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baenxietydad · 4 years

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alpha desperation march aka finding nemo part 7 || mu jun

@moon-yeongjun

Word Count: 4521

Date: July 8th, 2020

TL;DR: Mu Jun has my entire heart, brotp: swynlake is better with you in it, damn it

tw: climate change is mentioned, suicide is mentioned

MARLIN:

The second the door slammed behind Nemo, Mu-yeol’s eyes that had stung with tears the past several minutes overflowed and with his son gone, he allowed himself the long, pitiful, ugly cry he needed. As much as he wanted to go after Nam-min he wouldn’t do that to him and humiliate him in front of the entire Hollow - as if he didn’t do that daily, by virtue of living.

He laughed bitterly as he began to run out of tears and once his nose stopped running he reached for his phone to call Jun. Surely Nemo ran off to Tae’s, and he couldn’t exactly call Eun-jung and try to explain to her why Nemo was at her house.

“Jun?” Mu-yeol said before Jun had even said hello.

JUN:

Why the hell was Mu-yeol calling?

He was in the back of the store, handling some emails when his phone buzzed. He picked it up and expected one of his many distributors or partners since Jun had made all calls to the store get rerouted to his cell phone-- just in case, eh? He had to be reliable no matter the hour--

And so part of him thought about making it go to silent because he was working, wasn’t he? Tcch, what time was it even…?

Ah, after 17:00, he supposed most people (not Jun though) were done working by then. Maybe Mu-yeol was calling on behalf of Nemo about some trip or event…

He answered it on the last ring and his hyung’s voice crackled over the line, thick and-- wrong. Jun knew right away.

He blinked. “Mu-yeol hyung? Is everything alright?”

MARLIN:

Did he sound that bad? He must, it felt like he cried until he’d cried all he could for the rest of his life. He wiped the last of the wetness from his eyes and cheeks and cleared his throat.

“Is...my son isn’t with Tae right now...is he?”

JUN:

Ah, not again.

Jun flashed back to just a few months ago to when he’d gotten a call just like this one. Well, actually he’d gotten some texts and then he’d had to text Tae and caught him in a lie. Jun huffed and rubbed at his temple. That huff was not toward Mu-yeol of course. If anyone, it was against Nemo, who was a real piece of work, wasn’t he? So dramatic! Flying off the handle-- no fairy pun intended!

“I ah, I don’t know, I’m-- I’m at the store right now, hyung. I can call Tae-yah? Did you get into another fight?”

MARLIN:

“Um…” he trailed off and cleared his throat again. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

And that’s when you knew it was bad. When he swore in English.

“No it’s okay. I think he’s smarter than to go there this time. Don’t worry about it, I’ll...figure it out.”

JUN:

Jun had never heard Mu-yeol like this.

He sat up straighter as the concern ballooned larger than before. There must have been a fight, but why was this so different from last time? How long had Nemo already been gone before his appa had decided to call Jun? Was the boy in danger?

Jun stopped this train of thought himself because he didnt know all the facts. The only things he did know where-- 1. Nemo was missing and 2. Mu-yeol needed help. More than one type of help.

“Hyung, hyung, it’s okay,” Jun repeated. “Please, let me help you, eh? Tell me what happened. We’ll find Nam-min together.”

MARLIN:

“No, it’s not, it's not, he said he hated me and that he may as well be dead to me too now, and it’s all my fault. I know I’m in the wrong here, I know — and he wasn’t supposed to — fuck, fuck.” He paced back and forth, or rather, his wings flit behind him as he hovered from one end of their house to the other, and repeat.

“No, I. If he’s not with Tae, I think I know where he went. I’ll ask Olaf and it should be fine. He’s safe if he’s with Olaf and Sindri.”

JUN: Jun had no clue who Olaf and Sindri were. Frankly, he didn’t care less.

What he cared about was Mu-yeol and, yes, Nemo. Whatever happened--it didn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. He had to keep Mu-yeol calm and learn the facts as quickly as possible. And right now, not even Mu-yeol knew all those facts.

“Let me call Tae-yah first,” said Jun gently and calmly. “He could be at my house. You know how those boys are, eh? Even if he isn’t, he could’ve heard from Nemo. And we can go from there, eh? Why don’t you meet me at the Moon Market? By the time you get here, I’ll have more answers for you.”

And Mu-yeol, by the sound of it, shouldn’t be alone right now.

MARLIN:

He should be alone, actually. Deserved to be. Forever, in fact! His son was right to not want anything to do with him and he would have been right even before this.

Yeah.

This was just what he deserved.

But he agreed anyway, to meet Jun at the store, and thanked him for his help.

“Hi.” He said quietly, when he got to the store, unconsciously wringing his hands together.

JUN: Jun did as he said he would and called Tae, and he badgered his brother until he could confirm that Nemo wasn’t there and hadn’t contacted him either. He double-checked with Eomma just to be absolutely positive, though he did not want to worry her. Naturally, he did anyway. But this might be a situation for worry. There was always a time and place; a missing 16-year-old sparrow boy plus a distraught, unstable father felt like one of those times.

He made Tae promise to let him know right away if Nemo did reach out.

All this did not take a long time. Maybe ten minutes of phone calls. Then, Jun could only wait for his hyung while his own concern grew and grew. If only Mu-yeol had told him what happened. It had to be some fairy thing maybe… or maybe just...so bad to truly humiliate him.

What could do such a thing?

When Mu-yeol arrived, Jun ushered him quickly into the back of the store. “Come, come,” he said. “Sit.” He gestured to the chair by the desk where the ancient Moon Market computer sat. “Do you need something to drink? We have-- well, everything. Here, hyung, let me get you a beer.” He clasped Mu-yeol’s arm fondly.

MARLIN:

He almost declined but good god a beer sounded good. A beer on the house, huh? Damn. Jun was worried. He had to calm down before he gave Jun a heart attack.

“Thank you.” He said when Jun brought him the beer, twisting off the cap with his hand. “I — god. I’m sorry to drag you into this Jun, this is. Very personal family shit.”

Of course, he’d been by Jun’s father’s side hours before he died. It doesn’t get more personal than that. Jun, whether he liked it or not, was family now.

“Your mother isn’t around is she?” And when Jun shook his head no Mu-yeol nodded. “Good.”

JUN: Very personal family shit, huh? Jun normally would not press-- should not press. But his eyes lingered on Mu-yeol’s face. He was a handsome man, looking much younger than his actual years which Jun assumed was another one of those unfair fairy things. But right now, he looked very old and very tired, as if the light was being drained from him.

Could Jun truly be the support Mu-yeol needed without knowing more?

He opened a beer for himself, mostly to show solidarity. It was never good to drink alone, even if someone else was in the room with you. “Don’t apologize. You would do the same if Tae-- or even any of my sisters-- disappeared. We have to help each other.” Jun shrugged. “If it’s...is it some sort of fairy thing then? Because I know you worry about my eomma, but-- I’ll make sure to tell her only what she needs to know. She can still be of help. She wants to, hyung. She has great affection for you too.”

MARLIN:

He only smiled thinly at Jun’s comment about his mother and shook his head. “Not to sound like the bloodiest character in a teen drama, but she wouldn’t if she knew. The fairy thing is the least of my concern, even.”

Eun-jung would be surprised, sure, but he didn’t genuinely think she’d go full pitchfork on him. Her sympathy would surely run out if she knew why Nemo ran away. Jun’s probably would too.

“It’s not a...fairy thing, not really anyway. It’s more of a me being awful thing. A liar, the worst, take your pick.” He took another sip from the beer and sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“I don’t know where to begin, Jun. I guess...Nemo found some things. A lot of things. That I’d hidden about my life in Korea, and that I...didn’t so much lie as I omitted about certain parts of my life and his mother’s. And he’s rightfully furious.”

A beat.

“Would you believe if I told you my wife was a Ph.D student when she died?”

JUN:

Mu-yeol probably wasn’t the worst.

Jun could not know. But by the sound of it, he did what most parents did-- lied to their child, for the sake of their child. There was nothing inherently bad about such lies. Children didn’t need to know everything at once and certainly not things that could hurt them. It was part of being a parent’s job, recognizing those things. Was Mu-yeol’s judgment on such things maybe more lacking than others…?

How could Jun say? He wasn’t a parent, even if some days he felt like it. Okay, most days. It wasn’t Jun’s positive to judge.

As for the next thing his hyung said… Jun raised his eyebrows. “Sure-- well, maybe, depending on what kind of Ph.D. I can’t imagine she was getting a medical license.” Such things had to be forbidden in South Korea too, eh? Stil, fairies could go to uni all they wanted.

“But then, you’ve barely told me anything about your late wife at all. I assume you told Nemo something different?”

MARLIN:

“Climate science.” Mu-yeol said. “She wanted to save the world all of you are still in denial is in crisis. So-yeon was too naive to realize the world doesn’t want to be saved. Humans...you don’t want to put in the effort.”

He fell silent as he tried — and failed — to sort out how to start the whole story in his head.

“It wasn’t that I told him something different, it's that I never told him anything to begin with. I didn’t tell him that we lived in Seoul. Human Seoul, not a Hollow there, in the city. We lived in a terrible basement apartment. Like the Kim family in Parasite. It was all we could afford.”

“I worked two jobs and sometimes three to put her through university. I knew I should have burned all of those pictures. Her Harvard acceptance letter.”

JUN:

His lips pursed as he listened, waiting for the understanding to arrive. But it never truly came. Jun was as puzzled as he had been since this first phone call. Why was Nemo so upset to find out his eomma had a life of her own, eh? Actually, what was so bad about all this that Mu-yeol didn’t tell his son to begin with?

He wanted to just let his hyung talk and maybe these reasons would still reveal themselves, but Jun still half suspected it was a fairy thing, whether Mu-yeol thought it was or not. Some weird cultural barrier?

“I don’t get it,” he said honestly then. “Why would he get so upset finding these things? He lives a very human life now himself.” He wasn’t sure if Mu-yeol even wanted to hear that, with the way he could talk about humans, but wasn’t it true? “You know, all the, ah-- human dance and human school.”

MARLIN:

“He’s upset I never told him.” Mu-yeol explained. “And that I used to live among humans when, for his entire life I made him cover his ears when we went to town. I made him lie to Tae about being a fairy. I taught him that humans, as a whole, can’t be trusted.”

He took another sip of beer and then said, “And it’s true. Just because some humans like you are good...it doesn’t change what happened to my family. The Korean police just shrugged off my wife’s murder. It was just a fairy, no need to find who did it, the less of them the better, right? Never mind she was four months pregnant and still dedicating so much time and energy to saving a planet humans are killing.”

Mu-yeol laughed mirthlessly and shook his head. His son’s human obsession? That was his fault too. He should have made Nemo just dance with the performing talents. Kept him in the Hollow. Letting him go to town for dance was his second big mistake.

“I only let him go to dance in the human world because…” he trailed off. Why was he hesitating explaining Nemo’s wing? Jun was family. Yeah, Nemo wouldn’t want him to know but it wasn’t like most disabled people had the privilege of being able to just ignore it.

Plenty of parents talked about their kid’s challenges with their friends. It wasn’t outing Nemo.

“Nam-min was - is - bullied a lot by fairies his age. Even adults in his Talent look at him like a factory mistake. Like a waste. He was born too early and one of his wings never developed properly so it’s smaller than the others. He loved to dance so I decided to go back to working in the human world even though I was - am - terrified so I could afford dance class for him. I wanted to give him somewhere he wasn’t looked at sideways for his disability.”

A beat. “He’s upset I lied. About my past exposure to humans, about living in the human world. He’ll never forgive me, Jun.”

JUN:

This was a lot of information.

Jun listened to it all, drinking his beer quietly and not reacting on the outside. He could do that when he focused. Normally he simply didn’t bother to hide what he thought from the world, because the world didn’t matter. But Mu-yeol mattered. For him, Jun would make an effort...to understand.

Much of what his hyung revealed Jun did not know how to talk about or react to anyway. Like his wife’s pregnancy. How horrible. How traumatizing. The thought of it made him sick, and so he drank his beer, swallowed his disgust down.

