announcement you immediately turn to your cabin mates

“we have to win no matter what”

“y/n, it’s just capture the flag. we’re not fighting gaea”

“bitch are u in or not”

the entire dining hall is buzzing with excitement

nothing makes a demigod’s day like a capture the flag announcement 😌

chiron suddenly grabs the megaphone again and calls out “this time however there’s a little twist,” he chuckles as everybody goes silent

you raise an eyebrow

“you’ll be in teams of course. everybody has to play. there’s twenty cabins, so there will be ten teams of two cabins each. i’ll pair you guys up myself. each pair gets a flag–so there’s ten flags in total. the game will be won by the pair who manages to collect all flags and brings them back to their base before anyone has the chance to steal their own flag.”

the demigods burst into intense chatter and discussion once more

you turn your head back to your siblings and tilt your head in slight confusion

you’ve never played capture the flag in teams before

“anyone but apollo. i’m literally begging. sam, pray to athena right now”

“y/n RELAX”

“i think if we’re partners with apollo’s cabin i’ll actually jump into tartarus”

“…”

“what? percy and annabeth survived” 🙄

chiron pulls out a scroll and calls out the pairings one by one

poseidon and demeter, hades and ares (good luck to them), so on and so forth

your heart keeps racing . athena’s name has not been called out yet

and just like that your worst fear comes true

“athena cabin with apollo cabin. the game will commence in thirty minutes, which is how much time you have to prepare. good luck and stay safe!”

you drop your head into your palm (aka head in hands meme jpg)

“this is the worst day of my entire life”

“y/n, you’re hands down the most dramatic person i’ve ever met”

maybe it’s just you–bc your siblings seem fine with the apollo kids

they have so many apollo cabin friends :(

curse u and donghyuck’s little rivalry that the entire camp and chiron knows about

so him putting yall together definitely was not a coincidence cough cough

can u blame him

🌤🌈 he just wants all of u to get along 🌈🌤

he’s seen w his own two centaur eyes what happens when demigods fight between themselves

it’s not healthy

he needs u guys to get along bc u and donghyuck are some of the best demigods at camp rn

ur quick wits and amazing sword skills

his position as the camp’s best archer

imagine how powerful yall would be if u two worked together

if only you got along from the start.. but nooooo

ur egos r just too high F

but anyway, back to the present

you’re sitting there, head in your hands, dreading this already when some of the apollo kids swagger over to your guys’ table

donghyuck is in front of them as he scoffs after seeing your dreadful state

“why the sad face, y/n?”

you lift your head up to see him hovering over your seat and roll your eyes

you get up and your siblings follow

you’re just gonna have to make do. you don’t have time to complain

the thing is

you’ve only lost capture the flag once 👎🏼

a few summers ago the apollo cabin defeated the entire camp leaving everybody speechless

it’s true they didn’t defeat JUST you but somehow you thought it was personal

you had the PERFECT record 😕

zero losses . only wins

but bc of the apollo kids your cabin’s record was tarnished

which is sorta why you started hating them (esp donghyuck their leader) so much

donghyuck caught on immediately and made it a point to compete just as hard as u

so yea. that’s how you became rivals

he knows how much ur gonna hate working with him but u don’t really have a choice now do u :/

so he knows exactly why u have a sad face

but this is donghyuck we’re talking about

just bc yall r “rivals” doesn’t mean he’s not gonna tease u 😂😂😂

(or maybe he teases u bc he thinks ur cute and he hopes one day u realise him teasing is actually donghyuck for flirting 🤭)

“you know damn well why, lee donghyuck”

“oh c’mon i think it’ll be fun! if we combine our skills, we definitely have a hundred percent chance of winning”

you cross your arms and glance at your siblings who just shrug in agreement

you sigh loudly

“don’t even think about fucking this is up, donghyuck. and just so we’re clear, i’m in charge”

he laughs, “yup! got it”

so you start talking strategy

you only have 30 minutes so you need to make the best of it

you divide the two cabins into pairs so that an athena and an apollo kid will be paired together and in charge of smth diff

you have plenty of people on your team – 5 in athena’s cabin and 5 in apollo’s cabin

some will handle weapons and safety gear, some will handle mapping out the playing area which was basically the entirety of the woods, some will be setting up traps near your team’s flag to prevent others from coming close

30 minutes quickly pass and after dividing the work and planning your strategy with donghyuck and friends you turn your attention back to chiron who has his megaphone in hand

everyone’s told to gather outside the dining hall at the open field before the game commences

you, donghyuck, and your teammates briefly talk strategy once more . just to make sure everybody knows what they’re supposed to do

“let the game begin!” chiron blows a loud whistle and the demigods scramble out of the field, going to their designated flag locations

your spot is near a little creek, but the forest around your flag is quite dense so u figure it’s relatively hard to locate

it’s not that late so the afternoon sun makes your skin glisten with sweat

“damn, can you tell your dad to chill tf out for a while,” you tell donghyuck jokingly

he just rolls his eyes but on the inside he’s kinda glad you’re being casual with him rather than 😡😡😡😡😡 like u normally are

u don’t know what it is about him today but u swear he’s acting different around u

he wasn’t… as annoying while discussing strategy ????

he actually ?????? listened ?????? to what u had to say 🤔🤔🤔🤔

he didn’t argue, he didn’t even throw around witty burns like he usually does w/o hesitation

u were like… is he ok

little do u know!!! he actually l*kes u 🤭🤭🤭

well… it’s not a 100% fact that HE himself knows as well

but his siblings caught on to his weird behaviour n figured smth was up

mark being one of hyuck’s closest friends n siblings in the apollo cabin, realised he was acting weird ever since yall got grouped together

he seemed nervous ⁉️ which he never ever is

he’s like the most confident person mark’s ever known

so mark was like *thinks*

after putting two and two together mark came to the conclusion that he might have a small crush on u

bc hyuck kept glancing over at u, kept talking abt how ur a good leader (he’s never gonna tell YOU that tho. he crossed his heart on that one)

mark was like i didn’t even ask but ok

mark was confused at first tho cuz everybody and their mom knows about your guys’ rivalry so why tf would hyuck have a crush on someone he considers his rival

mark decides not to get ahead of himself bc hey!!! maybe he doesn’t have a crush, maybe he just thinks ur a good leader

like that’s it u know?

LMAO 🤫

so anywayz where was i

ah right

the flag

OK SO ur team’s flag is yellow ! :D

it’s like the colour of sunflowers

you and donghyuck r in charge of guarding the flag while ur team members scout around for the other flags

easy peasy

you and donghyuck are at your base now, weapons drawn just in case

the flag is hung on a poll couple feet taller than you

you’re dressed in ur usual training clothes – a pair of washed out shorts, a very old orange camp half-blood shirt; your sword’s sheath hanging from one of the belt loops of your shorts

donghyuck’s dressed similarly – a pair of blue ripped jeans, the same orange camp shirt tucked into them, but he has a purple flannel on, which he takes off and ties around his waist

“it’s so freaking hot,” he says, mentally agreeing with the comment u made about apollo earlier

“tell me about it”

there’s a silence that follows, the only sound heard is the subtle flow of the creek water

you’re thankful for the silence

it’s easier to keep an ear open for opponents on their way to steal your flag

just as you think about it, an ares and a hades kid approach your base

they’re on the other side of the creek, less than ten to fifteen feet away

“hi y/n,” the hades kid you’re kind of close to says

you shoot him a fake smile before holding your sword in front of you

donghyuck pulls out an arrow from his quiver and nocks it in his bow, aiming for the two demigods in front of you

the creek isn’t that deep, so the two demigods cross it with ease

they have their weapons drawn; they’re now a couple of feet away from you and more importantly the flag

no words are said as donghyuck lets his arrow fly and knock the hades’ kid sword out of his hands

he didn’t use an arrow with a sharp tip, you note

the hades’ kid stumbles backwards, imbalanced after he gets unarmed

you stand your ground as the ares’ kid scrambles forward, attacking you with her sword

your blades clash defiantly

you continue to spar with all your might

from the corner of your eye you see that the hades’ kid, sword back in hand, is battling donghyuck on your left

the flag is right behind you and donghyuck; you can’t let the two demigods get near it

you and the ares kid are still battling each other, putting all your strength into making sure she surrenders

but u should know better

ares and athena kids have many similarities like their love for winning, their confidence in battle, etc.

it’s like looking in a mirror

you don’t have anything against this particular ares kid, though

“c’mon, y/n, give up already”

that REALLY makes your blood boil

you never give up, no matter what

with one final blow of your sword, you knock her sword out of her hands, making her think she distracted you with her words

she goes flying back, half her body landing in the creek water

her sword lies in between you and her, but you doubt she’ll have the courage to fight again

the hades kid sees this and quickly scrambles away from hyuck, picking up the ares kid’s sword and giving her a hand up

“this is why i hate you and your siblings–your huge ego always gets in the way,” you hear the hades kid grumble to his partner as they run away from you, shame written all over their defeat

hyuck laughs and wipes sweat from his forehead

you can’t help but laugh either

you love it here at 🧡 camp half-blood 🧡

a few moments pass as your teammates emerge from the dense woods, each pair with a different colour flag held between them

you smile in victory

you quickly bring down your flag from its pole and give it to hyuck

“me? it was your plan…”

“yeah, but i couldn’t have done it without you, hyuck”

he almost passes out at your choice of nickname

back at the main hall, chiron announces your team as the winner, and that the prize yall being excused from doing chores all week long!!!!

it’s not much, but hey, at least you and hyuck ended up working together and winning the game, right?

later, hyuck pulls you aside from your cabin mates, and walks you to the lakeside

you two sit at the deck, side by side, watching the water doing nothing in particular

you watch as hyuck swings his feet lightly, his toes barely touching the water

“y/n, do you hate me?” donghyuck asks out of the blue

you’re like 😳 what

now that he asks you that . like straight up . it makes u think

do u REALLY hate him

or do u just hate losing to him

“why would i hate you?” you question back

“i don’t know? i guess because of our, um, rivalry thing i thought you can’t stand me”

you play with the beads of your camp necklace

“i don’t hate you, donghyuck. i just hate losing. i guess it’s the athena in me,” you laugh at how lame you sound

“i hate losing too, but i don’t hate you, in case you’re wondering.”

he takes a deep breath

“i know we started going against one another ‘cause of that one time my cabin won capture the flag, but i don’t want things to stay this way,” he pushes his hair back

“i guess what i’m saying is… i like working with you.” he pauses

“yeah,” he says, as if more convinced now, “and i would really like to get to know you better,” he clears his throat, very clearly embarrassed

you laugh at his flustered state

“stop laughing at me,” he stretches the last syllable as he lightly shoves you with his shoulder

you’re trying even harder to not laugh now, but for his sake, you hold it in

“that’s probably the cutest thing you’ve ever said”

he crosses his arms, “i’m always cute”

you’re like. THE NERVE?????? 😒😒😒

“how ‘bout we go slow? i mean, we just became un-enemies, we’re gonna need to be friends first, right?” you poke his shoulder

“you make a good point”

“i’m literally athena’s child, but okay”

“shut up!”

✨ time skip ✨

both u and hyuck stay at camp over the holidays which means more bonding time!!! yay!!!!!

a year has passed and u and hyuck r basically bffs, attached at the hip, and everybody except mark is surprised as fuck

rmb the days when hyuck thought u were “cute”?

welp 🤭 he’s at that point where everything u do makes his heart flutter

yeah… he likes u Like A Lot

u have no clue abt his feelings for u and he has no clue abt ur feelings for him either

exactly a year after the iconic capture the flag game, ur both seated at the deck by the lakeside, side by side, again

“y/n…there’s something you need to know”

“if you’re gonna tell me about the mixtape you’re dropping with mark, i literally don’t want to hear it”

“THAT WAS ONE TIME”

“YOU GOT THE ENTIRE CAMP’S HOPES UP FOR NO REASON”

both of you burst into fits of laughter

after calming down, he shoves your shoulder lightly with his shoulder, like he always does (only to u tho)

“no, seriously, i need to tell you something”

“what’s up?”

“i,” he pauses, clears his throat, “like you. a lot–i have for a while now.”

you swear your heart stops beating and your brain explodes

HE? LIKES? U?????????

he continues, “i don’t know if you like me back, but i’ve been wanting to tell you this for so long–guess i didn’t have the courage until recently,” he lets out an airy laugh

you’re looking at him in the eyes now; a subtle shimmer of the afternoon sun sparkling in his eyes

“hyuck, i like you too. how could i possibly not?” you chuckle at his shocked expression

he goes :O

he’s genuinely speechless when you lean forward and press your lips ever so softly onto his

you literally feel him freeze, which worries you for a second, but your worry is washed away when he slowly kisses you back

you melt right then and there

he takes your hand in his, interlocking fingers, as you pull away, a faint pink blush painting both your cheeks

“wow”

“really, y/n? that’s all you have to say? what happened to being wisdom’s child, huh?”

“donghyuck, i SWEAR to ALL THE GODS–!”

your sentence is cut off when he presses his lips onto yours again, you smile into the kiss which causes him to smile with you

he kisses you again and again, and then again, until you’re both a giggling mess

“let’s stay like this forever, yeah? what do you say?” he says, bringing his lips to your forehead, lingering there for a moment before pulling back and looking at you

you look at your intertwined hands, and then back up at him, “i’d like that”

#lee donghyuck #lee haechan #donghyuck fluff #haechan fluff #donghyuck x reader #haechan x reader #donghyuck imagines #haechan imagines #donghyuck headcanons #haechan headcanons #nct fluff #nct x reader #nct bullet imagines #haechan bullet imagines #donghyuck bullet imagines #mine

116 notes · View notes

racingtoaredlight · 3 years

Text

THE DEGENERATE’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV WATCH ‘EM UPS 2021: WEEK TWO, A MUDDLED AND MAUDLIN WEEK OF MAYHEM IN HONOR OF THOSE WE LOST

RTARL would like to extend our warmest holiday wishes to those who celebrate and, even if you don’t, happy 9/11. Now who’s ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!?!?!

So after two weeks of games that combine to count as only one official week even though some teams have already played twice we have only one real question answered: is Alabama still good? Yes, they are. Everything else is still liquefying vapor.

I am assuming everybody is waiting with baited breath for an RTARLsman but I don’t have anything yet. I guess the not-Master Teague RBs on Ohio State are the frontrunners for now. Or that one guy from that one team who was good. You know who I mean.

Saturday, September 11

Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile

Illinois at Virginia 11:00am ACCN

Jeff George won Citrus Bowl MVP for the Illini against the Hoos in his last game as a student athlete before becoming the #1 overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. Based on this history it is safe to presume that whoever the QB is for Illinois today will be the #1 pick in 2022.

VMI at Kent State 11:30am ESPN3

I’m not sure on this but maybe this game is cancelled.

WKU at Army 11:30am CBSSN

Army is favored by 6. I bet this game is boring.

Norfolk State at Wake Forest 12:00pm ACCNX

I don’t see a line listed but whatever it is bet against Wake covering.

Indiana State at Northwestern 12:00pm BTN

This game is an act of terrorism.

Alabama State at 25 Auburn 12:00pm SECN

Real body bag season starts today, huh?

Youngstown State at Michigan State 12:00pm BTN

The Michigan State running back is the guy I was trying to think of earlier! He’s pretty good. Not good enough to make me watch this but I will check on his stats every so often.

Tulsa at Oklahoma State 12:00pm FS1

I bet Mike Gundy has some really salient thoughts on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and I can’t wait to hear them.

South Carolina at East Carolina 12:00pm ESPN2

South Carolina is a two point favorite against an East Carolina team that is, per my understanding, not exactly good. So I can only extrapolate that South Carolina is likewise not good.

Pitt at Tennessee 12:00pm ESPN

Look, I’m not going to pretend this is good television but if Pitt rocks their classic yellow helmets and Tennessee wears non-alternates the colors on the screen will at least be pleasing. The thought of the actual football involved hurts my brain but it’s interesting that the points have gone from a consensus pick ‘em to Pitt -3 over the course of the week. Does Tennessee have any players that are good enough that by missing the game they could impact the gambling that much? Or are people just squaring themselves with the fact the the Vols are really and truly a ruined burnt out hole of a football program? Pound the latter.

12 Oregon at 3 Ohio State 12:00pm FOX

Losing Kayvon Thibideaux certainly isn’t going to help Oregon but he’s not usually on the field as a run stopper anyway and if Ohio State learned anything last week it’s that they can just run until they feel like throwing a pass. Oregon actually has some legit talent on the d-line besides Thibideaux but the Ducks are gonna be hard-pressed to keep things within two scores here.

Miami (Ohio) at Minnesota 12:00pm ESPN

If Oregon can’t make a game of it in Columbus look out because this time block is an absolute wasteland. There is scant reason to turn the TV on for the early schedule other than gambling purposes.

Kennesaw State at Georgia Tech 12:00pm RSN/ESPN3

Georgia Tech probably should have closed up shop after Paul Johnson retired. Either that or just absolutely slathered the football program in dollars. The Yellow Jackets being unable to land any big time recruits while playing in Atlanta is a real mindfuck. They aren’t a AA program playing dress up in a “power” conference they’ve got actual history. I don’t mean to give the impression I want them to be good but I don’t understand how they can be such fodder for so long.

13 Florida at USF 1:00pm ABC

Remember that year when USF was the best program in the state? Wild stuff. Weird, wild stuff. I know the deal with UF is that they don’t go out of state for contract games but it’s actually kind of surprising they even bothered to keep this trip to Tampa on the schedule. Like the area recruits would probably be happier to go see a game at The Swamp than to kick around their hometown for a pile of shit like this.

Wyoming at NIU 1:30pm ESPN+

I’m not gonna open the ESPN app for this but if it was on ESPN2 I’d probably check in on it during commercials. Aesthetically pleasing trash with an upside for actual entertainment.

Middle Tennessee at 19 Virginia Tech 2:00pm ACCNX

Virginia Tech’s home crowd scene was the normie story of last week’s games. People that don’t watch college football were either aghast or frantically waving their blue lives matter flags in response. Us in this space just ate the shame and forgot it happened by the time Saturday’s games kicked off. My theory is that VPI is not actually any good but UNC’s 2020 season was a well-timed fluke and the last hurrah of Mack Brown’s storied coaching career. The Hokies are at home, though, and MTSU is almost certainly not on the same athletic level as the Turkey Gobblers so I’d probably take the home team -20 if I were so inclined to wager on this particular game that is being broadcast on the ACC’s new pornography channel.

Rutgers at Syracuse 2:00pm ACCN

Holy fuck does this game suck. Reuniting former Big East, uh, rivals (??? does Rutgers have any natural enemies?) in a cross-conference classic betwixt the B1G and the ACC.

Duquesne at Ohio 2:00pm ESPN3

I don’t think I need to explain to you all the national title implications riding on this game.

Toledo at 8 Notre Dame 2:30pm Peacock

Just remember that if you subscribe to Peacock you are at the very least tacitly supporting Notre Dame. If for some reason you’re watching this please report back on how many of those defensive pick plays Notre Dame runs. They were doing that shit constantly against Florida State last week and it drove me nuts. I think the idea is that you are so flagrantly illegal so often that the refs grow numb to it and just don’t call it at all.

Robert Morris at Central Michigan 3:00pm ESPN3

Not to be outdone by the early games, the 3 o’clock set is equally terrible.

Purdue at UConn 3:00pm CBSSN

I bet Edsall still gets bonuses for stupid shit even now that he’s retired or whatever the official designation was for him no longer coaching.

Boston College at UMass 3:30pm FloFootball/NESN+

I don’t know what FloFootball is but I know it isn’t anything to do with the state of Florida.

Ball State at 11 Penn State 3:30pm FS1

It surprises me to see Penn State as only -22.5 favorites. That seems very kind to Ball State. Hopefully I’m wrong and the Ball State Lettermans take it to the Sanduskys.

Murray State at 7 Cincinnati 3:30pm ESPN+

Practice week continues.

Temple at Akron 3:30pm ESPN+

Pound the under.

Georgia Southern at Florida Atlantic 3:30pm Stadium

There is really nothing going on this week.

Air Force at Navy 3:30pm CBS

Middies vs. Fly Boys in the first leg of the Commander’s Cup on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. I can’t imagine the amount of emotional manipulation that’s going to make its way onto this broadcast. Normally I watch these games but I don’t think I can do it this year.

UAB at 2 Georgia 3:30pm ESPN2

Georgia may well be absurdly talented on the defensive side of the ball but I’d be surprised to see them make it through the regular season with fewer than two losses.

5 Texas A&M at Colorado 3:30pm FOX

This is only interesting if the Aggies spring a leak.

California at TCU 3:30pm ESPNU

Things most certainly are not looking up.

Buffalo at Nebraska 3:30pm BTN

Nebraska is in an interesting position because if they buck the odds and end up being good after we’ve all been so ready to see a National Championship-winning coach get fired that would be funny but if they end up being really bad it’s even funnier. Go Bulls!

Mercer at 1 Alabama 4:00pm SECN

I’ll cry a little if Saban pulls the starters in the first half and the Tide beats Mercer by less than they beat Miami.

South Alabama at Bowling Green 4:00pm ESPN+

10 Iowa at 9 Iowa State 4:30pmABC

This is not the kind of top 10 matchup I can just sit idly by and let it happen. Your silence is complicity in this monstrous display of modernity.

SC State at 6 Clemson 5:00pm ACCN

Clemson dropped all the way to #6 and they’ll hang around the top of the polls because they don’t have the toughest conference schedule in the world but my confidence in them is not high right now. I think the new QB is just a guy. He’s talented as hell but I don’t see him being great.

Illinois State at Western Michigan 5:00pm ESPN3

This is either MACtion or MACtion adjacent and I have only one word for this midwestern trash: abhorrent.

LIU at West Virginia 5:00pm ESPN+

LIU plays football?

Lamar at UTSA 6:00pm ESPN3

Downside: You’re watching one of the least important games of the year. Upside: You’re really not missing anything.

Portland State at Washington State 6:00pm P12N

Washington State was a perfect spot for the stupid pirate fuckhead and his leaving has ruined the program and, eventually, his reputation. Not relevant to this game necessarily but this game isn’t relevant to anything else, either.

Gardner-Webb at Charlotte 6:00pm ESPN3

Oh, yeah, feel the excitement.

Bethune-Cookman at UCF 6:30pm ESPN+

Go Cats.

NC Central at Marshall 6:30pm ESPN+

The hits keep coming.

Houston at Rice 6:30pm CBSSN

I’ve always had a soft spot for Holgo and for Houston football but somehow I really don’t like seeing him coach the Cougs. This is SWC magic but with no magic. UNLESS! Houston can put up 100. I don’t think they even have the guys to do it but this is Rice we’re talking about here.

Nicholls at Louisiana 7:00pm ESPN3

Keep the energy up.

