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rumpunch · 11 months

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HIIII so… i finally got to see hadestown this weekend (the national tour production) w two of my best friends 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 i knew we were gonna see it for months but i didnt want to post abt it beforehand / acknowledge it in any way after making plans bc i was scared i would jinx it like what happened when i posted / talked abt seeing shows on the west end and then covid hit and sent me home lol. but i can’t believe i finally saw it!! it doesn’t feel real and honestly didn’t until right now as im writing this….. being in the theater was truly an out of body (and mind lol) experience for better or for worse. this was my first time seeing a show since covid and im soooo glad it was this one given how much it’s meant to me for all these years 🥹💗

i have a lot of thoughts on the production and also the plot / story so here they are lol:

production thoughts

for context ive never seen a hadestown 👢 before, i told myself that i wanted my first experience of seeing it to be actually seeing it in person. but ive listened to the obcr 5798673594 times over the last 3 years and the songs have become thoroughly woven into my life... so that made for a really weird experience where i knew every word but was watching it unfold for the first time and yet i knew what was coming for the most part. that also could be chalked up to the fact that ive seen so many gifsets and have read so many posts about other ppl seeing the show so i did know about some visual things.. but yeah it was just weird what i knew / expected and what i didnt lol

my friends and i sat in the back right corner of the mezzanine (like the LITERAL corner. no chairs behind us or next to us and the exit right next to us) and sadly the balcony in the set was cut off for us so we had to keep leaning across each other or scrunching our heads down to see the action up there :~/ but it was ok

i think bc of the above two bullet points + the fact that i really did not let myself believe that i was going to see the show bc i was scared of jinxing it + me having depression / possible derealization issues that i did not have when i first got into this show... i was kinda numb the entire time which sucks a little. i cried a couple times (happy / disbelieving tears in road to hell (persephone's entrance specifically for some reason, idk why it wasnt the "aight"s LOL) and any way the wind blows, sad tears in doubt comes in) but i didnt really... process anything in the moment or really experience the epic highs and lows of it while watching it. i just generally wasnt very moved! and im processing the show right now for the first time. and that kinda sucks and is unlike me and unlike what i thought seeing it was gonna be like. in a similar vein i found myself really focused on whoever was in the spotlight and im kinda mad at myself for that bc this is a show where SO many little details / context clues are communicated when ppl are in the background. but its fine i guess, i may be in a weird place mentally but i got to see it and maybe i'll see it again someday and be more moved

the cast was PHENOMENALLLLLL. j antonio rodriguez was our orpheus and he was the standout for me, his singing and acting as were breathtaking! i was frustrated about hannah whitley (eurydice) though bc like (and i feel bad for saying all of this)... nobody can be eva noblezada but hannah was missing a lot of notes / singing off key and kept like.. idk what the technical term for it is but she was kinda singing on her own beat and adding in a lot of pauses or rushing into things instead of staying on pace with the music and also she kept kinda revving up into the high notes and all of it grated on me. but i grew warmer to her singing in act 2 and i really appreciated her acting throughout! i didnt rly have many thoughts about hades (matthew patrick quinn), persephone (maria christina oliveras), or hermes (nathan lee graham) aside from ADORING all of their performances and what they brought to the roles compared to the obc! and the fates (dominique kempf, belén moyano, courtney lauster) / ensemble (kc dela cruz, colin lemoine, sean watkinson, shavey brown, raquel williams) / musicians were INCREDIBLE and had such amazing chemistry with and between each other :~D

antonio made for a bolder more charming orpheus and hannah made for a darker moodier more tortured eurydice which was interesting. but (and maybe this was just me dealing with the whole numbness / already knowing what to expect thing) i wasnt really convinced about their love story (specifically the early parts of it in act i as they were falling in love) or that orpheus in particular was insecure and vulnerable to the fates. but they did have some good chemistry in act ii especially and i was rooting for them so hard despite knowing wht was to come :~(

i knew that on broadway they have that little elevator in the center of the stage so i was curious about how it would work in the tour and... they had this giant oven box thing with moving doors! i actually really liked that, it made the whole idea of traveling to / from hadestown seem more sinister. that said i was kinda bothered by it during doubt comes in because orpheus and eurydice had to walk around the entire stage to make sure eurydice was positioned in front / inside of the oven and it kinda spoiled the ending in a way (even though we all know how that ends)... im guessing that on broadway its less exaggerated and you dont see it coming bc all eurydice has to do is just move over to the side a little. but idk i'll finally let myself watch a 👢 and see what the difference is

i couldnt take my eyes off of hades and persephone during promises. they started the song with hades kneeling with his head against persephone's stomach and then he stood up and they just hugged.... for a LONG time. like at least 3-5 minutes. and i was like god i wish that were me and i was thinking about what that mustve been like for the actors playing them.. like if thats a moment that they share and look forward to or whatever bc i know i would. it made me think about jenna's dear baby monologue in you matter to me LOLLLL

i saw from another post i read on here (as i was pregaming for the show by scrolling thru my hadestown tag LMAO) that orpheus runs through the audience at one point? and he didnt do that for us that i saw which i was bummed about. maybe thats just a broadway thing

i had no idea the set splits open during wait for me!!! it was so cool

i also didnt know / fully realize that hades produces a flower for persephone during epic iii 😭 the tears in my eyes... also speaking of epic iii hades singing the lalalalalalalaaaa got a LAUGH and i was so MAD!!!!! i get that its kinda funny because it just sounds so weird in his voice and its a startling moment... but that pissed me off bc the moment is supposed to be so tender and heartbreaking and the audience didnt appreciate that.. augh.

since its pride month the set was initially lit up with rainbow lights and in act ii hermes had little rainbow tassles on the ends of his sleeves!! :~D

plot / story thoughts

another context bullet point to kick us off: i discovered hadestown in the spring / summer of 2019 which was an INCREDIBLY formative time for me and so many aspects of the show (creative expression as a tool / forum for bringing about the world as it could be (and illuminating the possibilities in the world as it is), discovering that you have agency, love / loyalty / betrayal / sustenance, finding your purpose, etc.) were profoundly relevant to things that i was awakening to at that exact place and time in my own life. so i went into this experience hoping to have more insights like the kind i had when i first listened to the obcr... and i didnt really. i mean i had some but they didnt feel as profound i guess? and again that may just be me having mental health issues now that i didnt have then.. but that was a thing that i was aware of and kinda sad about. so yeah

that said... the main thing along those lines that i did take away (which really only hit me while watching epic iii / promises) is like... love is agency is love is agency is love.... or something like that. at least that they coexist and happen together. the oppressive conditions in hadestown and the poverty in the overworld strip the gods and humans alike of... their humanity (which is weird to apply to the gods but still)! their sense of self, and their love for each other and the world. the moment that became clear for me was in epic iii when the workers took off their goggles one by one and it was like.. they could See again! they could see themselves and each other, they were holding hands with each other and singing together. and they saw a future that they could create together. and hades was letting persephone dance and she kept spinning away from him with her arms outstretched like a bird but then coming back... idk. im not articulating this well and i need to think about it more and let it simmer for a bit and maybe watch a 👢 to get all the details. but it was like yeah... the opposite of capitalism imperialism etc etc is love and agency and they go together and they are the same thing.

another thing i need to think about more: orpheus went to hadestown all by himself to get eurydice! how come he was so confident then? he was LITERALLY alone. he didnt know where she went or if she would come back with him. and he didnt have the workers following him (though they were there in wait for me swinging the lamps, but i interpreted them as being like... part of the scenery i guess). he was completely alone and operating off of hope AND THE FATES TAUNTED HIM TOO and he was like... fine! so then in doubt comes in.. when he has all these people including eurydice following him... like idk. maybe its just because he'd confronted hades who couldnt fully be trusted and he knew that eurydice had turned her back on him and stuff... like maybe its just because on the journey back he'd experienced things that caused him to doubt / mistrust the people he was journeying with / from and that's what made him vulnerable, not so much the physical loneliness but the emotional loneliness that comes with a betrayal. which is something i just realized typing it out lol. but that kinda agitated me bc its like... he was FINE the way up so why did he crumble on the way back :~(

doubt comes in is such a fucking GUT PUNCH btw. i wanted to cry harder but didnt let myself bc i didnt want to be too loud or soil my mask. but i was so so scared to see it and it devastated me. its just so... SAD. and its so... like i relate to / identify with orpheus SO much yes in part because of the creative expression / seeing the two worlds thing but also because of doubt comes in specifically. its just so so so sad. he had all of these people including the person he loved most cheering him on and echoing to him. and he couldnt hear them. and he couldnt internalize how much they loved and believed and trusted in him. and he turned. that is so wrenchingly real. and it hurt so bad to see it playing out on the stage knowing what was about to happen and then WATCHING it in all the brilliant horror. like thats another insane thing the way the lights get so wildly bright. actually now that i mention that i think the lights are brighter in hadestown when bad things are happening. like hades saying I CONDUCT THE ELECTRIC CITY etc etc. that could be a whole post. someone should make that

im thinking a lot about The Song and whose song it is and actually WHICH song it is. bc if you think about it... so we're introduced to the lalalalalalalaaaa and whatever song that is which builds in the epics. and that song incites a lot of action like orpheus (quite literally!) tuning out eurydice which causes her to choose to go to hadestown, and hades realizing what love is and whatever. but another song that is equally if not more catalytic is.... IF IT'S TRUE!!!! bc thats the song that sparks the revolution among the workers and gives orpheus hope that he almost lost after learning about eurydice's betrayal and inspires eurydice to fight for something instead of succumbing to her fate. and in wait for me reprise when eurydice is singing "echoing OUR song" "the falling of OUR feet" ... like they're not alone as just the two of them, the workers are coming too!! so which song is she referring to! what if it's actually "if it's true" and the hopes that orpheus has stirred up about what the world could be?

btw speaking of orpheus tuning out eurydice... im sure this point has been made 5476463979 times but its rly interesting to think about how love languages (for lack of a better way to put it, ik that can be kinda reductive) work in this show. eurydice and orpheus both attempt to address the storm but the ways they choose to do it are different / dont align: eurydice tries to manage the short term by searching for food and firewood, while orpheus works on the song that will bring spring back and stop this kind of disaster from happening again. but iirc they dont talk about how they're going to take these two different but equally important strategies — eurydice at least interprets the song as being unimportant and orpheus just... straight up seems unaware of the food / firewood thing also being important. so theres a communication failure and eurydice interprets the silence as abandonment (for good reason, also relatable) and turns her back (ha!) on orpheus. and then with hades and persephone... hades does all these big flashy power gestures to show his love for persephone but it's the exact opposite of what she wants and they dont see eye to eye about how to express their love for each other either. yeah

speaking of eurydice making that choice... like yeah. sigh. betrayal is such a huge thing in this show. trust and betrayal. eurydice was (kind of) leading orpheus through the immediate short term danger of the storm and she turned on him. and the fact that she did was part of the reason orpheus turned on her. they made their vows in promises that they would walk side by side but he couldnt get over it (partially bc they literally weren’t allowed to physically walk as they planned but still). and eurydice said "im right behind you and i have been all along" and its like no you havent been thats the entire plot of the show lol (again for understandable reasons but still!)

another thing im sure has been analyzed 456456984 times but its interesting to think about hermes watching everything playing out while knowing how it will end and not choosing to intervene. idk what that means and my laptop is running out of battery so im not going to dig into it but im just thinking on it. BUT ALSO THAT GOES FOR US AS THE AUDIENCE like so many ppl probably know how it ends and maybe some ppl are seeing it multiple times and its like... anyone could intervene and change the story (within reason ofc). also goes for the other ppl on stage too like the musicians etc. its just interesting to think about the implications of that and what would happen if someone tried it both "in character" and "out of character" i guess

its interesting to think about the role walls play in the show too. like the wall hades is making the workers build to keep out the "enemy" and keep them (him) powerful and prosperous in their (his) isolation vs the walls repeating the falling of feet, echoing songs... letting people know theyre not alone. and the fact that that doesnt happen in doubt comes in even though orpheus is being followed by a whole crowd basically. idk. fascinating

ok those are all of my thoughts i think! i also saw some interesting posts / takes that im going to rb again bc theyre on my mind as i interpret the show but i dont want to put them in this post bc theyre not my original thoughts. ty for reading if you did :~D this is a glorious new era in rumpunch nation im so glad and grateful that i can finally say ive seen this beautiful show!

#tess talks #hadestown

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qqueenofhades · 3 years

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did you watch lucifer season six and what are your thoughts pls and ty

Ahaha. Yes. Yes I did watch it. Then I cried for a literal hour and attempted to compose myself, only to start crying again when I lay down and kept on thinking about it. Then I had more feelings. Then I slept like the dead due to emotional trauma. Then I reblogged gifsets and had More feelings. Then @buffaluff and @flynnanimal watched it and also required emotional support due to drowning in their own tears. So, uh... we're all fine here now. How are you?

My main takeaway from the final season was the sheer amount of love for the characters, story, and fans that you could feel shining through all the episodes, and which made SUCH a refreshing change. I had feelings in my tags the other day about how a show about the devil was constantly goofy, hopeful, loving, and uplifting, rather than all the grimdark nonsense they could have easily done with it. (As I said, just imagine it as written by the GOT idiots?? NO THANK YOU.) The writing really loved everyone and wanted to give them a proper ending and emotional journey, and it wanted to show the fans that they weren't stupid for having invested six seasons of effort and emotion into this, and just... that is so much rarer than it should be? Compare all the movies and TV shows that treat their fans like the enemy, that want to outsmart them at all costs even if it means changing major plot elements, that ferociously guard spoilers and think that "shock value" means good writing, by throwing hackneyed cliche upon cliche and making everything Depressing, and just... Lucifer had its hiccups and slow points and missteps, of course, but I am SO glad they didn't do that. The entire show consisted of Lucifer slowly but steadily progressing toward being a better man, despite mistakes and setbacks and sometimes a little too much will-they-won't-they. (Season 3 was the only one where I got bored and skipped over the filler episodes with Pierce/Lucifer/Chloe in order to get to the end).

That is an essentially simple premise, but they stuck to it, and they didn't try to create more drama by randomly wrecking what they had already established. I wrote a fic all the way back in mid-season 2 (In Nomine Patris) that ended up predicting quite a few of the future characters who had not yet appeared on the show at that time, including Eve, Michael, and Azrael, and several plot points, including the very major one of Lucifer returning to hell for the sake of his daughter with Chloe. And while this might mean that I am just that good at guessing TV shows (I would like to think this....) it also means that the writers set expectations, followed through on those expectations, and didn't suddenly derail everything or turn it totally on its head just for the sake of cheap shocks. As we can all attest, they certainly caused PLENTY of drama, anguish, pain, and suffering, but they did it in a way that remained faithful to the overall premises of the story and the characters, and wanted to see them become the best versions of themselves. I cried my eyes out at the end and then thought, "hey, I might want to watch the whole series again," which, if you ask me, is the mark of doing your job right. There have been so few TV endings recently where I didn't immediately swear off the whole thing or have to pretend that canon didn't exist, so yeah.

As I said, it was just refreshing to watch something that had that essential deep generosity at its core, where the message is that everyone is worthy of love if they make the hard and painful effort to change and become better, and that even if earthly things feel small next to all this messy celestial drama, they still matter, and that you are loved no matter what. I loved that Amenadiel became God and Lucifer returned to hell as a choice in order to help all the trapped souls be able to work through their guilt and go to heaven. There were obviously certain echoes of The Good Place in that ending; I don't know if it was something they had planned all along or if the success of TGP, another series asking deep questions about life, death, morality, and human nature within the framework of a goofy heaven-and-hell sitcom, influenced it, but either way, it worked so well. Even if it tore my heart out and stomped on it on the ground, it was fitting and oh so lovely to see Lucifer, once the most selfish being in the entire universe, following in Linda's footsteps and becoming selflessly dedicated to helping other people. Just. Chef's kiss.

And of course, Deckerstar. The Hades and Persephone vibes were IMMACULATE this season, and while it did take Lucifer and Chloe the best part of four seasons to get together, they never significantly backslid, never had third-party issues or cheap cheating storylines once they were officially a couple, and Tom Ellis and Lauren German REALLY killed it this season in particular. It was never easy for them and sometimes the drama went on a little too long over the course of said six seasons, but the love story was beautiful and incredibly meaningful and always true to the fact that the actors and characters and writers (not to mention the fans) all loved it so much. They were so much the emotional heart of this, and when they went to hell together in episode 6x03 (where they turned into cartoons because wHAT even IS this show), Joe Henderson said in an interview that this was to give the fans a view into Lucifer and Chloe's future (after) lives post-6x10, and to offer them a basis to write fanfiction. I mean... the showrunner saying to the fans "here, we love you, have something to write fic about!" is likewise pretty shockingly rare. It's again an example of how this show always audaciously poked fun at itself, never took itself TOO seriously, and was always welcoming its fans and the people who loved it to do so, rather than making them feel stupid or taking joy in wrecking beloved characters or plots.

Obviously, I loved Rory, the badass lesbian half-angel goth Deckerstar child straight out of My Immortal (seriously, she was SO edgy, it was amazing), because of the fact that Lucifer's entire arc was always about feeling abandoned by his father and that he was going to have to face it for himself. Dorky Devil Dad Lucifer trying his absolute HARDEST to bond with his daughter was simultaneously hilarious, adorable, and heart-wrenching, and yet again, the Growth. We all remember when he could barely tolerate Trixie touching him, and now we're here. Also, any variation whatsoever of "this is just a brief moment of time that we must be apart, love is eternal and stronger than death and we will never really leave each other" as a line is guaranteed to make me bawl my eyes out. So that was fun.