And as for Nemo’s disability-- completely out of nowhere to Jun. But how could he have ever seen it, eh? He wondered if Tae even knew. Now the whole… strange fairy-test-day breakdown maybe made more sense.

He could feel pity next to disgust, and he hated that as well, so he drank again.

And then they were at the end and still, Jun did not know what to say. Maybe he understood better now but… aiya, he never would, truly. Nemo still seemed to be acting irrationally to him. And Mu-yeol’s fear, while sympathetic and warranted, was ultimately misguided.

Jun should give no one advice though. Hah. And so Jun tried for comfort instead.

“I...didn’t know any of that. I’m sorry to hear it. But-- Nemo will forgive you, hyung,” said Jun. He set down his beer on the rickety table where the computer was set up, and he grabbed the extra chair so he could sit down next to Mu-yeol. He reached out and grasped his forearm for a brief moment. “I...I see-- that this is all a shock for him. Maybe his anger is justified, no one likes being lied to but-- he’ll calm down. I know your son, and he’s very sweet and-- cheerful, you know, he’s not someone who will stay angry forever. And I’ve seen you together. He loves you very much,” he said this next part gently.

Inside, Jun’s own heart panged and he thought of Abeoji. Bah, stupid. Why was he thinking of his dead father? He and Abeoji were nothing like Mu-yeol and Nemo.

“Perhaps it’s good he left to get some space, eh? He can...ah… get his head on straight.”

MARLIN:

He shook his head then quietly said, “Of course you didn’t know. I think I’ve only talked about Nemo’s wing with Kanga DeRosa. And I’ve never told anybody about my wife being pregnant; not even the fairy queen knows, it...hurt too much to explain when I first sought refuge in the Enchantra Hollow. Nam-min doesn’t know and if he ever speaks to me again, I’m not sure I’ll tell him either.”

Mu-yeol bit his lip then smiled sadly before he had another sip of beer.

“He doesn’t need to carry the full weight of that tragedy; Appa will take it. That’s what Appas do.” He explained.

Jun tried to reassure him that Nemo would come around but he didn’t believe that was possible. Nemo would be right to hate him forever even before discovering his lies, let alone now that they had been literally laid out on the table. What he’d done was inexcusable and he knew that.

He may be trash but he was self-aware trash.

“You don’t know how well Nam-min can hold a grudge. I’d never seen him this angry. Not when I wouldn’t let him go to school, or when I made him break up with that affront to nature, or when I told him I agreed with Mistral’s assessment that he shouldn’t be allowed to test for fast-flying, or even when he found out I’d been secretly patching Ashlee up for months when her father was hurting her because she didn’t want to expose him and my hatred and distrust for the police kept me from just trying anyway. Jun, Nemo hates me.”

Mu-yeol sniffed as fresh tears began to fall and he quickly wiped at his eyes. “I t-told him his mother’s parents were dead and he found out they weren’t. They’re dead to me, though. I came here to shield my son from them just as much as I did to protect him from bigotry. They are truly awful fairies who tried to take my son from me, so yeah, I didn’t let them.”

In hindsight maybe he should have.

“They told me that if I had to have lived instead of their daughter, I at least should have had the decency to not botch my suicide.” Mu-yeol said, bringing the beer to his lips and finishing it off. “I didn’t. My younger brother intervened, so first of all get your facts straight. Suicide is...the greatest sin a fairy can commit. The word about my attempt spread fast and the shame it brought on my family pushed me to consider leaving. The efforts to take my baby boy away made it clear that if I wanted to be Nemo’s Appa still, I had to leave Korea and leave the shame attached to Bae Mu-yeol in Korea. But it...it found me. Nemo saw it. In a dream, like he saw you. He’s found out all of my terrible secrets and half truths, after a lifetime of always defending me to the other fairies, like he — like I needed his protection instead of the other way around.”

Mu-yeol scoffed and shook his head. “When I had to wear the crown of thorns as my punishment for bringing Ashlee to hide in the Hollow, Nemo shooed away anybody that came to gawk. He was loyal to me, defended me, and loved me, and I lied to him.”

JUN:

Mu-yeol was not making a good case for himself.

Jun had always suspected Mu-yeol suffered more than he ever dared to show. But who wasn’t depressed? Who wasn’t anxious? Who didn’t have skeletons in their closet? Jun would be a hypocrite to push for Mu-yeol to talk about these things when in his opinion, they couldn’t be fixed. There were little, temporary treatments like medications and therapy and yada yada, and look, Jun wasn’t against that kind of stuff, he knew that they could work for people, but they weren’t solutions. Personally, Jun thought the best treatment was to just ignore what you could not change. Jun could not change his abeoji’s death. He could not change Tae’s sexuality nor Eomma’s feelings toward it. And so he just ignored it all.

When you brought these things up into the light, this was what happened after all-- Jun looking down at the concrete floor, no help to give.

He could admit that he’d be pissed at his own abeoji too for those lies.

He also wished Mu-yeol never told him that he had once tried to kill himself. And Nemo knew about that? Aiya. That was too dark. That was too much. And even for humans, it was a sin. Very selfish. Jun couldn’t imagine…

But despite all of that, wouldn’t Jun still love his abeoji? Of course. They were family. Depression was inevitable, but so was family. Maybe that’s why they so often went hand in hand.

“I…” Jun started, stopped. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to say. Of course...what you did- maybe it isn’t right.” He lifted his shoulders to his ears. “But you did it because you loved him, eh? He still loves you too. He will forgive you because he is a good son.” And of course it was a son’s duty to forgive their father. Wasn’t it?

“Look, if he ends up at my house-- he can stay the night. You’ll know he’s safe. And in the morning, you can come by and talk to him then.”

MARLIN:

“No, he knows from last time you’d just hand him right back to me.” Mu-yeol said. “He wouldn’t chance that now that I think about it.”

He heaved a sigh and shook his head, resting his chin in his hand. Aiya, this was embarrassing. Jun didn’t ask to be dragged into his family drama.

“I only wanted to protect him from the same thing happening to him, and keep him from his mother’s parents who would have only reminded him how wrong he was for being born the way he was, but he’s too angry to believe me even if he’d given me the time to explain. I know I was wrong, I know. But I — I couldn’t lose him too. And I think I will anyway.”

Mu-yeol groaned and let his head hang low a minute. “I want to go home. Korea home. I’m so tired of…” he gestured vaguely. “This. Not that it would be any different, probably, but at least I wouldn’t have been alone. It’s so hard, Jun, and Nam-min…he doesn’t understand.” Or appreciate how hard he worked to give Nemo what he wanted, how much he sacrificed for him. His son was kind of a brat but it was because he loved him so much and spoiled him. All of his sacrifices frankly meant nothing now— his lies of omission surely cancelled them out. “I’m sorry to drag you into everything.”

JUN:

There were times he wanted to go home to Korea too.

He still thought about Korea as home. He couldn’t help it. For ten years, he’d only known Boseong even though Eomma told him at least once a week about how it was all temporary. She referred to Swynlake as home. When we join your abeoji...she would say because it was this inevitable thing. But Swynlake was too...small. It was hard to describe. There was just more sky in Boseong. In Swynlake, the clouds hung too low.

Despite that feeling though, Jun knew that if he were to go back, find his old farm, walk through the same tea fields, he wouldn’t feel at home. It’d be like looking at photographs. There were things you couldn’t ever capture again. Even if the same people were still around, Jun was not the same person himself. He couldn’t be that boy.

It would be the same for Mu-yeol. Hard to realize though, when homesick for a thing that no longer existed.

Jun waved another hand. “I keep telling you, eh? No apologies. We’d be involved no matter what, Nam-min is like family. You...you are family.”

He couldn’t look Mu-yeol in the eye when he said it.

He coughed awkwardly.

“Swynlake’s a piece of shit, but it’s better with you here.”

MARLIN:

“Right.” Mu-yeol said, chuckling nervously when Jun again insisted no apologies needed. He wiped at his eyes with the heel of his hand and gave a shaky breath as he bit back another apology for crying still.

Jun’s embarrassment at saying something so honest, so vulnerable, was enough to make him forget how embarrassed he was right now. He almost laughed— like genuinely laughed. It was funny how human men were so…emotionally stifled. Sad funny, not haha funny, but it was haha funny that he seemed to be rubbing off on the standoffish Jun Moon.

“Yeah?” He said, managing to crack a real albeit small smile. “Tell the Hollow that.” A beat. “Think you’ll come up with a good explanation for your mother so she won’t ask too much? I don’t want to put you in an awkward situation.”

JUN:

Ah yes, he had said he’d come up with something. That was before he’d heard all of it-- and Jun wasn’t quite sure how he should frame this to Eomma. In the end maybe it wouldn’t matter because, well, Nemo was still a child even if he was 16 now. He should still be with his father. He shouldn’t run away. No matter Marlin’s crimes, unless they were-- abusive-- this would still be true and he was sure that Eomma would see it the same way.

But part of him wondered if all the lies at this point were necessary. Surely, Eomma knew more than he liked to let on. Live and let live, don’t talk about it, etc-- but she wasn’t stupid. Maybe now was the time for Marlin to come clean to his eomma as well.

He sighed and drank his beer, kicking back most of it. “I can try,” he said. He didn’t sound very confident. “Maybe it won’t be necessary, eh? Maybe Nemo will surprise you, he’ll come home sooner rather than later, spare us all the need for...more lies.”

Just saying it made him feel exhausted. But he said he wouldn’t tell his eomma; he meant it.

“Don’t worry. We have some time, I’ll make sure to think of something.”

#the baes go through some shit #jun

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grimtwin · 5 years

Note

What are your favorite and least favorite parts about the arcs of Yu Yu Hakusho?

I’ll break down the “Spirit Detective Saga” down into the smaller bits.

Surprised to be Dead:

Favorite part is by far and large, meeting Botan. I have no clue if I would have been as involved with this series without a fun character like her to draw me in. The premise of the series was solid and completely new to me, but Yusuke was not at all an exciting looking character.

Least favorite part of this arc is without a doubt the lack luster art/animation. Being a new series that wasn’t promised a long run and could be canceled at any time, there wasn’t going to be a lot of money put into it at first, and Togashi still had room to grow with his art.

First Case:

Favorite part of this arc would be the introductions of the villains, and future protagonists of the series, Hiei and Kurama. Yusuke, all of a day into getting his powers or something like that, is sent off to get the Artifacts of Darkness back from Hiei, Kurama, and Gouki, all of which could kill Yusuke without trying very hard. And jumping into that, Yusuke needed all the help he could get in order to get the artifacts back, and “solve” this case. If not for Botan and Kurama, Yusuke would have died again. It’s not often that you see the main character need help or have to use some strategy to win a fight, especially since before dying, all Yusuke had was brute force.

Least favorite part was Hiei’s demon form. It’s obvious that he was meant to be a one time villain because this is the only time we see it in the series, and I’m not including the Poltergeist Report movie. It’s ugly as hell, fills Hiei’s body with the anti-climatic Legend of Zelda weakness, and was never brought up again.

Genkai Training:

Favorite part of this arc was Yusuke’s pure and simple, dumb luck. Once again, and it’s a reoccurring theme in this series for Yusuke, but the guy only survives any of his matches in this arc, by getting lucky. He should have been disqualified for not making it on time, but Genkai let him pass because he beat Baldok. He would have lost to Kibano, if Genkai hadn’t gotten pissed off at him and thrown her lit cigarette into the dark room for Yusuke to use. He would have lost to Kazemaru, had Yusuke not slipped into the swamp, which caused Kazemaru’s homing shuriken to explode in his own face. And Rando would have shrunken Yusuke and squashed him like a bug, had Yusuke’s ears not been full of algae from the swamp he slipped into, causing Rando’s chant to backfire on him. Yusuke is a lucky idiot.

Least favorite part of this arc…hmm….Yusuke never got to go to the Tokyo Dome. Botan bribed him with tickets if he went to Genkai’s, and because he won the damn thing, he was forced into 6 months of training, and didn’t get to go. As a wrestling fan myself, that hurts.

