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coryosmin · 1 month

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Personal Secretary -

Young President Snow x Secretary Reader

About: President Snow is someone that prides himself on being a loyal husband and amazing President to the country of Panem. However, he does have quite the sweet spot for his secretary.

word count: 2,300

Warnings: NSFW Content, MDNI, cheating (not on you), unprotected sex, p in v sex, praise, quickie, etc.

“Gem of Panem,

Mighty City,

Through the ages you shine anew.”

You stood at your desk with a hand on your heart as the sound of the Capitol’s anthem played over the speakers. It was eight o’clock in the morning, the time the President had arrived at his office. This was a routine that happened each and every morning, to show one’s respect for their country and the mighty city of the Capitol.

“We humbly kneel,

To your ideal,

And pledge our love to you!”

Everyone was facing the flag of Panem, speaking the words to the anthem in unison as it played across the building. A few years back, barely anyone knew the anthem. It was a song made during the dark ages and only recently had it been brought back when Coriolanus Snow came into power. Something about showing pride for one’s home.

“Gem of Panem,

Heart of Justice,

Wisdom Crowns your marble brow.

You give us light,

You reunite,

To you we make our vow.”

You had always felt prideful for your city. Having been born and raised in the Capitol, gone to the Academy, gone to the University, you had been a star pupil in the eyes of your educators. Your family had been quite prominent but it was your skill set that really made you become the right hand woman to the President of the whole nation of Panem.

“Gem of Panem,

Seat of power,

Strength in Peacetime, shield in strife,”

You had gone to school with Coriolanus Snow, though you were a year behind him. You worked hard to make something of yourself outside of your family’s affiliations. Your family was known for investing in high fashion items, owning many of the high end fashion stores in the Capitol itself. And while your father had wanted that life for you as well, you wanted to become something else. And you did.

“Protect our land,

With armored hand,

Our Capitol,

Our life.”

When the anthem ended, you all went back to your work. It wasn’t easy being the secretary of the President. His schedule was quite tiresome most days. And today most certainly was one of those days. You focused on the papers set in front of you, sorting through them and seeing which ones were important enough for President Snow to take a look at. By ten in the morning, you knocked on his office door to give him his schedule.

“Come in,” came the authoritative voice that was Coriolanus Snow. The President of Panem had been elected about a year ago when he was just twenty-four years old and recently married to Livia Cardew, a woman he simply married for convenience and nothing more. In fact, he hated Livia Cardew quite a bit. Though she doesn’t know that and the nation doesn’t need to know that. And now, here he was, twenty-five years old and working hard to ensure that the country is running smoothly. And you? You were very patriotic towards your President.

“I have your schedule for the rest of the day, sir,” You said as you walked into the office, closing the door gently behind you and walking over to his desk. President Snow was sat at his desk, dressed in a navy blue suit with a red rose in the pocket. His hair was slicked back, making him look even more handsome than usual. Your heels clicked with each step you took and Coriolanus was very obviously staring you up and down. “And a list of messages to give you,” You added.

Coriolanus licked his lips before looking at your face. “Go on,” he said, using a hand to signal you to speak.

“You have lunch today with the new Head Gamemaster to discuss ideas for eighteenth annual Hunger Games at twelve p.m, a meeting with the mayor of District One at one p.m, a phone call with the Head General at two p.m, and an address to the nation at three p.m about the sewage system,” You explained, looking down at your notes before looking back up at Coriolanus. “After that, you have a Gala to attend tonight at eight o’clock with your wife who is wondering if you will be coming home for dinner.”

Coriolanus sighed, running a hand over his face as he thought over everything. “That’s quite a lot for today,” He exclaimed. “Tell Livia I will not be having dinner with her tonight.”

You nodded your head. “Right away, sir,” you said, giving him a polite smile.

“You’ll be attending the Gala as well, correct?” Coriolanus asked.

You nodded your head in confirmation. “That’s correct, sir,” You replied. “My whole family will be attending.”

“Good,” Coriolanus smirked at you. “I’ll see you later then, Miss L/N.”

“I’ll see you later, President Snow,” And with that, you left his office to get back to work.

When you arrived at the Gala dressed in a ravishing black dress that accentuates your curves, you knew that you were officially the best dressed at the event. Your hair was down and styled to perfection. Your makeup was done elegantly with a red lip. You walked into the event, immediately greeted by other prominent families within the Capitol. You greeted each and every one of them with a smile and a kind greeting. Only the best from a high member of society.

You looked around the room, noticing President Snow across the room with his wife standing next to him. His eyes were immediately on you. You gave him a smirk as he did a slight tilt of his head, signaling to follow him. He excused himself from Livia before walking towards the bathrooms. After a moment, you followed.

Your relationship with Coriolanus Snow is a bit of a complicated one that had begun when he was voted in as President. Being a year below him during school, the two of you interacted only briefly. But he hired you based on your family’s name and your high grades from the University. After your hiring, it was safe to assume that there was more to it. He would always look you up and down, taking in your beautiful form. And you didn’t hate it one bit. Coriolanus was an attractive man. And you were very patriotic.

About two months into his presidency, the two of you stayed late to work on an address that was going to be given the next day. A late night with your boss with dinner had led to the two of you talking about anything and everything unrelated to work. And that night, he fucked you on his desk without any regrets. That was the start of an affair that neither of you wanted to end.

You made your way to the bathroom, knocking on the door. You heard the faint “come in” of Coriolanus’s voice. Before walking in, you looked around to ensure no one else was looking. You opened the door, walking into the room before quickly closing it behind you and locking the door. As soon as you did so, Coriolanus was pinning you to the wall, his lips immediately on yours.

You let out a soft sound, kissing Coriolanus back with the same hunger and passion he was giving you. You brought your arms up around his neck as he wrapped his arms around your waist. “You look so beautiful tonight,” he murmured softly, pulling away to look into your eyes.

You gave him a soft smile. “Thank you,” You said, kissing his lips. “You look quite handsome yourself,” You added, looking at Coriolanus’s dark green suit.

Coriolanus sighed. “Livia wanted me to wear it,” He said, slightly annoyed, “I think it looks horrendous. But I must be a supportive husband and follow through with my wife’s wishes.” Coriolanus dipped his head to kiss your neck, using his hands to explore your body.

You laughed, nodding your head. “What a wonderful husband you are,” you said a bit sarcastically.

Coriolanus hummed against your skin. “The best, really,” he said just as sarcastically. He lifted your dress over your hips. You chose not to wear anything underneath the dress which Coriolanus believed to be an excellent decision. “This is quite helpful,” he murmured softly. “Makes things easier.”

“Did it just for you,” You murmured back.

“You’re so good to me,” Coriolanus said. He pressed himself against you, letting you feel his hard on through his trousers. “We have to be quick,” he said a bit unhappily. Coriolanus didn’t like to do quickies as much as he loved taking his time with you. He adores making you feel just as good as you make him feel. “But I promise tomorrow evening will be ours,” he added.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” You smiled. “How do you want me?”

Coriolanus unbuttoned his pants enough to reveal his hard cock. He too wasn’t wearing any underwear. He licked his lips as he thought about your cunt. “Turn around for me.”

You obliged, turning around with a hand on the door of the bathroom. Coriolanus wrapped an arm around you, dipping his head to kiss your neck as he guided his cock to your entrance. He eased himself inside of you, causing the both of you to let out shaky breaths. You put a hand over your mouth to avoid moaning. “You’re so wet for me,” Coriolanus whispered into your ear, moving his hips slowly at first. “Wish I could take my time with you.”

“Always ready for your cock,” You whispered back, licking your lips.

“Mmm, yes you are,” Coriolanus replied, snapping his hips faster.

You gasped, trying to keep yourself from moaning like a slut. There were people just outside the door and it would be an all-time scandal if the people of Panem found out that the President was having an affair with his secretary.

“Gotta stay quiet for me, baby,” Coriolanus said shakily, thrusting his cock in and out of you tight cunt at a relentless pace. “Ah—fuck, you feel so good,” he almost whined in your ear.

You didn’t reply, not trusting yourself to not moan loudly if you uncover your mouth. Instead you met his thrusts with your own movements, his cock hitting your g-spot perfectly. Coriolanus was moving hard and fast, burying his cock inside of you so good. You threw your head back, closing your eyes in the process.

Coriolanus began kissing your neck, sucking on your pulse point. “Gonna cum inside your tight pussy,” he whispered against your skin, thrusting his hips frantically. You could tell that Coriolanus was very close with how breathless he sounded and how he was holding back his own moans. You felt yourself getting closer, the repetitive thrusting into your g-spot sending you close to the edge.

“Gonna cum, oh my god—“ Coriolanus whispered harshly, close to just moaning out loud as he started spilling inside of you.

With a gasp, you clench around Coriolanus’s cock, gushing as you come. You felt the liquid dripping down your leg as you arched your back against Coriolanus. He fucked you through your orgasm, rocking his hips to milk the both of you. And when you both finished, he pulled out, immediately stuffing his cock back into his pants and zippering them. You were both breathing heavily as you took a moment to just lean your head against the bathroom door. Coriolanus, oh-so-kindly put your dress back down perfectly before turning you around and wrapped his arms around you.

“I needed that,” he murmured into your ear as he pulled you close to him, kissing the top of your head.

You smiled lazily, leaning against Coriolanus as you hugged him back. “Me too,” you replied. “They’re probably wondering where you are,” you sighed.

“Mmm,” Coriolanus made a noise of acknowledgment. “I wish I could just take you home,” he said, breathing in deeply.

It was always moments like this that made you wonder if Coriolanus Snow, the President of Panem, loved you. He always treated you like he had the utmost feelings for you. He would take you out for dinners, buy you gifts, care for you in such a way that only a lover would. But ultimately, you knew that wasn’t the case. Because Coriolanus Snow was incapable of loving another person. That’s what he told you, at least. Regardless, you didn’t mind it whatsoever. Because you’re his secretary, his true right hand woman. And that’s all that mattered, right?

After a few moments, the two of you pulled away and gathered yourselves. You cleaned yourself up, making sure nothing was on your legs while Coriolanus fixed his hair. He gave you one soft kiss. “I’ll see you,” he murmured against your lips.

You smiled, kissing him back. “See you, sir,” you replied.

Coriolanus smirked before walking out of the bathroom. You stayed back for a moment, fixing your lipstick and your hair in front of the mirror. And after a minute, you walked out and back into the party as though nothing happened. You glanced at Coriolanus, who was talking to some military official, and then looked at his wife, who was looking at you.

That’s when you knew Livia Cardew wasn’t as oblivious as she made herself out to be. And you? You simply winked at her and smirked before turning your attention to a random Capitol citizen.

#the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #thg #thg tbosas #tbosas #coriolanus snow #coriolanus snow x reader #coriolanus snow smut #young coriolanus snow #young president snow #tbosbas fanfic #tbosbas smut #tbosas reaction #tbosas imagine #tbosas x reader #tbsoas #tbosbas #tbosas smut

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ephemeral--dreams · 1 year

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Making you cry during a fight (2) - Scaramouche, Yae, Kaeya

Okay guys here you go never ask me for anything ever again /j

(part 1)

☆ ☾ ☆ ──────────────────

Scaramouche

There's a sort of deep, instinctive fear that takes root inside the place where a heart would be, as he watches tears fall after a few too-harsh words.

He's hurt you. He's been careless, he's been too difficult, too much - and it's going to drive you away. You're going to abandon him because of this incident, surely. Why would you stay with someone who makes you cry?

It's… it's not a feeling he's dealt with for many years. The fear of being left. He has not allowed anyone to get close enough to him to have any concern over whether they're around or not. Scaramouche had learned his lesson about getting attached and having emotion, after all. He had spat out whatever bitter words he pleased and felt nothing when he upset anyone he spoke to.

But those days are past, and while that's a good thing in many ways, right now it feels anything but.

"I-"

"Sorry. I shouldn't be crying," the way you apologize as if you're the one in the wrong stabs right through him. You're the one crying, yet he is being wounded just as much. It's an awful thing, caring. "Just. Just give me a moment…"

Scaramouche hesitates. He's paralyzed, caught up in the idea that anything he does or says may make things worse. But what wins out is the idea of fixing it, fixing things before you give up on him—

"Stop it. You shouldn't be the one saying sorry here. I shouldn't have said that to you, alright? You should know better than to take everything I say so seriously, honestly, I-" he sighs, irritated with himself more than you, before pulling you into his embrace. You don't pull away. Good. Maybe he hasn't entirely fucked things up. "...I didn't mean it. Sorry."

Yae

Yae Miko is not the sort of person who yells during a fight. Or at any time, really. So that hadn't been at all what had happened during your little conflict.

Rather, her words were pointed to hit where it hurt, an attempt to shut down whatever silly human nonsense you thought was worth causing a riot over. Problems came and went, and most weren't nearly as important as they may seem in the moment. Living many years had led her to this conclusion. She was a busy woman who had little interest in wasting her time arguing.

...Calculating and perhaps dismissive she may be, but she isn't cold. Yae still very much has a heart, and it skips a beat when she realizes you're nowhere to be found at the usual time she would meet with you after finishing her shrine duties. Surely you weren't that upset over it all, right?

No, you couldn't be still lingering on the issue hours later…

Well, you could. Others were far more sensitive to these things, a fact she often forgot. Yae should know better. Isn't she used to highly emotional people, after all? At least your tantrums weren't going to practically destroy the nation…

She finds you at the foot of the mountain, sitting and idly staring into the distance. The tear tracks on your face are all too telling.

Yae is not above realizing when she has done something wrong. Though she's also not one to openly apologize. She doesn't do much of anything openly.

"You don't listen to me," you tell her.

"Well, I'll try to listen more, then. Is that satisfactory?" She offers a hand to you. You wait a moment before taking it, allowing her to pull you up. "Just remember to consider my side of things as well. We can work on it… But let's not linger on this too long. Time is fleeting for mortals like you, hm?"

Kaeya

Kaeya is excellent at one thing - avoidance. In fact, he's been successfully avoiding you ever since your fight a couple of days ago. It's easier to simply wait until you've both cooled off.

That's what he tells himself. It's certainly not that the fight made him feel anxious. He's not running away from his problems, of course not.

(He's lying to himself. One wrong word and you'll leave. He knows that. It's bad enough that you had an argument, archons forbid he confronts you and it's the last straw.)

So Kaeya carefully stays out of your way, doesn't speak to you, doesn't let you catch sight of him. He'll have to deal with things eventually, he knows, but… Until then, he's content to keep things this way. Four days in you finally seek him out yourself, looking exhausted and absolutely miserable.

"Can we- can we stop fighting? You're right, I'm wrong, all that-" He can only watch as you start breaking down in front of him, a cold, sinking feeling of guilt settling in. "...Just stop ignoring me, please?"

His life has been filled with bad decisions - it seems that he's made yet another, by avoiding you so long. Now Kaeya is faced with your tears as you practically beg for his attention. It's quite the opposite of what he intended. He reaches a careful hand to brush them away. "Shh, shh. No more, alright?"

