#referee po
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I had these in my photos for a while so maybe I'll post it
#yea I'll tag all of them#glass joe#von kaiser#piston hondo#referee po#don flamenco#mr sandman#great tiger#little mac#disco kid#bald bull#doc louis#king hippo#bear hugger#super macho man#soda popinski#aran ryan#punch out!!#punch out#punch out wii
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Thin Line (Alexia x Reader)
Request - ca. 10.3k words - Enemies to Lovers
The sound of the excited fans rings around the stadium and through the tunnel, in which both teams are currently starting to line up to walk out in a few minutes. The atmosphere is clearly good, but this comes to no surprise as it’s the UWCL semi-final with the match-up being Barcelona vs Wolfsburg.
After walking to your position in the line, you take a glance around the tunnel, when your eyes catch the ones of the Barcelona captain, who currently is on her own way to the front to lead her time out in a bit. As soon as Alexia notices that it’s you, she sends you a glare, which you return instantly before breaking eye contact as she walks past you.
The dislike towards one another started at the close semi-final match in the 2019/20 UWCL season. The close game back then had both teams on edge, so after giving a “light” shove to the Spaniard, to stop a counter-attack from Barcelona, you two got into a small argument with rather not so friendly words being exchanged. The fire was fueled even more after you managed to kick the ball into the net as the defense couldn’t get it out in time, securing Wolfsburg the win.
Plus, you might have run past the midfielder during your celebration on purpose and sent her a provocative smile as you walked back to your position to continue the game, wanting to annoy her as much as possible after the incident that occurred earlier in the game. And as it was time to shake hands after the game, you might even decided to put some more salt into the wound with a comment about how unfortunate it is that they couldn’t achieve more in this game.
So safe to say that the reaction from the Spanish midfielder comes to absolutely no surprise to you. You just hope that Wolfsburg can beat Barcelona once again, as you definitely don’t want to be the one to have to face any possible teasing this time.
Even though you know that you would kind of deserve it.
A tap on your shoulder breaks you out of your thoughts, turning around, you are faced with your teammate Lynn, “Are you planning on moving soon or should we just stay here?”, she teases you while pointing over your shoulder.
Confused, you turn back around, only to notice that the teams already started to walk out into the stadium. You quickly jog up to the line, trying your best to ignore the snickers of the left back behind you.
The moment you step outside into the almost completely full Camp Nou will for sure be forever engraved inside your head. It almost feels more like a dream than reality. The fact that so many people came to watch a women's game is an unbelievable feeling for you.
When it was time to shake hands with the referee and the Barcelona girls, Alexia made sure to once more send you a rather sharp look, which only fueled your need to win this game even more.
But already early on this plan seems not to go the way you would like, thanks to two early goals at the 3rd minute by Aitana which was only 7 minutes later followed by a goal from your ex-teammate Hansen.
Barcelona clearly owned the game, barely giving you and your teammates any chances of even getting close to their goal before they would get the ball back into their own possession. All you could do was try to close off as much space as you could, which also didn’t work as well, and before you knew it the half-time whistle blew with a score of 4-0 for Barcelona.
What annoyed you the most is that Alexia managed to score one of those goals.
The smirk and raised eyebrow she sent you as she walked back to her position after her goal made you angry and upset, this game was nowhere near how you wanted it to go, and you hate it.
To your luck, the second half starts much better.
Barcelona was still the more dominant team, but your team now managed to hold it much better together in your own half, thanks to a much-needed adjustment in the defense.
In the 69th minute, you manage to regain the ball back into your possession thanks to a miscommunication between Alexia and Jenni. You immediately start running up the field before you end up passing the ball to your teammate Jill, who sends the ball in the goal. The joy is short-lived though, as the referee blows the whistle when the sideline assistant holds up the offside flag.
You were ready to cry in frustration at this point, of course the one goal you manage to get in gets flagged off.
After quite a long VAR check, the goal gets allowed, the automatic line showing that Jill was just slightly onside after all. But even then there was no time to celebrate, not when Barcelona is still in a comfortable three goal lead.
Which would turn into a four goals lead just 15 minutes later after Barcelona gets a penalty from Dom fouling Alexia inside the box. And of course, Alexia herself steps up to take the penalty to obviously put the ball into the back of the net effortlessly.
That would also be the last goal of the night as not long after the referee blows the whistle signaling that the game is over. And if you are honest, you are quite happy that the nightmare is finally over. All you want to do now is leave the game behind you and focus on the second leg, which would hopefully go much better for you and your team.
Even though you want nothing more than to get off this field already, you make your ways around to say some encouraging words to your teammates as well as shaking hands with the Barcelona players, purposely trying to avoid Alexia.
But to your luck, you do end up encountering the Spanish woman, even almost walking directly into her as your attention swayed over to where the Barcelona fans were celebrating the win for a moment.
When your attention turns to the Barcelona captain in front of you, you immediately notice the smug smile on her face. Deciding that you don’t want to deal with whatever she is going to say, you try to maneuver around her, not caring if the cameras might catch the failed encounter.
Alexia doesn’t seem to like your plan of escaping and ignoring her in the process, so as you try to move past her, she takes a hold of your upper arm to stop you from walking past her, “What, no handshake for me?”.
You try to keep your face as neutral as possible at her question, but the annoyed look she receives from you once you look at her lets her know exactly how you feel, making her smirk grow even bigger in satisfaction of getting to you.
Not wanting to cause a scene or have an argument interrupt between the two of you, you swallow the words you would like to say to her and instead force a smile on your face, which might look more like a pained grimace than an actual smile and free your arm out of her grasp to hold your hand out for the requested handshake.
The Spaniard raises her eyebrow at your silence as a challenge, before accepting your outstretched hand, repeating the very same words to you that you said to her just two years prior, “How unfortunate that you couldn't achieve more in this game, no?”.
It’s obvious that Alexia wants to get back at you by repeating your own words to you after the tough loss. And with your mood already at its deepest point it could be at right now, she certainly achieved her goal.
“Yea, really unfortunate.”, you scoff, retrieving your hand from the handshake, adding, “Just wait for the second game, you won’t have a chance.”.
As soon as you said the last word, you turned around and hurried into the tunnel, leaving Alexia behind you. The midfielder looks at you until you disappear out of her sight, the satisfied smile not leaving her face once.
___
The loss clearly bothered you a lot, of course all your teammates weren’t proud of the performance in the first game, but it was obvious that it hit you the hardest. So, the next few days, leading up to the second game, you spend doing almost the same things every day. Eating, training, analyzing the loss plus Barcelona’s play style in general and sleeping. Being prepared for the game was your number one priority.
You can’t give Alexia the satisfaction of winning against you back to back.
The team seems to feel the same way, not for the same reason as you but losing the second game at home was certainly not an option.
So here you are, just 8 days after the grueling game in Barcelona, ready to walk out of the tunnel onto the pitch of the Volkswagen Arena. To keep your concentration sorely on the game ahead, you make sure not to look around the tunnel to potentially catch the eyes of the person you so desperately want to see lose tonight.
Once it is time to walk out and the UWCL Hymne starts to play, you take a moment to look around the stadium, of course the attendance isn’t as big as it was in Barcelona but having around 22,000 people here to support you feels you with confidence, pride and the need to give your fans a good game and victory at the end.
As it was time to shake hands with the Barcelona players, you still made sure to not meet the eyes of Alexia. And if the captain was honest to herself, your complete disregard of her presence infuriates her for some reason. But it also fuels her even more to beat you once again.
Both Teams realize early on though that this game isn’t like the last one. Yes, Barcelona still holds more possession, but your team is awake and way more safe in the defense and able to create chances up front. So unlike the half-time score of 4-0 in the last game, it’s now 0-0, meaning everything can happen.
But this changes rather quick, just two minutes after the beginning of the second half, Wolfsburg gains a free kick which results into a mess in the defense to get the ball out so as soon as the ball lands in front of your feet you fire it towards the goal, most Barcelona players too distracted complaining about a possible foul or handball.
You get swarmed immediately by your teammates, while some Barcelona players run up to the referee. And as soon as the goal check was officially over and your goal counts, which you could see irritated Alexia a lot, you can feel some weight fall off your shoulder.
“Immer weiter!”, you yell out while clapping, wanting to keep the momentum up. (Keep going)
Which seems to work out great as just around 12 minutes later in the 59th minute when Jill successfully wins the ball into her possession to score another goal.
Unfortunately though this would be the last goal of the night, meaning Barcelona will advance into the final while you would just have to try again next year. But even though you and your team didn’t manage to advance, you still felt somewhat good. After all, you did manage to put an end to the winning streak of Barcelona and proved that Wolfsburg is still one of the best teams Europe has with that one win.
Just like every other game, you make your way around the field to handshake your teammates and opponents. Ironically though, this time Alexia is the one who seems rather hesitant to encounter you, but knowing with the huge spotlight she has on her that the cameras would notice if she wouldn’t go up to you, she makes her way over.
You stand with your back towards her, talking to Jill about her goal, when you feel someone poking your shoulder. Turning around, you are faced with Alexia, who offers no words but simply holds out her hand for you to shake, which you accept.
Alexia is confused by your silence, why haven’t you made fun of her losing, once again, to you?
“Just say it.”, she huffs out once the handshake is over.
“Say what?”, you say with a teasing smile, kind of enjoying her visible annoyance at your silence.
The Spaniard rolls her eyes at your teasing, “You know the whole how unfortunate you couldn’t achieve more.”.
“And for what? You are still the one going to Juventus.”, you reply with a shrug of your shoulders.
Alexia is confused, yeah you are right, but that's it? Not a single bad word from you about the performance tonight? Her thoughts are interrupted when Aitana calls out for her to come over to say thanks to the few fans that traveled to support their team tonight.
“Well, good game then?”, she offers, still confused by your behavior.
“Good game.”, you agree but once she starts to walk over to her team you can’t help yourself and yell out after her, “And good luck for the final, maybe you have a chance there to actually achieve some more, you know, something like a win maybe?.”.
The woman turns around at your words to send you a glare, almost feeling foolish for believing you wouldn’t say something like that after your words at the end of the last game. You in return send her a smile and thumbs up back, to which you can see her jaw clench in annoyance, before she turns around as Aitana calls out for her once again.
Slowly making your way over to your own team to take a walk around the stadium, you let out a laugh at her reaction, satisfied with getting to her once more.
___
21 days later, you find yourself with some of your Wolfsburg teammates in Juventus to watch the UWCL final. With Wolfsburg having only the DFB-Pokal final left in a few days, you decided to spend some time together before all your ways would part after the game, everyone going on different vacations before the euros would start.
You don’t know which team you would like to win more, instead hoping more for an exciting game of football from two amazing teams.
But you early on get flashbacks from your own final against Lyon back in the UWCL 19/20 season. Lyon managing to score three times in a span of 33 minutes certainly wasn’t on your bingo card. And even though Alexia managed to score one goal before the half-time whistle blows, you can’t help but feel like that this game is already decided.
That feeling would turn out to be true another 45 minutes later, as neither of the two teams scored any more goals, crowning Lyon once again the winner of the Women Champions League. Seeing the Barcelona players so sad makes you remember your own final once more, knowing exactly how painful it is to lose such an important game. As your eyes find Alexia lying on the floor crying, you slightly start to feel guilty. It was obvious under how much pressure the Spaniard was with all the sudden attention on her, and knowing that your words weren’t necessarily positive input on the immense amount of pressure she already felt makes you feel bad.
After the stadium calmed down a little and the ceremony was over, you all met up with Jill’s teammate Dan real quick to gratulate her and the team on the win before it was time to head back to the hotel, needing to get some sleep before the early flight the next day to get back to Wolfsburg, your own final not long away as well.
___
Just two months later, you are sitting in the Old Trafford Stadium, waiting for the opening game of the Euros 22 England - Austria to start. Unfortunately for you, you got yourself a small injury in the DFB-Pokal game against Potsdam from which you didn’t manage to fully recover before the Euros started, meaning you would have to sit out the tournament this year. But not wanting to sit back home in Wolfsburg the entire time, you decided to fly out to England anyway to watch as many games as you could.