North Texas at SMU 7:00pm ESPN+

I bet is MS621 were still alive he’d be at this game giving Spencer’s boys hell. Sadly he died doing what he loved, curing his COVID by eating ivermectin paste out of a horse’s butt. R.I.P., friend. Neigh to you wherever you are.

Southeastern La. at Louisiana Tech 7:00pm ESPN3

Even the low tier stuff is geared up for annihilation. This is a bodybag week for all time.

Memphis at Arkansas State 7:00pm ESPN+

Memphis getting less than a touchdown against Arkansas State seems like easy money but I have no real concept of either of these teams just yet. Maybe the end is nigh for the Tigers glory years? I sure hope not but it’s possible.

NC State at Mississippi State 7:00pm ESPN2

This game should be as fun as a parents funeral.

Southern Illinois at Kansas State 7:00pm ESPN+

Over the past week I experienced derision for referring the the guys in purple and silver as “Kansas State” instead of “K State” and that stung because it always surprises me that anybody cares about them enough to have a strong opinion about them.

Stephen F. Austin at Texas Tech 7:00pm ESPN+

Shrugs

15 Texas at Arkansas 7:00pm ESPN

Let’s see if Texas is ready to run with the big boys of the SEC! Arkansas is given a decent shot to win this game and that makes the “15″ next to Texas appear extremely suspect in my eyes.

Texas Southern at Baylor 7:00pm ESPN+

This week Texas Southern is the people’s champion.

Texas State at FIU 7:00pm ESPN+

Oh, Butch, why have you done this to yourself?

Western Carolina at 4 Oklahoma 7:00pm PPV

All the Westen Carolina fans are buying this PPV to see their guys score 40.

New Mexico State at New Mexico 7:00pm Stadium

I looked up the historic rivalry last year to figure out why it was played early in the season instead of at the end but I’ve forgotten and don’t feel the need to look it up again. I figured out how to watch Stadium on my TV but I also forgot that and don’t feel the need to look it up again.

Appalachian State at 22 Miami (FL) 7:00pm ESPNU

My gut tells me Miami is probably legitimately about the 14th best team in the country but I still would never advise you to bet actual money on the Hurricanes. Are they 9 points better than App State? Easily. They should win by 20+. Are they liable to fuck around and lose or scrape out a win in the final seconds? Absolutely. Let’s fuckin’ go.

Morgan State at Tulane 7:00pm ESPN+

A lot of people learned to love the Green Wave last week but it’s hard to keep that going with their schedule. Don’t forget them later in the year when the CBSSN glow is really shining.

Liberty at Troy 7:00pm ESPN+

Liberty -4 is maybe my surest advice of the week. If Malik Willis is as good as his press the fake school should have this game on ice early.

Eastern Michigan at 18 Wisconsin 7:00pm FS1

I find Wisconsin’s losing effort against Penn State last week to be a personal affront against me and all of nature.

Eastern Kentucky at Louisville 7:00pm ACCNX

I think this game being broadcast at night on ACCNX means they’re playing naked.

Grambling State at Southern Miss 7:00pm ESPN3

This is the kind of game that belongs on an app.

Hampton at Old Dominion 7:00pm ESPN3

This is the kind of game that belongs on a well-worn high school football field.

Austin Peay at 20 Mississippi 7:30pm ESPN+/SECN+

This is a pretty big OOC game for an SEC team.

Georgia State at 24 North Carolina 7:30pm RSN/ESPN3

One of several GSUs, I think this is the one I most hope emerges victorious this week.

Idaho at Indiana 7:30pm BTN

Wait, wasn’t Indiana like #10 last week? What the hell happened to them? No, don’t tell me. Seriously, don’t.

Missouri at Kentucky 7:30pm SECN

When the SEC hits 24 teams the “S!E!C!” chants are gonna seem really stupid.

Howard at Maryland 7:30pm BTN

There’s no official line for this game but I hope the Bison can pull off the upset in this classic local rivalry game.

Jacksonville State at Florida State 8:00pm ACCN

Still shaking my head at FSU icing their own kicker. Jesus, Norvell. Get your shit together.

McNeese at LSU 8:00pm ESPN+/SECN+

LOLSU was my lock of the week last week if you’re considering taking gambling advice from me.

Washington at Michigan 8:00pm ABC

UDub lost to a 1-AA team last week and now they have to go on the road and beat Michigan. Which seems inevitable, to be honest.

Cal Poly at Fresno State 10:00pm CW59

The murder rate will continue to increase as the day progresses. I always kind of like it when a local broadcast shows up on the sheet. So pretty much none of us have legal access to this game. It makes it more special.

San Diego State at Arizona 10:00pm P12N

Pac-12 Network is similar to CW59 in that almost nobody in the country has legal access to their broadcasts. If you’ve read enough of these posts you are aware that SDSU is my weird very deep backup team. I don’t have a reason to align myself with the school or program, I just tend to enjoy watching their games.

Vanderbilt at Colorado State 10:00pm CBSSN

This is an abomination.

21 Utah at BYU 10:15pm ESPN

This is a lowkey fun rivalry. I’m pretty sure I write the same thing every year but it’s still true. Go Utes.

Stanford at 14 USC 10:30pm FOX

I think USC could win a national championship and I’d still be baffled that Clay Helton is their coach. Of course, they won’t win a national championship as long as Clay Helton is their coach but they apparently won’t ever get embarrassing enough to fire him, either.

Idaho State at Nevada 10:30pm Stadium

This is the lowpoint of the week’s schedule and you have to stay up late to watch it on a network that only exists as an app or as part of a hidden unlockable download-only level of cable subscription. This is the beauty of the college game.

UNLV at 23 Arizona State 10:30pm ESPN2

Herm Edwards figured out the trick to looking good in the Pac-12 without having a particularly great team and I can’t make up my mind if I’m rooting for him to keep sliding on that rail or to fall off it. I think I’ve come around to rooting for him but it’s a very dynamic and fluid situation.

Hawaii at Oregon State 11:00pm FS1

Hawaii gets to play at their normal time for a game against the bottom of the barrel of the Pac-12 but they’re an 11-point underdog. If you’re ever going to take Hawaii, this is the stars lining up for you to do it. It’s still a big “if” but I’m saying there’s a chance.

#college football #football #Tv watch em ups #rtarl watches tv #gambling #9/11 #two decades after 9/11

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anexplanationofunfortunateevents · 3 years

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the voting ends today but the fight almost certainly does not

Republicans are filing increasingly desperate and ridiculous lawsuits trying – emphasis on TRYING – to have votes thrown out because they’re big old losers who know they can’t win legitimately.

If you’re the kind of person who can get into the weeds of federal court filings on elections, you probably already have your hair on fire. If you’re not, I don’t recommend picking up the habit right now. It’s just going to make your head swim. These are so incoherent and meritless that even our corrupt federal judiciary and plenty of conservative state judges have frequently brushed them off. I get the sense that Trump’s lawyers are more hoping to win those cases than trying to win them. What they seem to be trying to do with these lawsuits is some mix of the following dishonest things:

depress turnout by making people feel like he can just have their votes thrown out so why bother;

set something, anything, up on track for the Supreme Court, which Trumpworld is (not unreasonably) confident they have sufficiently corrupted;

create a general sense that there’s some authority other than the voters who get to decide this election.

That is what makes me think Trump’s plan to barricade himself in the White House and tweet out a declaration of victory the first moment Fox News reports a good exit poll for him is only mostly about his pathetic need to self-soothe with an autocratic display. He’s also making one last go-for-broke play for the public narrative. He thinks – again, not unreasonably – that if he says he won, then he’ll get a bunch of “Trump Declares Victory” headlines and chyrons, which puts a thumb on the scale in terms of how people frame any resulting developments in their own minds. It’s not a good strategy, it’s more of a hail Mary, but it’s the only potentially helpful option he’s left for himself.

All of this has, once again, summoned the specter of the 2000 election.

We can’t look one day into the future. But we might be able to prepare ourselves for it if we look about twenty years into the past.

There’s kind of a fable that’s built up around the 2000 Florida recount that Republicans were just tougher and savvier and wanted it more, while Democrats clumsily Ned Starked everything up. It’s important to reject that premise as fundamentally abhorrent. In a functioning democracy, campaign strategy is irrelevant after Election Day, because voters are in charge. The Gore campaign, to its credit, was buying into the basic premise of democracy, and had therefore planned their campaign around trying to win an election fair and square. When you punish or condemn people for that, you are ceding ground to the fascists and agreeing to fight on their terms.

The Bush campaign was just fundamentally not operating from the premise of democracy, but from the premise that elections are merely a weak opening bid from the electorate. Before anyone even knew there would be a recount, they had already gamed out a scenario where they could win even if they lost. The contingency they’d planned for, that struck them as most likely, was actually that Gore would win the Electoral College but Bush would win the popular vote. They planned out a whole pressure campaign to create enough of an uproar to give some friendly Republican state legislatures somewhere just enough of an excuse to award electors to Bush even if their constituents had voted for Gore. That wasn’t the scenario they ended up facing, of course. But when you do those kind of war games, you have to think about what your opponent would do, which means the Bush team was ready to hit the ground running with a whole bunch of things they had been expecting Gore’s campaign to do. The core point of whatever they were going to do was always to create an excuse for the nuclear option of having Republican state legislators send Republican electors to install George W. Bush no matter what their voters wanted.

One major difference between then and now is that generation of Republicans knew what they were doing was abnormal and wrong, so they kept it under wraps. Now they’re so high on their own supply that they brag about it to The Atlantic, because they genuinely don’t realize that people will object and try to stop them if they give up the element of surprise.

In 2000, the nuclear option of state legislatures just ignoring their voters to install Bush was not something the Gore campaign could have reasonably foreseen, and even if they did have an in-house psychic to warn them about it, it’s not something they could have realistically stopped except by winning with the biggest margin possible, which they were already trying to do. In 2020, Republicans are basically trying to run the same play, but against Democrats who very much are as prepared as they could possibly be, and by “Democrats,” I mean Democrats at every level. Inside the campaign, Biden campaign senior adviser Ron Klain ran Gore’s recount effort in Florida, and is therefore the last person to have any illusions about the opposition. Their lawyers are fucking beasts. Outside the campaign, Democratic voters have already voted, dragged their friends out to vote, and are amped for whatever fight tomorrow brings.

And, unlike 2000, any formal government processes are going to have to go through House Speaker Nancy D’Alessandro Pelosi, and honey, she is not having it. Remember, Pelosi has already thwarted not one but two Trump regime connivances to steal elections. In 2018, she successfully deterred any attempt to undermine Democrats’ midterm victory. And with her crisp, digestible, precision strike impeachment strategy, she neutered the HUNTERGAZI plot that Trump had every intention of using to sabotage the election this year. (God only knows what other schemes she headed off by making an example out of the pressure campaign against Zelensky. Any foreign leader or official who might have been tempted to cave under similar pressure by Trump got put on notice that trying to appease him quietly was not going to make their lives any less complicated.) No wonder she felt emboldened to tell the Trumpist wing of the Supreme Court to sit their asses down if they know what’s good for them.

What Democrats – and other small-d democrats and progressives – can do, we’re doing. You need to take heart from that, and brace yourself for a couple of stressful weeks.

Unfortunately, we can’t control everything. We can’t control what Trump will do to seize the narrative, and we can’t do much about how the press responds. And again, I’d point back to 2000 as a cautionary tale. Did you know that most of the networks actually called the race right, and they did it pretty fast? It’s true! Early-ish that night, they called Florida for Gore. And, as a subsequent investigation showed, Gore got more votes in Florida! But the ballot count was tighter than it should have been – a lot of registered voters who were likely to have preferred Gore were kicked off the rolls in a racist purge – so they did a reasonable thing and retracted the initial analysis to say the state was too close to call.

I did say most of the networks. I’ll give you one guess which was the outlier. John Ellis – head of the decision desk (ie, the decision of when to call a race for one candidate or the other) at Fox News and first cousin of candidate George Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush – somehow knew something about the Florida vote count that the Associated Press didn’t. Late that night, as Gore’s numbers were actually ticking up, Ellis called Florida for Bush. (I might’ve been more circumspect making those implications five years ago, but these people have forcefully rejected the benefit of the doubt.) The other networks, embarrassed by the earlier retraction and exhausted after a long night, leapt after Ellis like lemmings in five minutes flat.

This created a narrative that seamlessly dovetailed with the Bush campaign’s evolving strategy: a Bush win was a fait accompli, so why was sore loser Gore insisting on this recount, wasn’t it taking way too long? Of course, the truth was that nobody actually wins an election before the votes are counted, so if Bush really wanted to get this over with, why was he so resistant to having so many votes counted even once?

Because, of course, while Bush’s top campaign people were out in front of the press loftily insisting that this recount was an irrelevant waste of the country’s time and attention, Republican lawyers were down in Florida doing everything they could to run out the clock. Deadline after deadline loomed and then passed with a bunch of Federalist Society hacks badgering and haggling over every single ballot. Said Federalist Society hacks included John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

So legal correspondents and voting rights advocates, unfortunately, aren’t crazy to have their hair on fire about the Supreme Court once again doing what happened next in 2000: the court ordered all the counts to stop until arguments that it scheduled for the day before an arbitrary deadline. Then they handed down a decision that even they knew was so incoherent and indefensible that they said it wasn’t supposed to be used as precedent in any other case, even though the Supreme Court’s job for over two hundred years had been to hand down rulings that lower courts could use as precedent.

(Seriously. Guys. If Doc Brown ever tosses you the keys to his DeLorean, your mission is to go back to 1999 and run Chief Justice Rehnquist over with it. Then – and this is important – back up and run over him again. Twice. Then you can go buy stock in Google or feed Trump to zombie vampire bats or hit up a Borders or whatever.)

If you’re not really familiar with this story, you’re saying “wait, what? Why did people stand for this bullshit?” FAIR QUESTION. There are a lot of reasons, though no excuses. One reason that’s been previously underrated, I guess, is that Bush hadn’t spent the week before the election running around telling everyone who would listen that “what we’re gonna do is, we’re gonna make ourselves a huge pain in the ass while people are trying to count votes, and then we’re gonna whine about, ‘why is it taking so long to count all these votes?’ Heh heh heh.”

If he had … well, I’m pretty sure at least 538 Floridians would have been alarmed enough to make a better choice than they ultimately did.

I always want to be able to share an action item. This time, I can’t. (Unless you can vote but haven’t yet, in which case, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ON TUMBLR, GET YOUR ASS IN LINE AND STAY THERE.) I don’t know what the world is going to look like six hours from now. It’s entirely possible that there’s a Biden blowout big enough that Trump just gives up and flees the country. But assume we’re not going to get to take the easy way out of this. Get organized and stay fired up. WE RIDE AT DAWN, unless Florida and/or Texas breaks our way by 10:30, in which case, WE DRINK AT 10:31.

#2020 election #2000 election

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megaera-of-pigeon · 4 years

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Imagine...

(This is Castaway Honeymoon: Extreme Island Survival Part 2. Implied Brainwashing/Mind Control

You’ve chosen Shade as your Castaway Honeymoon: Extreme Island Survival spouse. The pair of you are taken via motorboat to a remote beach location and left to fend for yourselves with a crate of limited supplies and not an inch of common ground between you newlyweds. Jeff Probst tells you viewers are pleased with your choice of the strong, silent type. Turns out, Shade is the really silent type. Even after a whole night alone together on the island, he has yet to utter one word or even move from the spot he’d gone to after stepping off the boat.

You do discover something else about him, though. While trying to set up your shelter, you initially ask him for help, and he ignores you each time. Finally you get fed up with him standing in the middle of the beach and staring into the distance while you struggle to drag branches along the sandy ground, so you snap out a direct order: “Shade, come help me with this log!”

To your surprise, he immediately jumps at your command and comes to pick up the log. He’s strong enough that he’s able to lift it from your hands and hold it off the ground entirely. You’re flabbergasted; he’s not so much as twitched at the sound of your voice since you two arrived, and here he is, instantly following an order?

You try again. “Shade, put the log down over there,” you say, pointing to where you’ve started the shelter. He immediately complies again. You decide to see how long this will keep up; you continue giving him directions, and he continues to follow them without question or hesitation. He moves like a robot. After some trial and error, you figure out that any time you phrase your orders as a question, he ignores you, but a command will get him to cooperate right away.

That night, as you sit in your perfectly constructed shelter that you hardly had to help with at all, you realize that you’re going to have to keep the power from going to your head. You decide that you should figure out what Shade himself wants...

“Shade, talk to me,” you say, thinking that you hadn’t tried that route to starting conversation yet.

“What. Should. I. Say.” he responds in a flat monotone.

“Tell me how you feel,” you insist, pleased to have a response.

“I. Feel. Nothing.”

“Oh.”

You try various iterations of the command/question, but the result is the same; by his own declaration, Shade has no emotions. You are married to a robot and stuck on a deserted island with him.

Well, life could be worse. As long as you give Shade careful orders, he turns out to be extremely good at jungle beach survival skills. Within a few days, you have a wonderfully constructed shelter, a reliable source of fire and plenty of wood to fuel it, and what is shaping up to be a sizable stockpile of food that will have the pair of you eating like royalty. You feel a tad guilty since you’re enjoying this all without lifting a finger to help Shade, but he’s so strong, fast, and agile that you reason you would only be getting in the way if you tried to help.

But this game isn’t supposed to be easy! Three days after you and Shade are dropped off, you wake up to see a column of dark, ominous smoke rising in the distance. The two o you are not alone anymore; your enemies have been dropped off on their own side of the island.

Well, better have Shade start to focus on building a good defense; you find him tending the fire as you’d last ordered and give him a brief rundown of your plan. First, he needs to find a lot of sticks and sharpen them into deadly points. For him, the task shouldn’t take more than half the morning. He goes off to do his job, and you go to take care of your empty stomach with breakfast.

Just as you’re sitting down to your plate of grilled fish, you hear a loud scream from the jungle. You throw your food aside and dash towards the sound. Shade’s all-black outfit is easy to spot through the foliage, so you’re at his side in no time.

“Shade! Shade, what’s wrong, are you hurt? Tell me if you’re hurt!”

He’s rubbing the back of his head and frowning, which is the most expressive you’ve ever seen him. When he replies, you’re shocked to hear it’s no longer in his dull monotone. But you’re even more shocked by what he says:

“Shade? Wh’s Shade? My name’s Flynn! Who are you, why are we in the jungle, and why the fuck am I wearing all black in this heat?”

You frown. “Shade? I don’t understand, what’s gotten into you? have you forgotten that we got married? We’re competing in a game show--”

“Married? To you? I don’t think so! I didn’t agree to this!”

“I mean, we’re not ‘married’ married,” you quickly reassure him. “We’re just teamed up to win the $100 iTunes gift card. Whether or not we fall in love along the way is up to us, and also the audience so long as they respond to the Twitter polls.”

“This is insane! I didn’t sign up for any of this! I don’t know you, where’s Orlando?”

“Uh. Ok, I’ll show you.” Shade, Flynn, whoever this is, seems very distressed about the situation. But at least you can help him orient himself, given that your boat had launched from a dock in Florida.

You lead him out to the beach and point in the direction you’d arrived from. “Orlando should be that way, somewhere. It was only an hour on the boat, so we can’t be too far from the coast--hey, wait! Where are you going!”

Shade starts sprinting towards the shore. He flings off his dark heavy coat and his black shirt to reveal a blindingly pale chest that nearly blinds you as it reflects the sunlight. Before you can really appreciate his finely sculpted form, he plunges himself into the water.

“I’m coming Orlando!” You hear him scream as he starts swimming away from the island.

“Hey, wait, come back!” You call, jogging after him. But it’s no use; by the time you reach the edge of the beach, he’s too far away to year you. “Shade! Please, you’ll drown!” You cry out.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” a cold voice says form behind you. You spin around to see none other than Nidhogg, Gray Rave, and Reid standing on the line where the jungle meets the beach. Your three rejected spouses--you gulp.

“The network will fish him out before he gets too far. A contestant drowning would be terrible for the ratings,” Reid explains, smirking at you.

“His abandonment of the island does mean he’s disqualified though,” Gray Raven adds.

“Which brings your team down to, oh that’s right, just you,” Nidhogg sneers. There’s something sinister in his eyes that sends a shiver down your spine, despite it being a hot muggy day on the desert island.

“Little old you against the three of us,” he continues, his tone mocking. “I wonder just how long you can last.”

The three of them all chuckle evilly and then turn and walk away, quickly disappearing into the trees. As you watch them leave, you shudder in fear.

Somehow, you’re starting to think it won’t be very easy to win that iTunes gift card.

#cursed imagines #night order #shade #nidhogg #gray raven #reid #the people have spoken and I was not surprised by what they said lol #thanks Rev for making me the edit!!

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echoeternally · 3 years

Text

If Machamp Survives...

By selecting Machamp as part of the Hero’s Second Wind poll, these are scenes that will be included for him.

Brief descriptions and scene titles will be included below!

Fair warning: There is some content dealing with death below as well.

Second warning: This post is long to depict several developing scenes!

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

Machamp’s Survival

This scene depicts the direct events that lead to Machamp escaping from his near death experience, arriving in a cave with mysterious healing properties.

Machamp, sadly, does not arrive alone.

...

Gasping, Machamp lurched forward, and coughed as he steadied his breathing. His eyes widened as he spun around, scanning the cavern around him, while his lower arms touched at his body below. No stab wounds.

“They can’t just be gone,” murmured Machamp, still searching the cave around him. “How did we end up here?” He blinked and smacked his head. “We, duh. Alakazam must have…hey.”

He spun around and spotted Alakazam on the land. His smile faded quickly, however, as he watched Alakazam clutching at his chest.

“No.” His eyes widened as he swam through the water. “Hang on, Alakazam!”

Forcing himself up on the nearest land, Machamp hurried over to Alakazam, as his partner collapsed. Machamp scooped him up and held him close.

“No, no, no…Alakazam, come on!” Tears lined Machamp’s eyes. “I’m ok, look! See?” One slipped from his eye as Alakazam’s body went limp in his arms. “Come on, please…I’m only here because you got me here…” He choked. “Why did you have to Teleport so much…?! Why did…why did I ever…? …Don’t leave me…”

... ... ...

Machamp’s Return

This scene sees Machamp returning to his friends, Chesnaught and Greninja. While they’re thrilled to see him, they’re confused about him coming alone.

...

“Hey!” Machamp beamed his usual smile, resting his lower arms on his hips and waving with his free hand. “How’s everything been?”

I blinked at him, and twisted around to look at Greninja, who gawked ahead at our friend. He smirked as I turned back and took a step over to him.

“You…you’re…alive…?” He nodded as I picked up my pace over to him. “I don’t believe this! Machamp! Is it really you?” My arms launched around him, and he laughed, hugging me back. “How are you here?!”

“Long story, involves me getting un-stabbed a bit,” joked Machamp. He pulled back, still beaming to me. “But yeah, here I am!”