You sniffle, looking up at him. "You're not mad at me?"

"Of course not, sweetheart. I never was. We can talk about it later, okay? Let me make you feel better."

#scaramouche x reader #yae miko x reader #kaeya x reader #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #wanderer x reader #story unfolding

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marymary-diva17 · 3 months

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A marriage for peace and political

zuko x water tibe reader x male mai

This is story had been published on my wattpad, and I decide to bring it over here.

The war of the nations had been going on for 100 years and the fire nation kept on gaining ground and power, all over all the other nations. There had been a time of peace that came in the war and that peace was made through a political marriage or arrange marriage. That marriage was your marriage the second daughter of Hakoda of the southern watertribe you had been given away in marriage. As you were not just marrying the fire lord son, but also another Nobel man that is an ambassador. All the other nations and everyone thought this will be for the best as no wanted anymore war to happen.

Y/n " dad"

Hakoda " listen I know you must hate this idea but it need to be done"

Y/n "......"

Hakoda " I can't send your brother or sister they are to much of value and importance to all of us ... they are part of avater team we can't lose them"

Y/n " i know that dad but have you heard about the stories of the fire lord he cruel and scary man ..."

Hakoda " yes I have heard them y/n but sacrifices have to be made and this is one of them you are one of them"

Y/n " please father o will do anything for my people but I'm scared"

Hakoda " think about your people think about all the all other nations and all innocent lives that will be lost of you don't do this .... You can't be selfish"

Y/n " father ..."

Hakoda " leave now I need to speak with my council and elders Wes most think for battle with three other nations, a war will come and war " you wish to say something else but your father had you escorted away from his office once words got to your siblings and their friends it didn't get better.

Katara " please y/n we need this war to end we can't have aang go he not ready he hasn't master fire yet"

Y/n " I'm just overwhelmed and scared that all this major decisions"

Sokka " don't you think we all feel that you haven't been doing anything but stay here and healing, while the rest of us have been risking it all"

Toph " I can sense many emotions right now"

Sokka " if we don't have an answer by the end of week the war the fire lord wish for answers"

Y/n " I ...."

Aang " y/n I make a promises as an avatar and air bender if anything happen I will come help you, as you have my oath as avatar and all those that came before me"

Y/n " I just need some time alone"

Katara " fine go while we stay here and think about a back up plan" you could feel you were not welcome so you had soon taken your leave right away. As you were walking you had been getting cold shoulder from many people as they were all in fear.

Gran gran " my dear"

Y/n " hey gran gran"

Gran " I came to see you I have heard the news"

Y/n " I want to say yes for my people and everyone else but I'm scared"

gran gran " it okay to be scared my dear whatever decision you make it will always love you and be with you in personal and spirt" you had hugged your grandmother as your cried, you had made your decision that night.

Y/n " father I have made my decision"

Hakoda " what have you decided my father"

Y/n " I will take the marriage for safety for my family and everyone" everyone was happy about the news a hawk had been sent, and I'm days a fire nation ship had come with your future husbands.

Iroh " lady y/n I will love to present my nephew prince Zuko and mister mao"

Y/n " hello it good to meet you both and I hope our lives together will be good"

Mao " hello it good to meet you"

Zuko " yes what you have done is honor and we hope to show you were are not that bad" this marriage will not be bad after all as you had thought, as the others around were either good and bad. Maybe you should give your future husband a chance and see their true selves. Celebrations had been held in your tribe you had tried to speak with your sibling and friends but they were with everyone else. You had been given the opportunity to get to know some of future family better. That next day you had left your home.

Y/n " take care everyone I hope to see you soon"

Katara " we will meet again"

Y/n " yes and now we have peace life will need to be rebuild"

Fire nation solider " lady y/n we are rests to leave"

Y/n " coming goodbye everyone and please take care all of you" you soon got onto the fire nation ship, looking down to everyone and waving goodbye. You soon saw your home getting smaller and smaller as you head toward your new home.

Iroh " I know you have heard bad stories about the fire nation and my family, and I don't blame you for being scared but we are all not that bad ... my nephew and mao might seem a bit scary but he a good young men and I have raised taught and many other well to be good and not to, follow their parents path"'

Y/n " thank you iroh I'm happy to know I will have friends there for me I, hope I can be a good addition to the royal household and ambassador household as well"

Iroh " you will be amazing"

Zuko " uncle may I and Mao have some words with our wife"

Iroh " yes" Iroh soon left the young couple to talk together, knowing it was going to be a long trip home.

Mao " we know you fear what life will be like in the fire nation but we will not be living there"

Y/n " huh why you are royalty and noble born"

Zuko " yes but I made a deal with my dad will be living on ember land it will be good for us all, and we get to know each other and live the lives we want if that fine with you"

Y/n " I'm fine with that if can keep bending and healing, and keep some cultures I have"

Mao " yes it will be good as we all should keep what we love most close to our hearts" this marriage was not going to be bad after all, you had been able to get to know your husbands better and their created famiky good as well. Life is going to be hard away from the water tribe but you know you will adapt to your new life and home.

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copper-16 · 13 days

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First Meetings

Elena attends her first football youth team camp, and meets someone who, though she doesn’t realize it at the time, will become a very important person in her life.

(a/n: I must admit this is probably one my more favorite Elena stories I’ve written, so if anyone has anymore ideas that involve older Elena and this new OC we meet here you’d be my new best friend cause I wanna write more about them 🥹)

The first national team camp Elena was ever invited to was when she was only fourteen years old. The call had been to Ingrid, who was then immediately turning to Mapi with a huge smile on her face.

Partly because it was their daughters first call up, and partly because it had been Norway who had come knocking on her door.

Mapi and Ingrid would always argue (playfully, most of the time), about which country their daughter would represent, should she choose the path of becoming a professional athlete.

And while it didn’t matter in the end, for their daughter chose instead to become a doctor as opposed to an athlete, she did spend a good bit of her youth playing both football and handball, very competitively.

She had been in La Masia, and showed great promise as a future defender, so it really wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone involved when Elena was selected for Norway’s U16 camp, despite the fact that she was only fourteen.

And though both Ingrid and Mapi were excited (once a certain Spaniard got over being butthurt that it wasn’t Spain who had come calling), they left the ultimate decision up to Elena on whether or not she wanted to go.

“Mi sol, at the end of the day the choice is yours. You are allowed to do whatever you would like, your Mama and I would always support that,” Mapi reassured gently, and Elena nodded her head slowly, but she still looked rather unsure.

“Thank you Mami, I appreciate it, I really do. I just…is there any way I could have a minute before I decide?” The teenager asked gently, and her mother nodded easily.

“Take all the time you need, there is no rush,” Mapi promised, squeezing her daughter's shoulder gently before the girl slipped away. But instead of heading for her room as the Spaniard expected her to, she headed for the balcony instead.

Elena pulled out her phone carefully from her pocket as she shut the door behind her, staring at it for a few moments before clicking open to her contacts. She hit dial before holding it up to her ear, listening to the line ring before it clicked, signifying that her godmother had picked up the phone

“Elena, pequeña! What have I done to deserve a phone call from my favorite goddaughter?” Alexia practically yelled into the phone, not exactly helping the argument that she ‘wasn’t old’ and ‘understood technology completely.’ The girl rolled her eyes at her godmother's antics, even if she knew to expect them.

“Tia, I am your ONLY goddaughter,” Elena reminded her, but there was a smile on her face regardless.

“Ah semantics semantics! What is up pequeña, how are you?” Alexia asked, her voice a little more soft and gentle now. It wasn’t exactly a common occurrence for the green eyed girl to call the blonde like this out of the blue, so the former Barcelona captain made sure to seem extra attentive.

“Oh I’m good,” Elena said carefully, before she went quiet. Alexia didn’t respond, sensing that there was more the younger girl wanted to say.

“I got invited to a U16 camp, with Norway,” she finally forced out quietly, bracing herself for the former Barcelona captain to gasp, to scream, to get all excited. She had been preparing herself for Alexia to lose her mind, to be so excited that she wouldn’t even listen to Elena’s concerns.

But it never came.

“You don’t sound excited pequeña,” Alexia commented lightly, her tone filled with more protectiveness than excitement, and no judgment whatsoever. As much as Alexia wanted her goddaughter to be a footballer, same as her mothers, she cared far more about her well-being than anything else as trivial as her career.

Elena sighed, fiddling with the hem of her shirt as she tried to organize her thoughts appropriately, in a way that was understandable.

“I am excited, but I’m also…I don’t know. I’m not even sure if I want to be a footballer, is it silly of me to consider even going?” Elena asked, her insecurity poking through in her tone.

“Oh course you can still go, even if you are not sure. There is no requirement, it is not a contract that states that if you go now, you are obligated to become a footballer,” Alexia reminded gently. Her words were soft, and Elena clung to how secure her tone was, as though she held all of the answers to every problem the teenager had ever had.

It was one thing for her mothers to tell her, but for Alexia to? It was somehow better, hearing it from her mouth. As biased as Alexia was, because she loved her, she had always been honest with Elena too.

“Yes but…well there are people like you who are or were SO sure of what they want to do, and would I be taking up someone else’s spot by committing when I’m not even sure football is what I want to do? I love it, I know I do, but I’m just not sure that it’s what I want for the rest of my life,” Elena explained, and it was not a new thought in her mind but it was still hard to say, because she’d never spoken the thought aloud to someone. Not even her mothers, who were inside the living room trying very hard to pretend like they weren’t eavesdropping on the entire conversation.

Mapi was practically sitting on Ingrid’s lap, she was leaning so far over her wife as she angled her body and ears toward the balcony, even if she couldn’t hear much with the door being closed.

“Elena, for as many people who are sure, there are a hundred more who are not. You are fourteen, you are not supposed to have everything figured out right now. Look at people like Salma, she couldn’t decide until she was practically eighty years old what sport she wanted to do!” Alexia exclaimed, and even though Salma had picked her sport at nineteen and not eighty, it still managed to elicit a small laugh from her goddaughter.

“You deserve to be there, that is why they called you up! This is a chance for you to go and see if you like it. That’s what youth team camps are all about,” Alexia insisted, and there was a pause on the line before the teenager spoke again.

“But also…what if they don’t like me Alexia? What if I am not Norwegian enough for them, or not good enough at football, or I’m weird and young and I don’t make any friends?” Elena said all in a rush, dumping out the bucket of her worries to be sifted through by her ever loving godmother.

“Oh Elena. They are going to LOVE you, because you are kind and considerate and compassionate. The rest of it isn’t important, you just need to go in there and be kind and you will make friends, I promise. And hey, who knows, some of the girls there might be international as well! Some of your mothers old teammates have children, many of whom were all raised in different countries,” Alexia rattled patiently, remembering acutely how worried she had been when she had begun to be called up to national team camps. She tries her hardest to tell Elena what she needed to be told when she was a young girl, with nobody to give her this advice first hand.

“I remember when I was younger, god I was a disaster at youth team camps! I was so awkward and shy, but the girls were still always so nice and welcoming, I didn’t have much time to feel self conscious about it,” the midfielder remembered fondly, chuckling to herself as she thought back on the memory.

Oh, if only I had managed to grow out of my social anxiety as I got older, she thought wryly, before focusing back on the conversation.

“And hey, at the worst? It’s only two weeks. Two weeks of just giving it a try, and then at least you can say that you did it. If you don’t like it, nobody will force you to go back,” Alexia promised.

“And you’d still…still be proud of me? Even if I hated it and never wanted to play football again because it was so terrible?” Elena asked quietly, her voice soft.

“Elena, I would be proud of you if you went on to win the Ballon d’Or, or if you never touched a football again in your entire life. I will always be proud of you, no matter what you do. But for the record, I don’t think it’s going to be that bad, but even if it went terribly, I will still love you,” Alexia insisted, and it’s the truth. Years later, when Elena graduates from medical school, it will be Alexia who skips the Ballon d’Or ceremony that she had been invited to present at, in order to sit in the front row with Mapi and Ingrid’s family, screaming when her goddaughter walked across the stage to receive her degree.

But for now, she is content to love the teenager in whatever way she needs, including when she is just trying to figure out what she wants to do in life.

“Thank you Alexia. I love you,” Elena whispered, her throat suddenly tight with how grateful she is to have her godmother in her life.

To the rest of the world, Alexia might be the terrifying former Barcelona captain, one of the best players of their generation, but to Elena? She had always been the woman whose face lit up when she walked in the room, the woman who adored spending time with her and reading stories and gave her the best hugs.

“I love you too pequeña, always,” Alexia insists, wishing her goddaughter goodnight before they hung up the phone.

With a renewed sense of sureness, Elena marched back inside with determination and right over to where her mothers were sitting together on the couch, pressed up against one another as they tried to pretend that they weren’t entirely focused on the balcony.

The dark haired teenager raised her eyebrow slightly at the upside down crossword Mapi was pretending to complete and the fact that Ingrid was staring at her wife like she was trying to memorize the silhouette of her face despite the fact that they spent every single day together. She knew they were just doing their best, and that they were both far too nosy for their own good.

“I would like to go to the youth camp,” she declared, and both Ingrid and Mapi smiled brightly at their daughter as they nodded their agreement, happy to see that she was so sure of herself.

—

Ingrid had flown out to Oslo with Elena, but she only stayed long enough to drop her off at the hotel and check her in with the staff members. The players were going directly to training, where parents really weren’t supposed to go, and Ingrid hadn’t really planned to spend a whole ton of time around unless Elena needed her to, for some reason.

It wasn’t the first time Elena had said goodbye to her mother before they separated for something like this, but it did feel weird to know that she wouldn’t see either of her parents for a whole two weeks.

She clings to the Norwegian for a hair too long, her grip tighter than it’s been in awhile. She feels young again, much younger than she actually is. Luckily, Ingrid’s love is readily available, and she doesn’t comment on her daughter's slightly desperate grip.

“You’re going to be just fine, Elena. I love you, you call me if you need anything okay? Your Mami and I will call you once a day at least but if you need us more than that we are only a phone call away. And we can always hop on a flight if you need us!” Ingrid rambled, knowing that when she stopped talking she would have to leave.

“I will be okay Mama. I’ll be sure to call you and Mami a lot to tell you about everything. I love you!” Elena called out as she finally forced herself away, leaving with one of the trainers to get settled in her hotel room before training commenced in a bit.

She got her stuff settled in the room, noticing that another girl had already placed her luggage on the opposite side of the room. The green eyed girl wondered briefly who her roommate would be, but she didn’t have much time to think on it when someone came to get her for training.

She was one of the last to arrive, and therefore by the time she had arrived out to the pitch, all of the girls were starting to warm up.

Most of the girls are older than she is, standing in groups as they all laughed and chatted in a variety of languages. Elena was generally a pretty outgoing person in most circumstances, but this admittedly made her more nervous than usual.