I got a big kick out of Ghost Dan running around and trying to get everyone to see him, and had feelings about seeing him in heaven with Charlotte and his beloved Pudding Pops at the end. I had feelings about how they handled Ella finding out the truth (or rather demanding to know why nobody had told her) and of course, I obviously loved Maze and Eve and their goth/femme wedding and the fact that they got a good three-season romantic arc (indeed, I wanted more of them). My god, Trixie is SO BIG, she used to be a tiny little nugget. I love that Linda was the moral and emotional rock all along, from the first episode to the very last, and that Amenadiel was Deeply Vindicated when Charlie's wings appeared at his first birthday party. I love how Lucifer in s6 is absolute thousands of light years from Lucifer in s1. And as ever, Chloe was Perfect. I am happy that I spent six seasons with these characters and saw them become better, and that I was never made to feel like an idiot for trusting the writers to end everything in a beautiful and emotional way. Because, well. They did. Sure, maybe I could go back and pick at a plotline here or a detail there, but I don't terribly feel the need to do so? It might not have been perfect, but it was perfect, and I am so grateful that it existed.

#lucifer #lucifer spoilers #deckerstar #anonymous #ask

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fu-yao · 3 years

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#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you so much for tagging me @lan-xichens, I’ll try my best to explain how I made this set from start to finish hehe ♡ and also a big thank you to @suibianjie @highwarlockkareena @nyx4 @aheartfullofjolllly and you as well Kris for putting this all together! Content creators get a lot less recognition than they deserve for all the time they put into their content, so getting everyone to see the (sometimes excessive) process we all go through to put our content in our blog, I hope it creates a positive change!! 💖

1. Planning

The set in question was actually requested by someone so they could celebrate their friend’s birthday! At first I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to finish it on time (college is very hectic right now) but I was able to finish it three days before the deadline which was may 1st! ^-^

The first thing I did was decide what characters I wanted to use in the set, I first reached out to the person who requested the set if there were certain characters they wanted me to use but they said they didn’t know enough to really give me any directives outside of the quote. I decided, since the quote is applicable to the entirety of the show, that I would try to put in as many characters as possible.

Thus, of course, came the hunting for scenes. Those of you in the net discord surely know I came into the content help channel a few times to ask for certain scenes here and there, and eventually I had to download an additional 10 episodes to the back then 20 or so episodes I had in my CQL episodes folder.

As you can see I have 30 random episodes of CQL downloaded (slowly but surely getting to the point where I have all 50 episodes downloaded) and I think I ended up using scenes out of at least 20 of those episodes.

I planned out beforehand what characters I would use per gif. I knew obviously I would start out with Wangxian, them being the main characters of the show, and then would work my way down the list. The second gif consists of Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning. They’re all family pairings, two being siblings and one being a married couple. The next gifset consists of the Yi City characters, then the fourth gif consists of the juniors, and the final gif has Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen in it.

I have to admit though that when I had made the first four gifs I’d forgotten who I would put in the last gif and the when I thought about it the first time around I could only think of Lan Qiren and the very cursed Yaoyang ship 😭 it was only at dinner time that same day that I remembered I hadn’t put Jiang Cheng in my gifset yet and that’s when I thought of the other characters as well.

I had already made my first two gifs when I went to check Hanyi’s blog for layout inspo and eventually I decided I wanted to try a triangle-ish layout, which I doodled below. I eventually ended up changing the layout of the last gif in the final design. It was also the first time I would work with a triangle-ish layout so I was a bit nervous as I was scared it wasn’t going to work out...

2. Creating

I use Avisynth 2.5 and Adobe Photoshop 2021 (the paid version, unfortunately, I need it for school except I didn’t need it this year but I wanted it so I paid for it with my own money ouch) to make my gifsets! I always start out with trimming down all the scenes I’m going to use into three to five second videos and putting them through Avisynth. This time around I did it separately for each gif I made, simply because I needed so many scenes. I would include a screenshot of my “gif vids” and “temp” folders but I’ve already deleted all the videos, which is what I usually do immediately after a set is posted.

I’ll try my best explaining this gif by gif since each one had a different layout!

2.1 Wangxian

I think I had up to five different designs of this gif 😭 it started out with the gif on the left originally being more centered and the quote right smack in the center but somehow it felt a bit too... empty? I changed up the design and pulled the gif over to the right and put the two closeups on the left, the exact opposite of the gif I eventually ended up with. I switched things around one more time and saved the gif as you can see it right now, except I didn’t include the lines yet. It was only as I finished up my fourth gif that I decided this gif needed lines as well so I added them ^-^

2.2 Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning

I got the inspiration for the font layout on this gif from this Wenzhou post! I hadn’t tried it before and when I did for this gif I was very happy with the way it turned out :D I wanted to portray that life is a pile of good and bad things, as the quote says, in CQL by mirroring these happy scenes side by side with the sad scenes

2.3 Yi CIty

My first time working with the triangle layout!! Putting in the lines and making sure they would line up with the second gif took me the longest of all actually 😭 I think once I got the line on the left in I just copy pasted it and flipped it horizontally so I didn’t have to fiddle around with angling it anymore :’) my original idea was to get a happy Song Lan scene and a sad A-Qing scene, but when I stumbled upon this A-Qing scene in ep38 I just had to put it in there because her smile is so precious 🥺 Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen in the center are also supposed to be mirrored, with Xue Yang embodying the “bad things” and Xiao Xingchen the “good things” ! I also think the Yi City characters fit this part of the quote very well!!

2.4 The Juniors

Ah yes, the junior quartet!! :D I had this planned out from the very beginning, that I would include happy versus sad juniors in the “vice versa” part of the quote, and I think it worked out quite well! My first idea was to put the “vice versa” completely in the special font and have it typed out over the gifs like I did with the “vice” but as I typed out the “versa” I realized it had one letter too much to be able to do that 😭😭 it took me a while to come up with how I would position the “but” and “versa” and after some moving around I decided to just place them the way I did in the final gif! For the font, I duplicated the “vice” and added a stroke to the duplicate, then I changed the fill setting to 0% so I could slightly drag the duplicate away from the original layer to create the effect that’s in the gif — also, finding a scene in which Jin Ling smiles is really difficult.... he barely even smiles in the scene I ended up using :(

2.5 Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen

The final gif!! I feel like this might come a little across as “I promise I didn’t forget these characters” because they’re a very odd quadruplet to put together, but they were the most important characters left to put in the set! I was thinking of putting Nie Mingjue in here together with Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, but I did feel he fit more with his brother up in the second gif. Mei @mylastbraincql cheered me on making this gif for which I was very grateful :D <3 the layout came to be after I googled “how to evenly split a rectangle in four” because I didn’t want a repeat layout in the set (*/∇＼*)

2.6 Coloring

For the coloring I pretty much did all of the tweaking on the first gif and then copy pasted all of it onto the second, third, fourth, and fifth gif. This is usually the way I go about my coloring, I will always edit certain gifs if necessary but I don’t think I had to change the coloring much on any of these gifs? Maybe I added in a curve layer here and there, but nothing major! This is really one of my preferred coloring styles, even though I try to step outside of my comfort zones with other sets ^-^

3. Posting

I will always upload sets into my drafts and edit the caption in there as well, clicking on “preview post” a couple times to check everything looks good on my blog as well, before I post a set. However, this time, since there was a deadline and I finished before the deadline, I put this set in the queue so it would automatically post on the 1st of may! Knowing myself, I would’ve forgotten to do so </3

Whew that was... a lot 😭 did it make any sense? Probably not, but it was fun to ramble （ ´∀｀）

I’ll tag

@blinkplnk with this set !

@wuxien with this set !

@wendashanren with this set !

@wanyinxichen with this set !

@yibobibo with this set !

@mylastbraincql with this set !

@sugarbabywenkexing with this set !

@yiling-recesses with this set !

@jiancheng with this set !

Please feel totally free to ignore this if you’ve already been tagged and don’t want to do it again!! <3

#showyourprocess #tag game #this got so long i'm sorry ;-;#very curious to see everyone else's processes!!#thank you for the tag kris <3

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silverbyuls · 3 years

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( lee hyeri, cis female, muse i ) oh snap! is that SHIN EUNBYUL they work over at high volume where some of the other employees have labeled them as THE AVERAGE JOE. that’s probably because they can be a bit ( optimistic. ) but also pretty ( dishonest. ) they’re TWENTY TWO and they’ve been living in woodstock for TWENTY TWO YEARS. it must be their shift because i totally hear THE CRANBERRIES blasting from the record store. ( a little tikes piggy bank tucked under the bed, clothing label sticking out from the back, snap clips with varnish peeling off, jelly shoes with the strap taped together, leaving lisa frank stickers along record crates ) @volumeupdates

BIO

the luke hemsworth of the family but middle child

goes by byul

tried to go by ‘e.b.’ but her mum went berserk because she’d reduced her name to two letters for the ease of her yt friends and her brother bullied her for being e.t’s ugly sister so now she tries to go by silver star (her name translated into english) but it doesn’t quite stick

claims that her older sister and younger brother stole all her beauty, brain cells and height

family invested everything into older sister so she could go to college in new york: savings, loans, moved to smaller house which is even further from the town centre

brother requires all attention as he has high hopes of getting into college on a baseball scholarship and she lowkey can’t wait until he’s far away from woodstock

her grades have always been average so no one expects her to leave – her parents talk about how nice it is that she’ll be with them forever but she knows that’s because they want her to take care of them when they’re old … which she would! if they didn’t live in woodstock

she tells them she’s going to move to california, but they think she’s as serious about that as she is about wanting to go to college, or becoming supermodel of the world, or an olympic swimmer, when she has average grades, of average height, and can’t even swim

if her life was a movie, she’d have fallen asleep in the first ten minutes – it has always been so boring and uneventful, so she lives up in her head with her fake scenarios to keep things interesting – most of the time, they’re taken straight from a book or magazine

sometimes these thoughts spill over into reality because she can’t fathom the idea of people realising she’s as plain as she is, and her little white lies give her a bit of sparkle to stand out (in her opinion)

but she will get to california!

she even has a plan:

she’s been working at freddy’s diner since she was fifteen, escaping to high volume whenever she can, a place where she can pop her headphones on during her breaks and pretend she’s getting ogled at on venice beach, but she’s terrible at saving so seven years later she’s still grinding

once she graduates high school, she has enough time for a second job and she’d dropped enough hints in front of jerry for him to kindly offer her a job. after all, she spends as much time in high volume as she does at freddy’s so there’s not much of a difference once she becomes an employee -- still floating around the place, sipping on her coke can, either people watching or people chasing -- except now she has access to the register

after a big argument with her parents, she ended up moving out into a place in the middle of town. that was never part of the plan because saving was easier when she lived at home. she’ll say things got really bad but really, she was just getting closer to her target and she wanted a valid reason to put it off for a bit longer

she was only supposed to do it once – stealing from the cash register. it was just right there, no one was around, and she thought it was going to be her last shift because jerry was angry at her for being late again (granted, he hadn’t actually been mad, but it was one of those days when everything felt personal)

besides, she’d overheard a group of girls she’d idolised in school talk about how they stole some underwear and they made it sound so cool

she felt like everyone could hear her heart thumping against her chest as she walked out of the store but the day after, no one said anything about it, no one even noticed, and she wasn’t fired. so she did it again, and again, and again, and eventually she didn’t even bat an eyelid

the extra money was supposed to help her reach her goal faster but, again, she’s terrible at saving and her parents are so hardworking, she can’t help but feel guilty and buy nice things for them every once in a while and when they ask where she got the money from, she lies and says jerry gave her a bonus for being a good employee

on the other hand, if they’ve had an argument, or they’ve forgotten about her again, she’ll have a full on les-mis-i-dreamed-a-dream episode then splurge out on a cute jacket because it’s hers and it’s new! rather than worn out hand-me-downs from her sister or brother!

started her own side hustle called the separation agency – inspired after a customer at high volume asked her to help him break up with his boyfriend. so she’s the messenger for people who have things to say but don’t have the balls to say it to someone’s face themselves. usually they’re horrible messages, like break ups. she’s had like three customers and tries to promote her side hustle whilst on her shift at high volume

she thinks her “business” could actually thrive in a bigger city which is just another reason why she needs to get out of woodstock – it’s holding her back!

anyway, jerry’s missing, which is perfect for her because she gets to come in late and not get told off, and maybe steal a little more than she usually does

PERSONALITY:

when she’s around people, she seems like an extrovert: bubbly, talkative, dramatic ... which uses up a lot of her energy and her social battery is weak, so needs her own space often, and likes doing nothing by herself so sometimes she’ll lie to get out of plans or bail last minute

she has big dreams, and talks about all her big plans, but has leaving anxiety which is why she’s shit at saving and makes up excuses as to why she can’t leave just yet

has main character syndrome -- likes to live her life as a romcom, most of her lies revolve around her love life because she wants to be seen as desirable, but also will overanalyse everything

sensitive, passionate, immature, sympathetic, fickle, clumsy, dramatic, caring, head in clouds

will pretend to knows things to fit in like ~hipster~ bands or anything really, depends on the crowd

could gladly spend all day talking to customers at work then the next day she’ll prefer to day dream in the storage room

rides a bike to and from work and almost everywhere else too -- the only one out of her siblings who had to bike to school because small car and siblings took up all the space -- she’s had the same bike since high school

loves spice girls but feels like she’ll be judged so keeps quiet and plays it when she’s closing

honestly could hate you one day and have a crush on you the next but you wouldn’t even know it -- a vicious cycle

collects stickers and leaves them everywhere and on everyone - often passive aggressive through them, basically uses them like emojis

will try to order food and get others to pay for it - especially kfc, never gets to eat the drumsticks at home so will honestly cry if people steal the drumsticks from her

buys lottery tickets and scratch cards because she has a 50/50 chance of winning

WANTED CONNECTIONS: (current connections)

start up: stolen str8 from a kdrama that ruined my life hehe her parents set her up with a pen pal to keep her busy out of guilt because they’re so busy with her siblings and work and obviously she romanticises it !!! her parents would’ve asked to lie a little bit, just so she’d be writing to someone she’d easily obsess over -- love island vc: someone who ticks all the boxes

xoxo gossip girl: someone who loves a good gossip sesh -- they probably send 👀 at each other across the store when things feel a bit tense, which is code for ‘meet me in the storage room’ so they can chat away for the rest of their shift

lunch stealer: she makes her own lunch every day and is extremely protective over it but one day it went missing and she knows it was them (maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t) so now they are her sworn enemy

sister’s/brother’s friend: therefore an automatic enemy

shut up: someone who just tells her to shut up because she chats so much shit and she’s insane - just sandra x dina vibes from superstore (x)

carpool karaoke: she hates cycling in when it’s raining, so either she’s trying to get them to be her designated driver or has already succeeded and is annoying about it

crush #1: someone she has a crush on (more of an infatuation) and they’re not interested in her in the slightest but in her head they’re giving her mixed signals and she has made up a fake boyfriend to try to make them jealous

crush #2: someone she thinks has a crush on her. either because they’re nice or tease her or just mean, it doesn’t matter, she’s insane so she’ll interpret it however she wants

ex: they never broke up, or even dated, but she thinks something almost happened between them and she thinks she cut things off by giving them space

separation agency: someone who once used the agency either out of the kindness of their heart or for a different reason entirely and now she won’t stop pestering them to try and get them to use it again

no thots just vibes: i just like this gifset tbh (x) and we can brainstorm !

#volumeintro #*releases into the wild*

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kpopmakesmequestionmylifechoices · 3 years

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Kingdom Round 3, pt. 2: How to discourage idols and kill versatility in K-pop - a guide by "experts".

As in my last post I'll talk about my thoughts on the performances, but mostly I'll question the freaking ranking because wth those experts should really reveal themselves at this point (I'm salty). Anyways, let's get into it.

1. A small "disappointment" and two big surprises.

ATEEZ: Oh guys the beginning made me emotional because it reminded me hardcore of Block B Very Good hahaha. Generally I must say, ATEEZ rearrangements are always good. It just sounded very ATEEZ-ish, and that's cool. I personally prefer the original Rhythm Ta over the rearrangement tho. About the performance, I don't have any criticism I think. I personally found that rope scene a bit strange tho, and overall I just wasn't impressed by that stage. Possibly because nothing can top the Symphony Nr.9 for me hahaha.

BTOB: First of all, SKZ X BTOB interactions are peak comedy I loved this so much. Minhyuk fangirling on SKZ back door stage is me tho. And "Kingdom is 15+ right?" Oh man I love those dudes.

About the concept, totally loved it because it was super fun to watch. I was worried beforehand because I couldn't imagine anyone pulling off SKZ' powerful rap. They didn't tho. They did it their own way and I was surprised. The meaning change to a more uh...mature sorta concept was also quite interesting. The moment Eunkwang knocked and opened the door: chefkiss. Those lyrics? Rude but chefkiss. I in general really liked the rearrangement, but in the end it lost its power a bit. Maybe also because I have the original Back Door burned into my brain and the ending just rocks af. But honestly, my brain also was fried by THIS:

[*my edit/gif - I made a full gifset in that style now]

Stray Kids: I must say, I was a bit scared before because anyone having to do a BTOB cover must have absolutely stable vocals. This was the stage I was most concerned about when I heard about the song choices. Without a reason. Because SKZ absolutely killed it. Sure, I.N didn't hit that note as it was planned but let me tell you, it didn't affect my enjoyment of this stage at all. The stage setting? Fantastic. Changbin's rap sounded as if he's in utter pain and despair, Felix added to that with his hyper low tone part which was ABSOLUTELY cool. This was just great, full of feels, and I have NO criticism, bye.

Recap: When thinking about the past 6 performances, I feel that ATEEZ and iKON did the best job with making the others' song their own. In my eyes, SF9 and TBZ both stayed in their comfort zone with their song choices, while BTOB and SKZ took on the extreme challenge to pick songs that are basically the opposite of what they usually do. As I Iove versatility and surprises, SKZ and BTOB have a special place in my heart with those two stages.