“It’s so great to see you!” Greninja hurried over and hugged him quickly. He jumped back and glanced around. “So, where is…?”

Machamp’s smile disappeared instantly, and Greninja fell silent. I shifted my attention between the two as Machamp deflated. I caught his gaze as he lingered over my hand, with Greninja’s cupping it.

“What happened to Alakazam?” I should’ve held back on asking, but I was curious.

“It’s, uh…it’s just me.” Machamp lowered his head. “Alakazam didn’t…he’s dead.”

... ... ...

New Friends, Old Wounds

Chesnaught introduces Machamp to his friend, Lilligant, and they catch up a bit while learning about one another. Another friend of Chesnaught’s drops in, but is a little less warmly welcomed.

...

“This is my friend from back home, Lilligant,” I introduced. “Lilligant, this is Machamp, my friend from the Iceberg Empire.”

“Nice to meet you!” She bowed her head to him. “You look very strong!”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Machamp chuckled. “Anyway, pleasure to meet you too! You’re pretty!”

“Thanks! ...I get that a lot too, ha.”

“Of course you do!”

“Lilligant’s become a proficient dancer and mage too,” I expanded.

“Oh, Chesnaught, don’t tell him that.”

“Why not? That sounds great!” Machamp beamed to her. “If you’ve got talents, you should flaunt them!” He folded his lower arms. “Feel proud of what you can do. If you’ve got someone else in your corner, so much the better, but you’ve got to own what you can first.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet. And smart too!” Lilligant bowed to him. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome!” He sighed. “Just looking out for friends that remind, uh...well, Chesnaught’s friends!” Quickly, he turned to me, before I could comfort him. “Greninja mentioned that you two went to one another’s hometowns before coming here, right?”

“Yep.”

“How’d that go?”

“Well, I think he liked my family. Folks at the Lotus Lake were pretty nice.” I rubbed behind my head. “As for his father...I’m not sure what to feel. Or, maybe what not to feel, honestly.”

“Ah, that doesn’t sound great. Hopefully you can win him over!”

“Somehow, I’m not sure he’s the type for that,” I murmured.

“Nonsense! You’re really great at gaining anyone’s heart,” determined Machamp. “Trust me, the Iceberg Empire went through loads of growth thanks to you. I’m sure you can get through to him too!” Machamp cracked his knuckles. “If you need any help though, I’m free enough for it!”

“Uh...thank you?” I nervously laughed. “Um...I’m not sure how Greninja would feel about that though.”

“Pretty sure I can get his permission.”

“And I’m pretty sure he’d grant it, but I really don’t think that’s the right way,” I assessed.

“Thank you so much, Machamp!” Lilligant gently touched his arm. “You have no idea how much I try getting those points across to Chesnaught.” She winked. “I’m glad he was in good hands up by you guys.”

“Ha, he was with me, and I was with him!” Machamp grinned. “Chesnaught and I became great buddies, after all.”

“Interesting.”

Lilligant soured immediately upon hearing Bisharp’s voice, and we all turned to him. He walked from behind a tree across the meadow.

“Chesnaught certainly picks stalwart companions,” Bisharp noted. He offered a hand to Machamp and looked across to him. “Like Lilligant, I’m glad to hear it. Name’s Bisharp.”

“Good to meet you.” Machamp reached over for his hand, but Lilligant grabbed at his. “Um. What is it?”

“She and I don’t particularly get along,” mumbled Bisharp.

“That’s because you’re a fairweather friend, and left Chesnaught alone after he came out with Greninja,” snapped Lilligant. “You were supposed to be his best friend.”

Machamp withdrew his hand and narrowed his gaze on Bisharp, while I stepped between the three. Bisharp lowered his head and turned aside.

“It was a stupid call on my part, I freely admit to that,” confessed Bisharp. He turned back to face me. “Whatever it takes, I’ll keep apologizing to you, Chesnaught. And I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

“Still waiting for you to prove that,” icily demanded Lilligant.

“Lilligant—”

“No, Chesnaught, she’s right,” chimed in Machamp. He glared at Bisharp. “Maybe you should go. Find some other time to apologize.”

“So I shall.” Bisharp turned away. “Take care, then. Good meeting you.”

“Wish I could return the sentiment,” snapped Machamp.

I sighed and scratched my head, as my two close friends fumed watching Bisharp disappear.

... ... ...

All Too Familiar

After a battle, Machamp is approached by Incineroar, who reminds him of another acquaintance that cost him precious time with Alakazam.

...

“Brawny, hold up!”

Machamp squeezed his eyes shut as Incineroar hurried over to us. He placed his hands near his fiery hips and grinned to Machamp as he eyed him up and down.

“Seeing you battle is second only to seeing you at all,” complimented Incineroar. “If you’re free for the upcoming performance night, maybe you’d like to share a table with me, huh?” He beamed and winked as I covered my face with my hand. “How about it?”

“…You sound almost like him.”

“Hm?”

“Listen, thanks for the offer, but I’ve got a slight grudge against flirty and muscular Fire Types,” spat Machamp.

“Yikes, that’s a bit on the nose,” complained Incineroar. “What’s wrong with my Type?”

“Sorry, it’s just…” Machamp groaned and rubbed behind his neck. “Bad history with a guy that cost me precious time with my…my…” He quietly stared off into the sky, not even flinching as I placed my hand on his back.

“Ok, ok, I get it.” Incineroar held up his hands and took a step back. “Can’t change the crap you’ve been through.”

“No one can…”

... ... ...

Under the Rain

During their ascent of the Mountains Monarchy, Greninja finds Machamp in a vulnerable moment, and tries to comfort him.

...

“Greninja?” Machamp hastily brushed at his eyes. “Ha, uh, hey!” He forced up a faulty grin. “What brings you out here?”

“I came to check if someone came back.” He shuddered as I rested my hand on his arm. “I wasn’t expecting that to be you.”

“Ah...ha, well...” He hesitated and his lips wavered. “I was, I just...”

“It hasn’t changed for me either,” I confessed. “I know it’s different for you, but I still miss him terribly.”

“...Uh, I should be crying on Chesnaught’s shoulder, not yours.”

“We’re both your friends, Machamp,” I reminded him.

“...Gods I miss him.” His expression fell and tears lined his eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about him. I keep trying to bury it, at least for now, but I...I miss him all of the time...”

Thunder boomed overhead, but that didn’t matter to us. I wrapped my arms around him and he pulled me close. For his sake, I tried to hold back on my tears, while his flooded out as the rain started. Neither of us were strangers to water, after all. Slowly, his grip eased from around me, and I pulled back as his arms fell.

“Hey!”

Twisting around, I watched as Charizard soared over to us. He touched down and slipped beneath the overhang.

“The rain’s supposed to pick up,” he cautioned. “We should get inside!” Charizard blinked and studied Machamp. “Hey...you ok?”

“I...might be...”

... ... ...

Vow of Vengeance

Confronting his would-be killer, Garchomp, Machamp vows retribution for Alakazam and intends to finish the dragon.

...

Garchomp shook his head and stumbled back, swiping blindly. He blinked himself back into an empty gaze, as his eyes barely focused on Machamp, who lowered his fist.

“This time it’s just me,” called Machamp. “He died trying to save you, and died saving me.” Pulling all four of his arms back, either to his waist or behind his back, Machamp kept his glare trained on Garchomp. “But you know something? I never wanted to save you at all. Deep down, I knew we should’ve killed you then and there.” Swiftly, he withdrew his blades, pointing them all at Garchomp. “So this time, I’m going to make good on that, and be sure to put you down, once and for all.”

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

(Remember, these are scenes in development. However, this is what you can look forward to upon selecting Machamp’s return for the stories!)

(Head back to the poll here!)

(Still not sure or want to read more? Check back here!)

#a hero's second wind

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yourfaveisyanderematic · 5 years

Text

The Cornered Mouse

so remember how I did that poll a while ago about who to get a continuation for? Donutboy won, and I combined that with the prompt of the SO acquiring their Stand. This was supposed to prototype for a fight scene I wanted to do for a side project, and GOD it turned out to be REALLY FUCKING LONG lmao.

You can read the first installment here. If you wanted to do that.

Anyway. Here it is. Warning for...getting punched. And also someone gets stabbed a bunch, watch out for that, but it’s not described in detail.

Don’t touch me.

“What would you like for lunch?” Giorno asked as he brushed his hand against yours, tucking the coffee cup into your grasp, “I have work, but I’ll make time to eat with you. I’d hate for you to get lonely.” He gave you one of his rare but dazzling smiles as he tucked a blond lock behind his ear, the kind that made your heart flutter once upon a time but now only turned your stomach.

You bit your lip and turned your head. The villa he kept you in had an abundance of oil paintings lining the walls, which were useful if you wanted a distraction when he tried to talk to you. You stared at the nearest one—Mallow In Bloom—and mentally counted the brushstrokes as he talked.

He frowned slightly at your response; you didn’t see it, but you could tell in the shift of his posture as he tried again.

“I really would take you out like you asked, but things are dangerous right now. I can’t let anyone think you’re someone to target, so try to be patient while I make things safe for you again. Please?”

You turned slowly, deliberately, to look him in the face again. The late morning sunlight streamed through the nearby window to warm you both, illuminating the gold threads in your bright clothing and the ornate patterning of Giorno’s suit. Even your wheelchair couldn’t detract from the immaculate scene; it was custom-made and beautiful and perfectly in its place. Just like you.

“Things were safe for me, Giorno,” you replied quietly, even though you wanted nothing more than to scream, “I was safe until you decided you wanted me.”

How different this conversation was, compared to that memorable afternoon with another sun, another cup of coffee. Back then, neither of you knew what the other was capable of. Now, there was nothing you could hide from him.

He leaned forward to rest his hand on your shoulder, heavy with the ornate ring that signified his position in Passione, the mafia you now knew far too much about. You knew the insignia well; it was repeated throughout all your clothes. Giorno liked to call it his symbol of protection. You knew it for what it was: a symbol of ownership.

Don’t touch me don’t touch me I’ll kill you don’t touch me I’ll kill you I’LL KILL YOU—

“I won’t apologize for that,” Giorno said quietly, obliterating the thunder of your own thoughts, “I won’t apologize for falling in love with you. I’ve made it my mission to give you the best life you possibly could have. You will never fear anything as long as I live, nor will you want for anything. I—”

“I want to walk.” Your hands gripped the armrests of your wheelchair until your knuckles turned white. You hated how your voice cracked on the word, hated more how your eyes burned with unshed tears at a declaration that sounded somehow childish. How had it come to this? How could you have been brought so low, to beg for something so fundamental that had been taken from you?

His frown deepened as he pulled back his hand. “This again? You know you’d just try to run if I did that. You’ll get yourself hurt, like last time.”

You’ll get yourself hurt again. Like it was your fault you were in this chair, even though the both of you knew better, that he had a power that you didn’t understand. The sensation of his gentle hands hovering over your ribs was still burned into your memory, the ease with which he healed them, was just another level of insult to injury. He could let you out of this chair any time he wanted, but keeping you paralyzed was a more effective set of chains than the strongest manacles.

“It’s not out of the question forever, you know. There are places I want to take you, things I want to do…just not now. Not while you’re still…adjusting.”

“Not while I still want to get away from you, you mean.”

A sigh. Giorno took a sip from his own cup, eyes never leaving yours. “Your coffee’s getting cold,” was all he would say in reply.

The two of you finished your drinks in silence. Finally, he adjusted his tie once more and put on his shoes, obviously leaving to manage his criminal empire and…eat babies or something. Whatever it was mafioso did while their crippled hostage waited for them to come back.

You turned your head as Giorno approached you to plant a soft good-bye kiss on your temple. It would have been better if you’d felt a hit instead of lips against your skin; more than anything, you hated how gentle he acted. How he refused to acknowledge, really acknowledge the brutality of what he had done to you.

“If you get bored while I’m away, I’ve left some books and the newspaper by your bed. Remember to lie down if you feel tired, please don’t make me pick you up from the floor again.”

“Whatever. I can breathe easier while you’re gone, anyway.” you mumbled, though there wasn’t any real venom behind it anymore. Giorno chuckled as he took your empty cup to the sink.

He gave you one last, lingering look as he walked away. “I love you, Tesoro. I’ll be back in four hours.”

You watched him leave, shutting each and every door and lock between you and freedom. Silence reigned as the last bolt slid into place, leaving you completely alone.

It wasn’t until you registered the heaviness in your heart, the hopeful way you glanced at the clock every few minutes, that you realized that despite your best efforts—despite your resentment and hate, despite your kicking and screaming—you were becoming more used to things. Giorno, who never once raised his voice or hurt you again since that awful night he first took you, was breaking you down, bit by bit.

Giorno was winning.

—

Don’t touch me.

Someone was repeating those words inside your head, every time Giorno touched you, every time he looked at you, and it wasn’t you.

You had become aware of it only gradually, when you realized the mantra continued even though you consciously tried to think about other things. It was loudest when you were alone, when Giorno was away, which seemed to only highlight that you were well and truly going insane.

Right now, for instance, you were hearing it as if it was actually speaking. You had been reading, against all inclination to the contrary, when the voice started up again, unbidden, making you freeze in your seat as the newspaper tumbled to the floor.

“Don’t touch me. I’ll kill you. I don’t care who you are. I’ll kill anyone who touches me…” the voice had a strange quality to it, flat and emotionless but somehow brimming with hatred. It was a voice that spoke with the thinnest thread of restraint, as if it was only a breath away from exploding into violence, and it was coming from just behind your ear.

You didn’t want to turn your head. You didn’t. Whatever was talking to you—an intruder that somehow broke in, one of Giorno’s stranger underlings keeping guard over you, an actual demon even—could very well interpret mere eye contact as aggression, and do…something.

“This is what you desire most, hidden in the depths of your wounded soul, isn’t it? These are the words you leave unspoken whenever he comes near.” the words sent a thrill of fear through you; how could they know? “He thinks he’s safe because you can’t run from him anymore, and you want to hurt him for that. You want to hurt him more than anything. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“What are you?” Something wet dripped onto the back of your neck, sliding down and soaking into the collar of your shirt, and a heavy hand rested on your shoulder, tipped with what could only be claws. You shivered in disgust, feeling the points dig through your shirt into your skin, but still couldn’t bring yourself to look.

You had the feeling that if you did, you would see something awful.

“Don’t turn your face from me,” the thing said in the wheedling whine of a child demanding attention from their parent, “I am the shield you created. If the light of his love is unbearable, take refuge in the darkness of your hate. You don’t want him to touch you—I’ll kill anyone who does, even if God Himself tried. You want to run but can’t? Stand with me! Let me become your legs.”

It had teeth. You could feel them against your neck as whatever-it-was nuzzled into your neck like an affectionate cat, sharp and long and thick as your finger. It leaned into you as if the hard back of your wheelchair didn’t even exist, further enveloping you in an embrace unlike anything you’d ever felt before.

At long, long last, you turned your head. Even with the monstrous forms you’d been imagining, the sight of the thing hovering next to you was difficult to process, more like the shadow of a nightmare than any real creature.

It had a humanoid shape, but it didn’t look human—its flesh was black and glossy, like oil but capable of holding its form—and it moved with a fluid grace impossible for any living being to manage. Thick golden stakes stabbed into its waist and continued up its chest, like a macabre belt, separating its twisted but solid-looking legs from its more fluid upper half. What held your attention most of all, however, was its head, only a few inches away from your own.

The only constant about the thing’s face were its teeth and massive, round blue eyes that were utterly incongruous with the rest of it, as if someone had taken apart a giant doll and stolen its eyes for the world’s most deranged craft project. You couldn’t help but stare as they wheeled around, fixed in a head like something out of a nightmare. Iridescent tears leaked from its eyes, dripping onto your shirt, but you didn’t have it in you to try to shove this thing away. There was something desperately lonely in the way it clung to you, more afraid of your rejection than you possibly could be of it, that made the action seem unimaginably cruel, even if its claws did get a little uncomfortable as it gripped your shoulders.

“Hey,” your voice cracked with the hesitation, so you cleared your throat and tried again. “Hey. What do I…what’s your name?”

One of its eyes lolled to stare at you. You couldn’t help but hold your breath for the torturous few seconds it took to answer, gazing at your own reflection in its massive pupil.

“I am the darkness you harbor in your heart, the darkness that will consume everything in your path for your sake. Because of that, call me Paint It Black.”

“Paint It Black…” the monster stared at you, somehow conveying an expression of hopeful anticipation with its impassive face, “a strange name, but maybe that’s appropriate for a monster like you. What’s that you said about being able to help me walk? What do you mean? Is your power like Giorno’s?”

Paint It Black purred, a hum that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Its arms encircled your body, and without warning it pulled, lifting you to your feet and holding you to its waist.

“Whoa—!” you couldn’t help but cry out, not at the sudden motion but what happened next. Paint It Black moved, stepping into you, and you could actually see the flesh under your skin darken as it flowed into your body. The whole thing felt strange, like stepping into lukewarm water, and that startled you most of all—you hadn’t felt anything in your legs since that night.

You were standing on your own, for the first time in months, swaying slightly but upright all the same. You took an experimental step forward, expecting the strength to leave your body and send you crashing to the floor, but your weight held.

You could walk. You couldn’t feel anything in your legs but Paint It Black’s presence, but you could walk.

What was left of Paint It Black’s body curled behind you, rippling as the golden spikes in its body migrated upward until they were poking out of its fists like an expensive set of brass knuckles.

“Something like this has been in my soul, all this time?” you said, more to yourself than the monster. You couldn’t help but laugh.

“I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

—

Paint It Black could do more than help you walk, it turned out. You watched with unbridled glee as it forced open your way to freedom, pulling apart locks and even breaking the doors apart when it had to.

“This is your power,” it told you as it tore through yet another barrier in a shower of twisting metal and wood, “I do this because you want to. Let’s break everything…I want to destroy everything…every wound he’s given you, I will avenge!”

There was a thrum of something wild, something dangerous under your skin where you and Paint It Black joined, but you’d worry about it later. It was only a matter of time before your captor returned, and too much of Paint It Black’s power was untested for you to want to take him in a straight fight. You needed to leave while you still had distance…

“This is unexpected. So you had the potential to become a Stand user, all along?”

You paused. Paint It Black pulled tight, draping itself over your shoulders as you fixated on the speaker.

Giorno frowned as he approached, giving Paint It Black an appraising stare as something gold and sleek and humanoid appeared next to him. The same power, you knew instantly. This was what his power looked like. You just couldn’t see it before.

“It certainly looks dangerous. Maybe a close-range power type. And you can move your legs with it supporting you…fascinating. Is that because you wished to walk more than anything else?”

Paint It Black gnashed its teeth in an inarticulate display of fury. You felt its anger—your anger, this was all you—pulse through your head. It took a moment for you to realize that you were salivating for this chance to put him in his place, to wound him as badly as he wounded you.

Giorno took a step forward. Nervousness fluttered in your gut; you hadn’t actually tested all of Paint It Black’s power, and your opponent was likely someone who had fought many Stand users before you, but what choice did you have? Not only couldn’t you run, you didn’t want to run.

It was him and you, alone in the Italian countryside, and you weren’t going anywhere until you got blood. You looked Giorno in the face, and saw by the subtle widening of his eyes that he knew exactly what you were thinking.

“Gold Experience!” The other Stand moved with a dancer’s grace, darting close, fist raised to strike.

Paint It Black surged forward, carrying you with it in its eagerness to attack, swiping with its own arms to counter. Its movements weren’t as effortlessly coordinated, but it was just as quick, forcing Gold Experience to sidestep and weave through the attacks, seeking an opening…

It found one. You realized your mistake in the instant before the Stand’s fist connected with your physical body, striking you in the ribcage and sending you reeling back.

Things were happening too slowly. Things were happening too quickly. As if watching it happen to another person, you watched your body stumble and sink to one knee, Gold Experience’s fist still connected with your side…

“Maybe I’ll explain what happened when you’re secure again,” Giorno said, ignoring you in favor of speaking to your body, still in a half-kneel. Gold Experience pulled its arm back to hit you again, this time in the head—

And stopped. Its fist seemed stuck, held fast by the flow of Paint It Black’s tarry body as it moved outward again. Your body didn’t fall to one knee just because you weren’t controlling it, it fell because your Stand moved. Paint It Black laughed, a shrill and derisive sound, as its spike-laden fist found Gold Experience’s face in a wild haymaker. Its head snapped back with the force of the blow as it fell away—was it more frail than Paint It Black?—and you felt yourself come back to your body with a surge of satisfaction as you watched Giorno’s own body jolt backward, sending him into the tall grasses and muddying up his suit.

Users get hurt if their Stands get hurt. You make a note of what happened, grateful that Paint It Black happened to have a counter.

“You know something, Giorno? I can live without knowing.” Paint It Black’s body diminished slightly as it poured itself back into you, forcing yourself to your feet again. You didn’t like the feeling of Giorno’s eyes on you as he noticed this, mentally cataloguing your powers, but there wasn’t anything you could do about it. You had to get away from him somehow.

He wiped the blood from his split lip as he sat up with the sleeve of his suit, a surprisingly unrefined gesture. “You’re only able to use about half your Stand’s volume, since you need the rest of it to walk…even so, that was quite a hit. I can’t help but wonder what you’d be capable of if you could move on your own. What else can that Stand of yours do?”

You circled each other with measured steps. The tension was palpable; Paint It Black’s body was coiled so tightly you could barely breathe, and Gold Experience was almost walking on its toes.

“I know you’re excited about your new power, but nothing about the situation has changed. You’re not going to defeat me here; I can already tell that Gold Experience’s range is greater than yours, and your movements are too uncoordinated. You’re barely in control of your Stand. That’s not even taking into account our difference in experience; I’m—“

“Oh my fucking god, do you ever shut up?” Paint It Black snarled, voicing your thoughts the moment they occurred to you. Giorno frowned again, his Stand mimicking his disapproval.

“I certainly hope that’s not supposed to have come from you. Maybe we’ll work on refining your manners when this is over.” He hadn’t even finished speaking before Gold Experience moved again—not into your range, but to pick up a twig and twirl it around in its hand. You watched the shape distort and squirm as fear welled up in you.

It’s happening again it’s happening again—

How could you fight that? Paint It Black almost wailed in response, rippling its body to put more of the golden spikes into its fists.

Gold Experience wound the snake around its wrists like a magician completing an act as Giorno studied your face closely. He must have been satisfied with what he saw, because the snake flowed down to the ground and began to make its way towards you as Gold Experience reached for another one…

Hey. Paint It Black’s voice resonated in your ears. I can protect you from harm, or I can fight back, but I can’t do both.

“Save—“ you gasped, watching as another snake joined the first, rippling forward, “no…! The user is the enemy! If we defeat the user, we’ve won! Nothing else matters!”

