people throwing women under the bus in the name of barbie feminism...😭

It's pretty intense to get hit by a car and then try to watch almost any movies or TV shows or read almost any books. It really is amazing how prevalent car crashes are in fiction. And usually it is one of those things that doesn't have consequences in the story, or the consequences are really random and not grounded in reality. I've also noticed that even if the story treats the car crash with gravitas, then it's something the commentators and reviewers tend to mock and make jokes about. This makes it really weird to engage with people about the stories, especially online. Like I hate to be a stick in the mud but car crashes suck a lot, and people aren't stupid or weak because they got hit by a car.

Since it's basically impossible to avoid car crashes if you like fiction, I have to sort them in my head into "this story is stupid, don't let it bother me" (it does anyway) or "this story is good, maybe it will help me get over my trauma" (results unclear).

Picard got hit by a car shortly before I did, and the consequences in the next episode were boring filler. It is a shame how much it affected me and made me disappointed in Trek. Of course "City on the Edge of Forever" makes the whole world turn around a car crash; this episode once again carries the whole franchise on its back. In the opposite way, the iconic scene in the first Twilight just got 100x more effective (if only I had a vampire boyfriend to save me), and the motorcycle crash in the second got 100x more annoying (girl wtf). The near-miss in silly cartoon "The Cat Returns" scared me more than Ghibli meant it to, and it hurts (in a good way?) to even think about Dani and Riley's backstories in my favorite Mike Flanagan shows, and Ken's in Digimon 02. The book I'm currently reading, "The Dark Forest" by Liu Cixin, does not pull any punches with its car crashes, nor on their profound emotional consequences to protagonist Luo Ji. "The Great Gatsby" seems even more fucked up, in a way Fitzgerald must have intended, especially now that I've learned more about the gruesome ubiquity of car crashes in the previous 20s. Then there are isekai trucks and the surprise! crashes in PSAs and "Mean Girls," stupid things that aren't supposed to trigger people but obviously do. I've posted before about George Lucas' car crash plus his unshaken love of cars and how that affects his movies; at least there is poor Shmi Skywalker, though she gets over her worries without too much trouble. And of course, there's Downton Abbey.

I don't really have a protest or a call to action; it's just something that affects everything for me now. I guess I wish writers would be more careful, but of course people can write whatever they want -- all my examples are pretty damn popular -- and I can't blame anyone for taking the piss out of such an unfair and inescapable reality, or trying to graft some non-existent but comforting moral truth onto it.

at the risk of being cancelled, here are the things about barbie 2023 that i do actually think are bad:

alan's scream on the beach when ken bounces off of the waves is obnoxious. i get that it's supposed to be a childish overreaction (bc the barbies and kens (and presumably alan too, but... maybe not? another question for another time) are extensions of the children who play with them in the real world), but it's just. too much. too loud, too shrill. no thank you.

barbie's scream on the beach when barbie's feet become flat. see above.

at the end of barbie's and weird barbie's first conversation, weird barbie is holding a snowglobe in front of her face and telling barbie she needs to fix the portal. she says, "what's ugly will become uglier, and what's weird will become weirder," and then suddenly lowers the snowglobe, causing barbie to scream. weird barbie pouts, then says, "it's okay. i understand. i set myself up for that." that's bad writing. weird barbie did LITERALLY set herself up for that reaction from barbie. there is no other reason to phrase your vague threat like that. the other barbies call you weird barbie behind your back and also to your face, it's not like you don't know what your whole deal is (at the end of the movie, she says, "it's okay, i'm owning it" of her weirdness). better writing would have been to have her laugh at barbie's scream. but apparently not being ready for the punchline of the joke you yourself set up is bad writing. i'm sorry.

the construction crew scene, unfortunately, also is bad writing - sort of. it's two good ideas that don't go well together, is more accurate. 1: the all-male crew catcalling her overlapping each other's voices, with barbie getting that they're being rude, but not understanding the double entendres is funny; it would end as the scene does in the first place, with her and ken continuing down the sidewalk, barbie feeling more and more unsettled while ken feels more and more cocksure. 2: the all-male crew catcalling her overlapping each other's voices, with barbie understanding what they're all insinuating, causing her to respond with, "ken and i don't have genitals." If barbie doesn't understand their double-entendres, why does she inform them they don't have genitals? it just doesn't make sense, and in an otherwise very well-written movie, the flop lines really really stick out

in the scene where ken is trying to get all the jobs in the real world, the last one is him talking to a lifeguard (which is NOT the job he's applying for). but ryan gosling turns WAY too soon in the line read. to work, the scene should go: "ken tries to get a job at a beach (his job back in barbieland), and after the lifeguard turns him away, hw storms off while screaming 'you cant even beach here!!!'." but the way the scene as is goes is: "ken tries to get a job at a beach, and turns to storm off the moment the lifeguard opens his mouth to turn him away." and there's a cut between two shots in that interaction, too, both of which have ken turning RIGHT as the reply is made, which makes me think that was just how it was made(/directed?). if it were a half-second of a pause, it'd be smoother. that line read and reaction jumps out at my literally every time i watch this movie (which, if you're keeping up, is saying something).

the john cena cameo. i don't get the joke, and i feel like it feels... borderling problematic? we hadn't seen any mermaid kens prior to the ken takeover, but we had seen four mermaid barbies. now we have a mermaid barbie and a super-muscular overly-masculine mermaid ken. it's clearly meant to be a joke, but is the joke that "mermaid kens never show up, but now they are, bc barbieland is being taken over by kens"? is it that kenergy is turning barbies into kens? i don't get the joke, and i'm going to blame the movie and not myself. it is therefore on the "bad" list.

all the mattel shit after the board run off in different directions on venice beach, having realized that barbie has taken two humans into barbieland. this would have been a good final scene for them to be in: they are unaware of the ken havoc about to occur, they play no actual part in the story at all, they just are laughably self-serious and yet laughably pointless the whole movie, and then they end by running off in different directions. good ending. the next part they're in is the irl ceo of mattel paying greta gerwig and/or her husband to make him look like a good guy in her movie, and i hate it. it's the worst part of the whole movie. "but the money's flowing in sir!" "I don't only care about money! i care about money, AND about being a good person!" which is like. ok dude you're gonna rub your dick raw there. the tandem bike a little later is a fun sight gag, and the fact that one of the board members gets shot by a gun in barbieland is very funny, but truthfully if they'd have just stopped being in the movie at that venice beach scene, i'd have forgotten about them by the end of the movie. instead, i do have to have a, "yes, a larger-than-preferred section of the film IS whitewashing a company, but..." conversation occasionally when talking about barbie 2023, instead of just having fun talking about barbie 2023.

they shouldn't have actually shown the clip of pride and prejudice. if you get the overwatching depression joke, you've seen pride and prejudice. it was just unnecessary.

once again, weird barbie's response to barbie calling her ugly and unwanted. she should have broadened her grin to an unsettling degree and said, "Welcome, sister."

they should have given earring magic ken a cock ring necklace. if they could do the boob-growing doll in the name of accuracy, they could have easily made that doll wear a cock ring. cowards.

yeah once again the mattel execs being there are the end. at MOST, they could MAYBE have been in the background, part of the crowd waving at barbie when she leaves with ruth, and thanking her. any relevant line will ferrell says could have been taken by another character.

Hiya!! How are you doing? How's the holiday going so far? Best be resting that ankle, my sir. Just because you can "walk" on it, that don't mean you should. So please, get plenty of rest, eh.

I'm so sorry for taking so long to send you my thoughts on the latest updates!! It's been a hectic day for sure but I'm so glad that I had a moment to sit down and read these AMAZING pieces.

Ruin Our Friendship

👀👀👀👀👀 OOOOHHOOOO indeed. Baby, I will ruin our friendship so fucking hard right the fuck now. You just give me the time, day, and place.

Tommy takes off his shirt, like the slut he is, right in front of Y/N... my sir you know what you are doing.

Y/N sitting there like: yup, good. Everything looks good and proper but let me just keep ogling you a moment, you know as your friend, because it is of utmost import that I ensure those tattoos and rippling muscles are in prime fucking condition. So please, allow us to conduct our work in a professional manner, thank you.

"Did I do something wrong?" [...]

You shook your head. "You? No. You've always been great, Tommy. Always… it's me."

JSKSHSHSKJSHSK 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭 Stop. No. Stop.

Ahaha *incoherent noises* They just grabbed this man and were like: I know I was the one being like, this'll ruin our friendship but imma just slam you into this bed with me. That sound good, love?

He grunted softly, rutting against you as you copied every movement; his breath was harsh and heavy as he pressed his forehead against the mattress, his lips right by your ear as you moaned his name softly.

Oh my lords, oh my gods, oh fucking fuck shit .... 👁👁 someone get me some water because I am parcccchhhhed!!!

Fucking woof.

Cinema Dates

Bonus points for naming the films and premier outfit Eddie is wearing. Challenge accepted, my good sir, challenge accepted 😈😈!!

👀 A double feature, eh? Wonder what they could be?? Hmmmmm. I haven’t a clue. It really is a thinker, that. Yeah, a real thinker... 🤔🤔🤔

you wore a nice black suit with a olive green shirt and a tie that Eddie had bought you a long time ago that had little flying saucers on it. Eddie, on the other hand, wore a dull pastel pink blazer with matching trousers, a pair of white shoes, and a light pink shirt; he even bought a necklace with your first initial on it that was pink and in the font of the film.

EEEHEHEHEH THAT IS SO FUCKING CHEESY AND CUTE!!! I love it when people dress up for the movies and just have fun with it! Makes it a whole event and I cannot emphasize just how much I love going to the theater and watching a film on the big screen. Just a whole different experience.

That was so good that they were able to have a cute little date night but that Venom had a safe word in case it all became too much. I love that giant symbiote.

"I blame Eddie," Venom said matter of factly. "He's such a Ken."

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yeah, Eddie. What the hell man?! Why did you not paint Venom half pink, eh? The giant symbiote deserves to dress up the same as you!

Venom only ever felt Eddie being content when he was around you. When he had time with you. Venom often felt the same, and when Eddie relaxed, Venom did, too. Their favourite person in the world.

🥹🥹🥹🥹 me feels. Me feels they do be feeling HARD 🖤🩷🖤💛🖤🩷🖤🩶🖤!!!! 🤧🤧🤧🤧😫😫😫😫

Now for my bonus points, mate ... the films: Oppenheimer and Barbie. Eddie's premier look: a one Mr. Canadian actor Ryan Fucking Gosling (and yes, this is his legal name 😂).

All my days, though, Eddie in that look .... is sending me to the ER. Holy hell is he gonna look so bloody cute (and hot) in that suit. The slutty little button pops, exposing his tattoos..... 😶😶😶🫠 And Y/N, bloody A+++ with their fit for sure.

AHAHAHAH!!!! These were both awesome and made me feel giddy for two very different reasons. The first: hot, hot, HOT. The second: unbelievably full and soft, just all around warm and fuzzy 🥰🥰.

Thank you so much, my dear, for writing both of these and sharing your amazing talents with us!! Bloody love your mind, you creative bastard (very lovingly 🫶🏾).

🖤🖤🖤

🐍anon

hi!!! I'm doing well, thank you, I've got my next tattoos booked so I'm happy lmfaooooo I HAVE been resting my ankle! I promise! I just... won't be resting it for the next few days bc I still gotta work lmao but my next day off is when I get my tattoos done, so it'll be fine! I'll have a day of rest then!

that's absolutely okay!!! take as much time as you want/need!! I'll still be here when you get back lmao

Ruin Our Friendship

Tommy taking off his shirt as if he has absolutely no idea that he's been watching and checked out like... suuuuuure you don't, lad.

poor reader's sitting there debating the risks while Tommy acts like it's all fine and dandy 😭

they both took "ruin the friendship" to a whole new level 💀 they just immediately went "nah, fuck it" lmfao

the dry humping..... lads..... hate to break it to y'all, but uhm... that friendship is DEFINITELY ruined lmfao like MASSIVELY. just fuck already.

Cinema Dates

a double feature..... hmmm could be anything ig 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

they're having so much fun w it honestly, like, the coordinated outfits are ONE THING, but the necklace??? the tie??? just brings it all together and makes it more fun. Venom definitely picked out the tie when it originally purchased tho.

ofc they want Venom to feel safe and like he can actually admit it's too much - they ARE a throuple, after all. or a couple + their alien bf. depends how you wanna look at it but either way, all 3 of them are dating lmao

BARBIE VENOM (Barbon? Venbie?), BARBIE VENOM, BARBIE VENOM!!!!

the 3 of them make a fuckin GREAT poly relationship tbf; it's all about that mutual respect and love + having fun. just as Barbie intended.

bonus points: YES, it was Barbenheimer!! I hoped it would be obvious from the black + pink aesthetic dhfkskfkskfks

and YES! IT'S RYAN GOSLING'S PREMIERE LOOK!! even down to the NECKLACE.

════════════════════════════════════

I'm so, so, SO GLAD to hear that you enjoyed them 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 and you're so welcome!!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Bang Bang, Kiss Kiss

First Kiss HC

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: None, mention of cliché teen-romance tropes

Characters: Manjiro Sano, Ken Ryuguji, Chifuyu Matsuno, Keisuke Baji

❧ Manjiro Sano (Mikey)

Your first kiss with Mikey would be the worst day of your life

I mean it. You even thought about moving countries afterwards

You see…Mikey is not the easiest person to be in a relationship with

You would have to initiate most of the “normal” relationship stuff

And taking the first step with someone like Mikey can be intimidating

Depending on the situation you are in he might even stop you and your attempts, e.g., when you try anything in the middle of a Toman meeting. He has no problem calling you out

So, you would have to plan it beforehand and get the timing right

You would have to be alone, like after he took you out on his bike. A quiet moment where he is your Mikey completely and not Toman’s invincible leader

A warm summer night sounds just perfect, doesn’t it?

you gather all your courage, sweaty palms, shaky breath, every possible emotion and thought in your racing mind

You’d both be leaning against his bike, watching the night sky when you turn towards him, take his face between your palms, giving him a soft peck.

Your initial determination crumbled when he did not respond the slightest. He was frozen in place and a million and one different things went through your head, with the conclusion that you’d have to convince your parents to move out of Tokyo

Thinking your life was over, you turned around to run away, like the girls in your typical teen-movies, but something or someone kept you in place

You hadn’t noticed him holding your wrist, so your only way of escaping the situation was to look away

Mikey didn’t understand why you’d kiss him only to run away afterwards

He didn’t really know what to do next, cue to him giving you a peck that reflected yours, short and sweet

now you were both speechless

„Ahh, I’m sleepy.“

“What?”

