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a-wendellandwild-fan · 2 years

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Little Green Girl and her two demons.

Found Family AU

Prologue: It all starts with a teddy bear.

Had it not been for her curiosity, she would have been asleep a long time ago. But again, she was three and a half year old, and any child at that age after hearing weird sounds outside would be curious, and especially after seeing a green light from her window. How was she supposed to not be painfully curious when, in her creative little mind, adventure called her name? She made sure she made no sound as she got up inside her crib, even if her parents' room was across hers and her door was closed, she just wanted to be as sneaky as possible, her little head peeping through the window as she noticed someone. Kat could barely see their face, but there was something in their hands.

“A gift for someone?” She thought, losing a bit of balance, but managing to keep still, at least enough time for her to look for a few seconds before falling back first on the soft mattress of her crib. She didn't cry, it didn't hurt, but she desperately needed to see what was going on.

“Hey, no! Come back!” The little girl heard a voice, thinking it must be that person outside, but... Who were they talking to? She heard steps and something hitting the ground softly a few times. What if it was a monster? Or worse, an alien?! No, it wasn't time to be afraid, it was time for her to be brave, and she had to go and investigate.

“OK... Just like you practiced when you stole mama's brownies.” She thought to herself, as she gathered all of her plushies this time around and placed them together, climbing them up and carefully getting on the other side. How will she come back inside, you may ask? That's a problem for future her, this is a time of crisis.

As she carefully opened her door, she saw her parent's bedroom door shut, making her sigh in relief as she tip-toed towards the stairs. Going down, there were dry sounds of something hitting the walls, and grunting. A heavy gulp went down her throat, but she couldn't back off now, not now that the sound was so close. Squeezing a little dolphin plushie she was carrying against one of her chubby little arms, Kat creeps towards one of the backyard windows, and with the help of the chair in front of it, she managed to climb up and look outside.

There was a fluffy, ten-tentacle monster on the ground, and it was pounding against the door to get in.

She almost screamed, to be honest, but all desires to do so stopped all at once when their eyes locked. Kat Elliot wanted to scream, to run and hide, but her body wouldn't move out of paralysing fear, especially when it started to crawl the wall towards the window. Should she open it? She feels like she shouldn't, but... Uhg, her curiosity was killing her. Besides, what if it was lost? There was also the possibility of her being some sort of princess that could tame any beast!

She carefully did just that, lifting it up and, finally, having that... thing face to face. She reached out her hand towards it, but the moment she did so, she cried out loud in pain. It was so fast, she didn't know what it did to her, but it hurted her way too much to keep quiet. And as quickly as it appeared, it quickly disappeared.

“Kat?!” The voice of her mother coming from upstairs made her flinch, but she didn't have a choice but to wait for them to come down. “Baby, where are you?!”

The first one to come down was Delroy, quickly coming up to his daughter, getting on his knees and taking her tiny body close to him, just so she could cry on his chest. Wilma followed soon after, getting next to him.

“Kat, baby, what happened?!” The man asked first, seeing her daughter point at the backyard door.

“Papa, there-there's something outside!”

The moment she said that, they got tense. What if it was an animal, or a person? Delroy remembered the bunch of incidents he's been reading in the newspapers for a month now, so he didn't hesitate to hand Kat to Wilma so he could get his shotgun under the sofa, and as scared as he was, he needed to check, nothing else was worth the risk of getting robbed, or getting his family hurt.

“Wilma, get upstairs, ok? Lock the door.” He whispered to get, getting a silent and quick nod as she took their sobbing child to their room.

He slowly opened the door, sweating cold, but still somewhat... sure?, maybe even hopeful that it wasn't nothing, but it didn't take long for him to realize that once he opened the door, whatever was outside quickly ran away because of the noise they made. He looked around, still with his only way of defence on his hand, but his mind was at ease that nothing was nearby anymore. He checked, just to be sure.

“... Hm?” He noticed something, though. He bent over, and looked better. It was something in a dark pink shade, and white clothing...

“A teddy bear?”

“Yeah.” Delroy answered with the same tone filled with confusion his wife had. “Maybe it was one of the kids next door pulling an all nighters.” A sigh as heavy as a ton of bricks left his lips. He looked over at their daughter, who was out like a light. “Did she seriously just fell asleep?”

“Oh, you're saying that like she didn't get that from her father.” Wilma chuckled, looking down at the little girl in her arms. “I wonder how she got outta her crib.”

“Yeah...”

Delroy though to himself that it was a good call to put all plushies in their place before coming into their room. It'll spare Kat quite the disappointment.

“A mystery, really...”

People say ignorance is a bliss. Maybe it is, really, at least for this family. It's quite a bliss that they never saw the young woman that was desperately looking for that toy, all while carrying a jar filled with water and a white octopus. And none of them will speak of that night, either because it's not worth remembering, or perhaps because that night was the biggest fuck-up someone could have ever do.

A grunt left his throat the moment he heard the screams from the new souls. Seriously? This early in the morning? How despicable. Today already started horrible, so black clothing it is—

“Wendell.”

No. Nope. Nah. Wendell rolled his eyes as he felt his brother right behind him, posing like a damn cat.

“Wendell. Wake up.”

“Get out—”

“Wendell I got something for our faire.”

With those seven little words, Wendell jumped out of bed with a smile that could pass as sadistic, but Wild knew better, he was actually excited. Dream Faire started as a childhood dream, but the more time they saw their father work, the more they started to question everything...

Did those souls really deserved this? Those weren't "the souls of the dammed", they were just "the souls of the danged", so did they really deserved to be treated this harshly, with such cruelty...?

“What did ya get?!”

“There's this thing that Wahnsinn got me just now! It's called fireworks in the Human Realm!” As his young brother showed him that human stuff, Wendell wondered how did that demon managed to get in and out of the world of the living. They couldn't, not by their own means, so... How, really?

“And-And they would all look up and— boom! A bunch of colorful sparks explode outta it!”

“Hmm, that actually sounds pretty neat! Everyone would love that!”

“Right?! And-And everyone would line up just to see—”

A growl was heard. It wasn't from any of them and it was obvious. Wendell sighed heavily as Wild looked at him in worry.

“Uh... You don't have to come if—”

“You know just how he gets when he's in those moods. It's better if we just go...”

Buffalo Belzer was a lot of things, but he didn't felt like a decent father to Wendell. He loved him, and he hated that, but he always had a little voice in his mind stating that he didn't love them at all...

No. No more of those stupid thoughts. He has more than one proof that showed him that yes, he did love them, and that was enough.

... It was enough, right...?

#wendell and wild #wendell & wild #wendell and wild au #Wendell & Wild AU #wendell #wild #buffalo belzer #kat elliot #kat wendell and wild #Wendell and Wild one-shot #Wendell & Wild one-shot #Wendell and Wild fanfic #Wendell & Wild fanfic #Wendell and Wild Found Family AU #Found Family! AU

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thatguy-thisguy-yourguy · 1 year

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Feel free to send headcanon/playlist/drabble/oneshot requests for Wendell & Wild!

#wendell & wild #wendell and wild #kat elliot #raul cocolotl #headcanons #drabbles #one shot

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whenimgoodandready · 1 year

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*Wendell and Wild: The Series Ideas

-Can I just say that ever since the movie came out I loved the idea of it becoming the new “Beetlejuice” of the era (I’m serious, I swear I heard the theme song when Kat was running down the halls) to the point where we’re all dying for it to get a tv series so that the paranormal adventures of Hellmaiden Kat and the demon brothers can continue cuz there’s so much to explain what with everything rushed, so a show would be the best option to do it and I saw a few suggest episode ideas and I’d thought I’d jump in on that.

Since they’re in a Catholic school, whenever Wendell and Wild almost curse they quickly censor themselves when nuns approach (like those two tiny nuns). Such words include “shit-ake mushrooms”

The origin story of how Bearzebub came to be a key to summoning demons

Occasional flashbacks to how Manberg caught all those demons (aka W&W’s siblings). My theory is he and Sister Helley worked together when they found out she was a Hellmaiden to capture them all.

Spotlight episodes on each of W&W’s siblings. Some they like, some they hate, some they tolerate and some they get along with perfectly.

Hijinks involving the demon brothers trying to run their faire:rides getting stuck, famous historical people (ex.Abraham Lincoln) interacting with Kats parents they introduce them to, one of the game stands resembling The Klaxons heads that you have to shot down to win a prize as an inside joke, etc.

W&W fighting over some one they both fall for and trying to win them over only to find out they’re already taken in the end and then swearing to never let any one come between their brotherhood again only to see another person they both like and resume their rivalry with Kat rolling her eyes saying, “Here we go again”.

Gabby the Goat getting lost and everyone trying to find them. A running gag being Wild finding a goat that vaguely resembles Gabby and asking if it’s them and Wendell slowly growing frustrated saying no until Wild brings in a different animal and Wendell loses it saying, “THAT’S A SHEEP!” XD.

#wendell and wild #wendell & wild

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thehouseofhouse101 · 1 year

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Everything I Managed to Watch in 2022

I might as well give you my thoughts on...exactly what it says on the tin. I'll try to keep things short and simple since I'm kinda tired and I wanna finish celebrating the year's end, lmao.

First up, the movies!

Top 5 Favorite Movies:

5. The Bad Guys

4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

3. Rise of the TMNT

2. Pinocchio (Netflix Movie)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Honorable Mentions (still love them!!):

Turning Red

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers

Wendell and Wild

On the television side of things, Smiling Friends, Dead End, The Cuphead Show, and Super Robot Giant Brothers, were pretty good! The Cuphead Show got better after its rather mediocre first season and I grew to love it. Smiling Friends I was happy turned out good as I expected, and I'm excited for season 2. Dead End was a nice surprise, I grew to like the characters and I appreciated how it handled its LGBT and Autism representation. Super Giant Robot Brothers deserves more love, Reel FX did a good job with that one, had some dynamic action and fun character moments.