A lot of the girls seemed to already have groups of friends, and seemed older than her. It felt awkward to go up and introduce herself to these random people who already had a set friend group.

She could see Frida and Emma’s daughter Kajsa in a group with a few other girls. Her mother had told her that Kajsa would be there, but the two didn’t know one another, because Kajsa was nearly two years older than she was.

She noticed a few of the girls were standing by themselves off to the side, and she surveyed them quickly to determine who to walk up to. Most of them looked pretty focused, staring intently at the ball they were working with, clearly deep within their thoughts.

She clocked Valeria, Marta and Caro’s daughter, but the look on her face is dark and filled with a determination that offsets Elena from feeling willing to go up to her.

When she turned to her right, there was a girl who looked to be a little younger than the rest, much like herself, who was juggling the ball off to the side of the group. She had light brown, almost mousy hair, and unlike the other girls who were by themselves, she had a bright smile as she looked down at the ball.

She actually looked like she was having fun, and Elena isn’t entirely sure what makes her feet start moving, but all the sudden she’s standing right in front of her, clearing her throat and greeting the girl.

“Hi,” Elena said softly as she walked over, a wash of nerves. The girl looked up at her in surprise, her mouth forming a little “o” as she stared back at the other girl. The ball fell listlessly at her feet, and she offered a slightly shy smile of her own back.

“Hey,” she replied, her voice soft and calm. She seemed quite nervous, her outward behavior a direct reflection of what Elena was feeling on the inside.

“I’m Elena,” the teenager introduced, and the girl seemed to perk up slightly. She seemed very shy, and if there was one thing the green eyed girl was good at, it was getting introverts out of their shell.

“My name is Kaia,” she echoed Elena’s greeting, and the Barcelona native couldn’t help the grin that broke out onto her face at the flush that was peaking through Kaia’s cheeks.

The taller girl's accent was strange, no matter what language she spoke. Her Norwegian was accented, and so was her English, and Elena couldn’t put her finger on it until they were hanging out in their room later that night.

The two had been selected to room together for the two weeks, so it really was serendipitous that Elena had chosen to go up to Kaia as opposed to any of the other girls who were by themselves.

They were sitting in their respective beds in their hotel room later that night, when the taller girl turned toward Elena with an air of nerves around her.

“Is it okay if I call my mums?” She asked, and the Spanish Norwegian immediately furrowed her brows. Kaia clearly takes it as being more malicious and less as the confusion it really is, as the dark haired girl tried to figure out if what she had said was the truth. Kaia had experienced plenty of teasing in her youth from her peers about her two mothers, and she immediately draws back in on herself as a result.

“Yeah I…I have two mums,” she said softly, but the confusion shifted to her when Elena smiled brightly at her sentence.

“Me too!” She exclaimed, and Kaia’s mouth flopped open, her reservations fleeing her with the drop of a hat practically.

“Really?!” The taller girl asked in amazement, her whole face lighting up in relief. She didn’t often meet many others who could say this.

“Yeah, I do! They used to play on the same football team together, that’s where they met,” Elena explained, and once again Kaia looked at her new friend in complete surprise.

“That’s exactly what happened with my mums too! Do you want to meet them?” Kaia asked earnestly, and Elena nodded before she bounded over to the other bed, stuffing her smaller body close next to Kaia’s as the girl FaceTimed her mothers.

“Hello darling!” Elena recognized Fran Kirby by both her appearance and accent in half a second, understanding settling over her. She remembered her mother telling her that Maren and Fran had a daughter her age, but she didn’t know that Kaia would be here.

Suddenly, Kaia’s English accented Norwegian, and Norwegian accented English were starting to make sense. The accents made sense when she could place exactly where they had come from.

“Mum, this is my friend Elena,” Kaia introduced, and the dark haired girl watched in amusement as Maren poked her head into the camera frame as well, a big smile on her face.

“You’re Ingrid and Mapi’s daughter, right?” Maren asked kindly, and Elena nodded eagerly, waving hello to the older woman she had met several times.

“You guys have met each other before, but only when you were babies!” Fran recalled, a statement Maren agreed with readily.

Ingrid is equally as excited about Elena’s befriending of Kaia when they call her and Mapi right after, the two girls regaling their day at training in long detail.

Okay, it’s a lot of Elena talking in long tangents as Kaia listens patiently, adding in a few details here and there. But the older girl seems completely content to listen to Elena speak, capturing every small detail and little moment.

For the two weeks they are at camp, the fourteen and fifteen year old are entirely inseparable. They eat together, train together, and when one of them gets lonely, they crawl into the other's bed to hang out and talk far past when they were supposed to go to bed (neither of them are aware that when they are older, they’ll spend every single night like that, together).

Kaia followed Elena around almost like a lost puppy, and the dark haired girl happily drug her everywhere she went. It was easy for Elena to pull Kaia out of her shell, natural really, and they clearly fit together really well.

It’s clear to anyone with eyeballs that Kaia has a crush on Elena, but neither of them are quite old enough to pick up on it. All they know is that they both loved spending time with one another, although neither of them realized just how much until later in life.

But as relationships usually are when you are young, when the two girls leave camp, despite having exchanged phone numbers, they fall out of touch with one another. Kaia lives in England, and Elena still lives in Barcelona, and the opportunities for them to see one another in person are rare.

They still follow one another through social media, and the occasional texting conversation. When Kaia gets her first Lioness call up at just 17, Elena is one of the first people to text her congratulations. And when Elena graduates primary school, Kaia of course texts her to congratulate her as well, thrilled for her friend.

But nothing feels quite the same as when they were younger, and Elena tried to accept that. She tried to move on, unsure of why she was so stuck on some two week friendship that, in the grand scheme of things, shouldn’t really have meant anything.

Or would it?

Luckily, their distance wasn’t something she’d have to accept for forever.

—

Elena had just gotten out of one of her university classes when she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, and she reached down to fish it out.

The dark haired girl couldn’t stop the shock she felt traveling through her when she saw the name on her phone, and the contact pictured attached, signaling who was calling her.

It was an old photo, one from four years ago in fact, and it felt like a time capsule, pulling the green eyed girl back to a time of football camps and giggling under the covers with one of the funniest people she had ever met. A time of spending two weeks attached at the hip with a shy girl who blushed when she held her hand to drag her toward the gym, who always passed her the ball even though she clearly wasn’t the best player at camp.

She stared at Kaia’s picture for so long she almost forgot to accept the phone call, and she scrambled to do so before the ringing ceased.

“Kaia?” She asks into her phone almost breathlessly, despite the fact that she’s standing still. Her heart is pounding in her chest, and she’s not entirely sure why. Her and Kaia haven’t spoken really since they were fourteen and fifteen, and they were eighteen and nineteen now.

It was too long for her reaction to be this visceral, but it still is, for some reason. She can’t explain it, she doesn’t want it to ever go away, though.

“Hi Elena,” Kaia says softly, and her voice is lower and more mature, but it’s still Kaia. It warms Elena’s heart immensely, and she smiles despite the fact that the English footballer can’t see her.

“How are you?” The dark haired girl asked, genuinely curious. She could have picked up the phone and called, she knew that, but for some reason she hadn’t.

It felt even more strange for Kaia to be calling. Shy, quiet, sometimes awkward Kaia, who sometimes people thought was mean, but Elena knew it was really just that she spent far too much time in her own head.

Although, she didn’t look all that awkward when she was on a football pitch, scoring goals like she was born to be a nine. She was brilliant, if a bit inexperienced.

“I’m, I’m good. Really good actually. But I, well, I need your help with something,” Kaia explained quickly, and Elena raised her brow but asked what the striker needed all the same.

“You spent last summer in Sweden right?” Kaia asked, and when Elena confirmed it, she continued. The green eyed girl had gone to spend the summer with Frido, and even Ingrid and Mapi had come for a few weeks on holiday as well. “I’m going on loan to Hammarby for the season to get some more experience, and I was hoping you had any some tips on how to get around, or your favorite spots. Or any of the slang they’re using nowadays, it’s been an embarrassingly long amount of time since I’ve been back to Norway, and the only Norwegian I’m speaking nowadays is with Mom,” she revealed, and Elena felt her heart flutter in her chest.

If she were thinking about it logically, it would be a little suspicious. Plenty of the girls who they played with in the youth teams were actually playing in Sweden, and probably knew much better than Elena did from just a summer spent with Frido in the countryside.

And there was always the fact that her mother probably knew dozens of Swedes, who again would know better than the Barcelona based Spaniard.

But she doesn’t care, because Kaia is calling her, and suddenly she has an excuse to talk to the girl who she’s been unable to get out of her head for years. She hadn’t realized until an embarrassingly long amount of time after the fact that it was a crush she had on Kaia back then, but as soon as she had realized she had been unable to let that go.

Would things have been different, if they had stayed in touch afterward? She wasn’t entirely sure, but it didn’t matter. Maybe they could be friends now, if nothing else.

Even if it isn’t going to turn into anything, she’d rather have a tiny bit of Kaia than nothing at all. She doubted Kaia would ever feel the same about her, and how could she? Sweet, brilliant, talented, soon to be famous Kaia, who would never fall for the university student who had little interest in the fame and money that football wanted.

(Oh, if only she knew that Kaia wanted every single part of her, wholly, completely. She always had, even when they were kids.)

—

Elena rolled over in her sleep, and unlike usual, there was an object blocking her from doing so fully.

An object that smelled like jasmine and everything safe in the world, and the dark haired woman instantly turned to burrow into it, clinging tightly to the woman in her bed.

Strong arms pulled her in tightly, and she blinked her eyes open sleepily to find that Kaia was smiling down at her, before the hazel eyed woman held her face gently in her hands, leaning forward to press a resounding kiss to her forehead.

“Good morning,” she said softly, before she moved to bring Elena further into her, pressing their bodies together as she had longed to do for what felt like years. The smaller woman allowed her body to be moved easily, wrapping her own arms around Kaia and holding her close.

“You weren’t supposed to get in until later today?” She says in lieu of a greeting, her voice raspy and soft as she allows herself to stay nestled against her girlfriend. It's been over a month since they last saw one another, with their respective busy schedules.

“I took an earlier flight. I wanted to see you sooner,” Kaia admits sheepishly, her nose twinging with pink as it gives away how clearly besotted she is. Elena’s eyebrows furrowed adorably in confusion as she leaned back to look her girlfriend in the eye, and the brunette reached forward to press her thumb to the space between her eyebrows and smoothing the crease, just because she could.

“I was asleep! That can’t be exciting enough to move your flight to get in at seven in the morning,” She protested as she looked over at the clock with a wince at how early the time was, but Kaia just let out a small laugh.

“I firmly disagree, you are completely adorable when you are asleep, and you get all clingy in the mornings. I couldn’t stand to miss another morning of it if I didn’t have to,” Kaia argues good naturedly, and Elena smiles before she presses forward, finally kissing her girlfriend for real. She loved this version of Kaia, the one that was all soft and giggly and gentle.

It was the version of her that only existed for the green eyed woman, and nobody else. And as much as Elena loved seeing her girlfriend score buckets of goals on the pitch, this would always be her favorite version of the woman.

“You don’t have to miss it anymore,” the Barcelona native whispered against her lips with excitement, and could feel the curve of Kaia’s own lips as she echoed the dark haired woman’s smile.

“Not anymore, no. I’m going in at two today to sign the contract and take photos, so you need to help me with my hair and makeup,” Kaia explained, and Elena let out a sigh of relief as she nodded, more than willing to do so.

After her one year loan spell at Hammarby, Kaia had returned back to Chelsea until she was twenty two years old, when she had made a move to Atletico Madrid for a year. All the while, she and Elena had never lost touch after that initial phone call about Kaia’s ‘Swedish questions.’

While she was at Hammarby, Elena had come to visit her several times (as much as her school schedule allowed), and the more time they had spent together the more the two had realized that what they had went far beyond the bounds of a normal friendship. By the time Kaia was set to go back to Chelsea after her loan, the two had begun dating.

Elena’s six year medical school program was in Barcelona, and when Kaia went to move clubs to Spain when she was 22, the only offer closer than England had been for Atletico Madrid. The couple had figured that it was better than nothing, and Elena had argued that it would give the Barcelona staff a chance to see how brilliant the English player was.

And sure enough, she was right, because it was not more than a few months into her contract that they reached out, asking to sign the Lioness after the expiration of her one year contract with Atletico Madrid.

All of which led them to today, after nearly five years of dating, when Kaia signed her first Barcelona contract, which would keep her in Catalonia for the next four years.

“I love you so much,” Elena murmured as she tucked herself back into the striker, allowing herself to collapse into the sturdy arms that are wrapped around her.

The brunette deposited a resounding kiss to the crown of her girlfriends head, cuddling closer to Elena and relishing in the closeness that they never seemed to be able to get enough of.

And while they don’t know it at the time, they’ll never have to be without one another for the rest of their lives, luckily.

#ingrid engen #mapi leon #ingrid x mapi x daughter #barcelona femeni #woso #alexia putellas

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haikyu-mp4 · 1 month

Text

Fan behaviour

word count; 2898 – f!reader, manga spoilers

Hoshiumi was looking for the right entrance at nationals when he saw you for the first time. You were dashingly beautiful and looking frankly a bit lost. His stare shamelessly settled on you, already memorising your pretty features. Weirdly enough, they seemed somewhat familiar.

You must have felt the burning stare, eyes finally meeting his and just barely startling him. He opened his mouth, about to make some smart comment that would be one of his first attempts at flirting, but he wasn’t given the chance. “Hoshiumi Korai,” you said, crossing your arms. You were interesting and spoke confidently. He watched in awe as a small smile fell on your face. She knows me?

“Have we met?” he asked, sounding annoyed even if he didn’t mean to. He wished he knew your name too, if only so that you wouldn’t have the upper hand on the conversation.

“They say you’re the new little giant,” you say, stepping closer slowly and not exactly answering him. As you came closer, Korai could see that you were slightly taller than him.

“So you’re a fan.” he teased, raising his chin as if it made him taller.

“You might face Karasuno on the court soon, I’d rather you see me as competition,” you say, not backing up and sticking to your sweet, bordering on smug, smile.

“Karasuno… Then I look forward to beating you,” he said, already knowing that it was a match he was dying to play. No less now that the mystery girl was involved.

“Good luck.”

Unfortunately, Kamomedai defeated Karasuno after Hinata was benched with a fever. You almost felt out of breath watching Hoshiumi call out to Hinata that he would be waiting for him as the little tangerine was escorted off the court. Hoshiumi’s stature and voice had you wrapped around his finger from the sidelines.

Korai celebrated with his teammates after their win, and he was only spared a few three seconds to meet your eyes through the crowd before getting scooped up in celebrations again. You had more important things to do anyway, like support your younger brother through his first loss of the season.