That’s how he lightened the situation

You never talked about it afterwards, but little pecks in private became a ritual for you two

❧ Ken Ryuguji

your first kiss would happen sometime after you started dating

as I have states before, I do think Ken has both, experience and maturity, so he would be in no rush at all and give you full control of the pace your relationship develops

but he is good at reading you, so he understands when you are ready depending on the signals you give him

let’s say he brought you home after a late-night adventure (walking through shibuya and enjoying the atmosphere, yes please)

when it is time to say goodbye, you would give him the usual hug, wrists locked behind neck while standing on your tiptoes

he hugs you back, arms around your waist and his head on yours

you could have stood there for hours, but as all good things, even this one had to end. so you let go of each other, slowly.

your hands barely hold onto his shoulder, you can't stop looking into each others eyes, a fond smile on his lips, your reddened cheeks, that would be the moment for the both of you

you meet in the middle, your lips on his upper lip, while he kissed your lower lip

he holds you up, even lifts you a bit, since the pure ecstasy of the moment makes your legs all wobbly

best boy to have your first kiss with, will make you feel so comfortable and loved

when you both let go you once again can’t help but stare at each other (the loving way) and there is no reason for any of you to be embarrassed, so there is no shame between you, only fondness

❧ Chifuyu Matsuno

Inexperienced, but eager to try and willing to learn, that’s Chifuyu for you

Small steps to test the water, to find out, if you want him to kiss you and because forehead, cheek and nose kisses are not as hard as kisses on the lips

His very first physical interaction with you would be hand holding, once you made it through that, cheek kisses will follow shortly

Would happily accept you to be the one initiating it, but has no problem doing it himself. He doesn’t see cheek kisses as a “girls only” thing. 

It is a sign of affection, but would use it as a way to make the whole matter more playful, e.g., to tease you in front of your friends

Forehead kisses as a sign of his support and to comfort you, nose kisses to make you laugh

Plans to make your first kiss romantic and enjoyable for you...

Only for it to happen on accident while he tried to tease you with a cheek kiss

You noticed him behind you, but you were in a conversation with your friend

Your back to his chest, you thought he would rest his head on your shoulder, like he usually does, so you planned to greet him with the obligatory cheek kiss

Problem was, he planned to do the same

Long story short, you were met with soft lips and the very surprised face of your Chifuyu

The situation was so funny, your friend had to turn around to stop herself from laughing, since the both of you stood there, frozen in place, staring at each other and it was the most unromantic moment ever

Yet no one moved

Until the both of you broke out into laughter at the same time

It started with an embarrassed chuckle and turned into holding-my-stomach-because-of-the-pain laughter

“You should have seen yourself, looking like a frog.”

“Says the one who stared at me like a fish out of water”

 ❧ Keisuke Baji

Baji is the type to do something before thinking about it, so it would be that way with your first kiss as well

Wouldn’t know what to do at all – when, where, how, its a mystery to him

He sees it like a battle he needs to get over with to reach the next level, and after enough teasing from his friends, who have more experience than he does, he would finally do it

At the worst possible moment, of course

Like, right in the middle of the school hallway or just before an important exam

Because Keisuke Baji is determined to do things once he has made up his mind about them, no matter what

A loud “Oi” would make you (and many other people around you) turn around

He aims straight for you, long steps, flowing hair, a determined gaze – kinda scary and kinda attractive

One deep breath once he stood in front of you, before he lowered his head and just went for it

Your first kiss was far from what you imagined it to be

Keisuke put way too much force into it, simply pressing his lip on yours like it would do the job, while holding your arms to keep you in place

He pressed his eyes together while you looked at him with yours wide open, completely taken by surprise

It would end as soon as it happened, him removing his lips from yours, freeing you from your trap

You’re both speechless, and that was the moment Baji noticed your surroundings and your visible surprise for the first time

He blushed like a little boy

And hated himself for it

Cue to him trying to leave the scene, with you, of course

Since it happened very early in your relationship (or even before you entered said relationship) it was an interesting experience for the both of you

was way more uncomfortable than you were after realizing what he did, and, god, did he look cute, being all bashful

Like a little schoolboy, your little schoolboy

He fully blames his friend for the outcome (and might even beat them up, playfully)

what do you think of this? I’m not as satisfied as I hoped to be when I first began writing this...I don’t know...Are they out of character? Am I too insecure? I’m so sorry if this hasn’t turned out too good.

Rosalie🌹

Melody Time (1948)

Disengaged and disinterested, Walt Disney was adrift at his own studio in the late 1940s. The studio’s modestly-budgeted package animated features were designed to save it from financial ruin. Yet, they required artistic and storytelling compromises that Disney was loathe to make. In this period, Disney shuffled personnel around the various departments – whether due to personal conflicts or dissatisfaction with their artistic approach on a certain film. Melody Time’s segments are of varying quality and limited experimentation, reflecting the organizational tumult within the studio. No standout moment exists in Melody Time, even though it is more energetic and looser than the preceding Fun and Fancy Free (1947).

The modern Walt Disney Company has advertised Melody Time as a film, “in the grand tradition of Disney’s greatest musical classics, such as Fantasia.” Audacious comparison to make, but functionally inaccurate. Fantasia, as imagined by Walt Disney, Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski, and the studio’s animators, was crafted so that its animation would empower the music (in cinema, the reverse – where music serves the action on-screen – is almost always a filmmaker’s approach). The reverse of that relationships holds here. Melody Time contains these seven segments, or “mini-musicals”: “Once Upon a Wintertime”, “Bumble Boogie”, “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”, “Little Toot”, “Trees”, “Blame It on the Samba”, and “Pecos Bill”. Some of these mini-musicals are more watchable and more artistically interesting than others – although that standard is relatively low in Melody Time.

“Once Upon a Wintertime” is based on an overused Disney narrative template that never ceases to be a bore. A young couple are out and about, flirting and flitting, all while the woodland animals scurrying back and forth mirror human courtship. The segment, however, is partially redeemed by Frances Langford singing the segment’s title song (composed by Bobby Worth and Ray Gilbert) and the unmistakable influence of Mary Blair (1950’s Cinderella, the “It’s a Small World” attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim) in its aesthetic. With any piece of animation involving Mary Blair, one can expect an eye-catching use of color and her modernist art style. “Once Upon a Wintertime” is like a holiday card brought to animated life. Unlike a picturesque and meaningful holiday card, though, it overstays its welcome. But the stereotypical treatment of the young women appearing in “Once Upon a Wintertime” is, to put it mildly, clichéd writing at best. Hackneyed, too, is the fact that the woodland animals come to the human’s rescue.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee is one of the most recognizable (and overplayed) pieces of Western classical music, even to those folks who go out of their way to announce their distaste for classical music. Given a jazz rendition by the Freddy Martin Orchestra, “Bumble Boogie” is a thankfully brief three-minute foray. Here, an insect (that does not seem anything like a bee) flies through a series of surreal images – mostly parts of musical instruments (piano keys in particular) – that it must avoid. The segment is visually entertaining to watch, even if it must have been the easiest to prepare, design, and animated for in all of Melody Time. If placed in either Fantasia or Fantasia 2000, it would easily be the weakest Fantasia segment ever produced.

Third in the film is a segment that feels most like a classic Disney production. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” is Disney’s glorified and sanitized take on the eponymous American pioneer, nurseryman, conservationist, and missionary. Walt’s personal ideology and perspective on American history included the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny and the taming of the nation’s wilds as among humanity’s greatest achievements. These are notions that Walt – through his films, theme parks, television shows, and public and private remarks – never questioned. Narrated and with Johnny Appleseed voiced by Dennis Day, there is a sincerity to Johnny’s characterization not present anywhere else in the movie. Again, Mary Blair’s artwork – this time, her forested backgrounds – appears as if heaven-sent. The umbrella-like canopy of the apple trees and “untamed” forests are inviting, and attract one’s eyes upward – towards the apples, paradise.

The title song (sometimes referred to as “The Lord is Good to Me”) featured in the opening moments of “The Legend of Appleseed” is one of the earliest – and one of the few – mentions or depictions of religious faith in a Disney animated work. It reinforces the mythos that surrounds Johnny Appleseed (and, by extension, the belief that white men are divine heroes for civilizing the lands west of the original Thirteen Colonies) to the present day. I was not raised in any of the Abrahamic religions, but it difficult to deny the simple charm of the title song and this segment – even if it endorses a troublesome perspective on American history. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” is the best segment of Melody Time – from its unassuming storytelling and wondrous animation. It is the only Melody Time segment that I could possibly envision as a decent feature-length animated film.

Based on a 1939 children’s picture book of the same name Hardie Gramatky, “Little Toot” is a chore to sit through. The segment shares similar narrative and aesthetic tissue with Saludos Amigos’ (1942) “Pedro”, which concerned an anthropomorphic mail airplane that thinks it could. Along the Hudson River in New York City, Little Toot is a tiny tugboat who aspires to be like his father Big Toot. Just as in “Pedro”, this is a case of an anthropomorphized vehicle child who attempts to assume adult responsibility in order to prove that they can perform tasks as well as the adults can. Given that Little Toot is a meddling prankster playing tugboat games, it is difficult to feel much sympathy when he finally faces the consequences of his actions – which probably includes calamitous infrastructural damage and human casualties. Of course, Little Toot is eventually redeemed through some heroic deeds. All of the tugboats will love him, as they belt out with glee that Little Toot will go down in history. The segment is grating, including the novelty title song sung by The Andrews Sisters. Aside from some fascinating water effects, there is not much that “Little Toot” offers in the way of animated interest. Otherwise, it is least interesting segment of the film.

The palate-cleanser is “Trees”, a four-minute segment based on Joyce Kilmer’s poem of the same name (music composed by Oscar Rasbach and performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians). Its aesthetic harkens back to a few seconds near the end of the “Ave Maria” in Fantasia, but otherwise “Trees” is distinct from anything else that has appeared in the Disney animated canon. When setting to work on “Trees”, layout artist Ken O’Connor (1941’s Dumbo, 1987’s The Brave Little Toaster) found himself enamored by the concept art, and endeavored to be a faithful to the style set by the concept art as possible. To do this, O’Connor frosted cels before drawing pastel images onto the cel. Before being photographed by the studio’s multiplane camera, each cel was laminated in clear lacquer to prevent the pastel from smudging. Thanks to O’Connor’s experimentation, “Trees”, however fleeting, lays claim to some of the most beautiful animation among all of the package Disney animated features.

“Blame it on the Samba” sees a reunion of Donald Duck and Brazilian parrot José Carioca (Saludos Amigos, 1944’s The Three Caballeros) are walking about, depressed, directionless. Suddenly, they encounter the Aracuan Bird (who debuted in The Three Caballeros), who whisks them inside a cocktail that introduces them to the rhythmic pleasures of the samba. The segment’s title song is based on Ernesto Nazareth’s polka Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho, sung by The Dinning Sisters with adapted English lyrics, and accompanied by organist Ethel Smith (who appears as herself).

“Blame it on the Samba” feels like it should have been featured in either Saludos Amigos or The Three Caballeros – and that was the intention exactly. Intended to appear in Saludos Amigos, “Blame it on the Samba” was animated and completed in time for it to be incorporated in The Three Caballeros. Given Donald Duck’s lust for human women in the second half of the latter movie, “Blame it on the Samba” might have otherwise been a serviceable penultimate number in that film. The segment is an explosion of color, a kick in the rear for a movie that feels much longer than its seven-five-minute runtime might suggest. And yet in a segment for a music genre innovated in Brazil and popularized by Brazilians, the performers and the performance lack any discernible Brazilian influence or roots. This is not samba music. Instead, it is the culmination of what a white American might think samba music sounds like. This unfortunate development probably would have been avoided entirely if “Blame it on the Samba” appeared in those two aforementioned films instead.

“Pecos Bill”, based on the Texan folk hero of the same name, makes reference to American Indians in ghastly ways. Simultaneously, its absurd humor and lack of fidelity to sensible human behavior and physics make it a delight to watch. The segment also boasts the presence of Roy Rogers and the Pioneers (and Rogers’ horse, Trigger). Child actors Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll, both of whom had just starred in Song of the South (1946), make brief appearances in the segment’s hybrid animation/live-action introduction. Rogers, then contracted to Republic Pictures, was one of the quintessential stars of the singing cowboy subgenre – singing cowboy movies were almost exclusively made by the “Poverty Row” studios including Republic, and they were extremely profitable against their barebones budgets). “Pecos Bill” all begins with the atmospheric, moody “Blue Shadows on the Trail”. “Blue Shadows on the Trail” describes and, through its spare instrumentation, reflects the emptiness and desolation of the American West. It is a beautiful ballad, and could easily be placed in any Western (singing cowboy movies or otherwise).

Once the hybrid animation/live-action introduction concludes, “Pecos Bill” steams forward with comic hyperbole followed by another comic hyperbole. The title song (music by Eliot Daniel, lyrics by Johnny Lange) doubles down on the exaggerations. Those exaggerations include the segment’s constant gunplay – escaping censorship from the Hays Code: a risqué gag that includes Pecos Bill’s guns going off because of love interest Slue Foot Sue. At least Melody Time ends brashly and riotously, but any impressionable children watching will require a discussion from a trusted adult. Its depictions of American Indians and men-women relations are deplorable, but after just over an hour of inconsistent quality, I found myself enjoying “Pecos Bill” more than I imagined.

Shortly after the release of Melody Time, Walt Disney embarked on a three-week cruise to Hawai’i. Walt rarely went vacationing, and he spent these weeks fully concentrating on his family and escaping from the minutiae of managing his studio. Even after returning from Hawai’i, Walt did not spend much time in Burbank. Walt invited animator and fellow train enthusiast Ward Kimball on a trip to the Midwest. Together, they attended the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair, visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and stopped at other locations close to Walt’s childhood in the Midwest. Through the end of 1948, Walt spent more time constructing the train set in his backyard than paying attention to the animation and live-action movies his studio was producing. What seemed like idleness to many (including New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, who believed that Disney was a cinematic genius wasting his time on quixotic projects) was a major inspiration for a draft sketch entitled “Mickey Mouse Park”, dated August 31, 1948.

The package era at Walt Disney Productions (now Walt Disney Animation Studios) was nearing its end. Every film during this run – Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) – faced the same narrative of Walt Disney’s personal indifference to the projects, a lack of direction and motivation among the animators, and audience and critic dissatisfaction when compared to Disney’s Golden Age movies. A return to non-package animated features would be imminent, in spite of Melody Time’s mediocre performance at the box office. The Disney studios would attempt to begin a period of renewal with a tradition that inaugurated their animated canon – with a fairy tale.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

Hi! I know this is kind of a discourse-y topic so you don’t have to respond, but could you talk a bit more about reality shifting? I’ve seen a lot of different perspectives on this, but I’d like to hear more about it, if possible. Why do people think it’s real? Why do people think it’s fake? Do you think that it could be feasible in any form, like on a smaller scale or with technological assistance? Do you feel different about reality shifting in sleep VS moving your everyday life into another reality 24/7? Sorry about all the questions, I’m just really curious about this ^.^

I don’t mind giving it a shot, and I’m sorry it took a while to get back on this. I’ve had some bad insomnia and this isn’t the kind of thing I want to answer on 3 hours of sleep. This is going to be along one, so for the sake of everyone’s dashes, I’m going to put a keep reading here.