For decent stuff, the only one was Hamster and Gretel. Will get back to it, but I hope gets a better execution than Milo Murphy's Law, which I liked too but the second season wasn't so great, oof.

On the other hand, shows that didn't wowed me were Oddballs and sadly Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. The former had some decent jokes and maybe a character that amused me like Max, but the other attempts at jokes fell flat and characters like Echo really annoyed me.

The Dragon Knight was like the biggest disappointment for me. As a huge fan of KFP, I was hoping it would turn out to be a good show, maybe a better outing than the last KFP TV show. But I stopped at I think episode 5 and lost interest all around. The animation was a bit unfinished, and the writing choices were kind of questionable. I am glad they brought back Jack Black as Po, but alas...

There's like other shows that aired this year along with new seasons of other shows I love, but I'll watch them for next year.

For the anime stuff, Demon Slayer Season 2 was great, same with Spy X Family and Attack on Titan. Really happy I managed to give it another shot. Chainsaw Man also aired and of course was incredible. I'm already caught up with the manga and I'm eager to see how they'll handle the rest of the story soon. Urusei Yatsura 2022 I also want to shout out. I need to get back into binging the original series, but so far, the reboot is neat!

And also, I made a list of Anime Openings I watched this year and fell in love with. Keep in mind, I haven't seen any of these anime yet based on this list, aside from the ones I just mentioned above and also My Hero Academia, but I lost interest for that series because of story problems lately, yeah...

I'll get the chance to watch the others soon, don’t worry!

So here's the Honorable Mentions first:

Honorable Mentions:

BNHA OP 10: Way better than OP 9 and the visuals were unique, but the song didn't worked for me

Spy X Family OP 2: Visuals and song are neat, but the first op is more stronger to me

Dr. Stone Ryusei: Visuals are decent, but the new version of the first OP song was just incredible

My Top 11 Favorite Anime OPs:

11. Kaguya Sama OP 3 10. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War OP 1 9. Call of the Night 8. One Piece OP 24 7. Ya Boy Kongming 6. Urusei Yatsura 2022 5. Spy X Family OP 1 4. Mob Psycho III OP 3. Attack on Titan OP 7 2. Chainsaw Man 1. Ranking of Kings OP 2

Boom! That's it! Here's hoping 2023 turns out to be an even greater experience for me, and for the animation community as well!

#house talks shit #2022 retrospective #just mentioning...#the cuphead show #the bad guys #puss in boots the last wish #chainsaw man #rise of the tmnt movie #pretty much the ones i digged the most haha

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toomanycartoonswithnotenoughlove · 2 years

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youtube

Aight, since I haven’t seen someone do it yet, and this thing’s invaded my brain, shot by shot trailer breakdown time! Soundtrack of a rhythm variation of the Dies Irae, interspersed with the lyric “How You Like Me Now” throughout.

We open on an exterior shot of what looks to be a school, including a ginormous cross in a stainless steel window as someone (if we’re following book concept, probably Sister Hettie) speaks: Kat, time to face your demons.

Smash cut to presumably inside the school. Sister Hettie(?) with pupilless green eyes speaks to Kat(Most likely) also with pupilless green eyes. Hettie’s eyes act as a projector to the wall behind her, first looking at the ground, with Kat’s body motion following the initial look to ground to wall. The projection, assumably of Kat’s demon’s starts. Shot in slightly similar style to Candyman (2021)’s end credits, evocative of paper puppetry.

Young Kat is in the back of what is presumed to be a car, with parents(?) in front. Young Kat holds an apple on a stick, and tries to bite into it. Though the bite’s successful, a double headed worm (W&W?) causes young Kat to scream, making older Kat yell and reach out to her counterpart without breaking the handhold with Hettie(?) she’s kept up to now. The scream causes parents(?) to turn, possibly directly leading to the next shot, of parents in caskets, which close as a siren’s noise plays.

Text break displaying Selick and his accolades as director of Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. New scene of panning in within projection to “Mother Goose’s Group Home” a shoe, evocative of nursery rhymes of old, with children (9) despondent, inside and children (3) similarly saddened outside, as Mother Goose(?) gestures toward camera in the finger swipe meant to be encouraging, while the $ signs in her eyes and the score prove otherwise. Mother Goose reaches out for young Kat, older Kat recoils as, camera follows the two’s sweep into the house, and the door slamming behind. This sends older Kat back a step, as camera pans while laughter and a large chinned bowler hatted sinister figure take over now empty wall projection.

Cut from scene to new, cloud supported, nebulous floor, with Kat in pajamas(?) standing within. She apprehensively asks “Who are you? And what are you doing in my dream?” while taking a battle stance against a constantly moving, as yet unforming foe. The foe forms, two heads and two hands, telling Kat (and the viewer) that “We are Wendell and Wild.” Might just be lag, but maybe only one head speaks while they bump into each other as the other is introduced. She looks up at this, and asks “Who?” Scene change to a horse(?) drawn horse bursting from a mosuleum, as possible nightmares jump off as it flies through the air, eventually making the descent onto the ground, showing two drivers, as the

Scene changes, a sweat faced Kat apparently jumping up in bed from a dream.

Scene breaks to green eyed duo from hearse at top of stairwell, trying to push an orange topped, humanoid shaped thing down, with the thing gesturing wildly while close to falling as

Scene breaks to two nuns, sitting at a table, playing an accordion, both nuns old and wrinkled.

Scene breaks to Wendell(?) applying a cream or lotion to skeletons lying in three coffins in a graveyard. From other promotional material, it appears this cream brings things to life, of a sort.

Scene breaks to a nebulous purple hallway, similar to (I’m sorry Mr. Selick I didn’t want to but there’s no closer apt comparison) the hallway behind Coraline’s locked door, filled with more paper puppets crying out and saddened while falling.

Scene cut to Kat looking at something. Camera cuts to see what she sees.

Akin to an aquarium, with a winch attached, neon green fish wait hungrily. The paper puppets from the hallway fall in and are immediately eaten, with a first single bite seen taken out of the middle.

Scene cut to the outside of a green backlit carnival, on a limited amount of ground. The camera focuses on two roller coaster cars semi filled with paper puppets crashing as they pass from opposite directions, as familiar text (Yet again, Coraline, sorry Mr. Selick, but it is the same tagline) washes over the screen - Be Careful

Scene cut to Wendell and Wild shoving a casket out of it’s gravesite as the not horse (it has an antler) watches. Offering a close up of both the not horse and the two, previously unseen this closely in their grave robbing forms.

Text cut - What You

Scene cut to new character turning on a flamethrower, making sure the flame works

Scene cut to different new character putting full force behind a crowbar smash meant for another new character’s head

Text cut - Wish For

Scene cut to Kat, wearing a polar fleese jacket over the previous clothing, stunned, knocking two nuns, one at each side, to the ground with the duffle bag and boom box in her two hands.

Scene cut to Wendell and Wild, green eyed, being directed by a priest, possibly to violence, from the indication of weapons and body movement, with the hearse as a backdrop.

Scene cut to a library, with four, humanoid but not human, characters pushing down the doors without protest. These four, dressed as explorers, have similar shape to humans, but the cracked jawline of nutcrackers.

Scene cut to an near empty hallway in a school, lined with locker. Hettie(?) with hands raised, falls into and through the floor, with yellow cloud cover within the floor indicating further movement from her as she moves through the hallway below.

Scene cut to camera facing back of Kat, wearing the jean jacket and many belted skirt of most promotional material thus far, walking down a school hallway, boombox raised to ear, as camera pans back and spins, with her as the focal point, still behind her

Scene cut to outside of school, as the camera speeds backwards towards a graveyard, possibly the one seen before. A voice calls “I’m coming for you.” Horns of a sort break through the ground in tempo with the music.

Fade to black. Kat speaks. “Everyone’s got demons. My demons have names” as the spoken of names, the title of the film, Wendell and Wild, appears text. Quick credits play.

Yes, I am extremely excited for this. Yes, I will be hyping this movie up for the next two months while only expecting what we’ve seen thus far from it.

#wendell and wild #long post #trailer breakdown

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supersecretnerd · 2 years

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I feel like that one shot of Wendell and Wild looking on with shock (and a bit of fear?) in the graveyard is them seeing their dad come up out of the underworld (like they’re thinking, “OH MAN, WE’RE SO BUSTED!!”)

Oh, probably! I guess we'll see when the film comes out!

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ordinaryschmuck · 1 year

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I posted 1,869 times in 2022

That's 132 more posts than 2021!

817 posts created (44%)

1,052 posts reblogged (56%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@moringmark

@ordinaryschmuck

@l-egionaire

@tigerlily1615

@whitebeltwriter

I tagged 1,070 of my posts in 2022

Only 43% of my posts had no tags

#the owl house - 373 posts

#reblogged - 273 posts

#not mine - 266 posts

#luz noceda - 177 posts

#asks - 137 posts

#send asks if you want - 137 posts

#ask me anything - 137 posts

#eda clawthorne - 113 posts

#toh hunter - 100 posts

#the golden guard - 98 posts

Longest Tag: 112 characters

#i will always remember him as the guy who yelled at the aliens to piss off when invading his planet on christmas

My Top Posts in 2022:

Quick Thoughts on “The Tomb” from Moon Knight

“The Tomb” might just be my favorite episode. Why? Let me count the ways.

The many great interactions between Marc and Steven. They’re fun and even heartwarming at one point. Plus, Marc punching Steven in the face is pretty funny, I won’t lie.

Steven trying to prove himself as someone useful. Maybe not in a fight, but definitely in a chance to solve a mystery or figure out what everyone needs to do.