Yesterday, the news came out that Alexia tore her ACL, ending her tournament before she even had the chance to start. You saw a lot of footballers sending her encouraging words and thought about doing it too, but the history between you two made you decide against it, since you were probably the last person she would want to hear from.
As the Euros went on, you went to whatever games were closest to you, with some exceptions where you would travel a bit further to watch the games of your Wolfsburg teammates to support them. It was during the Germany - Austria game where you first heard about the rumors about Barcelona looking to sign two new players, now that Alexia would be out for a few months, from a trusting social media source.
And with that, just two days later you receive a message from your Agent, informing you that you are one of the players Barcelona is interested in signing this summer and that Wolfsburg would be willing to let you go for the amount of money they offer for you. When you read that message you didn’t reply immediately, actually you didn’t reply at all, so the next day your Agent called you to talk about the offer. It’s not that you are not tempted to play for Barcelona, they are a powerful team and that they want you to join them fills you with pride, but the hate between you and Alexia fills you with doubt.
First you destroy her win streak, and you are once again snarky towards her, and then she gets injured, and you are one of the players that is supposed to help to fill the hole her injury left in the squad. You are aware that you couldn’t completely replace her and that’s not what you want anyway, just because there are some differences between the two of you, you can’t deny that she is the best in the world in her position. But the whole thing about you going to Barcelona to play instead of her could leave a bad impression on the woman.
You and your Agent agreed to her, telling Barcelona that you would still need some time to think about the offer. After all, it’s not just the situation between you and the Barça captain that bothers you but also the thought of leaving Wolfsburg. The team has become your family almost immediately after you joined them back in 2017, so saying goodbye to them would be everything but easy for you. A few hours later, your Agent lets you know that the team wants your answer by the end of the month, meaning that you only have exactly one week left to make your decision.
The next day you met up with Popp, wanting to get her advice on the situation, as she was one of the players you were always closest to in the Wolfsburg squad. She made it obvious that you leaving would be sad for everyone, but she understands the feeling of wanting a new challenge and that you should just follow your heart.
You thought the talk would help you to fully decide on whether you should accept it and start a new chapter or let everything stay the way it was, but that was easier said than done. So now on the deadline day for you to make a decision, you are sitting in the location where Germany celebrates their second place but while most of them are talking and dancing you are simply staring at the call button of your agent.
“Mach es.”, a voice next to you speaks up. (Do it)
Turning to the voice you are met with Huth, one of your Wolfsburg captains, “Ich weiß nicht.”, you reply, still not sure if you really want to go. (I don't know)
“Es ist okay etwas Neues auszuprobieren und ich glaube du wirst dich in Spanien gut einfinden können.”, she assures you. (It's okay to try something new and I'm sure you will fit in)
You don’t reply immediately, taking a moment to think about her words but also about the talk between you and Alex a week prior, “Okay.”, you breathe out.
Sveni sends you an encouraging smile before taking her leave to let you call your agent, who picks up rather quickly, clearly having waited on hearing from you, “I’ll do it.”.
___
After Barcelona received the ‘yes’ from you, everything happened rather quickly. The club helped you find an apartment and announced your signing almost immediately once all the paperwork between Wolfsburg and Barcelona was done. Quite a few of the Barcelona women reached out to you to congratulate you on the signing and how excited they are to play with you instead of against you now for the unseeable future. Especially your Ex-Wolfsburg teammates Ingrid, Rolfö and Caro were excited about your arrival to the Spanish club.
Alexia wasn’t one of them but you didn’t expect her to reach out to you, after all she just got one of the hardest injuries she could have gotten which she has to focus on coming back from and dealing emotionally with.
Since you were still coming back from your own injury, you first would join the team in training a few days before the first game of the season, meaning that you didn’t play in any of the club friendlies prior. For most of the training session you stuck close to your ex teammates from Wolfsburg, still a bit overwhelmed by the change after having played in Germany for the past 5 years.
Especially the change of weather hit you hard, yes Germany can also get quite warm during the summer nowadays too, but the Spanish heat certainly hits differently, so safe to say you were grateful when once again a small drink break was announced. You were chatting with Keira for a moment about the weather, the Brit also not having gotten really used to it by now, before Lucy pulled her away to get more to drink.
You are in the middle of chugging down a whole water bottle when a voice behind you speaks up, “You are doing great.”.
Putting your bottle down, you turn around and are met with Aitana, “Thank you.”, you reply with a small smile.
The small midfielder returns the smile, “You know, we were all quite excited to hear that you would join us.”.
You raise your eyebrow at her words, “Really?”.
Aitana nods her head in confirmation, “Yes, you were always one of the most unpleasant people to play against, so having you on our side now will help us a lot.”.
A chuckle leaves your lip at her words to describe you, “Well, I hope I can help.”.
“I’m sure you will, but now let’s get back to training, the break is over.”.
You can’t stop the groan from leaving your lips, quickly trying to get some more sips from your bottle before you would have to start running under the Spanish sun again.
Aitana simply laughs at your reaction, “Come on, you will get used to the weather soon.”.
“Mhm, sure.”, you mumble before joining her to walk back to the squad.
___
Your first appearance for the Catalonian club would still have to wait as the first game day has to be rescheduled due to the Referees going on a strike. But the week later it was finally time against UDG Tenerife in the Estadi Johan Cruyff. You were super excited about the game, you might not be in the starting XI, but you got informed that you will be subbed on at some point, which would officially start your new chapter with this club.
You even got on earlier than expected due to Patri having to get subbed off after receiving a head injury in the 11th minute. Surprisingly for you, you managed to fit in immediately, almost no sign of you just having transferred to the club as Keira, Vicky and you are doing a great job in the midfield. Even managing to score the first of the two goals of the game in the second half, so safe to say that your start almost couldn’t have been better than this.
After the game is also the first time you somewhat encounter Alexia since the semi-final game back in Wolfsburg again and this time not as her opponent but her teammate. The team is celebrating the win in the locker room, clearly excited about the great start into the season, when Alexia comes in, still on her crutches. While almost all of your new teammates go to greet the injured midfielder, you stay behind, unsure on how to approach the woman. You do meet her eyes for a moment, but the way she immediately divides her look to somewhere else in the room, lets you know that maybe it is not the right time yet to talk to her anyway.
But the first time you would actually talk to her follows up just two days later as you make your way to training and see Alexia struggling to open the door to get inside, making you quicken your step to jog up to the door to help her open it, “Here, let me help.”.
“Gracias.”, she mumbles, glancing at you before slowly making her way through the door with her crutches.
There is an awkward silence between you as you both walk down the same hallway, so you decide to speak up, “I’m sorry about your injury, but I'm sure you will come back even stronger.”, you try to encourage her.
The midfielder stops walking and turns to you, “Are you now?”, she asks, and you notice the upset tone in her voice.
“Of course, no one deserves an injury like that and-”, you start off but get interrupted by Alexia letting out an upset laugh, “You really think I’m going to believe a single word you are saying?”.
“I mean why would I-”, you try to defend yourself, but Alexia once again puts a stop to your words, “Why would you? I don’t know, maybe because you made fun of me every time I lost against you, then you celebrated with the Lyon players after the final, and now you come here to take my spot once I'm injured?”, she says, now clearly upset and distraught.
You take a step back from the woman, “I wasn’t, I’m not…”, you stutter out wanting to defend yourself, but the midfielder was still having none of it, “Just save it okay? I don’t want any of your alleged pity and-.”.
“Alexia!”, a voice a few doors down the corridor speaks up, interrupting the Spaniard in front of you this time.
As you both turn to the voice, you notice Irene standing there, she must have heard the upset and angry woman in front of you from the locker room, meaning that she probably also isn’t the only person that heard what just went down between the two of you.
Alexia mumbles some words in Spanish to herself before taking her leave, leaving you and Irene standing alone in the hallway.
You know that the situation between you and Alexia was tense but her accusing you of thinking that you are not sorry about her injury stings. Yeah, your words towards her certainly weren’t nice but wishing people an injury is something you would never do.
“Come on, let’s get changed.”, Irene’s voice breaks you out of your thoughts, walking towards her, you notice the team at the end of the hallway, already walking out to start training soon.
“Just give her some time.”, the defender says as she waits for you to get changed.
“I don’t know, maybe coming here wasn’t a good idea.”, you say with a sigh, clearly overthinking the decision to sign for the club.
Irene makes her way over to sit down next to you, “It was a good idea, you are a great player and a great addition to the club, Alexia still has some difficulties adjusting to the situation with her injury. Your signing may also put some impact on that, but I’m sure you two can get through that at some point.”, she reassures you.
“Alright, if you say so.”.
“I am, now let’s go out before we have to run extra laps around the field.”, she says, pulling you up from your seat to get you out where all the girls were already warming up.
___
The next few weeks you kept your distance from the injured woman, not wanting to risk another argument and of course to give her some time to deal with her own emotions with you now being at the club. But you knew that sooner or later you two would have to talk it out if the team climate wants to stay positive, so you decided to apologize to her the next time you would have the opportunity away from all the other girls.
Alexia was also aware that the situation between the two of you would have to get better at some point, which was made more clear during a conversation she had with Irene.
“You should give her a chance.”, Irene says to Alexia, who is looking out to the pitch where you and the other midfielders decided to do some extra training, wanting to make sure that Real Madrid will have the most difficult time to get past you all.
All Alexia offers is a distracted hum at the defender's words.
“I’m serious Alexia, I don’t know what went down between the two of you in detail, but she is our teammate now. And I’m not asking you two to become best friends, but to simply get along good enough to keep a healthy team climate.”.
Alexia lets out a sigh and turns away from the window and instead turns to face Irene, who is watching her intensely, “I know, I’m going to work on it, I promise.”.
Satisfied with the answer, Irene takes her leave to go out to where you and the others were still training to put a stop to it before you all would be too tired to actually play the game in two days.
Agreeing with her, you all make your way to the shower and get changed. Once you are done, you are ready to go home and eat some food but as you make your way down the hallway you are once more met with Alexia struggling to open the door, making you stop in your tracks. You are unsure on what to do, should you just wait for her to figure it out herself or help her but risk another rather unpleasant conversation?
You decide to go with the latter, maybe this would be a good opportunity for you to apologize to her in hopes to make things somewhat better between you two.
So with a deep breath you make your way towards her, “Here.”, you say while opening the door for her once again.
“Gracias.”, she says while walking through the door, you following close behind her.
“Do you uh, have a moment maybe?”, you ask her before she could get away towards where she would be driven home.
With the words of Irene still present in her mind, Alexia turns around to face you, nodding softly.
“Alright, so, I would like to apologize for how things went between us.”, you start off, “The way I behaved the times we played against each other wasn’t okay, but the emotions of the games always got the better of me and yeah.”, you stop to check the reaction of the woman in front of you but when you notice no sign of any emotions on her face you start to ramble “And I didn’t accept the offer to steal your spot or anything, I just saw it as a great way to start a new chapter and I truly do feel bad about your injury, there is no denying that you are one of the best players in the world and having you sit out sucks a lot.”.
Noticing that Alexia is still silent, you are about to jump head first into the second round of apologizing, but her speaking up puts a stop to that, “Okay.”.
“Okay?”, you ask her confused, when she doesn’t add any other words.
“I accept your apology, if you accept mine. I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that a few weeks ago.”, she offers.
“Oh no, no, you had every right. I know how weird it must have been when you heard I would join, that's also the reason why I hesitated for so long.”, you explain to her, but the single raise of her eyebrow lets you know that it’s not the answer she was looking for, so you quickly agree, “Okay, deal.”, adding, “So a fresh start now?”.
Alexia nods her head in agreement, “Si, fresh start.”.
You can’t stop the smile from forming on your face, “Great, so uhm I’m Y/N.”, you reintroduce yourself to her, holding your hand out for her to shake, wanting to make everything the proper way this time.
The woman in front of you looks at your outstretched hand before her eyes scan her own hands, which are occupied holding her crutches, so she can stand properly, following her eyes you quickly realize the issue, “Oh right.”, you start off, moving to put your hand down again when Alexia starts to shuffle her crutches into one of her hands, so she could accept yours, “Alexia.”.