You two didn’t see Hoshiumi much for your third year. You came to cheer for some of Tobio’s games when they got to nationals again and purposefully looked for the white-haired boy but didn’t find yourself lucky. Sometimes you wondered if he looked for you too and the two of you just missed each other. Then it was off to university, leaving that silly crush behind.

Kageyama Tobio, your younger brother by one year, told you about Hoshiumi Korai when he went to the All-Japan training camp in his first year. You simply had to research this guy who thought he was all that. There wasn’t much to find, he didn’t enjoy interviews, but that’s how you knew his name when you two first met. Tobio had called you in the evening one day while at the camp, saying that some guys were trying to pick fights with him even though he couldn’t quite understand it. You adored your clueless brother and just told him to keep being himself and make the most out of his time there. His skillset would speak for itself. He eventually left the camp with a good experience and new inspiration, and you welcomed him home to hear him talk about what the floor was made of. However, your mind kept going back to this little guy with white hair that made Tobio think that Hinata could fly even higher. If you hadn’t been so distracted by that, maybe you would have noticed how bothered Tobio was with Atsumu’s comment about his playstyle.

When said dear little brother got accepted to join the Schweiden Adlers, you were thrilled! Not just because it was a team you used to watch on television, but because that also happened to be where Hoshiumi ended up. Call it silly, but your little crush on him hadn’t exactly worn off as he just got a bit taller and more handsome every year. He was eventually forced to start doing some interviews, and who could blame you for watching them? It’s not fan behaviour, you just.. like.. him?

It might be impossible to believe, but you finally met him again without meaning to. You barely let Tobio open his front door before pushing your way inside, a huge bowl of food that your older sister made you bring from her place settled in your arms. “Tobio, hii. Miwa told me to bring you some food so I’ll just stuff this in the fridge,” you rambled as you toed off your shoes and strolled into his living room. “Oh.. sorry…”

There sat Tobio’s new friends, Hoshiumi and Ushijima. Your brother came up beside you and complained about you just walking in as if you lived in his apartment, so you fired back by complaining about his ungratefulness. Poor visitors didn’t know what they should do and ended up just awkwardly waiting for you two to stop bickering. Ushiwaka tried to share a look with Hoshiumi, but the shorter man was stuck looking at you with his mouth slightly open in awe.

“Well if it isn’t my greatest competitor.” he interrupted, leaning forward in his seat with an incredibly charming, lop-sided grin.

And as you and Kageyama both faced him with incredulous looks that were nearly identical, it clicked. They’re siblings. Tobio had no idea what his teammate was talking about, but you finally fell into a smile at the fond memory, tucking some hair behind your ear. “Little giant, you remember me?”

“How could I forget that sweet look of defeat when we beat you.” he countered, standing up even though there was a whole coffee table between you two. Let’s just say he never worked on his flirting techniques as much as his volleyball techniques. Kageyama watched with a frown but didn’t want to interrupt Korai.

You handed the food over to your brother before rolling up your sleeves like you were squaring up, squinting at the white-haired man for a moment before acknowledging the other one as well. “Sorry, hi. Kageyama y/n, nice to finally meet you,” you said calmly, bowing to Ushiwaka who sharply bowed back with a short answer of his name and a greeting.

Tobio walked to the kitchen to put away the food while you turned your attention back to the shortest man. Hoshiumi hadn’t heard your name before, but now he quite liked it. Like he couldn’t wait for it to roll off his tongue.

“You should come to our game next week.” Hoshiumi blurted out confidently, sitting back down in his seat and glancing to his side where there was space for you to sit down. Not that he dared to ask if you were staying.

“Right, I brought your ticket,” Tobio mumbled, as if suddenly remembering that he had invited you to that one too. You were still quite interested in the sport, helping Tobio practice when you weren’t out with your own friends while growing up. “Here.”

“Thanks,” you said while putting your shoes back on. You playfully ruffled your brother’s hair before waving at the rest of the crowd, letting your eyes linger for a second longer on Korai. “I’ll be there as your fan this time, play well,” you said before leaving so none of the men could see the light blush that covered your cheeks. Hoshiumi was left feeling breathless from the interaction. When you know, you know.

The visit became rather short as you had to move on with other errands, but now you had something exciting to tell your friends while sitting down for coffee tomorrow.

Game day arrived and you put on some of the Adlers merch that Tobio got you before heading to the stadium. You went with Hinata and the two of you enjoyed catching up in the best seats, ready for the teams to come out and play. You sent a couple of snaps of the crowd to your brother as well as a couple of selfies with his friend, hoping to hype him up and show him where your seats were. The number on your shirt said 16, which you just assumed was Tobio’s number since he was the one you should be cheering on, but Hinata had given it a curious look when he sat down. He didn’t know you were so close to Hoshiumi but he didn’t want to intrude and ask.

The game started and everyone around you quickly learnt that you and Hinata could make up a whole cheering squad on your own. Whenever there was anything you could react to, you two would be on your feet and cheering or booing the loudest out of everyone. After a particularly nice kill from Hoshiumi, set up by Tobio, you pointed to the white-haired man and yelled with joy. “Nice kill, little giant!”

Hoshiumi looked at you in surprised glee that suddenly turned into a shock that he had to quickly shake off so they could continue the game. His eyes had gone from your face down to your shirt before he quickly turned away, making you finally sit down and rethink your life choices.

“This is Hoshiumi’s number, huh?” you asked Hinata rhetorically, already feeling the embarrassment and planning out how to destroy the one who gave it to you. You finally noticed the number on the original owner’s shirt and covered your red face with your hands. Now you certainly looked like a fan.

After the match, you and Hinata made your way down and to the back, showing VIP passes to the guards so you could wait in the closest hallway outside the locker rooms. The two of you had gotten into the hype again after your embarrassment and were now on cloud nine after the win. Both reenacting your favourite moments and talking over each other.

Hoshiumi found you very beautiful the first time you two crossed paths, and that never changed. He got so flustered seeing you with his number, but it also boosted his morale for sure. Tobio smirked sideways at him when they were changing, finding himself pretty clever. And it only got better when Ushijima got involved.

“Are you and Kageyama’s sister romantically involved, Hoshiumi?” he asked, ever so formal and making Kageyama crack up. The shortest boy was sputtering in disbelief, face tomato red.

“No! We’re not!” he denied as if the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. It had.

“Oh. Okay.”

When they exited the locker rooms, Hoshiumi and Kageyama found you and Hinata outside, excitedly jumping around and not seeming to notice anyone outside your bubble. Hoshiumi felt this old pride bubble in his stomach, wondering how tall Hinata had gotten now and if you ever went to a black jackals game with his number on your shirt.

So he cleared his throat, making you quickly turn around, flustered by how you could suddenly see his face up close. He was thinking the same thing, and the other two guys were in disbelief at how neither of you decided to start the conversation.

“Nice jersey, y/n.” your brother teased childishly, making you move your stare to glare at him.

“You-“ you started saying before jumping at him and pulling his hair angrily. That was always the best way to get him to surrender his towering height so you could rub the top of his head until he gave up. The older sibling always wins.

“Let go! You said you were a fan so I got you his jersey!” he complained, embarrassed that some more teammates might see this. You did as he asked, dusting your hands off and stepping back beside Hinata. Hoshiumi found you entertaining and even chuckled a little, finally out of the stupor your pretty face left him in earlier.

“I am flattered,” Korai said, making you look back at him and trying to contain your blush. Now he’s all cocky about it, and you wish you didn’t find it so attractive. “Truly.”

“Careful or I’ll beat you up just the same,” you mumbled, biting back a smile. Now, you might think all Hoshiumi could see in that sentence was a challenge, but he was already trying to win another competition.

“I bet you’d look good doing that too,” he said cheekily, cheering on the inside when you turned away first and started walking towards the exit. That’s a win.

“Are we going out to eat or not?”

After getting out into fresh air, you cooled off from your flustered state and fell into more normal conversation. The atmosphere was nice and mostly filled with friendly bickering, but only the two in question seemed to notice their eyes drifting to each other every so often when Hinata and Kageyama were busy yelling at each other.

The dinner was nice, like a group of friends who had very obvious, growing crushes on each other. You sat beside Hinata, across from Korai, and to say it annoyed Korai was an understatement. This was the one thing he absolutely wouldn’t lose to Hinata. He wanted his fingers to accidentally brush against your thigh.

So after everyone went their separate ways, he texted the orange-haired man. Something blunt along the lines of are you interested in Kageyama?

Shoyo: which one?

Korai stared at the message for a moment before chuckling. The girl?

Shoyo: not like you are;)

Korai put a thumbs-up reaction to the message, laughing to himself at how he didn’t even realise Hinata might have a thing for Tobio. Guess it’s a competition, first to ask their Kageyama out. This is just how his brain works.

Hoshiumi is sitting in front of the TV in his apartment and does what he finds to be the most tactical next step. He calls Hirugami and updates him on everything.

“Your heart skipped a beat? Who are you and what did you do to Korai?”

“Shut up,” he said, clearly not angry at all but rather embarrassed that his best friend was calling him out on his uncharacteristic heart palpitations. “It’s so weird, I even imagined her meeting my mom. And you. You’d get along, I bet. She’s like me but sweeter.”

“That’s exactly what I always thought you were missing. A little sweetness.” Hirugami said. It was very clearly supposed to be teasing but Korai got a little stuck on it, a small dazed smile falling on his face as he thought about you rambling on by the dinner table earlier. He looked around his relatively boring apartment, at how there was perfect space for another person cuddled up to his side on the couch. “Korai?”

“Sorry. I just think you had a point,” he admitted. “I have her number now, is it rude to ask her out over text?”

Hoshiumi stared at the message he wanted to send you and for the first time in a long while, he felt a little extra insecure. What if you didn’t actually like him? You could probably get someone like Ushijima. Someone taller.

No. He will be whatever he needs to be to deserve your attention. If only he knew he already was the object of all your desires.

Just like the first time you met, you got ahead of him. He saw your name pop up on his screen and he let out an audible gasp. You played really well today, I was proud to wear your number:)

Korai wrote and rewrote about ten different responses, even requesting some help from his aforementioned friend. Thank you! I appreciated seeing you there.

It was a stale and basic answer and made him subconsciously bite at the tip of his fingernail as he watched your chat. He should have said you looked good in it or something, damn it. Nonetheless, you didn’t disappoint. Would you like to call? I’m bored.

And so he spent the rest of the evening listening to you talk and laughing with you. He moved around his apartment, played with a volleyball he had lying around and held the weirdest poses on the sofa because all his attention was on your voice. By the time you hesitantly thanked each other for the time spent, it was the middle of the night and he didn’t have any other choice but to go to sleep if he wanted to make it to practice in the morning. As he tossed and turned in his bed that night, he couldn’t stop berating himself for not securing a date.

Instead, you and Hoshiumi got into the habit of calling each other almost every evening. It made him happy and built up his confidence enough that he eventually dared ask if he could take you out, just the two of you.

Your first date was fantastic. He took you to play laser tag and the other teams didn’t stand a chance against the two of you. After getting the gear off, you were laughing on your way out and he led you to a restaurant close by. Well planned, of course. You shared two different dishes and it really just felt like you were catching up on years of not being friends.

And what better way to finish catching up on your friendship than ending said friendship with a sweet kiss?

masterlist

#hoshiumi x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyuu #haikyu #hq x reader #fanfiction #haikyuu x reader #haikyu fluff #hq #haikyuu x you #haikyuu fluff #hoshiumi kourai #ushijima #kageyama #schweiden adlers

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wordsbyrian · 1 year

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The Owl and The Lioness - Alessia Russo x Reader

Summary: Rugby player!R meets Alessia Russo and things go from there.

A/N: This is the fic I made you guys vote on me writing like a week ago. Also does anyone else feel like I'm writing these pretty fast because I have 3 other fics just waiting to be posted and a 4th in progress.

As a rugby player, you can honestly say that you do not spend much time thinking about football.

In all honesty, you can’t say that you’ve spent more than ten minutes thinking about it in the last 10 years, but that’s all about to change today.

Today, you along with the rest of England’s women's national rugby team are at St. George’s Park because apparently, it would look good if the Red Roses were seen supporting the Lionesses and vice versa before your major tournaments.

You’ve never been more uncomfortable than you are right now standing in front of these footballers in your training kit.

The two sets of captains and coaches are currently trying to figure out the best way to go about this faux joint training. They don’t take very long and before you know it, you and your fellow wings Jess, Ellie, and Lydia are standing with their strikers.

“I’m Beth. That’s Bethany, Nikita, and Alessia,” the newly identified Beth says.

“I’m Lydia and that’s Jess, Ellie, and Owl,” Lydia says, smirking as she purposely tries to wind you up by using your nickname.

“It’s Y/N,” you say, barely loud enough to be heard.

“Speak up Owl,” your teammates say at nearly the same time with identical eye rolls.

Taking a deep breath you try again, voice coming out at a normal volume, “My name is Y/N.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Alessia give you a small grin, which you return despite the sound of blood rushing in your ears.

It’s then that the drills start and you find yourself silently showing her the correct way to pass a rugby ball and the correct way to tackle, chuckling softly as she and her three teammates struggle to bring you down.

In turn, she shows you how to do keepy-ups and how to use your laces to add some power to your shots.

The very last activity of the day is a foot race and it involves most of their team taking on the backs from yours.

“You’re all about to learn why we call her the Owl,” you hear Jess shout from somewhere down the line.

There’s a bit of laughter from your team and even a couple of ‘yeah rights’ from the footballers, but you’re not paying attention to any of that. Your eyes are locked onto the pole at the opposite end of the field, your finish for the race.

All you need is for their coach to blow the whistle and the second she does you’re gone.

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see that at least two of the footballers are slightly ahead of you but you’re not worried about that.

Your only concern is beating your teammates, which you do by a lot.

Upon turning around you see that most of the runners are still a good 15 meters back.

It doesn’t take very long before your teammates are circling you and ruffling your hair though.

“Way to fly Owl,” your captain shouts, hooking her arm around your shoulders, “Really did us proud little rose.”

“Thought I should show that we’re not all big brutes like you, boss,” you respond quietly, a small grin on your face.

She doesn’t find it as funny as you do though taking the opportunity to put you in a headlock.

You struggle against her for a while, not making any progress towards escaping until the coaches call the two teams back in front of them.

Neither of the coaches says anything important, not in your opinion anyway, and they release the two sides to mingle and get ready to go.

Not one for talking with people, you go to gather your stuff and are slightly surprised when a shadow appears above you.

Looking up, you're surprised to see one of the football players standing above you. You recognize her having seen her talking to Alessia earlier.

“Hey Owl, I’m Ella,” she says, “My idiot friend Alessia over there thinks that you’re cute but is too nervous to ask you for your number, so I’m doing it for her.”

“What,” you say confused, “You’re asking me for my number for your friend?”

“Yup.”

Shaking your head, you pull a piece of paper and a pen out of your bag before writing down your number, accompanied by both your name and nickname.

Handing it over, you ask Ella to deliver a message for you, cheeks flush with embarrassment.