Layla. Layla is the stand-out star in this, having moments that proves how badass she can be, as well as this realistic reaction to something heartbreaking.

Arthur Harrow is selling himself as one of my favorite MCU villains. The way he twists characters minds is top notch. He doesn’t lie and doesn’t entirely manipulate. In actuality, all he does is tell them truths. Truths that hurt the characters and make them do...occasionally stupid things. And that’s great. I love a villain who wins his fights through his words rather than actions.

This episode is one third archeological adventure, one third horror story, and one third psychological thriller. And I was invested through all of it, especially that final scene. I won’t give away how, but it really makes you question EVERYTHING you’ve seen in the show so far. And, yeah, that last zing got a chuckle out of me. Well done.

So, yeah. “The Tomb” is a great episode. It was a ton of fun and, with how things left off, it makes me excited for more. Much like every episode before it, but...this one did it better.

628 notes - Posted April 20, 2022

Reminder:

This happened.

And all of our souls felt a little lighter because of it--DOES AMITY KICK UP HER LEFT LEG?!

Aw, that’s cute...

915 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

Why do I love this expression?

Because I can easily see this in a 2D cartoon. Somewhere in the vein of Steven Universe or maybe even The Owl House. Like, if Turning Red was hand drawn, this expression would have been made in no time flat. But the animators worked extra hard in making this movie look like a 2D film with a 3D makeover. And that type of dedication earns so much of my respect.

926 notes - Posted March 10, 2022

Please watch Wendell & Wild.

Not just because it's a Halloween classic in the making.

Not just because it has a unique art style.

Not just because it has decent trans rep (which is cool to see it get more attention in recent years).

And not just because it has Key and Peele playing the best characters in the movie.

Watch Wendell & Wild to prove that animation can cater to more than just kids. This movie is PG-13 (but a 90s PG), meaning it's more for older audiences without relying on constant cursing, grotesque violence, and ludicrous amounts of sex and drugs. Instead, it uses creativity and genuinely good writing to tell a story that, while not really too intense for kids, it's at least a lot more advanced for them. And that's great. I want more animation that appeals to a vast majority of audiences of many ages and proves that type of animated content can be successful so people can stop saying animation is just for kids. But it's not. Anybody of any age should be able to enjoy animation and all its strengths, and the best way to do that is to give movies like Wendell & Wild a shot.

So, please, watch it.

2,602 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

“Animation is just for kids!”

...Ok...Ok...Let’s take a look at some of that animation that’s “Just for kids,” shall we?

Adventure Time is a series that touches a lot on philosophical questions and theories, with one episode having one character ask “If just being born is the greatest act of creation then what are you supposed to do after that?”

Avatar: The Last Airbender dives deep into having characters question what is right and wrong when dealing with a horrible evil. Like, is it better to harm anybody, even the most innocent old man, just because their society is run by fascists? Should we torture those who tortured us? And should we really kill someone just because they are irredeemable? All hard questions, each with uneasy answers.

The Owl House has a powerful antagonist whose goal is to commit genocide on an entire race of innocent people due to being raced to believe that said people are evil, thus stating that the most dangerous people are the ones who are prejudiced and ignorant.

Centaurworld has a scene where a man tries to drown an elk. No, I’m not kidding. That happened. It was on screen and everything.

Encanto teaches a lesson on generational trauma, the pressures of living up to expectations, and stating that the best gift is being alive and having those around you.

And do I even have to say ANYTHING about Pixar?! The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Inside Out, Soul, and even Toy Story all have themes and morals that can speak to adults while also being simple enough for kids to understand.

But that’s just animation for kids. Let’s talk about animation for ADULTS, shall we?

South Park takes a comedic view of our society, poking fun in the many ways it’s broken.

The Breadwinner is a tense movie of a young, Afghan girl disguising herself as a boy so she can go out and make money so her family can survive.

Invincible has some of the most brutal scenes I’ve seen from a superhero series, including this moment with a train (you’ll know it when you see it) that was so horrific that, when it cut to black for a second, I saw the look of pure shock and terror of my face reflected onto my laptop.

And Bojack Horseman is the best adult-animated series I’ve ever seen because it tackles issues made for adults. Things like opium addiction, depression, the struggles of being asexual in a sex-driven world, and telling one truth that most adults need to hear. The truth that, in this life, you can’t live happily ever after. You’re alive, always have another problem to deal with, and then you’re dead. There’s no point, in this plane of existence, when you’re happy forever and ever. Because life’s a show, and when everybody’s happy, then there can’t be a show anymore.

Animation. Is not. For kids.

Animation is a medium that is often geared towards kids. And the reason why people keep saying it’s for kids is because they focus on the kids stuff and refuse to look at how mature some animated movies and shows can be.

5,942 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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canonrpfinder · 6 days

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Hello! I'm looking for some new, laid-back partners. I'm well over 18 and you should be too - lazy lit, no one-liners but equally not looking for walls and walls of text. A couple of paragraphs is perfect. Discord is preferred but email is fine too - I'd also consider other platforms if that's a dealbreaker for you.

I'm aware that this is a super long shot, and I'm not sure how much of a fandom even exists for this series, but I'm on my hands and knees begging to write Emily Wilde against your Wendell Bambleby, from Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I have a handful of vague ideas that we can discuss, and would love to hear any ideas you might have, too.

If any of this sounds good, leave a like and I'll reach out to you. Thanks!

✒

#roleplay #rp #emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries #18+ age range #discord rp #email rp

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dankusner · 14 days

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Judges speaking softly

What They Long for When They Read

Do you ever stay up nights wondering what judges want?

At least in briefs and motions?

I recently surveyed more than a thousand state and federal judges, both trial and appellate.

Respondents ranged from state trial-court judges to U.S. Supreme Court justices.

The good news:

Judges agree on much more than many litigators might think, and I found no major differences based on region or type of court.

More good news:

When judges are surveyed anonymously, they’re blunt and sometimes even funny.

The bad news:

Other than the briefs by the brightest lights of the appellate bar, almost every filing I see violates the wish lists of the judges I surveyed.

Here is some guidance, along with some choice anonymous quotations about what judges want but too often don’t get.

For starters, watch how you name names.

Use the parties’ names rather than their procedural affiliation.

Prefer words to unfamiliar acronyms, even if the word or phrase is longer.

Avoid defining obvious terms like “FBI” and “Ford Motor Company.”

And for the terms you do define, put the defined term in quotation marks and then get out of Dodge.

All four of these techniques make “legal writing” feel more like “writing.”

“I absolutely detest party labels (plaintiff, debtor, creditor, etc.). Name names, for God’s sake!”

“Don’t use ‘plaintiff,’ ‘defendant,’ ‘appellant,’ or ‘appellee’ in the brief because we may forget who’s who.

Instead, use names for individuals and business titles for companies.”

“Avoid defining obvious terms.

If a party is Apple Computer Corp., why include the parenthetical (‘Apple’)?

If the plaintiff’s name is Henry Jackson and he’s the only Jackson in the case, why the need to identify him as Henry Jackson (‘Jackson’)?

If the case is about one and only one contract, when first identifying it, why the need for (the ‘Contract’)?”

“I truly dislike acronyms. I would much rather have ‘North River Insurance Cooperative’ referred to as ‘the insurer’ or ‘the cooperative’ or ‘North River’ than as ‘NRIC.’”

“‘Hereinafter defined as’ (or anything like it) is pretty awful.”

“Avoid defined terms (“terms”) altogether.”

Keep your language choices classy.

As if on cue, almost all litigators and appellate lawyers are happy to endorse a ban on emotional or hyperbolic rhetoric.

The problem is that those same lawyers often grant themselves an exemption, as if their opponents are so singularly awful or imbecilic that even the snarkiest tone is warranted.

In fact, lawyers often tell me that they absolutely must point out how disingenuous their opponent is, because otherwise the court won’t see it.

Solution: Show, don’t tell.

“‘Disingenuous’ is a perfectly fine word that the legal profession has turned into the wild card disparagement of the other side’s argument.”

“Don’t use ‘specious.’”

“Avoid phrases and sentences that reflect a lack of civility. Don’t belittle the other side’s arguments but rather focus on your own strengths.”

“I hate ‘speciously,’ ‘frivolously,’ ‘disingenuously,’ and other shots at counsel or the other party.”

“Don’t write ‘ridiculous.’”

“I hate ‘laughable.’”

“Words such as ‘clearly,’ ‘plainly,’ ‘obviously,’ ‘absurd,’ ‘ridiculous,’ ‘ludicrous,’ ‘baseless,’ and ‘blatant’ are crutches intended to prop up arguments that lack logical force. They can never make a weak argument credible or a strong argument even stronger. So why bother with them?”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said that you should strike at the jugular and let the rest go.

If you write motions and briefs for a living, you can manifest Holmes’s maxim many times a day.

Start by cutting stuffy introductory formulas beset with such archaic language as “by and through undersigned counsel.”

Reduce well-trodden standards and tests to their essence.

Hack away at needless procedural detail.

And then, at the sentence level, slash windups and throat-clearing.

“Avoid long introductions such as ‘Plaintiff, by and through undersigned counsel, hereby submits its Reply Memorandum in response to _.

This Reply is accompanied by the following Memorandum of Points and Authorities.’

I know that counsel is filing the brief on behalf of his or her client.

I can see in the caption that the filing is a reply, and I can also see that there is a memorandum of points and authorities.”

“Avoid grammatical expletives (‘there is,’ ‘it is’).”

“‘It should be noted that,’ ‘it is beyond doubt that,’ and the like waste space.”

“Writing numbers out twice seems particularly useless.”

“Is it really necessary to devote a page or more or even half a page to discussing the standard of review for summary judgment or a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim?”

“The procedural history does not need to go back to the Creation. Just summarize what is relevant to the issue specifically before the court.”