“Nice to meet you.”, you say, starting to feel embarrassed after though once you realize that you might overdo the whole fresh start thing.
“Nice to meet you too.”, Alexia confirms when she realizes your slight embarrassment.
Sending her another smile, you notice a woman stepping out of the car from the corner of your eye, realizing that it’s Alexia’s sister Alba, you decide that it’s time to go home now.
You nod in the direction of her sister, “Alright, I let you leave now then.”.
Alexia looks towards where you were motioning to, agrees, “Si, good luck on Sunday.”.
“Gracias.”, you thank her before making your way to your own car to get home, happy for finally defusing the tense situation between you.
___
At first interactions between you were still awkward, like when Alexia complimented you on your performance in the last match against Madrid CFF, where you scored a goal and assisted one, you didn’t really know what to say. So you simply thanked her, which turned to you both smiling at each other rather awkwardly before she had to go.
But it got better as time went on, you two were now able to hold conversations without the awkward aura, sure you still weren’t close, but it’s far better from what you expected how things would go between you both from when you first joined the club.
One morning as you walk up to the stadium for training, you notice Alexia in the corner of your eye, but what surprises you the most is that the woman is walking without any crutches for support.
“Wow, am I dreaming or are you really walking by yourself?”, you speak up once she is in hearing range.
Alexia laughs at your reaction, “No, no, I really am walking by myself.”.
“That’s amazing, I’m happy for you.”, you tell her, truly happy to see the woman slowly coming back.
“Thank you.”, the Spanish woman says, smiling at you, as you hold the door open for her to go inside, “Excited about the first Champions League game of the season?”, she asks you as you two make your way through the training center.
“Of course, I’m ready to show everyone that we are one of the best teams in the world.”.
“That's what I like to hear.”, Alexia chuckles, changing to another topic before you two would have to split up, you to get ready for training and Alexia to get to the physio.
Two days later, you were in the starting XI for the first group game of the UWCL season. You had to admit that it felt kinda weird hearing the hymn play knowing you are about to play in the tournament for Barcelona instead for Wolfsburg, which you had done the last 5 years, but you were ready to give it your all and make the best from being on as starter.
And that’s clearly what you did, with scoring 2 goals yourself and assisting another 2 goals for your teammates, leaving Benfica absolutely no chance as the game ends in a clean 9-0 for Barcelona.
After thanking the fans for the support and celebrating the win with them, the celebration moved into the locker room, everyone obviously happy about the result from the first group game. But after another hour of talking and dancing, you find yourself growing tired, the 90 minutes of playing slowly catching up to you.
As you start to pack your things up and get ready to leave, you see Alexia sitting in the corner of the room, also looking slightly exhausted. Knowing that you two don’t live that far from each other, you decide to walk over to her to offer a ride home.
“You good?”, you ask her, standing in front of her.
Alexia raises her head as she hears your voice, slightly confused by your question, “Si, ¿Por qué?”. (why?)
“You look tired and haven’t really talked to anyone in the past 20 minutes.”, you state with a shrug of your shoulders.
“I guess that's because I am tired.”.
You let out a hum at her words, “Want a ride home then? I was going to leave now.”.
Alexia thinks about your offer for a moment before replying, “If you don’t mind?”.
“If I would, I wouldn't have offered, now let's go.”, Alexia rolls her eyes playfully at your words before saying goodbye to everyone, you doing the same.
As you two make your way towards your car, you hold open every door for the Spanish midfielder on the way, “You do know that I’m capable of opening doors just fine, now that my hands are free again, yes?”.
“I do know yes, but thanks for reminding me, but you know, I was kind of hoping for a thank you.”, you reply, waiting for her to get seated in your car, so you could close the door.
Alexia once again rolls her eyes at your words, but can’t stop the smile from forming on her face, “Thank you.”.
“No problem.”, closing the door, you make your way over to the driver's seat, ready to finally make your way home and get to bed.
You leave the parking lot in comfortable silence, that's it until Alexia speaks up, “You played really well tonight.”.
“Thank you.”.
“I’m glad you joined us, you are a great player and not as much of an ass as I previously thought you are.”, she admits jokingly, but you know that there is definitely some truth in those words, making you chuckle lightly.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to be honest.”, you admit, glancing over to her for a second before focussing back on the road.
“Oh really? I thought you would have jumped on immediately at the chance of stealing my spot.”, she jokes, making you actually full on laugh this time. Alexia waits for your laugh to fade out to ask, “What made the decision so difficult?”.
“Honestly? The whole drama between us played a huge role but also leaving Wolfsburg after 5 years sounded very scary.”, you confess to her, “I was scared to come here because I knew that with our history it would seem like I would come here to simply use your injury to my advantage to get to you in another bad way, you know. And the day you blew up on me in the hallway, where you had every right to question my motives, made me doubt that move even more, but the happier I am now that we can actually talk to one another now, without all the snarky and provocative comments.”.
Alexia is surprised by how much the ‘hatred’ between you and her injury seemed to play a role in your decision, “I’m also glad that we managed to get over that, but I didn’t think that my injury would really play a big factor for you.”.
“Like you said, I’m not that bad of a person as I might have seemed like from the few interactions between us.”, you echoed, coming to a halt in front of the apartment building where the Spanish woman lives, “Here we are.”.
“Thank you for driving me.”, Alexia thanks you but makes no move to get out of your car yet.
“No problem.”.
The midfielder still makes no move to get out of your car, “Are you waiting for me to open the door for you or what?”, you joke, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“No.”, she chuckles, “But you think you could pick me up tomorrow on your way to training?”.
“Of course I can.”, you send her a reassuring smile.
Alexia nods, “See you tomorrow then?”.
“Yup, I'll text you when I’ll be here.”.
“Alright, goodnight then.”, she replies, standing now outside your car.
“Goodnight Alexia.”, and with another smile, Alexia closes the door and makes her way into the building, with you waiting until she is safely inside before you drive off to get home yourself.
It soon became a regular thing. You would pick her up in the morning when you had to go to training, and she was slowly working on her comeback, and at the end of each of your sessions you would drive off together. The car rides are always filled with interesting conversations and laughter, something you wouldn’t have dreamed of before your move to Barcelona.
What you also didn’t expect was how well all the games would be going so far, winning the El Clásico against Real Madrid, winning the first game against the toughest opponent in your UWCL group, Bayern. Safe to say, you are beyond happy with the team performance and the minutes you were getting on the field.
But every streak has come to an end sooner or later, which you learn during the away game against Bayern München in the Allianz Arena, Barcelona having to accept the 3-1 defeat. You were upset, you played so many games against them during your year in Wolfsburg that you feel like you should have been better at preparing your team for what was about to come. Besides the fact that you absolutely hate losing against them, they were your direct rival for years, after all.
“It’s not your fault, you know?”, Mapi speaks up, guessing that this is the reason as to why you’re so silent.
You sigh at her words, “I don’t know, I feel like I could have done more for us to be prepared.”.
“You did it great for the first game, it was obvious they are gonna do some changes now.”, she shrugs.
“I guess.”, you agree, not really convinced yet, but you don’t want Mapi to sit here and try to console you while she obviously herself is upset about losing tonight's game.
Alexia could immediately tell that you were still upset about the defeat two days ago, the usual lively car ride now completely silent, no conversation, no laughter, the only sound to be heard is the car engine and Rosalía’s voice from the radio, which you would put on every time since you learned about the liking towards her music from the woman next to you.
“Meet you at your car after training?”, she asks you once it was time to part ways.
“Yup.”, you confirm before disappearing in the locker room.
A few hours later, Alexia was about to make her way to your car, when she notices someone still being outside on the field, all alone kicking the ball around made up obstacles. Upon noticing that it’s you, she makes her way outside, sitting down in one of the seats outside, deciding to give you some more time.
You are so focused on your own little training that you don’t notice the woman until almost half an hour past already. “Shit.”, you curse to yourself at forgetting that you were supposed to drive her home already, so you quickly pack everything up and make your way over to her, “I’m so sorry, I got a bit carried away but let me shower real quick, and then I take you home.”.
Alexia sends you a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about it, take your time.”.
Despite her words, you do worry and have probably taken the quickest shower you could have before meeting her at your car.
The drive starts off the same as in the morning, that’s until Alexia decides that she has enough of the silence, “Are you hungry?”.
“Uhh, why?”, you question her, glancing at her for a moment.
“You weren’t in the cafeteria during lunchtime.”, she points out.
An embarrassed blush flushes your face, “I might have skipped it to train a bit more?”, you say sheepishly.
A small frown forms on Alexia’s face, the Champions League defeat might have hit you a little harder than she thought at first, “I know a small café not far from where I live, we could grab some food there? Unless you already found a different spot you would prefer.”, she offers.
If you were honest you would love to just go home and have some silence, but the empty feeling in your stomach seems to decide this one for you, “Sure and I honestly haven’t seen much of Barcelona yet to know any good places.”.
So a few minutes later you two were sitting in the café she suggested, enjoying some light food with the usual conversation taking place, the former silence now long gone. You were almost dreading it when it got to the point of you two paying and making your way outside, spending time with the injured midfielder definitely helped to take your mind off everything.
“Thank you for showing me this place.”, you thank her as you were about to make your way over to walk her home.
“We are not done yet.”.
You tilt your head in confusion at her words.
“You said you haven’t seen much yet, so we are going for a little tour around the area.”, she says, already walking some steps in the opposite direction from where you parked your car, waiting for you to come over to join her.
Alexia showed you all the nice places around the area, giving you as much information about everything as she could, that was until her knee started to feel a bit uncomfortable, so you decided to make your way back to her place.
“You know, you could easily become a tourist guide later.”, you joke as you arrive in front of the building, making the woman in front of you laugh.
“Oh yea, for sure, maybe you could become my assistant then.”, she plays along.
“I think for that, I would have to see a little bit more.”.
“You will, I’m going to show you every single little place this city has to offer.”.
“Can’t wait for that.”, you reply, a genuine smile on your face, besides playing football, the time you spent with the spanish woman was definitely one of your favorite things to do. Alexia feels the same, every time she was around you her mind stopped thinking about her injury. Of course the Ballon d’Or winner already accepted her injury but sometimes there were moments where the insecurities came over but being with you for some reason always manages to put even those to rest.
And with that a new regular was formed between the two of you, whenever you both were free after work and rehab, you would go grab some lunch and afterwards Alexia showed you around the city for as long as she could, making sure you would see all the places tourists often like to oversee.
During all those moments, you two started to grow a slight crush on one another, not that the other would know, but the lingering stares when the other wouldn’t notice started to become obvious to some of your teammates.
“You think they have something going on?”, Mapi asks her girlfriend with a slight smirk on her face.
“Who?”, Ingrid questions the defender, confused on who she was referring to.
“Alexia and Y/N!”, she points out if it was the most obvious thing.
Ingrid takes a moment to think about her girlfriend's words, she did notice about you two having grown a little bit closer to one another, and she did catch Alexia staring at you maybe once or twice when she was watching the training.
“Maybe.”, she shrugs, she did think that there could be something sooner or later but she knows how noisy Mapi would get once her suspicions would be confirmed.
“¿Quizás?”. the defender asks, “There is one hundred percent something!”. (maybe?)
“Like I said, maybe.”, Ingrid repeats, Mapi simply lets out a huff before walking away to her fellow defenders, deciding that it seems like that she has no choice but to question Alexia about it herself.
And that’s what she does a few weeks later at the small christmas party after the champions league group game against FC Rosengård, where the team decided to spend the evening together before everyone would leave for christmas and new years eve.
“You are staring.”, Mapi approaches her best friend with a big grin on her face.
“I’m looking around the room.”, is all Alexia says, only spending her friend a small glance.
Mapi her smile only grows, “The room is a bit bigger than just Y/N though.”
Alexia lets out a sigh, she knows María long enough now to know that the defender won’t stop bugging her until she receives the answers she wants to have, “What do you want?”.
“Is there something going on between you two?”, the defender wastes no time to get to the point.
“No.”.
“Do you want to?”.
Silence.
