#maybe even land a tre flip
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8/15/23
What a day!
I went skating 2.5 hours today. I was a bit anxious and reserved at first, but the college-aged guy I met the other day showed up after a little bit and we waved, so it made me feel a bit more at home. It's fucking odd to have people recognize me, I missed it.
I skated the same side of the park I usually do, just doing the same old bag of tricks. But at one point, I tried boardsliding that round rail again... and it wasn't that bad. That was sorta... the beginning of my "real session", I guess you could say.
I have been pacing myself so I don't skate huge stretches non-stop, I'll just do a run out and back trying a few tricks, then stand around and rest for a bit, unless I'm really working on something. Partly to pace, partly just out of awkwardness. During one of those long standing around sessions, I overheard the people next to me talking about teaching... and art... It was the college aged guy I met the other day and some other guy a bit older than me, who was really good at skating. Like... he was a hair away from landing switch tre flips. That's really good in my book.
I actually approached the guy after his conversation. I asked him if he knew anything about requirements to be a college teacher, that I was interested in getting into teaching but I wasn't sure if I could with just a BA. He unfortunately wasn't able to help, he's a teacher for a home-school group, likely much younger kids too. But I actually approached a stranger and initiated a conversation today. ... I actually approached a stranger, introduced myself, and had a conversation with him. Like... for me? That's fucking massive.
I noticed something though. I was nervous and fumbling for that conversation. And that conversation was about work stuff, career stuff. Fast-forwarding with some spoilers, I hung out and had conversations with 3 different people today. The college aged guy from the other day who ollied the jersey barrier, the homeschool teacher and the kid who landed the BS 180 the other day, who had the beaming smile when I cheered for him. And I streamed for 3 hours. Of all the shit I did today, and I'll tell more detail on how anxiety inducing a lot of that should have been... the conversation about my career and work was where I was stumbling over my words and felt like I could barely form coherent sentences. Like, I even felt like I was close to stuttering at points. There is no doubt in my mind now, that's a big trauma trigger for me. And no fucking duh it is, good lord, with how fucked up I was treated during conversations about my work shit? I'm honestly... kind of afraid it might be my biggest one. And that is really bad - how the fuck am I going to build my career... if things of potential importance to my career... make me turn into a fumbling mess?!
I doubt the guy noticed, honestly. At a certain point after that guy left... I cruised over to the other side of the park and started skating the low box. This was where the whole fucking game started to change. I learned how to ollie-to-manual today. First time doing it. I'm sure I've ollied over cracks into manuals before, I've ollied out of manuals before, but never ollie-to-manualed on a box. And I did it a bunch of times. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought. I didn't hang my trucks up on the edge one time. It's actually much easier to balance manuals that you've ollied up into rather than coming down out of an ollie onto flat, at least in my experience. Once I felt what it was supposed to feel like, it was surprisingly simple. It took a bit of a grind to get my first one though, probably a good 10 back-to-back tries? Maybe more?
This inspired me to keep building off of that. They have a "rail" that's two concrete parking blocks raised on cinder blocks and waxed to shit. I boardslid most of one of them, a few times. That was fun. And not just like... the side of it... it's flat on top, so you can actually feel it when you get on top of it, and I got really on top of it a few times. Just doing that started to bring back a lot of feelings of... board confidence. Just... confidence being on my board. Confidence is such a big part of skating that is really starting to come back now. I feel so much more natural on the board, and not just my trick board, on my hybrid too. Once the board starts really feeling like a natural extension of you... that's when shit starts getting real.
I then had a short conversation with the kid from the other day, I gave him a tip that I learned from watching skate videos, to try to lock the box coping in between the truck and his heelside wheel (for front 5-0). He then went and did a 50-50 like that and fucking nailed it first try, super smooth too, and looked back really happy. I talked about how I was scared of that trick, and he seemed anxious and didn't really know what to say. I ended up going and devoting a bunch of time to trying FS 50-50 on the 8" box, and I landed it a few times. Yep. I didn't just learn one new trick today... I learned two.
I can't even explain the difference between my nervousness and social anxiety when I got there, versus cruising around the whole park and trying new tricks by the end. It really helped that at the end, it was just me... the college aged guy and the kid. Being in a park where the only people there are people whose names you know makes a really big difference, to me at least. Maybe it shouldn't... but it did.
So yeah, it was a really good session, and I skated for a good 2-2.5 hours. I cruised home the new route again, I go by a big church now, which is cool. I love church architecture, it's nice and quiet over there too. This route feels so much less sketchy compared to the main drag I used to take.
I got home, made dinner, ate, and then streamed for 3 hours. I actually just ended stream to hop over here. I worked on my pants the entire time, doing the white outlining for the celtic knot. It looks really good, the paint is being cooperative, my paintbrush... not so much...
The majority of the stream was a fucking nightmare. It was silent. A guy showed up, someone who I've "known" for a long time... aka he has dropped in, talked about himself for 5 minutes and then left a bunch of times over the years. I have no idea why he keeps coming by the stream, he obviously doesn't like what I stream, he literally only comes by to tell me what's going on in his life when I didn't ask. He only stopped by to brag about how he lost weight, then left. So weird. Like... I'm a stranger to you... why do you care that I know that? So odd to me, and like... really not what a streaming site is designed for... Just go to a Discord group or Facebook or something.
Then I had a person come in and tip me 100 Bits! 100 whole bits, can you believe it! That's... that's $1. That's one fucking dollar. The single apple I ate on the way to the skatepark was more expensive than the random tip I got. But, you know, it's a "big number", so you're supposed to get all excited for these people and jerk them off for their generosity. Seriously. It's so fucking degrading, and even more so when you've been doing it for fucking 7 goddamn years, and you're just like... okay... you're just throwing quarters at me at this point... Normally I'd appreciate the tip, you know, if it was a viewer... it's money I didn't have... but... here's what set me off...
This person had made an account specifically to - and they told me this overtly, as a point of pride - go around and find "small streamers" and give them Bits, and "leave them with a smile", then head off to find another one. So... they go into my stream with no viewers, they give me one viewer, which raises my ranking on the search results and raises my chance of drawing an audience... they give me one dollar... they expect a huge "thank you"... then they leave and bring my viewer count back down to zero. And they are "helping me". That shit gets under my skin. You're just doing it to feel like you're helping people. You're the kind of person who gives money to homeless people simply so they can brag about it later. I mean, how can they really care about the people they are claiming to want to help? They don't even remember their names! You want to really be appreciated by a streamer? Watch the fucking stream. Put your agenda away and just fucking sit down and watch the entertainment that is being given to you for fucking free and actually process what you are watching. If you like it, follow them, subscribe to them (so they can get $2.50/mo of support from you), maybe gift some subscriptions to other people, so more people come and hang out? And go tell a fucking friend. Go talk to your friends and genuinely, honestly tell them about the good time you had in that stream. That is how you help a stream. Otherwise, you're going into an empty room, saying "I support struggling poverty-streamers", throwing a dollar at them, and strutting out the door thinking "I just made their day"... while they're going... "crap, I thought that was a real tip, I thought someone actually liked my art." It fucking sucks, and these people are just... oblivious.
After that, I got a "troll" with an IQ that could fit in a Sudoku square. Their opening line was trying to get me to read something backwards that was clearly some kind of genital-related phrase intentionally (?) misspelled. I asked them what their age was, if they were over or under 18 and made a comment about how... good lord, it was a Monday night... XD And he followed up by saying "your art is banal". And I was really proud of how sharp my comebacks still are. Good lord, I've been in isolation for like 5 fucking years and I still have wit that outclassed this guy like a 13 year old green belt taking on Mike fucking Tyson. I asked him where he learned that word, presupposing it was likely from misspelling "anal" in google and accidentally learning something useful. And then I went on to let him know that I appreciated his critique, but his opinion was really only of as much value as the time gone into forming it. I then decided to continue musing on how fucking odd it is that someone would be trawling low-population art streams at 11PM on a Monday night just trying to trick people or bring their self esteem down. He left, no mic drop, nothing. These people are just as bad as I remember. They've got their one prepared line, maybe a follow up, maybe a backup line... then they run like children. Meanwhile, I'm on camera... I'm using my voice... and I made him look silly. I doubt he learned a lesson there, but one can hope. The internet makes people act really fucking stupid sometimes.
Just a bit after I told my empty stream that I was getting ready to wrap up, I got raided. It was a streamer that does pixel art, they brought 23 viewers with them. It was appreciated. Most of them left, but one stuck around and chatted for a bit and even checked out my Instagram, which was nice. They didn't follow my Instagram or my Twitch though... So yeah. It was nice to get some interest and actually explain the piece a bit, and they seemed actually interested in the medium, so that was a nice chat. I love talking shop, I never have people to talk shop with.
So... despite the stream being an absolutely nightmare... I got about half the knot outline done. I streamed for 3 hours. And I did have some positive interactions. I am, however... tempted to try streaming here... or on Instagram. I just don't know if I can use OBS for that, I really fucking hope so. If I can use OBS, I'm absolutely going to try doing art streams both on here and Instagram. I really... ugh, I don't know if I'm reading into it but... I really don't like what Twitch has become. It really feels like people are just using it like a social media site? Or kinda like Omegle? Like... it's not people coming to watch a host who is providing entertainment for them... unless you have a built-in audience... they come in and start acting like the center of attention, when the camera is literally pointing at a different person. It's weird. I kept thinking over and over tonight "this site is a like a fucking magnet for narcissists". Not just on the camera side, but viewers too. It's weird.
So yeah, that was basically my day. And now I'm fucking bushed. I'm wiped. I'm just going to go take a quick shower and head to bed.
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Dreamcatcher Chptr. 48
It was officially the first of October.
Students were over-zealous knowing that the Vortex Club party was about to arrive later that evening.
For the whole day, Clark hadn't been able to numb his rising fears for his best friend who was very keen but also scared to attend the party that seemed far too out of her depth. Knowing that it was her decision, Clark could not force Kate to not attend the party, but only encourage her to dismiss her excitement on her own volition. Alas, he simply left it be - in turn, it left a sinking feeling in his stomach that Kate would come to regret ever thinking of going, let alone by herself.
At the end of another school day, Clark sat out the front of Blackwell Academy at a bench, watching people in his grade mess about on skateboards or taking photographs, operating drones or sitting around on the grassy knoll in their own private friend group. A couple copper and green coins were flicked into the water fountain where people naïvely hoped that their wishes would come true.
The sun was close to setting. Clark could see that that would've been a perfect photo opportunity, knowing his friend, Max, was into that sort of stuff.
Still, he minded his own business and focused on the music streaming through his earphones whilst he scrolled through the world wide web, anxiously searching for any possible leads on the whereabouts of his missing twin sister.
"Yo! Price!" A voice sang out.
Clark jumped slightly at the voice shouting for him, only just being heard during the solo of the song he was listening to. Looking in the direction of the voice that called for his attention, Clark spotted one of the boys in his grade skating for fun. He then made his way over to them.
"Hey. What's up J?" Clark greeted the skater, Justin.
The pair bumped fists, almost adding to it yet refrained from the temptation.
"Nothin' much, man. Wanna thrash with us, bro?"
"Oh yeah. Bring it."
"What's your first move gonna be?"