“Most sentences are dramatically improved by omitting testimony references: ‘Smith [testified that he] went to the scene the following day.’

While some discussion of trial testimony is necessary when you are talking about hearsay or impeachment, those discussions are best left to highlight after you’ve told the story the reader needs to understand.”

“There’s a real danger in stuffing factual sections with crud.”

With judges becoming ever more impatient readers, looks do matter.

Out: long, uninterrupted blocks of text.

In: timelines, maps, graphs, diagrams, tables, headings and subheadings, and generous margins.

“Sometimes a timeline is clearer than an essay format.”

“I ALWAYS appreciate a clear timeline of events and I am happy to have that in the text of the fact section or as an exhibit. I want one place where I can see when everything happened in the case if it’s not a singular event.”

“Just as I don’t like scrolling down to find authority in a foot-note, I don’t like flipping through clerks’ papers or exhibits to find a key piece of documentary evidence that is discussed in a brief. The use of pictures, maps, and diagrams not only breaks up what can be dry legal analysis; it also helps us better understand the case as it was presented to the trier of fact (who undoubtedly was permitted to see an exhibit while it was discussed).”

“When a case involves analysis of a map, graph, or picture, I would like to see attorneys include a copy of the picture within the analysis section of the brief.”

“I like fact sections broken down with headings and even subheadings.

Define chapters in the facts or the ‘next’ relevant event.”

I was surprised that the judges I surveyed were more open to bolding and italics than judges used to be.

Perhaps this evolution stems from their desire not to wade through paragraphs that look and feel the same. Or

maybe the internet has accustomed all of us to formatting bells and whistles.

That said, even judges who don’t mind emphasis want it in small doses.

And although the judiciary may be split on emphasis, every judge in the country appears to hate all caps, and few are fans of underlining.

“Party names should not be in all caps.”

“Headings in all caps are difficult to read.”

“All caps are completely beyond the pale.”

“If a lawyer feels that emphasis is needed, I always prefer italics to boldface type. Boldface signals to me ‘Just in case you’re too stupid to recognize what’s important.’”

Let’s move on to specific language choices.

One question on my survey simply asked judges to list words and phrases they dislike.

Few responses surprised me, but it was amusing to see how easily many judges could rattle off language choices that drive them crazy.

They must have lots of exposure!

As the list below suggests, many lawyers are unaware of how often they use these words and phrases.

Never confuse knowing that you should avoid a term with actually implementing that knowledge in your writing.

“Death to modifiers!”

“I don’t like any clunky legalese like ‘For the foregoing reasons,’ ‘heretofore,’ etc.”

“‘Wherein,’ ‘heretofore,’ ‘aforesaid,’ ‘to wit’: they all should go the way of the dodo bird.”

“Don’t use ‘at that time’ for ‘when.’”

“Don’t use anything like ‘s/he.’”

“I dislike formalistic terms that people don’t really use in ordinary life like ‘wherefore’ and ‘arguendo,’ unnecessary phrases like ‘[party] submits,’ and derogatory terms like ‘asinine’ used to describe the opposing party’s argument.”

“Don’t use ‘prior to’ for ‘before’ or ‘subsequent to’ for ‘after.’”

“I dislike ‘notwithstanding,’ ‘heretofore.’”

“Don’t use words like ‘wherefore,’ ‘heretofore,’ ‘hereinafter’ that aren’t commonly used in everyday language.”

“Don’t write ‘Pursuant to.’”

“I believe ‘hereby,’ ‘hereinafter,’ ‘foregoing’ and other arcana have no place in modern legal writing.”

“I do not care for ‘the instant’ anything.”

“Tell them to stop writing ‘In the case at bar’!”

“I don’t like unnecessary Latin phrases like ‘inter alia.’”

“Get rid of the formalisms from the Middle Ages such as ‘Comes now Plaintiff, by and through his undersigned attorneys.’”

“‘Aforesaid,’ ‘heretofore,’ etc. are all pretty much empty and add nothing. Same with ‘said,’ as in the ‘said contract was signed at the said meeting.’”

“I loathe the word ‘utilize.’”

“I do not like when lawyers tell me what I ‘must’ do. Just say that the court ‘should’ do something.”

“‘Unfortunately for appellee’ (or for any party) should never appear in briefs.”

Another category of language irritation:

Many lawyers are surprised when I tell them that judges really don’t find “respectfully submits” and “respectfully requests” to be, well, respectful.

Cloying is more like it.

And my survey results were right in line with my anecdotal experience.

“Don’t write ‘Defendant respectfully requests.’ I prefer it if you just say what you want to say. I’ll know if it’s respectful or not!”

“‘Respectfully submits’ or ‘it is our position that’ are wasted words: they communicate nothing, except potential insecurity about the argument that follows.”

“Avoid ‘with all due respect.’”

“Avoid phrases such as ‘respectfully submits that’ that can be stated in one word like ‘contends.’”

On the less-is-more theme, you’ll rarely if ever hear judges complain that sentences or briefs are too short.

And yet, sometimes short is, in fact, too sweet.

Two offenders: random “this” and “that” references such as “this proves” or “that explains.”

Also, especially for traditionalist judges in the Justice Scalia mold, avoid contractions.

“I do not like indefinite references and see the word ‘this’ used too often. It should be used in conjunction with another word such as ‘this argument’ or ‘this logic.’”

“I REALLY dislike contractions. They make the argument sound like casual conversation and they give the writer an arch voice.”

When it comes to usage as opposed to word choice, American judges fall into three categories:

(1) those who understand the finer points of usage and care (these are the judges who ask me in workshops about “pleaded” versus “pled,” predicate nominatives,

and the counterfactual subjunctive);

(2) those who understand the finer points of usage but either don’t notice or don’t care, and

(3) those who don’t know enough about usage to notice mistakes.

“I despise the use of ‘impact’ as a verb.”

“Learn to differentiate between ‘that’ and ‘which.’”

“I cannot stand ‘As such’ used as a synonym for ‘Therefore.’”

“Learn to use the subjunctive!��

Now let’s talk about fact sections, and in particular dates.

Whenever I relay judges’ irritation with needless dates, someone in the audience retorts that some dates really matter.

Well, that’s why judges object to needless dates.

And it’s not as if you face a binary choice between a full date and nothing at all.

Sometimes a word or phrase will do the trick.

“It helps to vary how the passage of time is described. Instead of ‘on May 26, 2016,’ it’s refreshing to read ‘the next week’ or ‘two months later.’”

“Dates are rarely essential and often overused. If I see a date, I assume it is important. If it’s not, you have interrupted the flow of your argument for no good reason.”

“I HATE specific dates that have no relevance. I keep thinking the 24th day of September must really be important, for example, and then when it isn’t, I’m unhappy I’ve spent brainpower waiting for writer to tell me why it was critical!”

“Sometimes it’s enough to refer to an event as ‘mid-2015’ rather than a specific date.”

“If two parties entered into a contract, and it makes no difference to the claim whether they did so on January 22, 2014, or March 6, 2015, leave the date out.”

Now let’s talk a bit about the beginning of motions and briefs.

Don’t short the introduction.

Judges find strong introductions invaluable.

They help lawyers hone their theory of the cases, and they help shape the fact section and legal argument to come.

“Explain why you should win on the first page. ‘The Court should deny Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment for the following three reasons.’”

“I’ve had briefs in fairly involved cases without executive summaries. I’ve likened reading them to putting together a jigsaw puzzle without having the cover of the box to know what the puzzle is supposed to look like when it’s done.”

“I do appreciate a good ‘statement of the case’ section, particularly in complex civil appeals, in which, in a non-argumentative manner, the lawyer sets the stage for what issues the court is called upon to decide. That helps me focus on what facts and portions of the record will be most relevant to those issues.”

How about cases and other authorities?

Busy judges have become increasingly irritated with the way many litigators handle case law.

Facile shorthand: “Too many and too much.”

But it’s a bit more complicated than that.

One common complaint is that many litigators appear to search case law databases for choice language even if a given case doesn’t quite fit and even if the case doesn’t come down procedurally the way the lawyer wants the current case to.

“The main issue I run across is probably a function of Boolean searches: citations to ‘blurbs’ or quoted phrases within published decisions where the actual ruling, or the analysis, or the posture of the case is completely distinguishable (or even adverse) to the point the party is trying to make. I am much more persuaded by one or two authorities that are carefully analyzed and applied than by a sprinkling of quotations lifted from a dozen cases that are strung together.”

It’s also surprising how many cases some lawyers cite for a proposition that their opponents would never challenge, such as the summary judgment standard, the Daubert standard, or the standard of review.

“For well-established law, such as the standard of review, I prefer only a single cite.”

“Cite just enough cases and not all cases. One controlling case is enough. For non-controlling cases, if there aren’t any contrary or many contrary cases, cite two or three non-controlling cases, preferably the two or three most recent. If there are two contrary groups of cases and none is controlling, then it might be appropriate to cite one from each jurisdiction supporting the writer’s side.”

Once you know which cases to cite and how many, what should you do with them?

On the one hand, most judges rail against including too many facts and too many quotations when it would be more effective to use a concise parenthetical or a pithy quoted phrase merged into a sentence about your own case.

On the other hand, for complex or dispositive cases, some judges find that lawyers use a parenthetical when a fuller textual description would be more apt.

Ask yourself this question: “If I were being asked to endorse proposition X, what would I need to know about case Y to be comfortable doing so?”

And then don’t write one more word.

“Skip the long description. Just state the damn proposition, cite the damn case, and be done with it.”

“Long discussions of the facts of cited cases are often not helpful.”“For the most important case, cover the important points in text, not in an explanatory parenthetical. But it’s okay to use explanatory parentheticals for the cases that support the main one.”