“Aha!.”, Mapi says slighter louder than intended, making people turn their heads towards them, “Lo siento.”, she mutters, waiting for them to get back to their own things, “I knew it! You should ask her out, like right now!.”.
The midfielder rolls her eyes at her friend's antics, “No.”.
“¿Por qué no?”. (why not)
“Because I don’t want to embarrass myself when she doesn’t feel the same and did you forget about the whole thing where we hated each other?”, Alexia points out with a sigh, not really in the mood to talk about her feelings.
“But she does feel the same! And haven’t you heard of the quote ‘It’s a thin line between love and hate’?”.
“Mapi no.”, is all Alexia says, making it pretty clear that the conversation is done as she starts to walk away from her teammate.
“But you know I’m right.”, Mapi yells after her, once again turning the attention in the room towards her. Even though she didn’t achieve her goal she was still happy that her guess was correct, so she could annoy Ingrid later for being in the right.
But unbeknownst to her, Ingrid tried to get some information about the possible feelings between Alexia and you out of you as well, but obviously not in the same annoying way her girlfriend did.
“I don’t know, it’s complicated.”, you shrug, “I don’t want to risk destroying what we have built so far, you know?”.
Your fellow midfielder lets out a hum at your words, understanding your fear, “I understand, but from what I noticed so far, the feelings seem to be shared.”.
“Maybe, but I think I'll just leave it at that for now.”.
“That’s fine but if you ever wanna talk about it, you know where to find me right?”.
“Of course, thank you Ingrid.”, you smile at her.
___
There wasn’t a day where you and Alexia didn’t talk to each other during the almost two weeks apart, whether it's been some messages simply wishing the other a good day or calling for at least an hour, you two always stayed in contact. Alexia was glad about that, because if she was honest, she slightly missed seeing you almost everyday which made her rethink the conversations she had with Mapi almost everyday. Maybe she should ask you out, but what if you reject her and the whole friendship falls apart?
Eli and Alba took notice of the change in behavior from the footballer, they noticed how happy the woman always is whenever she told them about what you two did every other day, also did they notice how excited Alexia always got whenever she received a message from you. When they asked her about it, Alexia tried to play it cool, that you two are just friends and nothing more but they know her well enough to see the doubt and hesitation right through her mask.
You weren’t much better, you also missed the Spanish women, your feelings only growing stronger during the two weeks you were separated, leading to a much longer than necessarily hug between the two of you the morning you picked her again after the break.
During the first game of the year against Sevilla FC, Alexia's eyes almost stayed the entire time on you, “You should ask her out.”.
Alexia turns her attention to her mother, but before she can reply, loud cheers erupt in the stadium, turning to look back at the field she sees your teammates swarming you, meaning that you must have just scored the third goal of the match. As you walk back to your position, you look up in the stands sending Alexia a wave and a thumbs up with a bright smile on your face which the injured woman immediately returns, “Maybe I should.”, she agrees quietly.
After the celebrations of the game are done Alexia and you find yourself in your car again, just arriving at her apartment she decides that it’s now or never, “I was thinking.”, the spanish woman starts.
“Yes?”.
“Maybe instead of grabbing lunch tomorrow we could go out for dinner instead?”.
“Sure, why not.”, you reply with a shrug, confused on why she was so hesitant about it.
Alexia blushes as she realizes that you haven’t gotten the real meaning behind her request, “I kinda mean as a date?”.
Now you also start to blush, feeling kinda stupid for not catching what she meant, realizing that the midfielder in front of you is still waiting for a reply, you quickly snap out of your thoughts, “I would love to.”.
“Really?”, Alexia asks almost in disbelief of you really wanting to go on a date with her.
“Yes.”, you chuckle.
The both of you just look at each other for a moment with hugh smiles and blushes on your faces, before a car horn behind you destroys the moment, “I text you the details then?”, Alexia wonders while stepping out of your car.
“Sounds good.”, you agree before you two say your goodbyes, the smile not leaving either of your faces for the rest of the evening.
The next day you were stressed, but Ingrid was your savior, you were nearly at the point of having a breakdown on what you should wear when the norwegian came over to help you.
“You look great.”, she says once you come out of your bedroom, having put on the clothes she suggested.
“Are you sure? Maybe I should try the ot-”.
“No.”.
“No?”.
Ingrid gets up from your couch, making her way over to you, “You look amazing, Alexia is going to love it okay? You need to calm down a little.”.
“Yeah, okay okay.”, you say, taking a deep breath in hope to calm down.
Alexia wasn’t much better, the woman also overthinking every little thing, while her sister makes fun of her, “Are you going on a date or are you about to get married? I have never seen you being this nervous for a date.”.
“It has to be perfect Alba.”, she says to her younger sister, clearly not finding any of her words funny.
“Come on, I was just trying to lighten things up a bit.”.
Eli comes in to interrupt Alba as she was once again going to speak up, scolding her “Alba leave your sister alone.”.
“Te ves hermosa.”, she tells Alexia, helping her with adjusting her dress. (you look beautiful)
“Gracias mamá.”.
One hour later you are standing in front of the restaurant where Alexia booked a reservation for the two of you. You were nervously rocking back and forth waiting for Alexia to arrive, which she does just a few minutes later.
A bright blush covers both your faces once you make eye contact, “You look beautiful.”, you compliment her, the nervousness clearly audible in your voice.
“Gracias.”, she whispers, “You also look amazing.”.
“Thank you.”.
Once you made your way inside to the restaurant and the nerves settled a little everything went smoothly, you two talked, joked and laughed for hours. Not wanting the night to end, you two decided to take the long walk to get back to your cars.
“Thank you for tonight.”, the catalonian says as you near the parking lot.
“Thank you for asking me out.”.
A moment of silence follows after that, you two just standing in front of each other, gazing into each other's eyes, slowly shuffling closer and closer.
“Can I kiss you?”.
You nod your head slightly, “Yes.”.
With your consent, she immediately places her lips on yours, her hands reaching out to your hips to pull you closer while you drape your arms over her shoulders. After air becomes an issue, you two slowly pull apart, big smiles on both your faces.
___
A lot of dates followed after this one, but your relationship actually wouldn’t become official until after the Supercopa game against Real Madrid. Having played almost the entire 120 minutes you were clearly exhausted, the happier you were that you and Alexia decided for a calm evening, simply cuddling while watching a movie in her apartment.
You were just about to start the second movie of the evening when Alexia speaks up with a nervous voice, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”.
Pulling a bit away from your position so you could look her in the face, you are met with the cute sight of a clearly nervous Alexia, “I would love to be your girlfriend.”, you say with a soft smile.
The relieved expression on your now girlfriend's face makes you chuckle, “You really thought I would say no?”.
Alexia quickly pulls you into her so you wouldn’t see the blush forming on her face, “I just didn’t want to assume things.”, she mumbles in your neck.
Breaking out of her grasp, you place a small peck on her cheek, before pressing a light kiss on her lips, “You are cute.”.
You two were almost inseparable after this evening, side by side whenever you could be with lingering touches and if you couldn’t directly touch each other, lingering looks were shared. Barely a day and night spent away from each other.
“It’s crazy to think that you two hated each other once, I still remember the way Alexia was cursing your name after the two losses against Wolfsburg back then.”, Aitana says during a team bonding night a few weeks later, nodding to Alexia and you while you were comfortably cuddling on the couch, waiting for the food to arrive.
You chuckle at her words, just about to reply when Alexia beats you to it, “You know what they say, it’s a thin line between love and hate.”, she shrugs.
“Love?”, you question, leaning a bit back to look at her.
“Mhm, I love you.”, she admits while looking you in the eyes, not caring about the others in the room.
The intensity of her stare makes you blush, “I love you too.”, you say, hiding back in her arms as your teammates around you start to ‘Aww’ at the confession that just took place between you.
But Alexia’s eyes are still sorely on you, not noticing the way your teammates were still staring at the both of you or the way Mapi tried to rip Ingrid's hand off her mouth, to ruin the moment by commenting about Alexia repeating the words she told her just a few months ago, all on her mind is how happy she is that you two crossed that Thin Line.
#woso x reader#alexia putellas x reader#woso imagines#alexia putellas imagines#woso imagine#alexia putellas imagine
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Wild Kratts: Our Blue and Green World Trailer.
Underneath the cut for those who consider it to be spoilery, but we have a trailer for the one-hour special, Our Blue and Green World, airing April 1st, 2024.
The Kratt brothers disagree on what's better; blue oceans or green forests. Aviva takes on the role of referee to demonstrate how oceans and forests work together to make our living planet, just like Martin and Chris need to keep working together. It's up to the gang to get Martin and Chris back in sync in time to save planet Earth from Zach and Paisley's villainous plans.
This special was first mentioned back in May of 2023 during an interview with Martin Kratt heralding the show's premiere of its 7th season. The original title was Blue and Green: The Living Earth before it was chaned to our Blue and Green World. The episode will feature climates and habitats corresponding with the Kratt's "blue and green." With it, will come the introduction of new Creature Power Suits: The ones we have seen thus far in the trailer are Indri Power, Green Anaconda Power, and Blue Whale Power.
My thoughts:
HOLY SHIT THE BLUE WHALE SUIT
HOLY SHIT THE BLUE WHALE SUIT
HOLY SHIT THE BLUE WHALE SUIT
*calms down.*
Ok but I'm starting to see a weird pattern in the PowerSuits in this season. For some strange reason, they have to retrofit the wearer's mouths to match the ACTUAL anatomy of the animal the suit is based off of. They did it with the Wild Pony and the Mountain Goat Power Suit and both of them were.... ugh. Now they did it with the Blue Whale Suit and to be fair, while I hate that particular feature, it's not enough to make me hate the suit. In fact, I kinda like it more because of how silly it looks (Martin is the perfect person to wear this suit tbh). Still though, I wish they designed it like the Crocodile, Hippo, or Puffin Suit where the giant mouth is simply an attachment that doesn't move while the wearer speaks.
For those who don't know, Indris are the largest species of lemur in the world (alongside Diademed Sifakas). They are the only animals besides humans that can find and use rhythm using "wailing songs" to communicate. They're also critically endangered due to slash and burn of their habitats and poaching for their flesh as delicacies (yeah, very odd that Gourmand isn't here, but I digress). There's an estimate to be less than 10,000 left in the wild and are expected to have a population net decrease by 80% within the next 30 years... yeah, considering that they're endemic to Madagascar, not a very good sign. I didn't even know what an Indri was until reading the article, and if I'm not the only one who had no clue about these guys, it's probably definitely a good sign that they're getting some spotlight in this show.
The Indri Power Suit looks so goofy, but again, something about how silly it looks just makes me appreciate it all the more. I... weirdly expected it to be way bigger like the Puffin Suit, but again that's just me.
I am a huge fan of how they designed the snake-inspired Creature Power Suits in the show. But the Anaconda Creature Power Suit... holy shit.
LOOK AT IT /POS
Look at the markings! Look at the green! Look at the patterns, and the color schemes! Chris FINALLY got a green Creature Power Suit to activate! Our boi won! It's also a pretty clever callback to the Amazon special where Chris met the Anaconda (I really hope the Power Disc for this suit is green because god that would be so aesthetically pleasing).
Ngl, if the old flash games were still on the website, and this was one of the Power Suits I could earn for my character, I'd play it in a heart-beat.
I'm really interested to see the Zach/Paisley team up. This season already started to utilize her better by giving her another solo appearance, and now we're seeing a 1 on 1 team up with her and another villain. I was always gunning for a Paisley/Donita teamup but this works too. They're both very similar characters that can bounce off each other in similar, yet different ways (I actually headcanon that they're related - second cousins to be exact - because of those similarities). The final battle is gonna be kickass.
If you were to tell me without any context at all that this was a screencap from the upcoming WK feature film (that this episode is often mistaken for), I would believe you. Because HOLY SHIT! The linework, the lighting, the hues, AND the shading! I am becoming more and more grateful for the 2-year long hiatus - the animators needed time to cook and they fucking COOKED. For an extended TV episode, this is pretty damn impressive.