Saint Beasts:

Favorite parts would be Botan in that smoking hot red tights/leather jacket combo, and the beginnings of “Team Urameshi” being formed. We’d only known Kurama and Hiei as villains, and here they were being…coerced, into joining Yusuke’s mission to stop their fellow demons from trying to destroy Sarayashiki and killing Keiko. We got to see Yusuke show off the results of his training with Genkai, the lengths of Kuwabara’s toughness and loyalty, and better yet, seeing Hiei’s strange honor code and absolutely devastation of Seiryuu after seeing the ice user’s cruelty toward his companion.

I can’t think of anything about this arc I disliked, but I guess Keiko being the damsel? Even then, she and Botan kicked ass in trying to escape a horde of demon insect controlled humans, so it’s not like either woman was defenseless in anyway, just outnumbered and outgunned, so to speak.

Rescue Yukina:

Favorite parts of this mini-arc would be meeting Yukina, Shizuru, Botan in those tight jeans and brown jacket, and on a more serious note, Yusuke and Kuwabara strolling into this mafia-esque compound full of demons and killer humans, beating the shit out of anyone who gets in their way, until they come across the Toguro Brothers. The seriousness of this situation is kind of lost on us until we find out just how strong the Toguro Brothers are in a later arc, and how easily they could have torn the boys to shreds and stopped the rescue mission. The only reason the YYH group walked away from this fight, is because the Toguro’s allowed them to.

Least favorite part is just how hideous Tarukane is as a person, inside and out. The anime skims over it, but in the manga, it’s hinted that Yukina has been a prisoner here for a long time, upward of five years. I can only imagine the tortures she’s faced in that time.

Dark Tournament:

Loved everything about this arc. I’m cheating a bit, but all the fights, Puu being born, the emotional growth Yusuke and the rest of the team were forced to endure, was just spectacular. We got to see the dark history between Genkai and her former lover Toguro, what drove a wedge between them, met new friend that would be showing up later in the series, got to see more of the lovely human and demon world ladies. It was just fucking fun.

Least favorite thing is that Atsuko got left out of the tournament arc for the anime completely. In the manga, she was there through it all.

Chapter Black:

This arc was fantastic. Favorite part of this arc is Sensui and the rest of the villains in general are amazing. His plan to open a breech into Demon World is so well thought out, that it’s almost total bullshit at times, but still works. He sacrifices his pawns, kills Yusuke, beats the living hell out of our heroes, and gets exactly what he wants the entire time. Sensui won. He may have died in the end, but his plan worked. Not only that, but Togashi wrote him in such a way that we legitimately feel bad for the guy at points, for having his life and ideology destroyed by humans and Spirit World. He’s still an asshole though. Outside of this, I also loved that one butt shot we get of Botan, Botan saving Mitarai, and then Hiei and Yusuke fighting in the forest after Hiei stabbed Sniper.

Least favorite thing of this arc would be Spirit World in general. They basically caused this whole situation, and when Yusuke was killed, then reborn as a demon, they tried to have him killed as well. Douche bags.

Three Kings:

I think this arc is generally bad. I don’t particularly care for any part of it besides getting to learn a little about Hiei and Kurama’s histories. Besides a terrible finish, basically removing Kuwabara, Botan, Koenma, Shizuru, Yukina, and Keiko from the show until the final episodes was a very sour note at the end of an amazing series.

If I had to chose something to like about it, I’d say seeing that everyone got a fairly happy ending. Yukina comes to live with the Kuwabaras, Yusuke and Keiko are sure to be married, Kurama’s working with his father in law, and Hiei’s….in a tree.

#Yu Yu Hakusho #YYH #Ask

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believerindaydreams · 5 years

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not where I thought this fic was going.

...fluff. I’m writing Angel Eyes/Tuco fluff.

*shrugs*

They don’t sleep together, as it happens.

It would have been anti-climatic, rather literally, and Tuco’s very grateful for the double bathrooms adjacent to Angel Eyes’ bedroom. If a little less so for the lack of privacy- all right, so a rich voyeur might have every reason to install these gilded swinging doors, like the saloon in an old western, but they look flimsy and he feels rather exposed.

(Especially since Angel has a toilet with an actual door, the bastard. He should have nabbed that one instead, but shamelessness is one thing. Standing numb and stupid in another man’s bedroom, with his member half falling out of his jeans and ecstasy still burning up his veins, had been another thing altogether and he’d been only too glad to stumble into the one without a lock on it.)

Contrast. The sheer, solid wealth of this place awes him all over again, now he’s alone and had time to catch a few breaths. Black and green stone everywhere, marble maybe, hell he doesn’t know- the only time he’s seen anything like it has been the odd overpriced hotels, at the height of their luck. And him in sweat-marked Hawaiian shirt and soiled pants. He grabs a wad of toilet paper, dampens it a little to help scrape off the cum.

There’s a sound of running water on the other side of the wall; presumably, Angel Eyes is doing much the same thing. Or not. Maybe rich people just throw out their underwear every night, like he heard once about the queen of England.

“The shit isn’t going to stink any less, because of these pretty surroundings,” he says aloud, just to see if he’ll get a response. There isn’t one.

Shrugging, he cleans up his clothes as best he can, and takes advantage of the showerhead to wake himself up a bit. Three minute drill had always been a necessity during winters back home, before the hot water turned icy; he prefers baths these days but isn’t going to stand around hoping for one. Blondie always goes to work on the assumption that he holds all the cards. He likes playing at that himself, but it doesn’t stop him noticing where the exit signs are.

(Besides, kicking out the third party strikes him as a sensible way of resolving this little Mexican stand-off they have going. It’s what he’d do.)

At this point, he might not even mind leaving; that big meal, a good wank, all he needs to do is find somewhere decently sheltered and he’ll sleep for hours. He and Blondie have an agreed rendezvous at the town border, as usual. Six o’clock tomorrow evening.

If nobody’s there, well...by then he’ll be hungry enough to need a new plan. That’ll keep him busy enough not to fret.

A slight bitterness chills him, while he dries off and rummages through the Duluth for his straight razor; this Angel Eyes is like who he ought to be, if he’d been lucky and wealthy and smart. Or maybe just smart. Enough to think up a really sharp dodge, not just their easy brainless games, something that would justify all this worry and hustle.

(He’s been content to let Blondie do the thinking, because his partner was always so good at it. Is still good at it; this must be why they’re here at all, why Blondie had gone to such lengths convincing him to look up Carson. There couldn’t have been a better way to work back into his Angel’s affections, than to win that game, look sharp and independent doing it...and then, the damned tease, hold off on closing the deal. Give it a week and Blondie will probably have lawyers inventing the man-to-man prenup.)

There’s six different kinds of shaving oil on the long fluted shelf below the sink, along with creams and perfumes and who knows what else; Tuco ignores all of them and starts shaving dry. His face is still damp, that’s good enough for him- it has to be, more often than not-

god above, he’s tired. Or not half drunk enough. He retrieves a miniature from a roll of clean socks and polishes it off without looking at the label, feels a little better. Getting out of this house would be a start, if he can remember the way out. Maybe lift something missable, while he’s about it.

A door opens, and Angel Eyes walks out, peers at him over the swinging doors. Clad in something it takes Tuco a moment to recognise as a bathrobe. The material’s thicker than regular terrycloth and cut a little oddly, straight down and lacking a belt loop. Something about seamless garments...but the thought slips his mind almost immediately.

“You might as well sleep here for the night,” Angel Eyes says. “There’s six other bedrooms you can have your pick of tomorrow, but I’m not giving you the guided tour at this hour of night. Take your time in the morning, I want to have a long conversation with Blondie before I talk to you again.”

From that angle, Tuco reckons, approximately one hundred percent of him is on display; might as well not even have a door. He carries on shaving. “You want to explain, why you’re not driving me off with a shotgun?”

“Blondie seems to want you to stay- or at least, didn’t demand that you go. For now that’s enough. There are other things you might do, to stay longer.”

Depends on the price. Sometimes he pays it, sometimes he doesn’t, but he always hears it out, however humiliating the process of listening turns out to be. He bites back a good sharp comeback, readies himself for one more round.

“Such as what?”

“You can second-guess him.”

“Sometimes. Sometimes, yeah- he’s my partner. What about it?”

“Teach me how to do it,” Angel Eyes says.

Impossible. You’d have to be Blondie, to match him.

“Sure thing. Any other little miracles you want done?”

“That’ll do for now...”

“No hay de qué,” Tuco says, easily; nicks himself across the ear, and spends the next several minutes swearing the air good and blue.

(Confidently, though.)

#70sau #the good the bad and the ugly

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jieun-didnt-deserve-that · 6 years

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why i mcfreakin LOVED the season 2 finale

ok so i kNOW the season 2 finale was like 3827328 years ago bUT,,,, consider: i havent stopped thinkin about ks since then and im starved of content

so basically ive seen a few ppl saying they thought season 2’s finale was anti-climatic but i rly dont think it was at all (especially for sangwoo if ya get me ;))))) ok ill stop) but to be honest we should have seen from when they were taken to the police station that bum was never going to confess and unfortunately for seungbae, bum is like the only shred of evidence seungbae has for his theory on sangwoo. it was engineered so that bum was the one in control here because he was obviously never going to say anything. first of all, he doesnt know the police dont know he killed jieun. this whole thing wasn’t even about her it was about the ceo’s daughter bUT HE DOESNT KNOW THAT!! also even if he DID, he has two options: tell the truth and go back to his abusive uncle who constantly physically, emotionally and sexually abuses him OR lie and go home with sangwoo who constantly physically, emotionally and sexually abuses him BUT occasionally is kind of nice to him (and gets him cake). ALSO we can see that bum would probably not even rat sangwoo out even if his uncle was out of the equation because we see at the start of season 2 that bum was desperate not to leave because “outside is scary” (i feel ya bum i rly do) and when sangwoo told him he was disgusting after he opened up about his uncle he immediately jumped to the conclusion that sangwoo was going to say he doesnt need him anymore (even tho, as much of a mouldy sock sangwoo is, he didnt actually say that) he straight up tried to kill himself. like with no hesitation. so we can see how incredibly dependent he is on sangwoo anyway, so with all of that weighting on him, bums not saying jack shit to seungbae.

but bum isnt the only reason the mission (mission? that sounds very extra considering what bae did was stand on a metal pole and break into a guys house) failed was seungbae himself. his methods are far too rash and he lets his emotions get in the way of his judgement. we can see already from the scene in the bathroom that he doesnt weigh out the risks and consequences of what he does. i mean the guy 1) broke into an ALLEGED SERIAL KILLER’S house 2) without a warrant 3) without letting anyone else know he was there 4) with only a taser and that fuckign pole to defend himself. clearly he aint good at rationally assessing his actions before he takes them ESPECIALLY as he already had some red flags from acting like this in the past. anyway so baes methods are completely ridiculous and the tipping point was when he beat the shit out of sangwoo while he was still handcuffed. like dont get me wrong it was awesome and im sure we all wanted to see that motherfucker get decked (i know i did) but it was also very, very stupid. so with the combination of seungbaes rash methods and bum’s array of reasons not to snitch there was NO WAY sangwoo was getting convicted of murder anytime soon.

and as for the final scene, that was really just showing us how now sangwoo has EVERYTHING he wants. the one person who was suspicious of him has been FIRED and he knows he will never see him again, the police are pretty much on his side now because he knows how easily manipulated they are, he knows that he has bum’s unwavering loyalty 1) because if he leaves he wont have anywhere to go 2) because he knows hes terrified of getting caught because he killed jieun (HE killed jieun, sangwoo has made it very clear to bum that its HIS fault by calling him “mr murderer” and stuff) and 3) he knows bum will never leave him anyway because hes just that dependent on him. so him choosing to ,,, do that ,,, OUTSIDE (and inside if ya get me ;)) (like im not gonna lie every time i read ch 35 i CACKLE at the line “i am inside”) as a display to bum and kind of to himself that he really has it all and he will always win like i saw this post about how he even won that rock paper scissors thing with jieun and he won against yoonjae at the arcade and NOW he has won against the fucking police department (DEPENDABLE POLICE FORCE FOR A SAFE COUNTRY MY A S S) and ALSO we have no idea which direction season 3 will take like after s1 it was kind of obvious like oh shit what they gon do now jieun is dead (rip my sweet angel btw, just so yall know i would die for her even if it wasnt fucking necessary) but s2 really doesnt hint @ anything so thats why i think the season 2 finale was fucking great.