Clark shrugged his shoulders and smiled pleasantly at the company he was with. "Maybe a simple nose slide or a tre flip."
"Oh sick! You're not a poser."
"Ha. I wish. I mean, I could if I wanted to. I got balance control and everything, but I just never really tried skating, to be honest."
Justin smiled respectfully at Clark's honesty. While he was surprised that the boy with fading-blue-hair-turning-green allegedly never skated before, he was sorely excited to see him make an attempt.
"That's cool, man. Hey. Check it. Yo! Trevor! Kick it!"
A boy in a blue jumped rode up towards a bench and knelt down before jerking upwards, using the built momentum to throw the skateboard up and rushed to get his forward foot down to get it to connect with the edge of the bench, while the other foot maintained balance to ensure he didn't fall over. When Trevor landed perfectly, Justin, Clark, and the other members of the skater posse all whooped and cheered their mate for a successful stunt.
"Radical, my guy." Clark praised and raised his dominant hand up, his palm open, calling for his mate to clap his hand with his and pull them into a quick hug.
"Thanks, man. Wanna kick a flip on my board?" Justin offered.
Clark agreed and took control of the skateboard. He planted his left foot at the front of the board and his right at the back and picked up momentum by brushing the bottom of his right foot along the ground. Once he had enough speed, he kicked upwards, flicking the front of his foot diagonally to the right, causing the board to spin in mid-air. On descent, he slammed his feet on the board and in turn, back onto the ground.
The skater boys cheered Clark on as he returned back to them, jumping off of the board which he kicked back to Trevor.
"Hey, Clark. You going to the party tonight?" Asked Justin.
Clark shook his head quickly.
"Nah. I'm not going. It's not my kind of place," he admitted honestly.
"Broooo. Don't you know what you're missing out on?!"
"Oh I think I do."
"Oh well. Your loss, man. Peace out."
Parting way, Clark made his way towards the dorms. He kept a watchful eye out for his step-father, David Madsen, knowing that he would be nosy about what Clark had been doing and if he had socialised with any junkies as of late.
Clark was just about to make his way inside the dormitory block when suddenly, he bumped heads with somebody walking out just as he was about to walk in. They both yelped and staggered backwards. Clark almost tripped down the steps but was saved by a hand grabbing the collar of his shirt.
"K-Kate!? Crap. You okay, sweetheart?" Clark cried in dismay as he cupped her cheeks and observed her forehead closely for any bruises or bumps.
The dirty-haired blonde girl giggled at his concern and raised her hands up to pry his hands off her face. That was when he noticed her holding a book in her right hand.
"Thanks for caring so much, but I was just on my way to give you this." Kate said as she glanced down at the book that she intended to lend to Clark. "I thought you might like this because it's about two star-crossed lovers filling in the chapters of their story through work and separation."
Clark was shocked to find that the reason they bumped into one another was so she could lend him a book of hers that she believed was a good recommendation. He reached for the book and took a firm hold of it, feeling the smooth texture of the cover brush underneath his fingers.
"Kate, I... th-thank you!"
There was a bit too much enthusiasm in his response, especially when he threw his arms around her and pulled her into a bear-tight hug. practically squeezing the air out of her lungs. When he removed his vice grip, she breathed slightly raggedly and laughed timidly.
"Katie. Where does it hurt?"
Shyly, Kate bowed her head and pointed at the slight but vaguely visible bump on her forehead. Clark grabbed the sides of her head and pulled her head close to his so he could give that spot a little kiss. Then, they parted ways.
He and Kate always shared a brotherly-sisterly relationship: he acted quite protective of her, but he was never bothered by people's reaction to his affection for her, knowing that he was already dedicated to a girl close to his heart. It always irked Clark the most whenever it was Victoria Chase meddling with Kate's peaceful daydreams. Always Victoria and her cronies.
Clark resumed making his way up to his dorm.
As per usual, there was nobody out and about. But as he walked past some boys' rooms to reach his, he could hear faint music from some or nothing at all from others. Once he was in his room, Clark divulged himself into the book labelled, 'Outlaws Outmoded by D. Matthews'.
For the next few hours, Clark read the book while preparations were almost completed for the Vortex Club party.
Once the sun set and the sky turned black with the moon illuminating the shining stars, the party had begun. Many people came to the party with the intent of partying, dancing and drinking. However, there were darker schemes around play.
Inside the natatorium, senior students partied to their heart's content. A hired DJ blasted music while a lights and smoke operator monitored the appropriate lights to illuminate the room. In the far left corner of the natatorium, a bar was set up: beverages were served, both alcohol and fizzy drinks mixed together to create a concoction, additionally with wine at service; all free of charge.
Kate Marsh was a bit late to the party as she had never gone to a party before in all her life, so given that this was her first party, she knew not an appropriate time to arrive - in spite of the expected starting time of the party. Everybody was surprised, nonetheless, that she showed up. Even Victoria Chase had a bit of a hard time picking on her without the modicum of respect she had for her for going rogue coming around and affecting her ego.
"KATE MARSH!!" A voice shouted over the loud music, catching the attention of the dirty-haired blonde wandering aimlessly around the natatorium. "Didn't think to see you, of all people, in a place like this!!"
To her company was none other than Mick McGee.
"Hi, Mick! It's very loud in here!" Kate shouted back.
"That's what we call a party!! Did ya just get here?!"
"Yes!" Kate replied, nodding her head. "Is Max or Warren here?!"
He hummed loudly, rotating his head slightly so his ear was pointed at her now.
"MAX OR WARREN?!"
"I haven't seen 'em! Clark ain't here either in case you're wonderin'. Do ye want a drink?!"
Kate quickly pondered at the offer.
She accepted and followed Mick when he offered to escort her to the bar.
Thinking that going to a party was one sin enough, drinking out of the legislation of her parent's household gave a strange, off-putting feeling. Kate sought no physiological harm that would prevent her from truly acting out of independence by defying the commandments of both her God and her mother.
It didn't take long for things to get out of hand at the Vortex party. People inside caused such a havoc that it became impossible for not one single thing to not go wrong.
Once at the bar, Kate observed the selection of beverages to drink from; upon setting her eyes on the wine, she requested a glass. The bartender - a boy who was far too young below drinking age - served her a glass and gave her a warm smile and a wink as he watched Kate and Mick wander off along the side of the pool, keeping a safe distance so to avoid getting wet by those bombing the pool or splashing like maniacs.
"Hey, Mick! Over here!" A person shouted from across the natatorium.
Upon identifying the person calling for his attention, Mick tapped Kate's arm and informed her that he would leave her company but for a few short moments. As soon as he left her side, Kate suddenly felt a strong side-effect of the wine she just took a sip of.
Her head began to spin.
Her vision doubled and soon she had gradually lost control of her own body, leaving her consciousness numbed to the alcohol she just drank.
That was when someone came running to her aid. The face hovering in front of hers she barely managed to recognise as Nathan Prescott, had offered his assistance to her, as by stating her appearing visibly unwell. But before he could presume to commit to his act of kindness, Kate had slipped away to find somebody to confront. In Mick's absence, he was unaccountable to prevent what Kate was about to do.
The attention of a small fraction of people in the natatorium had their attention drawn onto Kate Marsh when she began to pilfer kisses from several people whom she was unaffiliated with, all the while people watched on, commenting on Kate's sudden conversion from Christianity.
And during the whole experience, she couldn't possibly, in the slightest way, recall any of it occurring.
The only person who found the impulse irresistible was Victoria Chase. As soon as she recognised what the commotion was about, she whipped out her mobile phone and recorded the entire show, laughing mockingly at Kate under the influence of alcohol and drugs in her system. Her sobriety was quickly fading, to the point that by the time Kate had finished kissing the several strangers she locked lips with, Victoria had lost all sense of reason as her drunkenness validated posting the video online against the better nature of her sober self.
Kate Marsh's world had finally turned upside-down.
After a few moments, Nathan collected the Christian girl and escorted her out of the natatorium to the parking lot. With Kate completely blacked out and passed out, Nathan shoved Kate into the back seat of his car and quickly drove off without a moment to waste.
Nathan had driven some way out to an old abandoned farm, driving up to a gate where he had to jump out of his car to open both the gate and the doors of the barn. He then parked his vehicle inside the barn before grabbing Kate and taking her to a secret bunker, where he carried the dirty-haired blonde inside towards one part of the room with lights and cameras pointed in that direction.
Kate barely had enough fight in her against the drugs and alcohol to listen to strange noises that sounded awfully like camera shutters. A figure appeared in her blurry vision, wearing white gloves and a white t-shirt. It was not enough, however, to properly identify the individual, except only assume that it was a doctor that had her in a bright room.
She then heard voices shout, followed by a loud bang before Kate passed out.
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Stupid Sexy Romanoff
Natasha Romanoff x Reader
Summary: Tony takes the avengers on a snowy retreat, where he finds out about your crush on Natasha. He and Clint convince you to do something a little bit stupid and it does not go according to plan. At least you get Natasha’s attention.
Contents/Warnings: Fluffy fluff, some dumbass energy from many people
Words: 1,539
AN - Yes, this was absolutely originally inspired by that one Simpsons scene and it would not let me rest until I had written it. Stupid sexy Flanders.
“Woah, Y/N, I didn’t know you could shred like that,” Tony says as you come skidding to a stop next to him and Clint on the alpine snow.
The billionaire had decided to take you all on a trip to a Swiss ski resort, in the name of relaxation and team bonding.
“There’s a dry ski slope about an hour away from the town I grew in, I haven’t been in a long while but I guess snowboarding is like riding a bike,” you offer. Plopping yourself down near Clint, who was currently sitting on Steve’s shield after he’d been using it as a sledge.
“Maybe now you’re here you can convince Stark to actually go down the mountain, instead of just standing here like a baby,” the archer points to the man’s skis, “you know they have instructors here to teach you how to use those things.”
Tony scoffs. “I don’t need any instructing, Barton. It can’t be that hard surely, I mean children can do it.”
“You could always ask our friendly god of hammers for some pointers,” you say, gesturing behind you as Thor shoots past, screaming with joy. The asgardian had turned out to be surprisingly good at the winter sport and was currently having the time of his life.
When the men next to you descend into bickering, you zone out. Letting your gaze wander until it lands on Natasha, who’s stood chatting with Steve further down the slope.
You’d had a crush on the redhead ever since you’d met her during the whole thing with Loki, but hadn’t said anything to her in fear of ending up looking like an idiot.
Clint was the only one who knew and he’d been pretty useless at helping. Simply teasing you about it, as he’d decided to be an adult, for once, and respect Natasha’s privacy on the matter.
You sigh softly as you look at her now. She was beautiful, and kind of cute, with her little bobble hat and her googles on top of her head. The tips of her nose and ears slightly pink from the cold, and her flawless tresses only highlighted by the white around her.
As you follow the fall of her hair down to her outfit, you inhale sharply, coughing as the icy air hits the back of your throat.
The assassin was clad in a black and red ski suit, with a close enough fit that you could see the lines of her muscles. Along with a great view of her assets. It was safe to say that it left nothing to the imagination, and your imagination was certainly running wild right now.
Your little coughing fit had gained the attention of Tony and Clint. Making them pause their argument and follow your line of slight.
“Well, Romanoff certainly isn’t bothered by the cold. You’d think she’d want to wear something more comfortable since we’re out of the office,” says the billionaire.