“I prefer citation to one or two cases with a short, pertinent explanation in a parenthetical. I prefer a full paragraph for distinguishing an adverse authority. I don’t prefer distinguishing adverse authority in a footnote.”

“I prefer that briefs directly address contrary authority organized by argument, not by case name.”

That brings me to the block-quote question.

Most lawyers defend block quotes by insisting that they convey pivotal information that can’t be paraphrased.

That may be true, but here’s the bad news about that “pivotal information”:

If it’s presented in a block quote, judges are likely to skip it entirely.

So meet judges halfway:

Use block quotes only when the language of the text itself adds value.

Use block quotes as little as possible.

And introduce block quotes substantively and persuasively, focusing less on who said what and more on why the reader should care.

“Do not block quote more than three lines. After that, I may stop reading.”

“Don’t write ‘As follows:’ before quotes. Just use the colon; the ‘as follows’ is implied.”

“Fold quotes into text if possible.”

“Huge block quotes are terrible. It’s much more persuasive to paraphrase the reasoning and then quote only the crucial lan- guage.”

“When quoting, do not overuse brackets—I call them punctuational potholes. If you’re quoting from a case, start the quote after the part of the sentence that makes you want to use a bracket. The same for quotes from the record. For example, instead of ‘The officer stated, “[i]f [we] catch [you] in [the area] again, if [you] don’t have something, [I]’ll make sure [you] have something,” put ‘The officer said that if Smith were ever caught in the neighborhood again and did not “have something,” the officer would make sure he did have something.’”

One last issue.

Even after Justice Scalia’s passing, the debate over where to put citations rages on.

But with so many judges reading briefs on iPads or on other devices that require scrolling to see footnotes, 78 percent of the judges in my survey prefer to see citations in the text, the old-fashioned way.

You should still try to avoid putting citations at the beginning or in the middle of your sentences.

And, of course, some judges (12 percent in my survey, with the other 10 percent neutral) do love to see citations in footnotes, but those judges nearly always make their views known.

“This is a show-your-work gig, and I need to see your work there—not go hunting for it. This is a bigger deal now, I think, since we all read electronically.”

“We want to process the citation as we read. When a litigant makes a point, it matters if he or she is citing to a Supreme Court case, a circuit opinion, a treatise, etc. I don’t want to have to stop reading and look down and find the citation in the footnote or endnote. I understand the reasons some endorse it, but it is not practical for briefs and opinion writing, and everyone I work with hates that style of writing.”

“I find citations in footnotes to be distracting. It also makes the case more difficult to read online such as in Westlaw.”

Here’s the bottom line: Just as many associates in law firms think that knowing individual partner preferences is all there is to writing, many seasoned litigators think the same about knowing the preferences of individual judges.

Sure, there’s something satisfying about finding out whether a given judge likes the Oxford comma.

(Since I brought it up, 56 percent of the judges I surveyed said they do, 21 percent said they don’t, and 23 percent said they don’t care).

And it’s all too tempting to make brief writing mostly about rules and formatting preferences.

But I suggest that both litigators and appellate advocates spend most of their energies developing the core persuasive writing skills that would make almost all judges much happier.

So shoot for strong, compelling, yet concise introductions; a restrained use of case law, with quality over quantity; a readable treatment of party names and industry lingo; helpful leadins to block quotations; a confident and professional tone; modern diction; and more white space, headings, and visual aids.

In a word, show empathy for the reader.

And for those of you thinking that judges should practice in their opinions what they preach to lawyers about their briefs, that topic will have to be for another article!

Shoot for strong, compelling, yet concise introductions; a restrained use of case law; and modern diction.

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artofapeach · 1 year

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What horror movies have you seen?

Jeepers Creepers

Cujo

Nightmare on Elm Street

Heathers (I’m considering that horror, it was dark af)

Zombieland (this was my first R rated movie ☺️)

Suburban Gothic

The Shining

The Mist

The Grudge (original Japanese Version)

The Ring (American version)

The House of Secrets (more like a scooby doo thriller but it had its moments)

Coraline!!!

Shit ton of Tim Burton movies, such as Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride, etc.

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (it’s from the 1960s and I’m convinced a character here is coded to be sapphic ☺️)

Can’t remember it’s name, but there’s one movie where a lady adopted a kid who’s parents were trying to murder her? But the kid ended up being evil and making people’s fears real. I feel like it was called Room…some kind of number

Splinter

A bunch of zombies; cannot remember any names; my mom’s obsessed with them so we watched a ton of different kinds growing up ww

Twiligh— //SHOT

I’m sure there’s, like, soooooo many that I’m forgetting, but these are all the ones I can think of for now! Some horror I WANNA see is Get Out, Nope, Wendell and Wild, Friday the 13th, Alien, but also any gothic horror movies there may be out in the world. Something in the vibes of Mexican Gothic or Dracula (the book) or We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Atmospheric horror, that’s the shit I’m into.

Oh, but also add some weird fucked up creatures in it :3c

EDIT I FORGOT

Wrong Turn

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (didn’t like this one :P)

Scream (I think more horror monsters should be constantly beat up by their victims :) )

#I know I need to watch guillermo del toro I KNOW #he’s been on my list foreverrrrrr #but watching movies alone is hard….and my moms not into the same horror I am #90% of this list I watched with my mom w #and likely she picked it so it’s probably in her taste #which is fine!#but I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of horror movies I would like #hey an ask #not art #horror :3c

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chacusha · 4 years

Text

Trials of Mana remake liveblogging (4/...)

New game plus liveblogging. My new party is Charlotte, Kevin, Hawkeye.

This is my first time doing a real run-through with Charlotte as the main character. Her opening is unique among the main six because she doesn’t actually go to Jadd where the other five converge. The Meridian Child credit roll also doesn’t go over a sea voyage like it does with the other five because she’s already located in Wendel.

Having Charlotte and Hawkeye in the same party is pretty wild because Charlotte is the most immature of the six and Hawkeye is the most mature (Charlotte is also the shortest and Hawkeye the tallest, if I’m not mistaken -- yep, this confirms it). It definitely gives off the impression that Hawkeye is her babysitter rather than a teammate, lol.

Kevin is also pretty immature, but it’s a bit offset by the fact that he’s level 70-something and 1-jab KOing everything...

My partner is so amused by how everything Hawkeye says/does is accompanied by a model shot.

Finished up the last Li’l Cactus sightings. Li’l Cactus’s accessory and the Love of Mana chain ability are incredible. Makes it easy to speed through the dungeons.

I’m already at the Windstone and level 20-something due to the Love of Mana exp booster. So I upgraded Charlotte to Priestess (light), Kevin to Brawler (dark side this time -- with Charlotte, we won’t need his healing anyway), and Hawkeye to Ranger (light, since in the Collection of Mana playthrough I went dark).

Me: We should go light since we went dark last time. My partner: Ninja looks cooler, though... Me: I agree, that’s why we picked Ninja last time, lol. (But seriously, Hawkeye’s light classes look so dorky.)

That scene where Hawkeye rescues Riesz from Bil and Ben was very shippy.

Charlotte has the CUTEST reaction to being turned into a ghost.

There is also some very slight Charlotte/Kevin shippiness after being rescued by Vuscav where Kevin calls Vuscav cute and then Charlotte says Kevin needs glasses if he doesn’t think she’s a hundred times cuter than Vuscav.

Kevin’s Brawler costume is very cute. I like it a lot.

It’s weird how if Angela isn’t in your party (especially if Charlotte is the main character and therefore misses Jadd), she just... never shows up in the game??? That seems so odd.

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten Flammie and Riesz *wasn’t* in my party. It looks like Faerie will recall the existence of the Winged Guardian and your character will point you toward Laurent.

I like Charlotte’s voice. She sounds confident but also cute. “What can I say? I’m a natuwaw.” Hawkeye’s voice is also pretty good, but he has a deep voice and a high voice and seems to switch between them suddenly in a way that’s jarring. Playing again has made me realize I don’t like Faerie’s voice. In terms of pitch/tone, it’s fine, sounds like a cute fairy, but in terms of the delivery and emphasis in each line, the choices are really odd and never sound like how you’d expect that line to be read -- for example, timid and lackluster when it should be determined, or cheerful when it should be serious, etc.

There seems to have been a bug with the ??? Seeds -- I got both of Kevin’s and both of Hawkeye’s items, but none of Charlotte’s, and then started getting repeats at random from there. Welp, time to farm these again.

Oh wow, Kevin’s ending that I got last game, I encountered after giving the Sword of Mana to Goremand in Ferolia. I followed the king out behind the throne room and Kevin confronted him like he did in his ending last game. Curious to know what his ending will be like, then.

I got my second class change. I went with Sage (Light Dark) for Charlotte, Enlightened (Dark Light) for Kevin, and Rogue (Light Dark) for Hawkeye (because Nomad looks SO BAD OMG, but also because Rogue’s skillset seemed interesting to me).

OMG, Kevin’s Suzaku Aerial is amazingly badass, especially when he’s in wolf form. He howls at the end of it, too. So cute ToT

It took a while, but I finally got Lightgazer to turn my party into moogles. Awww.

If you go Charlotte/Kevin’s route, Dryad gets to be useful. Neat!

I like the look and enemy set of the Jungle of Visions. This rabite maze is quite cool too. The Darkstone / Zable Fahr isn’t very congruent with the jungle, though.

Oh man, this mirage Astoria is DARK.

So is this plotline involving Heath and the Masked Mage!! Poor Charlotte! She’s so cute but her storyline is so sad!!!

Okay Kevin’s ending in this branch is much better. It’s still not great but at least it doesn’t spring “Karl is alive actually” on you and then leaves it at that. And Kevin here does come to challenge his father but decides not to.

I like how Charlotte is a bit of a crybaby. So CUTE. Also, the way she refers to the rest of the party as “recruits”, lmao.