ONE MORE thing i think that the whole dynamic between bum woo and bae is so clever because if bum didnt remind sangwoo of his mother he probably would be dead bc sangwoo would have killed him but he keeps bum with him because believe it or not he is dependent on bum too. like the two times he thought he had lost him forever (ch 27 and ch 13 i think) he lost his SHIT. and if bum hadnt had such a horrible childhood he wouldn’t have obsessed for years over being saved by sangwoo in the millitary and wouldn’t be so emotionally dependent on him. and if bae was more rational and calmed the FUCK down he would be able to find a better way to apprehend sangwoo. but each of these flaws in them keeps the structure going and that is why not only the season 2 finale but the whole damn series is so fuckign good, thank you for coming to my ted talk

#THIS WAS SUPER DISJOINTED BUT MAN HAVE I GOT SOME SHIT TO SAY #this was more of a vent tbh #in fact it was a vent #ks #killing stalking #ks season 2 #ks season 3 #yoon bum #oh sangwoo #sangwoo #bum #yang seungbae #seungbae #koogi #killing stalking theory #ks theories #chapter 35 #ch35 #my post

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losebetter · 7 years

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so. dream daddy stuff.

aimless hate has been deleted. (not my first rodeo, friends.) those of you sending support along, thank you - i really appreciate it. if it puts the response to this in perspective:

102 of 205 people (50%) found this review helpful 6 people found this review funny

there’s a 22-coment long thread attached. some of it has been supportive, thankfully - a lot of it has been about what you’d expect out of steam. i’ve also gotten a lot of hate from grumps fans, which is a damn shame. it’s off the front page now - no idea if that means the garbage is done with or not, though. i’m trying to balance keeping up with genuine inquiry and, like, not losing my mind.

Anonymous said: hey when you are comfortable doing so, could you expand on your rating of the game some more? I'm not really sure what I need to be looking out for, and I don't wanna buy a game that I'm unsure of. what exactly made you feel the way you did? I've seen a lot of positive support but not a lot of what you've posted and I'd really like to get both voices if possible. thanks

comicalsenses said: I played through DD and, idk, i thought it was good? like you could definitely fail, but i got a good ending with our kid, tho my dating didnt go too well. Do you feel like elaborating what squirked you? it's fine if you'd rather not talk about it. .o I was personally delighted to be able to be trans, like that meant a lot to me.

i’ll be honest with y’all about the place i am coming from: it feels like few, if any queer men were actually a part of this. i realize this isn’t gonna be a dealbreaker for a lot of people (and i’ve never argued that it had to be) but it just makes the whole thing fall flat to me.

honestly, maybe my feelings would’ve been different if there was a more neutral political climate towards queer (especially gay) men right now - but there isn’t. and as it is, all i saw was something short and cutesy and like, weirdly straight (given the game’s premise) that didn’t do what a lot of mlm expected it to do or hoped it would do, and i saw it make a whoooole bunch of money. maybe i’m being too cynical - and i certainly don’t expect the DDADDS twitter to be like, one of the only social media outlets discussing what’s going on in chechnya, for example (even though it wouldn’t be out of place). no one is really talking about that, and i get it. but where is the money going? what about the money they made on merch? it feels like a quick & dirty cash-in on people who need something fun and lighthearted, without actually expressing support for those people in any meaningful way. in fact, i’ve only been harassed for my sexuality more since getting involved with the game, which strikes me as backwards to how it should be.

like i said in my review, i love the visual style, the UI looks great. (the charming art & character designs carry it, for sure.) i think it’s a bit weird how much the voice-acting was hyped considering how minimal it is, but i vastly prefer minimal voicing in stuff like this anyway, so. i thought it was kind of dishonest, but didn’t mind what i got. the writing can get a bit OTT, but overall i found it silly and fun. it’s just... careless, that’s all.

i was glad to see the MC could be trans, as well - and i think damien might be canonically trans? which is super rad, if true - but the thing is... even all of that falls flat to me, i guess. the MC being trans doesn’t seem to have any impact on the story, and damien i think only mentions it via one word, when he talks about having binders. and yeah, it’s representation, but... like, is it? do you guys get what i mean? we saw the stream build where the MC could only be bi/pan, without the option to be gay - and i’m glad that got changed, but the silent way they did it felt underhanded. was it deliberate? was it just a glitch? did they fix a bug, or quietly change the game to get more customers into it? again: maybe i’m being too cynical, but queer men are in crisis right now. feels like i gotta be.

someone on steam said something interesting, about how the game was inclusive but the characters were just “acting normally” without their sexualities mattering very much, and thus it was progressive. but - i don’t know about y’all, but to me, they weren’t acting normally, they were acting like cis/het dudes. which i guess is a kind of normal, but. i mean. ?????? it just feels like anything the game did right, it did by accident. which is why i came away from it feeling like - i mean, “meh, i guess, but it’d be cool if this actually helped queer men in any way.” i can’t recommend it at all, despite its great visual presentation.

bottom line (sorry this post has become an essay, oops): i hope some folks do get something out of the game, if they paid for it, especially queer dudes. and i’m certainly not going to turn my nose up at anyone for whom the game means something - that isn’t and has never been the point of my review, and i want to make that super clear. i guess for me, it’s all about context and heart, and i didn’t see either one. i definitely regret spending the money on it, and probably won’t be talking about it much more. (as with my last negative review, i’d rather focus on games that do it right instead of languishing with the ones that just dishearten me.)

#bark #bark: etc #ask #anonymous #comicalsenses #@anon who asked about my blog font #i'm sorry if this is exactly the kind of post you would want to read bc i don't have the brain for theme stuff rn #mercury reader might help!!! i'll work on it in a bit when stuff calms down #also for anyone curious:#i got the good amanda ending and the bad mat ending #or maybe neutral mat??? no idea #the actual mechanics of the game and how to get what ending seem...... nebulous #but that's neither here nor there haha #ADDENDUM: i forgot to say but #i found #a lot of it weirdly.... woman-hatey #and there are a lot of fridged wives #which i dislike a lot #welp

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mercenarypark · 7 years

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tf2 mercs and pets

ive been writing on this since yesterday and now im sick of it so heres a lot of words i made to distract myself from my father #animal abuse #abuse #physical abuse #antisemitism #insects #spiders #dogs #cats #birds #snakes #long post #text heavy

-medic, obviously, has a LOT of experience with birds. his mother had a cockatoo that he was basically raised with, and throughout his childhood he would always try to befriend the wild birds around their home [on the occasion he was allowed outside, that is]. in college/med school, he kept up that same trend, earning a less than stellar reputation as "that weird fucker who tries to climb trees around campus to get a better look at the birds’ nests", alongside his other reputations, "the weird gay jew who doesnt understand personal space" and "probably the cause of at least three "disappearances" throughout the semester since they were last seen harassing him"

-BLU engie gets ein[the canary] after a family member dies, they werent particularly close but the guy didnt have a will or any friends willing to take the bird, and engie was basically the closest living relative available [note: only BLU engie has the canary, not RED engie, and he recieves it a few years after joining the mercs]

-pyro kept the dalmation puppy they take in the comics, and he's a big comfort for them, they'll sometimes spend hours just playing with him or hugging him to calm themselves down from a panic attack; funny thing is, no one's entirely sure what pyro NAMED him, not even the people who can usually understand pyro's mumbles[engie, medic, solly, demo]. all 4 of them seem to hear completely different things so theyve just kind of accepted as a group that the dog has four different names that are all equally valid

-pyro also loves a lot of bugs, BLU py had a pet praying mantis for a while until the administrator made everyone move bases again, this time to a much colder climate- they were worried the mantis wouldn't survive the lower temperatures and released it before they left; theyve also kept tarantulas, ants, and stag beetles before -engie is also really into ant keeping and he and pyro bond over that, engie builds big elaborate setups for their ant colonies

-medic talks to birds, a lot, and seems to hold full conversations with them a lot of the time. not just his pigeon flock, either, but any bird- from sparrows to falcons to parakeets

-demo volunteers at the "kitten orphanage" shown in end of the line- hed work at the regular human orphanage too, but... he has too many bad memories of his own time as an "orphan". the kittens all love him, engie will sometimes come by to find demo sprawled on the floor on his back, three kittens on his chest, one asleep on his neck, one kneading its paws on his cheek, one chewing on his shoe...

-medic doesnt understand dogs. hes not scared of them, not really, he just. doesnt understand how they work. he cant read their body language at ALL and he was rarely around them as a child. he's ok with cats, though he still cant understand their body language that well, and sometimes irritates the shyer or more aggressive ones by being too affectionate- he only blames himself for getting scratched/bit though

-spy says he never had pets growing up, which is probably a lie- he just doesnt want to give anyone any information about his childhood and family life. he's mentioned once or twice that he wouldnt mind getting a pet snake, though, which engie thought was fucking hilarious and fitting

-scout actually didnt have pets growing up- her family spent a lot of time trying to make ends meet, and a tiny, shitty apartment w/ her, her ma, and her 7 siblings wasnt exactly an optimal environment for a pet. she always liked cats, though, and mice, and after she joins the mercs she grows to really love birds, too, because theyre Everywhere at the bases

-[RED] demo got his parrot, joyce, from BLU soldier[only RED demo has the birdman of aberdeen in my hcs]. solly found it in a bush somewhere as a chick, and brought it to demo. demo has no fucking clue how the hell jane managed to find a baby parrot out in the badlands, but he winds up taking her in, getting a lot of help from medic to get adjusted [medic is absolutely delighted and fawns over joyce the whole fucking time he loves her so much]

-demo's really worried for the longest time that he wont be able to take care of joyce properly ["i can barely keep myself together, how'm i supposed to keep you alive?"] but he grows to really love her and she becomes an emotional support animal for him, on some of his worst days he keeps himself from drinking himself into a blackout by keeping her busy and happy

-she becomes even more important to him after the WAR update events, as a living reminder of his old relationship with jane; it hurts him sometimes to look at her and remember the grin on jane's face when she first handed him that parrot chick, but he loves joyce anyway and nothing's gonna change that

-demo also used to own lizards, he's partial to bearded dragons

-both RED and BLU solly are licensed falconers and wildlife rehabilitators. no one's entirely sure how. but its the reason shes allowed to have her Horde of Raccoons and also her fucking bald eagle [note: BLU solly is the one with the Compatriot, RED solly is the one with LT bites and the other raccoons]

-engie grew up with farm animals, because of course. he's good with horses, pigs, cattle, and sheep, and working dogs. one of the times the mercs had their bases relocated, they wound up in texas so RED engie took everyone out to his family's old farm [he pays to have it taken care of while his dad's... gone and he's w/ the mercs]

-spy flips the fuck out when he realizes just how fucking huge hogs are. then someone[scout] absolutely knocks spy into the mud with the pigs and he gets trampled and everyone laughs. also spy is mildly terrified of horses. spy does not have a good time at dell's farm

-speaking of terrified of horses, demo,

well really he's not terrified, hes just distrustful. it takes a long time for tavish to warm up to engie's horses, with a lot of reassuring from dell that hes not doing something wrong

-medic's pigeons are extremely affectionate and loyal to him, first and foremost. at least one or two accompany him at pretty much all times, except for when they're locked into their aviary at night. they also love heavy, scout, and pyro, and like/tolerate everyone else

-heavy loves birds. his family has a lot of chickens, and hes very partial to them; he also has a parakeet, who his sisters take care of while he's with the mercs. RED heavy is the one that finds the red army robin; he sees an injured little bird in the snow and he brings it to medic

-jane “soldier” doe cannot take care of cats or dogs or other normal pets for the life of her but if you hand her an injured wild porcupine and say "hey, how do i take care of this" she'll know exactly what to do; sometimes both soldiers will just come out onto the battlefield bottlefeeding a squirrel or something, and somehow artfully dodge enemy fire while shooting rockets AND feeding a baby animal. how's that for multitasking

-scout's ma, peg, has a cockatiel that she gets after all her children have left the nest, so to speak. scout teaches it to whistle happy birthday and demonstrates that on peg's birthday and its sweet