Hence, my personal ranking looks as follows:

1. BTOB & SKZ (tied): For me those were the biggest surprises and caused the biggest enjoyment and entertainment for me. If I HAD TO choose a first place, I'd pick BTOB - because Back Door is one of my FAVOURITE songs of all time, and solely evaluating the songs, I heavily prefer Back Door over I'll be your man. Anyways, with that ranking, SKZ jumped from my personal lowest rank in the first round to my personal highest rank.

2. SF9: After seeing SF9's stage last week, I was sure that I'll have them as #1 in today's post. I loved everything about the performance (besides the weird gun dance sry), and I especially loved how they stepped up their game without making the perfomance too huge and too overwhelming. Nevertheless, due to the fact they stayed pretty close to their usual style, I'll rank them 2nd because I was more impressed by the others' style change.

3. iKON / ATEEZ: The performances were good, but to me personally they were absolutely not memorable. It's a matter of taste after all.

4. TBZ: I know, I again rank them last. And again, no I don't hate them. I simply neither am touched by their stages, nor do I understand their plots. So I once again rank them last. I don't find their performances bad tho, because as all groups, they're doing an amazing job. The stages are simply not my cup of tea.

2. Oh you prove that you're a versatile artist? That must be punished!

↑ That's how I imagine the experts' thoughts. Expert ranking was as follows: ATEEZ / TBZ / iKON / SF9 / BTOB / SKZ.

Okay I must say. Which freaking expert would place SKZ last??? I'm not biased in the slightest, if I'm biased then for SF9 and BTOB, but bruh. SKZ last? That's like, ridiculous. Considering the immense challenge SKZ had from switching from their usual style to freaking I'll be your man?

I don't know man, I can't take this ranking seriously. I really wish we'd know what the criteria is...It's a mystery to me how this could happen. Those boys get punished for stepping out of their comfort zone and doing an amazing job? Literally same story with BTOB. Both groups completely stepped outta their comfort zone and that's what they got for it...Well done, experts, well done. This is how you destroy versatility in K-pop, but sure, go on.

Honestly at this point I hope stays and melodies work together to catapult both groups up in the ranking because this is just utter nonsense...

3. Ya all groups, why don't you support your exchange partners :')))))))

↑ This is me hysterically laughing and crying at the same time at the fact that they don't vote for each other. Groups' ranking was as follows: ATEEZ / SF9 / BTOB / iKON / SKZ / TBZ.

Honestly my only explanation for this result is that the groups don't vote for those people they see as their biggest opponents? It's weird man. I personally for example don't understand why the groups which exchange songs don't vote for each other? None of the performances was bad, and I think it's low-key a matter of respect to give the group you exchanged songs with one of your votes? Because after all they tried their best to present your song in a presentable way even tho it's not their own? Idk man. I don't like this weird feeling of "hostility". But might only be my own feeling idk hahahahaha.

Honestly I wish we'd get to see the groups' evaluation and reasoning behind their choices...

That was it from my side this week...As always, thanks for reading! As for next episode, I'm super excited to see proper interactions and them finally having fun...ouf and after all those years Minhyuk going back to vault jumping I'm hyped hahahah. And now I'll go rewatch SKZ and BTOB lol.

#mnet kingdom #kingdom legendary war #btob #stray kids #sf9 #ateez #ikon #the boyz #*mine

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adetectiveandadoctor · 4 years

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Five Favourites

The rules of this circulating challenge are as follows: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I haven’t been tagged for this, but I have seen this challenge go around during the last few days, and then decided to do this anyway, to give myself a little boost of morale.

Because, I have been struggling lately, to make progress with and let alone finish any of my fanwork projects. And as I came across this challenge, I thought I hadn’t completed five fanworks (gifs, edits, fics in my case), let alone more than five, in the last year.

But when I went and checked what I had created between May last year and May this year, I was surprised to find that I had created more than five fanworks, and that I even found it a little difficult to choose just five out of them.

So, here they are.

The first four are gifsets, the last one is a fic. (Just click on the underlined text, and it will lead you to the respective gifset or fic.)

In addition to linking to them, I am also going to use the opportunity and talk a little bit about what the works mean to me and about the thought processes which lie behind them.

A gifset of Sherlock and John repeatedly ignoring Jim Moriarty at the pool (in TGG) and communicating with each other instead, via words, nods, looks.

This one actually forms a nice pair with another, second gifset that shows Sherlock and John communicating in their very own kind of language/ways.

(Yes I know, I am cheating a bit, putting two gifsets under point one, but these two sets just belong together.)

Recently, “myfirstisthefourth” commented on the second of the two gifsets in the following way: “YES!!!! The quiet subtleties of their relationship are practically Screaming. #communication #we have an understanding #a different kind of intimacy”

I couldn’t express it better myself, what these two gifsets are about. The intimacy and love between John and Sherlock, visible in the subtle ways they communicate with each other. And this is such a big part of what love and intimacy are about, aren’t they? To know and understand one another, and those times that one doesn’t, wanting to try and gain that understanding?

The second fav I choose is one of the first gifsets I ever posted and also my most popular one to date. It’s a collection of Sherlock’s little appreciative smiles when John is being bold and clever, and/or supportive.

And I love this one myself, because, it raises the spirits, it shows how much Sherlock loves and appreciates John, how competent and intelligent John actually is, and, last but not least, it shows how well John understands Sherlock and how supportive he is of him.

Take the second gif, for example. Sebastian Wilkes has just demonstrated his disinterest and disregard for Sherlock’s deductions and for Sherlock himself.

John however, knows that Sherlock didn’t ask Sebastian’s secretary about his trips around the world. That Sherlock said that just to “irritate” Sebastian. John tells Sherlock that, and Sherlock smiles.

And then, John tops it all of with, unlike Sebastian, actually showing interest in Sherlock’s deductions, asking him, “How did you know?”

My third fav is a gifset inspired by the song “Renegades” and Sherlock.

This one is actually very personal and means a lot to me, even if that might not be apparent on first glance.

The song’s lyrics are a beautiful illustration of what Sherlock, the series, is about for me, of who Sherlock, the character, is in my eyes, and, consequently, of why I fell in love with both the series and the character. (I am not much of a fan of series 3 and series 4, but I still love series 1 and 2.)

At the beginning of ASIP, John's afraid to deviate from the norm, of not fitting in, that people will talk. He tries to live a normal, ordinary, civilian life, to function in society, but that's not who he is or what he can be.

On his blog, John describes Sherlock as someone who “sees through everything and everyone in seconds.”

And this is what Sherlock does when he first meets John, what he does for him. Sherlock sees him, really sees him, understands what kind of a person he is, the way he works, who he is.

Then he makes a plan of how to stop John’s leg hurting, of how to stop John hurting. Of how to give him back his agency, his confidence, and also fun and happiness in his life.

Sherlock comes along, gets John up on his feet again, and basically tells him: “People will always talk, that's what people do, but it's okay to be yourself, it’s okay to be different. And you are not alone, you can be different with me together. From now on, it's just us against the rest of the world.”

Like the gifset before, this gifset, a crossover between Sherlock and the poem “Alone” written by Edgar Allan Poe, is also very personal and means a lot to me.

It is about Sherlock as a character. About him being and feeling out of sync with the world and other people. And the boredom, sadness, and loneliness he feels as a result.

I chose certain lines of the original poem and rearranged them, changing their chronological order. Then I matched them with gifs from certain scenes of Sherlock, illustrating them, and extending the meaning of both the lines themselves and the scenes.

Last but not least, I choose my fic “ Sources of Light and Warmth” which I wrote and published in late summer/early autumn of last year.

It is a Johnlock fic, that imagines an alternative way of how Sherlock and John’s relationship could have progressed after s1.

This is how I summarized the fic on AO3:

Sherlock reopens his eyes to find John standing in the kitchen entrance, drying a mug with a towel and looking at him. “What were you thinking about?” John asks, a warm smile passing over his face. “You.”

Not tagging anyone specifically. Anyone who sees this and wants to do this, go for it!

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dreamaze · 4 years

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✨💌 self promo time: reply with five of your favorite creations and pass this on to some of your favorite creators! Thank you for making such lovely things 💌

Avaaa, thank you so much for sending me this! I’ve really enjoyed seeing what you and other content creators so far have shared. ♡♡♡

Hope no one minds that I am going to split this between both of my blogs! Truthfully, I am most proud of the work that goes into my BU-focused main blog, but I want to give some love to creations from both. :’) And please excuse me for inevitably rambling too much...

❀ @becomewings ❀

Creation 1 : Part 1 of Timelines : 22 May Year 22. The Timelines series has been one of the most time intensive to prepare, and not just because it spans April 11-August 30 (each posted on the corresponding date in the Notes). Each post took days or more from planning to completion. This is my favorite gifset of the series. With the two-column format and juxtaposed shots/captions, I feel that I was able to clearly accomplish my goal of portraying a major event altered in the BU timeline.

Creation 2 : Inspired by the section titles from Notes 1, this is probably the most “aesthetic” gifset on my blog to date. I’m happy with the shots I selected to represent each title and, as someone who doesn’t usually do significant coloring on this blog, am pretty pleased with the resulting color palette. Excited to eventually do a version for Notes 2!

Creation 3 : I struggled a bit to pick which of the Water elemental series was my favorite but finally landed on this one. I find the set quite visually cohesive despite the lack of color alterations. And while the accompanying commentary may not be long, I think this is the first time I really poured a bit of my soul into it and it laid the foundation for later thoughts in the Water series. Also, JiMin and TaeHyung are two of my favorite BU characters… so my bias(es) may be showing a little. :’)

❀ @ourownwings ❀

Creation 4 : This Stay Gold / Fake Love parallels set. I feel like there is an invisible pressure to produce content as soon as possible when something new releases, one that I’m trying not to let get the better of me. But I was excited when this idea came to me and did my best to reproduce it quickly. It’s personally meaningful, as I really enjoy the cinematic parallels throughout BTS’s work, and I hope that it might illuminate connections that some viewers had not noticed before.

Creation 5 : This We are Bulletproof: the Eternal set contains my first experiments with overlaying clips, and again I tried to call attention to some more possible subtle references to other MVs. I think this set is still the most unique of the edits I have made on this blog.

+ definitely cheating but adding this little Dynamite duo as well because I spent hours manually editing the masks frame by frame. It was my first (and maybe last, hah!) time trying something like this and the results are far from perfect, but I am proud of myself for not giving up on it. Notes aren’t everything, but I wish it had received just a little more love.

Thank you again for allowing me to share this! ♡

#am i long winded or am i loooong winnnnded i'm sorry #this was a lot harder than i anticipated #especially for my main blog #asks

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lemoncakepanda · 5 years

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Top 50 NaLu Anime Moments {Pt 2}.

Read pt 1 here.

Without any further delay, let’s get back to my top 50 anime nalu moments, and today we cover moments 40 up till 31! This part of the list is probably the most fluffy one, as it’s about to get kinda angsty from the next part on, but hey, let us enjoy our small moment of happiness.

40. Lucy's naked bell roll with Natsu. (Ep 194).

And we starting off kinda kinky, but hey, it’s a form of love, lol. Anyways, I truly love this moment because it was one of the first where you could start seeing that Natsu was actually attracted to Lucy. The anime didn’t include it (idk why) but in the manga he gets all blushy after having his face and hands rubbed in every single inch of naked Lucy, and I loved seeing how he reacted to it. And the first official boob grope (!!!) that results in Natsu getting slapped, which he deserved, lol. While not the only one, this is probably the most fanservice NaLu moment you’re gonna get on this list, so don’t worry, I didn’t include all the boob/@ss gropping scenes, I just really love this one especially.

39. “If any of you bastards hurt Lucy, I will turn all of you to dust.” (Ep 83).

Okay, but listen! As... as an honorary Natsu fan, I love when he gets all serious and goes all out on his enemies, and this scene, esp for someone who was slowly losing hope on this ship, really fired me up! It’s moments like this one where you can see how Natsu really cares for Lucy, at the point of injuring himself in the process. And the line, I love that line so much! I often use it in gifsets I make because I adore how protective he is of Lucy, even now that she’s able to fully defend herself, he still... wow. At last, I like this scene because it showcases how close they are and how much Lucy means to Natsu; ofc he’d be upset if any of his other friends got hurt, but y’all know he’s especially protective of Lucy and has been for a while, even back when the ship was only platonic, and there is a reason for it.

38. “Someone give us hope.” (Ep 119).

As I’ve commented on this moment before, I don’t have anything much different to add this time, only that it gets to my heart how much trust these two have in each other, and how much they inspire each other. I chose this moment because it’s one of the most obvious to how Natsu and Lucy’s relationship works: they give each other strength. When one is feeling down or hopeless, the other will step up and stand by their side. It’s a beautiful cycle between them. Zeref commented once that Lucy was a cheerful person, who had a huge impact on Natsu’s growth, and he ain’t wrong about that. This moment is proof of it.

37. “Let’s reform our team.” (Ep 109).

Or in Kain’s words, Natsu and Lucy getting all “flirty and hot”. God, I love Tenrou Island arc. Not only it’s what turned me into a hardcore nalu shipper, but it’s also great storytelling, and very compelling fights. The choice to combine Natsu and Happy with Lucy vs Kain and Ultear was a great one, considering they’d been kinda distant from each other since Edolas and had not really interacted much, and even during arcs like Oracion Seis and Edolas, which had been successors of the Fantasia and Tower of Heaven arcs, which barely had any Nalu in it, it felt like a breath of fresh air to see them together again and staying together, like the team they’d been since the beginning. It also showed how in sync they are with each other and how well they work together. Truly one of the things that made Tenrou Island such a great arc.

36. “Lucy, come home already.” (OVA 4).

Words cannot describe how much I cherish this omake, or in this case, the ova, where Lucy follows Natsu to find out where he and Happy live. For those of you who have not watched it, it’s set in a flashback where Lucy tells the girls about the day she followed her two lousy friends to get revenge on them for always breaking in her house; she successfully finds their house, and there she finds out Natsu keeps memories of all the jobs he’d gone to, two of which include the first job he and Lucy ever went in together and her old maid outfit, which brings a sweet smile to her face. Despite finding their house, Lucy’s plan to surprise them fails because they never show up, so she goes back to her apartment. And, surprise surprise, that’s where Natsu and Happy had been all this time. And we’re left with the heartwarming conclusion that, although they annoy the fck outta her, eat all her food, mess up her stuff, and hog her bed all to themselves, Lucy loves having them around. They turn her house into a home, they give her someone to come home to, they give her all the company she never had when she was a child. ‘Twas a very nice conclusion to the story, and served as a nice confirmation to something we’d always suspected.

35. Watch Out for the Guy You Like! (Ep 50).

This, in my opinion, is one of the most hilarious FT episodes; even though it results with Lucy finding out all her delusions of Natsu were, well, just delusions, and Natsu just wanted her help to dig a hole, I have so much fun watching those delusions, watching Lucy stop for a moment to actually consider being with Natsu; I think it’s what opened the door to her crush, even if she completely closed her eyes and tried to ignore it. Also, shoujo-like Natsu was a blessing given to us by Mashima which I’m forever grateful for, lmao. But really, I think this omake/episode is actually very important to Natsu and Lucy’s relationship; it showed that all her delusions depicted Lucy’s idea of how a romance should be, and then (spoiler) in the end, she kind of gets that romance, but not in the way she imagined, and it turned out to be exactly the way it needed to be. So, for that, I really like this and find it essential to the ship.

34. Their reunion. (Ep 276).

This moment, originally, was not part of my top 25 Nalu manga moments, and that’s because, while I do love it in the manga, I love it so much more in the anime. It felt more dramatic, with the camera shifting from Natsu and Lucy finally locking eyes after one year apart, and they’re both so goddamn shook! I like that they added this detail in the anime, because you could really feel like it was two people who used to always be together, and then spent 365 days without seeing each other, being only there ever in thought. I also like how they’re both blushing, that little showcase of how happy they are to see the other again, and the small tingle of bittersweetness because we know it’s not 100% okay between them. You know drama’s gonna follow because actions have consequences. But for that one moment, you’re just as happy as Natsu and Lucy to see them reunited once more, the way it’s supposed to be.

33. Lucy makes her choice. (Ep 49).

While I feel that this one goes without saying, the reason I chose it can be explained in two sentences: 1) Lucy has met a guy who’s like the male version of her, is kind, a gentleman, and has a nice vibe with her, but she puts all of that potential aside for the one thing she is sure of, and that’s her partnership with Natsu. 2) Have you seen Natsu’s face when she shows up in that train, ready to leave with them? He’s so shook, he blinks like three times, as if trying to make sure she is really there, that she’s real. And then he just opens the biggest smile, because she chose to be there with them; it’s the first time they’re not dragging her to a job, she simply chose to come along, and you can almost hear the sound of Natsu’s heart going all fluttery when he realizes she cast her ‘date’ aside to go with them. Another moment that, I feel, helped deepen and shape the relationship these two have today.

32. “Make me purr!” Drunk Lucy round 2. (OVA 9).

Again, nothing really different to add on this moment, only that I like how the ova extended and showed Lucy jumping on Natsu in the most s&xual way ever, and how Natsu has all the strength in the world to remove her from him, but “supposedly” is unable to do that when she’s all over him touching him in a very intimate way. Aham. I see right through you, dragon boy. Also, isn’t it interesting that Drunk!Lucy directs all her attention to Natsu if he’s around? Nvm that there’s other guys around, all she cares about is him. I love that. It says a lot about Lucy’s hidden feelings.