“Actually it is comfy, and warm, and incredibly aerodynamic. She got it for this one mission where she had to go undercover as a prospect for the winter olympics,” Clint explains, “I tried it on once. It felt like I was wearing nothing at all.”
That comment did absolutely nothing to help your thoughts, in fact it only made them less PG then they already were. You’re pretty sure the heat coming from your face could turn the slope below you into a waterfall if you put your head close enough.
Unfortunately for you, your flustered state draws Tony’s questioning gaze from the archer to yourself.
“Erm, Y/N are you okay? You look kind of...wait a minute,” his eyes light up as he interrupts himself, “Oh. My. God. You totally have the hots for Romanoff don’t you?”
“Finally, someone noticed,” Clint happily exposes you.
“Barton, you little shit!” you exclaim in shock, repeatedly trying to jab him in the ribs.
“Oh this is great,” Tony laughs before starting to sing, “Y/N and Natasha sitting in a tre-”
“Shut it, Stark,” you hiss. Taking one of his ski poles and smacking him around the back of the legs, causing him to fall on his back in front of the pair of you with a small ‘oof’.
“Rude. But since you’re like the little sister I never had, I’ll elect to ignore it in favour of being the annoying brother right now. Does she know about the little heart eyes routine you got going on over here?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
You roll your eyes. “Does it look like she’s even remotely interested in me?”
“I don’t know, have you tried asking her?”
“This is Natasha Romanoff we’re talking about here, you think I want to risk making a fool out of myself and ruining our friendship?” you sigh dejectedly and put your chin on top of your knees. “And don’t bother asking Clint about it, I already tried,” you add when you see Tony turn toward the man, who was suddenly very quiet.
The billionaire huffs when he notices his glare isn’t doing anything to crack the archer’s resolve. But when his eyes land on the ramps that sat on one half of the snowy incline, the gears in his head start to turn.
His smirk widens when Clint throws him an encouraging look, clearly thinking along the same lines.
“Hey Y/N, why don’t you do a cool trick or something?” Tony asks while nodding toward the ramps.
“What?” you ask in reply, “What makes you think I can even do a trick?”
“Well, it can’t be that hard. I’ve seen you do loads of complicated acrobatics in training, and what about that time you flipped your motorbike over that bridge?”
“I’m sure Nat would be impressed if you did it,” Clint murmurs, trying to be subtle while eating some snow.
You cut your eyes at them both, wondering what they were up to.
“Fine,” you say. Pulling yourself up and setting off down the hill after thinking about it, it would be pretty cool if you did manage to pull it off.
Once you hit one of the bigger ramps, you lock eyes with Natasha, and your whole mind goes blank. You can’t stop staring and you’re quickly reminded of all those thoughts you’d just had. Which was not ideal, considering you had just launched yourself about 20 feet in the air.
Shit.
Instead of doing some epic flip in the air, you just sail through it and start plummeting to the earth. But lucky for you, you’re an avenger. You’re also heading for a nice pile of snow.
Snow is surprisingly hard, and you groan as you lay buried there, regretting many of your life choices. Not only had you eaten complete shit, you had done it in front of your long time crush. This was the worst trip you had ever been on.
“Leave me to my shame,” you whine as you feel someone undoing your boots from your snowboard before pulling you out by your leg.
Your embarrassment only grows as you look up into green eyes that are filled with worry.
“Are you alright, Y/N?” Natasha asks. Checking you over for any sign of blood or broken bones.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” you say, not quite meeting her eyes.
“You gonna explain what that was about then?” she asks with a hint of amusement as she helps you up.
You smile sheepishly and admit, “I was trying to show off.”
“Why?”
Being this close to her now, with her hands still lightly clasping yours and an adorable little frown on her face, you can’t find it in you to lie.
“I was trying to impress you. I really like you Natasha,” you confess quietly.
Her face slackens at your words, and you can feel your stomach sink. You gentle pull your hands from hers, letting out a long breath as you look down. Waiting for whatever her reaction might be.
To your surprise, a gloved hand comes up and cups your jaw. Tilting your head back up before a pair of soft lips land on your own.
You relax into the kiss as she holds you there. Blinking slowly when she pulls back with a sigh.
“I like you too, Y/N,” she says shyly. A smile tugging at her mouth and her face just a bit redder than it was before.
“How come you never said anything?” you ask, still not quite believing this was actually happening.
“I’m not really the best when it come to this whole feelings thing, so I wanted to makes sure that you might have felt the same about me before I did anything,” she trails off.
“Oh.”
The redhead hums. “And for the record you don’t have to impress me. I’ve seen what you can do, it’s pretty badass,” she says with a wink, before holding out her hand. “Now come on, I’ll get you a hot chocolate. Think of it as our first date.”
You can’t help the grin that breaks out onto your face as you take Natasha’s hand and let her drag you back up the mountain.
Maybe this trip wasn’t so bad after all.
#natasha romanoff#natasha romanoff x reader#natasha romanoff imagine#black widow#black widow x reader#black widow imagine#natasha romanoff fanfic#avengers x reader#marvel imagine#avengers imagine#marvel
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A TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL AND VERY MUCH NOT SANCTIONED BY NBC OPENING SCENE FOR AN AS OF YET NONEXISTENT PILOT OF THE ADVENTURE ZONE: BALANCE ANIMATED SHOW THAT I AM 100% NOT GETTING PAID FOR
Credit to: the McElboys
No credit to: me, Charm H. Adventurezone, sleep deprived [job title redacted] and overly ambitious fic writer
[Our opening shot is of the world of Abeir-Toril (or whatever the fuck we’re going to call it to avoid copyright issues idk that redacted job title up there sure isn’t lawyer) as it drifts through the Prime Material Plane. From here, we can see little but clouds, water, and land masses. One regular-sized moon orbiting the world drifts into view. If you look closely, but you’re only looking closely because you’re a nerd who knows what to look for, you can see a much, much smaller moon -THAT’S NO MOON got there first Clint what now- drifts over a massive, still lake and a brightly colored spot that we might know to be Neverwinter, wait- Eversummer, hm, that was graphic novel, but can we use that there?- KINDASPRING there we go. The initial shot is quiet, for a moment, before seven notes -yes those ones folks- ring out.]
GRIFFIN [audio only]: I can guess what you’re probably all expecting. Some big, dramatic speech to match the big, dramatic intro we’ve got going on here. [As Griffin talks, we start to zoom in on a continent conveniently labeled NOT-FAERUN. We fly by our much smaller moon, but not close enough to see anything of interest – yet. We see Kindaspring, all busy and fantasy and so on. We catch a glimpse of a city buried in the shadow of a mountain range, with a bunch of dudes who all look the same. A city on a cliff, a shining gold monument in the center and trails of dust on a track around the city. Canyons, and a dash of pearlescent color just for a moment. Blink and you miss it, and a flash of a black and white tent in the woods near Kindaspring. You get the picture.] But, fact of the matter is, folks, we kinda blew all the budget on this one shot! Completely boned it in the first two seconds! So, let’s get right into it and roll some fuckin’ initiative- oh, can I say fuck? Are we allowed to do that, here on NBC Peacock? Shit, I’m going to completely bone our cussing budget too- anyway! Let’s roll some initiative and meet our heroes.
[Zoom in on wagon on road outside Kindaspring. It’s not a very impressive wagon. There are patches on the canvas. The wheels are all creaky and bouncy over the dirt road. The horses look like they could use a nap. There are stink lines, y’all. The road, meanwhile, is pretty well-used. There are ruts, and the sides of the road run clean and even. It’s surrounded by woods, and we’re far enough out of Kindaspring to not get any noise from the city, nor close enough to our destination to even get a hint of whatever the fuck I’m going to have to call Phandalin that isn’t Phandalin.
But back to our characters. Right now, only one is visible, a buff human man, like super buff, no you don’t understand animators, he must be a brick shithouse of a man, he’s very sensitive about this. He has massive muscles and massive sideburns, and he looks way too happy to be driving this wagon. You just know the vehicle proficiency jokes are coming. Cartoon GRIFFIN pops up in the corner of the screen, looking unimpressed.]
GRIFFIN: …Well, maybe not heroes. Three… boys. Three very messy, very murder hobo, very horny boys. [A beat.] Tres horny boys, if you will. So, uh, first up is-
MAGNUS [aware of Griffin and waving at everyone- listen, fourth wall breaks are kinda a thing for me, folks]: I’m Magnus Burnsides, human fighter! [Stat card for Magnus pops up on the side. There’s a not very flattering picture with it.] Also… [with the wagon reigns in hand, he starts counting off on his fingers, concentrating] Uh, master carpenter, man of action, rush into battle- oh, and I’m from Raven’s Roost, and-
[The canvas flaps blow open behind MAGNUS, and MAGNUS’S stat card disappears with a pop and a tiny bit of white smoke. TAAKO steps out, already exasperated and swinging a hand, colliding with MAGNUS’S head and pushing it to the side.]
TAAKO: Yeah, save the backstory for like… 40 more episodes, my dude. We don’t have time for that shit right now.
GRIFFIN: O-kay, guess we’re just gonna assume we can swear whenever we want.
[As GRIFFIN is talking, TAAKO stops pushing on MAGNUS’S head.]
TAAKO [triumphant, shouting]: FUCK!
[Flock of birds flies out of the trees.]
GRIFFIN: So this is Taako, the elf wizard [TAAKO’S stat card pops up. Much more flattering picture.] and-
TAAKO: That’s Taako, you know, from… podcast, elf wizard and baller chef, yes, thank you, very much. AND very, very beautiful. [TAAKO does a hair flip. There are sparkles and magical sounds.] And very, very bored. [TAAKO’S stat card disappears.] How far away is this fuckin’ town? What’s it called again?
MAGNUS [shrugging]: Beats me. [To GRIFFIN] Did we come up with a name that doesn’t violate copyright?
GRIFFIN [evading the question, because I still am]: Aaaaaaaaaaaaand last but not least, Merle Highchurch. [A beat. GRIFFIN sighs.] Merle, that’s your cue.
MERLE [inside the tent]: Wha? Somebody say my name? [Canvas flaps rustle rustle rustle. MERLE’S face pops out, looking around owlishly. He also steps out to the front of the wagon.]
MAGNUS [now very crowded and still trying to drive]: You missed your cue, old man.
MERLE [indignant]: I was busy studying my cantrips!
TAAKO and MAGNUS [in unison]: Gross!
MERLE: No, not like-
GRIFFIN [interrupting]: And Merle is a cleric! [MERLE’S stat card pops up. The picture was taken too high, so we can only see MERLE’S hair and forehead.]
MERLE: I’m a what now?
GRIFFIN [overly enthusiastic, it’s a bit now, folks]: Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar, clerics are kind of a support class magic user. They can cast things like buffs-
MERLE: Huh?
GRIFFIN [still overly enthusiastic]: and heal their party members-
MERLE: I can do that?
GRIFFIN: Clerics also serve gods, and Merle’s god is Mort-
MERLE [indignant again]: Hang on! That doesn’t sound right!
GRIFFIN [pushing out of his little bubble and leaning into the scene]: Then who is your god?
MERLE: Uh… Pan! [MERLE pulls out the Extreme Teen Bible.] See? Pan!