-heavy has a very specific [canonical, at least w/ "pokernight at the inventory"] childhood memory of watching a boy kill a sparrow, w/ the implication that the memory haunts him a little bit; seeing the injured robin brought that memory to the surface, and it freaked him out more than he'd like to admit. he was kind of panicking when he asked for medic's help, but trying desperately not to show it

-spy hates dogs. he hates horses. he hates insects. he tolerates cats. but most damning of all, he hates birds. thats a big problem with at least half of the base loving or at least liking birds, and with all the pigeons/doves everywhere

-it takes YEARS before spy stops insulting or scolding medic's pigeons every time he gets the chance, and the main reason he stops is because medic absolutely was NOT having it... still though, spy has his limits. he never hurt any of medic's birds, or anyone else's pets, because he may be a mercenary but he does have some standards. mostly

-this is notable, because, hahahhhhhhh. im gonna eventually make a much longer post about this, but medic has a fair amount of Trauma[tm] from dealing with classic heavy's abusive bullshit; the thing is though, cheavy realized quickly that medic could handle being yelled at or physically punished for his mistakes or his worse quirks... but he had a very vulnerable flock of pigeons with him, that he regarded as family and who meant the world to him

-the scene in the comics where cheavy grabs archimedes tight and throws him to the ground was not an isolated incident, is what im saying. though it /was/ one of the more violent ones, since after a few threats and a few times of cheavy proving he absolutely would follow through on his threats, medic got the hint

-through his time working w/ the classics, medic becomes more secluded and on edge, and more prone to breakdowns and fits; and even more protective of his flock, urging them multiple times to fly away and leave him, to find heavy or scout or SOMEONE and stay with them, that he would come back for them when he could[but they always refused to leave him]... the baboon infant incident was a long time coming and he only held off on detonating it as long as he did through sheer willpower and a healthy fear of retribution

-ANYWAY. projecting aside.

-scout /would/ get a cat from the kitten orphanage but shes worried it would try to kill or eat some of medic's doves, since they basically free roam the base; so instead she goes by with demo sometimes to play with the cats and its Good

-ms pauling is a big dog person, and i mean that both in the "she really loves dogs" way and in the "she loves dogs that are Massive" way; she grew up with newfoundlands and bully breeds and shes still got a big soft spot for them; she has two shelter dogs, one's an 11 y/o pit+rottie, the other is a 7 y/o mutt that has some st bernard in it and who's blind in one eye; she spoils them rotten

-engie is really into fishkeeping and after all this merc business is over, he wants to have big fucking tanks installed in his home; hes also surprisingly passionate about the proper treatment of fish, like, he nearly decked spy once for saying betta fish just needed a fishbowl and not a whole aquarium setup

-medic has stolen at least a couple fancy pigeons from pigeon shows, mostly the ones that have been bred to an unhealthy degree to fit show standards, he spends a lot of time trying to give them the best care he can and maybe undo the effects of years of awful breeding

-i literally dont care about sniper so he gets no headcanons

im tired

#ask to tag /#reblog if u want idc /#captain's log #my writing #i guess?#tf2 posts

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headsarolling-blog · 7 years

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in response to this post

Last Saturday at 8:08 PM

kilnkin arent you wearing a stetson like right now? its been pretty practical so far lol

headsarolling yeah but goths have hats too pants and adequate ridin boots can be more of a challenge, dependin on the look ur goin for

kilnkin this is such a science

kilnkin what if youre doing goth activities? whatever the fuck those are

headsarolling while its true that the aesthetic impact of bog wadin is minimised when one doesnt have skirts to swirl in the water around them one must also consider: if the cowboy cannot ride a horse, is one really a cowboy?

kilnkin if they can lean against a fence? whistle? i think so!

kilnkin im here with you on bog wading though thank god. no one here understands me i swear but is there anything better?? thats rhetorical dont answer that there isnt

headsarolling all the looks with none of the heart? it just aint right

kilnkin have you found anything resembling wetland since you fucked off bc im already sick of all this sand shit ): right!!!

headsarolling no. i found a lot of rock though if thats more ur style and skulls

headsarolling so definitely more my style

kilnkin rocks are ok i guess i can chew them though thats always a hoot what about bugs mosquitos suck moire got a butterfly but i havent seen any :/

headsarolling damn mud man. i can swallow small ones but chewin them is pretty hard core

kilnkin what am i if not hardcore like literally and shit

headsarolling lmao i havent seen a lot of bugs cause of the storm?

headsarolling ill keep an eye out though mosquitos can fuck right off tho u got that right

kilnkin ugh that makes sense i mean they dont bite me or whatever but i cant bite them either its like the cruelest impasse

headsarolling this is a remote island tho right? shouldnt there be like giant crickets hoppin around?

kilnkin im gonna take your word for that one on account of never having visited a remote island before

headsarolling its hard to tell with the excellent wifi and timespace fuckery but im fairly certain

kilnkin the wifi is good isnt it?? like better than druantia i didnt even really notice that rofl how twenty first century of me

headsarolling yeah there was a bit, on the east coast where the wifi dropped and i had to use data but otherwise its been pretty solid

headsarolling we the millenials are killin remote island survival with our apple phones and avacados

kilnkin what the fuck kind of data plan are you on

headsarolling i havent paid a single dollar for credit in my entire life i have no idea

kilnkin nice?? ive gotta try and get that for ma im killing island survival via isolation and lots of napping fyi much more anchorite than millenial

headsarolling i think the plan came with this phone and i cant even remember who i stole it from so unfortunately i cant give much advice damn nice tactic tho? ive got the isolation thing down but i think my nappin needs some work maybe bein in less rocky areas would help...

kilnkin yeah im with everyone in the caves now too but i can at least ball my dress up for a pillow. the stetson is probably less than ideal ): are you coming back anytime soon? or pressing on further. finding some softer pastures

headsarolling i would never consider disfigurin my hat for the sake of comfort! i havent decided yet. right now im rather enjoyin the company of these skulls

kilnkin so ominous. so goth!!

headsarolling well ive no horses or bogs so ive gotta get my aesthetics from somewhere

kilnkin dont even talk to me if you havent put the hat on a skull yet

headsarolling ive also performed a rivitin recital of certain lines of hamlet it feels weird sayin it to someone elses head

kilnkin lolol

kilnkin i expect a reprisal when we start another variety hour!!

headsarolling oh for sure id hate to disappoint my expectant fans

kilnkin and id hate to sit through any more of walkers showboating without a reasonably entertaining chaser (:

headsarolling ill be sure to stagger my release a bit more next time ensure ive a got a decent followup

kilnkin yeah youve really gotta consider how the consumer consumes if you wanna be successful in this climate either that or flood the market you know x)

headsarolling always an option but i fear that may result in backlash from the bottle blonde bombshell

kilnkin um? even better??

kilnkin i never got to get her back for not letting me get her back before getting stuck here anyway

headsarolling what did u need to get her back for?

kilnkin um there was definitely something

headsarolling lmao thats the best of geeting back *gettin

kilnkin the purest form of revenge is when you 1) forget whats is for 2) take yourself down in the process otherwise are you even trying?

headsarolling when i die itll be for a cause ive forgotten usin a knife meant for someone else

headsarolling or some weird poetic shit like that

kilnkin id buy a tshirt with that on it probably or at least steal one off a clothesline

headsarolling its always been a dream of mine to have someone steal a tshirt with a quote of mine off a clothesline

kilnkin ive had that one. its one of the biggies you know flying teeth falling out academic nudity

headsarolling i havent had the flyin dream yet i hear its craic tho

kilnkin no idea what that means but sure

headsarolling a craci? *craic its a good time

kilnkin oh i thought it wouldve been a negative if that sounds like a craig you should come cliffdive tomorrow basically the same thing

headsarolling not a fan of the flyin dream? wait u guys were cliffdivin? how did polly not have a heart attack?

kilnkin its ok but when you bust out the irish its normally not so nice lolol he mightve you know. he was just a little glowing speck from up there he was probably clutching his pearls the whole time but he didnt say shit

headsarolling i hadnt notice well maybe ill come back and check it out freakin misha out is always a fun time

headsarolling a craic, if u will

kilnkin lol loving your idea of fun theres ample opportunity to freak people out here but i think fucking off by yourself is really the peak oh man you could probably make the jump without a chaperone too im already jealous and you havent done it yet ):

headsarolling no one seem bothered by my disappearance so far. a very disappointin reaction tbh

headsarolling u tellin me u got a chaperone?

kilnkin its like you hopped out your bedroom window shimmied down the drainpipe and your old lady didnt even notice!! an empty rebellion indeed yeah wolff had to come with n give me a tow back to shore sucked ass but less effort on my part the better really XD

headsarolling one of the downfalls of being hardcore i suppose?

kilnkin unfortunately yes its a tough life but someones gotta do it :| thats my stuff upper lip soldiering on emoticon (:

headsarolling we appreciate ur sacrifice

kilnkin i appreciate your appreciation

#ooc #im #kilnkin

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timleob · 7 years

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WWE Payback 2017

Okay, so I've done some cruising through the Payback tag on here and I'm seeing alot of people being mad at the crowds reaction to the, quite frankly, awesomely worked "murder" of Roman Reigns. The people who should be held most directly responsible for this is the creative team of WWE, not the fans. The fan base of today is smarter, more insider and is not a casual audience. In the climate of WWE, maybe some 4 or 5 years ago, Roman would have been the perfect babyface. But WWE chased them away with too many hours of programming and now they are left with a fanbase they dont quite understand. The problem has been one of that creative have failed to learn from the audience reaction. Roman should have been pushed as a singles baby face star back in 2014 when he was being cheered as a non-speaking badass Samoan killing machine, but the crowd at the time was behind Daniel Bryan and they focused on him. When they pulled the trigger on Roman, creative did what it does best. Fucked up amazingly. They gave him a "personality" and that was the end of it. Also, they put him over at the wrong time, you do not attempt to push the proto-typical babyface, one of "Vinnies boys" at the Royal Rumble in fucking Philly. (For the younger kids, Philly is the city that birthed ECW, and is known for its vicious wrestling crowds) The fans wanted Daniel Bryan and were force fed Roman, and they rebelled. Big time. And creative didnt listen. And for the last few years it has been very much the same. They have forced Roman down the fans throats, over and over and over. No offence everyone, Roman isnt that special. He has a good look for sure, but he has two moves, spear and the superman punch. This would be fine if he was booked as a brawler who just murdered people, but no. Lets have him "wrestle" and do the worst god damn promos ever written anywhere. (Seriously, the fucker who wrote that fucking tater tots and suffering sacotash promo should have immediately been fired) But. This is the biggest problem of them all. Roman retired Undertaker. I will repeat that, Roman retired Undertaker. This was never EVER going to get Roman over as a babyface hero. The fucking moron backstage who thought this would work also needs to be fired immediately. Roman should have immediately turned heel after this, but no. They fucking trudged on with the whole god damn "Roman is a hero" like they have for nearly 2 or 3 years now. The experiment has been a repeated failure. If you need proof of this, it is that the monster heel Braun, who should be hated for nearly killing a man is getting a massive babyface reaction for it. Face it kids, Roman will not get over because of poor booking, one sided predictable fueds, and the same lackluster bullshit that has occured over and over. The reaction from the crowd is a response to all of the hatred of Roman as a character and the continued push of someone who they have failed to make fans care about. Maybe this will change? But I doubt it. Just remember kids, blame creative for this. They have fucked it up over and over. Dont hate the crowd for being a crowd that is free to react however it chooses. Wrestling is weird kids, but thats how it is. Feel free to ask questions if you want to.

#payback #payback2017 #wwe #wwe raw #roman reigns #braun strowman

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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‘Rugrats’ Characters Ranked By Betchiness

For this weeks TBT, were going to take a look into the lives of the most influential baby friend group of the ’90s. Im talking, of course, about the Rugrats and, most importantly, how betchy or not betchy each Rugrat is. Is it polite to rank toddlers who have not yet learned to speak based on arbitrary social categories? Probs not. Is it fun? Fucking duh.