People don't talk enough about this, but fun-fact: A lot of the animators of this show had experience working for Disney. Erika Worthylake was one of the artists on this show, doing several beta designs for animals such as wild ponies and salmon sharks. In 2019, she was the lead designer for Anga, one of the new characters in Disney's The Lion Guard (which, much like Wild Kratts, was animated in Toon Boom). Ben Balistreri had collaberated with the Kratt Brothers and Luc Chamberland in 2007 to work on the show's pilot episode, creating several different designs for the animated characters. Ten years later, he became the executive co-producer of Tangled: The Series. Kendal Brouet, who animated A Creature Christmas, worked on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder in 2022. Just to name a few. It's just a fun little thing that comes up in the back of my mind whenever the topic of WK animation comes up, and this instance of animation is so fucking good that I HAVE to talk about it, because I have MAJOR respect for these guys, and if there were ever moments in the show that remind me "Oh, this slaps," I just remember what these talented artists worked on through the years and it clicks together nicely in my brain.
According to Whrokids, this episode is gonna have a runtime of 58 minutes. I found this screenshot of someone who did far more searching and sleuthing for new episode content (they were the ones who found this trailer actually). I'm not sure how valid this particular screenshot is, but if this is the case, then this will be the longest episode of Wild Kratts in history, and will be the closest thing we get to a Wild Kratts movie (until the actual WK movie is released in theaters).
Fucking. Hyped.
#wild kratts#pbs kids#kratt brothers#martin kratt#chris kratt#wk season 7#wild kratts fandom#wk#wk chris#wk martin#wild kratts creature powers#blue whales#indri#lemur#animals#I officially have a new reason for living thank you very much#2024#This better not be an April Fools' prank I stg.
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let's diagnose the Irish guy from punch-out
disclaimer: I am but a lass with ADD, so while I do know a lot from both my own experiences and research, you should still take my ramblings with a few grains of salt. I encourage anyone reading to form their own headcanons, and would love to hear them!
So, the Punch-Out wiki (in its current state) implies that Aran Ryan has some sort of mental disorder, so I projected onto dissected him like a deep sea specimen, and may have found out what's going on in his very empty and screwed up head
🎉congrats! it's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder! (probably)🎉
ADHD has a bunch of characteristics that go with it, but I'll only be going over the ones that apply to Aran and are displayed in canon. Of course, I'll insert some speculation here and there to further support and reason through some of my points. For more reading, I suggest checking out organizations like Mayo Clinic and the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as any self-reports and blogs by people with ADHD (the latter tends to be more personal and far less clinical-sounding, but are just as helpful). Wikipedia is also a good place to go for anything, and you might even find yourself down a few rabbit holes!
Hyperactivity and restlessness
Aran exhibits this in PO Wii heavily. He has a high-stamina fighting style with lots of shuffling around, always bouncing around Little Mac. He can only be stunned through counter-punches and being faster than him (During round breaks, Doc Louis literally says "beat Aran Ryan to the punch"). It is extremely difficult to KO or TKO Aran without intercepting him due to this mechanic. During round breaks, regardless of how beaten and bruised he is, Aran will bounce his leg constantly in Contender and harass the audience in Title Defense.
Impulsivity and recklessness
This one's consistent between his two appearances, surprisingly. In Wii, Aran is portrayed as a dirty cheater who would "do anything to win", according to supplementary comics. He has the most rule infractions in the Punch-Out series, at 32 combined. He stuffs his gloves with horseshoes before his Contender fight and brings a homemade flail made from a broken boxing glove to his bout with Little Mac in Title Defense. During matches, he makes use of headbutts and elbows quite frequently. These are both illegal and very stupid moves, due to the potential of self-inflicted trauma. His flail in Title Defense could be a sign of creativity by thinking outside the box, which is often seen in people with ADHD. In supplementary material for Super Punch-Out!!, it's implied that a fight usually broke out whenever Aran was made fun of in school, showing that he was reckless during his childhood as well.
Emotional dysregulation
In Super Punch-Out!!, Aran Ryan is rather grumpy, and is one of two characters in the entire game to never smile in any of his sprites (the other being Nick Bruiser). Compared to his Wii portrayal, Aran is as clean as it gets in this game, even complimenting the player during the credits. Supplementary material attributes his lower mood to the teasing he endured during his childhood, and that he got into boxing to channel some of his pent-up anger. Depending on how you view it, him being so angry over his peers making fun of his name could be an overblown reaction. This hot-headedness is retained in PO Wii (which could be a sign of impulsivity), but he's essentially the inverse of how he was in Super. He's boisterous, reckless, dishonest, and smiles even while he's stunned. Many of Aran's reactions to being hit are him laughing, which might imply masochism on some level, but is nonetheless seen as an inappropriate response to being hit. He displays some antisocial traits, even, as seen when he throws aside the referee in Title Defense. This is likely caused by a low tolerance of authority, but is still an extreme reaction to the referee just trying to maintain order in the ring (good luck with that, ref...).
Difficulty starting tasks
This is a sign of executive dysfunction, which is closely linked to inattention in people with ADHD. It's exhibited in his Contender intro, where he spends the first three frames of the cutscene messing around. For this one, I'm going to compare Aran's behavior in his Contender intro to all the other boxers that spend their entire intro cutscene in a gym/dojo/training environment, spend the majority of their cutscene explicitly training, or are in several training environments. Here's a neat little chart, where the numbers represent how many slides they spent being "off-task":
can you tell that graphic design is my passion
I've counted any activity that builds strength and endurance (like eating, running, lifting, or practicing magic in Tiger's case), or requires a large amount of work put in to do (like chopping trees or playing hockey, for Bear Hugger). Some of you might be wondering why I didn't include certain characters, but that's because they're either in a combat setting, switch from training to non-training settings, or are doing unrelated things in what could be a training setting.
If Aran has 3 instances of being off-task, he ties with TD Kaiser, Don, and Macho in terms of how long they're off-task for. If "gearing up" is being counted as being on-task, he only ties with TD Kaiser and himself. Of course, context matters heavily. TD Kaiser, Don, and Macho aren't off-task purely for the sake of slacking off, but show developments of their story throughout Career Mode. TD Aran is off-task for storytelling as well, but it's not motivated by a grudge towards Mac like the other three and falls under the normal definition of "slacking off". Speaking of cutscenes,
Inattention and distractibility
Aran shows this several times in Title Defense. In his intro, he notices a rope in the trash can and gets the idea of making his flail, seemingly forgetting all about training for his match with Little Mac. During round intermissions, he's distracted by the audience throwing objects at him, and threatens them instead of spending the break resting or strategizing.
Anxiety
ADHD is highly comorbid with anxiety, due to executive dysfunction (mainly sensory processing), and the risk of overthinking. I admit that this one is a bit of a stretch, since general restlessness and anxiety are linked in many mood disorders, but it's shared between both of his appearances. Super's version of Aran being caught up in his own past can be a sign of social anxiety as well as falling victim to overthinking. In PO Wii, the leg bouncing can be a sign of anxiety for various reasons, whether it be physiological (ex. outside stimuli being unpleasant) or psychological (ex. overthinking the match). His stance in Exhibition's menu for his Contender match is also a little shaky, which is common in fight-or-flight reactions, though it could also be plain hyperactivity.
Pressured speech
In PO Wii. Aran usually talks very quickly, which can be caused by the classic ADHD experience of "having a lot to say, and feeling like there's no time to say it". It's very likely that it's just be a characteristic of his accent, though.
🍀🌠🌈this is a cool section break🌈🌠🍀
There's plenty more symptoms you could make arguments for, but these were some of his more prominent traits. ADHD shares symptoms with a lot of other disorders, though, so let's see some other possibilities...
Counter-Diagnosis #1: Bipolar II Disorder
Bipolar II, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, is characterized by a a pattern of depressive states and hypomanic states (notice the hypo- prefix). We can attribute Aran's demeanor in Super to a depressive state, and his demeanor in Wii to a hypomanic state. I've chosen bipolar II instead of I due to the specifications of a "manic state" not fitting his Wii portrayal as closely.
Hypomania (literally meaning "less than mania") shares many characteristics with full-blown mania, but is more toned-down. People who have experienced genuine hypomanic states usually describe it as helpful towards their productivity, while manic states are notoriously more harmful and often directly affect productivity. Symptoms of mania include restlessness, racing thoughts, pressured speech, overconfidence, increased agitation, impulsiveness, a disconnect from one's surroundings, extreme anxiousness, and many others. Already, we can observe many of these symptoms in Aran's Wii portrayal that are shared with the ADHD diagnosis. However, hypomania tends to lack the "reality disconnect", and we can see that Aran is very aware of his surroundings. Him being in the World Circuit in both Super and Wii can be interpreted as a sign of the hypomanic states being more helpful than detrimental (maybe less so in Super because of the existence of the Special Circuit, but I digress).
I think this take has a lot of ground, maybe more than the ADHD hypothesis. A lot of my earlier points in favor of him having ADHD can also apply to him being bipolar (specifically hyperactivity, recklessness, and especially emotional dysregulation) as well, which blurs the line in some places, but it's still a very strong argument.
Counter-Diagnosis #2: Oppositional Defiant Disorder
According to Mayo Clinic, ODD is "a frequent and ongoing pattern of anger, irritability, arguing and defiance towards parents and other authority figures". The characteristics of ODD can be observed in both SPO's and Wii's Aran.
I think this one's weaker, for a few reasons. First, ODD is considered clinically relevant only during childhood; from then, it can "evolve" into a number of other conditions, including but not limited to borderline personality disorder and the aforementioned bipolar disorder. Obviously, Aran isn't a child, but he could have had this disorder in the past and "grew out of it" from a clinical standpoint.
You could make an argument for the anger issues due to a few of his behaviors, as well as his voice lines in Wii having a sort of "growl" to them, but his irritability is infrequent and mild enough to where it can be attributed back to emotional dysregulation, and the "growl" could just be how the character or his voice actor naturally sounds (I haven't found any clips of Stephen Webster speaking out-of-character, but if anyone has any, I'd love to hear them).
Counter-Diagnosis #3: Antisocial Personality Disorder
The DSM-5 defines APD as consistent displays of deceitfulness, issues with authority, impulsivity, irritability, recklessness, and a diminished capacity for remorse after hurting someone. Again, a few of these symptoms are shared with ADHD, so there's a significant grey area here. Yet, I believe it's stronger than the ODD argument, since his cheating can be a sign of deceitfulness and his apparent antisocial traits in Wii. However, boxing as a combat sport doesn't leave much room for feeling remorse, since doing so can result in throwing or forfeiting a match. I'm not going to count the lack of remorse due to the nature of the sport, but you as a reader can interpret it how you like.
Counter-Diagnosis #4: Autism Spectrum Disorder
Because of how broad the autism spectrum is, you could easily go crazy in-depth with this. I'll do a miniature version of the ADHD symptom setup, which includes traits observed in canon. I won't be including every shared trait, but do keep in mind that ADHD is comorbid with a bunch of different spectrum disorders, and misdiagnoses, especially in women, are fairly common in the real world because of it. I know I'm going to fail to list certain symptoms due to just how many ASD traits there are, so if anyone reading has any more connections to make, be my guest! This "counter-diagnosis" section is for provoking further discussion, after all, and I'm happy to learn from you all.
Hyposensitivity
In PO Wii. To wind up for his right uppercut, Aran hits himself in the side of the head, and after round breaks in Contender, he hits himself repeatedly. Considering his gloves are confirmed to be loaded in his Contender fight, his relative indifference might be a sign of this. People with autism have reported tuning out various stimuli if they become overwhelmed by a bunch of them (sometimes related to meltdown or shutdown), and it's possible that that's what Aran is doing here. The bright lights of the venue combined with the crowd noise and the feeling of being sweaty could be overstimulating, and the supposed hyposensitivity towards being hit is caused by this "tuning out" to avoid a shutdown mid-bout.
Stimming (repetitive movements)
In PO Wii. The leg bounce in his Contender round break can be interpreted as a stim, as well as the wind-ups for his right uppercut (bopping himself in the head) and headbutt (choosing to wind up on the ropes). His bouncing around Mac could also be stimming.