MAGNUS [whispering to TAAKO]: Okay, I guess this is how we’re resolving that whole thing. [TAAKO shrugs. MERLE is smiling. It’s adorable, like those little smiles Carey Pietsch does I love them so much, y’all.]
GRIFFIN: So, Magnus, Taako, Merle. Off on an adventure of epic proportions. [GRIFFIN is getting excited.] Full of action and danger and goofs and found family and-
MAGNUS: Now hold on! Epic proportions? Epic? [MAGNUS waves a hand around at the generally pretty chill woods, the boring road, and the stink lines wagon.]
TAAKO: Yeah, so far this is snoozeville, population, uh, me and these two chucklefucks.
MERLE [peering at GRIFFIN]: you sure you got the right dnd party, bud?
GRIFFIN [looking at audience]: We’re still negotiating contracts, so I’m filling in for, uh… someone. So for now, hey, I’m Griffin McElroy, your Dungeon Master, your best friend, and your announcer for this pilot episode. Ahem. [GRIFFIN clears his throat.] Grab your shields and ready your spell slots. Strap in your asses and… really, just strap in your asses. And, for the very first time, welcome to the animated version of… THE ADVENTURE ZONE!
[Title card and Mort Garson’s “Déjà Vu” plays. All my ideas went into dialogue, folks. Fan artists, this one’s all yours.]
[We pop back into the same scene as before.]
MAGNUS: Yeah, so, uh, like we were saying, before, uh, whatever that was, what we’re doing now is-
TAAKO [interrupting]: Hold on! We are not, I repeat, not doing some dumb recap where we explain this boring job... unless…
MAGNUS, MERLE, and GRIFFIN [all have gone laser eye meme]: UNLESS?
TAAKO [singing]: Flashback sequence!
[There’s a loud POP! as the scene shifts, and we’re now in your standard fantasy tavern. There’s a table with four chairs right in front of us, all of which are empty. The tavern acts as a backdrop behind that, illustrating just how fantasy this world is. We see humans and elves and dwarves yes, because we’ve already seen them, but also Gnomes and tieflings and haflings and orcs and Genasi and aarakocra (try spelling that one, folks ;) I’m sure that won’t come up later) and so on and so forth.
There’s another POP! as GRIFFIN’S window reappears in the upper right corner. He looks slightly ruffled.]
GRIFFIN [straightening his hair and glasses]: Wow, that is going to take some getting used to. Anyway, the boys should be here in a second, and-
[Three more pops as MAGNUS, TAAKO, and MERLE appear in three of the four seats at the table. MERLE lands upside down. He immediately starts struggling to right himself]
MAGNUS [looking at the empty chair and frowning]: Wait, what was the name of the guy we were meeting again? Gumdrop?
TAAKO: Hm… Gurgle? Guava? Gumbo?
MERLE [having finally righted himself]: No! My cousin, uh… um… oh, that’s right, Gundren!
[As MERLE says GUNDREN, another pop as GUNDREN pops into existence in the chair. He looks like if you put MERLE through a grinder, not like we’re gonna run into one of those in an episode or two, right, fellas?
Nasty boy that he is, GUNDREN lets out a grunt and then spits on the floor. People have to clean that, GUNDREN! This is why you- (SPOILERS REDACTED)- anyway.]
GUNDREN: So, like I was saying, boys. You take my wagon from here in Kindaspring down the road to Mandolin-
TAAKO: Oh, that’s what we’re calling it?
MERLE: I thought that was another TV show?
[Up in the corner, GRIFFIN shrugs.]
GUNDREN: Uh… yes? That’s… what it’s called? [GUNDREN looks suspiciously at them. It seems like he’d give the job to someone else in an instant, if literally anyone else would take the job. But magically, he’s stuck with these boys.] But, uh, you get my wagon and my goods to Mandolin, and I’ll let you in on the next job. And that job, boys… [GUNDREN laughs. It sounds like if you threw rocks in a blender.] That’s the kinda job that will be the last job you ever need to take.
MAGNUS [cheerfully]: Well, that sounds murdery!
[There’s a loud POP! and we’re back on the wagon again, all of our boys already in place.]
GRIFFIN [shrugging, smiling]: Guess you’re going to find out! Oh, and boys… let’s roll initiative.
#taz#taz balance#the adventure zone#mcelroy family#mcelboys#charm works#this is basically a glorified overly long shitpost and the level of editing that went into this reflects that#PLEASE HIRE ME MCELROYS
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this time - Performance Art Project
For my performance art project, I wanted to explore the theme of practice, and our interpretation of ability. If you tune into any form of media, such as the news, a show, or even social media, you’re bound to find people of extreme ability in some way. We often idolize these people, and seek to become just like them, at least in how well they can use their craft. Many of us see these absolutely amazing things that these people can do, and of course, we attempt to imitate. But we fail. And many can’t accept that, and decide that they are just not cut out for it. This leads me to what we have forgotten. I feel like a lot of us forget is that this ability, this talent, that so many people have in their pursuits, has been gained not through intuition, or just “being born with it,” but hours of daily struggle and improvement. These people have sought out this ability day in and day out, and have found it. Sure, you could say that some people are more predisposed towards certain abilities, such as those who maybe never needed training wheels, or just started drawing on their own as kids. But that hasn’t stopped the majority of those who actually have passion in their study to pursue what they love, and become great at it. In order to showcase this idea, I chose to record myself skateboarding. When I was younger, I once wanted to become a professional skater. I would watch as many videos as I could of awesome skaters, who seemed to be able to do the impossible without breaking a sweat. But I couldn’t. I always got so frustrated when I couldn’t land a new trick within a day. This actually lead me to have a burn out, and I ended up not skating as much as I could have because of how angry I was. However, what I always forgot was many of these pros spent complete days and weeks just mastering one trick on their board, day in and day out. So, for my project, I set up a space so that I could record myself going back and forth in one area, attempting to learn one trick, the 360 flip, or tre-flip, over and over again. I did this every day for thirty minutes, six days in a row, so that I could show my progress and how much time can really be spent learning a new skill. I named my project ‘this time,’ because that is what I ended up telling myself every time I went to try the trick.
For reference, this is a link to a video of what a 360 flip is supposed to look like:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsgrgDrOFDs
P.S. Sorry this is a bit late, my computer ran into problems exporting, and I had to do a computer reboot.
P.S.S. You may notice that my video is a bit edited. Upon reviewing my original video, where I just sped up my recordings in order to fit the time frame, I realized that you could barely see me doing anything, instead you would only see frames, catching a glimpse of me mid-trick occasionally. Because of this, I edited the video so you can see each trick individually.
vimeo
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Thy Neighbor (Chapter 11)
[Chapter 1][Chapter 2][Chapter 3][Chapter 4][Chapter 5 + 6][Chapter 7 + 8][Chapter 9] [Chapter 10]
Hey, faves!
Warnings: LIGHTWEIGHT SMUTTY SMUTS in this chapter (I don’t know where on Earth my mind was at the day I wrote this but I’m not mad lol)
As always, hit me if you would like to added to the taglist. And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the messages, comments, likes and reads. You all are the bestest.
"What can I help you find, Sir…?" The shopkeeper at the most expensive wine cellar in the city saunters up to Trevante, laboring with every step. "The lucky lady loves Riesling?"
Trevante lets out a slight laugh. Especially since neither him or Ciara got lucky.
Trevante and Ciara slept in their own beds that night after their date. After he asked her to come in, Ciara told him no. She even stuck out her tongue after she said it. Playfully cute but slightly annoying.
He started to think it was all a game. That she was in the business of toying with every man that came her way. There was no way to deny their sexual tension. And no way to deny that he heard her on the other side of his bedroom wall, releasing the boatland of tension she had inside of her. She had a complete disregard for noise too and he couldn't understand why she'd do all of that when the real thing was right next door. Celibacy was all a front.
He wanted to text her that he heard her but let it go. Trevante already played the scenarios inside of his head of how it would be if he and Ciara had sex with each other, the whens and wheres. Crossfit girl and gym manager girl ran too much. He just knew Ciara could take all of it.
After the coldest shower he could take, Alissa, the Crossfit girl, texted him to apologize for storming off the other day. He texted her back to prove it. She sent an attachment in return. It did enough of a job. He quickly forgot about what he didn’t get from Ciara that night. Alissa followed through.
"How did you know I was shopping for a lady?"
"Just a hunch, that's all. You know her favorite?”
“No, Sir. She just likes Riesling, that’s all I know. It’s a gift.”
“I have the best over here…”
Trevante follows the man to the back of the cellar, the smell of the oak slightly overpowering him as he goes. Scott, his boss, and Yahya, his friend, both recommended this place, their go-to when they need to buy something to make up with misses. Despite no setbacks of that sort, Trevante wanted to thank Ciara for helping him land the Proverbs contract. On that she followed through.
“Vinothek. Austria. 1997. Best.” And the most expensive. As Trevantes tries to pop his eyes back into his head, he receives a text from Y’lan. After agreeing to work with Proverbs, Y’lan and Trevante struck up a conversation, talking about football and life. Since moving back to Philadelphia, Y’lan struggled to find friends, wanting to separate his play from work. And wanting to control his surroundings enough that he wouldn’t find himself waist deep in some women. So Trevante invited Y’lan out to his Friday night get togethers at Ngosi with Yahya and Michael.
Trevante, just following up. I sent all of the paperwork over to your email. Also I won’t be able to hang out Friday. Last minute event at Proverbs.”
No worries, man. Just let me know.
No doubt. Thanks, man. Do you have the contact from Protestant Placements?
Yep. I’ll text you her name and contact. Just let me reach out to her first so she knows you’ll be reaching out. Her name is Ciara.
Y’lan drops the phone onto his desk. Of course, God, of course. But maybe it’s another Ciara, he thinks. He avoided her like she was the plague but knew he’d have to see her eventually. Deep down he wanted to see her, no way to deny his heart. But did she want to see him? And would there be a way he didn’t have to deal with her at all. He doesn’t have to use Protestant Placements.
Sounds good. Thanks, man.
It wasn’t good.
Ciara wasn’t doing too good herself. As she sat on her living room floor, flipping through a PowerPoint, she couldn’t stop thinking about Trevante. She hadn’t heard from him all day, which felt weird. Ciara started to think that he felt a way about her turning him down. That it confirmed her thoughts that he just did what he had to do to get in bed with her. But then she felt like she gave herself too much credit. It isn’t that deep, she kept reminding herself. Get out of your head.
Her head kept her thinking about how it would have been better for Trevante to get her off that night and not herself. But she feared that having sex with him would introduce expectations and Ciara was prone to run. She wanted to run… and for Trevante to tell her to stop.
She starts to tug on her cotton shorts, shifting her whole self down to the floor. She couldn’t help it. Thinking about Trevante had her on edge. As her right hand creeps between her thighs, she hears a knock at the door. Fuck.
“Trevante. Hey!”
He could tell that he interrupted something important. As for what, he kept it clean.
“My bad for not texting you…”
“No, it’s okay. Come in…”
Ciara watches him walk into her apartment. His suit fit him like a glove. She wanted to rip him out of it.
“I got the placement. Just wanted to say thank you. Here.” Trevante hands Ciara the bottle. She can’t help herself, trying to stop the smile gracing her face. He didn’t have to do all of this, she thought. There are other things he could do, she thought. She brings herself back into reality.