“Tell her that I think she’s cute too.”

Over the next few months, you and Alessia spend a considerable amount of time texting and getting to know each other.

When United make their way down to London for games, you take her on dates and show her all of your favorite spots, and the few times your team makes their way to the Manchester area, she does the same.

This of course garners some teasing from your teammates, who have taken to reminding you that most owl species mate for life every time they see you leaving a room to talk to her on the phone.

It’s during one of these phone calls, a facetime to be specific, that her phone gets hijacked by Ella and Mary.

“‘Lo there Owl,” Ella says, accent strong as ever, “I was wondering if you could solve an argument for me.”

“I mean, maybe?”

“Do they call you Owl because you’re fast like a bird or,” Ella’s cut off by Mary snatching the phone away.

“Or because you’re really quiet,” the keeper finishes.

“It’s both,” you answer, “Most owl species can average speeds of 20 mph but they can fly faster in certain situations. The crazy thing is that despite going so fast they make very little noise, virtually silent in fact.

The look on the two players' faces causes you to grin a little because you know exactly why they’re those faces: they’ve never heard you say so many words at once before.

They manage to say as much before Less takes her phone back telling them to “say bye to Owl.”

You smile a little more as the two others rush off, already arguing about something else.

“What are you doing next month,” she asks when they finally leave the room.

After thinking about it for a moment you answer her, “Season ends this week so probably some recovery work and injury prevention to prepare for the world cup and next season.”

“Do you want to come to some of our matches during the Euros?”

“Do you want me to come to your matches at the Euros,” you ask back, watching as her cheeks flush before she nods, “Well if you want me there, I’ll come.”

A smile breaks out on her face and the two of you continue your conversation.

Although you can’t seem to get a clear answer from her about what she’ll be doing for the rest of the week, which is weird.

You do your best to not focus on it and by the time your championship game comes around you’ve forgotten all about her squirrelly behavior.

Then when the final whistle blows, you’re too caught up in your exhaustion and excitement to even remember anything that happened before the game started.

When the whistle blows, you drop to the ground not having the energy to celebrate winning the game and becoming a champion.

You aren’t sure how long you lay there before your teammates come and dogpile on top of you screaming about your performance.

You then find yourself being hauled to your feet by your scrumhalf, Jane, who immediately pulls you into a hug that takes you off your feet.

The smiles don’t leave any of your faces as you shake your opponents' hands. They don't leave when you get the medals put around your necks or when you raise the trophy or when you approach the crowd that hasn’t stopped screaming since the first whistle.

It’s then that you notice a head of blonde hair and bright blue eyes that you would recognize anywhere.

Rushing to the crowd, you climb the barrier meant to keep fans off the pitch, ignoring the shouts of security, and sprint to the person you’ve been looking forward to seeing for weeks.

Pulling her into a hug, you speak directly into her ear, “You said that you wouldn’t be able to make it.”

“I lied, you played great today, baby. Three tries, congrats champ.”

Your cheeks heat slightly at her praise, so instead of responding, you press a kiss to the top of her head, content to just stand there holding her.

Eventually, she pushes you away, sending you back to celebrate with your team.

“We’ll be switching places at the end of next month,” you tell her before walking away.

And you’re right because, on the last day of July, you’re standing in a sold-out Wembley watching as your girlfriend (recent development) and her idiot friends jump around singing Sweet Caroline.

She eventually makes her way over to where you're sitting with her family in the crowd, climbing to the barrier to get a hug.

“I’m proud of you,” you say directly in her ear, not caring about the number of cameras on you. In your mind, if she cared she wouldn’t have leapt into your arms the way she did, so you continue with your praise of her performance, “You played amazing all tournament, Less.”

“Thank you.”

She pulls away and you can see the cogs turning in her mind, her eyes repeatedly flickering to your lips before she surges forward to kiss you.

You both end up smiling into it as the cheers of the crowd around you get louder at the sight.

Pulling back, you smile at her some more before sending her back to the field to continue celebrating with her team.

Pulling your phone out you send her a text that you know she won’t see until much later tonight.

It reads: I can see the headlines now, England’s Superb Lioness and Their Speedy Owl, An Unexpected Power Couple?

#womens soccer #woso fanfics #woso x reader #woso imagine #alessia russo #muwfc imagine #muwfc x reader #engwnt x reader #alessia russo x reader #alessia russo imagine

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wonderful-magician · 27 days

Text

What if

I wanted to rant about Electra

And did

Okay a lot of this ranting is just made up nonsense! ( Obv based off the musical itself ) I'm rewriting the musical to my tastes and would like to actually discuss the characters more than the musical is able too. This is more like a TV show set-up to be honest.

Okay main point I want to get out of the way. Electra is an antagonist. But he SUCKS at being a antagonist- for rusty. I genuinely don't remember any times he actually addresses rusty that's like actually important. He's really just a driving force against greaseball. He seems way more upset about diesel than steam. Though to be fair, he seems so confident in himself I doubt he's worried about some kid who's just kinda there.

Because Electra just appears. Unlike rusty and greaseball who are established to know each other. Electra literally just APPEARS. He's not part of the nationals. He wasn't even originally entered into the race. He just appears. And is here now. And he just wants to show off and beat the previous champion. Why would he acknowledge the steam engine who has no chance???

He doesn't even do anything outwardly malicious. I mean he listens to Red Caboose's plan and doesn't really mind that they cheat. And uhm. I guess he goes with pearl but she consented and willingly did that so it's not .. the worst. And he sometimes electrocutes people. But really most of the musical he just stands next to rusty and greaseball fighting while like " :/ " or just flirting with the components or something I don't know.

Of course this doesn't change the fact he's an asshole. He's apathetic and very naive honestly. He only cares about himself, and has tantrums like an actual toddler. He doesn't even ask out the pretty girls himself he has his accountant/security guy do that lmao. He's obviously not a guy used to doing anything himself. Or used to losing. And is just generally annoying to anybody who meets him. But he's probably the *most* redeemable of the three antags. In of which. Idk I feel like just having him live at the Apollo-Victoria for a few years or something would help just get him out of his stupid attitude hfhdbdb

A little bit indulgent perhaps. But i feel like in a episodic setting Electra would probably lose some of his apathetic tendencies. Not all of them- he's a computer. And he'll always be self centered and care a lot less about others feelings than most. But I could truly see him befriending Rusty, pearl, maybe even Dinah. Though I don't know if he'd ever get along with greaseball... Give it like 20 years... Maybe more... A lot of time.

But I truly think with the right circumstances he could just be??? A confident guy who is a bit inconsiderate?? Probably still whiny because you can't take the diva out of Electra but y'know what I mean.

Even MORE indulgent. I want a Dustin and Electra friendship SO BAD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. These two are like. Opposites. But in the way that I just feel like they would help each other SO MUCH RAAAH. Electra is confident but struggles with empathy?? Dustin is overly empathetic and very insecure?? THEY COULD HELP EACH OTHER SO MUCH AAAA. Ok ok I need to stop with that.

But essentially I just think that Electra is this young guy. Like really young. He's one of the ( potentially, the youngest ) youngest people in the cast. Only a few years in service and he's already got a horrific ego. Just because he is TRULY good at racing. Can't take that from him. Even if he's very late. Like. Really late to the entry. But I just think he's this young guy who kinda threw himself into the wrong situation. Probably not realizing that messing with Caboose is a horrible idea. And that he was unknowingly racing against gods favorite so. oops.

Ok anyway I should shut up now ok I like Electra he's cool but he's a horrible antagonist but I love him and this probably is really hard to read (⁠＾⁠∇⁠＾⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♪

Oh also why does nobody ever use his hypnotism powers. He has those. Are- are we going to ignore that-?? Ok...

#starlight express #stex electra #stex #electra the electric engine #ive lost it #this is probably very hard to read #im sorry #i love u electra #ur just like a step away from being a himbo i think #but im pretty sure hes actually smart because hes s #yknow a computer #still dont think hes responsible there's a reason he has his components #will spend his life savings on glitter #should i do more of these #i dont know

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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Dennis Draughon, CBC

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 2, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 03, 2024

Almost six months have passed since President Joe Biden asked Congress to appropriate money for Ukraine in a national security supplemental bill. At first, House Republicans said they would not pass such a bill without border security. Then, when a bipartisan group of senators actually produced a border security provision for the national security bill, they killed it, under orders from former president Trump.

In February the Senate passed the national security supplemental bill with aid for Ukraine without the border measures by a strong bipartisan vote of 70 to 29. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) cheered its passage, saying: “The national security bill passed by the Senate is of profound importance to America’s security.”

The measure would pass in the House by a bipartisan vote, but House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to take it up, acting in concert with Trump.

On March 24, on Washington Week, foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum said: “Trump has decided that he doesn’t want money to go to Ukraine… It's really an extraordinary moment; we have an out-of-power ex-president who is in effect dictating American foreign policy on behalf of a foreign dictator or with the interests of a foreign dictator in mind.”

On Thursday, March 28, Beth Reinhard, Jon Swaine, and Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post reported that Richard Grenell, an extremist who served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, has been traveling around the world to meet with far-right foreign leaders, “acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump’s support and, at times, working against the current administration’s policies.”

Grenell, the authors say, is openly laying the groundwork for a president who will make common cause with authoritarian leaders and destroy partnerships with democratic allies. Trump has referred to Grenell as “my envoy,” and the Trump camp has suggested he is a frontrunner to become secretary of state if Trump is reelected in 2024.

Applebaum was right: it is extraordinary that we have a former president who is now out of power running his own foreign policy.

For most of U.S. history, there was an understanding that factionalism stopped at the water’s edge. Partisans might fight tooth and nail within the U.S., but they presented a united front to the rest of the world. That understanding was strong enough that it was not for nearly a half century that we had definitive proof that in 1968 Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon had launched a secret effort to thwart incumbent president Lyndon Baines Johnson’s peace initiative to end the Vietnam War; Nixon had tried very hard to hide it.

But the era of hiding attempts to undermine foreign policy ended in 2015, when 47 Republican senators openly warned Iranian officials that they would destroy any agreement Iran made with then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, over nuclear weapons as soon as a Republican regained the White House. At the time it sparked a firestorm, although the senators involved could argue that they, too, should be considered the voice of the government.

It was apparently a short step from the idea that it was acceptable to undermine foreign policy decisions made by a Democratic president to the idea that it was acceptable to work with foreign operatives to change foreign policy. In late 2016, Trump’s then national security advisor Michael Flynn talked to Russian foreign minister Sergey Kislyak about relieving Russia of U.S. sanctions. Now, eight years later, Trump is conducting his own foreign policy, and it runs dead against what the administration, the Pentagon, and a majority of senators and representatives think is best for the nation.

Likely expecting help from foreign countries, Trump is weakening the nation internationally to gain power at home. In that, he is retracing the steps of George Logan, who in 1798 as a private citizen set off for France to urge French officials to court popular American opinion in order to help throw George Washington’s party out of power and put Thomas Jefferson’s party in.

Congress recognized that inviting foreign countries to interfere on behalf of one candidate or another would turn the United States into a vassal state, and when Logan arrived back on U.S. shores, he discovered that Congress had passed a 1799 law we now know as the Logan Act, making his actions a crime.

The law reads: “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

Trump’s interference in our foreign policy is weakening Ukraine, which desperately needs equipment to fight off Russia’s invasion. It is also warning partners and allies that they cannot rely on the United States, thus serving Russian president Vladimir Putin’s goal of fracturing the alliance standing against Russian aggression.

Today, Lara Seligman, Stuart Lau, and Paul McLeary of Politico reported that officials at the meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday are expected to discuss moving the Ukraine Defense Contact Group from U.S. to NATO control. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group is an organization of 56 nations brought together in the early days of the conflict by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and then–Joint Chiefs chair General Mark Milley to coordinate supplying Ukraine.

Members are concerned about maintaining aid to Ukraine in case of a second Trump presidency.

Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon and NATO official, told the Politico reporters: “There’s a feeling among, not the whole group but a part of the NATO group, that thinks it is better to institutionalize the process just in case of a Trump re-election. And that’s something that the U.S. is going to have to get used to hearing, because that is a fear, and a legitimate one.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richarson #NATO #foreign policy #history #MAGA Republican #authoritarianism #war in Ukraine #Putin #Russian aggression #trump interference in foreign policy #trump undermining us foreign policy #Logan Act

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anartificialsatellite · 2 months

Text

Was thinking about the layers that the universal nation language thing adds again. I know a lot of people have already talked about their feelings about this aspect of Hetalia, but I'm gonna go ahead and talk about it again because I want to.

Tbh, the more I think about it the more I love it for a bunch of reasons, but I was specific thinking recently about it in the context of USJP (because I have the brainrot) and HNNNGg

Having that universal language allows you to put meaning behind certain choices made within your own fan works or in the way you interpret canon? And my absolute favorite example of this applied is with America and Japan at the end of Japan's isolation.

Here's the thing: The universal language is canon. It's also canon that, when the Black Ships came, Japan had a translator between them when he spoke to America for the first time.

What a move!!!

Now, look, I know this scene is generally just played for laughs with miscommunications presenting America as a pervert and all, but it would not be a Hetalia post if I didn't insert way too much meaning into a couple of panels from a gag manga, SO -

This man shows up at Japan's door with coal-powered warships to force him out of two hundred years of isolation, and they both know they can understand one another.

But Japan insists on a translator anyway. And America agrees. Why?

For Japan, it reflects his wariness to even consider the terms being offered, but it is also a test of America (and his government's) intentions. They say they want mutually beneficial trade agreements (of course while asking for preferential terms, as would lkely be expected for such a negotiation) but Japan knows he and his government are sitting at a considerable disadvantage. It's important to know how much of this proposed cooperation is being extended in good faith.

So he sets a condition to their meeting that they both know is unnecessary from a practical standpoint.

If America intends to negotiate, their representative will accept this condition as a show of good faith. If they don't, and he refuses, that shows Japan where they really view themselves in this negotiation and how much he and his government can trust them.

Now, if you'll indulge me reaching even farther into speculation about the way the canon universe functions... It's made pretty clear at various points I'm canon that the amount of influence a nation has on their government and the respect their bosses hold for them varies a lot between nations and over time.

So! With that in mind, the authority with which America acts in their personal discussions/negotiations will also tell Japan whether he is truly considered to be representative of his country or if he is merely a figurative representation positioned in servitude to his bosses and trotted out as a matter of formality and show.

America's reaction to the condition of speaking through a translator, which again, they both know is completely unnecessary, can give Japan (who will need to bring this back to his bosses) vital information to help him decide whether he is truly approaching the possibility of real negotiations with a fellow nation and his government, or if this is simply establishing a pretext for the invasion that is already coming.

how is that not cool as fuck

One of the things I love about this canon is that it is, for the most part, dumb jokes about a bunch of idiots, but there's so much to play with and run away with and I don't think we always appreciate what fertile ground we really have here.