Pathological demand avoidance
This phenomenon can also be comorbid with anxiety, which happens to be a risk factor for ADHD, so we're looping back around with this one. PDA is characterized by a person exhibiting an intense aversion to something that is asked of them, even if they wanted to do it beforehand. It can be associated with feelings of unfairness and like they don't have any control, so someone with PDA may "break the rules" to feel as though they have some control over what happens to them. Aran's high infraction count in Wii could be a sign of a more obsessive form of this. Avoiding the process of carrying out the demand can be conflated with executive dysfunction as well.
TL;DR get this man into a psychiatrist's office ASAP
#punch out!!#punch out wii#super punch out#aran ryan#punch out headcanons#your honor he's screwed up in the head /lh#neurodivergent#adhd#it's canon I'm sorry I don't make the rules
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ive been working on actually tallying each boxer's infraction count becuz i don't really think that rlly popular video does them justice. i'm still working on it so any suggestions to add or change one are welcome /gen
list under cut :3
i was considering adding that none of the boxers are seen shaking hands after losing a match but then i remembered theyre probably fucking dead due to little mac
infractions will count in total between contender and td. i.e. glass joe kills a man or some shit in contester, and then hits the quan on little mac's body in td. in total glass joe has 2 infractions, rather than contender and td be two separate characters
THESE R DEFINITELY SUBJECT TO CHANGE, WHETHER THAT BE ADDING OR REMOVING. I AM NOT A REFEREE SO I NEED TO FACT CHECK THESE LMFAO
little mac: 9(?)
note: his tank top is allowed in minor circuit, known as a “singlet,” but he’ll have to remove it in major and world circuit. i’m counting two infractions for that. also has a coach in his corner (doc)
no mouth piece (birdie had one in super PO so idk why they removed it?)
underage (ban until he’s legally allowed to box)
im iffy on his star punch as he jumps(?) to do it. (jumping isn't mentioned in boxing rules, but you will get warned by ref if you jump and attack)
faces his back towards opponent when he does a star punch (does a little spin teehee)
ducks so his head is below opponent’s waist/belt line(? might just be a perspective thing)
tank top in major and world circuit. see note
too young to hold a belt/title, so three infractions(? not sure if this is an infraction or something else entirely)
glass joe: 2
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
glass joe TD: 2
did some research and headgear isn’t allowed period. +1 infraction for joe
his hair also peeks out of his headgear. even if headgear was allowed, he can’t have his hair poking out
von kaiser: 6(?)
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
improper wear (pants, boots)
hits with inside of glove during his attack attack thing
may or may not have some sort of ptsd regarding children so um. yeah. would probably be banned until he got therapy sooooo
mustache is more than 10 cm in length(? someone fact check me on this please)
von kaiser TD: N/A
yeeyee ass haircut (placeholder)
disco kid: 3
note: i love this guy. im also not counting his disco ball becuz it’s really just theatrical intros and gives a little swaggah to his fights
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
honestly the only thing i can get him on are his headphones. even though they’re audibly playing music, they’re still against the rules
disco kid TD: 1 (so far)
leotard. no clear line between waist and lower half
too cool (placeholder)
king hippo: 7
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
no weigh in and most likely no actual license
head covering (crown)
ear clap move
indecent exposure (? can i even write him up for this or is this a legal issue)
shoes are not boxing approved, seem to be slip ons
king hippo TD: 2
BRINGS A MANHOLE INTO THE RING???
bandages are allowed in the minor circuit, but not at the world circuit
fat /j
piston hondo: 4
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
head covering (head band)
unsportsmanlike behavior in the ring (bowing w/ eye contact. it's subtle but i'm still counting it)
piston hondo TD: 0
nothing! at least that's what i think.
bear hugger: 5
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
improper attire (overalls give no clear discern between his waist and legs, so low blows are hard to tell. plus his boots)
beard (needs to be clean shaven or well groomed)
does an ear clap move (need a hug or whatever the fuck he says before it i dont care)
bear hugger TD: 2
bringing a squirrel into the ring (im gonna count this as bringing someone into the ring willingly, as the squirrel has boxing gloves on and isnt trying to run away from the ring. the squirrel is willingly fighting and understands what is happening)
head covering
great tiger: 10
note: his head covering is for religious reasons, so it doesn’t count towards infractions. i also won’t be counting his magic carpet as he only uses it during intermission to entertain the crowd and it isn't seen in his actual fights.
another note: his clones, in my mind, act like actual people. great tiger is shown controlling them, but during intermission they can be seen lounging around and talking. this may just be theatrics for the crowd, but i see it as they’re all separate people.
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
leaves his corner of the ring
5 infractions (for each clone he spawns, 5 being the max he can spawn. i also want to point out that a boxer can only have three corner men at a time, so great tiger having 5 people/clones, much less while he’s boxing, is basically cheating within cheating. aran ryan much lmfao)
pants go below the knees
mustache is longer than 10 cm(?)
great tiger TD: dead
did little mac kill a man in this fight (placeholder)
don flamenco: 5
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
spraying perfume on himself between rounds
head covering (toupee LMFAOAOOOAOA BALD ASS)
personal branding on his shorts
don flamenco TD: 2
turns his back repeatedly, which counts as being knocked down
emo /j
backhand punch
aran ryan: banned (12, still counting)
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
loaded gloves (DQ)
due to the fact that he was able to load his gloves, i’m willing to bet his fists aren’t properly wrapped and weren’t examined.
headbutting (DQ. also uses the ropes to gain leverage for said headbutt, so two for one combo there)
hits with elbow
once knocking little mac down, does not go to farthest neutral corner while ref counts
refuses to make an attempt to fight at certain points (his taunt)
breaking of WVBA property (seen in his contester win animation)
personal branding on shorts. unless a clover is his sponsor’s logo, it isnt allowed
attacks the ref in his intermission cutscene (banned)
i KNOW theres more i just cant THINK OF THEM GRR
aran ryan TD: 4
brings a fucking flail into the ring. im counting his flail as two infractions, both for bringing a foreign item into the ring. one for the rope and one for the glove. i’m willing to bet that the purple glove is still loaded, but im not sure of that but im counting it so FUCK YOU
steals little mac’s gloves. idk if this is a criminal charge or an infraction
tries to get a hit in right as he’s going down
soda popinski: 7
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
improper attire
doping (the soda)
foreign object (soda bottles)
also giving him an infraction for drinking the soda during his matches
mustache is longer than 10 cm
soda popinski TD: 4
foreign object (soda crates. im giving him three infractions, one for each crate of soda he brings in)
hits the side of mac’s head with a punch (DQ)
bald bull: banned (4)
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
anger issues, would have to get that sorted out before anything else
attacking a ref (perma ban)
bald bull TD: N/A
uhh
being bald
super macho man: banned (9)
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
as much as i want to keep looking at his ass (WHO SAID THAT) i gotta write him up for improper wear. also adding that he has personal branding on both the front and back.
COLD CLOCKED THE FUCKING REF HELLO??? (PERMA BAN)
also didn’t follow ref’s instructions to go back to his corner; can be seen in the little cutscene between rounds
uses camera to take selfies
wearing jewelry (gold chain and earrings)
i also want to point out that he may have some tanning lotion on due to how FUCKING SHINY HE IS COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE
super macho man TD: N/A
racist (placeholder)
mr sandman: 2
no coach/trainer in corner
no mouth piece
thats it. thats literally the most i can get on him /srs
note: this is the BIGGEST fucking stretch i’ll make on this document but maybeeeeeee the way he’s stretching the ropes in his contender intermission could be an infraction??????? not really becuz he doesn’t break them but ugh idk it might just be more of a “the ropes r very fragile so plz dont do that mr sandman world champion sir” than an infraction LMFAO
i also noticed that when he gets knocked down, a subtle song that sounds like what those little carousels that go above a baby’s cot starts playing. cute and its a nice reference to his name
mr sandman TD: 0
note: the "make up" under his eyes are eye bags, not eyeshadow. mr sandman may be emo in td but not like don
nothing!
my references
“According to rule 4.2. 5.2. 2 of IBA Technical & Competitions Rules, “a boxer can have a beard and mustache, but either must not cover the neck and must not be longer than 10cms.””
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title18/agency120/chapter40/section350/
#punch out#mr sandman pls dont hunt me down for giving you two infractions#hmm who is knocking at my door AAAAAHH#bazooka overkill#bazooka-overkill
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A Bionicle Advent Calendar: December 6th (Day 6)
The Prompt: Self-sacrifice. Take that however you'd like.
“I took a huge bath-loss on those kohlii balls—you need to pay me back!” The Le-Matoran pounded a fist on Ahkmou’s table. Ahkmou was uncomfortably aware that half of Po-Koro could probably hear him.
“All sales are final,” he told the angry green Matoran across from him. “You know that.”
“How can you truth-call it a sale when it was your Toa came barrel-running down the trails to destroy-bash the whole shipment?” asked the angry Le-Matoran.
“All sales are final,” said Ahkmou in his deepest voice—not actually that deep, but deeper than any Le-Matoran’s chatter and accompanied by a narrowing of his eye-lights behind his black mask, could make him a bit more menacing. He flexed his arms, swinging a carving hammer as a visual reminder of the great strength of the Po-Matoran. “If you want to seek damages, seek them from the Toa.”
“Perhaps I will,” said the Le-Matoran, backing away but not wanting to completely lose face.
~*~*~*~
A week later, Ahkmou found himself facing the warning end of a carving hammer, as he was being loomed over by Turaga Onewa, who was gesticulating irritably. Until quite recently, the Turaga had been the foremost physical specimen of the Matoran community: tall and strong, and Ahkmou had never once considered him affectionate. He didn’t consider Onewa affectionate now, as he was berating him.
“Le-Wahi is sueing Po-Wahi!” he griped. “Do you even know what that means? Of course you don’t: it’s never happened before. I didn’t think Matau knew the words “tortious interference,” let alone that he’d be able to string them together in a coherent sentence not full of tree-speak, but not only has he done that, I think he may have a case. Your stupid scheme has found yet another way to mess things up.”
“What is ‘sueing’?” asked Ahkmou, afraid to ask what tortious interference might be.
“He’s...” Onewa waved his free hand vaguely. “Matau is invoking our written laws to claim that Po-Wahi did things that cost Le-Wahi money, to force use to pay him.”
“We have written laws?” said Ahkmou.
“Of course we do!” snapped Onewa. “I wrote them myself—well, mostly. If you build a community, your community needs rules, and the rules need to be written down so that they don’t change.”
“But you’re the Turaga—you can do what you want,” said Ahkmou. “Just tell them no, right?”
“No,” said Onewa firmly. “If we were one village and one Turaga, that might fly, but we are six villages. If Vakama got it into his head to burn down our village and sell our stone to Onu-Koro for profit, you need a mutually-agreed upon law to appeal to. Turaga have been corrupted before.”
“They have?” said Ahkmou. Onewa didn’t say any more about that, but began pacing.
“The stupid thing is that Matau actually has a case,” he said (whether to Ahkmou or himself was unclear to Ahkmou). “Our Toa did destroy property that his villager had bought—and even did it within the bounds of Le-Wahi, or I could assert territorial privilege and say it was an act of Mata Nui.”
“Who decides it?” asked Ahkmou. “No one outranks you.”
“The Turaga as a body agreed to abide by the laws,” said Onewa. “We all signed the charter—if someone tried to weasel out of it, the five other villages would raise sanctions: no trading, no help, no travel--no food. Since Matau is suing us and I’m defending, the others will judge the matter.”
“What if they don’t all agree?” asked Ahkmou. “There’s an even number of them.”
“Vakama has the tie-breaker, as the leader,” said Onewa. “There’s a whole order of precedence.”
Ahkmou didn’t ask what that meant. Onewa was already stumping away to plan his legal strategy. He might have been the most resolutely fair Turaga on Mata Nui—a referee trusted to officiate even a championship with Po-Koro in the match—but he was still a Po-Matoran at heart. He hated to lose.
~*~*~*~
Before things were quite underway, Onewa tried to sound out the opinions of the other Turaga. It was a bit underhanded to his sense of competitive justice, but if all four of them saw the case the way he did—i.e. that Pohatu was complete responsible for the damage to Le-Koro’s kohlii balls. There was no provision in his charter for public safety: each Turaga was law within his Wahi and that was it, and this was in Le-Wahi.