First we’ll take a moment to define “reality shifting”, which is getting more and more difficult to do. When I was made aware of reality shifting it was mostly as a topic of discussion on Tiktok, but there seems to be a few less popular versions elsewhere that I don’t know as much about, so we’ll be sticking to the popular Tiktok version. From my understanding, reality shifting is a spell or ritual that involves writing rules for a world you want to visit, and then while you’re alseep your soul/spirit/consciousness/(or in some versions)actual physical body is transported to an alternate reality of your own choosing. Often it’s stated repeatedly that these are not dreams in any way, but an actual shift in your metaphysical being (or physical being in some cases) to a preexisting reality that you’ve chosen. It seems important to state that you are not creating this reality, but it’s a parallel dimension of your choosing, which has it’s own history of existing long before you did. The other people are real, the laws of physics are appropriate to that reality, the actions have consequences, it is 100% as real as our reality.

So let’s go through these questions one at a time, and I’ll give some of my thoughts.

Why do people think it’s real?

Honestly, I think it’s a combination of ignorance of a lot of existing topics, escapism, and hope that there’s are better or more interesting places out there.

One of the main supporting pseudosciences is the idea that the universe in infinite in the way that there’s overlapping multiverses where everything possible happens, which just isn’t what science has told us, and Tiktok witches say it’s fairly easy to move into any of those realities. People want that to be the case, just like shows and movies where the characters explore different realities.

Even if there were overlapping multiverses, which is Hollywood’s misunderstanding of real science, I can’t imagine it would be easy to move your soul to another physical reality, that ll just happen to have a spare empty vessel waiting for you’re one time use that night. It’s hard for most people to move their consciousness outside their own body in this reality, such as remote viewing or astral projection, so casually moving to another reality seems like more than a step above that in difficulty, if possible.

Another point of ignorance is just not knowing about these other similar things, and then evolving the definition of reality shifting to specifically not be those other things once the similarities are pointed out. The current definition specifically makes a point to imply it’s not astral projection by saying you’re picking another reality that is physical and not the astral plane, and it makes sure to imply that it’s not a dream, and thus not lucid dreaming.

The last reason they think it’s real is because tiktok has a notoriously bad reputation of just following the crowd and believing what popular users say, regardless of anything really. Popular witch says it’s a thing, they believe it without question. and those who do question get buried in the comments by those who believe.

Why do people think it’s fake?

I believe it’s because it’s way too similar to other things that exist in magic and spends too much effort specifically not being those things. I think reality shifting is a combination of self hypnosis and either lucid dreaming or astral travel (depending on the person and technique used). Which is fine, that’s a great way to achieve lucid dreams or astral travel, both of which are useful tools for mental and spiritual growth, exploration, and fulfillment. But so little of it makes sense in real terms, as moving yourself to a butterfly effect universe in your sleep.

It’s the want to be a special super power which I think annoys a lot of people, especially people who already lucid dream using the same techniques.

And if it is astral travel, people don’t think it is, and they aren’t taking the precautions you should take when doing astral travel. It’s kinda dangerous from an magic point of view. And if it is just escapism via lucid dreaming, refusing to believe it’s a dream is dangerous to people’s mental health.

Do you think that it could be feasible in any form, like on a smaller scale or with technological assistance?

As it is, no. The main part I have trouble seeing possible would be the kind of reality that reality shifting aims to take you to. The concept of overlapping alternate realities is a thought experiment that is vaguely rooted in science, but everything we know about the possibility of multiverses suggests it’s just not like it is in fiction. I don’t see there being any possible way to scale it down either. It’s either a different reality, or it isn’t. You can’t scale down universe, or find an easier universe, and the amount of time doing it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I don’t see a scaled down version to pursue.

If there are alternative realities, current science says they would exist outside of this universe, which distance wise is pretty far in the 3rd dimension. Maybe someday in the incredibly distant future, where humanity becomes a Type V or Type Omega civilization on the Kardashev scale, will we be able to do that with technology, but I don’t know if that would ever be anything more than scifi too. A Type Omega civilization is theoretically meant to control their local multiverse, but even thinking about the goals of humans that far in the future seems like a wild guess.

Do you feel different about reality shifting in sleep VS moving your everyday life into another reality 24/7?

I think I do? I don’t think either are possible, but I’ve always said, if a portal opened up and could transport me to a fantasy world, I would totally jump in. At least there the decade of martial arts and swordsmanship training might be useful. But back on topic. I feel like the reality shifting in your sleep, and only in your sleep, leads back to that problem of other similar methods and desperately wanting to not “just be lucid dreaming”. Now if people were literally vanishing to live in another reality, and we could watch someone phase out of reality with our own eyes, and maybe even come back and tell us where they were, then we’d have something. But sleeping and telling me you spent the night in a physical real reality that is definitely different from lucid dreaming or astral travel, I’m just not buying it.

That all being said, philosophically I can’t say that this reality isn’t my own dream. I’ve had enough near death experiences that never made sense, so this could all be my own last moment of existence before dying, or maybe it’s an afterlife, or alternate reality. One of the greatest philosophical thoughts is about how one can know their own reality is real, and it can only really be solved with a shrug and a “I think therefore I am”.

I hope that answered your questions and you have a better idea of my personal feeling on the matter. I’m definitely not an expert on reality shifting, so I could be wrong about a lot of this, especially if we talk about people who are doing something different from the main tiktok craze. I do have very frequent lucid dreams, and I used to do a lot of astral travel, and from everything I see on tiktok, it’s just one of those two and not some fantasy magic.

Any other questions or followups, feel free to let me know. If you want some other views on it that are similar to mine, search @kens-craft‘s blog. I blame him for me ever knowing what this is. Him as his dares for me to brave witchtok.

I’ll be there for you II- Chapter 5 (previously)

A/N: It’s been a while. More like a hot second. It was much needed the time I took from writing some of my original stuff. I’ve been in a much better place and have been able to find my footing again. A special thanks to  @missclairebelle,  @kkruml, @walkinginland​ and @happytoobserve! Sometimes it really does take a village and I am so grateful to have them in mine. This chapter will be a two part arc, so hang on tight.  XO. 

The One With The First Fight Claire 

Late Tuesday Night

What was happening? I didn’t really know.

Was it something I could blame on the hormones? Probably. 

Was it something that was inevitable? Maybe.

Being with Jamie was something that was as easy as breathing. He was a missing half I hadn’t known I had even been missing. Our coming together was under less than ordinary circumstances, yet falling in love with your best friend-- that’s the thing I had heard about in movies. I had never seen myself falling for a red-headed Scot from the Highlands.

Truthfully, I hadn’t seen myself falling for anyone. Especially not when it came to the long haul. I had a plan for my life: medical school, residency, trying to save the world. I had always just had a plan for me.  I had never envisioned having to involve someone else in my hopes and dreams.

In retrospect, I had been self sufficient for so long that it almost hindered me. It was one of my greatest strengths, yet it was also my biggest flaw.  And while I had dated men off and on for long spurts, marriage had never seemed like it would happen for me. 

I also had not pictured myself becoming a mother, yet here I was. I had reached 17 weeks. The app on my phone said baby girl was the size of a pomegranate. I was starting to have some small stretch marks on my hips. My boobs were itchy and it seemed like every time I got on the scale the number just grew heavier and heavier. Not that I minded- because I didn’t. Our little lass was healthy, and that was all I could ask for.

So much had changed in my life in such a short amount of time. Things had been perfect… It was only right that something happened and a blow up occurred. The honeymoon phase couldn’t last forever.

My hand searched the vacant spot next to me. The sheets were cold and the lack of his presence set chills down my spine. He hadn’t come to bed yet- if at all. I reached for my phone and glanced at the screen - 2:08AM. No missed calls. No text messages. Nothing.

Hmmmm I mused to myself. Slowly, I got out of our bed and walked around our bedroom. No sign of the clothes he had been wearing discarded on the floor. It looked like nothing had been touched. I made my way through the living room and into the kitchen, no sign of Jamie anywhere. 

I could feel a sense of urgency and nervousness rising in the pit of my stomach. Surely nothing had happened to him- if it had, someone at the hospital would have called me.  They would. Geillis, no doubt. 

I took the plaid blanket from the edge of the couch and wrapped myself in it, waiting.

12 Hours Earlier (2:15PM) Jamie

“She hasna been home in almost 50 hours.” He looked to the right before entering the crosswalk. “I get she is a doctor, but it’s no’ just her she’s looking after now.  We have the bairn coming and I dinna think she should be on her feet this long.”

He heard John’s sigh through the phone and could picture the eye roll that went with it. “I heard you Jamie, but Claire is a smart woman. And she is a doctor… I highly doubt she would take any unnecessary risk that would cause harm to her or the child.” 

“Yer no’ helping me, man.” He clutched his phone a little tighter. “It’s my child too- I think I have some say.”

“I agree with you, friend. I think you have a right- as the father of the child- and as her boyfriend to have the discussion with her,” John let out a breath, “But remember it is her body and her career, ultimately she is the one who will make the final call.”

“I ken.” Jamie said, stopping in his tracks. He leaned against the wall behind him. “I just… I dinna want anything to happen to her or the bairn. When she’s home I can protect them but when she’s gone, I canna do a thing.” 

“That’s a natural response, Jamie. You two will find the balance- this has all been moving at a rapid pace and there’s been very little time for you or Claire to adjust.” 

“Aye” He mumbled, trying to listen to his friend. Logically he knew John was right but he was still slightly annoyed that his friend didn’t agree with him.” Weel, listen, I have to walk into a meeting here in a minute. I’ll talk to her tonight.” 

“Good luck.” John encouraged him as the call promptly ended. 

He gathered the last of his reserve, stashing his phone in his pocket and headed into his work meeting. 

                                                   ___________

He was tired- mentally, physically, emotionally. The work project he had on a deadline was wearing him out. It had been days of meetings upon meetings in person. It was late nights staring into his computer screen. 

And somehow, it was only Tuesday.

The start of the weekend hadn’t been bad. Claire had gotten home at a reasonable hour and spent the night lounging in his old shirt while watching medical documentaries on the TV. He had completed two work proposals with her feet in his lap. It had been decided they were ordering in- their favorite Thai place from right down the road. Later that night, she had fallen asleep in their bed with her head in his lap. The pressures from his job eased every moment he looked to find her presence close to his.

Saturday was a day she used to clean the apartment. Claire had turned on her 80s romcom playlist, still wearing his shirt from the night before. She hadn’t even bothered to wash her hair. He had set up camp on the dining room table. Papers and plans laid out all around him. There were no conference calls or videos to be had, but finalization of contracts and plans. 

His favorite thing about the day had been the sheer fact that Claire had decided not to wear any breeks. His shirt hung just past the bottom of her bum and every time she reached just up enough he caught a glimpse of her solid round arse. Her hips had been slowly changing becoming a wee bit wider. It was subtle and normal people wouldn’t see it- she was carrying her  pregnancy in her petite frame, yet with the changes there was just more for him to dote on.

“You like me just for my butt.” She quipped when she wiped down the last window. 

“Aye,”  He had said, closing his computer. “I am done for the day, Sassenach. It’s been the first real day we have alone and together. I dinna intend to spend it staring at yer arse, when I can fondle it.” 

“See if you can make me scream.” She challenged him. 

The next morning he woke to find her kneeling beside his side of the bed. 

“I don’t want to leave you,” She whispered, running her hands through his hair, “But I must. The hospital is short staffed and you,” she kissed the top of his nose, “Have some deadlines. I think we both are better off getting actual work done.” 

“Will ye be home, later?” His voice was husky with sleep. 

“I should be. I’m tired, I didn't really sleep last night thanks to you.” She smiled at him, her curls falling down the sides of her face.

“Mmmm, it doesna sounds like ye were complaining to me.” He reached his hand from under the covers and placed it on the small swell of her belly. “Take care of yerself, Sassenach.” 

“I’ll take care of the both of us, I promise.” She said in honesty. She placed a hand over his, squeezing it. “I know my limits.” 

The sound of her pager went off, reminding him of their goodbye. 

“I’ll call you on my break, love you!” 

It was the last thing she said as he turned over and fell back asleep.

210129 KStyle Vol. 1 ― ORβIT, the 7 members are finally together. “The short time we can be together... We are enjoying it with lots of laughs.”

Vol. 1 ― ORβIT, the 7 members are finally together. “The short time we can be together... We are enjoying it with lots of laughs.”

ORβIT is a Japanese-Korean group composed of 7 unique members. They released their long-awaited debut album in November last year, to which many fans responded with enthusiastic support. 

It has almost been a year since ORβIT was formed and announced on February 9, 2020. We asked them about the steps that led to the decision of forming the group and about the reason for their career choices as an artist.

ENG TRANSLATION BY ORBIT_INTL  Source: KStyle News DO NOT RE-USE, REUPLOAD OR RE-TRANSLATE WITHOUT PERMISSION 

― The 7 of you are finally together for the first time in a long time, but how are you spending your time together? 

HEECHO: We spend our private time just relaxing together. Watching movies late at night, having deep talks. 

YOUNGHOON: We watched the movie “Midnight Runners”, it was interesting. We watch movies where we need to hold in our laughter.

YOONDONG: We watch Netflix together, but just simply being together is fun.

HEECHO: It’s been a long time since we’ve spent time together, so we try to have a fun time together. We can’t be together for a long time, so we are enjoying it with lots of laughs. 

TOMO: We made grilled chicken skewers with a special grill for it. Heecheon-san and I were the ones in charge of the grill (laughs). Other than that, Jun and I read manga often. 

JUNE: As for “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Demon Slayer”, we even went to watch the movie and cried together. I also liked “Chainsaw Man”, which Tomo introduced me to. 

TOMO: I like the “Weekly Shonen Jump” (weekly manga anthology) type of manga, and my all-time favorite one is “Hokuto no Ken”. I’ve been re-reading it lately, and my inner child is getting excited. My favorite move is “Hokuto Shichishi Seiten” (Seven Star Points of Death). Even the sounds when the enemy loses are funny, like the famous ones “abeshi” or “hidebu”, but there’s also minor ones like “nani wo para~” (the word “what” followed gibberish), it’s the funniest. (laughs)

― You spoke at the last interview that you wanted to eat Yoondong-san’s cooking, but did that come true? 

SHUNYA: Yes, we ate it! It was so good~!

YOONDONG: I made them kimchi fried rice.

HEECHO: Wait, when? I didn’t eat any (laughs).

YOUNGHOON: When everyone left for BUGVEL’s recording, Shunya, Yoondong and I ate together.

HEECHO: We were eating takoyaki that time at the studio. I love takoyaki.

― There were some comments from overseas fans on the last interview, but are any of you studying any foreign languages? What word did you learn lately?

SHUNYA: I read Korean vocabulary books sometimes, but I watch a lot of Korean drama and I’ve been starting to understand some words that are said a lot in drama. 

HEECHO: My hands are already full from learning Japanese and I haven’t been able to learn other languages. I still need to work on my Japanese…

TOMO: But all 3 Korean members have been naturally studying Japanese, so they are very good in Japanese.

HEECHO: All the Japanese words that the members have taught me were all bad words… (laughs). 