1. Cynthia

Heres what we know about Cynthia: 1) Shes a really cool dancer, 2) Shes got cool moves (as long as you move her arms and legs), 3) Shes movin out on the floor, 4) Shes ready to break some eggs (make an omelette Cynthia!) How do we know all this? We know it from her workout tape, which I am shocked has not been sampled by Avicii or Kanye or someone yet (dont listen unless you want this song stuck in your head all day).

youtube

Cynthias resting bitch face is on point, and she manages to look great in her belted orange dress despite the fact that she is missing of her hair. Cynthia didnt say or do shit for all 9 seasons of, yet she is still one of the shows most memorable characters, and it is her ability to do no work and remain popular that has earned her the number one slot.

2. Susie Carmichael

Susie Carmichael is cool AF. Did Susie need to appear in every episode? No. Susie had other shit to do. Shell check in every once in awhile to see what the babies are up to, teach them about Kwanzaa and generally let them know whats good, before going back next door to hang with her real friends. Whenever she does come over, the babies flip out because theyre like, obsessed with her (everyone is). Shes also the only person who has absolutely no time for Angelicas bullshit, probably because Susie has better hair, a better outfit, and wears a cool red bangle, which is more than Angelica could ever hope to have. Susie is three, which makes her older and wiser than most of the babies and probably accounts for the sheer lack of fucks she has to give. Did Susie get her ass lost in the woods when Dil was born? Fuck no, she was chilling in Paris getting turnt up with her older sister! Did Susie almost die with the Rugrats in EuroReptarland? No bitch, I just told you shes already been to Paris! Susie Carmichael always comes correct, and thats what earned her the number two spot.

3. Tommy Pickles

Tommy Pickles is the star of the show, which virtually guarantees him betchiness. Tommy also has the whole dressing like a slut thing down and spends all nine seasons of wearing nothing but a crop top and booty shorts. His outfit never stops him from leading his friend group on adventures, and you know once he can talk and operate a phone hed be the person managing the group chat, suggesting what clubs and parties to go to, making sure everyone is getting the free shots they deserve, and seeing you into your Uber at the end of the night. The thing holding Tommy back from the top spot is that hes too fucking nice. Hell let any baby with shit in their diaper come hang with him (cough CHUCKIE cough), and that means his friend group is riddled with duds (HI CHUCKIE). Be a little more discerning about your friend group, Thomas, and maybe well see you up at the top with Cynthia.

4. Angelica Pickles

We cant talk about Cynthia without getting to her BFF and designated Rugrat BSCB, Angelica Pickles. Angelica spent most of torturing the dumb babies (who were really only like a year younger than her) and making them miserable, yet still somehow being invited to all the group hangs, play dates, and brunches. Angelica spends a lot of time telling everyoneincluding the adultshow beautiful she is and is absolutely desperate for attention, probably because her rich AF parents never pay attention to her. Shes your friend who cries and starts shit at the club anytime she feels like shes not the hottest girl there (and she frequently is notthanks Cynthia!) Also girl, lay off the cookies.

5. Charlotte Pickles

Charlotte Pickles is Angelicas mom who is literally always on her phone. Like, always. Even in a time before cellphones could fit in your pocket, Charlotte is always on the phone with her assistant Jonathan (Cheban? We dont know) and ignores basically every member of her family to do so. When phones dont work, Charlotte straight up makes her husbands brother carry a fax machine around so she doesnt miss any important texts. Charlotte alternates between a power suit and workout gear, always accompanied by an Ariana Grande level high ponytail. In , Charlotte displays clear signs of some seriously botched cosmetic surgery, which is what has dropped her down to slot #5. Never try to cut corners on botox, Charlotte! Itll always go wrong. Honestly, Jonathan should have told you that.

6. Grandpa Lou

Grandpa Lou is another character who gives absolutely zero fucks and is down to hang. Much like Corinne, Lou loves naps and often falls asleep halfway through finishing his stories. Despite his old age, Lou is still a fuckboy, and is often seen hitting on women and generally trying to find ways to get laid. If had taken place in 2017, Lou would have definitely had a Tinder and that Tinder definitely would have had a picture of him from 20+ years earlier. Lou is eventually successful in finding a new wife, Lulu, who he moves in with pretty fast after they start hooking up (risky choice, Lou!) Outside of his strangely active love life, Lou also has many frenemies, including his own cousin Miriam; his bowling rival, Billy Strike Maxwell; and some other wrestling guy named Conan McNulty. This proves that when push comes to shove, Lou is just not very popular and kind of an old perv. Sixth place for you, Lou.

7. Phil And Lil Deville

Okay Im sorry, but Phil and Lil are fucking gross. Their diet is a mess, always eating fucking worms and mud and shit. Do you know how many calories are in a ball of worms, kids? Do you? Seriously. There is a episode where Phil and Lil drink straight-up toilet water. What the fuck is that? Is that something babies do? Phil and Lil also have no creativity when it comes to fashion, and instead just dress alike every damn day in greena color that is flattering on exactly 0 people. Their mom is a hardcore feminist, which is cool, but maybe the twins have been empowered to do a little bit too much. Like sure, Lil can do whatever she wants with her life, but maybe eating a giant pile of shit should not be one of those things? Idk. Seventh place.

8. Stu Pickles

Good Lord is Stu Pickles a sad man. Seriously. You have a beautiful house, two healthy babies, a cool Jewish wife who has managed to maintain her pre-baby body, and youre still fucking complaining! Look around, asshole! You have all this shit despite the fact that your dumb ass hasnt invented one successful toy. In fact, you havent even invented one toy that didnt explode and almost kill your entire family. You are literally #blessed but youre too blind to see it! The only thing keeping you from the bottom slot is this meme which, in the current political climate, is legit all of our lives right now:

9. Chuckie Finster

No. Just no. Im sorry, but again, its gonna be a hard pass on Chuckie. Here are all the things Chuckie would have to improve if he ever even wanted to hope to be betchy. 1) His voice, which is terrible. Do you have a cold, Chuckie? Go to the damn doctor. Its the ’90s. Hillary Clinton has passed the State Childrens Health Insurance Plan. You can go to the doctor. Go. 2) Grow. A. Pair. Dude. You know when Chuckie gets older hes gonna be your friend who calls the cops on his own party for getting out of hand. Hes gonna be that guy who side eyes you for doing molly at Coachella, making weird comments under his breath about how you never know whats in that stuff and generally bringing bad vibes despite the fact that Beyonc is literally pregnant and dancing in front of you. 3) The hair is a problem. Comb it. Dye it. Do something. Its a problem. 4) Tie your fucking shoes, dude. 9th place.

10. Chas Finster

There was no character on television from 1991-2004 that was less betchy than Chas Finster. He has all of Chuckies problems, but he is a fucking adult which means he has literally no excuse for being such a narc. Chas seems to be suffering from whatever health problems are affecting his son, and despite being a bureaucrat, apparently has no ability to get his ass to a doctor either. Like many sad old nerds, Chas must travel to a foreign country to find a wife, eventually convincing a way-too-hot-for-him Japanese woman to fly to America and be his Melania. Chas also has a double-Hitler mustache, which is 100% unacceptable, no matter what decade you live in. Sorry, Chas. Last place.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2mavumx

from ‘Rugrats’ Characters Ranked By Betchiness

#‘Rugrats’ Characters Ranked By Betchiness

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kinghardy · 7 years

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The fact that you lecture people in 2017 on what is acceptable and what is not in 18th century without doing a historical research and taking someone's effort providing you with such knowledge insensitively, says it all! You ask for free speech but you do not even accept it from others. Not to mention, how hurtful it is to realize that the person who wants people to straight their facts about Egyptian history, cultural and people is the same one who cares less about British historical facts.

Except that my argument has not once been about history. Not once. I’m not contesting historical accuracy, I’m contesting a white guy playing the role of a biracial or multiracial character in 2017. Because if we’re really going off historical accuracy, a white man of entirely European descent playing a biracial character who isn’t, that’s not historically accurate. IF you want to pull this argument. Which, once again, doesn’t hold up.

Because you’re not understanding me in the least. You think I’m taking this stance with my critique of Taboo because of “historical accuracy”. I’m taking this stance because its the right way to go about telling narratives that do not belong to white people, especially ones that are extremely sensitive involving slavery and First Nations people and culture. Listen, you can feel offended all you want by what I’m saying but it doesn’t change the facts and the facts are the a white man simply can’t portray or tell a story of a person of color. Like the bare minimum would be to consult a person of color not even necessarily on the history but on anything thats being used in the work. If aiming for historical accuracy is so important what about identity politics? What about staying true to the people whose stories and cultures we write about and pull from? I’ve had people write Arab or Egyptian characters and check with me, an Egyptian, to make sure they weren’t botching the narrative or poorly or insensitively representing people of my heritage. Like that’s the bare minimum and that is what writers and creators DO. Research is not simply confined to an era or place in time it is also immersing yourself with and having on board people who will provide authenticity to the work and ensure you’re telling an accurate story and giving an accurate portrayal. Otherwise, why bother? We might as well all be J. R. R. Tolkien and write about elves and completely made up universes and if we can’t extend the courtesy of even asking people of those cultures and ethnicities what’s appropriate, what’s accurate, lets hear YOUR voice because a white person and all-white creative team behind this simply isn’t enough or doing justice to the people whose narratives are being intertwined into this story.

Its about humanizing the characters as accurately as possible this isnt just googling its having people there to ask because personal anecdotes are always far more powerful than what you read in a history book. Its about listening.

Because you know what? Id have zero issue with Taboo if James Delaney was just a basic white european Englishman. I would not give a flying FUCK about what happens beyond that and the usage of the n word (lets not even go there it was used carelessly in that first episode alone multiple times I cant imagine what black people feel watching that), if the story didnt involve the actual character himself not being white. I could even suspend a little disbelief of Delaney speaking an “African” language after 10 years of living away from England which by the way even saying that is cringeworthy, I hope Africa isnt treated like a monolith for the remainder of the series. Like i could maybe even roll with that.

But there really needs to be accountability these days. Look at the climate and look at what filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino got away with for over 10 years simply because he began producing his fantasy films exploiting black people in the 90s. And thats JUST because the climate then was different than today, and today people are a lot more critical and engaging thoughfully and with the appropriate hyperawareness to works as they SHOULD be and demanding that more voices and narratives and creative input beyond white people be at the forefront of our media, so if we as an audience are expected to consume then you better damn well realize that we aren’t passively taking information in any more and our critiques and feedback IS valid where applicable because people arent just saying “this isnt okay” with aspects of Taboo for shits and giggles, people literally feel like aspects of their identity are being taken and exploited and/or treated insensitively and that can’t be ignored. Otherwise stereotypes continue to happen, people of color continue to get demonized, media and film and tv and news shapes our perception of people we have absolutely no relation to and informs our unconscious beliefs about them and its harmful and downright ignorant to not acknowledge the power that tv/movies plays on our unconscious mind.

So yeah, thats what im critiquing alright? Im critiquing that people really need to see a biracial character onscreen for a role like this like that is the bare minimum of respect to the kind of role James Delaney was written as.

Also you really did not have to bring my being Egyptian and Egypt into this. That was a low blow. Especially considering that Egypt’s history and culture has already been bastardized and appropriated for centuries, and it’s pretty disrespectful to demand respect from me like I owe you that by default.

#save #Anonymous

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anonymoustalks · 4 years

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I'm the first male in 6 generations to not become a coal miner. Dads a preacher, grandpas a preacher. I dont line up much with them.

(6-19-20) You both like politics.

You: hiyoo

Stranger: Hello

You: what's on your mind?

Stranger: Where are you from?

You: us east

Stranger: Same here. And mostly just different environmental roll backs. You?

You: mhm bail laws

You: which environmental rollbacks?

Stranger: Ones pertaining to furthering waste dumping into my local streams

You: oh...

Stranger: Making the fish inedible

You: are they local roll backs?

Stranger: Federal

Stranger: With local gov support though

You: ah...

Stranger: Yeah. Money over clean water I guess.

You: yeah I guess

You: are there rollbacks of bills or executive orders?

Stranger: Well this was from rolling back regulations in the clean water act a few months back. But my understanding is there are about 100 other regulations pertaining to water and air quality going to be rolled back.