Giorno watched you make your decision, first impassively but then with faint surprise as you lurched forward, falling onto the ground as Paint It Black left your body entirely to stand on its own. It seemed less steady on its own, somehow; it tended to lean into a strange half-crouch, in contrast to Gold Experience’s proud poise, and its pearly tears were flowing in earnest, splattering against the ground.

“What a disturbing Stand,” he murmured with a faint smile, “but I wouldn’t expect you to have a power that was anything less than exciting. You’ll be quite the asset if I can just get you to behave yourself.”

“Gold Exper—“ It was in that moment that your Stand, once again, did something exciting. In the same moment you felt a thrill of unadulterated terror flow through you as the first of the snakes finally touched you, Paint It Black reacted, dropping its form altogether to become a puddle underfoot. Gold Experience, still moving to strike, carried itself overhead…and was immediately impaled as Paint It Black reformed into a dozen needle-sharp spikes, piercing its body through-and through.

Giorno choked, first in surprise and then in pain and then on blood as red bloomed at several spots on his suit, falling forward until he was on his hands and knees. You squirmed toward your Stand as Gold Experience immediately knelt next to its user, resting its hand over one of the points of injury.

“I hope one of those hit your spine,” you spat with savage vitriol as Paint It Black flowed into your legs, positioning them under yourself to get up, “I hope you know how it fucking feels. I hope you know how lucky you are, that you can fix it right away.”

He coughed, struggling to his knees as you finally stood on shaky feet, Paint It Black grabbing for a nearby tree branch to steady you. Anger fueled your Stand, but fear seemed to destabilize it… and the second you realized this, looking over at Giorno, you knew that he knew too.

“You haven’t won,” Giorno said quietly. You heard the conviction in his voice and knew he was right.

“You just surprised me, but all you’ve done is slow me down. You can’t kill me, even with that needle ability of yours. All you can do is run. Even then…you don’t really think you can get away from me for long, do you?”

Paint It Black coils nervously as your legs continue to tremble. You haven’t quite calmed down from that scare, and it’s affecting your ability to stand.

“Today’s been full of surprises. And frankly, if just now is anything to go by...” you say at last, turning to walk away—you spot Giorno’s still-running car not too far away, where he must have jumped out when he saw you leave the villa.

“If I were you, I’d watch where you step.”

#by me #yandere giorno #really just a self indulgent excuse to try my hand at stand fights #uhhhhh what other tags should I put here #yandere x reader #I GUESS #the real main character of this is a Stand

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makeste · 5 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 172: Festival Planning and New Attack Training

Previously on BnHA: We spent some time with Gentle, our New Villain who commits chivalrous crimes to punish the worst scum of society, such as guys who sell expired pudding. He’s not as popular as that trendy League of Villains because he’s not big on violence. But he does have a new project up his sleeves! Meanwhile at U.A., class A got to work planning their cultural festival program. Jirou was in need of a drummer, and Bakugou somehow ended up getting volunteered. Turns out he’s actually pretty good, but he was reluctant to perform because he overheard some jerks from the department of gen ed talking shit about class A and blaming them for starting trouble all the time. So he wasn’t keen on the idea of performing to indulge these people. However he is on board to aggressively “knock them dead with his sound”, whatever that means! Everyone was like “...well all right then!” And everything was looking up. And then we found out that Gentle plans to invade U.A. during the festival. Because apparently we can never have nice things.

Today on BnHA: Jirou recruits the rest of the band members: Momo on keyboard, Tokoyami and Kaminari on guitar, and her own self on vocals. A handful of kids -- Todoroki, Kirishima, Sero, Kouda, and Aoyama -- are assigned to the “staging” team in charge of making everything look cool. And the rest of the kids are assigned to the Dance Team, including IIDA FUCKING TENYA, because when I tell you guys this manga always delivers everything I want, I mean ev.ery.thing. With that settled, Deku meets with All Might the next day and discusses his recent progress (or lack thereof) with One for All. All Might tells Deku he needs to develop a long-range attack, and they head out to the woods for some training. Deku learns that 20% Full Cowl gives him enough power to unleash wind pressure attacks. And with a little nudging, All Might gets Deku to realize he can create a new attack by activating 20% OFA in specific parts of his body, the way he did back before he mastered Full Cowl. Then to end the chapter, we cut to Aizawa and Mirio, who are bringing Eri to visit U.A. for the very first time.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 199 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

look who knows how to play the piano because she’s so stinkin’ rich!

MOMOJIROU IS ALIVE AND WELL, PEOPLE

oh my god look how cute she is

look how cute they are. GOD THIS IS THE BEST

Jirou says she’s gonna be on bass, so they just have guitar and vocals left!

cool cool. they can get literally anyone to do those and I’ll be happy. anyone EXCEPT Iida, that is. because Iida needs to be on that dance floor you guys

lol Todoroki

I’m fucking dying. Todoroki is nailing that space alien combination of “knows just enough to ask oddly specific questions while still somehow being totally naive and clueless”

Mina is explaining to those unaware that “staging” refers to things that set the atmosphere, such as disco balls, sparklers, streamers, etc.

I wonder if putting Aoyama in charge of that would lead to success or disaster

ooh, apparently Aizawa made arrangements to borrow the gym! so they’ll really have room to go nuts

I have no idea what’s going on in Mina’s head you guys but omg

yes. yes. I can see it now

this girl has a fucking VISION and she will not be deterred

TEAM SNOWMAN

okay so I’m fairly convinced now that Mina might actually be a creative genius and they should really let her loose more often in training. let that imagination go wild and see where it takes you. she could come up with some extremely unpredictable strategies. I’m serious

amazingly, no one is even arguing this except for Aoyama lol. he’s standing there all “I’m the disco ball?” while the rest of them are all “oh is this what you meant by teaming up? cool beans”

(ETA: no one argued it because this is literally what they ended up doing. pretty sure the staging team had one planning meeting and were all “okay, so basically just do all that stuff Mina said?” and agreed on it and then spent the rest of the month playing on their phones while pretending to work real hard. they didn’t even bother to work out the actual logistics of it until basically the night before. this is why Deku hadn’t checked that fucking rope you guys.)

I want to save this panel and use it as a meme reaction image omg

and that clack you see is the sound of the intern kids finally returning from their supplementary courses!

they’re excited to also get in on this!

Ochako is surprised that Jirou’s not singing!

-- oh no

when I said “literally anyone” I should have been just slightly more specific huh

oh thank god they’re making these guys try out first

I can’t fucking wait to see this in the anime omg

Hagakure says that Jirou’s singing is actually amazing and she thinks she should be on vocals

but Jirou really doesn’t want to and says it’s just gonna complicate things

but they’re all encouraging her!

oh my god she’s gonna do it!

AND THEY ALL LOVE IT

can’t fucking wait. omg. it’s gonna be like a whole year, but hopefully it’ll be worth it

so now Jirou says they need two guitarists

Kaminari is volunteering which is GREAT because Jirou and Momo are already there, so yeah

but Mineta is also volunteering which is. less great

oh my god

at this point the list of people I ship Bakugou with is significantly longer than the list of people I don’t ship him with, I think

OH NO MINETA CAN’T REACH THE FRET BOARD “BECAUSE OF HIS CHARACTER DESIGN.” OH WHAT A TRAGEDY. OH WELL

sometimes Horikoshi does nice things. I’ll admit

GASP

YESSSSSSSSSSS

THIS IS AMAZINGGGG. DREAM BAND. RIGHT HERE

Mineta is sulking and the girls are taking pity on him, and honestly I don’t mind it. weirdly. because it’s one of the few times he’s not being a little troll. he just looks small and sad

MAYBE I’M JUST FEELING GENEROUS TODAY. Mineta, you can exist today

like, even when Mina offers him a “harem part”, he doesn’t turn completely gross, he just kind of goes red a bit. I’m completely fine with this. Horikoshi can write this toned down version of Mineta and I’m cool with it. but I’m sure it won’t last though. alas

(ETA: my biggest problem with Mineta is that he beat Mirio in that goddamn poll his character has no purpose other than being obnoxious. he literally has no other personality traits besides “pervert.” if Horikoshi made even the slightest attempt to tone down that bullshit and actually try to do more with him I’d probably make more of an effort to at least tolerate him. but alas, that ship has sailed I think.)

holy shit how late did they stay up planning this??

you actually got Bakugou to stay up 5 whole hours past his bedtime. incredible

AND HERE THEY ARE

do you guys think Bakugou knows how to do that thing where you twirl the drumstick around on your fingers

also if he doesn’t get to shout “WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!!!! ONE TWO THREE FOUR!” then I will forever be upset about the opportunity wasted. in fact, it’s happening in my mind whether Horikoshi likes it or not. that is canon. prove me wrong

(ETA: I have my own mental version of this entire performance and let me tell you, it is very specific)

AND IIDA FUCKING TENYA IS ON THE DANCE TEAM! WE DID IT TUMBLR

I’m gonna play some Yeah Yeah Yeahs because right now that’s kind of my mental image for what the band might sound like lol

so now we’re cutting to the break room the next day and Izuku is having some tea with dad

it’s very cute but also All Might’s wondering if Deku had something he specifically wanted to talk to him about, since he’s meeting up with him at such a busy time

geez All Might can’t a boy just have some TEA with his DAD without being INTERROGATED, GEEZ

but also he’s 100% right to ask, and he does it so gently so that Deku can either take the invitation to talk, or decline politely if he so chooses. All Might really is the best

sure enough, Deku does have something on his mind!

he’s telling All Might about how he was able to bring out 20% of OFA under duress, but only for a short time, and even then it put a ton of strain on his body. not only that but it wasn’t even enough to win

so he’s trying to figure out how he should fight in the current situation, since he can’t master 100% yet

um whoa

say what now??

I mean like, obviously yes, that would be ideal. but are you implying that there’s some sort of obvious long-range move he should be able to figure out?

Izuku says he wants to learn how to do a weather-altering technique (and I forgot All Might could do those; has he even done it since the opening chapter?), but right now he’s not able yet

but All Might says he has “a few other...” and then he trails off

and he’s saying they should change locations

omg. I’m so hyped!?!

so now they’re in a forested area on the school grounds, and Deku has changed into his gym uniform

is this still during school hours. and Deku still has those supplemental lessons on top of that. All Might doesn’t have any classes he’s supposed to be teaching either? just drop all of your fucking responsibilities then why don’t you

All Might is telling Deku to break out 20% full cowl, and Deku is hesitating

“YEAH!! IT’S FINE!” lol okay then

so here we go!

this is always so badass. and I appreciate it so much more when it’s not in the context of a super dragged out fight coming on the tail end of 40 chapters of nonsense

:D what’s he gonna doooo

WHOA

UH, DAMN!?

DEKU DID YOU NOT REALIZE THAT YOU HAD BECOME A TOTAL FUCKING BADASS??!

Deku is wincing though and he’s saying “but in any case, my body’s...”

but All Might is wagging a finger in a knowing way and he’s telling Deku to look back at his journey

damn we got like a powerpoint and everything

does Deku’s mind just naturally think this way. because he’s trained it through all of that obsessive note-taking. I realize this is mostly for our benefit, but it really wouldn’t surprise me if his thoughts actually were this organized

anyways his eyes are widening, because he’s clearly drawn some conclusion from this pattern that I have yet to see! I don’t have a big hero brain like you Deku

GASP

All Might says he wasn’t always bringing out 100% himself??

oh shit

so since he is capable of holding 20% briefly without doing permanent damage to himself, then if he combines points two and six -- drawing out 20% OFA to a specific part of his body -- then he can utilize this badass new air attack!

though All Might says it’s gonna be harder than it sounds, and that it requires significantly more nuanced control

so Deku’s thinking that he’s gonna practice with his fingers

oh god

I’m still traumatized from that fight against Todoroki honestly. I look at this and can’t help but think “oh shit he’s gonna snap them all one by one” oh my god. it’s making me very uncomfortable even though I’m fully aware it’s not actually going to happen. Deku you’ve fucked me up

oh snap and we’re fast-forwarding to the day of the cultural fest!!

(ETA: lol no, I just thought this because I saw Eri there. jumped the gun just a bit)

OH MY GODDD

MIRIO IS THE SWEETEST, PUREST, GENTLEST, KINDEST SOUL ON PLANET EARTH AND IT’S SO DAMN GREAT

DON’T THINK I DIDN’T NOTICE THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD THERE, AIZAWA SHOUTA. OBVIOUSLY YOU HAD TO BE THERE WHEN THEY WENT TO PICK HER UP

ERIIIIII

SHE’S SO CUTE!! WEARING DIFFERENT CLOTHES FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!! DID THEY GET HER FUCKING SHOES OMG

SHE’S GONNA HAVE SUCH A GREAT TIME AT CLASS A’S DANCE PARTY. OR AT LEAST SHE FUCKING BETTER. GENTLE I S2G IF YOU FUCK THIS UP... [THROAT-SLITTING GESTURE!!!]

oh my god. I’m so excited oh shit

BONUS:

IT’S ERI’S PROFILE YOU GUYSSSSS. I’m gonna link to it over on aitaikimochi’s tumblr! here!

THIS OUTFIT IS THE CUTEST EVER. I’m gonna gush over it some more in tomorrow’s recap too. it’s just so cute

the clothes Aizawa got her just go to prove that no one is perfect. having some flaws just adds to his charm though

I also want to see Eri eating apples with Tokoyami now

so she is indeed six! my approximate guess was right! however as of where the manga currently is, she’s just about to turn seven. she’s getting so big! they have to figure out what to do about school for her. although her dad is a teacher so

#bnha #boku no hero academia #ashido mina #jirou kyouka #class 1-a #midoriya izuku #all might #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #tag yourself #I'm the staging team #none of that 'hard work' and 'practicing' nonsense for me #procrastinating all the way until the night before is where it's at

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lilacmoon83 · 5 years

Text

A Darker Curse

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 14: Desperate Souls

The last thing he remembered was raising his cane to this man and then the rage took over. It blinded him to the point that he was only vaguely aware that he was beating the crap out of him. It wasn't until his own son was pulling him away from the man that he realized what had happened.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Neal demanded to know, as Emma checked on his victim.

"I want him...arrested!" Keith rasped, as he looked up at them with a bloodied face.

"Relax...I'll take care of him. Your injuries aren't too serious, but you need to go to the hospital. I'll call a bus," Emma said, as she met Neal's gaze and he got her drift, as he slowly led his father out to the patrol car.

"Hey...what do I tell my boss about the damage?" the bartender questioned.

"Tell him to file a claim. His insurance probably has coverage for this sort of thing," Emma answered, as she called for an ambulance.

"Do I even want to know why you were beating the crap out of that guy?" Neal asked.

"He's scum...back in our land he's…" Gold started to say, but his son cut him.

"I don't care who he was back there!" Neal shouted, silencing him.

"You know, Emma was trying to tell me how you had changed and how you were actually helping her Dad without expecting anything. But now I'm not sure I can believe that!" Neal snapped.

"Bae please...you don't understand…" Rumple pleaded.

"Neal...it's Neal now," he corrected.

"And you're right...I don't get why you were beating the crap out of someone, but it just feels like more of the same from you," he spat, as Emma approached. The ambulance was just leaving and she sighed.

"You know, I don't have a choice, right?" she asked him regrettably. He nodded stiffly.

"Why are you showing him sympathy?" Neal questioned.

"Because despite the fact that beating the crap out of some guy is a really bad move...he's still allied with me and my parents against Cora," Emma replied, as she put him in the backseat. Neal sighed.

"Emma...he'll turn on you the moment it suits him. I've seen him do it," he argued.

"Yep and so have my parents. Cora is still the common enemy," Emma argued back.

"Emma...people fear him for a reason and I'm sorry, but your parents are foolish if they don't," Neal said, but that was the wrong thing to say, as she looked at him sharply.

"That's...that's not what I meant. I just...making deals with him never works out well for those on the other end, unless he's going to get something from it," he stammered.

"And at this point, I don't care if he gets to rule the world out of it, because getting my father back and making Cora pay is all we really care about right now," Emma admitted. Neal sighed.

"Look, I'm arresting him and I'm going to interrogate him when we get back to the station. What more do you want? A public lynching?" she asked.

"Of course not," he answered, as they got in the car.

"Care to share why you went postal on that guy?" Emma inquired.

"Not really," Gold responded.

"Try again," Emma pressed and he sighed in exasperation.

"He accosted a woman...let's leave it at that," he answered. She shrugged.

"Maybe if it wasn't you, then I could. But you're not Prince Charming. I know, because he's my Dad and it would be like him to beat the crap out of a guy for assaulting a woman, though probably not quite as badly as you did. But he's not a stranger to a giving a punch in the face when it's needed," Emma countered, which allowed Gold a small smirk of satisfaction. He appreciated her knowledge of her own history. Snow had done well in that.

"Unless it is your mother that's accosted," he countered back. She gave a nod of acknowledgement.

"Maybe, though my Mom does a lot of her own punching. Which makes me think that a beating like that means you have a history with this woman," Emma said, as they arrived at the station and marched him inside.

"Come on Emma...my Dad is the Dark One. He doesn't have history with any women," Neal argued.

"How the hell would you know?" she argued back and he realized that he wouldn't, so she continued once he closed his mouth.

"Are you really going to make me talk about this?" Gold asked.

"Yeah...because if it involves Cora, even indirectly, we need to know," Emma responded. He sighed.

"The woman is someone I once...cared for very much. Due to Cora's deception and interference, I believed her to have died before the curse," he explained. It was vague, but would be enough to convey why there was anger there.

"And now she just pops up here after all these years and without her memories, I assume?" Emma questioned. He nodded curtly.

"Convenient...but not sure why Cora would want to piss you off more by letting you know about her," the blonde said.

"I thought the same. But then she planned to have my son to use against me. That part just didn't work out for her," he reminded.

"Right…" Emma agreed.

"So then this Keith guy was probably trying to pick her up and it pissed you off," she surmised.

"Something like that and he's not just some guy. He was the Sheriff of Nottingham back in our land," Rumple told her.

"Seriously? That guy?" Emma asked and Gold nodded.

"Yes and trust me...no one would miss him," he replied.

"You know you can't use that as justification to beat the crap out of him," she chided.

"Actually, I could probably make a good case for that with him, but I'd rather just post my bond and go home," he replied.

"Yeah...and I have to wait for Albert Spencer to look over the case since he's our wonderful district attorney and knowing Cora, she's going to press him to deny bond," she admonished.

"The good news is that in less than twenty-four hours, we're electing a new Mayor so we can only hope it's Regina and then she can force him to plead your case down. Until then...I have to lock you up," she said regrettably. He nodded and walked into the cell.

"Well, then Cora better find a really good hiding place when she and your mother win tonight's election," he mused. She smirked.

"You seem confident that it's in the bag," she mused back.

"Well, the people in this town may fear Cora, but they fear me more...and my support is behind Regina. They'll vote accordingly," he boasted and she shook her head with a smirk.

"Or maybe they'll vote for Regina and my mother, because they actually want change and see a way out from Cora," she argued.

"Same thing," he argued back, while Neal watched the casual and somewhat friendly exchange between them with fascination. He knew his father was good at swaying people to do what he wanted, but this was Emma and she was far from easy to do this to. He couldn't quite wrap his mind around this repartee that his father seemed to have with Emma's family and he wasn't sure what exactly to make of it. His father couldn't have changed. It wasn't possible with him being the Dark One. Power controlled him. It was all he cared about. Surely when he got power back or worse actual magic, he was certain his true colors would return and Neal was going to be ready to call him on it when he did.

~*~

Mary stirred and opened her eyes, quickly noticing that she and David had fallen asleep together on the couch. It was innocent of course and she had slept better in his arms here than she ever would have alone in her bed.

"Good morning…" he said softly, as he gazed at her with a smile.

"Good morning…" she said fondly, as she gazed up at him and stretched.

"You know...I'm going to miss working with you at the shelter once you start your new job as Deputy Mayor," he mentioned. She looked at him coyly.

"Regina and I have to get elected first," she reminded.

"Please...this election is just a formality. Trust me, this town finally has the chance to vote Cora out. Regina is definitely going to win," he replied.

"Hopefully...but at least we still get to come home to each other at night and I'm sure as Deputy Mayor, I can find the time to come have lunch with the man I love," she mused, as she gently caressed his face. He smiled softly at that and the way his heart skipped a beat when she said that. He responded by initiating a kiss with her and they smiled at each other once their lips parted and they heard the baby on the monitor. They also heard Emma groan and stumble into his room. They weren't sure when she had gotten in, but from the sounds of it, hadn't been very long.

"I better go help her out. You can have the shower first," she said, as she kissed him quickly and hurried upstairs to help her daughter. David smiled at her, before taking Wilby out and then returning to clean up for the day.

~*~

Regina stood in front of her vanity, as she finished getting ready for the day. She put her earrings on and straightened her dress, before taking a deep breath. This was it. Tonight the town would vote. She would debate her mother in front of the entire town and then they would go to the polls directly after that.

"You shouldn't be nervous," a male voice said, as Ethan put his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. She smiled and turned so she could kiss him properly.

"Normally, I'd agree, but this is my mother we're talking about. She's not above playing dirty to get what she wants," she reminded. He shrugged.

"No doubt, I'm sure...but I have a good feeling about tonight. The people want change," he replied. She smiled.

"I hope you're right," she said, as they kissed again.

"Are you sure you have to go in today?" he asked in a husky tone.

"I assure you that she does," an unwelcome voice sounded from the door that they somehow hadn't heard open.

"Mother…" Regina hissed, as she fumed at the intrusion.

"Ah...guess that's my queue to get dressed," he said, as he made his way to the bathroom.

"I can't believe you…" Regina growled, as she stormed out of her bedroom and downstairs.

"It is one thing for you to barge into my home unannounced, but into my bedroom!" she hissed, as she went to the kitchen to turn on the morning coffee.

"Seems like I came just in time. I understand the need for comforts of the flesh, darling, but a bartender?" Cora said in a disapproving tone.

"Last time I checked, I do not need to run whom I date by you and you know damn well that he's more than a bartender," she hissed in a hushed tone.

"Oh yes...the thief you married and shamed your family with," Cora hissed back.

"I love Robin and you took him away from me during the curse, but it's going to come to an end. And then you're going to pay for everything you've done...especially for what you've done to Snow and David," Regina promised. Cora smirked.

"We'll see," she replied and Regina narrowed her gaze on her mother. She knew that look. It usually meant that her mother knew something that she didn't.

"I came here to offer you one last chance to stop this foolish attempt to unseat me, but I see that it's a waste of time," Cora stated.

"You're here because you're worried," Regina said. But Cora didn't betray any emotion in her expression.

"Tread lightly Regina. None of this will end the way you think it will and I won't be able to protect you...or your family from the consequences," Cora warned. A shiver ran down Regina's spine at that. There it was...the not so thinly veiled threat at her family, which meant Snow, David, Emma, August, and little David were her intended targets.