*sees Angela in the ending credits* I don’t know her.

Was Heath also in the ending credits in my last playthrough...? I don’t remember. It’s interesting that a lot of the scenes in the ending could be seen as either set after the game or set before everything Goes Wrong in each character’s storyline.

Revisiting Kevin’s orb quest: “I have a wife and kid to get back to in Mintas after all.” -- I just realized this is the husband of the woman in Mintas complaining that her husband joined Gauser’s war.

“Ludgar let us rampage through the human towns and I hurt a lot of people...but it didn’t help my anger. Now I just feel empty inside.” -- this extra coda really does help flesh out Kevin’s ending.

“Ludgar’s never around anymore. I guess he’s off training in the woods some more. Isn’t he strong enough already?” -- the other Beastmen don’t know what happened to Ludgar!

I like how Kevin doesn’t get angry at people calling him weak but gets angry when people call Ludgar weak.

Oh cool, last time, I didn’t even notice this statue at the base of Chartmoon Tower that teleports you up to the top. How convenient!

I was a bit worried about this boss battle because Kevin no longer has healing spells, but with Moon Saber, he’s a self-healing machine so nothing to worry about after all.

Hawkeye’s orb quest: I like how Hawkeye’s quest involves more Jessica and Eagle content. You get to see so little of them at the beginning.

I like how Kevin was the one to impetuously poke at this trapped treasure box. This whole cave and trapped treasure has a very Arabian Nights vibe (maybe helped by Hawkeye’s Rogue costume).

I’m getting a shippy Hawkeye/Eagle vibe from Hawkeye’s quest. I wasn’t expecting that!

Charlotte’s orb quest: I thought it’d be in Wendel, but looks like it’s in Dior / Wandara Woods.

I like how Charlotte has two fairly pre-eminent grandpas.

Riesz’s orb boss: giant bee. Hawkeye’s: giant mimic box. Charlotte’s: giant zombie (kind of random).

The High Priestess tech, OMG -- Charlotte’s poses, her dorky dancing, omg. It’s... it’s perfect. 🤩

Hawkeye’s Wardenkeep tech is okay but single target so not so useful for clearing mobs. Kevin’s Annihilator tech is also okay (I like how he gets blasted backward at the end of it), but it’s not as cool as Suzaku Aerial.

I started playing as Hawkeye for a while because Charlotte’s strength is too low and her attack magic so limited that it was making killing stuff quite tedious. The Wardenkeep look suits him, and I like how elegant all his movements are, from jumping and landing, to running, to using his daggers.

I’m not having very good luck with getting the equipment I want from these seeds...

It’s interesting in this game how close light/dark holy/unholy elements are to each other: Charlotte able to be a holy priestess or a necromancer; Heath/Tainted Soul having both holy and dark spells; there being a Priest of Light and a Priest of Dark; a lot of zombies and undead showing up in dark versions of Wendel; etc.

Okay! Finished this playthrough. What party will I do next...

#trials of mana #seiken densetsu #seiken densetsu 3 #trials of mana liveblogging #video game liveblogging

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penniesforthestorm · 6 years

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Castle Rock, Part 2

“Be Your Own Hero!”

Episode 4: “The Box” Episode 5: “Harvest” Episode 6: “Filter”

Hello, and welcome to the second part of my Castle Rock coverage! Now that the major expository groundwork has been laid, I want to spend a little time talking about the characters. Let’s start with Dennis Zalewski, the Shawshank guard who discovered The Kid. Zalewski, who has a pregnant wife to support, is unhappy in his job, lamenting to Henry Deaver in a previous episode, “Do you think I’d be working here if there was a Wal-Mart within sixty miles?” At the beginning of Episode 4, “The Box”, we see Zalewski arriving for another day on the job, accompanied by the gritty strains of Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands”. Every time one of the prison’s doors shuts behind him, we realize that he feels just as trapped as the men he’s guarding. Zalewski’s coworkers don’t seem to share his distaste. An oily representative of Shawshank’s new corporate owners pays The Kid a visit, and describes, with relish, how he and his Army buddies tortured an Iraqi prisoner who wouldn’t give up his name. In response, The Kid intones a passage from the Book of Revelations: “He has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God.” The Kid stands up as he speaks, looming forbiddingly over the other man.

And what’s Henry Deaver up to? First of all, he and Alan Pangborn go up to Bangor, to make arrangements for Matthew Deaver’s coffin to be delivered back to Castle Rock. Henry, hunting for more clues, stumbles across a name in an old news article about his own disappearance—a man called Desjardins, who lived just a mile from the lake. He decides to pay a call on Desjardins, and finds a whole lot more than he bargained for. The house is in utter disrepair—an old piano has crashed through the kitchen ceiling, and there are broken boards everywhere. Its elderly inhabitant, Joseph Desjardins, seems oddly delighted to see Henry. He brings Henry back to his bedroom and digs out a water-stained cardboard box containing Henry’s police file. It’s a relief when Henry leaves unscathed, goes to visit Molly, and ends up spending the night with her. The next morning, though, Henry calls Zalewski and says that he’s leaving Castle Rock. Zalewski had agreed to be deposed at a hearing regarding The Kid, and earlier in the episode, he stopped by The Kid’s cell and promised him that soon, they’d both be free. He even offered The Kid a friendly fist-bump. Now, after listening to Henry’s voicemail, Zalewski goes into his office. He removes his pistol from the safe, climbs the stairs, and shoots his way up to the warden’s office, as Roy Orbison’s “Crying” (another aria, of sorts) swoons over the soundtrack. Henry is there waiting, and Zalewski manages to say, “I want to testify”, before a smoke-bomb goes off behind him and he is shot down by another officer.

Episode 5, “Harvest”, opens with Henry at a clinic in Texas, undergoing a cognitive exam. He is asked to repeat five words, which he does: “Boat, white, church, dog, family.” It’s about the mysterious ringing in his ears that’s plagued him since he was young. We see him cringing in the aftermath of Zalewski’s shooting spree; clearly, having a gun go off right by him hasn’t helped. Back at Shawshank, Warden Porter is getting chastised by her boss. She sighs about being ‘thrown under the bus’; it’s the second time this idiom has been used in her presence. The first time was in conversation with Henry, regarding the late Warden Lacy, when she sneered, “That’s where you throw dead perverts”. Speaking of Warden Lacy, we get a flashback of him and The Kid together down in the cage. Lacy admits that he has always felt some doubt about what he’s done, even though God told him The Kid would ‘drag evil behind him everywhere you went’. He touches The Kid’s hand, then his face, with a gentle, sad expression. In the present, The Kid is released. He undergoes a similar exam to the one Henry had; his five words are, “Face, velvet, red, church, family.” Henry and Molly put him up at Molly’s office, and instruct him to stay hidden. That night, The Kid slips out. He finds a boy's birthday party in progress, and sneaks in to watch, but as he lingers in the shadows, the party devolves into a screaming match between the parents, and a baby wails inconsolably. The Kid retreats into the night, pensive and alone. Now it's time to talk about Alan Pangborn and Ruth Deaver. Scott Glenn and Sissy Spacek have wonderful chemistry on screen—you fully believe that these people are used to each other's rhythms. Alan grouses about having to attend a bridge-dedication ceremony in his honor, and Ruth teases him, her blue eyes full of mischief. At the ceremony, Alan begins a laconic speech, mentioning that he wanted to be a magician, but was hampered by the necessity of 'telling a story' to distract his audience. But he's interrupted by the barking of a large dog, and the sudden realization that Ruth is not in her seat. She's up on the railing of the bridge, and then aloft, heading straight for the river. Henry rushes over and jumps in to save her. And this brings me to the other major character I haven't yet discussed: Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy)—assistant to Molly Strand, sardonic expert in Castle Rock lore. When Jackie heads to Molly's office, she discovers The Kid lurking upstairs, sans clothing. Jackie takes this entirely in stride, rustling up some hand-me-downs and bringing The Kid up to speed on Castle Rock's historically bad luck. She even drops a reference to her uncle, who tried to ax-murder his family, back in the rad, bad old '80s (yes, that Torrance). This spooks The Kid, who flees to the nearest convenient rooftop, and Jackie calls Molly for help. Molly tries to console The Kid, but he tells her mournfully, "I shouldn't be here." The echoes of human misery in The Kid's (and Molly's) mind reach a crescendo. So Molly takes him to the Deaver house that evening, and Henry reluctantly leads him out to the old workshop in the backyard. Inside, on a dusty piano, The Kid suddenly picks out the classic hymn, "O God Our Help in Ages Past". "I remember…" he murmurs. Henry nods in approval and bids him goodnight. But our Kid has other ideas. He wanders out to the woods, and finds himself in direct confrontation with Alan Pangborn. Alan remembers him from the night Lacy claimed to have trapped the Devil in his trunk. Awed and frightened, Alan declares, "I can't remember my own dead wife's face, but I never forgot yours. 27 years, and you haven't aged one day." This seems to spark something in The Kid. He tells Alan he can help Ruth, and then says, "You have no idea what's going here, do you?"