You: ahh okay

Stranger: So what's on your mind?

You: oh I was just reading about bail reform, nothing particularly specific

You: I'm curious about the clean water act though because I'm not that familiar with it

Stranger: Oh damn, you mentioned that, my bad.

You: did congress vote to repeal it?

You: or does like trump/epa just have the authority to change parts of it?

Stranger: I think this was done by andrew Whittaker, head of EPA. But with urging from trump.

You: ahh I see

Stranger: Former coal exec and lobbyist in charge of the EPA. Lol

Stranger: What a time to be alive

You: yeah... trump clearly just wanted to gut the organization

Stranger: Yeah. I have many disagreements with trump but his stance on the environment is the number 1 thing that irks me.

You: I sometimes get asked by people "what bad things did trump" and I'm not informed enough to list things

You: so it's helpful to know about the clean water act specifically

Stranger: Yeah. If he believed in human driven climate change I could handle a lot more of the stuff he does.

Stranger: He has said the sound from wind turbines cause cancer lol

You: mhm my brother isn't very compelled by moral/stupidity arguments, so if I can't find like legitimate policy changes that trump has done, I don't think I'll be able to convince my brother very well

You: like he doesn't care if trump says stupid stuff

Stranger: Yeah I get that. I'm from west virginia, coal country. So even many of the bad things hes done dont matter with many folks here.

Stranger: I'll give trump credit on his foreign policy and that's it. I really thought we'd be in another war by now.

You: mhm

Stranger: Is your brother a hunter?

You: nope he's like an english major

Stranger: An english major who supports trump. That's an interesting combo.

You: yeah weird, right?

You: or well, he doesn't support anybody

Stranger: But he hates one side more than the other?

You: I'm not sure if he hates either side really

You: it's more like he believes that not that many bad changes have happened under trump

You: so he's fine with him getting reelected

Stranger: Well I guess ignorance is bliss. I dont know how to change someone like that's mind.

You: yeah idk

You: I think he's kind of politically apathetic

Stranger: Besides just pointing out things hes done lol.

You: like things don't affect him so he doesn't care

Stranger: Yeah I get that. I could see how trump would be appealing to people like that. If you remove all real life ramifications trump is funny as hell.

You: mhm

You: so what does your family think?

Stranger: I'm the first male in 6 generations to not become a coal miner. Dads a preacher, grandpas a preacher. I dont line up much with them.

You: ohh ^^

Stranger: But they're good people. Sometimes it's just hard not to lose my mind when discussing politics with them.

You: ahh yeah... do they get heated as well?

Stranger: Only on certain issues that I see as irrelevant. Things like gay marriage still gets them worked up.

You: ahh are you religious at all??

Stranger: Not really. I dont know if there is a god nor do I care. I just try to not be a dick.

You: right

You: I'm kind of visualizing a huge rift in your family haha ^^;

Stranger: Haha well it's not that bad. I keep in much of what I would say for the sake of preserving relationships.

You: ahh true

You: do you have other siblings?

Stranger: I have a sister. Shes turned out like the rest of the family.

You: oh is she older or younger?

Stranger: Older by 2 years. She has a couple children, married to a coal miner, goes to church 3 times a week.

You: ahh sounds conservative ^^

You: do you still live in west virginia or did you move out?

Stranger: I live here currently but only due to covid. I'll be moving to South Korea soon to teach english.

You: ohh wow!

You: that's really cool

Stranger: I'm excited. I've known a few people to do it and they've all loved it.

You: yeah that sounds really exciting

Stranger: I hope I can tune out some of the US politics while I'm there. If that's possible

You: mhm exhausting?

Stranger: Yeah and it's my fault for continually reading about it. But I cant seem to stop.

You: mhm for me I feel like i'm on and off

You: like I can go for months without reading the news

You: I think the protests drew me back to omegle haha

Stranger: That's amazing. I've kept up with it all consistently for 10 years. I love geography so sometimes I can take a break from US politics but it all leads back to politics eventually.

Stranger: I get on here for an hour every day while visiting my grandparents.

You: oh my goodness, that's a lot haha

You: I feel like you must have seen so much on omegle lolol

Stranger: Haha. I try to match on geography but I typically only get politics.

Stranger: It's new to me. Maybe been doing this for a month

You: ahh I see

You: I was like totally thinking to myself (omegle for 10 years?!)

Stranger: Hahahaha. I tried it probably 10 years ago but that was a different time and had nothing to do with politics lol

You: mhm yeah idk what it would have been like 10 years ago

Stranger: About the same. Back then video chat had less people jacking off and more people just goofing off and talking.

You: ohh

You: I never use video chat lol

Stranger: Dont

Stranger: It's terrible now lol

You: I think I might have tried it once and it freaked me out a little lol

Stranger: Yeah definitely. There are many strange people in this world.

You: mhm or at least

You: to some extent it's kind of amazing how many people can be horny at any given time

Stranger: No kidding. It makes me feel strange because of how un-horny i am 99% of the time.

You: i know right?!

Stranger: What's peoples fascination with sex? Like it's fun and all that but people are addicted to it lol

You: mhm yeah, or at least, I would ordinarily think that there'd be better things to do than come onto omegle for it haha ^^;

Stranger: So many of my friends have just always been focused on getting laid. Just never been a top priority for me.

You: ahh I've always been curious what that kind of culture is like

Stranger: Yeah lol. Wanting to jerk off to random strangers after 100x skips...

You: yeah I know lol

Stranger: I was like that in senior year of high school but it quickly lost its appeal. Not the omegle stuff

You: mhm

You: like I've never done tinder so I've always wondered what it was like

You: I read a statistic somewhere that like 50% of college kids did it or something

Stranger: Like if a girl is attractive but has no personality or interest it's impossible for me to be attracted to them

Stranger: Yeah I've never used it either. I considered it once but you needed a facebook and I didnt want to make one.

You: ohh

You: I didn't know it needed a facebook

You: you're pretty oldschool for not having one of those either haha

Stranger: Hahaha. It's because I have too high of an opinion of myself and find it easier to critique others :p

You: lol haha

Stranger: I have one opinion of facebook and even though I know it's incredibly diverse in the way it can be used I stick to my one notion of it

Stranger: I dont have any social media besides a WhatsApp that I downloaded to keep in contact with some international students form college

You: mhmm

You: I have a facebook but it's basically unused haha

You: I'm a bit too introverted I think

Stranger: That's a good quality. The thing that frustrates me about Facebook is however shares their opinion on everything.

You: facebook the company?

Stranger: How everyone*

You: ohh okay

Stranger: No just users

Stranger: I hear so much from friends about unfriending people over political beliefs.

You: ahh wow, I didn't realize there was so much of that kind of stuff

Stranger: Idk if there is for sure. But its prevalent in my friend group lol

You: mhm I'm basically silent and don't post anything haha

You: I don't think most of my friends know my political opinions

You: idk if that's a good or bad thing though

Stranger: Both probably lol. Save yourself some unnecessary conflict but I guess bad in the sense that you should stand up for what you believe

You: mhm right

You: I'm probably a terrible activist ^^;

Stranger: Hahaha. Most activists are terrible and 99% will never see what they want come true. I might be cynical though..

You: mhm, but I mean, I live through inaction, so I feel like it's not my place to criticize since I'm not even doing anything

Stranger: I can respect that. I criticize activists a lot mostly due to the order of my priorities. I can agree with activists but still be angry that they're not rallying against what I'd consider the most important issue.

You: ahh

Stranger: It's an issue

You: yeah it's definitely easy to get drowned out

Stranger: Hopefully living abroad with make me reexamine my beliefs

Stranger: Where there are so many things going wrong at once I just feel hopeless and I believe thinking badly of others is some sort of defense mechanism or something.

You: mhmm

Stranger: But I do have to go. It was nice talking with you. Good luck in your life friend.

You: you too!

You: it was great talking

Stranger: Goodbye

You: bye!

Stranger has disconnected.

#omegle #politics #environment #environmentalism #clean water act #epa #west virginia #coal mining #conservative #social media

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deadcactuswalking · 5 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS - CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: 9th December 2018

Geez, today was a busy week. Before we talk about the top 10, however, let’s just get the massive elephants out of the way.

CHRISTMAS NONSENSE

It’s the festive season and one way people celebrate the holidays is by listening to its music – usually, Christmas music, of course, and since I review all returning entries that I haven’t talked about yet, sigh... There are seven of these so I’m going to go as quick as possible, but just bear with me throughout this section because I really don’t like Christmas music all that much. Let’s just get it over with.

#39 – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – Brenda Lee

This is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, a song written by Johnny Marks and released in 1958 in the US, being left on the shelf for four years until its release in the UK in 1962. In 1963, it peaked at number-six and has since re-entered due to digital downloads, with one of its highest recent peaks being number-seven last year. It’s pretty inoffensive rockabilly, with some nice very-50s guitar licks coming in throughout, and some decently-sounding production, but really it’s not anything of internet until that sax solo. That solo is freaking gorgeous, and I’m glad it’s there, because otherwise this would just kind of fall to the wayside. Not sure I like Lee’s voice on here, it comes off as a bit nasal, but it’s not a big deal. It’s alright, I guess. I expected to say RIP here since she was popular such a long time ago, but no, she’s still alive and kicking. Good for her.

#36 – “Merry Christmas Everyone” – Shakin’ Stevens

Now this is where it all breaks down into dread. This song by Shakin’ Stevens is Godawful, mostly because of how painfully manufactured the whole thing is. It’s overproduced Christmas music that is just jolly feelings and nothing else. Those horns that kick in after the first verse are pretty cool, but Stevens doesn’t sound great here – or at least I can’t tell because he’s drowned in reverb – and the choir might as well be a computer for all I care. Also, the sax solo was cool the first time in Brenda Lee’s track, but here it’s just trite, especially when you add those shooby-doo-wops over it. This track was initially the Christmas number-one for 1985, and I understand why, but does it really have to come back every year since 2007 – for over 60 weeks in total? Oh, it peaked last year at #10 too. Let’s hope this upwards trend doesn’t continue.

#35 – “Santa Tell Me” – Ariana Grande

Now for a more recent one from arguably the biggest popstar in the world right now, with her 2014 song that actually failed to chart in the Top 40 initially until last year at #29, and that’s its peak so far... whilst I’ve never been a fan of the cleaner, refined Ariana Grande records, I do have a soft spot for this one. That melody is infectious and the sleigh bells complement the synth bass in a way I didn’t think they would, and it’s not like the drums are all that overpowering here, although a trap skitter would have worked better here (yeah, I know, not something I say often). It’s surprisingly romantic and sensual for a song with Santa in the title, actually, although it’s about men who have wronged her. Anyway, Ariana kills it but what else do you expect from a song from her at this point? It’s a good track, although the final chorus with the choir is really cluttered, just saying, it’s messy.

#30 – “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” – Michael Bublé

This here is Michael Bublé’s cover of traditional Christmas classic written in 1951 by Meredith Wilson, and it’s not great. Obviously, I mean, it’s Michael Bublé, ever since “Haven’t Met You Yet” he’s been utterly useless seasonal radio fodder. Bublé never really sounds bad but he never sounds interesting, and this production isn’t doing him any favours. It’s sickly sweet strings and brass for the most part, with some piano added in there for good measure, after what seems to be way too long of just airy synth, string and guitar noise – that’s really out of place, guys, why is this on the single edit? Ah, what else to say? Oh, right, nothing.

#26 – “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” – Band Aid

Oh, I know it’s Christmas time, alright, this song won’t let me forget it. I could ramble on about how preachy and awful this charity single is but other people have done it better. I just have four short things to say – 1.) this was the most popular song in the UK of the entire 80s. Yikes. 2.) This is the worst thing the Boomtown Rats have had any involvement in. They’re such a great band, hell so are Culture Club. How do Boy George, the Boomtown Rats, Ultravox, Phil Collins, U2, Kool & the Gang, Sting and Duran Duran make something this awful? They’re all absolutely fantastic musicians in their own right. 3.) That synth that kicks in after a while is pretty ugly, not gonna lie, and is unfitting for the condescending Christmas charity single angle they’re going for here – mostly because that’s what it really is. 4.) We’ve remade and reissued and re-entered this song too many times. Let it go, Britain. Please. We’re begging you. It’s for a good cause, and I appreciate how much money it’s raised, but it’s also garbage.