"You've hurt them enough, mother. You've ripped that family apart and Snow and David have both suffered enough," Regina pleaded.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong. It will never be enough for that wretched little Princess. I won't stop until she's groveling at my feet, begging me to stop torturing her family and I am grinding her bones to dust…" Cora hissed. Regina swallowed and could not keep the look of horror from her features.

"How the hell did you get like this?" she uttered.

"I'll see you tonight at the debate," Cora said simply, as she walked out and pulled out her cell phone.

"The plan is a go...it needs to happen today," she said simply, before hanging up.

~*~

Snow had spent the morning and the better part of the afternoon running errands around town, as she prepared for the debate and election that evening. Regina was facing off against her mother and though they were both fairly confident about her speech, she wanted her sister to have the whole day uninterrupted to prepare. Regina had warned Snow to be careful, because she was certain her mother was planning something shady. Snow had no doubt of that, but thankfully, she had made through all her errands without incident and they were ready for tonight. It was getting late in the day, so she decided to grab a couple of cocoas and then head to the animal shelter. Then she and David could go to City Hall together.

"Thanks Ruby," she said, as she picked up the drink tray and started off that way, just as she a text from August, telling her he was heading to City Hall early to start covering the whole event. She one handed texted that she loved him and would see him there, before she rounded the corner to cut through the alley that led to the animal shelter on a parallel street. But the hair stood up on the back of her neck, as she found Sidney Glass standing in her way. She looked behind her and sure enough, saw two men that were obviously muscle.

"She must really be worried if she's pulling a stunt like this," she commented, but Glass only smirked.

"Let's make this easy, Ms. Swan," he said.

"Oh, I don't do easy," she replied, as she tossed the cups containing the hot liquid at him. He cried out in pain, as the hot liquid made contact with his hands and face, while the two goons grabbed her and tried to restrain her, as she fought. She tried to scream, but one put his hand over her mouth. She responded by biting him and he recoiled, before shoving her into the wall. She hit it hard and her vision blurred, thanks to the contusion on her forehead now and slumped to the ground. She watched them through bleary eyes, as their voices sounded like they were underwater.

"Taking her to the library is too risky. Change of plans...take her out into the woods. We'll deal with her there," Sidney said. Snow vaguely felt herself being lifted up and carried away, before passing out.

~*~

David was about to clock out for the day when the vet called him into his office.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Dalton?" he asked. The man sighed and nodded, as he motioned for him to come in.

"Yes David, please sit down," he requested and the blonde obliged.

"There is no easy way to say this, David, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to let you go," he announced. David was stunned, but kept his composure and nodded.

"I see. May I ask why? Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No...you are really good with the animals, but I'm just not sure you're the right fit for this job anymore," Mr. Dalton said, clearly very uncomfortable about what he was having to do. David nodded.

"Or maybe it's because the bank owns the loan on this place, right?" David asked and the vet looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He opened his mouth, but David put his hand up.

"It's okay...I don't blame you. One employee certainly isn't worth risking your business over. I'll get my things," David said sadly, as he left quietly. He really loved working with the animals and would miss it, but he wasn't going to buckle under what he knew as a blatant attempt by his soon to be ex-wife to get him to come running back to her. Once he had a small box packed up with his few belongings he kept at work, he made his way out to his truck, only to find Kathryn waiting for him there. He sighed and shook his head, almost angrily, as he ignored her and put the box in the cab.

"David…" she said.

"Just save it," he snapped and she was taken aback by his obvious anger. She did not like this new side of him at all.

"You know what you need to do to get your job back," she said simply. He snorted derisively.

"Yeah...just come crawling back to you, right?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well, you can forget it. I loved this job, but I love my new life more, so go to hell," he responded and she grabbed his arm, squeezing it as hard as she could.

"Dammit David...you will not talk to me like that! You are mine," she warned, as she scrambled to hold onto him. She wasn't even sure why she kept after him when it was so obvious that he loathed her. She was humiliating herself, but Cora had drilled it into her that she had to somehow get David back into her bed, so she had come up with this as a way to do it. But unfortunately for her, it wasn't working and she was just coming off desperate and crazy. She heard the whispers about her. While she was desperately trying to convince them that Mary Margaret Swan was a whore and a tramp, most could only talk about how she was desperate, delusional and a stalker. Cora had insisted though that they would stop seeing her that way if she tore David away from his tramp girlfriend, but nothing was working and she was frantic. And strangely, she was not so worried about the part of David's rejection, but about the part where Cora would be livid with her failure.

"You need to get him back, Kathryn...it's imperative. If you don't...bad things might happen to your father's reputation if certain things came to light," Cora had warned her earlier. Kathryn knew that if Regina beat her mother out as Mayor that all the favors her family garnered would go away. Add to that, Regina would only be too happy to air her family's dirty laundry to August Swan to publish in the Mirror. Essentially, her father had purchased her husband for her and Albert Spencer had sold his step-son. Like property. If it got out...well, she wasn't even sure what the ramifications against her family would be.

"For the last time...I am not yours. I don't care what that piece of paper says," he snapped.

"The only piece of paper I care about between us now is the divorce decree that I'll soon have," he added, as he opened the door to the cab.

"David please...if that gets out…" she started to say, but he interrupted her.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like to know you were sold like a piece of meat?" he snapped, but then shook his head.

"Of course you don't. I was just a kid when all that went down, but I'm finally going to own my own life for the first time and there is nothing you can do to stop me now," he told her.

"You were nothing before me!" she snarled. But he smirked.

"Yeah and two months ago, I probably would have believed you when you said that. But not anymore," he said, as he was about to continue unloading on her, but he suddenly got a funny feeling. He felt a few raindrops hit his skin and the hair on the back of his neck stood up, as he quickly got in the truck.

"David...this isn't over!" she shouted, as it started to pour rain.

"Yes, it is...and I need to find the woman I love," he shouted back, as he took off in the truck. For some reason, he suddenly had a deep, gut feeling that something was wrong. He felt it in his bones like nothing he had ever felt or so he thought. Mary Margaret was in trouble...he didn't know how he knew, but he knew and he had to find her...

#Snowing #SnowxCharming #Charming family #Emma Swan #Neal Cassidy #Swanfire #Rumplestiltskin #August W. Booth #CORA cast the curse #evil Cora #AU #mentions of abuse #nothing graphic #family #romance #adventure #a darker curse

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theguardiansseries · 6 years

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From the Beginning Chapter 2

Bonjour, mes chers! Apologies for taking so very long to upload the second chapter, but I've been busy visiting my girlfriend in Washington! I'll be gone another week or so, but I'll try to get a bit more content uploaded for you all.

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Click here to read on FFN Click here to read on AO3

Summary: Danny Fenton was a simple, sixteen-year-old teenager who loved fast food, video games, and getting a B on surprise pop quizzes. He’s also the half-ghost teenage hero Danny Phantom who defends Amity Park from ghost attacks on a daily basis. Somehow, the ghost attacks make a lot more sense than crushes, friendships, and falling in love with someone he is definitely not supposed to be falling in love with. It was a lot easier to separate Phantom and Fenton before, but now it’s getting harder the more he learns about himself. Just who was he? The dorky son of scientists who loved the stars or the hero that protected the town. He’s starting to feel like he won’t like the answer. (Iambic Prose) (Prequel to Guardians and Partial Show Rewrite)

<<First/Last Chapter>><<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Two

“Hey, Clockwork! I’m here to abuse your all-powerful powers and possibly put the entirety of time and space in danger with my reckless and uncaring nature!” Floating through the doors of Clockwork’s citadel with amusement, Danny took his time to look at all the clocks that were up on the walls. So far, he had counted fifty-seven unique clocks.

“I’m afraid the Observants aren’t here, at the moment, but I’m certain that your words would have earned an hour-long lecture for the both of us.” Following the voice, Danny snickered to himself as he thought about a lecture with the Observants. He had only met them once, but already he knew that Clockwork hated them with a passion. “Here to complain about your most recent Christmas?”

“Hey, I don’t always complain when I visit you!” Thanks to the unpredictability of the Ghost Zone, Danny soon found himself in Clockwork’s usual work space that he was pretty sure was at the top of a tower. How had he even heard him from all the way at the entrance- No, no. Don’t apply science to the Ghost Zone. That was his parents’ job. “You just give good advice is all.”

“I’m honored.” A child-sized Clockwork floated in front of a large surface that Danny supposed was a mirror, images flashing across it faster than he could comprehend. “What advice shall I be giving today?”

“Well, if you happen to have the answers to the next pop quiz in History- Kidding, kidding.” Danny raised his hands defensively when an adult-sized Clockwork turned to glare at him. “It was a joke. Mostly.”

“I’m certain.” A few seconds passed where Danny thought he might have actually- “Chapters seven, twelve, and thirteen.”

“Whatever I did in my life to earn you, I’m very thankful for it.” Flying over to the ghost, Danny hovered in the air beside him, slowly relaxing. For some reason, he always felt relaxed in Clockwork’s citadel, even after the whole scythe incident. Speaking of. “Were you really going to chop my head off?”

“No. In case you were unaware, I am very good at my timing,” Clockwork smirked, a rumbling chuckle in his chest as he now stroked his long beard. “Your friend saved you precisely when he was meant to at precisely the right time.”

“Yeah, okay, but what if he hadn’t.” Clockwork tossed him another smirk, and, right. No questioning super powerful time ghosts. “Okay, so I wasn’t in any danger, but a scythe?”

“It was fun.” Oh, of course he looked like a child when he said that. “Now, I believe you came here for another matter?” Hmph. Take all the fun out of things.

“Well, excuse me for getting distracted.” Right, right, focus. He had wanted to ask about Ghostwriter. “So, uh, about the whole Christmas fiasco…”

“You want to know more about the Ghostwriter.” Well. At least Clockwork let him get his questions out before answering them. That was always nice. There was also the fact Clockwork helped him when he was stuck in History. “You also want to assure me that it’s not your fault.”

“It wasn’t!” Well… “Okay, yeah, the whole thing of the original poem being destroyed, yeah, that was my fault, but I’m not the one that wanted to start a fight!”

“And if someone were to destroy one of your models and then gloat about the fact, you would let the matter rest?” Well, when he said it like that, then it kind of made Danny sound even worse. “It takes two conflicting ideals for a fight to begin. Ghostwriter was not the only one in the wrong in that moment.”

“Okay, okay, fine, yes, it’s my fault, but don’t you think I suffered enough considering I was stuck in a poem?” Instead of a good answer, Danny watched as Clockwork stroked his beard again. “You’re doing that to annoy me, aren’t you?”

“Perhaps.” Yes, then. “You wish for an apology, then?” Nn… Not quite that. “Or is it you wish to give one?”

“You already know the answer.” The other gave him a smile and Danny gave a small one himself in return. “I just want to know a few more things, I guess. Like- Okay, would he have still trapped me in that poem if I had apologized right then?”

“Hm.” Clockwork hummed in thought, small hands gripping his staff as he tilted his head back. “No, you would not have been trapped in the poem. He would have been angry, of course, but as long as you apologized he would not have done any harm.”

“Great, make me feel worse, why don’t you?” So, it had just been Danny’s fault entirely that he had gotten stuck in that poem. “So, uh… Was he just trying to teach me a lesson, then?”

“While I don’t believe that was the only reason, it seems he did manage to teach you something about the holidays.” Yeah, don’t take his anger out on other people when they had done nothing wrong. “He can be a rather volatile individual at times, but the Ghostwriter typically avoids fights and violence.”

“Really?” Huh… He supposed that made sense. Ghostwriter hadn’t exactly fought back all that well when his keyboard had been smashed. “So, when does he get out of jail?”

“He was released early this morning, I believe, after his brother went to collect him.” He had a brother? Since when did the ghosts have siblings- Oh, right. Half-brother Randy picture frame. “Walker was unwilling to argue against the pair of them.”

“Yeah, no kidding, seeing as this Ghostwriter guy can control and alter reality.” Like, yeah, sure he had to use a keyboard for it or whatever, but that was still some powerful stuff. Danny forgot how crazy ghost powers could be sometimes- Like him and his ghostly wail.

“Yes. His brother is even more powerful, however.” Wha- Seriously? What could be more powerful than controlling reality? “Relax, Daniel,” Clockwork laughed, the sound fond as he ruffled Danny’s hair into more of a mess. “Ghostwriter’s powers, for as grand as they are, do have limitations.”

“Thank god,” Danny muttered, trying to fix his hair as he moved to instead float on his back, ignoring Clockwork’s amused grin. “Okay, so he’s out of jail. Great. Uh, say I did go over and apologize to him…”

“You would remain unharmed while you were there, and he would be willing to listen. Although…” Although? “Well, I suppose you’ll find out when you do go.” Oh- Oh, that was just-

“That’s just mean.” Clockwork’s laughter was a pitch higher, this time, but no less fond. “C’mon, don’t I get a hint! What’s the point of knowing someone who can see and control time if that power can’t be abused!”

“If you’d like, I can do something better than a hint.” Really? Awesome! “Stand still, close your eyes, and take a breath.”

“Seriously?” Seeing Clockwork looked kind of serious, Danny sighed and did as told. When he took a breath, he shuddered as he felt- Jeez, he didn’t know what he felt. It was like the feeling when he went through the portal- Portal. “Oh, that bastard.”

Looking up at the library in front of him, Danny huffed and crossed his arms. “That is not what I meant by wanting a hint!” Somewhere out there in the Ghost Zone, Clockwork was laughing at him. “This doesn’t mean you win!” Clockwork had definitely won, but Danny would at least go down denying it until his very last.

Right, okay. Apologizing. He could apologize. Clockwork had even said that it would all be alright, and while Clockwork could pull tricks, he never lied. He especially never lied about things like this. Floating up the steps, Danny felt almost as if the lions were watching him as he raised his voice.

“Hello? Anyone here?” Danny shifted outside the massive library, hesitantly knocking on the doors and oh. Okay. That happened, then. Right. Doors swinging open without anyone there. That was his life, wasn’t it? “Great. I’m trapped in a horror movie and it’s not even a good one.” If anything, it was probably a low budget B-rated one with bad actors.

Staring at the open doors a second longer, Danny pushed his way inside, swallowing at the utter silence and the thousands of books that he could see even from the front doors. “Hey, uh, Ghostwriter dude? Your doors kind of opened and I came here to, um, visit?” Apologize. Visit. It was all the same thing really, right? “So, uh, if you’re there right now, then that would be great.”

Silence. There was nothing except absolute silence and it was freaking Danny out more than he wanted to admit to. It wasn’t his fault that the Ghost Zone was so goddamn creepy. Plus, typically, being trapped in a building with someone who hated him didn’t turn out very well.

Hearing quiet mumbling, Danny just barely resisted the urge to throw an ectoblast out. That would probably damage some books and that was sort of the opposite of what he was going for. “-since the nineties, at least. Are you sure we kept the historical fiction works up here? I thought we moved them to one of the lower levels.”

Shit. He was talking to someone. That- That could be bad, especially if it was the brother who was supposed to be stronger than him. Was it too late to run? Danny felt like it might have been too late to run. Floating in the air, and ready to turn human and phase his way out if he needed to, Danny watched as Ghostwriter rounded the corner, books floating all around him as he carried another half dozen and Jesus. Danny thought the whole writer thing was bad, but he looked more like a librarian and fuck. Danny had lost books and had seen the librarians’ faces afterward. Destroying one? Ghostwriter was so going to kill him.

It was weird that there didn’t seem to be anyone around, though- Had the person he was talking to left? Oh, god, what if he was crazy and talked to thin air? That was the worst possible- Ah. He was looking at him. “Uh, hi?” There. That was safe, right?

“H… Hi.” Ghostwriter stared at him, most of the books dropping a few inches in the air as he slowly narrowed his eyes and oh, no, that wasn’t good, was it? “Trespassing rather seems like something that would be discouraged by a ‘hero.’”

“Hey, the doors opened up all on their own!” And… Okay. Now the guy was glaring at the ceiling. What the absolute- He was crazy. Yeah, okay, all ghosts were a little crazy, but really- Oh, no, maybe he was just glaring at God. Yeah. Danny would do that, too, honestly. “I knocked, they opened, they shut behind me, and now I’m here.”

“So I see.” Ghostwriter turned his back and began ordering the books into neat piles on a table that already had about a dozen piles. Jeez. Spring cleaning, maybe? In winter? “I take it there’s a reason as to why you came here in the first place.”

“Oh, uh, right. Yeah- Yes. There is.” Right. Apologizing. Because Danny had been a dick and the more he thought about leaving things bad between the two of them the worse he felt. “I…” Deep breath, Fenton. “I came here to apologize.”

“Really.” Wha- Hey! There was no need to sound so skeptical! “Whatever apology you have to offer would be equivalent to having your teeth pulled, no doubt. There’s no need to continue.”

“I- Wait, did you just tell me to not bother apologizing because it would hurt me too much?” That… That was… “Dude, that was impressive.” Danny winced when Ghostwriter gave him a look that was between confusion and disdain. “I, uh- Yeah. I kind of- I really did want to apologize, though.”

“Somehow, I doubt it was of your own volition.” His what? “Who forced you to come do this? A well-meaning friend?”

“Hey, no one forced me to come- Well, okay, my sister kind of helped me see that, yeah, I was a total dick, and Clockwork kind of encouraged me to come apologize, but I want it on record that I probably would have come without any interference. Eventually.” He- The man laughed. Danny could only stare as Ghostwriter, the one who had trapped him in a poem, laughed.

“Well, you’re interesting, if nothing else, I suppose.” That- Was that a compliment? That seemed like it could have been a compliment. Maybe. “I… I suppose you weren’t the only one at fault in the ensuing fight.”

“Oh. Uh, cool, I guess?” Okay, right, being glared at again. “I mean- I mean, you stuck me in a poem that read like a Charles Dickens story. That was kind of extreme even by ghost fight standards.”

“You know who Charles Dickens is?” Oh- Oh, that was just insulting. Danny hated how much he wanted to laugh. “This day just keeps getting more and more surprising, it seems.”

“Ha, ha. Look, I just… I have enough enemies in my life, is all. It’d be nice to know there’s one ghost out there who at least isn’t going to attack me on sight, so, uh… I’m sorry.”

“I… I am as well. Even if you sorely needed that lesson, I can admit I went to extremes when I attempted to teach it to you.” Ha! It was about learning a lesson! Nice to know the guy was Scooby-Doo crazy and not Skulker crazy.

“So, uh, we cool?” Danny noticed Ghostwriter looked almost pained before he was finally giving a small sigh and a smile to go with it.

“The blame seems to lie in both parties this time around, so why not agree to forgive and forget on both sides?” Oh, man, that was just- That was something.

“Does everything you say sound like it’s from some kind of Hallmark card?” Laughter bubbling out at the annoyed look he was given, Danny shook his head, and, okay. Forgive and forget, huh? Not bad, but… “Hey, Ghostwriter, what about something else, instead?”

“Oh, please. ‘Something else’ typically means a battle royal and I’m uncertain about you, but I prefer to solve disputes these days by-” Ghostwriter’s mouth closed with a snap, Danny’s grin growing wider as he continued to hold out his hand from where he had flown over to him and extended it.

“Hi, there. My name is Danny and I’m a half-ghost idiot with a saving people thing. I hate Christmas, I love my friends, and it’s nice to meet you.” The long silence was worth it when the ghost finally clasped his hand, genuine smile on his face.

“Hello, Danny. My name is Ghostwriter and I’m obsessive over my books and tend to talk to myself out loud. It’s nice to meet you, as well.”

“Oh, so you were talking to yourself when I first got here. Good to know.” The other rolled his eyes, Danny choking back a laugh as they let go, and… He kind of didn’t want to leave. Yeah, okay, he had apologized like he planned, but this felt- It felt like a moment.

A small feeling at the back of his mind was telling him that this was a moment the same way the Fenton Portal had been a moment. It was the exact same feeling right before he had felt that button against his palm. Right. He needed to figure out a way to stay for a bit longer, so…

“I know you said it’s cool and all, but I still feel kind of bad, so, uh, maybe I can help you around your library for a while? Make up for the book I destroyed?” And learn more about Ghostwriter in the process. It never hurt to do a little more recon on a ghost, after all.

“You- Really?” Ghostwriter blinked, looking startled. “You would help out in a library because you still ‘feel bad.’”

“Hey, I’m not some dumb jock.” God forbid that ever happened. “Look, I have five days left of my Christmas break. I can come over on those five days and help you out for a few hours with whatever you need.” Probably stacking and organizing books, seeing how much of a wreck this place was looking. “If I can stay and help for all five days, then the two of us can go our separate ways and everything is forgiven. Sound good?”

There was an uncomfortably long silence where Ghostwriter did nothing except stare at him before finally giving a smirk. “Alright. Five days of work for forgiveness.” Oh, aha, wow. Danny suddenly had the overwhelming feeling that he had just gotten in over his head with this. It was like he had just signed his own death warrant. “Return here first thing tomorrow at nine o’clock Amity Park time-”

“Nine?! Dude! I said I’d help, but I’m still on break, here!” Instead of staying like a logical, sane person, Ghostwriter’s smirk widened before he was walking away and disappearing between the ridiculous number of bookcases. “I didn’t agree to this!” Except… “Fuck, I agreed to this.”

From somewhere in the library, Danny swore he heard laughter. Okay, okay, just- Stay calm. Ghostwriter would probably only keep him until two or so and then he’d be free the rest of the day. Easy. Besides, five days of work seemed like an even trade to not make an enemy out of the guy that could control reality.

And it was shelving books. How hard could something like shelving books even be?

#danny phantom #from the beginning #guardians series #iambic prose #ftb chapters

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medea10 · 2 years

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My Review of Oreshura

…

Oh, who the hell remembers why I had this on my randomizer list? As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with the Fate franchise, I’ll watch it.

Eita Kidou is heavily focused on his studies and nothing else. Love? Pfft! Fuck that noise! He has no time for that shit and we can thank sucky parenting for that. A few years prior, his parents decided to divorce each other, get new partners, and ditch the family. So that’s why Eita chooses to study, so he can become a doctor, and not get involved in trivial bullshit of the heart.

And now let’s meet the new girl in school Masuzu Natsukawa. She’s beautiful and as a result, has been hounded by the boys at school to go out with her. I think she said it was like 60 times in two months. But Masuzu is much like Eita and wants nothing to do with love. And so she asks Eita to be her fake boyfriend to keep the horny rabble in class at bay. Two apathetic, aromantic teenagers together! Eita flat out rejected this until Masuzu blackmailed him. Apparently, she somehow got ahold of a journal that belonged to Eita and is going to use it to get what she wants.