31. Reaching out for each other before being separated. (Ep 247).

Tartaros is my favorite FT arc, despite not having that much Nalu in it, it’s probably the arc with most emotional weight, because of everything the characters went through and makes you really feel for them. And although I love the ships, I love the story 1st and Tartaros was indeed amazing story-telling. With that said, I also enjoyed very much the little/subtle/few Nalu moments the arc provided, and one of them is the scene where Natsu and Lucy are being pulled in by the Alegria, and they reach for each other. It’s commonly said that when things get tough, you focus on what’s important to you, and it was very sweet/heartbreaking to watch Lucy and Natsu struggling to get to each other, as they were both unaware of what was going to happen, they were just trying to stay together. You can easily say it’s only because they were alone together, but hello, Mashima did not need to make it like this. It was his choice to make Natsu and Lucy reach out for each other in a way that’s mostly seen between couples, esp in shõnen, and the anime made it even more beautiful.

Part 3 will come up tomorrow!

#nalu #natsu x lucy #fairy tail #top50nalu #sorry guys if I wrote something wrong i'm just really sleep rn lol

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hermannsthumb · 5 years

Note

Prompt:an nsfw version of a desperate hermann using that Strength to pull newts body halfway into that room in pac rim 2

ok i can’t find this gifset in my posts for the life of me but hopefully everyone knows the scene. did you send me this ask well over 11 months ago? yes. am i only just now getting to it? technically i wrote a paragraph 11 months ago for it and then forgot so. better late than never?

enjoy: my attempt at precursor newt stream of consciousness style pov, a little bit of emotional sex, and another of the VERY few uprising (semi-)compliant fics i ever care to write lmao. 18+ content below cut

------------------------

They’ve got a plan, you see, reopen the Breach, end the world, Anteverse reign supreme, see you all on the other side, and that plan requires one Newton Geiszler be kept away from prying eyes and prying hands in the meanwhile before they’re nice and set. The prying eyes and hands of one man in particular: Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Enemy number one. Avoid at all costs. (“Newt!” he says, smiling like Newt hasn’t seen in ten years, has he ever called him Newt before?) They invite Dr. Hermann Gottlieb for dinner, or maybe it’s Newton Geiszler who invites him, maybe it can aid the plan, one less problem to worry about, get the complete set—Newton would stop complaining, maybe, stop shrieking if he had his little friend—maybe Hermann can see. Can help him. He doesn’t. They force Newton to drift with them again afterwards. Remind him who’s in charge.

They set off more drones. Newton Geiszler is sent to find out what happened, but Dr. Hermann Gottlieb goes to find out too.

He grabs Newton by the shoulder and slams him against a wall, and presses his face close, and Newton—Newt is suddenly struck by how strong Hermann is. Was he always that strong? (How is Hermann here?) “Hermann?” Newt says, blinking, confused, “What are you doing? How did you—?”

Hermann holds up a badge, says something about clearance, but he’s still pinning Newt’s wrist to the wall. (Stop, stop, something in the back of Newt’s brain wails, but he can’t for the life of him figure out why. Why has he stayed away from Hermann for so long? Why would he ever want to be apart from Hermann?) Newt stares at Hermann’s fingers—long, elegant, lovely, wrapped around Newt—then his face. “Hermann,” he repeats. He brings his free hand up, just barely brushing one of Hermann’s cheeks.

“Hell,” Hermann says, then “oh, Newton,” and he leans in to the touch and his voice is soft, so soft, but his grip is tight. They don’t have time, do they, Hermann said drones, they have to take care of drones, or something, and he thinks Newt knows how. Does Newt know how? He missed Hermann so much.

“I missed you,” Newt blurts out, and Hermann lets out a hiss of breath, looks around—their little alcove is deserted, nicely off to the side, plenty of privacy—and kisses him. It’s unexpected, unprecedented, Hermann’s the one who said they had to take care of this thing in the first place, but Newt’s not adverse to it. He parts his lips eagerly when Hermann’s pushes forward with his tongue; he fists the back of Hermann’s heavy black labcoat when Hermann presses their bodies together; he allows himself the smallest ghost of a moan when Hermann shoves his blazer (expensive; fine, silky fabric; the price of about three of those whiskey bottles Newton Geiszler can put away in a single night) to the ground. Hermann’s cane clatters after it.

“Newton,” Hermann says into his mouth, his teeth grazing Newt’s bottom lip, light at first, then biting down hard. Did they ever do this before? Newt thinks he’d remember it, and maybe he does (stolen glances over a yellow line, the green, green glow of a specimen tank that Hermann holds him against, wandering hands in the dark of a bunk) but then again, Newt can’t even really remember yesterday. He knows he loves Hermann; he knows he’s always loved Hermann; he knows he likes how Hermann’s hot mouth moves to his neck, how Hermann’s trembling hands move lower, lower, how his fingers clench the silky fabric of Newt’s vest like he wants to—

“Tear it off,” Newt gasps. His hand is trembling, too, as he covers Hermann’s with it, curls their fingers together, gives a feeble tug. It’s crucial, for some reason, that Hermann does. (Newton Geiszler needs to be kept away from prying eyes, prying hands, Hermann Gottlieb’s prying hands, hands that grip Their vest shakily and pull.)

Buttons ping: one hits the toe of Newt’s polished Oxford, one bounces off Hermann’s chest, the other lands out of sight. Newt’s well-pressed shirt follows. Hermann’s pupils are dark and dangerous, and it makes something recoil deep within Newt at the same time he surges forward and steals another biting kiss. “Touch me,” he begs, shoving at Hermann’s labcoat, “Hermann, please—”

For a moment, a single, breath-catching moment, the pads of Hermann’s elegant fingers graze Newt’s chest (lean, toned; nothing like the Newton Geiszler’s of the past) and alight just below the chill-hardened peaks of his nipples; then, as if shocked, spring back. They clench around Newt’s open collar instead. “Ten years,” Hermann hisses, fury clouding his features in lieu of lust. “Ten damned years, Newton, and you waltz back in as if—”

“I know,” Newt chokes out, and he wants to say a million things, to apologize, to explain he didn’t want to, that the only thing from the last ten years that’s not a confusing muddled blur is just how badly he’s ached for Hermann, but it’s as if something is pinching the end of his tongue. Reeling him back by the neck. (Newton Geiszler is not in charge; Newton Geiszler needs to be reminded of who is.) All Newt can do is stammer, uselessly, “I’m—I don’t know why I—”

Hermann hoists him up by his lapels, enough that Newt’s heels hang an inch from the ground and the back of his head clunks, hard, against the metal wall. Newt’s voice trails off into a little squeak. The thing within Newt shrinks back further. “Did you think of me even once?” Hermann spits, an inch from his face. “Did you even—!”

His lower lip wobbles. His legs wobble, too. Suddenly looking very tired, and very sad, he drops Newt and sags against him.

Newt’s eyes are wet. “I’m sorry,” he says, “I—” He swallows. They have drones to take care of, but Hermann’s lips are at his neck, his throat, the curve of his jawline, and tiny, dry sobs wrack his body. Newt doesn’t like seeing Hermann cry—he never did. “Hermann,” he says. Hermann’s lips go to the corner of his mouth. He’s murmuring Newt’s name.

There is a part of Newt that is screaming be cruel; be cold; shove him away, far away; we’re better than him; he’ll ruin it for us. So loud it’s almost deafening. Hermann Gottlieb is an obstacle. Hermann Gottlieb is a distraction. (Newt pets Hermann’s hair soothingly.) Hermann Gottlieb is a nuisance. “Hermann,” Newt says again, and Hermann (breath hot at Newt’s cheek, tears clinging to his long lashes) says “Newt.” Hermann Gottlieb needs to be eliminated.

Newt’s fingers tighten in the short strands of Hermann’s hair, grown-out from its DIY undercut. (Pull, the part of Newt screams, bare his throat, crush the life out of it.)

Index and thumb circle Hermann’s throat, still calloused from years of playing guitar. Newt might’ve played it for Hermann, once, might’ve even tried to teach Hermann to play it himself. Newt wants to squeeze. Newt doesn’t want to squeeze. There’s a tear on Hermann’s cheek.

Calloused thumb at Hermann’s jaw instead; Newt’s head throbs, like something’s pounding furiously at the inside of it. Smacking a sledgehammer against it. Hermann catches Newt’s fingers and pulls them to his lips. He kisses the tips gently, one by one. His eyes are wide, and wet, and brown. Newt could crush the life out of him.

“Kiss me,” he says instead, and presses the palm of his other hand to the front of Hermann’s slacks.

Mouth dropping open, Hermann does. He works their lips together and touches Newt, toying with Newt’s nipple, caressing Newt’s abdomen, hips jostling forward insistently until Newt’s hand is sandwiched between them. Hermann is hard. Newt is hard, too. Newt doesn’t know when he had sex last. “Drones,” Newt says, blinking hazily. He has to do something with drones—set them off, maybe. Stop them. Did Newt already set them off?

“I don’t care,” Hermann groans low in his ear. “Someone else—someone else has just got to do it themselves.” He rubs against Newt’s hand, and Newt wants to squeeze at him through the thick wool fabric—to make Hermann feel good. He does. “Ah—Newton—yes—!”

An explosion outside. It’s as if the building rocks with it. Newt slips in surprise, and Hermann hoists him back up with a single hand at his lapel.

He remembers how easily Hermann hauled him over here in the first place—how he’d torn Newt’s shirt open with ease, lifted him up by his collar. Newt feels a strange, desperate laugh bubbling in the back of his throat. “When’d you get so strong?” he says.

“What?” Hermann pants.

One hand still working at him through his slacks, Newt heaves another laugh and gropes at his bicep. “Big guy,” he says, though Hermann’s not noticeably more toned than a decade prior. “I’ve, uh, been missing out.”

Hermann’s eyebrows jump in surprise; he smiles, but it’s sad. “You have,” he says. “You’ve missed out on quite a lot, Newton.”

There are wrinkles, tiny wrinkles, at the corners of Hermann’s eyes. A few streaks of grey at his temples. I should’ve been there for those, Newt thinks. He works Hermann faster. “We’re going to save the world,” he says, even though it doesn’t quite seem right, “together. Like last time. And then—then we can—”

“Yes,” Hermann agrees in a moan, though Newt doesn’t finish the sentence. He’s breathing harshly. “Yes, yes.”

He slips his own hand down Newt’s expensive slacks, his expensive underwear, and grips at him clumsily. Newt whimpers and knocks his forehead against Hermann’s. “‘S good,” he slurs. When this is over, he decides, he’s going to take Hermann for a drink. Dinner. Catch up. Beg Hermann to take him back. They can do this properly, on a bed. “We can do it together,” Newt says.

“You and I,” Hermann says.

Drink. Dinner. Catch up. Newt hasn’t been himself recently, is all. He’s sure Hermann will understand if he explains. He just needs to explain. Newton Geiszler doesn’t drink himself into a stupor each night. Newton Geiszler doesn’t know how to code jaegers. Newton Geiszler doesn’t wear fancy clothing or call himself doctor or spend ten years purposefully avoiding his best friend. That’s not Newt. Hermann will understand if Newt explains. “You and me,” Newt says, desperately, but he’s not sure to whom.

Hermann is kissing him in a hallway of Shao Industries with alarm bells and explosions overhead, and Hermann is kissing him in green glow of a specimen tank, and Hermann is kissing him in a darkened bunk, and Newt’s head is throbbing, Newt is reaching for Hermann’s throat. (Squeeze. He’s going to ruin it all.) “Newton,” Hermann gasps, shaking and shutting his eyes as he comes apart in Newt’s arms, and Newt could kill him now, if he wanted, squeeze his windpipe, crush his throat, wring the last bit of air from his lungs and leave him in a pathetic heap on the ground. He’s ruined it all. Newt could kill him. Newt should kill him. “Come on,” Hermann says, stoking the fire in the pit of Newt’s stomach with furious tugs, his chest heaving, his brown eyes wild and beautiful, “come on, darling, for me—”

Newt hasn’t been himself lately. Hermann’s cheeks are wet. He calls out Hermann’s name as he comes, and Hermann bites at his mouth, sucks on his tongue, strokes his cheeks and hair. He wants to tell Hermann he’s sorry; he wants to tell Hermann he loves him. There’s something pinching Newt’s tongue and reeling him back by his neck. “My vest is ruined,” he wheezes out. He doesn’t care. It’s ugly--nothing that Newton Geiszler would wear.

Hermann kisses his neck. “Good,” he mumbles. “It was hideous.”

Newt swallows hard. His head feels like it’s going to split in two. “I love you,” he says, and, swaying on his feet, voice cracking, “Hermann. My head—”

“I’ve got you,” Hermann says, gently, and they sink down the wall together.

#newmann #maria's fanfiction tag #not sfw ////////////////////////#Anonymous

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jikooki · 6 years

Note

ok but who's gonna do an updated post of all the times jikook have mentioned their japan trip

me, hi

1. okay so, the first things jikook shared about the trip were:

-this tweet from 171106:

“Me and Kkookie first travel log done!

#JIMIN#Kkookie🐾” (trans cr: allforbts)

- jimin’s travel logs (part 1, part 2)

- and the iconic gcf in tokyo

2. “what’s something you experienced this year for the first time ever?”

jm: “i got to travel together with jk for the first time ever”

3. when they were asked about their most memorable moment in japan and jk, out of all of the moments he’s lived there, chose to rant about how him and jm slept in when they went there on their trip

4. jm: “i really like shopping. recently i was in japan and me and jk went shopping…” (+ jk saying he was broke back then bc he had bought things for his movie room lmao)

5. this question jm chose to answer

6. those recent japan interviews where jm just keeps bringing it up:

- “I went to Disneyland last time with Jungkook and it was so cute”

- “Jungkook thinks our private trip to Japan is unforgettable” (edit: rough translation, others say "It’s unforgettable, Jungkook thinks so too" and “Jungkook said the trip was unforgettable”. the private part was on the line before this, but the trip itself remains as The Unforgettable Trip for both of them)

- “As soon as he reached the photoshoot site, Jimin said, “(this is) the place I came to with Jungkook!” and ran around the bowling alley.” (trans codepjm)

- “Because it was a personal vacation, we refused to take pictures with everyone. if we take a picture with someone (fan) we meet by chance, we feel bad for other people so… but we were so thankful because many people were so understanding and actually cared about us. we were also touched when a lot of people helped us find the direction to places very nicely when we got lost.”

- “I should bring jungkook to this bowling alley next time (laugh)”

- “Jungkook prepared the flight ticket!”

- Q: “best method for healing is?”

“shopping. it’s nice to go shopping in japan so when i came here for vacation with jungkook before we went shopping together”

- “last year when we were in shibuya on halloween, no one recognized us because we dressed up. but still a lot of people came to take pictures with us, probably coz our costumes were funny. it was interesting!”

- (rough trans)Q: “Is there any particular place that you found interesting, or food you’d like to have when coming to Japan?”

JH: “Jimin had come here for a trip so maybe he has some place like that in mind?”

JM: “It was a trip with JK, but we didn’t really have a plan per say we just went to a lot of different places. We strolled/wandered from Hiroo to Shibuya, saw a lot of pretty buildings and had a happy time, so I think i would like to enjoy a similar ‘no-plan’ trip again.”

Q. Did you get along well when you went on a trip together with Jimin? JK: Good!! We got along really well! We slept late, we planned to wake up 9 o'clock, but then it was 11 when we got up, but that was still fun and we really got along with everything!

Q. Seeing photos and videos you carry around personal cameras a lot what do you film? JK: I didn’t find anything particular to film these days. When I went to trip with Jiminie hyung it wasn’t work so I did what I wanted to do, but when its work there are things I can’t.. so

Q. Longest walk in your life NJ: 5 hours YG: 6 hours SJ: 5 hours HS: more than 6 hours JM: When I went to Japan for a trip, I walked for a whole day TH: I don’t remember JK: Japan trip, for a whole day

Q. Thing you did that’s most departed from ur daily life? JM: Japan trip

Q. Last year you traveled Japan with Jungkook. Are you planning next trip as well? JM: No (laughs) I don’t have any plan but it would be nice if we can go. Something I felt during this trip, I thought if you go with someone that does not match your trip style, it would be rlly hard. For Tour schedule, we’re just told to do what we do together, but for trips, its us who plan it all so if something gets twisted, there’s no end. I didn’t have any plan with Jungkookie, we just woke up do what we wanted to do, eat what we wanted to eat, that kind of things worked out together really well, so it was so fun. Just we did the things we wanted to do at that moment. Jungkookie suddenly wanted to do clothes shopping so it was so funny (laughs) Jungkookie is so tall and has nice body and has such a handsome face, he looks good on everything, but he had to pic that peculiar clothes.. (laughs) That time when we went shopping he picked Camo set up and down.. Thankfully he couldn’t buy it but I was so surprised (laughs)

BV3 (link to a gifset i made of this moment bc i don’t have a video of it): JM (talking about travelling with the members): Jungkook likes acting on a whim. I’m similar to him. We have a lot in common. / JK: With Jimin I have travelled once. We click.

190328 (2019 and we’re still here…….) JM: Jungkook took a video of us going together on a trip and i really like it!

190421 Aladdin Fansign: JM (wearing a Minnie Mouse hat): this is what I wore when I went on my trip with jungkookie~

190427 Soundwave Fansign: (a fan wanted to do a GCF tour and asked for recommended places) JK: but where are you going? / Fan: Tokyo Tokyo / JK: ride the cup at Disneyland! / Fan: is it scary? / JM: ah I almost died bc of Jungkook that time / JK: Jiminie hyung there’s the turning thingy right

LY in Europe DVD: JM: I’ve gone on a trip just once. I went to Japan with Jungkook.

200718 Buzz Rhythm: JK: ah, me and Jimin-hyung went took a trip to Tokyo, took a video

#answered #jikook #kookmin #if i have missed anything please tell me and i'll add it here

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magistralucis · 6 years

Text

Breakbot + Busy P + MYD + Alan Braxe + Borussia @ XOYO, 26 May 2018 [Review]

A fantastic reward for the comedy of errors that is my life.