But the initial responses of the others raised his spirits, even if he found that he didn’t agree with their legal opinions.
“The Toa are above our authority,” said Vakama. “They are not bound by our charter.”
“You can’t tell the Toa of Stone he can’t destroy infected stone,” agreed Whenua. “He is Toa of Stone wherever he finds it. It is his element.”
“Toa are subject to the authority of the Turaga,” said Onewa. “Remember Dume?”
“We didn’t exactly obey him,” said Vakama. “Ours was a higher calling.”
“But we were supposed to,” argued Onewa. “That’s why the Makuta posed as him!”
“We aren’t going to tell Pohatu he can’t save Matoran,” said Nokama.
“Yes, yes we are!” insisted Onewa irately, “I mean—if that’s what the court decides after review of the law, that’s what we’ll do. No one is above the law: not Turaga, not Toa.”
~*~*~*~
Pohatu was somewhat bemused when Onewa sent Hafu to summon him to a gathering in Po-Koro, and all the more amused to see a serious delegation of Le-Matoran looking at him, and the six Turaga gathered in a semi-circle: four of them seated, two standing on the ends. Onewa nodded to Matoro (Nuju had drawn the short straw of introducing the proceedings with Onewa barred by statute), who introduced the matter.
“The Turaga Council will hear the petition of Le-Wahi in the matter of Le-Wahi vs. Po-Wahi for the destruction of four dozen infected kohlii balls,” said Matoro, and the gathered Po-Matoran went silent at a loud tap from Onewa’s hammer. The Le-Matoran chatter calmed at their example.
“Those kohlii balls were bad!” said Pohatu. “I’m so glad I caught you before anyone started playing with them!”
“Err, Toa Pohatu, it’s not your turn to speak,” said Matoro. “Turaga Matau needs to present his case to the Council.”
“Wait…” something dawned in the Toa’s orange eyes, and he looked straight at the Le-Matoran. “You’re mad that I destroyed those kohlii balls. I am so sorry, my friends, but those were not safe.”
The Le-Matoran shuffled a bit awkwardly, and Matau pretended to be watching something in the distance.
“The Le-Matoran purchased those kohlii balls for a good sum of widgets,” said Onewa, irked that none of them would address the matter. “They bought them at market value just before Takua revealed their danger, so they were quite expensive. As they cannot get the widgets back, they are now out both widgets and kohlii balls.”
“Oh, but my friends, that is my fault!” said Pohatu. “Come, tell me how many kohlii balls you purchased, and I will replace them with safe kohlii balls!”
“Oh, that’s not necessary, Toa Pohatu,” said the Le-Matoran merchant, causing Onewa to throw up his hands in despair, but no one was watching him.
“I insist,” said Pohatu. “I did destroy your kohlii balls.”
“But you don’t have any kohlii balls, Toa Pohatu,” said Hafu. “Or any widgets!”
“My friends will help me,” said Pohatu. “Come! I will trade favours with any Matoran who can spare a kohlii ball!”
To Onewa’s dismay, the entirety of Po-Koro began to offer Pohatu kohlii balls and widgets and offers of making more, and even Turaga Whenua was attempting to press a kohlii ball into Pohatu’s hand (though he couldn’t reach so high). Within ten minutes, Pohatu had a large urn full of more than four dozen kohlii balls, and the beaming Toa was presenting them to the embarrassed Le-Matoran merchant. The only figure in a green mask who did not appear to be a little ashamed was Turaga Matau, who was watching Onewa’s apoplexy.
“He just admitted it and paid!” grumbled Onewa. “Vakama, Nokama, and Whenua were ready to rule for him!”
“You would have won, rock-splitter,” said Matau. “Don’t be mad you were quick-diverted from the match.”
“It’s not a match,” grumbled Onewa.
“But you are a head-sore loser!” said Matau gleefully. “You were argue-stating our case more than yours.”
“Well, someone had to,” said Onewa. “Toa aren’t above the law.”
“Are you sure?” asked Matau, gesturing at Pohatu and the Po-Matoran, who were happily lading all the kohlii balls for the Le-Matoran. “Look-seems to me like he’s doing what the law requires.”
“No, that’s being neighbourly, not lawful,” said Onewa. “Pohatu would do the same if he were completely innocent.”
“Maybe that’s a better law than your compact,” said Matau, and he went to join his Matoran, leaving Onewa alone with his convictions.
#Bionicle#Bionicle Advent Calendar#Ahkmou#Onewa#Matau#Pohatu#“Take that however you want” is doing a lot of the lifting here.#Matoran Legal Code
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Den 55
Vstáváme v šest. Slunce už je vysoko, i ráno teda dostáváme minimálně hodinu světla navíc. Ale nemusíme teď vstávat tak brzy, abychom utekli horku. Většinu času jsme mezi stromy, takže je sice teplo, ale šlapeme ve stínu.
Balíme a pokračujeme šlapáním po sněhu. Je to tak 70% sníh a zbytek trail nebo občas taky říčka místo trailu. Naštěstí je sníh tady docela tvrdý, takže nehrozí, že bychom se propadali nějak hluboko. Jediným větším nebezpečím jsou sněžné mosty, pod kterými teče voda. Nikdo nikdy neví, kdy se propadne. A taky sněhem zapadane stromy. Ty slabší se pod váhou nadměrného sněhu prohnuly a teď občas vystřelí zpět nahoru. Stir it upovi jeden takhle málem vyrazil zuby, než jsme si jich začali víc všímat. Říkáme jim Slap trees (Fackovací stromy).
Brodění přes sníh ubírá mnohem víc energie a zároveň naše tempo klesá minimálně na polovinu. Ušli jsme necelých 8 mil. Jsme z toho oba v 11 už úplně utahaní, jak kdyby bylo už pět večer. Dáváme si pauzu a powernap, abychom se nachystali na dalších minimálně 8 mil. Jdeme teď k jednomu turisticky hodně vyhledávanému místu. Pro nás je to ale po cestě, tak se tam taky chceme zastavit. Trail není tak náročný, sněhu ubylo.
Kolem třetí konečně k Ramona vodopádům dorazíme. Je to asi nejhezčí vodopád, co jsem kdy viděl. Skála, po které voda stéká, je hodně členěná, a tak voda vytváří neuvěřitelnou kaskádu. Je to boží. Sedáme poblíž a dáváme si pozdní oběd s výhledem na už zmíněnou nádheru.
Jen s velkým úsilím se dokopeme, abychom se zase pohli dál. Nechce se nám, tohle byla opravdová hiker tv. Nicméně, musíme. Ujdeme míli a dáme si další rozcvičku na budoucí Sierru; brodění řeky nad kolena. Byla to celkem hračka.
Na závěr nás čeká stoupání asi 3000 stop k úpatí hory Mt. Hood. Koukáme na ni už poslední dva dny. Je totiž nepřehlédnutelná. Je vulkanického původu, má kuželovitý tvar, měří 3429 m.n.m. a jsou na ní celoročně ledovce. Tohle všechno dohromady a fakt, že kolem dokola mají nejvyšší vrcholky sotva 1800, z ní dělá opravdu něco speciálního a velkolepého. Nahoru ale naštěstí nepůjdeme, jen do nějakých 1900 a pak zase dolů. I tak tam je pořád spousta sněhu. Obejdeme si ji dokola, ale to až zítra.
Poslední dva dny nás provází v lese zvláštní zvuk jednoho ptáka. Zní to jako píšťalka. Dlouhý, táhlý, monotónní zvuk. Pojmenovali jsme toho ptáka Referee bird (rozhodčí). Zatím se nám ale nepovedlo ho lokalizovat, takže nevíme, jak vypadá. Kdybyste někdo tušil, o jakého jde, rád se příručím.
Kolem sedmé dorazíme na místo, kde bychom chtěli kempovat. Máme tu všechno, dva rovné plácky, maličký potůček a neskutečný výhled na Mt. Hood na jedné straně a na západ slunce na druhé. Co víc si může člověk ještě přát? Jsme tu úplně sami, je evidentní, že tudy ještě nikdo nešel (přes trail jsou natažené pavučiny). Nezkazí nám to tu ani stopy pumy, které jsme našli v písku.
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Now available from @boomkatonline 😛 A precedent of sorts to, erm, Armand van Helden vs Fatboy Slim’s 1999 bout, ‘The Heavyweight Sound Fight’ takes pride of place among iDEAL’s hall of oddities with one of the zaniest recordings by three international leaders of the avant-garde. Adapting all the pomp and ceremony of a boxing match to ludicrous ends - including a flier depicting each artist with their dukes up - they produced what sounds like a great night out for NYC’s experimental cognoscenti with Charlie Morrow (USA) vs Carles santos (Spain) each backed by a band - Soho Baroque Opera Company with the assistance of the New Wilderness Foundation - while Sweden’s Sten Hanson acts as referee, and Armand Schwerner takes the role of announcer in thick, nasal New York brogue. It’s brilliantly daft and subversive but accomplished in a witty way that maybe escapes too many solemnly po-faced avant-garde conceptualists nowadays, and remains a strange outlier in the history of NYC avant garde and beyond. https://www.instagram.com/p/CqpEcz3Nmfk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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How do you think poly relationships with Celia and Jack would look like? How it would work out for them and for another (un)lucky person?
I thought about this for a while obviously xD
I think that relationship would be pretty unconventional, because here's the thing - I don't think those two would actually like each other. They'd tolerate each other for the sake of you - the hinge - but there would be animosity bubbling just below the surface. And a lot of competition.
Celia wouldn't like Jack. He's just like every other controlling, arrogant, POS man she's ever had to deal with - she doesn't enjoy his presence, and he certainly doesn't deserve you. She likes to dote on you, and the way he's mean to you makes her feel like she needs to protect you.
Jack would like Celia... at first. She's spunky and holds her own in a banter. The problem is, it's not playful and teasing - she's playing for keeps, and she's fully prepared to hit him with her car. When she refuses to warm up to him, he'll cool off as well, deciding she's an icy bitch and not worth his time. Not to mention, she hogs all of your time, and Jack doesn't like to share.
So: there'd be a lot of jealousy, tug-o-war, and competition - which doesn't have to be a bad thing, if you don't mind it. It'll never be boring, but you'll have to play referee a lot.
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Ok, so!
Nobody believes Alexander about his age. There's no way any Sinner could be THAT old, even if they're an Overlord, right? He doesn't much mind people not believing him, for in his own words, "The truth still remains, even if you don't see it."
Alexander is a much more reserved Overlord, not promoting himself or his powers that often. He has much influence and owns many souls, but he's someone you have to look for.
...And you can usually find him on the top of a skyscraper or tower. He just really likes hanging out there.
Alexander tries being "modern" and "cool" sometimes, but he always comes off extremely wooden and cold. "This is, as some would say, quite radical, my bro." <- Completely monotone delivery.
Onto Viktor, he's kind of got image issues, since the entire reason he did what got him in hell in the first place was because he felt neglected and overlooked. He constantly craves to be the one leading a conversation or to be praised, so he's constantly promoting himself and doing very public actions as an overlord, unlike Alexander.
Along with their souls, he forces sinners to carve a sigil into their palms and be at a constant beck and call to obtain power.
Viktor loves holding huge Ceremonies with the sinners he owns, always involving violence of some kind. Weather it be an all out free for all, seeing who can collect the most flesh, a manhunt, he always loves a big and fleshy event. Alexander is always the referee.
Viktor is constantly trying to hook up Alexander with a hot chick, and is still completely oblivious to the fact that Alex likes men-
Finally, Viktor wears a lot of paint and accessories all over his body to seem more "hardcore" and intimidating, since his sinner form is actually pretty humanoid and average. He hates being seen without it in public, but it does take a while to get done, even with Alexander's help.