Eventually, three other girls get involved in Eita’s love life including his childhood friend Chiwa, an even older childhood friend Ai, and Himeka who is in the middle of her chunibyo phase of life. Let’s see how long Eita stays single with four thirsty girls after him.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Hmm…How old is this anime? Almost 9 years old. So chances of there being a dub is slim to none at this point. Ah, Yukari Tamura! It’s always good to hear her again and play a manipulative bi-atch. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Eita is played by Ryouta Oosaka (Cross on Pokemon I Choose You, Marco on Attack on Titan, Climb on Overlord, Naoto on Tokyo Revengers, Yuki on Tsuritama, Isogai on Assassination Classroom, and Sekke on Black Clover)

*Chiwa is played by Chinatsu Akasaki (known for Nurse Joy on Pokemon XY, Miitsuru on Fruits Basket 2019, Felt on Re:Zero, Alice on Food Wars, Airi on ERASED, Nibutani on Chunibyo, and Yoriko on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Masuzu is played by Yukari Tamura (known for Rika on Higurashi, Lizzie on Black Butler, Tenten on Naruto, Suzuha on Steins;Gate, Mei on Clannad, Nui on Kill la Kill, Kanako on Oreimo, and Nanoha)

*Himeka is played by Hisako Kanemoto (known for Ami/Mercury on Sailor Moon Crystal, Zenith on Mushoku Tensei, Erina on Food Wars [season 3+], Kururi on Durarara, and Squid Girl)

*Ai is played by Ai Kayano (known for Darkness on Konosuba, Menma on Anohana, Alice on SAO: Alicization, Sylph on Mushoku Tensei, Ryouko on Food Wars, Anna on The Promised Neverland, and Mayaka on Hyouka)

DISLIKED CHARACTER: You know, I’m just going to say it. I wasn’t a fan of nearly everyone in this series. But I seriously had a disdain for Masuzu and her younger sister.

SHIPPING: Okay, all of these women have 0% chance with this guy. Eita has no interest in falling in love. So let’s leave the dude alone and not put him through a harem.

Nah!

Eita x Chiwa: Chiwa is Eita’s childhood friend and…Okay, it has to be asked.

DOES THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND EVER WIN IN THIS SITUATION? I am legitimately asking. They always poll high in many animes, but never get to be the winner.

I want to believe in this one though. Eita’s other reason for studying up to become a doctor in the future is in the hopes of one day curing Chiwa. Prior to entering high school, Chiwa was in a horrific accident that broke several bones in her body and forever preventing her from doing kendo or anything strenuous again. As for Chiwa, we know she likes Eita otherwise she wouldn’t have run out on him when Eita was happy for her getting a date with some other guy. Don’t worry, she gets over that and constantly butts in whenever Masuzu is too close to Eita.

Eita x Masuzu: Wow, you are such a manipulative bitch! Get a guy to be your fake boyfriend, blackmail him with spilling his embarrassing thoughts all over the internet, and occasionally read from his journal out loud in front of people just to torture him. Yeah, Eita isn’t that likeable but that’s just cruel. I know this is supposed to be the main ship of this harem, but I’m not a supporter of it one bit. Even Eita’s aunt can see she’s a two-faced phony.

Eita x Himeka: So Himeka isn’t formally introduced until halfway into the series. And all you need to know about this is if you’ve seen any episode of Love Chunibyo & Other Delusions, this is what this is. Because Himeka is a chunibyo! Something about Eita being her lover from a different time and yeah, don’t read too much into it. But it’s still better than Masuzu!

Eita x Ai: And around the same time we were introduced to Himeka the anime adds a tsundere! She secretly likes Eita so much that she plays hard to get by lying about having a boyfriend already. Not just that but forces her friend Kaoru to say nice things about her in front of Eita. This girl is pretty reachy! But as it turns out, Ai was actually a childhood friend turned tsundere. Yeah, she met Eita long before Chiwa did. But once her feelings are out in the open, Ai tries to get Eita to sign a wedding registration form.

IS THAT A JOJO REFERENCE: Watching this anime in recent ages, I was able to quickly pick out all the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure references. Masuzu is a big fan of the manga so it seems. But it seems that all the references only go as far as Part IV since this anime came out in 2013 and Jojo’s anime had only gotten off the ground with the first part. But at least they mentioned the Dio Brando kiss steal. Fitting since Masuzu’s little sister stole her first kiss with Eita.

ENDING: Let’s see how we’re going to end this! They’re shopping for bikinis so…Christmas festival? Pfft, ha! Yeah, it’s the infamous beach romp!

Unfortunately, the beach plans are at a stand-still due to lack of funds. And in comes Eita’s aunt whom we haven’t really seen up to this point. But she’s technically Eita’s guardian, so whatever. She meets the other girls (since she already knows Chiwa) and wonders who Eita has taken as a girlfriend. When Masuzu announces she’s the girlfriend, Eita’s aunt didn’t believe it. She can see right through this FAB. That’s right, FAKE ASS BITCH! In fact, she believes the tsundere (Ai) is a better fit. Hell, even the childhood friend and the chunibyo have a better chance. Besides the third degree this aunt is giving, she ends up allowing the kids to get their beach trip after all. But she wants them to help her as she’s a game developer. Apparently there’s an event where girls go on stage and confess their feelings to someone they love.

Now because of auntie coming in and mucking things up, we have a bit of a problem. Masuzu’s cracks are beginning to show because of what the aunt said. Others are starting to question how Masuzu and Eita ended up getting together. Even Ai got suspicious and almost caught on. As for Eita, it was time to choose whether he wants to have an actual harem or have a war breakout with all these women after him.

During the trip, Masuzu changed a bit in front of Eita. While she was still having manipulative thoughts like pressuring him to kiss her, that comment from Eita’s aunt was really eating her up inside. Eita ends up learning about Masuzu constantly putting up a façade in front of people in part thanks to her father. And the night before helping Eita’s aunt, Masuzu drops a bombshell on Eita. She will release him from being boyfriend and girlfriend at the end of the trip and even give him back his blackmailable journal. Masuzu found the page where Eita vowed to become a doctor to heal Chiwa. On the day of the event, Masuzu is nowhere to be found. Eita ends up talking to Masuzu’s little sister and gets a little insight into his fake-girlfriend. At the event, Ai, Chiwa, and Hime all say their feelings to Eita on stage, in a public setting.

But then Masuzu goes on stage and let’s out everything. And Eita runs on stage screaming about loving her or some shit…Yeah, my fuck level is at zero. You know where this review is going. Fake-ass girlfriend and Fake-ass boyfriend love each other and kiss on stage for everyone and all the girls to see.

In the aftermath of this, Eita has Masuzu for reals this time. Now to quell the brewing storm that’s about to hit after doing what he did on stage! All of those confessions and he goes to the girl who tried to blackmail him and use him as a shield, Goddamn! First, Eita tries to come up with some cock-and-bull story for Hime to take since she’s an easily to impress chunibyo. That backfired and made her love Eita more! With Ai, things got worse. He accidentally gets a paper cut and smudges a marriage certificate Ai has. And now Ai thinks that he stamped it and they’re going to get married. Chiwa…I know, she says something to Masuzu about waiting nine years or some shit.

God, this anime was blah. I’m trying to find the right word for this and blah is the only one I can think of. I wasn’t really a fan of this story or the characters or the shipping or really anything about it. This was just one of those animes I was just happy to get over with. Not because I hate it or anything, but I just found a disinterest in nearly everything. If you liked it, good for you. I’m an odd duck and my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

If you do want to watch this though, Crunchyroll has the entire series on their site.

#anime review #oreshura #masuzu natsukawa #ai fuyuumi #chiwa harusaki #eita kidou #himeka akishino #ore no kanojo to osananajimi ga shuraba sugiru

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cow5secondchance · 3 years

Text

Episode 4 - Honestly I’m a Vindictive Person - Blake

Format: The Penthouse

Eliminated: Mario & Jennet (4-4-4 // 4-4-1)

WILLIAM

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NICOLE

These little weirdos don’t know what they’ve just done! Lit a fire under my ASS. I’m so sick of feeling down in this game like every week is something else that I get dragged into and then the one week I’m planning nothing, thinking everything is going smoothly and my number 1 ally goes home after literally being pummeled the whole game. I’m so damn annoyed. I want the switch, I want top of the penthouse or whatever they call it. I want power so I can feel like I can shake things up!!!!

CAPTAIN

hello everyone i forgot to update yall since the second week so here we go! so we pulled off the plan to evict wyatt and i was so scared that they were going to pick me but i guessed they still love me and that makes me feel bad but urgh.. i just hope they could be able to come back </3 now we're moving to the daisy chain round in which isaac ruined everything after he saved nicole when he should save mario so thats a red flag. anyways, i came up with the plan to save everyone from the greenhouse and pretty people wink wink and i did that so congrats me. anyways, isaac put mario up and i was like maam not mario. no one talked to me about the votes. the alliance with blake, jennet, autumn, nicole, isaac and jarod? i think was made and now blake is upset with me for not telling him everything when i didn't talk about anyone in this vote and i just voted out isaac because i couldn't vote out mario? so white man.... urgh

these white ppl are freaking out too much

XAVIER

I want to end up in the Penthouse. Put Kaleigh last, so she gets eliminated, as I don't think her Defender will save her. And then the 4 options left, the 6 who voted together now will just have to vote together again. I want those who are really playing to stay longer, even if they are threats to me. It's just more fun. So none of those just popping up to vote :) All plans though. Might delete later haha.

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JAROD

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NYX

So this week went the way I wanted it to but not without a bunch of complications. So the daisy chain went pretty well I mean we controlled it from beginning to end and I think that we made it obvious enough to where the greenhouse people weren't seen as an immediate target. Then isaac and kaleigh ended up being up for banishment and I was really happy since kaleigh i don't talk to as much and i just voted isaac as well as him being way too chaotic for my liking. When Kaleigh won the uproot though that's when i got nervous because that meant there was gonna be a replacement and of course with my luck it was mario. Now this round changed my outlook on a lot of things because when i was campaigning for mario mario didn't do anything. He wasn't talking to people, he wasn't making bonds, and it's so fucking hard to save someone who won't save themself. There's also the fact that all of sequester voted the exact same way to save isaac which is also suspicious. Granted we in the greenhouse did as well. So this makes me realize that probably sometime soon, i'm gonna have to renege on the greenhouse four because mario clearly isn't gonna help my game much when it's my ass and were gonna be such an obvious target moving forward. Since the vote was 6-4 besides sequester and GH i don't think there's any clear alliances made so depending on who wins power this round i'm gonna have to make the move. the question right now is just how?

I put a lot of effort into winning that penthouse comp so it sucks that I didn't win BUT. If there was anything i trust to put my faith in it's definitely william since we just pulled a big move together so ik he'll at least have my back. I think i have a good chance of surviving this round but i guess we'll see

XAVIER

I AM SO BAD AT CHALLENGES. I reviewed the videos and all the details. But got bogged down with reading Wyatt's question - not the color of the shirt Wyatt is wearing! And just counted the painted art of Jennet, not the total. OH WELL. I have a pretty good relationship with William. I don't think I'll be in the bottom 5. Just depends now on who has the Switch and if it will be used on me. I feel it is with Jarod. Who else would Isaac give it to? Maybe Jarod won't use it on me, I think Jarod would have other targets aside from me at this point. So Greenhouse 4 still here. Mario is ... Mario. Wish Mario were more active. Harder to defend Mario now. I have a good relationship with Lindsay, William, even Kaleigh. Jarod too. Blake we get to talk. Autumn, Nicole and Jennet, I have been reaching out, but they are just so "busy" or maybe I am just not on their priority list. The Greenhouse 4 (well, 3 without Mario), William, Jennet, Lindsay voted together last round. So hopefully if we get to stick together this round, we will be safe too.

BLAKE

im feeling a bit down about my spot in the game! I think im probably a pick to go soon, and I really just need to find my footing in order to make a move in this game gr! last week i was at work, but it seems like william and nyx flipped the vote? but i cant be angry about it w/ william even though i AM so i decided just to rant about everybody ELSE to william and i think my whineyness is really working for me, serving nicole franzel, because i think william wants jennet gone which is like- good cause i think shes in the middle of the game.

CAPTAIN

william won the power! so.. i really don't know the outcomes tbh cause like even though we voted together last round, i didn't really talk to him (or anyone) about the vote. so i'm a little worried. i just hope the bond that we have made on the first round helps a bit with his decision.. please please i just wanna make it..

JAROD

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XAVIER

Nice line up for bottom 5, William. Most voted with him last round except for Nicole and Kaleigh. I think he believes Kaleigh won't be saved and so eliminated first. And then Nicole would be the target. I was surprised Isaac gave Nicole the switch. I thought it would go to Jarod. Maybe Isaac thought that too, so shook things up a little. I don't think Nicole will switch me. I would want the kill used, so we don't worry about it later on. But if mostly Greenhouse is on the bottom (if Nicole switches out with Nyx), then we should use save to mess things up.

Why does it feel like I am the only one making strategic plans with these 3? Am I in the wrong alliance? Maybe I can get us 4 to sure Jury and switch to Nicole, Jarod and Blake. Ugh. Tiring.

NYX

So, this week I thought that I would be good I mean william won the penthouse comp I was safe and while the bottom five wasn't desirable i'll take it. Then of course karma comes back to bite me in the ass and the guy i orchestrated a vote out for chose the one person I couldn't have getting the karma got it and i know for a fact based on the fact nicole refuses to hold any type of intelligent conversations with me i'm in trouble

XAVIER

Could it be? Don't want to jinx it but..... https://youtu.be/wKP0hNmg4gE

BLAKE

I’m so glad I had a literal mental breakdown last week over everything because one thing didn’t go my way. Really embarrassing for me BEBSNSNSK but anyways! Moving on! I’m hoping Kaleigh doesn’t get the boot honestly and it’s a heavy vote, considering I put in a lot of work to get myself to 2nd in the totem poll and had to release a lot of information to William to get here, it would be really unfortunate if I were to somehow end up vulnerable through a twist ! The reason I don’t want Kaleigh gone is because there are 2 other people I would rather go in the bottom (jennet and captain) for flipping. Honestly I’m a vindictive person and LOVE them but, they gotta GO just out of spite truly. I’m really happy with the new alliance of Lindsay myself William and Jarod, and the reason I’m apologizing for being a literal nut job last week is because I made everything about me, I was spiralling because I was having stress with work and everything I think? Who knows? And I really don’t think I’m in as bad of a spot as I thought I was, especially if I can knock out some big players and Isaac or daisy wins the battle back. As for the battle back! I’ll rank the 4 people out right now on how much I want them to return 1- Isaac 2- Daisy 3- Wyatt 4- Lanie

XAVIER

I AM IN THE JURY FOR SURE! I mean, I want to win, but for sure I am not pre-jury! Now the double vote. It was a waste of the save. Nicole should have just eliminated Kaleigh. Now it means the second round of Penthouse will be an automatic elimination. That would be tough. I know many are looking at Kaleigh and Mario to vote. But if most put votes on Kaleigh, and a few on Mario, could we still swing the second vote off Mario? And onto a bigger threat? Maybe it will help us more farther along in the game. And who doesn't want a group of 4 lasting longer? There might actually be more votes on Mario than Kaleigh, because of the Greenhouse returnees still being complete. Let me think more on this. One of them is surely going home, do you want to save the other for a bigger threat like Jennet or Lindsay? I am cool with Lindsay. Jennet I haven't forgotten being their nominee.

I am not pre-jury! I know I kept saying pre-merge in the video haha Survivor on the brain. https://youtu.be/SErcWUpfCwo

CAPTAIN

[this is gonna be a throwback diary room entry!] william put me in the bottom 5.. not surprised i think. i was hoping if our connection we made in the first round was gonna help here but its not. but i don't blame him.. i rlly flop with talking to people the past couple of days teehee. so thats kinda the wake up call for me to like keep talking to people or else i'll be over. i don't have any bad blood with william i think but i also won't forget that he's putting me in the bottom 5. period.

NYX

Ok so, with this heavy vote twist this means one of either Jennet, Lindsay, Mario, Captain, or maybe Kaleigh will be up to be voted for. This sucks because those first 4 are close allies. So now i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because i'm gonna have to let one of them go. so now i have to pick my loyalties. I would like to get Kaleigh and maybe Mario out because then we'd be forced to work with other people in other alliances but I just don't think Xavier would turn on them like that. I just have to find some kind of excuse to pull this off.

CAPTAIN

nicole saved kaleigh! thats good for kaleigh! this vote tho is gonna be something.. i don't wanna go so i'm fighting hard. blake told me he's not voting me. i know i can trust jarod, jennet and autumn and the greenhouse people.. so i think i'll be fine here? but idk. anything freaky could happen. for the voting plan, i think GH4 is gonna do kaleigh so thats 4 votes on her. and hopefully, jarod, jennet, autumn, blake and nicole is doing mario so it would be 5 on him. and lindsay told me she won't vote me so i think she might do mario too? since mario isn't talking to ppl. this is always my issue with mario like i love him but he doesn't even want to save himself and i just can't carry him anymore.

AUTUMN

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XAVIER

So I was going to try and vote someone else out. I mean majority look like they are voting Mario. So the G4 would be voting Kaleigh. If I could just convince Mario to vote someone else, it would be 2-2. But then Blake messages and says that the G4 are voting together, so is there something. So in order to just make sure Kaleigh gets out and not cause extra drama, I am sticking to Kaleigh. Well, it is kinda obvious I guess. I just told Blake I wanted to help us all get to "merge" since we had the worst placements of all coming in the game. I hope that was convincing enough.

So G4 voted for Kaleigh, I knew it if I switched to Jennet then Jennet and Mario would have gone home. But at least it's out in the open. So I think Sequester+Jennet voted for Mario. And Penthouse+Survivor (the others) voted for Jennet. Good to know where Jarod and Blake really stand, even with all their messages to me. The swing votes are the other 4. Gotta make better relationships with William, Lindsay and Nicole. And what's up Blake? Outing the G4 in the group call? When Sequester is the same, good thing Nyx brought it up. Watch your back, Blake.

LINDSAY

Not thrilled about this vote for many reasons. So, William gets power, and he messages me, right? "I want to work with you me Jarod and Blake" okay that's cool but uhhh.... there's six white people left in the game and that's four of them... so me and jarod message like "???" and we work to stop the noms from being all POC cuz that's gross (the intention was Jennet+Greenhouse/Nicole which uhhhhhh). I talked him into at least nomming Kaleigh. Me and Jarod were under the impression that Kaleigh would go home tonight for general inactivity (also Mario because he's inactive as piss + a greenhouse kid did probably finally need to go tonight) Where did this Jennet vote come from? Who voted for Jennet? Why are they suddenly a target? I dunno man I couldn't fight it much because I was out with my friend while we were deciding who to vote for but I'm squicked out on every level right now. Clearly people weren't telling the truth to me on top of everything else.... that's not how you win my trust. My god, am I about to goat for Jarod? I think Mario/Jennet are going home but not happy about this all around.

#cowsecondchance #episodes

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theliberaltony · 4 years

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarah (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): On Thursday, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that next week’s presidential debate would be held virtually. President Trump, however, has said that he isn’t going to waste his time with a virtual debate, promising instead to hold a rally.

Trump is down 9.8 points in national polls and is steadily losing ground each day in our forecast to Biden, as we inch ever closer to the election. Refusing then to participate in the debate when he could use it as an opportunity to mount a comeback against former vice president Joe Biden is a curious choice. Doesn’t Trump need the debates to mount a comeback?

Let’s talk Trump’s case for — and the case against — needing the debates.

OK, what’s the case for him needing them?

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): He needs something. #analysis

But seriously, the debates are among the few, regularly scheduled major moments in the fall campaign, so they do present an opportunity to shake things up, even if they’re not certain to do so.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): To a first approximation, I agree with that, although it’s overstated. Our research on primary debates suggested that a debate is equivalent to something like six to 10 days of normal campaigning and news, in terms of how much they move the polls. So it’s as if Trump is taking a week off the clock in an election in which he trails by 10 points.

With that said, maybe this ups the importance of the third debate — if there is one.

geoffrey.skelley: But we also can’t know given Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis whetherif Trump is really up for a two-hour debate right now, so perhaps he’s avoiding something that could be even more damaging.

sarah: One thing we talked about a lot going into the first presidential debate, is how much that first debate (more than the others) can really shake things up, but as former FiveThirtyEighter Harry Enten has also written, the second debate is not necessarily a game changer, and there’s no reason to believe that the person who didn’t do well in the first debate rebounds in the second.

Isn’t it possible then, that Trump, holding his own rally in which he doesn’t have to play by any moderator rules, isn’t necessarily a terrible move?

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): The problem is that he’s been holding campaign rallies all year long, and they haven’t helped him overtake Biden in the polls.

The days when cable news would air his rallies nationally are over. Maybe they get some nice local earned media, but that simply isn’t gonna measure up to a debate, as Nate mentioned.

geoffrey.skelley: It depends on the coverage. If it’s “Trump hasn’t recovered from COVID-19 and it’s irresponsible to be holding rallies,” I can’t imagine that helps him when 60 percent of the country said Trump was wrong to say we shouldn’t be afraid of COVID-19, and two-thirds said if he’d taken the coronavirus more seriously, he probably wouldn’t have gotten sick.

natesilver: Yeah, Trump is a fairly bad debater to begin with and it’s fairly likely that he would still be experiencing physical or mental ailments by next week thanks to his COVID-19 diagnosis. So the CPD gives him an excuse to pull out rather than him looking like a

geoffrey.skelley: And what if his rally is sparsely attended or looks that way in pictures? It’s his Tulsa rally all over again.

natesilver: Nobody will give a shit about the rally either way, I don’t think.

Unless, again, Trump appears sick or something.

sarah: OK, but from Biden’s POV, a skipped second debate is … fine by him? If anything, he would have more to lose than Trump in the second debate?

nrakich: Right. Traditionally, the front-runner wants fewer debates and the underdog wants more. That’s why you always see hopeless Senate candidates challenging their opponent to 10 Lincoln-Douglas-style debates or whatever.

natesilver: Unless Biden thinks Trump would be so bad that it would be worth debating him even if he’s being risk averse. Like if Biden’s up by 10 points now, and on average he’d gain 2 points by debating Trump, you might do that even if there’s a chance you’d decline instead. It depends on what the variance is.

geoffrey.skelley: A town-hall format would probably play better to Biden’s style, too, answering people directly, etc.

But the debate wouldn’t be in-person, so maybe that’s less relevant.

nrakich: That strikes me as overconfident, Nate. Biden could screw up too. I don’t think you can just assume he’d gain an average of 2 points by debating Trump.

natesilver: I’m not assuming he’d gain 2 points, I’m saying conditional on that assumption, it might be worth debating.

But also: Trump has lost every general election debate he’s conducted, per post-debate polling.