Been a while since I did a review of a gig! Technically, I should have done one for Justice last September, but given the amount of content I gained from that performance, I keep thinking that one has to be several gifsets and a video upload instead of me rambling on. I’ll get to it in a billion years;;; Over the weekend I went to this all-nighter and didn’t sleep for like, 30 hours? And I’m still recovering. So much like the TBB review last year, this is going to read super disjointed, like a bunch of random stream-of-consciousness notes I took over several hours. (Which 70% of this review actually relies on.) There are pics and a few lil’ gifs, all splendidly red-tinted to reflect the lighting in the club, but the tl;dr is essentially:

The Journey

As previously stated, I do not live in London. London is not easy to navigate. I do not have the strongest sense of direction and frequently map out walking paths and exact number of turns and landmarks nearby my intended destinations, which works for me 9/10 of the time - but this means that when things go bad, they tend to go really bad holy fucking shit under the influence of certain factors XOYO is the hardest fucking club to find in the entire universe. I have never had this much trouble finding a single location despite having such clear directions from multiple sources. It’s not the club’s fault, of course, thousands of people find it just fine - the stars just utterly refused to align for me this particular weekend, turning what should have been a straightforward path from A to B to over an hour of running around.

To attend to this spectacular all-nighter, I took the train from my university city to London, alighting in King’s Cross St. Pancras around 7pm. XOYO is located about a minute away from Old Street Station, which as you can see from the above image of the Northern Line is only two stops away; I could have been at the club in less than ten minutes. Because of this, I was slow to take the Tube when I initially arrived, instead stopping for a snack and some adequate hydration at King’s Cross (also tutting at Platform 9¾ which is not that impressive a display but that’s neither here nor there); I don’t think that was unwise in itself, but it was a decision that I ended up regretting, because it meant I didn’t find out about the spanner in the works until it was almost too late.

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

A five-minute journey on a single subway train from A to B was all I was asking. Well it turns out I couldn’t do that!!! Because fucking engineering works!!!! All the Northern line service bilboards and directional posters were papered over and the information being given was often deeply counterproductive (or outright incorrect). First I was directed to Euston to try to make a switch there, but no Northern line services were running at all. Then I came back to King’s Cross and subsequently tried out Moorgate on the Circle/Metropolitan line, which was running Northern line services - but nothing northbound, like I needed! This was exceptionally infuriating because Moorgate is only one stop away from Old Street station. I was delayed for nearly an hour purely trying to solve this problem, because even past 7-8pm the stations were s t u f f e d with people all trying to navigate this Northern line dilemma in their own way. This line splits along the way, too, so depending on where you’re headed to and where in the ‘part closure’ your intended destination sits, you could be lost in utterly infuriating bullshit like I did, being only 1-2 stops away from where you are and being unable to get to it unless you walk or take overhead transport.

And, you know, those people had already paid and gone past the barrier when they found out about the closures. Most of that info could only be had inside. At King’s Cross St Pancras, the only info available outside the barrier were announcements on rail replacement buses - confusingly worded at that, all three of them entirely northbound from King’s Cross St Pancras (I needed southbound for Old Street). The London Underground isn’t obscenely expensive, but it’s not disposable money either! There’s a bus directly from King’s Cross to Old Street Station (which I ended up taking in order to return) - but if you paid and entered the Tube station, you’re going to want to solve the problem before signing back out of the barrier!

fml in the end I just walked. 7-8 mins from Moorgate and then XOYO itself is hidden in an alley between two massive building complexes with naught but a red neon sign to point your way. It’s not a big neon sign. On one hand maybe it was a good thing I was held up traveling. I arrived about 5 mins after the club opened and was let in straight away. If things had gone as I’d planned I might have ended up camping out in front of XOYO for an extremely awkward hour or whatever. There was no queue; despite it all, I was that early, and was amply rewarded for my earliness. But man.

On the other hand, I was dehydrated all over again.

Hour-by-Hour Review

Contrary to the anguished nature of the vent above, most of the night was damn excellent and the review below is the main meat of the experience. I recollected this through small notes I was making on my phone - mostly of timestamps and a single keyword, like what songs were playing at the time - and some videos I took, the position of each photo, and my own memory from yesterday. They are patchy notes, but they are as detailed as I can make them, and largely accurate. Essentially: if you’ve read this far, I invite you to come live the night with me all over again! :D

9:30PM - 11:00PM: I was the only person seeking entry to XOYO when I finally turned up, though music was already playing inside. “You here for an event?” The guard asks, and I produce my ticket and passport. “Just so you know, there’s a band playing in there at the moment - the actual, uh, techno, that’s not going to start until ten o’clock. You can go in now, but once you’re in, you’re in - you won’t be able to come back out and back in again.”

I just look at them. “What am I going to do outside for half an hour. That’s fine.”

Ticket scanned, passport checked and confirmed, bag check occurs. I read that XOYO has airport-security level bag checks, but that was not my experience. I might just have been too damn early to raise any alarms. I’m let in, visit the bar, buy some water, visit the bathroom, tidy up a bit, tie my jacket around my waist to conceal my bag, etc. Around 9:45PM I peer down at the main room downstairs to check out this band, although I come back up shortly to prepare for the main experience...

... which, uh, doesn’t take place until eleven. After the band leaves around 10PM, what actually happens is that the main room is sealed off for DJ setups while in Room 2 upstairs Joshua James plays. I had the choice of saving my energy for later and resting on the bench, or going to see him; I chose the former. Security guy lingering in front of the main room says it might open in ‘half an hour’ when I ask him on the dot at 10PM. My guy that’s the longest damn half hour I have ever waited in my life. At least I can people-watch and save my place because like always, I want to be at the front when the doors open.

11:00PM: The main room finally opens and Borussia is in the house. The dancefloor is very empty for about half an hour while he gets the crowd going. Ushers frequently come by, brandishing red penlights to take away glasses and empty bottles and lost property and the like. XOYO only has a max capacity of 800~ people and I’m fairly sure that’s spread across two rooms; the glasses are like, proper solid pub glasses, too, actual breakage hazards. I imagine it’s because it’s a small and intimate club that the choice of glasses makes sense; even in Electric Brixton they gave out plastic, and that one holds close to 2000 people. I saw several toppling over or rolling on the ground before someone came to snatch up the whole stack of them. I applaud their diligence.

11:10PM: Also this dancefloor is incredibly sticky. Pedro is visible on the left. He talks to a backstage fan before disappearing.

11:23PM: There’s a girl next to me with her boyfriend. We meet eyes. This girl will recur a few more times during the night. Swig of water taken.

11:30~PM: A note about the stage structure of XOYO.

As mentioned previously, XOYO is a two-room club, one upstairs and one downstairs. Downstairs is the main and the top one’s for opening acts and smaller shows; the downstairs has a dancefloor, a bar off to the side, and an elevated stage. Now the important thing about this stage is that you can get on it. There are no barriers between audience and DJ in a XOYO set, except for the ready-built DJ booth and all the speakers and equipment set that may or may not be piled around it. There is a steel mesh of sorts to separate the sides of the DJ booth from the stage/dancefloor viewing area, but aside from that, it is entirely possible for you to mount the performing stage and be about two feet from the DJ at any given time. Around this time is when people begin to mount the stage and like. Dance. But sparsely.

I will return to this stage later. I’m currently parked in front of the DJ booth.

11:40~PM:

Pedro pops back into the scene briefly. He doesn’t linger for long there, but he’ll be back for the switchover. This is the best photo I could get ffffff

11:40~PM (not long after the above): Borussia puts Gorillaz’s ‘DARE’ on and the room goes fucking wild. The girl returns. This time we meet more than eyes and actually dance together, her boyfriend hitching her up on his back for about 30 seconds midway. This is the first point of the night that Borussia starts smiling and I’m taken by how sweet his smile is.

11:54PM: You know what I think Borussia kind of looks like Gesa if you squint

12:00~AM: Pedro in the house. He takes over slowly from Borussia, who exits amidst thunderous applause. For some reason, Pedro did not look awfully happy for most of the show. Compared to the last time I saw him DJ (opener for Justice) he seemed like... stoic? Like he had a lot in his mind. He was capable of cheer when need be, man knows how to drive a crowd, but like... the air about him was different. I have no explanation for this. It may just have been my perception.

12:00 - 12:30AM (?): I genuinely cannot remember when this first happened, only I remember Pedro being at the forefront and giving the people involved an amused glance at some point in the night. So it goes here, even though they might first have appeared during Borussia. Two incredibly scantily dressed and also gorgeous dancers, one male and one female (visibly), rolled out of the backstage area and began dancing on the elevated stage around the same time e v e r y o n e began piling on. I’d kill for the ability to dance on the heels they did holy fuck

12:13AM: I CAN SEE IRFANE OFF TO THE SIDE YES HE CAME AFTER ALL I know he’s officially part of Breakbot now but the XOYO description made it sound as if only Thibaut was coming. False alarm! The duo lives on.

12:28AM (?): Girl I was dancing with earlier + her boyfriend reappears from the bar direction. She mounts the elevated stage and disappears into the crowd.

12:30AM (?): THIBAUT AND SO-ME SPOTTED I WANT TO ATTACH THE PHOTO OF THIS MOMENT but it’s too blurry fuck shit

12:34AM: With a grin worth a million pounds Pedro puts on ‘Audio, Video, Disco’. Lighting changes to bombastic yellow and everybody just about dies for the next five minutes to follow. This was universally the reception whenever anything Daft Punk or Justice came on (Pedro also played ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ immediately after) - many people, Thibaut included, had Justice shirts on and earlier on the 26th Justice played a set on All Points East, so this was understandable.

12:39AM: Fuck it. I’m going on the elevated stage. I just hitched myself up.

12:40~AM: I can see so much better from here.

There’s a bit on the stage where the steel mesh barrier ends, and the DJ set curves away from the rest of the stage, where you can see everyone in the booth really clearly. Currently this spot is occupied by a dude and a girl who I progressively come to realize was getting increasingly drunk/high - she was clinging onto the sides - so I just gravitate towards the steel mesh instead, neglected by most people. For most part my view is blocked by people hanging around from backstage but every now and then they vacate, and I get a good side view. Not long after I settle in, Thibaut pops up for a short while, swigging from a bottle - and the girl I was dancing with from before almost crashes into the mesh shouting her hellos at him. (This is when I realize that she’s French.)

And, uh, I mean. What can you do when a thing like that happens. I join in, of course. Thibaut did not hear either of us before slinking back, but this did have the effect of the girl patting me on the shoulder for our first real conversation:

French girl: [Muffled something]

Me: Ah?

French girl: [After a few tries through the noise] You like Thibaut?

Me: Yeah! Came to see him mostly!

French girl: 😍💖😍💖😍 I’M THE BIGGEST FAN 😍💖😍💖😍

The oddest thing is that during this exchange, the boyfriend guy with her kind of gently takes off my hat and tries to put it back on me backwards. I have no idea what the fuck and I give him a look that conveys that I have no idea what the fuck ‘cause like... dude why are you taking my hat exactly??? Am I missing something??? I replace it and carry on. The girl’s swept away towards the bar again.

12:40~AM: Pedro is the only person who can pull off LeLe’s ‘Breakfast’ in a DJ set without it descending into narm territory imo

12:40~AM: MYD IS HERE MYD IS HERE

1:00AM: Thibaut and Irfane take over at last, the latter first, then Thibaut more fully. Mama P stays at the back, watching over the situation, before silently withdrawing.

The stage is so crowded I can barely breathe. French girl does not return. Ushers begin to move about the dancefloor carrying large foreboding black bags, not for glasses but for lost property.

1:00~AM: J E S U S

1:10~AM: So-Me is the third one in the booth. I wish people would announce it properly whenever he turns up - I didn’t think to expect him at all, as he was not there with Pedro when I saw him open for Justice and his name wasn’t on the guests list. He feels like a lottery treat ; w ;

1:10~AM: Usher on the elevated stage. He finds a credit card on the floor and flashes an exact 🤨 look in my direction, as I was the closest to him. “Not mine,” I mouth at him, and he stashes the card in the lost property bag before vanishing into the crowd.

1:11AM: Come to think of it I’ve seen people lose some seriously scary shit on dancefloors. Like when I went to see TBB and Justice, on both occasions I’ve seen someone lose their foreign identity card. I’d be fucking terrified for my life if that happened to me - and given that I’m toting my passport around (some places don’t seem to accept BRP...?), which I cannot afford to lose whatsoever, I enter a state of brief panic while I check that nothing has been thieved from my bag. All clear.

1:23-25AM: Jesus Christ Irfane is so touchy-feely with Thibaut they’re in love I’m literally crying

1:30~AM: Because of the above mentioned affection-shenanigans, I stop dancing in order to get some photos and videos of the pair. One of the backstage fans notices. “Do you want me to take a picture for you?” He shouts through the mesh; I hesitate, because I’m not in the business of giving my phone away to strangers, but I take the risk. It turned out he made this offer during a period of very weird lighting and it wasn’t a good time for photos, but this is the best out of several attempts from him:

“It’s not a good time,” he shouts as he hands my phone back over. “sorry.”

“Thank you anyway,” I holler through the bars. He flashes a grin and we carry on.

1:30~AM (after the above): Remember the scantily dressed gorgeous dancers? They’re back, dancing on a bunch of speakers (?) next to the side view. Drama with the (drunk?) girl hogging the side view; she gets into a conflict with one of the dancers and it gets really fucking tense. I’m not 100% on what happened, but I can imagine that something that wasn’t meant to be touched was touched or that she was giving the dancer some serious attitude - like the girl was literally grabbing the (drunk?) girl by the face and telling her to get a fucking grip. The dude with her eventually leads her away and the dancers dismount the stage, disappearing into the crowd - I didn’t see them return again, which was a right shame.

tl;dr I took the empty spot and was able to photo marginally better than before.

1:35AM:

Jesus God this is heavenly

1:41AM:

Best quality: his wiggles

(He was mouthing along to ‘Why?’.)

1:40~AM: I keep thinking I stepped on something. This continues for some five minutes before I finally look down and yep whoops I was stepping on something all right. It was a hefty croc leather wallet/purse thing, all black, very sticky from the floor. I set it down in front of me and handed it over to an usher less than two minutes after. Another swig of water. Thibaut’s wiggles do not in any way pale next to Irfane’s.

1:50AM (?): Yet another event I know happened but can’t remember where exactly to place. ‘My Toy’ comes on. I hear this one is a fan favourite and while I can think of better songs in Still Waters, I get to see for myself just how true this statement is. In fact, Breakbot played quite a few of their stuff - not a lot, but enough to bring on significant cheers whenever they did. ‘Back For More’ was the starter and ‘Fantasy’ came on at some point but ‘My Toy’ was easily the most popular of the lot!

2:00AM: Alan Braxe takes over. Irfane and Thibaut continue to linger, as does So-Me, but I’m beginning to see Myd far more often - he must provide the climax to this all-nighter. He had a vinyl signing earlier on the 26th; he’s greeted with cheers whenever he’s visible.

2:00 - 4:00AM: A broad sweeping observation to indicate that my phone is dying a horrible death by this point of the night. I brought an external battery and had it going again once I left the club, but fuck trying to fumble with that in the middle of a club. All those photos did it, especially the videos, and burning the battery on that so quickly was not a good idea because I wanted to take more of Alan and Myd boo

2:20~AM: Alan’s set is considerably darker in tone. Probably more like what I’m used to before I got into EDM, in fact. I consider him responsible for the mild whiplash I got from headbanging.

2:24AM: XOYO’s smoke machines are at their peak performance around this time and I can barely see a thing. Not being a big venue, this is a problem. Irfane and Thibaut and So-Me pop back up for a selfie with one of the backstage fans and rope Alan into participating; he does so exactly once and turns back, as professional as always, while the other stay on for a second and third go.

2:30~AM: wHAT’S THAT I HEAR???? CRESCENDOLLS?????

2:30~AM: IT’S CRESCENDOLLS

2:35AM: Hey remember when it took Irfane 10 years to figure out the Very Disco = Veridis Quo pun

2:40~AM: By this point I’m getting super hungry and I’m just about out of water. Water in XOYO is expensive. Something like 2.50 for a 300ml bottle. The DJs had a stack of these bottles by the side and were powering through them at alarming speed when they weren’t drinking other things. It’s my policy to go early and buy a bottle of water at the bar of wherever I attend a gig or concert, pretty much always. It’s my first time running out with more than an hour to go, though, but despite this I keep dancing with the empty bottle clutched in my hand. I don’t actually remember why. Maybe I thought I’d fill it up after the show or something. Spoilers: I didn’t

2:55AM: Right as Myd is taking over some dude pokes me and asks to have a sip of my water. I should not have been dancing with that empty bottle. He looks disgruntled when I tell him it’s empty and moves on. Sorry my dude I only wish I’d have been able to spare even a drop but I was genuinely out;;;;;

3:00 - 4:00AM: I hate having to sum it up like this but due to aforementioned factors (dying legs + low battery + lack of water) I do not actually remember much of Myd’s set. This is a great injustice to the man and it’s pretty much entirely my fault for not taking any time to rest (seating was provided near the bar) or not buying myself another drink; next time he’s in the UK, wherever he may be and whoever he might be with, I shall make the effort to hunt him down and give him a proper listen. What I remember of his set was brilliant, cheery but mysterious, coupled with Daft Punk’s ‘Rock n’ Roll’ somewhere in the middle. Please enjoy this terrible picture of him taken with my phone’s dying strength.

3:18AM: I can timestamp this accurately because it’s on the last video I took of the night. Enjoy some Myd wiggles

3:30~AM: This was roughly when ‘Rock n’ Roll’ was on! Irfane chatting away in the corner. So-Me lending a hand. Five minutes in he leans over and distributes stickers (I think) into the crowd. I was sadly on the other side and did not get a chance to receive any.