#hetalia #hws america #hws japan #far too much analysis #its not that deep bro #it is in my heart #aph japan #aph america

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footygirl114 · 2 years

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Leona (Leah Williamson X Reader)

Friends, I am so sorry I have not posted in a while, It has been a struggle for me. I finally got some inspiration again @redhairedwolfwitch thank you for getting my mojo back (This ones for Rook). There will be a second part that I hope to get out soon, but as always feedback is appreciated.

Hearing your name on the roster announcement to play for England during the euros was like an out of body experience. You have been dreaming of this ever since you started playing footy, and you learned that there was a woman’s national team. You could not believe it, but you knew that you had put in the work to get here.

Having decided to go to school in the USA meant you fell off the English teams radar for a few years, when you decided to stay in the states for your Masters and play in the NWSL you had all but wrote off the chance to play internationally. After two unreal seasons in the NWSL you were picked up my Manchester United.

Your first season with United had you back on the national teams radar you remained a fringe player but kept killing it on the club scene. During qualifying and warm up games leading to the euros you started to see more playing time, you assumed it was to give other players a rest. Turns out it was to see if you could hold your own as you were now on the squad.

Having been playing with the Lionesses for the last few months you did know most of the players, you were closer with the younger girls as well as your United teammates. The team often joked that you, Tooney and Alessia were like the three musketeers. You loved the environment with the team but you always felt like a bit of an outsider, most of the team had been together for years.

Rejoining the team after the brief break to see your families while the team was chosen lead to your nerves going crazy. Walking in to the training grounds where the team would be stationed for the next few weeks before the start of the euros was an unreal experience, luckily you had got a ride with Ella so you were able to follow her lead to the team meeting.

“Welcome everyone! The 23 of you will be leading England to its first ever European Championship!” Sarina started her speech and paused to let the team cheer. “I picked each and everyone of you with this team in mind. You will each play a role in our tournament, some bigger than others, but every single one of you is important to our goal” she continued on and when she got the room assignments you paid more attention “We have picked your roommates based on who we think will get along, but also who we think will be the best matched to help each other through this tournament. These will last till we win this thing! First up Mary and Rach” as she went on you ignored most pairings until you heard “Y/N and our fearless captan Leah.”

You made eye contact with Leah who immediately winked at you, you could feel your cheeks turn bright red from that simple action. No one else knew but you may have had a tiny crush on Leah, she was someone that you always admired, from her playing style to how she carried her self. You knew nothing would ever come of it and you would eventually get over it, but this roommate experience would be interesting.

Two weeks in to camp and you were about to ready to explode. It was the hardest two weeks of football you had ever played, the caliber of the team you are training with was unreal. Everyone had brought their A-game and knew that you needed to bring it in order to get a chance of seeing any playing time.

This hard training environment meant that when team dinner was over and you were back in your room you and Leah barley had the energy to brush your teeth and say goodnight before you were passing out. It helped because you didn’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself about your silly crush but it did suck because you felt like all you did was play footy and nothing else.

When the team finally had an afternoon off a couple of free hours before they had to be back for a team dinner it was a breath of fresh air. You, Tooney and Less all had plans to go find a coffee shop and relax, but when you got back to your room to change and get read to go out, you laid down to have a quick nap and ended up passing out and missing out on the cafe trip.

Almost two hours later you woke up with a start and sat up in bed and could feel your heart hammering.

“It’s okay Y/N, your safe” You heard from beside you and you looked over to the bed next to you and saw Leah, sitting up in bed with a book open on her lap.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep, what time is it?” You ask her, as you train your eyes back to your lap where you have nervously started to play with your fingers.

“Almost 5pm, you’ve been out for a bit” she tells you quietly.

Shaking your head you remember your plans and you jump to stand beside your bed “shit, I was supposed to meet the girls”

Leah closed her book and placed it on the bedside table as she says “It’s okay Y/N, I texted Tooney and told her you were asleep and to let you sleep.”

Turning towards her you loom at her with a questioning look as you ask “Why? they could have woken me?”

“I have seen how the training has affected you, you needed the sleep.” she says to softly, as she’s speaking she has sat up and is now sitting cross legged against the head board. “Do you wanna talk about it Y/N?” she asks.

At the comfort you hear in her voice you can feel the tears start to gather at the corners of your eyes. Looking up at the ceiling to try and stop the tears you ask “As my roommate or as the captain of the team?”

“In here I am your roommate, and friend Y/N” she says in the same soft tone, as she pats the bed in front of her for you to sit.

Deciding to follow her lead you sit on the edge of her bed as you say “It’s just been a lot, I feel like a football machine. It’s like I am not me anymore.”

She scoots closer to you without touching as she says “I know its hard, but it will get easier. When I played in the World cup the first few weeks were hell, but once the magic of the tournament hit, it all felt worth it.”

You slowly turn so you can see her beside you and you realise how deep the emotions in her eyes are, and you feel like you can see the burden she has on her shoulders. “I just feel like I’m not on the same level as the rest of you Leah.”

Shaking her head she says “Listen to me when I tell you that you would not be here if Sarina didn’t think you were on our level. I have been watching you Y/N, for the last few years. You have become an unreal midfielder and I am so excited to see what you can do when you get the chance. I have no doubts that you will be leading this team very very soon.”

You lean in to her as you say with tears in your eyes “thank you” at this she wraps her arm around your shoulders and pulls you into her for a hug. As you turn and wrap your arm around her you feel like you are home, the comfort you feel is one you do not want to leave.

You remain in her arms for a few quiet moments when you hear her whisper into your hair “You are amazing Y/N, and I am so glad you are here with me, with the team.”

Not wanting to ruin the moment you push your self further into her hold and enjoy the comfort that you can find in her arms.

The next week feels better and you feel like you are finally coming around a bit to this whole international tournament vibes. The biggest help is that Leah has taken to checking in on you at night before bed and making sure you do not feel like a football machine only. You both have started watching Love Island together at night and try to imagine who you both would want to be or be with.

It's how you officially learned that she was single, and into women, not that you doubted that but good to know. You also learned that she was interested in someone who played football, but wouldn’t give you anymore than that. She learnt about your preference for ladies, you almost spilled your crush on her but you caught your self before you could.

The day before the tournament was due to start the team was given an afternoon off again, this time you made sure you got out of the hotel with Tooney and Alessia. The three of you ended up at a cafe a few blocks away, and settled in for an afternoon of gossip.

Since none of you were rooming together you wanted to hear all of their antics. You were a midfield and didn’t get to spend time with them while training since they were always with the attackers.

“So I want to hear what its like to room with Roebuck Tooney?” You ask Ella.

“Yeah who thought rooming united and city would be a good idea?” Alessia chimes in.

Ella rolls her eyes at that as she answers “You know I love Ellie, but we do often argue over reds and blues, and which colour is better”

Laughing you ask “Hopefully your getting some tips on how to score on her.”

“Yeah right, Like Tooney could.” Alessia chirps.

Rolling her eyes again Ella asks “I wanna hear how it is rooming with Captain serious?”

You can feel yourself start to blush as you try to get it under control so that you dont give your crush away but it was too late. Alessia caught right on and immediately latched on to it and asked “Oh my god! Y/N why are you blushing??”

Ella looks closer at you and pokes your cheek with her finger as she says “You are bushing! Spill Y/N”

“Nothing to spill guys, Leah is great.” you say with a shrug.

“she’s great?” Alessia asks with a smirk.

Shaking your head you realise your mistake and correct your self “she’s a great roommate, very clean and quiet.”

“Oh my god! I got it, Y/N has a crush!” Ella exclaims.

“SHHHHH guys I do not” you say to them as you cross your arms and pout at your best friends.

You see them both looking at each other as Alessia says “She so does, this explains why she’s always talking about Arsenal!”

“Yes it does, it's not the team it's Leah.” Ella says.

“Oh my god guys stop it please, I do not have a crush” you say and before anyone else can respond you hear behind you.

“Who does Y/N have a crush on?” As you turn you realise it was Beth talking to you, and she’s standing with Lauren and Leah.

Immediately feeling your cheeks heat up you refuse to make eye contact as you hear Alessia and Ella laughing at your face. Ella finally chimes in “She won’t tell us who”

You then hear Beth ask you “come on Y/N tell us”

And Leah at the same time say “You told me you didn’t have one”

Blushing harder at both of the questions you still refuse to make eye contact as you feel a hand on your shoulder, you can immediately tell its Leah’s as she says to the rest of the girls “It’s time to head back for dinner guys, thats why we stopped by.”

Sensing the change in subject Ella stands up and says “thank god, lets go back I am starving.”

“You are always starving Tooney” Beth tells her and immediately turns and runs as Ella took off after her.

Alessia stands and follows as she says to Lauren “we better go make sire they don’t chase each other into traffic.”

It's a moment before you feel the hand on your shoulder squeeze again and Leah say “Come on roomie, we better head back.”

Nodding you stand up and follow her out of the shop, not able to meet her eyes since it would probably break your resolve and confess to her.

Later that night you are both back in your room, you are sitting on the edge of your bed lost in thought when Leah comes out of the bathroom ready for bed. She sees you lost in thought as she asks “Are you okay Y/N?”

You nod and says “yeah”

“Is this about earlier? You know I didn’t mean it, you don’t have to tell me anything you do not want to.” she says to you softly.

Looking up at her you realise she is standing within arms length to you. Deciding to tell her you say “I did lie before but only because I was embarrassed to tell you who it was.”

She takes a small step closer and says “Y/N there is nothing to be embarrassed about with me.”

Smiling you say softly “its you Leah” breaking eye contact as your not able to meet her eyes as you confess your hopeless crush.

Feeling her hand on your chin she forces you to meet her eyes as she whispers “Y/N”

Nodding you maintain eye contact as you reach your hand out to her elbow in front of you.

She uses her other hand to stroke your cheek as she says “You are mine too.” you can feel the smile on your face start to grow as she says “But I can’t do this while I am your captain Y/N” and you feel the smile fall again.

Breaking eye contact you slowly lower your eyes and tell her “I get it Leah, I understand”

She releases your face but pulls you into her and wraps you in her arms. You know this is the closest comfort you will get from her, so you sink into it and enjoy any moment you can get.

#woso #woso imagine #woso imagines #woso x reader #leah williamson #leah williamson imagine #leah williamson x reader #engwnt

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beauty-and-passion · 1 year

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Eurovision and the jury’s problem (but mostly the jury’s problem)

Ah, the Eurovision national juries. I love them so much. My love is so big that, since I started this tradition of writing a post about Eurovision, I’ve always included one paragraph to openly express my love for them and, not surprisingly, my love took the shape of FUCK YOU JURY.

So this year gave me the final push to do more research and finally give them the post they deserve, in which I will finally explain why they do more harm than good and are generally useless.

If that’s what you wanted to know, you can close the post now, thank you for your time. But if you want to know why I think the jury is useless, then allow me to expand more and properly explain myself.

_______________________

The jury has always been part of the show!

Yes, but now always with the same power.

Let’s do a bit of history: Eurovision started in the 50s, right after the end of WW2. TV was starting to grow stronger and with the birth of the EBU, they were searching for a TV program that could’ve involved and united all nations.

And so, an Italian journalist said: “Hey, here in Italy we have this sick song competition called Sanremo. We can make something similar, but every European country should send an artist.”. Marcel Bezençon, general manager of the EBU at the time, liked the idea and, after a few meetings, it was decided to make this music competition that will become Eurovision.

So yes, this is how Eurovision started. It’s because of Sanremo. It’s because of Italy. My country might do stupid shit, but we are still able to do something good once in a while.

The first edition counted 7 countries: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Four of them will become the “Big Five”, because they are the ones that put more money into this competition. Other countries will slowly join in.

The jury was first introduced because, well, there was no possible way to call every single person who was watching the show. The TV was still in its infancy, let alone the global communications, so of course there was a jury. IT was the only way.

However, over time the televoting system was born and it started to improve. In 1997 five countries used it for the first time and from the year after all countries could use it. The jury was left in the back and used only under exceptional circumstances when televoting was not possible.

This lasted from 1997 to 2009. Then from 2010 it started the 50/50 system.

So yes, the jury has always been part of the show. But at first it was present because it was the only way to choose a winner, then it was pushed in the back, only to regain more power in the last 10 years.

But hey, you may ask: since Eurovision has been inspired by Sanremo, maybe this is how Sanremo voting system works too, right?

Nope. We are Italians, so we should make the most complicated voting system ever. Sanremo is currently articulated in five evenings and every evening has different juries and different ways to vote. I won’t go into too much detail because it’s bonkers, but I can tell you that:

1) There are multiple juries: the public, a jury made of 150 accredited representatives and the opinion poll jury. This one in particular is a group of people chosen by the national public broadcasting company RAI (which broadcasts Sanremo) out of a sample of habitual music users and selected according to criteria of age/geographical origin.

So no, the system is completely different and yes, this system is evolving too, because the opinion poll jury counted 1000 people last year, this year only 300 and who knows how many there will be in the future.

2) The final result is the sum of all three votes: 33% of the final voting is made of the representative’s jury, 33% of the opinion poll jury and 34% of the televoting. So even if by just one measly point, the televoting is the most important one out of the three.

Is this system perfect? No, it doesn’t work either and it’s fucking complicated. But at least it acknowledges that the public deserves to have more power than the juries. And there is also more than one jury, which at least allows a wider vision of things.

_______________________

The jury is here because it brings more variety!

Aww, how adorable.

I specifically searched for every single winning song from 1997 to 2023, thus including both the years without jury (1997-2008) and the ones with jury (2009-2023). I checked which is the musical genre of every winning song.

Do you want to know which genre won the most? Pop.

Do you want to know how many times a pop song won in the years without jury (including europop and latin-pop)? 9 times.

Do you want to know how many times a pop song won in the years with jury (including folk-pop, dance-pop and electro-pop)? 10 times.

Please, tell me more about the variety the jury brings. Can’t wait to hear it.

_______________________

The jury is here because it brings variety 2: Englishvision

Europe: a country with a shit ton of languages and we use always the same one for singing.

Do you want to know how many times we had a winning song that wasn’t in English from 1997 to 2023? 7 times and in two of them there were English parts.

The first three winners come from the years without jury (Dana International - "Diva", Ruslana - "Wild Dances", Marija Šerifović - "Molitva"). The others come from the years with jury and my god we had to fight tooth and nail to have them:

Jamala - "1944"

Salvador Sobral - "Amar Pelos Dois"

Måneskin - "Zitti e buoni"

Kalush Orchestra - "Stefania"

Those are people’s winners. Well, except for Jamala who no one wanted as a winner, because the public wanted Russia and the jury Australia. However, let’s leave it in for now: it’s a particular case I want to talk about later.

What I want to let you know is that, in order to have these winners, the public had to do a massive collective effort to give them enough points to overcome the jury - especially the last two. And if you know them, it’s because they are in the top 10 list of the public’s favorites.