TOMO: Hey, that’s the other way around! (laughs) I ask them to teach me Korean, but they always teach me bad words. 

HEECHO: (laughs). The world out there is dangerous these days, you need to know some strong words (laughs). 

TOMO: Other than bad words, they taught me how to say 삼겹살 주세요, which means “can I have pork belly?”

SHUNYA: (Heecho whispers something in his ear.) Just now, I learned how to say 그렇게 하면 죽도 밥도 안돼, which means “it’s going to be half-baked if you continue like this”.

TOMO: This is the type of thing they teach us (laughs). 

YUGO: 멋있지？I look cool, right? (laughs)

Everyone: Yugo is so cute~!

JUNE: The word I learned lately is “kaibyaku”. It means the beginning of the world, of time. I found it while searching for a more complicated word during the lyric writing process because the expression felt off and I thought there was another way to say it. 

HEECHO: For me, it’s “mugi to kome no nimousaku” (double cropping of rice and wheat). I learned it while studying a kanji practice book for Japanese grade school students and it left a strong impression on me. 

YOONDONG: I learned the word “kyakuashi” (customer traffic). The meaning was different from what I intended to say, but I learned the word. Is it a bad word?

TOMO: No, you can use it as “customer traffic increased, or decreased”. It’s not a bad word. 

YOUNGHOON: For me, it’s “waruagaki wo suru” (futile resistance). I resist fate in a futile way. I learned it while writing lyrics. 

What about the debut date? “I felt emotional at the CD shop… It didn’t feel real.”

― You debuted on November 11, but how does it feel like to have debuted?

HEECHO: Nothing much changed just because we debuted, but we got here as a result of pursuing what we wanted to do. That is why there wasn’t any big change, but I hope we can continue with the same mindset.

YOUNGHOON: After releasing our debut album and seeing everyone’s reactions, I thought a lot about our situation and our responsibilities and it made me feel like we need to make even better songs and show an even better version of ourselves in the future. We are preparing for our next release with utmost effort. 

― For Heecho-san, Younghoon-san, and Yoondong-san, this is your second debut. Did you give any advice to the 4 others?

HEECHO: I think it’s just a number, and there isn’t much to mind about just because it’s our second time, but there are things we can say because we have experience debuting once previously. It is the first time (for the Japanese members), so I’d like to teach them what I know. 

TOMO: I think they do have a certain emotional leeway. There were hardships until we reached our debut, but there were a lot of moments the 3 helped and cheered us up. 

YOUNGHOON: If we could do more activities, I think there is more I can teach them, but there isn’t much we can do amidst the pandemic situation… Later, when we will be able to do more, I’d like to relay more of our experience. 

― How did you spend your debut date?

YUGO: Nothing much different, we just practiced as usual.

TOMO: I think we were doing voice training.

HEECHO: The Korean members were learning choreography and practicing dance. 

YOUNGHOON: Yoondong was buying pyjamas that day (laughs).

JUNE: We were just doing lessons as usual even though it was debut date, so although I was internally excited like “today is debut date!”, I was a little bit sad that the lesson menu was hard as usual (laughs). 

SHUNYA: The Japan members had the chance to go to CD shops for greetings. I was surprised seeing that the store decorations were, very, big? It made me really happy. It didn’t feel real. 

YOUNGHOON: I saw the pictures too and it made me really happy that the shop staff wrote descriptions of our songs in so much detail. If we have the chance, I want to cook for the shop staff (laughs). 

Everyone (laughs). 

YOUNGHOON: I also read the messages from EαRTHs in the notebooks placed at the CD shops. There were a lot of messages written in hiragana so that we understand too, it made me happy. EαRTHs are really nice. 

Struggles experienced especially because they are self-produced. “Thankful for all the support from many”

― The album “00” was definitely a challenging work, like you spoke about it in the previous interview. A lot of comments from fans were sent to Kstyle too. How were the reactions from fans after the release?

Everyone: Ohh~! (Clapping)

YOUNGHOON: We’re very grateful and happy. Every song was made with a lot of attention to details, so I hope EαRTHs listen to them a lot and enjoy it.

YOONDONG: My wanting to make something better and to perfect our performances got stronger, especially because we debuted. 

― Last time, we asked you about the recording process. How were the parts separated within the songs, and how were the solo songs and unit song “Mizutamari.” (written by Yugo-kun) chosen?

HEECHO: First, we all sing equal parts and then we adjust as we sing because some members suit some parts better. I chose the parts, but nobody complained. 

SHUNYA: ORβIT’s absolute leader (laughs). Heecheon-san knows everyone’s uniqueness and attributed the parts, so it turned out really nice naturally. 

HEECHO: For me, the part I thought over the most while making the album was attributing the parts. As for the solo song and unit songs, we just went with whoever wanted to do it. 

YUGO: I thought “Mizutamari.” could be the three of us (Yoondong, Shunya, Yugo) who don’t sing chorus parts often. I attributed the parts as the writer as well. It was my first time writing lyrics and I had never thought of doing it before, but after becoming part of ORβIT, I’ve been wanting to try new things such as piano as well. It’s a memorable song for which I challenged lyric writing for the first time. The track was composed first, onto which I wrote lyrics. 

― In Younghoon-san’s song “MOONCRYSTALPOWER”, the sole Japanese part amongst the Korean lyrics was also a hot topic. Many said that it’s a very “Younghoon-san like” song. 

YOUNGHOON: I always get the comment that the phrase “yuusha no sakebi” (a hero’s scream) is very “funny”, but I meant it in a serious way (laughs). At the time, there was a manga I liked a lot and I also thought of the word “boukensha” (explorer, adventurer), but it became this in the end. The lyrics are about a hero parting ways with his friends and waiting until they come altogether, but it felt like ORβIT and EαRTHs. I thought that maybe fans will understand if I put it like this, so I wrote the lyrics like that. 

HEECHO: It’s Younghoon’s scream, in the end (laughs). 

JUNE: When Younghoon-san asked me about the lyrics, I listened to him and gave advice. Every time people tell him that the lyrics are funny, he blames it on me and says “Jun said they’re nice!” (laughs). 

YOUNGHOON: It was all good as a result! (Younghoon and Jun exchange a hard handshake)

―You released from an independent label and even produced your goods on your own, but was there anything hard during the production process?

HEECHO: There were a lot of hard things, but we don’t want to make excuses about it because it’s something we chose to do. It was hard, but I think this was a good way to do it. It’s something we were able to achieve because of the members and staff we have now. 

TOMO: We separated the tasks between the 7 of us, and Shunya thought a lot about the goods and the CD jacket art. 

SHUNYA: There are many things I was able to learn because we are self-produced. For example, there’s a lot of scheduling in order to meet deadlines for production and other small tasks too. It has made me realize that making music isn’t just about singing, but there are a lot of people behind it who support it. I am glad I was able to realize this by releasing from an independent label. 

JUNE: The 7 of us are the ones on stage, but there are a lot of people behind it that you cannot see… Our work can only be done with the support of many, so we are very grateful.

ENG TRANSLATION BY ORBIT_INTL Source: KStyle News DO NOT RE-USE, REUPLOAD OR RE-TRANSLATE WITHOUT PERMISSION

So last night my girlfriend and I watched the live action Sonic movie together! I have Thoughts on it, but in short: I enjoyed it more than I expected! (Put under the cut because I get rambly. Also spoilers I guess.)

In no particular order:

I’m not really a fan of live action/CGI hybrid movies based on an already existing property, but this one seems to be one of the better ones. Not groundbreaking by any means, but certainly watchable.

The CGI for this film is actually pretty good, especially regarding Sonic.

That being said, I do have issues with how the animators were forced to go in and redo so much with him after the severe backlash regarding his first design looking... well, horrible. (I know there’s some people who liked that design but... no, I’m sorry, just... no.) I’m not putting the blame for the older design on the animators as they were just doing their jobs, but I do have to question what was going through the heads of the higher-ups who thought that design was a good idea. I heard the thought process was “well he’s in the real world now so we have to make him look more realistic” but given how most audiences generally don’t seem to like the whole “realistic live-action/CGI character design” thing, you’d think they would avoid doing that.

Actually, I have to question why there didn’t seem to be more involvement from people who had worked on the franchise before (namely Tyson Hesse, the guy who came up with Sonic’s redesign, but is probably better known for his work on some of the comics and some animated Sonic shorts that you can find on Sega’s official Youtube channel which you should definitely look at because they’re cute) from day one. You’ve got well over two decades worth of cast and crew you could’ve worked with, so why not bring more of them in to help? (Just not Ken Penders.)

Ben Schwartz is alright as the voice of Sonic. I won’t go calling him my favorite any time soon, but he did okay. I do feel like I have to question the choice to cast him though, but a little more on that later.

In case you didn’t know, I’m an absolute slut for Eggman, so I had... concerns when I heard that they cast Jim Carrey as my favorite (even leaving aside how I’m autistic, headcanon Eggman as autistic, and as far as I know Carrey is still an anti-vaxxer). For this movie, though, he fits the role of what Robotnik is like in this universe (a bitter orphan who grew up preferring robots to humans and is so unhinged that even the U.S. government thinks he’s nuts even though he works for them) just fine. I don’t think I can ever fully accept him as Eggman (though admittedly I don’t know who could make for a decent live action Eggman), but I could live with his performance in this.

I need to know more about what the deal is between Agent Stone and Robotnik, because I am intrigued more than the filmmakers probably wanted me to be (most likely because Carrey and Lee Majdoub worked together to make their characters dynamic more fun) and now I just want more of them interacting. I’m kinda disappointed that he wasn’t in this more, honestly. I get why since it’s supposed to be focused mostly on the actual characters from the games, but... I want to know more.

Tom the cop... I was really skeptical about this, especially since the first Sonic game I ever played portrayed the police and military as bad people (and, you know, real life cops are bastards), but... honestly, did Tom even really need to be a cop in the first place for this plot to work? I’m sure they could’ve worked something out where he didn’t need to be one. Anyway, there isn’t much to say about him, but he’s alright.

There’s honestly even less to say about his wife, but you know what? Props to this movie for having an interracial couple where them being an interracial couple isn’t the central drama (her sister’s mistrust of him doesn’t fully count as that’s not the focus) and didn’t draw loads of attention to it or have it come off as them doing this in an attempt to seem “woke”, unlike some other studios I could name. (coughDISNEYcough)

Is Owl Mom okay?!

Some of the humor is kinda hit and miss for me, but that seems to be true for the writing of the games themselves, especially after the change of staff since Colors (note to the writers: Baldy McNosehair is not as funny as you think it is), and I’ve seen live action/CGI hybrid franchise movies with worse humor (hell, media in general with worse humor), so I’m a bit more forgiving of it here.

That being said, the joke about Sonic wasting most of a bar/restaurant’s toilet paper to wrap it around some guys in a bar fight and later saying whoever used the bathroom next was going to have a problem... yeah, I don’t think I need to explain how poorly that aged, albeit unintentionally.

Robotnik does not say “Snooping as usual”, but Sanic made an appearance, sorta. That was something.

I’m still reeling from how “The Doctor thinks you’re basic” is an actual line in this movie and not something someone made up on Tumblr as a joke.

Given how people griped about the Olive Garden product placement in this, I was expecting it to be infinitely worse than it really was. Honestly it felt more like a brick joke to me, only with product placement.

The end credits scene with Tails was nice, especially since they brought in his current voice actress from the games to voice him! Though that has me thinking that if they did that then there wasn’t any reason for them not to bring in Roger Craig Smith (or any other former Sonic voice actor, come to think of it) to voice Sonic. Well, aside from “celebrity voice might put more butts in the theater seats (well, couch cushions currently)”. This bothers me so much. You have an established animated medium with an established voice cast, you’d think that bringing them in to voice their character for a big screen adaptation would be more common, but I guess not (unless you’re SpongeBob or The Simpsons I guess). Voice actors deserve way more than what Hollywood does to them, that’s all I’m saying. (This also bothers me given what I know of the First Sonic Voice Recasting Controversy way back when Sonic X was a thing.)

Speaking of end credits scenes, Sonic X, and the voice actors from the games/shows/etc, my girlfriend mentioned that she and her sister thought that in Carrobotnik’s last scene there was a point where it almost sounded like Carrey was doing an impression of Mike Pollock (the English voice actor of Eggman for seventeen years and by far the longest-lasting English voice cast member), and I thought so too. I’m used to voice actors imitating celebrities for their performances even when they’re not voicing said celebrity, so hearing it the other way around for a change even briefly was fascinating (and further proves to me how much of an impact Pollock’s left on the character that even the live-action actor has ended up doing an impression of his take on the same character).

I know they’re already talking about making at least one sequel (and for once Carrey seems to want in on said sequel), and you know what? I’m all for it. Please bring Stone back too, I want to know more about him.

I know it looks like I spent a lot of this going “eh” and “but why”, but I really did enjoy this! If you’re curious about it, please check it out.

Unpopular opinion: While not the best dad, I don't like how most fans keep zeroing in on Stuart for the family's problems, while Carol is almost always exempt. (On top of the notion of them both beating their kids. {1. Nothing implies that and they've been shown multiple times caring about their kids [and each other]. 2. I highly doubt Kenny would sit there and let that happen, especially with how protective he is of his siblings. 3. Complicated family relationships exist, also it's South Park})

STRONGLY AGREE | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

GOD YEAH I AGREE WITH THIS SO MUCH

I hate when fic is always “Stu left and took all the problems and now they’re doing better with just Carol”—like?? Why are y’all shucking all the problems onto Stu??

BOTH of them are alcoholics, BOTH of them use drugs, when they fight it’s BOTH of them yelling at each other and often it’s CAROL who ups it to violence. Neither of them are abusive to one another in that there’s no power imbalance between them—their fighting is equal. And in fact, despite how much they fight, they still love each other and can have moments where they’re sweet.

And neither of them, but especially not Stu, have abused their kids. The closest is when Stu accidentally took out his anger at their poverty to Karen and made her cry, and was yelling/fighting with Kevin who was fighting back. The first was an accident because he was frustrated and upset, not even at her, and the second was a mutual fight.

From the wiki: “in some episodes Mrs. McCormick berates him without direct provocation. Although he and his wife have been shown physically abusing each other, it has never been shown or implied that Stuart abuses his children. When he is sober, he is very loving and caring to his wife.”

The wiki further goes on in the “family” section to talk about how much he loves his kids too. (In the movie he had a picture of Kenny on his hELMET ;;o;;)

But. Like y’all. They’re poor. That’s where most of their issues likely stem from. Stu and Carol, despite their flaws are, in my opinion, not bad people at heart. They’re just in an incredibly shitty situation. Being poor is HARD. They’re DIRT poor. And there is a big correlation between poverty and drug/alcohol abuse and poor communities. Those things are often targeted towards poor folk who can be easy customers, are more easily manipulated/desperate, and don’t have access to ways to get professional help for addiction.