3:40~AM: People are beginning to hunker down on the elevated stage or leaving altogether. The night is drawing to a close.

3:55AM: Phone blinks out completely at this point. XOYO is open from 9:30pm-4am on Fridays and Saturdays (also 21+ years only policy, which I appreciate) so I figured Myd should be winding down about now. Every DJ participating so far has switched out/bowed out after an hour, after all. Myd might need a minute more to think about it.

4:03AM: Myd might need three more minutes to think about it.

4:04AM: Myd might need four or five more minutes to think about it.

4:10AM: Myd why are you doing this. Myd it’s past closing time. Myd my guy you’re pouring ambrosia upon the unworthy. Myd ple

4:15AM~: In the end I leave a few minutes early. I have to stress that this had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of Myd’s set nor that he was playing beyond closing time - encores and extra content are extremely good! It’s just that my legs were dead! ;A ; I limped upstairs and washed my face etc and he was still playing when I came out. That’s dedication.

The End

As soon as it’s actually over, cheers went up - and as I’m sitting at the bench near the entrance of the club just trying to get my shit together, everyone files out all at once to a bunch of weary-looking security guards wishing us all a good night.

I join the line. It’s bright outside already. Some of the guards offer to call us a cab and some of the people take them up on it. I myself walk out of the club, turn left, and down Old Street Yard to examine the bus stops. One of the bus lines are 24hr and go directly to King’s Cross; as I reach one of the relevant stops and lean around, trying to figure out the times, the French girl from earlier recognizes me and pats me on the shoulder. “You were the girl dancing next to me, right?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“How are you?”

“I’m good and so exhausted I could melt into the floor.”

She giggles and bids me goodnight as she moves to another bus stop. I didn’t get to ask her about Thibaut, as she wasn’t by me when he came on, but I can only assume she had a good time too. Soon the 214 comes along and I hop on towards King’s Cross. The sun is rising and the white noise in my legs dissipates, just a little, only to be gone completely some twenty hours later. Feels good man.

#breakbot #thibaut berland #irfane #busy p #pedro winter #ed banger #borussia #myd #so me #bertrand de langeron #reviews #long post #hi this took ages to write and has prime time content pls give it a peruse #;)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))#xoyo

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zil-zeki · 6 years

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WIP Tag

Wee! @bearly-dressed tagged me the other day and I finally got to it now. Boy this’ll be fun. Considering I finished up with school for now my head has been giving me sooo many ideas on what I want to do.

Rules: List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets!

1. I wanna finish a actually decent comic this year, ideally by the end of summer. I had this idea a ways back about a set of siblings living in the Ol’ West, each having a different super-sense, hah. This is my Coyote Kids project. The plan is to basically complete a small issue. From there I’ll think about if it’s like to do more episodic short stories with ‘em. I made myself a timeline to have thumbnails done within two months soooo, you might start seeing proper drawins of them come up on my blog then...

2. I wanna make a nice character sheet for my D&D character, Patience. I don’t really have to, but... I know I can. I just really like drawing her! Plus it’d be one more thing I can show off to my friends on game-night. >w>

3. I keep getting this other short comic idea stuck in my head with Gerome, Roscuro, and Dogs. Just a silly interlude where Gerome learns some things about Ro and whatever... I sorta started it a while back because I wanted to get familiar with Manga Studio’s actual comic-related tools. I still wanna complete it because I’m not sure if I’d like to do the larger Coyote kids project traditionally, digitally, or some mix... Basically I gotta play around in each to figure out what I’d like to do over the long term and this seemed like a fun way to do so.

4. I have a bunch of sticker paper and I like drawing and water-coloring cute little animals, so I design a bunch of cute animal stickers! Part to sell, part to give, and a bunch to stick on my own stuff! I for sure wanna make some specifically of my kitty cat to send to my mom, ‘cause I know she missed her little fluffy girl.

6. I wanna make more vlogs for youtube... it feels a little silly, but some people seem to like seeing them, and I sure like looking back at the old stuff I did and hearing myself be weird... and I generally think it’s a neat skill to have, knowing how to moderately do some video editing. By the time this goes up I actually should have put of a sketchbook tour of the last two sketchbooks I finished! hah

7. I have some rough idea for different illustrations and pieces, some original, some fan-art. I wanna just have more big stuff done next year. Partially because I know I have the time now, and a part ‘cause I’d like to have a decent amount of new stuff should I choose to do SacAnime again.

8. Too many stories in my head... I have a rough idea for two more that I REALLY like and because I KNOW I can’t possibly get around to drawing all of them, I’d like to at least write ‘em down. But I don’t write like I used to in middle school... unless it’s for school I don’t really engage in creative writing much anymore, but I’d like to... I may have to designate time for it though, ‘cause my free-time usually gets to go to drawing or video-games by default lol.

9. Lastly, I suppose I’d like to set up a website. Again I think it’s a super neat skill to be able to say I have, and I’d love to eventually have just a personal website for all my work and projects! Buuuut, I know only surface level stuff so this will be a FUN learning experience full of trails and frustrations... But I still wanna do it, maybe once I can get a job and can find the funds for hosting and/or classes.

Goanna tag: @hivemindmonster @kyri01-lur @norklostheart @nahinelleinad @xsilversugar @somereddame @certainlynotshibas @ceephorstudios

#meme time #fun #WIP tag #WIP #comic WIP

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icecubelotr44 · 7 years

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To Every Thing a Season (2/16)

Summary: After witnessing the tragic murder of his brother Liam, Killian Jones is more determined than ever to discover the secrets of time travel. Fast-tracking his education at Storybrooke University, Killian is assigned a lab assistant, one Emma Swan. Together, they find a way to break through the veil of time so Killian can set things right. But what will be the price for changing the past, and is it one they’re willing to pay?

Rated: T, for violence, some dark themes, angst, and whump

Art credit/link: The totally awesome @optomisticgirl made imagesets for all the chapters and @ab-normality made a video and a gifset for this fic. You can find the imageset for this chapter above and here on her blog. The video is linked here and on her blog here and the gifset will be posted later in the story!

Beta readers: The as-always wonderful @nothingimpossibleonlyimprobable, thanks so much for all of your help and cajoling and reassuring! And a huge thank you to the spectacular @spartanguard who stepped in to help beta read as well!

A/N: Written as part of the 2017 Captain Swan Big Bang Challenge. You can catch up with all the other fics that are complete by following @captainswanbigbang and/or subscribing to the Group Collection on AO3 and/or the C2 on FFN. This is complete in 16 parts and will be posted every Thursday from now until its completion. And yes, there is a happy ending after all this… just so you know.

Word count: ~ 5,100 (80K+ Total in 16 chapters)

From the beginning: ao3 | ffn

Current Chapter: AO3 | FFN

Chapter 2: To Plant and to Pluck

“Professor, no! I don’t need an assistant. And certainly not some freshman who probably doesn’t know the difference between and photon and a… a proton!” Killian balked, his hands curling into fists automatically. “Please, Dr. Hopper, she’s just going to slow me down.”

“That might not be a bad thing, my boy. And I’ve asked you before to call me Archie when we’re not in the classroom.” Archie looked over the rims of his glasses and Killian met his gaze with a glare of his own.

“Yes, sir,” he muttered sullenly.

“The fact of the matter is, Killian, that you need to slow down. Consider it a favor to me, taking her on. She’s a criminal justice major and she’s already enrolled in Physics 102. If you can help her understand any of this better, then it will make my life easier.” The professor paused. “And I don’t think I have to remind you that you are only allowed five hours a week in the labs to work on your project unless I allow you more.”

Killian’s shoulders slumped. The bags under his eyes from his latest batch of nightmares weren’t going to do anything to help convince Hopper that he didn’t need the help. And really, how bad could it be? She wasn’t a pure science major. Surely this lass would be no more interested in helping him than he was in her help.

“She needs the job to stay in school, Killian. You understand how much this school can mean to some people, don’t you?”

He could feel the muscle in his jaw twitching at that low blow. “Fine. But if she breaks anything or gets in my way…”

“I will be the first to find her someplace else to occupy her time. I don’t want to impede your work. I want to improve it.”

Killian closed his eyes and tried not to imagine the horror he was about to agree to. “And you’ll approve the extra hours I requested?”

“Yes. And if you make it through the semester with her working with you, I will also approve the practical materials you need to start building your project next year.”

Just the mention of the possibility of starting construction on the capsule he would need in order to get back to Liam had him nodding his acquiescence. He could handle a freshman sitting pretty in the corner of the lab if it meant he could start some physical work within the year - on top of the theoretical work he spent every free moment on. Bloody hell, Killian thought, he’d have volunteered to host Hopper’s entire 102 class if it meant he could finally get to practical work.

Regardless of the incentives, he knew how trying this was going to be. Killian pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses. “When does she start?” he breathed out, already feeling the headache building.

He missed the beginning of Archie’s satisfied grin as he shut his eyes as if he could block out the inevitable answer.

“Right after finals are over.” Dr. Hopper was laughing under his breath. Killian resisted the urge to groan out loud. “Turns out that Miss Swan isn’t going home for break either. You’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other with all the hours you’ve requested over Christmas.”

Killian’s eyes opened wide and he was finally graced with the beaming look his professor had adopted.

He couldn’t help it; he rolled his eyes.

“Here’s your approval for the lab hours over break. You’ll have to share with Miss Blanchard’s AP Physics field trips once a week when the high school is in session while we’re out. And Killian?” Killian squeezed his eyes shut, dreading what else Dr. Hopper was going to demand of him.

Archie waited until he looked up and met his gaze. “Try to do something fun over break, all right? Something outside of the lab? Something… I don’t know, something exciting.”

“Yes, sir,” Killian muttered, resolutely ignoring the defiant part of him that already planned to refuse that request.

“Very well, my boy. I’ll see you tomorrow for your final, then. Try to get some sleep; you still look tired.”

Killian took off before Hopper could come up with something else that he would end up ignoring. On his way out the door, a blonde woman - he thought she might be the same one who had knocked him off his feet during the snowstorm - looked up from where she sat opposite the classroom. Her green eyes flashed with recognition and then she rose to her feet. She never broke eye contact, and Killian gulped as his hand rose to scratch behind his ear.

“I… I suppose I owe you a better apology for the other day, lass. Right poor form on my part to rush off like I did after I knocked you down. My brother would have my…” The words choked Killian as he realized what he had said. Where his memories were traipsing off to. The muscles in his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth against the onslaught.

Killian hadn’t realized his eyes were closed until the touch of a hand on his arm startled him.

“Are you all right?” she asked quietly.

His gaze was locked on her hand, amazed at how quickly the gentle touch had brought him back from the streets of Ireland to their campus in Maine.

She seemed to realize what she was doing and snatched back her arm with a mumbled apology of her own.

Killian felt the loss immediately, but shook his head as she seemed to shrink in on herself with arms crossed and defense written across her face.

He knew the feeling.

“I… erm… I’m fine. And you? After the other day?”

She nodded, and looked like she was about to say something when Archie called out from inside the room.

“Mr. Jones? Are you still out there?”

Killian’s eyes widened. “You never saw me!” he hissed before sprinting down the hallway.

And that should have been the end of it. He had never allowed himself to ponder the idea of fate or kismet or whatever people told themselves to make sense of how the world worked. If Killian thought like that, he’d never be able to go back in time to save Liam - the ethics and morals of it were already shady enough without believing that there was a plan already in place for all of them.

So what if he’d seen her twice and been drawn to her both times? So what if she was the first girl… woman that he’d ever looked twice at. He didn’t even know her name, so what did it matter if her golden hair and her emerald eyes were seared into his brain, even hours later?

Right?

Killian rolled over on his bunk so his back was to the room, pounding at the pillow until it conformed to his liking, and let the numbers fly around his head. There was something off with the newest part of his equations, something that was making the earlier numbers look yellow as they flitted about. He took a deep breath and tried to focus, but the problem stayed just out of sight.

“Jones!” Scarlet yelled as he barreled into the room, and Killian sighed as the numbers faded away. All that was left were the chicken scratches in his notebook.

“What?!” He rolled over again, glaring down at Will until he saw the girl hanging off his arm. “Apologies, lass, I shouldn’t have shouted.”

Killian looked over to where Will was grinning like a maniac and rolled his eyes. “At you, anyway. What do you want, Scarlet?”

“Ana and I are going down to the student center to see Robin and John play. Fancy comin’ along?” Will didn’t even wait for an answer before he turned to bury his nose in Ana’s neck, the resulting giggles that came from her grating on Killian’s ears.

“I don’t think so, mate,” Killian said when Will finally looked up. “I’ve got a lot of studying to do, still. Thanks, though.”

His roommate shrugged. “Your loss, mate. Should be a good show. Better than your impersonation of a hermit, anyway.”

Killian smirked at the dig, but then Archie’s words echoed in his ears. Try to do something fun… something exciting. He was a man of his word. Liam had instilled that into Killian even if his father hadn’t. If he went to Robin’s show, then at least he could honestly tell Dr. Hopper after break that he had done something outside of the physics lab.

“Hold up. Give me five minutes to change and I’ll go with you.”

Scarlet grinned, and Ana smiled coquettishly. “Good on ya, Jones. We’ll meet you in the common room, then.”

Killian nodded and heaved himself out of his loft as the door shut behind them. Some fresh deodorant, a clean shirt, and a brush over his face to make sure his scruff hadn’t turned into all-out beard in the last few days, and he was ready.

And already wishing he’d never said anything.

The walk across campus to the student center was frigid and a little bit eerie. Holed up as often as he was in his room, Killian hadn’t been able to fully appreciate just how desolate the campus got when the underclassmen were cramming for exams. There were a few others making their way towards the show or to the cafeteria for dinner, but the snow-covered quad was otherwise empty.

Killian sighed as he trudged along behind Will and Ana, idly wondering how the two managed to walk while wrapped up in one another like they were. Surely their altered combined center of gravity would make it nearly impossible to stay upright.

He had to bat away the numbers that began to dance in his vision, trying to pull him into a headspace that would likely leave Killian standing dumbfounded in the middle of the quad.

“Jones!” Will called out without even turning around. “You comin’ or not?”

Killian smirked. His roommate could be a bloody prat sometimes, but other times they were one hell of a pair.

The auditorium was dark already, the only illumination coming from the stage where Robin and the Merry Men were idly plucking at guitar strings or adjusting microphones. The row that Ana chose was mostly full, leaving Killian with only a single seat to his right before the aisle. It was unlikely that anyone would sit next to him now, and his shoulders slumped a little in relief. There were already more people than he was comfortable sharing space with and he’d take the reprieve where he could.

Will smacked him on the arm and grinned when Killian rolled his eyes. “You’ll like it, mate. I’m tellin’ ya.”

Killian nodded and settled further into the cushioned seat. He let the numbers fly untended, half his awareness on his surroundings and the other on potential breakthroughs. He had just perked up on a possibility when-

“Is this seat… you again?”

Killian startled badly before he locked gazes with the same emerald eyes that had haunted him all afternoon as he tried to work.

“Are you following me?” he blurted out, then cringed.

The blonde rolled her eyes and folded herself into the seat beside him. Killian expected to feel uncomfortable. He expected to feel confined and antsy.

It felt like she had been by his side for years.

“Hardly. I don’t even know your name, Idiot,” she muttered, already lighting up her phone screen and ignoring him.

“Killian Jones, at your service, milady.” Killian cringed again, mentally smacking himself upside the head even as he extended his hand in greeting. What was he going to do next, kiss her knuckles and offer her his sword?

“I’m Emma,” she replied, reaching out to shake his hand.

“Emma.” Her name rolled of his tongue smoothly, and he was caught by the urge to say it again. Their fingers intertwined and the bolt of electricity that sparked up his arm took him by surprise. Killian stared down at their hands, looking for the catalyst that had nearly made him jump. There was nothing for him to find, however, and Emma pulled her hand back far too quickly for his liking.

Bloody hell, mate, he chastised himself, what is wrong with you?

Killian smiled politely to hide the unwelcome sting of rejection and reminded himself, again, that he barely knew the woman sitting next to him. He turned back to the stage, tugging off his glasses to clean them as a distraction, determined to forget about her.

“Are they any good?” Emma asked, jutting her chin out towards Robin’s band. “I’ve seen flyers for their shows before, but I really just needed a break from studying.”

Killian perked up at the chance to talk to her for longer. Don’t muck this up, he begged himself. “Aye, they’re pretty good. I’ve been drag… err… coming to their shows for a few years now, since they got together freshman year. Robin was my first roommate, before I got stuck with this prat.”

He nodded in Will’s general direction, ignoring the elbow to his ribs that caused the comment.

“Will Scarlet, love, pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’d love to get to know you even better, though.”

Emma rolled her eyes, but shook his hand as well. As Will leaned over to brush a kiss to her knuckles, Killian leaned in and hissed, “Aren’t you here with a woman already, mate?”

Will pulled back with a ‘cat that ate the canary’ grin and threw his arm around the scowling Ana’s shoulders. “Just bein’ friendly, Jones. Should try it some time.”

Killian was saved from trying to make a witty retort when Robin’s voice came over the speakers. “Hey there, everyone. Glad to see the books haven’t sucked out your souls just yet.”

The laughter that rippled through the small crowd seemed to break the hold Emma had over his thoughts, and Killian settled in for the show.

Emma adjusted the beanie that was dangerously high on her forehead, then checked that the straps of her backpack weren’t going to slip off her shoulders. She fastened one more button on her shirt, then released it.

She ignored the smirk on Ruby’s face as she checked her reflection in the mirror one more time.

“Nervous for your first day on the job?” Ruby asked, the smirk morphing into a wolfish grin as Emma glared through the mirror.

She ripped the beanie off her head, checking inside of it to see what was making her so uncomfortable. Emma expected to see a pin or a loose thread.

There was nothing there.