In Episode 6, "Filter", The Kid sends Alan on a mysterious errand to Syracuse. He also continues to explore the environs of the Deaver house, clothing himself in a shabby grey suit and putting on a record. (Keen listeners will notice that when The Kid walks, he's frequently accompanied by the fwip, fwip of a record skipping.) Perhaps most intriguingly, he finds a repository of video tapes featuring Henry as a child out in the woods, clearly filmed by Matthew Deaver. Henry, for his part, has called for his teenage son Wendell (Chosen Jacobs) to come up from Boston, to see his grandmother. Wendell comes off the bus absorbed in his phone, but he's polite and amiable, particularly to Ruth. The three of them are making lunch when Ruth stares out the kitchen window in shock. The Kid is out there, in his grey suit. Something seems to pass between him and Ruth, even through the glass and the distance. In a panic, Henry runs out and whisks The Kid into the car, carting him off to the nearby psychiatric facility. Later that night, Wendell asks Henry why Ruth and Matthew adopted him. Henry mentions that they lost a child some years before, but insists that they are his "real parents". The next day, Henry goes marching off into the woods with the old camera, queuing up the footage of his younger self to see if he can discover what, exactly, Matthew was directing him to do out there. Ruth and Wendell sit down for a game of chess, with Ruth's copy of the famous Lewis chess set—a gift from Alan. (The original pieces, carved from walrus ivory by Vikings sometime in the 12th Century, currently reside at the British Museum.) Wendell notices that some of the pieces are missing, and Ruth relates a significant secret. She believes that she has become unstuck in time. "This conversation—we've been here before. We'll be here again." The chess pieces, scattered through the house, are her way of anchoring herself to the present—her breadcrumb trail. Henry could have used a breadcrumb trail of his own; as the dusk gathers in the woods, the camera's battery dies, and Henry gets lost. He finally discovers a campfire, guarded by another soft-spoken young man with wild eyes. An older gentleman comes out of the trees, and begins signing rapidly, while the young man translates. His name is Odin Branch (Ruth's Norse-mythology expertise would come in handy here), and his jumpy companion is Willie. Odin explains that he knew Matthew Deaver, and that the two of them shared an interest in what used to be called 'the music of the spheres'—a vast, universal sound, that some people hear and others do not. The theory is that the sound is the multiverse trying to reconcile itself—other realities knocking against each other like thunderclouds. Before Matthew's death, he had made a blueprint for a chamber he called 'The Filter'—a noise-proof room where the sound, which Odin calls the Schisma, might be observed in pristine condition. Odin has built a replica in his trailer, and, somewhat less than cordially, he invites Henry to observe for himself, slamming the door after him. The episode ends with Alan returning from Syracuse, to find The Kid sitting on the front steps of the Deaver house. The object Alan was seeking was Warden Lacy's car, and he has arranged for it to be brought down. Then Alan notices that The Kid is bleeding. "There will be a monument,"The Kid proclaims through clenched teeth, "to Warden Lacy, and to all who helped put me in there. Why did you do it, Alan?" Alan rushes past The Kid, up to the house, calling for Ruth. Whatever he finds there, we have the distinct feeling it won't be good.

#castle rock #tv review #part 2 of 4 #prose #CONTAINS SPOILERS

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ocw-archive · 2 years

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Wilson Gang Taking A Road Less Traveled - The Times (2005)

By Dana Calvo, Special to The Times Granted, it was already 11 a.m., but it was as good a time as any for actor Luke Wilson to vigorously brush his teeth by the wide emerald river that gushes through the thousands of acres on a magnificent private ranch less than an hour out of Austin. He stood on his tiptoes and spit far into the prairie grass so as not to splatter either his beat-up brown cowboy boots or the dusty, rumpled seersucker suit that had been hanging on his lanky frame for weeks. His shaggy hair lay flat over his forehead, and he showed off his newly acquired, minty-fresh vitality with a piano-key smile. Wilson was nearly in character for Wendell Baker, his alter ego that few people in Hollywood "got" when the 32-year-old Wilson was shopping "The Wendell Baker Story" last year.

Baker, Wilson explains, is a dreamer in love with quick-riches schemes, and when he gets busted for selling fake IDs he does a year behind bars, where he becomes an enthusiastic joiner and cheerfully coordinates a schedule of chess and card games with other inmates. "I wanted to play a real upbeat guy. Someone I'd like to be, always looking on the sunny side," Wilson said. "He's got great American qualities. He's an entrepreneur, but he's also a rebel." Once on parole, Baker takes a job at a nursing home and tries to win back his girlfriend. Sound low-key and simple? That was the plan, said Wilson, who admits he went about selling his first script entirely his own way. For one thing, he wanted himself and his older brother, Andrew, as co-directors. "We had meetings with a lot of people who were interested, and they wanted changes like, 'Speed up the second act.' They were lateral notes. They didn't mean anything. I like specific ideas," he said. Andrew, a 39-year-old surfer dad with a bushy brown beard who has had small parts in big-budget films like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," agreed. Still, one of the criticisms the Wilsons heard from agents was that "The Wendell Baker Story" failed to conform to the traditional three-act structure. For that reason, Andrew Wilson said, Hollywood felt uncomfortable taking a chance on it until Franchise Pictures bought it. "It's not idiosyncratic on purpose," he said. A role for the dog But if mainstream Hollywood thought the script was out there, it probably could not have imagined life on the set. The comedy was shot over the course of 35 days with a budget of under $8 million. Along with the sibling-directors team, the other brother, Owen, plays an evil male nurse in the film. Wilson's mutt, Brother, plays (a dog) named Junior, but between takes he curled up on his own director's chair. The Wilson matriarch, Laura, was the set photographer. And the Wilson boys' "Uncle Joe," was given the crew moniker of "Director of Special Operations." (Back in L.A., Luke and Owen live with Uncle Joe, 56, in a three-bedroom house. "I'm a born-again adolescent," the former carpenter and shipbuilder says with a grin). Luke Wilson was initially known only for his relation to Owen, a blond Texas native who busted onto the Hollywood scene with "Bottle Rocket," a short 1994 film he co-wrote with Wes Anderson. The movie was picked up and reshot at full length, with Luke as the star. But in the last eight years, Luke Wilson has made a career of appearing in off-the-beaten-path films, some of which, like "Legally Blonde" and last year's "Old School" co-starring Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn, became accidental blockbusters. Such success is a blessing and a curse, he said. The industry expects you to follow a certain trajectory of action hero/stud-in-training. If you try to do what you want instead, the pressure can be intimidating. But he prefers filming in his home state and playing characters that are not redundant. This day's shoot was in Wemberley, a ranching community 45 miles southwest of Austin. It could be Anywhere Wild West, which is just the point. "On the practical level, Austin has a terrific crew base, so from a producers' viewpoint, you don't have to fly everyone in from L.A. and put them up in hotels and pay them a per diem," Johnson said. Wilson began writing "Wendell Baker" in 1999 when he was appearing in "My Dog Skip," another film that Johnson produced. Only a few lines in the shooting script were changed over the course of the six-week shoot last fall, but there were last-minute casting decisions, including one on the minor role of a burly federal agent. Wilson took one look at the film's prop master, Mark Wallace, and hired him for an actor's day rate. "I took all my acting cues from Brother," Wallace said, referring to Wilson's dog, who could not take his eyes off the fuzzy gray boom mike during filming. "I studied 'the Brother Method.' " Baker's quest during most of the movie is to reunite with his ex-girlfriend, Doreen, who works at the water and power

department and is played by Eva Mendes. "She loves the fact that he makes her laugh," Mendes said from her home in L.A. "He cracks her up." Veterans along for the ride A major obstacle for Baker, though, is the Head Nurse, played with straight-faced earnestness by Owen Wilson, 34. Also roaming the linoleum hallways of the retirement facility are veteran actors Kris Kristofferson, Harry Dean Stanton and Seymour Cassel — good buddies who have worked together before. "Most of the scripts I get these days are not great, but this one knocked me out," Kristofferson said from Vancouver, B.C., where he's shooting "Blade: Trinity" with Wesley Snipes. "I don't get a whole lot of parts….Hollywood is not a great creative atmosphere right now." "The Wendell Baker Story" doesn't have a distributor, and producers are trying to determine if the Wilson brothers' cachet will attract potential distributors on its own or if they'll have to shop the film on the festival circuit. "In some conservative circles it's considered risky, but the truth is this is what you need to do. Everyone wants to do a 'Lost in Translation,' " said the movie's producer, Mark Johnson. And, as far as Wilson is concerned, creative directors must tune out industry pressure if they are going to produce films they are proud of. That entails making authentic — not derivative — decisions about casting, about music, about characters. An admitted music nut, Wilson is inclined to kick back with great artists of the '70s, so along with musical heroes like Kristofferson, he also cast "outlaw" songwriter Billy Joe Shaver as one of the nursing home residents. Kristofferson, Shaver and Eddie Griffin can't exactly "open" a film, but Wilson did everything he could to finish the shoot on time, on budget and on message: He may yearn to be an individual, but he knows the industry remains a conservative business. During his lunch break on this day, a slick-looking group of makeup artists and wardrobe consultants crowded around him until the faded seersucker suit had been replaced by blue jeans that seemed custom-shrunk for a leading man. He leaned like a lonely cowboy against a romantically old black Ford pickup truck, wearing the same pair of sunglasses that Wendell Baker wears throughout the film. As the clear, wide river rushed behind Wilson and photographers fired off shots, producer Dave Bushell explained that Serengeti Eyewear is hoping the ad will tap into a new demographic. Coming soon to a magazine near you: "Luke Wilson as Wendell Baker for Serengeti." It's exactly the kind of plug a writer would get after delivering a standard, big-budget, three-act screenplay.

#2005 #article

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eafsegse · 3 years

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These are the characteristics of three races

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romioneflufffest · 7 years

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Silly love potion

Title: Silly Love Potion Author: @diva-gonzo Prompts: Skyscraper, Australia Post-War, “The Moon Looks different today”, Cerulean (yeah, I combined quite a few.) Description: Ron and Hermione are finally in Australia to search for her parents . Ron waxes philosophically for what they went through and Hermione realizes that there is more to him emotionally than a teaspoon. Rating: T / 15 / PG-13 Warnings: A few crass words, mentions of Fred, and off-page mentions of drinking but no lemons or limes.

“I think the moon looks different today.”

Hermione looked up from the stack of papers from the Australian Ministry. She had spent the better part of a day searching out for her parent’s residence and was ready to give up for the night. Her eyes burned from frustrated tears most of the day along with losing her voice hours earlier. Tracking Monica and Wendell Wilkins would probably be the death of her.