Obviously it isn’t GOOD that they’re addicts, it sucks, and it’s not w good environment for their kids to be around so much arguing and fighting. But their addictions don’t make them inherently bad or abusive people—in Stu and Carol’s case, they just need help. Help getting free from their addictions and help getting out of poverty, cause if they stay as poor as they are with no support, they’re just gonna relapse.

It’s not fair to pin the blame entirely on Stu. Like, he’s not shown to be any worse than his wife, and by blaming him, it reinforces the stereotype that it’s always an abusive husband and the wife can do no wrong. Like yeah, in real life it’s more likely to have an abusive husband, but that’s not always the case, and if you look at Stu and Carol and immediately paint STU as the bad guy? Despite BOTH of them being just as problematic? It’s an unfair assumption. Carol could just as well be the abusive one, they could both be abusive—but they’re not. Neither of them are.

I think people just want an easy solution to the McCormick’s poverty, but it’s not as easy as a bad husband keeping everyone down. It’s more complicated than that. And like anon said, the relationship between the McCormick’s is likely VERY COMPLICATED.

They love each other, but they’re aware of their flaws—Kenny knows his parents are addicts but he still loves them and knows how difficult it is to try and stay away from an easy high in their situation. They really don’t have anyone but each other, but that internal support is as strong as tissue paper.

Anyways, we need to be nicer to Stu, and to Kevin (stop putting him in prison!! He’s like 13!!) for Kenny’s sake. Let Kenny have a good dad (+brother), and a family that can be supported and allowed to get better. Part of why they’re so stuck is bc the town doesn’t give a shit about them and thinks them being poor is “just the way things are,” but if anyone cared they could prob chip in for rehab for the parents, take care of the kids, help the family get a new place away from the part of town that would have too many temptations.

Whether I portray the McCormick’s getting better or not depends on what I’m writing, but I like to picture them getting better eventually. Like, Kevin gets a job and wishes he could take Karen with him but he can’t cause he lives in a little apartment with a bunch of other guys. So it’s up to Kenny to work his ass off and get Karen out of there. (I hc that Ken moves in with Stan, bc Stan lives close by and is nice like that, and that the two of them get married so that they’d have tax benefits + be each other’s emergency contact instead of their parents. And they adopt Karen for that same reason, to keep her, legally, from Stu and Carol + bc Stan has a better salary which helps the court decide to allow the adoption. Then down the road maybe Kenny or Kevin gives their parents a kind of ultimatum, or their parents realize they’re missing so much of their kids’ lives, and they pull themselves out of their mess.)

This was p long and disconnected but YEAH. I like the McCormick’s and they deserve better, even from us fans, who tend to tear them apart bc that’s easier than trying to fix them—but I think they deserve to be fixed, you know?? I don’t think ken + his siblings would want to be taken away or have their parents taken away :/

Send me unpopular opinions and I’ll answer if I agree or not

GENERAL >

FULL NAME: Charles Matthew Ayers NICKNAME: Charlie // Preferred, only his mother calls him by his first name . Ken // Around campus by peers due to attachment to Sarah. Charliebear // by Sarah .  Space-case. Airhead. Dunce cap. Nimrod, Etc // by Christopher AGE: 19 - 20 // Verse Dependent  BIRTH DATE: December 19th , 1964 ZODIAC: Sagittarius ETHNICITY: White GENDER: Cis Male PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Craven Creek , Washington SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual // Closeted would imply awareness of some kind , most attraction to those male presenting is seen as ‘ just being friendly’ in his eyes. Coming from a very traditional small town in the 70s & 80s with no obvious LGBTQ representation. . He is oblivious to his sexuality for the most part. RELIGION: Raised Protestant // Personally non - practicing , or practices only around family SPOKEN LANGUAGE: English . Handful of French and Spanish CURRENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Living within his messy dorm at SCU EDUCATION: EDUCATION: High-school graduate from Carpenter High // Had to repeat a few classes making him graduate a year later than his peers. Freshman at Silas Craven University - SCU - on a sports scholarship. OCCUPATION: Part time // Usually night - shift at Flick Picks Video Rentals. TRANSPORTATION: 1970  Ford Mustang Sportroof // Sky blue, basic model. TYPICAL LOCATIONS [ FOR PLOTS ETC ]:  Flick Picks Video Rental shop. SCU campus // Class, dorm and frat parties, hockey arena, pool . Movie theater.

RELATIONSHIPS >

PARENTS: Denise Ayers // Mother . Richard Ayers // Father - On friendly enough terms with the two of them, but the institutionalized 'parent /child' detachment has always been present . Richard, the businessman always on the go, has never taken a moment away from his work. And Denise, though a stay - at - home mother, often spends her time in the company of fellow mothers and projects around the house. Beyond the basics, they know very little about their children and hold to the belief their main job is to provide and care for them, not be their best friends. SIBLINGS:  - Christopher Ayers // Older brother, by three years - A very complicated relationship. Christopher is, in the eyes of everyone and especially their parents, the proverbial 'golden boy' : Smart. Handsome. Charismatic.  Popular. The desire of every girl's heart. Captain of every sports team he's been a part of, that position currently being in SCU's lacrosse and basketball teams. From the outside looking in, he is by old school terms, perfect, though few see or even know of the rather aggressive and twisted side of him, including their mother and father. That side is and, since their childhood, has been reserved for Charlie's eyes only. Yet despite taking the brunt of Chris's cruelty and jokes at his expense, Charlie has always admired and looked up to him. And sadly, still does. - Robert ‘Robbie’ Ayers // 12 year old brother - Close, though sadly not as close as they once were. Moving away from home has created a bit of an inevitable distance. Between games, parties, and basic expectations of highschool, Charlie had been Robbie's go-to babysitter. The two had been thick as thieves - Robbie being among the rare few to not only know of Charlie’s dabble in home-movie horror, but even star in a few films himself - and whenever a need for brotherly bonding and advice was warranted, Charlie was there. -Rosie Ayers // 3 year old sister - Sadly, Charlie isn't as close with her as he'd like to be. Born when he was just beginning his escalation in popularity, he didn't spend much time with her, and over all still hasnt. NOTABLE CONNECTIONS:  - Irene Fernandez // @gcrefxed Close Friend Fellow target of the mysterious killer .  - Sarah Reed // @killerxquccn Best Friend since middleschool. The term 'soulmate' has been thrown around [ Much to the annoyance of Charlie's exes ] due to how close they are and how well they get along. As have many other affectionate monikers; 'Sarah Sunshine' among them, inspired by the bright and warming smile that since knowing her the mere presence of has never failed to make Charlie's day all the better. A matching pair : The jock and the cheerleader. A match that due to their popularity hasn't gone unnoticed ; people speculating they are dating or saying they should be, and earning them the nicknames ' Barbie and Ken ' since highschool, and often heard around campus. Girlfriends and latenight partners come and go, but Sarah has always remained. She is considered by far one of the most important people in Charlie's life. One he could never - and would never - imagine living without. Fate, however, has different plans. SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Jessica Thompson // Recent Ex Girlfriend.  Beautiful, upper middle class, and notable mean girl. Well, notable only to those she targets ;  mainly fellow girls lower on the popularity totem pole. Sly and clever Jessica  knows who to target, how, and how to get away with it. Which is precisely what happens, and has her entire school career..  Charlie in particular was never aware of her actions, as she is always careful to show her cruelty when few are around and those least likely to spread word,  though to anyone else in his position the writing was very clearly on the wall. Through most of their close to two year relationship, Jessica used Charlie's good-hearted nature, penchant to fall hard for pretty girls, and unfortunate tendency to be too forgiving to the point of becoming a pushover to those he cares for to her advantage: taking more than giving, but giving just enough to make him believe there was more requited love than there really was. In truth, her sights - like many- had always been on Charlie's older brother, Christopher, ever since highschool, but being the revolving door of women type, his sights were never aimed in her direction. To Jessica, Charlie was merely a fall back; if you can't get the prize, second best was better than nothing. Until one fateful night, Charlie decided to stop by Jessica's dorm and found none other than his older brother there to greet him. Half dressed and radiating smugness. In no way did either Chris nor Jessica attempt to deny what had happened between them, Chris giving Charlie a pitying pat to the shoulder and leaving the scene with a final jab, ' Guess she wanted a real man. '  While it was a dream come true for Jessica, to Chris it was nothing more than a one night only event, with the added enjoyment of his conquest being his brother's girlfriend . Despite the betrayal, Charlie not only wanted to fix their relationship but blamed himself for her act, asking what he had done to drive her to it. Jessica, seeing Charlie's devotion as weakness, was merely disgusted.  Simply giving a cutting, curt 'There's nothing to fix.' And like that, it was over. Leaving Charlie heartbroken and devastated, with that wound never able to fully close seeing Jessica around campus often. SEXUAL / DATING HISTORY: Has had quite a few partners and girlfriends, but wouldn't be considered a playboy like his older brother by any means. While he can be on the promiscuous side, generally he wants more meaningful connections. Sadly, without realizing, he tends to lean towards more superficial relationships -not helped by his worry to open up about his true interests and passions in life- which takes a toll on said relationships longevity.

PHYSICAL TRAITS >

EYE COLOUR: Hazel // Warm brown with small flecks of mossy green HAIR: Dark Auburn // Kept short // Wavy HEIGHT: 6 ‘ 3 ” BODY BUILD: Athletic // Fit , broad shouldered NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: Has a very slight crookedness to nose after having it broken during hockey practice in highschool.   . A warm , sometimes described ‘dopey’ grin . Kind eyes. FACECLAIM: Ross Lynch

PERSONALITY >

INTELLIGENCE:Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Academically, he can be a bit slow. Emotionally and creatively, however, very adept and intelligent. More right brained. INTERESTS: Film fanatic . Horror movies // Has an interest in one day becoming a movie director but keeps it very close to the vest. Sports enthusiast . Hockey // Plays for SCU’s  team. Swimming // On SCU’s swim team.  Attending every party he can. STRENGTHS: Easy going . Understanding . Empathetic . Great sense of humor . Determined . Playful . Outgoing . Sweet . Loyal . Imaginative . Open - minded . Supportive . Energetic. Congenial. WEAKNESSES: Insecure // mostly about intelligence . Stubborn . Blunt // Says the first thing that comes to mind without thinking it through . Apologetic or sometimes overlooks the bad actions of those he cares for / his family . Gullible . Occasionally reckless // especially when stressed .  Too forgiving . Christopher. DISPOSITION: Very laid back, friendly and approachable // easy to strike up a conversation with on just about anything SOCIAL STANDING: Popular // Both he and his older brother Christopher have been since Highschool SLASHER TROPES: Dumb Jock // The Nice guy

SYNOPSIS >

Nice house. Nice yard. White-picket fence. Mother, the home - maker. Father, the shrewd businessman. Children, well behaved and well liked. The Ayers family lives the ideal cookie-cutter simplicity of upper middle - class conservative America. And for most that's enough. For Charlie Ayers, the second eldest son, it is. At least, he thinks so. An upbringing of keeping to the status quo, hard rigidity to conform, is all he knows. Evident in his persistent standing as another popular jock continuing into college . In 1983 small town suburbia, minor deviations from the expected norm is a thing balked or crucified. Even something simple as an innocuous interest. And therein lies the reason his true love, of media, of a genre most consider ghoulish and the dream to DIRECT and make such films , has been kept a secret from most.          A JOCK WITH A HORROR MOVIE FETISH? WEIRD!  A silly thing to hide, perhaps. Yet hide he does. Perhaps not entirely well, as the few home-made films in his repertoire have been surreptitiously added onto the shelves of the VHS rental store he clocks into most weekdays. But he'll take the fact he hasn't been reprimanded by his superior as a win. Flick Picks Video Rentals is, in many ways, a haven. A place where for the first time, Charlie could feel at home with his covert passions for film in which he would be expected to be ashamed anywhere else. A small respite, that unbeknownst to young Charlie, wouldn't last. Despite the kindly reminder to rewind before returning, most seldom listened. In the quiet and uneventful hours of the night, that became Charlie's job. VHS popped into the rewinder, eyes on the CTR TV to check for any scratches or tangling of the tape, slide into its box upon completion, rinse and repeat. It was a tedious task to be sure, but something Charlie found mildly comforting in its predictable repetition. One that seldom provided any surprises. 

               Until ONE TAPE …

It wasn't unheard of for someone to record over one of the rentals. Uncommon, yes, as it was guaranteed to earn you a ten dollar fine to replace what was lost, but not unheard of. Usually in such a case, rewinding was stopped, the tape set aside with a note. Yet something- … something wasn't right. This tape wasn't one of theirs. Or professionally made for that matter. The film had the signature grain, bad lighting and time code at the bottom of something made at home. But the stationary upward framing, fixed on a single person. A single tied person. Bloodied. Sobbing. This wasn't right. A masked figure stepping into view. Toying with the other. Armed with a knife. This definitely wasn't right. The one tied, turned frantic. The knife slicing. The blood. It couldn't have been real, right? Someone trying their hand at horror like he did. And effectively at that. It was unsettling to say the least. Something he brought up, showed to a coworker the next day, and was assured in a chiding manner it was fake. Even he in what film making experience he possessed, had reservations. Why, then, he remained uncertain he wasn't sure. 

 That uncertainty nagged. Knotted his stomach. And eventually, sent him in an unorthodox direction to his university's theater department for answers. The course of logic he followed said if it was fake, a third and perhaps more experienced opinion wouldn't hurt. It was by pure luck and happenstance that one person with such qualifications was there. While the two had apparently gone to the same highschool, Irene Fernandez had been a complete stranger to him. Might have had something to do with them traveling within social circles so different they might as well have been separate planets altogether. Her skill and knowledge in special effects, however, made her essential to his needs. Was a random encounter over a gory VHS tape an awkward first meeting? Yes. Yet it was not nearly so bad at its beginning as it became in the end, when upon repeated viewing with Irene, Charlie's fears were proven right. No dyed corn syrup or tubes used to spurt it. No retractable prop blades. The blood, murder, all of it was REAL. Which meant the killer was as well. 

 Such a realization made all the more terrifying as another tape appeared in the return slot ...

I wish you would write a fic where Fabrizio sees a heartwarming interaction between his kids and Ermal and realizes that Ermal is the love of his life.

AND THEN I’LL CRY MY HEART OUT.hemI’ve actually noticed how I never write about the kids and it’s weirs since i never shut up about them so here it comes buddy

Everyone knew that Fabrizio and his childrenwere a whole package: you could never even think to get close to him if youweren’t accepting them as a reality and, more importantly, if they didn’taccept you.

And if Anita was the whimsical one, she wasalso still young, and it didn’t take a lot of effort to get her to love you -or at least, to allow you to exist.

Libero, on the other hand, being the quiet boyhe usually was, no one would expect him to being a great judge of character,but god knows if he could be asserting if something was bothering him, (to befair, he was pretty good at explaining why he should be allowed on the stagewhen his father was singing, too, at the age of 6), and Libero didn’t reallylike new people. At all.

From his point of view, it made sense: the morepeople were in his father life, the less time he had, to spend it with him. Andhis sister, of course.

He grew surrounded by his uncles, his grandparents,the band -that were definitely basically more uncles than just friends of hisdad- so by his judgment there were more than enough people in his and his dadlife, thank you very much.