And he has COVID-19 and is on steroids and is acting erratically, even for him.

geoffrey.skelley: Who knows how a virtual town hall debate would go, but Trump was seen as the main cause of the disruption and chaos at the first debate, so it wouldn’t shock me if he did the same thing in that format — if the debate were held.

nrakich: That would be so awkward with the potential lag. Imagine all the stops and starts!

geoffrey.skelley: Yeah, you thought the interruptions were bad when they were in the same room!

sarah: Yeah, Trump really doesn’t seem to like debates, he skipped some in the primaries in 2016, too. But this brings us back to the original question: Trump is really far behind Biden in the polls, and Biden just got some of his best polls of the campaign this week. His margin over Trump is growing. What — if not a debate –- is going to shake things up for Trump?

nrakich: If Trump is going to shake up the race without the debates, he needs something external to happen — for example, a major Biden gaffe or crisis. There is some evidence that politicians in trouble try to stir up international conflict to create a rally-around-the-flag effect. Or there could be a Comey letter redux; the Department of Justice just changed its policies to allow prosecutors to continue their investigations even close to an election.

sarah: Nate, Trump is losing a little ground each day in our forecast if his standing in the polls doesn’t improve, right? Tell us more about that, and what that means for Trump’s ability to close the gap between him and Biden at this point.

natesilver: Trump’s chances are at 15 percent in our forecast now, but my guess is that he’d be at something like 5 percent if the election were held today.

He’d need a VERY large polling error to win if Biden is up 10 points nationally and 7 points or so in the tipping-point states. So most of his comeback chances still stem from being able to turn the race around somehow, and debates are one way to do that … maybe the best way at this stage.

geoffrey.skelley: Right, in terms of predictable events, things you know are coming, the debates are really it.

sarah: On that note, in the unpredictableness that is 2020, do we actually think Trump actually pulls out or is this just a publicity stunt? Something our colleague Perry Bacon Jr. had mentioned in our chat Wednesday before the VP debate, was how he was skeptical that the CPD could stop Trump from participating in a debate if he wanted to. Do you think Trump is just trying to negotiate the terms of the second debate?

nrakich: I think he’d actually pull out. Our colleague Kaleigh Rogers said something smart in our office Slack this morning, so I’ll just quote her: “Trump knows the last debate didn’t go well for him and this is a way for him to not participate while saving face with his base.”

geoffrey.skelley: Well, there is a little bit of precedent for presidents threatening to withdraw from a debate in order to change their terms.

President George H.W. Bush refused to debate under the commission’s plans in 1992. But he eventually agreed to some debates.

In September 1992, the first scheduled debate was canceled when President Bush rejected the commission’s plans. Hecklers dressed as chickens began showing up at his rallies, and Bush would occasionally engage them: pic.twitter.com/kAhK1Vj9DW

— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) October 8, 2020

And Jimmy Carter refused to participate in the first debate in 1980 because it included independent John Anderson. I would say, though, in both the 1980 and 1992 cases, neither incumbent was rewarded for their intransigence.

natesilver: How’d that go for Jimmy Carter?

geoffrey.skelley: Exactly.

nrakich: Either way, I don’t think we will get an in-person debate. I think if Trump successfully negotiates them back to an in-person debate, I think Biden will be the one to say he won’t attend.

geoffrey.skelley: The commission is in danger of losing face in any of these situations, but I’d think holding an in-person event with Trump fresh off of COVID-19 (or still suffering lingering effects) would be pretty terrible.

Now, in 1980, Ronald Reagan debated just Anderson at the first debate. Does Biden get to hold a solo “debate” with Trump not participating? I assume it would just be canceled.

nrakich: Interesting. The town-hall style does make that easier. …

sarah: What do Americans think about holding the debate next week? As we’ve said before, there just aren’t that many undecided voters this year, so is it possible that many Americans don’t need the debates to help them make their decision on how they’re going to vote?

nrakich: Two polls conducted before today’s announcement actually had contradictory findings about whether Americans think the rest of the debates should go forward. Reuters/Ipsos found that 59 percent of Americans thought that the debates should be postponed until Trump recovers. But Americans told CNN/SSRS, 59 percent to 36 percent, that the debates should be held.

But regardless of whether people want to see more debates, I agree that it’s unlikely to change their votes. Our polling with Ipsos has shown that most voters are either absolutely positive they’re going to vote for Trump or absolutely positive they’re going to vote for Biden.

geoffrey.skelley: What format the debate should take seemed to really affect how people responded, too. Pluralities have told pollsters that they wanted the next debate if it was virtual.

sarah: Yeah, and with a split screen … it wouldn’t necessarily feel all that different than if Biden and Trump were in the same room.

geoffrey.skelley: 100 percent. Look, a presidential debate has been held remotely before. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s third debate in 1960 took place with the candidates in different studios. Kennedy was in New York City, Nixon was in Los Angeles.

natesilver: I don’t know about that. The conventions produced very little in the way of bounces this year, which could be evidence that virtual vs. in-person matters.

nrakich: How do we tease that out from polarization, though, Nate?

To be honest, I feel like if the conventions in, say, 1988 had been virtual, they’d have still produced pretty big bounces.

Maybe just not as big as they were.

natesilver: Well, we got a decent-sized bounce from the Democratic convention four years ago. McCain/Palin got a pretty big one in 2008. They can still happen.

nrakich: But there were also more undecided voters in 2016. Everyone already has an opinion of Trump and Biden this year.

natesilver: The virtual conventions were well-produced, but fairly boring and I’m not sure why people tried to pretend otherwise.

nrakich: “Well-produced but fairly boring” kind of applies to every political convention, though!

At least if you’re watching from home.

natesilver: More boring than usual.

natesilver: Ratings were down. The polls didn’t move. In person matters.

nrakich: Eh. I’m not convinced. (There are other reasons the ratings might have been down, like people switching their viewing habits from network TV to online streaming.)

natesilver: The thing, though, is that you like politics and I don’t, despite covering it for a living. So I’m more like a typical American in those ways.

nrakich:

sarah: OK, final thoughts — it sounds as if we all agree on this one — the case for Trump skipping the debate next week … doesn’t hold a lot of upside for him?

geoffrey.skelley: Skipping the debate isn’t likely to help Trump, although it’s unclear if it will hurt him. At the same time, not knowing Trump’s current health condition in the wake of his COVID-19 diagnosis, means it’s possible he’d have had a bad showing at the virtual debate and hurt his standing more. In other words, the move to a virtual debate may have given him the out he was seeking because of that — or he just doesn’t want to debate anymore.

But I do think if he skips the debate and holds a rally instead, it could end up damaging him, considering how many voters don’t think he’s taken the coronavirus seriously enough. Such an event would seem to play right into that narrative.

nrakich: Yeah, Sarah, I think skipping the debate would be the latest in a long line of poor political decisions by Trump. Although to Nate’s point, I’m not sure he would be able to take advantage of the debate to turn his numbers around anyway.

It’s just increasingly hard to find any political upside for Trump.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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snkpolls · 7 years

Text

SnK Chapter 96 Poll Results

The chapter 96 poll closed with 1,469 responses. Thank you to everyone for participating. Let’s do this!

RATE THE CHAPTER (1,402 Responses)

There was an increase of strong NOPES with 6.5% rating this chapter a 1 verses .07% for chapter 95, but otherwise like last month, the majority gave the chapter a favorable rating.

With every chapter focusing on the Warriors, they steadily climb the list of some of the greatest characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. I love everyone in this manga, but the complexity, moral ambiguity, and tragedy of these three just continues to astound me. No matter how this manga concludes and no matter how imperfect AoT is as a whole, I applaud Isayama for writing some of the best antagonists I've ever seen.

Warriors background and sob story is always good to see. However, I do want a bit more progress in the story. I can wait a bit longer to see Paradis cast.

96 is probably the highlight of Marley focus so far, and is a well deserved title. It honestly never crossed my mind for some reason that we would see the opposite side of the attack on Paradis, and it did surprise me with how much of a rush and danger it was for RBA.

I liked the other chapters better since they weren't all about flashbacks; they had a nice mix between current and previous events

I don't really like the Marley chapters but this chapter has been amazing. Best chapter of this arc so far.

It has a huge emotional content but I feel like it had less substance than previous chapter. The insight on Annie is interesting though.

i think seeing the fall of wall maria from RBA's perspective was a very good (and heartbreaking) decision for yams to make, and a good way to segway into finally revealing what the SC are up to hopefully lol

It seems like Isayama has a thing for writing heartbreaking and sad chapters in August *sides eyeing to chapter 84* and btw, I'm still not over serumbowl. I don't even think I'llbe over that someday ;;-;;

It was really insightful to see more of RAB and actually see R&B relationship with Annie (I honestly thought Annie hated them and vice versa). We didn't see 3 monsters but 3 little kids, traumatized and forced to shed innocent blood

fuck this chapter, i dont even mind the marley chapters but this literally told us nothing interesting aside from royalty not being subjects of ymir

WHICH BEST DESCRIBES YOUR THOUGHTS ON SEEING THE FALL OF WALL MARIA FROM THE WARRIOR PERSPECTIVE (1,425 Responses)

Some mixed reaction here. A slight majority (45%) loved it while 25% didn’t care or didn’t like the timing of it. 31.5% were lukewarm about the retelling of the fall of Wall Maria from the warrior perspective.

I suppose if we were going to answer various loose plot points, we might as well get them all out in a single chapter.

I think Isayama's starting to push it with the flashbacks. I'd be okay with like. Half the next chapter or less being flashbacks to the trainee days but I want the rest to be interesting present-day Marley content

This would all have been so much more compelling if it had been incorporated into the main narrative timeline. Yams seriously needs a better editor.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE CHAPTER? (1,343 Responses)

“So much Annie” and seeing both trios in the shelter together were the top moments. Bert making eye contact with EMA and loudly contradicting Annie about her ability to charm men followed at #3 and 4. But with a lot of options came a lot of opinions.

"I'm here to save humanity." Like. Holy shit.

"Reiner is dead. If you want Marcel, I'll become Marcel" That was epic

One True God, Reigner, preaching His Holy Word to other Warriors. For He is the true savior of humanity

Reiner finally winning against Annie in a foot race

series was really just a bunch of scared kids making it up as they go

The little RBA group hug awww

The survivor from Wall Maria telling RBA his story. When I realized that I had heard it word for word out of Bertolt's mouth, it was very chilling. And Annie, seeing her break down at Reiner was one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the series

The two times we saw EMA

When it was revealed the Tybur family knew something about the Reiss family, that they have made a "vow renouncing war." OK, something is up with the Tybur Family, and I want to know more!

Seeing RBA talk about their mission when the Coordinate was maybe 20 feet away from them tops was a weird mix of frustrating and hilarious.

Ma boi Bert is smooth af.

Damn, Dina really hustled to be the first Titan through the gate.

SADDEST MOMENT FROM THE CHAPTER? (1,339 Responses)

Rather than pick a single moment, nearly 38% of us selected the whole chapter as the saddest moment. As usual, any glimpse of the 104th makes people cheer. The moment of eye contact between Bert and EMA was #2.

Annie...everything about Annie in general.

Knowing that once Reiner got back to the Marley after they failed, he did listen to Annie's words when she beat him up because he did take all the blame himself

reiner saying he wants to be a "soldier" to "save the humanity"_ the poor young man really thought he was saving the "humanity" from the monsters/devils

The panels of Bastion looking over the wall were so sad imo. Knowing RBA's story makes this iconic moment so much more tragic and powerful, but in a different way than before.

The parallel made between EMA and BRA. It's so sad to see how similar there six kids are, and how differently their lives ended up.

The saddest moment was Reiner saying he will 'become' Marcel. That was Isayama tearing my heart out of my rib cage and beating it repeatedly.

Watching three broken children commit an atrocity that they couldn't fully understand the consequences of

when it was yet another flashback

MOST INTERESTING NEW DISCOVERY FROM THE CHAPTER? (1,326 Responses)

The majority selected how Reiner became Marcel as the most interesting discovery. Bloodline talk and and the origin of Bert’s cover story were close second and third.

All of the above

Everything.

how reigner got fukin ripped, brah

reiner is hot asf

Reiner was always ripped

the explanation for why reigner went from the weakling to a buff dude (LUMBERJACKING)

Knowing for certain that RBA and EMA were (at least for a while) in the same refugee camp. My babies <3

I dont care for the plot at this point honestly im just in it for annie i discovered i love her somehow more than i originally thought

The Tybur clan detaining the information about the vow of the King. That implies they were in contact with Kruger at some point.

DO YOU THINK RBA KILLED THE MAN FROM THE REMOTE VILLAGE? (1,347 Responses)

My poll co-creator was the one who suggested this question and once asked I couldn’t unsee it. Nearly half of respondents don’t think RBA killed that man, but clearly there’s room for doubt.

I'm torn on whether RBA killed the man from the village. The idea occurred to me when reading the chapter, and I could equally see them doing it but also not doing it. isayama why!

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BEATDOWN THAT ANNIE BROUGHT ON REINER? (1,360 Responses)

Honestly I wasn’t expecting this to be a landslide but here it is - 82% felt that Annie was ok in her beatdown of Reiner.

YEAH ANNIE, KICK HIS ASS!!!

I want more of cruel Annie

My feelings for Reiner is kinda messed up.. Annie did beat up Reuner pretty good

i was all for reiner rescuing annie and apologizing to her but seeing what she did to him this chapter. never mind. she can go f*** herself.

RATE EACH WARRIOR IN TERMS OF HOW THIS CHAPTER AFFECTED YOUR PERCEPTIONS OF THEM

As far as opinion changes go, 807 people view Annie more favorably after this chapter, 788 do so for Reiner, and 633 for Bert. On the other end of the spectrum, 140 view Annie less favorably. That number is 113 for Reiner, and 57 for Bert

I used to dislike Annie, but this chapter helped humanize her in my eyes.

I kind of despise reiner after this chapter, the only good thing about it was annie

Bless Annie, she not only saw through all the brain-washing that the Marley government had imposed on them all, but was oblivious to her own charms! But damn, the scene where Eren, Mikasa and Armin are reflected in the Colossal Titan's eyes? That had me in tears!

WHICH OF THE THREE ORIGINAL WARRIORS IS YOUR FAVORITE? (1,369 Responses)

When I asked this question, I mentioned Tumblr’s outpouring of love for Annie as my reason. Now I have data to back that up. While Reiner was the combined winner, favorite character does vary by platform. On Reddit, Reiner was the clear favorite with 55% of the vote. Tumblr selected Annie with 46%. Bert is viewed far more kindly of Tumblr than Reddit. The breakdown is below:

REDDIT’S FAVORITE WARRIOR

Reiner: 55%

Annie: 31%

Bert: 15%

TUMBLR‘S FAVORITE WARRIOR

Annie: 46%

Reiner: 32%

Bert: 23%.

Reiner best character. Reiner for Straw Hat. Reiner for king of Westeros. Reiner for everything. I uh... I like Reiner.

Bertolt is such a non-entity in the flashbacks.

I can't believe I didn't appreciate Annie as much as I do now before!!! It was great to see her again and I really look forward to seeing her more hopefully

WHICH OF THE THREE ORIGINAL WARRIORS IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE? (1,322 Responses)

No surprise here. Mah boy Bert continues to get the least love.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IN CHAPTER 97? (1,353 Responses)

88% of people think the perspective will stay with the Warriors and a slight majority believe the flashback will continue. The 12% who think we’ll have a perspective switch are probably being optimistic.

IF CHAPTER 97 IS SET IN PRESENT DAY MARLEY, WHAT DO YOU MOST WANT TO SEE (1,362 Responses)

The Tyber family festival and the identity of Amputee-kun are what we want next. Many people think they will happen at the same time.

The Tybur Family Festival will reveal Amputee-Kun

All of this. A dialogue-heavy chapter that takes place during the tyber family festival. Right before the end, Pieck looks at Amputee-kun in the distance and says "Yo Zeke, Reiner, ain't that Eren Yeager ?" and Zeke goes "That's exactly right".

Amputee guy goes home. It is a dark house. In the corner is armin praying to an annie shrine. Mikasa is next to him on a chair drinking tea as if nothing weird at all is happening.

I'd like to see sort of visual representation of the Warhammer titan

Levi

Main cast

Reiner visiting Bertolt's family/parents

THE FOUNDING TITAN APPEARS TO YOU IN A DREAM AND GRANTS YOU 3 WISHES FOR THE MANGA. YOUR CHOICES? (1,401 Responses)

I hope ya’ll know I can see who voted for more than three. Shame on you! Action for Annie and Mikasa top the wish list followed by “no more time skips”. There were plenty of write in votes asking for romance and canon ships and the resurrections of Ymir, Bert and Erwin. There were some rather creative options as well.

*virtually votes for Annie getting out the damn crystal three times* WE NEED SOME ANSWERS FROM HER DAMMIT!

Armin. Man-bun. Now.

Every character getting a satisfying and conclusive ending.

Explain PATHS without magic.

Honestly I wish Zackley's "art" was never a thing

Chapter once a week

Marcel's death. Again. Again

Titan shifters not having to die after 13 years, except for gaylord, he can die for all I care.

HANJI ZOE GET A BACKSTORY

one billion dollars and a mansion to live in. PLEASE

Let's talk about East Sea Clan now

Bring Bertoto Big-Boi Bertollini back to life

better pacing

Connie with luscious curls.

MORE ZEKE!!

HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL CAST ON PARADIS? (1,420 Responses)

The number of people willing to sell their souls to see the original cast is up 10% over last month.

I understand people are frustrated because they miss the main cast, but Warriors are my favorite characters and I've wanted to see this since forever. We'll get back to the main cast eventually, just bear with it like we went along with chapters without the Warriors.

This is honestly all I've wanted to see from the beginning of the series. No matter what happens after, I'm really glad we got to see the other side of that fateful day. Also, I love how clear the parallels between the two trios were, because that's something I've found incredibly powerful in this series, but it's never really been this clear before. I find it tragically beautiful just how similar EMA and RAB are, and yet one trio has hope of a happy ending while the other's been doomed from the start.

Just when i was finally gettibg into Marley we switch to a flashback! Lol that's how it goes. It was a good chapter, finally covering something we've been going over on a fandom level since 2013. I'm glad we finally saw it. Bring back Annie 2k17!

On one hand, the Marley files is necessary, building up to the end of the series. But holy cow I miss our main crew on Paradis! Granted, the Paradis chapters have been well done, especially on expanding the Warrior's side as fellow humans trapped in some shitty circumstances.

I just want a glimpse of how the Walldians look like. Just one panel and I can rest in peace.

I've been selling my souls for the past six months to see main casts... I'm withered now.

WHICH CHARACTERS DO YOU GENERALLY ENJOY THE MOST (1,422 Responses)

Vets are up and the104th are down, but I suspect poll exposure is the reason for the change.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES (1,298 Responses)

Tumblr, sit down, we need to talk. I know you love your art and ships. And I do too! But can you spend three minutes taking the poll? The good folks at Reddit once again outnumber you 2-1.

Reddit: 869 (66.9%)

Tumblr: 419 (32.3%))

Discord: 84 (6.5%)

Twitter: 7 (0.5%)

IS THERE ANYTHING FROM THE NEW GUIDEBOOK YOU FOUND PARTICULARLY INTERESTING? (1,143 Responses)

yes, seeing Armin’s parents was awesome, but my poll co-creator’s obsession with Reiner Braun is #3 and that’s all I need! That, and eruri is canon.... again ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Seeing Armin’s parents: 49.2%

Isayama’s obsession with Reiner Braun: 38.5%

Poll creators obsession with Reiner Braun: 35.1%

Reiner’s unexplained weight loss: 23.8%

4 pages of insight into Levi's thoughts: 23.4%

Eruri being canon.... again: 22.2%

Annie’s hairstyle being designed after Avril Lavigne’s: 21.3%

The Colossal Titan was designed before Bertolt: 21.3%

Reiner being described as “the perfect man”: 20.6%

Annie’s name being a joke on the word “ani,” meaning “bro”: 18.3%

Marcel and Porco aren’t twins: 16.2%

The height/weight info on the warriors and cadets: 15.7%

Reiner’s genetic predisposition to be a muscular and sexy bara: 14.4%

Birthdays for characters we didn’t know before (Finally! Moblit!): 13.6%

Reiner having David Beckham’s eyes: 11.8%

Reiner having Matt Damon’s looks from Saving Private Ryan: 10.8%

It's ok, I too am obsessed with Reiner Braun (I would marry him)

Reiner is B U L K

isayama is evil

I fucking love Reiner Braun. That's all.

reiner needs to be protected

Reiner continues to be best boy

FINAL THOUGHTS?

This is a subset of the write in the comments we received. Thank you again for participating! See you next month!

EXTRA DANCC

This chapter was incredible and i cant wait until 97 comes out.

This chapter made me think a lot of Draco Malfoy. I mean the trio and him both were brainwashed and raised to think lies. They were just children caught up in situations they coulndt understand well. It made me feel very sad.

I wonder how the Tybur family knows about the First King's Will. Either he made the vow before traveling with the Eldians to Paradise, or the Tybur family infiltrated the Walls somehow.

Tyber family is being set up to be the "real" masterminds behind Marley's government.

Fuck you Isayama!! I hate you and I'll always will... except if you give Annie a happy ending I could rethink about it

It was really good but I would have liked just a little bit of present-day Marley as well

Again, the Tybur Family knows something about the Reiss family even though the rest of the world doesn't know what's going on within the Walled Society. Something is up with the Tybur Family, I tell you!!!

We need more Annie, Bertolt and Reiner. Also want so badly to see the main Paradis cast but enjoying so much this Marley arc so I'm very conflicted with myself on that and which side I'm now on (Warriors/Paradis)

It was lit

It was interesting to see these events unfold through the long-awaited perspective of Reiner, Bertholt and Annie. I liked how they showed those three kids having more humanity. Seeing Bertholt hesitate and Annie cry gave another dimension to their character.

I've said it before but the new shots of Bertholdt looming over the wall were so fucking incredible. When it gets animated, I hope this moment be silent, no bgm, nothing. It would make it more memorable.

The fact that this chapter is called "Door of Hope" may suggest that RBA's time having their worldview expanded will eventually lead to hope. Reiner may turn on Marley in the end, and Annie's character definitely isn't loyal to Marley. I don't think either would work for Paradis if they had a choice, but since Paradis *is* directly opposing Marley, I suspect we'll have a "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation. For Annie at least. If Reiner switches, I think it'll be in some great final act. :'(

Im a wreck now!

As expected

Dank

I love how there are absolutely no black and white in this series

Reignar's motivation for joining the military was done really well, and I love how complicated of a situation he's been in...

I've been a fan of getting the Marley perspective and was really happy to see Annie again, but this chapter felt like it was more of everything we already knew. It didn't add emotional stakes, it didn't add to the plot, it contributed to the abysmal pacing. I realize that we can't fully judge the manga until it's complete but the fact is, this is a monthly manga, and Isayama should take that into consideration when pacing the story. Focusing entirely on a flashback this chapter felt like a really poor narrative decision, especially since while it gave us feelings it didn't add any the last chapter didn't also give us. I know Isayama is a master of the long game so maybe I'm wrong and this was an important chapter, but it certainly didn't feel like it. It feels like he's trying too hard to make us feel for the warriors, but the previous chapters already accomplished that.