#18 – “Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl

They use the word because it was the 80s, it’s not meant to mean homosexual and it’s not used in that context – albeit still a negative one – and the climate of Ireland, especially the Celtic punk scene, wasn’t exactly going to care about dropping that slur in their Christmas single. It should still be censored, though, I mean, black rappers saying the N-word is morally okay, but we still mute those, right? Anyway, this is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. It starts with a beautifully elegant piano melody, with the lead singer of the Pogues, Shane MacGowan, mumbling his way through his verse, but instead of people like Future or Lil Baby, there’s still a lot of sincerity there, I feel, and a lot of soul is put into expressing the lyrics here in the raspy tone that I absolutely love. I’m not going to talk much about the story here mostly because I’m not going to go in-depth, but it’s about a typical love story going awry at some point due to a betrayal. Oh, and the moment the Celtic traditional instruments come in is one of the best moments in music – ever. Kirsty MacColl sounds so lovely here, and the harmonisations in the chorus are fantastic. That flute solo is gorgeous, and the juxtaposition between “you’re a bum, you’re a punk, you’re an old s--- on junk, lying there almost dead as a drip on that bed” and the cheerful instrumental is just hilarious to me, especially since right after “Happy Christmas your a---, I thank God it’s our last” is immediately followed by the bombastic drunk sing-a-long chorus. The third verse is also such a great back-and-forth, man, I can’t even bring to words how much I admire and adore this piece of music. This is the best song I think I’ve ever talked about on this show, by far, but it could have easily not been close if “2000 Miles” by the Pretenders returned this week. We’ll just hope for next week, I guess. Rest in peace to Kirsty MacColl, gone much too young.

#14 – “Last Christmas” – WHAM!

Finally, we have our last Christmas song for this week’s holiday REVIEWING THE CHARTS special. It’s an anti-climactic end, to be honest, because I’m pretty indifferent to this song. It’s pretty 80s, to be fair, so I’ve got to like some of the cheesy falsetto vocalisations from the late George Michael at the start, as well as those repetitive synths that keep themselves from sounding awful by having those sleigh bells and pretty damn nice keys covering them. That chorus is iconic, but the rest of the lyrics are just forgettable. Honestly, it’s a good background song and it’s a well-written, catchy pop track with Michael putting in some good vocals throughout, but, it’s nothing special. Nothing but respect to George Michael, though, rest in peace, he’s a pop legend over here.

Christmas Conclusion

The best Christmas song on the charts right now is easily “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, but an Honourable Mention goes to Mariah Carey for “All I Want for Christmas is You”. Yup, that’s still here, we’ll get to that in a second. Worst of the Week goes to Band Aid for “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” You should be ashamed, Bob. Dishonourable Mention is going to Shakin’ Stevens for “Merry Christmas Everyone”. Other Christmas songs you should check out are “Christmas in Harlem” by Kanye West, Teyana Taylor and CyHi tha Prynce featuring Musiq Soulchild (heck, check out the longer version if you wish), “2000 Miles” by the Pretenders, “Stop the Cavalry” by Jona Lewie, “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Tyler, the Creator and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by DMX. Yes, those last two actually exist. Now, this Christmas section has taken longer and is longer to read than about half of my normal episodes, so I think we should get straight into...

Top 10

Well, this all feels a bit more familiar. “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande is still at the top of the charts five weeks in, and it doesn’t really seem to have much competition.

Ava Max, however, is making a surprise run for the top, up four spots to number-two, with “Sweet but Psycho”. I wouldn’t exactly be complaining if this hit the top either.

“Without Me” by Halsey is up a spot to number-three.

We have a new entry from the most recent X Factor winner, Dalton Harris, with a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Christmas classic “The Power of Love”, featuring James Arthur. I guess awful Christmas songs aren’t going away for that long, huh? Obviously this is Dalton’s first top 10, and Arthur’s fifth.

“Thursday” by Jess Glynne is down two spaces to number-three.

Up a whopping 28 spaces this week to number-six is, you guessed it, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”. This isn’t its first top 10 turn, and it’s not its peak, but still impressive to reach here nonetheless.

This means “Woman Like Me” by Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj is down five spaces to number-seven.

“Rewrite the Stars” by James Arthur and Anne-Marie has actually gained nine spaces, surprisingly, and to my dismay, to number-eight, becoming Arthur’s sixth and Anne-Marie’s fifth.

Oh, and if you wanted even worse news, up an even larger 29 spaces is “KIKA” by 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez, becoming both their first (and hopefully for 6ix9ine, only) top 10 hit at number-nine. I like the song, but I don’t like Tekashi, to say the least.

We have another new entry at #10 this week with “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” by Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus. This is Ronson’s sixth top 10 hit and Cyrus’ fourth (yeah, I thought she had more too).

Now, instead of separating what happened on the charts into Dropouts, Climbers, Returning Entries, Fallers and such, let’s separate into two sections: “What Survived” and “What Suffered”.

What Survived

What survived means essentially everything that still managed to chart this week, and I’m actually surprised by how much power some of these songs have. Going in reverse order, I have no idea how “Arms Around You” by XXXTENTACION, Lil Pump, Swae Lee and Maluma managed to cling on despite a 17-space fall to #40. “Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith is down 16 to #38, “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong is down four to #37, “Empty Space” by James Arthur is down 10 to #34 (why did James Arthur of all people have the strength to stay during the avalanche?), “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra is down eight to #33, “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is down 27 to #32 (considering both streaming cuts and Christmas bloodbath), “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker has returned to #31 for some reason, “when the party’s over” by Billie Eilish is down seven to #28 (again, surprised this one’s still here), “Taki Taki” by DJ Snake, Ozuna, Cardi B and Selena Gomez is down eight to #27, “1999” by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan is down 11 to #24, “Polaroid” by James Blue, Liam Payne and Lennon Stella is down 11 to #23, “Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora is down eight to #22, “Better” by Khalid is down five to #20, “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee is down seven to #16, as is “ZEZE” by Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott and Offset right next to it at #15, “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo is down five to #12, and everything else that’s currently charting is either simply not notable (a drop or climb less than four spaces), in the top 10, a new arrival, a Christmas re-entry or in the top 10. Jesus. Now, what’s gone?

What Suffered

This is a little nicer name for what’s dropped out in the absolute onslaught of Christmas music and new arrivals (all returning and new entries this week total to 12 songs that weren’t on the chart before). This week was an absolute bloodbath, and these are the murder victims. Former #1 “Shotgun” by George Ezra is out from #30, “Advice” by Cadet and Deno Driz is out from #28, “AirForce” by Digdat is out from the #20 debut, “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes is out prematurely from #27, “This is Me” by Keala Settle and the Greatest Showman Ensemble is out again from #36, another former #1 “Eastside” by benny blanco, Halsey and Khalid is out from #31, “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille is out from #32, “I Found You” by benny blanco and Calvin Harris is out from #29, “MIA” by Bad Bunny featuring Drake is out from #35, “Always Remember Us this Way” by Lady Gaga is out from #39, “Goodbye” by Jason Derulo and David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj and Willy William is out from #40 and finally, “Back and Forth” by MK, Jonas Blue and Becky Hill is out from #37. I’d say it’s time to move onto the New Arrivals – but before, I’d like to say that the BBC redesigned their UK Top 40 page, and it looks pretty cool. Anyways:

NEW ARRIVALS

#29 – “MAMA” – 6ix9ine featuring Kanye West and Nicki Minaj

Of course, DUMMY BOY only had a stunted tracking week last week, so we have the effects of the album this week. This is 6ix9ine’s third top 40 hit in the UK, Nicki Minaj’s thirty-seventh (yeah, I know, it’s insane), and Ye’s even crazier forty-third, and to be honest, it’s inoffensive, which is something I’d never thought I’d say about a 6ix9ine song, but, hey, it is what it is. Murda Beatz’s production is pretty cool for what it is, and I do like the eerie synth loop. 6ix9ine’s delivery is lazy and boring – and I still think we shouldn’t let rappers say they kick women out of doors – but he doesn’t last long so when Kanye comes in with that “man, oh my God” refrain it gets so much better. I’m so used to Kanye West’s pop-culture rambling, social media criticism/obsession, somehow relating to women nonsense he brings to nearly every single verse he does recently that I’m used to it, it’s just something I’ve heard before delivered relatively comedically. Nicki’s refrain and verse actually has some work put into it, unlike the dudes’ bars, so yeah, I appreciate that, although her delivery and cadence is exhaustingly blunt and straightforward, to the point where it’s just kind of tiring. There’s some decent wordplay there, I guess. This is okay enough, and pretty much top-tier Tekashi to be honest. “KANGA” also featuring Ye is even better, though.

#17 – “Going Bad” – Meek Mill featuring Drake

Meek Mill and Drake working together is something I expected to happen anyway. Meek and Drake have seemingly squashed their beef and have relaxed after the “Back to Back” situation and their popular 2015/2016 beef that revealed a lot about Drake, specifically his ghostwriting from Quentin Miller, and eventually stressed Meek’s relationship with Nicki enough for them to break up as a result. Oh, and you better believe they mention “back to back” because of course they do, it’s the only funny wordplay they can conjure up, apparently. This is Meek Mill’s first ever top 40 hit in the UK (congratulations) and in stark contrast, Drake’s forty-fifth (yes, even more than Kanye), and his thirteenth just this year (probably and hopefully his last), and it’s mediocre. I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never really cared enough about Meek to listen to him, but an out-of-tune piano absolutely demolished by some bass while Drake spouts off with stuff like “I got more slaps than the Beatles” isn’t exactly the best first impression. Is there a chorus here, or not? I can’t tell, everything’s just kind of the same until the ad-lib break that’s long enough for Genius to count it as an entirely different section of the song than in Meek’s verse. It was “Interlude” when I looked but it might be “Post-Chorus” now. Yeah, it should be clear I don’t care enough about this song. I do like Drake’s delivery in the hook, though, it’s pretty energetic, but not enough to save it.

#10 – “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” – Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus

So, yeah, I like this. It starts with some beautiful strings right before Miley Cyrus fades in with her country twang that I’m starting to really appreciate, and those guitars come in to complement her and the deeper bass that I like the addition of, it really contrasts the otherwise pretty light production, that seems to be dramatic but kind of unfitting for the lyrical content about how the world can hurt you but heartbreak is the worst possible thing, because despite the beat’s melodrama it’s too upbeat to really work here, I feel. Ah, well, the hook is pretty memorable, and the orchestral stings is just one little barely-noticeable production quirk that I can talk about, seriously, Mark Ronson puts so much effort into crafting these songs over the years, it’s pretty great. It may be a bit too repetitive and slow for my taste, but, yeah, I can dig this. Good song, just not much to say about it.

#4 – “The Power of Love” – Dalton Harris featuring James Arthur

The girl gets Leona Lewis, the Scouse dude gets Kaiser Chiefs, yet the WINNER gets James Arthur?! Really, James Arthur? Poor dude. You must know you’re an amazingly talented singer when you get James Arthur put on your song and you still make a surprisingly decent winner’s single, hell, even win in the first place. Arthur is such an awful vacuum of talent, I was scared Harris would be affected by this but no, even with my half-bothering with the show this year I can tell he’s been consistently great, and he’s definitely not bad on here either, although the production has no unique charm to it and is just plastic Syco production as you expect, with James Arthur bringing an above-average performance (this means still pretty bad) with his moaning and straining that just pains me to listen to. Seriously, James, let’s have a cactus-to-man talk and let me teach you how to not sound like my dead cat who just popped some Xanax.

Conclusion

Worst of the Week goes to Dalton Harris and James Arthur for “The Power of Love” – at least “Going Bad” has some energy and legitimate soul to it, although Meek Mill and Drake still get Dishonourable Mention. Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus take Best of the Week home for “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”, and hell Kanye and Nicki made “MAMA” bearable enough for them and 6ix9ine to get Honourable Mentions. See ya next week, where we’ll probably see a few more Christmas songs. Delightful.

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