“1997? Well, shit. Thank you, Sir.”
“The least I could do, you know.”
I know.
“You want to pop this thing open?” Ciara says as she walks into her kitchen, Trevante watching her in the most reserved yet intense way.
“I would love to but I have to get to the gym.”
Ciara felt dismissed. Understanding but still hurt. “But I spoke to my connection at Proverbs and they’re super interested in working with your organization for staff.”
“Oh? Yeah, cool. Give them my contact info.” Ciara eyes shift from gratitude to desolation. She didn’t want Tre to leave. But in her mind, he used her for what she had, nothing more or less.
“Cool. I think he said that they have an event this Friday.”
“Nice. I’ll check them out. Thanks.”
Ciara starts to shift Trevante’s body toward the door which felt awkward to him. He felt like she wanted him to leave, like there was no need for him anymore. Even in that space, he felt like she was letting go. He hated it.
“Cool, cool. Uh, I’ll get going but what about dinner when I get back from the gym. My place. Bring your bottle if you don’t dust it first.”
“First of all…” Ciara slightly laughing through the glee finally coursing through her veins “...I got some restraint.”
“You do. I learned.” Ciara’s head shoots back, slightly bewildered. She knew a shot when it hit her. Trevante has a smart-ass mouth and she’s likes it.
“Bye, Trevante. I’ll see you later.”
Trevante walks out of her apartment and Ciara walks straight into her bedroom. She bought some new batteries for a reason.
taglist: @blackpinup22 @voyagetoadinas9
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Hardest Skateboarding Tricks
There is a question that gets thrown a lot in Skateboarding World—"What is the world’s hardest skateboard trick?“ Can that question ever really be answered? Maybe not, because it is not something that easy to put a finger on, since one skateboarder’s opinion may differ from the other. What one skater may consider being a very difficult trick, even the most difficult of all, maybe not so difficult to the others. But as a skateboarding blogger, I do get this question time and time again, so I will attempt to solve this puzzle once and for all.
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We could possibly throw the kick flip into the hat of discussion. Tony Hawk,one of the greatest Pro-Skateboarder in the world, has said that the kick flip was one of the hardest tricks ever to learn, and that even he still has problems with it. Sure, there are more advanced and difficult tricks in this field. For many, the kick flip is a particular struggle, and once it is learned, learning more advanced tricks seems easier and the learning curve improves. But on the other hand, like we already said, there are harder tricks out there. In fact, even the heel flip, the kick flip’s twin brother, is said by most to be a harder version. So moving on…
How about the tre-flip? It is two tricks in one, basically a pop shuvit and a kick flip together, and it is thought by many to be one of the hardest flatland skateboard tricks. Alas, just like the age old question about how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.
We could bring up the impossible. I mean, the name itself says it all:impossible. It just makes it sound so, well, impossible. Legend has it that the trick’s inventor, Rodney Mullen, had thought it up, and before he had actually landed yet he was explaining that to friends and they stated that it would in fact be, “impossible”.
But what about vertical/transition tricks? It would be unfair to leave vert (vertical) tricks out of the argument. There are those that would say that maybe vert is more difficult than street (although there are those that will argue the opposite as well). The McTwist was once thought to be quite difficult. In September 2010 Bob Burnquist landed the world’s first ever 900 on a mega ramp. Does that mean that at the time of this writing, that the 900 would be the world’s hardest skateboarding trick?
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Sunny-Side Up (1)
hm, i’ve never posted any fics before haha
i have other parts planned that i’ll probably post...eventually
feedback/comments/reblogs/likes all incredibly appreciated
Angus Mcdonald was 11 years, 3 months, and 6 days old. He’d calculate down to the very second, but he had other matters to attend to, and just didn’t have the time. He had things to check, crimes to solve, and clues to crack. In his short, short human life, he’d dealt with a lot more than an average 11 year old should, and some days he felt more like an adult than a child. Still, Angus Mcdonald was a kid, and kids will be kids no matter what.
The Bureau of Balance moonbase was an incredible feat of science, and Angus could respect that, but it could get awfully boring living on a fake moon day in and day out when everyone else got to touch back down planetside at least once in awhile. And the Bureau definitely hadn’t been built with any children in mind, even a child as reserved as him, so there wasn’t much around to keep him occupied. So today he decided to do some investigating, or as others liked to call it, snooping. An even more correct term would be “eavesdropping,” and hoping someone had a mystery on their hands that needed solving.
Sure enough, a mystery showed itself in the form of the Bureau’s sole reclaimers, the uh, Tres something Boys. Perhaps eavesdropping hadn’t been the proper term, since the three (actually, only Magnus) invited him to sit with them in the cafeteria, but they had been ignoring him and speaking huddled up ever since Angus sat down. Their attempts at secrecy were admirable, but their idea of hushed conversation was speaking at room volume while pretending to whisper.
“It's an object just….made of zone of truthing,” Merle said, placing a hand against his mouth as if he still wasn’t just talking as loud as ever, “That’s like...my whole deal, ya know? We gotta find it!”
Taako leaned back in his chair, dropping the pretense of pretending to talk quietly, and stared dismissively at the ceiling, “Sounds like waaay too much effort for Taako. Probably just a bust anyways- count- uh, count cha’boy super out.”
“But Taako,” Magnus cut in, “If it’s lame, we can just lie and make up a story about it and pawn it off for some cash. You’re like, crazy good at that! ...aaand we might need your super cool magic stuff?”
Taako paused for only a moment before leaning back into the huddle, “Okay, flattery's getting you everywhere” he whispered, “So when we going?”
“Um, Sirs?” Angus chimed in for the first time since he had sat down. He immediately had three pairs of eyes on him, all looking like they had entirely forgotten he was there, “Do you..do you even know where this thing is? Or what it's actually called? You’re going to need some leads if you’re going to find it.”
“Thanks Pumpkin, but the grownups are talking right now so-”
“No, no, Ango’s got a point. Do you even know what it’s called, Merle?”
“Uh,” Merle scratched at his beard, his brow furrowing in thought, “The..er..Fab Egg? The Fad Ed? The uhh...”
Magnus rolled his eyes, “Okay cool, so we have no idea what or where this thing is. Taako’s right, too much work.”
Angus’s eyes lit up and he bolted up in his seat, “I can help! I can ask around and see if anyone’s heard of anything like it! I can even look through Leon’s book and see if there’s any magical items similar to it listed to get some clues and-”
“No fuckin’ way, ki-”
“Great, Angus! Can you go do that for us? We’ll start lookin’ too, meetcha back in a hour, ‘kay?” Taako gave the young detective a wink and Angus beamed, leaping from his seat and practically sprinting out of the cafeteria.
Merle huffed and crossed his arms, giving the elf a pointed look, “Why’d you let the squirt help out? We can figure it out.”
Taako smirked and rested his feet on the table, reclining back in his chair, “Less work this way, Gramps. Now all we gotta do is chill for an hour and Agnes will have all the answers.”
The dwarf still wasn’t convinced, but relaxed further into his seat, “Ya really think he’ll figure it out?”
Taako gazed at the door Angus had just ran through, suppressing his grin that threatened to show, “Yeah, he’s got this.”
Okay, Angus, you’ve got this! Angus had stopped running after leaving the cafeteria, but his pace was still brisk with the excitement of having a mystery on his hands. He began to think of all the possible people who could know about a magical object. There was Leon, obviously, and he was for sure visiting him, but who else if that turned out to be a dead end? Killian and Carey have seen their share of magical objects, but Angus doubted they’d have much knowledge of them or their whereabouts. The same went for Avi or Johann, and Davenport...well, Davenport wasn’t much of a conversationalist. He continued his trek down the hallway while pondering his options, head down and fingers on his chin in deep thought. The Voidfish could know something, but as far as he knew there was no way of communicating with it. Maybe he could come up with a system where it could hum once for yes or twice for no, or motion with its tentacles? No, no, that wouldn’t work…Completely absorbed into his thoughts, Angus ran right into something solid and flew backwards, landing on the ground with an ‘oof.’
“Oh, Angus! I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you alright?” Madam Director was standing over him, her hand outstretched for him to take.
Angus stared up at her with wide eyes, “Madam Director,” he grinned and took her offered hand, “Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Got any fours?”
“Nah, go fish. Merle, ya got any eights?”
“Mmf, yeah yeah. Taako do y-”
Heaving a dramatic sigh, Taako slammed his cards down on the table, “Okay, this chill sesh is boring as hell, my dudes! Won’t- Can’t stand another minute of this, I will die for reals.” The elf stood, crossing his arms over his chest, “Are we seriously gonna let boy detective do all the dirty work while we just play old lady games?”
Magnus stood as well, pointing accusingly, “You’re the one who came up with that! You’re the one who suggested we play cards!”
“Yeah whatever,” Taako waved his hand dismissively, “Had a change of heart or something, totally wanna track down the Fat Eggplant or whatever it is. Let’s go do that before I kill over.”
Merle hopped off his chair and strode over to Taako, “The kid did say there might be somethin’ useful in Leon’s book. Maybe we can go check in with him?”
“Yeah, I do that.” Magnus replied, already heading towards the door. The remainder followed suit, and together the trio made the familiar trek across the quad to Leon the Artificer’s office.
Leon threw out a warm greeting as he heard the door to his office open, but his cheerful demeanor was struck down instantly when he looked up from his book and saw who his guests were, “Oh, goddamnit.” He closed the book and paced around his desk, “You three haven’t been sent on any missions,” He stalked over to stand in front of the trio, “You have no tokens, I have no patience, now please get the hell out.” He glared up at the three of them, eyes narrowed almost challengingly.
“Hey it’s okay man, we’re not here to mess with you-”
“Much.”
“-We just need to look at your book real fast.” Magnus finished, elbowing Taako in the side. Taako elbowed him back forcefully, and the two broke out in a seconds long elbowing match. Merle attempted to cut in and end the spat, but instead got himself dragged into it as well.
Leon made no attempt to hide his exasperated sigh, drawing the trio’s attention back to him and promptly ending their duel, and hesitantly stuck out an arm to gesture towards his book, “Just make it quick, okay? No funny business. I don’t even care what you need it for, I don’t want to know.”
“We’re looking for a truth orb or something,” Magnus replied helpfully.
“Truth egg,” Merle corrected.
“I just said- wait a what?” Leon’s interest was visibly peaked. He returned to his book before the other three had a chance to look at it themselves and began flipping through it’s many pages, “There aren’t many magical truth items out there..hm..ah-ha!” He slapped his small hand down on the page opened before him, “Here it is!”
“Well,” Merle pressed, “What is it?”
“The Fiberge?” Angus was sat across from the Director in her office. The desk between them was hand-carved and looked worn and old compared to everything else in the room, save for the madam herself. Like the desk, the Director looked worn with age, and the wrinkles on her forehead creased when she smiled in response.