And Fabrizio was well aware about how hiseldest felt about it, as he knew of his need to be left alone sometimes, to beable to breathe without people around him watching him do it. Fabrizio knewbecause Fabrizio felt that way, too - still feels, sometimes.

So, when the time came and Ermal was introducedto his children as a “colleague” of his, he warned Ermal about not being offendedif Libero would misbehave with him around, he just needed time to adjust to thisnew presence.

Presence that grew more and more present whilethe day were passing and their work on the song became more an excuse to spendtime together than an actual need to work on it. They were there, they got it,finally. Thank god for Baglioni and his wish to have them both at Sanremo, theycould have more time to play around the actual reason they wanted to be togetherand pretend it was just for work.

And after a while it was ridiculous the amountof time Ermal spent in Fabrizio’s house, but if anything it totally helped himwith being accepted by the kids. Anita was over the moon every time Ermal wasaround, especially if it was in the evening when she slept at Fabrizio’s houseand got a bed time story. Sometimes even silly songs about what she’d done thatday!

And of course, the fact that Ermal was willingto listen to all the little dramas that the girl had – fictional or not – alsogot him big points with Anita.

Libero, on the other hand, was a bit morecomplicated than that. Ermal tried leaving him alone, at first, not gettingmuch in his way, even leave before dinner so Fabrizio would have time to staywith them. But often it would be Anita and her dad together to ask him to stay andwatch a movie, maybe play a bit more, and he couldn’t just say no.

Damn Mobrici and their natural charm.

So, he tried to win him how he did with Anita,asking about his interests and maybe playing with him, but the boy was ignoringhim at best, being actively rude at worst. And Fabrizio would scold him, andLibero would isolate himself even more and it wouldn’t take a genius to see thatthe situation wasn’t getting prettier for anyone.

Fabrizio did later apologize for the behaviour ofthe kid. “He’s usually a good kid, trust me. I don’t know why he gets likethat. He’s not even a teenager”

“I would get grumpy too, if I had to fight foryour attention”, which translated to  I actually get mad when I realize that you’renot mine too keep so I can relate to you son quite easily.

“he really doesn’t, though. I’ll always bethere for him”

“Yeah, but.. the mind of an eight years old isa weird place. He knows that you love him, and he loves you as well, but he’sstill a child and if he doesn’t like sharing you more than necessary you can’treally blame him”

“But I can’t just let him be rude to you, isnot right and his mum and I taught him better than that.”

“it’s just for a little bit longer, is notreally like I’m gonna be here all the time or something”

“why, do you have someplace else to go? Or you alreadytired of us?”

“How could I ever get tired to hear what Anita’sfriend Chiara did at school and why her Ken can’t be with Barbie even if they loveeach other?”

Between Ermal stubbornness and Libero’s being,overall, a sweetheart, the bad mood passed in matter of weeks. Ermal discoveredthat the kid loved playing football - like every other kid in their nation- butwhen he was at his dad’s house, he didn’t have anyone to play with. Ermal wasnot Totti, or even close, but still remembered what it was like to play in thebackyard of a house, so he took la pallaal balzo and proposed Libero to play a bit. Libero, used to his dad – good onlyat foosball – and his friends – that just didn’t have the time to play with him-,found himself willingly to say yes.

He was still wary of Ermal, of course, but thecall of the ball was stronger. They played a bit by passing between each other,but then Ermal suggested they pretend it was the end of the biggest footballmatch he could think of.

“2006 world cup!” immediately replied the kid.Ermal did a fast calculation and realized that the he wasn’t even born backthen. “Roberto made him watch the game”, explained Fabrizio from the inside ofthe house. He was watching them from the balcony door. “In ten minutes, youneed to be ready for the bath, Libero”

“But daaaadd”

“no buts, you’re gonna catch a cold If you keepplaying outside at the beginning of December while all sweaty”. Then he added “Ermalprobably already did”

“Hey!” protested the man.

“So don’t waste time arguing with me and use itto play. I want to see if you’re as good as Grosso was”

The kid got all focused, positioning the ball infront of him. Ermal bent his knees lightly, watching the boy take the last fewsteps before kicking the ball with all his strength.

Ermal would really love to say that he made itpass. That he let Libero win.

But the kid won fair and square, Ermal didn’tcatch the ball at all while it got through and hit the fence.

Libero screamed in joy, running around the backyardand even Fabrizio was out with him, picking him in his arm and putting the boyon his shoulder. Ermal laughed and waited until they got near him to rise ahand and showing the palm to the child.

Fabrizio may, or he may not have held hisbreath, while Libero decided to give Ermal the high five he wanted.

After that evening, the kids were both more comfortablewith having Ermal around. He got for both of them a present for Christmas, andthey asked about him the 29th at dinner with everybody else.

It didn’t take long, so, to have the three ofthem against Fabrizio. Libero and Ermal together were troublemakers more than hecould imagine, mostly if the goal was to convince him to do things like a wholeday at the acquapark or having sweets for dinner.

When finally, after all the excuses were put asideand all the good reason to not talk flew away (like a bubble), and they got to tell each other “well, I kinda likeyou. A lot, Fabbrì. A ridiculous amount of lot” “yeah, good, because I like youtoo. I like you deeply”

And do all the kissy kiss stuff they craved to dosince god knows when, Ermal said something that caught Fabrizio totally off guard.

“I can’t wait to tell the kids, Anita wastotally right”

“What? Why? What?” his expression was socomically perplexed that Ermal couldn’t keep himself from kissing it.

“I had to tell them, before.. you know, tellingyou. Well, more like they told me. They called me in Anita’s bedroom one day,while you were busy playing, and they asked me what my intentions with you were”

“no way?!”

Fabrizio laughed in disbelief. “I swear to youthey totally did”

“And what did you say?”

“Well, that we were friends, of course, and thatI care about you deeply” Ermal answered, eyes dancing between Fabrizio’s faceand his chest. “That I was happy to sing with you, and that they were lucky tohave you as dad. You are an amazing father, Fabrizio”

Fabrizio didn’t reply, but his hand naturallywandered to Ermal’s hair, playing with his locks. “And they?”

“They said it wasn’t enough. They can be reallyintense, you know? And according to them, I had to be really sure about you orthey would never forgive me. So, I asked them why they where sure you wouldn’tbail on me and you know what they answered?”

Fabrizio braced himself for whatever wouldcome.

“They said – or better, Libero said- that theyhad the right to remain silent, whatever they would say could be used against me. And with that, they let me go. Yourkids are intense, Bizio. You’re raising them well”

Fabrizio wasn’t listening to him anymore. Hismind was miles away, between a long evening in October and a cold and happy December.His mind was to Ermal helping Anita with her drawings, Libero handing him the othercontroller of the play, the three of them cuddled on the sofa watching 101dalmatians. His mind saw what his kids seemed to know all along – what heshould have seen but he didn’t want to. He was so afraid of the truth that hecould just push it away and hide hit under the shared weight of a dreadful pastand a uncertain future.

He knew, he knew, he knew. But now it was tooearly to say it out loud, so he let it seed inside his soul.

One day, it would grow.

Let me know if you liked it or not!!!

I started this on my lunch break, still gotta rewatch to be coherent but wanted to put down some bullet points of Feelings!!!

The bottom line is I did like Bokura no Mirai, because I think the Tri writers are good, BUT I think half of the issues in BoM were their hands being tied by the limited time left, and the other half simply planning way too much. Both are amateur mistakes and yet anime movies routinely make them, so I’m not as strict as I should be.

As an aside, my personal theory for this movie was that Taichi would let the two worlds merge. I thought he was going to shock everyone by choosing not to stop it, letting the worlds merge sans reboot, and that would result in humans and digimon living in harmony. It’s an unfinished theory obviously, since it supposes a different outcome of the merge than Yggdrasil believes will happen, and also because even if the world was fine after, we’d lose the future where there are two worlds and Taichi needs to be an ambassador between them. But that’s what I was expecting, something of that nature anyway, let’s say. I suppose I’m overly influenced by Tsubasa Chronicle lol.

k now for some highs and lows!!!

HIGHS

TAKERU, MAGNAANGEMON AND DEVIMON!!!! There is NOTHING like Takeru angst. omg. Not for me anyway. No other character’s trauma hit me the way Takeru still carries the burden of what happened to his partner in their very first boss battle.

People predicted Nishijima’s death but I did NOT. I thought of course he was going to be reunited with Himekawa. So this will figure in my “lows” section as well, but as for his apparent death itself, I was moved. But it’s also totally unfair and it’s more of a low than a high for Reasons. But it still deserves a mention here.

Mimi telling Meiko (and the others) to stop blaming themselves. I like Meiko, I do, but I was really annoyed with her when Hikari was feeling guilty and Meiko just had to feel guilty for that. It’s par for the course with her, and I was really defensive of her last movie - I think it was the way it felt like she was using Hikari’s distress to vent her own feelings that bothered me this time around. That being said, I certainly empathize with her and with Hikari, and I’m glad Mimi was so nice and caring about it. (Her line would have been perfectly suited to Sora - our Mimi is growing up!)

The cute moments with the Digimon - glad we still got some of those.

Yamato and Gabumon’s conversation on the balcony was UGH. So great. They’re probably my favorite partner relationship since Adventure. It was so IC and so perfect. I could cry at how sweet and sensitive and full of resilience Gabumon was. Just like his partner.

Also Yamato’s heartbreak over Taichi was sOOOO strong!! And then we they reunite he’s just like, “You’re late.” And you know what I thought of? Rini in the dub Sailor Moon movie. Hahahaha. I had actually hopped for a sweet moment between Taichi and Yamato but... well they stared at each other dramatically for a while, I guess that counts *cough*

KOUSHIROU was MAGIC. Part of me is like “fake science is fake!” but the other part is like “lol but if anyone could make fake science real it’d be Koushirou!” I love that, even when the others weren’t being forward about rejecting the reboot, and Yamato even implied that if Taichi thought it was the way to spare the most sacrifices he would do it, Koushirou was the one who emphatically said “NO!”

Hikari and everything about her. I love that she told Taichi she might not be able to forgive him. And I love that she said “thats why i’m going to fight alongside you.” And her expression during that last battle. It was the same determined look as Taichi’s. There are still a billion questions about her and Meiko as well, why what happened happened, maybe on second viewing I’ll understand more, but... I think it’s mostly “digimon lore” stuff that may never get explained.

Taichi’s phone call to Meiko at the end and the way the other kids acted. Of course I always love flustered and embarrassed Taichi. For the first time, I thought I could ship Meichi after the way Taichi called her and then did nothing but grunt and made her do all the work of carrying the conversation herself xD That boy is hopeless!

Also, Taichi in general. I’m still..... not quite sure what happened. Not quite sure what the takeaway is supposed to be. He was rescued by Nishijima after Yggdrasil’s life or death survival game, and came back to the real world... and chose to kill Meicoomon. In Kyousei, I was sad but on board because there did not appear to be any other day. I didn’t know what they’d do in Bokura no Mirai. Finales are often the age of miracles,  but on the other hand, as much as I wanted Meicoomon to reunite with Meiko, it would have been so underwhelming if everything just went back to normal with no sacrifices (oh yeah, Nishijima). So mixed feelings on how things played out. But one thing I do know is that I loved Taichi the entire time. I love that he’s not a straight up hero. He can do things that make his little sister say she’ll never forgive him. And he can be the kindest bravest person around. Right or wrong, I can’t help but like him.

LOWS

One thing - a lot of my lows result from things that went unanswered or at least I didn’t understand it last night. 

The story quite simply does not feel complete. It’s not even a feeling - it isn’t complete. What the hell was Yggdrasil’s comments about Daemon and whatever at the end. A joke? I didn’t really get the feeling. Was that dark cube some variety of dark spore? Or the one from Adventure? Also, we don’t get to find out what happened to real Gennai (or did I just miss it)? Up till now I never believed it was really him... maybe that was wishful thinking... but why tho

Taichi’s character development arc. He got a LOT. And I do love it overall, but I’m not quite sure I understand it. I suppose the simple answer is, he’s going to be an ambassador, and an ambassador needs to be able to negotiate, to see things in shades of gray, and (ok waxing poetical here but) to understand that life and death are a balance. Idk. I’m a Star Trek fan, “the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many” usually results in intergalactic shenanigans to steal whales from a different time. And who doesn’t love that?

Part of me just needed more... Idk, closure I suppose? about Meiko and Meicoomon after everything they went through. I wanted Meiko to be a bigger character in the finale movie. I’m surprised by that since I wasn’t warm to her in the beginning, but it feels wrong that in the end, all she got was a sweet farewell. It was very sweet! And heartbreaking! And I’m not exactly angry that Meicoomon was lost, but after 5 movies leading up to it, it just felt... i dunno, it lacked the sense of relief I was looking for. (However, I sometimes feel these things differently on rewatch. This is a scene I’ll be looking out for.)

The 02 gang’s been missing... like the said in Saikai. OK fine. Why didn’t the kids ever try to contact them beyond that one visit to Ken’s house?? Why weren’t they concerned that none of them were like “Hello, we heard digimon are raising hell, can we help?” That is the question folks. Tri definitely did NOT need more characters to juggle, but heck, “they’re all camping in a remote island with no electricity!” would have been a better excuse for why no one notices they’re not around.

Daigo’s death. Like I said, it was a hero’s death, and for that it was awesome. But a lot of the reasons why it was awesome were inferences. Like, Taichi was just like “whoa?” when nishijima was like “oh yeah maki’s disappeared she lost her mind searching for her dead partner.” This should have been way bigger news. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be intensely curious about their predecessors - yeah big world shaking battle is gonig on so I get it not being on the back burner, but it was totally just shoehorned in. No thank you! Daigo deserved better.

MAKI DIDN’T EVEN APPEAR. I had been so worried about her but I thought the worst that would happen would be she’d do something to redeem herself and die! But nope! She’s not there AT ALL. And Daigo’s DEAD! Honestly it wouldn’t be SO bad if we could be sure this wasn’t the end... because it just feels like there’s so much story left to tell, including theirs. The Original Chosen in Tri are more like a summary of “a fanfic I’d like to write someday.” Better to just not have included them. Found some different way to cause the reboot. They were treated worse in the end than the 02 kids, frankly.

one last quibble... Essentially no Taishiro. :( :( :( I mean just platonic moments. Just one would have been good! Oh well.

i’m totally leaving things out but that’s all I’ve got for the moment. rewatch imminent

Fostered Love Chapter 1

Summary: After talking to her teacher and crush, Fueguchi Hinami decides to take up the extra credit suggestion he had presented. Through it she gets to know :re orphanage and it’s associates - as well as Kirishima Ayato, that from now on shall be her partner in babysitting.