But what if I tell you we could’ve had two more songs in their native languages on this list?

In 2015 the public’s favourite was Italy with Il Volo. An Italian song, genre classical music. It lost against Sweden’s pop song.

In 2023 the public’s massive favourite was, as you know, Finland. A Finnish song, genre hyperpop/industrial metal. It lost against Sweden’s pop song.

What a strange coincidence, isn’t it? Both times a song in a native language lost against an English pop song. Both times, the public’s favourite lost because the jury’s favourite won. Both times it was against Sweden.

Please, tell me again about the fairness of this system and how much variety it brings.

________________________

The jury is here because the eastern countries all vote for their neighbors!

Just because the western countries all hate each other’s neighbours, it’s not a valid reason to blame the eastern ones for that.

Also, hey, wasn’t that a music competition? Why should we even care about which country the winning song comes from? Shouldn’t the jury think just about the music? Please tell me more about the impartiality of the jury.

Another thing: maybe it’s just me, but I supposed everyone studied math or had a basic knowledge of how many countries are in Europe. Well, I did both for you and if we divide Europe in half, we will have more o less 21 countries on the west and 26 countries on the east (I am including Australia in the west).

In my world, 26 is a bigger number than 21. So if the east slightly wins more times than the west is, well, understandable. The probability for them to win is higher, because there are more artists from those countries and so they have more chances to bring the winning song. I don’t think it’s so difficult to understand.

Maybe the reason why the western countries win less is not because “the easterns votes for their neighbours”, but because the westerns do not take the competition seriously and send shitty songs. Why Italy rarely gets a bad position? Because we care about music and we want to send something good. Why the UK fails a lot of times? Because they don’t care enough to send a good song. They are both Big Fives and they both put money on this show: the only difference is that one cares a bit more than the other. So instead of blaming the east, maybe it’s time to start bringing more decent songs.

And this “the east wins more” is even more stupider, if you look at the countries with the highest number of victories: Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Luxembourg and France.

In my world, those countries are all in the west. I know we all hate each other, but knowing when our rivals are on a map would be a good start.

Do you want to know why this stupid theory exists? It’s all because of the years without jury. It’s because in the years 2001-2008 we had this series of winners:

Estonia

Latvia

Turkey

Ukraine

Greece

Finland

Serbia

Russia

Since they are all in the east, they thought these countries were all voting for each other’s. That’s it.

I don’t know how they justified Ireland winning 3 times in a row (1992-1994) in their minds but hey, maybe that’s why I’m not a member of the EBU.

_________________________

The jury doesn’t have a favourite!

Very cute.

Do you want to know which are the countries with the most victories in the years 1997-2023? Here is a very funny list:

Israel: 2 times

1998 (no jury year) with Dana International - "Diva" (public’s favourite)

2018 (jury year) with Netta - "Toy" (public’s favourite)

Denmark: 2 times

2000 (no jury year) with Olsen Brothers - "Fly On The Wings Of Love" (public’s favourite)

2013 (jury year) with Emmelie de Forest - "Only Teardrops" (public’s favourite)

Ukraine: 3 times

2004 (no jury year) with Ruslana - "Wild Dances" (public’s favourite)

2016 (jury year) with Jamala - "1944" (not public’s favourite, but highly appreciated by the public)

2022 (jury year) with Kalush Orchestra - "Stefania" (public’s favourite)

Sweden: 4 times

1999 (no jury year) with Charlotte Nilsson - "Take Me To Your Heaven" (public’s favourite)

2012 (jury year) with Loreen - "Euphoria" (public’s favourite)

2015 (jury year) with Måns Zelmerlöw - "Heroes" (jury’s favourite)

2023 (jury year) with Loreen - "Tattoo" (jury’s favourite)

I don’t know you, but I notice two victories that made the public unhappy because both times the jury’s power overcame the public’s power. How weird it happened for the same country that won three times since the 50/50 system has been introduced.

Sure, the first victory was wanted by the public, but the other two were against the public’s will. And please allow me to repeat it again because this is what upsets me the most: both times an English pop song won instead of a song in a native language with a different musical genre.

And what makes these two victories even more undeserved, is that in general the winner has always been the public’s favourite. In 27 years the public’s favourite won 23 times and two times it was a public’s appreciated artist (Jamala, Duncan Lawrence).

The only two times public’s favourite didn’t win, it was a Swedish artist with a massive push from the jury that made it impossible to defeat it.

But hey, maybe this point is a bit unfair. After all, it’s not Sweden’s fault if they learned what the jury likes and keep sending the same kind of song to get their votes. Maybe I am just jealous: I mean, my country basically invented Eurovision and yet we’re not able to exploit this show to win all the times? Gosh, we’re useless :P

The problem is not Sweden’s cleverness. The problem is that the jury always uses the same criteria, so one country has been able to recognize and exploit them. In a democratic world with a fair competition, the organizers of said competition would say: “okay, maybe we should change the criteria all the time, so no one would be able to use them and the jury will remain impartial”. But I suppose this was a too difficult choice for the EBU.

Or maybe they just own Sweden some money, who knows. I really have no idea.

_____________________

The jury is here because otherwise people’s votes would be political!

Oh, so hilarious.

This is the list of the winning entries by jury and by the public:

Until the recent years, public and jury agreeded on the winner and when the public chose a winner, it was jury’s second choice. So if the public’s votes were political back then, the jury’s votes were political as well.

Only in the last editions jury and public started to truly diverge and unless I missed something, Israel just had a catchy song, Italy’s victory had nothing political behind, Ukraine’s victory was a massive collective justifiable effort to say “fuck you” to Russia and people just like Finland’s song more. So, again, nothing political behind.

However, there are also two very interesting cases, the only ones in which the winner was a country no one chose as favorite:

2016: public’s favourite: Russia - jury’s favourite: Australia. Winner: Ukraine

2019: public’s favourite: Norway - jury’s favourite: North Macedonia. Winner: the Netherlands

Do you want to know why the jury’s favourite of 2016 is Australia? I don’t know. What I know is that Australia joined Eurovision in 2015 and it was supposed to be just a one time thing, so they were automatically qualified for the finals. But in 2016 they joined like everyone else and had to make through the semifinals and... well, it wouldn’t be nice to send back home a country that just joined. I am not saying these two things are related, but it’s a bit of a weird coincidence, isn’t it?

Do you want to know why the jury’s favourite of 2019 is North Macedonia? I don’t know. What I know is that on June 2018 the country changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. And, you know, it’s nice to hear it more times, just to leave an impression on people’s minds. Again: I am not saying these two things are related, but it’s a bit of a weird coincidence, isn’t it?

Okay, let’s leave the tinfoil hat theories on the side. Do you really want to know where the “the public’s vote is too political” thing comes from? It comes from Jamala winning in 2016. Because Russia has already started with their bullshit in Crimea and Jamala’s song (despite not specifically talking about that invasion) was a reminder of that situation. And so everyone blamed the public for this victory and said that “the public was influenced by the actual political situation”. All while Jamala was second favorite of both the public AND the jury. So, again, if the public was biased, the jury is biased as well.

Actually, in her case the jury is a lot more biased than the public, because the public’s favorite was Russia! So, well, who is the political one now?

The truth is that the public is made of people and of course people will be influenced by the situation in which they live. But same goes for the jury: the jury is also influenced by the current situations, both Eurovision-related and world-related. So it’s totally unfair to blame the public for having a heart and a mind and for their will to choose a song over the other - especially when they are not influenced by the world situation (like in 2016) or when they are as it happened in 2022.

And, honestly, I’d much rather prefer people choosing a winner because of a fucking war, than a bunch of people choosing their winner for reasons that will benefit them only.

______________________

The jury is made of experts and they give their expert opinion!

Awesome. Now explain to me how can you objectively choose the best song between a pop one, a folk one, a metal one and a rock one. Tell me which universal criteria will you apply.

Voice? But each genre requires a different kind of voice. An opera singer has a powerful voice, but growl music requires a powerful voice as well - heck, it’s even more complicated than opera, so it should be more praised than that! I mean, try growling without sounding like an idiot: it’s immensely hard. How can you decide which is better in an objective way? Do you just focus on which is more difficult to perform? But then it’s unfair to the pop singers, who also have good beautiful voices. How can you objectively choose the best?

Performance? But every genre requires a specific kind of performance. You can’t put an energetic performance on a ballad or slow dancers on a rock song. If two performance are equally beautifully ftting for their music genre, how can you decide which is objectively better?

Lyrics? But not everyone knows the lyrics of all songs and some lyrics might have multiple meanings or refer to particular aspects of the country’s culture, so you might not understand how beautiful they are. How can you choice which one is better, without knowing all these details?

Overall impression of the song? That’s not even an objective criteria, try harder.

The truth is that you CANNOT choose between different songs and different genres in a universally objective way. You will always be influenced by your own preferences and musical tastes.

Do you want to know how these criteria could’ve worked? If everyone brought the same song. Then okay, you can objectively make your choice: after all, we are talking about one genre and one song. In all other cases, this criteria makes zero sense.

And before you say “the jury needs to recognize the good singers”: people have ears. If a singer is bad, people can hear it by themselves. Polish people proved very well that they can recognize a very bad singer from an extremely good one and I doubt the entire country of Poland is made of musical experts or that everyone likes dance-pop/electro-industrial music.

Same goes for all the people around the world who praised Jann and said Blanka is terrible: I doubt they are all music experts or Polish. Maybe they just have ears.

Sure, some people have better taste than others, I don’t deny that. But considering that all humans have ears and a brain, I don’t think they need someone else to tell them that yes, this thing you like is good or no, that thing you don’t like is bad. Maybe they can understand it by themselves.

And if the problem is that the public doesn’t have a taste, then give them the means to acquire said taste. Let experts give more insights about an artist: they could explain why their voices are good or bad, why their performance works or not and why the lyrics are complex or simple. Let the public take a decision, instead of treating them like toddlers who should be spoon-fed.

______________________

The importance of the public

What makes this 2023 victory so empty, is that it has nothing Eurovision stands for. It’s not the victory of an unknown, talented artist. It’s not a victory the majority wanted. It’s not a victory that sends a good message.

It’s the victory of mainstream and safety. It’s a victory that doesn’t look forward and doesn’t try anything new, because it prefers to rely on the same old stuff. It’s a victory of nostalgia, industries and brands.

And if it hurts so much, it’s not just because the public’s will has never been so blatantly clear about who they wanted to win, but also because after two years in which we had native languages and new genres on the top, we were really, really hoping for a switch towards something different.

I don’t blame the past artists for not trying more, the years were different. But we are in the 20s of the year 2000 now. We are more open to different people, genders, sexual orientations. We don’t have to play safe anymore, not in a world that is moving forward. We can have different winners, we can have different cultures and we can have different genres.

I really hope that this year will teach something, not just to us, but to the EBU and to Europe. If things will change, good. And despite my harsh words, I am okay if the jury stays: it has always been present, after all, even when pushed in the back. So if we have to keep it, let’s keep it.

But it’s time to give them less power. It’s time for a 30/70 or a 20/80 system. 50/50 is just not acceptable anymore.

Or, as the 2023 public’s winner said:

Thank you for your time and please, keep support your winners.

(Clips from THIS video)

#eurovision #eurovision 2023 #esc #esc 2023 #käärijä #this will always be his year #sorry not sorry #will I ever grow past this year?#maybe I'm almost ready to move on #maybe #just to be sure I'm not hating loreen #nor sweden as a country #just the unfairness of a system #so don't even start #we countries are all brothers and sisters and we should make fun of each other #and of ourselves

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thistlecatfics · 4 months

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Tedromeda Rec List

I put together a Tedromeda rec list for an anon ask of @spindrifters, and I figured it ought to be its own post! I like messy, imperfect, bordering on toxic Tedromeda, and I especially love lesbian!Tedromeda so if those are not your things you may not vibe with this rec list and that's ok! But if they are -

Turncoat: in defense of andromeda tonks nee black, @ink-splotch (8.3k)

“When her little cousin Sirius got disowned too, years later, Andromeda sent him a fruit basket.”

This fic was so big and so brilliant and the world building is so excellent. It made me cry. I had to triple check the word count in putting it here because it seems so much longer because it’s just so rich with life and detail.

War, or Peace, or Whatever This Is, Slyboots (7.6k)

“Fall in line, that’s the way, and never mind who gives the orders. Carrying on, that’s the British national sport.”In the aftermath of the Fall of the Ministry of Magic, Andromeda Tonks does what little good she can.”

I love a war time fic with complicated world building and no good choices. Really brilliant fic. The sharp, fast moving pace adds to the paranoid anything-can-happen-at-any-moment feeling of a coup.

In Memoriam, Bitterfic on LiveJournal (6k)

“When he was young, brash, he had said that the Muggle-born were as good as any purebloods, yet he had never doubted that Andromeda Black was infinitely superior to him. Even after twenty-five years of marriage, he never thought of her by his name, as Andromeda Tonks. She was to him always Andromeda Black whose voice cut through the darkness that night in the Forbidden Forest.” (cw: sexual assault, suicidal ideation)

A brilliant haunting little fic from my favorite LJ writer from wayyy back in the day. Ted Tonks POV

Andromeda Liberata (133k+ WIP) (lesbian Tedromeda)

“In which Andromeda Black cruelly betrays her sisters and sets in motion the total destruction of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black because she fell in love with a lesbian muggleborn.”

While it might be tacky to put your own fic in a rec list, I’m quite proud of it :)

i don’t forgive you (but please don’t hold me to it) by evawrites (10k, T) (lesbian Tedromeda)

For Andromeda, the choice is not between the Dark and the Light. It’s not between Headmaster Dumbledore and the Dark Lord, not between Teddy’s family and her own. Instead, it’s between Bella and Teddy. Foolishly, Andromeda prays she’ll get to keep both.(She gets to keep neither.)

Dark and haunting and the contrast between Bellatrix and Ted is so well set up.

history books forgot about us by spindrifters (25k, E)

Andromeda Black meets Ted Tonks quite by accident, and it’s something like mischief at first sight. From the lost papers and mixed-up files of the marginalia universe, the complete history of a relationship that was never meant to happen.

This canon-divergent universe is everything, and these two recklessly in love kids are everything to me!

wherefore/evermore by @leftsidedown (150 words, T)

continuing the Great Literary Tradition of mad women writing villanelles

A poem!!

And then some Andromeda-centric fic where Tedromeda is important but it's not really a shippy fic:

not like the rest of them by unspeakable3 (11k, T)

Sirius has recently followed in Andromeda's footsteps and emancipated himself from their family. This afternoon, the two cousins will reunite - and see each other for the first time in four years. Andromeda is nervous. Sirius is nervous. There is a lot they need to say to each other.

Imperfect runaways!!

we were sisters once (we have another love now) by Nefaria_Black (3k, T)

Dora is six and few things are more exciting than a day spent in Diagon Alley. Even if the street is packed with people. Even if she’s separated from her parents by the crowd Because Mother is easy enough to find, isn’t she?