“Yes, I believe that’s what it is, given the, erm, vague description.” She shifted a few files she had set in front of her and read, “The Fiberge is a collectible faberge egg that’s been enchanted with a zone of truth spell, or at least something of similar nature. Completely unsurprising that word of it would catch Merle’s, uh, scattered attention.” Angus noticed her focus shift for a moment, her gaze distant and a soft smile on her lips, before turning back to Angus, “We found it years ago on a bad relic lead. It seemed harmless enough so we decided to give it to Leon for the Fantasy Gashapon. I haven’t any idea if it’s still there or not, though.” She returned the papers back to their proper file and slid them into one of the desk’s drawers, “Sorry, I wish I could be of more help.”
“No, no, Ma’am, you’ve helped a lot!” Angus grinned up at the woman with a look of both an excited child and a detective with a lead, “Now I’ve got a name to go off of, and a susp-- person of interest! This has all been very valuable information for my investigation!”
The Director chuckled at Angus’s enthusiasm, “I’m glad I could be of assistance. Just take it easy, alright? Those three goofs can be a handful to deal with when they set their minds on something.” If Angus noticed yet another change in demeanor, which he absolutely did, he didn’t draw any attention to it. Everyone up on the quad seemed to be fond of the trio of reclaimers at least somewhat, but the Director’s fondness towards them was something else entirely. Angus noticed it constantly; when they visited her office, when they cracked jokes at her or others’ expense, and especially when they returned home from their missions. Her eyes would always light up and the creases of a smile would appear by her mouth, all undetectable by untrained eyes. But Angus didn’t mention it. It was a mystery for another day.
“Oh, I know how they can get, Madam Director. I did spend quite a lot of time with them on a train! I’ll be sure they don’t almost get themselves killed again, don’t you worry!” Angus slid out of his chair and extended a hand over the desk, “Thanks so much for your help! I’m going to go talk with Leon right now.”
The Director took Angus’s extended hand and shook it with a grin, “You’re welcome, Angus. Don’t hesitate to come see me again if anything comes up. And don’t let the boys pick on you!” She called after him as he practically sprinted out of her office. Shaking her head, Lucretia stood and faced the portrait hanging on her wall, longing for her own days of adventure.
Well, they had some idea of where to find The Fiberge, and a pretty good one too. Leon had told them all about it, and with some light threats revealed that the late Liam Kessler had won it a couple years ago. “We’re pretty good at this detective shit, huh?” Merle mused as they made their way through the quad to return to their quarters, “Didn’t even need the squirt.”
“Oh shit,” Taako replied, “I uh, forgot all about him, actually.”
“Do we still want to...go meet up with him? See if he found anything out too?” Magnus suggested.
“Nah, we got this all figured out. Just gotta go do some grave robbing and we got our egg,” Taako shrugged, “‘Less you jokesters are cowards.”
Magnus made a face and stopped walking, “Aren’t there like, mystical consequences over disturbing the dead? Like curses or hauntings?”
“Not worried about that.” Taako responded plainly, continuing ahead. They were well across campus when they heard a tiny voice calling out for them from behind. “Ah fuck.”
“Sirs, sirs! I know what it is!” Angus jogged up to the three, all besides Magnus hurriedly walking away from him, “I ran into the Director in the hall and she had a bunch of files and information about miscellaneous magical items and she told me that it was called the-”
“The Fiberge,” Taako cut in, “Yeah, Agnes, we figured that one out already, catch up.”
“Oh. That’s um, very pro-active of you guys, I’m proud! Well, I’m on my way to Leon’s right now to-”
“No need, kiddo, we already got that covered!” Magnus beamed and pat Angus on the back. The force sent the detective stumbling forward before righting himself, “He told us that Liam Kessler had it.”
“O-oh…��� Angus visibly deflated. He had been so excited to help them out with their mystery, but it seemed like they hadn’t needed him after all. He willed his pouting expression down and cleared his throat, “Well, okay, I’ll just, leave you to it then.”
Taako let out a long, dramatic sigh and looked up towards the heavens. Gods forsake his totally generous and bleeding heart, “We might still need your help, pumpkin. We- we have no idea what they did with Kessler’s shit after he bit it. We were, uh, just gonna go check his grave out.”
Angus brightened, “That’s very ill-advised, sir! Grave robbing is super punishable by law, not to mention highly unethical!” Taako rolled his eyes and ruffled the boy’s hair, “I can look into what they did with his estate. Um, if you...if you want me to.”
Merle grumbled to himself for a moment before speaking up, “Okay, kid. Where do you want us to start?”
#the adventure zone#taz#taz fic#the adventure zone fic#angus mcdonald#taako#magnus burnsides#merle highchurch#an angst free angus & THB centric fic FT. a lot of other characters#wiz writes
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There was just one spot remaining in the Ultimate X match to crown the very first MPW Stardust champion, after Tony Deppen had been victorious earlier in the evening. There was a lot of history between these three men. Shelley and Sabin obviously were long time tag team partners, forming one of the most legendary duos in Professional Wrestling history, and Tre Lamar had been mentored extensively by Alex Shelley. These three men were all deeply familiar with each other, which added an interesting dynamic to this match.
The three men circled one another, each reaching out a hand towards one another, engaging in a three way test of strength, each man jockeying for position, before both Shelley and Sabin kick Tre in the gut, surprising him, and throwing Tre into the ropes, before linking arms for a double clothesline, which Tre manages to duck underneath, hit the ropes again, and duck underneath their respective clotheslines once more, stops, and nails both men with a Pele Kick! Shelley is stunned, and Sabin is knocked right out of the ring! Shelley regains himself, and he and Tre lock up, with Alex Shelley gaining a quick advantage over the younger man, picking his arm and trapping it in an arm bar, before quickly transitioning that armbar over into a hammerlock. Tre reached around and tried to trap Shelley in a headlock, but Alex wrenched the arm, preventing anything of the sort from happening. When that angle didn’t work, Tre went about twisting out of the hammerlock, and trapping Shelley with a hammerlock of his own, but it didn’t last long before Shelley twisted out of that hold, wrung Tre’s arm, and trapped him in a wrist lock. Tre dropped down to a knee as Shelley applied pressure, but Tre was quickly back up to his feet, before executing a forward roll, followed by a cartwheel, smacking Shelley’s wrist to release the wrist lock, tossing Shelley with an arm drag, before locking in an arm bar! Tre Lamar matching Alex Shelley hold for hold here in the early going!
Tre tried to keep Shelley down with a knee placed on Shelley’s head, using it to create more torque on the arm, but Shelley managed to get out from under Tre, and back to his feet. Shelley sent Tre off the ropes and dropped down, but Tre rolled over Shelley, getting back up, before catching Shelley with another arm drag, and then right back into the arm bar! Shelley managed to get back up, tossing Tre with an arm drag of his own, but Tre rolled through, continuing the momentum and tossing Shelley with an armdrag back into the armbar!
Chris Sabin rolls into the ring and breaks up the hold, as Shelley rolls out of the ring. Sabin picks Tre up, and twists him around with the arm drag, before locking in an arm bar of his own. Sabin trapped Tre in an armbar, cranking on the arm and causing a great deal of torque on both the shoulder and the elbow of Tre. Sabin continued to wrench the arm, but Tre managed to reach up with his leg and catch Sabin with a kick, which allowed Tre to then pick Sabin’s arm and trap him in a fujiwara armbar for a second, before Sabin managed to roll through and trap Tre with a heel hold! Sabin twisted Tre’s ankle, before flipping him over and tying up his legs. Sabin tried to lock in some sort of modified STF, but Tre wasn’t having any of it, so instead Sabin released his legs and picked an arm, trying to lock in some sort of armbar, or maybe somehow slip into the Border City Stretch, but Tre escaped that too, catching Sabin with a boot before getting back to his feet. Sabin shook the kick off and got back to his feet as well, charging Tre and taking him down with a shoulder tackle, but Tre used the momentum and rolled backwards and up to his feet, before picking Sabin’s legs and taking him down! Tre tried to lock in a figure four, but Sabin kicked him off and slid into a drop down position as Tre hit the ropes, Tre leaping over Sabin as he came back, and as Chris Sabin got up, rolled over his back and landed on his feet. Tre shoved Sabin into the ropes, and on the rebound caught Sabin with a dropkick right to the face, taking him down! Sabin rolls out of the ring, as Tre hits the ropes, building momentum before jumping over the top rope, and crashing down onto Sabin on the outside with a HUGE Tope Con Hilo! Tre sticks the landing, but as he does, Shelley comes by and rocks him with a kick to the face! Shelley rolls Tre back into the ring.
Shelley grabbed Tre again and pressed a forearm to his throat in some version of a choke in the corner, the ref counting for Shelley to break the hold. He did so at three, once again, raising his arms and proclaiming his innocence. However, that may have been a fakeout, as he launched for a chop to Tre’s chest, but Tre ducked and moved out of the corner, pushing Shelley into the corner, and catching Shelley with a chop of his own! The first one didn’t seem to phase Shelley much, but Tre followed it up with a second, and then a third chop, each one the pain in Shelley’s face becoming more and more evident. Tre tried to fire away with a fourth, but Shelley once again grabbed a handful of Tre’s hair and forced him into the corner, before beginning to fire away with rapid fire machine gun chops to Tre! Each one as loud as a gunshot throughout the venue, and punctuated by one final, brutal chop that dropped Tre to his knees! Tre clutched his chest, and began to crawl away from Shelley, trying to create a little separation. Shelley responded by catching Tre with a boot to the face.
Tre tried to use the ropes to pull himself up,and Shelley ran off the ropes to try and nail him with something, but Tre managed to catch Shelley with a drop toehold, sending Shelley down into the ropes, before kicking the rope up into Shelley’s throat, kicking Shelley in the head, and pulling on the rope and sending Shelley rolling backwards, Tre rolling back with him. Shelley rolled up to his knees, and Tre sprang up, before nailing Shelley with a big beautiful dropkick right to the back of the head! Shelley held the back of his head, rolling out of the ring to recover! Tre quickly got back to his feet and measured, before diving through the ropes, crashing into Alex Shelley with a tope suicida, both men crashing into the guardrail! Tre rolled back into the ring and looked to be going for another one, but Shelley quickly bailed out of the way to another side of the ring, but Tre managed to stop, slide, change direction, and dive out of that side of the ring! Tre catches Shelley with ANOTHER suicide dive! Tre takes a moment to flex before tossing Shelley back into the ring, and climbing up onto the apron himself. Shelley tried to charge Tre, to stop whatever he had in mind, but Tre leaped up and caught Shelley with a jumping enziguri, knocking Shelley back into the center of the ring! Tre then leaped up to the top rope, and went for a moonsault, but crashed down to the mat as there was nobody home! Shelley turned to go attack Tre, but was caught from behind with a surprise roll up from Sabin!
1…2.. Kickout!
Shelley kicks out, but Sabin rolls up to his feet first, and blasted Shelley with a superkick to the side of the head! Shelley goes down, and Sabin rolls him out of the ring, before going back after Tre, lifting him up, and spiking him down with a Brainbuster! Sabin covers Tre!
1….2… Kickout!