“Could it be that we’re in a large city instead of away from it? I dunno but I reckon that the moon should look exactly the same as it would from my bedroom window at the Burrow.”

Hermione huffed and called her task a bad job for the rest of the night, especially since Ron wasn’t prone to discussing philosophy or astronomy without something else going on. She shuffled the papers into a stack to tackle it again in the morning, after some sleep, a meal, and a hot shower, hopefully not in that order.

“Or maybe I’ve changed. I reckon that an answer, too. I mean, who could guess that I would be standing on the twenty-ninth floor of a hotel on the other side of the world?”

Her nerves taxed to fraying, she huffed. “Ron, come inside and close the patio door. It’s chilly outside.”

He turned and Hermione caught her breath. His face was pale and he had been crying. “Oh Ron!” Hermione dashed to him and encased him in a huge hug, squeezing him tight enough for him to grunt.

“I keep seeing his face, his smile, and I can’t get rid of it.”

Hermione pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed where she could stand between his splayed knees. “And then there was that git playing dead. Fuck, I’ve had nightmares where that wasn’t true, that he was dead.”

“Harry’s safe. We’re safe. I wish I could have made Fred safe. But there’s nothing we can do to help him now,” she caught on his name and powered through for Ron’s sake, “and when we get back, George will need you. We can’t fix the past but we can live the best we can now, even if it’s not right much less normal.”

“But fuck, Hermione! He should be the one laughing and carrying on. Why did that wall have to fall on him?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “How is that we are alive when we could have easily died hundreds of times over? I can’t explain it. So many moments depended on such a small choice.”

“It should have been me, Hermione.”

“Rubbish,” she hissed. “You quit thinking like that, you hear me?”

He looked up at her and saw her fierce protectiveness for him. “I can’t stop it, not yet. I can’t wrap my head around it. I can’t make heads or tails of it and I’ve lay awake many nights trying.”

“You know Fred would tell you off for wasting a perfect night’s insomnia thinking of him in such a wretched way.”

Ron looked up. “What’s insomnia?”

Hermione smiled. “Can’t sleep at night, no matter how tired you are.”

Ron pulled a face. “Yeah, you’re right. He’d probably be punching my arm for finally pulling my finger out and getting with you. What I wouldn’t give for that prat to take the piss tonight. I know he’d say it across the table, Take good care of her, you arse.” Ron looked up at Hermione and took her hands in his. “But I can’t because some asshole blew a bloody wall up and he was crushed under it.”

Ron hiccuped and Hermione stepped right up to him before pulling him to her chest, ignoring a snide comment rippling through her mind but focusing on helping him cope with the feelings strangling him. She stood there, holding him while he let his emotions boil over, wetting her shirt and twisting the back of it. A few of her tears fell too.

Eventually he pulled away from her chest and looked up. The light from the desk reflected on his pale features, highlighting his freckles and cerulean blue eyes. He opened his mouth to speak and no words came out. Instead he scrubbed his hand across his face.

“It’s OK. Let me help. You don’t have to talk.”

“You are helping, Hermione, more than you can ever imagine.” Ron fell back into the bed and Hermione curled up beside him. She’d learned in the last week or so that he could muddle through his thoughts if she didn’t cut across him so much and gave him the space and time to sort it before saying what he was thinking. When he would share, there was a depth to him that she only had hints about.

“I do have a rather expansive imagination, I reckon. When you read as much as I have, it tends to grow exponentially.”

“I have no idea what expotentially but knowing it, you it’s some big word meaning big.”

She reached up and ran her fingers across his shirt with her nails, giving him time to think but demonstrating she was there.

He looked up at the ceiling, ignoring everything else. “I don’t fucking know how I survived this past month. But I do know. You’ve been there every single moment for the past month, doing anything I need and some of what I want,” his cheeks turned faintly red, “and you’ve asked nothing from me ‘cept for me to love you.” He turned his head and fell in love again with her warm eyes and her passionate heart. “That day we laid Fred to rest and I had the unrestrained magic, I thought I was going to blow the house up with my wild magic. I hadn’t been that close to exploding magically since I was seven. But you were there and made it better,” he said before his ears turned bright red. “But you keep away the nightmares, too. With you here with me, I can sleep and almost think this is normal, when I know it’s not.”

“Ron, when have we ever been normal? I don’t know where you got that idea, but our normal is pretty mental.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’re not normal and I don’t think we’ve really had one month since we’ve known one another that has been normal.” Ron turned his head back to see Hermione smiling. “Well, maybe a month here and there when some maniac isn’t trying to kill one of us or some demented professor is trying to get Harry killed. Other than that,”

Hermione laughed. “You know, if we hadn’t lived it, I’d wonder if it was some really badly written story with unbelievable plot.”

Ron laughed alongside her. “Imagine the stories we’ll eventually tell our kids. They will think it’s too fantastic to have happened.”

“It’s better than some stories I read growing up.” She still giggled. “Like Charlie buying you a couple of shots at the small pub in Ottery St. Catchpole for having the backbone to ride a dragon. I thought he was going to go spare hearing how you rode that beast.”

“And you know how pissed I was from it. He said that he’d only tried it once and nearly died from it. Bugger called me a lunatic for doing it. And then he bought me a third shot of Firewhisky for releasing the dragon from the confines.”

“But it wasn’t as bad as Bill.” Hermione ran her hands across his chest.

“I think I still have the bruise from Bill trying to hex me for having the nerve to break into Gringott’s and getting away with it, mostly.”

“And the look on Percy’s face,” Hermione broke out in fresh giggles, “And cursing to turn blue when he found out you’d broken into the Ministry and Harry broke into Umbridge’s office. I thought he was going to have a stroke or something.”

Ron clutched his sides laughing. “Merlin, that is something out of Martin the Mad Muggle comics. But if I’d read them in there, I’d think the story was completely barmy!”

“You see how the last year was completely barmy? If we hard it on the wireless, I’d swear it was a soap opera.”

“What the hell is a bloody soap opera?”

“It’s a show on the television where they tell a story over the course of years. My mum would watch it from time to time at home, when she wasn’t keeping a close eye on me. Your mum probably listened to one on the wireless occasionally.”

“Sounds mental,” Ron said.

“Imagine it’s like having a series of shows for Martin the Mad Muggle, live, but stranger, more drama, and the occasional adult scene.”

“Adult? Like how?” Ron tightened his arm around her shoulder. Hermione propped up on his chest, looking down at him.

“It’s where I first saw a man almost out of his kit. My poor Mum was mortified and turned the telly off. Seven-year-old me then asked her what the two people were doing in the bed and my Mum told me about sex the first time - where I could understand it.”

“Bloody hell. Seven? I didn’t get the talk from dad ‘til I was 12. Then again I accidentally did walk in on Mum and Dad once, but I was three and didn’t understand.”

Hermione smiled, lost in memories. “I was quite precocious. Mum knew I was curious and kept it to where I could understand it but it not be explicit.”

“Oh wow. That’s mental. My mum would have blamed Charlie for sharing that information with before Dad did. But your Mum? Oy!”

“No, mental was seeing you out of your shirt the summer before fifth year, when you and Harry were degnoming the garden. I stood there watching you work for a very long time. I already knew I fancied you but I had no idea that you even liked me more than as a friend. Seeing you working was a guilty pleasure that summer.”

“So you watched often?” He pulled a face and Hermione snorted.

“I did. I made sure to have some chores upstairs for your Mum when you were degnoming the garden. Ginny was there sometimes too, watching Harry. She knew I fancied you but she kept it quiet. I knew she fancied Harry but she was dating Dean then and kept her thoughts to herself, about Harry. Neither one of us were going to say a thing to either one of you.”

“Then how is it that I never got to see you out of your kit? Most I ever saw was you in some jeans and t-shirt. You’d never go swimming but you’d join us down at the water, wearing shorts and a shirt.”

“Honest reason or silly reason?”

“Both.” He smiled and waited on her to reply.

“I didn’t want my hair getting wet since it rarely cooperated. If I’d gotten it wet, it’d take forever to dry and then be unmanageable for days.”

“Oh right, we couldn’t use magic yet then. I get that.”

“But I also didn’t want to wear any less since I didn’t think you fancied me and it’d have been too mortifying to have you see how little of me there is. Or at least I thought that then but I don’t now.”

Ron pulled her down for a very soft and tender kiss, only breaking contact when neither could go a second longer before passing out.

“If I’d known at 15 what it was like kissing you, I think I’d have gone spare. It was distracting enough to see your neck or the occasional back of the knee some days. I was so glad to have robes on, so I could hide my problem ‘til I get somewhere and could remedy the situation.”

“Did that happen often?”

Ron wanted to laugh but the expression on her face made him realize that she was truly curious, not taking the piss. “Hermione, it was probably five times a day. But then I was a walking mess and anything would set me off. And there were plenty of times you did and you weren’t even there. Just thinking about you would do it.” He blushed hard.

She slid up further onto his chest and toyed with the buttons on his shirt. “So this is certainly distracting you, right?”

Ron pulled her down to rub his nose against hers. “Completely. I can’t even think,” he whispered across her lips. “But then being this close to you is making me pissed.”

“So this,” she kissed him softly and pulled back just a hair, sharing space and breathing the same air, “this is intoxicating and making you mental? Better than Firewhisky?”

Ron pulled her close before rolling her under him, pressing her into the bedclothes.

“I should ask you the same thing,” he smiled at her.

“You’re my Amortentia. Being this close is better than any silly love potion.”

“Who needs a love potion when you chose me!” Ron lowered himself to her and they got lost in one another.

#Romione #Ron and Hermione #Romione Fluff Fest #romioneflufffest #Fic #submission

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