Haunting fairytale vibes

The Waves by nanneramma (3k, M)

Andromeda is not sure if she got it right. But she tried.

Gorgeous canon-compliant character study

And for those who like some Blackcest with their Tedromeda:

Clip, Ravel, Cleave by @vdoshu (15k, E)

Before Andromeda met Ted, she was a Black, through and through. While years later the story was told that she’d turned her back on her family’s dark ways, in truth, nothing was so simple.In the beginning, it was just Andromeda and Bella. And it was just the two of them until it was too much.

An all-time favorite featuring Andromeda and Ted meeting after Hogwarts and dark magic addiction and all sorts of dark goodness

#tedromeda #lesbian tedromeda #andromeda black #ted tonks #thistlecat fic recs

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marymary-diva17 · 2 months

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who is she

zuko and mom reader + avatar team

The 100 years war had been very devastating and sad, all four nations had been greatly affected. Nobel families to commoners families had all faced the effects of the war, that had been started many years ago. No one seemed to be spared for the war effects as it kept on ragging on and on.

Zuko “ we can all make camp here” zuko had joined team avatar a while ago, he had gotten feed up with the evil ways of her father and knew he need to be stopped. He had been able to win over them all and from good relationship with them as well.

aang “ wow this place is amazing zuko”

zuko “ thank you”

Hakoda “ good choice young man”

zuko “ thank you sir”

katara “ hey zuko how did you know this home and look at beautiful view you can see everything”

toph “ I don’t think he feel comfortable talking about it” toph could sense zuko had deep feelings about this place.

zuko “ it was my family summer home we will be safe here as we don’t use it that much”

Sokka “ cools maybe we can find some stuff about your father here”

zuko “ ……”

katara “ hey maybe we should sort out the rooms among everyone, and look around as well and hey there town not to far we can go shopping later”

Bato “ that a good idea”

Sokka “ yes and it will allow iroh and his group to meet us here after we sent out a message”

zuko “ my uncle will be able to find us once he read we are here”

katara “ good” zuko had soon left the group to go wonder the place, that once made him happy. He wanted to know if there were any stuff to remember the past.

Later that day

katara “ hey zuko there you are we got started on dinner”

zuko “ oh cool hey where did everyone else go”

toph “ it look around I decided to stay here with katars and suki”

suki “ zuko your home is very beautiful and these flowers are lovely”

toph “ yes and there enough space to move around as well”

zuko “ yes this why me and my sister had many reasons to come here .... when we were younger"

katara " so why did you and your family stop coming here"

zuko " we will stop by sometime but didn't stay here for that long"

suki " oh"

zuko " hey where di your father and other man go"

katara " oh yes they went to hide away the ships so they wouldn't be stopped, we were going to ask you but it seems like you wanted alone time"

zuko " oh that good"

Aang " hey everyone we were wondering around and look what we found"

katara " aang I thought we learned to stop going through other people stuff without permission"

aang " I know I know but this something we couldn't pass up come on guys show them" Soon sokka and Haru had been stopped carrying something in followed by the duke and Teo following them.

sokka " I know what you are going to say katara but you need to see what we found" soon the two guys had put what they were down and leaned it against something.

sokka " zuko why didn't you tell us you had some family portraits"

suki " huh"

sokka " oh yeah get a look at this" sock had soon removed the cover on the portrait soon showing an old family portrait of zuko.

sokka " here is zuko everyone and his sister and father along with some women"

Haru " nice painting zuko we fount this and thought it will be good to share with everyone"

aang " This most be an important family portrait to be covered up in the hall away, we had bene raced and knocked the cover over and saw it"

zuko " you should of left it where is belonged"

sokka " oh come on man we thought it will be good to show everyone we don't know alot about you, and it seems like we know enough about you all"

zuko " I said you should of left it alone ... ahh I'm going for a walk" zuko soon stormed off leaving the whole group confused.

toph " I know I cant see guys but I can sense zuko had become saddened when we came here, and even upset when he saw the painting as well"

katara " it most be about her the women in the painting she so beautiful, I wonder who she is"

sokka " i don't know but now I feel mad"

hair " same here"

duke and teo " yeah"

aang " maybe we should go after zuko and speak with him and say we are sorry"

suki " i don't think that a good idea right now given him some time to clam down" soon night fall had ended as everyone had later for dinner and waited for the return of zuko and everyone else.

sokka " hey I think zuko coming back" the group had looked hoping to see zuko but only saw the older man with the others as well.

Hakoda " hey kids dinner smells good"

katara " thank you"

Hakoda " Iroh and thee other white lotus have come"

Iroh " hello everyone"

Tyro " what what with all the long face"

haru " well there was a situation that happened with zuko"

iroh " what has happened with my nephew"

aang " well we were running around myself and the boys when we came across the painting over there" The group soon looked at the family portrait.

hakoda " the fire nation royal family portrait wow that what the boy looked like all those years ago, it a nice painting"

sokka " well he got mad and stormed off and we think it about the women in the painting"

bato " oh yes her wow who she never in our reports have we heard about her"

katara " she very beautiful but who is she"

Iroh " she is the mother of zuko and azula"

Everyone " ....."

Aang " so that zuko mom"

????? " yes that my mom" everyone soon saw zuko as walked close to them.

sokka " zuko why didn't you tell us she is your mom maybe we can go see her ...."

zuko " we can't she gone" everyone seem to understand what zuko meant by those words.

zuko " one night she was there and then she was gone"

iroh " zuko my boy your brother you will want you to remember her in happy way, not sadness"

zuko " I try uncle but I kiss her still to this day"

iroh " she will be proud of you my boy along with your sister and mai and ty lee alll three of you have gone down different paths in life"

zuko " yes uncle"

katara " zuko we are sorry but if you feel like it maybe you can talk about her with us"

zuko “ thank you” the gang had hugged zuko they knew of his pain of losing someone you love and care about. Zuko did talk to them about you at night, and he seemed happy about talking you and his life growing up. He did make a promise to take his father out of power and restore the fire nation, and make sure a war like this never happened again.

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lunarsilkscreen · 2 months

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Value of Money

"When demand on [currency] goes up, its value goes down." - shameless self quote

I've written at length about the axiom I'm claiming to have invented. Now; I wanna go into the chain of events that lead to this axiom.

Many will decry Bernie Sander's and the Democrats, and socialists, and liberal media for using [minimum wage increase] as a key position. This is because arguably; the price of the things that those living on minimum wage might buy will increase in value.

Like food stuffs; which doesn't increase in purchase rates when consumers have more money to spend. It increases in price when it costs more to produce. However; a lot of food {nearly half in America} goes to waste (it goes bad before use). Which suggests; that farmers overproduce expecting that most of their produce goes to waste.

This ensures that ingredients are really available when you or I go to purchase them. Prices on unprocessed raw ingredients and bulk foodstuffs remain fairly stagnant. Because most prices that Farmers have to pay are to their corporate overlords, like Monsanto, or their local credit Union. (And to a lesser extent property taxes on land zoned for agriculture)

What we are seeing now isn't a price hike on the low end raw ingredients; but on processed foods, sodas, alcohol, fish, meat and dairy.

Why is this?

Well; we must first ask: why are those working minimum wage jobs asking for wage increases at all?

This has to do with the total cost of living. Electric and water prices remain a concern for your average person; and since the entire world is digital now; electricity usage rates are at an all time high.

Then the fact that the housing market is at an all time high, and prices to rent, along with discerning landlords; means that the bottleneck is at these prices (housing) overall, and to a lesser extent; prices of food that pay money to individuals who work in the supply chain after it leaves the farm.

Brand new video games after all are still 15-60$. So it's not entertainment's fault. Tesla might've increased the cost of their newest car; but that's more likely because Tesla's sales overall have dropped.

The value of money drops when demand on it increases.

What causes higher demand on currency? One could say that it's greedy people being greedy. Asking for more money because they can and that's it. They want the latest iPhone and Tesla Truck! Every year! (As opposed to when you need to buy one and can afford new)

It's not that. It's Debt. When the bank comes knocking, then the Lendees (the ones who borrowed money) need to pay it back; and before you go off on college students who are still working minimum wage because jobs can't afford to hire them; remember--This is affecting corporations like Tesla, Apple, Google, and Disney

All of who have cut back spending, and are still having trouble meeting their obligations.

(But record profits!)

Profits include money made over money spent, but not necessarily money borrowed. Because money borrowed is an operating cost. With a monthly payment to repay the loan; record profits could be made, and the company still needs to worry about paying back that loan.

Which means they (the corporations) expect sales to continue decreasing.

The National Debt (the amount of money currently in circulation, including bonds and other obligations) is *not* the same as the cumulative debt in the nation (the total amount of debt held by individuals and company's and any-entity-else the banks have lent to) which is a far more important indicator.

The National Debt goes down as tax money is collected and returned to the federal government. But the cumulative debt only goes down as people make a profit, and pay theirs back. This includes workers at minimum wage (who need to afford homes and a vehicle to get to work on time, or a bus pass if they live near a bus station that also goes to their place of work.)

Web search about the ease (or difficulty) to get a loan right now returns results like this article from CNN that talks about the decrease of loans being given out. Loan rejections are up for people with low indicator of default (failure to make payments.)

The banks aren't giving money as freely because they also have met their limits. And so we have this [inflation] issue. Debts can't be paid, so people raise prices in order to pay their debts on time; rising prices mean less sales, less sales mean more defaults, and the cycle continues.

Which again suggests outright; demand on currency is high. Demand on goods? Very low. Luxury Goods? Even lower.

Will increasing minimum wage help? Will forgiving debts? Will we be able to escape this black hole? Find out on the next episode of; "Somehow the entire world is in debt to itself, and it can't pay itself back."

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zvaigzdelasas · 9 months

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WaPo - In China’s shadow, U.S. rushes back to neglected Indian Ocean island (3 Sep 23)

[WaPo is Private US Media]

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force tracking station that monitored Soviet satellites from this island’s soaring tropical forests was a focus of Seychelles life.[...] Then, the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union collapsed and in 1996 the Americans left, dismantling the tracking station and shutting down their embassy — citing budgetary reasons for abandoning what had seemingly become an irrelevant corner of the world.

Today, the compound where Americans and Seychellois partied is home to the Seychelles Tourism Academy, where young islanders training to be tour guides, hoteliers and masseuses take classes, among other subjects, in Chinese[...] In June, Seychelles became the latest in a string of small nations around the world in which the United States has established, restored or is planning to open an embassy[...]

Seychelles offers an example of the ways America’s absence opened the door to Chinese influence. In the 27 years since the United States pulled out, China has built schools, hospitals, houses for low-income families and public amenities, winning sympathy among Seychellois who felt abandoned by the U.S. departure. “They do the little things that America doesn’t do. This is where the Americans are weak. There is nothing we can say America built,” said Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan in an interview. “This is why countries like China have come in, because there was a vacuum.”

Seychelles officials say they are delighted to have the Americans back but also recognize that China is likely the main reason for the return, potentially pulling Seychelles into the big power rivalry.

“We cannot say we are naive. We do understand the competition going on. In the Cold War we had the United States and the Soviet Union and now it is the United States and China,” Seychelles Foreign Minister Sylvestre Radegonde said in an interview. “Someone woke up and realized how important it is to counter the Chinese influence.” The United States now has ground to make up, he said. “When you are late at a party, the party starts without you, so you have to make up time. It’s a fact that China has been a long time here. They have a lot of sympathy.”[...]

China is also the only country to have maintained diplomatic missions in all six of the Indian Ocean island nations that until recently were represented by three U.S. embassies, noted Darshana Baruah, who heads Carnegie’s Indian Ocean Initiative.[...]

Top Chinese officials regularly visit — China’s President Hu Jintao called Seychelles “a shining pearl” during a stop in 2007, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi was here in 2021, describing Seychelles as “an important member of the big family of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.” When the new U.S. Embassy in Seychelles was launched in June, Richard Verma, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, became the most senior U.S. government official to visit the nation since the 1990s.[...]

“Our foreign policy is to treat every country, big or small, as an equal,” said Mu Jianfeng, China’s charge d’affaires in Seychelles. “I don’t know why they closed and I don’t know why they opened,” he said of the Americans. “But if they think Seychelles is important they will have an embassy here.”[...]

Seychelles does not count China among its top trading partners. Most of its goods are imported from the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and the European Union.[...]

China built the stately white-pillared National Assembly building where the democratically elected parliament meets, and the adjoining Supreme Court, both important symbols of the country’s identity as a nation. It’s in the process of completing a new headquarters for the state broadcasting company, which will more than double the network’s space. Thousands of Seychellois live in housing built by China and made available at subsidized prices — a shortage of housing for the least well-off is identified by Seychelles officials as one of the country’s biggest social needs.

The Chinese [sic] have invited hundreds of Seychellois on visits and scholarships to China, and China’s Confucius Institute teaches Chinese classes in primary schools, the university, which China built in the 1980s, an adult education center in the capital and at the Seychelles Tourism Academy.[...]

U.S. officials say that countering China’s presence is not the only reason for the return.[...] Although Seychelles has been a multiparty democracy for the past two decades, elections in 2020 brought an opposition party to power for the first time[...]

the U.S. Embassy in Mauritius has been responsible for Seychelles diplomacy since the pullout in 1996.[...]

Radegonde, the [Seychellois] foreign minister, said there is little doubt China is a key motive. “The U.S. coming back cannot be because we are lovely people,” he said, adding “we are.”[...]

In 2011, the United States established a secret drone base at Seychelles airport to assist with counterterrorism operations in Somalia and Yemen. [...]

The abrupt departure in 1996 once the nation no longer served U.S. interests left Seychellois feeling they had been used, and their return now, at a time of heightened competition with a different rival, gives rise to suspicions they are being used again, many Seychellois say.[...]

“The sole reason the Americans are here is because it’s seen as an opportunity to outmaneuver the Chinese,” said Ralph Volcere, who publishes the Seychelles Independent newsletter and says he’s glad the Americans are coming back. But he’s wary too, and suspicious of American motives. Closing the embassy damaged perceptions of the United States, and Washington will have to work hard to convince Seychellois that their motives are genuine, he said. “The Chinese came to build schools and houses, and the Americans are coming for naval operations,” he said. “The Americans can’t just come here and put warships in the port and people will be happy.”[...]

And what will happen if the rivalry with China is resolved? Will the Americans leave again? wondered Danny Faure, the former president who lost the 2020 elections to Ramkalawan. “With the United States it’s always based on how they respond to geopolitical concerns,” he said. “This shouldn’t be a flash in the pan. If you do value the relationship, the cost shouldn’t matter.” His government had good relations with the Chinese, and he visited Beijing in 2018. He says China never asked anything in return for its largesse or sought to extract any concessions from Seychelles. “Genuinely over 40 years we have become great friends,” he said. “This won’t change whether the United States comes or goes.”

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