“Not nervous. Just…” Emma thought hard about how to phrase what she was feeling. “Concerned. I need this to work, and if this junior doesn’t fall for it, I’m out of a job and out of a college experience.”

Emma looked up, then repeated, “I need this to work.”

Ruby sidled up to her, hip-checking Emma to the side until they shared the mirror. “Emma, he’s going to be falling all over himself for you. You know that, right? Unless he’s blind. Or gay. And then you may have your work cut out for you.”

Emma glared again. “This isn’t… he’s an upperclassman. I’m just a freshman. He’s not going to care what I look like.”

“And yet, you’re going to be late because you’re still standing in front of the mirror.”

Emma’s eyes widened, and she looked down at her watch. Ruby was right; she was going to be late. She took off out of the bathroom, jamming her hat back over her ears and brushing the wayward strands of hair out of her face.

“Knock his socks off, Em!” Ruby’s voice echoed down the hall and was answered by the slam of the hallway door.

It wasn’t like Emma hadn’t been thinking about just that. It had been on her mind constantly since she’d rushed into Dr. Hopper’s classroom to agree to take the job before one of the advanced classes started their final. She remembered the way the professor had flushed that first day when she’d insinuated he wanted her to seduce this science geek, but how else did he expect her to get the guy out of the lab without telling him what was up?

Emma Swan didn’t do people.

She practically flew across campus to the science building, searching the room numbers in the physics hallway for the one she’d hastily scribbled down on a scrap of paper and jammed in her pocket the night before. Dr. Hopper had assured her that he would meet her there to make the introductions, but that he had to run right afterwards for a meeting at the local high school.

Emma hoped he’d still be there.

Finally coming across the correct room, Emma tried the door handle and was surprised to find it unlocked. She would freely admit that she didn’t pay much attention in science, but she thought that with equipment as expensive as what was housed here, the labs would all be locked when not in use. Hesitantly, she poked her head inside, wondering if she should wait for Dr. Hopper before entering the lab. She had thought she was late, but maybe she wrote the time down wrong, or maybe she got the room number wrong, or maybe…

Killian Jones, the guy she kept running into all over campus, was hunched over one of the lab benches. His hair was all in disarray, a pencil tucked behind one ear even as he held another one over the notebook he was scribbling in. He didn’t even look up as she walked in and shut the door behind her. But Emma did notice something curious. His left hand was twitching at the corner of his scribblings; it almost looked as if he was flicking through pages of a book, but the pads of his fingers never touched the paper he was writing on.

“Are you working for Dr. Hopper, too?” Emma asked, grimacing a little when Killian jumped in his seat.

His startled gaze locked on hers quickly, and she smiled sheepishly. Killian continued to stare at her for just a moment too long, and Emma started to squirm under the scrutiny.

And then, as if a switch were flipped in his head, he smiled back at her. “Well, now I know you’re following me, lass. Should I be concerned?”

“Oh yeah,” she returned. “You should start yelling for campus security any moment now.”

Killian’s laugh was deep and sent a shiver through her. He seemed like someone she could genuinely get used to hanging around. But, she reasoned, he was probably waiting for Dr. Hopper, too, and would be heading off to his own upperclassman to herd out of the lab.

He sobered up a minute later, but there was still a sparkle in his eyes and a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “So what can I help you with, Emma?”

“Oh, nothing, I suppose. I’m waiting for Dr. Hopper. I guess you are, too?” she asked, looking towards the door. “I thought I was late.”

Emma turned back to Killian just in time to see a strange look come across his features. He had just opened his mouth to speak when the door opened behind her and Dr. Hopper came rushing in.

“Emma, I’m so sorry I’m late. I had a few last minute projects show up in my inbox and I had to… oh, I see you’ve met already. Good, good.” He smiled happily, and turned to go. At the last second he turned back. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just leave you both to get started and figure out your schedules for the next few weeks?”

Emma stood, transfixed and facing the door, long after the professor had left. She finally was broken out of her shock by Killian clearing his throat behind her.

“Erm, well, yes. I suppose I should introduce myself properly, lass. Killian Jones, physics major in… err… reluctant need of a lab assistant.” Killian stood up and stuck out his hand for her to shake.

Emma stared at his hand like it would reach out and bite her. “I think there’s been some mistake. Dr. Hopper assigned me to a junior.”

“Aye,” he nodded, still holding his hand out. He shook it a little, and Emma rolled her eyes before reaching out to shake it. To her surprise, Killian tugged her towards him a little bit, and then laid a light kiss on her knuckles.

She snatched her hand away, avoiding the impulse to wipe it on her jeans. “Who does things like that?” Emma snarked.

“My brother,” Killian replied, and it sounded sad.

Her features softened, and she tried to make him smile again. “So you thought playing the gentleman now would be a good start?”

“Oh lass,” he smirked, and Emma tried not to think too deeply about the flutter in her belly that came from it. “I’m always a gentleman.”

“Right,” Emma drew out the word as she looked around the lab. “Gentleman or not, I’m looking for an upperclassman to… umm… assist. You can’t be that much older than me, if you aren’t younger!”

Killian laughed derisively.

“Our ages aside, lass, a junior I am. And one who needs to get to work. So if you don’t mind?” He gestured towards the other side of the lab table. “If you’re serious about helping, then I need you to log into the computer. If not, then there’s a desk over there that you can sit at and be out of my way.”

Emma bristled, then dropped her bookbag under the table and booted up the computer. “Just tell me what to do.”

Emma was a quick study, Killian decided as he looked over the output from his latest equation. He couldn’t deny that the work went much faster with her there to type in the numbers and monitor the simulations in the computer program for him. Her work left his hands free to scribble in the margins of his notebook or to fiddle with the prototype machine he was starting to craft out of scrap materials. That work would have to be farmed out to engineers once Archie approved him to build a full-scale model, but having Emma working with him was moving the timeline to completion along nicely.

He might even be able to get a set of blueprints to Archie before the end of this semester rather than in the fall. Killian was quietly pleased with how the arrangement had worked out - if only Emma didn’t insist on distracting him every few hours.

Throughout the entirety of the winter break, Killian had to deal with Emma’s penchant to lag in efficiency whenever she started to get hungry. He found, reluctantly, that the quickest way to get her back up to his level of productivity was to follow her to the cafeteria - since she refused to go by herself - and try to hurry her along through her meal.

And yet, they had the same argument every time Emma started to get hungry.

“Lass, why don’t you run to the cafeteria and grab something to eat?” He asked that afternoon when Emma started gnawing on her pen cap and typing in the codes with one finger.

She shrugged, her point-and-stab typing pausing while she swung around to look at him. “I’ve got another hour in here with you. It will still be open when we’re done.”

“Really, Emma, I’ve got this under control,” he cajoled, trying - just once - to get her to go on her own.

But, as he expected, she just shook her head and turned back to the computer screen. “Don’t worry about it, Killian. If I go now, I’ll have to eat by myself and everyone will stare. Let’s just get back to work.”

A moment later, Emma’s stomach growled and Killian clenched his eyes shut. His chin dropped to his chest and he gave in to the inevitable.

“If I go with you, will you please get something to eat?” Even to Killian’s ears, he sounded like he was being led to the gallows.

But, just like every other time, Emma beamed at him and jumped from the stool to grab her coat. “Let’s go, Jones! There’s a grilled cheese with my name on it.”

The smells from the cafeteria hit his nose before they were fully inside and Killian realized he hadn’t eaten since breakfast… almost eight hours ago. He may as well make use of his meal card while he was here - then he could stick around the lab for a few extra hours without having to worry about dinner. They swiped their meal cards at the turnstile and then separated to find their meals.

Killian eyed Emma to make sure that she was in line for food before he headed over to the sandwich bar to see if something caught his eye. He chose a tuna-and-something panini that looked the most appetizing and moved to the salad bar before he met up with Emma at a bar-style table in the corner of the eating area.

Emma hopped up onto one of the stools and shoved a plate of fries in his direction. “Eat these, they gave me both and I don’t want them,” she said around a mouthful of onion ring.

The next thing he knew, Emma’s eyes were watering and she was slurping down her drink. “Hot,” she breathed out with a pained look. He couldn’t keep from huffing out a laugh under his breath.

Killian eyed the french fries and could almost picture the amount of time he was going to waste shoving them in his mouth, but he knew they’d be eaten before they left.

What seemed to be an eternity later, Killian followed Emma back to their shared lab and the computer results that awaited them. He watched as her hips swayed from side to side. Will, he knew, would be salivating all over Emma at the way she moved, but Killian was more cautiously intrigued. She was stunning - he’d have to be blind not to see that - but that wasn’t what was foremost in his mind when Killian thought of her.

No, it was the way she seemed intent to learn so that she could actually help him, rather than just putting in her hours. It was the way she asked questions - only once - and remembered the answers. It was the way she seemed to care that he should succeed.

And Killian hadn’t even told her the real reason he was trying to manipulate time. He hadn’t told her anything about Liam.

He was starting to think that he should.

But not today. Just the thought of Liam’s death made the food in Killian’s belly threaten a reappearance. He had to swallow hard to make sure that visions of blood and pale skin didn’t stop his footsteps and leave him lost in the past, still standing in the middle of the science building’s hallway. He couldn’t-

“Killian? Are you coming?” Emma looked back from where she was unlocking the lab’s door.

“Aye, lass, sorry. I’m with you.”

No, he wouldn’t tell Emma about Liam today.

But soon, he promised when she smiled over the desktop at him. Soon. She deserved to know what she was getting herself into.

What he was getting them both into.

Killian returned her smile, wondering if it looked as forced as it felt, but unable to shake the whispering voice in his head - I’m waiting, little brother. Why haven’t you saved me yet?

He had no answer for Liam.

Or for himself.

Killian sighed, then stepped into the lab with the grim reason for creating his machine nipping at his heels.

Once upon a time, he had worked on this project for fun. He could still remember the first time he heard of string theory, the way it had taken hold in his head and wouldn’t let go. He could still remember his eighth birthday when Liam had gotten him a huge whiteboard and a whole tub of dry erase markers. He could still remember how Brennan had sneered at the gift, but Killian had been ecstatic. One of his happiest days was that birthday - he and Liam had spent the afternoon putting the easel together, then writing out “KILLIAN’S THEORY” in big block letters at the top.

That whiteboard had seen him through most of his awkward teenage years. It had seen him through the bullies who couldn’t stand him showing them up in class and the girls who wouldn’t give him the time of day. It had been a sense of stability when Liam was working and Brennan was downstairs, drunk as usual.

It had been the only source of comfort when he was mourning his brother.

He’d had to leave the whiteboard behind, of course, but there was another in the corner of this lab. The penmanship hadn’t gotten much better with time, but the big block letters at the top spelled out the same - even if they weren’t permanently etched into the board like the one back in England. It was here that Killian moved now, the familiar ritual of scrubbing out numbers that had become warped with new aspects of his theory and listening to the squeak of the marker as new ones took their place.

“This result came back negative. What do you want me to change?” Emma asked, her voice breaking him free of the numbers’ dance.

“Try increasing the intensity while decreasing the frequency. See what that does,” he replied, still distracted.

Behind him, Killian heard the clack of keys as Emma input the new parameters. With the numbers taken care of, he turned his attention to the model he was working on. He theorized that a round exoskeleton would be more conducive to time-flight, or at least to the cessation of flight when he got back in time. He would need to use strong materials - a combination of carbon fiber and titanium for the actual chassis, carbide and silicon for the computer parts, polycarbonate-

“Killian?” Emma was standing next to him, her hand on his shoulder. “I’ve been calling you.”

He cleared his throat awkwardly, the feel of her this close to him stealing the very words from his lips. “Err… umm… right. What?”

Emma smiled; it was a little thing, just barely quirking up the corners of her mouth, but it brightened his day regardless.

“It’s after nine, Jones. Time to go.”

He nodded with a put-out sigh. For all he was trying to mold it to his will, it seemed that Killian never had enough time.

tagging @gusenitsaa, @kiwistreetswan, @lenfazreads, @xhookswenchx, @killian-whump, @eala-captian

#csbb #cs ff #cs fic #ouat fic #ouat ff #my fic #time travel au #college au #no character death in this chapter folks #cameo by robin #cameo by will #can't wait to see what you all think #I promise this chapter is a lot fluffier!

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thisisevenharderthannamingablog · 7 years

Text

6.21/22 The Final Battle

Well, here we are. I can’t title this “the final write-up” because I still have to go back and finish six episodes in S2, but we’re certainly getting close.

My feelings about this show are large and complicated. My feelings about this finale are of overwhelming disappointment. Read on for large quantities of salt, like we’re talking “Visitors Guide to Hallstatt” here, maybe put on a helmet.

In the Enchanted Forest: Some but not all of the Storybrooke residents are returned to the Enchanted Forest castle, while others remain in the LWM. (???) They can watch events in Storybrooke through a mirror. Zelena arrives from Oz via magic hat (???) to let them know that there is another problem: the realms are disappearing. Additional refugees arrive, including Aladdin and Jasmine.

Regina is determined to find a magical solution, and poofs everyone to her own castle. Hook is just as determined not to wait on her efforts, and sneaks off on his own. Charming follows him to the beanstalk, which he plans to climb in order to look for a magic bean to get back to Emma. They essay the quest together, find a bean, and exit pursued by a random dragon (???).

Meanwhile, the other Regina shows up back at the castle, having abandoned the Wish World with Robin due to her being wanted for regicide there, and joins the effort.

In the other world, Emma burns the book. As the Enchanted Forest comes apart, the beanstalk sways. Hook falls off, and Charming rides the falling stalk down to the ground. Snow realizes that her husband is missing. She and Jasmine go to find him. They find Hook (unhurt somehow), and Snow stays to look for Charming while the other two take the bean back to the castle. She finds him, thinks he’s dead, and kisses him, which wakes him up somehow IDK.

The bean has already begun to wither, and Regina’s magic is insufficiently speedy to revive it in time to use it (??). Her evil half buys them time (??), sacrificing herself to hold back the oncoming destruction. Everyone else takes cover in the castle.

The erosion of the realms stops when there is only a small patch of Enchanted Forest remaining.

In the LWM:: Henry wakes up on the rooftop alone, and quickly finds that Storybrooke has been re-cursed. Fiona is his mother (???) , and Emma has been in an asylum for the past two years, ever since Henry ate that apple tart and poisoned himself in an effort to prove that magic was real. Neither the storybook nor the symbols that he wrote while in an Author trance are convincing. Fiona shows up to reinforce the fake reality in which they dwell and attempt to convince Emma to destroy the storybook as a final act of healing.

Fiona pays a visit to the pawnshop to visit Gold and Gideon and make sure their new story is in place -- that Belle ran off and abandoned them, and Fiona looks after them as best she can.

Meanwhile, Henry breaks Emma out, hoping to jog her memories with a trip to the site of her recent wedding. She does have flashes, but considers this part of her ongoing problem with reality. Henry determines to steal Emma’s car keys so they can leave town, but Fiona catches him and pushes down some stairs, breaking his arm. She uses this incident to convince Emma that the storybook needs to go, for Henry’s sake.

The worlds’ disintegration accelerates as the book burns.

Rumple asks Fiona to “reopen the investigation into Belle’s disappearance.” She offers him some hilariously bad Photoshops of Belle off seeing the world, blissfully alone.

Emma leaves for Boston (where, in the single least likely occurrence of the entire episode, her apartment is still there -- it’s not even dusty). She finds a version of the storybook that Henry made for her (when did he do that?).

Henry goes to Gold, who admits that he still has his memories because he did not entirely trust his mother, but also that he has no interest in being helpful; he just wants to find Belle. Henry borrows a mirror and a sword and goes down to the beach. He announces to anyone who might be watching via mirror that he’s going to fight the Black Fairy himself.

He’s all ready to do so when Emma shows up -- she came back! Even though she doesn’t remember anything, she read his story and she believes him.

Rumple concocts a potion and locates Belle, only to find that she’s agoraphobic in her new, cursed life. Fiona comes to the shop looking for her wand and reminds us that she has Gideon’s heart and can command him, because that will be important later. She uses the wand to translate the symbols Henry wrote in his trance, which are about the Final Battle. Rumple returns and confronts his mother, who promises to lift the curse from Belle and Gideon just a soon as she’s done with this fight.

Oh, and she’ll also have ultimate power by then, could even bring people back to life, if that was a thing he was interested in. He could have everything! But, no deal. He takes the wand. Fiona has one last trick, however; it’s still Gideon who’s going to kill Emma, carrying out Fiona’s final command to his heart, because “Darkness can’t snuff out the Light… only light can snuff out light.”

(What the everloving fuck? This plus that final line in the storybook is why it took my poor li’l English major ass a solid month to get around to rewatching this thematic dumpster fire.)

Anyway, Rumple goes ahead and kills her, with 20 minutes left to go in the episode.

(Wait, I thought killing people -- even bad people! -- was supposed to be BAD. Wasn’t that like half of S4.)

But this time it’s okay, I guess, because the curse breaks, and everyone gets their memories back. (So Snow and Charming could have just killed Regina’s no-magic ass in their flashback a few episodes ago and broken the curse themselves instead of letting Emma go through hell to save them. Good to know.) Everyone comes back from the Enchanted Forest as the sun sets. Gideon finds his sword, and Emma.

Belle finds Rumple, and on Henry’s direction, the two of them head to the mines in search of Gideon’s heart while Emma locks Gideon in the mayor’s office. Belle - and I can’t believe I am going to fucking type these words, give me a second - TWISTS HER ANKLE AND CAN’T GO ON because it’s not like her husband is the FUCKING DARK ONE AND COULD HEAL HER IN LESS TIME THAN IT TOOK TO TELL HIM TO GO ON WITHOUT HER.