Tre out again. Sabin sighes to himself, and tries to regain some of his composure and stamina, as this match had been fast paced and hard hitting from the get-go. Sabin gets back to his feet and tries to lift Tre up for the Cradle Shock, but Tre manages to elbow Sabin a few times in the head, getting out of it. Tre is back to his feet, and grabs Sabin by the hand, this time using him as a base as he once again runs up the ropes, doing a few impressive tightrope style jumps and feet switches, before leaping off, throwing Sabin across the ring with a Lucha Style armdrag. Tre charges Sabin again once Sabin gets back to his feet, but Sabin sidesteps Tre and sends the luchador into the ropes, but Tre catches himself, swings himself back in a reverse tiger feint, and catches Sabin with a superkick! Sabin’s head snaps back with the impact, and he drops to the mat, eyes rolling in the back of his head. Tre turned around just in time to see Alex Shelley get back into the ring, and tried to charge Shelley to get ahead of him, but Shelley tried to catch Tre with a Kitchen Sink. However, Tre had it scouted, and used it to trap Shelley into a quick rollup!
1….2… Kickout!
Shelley kicked out, and Tre charged back at him again, but Shelley picked the ankle, gaining control of the leg, before twisting Tre’s leg with a dragon screw, and transitioning that into a single leg boston crab! Shelley sat all the way back on hold, wrenching it in, as Tre cried out in agony and tried to make it to the ropes! Tre was almost there, but as he tried to grab the ropes, Shelley transitioned from the Single Leg Crab into an STF, locking in the hold around Tre’s head while trapping the leg! Tre kept fighting though, and eventually, even with Alex Shelley’s weight on his back, Tre managed to drag himself to the ropes to force the break! It took until 4, but Shelley eventually relented to the ref’s count, and released the hold. Tre had to take a couple of moments to compose himself, the entire time, Shelley standing over him, stalking him like how a lion stalks its next meal. Tre got up, only to get caught with a forearm right to the low of the back from Shelley. Shelley picked Tre back up and pushed Tre into the ropes, and when Tre stumbled backwards, caught him with another forearm to the back. Shelley’s attack here had transitioned to now going after Tre Lamar’s lower back, which would make it hard to execute much of Tre’s high flying offense. Shelley tried to catch Tre with another forearm, but a back elbow from Tre managed to get Shelley off of him. Tre turned around and began blasting Shelley with forearm after forearm to the jaw, trying to wear down Shelley driving Shelley to his knees before letting out a roar of frustration and passion!
However, taking his eyes off Shelley proved to be a mistake, as Shelley caught Tre with a straight right hand to the jaw, which nearly knocked Tre out! Tre fell right down to his knees, clearly dazed from that last strike. Shelley grabbed Tre and snapmared him to the other side of the ring, before climbing out of the ring onto the apron. Shelley climbed up to the top rope, and tried to go for another diving Axe Handle, but this time Tre leaped up and caught Shelley with a dropkick on the way down! Shelley clutched at his ribs as he hit the mat, and got back to his feet, having the air knocked right out of him. Tre ran off the ropes and caught Shelley with a running forearm, knocking him down, before running off the ropes again, this time catching Shelley with a pump kick! Shelley got back up again, but this time Tre kicked Shelley’s leg out from under him, dropping Shelley to his knees, before catching Shelley with a superkick right to the jaw! Shelley rolled out of the ring, and Tre got up, looking for a suicide dive, but Shelley hopped up onto the arpon to block. Tre instead slid through Shelley’s legs to the floor on the outside, before pulling Shelley’s feet out from under him, sending Shelley face first down onto the apron! Shelley hit his face, and Tre slid back into the ring, ran the ropes, before diving over the top rope and taking out Alex Shelley with a gorgeous Tope Con Hilo, and he even stuck the landing on the way down! Tre grabbed Shelley again, tossed him back into the ring, before getting up onto the apron, waiting for Shelley to get up, before using the ropes as a springboard, absolutely crushing Shelley with a Springboard Clothesline! Tre hooked both legs for the cover!
1….2…. Broken up!
Sabin breaks up the pin, keeping the match alive for the time being! Sabin drags Tre up, and tries to send him off the ropes, but Tre ducks the Chris Sabin clothesline, and slips behind him, catching Sabin with a knee to the jaw when he turns around. Sabin stumbles into the corner, and Tre charges him, but Sabin sends Tre up and over the rope. Tre lands on the arpon and tries to catch Sabin with a forearm, but Sabin blocks it, and catches Tre with an Enziguri, knocking him off the apron. Sabin then tries to go back over to his old tag partner, Alex Shelley, and lift him up for the Cradle Shock, but once he tries to spin Shelley out, Shelley lands on his feet, hooks Sabin’s head, and plants Chris Sabin with Shell Shock! Shelley hooks the leg!
1….2….3!
Alex Shelley claims the last spot in Ultimate X!
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Hardest Skateboarding Tricks
There is a question that gets thrown a lot in Skateboarding World—"What is the world’s hardest skateboard trick?“ Can that question ever really be answered? Maybe not, because it is not something that easy to put a finger on, since one skateboarder’s opinion may differ from the other. What one skater may consider being a very difficult trick, even the most difficult of all, maybe not so difficult to the others. But as a skateboarding blogger, I do get this question time and time again, so I will attempt to solve this puzzle once and for all.
We could possibly throw the kick flip into the hat of discussion. Tony Hawk,one of the greatest Pro-Skateboarder in the world, has said that the kick flip was one of the hardest tricks ever to learn, and that even he still has problems with it. Sure, there are more advanced and difficult tricks in this field. For many, the kick flip is a particular struggle, and once it is learned, learning more advanced tricks seems easier and the learning curve improves. But on the other hand, like we already said, there are harder tricks out there. In fact, even the heel flip, the kick flip’s twin brother, is said by most to be a harder version. So moving on…
How about the tre-flip? It is two tricks in one, basically a pop shuvit and a kick flip together, and it is thought by many to be one of the hardest flatland skateboard tricks. Alas, just like the age old question about how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.
We could bring up the impossible. I mean, the name itself says it all:impossible. It just makes it sound so, well, impossible. Legend has it that the trick’s inventor, Rodney Mullen, had thought it up, and before he had actually landed yet he was explaining that to friends and they stated that it would in fact be, “impossible”.
But what about vertical/transition tricks? It would be unfair to leave vert (vertical) tricks out of the argument. There are those that would say that maybe vert is more difficult than street (although there are those that will argue the opposite as well). The McTwist was once thought to be quite difficult. In September 2010 Bob Burnquist landed the world’s first ever 900 on a mega ramp. Does that mean that at the time of this writing, that the 900 would be the world’s hardest skateboarding trick?
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Hardest Skateboarding Tricks
There is a question that gets thrown a lot in Skateboarding World—"What is the world’s hardest skateboard trick?“ Can that question ever really be answered? Maybe not, because it is not something that easy to put a finger on, since one skateboarder’s opinion may differ from the other. What one skater may consider being a very difficult trick, even the most difficult of all, maybe not so difficult to the others. But as a skateboarding blogger, I do get this question time and time again, so I will attempt to solve this puzzle once and for all.
We could possibly throw the kick flip into the hat of discussion. Tony Hawk,one of the greatest Pro-Skateboarder in the world, has said that the kick flip was one of the hardest tricks ever to learn, and that even he still has problems with it. Sure, there are more advanced and difficult tricks in this field. For many, the kick flip is a particular struggle, and once it is learned, learning more advanced tricks seems easier and the learning curve improves. But on the other hand, like we already said, there are harder tricks out there. In fact, even the heel flip, the kick flip’s twin brother, is said by most to be a harder version. So moving on…
How about the tre-flip? It is two tricks in one, basically a pop shuvit and a kick flip together, and it is thought by many to be one of the hardest flatland skateboard tricks. Alas, just like the age old question about how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.
We could bring up the impossible. I mean, the name itself says it all:impossible. It just makes it sound so, well, impossible. Legend has it that the trick’s inventor, Rodney Mullen, had thought it up, and before he had actually landed yet he was explaining that to friends and they stated that it would in fact be, “impossible”.
But what about vertical/transition tricks? It would be unfair to leave vert (vertical) tricks out of the argument. There are those that would say that maybe vert is more difficult than street (although there are those that will argue the opposite as well). The McTwist was once thought to be quite difficult. In September 2010 Bob Burnquist landed the world’s first ever 900 on a mega ramp. Does that mean that at the time of this writing, that the 900 would be the world’s hardest skateboarding trick?
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There is always one stupid mistake that changes everything.
Willa
Willa stood before the glass sliding door that led out to Amy’s back porch. Her request repeating in her head as she pondered if she should do it or not. Run a whole fucking lot of weed from there to San Francisco. Of course she had already agreed to do it. Amy had done so much for her over the past few months. She had given her a place to live, a job with a decent income, and a shoulder to cry on when shit got a little too rough to handle. It’s not like Willa had ever lived much of a straight and narrow life, more like a crooked and screwy life that twisted and turned landing her head first into some heavy shit. She didn’t notice that she had even begun to indulge in her nervous habit of rubbing the scar on the inside of her left elbow. Right where her favorite vein could easily be penetrated. Seven years clean and she still had her subconscious little urges.
“Billie, the car is packed up and ready to go.” Amy’s sweet voice, sweet still even with the slight raspy quality it held, interrupted her thoughts and Willa looked up at Amy’s reflection in the glass, the woman was still so beautiful even if some hack of a pimp considered her too old to turn tricks merely 5 years ago. Amy had been freshly 40 at that point and didn’t even look a day over 25. Willa mustered up a smile that she hoped was convincing enough to pass Amy’s ever observant eye. Turning away from the glass Amy pulled Willa into a hug. “I can’t thank you enough for this, Billie. I’d never have asked if Conrad wasn’t sick. I promise it’ll be smooth sailing, all you have to do is drive, Larry will take care of everything else.”
Willa glanced at the man in question who stood by the door. He was the opposite of Willa in so many ways more than just their genders. For starters he was nearly 6’4 with perpetually tanned skin decorated in tattoos, his hair was black and short against his scalp. He gave Willa a sly smirk when he saw her looking at him. The kind that made her skin crawl, she was used to having to play nice with those types of men, so she kept right on smiling. At least while Amy was able to see her face, but the moment Amy looked away, Willa scowled at the man with narrowed eyes. Larry laughed at that and the laughter only made the knot in Willa’s stomach tighten. Whatever bad thing was looming on the horizon was certainly getting closer.
The drive from LA to SF had actually been rather smooth, Willa’s anxiety had settled and the classic rock station playing on the radio was Hells Bells by AC/DC filled the car. Larry had tried to switch the station once and received a slap on the hand from Willa. “Driver picks the music. Shotgun shuts his cakehole.” Wil quipped quoting one of her all time favorite Dean Winchester lines. Larry hadn’t done or said much since then. It was nearing midnight when Willa pulled into the parking lot of the dispensary, except this didn’t look like one she had ever seen before. The confusion was evident on her face as she looked from the seemingly vacant shop to Larry. He had that creepy fucking look on his face again. Willa’s anxiety was at an all time high again.
“Uh, I think we’re at the wrong place.” She said lifting a hand to point to the abandoned building in front of them, Larry shook his head. “Nope. Right place. You sit tight and ‘Shut your cakehole’ and everything will be smooth sailing.” Three other men filtered out of the back doors of the building as Larry reached for the ignition, cutting the engine and taking the keys before he got out of the passenger seat. One of the men, big burly and bald, came and knocked on the driver’s window motioning for Wil to roll it down. With a single shaking hand she lifted it and pressed the button to lower the window. The man leaned into the window the same bile rising smile on his face that Larry had displayed.