Notes: Hello everyone! 🙏 So this is an au I’ve been cooking up ever since dadyato (tm) showed up last chapter. I’m really excited for it and I have tons of ideas for it, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. This will mainly be a drama/fluff fic, so please keep that in your minds. I’m also very sorry ahead of time because I think I mislead a few people and exaggrated how fluffy it will be, because this chapter is one of the less fluffy ones. Also please note none of the kids are OC’s, they’re the Aogiri + Underground children! I only gave them names because they’re unnamed as of this moment 💛 

Chapter Summary:   Hinami is introduced to the extra credit option and takes it up while she’s in daze over her homeroom teacher, Kaneki Ken. Following what he suggested her, she goes an orphanage by the name of :re, and discovers how nice it is to work with kids - while how bad it is to work with adults. (4.7k)

The school bell rang. Hinami ran into the classroom, her friends behind her giggling and sliding their hands under her arms from each side, locking them together as they went towards their assigned seats in the classroom. Their smiles were bright on their faces as they led Hinami to her seat in the front row. “I’m so happy for you! I can’t believe he actually became our homeroom teacher. It’s like, fate!” Kanna chippered, hitting Hinami’s upper arms lightly in her excitement.

“Kanna! Stop hitting Hinami, she needs to be focused on the goal, you know..” Chiasa, who stood right in front of Kanna, scolded. Hinami embarrassment couldn’t be hidden as she was blushing even at the tips of her ears. It was no secret to the two other girls she had a crush on their literature teacher, Kaneki Ken. He was nice, caring, and very easy on the eyes - and now he was their homeroom teacher, after a very unfortunate incident that happened to Kamishiro-sensei.

It wasn’t what mattered though. What matters is now she gets one hour every morning of the weekday to see him more. She was absolutely thrilled. She was unable to sit still, her legs changing position every few moments under the table and it wasn’t helping Kanna and Chiasa were already starting to make up scenarios of how their love will conquer all. Talking about how his pretty grey eyes will land on her and his silky snowy hair would blow in the wind-

The sliding door of the classroom slammed against the wall, and Hinami noticed both Kanna and Chiasa had already scurried away to their sits. He was standing there, smile bright at the students before him. Hinami straightened her back as he entered, and stopped in his place right in front of the teacher’s desk. Right in front of her.

Her hands held her face as she leaned forward. “Hello everyone. I am sure you all heard of what happened to Kamishiro-sensei…” He said, and Hinami nodded to herself. The rumors about her former homeroom teacher being in a construction site accident have spread far and wide across the school. Apparently she was okay, but she got more than a few of her bones broken. Most of the rumors were about how she managed to make the principal give her a fully paid work vacation.

“...So, because of that, I’m from now on will be the substitute homeroom teacher until she returns.” Hinami had the urge to clap, but she prevented herself from doing so. She was sure she was staring at him enough to already get looks from her classmates… But it’s not like they could blame her. She knew quite a few girls that liked Kaneki-sensei. Which is a depressing thought in it’s own, but she tried not to think about it.

“Anyway, since it’s the middle of the year already, and we all want you to start gaining whatever boosts you can get so you could all go to a nice college. So the faculty members and I came up with an idea for that - extra credit through volunteering.” Hinami was listening to every word very closely, but only because she liked his voice, how calm and soothing it was. She was a straight A student, she didn’t need to worry about extra credit. She can enroll into most top colleges she knows of with her grades.

“Well, anyone who wants to try volunteering, tell me after the class is over. I’ll refer you to what you can do. Now to our next topic….” Her turns around to the board and Hinami melts into her seat. She didn’t even realize how tense her muscles were before. She must’ve have looked so uptight… Hinami feels something thrown at her from the behind, and looks at the source. Kanna, sitting tall and elegant, trying to make Hinami do the same.

She sighed and returned to sit normally, but otherwise ignored her friend who was also making very weird expressions she probably would describe as sexy. I’m not doing it. Ever. And she was sure Chiasa was with her on that one. She played with her pen to distract her mind from Kanna and her dedication to make Hinami listen, but the other girl just simply blocked her out.

In no time she heard the bell ringing, and sighed in relief. Kanna was truly a terror to sit in front of, especially with her almost shouting Hinami’s name in order to get her to turn around. When she looked back again at the girl, she saw pouty lips and squinted eyes. “Okay, you managed to avoid this in the class, but you need to appeal to him a little bit!” The girl whispered to her.

Hinami nodded awkwardly, avoiding arguing with her. She didn’t really want to confront him yet… or at all. Ever. Too bold. Too risky. She wasn’t ready to deal with it quite yet. She hid behind Chiasa like a child behind her mom as she pouted back at Kanna that probably felt a bit bad about it all - she looked apologetic.

“Hinami-chan….” Chiasa says and Hinami lifts her head to look at her, questioning her with a tilt. “I’m sorry, but right now is your time to shine.” She giggled as she pushed Hinami back, and Hinami stumbled and barely could stop herself from crashing again her teacher. She yelped as she managed stabilize herself.

Kaneki-sensei turns to her. She wants to die. Chi-chan… I thought you were on my side…. She thought to herself and she gazed at him with absolute horror in her eyes. Hinami had the urge to bolt out of the room, but he was already staring at her. Why me?

“Fueguchi-chan? Are you okay?” He asks her, his brows furrowed.  She gulped as she nodded, but she was sure he noticed she was very much uncomfortable in this situation - her nervousness written all over her face. Her throat felt dry as she looked at him. The world must hate me. He scratched his head awkwardly. “Alright… so is there anything you need me for?”

Uhhhh. Maybe for holding my hand, and going to the movies and restaurants together, and stuff like that-- She can think that all she want, but Hinami can’t even see herself saying those words aloud. She needs to come up with a good excuse, and her mind is speeding through ideas in order to find something normal. She takes the first normal things that comes to her mind. “I-I want to take the extra credit option!” She blurts out, her hands clutching the sides of her uniform skirt as she looks away. This is embarrassing.

“Fueguchi-chan, you realize you don’t need extra credit, right?” He asks her, looking amused. He probably was, she was making a fool of herself. “Your grades are near perfect. Most colleges would beg for you to enroll at their place.” He says factually, as she knows it already. She worked very hard to keep her grades up - studying every day making sure that she won’t let herself slip. It was just what she was good at.

“Um, I know, but… I want to enter Kamii, and it’s the biggest college around… I just want to have the best chances I can get….” She bluffed quickly. She did want to go to Kamii, but she was already sort of volunteering in her dad’s hospital. Not a lot, but the chances they turn her away with grades and background are already very, very low.

“You want to enter Kamii? That was my school! It is really hard to get accepted. Alright, let’s see, then.. Is there something in particular you want to do for you volunteer work? There are a few options, but if you have an idea already, I can refer you to a few places.” He beams at her and she bites her lips trying not to smile too much.

She thought to herself. In her father’s hospital she comes by every now and then to the children section, to read them stories and make them smile, playing with them and helping them with whatever they need. “...Something with children, maybe?..” She hesitantly suggested. Hinami had no idea what she was getting into, really, but it wouldn’t be that bad. She thinks.

“Well, honestly, there’s a few places in town that can fit that... “ He starts, and his hand rises and settles behind his back as he thinks. Is she imagining or is there a blush on his face? “But there’s this one place that I think you could really help in… There’s this orphanage in 20th ward, named :re, and it absolutely needs more hands there! It would be great if you can volunteer there!”

He looked really happy as he mentioned all of this. She was glad she picked to say she’d like to work with children. Her teacher was pretty much ecstatic. It’s going unbelievably well. “It sounds great!” She responded just as excitedly. He smiled at her, dazzling as ever.

“Wonderful! I’ll phone the manager for you!” He clapped his hands happily as he said that. “Oh! And also write you down the address and all. When do you have a free day to start? Any day should work.” He asked her, taking a piece of paper and pen out of his bag, following his words.

“I can start even today!” She almost yelled at him, but he didn’t seem to mind as he gave her the paper in his hands. Hinami wasn’t really thinking at the time, she was feeling so giddy. The fact he looked so happy made her heart flutter a little.

“Alright! You can go there where you finish school, I’ll tell Touka-chan for you. I’m sure she’d be thrilled to have you around. I’m glad you decided to volunteer, Fueguchi-chan.” He said and left the room. Hinami looked at the the small piece of paper in her hand and the address written carefully on it, suddenly realizing what she did.

What have I gotten myself into?

I… can I really do this?

It took her a while, but she finally found the orphanage. It was almost at the very end of the block Mr. Kaneki told her to go to, and was medium sized, in all honesty. At least compared to her neighbourhood’s houses, that is. It looked pretty well managed though, clean and prettily organized, potted plants sitting at the window sill.

Nonetheless, the nervousness still keeps her stuck in her place. She may have worked with children before, but not with strangers. Her father was always around when she came by to the hospital, and if she wanted to see her mom, she could have simply went to the other wing in the hospital and tell her hey.

She should have dragged Chiasa and Kanna here too. What if she screws this up? Why didn’t she think of a more clever excuse? So much for an honor student.. Being smart doesn’t help her if she doesn’t actually think! Her fingers run through her hair as she tried to overcome the anxiousness that lingered within her. Three seconds, and she’ll stand up to that door in front of her and knock on it.

One. Two… Thre-

The door creaked as it opened and Hinami yelped, taking a few quick steps back. In front of her, there was a beautiful lady standing, despite looking awfully surprised with her eyebrows raised high. “Oh! Sorry. Are you okay?” She asks her, and Hinami is still a bit shocked, but nods. “Is that uniform?... Yes, it is! You are from Tokyo Central High School, right? Your teacher told me you were coming.”

“Yes.. Hello. I’m Hinami Fueguchi… It’s nice to meet you.” She introduces herself politely. She wants the first impression to be positive. Her parents always said it was important.

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Touka Kirishima. I’m the manager of this place.” She returned the gesture, and Hinami finally really took the time to take her in - she had pretty blue eyes, that went well with her short blue hair. She had soft facial features that only added to her beauty with the mature aura that surrounded her.

Wow…

Touka led her in, letting her look around the place. It felt homely. A lot of book shelves, cozy looking sofas and patterned, soft rugs made it look much for like house for a family rather than a foster house. The windows had velvety blue curtains, and Hinami could see a small form peeking from behind the fabric.

“Hmmm?” Touka noticed she had her gaze set on something, it seems. She turns her head to look. “Yuki, come over here! Meet our new volunteer here. It’s okay.” She tells him, and Yuki hesitates, but with Touka’s reassuring grin encouraging him, Yuki ran to her, hiding from Hinam behind her leg.

Hinami puts on her best smile as she crouches down to the kid. Her father always told her, that kids like having you on their eye level. She’s kept this as a golden rule in her heart, to always think of how you look like the child in front of you, as he they are much more vulnerable. This applied to this kid especially - the look of uncertainty in his eyes and they way he clutched Touka’s skirt spoke volumes already. “Hello. I’m Hinami. What is your name?”

She already knew his name, Touka said it already, but she personally thinks it’s always better to let children speak for themselves. He was pouting at her adorably, but he was only backing away more from her. Touka nudged him with her hip and he huffed.

“Yuki..” He answered, albeit forcibly, but still did. It's a start, isn’t it? He was shying away from her, but it wasn’t as if she could have expected kids to warm up to her ever since day one. That’s just not going to happen. She would just have to do her best, looking welcoming and gain his, along with others trust.

Touka sighed at the scene in front of her. “Yuki, can you call the others down? We need them to get to know her, too.” She told him, ruffling his hair before he nodded and scurried away upstairs. “Come on, I’ll show you to the rest of the staff until he actually manages to gather all of them here.”

There was a lack in staff, as Kaneki-sensei said back in class. Touka practically introduced her to three people - Irimi Kaya, Koma Enji, and Yomo Renji. All of them seemed nice enough. Irimi and Koma were working in the kitchen, making dinner for the kids together while Yomo was feeding the orphanage’s parrot. All three were polite to her, something was immensely grateful for. She doesn’t handle rude or brash people well.

By the time the introductions were over, all the kids settled downstairs on the soft rug in the living room. There were only six of them, and all were either sitting patiently in a respectable way or simply sprawled on the carpet beneath them with no care in the world. There was no in between, and Hinami giggled at the sight.

“Alright everyone!” Touka called out to children, snatching their attention as she clapped her hands. “I want you all to meet a new person here. Her name is Fueguchi Hinami and she’s going to volunteer here from now on. Be nice to her, all of you, okay?”

The kids reaction ranged from soft, agreeing humming to blank stares that left Hinami the slightest bit uncomfortable. She wondered if she did something to upset a few of the kids, but as her mind backtracked she couldn’t really think of anything that would be considered rude…

“Manager! Where’s Nii-chan?” One of the boys suddenly asked. It was off-topic, but it seemed like the kids were much more interested in that from how they’ve perked up at the question. Touka ran a hand through her silky hair, sighing. Hinami just stayed quiet, labeling it in her mind as a case of bad attention span, more so for herself to feel a bit less embarrassed.

Touka looked at the watch on her hand. “He should be here by now… He isn’t usually late. I’ll call him. Fueguchi-chan, do you mind staying with them, for a little while?” She asked, seemingly biting her inner cheek as she looked at the phone she had just pulled out of her pocket.

“Of course, don’t worry…” Hinami replied, though admittedly, she was pretty nervous about staying with the kids alone. They did not seem to like her much. Even if it was just because she was a stranger, it was disheartening. Hinami licked her dry, chapped lips. She brought this on herself.

“Thank you! I’ll be right back.” Touka said and left for one of the backrooms, her steps rushed as she walks away. Meanwhile, Hinami settles between the kids that all look at her as if she’s the only black sheep in the herd. Two of the girls inch closer, seemingly taking interest in her earrings from some reason, despite them being as plain as any medical earrings are. Granted, they’re gemstone earrings and therefore a bit sparkly, but she doesn’t think ten year olds would still be very excited about a bit of shimmer.

“It’s pretty.” One of the girls says. The other one frowns at her, and her head shakes profusely in protest.

“It looks boring. Nii-san’s safety pin looks the best!” The other girl stated, her arms folded in front of her and her head raised high. She then turns to Hinami with a smirk on her face. “He told me I could do one like that when I grow up too!” The other children ignored her. One even yawned. It must be a typical behavior of hers.

Hinami cleared her parched throat. She hoped all that time she spent with the kids at the hospital would prove to help her. “First, thank you!” She told to the little girl who complimented her. The kid’s cheeks were rosy in color, but she didn’t say anything. “Second… That’s a cool earring you are describing. It would fit you well, I think.” She chuckled as she saw the content on the proud girl’s face. “Would you both tell me your names?”

“It’s a secret-”

“I’m Miyu, and her name is Akemi.” The girl that complimented her said, and Hinami giggled as Akemi snapped her face to Miyu in betrayal, her long hair flips dramatically. Miyu laughed and ran away at full speed, and the other girl chased her, her small feet putting in work as they ran in circles around the sofa.

The other children joined them, and quickly the entire thing became a tag game. Hinami watched them play carefully, letting them have their fun while making sure they don’t trip or break anything. She was grinning from ear to ear as the children ran around her, occasionally using her as shield to avoid getting caught. 

Their laughter filled the room and their smiles were warm and bright. It made Hinami feel much better about the idea of volunteering. Even if she was insecure, everything seemed to work out pretty well. Until she heard an intense yell echoing through the room, at least.