Interesting. So Alex would be older than Zestial (an Overlord who is canonically the oldest sinner that we know of and uses an Early Modern English dialect, meaning he uses thy, thou, thine, etc). And I’ll admit that the trying too hard to be hip part made me laugh a little/pos
Viktor using his power over the souls he owns and using them for his own entertainment is actually pretty intimidating. Making these sinners die or kill each other just for an event is twisted (especially considering that sinners can’t truly die unless they’re killed by an angelic weapon. If they’re killed by normal means, then they just respawn the next day, though the process is painful).
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Good morning po. Please inform your students po:
Things to be observed in the conduct of Trimex Intramurals 2023
1. Trimex students are advised to enter Gate 1.
2. Wear your ID at all times.
3. Stay in the Bulwagan at all times.
4. Roaming around the school premises shirtless is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
5. Only the private vehicles of the faculty, staff, admin, committee and referees are allowed to be parked inside.
6. Smoking and vaping are STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
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Fwd: Postdoc: Uppsala.EvolutionFlowerMicrobiome
Begin forwarded message:
> From: [email protected]
> Subject: Postdoc: Uppsala.EvolutionFlowerMicrobiome
> Date: 13 December 2023 at 05:39:24 GMT
> To: [email protected]
>
>
>
>
> Postdoctoral position in the evolution of plant microbiomes
>
> A postdoctoral position is available at the Swedish University of
> Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden, to study the importance
> floral microbiomes in plant-pollinators interactions. The project
> will use a combination of microbiomics, transcriptomics, computer
> vision and plant quantitative genetics to understand the contribution
> of the floral microbiome to plant reproduction, plant pollinator
> interactions and pollinator health. The position is funded by a
> project grant from FORMAS for an initial period of two years. The
> successful applicant will be hosted by the group of Adrien Sicard
> in the Department of Plant Biology at Swedish Agricultural University
> in the Ultuna Campus, Uppsala.
>
> The working atmosphere is highly international and offers exciting
> opportunities for scientific exchange. Uppsala is a lively university
> city located close to Stockholm (40 minutes by train) and Stockholm's
> main international airport (20 minutes by train). The position's
> starting date is summer/fall 2023, according to agreement.
>
> Qualifications:
>
> Candidates are required to:
>
> - hold a PhD degree in life science with relevant research experience in
> plant genetics, microbial ecology and/or bioinformatics.
>
> - have prior experience with computational methods for the analyses of
> biological sequence data and preferably for microbiome analyses.
>
> - have basic molecular biology skills including nucleic acid isolation,
> library preparation, protocol optimization, bacterial growth assay and
> sterile techniques.
>
> - strong organization and record-keeping skills to store and
> analyze data
>
> - excellent English communication and writing skills to prevent results
> in groups meeting and conferences and publish results.
>
> - have demonstrated interpersonal skills to collaborate within a
> scientific interdisciplinary research team.
>
> Candidates should also be highly motivated, creative and have the
> ability to take initiative. Prior practical experience in plant
> quantitative genetics, manipulating insect pollinators and/or field
> experiments are also assets.
>
> Applications:
>
> Applications should be submitted through the SLU's application
> portal (https://ift.tt/eYQrmy6)
> under the reference SLU.ua.2023.2.5.1-4382 portal by December 29,
> 2023. Applications must contain (1) a CV with a full list of
> publication, (2) a description of research experience, (3) a letter
> of motivation (4) contact information of two to three referees and
> (5) copies of the PhD diploma (in Swedish or English).
>
> For informal inquiries about the position, please contact
> [email protected]
>
>
>
> Dr. Adrien Sicard
> Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
> Uppsala BioCenter
> PO-Box 7080
> Almas All� 5
> SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
> Room D450
> Tel. +4618673324
>
>
> N�r du skickar e-post till SLU s� inneb�r detta att SLU behandlar
> dina personuppgifter. F�r att l�sa mer om hur detta g�r till, klicka
> h�r
>
> E-mailing SLU will result in SLU processing your personal data. For
> more information on how this is done, click here
>
> Adrien Sicard
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[PRESS RELEASE – New York, USA, October 19th, 2023]
Non-custodial protocol for spot margin buying and selling Primex Finance broadcasts the launch of its long-awaited mainnet Beta. Representing a big milestone for the protocol, the most recent model has been deployed on Polygon’s PoS chain. Consequently, merchants can utilize the Primex app and entry spot margin buying and selling on the Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, Sushiswap, Quickswap, and Meshswap DEXs.
Connecting Lenders with Merchants, Primex allows Merchants to make the most of Lender liquidity for leveraged spot buying and selling on current DEXs whereas benefiting from CEX-like tooling and interfaces. In alternate for supplying belongings to the protocol, Lenders earn curiosity on deposited digital belongings. With Primex, Lenders reap the benefits of excessive lending APYs and the power to diversify their portfolio based mostly on their threat urge for food through Credit score Buckets, specialised liquidity swimming pools that join lenders with margin merchants.
The protocol achieves decentralized commerce execution via a community of community-hosted Keepers. As an alternative of utilizing centralized order books (CLOB), Keepers are liable for executing all automated trades and liquidating Merchants’ dangerous positions to guard Lender funds. In addition to non-custodial spot margin buying and selling, Primex will allow different leveraged operations throughout numerous DeFi protocols in future variations.
Along side the mainnet Beta, Primex Finance can be launching its Liquidity Mining Program. This program is crucial for accumulating early Lender liquidity and buying and selling quantity, and it consists of rewards for bucket launch participation and Early Lenders and Merchants rewards. Individuals within the Liquidity Mining Program will likely be eligible for Early Primex Tokens (ePMX) based mostly on their roles and actions. Sooner or later, holders can have the power to alternate the ePMX they've earned for totally useful Primex Tokens (PMX).
Along with the Liquidity Mining Program, Primex additionally launches an on-chain Referral Program that performs an essential position within the mainnet Beta’s launch. The referrers are eligible for a fee paid from the protocol income for actions generated by the referees, whereas referees will profit from unique NFTs that may be utilized to cut back protocol charges and improve lender curiosity. The connection between referrers and their referees is saved in a wise contract, making certain either side are rewarded for his or her exercise.
“Devoted months of arduous work have led to the launch of the mainnet Beta, turning a distant purpose right into a actuality. Primex’s first mainnet lastly allows undercollateralized, totally decentralized lending for buying and selling functions. Now, with the launch of the mainnet Beta, merchants can make the most of a wealthy function set and interfaces for buying and selling on their favourite DEXs with leverage,” acknowledged Dmitry Tolok, Co-founder of Primex.
About Primex Finance
Based in 2021, Primex Finance is a decentralized protocol for spot margin buying and selling on DEXs. It connects lenders with merchants, enabling merchants to make the most of lender liquidity for leveraged buying and selling on well-liked DEXs. Primex affords merchants acquainted CEX-like buying and selling interfaces and instruments to boost flexibility for his or her buying and selling methods.
For extra info go to Primex Finance’s: Official Website | Twitter | Discord
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Firma sędziowska Brighton poniosła przepraszający hat-trick
Poziom egzekwowania prawa przez sędziów Premier League po raz kolejny odświeżył postrzeganie ludzi. W właśnie zakończonym Focus War Liverpool zremisował 2:2 z Arsenalem. Robertson, który miał na sobie Koszulka piłkarska Liverpool, został uderzony łokciem w gardło przez sędziego liniowego Konstantina Hatzizakisa podczas kłótni z sędzią liniowym. To kontrowersyjne posunięcie wywołało gorącą opinię publiczną, a firma sędziowska Premier League ogłosiła, że przeprowadzi dochodzenie.
Ponadto Howard Webber, dyrektor England Football Referee Company, przeprosił Brighton za poważny błąd w ocenie sytuacji. Kaoru Misaki zasłużył na rzut karny w wygranym 2:1 meczu Tottenhamu z Brighton. Pomocnik Tottenhamu, Hoibel, podciął Kaoru Misaki, ale ani sędzia, ani VAR nic nie powiedzieli. W meczu padły również dwie bramki Kaoru Misakiego i Welbecka. VAR ustalił, że piłka uderzyła w ramię przed bramką, ale powtórka pokazała, że piłka faktycznie trafiła w tanie koszulki piłkarskie na klatce piersiowej Kaoru Misaki zamiast w jego ramieniu.
To, co sprawia, że Brighton jest jeszcze bardziej zły, to fakt, że po raz trzeci otrzymali oficjalne przeprosiny od sędziego w tym sezonie. Szkoda, że przeprosiny nie przywrócą Brighton straconych punktów, a jedynie przyjęcie hat-tricka przeprosin od sędziego Premier League. Oczywiście nie wszystkie przeprosiny można wybaczyć. Mam nadzieję, że pierwsza liga świata może mieć ten sam poziom standardów karnych.
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Den 63
Dopoledne si ještě užíváme v Sisters. Řešíme posílání balíčků, nabíjení elektroniky a nákup posledních drobností. Přišel mi taky naštěstí Riverův balíček na poštu, kam jsem si ho nechal přeposlat. Kdyby nestihl dojít, už by to bylo s mým diabetem dost špatné. Musel bych si tu dát zero a počkat na něj do dalšího dne.
Na půl 12 máme domluvený odvoz na trail. Povedlo se mi sehnat člověka přes skupinu na Facebooku, tak aspoň k něčemu jsou ty sociální sítě dobré. Přijede nás vyzvednout Woody, asi 75 letý chlápek, který i v tomhle věku chodí traily. Je v důchodu, ale dřív se živil jako vymýšleč nových tras. Tomu říkám super práce! Vyměníme si info ohledně schůdnosti další trasy a pak nám Woody navrhne, že vlastně nemusíme jít ten roadwalk, že se to dá obejít přes jiný trail. Jsme pro a tak nás doveze tam.
Jmenuje se Millican Crater trail, je to pět mil místo sedmi a napojíme se zpět na PCT. Skipneme asi 2 míle, ale to nám vůbec neva, těch pět nahoru nám to vynahradí. Nejsme v tomhle zas takoví blázni jako někteří jiní hikeři tady. Woody odmítne jakýkoli příspěvek na benzín a loučí se s námi. Ještě nám stihne říct, jak se doopravdy jmenuje Referee bird, Je to Varied Thrush. Český překlad najdete na Googlu. Konečně to víme! Ale náš název je teda rozhodně víc cool.
Odchod z města je vždycky těžký. Mám plný batoh a většinou je to na začátku do kopce. Musíme nahnat zpět ty metry, které jsme ztratili při sestupu do údolí. Lidi by měli začít stavět města výš, aby tahle nepříjemnost odpadla. Někdy kolem druhé jsme konečně zpátky na PCT.
Fouká celkem silný a studený vítr. Mám na sobě dvě vrstvy a stejně je občas chladno, když se do toho opře. Dneska se obecně výrazně ochladilo. Je jen nějakých 17 stupňů. Celou dobu se plahočíme přes sníh. Mám mokré nohy a to taky není nic moc v tomhle chladnu. Není to naštěstí přes svahy, takže se dá jít bez nesmeků a cepínu. Nicméně i tak je chůze v rozbředlém sněhu hodně náročná. A ten těžký batoh tomu moc nepomáhá. Musím dneska hodně povečeřet.
Kempujeme někdy před osmou. Za šest hodin jsme ušli 8,2 míle. Několikrát jsme se oba propadli až po rozkrok do sněhu. Je z toho teď taková břečka, že se po tom opravdu skoro nedá jít. Navíc musíme co minutu koukat na mobily, jestli jdeme správně. Trail pod sněhem není vůbec vidět. Už se těším, až zas dojdeme někam, kde před námi půjdou jiní a my jen budeme následovat jejich stopy.
Ale jdeme zase krásnou krajinou. Obcházíme dneska Severní Sestru po západní straně. Hned vedle ní je Prostřední Sestra, o dost níž pak Jižní Sestra, nejvyšší ze všech. Všechny mají přes 3000 m.n.m. a na sobě celoročně ledovce. Pak tu je ještě Malý Brácha, Manžel, Manželka, a další. Někdo si tu s názvy moc hlavu nedělal. Sestry jsou ale zase o dost výš než ostatní hory okolo.
Dneska to vypadá na chladnou noc. Ještě před západem slunce je už jen pět stupňů. Konečně snad pořádně otestuju novou karimatku a quilt. Nejspíš bude totiž pod nulou.
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