“This is what’s gonna happen, Princess Ariel. You’re gonna sit tight. We’re going to unload the merchandise and then my Son here is going to take the car back to Miss Morgan and put those acting skills to the test.” Willa fumbled over her words as the older version of Larry neglected to tell her what her part in all this would be. “What happens to me?” She asked, finally managing to speak, the words shaky. The man laughed and stood again. “You’ve got one hell of a cash value, Princess. You’ll stay with us. Now pop the trunk and don’t try any funny shit.” Willa rolled the window back up as the man walked away, thinking quickly she did as she had been asked and then as quickly as she could without rousing suspicion she wiggled her phone out of her pocket.
She made a show of acting like she had dropped something, leaning down to search for the lost item while pulling up Tre’s number. When the familiar voice answered she spoke in a hurried hushed tone. “Please tell me you’re near 1346 Redwood road, I know you were in San Francisco last time we talked and -” Willa’s sudden scream followed by hysterical tears and pleading cut off the phone call before she could finish speaking.
Rush
When the phone call abruptly cut off, Rush rose from the grey suede couch he had been sitting on. Reyna was sprawled out lazily on the lounging portion of the L-shaped couch, flipping through the channels on the tv, occasionally her gaze flicking to the bathroom door where the shower could be heard running. Looking down at her, Rush cleared his throat in order to get his sister’s attention. “Where the fuck are we?” He asked her, only to receive a quizzical look in return. “Uh, that stupid little pendeja’s house waiting for her boyfriend to get here so we can kill him? Are you fucking high?”
Annoyed, Rush palmed his face, moving his finger to push back through his slick black locks. “No, I mean the fucking address, you cunt.” Reyna raised her hands in mock surrender rolling her eyes, now noticing the storm brewing behind his icy eyes. Pulling the letter they had taken from Harlow to her father out of her pocket, Reyna rattled off the return address and Rush typed it furiously into his phone, following by entering the address Willa had mentioned on the phone, having committed it to memory instantly. “I’ll be back in an hour, tops. Leave the girl alone, Robbie, I’m serious. Just sit here and wait for Jackson.”
With that, the man took the stairs down from the loft two at a time, jumping into his beloved red-interior classic Camaro and took off, following the directions his phone called out to him. Breaking just about every vehicular law along the way, Rush made it to the location of the drop gone wrong in record time. Lucky for him, Willa was hardly a damsel in distress, in the ten minutes it had taken him to get across the SOMA district and her rescue, she had put up enough of a fight that two of the three men were still struggling to restrain her as the third man unloaded the trunk.
Was that just weed? Rush’s irritation level was through the roof at this point, absolutely nothing was going according to plan that day, a huge pet peeve of his. Rolling up hot, everyone’s attention turned to the white vehicle. Good. This made it easy. When he stepped out of the driver’s side door he wasted no time drawing his piece from the back waistband of his jeans. Aiming at the kneecap of the man who was trying to jack the product, Rush shot and he was down in a scream of agony. The sudden gunplay had the two men holding Willa running like the little bitches they proved to be. This elicited a laugh from the man as he watched their retreating forms. Usually, he wouldn’t let something like that fly, preying on an innocent young girl, but he still had bigger fish to fry that night.
Winking at Willa, who was now free and standing still, maybe in shock, Rush started towards the other vehicle. Kicking the bleeding man while he was down, he began to pick up all the weed and bring it over to his own trunk, calling to his old friend over his shoulder. “Let’s roll, Little Red, I’ve got shit to do.” Slamming the trunk shut he looked back to his squirming victim. “Fuck with my people again and the next bullet goes between the eyes.” Willa was now making her way shakily across the parking lot and rounded the front of the car, sliding into the front seat while Rush returned to the driver’s side. “That’s twice I’ve saved your ass now.” He reminded her before peeling out of the lot.
On the short ride back to the gallery, Rush probed Willa with questions as to what had happened and she was just wrapping up her story when they entered the gallery. “…and that’s when you showed up, so yeah, I guess thanks for that.” She said as he fair freckled skin flushed pink and she used a curtain of vibrant red locks to shield it from him. Fighting the sudden and foreign urge to tuck the tresses behind her ear, Rush distracted himself by calling upstairs to the loft. “Yo Robbie, bring the girl down here, I brought her a baby sitter!”
Willa arched a curious brow at Rush’s words and he began to explain his own day to her, once again growing irate at the turn of events. The other two women were descending the stairs and once again they were bickering, as they had been all day. “Seriously, do you just ever shut the fuck up?” He heard Reyna ask and the other girl scoffing in offense. Cutting Harlow off before she could retort as they appeared on the main floor of the gallery. “Willa, this is Harlow. We have to ask her man some questions and we’re waiting rather impatiently for him but I need to run a quick errand with mi hermana really quick. Would you mind watching her?”
All at once the three women began squawking at once. “I don’t need a fucking baby sitter!” “You sped off without a fucking word for her? Who has lost sight of the job now, Tre?” “By ask her man some questions do you mean you’re going to kill him?” He had reached his breaking point for the day. Drawing his gun once again, he held it in the air and threatened a warning shot if they all didn’t shut the fuck up. Silence broke across the gallery and he let out a sigh of relief. His solace was short lived at the sound of someone coming through the front door. Rush lifted his gaze along with leveling his gun towards the threshold. A man with a mess of dark hair appeared in the doorway and that was all it took for the exasperated man to pull the trigger, blinded and unthinking due to the overwhelming nature of the day and his burning desire to finally end the chase of Brody Jackson once and for all.
#part 5 of 6?#order is brody then harlow then reyna then tre and now willa#enjoy#tw: violence and butchering omg i meant bickering#butchering too i guess
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A Little City Guide to Santo Domingo
A couple of weeks back I had the privilege to explore a little bit of the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo. It’s one of those cities that has so much history all wrapped up in every aspect of it, it made coming back to the young and only 150 years old, Canada, feel like this country somewhat lacks in richness of culture and history. Santo Domingo is the oldest city founded by Christopher Columbus’ brother Bartholomew Columbus in 1496 making it the first city inhabited by European settlement in the Americas/ New World. How crazy is that? The architecture in the old city where we were staying, called Zona Colonial, definitely displayed it’s true colonial roots.
As I trekked through the Spanish speaking city, thankfully with my Spanish speaking best friend, Isabella, we found some gorgeous little nooks worth putting together for this city guide. I didn’t so much do the museums and touristy bits, instead we had a Dominican friend and our lovely Airbnb host Patricia guide us around with their suggestions!
Places
The Three Eyes National Park (Los Tres Ojos)- This is fairly touristy but well worth it, you get to go down inside the belly of a limestone cave with 3 lakes and experience it in all it’s beauty. The best view of the lake is when you take that $1 boat ride, so make sure to not miss out on that one!
Vardo Home- The main reason why I went to visit DR was actually to see one of my clients' retail store in person. I went to take photos of the branding I worked on for the store, and it was such a ‘pinch me’ moment to be able to see my work in real life, and in full scale from business cards, to shopping bags, to uniforms and store signages. Take a look at the finish branding project here!
Grupo Bonyé- Every Sunday from about 5-10pm a band comes out onto the streets and people gather and dance away, legitimately no shame, young and old alike just moving that hips bachata-ing away. Sadly we missed this as we went too late, but it’s only an excuse for me to visit again. But I might have spared everyone as I’m not a good dancer in the slightest.
Food
Kah Kow Experience- A place where all your Willy Wonka dreams come true, except, minus all that sugar and you get to learn how to make a chocolate bar with just pure cocoa. De-li-cious.
Mamey Libreria Cafe- What I loved most about the architecture in Santo Domingo is you would get these little humble looking store fronts/ restaurants but when you walk into it, each would open up into its own open air courtyard. This Mamey Cafe is a bit of a hidden gem and was absolutely gorgeous! It’s the kind of place where I could of easily spent a day sitting in the courtyard working away.
Adrian Tropical- The first meal I had when I first landed proved to be the best, maybe it was because it was the first time truly experiencing Dominican food, because that mofongo (fried plantain banana mashed mixed with pork rinds) was truly glorious.
Stay
Airbnb- Honestly this is no sponsored post but I way rather travel and stay at @airbnb‘s then at hotels. Hands down, I feel like you get much more of that local experience, by literally staying in a local’s home/ second home. Also it’s like a fraction of the price of a hotel stay. I found this gorgeous Airbnb, decorated and hosted by the wonderful Patricia aka. Pamabela Project and she went above and beyond to host us, with many of the recommendations above suggested by her. It feels like your travelling and meeting friends along the way!
The Culture and The People
I can’t believe I almost forgot to add the best part of travelling, experiencing the people and the culture around you! Dominicans are super friendly, everyone wants to know your name, story, and they’re willing to go above and beyond their ability to take care of you! When I was on the plane I was sat beside two gentlemen, one was in his 20′s the other in his 60′s, and they were by far the chattest and friendliest passengers I’ve ever sat next to, showing me photos of their family and fiancée. They were so warm and lovely. I guess in the Westerner culture, and the Chinese, being overly chatty isn’t seen as a good thing. But I just loved how these men were so wiling to share their lives, places to see, visit and eat with me! Everyone else we encountered were all just as friendly and hospitable.
On the flip side though, there is a big rich and poor gap, and so with that comes a lot of theft and robbery. You can’t walk on the streets just holding out your phone, being careless and flaunting around your goods, as that will only warrant bad attention, worse a robbery. There were so many times I wanted to take out my phone to take phones but I just felt slightly on edge. And I’m not saying this as an overly protective ‘be careful of the scary locals’ kind of foreigner tourist. Genuinely, all the locals we encountered told us to keep our phones away from plain sight, and if anything try not to even have a purse on you, as motorcyclist can easily grab them. I guess you can say we encountered the richer side of the locals, seemingly they were able to fly on planes, eat at more expensive restaurants, host airbnb’s, own their own homes and shops, etc. The craziest thing was that even as a Dominican local they too never felt quite safe in certain areas, to the point where some of them have even experienced being held at gunpoint for the belongs on them. NO joke. When even as a local you fear being robbed, and it’s not just the tourist they take advantage of, that’s kind of a scary! In Toronto or in Hong Kong, I literally never fear being in 'bad' neighbourhoods, the worst you get are maybe the crazy yelling crackheads but they won’t put your life in danger, so it’s really not that bad.
The culture was much more Spanish speaking and Latino influenced then I anticipated. I thought DR would be more like the other Caribbean Island that I’ve been to, the Bahamas, but it wasn’t in the slightest! Pretty much everyone spoke Spanish, you were lucky if you could find a semi-decent English speaker. Made me want to learn how to speak in Spanish that much more. And what I loveddd most was that everyone was so good at dancing, they would just break out into salsa or bachata on the streets as the street artists played. Men and women alike, hips shaking to the left and right! And the food was also much more Spanish as well, lots of plantain, empanadas, tapas etc. Delicious.
And that about wraps it up, I haven’t blogged like this for a while, and it feels so good for my soul to be doing a round up like this, I’ve missed it. Indeed I must travel more so it’ll inspire me again to share my experiences! I mean any excuse to travel, am I right?
x.
Bee
#santo domingo#dominicanrepublic#Dominican#dominican republic#DR#travel#air bnb#airbnb#city guide#travel guide#life
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