I expect SC to come back in Chapter 99. With the festival upcoming, I expect two volumes of Warriors before returning to out niggas on Paradis. Also, it's Reigner, not Reiner.

This arc need to step up its pace. It's good that we had all this new info but the story is so slow!

I just want to see grown up Mikasa

Disappointing overall. Little useful new information. The part about stealing the backstory was interesting but not significant. No plot advancements, no new mysteries, no present day action, and we all guessed accurately how the wall fell from RBA's perspective. IMO a pointless chapter, and the Marley arc has dragged on for almost a year now (no problem with Marley focus, it's just been very slow). Could/should have been done differently (include Walldians learning about Marley along w/us readers, include Warriors other than Reiner)

Need less marley and warrior focus jesus fuck

Ballsy move by Isayama to continue with the Marley/Reiner stuff. It's not terrible but considering monthly release schedule it's getting tiresome and I think he's starting to lose some of the fanbase - and he'll continue to lose more with each Marley/Reiner chapter

I'm so done with Marley, wake me up when we get back to the main cast

Please just move the story forward, we don't need previous details spelled out, the audience is smart enough on their own, this all just feels like a gigantic stall.

Feels like Isayama is stalling for the big reveal of Paradis plot

RBA perspective is already overkilled its inviting irritation rather than sympathy

I feel like isayama doesn't care about the manga anymore and is just trying to wrap it up as quick as possible

ANNIE PLEASE COME BACK REEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Getting weary of the flashback. I don't mind seeing the Marley side of things, but pick up the pace.

very powerful chapter. That said, I hope that for the sake of the story's pacing in general, this is the last flashback we get for a while.

AoT is the best story I've ever read. But if there are more useless Marley chapters I might even stop reading monthly. That's how exasperated I am. Fuck i really do like RBA and flashback is nice but PLEASE LET ME SEE THE WALLDIANS COME ONNNNNNNNN!!!! Its been half a year already !!! I didnt see the main characters since i caught up with the manga wtf

Cool chapter in itself, not ok with the premise

I'm pretty sure Dina said fuck Bertolt because she was going after that slut sleeping with her husband

You know, after hatin' on the Marley POV for the past few chapter I actually am starting to feel that I'm succumbing to them, slowly but surely starting to enjoy them

The RBA hug was the sweetest thing.

would be interesting to see of armin -remembers- any of this

I finally fully enjoyed reading a chapter of this Marley arc, even if it's just a flashback... but i reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaalllly wish to come back to the original cast POV. I miss them, i wanna see them, i would sell my soul to see them. Also i think Isayama made a wrong choice doing this Marley arc now, after the timeskip, if he had done this before the fandom probably wouldn't react as the way they did (missing EMA and Veterans). I mean, after the longest time skip ever, after the most loved/hated arc with huge changes to some characters, Isayama just change the view to another characters not showing us anything of what happened. Also with this guidebook we could see that things have changed with the original cast, mainly the relationships that before were strong but at this moment we don't know fully (Like i seriously saw the EMA split apart reading this guidebook, a thing that i didn't wanted to happe, but at the same time i wanted because is interesting af. Or Levi miserable after Erwin death... I feel like Isayama will continue with this flashbacks to explain something like why Annie didn't killed Armin, and their thoughts on the Walldian, but i also feel like chapter 100 will split the fandom apart (again) (i mean we probably will get the main cast in this one, i hope)

I MISS MIKASA

Great develope of the warriors trio

EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

nice info & perspective in this chapter. but felt dragged..could've been expressed in less pages tbh.

The pacing of this whole arc has been poor. These backstories would have better served the story if they had peppered the narrative a little bit at a time over the course of the whole series, not as some last second infodump.

Only thing worse than present day Marley is flashback Marley

I DON'T WANT ANOTHER FLASHBACK JUST GET ME ON PARADIS AGAIN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

You have a beautiful smile, but not as beautiful as Dina's.

I need Reiner/Happiness to be canon like RIGHT NOW

wjat the fuck is dina d o i n g how did she just KNOW who carla was aksdadkjs

I wish bertholdt was not dead And that he has more development.

I never thought we'd actually get to see this part from the warrior's perspective, but I've always hoped we'd at least see it in a spin off or something, so I am pumped we actually got to see it in detail in canon

Thank god for Isayama, he's a blessed man to give us so many chapters with Warrior focus.

Man I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for each chapter, but I understand it's necessary for quality.

I wasn't really enjoying the flashbacks but I loved this one

I wish we would have had some bits from the breaching of the wall way earlier. I also wish the plot would advance a bit faster. I feel too many panels were spent on the flashback. For me the chapter was over too soon, but felt like I'd learned nothing new of importance :(

I understand the flashbacks are necessary, but I hope the story will eventually wrap those up to keep the story moving forward. Everything has been going by so slowly lately, but even so, I love this series to much to just leave, especially since we're already nearing the end. Keep it up, Isayama!

Because I see all the recent Annie content as the most obvious foreshadowing of her return to the plot, that begs a new question. In Stohess, she tried to run away, not take Eren, and just get back to her father. She crystallized with that stuff in mind, she seemed ready to abandon her mission, so when she inevitably wakes up will she still have that same mindset? I think this whole thing could set up an interesting change for her character. Whether she joins the Walldians or not, she finally gets a chance to break away from the flow and suffer or thrive based on the outcome of (probably) the only time she's allowed to choose something in her life.

Damn this is depressing as hell

Dina will never not freak me out. Also hooOOOOOO REINER'S MESSED UP HOOOOOOOO

I really do hope Isayama goes back to the paradis crew in a flashback to 4 years ago. A couple months from where chapter 90 left off & the entire volume covers 1 year of the Paradis crew in between the 4 year time skip

I feel like Isayama doesnt care much for Mikasa anymore. She has become a flat character and deserves more focus.

I didn't need an entire chapter dedicated to RBA's persepctive of the fall of wall maria to feel any more sympathy than I already do towards them.

I'm really tired of the Marley focus in the story.

Loved seeing how Annie really felt about the mission outside of the hometown and ideologies. Also heart breaking to see Reiner trying so hard to make the mission work only to end up losing the only other two who understood him best in the end.

I was hoping we would get the Tyber family's festival, and there Amputee-kun would reveal his identity. However, after seeing this chapter, I realized how important and interesting the Fall of Wall Maria is in the warriors' point of view. I'm glad we got this chapter.

1. Reiner is much more than a warrior or a replacement for Marcel. 2. Dina keeps being awesome even after her death. 3. Bertholdt already being in love with Annie is awesome. 4. We've been able to see Jean!!! 5. I don't want to say goodbye to Colt...

Isayama, give Erwin back 😌!

#snk poll #snk chapter 96 #snk 96 #snk chapter poll #snk poll results

180 notes · View notes

hillaryisaboss · 7 years

Link

I hope Hillary includes these key points in her book “What Happened”:

Hillary Rodham Clinton already made it to the White House twice with her husband, President William Jefferson Clinton. The Clintons don’t have anything left to prove.

The Clintons left us a surplus and a booming economy (23 million new jobs, 7 million fewer living in poverty, minimum wage up 20%). President Bill Clinton balanced the budget 4-times because he was a great negotiator and a true pragmatist. These days, however, both the far-left and the far-right hate pragmatists.

Instead of declaring “Clintionism” dead, Americans should remember how much compromise, corporation, and broad-based prosperity occurred during the 1990s when two pragmatists (and policy wonks) occupied the White House. Minimum wage was up 20%!

Though the '90s weren't progressive compared to today’s standards, we must remember — the Clintons were a breathe of fresh air after the “Reagan Revolution.” If not for Bill Clinton rebranding the Democratic Party, we would have been stuck with another 4 disastrous years of Bush Senior continuing Reaganomics.

During the ‘90s, Hillary helped create the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP — 8.9 million children insured) and was instrumental in all of Bill’s policy decisions. Many said Hillary was the one who actually ran the White House during the prosperous 1990s.

The Clintons will always be political icons and legends. Two-time winners that won the popular vote for a 3rd straight time. Thanks for leaving our country in such great shape! The 1990s were great. Wish we could have continued our progress with Vice President Al Gore.

Unfortunately, in America, we usually switch parties every 8 years no matter what. But just think where we would be on global warming if Vice President Al Gore had won after President Clinton. Sadly, I guess progressives always love screwing us after two-terms of a Democrat — cue Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders (far-left spoilers dead-set on “purity” tests for Democrats — why do they hate us so much?)

President Barack Obama is lucky he didn’t face a far-left opponent, which would have diminished his support among millennials — a core part of the Democratic coalition absent in 2016 (but strongly present in 2008 and 2012). It’s as if we don’t understand the word “pragmatism” after we’ve had a Democrat in the White House for 8 years.

Remember: Hillary had the most progressive platform of all-time. She would have built on President Obama’s progress. Just like Gore would have done in 2000 after Clinton. When will progressives remember history?

“Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.” ~George Santayana

Y'all could have voted for the most progressive platform of all time — a platform Hillary worked on directly with Bernie Sanders. Yet many of you ultimately voted for a man like pervert pussy-grabber Donald J. Trump. Sexism at play?

Oh and nothing Hillary did with her e-mail server was illegal. Republicans have been manufacturing fake Clinton scandals for decades, even creating a small cottage industry for “Clinton Hate” ($$$). That is why so many Americans chanted “Lock Her Up” at Trump rallies — they have bought into decades of Clinton smears and brainwashing. It’s a clever tactic. Yet despite decades of smears, Hillary was still the highest-polling politician immediately following her tenure as Secretary of State. Then began her slow destruction from all sides (FBI included).

Hillary, though, was triumphant over her critics when she destroyed the false Benghazi witch-hunt during her brilliant 11-hour testimony. No one puts on a show better than a Clinton (sorry Trump — '90s Bill was awesome — the saxophone!)

In addition — the Clinton Foundation provides HIV/AIDS medicine to 11.5 million people worldwide, none of the “pay-to-play” accusations have ever been proven (it’s all speculation), and the Uranium Deal is correlated with donations to the Clinton Foundation but not proven to be the causation of the donations. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. Again — pay-to-play has never been proven (unlike the Trump Foundation which is, in-fact, guilty of pay-to-play in the state of Florida).

Meanwhile, the Clinton Foundation has a higher charity rating than the Red Cross.

So let us never forget: the Clinton Foundation provides 11.5 million people with HIV/AIDS medication. That amounts to supporting half of all adults and 75% of all children affected by the virus worldwide.

Also — none of Hillary’s e-mails were correctly marked as classified at the time they were sent and none were directly sent by Hillary herself (that’s why the FBI ultimately dropped the case). The few e-mails that were classified didn’t have the proper markings and were only found in long e-mail chains, never sent by Hillary herself.

Having a private server was a mistake, though not illegal. Remember — it was originally set up for President Clinton. The server wasn’t sinisterly set up after Hillary got the job as Secretary of State in order to hide her e-mails. It was a pre-existing server that has been proven to be safer than the already hacked government servers. Remember — Hillary’s server was set up for a former President.

Talk about a mountain being made out of a molehill (looking at you, media!)

Ultimately, though, Hillary still beat Trump by 3 million votes and beat Bernie Sanders by 4 million votes. 7 million more total votes for Hillary Rodham Clinton. And don’t say Trump won more counties — 65% of all U.S. economic activity occurs in the counties Hillary won.

The last two Republican Presidents lost the popular vote — Bush and Trump. Democrats are the majority. Have been since 1992, especially if you consider voter suppression of minorities and widespread gerrymandering.

Trump was right about one thing, however — the electoral college *IS* a rigged system (his old tweets always come back to haunt him). Point is — Republicans can never win both the electoral college *AND* the popular vote. On the contrary, President Clinton and President Obama won both the popular vote *AND* the electoral college. Go Democrats!

Did I mention Bernie lost the popular vote in the primaries by 4 million votes? The accusations that the DNC is “corrupt” and somehow “rigged the primaries in Hillary’s favor” doesn't change the fact that Bernie lost the popular vote by 4 million votes. 4 million! Maybe his politically-motivated support of the NRA hurt him at the polls?

Bernie half-heartedly campaigned for Hillary and by that point, his most ardent supporters thought Hillary was corrupt vile scum. Nothing even Bernie said could change their minds. Some even called Bernie a “sell-out.”

Unfortunately, Bernie ran a horribly negative campaign towards the end and stayed in the primary for far too long. This delayed Hillary being able to morph into general election mode, and required her to do a ton of repair work. Divide your enemy is Politics 101, and Republicans successfully divided us with both Nader and Bernie. We have fallen for it twice.

I guess I’ll never understand why Bernie supporters couldn’t have just voted for the progressive platform — for a chance to finally have two consecutive Democratic Administrations. A very pragmatic and logical decision. Perhaps his supporters truly are a bit naive? Maybe they are too young to remember the highly successful 1990s?

Remember: it’s not that Hillary doesn’t agree with universal healthcare anymore — she fought for it in 1994 and eventually passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a very pragmatic victory. It just so happens that Hillary is a political realist who believes we should build on what we have already achieved — Obamacare. And look how hard it was to achieve Obamacare even with a Democratic majority!

Maybe because Bernie doesn’t have the same political scars, he doesn’t understand the political realities of a GOP obstructionist Congress, something President Obama dealt with on an almost daily basis. Bernie would have passed zero legislation because not only does he disagree with the GOP, he demonizes the very people he would need to support him in Congress (Democrats).

I mean — can you imagine the field day Fox News would have had with Socialist Sanders, his rape essay’s, and the fact he wanted to raise taxes on everyone to pay for moochers to go to college? Middle America never would have gone for that, either.

Interestingly, the Clintons pay a higher tax-rate than Bernie: 35% vs. 13%. Who truly is the corrupt one?

Bernie also never showed us how he was going to pay for his plans. As Bill Clinton used to say — he could use some “arithmetic!” Maybe that’s why Bill Clinton (and not Bernie) balanced 4-federal budgets by compromising with a GOP Congress. President Clinton led our nation to a balanced-budget and surplus. Can you imagine Bernie being forced to compromise with a hostile GOP-dominated Congress? The man refuses to compromise on anything, which would ultimately lead to ineffective Presidential leadership. On the contrary, the Clintons are effective pragmatic leaders that get things done. Maybe Clintonism isn't so bad after-all? Maybe that's what we actually need?

In 2016 we finally had the chance to unite the ultimate combination: a truly progressive platform with the pragmatic, effective Clintons. And the far-left blew it... again.

Yet despite Bernie-mania demonizing Hillary for playing the game and winning (Nader 2.0), suffering highly personal attacks from Trump (bringing Bill’s accusers to the 2nd debate — though Bill has never faced a conviction/affairs are different than rape), blatant sexism from everyone (even subconscious), fake Benghazi and e-mail “scandals,” the racist Obama backlash (“deplorables” — Hillary was right!), the trend of one party only staying in power for a max of two-terms (8 years), Brexit (making Trump a very strong candidate contrary to popular brief — exploiting racism/propaganda/nationalism), the media claiming a false equivalence between Hillary’s negatives and Trump’s negatives for ratings, and Russia targeting Middle America with “fake news,” Hillary was *STILL* riding high in the polling after her 3 debate dominations.

Then…

Comey re-opened the Clinton e-mail case right at the very last minute.

I remember looking at the photo of Hillary receiving the news of the re-opening on her plane:

I thought — is this the moment Hillary lost the election?

It was.

So I guess I don’t understand why people don’t just come out and say the 2016 election was stolen from Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. Are people afraid to? Because I’m not.

Ironically, the official reason Trump gave for firing James Comey was his malpractice in regards to the Clinton e-mail case — the very thing that won Trump the election.

The re-opening of the e-mail case came after the Trump Access Hollywood tape, switching the headlines from negative Trump headlines to negative Clinton headlines. The re-opening of the e-mail case caused many voters that were inclined to vote for Hillary to just stay home on Election Day. It depressed Hillary’s turnout. So did the fact that everyone thought Hillary was going to win. Many assumed Hillary would win and therefore didn’t vote. Were they totally wrong in their assumption? No. Why? Because Hillary won the popular vote by 3 million (and no, it wasn’t because of illegals voting, you right-wing conspiracy theory nuts).

Despite literally *EVERYTHING* thrown at her, Hillary was still polling higher than Trump at the very end due to her 3 debate dominations. But Comey screwed her at the very last minute — the ultimate “October Surprise.”

Oh and don’t forget: Comey was already in the midst of the Trump-Russia investigation, but chose not to publicly comment on that investigation. Yet he publicly commented on the re-opening of the Clinton e-mail investigation? Double standard? Malpractice? Trump seems to think so based on the fact that he fired Comey over his handling of the Clinton e-mail case.

However, Hillary truly is forever the “People’s President” — 3 million more total votes.

Trump deeply resents and hates that he lost the popular vote. It delegitimizes him. He’s a big numbers guy. So always bring up his popular vote loss. It infuriates him.

It also appears Hillary’s themes of “Love Trumps Hate” and “Stronger Together” actually made for a brilliant strategy that received more total votes. By the millions.

I don’t buy the argument that her political framing was off.

In fact — I think her slogans were right-on the money. Perfect in an election facing a propaganda artist and ultimate con-man like Donald J. Trump. A man who relied on hate, fear, division, scapegoating, nationalism, and propaganda to win the electoral college in Middle America. The American Brexit.

If you truly know the American heartland, you know Trump was in actuality a very strong and formidable candidate. A scary fact all Americans must recognize and learn to navigate through.

Hillary was right on the money as usual — we have many “deplorables” throughout our nation. But always remember: 50% of Americans didn’t even bother to vote, which means Trump only won 24% of all eligible voters (Hillary won 26%). As we all know, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans. If we vote at 2008/2012 levels — we win. So get it together, progressives!

Furthermore, Hillary was the first person to correctly point out Trump’s reckless temperament, something we are currently suffering from right now in regards to North Korea.

“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” ~Hillary Rodham Clinton

Unfit. Unqualified. Unpresidential.

I also love that Hillary called out Trump’s dog-whistling to racists. She was the first high-profile person to do so in no uncertain terms.

Trump not only loves the support of white racists, he emboldens them (especially at his violent, hate inciting rallies — “deplorables”). Maybe racism is why Trump was sued by the Justice Department in the 1970s for housing discrimination against African Americans. He’s a prejudiced bigot that began his political career spreading the racist “birther” lie about our first African-American President, Barack Hussein Obama.

Sadly for us, everything Hillary predicted and warned us about Trump is coming to fruition. So is it still “too negative” for you if everything Hillary said about Trump comes true within his first 6 months?

Though I still fundamentally believe that “Love Trumps Hate” and that we are, in-fact, “Stronger Together.” I think those slogans are why people felt so awful on Election Day — *HATE* won based on an outdated election system. Oh and the fact that lots of people that should have voted stayed home. Guilt is a very powerful emotion (Bernie-Bro’s, I’m looking at you!)

Get rid of the electoral college. It has cost us 2 elections in 20 years. Gore received 500,000 more votes than Bush. Hillary received 3 million more votes than Trump.

(Oh, and it would have come down to more than just Michigan and Wisconsin — another state would still be needed for Hillary to have won)

**Hillary also doesn’t get the credit she rightfully deserves:

Youngest lawyer ever appointed to an impeachment trial. 26-year-old Yale Law graduate Hillary Rodham. Watergate.

*Children’s Defense Fund:

Investigated African American juveniles being placed in South Carolina adult prisons, and posed as a racist housewife to expose segregation throughout schools in the South.

*First Lady of Arkansas:

Hillary successfully reformed the entire K-12 Arkansas educational system, expanded healthcare for those in rural Arkansas, worked at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Legal Services, and co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. First female partner of the Rose Law Firm.

The joke in Arkansas was that they “hired the wrong Clinton.”

*First Lady of the United States:

Hillary spearheaded the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Foster Care Independence Act, Office on Violence Against Women, the Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy (lowering abortion and teenage pregnancy rates), and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — providing 8.9 million low-income children with healthcare access.

In 1994, Hillary proclaimed on the world stage in Beijing, China:

“If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.”

*Two-time New York Senator:

Hillary secured 20 billion in federal funds to rebuild downtown New York City after 9/11. She also secured healthcare for 9/11 First Responders and expanded access to care for the National Guard, Reservists, and their families.

*U.S. Secretary of State:

Passed the first-ever U.N Resolution on gay rights (proclaiming: “human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights” on the world stage), and made it so trans Americans can legally change their gender on their passport. Hillary also rebuilt relations with every nation after the disastrous Bush Administration, traveling to 112 countries — more than any other Secretary of State. Our worldwide favorability rose 20% during Hillary’s tenure. Her primary focus was on women’s rights and health, bringing up issues such as forced abortion and maternal mortality rates. Hillary re-opened relations with Burma, enacted a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and killed Osama Bin Laden. She also was instrumental in putting together the Paris Climate Agreement, something Trump has since removed us from.

Inspirational Hillary quotes:

“I’m not going to mislead anybody. Politics is really hard. And it is harder for women. There’s a double standard, and you can’t complain about it. You just have to accept it, and be smart enough to navigate it. And you have to have a pretty tough skin. To paraphrase a favorite quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: If a woman wants to be in politics, she has to have the skin of a rhinoceros. So occasionally I’ll be sitting somewhere and I’ll be listening to someone perhaps not saying the kindest things about me. And I’ll look down at my hand and I’ll sort of pinch my skin to make sure it still has the requisite thickness I know Eleanor Roosevelt expects me to have.” ~Hillary Rodham Clinton

“When you stumble, keep faith. And when you’re knocked down, get right back up, and never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on.” ~Hillary Rodham Clinton

“I really don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what people think about me…I would be totally paralyzed. How could you get up in the morning if you worried about some poll or what somebody said about you? That’s giving up power over your life to somebody else, and I don’t intend to do that.” ~Hillary Rodham Clinton

“Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been.” ~Hillary Rodham Clinton

Never Forget:

Any man with Hillary’s credentials and qualifications would have been given the benefit-of-the-doubt far more than Hillary was given. People would have been quick to say: “they’ve been around the block and had to play the game” — don’t hate the player, hate the game, right?

Yet with Hillary she was demonized. But a man would have been glorified for playing the game and winning (just like Trump was). The ironic difference is that The Clintons actually left our country in great shape while Trump went bankrupt on Daddy’s money and got bailed out by a Saudi Prince.

The Clintons are forever 2-time winners and 3-time popular vote victors! Thanks for the great economy and surplus! 3-million more votes!

Love Trumps Hate! Stronger Together! Onward Together!

Currently ordering 50 copies of Hillary’s book, “What Happened.”

#imSTILLwithher

#hillary clinton #bill clinton #what happened #bernie sanders #donald trump #hillary rodham clinton #clinton #barack obama #obama #bernie #donald j trump #trump #2016 #history

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