But oh no, they had to give Rumple a tete a tete with his Enchanted Forest self telling him to just give it up, let the Final Battle go on, take all the power for himself teehee! This could have been a neat moment if it had been, oh, I dunno, built up in any way at all in the entire preceding season instead of just flung at us out of nowhere. Rumple decides to do the Right Thing, but his attempt to command Gideon to stop has no effect, because of… something the Black Fairy did, apparently.

Meanwhile up above, Gideon finds them again (natch). Regina gives a Hope Speech™. Emma fights Gideon but refuses to kill him, so he stabs her. There’s a lot of light. Emma appears to be dead until Henry kisses her.

For reasons I don’t understand at all, Gideon becomes an infant again. The storybook is finished. The Enchanted Forest is back where it was - Evil Queen included, and it looks like she and Robin are expecting. Snow and Charming get a farmhouse and a dog. Emma and Hook drive off in the bug to fight crime together. Regina gets to be queen of Storybrooke. Everyone gathers at Granny’s for a weird-ass homage to Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

(I have blocked every gifset that includes that scene that crosses my dash, because what the actual fuck.)

In sum, happy beginnings all around.

Also: In some wrapper scenes after an unspecified time jump, we meet a plucky young girl named Lucy and her fairy godmother, Tiger Lily. Lucy has a storybook and a sword and says she’s Henry’s daughter. Henry (now an adult and living in Seattle in our fade-out) has no memory of her. A grave new threat has overcome the Enchanted Forest and their family.

I didn’t pay much attention to these, as I am not planning to watch the season.

Parallels: This episode consisted of (depressingly) little else but direct callbacks to other episodes -- which is not nearly as effective as parallelism, unfortunately.

Fiona = Regina, obviously

The now-magicless Zelena travels by magic hat (1.17); apparently in his years off-screen, Jefferson made a new one

Emma’s pullup scene is a reference to Terminator 2 (another sequel, see earlier this season)

Operation Cuckoo’s Nest is a twofer, as the entire “operation” business is now several layers deep in self-reference. Unfortunately.

Killian and Charming climb the beanstalk from 2.06

Her Handsome Hero makes an appearance in 6.21 and then again in 6.22, when Rumple uses it to find Belle.

Fiona giving Belle an agoraphobic personality is reasonably close to Regina having locked her up

Snow kissing Charming awake was a callback to, well, rather a lot of their scenes since the S6 curse.

Fiona’s final plan as she explained it to Rumple - no more laws of magic, bringing people back to life, making them love - was lifted wholly from the OUaTiW spinoff, where it made a hell of a lot more sense.

We got one last reference to the price of magic, although it’s hard to see any rhyme or reason to how that’s applied these days.

Henry kissing Emma reverses the S1 finale.

Six seasons’ worth of material, magic items, and emotion to draw from, and this random grab-bag is what they came up with.

On a cheerier note, Lucy means “light” which I feel is appropriate for Snow White’s great-granddaughter and the granddaughter of a Savior.

Wardrobe Department:

There was nothing new or interesting here.

In Hindsight: The villains on this show have gone steadily downhill in capability for the past few years. Regina enjoyed most of a decade as the tyrant of the Enchanted Forest, and 28 more years with Storybrooke in her iron grip before Emma broke the curse for which Regina had murdered her own father.

Rumple was the Dark One, holder of unmatched power, for centuries, came thisclose to living forever in a world specially designed for his happiness (S4).

Pan had absolute power in Neverland for centuries. Cora held sway in Wonderland for years, and got the better of Rumplestiltskin once (very nearly twice). Zelena ruled Oz for something like forty years, if my timeline is anywhere near correct.

Fiona lost her wand ten seconds after turning evil, and was defeated by a fairy who regularly gets herself nearly-dead and doesn’t even show up in the town’s magical ranking these days. She was imprisoned for centuries, sulking and plotting in the Dark Realm, before she made it to Storybrooke, where she spent a week romping around, finally cast her curse, her great work of villainy -- and it got broken and she got killed THE NEXT DAY.

What a loser.

I did a rare thing for me and asked Adam on Twitter what was up with this episode, given that most of it was clearly written for Regina, not the Black Fairy. I did not get an answer, and I suppose we’ll never know what caused this change in direction -- maybe it was as simple as the fact that JMo was leaving and Lana was staying next season, and they didn’t want to end the show. It seems inarguable to me, however, that this change was made, because absolutely nothing about Fiona’s actions makes sense in light of her character.

Fiona’s Dark Curse was (retconned to have been) intended to protect her son (Rumple) by taking all of the Enchanted Forest children to the Land Without Magic. Her later actions were fixated on Gideon as substitute for Rumple. The Dark Curse as enacted in the finale didn’t appear to have anything in particular to do with Rumple or with Gideon. They were both supposed to be cursed and oblivious, so how would that have been a happy ending for Fiona? Was she going to spend eternity watching their family from outside? Storybrooke under her curse had plenty of magic, too, ignoring what was supposed to have been the entire original point.

The new Dark Curse did end up having a lot to do with Emma, with whom Fiona had no relationship at all beyond the inescapably lame “you’re a Savior so I have to kill you” thing. It separated her from her family and drove a new wedge between her and Henry. Fiona had no reason at all to be interested in Henry -- but in this new world she adopted him? -- or in any of Emma’s family for their own sake -- but she made sure to send specifically them away, and no one else? She has literally never interacted with any of these characters, and it makes no sense that she would care about their whereabouts.

(And why for the love of Pete was Henry immune to the curse? I don’t think they ever addressed that. He wasn’t under the first one because he was brought to town later on, but there’s no obvious reason why he should have kept his real memories this time around.)

(While I’m at it, how in hell did she still have Gideon’s heart? She and Rumple were supposed to have been allies as of a couple episodes ago; there’s no way he would have made any deal without securing that.)

None of what Fiona did makes sense for the Black Fairy, but it would have been very much in keeping with Regina’s past actions. (Yes, even down to harming Henry. This is a woman who killed the thing she loved the most.) Even Fiona’s costuming was identical to Regina’s look in S1.

I’m too irritated by it to even really discuss Regina and Rumple’s ending for this season. Suffice to say that they got everything they ever wanted -- twice over in Regina’s case -- and I will never stop being bitter about it. What was even going on with Rumple here? Is being the Dark One irrelevant now? Because if he’s been 100% able to make good decisions this entire time, curse or no curse, and just couldn’t be arsed until this very moment, that blows up another enormous piece of show mythology.

Moving on before my blood pressure kills me.

In my opinion, most of this finale’s mess comes from chickening out with Regina. The rest of it falls out as a consequence of that decision. Having slotted the Black Fairy in for her at the last moment, having decided to make this a metaphorical battle and not a literal one, they had the problem of what do with all of the other characters. I suspect the decision went like “leaving them in Storybrooke would mean re-establishing their cursed identities for viewers who haven’t seen them in five seasons, and it would mean creating all new curse identities for some of them, so let’s just send them off to the EF and, um, they can do absolutely nothing useful there.” The Captain Charming scene was cute as far as it went, but it was also useless, and that dialog was flat-out terrible.

That entire half of the finale was pointless. Literally nothing was accomplished there that had any effect. In order to make all that nothing look like a very urgent something, the writers came up with this “Emma’s lack of belief will destroy all the lands” hack at what was obviously the last possible moment, and I say that because it is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION of the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

We literally spent all of S1 and onward having it explained that what we think of as stories have objective existence in other worlds, that these people and these realms are real, with their own long and complicated history independent of our own; we only know of them because of the storybooks. Now all of the sudden they only exist if one particular person believes in them? What about the first 28 years of Emma’s life, when she didn’t believe in anything? What about the worlds she’s never been to, never interacted with? Stuff that happened before she was born? The history of the Authors, Mr Disney included? All of those other storybooks from the last hack job of a season finale?

The idea that the final battle is an internal one is fine in itself, but then what makes it final? Why was the Black Fairy involved at all? Why has it been six years and we’re still talking about whether Emma Swan believes in magic? Shouldn’t the “final” battle revolve around everything that has happened to her SINCE that moment, not take us back to just before it happened? What narrative purpose does isolating her from everyone except Henry - again! - serve?

It wasn’t even really a battle; the curse didn’t capitalize on any weakness in Emma’s character. We just rewound the tape to the S1 finale so she could make the exact same decision she made then -- to leave -- and then convince herself to come back sans apple tart-induced trauma? Was that supposed to be the big pivotal thing, that she came back on her own? Because that was pretty fucking drastically underplayed, and also pretty far from definitive. Emma could get her memories wiped tomorrow (and given this show, probably will), and we’d do the same thing all over again. The fact that they didn’t even feel a need to show her moment of deciding to act on screen says everything, I think.

And then we have the concluding fight, which defies explanation. One thing this show has generally done a good job with is parallelism, but here of all places it fell flat. Everything about the “climax” felt perfunctory at best. They introduced the vision of the fight with Gideon in 6.01, therefore they had to revisit it in the finale, even if it made no particular sense to do so (nothing about Gideon has made sense). This fight happened because a dead character who had no established reason for doing anything she did gave a pointless character an order that didn’t make any sense in the first place; Emma had to “die” purely because the writers said she would six months ago. As an action and as a scene, it accomplished nothing.

Having previously established that the sword was a real sword that would cut people, they hand-waved that and gave it a magical effect instead, allowing Emma to be struck down and then wakened by TLK. The TLK with Henry at the end of S1 was one of the most hard-fought-for scenes I have personally ever seen in any medium, with an entire season of loving development leading up to it; this one felt like a distant echo through a mile of aluminum ducting. Henry has barely even been in this season, hasn’t had a good episode for his character since 6.08. His relationship with Emma in particular has been on the back burner since “The Other Shoe.” The two of them didn’t even get a good spotlight in this episode what with all of the side action in the Enchanted Forest and with Rumple and so on. That kiss didn’t bring anything new to the story.

And so here we are, if not at the end of the story, at least at the end of a significant chapter.

Adam and Eddy wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes of this show, back in the day. At this point, I have to say that while they might make solid staff writers, they have no business running a show. They don’t care about consistency from one season or sometimes even one episode to the next, their creative toolbox appears limited in scope, their writing is self-indulgent, and they’re apparently not willing to follow through -- of their own accord -- on events that should have significant in-character consequences. The result is a finale that very nearly systematically trashes every piece of moral and magical world-building that was still standing after six seasons -- and which I feel comfortably certain will be ignored when the show goes into S7.

All of that said, I do want to end this on a positive note. I have over the past few years very much enjoyed the story of Emma Swan, the ugly duckling who thought she would never have a family, the lost princess who gave up on love, the hardass with her box of sentimental treasures -- the mother, daughter, sheriff, swordswoman, sorceress, leader, lover, and all of the other jackets she’s worn across the years, leather and otherwise, in the end a fully realized woman with a whole heart and a happy future ahead of her. That’s a story I will never get tired of, and for that I offer my gratitude.

To all of you reading this, I would like to say thank you as well, for the many hours of diverting conversation, for the moving and hilarious commentary, and for the friendships that have grown up from this unexpected ground. May your supplies of fic never run dry.

#b thinks about once upon a time #ouat #ouat 6x21 #ouat 6x22

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l0nd0ninnit · 7 years

Text

Bonkai Reunion 8x14 (part 2)

Ok, I know you’ve been waiting for an analysis of this scene and I am ready to deliver. I want you all to know that it is almost impossible to convey in words the level of excitement I feel when I write about this scene but just know that with each word I type, there is a smile on my face that can’t be removed. Like this reunion scene is not even close to what I had imagined or would have wanted their last scene to be, but DAMN...Kat and Chris’ acting/chemistry made what could have been a mediocre scene, a scene full of depth and sexual tension. I mean how many actors can make you feel the intangible connection and sexual tension between their characters when they are on opposite sides of a bar?!! HOW MANY?!! I would be lying if I said I only watched this scene multiple times to analyse because the truth is, I can’t get enough of it. So without further ado

Part 2 of the analysis, The Game:

Keep in mind that when Kai sees Bonnie, he is absolutely unaware that she has put him in another prison world for about a third of their conversation. So imagine his perception of the situation when she saunters in the bar and teases him with cheeky responses which is a drastic change from how she reacted a day ago to his return. A day ago, she wanted nothing to do with him. Now she is actually talking to him in the flesh. And what is more, she has chained him to a chair in a bar (side eye *smirk* smirk*) and they are alone! He is in the spotlight. She is in the shadows and as she speaks, she slowly walks towards him...there is nothing about this scenario that doesn’t seem sexual. It is like electricity. It is intense and there is this constant feeling of anticipation. And not only that, but her behaviour is different in a way that he can’t quite put his finger on.

It has been years yet she is more confident than ever! She is relaxed and very comfortable in his presence. No attempts to chop his head off yet so everything is looking good. Kai is probably thinking wtf is happening? This must be a dream. Of course, by the end of the scene, we know exactly why Bonnie behaves like this, but the above gif is an example of what he is feeding off of. Hence, the reason he has this look on his face:

Kai is intrigued by Bonnie’s behaviour and the unusual setting she chose for them to have this chat. He is trying so hard to contain the joy he feels when he sees her with very little success. He knows that she is playing a game. He doesn’t exactly know what her intentions are, but by the looks of it, it seems to be going in the right direction if you know what I mean. ;) Therefore, he is willing to sit back, get comfortable in his chains and let her play it out, because her behaviour in this moment is the reason why she is the only person he still has a soft spot for. It is like seeing her again, after five years in Hell, has only confirmed why she has always meant something to him.

So when Bonnie says that Hell no longer exists and he responds:

He is not trying to be condescending; there is low-key admiration in that voice and expression. He isn’t surprised that she helps kill Cade but still, she ceases to amaze him. His tone is soft and honestly he views this entire interaction as some kind of mental foreplay that they always do with each other.

I mean at this point he could reveal that Katherine takes over Hell, but what is the fun in that? Why stop the game when he doesn’t know how it will end? For all he knows, there could be hate-sex waiting for him at the end of this. He doesn’t know so he prolongs it with banter. It is like a mystery he has to solve.

Oooo what has Bonnie Bennett planned for me today?

After all, Kai loves games and no one plays games with him quite like Bonnie does.

His next line of action is to spew out one-liners to feel her out. He wants to get this game going, put some spice in it. Suss out what her intentions are

And with each line, the sexual subtext becomes less and less subtle:

This line seems innocent enough but it is also unnecessary. Kai knows Bonnie will not let him loose so why say it? Yes, it could be interpreted as him being clever but remember, underneath that banter, there is a lot of sexual tension. I mean Bonnie literally chuckles in response and the camera suddenly (to my chagrin tbh) goes to a wide-shot where we can’t see their faces but we do see all the red and Bonnie walking towards him...so I would infer if this wasn’t CW but HBO, the line would read: Let me loose, and I’ll totally finger blast you. And you can fight me on that

And then Kai is like....

You know what, let’s stop mucking about and let me get to the question that has been on my mind since you walked in... are you here to

...because I was totally getting that BDSM vibe from you and i’m literally in chains soooo...if that is what you planned to do then I just want to tell you that I’m ready. My body is prepared and I’m ready for you to punish me *wink*

And then Bonnie says

which basically makes Kai go mad with lust. If he wasn’t hard before, he is definitely hard af now. To Kai, this is Bonnie just trying to outdo him in their mental chess game and the fact that she is using his own method of delivery to threaten him (such as the head tilts and similar facial expressions) turns him on. In gif form he is like...

HOLY FUCK! SHE IS SOOO HOT! She just took our mental foreplay to a new level! Using my own fears against me...that is something I would do! Is this woman real? I need to up my game

*lowers voice a full octave, husky tone, bedroom eyes*

^Oh Bon, you naughty girl. You know that is not possible so let’s stop with the chit-chat and get to the frick frack.

Look at his facial expression, tone and mannerisms, without any context, what would your caption be?

Does it look like a man that:

Is turned on?

Is thinking about sex?

Thinks this conversation will end with Bonnie revealing that she created another prison world specifically for him?

yes, yes, and no. He thinks he is playing the battle of wits, for fuck sakes. He knows Bonnie is smart, but he doesn’t think she would waste her energy making an ascendant when it has been years since they interacted and he hasn’t tried to hurt her.

As soon as he sees the ascendant tho, he realises he should have seen this coming. All the qualities he adores about her are the very qualities that would allow for this to happen. He attacked her friends and attempted to kill the twins (*rolls eyes* I blame Plec), so of course Bonnie Bennett would create another prison world to protect the people she loves.

And yet, the shock is still there He clenches his jaw to maintain his composure, but he is internally spazzing out. Despite their bad history, he thought this would end differently. He knew she was playing a game but he didn’t think it was that type of game (if that makes sense). She made her final move and checkmate him

The anger starts to appear when he realises that he has been in Bonnie’s prison world for their entire conversation. And now, each word that leaves her mouth cuts into him like a knife

He is scared, he is fuming but most of all, he is hurt which is surprising because he is supposedly free of emotion now

See the look he gives Bonnie and the deep intake of breath^

It is as if he is thinking

Fantastic! We are that Bonnie and Kai again. 1994 prison world Bonkai... we play mind games and then hurt each other at the end of it. She is still punishing me for what I did to her in 6x22.

And what surprised me is that his initial response is not to return the favour, but to plea for Bonnie to stay. It is true that his fear is to be in another prison world, but his worst fear is to see the only person he cares about, Bonnie, once again leave him like in 6x17. He is far too vulnerable in this moment to think of his next ‘chess’ move or even hide the power she has over him.

It is only a flicker tho He wasn’t suppose to show Bonnie that he cares

Part 3: How the tables turn

@bonkai-legacy @albion19 @bonkai-diaries @ohh-my-josh @animelifecx @ms-ss

(None of the gifs used in this post are mine. Here are the links to the original gifsets: X, X, X, X, X. Please take a moment to reblog the original gifset if you haven’t already. It takes time to make gifsets and I am sure the creator will appreciate the love. :) )

Part 1

#bonkai #kai parker #bonnie bennett #bonkamily #meta #tvd

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