“AYATO! It’s not up for debate now. Just get yourself home already!” Touka shouted, her voice strained and tired. and all movement in the living room stopped. Hinami could see Touka coming out of the back room, angrily clicking and tapping on her phone while sighing. All heads were turned to her, even with the children frozen in spot.

Touka looked around her and saw what she had accidentally caused. Her tired eyes crinkled up as she smiled to reassure the kids everything is fine. “You all, it’s time to start setting the dinner table. How about all of you help today? Show Fueguchi-chan how grown up you are.”

The children nodded, sprinting away towards the kitchen in a hurry. Touka let her smile fall the minute they were out of sight. Hinami felt bad for the woman - she looked so stressed. Hinami stood up and walked over to her. “Is everything okay, Kirishima-san?” she asked softly, her voice benevolent.

“Ah… Don’t worry. It’s just my little brother. He’s a good person, but sometimes he’s a real problem child.” She laughed, albeit forcibly, but there was still a glint in her eyes that was full of fondness as she spoke. “He’s a bit older than you, but he’s as moody as a real child. I think the kids here might be affecting him.”

Hinami laughed at that thought. She can’t really imagine it. Touka radiated such a mature vibe, that Hinami had a hard time of thinking of how her brother is like if not the same. Especially since he was older than her, too - a bit older would make him a college boy. It seems bizarre in her mind, but she won’t know unless she meets him.

Touka shakes her head. “Let’s just go help the kids, now. If we actually let them set the table alone, they might just start a food fight.” She puts a hand on Hinami’s shoulder and pats her before leaving towards the kitchen, and Hinami followed in tow.

They were all sitting around the long dinner table now, eating the special katsudon Irimi and Koma made specifically to welcome Hinami. It was crowded, ten people all in all gathering in a table too small for them. Hinami wondered if it was a usual thing for them, to feel so squeezed in their seats at dinners. There were still two people missing, as well! Touka’s little brother is not back, and Yomo-san had to leave early.

Back at home, she barely sat with more than one person when they ate dinner. It was almost depressing to think about how silent her dinners are in comparison to the happy go lucky feeling of these one. All the children ate their food deliciously, arguing about anything they possibly can and when Touka doesn’t manage to stop them in time, also attempted throwing food at each other.

It was homely, and it was a welcome change for Hinami.

“Do you like it, Fueguchi-chan?” Koma asked her from the other side of the table, cheery as he took another bite from his meal. Irimi seemed to be interested in her answer too. These two seemed like a gag duo, but at the same time, anything but. Like a well oiled machine, they worked and acted as lifelong friends.

“Yes! It’s really excellent!” She replied joyfully. If she were to be honest, she is not a fast eater - she eats very slowly, but with this meal, she practically cleaned the plate after a few mere minutes. Both of the cooks beamed at her.

“See, kiddos? You are really spoiled, having Kaya and Enji coming over and cooking for you every week. ” Touka remarked, and most of the kids pouted, except those who were sitted next to the two mentioned - those kids simply latched onto the duo, as if they were their favorite uncle and aunt.

There was a sound from the living room area, of a door opening. Hinami sees Miyu rising from her chair. Actually, all the kids looked rather excited.

“Aneki! I’m here!” Hinami hears a deep, yet sharp voice calling. The brother is here. “What’s that smell? You are eating already? I waited for dinner you know-” The voice grows louder, more clear with every step she hears is taken until the source finally arrives in front of the dinner table.

When she finally sees him, her eyes widen. She should have expected it after looking at his sister, but her younger brother is just a gorgeous as she is. He had a bit of a long hair, for a boy, but it framed his face nicely - his sharp, strong features making it work and his deep blue eyes staring into her soul, drawing her in.

She has to literally shake her head to get over the shock. He’s really beautiful...

“Why is she still here?”

Okay, maybe not on the inside, though.

“Ayato! That’s rude! She’s going to volunteer here, having her for dinner is the least we could do. So sit down and eat your food.” Touka glared at him. Ayato grimaced and shoved his hands down his pockets. He didn’t even look at her as he said hi to the kids, as if choosing to remain ignorant to her presence.

“Ayato…” His sister warned. There was something hostile in the air. It made Hinami feel as if she was choking, the warm, familial feeling from before disappearing and room turned stone cold.

“We don’t need her here. Since when we even said we needed volunteers? We can do just fine by ourselves!” He yelled at Touka. Irimi and Koma promptly rose from their chairs, taking the kids away.

“Let’s go, everyone, we’ll make an exception today and let you eat in your rooms.” Irimi says, and in no time all of the kids shuffle away from the scene, going up to their rooms. She spares a pitiful glance at Hinami, that just sits silently as the siblings keep arguing.

“We needed more people since forever! Why are you denying it? Yomo can’t be here all the time, Kaya and Enji can only come here once or twice a week. And you! You have college still! you can’t be here half of the day! Not to mention you want to take a part time job.. I’m lucky Nishiki even covers for me some days, or I would have never seen the light of day for at least the last six months!”

Hinami wonders if she should run out of the place. No, not a good idea. It will only cause more drama. She can’t even bring herself to move anyway, her mary janes feel like they’ve been glued to the floor.

“Then why do we have to rely on that half-assed fucker’s handout? He’s only done you wrong, didn’t he? I told you on the phone already, nothing good will come out of this!” He retorted almost right away.

Did he just call me a handout? She’s always been good in disguising her feelings since she entered high school, but right now, she was feeling too nauseous and hurt to manage. Handout? She was always trying her best, she always aimed for the top - and now she was reduced to something more akin of a rag doll that nobody longer cares for.

She breathed in hesitantly, and as she expected, it sounded more like a choked whimper. Touka looked at her, the fury in her eyes softening to regret. “I-I… I think I will go. Uh, now.” She said in a strained, distressing voice and finally rose from her chair, rushing towards the door area where her school bag laid.

“Fueguchi-chan!” She heard Touka calling, but she didn’t react, just pressed forward.

“Wait!!” A high pitched voice reached her ears, and she looked back. And then down.

Akemi was there, running down the steps of the staircase to her, holding onto her uniform’s jacket. Hinami’s eyes were already spilling out tears, so she attempted to not look at the girl directly. “Y-Yes?” she asked uneasily.

“I-I lied!” She said, her eyes a bit fearful themselves. “About the earrings, I mean… They’re not boring! You do look pretty with them!” She said, her face telling Hinami everything - she’s as honest as they get. “Please don’t be sad…” The girl trailed off.

It wasn’t what Hinami needed to hear at that moment, but as she sniffled, she realized it’s better than nothing.

“Thank you.” She patted the girl’s head. “I’ll b-be leaving now.”

Akemi waved her goodbye, and Hinami returned the gesture, and then left the orphanage, just wishing to return home and fall asleep under her warm blankets. Her chest still aching and her heart still pounding from the rush of the situation. What he said was unnecessarily mean and he was needlessly hostile.

Yet somehow, the look of horror and regret he had on his face as he spotted the tears in her eyes was what truly haunted her.

#personal

You know shit is getting real when you wake up to poignant words from your investment banker.  Personally I’m not the kind of person who hangs out on reddit or any forum at all.  My only active social networks are Tumblr and LinkedIn at this point.  The irony of Tumblr being born from the finance message boards of Yahoo is priceless.  On record, we all know we cost Verizon a billion dollar tax loss.  I guess maybe we don’t know all the details about the taxes but this is what big money does.  Ken Griffin knows all too well this as he literally spent money to strike down the fair tax law in Illinois.   Which is probably why I’m the one out there shoveling the snow alongside the gang members on my block.  Truth be told, it doesn’t get much cyberpunk than this.  But the advice in my inbox was pretty simple.  Your investments should help you reach your goals, not distract you from them.  Six months ago in July I was let go from my job of twenty years.  I had a very shiny, arcane thing to deal with.  A lump sum from a pension benefit.  My job has been disappeared along with my career and twenty years of contacts.  I wasn’t aware of what to call it at that time.  I was overwhelmed by the sheer destruction of it all.  I watched the Bernie Madoff movie with DeNiro the other day.  He literally was confronted by swarms of people blaming him directly for destroying their lives.  Six months ago, I had to make decisions alone in a vacuum that had a lot more to do with my overall financial health and wellness.  I had no council.  Barely any friends in real life.  I talked it out here in a journal week to week and communicated my emotions about it.  And from there I made real, concrete decisions for myself.  These were the goals I had for myself.  The financial technology I had at my disposal were simply the tools to achieve those goals.  And yet for six months, I spent myself fixiated on a screen drunk on every wave of volatility.   I tried to get cute.  I shorted stocks for gains.  I tweaked out things that didn’t move correctly at a loss.  And it was generally easy to do in modern times because of computers.  And then I started hitting invisible walls.  I made my first wash sale without knowing it.  A simple little w hanging on the screen which told me like a slap on the hand that writing that off is null and void.  You see the government and the SEC have spent years creating rules and investigating unfair practices.  Sort of like the IRS has spent years ignoring Donald Trump’s tax return.  Which I might also add showed chronic tax loss for years on end.  The underlying fundamentals of what goes on in the market currently has a lot to do with options trading.  We’re all aware at least that Gamestop was being bet against in this scenario.  I don’t own anything related to any of this.  I’m in the camp of the adults you are sticking it to.  This after being stuck to by being let loose from my pension benefit and career entirely.  For me it was a great time to stop obsessing day after day about one aspect of my financial health.  The great thing about book keeping and budgeting the last four months is that I’ve normalized my spending to enjoy my life.  Money does run out especially when there are no opportunities to be had.  Which is why goals can get sidelined by worry and distraction.  I don’t really know what anyone’s ultimate goal is with Gamestop.  I don’t think the government knows either.  I think it’s a great statement on the democratization of finance.  I also know how slimy the players on the other side are historically.  Because hedge funds have been doing this kind of thing to each other for years and made billions.

I didn’t really ask to be an investor.  I was a salaried worker with benefits pretty much living my life in the moment.  I travelled the world.  I explored and networked.  Retirement felt like something you achieved when you knew you had a place in life.  And when I was let go from my job and ghosted entirely, I felt a little more free and a lot more lost.  My goals were still there.  Maybe I had less baggage.  They definitely threw all my personal items out in the trash from my old office.  But I took the tools that I had and improvised.  I spent six months researching companies while famed short sellers targeted my investments and wrote scathingly shitty articles about how people like me were dumb failures.  And six months later they bit off more than they could chew going up against a crowd and not a single person.  And now Citron sits on Bloomberg proudly talking about how they will no longer research short selling.  How proud he is not to hide under a pseudonym.  How proud the financial world is that it understands my pain and my rookie approach to staying alive.  Personally I’m just some guy on the internet.  I write here because it’s the only intimate way I can keep contact with people I really care about.  There is one goal through all this money and bullshit I stay focused on.   Love.  Care.  Attention.  You spend every fucking day obsessing over your portfolio.  Bragging about money that isn’t really there.  And you ignore the things that are.  However silent, shadowy or anonymous.  Your investments whether they be monetary, friendship driven or family oriented can distract you from your goals.  The goal for all of us is to be free.  To be free to be ourselves.  And unfortunately sometimes money is at the root of that in a society where there isn’t enough to go around.  But we ignore the things that really matter when we obsess too acutely to the expectations and speculations.  I didn’t play games or make music that six months.  I listened to the constant war drum of the news.  I flinch traded with emotional reactions that may or may not have been instigated by social saboteurs.  I stopped controlling my life and my direction to bow to the will of the market.  I kept looking for job opportunities coping with severe boredom.  I read this opinion that boredom created this mess.  Motivated us ‘bros’ to trade and that’s why we’re dangerous.  Even attributed our dangerous boredom to lack of sex in such a comedically patriarchal way that it’s impossible to lmao it away.  Rich people created and exacerbated this problem.  And then they turn around and berate us in such a snobbish way.  I’m a retail investor.  I’m a boutique investor.  I’m the face of the America you sold out to the oligarchs.  I’m something you want to put a label on and file away.  And yet by never approaching me six months ago, you have a bigger problem six months later.  Six months ignoring people’s pain and have it manifest in such a horrific way.  The Frankenstein on display for all to rip to pieces as if there’s no consequences.  This was never about Gamestop for me.  And to demean my dignity to lump my personal experience as a writer with this bullshit is foul at best.  But it is what I’m used to.  I’m not a fucking gamer on the internet gambling my crypto profits.  I’m a human being who got fucked in such a dirty, visceral way, people just pretend it never happened.  

And this is American capitalism at it’s finest.  While I agree there’s some great popcorn cinema at work, the darker side is also at work.  Billion dollar losses aren’t always the worst thing for the ultra rich.  Billionaires like Donald Trump and Ken Griffin spend money to make money.  They take losses and roll around in the hazy fog of accounting made to benefit the ultra rich because of Trickle down economics.  It never reaches us.  The money keeps getting locked away in gold.  The job numbers shrink.  The payrolls and income vaporize.  Pretty soon it’s mad max in bartertown.  Mine crypto for clean corporate water while the lead in your pipes itches your skin.  Haggle with insurance companies to squeeze out more medicine from your adjusted ninety day supply.  It’s all about profits.  And where do those profits go.  Back into the economy?  Or back into speculation.  Numbers dancing around the screen that mean nothing if you don’t know how to spend it wisely.  The illusion that you are striking it rich in such a gamified way that it makes vegas look like wells fargo.  And this is all we focus on.  Money.  Not life.  Not love.  Not asking how your day went.  Not sharing goals together for our lives and future.  Just cold hard numbers.  Laughing that we are sticking it to the man while we ignore our comrades on the front lines of this mess.  I was here and ignored.  Maybe people listened.  Picked up little bits and pieces of my narrative for their own.  And left me for dead.  And now it’s such a comical outcome that I crawl further back into my conch shell and forget about it altogether.  I go long for my goals and can plan better trajectories.  I stop getting gamed into reactions meant to trap me further.  Money is not freedom.  The rich would love to sell it back to you.  But this is not the case.  And the rich aren’t really out there to make anyone but themselves richer.  If you help them in that goal that’s great.  But they’ve been fucking over people since shorting government bonds from their Harvard dorm room.  What makes you think you are shadier than them?  Personally my goal is not to be paid attention to by billionaires.  I’m sure some of the worst already know my name and pretend I don’t exist.  But the real truth is simple.  Moving with a crowd can be empowering.  But be careful you aren’t being herded into a deeper endgame.  I’d be the last person to caution anyone against taking risks particularly in the market let alone their professional and personal life.  But I didn’t make it here by listening to crowds or doubting myself.  And to tell you the truth, it’s not the yellow brick road to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me.  We’ve read enough of what I have to say to know better.  Just know I’m not really interested in talking about stocks or gamestop in real life.  I’d rather listen in silence and enjoy nature.  Especially when it’s scratching at my door for food at six in the morning on a saturday.  Don’t get distracted from what really matters in all of this.  Take some time to listen to the voice in your heart rather than the chants from crowds.  They don’t know you like you know you.  Be safe and be careful.  <3 Tim